Foreign Affairs Day, May 2

Here is something that came out from AFSA: The AFSA Memorial Plaque Ceremony will be held on Friday, May 2 at 10:25 a.m., in the C St. lobby of the State Department in front of the west plaque.

The ceremony takes place during Foreign Affairs Day to honor those Foreign Service personnel who have lost their lives while serving their country overseas in the line of duty or under heroic or other inspirational circumstances...

Deputy Secretary John Negroponte will preside over the ceremony. He will read a message from President Bush and pay his respects to the families of the two employees whose names we will be adding to the plaque, bringing the total to 227.

STEVEN THOMAS STEFANI IV
Steven (Tom) Stefani was a USDA Forest Service employee on voluntary assignment with the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service in Afghanistan. He was serving on a Provincial Reconstruction Tean as an agricultural advisor when he was killed in an explosion on October 4, 2007 in Ghazni Province. He had recently requested an extension of his service. He was 28 years old, and is survived by his parents and two younger brothers who live in the Auburn, CA area. Many of his colleagues from the PRTs in Afghanistan plan to attend the ceremony.

JOHN MICHAEL GRANVILLE
John Granville was a Democracy and Governance Officer serving with USAID in Sudan. He was killed in Khartoum on January 1, 2008, along with his driver, Abdelrahman Abbas Rahama, when their vehicle was fired upon as they were returning from an official reception. Mr. Granville was a former Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon who later returned there as a Fullbright Scholar. He served in Kenya prior to his assignment in Sudan. He was 33 years old, and leaves behind his mother and sister, who reside outside Buffalo, NY, as well as many devoted friends and colleagues.

The solemn ceremony offers us an opportunity to remember and honor our fallen colleagues who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country, and to remind us of the extremely dangerous and difficult conditions that our Foreign Service personnel face today in many parts of the world. Our deepest sympathies and heartfelt gratitude go out to all their loved ones.

Deputy Secretary Negroponte will give the keynote address in the Dean Acheson Auditorium to the over 500 retirees who will be attending this year's Foreign Affairs Day, prior to the Plaque Ceremony.

Update: The Secretary's official schedule per state.gov posting indicates that she is traveling to the United Kingdom, Israel, and the West Bank from May 1 to May 5.

Presdo: Online Agenda Whiz for the Busy Diplomat

I once worked in an office where the secretary had no idea how to use the appointment option in Outlook, so setting up one meeting with the boss and a few other folks invariably generated a dozen or so email updates and cancellations in a span of a few hours, not to mention the migraines that came as bonus for the meeting participants trying to sort out which appointment is the correct one.

Given that experience, I was excited to discover Presdo, a quick online scheduler that easily works with the Outlook calendar (as well as Yahoo! Calendar, Google Calendar and Apple iCal). Since most FS users have Outlook loaded in their workstations, and Presdo is an accessible online tool for anyone with Internet connection, this has the potential of making your life easier when it comes to scheduling and tracking your busy schedule. I see particular value of this tool for FSOs who often have appointments and events after hours and during weekends, especially those overseas who do not have access to their Outlook calendars when they are out of the office. I’m looking at this as a weekend complement to Outlook, to ensure that whatever appointments you make outside of the normal workday can easily be integrated into your official appointment calendar at work without skipping a beat.

The company says that Presdo takes the hassle out of trying to find the best time to get together with people by minimizing the annoying ping pong of email, texting, and voicemail when organizing the next team lunch or when trying to grab coffee with a friend. And that’s true since this tool lets you propose one or more time when inviting your guests, making it easier to find the best time for everyone. So you start simply with “what” and with “whom” like -- “Meeting with John, OBC Saturday,” “Movie with Cindy Fri night,” “Coffee with Diplopundit next week” –see below. You can enter the email addresses of all the prospective attendees to your event and you can send the invitation with one click of a mouse (I would like to see an email address import functionality added here).

If you are in the US, you can use the map option, but I find that overseas it is easier to just enter the location for each appointment. A news update from the company did say that Presdo’s location features for those in Europe or Asia are working much better now, but I have not tried it after the new refinement.

Your invitees can accept your initial time, or they can pick from other times if the initial time is not good for them. Presdo keeps track of when everyone wants to get together. It shows you the other best times based on everyone’s input, and you decide if you should change the time of the event. Part of its beauty is you don’t have to switch screen to calendar or email, you can send the desired changes from the same window!

The two things I like best about Presdo are 1) simple, uncluttered interface and 2) it allows you to coordinate events with guests/attendees who are in other time zones. The time that you enter will be shown to them in their local time zone. For example, if you organize an event at 9am in the PST time zone with a guest in the EST time zone, your guest will see the time as 12pm. The same applies if you are a guest suggesting other times for an event. Any time that you enter is always based on the time zone setting of your computer, so you just have to make sure that your computer’s time zone setting has been set to the local time zone where you are and Presdo will do the rest. Neat, huh?

Presdo is founded by Eric Ly, who previously was a co-founder of LinkedIn and was its first chief technology officer. Tech Crunch reported that Ly wrote most of the code himself and bootsrapped the entire site with only $35,000 of his own money and was quoted as saying: “I left LinkedIn on a Friday, and started Presdo on Saturday.” Two years later - Presdo! In the company blog, Ly writes:

“Presdo was started not only to address a need that we all have but also to represent some important ideals about the way people build technology companies. All of us at Presdo use products we love and find indispensable. You and I probably agree on what many of these products are. The products that most excite us offer something refreshing while adding value to our lives. They make us feel good when we use them. When we began Presdo, we set for ourselves not a modest challenge: can we bring useful and interesting products to market that are even better than the best products we admire? And in doing so, can we build a profitable company that enables us to continue to create value for our customers? These are important goals for us.”

A grounded dreamer, what’s not to like? Let me know if this works for you!

To read more, click here: http://www.presdo.com/help

To sign up for a new account, click here: http://www.presdo.com/

To view a recent screencast on Presdo by Demogirl, click here.

Iraq's Unsafe Haven

Yesterday in a Newsweek web exclusive, Lennox Samuels has a piece about Baghdad 's Green Zone as the latest battleground in the struggle for Iraq and writes in part:

"More than 1,000 State Department and military staffers work in the American Embassy, which is housed in Saddam Hussein's former Republican Palace. Most live in trailers on the palace grounds, and many of them began sleeping in the embassy when the bombardments began and have yet to return to their trailer beds. "There have been cots all over the embassy and people sleeping in stairwells and hallways," says a State Department analyst who would not be named discussing embassy matters. Many are afraid to sleep in their cramped metal containers, which are considered flimsy and inadequately protected. The trailers sit next to each other in rows of two, three or more. A rocket destroyed a row of trailers and people were "just freaked out," says the embassy staffer. "If somebody had given me a gun and told me 'five guys are coming to kill you,' that would have been preferable to going to sleep in this tin can not knowing if you're going to wake up," adds the embassy analyst. KBR, the engineering and construction contractor, is hiring more people to sandbag housing areas at the embassy in response to an embassy request, according to a company memo. The company asked for volunteers to help with the sandbagging and said that the project will now be completed by June rather than October. The number of heavy concrete barriers, called T-walls, will also be increased.

