namaste, dammit!

Raq, I've been meaning to ask you this because at one point in my life I was flirting with the idea of taking the foreign exam and now I'm flirting with the idea of possibly at some point maybe considering applying for a DODD school position.

Do you find pressure to not badmouth an administration you disagree with when your job or the job of your spouse is to be a representative of the US abroad? I guess what I'm trying to ask is if I were a DODD teacher or in USFS, would I be able to espouse my anti-administration views freely or would there be pressures to not do so openly or even repercussions for doing so?

there were busses all around the city ready to take people to safer ground, but people wouldn't leave the city.

NOLA reports have reached such saturation levels that I can't remember where I read it. But I thought I read that the NOLA busses stopped running Saturday.

I'm not convinced that Bush cares about white people more than black people.

I agree in part with Strega. I don't know about claims of racism, but I'd argue that Bush doesn't care about poor people, black or white.

FWIW, I don't think it's that Bush doesn't care about them because they are black, or because they are poor. They are simply other people, and it doesn't occur to him to care about other people.

Okay, yes. He doesn't actually care about anyone. But when people are rich, he, at least, pretends to care.

"I'm afraid I would have assaulted him."

I heart Clinton.

Halliburton

BWAH. In hearing news reports about Bush's appproval rating dropping, I keep remembering the Vanity Fair article about how second-term presidencys are always the ones with the Big Scandal that shakes the administration.

I keep waiting for Bush's. Maybe it's on the horizon.

The prosecutor is supposed to be wrapping the Plame investigation this fall.

I hope that we'll see something come of that investigation Tom. It seems like most people don't care about it though.

I wish it were more satisfying to see the popularity ratings tanking. The only thing that will satisfy is for them to be gone. The loss of life that could have been prevented if there had been competent leadership watching the weather channel.

And of course Halliburton stock went way the hell up. [link] What % of the windfall do you suppose they will contribute?

I'll watch TDS during the week and perhaps laugh, but it is getting harder to find any humor in this farce of a government. So many lives lost under his leadership.

I can't tell you how many times I type and delete. My level of horror and anger is making it impossible to articulate.

I think I love Viggo Mortensen just about as much as I love Bill Clinton. From here: [link] --

In the often and rightly quoted words of Bill Clinton, "There's nothing wrong with America that can't be fixed by what's right with America." We see now how individuals and groups around the country are acting in any way they can to help their fellow citizens in Louisiana, Mississippi and other devastated places near the Gulf of Mexico. They refuse to stand idly by and wait for President Bush and his morally-bankrupt, pirate administration to respond in an appropriately urgent and compassionate manner to the escalating agony and desperation of our fellow citizens. This agony and desperation was caused in large part by a near complete absence of adequate federal government funding, preparedness, and leadership. We the people will continue to help Americans and non-Americans alike, with or without the participation or approval of George W. Bush and his Neo-Conservative cohorts. While it is true that what is most important right now is to rescue, feed, house, and in any way possible care for those immediately affected by the disaster, it is equally true that in the long run those directly responsible for aggravating the tragic situation must be held accountable. The mounting evidence of the Bush administration's criminal mismanagement of the nation, as well as its consistently arrogant disregard for our planet's people and natural environments must be confronted immediately. Those who voted for Bush last year, or who have continually supported his outlaw administration in its destructively dishonest conduct, including not only extremist conservatives but also politically-calculating democrats, need not hang their heads or avert their eyes now. What they can and ought to do is join the increasing numbers of Americans who are demanding that presidential impeachment proceedings be initiated as soon as possible. Members of the Bush Administration responsible for the blatant lies and self-serving manipulations that have fanned the flames of disaster from Iraq to New Orleans must be prosecuted as our laws require. We must insist on this. Furthermore, we must not allow these disgracefully unpatriotic public servants to be pardoned by any future president as Gerald Ford did for Richard Nixon. Please call or write your government representatives and help get the scoundrels out of government and in prison where they belong. Do not allow the subject to be changed, do not be distracted. The time to act is now. Take back your country. - Viggo Mortensen, 1 Sept., 2005

Damn, like he wasn't already on my HOTT list. Thanks Teppy. That's some articulate anger there. It's hard to hold on to any hope that we will take back our country.

Do you find pressure to not badmouth an administration you disagree with when your job or the job of your spouse is to be a representative of the US abroad? I guess what I'm trying to ask is if I were a DODD teacher or in USFS, would I be able to espouse my anti-administration views freely or would there be pressures to not do so openly or even repercussions for doing so?

Dammit, I had Robert write a response to this, and then lost the post. The short answer(s): I don't know anything about DODDs schools; I've only worked with the American School and International School. There hasn't been a DODD school anywhere we've served.

And no, you wouldn't be able to be anti-administration in the Foreign Service. Not officially ever; in fact, you'd have to implement the administration's policy, whether you personally disagreed with it or not, and do so to the best of your ability. You can not criticize the administration when you are in an official capacity, and when you're overseas you are official 24/7. To do so is a firing offense.

My capacity as a spouse/contractor is a little different, but I do have to be mindful that my statements and actions can be used against my spouse...things I say are probably not going to get him fired, but at any reception I'm going to smile and say "President Bush is our boss."

The thing about the Foreign Service mindset is it's long-term. Administrations come and go; you do your best for your country no matter what. You may be sucking it up now, but others in the service were sucking it up then.

(Guests back, gotta go; feel free to email me if you want!)

dailykos poster transcribes a BBC newscast. (snippets are below).

Announcer: The relief operation is the largest ever conducted in America. It's being coordinated by the US Northern Command in Colorado. Leftenant Commander Sean Kelly explains how the relief effort is being organized.

Kelly: US Northern Command is the command that coordinates the military support for our federal and state agencies. They call up and request a capability and we try and provide that capability, whether it's medical resources, search and rescue helicopters, food, water, transportation, communications; that's what we provide.

A: Now I'm sure you're aware of the criticism that the authorities have been slow to respond to this. When did you get the order to start relied work?

K: NorthCom started planning before the storm even hit. We were ready for the storm when it hit Florida because, as you remember, it crossed the bottom part of Florida, and then we were plaining, you know, once it was pointed towards the Gulf Coast. So what we did was we activated what we call defense coordinating officers to work with the state to say okay, what do you think you'll need, and we set up staging bases that could be started. We had the USS Baton sailing almost behind the hurricane so that after the hurricane made landfall it's search and rescue helicopters would be available almost immediately. So we had things ready. The only caveat is, we have to wait until the President authorizes us to do so. The laws of the United States say that the military can't just act in this fashion, we have to wait for the President to give us permission. [EMPHASIS FROM TRANSCRIBER]

[link]