news aggregator
Steele Slams Saltsman: ‘Magic Negro’ Stunt ‘Reinforces Negative Stereotype’ Of The GOP
ThinkProgress - 1 hour 25 min ago
Last month, the Hill reported that RNC chairman candidate Chip Saltsman sent out a Christmas greeting that contained a CD with the song “Barack the Magic Negro” on it. Several of Saltsman’s opponents were “shocked and appalled,” calling the move “in bad taste.” However, as the Hill later noted, “surprisingly,” the two African-American candidates for RNC chair — Ken Blackwell and Micheal Steele — had “been the easiest on Saltsman.”
Today, the candidates debated the future of the Party at the National Press Club and all agreed that the GOP needs to bring in more minorities. But in an interview with ThinkProgress after the debate, Steele said that Saltsman is detracting from this effort. He strongly criticized Saltsman’s decision to send out the “Magic Negro” song, saying “it doesn’t help at all” the GOP’s effort to bring in minorities to the party:
TP: A big theme on the panel today was how to get the GOP to embrace minority voters. Do you think that Mr. Saltsman’s CD that he released to the RNC members helps or hurts that effort?
STEELE: Oh it doesn’t help at all. Absolutely, it reinforces a negative stereotype of the party. […] And so now we have a opportunity to step in the breach and clear that up and make sure that people appreciate and know that look, this is not representative of the party as a whole, this is not a direction that we want to go in or a system that we believe.
Watch it:
Some RNC members have said that Saltsman’s controversial Christmas greeting may have actually helped his candidacy for chairman. Politico reported that “some of those officials are rallying around the embattled Saltsman, with a few questioning whether the national media and his opponents are piling on.”
However, current RNC chair Mike Duncan disputed that notion today in a separate interview with ThinkProgress. “I disagree with them,” he said, adding that “we’re about addition as opposed to subtraction and bringing people into this Party and things that take away from that are bad for the Party.”
Indeed, during the debate, Saltsman himself said — without a hint of irony — that “we have done a very poor job in communicating any message from the Republican Party” to minority groups.
At today’s event, Steele appeared to have the most — or at least the most visible — supporters in the audience. People were holding signs and wearing Steele stickers and attendees loudly cheered after many of his answers. No other candidate had such a conspicuous turnout.
Categories: Democratic News
Beck’s response to violence in Gaza: ‘Can someone please retract the Jimmy Carter Nobel Peace Prize?’
ThinkProgress - 1 hour 53 min ago
On his radio show today, conservative talker Glenn Beck responded to the current violence in Gaza by arguing that former President Jimmy Carter should be stripped of his Nobel Peace Prize:
BECK: Can someone please retract the Jimmy Carter Nobel Peace Prize? Can someone please say, “You know what Jim, we gotta take that back. I don’t know what we were thinking, but there hasn’t been all that much peace there.” … Eh, I don’t think you get the prize for the peace when the peace didn’t really happen. … Can we take his peace prize back from him?
Listen here:
Despite Beck’s claims to the contrary, Carter contributed significantly to the Middle East peace process, brokering a lasting peace between Egypt and Israel in 1978. As Juan Cole said of the Carter’s Middle East peace legacy, “Jimmy Carter powerfully affected the destinies of all Egyptians and Israelis.”
Categories: Democratic News
Bush Cites Failed Social Security Privatization Push As His Biggest Domestic Policy Achievement
ThinkProgress - 2 hours 36 min ago
The Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes reports today that he and fellow conservative Bill Kristol met with President Bush last Friday for a lunch in the president’s “private dining room adjacent to the Oval Office.” According to Barnes, the “left-wing haters” are “going to be disappointed when they see his demeanor as he leaves his eight-year presidency” because Bush “appears comfortable with what he expects his legacy will be.”
Speaking of Bush’s legacy, Barnes reports that the president cited his push to privatize Social Security as his biggest domestic policy accomplishment:
On domestic policy, Bush was asked if he made progress in some areas for which he hasn’t and probably won’t get credit. Topping his list was his unsuccessful drive in 2005 to reform Social Security. Bush said his effort showed it’s politically safe to campaign on changing Social Security and then actually seek to change it.
