Sox are up to eleven games, routing Pedro and the Mets 10-2 last night.

Just got back from the White House South Lawn, where the President welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi. The lawn was filled with press, interns, and other random guests; the front was occupied by lines of Marines and the band. The President and Mr. Koizumi stood on a platform in front of the South entrance while the band played the Japanese and US national anthems. While that was going on, a cannon in front of the Ellipse fired what I assume to be powder shots. (note: The White House has a functioning cannon! I think the next time the President vetoes a bill, he should slap it on a cannonball and launch it back to Capitol Hill.) Both made brief speeches with subsequent translations, and Mr. Koizumi was quite charming, greeting the mass of small Japanese children near the front of the crowd.

Pictures will be posted later tonight on the photoblog.

Over the past four days, it has rained 13 inches in the DC-Virginia-MD metro area. That's one-third of their average annual rainfall, and for all you GIS or Army Corp of Engineers people, the 300-year storm high. On Sunday night, when traffic on the I-66 was lightest, cars were moving at 20 mph because you literally could not see more than ten feet in front of you.

Several federal buildings experienced basement flooding and had to shut down. Metrorail stops at the center of the city had standing water well above the tracks and were closed as well. This presented a problem for anyone riding the Blue line inbound, as I have to every morning; even though my stop was before Federal Triangle, the trains were single-tracking (using the same tracks for both inbound and outbound, alternating between) and the overall commute from home took two and a half hours. One of the biggest problems with the DC Metro is that the infrastructure is outdated; if a car breaks down or station closes, there are no side-tracks or parallel tracks to move around the obstacle. You're stuck waiting fifteen minutes for a train going in the right direction, and even then it's probably packed to the maximum because they're so few and far between.

The return trip after work was a bit faster, but for some reason they turned off the air conditioning. Not a very pleasant ordeal in the DC summer, with temperatures in the 80's and high humidity, plus the fact that you're in a metal box with hundreds of sweaty bodies. After two stations, the windows were completely fogged up and you could not see outside.
Despite this, people remained cheerful and courteous. A seat opened up in front of me, and the four nearby men took turns refusing to take the seat. Finally, an old woman sat down and we all saved face.

The Sox are on a ten game streak, having swept three series in a row. The last game against the Phillies went well into the 12th inning, with the Sox bullpen empty. Ortiz came through with his second walk-off hit in a row, the previous night hitting his eighth walk-off homer with the Sox.

Some choice quotes

Fitz! Fitz, you old polecat, you old so-and-so!

Fitz, you old horse thief, you old muckety-muck!

I don't know what 'frumpy' is, but onomatopoetically, sounds right.

When Virginians talk about having a thunderstorm, that's something of an understatement. It's more like the sky is vomiting water and lightning onto the ground. I've never seen anything like it; stopped at a drive-thru and had my car window open for two seconds, and my entire left side was drenched.

(Pulled from The Atlantic, December 2005)

If America Left Iraq
The case for cutting and running

by Nir Rosen
.....

At some point—whether sooner or later—U.S. troops will leave Iraq. I have spent much of the occupation reporting from Baghdad, Kirkuk, Mosul, Fallujah, and elsewhere in the country, and I can tell you that a growing majority of Iraqis would like it to be sooner. As the occupation wears on, more and more Iraqis chafe at its failure to provide stability or even electricity, and they have grown to hate the explosions, gunfire, and constant war, and also the daily annoyances: having to wait hours in traffic because the Americans have closed off half the city; having to sit in that traffic behind a U.S. military vehicle pointing its weapons at them; having to endure constant searches and arrests. Before the January 30 elections this year the Association of Muslim Scholars—Iraq's most important Sunni Arab body, and one closely tied to the indigenous majority of the insurgency—called for a commitment to a timely U.S. withdrawal as a condition for its participation in the vote. (In exchange the association promised to rein in the resistance.) It's not just Sunnis who have demanded a withdrawal: the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is immensely popular among the young and the poor, has made a similar demand. So has the mainstream leader of the Shiites' Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, who made his first call for U.S. withdrawal as early as April 23, 2003.

