What Caught My Eye Today

Iraq - An independent assessment concluded that Iraq has made little political progress in recent months despite an influx of U.S. troops. In a draft report circulated this week, the Government Accountability Office concluded that at least 13 of the 18 political and security goals for the Iraqi government have not been met. Administration officials swiftly objected to several of the findings and dismissed the report as unrealistically harsh because it assigned pass-or-fail grades to each benchmark, with little nuance. The GAO report is one of several assessments called for in May legislation that funded the war. So pretty much the reports that we were all expecting to see are starting to come out. The real question is, will the Administration do anything about it. So far, the answer has been 'stay the course' or 'troop surge.' There appear to be hints of evidence to suggest these strategies aren't working out as well as expected.

Virginia Tech - An independent panel's concluded that lives could have been saved had Virginia Tech officials warned the campus sooner that a killer was on the loose. Virginia Tech's president countered by saying, "No plausible scenario was made for how this horror could have been prevented once he began that morning." It took administrators more than two hours to get the first e-mail warning out after Seung-Hui Cho killed two people in a dormitory. In the interim, Cho mailed off a video confession to NBC and then made his way across the Blacksburg campus to a classroom building, where he killed 30 more victims and committed suicide. In the end, according to the report, administrators concluded that the shooting was a boyfriend-girlfriend dispute and that the gunman had probably left the campus. Also, the report noted, they were afraid of causing panic, as happened at the start of the school year, when the first day of classes was called off because an escaped murder suspect was on the loose near campus. At least nine other officials were wrestling with questions that had no easy answers: What's the best way to relay a message? What information would create mass panic? Which buildings should be notified? Was the gunman still on campus? In retrospect, most of their decisions proved wrong, and the e-mail alert they finally sent arrived too late to do any good — about 15 minutes before Cho started killing students and faculty locked inside Norris Hall. At the time, however, only two administrators had the ability to send campuswide e-mail, and the message first had to be formulated by the Policy Group, a body that includes nine vice presidents and several vice provosts and is chaired by the university president. It took a half-hour just to assemble the group. In fairness to all parties, no one person could have prevented this tragedy. The system was and still is flawed. Time will be much better spent learning from the breakdowns clearly evident in this case to do want can be done to avoid such an event in the future.

Myanmar - Myanmar's ruling junta hunted pro-democracy activists it blames for spearheading ongoing protests against rising fuel prices, a rare wave of dissent in the tightly controlled country. Protesters have held scattered demonstrations around the country in the past week and a half. But participation has dwindled from a few hundred people to a few dozen as the junta used menacing gangs of civilians to manhandle opponents. In Yangon, the country's largest city and its commercial center, truckloads of young, tough-looking enforcers hired by the government and directed by plainclothes security officials were parked at key points, ready to pounce on anyone suspected of trying to spark unrest. Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. The ruling junta, which has come under widespread international criticism for violating human rights, tolerates little public dissent. At least 100 people have been arrested since a rare string of anti-government rallies began on August 19 over a massive hike in fuel prices, according to activists.Another clear cut case of the familiar adage, "when we want your opinion, we'll give it to you."

On the off chance that some of you out there have never heard of Myanmar (courtesy of Wikipedia)...Myanmar, officially the Union of Myanmar, is the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia, and is also known as Burma. It is bordered by China on the north, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, and India on the northwest.

2008 Presidential Race - Republican Fred Thompson said he would formally launch his 2008 run for the White House next week with a webcast and a five-day tour of early voting states. Thompson, a former Tennessee senator and Hollywood actor, had delayed his announcement for months, keeping supporters on edge and raising questions about his enthusiasm and commitment to what could be a grueling presidential run. Thompson's candidacy has stirred intense grass-roots interest among Republicans, particularly conservatives dissatisfied with the rest of the Republican pack. Campaign officials held a conference call with supporters to inform them of Thompson's plans. Thompson has been billed as a social conservative in the mold of former President Ronald Reagan, filling a void for conservatives dubious about his leading Republican rivals, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Oh goodie. I was begininng to worry that I would have enough candidates to choose from. For the record, there are 8 Democratic candidates still in the running (poor old Tom Vilsack had to drop out in February due to lack of funds) and 9 GOP candidates (Jim Gilmore and Tommy Thompson dropped out in July and August respectively due to lack of voter interest). It's like getting the chance to pick how we want to die. There are no appealing choices, but at least we get to pick.


California - San Jose, Northern California's largest city is also the wealthiest urban center in the nation, with a median household income of $74,000. Two other California cities, San Francisco and San Diego, finished in the top three as well, according to newly released data by the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey. Seattle and Las Vegas rounded out the top five richest cities of 500,000 people or more. Economists said rising median income reflects the improving fortunes of white-collar Silicon Valley workers since 2000, when the dot-com stock market bubble burst and tens of thousands of workers lost jobs. But some public policy experts said the high median masked a growing inequality between rich and poor and failed to take into account the exorbitant cost of living in the greater San Francisco Bay area. Essentially this report gives you a little tidbit of local knowledge that those of us who live here already know. DAMN!!! This place is expensive.