Smearing Paul

Eating my lunch at work in the cafeteria afforded me the opportunity to watch Fox News on one of the big-screen TV's. For the first time since probably the late 90's I saw a television report on domestic hate/terrorist groups. Neo-Nazis, Timothy McVeigh, Muslims, Militias and other baddies figured prominently in the piece.

Various commentators, politicians and bureaucrats were discussing the looming threat of a domestic terror attack from these groups that "hate" our country. Of course, no distinction was made of the fact that it is the government that is the main focus of their anger. There was also the talk of a possible alliance between the white domestic fringe groups and Muslim extremists from the Middle East.

I found the timing of this report to make perfect sense since the neo-conservative establishment
has recently begun to try and indirectly link Ron Paul to Neo-Nazi groups in an effort to slander his reputation.

This campaign against Paul is only just beginning and I expect it to get hotter in the next few weeks. Ultimately, though, I don't think the establishment will be successful with this line of attack. Since Paul has a palpable decency about him and a nearly pure freedom voting record in Congress these smears will quickly fall by the wayside since they are illogical. Add into that the quick-fire response of the internet to smears and distortions and the establishment will have to move onto a different smearing campaign.

Brave Development

The fact that the Braves are going to be increasing their payroll by millions of dollars is quite the unexpected development. Perhaps a run at Carlos Silva will be in the offing? I think he'd be a nice fit. Extending Mark Teixeira is probably a good chance now.

It's good to read this because the Braves will be able to hang with Philadelphia and New York for the forseeable future on the payroll front. And then there's Washington who's going to be gearing up their payroll over the next few years.

All in all the National League East should be a fun watch for the next few years. Here are ten reasons all under the age of 30 -- Hanley, Rollins, Zimmerman, Escobar, Wright, Reyes, Milledge, Cabrera (for the next two weeks at least), Howard and Teixeira.

Ron Paul Defines Chickenhawkism

From the Rolling Stone interview comes this deliciously accurate quote by Ron Paul.

Giuliani seems to be the warmonger in chief — leading the drumbeat for war with Iran. What would a Giuliani presidency mean for our national security?

If someone is unhappy with the Bush policy, they would find Giuliani's would be even more extreme. But since Giuliani is so anxious to go to war, somebody ought to ask him why he didn't go when he was called up instead of ducking it like some of those other chicken hawks — he took, what, four deferrals?

The kids today are expected to go because Giuliani likes this stuff. But whether it's Cheney or Giuliani, these guys think it's quite proper to go to war when they feel like it. But they never had to expose themselves.

Sabathia's Three Million Dollar Haul

The take on Sabathia's Cy Young Award win today from Baseball Prospectus. It's about the Benjamins, er, the innings.

Sabathia pitched 241 innings to Beckett’s 200.7, an advantage of more than 20 percent. He completed the 7th inning 24 times, as opposed to Beckett’s 15, a critical threshold for a team with a set-up man as effective as Rafael Betancourt, but inconsistent middle relief. As a result, Sabathia finished with a 65.2 Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) to Beckett’s 58.6. The voters have started to look at these statistics, and it’s giving them a more complete picture of pitcher performance.

Bannerman's Island

About 1-2 hours due east of where I grew up in upstate New York there exists a couple of regions whose best years have passed them by. The Catskill Mountains were the home of a great many resorts and weekend getaway spots for upscale northeasterners through the 1960's. And the Hudson Valley (due north of New York City) was home to what passed for much of the prominent landed aristocracy in the United States since the 1600's.

In my lifetime I've only known it as that creepy area between the most famous city in the world and the Adirondack Mountains. While the Catskills are filled with tired towns and empty hotels the Hudson Valley has a bit of old history still haunting the area today.

The B-Burgs may remember this area as the place that we saw the ghost of Mickey Mantle.

Revenue Pigs

A perfect example of the immorality of taxing authority occurred in Maryland over the weekend. Down in Annapolis the Democratic-dominated legislature was trying to finagle the Democratic Governor's $2 billion tax increase past the voters. For a state with a budget around $30 billion that's quite a nice increase for those pigs.

