Wednesday, April 29, 2009

I Don't Get It

Karen Tumulty thinks that Lisa Gutierrez has a good point.

Here is Gutierrez's point.

President Barack Obama kissed former Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius Tuesday night after she was sworn in as Health and Human Services Secretary in the Oval Office.

She was immediately dispatched to a top-level briefing about the swine flu outbreak.

Maybe they should have just stuck with the handshake?

Seriously, I don't get it. Is it a some kind of Lewinsky reference? I can't believe these people get paid.

Deep Thoughts By Michele Bachmann

Each time Bachmann opens her mouth, I think it is important to remember that she gets to write laws.

"I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president Jimmy Carter," said Bachmann. "And I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence."


Also, ignoring the crazy for a moment.
It happened in 1976 when Gerald Ford was in office.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Specter

The big news in politics today is obviously Specter jumping to the Democrats. If you haven't heard the news turn on CNN, MSNBC or Fox and wait two minutes and you will.

A number of conservative pundits are quick to remind people that this wasn't Specter having an ideology shift, but rather a move to save his job. For once, I agree with the conservative pundits and even Specter has admitted to this being the a big reason. In other words, Specter hasn't changed, but the Republican party has.

Another example would be Lindsey Graham talking about how he is a moderate Republican. The guy scored an 89.79 from The American Conservative Union. I would be curious to see what a hardcore conservative scored.

Monday, April 27, 2009

I Dub Thee A Hack

Ken Strickland
As Congress prepares to vote on a budget that would include a procedural tool allowing Democrats to effectively shutout Republicans and pass sweeping health-care reform,

Strickland is talking about reconciliation and in no way does it 'shutout' the Republicans. What it does do is prevent Republicans from requiring a 60 vote threshold to pass health-care. Democrats and Obama would love to see Republicans working with and supporting the majority in guiding health-care reform through the Senate. The problem is that they aren't offering up any ideas, unless you count tax cuts and drill baby drill.....you know the usual. Instead of working to craft a strong bill, they will and are warning of the big scary gubmint coming to take your babies and doctors.

Republicans are not interested in health-care reform. They are interested in making sure it never happens. It would be an absolute disaster for them. I don't think you need a public poll to realize that people like to be able to go see a doctor when they get sick. If more people are allowed to do so under a Democratic president and congress, the party that has been fighting tooth and nail against that is going to have a tough time winning elections.

Not to give Republicans any ideas on how they can have more of an impact on government, but they should really think about winning more elections.

Overnight Music

Probably done this one before....deal with it.

Because You Really Want To Know


I'm still waiting for this to show up from Amazon. Love the opening line.
"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains."

Not To Bring Up Old Shit

But
For years leading up to the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore committed the sins of taking policy seriously, and of knowing what he was talking about. As punishment for those sins, reporters like Kellman mocked him as a "teacher's-pet" and a dull, lifeless buffoon. They propped up a dim-witted Texan (by way of Greenwich Country Day, Andover, Harvard, and Yale) who had run business after business into the ground, and skipped out on the National Guard service that kept him out of Vietnam by virtue of his father's accomplishments. On the other hand, he called reporters "Stretch," and they loved him for it. And so George W. Bush became president.

Although, this might be just as likely.

I Second This

Paul Krugman

So Bobby Jindal makes fun of “volcano monitoring”, and soon afterwards Mt. Redoubt erupts. Susan Collins makes sure that funds for pandemic protection are stripped from the stimulus bill, and the swine quickly attack.

What else did the right oppose recently? I just want enough information to take cover.

I'm Not A Lawyer

But this doesn't sound like it would work as a defense.
"As far as mental suffering is concerned that involves the creation on the part of the person the tactic is used on of a fear of imminent death," said McCarthy. "The few people that waterboarding was actually used on were actually told that they were not going to be killed by the tactic."

"Even if they didn’t tell you they weren’t going to kill you, after the first or second time you sort of get the point that there is not imminent death to be feared," he said. "There's not a prosecutable case."

