File This One...

Under.....Are you effing kidding me???

A second magnetic resonance imaging exam on Phil Hughes’s left ankle revealed a Grade III sprain, indicating a torn ligament. Hughes will not be allowed to throw off a mound for about six more weeks, though General Manager Brian Cashman said the Yankees have ruled out surgery. “He can walk on it, and it doesn’t look all that bad,” Cashman said. “But it is what it is. They’ve got him in a boot. He’s been throwing with a boot on it. But it’s going to push him back, because he’s not going to be able to throw off a mound.” Cashman said Hughes’s hamstring was almost fully healed when he injured the ankle doing conditioning drills last Friday. Hughes’s timetable would make it unlikely that he could return before August. ... Joe Torre exchanged e-mail messages with Roger Clemens, and Clemens told Torre he was looking forward to starting against the White Sox on Monday in Chicago. ... Kyle Farnsworth has just two 1-2-3 innings in 22 games this season.

Par for the Yankee course this season unfortunately...

Monster Blogging...

That is one big ass pig...

Apparently, the 11 year old kid shot it 8 times with a .50 cal pistol and then finished it off with a point blank kill shot. Nice kid...

Extra Credit Blogging...

You have to give credit to the Stanford University imposter who was discovered this week living as a student who was not in fact enrolled...or ever accepted as a student I would guess. She went as far as to join the ROTC at nearby Santa Clara University who issued her a uni....

She apparently talked her way into a dorm room and was fully inegrated into student life for 8 months. Pretty good run I'd say and she'll probably be recruited for a 6 figure salary based on her time there. At least she won't have to pay back one of those expensive student loans..

This Just In...

Yankees Stink!

Actually, not JUST in...more like it's starting to sink into my noggin that the Yankee season may have slipped away in the first 1/3 games played. Hard to believe that such a talented team could under-perform to that level.

Pitching injuries certainly played a part early but the recent and in my opinion, more devastating culprits are the hitting (lack thereof) and relief pitching. It's one thing to go thru slumps but several guys just don't seem like the same players they were last year. Even if everyone starts to play to their ability, it may be too late to actually catch anyone to get to post season. Doesn't seem right somehow...

While We're..

at it...this is a top, top drawer tune...sad but true catagory...listen and learn I guess would be the message..right?

It's Not Exactly New..

but take a minute to listen if you're not familiar with Ray...pretty sure it's agreeable fare...It is the definitive version I think.

Here's a Great...

intro by JC for a great, great song..for things that don't seem to go together but they do...

Goodtime Charlie's..

got the blues...

Chet Atkins and Earl Klugh version.

Keith Olbermann...

gets it and you can read his special comment from last nights Countdown show here

The gist of which to me is:

You, the men and women elected with the simplest of directions—Stop The War—have traded your strength, your bargaining position, and the uniform support of those who elected you… for a handful of magic beans.
You may trot out every political cliché from the soft-soap, inside-the-beltway dictionary of boilerplate sound bites, about how this is the “beginning of the end” of Mr. Bush’s “carte blanche” in Iraq, about how this is a “first step.”
Well, Senator Reid, the only end at its beginning... is our collective hope that you and your colleagues would do what is right, what is essential, what you were each elected and re-elected to do.
Because this “first step”… is a step right off a cliff.

Harry says they don't have a veto-proof majority and he's right about that. Unfortunately what Harry doesn't realize that the capitulation to Bush will guarantee that they never will have one.

What is it about politicians that keep them from "getting" what things are truly about?

Another Monica-ism...

From yesterdays hearings....after being asked about her experience in hiring personnel, Goodling pointed to her college student government position as an example of her qualification in that area.

Well, that's good enough for me. She certainly seems to be more experienced than most Bushies. Can anyone see any reason why someone with that kind of resume shouldn't being in charge of hiring the key Justice Dept. employees??

Just asking.....

