Friday, February 03, 2006

Wetterling Off to the Races   Patty Wetterling, the nationally known child safety advocate, has declared for Republican Rep. Mark Kennedy's vacant House seat.  She instantly becomes the prohibitive favorite for the Democratic nomination and a formidable candidate in the general election.  (Rep. Kennedy is the anointed Republican candidate for the Senate.)  Two years ago, Ms. Wetterling lost a close race to Rep. Kennedy.  Ms. Wetterling's Democratic and Republican opponents are running scared; they are accusing her of being a "typical politician"...like themselves...because when she was running her abortive race for the Senate she said she wasn't going to run for the House seat.  It's illegal to run for two different federal offices at the same time.  Evidently saying she had no plans to break the law makes her dishonest. 6:56:33 PM    comment []

Basketball Trades   Though I haven't been writing about it, I think Knicks GM Isaiah Thomas has been one of the more disastrous general managers in basketball history.  ('Couse, this cat's so delusional he was asked what he'd have done if he didn't play basketball, and he said be President.)  On the other hand, trading the aging Antonio Davis (he's 37), in the last year of a huge contract, in return for Jalen Rose and a first round draft pick, is the best deal of the year.  Granted, Rose is also overpaid, and had been having a disappointing season in Toronto (like everyone there but Chris Bosh), but he's a quality player who is in what should be the prime years of his career.  And with the Knicks about a billion dollars over the salary cap, they aren't going to be a force in the free agent market for many, many years; so the first round pick is huge.  Their best chance is to draft good players. In the bigger Wolves-Celtics trade last week, the Celtics appear to have gotten screwed with their pants on.  It's unclear whether the Wolves have gotten much better (they got blown out by Detroit...like every other team in the league), but the Celtics gave up their best defender, Ricky Davis, in return for Wally Szczerbiak, whose acquaintance with defense is largely theoretical. 5:38:38 PM    comment []

The New Leader of the "Reform" Process   The new Republican majority leader in the US House, Rep. John Boehner, has much to prove.  True, he didn't preside over the House during the period of its grossest abuses of process and its most grievous corrupt acts.  But he was a leader in the Gingrich years; he was one of the architects of moving leadership of Washington outside of Congress and putting it into the hands of unelected Republican lobbyists on K Street in the first place.  On its face, this process made a certain amount of sense for Republican disinterested in anything but raw power.  Republican majorities in Congress can vanish in a single bad day, while, much like cockroaches, even nuclear weapons couldn't wipe out all the lobbyists.  For Rep. Boehner to be credible as an agent of reform, he will have to push for massive legislative and lobbying reforms...and supervision of Congressional ethics needs to be taken out of the hands of the House, and given over to the Justice Department, preferably in the form of a permanent special prosecutor's office.  But don't expect that to happen with Rep. Boehner in power.  He is as cozy with the status quo as anyone.  The only thing he didn't like about the former status quo was his lack of power.  Now that he's majority leader, I have a hunch we're going to discover he thinks everything is all better now. 5:12:43 PM    comment []

Quote for the Day, 2/3/2006   "Maybe my head's full of wishes. Maybe my head's full of pictures. Maybe my head's full of problems. Maybe my head's full of pictures of you."   -Galaxie 500, "Pictures"  4:28:32 PM    comment []

Download This!   The Gossip-Standing in the Way of Control  If you haven't heard of the Gossip, they're basically a female Arkansas punk band.  Now, when quality chick punk bands are coming out of Arkansas, you know punk is everywhere.  On their latest album, the Gossip has softened some of its rough edges, sacrificing some of their earlier wildness for the sake of a slicker, more polished sound.  This is an excellent song, absolutely, but I also liked the songs that would never appear in a Target ad or an episode of The OC.  (Mind you, I don't know this song will...but it sure could.) 1:27:37 PM    comment []