WINS AND LOSSES

I figured Kentucky and Kansas would win, but during each game, I thought I was going to be wrong.  Louisville put up a good fight, and Kansas had to pull a rabbit out of a hat.

I'll be rooting for the Jayhawks Monday night, because they're the underdogs and because I like Bill Self more than John Calipari.

It was awe-inspiring but death-defying the way Jeremy Lin drove the lane through traffic.  The traffic won.  Maybe the Knicks will sneak into the playoffs and @JLin7 will leap out of rehab Superman-like and lead the 'Bockers to the title.  May Linsanity prevail in the end.

Sorry

Guess what, you didn't win, and neither did I.  Better luck...

Mega Moment

In just a couple of minutes, I'm going to win the lottery.  I promise to cut you all in.

After Obamacare

It sounded really bad to me, but some reporters still say the Roberts Court may not overturn the Affordable Care Act.  I keep telling myself that the individual mandate is a Republican idea, the same as Romney's Massachusetts plan.  Maybe Kennedy will be okay with it.

But I think this Republican court really wants to put an end to the New Deal,  I think Alito and Scalia believe deeply in Original Sin, a dark view of human nature that looks down on the old, the sick, the poor.  Clarence Thomas feels that if he pulled himself up by his bootstraps, other people -- especially those who look like him -- can do it too.  Roberts would love it if these Neanderthal views could win majority respect and membership in the club.

Obama has never been quite sure of where he stands.  One would like to think his probable defeat over health care will stiffen his spine.  I am not holding my breath.

I hope I'm wrong.

The Broccoli Argument

Antonin Scalia should stand up against recording Supreme Court arguments.  He comes across on audio as a total bully and a resolute pedant.  And when he compares requiring people to buy health insurance to forcing consumers to buy broccoli, he hust sounds like the President of the High School Deb,ating Society, a master of the spurious.

Solicitor General Don Verrilli seemed terribly nervous, especially when he got immediately battered by Tony Kennedy, but he actually settled down and kind of held his own.

Breyer was persuasive, but probably not to the rightists.  Ginsburg and Sotomayor were good, but Kagan was terrific, probably because she was in on the beginnings of the ACA, which is also why the rightists won't listen to her.

It didn't sound good, but it may work out.  The five Republicans were almost completely negative about Congress's right to regulate the health insurance 

SCOTUS Spotlight

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Obamacare vs. The Supremes

There are, of course,legal questions.As far as I can tell, precedents seem to favor Congress's power to impose the individual mandate and to expand Medicaid.

But, as we all know, these matters are usually settled, not by law, but by political and cultural ideology.  That's certainly the case with the Roberts court.

Apparently, Scalia has decided an analogous case using a gnerous application of the commerce clause,  But one has only to check out Tough Tony's bizarre quotes on the execrable Citizens United decision to know  that Scalia's alleged originalism barely veils his Papist mindset.

Clarence Thomas won't speak during this weeks arguments because he never does.  But, come June, Consistent Clarence will take his usual narrow view of what constitutes interstate commerce.  His rabid Tea Party activist wife is irrelevant, although she may give him a little more action if Obamacare falls.

Bible Belter

Rick Santorum won again in the South garnering lots of "value votes" from the Life Forces.  Meanwhile he was in Wisconsin aligning himself with Scott Walker and making it clear how he feels about unions:


"Look, I come from southwestern Pennsylvania, I grew up in a steel town. I represented one of the most heavy labor districts in the entire country. It was a 71 percent Democratic district,” Santorum said today at the Defending the American Dream Summit. “And I know what it’s like, you know, to fight the bullies. And there is no tougher bullies than the public employee unions, and I just want to say to your governor, I am for you, I am behind you, and I’m going to do everything I can.”ng it very clear how he feels about unions.

Santorum's Strange Ad

This Was the Week That Was

-- Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is charged with 17 counts of murder for the Kandahar massacre.  The establishment press tells tales of PTSD; the Army court will be tougher.  Bales could get death, but the legal process figures to take many months.

-- a petition with a million signatures calls for the arrest of George Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watchman who shot and killed 17 year old Trayvon Martin.  Zimmerman was not brought in by the cops because he was judged to be covered by Florida's Stand Your Ground law.  President Obama says if he had a son, he would look like Trayvon.

-- Obama sounds like an Oil Man on his visit to Oklahoma City, bragging about all that drilling going on, even as he calls for a hurry-up of the southern section of the  Keystone XL pipeline.  The NY Times takes the opportunity to print a huge takeout that portrays the US as the next coming of Saudi Arabia, all the while that drivers are trading in their SUVs.

