a natural progression

I think there are a million reasons why (1) edwards supporters should support obama (2) not come close to clinton (3) generally be engaged in this election.

for me there is but one ... the 'war of terror' and the state of iraq, it is a quite sad that the differences between all of the candidates are rather marginal on issues like poverty, health care, etc. but the reality is hillary clinton is running as a moderate, republican, establishment candidate and obama is running as the alternative.

kabul

escape

Prescient Obama (2002)

"I don't oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne. What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income, to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression. That's what I'm opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics. On Saddam Hussein Now let me be clear: I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power.... The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him. But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors...and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history. I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars. So for those of us who seek a more just and secure world for our children, let us send a clear message to the president. You Want a Fight, President Bush? You want a fight, President Bush? Let's finish the fight with Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, through effective, coordinated intelligence, and a shutting down of the financial networks that support terrorism, and a homeland security program that involves more than color-coded warnings. You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to make sure that...we vigorously enforce a nonproliferation treaty, and that former enemies and current allies like Russia safeguard and ultimately eliminate their stores of nuclear material, and that nations like Pakistan and India never use the terrible weapons already in their possession, and that the arms merchants in our own country stop feeding the countless wars that rage across the globe. You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their own people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and inequality, and mismanaging their economies so that their youth grow up without education, without prospects, without hope, the ready recruits of terrorist cells. You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to wean ourselves off Middle East oil through an energy policy that doesn't simply serve the interests of Exxon and Mobil. Those are the battles that we need to fight. Those are the battles that we willingly join. The battles against ignorance and intolerance. Corruption and greed. Poverty and despair."

One has to really struggle to have any enthusiasm for her candidacy at this point, I feel like some of the substantive policy efforts (i.e., foreclosure relief, economic stimulus talk, middle and working class directed stump speeches) however disingenuous are more constructive but completely negated by the racist or silly tone of her operatives maligning her opponent better than most republicans could! it really does fit into the overarching amoral compass that directs the actions of this 'power' couple (i.e., her pro-Likud Middle East posture -> Iraq vote -> Iran vote, equivocating for political points, etc.)

Patient rights

I find this story especially poignant considering the past 72 hours I spent under the care of the American (private) hospital system and the constant struggle to determine the rights of consent which bestow on me the right to refuse particular treatment or invasive tests I preferred not to undergo. It wasn't so much the questionable necessity of the tests but the shear ludicrous nature of deciding what would be 'needed' or rather required based purely on a textbook understanding of head 'trauma' and the subsequent cascading secondary injuries that could potentially occur (or be prevented). I endured these tests which yielded no possibility of secondary injury but I wonder if I had put up more resistance how the hospital might have responded? It seems the involuntary process by which we become emergency trauma patients should not negate our right to consent or refuse, no? Are we trapped within a doctor's obligation to prevent further mortal injury, no matter how remote, and our own desires to not participate?

Bush in Ramallah

"It was only at 1:30 P.M. that Amjad arrived with his truck and his crane to hang American and Palestinian flags on the streets around the Muqata government headquarters. No one from the Palestinian Authority wants to leave them hanging too long for fear they might be burned."

Discrimination of Indians in Malaysia and why so many have left.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7178709.stm