ThinkProgress
ThinkProgress Logo

Gingrich Compares His Ballot Failure To Pearl Harbor

Romney's False Promise: If He's President, Every College Grad Will Have A Job

The 10 Craziest Economic Policy Ideas Last Year

NEWS FLASH

Sen. Lugar Says Country Can’t ‘Afford’ Ron Paul’s Foreign Policy Views | On CNN this morning, Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN) — one of the Republican Party’s leading thinkers on foreign policy issues — rejected GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul’s calls for less U.S. intervention around the world as “uncalled for.” “It’s not a message which, really, a president of the United States could ever afford to extend,” Lugar said. Taking the opposite view of Paul’s isolationism, Lugar argued, “We’re the only country that can afford to go everywhere all over the world.” Watch it:

LGBT

One Year After DADT Repeal, Openly Gay Soldiers In Afghanistan Say They’re Better Able To Focus On Mission

By Faiz Shakir posted from ThinkProgress LGBT on Dec 25, 2011 at 10:33 am

One year ago this week, President Obama signed the repeal of the military’s discriminatory Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. The repeal has been quite successful; “there has been no widespread resistance” in the military and even previous critics are comfortable with it.

The Navy supported two women sailors who became the first to share a coveted “first kiss” upon the ship’s return from sea. Also, a gay sailor who was discharged twice under DADT was readmitted to active duty earlier this month.

ABC’s Jake Tapper interviewed a group of five gay soldiers serving in Afghanistan who have come out in the past year. One soldier said, “The most important thing that has changed since the repeal is now we can focus on the mission.” Watch it:

video platform
video management
video solutions
video player

Related Posts

NEWS FLASH

In Christmas Eve Mass, Pope Decries Commercialization Of Christmas | Pope Benedict used his traditional Christmas Eve homily at St. Peter’s Basilica to call upon his congregation to “see through the superficial glitter” of the season. “Today Christmas has become a commercial celebration,” the pope said. As if serving to prove the pope’s point, the nation has been wracked by violence in major cities as consumers fight and claw at one another to obtain Nike’s new retro Air Jordan sneakers.

Politics

Newt Gingrich Compares His Failure To Make The Virginia Ballot To The Pearl Harbor Attack

By Faiz Shakir on Dec 25, 2011 at 2:45 am

Yesterday, the Republican Party of Virginia announced on Twitter that “Newt Gingrich did not submit required 10k signatures and has not qualified for the VA primary.” Reeling from their own ineptness, the Gingrich campaign quickly announced that it would “pursue an aggressive write-in campaign.” But as we noted yesterday, Virginia laws prohibit such a write-in campaign.

The New York Times assessed that Gingrich’s failure could “shake the confidence of voters.” The National Review called both Gingrich and Rick Perry “idiotic.” On Fox, Karl Rove said flatly, “This is a problem — if you’re the front runner and you can’t organize your campaign so you can meet those filing deadlines. It’s elemental. It’s the fundamental thing you do.”

By late last night, the Gingrich campaign was trying desperately reassure the public that it could recover. Campaign director Michael Krull went on Facebook to convey that Newt told him “this is not catastrophic — we will continue to learn and grow.” Then, in the very next paragraph, Krull employed a “catastrophic” metaphor to suggest the campaign is now recovering from a calamity:

Newt and I agreed that the analogy is December 1941: We have experienced an unexpected set-back, but we will re-group and re-focus with increased determination, commitment and positive action. Throughout the next months there will be ups and downs; there will be successes and failures; there will be easy victories and difficult days – but in the end we will stand victorious.

Gingrich, who fashions himself as an historian, frequently employs Peal Harbor analogies and anecdotes. In fact, he has co-authored an historical fiction book about Pearl Harbor, which literary critics blasted for its shoddy quality.

NEWS FLASH

Iraq Troops Home In Time For Christmas | A week ago, the last U.S. troops rolled out of Iraq into Kuwait. Today, all but a small handful of the last combat brigade from Iraq, where the U.S.-led coalition fought a war for nearly 9 years, arrived home to Fort Hood, Texas, in time to celebrate Christmas and the New Year with their families. 200 of the troops from the brigade arrived home, leaving only about a dozen deployed overseas. Here’s a photo of one soldier arriving home last week:

Security

‘Russia Without Putin’: Huge Protests Assemble In Moscow

By Ali Gharib posted from ThinkProgress Security on Dec 24, 2011 at 7:23 pm

For a month now, a nascent protest movement has roiled Russia as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin seeks to reassert himself as president, the same position he gave up in 2008. His successor and likely soon-to-be predecessor President Dmitri Medvedev responded to the protest movement by offering reforms on his way out the door after a planned March election. But today’s protests stand as a strong rebuke to the eleventh hour concessions.

