2006/10/30

The Truth About *That* Penalty Kick

Why Soccer Still Sucks In My Books

As you know I've since come to the conclusion that the truth is, soccer, just plain sucks. All sporting games break your heart - it takes a special kind to kick you in the nuts as well.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has recently said some strange things. To whit:
Speaking on SBS TV's The World Game yesterday, Blatter admitted the standard of refereeing at the finals "was not the best" and hit out at the antics of many "cheating" players, claiming he was shocked by the "amount of simulation".

The Socceroos were bundled out of the second round 1-0 by eventual champion Italy after Fabio Grosso was awarded a penalty for what many experts deemed a blatant dive in the final minute of the game.

Spanish referee Luis Medina awarded the spot kick and striker Francesco Totti slotted home the winner, sending his side into the quarter-finals against the weakest team of the final eight, Ukraine, and the Socceroos into heartache.

Medina was lambasted for his decision, while Gross was labelled a "diver" by millions of Australians.

"I agree with them and I would like to apologise to our fans in Australia," Blatter told interviewer Les Murray.

"The Socceroos were great. They should have gone to the quarter-finals in place of Italy because they were up to beating Italy ... you go into extra time and you are 11 against 10. But that is presumptuous.

"I think there was too much cheating (throughout the tournament) on the players' side."

Central defender Lucas Neill, whose sliding tackle Grosso dived over, welcomed Blatter's apology, but said the situation was worsening.

"It's pleasing to see FIFA is at last acknowledging and paying more attention to the issue," the Blackburn Rovers star said.

Despite Blatter's belated comments, Socceroos coach Graham Arnold, who was assistant to Guus Hiddink at the finals, Football Federation Australia chief executive John O'Neill and television commentator Andy Harper all took the apology with a grain of salt.

"It's a case of hunting with the hounds and running with the hares," said Harper, who works for Fox Sports.

"He is crying crocodile tears, but he is right ... we were ripped off."

Arnold, who described Blatter as a "very good politician", said the apology did not matter now.

"It doesn't change anything, does it?" Arnold said. "We were knocked out by a poor decision. We went home and Italy won the title. What's happened has happened. It's way after the event."

O'Neill stopped short of describing Blatter as a politician.

"It should be noted he was being interviewed by (an Australian) Les Murray for domestic consumption," O'Neill said.

"There is some sense of comfort in that the president was stating what all Australian fans felt at the time ... that it was a very poor decision (by the referee). But, now four months later, it doesn't change the result.

"If you are looking ahead, the thing is to try and improve the integrity of the results at the World Cup and all internationals. The message is we have to eliminate diving and cheating and ensure the standard of refereeing is up to scratch."

One official, who did not want to be named, suggested Blatter had a history of telling different countries what they want to hear.

"If Mr Blatter had made the same comments in Italy, then there might be some credence to them," he said. "I daresay it would be a big story then."

Harper said that players feigning injury was a huge issue for FIFA.

"Mr Blatter and FIFA really need to do something about that," he said. "The sight of players getting carried off on a stretcher, taken to the sideline, then jumping to their feet immediately, is making a mockery of the game.

"I believe they should bring in a rule that once a player is taken to the sideline to be treated for an injury, then he is not allowed back on for five minutes."
It doesn't matter now. It's all said and done. Deservedly or not, Italy won the World Cup in 2006 and nobody can take that away from them. Australia "was robbed" big time in front of the eyes of the world, and there was nothing anybody could do about it.

I mean, rightly or wrongly you don't hear Bud Selig saying somebody else should have won the World Baseball Classic, based on a disputed call somewhere in the tournament, do you?

2006/10/27

Sorry

I've Been Lazy
It's a terrible thing when you're trying to give up coffee that one gets really indolent and unmotivated. Plus there's been the debacle of October baseball for me and the whole thing has added up to zero posts here.

I'll try and keep abreast of stuff as soon as I get my head in gear.
Apologies!

2006/10/26

Ian Campbell Speaks

Mongo On The Loose With Power
There's an old joke I heard from a gorgeous Norwegian woman who I knew in my distant youth:
"What happened to the psychopathic-child-molesting-serial-killer-rapist-mongloid that escaped from the asylum in Norway?"
"I don't know."
"He was last seen running Sweden as their PM"
This joke reflects how I feel about our Environment Minister; that he is somehow a malevolent mongo escapee, that finds himself in power.
Anyway, here's his spin on the solar power initiative of the Federal Government.
TONY JONES: Is this the one occasion when you can proudly say that the Government's initiative is all about smoke and mirrors?

IAN CAMPBELL, ENVIRONMENT MINISTER: I think that what we've seen here is a policy that's been in place for a couple of years now. We've gone through a very diligent process of looking at all of the options; I think something like 30 submissions we received, trying to get a part of this half a billion dollar fund, and today the Treasurer has announced the first two projects.

I think it demonstrates what the PM has said from the Pacific, is that there is not going to be a silver bullet solution. You do have to deal with cleaning up fossil fuels, you do have to fast track making solar a mainstream energy source. You have to do energy efficiency, you have to change how we use our land, we have to stop deforestation globally. We have to transform our transport fleet. We have to do all of those things to achieve the target that the globe needs to achieve during this century if we are in fact to avoid dangerous climate change.

TONY JONES: Let's start with what's been called the ‘world's largest solar energy plant’. What sort of area does it cover?

IAN CAMPBELL, ENVIRONMENT MINISTER: Well, ultimately it's going to cover many hundreds of hectares. This is the first part of a program. We hope that with the success of the demonstration plant, we'll be able to roll this out not only up in Mildura, but ultimately in places like China, over hundreds and hundreds of hectares.

TONY JONES: If it works and you repeated the project around the country, what is the potential? How much of our power could potentially come from the sun?

IAN CAMPBELL, ENVIRONMENT MINISTER: Well, looking at the problem globally, the Professor Socolo Study from Princeton University is saying that providing, say, roughly 700 times the solar energy currently used in the world will produce about one seventh of the challenge.

If you think of the challenge of having to double the world's energy supplies in the next 50 years, and to stabilise greenhouse gases you have to use about seven different technologies, and one of them is solar, this particular technology has the I hate to use all these mathematical statistics, Tony, but they do, sort of, break it down to bite sized chunks. But this technology has the potential to improve the efficiency of solar by about it improves the effectiveness by about a sixth. So you use about a sixth of the energy to create the same power. So it's a massive transformation in terms of efficiency. And when you think the Princeton study says you need to increase solar penetration by roughly 700 times across the global, then this is a big step forward. So proving it here in Australia, using Australian technology, Australian know how, and then being able to export it very quickly, for example through the Asia Pacific Clean Development and Climate Change mechanism, I think that today is in fact a really, really historic day for Australia.

TONY JONES: I've done a few rough sums here: The Treasurer says the project will power about 45,000 homes. There are about 8 million households in Australia. On those figures, if you built 178 of these solar powered stations just like the one down there, you could supply power to the whole country. Does that sound right?

IAN CAMPBELL, ENVIRONMENT MINISTER: Yes, it does, but I think, again, it falls into the trap Tony, of saying this is the silver bullet. What has exercised my mind for a couple of years is that China is growing at the rate of a city of Brisbane every month. You can talk about a few homes in Australia, but when you, say, drive through the Xin Zhen Province, as I did last Thursday night, and see a city of 12 million people that didn't exist 18 years ago, you realise that you have to not only do these large scale, breakthrough solar projects.
Not very convincing is it?
You get the feeling that the Nats are applying the blowtorch in the backrooms because this year marks the first time in in a decade in power that the Federal Government has even acknowledged there's a serious problem with Global Warming. Really, the legacy of this Coalition Government won't be its record of economic management as it wants it to be; it will be the fact that they were well and truly in denial at the wheel while this problem grew and grew. And when nations around the world worked up an agreement to curb it, they said, "Nup, it's not in our interests".
This following bit had me choking:
If the Hazelwood project works, you could have every single brown coal fired power station in Australia producing energy with zero, or very low emissions. So I think, rather than wanting to put all of you eggs in one basket, it is sensible for the Government to invest taxpayers' money in a range of technologies that are very importantly you can't ignore the world. This is truly a global solution. I mean, trying to get an effective global agreement post Kyoto is incredibly important, but in the meantime finding technology transfer mechanisms so that you can get these technologies developed in a place like Australia, and very quickly moved into places like China, is really the front edge of the problem and the challenge.

