-
Heckuva Job, Brownie: Michael Brown Assails Obama on Handling of Swine Flu
Tweet Share on Facebook April 30, 2009 Comment (14)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Ummm. Brownie's still doing a heckuva job.
In case you missed it, Michael Brown, the guy who was in charge of FEMA during the little thundershower that wrecked New Orleans, was on Fox today lambasting the Obama administration for its handling of the swine flu outbreak. Seriously.
He has about as much credibility talking about this as Dick Cheney does talking about the efficacy of torture.
-
Twitter Quitters? Not Sarah Palin
Tweet Share on Facebook April 30, 2009 Comment (8)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Sarah Palin is a twit. Errr. What I mean to say is that she is—what?—tweeting? Does that then make her a twitterer? A twitterizer? A twitterist?
She's on Twitter, and if you'd like to join the (as of this writing) more than 7,000 people following her (including a number of big journalistic and political names) you can click here (but don't click here).
She is of course only the latest pol or hack to enter the Twitzone, but she may be jumping on this bandwagon after its completed its own arcing leap over the shark. According to Nielsen, while Twitter saw explosive growth during March, it was unsustained—60 percent of users did not come back:
-
Swine Flu and Joe Biden's Gaffes: Might the Vice President Have a Point?
Tweet Share on Facebook April 30, 2009 Comment (22)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Joe Biden—the vice president, not the surgeon general, in case you were wondering—has been getting plenty of hard-earned criticism and ridicule on the 'net today for his intemperate remarks this morning on the Today Show to the effect that wise Americans will avoid being enclosed with each other like, well, the plague.
-
Swine Flu Near-Pandemic Means We're All In This Together, Can't Close Borders
Tweet Share on Facebook April 30, 2009 Comment (89)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
If the current
swine fluH1N1 flu outbreak does reach pandemic levels, it will not only be the first global pandemic of the 21st century, it will be the first globalized pandemic ever. This struck me reading the New York Times front page story on the outbreak this morning. It's not simply that the world has gotten smaller in a physical/travel sense—people move around faster thanks to open borders and airplanes, thus increasing the speed with which these diseases can spread. -
Torture Is Not Conservative? Well Yeah, Torture Really Is Not Conservative
Tweet Share on Facebook April 30, 2009 Comment (5)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Neo-con Ken Adelman has an interesting and admirable blog post over at one of Foreign Policy's blogs. He makes a conservative case against torture.
-
Obama Myths: Church Ban, Forced Labor, and Illegal Immigrants Social Security
Tweet Share on Facebook April 29, 2009 Comment (5)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Some of the craziness that gets shots around the Internet (usually by chain-E-mail) can be either amusing or horrifying, depending on how seriously you take its spread.
-
Obama at 100 Days Is Average in Polls, Better Than Bush, Worse Than Reagan, JFK
Tweet Share on Facebook April 29, 2009 Comment (4)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Have you heard the one about how Barack Obama is one of the least popular modern presidents—less popular even than the villainous George W. Bush? There are a couple of big problems with the assertion: First, it's nonsense, second it's meaningless.
-
Arlen Specter Party Switch Becomes Money-Maker for Republicans
Tweet Share on Facebook April 29, 2009 Comment (6)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Arlen Specter may be gone from the GOP, but he is definitely not forgotten. In fact, he's quickly developed a new role in the party: fundraiser.
That's fundraiser in the same way that Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton have been longtime GOP rain-makers and Sarah Palin has been for the Democrats.
-
Specter Party Switch Could Prove Problematic for Democrats
Tweet Share on Facebook April 28, 2009 Comment (11)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid used to get laughs at fundraisers, I'm told, by saying of erstwhile Republican Sen. Arlen Specter: He's always there when we don't need him (or words to that effect). Now Democrats have him regardless of whether they want him, but the question remains: Will he be there when they need him?
Beware what you wish for, my Democratic friends, the magical 60 figure may have more shine than heft.
-
Specter Won't Face Schwartz in Democratic Primary After Party Switch
Tweet Share on Facebook April 28, 2009 Comment (4)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Rep. Allyson Schwartz won't square off against Arlen Specter in a Democratic primary, though her House colleague Joe Sestak may yet do so.
"Congresswoman Schwartz even before this news came out was weighing whether or not to stay in the House," Rachel Magnuson told me. Magnuson said that Schwartz is interested in continuing to work on healthcare in the House. "So today she fully welcomes Senator Specter to the Democratic Party." And that means, for the record, that she is not going to use her $2.1 million to run against Specter.
