July 2006 Archives
July 31, 2006
Remember when Jean Schmidt (R-State that won't be named) called Jack Murtha a coward on the floor of the United States House of Representatives? Want to make sure she never does it again?
Then you need to join me in making a contribution to Dr. Victoria Wulsin, my college roommate's mom.
Click here to make a secure online contribution of $50, $75, or more.
This race is going to come down to one simple thing: money. The latest polling shows Dr. Wulsin TIED with Schmidt in an overwhelmingly Republican district. What's incredible is that she's doing it with a paltry name ID.
It's really, really simple. If - over the next 100 days - we can make sure that the voters know there is a credible, progressive alternative to the ultra-conservative, traitor-talking Jean Schmidt, they'll vote for Wells' mom. That means the campaign absolutely has to run enough TV ads, send enough mailings, and knock on enough doors to win. It's actually very easy to design the campaign strategy. But it's anything but cheap.
Do your part for a Democratic majority. Make a contribution today.
Click here to make a secure online contribution of $50, $75, or more.
July 29, 2006
You wouldn't know it from watching ESPN, but last night Francisco Liriano - the Twins rookie sensation - was no more than the equal to the second best rookie in the Tigers rotation. And the Twins lost the game.
Singles by Christ Shelton and Craig Monroe in the 10th inning broke a 2-2 tie and the tigers were on their way to their 69th victory. It was a big win, too, coming against the "hottest team in baseball."
Recently, the Tigers have beaten all comers and now have an 8.5 game lead in the division and a 7 game lead over the Red Sox for the best record in baseball.
The Tigers faced a stiff, stiff challenge last night and did not back down. Superb.
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NY Times: “Miami Vice” is an action picture for people who dig experimental art films, and vice versa.
July 28, 2006
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Mark Cuban offers a job to anyone who can convince 5 million people to see a movie without spending 60 million dollars to do it.
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Floyd Landis denies cheating. I want to believe
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I'm a huge ancient history nerd, so this story about new scholarship on Homer was great to me. First of all Homer may not have existed at all. If he did, he might have been a woman.
July 27, 2006
It's ludicrous to say that the violence in Israel and Lebanon is George Bush's fault. But the United States has failed to do anything about it. And that's a failure we can pin squarely on George Bush and his cowboy diplomacy.
Our ineffectiveness is the result of two complimentary forces. First, Bush has been actively disinterested in engaging the Middle East peace process. Remember Clinton? The handshake on the White House lawn? The historic peace accords? The steady march towards progress?
I think it's telling that both presidents had high-stakes, high-profile peace talks break down when it looked like a deal was in everybody's best interest. But Clinton couldn't get Arafat to accept final borders in a two-state deal. Bush can't get Israel and Hezbollah to stop bombing each other. That's big difference.
Second, we have been distracted from the issues that matter by the Iraq War that George Bush lied to get us into. This is exactly what the anti-war crowd said would happen. America has been distracted by sectarian violence in Iraq and has let Iran grow more and more bold. Now, it's all but certain that Iran at least had advance knowledge of Hezbollah's actions, even if it didn't sanction them.
This is what happens when you run foreign policy with cowboy machismo and rigid ideology. A safer and freer world takes constant vigilance in the hotspots that matter the most. Instead, we went after a two-bit tyrant that didn't threaten anybody.
And now we're powerless to do anything in a situation where we might actually do some good.
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New music from the UK.
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Review of our next book club book.
July 26, 2006
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A much needed plug-in for Apple Mail.
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Why I'm not worriied about Microsoft's new "iPod Killer."
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Sounds like a great movie.
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The Today Show gets mad at Colbert for asking questions that are "too hard."
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Conason on the Lieberman-Lamont race. It's not what you think. More importantly, he talks negatively about the war in a cogent and powerful way.
July 25, 2006
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Dershowitz on Israel / Lebanon. Difficult to swallow the idea of "It's OK to kill civillians if it's someone else's fault." But difficult to argue with it too.
July 21, 2006
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Just a little FYI. We totally kick ass.
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FYI. Tigers Number One. Boo-yah.
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A road trip all about tacos? Yes please.
July 20, 2006
todd: btw - tigers win
todd: Yeah, that's right.
joe: tigers clinch series.
todd: They're the best team in baseball.
joe: 5 1/2 games? i'll take it.
joe: the BEST team in baseball.
todd: They just took 2 of 3 from the SECOND BEST team in baseball.
joe: score?
todd: That SECOND BEST team happens to be the defending world champs.
todd: 2-1.
joe: that's awesome.
joe: the tigers are the pistons of baseball.
joe: or the red wings of baseball.
todd: If that doesn't put the Tigers on top of ESPN's Power Rankings, I don't know what will.
todd: No, joe.
todd: The Tigers are the Tigers of baseball.
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Is it wrong that I kinda want one of these? I suppose I should start running first, eh?
