Morning Coffee (146)

Good Morning. I meant to get this Brewed yesterday, but was unable to do so as I went to the Mariner's Museum in Newport News to check out the preservation effort of the USS Monitor. I recommend checking this museum out if you ever make it to the Norfolk region. Interestingly, on the way to the museum we saw in the distance the commissioning ceremony for the US Navy's newest aircraft carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77). It was a good day, but I failed as the Brewer.

Man on Wire:
The other night I watched a fascinating documentary about a Frenchman named Philippe Petit. I really hope you've heard of him, but I sort of doubt it. Petit was a high-wire artist, and by 1974 had used his skills to walk on wires strung across a number of famous structures including Notre Dame de Paris and the Sydney Harbor Bridge. But since 1968, Petit had aspired to tackle the ultimate - to walk on a wire strung between the not-yet finished World Trade Center towers. Amazingly, he did just that. After years of meticulous planning, going so far as making a scale model of the towers, Petit spent 45 minutes walking, kneeling, sitting, and laying on a wire that stretched across the 140 foot gap that separated the towers, all at a height of 1,368 feet. The story is spell-binding, and the feat is truly amazing.

Petit got arrested, as he did after most of his stunts involving breaking into or trespassing on certain sites, but he came out alright in the end. His punishment was to perform for a group of school children, which he did. He also helped bring positive news to the towers, which weren't at all popular at the time of their construction. And he received a lifetime pass to the observation deck to the towers.

While the man himself somewhat annoys me, being a melodramatic beatnik whose passion likely immolates everything and everyone he touches, I cannot deny that his feat is one of the most wondrous I've ever seen. I am glad he did it. Perhaps it will help exorcise the other images of the towers from my head.

Blagojavich to be Deposed:
Moving on to something far less inspiring, it appears that the Illinois House finally grew some guts and have voted to impeach Governor Blagojavich. The trial could start within a couple of weeks, and a two-thirds majority of the Illinois Senate, which will act as the jury in this trial, could see Blagojavich removed from office. Considering that the vote in the House to impeach Blago was 114-1 with one vote of present (116 total), I assess that Blago's days are rather numbered as the Senate has about the same amount of love for the man as the House. Blago's response to the impeachment was to go out for a run, which he does a lot of, apparently. It's probably some deep-seated psychological issue; running away from his problems. He actually compared his recent trials and tribulations to the loneliness of long-distance running. Right. Every 10 mile run I ever did was just like being impeached and forced from office. He then said his work to help the people of Illinois is not an impeachable offense. This is true. But it's possible that trying to sell a US Senate seat is.

In other Blago-related news, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that Blago's appointment of Roland Burris to the US Senate doesn't need to be consummated with a signature from the State Secretary of State, and that the Court would not force the Secretary to sign the appointment. I find this to be wonderful. The Court's job is not to legislate from the bench, but merely to determine what is legal. And Blagojevich still has the legal right to appoint the replacement for Barack Obama. Separation of powers, folks; it's really a beautiful thing so long as we understand it (which most of us apparently don't). I'm sure many of us will look at the Court's decision as supporting Blago and Burris, but that's not the case at all. They're doing their job. No more, no less.

More Corruption, Brought to you by the Uncorruptable:
Further disproving Democrat assertions that only Republicans are morally bankrupt buffoons whose ranks teem with the corrupt, yet another Democratic politician has been outed. This time it's Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, who although is the city's first female mayor, also seems to be as corrupt and immoral as her male counterparts (Spitzer, Blago, Kilpatrick, Patterson, etc, etc). Dixon was yesterday charged with a mere 12 counts of relatively minor infractions such as felony theft, perjury, fraud, and misconduct in office. She allegedly accepted $15,348 in gifts from a former boyfriend who happened to be a city developer, and also may have used $3,400 in gift cards to buy electronics for herself and her staff. What's the big deal? Some of the gift cards were donated to her office so that she could give them to needy families. I guess she needed them more than they did.

She didn't go for a run after the charges were made public, but she says that she won't let those charges deter her from "keeping Baltimore on the path we have set." Some path, Mayor. Some path. Perhaps all Baltimoreans (this is a real word) would like to be set on the path to a possible 85 years in prison too.

Frankified Elections:
Joe Carson, of the online magazine Salon, says, in essence, that unless critics can prove that Franken stole the elections, they should just shut up and accept his win in Minnesota. I wholeheartedly agree; good advice for Republicans to follow, lest they sound like their opposition once did. I just wonder where this Joe Carson guy was 8 years ago when liberals were accusing George Bush of the same thing? Consistency, friends. Just try it once. You might like it.

