Jamie Stiehm Yesterday

Obama's Presidential Rank: Yet Another Man's Man

By Jamie Stiehm, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Just for today,  shall we get real about Presidents and what they are like down deep inside?

Not their complexes nor their childhood myths, but a close look at some to see if he was  "a man's man" or  "a woman's man." The case of President Obama I'll leave for last.  This is something historians often overlook in their biographies--with the notable exception of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Robert's father captured in motion John F. Kennedy's rather ruthless elegance and brilliant irony, accompanied by a charm that worked all the time, round the clock, on men and women.

Bonnie Erbe Yesterday

The Perils of Facebook

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

When I see teenagers and children publishing self-destructive information online, I understand, sort of.  They have little or no comprehension of the harm they are doing to their future careers.  But when I see adults do the same, I am flummoxed. 

Nonetheless, the need to tell certainly outweighs the will to restrain oneself for many American adults and all one need do is to have a Facebook account to witness adults making fools and worse, targets, of themselves on a daily basis.

Mary Kate Cary February 12, 2010

A Quick Jobs Bill: Pay People to Shovel the Washington Snow

By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog 

There's a lot of talk today about the Democrats' proposed jobs bill, but here's a much less expensive idea: let's take some of the unused money from the last stimulus bill and put it to work getting the snow shoveled this week in Washington. I drove into downtown D.C. yesterday morning, and in an hour of driving here's what I saw: 

John Aloysius Farrell February 12, 2010

Charlie Wilson's Political War

By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog 

One of America's favorite politicians died this week. Charlie Wilson's rough-riding lifestyle finally caught up with him. Booze and blondes can wear on a man. We have the consolation of knowing that, whatever price he ultimately paid for his decades of partying, "Good Time Charlie" deserved his nickname.

Long before they wrote a book about Charlie, and Tom Hanks portrayed him in the movie Charlie Wilson's War, the gentleman from Texas was a legend on Capitol Hill. He didn't single-handedly defeat the Russkies in Afghanistan, but from what I know about his role raising funds for the Afghan resistance, Hollywood didn't stray too far from the actual script.

Charlie loved a good yarn, and in writing a biography of Tip O'Neill, I came across a couple of lovely stories. They're not quite as good in the cleaned-up version, but you can supply the necessary profanities.

Peter Roff February 11, 2010

‘President’s Day’ is a Ridiculous Insult to George Washington

By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog 

On Monday America will again observe Presidents' Day, the holiday established to honor all the former chief executives of the United States.

It wasn't always so. In 1968, under the provisions of the so-called "Long Weekend Act," the United States Congress changed the calendar in order to move George Washington's birthday to the most convenient Monday. The three-day weekend the act created, while helpful as a stimulus for shopping, does little to honor the memory of the nation's first, and perhaps greatest, president.

Mary Kate Cary February 11, 2010

Snow Coverage Whites Out Iran News

By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

With all the round-the-clock weather reporting in the news, it seems like two stories have been pushed aside: relief efforts in Haiti and the protests in Iran. This week is the anniversary of the revolution that overthrew the Shah, and the Iranian government has marked the occasion with massive rallies--as well as a monstrous police presence, the shutting down of communications, and a crackdown on demonstrators.

Planet Iran is reporting that Iran was the leading jailer of journalists in the world in 2009, and one look at the live-blogging there and Andrew Sullivan's site will tell you that it's not just journalists who are being arrested.

Bonnie Erbe February 11, 2010

Is Sarah Palin’s Bid to Be President Over Before It Starts??

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

It's been a rough week for rogue Republican Sarah Palin. A new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that more than half the nation, or 55 percent of Americans, view her unfavorably and almost three fourths or 71 percent of Americans see her as unqualified to be president. All this inside of a week when she was caught writing notes to herself on her palm for a speech to her tea party followers, thereby becoming fodder for late-night comedians.

And her almost son-in law Levi Johnston not only posed in the buff for a magazine cover but also is fighting a very public court battle over child-support payments for Palin's grandson, to be made to the baby's mother, Bristol Palin.

But perhaps the worst news of the week comes in the ABC News/Washington Post poll, which also finds that 52 percent of Republicans think she's not qualified to be president and only 37 percent of all Americans hold favorable views of her.

John Aloysius Farrell February 11, 2010

Washington Post Gets Hysterical Over Teachers Union ‘Thuggery’

By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

The editorial writers at the Washington Post, with righteous fervor, have launched an anticorruption campaign against a Maryland political leader and strategist, Jon Gerson, and his clients.

In two recent editorials, including one in today's newspaper, Gerson's bunch is accused by the Post of "heavy-handed tactics" and political "thuggery," of using "corrupting" campaign practices, of demanding "shakedowns," and of generally acting like "a special interest group run amok."

This being Maryland, where the cleanliness of state politics matches that of Illinois and Massachusetts, one reads such epithets with alarm. What evils have the Post's renowned investigative teams uncovered? What slimy interest group has ventured into its crosshairs?

Crestfallen, I was, to discover that the target of this ire is merely a local suburban teachers' union. And the "corrupting" tactics that the union practices? In election years, it asks the candidates that it endorses to help bear the cost of printing, mailing, and otherwise distributing the literature that bears its endorsements.

I am not making this up. This is the supposed corrupt shakedown that has inspired two semi-hysterical editorials.

Bonnie Erbe February 11, 2010

Forty-Something British Women Matching Teen Pregnancy Rates

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

About 20 years ago I remember a friend coming up with a fabulous line: "You know you're getting old when your friends are having trouble getting pregnant." So true! Then along came what was to become the multi-billion dollar in vitro fertilization industry, which turned that line (and human reproductive biology) upside down. The only women who are too old now to carry to term are those in their 70s. And some day someone will come along and break that age barrier, we can all be sure.

The problem is, according to a new British report, the in vitro industry may have done too good a job at publicizing the inability of some, particularly older women, to become pregnant. Many British women (and one can assume something similar is happening here in the United States) believe they are too old to conceive and so they stop using birth control too young. Turns out they do so at their own peril. Women over 40 in England and Wales have similar rates of unplanned pregnancies and abortions as they under-16-year-old counterparts. According to the report:

Data for England and Wales from the Office for National Statistics shows abortion rates in the 40-44 age group are four per 1,000 women--the same as for girls under 16. The Family Planning Association (FPA) said warnings about declining infertility and age may have gone "too far" and could be encouraging older women to abandon contraception. Fertility among those over 40 has more than doubled since 1988, from 5.1 to 12.6 per 1,000 women. There were 26,000 live births in this age group in 2008.

So the 2010 version of my friend's great line might be, "You know you're getting old when you're close to traditional retirement age, and not before!"