XPost: alt.politics, alt.politics.democrats.d, alt.abortion   
   XPost: sbay.politics   
   From: dc@firewhenready.com   
      
   The White House sent three officials to attend Monday's funeral   
   for Michael Brown in St. Louis -- three more than it sent for   
   former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's funeral last   
   year.   
      
   The administration's handling of the Brown funeral already has   
   started to raise comparisons between the two.   
      
   For Monday's funeral, the White House sent two officials with   
   the White House Office of Public Engagement as well as Broderick   
   Johnson, chairman of the My Brother's Keeper Task Force.   
      
   No White House officials, though, were part of the presidential   
   delegation sent last year to Thatcher's funeral. For that, the   
   White House sent former secretaries of State George Schultz and   
   James Baker III -- as well as the charge d'affaires to the U.K.   
   and the former U.S. ambassador.   
      
   At the time, the nature of the delegation stirred controversy in   
   the British media as tabloids claimed British officials felt   
   snubbed that high-level American officials -- including   
   President Obama himself -- were not attending.   
      
   The White House countered that Baker and Schultz' attendance   
   were "testimony" to Thatcher's "global stature and reputation."   
   British Prime Minister David Cameron's office also denied claims   
   at the time that the administration had snubbed the late prime   
   minister.   
      
   But in the case of Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old fatally   
   shot by a police officer earlier this month, the Obama   
   administration has devoted considerable resources. Attorney   
   General Eric Holder visited Ferguson, Mo., last week and has   
   dozens of investigators on the ground conducting a federal civil   
   rights probe.   
      
   The administration also said that one of the White House   
   officials attending the funeral on Monday had a personal   
   connection.   
      
   Marlon Marshall, deputy director of the White House Office of   
   Public Engagement, is a St. Louis native and went to high school   
   with Michael Brown's mother.   
      
   The other White House official is Heather Foster, public   
   engagement adviser for the White House Office of Public   
   Engagement.   
      
   The White House also came under criticism recently when Obama   
   did not attend the funeral for Maj. Gen. Harold Greene, the   
   highest-ranking U.S. military officer killed in combat since the   
   Vietnam War.   
      
   He was killed in a suspected insider attack in Afghanistan.   
   Obama was in Martha's Vineyard during the funeral, but Defense   
   Secretary Chuck Hagel and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno   
   attended.   
      
   When Greene's body arrived at Dover Air Force Base days earlier,   
   Odierno and Army Secretary John McHugh reportedly were there for   
   the transfer. While White House officials typically do not   
   attend these transfers, Obama and past U.S. presidents do from   
   time to time. Obama and top Defense officials attended the   
   transfer, for instance, of the remains of 30 U.S. service   
   members killed in Afghanistan in 2011 when their helicopter was   
   shot down.   
      
   Meanwhile, the highest-level administration official at the 2010   
   funeral for border agent Brian Terry was then-Homeland Security   
   Secretary Janet Napolitano.   
      
   http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/25/more-white-house-   
   officials-at-michael-browns-funeral-than-   
   thatchers/?intcmp=obinsite   
        
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)