They Came...

to notify the family of Joseph Anzack Jr. yesterday that he was KIA in Iraq. One of the missing soldiers the military has been searching for was found floating in the Euprates river after being beaten and shot. He was 20 years old.

From Torrance, CA he went to high school on the same street I live on...2 blocks away. He didn't deserve to die that way...no one does.

"Where Have..

you gone Joe DiMaggio?"

was a line from Mrs. Robinson, a song by Simon and Garfunkel in the 60's...Joe D represented a lot about what was special to that generation of aging Yankee fans. There was then and remains now a mystique to the greatness of the Yankee Clipper.

Today Derek Jeter passed Joe on the career hits list. Let that sink for while......

Wow...passed Joe D. That is sacred territory for sure in Yankee land. Now, Joe missed time in WWII and retired early by today's standards because of recurring nagging injuries and his desire to go out with his dignity and athletic prowess intact. All time hits in mind Joe is pretty far down the the list, but...a current Yankee passing Joe D in hits??...Wow! (Bernie did recently also but is retired now of course)

It's a incredible accomplishment for the Captain and his reaction at 2nd base was to acknowledge the crowd with a tip of the bill of his batting helmet (not removed to bask in anything) and point out the importance of the team win in the post game interview.

Effing class all the way.

12 years of hits sure has gone fast.

Ol' Fred Mighta...

played a President on TV and that in itself is probably enough for 30% of the voting public to pull the lever. It appears that his wife might also provide a reason for the 30 percenters to pull something as well. Somehow she doesn't strike me as First Lady material but hey, if Republicans are looking for someone to "play" President, Ol' Fred would do I guess. Reagan played one for 8 years and he was a pretty shitty actor.

I wonder if she ever worked blue?

Hat tip to the Renegade for the photo...

The Goodling Show...

didn't disappoint today as I was able to listen to a good portion on CSPAN web and satellite radio.

Some of the more entertaining parts were the Repugs on the Judiciary committee alternately going into convulsions and contortions trying to rehabilitate dear Monica. They especially wanted to point out the Regents is REAL school with real accomplished students..really, really. Hilarious stuff that I'm sure will be showing up on various sites soon.

Anyway, she threw anyone and everyone handy under the bus and true to form with every single Bushie ever to testify has a bit of a memory problem. The "I don't recalls", "I don't remembers" and "I'm not sures" were flying all over the place. How do these people remember where they live? They sure as shit can remember important details like someones religious or political affiliations...wonder why that is?

I'll look for some of the Repug ass kissing and try to post up...

Bush's Political Speech...

today was disguised as a commencement address to the Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT.

Shorter Bush speech...."Blah, blah, blah...9/11....blah, blah, blah...Sept.
11,....blah, blah, blah, Al Quada, blah, blah, blah, Taliban, blah, blah blah,
Saddam Hussain, blah, blah, blah, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, blah, blah, blah"

Shameless and disgusting.

Memo to Joe Torre...

RANDY MYERS SUCKS ASS.

Got that Joe? Everytime he pitches to Ortiz, he gives up a hit. He is not capable of doing his job and has never given any indication of apptitude for doing so. Get rid of him to start with....this shit has got to stop.

Monica Has a Date!....

Goodling that is....and unfortunately for her it is to testify in front of Congress. In terms of her life story it will probably rank up there with "daddy cuddling" or that time the church elders had a "go" at her.

It is unlikely that she has the intellect to withstand too many difficult questions but very likely that her day will make ours...to paraphrase the dirtiest of Harry's.

Break Out the...

Champagne baby! Yanks win 2 in a row for the first time in a long time. More importantly, it was against the 2 best teams in either league. Not sure if you can read too much into it but you have to start somewhere and this seems as good a place as any.

Pitching, defense and timely hitting will sure cure the baseball blues.

Mmmmmm...brownies...yummy...

Gotta listen to this...

Stay away from the brown acid.....

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1759014

Break up the Yankees???

That's what they used to say and they are still saying it. Except now it is their own fans doing the sayin'........

