Facebook Twitter Tumblr Close Skip to main content
A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Shot off the Mark

April 16, 2009

Earlier this week Americans United for Safe Streets, the gun safety advocacy group financially supported by New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, released a television ad attacking former Attorney General Bob McDonnell of Virginia, a Republican running to be the state’s governor.

The ad features Omar Samaha, whose sister died in the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, speaking to camera. Samaha says that his sister’s "killer got his guns because of a gap in Virginia’s background check," and then challenges McDonnell for not wanting to close "another loophole"

Slavery Reparations?

April 15, 2009

Q: Would a bill in Congress require looking into possible reparations for slavery?
A: Such a bill exists but President Obama has nothing to do with it, contrary to what a chain e-mail implies.

Snopes.com

April 10, 2009

Q: Is Snopes.com run by “very Democratic” proprietors? Did they lie to discredit a State Farm insurance agent who attacked Obama?
A: A chain e-mail that “exposed” Snopes contains falsehoods. And in fact, the site is run by someone who has no political party affiliation and his non-voting Canadian wife. A State Farm spokeswoman confirms what they reported about the Obama-baiting agent.

Hot Air on Wind Energy

April 10, 2009

Interior Secretary Salazar said that the amount of “developable” wind power off the East Coast could produce more energy than all the coal-fired electric plants in the U.S., and that wind’s potential to replace most of our coal power “is a very real possibility.” We find his claims to …

Afghanistan History

April 7, 2009

President Obama seemed to rewrite history in his remarks on Friday in Strasbourg, France, telling an audience at a town hall event:

Obama, April 3: But after the initial NATO engagement in Afghanistan, we got sidetracked by Iraq, and we have not fully recovered that initial insight that we have a mutual interest in ensuring that organizations like al Qaeda cannot operate.

But NATO didn’t have a mission in Afghanistan until Aug. 11, 2003, several months after the U.S.

Cost of Illegal Immigrants

April 6, 2009

Q: Do illegal immigrants cost $338.3 billion dollars a year? More than the Iraq war?
A: A chain e-mail that makes this claim is loaded with errors and misleading assertions. Published studies vary widely but put the cost to government at a small fraction of that total.

Specter’s Scorched-Earth Slip-Ups

April 2, 2009

Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter apparently doesn’t need an official opponent to come out with guns blazing in an attack ad that marks the first TV spot in this race. His ad criticizes former U.S. Rep. Patrick Toomey, a probable challenger in the GOP primary. But Specter misfires a few times along …

Mandatory Public Service

March 31, 2009

Q: Is Congress creating a mandatory public service system? Are participants not allowed to go to church?
A: The national service bill does not mandate that youth must participate nor does it forbid anyone who does participate from going to church.

Illegal Backyard Garden?

March 27, 2009

Q: Would a new bill in Congress make my backyard organic garden illegal?
A: A House bill proposes to split the Food & Drug Administration, creating a separate entity to oversee food safety. It’s aimed at food sold in supermarkets and doesn’t say anything about organic gardening, pesticides, farmers’ markets or that tomato plant in your backyard.

Obama’s Old Campaign Group out with New Ad

March 26, 2009

Organizing for America, a project of the Democratic National Committee, was born out of the former Obama campaign infrastructure. Today, the group released its first television ad in support of — guess who? — President Obama: 

The ad says that Obama has a plan to "cut the deficit in half." But as we pointed out yesterday in our review of the president’s prime time news conference, there is more to the story. The administration’s Office of Management and Budget does indeed project that the annual federal deficit will be half of 2009’s deficit by 2013,