Blogtopia* Roundup, Monday, March 12, 2007

Must view post of the day: Welcome to Pottersville with a series of screencaps of the FoxNewsMachine's fairly unbalanced news coverage. They are serial liars and should never be trusted. (It also reminded me of these pictures which someone photoshopped a few years ago.)

Digby on Russert and the craven corporate media as revealed by the Libby trial. I had forgotten that James Carville and Tim Russert's son have a sports radio program together. No wonder Mary Matalin could tell Scooter Libby that Russert hated Chris Matthews. Pillow talk!

salon.com exposes the Army for sending injured soldiers back to Iraq. (Send the twins, I say.) See, also, Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast, who says the only way to support these troops is to demand impeachment.

And while you're at salon.com, head over and read Glenn Greenwald's piece Our right-wing arbiters of masculinity with a couple of hilarious pictures of manly wingnuts as an added bonus.

ThinkProgress reports that Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) has called on VA Secretary Jim Nicholson to resign. You go girl.

MCCASKILL: [] And with all due respect to the head of the Veterans Administration, this is a man that was chairman of the Republican National Committee. The appearance isn’t right. You know, this looks like a Brownie situation. Let’s put somebody…

SCHIEFFER: Brownie as in FEMA.

MCCASKILL: As in FEMA. You know, this is a political appointment. This is somebody who has spent a whole lot of the last few years defending everything about the White House. Really, that’s not the right person to be leading the agency that’s supposed to protect our veterans.

And I really think it’s time we put somebody in charge of the Veterans Administration whose first priority are the veterans and not the politics surrounding the agency.

Talking Points Memo is following the fired US Attorney story most closely. NYTimes called for Abu Gonzales to resign in an editorial yesterday.

*yes, skippy! coined that phrase.

Rats, Sinking Ship, Etc.

WaPo: Halliburton to move headquarters, CEO to Dubai

And why are they moving? According to this diary at dailykos, to skirt the laws of the United States by locating in the UAE where they can sell arms and nuclear technology to countries like Iran and Libya.

All of which is illegal in the US. Halliburton, subverting democracy in the pursuit of profit. Your federal dollars from the Iraq war at work.

Dick Cheney (Halliburton CEO 1995-2000; Halliburton unindicted conspirator, 2000-continuing) is only public enemy number two because Chimpy McMembersOnlyJacketWithThePresidentialSeal is public enemy number one.

No Excuses

The Pokey Chatman saga at LSU continues to play out slowly and gets more and more ugly. ESPN is reporting two significant facts: (1) the player with whom Chatman had a sexual affair was a player on the team at the time; and (2) assistant women's basketball coach Carla Berry is the person who reported Chatman to LSU officials.

If Chatman had a sexual affair with one of her players while she was their coach, she had to go. If this is the allegation, I am amazed that LSU accepted her resignation and is paying her until April 30th. You would think that with allegations of this nature and this enormity, that the school would have taken immediate and decisive action. Instead, they initially allowed Chatman to resign and to issue a statement that she was leaving to pursue other career opportunities. (Hmmm. Maybe that's why the LSU board tabled a vote on giving AD Skip Bertman a new deal.) She should be pursuing something outside the realm of coaching young, vulnerable athletes. Maybe she can get a job with Granny Basketball in Iowa. Those women wouldn't take any crap from her.

I feel a lot of resentment towards Chatman. Her actions sully all of women's basketball. They reinforce the absolutely false stereotype that lesbians (or gay men, for that matter) are sexual predators who shouldn't be allowed to work with kids because they'll be cruising them. If there were statistics on this kind of thing I'm sure they'd show that heterosexual coaches are just as likely to violate social norms and get involved with players.

On the other hand, I feel sorry for Chatman and all the other people who live their lives in the closet. I only know of one women's basketball coach, Tara VanDerveer (Stanford, former US Olympic coach), who is out as a lesbian. (And I'm not even sure if she's really "out", see this Washington Post article on negative recruiting.) There are certainly many other coaches in Pokey Chatman's situation: lesbians who are cowering in the closet, afraid to live their lives out loud.

Imagine what her life was like. She is gay, but pretending to be straight. Think of all the things she does to keep in the closet. She doesn't hang out with gay friends in public. Maybe she is even afraid to have friends who are out of the closet. She doesn't go to gay clubs or gay events. She doesn't acknowledge her partner (if she has one) in public in any way. This is no basis for a relationship, so her partner leaves her. Or maybe she has never had the courage to have a partner at all. Eventually, her life becomes constricted to one thing: basketball; and one group of people: her team. This becomes her social life. These are the people she spends time with. When she leaves the team, she goes back into her protective shell, but on the basketball court she can be, for the most part, herself.

And sports are intense, intimate, expressive, and emotional. (If you doubt that, go watch the Celtic fans singing in the post below.) Just the dangerous mix where a repressed gay person can make the biggest mistake of her life, on the public stage, and lose everything as a result.

I am writing all of this based on what has been reported. You hope it isn't true. But if it is, even though I feel sorry for Chatman, there are no excuses. She had choices and made all the wrong ones. Now she can do what she should have done from the beginning. Live out loud, be who she is, and walk on with her life.

You'll Never Walk Alone

Yesterday was the third anniversary of the Madrid train bombings. 191 people died and 2,050 were wounded. The Champions League games scheduled for that day went on (controversially) although UEFA arranged for a moment of silence before each game, and the players wore black armbands. This weekend while I was Liverpool surfing I found this stunning version of "You'll Never Walk Alone" which was sung by the Celtic fans prior to their match against Barcelona on March 11, 2004, in tribute to the victims of the bombing. ("You'll Never Walk Alone", the Gerry and the Pacemakers version, is the club theme song for Liverpool and Celtic as well as for all these other clubs:

* England: Ipswich Town,
* Austria: SK Rapid Wien.
* Netherlands: FC Twente, Feyenoord Rotterdam and Ajax Amsterdam.
* Germany: FC St. Pauli (also Borussia Dortmund and Alemannia Aachen).
* Greece: AEK Athens FC (AEK fans adopted a Greek version of the song).
* Japan: F.C. Tokyo.
* Italy: Hellas Verona F.C..
* Portugal: SL Benfica

Obesity Caused by Plethora of Plastic?

WaPo: Chemicals May Play Role in Rise in Obesity

[S]everal recent animal studies suggest that environmental exposure to widely used chemicals may also help make people fat.

The evidence is preliminary, but a number of researchers are pursuing indications that the chemicals, which have been shown to cause abnormal changes in animals' sexual development, can also trigger fat-cell activity -- a process scientists call adipogenesis.