TONY JONES: I understand. But can you just explain to us why solar generated electricity is actually going to be more expensive, once the plant is up and running, than coal fired electricity, since it comes from the sun?

IAN CAMPBELL, ENVIRONMENT MINISTER: These are issues that we will know more about once this plant is up and running, once we know that it's built, that all of the engineering challenges this is what a demonstration project is all about. We will know all of those costs, we will know what it costs per unit of electricity, then we'll know what it will look like as it's expanded.
The bit that had me spewing was 'Trying to get a global agreement post-Kyoto..." For heaven's sake weren't we the nation that said 'no' to the Kyoto Protocol? What credibility have we got when we go in to the next round of discussions?

So... you can suddenly feel the urgency with which they're now viewing the problem. Uhh, It's really late in the day, guys. Letting the issue go to seed, while going on silly little crusades to save the whales, for the last 10 years was a really bad choice of spending time and resources.
The thing about this government and its horrible, woeful, dreadful, abysmal track record in tackling Global Warming is that it has made me yell and scream as if I were a Greenie.
Which, I am not.

Then there's this:
IAN CAMPBELL, ENVIRONMENT MINISTER: My strong conviction has been, for a couple of years now, that Australia should be and will be the leader in solar technologies in the world. That is already happening, although people on the Left of politics keep putting down our achievements. You can't beat going to Xen Zhen Province and seeing the largest solar photovoltaic installation in Asia, built using and solar cells made at Homebush by BP Solar, and installed by an Australian company in China.
Australia's been the leader in Solar power technologies since the early 1980s. For Ian Campbell to suddenly notice this and find conviction in it 2 years ago is truly a sad state of affairs. These were known components, known commodities. Where was he during the 1980s and the 1990s? Presumably, he was in that Norwegian asylum.
I really do hope he googles his name and finds my critique of his pathetic, sub-standard work as Environment Minister.

2006/10/25

Turn Off Your Air Conditioners!

Power Cuts Looming
The headline news of the SMH this morning is this piece.
NSW faces blackouts and skyrocketing electricity prices within five years unless it increases supply, the national energy market regulator has warned.

In a report to be released today, it forecasts that demand for electricity in the state could outstrip supply by 2010-11, causing the network to fall below its tough reliability standards.

The forecast for NSW and other states will again focus debate on how Australia should meet its power needs in the face of mounting evidence about the effects of climate change on farming, tourism and other industries.

Today the federal and Victorian governments will announce funding to help build one of the world's biggest solar power stations, a $400 million project that will be a key part of the national strategy to fight climate change.

The federal Treasurer, Peter Costello - who has previously dismissed the prospect of Australian nuclear power as commercially unviable - shifted his position yesterday. He said a nuclear plant would be built as soon as it became commercial, and that was possible within 10 years.

Australia's greenhouse emissions are among the worst in the world - 3.41 tonnes of CO2 per capita - according to a report released yesterday by the conservation group WWF.

NSW's energy demand is being fuelled mainly by air-conditioning - a standard feature in new homes - which leads to bigger and more frequent peaks in demand in summer, according to the report by the National Electricity Market Management Company.

NSW's demand is projected to grow by 0.2 per cent in the year to June 2007, but the number of summer days with a 10 per cent or more likelihood of exceeding the network's reliability standard is forecast to rise by 2.7 per cent.
Oh joy. How dumb are we? We burn fuel to power our generators. The burnt fuel contributes to global warming. So we turn on our air-cons. The demand for more fuel-burning goes up as do the greenhouse gasses; so what do we do? we turn on our air-cons harder. The positive feedback loop is obvious as daylight but you don't see us as an aggregate population stopping.
At least it's front page news. Turn off the airconditioners folks! :)

Meanwhile, the logical thought to follow up all of this is: "what do we do with all this carbon in the air?"
Which brings me to this other article:

The global carbon markets, set up in response to the Kyoto Protocol and other carbon-limiting arrangements, could offer the way. The markets - where polluters pay for allowances that let them exceed their limits on carbon emissions - may be able to put a value on the carbon locked up in jungles and savannahs, said a report by the bank published on Monday.

When carbon is stored in trees and other plants it is not emitted as the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which holds heat close to Earth and spurs global warming.

Farmers might clear half a hectare of prime rainforest to create a pasture worth $US300, in the process releasing 500 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the air as the trees burn and rot, said Kenneth Chomitz, the lead author of the bank's report.

Meanwhile, the European Carbon Exchange on Friday paid about $US15 a tonne to offset carbon dioxide emissions, Mr Chomitz said.

"That means that Europeans are paying about $US7500 or $US8000 to avert the emission of the same amount of carbon dioxide that the rancher is releasing," he said. "In other words, the rancher is destroying a $US7500 asset to create one that is worth $US300.

"Wouldn't it be great if we could get the farmer and the industrialist or utility owner sitting at the same table, figuring out how they can split the difference and make themselves both better off?"

The Kyoto Protocol, meant to stem global warming, allows member countries facing emissions targets to meet their goals by funding emission cuts elsewhere.
You know it makes sense to actively sequester carbon from the atmosphere. All there needs to be is a government-backed accreditation system.

Kazakh Diplomat Says Borat Is Sort of Okay


One of the on-going stories I like to keep abrest of is this one.
"I sincerely laughed at many of the jokes, but at the same time couldn't get rid of a feeling of being a bit insulted," Idrissov told The Times newspaper, after it hosted a private screening of the film for him.

The newspaper said Idrissov laughed when Borat - British comic Sacha Baron Cohen - was depicted pursuing a live chicken through the carriage of a New York subway train, and again when a US government official agreed to eat cheese at the beginning of an interview, told it was a "Kazakh tradition", only to be told later that it was made from human breast milk.

The ambassador did not, however, laugh when the film suggested Kazakhs have a Spanish-style festival called "the running of the Jew", in which citizens flee while being chased by people wearing caricature masks, The Times said.
Stay tuned for more to follow.

More Moneyball

"It's The Market Inefficiency, Stupid"


In case you are wondering why I keep harping about the book, here's yet another example of thinking that stems from the book that I like.
The movie rights for "The Blind Side" were just optioned by Fox. What do you think makes for a great movie adaptation?

I have no idea. All of my books have been optioned, and none of the movies have been made. It's a process that's mystifying to me. A producer buys the book and then hires someone who knows nothing about the material to write the screenplay as if it's an independent expertise that has nothing to do with the subject. And then for $1 million they write a bad screenplay, and the studio loses interest.

Sounds like an inefficient market that's waiting for its Billy Beane.

It is an inefficient market waiting for its Billy Beane. "Moneyball" resonated in the most extraordinary ways in Hollywood. Billy and I did two separate corporate performances, one for Sony's (Charts) movie division and another for News Corp.'s (Charts) Fox.

Other movie people got in touch with Billy. They're trying to figure out things like, How do we measure the contribution of Tom Cruise to a movie? Why do we automatically pay him $25 million? It's an industry trapped in convention, just like baseball.
More in this interview.
I've often wondered how Hollywood got so steeped in its current methods of production.
Just thinking this morning, I was struck by how many institutionalised notions fly around in the film business. Executives, Agents, riders, trailers, entourages... the list of things that are not to do with the direct production and marketing of films is quite enormous.

Imagine you are a studio exec. If you had any rationality, you are forced to look at the cost of the entire below-the-line costing of a film and then look at the above-the-line cost of a star like Tom Cruise and have to wonder if that guy is shouldering the same risks as the people who develop and produce the project. Especially because the industry as a whole underperforms bank interests - ie. if you were an investor, you're better off keeping your money in a fixed-term deposit account. It's a crappy business in terms of returns. You'd have to be thinking about this problem.

What's worse, this thinking of, 'pay the star big' has started to spread to other movie markets around the world, and the crazy fact of the matter is, stars are not born; they're all manufactured. Studios have always had the capacity to make another star. It's not that hard given their resrouces, and yet they somehow seem to forget their strengths.

For every Tom Cruise, there are a number of leading men who will be capable of playing the same role for much less money. Surely the money saved on not hiring Tom Cruise is money well saved if the property is good. In turn, if I were an investor and found out that in a $125million movie with a cast & crew numbering 300, that 20% of my money went to one man would make me very suspicious of that man's added value to the project.