July 16, 2006
Three minutes and nineteen seconds of unabashed optimism armored in seething defiance. British upstarts Hope of the States never bought into the personal / political distinction that makes most American bands trying to "say something" totally insufferable. HOTS leader Sam Herlihy just lays it out: "I believe in something more than this and I'm not afraid to say it."
Its also a really good excuse to listen to Simon Jones beat his drumset like an unruly child.
Brought to you by Adam, BTP's official NBA Correspondent
July 13, 2006
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A rundown of all the great guys making the Tigers' amazing run
July 12, 2006
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Stoller with a really cogent analysis of what our critique should be. Of course, he's talking about Lamont in doing it.
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The London tabloid on what may have set Zidane off.
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Don't believe the Republicans. We don't need fewer lawsuits. We need fewer medical mistakes.
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So, NOW we're following the Geneva Convention. Great. What about the last 5 years.
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A very neat billboard from Mickey D's
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Simple javascript that can track your website users' in realtime. Neat.
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From Adam: So, apparently, our entire life in college is now a fashionable way to party.
July 11, 2006
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Shanny leaves the Wings. Thanks, Shanny.
ron: so, looks like your tigers are for real.
joe: i've always said that.
ron: wishful thinking last year, and the year before.
joe: merely a clever rouse, to lull you into a sense of false complacency.
ron: or, they just sucked.
joe: every time you see a tigers "loss"? that's a conspiracy. it's a setup by the sports networks, to convince you that the tigers are human. but in fact, they have never lost a game.
ron: you're hopeless.
joe: i'm not the one cheating the american public out of the truth.
The last time the American League All-Star team had a starting pitcher and a starting catcher from the same team was 1968. Detroit Tigers Denny McClain and Bill Freehan would go on to lead their team to World Series victory that practically saved Detroit from self destruction.
This year, Detroit Tigers Kenny Rogers and Ivan Rodriguez will be the starting battery for the junior circuit. The rest of the story writes itself.
Go Tigers!
July 10, 2006
(4.4 MB MP3)
So yeah, I'm a couple weeks late to the music blog party. But this tune from CWK 3rd EP is 1 part White Stripes, 1 part Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and 1 part delicious mystery ingredient. Tracy and I rocked out to this three times in a row last night.
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Reports that, in the next season of 24, Jack Bauer won't save the world. He'll save himself. Sounds cool.
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Floyd Landis needs to have his hip replaced. Like in August. Oh, he's also in second place in the Tour de France. This is insane.
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A little bit of insight into Zidane's unbelievable head butt. Apparently he blows up when opponents insult his hard-scrabble Algerian immigrant roots. Rumor is that the Italian player called him a "terrorist."
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The Daily Show on congressional softball leagues. The bottom line is that Republians are jerks. Only they use a funnier word than jerks.
Yes, the best pitcher on baseball's best team is starting the All-Star Game. I love it.
Go Tigers!
July 9, 2006
The Pre-Dinner Sword Fight
We went to dinner and took some pictures. You can see 'em here. It was nice.
James Figurine - Apologies
James Figurine, aka Jimmy Tamborello, aka Dntel, aka the blips and beats behind The Postal Service has cut a new record of electro-pop. It's delicious.
Where The Postal Service put the "pop" into the genre, we see Tamborello not surprisingly exploring the "electro." Most of the songs are light and delicate, casually fleeting from the mundane (crappy cell phone interfaces) to the fantastic (digging a hole to China).
On this track, Figurine has a simple message for us all. "Apologies are gift. / Accept them with a smile."
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Zidane came out of retirement to play magic with the ball and propel his French teammates to the World Cup final. His career ends today
July 7, 2006
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Simmons on Wallace: "Ben Wallace (26) went from being wildly underpaid and underrated to wildly overpaid and overrated in the blink of an eye. Just check his regular-season and playoff stats, for God's sake. He peaked two or three years ago." Makes me feel better.
Great news! Magglio Ordonez is replacing the injured Manny Ramirez in the All-Star Game! (Sorry, Tracy.)
Ordonez has probably been the Tigers' best offensive player all season, leading the team in batting average and RBI. He's certainly been the team's most consistent slugger and only trails guys who haven't played the whole season in slugging and OPS.
The best player on the best team? Heck yes, he belongs at the All-Star Game.
Unfortunately, he will not be joined by stud rookie pitcher Justin Verlander. Verlander, despite being the first rookie in 4 years with 10 wins before the break, finished fourth in the fan voting for the AL team's final spot.
Verlander still has a chance to make the squad as an injury replacement, but these results merely confirm the anti-Detroit bias I've been talking about all along. No bother. The fans can't vote away a Tigers World Series victory.
July 5, 2006
Steve Yzerman won more Stanley Cups on one good knee
than any of you cats ever will.
1. Raising the Cup in 1998
I've always felt a little bit silly calling this moment one of the best of my entire life. But almost nothing could top being there the night my team won it all. To be corny about it, the Red Wings are something I always shared with my father, my friends, and in some ways my entire homeland. To be even a tiny part of the ultimate success is absolutely thrilling.
When Steve Yzerman raised the Cup before handing it off to fallen Red Wing Vladimir Konstantinov, it was one of the best days of my life.
