What Caught My Eye Today

Fred's Notes: My thoughts on government officials are pretty well documented, but still you have to feel some sympathy for some governments that have had a tough go of things recently.

Great Britain - Exhibit #1. The British parliament was officially dissolved today, as a nationwide election campaign launches to determine if Gordon Brown head of the Labour party can hang on as prime minister. Under the British parliamentary system, voters choose a member of parliament from each of 650 constituencies, or districts. The party with the most seats traditionally gets the first chance to form the new government. Queen Elizabeth II, as head of state, formally dissolved parliament on Monday. The announcement means there are officially no members of Parliament as of 5 p.m. London time. According to an official government announcement, "MPs immediately revert to being members of the general public and lose all the privileges associated with being a Member of Parliament." Ouch. That's got to sting. Government ministers remain in charge of their departments until after the election result is known but do not make any major policy decisions. Sounds sort of like our government, if you think about it. In an election year, no real policies are likely to make it out of Congress as lawmakers try to figure out how to keep their jobs for another term. I think the U.K. might be onto something here. With no set schedule for calling for new elections, Parliament has to go about it business all the time rather. And when elections are called for, they occur in a matter of weeks. Here in the U.S. it is almost as if election season never ends.

Thailand - Exhibit #2. Pressure is mounting on Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, days after 21 people died in clashes between troops and anti-government protesters. The army chief says parliament should be dissolved, and election officials have recommended Abhisit's party be disbanded over illegal donations. Abhisit, widely perceived to have strong army backing, said his coalition and the military remained united. All evidence to contrary, wouldn't you say? The army plays a prominent role in Thai politics - former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted by the military in 2006. Shortly after the announcement, the Election Commission recommended that Abhisit's Democrat Party should be dissolved. I'm not an expert on Thai politics--heck I barely understand American politics--but they bare some semblance to concepts that the average "Joe the Plubmer" can relate to. In the States with have red states (Republicans) and blues states (Democrats). Simple enough, right. Well in Thailand, its basically the same thing...with different colors. Red-shirts formally called the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) consist mostly of poorer workers from rural areas, while yellow-shirts, known as the Peoples' Alliance for Democracy, consist of a loose coalition of mostly urban middle-class royalists and businessmen. And just like the Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. these two parties don't care for each other very much, despite the fact that both sides are equally guilty of questionable tactics both in government and the elections that fill those government positions.

Poland - Exhibit #3. This one is so incredible (I'm using the text book definition here), if it had been a movie script it would have been laughed off as too far-fetched Poland's military, political and church elite was decimated on Saturday in a plane crash, killing the Polish president and dozens of other officlals. Ninety-six people were killed in total. Among the dead were Poland's president Lech Kaczynski, his wife, the army chief of staff, the navy chief commander and heads of the air and land forces. Also on board were the national bank president, deputy foreign minister, army chaplain, head of the national security office, deputy parliament speaker, Olympic committee head, civil rights commissioner, at least two presidential aides and three members of Parliament. That's the equivalent of wiping out the braintrust of the White House, the Pentagon and Capitol Hill all at the same time. Pretty scary thought, isn't it?
The crash also shocked Russia. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin personally took charge of the investigation and publicly offered condolences, along with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Early indications pointed to pilot error in heavy fog as a factor in the crash. Both black boxes have been found. Preliminary data indicated that the plane clipped the treetops as it was making the approach to the airport in poor visibility.

And now for something completely different...

Golf - Honestly, who isn't happy for Phil Mickelson and his entire family in winning his third Masters title...besides Lee Westwood who was leading going into the final round and ended up second and Tiger Woods, who always sulks when he doesn't win. Atta boy, Phil. Enjoy this one. Lord knows you and the family have endured more than your fair share of tough times this past year.

As for my boy, Tiger. Dude, chill. You've been collecting dust for 5 months and you still managed a 4th place finish. Sure you missed some shots...a lot in fact. That's what happens when you're coming of a 5 month self-imposed exile (remind me again, why you did that?). How about taking some satisfaction in the fact that with all that rust, only 3 guys played better than you did.