Think Progress

Coburn places hold on veterans benefits bill. - Thursday, November 5th, 2009

One of the Senate’s most vociferous opponents of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has been Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), who called the stimulus “the worst act of generational theft in our nation’s history.” Today, The Marine Corp Times revealed exactly how far Coburn was willing to go to undermine ARRA. It turns out [...]

‘Nativist Extremist’ Minuteman PAC Endorses Hoffman For Congress - Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate for New York’s traditionally Republican 23rd District, has just won the right-wing support of the Minuteman Political Action Committee — the political action arm of a “nativist extremist” armed vigilante group. The Minuteman PAC is currently running Independent Expenditure radio spots and predicts that Hoffman is “positioned to win [...]

Malkin: The content of Obama’s off-the-record meeting with liberal journalists ‘ought to be disclosed.’ - Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

On Monday, President Obama met with liberal-leaning journalists and commentators in an off-the-record session that included MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow. Reporting on the meeting that night, Fox News’ Bret Baier suggested the White House had a “double standard” and was “playing favorites” after the White House had challenged Fox’s credibility as a news [...]

VIDEO: Mission Accomplished For Conservatives Who Rooted Against America - Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Although the United States sent a high-powered delegation to make a last-ditch effort to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ruled out the Windy City today. Of the final four cities — which also included Madrid, Toyko, and Rio — Chicago received the fewest votes. In his speech to the [...]

At Values Voter Summit, YAF spokesman defends conservatism: ‘Our women are hot.’ - Monday, September 21st, 2009

At the Values Voter Summit on Friday, former Miss California Carrie Prejean said that conservatives needed to be “an example” of “tolerance, respect and just how to be civil.” But her advice was ignored the next day when Young America’s Foundation spokesman Jason Mattera addressed a breakout session called “Turning The Tide In Your Generation.” [...]

Speaking At 9/12 Rally, FreedomWorks Lies, Inflates Attendance By Over 2,000 Percent - Monday, September 14th, 2009

Last Saturday, FreedomWorks, a corporate-funded right-wing advocacy group headed by former Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX), hosted an anti-Obama rally in Washington DC. The event was attended and paid for by various conservative organizations, from Parental Rights associations, to “birthers,” to the Rural Landowners, a militant faction that has referenced Waco and Ruby Ridge [...]

Bachmann’s Son Joins AmeriCorps Program, Which She Once Called A ‘Re-education Camp’ Unfit For Her Kids - Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is not a fan of AmeriCorps, the successful federal program that offers Americans the opportunity to serve at local and national nonprofit organizations. Earlier this year, Congress passed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which expanded AmeriCorps and increased volunteer opportunities at home and abroad. The right wing went [...]

Weekly Standard: It’s ‘likely’ that the swastika at Rep. Scott’s office is a ‘fake hate crime.’ - Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

This morning, Rep. David Scott (D-GA) discovered that someone had spray-painted a swastika on the sign at one of his district offices. On Twitter, various right-wing observers immediately began speculating that it was a staged stunt. Now, Weekly Standard writer John McCormack has legitimized these fringe perspectives:
In recent years self-inflicted hate crimes have come into [...]

Malkin Calls Right-Wing Tea Party Movement A ‘Counter-Insurgency’ - Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

This morning, right-wing blogger Michelle Malkin joined the ABC roundtable on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Asked what the conservative opposition strategy is going to be this coming month while Congress is in recess, Malkin said there is a growing “tea party movement — these counterinsurgencies amongst taxpayer rights groups” — that is fomenting [...]

Fox News Guest Ralph Peters Suggests Taliban Should Kill U.S. Soldier If He Deserted - Monday, July 20th, 2009

Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier who has been captured by the Taliban and appears in a video released this weekend by his captors, “went missing from his base in eastern Afghanistan on June 30.” The circumstances of his capture are still unknown. ABC News reports, “Defense officials said it appeared he somehow left his [...]

