What Caught My Eye Today

Fred's Note: I'm a glass half full type of guy, so when several folks pointed out to me that my last posting was #666, I took that as proof that there are real-life people who take the time to read my blog. That said, I felt compelled to get #667 posted as quickly as possible. And with that, we bid farewell to the Number of the Beast.

Arab Spring - Still my favorite euphemism of 2011. Here are the latest headlines:

Libya - The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court urged Moammar Gadhafi's own aides to arrest the Libyan leader and turn him over for trial on murder and persecution charges, or risk prosecution themselves. The court issued arrest warrants for the Libyan leader for crimes against humanity, but the court has no police force to detain them. Sort of like a shark with no teeth. Looks scary, but is rather harmless. Honestly, what's the point of issuing a warrant if you have no way to enforce it?

Syria - A Russian envoy told Syrian opposition members that "leaders come and go" — an apparent signal to Syrian President Bashar Assad that he cannot count on his ally's unconditional support after months of protests demanding his ouster. Is it just me or does these words of wisdom sound rather peculiar coming from our friends in Mother Russia?

Bahrain - A Saudi military official said the kingdom plans to pull out some units of the 1,500-strong Gulf force sent to Bahrain to help quell a Shiite-led uprising demanding more rights. Let us not forget the other victim in all this. Formula One had to cancel this year's Grand Prix event. Oh the humanity!

Egypt - An Egyptian court ordered the dissolution of more than 1,750 municipal councils, seen as one of the last vestiges of deposed President Hosni Mubarak's rule. The ruling meets a main demand of the protest movement that ousted Mubarak. So like, whose going to run things now?

Michelle Bachmann - Girlfriend is quickly becoming my favorite Republican candidate for U.S. President. In just one day since she announced her candidacy, I've already found more to talk about with her than the rest of the candidates combined. Okay, well maybe Newt Gingrich is worthy of some mention, but that will have to wait for another day (if he manages to survive that long). Michelle Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman has become one to watch — for inaccuracies as well as rising support — in the Republican presidential race. Examining 24 of her statements, Politifact.com, the Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking service of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, found just one to be fully true and 17 to be false (seven of them "pants on fire" false). No other Republican candidate whose statements have been vigorously vetted matched that record of inaccuracy. Clearly, we won't cover all of them here, but there are a few gems worthy of mentioning.

• "If you look at one of our Founding Fathers, John Quincy Adams, that's absolutely true. He was a very young boy when he was with his father serving essentially as his father's secretary. He tirelessly worked throughout his life to make sure that we did in fact one day eradicate slavery."
  FACT: John Quincy Adams was not a Founding Father. He was 9 when the Declaration of Independence was made and 20 when the Constitution was adopted. His father, John Adams, was the Revolutionary War figure and an architect of the declaration — and therefore a Founding Father. On much of a role model for a political group whose very existence is predicated on the Constitution. Yo, Michelle, wassup? You've got 23 teenage girls that you provide foster care for. Haven't you ever helped any of them with their U.S. History homework?


• "Well what I want them to know is, just like John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa, that's the kind of spirit that I have, too."
  FACT: Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa, nearly three hours away, and moved to California in his childhood. John Wayne Gacy, convicted of killing 33 men and boys, was born in Chicago, moved to Waterloo to work in his father-in-law's chicken restaurants and first ran afoul of the law there, sentenced to 10 years for sodomy. Yeah, I confuse those two guys all time.


• "It's ironic and sad that the president released all of the oil from the strategic oil reserve. ... There's only a limited amount of oil that we have in the strategic oil reserve. It's there for emergencies."
  FACT: Obama approved the release of 30 million barrels, about 4 percent of the 727 million barrels stored in salt caverns along the Texas and Louisiana coasts. Now we're just splitting hairs. So she was off by 697 million barrels. One could argue that's just a rounding error.


• "One. That's the number of new drilling permits under the Obama administration since they came into office."
  FACT: The Obama administration issued more than 200 new drilling permits before the Gulf oil spill alone. Over the past year, since new safety standards were imposed, the administration has issued more than 60 shallow-water drilling permits. Since the deep water moratorium was lifted in October, nine new wells have been approved. Enough already! When is the press going to get it through their thick skulls that we're talking about soundbites that have impact. You cannot hold it against Bachmann that the truth is not nearly as interesting as what she's saying. She's trying to win an election for crying out loud. Give the girl a break.

The Pope - Pope Benedict XVI has tweeted for the first time, announcing the launch of a Vatican news information portal. Benedict's tweet read: "Dear Friends, I just launched News.va Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI" Vatican officials said the Benedict touched on a touchpad to send the tweet. You hear about such things, but never in your wildest dreams do you think that it actually happened. Leave it to the Pope to prove me wrong. His Holiness actually touched the Enter button. What? You didn't honestly think the guy was going to type the entire message himself, did you?

Soccer - Women's World Cup update. The U.S. beat North Korea, 2-0 in Group C play. Just so you know.

