Q: Fox News’ Glenn Beck said that the government will get complete access to your computer and all of your files when you log on to Cars.gov for the Cash for Clunkers program. Is there any truth to this? A: This claim is false. Beck quoted from a security message on the site for dealers, not the site for the general public. Click to read more Read More →
Q: Did Michelle Obama and her daughters use taxpayer money to take a European vacation? A: The first lady, her mother and her children did stay in Europe for a private vacation after the president completed an overseas trip on official business. However, no taxpayer money was used for the first family’s personal expenses. Click to read more Read More →
Today is the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11’s successful landing on the moon - yet there are still those who would claim that the entire landing was a hoax. In 1999, Gallup reported that 6 percent of Americans did not believe U.S. astronauts ever landed on the moon, with another 5 percent (somehow) still unsure. One of the most common-sense responses to these theorists was spoken by Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke, who, according to The Space Review, simply said: “If we faked going to... Click to read more
In a July 6 interview with Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, President Obama repeated his false claim that the U.S. “import[s] more oil today than ever before.” When Obama first said this in February during an address to a joint-session of Congress, we wrote that the president had gotten his facts wrong. We said then that oil imports peaked in 2005 and have “substantially” declined since. That’s still the case. This chart from the U.S. Energy Information Administration,... Click to read more
Q: Was Obama rude to wounded veterans during a visit to the National Naval Medical Center? A: A chain e-mail that makes such a claim gets several facts wrong and is disputed by an official who was present at the meeting. Click to read more Read More →
Q: Is it true that Al Gore’s mansion uses significantly more energy than the typical home? A: The main claim in a chain e-mail was true when the original message began making the rounds in 2007. Since then, the Gores have made several changes to their home. Click to read more Read More →
Summary With the economy continuing to shed hundreds of thousands of jobs per month, Republicans are stepping up attacks on President Obama. They claim that the massive "stimulus" spending isn’t working very well. A Republican Party Web site classifies as "fiction" the president’s repeated claim that the spending already has "saved or created" a total of 150,000 jobs, and accuses him of "fuzzy math." The GOP has a point here. The fact is the economy... Click to read more