Yanks lose again...ouch.

Comey Story..

gets the page 11 treatment from the LA Times....ho-hum.

Thanks to...

Digby for the link on this...amazing stuff.

The Comey Angle...

to the AG scandal is in my opinion the most damaging thus far. The information offered in James Comeys' testimony is a stunning example of the Bush administration willingness to operate virtually without any aversion to breaking the laws they swore to uphold.

You have to give credit to Comey and also to Ashcroft to resist what must have been intense pressure to cave to WH demands to sign off on what must have clearly been illegal activities. I am almost surprised that the Bush gang sought any clearance for a program that appears to have been moving forward anyway.

Gonzo comes off as the bagman he's always been and Andy Card gives douchebags a bad name. I would think that the press might want to have a look see here but I have my doubts we'll see much interest.

TPM has the edited video with all the terrible implications that beared truth usually presents.

www.talkingpointsmemo.com

What is This?????

effing ground hog day? Yanks lose again...8-1/2 out in the middle of May is not just playing poorly, it is downright embarrassing. Somone needs to step up and get things rolling for them. Maybe our man Wang tonight? Let's hope so.

Double Header Tomorrow...

for the Yanks/White Sox....Tonight's game rained out....jeez, can't a guy get a break today? First Jerry Falwell and now this! Oh, the pain...

Rain Delay Blogging...

Waiting for the rain delayed Yankee game to start so this one seemed appropriate...

Tony Joe White.....Rainy Night in Georgia.

Anything to get my mind off of Jerry's bloated rotting corpse....

Farewell and Good Riddens...

To another right wing bigot....Falwell finally takes the dirtnap and somehow I'm supposed to give a shit according to the media...uh, not really.

I do think it will be interesting to see how the major candidates on both sides react or don't. The repugs will pay homage of course and the dems will slow walk a low key sympathy for the family approach.

Bit of advice for the dems: don't fucking throw flowers on this guy's grave...literally or figuratively. He was a hateful piece of shit that got rich off of morons trying to buy their way to the promised land. Fuck him, he's dead meat now and that's tough shit for him and all his idiotic supporters.

McNulty is out...

at Justice and so is any chance of the WH being able to contain or control anything further from him.

TPM on the same wavelength...

A lot of this is tea leaf reading, trying to figure out who's spilling and who's not. But it's hard to figure where McNulty gets less forthcoming once he's no longer part of the administration.

Long Time, No Blog...

Trying to get caught up after being out of touch for better part of a week. Hope to be back on track starting tonight or tomorrow...

Some People are Famous..

for being famous....others are famous just for being a douchebag..

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/08/morris-iraq/

The Whole Bush..

government is basically a "dead cat" corruption zone...as in, you can't swing one without hitting some significant scandal.

It would be impossible to list all of the transgressions without writing a pretty hefty tome but that is not really the point. To me, it's not really about the admittedly shocking amount of crime comitted as much as the "Bushie" utter lack of decency as human beings. They hate everything about democracy...everything that matters anyway.

Entitlement and hubris are the hallmarks of the Bushies and they can certainly count on the base not paying attention and or not really caring about what is truly happening.

When you look at the AG developing story, it's clear that a vast, vast conspiracy was in place to effectively take over the US Gov. thru illegal means. I don't see how else you can view it. I just hope that this investigation continues to move forward until everything comes out. No matter how long it takes. These people who planned and executed the strategy belong in jail...not just off the A-list cocktail circuit. Let's face it, if you don't step on the executive branch criminals, they come back 15-20 years later like nothing happened.

I think if that it winds up being swept under the rug, our democracy will never be the same. It cannot be treated as partisan politics....this is an attempted coup and needs to addressed legally as such.

Here's An Idea...

for Pavano....smear peanut butter on that golden arm of his and then shove him into a coyote cage and let nature take its course. Enough is enough with this guy...time to call the insurance agent.

