Prescient Am I

Saw this headline: 10 States Sue EPA Over Global Warming...

Thought to myself, "Bet they're all Blue States!"

Le'see now:

• New York - yep!
• California - yep!
• Connecticut - yep!
• Maine - yep!
• Massachusetts - yepper!
• New Mexico - yep! (although their voters were screwed over by their eVoting system - Or do you really believe it just a coincidence that John Kerry lost every freakin' district w/e.machines in that state?)
• Oregon - uh huh!
• Rhode Island - bluest yet!
• Vermont - whaddya think, Brotherman the Elder?
• and Wisconsin - and there y'go, Russ Feingold!
  
  All filed the lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Progressives wanna breathe clean air. Is that so wrong, you red-state bastards!!??

Freedom Spreads Back

I count this as no small victory:

President Bush's visit to Stanford University's Hoover Institution was quickly moved to another location after more than 1,000 protesters converged around the Hoover tower.

Viva la Revolucion... !!

Off Rum

Josh Marshall pretty much nails it on Donny Boy:

With Rumsfeld, or any other cabinet secretary, there's a related problem -- the importance of which has, I think, not been fully appreciated or aired. If Rumsfeld goes, you need to nominate someone else and get them through a senate confirmation. That means an open airing of the disaster of this administration's national security policy. Every particular; all about Iraq. Think how much they don't want that ...

Laser precision there, Josh. Bullseye!

Oh No He Dittn't... !!

Tom Cruise makes me miss Michael Jackson:

TOM Cruise yesterday revealed his latest bizarre mission..to eat his new baby's placenta.

Cruise vowed he would tuck in straight after girlfriend Katie Holmes gives birth, saying he thought it would be "very nutritious".

The Mission Impossible star, 43, said: "I'm gonna eat the placenta. I thought that would be good. Very nutritious. I'm gonna eat the cord and the placenta right there."

Just shared this with a colleague. "You know," she mused, "it probably is very nutritious. Animals do that all the time in the animal kingdom. Cats and dogs do it mid-birth to sustain and fortify themselves... "

I sensed a 'but' coming along and prompted, "But... ?"

"But that's nasty!"

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Update: Jon Stewart said on The Daily Show last night that Cruise is now saying it was meant in jest, even as major dailies were printing it as news. Particularly so, Stewart grinned widely as he pondered the position Cruise is in having to repeatedly deny he meant it.

Joe Blow

Oh goody goody!! The tea leaves in Connecticut are readin' poorly for Mr. Mashed Potato-Face (Okay, okay, it's personal. I used to be a news anchor for WELI in New Haven back in the early 90s, and had my own little run-in w/the neo-con schmuck.):

Joe Lieberman's best friend Colin McEnroe and AP Capitol Reporter, Susan Haighs, were on WTIC's Beyond the Headlines on Sunday and they explained why everyone should take Ned Lamont's campaign very seriously. They also go into why Joe's running scared and threatening to run as an independent (here's a hint: it's becasue there's a VERY good sign that Lamont will beat him in the primary).

Go Ned!

The Greatest Place In The World

Fenway Pahk on Patriots Day!!!

Mark Loretta wanted to feel the whole celebration, even the fun-filled pounding that comes from teammates at the plate after a game-ending home run. Loretta hit a two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning and the Boston Red Sox, saved by Kevin Youkilis' hustle, rallied past the Seattle Mariners 7-6 Monday in the annual Patriots Day game.

"I've never experienced it before at any level -- Little League, high school or college level," he said. "Just complete euphoria. You kind of have to take a step back and think `is the game really over?'"

Loretta's shot landed in the Monster Seats, where moments earlier many fans turned around to watch the women's leader of the Boston Marathon running through Kenmore Square.

Part of my thrill of this is being an old Fenway vet, having seen the likes of Yaz, Pudge Fisk, and El Tiante in their heyday, giving us our daily thrill. Remind me to tell you the one about Opening Day in '77!! Where me & Brotherman the Younger skipped school to sit in the bleachahs...

Nowhere else does this happen in America (well, maybe >cough!< Yankee Stadium). And today, as it's described by a player heretofore unexperienced with the Fenway atmosphere, like it was the World Series. Here it is, only April! Throw in the Marathon, and it's a bloomin' dream, where one moment you're in one place, and the next you're somewhere else entirely.

God, but I miss Boston in the Spring!!

Shovels Full Of Shovelling Jesus

shovel shovel... shovelling jesus... jesus... shovelling... jesus shovel jesus shovel... shovel... shovelling jesus... shovel jesus jesus shovelling... shovel shovel... shovelling jesus... jesus... shovelling... jesus jesus... shovel... shovelling jesus... shovel jesus jesus shovelling... shovel shovel... shovelling jesus... jesus... shovelling... jesus jesus... shovel... shovelling jesus... shovel jesus jesus shovelling... shovel shovel... shovelling jesus... jesus... shovelling... jesus jesus... shovel... shovelling jesus... shovel jesus jesus shovelling... shovel shovel... shovelling jesus... jesus... shovelling... jesus jesus shovel jesus shovel jesus... shovel... shovelling jesus... shovel jesus jesus shovelling... shovel shovel... shovelling jesus... jesus... shovelling... jesus jesus... shovel... shovelling jesus... shovel jesus jesus shovelling... shovel shovel... shovelling jesus... jesus... shovelling... jesus jesus... shovel... shovelling jesus... shovel jesus jesus shovelling... ad nauseum...

Blah Blah Blah...

Am now on "say anything" mode, if for no other reason than to push Cheney's visage further down the page.

What can I say but that I'm speechless after Dubya's vote of confidence in Rummy. Or maybe Karl Rove told him he'd be putting his vote of confidence in all the rummies of the world... by proxy, say... one of those AA things y'gotta go thru.

