Best Headline of the Year

Is right here. Glad to see that the leadership over on the portside is keeping a reasoned perspective on things.

The Forecast Calls for Pain

I will give Al Gore this much - he's consistent. And his consistency is causing some of his pals heartburn.

With gas prices around $4 a gallon, fealty to environmentalism seems a little less important to some people in the Democratic Party. Tomorrow Gore is planning to make a major speech in Washington to try to keep his global warming crusade going. According to The Hill:

Al Gore hopes to put global warming back at the top of Washington’s agenda Thursday, but some Democrats in Congress are questioning his timing when they
are getting pummeled by Republicans over record gas prices.

Gore hopes to deliver a major speech on the environment at Constitution Hall in Washington Thursday that will “press the reset button on how people are looking at the energy crisis and the climate crisis,” said Brian Hardwick, spokesman for Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection.

Some in Gore's party would prefer to skip past Al's message, though, especially some less-tenured Congresscritters.

“I think the American public will be much more receptive to arguments about climate change when gas prices aren’t so critical,” said Rep. Zack Space, a
freshman Democrat who represents a mostly rural district in Ohio.

I almost feel sorry for guys like Rep. Space, who have to fall in line with their leadership on environmental issues. But in the end, there's no reason for sympathy. The Democrats deserve the pummeling they are getting. President Bush has been absolutely consistent on this issue for the entirety of his presidency. Meanwhile, Gore and his colleagues have been consistently on the other side. Now that things are tough, Bush's position looks better.

It will be interesting to see if the Democrats abandon their full-bore (pun intended) environmentalist posturing for the remainder of the campaign. They may have to. A lot of ideas that the Left holds dear have been thrown under the zero-emission bus recently. Will Prophet Al be next?

Cross-posted at True North

This Is the Big One, Elizabeth

We're a lot more sensitive than we were in the 1970s. Is that progress?

One of the most popular television shows in the early to mid-70s was Sanford and Son, an Americanized version of the British sitcom "Steptoe and Son" transplanted to the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. The show featured comedian Redd Foxx, who was best known for working blue in his nightclub act. Foxx played a scheming, irascible junkman named Fred Sanford, who was sort of a cross between Archie Bunker and Ralph Kramden. The show trafficked in a certain number of stereotypes and cliches, but it was often quite funny, especially because some of the supporting characters were excellent foils for Foxx's particular brand of put-downs. The battles between Sanford and the psalm-singing Aunt Esther (played by LaWanda Page) were often especially amusing.

Esther -- Fred Sanford, the wrath of God will strike you down!

Fred (brandishing baseball bat) -- And this Louisville Slugger will knock you out!

I was thinking about Sanford and Son today because of a particular episode of the show that probably couldn't be shown today. In this episode, Sanford is attempting to open some sort of social club, but his goal is to get a wealthier clientele. In Sanford's mind, that means white customers. So he becomes angry and disgusted when the place starts filling with African-Americans. It's been more than 30 years since I've seen it, so I'm going to have to paraphrase it, but the Sanford character says something like this:

"There's more n******s in here than in a Tarzan movie!"

I remember staring at the screen, dumbfounded, when he said that. But there it was. This was nationally televised on NBC in the 1970s. Thirty years on, I won't even use the actual word on my blog. So things have changed.

Which brings us to the latest news concerning the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Apparently during the same interview session where Jackson suggested a little freelance surgery ought to be applied to Sen. Barack Obama, Rev. Jackson suggested that Obama was "talking down to black people ... telling 'N-words' how to behave." Except that he didn't say 'N-words,' of course. Now it turns out that Jackson has used the word and is being hoist on his own petard.

Is this progress? The word in question is one of the ugliest slurs in the English language and you simply don't hear people use the word in the larger society much any more. In my experience, if a white person utters the word, he does it quietly, almost in a conspiratorial whisper. And I think less of people who use the word.

Yet there is a tendency for some in the African-American community to use the word, often quite indiscriminately, sometimes in the same manner that the Fred Sanford character used the word in that television episode of yore. I have no desire to use the word as it serves no good purpose. But I also suspect that by establishing such a taboo around the use of the word, we give the word more power than it might have otherwise. The N-word has become the Voldemort of the English language - that which cannot be named. And because the taboo surrounding the word has such power, when someone like Jackson uses the word, even in a private conversation, it becomes national news. Is this progress?

All-Stars

As I write, the All-Star Game is still going on, now in the 11th inning and former Twin Cristian Guzman has just popped out to center. It's a baseball week as I am helping to coach a Little League all-star team that will be competing in a tournament for the next two weeks. It's a good group of 11 kids, all gamers with a couple who have a chance to perhaps play high school ball someday.

We spend a lot of time around here writing about selfish athletes, narcissistic politicians and the cynics and sycophants who hover in their orbits. That's one of the reasons that coaching is so much fun. I've been coaching for six years now and I've probably coached over 100 kids. Some of them have been outstanding athletes; most have just been typical suburban kids. But every kid I've ever coached has wanted to get better and has been open to learning and improving. It's hard to remain cynical when you see that.

Roosh Has Left the Building

I've long admired Roosh Five, a very good MOB blog under the steady hand of proprietor JRoosh. He's decided to hang it up and explains why in his final post. I completely understand his reasoning - there are only so many hours in a day and blogging can hoover a ton of time out of your life if you let it. Given where he is in his life right now, something had to give and blogging is it.

A fella's gotta do what he's gotta do. I would be remiss if I didn't say that the local blogosphere shines a little less brightly today. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and your good example, good sir!

Who Would Have Guessed

That Jesse Ventura is more sensible than Brett Favre? I was out coaching baseball tonight so I missed the dueling mewling taking place with Larry King and Greta Van Susteren. But as near as I can tell, Jesse has decided that he'd rather be surfing or some such rather than sharing a cloakroom with Daniel Akaka, whereas our hero Brett is pretty much filled with caca.