What Caught My Eye Today

2012 U.S. Presidential Election (Part I) - I'm fully convinced that when it comes to the race for the White House it is always silly season. Republican Michele Bachmann officially launched her White House bid, casting herself as hard-charging conservative capable of carrying the party into the 2012 election over a crowded field of GOP rivals Crowded? I suppose that's one way to describe it. More on that in a minute. Bachmann steered clear of specific proposals she'd advance as president. She's staunchly conservative on social issues, calling for more abortion restrictions and constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage. Both of which I'm confident will, no doubt, improve the economy and, I daresay, go a long way toward achieving world peace.

2012 U.S. Presidential Election (Part II) - Okay, so about that field of presidential candidates. As of now, we have 13 contenders for the Republican nomination and two for the Democratic nomination. Your GOP contenders include:

• Michele Bachmann, U.S. Representative from Minnesota
• Herman Cain, former Federal Reserve banker and businessman from Georgia
• Newt Gingrich, former U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives from Georgia
• Jon Huntsman, Jr., former U.S. Ambassador to China and former Governor governor of Utah
  Dude's last assignment was U.S. Ambassador to China courtesy of the current President
• Gary Johnson former Governor of New Mexico
• Fred Karger, political consultant and gay rights activist from California Who besides me wants to see this guy in a debate with Michelle Bachmann?
• Andy Martin, perennial candidate from Illinois
  What exactly does it mean to be a perennial candidate? Sounds suspiciously like perennial loser to me
• Jimmy McMillan, perennial candidate from New York
• Ron Paul, U.S. Representative from Texas
• Tim Pawlenty, former Governor of Minnesota
• Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts
• Rick Santorum, former Senator from Pennsylvania
• Jonathon Sharkey, perennial candidate from Florida

As you might expect, the list of Democratic contenders is a bit smaller

• Barack Obama, incumbent President of the United States from Illinois
• Randall Terry, pro-life activist from New York
  Good luck there, sparkplug

Computer Hacking - I'm actually reading a pretty good book in this topic, so naturally my interest was piqued when I saw this story. Members of the shadowy but media-savvy hacking collective Lulz Security, or LulzSec, announced their group's dissolution in a Twitter message to 280,000 followers. In their 50 days of activity, the publicity-seeking group had successfully hacked the websites of the CIA, the U.S. Senate, Britain's Serious Organized Crime Agency, Sony, PBS, and other high-profile targets. Among the theories for why LulzSec has suddenly and mysteriously disappeared: The law was closing in; they were just bored; they picked disastrous fights with rival hacker groups; and they had run out of ideas. I'm a bit perplexed on several fronts. Can someone please tell me what sort of world we live in where illicit activity is bragged about on Twitter (to hundreds of thousands of followers no less), where hacking has apparently become some sort of sport akin to tagging public property, where despite having 280,000 followers on Twitter, these guys has still managed to elude law enforcement, and where the only thing that seemed to work to stop this hacking, was lack of continued interest by said perpetrators?

Motor Sports - I've neglected Formula One for far, far too long. In an attempt to remedy this, I bring you this history making story. All 24 starters made it to the chequered flag in Valencia last weekend, only the fourth time in F1 history that the entire starting field has made it to the finish and the first time ever that a driver finished 24th while running. The irony here is that some drivers are complaining that the improved reliability in the cars is making the racing less interesting. Personally, I have no problem will every car entered in a race making it to the finish. If you want to complain about the racing, how about the fact that Formula One races are basically won in qualifying. For those of you who don't follow this racing series, one guy has won 6 of 8 races this season and come in second in the other two. And boyfriend started in the first row in every single race. Where is the drama in that? In fairness, you have to tip your cap to Sebastian Vettel. What this guy is doing is none short of amazing.

Soccer - The 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup got underway yesterday in host nation Germany. To wit, I give you my "take it to the bank" picks for advancing from group play.

• Group A: Canada, France, Germany, Nigeria
  Emerging from what is arguably the toughest group, I'm taking Germany and France.
• Group B: England, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand
  Gimme England and Japan
• Group C: Colombia, North Korea, Sweden, United States
  Gotta go with Sweden and the Stars and Stripes.
• Group D: Australia, Brazil, Equatorial Guinea, Norway
  My head tells me to go with Equatorial Guinea, but my heart has me going with Brazil and Norway.

What Caught My Eye Today

Fred's Note: Yeah, yeah. It's been 3 months. It's not like I get paid for doing this.

So let's see here. The Arab Spring (you have to love that euphemism) is still going strong. Japan isn't quite glowing in the dark, but it is still spewing radiation all over the place. President Obama is pissing off both sides of the political spectrum (which must mean he's doing something right). And Sarah Palin is still finding ways to make the headlines (seriously, doesn't the press have anything better to report on?)

President Obama (Part I) - President Barack Obama announced his plan for withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan. An initial drawdown of 10,000 troops is expected to take place in two phases, with 5,000 troops coming home this summer and 5,000 more by the end of the year. An additional 20,000-plus are to follow by September 2012. That still would leave about 70,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, with many to come home gradually over two more years. Congressional Democrats argue that his timeline for bringing 33,000 home by next summer is too slow. Republicans worry that the drawdown will be too fast. Atta boy, Mr. President. If you are going to ruffle up some feathers, you might as well rile up the whole flock.