If the people the U.S. military is ostensibly protecting want it to go, why do the soldiers stay? The most common answer is that it would be irresponsible for the United States to depart before some measure of peace has been assured. The American presence, this argument goes, is the only thing keeping Iraq from an all-out civil war that could take millions of lives and would profoundly destabilize the region. But is that really the case? Let's consider the key questions surrounding the prospect of an imminent American withdrawal.

Would the withdrawal of U.S. troops ignite a civil war between Sunnis and Shiites?

No. That civil war is already under way—in large part because of the American presence. The longer the United States stays, the more it fuels Sunni hostility toward Shiite "collaborators." Were America not in Iraq, Sunni leaders could negotiate and participate without fear that they themselves would be branded traitors and collaborators by their constituents. Sunni leaders have said this in official public statements; leaders of the resistance have told me the same thing in private. The Iraqi government, which is currently dominated by Shiites, would lose its quisling stigma. Iraq's security forces, also primarily Shiite, would no longer be working on behalf of foreign infidels against fellow Iraqis, but would be able to function independently and recruit Sunnis to a truly national force. The mere announcement of an intended U.S. withdrawal would allow Sunnis to come to the table and participate in defining the new Iraq.

But if American troops aren't in Baghdad, what's to stop the Sunnis from launching an assault and seizing control of the city?

Sunni forces could not mount such an assault. The preponderance of power now lies with the majority Shiites and the Kurds, and the Sunnis know this. Sunni fighters wield only small arms and explosives, not Saddam's tanks and helicopters, and are very weak compared with the cohesive, better armed, and numerically superior Shiite and Kurdish militias. Most important, Iraqi nationalism—not intramural rivalry—is the chief motivator for both Shiites and Sunnis. Most insurgency groups view themselves as waging a muqawama—a resistance—rather than a jihad. This is evident in their names and in their propaganda. For instance, the units commanded by the Association of Muslim Scholars are named after the 1920 revolt against the British. Others have names such as Iraqi Islamic Army and Flame of Iraq. They display the Iraqi flag rather than a flag of jihad. Insurgent attacks are meant primarily to punish those who have collaborated with the Americans and to deter future collaboration.

Wouldn't a U.S. withdrawal embolden the insurgency?

No. If the occupation were to end, so, too, would the insurgency. After all, what the resistance movement has been resisting is the occupation. Who would the insurgents fight if the enemy left? When I asked Sunni Arab fighters and the clerics who support them why they were fighting, they all gave me the same one-word answer: intiqaam—revenge. Revenge for the destruction of their homes, for the shame they felt when Americans forced them to the ground and stepped on them, for the killing of their friends and relatives by U.S. soldiers either in combat or during raids.

But what about the foreign jihadi element of the resistance? Wouldn't it be empowered by a U.S. withdrawal?

The foreign jihadi element—commanded by the likes of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi—is numerically insignificant; the bulk of the resistance has no connection to al-Qaeda or its offshoots. (Zarqawi and his followers have benefited greatly from U.S. propaganda blaming him for all attacks in Iraq, because he is now seen by Arabs around the world as more powerful than he is; we have been his best recruiting tool.) It is true that the Sunni resistance welcomed the foreign fighters (and to some extent still do), because they were far more willing to die than indigenous Iraqis were. But what Zarqawi wants fundamentally conflicts with what Iraqi Sunnis want: Zarqawi seeks re-establishment of the Muslim caliphate and a Manichean confrontation with infidels around the world, to last until Judgment Day; the mainstream Iraqi resistance just wants the Americans out. If U.S. forces were to leave, the foreigners in Zarqawi's movement would find little support—and perhaps significant animosity—among Iraqi Sunnis, who want wealth and power, not jihad until death. They have already lost much of their support: many Iraqis have begun turning on them. In the heavily Shia Sadr City foreign jihadis had burning tires placed around their necks. The foreigners have not managed to establish themselves decisively in any large cities. Even at the height of their power in Fallujah they could control only one neighborhood, the Julan, and they were hated by the city's resistance council. Today foreign fighters hide in small villages and are used opportunistically by the nationalist resistance.

