Now Gore's gone too far- even the elections are Green...

Friends, it's my honor to be in this great city at such an exciting time. The streets are abuzz after this rare event- one that happens only every four years. Each one of us will be able to tell our kids exactly where we were and what we were doing when we heard about it. By now, I'm sure you've no doubt guessed the momentous occasion of which I speak: Ralph Nader has, once again, entered the Presidential race.

In all seriousness, I know it's good for democracy and the American people to have more choices out there. That said, Ralph Nader has really become more of a punchline than a serious candidate. Just look at the issues he's running on. Right in the middle there is "Impeach Cheney/Bush." Correct me if I'm wrong, but one generally tries to run on goals that are actually physically able to be accomplished, no? I wonder how Nader, if he wins in some strange upturn of Green Party support, plans to impeach a former President and Vice President who no longer hold public office...he's really just making himself sound like an angry old man. One who has some good ideas and who's done a lot for consumers over the years, but one who no longer has any business being the front man for his party.

Pretty quiet week in the news- at least, it seems so after the turmoil of the last few. The main international story continues to be Kosovo's independence from Serbia and the violence that's broken out there. I won't offer any opinions there as I don't pretend to have much working knowledge of Balkan politics, but kudos to the American embassy staff there for keeping their workers safe during the riots that burned it last week.

Domestically, we've got the election continuing, among other things. Not much going on lately, but I thought I'd bring to your attention an interesting article about the dynamics in that race and voter expectations and perceptions.

Last Thursday was without a doubt the most interesting day of classes we've had here. The day's focus was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, something I have strong personal opinions on. We started the day with a talk by Nabil Abuznaid, a representative of the Palestinian Authority's pseudo-embassy (as it isn't a country, it doesn't have a real one). He was interesting, but in the end he got too emotional and angry and couldn't respond practically to constant questions from Chad. His credibility was also hurt by his suggestion of an American or Soviet hand behind the renewal of Shia-Sunni tensions over the last few decades- note to speakers, suggesting conspiracy theories doesn't help your case much.

We followed that speech with a talk by Aaron Miller, Senior Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a public policy organization. The speaker had worked with American presidents on this particular issue for many years and offered a realist, bleak perspective on the issue. It was the next speaker, however, that got me to respond most strongly, as we visited the Embassy of Israel. Rafael Harpaz, the embassy's representative, gave a very condescending and arrogant speech, starting out by announcing to all of us how gracious and kind the country of Israel was to even be considering peace with Palestine (which he would not acknowledge; he'd correct anyone saying it with "Palestinian Authority"). He also said that the 1948 Arab invasion of Israel was a continuation of the Holocaust (but then denied it later in the speech) and compared Israel-friendly Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak to Abraham Lincoln (even Lincoln never won elections with 97% of the vote...). It was a good thing we finished the day with a calming, mediative talk at the Jordanian embassy, because I was literally shaking with anger at the Israeli embassy. Neither side of the conflict is without blame and both need to make concessions, but I've always seen the Israelis as more on the side of the wrong and having to make more of the concessions because they ARE the ones in a position of power. Hearing statements from the embassy that even Dr. Schneider thought were approaching propaganda was infuriating.

Anyway, with that rant out of my system, I can say that we did have a fun weekend, or at least Saturday. We had a nice lunch at the Open City Cafe next door before spending the day at the National Portrait Gallery (where I got my picture with the famous Colbert portrait) and the Natural History museum. Afterwards, Liz broke out the free movie passes and I went to the movies for the first time in quite a while. We all saw Vantage Point, which, other than Dennis Quaid's traditional horrible acting, I thoroughly enjoyed. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes the thriller/mystery genre, and stylistically it was fairly unique and very well done. The rest of the weekend was a bit of a bore; we weren't able to get the big football game going like we planned- we'll try again next weekend. And I did have time to finish the White House and Washington Center for Near East Policy applications, so I was fairly productive the rest of the time.

That's about all for now, I have to go throw on the power suit and help out at the Campaign for Syracuse University's DC event- in return, I get a fancy free dinner. Here's a clip from last week's SNL, where Mike Huckabee shows that he's still a very likable and funny man- if only I wasn't so afraid of him ever being in a position of power...

