Everybody Loves Reyes

Not to impede on the territory of Toasty Joe, but there's a cool article in this week's Sports Illustrated about how the NL East is now home to the three best shortstops in baseball: Hanley Rameriez, Jose Reyes and Jimmy Rollins:

Rollins, Reyes and Ramirez represent the next step in the evolution of the shortstop, from speedy, slick-fielding slap hitter (Phil Rizzuto, Luis Aparicio, Ozzie Smith), to thickly built slugger (Cal Ripken Jr., Alex Rodriguez, Nomar Garciaparra, Miguel Tejada), to an even more versatile, physically explosive prototype. "They're unbelievably athletic, freakishly strong and fast," says Uggla of the NL East trio. "They have a lot of power, but they use their speed and gap shots to get on base." Through Monday they were on pace to average .339, with 232 hits, 46 doubles, 34 homers, 66 stolen bases and an astonishing 177 runs scored apiece.

The never modest Rollins though, put himself as the best of the bunch in terms of present value:

"It's probably me, Reyes and then Hanley," he says.

Regardless, it will be interesting to see who gets the nod for starting NL shortstop at this year's all-star game. My money is on Reyes.

Iranian Nose-Thumbing

Iran took out an advertisement in the April 20th edition of the International Herald Tribune seeking contract bids for two large scale nuclear power plants. From today's Philadelphia Inquirer:

The ad...includes an e-mail address for a "Mr. Esmaeili," the address of Iran's Permanent Mission to the U.N. in Vienna, and a bank-account number at Austria Bank-Creditanstalt, complete with SWIFT code, for interested bidders to pay a nonrefundable fee for a set of bidding specifications. The ad further spells out that any ensuing bids are to be accompanied by a bid bond, all leading to the appointed day, Aug. 8, when the bids are to be opened at Atomic Energy Organization of Iran headquarters in Tehran.

The ad includes a telephone number in Austria. I phoned yesterday and reached a man, who in broken English, gave me the number of the Iranian ambassador's office at Iran's Permanent Mission to the U.N. in Vienna. A polite woman answered, and confirmed, in good English, that, yes, the ad was genuine.

The International Tribue is owned by the New York Times and reaches more than 240,000 readers in more than 180 countries. According to The Jerusalem Post, a similar ad also ran in the Financial Times on April 25.

Gridlock

The Foreign Minister of Iraq, Hoshyar Zebari, has written a heart-felt pieces in today's Washington Times pleading for the world not abandon them:

Last weekend a traffic jam several miles long snaked out of the Mansour district in western Baghdad. The delay stemmed not from a car bomb closing the road but from a queue to enter the city's central amusement park. The line became so long some families left their cars and walked to enjoy picnics, fairground rides and soccer, the Iraqi national obsession.

Across the city, restaurants are slowly filling and shops are reopening. The streets are busy. Iraqis are not cowering indoors. The appalling death tolls from suicide attacks are often high because of crowding at markets. These days you are as likely to hear complaints about traffic congestion as about the security situation....

So why should the world remain engaged in Iraq?

There is no denying the difficulties Iraq faces, and no amount of good news can obscure the demons of terrorism and sectarianism that have risen in my country. But there is too much at stake to risk failure, and everything to gain by helping us protect our hard-won democratic achievements and emerge as a stable, self-sustaining country....

The Baghdad security plan was conceived to give us breathing space to expedite political and economic development by "securing and holding" neighborhoods across the capital. There is no quick fix, but there have been real results: Winning public confidence has led to a spike in intelligence, a disruption of terrorist networks and the capture of key leaders, as well as the discovery of weapons caches. In Anbar province, Sunni sheikhs and insurgents have turned against al-Qaeda and to the side of Iraqi security forces. This would have been unthinkable even six months ago....

Contrary to popular belief, most government ministries are located outside the Green Zone, and employees drive to work every day despite death threats and attacks on colleagues and families. We government ministers are always at risk of assassination. When a suicide bomber attacked parliament last month, the legislators sat in defiance in an extraordinary session the following day. I am particularly inspired by the commitment of the young diplomats in the Foreign Ministry, a diverse mix of Sunni, Shiite, Christian, Arab and Kurdish men and women who serve their country without subscribing to religious or sectarian divisions.

Only with continued international commitment and deeper engagement from our neighbors can we establish a stable democratic, federal and united Iraq. The world should not abandon us.

"We get to the top and I start crying"

Ever wonder what'd be like to drop acid, smoke crack and then go on a roller coaster? Apparently, it's not very fun.