When the Americans depart and Sunnis join the Iraqi government, some of the foreign jihadis in Iraq may try to continue the struggle—but they will have committed enemies in both Baghdad and the Shiite south, and the entire Sunni triangle will be against them. They will have nowhere to hide. Nor can they merely take their battle to the West. The jihadis need a failed state like Iraq in which to operate. When they leave Iraq, they will be hounded by Arab and Western security agencies.
Advertisement

What about the Kurds? Won't they secede if the United States leaves?

Yes, but that's going to happen anyway. All Iraqi Kurds want an independent Kurdistan. They do not feel Iraqi. They've effectively had more than a decade of autonomy, thanks to the UN-imposed no-fly zone; they want nothing to do with the chaos that is Iraq. Kurdish independence is inevitable—and positive. (Few peoples on earth deserve a state more than the Kurds.) For the moment the Kurdish government in the north is officially participating in the federalist plan—but the Kurds are preparing for secession. They have their own troops, the peshmerga, thought to contain 50,000 to 100,000 fighters. They essentially control the oil city of Kirkuk. They also happen to be the most America-loving people I have ever met; their leaders openly seek to become, like Israel, a proxy for American interests. If what the United States wants is long-term bases in the region, the Kurds are its partners.

Would Turkey invade in response to a Kurdish secession?

For the moment Turkey is more concerned with EU membership than with Iraq's Kurds—who in any event have expressed no ambitions to expand into Turkey. Iraq's Kurds speak a dialect different from Turkey's, and, in fact, have a history of animosity toward Turkish Kurds. Besides, Turkey, as a member of NATO, would be reluctant to attack in defiance of the United States. Turkey would be satisfied with guarantees that it would have continued access to Kurdish oil and trade and that Iraqi Kurds would not incite rebellion in Turkey.

Would Iran effectively take over Iraq?

No. Iraqis are fiercely nationalist—even the country's Shiites resent Iranian meddling. (It is true that some Iraqi Shiites view Iran as an ally, because many of their leaders found safe haven there when exiled by Saddam—but thousands of other Iraqi Shiites experienced years of misery as prisoners of war in Iran.) Even in southeastern towns near the border I encountered only hostility toward Iran.

What about the goal of creating a secular democracy in Iraq that respects the rights of women and non-Muslims?

Give it up. It's not going to happen. Apart from the Kurds, who revel in their secularism, Iraqis overwhelmingly seek a Muslim state. Although Iraq may have been officially secular during the 1970s and 1980s, Saddam encouraged Islamism during the 1990s, and the difficulties of the past decades have strengthened the resurgence of Islam. In the absence of any other social institutions, the mosques and the clergy assumed the dominant role in Iraq following the invasion. Even Baathist resistance leaders told me they have returned to Islam to atone for their sins under Saddam. Most Shiites, too, follow one cleric or another. Ayatollah al-Sistani—supposedly a moderate—wants Islam to be the source of law. The invasion of Iraq has led to a theocracy, which can only grow more hostile to America as long as U.S. soldiers are present. Does Iraqi history offer any lessons?

The British occupation of Iraq, in the first half of the twentieth century, may be instructive. The British faced several uprisings and coups. The Iraqi government, then as now, was unable to suppress the rebels on its own and relied on the occupying military. In 1958, when the government the British helped install finally fell, those who had collaborated with them could find no popular support; some, including the former prime minister Nuri Said, were murdered and mutilated. Said had once been a respected figure, but he became tainted by his collaboration with the British. That year, when revolutionary officers overthrew the government, Said disguised himself as a woman and tried to escape. He was discovered, shot in the head, and buried. The next day a mob dug up his corpse and dragged it through the street—an act that would be repeated so often in Iraq that it earned its own word: sahil. With the British-sponsored government gone, both Sunni and Shiite Arabs embraced the Iraqi identity. The Kurds still resent the British perfidy that made them part of Iraq.

What can the United States do to repair Iraq?