Security sources told the U.K’s Guardian that 80,000 people showed up to protest in Moscow — the largest demonstration since the collapse of the Soviet Union — to demonstrate against what they contend was a fraudulent parliamentary election. Here’s a photograph of the crowds in Moscow on Saturday:

In the first days of the protests, U.S. Secretary of State HIllary Clinton said the elections were a “fraud,” drawing criticism from Putin.

Thousands also demonstrated in St. Petersburg, one of Russia’s largest cities and a financial and cultural capital. The U.K. telegraph paper carried a video report from the protest.

Read more

Green

The Fight Over Keystone XL Now Has A 60-Day Deadline

By Brad Johnson posted from ThinkProgress Green on Dec 24, 2011 at 5:01 pm

Attached to the payroll tax deal was a provision forcing President Obama to decide within 60 days whether or not to approve the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, before its route is even finalized. The deadline runs out on February 21, 2012. The State Department has made it clear it can’t do a proper review of the pipeline, especially considering that TransCanada has agreed to change the pipeline’s pathway in Nebraska but hasn’t even finalized the new route.

With this new and arbitrary deadline, the punditocracy is relitigating the question of whether it should be built. The DC political elite assumed that the pipeline was an inevitability, dismissive or ignorant of the popular opposition to a risky, foreign tar sands pipeline cutting across the center of the nation. Most were blindsided when the State Department announced it needed to review its obviously flawed assessment of the project, and when the state of Nebraska held an emergency legislative session against the pipeline.

With the new rush to approve TransCanada’s tar sands pipeline, let’s review some key facts that should underlie any analysis of the proposed 1700-mile project from Alberta to Texas:

The approval process for the Keystone XL pipeline was tainted by corruption. The federal approval process was run by a contractor for the pipeline company itself. Cardno Entrix was chosen and paid by TransCanada to draft the State Department’s environmental and historical impact statement, manage public hearings, and receive public comment. Big oil’s lobbying group American Petroleum Institute was also involved in drafting the environmental impact statement while running ads in favor of tar sands development. TransCanada, who employed former Hillary Clinton aides as lobbyists, has bullied landowners and moved towards construction without needed approval. In response to a congressional request, the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General has launched an investigation.

Read more

Politics

Romney: If I’m President, All College Grads Will Have A Job; If Obama Wins, They Won’t

By Rebecca Leber on Dec 24, 2011 at 3:01 pm

Asked at a campaign stop in New Hampshire why young people should mobilize behind Mitt Romney for 2012, the candidate had a simple but comically pandering answer. Romney promised 21-year-old Kallie Durkit that he will deliver jobs to college graduates if he’s elected president — that as a businessman he knows “what it takes” to help them. If Obama is reelected, Romney explained, all college grads would be simply out of luck:

Kallie Durkit: Relatability has been a large issue for you on this campaign trail, and as a college student many people in my generation find it especially hard to relate to you as a candidate. Why should we mobilize for you as a candidate instead of Obama, which we did in 2008?

Mitt Romney: What I can promise you is this –- when you get out of college, if I’m president you’ll have a job. If President Obama is reelected, you will not be able to get a job. That’s the reason I will hopefully get young people who are in college is to say, You know what, I understand what it takes to get jobs in America.

Watch it:

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

ABC’s Jon Karl observes, “when it comes to political pandering,” it’s hard to beat Romney’s false promise.

Politics

Gingrich Will Run An ‘Aggressive Write-In Campaign’ In Virginia Primaries, Where Write-Ins Are Illegal

By Rebecca Leber on Dec 24, 2011 at 1:26 pm

There won’t be any homefield advantage for Newt Gingrich come Super Tuesday, when Virginia holds its presidential primary. Gingrich, who actually lives in McLean, Virginia, will not be listed on the ballot in his home state because his campaign did not collect the minimum signatures to be a contender.

