What Caught My Eye Today

Kenya - Clashes between rival tribes armed with machetes and bows and arrows marked the third, the bloodiest and what the government hopes is the last day of opposition protests over Kenya's disputed presidential election. With more than 20 people killed since Wednesday, the opposition announced a new strategy of economic boycotts and strikes to ratchet up pressure. President Mwai Kibaki insists he won the election, but international and local observers say the vote count was rigged. Kibaki's power has become more entrenched and he appears unlikely to accede to demands he step down. The opposition's best hope may rest in wrangling a power-sharing agreement that might make Odinga prime minister or vice president. Kenya has the biggest economy in East Africa and its ports and roads serve landlocked neighbors. The United States and other donors consider Kenya a vital partner in the war on terrorism and a regional economic and military powerhouse whose stability has stood in stark contrast to war-ravaged neighbors such as Sudan and Somalia, where Islamic extremism is rife. First of all, let's hope something can be done to re-establish peace and order for the citizenry. Secondly, I'm thinking that countries should start thinking twice about signing on as allies of the U.S. in the war against terrorism. First Pakistan, now Kenya is in the throes of political chaos. And both countries are touted as by the U.S. as key allies in the war on terrorism. Coincidence?

Iran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that President Bush sent a "message of confrontation" during his recent Mideast trip. "President George Bush sent a message to the Iranian people and all the nations worldwide. This message reflects his own conceptions and it is a message of rift, a message of sowing the seeds of division. It is a message of confrontation demeaning the dignity of mankind." Let's be fair, Mr. President. Bush wasn't demeaning the dignity of mankind, just you. The Iranian president said Bush's statements were made for domestic political reasons. "They are in need of these statements for their presidential race," said Ahmadinejad. I'm not so sure about that, sparkplug. See, President Bush isn't running for re-election. I'm pretty sure he's saying these things just out of spite. Ahmadinejad also lashed out at Israel, a key U.S. ally in the Mideast, saying the country was "rapidly doomed to collapse." "All these nations believe they (the Israelis) are a murderous group carrying arms and trying through threats to change their image," he said. See, to me these are constitute 'messages of confrontation.' Maybe Ahmadinejad should apply the same standards that he applies to Bush to himself.

Canada - A training manual for Canadian diplomats lists the United States as a country where prisoners risk torture and abuse, citing interrogation techniques such as stripping prisoners, blindfolding and sleep deprivation. That's not going to go over very well with the dudes in Washington. The Foreign Affairs Department document singled out the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay. It also names Israel, Afghanistan, China, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Syria as places where inmates could face torture. Nice company to be associated with, especially by an ally. The listing drew a sharp response from the U.S., a key NATO ally and trading partner, which asked to removed from the manual. Imagine that. Canada said the manual is for training, and does not amount to official government policy. Oh come on. You guys can come up with a better excuse than that, can't you? The government inadvertently released the manual to lawyers for Amnesty International who are working on a lawsuit involving alleged abuse of Afghan detainees by local Afghan authorities, after the detainees were handed over by Canadian troops. Just out of curiosity, what rocket scientist in the government managed to overlook the fact that these lawyers represented Amnesty International?

Peace - Omar Osama bin Laden, one of bin Laden's 19 children, says he and his wife want to be advocates for peace and are planning a 3,000-mile horse race across North Africa to draw attention to the cause of peace. Good for you, Omar. I bet you are the pride of the family, aren't ya? Omar lived with the al-Qaida leader in Sudan, then moved with him to Afghanistan in 1996. There, Omar says he trained at an al-Qaida camp but in 2000 he decided there must be another way and he left his father, returning to his homeland of Saudi Arabia. Although there is no way to confirm the details he describes of his childhood and upbringing, the strong family resemblance and Omar's knowledge of Osama's family life have convinced many of his lineage. Omar doesn't criticize his father and says Osama bin Laden is just trying to defend the Islamic world. Okay, so maybe Hitler wasn't such a bad guy either. He was just trying to defend the Aryan race. This guy is a piece of work. Omar is convinced a truce between the West and al-Qaida is possible. "My father is asking for a truce but I don't think there is any government (that) respects him. At the same time they do not respect him, why everywhere in the world, they want to fight him? There is a contradiction." Good point, Omar. Why should the U.S. hold a grudge against the dude who claimed responsibility for the September 11 attacks? They should let go of the past and look to the future. Maybe they should even apologize to Osama for putting a price on his head, right Omar? Seriously, I just don't see this cat being a beacon of peace. Good luck with that horse race, though.

Chess - Bobby Fischer, the reclusive chess genius who became a Cold War hero by dethroning the Soviet world champion in 1972 and later renounced his American citizenship, died of kidney failure at the age of 64. As a champion, he used his eccentricities to unsettle opponents, but Fischer's reputation as a genius of chess was soon eclipsed, in the eyes of many, by his idiosyncrasies. Fischer faced criminal charges in the United States for playing a 1992 rematch against Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia in defiance of international sanctions. Fischer vanished after the 1992 match and occasionally re-emerged to give interviews on a radio station in the Philippines. During one interview, Fischer praised the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying America should be "wiped out," and described Jews as "thieving, lying bastards." Well, yes, I can see how some of those idiosyncrasies could have rubbed some people the wrong way. Lucky for me, that I'm somewhat of a simpleton. No genius genes in me. I can only blame my jaded perspective on the world at large for all of my outbursts.

Tennis - Here's a quick recap of the early round action at the Australian Open. The top women's seeds advanced to the Australian Open fourth round in contrasting styles Friday but former champion Amelie Mauresmo was dumped from the tournament she won just two years ago. Mauresmo became one of the highest-profile casualties so far as defending champion Serena Williams and fifth seed Maria Sharapova outgunned their opponents and world number one Justine Henin endured a tough workout. A listless Jelena Jankovic battled through another draining three setter but the Serbian third seed managed to claw her way into the final 16. Andy Roddick crashed out of the Australian Open in a dramatic five-setter as other leading seeds Rafael Nadal and Nikolay Davydenko won their way into the fourth round of the Australian Open. American Mardy Fish also lost in the third round. I have to say that I'm a little surprised that all my picks are still alive (on the women's side, Henin, Kuznetsova and the Williams sisters and on the men's side, Federer and Nadal). Mid-way through the third round we still have 3 American men left (#12 James Blake, Sam Querrey, and Vincent Spadea) and 2 women (Serena and Venus). To put into perspective the U.S. contingent's performance, consider that in the men's draw, France still has 5 contenders and in the women's draw, Russia has 7 players still in it and Poland has the same number as the U.S.

What Caught My Eye Today

Economy - Where to begin? The doom and gloom is coming in from all over the place. How about the stock market first? Wall Street extended its 2008 plunge after a regional Federal Reserve report showed a sharp decline in manufacturing activity and as investors feared that downgrades of key bond insurers could trigger further trouble with souring debt. Stocks opened higher but quickly gave up their gains after the Philadelphia Federal Reserve said its survey of regional manufacturing activity registered a negative 20.9 from a revised reading of negative 1.6 in December. The Dow Jones industrial average lost more than 300 points, or nearly 2.5 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500, fell nearly 3 percent and the NASDAQ fell 47.69, or 1.99 percent. For those of you who just can't look away from a train wreck as it is happening, the Dow is down 8.33% for the year, the S&P 500 is off 9.2% and the NASDAQ--first among losers--has lost 11.51%.

Meanwhile, government officials are gathering to figure out how to jump start the economy...Lucky, us. President Bush told congressional leaders he favors personal income tax rebates and tax breaks for businesses to help avert a recession. Bush did not push for a permanent extension of his 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, many of which are due to expire in 2010. That would eliminate a potential stumbling block to swift action by Congress, since most Democrats oppose making the tax cuts permanent. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke voiced support for a stimulus package in an appearance before the House Budget Committee, but said it had to be quick and temporary.

Guess what? Yeah, that's right, I got an off-the-record conversation between Bush and Bernanke on how to fix the economy...

Bush: Alright, Ben. The economy is in trouble and needs our help. I'm an idea man. Gimme some good ideas. The economy is your deal,right? Gimme some good ideas.
Bernanke: Of course Mr. President. Putting money into the hands of households and firms that would spend it in the near term, but it has to be quick and temporary.
Bush: Good, good. So what do you have in mind?
Bernanke: Such a plan should be aimed at quickly getting cash into the hands of people, especially those with low and moderate incomes, preferably one that would act quickly, and not have a long-term adverse impact on the deficit. The design and implementation of the fiscal program are critically important.
Bush: No kidding, Sherlock. So what should the plan be?
Bernanke: Getting money to people quickly is good, and getting money to low and moderate-income people is good, in the sense of getting bang for buck because they tend to spend it quickly. Temporary expensing and depreciation provisions for businesses also could spur spending, which would help the economy. Congress might want to consider a diversified mix of elements.
Bush: Specifics, Ben. Gimme some specifics.
Bernanke: I think I've said all that I can on this subject. The rest is up to you and Congress.
Bush: God, you're useless!
Bernanke: Look who's talking.

Border Security - Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said new border-crossing rules that take effect in two weeks will mean longer lines and stiffer demands for positive ID, including for Americans returning to the U.S. A driver's license won't be good enough to get you past a checkpoint at the Canadian border, Chertoff said. That will be a surprise to many people who routinely cross the border, but Chertoff bristled at criticism that such extra security would be inconvenient. "It's time to grow up and recognize that if we're serious about this threat, we've got to take reasonable, measured but nevertheless determined steps to getting better security," There's an old saying, "Those of us who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones." Here's an idea, Mr. Secretary. Why don't you sit in one of these security lines at the airport while trying to catch that connecting flight--you know, the one that is already oversold and if you don't get on that plane, you'll be stranded for days--then come back and tell us how reasonable and measured this plan is.