Till next time!

"Writing this blog is relatively like being repeatedly attached to a car battery..."

Sorry for being one day late with this- I let the time slip away last night as I was enjoying piles of Afghani food at a Dr. Schneider-sponsored dinner. One thing I can say about the Afghanis, they sure can do great things with rice and chicken. Anyone in the Rock Creek Park area in DC should definitely check out the Afghan Grill, it's quite delicious and very filling. It didn't hurt to add another free meal to the count, either:).

Big week in Middle East politics. For starters, you had the Pakistani elections yesterday, which are turning out in favor of the parties of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif thus far, to the dismay of Pervez Musharraf. The elections are still ongoing- one thing Nick and I learned when we attended a pre-election talk featuring phone-ins from Pakistani professors and election officials is that a candidate can run in as many districts as they want, so if they win in several, they have to pick one and the rest hold a second election within the next month. We'll be hearing more about this for a bit to see if the opposition parties can gain the 2/3 majority they need to impeach Musharraf. Interesting take CNN has on the post-election violence, though:

The voting in the country's first general elections in six years ended with no overt signs of tampering and relatively little violence. Twenty-three people were killed across the nation in vote-related incident, according to a tally by CNN.

I guess the violence is "relative" compared to what it might have been had Musharraf's PML-Q party dominated (likely through tampering), but still, it makes you wonder about the numbness with which we treat foreign violence like this. Nick and I will be headed to a post-election conference with the same speakers tomorrow to get a better professional analysis of the results.

Interesting news today as well, with the resignation of Fidel Castro and the appointment of his brother Raul as President of Cuba. In the aftermath, it's pretty nice to see that there are still some things Democrats and Republicans agree on- check out these two reactions by the candidates:

"Fidel Castro's stepping down is an essential first step, but it is sadly insufficient in bringing freedom to Cuba. Cuba's future should be determined by the Cuban people and not by an anti-democratic successor regime. The prompt release of all prisoners of conscience wrongly jailed for standing up for the basic freedoms too long denied to the Cuban people would mark an important break with the past. It's time for these heroes to be released. If the Cuban leadership begins opening Cuba to meaningful democratic change, the United States must be prepared to begin taking steps to normalize relations and to ease the embargo of the last five decades. The freedom of the Cuban people is a cause that should bring the Americans together."

That was Barack- here's McCain:

"Today's resignation of Fidel Castro is nearly half a century overdue. For decades, Castro oversaw an apparatus of repression that denied liberty to the people who suffered under his dictatorship. Yet freedom for the Cuban people is not yet at hand, and the Castro brothers clearly intend to maintain their grip on power. That is why we must press the Cuban regime to release all political prisoners unconditionally, to legalize all political parties, labor unions and free media, and to schedule internationally monitored elections. Cuba's transition to democracy is inevitable; it is a matter of when — not if. With the resignation of Fidel Castro, the Cuban people have an opportunity to move forward and continue pushing for the moment that they will truly be free. America can and should help hasten the sparking of freedom in Cuba. The Cuban people have waited long enough."

They sound exactly the same- could there be more similarities between Barack and McCain than they let on? I guess we'll be seeing...

(Random side note: we came up last night with the best McCain nickname. After his speeches about success in Iraq, how could he be called anything but the "Surge Protector"?)

Award for the "Stupidest Thing Said This Week" goes by a wide margin to Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. While talking about the grueling campaign trail, Huckabee said to Larry King:

"I'm finding out just how long I can go sleep-deprived. Running for president is like being waterboarded,"

He might have been joking, but this callous comment shows just how little he cares about the torture issue- I'm fairly sure that given the choice between Guantanamo and a campaign bus, most detainees would choose the latter pretty quickly. The full article on campaign stress is found here.

And in a final political note, interesting back-and-forth between the Democratic campaigns before today's primaries as Hillary calls Barack out for alleged plagiarism of speech. Obama's speech's "Only Words" section yesterday was very similar to the gubernatorial (awesome word) speech given by Deval Patrick in 2006. Obama says Patrick agreed he could use it. While Obama may be legally in the right here, I find it a little sketchy that he wouldn't mention the governor in his speech- anyone in the audience who didn't know about Patrick's speech (most of them, I'd imagine, since it was in Wisconsin and not Massachusetts) would think the powerful words were of Obama's (or his speechwriters') own creation- that's pretty deceptive and distasteful to anyone who's taken any journalism classes. Obama also called Hillary out on copying phrases from his own speeches- we'll see how that turns out as it gets more coverage today.

