Holy Crap

Executive Order: Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq
White House News
Message to the Congress of the United States Regarding International Emergency Economic Powers Act
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, as amended (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.)(IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.)(NEA), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,
I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, find that, due to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by acts of violence threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq and to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people, it is in the interests of the United States to take additional steps with respect to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 of May 22, 2003, and expanded in Executive Order 13315 of August 28, 2003, and relied upon for additional steps taken in Executive Order 13350 of July 29, 2004, and Executive Order 13364 of November 29, 2004. I hereby order:
Section 1. (a) Except to the extent provided in section 203(b)(1), (3), and (4) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(1), (3), and (4)), or in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted prior to the date of this order, all property and interests in property of the following persons, that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of United States persons, are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in: any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense,
(i) to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of:
(A) threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq; or
(B) undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people;
(ii) to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, logistical, or technical support for, or goods or services in support of, such an act or acts of violence or any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; or
(iii) to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order.
(b) The prohibitions in subsection (a) of this section include, but are not limited to, (i) the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order, and (ii) the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.
Sec. 2. (a) Any transaction by a United States person or within the United States that evades or avoids, has the purpose of evading or avoiding, or attempts to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.
(b) Any conspiracy formed to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.
Sec. 3. For purposes of this order:
(a) the term "person" means an individual or entity;
(b) the term "entity" means a partnership, association, trust, joint venture, corporation, group, subgroup, or other organization; and
(c) the term "United States person" means any United States citizen, permanent resident alien, entity organized under the laws of the United States or any jurisdiction within the United States (including foreign branches), or any person in the United States.
Sec. 4. I hereby determine that the making of donations of the type specified in section 203(b)(2) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(2)) by, to, or for the benefit of, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order would seriously impair my ability to deal with the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 and expanded in Executive Order 13315, and I hereby prohibit such donations as provided by section 1 of this order.
Sec. 5. For those persons whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order who might have a constitutional presence in the United States, I find that, because of the ability to transfer funds or other assets instantaneously, prior notice to such persons of measures to be taken pursuant to this order would render these measures ineffectual. I therefore determine that for these measures to be effective in addressing the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 and expanded in Executive Order 13315, there need be no prior notice of a listing or determination made pursuant to section 1(a) of this order.
Sec. 6. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense, is hereby authorized to take such actions, including the promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to the President by IEEPA as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this order. The Secretary of the Treasury may redelegate any of these functions to other officers and agencies of the United States Government, consistent with applicable law. All agencies of the United States Government are hereby directed to take all appropriate measures within their authority to carry out the provisions of this order and, where appropriate, to advise the Secretary of the Treasury in a timely manner of the measures taken.
Sec. 7. Nothing in this order is intended to affect the continued effectiveness of any rules, regulations, orders, licenses, or other forms of administrative action issued, taken, or continued in effect heretofore or hereafter under 31 C.F.R. chapter V, except as expressly terminated, modified, or suspended by or pursuant to this order.
Sec. 8. This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right, benefit, or privilege, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, instrumentalities, or entities, its officers or employees, or any other person.
GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
July 17, 2007.


-What are your reactions?

Snowing in Boston

It's snowing in Boston today. OK so it doesn't really capture the snow well... oh well... it's a camera phone.

Dies ist nicht das erste Mal

I'm bored trapped in corporate America life. What are the other choices?

Things I've learned over Christmas Break

1. No matter how much my mom promises me I can sleep in, I won't ever be allowed to.
2. Christmas isn't Christmas unless someone in the family has a wretched cold.
3. Picking fights with my younger brother won't solve anything. He'll blame my mom for instigating it.
4. I'll always miss my dog, Dusty, on Christmas morning. I never realized how important it was to me that he trample us to find his present under the tree. I'm glad we always let him, though. He loved it.
5. Going home after two and a half years of college made me realize how little I fit in at home anymore. It's not that they don't love me; it's that I'm a non-essential there. They'll survive with out me, and when I show up, the gears are slightly off.
6. The only thing that will never change is that my room will NEVER be clean enough to escape the discerning eye of my mother.
7. Laughing with someone on an airplane makes the whole experience infinately better for both of you. It's even more effective if you brush of an accident that way. If someone crunches your foot in the aisle, wince in pain, smile, excuse it, and laugh. Everyone around you will thank you silently.
8. If someone reaches for your hand at take-off, hold it.
   
