Not to excuse Rish Limbaugh's fat, draft-exemptingly pimpled ass, but let's not forget where he got the "ability" (i.e., the daclaration from another source that this is how we'd deal with input on the war by veterans and military personnel) to say what he has. Before Move On's incompetent "Betray Us" heading on the Patraeus ad they took out, it was unacceptable to personally attack vets and uniformed soldiers. Thanks to Eli Pariser and his fumble, it is now okay with Limbaugh's listeners to attack vets... one step short, in their minds, of what Move On did.
Not to sound like a broken record, or anything, but thanks Move On.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Monday, October 1, 2007
The Perfect Start to October
Tonight, the 1-game playoff to decide the NL Wild Card between the Colorado Rockies and the San Diego Padres was the perfect exclamation point to an incredibly exciting September in Major League Baseball. It was also a superb kickoff to an October that will likely prove to raise interest and, as a result, increase attendance to set another new record in 2008.
The poetry of the game was almost too much to take. The Rockies fielded a team with 6 position players who were brought up in their own farm system, and the Padres had just one. The Padres’ recent play had served only to help the Cubs clinch the NL Central, but was otherwise perfectly-suited for being taken over by an upstart team. The Rockies had won 12 of their last 13, playing like the young and wreckless newbies who just couldn’t be conviced of what they were really involved in.
The Mark Ecko convolution of the Bonds’ ball and its fate, providing the surrealistically “Kato Kalen” punctuation to the end of the steroid era, gives the game its next opportunity to revive itself after scandal. Just as after the Black Sox Scandal, The Great Depression, WWII, and the strikes, the game will need something to correct the errors of those magnates who control the game and turned a blind eye to the steroids when it made them rich (you, too, President Bush).
That opportunity is here. With traditional powers like the Yankees and Red Sox, the “lovable losers” of Chicago, the young upstart Rockies, the walking-wounded Angels, the overachieving Diamondbacks, the Indians whose fans couldn’t see home games at the start of the season because of snow, and the hard-charging Phillies, this post-season is set to be magical. The National Pastime is ready again to be the nation’s favorite game. To quote the conservative George Will, "Football incorporates the two worst elements of American society; violence punctuated by committee meetings.”
And so, as this year’s NFL and college seasons become more and more disappointing (unless you’re a South Florida fan, who shouldn’t get too comfortable in that #6 spot) with unreasonable upsets, accusations of cheating, stars taken down by scandal or suddenly unwilling to get into their familiarly scandalous character (TO), and foreseeable poor play on the part of some key players, the stage is set for baseball to regain its place atop American sports.
So let’s sit back and enjoy the fact that TBS/TNT has taken some of the load off Fox, enabling us to see every game this post-season. Let us cherish the last hints of summer that games in Arizona will give (slight as they’ll be in that air-conditioned can), as we await in fear of the snow and sleet in Boston and Cleveland. Let’s all get into it, whether our teams are in it or not, as the story to be told this fall simply warrants our attention. Let us get reacquainted with the greatest game ever created, not just as fans, but as a nation, that played the game on Civil War fields and gave it back to Japan after our troops arrived.
Our relationship with the game is essential, believe it or not, to our national identity. It’s not possible to be the America of its longest-held values, without being the America that loves and respects its original game. So find a part of this story to identify with, and follow it. It has set up too perfectly to simply let us down, now. The next baseball renaissance is here, my fellow Americans, and it is your duty to your future offspring, or their future offspring, to be able to recount what happened this October.
"I see great things in baseball. It’s our game- the American game.” -Walt Whitman
The poetry of the game was almost too much to take. The Rockies fielded a team with 6 position players who were brought up in their own farm system, and the Padres had just one. The Padres’ recent play had served only to help the Cubs clinch the NL Central, but was otherwise perfectly-suited for being taken over by an upstart team. The Rockies had won 12 of their last 13, playing like the young and wreckless newbies who just couldn’t be conviced of what they were really involved in.
The Mark Ecko convolution of the Bonds’ ball and its fate, providing the surrealistically “Kato Kalen” punctuation to the end of the steroid era, gives the game its next opportunity to revive itself after scandal. Just as after the Black Sox Scandal, The Great Depression, WWII, and the strikes, the game will need something to correct the errors of those magnates who control the game and turned a blind eye to the steroids when it made them rich (you, too, President Bush).
That opportunity is here. With traditional powers like the Yankees and Red Sox, the “lovable losers” of Chicago, the young upstart Rockies, the walking-wounded Angels, the overachieving Diamondbacks, the Indians whose fans couldn’t see home games at the start of the season because of snow, and the hard-charging Phillies, this post-season is set to be magical. The National Pastime is ready again to be the nation’s favorite game. To quote the conservative George Will, "Football incorporates the two worst elements of American society; violence punctuated by committee meetings.”
And so, as this year’s NFL and college seasons become more and more disappointing (unless you’re a South Florida fan, who shouldn’t get too comfortable in that #6 spot) with unreasonable upsets, accusations of cheating, stars taken down by scandal or suddenly unwilling to get into their familiarly scandalous character (TO), and foreseeable poor play on the part of some key players, the stage is set for baseball to regain its place atop American sports.
So let’s sit back and enjoy the fact that TBS/TNT has taken some of the load off Fox, enabling us to see every game this post-season. Let us cherish the last hints of summer that games in Arizona will give (slight as they’ll be in that air-conditioned can), as we await in fear of the snow and sleet in Boston and Cleveland. Let’s all get into it, whether our teams are in it or not, as the story to be told this fall simply warrants our attention. Let us get reacquainted with the greatest game ever created, not just as fans, but as a nation, that played the game on Civil War fields and gave it back to Japan after our troops arrived.
