Darn

Albany Times-Union: Rangers great, Richter, not in race for Gillibrand’s seat

Ricky would have been the best Democrat to run for Gillibrand's seat because he's got something most of the other Dems don't: name recognition. Plus he's wicked smart.

Welcome to the Big Leagues, Sarah Palin

Hockey fans aren't big on poseurs. A big BOOOOOOOO from the fans.

Scott Gomez of the Rangers is from Alaska, so he is very nice to her. (First Alaskan to have his name on the Stanley Cup -- when he was a New Jersey Devil. Other trivia about Gomez, he's also the first Latino ever drafted by the NHL and the first to play.)

What kind of hockey mom doesn't know how to drop the puck? Has she ever actually watched one of those hockey games, or was she on her cell phone all the time plotting her takeover of the world with the rest of her prayer circle?

BOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Another view:

Updates

A211243, Double bird and Owl Effigy Pipe, Virginia, Scott County (Smithsonian)

Courtney Prince, the former New York Rangers cheerleader, has filed her response to MSG's third motion for summary judgment. She says MSG told her to tell the other cheerleaders to act sexy; she also says she did not realize she had been fired for several months. MSG must have raised a statute of limitations defense. Discrimination claims have some of the shortest time limits of any civil claim. You have three years to file suit if you slip and fall or get hit by a car; for sexual harassment, it's six months. MSG immediately issued a press release saying that her claim is baseless and without merit, but as the article notes at the end, George Bush's (read, very conservative) EEOC "has recommended that MSG have its employees undergo sexual harassment discrimination training and pay Prince $800,000 in damages."

The albatross released on Sunday was found waddling on Route 25 in Plymouth yesterday; it's been returned to the Tufts wildlife rescue facility where it was initially nursed back to health.

A reporter for the LATimes tried the Food Stamp Challenge as a vegetarian; she ended up snacking at the sample tables of Whole Foods. Excellent column in the Worcester Telegram lauding Congressman McGovern and his efforts to fight hunger.

Yesterday, while George W. Bush was defending Abu Gonzales, a bird shit on his suit. You cannot make this stuff up.

Farewell Leetchie

Another of Coach Mom's favorite players hangs up his skates. We knew this was coming, but it's still sad. Brian Leetch is the only American to ever have won the Conn Smythe trophy as the NHL playoff MVP. Good luck Brian and thanks for the memories. Lots of fans can say "Now I Can Die In Peace" because of you. (click on this link to see the famous sign held up by Rangers fans after their 1994 Championship win; it's the first picture, but the website appears to have been taken down.)

ESPN: Leetch, only American-born playoff MVP, retires

CBC.ca: Brian Leetch retires from NHL

Blueshirt Bulletin: Leetch Rides Off Into the Sunset

The Unofficial Rangers Blog: Brian Leetch Retires

Courtney Prince Smeared

The Gothamist asked: Who Even Knew The Rangers Had Cheerleaders?

Courtney Prince, the former New York Ranger dancer/skater/cheerleader, is being slimed by Madison Square Garden. MSG has filed a third motion for summary judgment (having lost the first two) and has filed "hundreds of pages of documents" (according to the New York Daily News) characterizing Prince as "a mentally ill pervert" (the Daily News take) and claiming that, according to MSG attorney Melissa Rodriguez, "she suffered from bipolar disorder, a classic symptom of which is hypersexuality." (a direct quote from MSG attorney Rodriguez according to the Daily News.)

Defendants in sexual harassment cases always attack the character of the accuser. Any hint of sexuality on the part of a victim of sexual harassment is suddenly a sin. Easy enough in this case: The Rangers cheerleaders are hired to flaunt their sexuality. Look at the tight outfits!

If the defendant can't find sex, they call her crazy. MSG has just combined both tactics here. She's crazy and hypersexual. And Prince, who was paid $150 per game by MSG, is being attacked with the opinion of a doctor who charges hundreds of dollars per hour for his time. Isn't it ironic?

I was curious about the attorney named as representing Madison Square Garden in the Daily News article, Melissa Rodriguez. I think it's Melissa C. Rodriguez of Morgan, Lewis. (I didn't find any definite corroboration of this, but Morgan, Lewis represents Madison Square Garden in the Isaiah Thomas/Anucha Browne Sanders sexual harassment lawsuit (pdf link, p. 12), and Morgan, Lewis is one of the large national firms that represents employers.)

Michelle C. Rodriguez, Morgan Lewis

Kind of a come hither photo for a law firm bio, no? People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Rodriguez is a fifth year lawyer with an impressive pedigree (Yale, Columbia Law), but not a lot of experience to be the lead lawyer in a high-profile case. I wonder if she is the lead attorney on the case? Or is she just being used to put out the smear so the big name partner who is handling the case doesn't have to get his/her hands dirty? Is MSG using a woman (and a minority) as window dressing? I handled many sex discrimination cases where young female lawyers were included on the defense team for that very reason.

Anyway, this sounds like typical defense smear tactics, overreaching included. Did you see the movie The Insider? It was the story of the witness, Jeffrey Wigand, who brought down Big Tobacco by revealing how they had covered up scientific research for years. Brown & Williamson had compiled a 500-page dossier of Wigand's alleged misdeeds; it was mostly BS. I suspect MSG complaints about Prince are much the same.

Isn't it funny how MSG promoted Prince to be captain of the Ranger cheerleaders after she'd been there a year, but now she's a hypersexual crazy person? Funny how that happens.