President Obama (Part II) - Any then there is the sagging U.S. economy. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said that Democratic demands that some tax increases be paired with the spending cuts have brought budget negotiations led by Vice President Joe Biden to an impasse. Cantor said that it's time for President Barack Obama to weigh in directly on the budget because Democrats insist on negotiating some tax increases. Same old story. The veep gets no respect. Step aside, Mr. Biden. Time to bring in the big guns. Nevermind the fact that he will probably say the same things that Biden has for the past several weeks.He also said that plenty of progress has been made in identifying trillions of dollars in potential spending cuts to accompany legislation to raise the $14.3 trillion cap on the government's ability to borrow money. Okay I'm confused. I thought the negotiations had reached an impasse. How can you make progress when you've hit an impasse? Passage of the legislation this summer is necessary to meet the government's obligations to holders of U.S. Treasuries. The alternative is a market-shaking, first-ever default on U.S. obligations. Pish posh. It wouldn't be the first time someone has "bounced a check". Oh sure, it is on a slightly larger scale, but basically its the same thing. You get hit with a service fee and move on. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to the fee for bouncing a $14.3 trillion check?

Sarah Palin - Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said she was pausing her "One Nation" bus tour to answer the call of jury duty and denied media reports her much hyped multi-state jaunt had been cut short. Many have viewed her bus tour as a possible campaign warm-up should Palin ever declare herself a White House candidate. Palin's did not say when her jury service might start or when she had been summoned to serve. I'll make this short and sweet. First, does anyone have a clue what this bus tour is all about? Second, please, for the love of God, let Palin run for president. The campaign will be so much more entertaining with her in it (who wouldn't want a front row seat to see Palin trade quips with Obama in a public debate?). And third, just how long does jury duty in Alaska last. I've been summoned for jury duty for almost 20 years, and have never lost more than a few days to fulfilling my civic duty.

Brand Names - Each year, 24/7 Wall St. regularly compiles a list of brands that are going to disappear in the near-term. Brands that have stood the test of time for decades are falling by the wayside at an alarming rate. Brands on this year's list are predicted to be gone within 18 months.

• Sony Pictures - Sony has a studio production arm which has nothing to do with its core businesses of consumer electronics and gaming. Sony bought what was Columbia Tri-Star Picture in 1989 for $3.4 billion. This entertainment operation has done poorly recently. Sony Entertainment will disappear with the sale of its assets. Hard to believe this is the studio that released "The Social Network" this past December.


• A&W - A&W Restaurants does not have the ability to market itself against larger chains and does not have the size to efficiently handle food purchases, logistics, and transportation costs compared to competitors many times as large. That said, they make the best rootbeer float...ever.


• Saab - with a potential of global sales below 50,000 a year based on manufacturing and marketing operations, and demand, Saab is no longer a financially viable brand. Really? They still sell that many?


• American Apparel - It is a small, under-funded player in a market with very large competitors with healthy balance sheets. It does not help matters that the company's founder and CEO has been a defendant in several lawsuits filed by former employees alleging sexual harassment. Well damn. How am I supposed to fill my closet now?


• Sears - The parent of Sears and Kmart is in a lot of trouble. Sears Holdings was created by a merger of the parents of the two chains in 2005. The operation has been a disaster ever since. Truth be told, I haven't been to a Sears store since I last bought a washer and dryer...7 years ago.


• Sony Ericsson - In a period when smartphone sales worldwide are rising in the double digits and sales of the iPhone double year over year, Sony Ericsson's unit sales dropped from 97 million in 2008 to 43 million last year. Geeze. Sony is having a tough year isn't it?


• Kellogg's Corn Pops - The cereal business is not what is used to be, at least for products that are not considered healthy. Corn Pops contain mono- and diglycerides, used to bind saturated fat, and BHT for freshness, which is also used in embalming fluid. The reference to embalming fluid sealed the deal for me.


• MySpace - MySpace, once the world's largest social network, died a long time ago. It held the top spot among social networks based on visitors from mid-2006 until mid-2008. Hmm. I wonder what happened? Let me ask you this. Which social networking site did you put your profile on, MySpace or Facebook


• Soap Opera Digest - The magazine's future has been ruined by two trends. The first is the number of cancellations of soap operas. The other insurmountable challenge is the wide availability of details on soap operas online. It's been awhile since I was in school, but I'm pretty sure one of the things I learned was that it is difficult to produce media on a given subject if there is not content to back it up.


• Nokia - Nokia is dead. Shareholders are just waiting for an undertaker. The world's largest handset company has one asset. Ouch. That's a pretty harsh assessment. True, but still harsh. For the record, I still have my Nokia. Perhaps I'm becoming a bit of a fuddy-duddy, but I sort of like the idea of my phone actually being just a phone.