2. Raising the Cup in 1997
The final game of the '97 Cup finals was scheduled for the same day as my high school graduation party. A gaggle of my closest friends and family gathered in our living room to watch the Wings win their first title in 42 years. Then, my high school buddies and I made a tin foil replica of Stanley's chalice. We drove it on the top of a converted post office truck to the local Big Boy where the statue out front had been decked out in a Wings Jersey. And we hoisted it atop the giant cheeseburger. It was a moment for the ages.
3. This Play
4. Raising the Cup in 2002
And doing it on a knee that would need literally unprecedented reconstructive surgery after the season was over. He essentially couldn't stand without leaning on his stick. And he won the Cup anyway. That's drive, determination, and heart.
5. A Random Goal in a Random Year in the 80's
Only he was basically airborne, more or less parallel to the ground when he managed to rip off a wrist shot to beat the goalie. He was tripped or hooked or something, but he still got it off. I was 10 years old, and it was awesome.
I think Pitchfork hit the nail on the head:
[It's] a pleasantly hateful little tune with lots of swears that hints at Cocker reinventing himself as a lovably cantankerous old codger."
Don't we need cantankerous old codgers now more than ever?
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A veteran arrested for wearing an anti-war t-shirt. Welcome to George Bush's America.
What if, when you went to a concert, there was a website where you could upload your photos, videos, even audio clips? Maybe do a little light blogging or at least commenting / message boarding?
Basically, it'd give you an online place to hang out and chat about the show after the event. Or for that matter, DURING the show if the mobile interface was good enough. I think it would be neat to see other perspectives, discuss ideas raised by the music, and maybe even make some buddies.
Would this be cool? Could you maybe build it pretty easily on top of existing community sites like Flickr, etc?
I like the idea of giving an off-line experience a footprint in the digital world. After all, online communication is a huge and rapidly growing slice of the pie already. On the other hand, what's wrong with just enjoying the damn concert!? Must everything be live-blogged?
I dunno. It's just an idea. Let me know what you think.
Roddy Woomble - everyline of a long moment
(via MySpace)
I'm not quite ready to say that my favorite Idlewild songs are the quiet ones, but they sure let the band's powerful lead singer shine through. That's why I'm so excited about Roddy Woomble's upcoming solo record My Secret is My Silence.
In this debut single, we see two of Roddy's trademarks: lyrics so direct and earnest, they manage to make sweepig statements with just a few words and a fascination with America.
As a solo joint, the song is stripped down to its barest essentials. A light backbeat, simple guitar strumming, beautiful strings, and Roddy's voice. This song is absolutely fantastic and makes me think the record could challenge Thom Yorke for record of the year.
Number of teams with more All-Stars than the Detroit Tigers: 8
Number of teams with more wins than the Detroit Tigers: 0
This is just ridiculous. You can't tell me that more BLUE JAYS have been better than the best Tigers. Verlander should have gotten in for sure. He has 10 wins before the All-Star break, the most for a rookie since 2002. That problem, at least, can be corrected if the fans wise up and vote him in as the final player. Do your part over at MLB.com.
But it goes beyond that. The only thing keeping Magglio Ordonez off the team is his feud with Ozzie Guillen, manager of the AL squad. There's no way Michael Young deserves a shortstop reserve spot more than Carlos Guillen. Heck, I think the case could even be made for Placido Palanco to join the team over Seattle's Jose Lopez.
And don't get me started on the piching. Sure Mariano Rivera and Jonathan Papelbon are having stellar years, but Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney both deserve the nod over Chicago's Bobby Jenks. (Gee, you think Guillen is stuffing the team with his own players? Never!) Nate Robertson's 3.35 ERA and Jeremy Bondermans 107 strikeouts probably belong at the game, but I'm at least willing to be reasonable.
The bottom line is this: The best team in baseball should have more All-Stars than just about anybody.
At the end of the day, however, I'm OK with this. Sure, I'll root my head off when Kenny Rogers comes in to strikeout the side with Pudge Rodriguez doing the catching. But don't think Detroit it going to forget this. Not when the powers that be of baseball decide that the "cute" Tigers don't deserve any recognition for their brilliant first half.
At the end of the day, All-Star games are nice. But this is just going to be motivation t continue the march to the games that count - the ones in October.
July 4, 2006
And now, to honor America, a selection from the Declaration of Independence. Viva la revolucion.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King [George] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
July 3, 2006
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Thom on his new record.
As I write this, Steve Yzerman - The Captain - is retiring from hockey. I'll have more on this later, but for now, I offer only my heartfelt and undying gratitude. You gave me some of the best moments of my life.
You will be sorely missed.
This time it's Thierry Henry floating through the air to put away a pass from Zidane, scoring France's only goal in a 1-0 upset over the mighty Brazilians. Breathtaking.
"You got me a rutabaga!? An honest to god rutabaga!?"
Like every good communist spy, Radim must now return to the motherland. But not before we send him off in style. More Photos.
