Manny to L.A.; Jason Bay to Pirates

Ramirez traded to Dodgers in three-way deal

ESPN.com news services

Manny Ramirez’s stormy relationship with the Boston Red Sox appears to be over.

A baseball source has confirmed Ramirez has been traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, ESPN.com has learned.

Jason Bay is going to Boston as part of the deal. And the Pittsburgh Pirates get four minor leaguers as part of the three-way deal.

All I can say is, wow.

Weird But True: Investigating the Montauk Monster: The Story Deepens!

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/07/the_monster_of_montauk.html

Investigating the Montauk Monster: The Story Deepens!

Photo: Courtesy of Alanna Nevitski

Yesterday, Gawker ran what appeared to be a photo of a bloated, leathery animal corpse — only it was like no animal anyone had seen before. A stout, hairless creature with a beak, claws, and the almond-shaped eyes familiar from renderings of space aliens, it looked, in short, like a monster. Hence the headline: “Dead Monster Washes Ashore in Montauk.” The photo had come over e-mail to Anna Holmes, the managing editor at Jezebel, from an employee at Evolutionary Media Group, in Los Angeles; Holmes passed it on to Gawker. Because it came from a marketing company, Gawker surmised, “our guess is that it’s viral marketing for something.” They later pointed to a Cartoon Network show, Cryptids Are Real, which features similar-looking chubby monsters. We called Evolutionary, where a woman named Alanna Navitski, who claimed to be responsible for the tip, swore it was not a viral-marketing campaign. “This is what happened,” she said.

“I got this e-mail and opened it from my girlfriend who works at Harris Publications, which has nothing to do with anything. Anyway, my girlfriend’s sister was there with her friends and one of them took the picture. And we were like, ‘This is the scariest shit we’ve ever seen.’ And so — I’m in marketing — were like, ‘Maybe we should send it to a few blogs and see if anyone else is as freaked out as we are.’ We had no idea that it would turn into this. Now it’s literally a beast of its own. But it has nothing to do with any kind of campaign.”

In fact, this turned out to be true. A number of eyewitnesses say they saw the monster with their own eyes. “I saw the monster,” says Michael Meehan, a 22-year-old waiter at the Surfside Inn, which sits above the beach where the monster washed up. “I just came walking down the beach and everyone was looking at it. No one knew what it was. It kind of looked like a dog, but it had this crazy-looking beak. I mean, I would freak out if something like that popped up next to me in the water.”

So did anyone there, you know, do anything about it?

“This woman kept calling animal control,” said Meehan. “She wanted to name it after herself. I think they came and got it. The carcass. Whatever it was.”

But did they? The East Hampton branch of animal control referred Daily Intel to a supervisor who did not return calls for comment. And Navitski, of Evolutionary Media Group, says her friend’s sister (who doesn’t want to talk to the press, though Plum TV will host another woman, Jenna Hewitt, who claims she took a photo, tomorrow) says animal control never came. “They say an old guy came and carted it away,” she said. “He said, ‘I’m going to mount it on my wall.’”

Vito on Washington paper’s ‘50 Most Beautiful People’ list

Staten Island Advance

Thursday July 31, 2008, 8:32 AM

Rep. Vito Fossella endured tough times this year with the end of his political career sparked by a drunken-driving arrest and the revelation he fathered a love-child with a retired Air Force lieutenant.

But at least he’s good-looking.

According to Washington, D.C.-based The Hill newspaper, Fossella ranks among the “50 Most Beautiful People” on Capitol Hill.
“There’s something eye-catching about the sheen of Rep. Vito Fossella’s dark brown hair,” the paper wrote about Fossella, 43.

The Hill’s brief bio describes the congressman as “married with children” and goes on to describe Fossella’s recent scandals.

“Looks-wise, he is the tough guy on the block — a sort of Joey-from-Friends-meets-’The Sopranos’ — with a shy smile.”

Tulani Elisa, a legislative assistant for Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), ranked first on the annual list.

