WGN in Chicago is reporting that the Los Angeles Dodgers have acquired hitter/sort of outfielder Manny Ramirez, age 36, from the Boston Red Sox as part a three way deal with the Pirates. Boston gets 30 year old outfielder Jason Bay from the Pirates, and there are also a number of minor leaguers involved, apparently from the Dodgers and probably to the Pirates.
I don't know why the Dodgers continue on the anti-youth movement, but they aren't ever going to win a World Series by taking declining Red Sox for the last two years of their careers (I'm lookin at you, Nomar). I somehow don't see Jeff Kent and Manny being locker room pals, either.
"Countdown" Out-Rates the "Factor" for First Time Ever
NEW YORK - June 10, 2008 - MSNBC continued its ratings surge last week, with viewers flocking out of the "No Spin Zone" and to "The Place for Politics." For the first time ever, MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" was the #1 show at 8 p.m., out-drawing Fox News's "O'Reilly Factor" head-to-head among Adults 25-54. This is the first time since June 2001 that MSNBC has out-rated "The O'Reilly Factor" at 8 p.m.
As Buscheney try to foist a longterm "treaty" on Iraq and the US, the Senate Intelligence Committee is releasing its findings on the use and misuse of pre-war intelligence by Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Condi and Powell, and their minions, and has found...A CROCK O' SHIT.
Too bad Chairman Roberts (R-Bushville) didn't get around to issuing a whitewash before the 2006 elections.
Pedalling along Portola Road through the hills above Stanford, my elitist eyes were boggled by the sight: gasoline FOUR DOLLARS and 89 and 9 tenths cents per gallon. Not temperature adjusted. No coupons. No birthday specials. No courteous attendant who scrubs your windshield and checks your oil. No, they just check your debit card. Many area stations won't take credit cards. Debit/check card, or greenbacks, dude.
Please go to my new site, frequently, and put links on your webpages. We need to be at the top of Google searches. There is someone else out there who has the domain, but it's not active and I'm in wordpress, anyway.
I hope I can keep up with the demand. I am thinking about opening an online store with my theme slogan on mugs, tshirts and bumper stickers:
John McCain for President of Del Boca Vista, Phase II.
I also plan to install a Yiddish dictionary comprising a number of words which would best describe McCain, his policies, his actions, and his statements.
Northern California is gonna be really hot tomorrow, because of a high pressure area that will stifle ocean breezes. Sacramento, Fresno, the peninsula are all predicted to get to 99-101, and I suspect that Morgan Hill and other inland areas may get even hotter. The prediction for Concord and the East Bay is 104!!. I expect there may be some power outages as the people and the power grid try to adjust to the sudden heat wave.
A few tips: Get your fans out, and try to remain hydrated. You will need at least a gallon of water over the day if you are at all active. Make sure that the old people have fans or air-conditioning, and access to water.
Be very careful to not leave children or pets in cars even for a few minutes. Babies are gonna be crabby. Make sure they get enough fluids.
The issues of experience and race and "working class" (I mean, don't we all "work"?) have obscured the real elephant in the room, and that is gender. Until gender issues are addressed, the Clintons will continue to exploit them, and the danger of fragmenting the party will persist.
In some not-so-obscure ways, HRC represents the plight of literally millions of American women, who have sacrificed careers for family, who have bumped up against the glass ceiling, whose husbands have cheated on them, who have seen male bombast and "charisma" trump thoughtfulness, consensus building, and loyality.
The media flurry kicked up by Mr. Obama's gaffe powerfully confirms an argument I actually did make [in "Kansas"]: That as they return again to the culture war, what the soldiers on all sides are doing is talking about class without actually addressing the economic basis of the subject.
A US Senator identified only as "Hermione R. Climatus" wants to be thought of as the kind of person you'd like to do lines with, so she is reported seeking advice from this guy we'll just call "W" for obvious reasons. Middle class parents around the country are pleased and think that Sen. Climatus has been a perfect role model this week, doing boilermakers in a bar. There is general agreement among the nattering pundits that this is exactly what America needs from its president.
