Take that, Martino!

The Tigers completed their three-game sweep of the Orioles last night, beating them 8-6 after Craig Monroe blasted a three run homer to cap Detroit's 6-run 7th inning. The sweep was particularly impressive coming against a first place team and featuring a hard-fought one run victory and two come-from-behind rallies.

The story of the series was probably the Tiger pitching, which holds the fifth best ERA in the American League for the season. Throw out a 5 run inning last night and the Tigers only gave up 7 runs in 26 innings to the best-hitting team in baseball. Nate Robertson and Jason Johnson both had strong outings Friday and Saturday, respectively, each allowing only 3 runs in 8 innings of work. Ugueth Urbina pitched a shaky 9th Friday night, but ultimately closed the door and got the save in all three games.

Craig Monroe and Dmitri Young paced the Tigers offense for the weekend. Monroe finally looked like he does on my Xbox, clubbing a homer in all three games. Actually, on my Xbox, he gets a homer virtually every at-bat, but that's probably an unrealistic expectation. D-Young had 2 homers and 4 RBI for the series.

I was at the game Friday night (and my dad went to all three) and I am proud to say that these Tigers are a good baseball team. Their pitching has kept them afloat all season, but seeing the offense go out and win the game last night makes me very optimistic about the rest of the season. Taking 3 in a row from the first place Orioles is a heck of a start on the road to the division title.

Well, the division title will be tough. But I think these guys can finish above .500. This sweep erases last week's 4-game losing streak and puts them just 2 games under sea level. Remember - this team really hasn't gotten hot yet this season. No huge losing streaks either, but their biggest winning streak was five games over a week and a half in mid-April that didn't start any sort of momentum because it came while they were dodging snowstorms trying to play some baseball.

If the hitting is coming around, well, watch out Twins. There's a new Tiger on the block.

That's my prediction. But why, you might be asking, based on Miami's hard fought Game 2 victory that evens the series at 1?

Well, D-Wade ain't gonna average 40 points a game from here on out.

It's like King Kaufman says:

Heat even series, still in trouble

Dwyane Wade and an improved defense led the Miami Heat to a 92-86 win over the Detroit Pistons Wednesday night in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The win tied the series and kept the Heat from falling into an impossible 0-2 hole.

But they're still in big trouble.

That's because Wade played a game for the ages. And it's because the Pistons were uncharacteristically sloppy with the ball, repeatedly turning it over on fast breaks.

And it's because Shaquille O'Neal turned in a decent game. Certainly not dominant -- 17 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks in 33 minutes -- but solid, similar to his Game 1 performance.

And still the Heat had to hang on tight to win.

Wade can't be expected to turn in a game for the ages every night against the Pistons, who have shut him down three times out of five this year. Chauncey Billups, who averages fewer than two and a half turnovers a night, can't be expected to cough it up eight times on a regular basis.

And at 33 Shaq is old and he's hurting, a lot. He benefited from 12 off days before this series started, but he figures to wear down as he's forced to play against a quick, battling team like Detroit every other night once an odd three-day hiatus ends Sunday.

A healthy, dominant Shaq would have given the Heat a good chance in this series because that would have been their biggest edge. The Pistons don't have anyone to match up. With Shaq playing like a mere mortal, the Heat have stolen one, and maybe they'll steal another, but in the series, they're in big trouble.

Even after the loss, the Pistons are in complete control of this series. They've secured home-court advantage and are on their way back to Dee-troit. They play Shaq as good as any team in the league. That means sophomore sensation - emphasis on sophomore - Wade has to be the one to beat them.

D-Wade is a great player and I like his game a lot. That alley-oop in the 4th quarter last night was a great capper to a great playoff performance. But he's not going to do that every game. The Pistons might not shut him down like they did in Game 1, but if Wade scores "only" 30 points last night, the Pistons win.

There's little to suggest this matchup will change over time. If anything, Kaufman is right, a gimpy Shaq will become even less effective.

Now - the brash predictifying. The Pistons put on a show for the home fans Sunday afternoon to take Game 3. Wade plays great in Game 4, but it's not enough as the Pistons hold at home. By Game 5, Shaq will be lucky if he can still walk. Wade drops 45 on the Pistons and the Heat lose by 15.

Pistons in 5. You heard it here first.

Gov. Dean, I'm still sold.

