Monday Newsbreak: 12/31

--It is with sadness that I note the passing of Pakistani opposition leader and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto through assassination. What a troubled place Pakistan is these days! The tragedy that began this sad progression of events, in my humble opinion, was the initial inability for Pakistan and India to remain united nationally when they achieved full independence after World War II. The conflicts that Pakistan endured with India as well as the mass migrations of Muslims and Hindus across the newly formed national boundaries in 1947 seem to have fueled a more militant, political form of Islam than in some other parts of the world. With 9/11 and the subsequent war in Afghanistan with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda fleeing into Pakistan, the situation has reached powder-keg proportions. And now this!

--Well, the Iowa caucuses are coming up this Thursday, and hopefully the results will cause some of those fringe candidates to finally see the light and drop out. I'm getting quite tired of them getting equal billing with the main candidates during this seemingly endless procession of televised debates. As far as I can tell, the only remaining viable candidates for the Democrats are Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards. Dennis Kucinich will never drop out because he's on his great, oh-so principled mission. But others like Joseph Biden (whom I would have happily supported over the others) and Bill Richardson should count their blessings and go on to more fruitful ventures. On the Republican side, though, the field is much wider, with five candidates (Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, John McCain, and Fred Thompson) still in the hunt. For those who would say that Ron Paul should be included on this list, I say, "C'mon!" Both Giuliani and Clinton have been playing the "after 9/11, I'll protect you more than the others" card, with Giuliani utterly shameless about it. My pre-caucus endorsements (for all of you Iowans reading my blog with baited breath) are Mike Huckabee (with John McCain close behind) for the Republicans and Barack Obama (with Hillary Clinton acceptable) for the Democrats. I believe that an Obama-Huckabee race would crystallize the 2008 general election as a truer referendum on which direction our country needs to go, instead of a contest based on fear and character assassination.

-The National Football League regular season has ended, and now it's time for the playoffs. Two Florida teams (Tampa Bay and Jacksonville) made the playoffs, and that's two more than last year! New England went undefeated (boo-hoo) and Miami finally won a game (whoopee). Dallas, who I picked before the season to beat Denver in the Super Bowl, is still a favorite to reach it. But the mile-high Broncos failed to reach the altitude of their expectations this year, dismally failing to even make the playoffs (although I'll trade their record for Miami's any day).