Let's put it as simply as we can -- Brett Favre is being an ass. He's put his team, his teammates and the fans who have supported him for most of his adult life in a situation where they have to choose between him and the team that he has represented. There was never any reason for this -- he could have come back in late March and all would have been forgiven. But now it's impossible to solve this situation amicably. If the Packers reinstall Favre, they stick a shiv in the back of Aaron Rodgers. If they stay true to their original plan, they have to deal with a continuing soap opera.

Favre, God love him, has surrounded himself with sycophants. Some are in Wisconsin, some are in and around Hattiesburg, Mississippi and a fair number of them live and work in the vicinity of Bristol, Connecticut. Like ZZ Top, he's bad, he's nationwide. But what Brett really needs aren't sycophants. What he needs is someone to tell him the truth.

Both Greta Van Susteren and I are graduates of Xavier High School. She failed to tell Brett the truth tonight. Even though they don't encourage the use of foul language at XHS, they do encourage us to tell the truth, so it's incumbent upon me to say what my fellow alumna could not.

Brett, you're full of shit. Take a step back, look at the damage you are causing your team and your legacy. Take a deep breath, slowly back away and go back to Hattiesburg before it's too late. We'll see you in Canton in 5 years.

Poker

For being the stupidest man to ever be president, George W. Bush is still apparently smarter than Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. He's lifting the executive order signed by his father (bad Dad!) that would allow offshore oil drilling to commence.

Thing is, Congress has to lift its ban, too. They don't want to, but here's the message from El Presidente:

"This means that the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil reserves is action from the U.S. Congress," Bush said.

Your play, Harry and Nancy.

If you happen to see. . .

The Nightwriter wandering around the streets in a daze, clutching a bottle of this stuff, take pity on the poor fellow. He touched the third rail, and we aren't talking about his recent experiments involving public transportation.

More kidblogging

This time it's Maria, who has been very busy with her blog, Fearless Maria. Go check it out!

Triumph of the Grill

This is amusing. That august news organization, Comcast.net Sports, is reporting on a pro-Favre rally that some Packer fans held in the Lambeau Field parking lot today. It was an overwhelming show of support for the most important single thing in Wisconsin. Here's the money graf (emphasis mine):

The crowd of more than 100 chanted "We want Brett" and carried signs reading "Favre for President" and "Favre Forever." Many in the parking lot wore No. 4 jerseys, tossed footballs and grilled.

In other words, it was a summer day like most any other in Green Bay since 1993 or so, except that the folks wearing the 4 jerseys were in the Lambeau parking lot instead of being scattered around various city parks in Green Bay. You could draw a crowd of 100 people wearing 4 jerseys to rally for Brett Favre, freeing Mumia or the Spartacus Youth League, so long as you had Charlie Murphy at the helm of a 4-ft. grill and a ready supply of bratwurst.

Here's a tip, Comcast.net Sports: this ain't news.

A must-read - UPDATE

UPDATE: I originally posted this piece this morning. Now I see that the New Yorker has decided to pair the very serious article that I recommend below with a satiric cover that will get far more attention than the article. I still recommend Ryan Lizza's article wholeheartedly. The cover, not so much.

I'm not ordinarily in the habit of endorsing articles that appear in the New Yorker, but you should go read this piece by Ryan Lizza. Lizza went to Chicago and talked to a lot of the politicians and political movers who were witnesses to the rise of Barack Obama. There are plenty of good bits that I could excerpt, but it's worth the time it takes to read in its entirety. Chicago politics are often quite Byzantine and Rizza does a good job of chronicling Obama's journey through that environment. The piece answers a lot of questions and raises still more. Go get a cup of coffee and punch the link.

Exhuming an Old Meme

I've been playing with my computer and trying to get my music files organized. I have a lot of music and I'm finally going to be joining the 21st Century one of these days and getting an iPod or some other MP3 player. For now, I can shuffle music using the existing media player on my computer. And that reminds me of an old meme:

What are the next five songs on your shuffle?

So let's play. Here are mine:

"Biko," Peter Gabriel

"Let's Go Get Stoned," Ray Charles

"Sunday Morning Coming Down," Johnny Cash

"Dazed and Confused," Led Zeppelin

"Dear Doctor," the Rolling Stones

Sure the heck seems like a theme, huh? Maybe I should go get a beer....

So let's throw the meme out to the vast North American Mr. Dilettante reading audience - what are the next five songs on your shuffle?

Kid blogging

My son Ben has a post up at his blog. It's pure Ben. Give him a look and a comment if you're so inclined.

Chucky Kills IndyMac

You don't have to look too hard to find adverse economic news these days, but yesterday was a particularly egregious day. Federal regulators took over IndyMac Bank, a thrift out of Pasadena that was one of the key mortgage lenders in the recent housing boom. IndyMac wasn't as high-profile an outfit as Countrywide, but they were also a big subprime lender and there are a lot of people in this country who have mortgages through IndyMac.

What's interesting is that the actions of one Senator probably were the primary cause of IndyMac's failure. That senator is Charles Schumer, the senior senator from New York, who might be the biggest attention whore in the Senate. And given the competition, that's saying something. Schumer went gunning for IndyMac late last month, sending a letter to federal regulators that questioned the bank's solvency. Word got out about Schumer's concerns and we saw an old fashioned bank run. Per the report in the Wall Street Journal:

The director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, John Reich, blamed IndyMac's failure on comments made in late June by Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.), who sent a letter to the regulator raising concerns about the bank's solvency. In the following 11 days, spooked depositors withdrew a total of $1.3 billion. Mr. Reich said Sen. Schumer gave the bank a "heart attack."

