Monthly Archive for March, 2007

Senator Clinton tried to do what?

Huh? Here's one of those things thats so hard to believe that its got to be true: Senator Clinton once tried to join the Marines. Yeah, thats what I thought too. Here's the relevent bit from a new Michael Crowley piece in the New Republic. Crowley

in her late twenties, Hillary Rodham Clinton briefly attempted to enlist in the U.S. Marines.

That last fact — reported in 1994 but largely forgotten since — underlines the degree to which, unlike many of her peers, Clinton has never allowed Vietnam to define her vision of foreign policy. It's true that the war helped pull her from her roots as a Goldwater Girl and a president of Wellesley College's Young Republicans and drive her into the Democratic Party. During her junior year at Wellesley, she even knocked on doors for Eugene McCarthy's antiwar campaign. But Vietnam apparently didn't imbue Hillary with a loathing for the military. In 1975, just months after the last U.S. troops returned home, Hillary was living in Arkansas with Bill, who had mounted a failed bid for Congress the previous year. The young couple, who would marry later that year, were both teaching law at the University of Arkansas, when Hillary, for reasons never made entirely clear, decided to enlist in the Marines. When she walked into a recruiting office in Little Rock and inquired about joining, the recruiter on duty was unenthusiastic about the 27-year-old law professor in thick, goggle glasses. "You're too old, you can't see, and you're a woman," Clinton recalled him saying. "Maybe the dogs"–Marine slang for the Army–"would take you." Deflated, Clinton said she decided to "look for another way to serve my country."

From there, the trail seems to go cold.

(via Garance Franke-Ruta over at Tapped

Nothing to hide

Why, exactly, would Karl Rove be sending 95% of his emails through an RNC account rather then his White House account? Could it be that the laws/rules concerning preservation of White House communications are not applicable to outside accounts? Why, it almost sounds like Mr. Rove is trying to hide his emails from the public. That can't be right, can it? I mean, what would Mr. Rove possibly have to hide?

(via TPM Muckraker)  

LOL (Laugh Out Loud)

I hate people who write "LOL" in emails or IM's but thats just me. Having said that, this Daily Show segment will most certainly make you laugh out loud. 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q64iBzsKls[/youtube] 

Is that an crocodile in your pocket or…

Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner for today's weirdest news story of the day

A woman with three crocodiles strapped to her waist was stopped at the Gaza-Egypt border crossing after guards noticed that she looked "strangely fat," officials said Monday.

The woman's shape raised suspicions at the Rafah terminal in southern Gaza, and a body search by a female border guard turned up the animals, each about 20 inches long, concealed underneath her loose robe, according to Maria Telleria, spokeswoman for the European observers who run the crossing.

"The woman looked strangely fat. Even though she was veiled and covered, even with so many clothes on there was something strange," Telleria said.

Words fail me.  

Take off when ever you like

The San Jose Mercury News (yes my reading menu is quite extensive) had an interesting article the other day about Netflix's vacation policy. In short, they have none. Take off whenever you want, for as long as you want, just make sure you get your work done

When it comes to vacation, Netflix has a simple policy: take as much as you'd like. Just make sure your work is done.

Employees at the online movie retailer often leave for three, four, even five weeks at a time and never clock in or out. Vacation limits and face-time requirements, says Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings, are "a relic of the industrial age."

"The worst thing is for a manager to come in and tell me: `Let's give Susie a huge raise because she's always in the office.' What do I care? I want managers to come to me and say: `Let's give a really big raise to Sally because she's getting a lot done' - not because she's chained to her desk."

Netflix, I like where your head's at, I'm totally behind this kind of policy. Now as its later pointed out in the article this policy only applies to the 300 or so salaried employees, not the hourly people who work in their distribution and customer service centers. Still, for a relatively small company, why not adapt such liberal leave policies? Employees would love it (I know I would) and if the work is getting done in a timely (and correct) fashion, where's the loss to the employer? 

I should also point out that this article contains one of the lamer attempts I've ever seen to try and be "hip". To wit:

Across America, executives are searching for ways to keep experienced Baby Boomers at their companies and attract younger workers, many of whom are used to controlling which songs they listen to and where they get their news.

Those crazy kids, with there controlling music selection and reading the news where they want! What will they do next?!?!?

(via Jason Kottke

Note to self: read own book

I understand that sometimes famous people are either too busy or unskilled to write their own books, hence the heavy use of ghostwriters. Often this is for the best as an incoherent, awful book actually written by a famous person is obviously worse then a book written by a ghostwriter that incorporates the famous person's ideas/thoughts/words. Having said that, its probably a good idea to, you know, read the book that is purported to be yours. Case in point, former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX):

Appearing on Hardball with Chris Matthews to promote his new book, No Retreat, No Surrender, it's clear former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) didn't write it and perhaps never even read it before it was published.

