U.N. disgrace

Fox News calls this article an exclusive, but Claudia Rosett had this info yesterday in Opinion Journal and the Wall Street Journal. Nonetheless, it's disgraceful -- an organized U.N. cover-up of how Oil-for-Saddam-Money program worked.

Just sick

There's just something wrong with the mindset of gaolers who think mistreating prisoners is right. Check out the pics on the Drudge Report (although they may be switched by the time you jump there, Drudge updates frequently). Simply stated, disciplining prisoners is appropriate, debasement is not. Rush Limbaugh got this one wrong -- this is not just fraternity hazing quality stuff.

Stupid

Someone will get hurt over this: North Miami removing the requirement that its police officers know how to swim. It doesn't matter why, any lowering of standards in a necessary public service (policing, firefighting) is a recipe for disaster. And in the Miami area, with all its semi-swamp and wetlands, etc., you need to know how to swim.

Tale of two closers

Down 3-2, top 9 = Arod bangs a huge homer on the first pitch from Arthur Rhodes to tie the game, the Yanks scratch out another off an iffy Rhodes. Up 4-3, bottom 9, Rivera not hitting his spots -- he gives up line-drive singles to the first two hitters but makes a huge defensive play on a not-so-bad bunt attempt to keep runners at first and second. A grounder and popup and the Yanks win again. Rivera is the best one-speed pitcher since Sandy Koufax in game seven of the '65 World Series.

The new Nuze

I like Neal Boortz's daily riff in Neal's Nuze. He's a talk radio guy and more libertarian than full-on right-wing nutter. Here's one of his "intemperate thoughts" from today:

Yesterday ... once again ... I asked my listeners to tell me one thing that The Poodle [that would be John Kerry -- TKM ] has ever done in his entire life -- just one thing -- that shows him to be qualified to be president of the United States. The only thing that people can mention .. and I do mean the only thing .. is his service in Vietnam. His accomplishments there, like his three paper-cut purple hearts, are open to some question ... and he hasn't done a damned thing since then?

But then there are people who say that any man who can arrange to be kept by two different women -- not one, but two -- who have hundred-million-dollar net worths certainly shows some extraordinary ability. How that would transfer to the presidency, I don't know. Do you think The Poodle might be able to get foreign countries to send us foreign aid? Maybe he can get the UN to start writing us checks!

I'm not disputing Kerry's heroism or his purple hearts. I didn't serve, I won't dump on the controversy surrounding one of the three purple hearts he received. But Kerry lacks two things: any significant personal political achievement since Vietnam (and getting elected Senator doesn't count -- he has 99 equals and 48 of them on his side of the aisle); and any connection between his basic premise and the conclusion he wants the electorate to reach -- that is, the Vietnam-hero as qualification for the Presidency is pure rubbish.

Instead, the despairing fact of military service is that it does not specifically prepare veterans for civilian life. This is why over 1/2 of homeless are military veterans and more than 1/2 the military-vet homeless are Vietnam vets.

I worked with homeless and indigent vets in my first year of law school at the Veterans Legal Services Project, which is now part of the Shelter Legal Services Foundation. I saw how the veterans had enormous difficulty adjusting to civilian life once they had been discharged. To say that military heroism, of itself, qualifies you for the office that makes you the Leader of the Free World is fantasy.

By the way, the Shelter Legal Services Foundation is a great organization and I hope anyone who reads this will click the link, wander around their website and donate. My work for them is still the best thing I've done in my legal career.

I knew this was gonna happen

The fiancee and I went to Greece in 2001 and spent a couple of nights in Athens. Athens is the host for the 2004 Summer Olympics and those are looking like a disaster. Recall: in 1990, the International Olympic Committee rejected Athens' Olympic bid to host the centennial Olympics (first "modern" Olympics = 1896 Athens). But the Greeks didn't get the message and in 1994, the IOC rejected Athens' bid in favor of Sydney -- a highly successful Olympics (unlike the commercialized mess in Atlanta). In 1998, partially out of obligation, the IOC awarded Athens the 2004 Olympics. But in the intervening 5.5 years, the IOC has repeatedly admonished the Greeks to get their collective act together and make demonstrable progress in getting the city ready. Simply stated, we knew when we were in Athens that the Greeks with their statist, Socialist, and disorganized economic system would be in deep trouble. It is. Athens has had to cut projects and is far behind schedule on the main Olympic stadium. This will be a disaster.