Schumer disputes this account, of course. The interesting question is this: why did Schumer make the contents of his letter public? Senators and other legislators certainly communicate with federal regulators all the time, but in most cases the content of these communications aren't made public, so what Schumer did was highly unusual. It's possible that Schumer was simply grandstanding - that's the Occam's Razor explanation. There is this, though - Schumer may have been doing the bidding of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who has been feuding with federal regulators over rules covering New York banks, and potentially ACORN, the self-styled housing advocacy organization that has also been active in voter registration drives that have sometimes skirted legality. This particular blog raises some interesting questions.

Back in my B of A days, we were looking for a partner that could assist some of our higher-risk relocation clients with mortgage financing. We took a hard look at IndyMac, since they had expertise in dealing with Alt-A financing (also known as "stated income" loans, or more cynically, "liar's loans.") The program we were contemplating never did materialize and after I left B of A, it ultimately ended up acquiring Countrywide. We're now three years removed from those days and a lot has changed. It's possible that IndyMac was going to fail anyway. But there's no question that Chuck Schumer greased the skids.

You Supply the Prose Poems, I'll Supply the War

Chris Mortenson is quickly becoming the William Randolph Hearst of the NFL. After a week worth of jawing and leaks and whatnot, now we hear from ol' Mort that Brett Favre wants his release so he can play for some other team. Various fans in Minnesota, Chicago, Baltimore and Long Island are almost tingly with excitement.

I am a Packer fan first. Always have been. Brett Favre has been the public face of the team for nearly two decades now and is now the Greatest Packer of Them All. More than Starr, or Hornung, or even Hutson. He's right up there with Lambeau and Lombardi. We all love you, Brett. Swear to God.

IF (and it's still IF) the reports are true, Brett Favre has let his own ego get in the way. There is no way he can go someplace else, learn a new system, get himself into football shape and be anything other than even a shadow of what he was last year, to say nothing of what he was back in the 1990s. The more likely scenario -- the Packers won't give him his release and he'll either have to come back to Green Bay all surly, or they'll put him back on the roster and then trade him to someplace like Oakland, where the greatest Iron Man in NFL history will get his tuchus kicked and probably will end up getting carted off the field. I hope the Packers do put Favre back on the roster and force his hand. If Brett Favre is truly throwing this tantrum, he deserves to go the woodshed. And the proprietor of the woodshed is Ted Thompson.

The picture I've posted here is of another elderly quarterback who hung around too long. The fellow in the Chargers uniform is Johnny Unitas, still considered the greatest quarterback of all. It ended very badly in San Diego, where he ended up losing games and getting beat up in the service of a very bad team that had a serious drug problem. Some 35 years later, Brett Favre may have the same fate. It's a shame, really.

We Will Sell No Whine Before Its Time

Phil Gramm committed a gaffe the other day when he talked about the country being in a "psychological recession." Technically, he's right - the country hasn't had negative growth for two consecutive quarters; in fact, growth has been anemic but consistent, at least according to the government measurements that are used to make determinations about such things.

But here's where he screwed up.

"We have sort of become a nation of whiners," he said. "You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in
decline" despite a major export boom that is the primary reason that growth
continues in the economy, he said.

Even if this statement is intellectually defensible, it's not very smart. And as a practical matter, Gramm's statement can be fairly construed as whining, too.

McCain wasted no time throwing Gramm under the bus, of course.

A reporter asked if there’s any chance that Phil Gramm would be McCain’s
Secretary of Treasury or play a significant economic policy-making role in a
McCain administration.

“I think that Senator Gramm would be in serious consideration for
Ambassador to Belarus,” McCain joked, “although I’m not sure the citizens of
Minsk would welcome that.”

As one of my old bosses, who had a deathgrip on the obvious, used to say, perception is reality. It doesn't matter whether Gramm is correct or not from a technical perspective - there are a lot of people who are hurting. It's not psychological for the people at Northwest Airlines who are losing their jobs right now. And while I personally think people are overreacting to gas prices, it's still not easy for a lot of people. The thing is, people tend to forget how bad the bad times have been in the past. Many voters don't remember what life was like in the 1970s, when we had the famous "misery index" of double-digit unemployment and double-digit inflation. Things aren't nearly that bad right now. But try telling that to an angry mob.

The impression I'm getting is that both Obama and McCain don't really understand much about the way people live their lives. When he's not attached to his TelePromTer, Obama oozes condescension, like he did the other day when he offered his silly "merci beaucoup" bon mot to the bien pensants who had gathered before him at a campaign event. A great many Americans quite sensibly don't give a rip what Europeans think about our gringo language skills; most Americans never make it to Paris. Meanwhile, McCain sends out a guy who paints all of us with a broad brush and calls us whiners. And it's only early July, so we have another four months of this stuff. Yay, huh?

Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut

Sometimes you don't.

They Are Not Going To Be Ignored

I made a little joke about conflating Jesse Ventura and Brett Favre earlier today, but to be honest what's been going on recent days isn't particularly funny.

No one likes the party to end. Only the most painfully shy completely eschew the spotlight. It's a lot of fun to have people fawning over you, to have your name in the paper, to be the focus of attention. It has to be.

But it's getting ridiculous. Jesse Ventura doesn't have any chance of winning a seat in the Senate this year. He hasn't even lived in Minnesota since he left the governor's mansion in a huff back in 2002. As much of a carpetbagger as Al Franken is, give him this -- at least he's been in the state, meeting people, making himself part of the fabric of things around here after over 30 years away. These days Ventura has as much to do with Minnesota politics as his buddy Kinky Friedman does. The pretext for Jesse's potential run is that he's mad as hell and isn't going to take it anymore. What he's mad as hell about is harder to discern. Perhaps he doesn't think there are enough people wearing mullets inside the Beltway. I'd make a joke here about Ventura's personal hygiene but given Larry Craig's continuing presence in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body, Ventura would fit right in.