Anyway, there was a controversial tax on landscaping companies and computer service businesses that was set to be passed. The computer service tax rose the eyebrows of my wife and I since she has one of those evil computer service businesses. Well, someone (i.e. influential and vocal citizens/business leaders) got to the legislators before both of those were passed and they were stricken from the tax bill.

Great then! Whoops, not soooo fast. They quickly replaced those two newly stricken tax sources with a brand new one - a tax on all automobile repairs.

The legislature wised up and figured that old people that depend on landscapers as well as regular people might get a bit steamed about the tax increase and choose to lessen their reliance on those businesses. Over the long-term this might decrease tax revenue as Maryland citizens would scale back their use of these services. And in regards to the computer services tax that puppy would strike right at the heart of one of the most dynamic parts of the economy and surely raise the ire of businesses since those types of services can relocate to Pennsylvania or Delaware.

But the auto repair industry? That's an easy one for the politicians. It's a guaranteed consistent revenue stream. Auto repair shops can't easily relocate to nearby states and unlike computer services or landscaping, auto repair is an absolute necessity for consumers. Most people can mow their lawn and some can shop for computer services out of state. But in the case of one's car you gotta have wheels to make money, get those groceries and take grandma to her doctor appointments. Plus, what do the auto repair shops care? They know that their revenue stream is safe because people gotta have them wheels. Therefore, they don't really have a reason to lobby Annapolis and scare the politcians into moving on to some other industry to extort from.

So in the end, Maryland consumers are stuck and the politicians get to stick the tax bill right up their asses.

In the Money

If we assume the vig is 10% and the bets are $100 a game then the B-Burgs are up $80 on the year.

Reliever Romero Signs

J.C. Romero is the classic example of the up and down performance of relievers on a year-to-year basis. The key with this group is to find one who doesn't embarrass himself in the down years and can put up great years when he's on. Romero is one such reliever.

The Phillies just signed him to a 3-year $12 million contract today. For a guy who's thrown less than an inning an appearance the past three seasons that may be a bit steep but the Phillies desperately needed to get Brett Myers back into the starting rotation so they had to make sure their bullpen would be solid enough.

A positive note about Romero's up and down career is the fact that since 2002 he's only had one season in which left-handers have had a +.700 OPS against him.

A Six-Man Ro

I can say with near certainty that no major league team has ever employed a six-man starting rotation over the course of an entire season.

With the recent signing of Curt Schilling, though, it could become a possibility with the 2008 Red Sox. Boston GM Theo Epstein has said he's considering the idea. It would be constructed to provide plenty of rest for the oldsters, Curt Schilling and Tim Wakefield, in an effort to keep their arms fresh. While Taylor Buchholz and Jon Lester, the under age 25 set, would get plenty of rest to protect their young arms over the long season. Josh Beckett, the least likely to break down, would be kept on an almost full five man rotation schedule while Daisuke Matsuzaka would start a few less games than Beckett.

One possibility of how the rotation would be constructed would be to start Beckett 32 times with Matsuzaka starting 29 games. Lester would start 27, Schilling and Wakefield 25, and Buchholz would bring up the rear with 24 starts.

The Red Sox are an organization that's brave enough (i.e. handle the media criticism if it doesn't work) to give this a go. They'd also be an organization brave enough to move to a four man rotation if the personnel they had could make it work.

Great Job

By Ron Paul this morning.

The Next Push

With the 5th of November now in the past Ron Paul supporters can look forward to the 11th of November for the next fundraising push. They're looking for 10,000 pledges of $100 by the 11th to provide a cool $1 mil for the campaign on that day. Sitting at 571 pledges at the time of this writing the 10,000 looks a ways off but look at today's vertical trajectory.

Plus, an additional 245k has been donated today. I think you could say there's a bit of a buzz developing around Paul as people begin to look for a way to save their country from the rotten-to-the-core D.C. establishment.

