| grants | rcpnts | funders | people | rsrch | web | issues | con phil | rsrces | home | about | contact | out of pda | cursor.org |
AROUND THE WEB | pages 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Salon.com
April 2, 2008
Glenn Greenwald
John Yoo's war crimes
Yet again, the ACLU has performed the function which Congress and the media are intended to perform but do not. As the result of a FOIA lawsuit the ACLU filed and then prosecuted for several years, numerous documents relating to the Bush administration's torture regime that have long been baselessly kept secret were released yesterday, including an 81-page memorandum (.pdf) issued in 2003 by then-Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo (currently a Berkeley Law Professor) which asserted that the President's war powers entitle him to ignore multiple laws which criminalized the use of torture...
Also see:
Talk to Action
March 31, 2008
Bruce Wilson
Far Right Political Funder Scaife Enthusiastic About Clinton
As the New York Times and other major papers are reporting today, an op-ed written by Richard Mellon-Scaife in the Sunday edition of Scaife's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is raising eyebrows because the considerable enthusiasm Scaife evinced for Democratic Party presidential nomination contender Hillary Clinton.
Also see:
Talk to Action
March 24, 2008
Frederick Clarkson
IRD Blows Smoke in Response to Expose Film
The oxymoronically named Institute on Religion and Democracy for a generation has sought to disrupt and divide the major denominations of mainline Protestantism, as well as the wider ecumenical communions, the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches. Even more remarkably perhaps, while presenting itself an agency dedicated to reform and "renewal" of the churches, IRD's leadership and staff have been substantially populated by men and women who are not even members of any of the churches they say they seek to "renew."
Also see:
Institute on Religion and Democracy
ConWebWatch
March 6, 2008
Terry Krepel
The dishonesty card
The Media Research Center and FrontPageMag bash a report on the Bush administration's false statements about war with Iraq by ignoring the evidence and attacking the messenger.
Also see:
David Horowitz Freedom Center (publisher of FrontPageMag)
Raw Story
March 3, 2008
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Fox & Friends promotes global warming deniers' conference
Fox News believes the "other side" of the global warming debate hasn't received enough attention and is determined to repair the omission.
...The Business and Media Institute is a project of the Media Research Center (MRC), headed by well-known movement conservative L. Brent Bozell. MRC has received substantial funding from ExxonMobil, as has the Heartland Institute, sponsor of the conference.
Also see:
feministing.com
March 2, 2008
The Washington Post: Bitches ain't shit
Who knew that all it takes to get published in The Washington Post is penning a piece on how stupid women are?
Charlotte Allen - a professional woman-hating hack from the Independent Women's Forum who has also oh-so-bravely attacked transgender rights, said that the answer to women's potential financial woes is marriage, and suggested that Hurricane Katrina might have been "the best thing" to happen to New Orleans which is full of "whiners...chisel[ing] us taxpayers" out of money - has outdone herself in an article that is all about what dumb fucks women are.
Also see:
Ezra Klein: WHY ARE OP-EDS SO DUMB?
No more Mr nice blog: THAT "WOMEN ARE STUPID" OP-ED: BROUGHT TO YOU IN PART BY WINGNUT WELFARE
Washington Independent
February 26, 2008
Spencer Ackerman
Scaife-funded 'Bipartisan' Think Tank Attacks Democrats
Democratic Board Members Quit After 15 TV Ads Run in Blue Districts
A neo-conservative but ostensibly bipartisan counterterrorism think tank has lost all its Democratic board members by running an attack ad in Democratic congressional districts through an affiliated enterprise.
The think tank, called the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, is a 501(c )3—meaning it was incorporated as a non-profit and non-partisan organization, barred from political activity. Last week, it established Defense of Democracies, a 501(c )4 "non-profit, non-partisan advocacy organization," that ran an advertisement urging the House of Representatives to pass the Senate’s version of a bill providing retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies that collaborated with the Bush administration’s constellation of warrantless surveillance programs. The arrangement is probably legal, experts say, but the parent think tank receives several grants from the State Department—at least one is worth $487,000—for democracy-promotion programs, making its political activities questionable.