Boehner admits that stimulus will ‘create much-needed jobs.’ - Thursday, June 18th, 2009

In the days before Congress voted on and President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) repeatedly derided the legislation as “generational theft,” and declared, “When it comes to slow-moving government spending programs, it’s clear that it doesn’t create the jobs.” But as Media Matters Action Fund notes, [...]

Angered By His Holocaust Museum Shooting Coverage, The Far Right Goes After Shepard Smith - Friday, June 12th, 2009

On Wednesday, Fox News’ Shepard Smith responded to the tragic shooting at the Holocaust Museum by a white supremacist by saying that it was time to re-think the Homeland Security report on right-wing extremism that conservatives disparaged. “The right went absolutely bonkers!” said Smith, adding that the report was a “warning to us all” and [...]

In Wake Of Shootings, Conservatives Rush To Defend Disparagement Of DHS Report On Right-Wing Extremism - Thursday, June 11th, 2009

Following yesterday’s tragic shooting at the Holocaust Museum — reportedly carried out by white supremacist James von Brunn — two Fox News personalities, Shepard Smith and Catherine Herridge, suggested that critics of the Department of Homeland Security’s report on right-wing extremism should re-think their criticism. ” “The right went absolutely bonkers,” said Smith, adding that [...]

McConnell ‘really enjoyed’ Voight’s speech that claimed Obama might allow ‘a new Holocaust.’ - Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

In a speech at the Republican Senate-House fundraising dinner last night, actor Jon Voight criticized President Obama at length, calling him a “false prophet” who causing “oppression” in America. But Voight saved his harshest attack on Obama for issues relating to Israel’s security. After claiming that the “only agenda” of all the Palestinian people is [...]

Bye-Bye Satyam - Friday, June 5th, 2009

ThinkProgress recently bid farewell to our good friend and colleague, Satyam Khanna. For more than two years, Satyam has tirelessly scoured every corner of the Internets to dig up interesting and insightful posts for ThinkProgress. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor slow news days could stop Satyam. A look at some of his posts:
McCain To [...]

O’Reilly Defends Cherry-Picking Comments To Attack Blogs - Friday, May 29th, 2009

On Wednesday, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly attempted to demonstrate that the blogosphere is full of extreme hate-mongers. To do so, he pulled random comments from both ThinkProgress and Michelle Malkin’s Hot Air blog. However, he never noted that they were comments. Instead, he attributed them as official posts by the blogs:
ThinkProgress, another crazy [...]

Fox News Embraces Right-Wing Theory That Obama Is Forcing GOP-Owned Car Dealerships To Close - Thursday, May 28th, 2009

Citing a handful of right-wing bloggers yesterday afternoon, the Washington Examiner reported ominously, “Evidence appears to be mounting that the Obama administration has systematically targeted Chrysler dealers who contributed to Republicans” for closure. Not to be outdone, Fox and Friends hosted conservative blogger Michelle Malkin this morning to play up the conspiracy theory. “Believe me [...]

Clueless O’Reilly Launches Uninformed Attack On Bloggers, Including ThinkProgress - Thursday, May 28th, 2009

Last night on The O’Reilly Factor, Bill O’Reilly engaged in one of his usual diatribes against bloggers. In attempting to demonstrate that the blogosphere is full of extreme hate-mongers, O’Reilly criticized both conservative and liberal blogs for allowing commenters to freely post opinions with which the sites may not agree.
In his “policing the net” [...]

Goldberg falsely claims that DHS reports never “use the all-purpose term ‘left-wing.’” - Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Joining the chorus of conservative voices that are hyperventilating over the recently-leaked Department of Homeland Security report on “rightwing extremists,” National Review’s Jonah Goldberg wrote yesterday that though “DHS has done reports on anti-war, environmental, and other groups,” it was his “understanding is that they didn’t — and wouldn’t — use the all-purpose term ‘left-wing’ [...]

Scarborough: Obama Is ‘More Focused On Targeting Veterans’ Than Fighting Al Qaeda - Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Yesterday, a copy of a Department of Homeland Security report was leaked, detailing the increasing radicaliziation of “rightwing extremists.” One portion of the report warned that “rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat.”
This morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” [...]