9. The movie scene where the guy is riding down the escalator and the girl is waiting not far from the bottom is never half as good as the real thing.
   
10. If you buy a GPS travel "Assistant" and decide to use it in a city like Boston, decide ahead of time if you're going to follow it precisely, if your navigator needs to speak up and repeat everything it says, or if you plan on using it as ambiant background noise. =D
11. Snow makes a sound when it falls.
    
12. The Campello Post Office closes at 1:30 M-F. I don't know why.
13. Being home doesn't always mean being at your mom's house.
14. Florida "cold" and Boston "cold" are very different. Dress accordingly.
    
15. There is such a thing as a "little spoon."
16. Ugly Betty is a great show.
    
17. Watching The Twilight Zone Marathon is so much better than seeing a big, glittery, mis-timed ball (besmirched, I'm told, by a credit card logo) drop to the screams of excited New Yorkers.
18. Crasins are AMAZING and ADDICTIVE
19. Sleeping in is wonderful and even more addictive than Crasins.
20. I'm okay with jumping back into the maddness of school and my sorority; I'll be whole on the other end.
    

Where does the time go?

I remember all those times sitting in the kitchen of the downstairs apartment at Market St., usually wiht an open beer, playing Risk or poker, or somehow whiling away the hours of my life. The little kids would be running up and down the stairs and the dog would be wiping out the teetering piles of junk with his tail.

When I have that kind of time now, I am usually using it for the benefit of my home or family or to grow my career. I can't help thinking, though, that when I start taking slower, more shallow breaths and I begin my journey to the grave that those happy times just being in the same place as the people you love will stand out as more important than all of the days in the office or class.

This morning I slept through my alarm, and when my wife got back from her workout she laughed at me rushing to catch up and not be late. My daughter was happily choosing her new school clothes and telling me the relative merits of each spangle and design as I sped through the routine. My wife was saying how good it felt to have the running done, even though she was tired, and the baby was jumping in the jumpy thing- clean, happy, well cared for. It was a moment of domestic bliss, really, and I had a moment there where I almost didn't get in the car and remove myself to end it.

I guess the point is that we can't stop recognizing these moments for what they are, the real life between the stuff we have to do, and can't stop deriving our deep satisfaction from them. Another point is to not get too caught up in speeding through your process, because I am getting really hungry and my lunch is on my kitchen counter, now an entire commute away...

North Korea

Anyone else think that the whole issue of North Korea having nukes could easily spiral out of control. Think about the U. S. response to this point. They are siding with a very punitive approach. Trying to coerce the North Korean government to get rid of the nukes by using bully tactics. North Korean has responded by saying that they would take counter measures to any sanctions. One news report that I read said that they stated they would take "physical" counter measures. I don't know about anyone else but North Korea is one of those entities I believe would be crazy enough to do something. The other thing is that we currently have a trigger happy president. I was listening to a broadcast yesterday on the drive home. He basically said that talk and negotiation doesn't work with North Korea. I'm paraphrasing, of course. He wants to take tough measures... Ok I could live with that if it was a school yard bully but we are talking about an unpredictable, armed nation. Lets talk first I don't want to glow in the dark...

Stealing is Bad

For the first time in a very long time I would like to talk about something that I know a little about. It’s everybody’s favorite topic- corporate governance!

