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Democrats Have Only Themselves to Blame for Filibuster Problems
Tweet Share on Facebook December 31, 2009 Comment (17)By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
It is profoundly ironic that Senate Democrats, who are now numerically strong enough to do whatever they want, continue to complain about the Republican use of the filibuster to slow the progress of the healthcare bill. It is true, as my bloleague Robert Schlesinger wrote here several days ago that its use has increased over the last several decades. As Gordon S. Jones, editor of The Imperial Congress, told me in an E-mail, the increase in the reliance of both parties to slow the pace of legislation "correlates perfectly" with the majority party's growing tendency to eschew consensus, compromise, and bipartisan support for legislation.
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In William Shakespeare, Hope for a Better Decade to Come
Tweet Share on Facebook December 31, 2009 Comment (34)By John A. Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
A Happy New Year to you all.
Here's a favorite quote from Hamlet.
Some say that ever 'against that season comes
Wherein our Savior's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long;
And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.Let's hope the next decade is more gracious than the one we are ringing out tonight.
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A Year of Blogging in 2009
Tweet Share on Facebook December 31, 2009 Comment (3)By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
2009 has been a great year to be a new member of the U.S. News & World Report team.
Since January, I've found that while there's a lot of insanity out on the Internet, being in the blogosphere has actually been a worthwhile thing to do. I never thought I'd say that a year ago—becoming a blogger seemed like a crazy idea at first—but over the course of 2009, I've grown to love it. I've been riveted by everything from live tweets coming from opposition forces on the streets of Iran to hilarious "mental health break" videos on YouTube. It's been fascinating to see the difference in the news business since the days when I was an editor at the U.Va. undergraduate newspaper, when we printed out stories on shiny paper, cut them to fit the newspaper columns with X-acto knives, and dipped them in wax to affix them to the page before driving them at midnight to the printer 10 miles down the road. Now the news moves at the speed of light, which sometimes is a good thing, sometimes not. Figuring out which is which is the fun part.
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Biggest Stories of the Decade
Tweet Share on Facebook December 31, 2009 Comment (7)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I was on C-SPAN's Washington Journal this morning, with Politics Daily's Carl Cannon, talking about the top stories of the decade. Carl is a thoughtful reporter and it was an interesting discussion. I figured that I might list here what I thought were the biggest stories from the last 10 years. Let me know in the comments section below whether I missed any (or missed on any).
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8 Books All Kindle Users Should Have
Tweet Share on Facebook December 31, 2009 Comment (5)By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
This Christmas, more e-books were sold on Amazon.com than printed books for the first time in history. Here's one of the most interesting press releases I've read in a while, the Amazon.com release announcing the quirkier details of its sales figures this year. (For example: "Amazon customers purchased enough fruit cake to equal the weight of a 1967 Volkswagen Bug.") I know that whole move to e-books is a bit controversial, and I'll write about that debate next week.
I've had a Kindle since they first came out, and I don't use it much for beach reading—I use it for business. So if, like many folks, you found a Kindle or other e-reader under your tree this year, here are a few suggestions of useful e-books you should load onto it when you need to prepare for speaking engagements or written pieces in whatever line of work you do. E-books don't go out of print, and you can carry over a thousand books in your briefcase—something you can't do on a laptop. Once you've loaded these on, use the "search" button to find all kinds of quotes and anecdotes based on key phrases on which you need to speak or write. Almost all of them are less than $10 and I've included the link for Kindle editions so you can order them directly.
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Most Admired: Obama, Clinton, Palin and ... Tiger Woods?
Tweet Share on Facebook December 30, 2009 Comment (6)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Gallup today released its list of the men and women Americans most frequently name as "most admired." There are the usual suspects: Barack Obama is the most admired man (the president virtually always is--George W. Bush was, even while his approval ratings plummeted) and Hillary Clinton is the most admired woman (for the 14th time in the last 17 years). Secretary Clinton did have some tough competition this time, from Alaska governor-turned-author Sarah Palin.
