Watching the waiver wires....

This is a bad, bad move. Why are the Yankees doing this? Why? He has so much promise! If you don't know what I'm talking about, the Yankees released this prospect today. I mean, c'mon! One bad at-bat- that's it! Sure he struck out, but the Yankees never gave the guy a chance to show what he could do. He was DHing for Christssakes! I'm sure he could have flashed some leather to win at least the utility infielder spot away from former Attorney General of the United States Alberto Gonzalez.

Goin' home

So I'm going home today. Gonna take a Chinatown bus but this one scares me a little. The bus stop is a few blocks north of Penn Station, right where the ghetto begins in Baltimore. I hope I don't get mugged, raped, robbed, etc. in the 20 minutes or so I have to wait there. That'd be very unfortunate.

Have a good spring break- we all need this week for the sake of our sanities.

Mike McConnell @ JHU

Admiral Mike McConnell was appointed as the Director of National Intelligence this past February. He came to Hopkins today to have a question and answer session. For such a high-profile figure in Government, the event was all it was expected to be. There was the very flat political line-giving typical of talks by those involved in politics, there was sidestepping questions deftly, there was a bleeding heart liberal doing his best to make the government-man eat crow, and there was also bland questions from the student populous.

Some points (paraphrased):

• Despite McConnell's insistence that this particular paraphrased point wasn't the case, he "agrees that water-boarding is justified in some situations and that it's a useful means to gather information." (The quote is the best approximation of Prof. Davis' sum up of McConnell on water-boarding.)
• McConnell wants to overhaul how the Intelligence department recruits college graduates- make it more efficient (take much less time).
• It doesn't matter that the intelligence community never predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union- "all that matters is that we won." (Quote is his.) Intelligence, nor President Regan, had little to do with the Soviet collapse- it was capitalism that should be responsible for the USSR's collapse.
• Iran is not a threat for nuclear weapons because, although it is developing fissionable material for civil purposes, it has abandoned its development of delivery weapons.
  
• The above point was a declassified key judgment in the National Intelligence Estimate- these, the declassified key judgments, will no longer be made in future NIEs.
  
• Al Qaeda's goal is to create a pan-Arabic state and uses terrorism to force Europe and the United States out from the reigons that would comprise this pan-Arab state.

There are a bunch of things he said that I obviously disagree with or beg to differ. The most interesting point to me is the last one I noted. He went on record (the event was being taped by CNN) on saying that Al Qaeda's goal was to force the US and Europe out of a potential pan-Arab state. If this truly is the government stance on Al Qaeda's motive, then there's a really quick fix to the insecurity caused by terrorism on US soil.

If Al Qaeda's trying to force the United States out of the Middle East, why not comply? They have said numerous times that that's what they wanted. They've also said that if we comply, then they'll leave us alone. Why not just leave the Middle East and ignore it like we've ignored Cuba for the last 50 years?

Aren't there problems with just leaving the Middle East high and dry, you ask? Yes, most of it includes how we're going to meet our needs for energy without dealing with the Middle East for oil. But we forget that there are alternative energy sources that are already available. Making the entire country adapt to these new changes (like buying more plug in hybrids, more renewable resources for electricity, taking advantage of ethanol from organic waste, and generally moving completely away from oil) is the hardest part logistically. But with gas prices heading towards 4 bucks a gallon and the cost of oil being at an all time high, wouldn't the cost be a moot point? If the peak oil hypothesis is true (which it seems to be) we're going to have to make these changes either way.

Now truth-be-told, I don't think this is the correct thing to do. As the sole superpower of the world, the United States maintains a measure of unspoken responsibility in regards to international affairs, especially within the Middle East. What I think should happen is another editorial for another day. But just there mere admission of that last point- I don't understand why more people aren't making the argument I've just made.

Haiku- 4

Questions about time:
Wasn't that just yesterday?
Why such a hurry?

Too bad I'm not a good stand up comedian....

This is the first story on Yahoo! News. "If Spitzer quits, U.S. would have first blind governor."

Does anyone else see the great irony of a blind politician?

SCANDAL!

Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York was liked to a prostitution ring yesterday. Now, the GOP is calling for his resignation or impeachment.

It's unfortunate because Spitzer has been such a model for liberalism in domestic politics in his career. He has combated white-collar crime, fraud, stood up for consumers' rights, is for pro-choice in abortion, supports gay marriage- he's the whole package when it comes to modern liberal ideals in domestic politics. All this marred by a sex scandal. Kind of reminds me of another prominent politician- especially if there are impeachment proceedings.

Now I have a question: given the strong reaction against Gov. Spitzer and President Clinton about 10 years ago, where was the public moral outrage against figures like Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Bob Allen (R-Florida) for their solicitation of gay sex with a police officer? Where's the moral uproar against the corruption unearthed by the Jack Abramoff scandal? Where's the outrage over David Ritters' (R-Louisiana) and Randall Tobias' (President Bush's "AIDS Czar") connection to a prostitution ring in Washington DC? Where was the outrage over Mark Foley's (R-Florida) gay pedophilia? Notice something? Those letters and states- more particularly the letters. The GOP is full of hypocrites.

If they do get to impeachment in New York over this thing, I hope it turns out that James Tedisco (New York's Republican Minority Leader) and Peter King (R-NY) were having monthly gay orgies together involving prostitutes and drugs. (Disclaimer: I'm not implying that Representatives Tedisco and King are gay and/or immoral. I'm merely implying that they are incredibly myopic and superficial and do not give two shits about real issues.)

Song of the Week- 3/8/08

This week, I keep the indie tour de force going with "Me and Mia" by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. (Jesus, I've chosen LCD Soundsystem, Vampire Weekend, Gogol Bordello, and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists so far- am I turning into one of them?)

Ted Leo is a wise veteran of the independent music scene has been the very definition of Indie Rock the last two decades (at least according to Wikipedia and Allmusic.com). His music is marked by its simplicity and by its catchy hooks all over the place. It has gotten to the point where Ted Leo may have mastered at formulating pop songs and that's not a bad thing at all. In "Me and Mia" we get a nice little introduction to what Ted Leo and the Pharmacists are all about. Lots of power chords in a major key on a very clean, heavy-gain, guitar matched up with upbeat drumming and high, but unstrained, singing. The song doesn't slow at all and maintains an energy that's rarely founds in mainstream popular rock. About half way into the song, the verse and chorus chord progressions are replaced by the brighter chord progressions of the chorus and bridge to make the mood even brighter and more optimistic. All the while, the lyrics churned out by Ted Leo only help add to this bright mood despite some of Leo's own editorializing about life ("Fighting for the smallest goal: to gain a little self-control").

In the end, it's just a really good song- that's all that matters. Enjoy