The Republican Party of Virginia announced late last night that only former Massachussetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) qualified to be listed. But Gingrich’s notoriously troubled campaign did not collect enough valid signatures to put him over the 10,000 signature mark required by state law, although Gingrich claimed he was safely over the threshold the other day. (Virginia laws also requires 400 signatures from each of the state’s 11 congressional districts.)

Responding to the blow just days before the primary season begins, Gingrich campaign director Michael Krull blamed a “failed system” and announced the camp’s next tactic — a write-in campaign:

Only a failed system excludes four out of the six major candidates seeking access to the ballot. Voters deserve the right to vote for any top contender, especially leading candidates. We will work with the Republican Party of Virginia to pursue an aggressive write-in campaign to make sure that all the voters of Virginia are able to vote for the candidate of their choice.

There is a small problem with this strategy, though. Write-ins for primary elections are illegal, according to Virginia state code. Thus, it appears that if Gingrich heads to the polls in his home state’s primaries on March 6, he would have to vote for someone else.

Media

Fox News Gives Free Airtime For Employee Karl Rove’s Partisan Attack Ads

By Faiz Shakir on Dec 24, 2011 at 11:00 am

Earlier this year, Karl Rove bemoaned, “America is likely to see the most negative re-election campaign ever mounted by a sitting president.” Meanwhile, “Rove’s deep-pocketed attack group” American Crossroads has been relentlessly releasing one partisan attack ad after another. In that vein, Crossroads released an ad this week mocking Obama for defending his record of accomplishments.

One of Rove’s most powerful employers, Fox News, rewarded their employee’s partisan attack group with a lot of free airtime. The ad was featured on Fox’s Sean Hannity show, on Fox’s “The Five,” and during Fox’s daytime hours. On Hannity, Crossroad’s communications director Jonathan Collegio was invited to talk about the ad. Rove himself appeared as a guest on another show to tout his own ad.

Fox pundits lauded the ad as “brilliant,” “pretty funny,” “very effective,” “fabulous,” and “my favorite ad of the year.” Fox guest host Mark Steyn even criticized CNN for failing to cover the ad. Watch a compilation:

As the website American Crossroads Watch notes, “Rove’s group is funded by secret corporate donations made possible by a 2010 Supreme Court decision, Citizens United, allowing unlimited corporate funding of elections. Press reports indicate that AC is planning to amass and spend at least $52 million this year to support candidates friendly to Big Business, all without disclosure or accountability.”

In addition to all the airtime that Rove’s group will be able to afford, Fox News is making clear that it will do its part to market the partisan content to its audience in glowing terms. As Media Matters notes, Fox also gave another one of Rove’s attack ads free publicity and endorsements back in Novemeber.

NEWS FLASH

NYT Editorial Rips Lowe’s, Kayak For Bowing To Bigotry | In an editorial today, the New York Times bemoans the havoc that David Caton’s “one-man hate group” (the Florida Family Association) has wrought by tapping into “anti-Muslim sentiment.” Lowe’s and Kayak, two companies who have proudly pulled their advertising from TLC’s “All-American Muslim,” have “sent a distasteful message to their customers, their employees, and to the larger public,” the editorial writes.

Politics

Gingrich Defends South Carolina’s Decision To Fly Confederate Flag At Capital

By Faiz Shakir on Dec 24, 2011 at 8:30 am

At an event in South Carolina yesterday, Newt Gingrich was asked by a town hall participant to offer his views regarding the state’s decision to fly the Confederate flag at the statehouse in Columbia. The woman’s question was met with a smattering of boos from the audience.

“I have a very strong opinion,” Gingrich said, prefacing his weak response. “It’s up to the people of South Carolina.” (He then qualified his answer by assuring that he is opposed to segregation and slavery.)

Gingrich elicited a rousing standing ovation and yells of approval from the audience. Watch it:

On the one hand, while Gingrich was giving cover to our nation’s racist history with his answer on the Confederate flag, he was also employing racism as a political tool. Politico reports Gingrich told reporters later that “the left” often uses “racism as an excuse for thought.”

During his 2008 run, Mitt Romney took a far bolder stance than Gingrich, saying “that flag shouldn’t be flown” and “that’s not a flag I recognize.” Romney was attacked by right-wing activists for his stand. It’s unclear how he will deal with the issue this coming year.

