I SO Miss Marie Harf

Not Marie Harf's official photo (but, damn)

Here's an example of why I miss her in the Spokesperson job, the September 17 daily press briefing in which the new Spokesman/person got this snarky question about our Syria program:

QUESTION: So, much has been covered. So let me ask you about the substance of the train and equip program [for Syrian rebels]. When it was launched, it aimed to train 15,000 people. Here we are months later, many months later, and you only have a handful of trained personnel. Would you say that this program has proven to be an abysmal failure and perhaps it is time to move on to something else?

QUESTION: Please use the words “abysmal failure” in your answer.

Marie would have hit that one out of the park. Oh, sure, the ex-Admiral who took her place competently defused the question by boring everybody with a long answer about the three original goals of the program, blah, blah, blah. But that's merely answering the question. Marie would have made news herself with that question, which is what I want to see in a Spokesperson.

By the way, the following day's New York Times article with a Washington dateline did indeed use the words "abysmal failure":

WASHINGTON — By any measure, President Obama’s effort to train a Syrian opposition army to fight the Islamic State on the ground has been an abysmal failure. The military acknowledged this week that just four or five American-trained fighters are actually fighting.

But the White House says it is not to blame. The finger, it says, should be pointed not at Mr. Obama but at those who pressed him to attempt training Syrian rebels in the first place — a group that, in addition to congressional Republicans, happened to include former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

You will perhaps not be surprised that the White House spokesman said President Obama is not to blame for President Obama's failed effort in Syria.

Here's a thought: if State isn't going to use Marie for press briefings anymore, can't it please lend her to the White House to raise the level of Spokespersonery over there?

Most Eyebrow-Raising Headline of the Week

 
 
"Would YOU have a dead loved one's TATTOO put in a frame? Bizarre new service offers to remove inked skin and turn it into a memento" - UK Daily Mail 


According to Save My Ink, the process allows tattoo enthusiasts to bequeath an actual part of themselves 'just like a house, wedding ring or any other cherished possession'.

Construction Worker Corrects His Employer's Grammar

Noted in an office annex elevator.

So the company doing renovation in an office annex in Arlington, Virginia, put up a sign - which looks to be professionally printed - in the service elevator warning employees to turn off their cell phones or else have them confiscated. The warning is in Spanish, of course, that being the language of the construction trades in Arlington.

Some helpful construction guy evidently noticed the poor grammar of the warning and took it upon himself to give his bosses a free Spanish lesson. The top line he marked correcto, but he red-penciled the totally screwed-up bottom line ("si lo no hacen, sus telephonos seran confiscandos") and graded it muy mala.  He even drew a little sad face next to the mala.

That guy is wasted in construction work. Somebody should hire him as a language instructor.

In Ft. Pickett vs FLETC, Virginia Is Now First and Goal

Update at 6:40 PM - The GAO's report is now available on line here. Thank you again, anonymous commentator!

It's 44 pages and I haven't read it yet, but it starts great. The first sentence of the summary "What GAO Found" reads "GAO evaluated four Department of State (State) Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) requirements that GAO determined were critical in the selection of a site for a training facility and found that Fort Pickett, near Blackstone, Virginia, fully met all four while the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) campus in Glynco, Georgia, did not fully meet any."

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The GAO audit report that Rep. Ed Royce requested "to review the proposals put forward by the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) and the Department of State (“State”) to determine which proposal meets the State’s security training requirements in the most effective, efficient, and timely manner" has now been completed. According to the AP, it found that State's proposal for a training center at Ft. Pickett, Virginia, is the better choice. I say "according to the AP" because Rep. Royce is - again, according to the AP - sitting on the report and preventing its release to the public.

So, basically this development gives Virginia a first down somewhere inside Georgia's ten yard line. The question now is whether Virginia can carry the ball into the end zone before Rep. Royce interferes with the play.

The AP report is here, 3 years post-Benghazi, audit favors Virginia over Georgia for delayed Diplomatic Security site. These are GAO's key findings:

The Government Accountability Office's 38-page report, released to key members of Congress and federal agencies, bolsters the Virginia bid.

Sending all the agents to Georgia instead of Virginia could cost U.S. taxpayers up to $736 million more over the next 50 years, according to the report, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press. It also criticized the Georgia cost estimate for not being comprehensive, fully documented, accurate or credible.

-- snip --

"Spending money on something that doesn't meet our requirements is not going to be a good investment," Assistant Secretary of State Gregory Starr shot back. The Georgia site, he argued, lacks facilities for the type of weapons the agents use and would force staff to travel to and from a bombing range 60 miles away.

The GAO says Fort Pickett would consolidate almost all of Diplomatic Security's training for high-threat posts, which involves firearms, driving and explosives training and is currently scattered in 11 locations over seven states. It says the base can host nighttime exercises, which staff conducts 190 days a year, whereas limitations apply in Georgia. And it says the Virginia option benefits from proximity to Washington, a requirement stemming from the post-Benghazi, Accountability Review Board's report.