NYDailyNews: Rangers cheerleader sex-crazed, say attorneys

deadspin: MSG Pulling No Punches In Dance Skater Lawsuit

Opinion [on Summary Judgment motions], Prince v. Madison Square Garden, et al., April 10, 2006 [pdf file] [or view here in HTML format]

NYMagazineDailyIntelligencer: Hungry Cheerleader Claims Harassment Over Tater Tots

Sports News Updates

TOTALLY UNRELATED PHOTO: Jan Christensen's "Relative Value" on display at the MGM Gallery in Oslo. The painting featuring 16,311 dollars (12,400 euros) of banknotes glued to a canvas proved too tempting to thieves, who made off with it at the weekend.(AFP/Scapix/File)

Here are some updates on some wildly disparate sports stories we've followed here:

Jen Harris settled her case against Penn State and their lesbian-hating coach Rene the Weenie Portland. Terms were not disclosed, although Harris's lawyer said in a separate statement that Penn State would be taking steps to "further protect all students who have experienced discriminatory treatment". Read opinions on the settlement here, here, and here. As a veteran of many sexual harassment claims, I'm sure Penn State had dug up enough dirt on Harris that she didn't want to go to trial and be embarrassed. Even though Rene Portland probably knew none of it when she kicked Harris off the team for being a lesbian, courts have routinely allowed defendants to embarrass victims of sexual harassment in this situation. I hope the kid got a bucketload of money.

Ranger dancer Courtney Prince won a victory in her sexual harassment lawsuit against the New York Rangers. She will be given all paperwork generated by the Rangers in their internal investigation of her claims, and their investigation of five other claims, including the claim by Anucha Browne Sanders .

Liverpool's Welsh firebrand Craig Bellamy tells the truth about him teeing off against John Arne-Riise before their ChampionsLeague clash with Barcelona last week. Yup, he threatened his teammate with a golf club. Idiota.

Despite more and more national attention to his case, Genarlow Wilson still rots in jail in Georgia. The Georgia state senate has voted the bill that would allow his case to be reviewed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but they are on a two week recess.

Run, Ricky, Run

Mike Richter is attending Yale University with an undergraduate major in ethics, politics and economics.
Brad Barket/Getty Images

More news on the possible Richter run for Congress. I have to say, Richter is one of the most competitive people I've ever met. I'd love to see him battling it out in a Congressional race.

SwingStateProject: CT-04: Richter Scale Rising (note, I believe they are using the wicked awesome pic of Mike I dug up!)

AP via MSNBC: Ex-Rangers goalie Richter to run for Congress?
'Hockey background could actually be an attraction to some voters here'

Richter worked last year for U.S. Rep. John Hall, a Democrat and former musician who upset six-term incumbent Republican Sue Kelly in upstate New York. Richter helped Hall, who opposed the Iraq war, win over police officers, fire fighters and other constituents who might not have otherwise voted for him, said Tom Staudter, Hall's spokesman.

"He was hugely popular," Staudter said, describing Richter as bright and friendly. "He'll be great."

In a sign of his status, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani named his dog "Goalie" after Richter.

Richter said Wednesday that he did not want to discuss his positions on the war and other issues because he hasn't decided whether to run. He would not comment on the likelihood that he would challenge Shays, noting that he must consider the needs of his wife and three young sons.

Richter, who does not live in the district, is attending Yale University with an undergraduate major in ethics, politics and economics. State law allows legal Connecticut residents to run for federal office in districts even if they do not live there.

The 4th Congressional District has 120,000 Democrats, 102,000 Republicans and 148,000 unaffiliated voters and includes the nation's wealthiest towns as well as Bridgeport, a largely impoverished city that is the largest in Connecticut.

Wikipedia: Mike Richter

More Mike Richter Rumors

He's wicked smart, high name recognition, and would do well with the demographic that Democrats sometimes have a hard time with, the blue collar male. You can't get much more blue collar than a hockey fan. Hey, I can say that, I'm a hockey fan.

SwingStateProject: CT-04: More Richter Rumblings

According to the Yale Daily News, CT State Democratic Party Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo has confirmed earlier rumors that former New York Rangers superstar Mike Richter is considering a run against frequently embattled Republican Rep. Chris Shays in Connecticut's 4th district.

Run, Mike, Run

I'm in for $100 if Mike Richter runs for this seat.

SwingStateProject: CT-04: Chris Shays vs... Mike Richter?

Well, ain't this intriguing. According to Nathan Gonzales of the Rothenberg Political Report, Connecticut Democrats are weighing the possibility of running former NHL superstar Mike Richter against the last Republican House member left standing in New England: the battle-hardened Chris Shays.

Tee Hee

I received this in email:

An old Arab lives close to New York City.

He would love to plant potatoes in his garden, but he is old and weak. His son is in college in Paris, so the old man sends him an e- mail.

"Beloved son, I am very sad, because I can't plant potatoes in my garden. I am sure if you were here you would help me dig up the garden."

The following day, the old man receives a response e-mail from his son at 3:45 pm: "Beloved father, please don't touch the garden. It's there that I have hidden 'the THING'. Love, Ahmed".

At 4:02 pm, the US Army, the Marines, the Rangers, the local police, officers from the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the CIA, visit the house of the old man, take the whole garden apart, search every inch, but can't find anything. Disappointed, they leave.

A day later, the old man receives another e-mail from his son: "Beloved father, I hope the garden is dug up by now and you can plant your potatoes. That's all I could do for you from here. Love, Ahmed.

Same Old Same Old

Can you say 'Theo Fleury'?

NYTimes: Rangers' Ozolinsh Charged With D.W.I.

TSN.ca: Rangers Ozolinsh charged with DWI

New York Rangers defenceman Sandis Ozolinsh, who spent six weeks of the season in a substance abuse program, was arrested on a drunk driving charge in White Plains, New York on Tuesday, according to various local reports.

The seven time all-star, who was acquired by the Rangers from Anaheim in March, was reportedly pulled over for speeding at 11am. The officer noted "a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage" and a sobriety field test revealed that Ozolinsh had a blood-alcohol level of .17 percent. That more than twice the legal limit of .08 percent.

That's a real drunk, already lit up at 11:00 a.m.

Anucha Browne Sanders Update

The former New York Knicks executive's sexual harassment lawsuit continues.

Newsday doesn't think the Garden's attempt to smear her is going anywhere:

MSG firing Anucha air ball

Madison Square Garden and Garden dirt-diggers are working overtime on Anucha Browne Sanders, the former Knicks executive who filed a sexual- harassment suit against Isiah Thomas. And they couldn't fill a thimble with what they've dug up so far.

We have learned -- assuming the dirt-diggers and dishers are dead on -- that Browne Sanders once scolded Marcus Camby for refusing to meet a VIP.