The big adventure of last week was a trip to Capitol Hill with Dr. Schneider. Though Kirsten Gillibrand was unavailable, we were around in the House chamber to see the partisan battles over the FISA (wiretapping) bill. The Republicans hid behind a memorial service and the Democrats interrupted it to start debating the bill- causing the Republicans to walk out. Later, though, most Democrats would not even applaud Minority Leader John Boehner asking everyone to put it behind them and remember their passed colleague. Ladies and Gentlemen, the United States government! (Applause?)

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the best part of the last week, a certain visit from one Kate Donohue. Having Kate here over the weekend was pretty amazing, and equally as sad when she had to go- she'll be back down Easter weekend. I flexed my cooking muscles with some tasty chicken goulash (thanks for the recipe, mom!) and walked around a lot in the beautiful weather. The weekend also featured some work on an Iran memo and an intense football game that we hope to resume next weekend.

That's all for now, my lunch break's about up. Enjoy this hilarious, and slightly philosophical, clip sent to me by the indomitable Nick Martin. Ciao!

DC- The City that Only Occasionally Sleeps

Only a short post today because it's really been a pretty slow week here in DC. Also, I may have forgotten to post earlier today and I'm tired:) I promise this won't be a regular thing.

The internship has slowed down a little after the Iran conference has ended, but things promise to pick up again with the coming Pakistani and Iranian elections- Nick and I are going to a free-breakfast pre-Pakistani Election event Friday morning. I spent the week doing random work and writing a few press releases and staff biographies, and went to an interesting book talk Friday about a book on the leadup to September 11 and the Afghanistan invasion- they had me working audio, so there's another application I've found here for my broadcast training.

Classes were also slow this week- Tuesday's was interrupted throughout with Super Tuesday discussion and subsequently didn't involve much deep discussion. Wednesday's economics was more interesting than usual with a focus on the primaries and each candidate's financial positions; Thursday's issues class featured a speaker that decided not to come and an Iran conference that would have been far more entertaining had I not spent the previous Friday at 7 hours of Iran speeches. The highlight of Thursday came at our lunch break where we found out from a group of convention-goers in our restaurant that Romney had dropped out- nicccccce.

The weekend was a little slow and lonely without half of our room here (Alex w/ a friend, Nick and a few others back in Cuse). Mostly it was spent getting work done and watching the series "Rome", which I'd really recommend to any history buff; it's a very entertaining, dramatic, and apparently historically accurate (done by BBC) look at ancient Rome, starting right around when Caesar returned from Gaul.

John McCain's still way ahead in the polls and I'm glad to see that. Unlike most McCain supporters, I wouldn't push for Huckabee to drop out of the race; I'm a true believer in the democratic process and it's definitely his right to stay in the running if he thinks he'd be a better choice. What I do wish is that he'd realize that his chances of winning are very slim and that the attacks he makes on McCain are doing far more to hurt the Republican chances than to help his. Mike, if you want to keep running, run on your own policies, not on the detriment of your opponent's.

On the other side of the aisle, I hate to say it, but it looks like Obama's going to start running away with this one. I'm sure Hillary won't be dropping out before the convention, but I think by the time spring hits we're going to have a clear McCain-Obama race (I might add, trying not to say it too braggingly, that I was the only one of the group here to predict that race in mid-January when we got here:)).

That's about it for me- here's an ad for Barack Obama, and while I don't agree with or support him, the ad itself is beautifully done and I'd highly recommend watching it.

Thoughts on "The most awesomest exciting ultra-Super Tuesday ever!"

11:30 PM- Well, Georgia just went to Huckabee, who's continued his strong day. McCain's come back in Missouri and is leading early in California, but we won't know about that until tomorrow. Romney and Obama have both won a few more states to bring them back, but it seems like most people are pegging McCain as the winner, pending California. That should be about it for the night, the action's pretty much died down. Hope you all got out and voted- good night and go McCain!

