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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

December 8, 2009

On Dec. 8, 1941, one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed Congress, saying that Dec. 7 would be "a date which will live in infamy."
Source: National Archives

We’re in the Record

Saturday’s Senate debate on the health care bill included a few mentions of yours truly, FactCheck.org.
Our work was cited on Dec. 2 by Sen. John McCain, who quoted from our Oct. 20, 2008, article. Three days later our article made the Congressional Record yet again. This time, it was prompted by Sen. John Kerry who said this on the Senate floor, quoting from a Wall Street Journal news story from last year:

Kerry,

Extras: Allentown, Palin, E-mails

This round-up of political tidbits includes an ad pegged to the president’s visit to Allentown, Sarah Palin on Obama’s birth certificate and more chain e-mails.
Working Where in Allentown?
When President Barack Obama traveled to Allentown, Pa., Friday morning to discuss job creation, the Republican National Committee welcomed him with a radio spot questioning the effectiveness of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Unfortunately, by Friday the ad was a day late and a few hundred thousand jobs short.

December 7, 2009

Parts of Washington, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, Vermont and Maine have a greater than 90 percent probability of having a white Christmas.
Source: NOAA 

December 6, 2009

The greatest daily snowfall on record in the U.S. between 1893 and 2006 is 63 inches, which fell in Georgetown, Colo., on Dec. 4, 1913.
Source: NOAA

Robocall Rumble

It’s the battle of the voice mail messages.
First, Sen. John McCain launched a robocall this week, claiming that spending cuts to Medicare in the Senate health care bill would eliminate “vital Medicare coverage for our seniors” and promoting his amendment to strip the bill of all those Medicare cuts. He recorded a similar call for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Thursday night, the liberal group Americans United for Change launched a counter-call, which tells recipients: "You may have received a political call that tries to frighten seniors —

International Gun Ban Treaty?

Q: Has Obama found a “legal way around the Second Amendment”?
A: The administration’s agreement to talk about writing a United Nations treaty to regulate arms exports and imports is a far cry from banning possession of firearms, which Obama says he doesn’t want to do and the Supreme Court has said can’t be done anyway.

December 5, 2009

U.S. imports of Christmas tree ornaments from China totaled $470.3 million between January and August this year. China also shipped $28.6 million worth of artificial Christmas trees during that period.

Source: Census Bureau

Truth on the Cutting Room Floor

A widely viewed video seems to show President Obama stating that he is a Muslim. It is false, and the product of dishonest editing. Although it is titled “Obama Admits He Is A Muslim,” the president in fact has admitted no such thing. The video edits and twists his actual words, sometimes turning what were denials into …

December 4, 2009

Between Dec. 1 and Christmas day, the U.S. Postal Service will deliver 16.6 billion cards, letters and packages.
Source: USPS