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Young People Looking for Jobs Should Remember Facebook, MySpace Have No Privacy
Tweet Share on Facebook April 6, 2009 Comment (9)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
This story, from today's Washington Post, made me chuckle—and serves as a good object lesson not only for the high school students who are its subject, but for people four to six years out of high school and navigating the job market. The story looks at how police and school officials are patrolling social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, keeping an eye on students through their online profiles.
Students insist that this is an unwarranted invasion of privacy, but that position is (amazingly, for young people) dated. It hearkens back to a time when privacy was an expectation, whereas in our growing self-surveillance society, privacy must be affirmatively sought and jealously guarded. The default today is that nothing is private.
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As Unemployment Goes, So Goes Commercial Real Estate
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2009 Comment (3)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
The unemployment rate was, while not unexpected, certainly the worst economic news to come out recently. At 8.5 percent, we're nearing the rates in developing nations. Maybe we'll BE a developing nation if companies keep shedding jobs.
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Obama's Increasingly Unpopular Guantánamo Bay Decision
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2009 Comment (12)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Peter Roff blogged today in part about the notion of Guantánamo Bay prisoners creating legal mischief upon being brought to the United States for trial. I am skeptical of this particular line of argument (I live in Alexandria, Va., and would be delighted to see the guilty so declared in the local federal courthouse). But a new Rasmussen poll shows that the GOP may have some traction on the issue.
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Steroid-free Albert Pujols Returns Baseball to Its Wholesome Origins
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2009 Comment (25)By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Sunday is baseball's Opening Day. With the steroid scandal continuing to unfold—the commissioner and the owners seem to be blind to the massive cost of the scandal to the future of the game—I thought it might be an opportunity to talk to our daughters about steroids and their effects on baseball, from the records with an asterisk in the Hall of Fame to individual players' health.
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Energy Needs at Home Trump Cap-and-Trade Political Points for Senate Democrats
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2009 Comment (10)By Michael Barone, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Last week I wrote a blogpost on cap-and-trade, pointing out that many Democratic senators had a political motive to oppose such a measure: Their states get most of their electricity from coal, and so cap-and-trade would raise their constituents' utility rates disproportionately to other states. This week the Senate voted on whether to include cap-and-trade in the budget resolution and, guess what 26 Democrats voted against doing so. You read it here first.
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Is Barack Obama the Next Ronald Reagan?
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2009 Comment (30)By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Last January, then-candidate Barack Obama caused quite a stir among his fellow Democrats when he defended remarks he'd made to the Reno, Nev. Gazette-Journal:
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Chris Dodd's Sinking Ship: Will He Bring Democrats Down With Him?
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2009 Comment (23)By Michael Barone, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
The Quinnipiac poll, whose home base is Quinnipiac College in Hamden, Conn., has a Connecticut poll out showing Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd's job approval at 33 percent positive to 58 percent negative. In pairings against three Republicans mentioned as 2010 opponents, he trails Rob Simmons 34-50 percent, Sam Caligiuri 37-41 percent, Tom Foley 35-43 percent. He is, as Connecticut-based Ironman put it, Dodd Man Walking. These are, to put it mildly, dreadful numbers for a politician in his 29th year as U.S. senator and 35th year as member of Congress.
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Iowa Gay Marriage Ruling Has Big Political Implications, Especially for 2012
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2009 Comment (42)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Today's Iowa Supreme Court ruling that legalizes gay marriage in the Hawkeye State has social implications that will be discussed extensively elsewhere (I will be interested to see what my colleague Dan Gilgoff turns up on his God & Country blog).
But the decision will have a political effect that figures to be both immediate and enduring: After all, Iowa may be the third state in the union to allow gay marriage, but it figures to be the first state of the union to hold a 2012 Republican presidential nominee selection contest.
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Obama's Politics of Dispersion Confound O'Reilly, Ingraham, and the Republicans
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2009 Comment (41)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
The conventional wisdom in Washington, since the days when Jim Baker was running Ronald Reagan's White House, holds that presidents do better by focusing on a few key issues.
Simplify the agenda, get the nation's attention, and use the star power of the presidency to roll your foes.
Barack Obama is confounding that wisdom. By design or necessity, or a little of both, his is a game plan that is anything but simple. Its strength may lie in its abundance and complexity.
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Iowa Legalizes Gay Marriage, Vermont Would Do Well to Follow
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2009 Comment (32)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Iowa's Supreme Court ruled this morning that a state ban on gay marriage violates the constitutional rights of gays and lesbians. Good for the court.
That brings to three the number of states where people of the same sex can get married. A fourth, Vermont, has a bill legalizing same-sex marriage that has passed both houses of its legislature and now awaits the governor's promised veto. Bad for the governor (and I say that as someone who spent his college years in the Green Mountain State).
