What Caught My Eye Today

2008 Presidential Race - Yeah, not much going on today. The biggest day in U.S. presidential nominating contests is under way on with Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton struggling for an edge while Republican John McCain hoped to knock Mitt Romney out of the race. Twenty-four states hold nominating contests for one or both parties on "Super Tuesday," yielding a huge haul of delegates to this summer's nominating conventions to choose the candidates for the November presidential election. More than half the total Democratic delegates and about 40 percent of the Republican delegates are up for grabs. Mike Huckabee won the first contest declared today, picking up all 18 national delegates awarded at West Virginia's state GOP convention. Huckabee bested Mitt Romney, who entered the Mountain State event with the largest bloc of pledged convention-goers. As far as I can tell, it looks like Hillary and Barack are going to split today's delegates such that the race for the Democratic nomination will drag on for at least a few more weeks. Though you can never tell how the press is going to spin today's results. I read a survey yesterday suggesting that in the past 2 months, 83% of the news stories on Obama were considered positive while Clinton had only 51%. Over on the Republican side of things, Romney got bit early with his loss in West Virginia. If this is an indicator of things to come, I believe that the GOP will have it's nominee in the next couple of days (Congratulations, Senator McCain). Whether or not they like their nominee is a different issue. Conservative talk show hosts certainly don't have many good things to say about him.

Economy - OH MY GOD. THE SKY IS FALLING! Not really. It just seems like it is. Wall Street plunged today driving the Dow Jones industrials down 370 points after investors saw an unexpected contraction in the service sector as evidence the economy is sinking into recession. It was the Dow's biggest percentage drop in almost a year. The volatility that pummeled stocks in January returned with the news that the service sector shrank last month for the first time since March 2003. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 44.18, or 3.20 percent, closing at 1,336.64, while the Nasdaq composite index tumbled 73.28, or 3.08 percent, to 2,309.57. The Dow is down more than 13% since its October 9 record high of 14,164.53. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 is down 8.9% for the year, the worst year-to-date performance for the index ever. The S&P 500 has fallen 14.6% from its October high. Believe it or not, there was some marginally good news. Crude oil declined $1.61 to $88.41 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, as traders bet that a slower economy would dampen energy demand and the dollar rose against other major currencies. Remember six months ago, when terrorism dominated the headlines? I'm not sure that we're trading up here.

Africa - Lot's of stuff going on in this part of the world. Unfortunately, it's mostly bad.

Chad - Hundreds of civilians have been killed in a coup attempt by rebels in Chad. Chadian soldiers blocked two bridges that thousands had been using to flee to Cameroon. A local reporter at the scene watched frightened civilians turned back by troops on Tuesday afternoon. The U.N. refugee agency says some 20,000 residents of the capital have fled to Cameroon since Monday. Chad's government has accused neighboring Sudan of backing the rebels to prevent the deployment of a European peacekeeping force in a region along their border where more than 400,000 refugees are living. A Chadian official declared the fighting a "direct war" with the Sudanese president. You would think with all the problems that Sudan is dealing with that it wouldn't have the time or energy to go messing with a neighboring country. You might, but you would be wrong.

Kenya - The Peace Corps said it has suspended operations in Kenya after weeks of postelection violence, another blow to confidence as business leaders voiced concerns over the turmoil's effect on the economy. Unrest has devastated the nation's once-impressive economy, decimating its vital tourism industry and prompting foreign companies to consider pulling out, business leaders said. Major foreign companies and aid groups have long used Kenya as a base in Africa, helping to make the country a regional economic powerhouse. More than 1,000 people have been killed and 300,000 forced from their homes in violence that has repeatedly degenerated into ethnic clashes. Much of the anger has been aimed at President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, long resented for dominating politics and the economy. So if Kenya has been acting as a base for aid groups and the aid groups are pulling out, that has to mean rather bad news for those countries relying on that aid. This situation just keeps getting worse and worse by the minute.

I did manage to dig up one pleasant bit of news coming out of this troubled continent...

Soccer - Defending champions Egypt and Cameroon came through their respective quarter-finals to join holders Ghana and Ivory Coast as the last four teams standing at the African Nations Cup. Egypt defeated Angola 2-1 to set up a rematch of the 2006 final with Ivory Coast. Cameroon has an equally tough assignment facing host nation, Ghana after a 3-2 extra time win over Tunisia. Both semi-finals are scheduled for Thursday with the third place play off set for Saturday. Let's hope that this competition offers a bit of a diversion for those populations that are getting pounded by all the violence around them.

Vatican - The Vatican issued a new version of a Roman Catholic prayer that had long offended Jews, but some said the changes don't go far enough. Jewish groups said they interpreted the new version of the prayer for Jews as requiring members of their faith — and all of humanity — to convert to Christianity in order to find salvation. The prayer for Jews is recited during Good Friday services of Easter Week, the most solemn week in the Christian calendar. The prayer is part of the old Latin rite, also known as the Tridentine rite, which was celebrated before the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s paved the way for the New Mass used widely today in local languages. Last summer, Pope Benedict XVI allowed wider use of the old Latin rite. That prompted criticism from Jewish groups who had long been offended by the Good Friday prayer. The revised prayer removes key words that Jews had found particularly offensive in the earlier version, including a reference to their "blindness" and the need to "remove the veil from their hearts." Vatican officials had said previously that the prayer would continue to urge Jews to convert, since Catholics always pray for the conversion of all Christians and non-Christians alike. Nothing like a good old fashioned prayer to stir up the ire of non-Christian faiths. Like we don't have enough religious strife to deal with? Do you think it ever occurred to the Pope that there was a reason this prayer was shelved in the first place?

Mardi Gras - Happy Fat Tuesday everyone. Live it up, for tomorrow begins that 40 day laugh-fest we Catholics lovingly refer to as Lent. And for all you procrastinators out there, let this be a warning to you. Only 40 shopping days left until Easter.