Meanwhile, diplomats are taking no chances. As the attacks continued into Monday afternoon, with a projectile apparently landing near the U.S. Embassy grounds, staffers there were issued a memo discouraging them from driving around the Zone and recommending that they keep "Personal Protective Equipment" readily available in living quarters. "Personnel should minimize time outside as much as possible," the memo said. "… It is recommended you spend as much time as possible in hardened facilities with overhead cover. It is also recommended that you sleep in hardened facilities with overhead cover … If you decide to sleep in your trailer, please remember that your ability to quickly react could save your life."

Click here to read the entire article.

Fact-checking Voter ID

"It's especially worrisome that the court has sent a signal making it easier to put up barriers to people voting," said Michael Waldman, executive director of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's law school. "There's a real risk that people will see this as a green light to pass restrictive voter ID laws in other states."

Uh, yeah ...

Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst hailed Monday's Supreme Court ruling that approves states' efforts to pass a voter identification law and said he looks forward to passing such a measure when the legislature meets again next year.

The ruling galvanizes a Republican-inspired effort that Democrats say will keep some poor, older and minority voters from casting ballots.

"With this legal challenge now behind us, I look forward to passing a fair voter ID law in Texas next year that fully protects the voting rights of all U.S. citizens registered to vote in Texas," Dewhurst said.

Except that Voter ID is legislation to fix a problem which only exists in the minds of Republican conspiracy theorists:

Republican Claim: Voter Fraud is an "Epidemic" in Texas

FACT CHECK: Even fiercely partisan Republican Attorney General Abbott has admitted that after spending millions of Texas and federal taxpayer dollars investigating, "there have been few [voter fraud] prosecutions in Texas." The Austin American Statesman editorialized: "Voter fraud is not an issue because Texas is not being flooded with unregistered voters and illegal immigrants flocking to the polls. That just isn't happening." (Source: Austin American-Statesman, April 26, 2007)

Republican Claim: Non-citizens voting is a major problem throughout the U.S.

FACT CHECK: The Department of Justice’s Ballot Access and Voting Integrity Initiative has resulted in just 14 convictions of non-citizens voting in the entire United States between 2002 and 2005. That is less then 5 noncitizens voting a year. (Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Public Integrity Section, Election Fraud Prosecutions & Convictions, Ballot Access & Voting Integrity Initiative, October 2002 – September 2005; The Politics of Voter Fraud, Minnite, Ph.D. Columbia University)

Republican Claim: Everyone has an ID

FACT CHECK: Even the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute admitted that 37% of Texas residents over the age of 80 did not have a driver's license. (TCCRI Commentary, May 1, 2007)

Republican Claim: Democratic operatives are pushing the opposition to the Voter Suppression Bill

FACT CHECK: The objections to the voter ID legislation are broad and bipartisan. The bill is opposed by non-partisan groups like the AARP and League of Women Voters, as well as every major Texas newspaper and many local newspapers. (Source: Associated Press, April 23, 2007) Former Republican Party Political Director Royal Massett has been one of the most outspoken opponents of the bill saying: "Anyone who says all legal voters under this bill can vote doesn't know what he is talking about." (Source: The Houston Chronicle, April 26, 2007)

http://www.lonestarproject.net/archive/2007-11-30VoteSuppress.pdf

So back to the point ...

Across the country, as many as 20 million people lack such identification, most of them minorities and the elderly who don't have drivers' licenses or passports and are unable to afford the cost of obtaining documentation to apply for such identification, advocacy groups say.

In Indiana, more than 20 percent of black voters do not have access to a valid photo ID, according to an October 2007 study by the University of Washington.

In Marion County, 34 Indiana voters without the proper identification were forced to file provisional ballots in an offseason local election. According to Indiana's photo law, voters have 10 days to return to the county courthouse with the proper identification. They can also file an affidavit claiming poverty.

"Who's going to do that?" asked Bob Brandon, president of Fair Elections Legal Network, a nonpartisan network of election lawyers. "Who's going to show up and sign an affidavit saying 'I'm poor'?"

Boss Checklist: When Considering Your Next Foreign Service Assignment

A conversation this past weekend made me think about prospective bosses during assignment time and how little employees usually know about them. Unless you're plugged exceptionally well into the system, you won't really know what that next boss is like until you're at post. Your interest on boss-matters also largely depends on where you are in your career. Early on, with the excitement of going to one’s first assignment, there is that sense of great adventure and invincibility; later in one’s career after having earned a bit of wisdom and experience, one tends to be more adroit in asking specific questions about the person who will “own” you for a couple or so years.

It goes without saying that even if you're lucky to have a great boss during your tour, it is within the realm of possibility that the boss rotates out in the middle of your tour and is replaced by somebody who’s well, a train wreck, and you’d still spend part of your tour in a junkyard of sorts. There are only so many things we can control in this kind of life, of course, but having an “early warning system,” at least prepares us for it. The old “What’s the boss like?” question is often too generalized to be useful. So I’ve come up with a checklist that would help tell if the prospective boss is a, uh, jerk.

( ) Speedway Boss

Is the prospective boss perceived as focused on the current job or searching for the next big gig? The boss who is in a race to get ahead has limited patience in growing his/her people. This boss expects you to figure out everything for yourself – how to jump off planes without parachutes, or swim the great oceans from day one (zero consideration even if you come from a landlocked country) – you’ve got to figure it all out for yourself because he/she does not have time for coaching or mentoring; too busy to make pit stops while getting to the next job.

( ) Employees’ Reference

What do past employees say about working for the prospective boss? Would they want to work with him/her again? This is an excellent question to ask because in the small universe of the FS, you tend to bump on the same people throughout the span of your entire career. The desire to keep relationships on an even keel has its many returns especially when you consider possible future posts. So when past officers say they won’t work for this boss again, that means it must have been truly memorable.

( ) Silent Signals

How do local employees interact with the prospective boss? Is he/she well-liked and respected that they find ways to engage, put extra efforts, share laughs, find excuses to celebrate at work or do they circumnavigate the office to get somewhere without passing by his/her office? Do they call in sick rather than have one-on-one meetings with the boss or get a stomachache rather than attend the boss’ birthday party? The locals have seen us come and go; they have seen the great, the good, the bad and the ugly, and they usually know more than they let on. Their silent signals are pretty much a guide post, it's worth paying attention before you bumped on it head-on.

