Re: Snip

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His messages to advisers and friends, they say, are generally crisp, properly spelled and free of [...] emoticons.
I knew there was a reason I voted for him.
Posted by: Otto von Bisquick | Link to this comment | 11-15-08 6:04 PM
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properly spelled

The best feature on my new Blackberry is the spell checker.


Posted by: Idealist | Link to this comment | 11-15-08 6:22 PM
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He received a scaled-down list of news clippings, with his advisers wanting to keep him from reading blogs and news updates all day long

Notice they don't say *which* blogs. I'm guessing Gawker and USS Mariner.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 11-15-08 6:28 PM
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Notice they don't say *which* blogs. I'm guessing Gawker and USS Mariner.

He seems like a Zooborns kind of guy to me. I bet Plouffe was always having to tell him to stop sending baby tiger pictures to Penny Pritzker's megadonors list.


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 11-15-08 6:45 PM
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Wow, that's sad.


Posted by: TJ | Link to this comment | 11-15-08 7:18 PM
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3, 4: please, I'm sure it was political blogs. I'm guessing No Quarter and Malkin.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 11-15-08 8:23 PM
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If Standpipe disappears for the next 4-8 years, we'll have our answer.


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 11-15-08 8:57 PM
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7: How would we tell the difference?


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 11-15-08 9:17 PM
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Hmm. Has Standpipe ever posted anything during an Obama rally?


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 11-15-08 9:31 PM
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How would we tell the difference?

Listen very carefully to the State of the Union speeches.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 11-15-08 9:33 PM
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I prefer to think that Obama is the Medium Lobster.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 11-15-08 9:42 PM
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||
Having a terrible urge right now to corner a man at this party and say "long time no see. I'M BANGING YOUR WIFE. Whats new with you?"
|>


Posted by: Jimmy Carter | Link to this comment | 11-15-08 10:54 PM
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12: if it feels good, do it!


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 11-15-08 10:55 PM
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I think Jimmy Carter would say something more like: "I couldn't confine my lust for your wife just to my heart. IYKWIM."


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 11-15-08 10:59 PM
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12: I was going to say "live blog it!" But that would be wrong.


Posted by: Di Kotimy | Link to this comment | 11-15-08 11:49 PM
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Out of deference to the party's hosts (lovely dear old friends) I departed the field rather than cause a scene. The divorce is in progress. He's not a bad guy really, just a little clueless. "See how I'm not hitting him? I think I've grown."


Posted by: Jimmy Carter | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 12:17 AM
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I don't particularly like Sinfest's recent turn to the political, but this is a good one.


Posted by: pdf23ds | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 12:46 AM
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I can see the security problem, but I find it bordering on offensive to say that a president can't email because it'll be subpoena-able and eventually in the public record. Reminds me of the WaPost drinking the Kool-Aid.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 5:38 AM
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18: Well, the more generous interpretation is that he doesn't want a court file filled with emails like "Michelle, baby, I just love the way your ass looks in that Thakoon Panichgul sheath."


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 6:45 AM
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19: So don't send emails like that.

He could keep sending emails like the one that said "Sox!" just so there is a lot of junk for lawyers to sort through when they subpoena


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 6:54 AM
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18: Agreed. Basically, WTF?

I do think there's a category of nationally-acceptable but politically-problematic emails that would be hard to avoid if you made email your normal communication method (eg, "Tell Lieberman I'll cut his BALLS OFF if he doesn't vote cloture on this."), but those only come out long after they'd be politically damaging (and, from a historical POV, would be interesting as shit).

||

Why the fuck is Bush on my radio, hectoring people?

Asshole.

|>


Posted by: JRoth | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 7:18 AM
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Further: kind of ridiculous to think that they'll be hampering the President's productivity for the sake of BS secrecy concerns. Can any of us imagine getting as much accomplished if we had to give up email or our other favorite technologies?

Should they make him use a PC, since that's what the WH is wired up for? "Sir, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it within a few weeks."

Again, WTF?


Posted by: JRoth | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 7:21 AM
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Now, obviously it makes sense that he has to curtail a fair proportion of his correspondence to avoid micromanaging. But that's easily accomplished by taking a new email address of more limited access.

Precedent: I was looking through the collected letters of George Washington, and there's a phase where's he's saying to people, "Now that I'm president I won't be able to correspond with you anymore, sorry."


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 10:26 AM
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That might have been just to his more tiresome correspondents, though.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 10:27 AM
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Can't they just slap some PGP on his email?


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 10:45 AM
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Where's Bruce Schneier when you need him?