That she told Clarence Weatherspoon (who wasn't named after an eating utensil for nothing) that he might consider dropping a few pounds.

We learned she requested a full page for herself in the media guide.

We learned she once kept Willis Reed waiting for 30 minutes in the reception area.

My sources tell me this is only the beginning.

It hasn't come out yet, but my people say she didn't always floss as a child.

And she routinely doesn't curb her dog.

And she once took call- waiting while talking to Walt Frazier.

All this is B.S., of course, which is only a half-step below what the dirt-diggers have gathered on Browne Sanders. If that.

We're eight days in, and they've got nothing on Nucha, as she was called as an all-everything basketballer at Northwestern.

There's another sexual harassment case pending against Madison Square Garden, this by the former captain of the Ranger City Dancers, Courtney Prince. The EEOC has already investigated and found probable cause that she was harassed:

Skater's garden torment
Sex harassment nightmare

A New York Times hockey writer was involved!

What's Missing in 'NY Times' Coverage of Sex Harrassment Case?
A Times hockey writer allegedly plays a role in a high-profile lawsuit, as revealed by another New York daily this week. Why has the Times reported on the case -- but not mentioned its own employee's relation to it?

The Garden has a long history of sexual harassment complaints by female employees, according to the New York Daily News:

Sex woes sprout at garden
News probe uncovers history of complaints

The Madison Square Garden empire is a hotbed of sexual harassment, with pervasive complaints from temporary bar staff to senior managers, a Daily News investigation has found.

Past and present female employees described an overwhelming "frat boy" culture that seemingly permeates every tier of the huge organization, according to interviews and legal papers.

Though a sign posted at the employee entrance to the Garden on W. 33rd St. promises "fair and respectful treatment" to all personnel, female employees told The News of instances where they work surrounded by sexist jokes, bikini-clad pinups and even a blowup doll.

Others described much more aggressive and frightening abuse — incidents stunningly similar to harassment claims made by Anucha Browne Sanders, the Knicks' former vice president of marketing, and former Rangers City Skater Courtney Prince.

Isiah Thomas treated the CBA owners and personnel like crap while he was running that league into bankruptcy:

Menace behind the smile
CBA owners: Isiah nasty,
incompetent behind closed doors

Color Me Not Surprised

Sexual Harassment Suit Filed Against Thomas and Garden

A former high-level Knicks executive filed a lawsuit yesterday accusing Isiah Thomas, the team's president, of sexual harassment and discrimination, saying he had made unwanted advances, cursed her and barred players from working with her on community events.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan, the executive, Anucha Browne Sanders, said that Thomas refused to stop his actions despite her protests and discomfort, and that her immediate supervisor, Steve Mills, the president of Madison Square Garden Sports, did nothing to intercede on her behalf.

Why the defendants *should* settle:

1. Sanders has got a great lawyer, one of the top employment discrimination lawyers in New York: Judith Vladeck. I can hear her cigarette-scarred voice now. She wouldn't have taken this case without thoroughly evaluating it first. They've got something here.

2. Sanders has been with the Knicks since 2000, so she has three years worth of good performance evaluations on her side.

3. She's been in the workplace for over 20 years and her previous employer was IBM. This was an executive position with the Knicks, and knowing the NBA and its teams, there weren't too many women this high in an organization. She's no figurehead.

4. Isiah is socially personable, but not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. Remember him saying that Larry Bird would be just another player if he were black?

Another take: Isiah Thomas Handles Women As Well As He Handles ... Well, Everything Else

Actually, she’s not just an “employee;” she’s Anucha Browne Sanders, the former vice president of marketing whose bio is still up on the Knicks’ Web site. She’s hardly some opportunistic floozy; she’s a two-time Big Ten Player of the Year at Northwestern, she made Sports Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” list in 2003 and before coming to the Knicks, she did IBM marketing efforts for 11 years, including spearheading their Atlanta 1996 campaign. She also is married and has three children.

Sanders bio from nba.com:

Anucha Browne Sanders

Senior Vice President, Marketing and Business Operations
New York Knickerbockers

Knicks Senior Vice President, Marketing and Business Operations Anucha Browne Sanders was elevated to her current position in the spring of 2002 after joining the organization as Vice President of Marketing on Nov. 20, 2000.

The Brooklyn, New York native is responsible for the day-to-day management of the business side of the Knicks front office and serves as the team’s chief marketing officer. She oversees all of the club’s business activities and revenue streams, including partnerships, ticketing, fan development, field marketing, event presentation, community relations, special events and new media. She also works closely with MSG’s other sports properties - the New York Rangers and New York Liberty - in finding new and innovative ways to integrate the three very distinct and highly successful brands and is the primary liaison between the team and the NBA. Her professional success has not gone unnoticed, as she was named to the Sports Business Journal’s “Forty Under Forty” list in 2003, honoring the top 40 professionals in the sports field under 40 years old. She was also honored for her work (along with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton), by Greater New York Links, Inc. an organization comprised of 11,000 African-American women nationwide, and has been a featured speaker at numerous sports marketing conferences and seminars ranging from the Harvard Business School to the Active 2002 Sport and Recreation Industry Conference in western Australia. Most recently, Anucha was honored with the 2004 Miracle Award by The Miracle Makers, a not-for-profit family and children’s services group in New York.

Prior to joining the Knicks, Anucha spent 11 years with IBM Corporation, serving in a number of roles, most recently as a Program Manager in IBM’s Worldwide Sports Office. In that capacity, she was responsible for a number of IBM’s marketing efforts during the Olympic Games (Atlanta 1996, Nagano 1998 and Sydney 2000), including corporate sponsorship efforts that allowed IBM to leverage their investment as a Worldwide Olympic sponsor.

The Northwestern University graduate was no stranger to success on the hardwood. She was a three-time All Big Ten selection and two-time Big Ten Player of the Year for the Wildcats, finishing her career as the all-time leading scorer in Big Ten women’s basketball history, as well as the school’s all-time leader in points (2,307) and rebounds (951). The two-time Wade Trophy nominee and 1985 Kodak All-American also led the nation in scoring with a school record 31.5 ppg in 1984-85. She was also selected to play on the U.S. National Team that toured Europe and Asia following her graduation. Her long list of athletic honors includes being selected Northwestern’s Athlete of the Decade for the ‘80’s and being inducted to the Wildcats Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993. She was also honored by the Empire State Games as one of it’s top athlete’s of the first 25 years the competition has been in existence, in the summer of 2002.