Silver Ladle of Justice Pours its Foamy Cream Over the Just-Picked Strawberries of Piracy:
In a laughable turn of events, it seems that the Somali pirates who hijacked the oil tanker Sirius Star, got what they asked for, and then some. Well, they sort of got what they asked for; they had to settle for a $3 million ransom, rather than the $16 million they wanted. But they got an immediate return on their investment of time and energy; five of the eight pirates died when their boat capsized. So much for stellar seamanship. Blackbeard is rolling in his grave. Apparently, the pirates argued over the loot and how to split it, and then, on their high-speed trip back to shore, ran into some heavy waves and sank. And the ones who died took their cash with them. Oh, sweet justice. (Thanks to The Tick for the header to this segment - the cancellation of this show was a tragedy.)

The news of dead pirates comes on the heals of an announcement by the US Navy that it will head a new anti-piracy task force. From what I've read, this new task force will have no authority to do anything, but is expected to make command and control more efficient. Wow. What an exercise in bureaucratic futility. A task force that cannot take the fight to the pirates, but instead focused on coordinating...I don't know what, is worthless. Better communications between warships of dozens of navies is important, but it does little if there isn't a combined effort to bring the might of those warships to bear. Maybe we're moving in that direction. Someone needs to establish some clear rules of engagement.

To close this segment, a eulogy for those brave, albeit foolish pirates, as read by The Tick:

"Death. The eternal blink. The capricious dance of Now You Stop Moving Forever. Well, contrary to popular belief, death isn't just for dead people. It can happen to anyone. I know, it's news to me too. And it's not just people either, it's all kinds of stuff. Horses, fiddler crabs. Did you know that even a potato... can die?"

Word of the Day: Fastidious (adjective): Hard to please; extremely refined or critical.

On This Day in History: Emperor Theodosius I is born (347). Theodosius was a very important figure in early Christianity. The Michigan Territory is created (1805). Insulin is first used to treat diabetes in a human patient (1922). Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies. Japan captures Kuala Lampur (1942). The US and UK give up territorial rights in China (1943). US Surgeon General Dr. Luther Terry states that smoking may be hazardous to health, which is the first government statement saying as such (1964). East Pakistan renames itself Bangladesh (1972). Legendary US Marine aviator and recipient of the Medal of Honor and Navy Cross Gregory "Pappy" Boyington dies (1988).

"Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct." - Thomas Jefferson. Because this bears repeating.

Morning Coffee (141)

Again, an edition of the weekend Coffee, since that's the only time I have to write.

Indulge me, as I discuss something most of you might not care about.

"Mad Dog" Sails into Sunset:

In the waning days of the summer of 1995, I had an awakening of sorts when I saw a Cleveland Indians' game on television. Something clicked for me with the game of baseball, and it was love at first sight. It was also the beginning of a love-hate-anguish relationship with the Tribe. That year, they were a 25-man wrecking ball of offense, pouring on the runs with the speedy Kenny Lofton at the top a lineup featuring future Hall of Famers Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez and Omar Vizquel, along with another man, Albert Belle, who would have been a lock for the Hall had his hip not given up on him. These guys were backed by a decent starting rotation, and a couple of fireballing relievers. They put the finishing touches on their Central Division championship pretty early that year, going 100-44 in a strike shortened season. And low and behold, they found themselves in their first World Series since 1952.

But the Tribe fell short that year, largely because of a slightly built, nerdy looking Atlanta Braves pitcher who I had never heard of: Greg Maddux. Maddux started two games against the Indians during the World Series and won them both. After seeing him and the other two members of the trifecta of doom, Tom Glavin and John Smoltz, completely disassemble the world's greatest offense, I was hooked. Greg Maddux became my favorite pitcher that year, a year in which he went 19-2 with an other-worldly 1.63 ERA, and he remained so until his retirement from pitching this past Monday.

Maddux wasn't like most of the pitchers you probably heard of during the 1990s. He didn't throw 95 miles per hour or more. He wasn't a big, strong dude who struck out batters by the dozen. He didn't have a knee-buckling curveball; his frankly rated little better than a good high schooler's curveball. He didn't have a jaw-dropping splitter. He was just a regular looking guy. His success was derived partly from laser-like accuracy (a mere 999 walks in 23 years) and a late moving, if not particularly fast fastball. But make no mistake about it, Maddux conquered baseball with something beyond pure physical skill: his intellect. This was how he thrived in an era of high-octane offense. And that's why I liked Maddux. He was as analytical as anyone in the game, and was perhaps more so than anyone. They called him "The Professor." My favorite bit of Maddux trivia illustrates the intellectual vigor with which he approached the game. He said that during warm ups and bullpen sessions, he threw more pitches from the stretch, the stance used with runners on base, because, he said, "when is it more important to execute a pitch, with runners on base or with no one on?" In another instance, Braves staff were reviewing scouting reports when Maddux chimed in, "that report is wrong, I've been watching [blank] during batting practice." They're reply, "throw out the scouting report. Listen to Mad Dog." He once watched a player take his BP cuts and leaned over to another player and said, "We might have to call an ambulance for the first base coach." Sure enough, the first base coach got drilled in the chest on the very next pitch. He could tell where the ball was going just by the placement of the hitter's body in the batter's box. Which was probably the reason he won an unprecedented 18 Gold Glove awards, 13 of them consecutively.