Dear Fellow Democrat,

Monday I wrote to you about our progress growing the party from the ground up, and put the timetable in your hands. Democrats everywhere overwhelmingly responded to the challenge. The goal was $250,000 by Friday to add another state to the program — you hit it in only 48 hours.

That means organizers and other resources can be immediately put on the ground in one more state: Kansas. It's a so-called red state where we know we can win. We have won state-wide before — and building an organized, permanent grassroots base will help elect Democrats up and down the ballot.

Your response made it clear that you want to move fast. So I spoke yesterday with the staff leading this unprecedented national organizing effort. I asked them to speed up the process, and they told me that if we have the resources we could have four more states ready to announce as early as next week.

This means a bigger commitment to fund the program. But if we can raise half a million dollars through next week we can start hiring and training organizers in four new states:

http://www.democrats.org/challenge

I get grief sometimes that this kind of thing might not help us with the narrow goal to win elections. I don't care. I don't want to win 51-49. I want to win 85-15. And we'll only do that if we've got people working every day on the ground to convert people into Democrats.

This morning, we at the DSCC thought we had beaten him:

Bill Frist lost today. He lost his hold on his right wing base and he lost his hold on Senate Republicans. That sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

Looks like he's not dead just yet:

But Congress Daily PM reports that Frist has other ideas for later in the week:

Senate Majority Leader Frist will file for cloture on President Bush’s nomination of William Myers to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later this week, according to sources on and off Capitol Hill, wasting no time in testing the resolve of 14 Republican and Democratic senators who forced at least a temporary halt to the battle over Democratic filibusters of President Bush’s judicial picks.

That didn’t take long.

I'm not sure what Frist is smoking. As I see it, there are two outcomes to this little charade. One, "The Deal" holds and 7 R's vote against cloture and against any effort by Frist to invoke the nuclear option. Myers isn't confirmed. Dems and the 7 R's look like guys willing to play by the rules. Frist looks like a craven madman desperate to satisfy James Dobson and Pat Robertson, plus he completely loses control of his caucus and his leadership status is in serious question.

Option 2 is less rosy, but ultimately is good for us, too...I think. Under this option, Frist moves for cloture on Myers and the Dems filibuster. The Gang of 7 R's thread the needle on a loophole in the deal and declare this isn't an "extraordinary" circumstance and we have a nuclear showdown all over again. I imagine we'd probably lose. I'm just not sure we have quite enough votes.

So, bad news - the nuclear option passes and we're up a creek when Bush tries to nominate a SCOTUS justice. Good news - the Republicans had to be so deceitful, dishonest, and just plain sleazy to do it that the backlash begins.

If Option 2 goes down, every Democrat everywhere needs to drive home one, single message before Election Day: They signed a deal. They broke their word. How can we trust them?

Bottom Line: This thing isn't over just yet. But Frist has a hell of an uphill climb to turn today's loss into anything except a total failure.

Today is the 1 year anniversary of my foray into blogging. We started over at LiveJournal, but quickly moved over to this here custom domain name.

This is also my 200th post to the blog. It's a rather meaningless milestone, but it's a nice round number.

Anyway, to celebrate, I thought I'd pick out the best post from each of the last 12 months. Think of it as the BTP All-Star Team.

May 04: Daily Sports Update (Entry #1)

June 04: Gasp! An actual politician with an actual plan to fix an actual problem!

July 04: I'm going to kill Joe Torre's dog.

August 04: It's like Gmail combined with Friendster, but for your bookmarks. I think.

September 04: This is Channel Todd Team Doppler Coverage LIVE From the Eye of Hurrickun Frances

October 04: No More.

November 04: The Election

December 04: Things I Learned in Louisiana: #1 - Terrorism

January 05: Blue State: Todd's Best of 2004

February 05: IMAP for RSS

March 05: TPP Slideshow

April 05: It's the Tigers, not the kittens.

May 05: Out of Control

Good stuff from the DSCC...

Click here to watch "Out of Control"

It's time to fight back.  If you're sick and tired of out of control Republicans abusing their power to change the rules every time they don't get their way, you'll love the DSCC's new ad. 

This spot - the first from the DSCC's new Media Response Project - is part of our long term plan to hit them hard every time the Senate Republicans abuse their power to satisfy their extreme right wing base.