2008 Presidential Race - If you read yesterday's post, I mentioned that the Democrats should figure out some way to grab back some of the political spotlight that the Republicans have had all to themselves in the run up to the Michigan primary. This isn't exactly what I had in mind. A federal judge allowed Nevada Democrats to hold presidential voting in casino hotels on the Las Vegas Strip, potentially helping Barack Obama in the next round of the campaign this Saturday. For the first time, Nevada Democrats planned to set up nine locations for Saturday's vote so casino shift workers, who are largely represented by a union that endorsed Obama, could attend caucuses and vote for a presidential candidate. A teachers' group filed a lawsuit saying the fact that only workers around the casinos could vote at their workplaces was unfair. So here's the deal. The lawsuit was brought by a teachers union--which endorses Hillary Clinton--against a casino workers union--which backs Obama. That's right, Democrats filing suit against Democrats. And get this. The issue they're arguing over is a ruling that makes it easier for more people to participate in the caucuses. Maybe you all could pick something else to focus your energies on.

Afghanistan - Defense Secretary Robert Gates denied reports of discontent between Washington and NATO allies over Afghanistan, a day after a newspaper quoted him criticizing NATO's counterinsurgency skills. Gates projected an image of unity among Western nations involved in Afghanistan during a Pentagon news briefing. "I mention this because there have been several recent media reports of discontent in the United States and among other NATO members about operations in Afghanistan," he said. "This does not reflect reality or, I believe, the views of our governments." But Gates, who had struggled in vain for months to convince other states to send more troops, also reiterated his comments about inadequate NATO training for counterinsurgency operations. Gates also said he had reluctantly asked President George W. Bush to approve the additional troops because it was clear European nations would not boost their force levels in Afghanistan. Here's what I want to know. What poor slob had to tell Gates that he had to apologize for the comments that he made on Wednesday? It's always the little guy delivering the bad news that gets fired over stuff like this.

China - China became the world's largest gold producer last year. China produced 276 metric tons of gold last year, equal to about 9.7 million ounces. That's up 12% from the year-ago and represented just over one-tenth of the world's supply. The ranking pushes South Africa into second place, the first time the gold giant has lost its top ranking since 1905. The title of top gold producer adds to a list of raw materials China can claim to produce more than any other country, including aluminum and steel. South Africa, which was producing as much as 1,000 tons of gold in 1970, has seen its mining production decline for five straight years. Accelerating a drop in output last year, the country's mining authorities started a crackdown on unsafe mines after 3,200 workers were trapped at Harmony Gold Mining Ltd.'s Eldestrand mine in October. Following an order by President Thabo Mbeki, the mining commission in the last three months started to requiring gold mines that suffer a fatal accident to suspend operations while a safety audit takes place. So that explains it. China could care a less about mining accidents. I'm also guessing that the added production of gold will probably push China up on another list as well--greenhouse gas emissions. If it does, at least the U.S. won't be the worst offender anymore.

What Caught My Eye Today

2008 Presidential Race - Republican presidential hopefuls Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson tussled over who's the true conservative while the Democratic contest in Nevada indicated the truce called over racially sensitive matters does not extend to other points of dispute.

We'll start with the Democrats today... Candidates pressed for advantage in Nevada's caucuses Saturday after a toned-down TV debate in which top rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama pledged to tamp down arguments between their camps over race. Clinton won the Democratic primary in Michigan, but her victory was essentially meaningless since the contest was held in violation of party rules and major Democratic candidates did not campaign there. I got nothing today. Nothing but a yawn. I'm sure its a temporary lull, but I'm not so sure the Democrats want to give this much of the political spotlight to the Republicans for very long.

Now to the GOP... Not even two weeks into voting, three candidates each have one major win thanks to three different constituencies, a reflection of a deeply divided GOP and the absence of an obvious successor to President Bush. Mike Huckabee prevailed in the Iowa caucuses with the support of fellow evangelicals. John McCain repeated his 2000 victory in New Hampshire with the overwhelming support of independents. And Mitt Romney, rallied Republican loyalists to post his first major win in Michigan; he also won barely contested Wyoming. Today, the three set their sights on South Carolina, where rival Fred Thompson has been camping out with hopes of a surprise upset that would upend the race yet again. Such an extraordinarily fractured field plays right into the strategy of Rudy Giuliani, who is on the brink of irrelevancy after badly losing the first four contests. Giuliani has planted himself in Florida in hopes of winning its primary Jan. 29, grabbing its winner-take-all 57 delegates and emerging as the GOP leader heading into Feb. 5 when some two dozen states vote. See what I mean? Look at all these plot lines compared to the Democrats. We've got us a good ol' shoot out, while over there the excitement ranks up there with watching paint dry.

Afghanistan - Tension among allies over the war in Afghanistan spilled into the open on Wednesday as NATO rejected U.S. criticism that some of its troops did not know how to fight a guerrilla insurgency. In rare comments publicly faulting allied operations on the ground, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates questioned whether NATO forces and advisers had the training to tackle Taliban and other insurgents behind rising bloodshed in south Afghanistan. Aside from the United States, NATO allies operating in south Afghanistan include Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, Estonia and Romania. Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay said that Gates had called him to say the quotes had been taken out of context and he had been talking generally about training to fight a counter-insurgency. A spokesman for the Dutch Defense Ministry said it was satisfied with the U.S. explanation. "We now understand he (Gates) was misquoted and that the U.S. is very happy with the situation with regards to the Dutch, Canadian and the UK in the southern part of Afghanistan, so we accept that explanation." So I guess that pretty much leaves Estonia and Romania. Call me a skeptic, but I have a hard time believing either of these two countries are that critical to this mission as to be responsible for the failure of ground operations. I'm guessing that Gates' concerns are probably well-founded. Unfortunately, he probably should have voiced his concerns behind closed doors as opposed to sharing them with the L.A. Times.

Pakistan - In an embarrassing battlefield defeat for Pakistan's army, Islamic extremists attacked and seized a small fort near the Afghan border, leaving at least 27 soldiers dead or missing. The militants did not gain significant ground, but they did further erode confidence in the U.S.-allied government's ability to control the frontier area where the Taliban and al-Qaida flourish. Attacks on security forces are rising in the volatile tribal region, and Pakistan is reeling from a series of suicide attacks that killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and hundreds more, chipping away at President Pervez Musharraf's prestige before February 18 parliamentary elections. A U.S. intelligence estimate last year said a Musharraf peace pact in 2006 with Taliban militants had allowed al-Qaida to regroup in Pakistan's tribal belt, a possible hiding place of Osama bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. In Florida, the head of the U.S. military's Central Command said the rise in violence was pushing Pakistan to be more open to suggestions that American troops train and advise Pakistani forces. I hate to sound like a broken record on this subject, but what exactly is it about Musharraf does Washington consider to be so valuable an ally in the war on terror? Based on these recent news reports, it would appear that Musharraf has pretty much lost his grip on the country. Heck at this point, I question his grip on reality.

New York - I want to preface this next story by warning my gentlemen readers that what follows contains some disturbing content... A construction worker claimed in a lawsuit that when he went to a hospital after being hit on the forehead by a falling wooden beam, emergency room staffers forcibly gave him a rectal examination. The alleged victim says in court papers that after he denied a request by emergency room employees to examine his rectum, he was "assaulted, battered and falsely imprisoned." emergency room staffers insisted on examining his rectum and held him down while he begged, "Please don't do that." He then hit a doctor while flailing around and staffers gave him an injection, which knocked him out, and performed the rectal exam. He woke up handcuffed to a bed and with an oxygen tube down his throat and spent three days in a detention center. He later learned the exam was one way of determining whether he had suffered spinal damage in the accident. That might have been useful information to share with the patient before he went off on his hissy-fit. And even if they had did explain the procedure, what give the hospital the right to force treatment on someone who has clearly refused. From what I could tell, it wasn't like the dude was mentally incapacitated, at least not until the hospital drugged him into unconsciousness.

Dogs - For the first time in 72 years, the bulldog has muscled its way back into the Top 10 most popular breeds in the nation. The top dog for the 17th consecutive year was the Labrador retriever, the American Kennel Club said. Other purebreds that made the most popular dogs list were the Yorkshire terrier at #2, followed by #3 German shepherd, #4 golden retriever, #5 beagle (the only breed that has been consistently included on the Top 10 since 1915), #6 boxer, #7 dachshund, #8 poodle, #9 Shih Tzu, and #10 bulldog. With the ascent of the bulldog, the miniature Schnauzer dropped off the list. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with the bulldog being included on this list, but the fact that no spaniel breed made the list suggests to me that there was some serious tampering going on with the survey results.

What Caught My Eye Today

I'm not forgetting about the Michigan primary. It's just that the polls don't close for another 4 hours and I've got to get ready for the season premiere of American Idol tonight. I'll have a recap for you next time.

Kenya - Kenya's parliament narrowly elected the opposition party's choice as speaker setting up a new showdown between a president and the rivals who accuse him of rigging his re-election — allegations that have led to weeks of deadly violence. The session was the first time President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga were in the same room since Odinga accused Kibaki of stealing the Dec. 27 vote. While the opposition had the most seats in parliament, neither party had had the two-thirds majority needed to elect the speaker in a first round vote, meaning both had to court legislators from minority parties during the first parliament session since the Dec. 27 general election. Marende was elected on the third vote. A week of violence after the vote killed at least 612 people and displaced hundreds of thousands, a government commission said. The crisis has crippled the country's billion-dollar tourist industry.

Here's a related news items that shows just how extreme the violence has been... For two terrifying hours, the woman crouched inside her shop, watching as a gang attacked five men in the street, pulled down their trousers and sliced their genitals with rusty machetes. In the violence that has followed Kenya's disputed presidential election, a notorious gang has been mutilating the genitals of both men and women in the name of circumcision — inflicting a brutal punishment on members of a rival tribe that does not traditionally circumcise. Many of the mutilation victims belong to the Luo tribe of opposition presidential candidate Raila Odinga, say witnesses and even a recruiter for the gang itself. The gang, called the Mungiki, draws mostly from President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, which has long dominated politics and business in this East African country. It's hard to fathom how that sort of violence can come from a closely contested election. Honestly, how many of us could conceive of the Democrats and Republicans coming to blows like this after the 2004 U.S. presidential election debacle?

