Blog Profile / The Wonk Room
| URL : | http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | US Politics / Liberal | |
| Posts on Regator: | 18594 | |
| Posts / Week: | 72.3 | |
| Archived Since: | June 13, 2008 | |
Blog Post Archive
U.S. State Department Condemns Anti-LGBT Police Raids In Zimbabwe
Earlier this week, more than 20 Zimbabwean police officers raided the office of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ), claiming they were looking for undisclosed “data.” This was the latest in a series of police crackdowns on the LGBT organization, which have included unwarranted arrests and beatings. On at least one occasion, police officers were [...]
Paul Ryan Holds Event Criticizing The Military Spending Sequester He Voted For
At a round table discussion in North Carolina Thursday, vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan tried to pin the blame for the budget sequester squarely on the shoulders of President Obama, despite the fact that Ryan himself voted in favor of the sequester. The bill triggers automatic spending cuts to a variety of government programs including [...]
NYPD Muslim Spying Program Only Uncovers Complaints About Anti-Muslim Discrimination
Despite the fact that the New York Police Department’s controversial Muslim spying program has failed to yield any productive leads — and is in fact having a negative impact by fostering distrust between NYPD officials and members of the Muslim community — members of the police force continue to attempt to justify it. As Mother [...]
GOP Congressman: Make Buying Insurance Just Like Buying A Lawnmower
Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) wants Americans to be able to buy insurance the same way they buy lawnmowers — without government regulation. In a radio interview with WIXK’s Jeff Patterson, the freshman congressman said consumers know exactly what they’re going to spend when they buy a lawnmower, but they have “no clue” what they would [...]
Fox News Publishes Name Of SEAL Who Led Bin Laden Raid
Fox News today published the name of a U.S. Navy SEAL who led the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan last year that ended up in the al-Qaeda leader’s death. The SEAL under the pseudonym Mark Owen is the author of a book set to be released on Sept. 11 detailing the events [...]
Half Of Home Borrowers Under Age 40 Are Underwater On Their Mortgage
The percentage of Americans who owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth fell last month as home prices rose, but younger borrowers are still struggling to keep up on their loans. Among borrowers under age 40, 48 percent are underwater on their mortgage, twice the rate of older borrowers, according to a [...]
Poll: Republicans Strongly Dislike Muslims
57 percent of Republicans hold strongly negative views of Muslims, according to a poll released today by the Arab American Institute. Just 26 percent hold favorable views of Muslims, while Arabs are equally unpopular among Republicans — 53 percent negative versus 27 positive. The numbers improved slightly when asked about “Muslim Americans” and “Arab Americans.” [...]
African-American College Student Allegedly Brutalized By Police For Skateboarding On Wrong Side Of Road
Hundreds of people gathered in Los Angeles Wednesday night to protest the apparent police beating of twenty year-old Ronald Weekley Jr., a young black skateboarder who alleges that Los Angeles police used excessive force when they caught him skateboarding on the wrong side of the street. Weekley, who reportedly emerged from jail this week with [...]
Romney’s Opposition To Wind Tax Credit May Become A Political Liability In Iowa: ‘This Is A Very Big Deal For Us’
Chaz Miller is the exact type of voter that Mitt Romney and Barack Obama would love to win over in the fall. A registered Independent, Miller’s political views range across the political spectrum. As a moderate fiscal conservative, he’s concerned about some of the spending measures proposed by Democrats. As a moderate on social issues, [...]
T. Boone Pickens Blasts Romney’s Energy Plan: ‘All They Talk About Is Oil’
Mitt Romney’s new energy plan amounts to “drill, baby drill” on America’s public lands and shores. His vision for energy follows that of his oil donors and chief energy adviser, shale oil baron Harold Hamm. Meanwhile, it neglects other sources of American energy, especially the growing wind and solar industries: The League of Conservation Voters [...]
U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Creates Special Iran Team
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, announced today that it has set up a special unit that deals specifically with Iran and its nuclear program. Diplomats told the Associated Press that the team will bring together “sleuths in weapons technology, intelligence analysis, radiation and other fields of expertise.” The AP reports that [...]
STUDY: Middle Class Suffered ‘Worst Decade In Modern History’ As Wages Stagnated, Share Of Income Fell
The middle class is shrinking, and so is its share of America’s income and wage growth, according to a new study released Thursday. The study from the Pew Research Center found that the middle class — defined as Americans with incomes between $39,000 and $118,000 — fell backward in income for the first time since [...]
From Kat Dennings to Gwyneth Paltrow, Marvel and the Screwball Tradition
I was happy to hear yesterday that Kat Dennings will be back in Thor 2, and that apparently, her role, as a research assistant to Jane Foster (Natalie Portman, absent from The Avengers) and Dr. Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard), will be expanded. While I’ll never give up on wanting female superheroines to get equal billing in [...]
U.S. Officials Unaware Of Navy SEAL’s Book Recounting Bin Laden Raid
The New York Times reported yesterday that a U.S. Navy SEAL who led the special operations team that raided Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan last year has written a book describing the events in detail. The existence of the book, which is titled “No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed [...]
Understanding The ‘Extremes’ In The Culture War Debates
The Religious Right regularly complains that they are the victims because their hegemonic control over society is being challenged, as perhaps exemplified by the new campaign against the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “hate group” label. But a simple chart posted on the Atheism Reddit distinguishes what campaigns against the rights of conservatives would actually look [...]
Why Missouri’s Students Might Believe Todd Akin’s Junk Science
Addressing the controversy surrounding Rep. Todd Akin’s (R-MO) offensive comments that “legitimate rape” doesn’t lead to pregnancy, President Obama joked last night at a fundraiser that the Missouri Senate candidate must have “somehow...Show More Summary
Citigroup CEO: Supermarket Banking ‘A Strategy That I Don’t Believe Is Right For The Times’
In the late 1990s, Citicorp made waves on Wall Street by pioneering what is known as “supermarket banking” — the idea that financial institutions could provide a host of services, including stock trading, real estate brokerage, and insurance, in addition to traditional deposit banking. Citicorp, led by chief executive Sanford Weill, purchased insurance giant Travelers [...]
New Hampshire Sheriff Candidate Says Deadly Force Is Acceptable To Stop Abortions
A Republican running for county sheriff in New Hampshire is facing calls to leave the race after he suggested it is acceptable to use deadly force to stop a doctor from performing an abortion. He has since apologized for his comments, calling them “unacceptable,” but has made no indication that he will drop out. In [...]
Behind The Scenes At The Dan Savage/Brian Brown Marriage Debate
The New York Times’ Mark Oppenheimer has written about his own perspective as moderator of the Dinner Table Debate between Dan Savage and the National Organization for Marriage’s Brian Brown. It seems that both Brown and Savage, as well as Savage’s partner Terry Miller, found the debate to be unproductive: MILLER: Brian’s heartless readings of the [...]
‘Chicago 8? and the Silencing of Bobby Seale Make It To Theaters
Our pop culture loves talking about the music of the sixties of the Vietnam War, but tends to be exceedingly uncomfortable talking in a substantive way about sixties radicalism, which is too bad, given the impact it has on our political discourse. There are documentaries like The Weather Underground, of course, but scripted explorations of [...]