Updates

I figured it was time for a change, so I switched to a new template, expanded the sidebar, succumbed to Google's AdSense program (see the toolbar), and added a few new links. Nothing fancy, especially compared to Semisimple, but it's nice to try something different.

Lieberman's Lesson

Josh Marshall's article this afternoon was right on target. Lieberman learned his lesson -- and I'm not talking about election results. I'm referring to Lieberman's explanation for his independent run and how it comes straight out of Bush playbook for the Global War On Terror.

The lesson has three steps. First, say that your values reflect those of the "mainstream voters." Second, insist that anyone who disagrees with you is "out of touch" and dangerous to the country. Third, repeat as necessary.

It's like a mini-version of the Iraq War or the War on Terror. You're either with Joe or you're with the extremists. Apparently half of Connecticut Democrats are outside the mainstream.

This is really the attitude that got poor Joe into this bind.

The mainstream is Joe Lieberman, along with possibly Sean Hannity and Bill Kristol. If you disagree with Joe Lieberman, a disagreement about policy is the least of it. It's a major existential crisis for the Democratic party which risks conquest by unreconstructed leftists, extremists and miscellaneous other freaks.

The idea that Ned Lamont is 'outside the mainstream' on any issue I'm aware of is laughable.

Marshall makes another good point. It's not as if Lieberman is merely saying that he's a competent senator who might be favored by 51% of Connecticut voters in a general election. He's attacking his own (former) party for not agreeing with him, and claims that he needs to run as an Independent to save the party from itself. After all, if Joe didn't believe he was the moral barometer of the Democratic party, I'm not sure what else he would have to do.

As a matter of civics, if Joe Lieberman wants to run as an independent, good for him. If 51% of Connecticut voters want to vote for him, that's democracy. As a Democrat, he should get out of the race now. And every Democrat should tell him to.

If he wants to run as an independent he should and could go to Connecticut voters and say, "A lot of people in my own party disagree with me on this or that issue. But I've served all of Connecticut's citizens for 18 years. And I still think I can be the best senator. So vote for me."

I wouldn't agree with that. But I could respect it.

But he's not. It's all about him and stabbing his own party in the back while he disingenuously pleads that he's trying to save it.

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed Josh Marshall's writing. Apparently he has an article in Time this week about the CT primary results. Good stuff.

Back to studying GI pathology...

No Turning Back!

I just bought my tickets for reunion. A roundtrip trip with nonstop flights, between Cleveland and San Francisco, for barely more than $300? I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw this deal. Admittedly, I will miss one more day of school than I had planned for, but I'll save nearly $100 over what I had been expecting and I'll have nearly another full day (arriving at 11am vs. 9pm) of California vacation goodness.

And now it's 2:30 am. And I have class in five and a half hours. It's bedtime. Now.

But at least my plans for reunion are in motion!

Mood: cheerful
Song: David Gray, "Life in Slow Motion"

It's not that much money, really.

April 2003

"Well, in terms of the American taxpayers contribution, this is it. The rest of the rebuilding of Iraq will be done by other countries who have already made pledges, Britain, Germany, Norway, Japan, Canada, and Iraqi oil revenues, eventually, when it's up and running and there's a new government that's been democratically elected, will finish the job with their own revenues. They're going to get in $20 billion a year in oil revenues. But the American part of this will be $1.7 billion. We have no plans for any further-on funding for this."

-- Andrew Natsios, USAID Administrator

vs.

August 2006

The US has spent $437 billion on Iraq, Afghanistan, and other parts of the war on terror since 2001. The Congressional Research Service estimates conservatively that we might spend another $371 billion on these operations through 2016.

It's too bad this whole thing will cost us 475 times more than expected. So much for fiscal responsibility.

Hello Again

A month since my last post? I suppose that's what summer relaxation/inactivity can do. Have no fear, though...I started classes for my second year of med school today, and one of my new year's resolutions (new academic year, ahem) is to take a few moments each week to convey some of my crazy med school stories here. In part to entertain, mostly to maintain my own sanity.

For now, though, it's back to doing what I do best: video games. Eh, strike that. Studying. Yeah, that's what I do. Something about becoming a licensed professional....

Mood: excited, jittery, optimistic, anxious, adjusting to my first caffeine jitters in over 2 months.
Song: Live, "The Beauty of Gray"

Anybody looking for a room in Cleveland?

Because I might have one available. Or, more specifically, my house might have one.

Living here is driving me crazy....and yet I'm bound to another 375 days here.

Anybody? Please?

The Same Script As Before

Are they really going to use the same playbook all over again? Anybody want to be when we'll hear that American troops will be greeted as liberators?

Reuters - yesterday

CAMP DAVID, Maryland (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Friday that Iran has "weeks not months" to respond to a U.S.-backed offer aimed at containing Iran's nuclear ambitions and said Tehran needs to suspend uranium enrichment. At a joint news conference with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Bush said that if Iran does not suspend enrichment, "there must be a consequence."

The London Guardian - January 30, 2003

The US president, George Bush, has said he would give diplomacy over Iraq "weeks, not months" - but that he would welcome the exile of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. "For the ake of peace, this issue has to be resolved," Mr Bush said, in an effort to increase pressure on a divided international community. Mr Bush was speaking after meeting Italian president Silvio Berlusconi - one of eight European leaders to back the US position in articles in the Times and
the Wall Street Journal today.

I won't even make a joke about Congress being able to keep the president in check. Some things just aren't funny anymore.