Fossella is not running for reelection in November.

I am not sure how to respond to this. I guess I’ll just put it out there. And I apologize for posting so many in a row, but I couldn’t help it.

Why I Like New York City:

Double dutch is now a Varsity Sport.

Coming Soon to the PSAL

Only here.

Judge to White House Aides: You’re Full of Shit

Filed at 10:46 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush’s top advisers are not immune from congressional subpoenas, a federal judge ruled Thursday in an unprecedented dispute between the two political branches.

The House Judiciary Committee wants to question the president’s chief of staff, Josh Bolten, and former legal counsel Harriet Miers, about the firing of nine U.S. attorneys. But President Bush says they are immune from such subpoenas. They say Congress can’t force them to testify or turn over documents.

U.S. District Judge John Bates disagreed. He said there’s no legal basis for that argument. He said that Miers must appear before Congress and, if she wants to refuse to testify, she must do so in person.

Full article Here:

Judge Rules White House Aides Can Be Subpoenaed

This adds to a string of judicial decisions knocking down the Bush administration’s efforts to locate a seemingly universal, and unassailable, power in the executive branch. Needless to say, the unitary executive theory is not have a good year.

Largely Unrelated But Cool Anyway

So many of you might already know about Mint, but for those who don’t, you might want to check it out.  It’s a free money management service that coordinates all your bank accounts, credit cards, etc. and will give you pie charts to show you what you’re spending money on, where you should be saving, and other things of that sort.  I am new to it myself so I don’t really know, but I thought maybe some of you would be interested since we all seem to be in the same young-and-needing-more-money kind of state.  Anyway, enjoy.

Morning News; July 31st, 2008

1) U.S. Economy is looking better than it did last quarter (with a 1.9% growth rate), but not as good as some thought it would look (2.3%).

2) In an effort to make clear that he is not merely continuing the politics and policies of the Bush administration, McCain has hired “the leadership of members of President Bush’s re-election campaign, including Steve Schmidt, the czar of the Bush war room that relentlessly painted his opponent, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, as effete, elite, and equivocal through a daily blitz of sound bites and Web videos that were carefully coordinated with Mr. Bush’s television advertisements.”

Regarding McCain’s recent drive to portray his opponent in a negative light, Senator Obama had this to say: “I do notice that he doesn’t seem to have anything to say very positive about himself.” So true. (The Times ran an editorial today, titled Low-Road Express, so you might have an idea about how it views McCain’s recent strategy).

3) I’m sure most of you have seen this already, but I think it’s worth reporting to those who haven’t that Keira Knightley deserves a self-esteem/integrity award for her refusal to allow the promoters of her new movie “The Duchess” to enhance her breasts in publicity photos for the movie. (Link is SFW, with the exception of a large type “breast” across the top of the screen).

4) Ken Griffey Jr. has been traded to the White Sox, Manny remains on the Red Sox- though there have been reports of a three-team trade between the Pirates, Red Sox, and the Marlins that’d send Jason Bay to the Sox, prospects to the Pirates, and Manny to the Marlins.

I’ll try and keep the Manny/trade-deadline watch up to date.

The Yankees Win the Penant!

Yankees fans all over the metro area are wildly celebrating tonight at the news their favored franchise has been unexpectedly absolved of its one fatal flaw.  That’s right, Kyle Farnsworthless has been traded.  With the move, the Yankees essentially eliminate their chances of an untimely late season collaspe, all but guaranteering themselves a postseason berth.

In return, the Bombers will receive Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez, a 14-time All-Star GM Brian Cashman hopes will be able to replace injured catcher Jorge Posada, who will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery.  You can’t agrue with the logic here: replace an aging, overpaid, injury-prone catcher by trading for an aging, overpaid, injury-prone catcher.  Rodriguez will earn $13 million this year.

