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just spreading some love for the Center for Public Integrity and their fabulous muck-raking:

Divine Intervention: U.S. AIDS Policy Abroad
A year long investigation into how rigid rules and restrictions of President Bush's initiative to fight HIV/AIDS have affected countries struggling with the pandemic

their work is way too good to ignore. inform yourselves, people!

now back to my cave...

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this will be my last post for a while. between lots of work and life turning basically upside-down, leaving new york without knowing yet where i'll end up, i just don't have the time to do what i want to do with this space. and, to tell you the truth, i'm a little tired of feeling guilty about it. though it's possible no one reads this thing anyway...

so, off i go for some unspecified period of time. the content will stay up as is, and--who knows?--you might get a duke post now and again. other than that, you'll just have to hold your breath until i (a) settle myself down somewhere new, and (b) figure out what i really want out of a blog. check back every so often if you're interested, though, 'cause i doubt i'll put out a PSA or anything when the writing part of my brain starts functioning again.



thanks for reading. it's been fun. bye for now.

Dear Nancy: Stop screwing around. Love, Sai.

Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), our brand-spanking-new Speaker of the House of Representatives (actually, she won't formally take the office until the new session starts this coming January), seems to have started off on the wrong foot. Pelosi backed John Murtha (D-Penn.) in the race for House Majority Leader, even though the Speaker traditionally stays out of such things. In a nice twist, the House went the other way, electing Steny Hoyer (D-Mar.) instead.

So what does the Speaker of the House do anyway? Wikipedia tells us that the Speaker has two main roles: (1) to be the head of the majority party in the House of Representatives (outranking the Majority Leader) and when the majority party doesn't control the White House, to effectively act as the "leader of the opposition"; and (2) to act as the presiding officer in the House, controlling the flow of the debate, ruling on points of order, and appointing committee members. The Speaker is also third in line for the Presidency, after the Vice President.

The papers are frothing over this, each giving its own take on what this says about Pelosi and things to come for the Democratic majority come January. As the LAT says, "Pelosi's failed effort to anoint her own chief lieutenant fueled doubts among critics about the political skills she brings to leading her fractious party. It also sent a clear signal of what kind of leader she is: an old-style politician who puts a premium on personal loyalty, even at the risk of high-profile defeat." The LAT goes on to quote people who wonder why the leading Democrat would choose to do something so divisive to a new majority party desperately in need of consensus. LAT's take: "Pelosi is a strong believer in rewarding those who are loyal to her, through thick and thin." The paper stops short of my first thought: aren't those same words still used to describe President Bush?

The NYT goes a bit further, saying in a strongly-worded editorial that Pelosi "has managed to severely scar her leadership even before taking up the gavel." A Slate column by Timothy Noah recommends putting Pelosi "on probation" and describes the ethics cloud around Murtha as well as Pelosi's probable (loyalty-based) choice for Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Alcee Hastings.

What is Pelosi thinking? Is she drunk on her newfound Speaker power? Does she have mad-cow disease? Is she a Republican operative gone deep undercover? All possible scenarios, but not very encouraging news for a new Democratic majority that has a lot to prove.

my name is drew barrymore...

Sarah Hepola, A Good Writer, has a new series on The Morning News: "Celebrity Magazine." It must have slipped through the cracks of TMN's recent redesign, and I just saw it today. The first installment is here, and two more have been written since. Take a look! They're each just long enough for a pleasant five-minute diversion between emails at work.

In the same vein, Daily Candy introduced me to DailyLit, a service that will send bite-sized portions of classical works of literature to your email inbox every day. I'm currently reading Pride and Prejudice in 149 parts (though I usually end up reading 2 or 3 each day). I tried reading it before, in traditional book form, and couldn't get through it. But it's more than tolerable at less than 10 pages at a time. Maybe next I'll try Ulysses.

goodbye dear. hello, lover!

for all you slowpokes out there, our beloved defense secretary, donald rumsfeld, is O-U-T out. let's all go have a drink to celebrate, shall we?

Slate has a whole series of articles on Rumsfeld, including a catalogue of his catastrophes. the WP has a tribute of sorts--the kind where you reminisce about that time you locked your keys in the car at 2:00AM in a foreign country and it's only funny 'cause it was like four years ago.

in other news, the democrats win the house (!) and are all but done winning the senate (!!), as montana's in the bag and george allen is expected to concede as early as today. this all begs the question: now what? this should be fun.