One would think that if the CIA wasn't looking to create the 'fear of imminent death', they wouldn't have used a technique to simulates the sensation of drowning.

Just once I would like to see somebody ask Joe Scarborough or one of the other pro-torture pundits if they feel as if we should now be issuing an apology to the Japanese soldiers we convicted of waterboarding.

After World War II, we convicted several Japanese soldiers for waterboarding American and Allied prisoners of war. At the trial of his captors, then-Lt. Chase J. Nielsen, one of the 1942 Army Air Forces officers who flew in the Doolittle Raid and was captured by the Japanese, testified: "I was given several types of torture. . . . I was given what they call the water cure." He was asked what he felt when the Japanese soldiers poured the water. "Well, I felt more or less like I was drowning," he replied, "just gasping between life and death."


Saturday, April 25, 2009

NFL Draft

A quick vid to get you game ready for today's draft.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Liberal Bias

CNN hires Mary Matalin, former advisor to both Bush and Cheney.

She joins a number of her former co-workers making the transition to major media.
Michael Gerson (Washington Post), Sara Taylor (MSNBC), Tony Snow (CNN), Frances Fragos Townsend (CNN), Nicole Wallace (CBS News), Dan Bartlett (CBS News), Jeff Ballabon (CBS News), Tony Fratto (CNBC) and, of course, Karl Rove (Fox News, Newsweek, and Wall Street Journal) have all gone from working for Bush/Cheney to working for the mainstream media.

Just don't forget that the media is scary liberal and liberals hate freedom.

Banana Republic

The thinking from the GOP that we become a Banana Republic if we investigate or prosecute those involved in creating the torture years is pretty damned backwards. A Banana Republic would turn a blind eye to the government breaking the law.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Caprica

Once Battlestar Galactica turned into a show that was all about religion/philosophy instead of humans fighting robots it was fracked up. So fracked up that I stopped watching. I heard the last two episodes were good, but I doubt I ever watch the last two seasons I missed because I just stopped caring about every single character.

I had heard that they were doing a spinoff of the series. It looks like it is going to suck.

The last couple of seasons reminded me of The Matrix series. The beginning was pretty good, but then the writers thought they could impart some deep meaning and ended up screwing the pooch.

Breaking Down Traditional Marriage

When you do this....
Far be it from me to say that Newt Gingrich’s 1981 decision to ask his first wife for a divorce while she was in the hospital recuperating from cancer should bar him from commenting on the value of traditional marriage....Then in 2000 he divorced Ginther and married a third woman with whom it turns out he’d been having an affair.

You really shouldn't be accusing anybody of trying to break down traditional marriage.

Now We Go

The Detroit Lions have figured out how to get out of it's franchise-long funk - a new logo

.

I remember how well this worked for Ohio University back in the late 1990s... oh wait....

Impeaching Bybee

Just me thinking, but you shouldn't be allowed to be a federal judge when you were writing the 'how to torture and get away with it' memos in a previous job.
In one of the more nauseating passages, Jay Bybee, then an assistant attorney general and now a federal judge, wrote admiringly about a contraption for waterboarding that would lurch a prisoner upright if he stopped breathing while water was poured over his face. He praised the Central Intelligence Agency for having doctors ready to perform an emergency tracheotomy if necessary.

Two other things.

1. We told the Nazis at Nuremberg that 'just following orders' was BS.
2. Good thing this wasn't something serious like a BJ or there would be all sorts of hearings, investigations, independent prosecutors and impeachment proceedings.

Stop The Stupid

Could somebody fill me in on what danger the US is in since Obama smiled while shaking hands with Chavez? I watched a bit of Morning Joe today (yeah I know I have nobody to blame buy myself) and Joe nearly went Glenn Beck in a Doom Bunker over how horrible this was.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Overnight Music

I'm too busy playing Deadspace to blog.

Born In The Flood - Anthem

Warrants Are For Pussies

Wanna know what happens when you allow the NSA to ignore the need for warrants? This.
And in one previously undisclosed episode, the N.S.A. tried to wiretap a member of Congress without a warrant, an intelligence official with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Braylon Edwards to Giants?