He also said it was important to have raised private investment accounts as an attractive option in reforming Social Security.
It seems odd that Bush cited an unsuccessful effort as his biggest domestic policy achievement, but understandable given that he doesn’t have much else to consider. But not only was Bush’s drive to privatize Social Security an utter failure, the concept is also widely unpopular with the American public and if enacted, it would have had disastrous consequences for Americans’ retirement funds.
A recent Center for American Progress Action Fund report found that if a worker had retired on October 1, 2008 after 35 years of contributions to private retirement accounts, that retiree would have lost nearly $30,000 in retirement funds because of the downturn in the stock market over the last two years.
Part of the reason Bush’s push failed was that very few people actually believed he was trying to reform Social Security and instead thought he was trying to dismantle it. Even back in 2005, despite a lack of support for privatization, the Bush administration was insisting that their efforts were a “great success.”
Indeed, a recent CNN poll found that 62 percent of Americans oppose privatizing any part their Social Security taxes. But seeing that Bush regularly ignores what Americans think, its no wonder he thinks he doesn’t get enough credit for his privatization crusade.
Categories: Democratic News
Obama appoints CAP’s Brad Kiley as Director of Office of Management and Administration.
ThinkProgress - 2 hours 45 min ago
This afternoon, the Obama transition team announced several new White House staff members, including our friend and former colleague Brad Kiley as the Director of the Office of Management and Administration. Brad is currently the Director of Operations for the transition team. He served as Vice President of Finance and Operations at the Center for American Progress, and before that, as deputy assistant to the president for management and administration in the Clinton White House. With his new position, Brad is the highest ranking LGBT appointment in the White House. We wish him all the best.
Categories: Democratic News
Minnesota Canvassing Board certifies Franken as winner.
ThinkProgress - 3 hours ago
The Minnesota State Canvassing board has certified results showing that Al Franken has won the Minnesota Senate recount, beating Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) by 225 votes. But the race is still “in limbo,” as the Board’s declaration “starts a seven-day clock for Coleman to file a lawsuit protesting the result” — which he has indicated he will do. Senate Republicans have said they will filibuster any attempt to seat Franken while litigation is pending.
Categories: Democratic News
Pew: ‘The overall mood of the public’ has gotten worse under Bush.
ThinkProgress - 3 hours 37 min ago
On CBS’ Face The Nation yesterday, host Bob Schieffer asked Vice President Cheney whether Americans were “better off now than we were eight years ago.” Cheney replied that the Bush administration had “done some very good things” in that time. But according to the Pew Research Center, the American public disagrees. In an analysis comparing the mood of the country in 2000 and the mood of the country today, Pew found that a “mere 13% of Americans are now satisfied with the way things are going in the country, compared with 55% eight years ago”:
Categories: Democratic News
RNC candidate Ken Blackwell compares Bush to Hoover.
ThinkProgress - 4 hours 13 min ago
Today, during the “lighting round” of the RNC Chairman candidates’ debate, Grover Norquist asked candidates who their favorite Republican president is. None responded with President Bush. Naming his least favorite Republican president, Ken Blackwell said Herbert Hoover — and followed up with a comparison of Bush to Hoover:
NORQUIST: Ken?
BLACKWELL: Hoover, because he opened the door to big government activism, and I think that unfortunately, President Bush in the last few months, has opened up the door to Mr. Obama’s big government.
The audience applauded Blackwell’s response. Watch it:
Categories: Democratic News
Obama selects Leon Panetta to head CIA.
ThinkProgress - 4 hours 28 min ago
NBC News reports that Leon Panetta, former chief of staff to President Clinton, will be named as President Obama’s nominee to be CIA Director. The former California congressman “has a reputation in Washington as a competent manager with strong background in budget issues, but has little hands-on intelligence experience,” writes the New York Times. Panetta would report to Dennis Blair, Obama’s nominee to be national intelligence director.
One of the factors that may have contributed to Panetta’s selection was Obama’s reported desire to pick intelligence officials who weren’t “associated with the Bush administration’s controversial interrogation policies.”
