What Caught My Eye Today

Sorry for the minor delay in postings. Perhaps you heard that California got hit with some nasty weather these past couple of days and the power outages that accompanied the storms. Yeah, I was one of the lucky ones who got an unexpected break from the comforts of electricity. On the bright side, I was able to start on a book that I've been looked forward to World Without End, by Ken Follet. It's the sequel to Pillars of the Earth, which I re-read over the Christmas holiday on my brief sojourn south of the border. Though I'm only a few chapters into it, I have to say that, the plot lines are rather promising. Alright, then. On with the news of the day...

2008 Presidential Primary - In case you had not heard, Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses for their respective parties. Next up is the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday. Here's an update on both the Republican and Democrat contenders. First up, the Republicans (don't read anything into this--it's the first article I read... Republican Mitt Romney, trying to prevent a potentially crippling New Hampshire primary loss, cast himself as a change agent as he tried to repel rival John McCain and answer Iowa caucus voters who showed they have tired of the status quo in Washington. Noting that freshman Sen. Barack Obama beat Hillary Rodham Clinton, a second-term senator and former first lady, Romney said Iowans "wanted to see someone who said they would do something new and change Washington." While Romney has cast himself as a political outsider throughout his campaign, the theme has been overshadowed by his aggressive courting of social and fiscal conservatives. That, in turn, has triggered questions about his authenticity amid a flip-flop on abortion rights and a change in emphasis on his views about gay rights, tax policy and other issues important to conservative voters pivotal in GOP primaries.

So let me see if I have this straight. Romney is portraying himself as the Barack Obama of the Republican Party? That's one I didn't see coming. Let's see how things are going for the Democratic contenders...

Barack Obama wants to be the Big Tent Democrat. Fresh from his victory in Iowa, Obama courted New Hampshire's famously unaligned voters, embracing all political persuasions and borrowing language from Republican John McCain, a favorite of New Hampshire's independent voters eight years ago. "If you know who you are, if you know what you believe in, if you know your principles, if you know what you are fighting for, then you can reach out to those you don't agree with." Then, lifting McCain's catch phrase, he added: "We need someone who exercises straight talk instead of spin." Say what? Okay, now I'm totally confused. First, we have Mitt Romney pretending to be Barack Obama, then we have Barack doing all he can to impersonate John McCain. It's a world gone mad.

Incidentally, two more Presidential hopefuls dropped out after the Iowa caucuses, both from the Democratic party, Senator Joe Biden from Delaware and Senator Chris Dodd from Connecticut. That leaves 6 candidates for the Democratic nomination and 7 for the Republican nomination (click here for more information).

Al Qaeda - An American al Qaeda militant urged Islamist militants to welcome President George W. Bush with bombs when he visits the Middle East this week and tore up his U.S. passport on camera. Adam Gadahn, also known as Azzam the American (that has a certain Je-ne-sais-quoi , don't you think?), said the jihad against the United States would continue until it released Muslims from its jails. Gadahn devoted most of the tape, entitled "An Invitation to Reflection and Repentance," to a detailed explanation of the shortcomings of U.S. foreign policy and Western Christian civilization and their defeat at the hands of Islam and Muslims. "The first question Americans might ask is: has American really been defeated? The answer is yes and on all fronts," said Gadahn. "American and coalition officials have stated repeatedly that they are unable and unwilling to face the mujahideen in Afghanistan and Iraq militarily but are still trying to win the battle for hearts and minds, which they have also lost in spectacular fashion despite the equally spectacular amounts they have spent in pay-offs and propaganda." Gadahn also listed Pakistan, Chechnya, North Africa and Somalia as areas where the United States was losing its battle against Islamist groups. Well, my goodness. If Azzam the American (or as I prefer to call him, Gadahn the Delusional) say that America is losing, I say we pack up our toys and run home with our tail between our legs. What I don't get is how Al Qaeda thinks this dude is going to bolster its reputation. Just by reading his comments you can tell that he's not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.

Supreme Court - The Supreme Court, in a case being watched around the world, will hear arguments about whether to ban the lethal three-drug cocktail used in most U.S. executions because it inflicts excruciating pain. The hour-long session marks the first time in more than a century the court has examined a specific method of capital punishment. It comes at a time when the death penalty itself appears to be in retreat in one of the few democracies that still practices it. Arguments will focus on whether the commonly used lethal injection method violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, but the case has also prompted a wider debate about capital punishment. Executions across the United States have come to a temporary halt since the court agreed in late September to hear the case. Last year, 42 people were put to death -- a 13-year low -- while 110 defendants were sentenced to die, the lowest number since 1976 when the Supreme Court restored capital punishment. I did a little checking on the death penalty and what I found might surprise you a bit. The United States, ranked 6th in the world for the most executions carried out in 2006 at 53, behind the likes of China (official 1,010, but probably closer to 7,500), Iran (177), Pakistan (82), Iraq (65) and Sudan (65). Nice company to be associated with, isn't it? Whether or not the death penalty acts as a deterrent or not, is debatable. The fact that the United States is one of the few so-called civilized countries to allow the death penalty is not. Seriously, guys, this isn't working anymore. Let's stop the madness.

Pakistan - Things must really be getting out of hand in Pakistan... Thousands of Pakistanis have fled into Afghanistan with the security situation deteriorating in Pakistan's tribal regions over the past week. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says historic clashes between Shias and Sunnis in the villages in Kurram, North West Frontier Province, have escalated in the past couple of weeks. Over the past three decades millions of Afghans fled the violence in their country during the Soviet occupation, the civil war and then in the fighting that saw the Taleban take control of Afghanistan. With the rise of the Pakistani Taleban and militant Islamic groups along the Pakistan side of the border, the UN says it now appears that parts of Afghanistan are safer for families. The scary part is that this exodus of Pakistanis into Afghanistan is due to reasons beyond the chaos surrounding the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Pakistan is a powder keg just waiting to explode--and this particular powder keg happens to have nuclear bombs.

College Football - After all that doom and gloom, what better way to wrap up the day's events than reviewing my stellar picks for the college bowl season. With two games left to be played, the annual tussle between the BCS #1 (Ohio State) and #2 (LSU) and that awesome annual showdown known as the GMAC Bowl between 2 teams that only die hard college football fans care about, I am a whopping 16 for 30, which is good enough to put me into the 26th percentile in Yahoo Sports College Bowl Pick'em. And this, my friends, is why I don't play in fantasy leagues. It's not that I don't enjoy the challenge, but that I am so bad at picking winners. You'd think by sheer dumb luck that I could do better than .500.