( ) Tolerance Factor

How does the prospective boss react to mistakes and bad news? Does he/she suffers from the “shoot-the- messenger” syndrome or is he/she the kind that perceives mistakes as opportunities for learning. The boss whose office is littered with empty shells sinks sooner than later (no matter how tightly the ship is run) because the crew is often too afraid to report when there’s a hole in the stern. Beware, unless you’re a great swimmer!

( ) Dissenting Chair

How receptive is the prospective boss to criticisms and dissenting views? Does prospective boss encourage a diversity of ideas and give people with contrary views a seat in the table to understand all the issues or does he/she marginalized the people and ignore dissenting views? The boss intolerant to dissent is often proud of running a tight ship because, well, see - nobody sneezes without asking for permission first. (Note: Don’t get tempted even if post looks like paradise; remember that paradise can be hell if you work for a lout).

( ) Screaming Red Flag

Were there “nuggets of wisdom” that past employees passed around among themselves on how to deal with prospective boss? “Let the boss think your idea is really her own, she likes that.” Or “He does not like to be contradicted, so don't say anything; let him do the talking.” Or “She has an unbelievable photographic memory when it comes to mistakes.” The fact that the staff has developed informal guidelines in dealing with the boss is a screaming red flag that you should not ignore. As I write this item, I am reminded how parents sometimes exchange tips on what to do to avoid toddler meltdown. Kinda similar.

( ) A Sheep or Two

Does the prospective boss surround self with sheep? Are there a few employees who act as gatekeepers, confidants or friends to the exclusion of the larger group? Note that the shepherd boss tends to listen only to a few individuals tested for their loyalty. Employees who rat out on their co-workers to earn brownie points and follow the boss without question qualify as sheep. What’s wrong with being a sheep you might ask? Nothing - as long as you don’t care what boss feeds you with.

( ) Information Superhighway Filter

How does the prospective boss manage communication? Does the boss tend to hoard information to control the message (or for one-upmanship) or are communication lines open and straightforward? A lousy boss tends to impose a circuitous communication structure when dealing with the outside world and routes everything through his/her desk. This one acts as the information superhighway filter and as a consequence, is also quite adept at managing impression. Bottom line – you usually won’t see smoke even if boss is causing deadly havoc within the organization (survivors of course, are branded for life).

( ) Team of One

Does the prospective boss hug the limelight during work successes or does he/she shine the light on to his/her team? The boss who is in a team of one usually has little interest in the process, or the journey but focused solely on the results and the destination. Any project or initiative takes on a fixed deadline to ensure that the boss gets his/her brownie points in time for the EER or the bid cycle. Overworked and under appreciated, people working for this boss usually feel the blues once on Monday and twice on any given workday.

( ) Kiss and Kick Intelligence (KKQ)

How does the boss respond to feedback from people higher in rank and lower in rank? Bob Sutton and Guy Kawasaki called this the “kisses-up, kicks-down” item in their checklist. They described this as follows: the One characteristic of certified assholes is that they tend to demean those who are less powerful while brown-nosing their superiors. Oh golly, that’s blunt, need I say more? Do check out the Sutton-Kawasaki-LinkedIn checklist.

This is not to say that we do not have good managers at State, we do but - as in the larger world out there, we also have those that manifest part or all of the items in this checklist. And what bugs me is that they get rewarded with better assignments anyway, and some are politically savvy enough that they could even end up in the SFS.

In any case, perhaps nobody really needs a checklist like this except me (type A personality and all that). After all, one great thing about the FS is we move every couple or so years, which means, nobody get struck with a lousy boss forever. If that fact does not cheer you up, you can always buy a reverse clock like this one that can count backwards from any date out to 2024 (just replace the photo with the correct one, okay?). We'll have to think of some other cheerful prop in 2025; though I'm a "glass is full" kind of person and hope that by then, we won't have to.

They just have to make it close enough to steal

Sure, the media is obsessed with trashing Obama or Clinton, depending on the week or sound byte that can be taken out of context and twisted to insinuate that Democrats hate America or love terrorists or whatever other utter horseshit that they can conjure up to distract from the fact that John McCain is dangerous, or contradictory or just a flat out liar.

But the corporate media as well as McSame himself are just two pieces in a larger puzzle: the one to keep “The Base” happy and wealthy. We can hear lie after hyperbole after projection about how the Democrats are weak or that Hamas wants McCain to lose or that Osama secretly cast his ballot in 2004 for Kerry.

We know that is all nonsense -- and that thankfully, many more Americans are waking up to that fact as well. And with a growing number of Americans thinking that the 2000, 2002 and 2004 elections were stolen, not to mention the US Attorney purge, the Justice Department’s gaming the system from the inside, illegal redistricting, illegal phone jamming, voter ID laws that serve to suppress likely Democratic voters and FEC commissioners who have a history of illegal partisan voter suppression, it isn’t like there is ample evidence that Republicans steal elections -- and that is before you even get to the hanging chads, questionable SCOTUS decisions and Diebold hacking.

Need more? Go on.

The Weekly Wrangle

Here's the Texas Progressive Alliance weekly blog round-up, from submissions by member blogs from the week just past.

North Texas Liberal analyzed the arguments from Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Flower Mound, and Newt Gingrich in favor of the flat tax. See their conclusions here.

The Commissioner of the General Land Office of Texas is a monumental ass. PDiddie of Brains and Eggs has the dirty details in "Discussted".

Gary at Easter Lemming Liberal News informed his readers about the local elections and other events taking place in a Local Early Voting Edition.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson has this week's Transportation Wrap-Up.

WhosPlayin resumes his watch on Michael Burgess, and joins North Texas Liberal in rejecting his "flat tax" proposal as a tax increase on the middle class.

Hal at Half Empty wonders why Texas' junior senator, John Cornyn, doesn't support our troops.

Over at McBlogger, Captain Kroc has a real problem with some of the concessions the City made to a certain developer looking to build condos on Lake Lady Bird.

The Texas Cloverleaf promotes a story about more shenanigans in the Texas Youth Commission, this time forcing a Denton County superintendent to quit before she is fired.

Last week, KUHT (PBS Channel 8) in Houston ran a special on immigration and public attitudes towards it called Houston Have Your Say, which included public officials, activists, ordinary citizens, and a couple of bloggers. Off the Kuff was one of those bloggers, and he wrote about his impressions here.

Vince at Capitol Annex notes that the Texas Association of Business is calling for education reform and wonders if anyone else sees the hypocrisy in that situation.

BossKitty at BlueBloggin looks at yet another VA screw up and continues to ignore the welfare of our troops in the VA Caught In Suicide Coverup.

Sunday Evening Funnies

"Discussted"

I was a big fan of Rich Hall's Sniglets in the '80s. Lately, in both the e-mail I receive and the various blogs and online fora I visit, I regularly find myself laughing out loud at misspelled words with brand new meanings, such as the one in the title of this posting.