If the 36-year-old Rodriguez is able to stay healthy, he could prove a valuable addition to the Yankees already-formidible lineup.  Though his power numbers (5 HRs, 32 RBIs) are bit off his career averages, he is batting .295 this season in 82 games.  Since 2003, he has played about 130 games per season – not bad for an old guy who crouches for a living.  (Speaking of old guys, has anyone else noticed how Derek Jeter has lost a step this year?  I had the privilege of watching his decline firsthand at the stadium Monday night, during the Yanks 13-4 massacre at the hands of the mighty Orioles.  Not only did he kill a rally by grounding into his 16th double play of the season, but he also failed to field two balls that were hit his way.  Granted both were tough plays, so he wasn’t charged with an error, but these are the types of spectucular plays he has been known for converting routinely throughout his career.  My point is, the core of the Yankees is getting old, so the team should be conservative with giving up prospects if the Steinbrenner Bros. have any other moves up their sleeves.  But I digress…)

Bt unlike most trades, what the Yankees got in the Farnsworth deal was not nearly as important as what they gave away.  The fact that they’re getting anything more than a bag of Doritos and a Diet Coke in exchange (Farnsworthless’ true market value) only sweetens the deal.  Frankly, I think most Yankee fans would have given him away for free.  In two-plus seasons with the Yanks, Farnsworthless, best known for his propensity for surrendering game-changing, late-inning home runs, has had a less-than-stellar 4+ ERA and more than a few ugly losses.  (To be fair, he has performed a bit better this season, with a 3.45 ERA in 44 innings.)

The move was apparently prompted by the Yankees recent 3-game losing streak, which had the team’s brass and fans alike fearing they might never win again. 

The impact was immediate.  In the midst of a day game while the trade was being executed, the Yanks ended their skid, defeating the O’s 13-3 on the strength of two homers from Bobby Abreu and another solid outing from Joba, who won two games in a row for the first time in his career.

In other trade news, the Marlins are reportedly exploring a deal with the Red Sox for Manny Ramirez.  The move would be awfully out-of-character for an organization known for being cheap.  Ramirez ’s $20 million salary nearly exceeds the Marlins entire $21 million payroll.  And buyer beware: Babe Ruth notwithstanding, the Sox have proven remarkably prescient in recent years in dealing their stars just before their performace declines, leaving an unsuspecting suitor to foot the bill (see Garciaparra, Nomar and Martinez, Pedro).

The Obama Response

My only complaint is that it does not explore the truly negative criticisms that were leveled against the McCain ad enough- merely using one or two word snippets reminds me of an ad for a bad movie. The articles and press were truly damning and they should have quoted them more extensively and cut out the part at the end touting Obama.

McCain Chronicles

Okay, flashback to March for a minute, when the McCain campaign made a point of insisting that the general election battle be one focusing on substantive issues:

“It is critical, as we prepare to face off with whomever the Democrats select as their nominee, that we all follow John’s lead and run a respectful campaign focused on the issues and values that are important to the American people,” Davis wrote. “Throughout the primary election we saw John McCain reject the type of politics that degrade our civics, and this will not change as he prepares to run head-to-head against the Democratic nominee.”

Fast forward a few months with McCain finding it increasingly difficult to confront Obama on substantive issues, and he releases this:

Grandpa is getting desperate!

I think it should be blog policy to post the quote from above next to any reference to McCain’s slimy dive into Rove-ian politics. You know, to highlight either the hypocrisy or the “change of strategy.”

Yankees End Streak

To finally place some positive news to the Bronx Bombers, the Yankees ended their three game slide today with a 13-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.  

Joba Chamberlain went 6 innings with 6Ks and 1 earned run.  Bobby Abreu homered twice and Alex Rodriguez added one as well in the romp at the stadium this afternoon.

 

BREAKING NEWS

According to trader and ESPN.com, the Yankees have acquired Pudge Rodriguez for Kyle Farnsworth (Iess).  More details can be found               at http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3511535

Breaking Baseball News

Yankees Acquire Pudge

With Jorge Posada out, the Yankees have been hunting for catching help. They got it Wednesday afternoon when they acquired Ivan Rodriguez from the Detroit Tigers, according to ESPN the Magazine’s Buster Olney.