The chemicals under scrutiny are used in products from marine paints and pesticides to food and beverage containers. A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found one chemical, bisphenol A, in 95 percent of the people tested, at levels at or above those that affected development in animals.

[]

"Exposure to bisphenol A is continuous," said Frederick vom Saal, professor of biological sciences at the University of Missouri at Columbia. Bisphenol A is an ingredient in polycarbonate plastics used in many products, including refillable water containers and baby bottles, and in epoxy resins that line the inside of food cans and are used as dental sealants. In 2003, U.S. industry consumed about 2 billion pounds of bisphenol A.

Poodle Screwing British Veterans, Too

Independent (uk): Blair is called to account over abandoned troops

British soldiers returning from war are suffering unprecedented levels of mental health problems amid claims that the long-standing "military covenant" guaranteeing them proper care is in tatters.

More than 21,000 full-time servicemen and women who have served in Iraq, as well as army reservists, have developed anxiety and depression, an Independent on Sunday investigation can reveal today.

Official figures suggest two dozen military personnel have killed themselves since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 ­ a figure which includes 17 confirmed suicides and six where inquests are pending. Combat Stress, the charity for war veterans suffering from mental problems, has warned that it is seeing an annual rise of 26 per cent in its caseload; more than 1,000 former soldiers are homeless.

Independent (uk): The betrayal of British fighting men & women
The son of a military family Pte Johnathon Dany Wysoczan

Sunday Observer (uk): Scandal of treatment for wounded Iraq veterans
· Soldiers 'denied proper hospital care'
· Letters reveal anguish of families

For All My Fans From IAP Worldwide

For the dozen or so visitors today to this humble blog from IAP Worldwide in Merritt Island, Florida; this post's for you:



Slate.com: It's Not Just Walter Reed
Still more ways Bush is screwing returning vets.

The Pentagon's Defense Health Program—which includes the Tricare health-insurance plan, used by 9.1 million veterans and involving 65 inpatient clinics, 414 medical and dental clinics, and 257 veterans centers—has actually had its budget cut the past two years. In fiscal year 2006, the program's budget for medical care went up from $15.9 billion to $21.2 billion. But since then, it's gone down slightly—to $20.8 billion in FY 2007 and a proposed $20.7 billion in FY 2008.

These numbers understate the magnitude of the cuts. To keep up with inflation in the cost of goods and payroll, the Defense Department actually had to cut medical-care programs by $1.6 and $1.4 billion in FY07 and FY08, respectively.

Money is similarly tight at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA's budget for medical care has risen in the past few years—from $28.8 billion in FY 2006 to $29.3 billion in FY 2007 to a request for $34.2 billion in FY 2008—but this hasn't been enough. In each of the past four years, according to a March 1 report by the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, the VA has systematically underestimated the number of veterans applying for benefits in the coming fiscal year. The result is a shortfall of $2.8 billion in the FY08 budget, just to cover the current level of medical services.

The administration is trying to make up for some of this by raising deductibles on prescription drugs (from $8 to $15) and by imposing an annual enrollment fee (ranging from $250 to $750)—in short, by shifting costs to the veterans themselves. (Even so, these charges would make up only $450 million, or about one-sixth of the shortfall.)

Another instance of ignoring the wars: Despite a vast increase in the number of returning soldiers coming to the VA's veterans centers, the budget for these centers has remained flat. Similarly, despite a vast increase in the number of soldiers filing disability claims, the VA budget includes no money for additional claims processors. To justify the lack of money for trained processors, the VA's budgeteers assume that the number of new claims—and the backload of past claims—will drop in 2008. This is patently ridiculous: Elsewhere in the budget (see page 1-2), they state, "[W]e project that VA's patient caseload will peak in 2010" (emphasis added). In other words, they predict a rising caseload for another three years—but cut the money for the caseload this coming year.

An even grander sleight of hand comes in the section of the budget dealing with the "out-years"—FY 2009-12. The VA's budgeteers are projecting no increases in spending for medical care during that entire four-year period. They can't possibly believe this. (Again, they note elsewhere that the caseload won't peak until the middle of this period.) They are engaging in the political game of making the future appear less grim—and the president's budget more balanced, the need for tax hikes or cuts elsewhere less compelling—than is really the case.

unbossed.com: What doesn't IAP do?

It is amazing that a company that did not exist until recently has won so many contracts and in such diverse areas. A constant seems to be getting ice to hurricane Katrina damaged areas. One wonders what IAP will do for income when the damage is fixed. I did not include all of those contracts. You can find them on its newsroom archive page.

Here are a few more of its diverse contracts from recent years, all from IAP's press release page.

First, up the U.S. Geological Survey! From ice to WRAMC to the IRS to national wetlands research!

Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA), The Hill Blog: Walter Reed Hearing Raises Serious Questions

The questions I have about the Walter Reed issue is they contracted out a lot of the work that was being done by employees of Walter Reed even though the employees had a lower bid, knew what they were doing and the Army wanted them to continue what they were doing.

It appears as if someone in the defense department wanted to make sure that this outside contractor had the job which ended up reducing the workforce from around 350 to less than 100 earlier this year.

We’re trying to get more information, but certainly the witnesses we’ve had at our hearing acted like they knew nothing about anything. They didn’t know about the contract particularly, they didn’t know what the impact was and they didn’t know there were problems in Building 18. They assumed there weren’t any problems because nobody brought it to their attention. I just find that quite an unacceptable response.

I Wish It Was This Easy for US

Could we hire these guys to come here in January 2009?

Boston Globe: Priests to purify site after Bush visit

GUATEMALA CITY --Mayan priests will purify a sacred archaeological site to eliminate "bad spirits" after President Bush visits next week, an official with close ties to the group said Thursday.

"That a person like (Bush), with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is an offense for the Mayan people and their culture," Juan Tiney, the director of a Mayan nongovernmental organization with close ties to Mayan religious and political leaders, said Thursday.

Bush's seven-day tour of Latin America includes a stopover beginning late Sunday in Guatemala. On Monday morning he is scheduled to visit the archaeological site Iximche on the high western plateau in a region of the Central American country populated mostly by Mayans.

Tiney said the "spirit guides of the Mayan community" decided it would be necessary to cleanse the sacred site of "bad spirits" after Bush's visit so that their ancestors could rest in peace. He also said the rites -- which entail chanting and burning incense, herbs and candles -- would prepare the site for the third summit of Latin American Indians March 26-30.