The argument the particluar man makes is that his presence makes the film possible. For independent producers, this is often true - but for studios, this is clearly stupid. The illusion in the film industry is that it has bought itself into a position where they think the essential this-ness of any star is the essential quality that sells a film. History shows this is not true.

2006/10/23

This Ain't No Disco, This Ain't No CBGB

This Ain't No Foolin' Around


Walk-Off HBP sent in this article from the SMH as if to underscore our current drought crisis.
"What I am seeing is a compounding effect," he said. "As more country is stripped bare and dried out we expose more soil. This is releasing more carbon into the atmosphere. Organic carbon levels are falling, and the soil is losing its colour. There are more fires than ever because the dry summers are adding enormous amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and creating more bare ground. So when we do get rain it will be much less effective …

"I have no doubts this will all accelerate as time passes. Pretty soon we will be able to see the great deserts from the Great Dividing Range."

We are creating deserts out of farmland. And when the rains do come, heavy rain will bring problems, not just relief. An enormous amount of topsoil is sitting dry and exposed, vulnerable to run-off.

Does anyone in the Federal Government accept the scale of this disaster, or are we going to keep handing out multimillion-dollar Band-Aids to lost causes? For the past four years, this column has asked, in every possible way, when our popular culture is going to admit that the 200-year national project to turn Australia into another Europe has been a collective national delusion:

"Face the facts" (Sep 18, 2006), "A horror world of our making" (Oct 24, 2005), "The disgrace of Cubbie Station" (Aug 29, 2005), "A new way of seeing green" (Aug , 2005), "The collapse of the wide, brown land" (Feb 21, 2005), "Riding for a fall" (Jan 15, 2005), "Continent at risk" (Jan 10, 2005), "The natural disaster in our midst", (Jan 3, 2005), "The issue that reigns over them all" (Jul 4, 2004), "Nothing but a wasteland", (Jun 28, 2004), "Dwarfing every other issue" (May 17, 2004), "Two degrees between life and death" (Apr 26, 2004), "A nation hostage to the gum" (Jan 30, 2003), "A ravaged country on the way out" (Jan 23, 2003), "Fire and water will define us" (Dec 9, 2003), "The great water crisis", (Dec 7, 2002).

The "great water crisis" was four years - and 17 columns on the subject - ago. Tim Flannery's seminal warning The Future Eaters was published 12 years ago. The crisis has since quickened and broadened. It is affecting food prices. It should soon bite as deeply on the psyche as oil prices. And it is being compounded by global warming.

Yet most people still talk about the "drought". It is not a drought. It is climate change. We changed the landscape. We cut, stripped, gouged, channelled and laid it bare. And thus changed the climate. How can we solve a problem when we can't even name it, and thus still can't even face it?
I guess if we can't call it for what it is, then it's already a compounded problem.
I remember as far back in the Mid-1980s when I was *gasp* a medical student and insisted climate change was happening, and I got soundly laughed at by my so-called colleagues. What a pack of assholes they were, but heck, you get what you buy into.
Well, who's crying now? Darn it, it's still me. :)

Plus This Thing Here
If we as a people had any decency, we would have voted the Liberals out 2 years ago, but we didn't and it says a lot about us as a people. One thing for sure, we're not very funny any more. Our leaders certainly can't take satire any more.
Ten years ago, attacks on the ABC (other than by politicians) were rare. Most Australians appreciated the ABC had things to offer we didn't get anywhere else. The assault on the ABC has been driven ideologically - for example Keith Windschuttle's appointment to the board of the ABC being hailed as an opportunity to move against the ABC's "collectivist" mentality.

A nation is a collective. Who are the ideologues making these calls and, more importantly, whose interests do they favour and/or represent?

What would be lost if the ABC were neutered or, as is now happening, dulled down? I will answer that question by asking another. How often does commercial television take on big, powerful interests? Their prey is more the dodgy washing machine repairman in the next suburb. The crooked little bloke.
And that is how we become dumb and dumber. And when we become dumber and dumber-er, we vote the idiots back in who made us dumber-er and dumber-est.

2006/10/19

Quick Note

Yankee Draft Picks Looking Good
The Yankees have been stocking up some serious arms in the last 2 drafts.
So I when saw this little snippet today, I thought, "wow".
No. 1 draft pick Ian Kennedy has a 1.04 ERA through three appearances (one start) in the Hawaiian Winter League, having struck out 14 in 8 2/3 innings. Joba Chamberlain, the Yankees' second pick, is 1-1 with a 1.80 ERA, 15 strikeouts and two walks in 10 innings over three relief appearances. Former No. 1 pick Eric Duncan, from Seton Hall Prep, was off to a 6-for-27 (.222) start in the Arizona Fall League. Outfielder Brett Gardner was 11-for-24 (.458) through seven games, with a .641 on-base percentage.
Ian Kennedy's 14ks in 8 2/3 innings is a pretty good sign. As is Joba Chamberlain's 15/2 K/BB in 10 innings. While these guys are probably far from ready, the early signs are good.
So the rotation to dream for in late 2009 or early 2010 would be: Daisuke Matsuzaka, Chien-Ming Wang, Phillip Hughes, Tyler Clippard, and Ian Kennedy with Joba Chamberlain as the long man?

David Suzuki's Last Stand


The World Is Worse Off Than You Think

One of the vicarious *pleasures* of being freelance is that when you're in a lull, you can just
watch telly during the day and not feel guilty. Like when David Suzuki talks at the National Press Club and gets broadcast.
THE Prime Minister, John Howard, has been branded an international outlaw whose decision not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change will be seen as a "crime against future generations".

David Suzuki, the Canadian environmentalist, criticised the Federal Government and said the whole country should be engaged in the debate, not just politicians.

"Folks are going to have to start biting the bullet and saying, 'Maybe that land would be better left for other purposes, like letting other species flourish'," he said.

"But it should be done in a much greater forum, to have the whole country engaged in this process, not just a bunch of politicians knee-jerking around and trying to appease this group and deal with that group and trying to put bandages here and there."
---
"We have become afflicted with an incredible appetite for stuff, for consumption." he said. "We like stuff. We love stuff, and all that stuff comes from the planet."

Children did not know where their food came from or that polluting a river or lake could affect their drinking water, he said.

"We no longer think about the consequences of an interconnected world," Dr Suzuki said.
---
He does not understand how the smartest species on Earth seems intent on literally eating itself out of house and home.

"I believe that future generations will look back on the inactivity, the unwillingness to do anything, as a crime against future generations. It's outrageous that we are not taking advantage of foresight, our predictive capacity to see where the dangers lie, seize the opportunities and make our way into a more liveable future," he said.
It was quite a spectacular spit. I guess being 70, he figures he doesn't have much to lose by saying it as plainly as possible. He was very plain-speaking and frank about what is wrong about a bunch off issues. He also pointed out Australia had lost its credibility for not signing the Kyoto Protocol so it had lost its persuasive power to negotiate against whaling.
Which is exactly as sensible people thought.

He also pointed out the unlikeliness of Australia meeting its Kyoto Protocol taregt, even though Ian Campbell claims we're going to meet them. If we are, then why don't we sign?
Clearly Mr. Campbell is either wrong (as in mistaken, as in, NOT CORRECT in his information), or he is ignorant of the facts in which case he should get himself educated on the facts, or he is lying. David Suzuki was inclined to believe the Australian Government, bieng made up of politicians, was probably lying.

It was quite the performance and if people walked out of there still thinking that Australia somehow still had a shred of credibility in the environmental stakes internationally, they sure didn't understand what was being said. We look like enironmental vanadals and barbarians mooching away. It's a terrible PR image, but it's there. He was telling us just exactly how our government has let us down totally over the last 10 years. We can lay ALL of that blame at the feet of John Howard.

Just to be sure, I googled "Ian Campbell Minister" and this is what I got.
The Victorian Government has called on the federal Environment Minister to make a final decision about the Bald Hills wind farm.

Senator Ian Campbell vetoed the South Gippsland turbines to protect the orange-bellied parrot.

The proponent, Wind Power, has now decided to move six of the turbines away from the coast and out of the parrot's migration path.

Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls says there is no longer any reason for delay.

