In The Blogs

Patching Things Up

PATCHING THINGS UP....Samantha Power, last heard from calling Hillary Clinton a "monster" and then apologizing fulsomely for it, is back:

State Department officials said Friday that Samantha Power is among a group of foreign policy experts that the president-elect's office selected to help the incoming administration prepare for Clinton's anticipated nomination as secretary of state.

....Clinton's office declined to comment on Power's inclusion in the State Department transition, but an official close to the Obama transition team said Power had ''made a gesture to bury the hatchet'' with Clinton and that it had been well-received.

If we accept the conventional wisdom that Obama's choice of Clinton as Secretary of State is a generous gesture meant to help unify the party, then there would be few more forthright ways for Clinton to reciprocate than by nominating Power for some kind of meaningful position at Foggy Bottom. It would be a good sign that those hatchets have been well and truly buried.

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Oh tank you tank you for such fulsome ambiguity! Delicious.
Main Entry:
ful?some
Etymology:
Middle English fulsom copious, cloying, from full + -som -some
Date: 13th century
1 a: characterized by abundance : copious b: generous in amount c: being full and well developed
2: aesthetically, morally, or generally offensive 3: exceeding the bounds of good taste : overdone 4: excessively complimentary or flattering : effusive
usage The senses shown above are the chief living senses of fulsome. Sense 2, which was a generalized term of disparagement in the late 17th century, is the least common of these. Fulsome became a point of dispute when sense 1, thought to be obsolete in the 19th century, began to be revived in the 20th. The dispute was exacerbated by the fact that the large dictionaries of the first half of the century missed the beginnings of the revival. Sense 1 has not only been revived but has spread in its application and continues to do so. The chief danger for the user of fulsome is ambiguity. Unless the context is made very clear, the reader or hearer cannot be sure whether such an expression as "fulsome praise" is meant in sense 1b or in sense 4.

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Oh tank you tank you for such fulsome ambiguity! Delicious.
Main Entry:
ful?some
Etymology:
Middle English fulsom copious, cloying, from full + -som -some
Date: 13th century
1 a: characterized by abundance : copious b: generous in amount c: being full and well developed
2: aesthetically, morally, or generally offensive 3: exceeding the bounds of good taste : overdone 4: excessively complimentary or flattering : effusive
usage The senses shown above are the chief living senses of fulsome. Sense 2, which was a generalized term of disparagement in the late 17th century, is the least common of these. Fulsome became a point of dispute when sense 1, thought to be obsolete in the 19th century, began to be revived in the 20th. The dispute was exacerbated by the fact that the large dictionaries of the first half of the century missed the beginnings of the revival. Sense 1 has not only been revived but has spread in its application and continues to do so. The chief danger for the user of fulsome is ambiguity. Unless the context is made very clear, the reader or hearer cannot be sure whether such an expression as "fulsome praise" is meant in sense 1b or in sense 4.

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"Let's not bicker and argue about who killed who..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc6HQIrEk7g (@3:00).

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She's been called worse, so I'm sure HRC would be cool. Diehard PUMAs on the otherhand....

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It would be a good sign that those hatchets have been well and truly buried.

Oh no, no, no. We're not giving up that easily. If Hillary's involved, there's drama! There's intrigue! Maybe some backstabbing! And sex!!

And even if there's not, that's our story and we're going to tell that way.

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Power belongs outside the administration, doing what she does so well, raising the profile of her big issues and agitating for government action.

She should be kept as far away from actual policy making positions as possible.

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HEY KEVIN (yes, I'm shouting): Please tell me Thanksgiving cat blogging didn't didn't let you off the hook for Friday cat blogging ...

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I couldn't help but think what a difference two letters could make:
''made a gesture to bury the hatchet'' within Clinton! Totally changes the meaning.

That said, I think they are both big enough people to get beyond it -in fact that should be a job requirement. In politics, as well as in war and diplomacy, yesterday's enemy is today's ally -and vice versa. This is just plain good practice for the more serious game they are about to enter into.

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I'm not sure I can penetrate all the layers of snark here.

But I will say, I'll bet she'd make an excellent Assistant Deputy Under-Chief of Protocol. IIRC, they have total charge over napkin-folding, red-carpet-placement, and valet parking.

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And in news of other losing battles: I wish people would look up the usage notes on "fulsome."

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Number one reason to bury hatchets: the country's in trouble and we don't have time or energy for that shit.

Number two reason: it will drive the wingers crazy.

no profile pic for comment author

Oh tank you tank you for such fulsome ambiguity! Delicious.
Main Entry:
ful•some
Etymology:
Middle English fulsom copious, cloying, from full + -som -some
Date: 13th century
1 a: characterized by abundance : copious b: generous in amount c: being full and well developed
2: aesthetically, morally, or generally offensive 3: exceeding the bounds of good taste : overdone 4: excessively complimentary or flattering : effusive
usage The senses shown above are the chief living senses of fulsome. Sense 2, which was a generalized term of disparagement in the late 17th century, is the least common of these. Fulsome became a point of dispute when sense 1, thought to be obsolete in the 19th century, began to be revived in the 20th. The dispute was exacerbated by the fact that the large dictionaries of the first half of the century missed the beginnings of the revival. Sense 1 has not only been revived but has spread in its application and continues to do so. The chief danger for the user of fulsome is ambiguity. Unless the context is made very clear, the reader or hearer cannot be sure whether such an expression as "fulsome praise" is meant in sense 1b or in sense 4.

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Good news I guess. And I'm sure Hillary will take Kevin's advice.

However, for the next few years Hillary is going to face the wrath of media pundits if she doesn't put on a genuine smile whenever she's within 20 feet of Obama. It's impossible to break a story line that's that well crafted. Wish we could go back in time to February.

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Powers is incredibly overrated.
30 months as a freelancer, HLS and Pulitzer does not make one a foreign policy guru.

Powers isn't going to WCI and I doubt she is a good fit for any position she would actually accept. She will have to be satisfied with being listed as one of the most influential people of this century rather than actually influencing policy.

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Or...

hire the person and make their life miserable. If that is what Hillary is doing, then I like her more than ever.

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"Powers is incredibly overrated."

She writes a book arguing for more humanitarian interventions, like what shoulda happened in Rwanda. Then neo-cons/liberal hawks sing her praises for advancing their agenda of liberating Muslims and Arabs from, well, who cares. Just bomb them, and faster please.

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Maybe Undersecretary for Genocide, or something like that.

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Why should I believe any of the previous posters' claims that Samantha Power is overrated...

...when they can't even get her name right?!

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Samantha Power should have been picked as Ambassador to the UN. What a missed opportunity. She could have done great things for the UN, and for the American image abroad.

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This just shows how seamless

This just shows how seamless the foreign policy transition would be for a Palin administration: Our agents on the ground are already the envy of other States.

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If counterinsurgency

If counterinsurgency military forces are used to oppress political opposition domestically, then they are not imperialistic. If they are used to suppress opposition to occupation in foreign countries, they are. Regardless of the ideology used to rationalize counterinsurgency, counterinsurgency is all about using the military to kill civilians opposing unpopular rule.

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