What Caught My Eye Today

Baseball - I'm guessing this had to be the longest Game 5 in World Series history. To make a long story short. It's over. Congratulations to the Philadelphia Phillies. For you sports fans out there, here are the particulars. From losingest team to longest game, the Philadelphia Phillies are World Series champions. The Phillies finished off the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 in a three-inning sprint to win a suspended Game 5 nearly 50 hours after it started. The city claim its first major sports championship in 25 years. Fear not baseball fans. Spring training is just 4 short months from now. And here's a bonus. The World Baseball Classic begins March 5...you know, sort of a World Cup of baseball, but not.

2008 Presidential Race - Maybe it's just me, but is anyone else looking forward to these thing finally being over in 6 more days...assuming there aren't any recounts or hanging chads to deal with? Barack Obama plunked down $4 million for a campaign-closing television ad and summoned voters to "choose hope over fear and unity over division" in Tuesday's election. John McCain derided the event as a "gauzy, feel-good commercial," paid for with broken promises. No sour grapes there. Call me crazy, but if McCain had the dough to pay for a 30 minute infomercial on four different networks, I'm pretty sure he would have. And while it is unusual for candidates to acknowledge the possibility of defeat, Republican running mate Sarah Palin said she intended to remain a national figure even if the ticket loses next week. Okay, I give up. Can someone explain to me what McCain saw in her as a running mate in the first place? Seriously, did the producers at Saturday Night Live give him a huge campaign contribution to pick her or what?

Iraq - The Associated Press periodically release its unofficial count of military casualties in the Iraq War. Lest anyone has forgotten, Iraq is still a rather dangerous place. As of Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008, at least 4,189 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003. At least 3,388 military personnel died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers. Umm, so how did the other 801 die? The British military has reported 176 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia and Georgia, three each; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand and Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan and South Korea, one death each.

Ecuador - Ecuador has picked a new temporary Supreme Court by lottery, but judges say they will boycott the tribunal. The old court was dissolved under a new constitution that took effect last week. The temporary 21-member court chosen at random from the ranks of the 31 former justices is supposed to operate until a permanent body takes over in 2009. Judges warned last week that they would refuse to take seats determined by the "degrading" lottery. I gotta side with the justices on this one. A lottery does sort of cheapen things. I mean honestly, this is the Supreme Court we're talking about here. It is not clear what officials will do if all the judges refuse their seats. I know, I know...they could draw straws.

Cuba - The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution urging the U.S. to repeal its trade embargo against Cuba, and the island nation's foreign minister said he expects the next American president to respond positively. Well it certainly won't happen under the current President, that's for sure. It was the 17th straight year that the General Assembly called for the embargo to be repealed "as soon as possible." Yup, no one can accuse the U.S. of turning a deaf ear to the international community. The vote in the 192-member world body was 185 to 3, with 2 abstentions. The U.S., Israel and Palau voted "no" while Micronesia and the Marshall Islands abstained. I've always thought highly of our Palaun friends in the South Pacific...all 21,000 of them.