What Caught My Eye Today

Fred's note: If you get the sense that some of these stories sound familiar, you would be correct...not to mention well-informed on current events. If not, then this will all be new to you, so enjoy.

Interrogation Techniques - Bush administration officials from Vice President Dick Cheney on down signed off on using harsh interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists after asking the Justice Department to endorse their legality. And this surprises who? The officials also took care to insulate President Bush from a series of meetings where CIA interrogation methods, including waterboarding, which simulates drowning, were discussed and ultimately approved. Ah yes, the old 'plausible deniability' strategy. At times, CIA officers would demonstrate some of the tactics, or at least detail how they worked, to make sure the small group of "principals" fully understood what the al-Qaida detainees would undergo. The principals eventually authorized physical abuse such as slaps and pushes, sleep deprivation, or waterboarding. The small group then asked the Justice Department to examine whether using the interrogation methods would break domestic or international laws. Call me crazy, but if they had to ask in the first place, don't you think that they already knew the answer to the question. My sense is that they were asking the Justice Department to find (or maybe fabricate) a loop hole. For those of you to who this applies, doesn't all this just make you so proud to be American?

Iraq - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he sees no chance that the number of U.S. troops in Iraq will drop to 100,000 by the end of the year, guaranteeing a heavy American military presence as the war grinds into its sixth year to the end of the Bush presidency. Forgive me if I sound like a broken record but, this comes as a surprise to who? President Bush said General David Petraeus, his top commander in Iraq, can take "all the time he needs" to consider further withdrawals after the latest round of cutbacks is completed in July. Well that's awfully big of him. Bush also called on Congress to send him a spending bill for Iraq that does not include any timetables for troop withdrawals or exceed the $108 billion he has requested. Democrats want to add money to stimulate the economy with road-building funds, additional unemployment benefits, a summer jobs program and additional food stamp benefits. Bush said he would veto the bill under those conditions. Hillary Clinton said the American people have run out of time and patience on Iraq which Barack Obama said Bush had to reduce rotations because the Army told him they couldn't sustain the current rotation schedule. So to summarize: (1) Bush: "Stay the course" and "Gimme more money with no strings attached." (2) Petraeus: "Dude, I'm just doing what the guy in the White House ordered me to do." (3) Democrats: "Crap, we can't override Bush's veto...again" (4) Clinton / Obama: "When will he/she drop out so I can claim the nomination?"

Air Travel - American Airlines has canceled about 570 flights scheduled for Friday, raising to more than 3,000 the number this week it has grounded to reinspect the wiring on its MD-80 fleet for a second time. The disruption has affected more than 300,000 passengers, including Friday's schedule cuts, and wreaked havoc with its operations at big airports like Chicago and Dallas. The inspections relate to a 2006 FAA order to ensure that wiring in the MD-80's right wheel well is properly installed and secured to guard against electrical shorts and fire. The FAA, under pressure from Congress and government watchdogs to step up oversight, demanded in March that American reinspect MD-80s to ensure wire bundles were properly secured. Here's what I don't get. I'm not saying that the planes shouldn't be checked to ensure that they are safe, but do the planes all have to be grounded at the exact same time? Clearly there are not enough bodies to have accomplished this in one fell swoop, otherwise we wouldn't be talking about a third day of cancellations. But, yeah, this way is much better. That way only the public is being inconvenienced.

Olympics - I was tempted to use the old 'everyone likes to watch a train wreck' analogy, but this situation has gone so far beyond that at this point. Crisis. Disarray. Sadness. Four months before the opening of what was supposed to be the grandest Olympics in history, the head of the International Olympic Committee is using words that convey anything but a sense of joyous enthusiasm. The protest-marred Olympic torch relay and international criticism of China's policies on Tibet, Darfur and human rights have turned the Beijing Games into one of the most politically charged in recent history and presented the IOC with one of its toughest tests since the boycott era of the 1970s and '80s. When Beijing was seeking the games, Chinese officials said the Olympics would help advance social change, including human rights. The IOC called that a "moral engagement" and stressed there was no "contractual promise whatsoever" on human rights in the official host city contract. Far be it from me to split hairs (yeah, right), but what exactly does "moral engagement" mean? And if human rights are not included in what we consider to be moral, then I think we have bigger problems to sort out.

American Idol - My apologies for not getting my bottom three picks published before the results were announced. Trust me when I say, that this week's loser was not in my bottom three. American Idol delivered its first shocker when Michael Johns, who had ascended to front-running heartthrob status recently, was eliminated. Most observers, picked fellow bottom three members Syesha Mercado and Carly Smithson to exit. But it was Johns, who sang Aerosmith’s Dream On Tuesday, whose Idol dreams ended. Proof positive that American Idol is in fact a popularity contest, not that talent competition it claims to be.