Think Progress

June 2007 Progress Reports

• Supreme Court: Loyal Bushies On The Bench, June 29, 2007
  Were an opening on the Court to arise in Bush's remaining days in office, he would likely view it as an opportunity to use whatever little political capital he has left to challenge the Senate and empower his legion of "activist conservatives intent on leading a judicial counterrevolution."
• Media: More Free Speech On Radio, June 28, 2007
  The Center for American Progress and Free Press recently released a report confirming the stunning lack of balance in talk radio.
• National Security: Giuliani's 9/11 Conspiracy Theory, June 27, 2007
  During a speech yesterday at Pat Robertson's Regent University, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani indirectly blamed President Clinton for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
• Administration: Power Grab, June 26, 2007
  With an "edge-of-the-envelope" view of executive supremacy, Cheney has crafted an unaccountable role for himself that flagrantly flouts the rule of law that the American people expect the president to uphold.
• Iraq: Strategic Reset, June 25, 2007
  Today, the Center for American Progress is releasing a new Strategic Reset plan that extracts U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2008 and looks "beyond the deteriorating situation in Iraq in order to counter the threat from global terrorist groups and ensure stability in the entire Middle East and Gulf region."
• Health Care: A SiCKO America, June 22, 2007
  Approximately 45 million Americans lack health insurance. Health care costs are increasing faster than wages, and six in ten insured Americans are "worried about being able to afford the cost of their health insurance over the next few years."
• Media: Conservatives Dominate The Airwaves, June 21, 2007
  The Center for American Progress and Free Press yesterday released the first-of-its-kind statistical analysis of the political make-up of talk radio in the United States.
• Labor: A Free Choice To Organize, June 20, 2007
  Just as the Senate began debate yesterday on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), thousands of union members joined with progressives and key lawmakers to express their hopes of passing a bill that would make it easier for workers to organize.
• Administration: The Fall of the Bush Empire, June 19, 2007
  In an effort to spawn an empire in the federal government, the White House and the RNC have opened up unprecedented lines of communications and have potentially violated federal law in doing so.
• Human Rights: The Mafia Administration, June 18, 2007
  In an interview with The New Yorker magazine, Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who led the Pentagon's investigation into the abuses at Abu Ghraib, revealed that he believed high-level military officials, including then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, knew about the abuses at the Iraqi prison.
• Government: A Congress That Acts, June 15, 2007
  The 110th Congress has now been in power for nearly six months. Despite facing critical challenges -- namely, a closely divided Senate and an obstinate, ideological president now eager to use his veto pen -- the new progressive Congress has achieved real, concrete results.
• Iraq: Worst Fears Realized, June 14, 2007
  The Pentagon's first quarterly report assessing President Bush's Iraq strategy confirms what analysts broadly predicted at the onset: the escalation is a failure.
• ENERGY: A Green Opportunity, June 13, 2007
  "Our addiction to oil has grown into a three-pronged crisis: threatening our economy, our national security and our environment," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) at a speech this week at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
• Civil Liberties: Constitutional Roadblock, June 12, 2007
  In a "major setback" to President Bush's terrorism detention policies, the Fourth Circuit Court in Richmond, VA, yesterday ruled that "the President cannot eliminate constitutional protections with the stroke of a pen by proclaiming a civilian, even a criminal civilian, an enemy combatant subject to indefinite military detention."
• ETHICS: No Confidence, June 11, 2007
  The nonbinding resolution introduced by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) would express the "sense of the Senate" that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales "no longer holds the confidence of the American people."
• National Security: Shady Surveillance, June 8, 2007
  Last month's dramatic testimony by former Deputy Attorney General James Comey has prompted renewed attention and focus on the administration's warrantless domestic spying efforts.
• Civil Rights: Unfit To Be America's Doctor, June 7, 2007
  The United States needs a surgeon general guided by sound scientific principles, not ideology.
• Ethics: Jefferson Should Resign, June 6, 2007
  Because he can no longer serve as an effective representative for a district in dire need of strong representation, Jefferson should consider resigning for the good of his constituents.
• International Relations: An Inconvenient Summit, June 5, 2007
  The world cannot afford for the G8 to miss this opportunity to create a global solution to the climate crisis.
• Iraq: 50 Years of War, June 4, 2007
  Modeling our Iraq strategy off the U.S. experience in Korea relies on a grossly inaccurate historical comparison, and runs directly opposite Americans' view that the U.S. should disengage from Iraq.
• Civil Rights: Courting Discrimination, June 1, 2007
  On Tuesday, the Court voted 5-4 to "throw out a Goodyear employee's complaint that she earned thousands of dollars less than her male counterparts."