Guatemala - Alvaro Colom was sworn in as Guatemala's first leftist president in more than 50 years, promising to fight poverty in a nation where half the people live on less than $1 a day. Colom, who led Guatemala's efforts to coax thousands of refugees back home after its civil war ended, took office in a ceremony attended by world leaders including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Colombia's Alvaro Uribe, who recently clashed over a hostage mission. Despite his ideology, Guatemala's new leader said he doesn't want to be identified with other leftist governments in Latin America, including that of Chavez. In recent years, left-of-center leaders have been elected in Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay and Venezuela. So a leftist leader invites a bunch of his leftist brethren to his inauguration, but says he doesn't want to be identified with them. So like maybe if Colom didn't invite them to his inauguration as dignitaries, he wouldn't have this perception of being associated with them. He's not the sharpest tools in the shed, is he?

Japan - Japanese whalers detained two activists accused of throwing acid at and illegally boarding their vessel in Antarctica. An official denied claims the men were assaulted and tied to the mast. An Australian and Briton from the environmental group Sea Shepherd — which has been tailing ships involved in Japan's annual whale hunt — forcibly boarded the Yushin Maru No. 2 and were being held in the ship's office, Japan's government-backed Institute for Cetacean Research said in a statement. Commercial whaling has been banned worldwide since 1966 but Japan conducts its annual whale hunts under a program it insists is for scientific purposes. Critics call it commercial whaling in disguise. In fairness to the whaling ships, if they were boarded illegally, then I think they had every right to detain the trespassers. One can only hope that the accusations of tying the trespassers to the ship mast are unfounded. Besides, I'm thinking these are rather large vessels. Do they even have masts on these things? Of course, Japan's assertion that it must kill whales to study them still has me scratching my head. How much studying can you possibly do on a whale? You'd think that after all these years, Japan could have figured out all it need to know about whales.

Minnesota - Undersized gusset plates in the Interstate 35-W bridge in Minneapolis were "the critical factor" in the bridge collapse last year that killed 13 people and injured 100, the National Transportation Safety Board said. the plates, which connected steel beams, were roughly half the thickness they should have been because of a design error. Once they made it into the completed bridge, there was little chance they would be noticed by inspectors. The Minneapolis bridge was deemed "structurally deficient" by the federal government as far back as 1990, and the state's maintenance of the structure has been questioned. But the NTSB investigation has found no evidence that cracking, corrosion or other wear "played any role in the collapse of the bridge." So with the facts now it the books, it remains to be seen how this information will be acted upon. Based on the current state of our nation's infrastructure, it appears that a lot of hard decisions will need to be made by state and federal government officials. Neither one exactly inspire much confidence, do they?

Economy - Consumer spending, the critical bulwark that has kept the country out of a recession, is showing signs of cracking. Retail sales plunged by 0.4 percent last month as consumers battered by a sinking housing market, rising unemployment and the credit crunch, handed retailers their worst Christmas in five years. Analysts said the worry is that all the problems weighing on the economy could prompt consumers — who account for two-thirds of economic activity — to sharply limit or even stop shopping. Already, consumer confidence has slipped significantly amid the oil price spiral and the continuing housing slump. At the same time, some of the nation's biggest financial institutions have reported billions of dollars in losses stemming from a meltdown in the mortgage market. Oh and by the way, that sucking sound you hear in the distance is the life being sucked out of the stock market, which lost another 281 points today on the Dow and almost 61 points on the NASDAQ exchange. In the 9 days of trading so far this year the Dow is down 5.76% and the NASDAQ is down 8.85%. But don't get me wrong. There's no indication that we're headed toward recession.

Austria - Okay folks, here is our first contender of 2008 for the "So bizarre, it must be true" title... Austria's Supreme Court has dashed hopes by animal rights activists to have a chimpanzee, named Matthew Hiasl Pan, declared a person. The court's decision follows in the footsteps of a similar ruling last fall. In September, a provincial judge dismissed the case, ruling the Association Against Animal Factories has no legal standing to argue on the chimp's behalf. The legal back and forth began in February, when the animal shelter where Pan and another chimp, Rosi, have lived for 25 years filed for bankruptcy protection. Activists want to ensure the apes don't wind up homeless. Both were captured as babies in Sierra Leone in 1982 and smuggled to Austria for use in pharmaceutical experiments. Customs officers intercepted the shipment and turned the chimps over to the shelter. Donors have offered to help with the upkeep costs, but under Austrian law, only a person can receive personal gifts. Organizers could set up a foundation to collect cash for Pan, whose life expectancy in captivity is about 60 years. But they argue only personhood will ensure he isn't sold to someone outside Austria, where he's protected by strict animal cruelty laws. First, don't get me started on why anyone in their right mind would name a chimp, Matthew Hiasl Pan. Seriously, what up with that? Secondly, one would think that there is a more sensible way that the welfare of these two chimps could be dealt with other than sending the case to the Supreme Court. Don't you folks have anything more important to deal with?

What Caught My Eye Today

Middle East - President Bush delivered a sophisticated weapons sale for Saudi Arabia trying to bolster defenses against threats from U.S. adversary Iran and muster support in this oil-rich kingdom for a long-stalled Mideast peace agreement. Nothing like a good old fashioned bribe among friends. Among ordinary Saudis and across much of the Mideast, Bush is unpopular, particularly because of the Iraq war and unflinching U.S. support for Israel. Imagine that. Bush, who dislikes late nights, also stayed up well past his regular 9:30 p.m. bedtime for after-dinner talks with the king in the walled compound of his opulent palace. Its marble floors and walls contain sheets of gold, colored with precious stones and embedded jewels. Way to take one for the old Stars and Stripes, Mr. President. I guess that's why they say 'war is hell.' The weapons sales are a key element in Bush's strategy to shore up defenses against Iran, which the president has deemed the world's top state sponsor of terrorism. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, with majority Sunni Muslim populations, harbor deep suspicions about Shiite Iran's rising power and want to make sure the U.S. remains committed to keeping Tehran's ambitions in check. Correct me if I'm wrong. Didn't we pretty much employ the same logic with Iraq? Seems to me that didn't work out to well for us in the end.

Cocaine - How long has it been since we've had a good drug story? Too long, I say. U.S.-directed seizures and disruptions of cocaine shipments from Latin America dropped sharply in 2007 from the year before, reflecting in part a successful shift in tactics by drug traffickers to avoid detection at sea. The 2007 figure was the lowest since 2003, other officials said. Last year's drop broke a string of yearly increases in cocaine seizures and disruptions dating to the late 1990s. The commander of U.S. Southern Command, which is responsible for U.S. military operations in the region, said seizures fell from 262 metric tons in 2006 to about 210 tons last year. "It's difficult to say why that is," he said. I think the Navy brass is complicating something that's rather simple. The numbers are down, because the drug traffickers are finding different ways to hump the stuff in. Sounds pretty simple to me. Maybe you guys should stop sampling the product that you seize.

2008 Presidential Race - First up, the Republicans... Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and John McCain traded charges over the economy and abortion, in what has become a bitter personal duel on the eve of the important Michigan primary. One day before the Republican contest in Michigan, where Romney and McCain are neck-and-neck in new polls, the focus was on the state's slumping economy. Romney is hunting for a breakthrough win in Michigan on Tuesday after second-place finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire. A third failure could effectively end his White House dreams. Victory by McCain would cement him as Republican front-runner but he would still face challenges from Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani in upcoming contests in South Carolina and Florida. Well its about time for some good old fashioned mudslinging. This is a campaign, boys, not a beauty pageant. Take the gloves off and start acting like politicians, for crying out loud. You don't see the Democrats playing nice do you?

Speaking of which, here's an update on the Democrats... Democratic presidential rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama stepped back from a controversy over race agreeing that a prolonged clash over civil rights could harm their party's overall drive to win the White House. Nooooo!!! Obama was the first to try and quell the controversy that flared in the Democratic campaign in recent days. Referring to Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards, he said that while they may have disagreements, "we share the same goals. We're all Democrats, we all believe in civil rights, we all believe in equal rights." Clinton's campaign issued a statement in the same vein about an hour or so after Obama spoke, saying it was time to seek common ground. "And in that spirit, let's come together, because I want more than anything else to ensure that our family stays together on the front lines of the struggle to expand rights for all Americans," she said. Just when things were starting to get entertaining...I mean interesting...these guys kiss and make up. What is this country coming to? On a more serious note, the Democratic candidates are pretty much MIA for the Michigan primary, because the Democratic National Committee is punishing Michigan for moving up its primary date by not counting its delegates. Yeah, there's a wise move. Let's piss off the state nice and early so they have plenty of time to come up with a way to get even in November.

Sports - Here's my take on recent happenings in the world of sports:

Golf - The PGA got under way this weekend with K.J. Choi winning the Sony Open in Hawaii by 3 strokes over Rory Sabbatini. At the risk of stating the obvious, Tiger Woods skipped this tournament. Looking into my crystal ball, I'm putting myself down for Tiger getting at least 8 victories, including wins at the Masters and British Open.

Tennis - After a lengthy off season of about a day or so the season's first Grand Slam--the Australian Open--got under way this week. Seeing as I've got the bloody thing out already, lets see who the crystal ball has winning the event. On the women's side of the draw: I'll go with Justine Henin (1) vs. Serena Williams (7) and Venus Williams (8) vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova (2) in the semi-finals and an all Williams final with Serena taking the title. On the men's draw: Like it matters. It'll be Roger Federer (1) and Rafael Nadal (2) in the final. Gimme Federer.