Matthews asked DeLay about passages in his book where described former Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX) as "drunk with ambition." Amazingly, DeLay denied writing that, even after Matthews showed him the underlined passage in his own book. (Political Wire)    

Here's the actual video of the whole exchange:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvOugoeztB0[/youtube] 

(via the Plank

Friday Random Ten

Another edition of the Friday Random Ten. How the time flies by. I've added some new music (Aerosmith, Snow Patrol, etc.) so we might have a bit of a different flavor this week, who knows? No comments 'cause I've been in meetings all day. Enjoy.  

1. Alan Jackson, The Talkin' Song Repair Blues

2. Wu Tang Clan, C.R.E.A.M.

3. The Beatles, I Am The Walrus

4. The Polyphonic Spree, Section 9 

5. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, 1st of Da Month 

6. Lifehouse, You and Me 

7. Counting Crows, Accidentally in Love 

8. Young Jeezy, I Luv It 

9. Nas feat Lauryn Hill, If I Ruled the World 

10. The Offspring, Self-Esteem 

The Edwards press conference

Watched the entire Edwards press conference and the two big pieces of news are obviously that 1) Elizabeth Edwards' cancer is back and 2) (and much less importantly) Senator Edwards is not suspending his campaign (contrary to the information cited in my previous post). Here's what the WaPo is reporting concerning the cancer:

Elizabeth Edwards' doctor told reporters she has metastatic Stage IV breast cancer that has spread to other parts of her body. Medical tests yesterday confirmed that her cancer has spread to the bone, the couple announced.

"The biopsy showed the cancer had returned" and spread, John Edwards said. Nonetheless, he added, "We are very optimistic about this."

The cancer is not curable but it is treatable, John Edwards said.

This is, obviously, not good at all. I won't pretend to be a doctor or anything but from what I've heard in talking to people with some experience in these matters its not good. Again I suppose all that can be done is wish the Edwards family well and hope for the best. 

As for Senator Edwards' decision to keep campaigning, I'm not really sure what I think. I don't think he would make that choice without consulting his wife but then, from what I know of Ms.Edwards, I wouldn't expect her to say anything but that he must continue. Senator Edwards did say:

"Any time, any place I need to be with Elizabeth I will be there—period."

and while I believe this to be the case (as it absolutely should be) it puts him at some sort of disadvantage to his opponents who (thankfully) do not have the same tragic problem to deal with. I'm not sure exactly how its possible to be a candidate running for your party's nomination and a supportive husband all at once, though I am confident that if anyone can pull it off its Senator Edwards. 

I can't stomach getting in to the politics of this news but I will pass along that several people at my office who could stomach discussing this in cold political terms all agreed that this was a positive for Senator Edwards' political chances. Take that for whatever its worth.  

Other notes: Ben Smith over at the Politico has a post up explaining how he got the Edwards thing completely wrong (this is where I got my info but I also saw numerous other organizations predict the suspension of the campaign as well). And here's one story of Ms.Edwards' kindness, I imagine we'll be seeing many more of these types of stories told in the next few days.  

I'm still processing my thoughts on the whole matter and I'll probably be returning to this as things come together.  

Awful news

Senator Edwards will apparently announce today at a press conference that he is suspending his campain for President and may be dropping out entirely. This comes after Senator Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, had a check up with her doctor yesterday and may have suffered a recurrence of the breast cancer that sickened her in 2004. From Ben Smith's blog at the Politico:

"At a minimum he's going to suspend" the campaign, the source said. "Nobody knows precisely how serious her recurrence is. It’ll be another couple of days before there’s complete clarity."

"For him right now he has one priority which is her health and the security of the two young children," said the friend.

As for the campaign, "You don't shut this machine off completely, but everything will go on hold."

While I am tremendously disappointed that Senator Edwards is withdrawing (possibly) I think its the right thing to do in light of the tragic circumstances. Having met Ms. Edwards briefly, and from stories I've heard, I can attest that she is a remarkable woman and I, along with many other's I'm sure, wish her all the best in the world as she fights this battle. 

Back in the saddle, here’s a little humor

I'm back from a two day staff retreat and ready to get back in to the swing of things. To start off with here's something that was emailed to me (yes, its one of those things people forward around, my mom being a huge culprit of this) thats more then worth sharing. Enjoy (sorry for the poor formating, its a copy and past job). 

After every flight, Qantas pilots fill out a form, called a "gripe sheet,"which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight. Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humor…

Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by Qantas pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers. By the way, Qantas is the only major airline that has never had an accident.

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.

S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit.

S: Something tightened in cockpit.
P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.
P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minutedescent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what they're for.

P: IFF inoperative.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you're right.

P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny. (I love this one!)
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.

P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.

And the best one for last…

P. Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget
poundingn something  with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget