What Caught My Eye Today

Iran - A senior U.S. diplomat accused Iran on Tuesday of transferring weapons to Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan — the most direct comments yet on the issue by a ranking American official. Iran, which is also in a dispute with the West over its nuclear program, denies the Taliban accusation, calling it part of a broad anti-Iranian campaign. Tehran says it makes no sense that a Shiite-led government like itself would help the fundamentalist Sunni movement of the Taliban. I don't want to split hairs here, but not making sense and not doing what Iran is a accused of are two different things. And since when does Iran care about doing things that make sense?

Iraq - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Senate will face another round of votes on the Iraq war before the July Fourth recess. While the measures are unlikely to pass, the announcement comes as party leaders are under fire by many liberal supporters for passing legislation that funds the war through September. Under Reid's plan, the Senate will cast separate votes on whether to cut off funding for combat next year, order troop withdrawals within four months, impose stricter standards on the length of combat tours and rescind congressional authorization for the Iraqi invasion. "We're going to hold the president's feet to the fire," Reid said. Oh yeah, sure. I can just see Bush getting all nervous over this announcement. Reid lost all credibility when he blinked last month and gave the President free reign on Iraq...just like he's going to do again in July, seeing as he's not proposing any legislation that Bush won't veto again.

And in related news...

Two years after the nation's commando forces were given broad authority to attack terrorist networks, the elite units remain hampered by uncertainty over coordination, says the admiral chosen to head the U.S. Special Operations Command. Navy Vice Adm. Eric Olson said the command's "ability to drive behavior within (the Defense Department) is limited due to unclear definition of authorities." Olson's brief answer indicates President Bush's March 2005 decision to broadly empower U.S. commandos continues to be a source of friction within the military's hierarchy. Most of the disagreement comes from other war-fighting commands responsible for managing operations across wide but specific stretches of the globe. These commands have been concerned the new license would encroach on how they manage their own theaters. See that light at the end of the tunnel? Yeah, that one, the one attached to the locomotive bearing down on us at top speed.

Immigration - President Bush prodded rebellious Senate Republicans on Tuesday to help resurrect legislation that could provide eventual citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants. To alleviate the concerns, the president said he was receptive to an emergency spending bill as a way to emphasize his administration's commitment to accelerated enforcement. One congressional official put the price tag at up to $15 billion. Bush's trip to the Capitol marked only the second time since he became president that he attended the weekly closed-door senators lunch, a gesture that underscored the importance he places on passage of comprehensive immigration legislation. Despite the president's commitment, many conservatives in his own party have criticized the measure as an amnesty for millions of lawbreakers. Additionally, job approval ratings in the 30-percent range make it difficult for the president to bend even Republican lawmakers to his will. You know what they say...it's lonely at the top.

TV News - Onto a lighter subject now. Former CBS news anchor Dan Rather escalated a feud with the network, saying CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves "doesn't know about news." Moonves had said earlier Rather's remarks that CBS was "tarting" up its newscast with Katie Couric, Rather's successor, were "sexist." The spat started when Rather, speaking by phone on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program with Joe Scarborough, said CBS had made the mistake of taking the evening news broadcast and "dumbing it down, tarting it up," and playing up topics such as celebrities over war coverage.
While referring to Couric as a "nice person," Rather said "the mistake was to try to bring the 'Today' show ethos to the 'Evening News,' and to dumb it down, tart it up in hopes of attracting a younger audience." I don't know how seriously a guy who signature signoff tagline consisted of a single word, 'Courage.', should be taken. And don't even get me started on why Dan Rather got the boot in the first place. He didn't dumb down the news; he made it as he went along.

Sopranos - The 11.9 million viewers who watched "The Sopranos" finale brought HBO to the edge of a historic feat: a show on a pay cable network available in about 30 million homes was more popular last week than all but one show on the far larger world of broadcast television. Only the premiere of NBC's "America's Got Talent," with 13 million viewers, did better, Nielsen Media Research said. Incidently, this new show is the brainchild of American Idol judge, Simon Cowell. And check this out, "The Sopranos" finale topped both Game 2 of the NBA Finals (8.6 million) and the Tony Awards (6.2 million) in direct competition Sunday night.

Paris Hilton - Yup she's still in jail. However, she will have to find a new agent when she gets out of jail. The Endeavor talent agency has dropped the reality show star, said Michael Donkis, a spokesman for the company. "She is no longer a client," he said, declining further comment. Hilton had been represented by the Beverly Hills-based agency since 2005. So like, don't you have to have some sort of talent in the first place before you can have an agent? Girlfriend is famous for being famous. Where's the talent there? Pretty good PR job, but certainly not much talent.