Liberty's Pocketbook Just Got Bigger

After raising a little over $4 million dollars yesteday (November 5th), the Ron Paul campaign has pulled in $65,000 in the first hour of November 6th. One thing I hadn't thought of was the residual effect of a big 11/5 for Paul. With the publicity of the event hurtling through the internet the big dollars may continue to roll in for a number of hours or perhaps even days.

The $12 million 4th quarter goal is looking more and more feasible as each hour passes.

California's Got It Right

Drew Carey defends the civilizing practice of smoking marijuana for medical reasons. Contrary to the belief of many bureaucrats and the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency, it's the outlawing of marijuana use (for any reason actually) that is a mark of a society that is uncivilized.

Reason.TV has a nice way about it. First I've seen of it. Oh, and where did Carey's flat-top go?

This Fall's Baseball Book

This is cool. Jamey Newberg's been writing a yearly book providing a synopsis of all things Texas Rangers since 2000.

Class Moves Again

Edgar Renteria's trade to the Detroit Tigers for two prospects this week has kicked off baseball's off-season with a bang. Renteria has been a solid shortstop since his first year in the majors in 1996 and with 1,934 hits to his name after his age 31 season he looks like a good bet to reach 3,000 hits.

A pro's pro, Renteria has been willingly employed up and down batting lineups for four different teams throughout his career. Renteria's batted 2nd the most in his career -- 963 games. He's batted 6th and 7th the next most -- 273 and 245 games. He's also played in 200+ games batting 1st, 3rd and 5th in the lineup. Throughout all those changes Renteria has performed consistently at the plate as a good doubles, batting average and on-base average hitter. He'll serve as a nice upgrade to the Tiger offense and defense in '08.

One of the great things about successful veterans being traded for prospects is that many times it introduces me to minor league prospects I've never come across. With well over 4,000 minor leaguers plying their wares each year I'm bound to miss a few during my daily baseball studies. Two such prospects that I hadn't heard of are the two traded for Renteria -- Gorkys Hernandez and Jair Jurgens. Zach Jett provides a nice synopsis of the two. As Jett says this will help replenish the Braves somewhat depleted minor league system after the surge of Brave minor leaguers that graduated to the majors during the impressive 2005 season and the trade for Mark Texeira this summer that sent five Brave minor leaguers to Arlington.

The trade of Renteria also frees up money for the tight Atlanta budget so a free agent starting pitcher can be signed. And Yunel Escobar should slip in at short nicely for the Braves in '08. Especially at a sub 500k salary.

And what would a Brave's post be without comment from Rowland's Office regarding Renteria.

Still, it's sad to see such a classy pro leave so quickly. Has there ever been such an excellent, popular, solid citizen and winning player who's changed teams so often? Vagabonds like Sheffield and Lofton are fine players. But popular? Good in the clubhouse? Not quite.

Detroit will be Edgar's third club in four seasons, after stints here and in Boston. In appreciating Edgar, I struggled to recall standout moments. And maybe that's the point with Edgar. He's not a player who hits a game-winning homer, or makes a spectacular play that defines a season or career. Rather, he's a guy you need to watch daily to truly appreciate.

Edgar is more Columbo than Magnum PI: an unassuming genuis, a player of pure substance.

I would offer that Edgar, in his two seasons here, established himself as the best shortstop in Atlanta Braves history. It's no landslide and maybe you don't achieve that in just two seasons. However, I think it's proper in this case.

My sentiments exactly.

On Mark

Paul talks foreign policy in Iowa.

Abandoning Flint

Baltimore has some of the same themes as what is described in Bryan Finoki's post but it's not nearly as extreme as what has become of Flint. As seen in the pictures in the post, I have not come across abandoned strip malls or neighborhoods with the overgrowth that high in Baltimore.

There we were in this plain white vehicle truckin’ northbound on the I-69 with oversized Starbucks cups in our hands...whizzing past corn fields and Rest Areas and strange taxonomies of roadkill that accumulated every few hundred yards or so on the highway’s shoulders... squirrels, raccoons, mice, gophers, rabbits, cats, drivers (who knows what else) … the road to Flint was already a stroll through a long cemetery.When Wes, Nihal, and I headed up there a few weeks ago I couldn’t wait to pick up on that geography of urban ruins that weaves so many of my interests together about architecture, global economies, lost histories, indigenous culture, systemic poverty, the road trip, contexts of abandonment, informal communities, urban salvagers, and so on.