Of course this list is almost invariably an exercise in name recognition. See for example the four-way tie for 10th place among the most admired men, with each scoring 1 percent: Sen. John McCain, former President George H.W. Bush, former President Bill Clinton, and golfer-turned-scandal star Tiger Woods. Clinton and Woods, tied. Insert joke here. "Ironically," Gallup notes, "Woods--who has some of the highest personal favorability ratings in Gallup polling history--did not finish in the top 10 until this year, following a personal scandal that caused those ratings to plummet."
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Obama Isn't Weak on Terrorists, But He Is Weaker
Tweet Share on Facebook December 30, 2009 Comment (23)By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
"Belief that the bad guys are winning the War on Terror is now at its highest level in over two years," pollster Scott Rasmussen reported Wednesday, and nearly half of U.S. voters now say "America is not safer than it was before 9/11."
This shift in opinion, while dramatic, is hardly surprising.
The botched Christmas Day terror assault on a U.S. airliner has a lot of politicians pointing fingers and even more scrambling for cover. The American people are once again rethinking what the appropriate approach to the war on terror should be. And President Barack Obama and his team are headed for the barricades, with presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs throwing up one of the first with his plea that this issue should not be "a tug-of-war between the two political parties."
He wants the politicians in Washington to "resolve in the New Year to make protecting our nation a nonpartisan issue."
While laughable on its face—Gibbs and Obama made national security an uber-partisan issue during the 2008 presidential contest—it's a serious indication that the White House is concerned the blame for the most recent terror attempt will fall on their doorstep, something Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's declaration on CNN that "the system worked" is not helping to prevent.
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Washington Remains a Sports Loser Town
Tweet Share on Facebook December 30, 2009 Comment (2)By John A. Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I caused no small stir last year when, on behalf of the town's long-suffering sports fans—and making a clear exception for the Capitals hockey team—I called Washington, D.C., a loser town.
The city's sports barons were great at building stadiums, I said—and equally bad at building winning teams.
Well, the Washington Post admitted the obvious today, with a list of the top 10 local sports stories of the decade.
Can any city in America show so meager a collection of highlights?
(OK, OK, maybe Cleveland.)
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U.S. Population, 2010: 308 Million and Growing
Tweet Share on Facebook December 30, 2009 Comment (50)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
The United States will enter 2010 with a population of more than 308.4 million, according to a U.S. Census Bureau estimate. (Actually, their estimate is 308,400,408--they're nothing if not precise.) That's a 2.6 million person increase--0.9 percent--from their estimate entering 2009. Further, they estimate one new birth every eight seconds and one death every 12 seconds, so in the time it took you to read this far, there have been three births and two deaths. Those figures are unchanged from the start of 2009. The rate at which immigrants enter the country has changed, marginally, down to one every 37 seconds in 2010 from one every 36 seconds in 2009. Make of that what you will. Overall, the Census folks figure that those trends add up to one person being added to the U.S. population every 14 seconds. (Net, I suppose.)
Of course the operative word here is estimate. This year we get to move past estimates and get real data to crunch, when the bureau conducts the decennial census. And those figures not only affect the distribution of congressional seats but also of $400 billion in federal funds to state, local and tribal governments each year. So when you get the form (only 10 questions this year) remember to fill it out.
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Attacking Yemen Would Only Help al Qaeda Terrorists
Tweet Share on Facebook December 29, 2009 Comment (11)By John A. Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
In the frenzied overreaction to the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253, this morning's rant by Frances Fragos Townsend stands out. Townsend is a former assistant to President George W. Bush, who chaired the Homeland Security Council from 2004 to 2008. She should know better. But in today's Washington Post, she opines that "the American people are understandably fed up" with Yemen, which harbors the terrorists that equipped dim Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and she suggests that we go to war in yet another Muslim nation.
That would make three: Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan. Four if you count our aerial strikes in Pakistan. Five if, as some suggest, we bomb Iran.
