What Caught My Eye Today

U.S. Military - Behind the Pentagon's closed doors, U.S. military leaders told President Bush they are worried about the Iraq war's mounting strain on troops and their families. I don't want to go off on a rant, but the President needed the Joint Chiefs of Staff to tell him what he can read in any newspaper? Good gravy! The chiefs' concern is that U.S. forces are being worn thin, compromising the Pentagon's ability to handle crises elsewhere in the world. The session was arranged by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to provide Bush an additional set of military views as he prepares to decide how to proceed in Iraq once his troop buildup, which began in 2007, runs its course by July. You know this is a pretty big step in the evolution of the President. If Rumsfeld was still Defense Secretary there's no way this meeting ever takes place. The Joint Chiefs are particularly concerned about Afghanistan and an increasingly active Taliban insurgency. The United States has about 31,000 troops in Afghanistan and 156,000 in Iraq. U.S. forces in Iraq peaked at 20 brigades last year and are to be cut to 15 brigades, with a total of about 140,000 combat and support troops, by the end of July. A key question facing Bush is whether security conditions will have improved sufficiently by then to justify more reductions. Based on the increase in violence in both Iraq and Afghanistan, I'm not so sure that pausing the troop draw down is a question as it is a foregone conclusion.

China - President Bush sharply confronted China's President Hu Jintao about Beijing's harsh crackdown in Tibet, joining an international chorus of alarm just months before the U.S. and the rest of the world parade to China for the Olympics. If you listen carefully, you can almost hear President Hu shaking in his boots. After days of silence by Bush as other world leaders raised their voices, it marked a rare, direct protest from one president to another. At the same time, Bush was forced to address an embarrassing blunder by the United States — the shipment of nuclear missile fuses to Taiwan and the failure to discover the error for more than 18 months. No need to ask, I got a wiretap on this conversation. Here are the highlights:

Bush: Knock, knock.
Hu: Who's there?
Bush: Hu.
Hu: Hu who?
Bush: Who-who? Son, you talk like a baby. Get it? Who-who.
Hu: Yes, very amusing. (You infantile baboon)
Bush: Yeah, so anyway, Hu, this Tibet thing is making for some bad press.
Hu: It is an internal matter, Mr. President. And rest assured we'll handle it.
Bush: Well see, that's the thing. First Taiwan and now Tibet. People are getting the impression that the Chinese are becoming more aggressive. That's bad for business, Hu. We need to all get along. Can't you guys back off a bit?
Hu: I'm sure you can appreciate that China is only protecting its interests. Any country including yours, Mr. President, would do the same thing. In fact you have.
Bush: Say what?
Hu: Need I remind you of those nuclear fuses that your country sent to Taiwan? What do you have to say for yourself?
Bush: Yeah, well, uh. Shoot, the other line is ringing. See you in Beijing.

Space Shuttle - Shuttle Endeavour and its crew of seven streaked toward Earth on Wednesday, aiming for a rare nighttime touchdown to wrap up "a two-week adventure" at the international space station. Less than one-fifth of all shuttle flights have ended in darkness. The last time a shuttle landed at nighttime was in 2006. In the end, the multinational crew accomplished everything they set out to do during their voyage, which spanned 16 days and 6.5 million miles. The astronauts installed the first piece of Japan's Kibo lab, put together a giant Canadian robot named Dextre, tested a shuttle repair technique and more. The space station is now 70% complete, thanks to the latest additions, with a mass of nearly 600,000 pounds. Ten more shuttle flights to the space station — spread over the next two years — will round out the numbers. NASA hopes to have its share of the orbiting outpost finished in 2010 and its three shuttles retired, so it can focus on human expeditions to the moon. I for one, will be thrilled to see this project completed. Lord knows that NASA can use some positive press. As for this man on the moon deal. Correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't we 'been there and done that?' I'm a pretty big fan of space exploration, and even I cannot figure this one out.

Liquor - A rattlesnake rancher who calls himself Bayou Bob found a new way to make money: Stick a rattler inside a bottle of vodka and market the concoction as an "ancient Asian elixir." But Bayou Bob's bright idea appears to have landed him on the wrong side of the law, because he has no liquor license. Yes, that's what's wrong with this story--dude, doesn't have a liquor license. Bayou Bob said his intent is not to sell an alcoholic beverage but a healing tonic. He said he has customers of Asian descent who believe the concoction has medicinal properties. Is that the story you're sticking with? Good luck with that, Bayou Bob. Read on, this gets better. Bayou Bob said he uses the cheapest vodka he can find as a preservative for the snakes. The end result is a super sweet mixed drink that Boh compared to cough syrup. "I've honestly never seen a person drink it," he said. An Asian studies lecturer at the University of Texas said there is some merit to his claim that snake vodka could be seen as a tonic. There's a street nicknamed "Snake Alley" in Taipei, Taiwan, where street vendors put the gall bladder of a freshly killed snake into a glass of strong liquor. The drink, sold to the highest bidder, is supposed to improve eyesight and sexual performance. I'm probably nit-picking here, but if this is supposed to be a tonic that you drink, and dude has never seen anyone drink the stuff that he produces, isn't there a flaw in someone's logic. Logic? That's a good one. Drinking pickled snake to ratchet up your sex life a couple of notches. Me? Yeah, I'm sticking with Viagara.

American Idol - Prediction time. Last night's performance made up for last week's disappointment, making my bottom 3 a lot harder to pick. I'll start with the best performances of the evening. Michael Johns and David Cook rocked the house. Johns hit another winner with Queen's 'We are the Champions' while Cook went to town and back on his interpretation of Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean'. As for the bottom three, David Archuleta should be in the bottom three, but he won't be--don't ask me why. Sayesha shouldn't be in the bottom three, but probably will be. As for my final two picks, I'll go with Ramiele and Chikezie. Kristy Lee Cook has burned me twice and with her performance of 'God Bless the USA', she'll get another undeserved pass into the next round. And the loser will be...Ramiele...maybe.