Football - Okay so I forgot that the playoffs started last week. The real action was this past weekend in the divisional playoffs. I was a bit bummed when the San Diego Chargers (#4 seed) knocked off the Indianapolis Colts (#2 seed), but the New York Giants (#5 seed) made up for it by whacking the Dallas Cowboys (#1 seed). So for my final prediction of the week, I'll take Green Bay over the Giants for the NFC Conference title, and New England over San Diego for the AFC title. For the Super Bowl, let's just say I'm on the Pats bandwagon for a perfect 19-0 season.

What Caught My Eye Today

Surfing - A 24-year-old California surfer won Saturday's big-wave surf contest off the Northern California coast near Half Moon Bay. Greg Long of San Clemente was named the winner of the Mavericks surf contest after competing in the all-day event against 23 other elite surfers. Long and his fellow surfers were whisked out on jetskis to conquer the giant storm-generated swells about a half-mile offshore from Pillar Point Harbor, about 20 miles south of San Francisco. Some waves towered more than three-stories tall. Thousands of surf fans gathered on cliffs and beaches to watch the contest, which was also broadcast live at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Grant "Twiggy" Baker of South Africa came in second and Jamie Sterling of Hawaii came in third. Alright, surfer bros'. That's all the surfing that you're likely to see on the blog for the rest of 2008. See ya, next year.

Middle East - President Bush said he is open to the possibility of slowing or stopping plans to bring home more U.S. troops from Iraq, defying domestic demands to speed the withdrawals. Updated on war developments, Bush said the U.S. presence in Iraq will outlast his presidency. The president was cheered by news that Iraq's parliament had approved legislation reinstating thousands of former supporters of Saddam Hussein's dissolved Baath party to government jobs. Bush had prodded Iraqi leaders for more than a year to enact the law. The war, now in its fifth year, was a dominant theme during Bush's stops in Kuwait and Bahrain, two Persian Gulf nations crucial to U.S. military efforts in the region. Iran also is a main issue of Bush's trip, particularly in the five Gulf nations he is visiting. Nervous about Iran's military might and rising influence, Gulf leaders also are anxious about last week's confrontation between U.S. and Iranian naval vessels off their shore. Arab allies want assurances that Bush is not interested in starting a war that could threaten military bases on their soil or the lucrative oil trade through the Strait of Hormuz. But they also want security commitments from the president. Despite all the grief that the president has taken over his handling of the war in Iraq (not that he cares about what anyone else has to say on the subject), it must be liberating to know that he can pretty much do whatever he wants between now and January 20, 2009. The dude has nothing to lose.

Literacy - Nearly one-third of Arabs are illiterate, including half of Arab women, according to a report from the Arab League. Three-quartes of the 100 million illiterate people in 21 Arab countries are between the ages of 15 and 45. The Arab League is urging Arab countries to focus on adult literacy, especially for women to avoid "a severe threat to the social development of Arab nations." I'm sure this probably has to do with the fact that I'm a brainwashed Westerner, but if you ask me, I'd say that ship has already sailed. And another thing, maybe instead of spending tens of billions of dollars on a war that no one supports anymore, maybe we could invest that money (and probably a lot less of it) into literacy programs for Arab women and children. You know, its possible that these Arab countries might even appreciate the gesture.

Gold - Earlier this month, gold soared to $859 an ounce in intraday trading, above its highest ever close of $850. But consider this: in 2007, gold rose less than corn or oil and, is still well below its inflation-adjusted peak of about $2000, which it hit in 1980. Gold rose 30% in 2007. By comparison, corn rose 122% and oil rose 77%. Among the biggest gold producers, South Africa ranked first at 12%, followed by the U.S., China and Australia at 10%, Peru at 8%, Russia at 7%, Indonesia at 5% and Canada at 4% (For you math whizzes out there, the rest of the world accounts for the remaining 34%). Nothing particularly good or bad about these statistics. I just happened to find them rather interesting. And being the self-absorbed, greedy, capitalist pig that I am, I'm rather obsessed with the topic of money, or in this case, gold.

Movies - Will Smith set an opening weekend record for films released in December with his latest flick, I Am Legend, which raked in $77.2 million in its first days of release. But he's not the box office champ--Daniel Radcliffe, aka Harry Potter, is. Here are the numbers to back up young Mr. Potter:

	Daniel Radcliffe	Will Smith	Tom Cruise	Tom Hanks
Number of films	5	17	28	28
Avg Opening Weekend	$90.4 million	$36.5 million	$22.6 million	$17.1 million
Avg U.S. Box Office	$235.2 million	$120.2 million	$96.8 million	$103.9 million
Top Grossing Film	Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, $317.6 million	Independence Day, $306.2 million	War of the Worlds, $234.3 million	Forrest Gump, $329.7 million

What Caught My Eye Today

Just out of curiosity, what was so fascinating about yesterday's post? I usually get handful of hits on any given day, but yesterday was off the charts. At any rate, I'm starting off today's posting with a shout out to the 2008 Mavericks Surf Contest in my home town...

Surfing - One of the Bay Area’s most powerful winter tempests in recent years became a boon to the world’s elite surfers as waves reached heights treacherous enough for the much-anticipated Mavericks Surf Contest to begin tomorrow. With yesterday's announcement, the 24 surfers invited to the contest were put on notice to make their way to the legendary surf spot about 20 miles south of San Francisco for the weekend event. The winner will receive $30,000 while second place will get $12,000, third place will get $7,500, fourth place $3,5000, fifth place $2,500 and the sixth place competitor will receive $1,500. The Mavericks contest has been waged five times since its inauguration in 1999. It wasn't held last year because the seas were never quite suitable. Most surf contests have a specific day, but the Mavericks contest just sets a window of time so that the contest can be held on a day when the conditions are just right. If you happen to be in the vicinity, do the locals a favor and watch the contest online (http://www.myspace.com/maverickssurf). The roads are already too congested and it's not like you can actually see what's going on from shore anyway. The contest is held nearly a half mile offshore.

Air Travel - Millions of air travelers may find going through airport security much more complicated this spring, as the Bush administration heads toward a showdown with state governments over post-Sept. 11 rules for new driver's licenses. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who was unveiling final details of the REAL ID Act's rules on Friday, said that if states want their licenses to remain valid for air travel after May 2008, those states must seek a waiver indicating they want more time to comply with the legislation. Chertoff said that for any state which doesn't seek such a waiver by May, residents of that state will have to use a passport or certain types of federal border-crossing cards if they want to avoid a vigorous secondary screening at airport security. Oh goodie. I was afraid that some aspect of flying the friendly skies might actually be getting better. Now we can add longer security lines to the litany of things that suck about air travel.

Middle East - Two items of note on President Bush's trip to the Middle East...

A teary-eyed President Bush stopped in front of an aerial photo of Auschwitz on Friday at Israel's Holocaust memorial and said the U.S. should have sent bombers to prevent the extermination of Jews there. The issue of bombing the Nazi death camps or the rail lines leading to them has been debated for years — and the lack of action was interpreted by some as a sign of Allied indifference. The Allies had detailed reports about Auschwitz toward the end of World War II from escaped prisoners. But they chose not to bomb the camp, the rail lines, or any of the other Nazi death camps, preferring instead to focus all resources on the broader military effort. I wonder what future Presidents will say about our inaction in Africa. Funny how history tends to repeat itself.

The Bush administration will notify Congress on Monday of its intent to sell $20 billion in weapons, including precision-guided bombs, to Saudi Arabia, moving up the announcement to coincide with the president's arrival in Riyadh. Officials said the new timing was "appropriate" and "symbolic" as it would come within hours of Bush's arrival in Saudi Arabia, the penultimate stop on his current Middle East trip. Although administration has staunchly defended the sale as critical to U.S. interests, its desire to sell Saudi Arabia sophisticated weaponry has raised eyebrows from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who say the transfer of Joint Direct Attack Munitions technology would lend it highly accurate targeting abilities that could threaten Israel. I'm no expert when it comes to international affairs and the complex game of checks and balances that exist in the Middle East, so this may come off as a bit naive on my part. Perhaps, if we stopped providing weapons and weapons technology to the Middle East, maybe they would not use said weapons to kill each other.

2008 Presidential Race - In an attempt to give equal time to both major political parts, I offer you headlines from both the GOP and the Democrats.

GOP - About a dozen senior campaign staffers for Rudy Giuliani are forgoing their January paychecks, a sign of possible money trouble for the Republican presidential candidate and last year's national front-runner. Giuliani's campaign manager is one of those who now is working for free. He disputed the notion of a cash-strapped operation and said Giuliani continues to bring in money; several fundraisers are scheduled this week in Florida. The former New York mayor has yet to win a contest and is counting on a victory in delegate-rich Florida on Jan. 29 to prove his candidacy is viable heading into the multi state contests slated for Feb. 5, where he believes he can prevail in states such as California and Illinois. So if money isn't an issue, why is his campaign manager skipping his paycheck? Call me a skeptic, but I find it hard to believe this dude is doing all this simply because he's a nice guy.

Democrats - Hillary Clinton called for Congress to pass an economic stimulus package that could cost as much as $110 billion to help low-income families keep their homes, to subsidize heating costs this winter and perhaps refund some taxes. The proposal, Clinton's campaign said, would provide 37 million Americans with energy assistance. Hundreds of thousands more families would get help to avoid foreclosure, according to the proposal. Clinton's economic advisor didn't say how they would pay for the new plan, but he insisted it was a one-time expenditure. Advisers said they would not raise taxes or cut other programs, likely meaning it would be added on to the national debt. Since when has a little think like the national debt ever stopped Congress or the President from spending money that the Treasury doesn't have? If that was the case, we would have been out of Iraq a long, long time ago. Still, its stuff like this that makes Clinton look like presidential material. At least that what her campaign hopes.