Also see:
Foundation for the Defense of Democracies
Radar magazine
February 21, 2008
Charles Kaiser
Was it Vin Weber who unloaded on John McCain?
The New York Times And The John McCain Sex Scandal Story
...Sources told Radar that one of these associates was John Vincent (Vin) Weber, a former Republican congressman from Minnesota who was an advisor to McCain's presidential campaign in 2000. In 2007, Weber became Policy Chairman for the Romney for President Exploratory Committee.
Weber did not immediately respond to a message left with the receptionist at Clark & Weinstock in Washington this morning, where Weber is a partner. The message said Radar would report that Weber was one of the sources of the story in the New York Times. The receptionist said Weber was in a meeting and could not come to the telephone.
UPDATE: At 12:51 PM, , after this story was posted, Weber called Radar with this statement: "Absolutely, positively completely not true in any form."
Also see:
National Endowment for Democracy (Weber is head)
San Francisco Chronicle
February 21, 2008
Lance Williams,Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Staff Writers
Grover Norquist's Republican lobbyist had no work permit
A former California Republican Party official who resigned last year in a controversy over his immigration status had no valid visa or work permit during his high-profile career as a Washington lobbyist for conservative icon Grover Norquist, newly filed court records show.
Also see:
Americans for Tax Reform Foundation
ThinkProgress.org
February 20, 2008
Richard Perle Claims We’ve ‘Already Won’ The Iraq War But It’s Also ‘Far From Over’
American Enterprise Institute "Resident Fellow" claims Iraq war was "imposed on us"
Exploring the question “Iraq: What if we win?” in the latest issue of The American Interest, neoconservative Iraq war architect Richard Perle offers a series of false, incoherent, contradictory and misleading statements in an effort to not only, again, distance himself from the disastrous Iraq war policy he helped create but also to tout the war’s successes.
In his article, which is headlined “We Won Years Ago,” Perle claims that the Iraq war — which he argues was “imposed on us” — is “far from over.” But later, he claims that “we have already won in Iraq” because “Saddam will not be sharing WMD with anyone.” Missing from this line of thinking, of course, is that Saddam never had any WMD to share...
Also see:
ConWebWatch
February 15, 2008
Terry Krepel
Liberally Insulting
The Media Research Center has trouble finding anything offensive about an NBC reporter claiming that Chelsea Clinton was being "pimped out" by her mother's presidential campaign. But then, it's totally down with Ann Coulter's litany of insults.
Also see:
New York Times
February 13, 2008
Jennifer Medina
A Reversal on School Vouchers, Then a Tempest
Sol Stern is at it again.
From his perch at the Manhattan Institute, the right-leaning research group, Mr. Stern, 72, has reveled as the city’s cantankerous provocateur against liberal education policies, criticizing reading curriculums that de-emphasize phonics as well as public schools that focus on social justice.
Like many of his intellectual allies, he had ardently supported school vouchers as a way to give poor and minority children better educational choices and to create competition that would help improve public schools.
Although colleagues long thought they had him pegged, he made an abrupt about-face on vouchers in the most recent issue of City Journal, the institute’s magazine, saying there was little evidence they had done much to improve public education across the country.
Also see:
Public school privatization and commercialization
A DC Observer
February 11, 2008
alexwdc
ACRI Ballot Initiative: Despite Ward Connerly’s Claims of Societal Colorblindess, Significant Disparities Remain
While Ward Connerly asserts that the world is colorblind, reality emphatically contradicts his assertion...the Los Angeles Times in reporting on the ballot initiative drives in five states, identified that there is a significant disparity in household income, benefiting Whites.
