Atrios has lost a good friend and I send my deepest and most sincere of sympathies.

I enjoyed writing about television shows earlier this week, so I’m doing it again. Yes, it is because the real world is still a bit too depressing for me to analyze and write about.

The Class is a new sitcom on CBS that focuses on a group of former classmates.

The main character invites all the members of his third grade class for a surprise birthday party for his girlfriend (that he met in the third grade). The girlfriend freaks out because “Who does this?”…She dumps the main guy and storms off…Hilarity ensues.

It’s not the most funny show in the world, but, it’s pretty entertaining. Maybe I’m just silly, since my 10 year high school reunion is coming up and that makes the show just a little, teensy-eensy bit about me.

How I Met Your Mother is another CBS show. It’s not new, this is it’s second season, I think.

It’s a story told in flashbacks about a group of friends and how one of them fell in love with another and had kids. Pretty funny stuff, when you add in Neil Patrick Harris as a well-dressed womanizer that has some pretty strange ideas on attracting women.

Both shows are pretty funny and I recommend them!

Expect more television posts!

The government is unresponsive to the needs of the little man. Under 5′7″, it is impossible to get your congressman on the phone.

[QuotationsPage.com - Quote of the Day]

prescient \PREH-shuhnt; -shee-uhnt; PREE-shuhnt; -shee-uhnt\, adjective:
Knowing or anticipating the outcome of events before they happen.

[Dictionary.com - Word of the Day]

Remember when I said…

My fear is that Senator Chafee will rethink his positions after the November elections, thus, reviving the possibility of Ambassador Bolton remaining at the U.N.

and

…the Administration is exploring other avenues to keep Mr. Bolton in the New York City offices and there are ways to do it.

?

Well, over at Bolton Watch, there’s more bad news…

Unfortunately, the bully may still get your lunch money. Indeed, there is a strong possibility that President Bush could not only reappoint Bolton to the UN Ambassadorship, but continue to send him the same paycheck, too.

If this happens and the Administration recess appoints Mr. Bolton again and plans to pay him in full, Congress must act. This would be even more of a slap in the face of Congressional oversight than the first recess appointment. The idea of a unitary executive is everything that the Constitution for our United States fights against and it’s the very idea that began our nation’s struggle for freedom and independence.

It appears that we may indeed be in for another war of independence…

Top UN officials say the world body must abandon efforts to pressure Sudan to accept UN peacekeepers in Darfur.

UN Sudan envoy Jan Pronk says the existing African Union force should instead be strengthened.

Sudan has always argued that the AU should remain in charge of peacekeeping in Darfur, rather than the UN.

This from BBC News.

It is playing into Sudan’s wishes, but there’s a valid point: Sudan will not accept a U.N. force but will accept an A.U. force.

Given that circumstance, there are two potential solutions.

1. Invade Sudan with a U.N. force.
2. Strengthen the available A.U. force.

Guess which one is more likely, more reasonable and more apt to succeed? If the U.S., G.B. and the rest of the U.N. would just stand behind the A.U. and give them the resources (and oversight), the situation in Sudan would dramatically change.

Outgoing deputy secretary general Mark Malloch Brown has meanwhile said the US and UK’s use of “megaphone diplomacy” is almost “counterproductive” in Sudan.

Mr. Malloch Brown is correct. For too long the U.S. has shouted loudly at what should happen instead of rolling up the sleeves and getting to work.

Ambassador John Bolton is a perfect manifestation for the failures of “megaphone diplomacy”. It’s just another reason that he shouldn’t be allowed to return to the U.N.

Virtue is its own punishment.

[QuotationsPage.com - Quote of the Day]

monomania \mon-uh-MAY-nee-uh; -nyuh\, noun:
1. Pathological obsession with a single subject or idea.
2. Excessive concentration of interest upon one particular subject or idea.

[Dictionary.com - Word of the Day]

State Senator Harry Brown (NC Senate 6) testified Thursday at the trial of of Kevin Geddings, former NC Lottery Commissioner. Mr. Geddings is on trial because of possible ethics violations due to a financial relationship with Scientific Games that wasn’t revealed until after Mr. Geddings accepted a seat on the Commission.

Mr. Brown was called to testify since he was one of two Republican State Senators that were absent during the General Assembly’s vote on the lottery. The vote was a tie and Lieutenant Governor Beverly Perdue cast the tie breaking (and lottery approving) vote. Mr. Brown was on his honeymoon when the vote was scheduled would testified that he would’ve voted against the lottery had he been present.

From the Raleigh News and Observer…

Asked if he “took a walk,” or purposely missed the vote, Brown said, “I did not.”

Mr. Brown also testified that radio advertisements broadcast in the 6th District by the N.C. Association of Educators did not influence his actions.

Questions or comments can be posted here or emailed to OnslowCountyPolitics@gmail.com.

For upcoming events, look at the Onslow County Politics calendar. If you use Google Calendar, you can add the events that you’re interested in participating in to your account.

2006 Elections information can be found at the 2006 Elections Page.

The Senate today passed a bill, backed by the White House, that sets the rules for interrogating and prosecuting detainees in the war on terrorism, allowing the CIA to continue a formerly secret program to extract information from key suspected terrorists and establishing special military tribunals to try them.

The bill, the Military Commissions Act of 2006, passed by a vote of 65 to 34 after senators rejected four amendments supported mostly by Democrats.

I have a lot to say, but I just can’t…I think I’m in shock, actually. I can’t form the words to type, I can’t form the ideas to convey what I’m feeling.

I’m confused. I can’t understand what has possessed the United States Congress to become such a whipping boy for the Administration. For 6 years, they’ve bent over backwards and twisted themselves into pretzels to do the President’s bidding and make legal the crimes his administration has committed.

Maybe tomorrow, maybe as late as Saturday, I’ll post more. I’ll list and analyze the great floor speeches from Democratic leaders in the Senate.

Link to Senate Passes Bill on Detainee Interrogations - washingtonpost.com