I think everybody knows why a person steals. I was recently in a fraud training seminar when the facilitator said that he believed everybody in the room would perpetrate fraud if given the opportunity and motivation. I repulsed, as did most of the other good people in attendance. Then the facilitator went into a story of a friend of his whose daughter was diagnosed with, and is slowly dying of, an extremely rare form of cancer. He said that his friend had the chance to get her into an experimental treatment center, but that it would cost three hundred grand. The guy didn’t have the money, but he is the CFO of a mid sized corporation that does. The guy asked him, should I steal the money and maybe save my daughter? Then I agreed that yes, there are probably things that I would steal or kill or die for.

Why do more than one person steal, together? What makes an entire class of people from one company and from other watchdog companies get together to steal? What makes it OK? Here’s the brief history lesson associated with this essay: a bunch of people recently stole so much money that loads of good people lost all their retirement funds and stuff. They did way more harm than all of the gang bangers in LA and NYC put together, but almost none of them went to jail. What the hell is with that?

The facilitator said that it was just his opinion, but he feels that there is a degradation of the moral fiber of Americans, that the US is in an ethical crisis. One of the people in the audience asked if he thought the prevalent notion of moral permissiveness increased as you crossed the Mason-Dixon Line, and he said yes. I chimed in that I thought that may be true, but heading south, not north. Where is EnRon headquartered? Where is HealthSouth?

Just so we’re clear on this, all of you out there in blog-land, stealing is wrong and you should not do it. Not turning in bad people who steal is just as wrong. This is true in your own community and it is true in your corporation.

Now, let’s talk about environmentally rapacious policies being encouraged in developing countries’ regimes by developed countries’ administrations on behalf of well heeled lobbies…

Coup Coup CaChoup

There was a coup d'etat in Thailand yesterday. I heard about it on NPR when I was driving home. They said, "There was a coup in Thailand while the Prime Minister was in New York." That's all. I didn't hear anything else about it in the media until the next morning when they showed tanks rolling through the streets of Bangkok but didn't say much more than the NPR report. Of course I called my sister in law to see if her family are all OK, but she hasn't heard from them yet.

I hope Mike will let us know what really happened so we can either be properly outraged or put our minds at ease.

Superimposition

I talk to my wife on the phone. She wants me to stop at Ukrops and pick up some salt and toilet paper on my way home. I check my watch and tell her that I love her, and look out the window of my office on E. Main St. The flames are beginning to take purchase and the sky is a growing haze of smoke and floating ash. There is pandemonium on the street. I get off of the elevator and step out onto the sidewalk. It is a clear fresh day and the street florist greets me with a smile. I compliment her hat, an Easter bonnet really, just a bit early for the season maybe. I browse her wares and, glancing up, catch the reflection off of the towering bank across the street. Women are dragging children and whatever possessions they can bundle into their skirts and are fleeing both the flames and the looters. They are wailing and cursing the army for setting their own city afire. If they wanted to leave nothing for the Yankees, they say, then why did they not take the refugees as well? A hundred and forty years pass as I decide that my wife is better off without the flower for today, and I round the corner to the parking lot where my car is waiting for the commute.

I get on 95 south and check the rear view. A column of smoke is rising like a clamoring smoke signal telling all who can see that there is an invading army inching closer to the capital minute by minute. I turn on the radio and switch to NPR. There is a recounting of the Confederate retreat from Richmond to the city of Petersburg. Along the roadside I see the cannon, slow and ponderous, crawling behind mules, with rail thin veterans of sixteen years or less pushing from behind, cursing and falling into the mud that they churn up. Some just sit, unable to carry on any further.

I look at the signs by the roadside as I get closer to my exit. At Drewry’s Bluff the main force of the infantry are marching. They are ragged, hungry, often bleeding men of all ages and carrying almost no equipment. One can barely see them. They have become the color of the land through which they move; a smear of impressionist grey outpacing and ingloriously leaving the cannon behind at exit 64. As I take the right to get onto the Ironbridge road I can see the dust cloud raised by the cavalry outpacing the infantry and well on their way to Petersburg.

