Think Progress

Obama: America was not built by ‘naysayers.’

President Obama devotes his address this week to remembering the “indomitable spirit of the first American citizens” who built this country and the lessons we can apply to the current challenges:

That is the spirit we are called to show once more. We are facing an array of challenges on a scale unseen in our time. We are waging two wars. We are battling a deep recession. And our economy – and our nation itself – are endangered by festering problems we have kicked down the road for far too long: spiraling health care costs; inadequate schools; and a dependence on foreign oil. [...]

These are some of the challenges that our generation has been called to meet. And yet, there are those who would have us try what has already failed; who would defend the status quo. They argue that our health care system is fine the way it is and that a clean energy economy can wait. They say we are trying to do too much, that we are moving too quickly, and that we all ought to just take a deep breath and scale back our goals.

These naysayers have short memories. They forget that we, as a people, did not get here by standing pat in a time of change. We did not get here by doing what was easy. That is not how a cluster of 13 colonies became the United States of America.

Watch it:

A greener 4th of July.

Scientists are increasingly worried that the beautiful fireworks millions of Americans will be watching this Independence Day contain toxic chemicals that may pose a threat to the environment. A particular focus is perchlorate, which helps “create the combustion reaction needed for the explosion.” According to a 2009 article in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, “the amount of perchlorate in nearby bodies of water could increase by anywhere from 24 to 1,068 times the amount present before the fireworks, and that it takes 20 to 80 days for the chemical levels to subside.” When ingested, perchlorate can hinder the thyroid’s production of growth hormones. In response, some chemists are looking for other solutions, including cleaner-burning fireworks that use nitrate-based oxidants.

Joe the Plumber won’t run for office: “You know, I talked to God about that and he was like, ‘No.’”

Last year at the height of his “fame,” Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher — aka “Joe the Plumber” — said that he was considering a run for public office. “I’d be up for it,” he said. Excited fans even set up a “Draft Joe the Plumber” site. But in a new interview with WorldNetDaily, Wurzelbacher said that he now isn’t planning to run because God doesn’t want him to:

Asked if he has plans to run for public office, he replied, “I hope not. You know, I talked to God about that and he was like, ‘No.’”

He continued, “I believe he’s gotten me on this grassroots movement. If I can encourage leaders to step up, that’s what I would like to do. That’s a heavy role. That’s something I don’t know if I am prepared to do yet.”

But Wurzelbacher said he will keep that door open if God ever calls him to be that leader.

Right now, Wurzelbacher is preparing to participate in the upcoming tea parties.

Coleman concedes to Sen. Al Franken.

Republican Norm Coleman conceded the 2008 election to Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) today. “It’s over,” Coleman said at a press conference in Minnesota, adding that he had called and congratulated Franken. Watch it:

President Obama issued a statement reading, “I look forward to working with Senator-Elect Franken to build a new foundation for growth and prosperity by lowering health care costs and investing in the kind of clean energy jobs and industries that will help America lead in the 21st century.”

Bachmann has no plans to appear on controversial radio show.

Radio host Alex Jones has stirred up considerable controversy over the years, talking about FEMA concentration camps, promoting 9/11 conspiracies, and comparing President Obama to Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Yesterday, several media outlets reported that Jones said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) would soon be appearing on his show. “She’s on next week,” he said. Watch it:

The City Pages in Minneapolis/St. Paul contacted Bachmann spokesman Dave Dziok, who said that the rumors weren’t true, and she has no plans to go on the show. “I can tell you unequivocally that she is not scheduled, nor ever was,” he said in an e-mail response.

Police raid a gay bar in Texas on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising.

Shortly after midnight on Sunday, police raided a gay bar in Fort Worth, TX, and arrested seven customers for public intoxication. (One man was reportedly taken to the hospital “with bleeding in his brain after officers threw him to the ground and used zip-ties to handcuff him.”) Police said they were simply conducting an “alcohol beverage code inspection” when several customers made sexual advances toward the officers. However, the owner of the Rainbow Lounge, J.R. Schrock, said that claim was a “lie.” “The groping of the police officer — really? We’re gay, but we’re not dumb,” Schrock said. Todd Camp, the founder of Q Cinema and former reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, was at the Rainbow Lounge when the police showed up:

“I have friends who are cops and I know what to do when officers are working,” Camp said. “No one was acting aggressive to officers.”

Camp said that he has been attending bars for years in Fort Worth when TABC conducts raids.

“Usually, they’re very orderly and respectful –- they work with the bar staff and check IDs, it’s quick and painless and then it’s over and then they’re out,” Camp said. “This was not that. This was harassment, plain and simple.“

The Rainbow Lounge incident came on the 40th anniversary of the famous Stonewall uprising that sparked the modern LGBT movement, when police also raided a gay bar in New York City. Today, protesters rallied in downtown Forth Worth over the weekend’s raid. (HT: Pam’s House Blend)

More than 200 people show up for bring-your-gun-to-church day.

Ken Pagano, the pastor of the New Bethel Church in Louisville, KY, recently invited his congregation to bring their unloaded firearms into the house of worship to “celebrate our rights as Americans!” Yesterday’s bring-your-gun-to-church day, to which more than 200 people showed up, also featured “a $1 raffle of a handgun, firearms safety lessons and a picnic.” Pagano reportedly thought up the event “after some church members expressed concern about members of President Barack Obama administration’s views on gun control, though the president hasn’t moved to put new restrictions on ownership.” Since Obama’s election, there has been a boom in gun sales, stoked largely by a multi-million dollar misinformation campaign by the National Rifle Association.