Correction: This article by S.L. Price says that the IOC granted Athens the 2004 Summer Olympics in 1997.

Deja vu all over?

Somehow the Yankees smacked 13 hits against Mark Mulder and overcame another pathetic start by Jose Contreras with a 6-run seventh to turn a 7-1 deficit into a 10-8 win. At this point, the Yanks should just skip the formality of having Contreras start and install Donovan Osborne as the starter in his spot -- after all, Osborne (as the long reliever) has been virtually assured of getting some playing time in Contreras' previous starts and pitched 4 innings of one-run ball tonight.

Say what?

If John Kerry went to Israel under the auspices of the ADL -- that is, the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation League (a Jewish organization) -- why did he read the sermon on the mount to his assembled party of ADL types? Check it out.

Wrong woman, wrong time

Lisa Guerrero was fired by ABC yesterday from the Monday Night Football sideline, according to the Internet Movie Database. That's good because Guerrero was awful.

Here's what ABC got for unceremoniously dumping the capable (and still attractive) Lesley Visser from MNF because it wanted to get someone younger (read: a hottie) on the sidelines: First, Melissa Stark comes aboard with Eric Dickerson as dual sideline reporters. Stark is good (not Visser-level, but still acceptable); Dickerson is horrendous. ABC sacks Dickerson. Next season -- just Missy Stark. But Stark and her S.O. become "in the family way" and she quits. So ABC hires Guerrero -- the weather updater from Fox's idiot's playground "The Best Damn Sports Show Period." Guerrero had no real experience, just a nice face (although five years older than Stark) and heckuva boob job. She's ridiculously bad by any standards -- bad questions, useless info and READING NOTES ON CAMERA (no-no #1 in the TV world).

Now, ABC has hired Michele Tafoya. Tafoya's been all over and worked with everyone -- CBS, TNT, ESPN, etc. She's primarily been a Twin Cities-based sports anchor and reporter who has done other gigs for networks, etc. What Tafoya is: sharp, capable, lucid and a decent replacement for Visser; what she isn't = a young hottie (she's your everyday pleasant-looking woman). Lesson here: ABC went from the pioneer of the sideline reporter (and one of the few decent ones) to her potential heir to a pretty twit to an old pro. In other words, competency now counts again at ABC.

Serves ABC right. But now who'll take the real leap and go with Shelley Smith on the network sidelines? Smith is pretty, knowledgeable, and has hard-news capability (perhaps too much for just sideline reporting) but she's not a small little woman (like Bonnie Bernstein or Andrea Kremer). I'm hoping she's overqualified for the sideline dope job and that's why she doesn't get one.

Two corrections/clarifications: Stark was with ABC on MNF for three years and she is married (I fudged that one b/c I didn't want to guess).

Tiresome

One complaint that is neither novel, intelligent, nor based in reality is the unending criticism of pharmaceutical manufacturers and their profits. Without drug companies, there would be no AIDS cocktail, no Avastin that shrinks cancerous colon tumors, no antibiotics that fight the infections that were once fatal (remember, in the Civil War more men died of battlefield wounds after battles than during battles), etc. But every populist dope complains about drug companies and their profits.

It's simple: drug companies must make large profits because they need to be able to bankroll the research they perform. The cost of developing new pharmaceuticals from concept through the FDA approval process is staggering, and drug companies are bearing that burden in the HOPE that the new pharmaceutical will be approved. Read Doug Bandow's column. Some facts he cites: pharmaceutical manufacturers test 5-10K compounds for each one that gets FDA approval and 70% of approved drugs are money-losers. Bashing drug makers, calling those companies "genocidal" and expecting cheap pharmaceuticals as a matter of right is simply disgraceful.

Torture response

A friend of mine asked, what will the restless electorate do in response to the accusations that US servicemen tortured Iraqi prisoners?

I think the restless electorate appreciates and respects what the US Armed Forces do and will chalk this up to a few poor representatives of the whole, especially after Bush's unrelenting condemnation of the actors.