This Makes Me Sad

Bill Feig/Associated Press

Pokey Chatman resigned over suspected inappropriate conduct with a former player.
Pokey Chatman has resigned as coach of the LSU women's basketball team, reportedly because she had what has been termed an "inappropriate relationship" with a former player.

What all does that mean? Obviously, it means she's gay. In Louisiana, just having a gay relationship is enough to get fired and land in jail. But if the relationship began while the player was still in college, it's just wrong. There are power dynamics involved when a coach begins a relationship with a player. The coach has power, and the player doesn't; therefore, the coach must say no.

Interestingly, most often these player/coach relationships involve women players. Male players are almost never found to have been involved in a relationship with a coach. Why is this? Because jobs coaching men aren't available to women. Once Title IX forced colleges and universities to pay men's and women's coaches on a more equivalent basis, those women's jobs became desirable. But women have never been hired to coach men on more than a token basis. So at this point 75% of all coaching jobs are available to men (100% of jobs coaching men's teams, 50% of jobs coaching women) and 25% are available to women. So it's rare to find a female coach charged with an inappropriate relationship; when the coach is female, it usually involves a lesbian relationship.

We see many women involved with or married to former male coaches. Prominent examples: Jackie Joyner Kersee, married her coach Al Joyner, who she met while he was her track coach at UCLA; Julie Foudy is married to Ian Sawyers, who was a coach in her development league when she was 18; Brandi Chastain is married to her former coach at Santa Clara. Foudy and Chastain's marriages were discussed in the excellent Sports Illustrated article on this issue, "Passion Plays", by Grant Wahl. There's no official copy of the article on the web, but if you go to this link and scroll down to Feb 11th, 2003, 06:49 PM, it's reproduced there.

As an attorney, I look at this from an employment discrimination perspective. A coach should never be in a relationship with a player while they are coaching them, because that is an abuse of the coach's power over the player, and makes all the decisions the coach makes about that player suspect. Why did she get so much playing time, etc.? On the other hand, coaches and players do fall in love, and if they happen to pursue that relationship after graduation, there's no problem. The problem is those years while attraction exists in the midst of the coach/player relationship. The coach, the older, more experienced person, is expected by society to be the bigger person and hold off until the coach/player relationship is no more. If Pokey Chatman was involved with a player while she was on the team, Chatman had to go. But we don't know that yet. If she began a relationship with a player after that player left the team, then she's being discriminated against for being gay.

As a sideline, the LSU AD, Skip Bertman, is a real moron. Here's his quote in the initial round of stories about Chatman's resignation:

"The girl did what she did and LSU had no control over that," Bertman said, referring to Chatman.

The girl? Chatman is 37 years old and has coached for LSU for 15 years. Give me a break.

ESPN: Sources: Chatman quit amid sexual misconduct claims

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Chatman to leave LSU immediately
INAPPROPRIATE ACTIONS MAY HAVE LED TO RESIGNATION

NYTIMES: L.S.U.’s Chatman Won’t Coach in N.C.A.A.

Homeland Security: Tearing Nursing Babies From Their Mothers' Arms

An employee cries outside the Michael Bianco Inc. textiles plant in New Bedford, Mass., Tuesday, March 6, 2007. About two thirds of the company's 500 employees were detained by immigration officials on suspicion of being in the U.S. illegally. The sweep caused chaos which saw some workers try to flee, only to be turned back by the bitter cold, said Bruce Foucart, Customs Enforcement Special Agent in Charge. (AP Photo/Peter Pereira-The New Bedford Standard Times)
Yesterday Homeland Security arrested allegedly illegal immigrant workers (mostly women) in New Bedford, Mass. and, presuming them guilty, shipped dozens of them to Texas, without any apparent thought to what would happen to their children. Two nursing babies were hospitalized for dehydration. Babies! What is wrong with these zealots?

[Massachusetts Governor] Patrick, at a press conference, and later in a private conference call with Homeland Security officials, protested the decision to fly 90 of the detained workers from Massachusetts to Harlingen, Texas, before state social workers had a chance to inquire about their child-care needs, potentially leaving many children with inadequate care. Two young children were hospitalized yesterday for dehydration after their nursing mothers were taken away, state officials said. Another 7-year-old girl called a state hot line seeking her detained mother. It was unclear last night where their mothers were.

Of course, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Division of DHS, which carried out the raids, is led by the unqualified, crony appointee, Julie Myers, who is both daughter of former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard B. Myers, and wife of the chief of staff for Homeland Security's criminally incompetent Michael Chertoff. Nice work, Heckuva-Jobbers.

What do you think happened to the owners, who were breaking the law by employing illegal immigrants, creating fraudulent documents for those workers, making profits, and defrauding the federal government which had contracted with them to make vests for soldiers? You got it if you guessed they were charged, made bail, and released to spend the night at home in the comfy houses with their families.

"HAS ANYONE seen my wife? She left for work yesterday and never came home. Our newborn baby is hungry and crying. Can someone please help?" asks a young father in the basement of a crowded church, one clear voice above the din of the hundreds gathered. The fear is palpable in the young man's eyes. He implores the listener to offer solace, hope, and encouragement.

[]

On Tuesday, more than 500 armed homeland security officers descended upon Michael Blanco Inc. The owner of the factory, and a few of his senior staff, were arrested for hiring undocumented workers and creating false documents. They were out on bail and home with their families that night.

Approximately 350 employees, mostly mothers with young children, were swept up in the raid, shackled together in groups of three by their wrists and ankles and marched to buses bound for Fort Devens, 100 miles away. Without any legal representation or due process, these workers were asked for their immigration documentation and encouraged by immigration officers to choose voluntary deportation regardless of whether an immigration application was in process.

The Real Rudy?

YouTube, Rudy Giuliani ad, 1989, using his wife and family as props.

I still can't get over the fact that he didn't go to his son's high school graduation. What could have been more important? Answer: nothing.

I saw this at Ben Smith's Blog at Politico.

Verdict: Guilty

The ultimate verdict on Walter Reed Army Medical Center and this country's shameful treatment of wounded and maimed veterans:

There is something profoundly evil about a country encouraging young men and women to go off and fight its wars and then shortchanging them on medical care and other forms of assistance when they come back with wounds that will haunt them forever.

Bob Hebert, NYTimes: Lift the Curtain (TimesSelect wall; also here and here)

Tell Your Momma The Corporate Media Is Sliming Obama

The Times printed this picture of Obama squinting into the sun, as though he were being grilled about his blind trust. He wasn't.

