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GOOD NEWS
The House of Representatives voted Tuesday to increase the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's budget to help the auto industry improve fuel economy standards.
STATE WATCHILLINOIS: "Payroll records containing Social Security numbers of government workers were found in a state recycling Dumpster accessible to the public."
MINNESOTA: Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) signs a bill requiring the state to purchase "plug-in hybrids on a preferred basis when they become available."
MISSOURI: State passes a voter ID law.
BLOG WATCHTHINK PROGRESS: President Bush to legally blind reporter: "Are you going to ask that question with shades on?"
TPM MUCKRAKER: Reps. John Lewis (D-GA), Charlie Rangel (D-NY) break with Congressional Black Caucus's stand on alleged bribe recipient Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA).
CARPETBAGGER REPORT: Flag burning amendment one vote away from passage.
SUNLIGHT FOUNDATION: Questions raised over property House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) purchased next to a new freeway that he funded through earmarks.
DAILY GRILL"The massive Dickey-Lincoln Dam, a $227 million hydroelectric project proposed on upper St. John River in Maine, was halted by the discovery of the Furbish lousewort, a plant previously believed to be extinct."
-- Ann Coulter, in her new book "Godless"
VERSUS
"The massive Dickey-Lincoln Dam, a $227 million hydroelectric project proposed on upper St. John River, is halted by the discovery of the Furbish lousewort, a plant believed to be extinct."
-- Portland Press Herald, 1/1/00
More instances of plagiarism here, here, and here.
ARCHIVESProgress Report
STUDENTS
Politics with an Attitude: Everyone from Barack Obama to Stephen Colbert talks to Campus Progress. Right-wingers seem scared of us. Find out why here.
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by Judd Legum, Faiz Shakir, Nico Pitney
Amanda Terkel and Payson Schwin
STATE WATCH
The Ballot Battles
"For more than two decades," conservatives "have used ballot initiatives to create wedge issues and whip up excitement among core voters," while progressives "remained largely on the defensive." In 2004, conservatives effectively mobilized their supporters with anti-gay marriage ballot initiatives. "Several academic studies have shown," the Wall Street Journal reports, "that ballot initiatives can be particularly effective in midterm elections, when they can boost turnout as much as eight percentage points." Progressive priorities like raising the minimum wage and supporting stem cell research enjoy wide popular support, and their presence on state ballots can advance progressive priorities. In the coming months, The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org will focus on dozens of ballot initiatives across the country, on issues such as the minimum wage, energy, stem cells, and abortion. Below are some of the issues on which progressives will take the initiative.
MINIMUM WAGE INCREASES: A Pew Research poll found that 83 percent of Americans favor increasing the federal minimum wage from $5.15 an hour (where it's been stuck since 1997) to $7.15 an hour. Forty-nine percent of Americans say they "strongly support" such an increase; the issue "receives widespread support from both Republicans and Democrats, wealthy and poor." The right wing knows this, and in states like Arkansas and Michigan, it has been able to avoid ballot showdowns by passing increases through the standard legislative process. But in states such as Arizona, California, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Ohio, voters will have the opportunity to join 18 states (along with the District of Columbia) who have raised their minimum wage above the federal level. Progressives in these ballot states will have to beat back myths propagated by conservatives, who have argued that a raise hurts small businesses, creates job losses, and only benefits teenagers. In fact, the evidence points in the other direction. First, small businesses benefit from a higher minimum wage. A report by the Center for American Progress and Policy Matters Ohio found that the "11 states with a minimum wage above the federal minimum of $5.15 per hour had higher rates of small business growth between 1997 and 2003." Second, a raise would not increase unemployment. A 1998 Economic Policy Institute report found that unemployment and poverty rates fell after the 1997 increase in the federal minimum wage, and economists David Card and Alan Krueger found that increases in the minimum wage in various states in the late 1980s and early 1990s did not result in increased unemployment. Finally, a minimum wage increase would help people besides teenagers working their first job. Thirty-five percent of minimum wage workers are their family's sole earner, and 61 percent of these workers are women.
