On Monday, 200 to 300 employees will be notified of their selection as "prime candidates" for 50 open positions in Iraq, said Harry K. Thomas, director general of the Foreign Service. Some are expected to respond by volunteering, he said. However, if an insufficient number volunteers by Nov. 12, a department panel will determine which ones will be ordered to report to the Baghdad embassy next summer.
But wait a minute, they're dangling a few carrots for you;
Those who are ordered to Baghdad as part of the new call-up will receive incentives, known as the Iraq Service Package, already offered to volunteers. It includes additional pay of about 70 percent for most mid-level officers, plus another 20 percent of basic salary to compensate for long hours. Officers are not allowed to take their families to Baghdad, but the package allows them to leave spouses and children in whatever post they transfer from for the length of their tour, or to send them back to Washington.
U.S. diplomats in Baghdad are given five "rest and relaxation" breaks during the year, including up to three of them in the United States, for a total of 60 days outside Iraq. Those completing a Baghdad tour are also given preference in choosing their next assignment."
Well, they probably did tell you, either in the interview, or when you first came to work at State, that you could end up in an exciting and exotic location.
"And so I think what you're really seeing here is the benefit of experience, the benefit of good leadership and the benefit of good partnership," Johnson said, "none of which were present in Katrina." (Wasn't Michael Chertoff DHS chief then?) Very smooth, very professional. But something didn't seem right. The reporters were lobbing too many softballs. No one asked about trailers with formaldehyde for those made homeless by the fires. And the media seemed to be giving Johnson all day to wax on and on about FEMA's greatness.
Of course, that could be because the questions were asked by FEMA staffers playing reporters. We're told the questions were asked by Cindy Taylor, FEMA's deputy director of external affairs, and by "Mike" Widomski, the deputy director of public affairs. Director of External Affairs John "Pat" Philbin asked a question, and another came, we understand, from someone who sounds like press aide Ali Kirin.
What may be sadder in all of this, is that, it wasn't far off the track of what the lapdog, lame, Kool-Aid-drinking Mainstream Media has been like for most of this regime.
After all, they carried it, live on television and nobody noticed anything unusual.
And the most ironic thing about it, forget about life-saving supplies, FEMA couldn't even deliver journalists to a press conference.
Time once again, to cue up Que Sera Sera... Bonus "Real" Links
"The Poughkeepsie Journal in New York reports that “Vice President Dick Cheney is coming to Duchess County again to go hunting.” On Monday, Cheney is “expected to leave Poughkeepsie and head to the Clove Valley Rod & Gun Club.”
People there should worry about the Vice President, not drinking, but falling asleep.
Barry Crimmins has another exclusive, this one concerning the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California.
Threatened by the raging wildfires that are devastating Southern California, Crimmins reports that "a ragtag group of American patriots, former residents of Central America and nation-less arms traders banded together" to save the day.
"I heard that Al Qaeda causes night to fall" Keith Olbermann
Heads are gonna roll on this one.
You can expect certain things ... Like the Rightwing Freakshow, such as Glen Beck and Stalkin' "M-Squared" Malkin, heads spinning like Linda Blair, foaming that the Environmentalists are to blame for the California wildfires.
You think that uber-newsman Roger Ailes would be on top of his game, especially this week, with the launch of the Faux Business Network. That they would be bellowing and hawking everything in the name of FBN. From Wall Street mergers to Kool-Aid stands (Republican, Red State Kool Aid stands, of course).
One small problem - the memo on this scoop was four-years old, and, if that wasn't noticed, California wasn't mentioned as being part of this attack.
2nd Memo to Roger: Make sure new producers you hire can read, or have eye-glasses
Now just think, you've launched an alleged business network, you have hours-and-hours of airtime to fill and you have this hot scoop on the Number One story in the nation this same week and you blow it!
I mean, Roger, jeepers, you could have milked this for two, possible three, days .. Maybe all week!