Robert Sullivan/AFP-Getty Images
Times caption: Barack Obama answering questions last weekend outside a church in Selma, Ala.
Page One news in the New York Times yesterday: In ’05 Investing, Obama Took Same Path as Donors

In which we learn that a blind trust to which Obama had entrusted his money invested $50,000 of it in companies owned by friends of his. It was a blind trust, so Obama didn't know about it; when he found out, he sold the shares and terminated the blind trust. (P.S., he lost money.)

Oooh, what double dealing. Oooh, I smell a hint of scandal. Oooh, you know that this really means. The Clinton Rules (as Digby named them) are back. Democrats are scrutinized within an inch of their lives by the rich corporate media; Republicans are given a pass. I mean, really, Rudy Giuliani was giving speeches at $100,000 a pop (and skipping his son's high school graduation, family values party, my ass) and this is a story about $50,000 in a blind trust? Where is the story about how Rudy Giuliani has invested his money? Who was Rudy giving all those speeches too? You don't think those folks are expecting a little homina homina for their Benjamins? You won't find the Giuliani story out there, or the McCain story, or the Romney Bain Capital story either. The corporate media exists to perpetuate the government that gives it the best tax breaks, and that means all Democrats under the microscope, all the time.

And today the Boston Globe (owned by the Times ownership cabal) weighs in with a story about how Obama paid $375 in ancient parking tickets. I kid you not.

Trey Ellis, HuffPo: Obama, the Times and Central Casting

What a curious and misleading headline on the front page of The New York Times:
"Obama, in Brief Investing Foray In '05, Took Same Path as Donors."

The only reason to put on the front page of the paper of record a story about a politician's stock holdings is if there were even a hint of impropriety.
The coy headline slings mud in bold letters and then, only in the fine print of the article, explains that not only was nothing improper done, in fact as soon as there was even the hint of a possible conflict the junior Senator from Illinois divested himself of the holdings.

This is a far different story than that of Senator Bill Frist whose blind trust ended up not being blind at all.

Did the Times editors really feel that this story belonged on page one while, say, "At Least 109 Shiite Pilgrims Killed Across Iraq as Holiday Nears," was banished to page A10?

Boston Globe: Obama paid late parking tickets
Racked up penalties while at Harvard

Total $375; $140 in fines, $235 in late fees. George Bush spends that much on Members Only jackets with the Presidential seal every day.

Privatizing Walter Reed: Rich Get Richer, Veterans Get Screwed

I've never understood the premise of privatization. Why does adding a profit motive to a third party improve government services? Answer: It doesn't. It just allows private companies to pay workers less and give them poorer benefits to do the same job, then transfers the cost savings into the pockets of the owners of the private company. And some of those companies also cut the numbers of workers doing the work. Like IAP Worldwide, which has replaced 300 federal support services workers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center with 50 private employees. The result? Dan Quayle, John Snow and Al Neffgen get richer. Who got poorer? The workers who now work for IAP don't make the wages of federal workers, and don't have equivalent benefits. But most horrifying, the maimed and brain-damaged soldiers at Walter Reed are suffering because our government chose to put money into the pockets of their rich friends rather than put money into caring for the veterans injured in their immoral, illegal war. Sickening.

Metrowest Daily News (Framingham, MA): Editorial: Privatizing Walter Reed

As a letter from the House committee investigating Walter Reed stated, "it would be reprehensible if the deplorable conditions were caused or aggravated by an ideological commitment to privatize government services regardless of the costs to taxpayers and the consequences for wounded soldiers.

The thread of privatization and cronyism runs through this administration's disasters: from Abu Ghraib, where private contractors had a role in intelligence-gathering, to New Orleans, where a major city paid the price after political appointees replaced experienced emergency service professionals at FEMA.

Palm Beach (FL) Post editorial: Failures at Walter Reed expose VA system failure

Incredibly, despite the rising numbers of those who will need care, the White House is proposing a VA budget that is essentially flat from last year. The administration wants to cut money for prosthetic research and provide inadequate financing for the backlog of cases that only will grow. Yet on Tuesday, Mr. Bush called on Congress to "fund our war fighters." Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson, whose "qualification" was running the Republican National Committee, has compounded the administration's indifference with insulting rhetoric. Asked about the 200,000-plus who have tried to get care, Mr. Nicholson says, "A lot of them come in for dental problems."

YahooNews: Deborah Burger, HuffPo: We're All at Walter Reed

It starts with brutally substandard care and abandonment of tens of thousands of veterans, not just at Walter Reed, but at VA hospitals and clinics around the country, as the Washington Post has revealed in ghastly detail.

Second, starving the VA. Since 2001, as Paul Krugman reported in the New York Times, federal allocations for veterans medical care lag behind overall healthcare spending, rather stunning when you consider we have sent 1.5 million of our young men and women to Iraq and Afghanistan and over 184,000 have sought VA care after serving.

There's more. Due to funding cuts, some 263,257 veterans were denied enrollment for Veterans Administration health coverage in 2005. To cut costs, enrollment has been suspended for those deemed not having service-related injuries or illnesses. So much for the guarantee of lifetime healthcare. And, if all the other indignities were not enough, some Walter Reed patients had to buy their own meals.

The final piece of this unholy troika is privatization. As the Army Times notes, Walter Reed handed a five-year $120 million contract to a private company run by an ex-Halliburton executive. The contracting out of support services was followed by a mass exodus of support personnel.

Christian Science Monitor: How decay overtook Walter Reed
The problems at the US Army hospital show how strained military resources have become.

View From ABroad

Tomorrow's cover of my favorite British newspaper, The Independent

Independent (uk): Liar in the White house: Cheney aide found guilty in CIA leak case
Saga of Washington's discredited WMD claims leads to the conviction for perjury of Dick Cheney's key aide

How Blair has stood by Niger claim

The golden couple targeted by White House machine

Scooter Libby's Very, Very, Very, Very Bad Day

Marcy Wheeler's book Anatomy of Deceit: How the Bush Administration Used the Media to Sell the Iraq War and Out a Spy (available from Amazon)
On the 10th day of deliberations, a verdict in the Scooter Libby case. Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty.

Count 1 (Obstruction): GUILTY
Count 2 (Perjury): GUILTY
Count 3 (False Statement): NOT GUILTY
Count 4 (Perjury): GUILTY
Count 5 (Perjury): GUILTY

The Washington Post describes the verdict as "a blow to the Bush Administration"; I'm not so sure. I think it's like a heavyweight fight. Bush and Cheney are the champs. You don't beat the champ with punches or even a knockdown. You have to knock the champ out. Until they are impeached or forced to resign, they're still in charge, and we're still fighting their lying, immoral war for oil and hegemony in Iraq.