As for Favre, it's difficult to know whether all the talk is something Favre is orchestrating or if it's just a ratings push for ESPN. I still think, in the end, Favre will stay retired. But he's being altogether too coy about it and it's pretty irritating. The Packers need to find out if Aaron Rodgers is the guy or not. They need to get on with their future. And ol' number 4 is the past. A glorious past that we all cherish? Yes. Of course. But it's over now.

The Script Writes Itself

(photo Maury Gash, AP)

Well, the great CC (No Periods) Sabathia experiment started out well enough last night as the Brewers beat the Colorado Rockies 7-3. Sabathia was a little wild but he pitched well enough to win. If he can give up 3 runs a game, figure that he'll win at least a dozen of the 18 or so starts he'll have during the rest of the season. That's pretty good.

Since Sabathia is here, that means it's time for Ben Sheets to blow out something again. Maybe for something different, he'll have one of these. Or maybe he'll go old school and get this. Or maybe this. Place your bets in the comments section.

Ventura Announces He Will Be Next Quarterback of Green Bay Packers - BREAKING

At least that's what I think I heard. I may be be getting confused about that. Developing. . . .

UPDATE: Oops, sorry. Jesse may want to be a Senator. My bad.

Inherit the Wind

I just put up a post talking about the dangers of taking polling too seriously. However, if you want to know why Congressional approval ratings are low, here's a possible reason:

“Right now, our strategy on gas prices is ‘Drive small cars and wait for the wind,’ ” said a Democratic aide.

Savor the rich political goodness of that statement. Let's face it, $4 a gallon gas is making people cranky. And when people get cranky, politicians get nervous. The Democrats have a real problem on this, because they are beholden in many ways to the environmental lobby. President Bush can rightly point out that he has been calling for increased oil production for pretty much the entirety of his presidency. Republicans can also rightly point out that Bill Clinton made exploration on many federal lands well nigh impossible, declaring over a million acres of federal land as national monuments by executive order late in his presidency.

To be fair, Republicans have enjoyed drinking green kool-aid over the years as well; John McCain himself has been known to have a big glass from time to time (and rarely misses a chance to have a photo opportunity while doing it). But the truth is pretty simple - Big Green puts their big green almost exclusively on the left side of the aisle and the Democrats are stuck with that.

Environmentalism isn't bad per se, but it is only possible in affluent places. Where economic conditions aren't so good, environmental degradation is a given. While Al Gore apparently doesn't understand this, most people do. Some 30 years ago, we had Jimmuh Carter appearing on our televisions in a cardigan sweater telling us about how times were tough. That eat-your-spinach stuff has never been an easy sell in America. The guess here is that it still isn't.

(H/T Captain Ed)

63% of Those Surveyed Believe the Following Post is Crap

You can hardly go a week without hearing some breathless MSM speaker prattling on about the terrible approval ratings that George W. Bush has. And if you look at this sampling, there's no question that he's not well-loved, at least where polling is involved.

One other thing you hear is this -- because Chimpy McHitlerburton has been such a one-man Hurricane Katrina who has turned EVERYTHING TO MERDE, MIERDA, CRAPOLA, DUNG, FECES, GUANO, etc., that his personal unpopularity means that anyone who is seen within 45 statute miles of him is DOOMED. THAT MEANS YOU, JOHN MCCAIN!

Bush may have to reach up to get to the sub-basement, but he's still way ahead of our friends Harry and Nancy and the rest of their pals in Congress. See for yourself. When the Democrats came sweeping into power in 2006, Congressional approval ratings were about 30%. Recent numbers are well south of that number, and if you believe this report, the People believe that things are far more fetid on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Should you take all polling with a grain of salt? I think so. But I also think you should take the more confident pronouncements of those who tout Democrats with a grain of salt, too.

McCain Youth Outreach Efforts Fall Short

The continually troubled McCain campaign hit another snag today following the release of a disastrous new training film designed to teach campaign operatives how to reach the touted youth vote. A well-placed source within the campaign blamed the faulty message making on youth coordinator Dexter Holland, who was unavailable for comment.

Dead Support Barack Obama

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that the Grateful Dead may reunite to help support the Obama campaign. The announcement was expected as historically the Dead have long supported the political aspirations of Chicago Democrats. Jerry Garcia appeared in this news conference and performed the moribund California rock band's 1987 hit "Touch of Grey" in a poignant tribute to the presumptive Democratic nominee's recent penchant to operate in various gray areas of political rhetoric.

The ostensibly surviving members of the Dead were quick to dismiss rumors that the other officially deceased members of the band, rhythm guitarist Ron "Pigpen" McKernan and keyboardists Keith Godchaux and Brett Mydland, were supporting the campaign of Senator McCain.

Milwaukee Gets C.C. Sabathia?

According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the deal is done. ESPN is confirming this as well. Sabathia may turn out to be a rent-a-player, but he'll certainly make a difference in the pennant race. Personally I think the Brewers need a stopper in the bullpen (maybe this guy) more than another starter, but Sabathia should fit quite nicely in the Brewers rotation. And it certainly won't hurt the red-hot Twins to see Sabathia go away.

The guy Sabathia has always reminded me of is an old Pirate pitcher of the 1970s named John Candelaria. Candelaria, like Sabathia, was a tall lefty with good stuff who probably could have been better than he was. It's worth remembering that the Candy Man was a key contributor to the 1979 Pirate staff that won the World Series. One thing - it's nice to see the Brewers actually being a buyer in a pennant race for a change - it seems like the last time they were in this position was when they picked up Don Sutton in 1982.

Let the eat yellowcake

The article didn't run on the front page, of course, but I did see a version of this report in the Pioneer Press this morning on Page 2:

The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program - a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium - reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.

The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" - the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment - was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.

