The secretary of the U.S. Senate on Monday rejected the certificiate of appointment for Roland Burris, named by Illinois’ controversial governor to fill Barack Obama’s Senate seat, according to an aide to the secretary.
The aide said Secretary of the Senate Nancy Erickson rejected Burris’ appointment because it does not conform with the Senate rule requiring that the secretary of state — in this case, Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White — must sign the certificate of appointment along with the governor.
While on paper, I have no argument with Burris’ qualifications for the seat, I continue to marvel that he was willing to permanently link his political fortunes with Blagojevich. He had to be pretty desperate for the Senate seat to allow himself to become a pawn in this game. Granted: that doesn’t disqualify him from the seat, but it is still raises questions about his character and motivations.
In regards to the entire mess, and after some thought, I have to say that I think that should this drag on long enough, the Senate will have to seat Burris. However, it is smart politics to slow the process down as much as possible in the hopes that Blagojevich is impeached and removed before all is said and done.
On the hand, I have to admit that a) Burris is constitutionally qualified and b) Blagojevich still has the legal authority to make an appointment. On the other, given that Blagojevich has been catch on tape talking about selling the Senate seat in question, it is hardly unreasonable to want his influence nowhere near the seat.
Democratic officials tell ABC News that President-elect Obama has tapped former Rep. Leon Panetta, D-Calif., to serve as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Panetta, who served as both director of the Office of Management and Budget and chief of staff for former President Bill Clinton, is well regarded in Washington and served as a member of the Iraq Study Group. But he has little apparent experience in intelligence matters other than during his time in the Army, from which he was discharged in 1966.
First, the headline marks the first time I have seen the acronym PEBO. It makes me think of Peabo Bryson, rather than President-elect Obama.
Second, my initial, and thoroughly unanalytical reponse to the news: really? Panetta? Is he CIA material?
Third, my next reaction: hmm, maybe what we need in the intel community post-Bush is someone from outside the intel community…
Ok, so I am working in OpenOffice 3.0 and I go to try and change the font in a spreadsheet (yes, just change the #@$%! font) and my screen goes black with just an immovable, somewhat enlarged, mouse pointer in the middle of the screen. The system still seems to be running, as I can still here my Sirius/XM radio streaming online in the background.
This happened twice in a row, so I am convinced that it was the attempted font change that did it–both times I was scrolling down the list of available fonts and WHAM, blackscreen.
Two questions:
First, to you Linux types: any way to extricate myself from the black screen aside from ctrl-alt-del?
I’d be skeptical of OpenOffice in general. While I’m no fan of MSFT Office, and dearly wish there were a good alternative, the people behind OpenOffice should have put more time into quality and usability issues.
I have only used it some, and have mixed feelings. I need to figure out how to install MS Office with Wine, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
(Good to hear from you, btw–I was wondering just today as to how you were doing).
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Monday, January 5, 2009 @ 4:51 pm
I can’t help with Open Office itself, but it’s also possible to get out of a crash like what you’re describing by hitting Ctlr+Alt+Backspace, which will log you out.
Or you can hit Ctrl+Alt+(a function key such as F1, F2, … to F6) to get a command line, which allows you to kill Open Office. This is a little more fun.
Comment by Max Lybbert — Monday, January 5, 2009 @ 5:33 pm
My first thought is to wonder about a possible video driver problem.
Second, try changing the printer in ‘File->Printer settings’ before trying to change the font.
To get out of the frozen screen, try CTRL-ALT-F1 to get to a screen terminal where you can log in and see what is running. Or you can try CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE to reboot the session only (it appears that an X restart might be necessary in any case).
Are you using the “ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ubuntu” repository install or another method? Do you still have OOo 2.4 in? Does the same thing happen in other spreadsheets? in other types of documents? in other applications?
No need for Kingdaddy (or anyone) to be skeptical of OOo - been using it for years in OS/2, Windows, and Linux for everything from desktop publishing to web pages and it is just as reliable as Office (or better).
And no, I haven’t seen this one yet nor heard of any complaints that appear to be this nor seen any bug reports - but the ocean of such things is big and I might easily have missed something. These sorts of things can be a real pain - if they are indeed bugs they usually get fixed quick but I occasionally find things like this are are particular to some glitch here and the only thing I can do is to find a workaround or wait until something changes in the display manager, font handling, application, or affected hardware drivers. Good Luck.