The limitations of FLETC Georgia for hard-skills training are absolute physical limits, like space, proximity, and location. Its training space is too small, its proximity to populated areas is too close, and its geographic location is too far from State’s training partners. I don’t see how those limits can be wished away. So long as GAO remains an honest broker in this matter, the objective argument over where to locate FASTC is over.

That leaves the political argument, which of course will not be settled until Rep. Royce gets what he wants or is beaten by a some stronger coalition of political interests.

Virginia has its own Congressmen and Senators. Why aren't they on the field blocking Royce?

Most Eyebrow-Raising Headline of the Week

Tankers call them "crunchies" for a reason

"Man dies after run over by tank at Jelly Belly chairman's California property" - Reuters, San Francisco

A San Francisco Bay-area man died after being run over by a World War Two-era tank during a family reunion over the weekend at a property owned by the chairman of Jelly Belly Candy Co ... 54-year-old Kevin Wright was riding on the front of the 1944 model M5 tank on Saturday afternoon when he lost his balance and fell in front of the vehicle as it traveled down a hill ... about 50 people, including children, were in attendance.

(Hat Tip to the Snake's Mommy for this one)

Possible Tip-Off About FASTC Hard Skills Training Center at Fort Pickett?

Photo from State.gov

To review the situation, the administration wishes to construct a Foreign Affairs Security Training Center (FASTC) that would consolidate 'hard skills' training by the State Department and its partners at Fort Pickett in southside Virginia. Some members of Congress are trying to stop the project, ostensibly on grounds of economic efficiency, and would require the State Department to use the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Georgia for hard skills training. Both sides are currently awaiting the public release of a General Accountability Organization (GAO) report that evaluates the business case for building FASTC at Fort Pickett.

This week the Progress-Index, a local newspaper in the Fort Pickett area, interviewed and quoted a senior Diplomatic Security Service official for an article about the political impasse over FASTC. Well, hum, that's interesting. I presume the senior official had gotten official clearance to make those remarks. I further presume that State gets to review the expected GAO report before it goes public. Putting 2 + 2 together, I wonder whether DS is signalling with the interview that it knows the GAO will support building FASTC at Fort Pickett?

Here's the article, Report could speed up diplomatic training center at Fort Pickett:

State Department officials are hoping a soon-to-be released report will help end wrangling in Congress that has delayed construction on a diplomatic security training center at a National Guard base in Virginia.

Construction on the first phase of the facility at Fort Pickett, just over the Dinwiddie County border, was set to begin Aug. 1 with a completion date set for 2019. State Department officials have put that work on hold while they respond to Congressional requests for information.

-- snip --

Soon after the State Department finalized its selection of Fort Pickett last spring, some members of Congress cried foul. The Georgia site has been championed by members of Congress there, but also by Republican U.S. Rep. Ed Royce of California, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

-- snip --

The State Department stands by its selection of Fort Pickett, saying its proximity to Washington, D.C., and rural location would allow it to conduct around-the-clock military-style training. The site is also within driving distance of Marine bases in Virginia and North Carolina that State Department personnel train with, as well as Navy special warfare forces that are stationed in Virginia Beach.

Stephen Dietz, executive director of the State Department's bureau of diplomatic security, said the Marines have told him that they can't afford to travel to Georgia for State Department training. He said the cost estimates for the southeastern Georgia site [FLETC} only have to do with construction, and don't include operation, maintenance or travel costs for State Department, military or intelligence agency personnel.

"If we were forced to go someplace else and train without our partners, there's no doubt in my mind we would be placing security at greater risk overseas because we did not train with the people we go to fight with," he said.

The article ends with this advice from the Mayor of Blackstone, Virginia, the town outside Fort Pickett:

"If you're banking your hopes on common sense and consensus in Washington, D.C., you stay up late at night worrying," said Mayor Billy Coleburn. "Who owes who favors? Who gets browbeaten behind the scenes. Those are things we can only imagine — what happens in smoke-filled rooms in Washington, D.C?"

100 percent correct, Mister Mayor. What, indeed, happens there? It could be that somebody knows what happened concerning the GAO and Fort Pickett, and maybe he just told us.

Most Eyebrow-Raising Headline of the Week

Booze Sent to Space to Explore 'Mellow' Mechanism - Yahoo News Space

 "Although researchers have taken a variety of scientific approaches to elucidating the underlying mechanism, we still do not have a full picture of how this occurs," Suntory representatives wrote in a statement ... "Our company has hypothesized that the formation of high-dimensional molecular structure consisting of water, ethanol and other ingredients in alcoholic beverages contributes to the development of mellowness, and we have been conducting collaborative researches on this topic"