What Caught My Eye Today

War on Terrorism - President Bush signed legislation to pay for the war operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the rest of his presidency and beyond, hailing the $162 billion plan as a rare product of bipartisan cooperation. If you read between the lines when Bush says 'bipartisan cooperation' what he really means is that Congress caved and he got his way...again. The legislation will bring to more than $650 billion the amount Congress has provided for the Iraq war since it began more than five years ago. For operations in Afghanistan, the total is nearly $200 billion. The bill will fund the wars well into next year, when their fate will be in the hands of Bush's successor and also gives the next president several months to set Iraq policy after taking office in January — and spares lawmakers the need to cast more war funding votes closer to Election Day. Well that's a relief. No one wants a little thing like a war to get in the way of Congress during election season.

So you might be asking yourselves, if all this money is well spent. Let's find out.

Afghanistan - Militants killed more U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan in June than in Iraq for the second straight month, a grim milestone capping a run of headline-grabbing insurgent attacks that analysts say underscore the Taliban's growing strength. You would think that for $850 billion, we'd be reporting good news on both fronts. Apparently not. Some observers say the insurgency has gained dangerous momentum. Last week, a Pentagon report forecast the Taliban would maintain or increase its pace of attacks, which are already up 40% this year. At least 45 international troops — including at least 27 U.S. forces and 13 British — died in Afghanistan in June, the deadliest month since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban. In Iraq, at least 31 international soldiers died in June: 29 U.S. troops and one each from the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Azerbaijan. There are 144,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and 4,000 British forces in additional to small contingents from several other nations. The 40-nation international coalition is much broader in Afghanistan, where only about half of the 65,000 international troops are American. Aw heck, no one really cares about Afghanistan anyway. Honestly, how much oil do those dudes have anyway. Oh sure, if you're into opium, maybe this is a bad development. And what about that dude who bankrolled the September 11th attacks that started this mess in the first place. Osama something-or-other, right? Isn't he dead yet(note the sarcasm...if you haven't picked up on it already)?

California - More than a thousand wildfires were burning early in Northern California and there was no relief in sight for weary firefighters. Fire crews inched closer to getting some of the largest of 1,420 blazes surrounded, according to the state Office of Emergency Services. Some 364,600 acres — or almost 570 square miles — have burned. Lower-than-average rainfall and record levels of parched vegetation likely mean a long, fiery summer throughout northern California. This time last week, I reported that the number of fires in California had reach over 800. My what a difference a week makes. As for suggestions that we are 'likely' to have a long fiery summer, I'd say we are already there.

Written Exams - Ah yes, another entry for the 'so bizarre it must be true' file. A British high school student received credit for writing nothing but a two-word obscenity on an exam paper because the phrase expressed meaning and was spelled correctly. An examiner gave the student — who wrote an expletive starting with f, followed by the word "off" — two points out of a possible 27 for the English paper saying, "It would be wicked to give it zero because it does show some very basic skills we are looking for, like conveying some meaning and some spelling." Is this guy for real? He said the student would have received a higher mark if the phrase had been punctuated. The expletive was used in 2006 by a student in response to the question: "Describe the room you are sitting in." According to examination policy, if a candidate makes any sort of response to a question then it must be at least given consideration to be awarded a mark. I think somebody needs to take a closer look at the baseline standards for awarded marks for scholastic achievement. Call me crazy, but "F--- off" does not exactly strike me as the most intelligent of remarks.

Tennis - Seriously, does anyone want to win this tournament? Second-seeded Jelena Jankovic and No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova were ousted in the fourth round, leaving Wimbledon without any of the top four women in the quarterfinals for the first time. The highest seeded player left is No. 5 Elena Dementieva, who cruised to a 6-2, 6-1 win over unseeded Shahar Peer. The Williams sisters, meanwhile, moved closer to another Wimbledon final with back-to-back victories on Court 2. In men's play, five-time champion Roger Federer swept Lleyton Hewitt — the last man to win the title before him — 7-6 (7), 6-2, 6-4 on Centre Court to extend his winning streak on grass to 63 matches and 38 in a row at the All England Club. Rafael Nadal also advanced to the quarterfinals. Incidentally, the Williams sisters have also made it through to the quarterfinals in women's doubles action. My picks for the singles winners--one of the Williams sisters on the women's side and Federer on the men's side--amazingly are still intact. That's alright, I'm sure something will screw that up tomorrow.

Golf - Yup, another Tiger Woods update. Tiger Woods does not know when he can play golf again, but he said his rebuilt left knee has been sore his entire PGA Tour career and he looks forward to playing on two good legs. Woods had reconstructive surgery last week. Woods first had surgery on his left knee while at Stanford in 1994 to remove a benign tumor. He had surgery after the 2002 season to drain fluid and remove cysts around his ACL. "When I had my cyst removed from my ACL, there wasn't a whole lot left," he said. "So they said, 'Basically, you need to train and develop your hamstring and glute and calf as much as you possibly can to hold it. Everyone was surprised it lasted as long as it did before I ruptured it. One wonders how many more wins Tiger would have racked up playing on two good legs these past few years. Scary thought isn't it?

Cycling - Fear not. This isn't another sob story on behalf of Levi Leipheimer. That ship has sailed. Nope, this time we're wrapping up the final chapter of the Floyd Landis doping scandal. Here's a big surprise...it's not the ending Floyd was hoping for. In the latest attempt that almost certainly will be Floyd Landis' last, the anti-doping establishment slapped down the one-time 2006 Tour de France winner once more, ruling Landis didn't play fair, on the bike or in the hearing room. A three-person panel at the Court of Arbitration for Sport agreed with a previous panel's decision, ruling that Landis' positive doping test at the Tour two years ago was, indeed, valid. He will not regain the title he won with a stunning comeback in Stage 17, a rally many thought was too good to be true and that turned out to be fueled by synthetic testosterone. Alright Floyd, you had your day in court--several of them in fact--and you lost. Now do us all a favor and stop your whining. As surprising as this may sound, I hope you do come back next year after your two year ban ends. The best way you can salvage what's left of your reputation is to put in some quality races while being clean. Think you can manage that? If you are innocent, as you claim to be, that shouldn't be too difficult to pull off, wouldn't you say?