I hope all these lying, cheating traitorous bastards have a hard time sleeping tonight.

Tell Your Momma Bout Obama* (Updated Below)

Image via wikipedia
When I read about Barack Obama before his speech at the 2004 Democratic convention, I called my family and told them to watch his speech because they would be watching the first black president. And his speech certainly lived up to my billing.

Then he went to the Senate and I was disappointed by all his Senate-speak and voting with LIEberman and the like. Maybe my expectations were just too high, because ever since he started his run for president my earlier admiration has returned. Every speech I have seen has been spot on. He speaks English, not Senate. And he is progressive. I put up with all that religion talk because, well, I put up with it from many people. Being overtly religious just isn't my cup of tea, but as long as you're not attacking me for not sharing your religiosity, I'm OK with it.

Good article in today's New York Times on Obama, actually focusing on substance, not on how he looks or sounds or what his supporters said about another candidate. Meat, not air.

Nicholas Kristof, NYTimes: Obama: Man of the World (TimesSelect wall; also here and here).

[] In some respects, Mr. Obama is far more experienced than other presidential candidates.

His experience as an antipoverty organizer in Chicago, for example, gives him a deep grasp of a crucial 21st-century challenge — poverty in America — that almost all politicians lack. He says that grass-roots experience helps explain why he favors not only government spending programs, like early childhood education, but also cultural initiatives, like efforts to promote responsible fatherhood.

In foreign policy as well, Mr. Obama would bring to the White House an important experience that most other candidates lack: he has actually lived abroad. He spent four years as a child in Indonesia and attended schools in the Indonesian language, which he still speaks.

“I was a little Jakarta street kid,” he said in a wide-ranging interview in his office (excerpts are on my blog, www.nytimes.com/ontheground). He once got in trouble for making faces during Koran study classes in his elementary school, but a president is less likely to stereotype Muslims as fanatics — and more likely to be aware of their nationalism — if he once studied the Koran with them.

*This was a sign at an Obama rally that I watched on Youtube a few weeks and can't locate today. Every time I hear or read something about Barack Obama, it goes through my head.

Update: Found a picture of the sign in the LA Times:

Blogtopia* Roundup, Tuesday, March 6, 2007

2.3 million Iraqis have left Iraq: Wampum: Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, New Mexico, Utah

It doesn't matter which one you pick. Every resident has to leave. That is the size of the Iraqi diaspora since the regime graduated from civil disenfranchisement to foreign wars. Its in Le Monde, and it doesn't matter that the press and the political class in the US won't touch the subject.

The Cherokee Nation has voted to eject the descendants of slaves: Professor Kim's News Notes: Cherokees eject descendants of their former slaves. More on the subject from Wampum: Nation and Race.

When Maureen Dowd mocks Democrats, is she so different from Ann Coultergeist? Daily Howler doesn't think so: WHEN YOU READ DOWD, YOU’RE RIDING WITH COULTER

Digby piles on (if you're not reading Hullabaloo every day, you're the poorer for it): Digby: Tarzan, Jane and Cheetah

The underlying premise of the modern conservative movement is that the entire Democratic party consists of a bunch of fags and dykes who are both too effeminate and too masculine to properly lead the nation.

Jill points out that Halliburton (can you believe it, upstanding corporate citizen Halliburton?) has been caught drilling for oil in Iran: Brilliant at Breakfast: Halliburton's tentacles are everywhere

And this is not from the blogs, but is truly unbelievable. Dana Milbank notes in today's Washington Post (scroll down to bottom) that a soldier with a prosthetic arm was barred entry from the Congressional hearing on the Walter Reed and our scandalous treatment of wounded veterans yesterday, because the seats were "preselected". The seats were also empty.

*yes, skippy coined that phrase!

CNN Enables Rudy Giuliani's Deceitful Excuse

Rudy & Judi 4-eva
Why do I watch morning TV? To see outrages like this I suppose. Rudy Giuliani has treated his kids like shit. He was happy to trot them out for photo ops when he was mayor of New York. Then he took up with Judith Nathan, even to the point of bringing her into Gracie Mansion where he lived with his wife Donna Hanover and his two kids. Donna Hanover had to ask for a restraining order to keep Rudy from parading his mistress in front of his kids. (The family court judge agreed with her and issued the restraining order against Nathan.) Finally he got his divorce and married his paramour Nathan. Then he pretty much ignored his kids. Didn't go to his son Andrew's high school graduation (the kid is now on the golf team at Duke), didn't go to his daughter's plays, just wasn't around very much. Busy being America's Mayor and pimping out his reputation on the lecture circuit for $100,000 a pop. Just a regular dad, out there ignoring his first family. He doesn't even list his children on his official campaign website.

Not surprisingly, the kids don't really have a very good relationship with 'ol Rudy. Andrew Giuliani was quoted saying as much in the papers this week.

CNN did a piece just now with the brain-dead O'Brien twins, Miles and Soledad, questioning Candy Crowley. Of course, they painted Bill Clinton as a liability -- such a good speaker that it's hard to be on the same stage with him. Candy Crowley said it was like the old saying about children and dogs, you just don't want to share the stage with them. (She had to throw the word dog in there. Four letters short of horndog, what the wingnuts really want to say.)

And for Giuliani? She reported that he described his problems with his son Andrew as "problems blended families have." Then they showed a clip of Rudy saying the problem is just the kind that blended families have. Then Candy Crowley said, well, we all know that college kids are not easy to deal with. So it looks like this is just a blended family problem. End of story.

Blended families? No mention of how shittily Rudy treated his family and his kids. Bill Clinton is a liability because he's so popular, but Rudy's treatment isn't a liability, because it's just a blended family issue.

A Republican lie makes it onto cable TV while the truth is tying its shoes on the blogs. You heard it here first.

Ouch

I saw this awesome photoshop at Ramblings of a Soccer Junky.

Good Reads

Heading into the studio to make platters today; here are some good reads out there today.

Brilliant at Breakfast: It's time to take health insurance out of the for-profit model

Yesterday's New York Times editorial gives Democrats a blueprint for moving forward to restore our constitutional democracy: The Must-Do List

Alicia Shepard, HuffPo: All Men, All the Time in News Business Are you surprised?

Welcome to Pottersville: Assclowns of the Week #61: “He’s a Wifebeater But I Love Him!” Edition Yes, they are all Republicans.