The Universe - I figured that with all these stories about obscure places like the Maldives and Gibraltar that I've been laying on you this week, maybe it was time to visit the other end of the spectrum. The deeper astronomers gaze into the cosmos, the more they find it's a bizarre and violent universe. The research findings from this week's annual meeting of U.S. astronomers range from blue orphaned baby stars to menacing "rogue" black holes that roam our galaxy, devouring any planets unlucky enough to be within their limited reach. Scientists are finding that not only are they improving their understanding of the basic questions of the universe — such as how did it all start and where is it all going — they also keep stumbling upon unexpected, hard-to-explain cosmic quirks and the potential, but comfortably distant, dangers. One example is an approaching gas cloud discussed at the meeting Friday. The cloud has a mass 1 million times that of the sun. It is 47 quadrillion miles away. But it's heading toward our Milky Way galaxy at 150 miles per second. And when it hits, there will be fireworks that form new stars and "really light up the neighborhood." Now before you plan that trip to Vegas for one last bender before Armageddon, you should know that the chance of a "rogue" black hole swallowing the earth is about one in one quadrillion (that's a thousand billion or 1 followed by 15 zeroes). And that gas cloud deal. Yeah, that's about 40 million years from happening.

What Caught My Eye Today

FBI - This is a good one. Read on and you'll see what I mean... Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau's repeated failures to pay phone bills on time. A Justice Department audit blamed the lost connections on the FBI's lax oversight of money used in undercover investigations. In one office alone, unpaid costs for wiretaps from one phone company totaled $66,000. In at least one case, a wiretap used in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation "was halted due to untimely payment," the audit found. FISA wiretaps are used in the government's most sensitive and secretive criminal and intelligence investigations, and allow eavesdropping on suspected terrorists or spies. Don't get me wrong, I'm not thrilled about the loss of information that could be potentially vital to the security of the United States, but you have to admit, it's pretty funny that even an agency with the prestige of the FBI can have its phone service turned off when it forgets to pay its bills. Maybe somebody should remind them about paying their electricity bills, just in case.

Middle East - President Bush called for a halt to Israel's military occupation of land the Palestinians claim for a state and an end to the terrorist threat over the Jewish homeland, spelling out the U.S. bottom line for ending the long and bloody Mideast conflict. Bush's peacemaking checklist, combining existing U.S. policy with a few new elements, was his most detailed summary yet of U.S. expectations for resolving some of the hardest issues in a final peace accord. The biggest hurdles to an agreement are: conflicting claims to the holy city of Jerusalem, different views about the outlines of a future Palestinian state, and the fate of Palestinian refugees and millions of their descendants. Guess what, boys and girls? I got my hands on the unpublished version of the checklist. Here are some of the highlights...

Checklist for Securing My [Bush's] Legacy - aka Checklist for Mideast Peace

1. Destroy Hamas and take credit for it. If that doesn't work, blame Iran or Syria.


2. Create a Palestinian state. If necessary, pay off the Israelis with some new weapons to close the deal.


3. Have new Palestinian state declare a national holiday in honor of me.


4. Send memo to Clinton--"I'm better than you are."


5. Get nominated for and win Nobel Peace Prize.


6. Send memo to Gore--"Now I've got one too, and I was President."


7. Send memo to Congress--"Congress? I don't need no stinkin' Congress."--just to piss those little peckerheads off.

2008 Presidential Race - Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama picked up a major endorsement with the party's 2004 nominee John Kerry announcing he would back his U.S. presidential bid. Kerry's endorsement was a snub to former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, his vice presidential running mate in 2004, who is also running for president but is a distant third in national polls to New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Obama. The endorsement by Kerry, who lost the 2004 election to Bush, could boost Obama's presidential bid by attracting more support from the Democratic establishment, which has largely supported Clinton, the former first lady. You know, I just don't see that happening. The dude lost to Bush for crying out loud. Heck, if I'm Edwards I'm thinking, 'Good riddance, you chump.' And if I'm Obama, I'm scratching my head, 'What did I do to deserve this?'

Ecuador - Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano is poised for a major eruption, a volcanologist said Wednesday. Authorities last week evacuated 10 villages from its western slopes as a precaution. A U.S. expert on volcanoes said the 16,575-foot volcano, located 80 miles southeast of Quito, "is preparing to generate, in days or weeks, a great eruption" that could mean pyroclastic flows — blasts of volcanic material "that descend at high speeds and burn everything in their way." Tungurahua erupted in July and August of 2006, causing at least four deaths. The eruptions forced the evacuation of thousands of villagers and damaged thousands of acres of crops buried under tons of ashes and lava flows. Well that sounds bad, doesn't it. The last time I heard the word 'pyroclastic' was in a cheesy film called, Dante's Peak (which I have to confess I've seen dozens of times). You have to say this about Mother Nature. When she decides to put on a display of who's really in charge of this place we like to call Earth, she pulls out all the stops.

Mount Everest - Sir Edmund Hillary, the unassuming beekeeper who conquered Mount Everest to win renown as one of the 20th century's greatest adventurers, died at age 88. Hillary's life was marked by grand achievements, high adventure, discovery, excitement — and by his personal humility. Humble to the point that he only admitted being the first man atop Everest long after the death of climbing companion Tenzing Norgay. He had pride in his feats. Returning to base camp as the man who took the first step onto the top of the world's highest peak, he declared: "We knocked the bastard off." Hillary remains the only non-political person outside Britain honored as a member of the Britain's Order of the Garter, bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II on just 24 knights and ladies living worldwide at any time. He reached the summit of Everest four days before Elizabeth was crowned Queen of Britain and the Empire on June 2, 1953. She immediately knighted the angular, self-deprecating Hillary, who was just 33. If you don't have a pint of ale in your hand. Go get one and raise it up in a toast to "Ed." That's the sort of tribute he would have liked.

What Caught My Eye Today

Afghanistan - The Pentagon is preparing to send at least 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan in April to bolster efforts to hold off another expected Taliban offensive in the spring. The move represents a shift in Pentagon thinking that has been slowly developing after months of repeated insistence that the U.S. was not inclined to fill the need for as many as 7,500 more troops that commanders have asked for there. Instead, Defense Secretary Robert Gates pressed NATO allies to contribute the extra forces. The proposal would send a ground and air Marine contingent as well as a Marine battalion — together totaling more than 3,000 forces — to southern Afghanistan for a "one-time, seven-month deployment." I like how the duration of the deployment is emphasized in quotes. I'm sure that is just to indicate a quote from a reliable, but anonymous, Pentagon official. Currently there are about 27,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, including 14,000 with the NATO-led coalition. The other 13,000 U.S. troops are training the Afghan forces and hunting al-Qaida terrorists. Bush administration officials pressed NATO allies for months to fill gaps in troops levels in Afghanistan, but many allied governments face public opposition to deeper involvement there. I guess the difference between the U.S. and its NATO allies, is that President Bush is at the end of his tenure, so it doesn't matter what the public opposition here is to sending more troops to Afghanistan. What does he have to lose? Legacy? Nah, I don't think so. That was shot to hell way before this.

2008 Presidential Race - Another one bites the dust... New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson ended his campaign for the presidency today after twin fourth-place finishes that showed his impressive credentials could not compete with his rivals' star power. Richardson had one of the most wide-ranging resumes of any candidate ever to run for the presidency, bringing experience from his time in Congress, President Clinton's Cabinet, in the New Mexico Statehouse as well as his unique role as a freelance diplomat. As a Hispanic, he added to the unprecedented diversity in the Democratic field that also included a black man and a woman. You know what all those credentials say to me? ESTABLISHMENT. Screw all that experience, we want change, darn it. In all seriousness, I have no idea what this guy stood for. Heck I know more about him for this announcement than I did before. Maybe that's why he's bowing out of the race. For those of you keeping track, we're down to 5 Democratic contenders and 8 Republican contenders. Last I checked, there are 19 candidates running for various third party nominations and 23 independent candidates. So still plenty of bad choice to choose from.

Gibraltar - Yup, time for another geography lesson. Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located near the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar. Britain and Spain have settled a long-running dispute over Gibraltar that blocked the European Union from ratifying some international conventions, including treaties on aviation and on children. EU ratification of a number of conventions had been held up for years by a disagreement between London and Madrid rooted in their dispute over the sovereignty of Gibraltar, a British colony at the foot of Spain. Spain had objected to British plans to appoint officials in Gibraltar to administer the treaties. Spain argued that this would recognize that Gibraltar had competence in foreign policy, a power Spain rejects. Britain and Spain had compromised on a so-called "post-boxing" system under which communications between Spain and Gibraltar involving the treaties will go through London. Britain captured Gibraltar in 1704 and Spain ceded sovereignty to London nine years later, but ever since, it has been fighting to regain the strategic spur that sits at the entrance to the Mediterranean. Far be it from me to criticize a diplomatic compromise, but what exactly did Spain get out of this? Seems to me that the British got the better end of the deal. Then again, if everyone is satisfied, who cares?

Mexico - A 10-year-old Mexican boy glued his hand to his bed to avoid going back to school after the Christmas break. "I thought if I was glued to the bed, they couldn't make me go to school," the boy said. "I didn't want to go, the holidays were so much fun. I remembered my mom had bought a very strong glue," he said of the industrial strength shoe glue he used to stick his hand to the bed's metal headboard, where he stayed stuck for two hours. His mother was unable to free him and called paramedics and police to help. The boy watched cartoons while they worked to unglue him, eventually using a spray to dissolve the chemical adhesive. He eventually made it school a few hours late. Admittedly, this isn't the most newsworthy story on the face of the planet, but for me it shows just how simple it can be to solve a problem when you are a child. Don't want to go to school? No problem. SuperGlue your butt to a piece of furniture. No elaborate lies or sophisticated espionage, just SuperGlue. Simple, but darned effective. Us adults could learn a thing or two for this, don't you think?