There is no panacea. Iraq is a destroyed and fissiparous country. Iranians and Saudis I've spoken to worry that it might be impossible to keep Iraq from disintegrating. But they agree that the best hope of avoiding this scenario is if the United States leaves; perhaps then Iraqi nationalism will keep at least the Arabs united. The sooner America withdraws and allows Iraqis to assume control of their own country, the better the chances that Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari won't face sahil. It may be decades before Iraq recovers from the current maelstrom. By then its borders may be different, its vaunted secularism a distant relic. But a continued U.S. occupation can only get in the way.

Top 5 movies as love letters to pop music/culture

1. Almost Famous - 70's rock and pop, music journalism and life on the band tour. Two of my favorite musical moments in film when (a) William sees his sister off and finds her record collection under his bed to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel's "America" and (b) the band Stillwater reconciles after a dispute while listening and eventually singing along to "Tiny Dancer" on the tour bus.

2. School of Rock - Anything that Jack Black enjoys, which is not a bad subset of classic rock. Amplifies and glorifies all that is good-natured and fun about rock. You have to love how every kid finds a way to contribute to the "class project" despite differing backgrounds and talent (though all are upper-middle class).

3. High Fidelity - The best musical ending performance in any movie, period. "Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?"

4. A Mighty Wind - This movie's hilarious, and it satirizes folk music while putting on a hell of a great folk concert at the end. A lot smarter than it first appears.

5. A Hard Day's Night - Manic setpieces, clever jokes spun into rapid-fire dialogue, and some of the catchiest Beatles tunes ever performed. The Beatles actually poke a lot of fun at themselves and the disproportionate attention they were suddenly receiving.

(Pulled from Wikipedia, the presumptive White House staff and Cabinet as of series ending)

President	Matthew Santos
Vice President	Eric Baker (nominated under the terms of the 25th Amendment)
Secretary of State	Arnold Vinick (awaiting confirmation by the Senate)
Attorney General	Oliver Babish (awaiting confirmation by the Senate)
Ambassador to the United Nations	Nancy McNally (awaiting confirmation by the Senate)
Chief of Staff	Josh Lyman
Deputy Chief of Staff	Sam Seaborn
Communications Director	Louise Thornton
White House Counsel	Ainsley Hayes
Director of Legislative Affairs	Amy Gardner
Presidential Secretary	Ronna Beckman
Presidential Assistant	Bram Howard
Chief of Staff to the First Lady	Donna Moss
Press Secretary to the First Lady	Annabeth Schott

I could have lived through one more season, if only to watch Josh and Amy arguing again.

The Washington Nationals had an amazing series against the Yankees last weekend, winning two out of three games in the final innings. Friday's game was a heartbreaker, when they lost an early 5-3 lead in the 8th and 9th innings and were shut out by New York's best closer, Mariano Rivera.

The Yankees must have squandered their good fortunes then, however, because the Nationals came back the next day from a 7-point deficit to trounce them 11-9, with the last three runs scored against Rivera in the bottom of the 8th. Then, the following day, the Nationals rallied again in the 9th to come back from a 2-1 deficit to win 3-2.

The Sox swept the Braves in their series as well. They need Papelbon like Garfield needs lasagna.

It was a good weekend to watch baseball.

Barack Obama's speech to Take Back America on June 14, 2006. Now this is what liberals stand for.

We meet at a time where we find ourselves at a crossroads in American history. It's a time where you can go into any town hall or veterans' hall or coffee shop or street corner and you'll hear people express the same anxiety about the future. You'll hear them convey the same uncertainty about the direction that we're headed as a country. Whether it's the war or Katrina or health care or outsourcing, you'll hear people say that, now, surely we've come to a moment where things have to change. And there are Americans who still believe in an America where anything's possible; they're just not sure that their leaders still do. They still believe in dreaming big dreams but they suspect maybe that their leaders have forgotten how.

I remember when I first ran for the state senate -- this was my very first race -- back in Chicago ... people would say, you seem like a nice young man. They would look over my literature. They would say, you have a fancy law degree, you teach at a fine law school, you've done fine work, you've got a beautiful family -- why would you want to go into something dirty and nasty like politics? Why would you want to go into politics?