ALTERNATIVE ENERGY DEVELOPMENT: In November, Californians will have the opportunity to vote for the Clean Alternative Energy Initiative, a ballot measure that would "impose a wellhead tax on oil companies operating in California and divert the money" to finance programs to reduce California's oil dependence by 25 percent over 10 years. The initiative would generate several hundred million dollars annually and "stay in effect until the state collects $4 billion." That revenue would fund "$2.3 billion in loans for the purchase of alternative-fuel vehicles, $1.1 billion in renewable energy and conservation research at the state's universities and $400 million to offset startup costs at alternative energy ventures." Californian will have the opportunity to become the first state to commit to beating the oil addiction. The initiative will be fighting against the deep pockets of the highly profitable Big Oil companies. Three oil companies in particular have "led the way" in funding opposition to the initiative: California-based Chevron Corp. and Occidental Petroleum, and Aera Energy LLP, "a partnership jointly owned by oil giants Exxon Mobil and Shell." Chevron alone has already contributed $3.7 million to the effort to defeat the initiative. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has been trying to "tout his environmental credentials" and has advocated the need for leadership on alternative fuel development, has opposed the measure. "The oil industry has contributed about $1.7 million to the governor's campaign accounts, with nearly $600,000 of that coming from Chevron Corp. alone, state records show."
STEM CELL RESEARCH: In Missouri, a ballot initiative will allow voters to decide whether to allow stem cell research and stem cell therapies permitted by federal law. The initiative would also create oversight mechanisms to ensure the research proceeds ethically and outlaws human cloning. If stem cell research yields effective treatments, millions of Missourians would stand to benefit from stem cell therapies, including those with spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease, Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS), and diabetes. According to a recent survey conducted by a conservative pollster, 56 percent of Missourians approve of stem cell research, while only 24 percent disapprove, and 71 percent approve of therapeutic cloning. Gov. Matt Blunt (R) and former Sen. John Danforth (R) have backed the proposed ballot initiative. "My entire political career, I voted pro-life, and that is exactly why I favor the stem cell initiative," said Danforth, an Episcopal minister and former U.N. ambassador. "I believe in saving human life. I want cures to be found." Jeffrey McCaffrey, a former U.S. Air Force Academy cadet "who suffered a spinal cord injury four years ago and is now a student organizer of a pro-stem cell campaign in Missouri, said, "This is a moral obligation we must fulfill." In order to lead to actual cures for Missouri citizens, the federal government needs to end its restrictive funding policy and adequately support stem cell research.
OVERTURNING ABORTION BAN: Voters in South Dakota will be given the opportunity to overturn the "strictest abortion ban in the nation." In March, Gov. Mike Rounds (R) signed legislation to ban the procedure, even in cases of rape or incest. The law, which was slated to take effect on July 1, targets doctors in South Dakota by making it a felony for them to perform any abortion, except to save the life of a pregnant woman. South Dakota Campaign for healthy families filed a petition on May 30 to put the decision to the voters with more than 37,000 signatures when they only needed 16,728. Once the signatures are validates, the abortion ban will be suspended pending the outcome of the November election. After the law was signed, a survey by state polling firm Robinson & Muenster reported 57 percent were opposed to the law, while 35 percent supported it.
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Under the Radar
TAXES -- GROUP OF SENATE DEMOCRATS DISCUSS PLANS TO INCREASE DEFICIT AND PASS TAX CUT FOR ULTRA-RICH: A small group of Senate Democrats -- including Sens. Dianne Feinstein (CA), Patty Murray (WA), Evan Bayh (IN), Ken Salazar (CO), Mark Pryor (AK), and Maria Cantwell (WA) -- held a strategy meeting yesterday to discuss rolling back the estate tax (aka, The Paris Hilton Tax) on the ultra-rich. A full repeal of the estate tax, long sought by congressional conservatives, has repeatedly been blocked in the Senate. But a "compromise" bill that can garner even a few extra votes may be able to pass. Yesterday's meeting "did not produce a consensus" on a compromise, CongressDaily reports, "even though some senators said they want to keep talking." Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) "said a compromise offered by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., might be the basis for a deal that could gain enough Democratic support to pass -- with some further changes." As it stands, Kyl's estate tax legislation would cost $275 billion over the next 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, and over $600 billion from 2012-21, reports the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
MEDIA -- NEWSPAPER FALSELY CLAIMS BUSH CAN CUT DEFICIT IN HALF IN 2006: On Monday, Investor's Business Daily reported, "President Bush may make good on his pledge to cut the deficit in half in 2006 -- three years early." Right-wing bloggers yesterday were cheering the article and attributing the success to Bush's tax cuts. But it's unclear how the paper can back up its claim, since even by accepting the most optimistic predictions, the deficit will not be cut in half. The article asserts that the deficit for this year may end up being $270 billion, or 2.1 percent of GDP. Even accepting that optimistic assessment, the 2004 deficit was $412 billion -- 3.5 percent -- of GDP. That is not cutting the deficit in half. The White House projected a deficit of $512 billion for 2004, but that never happened. At the time, budget experts warned the number was inflated for political purposes. Additionally, the budgetary outlook for 2006 has degraded by about $800 billion since Bush took office. In Jan. 2001, the Congressional Budget Office predicted a $505 billion surplus for 2006. The optimistic deficit number pushed by Investor's Business Daily is still $775 billion worse.