Despite his success (i.e. four consecutive Cy Young Awards), he was humble in demeanor. More than this, his reputation is without blemish. No one would ever accuse Maddux of using performance enhancing anything, unless they were referring to his 100-lbs brain, of course. And get this, Maddux, winner of 355 games, is the winningest pitcher alive, a title he will certainly carry until his death. Thankfully Maddux overcame the now-tainted Roger Clemens.

So Monday was, for me, a time of reflection and a bit of sadness. Every time Greg Maddux came up for free agency (which wasn't very often in this free agent mad world), or when trade rumors circulated (again, very infrequently), I hoped that I'd see him pitch in an Indians' uniform. It never happened, but I still count myself lucky to have seen one of the greatest pitchers to have ever played the game.

The Great Overachiever:
It amuses me that the man who was supposed to change everything is already mired in a political scandal, and he's still more than a month from being sworn in as our President. So much for Washington outsider, eh?

As of right now, nothing reported points to Obama having anything to do with Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and his desire to sell off Obama's now vacant Senate seat. And it might be that nothing ever does, though that doesn't prevent the stain of the scandal from setting on his Inauguration. Especially as it is becoming more evident that Obama's soon-to-be Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, who has close ties to both Obama and Blagojevich, at the very least talked with Blago about the Senate vacancy. And it doesn't help that neither Obama nor Emanuel made more than a token effort to answer questions about this scandal this past week, with Emanuel being downright hostile to questions. At least Obama tried, proclaiming that he was confident that no representatives of his engaged with Blagojevich regarding the selection of a replacement Senator. That assertion losses credence when Emanuel apparently called Blago's Chief of Staff, John Harris (who has also been brought up on federal corruption charges) just prior to Election Day and presented to Harris a list of names that Obama would find acceptable. Emanuel then called back after the election to add another name to the "approved of" list. Very interesting.

Did Obama or Emanuel do anything illegal? Not as far as I can tell. But Blagojevich surely intended to gain personally from his selection of Obama's Senate replacement, that much is clear from the transcripts of the taped conversations Blagojevich had with Harris and others. Even if Obama and his representative Emanuel did nothing technically illegal, the appearance of impropriety is there, despite Blagojevich's tapped statement that "they" (Obama's administration) were unwilling to give him anything except appreciation (if that's true, I give kudos to Obama and his proxies). Appearances trump reason in all cases. Mayhap Emanuel will the sacrificial lamb here. A good cleansing cures a great deal.

With that, I sidebar into another Morning Coffee sponsored political reform proposal, which I'll continue to repeat ad nauseum: when one politician decides to run for another office, he/she must give up their present office so that another may run (see previous rant on Joe Biden's seat in Delaware). This way, the People (you remember those guys, right?), can select their own Representation (imagine that) and we take remove such power from the hands of an individual. Selecting replacements for vacancies is highly political, and it is of such importance that I do not trust any one person to make that choice on our behalf.

The Rapidly Expiring Honeymoon:
The Blagojevich controversy comes on the heals of a wide-spread malaise in liberal circles. It seems that many, still warm from the euphoria of having the so-called Chosen One actually win, are being slapped in the face with the cold, hard hand called Reality. The fanboys are still fanboys, but there's an uneasiness; a concern that Obama might not do or be what he claimed he would. Many are angered over his Cabinet selections. One blogger, Chris Bower of OpenLeft says, "Isn't there ever a point when we can get an actual Democratic administration?" Backsliding abounds, friends. I really haven't any intention of going into all the instances of Obama's adjustments on Iraq or tax cuts or whatever, but suffice it to say, I find it rather humorous. All those idealists who'll have their hopes and dreams shattered when they realize that Obama's just like the rest: he'll say whatever sounds good at the time. It's called political expediency. This, dear readers, is part of the reason I wanted a Democrat to win. Sue me, I get joy in seeing hopes and dreams crushed.

The flip side is, the fears of many conservatives are likely alleviated to some degree (not fully, of course, he still is a Democrat), but they'll never admit it. They've put too much effort in calling Obama a socialist, etc, etc, to ever back off from those assertions.

I leave you with that. It's time to go play on the beach, where it's sunny and 50 degrees plus already. Life is mostly good. Enjoy your Coffee and your day.

Word of the Day: Dastard (noun): A mean coward.

On This Day in History: Nostradamus is born (1503). The Wright Brothers make their first attempt to fly at Kitty Hawk (1903). The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations after invading Finland (1939). George Bush announces the capture of Saddam Hussein (2003).

"I don't think it would be appropriate for me to comment on the issue at this time. It's a sad day for Illinois." - President-elect Barack Obama on the Blagojevich controversy. Is this the type of leadership we can expect for the next four years?