Save your work as you go and always keep up the backup maintenance! With Ubuntu and OOo I have had much less of a hassle loosing work than I have had with other environments but I still keep snapshots with an rsync script and system backups with remastersys.
Comment by Bryan — Monday, January 5, 2009 @ 5:36 pm
The Minnesota Supreme Court today rejected a bid by Republican Norm Coleman to have hundreds of rejected absentee ballots considered in the U.S. Senate recount, apparently clearing the way for a state board to certify election results showing Democrat Al Franken on top — and also opening the door to a post-recount lawsuit that the Coleman campaign said “is now inevitable.”
All I can think of every time I read about this story is: how nice would it have been for the people of Minnesota to have had a run-off provision or, better yet, IRV?1
I agree that, in theory, IRV is a great idea. If voters knew that supporting a third-party candidate wouldn’t lead to the election of their least-favored choice (the way that Perot voters helped Clinton and Nader supporters helped GWB), I believe that alternative-party candidates could pull 20-30 percent of the votes in many contests. Even if these candidates did not win under the IRV format, that kind of support would dramatically raise their “viability quotient,” so to speak, which would likely lead to sufficient financial support to allow their parties to finally crack the Democratic-Republican stranglehold on Congress and the statehouses.
Unfortunately, I fear that in actual practice IRV could cause as many problems as it solves, like Florida’s infamous “butterfly ballot”. If IRV is adopted, let’s hope that ballot designers and public outreach efforts are up to the task of adequately explaining the concept to the typical voter.
Comment by Lawrence Israelson — Monday, January 5, 2009 @ 3:07 pm
Dan Drezner, blogging from his new digs at FP (congrats to Dan, Marc and the others who made the move), seems to share my skepticism over Bolton and Yoo’s conversion to the Concerned Citizens for the Proper Role of the Legislature in Foreign Policy:
Now, on the one hand, one could interpret this advice as a warning about the dangers of implementing international agreements without the broad support of Congress and the American people.
One could also, however, interpret this advice as awfully strange, as it emanates from officials who have, heretofore, been mostly concerned with the augmentation of the executive branch’s power at all costs (and implemented plenty of congressional-executive agreements while in office).
It is terribly convenient, now that they are out of power, to be suddenly concerned with Obama running roughshod over the legislative branch. The domestic parallel would be if Bush officials who embraced No Child Left Behind and intervening in the case of Terry Schiavo suddenly developed a Strange New Respect for federalism.
They are worried about the in-coming President using executive agreements with foreign governments concerning matters such as the environment. They argue for the proper role for the Senate in the process of making binding foreign policy agreements with other states:
THE Constitution’s Treaty Clause has long been seen, rightly, as a bulwark against presidential inclinations to lock the United States into unwise foreign commitments. The clause will likely be tested by Barack Obama’s administration, as the new president and Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton, led by the legal academics in whose circles they have long traveled, contemplate binding down American power and interests in a dense web of treaties and international bureaucracies.
This is, of course, remarkable to anyone who has been paying attention for the last seven-plus years, as Woo and Bolton both have been major proponents of the unfettered expansion of executive power in regards to foreign policy. Now the new administration hasn’t even been sworn in yet, and they are rediscovering that the Congress has constitutional prerogatives in this arena.
Even better, they conclude their piece by calling for Republicans to “join Mr. Obama in advancing a bipartisan foreign policy.” Yes, you read that right, Bolton and Yoo are calling for a bipartisan foreign policy. Many things come to mind in regards to this, but specifically it takes me back to Bolton’s recess appointment to be UN Ambassador and the fight with the Senate over his confirmation when Bush re-appointed him. There was no bipartisanship there, nor was there a lot of extolling of the Senate’s role in foreign policy. Instead, there was a lot of vitriol and political wrangling about how the Senate Democrats were taking away the president’s powers (see, for example, here, here and here).
Ah well. I must confess, I expected a lot of Bush supporters to find religion regarding executive power again once a Democrat was in office, but I thought they’d at least wait a few months.
[...] from his new digs at FP (congrats to Dan, Marc and the others who made the move), seems to share my skepticism over Bolton and Yoo’s conversion to the Concerned Citizens for the Proper Role of the [...]
