According to Kennedy's aides, the Senator from Massachusetts will be back at his second home in Washington this afternoon in "a sign that his treatments have been progressing well." It's also a positive sign that Senator Kennedy intends to keep the promise he made to the country in Denver two months ago.

His spokesperson, Melissa Wagoner, announced that "His doctors are very pleased with his progress..." We are very pleased as well. Barack Obama has his work cut out for him cleaning up after Bush, but his load just got a little lighter with this news.

Senator Kennedy's treatments will continue in DC. This will be the first time he's been in the Senate since July, when he cast a tiebreaking vote on Medicare legislation.

Youtube video courtesy of TPM:

Video from Boston.com:

Click here for the Huffington Post video of his return.

His historic promise in Denver follows.

Barack Obama was only the fifth African-American to serve in the US Senate. During Reconstruction, Hiram Rhodes Revels (1870-1871) and Blanche Bruce (1875-1881) helped pave a path for him and other future African-American Presidents. More recently, Edward Brooke (1967-1979) and Carol Moseley Braun (1993-1999) also opened doors for him.

My exposure to Ashton Kutcher is limited to his show on MTV, and I have always had the impression that he was a goofy and sophomoric, well, punk. But, last night, facing a bitter ender from the reality wing of the Republican Party (Republican Rep from Miami; sorry, didn't catch her name) on Bill Maher's show, Ashton Kutcher revealed the answer to that vexing, age-old question: what does Demi Moore see in him?

Below is a clip of Ashton Kutcher on Prop 8. Here, he kills the BS defense behind entangling church and state after a Newsweek editor, in a feeble defense of gay marriage, bizarrely attempted to justify enshrining conservative values into law. Kutcher dismantles him by explaining the true intent of our Nation's founders: SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE. I'll quote:

The fact that proposition 8 is even on the ballot...the fact that it's EVEN ON THE BALLOT! (all caps Ashton's, not mine)...is ridiculous! I don't care what your spiritual or religious beliefs are! It should not interfere with our government and our ability to do things through the government! EVER!

Amen, my brother! Here's the video:

In 1979, Iranian revolutionaries caused a substantial ruckus that drew the United States' collective ire. Nearly three decades earlier, President Eisenhower joined the British efforts (in hot pursuit of oil) to overthrow Iran's first democratically-elected government. In what would become America's global tradition of "spreading democracy," this coup d'état spawned two decades of Iranians oppressed by a US-installed despot. Both nations have shared a mutual grudge since 1979, when those Iranian revolutionaries, themselves irked, finally deposed the American puppet.

This beef is not unlike that thawed between Richard Nixon and China's Chairman Mao in 1972. After 9/11, when Iran's reformist President offered America his hand, Bush had a chance to follow some of Nixon's more adroit footsteps by engaging with Iran. Unfortunately, Bush instead chose to take the "I am not a crook" path to celebrating Nixon's legacy.  

Today, Iran's hardline president, perhaps in a sincere gesture but more likely as a cynical election ploy, is sending Barack Obama generous congratulations by letter. Before Obama responds, the new US President should strongly consider the following:

With a backdrop of increasing conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, a rare piece of good news regarding the middle east escaped NYC yesterday. Simon Peres, President of Israel, praised a stagnant peace plan put forth by King Abdullah back in 2002. No, not the kind-hearted King Abdullah from Israel's friendliest neighbor, Jordan, but the human-rights averse King Abdullah from Saudi Arabia.

Last year, before fleeing the South, I was under a constant barrage of insults from my Californian wife regarding how backwoods my hometown was.  Compared to California's diverse utopia, my wife would say, Gainesville Florida might as well still be fighting the civil war. I could only take so much, and, in an effort to appease her, we moved to the Philly burbs, where we've lived happy ever after.

In the wake of eight years of bumbling, catastrophe-spawning foreign policy, today's Washington Post provides a read more refreshing than a Budweiser from Brussels. In a dramatic reversal from existing strategy, the Obama administration is showing encouraging signs over talks with Iran, cooperation with Europe, conflict resolution in Afghanistan and actually following Bin Laden to the gates of hell.

It's quite fitting, but, today, George Bush, one of the least popular people on this planet, was visited by one of the coolest. According to a USA Today/Gallup poll released today, Barack Obama's favorable rating is at 68%, the highest of any candidate since the poll's inception in 1992.

Incidentally, John McCain the loser is far more popular than John McCain the flailing panderbot. His favorable rating is an impressive 64%, which is 14 points higher than when he was plunging the depths of indecency as election day neared.

Bush's favorable rating in 2004 was 60%. Today, he enjoys support from an abysmal 24% of the American population. Bush has nurtured his disapproval ratings to a record high of 76%, one of his few accomplishments the past eight years.

Expectations for Obama are at a fever pitch, and the challenges are mountainous, but one obstacle he doesn't have is a tough act to follow.