Set Your DVRs

This Sunday at 9pm, NBC is airing a two-hour documentary looking back at Saturday Night Live in the 1990s. The previous specials on the 70s and 80s were excellent, as they were through the decade year by year, speaking with the writers, cast and guests of the time.

Having gone to high school and college throughout the '90s, this era sticks in my memory the most, with cast members such as: Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Norm MacDonald, Phil Hartman, Cheri Oteri, David Spade, Tim Meadows, Will Ferrll, Chris Farley and Dana Carvey.

My brother, my friend Sean, and I may be the last people over 21 still watching SNL every week (the cast these days is excellent and perhaps as good as its ever been. The writing...not so much).

Anyone have a favorite sketch from the 1990s?

This Capitol City of The Wise and the Witty!

Stephen Colbert's performance at last year's White House Association Correspondent's dinner, where Presidents are traditionally roasted, was deemed a bit too biting by the administration ("Now, I know there are some polls out there saying this man has a 32% approval rating. But guys like us, we don't pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in "reality." And reality has a well-known liberal bias."). To remedy the situation, this year the White House brought in a conservative comedian, Rich Little.

It's like something out of the Simpsons. And yes, it's from this year's dinner. In 2007:

News of the Day

Pakistan downplays radioactive ad:

Pakistan's nuclear authority has said there is no cause for concern after it published press adverts for information on "lost" radioactive material.

The adverts urged members of the public to inform officials if they found any "lost or stolen" radioactive material.

They were published in major Urdu-language newspapers in Pakistan.

A spokesman for the nuclear authority said that there was a "very remote chance" that nuclear materials imported 40-50 years ago were unaccounted for.

No word if the radioactive material was exchanged by Pakistani terrorists for a bomb made out of used pinball parts.

Vegan couple found guilty of killing malnourished baby

A Superior Court jury convicted a vegan couple of murder and cruelty to children Wednesday in the death of their 6-week-old, who was fed a diet largely consisting of soy milk and apple juice.

Jade Sanders, 27, and Lamont Thomas, 31, will receive automatic life sentences for starving the boy, who weighed just 3 1/2 pounds when he died.

Defense lawyers said the first-time parents did the best they could while adhering to the lifestyle of vegans, who typically use no animal products. They said Sanders and Thomas did not realize the baby, who was born at home, was in danger until minutes before he died.

But prosecutor Mike Carlson told the jury Tuesday during closing arguments: "They're not vegans. They're baby killers!"

The jury deliberated about seven hours before returning the guilty verdicts.

"As you know, my position is clear – I’m the commander guy.”

Can't say I won't miss quotes like these:

President Bush coined a new nickname for himself — ‘’the commander guy” — on Wednesday, as he criticized Congressional Democrats in a speech to the annual gathering of the Associated General Contractors of America, a construction industry trade group....

“The question is, ‘Who ought to make that decision, the Congress or the commanders?,’’ Mr. Bush said. “As you know, my position is clear – I’m the commander guy.”

In other news, tonight the Republican's hold their first Commander Guy debate in Los Angeles. Ten candidates are participating in the 90-minute event. Tune in tonight at 8pm on MSNBC.

"It's a far-left propaganda thing"

Top rated radio and Fox News host Bill Reilly was recently a guest on an Irish television show where he was questioned about quotes he made referring to the poor as "irresponsible and lazy" and the Iraqi people as "prehistoric" (the actual quotes can be found via the links).

When the Irish host said that he found both remarks on Media Matters for America's website, O'Reilly responded by attacking Media Matters as "an assassination website" and a "far-left propaganda thing." More remarks:

O'REILLY: Those cards you have in your hand came from one of the most vicious websites on earth. All right? And there are a hundred of them. And if you run for office in America, or you're me and you go on every night, those people will assassinate your character every single day. They will lie about you, they will defame you, they will slander you. And we can't sue, unlike the British system. If you're famous in America, you can't sue.

So, put yourself in a position of, "Do you want that kind of life? Do you want your family threatened every day, like my family is? Do you want that?" So the good people say, "We don't want this."

KENNY: Yeah. And if they've ever done anything remotely sinful or wrong or --

O'REILLY: Oh, they'll make it up. They'll make it up. You don't have to do anything. They'll make it up. So, good people --

Apparently the great sin here is that Media Matters quoted O'Rilley accurately. Not surprisingly, he is concerned about being another victim of internet's "gotcha" era. Media Matters is responsible for exposing to a wider audience Don Imus' "nappy headed ho" remark. Yet I find it astounding that he would attack Media Matters so viciously for making clips and accurate transcriptions available on its website. If you said it, take responsibility - either defend yourself or apologize. But don't blame it on some shadowy, extreme left-wing George Soros conspiracy.

