News Round-Up, Friday, March 30, 2007

Can't get enough of Knut
I love my Congressman. I was a little surprised when I read the headline saying that my extremely liberal Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA) is endorsing Hillary Clinton (who voted for the war he has always opposed), but when I read the article it made sense. He's supporting her because she will make history as the first woman president; he decided after hearing his five-year-old daughter talk about Hillary with her kindergarten classmates. As the daughter of parents who told her she could become President if she wanted, I salute that. And let's face it. There are no bad candidates on the Democratic side. I'd vote for any of them in a heartbeat.

Anti-abortion zealot Dr. Eric Keroack has resigned his position as head of the Office of Population Affairs at HHS under a cloud of scandal; he is being investigated for Medicaid fraud in Massachusetts. Hah!

The Washington Post has redesigned its website. There is now a page where all articles about climate change are listed.

No comment, or should I say, speechless: Video: Rove raps at correspondents dinner.

Rudy Giuliani's caught in another lie: He knew about Bernie Kerik's ties to organized crime.

Via atrios, the new website Politico should be called Drudgico, not surprising given that Politico founder Jim VandeHei is married to a former Tom Delay staffer and reportedly has a shrine to GWB in his house. Ewww.

You Take The High Road

And I'll take the low road. But if either of us use GoogleMaps to get from New York to Dublin, Ireland, we'll swim.

Yes, GoogleMaps directions from New York City to Dublin, Ireland give you, as Step 23, this direction:

Swim across the Atlantic Ocean 3,462 mi

I saw this on BoingBoing

Get Well Soon, Rick Hoyt

I just found yesterday that I won't be in town for the Boston Marathon (an annual event for me since my first, 1976) and today I learned another fixture will be missing.

When you go to the Marathon, there are certain notable points. The wheelchair leaders, the men's leader, the women's leader, and the Hoyts. Used to be Johnny Kelley, the 1935 and 1945 winner who finished 58 Bostons, was in that list of notables, but he stopped running in 1992 and sadly died three years ago at age 97.

Metrowest News (Framingham, MA): Team Hoyt to miss this year's Boston Marathon due to Rick's surgery

Cellulitis sounds like a fairly benign condition, but to someone in a wheelchair with multiple medical issues nothing is minor. Get well soon Rick & I hope we'll both be back next year.

Gonzo's Deputy Testifying Now

You can watch Kyle Sampson's testimony on C-SPAN3 live, or later.

He has already testified that Gonzo lied (or in his weaselly words, "was inaccurate") when he said he wasn't involved in the process.

You Heard It Here First: Twin Girls Will Play For USA In 2027 World Cup

Not really that bold a prediction given their parents. Maybe Mom will coach?

Boston Globe (AP): Garciaparra, Hamm are parents of twins

Embarrassingly, the WaPo runs the same AP article accompanied by a picture of Nomar. Nomar only. Not Mia. Sheesh.

AOL Sports: Double Play: Nomar Garciaparra and Mia Hamm Have Twins

On Tuesday, Nomar Garciaparra and Mia Hamm became the proud parents of (I'm guessing) two of the most athletically-gifted newborn babies the world has ever seen:

"Both are healthy and over five pounds," Dodgers spokesman Josh Rawitch said, adding the births took place in the Los Angeles area.

Rawitch said Garciaparra left the team late Tuesday to be with his wife, but was in the air when the babies were born.

"He was on a speaker phone with the delivery room speaking with Mia during the births," Rawitch said.

I guess that whole "no cell phones on airplanes" thing doesn't apply to two-time batting champions. I'm putting the over/under on America's T-ball and youth soccer records being absolutely annihilated at five years ... and I'm taking the under.

In the meantime, for the sake of the babies, I'm hoping Nomar's OCD-like routine before every swing doesn't extend to feeding time, or else these kids might just go hungry.

'Patriotic performance art'

(BBC)

People standing around sculpted mud faces

Chinese people take part in a patriotic performance art event in Zhengzhou. About 3000 people joined in, yelling patriotic slogans around faces sculpted in the earth.

Elections Have Consequences

Swift Boat propaganda funder Sam Fox wasn't going to get through the Democratic-controlled Senate for his ambassadorship. Bush has withdrawn his nomination.

WaPo: White House Withdraws Ambassador Nominee

HuffPo: The Truth Wins One Round. White House Withdraws Fox Nomination.