Word is heating up again that the Giants are itching to get Braylon Edwards. This would be a pretty solid move for the Giants as they are without a true No. 1 since they released Plaxico Burress. I think Edwards could even be an upgrade over Burress if he can keep his nose clean. Edwards had a rough year last year, I should know he was on one of my fantasy teams, but so did a lot of Browns.

My only question is how does this help the Browns? I didn't think the problem with the Browns last year was that they had too many offensive weapons, but that seems to be the thinking with the team looking to trade away anybody who might threaten opposing defenses. Winslow is already gone. Who is left if Edwards goes as well? Steve Heiden is who. He of 23 receptions, 249 yards receiving and zero touchdowns last season.

Starting to look like another long season in the making for Browns fans.

Teabagging Fun

I don't think anybody ever really cleared up what the Teabaggers are protesting. It seems to be a combination of taxes, government spending and the fact that Obama is a dirty fascist.

Steve Benen tagged an exchange that CNN had with some protesters.
Realizing that she probably wasn't going to get anything coherent from this guy, Roesgen then spoke to another man, who proceeded to ramble on about why Obama should be more like Abraham Lincoln, who didn't try to take taxpayers' money.

Benen points out a problem with using Lincoln as a hero for the anti-tax brigade.
Not only did Lincoln vastly expand the power of the federal government -- up to and including suspending habeas -- he also was the first president to impose an income tax. Worse, it was a progressive income tax, that charged wealthier taxpayers more.

More Please

Joe Klein hits the nail on the head.
The constant sniping from Rove, Wehner and the others during Obama's first 100 days is a deeply neurotic reaction to the enormity of their own cockups in office. It shows a profound lack of class or grace, but then, that's no surprise with these guys, is it? They ran the country like thugs, and thugs they remain.

I find it kinda funny that anybody on teevee even entertains that notion that Obama is a more polarizing figure than Bush. Yes, Obama has incredibly low approval ratings among Republicans. The problem is that the Republican party, at this point, is no longer a national party but a regional one. Being hated by a regional party, like Obama is, is much less polarizing than being disliked by over half the country. I think people have already forgotten that Bush's approval ratings were in the 20s.

Just sayin

Why are people surprised that some of the banks have been showing a profit? Haven't we been funneling a fair amount of money to them over the last several months. I know shit about business, but you give me a couple of billion dollars and I will show you a profit as well. Just sayin

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Overnight Non-Music

I'm struggling to find some new music. For those of you that have any feel free to drop a link in the comment section. For those of you that know my email addy, feel free to drop it there as well.

Instead of overnight music I offer a friendly reminder that one of my favorite shows kicks off tonight.

Speaking of Things That Make Me Laugh

Via TBogg, this cracks me up.

I just wanna say that personally, I don't wanna see any tea bagging on the 15th. What right wingers want to do in their free time is their business, but keep it off my teevee.

"You're Going To Need A Dick Armey"

David Schuster makes me laugh.

And to keep in the theme of this post, Ed Schultz's new show on MSNBC blows.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Pirates


Matthew Yglesias uses Sid Meier's Pirates to explain some of the problems with the Somalia pirates.

I was never good at the game. I got too distracted going after loot to finish the main game. However, should there ever be a zombie invasion I will be the man to turn to due to my expertise in games like Left 4 Dead and Dead Rising.

A Collection of Stupid

1. Who cares if ASU isn't going to give Obama an honorary degree? I have seen at least three different segments treating this as if it were big news...why?

2. Who cares if Obama bowed or didn't. The last guy was holding hands and swapping spit with the guy.

3.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

B.S. alert

"As I sit here in Chicago tonight.... This is for the fans. This is for all of Columbus. In fact this is for the state of Ohio and all the hockey fans within the state and the loyal Jacket fans that have been apart of this great organization for the last several years." - Jeff Rimer, Columbus Blue Jackets broadcaster, FOX Sports Ohio, after the Blue Jackets clinched its first playoff berth in franchise history.