NAACP President Ben Jealous has been challenging South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) to take the flag down. “Perhaps one of the most perplexing examples of the contradictions of this moment in history is that Nikki Haley, South Carolina’s first governor of color, continues to fly the Confederate flag in front of her state’s capitol,” Jealous said last July. “Given the similarities between our struggles to end slavery and segregation, and her ancestors’ struggle to end British colonialism and oppression in India, my question to Governor Haley is one that Dr. King often asked himself: ‘What would Gandhi do?’”

  • Comment Icon

Economy

The 10 Craziest Economic Policy Ideas Of 2011

By Travis Waldron, Tanya Somanader and Pat Garofalo posted from ThinkProgress Economy on Dec 23, 2011 at 8:00 pm

The economy continued to struggle through 2011, with persistently high unemployment, a foreclosure crisis that kept on burning, and banks behaving badly in a whole host of ways. And there were plenty of ideas from economists, lawmakers, and pundits about what to do about it. But some ideas were, shall we say, more…unique than others.

Here are ThinkProgress’ nominations, in no particular order, for the ten craziest economic ideas of the last twelve months. Think we missed a good one? Let us know in the comments below:

Florida State Rep. Proposes Ending Ban On Dwarf Tossing To Create Jobs: In October, Florida state Rep. Ritch Workman (R) filed a bill to end the state’s ban on dwarf tossing — the practice of “launching little people for the amusement of an audience.” Workman may not condone throwing little people across his lawn, but he introduced the bill because he wanted to remove a “Big Brother law” that would create jobs: “Well, there is nothing immoral or illegal about that activity,” Workman said. “All we really did by passing that law was take away some employment from some little people.”

New Jersey Gives MTV’s ‘Jersey Shore’ A Film Credit Worth $420,000: Despite Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) unapologetic hatred for the MTV series Jersey Shore, the state Economic Development Authority awarded the series $420,000 in taxpayer funds to pay for the show’s production costs. Not only does the credit fail to create virtually any long-term, stable jobs, the EDA offered the credit without even considering the show’s content. The Jersey Shore cast, however, did succeed in producing rare a agreement among Democrats and Republicans to veto the credit, a veto Christie happily delivered.

Kentucky Provides Tax Credit To Build Theme Park Modeled After Noah’s Ark: In May, Kentucky gave a Bible-themed amusement park — replete with a model Noah’s Ark and Tower of Babel — a $43 million tax break, even as the state was cutting social services. In August, the state went even farther, giving the Ark Encounter theme park a 75 percent property tax discount for the next three decades (the tax break, it turns out, will last 10,580 days longer than the Great Flood itself). The justification for the tax breaks? Ark Park officials say it’ll create 900 jobs — based on a study Ark Park officials did themselves and never showed state officials.

Virgina Bill Provides Tax Credit For Blasting Cremated Remains Into Space: A Virginia state representative proposed a bill that “would provide a state tax credit of up to $8,000 to those who agree to have their cremated remains loaded onto a rocket and blasted into space,” in an attempt to bolster Virginia’s nascent space industry. There’s just one catch: Virginia’s lone spaceport doesn’t actually offer space burials. The bill is scheduled to be debated in January.

Read more

  • Comment Icon

Green

Global Warming Hates A White Christmas

By Brad Johnson posted from ThinkProgress Green on Dec 23, 2011 at 5:00 pm

This winter has been unusually warm, crippling ski resorts, ruining holiday traditions, and dashing hopes of a white Christmas across the northern hemisphere. While the billions of tons of greenhouse pollution in our atmosphere sometimes encourage freak snowstorms, the primary effect of global warming on winter is, well, warmer temperatures — making white Christmases less likely. Temperature increases in some regions were off the charts in November, with northern Norway about 10°F warmer than average. In Finland, snow has been replaced by rain, killing World Cup and European Cup ski races, hurting retail sales, and adding to the gloom people feel from the long winter dark. This “black Christmas” shows the “footprint of global warming“:

Helsinki is experiencing uncharacteristically mild December temperatures, and only light dustings of snow have come and gone. “At the beginning of December it was on average six degrees warmer than is usual for this time of year,” meteorologist Pauli Jokinen told AFP. He said the snow’s no-show in the south of the country this year was partly due to natural variations, but also a footprint of global warming. “You can’t put a single season down to climate change, but we have seen that climate change has lifted the baseline temperatures,” he explained.