Making ads like this one isn't easy or free, but with your help, we'll be ready to expose the right wing's lies every time.  Please make a contribution today to support our Media Response Project.  Hold Bill Frist, Tom DeLay, and the Republican Party accountable for their outrageous power grab.

We went to Six Flags and all Joan got was this gigantic stuffed dog.

Yesterday, in honor of my birthday, a band of hearty travelers went to Six Flags America. We had an awesome time and you can view the pictures here.

For the record: We never found a single flag, let alone six. Tracy's favorite ride is the Joker's Jinx. No matter what the attendant says, you do get wet on the log ride. The big dog Joan won wouldn't fit in Tracy's SUV, so we gave it away to some middle schoolers. Finally - they need to fix that Superman ride. None of our people got to ride it all day.

We put out the following this week at the DSCC and the campaign has been pretty successful. I wanted to get back into the swing of posting over here so I figured I'd put it up. Enjoy.

Earlier this week, Pat Robertson made the audacious claim that federal judges are a greater threat to our nation than "a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings."

A few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings? How, in the name of everything dear to America, could Pat Robertson possibly say that federal judges - the men and women in our government who make sure everyone plays by the rules - are a greater threat than the enemies of our nation who killed thousands of people and who instantly made widows and widowers and orphans of thousands more? What was he thinking?

What he seemed to be thinking is that just because a few judges have ruled against him a few times, they are a bigger threat than Al Qaeda, more dangerous that Nazi Germany, and more divisive than the Civil War. After all, that’s what he said on national TV.

That's just wrong. These kinds of irresponsible and dangerous falsehoods have no place in mature political discourse. But Senate Republicans - Robertson's ideological allies - have steadfastly refused to condemn these scurrilous remarks.

That's why the DSCC is demanding immediate action from Pat Robertson and Senate Republicans. To make sure they'll listen, we need your support to show that the American people won't stand for this kind of offensive behavior.

http://www.dscc.org/robertson

Robertson didn't stop there, either. He all but called Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg a communist, just because she once served as general counsel for the ACLU. Apparently, wanting to make sure your First Amendment rights are protected is somehow "anti-American."

The whole affair would just be kind of pathetic if Robertson didn't go on to make one of the most hateful comments you'll ever hear from a major political leader on national TV. According to Robertson, Hindus and Muslims don't belong in the Cabinet and he wouldn't want "somebody like that sitting as a judge." Advocating blatant discrimination isn't just distasteful or uncomfortable, it's wrong-headed hate speech.

We're used to this kind of poisonous rhetoric from Pat Robertson. But why won't the Senate Republicans condemn these offensive remarks? Is this the type of party that just accepts this kind of hateful behavior from its leaders? Robertson owes America an apology. And his ideological allies in the Senate must publicly repudiate his repugnant behavior. Join the DSCC in calling for immediate action today.

http://www.dscc.org/robertson

Senate Republicans - Robertson’s ideological allies - ought to be tripping over themselves looking for a microphone to condemn these offensive remarks. But you'll never see that. The truth is Rick Santorum, George Allen, and Conrad Burns are counting on Pat Robertson to support their 2006 reelection efforts. Robertson even singled out Sen. Allen for praise, saying he "would make a tremendous president."

Robertson did not have such kind words for Bill Frist. "Bill is a wonderfully compassionate human being,” Robertson said, damning the Republican Leader with faint praise. “I just don’t see him as a future president." But you know Bill Frist is just going to fire up the right wing pander machine in order to court favor with the extremist establishment in time for the presidential primaries.

The bottom line is that none of these national leaders should be in Pat Robertson's back pocket. Even without his long record of extremism, Robertson's most recent comments are offensive enough to elicit a strong and forceful denouncement from his ideological allies in the Senate. Moreover, Robertson himself should apologize for his irresponsible falsehoods. Decency demands it. Join the DSCC in calling on Senate Republicans to put a stop to this sort of poisonous political rhetoric.

http://www.dscc.org/robertson

It's up to us to make sure that these leading Senate Republicans are held accountable for the despicable actions of their right wing power brokers. We'll hold their feet to the fire today and we’ll make sure they have to answer to the voters in November 2006. By joining our campaign today, you only make us more effective.

Sincerely,

Anne Lewis

There's no place for offensive right wing rhetoric in the United States Senate. Help us elect more Democrats by making a contribution today.

Click here to contribute $100 today.