How many times have you found yourself in a conversation meeting the description above, after all?

Judging by this article in Texas Monthly, and this article and the reader comments in the Chron, it must happen to everyone within audio range of the Commissioner of the General Land Office of Texas inside of 15 seconds:

Jerry Patterson is a concealed-weapon-carrying, tobacco-dipping, canvas-death-trap-flying maverick whose management of the Christmas Mountains has ticked off everyone from Rick Perry to the Sierra Club. Not that he cares.

"Proving once again that I grew up weird, when I was a kid I enjoyed it when we were driving behind a Houston bus — loved the smell of diesel fumes," Patterson recently confessed in an e-mail to supporters of a program that helps governmental entities switch their fleets to clean-burning natural gas. "That might explain my thought processes as an adult." ...

"Many would describe me as kooky, but I don't really care," he said. "If the voters disagree with what I'm doing, there's the next election, or there's impeachment. I do what I think is right, and I don't concern myself with public opinion."

Jerry Patterson has been both dipshit and embarrassment for too long now. Let's find someone and send him some public opinion he can't ignore in 2010.

Former GOP White House counsel chokes on sheep balls

Maybe it was just one. Surely he wasn't trying to swallow more than one ...

Former senator Paul Laxalt's all male, annual lamb fry dinner at the Georgetown Club tends not to be an especially raucous affair. The 28th dinner the other night, prepared as always in Basque style in honor of Laxalt's heritage, featured the usual delicacy of the night, lamb's testicles, which are said to have unusual medicinal qualities.

And while some of the tuxedoed and slightly aging pols and pals -- including Vice President Cheney, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), former House Republican leader Bob Michel, retired Marine Gen. P.X. Kelley, former GOP chairman and now lobbyist Frank Fahrenkopf, former Veterans Affairs secretary and former ambassador to the Vatican Jim Nicholson, and legendary lobbyist Bill Timmons -- don't move as fast as they used to, they can still hop to it in an emergency.

And they did when White House counsel Fred Fielding appeared to be choking -- not on the featured delicacy, we are assured. Ron Kaufman of Dutko Worldwide (and a volunteer for Mitt Romney's campaign) and then Ed Rollins (who played a lead role in Mike Huckabee's bid for the White House) took turns trying the Heimlich maneuver to dislodge it. Rollins brought over a chair to stand on for extra leverage, one guest said.

There's some disagreement about what happened next. One attendee said Rollins popped the obstruction out, another said Fielding eventually swallowed it. Well, either way ...

Oh I see now the article says he wasn't gagging on a lamb's testicle. Perhaps it was his conscience, then...

Sunday Funnies

Brief as Photos – 1: Lara’s Story

This is going to be totally off from what I've been blogging so far (I'll be back to regular programming on Monday). I just finished reading Paul Theroux’s Twenty-Two Stories in Harper’s and felt moved to write a brief story of no more than a thousand words. I have this crazy idea of writing one story a week; that's 52 stories or approximately 52,000 words in one year. The question is -- would I be able to keep it up? I will also be traveling this summer for six weeks, so that's an added twist. But I want to try and see if I can do this (and you will help keep me honest, won't you?).

These would be short-short fictional stories with mostly a Foreign Service slant; I'm not sure there is a name for this genre - but I'm calling this haiku fiction. The working title for this series is “Brief as Photos,” after John Berger’s 1992 book, “And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos.” But as Yoda says "No. Try not. Do... or do not." So here's my first do at 460 words:

1: Lara’s Story

Lara was not a vengeful woman. She was raised to believe that a higher order would sort out all injustice in the next world. All sins would be paid in full. Turning your left cheek instead of hitting back had been drummed into her and she believed in it. After the attack on the World Council's headquarters, she was in church often; trying to find meaning to the destruction of lives, the purpose of suffering bravely, the necessity of good and evil coexisting in a fragile world such as hers. She wondered often if God was sleeping on his job, for how else could one explain the horrendous act that had invaded her small intimate world like a wooden mallet hitting glass.

Why she lived while they passed on still remained a mystery to her. The reel in her mind played on like a 24/7 show: She and Lisa sitting in a corner eating ice cream flakes; her husband, Jeremy, who was having a late morning meeting with the Pacific Sector diplomats was just coming down from the moving walkway. They smiled and waved at him. Her daughter dropped her doll and Lara quickly ducked under the table to retrieve it. There was a blinding light and then there was nothing. She thought about the woman in Hiroshima, a hundred years ago who had her daughter on her lap when the bomb was dropped. The Japanese mother lived to be an old woman but not the daughter who was on her lap, who perished that day. How do you explain something like that?

She had nothing else to live for after that. For two months she did nothing but stared at her family’s photographs and cried. Until one day, she discovered the well in her eyes had become completely dry. That was when Lara joined the World Intelligence Service as an operative. She was first assigned to the Eurasian Sector to track down some liquid metal smugglers. She was efficient and effective. She was dangerous to the enemy not because of her lethal skills but because the part of her brain that regulates fear had vanished like smoke with her husband and daughter in that fateful morning.

Lara was not a vengeful woman, and yet, when she learned that the mastermind of the World Council’s bombing was in Japan, that was where she went. She found him in Bonin Islands, south of the capital city, looking like a prosperous oriental business man. She told herself, all she wanted was to ask him why? But he laughed at her face and called them the collateral damage of war. So she fed him fugu liver and watched him slowly die. Then she went for a swim and was never heard of again.

Read: Brief as Photos Disclaimer

Rush's Riots

Steven D speaks for me:

I guess Chicken Hawk Supreme Limbaugh wants to re-live his youth from 1968 when the "rioting" at the Chicago Convention (caused mostly by the Chicago Police) likely cost Hubert Humphrey the election. An election where the the victory of a Republican, Richard Nixon, guaranteed that an unpopular war would continue for another 7 more years, with an ever-increasing death toll among both Americans and Vietnamese.

Of course, no one should be surprised that Limbaugh would take this tack. He's long been the pilonidal cyst on the American body politic. Almost single-handedly he created the conservative racist, politically incorrect talk show format, where defamation of one's "enemies" is standard operating procedure. He went after Hillary and Bill Clinton mercilessly in the 90's, pushing conspiracy theories that one or both of them had Vince Foster murdered. And more recently he's shown he's an equal opportunity smear merchant by playing racist ditties like "Barack, the Magic Negro" during his radio program.

Nor has he been reluctant to use eliminationist language on his show towards liberals and Democrats, and anyone else he deems worthy of his scorn, from feminazis to AIDS patients. But this is a new low, calling for specific incidents of violence at a major political party's convention. The man who cheered on the mass arrests of peaceful demonstrators (and innocent bystanders) at the 2004 Republican Convention, who gloried in the news that we were torturing the bad guys at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib (even as he cynically refused to call it torture), now wants to see riots. Now encourages riots.

