What Caught My Eye Today

Obama Cabinet - Honestly, how difficult is it to find an honest taxpayer to fill a Cabinet position? Apparently, for the Obama Administration, this is exceedingly hard. Barack Obama abruptly abandoned his nomination fight for Tom Daschle and a second major appointee who failed to pay all their taxes, fearing a lingering ethics dispute would undercut his claims to moral high ground and cripple his presidency in just its second week. "I screwed up," Obama declared. I'm guessing that your staff screwed up, but seeing as you are the man. I'll concede the point. The White House had announced that Daschle had asked to be removed from consideration as health and human services secretary and that Nancy Killefer had made the same request concerning what was to be her groundbreaking appointment as a chief performance officer to make the entire government run better. It's called vetting people. Last time I checked, it wasn't that complicated. You ask the prospective employee stuff like, "have you committed any felonies--like tax evasion?" From where I stand, that shouldn't be that much of a mind bender for the Obama Administration to handle.

Same Sex Divorce - A lesbian couple who led the fight for gay marriage in Massachusetts has filed for divorce. You knew this was coming. Once the gay community got the right to marry, this was the obvious next step. The women were among seven gay couples who filed a lawsuit that led to a court ruling making Massachusetts the first state to legalize same-sex marriages in 2004. The couple became the public face of the debate in the state and married the first day same-sex marriages became legal. See, now they are just trying to show off. Then: "Look at us, look at us. We're getting married." Now: "Look at us, look at us. We're getting divorced." Girlfriends, if you all were straight this would be a non-event.

Iran - Iran sent its first domestically made satellite into orbit, a key step for an ambitious space program that worries the U.S. and other world powers because the same rocket technology used to launch satellites can also deliver warheads. For nearly a decade, Iran has sought to develop a national space program, creating unease among international leaders already concerned about its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. A U.S. counter proliferation official confirmed the launch and suggested the technology was not sophisticated. Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence gathering, the official said it appeared it "isn't too far removed from Sputnik," the first Soviet orbiter launched in 1957. Well, obviously the technology was good enough. They got the tin can into orbit, didn't they? Iran's space plans are lofty and even hold out the goal of putting a man in orbit within 10 years, though accomplishing that would be extremely expensive. A domestic satellite program would put Iran in a growing club — more than 80 countries are building or planning to build their own satellites, according to Lewis. But the ability to launch them is a much more exclusive crowd; only nine countries have done so. Aside from the obvious concerns about having the capability to use it's rockets for less benign purposes (and who in their right mind wouldn't be concerned about this), I get the feeling that the real bee in the bonnet for the West (and the U.S. in particular), is the fact that Iran can pull something like this off, despite all the economic sanctions that have been imposed on it by the international community. Clearly, they aren't having too much of an impact on Iran's ability to do whatever it wants.

Kyrgyzstan - Kyrgyzstan's government said it would end American use of a key air base following Russia's announcement of new aid. Kyrgyzstan announced that U.S. forces would have to stop using Manas air base came after Russia said it was providing the poor Central Asian nation with billions of dollars in aid. Blast those wicked Russians. Blast them, I say. The United States set up the Manas base and one in neighboring Uzbekistan to back operations in Afghanistan after the September 11 terror attacks. Uzbekistan expelled U.S. troops from the base on its territory in 2005 in a dispute over human rights issues, leaving Manas as the only U.S. military facility in the region. These sound like rather petty reasons to kick us out. Accusations of human right violations? Fear of offending big brother? Don't these central Asian countries have any backbones. Stick up for what is right, you cowards! What's that? Doing the bidding of United States isn't your definition of what's right. Is that so? Well not only are you cowards, but you're stupid too. So there.

Australia - An Australian traveler was caught with two live pigeons stuffed in his pants following a trip to the Middle East, customs officials said. This isn't particularly newsworthy, but it certainly caught my attention. The 23-year-old man was searched after authorities discovered two eggs in a vitamin container in his luggage. They found the pigeons wrapped in padded envelopes and held to each of the man's legs with a pair of tights. The alleged bird smuggler, who arrived in Melbourne on a flight from Dubai, was being questioned. Australia has very strict quarantine regulations on the importation of wildlife, plants and food to protect health, agriculture and the environment of the isolated island nation. If you're going to smuggle birds, are pigeons the best you can do? Pigeons don't even remotely come close to conjuring up thoughts of the exotic. Last time I checked, the only thing they were good for was taking dumps on the hood of my freshly washed and waxed truck.