"All we get from Senator Campbell is delaying tactics, he's called for further consultation, even though this wind farm has gone through an exhaustive process, well the latest round of consultation has now finished, so Senator Campbell's time is up," he said.
What a chump. Who put this Mongo in the government?
Like I keep telling you, we're being governed by pig-headed, ignorant idiots, retards, and morons who are all in denial. *groan*.

2006/10/18

WMD-Day

How A Lie Became Fact
I was watching this doco 'Frontline: The Dark Side' last night on SBS. It's a piece made by the PBS in the USA. It's pretty interesting in dissecting how the outrageous lies about Iraq's WMD capability came to be accepted as fact by the Bush White House and the subsequent push for war on Iraq.
In the initial stages of the war on terror, Tenet's CIA was rising to prominence as the lead agency in the Afghanistan war. But when Tenet insisted in his personal meetings with the president that there was no connection between Al Qaeda and Iraq, Cheney and Rumsfeld initiated a secret program to re-examine the evidence and marginalize the agency and Tenet. Through interviews with DoD staffers who sifted through mountains of raw intelligence, FRONTLINE details how questionable intelligence was "stovepiped" to the vice president and presented to the public.

From stories of Iraq buying yellowcake uranium from Niger to claims that 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta had met with an Iraqi agent in Prague, "The Dark Side" dissects the now-familiar assertions that led the nation to war. The program also receounts the vice president's unprecedented visits to the CIA, where he questioned mid-level analysts on their conclusions. CIA officers who were there at the time say the message was clear: Cheney wanted evidence that Iraq was a threat.
What was really interesting was how little the Pentagon knew about Afghanistan at the onset, compared to the CIA who were actively trying to graple with the Osama Bin Laden threat, later termed 'Al Qaeda'. The Pentagon didn't even have an operational plan for Afghainstan - it just wasn't one of their priorities - unlike Iraq.

Meanwhile Cheney and Rumsfeld just could not get their heads around the fact that individuals could just do this stuff without the backng off the state, so were convinced that Iraq/Saddam was behind it. Talk about leaping to the wrong conclusions.

What's even more interesting is that the CIA did not have what they call a NIE, a kind of security dossier on Iraq. In fact they didn't even know how close the Iraqis were to a nuke back in the closing days of Gulf War I - which in turn fed the suspicions of Cheney that the CIA didn't know what they were doing. Cheney and Rumsfeld's mistrust of the CIA was such that they started their own intelligence office in the Pentagon.

So the CIA prosecuted the war in Afghanistan and the Pentagon prosecuted the war in Iraq separately because they were basically separate chains of commands with different agendas and different parameters. You could see how these crossed lines and crossed purposes could lead to a point where two separate wars were needed just to shut both of them up.

Soggy Sticks
I've been referring to the North Koreans as the madman in the nieghbourhood with a truck load of dynamite. It seems it's only 6 to 10 according to analysts.
Nuclear experts said today that the analysis of atmospheric samples taken after the test shed new light on the factors that could lead to a second demonstration. American officials who reviewed the results of atmospheric sampling said on Monday that the material used for the test appeared to have been plutonium harvested from North Korea’s small nuclear reactor.

Because the material came from the reactor, which operated under international inspection between 1994 and 2003, and not from a uranium-enrichment program that North Korea began in secret, nuclear experts said that it was easier to gauge how much weapons material the North may now have on hand. Most intelligence analysts estimate that the country has enough plutonium for 6 to 10 bombs.

“It appears clear that the test fell far short of the kind of blast the North Koreans wanted to get world attention,” said Lee Un Chul, a nuclear scientist at Seoul National University. “There is a high possibility of them conducting a second test after finding out what went wrong. A question is how much plutonium they have left. They can’t use it all up with repeated tests. If a second test is a failure, too, it will be a huge humiliation for them.”
That'll be funny if it fails.

2006/10/17

This Week's Song

Weapons Of Mass Destruction?


It seems appropriate then, given the developments of the recent weeks in the Korean Penninsula that we post up this song this week. Words & Music by Chris a.k.a Pharmakeus. I played a bit of guitar and mixed the thing. Chela sang on it.

Do Check it out by clicking this link. Better still, tell everybody about it.

Pyongyang Blues
While we're still on the subject of North Korea, I thought it interesting and hopelessly predictable that North Korea has reacted very negatively.
Calling the resolution a declaration of war, the North’s Foreign Ministry said in a sharp-tongued statement, ``We’ll closely monitor the United States’ acts and take appropriate steps.’’

``If any nation dares to menace our sovereignty and autonomy with an excuse of the U.N. Security Council’s resolution, they would be brutally and mercilessly punished,’’ it said.

The statement is the first official response from the communist state since the Security Council unanimously passed the resolution last weekend. The resolution bans the transfer of financial resources related to missile or other weapons of mass destruction programs to or from the reclusive North.

The statement claimed that the North’s nuclear test on Oct. 9 was a rightful, legitimate exercise for its self-defense capabilities as a sovereign state.

It warned that the United States should not miscalculate the outcome of such moves, saying that the communist state would not be defeated no matter how strict the sanctions the outside world imposes.

``It doesn’t make any sense if the DPRK, which has withstood countless hardships in the past, surrenders to the enemy due to the sneaky sanctions,’’ the statement said, while again reminding the world that the Stalinist country now holds its own nuclear weapons. The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) is the official name of North Korea.

``We are willing to hold talks with the United States. But we are not afraid of a war, if necessary,’’ it said.
Yes, but the world doesn't want to talk to you until you lower your sticks of dynamite and remove your finger from the detonator switch. It's really hard talking the aggrived, wounded, hungry, rabid, aggressive crazy from the ledge.

2006/10/12

Cory Lidle 1972-2006

Lidle Dies In Plane Crash


The Cory Lidle crash death news kind of comes as a spooky surprise. Only a month ago, he was interviewed about his piloting licence and his small plane by the NYT and now he is gone. In the piece, they made a reference to Thurman Munson and Lidle outlined how safe the plane was.

A player-pilot is still a sensitive topic for the Yankees, whose captain, Thurman Munson, was killed in the crash of a plane he was flying in 1979. Lidle, acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies on July 30, said his plane was safe.

“The whole plane has a parachute on it,” Lidle said. “Ninety-nine percent of pilots that go up never have engine failure, and the 1 percent that do usually land it. But if you’re up in the air and something goes wrong, you pull that parachute, and the whole plane goes down slowly.”
Well, so much for that system when the plane simply hits a building.
The plane was registered to Mr. Lidle, who was a licensed pilot. At a news conference this afternoon, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that a flight instructor and a student pilot with 75 hours of experience were aboard and killed, but he would not confirm that Mr. Lidle was one of them, saying the families of the victims had not yet been notified.

“No bodies were found in the building,” the mayor said, adding that 11 firefighters were also injured in the fire.

He said that the plane left Teterboro Airport in New Jersey at about 2:30 p.m., circled the Statue of Liberty and then headed north up the East River, where it “had not violated any air traffic control rules.”
Condolences to the Lidle family and the family of the other victim.

2006/10/11

Act Of War?

Look What You Made Me Do

North Korea is insisting that it was forced into a position of having to develop nuclear weapons because of US threats. Now it says sanctions will be seen as an act of war.
"If the US keeps pestering us and increases pressure, we will regard as a declaration of war and will take a series of physical corresponding measures," the North’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. It did not elaborate on what such measures would be.

The statement - the first official announcement from the Pyongyang government since the nuclear test was declared - went on: "We were compelled to prove that we have nuclear weapons to prevent the increasing threat of war by the US and protect our sovereignty and survival. We are ready for both dialogue and confrontation.

However, the regime added: "Even though we conducted the nuclear test because of the US, we still remain committed to realizing the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and negotiations."
Well, of course they're going to say this crap. All we want is for you stop playing with the bomb and come out of the cold.

Philosophical Question: If they nuked North Korea into a glowing green mist, would anybody really miss the place?