Categories: Democratic News
Perino: Ground Invasion Will Help ‘Create A More Stable And Secure Area’ For People Of Gaza
ThinkProgress - 5 hours 18 min ago
In a video statement today, President Bush seemingly condoned Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza, saying, “Israel has obviously decided to protect herself and her people.” Minutes later, in the White House press briefing, Press Secretary Dana Perino suggested that the war would help create “a more stable and secure” life for the people of Gaza:
PERINO: We understand the need to try to create a more stable and secure area for themselves and also for the Palestinian people, who have been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since the summer of 2007. And we urge them to be very cautious when it comes to civilian casualties. We want to keep them to an absolute minimum.
Watch it:
Seconds after claiming Hamas has held Gaza citizens hostage, however, Perino seemed to acknowledge that Hamas had in fact been elected: “They won because the Palestinians, the people of Gaza, were frustrated with the services they were getting from the Fatah party, which was a wake-up call for the Fatah party as well,” Perino said.
The idea that the current war — which has so far resulted in the deaths of over 500 Palestinians — is somehow good for the people of Gaza is being echoed around the White House and the right wing. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack explained today that the Bush administration opposed an immediate cease fire because stopping the killing now would somehow not be to the “best benefit” of the Palestinian people:
MCCORMACK: You’re trading off against lives in the future that would be lost if you don’t go for a durable, sustainable cease-fire. We’re not willing to do that. … You have to take the set of decisions that you believe will ultimately best benefit the people of the region, whether it’s the Palestinians or the Israelis.
On Fox News Sunday yesterday, Bill Kristol claimed that war was the best way toward peace: “If you care about ultimately peace in the Middle East, this is the best thing that could happen.”
Categories: Democratic News
Obama’s OLC nominee: ‘We must regain our ability to feel outrage whenever our government acts lawlessly.’
ThinkProgress - 6 hours 8 min ago
President-elect Barack Obama announced today that Dawn Johnsen will serve as the next Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). Salon’s Glenn Greenwald calls the pick “Obama’s best yet, perhaps by far.” As evidence, Greenwald highlights an article in Slate that Johnsen authored last year, in which she excoriated John Yoo’s infamous torture memo:
I want to second Dahlia’s frustration with those who don’t see the newly released Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) torture memo as a big deal. Where is the outrage, the public outcry?! The shockingly flawed content of this memo, the deficient processes that led to its issuance, the horrific acts it encouraged, the fact that it was kept secret for years and that the Bush administration continues to withhold other memos like it — all demand our outrage.
Yes, we’ve seen much of it before. And yes, we are counting down the remaining months. But we must regain our ability to feel outrage whenever our government acts lawlessly and devises bogus constitutional arguments for outlandishly expansive presidential power. Otherwise, our own deep cynicism, about the possibility for a President and presidential lawyers to respect legal constraints, itself will threaten the rule of law — and not just for the remaining nine months of this administration, but for years and administrations to come.
Johnsen also criticized the Democratic Congress for legalizing Bush’s surveillance program. She also wrote passionately about restoring our “nation’s honor” by condemning “our nation’s past transgressions” and rejecting “Bush’s corruption of our American ideals.”
Categories: Democratic News
Does the New York Times think ‘gay’ is a bad word?
ThinkProgress - 6 hours 38 min ago
Towleroad notes that when a reader text messages someone a New York Times article with the word “gay” in the title, the New York Times web service censors the word “gay,” replacing it with a “beep”:
Try it yourself here.
Categories: Democratic News
Conservatives Label Fitzgerald A Failure, Ignoring His Record Of Successful Terrorism Prosecutions
ThinkProgress - 7 hours 38 min ago
Since U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald investigated the Bush administration’s leaking of Valerie Plame’s identity — and successfully prosecuted Scooter Libby for perjury — conservatives have sought to discredit the prosecutor. Last month, Michelle Malkin insisted that Democrats would “turn on a dime” against Fitzgerald for going after a Democratic governor — despite the fact that President-elect Obama and top congressional Democrats have called for Fitzgerald to be reappointed as U.S. Attorney.
