So, Happy Birthday Vice Emperor of the World, Prime Minister Tony Blair. Fifty years young today. They'll be partying in the streets, I bet. Or perhaps not.

Happily, also today, is my last session of physio for my back. I have these stupid exercises to do. And best of all I have to do them in a big room with a lot of other people, just to make sure I'm getting them right.
I feel guilty, though. Going in there, a young, mostly fit chap, exercising alongside a woman who has a huge scar on her left leg, evidently from some major traums; an old guy who still has bandages around his chest but is doing arm exercises, and a chap who has a medical boot (the kind for broken legs) on when he comes in, takes it off and starts lifting weights with his bad leg. I think I have it lucky, but still I complain. Just shows that how bad things feel and how bad they could be aren't always related.

Last night was the first round of the Democratic Party Debates to see who can beat Kaiser Bush who is apparently one of the most popular Presidents ever. A fact which, surely, frightens hundreds of million of people. However, in a debate that should have focused on who thought fastest and with the widest range of understanding and managed to articulate those thoughts in an intelligent and understanding way, two candidates, Senator John Kerry and Governor Howard Dean decided to just slag each other off. Now, I've heard both of these men talk before in a broadcast of a debate from California and I admire both of them. Good, fast thinkers; witty and articulate...but party leaders say that Senator Lieberman is most likely to get the nod in the 2004 Democratic Party Primaries.

The full list of hopefuls is:

• Senator John Kerry
  
• Governor Howard Dean
  
• Representative Dennis Kucinich
  
• Senator Joe Lieberman
  
• Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun
  
• Senator Bob Graham
  
• Rev. Al Sharpton
  
• Senator John Edwards
  
• Representative Dick Gephardt
  

For more information on who these people are go here - and it even has stuff about George and Dick, how nice of them.

Given that this is a government agency site I'd ask questions about its bias and accuracy, but it's a good starter for information.

There's also an article about how Al Gore raised money for one of the re-counts in the last election then used it somewhere else - the article says "Some have raised ethical questions about the expenditures, saying the Gore campaign should not have spent recount money to run for president." It says nothing of the ethics of the Congressional elections last year where, in Georgia alone, Democrats won 5 of 13 seats. Then within a week of the election three of them declared themselves Republican after all and kept their seat in Congress, just on the other side of the house. Apparently, though, that's copmpletely okay.

In other news, Arsenal lost their title to my boys. I know a lot of people don't like Manchester United, but I defy anyone to say that they don't deserve to win it after clambering back from 8 points down and, yes, with a little luck and help from other clubs, take the title on their day off. That's not to say they didn't do anything to help themselves - a bucketload of goals in their last few games - including hat-tricks from Scholes against Newcastle and Van Nistelrooy against Charlton, was pretty useful. Here's to the competition being just as tight at both ends of the table next season.

And "thanks" to my brother's boys, you made Jen really pissed off on Saturday. So thank you. No, really.