2006/10/10

The Daisuke Matsuzaka Sweepstakes Begins

The Old Lions Lose Too

The Seibu Lions have been knocked out of their play-off in Japan and so hey have to ponder their options regarding Daisuke Matsuzaka. Predictably 6 MLB teams have lined up to seek the services of Matsuzaka.
注目の入札球団は、ヤンキースが大本命であることは間違いない。アフターマン球団副社長がシーズン中に来日するなど早くから本格的な調査を行ってきた。今年も地区シリーズで早々と敗退したように先発投手陣の弱体化は深刻。米球界関係者が「ヤンキースはイチローを超える日本人最高額を用意している」と断言するように、15億円以上を用意して待ち構えている。

 他球団も黙ってはいない。対抗馬マリナーズは近年の低迷を脱出するため、イチロー、城島に続く球団の目玉選手として本腰を入れる。打倒ヤ軍に燃えるレッドソックスや斎藤の大活躍で日本人投手の質の高さを知り尽くしているドジャースも参戦する。レンジャーズは担当スカウトがインボイス西武で観戦中の倫世夫人に名刺を渡すなど間接的なアタックを開始している。今季ヤ軍を破ってリーグ優勝決定シリーズへコマを進めたタイガースも、弱小球団から常勝軍団への脱皮を図ろうとしている。
The teams reported are: Yankees who have sent in Jean Afterman; Mariners who want even more Japanese stars; The Red Sox; The Dodgers who have a lot of experience with Japanese pitchers; even the Texas Rangers and the Detroit Tigers want in.

There are 2 more years on Matsuzaka's contract, so Seibu do not see the imperative to post him now, except it will be the third season they've stalled on Matsuzaka. He's already called them out in last year's off-season for breaking the verbal promise made to him 3 years ago, so they may proceed. The other factor is the WBC win by Japan earlier this year which basically established Matsuzaka's value at a premium. If the Seibu Lions organisation is ever going to post Matsuzaka's contract, this is the year they will get the most money for.

The rumoured amounts are said to top the 15million or so spent by Seattle to get Ichiro. It probably means a sum in excess of 20million just to get a shot. May the richest team win. :)

Drafting Up Harsh Words

Security Council Talks
It's quite stupid really. North Korea is letting off nuclear tests underground and all the UN Security Council can do is talk about how they're going to condemn North Korea.
"I think there has been a lot of wishful thinking in the region. There was a tendency to think that North Korea was not a nuclear weapons state," says John Pike, a weapons expert with Global Security.org. "It's sort of a blowback from Iraq. People have overcompensated on Iraq, and so now the standard of proof is, I'm not going to assess anybody as having something that has not been demonstrated unambiguously." Now that there is no such ambiguity, it should make it easier to bring China and South Korea into alignment with the U.S. and Japan and coordinate a strategy to contain the regime.

But notwithstanding John Bolton's smile, there may still be limits to how much unanimity the U.S. can achieve on North Korea. Some of the same calculations that the North Koreans likely made in choosing to test their nuke now may well protect them now from any kind of harsh international response. "They see the international community has its hands full with Iraq and Iran. They recognize they're at the apex of South Korean softness towards the north. The next election in about a year will probably lead to a more conservative South Korean government. They calculate that China is not going to let them collapse, " notes Michael J. Green, who handled Asian affairs for the Bush White House National Security Council (NSC) until December 2005 and is now senior advisor at the Center for International and Strategic Studies.

And they may be right. As angry and concerned as they may be about the test, Beijing and Seoul will likely remain a lot more worried about the collapse of the Pyongyang regime and chaos on their borders than about the murky state of the north's weapons programs. "The challenge for the administration is, can they get China to do enough?" asks Green. "The Chinese don’t want to go so far they create a whole another nightmare for themselves with North Korea falling apart." Pike thinks China won't take the risk. "That's why we're not going to get anything beyond words out of the Security council," he says.
Good grief.
It's as if the whole neighbourhood is having a neighborhood watch meeting because the crazy guy has bought a truckload of explosives and has started 'testing' them by lighting them in his backyard. And all they've got to say is "We disapprove strongly! We'll stop trading with you and the bank will freeze your accounts!"
Colour me unimpressed.

Somebody Bury Paul
Former PM Paul Keating kind of piped up with his opinion on the situation.
Mr Keating said he feared if Japan chose to go it alone and develop nuclear weapons, it risked offending its largest neighbour and emerging economic powerhouse, China.

"My great concern is that Japan may use the impasse of North Korea and this testing of its nuclear weapons to move into nuclear weapons itself, eschewing the nuclear protection provided to it by the United States under its umbrella," he told a business breakfast.

"Such an outcome would be affronting and confronting to the Chinese, encouraging them to adopt an altogether different posture in respect of Japan.

"And if China adopts an altogether different posture in respect to Japan, the world we know today changes."

Mr Keating said he hoped the problems on the Korean peninsula could be satisfactorily dealt with and that Japan, despite its insularity and internal problems, could find common ground with China in the future.
Yeah well, for the Japanese to go nuclear, they're going to have to change their constitution, just like they have to change their constitution if they want to go to war with North Korea. You know, it is possible, but so is the possibility that, err...., Australia might become a republic sometime soon. Such undertakings require major changes to the constitution; It's just not on the cards, even if some rightwing blowhards insist on it. In the mean time, isn't it the case that in this situation South Korea and Japan are the threatened parties? It's certainly not China, who surprise, surprise, already have nukes. So why start fretting the unlikely villain who might be making nukes before the likely villain who is already on the loose with nukes?

I never thought I'd ever say this Mr. Keating, but how'bout a nice warm cup of SHUT THE FUCK UP!!
eGadz.

2006/10/09

Madman With Bomb


"Her-o-o-o-o!"
It's scary but true. While the world was busy drafting up how to powerfully word a censure to North Korea, trying to manipulate it into not going forwards with its plans for a Nuclear test, they go and do it. Just like that.
The test came just two days after the country was warned by the United Nations Security Council that the action could lead to severe consequences.

American officials cautioned that they had not yet received any confirmation that the test had occurred. The United States Geological Survey said it had detected a tremor of 4.2 magnitude on the Korean Peninsula.

China called the test a “flagrant and brazen” violation of international opinion and said it “firmly opposes” North Korea’s conduct.

Senior Bush administration officials said that they had little reason to doubt the announcement, and warned that the test would usher in a new era of confrontation with the isolated and unpredictable country run by President Kim Jong-il.

Early Monday morning, even before the test was confirmed, Bush administration officials were holding conference calls to discuss ways to further cut off a country that is already subject to sanctions, and hard-liners said the moment had arrived for neighboring countries, especially China and Russia, to cut off the trade and oil supplies that have been Mr. Kim’s lifeline.

In South Korea, the country that fought a bloody war with the North for three years and has lived with an uneasy truce and failed efforts at reconciliation for more than half a century, officials said they believed that an explosion occurred around 10:36 p.m. New York time — 11:36 a.m. Monday in Korea.

They identified the source of the explosion as North Hamgyong Province, roughly the area where American spy satellites have been focused for several years on a variety of suspected underground test sites.

That was less than an hour after North Korean officials had called their counterparts in China and warned them that a test was just minutes away. The Chinese, who have been North Korea’s main ally for 60 years but have grown increasingly frustrated by the its defiance of Beijing, sent an emergency alert to Washington through the United States Embassy in Beijing. Within minutes, President Bush was notified, shortly after 10 p.m., by his national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, that a test was imminent.

North Korea’s decision to conduct the test demonstrated what the world has suspected for years: the country has joined India, Pakistan and Israel as one of the world’s “undeclared” nuclear powers. India and Pakistan conducted tests in 1998; Israel has never acknowledged conducting a test or possessing a weapon. But by actually setting off a weapon, if that is proven, the North has chosen to end years of carefully crafted and diplomatically useful ambiguity about its abilities.
Oh crud. These crazies have just gone and shot down any diplomatic way of coming back from the grey zone they've engineeered for years; where China and South Korea could say "look, they might not be doing it all right?"
Well, excuse me but look whose dog has done the duty on the carpet. The North Koreans have simply looked at the nations telling them not to do it and said, "How're you gonna stop us? Watch this!"
The North's official Korean Central News Agency said the underground test was performed successfully "with indigenous wisdom and technology 100%," and that no radiation leaked from that test site.