And how many of his flock of wingnut sheep will take the opportunity to become agents provocateur in Denver? How many will attempt to ignite the very violence for which Limbaugh is an advocate? We already know that his listeners have participated Operation Chaos, where he commanded them to vote in Democratic primaries for Hillary Clinton so that the nomination battle between Obama and Clinton would continue, and thus weaken the Democratic Party's chances in the Fall. This is merely the next step in his attempt to influence the elections.

With all the problems facing this country, most if not all of them the result of the Republican party's domination of all three branches of our government, but especially the executive branch, this is what prominent conservatives promote. Chaos, violence, hate, bigotry and eternal war. Our soldiers and Iraqis are dying every day, food shortages are occurring around the globe (even in the United States), energy and food prices are on the rise, unemployment is up as are foreclosures, and our financial system teeters on the brink of a calamitous fall, and this is what Rush Limbaugh spends his time pontificating about.

He's the right wing media's version of Emperor Nero, divorced from reality, fiddling while less fortunate Americans than himself, fat and happy with the millions of dollars generated by his caustic brew of hatred, spite and ill will, slowly burn. Ten percent of Ohioans are on food stamps and he merrily calls for riots at the Democratic convention. What kind of man does such a thing? For there is a word that describes this type of person and I don't mean sociopath, for that gives Rush an out, makes his foul deeds the result of a diminished moral capacity. No, the word is one any right-wing conservative ought to recognize since they use it themselves so often. That word is traitor. Rush Limbaugh is an evil toad and a traitor to democracy, to our Constitution and to our nation. He doesn't participate in the violence he glorifies, but he is its primary advocate on the right, and for Bush's wars as well. So convinced of the righteousness of "his cause" he willingly appeals to the worst sides of our nature, hoping to inspire others to do the deeds he lacks the spine to do himself.

In that way he is not much different than Osama bin Laden. Both have their devoted, fanatical followers, both are extremists, and both believe that violence in pursuit of their cherished ideals is a "right deed" as the Stoics would say. Both promote wars that kill thousands.

The biggest difference? Rush doesn't have to live in hiding. He can live the "good life" of the top .0001 % of the wealthiest Americans, even going on "sex tours" to poverty-stricken countries with bags of Viagra to assist his enjoyment of all the delectable young girls available to perverts like himself. He can illegally obtain and abuse prescription narcotics, yet avoid any prosecution for his crimes. Yes, it's a wonderful life if you are Rush Limbaugh, knowing he is completely free from the consequences of his actions, no matter how heinous they may be.

Too bad for the rest of us we are not so lucky.

Inciting a riot is a felony in nearly every state, including Colorado. Will Limbloat be prosecuted, even if they happen? Don't count on it.

Wanted: Post Crisis of the Month Page

The May issue of State Magazine contains an account of a two-day siege in February that Chad (N’Djamena) endured as rebels battled government forces in an attempt to topple President Idriss Deby Itno. In February 2, U.S. Embassy family members and non-essential personnel were evacuated by the military but the ambassador and essential embassy staff remained. Below is an excerpt from Lucy Tamlyn's piece "Heat of Battle." You can read the entire piece here.

"An estimated 1,000 bullets rained on the compound every hour. An RPG exploded in a nearby tree, sending the Americans reeling and loosening the house’s corrugated tin roof. Soon, the first wave of rebels surged around the embassy compound. In addition to Ambassador Louis Nigro and 19 embassy employees, the chancery sheltered 20 local guards, a private American citizen and a Chadian-American child and his Chadian mother. As the battle advanced and retreated, looters swarmed behind the rebels. Embassy guards looked on helplessly as looters seized their treasured bicycles and motorcycles from the parking lot. The destruction of classified material picked up speed with embassy staff from all sections wielding sledgehammers and doing shredder duty. Elsewhere in the city, as security permitted, French forces ferried private American citizens and other expatriates from hotels and residences to the French base for onward passage to Libreville, Gabon.

A day later, the battle around the embassy became more fierce. An RPG round went through a second-story wall near the ambassador’s office, where an employee had been minutes before. The order came to abandon the embassy. At 3:15 p.m., Marine Detachment Commander Robert Sutton and Sgt. Patrick Shaw lowered the American flag, folded it and gave it and the embassy keys to the Ambassador. The last e-mail was sent to American citizens, urging them to seek shelter at the French base. A French helicopter landed on an improvised landing area behind the embassy to pick up the ambassador and his group during a lull in the fighting. They were joined at the French base by the Americans from the housing compound, who had endured another excruciating day in the crossfire before being picked up by French forces in armored personnel carriers. Government forces were slowly beating back the rebels. But the streets were filled with corpses. The stench of charred and burning vehicles filled the air.

The U.S. Embassy in N’Djamena never closed, however. The ambassador and key staff maintained a U.S. presence at the French base for the next two weeks, one of many French services that were greatly appreciated. On February 14, the chancery reopened and the flag was raised. The damage toll included six embassy houses that had been completely looted. Fortunately, there were no fatalities among the Chadian employees, but many experienced terror, lost household goods and were separated from their families. Employees can help them by contributing to the FSN Emergency Relief Fund."

If you are with State, please consider making a contribution to the FSN Emergency Relief Fund (check with your HRO or Management Office on how to do this). Our local employees help us overseas in so many ways, and are often caught in the middle because of their employment with the USG.

I'm relieved that no embassy employees were injured during this crisis but vivid accounts like this also help bring to the "front page" the fact that hardship assignments exist outside of Iraq. I mean, of course, the people in the FS knew this but the general public is not really aware of what is life out there in the trenches for the Foreign Service people. Seventy percent of our embassy assignments worldwide are indeed considered "hardships." And yes, they were shooting bullets at our people and this was not Iraq. Here, our remaining embassy personnel were rescued by an allied military force but I hate to imagine what would happen if there was no one to call. This also made me start wondering -- in an "expeditionary" American Presence Post in the middle of nowhere, is State prepared to send a trained team to "extract" our man or woman on the ground?

I started writing this piece with the working title "Heat of Battle: Not in Baghdad," but I realized that what we really need is for State Magazine to tell the hard stories of the Foreign Service. In fact, I think State Magazine should do away (like bury for good) with its monthly "Post of the Month" page and replaced it with something called "Post Crisis of the Month," or something similar. There is nothing included in the "Post of the Month" entry that one can't possibly find in the official post reports, the Intranet or the web.