Racism Lives, USA, 2007

Shaquanda Cotton (from Free Shaquanda Cotton website)

Miami, Florida: Tennis player Serena Williams is racially abused by a white male spectator who tells her to "hit the ball into the net like any nigger would".

Paris, Texas: A 15-year-old black girl, Shaquanda Cotton, has been in jail for over a year of a seven year jail term for pushing a hall monitor at her high school in 2005. (The hall monitor was not injured; it was her first offense.) Three months earlier, the same judge sentenced a 14-year-old white girl convicted of arson for burning down her family's house to probation.

Georgia: The Georgia State Senate has dropped the bill that would have freed 19-year-old black man Genarlow Wilson, who will now rot in jail for another eight years for conduct that is now only a misdemeanor under Georgia law.

It's not just the South, either:

Cambridge, Massachusetts: Vaunted Harvard University has 41 varsity sports and not one black coach. This is not surprising given that the AD and his 13 senior administrators are also not black. The AD has hired coaches for 12 sports since he was hired in 2001; all his hires are white.

Run, Toto, Run!

Bush's lapdog out of the basket, running away from Pat Leahy.



HuffPo: Gonzales Runs Out Of Conference To Avoid Scandal Questions

Of Course He Plead Guilty

Just read the post on Huffington Post and ask yourself, what if this were my countryman? How would I feel about the United States of America holding itself out as a moral paragon? These are the depths to which the Crawford Caligula has led this nation. He may as well have opened a brothel in the White House for the shame and revulsion he will be held by history.

Today Australian David Hicks plead guilty to breaking a law which did not exist until September of 2006; he has been in Guantanamo for five years. The original charges were all dropped. Before the hearing, two of his three lawyers were dismissed by the court; the third was threatened, and his request for additional counsel was denied. Justice, unAmerican style. Unfortunately, this happened under the American extra-legal system established at Guantanamo. It is truly shameful. Some day it will be in the history books along with the unconstitutional internment of Japanese Americans during WWII.

HuffPo: Justice Guantánamo Style

David Hicks, the Australian man that has been held in Guantánamo for five years, (the last year or so in solitary confinement) agreed to plead guilty yesterday. There are a few things you should know about his plea. First, and most importantly, Hicks is pleading guilty to a crime that did not exist on the books until September of 2006.

All of the original charges (the serious ones) were dropped against Hicks because the military had no evidence against him. Mr. Hicks was confined at Guantánamo until a new law could be passed that he could then be charged with. Never mind the fact that our constitution prohibits ex post facto (retroactive) laws, I mean that is why we are holding him at Guantánamo right?

The other thing you should know is what was clear to anyone paying attention: there was never going to be a hearing. The most recent evidence of that was when Hicks stepped into his arraignment yesterday and the first thing that happened was that two of his three attorneys were removed from representing him. Hicks' civilian attorney was removed because he refused to sign a statement agreeing to abide by military rules that had not yet been drafted and another attorney was removed because she supposedly did not have the correct credentials for the commission. That left Hicks with only one attorney, his military attorney, Dan Mori. Although Mori has been doing an exemplary job for Hicks, there was a little cloud hanging over Mori: the prosecuting attorney has suggested that Mori should be brought up on charges of misconduct for his zealous defense of Hicks. Mori was still trying to figure out how that threat by the prosecuting attorney would affect his representation of Hicks. Mori sought a short continuance to get legal counsel on this issue but that request was denied.

So yesterday, after two of his three attorneys were removed from representing him and the prosecuting attorney was attempting to intimidate the third, Hicks asked the military judge for additional counsel to help level the playing field. That request was denied... leveling the playing field is not what the military had in mind. The writing was clear on the glistening red, white and blue walls of the commission hearing room and David Hicks did the only thing that could possibly make sense in this abhorrent proceeding. He pled guilty to something that was not even against the law when he was arrested. Hicks' only hope is that he will be sent to Australia to serve his sentence and that perhaps, in time, a court in Australia will agree that pleading guilty to a crime that did not exist when he was arrested should be considered a nullity. Only problem is, Australia does not have a constitutional prohibition against ex post facto laws... I wonder if that is how the phrase "kangaroo court' first came to be?

'The President Serves At the Pleasure of the American People'

Best blog post title of the day:

dailykos: The President Serves At the Pleasure of the American People

Knut!