Among her numerous philanthropic activities, Anucha serves on the board of Children’s Village, a private, New York State, not-for-profit corporation that provides aid, comfort and hope to over 80,000 children. She also traveled to Southern Asia this past summer to assist the victims of the tsunami with their recovery and rebuilding efforts as part of a trip organized by Phillips Exeter Academy. Anucha holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Communications from Northwestern, and a Masters degree in Marketing Communications from Florida State University. She resides with her husband Roy and their three children in New Jersey.

The Incompetence, The Corruption, The Cronyism: November 4, 2005 edition

The Incompetence:

Heckuva Job Brownie, aka Mike Brown, late Director of FEMA, who is still on the federal payroll, is back in the news. Even this kind of breathtaking stupidity can't get the breathtakingly stupid President to just fire your ass.

In Katrina's aftermath, FEMA chief mused about his future

On Aug. 31, two days after the storm flooded the city, a FEMA regional director sent Brown an urgent e-mail about patients dying "within hours," a lack of food and water, hundreds of rescues and a situation "past critical."

Brown's response? "Thanks for update. Anything specific I need to do or tweak?"

[]

E-mails released last month by Collins' committee showed that Brown and his press secretary, Sharon Worthy, were concerned about time for dinner at a Baton Rouge, La., restaurant and an upcoming TV interview while a FEMA regional director, Marty Bahamonde, warned of the desperate situation at the New Orleans Superdome.

Wednesday's release added further insight into their concerns, with one showing Worthy advising Brown to roll up his sleeves to "just below the elbow" the way President Bush did: "In this crisis and on TV you just need to look more hard-working ... ROLL UP THE SLEEVES."

The Corruption:

A 62-year-old Republican state legislator from Hawaii was convicted of sexually molesting a 27 year old woman on an airline flight. Ewwwww. The incident happened on a flight to California, so that's where the trial took place. He didn't even reveal he had been charged until he was convicted.

Testimony against legislator includes details of molestation

The 27-year-old woman who accused state Rep. Galen Fox of sexually molesting her on a United Airlines flight testified that she awoke to find his hand inside her jeans and rubbing her crotch.

[]

In her statement, the woman, identified only as Jane Doe in court documents, told the FBI that she had taken a sleeping pill because she wanted to rest and fell asleep holding a folded airline blanket on her lap, her arms crossed over her blanket.

She said she awoke to a warm sensation pressing against her crotch. Lifting her blanket, she saw Fox's right hand rubbing her crotch, according to a statement of probable cause filed by Special Agent Rodney G. Fung of the FBI's Los Angeles International Airport Office.

According to the affidavit, the woman jumped up and said, "What the ---- are you doing?" to which Fox allegedly replied, "I touched you, I'm sorry I touched you." The woman alerted her parents who sat across the aisle from her and then notified flight attendants, who moved them to other seats.

[]

The woman testified that Fox apparently unfastened the button and zipper of her jeans, and she awoke to find his hand inside her jeans and groping her, Goswami said.

The Cronyism:

So, former baseball owners and Republican fundraisers are experts on intelligence? President La La La, I Can't Hear You thinks so:

In the Company of Friends
Bush may be besieged by charges of cronyism, but they don’t seem to have affected his picks for a panel assessing intelligence matters.

President Bush last week appointed nine campaign contributors, including three longtime fund-raisers, to his Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, a 16-member panel of individuals from the private sector who advise the president on the quality and effectiveness of U.S. intelligence efforts. After watching the fate of Michael Brown as head of FEMA and Harriet Miers as Supreme Court nominee, you might think the president would be wary about the appearance of cronyism—especially with a critical national-security issue such as intelligence. Instead, Bush reappointed William DeWitt, an Ohio businessman who has raised more than $300,000 for the president’s campaigns, for a third two-year term on the panel. Originally appointed in 2001, just a few weeks after the 9/11 attacks, DeWitt, who was also a top fund-raiser for Bush’s 2004 Inaugural committee, was a partner with Bush in the Texas Rangers baseball team.

Other appointees included former Commerce secretary Don Evans, a longtime Bush friend; Texas oilman Ray Hunt; Netscape founder Jim Barksdale, and former congressman and 9/11 Commission vice chairman Lee Hamilton. Like DeWitt, Evans and Hunt have also been longtime Bush fund-raisers, raising more than $100,000 apiece for the president’s campaigns. Barksdale and five other appointees—incoming chairman Stephen Friedman, former Reagan adviser Arthur Culvahouse, retired admiral David Jeremiah, Martin Faga and John L. Morrison—were contributors to the president’s 2004 re-election effort. Friedman also served a year on the intelligence board under President Bill Clinton, who appointed chairmen with very different profiles from Bush's Pioneers: former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. William Crowe, former Defense secretary Les Aspin, former House speaker Tom Foley and former GOP senator Warren Rudman. (Clinton did also appoint two donors who gave $100,000 apiece to the Democratic National Committee: New York investment banker Stan Shuman and Texas real estate magnate Richard Bloch.)

In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.
H. L. Mencken

And Now For Something Completely Different

Q: Who is the only player to captain two different teams to the Stanley Cup?

A: Mark Messier

Mess announced his retirement today.

I'll always remember Messier for a non-athletic moment. At the game to begin the 2001 season, shortly after 9/11, the family of FDNY Captain Ray Downey presented Messier with Downey's helmet. Messier put it on and skated around the ice, tears streaming down his face.

He played that way too, with his emotions in full view. Enjoy your retirement, Captain.

The Red Sox Are World Champions

I didn't get to post yesterday as I could not get on to blogger :::aargh::: but I KNEW the Red Sox would win the World Series last night. I couldn't even get very excited about the prospect after Game 2 because it was clear the Red Sox were confident and the Cardinals were reeling.

