I had a whole section about civic pride.

Mayor ,'Chosen'


Natter 63: Life after PuppyCam  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


tommyrot - Jan 22, 2009 9:50:47 am PST #3084 of 30000
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

I'm curious - how do the First Daughters get to school? Does the Secret Service take them? Is there a whole motorcade, or just one Chevy Suburban?


Fred Pete - Jan 22, 2009 9:51:18 am PST #3085 of 30000
Ann, that's a ferret.

Any adequate investigation would take time. Even assuming destruction of a lot of documents, there should be quite a few left. Witnesses would have to be found and interviewed. Whoever is conducting the investigation would have to recommend action, and I'd bet good money that several Cabinet members (and possibly the President himself) would be involved in reviewing those recommendations.

Who should investigate? I'd suggest a team (maybe three? five?) of senior civil-service-level Justice Department attorneys, a team of senior civil-service-level investigators from Homeland Security, and at least one or two senior civil-service-level advisors from Defense.


Tom Scola - Jan 22, 2009 9:58:48 am PST #3086 of 30000
Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.

[link]

One things seems clear regarding Condoleezza Rice’s stewardship of the State Department: she did not command the admiration of many of those who worked with her. The reaction of State Department employees as Hillary Clinton arrived this morning apparently bears comparison to the liberation of Paris at the end of World War II.


Matt the Bruins fan - Jan 22, 2009 10:06:15 am PST #3087 of 30000
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand

Huh. I'm kind of surprised to hear the negatives about Rice's tenure re: self-aggrandizement. While I knew she did her job shilling Bush's Let's Pretend approach to foreign policy, I'd had the impression that she was unique among Bush's cabinet (after Powell's departure, anyway) in being qualified to hold the position she was appointed to.


tommyrot - Jan 22, 2009 10:09:31 am PST #3088 of 30000
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

From Tom's link:

Here’s Eric Kleefeld’s report of [Clinton's] remarks:

This is going to be a challenging time, and it will require 21st-century tools and solutions to meet our problems and seize our opportunities. I’m gonna be asking a lot of you, I want you to think outside the proverbial box. I want you to give me the best advice you can, I want you to understand there is nothing that I welcome more than a good debate, and the kind of dialogue that will make us better.

Has Hilary always been like this, or is she channeling Obamna?


tommyrot - Jan 22, 2009 10:10:23 am PST #3089 of 30000
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

I'd had the impression that she was unique among Bush's cabinet (after Powell's departure, anyway) in being qualified to hold the position she was appointed to.

I'd say that I've heard a lot more negative appraisals of her leadership at State than positive.


Jesse - Jan 22, 2009 10:11:08 am PST #3090 of 30000
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

While I knew she did her job shilling Bush's Let's Pretend approach to foreign policy, I'd had the impression that she was unique among Bush's cabinet (after Powell's departure, anyway) in being qualified to hold the position she was appointed to.

You can be completely qualified and still self-aggrandizing and hard to work for.


Jessica - Jan 22, 2009 10:14:19 am PST #3091 of 30000
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

The reaction of State Department employees as Hillary Clinton arrived this morning apparently bears comparison to the liberation of Paris at the end of World War II.

According to my FiL, this is not really the case.

[eta: Not that Condi was winning any World's Best Boss awards, but career diplomats are skeptical of HRC's willingness to work within the existing bureaucracy vs setting up her own special envoys with their own independent offices. Apparently this was something that was done during Bill's term often enough to be a concern.]


Topic!Cindy - Jan 22, 2009 10:15:50 am PST #3092 of 30000
What is even happening?

I started to cry in the car again when they said "President Obama."

I cry every single time I read or watch something about him, and all I'm doing is reading and watching things about him. I've wanted this since July of 2004. I can't believe it's finally happened.


Hil R. - Jan 22, 2009 10:23:16 am PST #3093 of 30000
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

I'm curious - how do the First Daughters get to school? Does the Secret Service take them? Is there a whole motorcade, or just one Chevy Suburban?

In the videos clips of their first day of school, it looked like a three-car motorcade, I think -- the girls and their mother in a van, with a car in front and behind. (This is just what I remember from the bits that I saw, though, and it could be different when it's not the first day.)