Translation = I'm making this crap up as I go along.

Overnight Music

I'm going to keep posting Seasick Steve stuff until somebody I know finally listens to him.

Words Have Meaning

Defense Budget in 2009: 513 billion
Defense Budget in 2010: 534 billion

Considering the above it would seem pretty stupid for a major media outlet to publish an article about how Obama and Gates were 'gutting' the military. The Wall Street Journal says hi.

Wasn't Joe The Plumber Available?

You know you faux populist event sucks when Alan Keyes is your headliner.

Speaking of Joe The Plumber, I caught him on Bill Maher this past weekend. Maher's show has really brought the suck this season. You get Joe The (non) Plumber on your show and you don't ridicule the man? Then you let David Frum ramble on about how Obama is such a failure? Maher kinda sucks these days. Just saying.

Happy Anniversary To Me

Today is the 20th anniversary of my Bar Mitzvah. Please don't ask me what that means - it was 20 years ago - but it probably looked something like this:


TRIP REPORT, PART II -- Cash Game

A Trip to the Burbs, cont.


We last left our hero placing 4th of 24 in a 20+5 bounty tournament....


I get up from my fourth place finish and head straight to the kitchen where a full table awaits and I make it a 10-seater (.25/.50 NL). I buy in for $40. The mood is very light and friendly and I just plan on observing for an orbit to gauge the level of play, while soaking in the musings of my dear friend “Michael”.


I get AJ off, which isn’t that hard of a hand to fold even in middle position, but a good enough hand to play nevertheless. Still, I hate good hands early, but with two limpers in front, I made it $3 to go. One caller behind me, the BB and one limper comes along – four way pot. Axx, two diamonds. Check, check. I lead out $7. Fold, call, call. Turn is another diamond. Guh. Everyone checks, which pains me inside because I was already thinking a $10-12 bet would be plenty good if no one hit their flush, but got gun-shy. River is a fourth diamond. Double guh. Check, I check, BB bets $10. Fold and it’s to me. Two instincts come to mind. The first was call – 10 to win 45 = good pot odds and it is pretty obvious I’m oozing weakness, which would incur a bet from anyone paying half attention. The other instinct was to shove, representing a big diamond. I ignore both and fold like a little girl and the BB shows A6…. of hearts! Serves me right.


I win a small pot with a raise post flop and lay low for several orbits. I had been playing the same tight/aggressive (or tight/little girl, depending on your perspective) all night and decided at some point I needed to shake things up. The table lost a few players, so we’re seven-handed. K9 hearts, mid position, I try and see a cheap flop. Four ways. Flop misses me completely. J-high, all black, two clubs. First bet is $2. It smelled like middle pair or a flush draw. I raised to 10. Folded to original bettor who calls. Turn is a club. Caller checks and I push for my remaining $13. Villan tanks….


Meanwhile “Michael” has been trading stories with several people, and being in a hand, I haven’t been following his latest conversation. What I do know is that he turns his attention to me. The problem is I’ve got my head on my hand which is rested on the table, from the elbow up. I’m looking straight down until the Villan makes his decision. Michael begins saying to me, “Right?”… “Right?” as if I’ve been following his conversation… he then starts shaking my arm – “Hey, what are you doing... Right?” I’m not budging. “Hey?!?”…. Anyone reading this is probably wondering why I haven’t kicked him in the nuts or why no one else has said, “leave the guy alone, he’s in a hand”, but again, we’re all friendly and it’s understood Michael is well on his way to finishing his 12-pack. Besides, inside I’m half cracking up and half hoping Villan sees I’m a rock given this distraction and throws his hand away.


Villan says he thinks I’ve got him but he can’t lay down his flush and calls… I finally can start laughing while I flip over my stone bluff. Everyone is as surprised as I am that I tried to pull this hand off – even Michael, who breaks from his story and says, “Dude, what are you doing?” Villan, laughing with me, flips over Q-10 of clubs. A bit of a slow roll, perhaps as one would think raising 10 post flop wasn’t a sign of a drawing hand but rather top pair. But I guess I earned a solid table image throughout the night so maybe I had the nuts? – K9 hearts, notwithstanding.


