I Can’t Believe She Said That

Batting Practice

Read Casey at the Bat (below) first to refresh your memory, then enjoy this wonderful sendup by PJTV.  

Casey at the Bat   by Ernest Lawrence Thayer ©

Published: The Examiner (06-03-1888)

The Outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day: The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play. And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same, A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game.  A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest Clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast; They thought, if only Casey could get but a whack at that - We’d put up even money, now, with Casey at the bat. But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake, And the former was a lulu and the latter was a cake; So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat, For there seemed but little chance of Casey’s getting to the bat. But Flynn let drive a single, to the wonderment of all, And Blake, the much despis-ed, tore the cover off the ball; And when the dust had lifted, and the men saw what had occurred, There was Jimmy safe at second and Flynn a-hugging third. Then from 5,000 throats and more there rose a lusty yell; It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell; It knocked upon the mountain and recoiled upon the flat, For Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat. There was ease in Casey’s manner as he stepped into his place; There was pride in Casey’s bearing and a smile on Casey’s face. And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat, No stranger in the crowd could doubt ’twas Casey at the bat. Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt; Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt. Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip, Defiance gleamed in Casey’s eye, a sneer curled Casey’s lip. And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air, And Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there. Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped- “That ain’t my style,” said Casey. “Strike one,” the umpire said. From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar, Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore. “Kill him! Kill the umpire!” shouted someone on the stand; And its likely they’d a-killed him had not Casey raised his hand. With a smile of Christian charity great Casey’s visage shone; He stilled the rising tumult; he bade the game go on; He signaled to the pitcher, and once more the spheroid flew; But Casey still ignored it, and the umpire said, “Strike two.” “Fraud!” cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered fraud; But one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed. They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain, And they knew that Casey wouldn’t let that ball go by again. The sneer is gone from Casey’s lip, his teeth are clenched in hate; He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate. And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go, And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey’s blow. Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright; The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light, And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout; But there is no joy in Mudville – mighty Casey has struck out. “Phin”

And now the back story (there’s always a back story, isn’t there?).

In 1885 George Hearst decided to run for state senator in California.  He purchased the San Francisco Examiner in order to self-promote his political views, and after the election gave the newspaper to his son, William Randolph Hearst.  Thus began the Hearst publishing empire. 

William Randolph Hearst had some experience editing the Harvard Lampoon while at Harvard, and took three Lampoon staff members with him when he went to California.  One was Ernest L. Thayer, who signed his humorous Lampoon articles with the pen name “Phin”.  Thayer wrote Casey at the Bat and it was first published in the San Francisco Examiner on June 3, 1888.  Baseball Almanac

And now you know the rest of the story.

Obama’s War Room Advisors

 

This is just too funny.  A little rough language in the subtitles.

 

But if he wins, what can we expect? 

Youth indoctrination camps  Utterly depraved.

Beyond abortion to infanticide  No, no, this one is utterly depraved.

Obamanopoly  OH MY GOSH!!!.  Print this one out for help when trying to explain the current financial mess to friends.

 

Locally, there are still tens of thousands in the area without electricity.  One resident came into the township office and told me the electric company TURNED OFF the power on his street yesterday so they could work on other lines in the area.  Then they left without working on anything.  And they haven’t come back.  And they have no idea when they will be back (I called them today and that is what they told me).  With all the people getting upset over how long this is taking, they are turning off power.  Unbelievable.

Will The Media’s Bias Benefit Sarah Palin?

The following is excerpted from an interview with Mark Penn, a former top strategist to both Bill and Hillary Clinton.  The entire article can be found here.

CBSNews.com: Your former colleague Howard Wolfson argued that you all unintentionally paved the way for Palin by exposing some of the unfair media coverage that Hillary Clinton received. And, therefore, a lot of the media may now be treating Sarah Palin with kid gloves. Do you agree with that?

Mark Penn: Well, no, I think the people themselves saw unfair media coverage of Senator Clinton. I think if you go back, the polls reflected very clearly what “Saturday Night Live” crystallized in one of their mock debates about what was happening with the press.