Old Man Winter Arrives

It feels like 1995 all over again.

Secession and Ron Paul

Via Lew's blog comes Jeiel Schalkwijk's socialist case for Ron Paul.

I will give three examples, socialized healthcare, moral laws and gun control. Ron Paul is not an advocate of these things, but his presidency will help the groups that advocate these things.

Since the federal government will take in less tax, states can afford to raise taxes as high as they see fit and use it to implement socialized healthcare. Now you do not need to convince the entire United States that socialized healthcare is better, but you only need to convince the people of your state, a much simpler task.

Your state can have its own healthcare plan and you could withdraw from Medicare and Medicaid.

Among the many reasons I support Paul is that I believe he would not murder secessionists if they initiated leaving the United States. I don't think there's another candidate in the Democratic or Republican fields that wouldn't at the least try very hard to cajole secessionists away from pushing forward with their plans. Many would use overt force of arms.

During my evening exercise I realized that this goes to the crux of why I support Paul. He recognizes the inherent right to secede and the flourishing of humanity and freedom that would occur during a peaceful secession. While I don't think we'll see him openly advocating secession as a means to weaken the Federal behemoth I do believe that if posed the question he would unequivocally support the right to secede from the United States.

Knocking on the Door

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Ron's 5% showing in Gallup is the highest he's garnered to date with Gallup. He's keeping in step with Huckabee and distancing himself from Brownback, Hunter and Tancredo.

And these baby steps may start turning into adult steps real quickly as the money continues to pour into his campaign.

The Best Pitcher You Don't Know

Webb

Underappreciated Sawx

Lowell

Devilish Movement

Carmona

Colorado's Twenty-Two Year Old Leader

Tulowitzki

The Final Four

I haven't looked this forward to the Major League Baseball Championship Series for years. The Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians offer a match-up of great 1-2 punches in the starting rotations as well as top-to-bottom strong offenses. Out west the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks match-up holds many of the game's youngest stars and should be a rollicking affair of homers, stolen bases, fine pitching and great defense.

On Pace to Exceed 3rd Quarter

Here's a guy that knows how to have fun with graphs. And the subject is Ron Paul's fund-raising.

Lock Up Your Back Door

Jen, I found this interesting. You may also.

Paul's Live Show

Now you can track Ron Paul's campaign contributions by the hour.

Computer Warfare

John Robb gives an overview of a particularly nasty bit of malware. It reminds one a tad of fourth generation warfare.

Storm is designed like an ant colony, with a separation of duties. Only a small fraction of infected hosts spread the worm. A much smaller fraction are C2: command-and-control servers. The rest stand by to receive orders. By only allowing a small number of hosts to propagate the virus and act as command-and-control servers, Storm is resilient against attack. Even if those hosts shut down, the network remains largely intact, and other hosts can take over those duties.

Well, That Was Quick

Not a good last half week for the Angels and Vlad Guerrero. Also, not a good week for me. The Angels just finished getting swept by the Red Sox today. I picked the Angels to win the World Series this year in what my Dad called a sentimental pick. Looking back in retrospect I think he was half right. The Angels were a 94-win force all season but I did feel a shine towards a ball club that's run by one of the best all around managers in the game and is led by a superstar player who plays the game hard and asks for no special favors from his team or teammates.

But, gone are the Angels until next February. Vlad must come down and be replaced by no lesser a man than Ron Paul.

The March to One-Hundred Million

I've pledged my 100 bones! It looks like I was number 1,043.

Jocketty Out

Will LaRussa be the next to go? And if he does where would he manage? Possibly he'd pull a Lou Pinella and sit out a year and then consider the inevitable openings that will arise after the 2008 season.