The Senate’s treaty-making ability has been eroding for decades. For instance, fast track trade legislation — which as far as I can tell involves agreeing with another country to each “unilaterally” pass particular laws at the same time so that what amounts to a treaty doesn’t get handled like a treaty and isn’t actually called a treaty — was first created in 1974.
But, yes, it’s silly for people to get religion based largely on who’s in power. The argument is effectively “we’ll handle this power responsibility when we’re in charge, but they won’t when they’re in charge.”
Comment by Max Lybbert — Monday, January 5, 2009 @ 5:47 pm
The compound is one of the biggest and most expensive embassies the US has ever built, and was opened amid heavy security in the Iraqi capital.
[...]
The new complex, which will house a total of 4,000 staff, has been built with security very much in mind, says the BBC’s Caroline Wyatt in Baghdad.
With the turn-over of the Green Zone to Iraqi authorities (more or less), and the opening of the embassy, it does seem that we are moving into a new era in Iraq. What it will eventually evolve into, however, remains to be seen.
The size of the embassy and its fortress-like nature are both quite symbolic, I would argue. To wit: clearly the US presence will continue to loom large in Iraq for the foreseeable future, and that presence will continue to be a target that needs serious protection.
Talabani thanked the United States for helping create a democratic Iraq “which will serve as a model for other peoples of the eastern world.” He explicitly praised U.S. President George W. Bush for the “courageous and historic” decision to topple dictator Saddam.
Under investigation for “pay-to-play” allegations, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has told President-elect Barack Obama that he is withdrawing his name as a nominee for secretary of the commerce in the pending Obama administration.
[...]
Richardson is withdrawing because of questions raised by federal investigators, who have been looking into whether Richardson and his administration improperly steered state contracts towards CDR Financial Products, a Beverly Hills, Calif.-based firm founded by David Rubin, a major financial contributor to Richardson.
Better now than later, as far as the Obama administration is concerned.
John Bull being eliminated on side issues and the strength of character not to impede process while two significant events are going on at the same time, the nomination with Mr. Richardson having a review of internal policy is something to be commended. When was the last time you saw a public official step to the side while the public docket was abandoned for personal issues. Congratulations on the tough dealing to add consequence to official responsibility. That is tight logic for a personal decision.
I’d be skeptical of OpenOffice in general. While I’m no fan of MSFT Office, and dearly wish there were a good alternative, the people behind OpenOffice should have put more time into quality and usability issues.
Comment by Kingdaddy — Monday, January 5, 2009 @ 4:38 pm
I have only used it some, and have mixed feelings. I need to figure out how to install MS Office with Wine, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
(Good to hear from you, btw–I was wondering just today as to how you were doing).
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Monday, January 5, 2009 @ 4:51 pm
I can’t help with Open Office itself, but it’s also possible to get out of a crash like what you’re describing by hitting Ctlr+Alt+Backspace, which will log you out.
Or you can hit Ctrl+Alt+(a function key such as F1, F2, … to F6) to get a command line, which allows you to kill Open Office. This is a little more fun.
Comment by Max Lybbert — Monday, January 5, 2009 @ 5:33 pm
My first thought is to wonder about a possible video driver problem.
Second, try changing the printer in ‘File->Printer settings’ before trying to change the font.
To get out of the frozen screen, try CTRL-ALT-F1 to get to a screen terminal where you can log in and see what is running. Or you can try CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE to reboot the session only (it appears that an X restart might be necessary in any case).
Are you using the “ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ubuntu” repository install or another method? Do you still have OOo 2.4 in? Does the same thing happen in other spreadsheets? in other types of documents? in other applications?
No need for Kingdaddy (or anyone) to be skeptical of OOo - been using it for years in OS/2, Windows, and Linux for everything from desktop publishing to web pages and it is just as reliable as Office (or better).
And no, I haven’t seen this one yet nor heard of any complaints that appear to be this nor seen any bug reports - but the ocean of such things is big and I might easily have missed something. These sorts of things can be a real pain - if they are indeed bugs they usually get fixed quick but I occasionally find things like this are are particular to some glitch here and the only thing I can do is to find a workaround or wait until something changes in the display manager, font handling, application, or affected hardware drivers. Good Luck.
Save your work as you go and always keep up the backup maintenance! With Ubuntu and OOo I have had much less of a hassle loosing work than I have had with other environments but I still keep snapshots with an rsync script and system backups with remastersys.
Comment by Bryan — Monday, January 5, 2009 @ 5:36 pm