What Caught My Eye Today

2008 Presidential Campaign - We'll start with Obama today. Former senators John Edwards and Sam Nunn are on a list of potential running mates for Barack Obama. Edwards could help Obama appeal to white, working-class voters who largely favored Clinton in the primary and will be a critical voting bloc in the general election. The drawback is that Edwards was the vice presidential nominee on a losing ticket four years ago. Anyone remember John Kerry?. Nunn would bring national security credentials to the ticket, having served as the longtime Armed Services Committee chairman. The former Georgia senator is a member of Obama's foreign policy advisory group. But Nunn has not been in office for more than a decade so he is not well-known nationally. He is a conservative Democrat who supported school prayer and opposed gays in the military, while Obama tends to have a more liberal viewpoint. Nunn will turn 70 in September. 70? Dude is a spring chicken compared to John McCain. Rumor has it that Obama's selection committee has a list of about 20 more VP candidates. Maybe it would be easier to say who isn't being considered.

So, John John. What's up, homeboy? John McCain started June with more than $31 million in the bank after having the best fundraising month of his presidential campaign. McCain filed the report the same day Barack Obama, announced he would sidestep public financing for the general election and instead rely on his vast network of donors to pump millions more into his presidential bid. McCain replied by assuring that he would accept the public funds — some $85 million that will become available after he accepts the Republican presidential nomination at the party's national convention in early September. By accepting the money, McCain cannot raise private funds after the convention. Depending on your perspective, this is either a noble gesture or McCain isn't terribly optimistic that he can raise comparable funds on his own. Seeing as the GOP isn't having the greatest year, I'm going with the latter on this one.

Sweden - I swear if I didn't know better, that this was a story about some contrived law in the United States railroaded through Congress in the name of national security. Sweden's Parliament narrowly approved a contentious law that gives authorities sweeping powers to eavesdrop on all e-mail and telephone traffic that crosses the Nordic nation's borders by a vote of 143 to 138. Supporters argued the law will provide a level of security against potential terrorists plotting attacks. But critics have slammed it as an invasion of privacy and an infringement on civil liberties. Sound vaguely familiar? It should... After the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush granted intelligence officers the power to monitor without court approval, international calls and e-mails between people in the United States and suspected terrorists overseas. The Protect America Act, passed last July, extended that authority, but it expired in February and a replacement law is being debated. And so it goes. I suppose on the bright side (and work with me on this one...it's a bit of a stretch), it's comforting to know that America is not the only country stepping all over its citizen's civil rights.

Cuba - The European Union agreed to lift its diplomatic sanctions against Cuba, but imposed tough conditions on the communist island to maintain sanction-free relations. The U.S., which has maintained a decades-long trade embargo against Cuba, criticized the move, saying there were no significant signs the communist island was easing a dictatorship. Gee there's a big surprise. The diplomatic sanctions, which banned high-level visits to EU nations by Cuban officials, have not been in force since 2005. They were imposed in 2003 following the arrests of dozens of dissidents but suspended two years later. As part of its action, the EU approved a set of conditions on Cuba in return for sanction-free relations. They include the release of all political prisoners; access for Cubans to the Internet; and a double-track approach for all EU delegations arriving in Cuba, allowing them to meet both opposition figures and members of the Cuban government. Sure it's a largely symbolic gestures, seeing as the sanctions have been largely ignored for the past 3 years, but there is something to be said for positive reinforcement. Perhaps, the U.S. will become more receptive to this sort of diplomacy in the future...like say 7 months in the future (give or take a couple of days).

Global Population - The world's population will reach 7 billion in 2012, even as the global community struggles to satisfy its appetite for natural resources, according to a new government projection. Well that's a relief. I was worried that there weren't going to be enough people under the poverty line what with all these natural disasters and armed conflicts racking up corpses. The world's population surpassed 6 billion in 1999, meaning it will take only 13 years to add a billion people. By comparison, the number of people didn't reach 1 billion until 1800. It didn't reach 2 billion until 130 years later. Here's a radical idea. It's a little complicated, so I'll try to simplify it in a couple of words--BIRTH CONTROL.

Golf - This just in. The PGA has decided to cancel the rest of this year's scheduled events due to lack of interest after golf fans and sponsors alike heard that Tiger Woods was cutting short the rest of his season to get reconstructive knee surgery. Just kidding, but seriously, how much does this suck for all those sponsors and TV networks that shelled out millions to show Tiger kicking some butt?