KCNA said in a statement: "It marks a historic event as it greatly encouraged and pleased the (Korean People's Army) and people that have wished to have powerful self-reliant defence capability. It will contribute to defending the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the area around it."
So what the hell is this going to do to the world? Newly minted Japanese PM Shinzo Abe looks a total dork as the news hits him as he arrives in Seoul to discuss what to do about North Korea. While China and South Korea have spent years stalling on behalf of Pyongyang, their patience has been repaid in full with a flipping of the bird like we haven't seen since, well, Saddam called down "The Mother of All Battles". You sort of wonder if they like looking like such putzes in the international stage. And what about Russia? Why were those guys selling the North Koreans the means to concentrate Uranium?

You can bet our mother's underpants that Iran is busily beavering away with its own plans to stall the world and steam ahead with its nucelar weapons programme. This is even worse news than the Yankees getting bundled out of the playoffs.
UPDATE ON THE LAST QUIP: I'm not the only one thinking this...
41. Guapo Posted: October 09, 2006 at 03:46 PM (#2204965)
This is fantastic, I hope they are able to get the ball rolling with the completely unfair piling on.

Oct. 9, PYONGYANG- North Korean leader Kim Il Jong today announced that he had ordered North Korea's detonation of a nuclear weapon to indicate his displeasure with Alex Rodriguez' performance in the ALDS. According to a statement from the Korean Central News Agency, "Upon reading international news reports detailing Alex Rodriguez' failings in the clutch, Supreme Commander Kim Il Jong desired to throw a chair, the traditional means of expressing unhappiness at wretched play by a baseball player. However, no chairs were available to the Dear Leader, due to economic sanctions imposed by U.S. imperalist criminals upon the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. As a result, the Supreme Commander ordered the explosion of a nuclear bomb instead. Kim Il Jong expressed his approval with regard to reports that the perfidious hooligan Joe Torre would be fired and announced that he would be calling into "Mike and the Mad Dog" later today with several suggestions for potential trades involving Rodriguez."
Heh. The world still turns. :)

Morning-After Pill

A Jagged Little Abortion Of A Season To Swallow
There. How's that for mixed metaphor & references. Because it sure feels like a dog's breakfast to me.
Big Stein is upset.
"I am deeply disappointed at our being eliminated so early in
the playoffs," Steinbrenner said in a statement issued Sunday by
spokesman Howard Rubenstein. "This result is absolutely not
acceptable to me nor to our great and loyal Yankee fans. I want to
congratulate the Detroit Tigers organization and wish them well.
Rest assured, we will go back to work immediately and try to right
this sad failure and provide a championship for the Yankees, as is
our goal every year."
I'd be too if I'd spent US$1billion over 5 years to try and win this damn thing and came up empty. That's the sort of money you could invade North Korea with... or at least some place. If one were him, it's time to rail at the gods, scream your tits off and smash furniture.
For once, I'm totally with him. I'm sure he's pissed off that he's had to write one more concession to a team that took his money to beat him; and on behalf of the team that took his money and did not show up to play.

Ever Philosophical, Steven Goldman had this article in his Pinstribed Blog.
As I said above, a lot has changed since the bad old 1980s, but the Yankees are back there again now, and for the same reasons. They have been helpless since the end of 2003, when Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, and David Wells left all at once. As I've written many times before, that's not something they can be faulted for. Any team losing three great pitchers out of their starting rotation at once (regardless of what happened to any of them after) is going to be at a loss. The Yankees, though, had no options, which led to Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright, led to trading Nick Johnson for Javy Vazquez, led to Randy Johnson, led to Sidney Ponson, led to Cory Lidle. Who's next in that sequence? The answer, "Jeopardy"-style, is, "Who's the modern equivalent of Dave LaPoint?" The only difference between then and now is that the Yankees are finishing second to the Tigers in the playoffs instead of finishing second to them in the division.
Yep. They were lucky they got there at all in the previous 2 years; and this year they were misguided that average pitching was enough to get them further. The truth of the matter, and we should let it be known, Big Stein's shit (money) doesn't work in the post-season either.

Joe Torre May Be Gone

Joe Torre may have managed his last game for the Yanks.
The NY Daily News is reporting it and MLB.com and ESPN are picking up on it
Unless other team officials can talk The Boss out of it, or unless Torre, 66, agrees to resign in order to save face, sources said principal owner George Steinbrenner will replace the manager who was credited with returning the team to its fabled glory. Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman is expected to keep his job, as are most members of the front office. Torre may be offered another position within the organization.

Asked about possible changes after yesterday's loss, an emotional Torre said he had not thought about it.

"We felt pretty good about ourselves. But again, that's something for Cash and I and other people to talk about," he said. "But right now, it's just ..." - here he choked back tears - "it's just tough."

Sources said Steinbrenner lost his patience over the team's listless play in its division series loss to the Tigers - and Steinbrenner is not expected to wait long to make his move.

Sources told the Daily News that Piniella has been in discussions with the Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants and Washington Nationals, and Steinbrenner does not want the Yankees to miss a chance to sign the man considered the natural successor to Torre for years.

Piniella managed the Yankees from 1986 to 1988 but developed his reputation as one of the game's best and most emotional managers during his years with the Cincinnati Reds and Seattle Mariners.
I'm inclined to think that a change could actually be good for once. I mean what else can they really change? they're still committed at all fielding positions next year.

A-Rod Wants To Stay
Speculations is mounting that the Yanks (read Big Stein) will want A-Rod sent away to a NL gulag - the Cubs or something. A-Rod says he wants to stay. I still say, keep him.
"I don't know how to explain it," Rodriguez said. "I hit balls hard at times. The frustrating part is I felt very comfortable, very relaxed. I had some good swings, some bad swings. It's a numbers game. Overall I wish I could have been better.

"I've been successful in New York in the regular season. Obviously I have to find the success in the postseason. There's a lot to be learned from (Derek) Jeter, (Jorge) Posada, Bernie (Williams) and Joe (Torre), the guys that have done it. It seems like they played so relaxed. They all had monster series. There's something to be learned from those guys."

Over the four games against the Tigers, Rodriguez recorded just one hit and four strikeouts, hardly the ideal numbers from a two-time MVP at two different positions, shortstop and third base. His play in the field may never be questioned, beating out Boston's David Ortiz solely on his defensive play in last year's race, but his bat is absolutely out for inspection.

"This season for me was probably the toughest year of my career and I had to endure some unbelievable things," Rodriguez said. Nothing compares to what I went through this summer. It was pretty painful to watch me play so poorly. I thought overall that had prepared myself to come out and have a good postseason. That didn't happen.

"I'm committed to being part of the solution here. I believe I am. I'm committed to come back next year and do it again."
At any rate, it would be impatient and imprudent to trade him now. The media pundits on the other hand just want it bad.
Joel Sherman
Filip Bondy
Jack Curry
Not very good.

My Other Team For The Post Season?
Billy Beane and the 'Moneyball' A's. Go get them guys!

UPDATE:
I found this cool article.
I have looked at probably 60, maybe even 70, stories and columns about the playoff collapse of the New York Yankees.

Within minutes of their third and final loss Saturday night to the Detroit Tigers, New York Times columnist George Vecsey weighed in on the paper's Web site: "As of now, the Yankees are officially the Atlanta Braves. They have a nice little season. They qualify for the playoffs. And then bad stuff happens to them."

I trolled the Web sites of all the New York papers (and some non-New York papers, too) to find the usual post-season recriminations, finger-pointing, calls for heads to roll, and rumors of trades, firings, etc. Let the off-season begin. In New York, it hardly matters that four other teams (one of them the New York Mets) are still playing for a championship.

After more than 50 seasons of following the Yankees, I find myself reading more and watching less — especially when playoff time arrives.

When I was a boy, I couldn't get enough of them. But they were rarely on TV, and when they did appear, the games were in black and white and hard to watch amid the constant snow of a UHF frequency. Night games could be pulled in from faraway radio stations, but the signal would fade at key moments.

Now, of course, every game is on cable, and all winter long the Yankee network (YES) replays Yankee victories. These "Yankee Classics" are safe games to watch — because they all end with the Yankees celebrating on the field. Hey, why not? You'd hardly expect a network owned by the Yankees to punish their fans with a replay of the Red Sox beating them in Game 7 of the 2004 American League Championship Series. On the other hand, no matter how many times I've seen Aaron Boone hit the walk-off pennant winning home run against the Red Sox in 2003 it never gets old. That's the very definition of "Yankee Classic."

