What Caught My Eye Today

Iraq - In a direct challenge to President Bush, House Democrats unveiled legislation Thursday requiring the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the fall of next year. The White House said Bush would veto it. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the deadline would be added to legislation providing nearly $100 billion the Bush administration has requested for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. She told reporters the measure would mark the first time the new Democratic-controlled Congress has established a "date certain" for the end of U.S. combat in the four-year-old war that has claimed the lives of more than 3,100 U.S. troops. So just to be clear here, we're talking about a 'binding' piece of legislation? Oh sure, it has no chance of becoming law, but at least it is genuine legislation. One small piece of advice for the Democratic leadership. Maybe you guys in the House should talk to the guys in the Senate and maybe come up with a unified bill. Just a thought.

Latin America - President Bush set out on a five-nation tour to challenge a widespread perception in Latin America that U.S. neglect has empowered leftist leader Hugo Chavez. Bush argues that strong democratic governments hold the promise of prosperity. He hopes his trip will resonate with the one in four impoverished Latin Americans, who live on less than $2 a day and wonder whether democracy will ever deliver them a better life. "The trip is to remind people that we care," Bush said. If we care about Latin America the same we we do about the Middle East, those poor bastards are screwed.

Absenteeism - Tired of parents pulling their kids out of school for a ski trip or a visit to Disneyland, the local school system is billing them for the missed class time at $36.13 per day. That is how much the Scotts Valley, California district calculates it loses under a state formula that doles out school funding according to daily attendance. In truth, the bills are merely a request; no one is actually required to pay. The absurdity of this aside, what I find interesting is that it costs only $36 a day to educate a child (or roughly $6 an hour). That's certainly a lot cheaper than the standard rate for childcare or a babysitter. Though, I'm not sure that's necessarily a good thing.

March Madness - The NCAA Men's and Women's basketball tournaments get underway next week. For those of you who, like me, pretend to be expert bracketologists, here's the inside scoop on the bewildering RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) ratings that fuel so matter heated discussions about who deserves a bid and who doesn't. The NCAA's official RPI rankings are posted here. Here are the current top 10 teams based on RPI:

1. UCLA, 2. Ohio St., 3. North Carolina, 4. Wisconsin, 5. Pittsburgh, 6. Southern Illinois, 7. Tennessee, 8. Memphis, 9. Florida, 10. UNLV

Southern Illinois and UNLV sort of stand out here. According to the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls, these team rank 14th and 25th respectively. Let the madness commence.