Amusingly, the Star Tribune ran an excerpt of the article on the bottom of page 6 under the cryptic headline "Remnant of Saddam's ambition arrives in Canada."

Who knew Saddam had a nuclear program? I thought that Saddam didn't have any yellowcake. That's what America's favorite couple, Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, told us, remember? And I thought that we'd established there wasn't any threat from an Iraqi nuclear program. Bush lied, people died, all that stuff, right? Hmmm....

Just a guess - we're going to find out a few more things in the next few months that might, shall we say, alter the prevailing narrative just a smidge.

Joy Division

We're now almost a month past the moment when Hillary Clinton accepted the reality that she would not be president in 2009. It appears that some of her supporters didn't get the memo, or perhaps that they didn't like the memo. CNN, hardly a Republican outlet, is reporting that as many as a third of Clinton's supporters may be sitting on their hands this time out.

In early June, 22 percent of Clinton supporters polled said they would not vote at all if Obama were the party's nominee, now close to a third say they will stay home.

In another sign the wounds of the heated primary race have yet to heal, 43 percent of registered Democrats polled still say they would prefer Clinton to be the party's presidential nominee.

That number is significantly higher than it was in early June, when 35 percent of Democrats polled said they preferred Clinton to lead the party's presidential ticket.

That wasn't in the script. What was supposed to happen was this: Obama would begin to heal the party and bring the warring factions together, ensuring a huge victory over the hapless John McCain and the dispirited Republicans. A month on, it's gone backward. Why?

I don't claim to understand how portsiders think. But there are clues all over the place. Look to the left and see Tom Hayden issuing a jeremiad over at the always-sensible Huffington Post, which is also offering this helpful information. Look closer to the center and watch Jeff Jarvis chronicle the buyer's remorse at Buzz Machine. Even notice the restiveness at that wholly-owned subsidiary of the Obama campaign, the editorial page of the New York Times.

This was supposed to be a transformative year. Perhaps it will be. But it really helps an advancing army if all its troops are marching in the same direction. And so far, that's not happening. And as rock fans know, before you can have New Order, sometimes you have to have Joy Division. As Tom Kelly might say, "aw, that's a shame."

Cross-posted at True North

Happy 4th of July!

A wonderful day in the greatest nation in the world. No matter how much or how often we might disagree over politics or religion or any number of other bones of contention we chew on 'round here, I know that we all love our country and are grateful for the many blessings we share.

So enjoy a few:

James Cagney

Bogie and Bergman

Orson Welles

Preston Sturges

Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn

Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint

Groucho and Harpo

Donald and Daffy

George C. Scott

Guilty Pleasures Part Twenty-Four -- Valentine's Day 1988

We've taken a few weeks off from this feature and now is a good time to bring it back. One of the cool things about having 40 years worth of Rolling Stone at my disposal is that it has extensive music charts, which allow me to look back at specific moments in time. Today I've chosen to look at what was happening on or about February 11, 1988. It was an eventful moment in my life, that much is certain. Sting was the cover boy that day, but he's not part of this competition as he didn't have a song on the charts at that moment.

So if you were listening to the radio, or hanging out in the dance clubs at that time, what would you have heard? The answer might surprise someone with only a passing memory of the era - what you would have heard was dance music. In fact, everyone was dancing, it seemed.

Yep, even former Beatles were dancing. George Harrison was riding the charts with his biggest hit single in years. It was a jaunty record that he recorded with the help of his Traveling Wilbury pal Jeff Lynne, and in the video George (or more likely, a body double) gets up and busts a move. George told us all that

I've Got My Mind Set on You

Meanwhile, house music was starting to emerge from the post-disco haze and was starting to become a big factor in the clubs. It wasn't my thing back then but some of it sounds a little better now, including this dance smash from the almost-forgotten M/A/R/R/S that could have doubled as a NASA promotional video. Brothers and sisters, it's time to

Pump Up the Volume

Meanwhile, guilty pleasure mainstays the Bangles were on the glide path toward obscurity, but they had a pretty big hit with this rocking cover of an old Simon & Garfunkel song that was part of the soundtrack for a quintessential (but not very good) 1980s movie, Less than Zero. Watch for a young Robert Downey Jr. in between the gals wielding their guitars and lots of PG-13 type action as we experience a

Hazy Shade of Winter

Our final contestant had one of their biggest hits going at this time. I think INXS is a good Guilty Pleasure band - they were tuneful and fun but they weren't especially deep thinkers, as they conclusively demonstrate in their ham-handed attempt to emulate Bob Dylan's famous Subterranean Homesick Blues video from 1965. But the song is fun enough on its own terms and I'm sure many of you remember it well. Here's the ill-fated Michael Hutchence and the rest of the boys telling us that they

Need You Tonight/Mediate

The polls are open. Happy 4th!

A Good Question

I understand why public sector unions are big supporters of Democrats - the Democrats are the party that love government and want to expand it, which makes supporting the portsiders a natural for AFSCME. But it's a different matter for private-sector unions. The ever-sagacious G-Man over at Boots On asks a great question - why on earth would the UAW support Democrats?

The UAW is in the business of selling automobiles. Automobiles run on gasoline. But, Democrat policies designed to destroy Big Oil and make scarce the gasoline pump have already forced the closing of several GM plants. Just today, major automobile makers announced 18-28% drop in sales. This means lost jobs for UAW members.

To be precise, the UAW isn't in the business of selling automobiles - they are in the business of providing labor to the companies that are in the business of selling automobiles. But if the companies that UAW supplies labor to go under, there won't be much left for the UAW to do, so their interests are tied inextricably to the industry. And yet they support a party that is doing everything they can to make driving personal automobiles difficult.

Of course labor and the Democratic Party go way back. Walter Reuther led the UAW during its glory days and was a major figure in Democratic politics. Reuther has been gone a long time now, nearly 40 years. But his union still supports a party that is doing everything they can to hurt the companies that employ the vast majority of UAW workers. The plants that are closing, in places like Janesville, Wisconsin (where Obama appeared in the accompanying picture) and St. Paul, are UAW shops.

