Rice-A-Roni

Condi Rice received endorsement by the 18-member Senate panel today, 16-2. The only dissention: John Kerry and Barbara Boxer.
I can't believe that it was even this close. At least two Democrats stood up to this horrible confirmation. Rice did a HORRIBLE job as NSA; how is she going to do a better job as Secretary of State?
[NYT] [Yahoo] [Quotes] [Transcript] [Video]

This was nothing but an exercise in political theater. "Senator Joseph Biden, Democrat of Delaware, asked Ms. Rice how big an Iraqi security force had actually been trained. When Ms. Rice, the national security adviser, offered an absurdly inflated 120,000, Mr. Biden said the people doing the training put the total at 4,000. He then suggested that Ms. Rice "pick up the phone or go see these folks," as if that has not been her job all along, especially in the year since the administration said that all information on operations in Iraq would flow through her." [Editorial]

Caught between church and state: evolution vs. "intelligent design." Hey, how about we keep the religion in church, and out of the schools. Last I checked, there was supposed to be something called the "separation of church and state." [NYT] [CNN]

Judge throws out Florida same-sex marriage suit. [NYT]

Remember me? Death toll exceeds 226,000 in tsunami & aftermath. [Reuters]