**Keatsian post alert**
Not that there are no serious stories to follow this weekend, in fact the air is thick with storm clouds that involve our Mme. Secretary one way or another, and certainly if and as events are confirmed, posts will appear on this blog. Meanwhile, the day after Black Friday seems to cry out for lighter fare.
Diane reminded me this morning that I once referred to Hillary Clinton’s “kissy-mouth.” This is a position her lips take when she is producing any of the back vowels (Ɔ O Ʊ U), the bilabial consonants (b p m), and the glide (w). Most speakers of Standard American English do not articulate these phonemes with quite the care Hillary Clinton is wont to take – especially when she is speaking to audiences that are not native speakers of English or to whom she wants to make her message eminently clear.
Aside from enhancing the comprehensibility of her message, the visual effect of this oral idiosyncrasy, the formation of the “kissy-mouth,” (a very handy mouth to be able to make if one is attempting to speak French with any modicum of comprehensibilty) is also disarmingly attractive. Mme. Secretary does not use French, but she has mastered the kissy-mouth and would probably sound quite good in French.
From a purely Keatsian point of view, the kissy-mouth makes for pretty pictures to satisfy the guilty pleasures of Hillary-watchers no matter whether their names have a D, R, or I behind them. To a deeper extent, it is seductive and might actually be hypnotic!
My suggestion for the coming weeks: Mme. Secretary should meet face-to-face, no phone calls, with the Republicans who are showing soft on START. I have faith that the kissy-mouth can help get those 67 votes. (It’s worth a try. Smart power. Those Senators have been missing their eye-candy ever since she left for DOS.)
This post is dedicated to Robyn and Diane.
Madame Secretary has a big week coming up. I pray that the wikileaks documents don’t distroy any diplomatic relationships that the State Dept. has worked so hard for these past two years. Lots of chatter already is going on the news networks. Sunday talk shows should be very interesting this Sunday.
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Yes, Wikileaks, the Chinese, Japanese and SK FMs, and Davutoglu is what I have so far. I am sitting on a lot of it and waiting for Sunday. Things may clarify.
I do have one VOA article with some disconcerting info, but I am sitting on it until things are confirmed. No sense in circulating rumors and supposition.
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Well, I sure agree. I have heard some disconcerting talk already this morning. They say Secretary Clinton has been on damage control. I am confident that she is on top of things being discussed. I feel bad that she however could not have a stress free weekend. This is a real hard job she doing while others play golf and basketball. Sorry I had to say that but it’s true.
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I agree with you 100%. It’s outrageous that the White House has no apparent intent to lead the way on ANYTHING. There is no leadership. Well, there is, but it’s all at DOS and DOD with the only adults in this administration: Hillary and Bob Gates.
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Here one article by New York Daily..
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/11/27/2010-11-27_wikileaks_document_dump_has_united_states_working_damage_control_to_stem_potenti.html
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Sort of like the VOA article I have. Not going to deal with speculation.
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It will be very interesting to read this latest. This is more problematic to some of the foreign leaders which is why Hillary had to call them, sort of fire prevention. The people on the Hill have also been forewarned. Let’s wait and see.
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I also read a hint at something that could require some ‘splainin’ from DOS itself. I hope that speculation is wrong and that’s why I am not touching the rumors until we know what is really in this doc-dump. I still think Assange is wrong to be doing this.
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Well let’s all say a prayer and light a candle for Madame Secretary.
Still, I do not have the link for the candles. Could you be so kind as to post the link. I greatly would appreciate it. Thanks so much.
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Certainly.
http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=THC
This is internet freedom run amok. I wish I could find Mme. Secretary a really good hacker who could shut Wikileaks down. Why can’t somebody do that? If that “master hacker” at the White House can’t, why don’t we just make a deal with some hacker in a white collar prison who can do it? This is more than criminal. It’s a form of cyberterrorism.
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Still, Thanks so much for the link and I hope everyone lights a candle for HRC and the United States of America.
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You are so welcome, and thank you for the suggestion!
(I still wish I could find a really good hacker and turn Wikileaks into some version of “All Your Base Are Belong To Us!” That would greatly relieve everyone AND we would have something to laugh at!)
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My thoughts exactly. You know what they say about great minds. 😀
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Somebody ought to hog tie Assange and throw his azzz in Gitmo with the other terrorists. That’s what he is and that’s where he belongs.
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I am glad I am not the only one who does not see an essential difference between Wikileaks and Al Quaeda. They are simply different aspects of terrorism.
This “release” is in essence an attack. Because of the nature of the medium, we call it by a different name. Julian Assange is as dangerous as Osama Bin Laden – arguably, more dangerous. How far are we going to let him go before we:
1. Take his operation down (probably easier than finding Al Quaeda in Af-Pak)?
2. Throw his behind in prison – starting with Sweden and the charges there, but not ending there?
How far?
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If this stuff keeps up, no other countries are going to trust us to keep a surprise party a secret, let alone classified intelligence. Given how much of modern diplomacy and defense both rely on international cooperation if no one will work with us, then we could end up being royally screwed or (and I think the is something Assange never thought of) some other nation (one that he doesn’t want to see destroyed) who we stopped communicating with because it was going nowhere will be hit by someone or something that we could’ve worked together on and stopped.
If any of the people mentioned in any of his documents end up being killed because someone found out about the work they’ve done with us, I wonder if he can be prosecuted as an accessory to murder?
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Yes. All good points and questions. He may or may not have envisioned the possible results, but the sheer irresponsibility seems to merit, on the international stage, some kind of arrest and control. I am sure he, like Bin Laden, has surrogates. We need to round these guys up!
First, we need to throw a beanbag into his junk! THAT needs to be stopped!
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LOL! What a striking mental image!
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I am seriously calling for hacking him. Why haven’t we done that? This is war! If we don’t have a capable super-hacker at the White House, can’t we make a deal with a white-collar hacker-felon? Isn’t there some 9th grader who can do this? Take the site down! How hard can that be?
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Final project for MIT?
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YES! Need a topic? We have it here!
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Actually, I think a better idea would be to leave the site up leave all of the links but cut out large segments of data – the important parts – and replace them with other text in the same font etc… One minute you’re reading Secretary Clinton’s official emails and the next minute you’re reading the script from Blazing Saddles.
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Cool! We could splice in any number of great scripts! “Gidget Goes Hawaiian” comes to mind. I like this idea!
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Ghostbusters, Spaceballs, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Revenge of the Nerds… Oh the possiblities!
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ENDLESS possibilities! Such a brilliant idea! I LOVE it!
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What’s this you say hack the site?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11858637
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HA! Yes! Whoever did it, keep up the good work!!!
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Appearantly the State Department is concerned that the names of foreign activists (pro-democracy and human rights people, I assume) might be revealed in this huge release. Assange might be endangering freedom fighters all in the name of making Hillary and co. look stupid.
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Yes. Assange is dangerous. I think he’s a sociopath. He started as a hacker. I think hackers are sociopaths.
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On a lighter note, occasionally Madame Secretary uses her “kissy mouth” to communicate in other ways.
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Oh the cuteness and sweetness! Love really IS the answer.
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Woah! Note to self – stay on Still4Hill’s good side.
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😀
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