I made a commitment to write to my senators by Monday about the torture of the Iraqi prisoners, and to post a diary when I had done that. I am embarrassed to admit that it took me six hours to write five short paragraphs. No wonder I'd never done more than "Click Here! to e-mail your representatives" before.

I found a pretty neat website that will hand deliver letters to congress people ($9.95 for 3 letters) with the option of posting the letter online for everyone to read. There was one very interesting (sad and scary) one there about the military manipulating discharge dates to keep people from being able to leave.

I found this snippet in a Washington Post article that someone posted on the debate thread for other reasons.

I was really surprised. I would've thought that the battle between the two had become too bitter at this point for Dean to consider Gephardt as his VP, but then again, this is just politics, right? Gephardt certainly has the "insider" credentials that Dean wants; does he have enough foreign policy experience? I have to admit I don't know too much about this.

As a Dean supporter, I'm not too thrilled about this new development. First, I'm a little afraid that Dean is pandering to his audience. Second, even if Dean is fine with Gephardt, Gephardt's negative campaigning just went too far for me to be comfortable with him (I was already very tepid on his positions).  (Disclaimer: I will vote for any Democratic nominee.)

Finally, the very interesting tidbit is that he is considering several presidential rivals as running mate. Enough to send us all back into a frenzy. And I was so sick of all the VP talk, too.