Also see:
Hit/Run Reason
February 8, 2008
David Weigel
Ann Coulter at CPAC: Revealing "nasty truths about the young Right"
...It's an old story now, but the biggest applause lines [for an Ann Coulter speech at CPAC] --not just awkward giggles, but applause--were about torture. Coulter eulogized Rudy Giuliani's campaign, saying that at least he wanted to "torture the terrorists!" Huge applause. McCain was a pansy because he wasn't willing to "drip water down a terrorist's nose."
Also see:
Black Commentator
January 30, 2008
David A. Love
Color of Law
Ward Connerly's Super Tuesday for Segregation
Ward Connerly, that high profile opponent for affirmative action and Black water carrier for the new Jim Crow, has returned. He wants to eliminate affirmative action everywhere, and make a buck at the same time. And with the help of corporate philanthropy and hate groups, he wants to take us back to the future we know too well.
Connerly is plotting and planning for what he calls a Super Tuesday for Equal Rights. The purpose of his campaign is to promote ballot initiatives throughout the country that would eliminate tax dollars to affirmative action programs based on race and gender.
Also see:
City Pages
January 8, 2008
Kevin Hoffman
The mendacity of Katherine Kersten
In today's column, the Strib's token right-wing columnist attempts to rehabilitate the tarnished image of ousted U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose.
...Offering a contrarian opinion is one thing, but this is outright disinformation, and everyone at the Strib--including Kersten--knows it. Perhaps the headline writer was offering the reader a subtle warning when he labeled the column: "A rumor riot buries the truth about Rachel Paulose."
Also see:
Eric Black: Kersten assails pundits but ignores key fact: Paulose was a lousy manager
The Nation
December 18, 2007
Max Blumenthal
A Hoax Exposed at Princeton
...Movement icons from Robby George of Princeton to Harvey Mansfield of Harvard, from David Horowitz to Brit Hume, raised howls of persecution when they learned that two masked men allegedly attacked a conservative Princeton University student. They insisted that the right-wing acolyte was beaten up "for his conservative views," as Horowitz put it. And they accused Princeton of failing to protect conservatives and upholding a hypocritical liberal double standard. Unfortunately the trumpeted cause collapsed when the victim turned out to be a hoaxer.
Also see:
Black Agenda Report
December 19, 2007
Lee Cocorinos
The Racist Roots of the Anti-Immigration Movement
Charles L. Heatherly, one of the architects of the Heritage Foundation's model for furnishing right wing politicians with actionable policy ideas as editor of several of its Mandate for Leadership handbooks, provided a "priceless contribution" to In Mortal Danger, Tom Tancredo writes. A former staffer for Tancredo, Heatherly now works as a senior aide to the congressman...
Victor Davis Hanson's Mexifornia was written at the suggestion of Peter Collier, the founding publisher of Encounter Books, which has been backed by the Koch, Bradley and Olin Foundations. It is an expanded version of an article published by Hanson in City Journal, the Manhattan Institute's flagship publication. Myron Magnet, the journal's editor, helped edit the article and book.
Also see:
Encounter for Culture and Education, Inc.
Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Inc.
Talk to Action
December 14, 2007
Steven D. Martin
The IRD's Tactics Are Even Repugnant To Themselves
...through their practice of placing sample resolutions before annual conferences, the IRD has had more than a chance to speak. As the Holston Annual Conference came within seven votes of approving the IRD's resolution to withdraw from the National Council of Churches (yes, I was there, and I saw the whole thing unfold), the IRD has a very powerful voice. It must be named and exposed. The future of the church is at stake.
If the IRD finds the practice of "marginalizing" other voices repugnant, perhaps it should take a long look at it's own methods of doing just that.
Also see:
Institute on Religion and Democracy
Washington Post
December 11, 2007
Matthew Lee
Glassman to Be Named to Outreach Post
DOW 36,000 author to replace Karen Hughes
President Bush intends to name former Washington Post columnist [and current American Enterprise Institute 'Fellow'] James K. Glassman to lead the State Department's struggling efforts to improve the United States' image abroad, replacing longtime Bush confidante Karen Hughes.
