"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!