This is the Cliff Notes version of the Cafe Mngt post by the same name.

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This is a central spot for Cafe users to help one another with tips and answers to questions. Dispersed knowledge aggravates one and all.  

The format we are using is:

Tips

Start with a leading box with a bold tip title.

Questions

Start with an underlined title. 

[Brackets at the end of comments contain the user names of those who created the tips and did the Q&As.]

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In preparation for Cafe Management/Kate finding a way to make this User Forum a more permanent part of the site, this is a  tightened up version (a version 2.0) of the post on Cafe Management Table.    

...Get the power on, Get the oil out, Get the government ministries going, Get Zarqawi.....from Rep. Jane Harman Iraq visit Fall 2005

1. Electrical Power

2. Oil

3. Government Ministries in operation 

4. Zarqawi

May '06 Apologies - Many comments below lost their formatting in the change from the old TPMC software to the current software. Attempts to improve formatting will not take.

From Willam Arkin in WaPo.

Starting point:

"what if" speculation as to what our world would look like had the Bush team not gone to war in 2003

.... got me thinking about a five-year-after scenario.  It isn't an interesting intellectual exercise if one just posits success after success with no consideration of the realities of a complex world, of the hate and terrorism that existed to create September 11, 2001, in the first place, and of the nature of the institutions -- the military, the intelligence community -- and as real a world as possible.

What could have been done:

A "war" against terrorism that is solely fought by special operations forces and the CIA, one that embraces law enforcement, one that recognizes our inability to impose democracy and freedoms, particularly in the face of our overwhelming military domination in the region. 

If from the very beginning a president ... had said the terrorists have no chance of defeating us, that our society is not really threatened by them, that we just need to do better at our own security, and unfortunately we need to be less internationalist, cooperative and wonderful in fighting an ugly covert war, we would have denied the bad guys what they crave: our fear, "effects" from their actions, an even better target for their hate, their propaganda and their war.

No, Osama, we are not going to be drawn into a "war" just because you want it, our president should be saying.  And to the governments of the region, he should be saying: it's not a matter of whether you are with us.  It is a matter of whether you are building human security for your own people.  In that endeavor, you have to make the right choice.  If you do not, you are on your own. 

Experiences of late with cancer patients, including my mother, and cancer survivors led me to reflect on what makes my life rich. I write this to remind myself that that the trials of the world should not overwhelm me. There is so much to celebrate.  

In no particular order, some life experiences that stand out:

-- Being given an abstract sculpture of a nun made for me by a sculptor father of a friend. He went to his studio having met me for the first time that weekend. I don't know why this Jewish man, a resident of Montreal, was moved by this Amerian Catholic attending Sunday mass at a nearby rural Quebec church but he was.

-- Being asked by new friends to be present at the home birth of their daughter. They insisted I cut the cord and hold the baby just after birth.  It was an unexpected invitation to me a single woman who was unlikely to have that experience herself.

-- Watching the joy of a high school soccer team winning the New Hampshire championship after seeing them fall just short in previous years.

-- Visting vistas of staggering beauty with friends and family: standing in front of Jackson Lake and staring up at the Tetons; scanning the horizon on a gorgeous day in Seattle; flying in low over the Irish countryside; watching a sunset from a grassy point extending into Virgina's Smith  Mountain Lake.

-- Watching fireworks: above the Mall in Washington; tumbling down from a bridge into the river in Tulsa; shooting above a baseball stadium in Rhode Island. 

I love life except when I forget for a while ...