TERRORISM -- ADMINISTRATION MOVES TO 'PLAN B' IN SOMALIA: Last month, news reports revealed that the Bush administration was "secretly supporting secular warlords" in Somalia against Islamic militias as a way to "crack down on terrorism" in East Africa. Some of these secular warlords "reportedly fought against the United States in 1993." The Islamic groups have since taken Mogadishu and are "consolidating their hold over a large swath of Somalia." Some American officials believe our actions "thwarted counterterrorism efforts inside Somalia and empowered the same Islamic groups it was intended to marginalize." Having seen its policy fail, the administration is now "preparing for a more diplomatic kind of intervention." The Christian Science Monitor reported that today the U.S. "will initiate a 'Somalia contact group' of interested countries and organizations to begin deliberating on how the international community can help stabilize what experts consider to be a 'failed state.'" Analysts said the new "tone suggests a carefully revised US position on Somalia" and "the broader lesson...may be that instead of rejecting Islamist political groups outright, the US will have to do more to differentiate friend from foe within Islamist political movements." "It sounds like Plan A didn’t work, so we’d better try Plan B," said former U.S. ambassador to Somalia Jim Bishop. "Of course, we want stability and we don’t want to see a terrorist haven there, but discussion and finding a compromise is better than Plan A."
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Think Fast
The Pentagon reports the U.S. military death toll in Iraq has reached 2,500.
From 2000-2005, the 10 members of the House Ethics Committee and their aides "accepted about 400 such trips valued at nearly $1 million," according to a new Center for Public Integrity Report. (The lawmakers spent the majority of the money.)
President Bush today "will create the world's largest marine protected area," a wildlife-rich collection of reefs and atolls around northern Hawaii that "will be larger than all of America's national parks combined." The decision "is a turnaround for the administration, which five years ago considered stripping more limited protections from the area."
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) has been investigating "why FDA officials approved the sale of the antibiotic Ketek even after the government learned safety tests on the drug had been forged." Yesterday federal health officials refused to give the senator information on the drug. "I smell a cover-up," said Grassley.
"Emergency medical care in the United States is on the verge of collapse, with the nation's declining number of emergency rooms dangerously overcrowded and often unable to provide the expertise needed to treat seriously ill people in a safe and efficient manner," three new reports from the Institute of Medicine show.
“To me, the administration does not act like there’s a war going on,” Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest (R-MD) said yesterday. “The Congress certainly doesn't act like there’s a war going on. If you’re raising money to keep the majority, if you're thinking about gay marriage, if you’re doing all this other peripheral stuff, what does that say to the guy who's about ready to drive over a land mine?”
Yesterday, the Senate voted unanimously to “force President George W. Bush to submit a budget for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars instead of financing them in emergency bills that are pushed through Congress with minimal scrutiny.”
George Washington University's National Security Archive is suing the CIA over its "recent practice of charging Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) fees to journalists pursuing news." Though journalists are supposed to be charged only copying fees, the CIA last year began charging additional fees if it felt the journalist's request was "not newsworthy enough."
And finally: A landmark victory for all American potbellied pig owners. The Colorado Springs City Council “has voted to allow potbellied pigs within the city limits in a 5-4 decision that came after a woman challenged a century-old swine ban in one of the state's biggest cities.” Chrystal McEntee, who fought for the change said, "I'm going to go home and celebrate with my family."
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