Emcee Rove Held in Contempt of Congress

Karl Rove Held In Contempt By House Judiciary Committee

WASHINGTON — A House panel Wednesday voted to cite former top White House aide Karl Rove for contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena to answer questions about the dismissals of several federal prosecutors as its Senate counterpart explored punishments for an array of alleged past and present Bush administration misdeeds.

Voting 20-14 along party lines, the House Judiciary Committee said that Rove had broke the law by failing to appear at a July 10 hearing on allegations of White House influence over the Justice Department, including whether Rove encouraged prosecutions against Democrats such as former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.

The committee decision is only a recommendation, and it was unclear whether Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., would allow a final vote. Rove has denied any involvement with Justice decisions, and the White House has said Congress has no authority to compel testimony from current and former advisers.

With little more than three months before Election Day, it wasn’t clear whether majority Democrats could take any substantial action in a political environment in which time for the current Congress is running short and lawmakers face a host of daunting legislative problems and a cluttered calendar….

Instead of conducting witch hunts, we should consider bipartisan legislation to reduce the price of gas, reduce crime and secure the borders,” said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the panel.

But Democrats cited recent internal audits finding that politics heavily shaped Justice Department hiring, and they said that Rove had left them with no choice but to support a contempt citation.

“His name has come up repeatedly in the hearings on this subject,” said Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich. “Yet he refuses to testify based on legally invalid claims of immunity privilege.”

 

 

So, the question I pose to the floor: Should the Congress be concerning itself with Rove’s refusal to testify or should it instead focus on the many issues facing the country that may require attention (the economy and the war come to mind)? I have a rather strong opinion on this, but I am wondering what you folks think. I suppose I’ll reveal my own sentiment if this post gets any responses.

Morning News; July 30th, 2008

1) The Times ran a fascinating piece on Obama’s tenure as a senior lecturer at UChicago, looking into how he fit in the sometimes conservative academic environment. For a number of reasons, the article is probably more interesting to me than to the rest of our readership, but it is definitely worth a read.

2) Mets win (Ollie pitching well again), Yanks keep on streaking with a loss to the scary Orioles.

3) From an interesting op-ed by Bob Herbert in today’s (maybe yesterday’s) Times:

“I’ll say this about Senator Obama. He sure raises people’s hackles. I’ve never seen anyone so roundly criticized for such grievous offenses as giving excellent speeches and urging people of different backgrounds to take a chance on working together. How dare he? And 200,000 people turned out to hear him in Berlin. Unforgivable.”

4) Though I know this is old news, the man who brought us the internet as a “series of tubes” and the wonderful bridge to nowhere was indicted yesterday on seven counts of failing to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in services from local Alaskan companies.

More to come later.

Reversal for Iraq

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=oly&id=3509889

 

Iraq proved that to the IOC it is capable of competing in the Olympic Games after ensuring the independence of the nation’s Olympic panel.

House apologizes for slavery, ‘Jim Crow’ injustices

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/29/house.slavery/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a resolution apologizing to African-Americans for slavery and the era of Jim Crow.

The House on Tuesday evening passed a resolution apologizing for slavery and Jim Crow laws.

The nonbinding resolution, which passed on a voice vote, was introduced by Rep. Steve Cohen, a white lawmaker who represents a majority black district in Memphis, Tennessee.

While many states have apologized for slavery, it is the first time a branch of the federal government has done so, an aide to Cohen said.

In passing the resolution, the House also acknowledged the “injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow.”

“Jim Crow,” or Jim Crow laws, were state and local laws enacted mostly in the Southern and border states of the United States between the 1870s and 1965, when African-Americans were denied the right to vote and other civil liberties and were legally segregated from whites.

The name “Jim Crow” came from a character played by T.D. “Daddy” Rice who portrayed a slave while in blackface during the mid-1800s.

The resolution states that “the vestiges of Jim Crow continue to this day.”