The "Post of the Month" has tarried beyond its welcome, to put it nicely. To continue to give it such prominence in this day and age is incongruent with the realities of our times. Consider the following facts: 1) unaccompanied posts have more than quadrupled in recent years, 2) it's only April and we already have xx number of posts evacuated. If you think something as harmless as the "Post of the Month" is trivial, you can think again after reading this piece from the Weekly Standard, whose author accused FS people of Living in a Dream World. I'm not advocating this change to make the writer happy and have him become the FS's BFF, mind you, but I do think that the change is necessary to reflect the current realities within the Service and in the world where we are living. If State starts soliciting contribution to the "Post Crisis of the Month" page, I can't imagine it running out of material anytime soon.

Please send this post to the Director General through DG Direct (internal channel) or write to statemagazine[at]state[dot]gov and make a personal plea that the "Post Crisis of the Month" page be added to the magazine. Or should I perhaps start an online petition?

Slogging on

And slugging it out for another month and half, perhaps longer.

Fifty-five -- forty-five is a number that breathes another wisp into Mrs. Clinton's sails, while not helping her in the delegate count enough to make her continuing campaign anything but that of a spoiler.

(The) margin in Pennsylvania was probably not sufficient to alter the basic dynamics of the race, but it made clear that the contest will continue.

The media meme became all about the point spread and the over/under was seven or eight points, even as much as ten. So Clinton met those expectations, and the result is that Obama's inability to land the knockout blow is officially a sign of weakness. Since Iowa, he shows little ability to attract white voters with incomes under $50,000, the so-called blue-collar voter. These are likely the people -- also known by their aged label of Reagan Democrats -- who would abandon him in the fall.

If that's not enough cause for concern ...

“This is exactly what I was afraid was going to happen,” said Gov. Phil Bredesen of Tennessee, a Democrat who has not endorsed anyone in the race. “They are going to just keep standing there and pounding each other and bloodying each other, and no one is winning. It underlines the need to find some way to bring this to conclusion.”

And:

“We have problems going both ways, but that is going to get healed,” saiid Joe Trippi, who was a senior adviser to the presidential campaign of John Edwards, who quit the race earlier this year. “If it doesn’t get healed, we have problems.”

Next up: Indiana and North Carolina on May 6. Speaking of both Edwards and NC, Howard Fineman stated (during MSNBC's election coverage) that Elizabeth Edwards would be campaing with Hillary in North Carolina. Take that for what you wish, but my perception is that, if accurate, it changes the game to Clinton's advantage in a state where Obama is expected to make up for the delegate-count and popular-vote losses he suffered last night.

Update (from elsewhere around the 'sphere): Since Greg brought it up, I wonder what the internals are on the Dunder-Mifflin voting bloc. Martha and Bradley are celebrating -- and soliciting; Neil and jobsanger point out the obvious. Hal live-blogged the results. And Jerome has nine suggestions for both campaigns in the post-Pennsylvania wrap-up.

The Truth About Living in the Diplomatic Cocktail Circuit

In a recent Kojo Nnamdi show focused on the future of the Foreign Service, Steven Kashkett, State Vice President for AFSA bemoaned the “persistent image of US diplomats as “cookie-pushers,” or debutantes living a cushy life on the cocktail circuit.” (You can listen to the NPR show here or read a quick write up from Foreign Policy Blogs here).

The Urban Dictionary contains two definitions for cookie-pushers: 1) Effete, unmasculine person with pretensions to social status; pejorative for a diplomat. (I went to a party in Georgetown with a bunch of cookie-pushers; some of them even were speaking in French. Time to leave town!), and 2) Psychotic serial killers disguised as little girls who peddle Thin Mints financing their bid for world domination. Often called "Girl Scouts". (I was stopped by a cookie pusher outside of Target, and felt obligated to buy a box of Thin Mints). Uh-oh… either way you look at this, it does not look nor sound good.

I wished it were not so, but the term "cookie-pusher" now lives in online perpetuity with its own entry in Wikipedia which says in part: “Ivor Evans in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (NY: Harper and Row, 1981) uses the term denoting a junior diplomat who functions as a roving waiter at an official reception, presumably "pushing" appetizers on people who don't really want them.”

I would have to take umbrage with Mr. Evan’s definition. With the dollar tanking these days and the Foreign Service budget shortfall the size of the Sahara, I’m not sure we would even have any appetizers for our junior diplomats to “push.” Still, we can’t afford the neighbors to think that we are “poor,” so money will be scraped to “splurge” on our guests and host nation contacts. But no one should be surprise if we start serving popcorn in the next diplomatic reception.

I’m not sure which is more annoying to me, the “cookie-pusher” or the askewed presumption that our diplomats lived in a perpetual happy hour in the service of this nation; or for that matter, lived in one unending banquet of Kobe beef, Belons oyster and the 1959 Château Mouton Rothschild.

So here’s the skinny on this for those not in the know: It is true that our diplomats do have to give dinner parties and attend dinner parties and cocktail receptions as part of their jobs. The more senior you are and the more important the portfolio you have, the more demanding is the social obligations. Attendance to these official functions is usually done after hours and could be as often as three times a week or as little as once or twice a month (which also means you don’t get to see your kids at bedtime 3x a week, as they’re asleep by the time you get home).

Cocktail receptions are more common across diplomatic missions, because it does not last as long as a full-course sit down dinner, but also because it cost less to provide appetizers and drinks, and you can invite more people. That and the added bonus of the diplomat’s spouse, unpaid representative of the United States or country X, not having to sweat in the wood kitchen. Of course, the type of “representation” event you give also depends on the purpose and the guest of honor. It might be that having a small dinner with a local official would be more useful to pin down a needed response, than having a large cocktail party.

Why go through all this trouble anyway? I think it is best said by François de Calliéres in 1716: “A good table is the best and easiest way of keeping [oneself] well informed. The natural effect of good eating and drinking is the inauguration of friendships and the creation of familiarity and when people are a trifle warmed by wine they often disclose secrets of importance.” And here’s Abigail Adams in 1784: “More can be accomplished at one party than at twenty serious conversations.” I call this the “good table” diplomacy, and it’s here to stay as long as we believe that words are cheaper than swords, and ideas matter in this constantly changing world.

I can imagine you nodding your head as you read this and thinking, that’s not such a bad way to end one’s work day - good food and fine wine three times a week. What’s so bad about that? The qualifying words are “good” and “fine.” Let me explain. In the United States, if you visit the western region, you could get served prairie oysters, fried pork rinds or blood-rare steak; in the southern region, you could get grits, crawfish, hog maws and snouts, but - you could always decline to partake and no one would be offended if you walk away.

It’s a different matter when you are the representative of the United States overseas. You have no control over what’s on the menu (unless you’re giving the party) and walking away and throwing up on somebody's lap or carpet is not an option. Declining your host’s offer could be viewed as “undiplomatic,” or worse, an insult with possible repercussions to personal and bilateral relations. I do think that a good FSO needs a carbon steel type stomach, especially these days when they are expected to serve in “expeditionary assignments,” wherever that may be.