Continuing their assault on Fitzgerald, conservatives like to argue that Fitzgerald’s prosecution record is weak. Yesterday, Fox News’s Brit Hume decried Fitzgerald’s so-called “propensity” to make accusations “in news conferences” that he “is unable to prove in court.” This morning, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough slammed the prosecutor for bringing cases with “a lot of smoke” but “no fire,” and wondered, “Is Fitzgerald going to go 0 for 2 here in national investigations?” Watch it:
To say Fitzgerald might go “0 for 2″ in national investigations not only ignores the fact that he won a conviction of a Bush aide in the Plame case but, more importantly, completely ignores Fitzgerald’s successful prosecution of the terrorists — including “the blind Shiek” Omar Abdul Rahman — who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993. During the trial, Fitzgerald provided a passionate and forceful voice against what he called “a war of urban terrorism,” years before “the War on Terror” began:
– “Terrorism is real. It is here. It is in this courtroom,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald told the jury. [AP, 10/2/95]
– Assistant United States Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald concluded more than two days of the Government’s closing argument by telling the jurors, “The defendants in this room conspired to steal from Americans their freedom from fear.” [NY Times, 9/8/95]
Fitzgerald also indicted Osama bin Laden for terrorism years before he was on the national radar, after the 9/11 attacks. In addition, he secured the fraud conviction of Conrad Black, who had ties to the Bush White House. After successfully prosecuting terrorists, mobsters, governors, and White House officials, Fitzgerald is hardly in danger of going “0 for 2.”
Categories: Democratic News
Obama names first woman solicitor general.
ThinkProgress - 8 hours 11 min ago
Today, the Obama transition team sent out a release announcing several key Justice Department positions, including Harvard Law School dean Elena Kagan as Solicitor General. Kagan will be the first woman to serve permanently in this important post, which is tasked with conducting “all litigation on behalf of the United States in the Supreme Court, and to supervise the handling of litigation in the federal appellate courts. Kagan previously served in the White House during the Clinton administration, as Associate Counsel to the President, Deputy Assistant the the President for Domestic Policy, and Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council. Kagan sent out an announcement to the Harvard Law School community: More »« Less
Categories: Democratic News
Kempthorne spent $235,000 in taxpayer money to renovate his bathroom.
ThinkProgress - 9 hours 12 min ago
The Washington Post’s Al Kamen reports today that outgoing Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne recently spent about $235,000 in taxpayer funds to renovate the bathroom in his fifth-floor office. The renovations included “installing a new shower, a refrigerator and a freezer and buying monogrammed towels.” An internal investigation by the department’s inspector general, however, found no wrongdoing on Kempthorne’s part “because the GSA had approved the project“:
The General Services Administration approved and partially funded the project, an Interior Department official said. The GSA paid about half the cost to refurbish aging plumbing, which needed to be replaced within four years.
But department officials say much of the money was spent on lavish wood paneling and tile.
An Interior Department spokesperson did not return Kamen’s calls requesting comment.
Categories: Democratic News
ThinkFast: January 5, 2008
ThinkProgress - 10 hours 8 min ago
The EU is pushing for a cease-fire and “sustainable truce” between Hamas and Israel. One proposal circulating in “Paris and at the United Nations on Sunday was to send European Union troops as part of an international force to the Gaza border to help prevent smuggling of munitions across the frontier, diplomats said.” In the meantime, the European Commission promised $4.2 million in humanitarian aid to Gaza.
“Senior Israeli officials said that the fighting could go on for days, if not weeks, and that calls for a cease-fire were premature.” “Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak insisted that, while Hamas had ’sustained a very heavy blow from us,’ Gaza operation was not finished. ‘We have yet to achieve our objective.’”
The RNC will select its new chairman this month and the six-way contest is aggravating “intraparty tensions.” As one RNC consultant explained to Politico, “Some people are p-ssed off at [Americans for Tax Reform President] Grover [Norquist]. Some people are p-ssed off at the Conservative Steering Committee. Some people are p-ssed off at [current RNC chair] Mike Duncan. Some people are p-ssed off at social conservatives. … Everyone is basically p-ssed.”
According to a report by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, “the Internet overtook print newspapers as a news source this year.” The popularity of newspapers did not decline, but rather, the number of people naming the internet as their primary news source nearly doubled.