For full coverage of the U.S. Attorney purge scandal, make sure to read Talking Points Memo; head to Firedoglake for Scooter Libby trial updates.

Walter Reed Is The Direct Result of Republican Policy Choices

It will be important to keep the media on track on this story. I heard Jim Miklaszewski on Imus this morning claiming this is just how things get done by the military bureaucracy. Not so. This is not a story about government incompetence. As Paul Krugman points out today, improvements in the Veterans Administration during the Clinton years made the VA one of the best health care systems in the country. Government did that. Good, responsible government dedicated to using the power of the purse wisely. Democrats in charge. People who believe that government works.

The problem with Walter Reed and military medical care is not government incompetence. It's the Bush Administration's Republican attack upon government, in their effort to fulfill Grover Norquist's desire to shrink the federal government until it can be drowned in a bathtub. These are deliberate policy choices, not just incompetence. They have attacked good government from within. The functioning system at Walter Reed and at Veterans Administration facilities around the country has been attacked with the weapon of privatization. Why? Partly, so rich corporations like Halliburton can continue to rake in billions in profits. But it is also part of their insidious attack upon government, to make government look as bad as they always claim it is. They are trying to destroy our government from within. This isn't just incompetence. It's their policy. Starve the federal government, then claim government itself doesn't work and privatize everything.

They must be stopped.

WaPo: 'It Is Just Not Walter Reed'
Soldiers Share Troubling Stories Of Military Health Care Across U.S.

Paul Krugman, NYTimes: Valor and Squalor (TimesSelect wall; also here and here).

AirForceTimes: Soldiers at Walter Reed Building 18 moved

Steve Young, OpEdNews: Johnny Gets His Gun Again: Walter Reed Reveals Right's Bloody Secret

WaPo: Walter Reed Hearing to Put Spotlight on Kiley's Leadership

Political Affairs Magazine: Privatization Behind Disaster at Walter Reed Hospital

Frogs and Bees are the Canaries in our Coal Mine

Endangered
They're dying, and no one knows why. Global warming? Pollution? The cumulative effects of the 500 new chemicals which are introduced into our environment every year? Whatever the answer, it's bad news for the planet.

Marin County Coastal Post Online: The Frogs Are Dying

ATLANTA - Ponds and swamps are becoming eerily silent. The familiar melody of ribbits, croaks and chirps is disappearing as a mysterious killer fungus wipes out frog populations around the globe, a phenomenon likened to the extinction of dinosaurs.

Scientists from around the world are meeting Thursday and Friday in Atlanta to organize a worldwide effort to stem the deaths by asking zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens to take in threatened frogs until the fungus can be stopped.

The aim of the group called Amphibian Ark is to prevent the world's more than 6,000 species of frogs, salamanders and wormlike Sicilians from disappearing. Scientists estimate up to 170 species of frogs have become extinct in the past decade from the fungus and other causes, and an additional 1,900 species are threatened.

NYTimes (Feb. 27): Honeybees Vanish, Leaving Keepers in Peril

[B]ee losses are ranging from 30 to 60 percent on the West Coast, with some beekeepers on the East Coast and in Texas reporting losses of more than 70 percent; beekeepers consider a loss of up to 20 percent in the offseason to be normal.

NYTimes (Feb. 12): Mystery Disease Is Threat to Bee Colonies

A mysterious illness is killing tens of thousands of honeybee colonies across the country, threatening honey production, the livelihood of beekeepers and possibly crops that need bees for pollination.

Researchers are scrambling to find the cause of the ailment, called colony collapse disorder.

Reports of unusual colony deaths have come from at least 22 states. Some commercial beekeepers have reported losing more than 50 percent of their bees.

Bradenton (FL) Herald: Bees dropping from mystery illness

Little is known, he said, but this: Something seems to be breaking down the bees' immune systems.

Operation Photo Oops

Official caption from whitehouse.gov: President George W. Bush visits with residents in Americus, Ga., March 3, 2007. The President toured tornado-damaged areas in Alabama and Georgia. White House photo by Paul Morse

Potential, real captions:

How's this pose, Turdblossom?

I'm already bored

Bush grows bored with photo op, calls Condi, tells her she's been replaced with younger woman.

Bush calls Laura to tell her his latest fantasy

Calling all morons

You make the call

Can you hear me now?

Ya think this'll make 'em forget about Walter Reed?

I saw this picture on Huffpo: Reading The Pictures: The "Fly By" That Won't Die

That Must Be Some Coffee Can!

This paragraph leaped out at me from an article in today's Boston Globe:

DiCenso pleaded not guilty yesterday to a host of drug and weapons charges in Chelsea District Court. Police said the raid at his house on Thursday netted 1.5 kilograms of cocaine, enough for 53 single-ounce sales, stashed in a can filled with coffee grounds, two machine guns, three handguns, and a thick wad of cash.

Must have been one of those industrial size cans. Machine gun sized. Ah, the lost art of punctuation.

Panda Pile

Panda cubs born in 2006 play at the China Wolong Giant Panda Research Center, southwest China's Sichuan province, in this November 7, 2006 file photo. The Center, where 11 residential giant pandas gave birth to 18 cubs from July to September 2006, is soliciting names from the public for all 18 cubs, local media reported on January 24, 2007. CHINA OUT REUTERS/China Daily (CHINA)

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.

"Paid For By Al Sharpton's Family"

Darth Cheney traveled in style to and from Pakistan this week. The name of the C-17 military transport in which he traveled is "The Spirit of Strom Thurmond."

Given this week's news that Thurmond's family owned members of Sharpton's family, shouldn't the plane be re-christened, "Paid For By Al Sharpton's Family". Or at least have that added as a coda to the name?

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

"Heckuva Job" Kiley Promoted

Only in Bushworld. Lt. General Kevin Kiley, who allowed an injured soldier to sleep in his own urine -- after a Congressman's wife went to his office to tell him about it -- has been promoted to be top administrator of Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Kevin, you're doin' a heckuva job. Heh heh heh.

The Role of Captain Renault Will Be Played by Walter Reed Commander Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley

Captain Renault, memorably played by Claude Rains in Casablanca, says during a gambling raid: "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!" Lt. Gen. Kiley has gone on all the TV shows this week claiming not only that he did not know about the problems unearthed by the Washington Post investigation, but that they did not exist or were being exaggerated by the media. Here are your winnings, sir.

WaPo: Hospital Officials Knew of Neglect
Complaints About Walter Reed Were Voiced for Years

Top officials at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, including the Army's surgeon general, have heard complaints about outpatient neglect from family members, veterans groups and members of Congress for more than three years.