We can be grateful that we don’t have a U.S. Mission in Sardinia; at least we don’t have to politely decline an offer of casu marzu (aka: maggot cheese). But here are a few interesting offerings: pacha (sheep’s head with eyeballs), haggis (stuffed sheep's stomach), crispy grasshoppers, fried scorpions, yak meat, blood pudding, and roast pigeon brains. And least I forget - for drinks, there’s tea with yak butter, kumiss (fermented mare's milk), kvass (beer-like beverage made by fermenting old bread in water), and palm wine (created from sap of various palm trees) to name a few.

No, I'm not doing a cheese and whine here. This is just something to consider the next time you hear about the “cookie-pushers living cushy lives” - it’s not always as easy as it looks; and it’s not always as fun as its sounds.

Happy EarthDay

Earth Day -- April 22 -- each year marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.

Among other things, 1970 in the United States brought with it the Kent State shootings, the advent of fiber optics, "Bridge Over Troubled Water," Apollo 13, the Beatles' last album, the death of Jimi Hendrix, the birth of Mariah Carey, and the meltdown of fuel rods in the Savannah River nuclear plant near Aiken, South Carolina -- an incident not acknowledged for 18 years.

It was into such a world that the very first Earth Day was born.

Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, proposed the first nationwide environmental protest "to shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda. " "It was a gamble," he recalls, "but it worked."

At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. Environment was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news.

Earth Day 1970 turned that all around.

Here's information on Earth Day at the Houston Zoo.

Mercury, Wednesday

Mercury just passed superior conjunction on April 16, but in the days to come it will bolt out to become easily visible low in the west-northwest at dusk. On Wednesday evening, April 23, Mercury should be visible within about 30 minutes after sunset if your sky is quite clear. Mercury will be shining at magnitude �1.6, slightly brighter than Sirius (the brightest of all stars). In fact, at that particular hour of the day, Mercury will be the brightest object in the sky!

So, if your sky is free of any horizon haze and there are no tall obstructions to your view (like trees or buildings) you should have no trouble in seeing it as a very bright "star" shining with just a trace of a yellowish-orange tinge. By April 30, Mercury will be setting as late as 85 minutes after the Sun. That evening, binoculars may show the Pleiades star cluster 4 degrees directly above it. (Your clenched fist held at arm's length measures about 10 degrees in width.)

In the evenings that follow, Mercury will slowly diminish in brightness, but it will also slowly gain altitude as it gradually moves away from the vicinity of the Sun. This is just the start of Mercury's best apparition of the year for mid-northern viewers. On the evening of May 6, be sure to look for a delicately thin sliver of a 1.5-day old crescent Moon sitting just a couple of degrees above and slightly to Mercury's right.

Much more.

The Weekly Wrangle

Today is San Jacinto Day, and also time for another Texas Progressive Alliance Blog Round-Up. This week's round-up is compiled by The Texas Cloverleaf.

In "honor" of April 15 (the federal income tax deadline), Lightseeker at TexasKaos examines the Republican tax cut claim here in Texas and discover that what it really amounts to is "tax shifting", and we are the ones getting shafted. Tax Shifting With Bohac's Assessment Cap as Our Example.

WhosPlayin notes that John McCain has proposed suspending the federal gasoline tax, and points out that he would do just as well to try to suspend the law of gravity.

The Texas Cloverleaf is helping to save the earth on Earth Day weekend with helpful tips for saving energy and your wallet, as well as picking up trash with Stonewall Democrats. Don't mess with Texas!

CouldBeTrue from South Texas Chisme wonders if all Republicans are Tom Craddicks in training. Listen to Nueces County Republican chair Mike Bertuzzi ignore all the 'Point of Order' calls at the county convention. Sound familiar?

John Coby of Bay Area Houston has the real press release from Rick Perry about his run for governor in 2010.

Here are local activist Jose Orta's impressions Of T. Don Hutto, Williamson County's immigrant detention facility, that were posted at Eye On Williamson after his recent visit.

At McBlogger, barfly analyses what's really important to the American voter in this hour of cultural brouhaha.

Off the Kuff takes an early look at the race for district attorney in Harris county, which is sure to be one of the hottest local races this year.

Today is San Jacinto Day and PDiddie of Brains and Eggs will be at the commemorative ceremonies taking place at the battlefield near Houston.

BossKitty at BlueBloggin points out that Your $300 - $1,200 Economic Stimulus Payment Cost $767 Million.

Hal at Half Empty questions whether a certain person running for president is temperamentally fit to be in that office.

Vince at Capitol Annex thinks it is terrible that Texas teacher salaries are so low that that more than a quarter of all teachers must work a second job to make ends meet.

North Texas Liberal reports on a homophobic journalist's question to White House press secretary Dana Perino, and the smackdown she gave in response.

George Nassar at The Texas Blue takes some time out of Friday's morning news roundup to point out that were the Bush administration to use a logical metric, it would be clear to them that the surge has failed.

Developing Strategic Leaders for the 21st Century: The Foreign Service

A couple of months ago, Jeffrey McClausland published a Strategic Studies Institute publication (funded by the U.S. War College) entitled Developing Strategic Leaders for the 21^st Century. He makes the case that our “new security environment requires better qualified civilian leaders to think in different patterns in order to accomplished daunting tasks.” He further writes that, “If America is to meet the multiple challenges of the 21^st century, it is crucial that we developed a system that places the right people in the right places in government at the right moment. The nation critically needs civilian policymakers who can manage change and deal with the here and now.”

The development of our people must include, according to this study, “the recruitment of quality personnel, experiential learning through a series of positions of increasing responsibility, training for specific tasks or missions, and continuous education that considers both policy and process. Consequently, it requires people who are not only substantively qualified and knowledgeable regarding policy issues but also possess the leadership abilities to direct large complex organizations.”

McClausland’s study provides a historical overview of the recruitment, retention and staff development in the last twenty years and examines the three primary agencies in the crafting of foreign and defense policies: the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency. The study then outlines required changes to existing personnel management systems and development programs for all three agencies. I listed below McClausland’s eight recommended changes relevant to the Foreign Service but encourage you to read the entire report. You can find the summary and the link to the full document in my Thought Forum List under State: Future Challenges.

-» First, a successful Foreign Service requires officers who are consistently building new knowledge and skills. The State Department requires a 10-15 percent increase in personnel to allow for that proportion of the overall service to be in training or education at any given moment. This number must be rigorously fenced off solely for these purposes to allow for adequate training and development. Failure to do so will result in personnel being simply absorbed into ongoing operational efforts.

-» Second, expanding requirements and the pressing need to maintain a surge capacity require more flexibility for admission to the Foreign Service. Horizontal entry and exit should be considered whereby those with a particular background or linguistic skill could enter laterally at grades far above entry level. Furthermore, greater allowances should be made for career FSOs to take a leave of absence for personal reasons and subsequently return to duty.