You would think that the UAW would put ancestral political loyalties aside and ask their ostensible patrons in Washington to make life easier by making it easier for oil companies to go after oil that is available, which would send an unmistakable price signal to the markets that would bring prices back down. In other words, you might expect that the UAW would demand that their party of choice actually deliver something that would help their members. But you would be wrong. It's puzzling, really.

Breakfast of Champions

I can't even post this picture. Just behold.

(H/T: Instapundit)

How others see Packer fans

(H/T - Strolling Amok via Gino)

Rasputin in Hattiesburg

It must be boring down in Hattiesburg this time of year. In one of the least surprising developments of the summer, Brett Favre is mulling a comeback. Somewhere, Aaron Rodgers is not smiling.

What do you say about it? At some point the guy has to move on. He will be 39 in the fall, ancient by NFL standards. I sincerely doubt that he is in playing shape right now and if he did come back, he'd probably stand a good chance of getting injured. Because he has played 275 straight games (including playoff games), his endurance and toughness are legendary. And goodness knows, as someone who has enjoyed watching him play for nearly two decades now, I'd sure love to see him on the field again. And certainly the Packers were pretty close to the Super Bowl last season.

My guess is this: if Favre comes back, it won't end well. If I were the Packers, I'd let him come back, but he'd have to earn the job. At this point Aaron Rodgers deserves the chance to lead this team.

Strib, Meet Schumpeter

So the Star Tribune has decided to stiff some of its creditors. Neal St. Anthony reports that while Avista Capital Partners, the firm that owns the Strib, was able to pay their first-tier lenders, they decided to stiff the second-tier lenders.

Star Tribune honcho Chris Harte:

"If we can restructure this debt, we still have a very viable [business]," Harte said.

Big if, doncha think? Based on St. Anthony's article, the boys at 425 Portland owe $400M to their first-tier lenders and $96M to the lenders they stiffed. Does anyone see half a billion of equity in the Star Tribune, either now or at any time in the future? I sure don't.

The bottom line is this: newspapers have competitors that they didn't even envision a decade ago and these competitors are destroying the newspaper business model. Even 5 years ago, the Star Tribune used to publish multi-section real estate listings in the Sunday paper, multiple sections of classified ads for everything imaginable and cars, cars and more cars. The advertising revenue that the Strib once claimed now goes to Craigslist and Google and CarSoup and any number of other competitors. The real estate agents don't need the Strib any more, either. And if you want news, you can get it anywhere you want on the Internet. Mostly for free, too.

The Star Tribune has never been big on economic theory - they have a decent, generally rational business section but their editorial board hasn't much cared to understand markets. Unfortunately, the market understands the newspaper business quite well right now. Perhaps as the bien pensants of Portland Avenue prepare for a world without their sinecure, they might want to learn something about the subject. Topic A: creative destruction.

Cross-posted at True North

40 Years of Pop Culture in a 5 Pound Box

My brother, bless his generous soul, sent me Rolling Stone Cover to Cover. For a music obsessive like me, it's a great gift, although it's like drinking out of a fire hose. I used to subscribe to Rolling Stone when I was younger but hadn't bothered with it much in the past 10 years or so. Partly it was because of the dim, self-congratulatory leftist politics that Jann Wenner has always championed (with the notable and honorable exception of P. J. O'Rourke), but mostly it was because staying current in rock becomes less urgent as you get older.

Having said that, if you want to understand a certain cohort of the Baby Boom, Rolling Stone is probably the best pathway out there for doing so. The package comes with four DVD discs that contain every issue of Rolling Stone from 1967 through the end of 2006. It's all there, even the advertisements. You can study the changing obsessions of certain Boomers by looking at the ads. Back in the 1970s, many of the ads in RS were for stereo equipment; by the end of the 1980s, it was all about fancy cars, booze and luxury items. It's great source material for this blog, no doubt about it.

Not good

Apparently someone has been going around and flagging sites on Blogger that are critical of Barack Obama. So if you try to access me sometime and can't, that might be why.

I like a candidate whose supporters are so confident that they try to shut down free speech. Don't you?

Might be time to investigate WordPress. . . .

Relax

They are Spartacus, apparently. The New York Times brings us the happy story of supporters who have taken the middle name "Hussein" in solidarity with their personal savior, Barack Obama. From the article:

The result is a group of unlikely-sounding Husseins: Jewish and Catholic, Hispanic and Asian and Italian-American, from Jaime Hussein Alvarez of Washington, D.C., to Kelly Hussein Crowley of Norman, Okla., to Sarah Beth Hussein Frumkin of Chicago.

As best as I can understand this, the notion being proffered for why one would adopt the "Hussein" moniker is because there is a fear out there that since Obama's middle name is Hussein, it lends credence to the notion that he's either a Muslim or otherwise someone who falls outside the parameters of the American mainstream. And if young mopes like these folks are willing to change their name, at least symbolically, to match that of Sen. Obama, they defuse the controversy.

Harmless fun? Perhaps. A little creepy? Yeah, I kinda think so. I think the picture with the NYT article is especially amusing, as the five supporters hold their precious Warholesque Obama sign and sport the facial expressions and postures that one might ordinarily see on the cover of a Death Cab for Cutie album.

When I was that age, there were thousands of people walking around wearing "Relax" t-shirts in solidarity with this long-forgotten pop phenomenon. What was most amusing about the Frankie Goes to Hollywood thing is that a lot of people didn't understand what Frankie was really talking about (link not safe for work). People are always looking for some way to connect with the zeitgeist, to be part of something greater than themselves. Obama has capitalized on this quite nicely. So relax.

