Tuesday, May 27, 2003

The following interesting items can be found in today's Washington Post *This story details Elliott Abrams' position as Bush's senior advisor on Middle East concerns.  Does anyone even have a guess how many competent, conservative people would have been happy to take this job?  Can someone explain to me why Bush chose a convicted felon?  And not just any felony--lying to Congress as part of the Iran Contra affair.  Lying to Congress!  And even beyond that, Abrams is a hardcore Israel supporter, about as far from even-handed as one can get.  How can he be at the forefront of a two-state solution?  What a sham. *Apparently, the Green Party is considering supporting the Democrats in the 2004 election.  This is not a decision that they've agreed on, but a number of voices in the Greens are saying that they have to do whatever they can to get Bush out of office.  Good for them.  2 years of Bush has surely been enough to demonstrate that any notion that the parties are the same is a joke.  Ha ha. *Some of the Dems are trying to keep the Texas legislators story alive and get investigations going.  Of course, this story says that Joe Lieberman is sending a bunch of letters to people.  I can't imagine this is going anywhere.  The biggest part of it is Tom DeLay's involvement, but Dems are such cowards and the media so lame that they won't give this the coverage it deserves.  There's been some great stuff on Talking Points Memo, though. 2:16:15 PM    Let's hear it. []

I'm a little sick, and have been for a few days. I have a low-grade fever, and achiness, and I'm coughing a decent amount. It sounds like the flu, I know. Since we got to Tunisia almost 10 months ago, I've been sick four or five times. This is a staggering increase in the sickness ratio for me; prior to arriving here I was proud of my nearly-superhuman immune system. I have gone literally years without catching so much as a cold. I almost never missed school for being sick. This is all very new to me. As a result, I have become a hypochondriac. I am convinced that I have some vicious mix of SARS, Tuberculosis, lockjaw, and mononucleosis. Perhaps I even have a pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, a miner's disease and the longest word in the English language. Melissa was teasing me this morning because I was expressing these concerns. I was saying that I should get a blood test to make sure I don't have some serious problem, like a tumor. She laughed. Easy for her--she's not the one with black lung and an injured shoulder that requires Tommy John surgery. Yeah, it's probably just that there are some different bacteria and viruses here than I've been used to my whole life. Sure, sure. But we'll see what the CAT scan reveals before we jump to any conclusions. 1:53:10 PM    Let's hear it. []