What Caught My Eye Today

Cuba - Fidel Castro announced he was resigning as Cuba's president, ending a half-century of autocratic rule which made him a communist icon and a relentless opponent of U.S. policy around the globe. Castro has been Cuba's unchallenged leader since 1959. Monarchs excepted, he was the world's longest ruling head of state. I did not know that. Though I suppose it makes sense. who else but a dictator could remain in power this long? The resignation opens the path for Raul Castro's succession to the presidency, and the full autonomy he has lacked in leading a caretaker government. The younger Castro has raised expectations among Cubans for modest economic and other reforms, saying last year that the country requires unspecified "structural changes" and acknowledging that government wages averaging about $19 a month do not meet basic needs. Bear in mind that the minimum wage in the U.S. is about $8 an hour--so it's nice to see Raul acknowledging this. In Washington, the government said it had no plans to change U.S. policy or lift its embargo on Cuba. The State Department denigrated the change as a "transfer of authority and power from dictator to dictator light." Oh, come on guys. How about showing a little optimism here. I'm not saying that he'll be Mr. Democracy, but at least give Raul a chance to prove himself.

Pakistan - A top opposition leader called on President Pervez Musharraf to step aside after his ruling party conceded defeat in parliamentary elections. The vote was also a slap to Islamist parties, which lost control of a province where al-Qaida and Taliban fighters have sought refuge. With counting from Monday's election nearly complete, the two main opposition parties won a total of 154 of the 268 contested seats. The Pakistan People's Party of assassinated ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto was leading with 86 seats and was likely to spearhead the new government in partnership with other opposition groups. At best, Musharraf faces the prospect of remaining in power with sharply diminished powers even if the opposition fails to muster the two-thirds support in parliament to impeach him. Constitutionally, the president is the head of state and nominally the commander in chief of the armed forces. He also has the power to dissolve parliament. But the prime minister runs the government on a day-to-day basis. With a strong electoral mandate, the new prime minister would doubtless command greater authority than those who served under Musharraf's military rule. I've never understood the deal with presidents and prime ministers. In the U.S. it's rather simple. You lose an election, you leave office. Rather cut and dry if you ask me. Of course you can argue the question of how we actually determine the winner, what with the popular vote not necessarily dictating the outcome, but that is a separate conversation altogether.

2008 Presidential Race - Democrats in Wisconsin and Hawaii make their choices on Tuesday in a heated presidential battle, with Hillary Clinton hoping to snap Barack Obama's winning streak ahead of big contests in March. Public opinion polls show Obama and Clinton in a tight race in Wisconsin, where Obama aims to extend his string of eight straight victories in Democratic nominating contests. Obama, a Hawaii native, is a heavy favorite in that state. Up for grabs in the two states are a combined 94 delegates. Obama and Clinton already have turned their attention to March 4 contests in two of the biggest states, Ohio and Texas, which have a rich lode of 334 convention delegates at stake. Republicans also hold a primary in Wisconsin, with front-runner John McCain looking to continue his march to the nomination. McCain has a huge and essentially insurmountable lead in delegates over his last remaining major rival, Mike Huckabee. Do you think that GOP officials are keeping Huckabee in the race just to keep the Republican race in the public eye? Honestly, this dude doesn't have a prayer of a chance. Then there are the Democrats on the other end of the spectrum. While these folks are putting up quite the entertaining spectacle, one has to believe that there is some concern among party officials that lack of consensus support for one candidate or the other could pose some serious challenges to party unity the longer this goes on.

Iraq - The Iraqi Interior Ministry has ordered police to round up beggars, vagabonds and mentally disabled people from the streets of Baghdad to prevent them from being used by insurgents as suicide bombers. The decision came after a series of suicide attacks, including two female bombers who struck pet markets in Baghdad earlier this month, killing nearly 100 people. Iraqi and U.S. officials have said the women were mentally disabled and apparently unwitting bombers. The Iraqi claim that mentally disabled women were used in the pet market bombings was met initially with skepticism but the U.S. military later backed the Iraqi account of the bombings. The allegations fit into a wider campaign of confronting insurgents' changing tactics — such as using women or children as suicide bombers — as they seek to bypass stepped-up security measures and bounce back from losses in recent U.S.-led offensives. Okay, first off I'd like to know what information came to light to change the U.S. military's skepticism of these claims. I'm not saying there is anything funny going on here, but it would be nice to see why the U.S. is doing an about face on this issue. Secondly, and I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, what moron is dreaming up these tactics for the insurgents? The biggest asset these guys had going for them was public support. Well, they've managed to piss that away.

Lindsay Lohan - With my recent decision to suspend my rips on Britney Spears (girlfriend has enough people dumping on her), it's been slim pickings on finding some hard hitting news. Thank goodness for Ms. Lohan. Lindsay Lohan is following in the footsteps of the most famous blond bombshell of them all — Marilyn Monroe. Lohan posed nude for photographer Bert Stern in a recreation of one of Monroe's most famous photo shoots, done shortly before she died. Stern photographed Monroe posing nude with some scarves and jewelry as her accessories and sipping champagne. Stern recreated those images with Lohan this month, at the same hotel, with Lohan wearing a blond wig and not much else. I'll say this. Lohan was looking smoking hot is some of those photos. Of course, I'm not exactly sure this sort of exposure (get it?) is ideal for someone who has been teetering on the edge of cracking up over the past year. But what do I know--I'm not a shrink. Seriously, though--smoking hot.