Of course, my condemnation would be: This is wholly unacceptable. Our servicemen and servicewomen are held to the highest individual standards of decency and integrity and any deviation from those standards is contrary to what the United States and its people stand for. The actions of these soldiers, if true, are criminal and contrary to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the UCMJ. The United States and the Coalition entered Iraq and freed 22 million people from one of the worst tyrants of the 20th century -- a tyrant who gassed his own citizens, used WMDs against the Kurds and the Marsh Arabs, used rape and torture as political weapons, jailed citizens on a whim and murdered his citizens at a rate that would make Stalin proud; our servicepeople must serve as a positive example, and not act in ways that could remind the Iraqi people of the horrors
they suffered for the past 24 years.

I'd expect our military to exercise better judgment -- there are and will be US prisoners of foreign conflicts. Our enemies need little motivation to mistreat our servicepeople.

Rising tide alert

Seems that tax revenues can increase when tax rates are lowered. How does that work? Oh yeah, the economy is not static, and when more people make more money than they had been making, they pay more taxes even if their marginal rates are lower under Pres. Bush than they were under Clinton. Read about it here.

Hat tip -- NRO's The Corner.

Today's sign of the apocalypse

Kofi Annan getting blasted for his corruption and inaction by the former deputy PM of Sweden.

Mind Vitamin of the morning

The Wall Street Journal discusses not only the Gorelick memo from March 1995, but the protests from US Attorney Mary Jo White -- whose office prosecuted the 1993 WTC bombing (all quotes from the editorial are in red.

White worried that "Our experience has been that the FBI labels of an investigation as intelligence or law enforcement can be quite arbitrary depending upon the personnel involved and that the most effective way to combat terrorism is with as few labels and walls as possible so that wherever permissible, the right and left hands are communicating" (emphases added).

Thus, White recommended a number of modifications, which were rejected by Gorelick's subordinate (and she concurred). More pithily:

[T]o sum up the exchange: The principal U.S. terrorism prosecutor was trying to tell her boss that she foresaw a real problem with the new and "not legally required" wall policy, but Ms. Reno--again delegating that policy to Ms. Gorelick--largely rebuffed her concerns.

The result? This:

U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald summed up the core issue last October in testimony to Congress: "I was on a prosecution team in New York that began a criminal investigation of Osama bin Laden in early 1996. . . . We could talk to local police officers. We could talk to other U.S. government agencies. We could talk to foreign police officers. Even foreign intelligence personnel. . . . But there was one group of people we were not permitted to talk to. Who? The FBI agents across the street from us in lower Manhattan assigned to a parallel intelligence investigation of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. We could not learn what information they had gathered. That was 'the wall.' "

The 9-11 Commission is a joke.

No kidding

Something I've long known -- first confirmed by Bjorn Lomborg's The Skeptical Environmentalist -- is that environmental groups distort data and exaggerate doomsday scenarios to drum up donations. Now, Oxford University has has caught on.

More sports thoughts

I'm tired of hearing how well Jose Mesa is doing for the Pirates. Every time the ESPN dopes talk about him, it's as if they think the Phills should regret letting him go -- a preposterous notion.

I'm also tired of uninformed commentary. John Kruk blathered some rubbish about how Mussina is now like Glavine and Maddux in that he needs to battle and can't rely on 10-12 Ks per game and cannot blow hitters away. But Mooooose has never been a power pitcher because he's never had the 95 mph fastball -- he's topped out at around 93. If he's consistently at 90-93, he's fine. Today, from the few highlights I saw, he was able to crack the 90s on his fastball. Once he does that consistently and has his location in decent shape, he'll be fine.

Lastly, for now, I'm tired of hearing about NBA basketball. The quality is so poor, it's sad.

What if . . .

I told you at the beginning of the baseball season that as of May 3, the Yankees would have lost six of seven to the Red Sux, Mike Mussina would have four losses and an ERA near 6, no regular player would have a .300 average, Arod would have 7 RBI in 25 games (a sub-50 RBI pace), Jeter and Williams would be hitting <.190, Contreras would have an ERA over 7 and Rivera would have 7 BB in 14+ innings -- would you predict the Yanks would be 14-11? Neither would I. Considering that almost everything about the Yankees can improve (especially on offense), they have a good chance to not suck. Obstacle: three weeks of games (18 total) against the AL West and 18 of their remaining 24 this month on the road.

Good prediction

Here's what Mike Lupica of the Daily News said on Tuesday about the Yankees stinking:

The way baseball works, they will probably break out all this week, even going against Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, Barry Zito.