A procession of Pentagon and Walter Reed officials expressed surprise last week about the living conditions and bureaucratic nightmares faced by wounded soldiers staying at the D.C. medical facility. But as far back as 2003, the commander of Walter Reed, Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, who is now the Army's top medical officer, was told that soldiers who were wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan were languishing and lost on the grounds, according to interviews.

[]

Kiley lives across the street from Building 18. From his quarters, he can see the scrappy building and busy traffic the soldiers must cross to get to the 113-acre post. At a news conference last week, Kiley, who declined several requests for interviews for this article, said that the problems of Building 18 "weren't serious and there weren't a lot of them." He also said they were not "emblematic of a process of Walter Reed that has abandoned soldiers and their families."

But according to interviews, Kiley, his successive commanders at Walter Reed and various top noncommissioned officers in charge of soldiers' lives have heard a stream of complaints about outpatient treatment over the past several years. The complaints have surfaced at town hall meetings for staff and soldiers, at commanders' "sensing sessions" in which soldiers or officers are encouraged to speak freely, and in several inspector general's reports detailing building conditions, safety issues and other matters.

Bushco to Wounded Troops: Shut Up and Salute

MSNBC: One Way to Stop the Bad News at Walter Reed (quoting the Army Times)

DoD Cracks Down on Walter Reed Media Coverage

Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit say they have been told they will wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m., and that they must not speak to the media.

“Some soldiers believe this is a form of punishment for the trouble soldiers caused by talking to the media,” one Medical Hold Unit soldier said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Soldiers say their sergeant major gathered troops at 6 p.m. Monday to tell them they must follow their chain of command when asking for help with their medical evaluation paperwork, or when they spot mold, mice or other problems in their quarters.

There's a New Bard in Town

Steve Gilliard's NewsBlog: LowerManhattanite: "Political Masturbation Theatre Presents: William Shakespeare's 'Obamo'"

This is just the opening. Go quickly, and read the whole, forsooth!

(Curtain rises on a smoke-filled, oak-lined study. In it stands OBAMO, a noble Moorish/Amfrerican, newly chosen to the Senate and HILLAMONA, a proud, steely blonde of noble lineage, also to the Senate selected. They are at opposite ends of the room—brooding in smoldering silence. The tension between them could be cut with a plastic spoon/fork hybrid {“spork”}. Hillamona wheels on Obamo suddenly with fire dancing in her eyes)

HILLAMONA: (Flushed and holding her throat as if just choked) Varlet! You sought to steal the air from my lungs—my campaign’s very lungs!

OBAMO; You drape your anger ‘pon a hook in the wrong man’s castle. T’was not I, Hillamona—your quarrel lay with King David of the Western Hills. Yet you assail me.

HILLAMONA: He mouths words as thy proxy, Obamo—deny it not, for you know it to be true.

OBAMO: He is his own man. I do not control him.

Best wishes to Steve Gilliard who is in the hospital facing open heart surgery. F*** the f****** Yankees (Steve's rallying cry) and get well soon.

If We Lived in Iraq

Welcome to Pottersville: Imagine

Cities like New York, Los Angeles and Dallas have only 4 hours of electricity a day while a provisional puppet government is set up seemingly with the sole mission of enriching the occupying nation’s private industry. Cheap and unqualified labor is smuggled in from the Philippines and elsewhere while Americans are starving in the streets.

37.5 million Americans are now on a food subsistence program. Think of 37,500,000 of our citizens on food stamps. 750 Americans are killed violently each day from wartime activities, with 255,000 more injured every year. This doesn’t include a dramatic spike in deaths from “natural causes” related to the effects of war, such as cholera from open sewers in American streets, cancer from depleted uranium shells from a previous war. And, of course, the non-fatal casualties can only be tabulated by hospitals counting actual admissions. The problem with this is that there aren’t enough hospitals to go around so many injuries go untreated.

Americans are forced to flee at the rate of 15,000,000 a year. We’re streaming into Canada, Mexico, even Cuba, whoever will take us. Give us your poor huddled masses? That was a quaint notion once in America but now no one wants us, least of all the brobdingnagian superpower that’s primarily responsible for our peoples’ mass displacement.

The New York Times and Washington Post’s offices are bombed and approximately 150 of our journalists are targeted for death every year.

Click the link and read the whole thing.

In The Richest Country In The World

There is no such thing as compassionate conservatism. Consider:

A little boy in Maryland died this weekend after an infection from a rotted tooth spread to his brain. His mother couldn't afford the $80 to have it pulled, and they couldn't find a dentist to take their Medicaid; then they lost their Medicaid coverage.

And that occurred under Bush's previous budget; his next budget would throw 6,000 kids in New Hampshire alone off the Medicaid program (but we must keep those tax cuts for millionaires.)

A young couple lose their jobs in Northern Virginia, and within months they are homeless.

Under the misadministration of George W. Bush, the numbers of people living in severe poverty (defined as an individual with an income of less than roughly $5,000 per year, or a family with an income of less than $10,000 per year) have grown by 25% to 16,000,000 people (16 million).

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.

Hamm, Foudy Elected to Soccer Hall of Fame; Fawcett Inexplicably Falls Short (Updated)

As in this picture, Hamm, Foudy & Fawcett should be going in to the Hall together
Hall of Fame Magazine: Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy Elected To National Soccer Hall Of Fame
First Ever Women-Only Induction Class

Four idiots didn't even vote for Mia Hamm. Jeez. That means 23 drooling morons didn't vote for Julie Foudy, the woman who captained the team to World Cup and Olympic gold glory (no US man in the Hall can claim either). And 46 knuckle-dragging ignoramuses didn't vote for Joy Fawcett, the best defender in the history of the US national team. Sheesh.

The top ten on the 2007 Hall of Fame Players' Ballot were:

Mia Hamm 137 Votes 97.16%
Julie Foudy 118 83.69%
Joy Fawcett 95 67.38%
Marco Etcheverry 82 58.16%
Thomas Dooley 73 51.77%
Joe-Max Moore 73 48.23%
Carlos Valderrama 68 48.23%
Peter Vermes 44 31.21%
Peter Nowak 40 28.37%
Mauricio Cienfuegos 35 24.82%

Joy Fawcett is the most-capped defender in the history of US soccer (male or female) with 239 appearances in the national team shirt; she scored 27 goals, which puts her at #13 on the US women's all-time list. If she were a man her 27 goals would put her #3 on the US men's all-time scoring list.