The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank calls Nico Pitney a ‘dick’ after heated debate on CNN.

Last week, the Huffington Post’s Nico Pitney (who is also a former member of ThinkProgress) found himself in the center of controversy after President Obama called on him at a press conference. One of the harshest pieces came from the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank, who called Pitney a “planted questioner.” Today the two faced off on Howie Kurtz’s “Reliable Sources” segment on CNN. Pitney called some of Milbank’s past reporting “pathetic,” and Milbank claimed that Nico had “worked in collusion with an administration.” Watch it:

The discussion was evidently so heated that Milbank called him a “dick” at the end of the segment, as Pitney writes on Huffington Post:

The only thing that surprised me was when Dana turned to me after our initial sparring and called me a “dick” in a whispered tone (the specific phrase was, I believe, “You’re such a dick”). Howie Kurtz wrote on Twitter that he didn’t hear it, which is understandable — he was doing the lead-in for the next part of the segment on the ABC White House special. But it happened (I urge Howie to watch the video of the panel during the ABC intro) and it was frankly pretty odd.

Obama considering an executive order allowing indefinite detention.

The Washington Post reports today that Obama administration officials are possibly “crafting language for an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely.” Impetus for the executive order comes from officials being “increasingly worried that reaching quick agreement with Congress on a new detention system may be impossible.” Additionally, such an order “could be rescinded and would not block later efforts to write legislation.” Over on The Wonk Room, CAP’s Ken Gude explains that while there are still concerns over the emerging policy, “it would be a significant improvement over the Bush administration and would go a long way towards cleaning up the mess at Guantanamo”:

After Congress’ pathetic performance during consideration of Guantanamo funding in the supplemental appropriations bill, it is now evident that no matter how well-intentioned the president and some responsible members are, Congress is not a reliable partner. Whatever would emerge from the sausage grinder risks being far worse than even the already unacceptable status quo. [...]

[Obama's order] would be a significant shift from the Bush administration’s policy that swept into U.S. military detention virtually anyone suspected of terrorist activity captured anywhere in the world. It would restore the bright line between criminal and military detention, a crucial distinction to preserve not just in the United States, but also in other countries that look to or use the U.S. as an example.

There are still ambiguities about whether or not there actually is a draft executive order, as Time’s Michael Scherer notes. Spencer Ackerman spoke to Kate Martin of the Center for National Security Policy, who also said that if Obama “issues an executive order like the one [the Washington Post story describes], it’ll be a major victory.” However, Glenn Greenwald, Digby, the ACLU, and the Center for Constitutional Rights still have significant concerns about the possible order. Steve Benen has more here.

Steele: I ‘just need to learn how to shut up and listen.’

RNC chairman Michael Steele attended a town hall forum at the Detroit Athletic Club yesterday, an event “meant to establish a dialogue with Republicans in urban centers.” Steele was largely silent on recent GOP scandals and made fewer controversial or silly comments than he has in the past, telling the audience, “My mama told me when I was a little boy: ‘You just need to learn how to shut up and listen.’” A sampling of what he heard at the forum, according to the Detroit News:

Marie Kaigler-Reese, a Ph.D student at Michigan State University, said that is not enough. She said the party takes African Americans like herself and trots them out to show they care about blacks but does nothing to address matters like corruption in Detroit’s City Hall.

(Republicans) “are out of touch,” she said, noting her son has become so disenfranchised with the party he has become a Democrat and is running for office in Ohio. “Michael Jackson is dead. God rest his soul. I am not going to be the Michael Jackson of the Republican Party. You will not use me until I am dead.“

Maryland GOP group distances itself from letter comparing Obama to Hitler: We ‘never approved it.’

As former TP editor Judd Legum reported earlier this week, the website of the Republican Women of Anne Arundel County — “one of Maryland’s most prominent Republican organizations” — prominently featured a letter from RWAAC President Joyce Thomann that compared Obama to Hitler. “Obama and Hitler have a great deal in common in my view,” she wrote. That letter has now been taken down and replaced with an “urgent message“:

The article put on our web site by Joyce Thomann was done solely by her. Our Board of Directors never saw the article and would never have approved it. We are not in support of Mrs. Thomann’s personal thoughts ot [sic] opinions.

Ms. Thomann’s husband, Charles, told the Baltimore Sun that the letter “wasn’t meant in the way people are taking it.” He conceded that “maybe she wasn’t as artful as she could have been,” but said the main point was still valid: “The methods that [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and [President] Obama are using to get the socialist view point across, is similar to what Hitlder [sic] did. … I happen to be a history teacher.”

Republican SC lawmaker: GOP needs to ‘lose the stinking rot of self-righteousness.’

Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) was one of President Clinton’s harshest critics in the 1990s, an “impeachment ‘manager’ who attacked the moral failings of the president.” However, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Inglis says that while he has since recognized that nobody’s perfect, his party is still clinging to its “self-righteousness”:

But with his governor now felled by similar temptations, Inglis sees an opening for the Republican Party, a chance to “lose the stinking rot of self-righteousness” and “to understand we are all in need of some grace.”

This is not “Bob Inglis 1.0,” the one that was a “self-righteous” expletive, he said in an interview with Washington Wire today. [...]

Indeed, Sanford’s political fall could be a saving grace for what remains of his governorship, Inglis suggested. “This may be an opportunity to extend a little grace to other people, to realize that maybe it’s not 100% this way or that way,” Inglis said.

Inglis also said that while he voted against the stimulus package, he opposed Sanford’s decision to reject the funding. He said that he told the governor, “for goodness sake, take the money.” (HT: TPM)