I don't envision too much manager movement this off-season. The Royals have an opening. Torre may not survive another Yankee winter. Toronto's Gibbons could be a darkhorse firing. Randolph still has to be cleared by the Met's upper brass. Mackanin in Cincy doesn't know if he'll be retained as of this writing. And with a new sheriff in town, Pittsburg's Jim Tracy could have a one-way ticket handed to him.

Barring any surprise retirements everyone else seems safe and secure in their positions.

If LaRussa leaves St. Louis he'll pick his next situation very carefully. LaRussa places the relationship he has with his General Manager high on his list of priorities and also places a high premium on organizational stability and shared purpose. That would put Kansas City and the Mets at the top of the list. The Pirates would be a distant third. I can't see the Yankees as the right fit for the mercurial LaRussa and in Toronto the general manager has an entirely different idea of in-game strategy than LaRussa.

The Royals have highly thought of general manager Dayton Moore at the helm and as a protege of John Schuerholz he bleeds competency and stability. In New York the Mets have experienced strong and competent leadership during general manager Omar Minaya's tenure. Minaya definetly sets a stablizing tone at Shea (look at how he rallied the troops in Montreal on a shoe-string budget). In Pittsburg general manager Neal Huntington is less of a known quantity and may not be secure enough to bring in such an overpowering personality as LaRussa for his first year on the job.

I wish I knew more about Drayton Moore's personality to determine whether he and LaRussa would be a good fit but I'll go out on a limb and say that if LaRussa leaves St. Louis and looks to manage in '08 he'll be heading to the Royals. The Midwest is more his speed and he'd be making a trimuphant return to the American League to try and raise a once proud franchise back from the dead.

Secession on the Table

Two of America's major secessionist groups lead a conference to discuss secession from the United States.

Vermont, one of the nation's most liberal states, has become a hotbed for liberal secessionists, a fringe movement that gained new traction because of the Iraq war, rising oil prices and the formation of several pro-secession groups.

My question for the leftist Vermont secessionists is whether they'll tone down their secessionary rhetoric if a Democrat wins the presidency. Because, you know, a Democratic President will bring us home from Iraq.

*wink*

Ron Paul Tops $5 Mil

A huge third quarter fundraising haul for Paul. The $5 million-plus he raised is five times the amount that the MSM's anointed top second tier candidate Mike Huckabee raised. On this ABC news video Paul talks about his impressive 3rd quarter figures and is the most relaxed I've seen him since he started campaigning.

Temporary Changing of the Guard

Ron Paul's been the pictoral standard bearer for Notes of Interest since he replaced Vida Blue on July 22nd. In KC just days before, Rush had said, "Vida's gotta go!" and I took his advice and put up Paul's snazzy pic.

Now enter Vlad the Impaler for as long as the Angels stay alive in October. Hey, a guy with Willie Mays, Duke Snider and Frank Robinson as his top three age-thirty comparables can't be all bad.

Experience Will Matter

The Angels begin their march to World Series glory tomorrow evening against the Indians. Baseball has not had a repeat World Series champion since the Yankees won in '98, '99 and '00. Since then there have been six different champs. The 2002 Angels were one of those six teams and if they take the crown this October they'll have to be in discussion for who the team of the aughts is.

So, who on today's club played on the '02 championship team and how was their performance?

• Chone Figgins played in 12 games that year and served twice as a pinch-runner in the Series
• Garrett Anderson enjoyed one of the two best seasons of his career in '02 placing 4th in the MVP voting
• John Lackey rode a half-season rookie year into a 2-0 post-season record including the World Series game seven win over the Giants
• Francisco Rodriguez pitched in his first five major league games in September of '02 and then delivered an impressive post-season run for a twenty year old with twenty-eight strikeouts in 18.2 innings across eleven games
• Scot Shields produced a 197 ERA+ during the '02 campaign but saw very limited action during the post-season

All five of the above have played significant roles during the 2007 campaign. In the upcoming series this experience should make a positive difference for the Angels as they face a first-time playoff team in the Indians.

The Stats Are In

Time to tool around Baseball-Reference.com and find some interesting year-end numbers. As an ode to my Kansas City homies let's start with the Royal offense. Twenty-two Royal position players took a turn at-bat during the '07 season. Only two of them produced an OPS+ above the league average. Reggie Sanders led the team with a 131 in twenty-four games and Billy Butler put up a 102 in 365 plate appearances.

