Blog Profile / The Wonk Room
| URL : | http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | US Politics / Liberal | |
| Posts on Regator: | 18594 | |
| Posts / Week: | 72.2 | |
| Archived Since: | June 13, 2008 | |
Blog Post Archive
National Security Brief: First Lady Announces Jobs For Vets
– First lady Michelle Obama announced yesterday that 2,000 businesses around the country have hired or trained more than 125,000 military veterans and spouses in the past year, exceeding a White House goal of 100,000 by the end of next year. – The Afghan government has blamed foreign spy agencies for the so-called “green on [...]
REPORT: Florida Republican Congressman Secretly Funded ‘Democratic’ Primary Candidate’s Campaign
Since he was elected in 2010, Rep. David Rivera (R-FL) has been under an ethics cloud. Already facing federal and state investigations, a new Miami Herald report suggests Rivera may have secretly made illegal cash payments to vendors for a primary candidate running against the Democratic Party’s favored candidate to oppose him in his re-election [...]
Mitt Romney to Anti-Abortion Doctor Behind Akin’s ‘Legitimate Rape’ Claim: ‘We Agree On Almost Everything’
Even as Republicans try to distance themselves from Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) and his explosive comments about “legitimate rape,” more evidence has emerged linking Mitt Romney himself to the controversial doctor and anti-abortion activist behind Akin’s discredited claim that rape does not often result in pregnancy. Dr. John Willke, one of the founders of the [...]
Nuns On The Bus Tour Stops In New York To Protest ‘Devastating Romney-Ryan Budget’
The Nuns On A Bus tour that made stops at 10 congressional offices in nine states in July is back on the road protesting the House Republican budget’s damaging cuts to programs that benefit the poor and middle class. The tour, comprised this time of a different set of faith leaders and community action groups, [...]
GOP Climate Deniers Hold Convention In Tampa, But Mayor Warns He’s ‘Prepared To Call It Off’ If Hurricane Isaac Hits
Perhaps the largest convention of climate science deniers in history — otherwise known as the Republican National Convention — starts Monday in Tampa, Florida. Unfortunately for the GOP, they are in the bulls-eye of the latest track for tropical storm Isaac: Even worse, Tampa Bay has unique geography that puts it at the top of [...]
CNN Host Schools Romney Campaign Chair Over False Welfare Reform Attacks
Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign has flooded the airwaves with advertisements criticizing the Obama administration’s changes to the 1996 welfare reform law, accusing the administration of “gutting welfare reform” and removing the work requirements the law mandates. Show More Summary
Another Ohio County Calls For Weekend Voting Hours
Following Montgomery and Mahoning counties, Ohio’s Medina County is seeking a way around Secretary of State Jon Husted’s directive banning early voting on weekends. The board of elections voted to ask Husted to modify the directive to allow early voting on Saturdays leading up to November 6. While Montgomery and Mahoning simply voted to hold [...]
A Tale Of Two Ads: How Karl Rove’s Latest Attacks On Tim Kaine Totally Contradict Each Other
As part of its latest round of secret-money attack ads, Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS is running a highly misleading and hypocritical attack spot hitting Democratic Senate nominee and former Gov. Tim Kaine (D-VA). The ad, entitled “Cost,” slams Kaine for a comment he made last month that the bipartisan Budget Control Act of 2011 “was [...]
India: Forget The Centralized Grid, Community Power Is Here
by Justin Guay, via Sierra Club Just days after the historic blackout reminded us that centralized coal is the problem, not the solution to India’s energy woes, a new era of entrepreneurs marked the beginning of a truly revolutionary effort to deliver energy access. The landmark deal that marked their arrival was lost amidst the [...]
Texas Judge: An Obama-Led United Nations Invasion Of Lubbock, Texas Is Only The ‘Worst Case Scenario’
Earlier today, ThinkProgress reported that Texas Judge Tom Head told a local television station that President Obama would turn over American “sovereignty” to the United Nations if reelected, that Obama’s actions would potentially trigger...Show More Summary
Expanding Access To Food Stamps Could Help Combat HIV Epidemic
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco suggest that ensuring access to nutritious food — particularly through increased levels of participation in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a government assistance program that provides low-income Americans with food aid — should be a priority in the fight against the HIV epidemic. A new UCSF study [...]
Study: Elected Judges Hand Down Harsher Sentences Closer To An Election
A study by Loyola law Professor Carlos Berdejó and Berkeley business Professor Noam Yuchtman finds that elected judges in Washington state hand down demonstrably higher sentences during the lead up to their reelection bid, and that this spike in sentences drops shortly after the election is over: According to the Wall Street Journal, “the authors [...]
Senate Candidate Linda Lingle Vetoed A Bill Requiring Hospitals To Provide Rape Victims Contraception
As part of her effort to frame herself as a moderate, Hawaii’s Republican candidate for senate, former Gov. Linda Lingle, ran as far as possible from Rep. Todd Akin’s (R-MO) “legitimate rape” comments this weekend, calling his assertion that women can’t get pregnant from rape “deplorable.” But Lingle’s own record is not dissimilar from Akin’s [...]
Joe Paterno and the Dangers of Old-Fashioned Values
I haven’t read Joe Posnanski’s entire biography of Joe Paterno yet, but I was really struck by this section of the excerpt published in GQ: On Monday, the family tried to persuade Paterno to read the presentment. He objected that he already knew what was in there, but they told him there was no room [...]
Welfare Reform’s 16th Birthday Is Anything But Sweet
Our guest blogger is Melissa Boteach, director of Poverty to Prosperity at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Sixteen years ago today President Clinton signed the law that did away with guaranteed income assistance for poor families with children and replaced it with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). It was a watershed moment [...]
Ryan Refuses To Say Abortions Should Be Available To Women Who Are Raped
This morning, Rep. Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin (R-MO) reveled that GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan urged him to drop out of his U.S. Senate race after Akin became a liability to Republicans nationally. Yet Ryan’s attempt to stick a knife into the increasingly toxic senate candidate cannot be squared with Ryan’s long record of [...]
The Morning Pride: August 22, 2012
Welcome to The Morning Pride, ThinkProgress LGBT’s daily round-up of the latest in LGBT policy, politics, and some culture too! Here’s what we’re reading this morning, but please let us know what stories you’re following as well. Follow us all day on Twitter at @TPEquality. - When will the military’s assessment of transgender health catch [...]
Two Congressmen To Donate Akin Leadership PAC Contributions To Charity, Others Silent
Over the past 48 hours, a wide array of Republican politicians and activists have condemned Missouri Republican Senate nominee Rep. Todd Akin’s Sunday comments that “legitimate rape” rarely produces pregnancy and/or suggested he withdraw from the race. Two Congressmen who had received contributions from Akin’s Takin Back America leadership PAC — Reps. Denny Rehberg (R-MT) [...]
Report: Elderly Americans Are Living Longer, Healthier
According to a government report about the well-being of older Americans, today’s 65-year-olds can expect to live longer — to age 85, compared to 79 in 1980 — and healthier than previous generations. Deaths from heart disease and stroke have dropped almost 50 percent, which has helped to increase the average life expectancy for Americans. [...]
The Wall Street Journal Does It Again: Another Whopper Of A Lie On Climate Science
by Dana Nucitelli, via Skeptical Science Readers may recall a letter published in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in January 2012, signed by 16 climate contrarians, which we dubbed The Latest Denialist Plea for Climate Change Inaction. Roger Cohen, William Happer, and Richard Lindzen (hereafter CHL) were 3 of the 16 signatories on that letter, and [...]