-- Mitt Romney closes in on his inevitable nomination with a big win  in the Illinois GOP primary.  Meanwhile,  Republican big shots get increasingly nervous as Romney continues to  come across as an Etch A Sketch candidate without spine or obvious strength.

-- The NFL comes down hard on the New Orleans Saints in the wake of the pay-for-pain bounty scheme, presided over by defensive coach Gregg Williams, who was suspended for at least a year.  Also docked for the year is the Saints' standout head coach Sean Payton.  Many players on other teams are shocked.

-- Obama appoints Dartmouth president and development expert Jim Kim to head up the World Bank, finessing other countries who wanted a shot at the job.

-- In an astonishing move, the New York Jets hire scrambling Christian quarterback Tim Tebow to back up Mark Sanchez.  The Jets had just signed Sanchez to a $40 million contract extension.  Nobody seems to be able to figure this one out.

Blogger: THE DAILY MENACE - Create post

Blogger: THE DAILY MENACE - Create post

Etch A Sketch (Updated)

That Romney guy who made the Etch A Sketch remark may not be sleeping too well tonight. But Eric Fehrnstrom was, in fact, giving a great answer to an obvious question: how's Mitt gonna get back to the electable center after running against his Neanderthal primary opponents has forced him to the far right?

Of course Mitt himself can't and won't answer that question so he said: "I'm running as a conservative Republican. I was a conservative Republican governor. I'll be running as a conservative Republican nominee. The policies and positions are exactly the same."

Yeah, you bet.


Have that Etch A Sketch ready Mitt! Hold on to Eric.

It's Time To Take Callista Home

And home,dear Newt, is Washington, D.C.

I thought Mitt did solid in IL, but the cable commentariat seems to think Mad Man Mitt may not get it till the GOP convention. One can only hope.

Rick Santorum says this is the most important election since 1860.

Mitt thinks FDR was a non-event too, since he says that only no government fuels progress. The old Herbert Hoover argument. Chuck Todd says Santorum has to win Wisconsin. On Wisconsin.

One thing is clear: Romney is going to run as a rich white man. And all three words are important.

Guest Post (My Idol)

Discussing the motives of the Afghan shooter
BY GLENN GREENWALD

(updated below – Update II)

Here’s a summary of the Western media discussion of what motivated U.S. Staff Sgt. Robert Bales to allegedly kill 16 Afghans, including 9 children: he was drunk, he was experiencing financial stress, he was passed over for a promotion, he had a traumatic brain injury, he had marital problems, he suffered from the stresses of four tours of duty, he “saw his buddy’s leg blown off the day before the massacre,” etc.

Here’s a summary of the Western media discussion of what motivates Muslims to kill Americans: they are primitive, fanatically religious, hateful Terrorists.

Even when Muslims who engage in such acts toward Americans clearly and repeatedly explain that they did it in response to American acts of domination, aggression, violence and civilian-killing in their countries, and even when the violence is confined to soldiers who are part of a foreign army that has invaded and occupied their country, the only cognizable motive is one of primitive, hateful evil. It is an act of Evil Terrorism, and that is all there is to say about it.

Note, too, that in the case of Sgt. Bales (or any other cases of American violence against Muslims), people have little difficulty understanding the distinction between (a) discussing and trying to understand the underlying motives of the act (causation) and (b) defending the act (justification). But that same distinction completely evaporates when it comes to Muslim violence against Americans. Those who attempt to understand or explain the act — they’re responding to American violence in their country; they are traumatized and angry at the continuous deaths of Muslim children and innocent adults; they’ve calculated that striking at Americans is the ony way to deter further American aggression in their part of the world — are immediately accused of mitigating, justifying or even defending Terrorism.

There is, quite obviously, a desperate need to believe that when an American engages in acts of violence of this type (meaning: as a deviation from formal American policy), there must be some underlying mental or emotional cause that makes it sensible, something other than an act of pure hatred or Evil. When a Muslim engages in acts of violence against Americans, there is an equally desperate need to believe the opposite: that this is yet another manifestation of inscrutable hatred and Evil, and any discussion of any other causes must be prohibited and ignored.

