A Tale of Two Joes: Baseball Musings

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

One of the most famous opening lines in literary history could well describe Joe Torre’s passage through the Bronx as manager of the storied New York Yankees. From 1996 to 2007, Torre managed the Yankees to consecutive postseason play, winning ten American League East Division titles, six American League pennants, and four World Series titles, while earning a .605 winning percentage.

All of this got tossed overboard after Torre published his kiss-and-tell book, mildly titled “The Yankee Years,” ripping into his former employer and certain players, whom he called “prima donnas.” But Torre reserved some of his most acid remarks for A-Rod, according to the NY Post:

Alex Rodriguez, was called "A-Fraud" by his teammates after he developed a "Single White Female"-like obsession with team captain Derek Jeter and asked for a personal clubhouse assistant to run errands for him.

Weird.

And that’s not all. Torre headed for the sunny climes of California to manage that other team that had fled NY for LA, the Dodgers. In doing so, he made sure to torch any and all bridges to the Yankees. As Yogi Berra said, “when you get to a fork in the road, take it.”

Today, another Joe is managing the Yankees: Joe Girardi. He’s well known to Cubs fans as a capable defensive catcher and game caller. When he was a Cubs player, I met his parents once in a bar on Milwaukee Ave. Or so they said (I had no reason to disbelieve them.) They were nice folks, proud of their son.

Joe Girardi is a nice guy, some would say a player’s manager. But managing the Yankees and all those prima donnas Torre blasted may be too much for Girardi. I get the impression that Girardi is as tightly wound as Willie Randolph was when managing that other NY team, the Mets, in a slow, painful, downward spiral, till he was abruptly and summarily fired.

By the numbers, the two Joes are a study in contrasts:














Which of these Joes would Yankees fans want to see managing the team?

- Joe Torre
- Joe Girardi
- Neither Joe

Question for Cubs fans: Is Lou Piniella overrated as a manager? I’ve never understood his penchant for yanking starters after six innings, no matter how well they’re doing on the mound. I saw two blown Cubs games in which the starters were stellar and the floodgates opened up once Lou decided to yank them after six.

PS - The Dodgers' red-hot record is imperiled now that Manny Ramirez is out for 50 games after testing positive for steroids.

Feliz Cinco de Mayo, Hermanos y Hermanas!

On May 5, 1862 an outnumbered and ill-equipped Mexican army defeated the occupying French Army in the Battle of Puebla. This event was the cornerstone of Mexican resistance to foreign occupation. Today, the date is observed voluntarily in the U.S. to commemorate the cultural experiences and great contributions of Americans of Mexican ancestry to our society. The Battle of Puebla, pictured below:



Viva Mexico y Estados Unidos!

So Much for "Rebranding."

The GOP has picked Jeff Sessions from Alabama to replace Arlen Spector as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The selection of Sessions, pictured below:

clearly shows the direction of the so-called "new" GOP. The direction is to retrench and intensify their ties to their ever-shrinking base.

Sessions (JEFFERSON BEAUREGARD SESSIONS) is a bigot, by his own words. He called a black U.S. attorney a "boy" and admonished him about how he spoke to "white folks." He had good things to say about the Klan until he found out some of them smoked pot. When Reagan appointed him to the federal bench, even the senator from Alabama (although a "Democrat," Howell Heflin was a Democrat from a WAAAY different time) voted against him. Senators just did not do that then, to vote against someone from their state.

So it looks like the GOP has taken yet another step to solidifying their position as the majority party of the Confederate States of America.

Condi Rice: 'Waterboarding Diplomacy'

Former GWB Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice made this mind-boggling, and PROBABLY CRIMINAL, statement to a Stanford student because, AS ALWAYS, the mainstream media was asleep at the switch:

“BY DEFINITION, IF IT WAS AUTHORIZED BY THE PRESIDENT IT DID NOT VIOLATE OUR OBLIGATIONS UNDER THE CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE.” -- Condoleeza Rice

WHAAAT?? Condi Rice has the AUDACITY and INTELLECTUAL DISHONESTY to invoke not only the “I was just following orders” but the “emperor’s clothes” defense?

We should not be surprised by this unguarded statement -- only that the buttoned-up, controlled, and anal Ms. Rice was sufficiently goaded by an insistent student demanding an answer into letting her guard down and incriminating herself.

Well, we had 'Ping-Pong Diplomacy' and 'Shuttle Diplomacy' under Nixon/Ford, so 'Waterboarding Diplomacy' seems like the appropriate term to describe Condoleeza Rice's legacy. After all, Condi Rice, who served a corrupt imperial president, was simply channeling the role model of ALL corrupt imperial presidents: Richard Nixon.





And here is Condi Rice's eery channeling of Richard Nixon. (Really, any other interpretation would be far-fetched.)



Lady, if the Attorney General gets serious about investigating this, you’re not going to be a poli sci professor at Stanford, you're headed straight for that other BIG HOUSE!

