What Caught My Eye Today

Congress - Some fights of the 110th Congress have lost their oomph in the waning months before the November elections, with both parties content to run out the clock on messy matters like the war in Iraq, spending bills and various disputes with the White House. What disputes? Bush has pretty much gotten anything that he's wanted. Democrats dropped any pretense of trying to address some of the stickiest issues. What's good enough for 2008 will suffice until a new president and a new Congress take office next year. In a broad sense, Republicans and Democrats are striving to do no more harm to their standing with voters at a time when only 23% of the public approves of how Congress is doing its job. Wouldn't it be nice if the real world worked like Congress? Hey boss, I don't really like the way you are asking me to do my job, so I'm going to take the rest of the year off (with pay), in hopes that you will quit or get hit by a truck. Oh, and by the way, credit card vultures, that goes double for you. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to pay you guys anymore until I see some improvement. I don't know what that improvement should be, but I'll get back to you on that. Just don't expect any more payments from me for the foreseeable future.

Wall Street - At the risk of stating the obvious, the news is not pleasant. Wall Street sank further into a bear market as investors dumped stocks in response to troubles at mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and oil's continuing climb into record territory. The Dow Jones industrials at times fell more than 250 points and slid below the 11,000 mark for the first time in two years. Oh goodie. Investors appeared unimpressed by a statement from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who said the government's focus is ensuring that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac keep operating in their current form. So like are we to believe that there is some skepticism about the government's ability to keep the economy afloat? I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't read it. The well-being of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is crucial because they hold or guarantee about $5 trillion worth of mortgages — roughly half the $9.5 trillion debt of the United States. Their troubles are just the latest depressing turn in a year-old credit crisis that shows no sign of ending, disappointing some stock traders who thought just months ago that the worst was perhaps over. Dude, how dumb can these stock traders get? Things can always get worse. Oil, meanwhile, extended its move into record territory, rising as high as $147.27. See what I mean?

Olympics - Say what you will about the Chinese Olympic organizers. They aren't naive when it comes to public perception. Dog meat has been struck from the menus of officially designated Olympic restaurants, and Beijing tourism officials are telling other outlets to discourage consumers from ordering dishes made from dogs. One assuming they are referring to existing consumers. I have a hard time imagining a bunch of tourists flocking into China to sample cuisine de Fido. Dog, known in Chinese as "xiangrou," or "fragrant meat," is eaten by some Chinese for its purported health-giving qualities. As hard as it may seem to believe, the Chinese aren't the first to impose this sort of ban. South Korea banned dog meat during the 1988 Seoul Olympics by invoking a law prohibiting the sale of "foods deemed unsightly."

Mercury - You know that saying, "the Earth is getting smaller every day?" It is in that spirit that I offer you this next item... Mercury, the smallest resident of our close-knit solar system, is shrinking. Scientists studying data sent back by the Messenger probe, launched in 2004, reveal that it's disappearing. So far, the planet has lost around 3 miles from its 3,000 mile diameter over the course of its existence. This is being caused by the molten core cooling and solidifying. The reporter clearly had some fun with this story. You should know that this galactic disaster isn't happening very quickly but at a considerably faster rate than previously suspected. Nonetheless, NASA reckons the old girl could last another few billion years yet. Given that news, I suppose you could still make a buck or two on real estate speculation before the rock vaporizes into nothing. Of course there is the problem of sorting out some seriously harsh environmental conditions (you think global warming is bad; that's nothing compared to the deal on Mercury), but no one said that making a buck was easy.

Cycling - Time once again for your periodic dose of the Tour de France. Luxembourg's Kim Kirchen, of Team Columbia (one of two American based teams), survived an attempt to loosen his grip on the yellow jersey in the 7th stage of the 3 week race by a determined CSC team to retain the race lead with a six-second cushion on Australian Cadel Evans. The Tour favorites all rode close to the front of the main group and came in together. Despite attempts by several teams—including CSC and Garmin-Chipotle — to break the race apart, they could not be separated. Christophe Moreau, a French rider with the Agritubel team who was briefly in contention for victory last year, was one of several cyclists to pull out of the Tour during Friday’s stage. It goes without saying (sadly) that it would be the Tour de France without an update on doping, so here you go... The French anti-doping agency said that blood tests carried out before the start of the Tour have shown abnormal results for about 20 cyclists, but none was above the official limits. That's a comforting thought. The American TV broadcast network, Versus, has come up with a couple of taglines for this year's race; my favorite being "Take Back The Tour" I wonder if abnormal test results for more than 20% of the riders in this year's event, was what they had in mind.