The Brig

***LOST SPOILERS***DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN LAST NIGHT'S EPISODE***

Also, reading this post will expose me as the giant, giant nerd I am.

Another excellent episode of LOST (although as always, that's up for debate). A couple of thoughts, in no particular order:

• I predicted over a year ago that Locke's father would indeed be the real Sawyer (that's not really that impressive - I've made a lot of predictions that haven't come true). Tonight's episode finally resolved that story line which has been dangling since season 1. I hate to say that I took some satisfaction seeing Sawyer reach back to his bad-boy roots and actually kill the old con man. He'd become so warm and fuzzy lately that I didn't think the writers would let us see something that brutal. Josh Holloway put in what is probably his best performance of the series.

• Great seeing Black Rock again - it made the scenes between Sawyer and Locke's dad all the more creepy. I thought it odd Rousseau just popping in for some TNT. My guess is we're going to see her use that dynamite some time before the finale.

• Locke's father claimed that he came to the island after being rear-ended in a car accident, upon which paramedics hooked him up to an IV, and he woke up in a supply closet on the island. Two things are interesting: (i) Having him believe that he was in hell or purgatory was a nice wink by the writers to the fans. That theory has been kicking around since the early days, and although it was not explicitly refuted, I don't think there's more to it. Where-ever they are, it ain't hell; (ii) This car-accident business sounds like the work of the mysterious yet powerful Mittelos Bioscience / Dharma / Wigmore people (whichever). These were the same people who had Juliet's ex-husband serendipitously hit with a bus so she would take a job on the island. I see no reason why they just didn't do the same with Locke's dad. This suggests two things: the all-powerful organization is the "big-box metaphor" Ben describes and that despite the destruction of the submarine, there is still a means of getting to and from the island.
  

• I don't think anyone was surprised to learn Naomi was part of an organization hired by Penny Wigmore, Desmond's true love, to try and find him. Naomi's people are stationed on a barge a mere 80-miles off the island. While surveying from her helicopter, the clouds randomly parted and she was able to find the island. I'm not sure what to make of her arrival and what implications it'll have for the show. Considering they're not being rescued any time soon (because that would be the end of the show, no? Although I wouldn't put something like that past the writer's of Battlestar Galactica), what role will she play?
  

• Jack and Juliet have a secret, but what is it? Is Jack colluding with her to sabotage Ben's infiltration plan? Whatever happened to Jack in his post Hydra-station days with the Others has yet to be revealed, and whatever it is, I suspect it's important.
  

• Why did Ben tell Locke about their plan to kidnap the pregnant women? He seemed rather caviler disclosing that fact.
  

• Whatever that pole Locke's father was tied to in the Other's camp seemed to be a relic from the past - the same past responsible for the four-toed statue we saw briefly in last season's finale.
  

Thoughts? Theories? Frustrations? Only three episodes left until we have to wait all the way till January, 2008 for Season 4. Next week's (entitled "The Man Behind The Curtain") appears to show us the Dharma Initiative in its heyday (!) and the revelation of whatever cards Jack and Julia have been holding up their sleeves.

Question Time

In a fictional cartoon universe, is the Hamburglar the arch nemesis of Jughead Jones?

This Tempo Is Not Sustainable

Major General Paul D. Eaton, who was in charge of training the Iraqi army from 2003-04, published a letter to President Bush regarding his recent Iraq appropriations veto. Highlights:

Respectfully, as your former commander on the ground, your administration did not listen to our best advice. In fact, a number of my fellow Generals were forced out of their jobs, because they did not tell you what you wanted to hear -- most notably General Eric Shinseki, whose foresight regarding troop levels was advice you rejected, at our troops' peril.

The legislation you vetoed today represented a course of action that is long overdue. This war can no longer be won by the military alone. We must bring to bear the entire array of national power - military, diplomatic and economic. The situation demands a surge in diplomacy, and pressure on the Iraqi government to fix its internal affairs. Further, the Army and Marine Corps are on the verge of breaking - or have been broken already - by the length and intensity of this war. This tempo is not sustainable - and you have failed to grow the ground forces to meet national security needs. We must begin the process of bringing troops home, and repairing and growing our military, if we are ever to have a combat-ready force for the long war on terror ahead of us.

The bill you rejected today sets benchmarks for success that the Iraqis would have to meet, and puts us on a course to redeploy our troops. It stresses the need for sending troops into battle only when they are rested, trained and equipped. In my view, and in the view of many others in the military that I know, that is the best course of action for our security.