Lupica was right, in his way. The Yanks became the second team to ever sweep Oakland's big three in a three-game series. First team to do so? The 2001 Yanks, on the same dates -- April 27-29. The A's turned around and won the other six games in the season series from the Yanks in 2001 and the first two games of the 2001 ALDS before the Yanks rallied for a 3-2 series win to take on the Mariners.

Say what?

Joseph Wilson IV is the erstwhile Clinton ambassador who the CIA stupidly sent to Niger to investigate claims that Iraq had sought to purchase enriched uranium. Wilson went to Niger, sat around drinking tea (by his own admission), chatted up Niger officials and rubbished the claims. But now, the Washington Post reports that Wilson has written in his new book that

It was Saddam Hussein's information minister, Mohammed Saeed Sahhaf, often referred to in the Western press as "Baghdad Bob," who approached an official of the African nation of Niger in 1999 to discuss trade -- an overture the official saw as a possible effort to buy uranium.

. . . Wilson wrote that he did not learn the identity of the Iraqi official until this January, when he talked again with his Niger source.

Wilson's book is about his life since an administration official allegedly exposed his wife's identity as a CIA agent (there's still no real proof that she was a covert operative within the preceding 5 years -- which would make the disclosure illegal). But he made much ado about the non-existent Iraq-Niger uranium connection. Now he's changed his tune.

Only Nixon could go to China Alert

Canada is the bastion of multiculturalism, internationalism, UN worship and world communitarianism. So it is a major moment when Canada's PM says that the major problems of the world should be discussed (and potentially decided) by a G-20 of major developed and developing nations outside the UN umbrella. Check it out here.

Competitive balance

Rob Neyer shows that the complaints about a lack of competitive balance in baseball are rubbish. Just because one or two teams continue to win doesn't equate to a lack of balance when so many teams have a good chance to win. Neyer compares the six-division era with the four-division era and concludes that the competitive balance has increased by more than 50%. Here are the money 'grafs:

If by "competitive balance" we mean that a significant number of teams have a fighting chance to win the World Series, then we're probably at an all-time high. In any given season since 1994, roughly four out of every 10 teams finished the schedule within five games of either a division title or the wild card, and that's a lot of teams.

And yet, the Commissioner continues to prattle on about "competitive balance" and, even more cloyingly, "hope and faith." Well, he and his fellow owners solved the "problem" 10 years ago when they created two new divisions and four new postseason berths. In the face of the evidence I've presented above, I'm led to one of two conclusions: that the Commissioner won't be happy until 1) MLB is like the NHL and the NBA, with more than half the teams not only having the chance to make the playoffs, but actually making the playoffs, or 2) the Commissioner's own team, which hasn't played a postseason game since 1982, actually makes the playoffs.

Do something

That's the gist of John Podhoretz's column today. As long as Presidents are proactive in election years, they win; if they are not, they lose; and the state of the nation is a secondary concern. Read it.

logical contortions

A great piece by Cliff May on what it means to be Pro-Palestinian.

Disaster written all over it

Would you let the fox guard the henhouse? Apparently the US will -- check out this report that a Falluja Protective Army comprised of "a new Iraqi force led by former Iraqi army officers" will take over patrols of Falluja and that the Marines will pull back. Those are the Iraqi army officers comprised of Ba'athists/Sunnis/Saddamites being sent to guard against insurgency from the Sunni/Saddamite stronghold of Falluja. And this deal was announced on the same day that another 10 Marines were killed. Politically correct warfare is ineffectual warfare -- the President should have ordered Falluja brought to heel before any deals because this will look like surrender.

Worse by the minute

I've said twice over that the Eli Manning deal the Giants made in the NFL draft was not good. Here's Adrian Wojnarowski's eulogy of Kerry Collins, Giants' Quarterback. Wojnarowski's one of the best (and most underrated) writers in sports journalism and he shows the level of class, integrity and leadership Collins brought to the Big Blue, and how he won over his 65%+ black teammates after his career had plummeted into an abyss of alcoholism, teammate problems and the spectre of the racial slur Collins hurled at Muhsin Muhammed while playing for Carolina. It will take a lot for Manning to even come close to Collins' achievement.

Burned.