And the question is understandable and it bears on today because even those of us who are involved, even those of us who are active in the political process and in civic life, there are times where all of us feel discouraged sometimes, where we get cynical about the prospects for politics because it seems as if sometimes that politics is treated as a business and not a mission, and that power is always trumping principle, and that we have leaders that are sometimes long on rhetoric but short on substance, and so we get discouraged. And every two years or fours years maybe we do our bit and we knock on doors or pass our literature, or we go into the polling place and hold our noses and vote for the lesser of two evils, but we don't feel in our gut sometimes that politics and government is going to improve our lives. At most, we hope it does us no harm.

And I am not immune to those feelings. But, you know, when I get in that funk, I think about a person I met the day before I was elected to the United States Senate ...[M]y staff comes up to me and says, senator, before you go up, there's this woman who wants to meet you. And she's driven a long way and she's a big supporter and she just wants to take a picture with you and shake your hand. And I say, well, that's not a problem. And so I go offstage to a back room and I meet this woman. She explains that she has supported me since I announced my race. She shakes my hand, we take a picture, she tells me that she's proud of me. And she had already cast her ballot at that point absentee, and she was really appreciative of the work that I was doing and wished me Godspeed.

And none of this would have been exceptional except for the fact that this woman, named Marguerite Lewis, had been born in Louisiana in 1899 and was 105 years old. And so ever since I met this frail 105-year-old African American woman who found the strength to leave her house and come to a rally because she believed that her voice mattered, I've thought about all that she's seen in her life.

I thought about the fact that she was born at a time when there were no cars on the road and there were no airplanes in the sky; born in the wake of slavery, in the shadow of Jim Crow, a time when it was far more frequent for African Americans to be lynched than to vote. I thought about how she lived through a world war and a Great Depression and another world war. And then she saw her brothers, her uncles, her cousins coming back from that second war and still have to sit at the back of the bus. And I thought about how she finally saw women win the right to vote. And how she watched FDR lift millions out of fear and send millions to college on the GI Bill and bring folks out of poverty, and how she saw unions rise up and give them a foothold into the middle class. And she saw millions of immigrants travel from distant shores in search of this idea that we call America.

And she believed in this idea of America, despite the cards that she had been dealt. She believed in this notion of a more perfect union. And when she saw, in the distance, breaking out the civil rights movement over the horizon, she thought, well, maybe it's my turn now. And she saw women who were willing to walk instead of ride the bus after a long day of doing someone else's laundry or looking after somebody else's children because they were walking for their freedom. And she saw people of every race and creed -- young people get on buses and travel down to Mississippi and Alabama to register voters. And she saw four little girls die needlessly in Sunday school and saw how it catalyzed a nation. And at last she saw the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. And she saw people lining up to vote for the first time and she got in that line and she never forgot it. And she kept on voting in each and every election because she believed.

She had seen enough over the span of three centuries to know that there's no challenge that is too great or no injustice too crippling or no destiny that is too far out of reach for America when it puts its mind to it. She believed that we don't have to settle for equality for some or opportunity for the lucky or freedom for the few. And she knew that during these moments in history there have always been people who have been willing to settle for less, but they've been counteracted by people who've said, no, we're going to keep on dreaming and we're going to keep on building and we're going to keep on marching and we're going to keep on working because that's who we are, because we've always fought to bring more and more people under the blanket of the American dream.

And I think we face one of those moments today in a century that is just six years old. Our faith has been shaken by war and terror and disaster and despair and threats to the middle-class dream and scandal and corruption in our government. The sweeping changes brought by revolutions and technology have torn down the walls between business and government and people and places all over the globe. And with this new world comes new risks and new dangers. The days are over where we can assume that a high school education is enough to compete with for a job that could just as easily go to a college educated student in Beijing or Bangalore. No more can we count on employers to provide health care and pensions and job training when their bottom lines know no borders. We can't expect oceans that surround America to keep us safe from attacks from our own soil.

But while the world has changed around us, unfortunately it seems like our government has stood still. Our faith has been shaken, but the people running Washington haven't been willing to make us believe again. Now, it's the timidity, it's the smallness of our politics that's holding us back right now -- the idea that there are some problems that are just too big to handle, and if you just ignore them that sooner or later they'll go away, so that if you talk about the statistics on the stock market being up or orders for durable goods being on the rise, that nobody's going to notice the single mom who's working two jobs and still doesn't have enough money at the end of the month to pay the bills. That if you say "plan for victory" often enough and have it pasted -- the words behind you when you make a speech, that nobody's going to notice the bombings in Baghdad or the 2,500 flag-draped coffins that have arrived at Dover Air force Base. The fact is we notice, we care, and we're not going to settle for less anymore. ...

