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!
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