President-elect Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan — which may cost nearly $775 billion — “plans to include about $300 billion in tax cuts for workers and businesses” which will “provide credits up to $500 for most workers” and “more than $100 billion in tax incentives for businesses.” More »« Less
Categories: Democratic News
Reid: ‘I really do believe President Bush is the worst president we’ve ever had.’
ThinkProgress - Sun, 01/04/2009 - 8:00pm
In early 2006, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said of President Bush: “I really do believe this man will go down as the worst president this country has ever had.” This morning on Meet the Press, host David Gregory asked Reid whether he regrets making that statement. Reid refused to back down. “I think you just have to call things the way you see them,” he said. “I really do believe President Bush is the worst president we’ve ever had.” Watch it:
Categories: Democratic News
Alaska State Trooper union: Johnston drug arrest delayed for political reasons.
ThinkProgress - Sun, 01/04/2009 - 4:10pm
The Anchorage Daily News reports that the December 18 arrest of the mother of Levi Johnston for the sale of prescription drugs was delayed because of Johnston’s relationship with Bristol Palin during Gov. Sarah Palin’s vice presidential candidacy:
Kyle Young, a troopers drug investigator who was involved in the case, wrote in an e-mail last week to all members of the Public Safety Employees Association, the union that represents troopers and other law enforcement officers around the state…that after it became clear who Johnston was, “this case became anything but normal.”
“It was not allowed to progress in a normal fashion, the search warrant service WAS delayed because of the pending election and the Mat Su Drug Unit and the case officer were not the ones calling the shots,” Young wrote. … John Cyr, executive director of the union, said it’s clear to him that the investigation was handled differently because of who Johnston is.
While the Palin administration is disputing the union’s claims, the union tells the Daily News that it verified Young’s characterization “with the entire drug unit, with all of our members.”
Categories: Democratic News
Reports suggest Israeli forces using cluster bombs in Gaza.
ThinkProgress - Sun, 01/04/2009 - 3:17pm
Haaretz reports that, as Israeli ground forces entered Gaza yesterday, “hundreds of shells were fired, including cluster bombs aimed at open areas.” FireDogLake’s Siun writes, “The use of cluster bombs — which have a large footprint when initially dropped and then remain a threat for decades — in a location like the Gaza Strip which is so packed with people is horrifying.” (FDL notes that
">video footage seems to confirm the use of cluster bombs.) Last summer, a former Israeli defense official said that “the Israeli military used cluster bombs for two weeks during the 2006 Lebanon war without telling the Israeli government.” At the time, the UN decried the use of the bombs as “completely immoral.”
(Note: The photo shows Israeli forces dropping white phosphorus shells, which “can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen.”)
Categories: Democratic News
Bill Richardson withdraws from Commerce Secretary nomination.
ThinkProgress - Sun, 01/04/2009 - 2:34pm
NBC News reports:
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, tapped in December by President-elect Barack Obama to serve as secretary of Commerce, has withdrawn his name for the position, citing a pending investigation into a company that has done business with his state.
“Let me say unequivocally that I and my Administration have acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact,” he said Sunday in a report by NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell. “But I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process.”
A federal grand jury is investigating whether a California firm, CDR Financial Products, won a lucrative contract from the state of New Mexico after it contributed at least $110,000 to three political committees formed by Richardson. The grand jury probe was “in a highly active stage” at the time Obama nominated Richardson.
Categories: Democratic News
Bill Richardson withdraws from Commerce Secretary nomination.
ThinkProgress - Sun, 01/04/2009 - 2:34pm
NBC News reports:
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, tapped in December by President-elect Barack Obama to serve as secretary of Commerce, has withdrawn his name for the position, citing a pending investigation into a company that has done business with his state.
“Let me say unequivocally that I and my Administration have acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact,” he said Sunday in a report by NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell. “But I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process.”
A federal grand jury is investigating whether a California firm, CDR Financial Products, won a lucrative contract from the state of New Mexico after it contributed at least $110,000 to three political committees formed by Richardson. The grand jury probe was “in a highly active stage” at the time Obama nominated Richardson.
Categories: Democratic News