Except, uhm, Dubya never went to AA...

To be continued, I reckon...

Sweet Supplemental

Cheney gets his ass booed at RFK today. Not just my imagination this time.

The Grass Is Riz

Here's the deal: I start my day with the sports pages religiously, for I have reached an emotional critical mass when it comes to current world and political events, and I don't need to start my morning in an ill frame of mind. That and the mere sight & sound of anything Dubya makes me want to puke. So contrary to what you may surmise from the readings on display here, I do not consider struttin' down the avenue with the taste of bile in the back of my throat as a cool way to meet chicks. Well, not really.

You'll perhaps understand, then, if I wonder whether there isn't something especially malevolent afoot whenever I see this bastard stalking me (like Death in Final Destination) while I would be otherwise deluded to distraction within my recreational realm; in this case, at a ballgame where he's to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. When this happens, I fantasize I'm the catcher. I imagine Dubya tossing his usual politician's limp-dick offering, then turning to wave, like the self-absorbed, oblivious pap-smear he is, to a rising cacophany of boos. It's right when he's not looking when I pretend further the runner's going! and -- Oops! -- I fire one off the pitcher's noggin... eliciting, of course, a wild roar from the crowd.

Not that I could ever let go the position of news-junkie, my raison d'etre, I'm just letting it go for now.

Meanwhile, I've renewed excitation for the Carmine Hose of Beantown, specific to last night's performance by their young horses, Beckett & Papelbon. Picked up the rookie closer-come-lately in my Fantasy Draft, concurrently though just before the fact he was brought in to close out Texas. I was hoping he'd be in the rotation by May, particularly so as I'd picked up Keith Foulke (Oy!) a coupla rounds earlier. Much better to have a stud starter & closer than a stud closer & a broken down middle-man, but, oh well, reckon I'll have to scan the waiver wire.

Lovin' the game in any case, especially if Sunday is a gorgeous sunny afternoon when Sundloff & I tool up to Bal'mer for O's/Sox -- Woo hoo!!

And if you're waiting for it, know that it'll be a while before you see Dubya at Fenway. Now there's a crowd, Gahd Bless 'em, that hasn't been properly vetted.

Opening Nite

Baseball fans will insist this is the first day of spring ("spring-training" references notwithstanding). The Indians are in Chicago tonight to take on the World Series champ Pale Hose.

And that's another Bark: Not only is the World Series played only at night now, where baseball's single most poetic beauty is its timeless play under the summer sun, but now its Opening Day is Opening Night! Bah! Money has no heart or soul.

Anyways, I'm more interested in the goings on w/the Old Towne Team, and was reading Edes' column in today's Globe, particularly enjoying this bit:

And a true ''Who's on first" story, as related by Tony Jackson of the Los Angeles Daily News. Dodgers reliever Hong-Chih Kuo's best friend in the organization is minor league infielder and fellow Taiwan native Chin-Lung Hu, who was walking across the clubhouse when veteran center fielder Kenny Lofton spotted him.

''Hey Kuo, who's that guy you been hanging out with?" Lofton said.

''Hu," Kuo said.

''The guy you been hanging out with," Lofton said.

''Hu," Kuo repeated.

''That guy I saw you with yesterday," Lofton said.

''Hu," Kuo said yet again.

Finally, laughing Dodgers prospect Matt Kemp explained it to Lofton.

Reality-based

Admiring of Bill Maher's HBO program Real Time as I am, I cannot help but get mightily annoyed when he becomes hyper-solicitous of his Republican or Repo-sympathizing guests, or when he pets them reassuringly after they've elicited howls of protest, either from their co-panelists or the audience, to their Bush-apologist bullshit.

Having produced my own talk show on Public Access television back in the 90s, I fully understand the difficulty of bringing in types who would not be well received by the raucous folk who people his audience and would consequently be reluctant to participate. But Maher often goes overboard walking in their shoes or shooshing his audience when they rightly applaud progressive points well made. Moreover, he steadfastly continues to intellectualize "the big picture" of the Iraq debacle, often agreeing with the neocons when they assert their plan of stabilizing the Middle East as working, even though it'll take decades.

I too have wondered about and could easily convince myself the big picture will have a happy ending, even as I'll never buy today's mess as something the bastards anticipated. And then I look at the news of the day and at the people running the show, and my skepticism -- nay, cynicism -- is reinforced (see below).

As for Maher, all is forgiven when he "kids the President," which, along with his New Rules, makes Real Time worth the time.

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Was winnowing my email this fine Sunday morning and came across a note, forwarded by Brotherman the Elder back on February 1st. I share it now as I am slowly learning the tricky HTML eccentricities of blogger.com, and, of course, the content here is still quite timely, and likely will be for as long as History is properly recorded:

Alberto Gonzales spoke before law students at Georgetown today, justifying illegal, unauthorized surveillance of US citizens, but during the course of his speech the students in class did something pretty ballsy and brave. They got up from their seats and turned their backs to him.

To make matters worse for Gonzales, additional students came into the room, wearing black cowls and carrying a simple banner, written on a sheet.

And, as one of the people on the panel said:

"When you're a law student, they tell you that if you can't argue the law, argue the facts. They also tell you if you can't argue the facts, argue the law. If you can't argue either, apparently, the solution is to go on a public relations offensive and make it a political issue; to say over and over again 'it's lawful', and to think that the American people will somehow come to believe this if we say it often enough.

"In light of this, I'm proud of the very civil civil disobedience that was shown here today." - David Cole, Georgetown University Law Professor

It was a good day for dissent.

When Assholes Don't Learn From Their Mistakes

Ad in Friday's NYTimes, via Raw Story.