But now that every game is just a click of the remote away, I almost prefer to read about them after they're played. I almost never watch a game all the way through. I can't stand watching them lose.

And I am pretty good at anticipating losses. There was no way — despite the team's official optimism — that 43-year-old Randy Johnson, with a herniated disc, was going to pitch effectively. I went shopping for a microwave with my wife on Friday night expecting to avoid the game, and saw more than I wanted to see on the appliance store TV — Johnson getting lit up in the second inning.

I never turned the TV on for Saturday's game. I could just feel the season slipping away.

I didn't want to subject myself to an anxiety attack for nine innings. I know — it's bizarre.

But I grew up at a time when children became fans for life based on where they lived, what teams they could hear on radio, the strength of their families' attachment to a particular team.

We could no more choose a team than we could choose a religion — and in both cases, the connection was for life.

So now I can only manage my obsession with the Yankees, not free myself of it.

Years ago, a friend caught me checking the box scores and with the same intonation reserved for, "You still smoke?" he said, "You still follow baseball?" I saved my dignity. "You mean you don't?" I said.

Now begins the dark season, the time without baseball. I am relieved, and pained.

But I will tune into "Yankee Classics," where defeat is not an option — and I need not avert my eyes.
It's gold, I tell you Jerry, Gold!

2006/10/08

With A Whimper, Not A Bang

Yankees Bundled Out Of The Play-Offs
Predictably, the Yankees fell into a 4-0 hole behind Jaret Wright, and Cory Lidle served up another 3, while Yankees were 1-hit going into the 7th inning. Finally they scored 1 run, but it was too, too late. You sort of wonder why such a vaunted line-up has failed to produce much of anything in the last 3 games, but there you have it.

And so another winter of discontent and frustration begins in the Bronx. I could start writing what all this means but really, it's academic. For this year, I agree with Jeter; it's a total failure.
I guess I actually thought this year's team had something, but it didn't. Excuse me while I go off and smash an inanimate object.

Freedom Of Speech Dies With a Bang
Meanwhile in Russia I noticed this awful news.
Anna Politkovskaya, the veteran Russian journalist and author who made her name as a searing critic of the Kremlin and its policies in Chechnya, was found dead on Saturday in her apartment building, shot in the head with a pistol, the authorities and her colleagues said.

Ms. Politkovskaya, 48, was a journalist with few equals in Russia. She was a special correspondent for the Novaya Gazeta newspaper and had become one of the country’s most prominent human rights advocates.

In recent years, as the Russian news media faced intensifying pressure under the administration of President Vladimir V. Putin, she maintained her outspoken stance. And she became an international figure who often spoke abroad about a war she called “state versus group terrorism.”

She was a strident critic of Mr. Putin, whom she accused of stifling civil society and allowing a climate of official corruption and brutality.

She was found dead by a neighbor shortly after 5 p.m. A Makarov 9-millimeter pistol had been dropped at her side, the signature of a contract killing, Vitaly Yaroshevsky, the deputy editor of Novaya Gazeta, said in a telephone interview.

“We are certain that this is the horrible outcome of her journalistic activity,” he said. “No other versions are assumed.”

The former Soviet president Mikhail S. Gorbachev, a shareholder of the newspaper where Ms. Politkovskaya worked, called her killing “a savage crime.”

“It is a blow to the entire democratic, independent press,” Mr. Gorbachev told the Interfax news agency. “It is a grave crime against the country, against all of us.”
While it's got nothing to do with comings andd going here, it's depressing to read that journalists with spine and a sense of justice can get shot for it in Putin's Russia.

2006/10/07

The Big Useless

Screw You Randy Johnson


...and the horse you came riding in to New York on.
Randy pitched like he was toast and the Yankees lost Game 3 o the ALDS. All I could think was "I knew it! I knew this would happen!"
At this moment in time I think the guy is cactus. He should just retire over the winter and be done with it. This game should be his epitaph.

Tomorrow, the Yanks go in with Jaret Wright on the mound.
That's starting to sound like another "year of failure" for Jeter. I'm kind of getting sick of this October ritual where the Yankees lose because the pitchers just serve it up - it's the third October in a row where I've just watched the pitchers piss the post-season away: Javier Vazquez, Esteban Loaiza, Kevin Brown, Randy Johnson, you're all crap, and thanks for all the horrible October memories. *Ugh* (Vomits)

UPDATE:
I'm actually not done venting about Randy Johnson.
Why is Randy Johnson even on this roster if not but for his reputation? It's certainly not for performenace: His ERA this year was an even 5.00! Just check out this page. Can you all see the climbing line on the right end of his career? If he was just better than league average last year, this year he wasn't even league average.

Indeed the Season ERA fluctuation has been rising steadily since 2002. What's even worse is where his stats this year lie in relation to his career. The number that pops out to me is the FIP of 4.32. That's a clear sign he has deteriorated significantly - it means that even giving him slack for the allegedly bad Yankee defense, he's done being that Randy Johnson. He's just sub-standard pap now. Kind of a Left handed Jaret Wright, and the Yanks already have a Right-handed one of those they're sending to the slaughter, I mean, mound, tomorrow.

If the Yankees pull a miracle out of their collective asses and survive this round, Randy Johnson has no business continuing as a starter.

Is it all his fault? No. The Yankee bats couldn't hit a lick for the last 2 games and buried Mike Mussina too. Yet, somehow I can't help but look at Johnson starting the pivotal Game 3 and see that it was a really bad choice - the same sort of bad choice that Grady Little made when he left Pedro out too long, once upon a time. In a way, the Yankees put Johnson in a spot where he was likely to fail and voila, he failed.

Joe Torre needs to stop pleasing these stars. He needs to manage like a cornered rat and go hard. Take no prisoners. Cut heads. Bruise egos. Whatever it takes.

2006/10/06

Funny Because It's So Wrong

Who Is Sandi Thorn?

She must be really, really young and ignorant. Either that or I'm an old, old fart. I was watching the music video TV on Saturday morning and this piece of crud came on. It's a pretty ghastly piece of music, but what was worse was the sentiment and the lyrics.
Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair
In '77 and '69 revolution was in the air
I was born too late into a world that doesn't care
Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair
That had me in stitches. A punk with flowers in their hair? She's talking about hippies, not punks. How did the producer let that through? How did the record label let that one through?
I guess getting something that wrong is a way to get yourself known - Lady, it's one thing to lament you were born too late, but eulogising your parent's generation is really creepy, especially when you get it this wrong.

Woke Up This Morning

Yanks Lose ALDS Game 2

It's a drag when you wake up in the morning and the first news of the day is the Yankees went down 4-3 to the Tigers.
Granderson's run-scoring triple in the seventh inning proved to be the difference as Detroit edged New York, 4-3, in Game 2 of their American League Division Series at Yankee Stadium.

With the win, the Tigers evened the best-of-five set at one apiece with Game 3 of the series scheduled for Friday in Detroit.

Ex-Yankee Marcus Thames was 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored for the Tigers, who won their first playoff game since 1987. Carlos Guillen was 2- for-4 with a solo home run.

'Whenever my name is called, I just want to do something to help my club,' said Thames. 'I have been through a lot to get to this point and I am just glad I got an opportunity.'

Justin Verlander allowed three runs on seven hits in 5 1/3 innings for Detroit. Jamie Walker (1-0), Joel Zumaya and Todd Jones finished things with 3 2/3 combined innings of scoreless relief.

'The hitting conditions were tough and we caught a break with the shadows late in the game,' said Tigers manager Jim Leyland.

Walker earned the win while Jones notched the save.

Johnny Damon was 2-for-5 with a three-run home run for the Yankees while Hideki Matsui finished 3-for-4 with a run scored. Derek Jeter followed his 5-for-5 Game 1 with a 1-for-4 day.

'We had opportunities and we couldn't do anything,' said New York manager Joe Torre. 'Our game is swinging the bats and we just didn't get it done today.'

