Hey! The pilot of that plane was from my state! We later elected him State Treasurer. But that was before he faked a Navy memo about the incident during his run for U.S. Senator. Wonder where he is now . . .

This. The Bush administration was the first one during which I claimed to be Canadian when I traveled abroad.

What a great, great, great story!

I would nominate Tyrone Hughes to be added to the list. At 5'9" (my ass—maybe on his tip-toes), he was a kick-off and punt returner for St. Augustine High School (New Orleans), University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the New Orleans Saints (and briefly with Chicago, without much luck).

Do you think it was coined here? If so (and I’m not saying it wasn’t), it spread pretty quickly. I heard the term on NPR yesterday around 4:30, so maybe five hours after this story was posted.

If they can’t pick and choose who gets laid off, how is that decision made? Supposed to be super funny.) How do they identify who goes? Is it by position? I mean, somebody’s gonna go. Is it by volunteer?

With the understanding that I know nothing about federal government personnel guidelines, I can say that if agencies in my State government “RIF” employees, it is non-grievable. Employees who are RIFFED have no right to a personnel review or appeal. That’s the way the agency I worked for got rid of a lot of employees…

I bit. Damn you, you glorious bastard.

Kiting a check? Ha! Ever heard of Check 21? Good luck with that.

You are aware, of course, that the internet became popular some thirty years ago. Old ladies are probably pretty used to it by now—since they’ve quite possibly been using it longer than you have.

I starred your comment even though I’m an old lady who doesn’t read newspapers anymore (but NOT because things got too complicated, so maybe I’m okay).

The “trains ran on time” was a Mussolini reference, not Hitler, but I guess one dictator is pretty much interchangeable with another.

Hastert. Dennis Hastert. Might help people get your joke.

I think part of the problem is NO ONE wants these pipelines to go through their state (or area or however you want to frame it). We fought against one in Nebraska that would’ve gone over the Ogallala Aquifer (one of the world’s largest).

Thanks for your recap of this awful situation. Coming from a state that was involved in the denial of the Keystone XL project, just a state away from North Dakota, and including several (five, maybe?) Native American tribal reservations, those of us in Nebraska have kept close tabs on the situation there. We’ve…

Maybe your post will earn you two first-class tickets on the Valdez.

Thanks for one of the best posts in this thread.

Thanks for this post. I was raped at gunpoint in college, and this guy’s criticism of how a young girl handled herself is really too much for me to even respond to. How dare he.

Funny, I would’ve pegged him as a Machiavelli man.