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Shutting Down Washington for the Inauguration is a Nutty Overreaction
Tweet Share on Facebook January 9, 2009 Comment (10)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
In case you missed it, huge chunks of D.C. are going to be shut down on January 20, including all of the bridges connecting Northern Virginia with Washington. My fellow Virginia residents are taking umbrage, but I have a broader question: Have we never inaugurated a new president before?
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Department of Homeland Security to Be Housed in a Mad House
Tweet Share on Facebook January 9, 2009 Comment (4)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
The Washington Post reports today that the Department of Homeland Security will be permanently housed on a hilltop in southeastern D.C.
The site, blog friend Peter Roff points out, is
on the grounds of St. Elizabeth's Hospital ... where the first federal psychiatric hospital was established in 1852.
Are they trying to tell us something?
Indeed.
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Sarah Palin Needs to Go Away Before She Does Even More Harm to Herself
Tweet Share on Facebook January 9, 2009 Comment (182)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
For her own good, Sarah Palin needs to go away.
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Will Barack Obama Reverse the George W. Bush Presidential Power Grabs?
Tweet Share on Facebook January 8, 2009 Comment (6)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Today's New York Times reports that Barack Obama will appoint an Indiana University law professor named Dawn Johnsen as the head of the White House's Office of Legal Counsel. This is great news because Johnsen, the Times reports, has been an outspoken critic of the power grabs the Bush administration has made over the past eight years. The issue of executive overreach got some but not a lot of play during the campaign (perhaps most notably when Joe Biden lashed Dick Cheney).
So, we should cheer Johnsen's appointment—and then watch the White House closely.
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Barack Obama and the Ex-Presidents
Tweet Share on Facebook January 8, 2009 Comment (12)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
The best comment I heard yesterday about Barack Obama's luncheon with the former and outgoing presidents came from my friend Al Felzenberg, who wrote a book on rating the presidents: "Imagine poor Obama, having to dine with this crowd of ex-presidents. Two one-termers, one who was impeached, and an incumbent going out to rankings of 27 percent. Not exactly James Monroe conferring with the first Adams, Jefferson, and Madison."
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Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, and the Strangelove Debate
Tweet Share on Facebook January 7, 2009 Comment (3)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
A couple of weeks ago, I noted a New York Times piece about how Hillary Clinton is trying to build up the power of the State Department. This is a good sign, I argued, because the Pentagon had encroached too greatly into State's diplomatic turf.
Steve Glain, who is writing a book on the matter, gives the flip-side view in our op-ed section today. Gates, Glain writes,
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Mac, iTunes, and Copyright Theft
Tweet Share on Facebook January 7, 2009 Comment (5)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Apple has reportedly struck a deal with recording companies that will end the inclusion of digital rights management software on songs downloaded on iTunes while allowing the companies to variably price their music on the service.
The news reminded me of a fascinating debate we had in the op-ed section recently on the broader issue of online file-sharing. Downloading a song (or a movie or a book) and E-mailing copies of it to friends is of course illegal, but the argument was over the extent to which it should be prosecuted. The law professor Lawrence Lessig argued in essence that it should be decriminalized because it is creating a generation of criminals, while Patrick Ross of the Copyright Alliance takes the position that theft is theft and should be prosecuted as such.
So far as I can tell the new rules don't make it any less illegal to E-mail copies of these songs to your buds, but it does make it easier—making the debate about how to deal with such file-sharing more salient than ever.
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Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General? It Might Actually Make Sense
Tweet Share on Facebook January 6, 2009 Comment (34)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
So yeah, my first reaction to "Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General" was some pretty hearty laughter.
But ... you know it might not be a bad idea. The job description for surgeon general is "America's chief health educator." Say what you want about cable "news" and the irritating trend toward highlighting "personalities" over substance; and say what you want about Gupta specifically; but public education involves some of the same skills one develops working on television news (or "news").
Of course, this news lends itself to a wholly different type of blog post: Which other newsies could fill an Obama administration. Lou Dobbs for Homeland Security? Chris Matthews for White House press secretary? Make your nominations in the comments section (after the jump) and I'll highlight my favorites tomorrow.
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D.C. Voting Rights Should Happen in 2009
Tweet Share on Facebook January 6, 2009 Comment (20)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Today's Washington Post reports that the push to get the District of Columbia a voting member in the House of Representatives will get a quick start this year. And by my count, it should actually happen this time.
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Bush and the Environment: Pacific Protection Is Too Little Too Late
Tweet Share on Facebook January 6, 2009 Comment (3)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
When, in the waning days of his term, the outgoing president designated huge areas for special wilderness protection, the incoming president was not pleased at all. "We are reviewing all 11th-hour executive orders, rules, and regulations," a spokesman for the incoming president said.
The incoming president, so annoyed at such displays of lame-duck power, was George W. Bush. The president-elect joined conservatives howling in protest when, three days before the transfer of power, Bill Clinton designated more than 1 million acres of western land as national monuments. Ah, how times have changed (and not simply because the spokesman was Scott McClellan).
The Bush administration told reporters Monday that he would be designating 195,280 square miles (an area the size of Washington and Oregon combined) as ... national monuments.
Conservative howls of protest have this time been muted, presumably because western landowners are less concerned about federal encroachment on the Mariana Trench. And in the meantime, Bush gets to bolster his environmental reputation (the words too little and too late come to mind).
