Poetry

I have to deal with various North Korean hijinks at work just about every day. Today there was a brief panic among the Japanese Press Corp. when a Japanese news wire mis-quoted a State Department official, reporting that North Korea is "pretty close" to being removed from the list of state sponsors of terror. This is a big deal in my office (for reasons I won't bother you with here), so I had to call this person, and email this person, and, whoops, Jiji fucked it up, he actually didn't say that, call off the attack. It doesn't really matter. What matters is the wonderful email I got from the correspondent I work with:

Jiji canceled the report which we talked about now.
Transcript must be accurate.
Dpuble check is very important.
It's rock on another mountain.

Scandal (Probably) Looming at Department of Interior

At the State of the Union, it's traditional for the President to ask a member of his (or her...?) cabinet to enjoy the speech from the comfort of his or her own home, or hidden bunker, or whatever. This year it was Secretary of Interior and former Idaho Governor Dick Kempthorne.

As noted by the AP, in 2006, Secretary of Veterans' Affairs Jim Nicholson was chosen to lead our nation in the event of unthinkable catastrophe at the Capitol Dome. About 18 months later, in light of muckraking that revealed how conditions for wounded vets at Walter Reed and other VA medical facilities were beyond subpar, Secretary Nicholson resigned. In 2007 SotU, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was benched for the evening, and we all know how well that worked out.

Are Dick's days numbered at Interior? The Department hasn't exactly been scandal free. And is it a bad sign that he's a politician from Idaho?