"She is a very charismatic woman"

We signed the death warrants of five Maine lobsters by phone this morning, then went down to Hannaford's to pick 'em up, freshly boiled. Back at Goomp's, we set about removing the meat from the shells. That's when Baby and Tiny moved in. Baby, above, fine tunes the juices. Why such a fancy feast?  A charismatic woman from the blogosphere is coming down to earth for a few hours to pay us a visit this afternoon.

"This mainstream/blogger comparison is a preview of what PJMedia will be doing often on our permanent site," writes Roger L. Simon re TigerHawk's latest post, a frontline report of Dr. Condoleezza Rice's totally awesome speech at Princeton University's Celebration of the 75th Anniversary Of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs yesterday. We must admit that as we were reading TH's superb offering this morning, our inner ear kept whispering "InstaLanche, InstaLanche." Now he's got a RogerLanche as well. A total must read.  We knew the old Tigerman back when (sorta). 'Had caught a few bits of the Secretary of State's "major policy address" on C-Span in the wee hours this morning. A taste of her soaring rhetoric [Who's her speechwriter? we wonder]:

For 60 years, we often thought that we could achieve stability without liberty in the Middle East. And ultimately, we got neither. Now, we must recognize, as we do in every other region of the world, that liberty and democracy are the only guarantees of true stability and lasting security.

We know that the march of democracy is not easy. We know that coming to terms with the provision of these rights takes time. We know because of our own history in which imperfect people put together institutions that allowed us to strive everyday toward a more perfect union. But of course, in our 250 years, we are still striving and as we look at others who are still striving, we owe them our respect and our confidence that they, too, can achieve their aspirations [She threw in a poignant, presumably off-the-cuff reference to her being a descendent of slaves, defined as only 3/5 human when the Constitution was drafted, but we couldn't find it in the transcript].

There are those who worry that greater freedom of choice in the Middle East will only liberate and empower extremism. In fact, the opposite is true: A political culture of transparency and openness is not one in which extremist beliefs can ultimately thrive. Extremism is most dangerous when it lurks in the dark and hides underground. When there is no political space for individuals to advance their interests and redress their grievances, then they retreat into the shadows to grow ever more radical and divorced from reality. We saw the result of that on September 11th and now we must work to advance democratic reform throughout the greater Middle East.

We especially love TigerHawk's impression of Condoleezza Rice herself, beyond the majesty of her words:

She is a very charismatic woman, and should she choose to seek elective office she will be a force to be reckoned with.

Hillary who?

Update:  Carnival of the Cats -- the 80th! -- is up at Music and Cats.

Comments

[Teresa]

I read Tigerhawk's piece last night - it was wonderful!

Have a wonderful dinner! So, are you making lobster salad?

[Laura Lee Donoho]

That photo is so beautiful. Are you going to have lobster races across the kitchen floor before you cook them? Or would it disturb the beautiful cat?

[Sissy Willis]

Lobster rolls all around. Too late for races across the kitchen floor, as I had the supermarket folks cook' em up ahead of time. I can't bear the screams as they are lowered into the pot.

[amba]

Condi: You go, girl.

http://ambivablog.typepad.com/ambivablog/2005/03/girl_for_presid.html

[Laura Lee Donoho]

My brother-in-law is from Maine and every once in a while his parents mail him Maine lobster and of course we always get invited. Lobster rolls sound so yummy.