What Caught My Eye Today

In honor of the momentous occasion of my big bro' turning the big 4-0, I give you the following courtesy of the Beatles (click here). Feel free to sing along:

You say it's your birthday
It's my birthday too, yeah
They say it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time
I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming

Politics - Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton joined Republican presidential candidate John McCain and a small band of GOP senators in making a run this week against the billions of dollars in home-state pet projects Congress funds each year. The poobahs of pork in both parties as well as their Senate leaders suddenly found themselves on the spot after stalwartly defending lawmakers' practice of steering federal dollars to their home states. Obama joined with other lawmakers last year to obtain almost $100 million worth of earmarks for Illinois and Clinton worked with others to win $342 million in pet projects for New York. Well at least they both have plenty of experience with earmarks to rely upon. McCain has fought — and lost — many battles over earmarks before, but his new status has longtime rivals in his own party rethinking their positions. McCain is among only six members of the Senate who don't ask for pet projects. I did not know that. Pretty impressive to think that McCain is getting elected based on merit alone as opposed to bribing his way into the Senate. The moves by Clinton and Obama have put Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats in a quandary. Reid issued a statement earlier today reiterating his support for Congress' right to direct money back home for roads and other projects. Apparently, his ability to actually legislate isn't as good as his ability to fund dumb projects for constituents.

Energy - Let me begin this next item by saying simply--THIS SUCKS!!! Gasoline prices were poised to set a new record at the pump, having surged to within half a cent of their record high of $3.227 a gallon. $3.22? That's a bargain compared to the $3.55 a gallon I'm paying. Oil prices, meanwhile, surged above $108 to a new inflation-adjusted record and their fifth new high in the last six sessions on an upbeat report on wholesale inventories. That record will likely be left in the dust soon as gas prices accelerate toward levels that could approach $4 a gallon, though most analysts believe prices will peak below that psychologically significant mark. Why doesn't that make me feel any better? Many analysts believe speculative investing attracted by the weak dollar is the primary reason oil has risen so far so fast in recent months. Crude futures offer a hedge against a falling dollar, and oil futures bought and sold in dollars are more attractive to foreign investors when the dollar is falling. Again, not to sound like a broken record, but I fail to see how this explanation does anything to remedy the highway robbery that I am subjected to every time I have to fill'er up.

Iraq - According to a new book, "The Three Trillion Dollar War", in 2008, its sixth year, the war in Iraq will cost approximately $12 billion a month, triple the "burn" rate of its earliest years. 'Burn rate'? Sounds more like a raging inferno to me. Beyond 2008, working with "best-case" and "realistic-moderate" scenarios, the book projects the Iraq and Afghan wars, including long-term U.S. military occupations of those countries, will cost the U.S. budget between $1.7 trillion and $2.7 trillion — or more — by 2017. Interest on money borrowed to pay those costs could alone add $816 billion to that bottom line. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has done its own projections and comes in lower, forecasting a cumulative cost by 2017 of $1.2 trillion to $1.7 trillion for the two wars, with Iraq generally accounting for three-quarters of the costs. Wait it gets better. These numbers don't include the war's cost to the rest of the world and estimating all economic and social costs might push the U.S. war bill up toward $5 trillion by 2017. For $5 trillion, wouldn't it be cheaper to just buy Iraq and Afghanistan outright? Seriously.

Racial Discrimination - A black civil rights activist is fighting to close a store in South Carolina that sells KKK robes and T-shirts emblazoned with racial slurs. Imagine that. Since 1996, the Redneck Shop has operated in an old movie theater that, according to court records, was transferred in 1997 to activist and the Baptist church he leads. But legal documents also indicate that the man who runs the store is entitled to operate his business in the building until he dies. The hooch must have been free flowing when the attorney drafted this agreement Inside the store, hooded Klan robes hang on the same rack as the racist T-shirts. Pictures of men, women and children in Klan clothing and pamphlets tell a partial history of the organization. To blacks, the store is a reminder of this region's painful past. Some street addresses are still marked with the letter "C" that once designated black homes as "colored." Racial tension was heightened in recent years when two white female teachers were sentenced for having sex with male students — all of them black. If you ask me, having a 'Redneck Shop' is just the tip of the iceberg. These folks have some serious issues that they need to sort out.

Vatican - In olden days, the deadly sins included lust, gluttony and greed. Ah yes, going to hell was so much simpler back in the day. Now, the Catholic Church says pollution, mind-damaging drugs and genetic experiments are on its updated thou-shalt-not list. Also receiving fresh attention by the Vatican was social injustice, along the lines of the age-old maxim: "The rich get richer while the poor get poorer." It's not the first time that the Vatican has sought to put a modern spin on sin. Last year, the Vatican took on the problem of highway accidents, issuing a kind of "Ten Commandments" for drivers against the sins of road rage, alcohol abuse and even rudeness behind the wheel. I don't know if you read yesterday's posting, but do you think Vatican officials noticed the irony of putting drugs on the list when some Israeli dude is suggesting that Moses got the original Ten Commandments while under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs? I find the the timing rather amusing.