10:00 PM- It's been a good night for John McCain, with wins in New York, Connecticut, Illinois, Delaware and New Jersey (and now Oklahoma) while opponent Romney has only carried Massachusetts and Utah. Huckabee's having a much better day than anyone could've expected, with West Virginia and Arkansas and leads in Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri, and Georgia. Hilary's win in Massachusetts was huge after most political figures in the state supported Barack, and she weathered the storm in New York. Barack's doing alright himself, though, with wins in Illinois, Georgia, and Alabama (and now North Dakota).

Basically, the state of the election is that Hilary has seemingly staved off Barack's charge and had a good day, while on the GOP side, Romney's fading and Huckabee's gaining, but McCain, if he wins California, could finish the day as a near-decisive winner. He just came on and said that, as they've been saying, it's a two man race- and he's one of those two men. I'm a little disappointed at that, because he would've made a great running mate for McCain- it would add votes among conservatives while not giving him any real power. Now, with him doing so well, he might end up trying to take McCain to the wire. Like I said, though, if McCain wins decisively in California tonight and maybe catches up in one of the states Huckabee leads in (he's close in Tennessee), he should have the nomination fairly well wrapped up.

8:20 PM- Results continue to come in- Hilary has Oklahoma, Romney gets his home state of Massachusetts, McCain gets New Jersey and Connecticut, and Obama gets his home state of Illinois. No big surprises there, but one shocker is how well Obama's doing in Clinton's yard up in the northeast- he's dead even or leading Clinton in Connecticut and New Jersey, while reports from a classmate's friends in the area (based on what they've seen of exit polls) suggest he's doing well against her in Mass. and New York. Rough going now for Hilary- we'll see how things develop.

7:05 PM- Georgia results have come in, and CNN quickly declared Barack Obama the winner. They weren't showing any districts reporting, so exit polls must have been pretty decisive- look for a Barack blowout there, which was pretty much expected after his decisive win in SC. Meanwhile, the Republicans are listed in a "tight three-way race"- looks like we'll be waiting a bit on those results, but the fact that it's a three-way race is surprising; McCain wasn't supposed to really be in this.

5:30 PM- About an hour and a half still until the Georgia polls close. Don't expect much from McCain there- his best hope is really another Huckabee win, with isn't that far-fetched. Meanwhile, Romney's pretty pissed about West Virginia- check out the remarks afterward (courtesy of CNN.com):

"Unfortunately, this is what Sen. McCain's inside Washington ways look like: He cut a backroom deal with the tax-and-spend candidate he thought could best stop Gov. Romney's campaign of conservative change," read a statement from Romney campaign manager Beth Myers.

Huckabee, though, wasn't having anything with that. The man may want to abolish the IRS and set up colonies for AIDS victims, but he can sure talk political smack:

"I thought he was saying yesterday, 'No whining.' So is it no whining or whining? He can't even keep a straight answer on the 'whining or no whining' question," Huckabee said.

"There was no backroom deal," he added. "There wasn't even a front room deal. There was no deal."

Romney's had a rough day elsewhere, too. CNN reported that, after Bob Dole wrote a letter to Rush Limbaugh defending him as a true conservative, Romney said that Dole was "probably the last person I would have wanted to have write a letter for me." McCain came back, saying, "This is no way to end up this campaign, by attacking a genuine American war hero," and requesting Romney apologize.

Romney did eventually respond by saying he thought of Dole as an "American hero" and that he'd love the former candidate's support, but didn't really give a reason why he changed his tune so quickly and dratically. Huckabee would probably add here that Romney can't even keep straight on the "Dole or No Dole" question.

I'll keep at this when more results get in, stay tuned- and remember to vote!

2:45 PM- First results in for Super Tuesday, and Mike Huckabee gets the 18 delegates from West Virginia. Bit of a surprise, as he won on the second ballot but Romney had taken 41% of the first-ballot vote- does this mean McCain/Paul Republicans identify more with Huckabee? Or just that there is so much friction between the leading two candidates that they'd rather see anyone but Romney win? (Update, 4pm: Looks like the second guess was right, according to this article on CNN- McCain supporters wanted to keep the state from Romney) Interesting to see if the trend continues anywhere else today. Personally, I'm fine with Huckabee taking the state- the more states he and Romney split where McCain doesn't really have a shot (he polled around 10% on the first ballot), the better McCain's chances. On a related note, a lot of candidates are looking at the country's tax system reform- it was especially a major issue for Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani (the "one page tax form"). But doesn't this Huckabee idea seem just a little over-the-top?

