What Caught My Eye Today

Russia - Boris Yeltsin, who kicked the props out from under the tottering Soviet empire and then struggled to build a nation from its wreckage, died Monday after seeing many of his democratic reforms rolled back. The former Russian president was 76. President Vladimir Putin spoke to the nation four hours after the announcement of Yeltsin's death to praise briefly Russia's first freely elected president as a man "thanks to whom a whole new epoch has started." "New democratic Russia was born, a free state open to the world; a state in which power truly belongs to the people," Putin said. Truth be told, I thought he died a few years ago. Oops.

War on Terrorism - A historic veto showdown assured, Democratic leaders agreed Monday on legislation that requires the first U.S. combat troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by Oct. 1 with a goal of a complete pullout six months later. Bush, confident of enough votes to sustain his veto, was unambiguous in his response. "I will strongly reject an artificial timetable for withdrawal and/or Washington politicians trying to tell those who wear the uniform how to do their job." Democratic leaders hope to clear the measure through both houses by Friday and send it to Bush by early next week for his expected veto. They have not said whether they will attempt to override the veto in what would be a largely symbolic act given the number of Republicans who have said they will back the president. There is far less certainty about the next steps in the historic wartime confrontation between Congress and commander in chief. Democrats have said repeatedly they will not leave the troops without the funds they need, but they have not said whether they will first force Bush to veto at least one more bill before sending him legislation he finds acceptable. I'm not worried. Clearly they have a plan. They wouldn't be going through all this trouble without plan. They do have a plan, right?

2008 Presidential Race - Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) said Monday that President Bush has fallen short in his role as leader of the free world, and the 2008 election is a chance to change that. Obama reiterated his call for a phased withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq and said bringing a responsible end to the war was one of the ways the country could begin to lead again if he is elected president. Another would be to increase the overall size of the military by adding 65,000 soldiers to the Army and 27,000 Marines, forces stretched thin fighting wars abroad and protecting the homeland. He said the United States must work with Russia to make sure its weapons and nuclear materiel are secured. Also, he said the world must stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and work to eliminate North Korea's nuclear weapons program. While I'm not one to disagree with criticism of Bush's foreign policy, Obama doesn't exactly have a lot of foreign policy experience to draw from. He's been a U.S. Senator for what, ten minutes?

Addiction - The latest health scare to concern college campus officials is exercise bulimia, a type of eating disorder that drives patients to cut their weight by working out at least two hours a day. In addition to extreme weight loss, the syndrome can lead to stress fractures or early osteoporosis. Thankfully, this is one health risk that I don't have to worry about. Too much exercise? Yeah, right.

Baseball - Oh dear. Don't look now, but somebody's got 740 home runs.

Cycling - Tour de France winner Floyd Landis blamed the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency after a report on Monday that further analyses of his urine samples from the 2006 Tour had shown traces of synthetic testosterone. He said in a statement posted on his website that USADA had stopped a rider's observer from attending the retesting of the samples at a French laboratory. So am I to understand that if an observer was present, the results would have been different? I don't know, dude. Sounds like a bit of a stretch to me.