I don't think that - I think George Bush loves this country. I really do. I don't think his administration is "full" of stupid people. ... The problem is not that the philosophy of this administration is not working the way it's supposed to work; the problem is that it is working the way it's supposed to work. They don't believe -- they don't believe that government has a role in solving national problems because they think government is the problem. They think that we're better off if we just dismantle government; if, in the form of tax breaks, we make sure that everybody's responsible for buying your own health care and your own retirement security and your own child care and your own schools, your own private security forces, your own roads, your own levees.

It is called the "ownership society" in Washington. But, you know, historically there has been another term for it; it's called "social Darwinism" -- the notion that every man or woman is out for him or her self, which allows us to say that if we meet a guy who has worked in a steel plant for 30, 40 years and suddenly has the rug pulled out from under him and can't afford health care or can't afford a pension, you know, life isn't fair. It allows us to say to a child who doesn't have the wisdom to choose his or her own parents and so lives in a poor neighborhood, pick yourself up by your own bootstraps. It allows us to say to somebody who is seeing their child sick and is going bankrupt paying the bills, tough luck.

It's a bracing idea, this idea that you're on your own. It's the simplest thing in the world, easy to put on a bumper sticker. But there's just one problem; it doesn't work. It ignores our history. Now, yes, our greatness as a nation has depended on self-reliance and individual initiative and a belief in the free market, but it's also depended on our sense of mutual regard for each other, our sense that we have a stake in each other's success -- that everybody should have a shot at opportunity.

Americans understand this. They know the government can't solve all their problems, but they expect the government can help because they know it's an expression of what they're learning in Sunday school. What they learn in their church, in their synagogue, in their mosque - a basic moral precept that says that I have to look out for you and I have responsibility for you and you have responsibility for me, that I am your keeper and you are mine. That's what America is.

And so I am eager to have this argument with the Republican Party about the core philosophy of America, about what our story is. We shouldn't shy away from that debate. The time for our identity crisis as progressives is over. Don't let anybody tell you that we don't know what we stand for. Don't doubt yourselves. We know who we are. And in the end we know that it's not enough just to say that we've had enough. We've got a story to tell that isn't just against something but is for something. We know that we're the party of opportunity. We know that in a global economy that's more connective and more competitive that we're the party that will guarantee every American an affordable, world-class, life-long, top- notch education, from early childhood to high school - from college to on-the-job training. We know that that's what we're about.

We know we're the party - we know that as progressives we believe in affordable health care for all Americans - and that we're going to make sure that Americans don't have to choose between a health care plan that bankrupts the government and one that bankrupts families, the party that won't just throw a few tax breaks at families who can't afford their insurance, but will modernize our health care system and give every family a chance to buy insurance at a price they can afford.

Progressives are the folks who believe in energy independence for America, that we're not bought and paid for by the oil companies in this country. We believe that we can harness homegrown alternative fuels and spur the production of fuel-efficient hybrid cars, and break our dependence on the world's most dangerous regions. We understand that we get a three-for: We can save our economy, our environment, and stop funding both sides of the war on terror if we actually get serious about doing something about energy.

We understand that.

We understand, as progressives, that we need a tough foreign policy, but we know the other side has a monopoly on the tough-and- dumb strategy; we're looking for the tough-and-smart strategy - one that battles the forces of terrorism and fundamentalism but understands that it's not just a matter of military might alone, that we've got to match it with the power of our diplomacy and the strength of our alliances and the power of our ideals, and that when we do go to war, we should be honest with the American people about why we're there and how we expect to win.

We understand as progressives that we believe in open and honest government that doesn't peddle the agenda of whichever lobbyist or special interest can write the biggest check. And if we believe in all these things, and if we act on it, then I guarantee you America is looking for us to lead. And if we do it, it's not going to be a Democratic agenda or a liberal agenda or a progressive agenda; it's going to be an American agenda because in the end we may be proud progressives but we're prouder Americans.