Golf - Golf Channel suspended anchor Kelly Tilghman for two weeks for saying last week that young players who wanted to challenge Tiger Woods should "lynch him in a back alley." Tilghman was laughing during the exchange Friday with analyst Nick Faldo at the Mercedes-Benz Championship, and Woods' agent said he didn't think there was any ill intent. But the comments became prevalent on news shows and the Rev. Al Sharpton joined the fray by demanding she be fired immediately. Can you say Don Imus? I listened to the sound bite, and have to say that had I been listening to the broadcast real time, I probably wouldn't have noticed. However, as much as it pains me to agree with Al Sharpton, the treatment this anchor is getting is no more or less deserved that what Don Imus was subjected to. In this day and age, there is a fine line between what is interpreted as harmless quips and racial slander. Clearly, she intended no harm and Tiger Woods didn't feel otherwise, but the fact remains that she did say something of questionable taste.

What Caught My Eye Today

2008 Presidential Race - As I wrote this posting this evening the totals were still coming in. John McCain won the New Hampshire primary completing a remarkable comeback and climbing back into contention for the Republican presidential nomination. Hillary Rodham Clinton moved out to a surprising lead over Sen. Barack Obama in the Democratic race. On the Republican side, it was a bitter blow for Mitt Romney, who spent millions of dollars of his own money in hopes of winning the kickoff Iowa caucuses and the first primary — and finished second in both. Mike Huckabee, who won the leadoff Iowa GOP caucuses last week, was running third in New Hampshire. On the Democrat side, Clinton, who finished third in Iowa, was mounting an unexpectedly stiff challenge to Barack Obama. Interviews with voters leaving their polling places showed she was winning handily among registered Democrats, while Obama led her by an even larger margin among independents. John Edwards was running a distant third. My first reaction to whoever wins this primary on each side is, "Good for you. Two down, 48 more to go." I don't want to discount the effects of momentum. All you have to do is look at the streak Obama is on to notice that there is some effect. However, primary season has only just begun, and being a Californian, I'd like to still have some candidates to choose from when February 5th comes. That said, I find myself having to recant some criticisms that I made of Hillary Clinton yesterday. I read that girlfriend became emotional just prior to the New Hampshire primary and basically told her to get a grip. I saw the actual video footage this morning. Other than a momentary pause, all she was guilty of was speaking from the heart...or really good acting. Mea culpa, Senator.

Maldives - Before we go any further, the Republic of Maldives are an island nation in the Indian Ocean. With that on with this really cool story... A quick-thinking Boy Scout foiled an assassination attempt on the president of the Maldives today, grabbing an attacker's knife as the man leapt from a crowd and lunged at the leader. President Maumoon Gayoom was unhurt, but his shirt was ripped as the attacker tried a second time to stab him before being overpowered by security guards. Mohammed Jaisham Ibrahim, wearing his blue Maldives scout uniform with a blue kerchief, was standing in the crowd to greet Gayoom. The attacker hid a knife in the Maldivian flag as he awaited Gayoom's arrival, then lunged at the president. Ibrahim reached out and grabbed the blade, and he was cut on the hand. The assassination attempt may have had a "political motive," but it was too early to say if Islamic militants were involved. Opposition to Gayoom's three-decade rule has grown in recent years and there have also been concerns about increased Islamic militancy in the Muslim nation. Setting aside for the moment the ramifications of this assassination attempt and increased Islamic militancy--neither of which have historically lead to positive development--how cool is it that this Boy Scout acted on instinct to save another person's life? Well done, my boy.

Economy - President Bush said that he is watching very carefully to see if the struggling U.S. economy needs a short-term boost from the federal government. He wouldn't comment on any specific ideas he is considering, such as tax cuts aimed at lessening the chance of a recession. Yesterday, Bush talked about recent indicators that have been "increasingly mixed," a new recognition of the challenges now facing the economy, primarily resulting from a severe housing crisis. Previous Bush statements have paid attention to the financial fears of many American families and the effects of the housing slump, but focused on what he calls the strong fundamentals underpinning the economy. 'A new recognition'? Is Bush like the last guy to figure this out. You have to wonder if he employed the same criteria for selecting his economic advisers as he did picking his former Attorney General and Secretary of Defense. 'A new recognition'...give me a break. Here's a suggestion, Mr. President. Why don't you pick up a newspaper or turn on the television once in a while. Between reports on who's likely to be your replacement, you might just here a sound bite here and there about how the U.S. economy is going down in flames.

Fashion - A decade after singling out the Spice Girls as fashion atrocities, Mr. Blackwell put just one of them — Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham — at the top of his 48th annual worst-dressed list. "Forget the fashion spice, wearing a skirt would suffice! In one skinny-mini monstrosity after another, pouty posh can really wreck-em," he said in a statement. The top 10 roll-call of fashion dishonors also included: #2. Amy Winehouse — "Exploding beehives above, tacky polka-dots below, she's part 50's carhop horror;" #3. Mary Kate Olsen — "She resembles a tattered toothpick-trapped in a hurricane;" #4. Fergie — "Yes, when it comes to couture chaos, guess it's all in a name!" The rest of the top 10 list included Kelly Clarkson, Eva Green, Avril Lavigne, Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan and Alison Arngrim. Missing from the list was Britney Spears, who has made it many times before. "I felt that it was inappropriate at this time to make comment, when her personal life is in such upheaval. I hope 2008 is a better year for her," Blackwell said. Blackwell also released a Fabulous Fashion Independents list that included Reese Witherspoon, Jemima Khan, Beyonce, Angelina Jolie, Helen Mirren, Nicole Kidman, Katie Holmes, Kate Middleton, Katherine Heigl and Cate Blanchett. It's not so much the stars that he singles out, but the hyperbole that Blackwell uses to describe the fashion crimes that he accuses these stars of committing. I'll refrain from dumping on these fine individuals, not because I feel sorry for them (hell, no), but rather because I would be somewhat of a hypocrit in doing so. My fashion sense pretty much fits into a thimble.

Britney Spears - It was just another night on the town last night, and then another headline in the tabloids on Tuesday, for Britney Spears after the pop star had her car towed away and her visit to a high-end hotel triggered a scuffle between a photographer and a security guard. Honestly, I just cannot bring myself to dump on this broad anymore. It's just too easy. The challenge is gone.

College Football - The carnage, otherwise known as my fantasy college bowl picks, is finally over. I did manage to break .500 thanks to the GMAC bowl and the BCS Championship Game. My final tally came in at 18 out of 32. The Southeastern Conference proved its dominance as the nation's top conference as Louisiana State and Georgia finished as the top two teams in the final Associated Press Poll. The SEC has won three of the last five national championships behind LSU and Florida. LSU, which finished the regular season ranked No. 2, earned 60 of the 65 first-place votes and 1,620 points. Entering the bowl season ranked fourth, Georgia vaulted two spots to No. 2 with three first-place votes and 1,515 points. Southern California finished third after disposing of then-No. 13 Illinois, 49-17, in the Rose Bowl. The Trojans (11-2), who received one first-place vote and 1,500 points, finished the season with 11 wins for a school-record sixth straight season. Missouri (12-2) claimed the fourth spot and Ohio State dropped from first to fifth in the final poll. West Virginia (11-2), which ended its season with a victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl, finished sixth followed by Kansas (12-1), which received the final first-place vote and 1,303 points. Oklahoma (11-3) and Virginia Tech (11-3) finished No. 8 and No. 9, respectively, while Boston College (10-3) and Texas (10-3) tied for the 10th spot. Tennessee (10-4) starts the second 10 at 12th, followed by Florida (9-4), Brigham Young (11-2) and Auburn (9-4). Arizona State (10-3), Cincinnati (10-3), Michigan (9-4), Hawaii (12-1) and Illinois (9-4) round out the top 20. Clemson (9-4), Texas Tech (9-4), Oregon (9-4), Wisconsin (9-4) and Oregon State (9-4) complete the poll. Virginia (9-4), Boise State (10-3), Arkansas (8-5) and South Florida (9-4) dropped out of the poll after bowl losses. My final word on the awesomely unpredictable 2007-2008 college football season is this--PLAYOFF.

What Caught My Eye Today

2008 Presidential Race - A teary-eyed Hillary Clinton pushed for support as polls showed her poised for a huge New Hampshire loss to Democratic rival Barack Obama, but the former front-runner vowed to carry on with her presidential quest even if she loses. Obama warned supporters against overconfidence as a flood of new surveys gave him a double-digit lead over Clinton one day before the state primary. In the Republican race, John McCain held a more narrow lead over Mitt Romney in new polls. He scrambled across the state to urge supporters to get out and vote -- and asked them to bring a friend. One recent poll showed Obama with a 10-point edge on Clinton in the state, 39% to 29%, as he rode a wave of momentum from his win in Iowa. The same poll has McCain leading Romney by 5 points. Clinton and Romney are both under pressure to revive their campaigns after disappointing showings in Iowa, and a second consecutive loss for either could be devastating. I appreciate the appeal of polls. They're entertaining and sometimes, I daresay, even a bit insightful. But honestly, Hilary, they're just polls. Maybe you should wait until the results come in before you open the old flood gates. In fact, I'd like to suggest a new rule for the rest of primary season. To paraphrase a famous line from A League of Their Own...'there's no crying in primaries.' For pete's sake, we've only had one caucus so far (okay 2 for the GOP, I forgot Wyoming). Get a grip, people.

Speaking of Wyoming, where's the love for these guys? Iowa has been getting press for months (for its 37 delegates), but there's no mention of the Wyoming GOP caucuses (for its 12 delegates)? What up with that? Incidentally, Mitt Romney walked away with 8 delegates, Fred Thompson, 3, and Duncan Hunter, 1. No mention of John McCain or Mike Huckabee here.

Iran - An Iranian fleet of high-speed boats charged at and threatened to blow up a three-ship U.S. Navy convoy passing near Iranian waters, then vanished as the American ship commanders were preparing to open fire, according to the top U.S. Navy commander in the area. The three U.S. warships — cruiser USS Port Royal, destroyer USS Hopper and frigate USS Ingraham — were headed into the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz on what the U.S. Navy called a routine passage inside international waters when they were approached by five small high-speed vessels believed to be from Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy. No shots were fired an an Iranian official in Tehran said the incident amounted to "something normal." Bush administration officials complained that the Iranian actions amounted to a dangerous provocation. I'm not sure which is more amusing, that Iran considers playing chicken with warships "something normal" or that the U.S. considers 5 little motor boats with guns mounted on them to be a "dangerous provocation". Heck, the most that these warships had to worry about was the possibility of hull damage if they accidentally ran over one of these patrol boats.