Also see:
Washington Monthly: How James Glassman reinvented journalism--as lobbying
Des Moines Register
December 3, 2007
William Petroski
Court: State can't pay for religious prison treatment
Appeals judge affirms order shutting Prison Fellowship Ministries in Iowa
...The treatment program, known as the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, has operated since October 1999 at the Newton prison under the sponsorship of Prison Fellowship Ministries. A total of 104 inmates currently participate in the program, spending 24 hours a day, seven days a week in work, counseling and prayer.
The program is now operating under a state agreement with Virginia-based Prison Fellowship in which expenses are covered by donations. However, the contract states that if the appeals court upheld a ruling by the district court, Iowa prison officials could shut down the program immediately.
Also see:
Earlier: Charles Colson's Christian-based prison project on trial in Iowa
Mercury Rising: And Another Scam Bites The Dust
ConWebWatch
November 20, 2007
Terry Krepel
Not-So-Special Reports
The Media Research Center's "special reports" purporting to demonstrate liberal media bias have holes big enough to drive misleading claims through.
With a name like the Media Research Center, you'd think the place would be doing a lot of, you know, research.
What passes for "research" at the MRC, however, is all too often slanted analyses designed to support its mission of demonstrating that the media has a liberal bias. It appears that MRC researchers begin with the conclusion and then find evidence to support it.
Also see:
Columbia Journalism Review
November 21, 2007
Michael Massing
The War Expert
Wrong, wrong, wrong again. But the media still want [Brookings'] Ken Pollack
"I was ... disappointed to see the [NY Times] allow Pollack back onto its op-ed page at all, given how often he’d been wrong in the past. Saddam had no nuclear weapons program. His regime had been contained. The inspectors were doing an effective job of investigating potential weapons sites. Mohamed ElBaradei’s assurances proved well founded. (As late as June 2003, Pollack, in another op-ed for the Times, assured us, as the headline put it, SADDAM’S BOMBS? WE’LL FIND THEM.)"
Also see:
Consortiumnews.com
November 16, 2007
Robert Parry
Bush's Clever Cognitive Dissonance
So, George W. Bush sees himself as the great defender of the U.S. Constitution.
George W. Bush has proven to be the master of cognitive dissonance, unblushingly asserting principles at odds with his actions. The President showed off his skills before the right-wing Federalist Society, presenting himself as the grand defender of the Constitution.
Also see:
Huffington Post
November 19, 2007
Cristóbal Joshua Alex
The Rise of the Federalist Society and the Erosion of Justice
About a quarter of Bush's early judicial appointments were recommended by the Washington headquarters of the Society. In 2005, 15 of the 41 federal appeals court judges who were confirmed by the Senate identified themselves as members of the Society. Half of the Justice Department lawyers hired for the Civil Rights division were members of the Society. Other notable Federalist Society appointments include John Ashcroft, Gale Norton, Ted Olson, Michael Chertoff, and Justices Scalia, Roberts and Thomas.
In fact, the court stacking has been so successful that last Friday the Society threw a great big party celebrating their 25 years of triumph. Speakers included President Bush along with Society members Justice Roberts and Justice Thomas. As usual, the Society members complained bitterly about "activist" judges over their fois gras.
Also see:
ThinkProgress.org
November 15, 2007
Bush Awards Hoover Institution Historian Who Downplayed Abu Ghraib, Said We Need To Bomb ‘Paper Tiger’ Iran
In an East Room ceremony this morning, President Bush awarded “the recipients of this year’s National Medals of Arts and National Humanities Medals.” Among the scholars and artists recognized by the President was military historian and author Victor Davis Hanson, who received the National Humanities Medal.
...Hanson, who is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a regular contributor to National Review Online...[recently] wrote that the “real problem” at Abu Ghraib wasn’t the “American mistreatment” — which he said was the work of a “single rogue jailer” — but the “serial release” of Iraqis, whom he calls “Islamic murderers.”