We're tired of being divided. We are tired of running into ideological walls and partisan roadblocks. We're tired of appeals to our worst instincts and our greatest fears. So I say this to you guys, that America is desperate for leadership. I absolutely feel it everywhere I go. They are longing for direction and they want to believe again.

I'm in the DC metro area for the summer, interning at a non-profit called International Economic Development Council (IEDC). The city is an interesting place to be, though I wish I could say the same for the area where I'm living (Annandale, Virginia, south of Alexandria). Mondays are pretty busy, so I figured it would be a good time to record a typical workday as I go along.

6:30am - Wake up to sunlight and my clock radio. The morning is generally the only cool part of the day, so I take a 15-minute run on a loop going through my neighborhood and a backwoods trail. The woods are thick and very pretty, with ravines and bridges, and the narrow trails somehow lead me back to the house (I don't wear glasses or contacts in the morning, so it's probably lucky that I don't get lost). A set of stretches and push-ups and then I hit the shower.

7:00am - Long, hot shower and then get dressed while I listen to news radio. I used to pay attention to the traffic report, but now that I'm not driving in to work it's less important. Still, there's always a chance the Metro will break down, in which case thousands of commuters like me are pretty much screwed. Business casual, so buttoned shirt, khakis, leather shoes, no tie. Quick goodbye to my adopted family (I'm staying with Korean empty-nesters, who rented out their basement rooms to me for two months. Occasionally they'll invite me up to have dinner or dessert with them), then I'm out the door and down the block to the bus stop.

7:30am - Catch the 29G express bus to the Pentagon. It's a nice ride, never crowded, so I whip out the DS and play a couple stages of Brain Age or New Super Mario Bros. The bus goes through one section of I-395 to get to the Pentagon, which is perpetually jammed with traffic, but eventually gets through to the HOV lanes and it's smooth sailing from then on.

8:00am - The Pentagon hosts a large bus terminal, and you can see tons of people moving through security checkpoints just to enter the building. I head straight for the subway station underneath, where, instead of orange juice and community college like in Boston, the wall ads are for lightweight helicopters and defense systems. It's not a little surreal.
I hop on the blue line towards Largo, in the front car where it's less crowded. At this hour it's mostly secretaries, temps, and construction workers. We hit some interesting stops: Arlington National Cemetary, Rosslyn (where Bartlett was shot in season 1), and Foggy Bottom at GWU. The subway goes in and out of grade, so my ears pop several times throughout the trip. My iPod's playing Boundary Rider by The Go-Betweens when we arrive at McPherson Square.

8:30am - Walk one block over to IEDC headquarters on 15th Street, just behind the White House (a few yards away are the Treasury Department and the East Wing). IEDC is a professional organization for the economic development field, and has training and certification programs. It also consults and does research for specific projects, which is what I'm more involved with. The "International" is a recent change, but they're hoping to head in that direction.
The office is pretty quiet at this point, with most staff getting in at 9am and unresponsive until they've had some coffee. My cubicle neighbor is the web developer/IT specialist, so he's always up and about dealing with office problems. We exchange a few words about the World Cup weekend games.
I open up Firefox with four tabs: MIT Webmail, BBC World News, CNN Politics, and IEDC's homepage. Check e-mail and headlines, and then start working on whatever I was doing the previous day.

10:00am - Senior staff starts streaming around this time, so things pick up a little around the office. I usually work at the same pace regardless, because the work is a bit tedious. Between spurts of productivity, I continue to check the news, The Onion, and Penny Arcade for updates, or work on crosswords. For some reason I get really hungry around this hour, but I wait it out till lunch.

12:30pm - Lunch break, though I usually bring my lunch to my desk and eat while working. It's generally a choice between Quizno's, Subway, and this buffet place that sells take-out by the pound. Today I try out a New York-style deli place and am not disappointed.

4:00pm - It's the home stretch and I can't wait to get out of here. Today has actually been a pretty good day in terms of productivity, but I'm still just not used to an 8-hour workday. I can hear the thunder outside; it's both raining and 80 degrees outside.

