What Caught My Eye Today

2008 Presidential Race - Hillary Clinton declared that her primary victories in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island had reordered the Democratic presidential race in her favor. Gee there's a surprise. I figured she'd be throwing in the towel after winning only 3 of the 4 primaries held yesterday. A resilient Barack Obama countered with fresh pledges of support from superdelegates and said his lead remained intact. Last I checked, the dude was right. After all the noise running up to the contests last night, Hillary netted out like 4 delegates. And even those gains are in doubt. The caucuses results from Texas are still coming in and it is possible that Obama may end up with more net delegates that Clinton.

Meanwhile, the newly anointed Republican nomination, got to enjoy some spoils of victory. President George W. Bush formally endorsed Republican John McCain for president at the White House, a day after McCain sealed the Republican presidential nomination with victories in four states. The endorsement will likely help McCain rally disenchanted conservatives behind his candidacy, and with Bush helping him raise much-needed campaign cash, it will give him a significant boost headed into the campaign for the November election. But the endorsement also gave Democrats ammunition to use against McCain, since Bush is unpopular among many Americans because of the Iraq war and the ailing U.S. economy. Experts doubt the two men will appear together often. You know what they say--you have to take the good with the bad. The fund raising will certainly be welcome by McCain's campaign, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Bush doesn't have the coattails that he used to have. Tread lightly, Senator. Having the President's endorsement isn't always what its cracked up to be. Just ask Hillary.

Colombia - Venezuela deployed tanks and air and sea forces toward the Colombian border in its first major military mobilization in a crisis that has raised fears for regional stability. The action escalated tensions over Colombia's weekend raid to kill rebels inside another South American neighbor, Ecuador, which Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an ally of leftist Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, said could spark war. Well, I'm guessing the build up probably won't help defuse the situation. Colombia said it would not deploy extra forces and governments worldwide urged the nations to ease tensions as Venezuela and the United States blamed each other for the intensifying crisis. Nothing like some good old-fashioned statesmanship. Sure we could act like the superpower that we are and maintain a moniker of dignity, but what fun would that be. It's so much more productivity to get into a pissing match with a raving lunatic. Chavez says Bush is using conservative Colombian President Alvaro Uribe as a proxy in a plot to invade Venezuela, a major oil exporter to the United States. Oh yeah, that's the reason. Maybe someone should point out to Hugo, that it would take like 5 minutes for the U.S. to replace the oil it gets from Venezuela with another supplier.

Gaza - A human rights coalition charged that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip has reached its worst point since Israel captured the territory in 1967. In a scathing report, eight British-based rights organizations said that more than 1.1 million people, about 80%of Gaza's residents, are now dependent on food aid, as opposed to 63%in 2006. It said that overall unemployment is close to 40%. It also said that hospitals are suffering from power cuts of up to 12 hours a day, and the water and sewage systems were close to collapse. The report follows strident international condemnation of Israel after it struck hard against Palestinian militants in Gaza, killing more than 120 in the past week, including many civilians, after Palestinians militants escalated their daily rocket fire at Israel. Amnesty International said Israel must protect its citizens, "but as the occupying power in Gaza it also has a legal duty to ensure that Gazans have access to food, clean water, electricity and medical care." Israel removed all 21 settlements and withdrew its forces from Gaza in 2005. Israel maintains that ended its occupation, but rights groups say that since Israel still controls Gaza's land, sea and air access, it is still the occupier. Strange isn't it how history has a way of repeating itself. You would think that the U.S. would have paid attention to the mess that Israel created for itself in Gaza before doing the same thing in Iraq--except on a much grander scale and under a much more questionable premise. You'd think that, but sadly you would be mistaken. And in another strange coincidence, the U.S. is again backed the minority in this conflict--not that backing Israel is anything new. But isn't it interesting that in this South American crisis, we're backing Colombia, while the rest of the world codemns its incursion into Ecuador? I guess you could say that the U.S. has not interest in winning any popularity contests.

China - China's premier extolled the prosperity the Communist government has brought to many Chinese, yet he sounded an alarm that inflation could derail the country's rapid emergence. For the first time in more than a decade, inflation is emerging as a danger at home, potentially eroding incomes of a fledgling middle class and inflaming tensions between the newly rich and the majority low-income workers and farmers. Overseas, the U.S. economic woes and trade friction with Europe could wreck key markets for job-creating export industries. Welcome to the party, China. I bet no one told you about the downside of becoming an economic powerhouse. I'm telling you, read the fine print before you commit to anything. The premier called for extending price controls on food and basic goods and for curbing investment to tamp down the demand driving prices higher and also promised subsidies to encourage farmers to grow more food and protect the poor and pensioners. That's the communist equivalent of an economic stimulus package. Or put another way, China's version of tax rebate checks.

Vatican - Pope Benedict XVI gave his approval to the creation of a permanent Catholic-Muslim interfaith forum that will hold it inaugural meeting this November in Rome. The initiative was sparked by the pope's own controversial speech at a German university in 2006, where he appeared to link Islam with violence. Considering the Catholic Church's reaction to anything can usual be measured in centuries (or longer), this is a remarkable quick response to a rather dumb comment that the pontiff made about Islam. Let's hope this is a sign of things to come.