Hmm … I wonder what course she’ll be teaching; here’s a thought:

WATERBOARDING DIPLOMACY: WAR AND TORTURE AS A FOREIGN RELATIONS TOOL. (Course requirements: Must pass Stanford test revealing a totalitarian anti-democratic mindset.)

UPDATE: After her initial faux pas, Condi Rice yesterday was GRILLED by a 4th grader, and had to try to defend the legality of "all methods" of interrogation used by the Bush regime. "This is NOT (pleasepleaseplease) a Frost v. Nixon moment," she insisted plaintively.

Right. Nailed by a 4th grader. Which raises more questions about the state of our mainstream media, but that's another topic. For now, KUDOS to Misha Lerner, a student at the Jewish Primary Day School in our nation's capital, who asked the tough question the "pros" were too reticent or scared to ask.

Days we should remember

They seem like distant and unrelated memories. First, May 1886:

and May 1970:

The bloodshed on these distant May 4ths though evolved from common threads. The protesters rallied for things that we should no longer consider to be controversial--an eight-hour workday in Chicago and in Ohio, the end of America's unholy war in Vietnam. What had begun as peaceful demonstrations turned into violent confrontations in both cases from an unfortunate combination of arrogance and incompetence. Those in power used similar phrases to refer to the labor activists and the antiwar protesters. Both were dirty, un-American anarchists viewed as somehow less than human. The results, tragically but predictably, are Haymarket and Kent State.

A.A. Milne in the Swine Flu Era

Thanks Nick!

Who Would Jesus Torture?

From CNN.com:

More than half of people who attend services at least once a week — 54 percent — said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is “often” or “sometimes” justified. Only 42 percent of people who “seldom or never” go to services agreed, according the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified — more than 6 in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only 4 in 10 of them did.

Explain to me again why religion is a prerequisite for morality. I can't stand that argument.

Alex, may I have "Blowholes" for $1000?

I was listening for just a minute to the drug-addled gasbag while out at lunch. He was ripping into the president's Churchill reference last night about how the Brits didn't torture. The blowhole pulled out a National Geographic story about how the British gave captured German spies an option--hanging or helping. Rush proceeded to tell his dimwitted followers, and I paraphrase, "See! They threatened to HANG them! That's surely worse than anything we did that they are calling torture!"

Good Lord.

Rush, the operative word here is captured SPIES. Not "detainees," not POWs but SPIES. Doesn't EVERYONE know that spying during wartime is a capital offense? This wasn't "torture"--it was a plea bargain.

Now I don't know if the British tortured or not, not my field. Since I DON'T know I won't comment on the underlying accuracy. However, whether Obama's statement is factually accurate or not is irrelevant as to Limbaugh's shallow and ridiculous attempt to mislead his room-temp IQ band of believers.

Does cheese glow?

Bill Nye the Science Guy goes to Waco:

The Emmy-winning scientist angered a few audience members when he criticized literal interpretation of the biblical verse Genesis 1:16, which reads: “God made two great lights - the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.”

He pointed out that the sun, the “greater light,” is but one of countless stars and that the “lesser light” is the moon, which really is not a light at all, rather a reflector of light.

A number of audience members left the room at that point, visibly angered by what some perceived as irreverence.

“We believe in a God!” exclaimed one woman as she left the room with three young children.

But, apparently, not a God who could invent an object that reflects the light of another.

Sure don't need that money...

In a remarkable bit of irony, given that they called it "pork" amidst swine flu, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) led the fight AGAINST funding for flu pandemics in the stimulus bill. "Does it belong in this bill? Should we have $870 million in this bill No, we should not," she argued.

Nice work, Sue.

And Chuck Schumer gets no points either for caving and calling the flu money by its porcine nickname.

Newsflash: Sen. Arlen Specter Sees the Light!

This hot from the Washington Post: Senator Arlen Specter has decided to SWITCH PARTIES from that R-word to the Democratic Party.

Wow. This is a HUGE political story. With Senator Franken, this will give the Dems that 60-vote filibuster-proof majority.

SCOTUS Rules Against Fox: No Drive-By Potty Mouth Allowed

From the NYT:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the government could threaten broadcasters with fines over the use of even a single curse word on live television, yet stopped short of ruling whether the policy violates the Constitution.

The decision did, however, throw out a ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. That court had found in favor of a Fox Television-led challenge to the FCC policy and had returned the case to the agency for a ''reasoned analysis'' of its tougher line on indecency.

Tsk, tsk Shep ... Looks like you’ll have to pay the fine.



Oh, and Shep, you’re right: “WE ARE AMERICA:” YES. WE. DO.

Isn’t it a bitch when reality intrudes to shatter your illusions?

Swine Flu Source Identified

The Guardian published a story this morning about a possible link to the source of the Mexican swine flu outbreak. In the U.S., the disease is associated with contact with diseased pigs, as seen below:

The stupid, it burns

CNN's on a roll today.