* * * * *

I’ll be speaking at several events over the next few weeks. For now, I’ll note two: (1) this Thursday, March 22, in Philadelphia, I’ll be speaking at the University of Pennsylvania, at 5:00 pm, on “Endless War and the Erosion of Civil Liberties in the Age of Terrorism”; it is free and open the public, and event information is here; (2) on Thursday, April 12, in Ottawa, Canada, at 7:00 pm, I’ll be speaking at an event coordinated by long-time commenter Bill Owen, and in attendance will be the heroic Maher Arar; ticket and event information is here. Over the next few weeks, I’ll also be speaking in Seattle, Chicago and Washington, D.C. and will post details as those dates approach. Finally, this Friday night, I’ll be on Real Time with Bill Maher.

The Killer of Kandahar

I'm not buying it. The nearly identical stories in every single establishment paper, including The Times, The Monitor, The Post. The solid young man, beloved husband, good soldier, overextended service in Iraq and Afghanistan, veteran of and incident where 250 Iraqis died, but no Americans, financial woes, presumed victim of PTSD.

He beat up his old girlfriend and he was drinking. His lawyer denies he was drinking.

So convenient to say he snapped. So convenient to say the military doesn't know how to treat stress.

There is more to this story. We may never know the whole story. I am hopeful that the military and perhaps even the country have learned something in the many years since Vietnam. My feeling is that the truth will reflect badly on America.

Paddy's Day

Slainte President O'b.

Like most Irish-Americans of my generation, I'm all-Irish. This has consequences:


1. Red hair -- long gone.

2. Freckles -- likewise.

3. The Drink -- long gone, longer before that.

4. Sexual repression -- never gone.

5. Words -- still going.
____________________________________________

Tournament update -- I don't think Kentucky is going to lose. I need a neon tee shirt.

March Madness Gets Really Mad

Lehigh? Norfolk State? 15 seeds? Beating Duke and Mizzou? 2 seeds?

Give me a break.

I'm in mourning for Duke, my son's alma mater. Otherwise I might be cheering this incredible Day of the Underdog.

March Madness -- It begins

It is a great national ritual, greater in its way than the Oscars, even the Super Bowl.

I like Ohio State. I like this guy Jared Sullinger. I do know Kentucky is awesome -- strength at every position, with probably the best player in the country, Anthony Davis. Actually, I don't know anything about college hoops, except for Duke, where my son went.

I do know it is a wonderful equalizer. One loss and you're out gives the little guy a pretty good chance, and the stars of the small schools are guaranteed at least one night to shine in prime time. They won't earn millions in the NBA like the stars from the big schools (although there is Jeremy Lin), but they might me on highlight reels that will be shown for years to come.

And then there are the nicknames: aztecs, badgers, bearcats, bears, billikens, blackbirds, blue devils, bonnies, braves, buckeyes, buffaloes, bulldogs, cardinal, cardinals, cavaliers, commodores, cougars, crimson, cyclones, dons, eagles, fighting illini, fighting Irish, flyers, friars, greyhounds, hilltoppers, hoosiers, hoyas, huskies, jackrabbits, jayhawks, lobos, mountaineers, mountain hawks, musketeers, orange, runnin' rebels, shockers, spartans, tar heels, wildcats.

What's a hoya?

Melo-Drama

Push came to shove. Mike D'Antoni, coach of the New York Knicks, quit today after a six-game losing streak which, in turn, followed a euphoric winning streak that became known throughout the world as Linsanity, after Jeremy Lin, the cinderella star from Harvard. The collapse was blamed on the team's highest paid player, superstar forward Carmelo Anthony. Anthony had never been happy with Coach D'Antoni's fast paced system, built around a drive-and-pass point guard like Lin, rather than the post-and-pop style of Melo.

Team owner Jim Dolan readily accepted D'Antoni's resignation, probably because he was planning to fire him in the next few days. In conflicts like this, the star player wins. Plus, D'Antoni was too wedded to his system. He got lucky with Jeremy Lin, who now coughs up the ball way too much as defenses play him much tougher.

Then the Knicks went and won tonight by 42 points. Why? Well, the Portland TrailBlazers are a terrible team, and the Knicks had nothing to worry about except playing basketball. They played pretty much the way Mike D'Antoni taught them.

Oh. Did Newt Gingrich quit yet?

God's Guy

Karen Santorum: I honestly believe that this is the path God wants us on."

And Newt still says he won't drop out.

They were SOUTHERN primaries, and the Almighty Cracker doesn't believe Gingrich's bona fides. He knows hanky panky when He sees
it.

Does Mitt Romney have any friends left? At all?

If Newt had been humble (!), Saint Rick would have beat Mitt bad. Both Gingrich and Santorum carefully pointed out that together they're winning.

Romney has always presented himself as The Chosen. It seems that he isn't.