On the men's side, Cobi Jones leads all players with 164 appearances; Fawcett has 75 more AND SHE HAD THREE CHILDREN DURING HER CAREER, which certainly lowered her appearance total. Jeff Agoos leads defenders in caps with 134; he scored 4 goals. Marcelo Balboa comes after Agoos on the all-time men's list with 128 appearances and 13 goals. And here's the fact that proves my point. Marcelo Balboa, 128/13, was elected to the Soccer Hall of Fame on the first ballot.

Joy Fawcett isn't a first-ballot Hall of Famer with 239 appearances and 27 goals? A man gets in on the first ballot with less than half the goals? With almost half the appearances? And the woman who has twice as many is excluded? Sexism rules the Hall voters, clearly.

Hey, even ESPN (which hates soccer) agrees with me:

Andrea Canales, ESPN: Fawcett's exclusion a mistake

Although Fawcett usually maintained a low profile, her importance to the U.S. team during her playing days was obvious in one startling statistic -- she played every minute of every U.S. match in the last three World Cups and the last three Olympics.

Although in many ways Fawcett was an anchor to the squad, she also pulled off a regular disappearing act, leaving the squad regularly to have children. At a time when many female players put off having a family, fearful that the return to top form would be too difficult given the time off and the physical transformation involved, Fawcett gave birth to three girls, Katelyn Rose, Carli Jean and Madilyn Rae.

After each child, she fought her way back into the lineup by regaining her fitness through tough training, even when it meant her babies logged numerous miles in racing strollers.

If not for the time off involved with her pregnancies and recovery, Fawcett would no doubt be higher on the list of all-time caps for the U.S. women's team. As it is, she sits in fourth place with 239, behind only Kristine Lilly, Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy.

Fawcett also remains one of the squad's most accomplished two-way players, a defender with great ball control who could contribute to the attack. Her 27 goals and 23 assists in her career attest to her productivity at putting the ball in the net for her team rather than just keeping the ball out against opponents.

ESPN: Hamm and Foudy to be inducted into Hall of Fame

Orange County Register: Foudy named to soccer hall of fame

Monsters & Critics (uk): Hamm, Foudy voted into National Soccer Hall of Fame

Update: More articles

WaPo: Hamm and Foudy Have A Hall Pass Waiting

NYTimes: For Two Pioneers, Journey Ends at the Hall of Fame

LATimes: Hamm, Foudy join select group
Former stars of U.S. women's national team will be inducted Aug. 26

Point - Counterpoint

Not smart cookies
Laura Bush on CNN with Larry King last night:

Many parts of Iraq are stable now. But, uh, of course, what we see on television is the one bombing a day that discourages everyone.

Dick Cheney in Pakistan today:

A suicide bomber attacked the entrance to the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney, killing up to 23 people and wounding 20. The Taliban claimed responsibility and said Cheney, who was unharmed, was the target.

Discouraging, indeed.

A Final Tribute to DJ

I was talking to my brother last night and we agreed that no one should ever be judged or remembered solely for the worst 10 minutes of their life. (I bet some nasty image of yourself just flashed through your head as you read that sentence.) So we'll remember DJ lumbering down the court, throwing those blind passes to Larry, and smiling his loopy smile. Putting the hurt on the Boston Strangler, Andrew Toney. In Magic Johnson's face. Laughing at Danny Ainge. Larry stole the ball, but DJ ran half the court to lay it in. RIP

Bob Ryan, Boston Globe (a few days late in my estimation): There was nobody like DJ

J.A. Adande, LATimes: Dennis Johnson played to win
The height of athletic achievement is to be at your best when it matters most, and he did.

Portsmouth Herald: D.J. was everybody's Celtic

NBA.com: Johnson Remembered at Memorial Service

Daily Breeze: Commentary: Johnson's coaches recall his rags-to-riches story
Harbor's White and Pepperdine's Colson were fond of their instinctive former pupil -- one of the best NBA players not in the Hall of Fame.

Hartford Courant: NBA: D.J. Had Winning Touch

Peter (The Lesser) Vecsey, NYPost:
CLUELESS IN SEATTLE
SHAME ON SONICS FOR NOT RETIRING D.J.'S NUMBER

Blackathlete.net: Johnson Grew Into A Man Few Anticipated

Just For Laughs

Monty Python - Philosophers' World Cup

Another gift from Who Ate All The Pies?

Has Ronaldhino Gone to Seed? You Make the Call

Indisputable evidence that Ronaldinho is following in the footsteps of Ronaldo. (First pic taken in November 2003, the second after Liverpool's 2-1 win last Wednesday.) He must have put on at least a stone of fat in that time. Is this what happens when you believe your own hype? [Who Ate All The Pies]

Is Ronaldhino the new Fat Ronny? Was his poor performance in the World Cup and recently with Barcelona due to his lack of fitness? You make the call. Photo via Who Ate All The Pies.

Wouldn't It Be Great If Al Sharpton Inherited Strom Thurmond's Estate?

Over the weekend I read that the New York Daily News hired genealogists to look into Al Sharpton's family history, and through that he learned that his family had been owned by Strom Thurmond's family.

Today's news is just as interesting:

WaPo: Sharpton wants DNA test

Wouldn't it be awesome if Al Sharpton is the heir to Strom Thurmond? OK, it's almost impossible, they're probably just fourth cousins once removed, but isn't it fun to imagine ol' Strom's reaction to that one? Tee hee.

Libby Juror Exposed to Outside Information

Yesterday the world's most incompetent ombudsperson, Deborah Howell of the Washington Post, defended the Post for publishing Republican mouthpiece Victoria Toensing's partisan article attacking the prosecution of Scooter Libby. The article also attacked prosecutor Pat Fitzgerald personally and was accompanied by a graphic with a mugshot-like picture of Fitzgerald. Readers and media critics were understandably upset that the slanted article was planted in the middle of the trial. In her column Howell addressed this complaint from a reader:

Chris Webster was among dozens who complained: "Publishing her partisan version of history and parsed interpretation of the law the weekend before jury deliberations could be considered jury tampering."

with this answer:

This wasn't tampering. The judge has instructed jurors to stay away from news reports.

Today's news from the Scooter Libby trial:

Libby juror exposed to outside information.

Deborah Howell is once again proved the fool. And the Washington Post may have allowed the wingnuts to influence this trial. Shame, shame. No wonder firedoglake has dubbed her "Lil' Debbie".

UPDATE: The juror was dismissed; the jury will continue to deliberate, with 11 jurors.

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.