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Who Runs the Presidential Debates?
Last week the Commission on Presidential Debates named the moderators for the scheduled presidential and vice presidential debates. While some criticized the lack of ethnic diversity and other aspects of the debates, largely unexamined is the group that sponsors the debates. George Farah is executive director of Open Debates and author of the book No…
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Questions About Sweden’s Actions in Assange Case
Jonathan Schwarz is a researcher and producer for Michael Moore’s Dog Eat Dog Films. Michael Moore and Oliver Stone write in their Tuesday New York Times op-ed, “WikiLeaks and Free Speech,” that: “Mr. Assange has also committed to traveling to Sweden immediately if the Swedish government pledges that it will not extradite him to the…
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Beyond Akin’s Rape Comment: The Republican Platform
Jodi Jacobson is president and editor-in-chief for RH Reality Check. She just wrote the piece “As Romney and Ryan Dissemble, RNC Prepares Radical Anti-Choice Platform Based on Personhood,” which states: “As of today, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan may find themselves in a wee bit of a bind. “For the past two days, the pair…
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“Big Oil and Energy Traders Manipulating Consumers”
Antonia Juhasz is an oil and energy analyst, author and journalist. Her books on the oil industry include The Tyranny of Oil. She is an investigative journalism fellow at the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. The Los Angeles Times recently published an op-ed of hers on the Chevron refinery fire. Juhasz said…
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TANF at 16: The Failure of Welfare “Reform”
Tim Casey is senior staff attorney with Legal Momentum, “the nation’s oldest legal defense and education fund dedicated to advancing the rights of all women and girls.” He said today: “Temporary Assistance for Needy Families has been a disaster for poor parents and kids. Under TANF, the enrollment rate has declined from 79 percent to…
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“Cover-Up of Civilian Drone Deaths Revealed by New Evidence”
Reuters reports: “A flurry of drone attacks pounded northern Pakistan at the weekend, killing 13 people in three separate attacks, officials and witnesses said on Sunday. The attacks came as Pakistanis celebrate the end of the holy month of Ramadan with the festival of Eid al-Fitr.” AP reports: “The U.S. military’s top general met with…
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Voter-ID Election Fraud Found “Virtually Non-Existent”
Even as Pennsylvania became the latest state to uphold a restrictive voter ID law, a News21 analysis of 2,068 alleged election-fraud cases since 2000 shows that while fraud has occurred, the rate is infinitesimal, and in-person voter impersonation on Election Day is virtually non-existent. News21 is a Carnegie-Knight project featuring journalism students from across the…
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“Three Basic Questions” the Media Should be Asking in Assange Asylum Case
ROBERT NAIMAN, naiman at justforeignpolicy.org, www.justforeignpolicy.org Robert Naiman is policy director of Just Foreign Policy. The group organized and delivered this appeal signed by prominent Americans urging Ecuador to accept Julian Assange’s asylum request in late June. Naiman said today: “As Americans who appealed to Ecuador to grant Julian Assange’s request for political asylum from…
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Romney Campaign’s Claims About Paul Ryan’s Stock Trade Inconsistent with Disclosure Form
At a meeting with Congressional leaders on September 18, 2008, then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke famously broke the news to leaders of Congress that they would have to approve a giant bank bailout to avert a meltdown of the financial system. Since last weekend, reports have circulated that Congressman…
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Romney “Tax Issues Cheat Sheet” Released
LEE SHEPPARD, via Wendy Harris, Wendy_Harris at tax.org Available for a limited number of interviews, Sheppard is a contributing editor at Tax Analysts, an influential provider of tax news and analysis. She just published Your Mitt Romney Tax Issues Cheat Sheet. Sheppard said: “It is often said that the rich get rich and stay rich…