What've You Done for Me Lately

I see there's a new poll that says the President's approval rating has gone down a little after improvements in the economy had pushed his popularity up somewhat.

The economy is still improving, so what gives? Some says it's gas prices, and there's probably something to that. It could also be that Romney's closer approach to the GOP nomination is influencing Obama's numbers. That seems a little too roundabout.

This is what I think it is:

"So you think things are getting better, eh dude? Well that ain't good enough. Get it?"

Which is how it's gonna be. And O.'s number is better than WMR's. Today.

American Assassin

Lieut. William Calley was convicted of murdering 22 civilians at My Lai during the Vietnam War. He had been charged with killing 105 people. His unit was reported to have killed more than 500, mostly women and children. An Army court sentenced Lieut. Calley to life imprisonment. This war crime came to light only because of the reporting of Seymour Hersh. Incredibly the length of Calley's sentence won him wide sympathy, including from George Wallace and Jimmy Carter. President Nixon commuted life imprisonment to house arrest, and allowed the Army to release Calley after only three and a half years. Many years later, Calley apologized for the massacre, and continues to insist that he was following orders.

The Killer of Kandahar acted alone, and he may well not claim that his victims were harboring the Taliban (cf.the Viet Cong) , and he will almost certainly not claim he was doing what he was told.

But, especially after the Koran incident, the public urination incident, the U.S. once again faces condemnation for imperialistic revenge crime. Revenge against people who are not like us, people on whose behalf we have come to this god forsaken place, people I therefore hate.

Maybe this sergeant turns out to be a madman. But he's our madman.

March Madness

On the eve of Selection Sunday, NYTimesman Nate Silver converts his FiveThirtyEight blog from StatePoliticalPunditry to StatBracketology. Silver was apparently invited to a journalistic mock selection. This experience moved FiveThirtyEight to critique the NCAA's official selection. His analysis is even more esoteric than Nate's typical election forecast.

Now Silver is sort of OCD made into a career. So that's why he does this sort of thing. But he's given me an idea. I am now committing myself to the tournament. FiveThirtyEight and I thereby get mightily distracted from Mitt and Saint Rick and Newt. Which is a definite blessing.

Kony2012

I'm now one of more than 70 million people who have watched Jason Russell's video targeting the villainous militia leader Joseph Kony, whose specialty has been recruiting and arming little boys who go on to kill their parents and who sells little girls as sex slaves.

The half-hour video wanted poster has itself been attacked in Uganda and here by critics who point out that Kony is no longer operating in Uganda, and that after 26 years the army had diminished in size as it operates in smaller bands in Southern Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Central African Republic. The harshest criticism is that the video is an example of "white man's burden" or "savior" mentality. These are also critics of the International Criminal Court for listing only black Africans at the top of their Most Wanted list (Kony is number one). They also think the video will never accomplish the goal of bringing Kony to justice. Finally, the backlash critique is that relatively little of the money raised by Invisible Children, producer of the video, goes to the children. Most of the money, the producers acknowledge, goes into production and distribution.

The video is grandiose in its aim. Russell states it plainly. He wants to change the world. To some extent he has already succeeded. The video will be seen more than 100 million times. But the question remains: Will Joseph Kony be arrested? If he is not -- and the video gives an April 20 deadline -- then the critics will be proved right and the video will be written off as a dazzling ego trip. KONY2012 will
have been a gigantic flash in the pan, a footnote in cyber history.

If its very precise objective is met, however, and Joseph Kony is brought to The Hague, Mr. Russell's exercise will become an Internet milestone, and a harbinger of the future of effective social change.

Dancing with the Pols

At last we know Newt Gingrich's game. It's finally clear why he's still in the race. Why he's willing to put up with the obvious disdain of his fellow participants in the Long March..

Newt will try to pick up Alabama and Mississippi on Tuesday then, come what may, he'll step aside with a flourish. An hour-long flourish, at least. In that same speech, G will announce his next career move. Reality TV! Brilliant! A political dance show.

Newt and Callista rehearsed last night in the lounge of the Jackson Hilton. Their favorite number, Elton John's "Rocket Man" will be the new show's theme. The scheduled debut? Inauguration Night. Let's face it, which would you prefer, news reporters telling you about inaugural balls, or state senators and county prosecutors doing the tango on a show hosted by the dancing Gingrichs. Sensational.

War Drummers

In the Presidential Election of 1964, Lyndon Johnson had 486 electoral votes. Barry Goldwater had 52.