Well, it happened: the Giants cut Kerry Collins and they are officially rebuilding. What that means is they are rebuilding WITHOUT a first-round draft pick next year because they had to give it to San Diego for Eli Manning. This trade is looking worse by the day.

Wake up

Brent Bozell blasts the GOP for standing idly by while the media works for a Kerry victory in November.

Gorelick should have been fired . . .

. . . from the Justice Department. Check out this report from the Washington Times detailing her involvement with walling off FBI and CIA investigations from each other. Gorelick has claimed that the "wall" was a statutory requirement. That's completely untrue. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act did not require separation between criminal and espionage investigation of foreign nationals (see my earlier posts re: Andrew McCarthy's articles). Only an incorrect court ruling in the 1980s (overturned by the Ashcroft Justice Department's challenge) establishing a primary purpose test regarding information-sharing required any segregation of investigative information. But the wall Gorelick designed (and which Janet Reno approved) went beyond the legal requirements of the statute and the court ruling and Gorelick boasted of that fact in her memo creating the wall!

Here are the key points in the article, noted by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York (the one who prosecuted the 1993 WTC bombers) in a memo to Gorelick in 1995 in response to the Gorelick memo that created the prototype wall that Reno approved later that year:

"It is hard to be totally comfortable with instructions to the FBI prohibiting contact with the United States Attorney's Offices when such prohibitions are not legally required," U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White wrote Ms. Gorelick six years before the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and at the Pentagon.

"Our experience has been that the FBI labels of an investigation as intelligence or law enforcement can be quite arbitrary, depending upon the personnel involved and that the most effective way to combat terrorism is with as few labels and walls as possible so that wherever permissible, the right and left hands are communicating," she wrote.

Today's sign of the Apocalypse

The NY Times publisher blames readers for not alerting the Times to Jayson Blair's innumerable falsifications. See it here.

Hat-tip, Nat'l Review.

Memorial

The World War II Memorial is now open. Here's the memorial website. Here is the Washington Post layout of the memorial grounds. From all accounts, this is a very moving tribute to the 400,000+ American servicemen who died and the 670,000+ wounded.

The Islamization of Canada

Here's a worrying report: bringing shari'a law to Canada. That's the Islamic law practice (shari'a) that endorses stonings of married women who get raped, honor killings, execution of apostates (Muslims who question orthodoxy), etc. This quote is the most telling because it shows how Canada is bending over backwards to make Muslims feel comfortable but doesn't know what it is really getting into:

Homa Hoodfar, a professor of anthropology at Concordia University in Montreal, complained that there was little public discussion before the tribunals were created. "This vague idea of sharia court is what bugs me," Hoodfar said. "Because having worked on sharia law and family law in the Middle East, I know there is no one set [of laws]. Which country will they use as a basis? They don't answer. But also, the Canadian government does not question. They think sharia law is written in the Koran. But sharia is the interpretation of the law and practices."

Hoodfar said she was concerned that recent female immigrants could be forced into participating in tribunals and possibly victimized because they don't speak English or are not aware of their legal rights. "It won't affect my life or educated women who know their rights," Hoodfar said. "It will affect the rights of women who are new and need protection. They are much more subject to community pressure."

hat-tip = Andrew Sullivan

The Great Rumsfeld

From the SecDef to his daily press briefing.

There are two ways, I suppose, one could inform readers of the Geneva Convention stipulation against using places of worship to conduct military attacks. One might be to [run a] headline saying that "Terrorists Attack Coalition Forces From Mosques." That would be one way to present the information.

Another might be to say: "Mosques Targeted in Fallujah." That was the Los Angeles Times headline this morning.

hat-tips: National Review Online's The Corner, Instapundit.

one for three

One: The Yanks came back from 8-4 down, bottom of the eighth with a 6-run rally against the Oakland bullpen. Losing pitcher Jim Mecir said after the game that he wasn't really that upset because he didn't think he pitched poorly despite giving up four hits and a walk and getting no outs. The sick thing is, he's right -- Bernie Williams started with a solid single, but ARod reached on a seeing-eye hit, Giambi walked on a close pitch, Sheffield scored Williams with a tough infield single and Posada hit a pitcher's pitch (low, outside) for another run-scoring hit. Mecir was pulled and his relief (Ricardo Rincon) did only marginally better. If I was not a Yankees fan, I'd feel bad for the A's because Mecir didn't pitch poorly and still blew a big lead.