I gotta say, winning the World Series was somewhat anticlimactic after the Sturm und drang of the epic series win over the Yankees. Playing the Cardinals allowed me to breathe. No visions of Aaron Fucking Boone dancing in my head. I'm too young to remember 1946, and in 1967 I wasn't a Red Sox fan. My mom was rooting for the Cardinals. All I remember about that series was Bob Gibson, probably the most dominating performance in a World Series by a pitcher, ever. 1975 was just a great series, but the Red Sox lost to a great Reds team.

I do remember 1986, very well. I had red candles burning on the top of my TV when Dave Henderson hit that home run against the Angels in the ALCS. And, I'm embarrassed to admit, I had already opened the champagne when that ball went through Bill Buckner's legs against the Mutts. That was a real heartbreaker. I never blamed Buckner. He never should have been on the field that late in the game. Much like this year's Doug M (runs to google to get spelling of name right) Mientkiewicz, Dave Stapleton had been Buckner's late game defensive substitution all year. Inexplicably, John McNamara left Buckner and his immobile ankles on the field and we all know the result.

Finally, last year's game seven defeat by the Yankees in the playoffs was just devastating. I watched the game from Madison Square Garden where I was attending the New York Rangers home opener. My brother's friend got us into the Green Room where I was transfixed by the game. By the 7th inning it was down the the diehards -- me, my family, and many New Yorkers including Mike Richter, Brian Leetch & Rod Gilbert. I was the lone Red Sox fan in the room. Much fun was poked at my expense. As you will recall the Red Sox led throughout the game until Grady Little (Forrest Gump) was perhaps the only person on the planet not to realize that Pedro Martinez was gassed. (My other brother called me from St. Louis screaming, "Pedro's gassed! Pedro's gassed! What is Grady Little doing?")

When Boone hit that home run off Wakefield I just began moaning. Wake had been heroic in the series. He had won games 1 and 4 and the Sox wouldn't even have been in that position if it weren't for him. And Aaron Bleeping Boone of all people. I went home, put my "Cowboy Up" shirt in a drawer and never took it out again.

And like all optimistic Red Sox fans, in March I said "This is the Year" and went out & bought a brand new Red Sox cap & shirt so I could say "I bought these the year the Red Sox won the World Series." Mission accomplished.

Great moments from last night's win:

Johnny Damon's lead-off home run. WWWJDD? What Would Johnny Damon Do? Drive a stake in the heart of the Cardinals and their fans at the earliest possible opportunity.

Derek Lowe tagging out Scott Rolen along the first base line in the bottom of the first. Did anyone else visualize A-Fraud's big white Mickey Mouse glove hacking the spindly arm of Bronson Arroyo at that moment?

The dirty boy Trot Nixon's clutch double in the 3rd, scoring Varitek & Ortiz.

Albert Pujols off-balance throw to the plate.

Pedro hugging Derek Lowe in the dugout after the 7th inning.

The final out -- Foulke almost juggling the ball he was so nervous.

Curtis Leskanic making snow angels on the infield grass.

Jason Varitek kneeling to kiss the infield.

Theo Epstein shaking the champagne bottle as he watched his bosses interviewed by the Fox nitwit in her ill-fitting suit.

The local sports guys interviewing everyone on the Busch Stadium infield for hours. They even interviewed Theo's parents.

Ah, it was a magic night.

Keep Your Sawx On

Yet another reason to root for the Old Towne Team & hate the Yankees:

Baseball's Owners Go To Bat For Bush

More than a dozen current and former owners and family members are among the president’s top re-election fund-raisers, an Associated Press review found. Seven are Bush “Rangers,” each raising at least $200,000, and six are “Pioneers” who have brought in $100,000 or more.

The Bush campaign has also received direct contributions from owners and executives of more than half of the sport’s 30 teams, the AP analysis of Federal Election Commission reports found.

Those include $2,000 contributions from owners George Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees, Fred Wilpon of the New York Mets, Carl Pohlad of the Minnesota Twins, Peter Magowan of the San Francisco Giants and Michael Ilitch of the Detroit Tigers.

When you go to the actual article on MSNBCCNBCSB, it gets worse:

For example, FEC reports show, Bush received $2,000 contributions from Orioles slugger Rafael Palmeiro, who played for the Rangers when Bush was an owner, and from New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, the highest-paid player in the game.

I guess since Rodriguez is a millionaire, he's not just a "have", he's part of Bush's base.

So, the only decent baseball team to root for is the Sawx. (Sawx owner Tom Werner is one of the few baseball owners to have given money to Kerry.)

YANKEES SUCK! And they got no pitching, either.

Bush, Miserable Failure, By The Numbers

Here is a list of facts about the Bush Administration, compiled by Graydon Carter & published in the the UK's Independent:


Bush by numbers: Four years of double standards

By Graydon Carter
03 September 2004

1 Number of Bush administration public statements on National security issued between 20 January 2001 and 10 September 2001 that mentioned al-Qa'ida.

104 Number of Bush administration public statements on National security and defence in the same period that mentioned Iraq or Saddam Hussein.

101 Number of Bush administration public statements on National security and defence in the same period that mentioned missile defence.

65 Number of Bush administration public statements on National security and defence in the same period that mentioned weapons of mass destruction.

0 Number of times Bush mentioned Osama bin Laden in his three State of the Union addresses.

73 Number of times that Bush mentioned terrorism or terrorists in his three State of the Union addresses.

83 Number of times Bush mentioned Saddam, Iraq, or regime (as in change) in his three State of the Union addresses.

$1m Estimated value of a painting the Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas, received from Prince Bandar, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States and Bush family friend.

0 Number of times Bush mentioned Saudi Arabia in his three State of the Union addresses.

1,700 Percentage increase between 2001 and 2002 of Saudi Arabian spending on public relations in the United States.

79 Percentage of the 11 September hijackers who came from Saudi Arabia.

3 Number of 11 September hijackers whose entry visas came through special US-Saudi "Visa Express" programme.

140 Number of Saudis, including members of the Bin Laden family, evacuated from United States almost immediately after 11 September.

14 Number of Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) agents assigned to track down 1,200 known illegal immigrants in the United States from countries where al-Qa'ida is active.