Supreme Court - Lethal injection procedures pose a danger of cruelly inhumane executions with excruciating pain, an attorney for two death row inmates told the U.S. Supreme Court in a capital punishment case that has drawn worldwide attention. But attorneys for the state of Kentucky and the Bush administration defended the three-drug cocktail currently used in nearly all U.S. executions and said the drugs, if administered properly, would result in a painless death. Opponents argue that inmates are often not rendered fully unconscious by the first drug in the cocktail as they are supposed to be before the second drug, a paralytic, is administered. They suffer when they are conscious while the paralytic and the third drug, which burns as it enters the system, are given. The justices appeared closely divided between conservative and liberal factions during the arguments that represented the first time the high court has considered a specific means of execution since it upheld the use of firing squads in 1879. So it seems to me that support for the current protocol is based on the injections being administered in a competent manner. If that is the case, how often does a licensed physician or anesthesiologist administer a lethal injection or is even present in the death chamber observing? if this is the most compelling argue that Kentucky can come up with, you'd think that this might be a slam dunk case. Unfortunately, it appears that partisan politics will rule the day. So much for an impartial judiciary.

Media - So like, this writer's guild strike is starting to get serious... The Hollywood Foreign Press Association said that the traditional Golden Globe Awards ceremony has been canceled and will be replaced with a news conference format. The move came after striking writers threatened to picket the event. Faced with a threat by actors to boycott the ceremony rather than cross picket lines, the association and NBC were forced to adopt another approach for the ceremony. The association will forgo the typical network payment, reported to be $5 million, it receives for the broadcast. On the bright side, I won't have to suffer the humiliation of having to watch all my picks for Best Actor, Best Drama, et cetera, et cetera lose. In all seriousness, this was my favorite awards show of the year. It's the only one that honors achievements in both television and film. And more importantly, it doesn't have an emcee making wisecracks all night and apologizing for how long the show has dragged on (you know the one I'm referring to).

Britney Spears - Or maybe I should say Dr. Phil. In either case, what a bunch of pinheads... Television personality and psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw scrapped plans to air a show about Britney Spears after he was criticized for a visit to the troubled pop star in hospital on the weekend. McGraw went to see Spears at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles where she was admitted last week in a fit of hysterics over the handover of her two young sons to her ex-husband Kevin Federline. McGraw has been accused of breaching Spears' privacy by other counselors on various media after he visited the pop star on Saturday morning just before she was released. McGraw said he had planned to tape a show on Monday focused not on the tabloid side of Britney's problems, but on other issues surrounding this case. "Because the Spears situation is too intense at this time, and out of consideration to the family, I have made the decision not to move forward with the taping," said McGraw. So basically, public outrage rather than a sense of decency or professional ethics forced Dr. Phil not to exploit Britney's demise. Gee, that's nice. I'm the first to admit that I've taken my fair share of shots at Britney Spears and her apparent total lack of judgment, but I'm not a freaking, psychologist, for chrissake. I've never been a big fan of Dr. Phil, and up until now, I chalked up my indifference to not really caring one way or the other what this dude had to say. Now, I genuinely dislike the man.

What Caught My Eye Today

Sorry for the minor delay in postings. Perhaps you heard that California got hit with some nasty weather these past couple of days and the power outages that accompanied the storms. Yeah, I was one of the lucky ones who got an unexpected break from the comforts of electricity. On the bright side, I was able to start on a book that I've been looked forward to World Without End, by Ken Follet. It's the sequel to Pillars of the Earth, which I re-read over the Christmas holiday on my brief sojourn south of the border. Though I'm only a few chapters into it, I have to say that, the plot lines are rather promising. Alright, then. On with the news of the day...

2008 Presidential Primary - In case you had not heard, Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses for their respective parties. Next up is the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday. Here's an update on both the Republican and Democrat contenders. First up, the Republicans (don't read anything into this--it's the first article I read... Republican Mitt Romney, trying to prevent a potentially crippling New Hampshire primary loss, cast himself as a change agent as he tried to repel rival John McCain and answer Iowa caucus voters who showed they have tired of the status quo in Washington. Noting that freshman Sen. Barack Obama beat Hillary Rodham Clinton, a second-term senator and former first lady, Romney said Iowans "wanted to see someone who said they would do something new and change Washington." While Romney has cast himself as a political outsider throughout his campaign, the theme has been overshadowed by his aggressive courting of social and fiscal conservatives. That, in turn, has triggered questions about his authenticity amid a flip-flop on abortion rights and a change in emphasis on his views about gay rights, tax policy and other issues important to conservative voters pivotal in GOP primaries.

So let me see if I have this straight. Romney is portraying himself as the Barack Obama of the Republican Party? That's one I didn't see coming. Let's see how things are going for the Democratic contenders...

Barack Obama wants to be the Big Tent Democrat. Fresh from his victory in Iowa, Obama courted New Hampshire's famously unaligned voters, embracing all political persuasions and borrowing language from Republican John McCain, a favorite of New Hampshire's independent voters eight years ago. "If you know who you are, if you know what you believe in, if you know your principles, if you know what you are fighting for, then you can reach out to those you don't agree with." Then, lifting McCain's catch phrase, he added: "We need someone who exercises straight talk instead of spin." Say what? Okay, now I'm totally confused. First, we have Mitt Romney pretending to be Barack Obama, then we have Barack doing all he can to impersonate John McCain. It's a world gone mad.

Incidentally, two more Presidential hopefuls dropped out after the Iowa caucuses, both from the Democratic party, Senator Joe Biden from Delaware and Senator Chris Dodd from Connecticut. That leaves 6 candidates for the Democratic nomination and 7 for the Republican nomination (click here for more information).

Al Qaeda - An American al Qaeda militant urged Islamist militants to welcome President George W. Bush with bombs when he visits the Middle East this week and tore up his U.S. passport on camera. Adam Gadahn, also known as Azzam the American (that has a certain Je-ne-sais-quoi , don't you think?), said the jihad against the United States would continue until it released Muslims from its jails. Gadahn devoted most of the tape, entitled "An Invitation to Reflection and Repentance," to a detailed explanation of the shortcomings of U.S. foreign policy and Western Christian civilization and their defeat at the hands of Islam and Muslims. "The first question Americans might ask is: has American really been defeated? The answer is yes and on all fronts," said Gadahn. "American and coalition officials have stated repeatedly that they are unable and unwilling to face the mujahideen in Afghanistan and Iraq militarily but are still trying to win the battle for hearts and minds, which they have also lost in spectacular fashion despite the equally spectacular amounts they have spent in pay-offs and propaganda." Gadahn also listed Pakistan, Chechnya, North Africa and Somalia as areas where the United States was losing its battle against Islamist groups. Well, my goodness. If Azzam the American (or as I prefer to call him, Gadahn the Delusional) say that America is losing, I say we pack up our toys and run home with our tail between our legs. What I don't get is how Al Qaeda thinks this dude is going to bolster its reputation. Just by reading his comments you can tell that he's not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.

Supreme Court - The Supreme Court, in a case being watched around the world, will hear arguments about whether to ban the lethal three-drug cocktail used in most U.S. executions because it inflicts excruciating pain. The hour-long session marks the first time in more than a century the court has examined a specific method of capital punishment. It comes at a time when the death penalty itself appears to be in retreat in one of the few democracies that still practices it. Arguments will focus on whether the commonly used lethal injection method violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, but the case has also prompted a wider debate about capital punishment. Executions across the United States have come to a temporary halt since the court agreed in late September to hear the case. Last year, 42 people were put to death -- a 13-year low -- while 110 defendants were sentenced to die, the lowest number since 1976 when the Supreme Court restored capital punishment. I did a little checking on the death penalty and what I found might surprise you a bit. The United States, ranked 6th in the world for the most executions carried out in 2006 at 53, behind the likes of China (official 1,010, but probably closer to 7,500), Iran (177), Pakistan (82), Iraq (65) and Sudan (65). Nice company to be associated with, isn't it? Whether or not the death penalty acts as a deterrent or not, is debatable. The fact that the United States is one of the few so-called civilized countries to allow the death penalty is not. Seriously, guys, this isn't working anymore. Let's stop the madness.

Pakistan - Things must really be getting out of hand in Pakistan... Thousands of Pakistanis have fled into Afghanistan with the security situation deteriorating in Pakistan's tribal regions over the past week. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says historic clashes between Shias and Sunnis in the villages in Kurram, North West Frontier Province, have escalated in the past couple of weeks. Over the past three decades millions of Afghans fled the violence in their country during the Soviet occupation, the civil war and then in the fighting that saw the Taleban take control of Afghanistan. With the rise of the Pakistani Taleban and militant Islamic groups along the Pakistan side of the border, the UN says it now appears that parts of Afghanistan are safer for families. The scary part is that this exodus of Pakistanis into Afghanistan is due to reasons beyond the chaos surrounding the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Pakistan is a powder keg just waiting to explode--and this particular powder keg happens to have nuclear bombs.

College Football - After all that doom and gloom, what better way to wrap up the day's events than reviewing my stellar picks for the college bowl season. With two games left to be played, the annual tussle between the BCS #1 (Ohio State) and #2 (LSU) and that awesome annual showdown known as the GMAC Bowl between 2 teams that only die hard college football fans care about, I am a whopping 16 for 30, which is good enough to put me into the 26th percentile in Yahoo Sports College Bowl Pick'em. And this, my friends, is why I don't play in fantasy leagues. It's not that I don't enjoy the challenge, but that I am so bad at picking winners. You'd think by sheer dumb luck that I could do better than .500.

