What Caught My Eye Today

Yet again, the state of disarray--or if you prefer, economy--dominates the headlines. For a change, we have a bit of good news to report...sort of.

Economy (Part I) - Eager to show that he feels people's pain, President Bush told the country his administration is working feverishly to calm turmoil in the financial markets. Bush was supposed to spend the day raising money for Republicans and talking energy policy. He canceled his trip and sent Vice President Dick Cheney to sub for him at the fundraisers to focus on the worst financial meltdown since the Great Depression. Isn't that always the case? Don't you have when your job gets in the way of the really important stuff, like shilling for money over a nice dinner. In brief formal remarks outside the Oval Office, Bush sought to show that the administration is moving swiftly and aggressively by taking "extraordinary measures." And they were brief remarks. I'll listened to the President's comments. I think he was at the podium for almost 3 whole minutes. Maybe that's all the time he could spare. After all, "extraordinary measures" can be quite time consuming.

Economy (Part II) - John McCain, buffeted by criticism about his response to Wall Street's financial problems, said he would fire the SEC chairman and create a special trust to help strengthen weak institutions. In all but calling for the firing of Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox, McCain turned on a fellow Republican and former 17-year House member who served on committees overseeing investor protection and U.S. capital markets. Other than making some headlines, I'm curious what McCain thinks Cox's dismissal will do for the economic health of the country. McCain has shifted from initially saying the country's economic fundamentals were strong. Since being ridiculed for that, he now says the economy is in "crisis" but that the fundamental productivity of the American worker endures. Way to regroup there, spark plug. I will give McCain some credit, though. I actually understand the concept of "crisis". Meanwhile, I'm still trying to figure out what the Bush administration means by describing the economy as a "mixed picture". Seriously, can anyone tell me what that means?

Economy (Part III) - Wall Street had its best day in six years as news the government is considering a more comprehensive solution to the financial crisis than the current piecemeal approach spurred a furious late rally--The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 410.03 points, or 3.86% while the NASDAQ shot up 100.25 points, or 4.78%. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has been shopping around a proposal to congressional lawmakers that would create an entity to deal with the billions of dollars of bad debt still clogging the financial system, a congressional aide said. The idea has been compared to the Resolution Trust Corp formed in 1989 to fix the savings and loan industry collapse. Smells an awful lot like a bailout to me. Though I suppose creating an institutionalized bailout sounds much better than throwing life lines to failing companies one at a time. Either way, I'm pretty sure that we taxpayers are going to be footing the bill to fix this mess regardless of how the government chooses to deal with this mess.

Venezuela - Venezuela and Russia are strengthening their strategic alliance with new plans to cooperate on oil production, weapons and even wireless technology. That's nice. Venezuela also is in talks to buy Russian air defense systems and armored vehicles. Russia also plans to help Venezuela build factories to make ships, cars, rifles and ammunition, and a center to train pilots and fix helicopters is in the works. Their alliance was mocked by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who said Russia is only isolating itself. Really? Let's see just how isolated Russia is becoming, shall we? Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who expelled the U.S. ambassador to Caracas last week while accusing Washington of backing a plot against him, said the alliance doesn't pose a threat to any other country, and that he welcomes Russian help in research, economic development and defense technology. Russia's economic influence is clearly expanding in the Americas. Bolivia announced that it would sign an oil and natural gas exploration deal with an Russian oil company. Oh yeah, Russia really seems to be going it alone, doesn't it. Interesting how the U.S. seems to criticize Russia over the way it "overreacts" to former satellite states wanting to join a Western military alliance as well as the way Russia is trying to expand ties to countries like Venezuela and Bolivia. I get the feeling that no matter what Russia does, we'll manage to find some fault with it.

Australia - Marine scientists have discovered hundreds of new animal species on reefs in Australian waters, including brilliant soft corals and tiny crustaceans. The creatures were found during expeditions run by the Australian chapter of CReefs, a global census of coral reefs that is one of several projects of the Census of Marine Life, an international effort to catalog all life in the oceans. Among the creatures researchers found were about 130 soft corals — also known as octocorals, for the eight tentacles that fringe each polyp — that have never been described in scientific literature, and scores of similarly undescribed crustaceans, including tiny shrimp-like animals with claws longer than their bodies. While it's exciting to find discover new forms of life, you sort of have to feel bad for this poor little buggers. Now that we know they exist, we don't really stand a chance for long term survival. Not that we mean to do it, but our track record for respecting other forms of life and more important, the habitats that they need to survive, isn't what one would consider to be exemplary.