July 2009 Archives

It was one of those days that remind a person of the frustration and beauty we can see in baseball.

My friend Matt hosted me at his family's outstanding seats at San Francisco's AT&T Park today as the Giants hosted the San Diego Padres. Matt could not promise another no-hitter (the Giants were understandably still heavily promoting Jonathan Sanchez's no-no from two days earlier). We also were left to wonder whether we'd see the good Barry Zito on the mound for the Giants or the bad one.

When we took our seats, I looked at the scoreboard and noticed that the Padres were starting four players who were entering the day with batting averages below .200. That required a second look. And, no, the starting pitcher was not one of the four. I am quite certain I have never seen anything like that before.

So, what happened? Of course: Zito did not pitch well. Those Padre batting averages soared. It didn't even take long to figure out: the Padres began the game single-single-home run. 3-0 after five minutes. Add three more runs (on another three-run HR) in the third, and it was clear it was time to start thinking about when to go get a Ghirardelli hot fudge sundae. San Diego ended up winning 10-4, and three of those four Padres had good enough days at the plate to get their batting averages comfortably above .200 by the end of the game.

Upon arriving home, I turned on ESPN to watch my beloved (sigh) Cubs play arch-rival St. Louis. The Cubs lost 4-2 (after winning the first game of the doubleheader earlier in the day) blowing a chance to enter the All-Star Break above .500 and now 3.5 games out of first. That was frustrating enough. What was unforgivable was watching all three Cubs batters in the bottom of the ninth be struck out looking on the third strike.

That might be an apt way for the Cubs to enter the All-Star Break: with a frustrating loss exposing more missed chances.

Given the way the first half of the season has gone, I probably should be more happy that my team remains in striking distance of the division lead. I'm having trouble building that enthusiasm.

Funny how a Democratic President can remind all Members of Congress that they hold the power of the purse and do not have to accept an out-of-control executive branch. As CQ Politics David Nather reports after the House voted 429-2 to negate an Obama Administration signing statement:

Cut off the money? Congress can do that? Well, yes, that's one of the most basic oversight tools Congress has. It's just odd that no one remembered that during the years when President George W. Bush was burying the Hill in signing statements, and making far more sweeping claims of executive power than Obama has.

Ah, yes, this highlights another problem. Yes, it is hypocritical for Congressional Republicans to suddenly remember they have an oversight role in our Constitutional Republic. (Does one get a headache after such a sudden revelation?) But, for me, the bigger problem lies with the Obama Administration continuing to issue signing statements after all we experienced over the past eight years.

Better choices, please.

A memo to those who have been, um, aggressive (that's a nice way of putting it) in expressing their frustration about my decision to support State Senator Mark DeSaulnier in the 10th Congressional District special election race despite the potential succession of special elections which could follow: a vacancy in the Lt. Governor's office also can have serious consequences on state issues.

Yes, it's a long season. But the Chicago Cubs' 8-3 loss today to the St. Louis Cardinals highlights problems the Cubs have had all season. Bleed Cubbie Blue's Al Yellen explains how another bullpen meltdown, bad defense, and rain delay mixed together to result in another dreadful loss:

Even after Albert Pujols poked a wind-aided HR into the CF basket in the fifth inning, the 4-3 deficit didn't seem insurmountable -- until Aaron Heilman came into the game. Really, Jim Hendry -- this was a completely worthless acquisition. Heilman simply can't throw strikes -- he issued three walks in the inning. 34 pitches, 14 strikes. That's just not major league quality. And back to Harden for a moment -- what on Earth was he doing walking Chris Carpenter? Coming into today's game, Carpenter had a lifetime BA of .097 and 8 -- EIGHT -- walks in 282 career plate appearances. How can you walk a guy like that?!?!? Just throw him strikes!

Back to the sixth inning, if you can stand it -- Alfonso Soriano made this ridiculous inning worse by calling Ryan Theriot off of a popup into short left that Theriot had a bead on, and dropping it. Oh, sure, he managed to throw to second to force a very surprised Rick Ankiel, but a run scored. No run would have scored had Theriot caught the popup -- it was too shallow. Then Heilman wild-pitched in another run.

Plays like that in games like this can shake the soul of any fan. I keep waiting for the Cubs to turn it around and play to their potential. The beauty and curse of baseball is that, over a long season, sometimes you learn that what you see on the field really is the team's potential.

This Cubs fan is left wondering today if a .500 season is this team's potential, rather than all those optimistic preseason analysis.

A PPIC analysis is the latest to show that low-income people are more likely to leave the state than higher-income residents.

Don't worry though: just like previously debunked claims about businesses leaving California, I'm sure you'll continue to hear this talking point repeatedly into the future.

The Nation's Chris Hayes is right to tweet that one could run this Hill headline "every single day."

FiveThiryEight's Nate Silver runs the numbers as he tries to project from where 60 votes for the climate legislation may come in the United States Senate.

Bill Press says it is time to enforce some party discipline in the Senate:

But Senate passage requires 51 votes, remember, not 60. In fact, just 50 votes are good enough, with Joe Biden standing by to break a tie. Besides, no matter how sick, there's no way Teddy Kennedy's going to miss a vote on establishing universal health care. He's worked hard for it all his life.

As for those wayward senators like Nelson or Landrieu, there's only one thing Democrats are lacking: discipline. This may be a whole new concept for Democrats, who are not used to marching in lockstep. But if Barack Obama and Harry Reid are willing to play hardball by withholding committee assignments, White House invitations, campaign contributions, and endorsements, they'll be surprised how soon Democrats will get in line.