Three-month-old polar bear cub, Knut, appears to wave during his first outing at Berlin's Zoologischer Garten zoo. Knut made his first public appearance at the Berlin Zoo under the gaze of dozens of photographers and cameramen.(AFP/John MacDougall)

Knut, the abandoned polar bear cub at a Berlin zoo, looks a lot like my sister's dog.

Dykes

Am I the only person on earth who thinks it's hysterically funny that the LSU-Connecticut game is being called by an announcer named "Jimmy Dykes"? Does God have a sense of humor or what?

US 3, Ecuador 1

Landon Donovan (10) of the United States attacks the Ecuador goal during the first half of an international friendly soccer match in Tampa, Fla. on Sunday, March 25, 2007. The United States won 3-1. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson)

Yesterday the United States Men's National Team played Ecuador in a friendly in Tampa, Florida, winning 3-1 on the strength of three fine goals by our mercurial star, Landon Donovan. (Also known as Landycakes, LandonGone, and InvisiLandon for his habit of disappearing in big games. This was only a friendly.) Ecuador played well in the World Cup so this was a good test.

I didn't really concentrate on the first 15 minutes of the game, because I was watching on a split screen with Marist-Tennessee on the other. Sadly, the Pride of Poughkeepsie succumbed early to the awesome Candace Parker and Pat Head Summit's excellent team, so the Nats got my full attention.

Unfortunately, the game was on ESPN, and they have their terrible trio of announcers: Dave O'Brien, or Dave O'Baseball as I call him; Bruce Arena, the recently deposed coach of the National Team; and Eric Wynalda, the leading scorer in the history of the men's team, who is as terrible an announcer as he was great as a player.

Donovan scored in the first minute, then again at 66 and 67 minutes. The first goal was a gift from Ecuador as a clearance went straight to him. The second goal came off a brilliant through pass from Brian Ching, and Donovan ran 50 yards down the field before putting a nifty shot past the keeper. The final goal was a blast off a great left footed cross from the much-maligned Damarcus Beasley (maligned partly because Bruce Arena played left footed Beasley on the right throughout the World Cup).

The back line didn't play very well, and looked disorganized throughout the first half. It's hard to put together a cohesive team in a matter of days, and of course Jimmy Conrad and Oguchi Onyewu haven't played together very often, as Arena played Eddie Pope in the back line for the Nats far too long. Can you say 'red card, Italy', anyone? There was no mention of Jay Demerit, the 26-year-old American starting for Watford in the Premier League who has never been capped. He was suffering from a groin injury at the beginning of camp, but was supposedly available. (google: Yanks Abroad says he had "picked up a knock". Whatever that means.) Maybe they'll think to mention him on Wednesday when the Nats play Guatemala in Dallas, Texas in their second friendly (minus Tim Howard, Oguchi Onyewu, Carlos Bocanegra, and Brian Carroll who have all been released to their club teams.)

I hate Dave O'Brien as a soccer announcer so much. First, he still doesn't know the game. He doesn't even know all the US players by sight yet. And forget the other team. When Donovan was running half the field to score his second goal, O'Brien never identified the pass as having come from Ching. Because he didn't know who passed the ball until he watched the replay! Just pathetic. Then, he gives extraneous information, constantly repeating the score and the time remaining (both of which are constantly available on our screen via ESPN's graphics). He describes players by giving their numbers, which is just not done in soccer. I don't care what any player's number is. And then there's his obsession with the weather and the temperature. I don't care! I can see that the sun is shining, I know the game is in Florida, I see the players sweating, I know it's hot. Just shut up and watch the game. And that's the worst thing about Dave O'Baseball, HE NEVER SHUTS UP. You never hear the players calling to each other on the field, or the sound of the crowd. There are no moments of silence. No, he starts saying that Gooch looks like an American football player, or talking about baseball, or telling us what he knows about soccer, which consists of what he saw during last summer's World Cup. Just the constant blare of his basso profundo voice, telling us nothing.

