Today, the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF) — the home of ThinkProgress and the advocacy arm of the Center for American Progress (CAP) — announced some new leadership changes. Former Virginia Democratic Congressman Tom Perriello will be the president of CAPAF, and Tara McGuinness will be the head of our communications operations.

Perriello was a principled champion for progressive causes during his time in the House. Explaining his support for the Affordable Care Act, Perriello said, “My ultimate goal is not to get reelected. It’s to know that I did the best damn job I could representing the people of the 5th District and making a difference.” He ran a tough uphill campaign in 2010, arguing, “The choice in this election fundamentally is whether you’re with the people or want to protect the powerful, and the Republicans have shown they want to protect the powerful.” He ultimately lost, but stated, “It’s more important to do what’s right than what’s easy.” We’re proud to have Tom as part of our team.

As for Tara, she’s been a critical ally in helping me grow ThinkProgress’ staff, resources, and impact. With her continuing support, you can expect us to keep up the progressive fight and find new ways of being effective.

We don’t ask often, but we need your financial help. If you appreciate the work that our talented ThinkProgress team does on a daily basis, please consider making a small donation. You can bet that we’ll use the money wisely.

We’re in the process of budgeting our plans for 2012, so any support you can provide would allow us to go bigger. We’ve almost met our $25,000 goal, and even a $5 contribution can help put us over the top.

We’d like to continue making a big impact with our content. This past year, ThinkProgress broke some major political stories. If you need a reminder, just check out this video:

This is our last fundraising solicitation post of the year, so please pitch in now.

Thanks for reading ThinkProgress, and thanks for any support you can provide. Happy holidays!

If you are a regular reader of ThinkProgress you know that we do the work that others can’t or won’t.

– When others in the media were dismissing Occupy Wall Street as a fringe effort with no staying power, we created a dedicated blog to comprehensively cover the 99 Percent Movement.

– Before anyone had heard of Herman Cain, we were on the ground asking him tough questions about whether he’d be comfortable with a Muslim in his cabinet. And we followed it up with a sustained campaign to expose and confront Islamophobia.

– When Mitt Romney unveiled his 59 point economic plan, we just didn’t cover the politics. We crunched the numbers and exposed it as a $6.6 trillion giveaway to the wealthy and corporations.

2012 is a critical year and we need to do more. We need to travel to more places, ask more questions and debunk more lies. But to do this, we need to raise $25,000 in the next 5 days to bolster our efforts next year.

We don’t ask very often but we need your help today. Please pitch in $5 right now and support ThinkProgress. You can donate HERE.

This past week, ThinkProgress said goodbye to two wonderful teammates who had provided our readers with interesting and insightful content for many years — Matt Yglesias and Lee Fang.

Matt Yglesias joined ThinkProgress in August 2008. He was already a well-accomplished blogger before he arrived, but over his tenure here, his influence only grew further. Because he has so many eclectic interests, Matt offered keen insights on everything from John McCain’s houses to the Miami Heat to urban infrastructure. Among his numerous accomplishments, Yglesias should be credited for having focused national attention on the obscure and not-well-understood role that the Federal Reserve plays in our economy. He frequently called for greater accountability of the Fed and implored progressives to focus more attention on monetary issues. He will now take that cause and his wealth of knowledge on the issue to Slate, where he will have both a regular column on economics and a blog focused on the same issue.

Lee Fang was a former intern for ThinkProgress. After working as a researcher at Progressive Accountability in 2008, he re-joined ThinkProgress in February 2009. Over his tenure here, Fang broke one big story after another — among them, the role of the Kochs in influencing the political debate, the Chamber of Commerce’s acceptance of foreign funds, Darrell Issa’s questionable earmarks, Newt Gingrich’s extensive lobbying efforts, and a thorough documentation of stimulus hypocrites. Armed with a flip cam, Lee had a number of entertaining run-ins with powerful officials such as Roy Blunt and Mitt Romney. At the beginning of next year, Lee will join UnitedRepublic, a new progressive advocacy outfit that will fight the corrupting influence of corporate money in politics.

