What Caught My Eye Today

Attorney General - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales conceded he used confusing language when describing national security efforts during recent Senate testimony. Gonzales' admission comes after a week of withering criticism that he misled senators about a 2004 dispute between the White House and the Justice Department over the legality of a classified national security program. At the time, Gonzales was serving as White House counsel, and wanted to continue the program over Justice Department concerns that it was not legal. Truth be told, this sort of ineptitude bothers me more than flap regarding the appropriateness of the firing of the 8 U.S. attorneys. Even more troubling is the fact that this guy is charged with being the country's top law enforcement officer. Top Village Idiot sounds more like it.

Iraq - Baghdad shook with bombings and political upheaval Wednesday as the largest Sunni Arab bloc quit the government and a suicide attacker blew up his fuel tanker in one of several attacks that claimed 142 lives nationwide. The Iraqi Accordance Front's withdrawal from the Cabinet leaves only two Sunnis in the 40-member body, undermining Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's efforts to pull together rival factions and pass reconciliation laws the U.S. considers benchmarks that could lead to sectarian reconciliation. Forget the use of a well-worn analogy, but it so fits. Watch the events leading up to this September progress report due to Congress is like watching two trains racing toward each other on the same track. You know there's going to be a train wreck but you cannot look away.

Pakistan - Presidential candidate Barack Obama has said he would order military action against al-Qaeda in Pakistan without the consent of Pakistan's government. Obama said General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, must do more to end terrorist operations in his country. If not, Pakistan would risk a troop invasion and the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars of US aid during an Obama presidency. "It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al-Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005," he said, referring to reports that the US had decided not to launch a strike for fear of harming ties with Pakistan. "If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will." Well, I suppose that's one way to go. I mean really, what could possibly go wrong if we went into another country, without permission, to hunt down some terrorists?

O.J. Simpson - O.J. Simpson says his hypothetical account of killing his ex-wife in his aborted memoir "If I Did It" was invented by a ghost writer and filled with errors that he refused to correct for fear of appearing to be guilty of the crime. Simpson said the book was composed by a ghost author, and that he reluctantly agreed to include a chapter containing a "night-of-the-crime" account as told by him only after the publishers promised to clearly label it as hypothetical. Simpson said he let the author ask him questions but otherwise played a passive role in describing the killings. "I read what he wrote, and I saw all of these major holes, all of these impossible things," Simpson recalled. "All of these other parts of the book I would correct, but I told myself, 'If I correct this, there are going to be people out there that say, 'Oh, look how accurate this is,' Right?" How can I put this gently? What a dumbass. Dude should do himself a favor and have his tongue surgically removed, so that he does get himself into any more trouble.