Think Progress

CIVIL RIGHTS -- REP. TAUSCHER TO INTRODUCE BILL OVERTURNING 'DON'T ASK DON'T TELL': This afternoon, Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) will introduce legislation to overturn the military's ban on gay service members. She will speak about the legislation at the Center for American Progress Action Fund today with Ret. Marine Staff Sergeant Eric Alva -- the first American wounded in the war in Iraq who has since come out and now advocates against the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy. In a new article on the cost of the military's gay ban, CAP Senior Fellow Larry Korb notes that since 1994, the ban has resulted in the dismissal of more than 13,000 military personnel across the services, "including approximately 800 with skills deemed 'mission critical,' such as pilots, combat engineers, and linguists." Support for gay people in the military has grown dramatically, with 75 percent of Americans now in support, up from 62 percent in 2001 and 44 percent in 1993. In January, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said President Obama is "committed to following through" on his promise to end the ban on gay servicemen. When asked whether Obama would overturn DADT, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs replied, "[Y]ou don't hear a politician give a one-word answer much. But it's, 'Yes.'"

RADICAL RIGHT -- CANTOR TRIES TO DISTANCE HIMSELF FROM LIMBAUGH'S HOPE THAT OBAMA FAILS: Yesterday, on ABC's This Week, host George Stephanopoulos asked House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) whether he subscribes to Rush Limbaugh's hope that President Obama fails. Cantor responded, "George, absolutely not. I don't think anyone wants anything to fail right now. We have such challenges. What we need to do is put forth solutions to the problems that real families are facing today." Apparently, Cantor hasn't been paying attention. Limbaugh reiterated his hope that Obama fails on Saturday. In fact, as ThinkProgress has documented, the list of right-wingers who share Limbaugh's hope that Obama fails is growing. Just this week, Rick Santorum declared, "Absolutely we hope his policies fail." Asked whether he wants Obama to fail, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay responded, "Well, exactly right. I don't want this for our nation," while Michelle Malkin said, "Yes, I hope that fails." On Friday, Limbaugh crowed, "The dirty little secret...is that every Republican in this country wants Obama to fail, but none of them have the guts to say so; I am willing to say it." According to Limbaugh,  Cantor must be one of those Republicans without the guts to say what he really feels.

MEDIA -- POST OMBUDSMAN FINDS FLAWS IN FACT-CHECKING OF GEORGE WILL'S CLIMATE CHANGE COLUMN: In a column yesterday, Washington Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander addressed the ongoing criticism of George Will's Feb. 15 column, "Dark Green Doomsayers," in which Will dismissed as "eco-pessimists" energy secretary Steven Chu and others who believe in man-made global warming. While the Post's editors have jumped to defend Will, Alexander admitted that the Post made mistakes both during the fact checking process and in the public dispute that followed. Referring to Will's use of data from the Arctic Research Climate Center to show that global sea ice levels are "now equal those of 1979," Alexander wrote, "I reviewed the same Web citation and reached a different conclusion." "It said that while global sea ice areas are 'near or slightly lower than those observed in late 1979,' sea ice are in the Northern Hemisphere is 'almost one million sq. km below' the levels of late 1979. ... In my mind, it should have triggered a call for clarification to the center." While Alexander also said that "readers would have been better served" if the Post had responded to the controversy more quickly, he failed to offer a correction and did not address any of the other factual errors in Will's column. As Discover contributing editor Carl Zimmer noted, "When fact-checkers write up their reports, they do not just look at one paragraph and call it a day. I don't understand why that is acceptable for a report from an ombudsman about the accuracy of a newspaper column."

Last night the federal government agreed to provide an additional $30 billion in taxpayer money to the American International Group. AIG is expected to report a $62 billion loss today, the biggest quarterly loss of any company in history. The U.S. government already owns 80 percent of AIG’s holding company as the result of four previous financial interventions totaling $150 billion.

President Obama is putting his effort to pass health-care-reform legislation into high gear this week. "The president will announce Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as his choice to head HHS on Monday afternoon, and he may also name a new director of the White House office on health reform." Later in the week, the White House will host a summit to discuss overhauling the health care system.

President Obama's web team is struggling to work in a White House that does not have the technology to send out mass e-mails or text messages to supporters from President Obama. "Beyond the technological upgrades needed to enable text broadcasts, there are security and privacy rules to sort out involving the collection of cellphone numbers."

"A Gallup poll of Muslims in the United States has found that they are far more likely than people in Muslim countries to see themselves as thriving." The poll also finds that Muslims "are the least content religious group, when compared with Jews, Mormons, Protestants and Roman Catholics."

Former CAP staffer and Deputy White House Counsel Cassandra Butts has been chosen to head the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, "which has been beset by shrinking staff, plummeting morale and a growing backlog of job discrimination cases to investigate." Butts "would provide a much-needed spark" to the commission.

And finally, late last week, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) got stuck in an elevator for about 20 minutes with a dozen Samoan students. "Flake and Speier did what they do best: They worked the elevator," talking to the students about their experiences in Hawaii and Samoans in their districts. The students were part of a Close-Up visit to Washington. "That's a close-up experience, all right," Politico noted.