http://thinkprogress.org Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:03:54 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en When asked by Tucker Carlson in an interview for Esquire magazine if he considered President Obama a socialist, former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) said, "I don't know. Define socialism for me." But then, after calling Obama a "collectivist" -- a common synonym for socialist or communist -- Bush said the ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/09/jeb-bush-socialist/ One of the main reasons Sarah Palin cited for her resignation as Alaska's governor was frustration with "frivolous ethics violations." She said that she didn't want to waste "valuable state time and money, millions of your dollars" go toward responding to the charges. Palin's office provided the Anchorage Daily ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/09/palin-ethics-factcheck/ The Washington Post reports today that the Mexican government has employed numerous torture techniques to extract confessions from suspected drug traffickers. The techniques included beatings, suffocation with plastic bags, electric shocks, the insertion of needles under suspects' finger nails, water torture, and other abuses. Under what's known as the Mérida ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/09/torture-hypocrisy/ Yesterday at the National Press Club, Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA), an Iraq war veteran, launched a campaign to persuade Congress to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the policy barring gay men and women from serving openly in the U.S. military. "We cannot afford to wait any longer," Murphy said. "Now ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/09/murphy-dadt-tough-district/ Yesterday, a number of blogs reported that right-wing Rep. Steve King (R-IA) was the lone dissenter on a House vote to acknowledge the role that slave labor had in constructing the U.S. Capitol. The resolution would merely authorize the placement of a marker inside the new Capitol Visitor Center to ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/09/king-slave-labor-vote/ RNC Chairman Michael Steele has been sending mixed messages on Sarah Palin in recent days. On Tuesday, he said that he believed 2012 was "off the table" for Palin. He then backtracked and said he meant that talking about 2012 was off the table, adding that he welcomed Palin's ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/09/steele-palin-old/ The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports today on the "atmosphere of permanent crisis" surrounding the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to the report, a handful of Netanyahu's top aides "dislike each other: They are constantly badmouthing each other and blaming each other for leaks." One aide even revealed ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/09/netanyahu-axelrod-emanuel/ "CIA Director Leon Panetta recently testified to Congress that the agency concealed information and misled lawmakers repeatedly since 2001, according to a letter from seven House Democrats to Panetta made public Wednesday." But the letter "contained no details about what information the CIA officials allegedly concealed, or how they purportedly ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/09/thinkfast-july-9-2009/ Columnist Douglas Bloomfield reports that The Israel Project (TIP) -- a Washington- based group that describes itself as "devoted to educating the press and the public about Israel while promoting security, freedom and peace" -- advocates accusing those who support removing illegal Israeli settlements of promoting "a kind of ethnic ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/08/tip-settlements-manual/ In response to a question about how long U.S. troops are expected to stay in Afghanistan, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said today that his “expectation is that we will have a long-term relationship with Afghanistan.” He emphasized that the “best number” he can offer right now is that ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/08/mullen-long-afghanistan/ Last month, the House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which aims to transition America to a clean energy economy while combating climate change. After the bill's passage, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) tweeted that she wanted to "fix" the bill's cap on carbon pollution because it ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/08/mccaskill-left-unhappy/ Last week, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) claimed that Judge Sotomayor may not be fit for the Supreme Court because she served on the board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (now known as "LatinoJustice PRLDEF"), a highly regarded civil rights organization. On Monday, a group of 25 ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/08/sessions-letter/ Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) has tried to portray himself as an upstanding lawmaker dedicated to fiscal restraint. He has frequently criticized "wasteful spending" in the federal government and even called President Obama's spending plans "reckless." Last month, Politico published a chart illustrating the transportation costs from the offices of all ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/08/cornyn-travel-costs/ Rep. Steve King (R-IA) was the only congressman to vote against a resolution yesterday that acknowledges the role that slaves played in the construction of the U.S. Capitol Building, reports Ryan Grim of the Huffington Post. According to the text of the resolution, which passed 399-1, its simple goal is ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/08/steve-king-slavery-capitol/ As ThinkProgress reported earlier today, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) posted a video of an RNC event on the official YouTube channel of the Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The political nature of the video appeared to make its publication on the committee's official channel a ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/08/issa-removes-video/ Today, Scott Talbott, Senior Vice President for Government Affairs at The Financial Services Roundtable (one of the financial services industry's main lobbying arms) appeared on C-Span to discuss the Obama administration's proposal to create a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). The Roundtable has already made its opposition to the ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/08/fsr-no-regulation/ Since announcing that she would resign as governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin (R) has been blaming her decision on the "mainstream media" and political operatives who accused her of "all sorts of frivolous ethics violations." Ironically, Palin last year criticized Hillary Clinton for complaining about being put under "a ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/08/palin-hillary-whining-time/ Yesterday, the Republican National Committee awarded Matthias Shapiro the "first-ever" Grassroots Logic award for a YouTube video he made that purports to put the cost of health care reform in perspective. After the event, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/08/issa-political-youtube/ On June 25, the Arizona Senate's Retirement and Rural Development Committee discussed the prospects for uranium mining in the state. During the hearing, State Senator Sylvia Allen (R), the vice chairman of the committee, argued in favor of mining by saying that the earth "has been here 6,000 years, long ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/08/az-state-senate-earth-6000/ Fox News host Bill O'Reilly was full of his usual hypocrisy as he went off last night about the death of Michael Jackson. O'Reilly started off on a respectful note, saying, "The family of Michael Jackson honored his memory today in Los Angeles. And I do not, do not wish ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/08/oreilly-mj/