"Champagne? '72 sounds like a good year!"

I would be remiss if I did not start this post with a hats off to the New York Football Giants- not only as a Dolphins fan and a Patriot hater, but also as a fan of the game of football. The team gave me the pleasure of watching what may have been the best Super Bowl ever played- without a doubt, it was the most exciting I've ever watched. Covering the Giants over the summer, I have to admit that no one at the camp in their wildest dreams was imagining what happened last night. So, kudos to Strahan & Co.

Here in DC, the internship game is starting to heat up. I just sent off my first internship application today by fax to National Public Radio (which, if I read right, has the chance of producing a paid internship- that sure would be something). Next up on the list is the summer White House one, which is a bit of a long shot but hey, you don't lose points for trying. At the Iran Conference (more on that later), I sat next to a Voice of America journalist who made a good pitch for an internship there- added that to my list. And, if my emails to the McCain campaign are answered, I might see about working on that over the summer too.

The Iran Conference basically consumed my internship life over the past week- lots of copying, laminating, cutting, and putting together 300 informational folders for all the attendees. When it actually came, I finally got to put on my suit (check the pic, awwwful snazzy:)). I did, however, manage to not notice it was raining and then promptly get lost on the way to the hotel (I was looking for a Hyatt, which apparently doesn't exist in DC- who would've thought it would be at the Ritz?) I was saved, though, by the fact that I walked in front of my supervisor's car crossing the street two blocks past the hotel. That, my friends, is a lucky coincidence. The rest of the day was filled with me taping 8 hours of Iran speeches by Americans and Arabs- interesting, but mannn does it drag on standing there behind the camera. I picked up some information from it though, plus, I was reimbursed for my $9 Ritz-Carlton chicken fingers:).

I remain in a strange state between understanding and confusion in my economics class- luckily, Chad is a fairly good economist so I get by. In the issues class, though, I did pretty well (A on my first issues paper) and I did real well in our State of the Union and Gaza Strip discussions (that one thanks to the Gaza event the previous morning). Thursday's class (which is really just becoming known as Tourism/Guest Speaker Class) gave us our best speech yet by a few Iraq researchers at the Center for a New American Security (which, I found out offers a paid internship- it's on the list:)). He had a well-designed powerpoint, a clear speech, and answered questions well. The other two speeches weren't as good- the Nixon Center guy seemed like he didn't know any more than we do about Iraq and the last place (can't remember where) were pretty flat and boring.

The weekend here was pretty lax- Saturday involved a trip to the Spy Museum, which was mad cool- I seriously recommend it to anyone coming here. They show off great spy gadgets and techniques, but be warned, the museum is a lot bigger than it looks from the outside- it takes a long time to get through. The stuff about the atomic bomb and the Cold War were sweet, the weapons were the coolest part in my mind, like the Russian "Umbrella Gun"- yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. Among my other discoveries was that Maxwell Smart (from "Get Smart," and the new movie with Carrell looks great) had the same voice as inspector gadget. No pictures allowed there, sorry I couldn't show more- I suppose if I were a better spy, I could've taken some. Following that trip was a crepe party, hosted by Alex and attended by most of the program here, which was delicious. Ever had crepes? No? Come here, Alex will make some pretty awesome ones:) And Sunday was, of course, the Super Bowl party, featuring my latest cooking attempt, the mini-bacon sandwiches mom always makes. They were a huge hit- am I better at cooking than I think I am?

Tomorrow is, of course, Super Tuesday. I don't like to sound biased, but I really think McCain will pull it out. For the Dems, though, I don't think there's going to be a clear winner- the two are just too close. We'll spend most of class tomorrow getting updates when the polls close, and, with any luck, I'll be celebrating that McCain win. Everyone back in NY, remember to vote!

Last night had some pretty good ads- here are my favorite three. Enjoy!