In the two near misses: Denver lost to Minnesota in the NBA playoffs after a huge comeback attempt and some choke jobs by the T'Wolves.

Pat Toomey lost to the execrable Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania Republican Senatorial Primary. Yuck.

Kudos

To Russell Crowe for donating to a Jewish school in Montreal that was targeted in anti-Semitic attacks.

The Giants' biggest splash

It wasn't the trade for Eli Manning, instead it's the signing of Jared Lorenzen as a rookie free agent. Lorenzen was the QB for Kentucky and is known for being larger than life -- he's 288 pounds and that's probably a decrease from his playing weight.

This will be overlooked

Kenneth Timmerman on the recent progress in finding Iraq's WMD.

Meanwhile, Ralph Peters is largely on-target with this criticism of the ridiculous notion of negotiating with Moqtada al-Sadr and his Sadists.

Come off it

Kerry is lashing out at President Bush to "prove" his National Guard Service. But that story is 2 months old and is done -- the President's records are now in the public domain and his Service is proven. Kerry is still fighting his own Vietnam legacy, not because his war record is dishonorable (it's not), but because his actions after he returned to the US were so deplorable.

Best Predictions, not publicized

I predicted that the Mavericks would lose to the Kings in the NBA playoffs in five games -- I just felt it. Sure 'nuff, the Kings are up 3-1 going back to Sacramento after a 94-92 Kings win tonight.

Burned?

Here's the deal: if Newsday is correct and Kerry Collins is going to get cut from the New York Giants, then Giants GM Ernie Accorsi screwed up on Saturday by making a four-for-one deal with San Diego to get Eli Manning. The Giants sent this year's first and third-round and next year's first and fifth-round picks to San Diego for Manning. If the Giants would retain Collins and seek to build this year and have it work as Eli's apprenticeship, then the Giants would possibly go 8-8 and have a mid-round first-round pick next year that they would be losing. High price, but acceptable.

But Newsday's report says Collins is gone; if true, the Giants are in full rebuilding mode and essentially gave up a top 5 draft pick next year, because there's no way they'll top 5 wins (if that) against their schedule with a rookie QB. Accorsi had a good position because Manning did not want to play for San Diego. Accorsi could have called AJ Smith's bluff and forced the Chargers' GM to lower expectations for the trade. Accorsi blinked. Unless Manning is a star by 2005 (his brother Peyton only took two years to become a top starter, but Eli is not as good), Accorsi made the wrong move.

Forgive him

Read William F. Buckley standing athwart Arlen Specter's re-election campaign and yelling "STOP!"

Journalistic ethics at the NY Times?

What's with this: Ron Suskind wrote an anti-Bush book using disgraced Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill as his foil. The NY Times then commissions Suskind to review Karen Hughes' book in the Times' Book Review. That is an editorial subterfuge to set up a criticism of the President through the book review. Bad ethics by the Times. [hat-tip, Kausfiles].

Oh my goodness

This stat, from Joel Sherman in the NY Post, is just sickening. It details just how awful the Yankees are.

In the final 23 innings of the Red Sox's three-game sweep, [Alex] Rodriguez was 5-for-8; the rest of the Yanks were 4-for-68.

Check this out

Great apparel that will p'o every person who could read it. It's pro-Israel and pro-Judaism messages written in Arabic on various types of clothing.

Boooooooooooooooooo

To all the Yankees hitters. Between yesterday and today, the Yanks pitchers gave up 5 runs (4 earned) in 21 innings to what was the best-hitting team in baseball last year (and doesn't suck this year), including 0-20 with runners in scoring position yesterday. The Yanks hitters, in those same 21 innings, recorded 8 hits. The Yanks' 8-11 start is their worst since 1997, the last year they did not win the AL East. The team currently is one of the WORST in baseball.

The Yanks have 18 of their next 21 against Oakland, Anaheim and Seattle, so they cannot afford to wallow in this weekend's fiasco. Other than the woeful Blue Jays, Boston does not play a team that finished >.500 last year again until late May. In other words, the Yanks will not catch the Redsux any time soon. Therefore, the Yanks need only to worry about themselves and do what they have to do -- suck measurably less.