"Al Qaeda Set Wildfires To Destroy U.S. Timber Industry"
There's a day of talking heads ... Analysts, Lobbyists, other industry gadflys, egged on by your anchors, predicting dire consequences of no newspapers, no greeting cards (quick cut to Jane Doe, somewhere in Red State America, crying at not being able to send out Christmas Cards this year - Get O"Reilly on this one, so he can launch this years' War Against Christmas bullshit)
Or "Al Qaeda Wildfires Aimed At Crippling California Agriculture"
The Food Industry, Roger ... Oh, Christ, that's three-days, minimum ...
No lettuce for salads, which you can tie-in and exploit with the obesity issue ("Al Qaeda Wants To Make Americans Fat!") ... Avocados! ... Reporter stand-ups from Southern California restaurants, camera-shot on a lonely bowl of salsa chips, which, thanks to Al Qaeda, there's nothing to dip them into.
Grapes! ... Wine! ... Here's the tried-and-true Faux News brand of bashing the French ... That the French must be in cahoots with Al Qaeda so they can push up the sales of French wine, over California Wine ... More hours of experts babbling away, quoting Republican talking points ...
The Ratings Buster
And, of course Roger, the scoop of scoops ... The Ratings Buster ... The item that will redefine the maps that this story will place your fledgling network on ...
Using all the power of those skills so deftly employed by the Faux News Network, namely, making up whatever you want to drill home your jingoistic fear-mongering, and after hours and days of teasers about the big story, what it's all about, coming ...
"Al Qaeda Wildfires Seen As Diversion; Goal Is To Overtake Disneyland"
That's right. Osama bin Laden wants to take control of Disneyland and turn it into a Muslim playground ... All woman (including Minnie Mouse) visitors in hijabs ... Out goes the Hall of Presidents, in comes the Hall of Ayatollahs ... It now becomes Country Camel Jamboree ...
You let your "Chatty Kathy's" in the morning dribble out this faux story when you could have trumpeted it for days-on-end with your new business channel ... Aside from building your audience and television footprint, think of all that lost revenue ... Millions, Roger, millions ...
And you know what that means ... Ruppert comes down on you.
So, get busy, hire all those new producers and have them start combing through some more 4-year old intelligence memos ... There's gotta be another non-story story that you can puff up.
4. Needs to hire more people, to capture critical comment writers on liberal blog sites so they can be added to the list
3. Actually likes the Terror Watch List; Don't need to go to the FISA Court to put someone on it and tap their telephones
2. Approve RNC request to use it as a fundraiser - Big, six-figure donors get to look through list, see if there's anyone they know on it
1. Things have gotten better, and less confusing, since he listened to Laura and changed his other list to "Scary Movies To View" up in the living quarters
For the second straight day, Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney brought up the name of a Democratic rival, this time, saying he would back fellow candidate John McCain in "shooting Barack Obama".
Romney spokesman Kevin Madden brushed off the name stumble, highlighting it was the first time, since the debate, that Romney could reach out for "good advice" from his sons.
"Notice," Madden asked the assembled media, "that the Governor didn't say he would consult with lawyers before shooting Obama? Notice how decisive he was ... How he didn't hesitate to say he would use deadly force ... He'll be just as strong, just as quick, when he is the President."
When alerted to Romney's comments, Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton sighed.
So, they can't have OBL (more lingo usage) spouting off with new threats, boastfully. They've gotta have him sweating ... Nervous ... And, as you see above, it's a "Worried Bin Laden" today ...
"No, Mr. Vice President, we need something more telling ... Remember, the surge is working, we've got them on the run."
"You're right ... You're right ..."
"Let's say he's worried ... Worried conveys just enough weakness that our people can embellish on, in the PR's, etc ... We can tweak all the numbers to show that he has cause to be worried, etc ... Let's us show our strength ... "
I know it’s a week early, but much like when the little children come around in their Halloween costumes (rumor has the "No Health Insurance" is the hottest get-up), try to act scared and surprised ... You want to make them feel good.
Not expecting to see any action in the game, and after a night out-on-the-town, McGee was pressed into play after an injury to star receiver Boyd Dowler forced him to the sidelines.
McGee will live in posterity as the first person to score a Super Bowl touchdown, making a dazzling one-handed catch for a 37-yard TD. McGee went on to score another touchdown, ending the day with seven receptions for 138 yards.
Following his football career, Max McGee enjoyed success in developing restaurants and as a football television commentator.