Most observers gave credit to the contribution of the famous "daisy" commercial that showed the image of four year-old Monique Corzilius picking petals from a daisy and childishly beginning to count from ten, only to have a male voice count down to a black screen, then an explosion and the image of a mushroom cloud.

In his Super Tuesday news conference, President Obama much less melodramatically made the same point versus his would be opponents from the (allegedly) loyal opposition, pointing out t hat their "casualness" when they "beat the drums of war" is reckless. "This is not a game," Obama said.

The three Republicans are only going to get scarier as they get more desperate.

Mitt Romney better watch out. He should remember Barry Goldwater. And little Monique.

Super Slog

Other primary campaigns have been longer, of course. Some candidates have been chosen at the convention. This one seems interminable because of all those dreadful debates. Also the painfully underwhelming contestants. Santorum who couldn't get re-elected to the Senate; Romney who wouldn't run for re-election as governor; Gingrich who was forced out of the Speakership because the Contract with America turned into chaos and corruption; Bachmann who was in way over her head; Perry whose initial promise was undercut by his ineptitude as a campaigner; Cain who was nothing more than a standup comic; Huntsman who was out of sync with the republican zeitgeist; and Ron Paul who is runnng for something else.

But most of all, it's because Mitt Romney doesn't seem to have it. It's not just that very few people like him. It's because he keeps coming up short in the eyes of voters who are perfectly willing to like him. They keep expecting medioocrity to turn into momentum. Last night, that didn't happen.

Too Close To Call

So let's come back in the morning.

When Winners Are Losers, and other losers

I kinda thought Putin might win; I have the same sort of feeling about Mitt Romney. Trouble is, Vlad looks like he might have fiddled with the results a little, plus he's created quite a meaningful protest movement he'll probably crush one of these days. As for Mitt, new polls show him behind O. by ten points and getting walloped among working class whites without a college education, and way down at 22% among independents. Can Romney be the next Comeback Kid? He'll have to stop screwing up.

Speaking of which, wife Ann says she doesn't even consider herself wealthy. Didn't you hear hubby talking about the Caddys?

And also...it's time to start getting really glad McCain lost.

King Pyrrhus

It's been clear for some time that Willard Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee. Super Tuesday should pretty much seal the deal. But the contestants who have dropped out along the way or who are about to, all deserve a piece of the bounty pool for Mitt will survive the primary campaign so battered and bruised that he will reach the election day finish line-- unless there is an October Surprise -- barely on his feet.

Must Read

Great piece in The Times by Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Laurie Goodstein about Rick Santorum and his affiliation with Opus Dei and the Legionnaires of Christ, the extreme right wing of the Roman church, as well as the back story of Santorum's ex-abortionist wife. Great stuff.

Just Football

Brett Favre, whose website proclaims him to be the winningest quarterback in NFL history, says he's not "pissed" to learn that New Orleans Saints defensemen were playing for individual bounty bonuses of up to $10,000 when they seriously reinjured his ankle during the 2009 NFC championship game. Favre says that cheap shots are part of the game and that having a cash pool on injuries is no big deal. "It's football," says Favre, still all macho even after hanging up his cleats. Mr. Favre may also be thinking of one day becoming a coach. He's also got a big stake in the memorabilia racket.

Commissioner Roger Goodell is not likely to share Favre's insouciance. Former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams who both ran and contributed to the Saints bounty fund says he knew it was wrong when he was doing it and promises he'll never do it again. Believe me he won't get a chance. Williams will be luck if he ever works in the league again, especially he used the same scheme when he was with the Washington Redskins and the Tennessee Titans. General Manager Mickey Loomis, who was told by the Saints owner to terminate the bounty fund, ignored his boss's order. Look for Loomis to get a very stiff penalty, maybe even losing his job.

The big question is what will happen to the Saints' highly regarded head coach Sean Payton. The NFL investigation says Payton didn't take part in the bounty program, but did know it was going on and did nothing to stop it. My guess is Payton keeps his job but has to cough up as much as a million bucks.

These injury incentives were intended to "cart off" or "knock out" an opposing player, to remove him from the action. It probably has existed on other teams, but it's very dirty, and unless the punishment is severe and policing against recurrence is vigilant, it will reflect horribly on the sport. Which is why the punishment will be severe and why it won't happen again, at least not in this form.

Fatso

My favorite Rush quote of the week is not even the slut one, which is merely gross like him. It's when he said of Danica Patrick, who also talked about Obama and birth control, "What do you expect from a woman driver?"

To see what i find comical about that remark, just picture Limbaugh behind the wheel of a race car.