Prompted by escalating campaign spending and the increasing use of attack ads, Wisconsin state legislators and Gov. Jim Doyle have enacted a bill to provide public financing for the Supreme Court’s candidates.
Would-be justices would qualify for the funds by agreeing to limit spending and by raising small sums totaling between $5,000 and $15,000 from 1,000 different contributors. They could then receive up to $100,000 for a primary race and up to $300,000 for a general election – which,
December 2, 2009
The Atomic Age began on this day in 1942 in a tent on a squash court at the University of Chicago. At 3:25 p.m., Enrico Fermi and scientists engineered the first controlled nuclear fission chain reaction.
Source: Library of Congress
FactCheck Mailbag, Week of Nov. 24 – Nov. 30
This week, readers sent us comments on (what else?) health care legislation, cap and trade, and FactCheck.org as spam blocker.
In the FactCheck Mailbag we feature some of the e-mail we receive. Readers can send comments to editor@factcheck.org. Letters may be edited for length.
Stimulus Jobs, Re-revisited
Reports from journalists and the Government Accountability Office last month about problems with the data on Recovery.gov cast doubt on the site’s claim that more than 640,000 jobs had been created or saved by the Obama administration’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Meanwhile Obama upped the ante, putting the figure at more than 1 million. On Nov. 12, for example, in announcing this month’s jobs summit, he said that the stimulus had “created and saved more than a million jobs.”
New Ad, Old Claims
Conservatives for Patients’ Rights is out with a new ad, airing on CNN and Fox News, that repeats a few of the group’s claims about a federal health insurance plan: that it could prevent people from keeping their doctor or their health insurance.
The narrator of the ad says that 14 senators’ votes "on the government-run public option plan could decide" whether you keep your doctor or your insurance plan. The "could" makes the claim squishy, but the implication is that the inclusion of a so-called public option in the health care bill will put the public’s ability to keep their current doctors in jeopardy.
December 1, 2009
On Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Ala., for disobeying state law by refusing to surrender her seat on the bus to white passengers.
Source: Library of Congress
Federal Pay Raise
Q: Did Obama grant federal workers a pay raise for next year when Social Security recipients are getting no increase?
A: The president acted to hold down the federal pay raise to 2 percent next year.
November 30, 2009
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) was born on Nov. 30, 1835, in Florida, Mo.
Source: Library of Congress
November 29, 2009
President Truman’s "The Buck Stops Here" sign, which sat on his desk, was made in the federal reformatory in El Reno, Okla., and mailed to Truman on Oct. 2, 1945.
Source: Harry S. Truman Library & Museum
November 28, 2009
In its pure form, tryptophan can induce sleep, but turkey’s tryptophan doesn’t cause drowsiness. Other foods, including beef and soybeans, have higher concentrations of the substance.
Source: National Geographic