Think Progress

Lamar Alexander Opposes Czars Now, But Supported Them Under Bush - Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

The right is ramping up its offensive on the Obama administration’s use of special appointees commonly referred to as “czars,” attacking them as being used to vastly expand the powers of the president and undermine democracy. A group of Republican senators, led by Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT), have sent a letter to President Obama expressing [...]

Torture By Mexican Government In Drug War Highlights U.S. Loss of Credibility On Human Rights - Thursday, July 9th, 2009

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 Initiative, the U.S. government agreed [...]

Judd Gregg’s evolving opinion of the budget reconciliation process. - Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

Some members of the Obama administration have suggested that they might use the budget reconciliation process to pass their health care and energy proposals, which would require only 51 votes in the Senate, instead of the usual 60. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) doesn’t like this idea, claiming that it is the equivalent of “running over [...]

Presidential Debate Live-Blogging - Friday, September 26th, 2008

11:47: CNN’s Roland Martin’s reaction to the debate: “John McCain, how dare you come and give a debate and you don’t even say the word ‘middle class.’”
11:35: Fox pollster Frank Luntz’s focus group showed that a majority was “moved” by Obama’s performance. They especially liked his answer pointing out that McCain was “wrong” on nearly [...]

Testing John McCain’s Foreign Policy Expertise - Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

Download a PDF of this report HERE.
John McCain is often wrong but rarely in doubt. A review of his policy positions before and during the course of the Iraq war demonstrates that the senior senator from Arizona has tried desperately to square the facts on the ground with his theories of an “easy” victory. As [...]

Cheney Five Years Ago: ‘We Will, In Fact, Be Greeted As Liberators’ - Friday, March 14th, 2008

This Sunday will mark the fifth anniversary of Vice President Dick Cheney’s disastrous and uninformed prediction that U.S. troops would be greeted as liberators in Iraq:
CHENEY: Now, I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators. [3/16/03]
That [...]

Bush’s empty talk on Middle East freedom. - Tuesday, January 15th, 2008

One day after delivering an address in the United Arab Emirates about the need for the Middle East to live in “free and democratic” societies, President Bush traveled to Saudi Arabia to spend a day with King Abdullah at his ranch. Newsweek’s Michael Hirsh notes:
What could not be found on Bush’s schedule was one Saudi [...]

Novak Attacks Buffett As ‘Hypocrite’ With A ‘Phony Message’ Who ‘Should Be Ashamed Of Himself’ - Monday, November 19th, 2007

Last week, billionaire investor Warren Buffett urged Congress “to maintain the estate tax, saying that plans to repeal the tax would benefit a handful of the richest American families and widen income disparity in the United States.” The New York Times reported:
Mr. Buffett said that in the last 20 years, tax laws have allowed the [...]

Gates Contradicts Bush, Cheney On Timelines - Wednesday, April 18th, 2007

Via Kevin Drum, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday that Congress’ debate over a withdrawal timeline is having a positive impact:
Gates, on a Middle East tour, called for a range of efforts from inside and outside Iraq to speed up the formation of a broad-based government of Iraq’s majority Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions.
….”The debate [...]

Hadley’s Hypocrisy: “Our Strategy Is Far From ‘Stay the Course’” - Wednesday, October 4th, 2006

National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley pens an op-ed in today’s USA Today claiming that “stay the course” is not an accurate description of Bush’s strategy for Iraq:
Our strategy is far from “stay the course.” The president continually challenges all of us to learn from experience, adapt to change and improve our performance.

But in June 2005 [...]

Lieberman Flashback: Questioning Bush’s Credibility Is Central To Democracy - Saturday, December 10th, 2005

On Wednesday, Sen. Joe Lieberman argued that anyone who questions President Bush’s credibility while the country is at war puts the nation in danger. Lieberman, 12/7/05:
It’s time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge that he will be the commander in chief for three more critical years and that in matters of war we [...]

Democracy Hypocrisy: Bush Praises Saudi Arabia’s New King - Tuesday, August 2nd, 2005

President Bush, 6/14/05:

The best way to secure this country in the long run, though, is to spread democracy and freedom. We believe everybody deserves to be free. We believe everybody has a deep desire in their heart to live in a free society.
President Bush, 8/2/05:
On behalf of the United States, I congratulate my friend, King [...]

Democracy Hypocrisy: Rose Colored Glasses Still On - Tuesday, May 31st, 2005

Today at the press conference, President Bush attempted to defend the fact that he hasn’t spoken out against the Egypt elections:
“But I was asked about the Egyptian elections, and I said, we expect for the Egyptian political process to be open and that for people to be given a chance to express themselves in an [...]

Democracy Hypocrisy: Strike a Pose - Sunday, May 29th, 2005

Apparently, in the Bush administration, a policy of “democracy promotion” includes having top officials pose in “Hollywood Walk of Fame”-style photo shoots with dictatorial thugs.

There, on the far left, is our energy secretary, Samuel Bodman, all smiles. Next to him stands the murderous Uzbek tyrant Islam Karimov, who just two weeks ago ordered Tiananmen-style massacres [...]

Democracy Hypocrisy: Administration Fawns Over Dictator - Wednesday, May 18th, 2005

Last week, the repressive leader of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, ordered his troops to open-fire on a crowd of protestors, killing hundreds of innocent civilians. His regime is infamous for its brutality and attacks against human rights. The White House, however, has turned a blind eye to the problems and cozied up to the dictator in [...]

Democracy Hypocrisy: Our Man in Uzbekistan - Monday, May 2nd, 2005

Over the weekend the New York Times reported on evidence that the United States has regularly sent terror suspects to Uzbekistan, an “authoritarian state” known for beating and asphyxiating prisoners, boiling body parts, using electroshock on genitals and “plucking off fingernails and toenails with pliers.” The State Department’s 2005 report on Uzbekistan states bluntly: “The [...]

Democracy Hypocrisy: An Election Mess In Mexico - Monday, April 18th, 2005

As the Bush administration continues to tout its efforts to promote democracy in such places as Afghanistan and Iraq, it has overlooked a serious challenge to democracy in Mexico. With 15 months left until the 2006 presidential election, Mexico City’s left-leaning, 51-year-old populist mayor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, may be forced out of the race [...]

Democracy Hypocrisy: Abdullah at the Ranch - Tuesday, April 12th, 2005

The Guardian reported on Saturday that “[d]ozens of Saudi men caught dancing and ‘behaving like women’ at a party have been sentenced to a total of 14,200 lashes, after a trial held behind closed doors and without defence lawyers.”
The very next day, in the UK Independent, we learned that the Saudi government had executed [...]

Democracy Hypocrisy: Why Campaign When You Can Imprison? - Friday, March 25th, 2005

Despite President Bush’s sense of “validation,” the march towards freedom in Egypt is off to a rocky start:
The only man who has dared to challenge Hosni Mubarak for the presidency [Ayman Nour] was charged Tuesday with forging signatures to win approval for his party — an escalation in the government’s confrontation with the most prominent [...]

Democracy Hypocrisy: Zimbabwe - Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005

Before his 2003 trip to the continent of Africa, President Bush claimed that his administration had been “outspoken” on the issue of elections in Zimbabwe as “a democracy in Zimbabwe will improve the lives of all the citizens of that important country.” Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, recognizing the regional intricacies of the situation, wrote [...]