So $40 gone in a half hour (hee-haw), but I was fine with it as I had planned on shaking things up enough to show that I’m willing to dance. So much so that with the first hand with my new $40, I limp in blind from the SB. There were already four limpers; I couldn’t afford not to play! Flop x8Q. Bet of $3 – so I guess I should look. A8. Not bad, but not good enough.


It would be the last action I would see for about two hours. Holy card-dead, Batman! Four hands of note occurred during that time. A9 of hearts. Early position raises to $4 – pre-flop! Must be a doozy and/or doesn't want a multi-way pot; 10s or Js is my guess – I muck. I see the A on the flop and 9 on the river before he tables his KJ (wtf?). I later get JJ and raise my first pot in over an hour. Everyone folds (NOW they’re paying attention). Twice I get pocket 7s. The first time I fold to Troy’s pre-flop raise of $4 – I really don’t know why the betting has gone from 3x the blinds to 8x, but he later shows me AJ, so I was fine with not racing with my second $40 – did I mention Troy doesn’t like to fold? The second 77 I raised, but was re-raised and called before it got back to me – no thanks.


The only thing that kept me entertained during that 120 minutes was Michael. Now if I had written this weeks ago as planned, I might be able to remember some of the details, but the only thing I can come up with was the H2o content in Coors Light (the highest of any domestic?) which is supposed to help sustain some sort of hydration while drinking. Makes sense – but it had ceased working in Michael’s case. On his next beer he swings his arm to his left while discussing… something…. Might have been asking Dealer chick about her job, actually, which was pretty cool to hear about. No matter, he knocks his beer right into the lap of the player sitting to his left, who was already getting mildly annoyed with the slowed pace of play. This didn’t help. But to his credit, he didn’t blow his top with at least 6 oz. of beer in his lap. Fast forward 20-30 minutes, Michael is on the phone with his wife when he mentions that we’ll be playing for a little while longer – when beer soaked guy says, “how about playing now?”… Uh-oh, tensions are a-risin’!


It probably didn’t help that Michael had about tripled his stack and was winning two pair hands with J6. Classic.


Now comes the joke move: A raised pot clearly gives Michael zero options and as he’s mucking his cards he says, “All-in, just kidding”… everyone’s eyes light up and a couple of people tell him it’s a binding statement and normally he would be forced to push. I just tell him it would be wise if he never did that again.


Next up, string-betting: Michael calls the BB then adds a dollar. We explain it has to be all in one motion or he has to say “raise” before pushing any chips forward. Soon afterwards he does it again, innocently enough. No one thinks it’s intentional. Same thing happens, we explain, he sort of understands. Later on he says, “50 cents, PLUS….” And now he’s getting frustrated with the table’s frustration. In hindsight, I should have said, “less talky-talky, more pokey-pokey” (inside joke).


By this time, however, Michael slowly but surely started giving back to the community and found himself a hair under even for the night. It was then he decided that it was time to leave, lol. He’ll tell you it was because we were offered a ride home, but that ride had been sitting there for over 30 minutes - five more minutes was clearly crossing the line. After a second attempt to have him agree to play through the orbit (four more hands), I wasn’t going to argue. I was card dead anyway, what the hell was I waiting for?


Last hand of the night – The power hand: Troy was up $240 for winning the previously posted tournament. After about 3 hours of cash games, he was down about $20. Two buy-ins of $40 plus three buy-ins for $60… OUCH. He now had .50 cents in front of him and we all agree to make it a family pot pre-flop. Fine – 7 ways. I limp with my 2-5 suited. I’m chuckling inside because in playing years of on-line poker, Adam B. and I would always joke that 2-5 was the power hand. Others would play it and rake in huge pots; we would never play it and see flops of two-pair, straights, etc. It never failed. So it only figures that this is my last hand. The Power Hand is evil…. I flop a spade flush. I bet something small, $4 maybe, roughly pot. Michael calls, player to my left calls. Turn is red-blank. I push for my last $17. Michael folds. Button tanks. I don’t want to see the A, but I know that’s the only way he’ll call without top pair or better. He shows me his A and pushes his chips forward to call. River = blank and I take in my only cash pot of the night to put me down just $13 in three hours.