“African-Americans continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow — long after both systems were formally abolished — through enormous damage and loss, both tangible and intangible, including the loss of human dignity and liberty, the frustration of careers and professional lives, and the long-term loss of income and opportunity,” the resolution states.

The House also committed itself to stopping “the occurrence of human rights violations in the future.”

Don’t Miss

• In Depth: ‘Black in America’
• iReport.com: Your take on ‘Black in America’

The resolution does not address the controversial issue of reparations. Some members of the African-American community have called on lawmakers to give cash payments or other financial benefits to descendents of slaves as compensation for the suffering caused by slavery.

It is not the first time lawmakers have apologized to an ethnic group for injustices.

In April, the Senate passed a resolution sponsored by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, that apologized to Native Americans for “the many instances of violence, maltreatment and neglect.”

In 1993 the Senate also passed a resolution apologizing for the “illegal overthrow” of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893.

In 1988, Congress passed and President Reagan signed an act apologizing to the 120,000 Japanese-Americans who were held in detention camps during World War II. The 60,000 detainees who were alive at the time each received $20,000 from the government.

 

 

The timing of this comes just in time for the possibility of America’s first ever black president to be elected.  Granted Jim Crow laws were overcome just a little over 40 years ago, in terms of slavery its an apology that was long overdue for the last 140 years.  I give a lot of credit for Congress for finally doing this (remember the Asian internment camp prisoners received an apology a few years back) but for real, this should have been done ages ago.

P.S.A.P. Self-Improvement Award

A man once convicted of heading up a ruthless Haitian death squad that is blamed for raping and killing political rivals has been convicted of carrying out a mortgage fraud scheme in the United States.

Emmanuel “Toto” Constant, 51, former leader of the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH, was convicted Friday of arranging millions of dollars in fraudulent financing for three Brooklyn properties, according to a statement from the New York attorney general’s office.

Baby steps, ladies and gentlemen, baby steps. His next step is probably a moving violation.

Quote of the Day; July 29th, 2008

This one is straight out of a District Court opinion relating to the freedom of speech. The case itself is very interesting, if unsettling, but the juicy (and outrageous) part comes from the Court’s matter of fact description of the facts of the case. I offer the whole paragraph to provide context, but the disturbing part is at the end of the excerpt:

“Davis (the school principal) began investigating what had come to be known as the “Gay Pride” movement at the school. He interviewed approximately thirty students, interrogated them about their sexual orientations, and questioned them about their involvement in the planned walk-out of the assembly and their activities in relation to the movement. During those meetings, Davis instructed students who were homosexual not to discuss their sexual orientations. He also prohibited students from wearing rainbow belts or writing “Gay Pride” or “GP” on their arms and notebooks. He required students to wash “GP” or “Gay Pride” from their arms and hands and lifted the shirts of female students to verify that no such writings were present on their bodies.”

If you have the time, here is a longer excerpt of the case, which deals with discrimination against gay students, freedom of speech restrictions and student/school power relationships.

Morning News; July 29th, 2008

Today’s post will be much shorter than usual- I have work to do today!

1) Yanks get creamed in front of live P.S.A.P. audience (Trader, the B-Crat, Legal Eagle). After Maine Departs Early, the Bullpen Falters Late (Mets also lose, though slightly less pathetically).

 

More to come later.

Jobless Church Shooter Sought to Punish Liberals

4-page letter outlines frustration, hatred of ‘liberal movement’

By Hayes Hickman (Contact), Don Jacobs (Contact)

Originally published 07:44 a.m., July 28, 2008
Updated 11:28 a.m., July 28, 2008

The shotgun-wielding suspect in Sunday’s mass shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church was motivated by a hatred of “the liberal movement,” and he planned to shoot until police shot him, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV said this morning.

Jim D. Adkisson, 58, of Powell wrote a four-page letter in which he stated his “hatred of the liberal movement,” Owen said. “Liberals in general, as well as gays.”

Full article here.