$3m Amount the White House was willing to grant the 9/11 Commission to investigate the 11 September attacks.

$0 Amount approved by George Bush to hire more INS special agents.

$10m Amount Bush cut from the INS's existing terrorism budget.

$50m Amount granted to the commission that looked into the Columbia space shuttle crash.

$5m Amount a 1996 federal commission was given to study legalised gambling.

7 Number of Arabic linguists fired by the US army between mid-August and mid-October 2002 for being gay.

George Bush: Military man

1972 Year that Bush walked away from his pilot duties in the Texas National Guard, Nearly two years before his six-year obligation was up.

$3,500 Reward a group of veterans offered in 2000 for anyone who could confirm Bush's Alabama guard service.

600-700 Number of guardsmen who were in Bush's unit during that period.

0 Number of guardsmen from that period who came forward with information about Bush's guard service.

0 Number of minutes that President Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, the assistant Defence Secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, the former chairman of the Defence Policy Board, Richard Perle, and the White House Chief of Staff, Karl Rove ­ the main proponents of the war in Iraq ­served in combat (combined).

0 Number of principal civilian or Pentagon staff members who planned the war who have immediate family members serving in uniform in Iraq.

8 Number of members of the US Senate and House of Representatives who have a child serving in the military.

10 Number of days that the Pentagon spent investigating a soldier who had called the President "a joke" in a letter to the editor of a Newspaper.

46 Percentage increase in sales between 2001 and 2002 of GI Joe figures (children's toys).
Ambitious warrior

2 Number of Nations that George Bush has attacked and taken over since coming into office.

130 Approximate Number of countries (out of a total of 191 recognised by the United Nations) with a US military presence.

43 Percentage of the entire world's military spending that the US spends on defence. (That was in 2002, the year before the invasion of Iraq.)

$401.3bn Proposed military budget for 2004.

Saviour of Iraq

1983 The year in which Donald Rumsfeld, Ronald Reagan's special envoy to the Middle East, gave Saddam Hussein a pair of golden spurs as a gift.

2.5 Number of hours after Rumsfeld learnt that Osama bin Laden was a suspect in the 11 September attacks that he brought up reasons to "hit" Iraq.

237 Minimum number of misleading statements on Iraq made by top Bush administration officials between 2002 and January 2004, according to the California Representative Henry Waxman.

10m Estimated number of people worldwide who took to the streets on 21 February 2003, in opposition to the invasion of Iraq, the largest simultaneous protest in world history.

$2bn Estimated monthly cost of US military presence in Iraq projected by the White House in April 2003.

$4bn Actual monthly cost of the US military presence in Iraq according to Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld in 2004.

$15m Amount of a contract awarded to an American firm to build a cement factory in Iraq.

$80,000 Amount an Iraqi firm spent (using Saddam's confiscated funds) to build the same factory, after delays prevented the American firm from starting it.

2000 Year that Cheney said his policy as CEO of Halliburton oil services company was "we wouldn't do anything in Iraq".

$4.7bn Total value of contracts awarded to Halliburton in Iraq and Afghanistan.

$680m Estimated value of Iraq reconstruction contracts awarded to Bechtel.

$2.8bnValue of Bechtel Corp contracts in Iraq.

$120bn Amount the war and its aftermath are projected to cost for the 2004 fiscal year.

35 Number of countries to which the United States suspended military assistance after they failed to sign agreements giving Americans immunity from prosecution before the International Criminal Court.

92 Percentage of Iraq's urban areas with access to potable water in late 2002.

60 Percentage of Iraq's urban areas with access to potable water in late 2003.

55 Percentage of the Iraqi workforce who were unemployed before the war.

80 Percentage of the Iraqi workforce who are unemployed a Year after the war.

0 Number of American combat deaths in Germany after the Nazi surrender in May 1945.

37 Death toll of US soldiers in Iraq in May 2003, the month combat operations "officially" ended.

0 Number of coffins of dead soldiers returning home that the Bush administration has permitted to be photographed.

0 Number of memorial services for the returned dead that Bush has attended since the beginning of the war.

A soldier's best friend

40,000 Number of soldiers in Iraq seven months after start of the war still without Interceptor vests, designed to stop a round from an AK-47.

$60m Estimated cost of outfitting those 40,000 soldiers with Interceptor vests.

62 Percentage of gas masks that army investigators discovered did Not work properly in autumn 2002.

90 Percentage of detectors which give early warning of a biological weapons attack found to be defective.

87 Percentage of Humvees in Iraq not equipped with armour capable of stopping AK-47 rounds and protecting against roadside bombs and landmines at the end of 2003.

Making the country safer

$3.29 Average amount allocated per person Nationwide in the first round of homeland security grants.

$94.40 Amount allocated per person for homeland security in American Samoa.

$36 Amount allocated per person for homeland security in Wyoming, Vice-President Cheney's home state.

$17 Amount allocated per person in New York state.

$5.87 Amount allocated per person in New York City.

$77.92 Amount allocated per person in New Haven, Connecticut, home of Yale University, Bush's alma mater.

76 Percentage of 215 cities surveyed by the US Conference of Mayors in early 2004 that had yet to receive a dime in federal homeland security assistance for their first-response units.

5 Number of major US airports at the beginning of 2004 that the Transportation Security Administration admitted were Not fully screening baggage electronically.

22,600 Number of planes carrying unscreened cargo that fly into New York each month.

5 Estimated Percentage of US air cargo that is screened, including cargo transported on passenger planes.

95 Percentage of foreign goods that arrive in the United States by sea.

2 Percentage of those goods subjected to thorough inspection.

$5.5bnEstimated cost to secure fully US ports over the Next decade.

$0 Amount Bush allocated for port security in 2003.

$46m Amount the Bush administration has budgeted for port security in 2005.

15,000 Number of major chemical facilities in the United States.

100 Number of US chemical plants where a terrorist act could endanger the lives of more than one million people.

0 Number of new drugs or vaccines against "priority pathogens" listed by the Centres for Disease Control that have been developed and introduced since 11 September 2001.

Giving a hand up to the advantaged

$10.9m Average wealth of the members of Bush's original 16-person cabinet.