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 10:46 AM
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It has to be better than "pretty good" for the president, ben.


Posted by: pdf23ds | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 10:46 AM
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Whatever.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 11:02 AM
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ZOMGP?

||
Dying laughing:

This picture was taken somewhere in the United States on June 10, 1964, and was discovered in an attic some years later
And they get any better! Is it just the years of looking for photoshopped defects that makes it all so ridiculous, or is it that the Telegraph choose the goofiest 'UFO' pictures they could find?
|>

max
['Bring me the flying sombrero of Darth Vader.']


Posted by: max | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 11:21 AM
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||
Does anyone have any recommendations for some animation software? I'm getting ready to create my third 'HS graduation video' (for 3 of 4, and I know I need to start early cause I piddle around with it for six months or so) and I thought it would be fun, if I could, to create some simple animation sections.

I'm thinking of taking a gif of 3 of 4's head, adding a simple cartoon body, and moving it around on the screen, maybe adding in the simple Southpark "Terrance and Philip" mouth movements.

I've used Roxio products for 1 and 2 of 4, but don't recall that they have this simple animation function. Maybe they have and I missed them, I dunno.

Does anyone have any ideas, hopefully for less than $100 USD?
|>


Posted by: Tripp | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 11:30 AM
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30: This looks interesting.


Posted by: Wrongshore | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 11:46 AM
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I suppose they could be talking about genuine national security concerns, rather than political embarrassment. An email saying "We want Putin to think we are willing to put in ground troops, even though we are really spread to thin to do that" could be a occasion to accidentally hit "reply all."

Still, shouldn't normal pentagon procedures cover this? Doesn't the Pentagon already rely on electronic communication (since it, you know, started there)?


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 12:10 PM
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In the Pentagon, they use Pretty Darn Good Privacy.


Posted by: pdf23ds | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 12:11 PM
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The Pentagon just has a really long email footer saying, you know, if you're not the intended recipient of this message, please forget what it said.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 12:13 PM
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Posted by: | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 12:32 PM
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32 - They don't use the normal Internet, they use SIPRnet (for classified materials, and I believe NIPRNet for unclassified materials), which is sort of a parallel DoD version of the normal Internet. I assume nobody's going to make the President leave his laptop in a SCIF, but that's the sort of behavior you'd have to impose if you wanted him to be running his email through SIPRNet.


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 1:17 PM
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36: you'd think they'd already have a SCIF in the White House. It'd be funny if they made him use a shielded laptop. "Hello, Mr. President. I'll take that mac, and here's your 18 pound GRID."


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 2:45 PM
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**BARACK OBAMA HAS RESIGNED FROM THE SENATE**
Probably some kind of sex scandal, I'd guess.

Developing..........

MUST CREDIT TROLLBLOG


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 4:14 PM
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38: Checking out how FoxNews is playing it, I instead see this arresting headline:

Capitol Hill Republicans to Battle Over Stimulus


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 4:22 PM
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National Enquirer:

I DIDN'T WANT TO BE A MORTGAGE SLUT!

I mean, Business Week.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 5:26 PM
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I've announced to Mrs. NCP that I will now never be President of the United States. I was up for it until the whole no-email thing. And if they're taking BHO's Blackberry, they'd for DAMN sure take my iPhone. And that ain't happening.

So no NCP for POTUS. Sorry, all.


Posted by: NCProsecutor | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 8:54 PM
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PS -- Mrs. NCP is in tears.

PPS -- Actually, they're tears of joy. She claims that she'd make an awful First Lady. Which is totally untrue -- she'd be the awesomest First Lady EVAH!!! But sadly, it will never be.


Posted by: NCProsecutor | Link to this comment | 11-16-08 8:57 PM
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Fortunately for Obama, unfogged has already adopted a rule of presidential anonymity. Regarding the President-elect's presumptive participation on this thread: Jimmy Carter???

(game for the old-timers: which past presidential/first lady contributions were from the Obamas?)


Posted by: unimaginative | Link to this comment | 11-17-08 8:27 AM
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43: I'm betting Gerald Ford.

(If anyone's curious, I just Googled for his name on this site. I assume the chosen alias of an important person wouldn't be one of the really idolized presidents like Lincoln and wouldn't be one that's politically controversial today like Bush. Among the 10 or so that were left, Ford was as good a one to search for as any. The fact that the first name I happened to look for was the one used in that thread was a complete, albeit hilarious, coincidence.)


Posted by: Cyrus | Link to this comment | 11-17-08 11:12 AM
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