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Bush Farewell Speech? Ignore It
Tweet Share on Facebook January 15, 2009 Comment (81)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
When the nation is in the midst of the Bush-caused recession, the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression, why do we have to listen to anything else that the person who perpetrated this disaster has to say? I say we don't! Tell the "historian in chief" to go fly a kite (everybody's got to be good at something, right?) and ignore him as he tries to persuade Americans that his tenure's not been as much of a disaster as we all know it to be. He's said in exit interviews with the media that history will have a kinder view of him than the American public does now:
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Bonnie Erbe Interviews Karen Kornbluh, 'Obama's Brain'
Tweet Share on Facebook January 15, 2009 Comment (7)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I had the pleasure of interviewing Karen Kornbluh this week for my PBS show, To the Contrary , which will air nationwide this weekend.
Here's a sneak preview of the interview. Kornbluh has been called "Obama's Brain" (as if he needed one) by major media outlets such as CNN.
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The Treatment of Hillary Clinton Shows Sexism Pervades Society
Tweet Share on Facebook January 14, 2009 Comment (24)Hillary Clinton ran a flawed campaign, which she launched as a flawed candidate (she had very high negative ratings from voters). That said, however, if the sexist derision and insults hurled at her during her run (being called a she-goat, her laugh being called a cackle, etc.) had been translated into racial slurs and used instead against Barack Obama, they would never have been tolerated. Yet, to this day, no one has been forced to apologize to Clinton for all the gender-based abuse she had to endure.
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Racism Wanes and Sexism Thrives, Roland Burris and Caroline Kennedy Show
Tweet Share on Facebook January 14, 2009 Comment (21)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Politico.com ran a story with an intriguing headline: "In Politics, Does Race Trump Gender?"
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More Children Refuse to Eat Meat Than You'd Think, and for the Right Reasons
Tweet Share on Facebook January 13, 2009 Comment (10)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Uncle Sam has finally given us a figure worth knowing about: In the government's first estimate of how many children avoid meat, the number is about 1 in 200.
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Why Bush Should be Punished for His Acts in Office
Tweet Share on Facebook January 13, 2009 Comment (62)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I must respectfully disagree with Robert Schlesinger's take on whether Barack Obama should have equivocated while responding to a question on Sunday about investigating the Bush administration. First off, Robert refers, more than once, to Obama "kick[ing] off his term" or "mak[ing] one of [his] first acts in office" the pursuit of Bush administration criminals. I never implied it should be one of his first acts in office. It's clearly something that should be investigated, and if it's pursued, pursued in years two or three down the road, and only then if his investigators find clear evidence of wrongdoing.
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How Barack Obama Can Take a Fast Track to Undoing Last-Minute Bush Regulations
Tweet Share on Facebook January 12, 2009 Comment (3)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
It seems as if every president, on the way out the door, issues a whole bunch of last-minute regulations, causing the next president's staff to spend several months of precious time figuring out how to undo them. President Clinton, never seen as an environmental hero during most of his eight years in office, issued scores of such resolutions protecting millions of acres of federal land on his way out the door, to the cheers of environmentalists and the jeers of corporate developers.
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The Equivocator: What Performance by Barack Obama on ABC Says About His Presidency
Tweet Share on Facebook January 12, 2009 Comment (10)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Have you noticed how President-elect Obama has mastered the art of equivocation even before entering the White House? It was most in evidence this weekend when Obama was asked by ABC's George Stephanopoulos—repeating a question E-mailed by a viewer—whether he was going to appoint a special prosecutor to look into possible illegal acts undertaken by the Bush administration. The answer was designed to please everyone, but in the act, it could only serve to alienate those on the left and on the right simultaneously:
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Caroline Kennedy Should Be a Senator (and Get a Good Speech Coach, You Know)
Tweet Share on Facebook January 9, 2009 Comment (61)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I have supported the candidacy of Caroline Kennedy to replace Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate. Yet, I look with a skeptical eye at claims that her attempt to secure one of the highest offices in the land positions her as a role model for women seeking to re-enter the workforce after raising children.
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Poll Gives Sarah Palin No Shot in Alaska Senate Race; Again She Blames Media
Tweet Share on Facebook January 9, 2009 Comment (71)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
A brand-spanking-new poll on pollster.com shows Sarah Palin has turned off even her own fellow hunters, frontiersmen, and hockey moms to a point no one could have believed back in September. That was when she was seen as God's gift to the religious right. Now, however, what God hath "given-eth" God is taking away. The pollster poll shows incumbent Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski whuppin' Governor Palin in a hypothetical matchup for Murkowski's Senate seat by 57 percent to 33 percent. Even with a 4.4 percent margin of error, that's plenty of room for Murkowski to win in a walk.
