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.