What Caught My Eye Today

2008 Presidential Campaign - The flippin' thing has finally started, like for real. Hallelujah. Democrats Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards fought for first in Iowa's presidential caucuses today while Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee vied for the Republican victory. Iowans rendered their judgments in meetings at 1,781 precincts. At stake are 45 delegates to the Democratic National Convention this summer in Denver and 37 to the GOP gathering in St. Paul, Minnesota. 45 delegates? Big deal. All I know is that in another 24 hours, I won't have to hear anymore soundbites about gettin' all my friends and neighbors together down at the ol' rec hall to do some caucusing. Enough already.

Pakistan - President Pervez Musharraf vehemently denied that Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies were behind Benazir Bhutto's killing, and implied she was partly at fault. Despite threats by militants, Bhutto poked her head out of the sunroof of her vehicle to greet supporters at an election rally, Musharraf said. He conceded there were shortcomings in Pakistan's investigation into the assassination but rejected accusations of a lapse in security for the former prime minister. "The same military and intelligence agencies are using the same people who are attacking them? It's a joke." Maybe it's the conspiracy theorist in me, but wouldn't it actually be easier to assassinate Bhutto if it was an inside job as opposed to what Musharraf so eloquently said was a 'joke'? I mean really, if the assailants had the same information as the military and intelligence agencies, it's not an enormous stretch of the imagination to believe that it would make this assassination attempt a lot easier to pull off.

CIA - The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee warned in a 2003 letter that destroying videotapes of terrorist interrogations would put the CIA under a cloud of suspicion, according to a newly declassified copy of the letter. "Even if the videotape does not constitute an official record that must be preserved under the law, the videotape would be the best proof that the written record is accurate, if such record is called into question in the future," California Congresswoman Jane Harman wrote in a Feb. 10, 2003 letter to then-CIA general counsel Scott Muller. "The fact of destruction would reflect badly on the agency." Last month, the CIA acknowledged destroying videos showing the harsh interrogation of two top al-Qaida suspects — Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. CIA Director Michael Hayden said the videos, which were made in 2002, were destroyed in 2005 out of fear the tapes would leak and reveal the identities of interrogators. Hayden said the sessions were videotaped to provide an added layer of legal protection for officers using tough interrogation methods authorized by President Bush to help break down recalcitrant prisoners. So I'm a little slow in grasping the obvious sometimes. The CIA Director has openly admitted destroying tapes that would show agents breaking the law because they were authorized to do just that by President Bush. And now we have this de-classified letter written 2 years before the 2005 incident, warning that destroying videotapes would be a bad thing to do (golly whiz, do ya think?). What is it exactly that the Justice Department is investigating? Seems to me the evidence is piling up without them having to do much of anything. It's not like we still have Alberto Gonzales still running the show. Attorney General Michael Mukasey appears to have half a brain in his head. You'd think that would be enough for this deal.

India - These guys, and their monkeys. What a country. Kind of hard to believe that they managed to build a nuclear arsenal. A northern Indian state said it planned to use unemployed youths to sterilize monkeys to try to combat aggressive primates who have been raiding farms. Indian authorities have struggled in recent years to deal with the tens of thousands of monkeys that live in and around cities. They are drawn to public places such as temples and office buildings, where devout Hindus feed them, believing them to be manifestations of the god Hanuman. In recent months, the deputy mayor of New Delhi was killed when he fell from his balcony during an attack by wild monkeys, and 25 others were injured when a monkey went on a rampage in the city. The idea drew immediate condemnation from conservationists, who said the plan was unscientific and would likely worsen the problem. I'm no conservationist, but seriously, how much worse can it get? You've got a bunch of monkeys stampeding cities and killing people. Oh sure, you'd have to put a gun to my head to get me to try and sterilize an 'aggressive primate,' but if you can find some willing--though completely brain dead--volunteers to give it a shot, what do you have to lose?

Britney Spears - I love this broad. We're only three days into the new year, and she's making headlines already. Britney Spears finally appeared for a deposition in her child-custody battle with Kevin Federline, her ex-husband's lawyer said. Spears was deposed for just 14 minutes. Spears called in sick for a Dec. 12 court-ordered deposition, but was photographed that day driving with a friend. She also didn't show up for a session yesterday. Meanwhile, Spears' attorneys filed a court motion asking to be relieved due to a "breakdown" in communication with their client. Kevin Federline's attorney said Spears' attorneys were present for what became a very abbreviated session. "The deposition proceeding did go forward today. It was scheduled for 9:45 to 11:45. However, it wasn't able to commence until 11:32. You can imagine in 14 minutes there's not a lot of time to develop questions," he said. You just knew that Britney had to do something to draw all that attention away from her 16-year pregnant sister, Jamie Lynn. Besides, what's so special about that little tramp? Britney's already had two children, two failed marriages, a really bad haircut, and one of the sorriest displays of lip syncing of all time as the opening act for last year's MTV Video Music Awards. Just try and top that, you little hussie.

What Caught My Eye Today

Kenya - A mob torched a Kenyan church killing villagers cowering inside, as the death toll from ethnic riots triggered by President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election soared to nearly 200. About 30 people died when fire engulfed a church near Eldoret town where scores of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe had taken refuge in fear of their lives. The explosion of violence in one of Africa's most stable democracies and strongest economies has shocked the world and left Kenyans aghast as long-simmering tribal rivalries pitch communities against each other. Most deaths have come from police firing at protesters, witnesses say, prompting accusations from rights groups and the opposition that Kibaki had made Kenya a "police state." So much for hoping that the African continent would start off 2008 on a peaceful note. This sort of incident puts into perspective something that we take for granted here in the United States. Every four years we elect ourselves a president, and other than some minor rumblings among those voters whose candidate did not win, the transition of power is always peaceful and optimism high. Truly a remarkable accomplishment, one that we shouldn't take too lightly.

Pakistan - Pakistan's Interior Ministry backtracked Tuesday on its statement that Benazir Bhutto died because she hit her head on a sunroof latch during a shooting and bomb attack. The government also published a reward offer in several national newspapers to anyone who could identify two suspects from the killing. The medical report made no mention of the sunroof latch and listed the cause of death as "Open head injury with depressed skull fracture, leading to Cardiopulmonary arrest." Pakistan's Interior Ministry said late last week it was from a bullet or shrapnel wound, but then it announced a day later that Bhutto died from a skull fracture suffered when she fell or ducked into the car as a result of the shots or the explosion and crashed her head into a sunroof latch. Bhutto's family and political party maintain that the government is lying, and insist she died from gunshot wounds. Several videos show a gunman firing a pistol toward her just moments before a bomb detonated nearby as she left a rally. I find it fascinating that Pervez Musharraf has been so conspicuously quiet on this matter. One could argue either way whether Benazir Bhutto was given adequate protection from the government, but you have to figure that Musharraf isn't too broken up over the fact that he will no longer face her in the general election, whenever it takes place.

Iraq - The U.S. military death toll in Iraq for December is the second-lowest monthly death toll of the war, although 2007 has been the deadliest year for U.S. troops. As of last night, the death toll for December was 21, higher only than the 20 U.S. troops who died in February 2004. The year started with 83 deaths in January and 81 in both February and March. The numbers jumped dramatically in the spring, to 104 in April, 126 in May and 101 in June. The U.S. government has reported 899 U.S. troops have died in Iraq in 2007, 50 more U.S. deaths than in 2004, which had been the deadliest year of combat in Iraq. The Iraq War began in March 2003. Since then, 3,895 U.S. troops and seven civilian Defense Department contractors have died in Iraq. Let's all hope and pray that 2008 continues that trend of that last few months of 2007 and that Iraq continues to make security improvements as the U.S. troop 'surge' ends and the draw down begins. You have to figure that at this point the Iraqi people are as tired of having U.S. troops occupy their country as we are.

2008 Presidential Race - I want to preface this next story by saying, it's about freaking time... According to national survey conducted for The Associated Press and Yahoo News, just over half of all voters said New Hampshire and Iowa have an extraordinary amount of influence over who wins the two nominations. Fewer than one in five voters said they favor the current system that allows Iowa and New Hampshire to hold the first contests, while nearly 80 percent would rather see other states get their chance at the front of the line. Both states have been criticized as unrepresentative of the country given their size and lack of racial diversity. Iowa — population 3 million — is 95 percent white; New Hampshire — population 1.3 million — is 96 percent white. Democrats tried to inject more diversity into the process by adding early contests in Nevada and South Carolina, but Iowa and New Hampshire moved even earlier. Every one of the 21 Iowans who participated in the AP-Yahoo survey think their state and New Hampshire have just the right amount of influence over the presidential selection process. In New Hampshire, two of the five participants said the two states don't have enough power. Not enough power? Give me a break. No other caucus or primary will receive even a fraction of the coverage that these two states have garnered. Between the two of them, Iowa and New Hampshire have 11 electoral votes, and probably won't even be mentioned when the votes are tallied in November, yet they have all this sway over the primary season. These folks should be happy that they get such a disproportionate amount of the limelight at all, let alone whine about not having enough power. Good grief.

Vocabulary - Lake Superior State University's published its 33rd annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness. And the winners are...PERFECT STORM, WEBINAR, WATERBOARDING, ORGANIC, WORDSMITH/WORDSMITHING, AUTHOR/AUTHORED, POST 9/11, SURGE, GIVE BACK, 'BLANK' is the new 'BLANK', BLACK FRIDAY, BACK IN THE DAY, RANDOM, SWEET, DECIMATE, EMOTIONAL, POP, IT IS WHAT IT IS, and UNDER THE BUS.

Well there you have it. I think it's sweet that these guys are giving a little something back to society. I remember back in the day, when lists about this or that were the new thing. Oh sure you may get a little emotional about the surge of content being authored by random folks seeking to decimate the establishment and make their mark on pop culture with their notions of organic thought. But honestly, isn't a little humor just what we need in the Post 9/11 era? It's not like we're being thrown under the bus or be subjected to waterboarding. It is what it is.