Pink Dots

If you're bored and have a minute, here's a pretty cool optical illusion.

Revenge of the Nerds!

He won't win the Democratic primary, but 60 year old congressman Dennis Kucinch has the hottest girl in the game wearing his chain. Ladies and gentlemen, meet British-born Elizabeth Kucinich.

So all you short, vegan, pacifist dudes: y'all keep your head up.

Jon Stewart is not Rosie O'Donnell

Bill Moyers recently did an excellent and highly entertaining interview with Jon Stewart. You can download the podcast here.

The Daily Show host had a few choice lines, including these about President Bush reaction to Alberto Gonzalez's testimony to congress:

And by the way, that was all just — that was a game, and he knew it, and the guys on the committee knew it. And for the President to come out after that and say, "Everything I saw there gave me more confidence in him," that solidified my notion that, "Oh, it's because what he expected of Gonzalez was" it's sort of like, do you remember in GOODFELLAS? When Henry Hill got arrested for the first time and Robert DeNiro met him at the courthouse and Henry Hill was really upset, 'cause he thought Robert DeNiro would be really mad at him. And DeNiro comes up to him and he gives him a $100 and he goes, "You got pinched. We all get pinched, but you did it right, you didn't say nothing."

Stewart also had some poignant things to say about Iraq:

But war that hasn't affected us here, in the way that you would imagine a five-year war would affect a country. I think that's why they're so really — here's the disconnect. It's sort of this odd and I've always had this problem with the rationality of it. That the President says, "We are in the fight for a way of life. This is the greatest battle of our generation, and of the generations to come. "And, so what I'm going to do is you know, Iraq has to be won, or our way of life ends, and our children and our children's children all suffer. So, what I'm gonna do is send 10,000 more troops to Baghdad."

So, there's a disconnect there between — you're telling me this is fight of our generation, and you're going to increase troops by 10 percent. And that's gonna do it. I'm sure what he would like to do is send 400,000 more troops there, but he can't, because he doesn't have them. And the way to get that would be to institute a draft. And the minute you do that, suddenly the country's not so damn busy anymore. And then they really fight back, and then the whole thing falls apart. So, they have a really delicate balance to walk between keeping us relatively fearful, but not so fearful that we stop what we're doing and really examine how it is that they've been waging this.

And on his reaction to the Virginia Tech tragedy in relation to Iraq:

I don't even know if it's appropriate to broach it … but we in this country we have a very tragic situation occur at one of our universities and, it really has taken the country aback and there's a real grieving process that we're going through, And going through it mourning and learning about the victims and-learning about it and showing our support, you know, I hesitate to say, how does your country handle what is that type of carnage on a daily basis? Is there a way to grieve? Is there a numbness that sets in? How is that?

Sunni Ministers Threaten to Quit Cabinet in Iraq

As I understand it, the purpose of the surge of American troops in Baghdad is stabilizing the city from Sunni-Shiite-Al Qaeda violence, so that a political solution may bring about a strong, centralized Iraqi government. With that said, the hope of any imminent political progress is gloomy. Yesterday's New York Times reports:

The largest bloc of Sunni Arabs in the Iraqi Parliament threatened to withdraw its ministers from the Shiite-dominated cabinet on Monday in frustration over the government’s failure to deal with Sunni concerns....The bloc, known as the Iraqi Consensus Front and made up of three Sunni Arab parties, “has lost hope in rectifying the situation despite all of its sincere and serious efforts to do so,” the statement said.

If the Sunni group followed through on its threat, it would further weaken a government already damaged by the pullout two weeks ago of six cabinet ministers aligned with the renegade Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr and further erode American efforts to promote reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites....

The crisis was set off by what Sunnis describe as a continued lack of services to Sunni areas of Baghdad. For months, those areas have been deprived of adequate food rations and hospital supplies.

But the latest problem takes place against a backdrop of broader, longstanding Sunni concerns. Sunni leaders say the government has failed to move forward on an array of issues including legislation to ensure a fair distribution of oil revenue, bringing Sunnis into all levels of government and weeding out Shiite militias within government security forces.

Men In Black

This very cool animated short originally aired as part of PBS's eleven-part series "America at a Crossroads." It is narrated by Army Specialist Colby Buzzell, who recently published the book "My War," a compilation of his blog entries while serving in Iraq.

Absinthe: The American Remix

Having spent some time in the Czech Republic, I've had the opportunity to indulge in drinking Absinthe. Of course, absinthe is illegal here in the United States because it contains thujone, an ingredient from wormwood. Good news, however, in today's New York Times:

Intrepid drinkers have worked around the ban by ordering imported bottles off the Internet or smuggling them back from Eastern Europe. Now they have a third, less dodgy option: Lucid, which is being marketed as the first legal, genuine American absinthe in nearly a century.

