The Obama Administration / State of the Union Address

Senior British Civil Servant criticises the American political methodology... and he has a point:

Quote :

It also emerged that Gordon Brown, UK prime minister, was struggling to organise the summit [The G20]. Britain’s most senior civil servant claimed it was hard to find anyone to speak to at the US Treasury. Sir Gus O’Donnell, cabinet secretary, blamed the “absolute madness” of the US system where a new administration had to hire new officials from scratch, leaving a decision-making vacuum.

“There is nobody there. You cannot believe how difficult it is,” he told a conference of civil servants

Oh well, they say it is the little things that count, wonder what artist was on the DVD set Obama gave Gordon Brown. Dolly Parton perhaps?

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/toby_harnden/blog/2009/03/11/fox_news_launches_letter_campaign_to_apologise_via_british_embassy_for_barack_obamas_diss_to_gordon_brown

The second link down on the above is quite amusing. What on earth sort of administration would give DVDs to a UK Prime Minister and a red button to a Russian?

The mad laugh of Hillery when the Russian translation wasn't right... He's funny enough that host.

Another incident of two speeches this time Brown / Obama - written by the same person. ...

Have to say giving a DVD boxset to a visiting Head of Government is very poor show. The thing with Hilary is the most ridiculous thing I have seen in a long time.

johnfás wrote:

Have to say giving a DVD boxset to a visiting Head of Government is very poor show. The thing with Hilary is the most ridiculous thing I have seen in a long time.

It is worse than that, in diplomatic circles both those events could be taken as a slight. Why didn't he go the whole hog and present him with a tea set from Boston?

It is a similar problem to thinking of a present for someone who is fairly wealthy. It is the thought and inferences of the gift that are important. It is a considered token.

I dunno, I think the dvds were a cool gift for someone who normally gets a kick out of watching paint dry. Hope he's got to pay duty on them when he gets them home, or that they're encoded in Region 1.

Personally, I think a dildo would have been more appropriate. He could have shared it with the whole cabinet. Still I suppose they can all enjoy the dvds too.

This one is a bit unrelated. It is a story about the Bush family fortune.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar

And I just happened to like this cartoon. Strangely believable.

Squire wrote:

johnfás wrote:

Have to say giving a DVD boxset to a visiting Head of Government is very poor show. The thing with Hilary is the most ridiculous thing I have seen in a long time.

It is worse than that, in diplomatic circles both those events could be taken as a slight. Why didn't he go the whole hog and present him with a tea set from Boston?

It is a similar problem to thinking of a present for someone who is fairly wealthy. It is the thought and inferences of the gift that are important. It is a considered token.

I doubt it was a slight to be honest because it is so public. It strikes me more of someone running protocol who hasn't got to grips with their job. A present like that really is poor show to be frank about it and when you combine that with the idiotic attempt at I don't know what with the novelty red button with the Russians whoever is looking after that sort of thing would want to get a grip of themselves. Obviously it doesn't exactly matter an iota in a real sense but at the same time I doubt Obama wants his administration to look like Neverland, one would hope not anyway.

Perhaps it feeds into the whole sense (highlighted above) of countries dealing with America just feeling they can't get anywhere with the Americans when an administration has just changed owing to their system of basically clearing everyone out and replacing them with new people.

It makes them look inept. It is unbelievably stupid. It is not just the person whose job it is, you would think that someone up the line would have the brains to say NO!!!! All they had do do was get a first edition of a particular book or similar. All it needs is a bit of background knowledge and intelligence. If you were handed a DVD set to present to someone surely you would have the whit to realise this was inappropriate and what do red buttons bring to mind?

I thought the UK gift was very clever, but then a senior civil service staffed with the well educated from public schools and good universities does tend to produce people who would consider that type of detail important.

This lady is speaking for a minute and a half about auditing the Fed and a Bill on the same which is going through the Houses...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r01LU0kItpc

Quote :

Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 (Introduced in House)

HR 1207 IH

111th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 1207

To amend title 31, United States Code, to reform the manner in which the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is audited by the Comptroller General of the United States and the manner in which such audits are reported, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

February 26, 2009

Mr. PAUL (for himself, Mr. KAGEN, Mrs. BACHMANN, Mr. BARTLETT, Mr. JONES, Mr. REHBERG, Mr. POSEY, Mr. BROUN of Georgia, Mr. POE of Texas, Mr. BURTON of Indiana, Mr. ABERCROMBIE, and Ms. WOOLSEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.1207.IH:

I do wish these people would concentrate on one thing. In this case it is Congress is not doing its job. The rest is just repetition of the usual old mantras. (sub text paper bad gold good).

What really surprises me is the economic class that tend to dominate such debates. You would think that the very wealthy would be arguing for sound money but no it is the middle class.

Shouldn't the Fed be audited though? I don't know if there is a metal subtext to this particular one although with Ron Paul it seems nothing is as good as gold. Or silver.

The money has been going behind closed doors, protected from public scrutiny by laws. The Americans don't know know where it's all going - on derivatives that went bad? Property deals that went awful?

Gold or silver would be the same - that is possible to debase too. Currency being sound is based as much on the morals in your economy as on your production.

Audi the initial point was Congress should force an audit amen.

Gold and silver are metals.

The issue of sound money has people more astute than myself perplexed. You don't want a straight jacket.