campaign

Obama, back in campaign mode, jabs at GOP

President Barack Obama delivered two speeches this week attacking Republican economic policies. With two months to go before the 2010 midterm elections, Democrats are down in the polls and trying to gain momentum. We've checked two facts from recent Obama speeches. In Ohio on Wednesday, Obama said Republican might be calling for spending discipline now. But when they controlled Congress from 1995 to 2006, they oversaw a good deal of spending for pet projects. "Let's look at the facts," Obama said. "When these same Republicans -- including Mr. Boehner -- were in charge, the number of earmarks and pet projects ... >>More

Obama, back in campaign mode, jabs at GOP

President Barack Obama delivered two speeches this week attacking Republican economic policies. With two months to go before the 2010 midterm elections, Democrats are down in the polls and trying to gain momentum. We've checked two facts from recent Obama speeches. In Ohio on Wednesday, Obama said Republican might be calling for spending discipline now. But when they controlled Congress from 1995 to 2006, they oversaw a good deal of spending for pet projects. "Let's look at the facts," Obama said. "When these same Republicans -- including Mr. Boehner -- were in charge, the number of earmarks and pet projects ... >>More

Incredibly Obvious Things In Front Of Our Faces

Campagne for America’s Future By Dave Johnson September 8, 2010 – 1:08pm ET Conservative economic policies just don’t work and it’s incredibly obvious right in front of our faces. Knowing that obvious things are right in front of our faces and knowing that conservatives really, really don’t want us to see those things, it’s instructive [...]

Hate Takes Center Stage

thinkprogress.org Hate Takes Center Stage Hate pastor Terry Jones and his small Dove World congregation are planning an event to burn the Quran in Gainesville, FL on the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. His plan — dubbed “International Burn a Quran Day” — has now become a global story that, according to top American [...]

Fairy-Tale Social Security Policy

Center for American Progress By Dave Johnson September 9, 2010 – 12:41pm ET Lots of kids believe in Santa Claus. This is because people repeat the fable to kids over and over, telling them that Santa Claus will deliver presents to them if they’re good. And then there’s the Boogeyman, the “amorphous embodiment of terror.” [...]

Think Again

Center for American Progress By Eric Alterman | September 9, 2010 Think Again: Forget the Question. The Answer is “Tax Cuts” SOURCE: AP/Susan Walsh Conservatives are fighting to extend President George W. Bush’s tax cuts even though doing so would add $2.3 trillion to the total 2018 debt according to the Congressional Budget Office. By [...]

Republican Party of Texas: Says State Rep. Kristi Thibaut was an ACORN lobbyist.

The Truth-o-Meter says: True | The Republican Party of Texas says Rep. Kristi Thibaut was an ACORN lobbyist

Casting your political foe as a lobbyist — and hence beholden to some special interest — can make for explosive campaign fodder. So it is that the Republican Party of Texas targets first-term state Rep. Kristi Thibaut, D-Houston. Dem State Rep Kristi Thibaut was an #ACORN lobbyist," the party tweeted Aug. 31, linking to a web video. Earlier the same day, the party had tweeted: "Democrat State Rep. Kristi Thibaut, HD133, was a lobbyist for corrupt ACORN" and before that, "find out which Dem state Rep was a lobbyist for ACORN." ACORN, or the Association of Community ...

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Ridiculous claims light up the Truth-O-Meter

As the election nears, it's getting to be silly season in American politics. We reserve our Pants on Fire ratings for claims that are not just false, but ridiculously so. And we've given three Pants on Fire ratings in the past few days. So here's a summary of the silliness: * Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer earned one for her claim that law enforcement officers in the state "have found bodies in the desert, either buried or just lying out there, that have been beheaded." * We gave one to bloggers who have been spreading the false rumor that U.S. Sen. ... >>More

Why elections matter, in one graph

Ezra Klein 9/8/10 I’ve been trying to figure out how to link to Timothy Noah’s series on inequality, which falls under the rubric of “things you should read that I have nothing to say about.” One thing I can say is that Noah, Catherine Mulbrandon and Slate have put an enormous amount of work into [...]

America’s Empire And Endless Wars Are Destroying The World, And Ruining Our Great Country | For more than 50 years, Washington has subscribed to the absurd notion that America can police the world with military action. All we’ve managed to do is bankrupt our country.

AlterNet September 6, 2010 Andrew Bacevich speaks with a fairly unique mix of experience, authority, passion and wisdom in questioning our nation’s priorities: specifically our willingness to place so much of our national identity, wealth, attention, moral practice, and finally the life and blood of many thousands of our citizens and millions of those of [...]