Over the transom

I almost didn't see the e-mail because it got directed to my spam filter. But there it was. It was a note from a local politician that I have written about in unflattering terms. The note was gracious - he wanted me to know that while he recognizes that we are on opposite sides politically, he has enjoyed reading my blog, especially the non-political stuff.

Since it was a private note, I'll not reveal the author. But it was a reminder of something that we all need to keep in mind; we should always be careful about how we discuss issues. It's pretty easy to get personal in politics, especially since politics is one of the most personality-driven things around. And the closer you get to where the action is politically, you can learn things about politicians that you might be able to use against them. But the focus should remain about issues and philosophy. I see a number of bloggers who are playing oppo wannabe games, trying to make a name, trying to spread dirt about candidates. I don't want to do that here.

And to the author of the note: thank you again for the kind words.

What would be more absurd than William Jefferson (D-LA) sponsoring an ethics bill?

Having David Vitter and Larry Craig be listed as co-sponsors of the Federal Marriage Amendment. It's stuff like this that makes life easy for the late night comedians. It's also the reason that we'll never completely forget Francois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld.

(h/t - Allahpundit)

Forever Changes

(photo from Bruce Bisping, Star Tribune)

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm stumped by what the Woofies did yesterday. They drafted the talented but potentially troublesome O.J. Mayo, then shipped him off to Memphis in the middle of the night. In return they received Kevin Love, the talented but shortish UCLA center. There were others involved in the deal and the most significant part of the trade was getting rid of the useless and expensive Marko Jaric.

Still, I really wonder. Love is clearly a talented guy, but he's not quite 6-8. He'll probably play center for the Wolves, which will allow Al Jefferson to move to power forward. That much makes sense. But I really wonder if Love is big enough to play the position. The last guy who was Love's size to be a successful center in the NBA was Wes Unseld. But that was a long time ago.

Every time the Wolves make one of these draft day deals, it seems to blow up on them. The Wolves had Ray Allen and traded him away. The Wolves had Brandon Roy and traded him away. Now it's Mayo. Maybe this time things will be different. But there's reason to doubt it. My guess is that Love will be a perfectly good player. But I also suspect Mayo will be a big star. And since he's in Memphis, he'll have a chance to remind the Wolves of their mistake several times a season.

I do like what my beloved Bucks did, though. Richard Jefferson is a very nice player and Joe Alexander should be a very good NBA player, too. And getting rid of Bobby Simmons was long overdue. While trading away Yi Jianlian might turn out to be a mistake, it's worth remembering that he didn't really want to be in Milwaukee. Alexander does. That matters. Jefferson and Michael Redd should be a pretty dynamic duo for the Bucks. Things should get better in Milwaukee soon.

Another White Sox Look

Of all the looks the Mighty Whities have perpetrated over the years, this was the worst. And to model this happenin' gear, we bring you

an obscure guy. Sports Illustrated had a history in the 1970s of putting a hot rookie on the cover their magazine. In 1979 they chose this guy, Harry Chappas. Harry Chappas was one of the smallest men to ever play in the major leagues. He was 5-3, 150. He made his major league debut in September of 1978, straight off the roster of my beloved Appleton Foxes, the White Sox A-ball farm team. Chappas had a fantastic year in A ball on a very good Foxes team (among others who played in Appleton that season were two pitchers who had decent major league careers, Britt Burns and LaMarr Hoyt). He was a dynamic middle infielder with some power and great speed. He stole a lot of bases in Appleton and hit for a very high average. But the thing was, that was A ball. What worked against the Quad Cities Angels didn't necessarily work against the California Angels. Once Harry got to the big leagues, he was overmatched and he didn't last long - he didn't even stick long enough to be around for the Disco Demolition. But he did make the cover of SI. That's more than most people can say.

We Won't See This Again

It's Dick Allen juggling three baseballs and a heater. 1972 is really getting to be a long time ago now. By the way, Allen was the American League MVP that year. Anyone who can juggle, smoke and hit 37 home runs probably deserved to be MVP. Allen is a guy who could be in Hall of Fame, but he'll probably not get there until all the sportswriters he feuded with have retired.

(H/T to Rich for the idea)

The essence of Brewerdom in the 1970s

For about a year and a half, Von Joshua was my favorite baseball player. He had a decent year for the Giants in 1975 and then came over to the Brewers in the middle of the 1976 season and manned center field for them through the rest of that year and 1977. He was a steady, unspectacular player who didn't do anything especially well. The stats show he hit about .260 for the Brewers and hit about 15 home runs over the course of about 1 1/2 seasons. In other words, he was the kind of guy you were looking to replace. And when Larry Hisle arrived in Milwaukee as a free agent in 1978, Von was gone.

Von Joshua became my favorite player because we all had to have one growing up. Unfortunately, the pickings were rather slim among the Brewers in that era. My best friend's favorite player was the aforementioned Bob Coluccio, who was traded to the White Sox in 1975 for some guy named Bill Sharp and then posed for that ridiculous porno star baseball card pose that I posted yesterday. Another good friend chose the immortal Pedro Garcia as his favorite player. Garcia was later traded to the Tigers for a package of Red Man and some of Al Kaline's pocket lint, I believe.

Last I heard Von Joshua was a coach in the Cubs minor league organization. I'm sure he does a fine job. Some 30 years ago, he provided the fans of Wisconsin with some intermittent excitement. Thanks Von, wherever you are.

Stubborn Kind of Heller

After a couple really bad calls, the Supreme Court did get one right today, ruling 5-4 to strike down the complete gun ban in Washington, D.C. I'm not an outdoorsman and I haven't spent much time in the company of guns, but it's clearly the right call.