-» Third, any use of “blindfolding” for selection to the Foreign Service should be ended, and overall recruiting practices reviewed.

-» Fourth, the Alternative Examination Program should be broadened to include those in the military (both active and reserve) or who complete graduate degrees in areas of particular need.

-» Fifth, control of the FSI should be passed from the Undersecretary of Management and placed directly under the Deputy Secretary. This shift would give FSI greater prominence, underscore the importance of FSO development, and allow the department leadership to better control course offerings and selection policies.

-» Sixth, opportunities for development assignments at think tanks, congressional staffs, military war colleges, etc., should be actively sought as part the department’s overall development programs.

-» Seventh, critical problems exist with respect to pay, allowances, and retirements. FSOs serving in Iraq and Afghanistan pay taxes while serving abroad, unlike uniformed military, and effectively take a pay cut during these assignments. Foreign Service retirement is capped, and, unlike the military or other government agencies, State Department retirees cannot accept another government position without forfeiting a significant portion of their retirement pay. These compensation issues must be addressed.

-» Finally, the Hart-Rudman Commission made one final internal recommendation for the State Department in 2001 that still deserves consideration. The report recommended changing the Foreign Service’s name to the United States Diplomatic Corps. Some might argue that this is superficial rhetoric mongering, but it could have a significantly beneficial impact. It would serve as a reminder that this group of people do not serve foreign interests but are rather central to U.S. national security. Such a change would further rationalize the value of diverse assignments in regional bureaus, abroad in an embassy, and in the functional components of the organization. This change might help to better depict a career pattern for young people considering diplomatic service as a possible profession. Finally, it would also serve to emphasize that the traditional mission of the State Department to provide national representation abroad has dramatically changed, as revealed in the recent report The Embassy of the Future. This report observes that diplomats of the future will need traits and skills that are different from those of diplomats a decade ago and even those hired today. A change in organizational culture is required, as the “new diplomat must be an active force in advancing U.S. interests, not just a gatherer and transmitter of information.”

A note on the author: Jeffrey McClausland graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1972 and was commissioned in field artillery. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He holds both a Masters and Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. He was appointed Visiting Professor of International Law and Diplomacy at the Penn State Dickinson School of Law in January 2007.

I think these recommendations deserve real consideration. Funding will always be an issue, of course, but Congress must realize sooner or later that we usually get what we pay for (just as long as they won't scream their heads off when thing fall apart in the international arena). I do think that the State leadership and the WH must do more to get the needed resources for our country's arm in "soft power" (with 273 days left in office, I doubt anything would happen, but one can dream). The fact is - we can globally reposition the "red-headed stepchild" all we want, but that's not going to be enough nor would it make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things.

Transforming the Foreign Service into an effective diplomatic service prepared for the challenges of the new century does not come cheap; the strategy of shuffling human and fiscal resources to keep the tab down is not going to work because well, it's like a ship, you see - you can't save it, much less transform it, if you only plug the leak in one place but not the leaks in the rest of the vessel. By the time you get to pick a new color, a new engine or a new captain, that ship would be long under water.

Sunday Funnies

The Houston International Festival

Top 10 Can’t Miss Extramusical Attractions at Ifest

(by Jim Austin, President, Houston International Festival)

1. Church of Lalibela: So, European colonists brought Christianity to Africa, right?… Wrong. Very wrong. Emperor Lalibela carved 12 churches out of existing mountains in Ethiopia in the 12th century. Well, maybe he had his folks do the actual carving. Anyway, we’ve created an amazing replica of the most famous of the churches to with the cultural and educational exhibits in the Chevron Living Museum.

2. You do not want to miss the National Dance Theater of Ethiopia. They are known for this reverberating movement in their heads, necks and shoulders that looks physically impossible. I don’t think it is done anywhere outside of the country. And the women are considered by three out of four academic experts to be among the most beautiful in the world. As I say, don’t miss it; it’s their North American debut, four times a day on the WaMu Center Stage at City Hall.

3. The Gullah people were isolated off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia when plantation owners abandoned them because of the malaria-carrying mosquitoes in the area. They preserved their African heritage for centuries. We’re bringing artists and craftsmen from the Gullah region and we’re erecting a Gullah stage. Storytelling, drumming, dance lessons, demonstrations and plays.

4. Have we mentioned that some people say the most beautiful women in the world are Ethiopians? Well, two previous Miss Ethiopias will be featured in a fashion show on the H-E-B Cultural Stage at 2:00 p.m. each weekend day of the Festival.

5. The Rise and Shine Exhibit at the Julia Ideson library: This display of archaeological artifacts from the TSU archives will shed new light on the ways that African Americans in Texas survived the cruelties of enslavement and its aftermath, the tenant farming/sharecropping system. Artifacts and historical documents will examine a variety of sites, including the Levi Jordan Plantation in South Texas. Literary readings will take place both Saturdays from 1-5 p.m.

6. Dr. Z New Artist of the Year: This award, named after the late Houston dentist, adventurer and longtime festival benefactor Dr. Z, is given annually to an up and coming artist or group making its iFest debut. The Carolina Chocolate Drops is a young African American trio that demonstrates the black roots of what is considered among the whitest music forms in America -- Appalachian country and bluegrass music. The group plays twice on day one, on Louisiana Stage at 3:30 and on the Gullah Stage at 6 p.m.

7. Some come to iFest for the music, some come for the culture. And some come for the food. There will be African Food on the steps of City Hall. Taste of Africa presented by Melange Catering will serve delicious specialty items like lamb bobotie, beef sosatie skewers and chicken wings peri peri. Plus a selection of Sundowners, refreshing drinks used in the African ritual that marks the passage from day to night. Yum.

8. The iFest Business Conference, Africa: Opportunities with a Social Conscience will explore sustainable development initiatives on the African continent. Delegates will hear from top experts from the U.S. and Africa on economic development projects and social stability issues that affect Houston businesses interested in this emerging global marketplace. Sponsored by Marathon Oil on the morning of April 18. (For details, visit www.ifest.org)

9. Lunchtime concerts are back on the two Fridays, April 18 and 25. Downtown workers can take in the food, the music (by D.R.U.M. and the Zydeco Dots) and even see the great National Dance Theatre of Ethiopia. Yes, it’s free.

10. Not ready to stop the party? Join us at the official iFest 2008 After Party at Under the Volcano. The New Orleans Hustlers Brass Band -- featuring members of the Soul Rebels -- will perform. Cover charge is $5, with festival staff and volunteers wearing wristbands and/or T-shirts admitted free. Sunday, April 27, 2008, 8:00pm to closing. Under the Volcano, 2349 Bissonnet.