Every other Royal batter produced an OPS under 100. Here's the tail of the tape for the starting lineup.

C John Buck 87
1b Ross Gload 92
2b Mark Grudzielanek 97
3b Alex Gordon 84
ss Tony Pena 63
lf Emil Brown 66
cf David DeJesus 86
rf Make Teahan 95
dh Billy Butler 102

The Royal offense combined had an OPS+ of 82. That's the lowest team total since Detroit's 81 OPS+ in their 119 loss season in 2003.

Despite these horrid numbers the Royals boast two very good (possibly great) projectable hitters in Gordon and Butler, an additional solid one in Teahan and an average one in DeJesus. If they can produce at the level they're projected to reach and the rest of the offense can stop being horrendous and just plain old below average the Royals could make a big offensive move into the top half of American League teams in 2008.

The Push To Iowa

Cool idea here at PledgeBank.com. If a million people pledge a $100 to Ron Paul's campaign then Ron pulls in a cool 100 mil. The nice catch is that if the pledge doesn't reach a million then you don't have to feel obligated to donate.

So far 793 people have signed up. There's a nice stat page to track the progress of the campaign in the coming months. Do yourself a favor and favorite this site! Then make a pledge!!

The Capitulators

The Senate approved a new $150 billion Iraq/Afghanistan War funding package by the vote of 92-3. That means that some Democrats came along for the patriotic ride. Terrified of a backlash by the 30% of Americans who still support the wars, the Democrats who oppose the wars but just voted to continue funding them are, quite simply, capitulators of the worst kind.

The tired argument that if the troops aren't funded then they will starve on the battlefield is non-sensical. Cutting off funding for the troops would cause field commanders in-theatre to immediately re-deploy their forces out of harms way. They'd use the remainder of the funds in the pipeline to fold up shop and retreat to safer territory in Kuwait or Saudi Arabi and await their return home to the United States.

Using the logic that we can't cut funding off to the troops essentially takes all power out of the hands of the Congress and provides the Imperial President the power to decide on all matters relating to war. That is a dictatorship, no?

Umpire Assignments

Tonight's choice of umpires for the playoff entry tie-breaker that was played between the Rockies and Padres was a refreshing and interesting one. Tonight's six man crew consisted of Tim McClelland behind the plate, Ed Montague, Tim Tschida and Chuck Meriweather around the infield and Fieldin Culbreth and Jim Wolf on the foul lines.

It was refreshing because all six are serious about there performance on the field, aren't attention-getters and are typically measured in their on the field responses to challenges to their authority.

It's interesting because I believe those Major League Baseball officials who decide on who umpires which games made a calculated decision to field a) a skilled and competent crew and b) a crew where the personalities are such that if some player/manager confrontations occurred these six would be the least likely umpires to go off the handle and create an unnecessary scene.

Fielding Culbreth

The blatant baiting of Padre outfielder Milton Bradley by umpire Mike Winters in the last week of the season as well as a number of other incidents over the past few months has highlighted the ridiculously short fuses of some umpires. I believe this has caught Major League Baseball's attention and they have begun to take real steps in addressing the actions of these umpires.

The first step in the process of getting the umps in line was to suspend Winters for the remaining five or so games of the season after he uttered something akin to, "You're a f****** piece of s***" to Bradley under his breath in an attempt to provoke the notoriously short-tempered player. In the ensuing argument Bradley was wrestled to the ground by his manager and during the fall tore his ACL. He'll be on the disabled list well into next year. In regards to the Winters suspension I can't remember the last time an ump was publicly suspended.

The second step was the assignment of these six umpires to tonight's game. While the Winters suspension was more for public consumption tonight's game assignment was probably meant more for the umpiring fraternity's consumption. In other words, if you want to make tens of thousands of extra dollars each October umpiring the playoffs and World Series you'd better not be a jack-ass when dealing with players, coaches and managers.

In tonight's crew Major League Baseball got it right.