Meanwhile, in Chicago, Mayor Daley is very angry about the fact that his city's gun ban is now in danger. He seems to think that William Holden and the rest of his Wild Buch pals are going to set up shop on LaSalle Street. As usual, Hizzoner machine gunned an advance army of strawmen:

"Does this lead to everyone having a gun in our society?" Daley asked while speaking at a Navy Pier event. "If they [the Supreme Court] think that's the answer, then they're greatly mistaken. Then why don't we do away with the court system and go back to the Old West, you have a gun and I have a gun, and we'll settle it in
the streets if that's they're thinking."

"We think we're such an improved society," he added. "The rest of the world
is laughing at us."

This is rot, of course. In most places with concealed carry laws and essentially unfettered gun rights, Wild West behavior is pretty rare. But in places where gun bans exist, like Washington, D.C. and Chicago, murder by gun is distressingly common. I lived two blocks from the western border of Chicago for five years and there was never any question about the amount of guns that were out there. The Bulls won two championships during the time I was there and you could hear people firing off guns all night long.

The best part of the decision is this: now that the Supreme Court has, however tenuously, affirmed my right to own a gun, I probably don't need one anymore.

Beloit College's Gift to Major League Baseball - Part Two

Besides Ginger Beaumont, my alma mater also claims as an alumnus one of the most innovative executives in baseball history, Leland Stanford "Larry" MacPhail. MacPhail ran the Cincinnati Reds, Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees. Among his many creations:

1. First night game in the major leagues

2. First televised game (August 26, 1939)

3. First to introduce "Old Timers' Games" to the majors

4. First to establish pension funds for club employees throughout all levels of baseball

5. Headed first committee for players' pension funds, the finest in sports

6. First to use air plane travel for baseball teams

7. First to shake up New York City by broadcasting all home and road games. (The first radio broadcast of a baseball game in the majors was by Harold Arlen in Pittsburgh in 1921.)

8. First to introduce yellow baseballs, which were never accepted in baseball came to the fore in both tennis and golf

9. First to regularly schedule doubleheaders

10. First to install a stadium club

11. First to introduce season ticket plan

12. First to develop and introduce protective batting helmets

In large measure, the game we watch today comes directly from the vision of Larry MacPhail. The link above provides a great deal more information about this remarkable man. His son Lee MacPhail built the great Orioles teams of the 1960s and later was president of the American League. Grandson Andy MacPhail was the architect of the 1987 Twins. That's a pretty influential family.

About the only thing the Brewers won in the 70s

I remember this was a really big story in Wisconsin in 1975. Sports were absolutely dismal in Wisconsin back then - the Packers were terrible, the Bucks had traded Kareem away, the Badgers were terrible in everything and the Brewers. . . well, the Brewers were trying to market a team with ace pitcher Pete Broberg. So when Dirty Kurt Bevacqua won the bubble gum blowing championship, we finally had something. Check out the high-tech calipers.

Another Nice Looking Member of the White Sox

It's former White Sox pitching sensation (and one-time Appleton Foxes star) Steve Trout.

Here's Another Nice 70s Look

It's former White Sox great (and Brewers great) Bob Coluccio. Now I know where Robert Smigel got his look for those "Da Bearz" skits on Saturday Night Live. More amusing 70s players on the way.

Beloit College's Gift to Major League Baseball - Part One

The gentleman on the right is Clarence "Ginger" Beaumont. Ginger attended my alma mater Beloit College in the 1890s and played most of his career for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He patrolled center field for the Pirates and has three primary claims to fame: he led the National League in hits three times; he won the National League batting championship in 1902 with a .357 average; and as the leadoff hitter for the Pirates, he was the first man to bat in a World Series.

Beloit College does not exactly have a stellar sports history but if you're going to have a big league ballplayer from your alma mater, this guy is not a bad one to have. He's not the only one, though. Beloit also has an alumnus who is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, a fellow with a direct familial link to the modern-day Twins. I'll tell you about him tomorrow.

Accept No Substitutes

Bombo Rivera. Ask for him by name.

The best hair in MLB history, bar none

Any questions?

Million Dollar Outfield - 1912 Red Sox

Duffy Lewis, Tris Speaker and Harry Hooper. Speaker and Hooper are in the Hall of Fame. This group led the Red Sox to multiple World Series championships in the 1910s. These were the guys who patrolled Fenway Park when it first opened.

I'm thinking about baseball this week and I'll be posting some more old baseball pictures along with the usual stuff, mostly because baseball is cool.

George Carlin, RIP

Comedy is a tricky business and many of the greatest comedians were essentially unhappy people. For the most part, I don't think that description applied to George Carlin, who died yesterday at the age of 71. While he did issue some pretty bitter stuff late in his career, the routines that he did that will ultimately live on are the ones where he looked gently at the absurdities of life and language.

While Carlin became known as a "counterculture" comedian and is probably most famous for the bit that Strolling Amok references over at his place, the Carlin routine that I'll always cherish is this one, where Carlin compares baseball to football. His love of language and his outstanding ear are present throughout and the comparisons are all hilarious. See him for yourself here, but the best part is the end, to wit:

In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line.

In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! - I hope I'll be safe at home!

I hope that George is safe at home now, too. RIP.

Brew Crew Bows Out in AL Tourney

The mighty Brewers are done after losing to the Mets this evening at Southpoint Park in North Oaks. Superior Met pitching told the tale and one very rough inning was enough to finish things for our guys. Ben finished up nicely, stroking a double in his last at bat and scoring later in the final inning as a late Brewer rally fell short.

While the kids lost more games than they won, I feel pretty good about our season. We had excellent kids on our team and it was a privilege to have a chance to coach them. It's highly unlikely that any of our kids will ever play in the major leagues - one or two will have a chance to play high school ball, perhaps. But the lessons you learn from sports - teamwork, sportsmanship, accepting the good and the bad - are lessons that will last even when the only ball these boys play is slowpitch softball in some beer league. Perhaps one day one of the boys will have a chance to coach as well. I hope so.