In '97, the Yanks started 5-10, were 4 games back by the end of April, 8.5 games out by the end of May, lost their first seven games against Baltimore, and 8 of 12 total against the O's after winning 10 of 13 in '96. They finished two games behind the Orioles. In other words, there is still time and opportunity, they just need to alleviate the stench emanating from the large edifice on the Harlem River.

It's official

The Yankees stink. Four hits in a 12-inning loss to the RedSax today. And the Red Sax were 0-20 with runners in scoring position. Jeter and Williams are awful, and yes I did predict that Williams would hit into a bases-loaded inning-ending double-play in the 7th today and thought the RedStiffs should've walked Lee intentionally to set it the twin-killing even before Williamson went 3-0 on Lee. Meanwhile, Matsui and Giambi are intermittent; the fill-in types like Wilson and Lee can't hit .200. That's 1-5 against the RedSux and the Yanks have scored 2 runs in four of those games. The defense is poor, clutch hitting worse, and the rotation is 3-deep. Simply stated, the Yanks are in trouble win or lose tomorrow. Eighteen games is not a real good sample, but the Yanks have won one series to date (the one-gamer against Tampa doesn't count) and have exceeded five runs just three times for a team expected to exceed six runs per.

The Red Sax changes have worked nicely: they have a no-doubt closer and have four frontline starters. The Yanks have three frontline starters and two question marks. Even assuming the Yanks win 60% of their remaining games, that means a 92-win season. The last three AL wild cards have won 102, 99 and 95 games. The Redsax are the better team right now, and that's true even though they don't have Nixon and Nomaaaaa.

More on Pat Tillman

When he enlisted, Peggy Noonan wrote this. (hat-tip, National Review).

American Hero, R.I.P.

After 9-11-01, Arizona Cardinal safety Pat Tillman turned his back on his $3.5M salary and enlisted in the Army. He said he wanted to be treated as just another soldier and turned down requests for media coverage of his enlistment and training. He also said he wanted to be an example for others. He went through basic training and was deployed as a Ranger, first in Iraq and then in Afghanistan. He and his brother Kevin were awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage Award for athletes whose contributions to society transcend sports. Today, Tillman was killed in a firefight in Afghanistan. The US has lost a good man.

New idiocy from Kerry

I just saw this on Special Report with Brit Hume, on the Grapevine section of the program, which should be on the Fox News website in the morning (on the left side of the page). Here's the gist of it: in 1971 at the height of his VVAW involvement, Kerry went on a campus speaking tour. At one college in West Virginia, he said that the US democracy is not the best system in the world and that Communism was not a threat to the US.

The fact that he was so dead wrong on both counts is only part of the point. More important is the unescapable fact that no matter how ineffectual they are, US presidents now will always have a major impact on the world that will last for decades after they leave office. Kerry's inability to nail the most important foreign policy questions of the day is of minimal consequence in his position as a Senator; it will have a major detrimental impact on the world until the 2020s at the least if he becomes president.

Andrew Sullivan is Right

This IS addictive -- the money tracking for the 2004 Presidential contest. You can check this out by county, zip code, state and check on who has donated to whom. Note that of the 10 cities that have contributed the most, six (including the top four) have contributed more to democrats (all of them, not just Kerry), four have contributed more to Pres. Bush. Looking at the money map as an electoral map, however, is a nice thought for supporters of the President. Democrats have collected more money in states worth 157 electoral votes, 51 too close to call, and 330 electoral votes for states where the President has out-raised Democrats.

Note that the richest contributors and largest contributors are for Kerry, not Pres. Bush. Note also that Kerry has received money from less than 4000 zip codes, Pres. Bush's support has come from nearly 11,000 zip codes. Thanks to Sullivan for pointing the way.

Mo Clarett, redux

Maurice Clarett's application to Justice Ginsburg was denied. That's no surprise because Clarett really has no case for entering THE SPECIFIC NFL Draft that will be held Saturday and Sunday. As I said before, he's challenging the work eligibility rules and any harm he may suffer by not being in the regular draft will be rectified by a supplemental draft.

Interesting side note: local sportstalk guy was querying Prof. Gary Roberts of Tulane Law School (not the Toronto Maple Leafs' forward) about the Clarett case. Roberts said that the NFL should really win this in a slam dunk because there is Supreme Court cases on its side. But Judge Scheindlin's decision for Clarett didn't surprise him because "nothing judges do really surprise me anymore . . . what surprised me was how wrong she was on the law."