Also see:
ThinkProgress.org
November 13, 2007
Bush To Give Keynote Address Honoring Federalist Society’s 25th Anniversary
In 1982, conservative legal scholars such as Antonin Scalia and Robert Bork held the Federalist Society’s first National Student Symposium, launching an organization meant to advance the “rule of law.” This week, the organization will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a three-day convention, featuring speakers such as Clarence Thomas and John Yoo, along with Scalia, Olson, and Bork.
The Federalist Society has experienced a golden era under President Bush, who will, not surprisingly, be giving the keynote address at the organization’s black tie gala on Thursday.
Also see:
Previously: The Conservative Cabal That's Transforming American Law
Talk to Action
November 6, 2007
Frederick Clarkson
IRD Advisor to Be Nominated as U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican
I recently referenced Andrew Weaver's report of last year in Media Transparency, which detailed the role of neoconservative Catholics close to the Bush administration in the leadership of the Institute on Religion and Democracy...
...One of the Catholics Weaver cited in his article was Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon. The Associated Press reports that President Bush plans to nominate her to be U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican.
Also see:
Institute on Religion and Democracy
NY Times
November 8, 2007
Sam Dillon
Ohio's school report card gave more than half of the state's 328 charter schools a D or an F
Ohio Goes After Charter Schools That Are Failing
Ohio became a test tube for the nation’s charter school movement during a decade of Republican rule here, when a wide-open authorization system and plenty of government seed money led to the schools’ explosive proliferation.
But their record has been spotty. This year, the state’s school report card gave more than half of Ohio’s 328 charter schools a D or an F.
Also see:
Public School Privatization and Commercialization
Ezra Klein: When Charter Schools Attack
Salt Lake Tribune
November 7, 2007
Glen Warchol
Vouchers go down in crushing defeat
Vouchers' money man says Utahns 'don't care enough about their kids'
Voters decisively rejected the will of the Utah Legislature and governor Tuesday, defeating what would have been the nation's most comprehensive education voucher program in a referendum blowout.
"Tonight, with the eyes of the nation upon us, Utah has rejected this flawed voucher law," said state School Board Chairman Kim Burningham. "We believe this sends a clear message. It sends a message that Utahns believe in, and support, public schools."
More than 60 percent of voters were rejecting vouchers, with about 95 percent of the precincts reporting, according to unofficial results. The referendum failed in every county, including the conservative bastion of Utah County.
Also see:
Public School privatization and commercialization
NY Times
October 29, 2007
Paul Krugman
Fearing Fear Itself
Consider, for a moment, the implications of the fact that Rudy Giuliani is taking foreign policy advice from Norman Podhoretz, who wants us to start bombing Iran “as soon as it is logistically possible.”
Mr. Podhoretz, the editor of Commentary and a founding neoconservative, tells us that Iran is the “main center of the Islamofascist ideology against which we have been fighting since 9/11.” The Islamofascists, he tells us, are well on their way toward creating a world “shaped by their will and tailored to their wishes.” Indeed, “Already, some observers are warning that by the end of the 21st century the whole of Europe will be transformed into a place to which they give the name Eurabia.”
Do I have to point out that none of this makes a bit of sense?
Also see:
Ezra Klein
October 22, 2007
Was RAND Health Insurance Study Wrong?
News that there were serious methodological flaws in the RAND health insurance study is actually very, very important. The RAND health insurance study remains the source for almost all speculation about how individuals react to different types of health insurance. When we say that higher co-pays make people cut care indiscriminately, we're going off of their evidence. When some say that health outcomes weren't much better with no co-pays, they're going off of RAND's evidence. When HSA supporters say that higher co-pays didn't degrade health status at all, and thus we should cut insurance spending across the board, they're going off of RAND's evidence. The problem is, RAND's evidence may not have been very good...