NY Times today has the story of how US drug manufacturers are pushing for a Supreme Court decision that would protect all manufacturers of products certified by the government.
So, we want to be WORSE than the Chinese. Essentially unregulated corporate greed. But apparently one fifth of Hillaroids and Obamanoids say they'll vote for McCain (or sit on the sidelines) if their candidate doesn't get the nomination.
Repugs hate McCain more than we knew.....and he's starting to realize that the wallets are closed.
McCain can't keep the Strayed Talk express in his own lane. After going for public financing, then reneging, violating the rules, he's going back to the public funds. So now he's giving back $3 million (only??) to donors and looks like he's gonna take the taxpayers' $84 million (which frankly is more than he seems to be able to raise, and what Obama can take in over just a couple of months)
Boston Globe:
The move is largely procedural, and McCain's campaign said yesterday that it has not yet decided whether to accept public funding or to raise money on its own for the November presidential election. But the decision to return checks - which was made as the Democratic candidates announced raising $60 million combined in March, nearly as much as McCain had raised for the entire campaign through February - indicates that McCain is laying the groundwork for doing so.
I see that President Bush is going to throw out the first pitch for the Nationals opening day baseball game on Sunday. Of course, they are going to have him throw to the Nationals' manager; he wouldn't want to be associated with Paul LoDuca, Nationals catcher, who may have taken steroids. After all, what LoDuca did, harmed exactly one person. If I was LoDuca, I'd refuse to be associated with Bush.
I presume the Secret Service is going to screen all spectators' cars for bumper stickers, and also refuse to admit anyone wearing a graphic tshirt or carrying a sign, or a noisemaker, and of course will require that everyone's mouths be taped shut. Applause is mandatory. Anyone who fails to comply will be arrested.
I just read this on the Drudge report so you know it might not be true. It might not have even been on the Drudge Report. It might have been at the Onion. Or perhaps it was a dream. So I chose not to use anyone's name, because, well, that might be construed as, well, you know, a "misstatement." And I know it's against the rules to call out a diarist in the title. So I put a ? at the end of it, though I hated to. But what the heck has alegre been doing to fill up her/his/its day, anyway?
UPDATE:RubyGal answers my question:life is imitating my snark. O M G !
In response to a vanishingly small chorus of criticism from the well-fed media, John McCain has put out a new, supposedly reassuring "3am" campaign video.. This 30 second spot shows the "red phone" next to the supposed bed of supposed president John McCain. When the phone rings, old John listens to some supposed crisis information, then stammers out some statement that makes no sense. But then, up pops another head from under the covers...IT'S JOE LIEBERMAN!! He whispers in McCain's ear for a few seconds, while McCain puts his hand over the phone. Then John speaks into the phone again: "No, I take that back, don't do that!!! Instead, do this....."
She's squeezing into her costume and starting to warm up LLALALAALLLLLA
McCain isn't going to survive this. And I'll tell you why. He's seventy years old, he thought he won the nomination, and now he's getting chopped up for chum. And he's a nasty old codger, anyway. He can't stand the heat in the kitchen.
He's gonna have a colossal meltdown one of these days, and it'll be on YouTube within minutes.
As long as everybody has a different idea of how things are going to turn out today, I'll throw this in. A "blog sentiment" analysis is predicting a decisive win for Obama. Bigger than predicted by pablano. The big prize, California, seems, by this method, not to be even very close. Collective Intellect is saying the sentiment suggests Obama will carry CA with 58%. Survey USA may end up going into the dogfood business after this one, if Collective Intellect is right; of course the opposite may hold as well.
In what some observers are calling a last-ditch, poison pill defense/attack, designed to protect his wife's incredible shrinking lead, ex-President Bill Clinton has declared that he did not have sex with Barack Obama. That this is a campaign ploy seems obvious, since, as far as is known, no one has made the claim that there has been sex between the two men. Furthermore, both Clinton and Obama have been widely assumed to be "straight".
Some have recently speculated that Bill Clinton's attacks on Obama and have been counterproductive, and that his inflated claims about his own performance in office have also put off some undecided voters.
