What Caught My Eye Today

2008 Presidential Race - Barack Obama captured the Wyoming Democratic caucuses seizing a bit of momentum in the close, hard-fought race with rival Hillary Clinton for the party's presidential nomination. I'm not sure how much momentum a 7 to 5 split of delegates provides, but how am I to judge? Way to go, Barack. Obama generally has outperformed Clinton in caucuses, which reward organization and voter passion more than do primaries. Obama has now won 13 caucuses to Clinton's three. He's what you call a 'people person. Obama had 59%, or 4,459 votes, to Clinton's 40%, or 3,081 votes, with 22 of 23 Wyoming counties reporting bringing Obama's lead over Clinton to 1,578-1,468, according to the latest tally by The Associated Press. It will take 2,025 delegates to win the Democratic nomination.

I'd like to give equal coverage to the GOP, but I got nothing. John McCain is the nominee--not much drama left in the remaining primaries. Apparently he's content to sit on the sidelines and watch the Democratic contenders provide him with ammunition for the general election. Can't say I blame the guy. I'd probably do the same thing if I were McCain.

Serbia - Serbia's government collapsed over an impasse between the nationalist prime minister and the pro-Western president on how Kosovo's independence affects the Balkan country's pursuit of EU membership. I've always been fascinated by this concept of a government collapsing. Oh sure it happens almost annually in Italy, but can you imagine what would happen if the U.S. government collapsed...officially, that is? I suppose one could argue that our government has been rather useless for several years, but that's not technically the same as having collapsed. Serbia's prime minister insists that EU governments recognizing Kosovo must rescind their decisions before Serbia resumes initial membership talks with the 27-nation bloc. New elections could determine whether Serbia continues toward the EU and Western institutions or takes a more isolationist approach reminiscent of Yugoslavia in the 1990s under the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the former would be far more preferable to the latter. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on February 17. The predominantly ethnic Albanian province had been under U.N. control since 1999, when NATO launched an air war to stop a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. But Serbia, which considers the territory its historic and religious heartland, has rejected Kosovo's move as illegal under international law. Just out of curiosity, has anyone at the United Nations actually taken the time to determine if Serbia's allegations are true? I don't want to confuse the issue with needless facts, but if laws have been broken, it would be nice to know why.

South America - Don't look now, but it appears that peace may be rearing its ugly head. South America moved away from talk of war as the presidents of Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador agreed to end a bitter dispute triggered by a Colombian cross-border raid with testy handshakes and an apology. After intense regional diplomacy and emotional debate, Latin American leaders Friday approved a declaration resolving to work for a peaceful end to the crisis, which saw Venezuela and Ecuador send troops to their borders and Colombia accuse its neighbors of backing leftist rebels seeking to topple its government. Colombia pledged not to follow through on its threat to seek genocide charges against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at an international court for allegedly supporting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which finances its insurgency through kidnapping and the cocaine trade. That's awfully big of them. I'm not sure that this won't come up again at some point, but hey, do what needs to be done to keep the peace. The statement approved by the presidents notes that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe apologized for the March 1 raid inside Ecuadorean territory that killed 25 people including a senior rebel commander, and that he pledged not to violate another nation's sovereignty again. I don't want to toot my own horn--okay, maybe I do--but didn't I suggest this very thing just yesterday? Who's the man? But seriously, well done, President Uribe. I can only imagine how difficult a decision this was to make.

Israel - There must be something funky in the air. First, peace breaks out in South American, and now what's this. Israel wants to resume peace talks with the Palestinians? Dude, someone get me a lottery ticket. Israeli-Palestinian peace talks will proceed within days despite a shooting attack that killed eight students at a Jewish seminary. Israeli officials spoke on condition of anonymity since there has been no official announcement regarding the talks. Isn't that always the way information like this is released...anonymously? I don't get it. This is a good thing. You would think someone would like to get credit for this. The comments came hours after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for Israel not to abandon peace efforts after a recent escalation of violence. The attack in Jerusalem on Thursday and the continuing violence in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel had threatened to stall the U.S.-backed talks that aim for a peace deal by the end of the year.

Sleep Deprivation - It's time to get back to daylight-saving time. For most people, that meant switching clocks ahead by one hour Saturday night. Standard time returns November 2. The concept was first put forward by Benjamin Franklin, as a satire, during a visit to Paris. He wrote that fewer candles would be used if people got up earlier and went to bed earlier. Ha-ha, very funny, Ben. Your harmless 'satire' is screwing me out of an hour's sleep. Now officials and researchers are questioning the value of daylight saving time. A study by the University of California-Santa Barbara, found that daylight saving increases energy use. An earlier study of energy in Australia came to similar conclusions. So let me see if I have this straight. Daylight savings started off as a joke and now there is evidence that it doesn't actually work. Dude, this sucks.