http://thinkprogress.org Thu, 26 Nov 2009 20:00:44 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Last September, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich retracted an "Entrepreneur of the Year" award he accidentally presented to Dallas strip club owner Dawn Rizos and refunded the $5,000 donation Rizos made to Gingrich's American Solutions for Winning the Future. At the time, Rizos said she would take the money to ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/26/gingrich-dog-shelter/ In recent days, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has indicated that she may be open to a conservative presidential dream ticket in 2012: Palin-Beck (or Beck-Palin). “I can envision a couple of different combinations, if ever I were to be in a position to really even seriously consider running ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/26/beck-palin-kitchen/ We're thankful President Obama is thinking long and hard about committing more troops and money to Afghanistan. We're thankful President Bush feels liberated now. We're (not) thankful Dick Cheney has elected to move from his undisclosed location to the media spotlight. We're thankful Al Franken has gone from playing self-help guru Stuart Smalley ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/26/giving-thanks/ Yesterday, Sarah Palin was greeted by a throng of supporters in The Villages, Florida -- a retirement community northwest of Orlando. (Glenn Beck visited the same town this past weekend.) There were shouts of "We love you Sarah!” and “We want you to be president!" from the crowd. And Palin ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/25/palin-president-florida/ Thousands of emails from the webserver of the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit (CRU) -- a top climate research center in the United Kingdom -- "were hacked recently" and dumped on a Russian web server. Global warming deniers are sifting through the illegally obtained letters of private correspondence ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/25/superfreaks-climategate/ Last night Fox News, host Greta van Susteren asked former GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) what he thought of reports that President Obama plans announce his intention to send 34,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan. McCain said he's not concerned about how many troops Obama is sending, he ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/25/mccain-exit-strategy-afghanistan/ On Monday, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) hosted a job fair in his district at Germanna Community College. Like his last job fair in August, Cantor used it as an opportunity to gain positive local press and launch attacks against President Obama. At the fair, Cantor told reporters that the stimulus ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/25/cantor-second-job-fair/ Canadian comedian Mary Walsh (playing the character of Marg Delahunty) attended a Sarah Palin book signing in the United States last week and asked the "thrilla from Wasilla, the Alaskan Aphrodite" if she had "any words of encouragement for the Canadian conservatives who have worked so hard to try to ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/25/palin-canadian-health-care/ Last night on Fox News, host Sean Hannity whined -- as he usually does -- about how the Obama administration doesn't use the term "war on terror" (which is actually a good thing). Former Bush administration spokesperson and current Fox analyst Dana Perino joined in, complaining that no one is ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/25/perino-terror-attack-bush/ Yesterday, Republican National Committee member Jim Bopp unveiled a resolution to deny funding of candidates who do not uphold right-wing conservative values. The resolution, termed a "purity test," is being touted as a mechanism for actually avoiding the party schism that occurred in the NY-23 special election, when the Republican ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/25/report-gop-purity/ The latest USA Today/Gallup poll has found that public confidence in President Obama's handling of the war in Afghanistan has plummeted. The poll finds that 55% disapprove of the way he is handling Afghanistan, and only 35% approve, a sharp reversal from his 56% approval rating four months ago. The USA ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/25/thinkfast-november-25-2009/ Last month, President Obama visited Dover Air Force Base to honor 18 soldiers killed in Afghanistan. One family allowed the media to photograph the return of their fallen member. Soon after, the right wing went straight into attack mode. "It was a photo op precisely because he's having big-time trouble ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/24/huckabee-limbaugh-dover/ On Nov. 16, ThinkProgress reported that failed Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman told Glenn Beck that he was unconceding the NY-23 special election, even though the winner, Democrat Bill Owens, was already in office. Shortly thereafter, however, Hoffman's spokesman said that they weren't unconceding the race. But then on ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/24/hoffman-concedes-again/ While many Americans will be sitting down to a hearty Thanksgiving meal on Thursday, too many others will go hungry. With the current recession and increasing unemployment, the number of Americans who http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/24/foodbanks-thanksgiving/ In a new interview with right-wing radio host Scott Hennen, Vice President Cheney again criticizes President Obama's national security policies, harping on his belief that Obama is "dithering" on Afghanistan and endangering U.S. troops. To make his point, Cheney talked about the "perspective" of men and women serving on the ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/24/cheney-military/ It is becoming increasingly clear that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the right-wing lobbying giant, is not actually the "voice of business" when it opposes climate action. Yesterday, the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce became the latest organization to distance itself from the national chamber's reactionary stance on global warming ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/24/seattle-chamber/ Since Lou Dobbs left CNN, he has been mulling a run for office -- possibly even for president. Yesterday in an interview with WTOP radio, Dobbs said that part of his strategy to transition from being a media figure is to reach out to all the Latino organizations he ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/24/dobbs-latino-groups/ With the unemployment rate above 10 percent and states across the country facing budget shortfalls, Democrats in Congress are looking at various measures to spur job creation. At the same time, though, deficit-mania has infected the political world, including the White House, which is reportedly going to "focus extensively on ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/24/pelosi-job-punch/ On Friday, distinguished veteran PBS journalist Bill Moyers announced that he was retiring from weekly television. “I am 75 years old,” he explained, noting that "Bill Moyers Journal" had been having a "good run of it," so he felt "it's time." Last night on his Fox News show, Bill O'Reilly ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/24/oreilly-watters-moyers/ Yesterday, a senior aide to Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, Trevor Francis, resigned from his position as communications director. "Trevor's talents will be missed at the RNC," said Steele in a statement. "We have accomplished a great deal in the year he was here. He worked tirelessly, as did ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/24/castellanos-rnc-communications/