Nathalie Blanchard Facebook Smile Leaves Her Depressed
Yet more evidence that privacy going away in the social media age. Facebook can be a double-edged sword, a Canadian woman learned when an insurance company cut her health benefits, claiming she was healthy after seeing pictures of her smiling in bikini at the beach. Nathalie Blanchard, 29, took long-term sick leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec, more than ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 22, 2009 12:08
Glenn Beck, Community Organizer
Glenn Beck has a plan. Actually, the Plan. Which he reveals on his website. Today, I have stopped looking for a leader to show us the way out because I have come to realize that the only one who can truly save our country...is us. To change America's course we need to change ourselves, our expectations and our willingness to accept ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 22, 2009 09:52
Hacked Climate Scientists Emails Reveal Truth
The University of East Anglia mail server was hacked earlier in the week and a string of private correspondences between esteemed climate scientists were published. In addition to some juicy internecine gossip becoming embarrassingly public, a few of the messages seem to reveal doubts about the evidence for global warming and at least one refers to a statistical "trick" being ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 21, 2009 08:46
Obama, the Recession, and Polls
A CNN poll released today finds that "opinion about which political party is responsible for the severe economic downturn is shifting." According to the survey, "38 percent of the public blames Republicans for the country's current economic problems. That's down 15 points from May, when 53 percent blamed the GOP. According to the poll 27 percent now blame the Democrats ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 20, 2009 18:06
Giuliani Running for Senate, Not Governor
Yesterday, the NYT and other outlets reported that former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani has decided against running for governor of New York. But the Daily News is reporting that he is instead "very likely" to run in the special election to fill the remaining two years of Hillary Clinton's U.S. Senate seat. The Republican heavyweight was considered the GOP's best shot ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 20, 2009 08:52
Congress to Investigate Fake Districts
Amanda Carpenter broke the news Tuesday that "The government Web site that promised to show exactly where the $787 billion in stimulus spending was going to 'create or save' jobs is allocating billions of tax dollars to hundreds of congressional districts that don’t exist." Researchers at the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity found 440 “phantom districts” listed on Recovery.gov, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 19, 2009 12:28
Medical Backtracking
Gail Collins proclaims the first ten years of the new millennium "the Decade of Medical Backtracking." Somewhere between the reports that Pap smears and tests for prostate cancer aren’t all they were cracked up to be and the news that a high fiber diet doesn’t do anything to prevent cancer, the health establishment began looking decidedly nonomniscient. Then this week, a ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 19, 2009 10:22
Did Texas Ban Marriage?
Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a Democratic candidate for Texas attorney general, claims a 2005 constitutional amendment designed to ban gay marriages actually bans all marriages. The amendment, approved by the Legislature and overwhelmingly ratified by voters, declares that "marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman." But the troublemaking phrase, as Radnofsky sees it, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 19, 2009 09:04
OTB Radio – Tonight at 5:30 Eastern
The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will talk about Sarah Palin's comeback tour and ensuing controversies and President Obama's Asia trip. Alex Knapp will join us to provide his legal expertise on the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial and Steve Verdon will stop by to discuss the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 18, 2009 18:23
EU Presidential Selection
Tomorrow night, the European Union will have its first-ever president. Time's Leo Cendrowicz reports that few Europeans much care, perhaps because they have no voice in the selection. In my New Atlanticist essay "Europe's President Selected, Not Elected," I both marvel at the fact that Europeans "not only have no direct voice in choosing the leader but don't even know who ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 18, 2009 15:49
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Show Trial
In my initial posting on the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Trial, I asserted that "there’s an incredibly good chance that Mohammed and his comrades will go free. The fact that KSM was repeatedly waterboarded would seem to taint any subsequent evidence, including his own confession." This was based on the presumption that the whole point of trying KSM in a civilian court ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 18, 2009 13:04
75 Gitmo Detainees in Limbo
Marc Ambinder finds a hidden news story in this WaPo report by Perry Bacon: Administration officials say they expect that as many as 40 of the 215 detainees at Guantanamo will be tried in federal court or military commissions. About 90 others have been cleared for repatriation or resettlement in a third country, and about 75 more have been deemed too ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 18, 2009 12:08
National Debt Hits $12 Trillion, Will Double By 2019
Barack Obama has been president for just under 10 months but he's added two trillion to the national debt and will double it by the end of the decade. CBS' Mark Knoller: This latest milestone in the ever-rising journey of the National Debt comes less than eight months after it hit $11 trillion for the first time. The latest high-point is ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 18, 2009 10:07
Newsweek’s Sarah Palin Cover
Newsweek's choice of cover art for its Sarah Palin issue has managed to generate controversy for three days now, finally prompting a response from the editors. The salient passage: To note that choosing that particular photograph has ruffled a few feathers is perhaps an understatement. Palin denounced it—and us—to her million-strong Facebook following last night. "The choice of photo for the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 18, 2009 08:07
Obama Frustrates Europe on Climate Change
"Obama Has Failed the World on Climate Change," blares a Spiegel op-ed by Christian Schwägerl. The essay is another data point in the growing notion that the new American president's aura is fading on the other side of the Atlantic. But, as I argue in my New Atlanticist essay "Obama Disappoints Europe Ahead of Copenhagen," this was all too predictable. Indeed, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 17, 2009 20:40
