Work update

Weekend
On Friday, my roommate Alyssa and I had to go to our university seminar, which is always pretty boring. (Today we learned that our research paper definitely needs to have a thesis, which is also known as an argument. Who knew?) After we decided to walk around to several of the monuments, since there are still so many we haven't seen. We walked towards the Washington Monument, then down towards the reflecting pool. We stopped at the Abraham Lincoln memorial and read a lot of the quotes engraved in the walls, and the informational panels about him. He was a really great writer and orator, and it's kind of discouraging to look at how articulate he was compared to our most recent president. After that, we passed through the Franklin Delanor Roosevelt memorial, which is sort of like a big park complete with waterfalls and everything. Ironically, Alyssa said she heard that he had said if there was one thing he wanted, it was for no one to make a memorial for him after his death (or if they had to, he wanted it very small and discreet). Instead, he has what seems to be the largest and most ostentatious one around. He also had a lot of great quotes, and many insightful ones about war which seem especially relevant today. Then we walked over to the Jefferson Memorial, which I found to be very peaceful and relaxing. It's a large circular monument surrounded by pillars, with a really high domed ceiling and a big statue of Thomas Jefferson in the center. A lot of his famous quotes, excerpts from the Constitution and otherwise, also line the building. I just sat there for a while and took it all in, and for some reason it seems like a place that would be nice to go to when you need to just sit and think.

Tomorrow there is a huge, free, 7-hour concert at the National Mall (not an actual mall, but the area where all the monuments are located) in celebration of Earth Day. Tons of bands are playing, and some guest speakers like Dave Chappelle and Harry Reid are scheduled as well. I have a paper due for my elective on Tuesday, but I'm willing to procrastinate a little longer to go to this...

Thursday, April 17
I was czar and got to stay in the office, and also didn't have to come in until noon since we all had to stay and work at the party until 1:30 am the night before. I didn't take any conference calls or anything, but just helped people out with their events and had a short day. Pope Benedict XVI made his first visit to the US, and held a mass that drew a crowd of 46,000 at the Nationals Park stadium. Some of our staff members attended, so there wasn't too much going on around the office.

Wednesday, April 16
This was the night the presidential Correspondent's Dinner, usually hosted by the president himself but this year hosted by Vice President Dick Cheney because President Bush was busy spending time with the Pope on his first visit to the US. Us interns were not allowed to go to the dinner, but TRNS hosted an afterparty which we were paid to work at and were allowed to bring friends to. It was hosted in the Washington Hilton hotel. We left work at about 2:00 to head over to the site and set up glow in the dark martini glasses, party favors for guests that included funky sunglasses, glowing necklaces and bracelets, etc. The event was black tie, open bar and had a 70's "Motown" glow-in-the-dark theme. Our boss paid for all of the interns to go out to dinner together, and since we didn't end up having a lot of time we went upstairs to the hotel's really nice restaurant called 1919. It was really nice and had great food-- seafood, steak, chicken, etc. After, we went downstairs and spent the first part of the party welcoming people, passing out favors, and taking photos, then were allowed to just hang out and enjoy ourselves with our friends we invited (Caitlyn came with me). We stayed until 1:30 am, and didn't have to come into work until noon the next day. It was a lot of fun to just hang out with our friends and dance with our bosses and have a good time with everyone.

Earlier in the day, I went to a panel discussion at the Center for American Progress that addressed the progress of the Department of Homeland Security since it was instated in 2003, and its future goals.

CAP panel discusses the "State of Homeland Security"

Thompson says DHS needs more diversity (audio)

Thompson says DHS is working to preserve civil liberties (audio)


Tuesday, April 15
Today I attended the American Turkish Council’s 27th Annual Conference on U.S.-Turkish relations, where Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice addressed the crowd and expressed her vision of the future for relations between the two governments. I showed up at 7:30, hoping to catch Congressman and House Armed Services Committee chairman Ike Skelton's speech, only to find out that the press was not allowed. I spent the next few hours before Rice's scheduled 12:30 speech (she was an hour late and actually appeared at 1:30) at Starbucks reading The Other Boleyn Girl, which is actually really good.

Rice comments on U.S.-Turkish relations

Rice says Turkey and U.S. are united by democracy (audio)

Rice: US supports Turkey's EU candidacy (audio)

Rice praises NATO enlargement (audio)


Monday, April 14
In the morning, I attended the Building and Trades Department 100th annual legislative conference at the Washington Hilton hotel, where a number of representatives spoke, including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, urging the union leaders present to vote Democratic in the upcoming presidential election. The event lasted for three days, and Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton spoke the following days (but I did not attend).

Hoyer, other representatives urge union leaders to vote Democratic

Hoyer: Unions built the middle class (audio)

Hoyer says 2008 is a "change" election, and Americans have a choice to make (audio)

In the afternoon, I went to an Associated Press and Newspaper Association of America annual luncheon where Barack Obama spoke to the crowd about his campaign platforms and issues relevant to members of the press. Earlier that morning, John McCain spoke to the same crowd, but I was not present because I was at the above event. However, I did edit all the audio for both speeches. It ended up being a lot of work, and I was in the office working on it until 8:30 pm.

McCain: It's time for "the right kind of change" (audio)

McCain calls Obama's comments "elitist" (audio)

McCain says Obama, Clinton likely won't serve in his cabinet (audio)

McCain says he's not too old to be President (audio)

Obama corrects AP board chair's "Obama bin Laden" slip (audio)

Obama says McCain's economic policies are "out of touch" (audio)

Obama responds to McCain's "100 years in Iraq" comment (audio)