According to the article, Lucid was made in conjunction with a French absinthe producer who helped remove wormwood from the process. There's no valid debate that thujone in absinthe has very little physical effect on the drinker. Moreover, it's now clear that the absinthe consumed in its Moulin Rouge prime contained only very small traces, since most never makes it through the distilling process.

It's a myth that absinthe will make you hallucinate. From my experience, it gives you a unique buzz - something akin to a lucid drunk (perhaps the reason for the new brand name).

"You Were Not a Victim"

Several of George Tenent's former colleagues at the CIA have released a letter criticizing his recent portrayal of himself as a victim of the Bush administration. Some highlights:

"Your lament that you are a victim in a process you helped direct is self-serving, misleading and, as head of the intelligence community, an admission of failed leadership.

"You were not a victim. You were a willing participant in a poorly considered policy to start an unnecessary war and you share culpability with Dick Cheney and George Bush for the debacle in Iraq."

"You showed a lack of leadership and courage in January of 2003 as the Bush administration pushed and cajoled analysts and managers to let them make the bogus claim that Iraq was on the verge of getting its hands on uranium."You signed off on Colin Powell's presentation to the United Nations. And, at his insistence, you sat behind him and visibly squandered CIA's most precious asset - credibility."

"It now turns out that you were the Alberto Gonzales of the intelligence community -- a grotesque mixture of incompetence and sycophancy shielded by a genial personality.

George Tenent (pictured), along with Paul Bremer (responsible for the dissolution of the Iraqi army and the firing of all members of the existing ministeries) and Donald Rumsfeld, were all awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their work in Iraq. The Medal of Freedom is "designed to recognize individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."

Ugly Americans

The portrayal of the United States in foreign cinema today is a topic worthy of a student thesis. For example The Host (pictured left), is the number one grossing movie in the history of South Korea, and portrays the United States military as responsible for the creation of Godzilla-like monster that wrecks havoc in Seoul. Valley of the Wolves: Iraq broke box-office records in Turkey, depicting American soldiers massacring civilians and selling the organs of Iraqi prisoners to a Jewish doctor (played by Nick Nolte - see the trailer). 28 Weeks Later, produced in England, has the American military occupying a plague-infected London (in an area similar to the Iraqi Green Zone), and killing the good locals when no longer able to contain the sickness (see the trailer).

All three of these countries - South Korea, Turkey and England - are considered United State's allies. I wonder what the movies are like in Iran.

CBS Zombie Pilot

A network (CBS) has finally gotten wise and decided to make a pilot focusing on zombies. From today's Variety:

"On the fantasy/sci-fi side, "Babylon Fields" is an hour Tassler describes as " 'Ordinary People' meets 'Day of the Living Dead.' " In other words, yes, there are zombies -- but the show's also about personal relationships, and what happens when the ex-wife you thought was dead suddenly is back in your life."

Cinematically, the genre has stretched itself pretty thin, but a TV series could be everything George Romero's Land of the Dead should've been. The pilot's being directed by Wesleyan University's own Michael Cuesta, who's most famous for directing other quality TV-shows, such as Six Feet Under. Coincidentally, Six Feet creator Alan Ball is working on a show for HBO about vampires called "True Blood".

New Guns 'N Roses Track

There's no Slash, Izzy or Duff - but there's definitely a corn-rowed Axl. Enjoy the latest incarnation of Guns 'N Roses.

Where is Barack Obama coming from?

There's a lengthy profile on Barack Obama in this week's New Yorker. If you haven't already read the bijillion other articles out there tracing his ascent to national prominence, there's nothing truly new here; but it's well written and informative for the uninitiated. I did like this quote by him on Iraq:

“There was a dangerous innocence to thinking that we would be greeted as liberators, or that with a little bit of economic assistance and democratic training you’d have a Jeffersonian democracy blooming in the desert,” he says now. “There is a running thread in American history of idealism that can express itself powerfully and appropriately, as it did after World War II with the creation of the United Nations and the Marshall Plan, when we recognized that our security and prosperity depend on the security and prosperity of others. But the same idealism can express itself in a sense that we can remake the world any way we want by flipping a switch, because we’re technologically superior or we’re wealthier or we’re morally superior. And when our idealism spills into that kind of naïveté and an unwillingness to acknowledge history and the weight of other cultures, then we get ourselves into trouble, as we did in Vietnam.”