5:00pm - I say goodbye to staff and walk back to the subway. It's the same route back on train and bus, though if I get back to the Pentagon too late it's a long wait between buses. I need to get back to my house, switch bags, hop in the car, and grab something quick to eat, because...

6:30pm - On Mondays and Wednesdays I tutor a high school senior in SAT II math. He's a smart guy so it's not too frustrating, and I make more than three times what my internship pays per hour. We're supposed to work three hours a day, but by 9pm my brain is fried and I'm betting he's out by 8.

9:30pm - Usually back home at this point. It's a good time to read e-mail, chat on AIM, watch an episode of West Wing or Rurouni Kenshin, or zone out while watching TV. I check the Red Sox and Nationals scores religiously these days.

10:30pm - At this point I've hopefully brushed my teeth and changed, because it's hard to stay awake past this point.

Top 5 gun showdowns in movies

1. Once Upon a Time In The West - Harmonica vs. Frank, in the grand finale.

2. Enemy At The Gates - Vasily Zeitsev vs. Major König, multiple engagements.

3. The Killer - Ah Jong and Li Yeng vs. the Triads, their last stand in an abandoned church, a John Woo classic.

4. Way Of The Gun - Parker and Longbaugh vs. the "old man army," eyes on the prize in the courtyard of a Mexican brothel.

5. The Magnificent Seven - The seven "ronin" vs. Calvera's bandits; Charles Bronson makes a second appearance on the list!

I'll lay off the commentary so as to avoid spoilers. You've really got to see these movies to appreciate the scenes themselves.

Here we go again with the Top 5 lists. If anyone's reading, feel free to contribute your own list in the comments.

Top 5 breakup songs (in no particular order)

1. The Good Life - Album of the Year (April)
In just over five minutes, hipster boy meets a hipster girl, heady romance and urban grit collide, love is made and dreams peter out and disappointment sets in.
The Killer Verse: And I know she loved me once, but those days are gone. She used to call me everyday from a pay phone on her break for lunch – just to say she can’t wait to come home.

2. The Streets - Dry Your Eyes
It's an awkward song with awkward delivery and a chorus that could have come from a 7th grader, but my guess is that ninety percent of us are about as articulate at that pivotal moment.
The Killer Verse: I look at her she stares almost straight back at me
But her eyes glaze over like she’s lookin’ straight through me.

3. Stars - One More Night (Your Ex-Lover Remains Dead)
The deed is done, but they agree to spend one more night together. It's cheap but it's everything.
The Killer Verse: You'll never touch him again so get what you can
Leaving him empty just because he's a man

4. The Wrens - Happy
Of course The Wrens, from the album that is all rejection and renewal. Frustration with his sheer powerlessness to change the situation, reality becomes optional as he tries to pin down where the mistake was made.
The Killer Verse: is this why you wanted me? to watch as you walk away
you kept on killing me, and you don't even want to touch me

5. Lisa Loeb - Stay
A high school favorite. The details of this story hit pretty close to home.
The Killer Verse: you said you caught me cause you want me and one day you'll let me go
you'll try to give away a keeper, or keep me cause you know you're just so, scared to lose

Summer movies that I need to catch while still in theatres:
Mission Impossible III - Philip Seymour Hoffman as the villain!
X-Men: The Last Stand - Kelsey Grammer as The Beast!
An Inconvenient Truth - Al Gore as Al Gore!

Summer movies coming up:
Nacho Libre - From the commercials, looks well-shot, surreal, and a bit hilarious.
Superman Returns - Watching puny mortals unload automatic rifles on Superman never gets old for me.
A Scanner Darkly - Snazzy animation, not-too-distant-future, political relevance.

Fall movies this year to watch:
Aqua Teen Hunger Force (the movie!?!) - I'll believe it when I see it.
Marie Antoinette - This had a great trailer with great music, but the movie might end up being pretty dull.

TV shows to watch:
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - The next great Sorkin show!
Lost - Seven episodes of the third season this fall.
Pee-wee Herman's Playhouse - Airing on Adult Swim beginning July 10th. Brilliant.