75 Percentage of Americans unaffected by Bush's sweeping 2003 cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes.

$42,000 Average savings members of Bush's cabinet received in 2003 as a result of cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes.

10 Number of fellow members from the Yale secret society Skull and Bones that Bush has named to important positions (including the Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum Jr. and SEC chief Bill Donaldson).

79 Number of Bush's initial 189 appointees who also served in his father's administration.

A man with a lot of friends

$113m Amount of total hard money the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign received, a record.

$11.5m Amount of hard money raised through the Pioneer programme, the controversial fund-raising process created for the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign. (Participants pledged to raise at least $100,000 by bundling together cheques of up to $1,000 from friends and family. Pioneers were assigned numbers, which were included on all cheques, enabling the campaign to keep track of who raised how much.)

George Bush: Money manager

4.7m Number of bankruptcies that were declared during Bush's first three years in office.

2002 The worst year for major markets since the recession of the 1970s.

$489bn The US trade deficit in 2003, the worst in history for a single year.

$5.6tr Projected national surplus forecast by the end of the decade when Bush took office in 2001.

$7.22tr US national debt by mid-2004.

George Bush: Tax cutter

87 Percentage of American families in April 2004 who say they have felt no benefit from Bush's tax cuts.

39 Percentage of tax cuts that will go to the top 1 per cent of American families when fully phased in.

49 Percentage of Americans in April 2004 who found that their taxes had actually gone up since Bush took office.

88 Percentage of American families who will save less than $100 on their 2006 federal taxes as a result of 2003 cut in capital gains and dividends taxes.

$30,858 Amount Bush himself saved in taxes in 2003.

Employment tsar

9.3m Number of US unemployed in April 2004.

2.3m Number of Americans who lost their jobs during first three Years of the Bush administration.

22m Number of jobs gained during Clinton's eight years in office.

Friend of the poor

34.6m Number of Americans living below the poverty line (1 in 8 of the population).

6.8m Number of people in the workforce but still classified as poor.

35m Number of Americans that the government defines as "food insecure," in other words, hungry.

$300m Amount cut from the federal programme that provides subsidies to poor families so they can heat their homes.

40 Percentage of wealth in the United States held by the richest 1 per cent of the population.

18 Percentage of wealth in Britain held by the richest 1e per cent of the population.

George Bush And his special friend

$60bn Loss to Enron stockholders, following the largest bankruptcy in US history.

$205m Amount Enron CEO Kenneth Lay earned from stock option profits over a four-year period.

$101m Amount Lay made from selling his Enron shares just before the company went bankrupt.

$59,339 Amount the Bush campaign reimbursed Enron for 14 trips on its corporate jet during the 2000 campaign.

30 Length of time in months between Enron's collapse and Lay (whom the President called "Kenny Boy") still not being charged with a crime.

George Bush: Lawman

15 Average number of minutes Bush spent reviewing capital punishment cases while governor of Texas.

46 Percentage of Republican federal judges when Bush came to office.

57 Percentage of Republican federal judges after three years of the Bush administration.

33 Percentage of the $15bn Bush pledged to fight Aids in Africa that must go to abstinence-only programmes.

The Civil libertarian

680 Number of suspected al-Qa'ida members that the United States admits are detained at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

42 Number of nationalities of those detainees at Guantanamo.

22 Number of hours prisoners were handcuffed, shackled, and made to wear surgical masks, earmuffs, and blindfolds during their flight to Guantanamo.

32 Number of confirmed suicide attempts by Guantanamo Bay prisoners.

24 Number of prisoners in mid-2003 being monitored by psychiatrists in Guantanamo's new mental ward.

A health-conscious president

43.6m Number of Americans without health insurance by the end of 2002 (more than 15 per cent of the population).

2.4m Number of Americans who lost their health insurance during Bush's first year in office.

Environmentalist

$44m Amount the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign and the Republican National Committee received in contributions from the fossil fuel, chemical, timber, and mining industries.

200 Number of regulation rollbacks downgrading or weakening environmental laws in Bush's first three years in office.

31 Number of Bush administration appointees who are alumni of the energy industry (includes four cabinet secretaries, the six most powerful White House officials, and more than 20 other high-level appointees).

50 Approximate number of policy changes and regulation rollbacks injurious to the environment that have been announced by the Bush administration on Fridays after 5pm, a time that makes it all but impossible for news organisations to relay the information to the widest possible audience.

50 Percentage decline in Environmental Protection Agency enforcement actions against polluters under Bush's watch.

34 Percentage decline in criminal penalties for environmental crimes since Bush took office.

50 Percentage decline in civil penalties for environmental crimes since Bush took office.

$6.1m Amount the EPA historically valued each human life when conducting economic analyses of proposed regulations.

$3.7m Amount the EPA valued each human life when conducting analyses of proposed regulations during the Bush administration.

0 Number of times Bush mentioned global warming, clean air, clean water, pollution or environment in his 2004 State of the Union speech. His father was the last president to go through an entire State of the Union address without mentioning the environment.

1 Number of paragraphs devoted to global warming in the EPA's 600-page "Draft Report on the Environment" presented in 2003.

68 Number of days after taking office that Bush decided Not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty to reduce greenhouse gases by roughly 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012. The United States was to cut its level by 7 per cent.

1 The rank of the United States worldwide in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

25 Percentage of overall worldwide carbon dioxide emissions the United States is responsible for.

53 Number of days after taking office that Bush reneged on his campaign promise to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

14 Percentage carbon dioxide emissions will increase over the next 10 years under Bush's own global-warming plan (an increase of 30 per cent above their 1990 levels).

408 Number of species that could be extinct by 2050 if the global-warming trend continues.

5 Number of years the Bush administration said in 2003 that global warming must be further studied before substantive action could be taken.

62 Number of members of Cheney's 63-person Energy Task Force with ties to corporate energy interests.

0 Number of environmentalists asked to attend Cheney's Energy Task Force meetings.

6 Number of months before 11 September that Cheney's Energy Task Force investigated Iraq's oil reserves.

2 Percentage of the world's population that is British.

2 Percentage of the world's oil used by Britain.

5 Percentage of the world's population that is American.

25 Percentage of the world's oil used by America.

63 Percentage of oil the United States imported in 2003, a record high.

24,000 Estimated number of premature deaths that will occur under Bush's Clear Skies initiative.