Hissing, flat, sweltering farmland scrubs out volunteer tobacco on either side of the road. All that growing and not a thing a man can eat. I can see refugee slaves who knew the Union army was enroute and unstoppable, and ran from their refugee masters- sprinted away crouched over like old women so as to stay out of sight below in the culvert that ran off toward Hopewell, and Charles City County and freedom beyond that. I take a left into the Ukrops parking lot and park close to a white sign marking a point of historical significance. It says, “Chester Station Fight”. As I’m walking toward the supermarket, forward elements of Sherman’s cavalry thunder by me in a full charge. They circle the small station, trying to land torches at the base in order to burn out the few rebels left there to protect the rail line. Two riders are unseated by the time I get to the store. Flames start to rise from the platform of the Chester station. The rebels sprint for the iron bridge. The automatic glass double doors shush open and I’m greeted by a face full of air conditioning. Salt, toilet paper, and an impulse buy of chicken breast (on sale at $1.99 a pound, how can you not get some?), and I’m on my way back outside. I cross to the car. The station is engulfed in flame and bodies litter the parking lot. There are no screams of agony until I turn the radio on.

I pull into my subdivision. The floating reflection on the opposite car window as I shut the car off is that of pristine untouched forest. Powhatan people are gathered, watchfully waiting for the politics of the Europeans’ war to play out. I wonder to myself why it is the atrocious things that we assume hallow a piece of ground. My daughter is slinging the hula hoop around her hips for the amusement of the pet bunny. I know what makes it special to me.

"Working Girl" Entry #3

Entry #3: War Zone

Em just opened our office door and huffed loudly.

"It looks like fucking Beruit out here."

She's right, too. Those In Charge have decided to add eight cubicles to the floor beyond the confines of The Office Formerly Known As Cleveland Basak's (catchy name, isn't it?). The screwing and nailing and drilling has been going on non-stop; I haven't decided whether it's more like a war zone or high school out there.

In other news, Cleveland Basak apparently has no purpose beyond terrifying the underlings of the world (none of whom are actually beneath him). I watched my boss squirm slightly when we asked him exactly what Cleveland Basak does, since we always walk past the closed door to his new office and hear nothing but low talking and sporadic typing. Apparently he does do something, but no one is sure exactly who he reports to, what department he's in, or how what he "does" fits into the grand scheme of the company. If my boss, Mr. Nicholas E. Farious (or NEFarious@YCHMags.com) - the King of the All-Knowing Media - doesn't know who you are or what you're doing, then you must be wicked powerful. If you can scare the shit out of him like Cleveland Basak does, then you'd pretty much have to be avert-thine-eyes-almighty. The worst of it is that he's not even at the top of the food chain, either; after all, his new office is smaller than Joan Garrett's. Thank goodness she's on her annual 3 month "company visit" to Greece or the Armani warehouse or some G-14 classified spa burried 300 feet of volcanic Appalachian Mountain rock. I'd hate to bump into her in the wee, pre-coffee hours before work.

We interrupt this daily broadcast to publish a short phone call:

Amy (to her boyfriend): "Hun, this shit may be a no-brainer, but can you remember not to be totally stoned when you meet my grandfather later? Just because your friend is in town doesn't mean that you can show up trashed around my family....Oh yeah, I love you."

As she hung up, a foot burst through a ceiling tile just outside the office door Georgie carelessly left open. The assistant art director stopped by just then in his very Clark Kent get-up to deliver our official Press Passes. The dusting of white, assumably asbestos-free ceiling-tile-particles made him look even more awkward. I hope he turns out to be some random comic book hero here to check the evil doings of Cleveland Basak. Maybe NEFarious is a Bond-movie-esque head of Global Security, like "M"...sans the suave air of a powerful British female, of course.

Somebody get me some colored pencils, I have a cartoon to start...

