What Caught My Eye Today

2008 Presidential Race - Barack Obama defeated Hillary Clinton in the Vermont primary--his 12th straight over the former first lady. McCain added first Vermont, then Ohio to his column in the Republican race, and moved to within about 130 of the delegate total needed to clinch the nomination. In all there were 370 Democratic delegates at stake in Rhode Island, Vermont, Ohio and in Texas. After 11 straight victories, Obama had the momentum and the lead in the delegate chase in The Associated Press count, 1,389-1,276. His margin was larger — 1,187-1,035 — among pledged delegates chosen in primaries and caucuses. The former first lady had an advantage among superdelegates, but Obama picked up three during the day, narrowing her advantage to 241-202. It takes 2,025 delegates to win the Democratic nomination, and slightly more than 600 remained to be picked in the 10 states that vote after Tuesday. If this is like completely beyond your ability to comprehend, don't worry, you've got lots of company. Whatever happened to the good old days, when whoever got the most votes won? McCain's Vermont victory left him with 1,062 delegates out of the 1,191 needed for the nomination at the party convention next summer in St. Paul, Minnesota. There were 256 Republican delegates at stake in the four states on the night's ballot. See, these guys keep things simple. And that's why I keep saying that one way or the other the Democratic party will figure out a way to lose this election.

Colombia - In all seriousness, when I first reported this story yesterday, I thought it was just another one of those deals I'd share figuring that it would never make the headlines in the evening news. Turns out I figured wrong. Venezuela and Ecuador reinforced their borders with Colombia today as the three nations traded increasingly bitter accusations over Colombia's cross-border strike on a leftist guerrilla base in Ecuador. Rejecting a Colombian apology as insufficient, Ecuador sought international condemnation of the attack during an emergency meeting of the Organization of American States, convened in Washington to help defuse one of South America's most volatile crises in years. Venezuela's justice minister declared that war "has already begun." Way to give diplomacy a chance there, pal. Despite troop movements and general saber rattling, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said he would not allow his nation to be drawn into open war. His more than 250,000 U.S.-equipped, trained and advised soldiers, however, would outnumber the 172,000 active troops Venezuela and Ecuador have between them. Guess whose side, the U.S. is taking? If you think we're siding with the consensus opinion that Colombia acted inappropriately, then obviously you know nothing about American foreign policy.

Somalia - Hundreds of residents of a remote town in southern Somalia staged an anti-American demonstration after the United States launched an air strike against "a known al Qaeda terrorist" there. Imagine that. We drop some bombs--without warning, by the way--in foreign territory and the natives get all bent out of shape. The town of Dobley was hit by two missiles in the fourth U.S. strike in 14 months against Somalia, where Washington says local Islamists are sheltering wanted al Qaeda leaders. The exact toll from the attack was unclear. One report said that six people were killed, but a local resident said that only four were wounded. No biggie. We have plenty more missiles where those came from. But here's my problem. We can blow away a satellite speeding through the atmosphere at like 22,000 miles per hour with a single shot, but we cannot nail a couple of dudes on foot with two missiles? What up with that?

Britain - Recently declassified documents reveal that desperate for a glimpse into Adolf Hitler's unpredictable mind, British spies hired an astrologer during World War II to write horoscopes for him and other Nazi leaders. They soon regretted it. You don't say? The astrologer was sent by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who did not believe in astrology, to the U.S. to persuade Americans that the Nazis would lose within months if they entered the war. His task in the U.S. was to counter a convention of pro-German astrologers that had predicted Hitler would win the war. Good lord, the Germans had astrologers too? Ultimately it was Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, that brought the U.S. into the war — not assurances that President Franklin Roosevelt had a stunning horoscope. I don't know about that. One should never underestimate the power of Mercury rising over Uranus...sorry, I couldn't resist.When his services were no longer needed, intelligence agents puzzled over how to get rid of the man who called himself Britain's state seer. I want to know what led the military establishment to think that his services were needed in the first place.

Economy - Nothing new to report. All the news still sucks. Just so you know.

Football - Brett Favre finally met the one person who could stop him — and that was himself. He won a Super Bowl and three MVPs. He set every record worth having for a quarterback in the NFL — most career touchdown passes, most career yards passing, most career victories by a starting quarterback. In an age when few quarterbacks could last a whole season, Favre went almost 16 years without missing a single game, an indestructible 253 straight regular-season starts. Favre told the team he was simply worn out, physically and mentally, after starting every game since taking over as the Packers' starting quarterback in 1992. Favre retires with 5,377 career completions in 8,758 attempts, with 61,655 yards and 442 touchdowns. I'd say the dude had himself quite a career, wouldn't you? His record speaks for itself. Thanks for the memories, Brett. Hopefully, we'll see you on the tube from time to time. And by that I mean football games as opposed to "Dancing With The Stars." I'm not saying he wouldn't be good and all.