Also see:
Talking Points Memo
October 22, 2007
Josh Marshall
Islamofascism
Did you know it was Islamofascism Awareness Week? And have you thought about what you're going to do to raise awareness about this concept the loss of which would be such a devastating blow to the vanity and intellectual pretensions of countless right-wing bloggers and editorialists throughout the English-speaking world?
Yes, it's Islamofascism Awareness Week, Oct. 22nd - 26th. So I'm afraid National Breast Cancer Awareness Month will have to step aside for a week. And, yes, perhaps needless to say this is yet another confection of David Horowitz.
Also see:
Washington Post
October 22, 2007
David Segal
Low Road to Splitsville
Right-Wing Publisher's Breakup Is Super-Rich In Tawdry Details
Looking for a perfect little weekend vacation this fall? Here's a travel tip you don't hear very often: Head to Pittsburgh. Right away.
...only Pittsburgh is the scene of the fabulously tawdry and surpassingly vicious spectacle that is the divorce of Richard Mellon Scaife.
...He's best known for funding efforts to smear then-President Bill Clinton, but more quietly he's given in excess of $300 million to right-leaning activists, watchdogs and think tanks. Atop his list of favorite donees: the family-values-focused Heritage Foundation, which has published papers with titles such as "Restoring a Culture of Marriage."
The culture of his own marriage is apparently past restoring. With the legal fight still in the weigh-in phase, the story of Scaife v. Scaife already includes a dog-snatching, an assault, a night in jail and that divorce court perennial, allegations of adultery.
Oh, and there's the money. Three words, people.
No. Pre. Nup.
Also see:
WaPo: The Line Forms on the Right: Scaife's Pet Causes
Richard Mellon Scaife's foundations
United Methodist Church
October 17, 2007
Linda Green
Kentucky Conference wins lawsuit with foundation
A seven-year legal battle between the United Methodist Kentucky Annual (regional) Conference and an affiliated foundation has ended in favor of the conference.
...The conference and the board of trustees of the Good Samaritan Foundation were battling for control of $20 million in assets resulting from the 1995 sale of Good Samaritan Hospital in Lexington, Ky.
...When the hospital sold to a for-profit company, the foundation ... placed those assets in an endowment fund providing $1 million a year in health-related grants.
In 2000, the foundation's board of trustees stopped reporting to the conference and said it was no longer affiliated with The United Methodist Church. The conference countered with a $20 million lawsuit, claiming ownership of the hospital at the time of its sale.
Also see:
Antiwar.com
October 16, 2007
Muhammad Sahimi
Norman Podhoretz's War Prayer
The June issue of Commentary featured a long article by Norman Podhoretz, the godfather of the neoconservatives, titled "The Case for Bombing Iran."
...Podhoretz's article is a blueprint for how to make people believe that Iran is "an imminent and present danger" to the United States and Israel without presenting any credible evidence whatsoever. It is replete with astonishing exaggerations, half-baked half-truths, out-of-context quotations, amazing exhibitions of ignorance and imbecility, and a complete lack of understanding of Islam and its teachings.
Also see:
Media Matters
October 15, 2007
Coulter: "I don't think most Jews are as stupid as Donny Deutsch"
On the October 11 broadcast of Steve Malzberg's WOR (New York) radio show, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter stood by her recent comment...that "we" Christians "just want Jews to be perfected." She made that statement on the October 8 edition of CNBC's The Big Idea, during which host Donny Deutsch later said, "I'm offended by that personally." On Malzberg's show, Coulter defended her remarks by saying that she had "stated the ... doctrine of Christianity," and that the idea that Christians "want Jews to be perfected" "comes from that raging anti-Semite St. Paul." She added: "I don't think most Jews are as stupid as Donny Deutsch," and later asked, referring to Deutsch, "Is that guy even bar mitzvahed?"