Mike Mussina (0-1) surrendered four runs on eight hits in seven innings of work en route to the loss. The right-hander has just one win in his last six ALDS starts for New York.
Mike Mussina used to be so reliable. Now he's become a bit hit-or-miss. I tell you it's a real drag; the fallout is worse. This loss means the Yankees winning the series comes down to starts by the Big Useless and Jaret-Two-Balls-And-A-Bat-Wright, both in Detroit. Johnson has been declared ready to go despite a herniated disc in his back.
"He threw 30-35 pitches and he's on his way," manager Joe Torre said before Wednesday's scheduled Game 2, which was called after a nearly two-hour rain delay and will be made up Thursday afternoon. "He felt fine. I'm going to give him the ball, and we'll have to see what happens."
I'm just not getting my hopes up. The Tigers are going to start Kenny Rogers, so it's likely to be a 10-8 kind of ballgame and the Tigers could easily win something like that. Wright is even less assured of being effective, being Jaret Wright and all. They could easily lose those.

*Ugh* I think I'll go smash a chair or something.

2006/10/04

They Should Just Rename October


Jeter Time
Captain Clutch went 5-for-5 in ALDS Game 1 against the Detroit Tigers.
“You know, you’re not always going to come through,” Jeter insisted, afterward. “There’s been plenty of times that I haven’t. But when I’m in that situation, I feel as though I’m going to produce. You just have to try to treat the postseason like a regular-season game.”

This, of course, is easier said than done, yet easier for Jeter than for almost anybody else. He now has 147 hits, 17 homers, 84 runs scored in 116 postseason games. He is batting .315. Five years ago, he famously rescued an entire playoff series against the A’s with a remarkable fielding play, his instinctive shovel relay to home, beating Jeremy Giambi.
2 singles, 2 doubles and a homerun. Nice day at the office during the month that matters. The rest of the article snarks about A-Rod, which I think is a bit low.
It is always a tale of two infielders with the Yankees, two future Hall of Fame shortstops who have taken dissimilar paths to this same place and time, this era of excess. And always, Rodriguez has trouble following in the cleat tracks left by Jeter.

The comparisons will never stop, as long as Jeter is such a natural in October and Rodriguez tries so very, very hard. While Jeter was amazing in Game 1, A-Rod merely blended into the victory, found camouflage and some comfort in the victory.

Rodriguez was 1-for-4, singling in the third, while occasionally appearing quite lost at the plate. He was very nearly invisible, part of a lineup that Leyland, the poet/manager, had labeled, “Murderer’s Row, and Robinson Cano.”

Was this really enough for A-Rod? A single, no RBI, no runs scored, a playoff win? It is October now, reinvention time, and one game has already ticked off the calendar.
The guy needs some space to just do his thing. If there's anything certain about baseball, even in the post-season, there will be games where A-Rod will go 4-for-4 and Jeter goes 1-for-5. Sometime in the near future, people are going to look back and wonder what all the fuss was about.

Weekend Washup

Fantasy Baseball Update
I haven't written about my league for a month now. Alsorans, run by Walkoff-HBP ran off with the league in the end. My team finished 3rd, which is probably about as good as my team was going to be, given that I couldn't trade for 'Holds' in mid-season and many of my hitters slumped through August. More of that in a moment.

There were some worrying trend in my squad which I repeated again this year. Because I tend to put hardhitting infielders in my Utility spot, I tend to totally win 'Assists' and totally lose 'Errors'. The problem here is going to be hard to rectify because more Infielders mean more assists and more errors. I just can't seem to slot a DH-type like Frank Thomas (Who was availabkle as late as June) and sit back and watch the Total Bases grow. Looking at my keepers, I doubt this trend is going to change next year.

A similar troubling trend showed up in my relief corp where I totally won 'Saves' and totally lost 'Holds'. While they are not mutually exclusive items, there only a limited number of RP slots so if you go for 'Saves', you're cutting down on your opportunities for 'Holds'.

What really pissed me off during the trade period was that nobody was willing to trade decent set-up RP type for a Closer at the deadline, so I coudn't rectify that situation at all. Indeed, The one trade I made backfired because the set-up guy (Francisco Cordero) promptly got traded to be a Closer on another team. What's worse, when you're coming first, nobody wants to trade with you - And I can understand that, but it meant I was going to be in a lot trouble down the stretch. Down the stretch, I scrambled hard to find those 'Holds' but they're actually a lot more ephemral when you're looking for them in the FA market. As my hitters declined, so did my ranking. Ultimately, the writing was on the wall after the trade deadline. I just couldn't read it.

Still, it's not a bad result overall because I've managed to go from 5th in 9 to 3rd in 10 this season. I'm looking forward to next season and hoping my core players will get me there.

2006/10/03

Mailbag

I haven't done this for a couple of weeks, but it's time I posted up a couple of things that got my attention this week.

In Case I Disappear
This one came in from Pleaides.
I have been told a thousand times at least, in the years I have spent reporting on the astonishing and repugnant abuses, lies and failures of the Bush administration, to watch my back. "Be careful," people always tell me. "These people are capable of anything. Stay off small planes, make sure you aren't being followed." A running joke between my mother and me is that she has a "safe room" set up for me in her cabin in the woods, in the event I have to flee because of something I wrote or said.

I always laughed and shook my head whenever I heard this stuff. Extreme paranoia wrapped in the tinfoil of conspiracy, I thought. This is still America, and these Bush fools will soon pass into history, I thought. I am a citizen, and the First Amendment hasn't yet been red-lined, I thought.

Matters are different now.

It seems, perhaps, that the people who warned me were not so paranoid. It seems, perhaps, that I was not paranoid enough. Legislation passed by the Republican House and Senate, legislation now marching up to the Republican White House for signature, has shattered a number of bedrock legal protections for suspects, prisoners, and pretty much anyone else George W. Bush deems to be an enemy.

So much of this legislation is wretched on the surface. Habeas corpus has been suspended for detainees suspected of terrorism or of aiding terrorism, so the Magna Carta-era rule that a person can face his accusers is now gone. Once a suspect has been thrown into prison, he does not have the right to a trial by his peers. Suspects cannot even stand in representation of themselves, another ancient protection, but must accept a military lawyer as their defender.

Illegally-obtained evidence can be used against suspects, whether that illegal evidence was gathered abroad or right here at home. To my way of thinking, this pretty much eradicates our security in persons, houses, papers, and effects, as stated in the Fourth Amendment, against illegal searches and seizures.

Speaking of collecting evidence, the torture of suspects and detainees has been broadly protected by this new legislation. While it tries to delineate what is and is not acceptable treatment of detainees, in the end, it gives George W. Bush the final word on what constitutes torture. US officials who use cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment to extract information from detainees are now shielded from prosecution.

It was two Supreme Court decisions, Hamdi v. Rumsfeld and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, that compelled the creation of this legislation. The Hamdi decision held that a prisoner has the right of habeas corpus, and can challenge his detention before an impartial judge. The Hamdan decision held that the military commissions set up to try detainees violated both the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Conventions.
It kind of gets worse at the bottom:
Underneath all this is the definition of "enemy combatant" that has been established by this legislation. An "enemy combatant" is now no longer just someone captured "during an armed conflict" against our forces. Thanks to this legislation, George W. Bush is now able to designate as an "enemy combatant" anyone who has "purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States."

Consider that language a moment. "Purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States" is in the eye of the beholder, and this administration has proven itself to be astonishingly impatient with criticism of any kind. The broad powers given to Bush by this legislation allow him to capture, indefinitely detain, and refuse a hearing to any American citizen who speaks out against Iraq or any other part of the so-called "War on Terror."

If you write a letter to the editor attacking Bush, you could be deemed as purposefully and materially supporting hostilities against the United States. If you organize or join a public demonstration against Iraq, or against the administration, the same designation could befall you. One dark-comedy aspect of the legislation is that senators or House members who publicly disagree with Bush, criticize him, or organize investigations into his dealings could be placed under the same designation. In effect, Congress just gave Bush the power to lock them up.

By writing this essay, I could be deemed an "enemy combatant." It's that simple, and very soon, it will be the law. I always laughed when people told me to be careful. I'm not laughing anymore.
So this is why writing politics is dangerous again. I have to say, it must be the time of year.

Hitler's Psyche

This one's interesting, and it's from 'BD'. I used t work with 'BD', but now he works for some TV station whose signal I can hardly get. Anyway, 'BD' was doing some research and came across this article at Wikipedia.
His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admita fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.
That was the OSS's assessment of Adolf. 'BD' says,
Does this sound like anyone you know?
First it was Saddam, then Osama, now it's Bill Clinton.
At first I thought he was talking about our old boss. Now I think he means GWB. :)

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