Per capita amount Tennesseans spent playing the lottery run by “the best lottery director America has ever known” during the first 12 months: $147.
Comparable national average: $161.
Amount I spent on Tennessee lottery games in the past 12 months: $0.

Big Orange Michael rings in 2005.

A Republican Dictionary.

Vice President Cheney yesterday:

Well, we are, I’d say, very concerned about Iran, because for two reasons, again, one, they do have a program. We believe they have a fairly robust new nuclear program. That’s been developed by, or being pursued I guess would be the best way to put it, by members of the E.U.–“the Brits, the Germans and the French–“have been negotiating with the Iranians to get them to allow greater transparency in their program so the outside world can be confident they’re not building weapons, that it’s for peaceful purposes.
The other problem we have, of course, is that Iran is a noted sponsor of terror. They’ve been the prime backers of the Hezbollah over the years, and they have, in fact, been–used terror in various incendiary ways to kill Americans and a lot of other folks around the globe, too, and that combination is of great concern.
We’ll continue to try to address those issues diplomatically, continue to work with the Europeans. At some point, if the Iranians don’t live up to their commitments, the next step will be to take it to the U.N. Security Council, and seek the imposition of international sanctions to force them to live up to the commitments and obligations they’ve signed up to under the non-proliferation treaty, and it’s–but it is a–you know, you look around the world at potential trouble spots, Iran is right at the top of the list.

Hmm. “Nuclear weapons program” . . . “sponsoring terror” . . . “enforcing U.N. resolutions”–it all sounds so familiar. I wonder where we have heard those before?

Juan Cole notes how would-be leaders in Iraq are pondering a withdrawal timetable for US troops.
It’s going to be interesting to watch what happens if powers that be in Iraq go public with such a request in the next few months. The more naive among us might ask, “Well, we went in to liberate the Iraqi people, isn’t this naturally the next step in that process?”
Actually, we didn’t; we invaded Iraq to fulfill the neocon’s vision of securing America’s interests in the region. And as long as those interests remain vulnerable (nothing would be secure in Iraq right now absent the US military) I’m hard pressed to see a major American troop withdrawal. So it will be fun to watch if our supposed interest in Iraqi sovereignty comes into conflict with the Bush administration’s real, unstated interest in expanding American dominance over the region.