Headline: "Historian: Give Obama an 'incomplete'"

Wow? Really? He's completed roughly 6% of one term as President, and he hasn't done enough that his evaluation can be completed? Frickin' morons.

Disingenuous much?

The headline story on CNN.com:

Bipartisanship didn't last long for Obama
There's little debate that Democrats who run Congress will mark President Obama's 100-day milestone with significant victories. But the legislative achievements have come at the cost of bipartisanship. The president's stimulus package passed with three Republican votes. His budget blueprint passed without a single GOP vote. What's the reason for the partisan divide?

What's the reason? Really? This is "America's most trusted news source"?

You mean like this, Carlos?

Taking the day off, going to the Bulls game tonight.

Back to torture

So, now it appears that BushCo. Inc. was torturing to get confessions they knew were phony, i.e., the ridiculous to assume even from the beginning "link" between lifelong and hate-spitting mortal enemies, bin Laden and Hussein. That is disgusting to the nth power, shades of the Inquisition and Stalin.

And something tells me Cheney ordered torture in no small part just because he liked it.

Meanwhile, back in Frostbite Falls...

Anyone notice this little tidbit from Madame Secretary?

I think we cannot underscore [enough] the seriousness of the existential threat posed to the state of Pakistan by the continuing advances, said Clinton, adding that the nuclear-armed nation could also pose a `mortal threat' to the United States and other countries.

Great. While BushCo. Inc. was off screwing the pooch in Iraq, they nonchalantly looked away and set the stage for nuclear weapons to fall into the hands of radical groups. Nice work there, guys.

The Torture Memos: A Question of Justice

Regarding the release of the torture memos: The CRIMINAL Bush regime is putting forward a full-court press -- Dick Cheney (former acting president who has a hard time LETTING GO), Michael Hayden (former NSA chief), and Michael Mukasey (last GWB AG) -- to spread lies, propaganda, and misinformation pounding the false premise that the knowledge imparted of their "enhanced interrogation techniques," a.k.a. TORTURE, makes the U.S. less safe. That is patently FALSE.

First, these TORTURE techniques had already been out there in the public domain and President Obama had already ordered that they are not to be used, therefore the information could be declassified.

Second, the revelation that the 9/11 mastermind was waterboarded 183 times, for an average of 6 times a days every day for 31 days, and another Al Queda suspect 83 times, for a total of 266 waterboarding sessions, raises questions not only about the purported effectiveness of such torture, but debunks any argument that torture is an effective interrogation "technique" in the first place.

Third, there's been some misunderstanding about who can authorize and/or prosecute or investigate these torture incidents. Michael Izikoff of Newsweek noted that his sources close to the President informed him that this authority rests squarely in the Justice Department, and that Attorney General Eric Holder is seriously considering whether or not to open a criminal investigation into the Bush regime's use of torture.

Fourth, Congress has a parallel responsibility, under the separation of powers, as the legislative branch of government to conduct its own investigation and hold hearings on the matter. One issue that is clearly a prerogative of Congress is the impeachment of federal judge Jay Bybee for authoring one of the torture memos when he was Assistant AG in the Bush regime. Among other things, Bybee wrote "waterboarding could not be said to inflict severe suffering." The New York Times has called for Congress to impeach Bybee in a 4/19 editorial:

The investigation should start with the lawyers who wrote these sickening memos, including John Yoo, who now teaches law in California; Steven Bradbury, who was job-hunting when we last heard; and Mr. Bybee, who holds the lifetime seat on the federal appeals court that Mr. Bush rewarded him with.

These memos make it clear that Mr. Bybee is unfit for a job that requires legal judgment and a respect for the Constitution. Congress should impeach him. And if the administration will not conduct a thorough investigation of these issues, then Congress has a constitutional duty to hold the executive branch accountable. If that means putting Donald Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzales on the stand, even Dick Cheney, we are sure Americans can handle it.

See, it worked, right? It worked! It's in the paper!

Don't ask me why (my own personal penance, perhaps?) but I do occasionally listen to right-wing gasbag radio. Today was so SO rich. The king gasbag was going on about the torture thing and Cheney opening his foul yap (WHY isn't he in prison??). He then nearly wet himself over an editorial in the Washington Post about how great the enhanced techniques torture worked.

The piece? Why it's by Marc A. Thiessen. I'm sure he is either an expert or at least a disinterested observer. And his evidence? A memo from THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT saying how great torture worked. Wow! Right??

Well, surprisingly, no (we could discuss the 183 episodes of waterboarding if it worked so well, but that is another post for another time. Today's topic is "consider the source." )

First of all, Mr. Thiessen was last gainfully employed as the scribner who put words into THIS mouth:

Alex, may I have "CYA" for $1000?

And of course, the Justice Department in 2005? Who ran that?? The guy on the left who previously wrote the torture memo that the guy on the right wanted.

That's right-wing radio, and the right-wing mindset for you. Thanks for torturing in MY name.