Rocket Launch..

is announced yesterday to great fanfare at Yankee Stadium during the 7th inning stretch. I'm glad they signed him but I doubt he is going to be some kind of a savior for the the team. We'll see soon enough I guess though. It will definitely add some excitement.

Lightnin' blogging..

Hopkins, that is.

Joe Morello...

goes old school on our ass....jeebus.

4 Minutes into..

this clip is the classic Lloyd Bridges delivering these priceless lines from the bridge of the aircraft carrier:

• "Holy Cow..my cap blew off...swing it around and we'll pick it up"
• "You're right...put Rabiniwitz in a life raft and have him row around in circles to mark the spot until we come back"

Hey, when you lose your cap...it's hard to be the commander guy.

If You're Dobro Blogging..

Then it has to be Jerry Douglas...and of course Alison too..

Nice stuff here.

Definitely Had...

"a little Wang to it" as a famous movie actor once said.

This one was close to perfecto but alas the baseball gods felt his Wangness was not worthy. Even so, you have to be impressed that a Yankee pitcher had a good outing and wasn't injured enough to go DL. He did take a liner off his foot that would have put Pavano in intensive care...but as most of his teamates would probably tell you...Wang ain't no Pavano, thank God.

Helluva performance and hopefully the start of something big.

A Re-Post...

to compliment the Townes cut.....fantastic, unbelievable version.

I'll never tire of..

this song...

but the poor guy's voice was shot at that point.

One of the Great Ones..

brings it on home...

My neighborhood happens to be getting a new blues club. The greatly famous Harvelle's of Santa Monica is opening a sister locale just down the road a piece. The original version has been around since 1931...somehow I doubt the new one will last that long...but who knows. If only it was possible to get to see as much live music as Alterman...

The Repugnant's Panderfest...

was about as expected last night. I only caught snippets and then most of the post-debate analysis by Olbermann but some of the shameless sucking up was painful to watch. A few quick hits....

• McCain going on about activist judges legislating from the bench....ho-hum John....if that is your real concern you belong in the rest home not the White House. It was pathetic.
• Brownback's wife was standing by him in the post interview and she was bobbing her head like a human bobblehead doll. It was uncomfortable in a sad kind of way but you could NOT look away. The fact that she looks like that Jane Hathaway is probably not going to be a great help to the Brownback juggernaught.
• Guliani trys to say that he is the best choice based on 9/11 of course. He was on the ball after I guess. I would think being on the ball before hand would be better though.
• These guys want to be president so bad they will say virtually anything...no principles whatsoever.

Just About 10 Years Ago...

We had riots in LA directly related to the LAPD and their overly agressive and sometimes criminal tactics...looks like they haven't learned anything since then.

They started beating the shit out of demonstrators in McCarthur Park 2 days ago and then used rubber non-lethal bullets to disperse the crowd. Too bad for the LAPD that most of the actions were caught on video as several news organizations were covering the immigration rights rally.

The footage is pretty compelling and indefensible. You would think that if any police agency had sensitivity to cracking heads while being filmed it would be LAPD.

I thought this was a joke...

when I first saw it but...nope. He actually said it...."commander guy".

What a comfort that must be to all of the of the armed forces...

.....that they can, you know, count on the commander guy if they are ever in a tough spot. Wow, what a relief!

Congratulations and...

Condolences?...oh shit, that ain't right.

NY Yankee 20 year old pitcher Phil Hughes took a no hitter into the 7 inning tonight only to yank a hammy trying to break off a knee buckling curve ball on a 2 strike count to Texas' Mark Texiera.

I get that injuries are part of the game but this is getting ridiculous.....Lets review some of the D-listed this year for the Yankees...

1. Wang


2. Mussina


3. Matsui


4. Pavano (ok..that's a cheapie..)


5. Karstens


6. Damon (hurt not DL as far as I know yet)


7. Hughes (see above)


8. Other guys I can't remember their names

Point is...we should all feel sorry for the Yankees and cut them a break when playing them...right?