My friend JP is getting some deserved retweeting today after making an outstanding (if depressing) observation in response to Glenn Greenwald tweeting about Vice President Joe Biden's comments yesterday about how the United States could not stop Israel from bombing Iran:

SaucyIntruder: @glenngreenwald Conservatives want to bomb Iran. Liberals don't. So the sensible centrist position is to ask other countries to bomb Iran.

Sigh. I wish there were less truth to that sentence -- and I wish Democrats were not as susceptible to such thinking as often as they are.

Newsosaur Alan Mutter notes that Macy's has cut its newspaper advertising in half since 2005, a decision that alone has cost the newspaper industry over $600 million in advertising revenue.

Mutter examines the implications of this revenue loss and explains why this revenue is one of several streams that are unlikely ever to return.

At the beginning of his 1,938,378,366th* column demanding bipartisanship during a time when Democrats have majorities in Congress, David Broder illustrates how to achieve this nirvana by calling Senator-Elect Al Franken a "loud-mouthed former comedian."

Yeah, that's the way to get people to work together. Use tired old insulting cliches. Guaranteed to work.

Besides, as Paul Krugman notes, anyone who has truly watched Franken's career this decade -- from the books to the Air America radio show, knows that Franken is a serious policy wonk. As Krugman explains:

So what will Franken do to the level of Senate discourse? He'll raise it.

Unlike Broder's influence on the political discourse.

* Number may be an estimate.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Visit the National Archives to read the rest. Happy Independence Day!

Behind on my reading, I only now saw this outstanding post by Bruce Schneier about what should be done to improve airport security. His plan:

This would be my real answer: "Establish accountability and transparency for airport screening." And if I had another sentence: "Airports are one of the places where Americans, and visitors to America, are most likely to interact with a law enforcement officer - and yet no one knows what rights travelers have or how to exercise those rights."

Schneier wants transparency about the no-fly and watch lists. He argues that there should be clear and explicit rules about what passengers can expect from TSA at checkpoints. He calls for "airport security [to] be solely about terrorism, and not a general-purpose security checkpoint to catch everyone from pot smokers to deadbeat dads."

That's an outstanding plan. Sadly, it is hard to imagine much of it being implemented.

I really hope I'm wrong about the pun in the title. Calculated Risk looks at the report and updates some scary looking charts.

As someone who cannot handle the sky glider at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk (much to my children's mocking merriment), obviously there is absolutely no way I'd consider doing this:

Visitors to the Sears Tower's new glass balconies all seem to agree: The first step is the hardest.

The balconies are suspended 1,353 feet in the air and jut out four feet from the building's 103rd floor Skydeck. Their transparent walls, floor and ceiling leave visitors with the impression they're floating over the city.

There's also no way I could watch people do it. I could not even finish the accompanying slideshow that featured kids enjoying the view.

(Hat tip: Chris at Americablog)

The California Budget Project's Jean Ross identifies a major reason for our ongoing budget crises: California's insane two-thirds vote requirement to pass a budget.

But there's a fourth culprit at work right now in California, one we can do something about: the state's two-thirds vote requirement to pass a budget and tax increases. Without the two-thirds vote requirement, it's likely that California's policymakers would have been able to come to an agreement that could have averted the issuing of IOUs.

Indeed.

Talk about your unexpected headlines: as I was starting my almost-daily regimen of surfing the English newspaper web sites for Premier League news, I was initially quite taken back when I saw that Manchester United was on the verge of signing troubled/cursed/erstwhile Newcastle United striker Michael Owen on a free transfer.

What?

Then, after a quick chant of "Every Single One Of Us Loves Alex Ferguson mp3 here," I gave this one some more thought: and the more I liked the idea.

The risk appears to be low, as reports are this is an incentive-laden deal. The Red Devils get a player who is not yet 30, has something (a lot of something) to prove (including, perhaps, a last chance to get back on the England World Cup team), and is reunited with Wayne Rooney.

No, it is not what I was expecting to see after the Reds collected Real Madrid's £80 million. But the crazy spending binge being led by Real Madrid has changed what is possible in this transfer window.

I know many fellow Manchester United supporters will not agree: but in my view this is a risk worth taking, assuming he passes the "stringent physical" required before signing. He'll know this is his last shot to regain his reputation.

It may not work, but all of the elements are in place to make success possible. Now we'll see if this is but a mere transfer rumor or something more substantial.

You may think it's primarily about solving a deficit. Sure, that's a factor. But with our state's insane two-thirds vote requirement, it often isn't the primary issue in play. MediaNews Sacramento reporter Steve Harmon explains the ambitions of the Republican legislative leaders:

Even as state officials are preparing today to issue IOUs to state vendors and certain taxpayers, Hollingsworth and Blakeslee -- and their caucuses -- are demanding reforms that would undercut labor gains, shrink the social safety net and relax regulations on business. The two leaders said they see the crisis as a chance to instill more discipline on the state's appetite for spending -- and to lift the Republican philosophy of a small-government, entrepreneurial-based economy.

Yes, no need to win those pesky things called "elections" to lift your philosophy. With a base that includes just a little more than one-third of the legislature's members, they get to impose their Norquistian drown-the-rest-of-government-in-the-bathtub philosophy on the state.

The anti-democratic two-thirds vote requirement is at the heart of California's dysfunction. Until democracy is returned to our budget process, the state will continue to falter.

After reading Governor Schwarzenegger's snarky tweets about the state budget crisis last night, I was hoping to see him tweet about the kind of victory cigar he used to celebrate his take-it-or-leave-it result: one that ensure IOUs would be issued on his watch as our state's leader.

Tough talk and snarky tweets do not equal leadership.