Jan. 17: Afghanistan pullback? / Talking dogs/ Colbert's portrait

*Pulling back from Afghanistan?

Is the United States pulling back from the war it should be fighting?

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1614819820080117

Uh, weren't the Taliban the ones who were sheltering Osama bin Laden in the first place? About a month before 9/11, the Taliban began to give a frightening preview of what they intended for the west. President Bush's Iraq obsession shifted U.S. priorities away from Afghanistan, where we should have been all along. NATO's not to blame. Mr. Gates' boss is.


*And yet another reason those Countdown-to-Bush-departure calendars are so popular...

Bush ignores the environment, part 899:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sonar17jan17,0,738138.story?coll=la-home-local

We can't catch bin Laden or the Taliban, but it's comforting to know marine mammals are the real enemy.....


*No campaign in Florida (sort of), continued.....

USA Today has a piece:

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080117/a_florida17.art.htm

The good part (or bad part, if you work for a media organization): Few ads.


*Representing the Blustering Blowhard party

Lou Dobbs for President? I can't write it without cringing, but some people are serious:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/01/draft-lou-dobbs.html

I'm surprised no one's recruited Bill O'Reilly or Keith Olbermann or any other cable yakker yet.


*Woof! Woof! Woof!

This is self-explanatory:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22689420/

Maybe we can replace the cable yakkers with them. Besides, they're cuter.


*Getting out of our funk

Author Thomas Hine writes in USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080117/oplede18.art.htm

I wouldn't equate taking drugs with creativity. I do think that in some ways, people were more enlightened, better informed, far less obsessed with trivialities during that decade. And the television was better. The music, too.


*Baseball's response not good enough

Criticism from the new head of the World Anti-Doping Agency:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/sports/baseball/17baseball.html?_r=1&ref=baseball&oref=slogin

Actually, "baffling" and "frustratating" are par for the course for baseball's leaders and its players:

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080117/edtwo17.art.htm

How on earth are they going to fix this? It will take outside intervention - and, again, a change in leadership in both the commissioner's office and the players' union.


*Murphy's two-week marriage over

Well, that was fast:

http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN1613015920080117

And to further confuse matters:

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PEOPLE_EDDIE_MURPHY?SITE=MABOC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-01-16-23-04-59

It still doesn't beat the record of a certain female pop singer whose name I'm trying to avoid mentioning here, but it rhymes with "Sears."

*Picture of the day

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//080116/482/9487bce1985141c6a9c58d97de4cc6f0/

It's good to know the Smithsonian has a sense of humor.