300 Number of Clean Water Act violations by the mountaintop-mining industry in 2003.

750,000 Tons of toxic waste the US military, the world's biggest polluter, generates around the world each Year.

$3.8bn Amount in the Superfund trust fund for toxic site clean-ups in 1995, the Year "polluter pays" fees expired.

$0m Amount of uncommitted dollars in the Superfund trust fund for toxic site clean-ups in 2003.

270 Estimated number of court decisions citing federal Negligence in endangered-species protection that remained unheeded during the first year of the Bush administration.

100 Percentage of those decisions that Bush then decided to allow the government to ignore indefinitely.

68.4 Average Number of species added to the Endangered and Threatened Species list each year between 1991 and 2000.

0 Number of endangered species voluntarily added by the Bush administration since taking office.

50 Percentage of screened workers at Ground Zero who now suffer from long-term health problems, almost half of whom don't have health insurance.

78 Percentage of workers at Ground Zero who now suffer from lung ailments.

88 Percentage of workers at Ground Zero who Now suffer from ear, nose, or throat problems.

22 Asbestos levels at Ground Zero were 22 times higher than the levels in Libby, Montana, where the W R Grace mine produced one of the worst Superfund disasters in US history.

Image booster for the US

2,500 Number of public-diplomacy officers employed by the State Department to further the image of the US abroad in 1991.

1,200 Number of public-diplomacy officers employed by the State Department to further US image abroad in 2004.

4 Rank of the United States among countries considered to be the greatest threats to world peace according to a 2003 Pew Global Attitudes study (Israel, Iran, and North Korea were considered more dangerous; Iraq was considered less dangerous).

$66bn Amount the United States spent on international aid and diplomacy in 1949.

$23.8bn Amount the United States spent on international aid and diplomacy in 2002.

85 Percentage of Indonesians who had an unfavourable image of the United States in 2003.

Second-party endorsements

90 Percentage of Americans who approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president on 26 September 2001.

67 Percentage of Americans who approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president on 26 September 2002.

54 Percentage of Americans who approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president on 30 September, 2003.

50 Percentage of Americans who approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president on 15 October 2003.

49 Percentage of Americans who approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president in May 2004.

More like the French than he would care to admit

28 Number of vacation days Bush took in August 2003, the second-longest vacation of any president in US history. (Record holder Richard Nixon.)

13 Number of vacation days the average American receives each Year.

28 Number of vacation days Bush took in August 2001, the month he received a 6 August Presidential Daily Briefing headed "Osama bin Laden Determined to Strike US Targets."

500 Number of days Bush has spent all or part of his time away from the White House at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, his parents' retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine, or Camp David as of 1 April 2004.

No fool when it comes to the press

11 Number of press conferences during his first three Years in office in which Bush referred to questions as being "trick" ones.

Factors in his favour

3 Number of companies that control the US voting technology market.

52 Percentage of votes cast during the 2002 midterm elections that were recorded by Election Systems & Software, the largest voting-technology firm, a big Republican donor.

29 Percentage of votes that will be cast via computer voting machines that don't produce a paper record.

17On 17 November 2001, The Economist printed a correction for having said George Bush was properly elected in 2000.

$113m Amount raised by the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign, the most in American electoral history.

$185m Amount raised by the Bush-Cheney 2004 re-election campaign, to the end of March 2004.

$200m Amount that the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign expects to raise by November 2004.

268 Number of Bush-Cheney fund-raisers who had earned Pioneer status (by raising $100,000 each) as of March 2004.

187 Number of Bush-Cheney fund-raisers who had earned Ranger status (by raising $200,000 each) as of March 2004.

$64.2mThe Amount Pioneers and Rangers had raised for Bush-Cheney as of March 2004.

85 Percentage of Americans who can't Name the Chief Justice of the United States.

69 Percentage of Americans who believed the White House's claims in September 2003 that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the 11 September attacks.

34 Percentage of Americans who believed in June 2003 that Saddam's "weapons of mass destruction" had been found.

22 Percentage of Americans who believed in May 2003 that Saddam had used his WMDs on US forces.

85 Percentage of American young adults who cannot find Afghanistan, Iraq, or Israel on a map.

30 Percentage of American young adults who cannot find the Pacific Ocean on a map.

75 Percentage of American young adults who don't know the population of the United States.

53 Percentage of Canadian young adults who don't know the population of the United States.

11 Percentage of American young adults who cannot find the United States on a map.

30 Percentage of Americans who believe that "politics and government are too complicated to understand."

Another factor in his favour

70m Estimated number of Americans who describe themselves as Evangelicals who accept Jesus Christ as their personal saviour and who interpret the Bible as the direct word of God.

23m Number of Evangelicals who voted for Bush in 2000.

Number of voters in total who voted for Bush in 2000.

46 Percentage of voters who describe themselves as born-again Christians.

5 Number of states that do not use the word "evolution" in public school science courses.

This is an edited extract from "What We've Lost", by Graydon Carter, published by Little Brown on 9 September

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
For a former college drop-out from Ontario and, briefly, a lineman stringing up telegraph wires on the railways of Canada, Graydon Carter, 55, has risen to impressive heights. The editor of Vanity Fair since 1992 ­ after succeeding Tina Brown ­ he is one of America's celebrity editors with clout, glamour and a nice line in suits.

It is hard to imagine Carter doing physical work of any kind, beyond exercising his thumb on his silver Zippo lighter. His labour is restricted to rejigging headlines in his magazine ­ he is a self-confessed failure at delegation of duties ­ and swanning to Manhattan parties. Martini in hand, he cuts an almost princely and dandyish figure, with billowing shirts and similarly billowing silver hair.

The spotlight on his activities has never burned brighter. In recent months he has transformed the regular editor's letter at the front of the magazine into less of a chat about its coming contents ­ the spreads of Annie Leibowitz and rants of Christopher Hitchens ­ and more a full-bore diatribe against the world of George Bush.

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6 September 2004 08:58

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