Also see:
Previously: My conversation with Ann Coulter
The Nation
October 10, 2007
Barbara Ehrenreich
John Templeton's Universe
John Templeton Jr., the president of the foundation, turns out to be one of the funders of Freedom's Watch, the new right-wing group that has been running pro-war commercials conflating Al Qaeda with whomever it is we're righting in Iraq. You may have seen the one in which a veteran complains that stopping the war now would render the loss of his legs meaningless, much like the universe itself.
Also see:
Freedom's Watch: Last stand for Bush's 'stay the course' crowd?
Think Progress
October 14, 2007
Juan Williams: Kristol Is Pushing For ‘The Next World War’
On Fox News Sunday, right-wing pundit Bill Kristol continued to beat the war drums for a strike against Iran. “I hope the administration is willing to do what it takes to back Iran off,” he said, adding that “we may need to do stuff across the border.”
NPR’s Mara Liasson claimed that the Bush administration could politically “withstand” an attack against Iran, and that a bombing raid inside Iran would not count as “an all-out war.”
NPR’s Juan Williams noted that Liasson and Kristol were in effect condoning “the next world war”...
Also see:
Media Matters
October 12, 2007
Liasson gave misleading report on NPR poll results, suggesting independents favor congressional Republicans
On the October 12 edition of National Public Radio's Morning Edition, while discussing a recent poll jointly conducted by both a Democratic and Republican polling firm for NPR, national political correspondent Mara Liasson attributed to the Republican pollster, Glen Bolger, the assertion that "[o]n the question of Congress, independents are siding with Republicans." However, in the comments following Liasson's attribution, Bolger made no such claim, nor does the poll itself support such a conclusion.
Also see:
ConWebWatch
October 11, 2007
Terry Krepel
Bozell Lies About the Competition
Brent Bozell, in his Oct. 9 column, takes another swipe at the competition, Media Matters (my employer), falsely claiming that it's "George Soros-funded." It's not. Of course, Bozell doesn't have much to say about who pays his salary. (Bonus: Learn how much Bozell and Co. make!)
Also see:
Carpetbagger Report
October 9, 2007
Steve Bennen
Dobson tells Hannity he’s ready to bolt the GOP
Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, whose 2008 plans are suddenly very important to the Republican establishment, was on Fox News last night, giving Sean Hannity a chance to beg him to stay within the GOP fold, even if Rudy Giuliani is the Republican nominee.
...Dobson concluded, “If Rudy Giuliani wins, I’m telling you, the pro-life and pro-family movement is over. It is gone. If it’s Hillary, as bad as she is, there will be a mobilization to fight what she’s trying to do. If he is put in office by conservatives, and those who are pro-life and pro-marriage and pro-family, I’m afraid we will not recover from it.”
Also see:
Steve Clemons
October 9, 2007
How Many Wars Will Bill Kristol Hatch?
Yes, Kristol wants to bomb Iran. He wouldn't mind taking out Syria in the process. But like John Bolton, Bill Kristol seems ready and willing to propose any number of new wars.
Now, he wants America to attack Burma. This creates a false dichotomy that should be speared to death.
Also see:
NY Times
October 5, 2007
Paul Krugman
Conservatives Are Such Jokers
...In anticipation of the [SCHIP] veto, William Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard, had this to say: “First of all, whenever I hear anything described as a heartless assault on our children, I tend to think it’s a good idea. I’m happy that the president’s willing to do something bad for the kids.” Heh-heh-heh.
Most conservatives are more careful than Mr. Kristol. They try to preserve the appearance that they really do care about those less fortunate than themselves. But the truth is that they aren’t bothered by the fact that almost nine million children in America lack health insurance. They don’t think it’s a problem.
...modern movement conservatism attracts a certain personality type. If you identify with the downtrodden, even a little, you don’t belong. If you think ridicule is an appropriate response to other peoples’ woes, you fit right in.
