What Caught My Eye Today

Iran - President Bush warned of a nuclear-armed Iran but did not rule out that the United States would negotiate with its provocative leader if he gives up his suspected nuclear weapons ambitions. Bush said it's important for the United States to stay engaged in neighboring Iraq to convince the Iranians that the U.S. is committed to democratic reform in the region. He also denounced Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his remarks about destroying Israel. When asked if the U.S. would negoitiate with Iran, Bush responded, "If your question is, will you ever sit down with them? We've proven we would with North Korea. And the answer is yeah, just so long as we can achieve something, so long as we are able to get our objective." So let me see if I've got this straight. We'll sit down with Iran only if we know ahead of time that we'll get what we want. If that is the case, what would be be sitting down to negotiate?

Myanmar - After crushing the democracy uprising with guns, Myanmar's junta switched to an intimidation campaign, sending troops to drag people from their homes in the middle of the night and letting others know they were marked for arrest. Dozens of Buddhist monks jammed Yangon's main train station after being ordered to vacate their monasteries — centers of the anti-government demonstrations — and told to go back to their hometowns and villages. Following the night of widespread detentions, military vehicles patrolled the streets in Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, with loudspeakers blaring a warning: "We have photographs. We are going to make arrests!" In Brussels, European Union nations agreed to expand sanctions on Myanmar's military regime. Diplomats said new sanctions included an expanded visa ban for junta members, a wider ban on investment in Myanmar, and a ban on trade in the country's metals, timber and gemstones. But the new measures did not include a specific ban on European oil and gas companies from doing business in Myanmar. Of course not. Oil and natural gas are too valuable a commodity to let a little thing like human rights violations get in the way.

Health Insurance - President Bush, in a sharp confrontation with Congress, vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have dramatically expanded children's health insurance. It was only the fourth veto of Bush's presidency, and one that some Republicans feared could carry steep risks for their party in next year's elections. The Senate approved the bill with enough votes to override the veto, but the margin in the House fell short of the required number. The program is a joint state-federal effort that subsidizes health coverage for 6.6 million people, mostly children, from families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford their own private coverage. The Democrats who control Congress, with significant support from Republicans, passed the legislation to add $35 billion over five years to allow an additional 4 million children into the program. It would be funded by raising the federal cigarette tax by 61 cents to $1 per pack. The president argued that the Democratic bill was too costly, took the program too far beyond its original intent of helping the poor, and would entice people now covered in the private sector to switch to government coverage. It took Bush six years to veto his first bill, when he blocked expanded federal research using embryonic stem cells last summer. In May, he vetoed a spending bill that would have required troop withdrawals from Iraq. In June, he vetoed another bill to ease restraints on federally funded stem cell research. In the case of the health insurance program, the veto is a bit of a high-stakes gambit for Bush, pitting him against both the Democrats who have controlled both houses of Congress since January, but also many members of his own party and the public. Six years to cast his first veto, huh? Well it certainly looks like Bush has got the hang of it now.

Air Travel - The nation's 20 largest carriers reported an on-time arrival rate of 71.7 percent in August, down from 75.8 percent a year ago. The on-time rate was 69.8 percent in July and 68.1 percent in June. Through August, more than 25 percent of flights have arrived late — the industry's worst on-time performance since comparable data began being collected in 1995. The airline industry and the Federal Aviation Administration blame the delays on outdated air traffic control technology, bad weather and increasing passenger traffic. Analysts say commercial airlines' use of smaller planes is partly to blame for increased congestion in the skies and on runways, as is an increase in general aviation aircraft used by corporate travelers. Customer complaints nearly doubled to 1,634 in August compared with 864 in the same month last year. Poor weather conditions were blamed for more than 38 percent of delays in August, a slight increase from a year ago. do you remember when taking a trip on an airplane used to be a highlight of the vacation unto itself? Neither do I.