We wish Matt and Lee continued success in their next chapters. We’ll be rooting for them and promoting their work here on ThinkProgress.

As for us, we’re working on plans to find new talent to deliver the news and information that you’ve come to rely on. If you’re interested in working in DC with us, send along a resume. As always, thanks for reading ThinkProgress.

Newly minted GOP frontrunner Herman Cain acknowledged his long relationship with the conservative billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch yesterday. Cain has “close” and “long ties” to the Koch Brothers, as the AP reported this week, likely making him the conservative political duo’s “favorite presidential candidate,” as ThinkProgress has noted. Yesterday, Cain told CNN he is “very proud of the relationship that I have with the Koch Brothers:”

CAIN: I know the Koch Brothers. The Koch Brothers helped to start to an organization called Americans for Prosperity. And I did some speaking when they were starting that organization, and I’m very proud of the relationship that I have with the Koch Brothers, as well as Americans for Prosperity. I have also attended some of their seminars and have found them very informative. So I don’t have a close relationship with the Koch Brothers, but I know them and I respect them, and they know me and respect me.

Watch it:

Cain’s campaign manager is the former president of the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity’s (AFP) Wisconsin chapter, his former spokesperson worked for the group’s Louisiana chapter, and his economic adviser was on their advisory board. Cain himself used to hold an official position with AFP as well. He also attended the brothers’ influential private biannual meeting, and has spoken at several events they sponsored.

Last night, ThinkProgress’ Scott Keyes appeared on MSNBC’s Politics Nation to discuss Cain’s ties with the Kochs. Watch it:

In CAP’s 130-page report on the Islamophobia network, the authors took great pains to carefully document our facts. In response to CAP’s research, the Islamophobia network’s David Horowitz responds in typical fashion with baseless name-calling:

Think Progress — an organization created by George Soros and the Clintons — has joined the Muslim Brotherhood, the Hamas-spinoff CAIR and assorted Marxist groups in issuing a report on “Islamophobia,” which is a smear category designed to silence critics of Islamic terror, Islamic misogyny and Islamic hatred of Jews, gays, Christians, Hindus and other “infidels.” […]

The Think Progress report is a typical fascistic attempt to silence critics and scare donors from supporting their efforts to inform the American public about the threats we face from the Islamic jihad.

Who is David Horowitz? A former New Left radical of the 1960s-turned-right wing enthusiast, he heads the “David Horowitz Freedom Center” which boasts two anti-Muslim online magazines, FrontPage Magazine and Robert Spencer’s Jihad Watch. These publications have claimed Obama is a practicing Muslim and that Obama’s outreach to global Muslim majority countries is proof of his radical Islamist agenda.

Horowitz attempts to distort Islam and Arabs with such quotes as:

“Osama bin Laden is a very good Muslim – a model one, in fact, and one of the most devout in the 1400 years of Islam.” [Source]

“We already have a lot of infiltration of Islamic jihadist doctrines into our K-12 school systems.” [Source]

“What has the Arab world contributed except terror?…The theocratic, repressive Arabic states do no significant science, no significant arts and culture.” [Source]

In a hate-filled rant at Brooklyn College, Horowitz yelled: “The problem is when you have a religion which preaches war and violence and hate, rationality is never gonna take land for the [Muslim] Brotherhood in America, and as I said, the mission is to destroy the American civilization.” Watch him in action:

Horowitz also uses his websites to promote the center’s Terrorism Awareness Project. Built on the fear of an Islamic crusade against the West, the center and Horowitz have been organizing Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week programs on hundreds of campuses across the country. It’s all documented in our report.

He is funded in part by grants from the Donors Capital Fund, Richard Mellon Scaife foundations, Bradley foundation, Newton and Rochelle Becker foundations, Anchorage Charitable Foundation and William Rosenwald Family Fund, and the Fairbrook Foundation. One wonders if those foundations understand what they are funding and whether they agree with Horowitz’s hate language.