Do you know that ESPN hates me? Yes, it is a proveable fact. Three years ago O'Brien was approached about becoming the radio voice of the Chicago Cubs, but ESPN said no. This year, it was the Red Sox, my beloved Red Sawx, who came calling and ESPN gave him permission. Yes, it's true, Dave O'Brien now ruins the summer pleasure of listening to the Red Sox game on the car radio. Instead of hearing the sounds of the shrine of Fenway, fans chatting, beer sellers hawking, Sawx fans heckling, planes overhead, all I'll hear now are Dave O's stories about when he was the announcer for the Marlins, and the obscure trivia that must be spewed over every sporting event he calls. Oh Christ, just shoot me now and get it over with. Can I be charged with road rage if I run someone off the road with my car while fuming over the empty stylings of Dave O'Baseball?

USSoccer game report

ESPN game report

FoxSports game report

MySoccerBlog: Player grades

The Supine Corporate Media

Go watch this clip from BBC Question Time and tell me if we will ever get intelligent television like this on US media. (Via Brilliant at Breakfast, via Hoffmania) Watching John Bolton taken to task is such a pleasant way to start the day.

On American TV, instead, we get Chris Matthews and other mouth-breathing circus clowns laughing about Bush's crimes, or Katie Couric pummeling Elizabeth and John Edwards for continuing the campaign in the face of her cancer (conveniently, Katie forgets that she herself worked throughout her husband's fight with cancer. Do as I say, not as I do.) Couric phrased most of her interrogatory questions with the preface "Some say", then proceeded to spew right wing talking points.

Democrats must bring back the Fairness Doctrine, or our media will continue to be dominated by right wing, completely wrong perspectives.

But No Fowler?

The English Premier League's Top Ten Goals from 1994 to 2001:

EPL Top 10 Goals 1994-2001
Uploaded by GOAAAAL

Rene Portland Out

Rene Portland is out at Penn State. Man, that makes me happy to write that sentence. Rene the Weenie abruptly "resigned" from Penn State Thursday afternoon and didn't even bother to show up for the press conference announcing same. Sounds like one of those save face resignations where the choice was resign or be fired. Or maybe this was part of the settlement of the Harris case. Whatever the reason, it's good for women's college basketball. Having the coach of one of the most prominent programs in the country run by an avowed lesbian hater and discriminator was just wrong. Plus she sounds like just a nasty human being. Bye bye hater.

Suzie McConnell Serio, who starred for Portland and Penn State in the 1980s, is rumored to be the top candidate to replace Rene.

Mike Richter: Not This Year

Ricky has decided against challenging U.S. Rep. Chris Shays, at least for this election cycle. Too bad. I bet he runs some day, maybe when his kids are a little older.

My Left Nutmeg (great blog title!) is happy for the high profile Richter's potential candidacy brought to the race.

Kirsten Gillibrand in the News

Doug Mills/The New York Times

Representative Gillibrand talked with farmers, one of many groups from her district in upstate New York to ask for support in Washington.
Second in the NYTimes series on freshman Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand, who today voted to set a date to withdraw US troops from Iraq. You go, girl.

The Albany Times-Union outlines Gillibrand's hectic daily and weekly schedules, including her son Theo.

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand raced to Capitol Hill, bleary-eyed and sleepless, after helping her 3-year-old son Theo fight the flu, washing his sheets at 3 a.m. and catching a car ride with a staffer to cast her last-minute vote on the House floor.

It was just another day in the life of the freshman Democrat from upstate New York who is balancing motherhood with her job of legislating.

"Having Theo in Washington is a wonderful blessing," Gillibrand says. "It keeps me centered."

But it also keeps her running.

Most weekday mornings Gillibrand, 40, and Theo hop the Metro subway at 7:45 a.m. near the Arlington, Va., apartment where she and husband Jonathan reside with Theo.

During the ride to the Capitol, Theo traces the orange, blue and red subway routes on the maps adorning the walls of the Metro cars until they arrive at the Federal Center station close to the congressional day care center at the Ford Building, which she can see from her office window.

Gillibrand drops him off, then hops the train again, exiting one stop later at the Capitol South station, just a short walk from her office.

Working moms everywhere can relate.

Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand takes her son, Theo, to day care in Washington on Tuesday. (Ron Sachs / Special to the Times Union)

'Iraq: A country drenched in blood'

Iraq: A country drenched in blood
Four years to the day after US and British troops invaded Iraq, its people are full of fear. Iraqis often have a look of half-suppressed panic in their eyes as they tell how violent death has touched them again and again.

Independent (uk): Four years of the most grievous suffering