So in about 7 hours of play tourney plus cash games, I left up $20. Kind of like a pai-gow marathon, only without the booze. In other words, weak! Good times overall...


Coming up, the CPT (April 25th). Stay tuned.

Friday, April 3, 2009

I Rule

Back at the start of the Cutler saga, I said this.
Not a good sign of things to come.

I think the fact that the Broncos are now looking at a quarterback competition between Chris Simms and Kyle Orton proves me right. A lot depends on what the Broncos do with their draft picks, but the Broncos have a lot of holes to fill. In the end, I just can't help but think this is a big loss for McDaniels and the Broncos. Sure they have the picks to get one of the big name quarterbacks in the draft, but that doesn't promise them a good quarterback. They had one in Cutler. Now they are back to the drawing board.

While I don't think Cutler will put up huge numbers this season, I still think it is a good move for the Bears. The weapons aren't there on offense, but they finally have something to build around on that side of the ball.

Ken Gordon Discovers That Water Is Wet

One of the major criticisms that Buckeye fans have with head coach Jim Tressel is that that is play calling is too conservative. I think it is, at times, certainly a valid criticism as he seems too often content to punt and play field position or go for a long field goal rather than opening things up a bit more. Ken Gordon decided to crunch some numbers to prove Tressel wrong and was surprised to learn that Tressel just might be right in his conservative approach. Here is Gordon's original premise.
My thought was that while Tressel successfully avoids turnovers, he also avoids giving his quarterbacks the confidence to air it out and use their natural talent to the full potential. So yes, he may win games by being careful with the ball, but has he lost games because he played too conservatively and denied his QB the chance to build a bigger lead (such as Penn State last year?)

And Gordon's numbers and summary.

OVERALL RECORD: 43-8 (.843)

WHEN OSU HAS A PLUS TURNOVER RATIO: 23-1

WHEN RATIO IS EVEN: 7-0

WHEN OSU LOSES TURNOVER RATIO: 13-7.

In 43 wins, OSU was plus-23 in turnovers (plus .53 a game)
In 8 losses, OSU was minus-13 (minus 1.63 a game)

In 43 wins, OSU threw 21 INTs (.49 a game)
In 8 losses, OSU threw 10 INTs (1.25 a game).

Bottom line: My premise was wrong. Tressel is right.

So there you go. Gordon has proven that a conservative approach wins more than not. This, of course, is why teams like Oklahoma, Texas and Florida struggle year after year to win games.

Ken Gordon's number crunching simply shows that the less turnovers a team commits the more likely the are to win. In other words, its the execution stupid. This analysis is about as groundbreaking as showing that the team that scores the most points wins more games.



Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Overnight Non-music

The nephews are spending most of the week here so I'm busy playing video games and eating junk food. I'll get back to a more regular posting schedule soon. Until then...

The Soccer Project from Rebekah Fergusson on Vimeo.

The Movement Grows

Michele Bachmann's movement to save the dollar from an enemy that doesn't exist has grown to 31 people. All 31 sponsors of the bill (32 if you count Bachmann) are Republican. Democrats painting Republicans as the 'Party of No' has been a pretty successful tactic so far. I only wish they would take it further and point out that trying to work with a party littered with conspiracy theorists is impossible.

I Predict Things

Soccer: US/Trinidad and Tobago....

I think this is about as close as you can get to a lock in WC qualifying. I think there is a good deal of pride within the US National Team that they are now the top dog in the CONCACAF region. I think the US side will be looking to squash any doubts that people might have about being top dog after their embarrassing 2-2 tie this past weekend. The US will also be getting Tim Howard and possibly Gooch back in the line-up so some of the miscues from this past weekend should be cleaned up. If I were a betting man, I would feel pretty good betting the over on any 2.5 lines.

Current prediction record: 6-5