What Caught My Eye Today

2008 Presidential Campaign - The flippin' thing has finally started, like for real. Hallelujah. Democrats Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards fought for first in Iowa's presidential caucuses today while Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee vied for the Republican victory. Iowans rendered their judgments in meetings at 1,781 precincts. At stake are 45 delegates to the Democratic National Convention this summer in Denver and 37 to the GOP gathering in St. Paul, Minnesota. 45 delegates? Big deal. All I know is that in another 24 hours, I won't have to hear anymore soundbites about gettin' all my friends and neighbors together down at the ol' rec hall to do some caucusing. Enough already.

Pakistan - President Pervez Musharraf vehemently denied that Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies were behind Benazir Bhutto's killing, and implied she was partly at fault. Despite threats by militants, Bhutto poked her head out of the sunroof of her vehicle to greet supporters at an election rally, Musharraf said. He conceded there were shortcomings in Pakistan's investigation into the assassination but rejected accusations of a lapse in security for the former prime minister. "The same military and intelligence agencies are using the same people who are attacking them? It's a joke." Maybe it's the conspiracy theorist in me, but wouldn't it actually be easier to assassinate Bhutto if it was an inside job as opposed to what Musharraf so eloquently said was a 'joke'? I mean really, if the assailants had the same information as the military and intelligence agencies, it's not an enormous stretch of the imagination to believe that it would make this assassination attempt a lot easier to pull off.

CIA - The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee warned in a 2003 letter that destroying videotapes of terrorist interrogations would put the CIA under a cloud of suspicion, according to a newly declassified copy of the letter. "Even if the videotape does not constitute an official record that must be preserved under the law, the videotape would be the best proof that the written record is accurate, if such record is called into question in the future," California Congresswoman Jane Harman wrote in a Feb. 10, 2003 letter to then-CIA general counsel Scott Muller. "The fact of destruction would reflect badly on the agency." Last month, the CIA acknowledged destroying videos showing the harsh interrogation of two top al-Qaida suspects — Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. CIA Director Michael Hayden said the videos, which were made in 2002, were destroyed in 2005 out of fear the tapes would leak and reveal the identities of interrogators. Hayden said the sessions were videotaped to provide an added layer of legal protection for officers using tough interrogation methods authorized by President Bush to help break down recalcitrant prisoners. So I'm a little slow in grasping the obvious sometimes. The CIA Director has openly admitted destroying tapes that would show agents breaking the law because they were authorized to do just that by President Bush. And now we have this de-classified letter written 2 years before the 2005 incident, warning that destroying videotapes would be a bad thing to do (golly whiz, do ya think?). What is it exactly that the Justice Department is investigating? Seems to me the evidence is piling up without them having to do much of anything. It's not like we still have Alberto Gonzales still running the show. Attorney General Michael Mukasey appears to have half a brain in his head. You'd think that would be enough for this deal.

India - These guys, and their monkeys. What a country. Kind of hard to believe that they managed to build a nuclear arsenal. A northern Indian state said it planned to use unemployed youths to sterilize monkeys to try to combat aggressive primates who have been raiding farms. Indian authorities have struggled in recent years to deal with the tens of thousands of monkeys that live in and around cities. They are drawn to public places such as temples and office buildings, where devout Hindus feed them, believing them to be manifestations of the god Hanuman. In recent months, the deputy mayor of New Delhi was killed when he fell from his balcony during an attack by wild monkeys, and 25 others were injured when a monkey went on a rampage in the city. The idea drew immediate condemnation from conservationists, who said the plan was unscientific and would likely worsen the problem. I'm no conservationist, but seriously, how much worse can it get? You've got a bunch of monkeys stampeding cities and killing people. Oh sure, you'd have to put a gun to my head to get me to try and sterilize an 'aggressive primate,' but if you can find some willing--though completely brain dead--volunteers to give it a shot, what do you have to lose?

Britney Spears - I love this broad. We're only three days into the new year, and she's making headlines already. Britney Spears finally appeared for a deposition in her child-custody battle with Kevin Federline, her ex-husband's lawyer said. Spears was deposed for just 14 minutes. Spears called in sick for a Dec. 12 court-ordered deposition, but was photographed that day driving with a friend. She also didn't show up for a session yesterday. Meanwhile, Spears' attorneys filed a court motion asking to be relieved due to a "breakdown" in communication with their client. Kevin Federline's attorney said Spears' attorneys were present for what became a very abbreviated session. "The deposition proceeding did go forward today. It was scheduled for 9:45 to 11:45. However, it wasn't able to commence until 11:32. You can imagine in 14 minutes there's not a lot of time to develop questions," he said. You just knew that Britney had to do something to draw all that attention away from her 16-year pregnant sister, Jamie Lynn. Besides, what's so special about that little tramp? Britney's already had two children, two failed marriages, a really bad haircut, and one of the sorriest displays of lip syncing of all time as the opening act for last year's MTV Video Music Awards. Just try and top that, you little hussie.