According to a family friend, McGee was out partying the night before his death, getting virtually no sleep before attempting to clean the leaves from his roof.
"Max had no earthly idea he was going to die that day," said the friend.
Colbert may be thinking about changing his name, once again, this time to Col-Boring!
It was pretty brutal, almost to the point of having to reevaluate Rich Little's WHCA Dinner disaster (at least, being thankful that Little Timmy Russert didn't interview Rich as part of the act)
It was complete with awkward pauses, and awkward glances ... The longer it went on, leaving you on edge, and sickened, as if watching some of the Bush Grindhouse'snon-torture, torture practices.
We're talking about, of course, yesterday's 'Meet The Press', where the final segment of the show had Little Timmy Russert interviewing faux presidential candidate (who is also a faux news anchor/host) Stephen Colbert.
Now, Colbert has built himself a good gig and continues to inject humor, at times, into his one-joke act.
This "running for president" thing, though, is all about selling - what a surprise - a new book, written by - oh no, another surprise - Stephen Colbert.
And even Colbert himself must know that this thing went old about 10-minutes after he announced it, being he is only running in one state (his home of South Carolina; And he's running on both the Republican and Democratic ballots, apparently, to extend the joke).
This "running for president" thing is all about selling - what a surprise - a new book, written by - oh no, another surprise - Stephen Colbert.
As the great satirist Barry Crimmins noted last week, on comedians running for President, or other elective office, "It's been done".
But the MTP bomb ... Phew ... I supposed we should be grateful that Little Timmy didn't book him for the entire hour.
God, drill my teeth, without Novocain, in the middle of an insurance underwriters convention.
And to be fair to Colbert, Little Timmy was as much the culprit, with attempting to adopt the same persona as Colbert in which to interview this faux candidate.
Which is most ironic, being that, when Little Timmy is in his own persona, week-after-week, he, pretty much, is a softball-throwing, vice-presidential-favorite, faux newsman anyway.
The citizens of Dresden didn't endure as much of a bombing as this.
"He and Mr. Russert went round and round about his name, too, in one of the wilder moments when Mr. Russert held up a Sesame Street character and asked Mr. Colbert (who now pronounces his name Col-bair rather than his family’s pronunciation of Col-burt) to identify the other half of (fill-in-the blank) and Ernie. And Mr. Russert kept it up, asking why then he shouldn’t pronounce his own name as Russ-air."
How about 'Russ-Rear", as in a horse's ass.
And Stephen ... You don't need MTP ... You have your own show, five nights a week ... You want to sell a book, fine ... Wear a sandwich-board sign ... Or next time, go on Oprah ...
Here's a little something for you, before the big Game 7, this evening ...
We never know what's going to turn up when we run our, now infamous, baseball primers (featuring, of course, The Baseball Essay!) ... We get letters, for sure, lots of them (See the sidebar, under "Sports ... On The Garlic" for links).
Deidre (of Deidre and Jackie fame) emailed, hipping The Garlic to their exploits, up there in the dark, often rainy, Northwest city of Seattle.
Along with writing their blog, these two ladies are on the runway of fame and fortune, turning their lives, and the merger of said, with their life-long love of baseball, and have written a book - "Are Diamonds for Everyone?" - due to be published and released in 2008.
We finally realized that not working ourselves into a lather about the 1952 World Series didn’t make us any less of a fan than our male counterparts or others that considered themselves "real" fans. We were relieved when we realized that we simply enjoy baseball from a different perspective. This perspective is missing in baseball literature - it is that of the pure spectator. The one who was never coached in how to turn a double play. Our book is an effort to share our enthusiasm for baseball with lifelong fans and the "baseball curious" of either gender.
On Oct. 20, 1973, in the so-called Saturday Night Massacre, President Nixon abolished the office of special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox, accepted the resignation of Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and fired Deputy Attorney General William B. Ruckelshaus
The Congress of today would rather endorse, and be complicit with the abuses of the Constitution by a lawless, corrupt Executive Office, rather than to knock their teeth out and get them the hell out.
I'd put my money on Sam Ervin kicking Harry Reid's ass ... Bonus Links
If Condi says so, a lot of new State Dept. boots will be walking around in Baghdad
