What Caught My Eye Today

Georgia - One day after the Kremlin and its smaller neighbor agreed to a French-brokered cease-fire to end the dispute over two pro-Russian breakaway territories, the pact appeared fragile at best. What a surprise. A Russian military convoy defied a cease-fire agreement and rolled through a strategically important city in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, which claimed fresh looting and bombing by the Russians and their allies. Its both funny and tragic how history always seems to repeat itself. It's amazing to me how in the 21st century, armies continue to act the same as they did in the Middle Ages. Besides the hundreds killed since hostilities broke out last week, a United Nations agency estimates 100,000 Georgians may have been uprooted. Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili criticized Western nations for failing to help Georgia, a U.S. ally that has been seeking NATO membership. "In a way," he said, "Russians are fighting a proxy war with the West through us." You could argue that he has a valid point. The conflict centers on South Ossetia and another region claimed by Georgia that leans Russian, Abkhazia. When Georgia cracked down on South Ossetia on August 7, Russia sent its tanks and troops into the two regions and deeper into Georgia proper. Abkhazia lies close to the heart of many Russians. Its coast was a favorite vacation spot in Soviet times and the province is just down the coast from Sochi, the Russian resort that will host the 2014 Winter Olympics. Is anyone else getting a feeling of deja vu here? I'm thinking back to the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. Let's just hope that Sochi doesn't suffer the same fate as Sarajevo.

Arkansas - A man barged into the Arkansas Democratic headquarters and opened fire, fatally shooting the state party chairman before speeding off in his pickup. Police later shot and killed the suspect after a 30-mile chase. Police said they don't know the motive of the suspect, though a witness said the man told him he had lost his job. Chairman Bill Gwatney died four hours after the shooting. The 48-year-old former state senator had been planning to travel to the Democratic National Convention later this month as a superdelegate. He had backed Hillary Rodham Clinton but endorsed Barack Obama after she dropped out of the race. I imagine at some point investigators will determine a motive, and I'll bet you it has nothing to do with the upcoming Presidential race. I think the larger issue here is that we may poke fun at or express our frustrations at the political system we have (Lord knows I do), but the folks that actively participate in that system, regardless of party affiliation, are just trying to make our country better. Obviously, the guy who committed this act lost sight of that fact.

Guantanamo - So much for due process. The U.S. military was so eager to get the sluggish Guantanamo war crimes trials moving that the legal adviser to the Pentagon overseer adopted a "spray and pray" approach to pursuing charges, according to Brigadier General Gregory Zanetti. "The strategy seemed to be spray and pray, let's go, speed, speed, speed," he said. "Charge 'em, charge 'em, charge 'em and let's pray that we can pull this off." Zanetti is the deputy commander of the military task force that runs the Guantanamo detention operation. Given this dude's position, you have to allow for the remote possibility that he knows what he's talking about. Here's the fascinating part of this story. Zanetti's statement came while he was giving testimony at a pre-trial hearing for another enemy combatant facing a U.S. military tribunal. The defendant's lawyers claim the charges should be dismissed because they were tainted by unlawful influence from the officer appointed to give impartial legal advice to the Pentagon official overseeing the war crimes tribunals. I'm no legal expert, but yeah, I'd say these guys might be able to prove a conflict of interest here.

World War II - Famed chef Julia Child served in an international spy ring managed by the Office of Strategic Services, an early version of the CIA created in World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt. The National Archives, which this week released a list of the names found in the records, will make available for the first time all 750,000 pages identifying the vast spy network of military and civilian operatives. Should make for some interesting reading, don't you think? I'm all for full disclosure, but the skeptic in me wonders if releasing the names of these individuals is such a good idea. I imagine most the folks on this list are probably dead at this point, but you never know if some crazy lunatic won't get hold of this list and try to exact some measure of revenge on surviving relatives of those that are named. Stranger things have been known to happen. That being said, who knew that Julia Child was more than just a great TV chef. You go, girl.