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Ignore Limbaugh, Hannity and the GOP, the Obama Stimulus Plan Is a Good Start
Tweet Share on Facebook February 11, 2009 Comment (14)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
My pal Peter Gosselin has a graduate degree in money from Columbia University. He could have made gazillions as an investment banker, I suspect, but chose instead to waste his youth in the public service of journalism.
Peter specializes in explaining the mysteries of finance to money dolts like me (Is it Franklin on the $50 bill, and Grant on the $100, or the other way around?) in understandable English. He is very good at it. The New York Review of Books got downright dewy reviewing his 2008 book "High Wire," which warned of the fragility of our economy and forecast how and why this current recession is going to hurt more, and more of us, than other downturns.
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Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel Go After the Census
Tweet Share on Facebook February 11, 2009 Comment (15)By Michael Barone, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
John Fund explains why Barack Obama (and Rahm Emanuel) want control of the Census. And here's more, from the testimony of Bruce Chapman, who was Director the census in the Reagan administration.
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Abraham Lincoln Myth Had Its Doubters, Like Edgar Lee Masters
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2009 Comment (4)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I would not be a proper contrarian, nor a worthy Jeffersonian, if I did not note that besides the brigades of adulatory Lincoln biographers listed in the weekend's book reviews by William Safire and others, there was at least one great American man of letters who thought Honest Abe was a fraud.
He is the poet Edgar Lee Masters, and he is best known as the author of Spoon River Anthology, a triumph of American realism.
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Bill O'Reilly Attacks on Helen Thomas Are Ugly, Petty and Hateful
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2009 Comment (176)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
Bill O'Reilly mocks everyone—all right, I get it. He's a venom-spitting curmudgeon and works hard to build that image and protect his niche. But calling veteran journalist Helen Thomas a "wicked witch" after her question to President Obama at his news conference last night was not only ugly, it was petty.
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Obama Looks Like Bush on National Security Secrecy Argument
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2009 Comment (5)Bad news today for people who were hoping that Barack Obama would roll back some of the imperial executive which Bush, Cheney and their wacky legal theorists built over the last eight years. The new administration's lawyers picked up a questionable legal theory from the old administration, that national security trumps due process of law.
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Obama Explaining Geithner Plan to Save Banks Will Pay Off in Consumer Confidence
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2009 Comment (6)By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Today's a big day at the Treasury Department, where Secretary Geithner will be unveiling the new Financial Stabilization Plan (or TARP Two, as it's also known). Last night the president held his first prime-time press conference from the East Room of the White House, and took his case for the administration's stimulus plan to the American people. When it came time to answer a reporter's query about the Financial Stabilization Plan, however, the president ducked the question and said he didn't want to steal the spotlight from the Secretary's announcement today.
It's too bad he didn't answer the question, because it was a great opportunity to explain to viewers the fundamentals of what happened in the banking industry and why this plan is better than TARP One. He gave long and detailed—and understandable—explanations on other issues. Why not this one? One thing about President Obama: he speaks with clarity, and people love it.
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Catholic Marriage Preparation Alienates Potential Church-Goers
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2009 Comment (30)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
As a follow-up to my blog of yesterday, I wanted to thank readers for some of the thoughtful comments on my friends' premarital church counseling experience. I also did some more looking online about what such programs are supposed to entail.
In the 2002 book, Divorce, Annulments, and the Catholic Church by Richard J. Jenks and Craig A Everett, there is some background on this topic. The authors write that couples preparing for marriage normally have several options:
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Republican Chairman Michael Steele Owes His Victory to Puerto Rico, Other Territories
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2009 Comment (8)By Michael Barone, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
An interesting sidelight on Michael Steele's election as Republican National Chairman. He owes his victory, as this article from Politico notes, to the territories: the 15 votes cast for him from Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Marianas and American Samoa put him over the top against South Carolina Republican Chairman Katon Dawson. The delegates from the territories, or many of them, have something in common with Steele, as a "person of color," but as Politico also notes he has made commitments to support Republicans in elections there.
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Alex Rodriguez Should Drop the Saved Steroids Sinner Act
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2009 Comment (6)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Granted there is a certain formula which high-profile entertainers use when publicly admitting error, and a level of shameless dishonesty is a basic part of it. But Alex Rodriguez's interview regarding his illegal steroid use still irked me for its transparent nonsense.
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Recommended Reading on a Great Art Theft Mystery
Tweet Share on Facebook February 9, 2009 Comment (2)By Michael Barone, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
A few years ago I blogged about two books on great art thefts. Now another one is coming out, by my former U.S. News colleague Ulrich Boser, The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft , out February 24. Looks to be interesting. Here's Ulrich's website.