Our relationship with the game is essential, believe it or not, to our national identity. It’s not possible to be the America of its longest-held values, without being the America that loves and respects its original game. So find a part of this story to identify with, and follow it. It has set up too perfectly to simply let us down, now. The next baseball renaissance is here, my fellow Americans, and it is your duty to your future offspring, or their future offspring, to be able to recount what happened this October.
"I see great things in baseball. It’s our game- the American game.” -Walt Whitman
Mets' September Collapse is Penance for 1969
Baseball is, in many ways, like nature. It has limits on its tolerances for extremes, and tries its best to preserve karmic equilibrium (it's failed dramatically with the Yankees). For those of you crying over the Mets' disasterous collapse this month, don't blame the team, don't blame the Phillies, don't blame the baseball gods... blame your dads and grandfathers who got such a kick out of the 1969 Mets' takeover of the Cubs, coming from 9 games down on Aug. 16th to take the NL East by 8 games. Your father's joy at that improbable comeback sowed the seeds for your disappointment this year.So, I suggest you make dad or grandpa tell you the story of the 1969 Miracle Mets each night as your bedtime story, until opening day 2008. That would be his penance, and would keep your hope alive through the winter.
-A Cubs' Fan
Giuliani Candidacy Could Spell Problem for Religious Right
Dr. Dobson, I'd like you to meet Irrelevance. Irrelevance, this is Dr. Dobson. I'll leave you two alone now, to get better acquainted.
The religious right has decided to consider backing a 3rd party (Constitution Party, anyone?) candidate if the GOP nominates a pro-choice candidate, specifically Giuliani. While that would be a disaster for the GOP, leaving them without their foot-soldiers for their campaigns, it would be the death nail for a cohesive and corporate-structured religious right.
What Dobson, and people like him (Richard Viguerie, Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins) don't seem to understand, is that their power over people of faith is relative only to that power's usefulness. As long as they were able to keep the "moral values" voters in check, dutifully serving the GOP's machine, they were helpful in separating the GOP from their foot soldiers' ideology. That provided them with plausible deniability over their perceived ties to the religious right, allowing them to remain attractive to self-serving agnostic yuppies.
But in the absence of such a purpose, as would be the case with 22% of voters back in play, you will be irrelevant. In fact, you will become a target, yourselves, as the payoff for taking you down, no longer men of faith, but men of politics, would be your supporters being free to think for themselves again.
Here's what this Giuliani battle is really over; the leaders of the religious right see their power slipping away. The "moral values" voters see that they've been used, and feel abandoned. The GOP had the power to end abortion, to roll back gay rights 25 years, and to push the social agenda of the religious right to ridiculous ends in 2005 and 2006. But they didn't, and the reason for that is simple. When they had the power the religious right gave them, controlling all three branches of government, they had other priorities. That wasn't a mistake, it was a rare illustration of the GOP's true character. Dobson and Perkins are mistaken if they think the way to keep that power is to put their voters back in play.
Today, Tony Perkins got the first indication of what post-GOP life would be like for him. Chris Matthews, with a terrific target-of-opportunity in Giuliani's boy Congressman Peter King (R-NY), chose instead to lay into Perkins for the "pro-abortion" lingo that's been used for ages. If you go out into the third party wilderness, Tony, don't expect anyone to lay off of you any more. At that point, you are political prey with a lot of supporters other people will be happy to take from you.
Consider this fair warning.
The religious right has decided to consider backing a 3rd party (Constitution Party, anyone?) candidate if the GOP nominates a pro-choice candidate, specifically Giuliani. While that would be a disaster for the GOP, leaving them without their foot-soldiers for their campaigns, it would be the death nail for a cohesive and corporate-structured religious right.
What Dobson, and people like him (Richard Viguerie, Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins) don't seem to understand, is that their power over people of faith is relative only to that power's usefulness. As long as they were able to keep the "moral values" voters in check, dutifully serving the GOP's machine, they were helpful in separating the GOP from their foot soldiers' ideology. That provided them with plausible deniability over their perceived ties to the religious right, allowing them to remain attractive to self-serving agnostic yuppies.
But in the absence of such a purpose, as would be the case with 22% of voters back in play, you will be irrelevant. In fact, you will become a target, yourselves, as the payoff for taking you down, no longer men of faith, but men of politics, would be your supporters being free to think for themselves again.
Here's what this Giuliani battle is really over; the leaders of the religious right see their power slipping away. The "moral values" voters see that they've been used, and feel abandoned. The GOP had the power to end abortion, to roll back gay rights 25 years, and to push the social agenda of the religious right to ridiculous ends in 2005 and 2006. But they didn't, and the reason for that is simple. When they had the power the religious right gave them, controlling all three branches of government, they had other priorities. That wasn't a mistake, it was a rare illustration of the GOP's true character. Dobson and Perkins are mistaken if they think the way to keep that power is to put their voters back in play.
Today, Tony Perkins got the first indication of what post-GOP life would be like for him. Chris Matthews, with a terrific target-of-opportunity in Giuliani's boy Congressman Peter King (R-NY), chose instead to lay into Perkins for the "pro-abortion" lingo that's been used for ages. If you go out into the third party wilderness, Tony, don't expect anyone to lay off of you any more. At that point, you are political prey with a lot of supporters other people will be happy to take from you.
Consider this fair warning.
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