Also see:
The Strategic Philanthropy of Conservative Foundations
ConWebWatch
October 3, 2007
Terry Krepel
The MRC's Smear Factory
The Media Research Center defended Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh by attacking its liberal counterpart, Media Matters, as a "left-wing smear machine." But the MRC has its own long history of smears
At the center of the controversy are two Media Matters items depicting controversial remarks: O'Reilly saying of his visit to Harlem restaurant Sylvia's, "I couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship"; and Limbaugh apparently calling members of the military who advocate withdrawal from Iraq "phony soldiers."
Also see:
NY Times (Op-ed)
October 3, 2007
Diane Ravitch
Get Congress Out of the Classroom
DESPITE the rosy claims of the Bush administration, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 is fundamentally flawed. The latest national tests, released last week, show that academic gains since 2003 have been modest, less even than those posted in the years before the law was put in place. In eighth-grade reading, there have been no gains at all since 1998.
The main goal of the law — that all children in the United States will be proficient in reading and mathematics by 2014 — is simply unattainable. The primary strategy — to test all children in those subjects in grades three through eight every year — has unleashed an unhealthy obsession with standardized testing that has reduced the time available for teaching other important subjects.
Also see:
Public School Privatization and Commercialization
NY Times
October 2, 2007
Paul Krugman
And now they notice?
...fiscal irresponsibility has been not just a characteristic, but a principle, of movement conservatism since the 1970s. Here’s Irving Kristol, explaining why neoconservatives turned to supply-side economics in the 1970s...:
"...The task, as I saw it, was to create a new majority, which evidently would mean a conservative majority, which came to mean, in turn, a Republican majority - so political effectiveness was the priority, not the accounting deficiencies of government.”
Also see:
Talk to Action
September 30, 2007
Frank Cocozzelli
Michael Novak's Ethics of Buccaneer Capitalism
...Today, prominent among the defenders of buccaneer capitalism that exploits the poorest people of God, and yet still enjoy status as "friends of the Church," stands Michael Novak, who may help catalyze the very apostasy Rev. Parsons warned of. If, as Pope John Paul II declared, that the Church has a "preferential option for the poor," one would be hard to find it expressed in the works of Michael Novak.
...Novak pays lip service to such concepts as labor laws -- but when the rubber meets the road he excuses the sins of the rich and powerful at the expense of the common man.
Also see:
The Economic Religion of Michael Novak
New York Times
September 30, 2007
Don Van Natta, Jr.
Big Coffers and a Rising Voice Lift a New Conservative Group
...the impetus for Freedom’s Watch “came out of A.E.I.” last winter
Freedom’s Watch, a deep-pocketed conservative group led by two former senior White House officials, made an audacious debut in late August when it began a $15 million advertising campaign designed to maintain Congressional support for President Bush’s troop increase in Iraq.
...Although the group declined to identify the experts, several were invited from the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington research group with close ties to the White House. Some institute scholars have advocated a more confrontational policy to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, including keeping military action as an option.
...John M. Templeton Jr. is one of the group's founders.
Also see:
Previously: Freedom's Watch: Last stand for Bush's 'stay the course' crowd?
Los Angeles Times
September 28, 2007
Dan Morain
GOP electoral initiative dealt major blows
Two key consultants for an effort to change California's winner-take-all system quit over money and disclosure woes.
A proposed California initiative campaign that could have helped Republicans hold on to the White House in 2008 was a shambles Thursday night, as two of its key consultants quit.
Unable to raise sufficient money and angered over a lack of disclosure by its one large donor, veteran political law attorney Thomas Hiltachk, who drafted the measure, said he was resigning from the committee.
Hiltachk's departure is a major blow to the operation because he organized other consultants who had set about trying to raise money and gather signatures for the initiative. Campaign spokesman Kevin Eckery said he was ending his role as well.
Also see:
Previously: Republicans trying to split California Electoral Vote
pages 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
MEDIA TRANSPARENCY
Newsletter
Sign-up for our newsletter
Register
Only registered visitors are allowed to email content or post comments
Fundometer
Evaluate any page on the World Wide Web against our databases of people, recipients, and funders of the conservative movement.
Support Media Transparency
Your help is essential to this website