In Indiana, golf courses are still open while ski resorts remain shuttered. From the Pyrenees to the Balkans, ski resorts in the Alps have not only failed to receive natural snow, it’s been too warm to make any. “Virginia ski resorts are watching their assets melt away.” The December season has been a wash for the $1 billion New Hampshire ski resort industry. “Skiing is all right, if you consider the rain and everything,” one Massachusetts skier said of resorts’ efforts to make snow amid spring-like weather.

“Most Canadians will not wake up to a white Christmas on December 25 for the first time since Canada’s weather office began recording snowfalls in 1955,” AFP reports.

Environment Canada senior climatologist Dave Phillips told AFP “he has never seen so little snowpack in Canada’s cities.”

Because of global warming pollution from burning fossil fuels, winters are generally becoming milder, wetter, and starting later, making the promise of a white Christmas more of a dream.

  • Comment Icon

NEWS FLASH

48 States Have Elected Openly LGBT Lawmakers | Denis Dison notes that “last week’s news that Southhaven, Miss., Mayor Greg Davis informed a local newspaper that he is gay means just two U.S. states remain on the list of those with no openly LGBT elected officials — Alaska and South Dakota.” “That doesn’t mean these states aren’t served by LGBT elected officials, just that none have self-identified publicly either in speeches or in the media,” he says.

Economy

Gingrich Camp Capitalizes On Romney’s Unwillingness To Release Tax Returns

By Eli Clifton posted from ThinkProgress Economy on Dec 23, 2011 at 1:35 pm

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has jumped on Mitt Romney’s lucrative career in the private sector as head of Bain Capital, a private equity group that paid Romney generously while closing companies and cuting thousands of jobs. But Romney’s high net worth — estimated to be in excess of $200 million — and his ongoing retirement from package from Bain — understood to pay Romney millions of dollars per year — has put new scrutiny on the former Massachusetts governor’s unwillingness to disclose his tax returns.

Last night, Newt Gingrich’s campaign sought to capitalize on Romney’s unwillingness to release tax returns and sent reporters the following email:

Just in case you were curious, Newt Gingrich plans to release his income tax returns if he is the GOP nominee.

The move by the Gingrich camp comes after multiple news organizations reported on the Romney campaigns unwillingness to release the returns. Yesterday, Romney told reporters, “We don’t have any current plans to release tax returns but never say never.” In an interview with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd, Romney went further:

Mr. Romney made the statement in an interview with MSNBC on Wednesday, but the network did not show that part of the interview. Mr. Romney, a multimillionaire who made his fortune running a private equity firm, was asked whether he planned to release his tax return.

“I doubt it,” Mr. Romney said, according to a transcript of the interview provided by NBC News. “I will provide all the financial info, which is an extraordinary pile of documents which show investments and so forth.”

“But you won’t do the tax returns?” asked Chuck Todd, host of “The Daily Rundown.”

“I don’t intend to release the tax returns. I don’t,” Mr. Romney responded.

Watch it:

In 1994, Romney challenged Sen. Ted Kennedy to disclose his state and federal taxes to prove he has “nothing to hide.”

Indeed, scrutiny on Romney’s tax returns lies in the fact that Romney is likely not paying normal income tax rates on the ongoing payments from Bain. He is likely paying a capital gains tax rate of 15 percent instead of an income tax rate which, in his bracket, would be 35 percent.

Romney’s unwillingness to release his tax returns, and the Gingrich camp’s efforts to capitalize on Romney’s secrecy, could pose a challenge as Romney continues his assault on Gingrich’s lobbying and business dealings.

  • Comment Icon

NEWS FLASH

Biden Bashes Romney In Des Moines Register Op-Ed | Vice President Biden attacked GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney in an op-ed in the Des Moines Register today, less than two weeks before the Iowa caucuses. The Obama re-election campaign has focused on Romney as the most likely GOP nominee, but Biden is the highest-profile member of the president’s team to directly attack the former Massachusetts governor. “How can anyone forget the economic catastrophe brought about by the same policies Mr. Romney’s proposing? His are the same policies that deregulated Wall Street and turned it into a casino that gambled recklessly with hardworking Americans’ money,” Biden wrote. The vice president did not mention any other presidential candidates in the op-ed, even though former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (GA) recently had been seen as a frontrunner.

Older

Switch to Mobile