"Working Girl" Entry #2

Entry #2: Observations

Em's story -

Twelve white policemen standing around, looking satisfied
One stark naked black man, lying face down on the ground
A several groups of tourists; possible areas of origin: Scandinavia, Asia, Alabama.
One bagel cart vendor hawking his food to the audience
One man in a banana costume, watching it all

Alexa's story -

Two men in an elevator around 9:30 am.
Man #1: Hey how'd your night go?
Man #2: (groans)
Man #1: What, you didn't get the hotel room?
Man #2: (shakes his head)
Man #1: What the hell? She was hot!
Man #2: Don't get me wrong. Of course she was hot. But I just couldn't do it.
Man #1: Why the hell not?
Man #2: She's such a brat.

Georgia's story -

An employee of a local drugstore gave a five minute long oration praising women who wear skirts for their attention to their personal hygene.

Amy's story -

Bought her first NYC bagel with cream cheese off the street to find that the bagel tasted more like a roll and the cream cheese was (literally) just a slice off a large bar of cream cheese, stuck between the bagel halves. Final judgement: smear it with a spoon and it still tastes good.

My story -

see all of the above

"Working Girl:" A Journal of Blood, Sweat, and Heels

Entry #1

I gave up my summer for this. I have to keep telling myself that sacrifices will pay off. I haven’t seen the returns yet, but investments like this are like mutual funds. You’re not supposed to look at the day-to-day fluctuations; the long term results count, not the tiny ups and downs.

Listen to me; I’m supposed to be an English major. I’ve only been at the magazine a week, and the environment has already had its effects on me. The building itself is a bit of a homogenized oddity; I should be a floor below with the rest of the editing staff, but the interns were moved to an empty office upstairs in the financial department. The numbers are getting to me, and I can’t even see them; they make the air on this floor taste like stress. The young financial-experts-in-training stop by with their coffee, energy drinks, and other legal uppers, ready to escape. I wish I were in their boat.

When the job description said filing, I hoped I wouldn’t be filing my nails for five hours. Honestly, I’d rather be doing menial jobs than stuck at a computer screen wondering why I’m not back home with a good book on the beach. You’d think a job at Your Company Here Magazines would be riveting, stressful, and all together a life-changing experience. Instead, I can’t wait for the next new person to lean against the doorjamb and eerily whisper, “So this is Cleveland Basak’s old office…”

As rumor has it, Cleveland Basak used to occupy this office. About a week before we were moved, a huge game of Musical Office commenced. Cleveland Basak cleared out of this double-sized office looking out on 85th street and took Joan Garrett’s triple-sized 6th Ave view. Joan took the corner that used to belong to Ted Ringer. Funny thing is that Ted left, and no one seems to know why. Amy thinks even our four, stoic, colorless walls are powerless against the aura Cleveland Basak left behind; it’s so powerful that none of us can call him anything besides “Cleveland Basak.” Emily’s theory on the aura is that Ted was off-ed for his office space. Maybe that’s why no one speaks about Cleveland Basak above a whisper.


If the aura of Cleveland Basak is floating around the office, I wonder if he can still tune into it. I wonder if he can read this…

I wonder if I’m as bad as the rest of them…

DINO CRISIS IV

DINO CRISIS IV

Another great film-in-the making from the makers of a series of classy spoof films. Just Released: Searching for John D. MacArthur. Oh the glory...

I really wish I had the time to pull off something as productive as a feature length movie shot with a cast of 20+ (including cameos) and a spectacular battle scene of epic proportions. One day, I'm going to be watching the Oscars saying "I sat in my living room chatting with him while I blogged about his stuff." It makes me feel awfully small. And like I need to develop my own talents to some tangible and highly visible level.

Highlighting the News on Healthcare in MA

I stole this from Kat and wanted to repost it, hoping to lend emphasis to my approval. I'm no financial theorist, but it looks like a plan, to say the least. What do the good people of Massachusetts think about it?

If you had to choose...

Is it better to be a honestly arrogant or humbly hypocritical?