I think here the media is on very dangerous ground. I think that when you see them going through every single expense report that Governor Palin ever filed, if they don’t do that for all four of the candidates, they’re on very dangerous ground. I think the media so far has been the biggest loser in this race. And they continue to have growing credibility problems.

And I think that that’s a real problem growing out of this election. The media now, all of the media — not just Fox News, that was perceived as highly partisan — but all of the media is now being viewed as partisan in one way or another. And that is an unfortunate development.

CBSNews.com: So you think the media is being uniquely tough on Palin now?

Mark Penn: Well, I think that the media is doing the kinds of stories on Palin that they’re not doing on the other candidates. And that’s going to subject them to people concluding that they’re giving her a tougher time. Now, the media defense would be, “Yeah, we looked at these other candidates who have been in public life at an earlier time.”

What happened here very clearly is that the controversy over Palin led to 37 million Americans tuning into a vice-presidential speech, something that is unprecedented, because they wanted to see for themselves. This is an election in which the voters are going to decide for themselves. The media has lost credibility with them. [emphasis added]

ABC grilled Palin hard, but it may Backfire  Here’s an excerpt from that UPI story:

Charles Gibson of ABC News was out for blood and inherently applied a double-standard compared with the kid gloves George Stephanopoulos used on Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois on Sunday night.

Gibson was out to embarrass Palin and expose her presumed ignorance from the word go. By contrast, when Obama referred to his “Muslim faith” on Sunday and did not correct himself, Stephanopoulos rushed in at once to help him and emphasize that the senator had really meant to say his Christian faith.   (snip)

The double-standard Gibson applied to Palin, compared with the uncritical media platforms repeatedly offered to Obama, who has had zero executive experience running anything, was especially striking. ABC and Gibson focused on Palin as if she were running right now for the presidency rather than the vice presidency.

Obama attack on McCain computer usage revealing  If Obama is so good at the internet, why didn’t anyone in his camp find this information from May 2000 before they ran their ad?  The man can’t type due to prisoner-of-war injuries.

http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com has become one of my favorite sites.  PUMA power. 

 

D*mned With Faint Praise

Maybe it woud be more accurate if I said the article has no praise.

Sarah Palin raised the rafters at the GOP convention last night, but you wouldn’t know it from the front page article (Associated Press, of course) in my local newspaper.

The writers obviously watched the speech, or at least had a copy of the text, since they include four brief quotes from it.  One is so brief it is only two words, and another is that she will accept the nomination for vice president. 

The sub-headline is that the crowd greets her with a roar of approval as the first GOP female VP candidate.  Nothing about subsequent roars of approval, her presentation, the speech’s effectiveness, how it was accepted, etc.  Nada.  Zilch.  Zip.    One sentence says she took crowd-leasing swipes at Obama and the “Washington elite.”  (That’s the two word quote.)

It was a home run and they don’t mention it.

The story did bring up questions about her qualifications and lack of experience though, and mentioned her daughter’s pregnancy and her “18-year-old boyfriend and apparent fiance.”  Nice cynical touch.

Right below this article that damns her with faint praise?  An article about Obama visiting a small town.

Palin article, including questions about qualifications and comment about her daughter’s pregnancy and “apparent fiance,” = 9 column inches.

Obama article, including three quote from his speech and one from an adoring fan – 11 1/2 column inches.

Unfortunately, this is a mild case of media bias.  Some post-speech commentary on TV last night was absolutely rabid. 

On a positive note, I got on a PUMA website later last night and read through comments left on their real-time blog as the speech was given, and those people absolutely love her.  They were even cheering Rudy Giuliani, who they apparently all loathe, because he was hitting Obama so hard.

And John McCain cameout at the end wearing an orange tie, whichis the PUMA’s color.  The noticed it and appreciated it, realizing it was a gesture reaching out to them.

I need to get a life.  I’m leaving to help with the historical society garage sale.  I’ll be there most of the day, and it is supposed to be sweltering hot.  If you live around here come on down to Main St. and find us and buy a thing or two.

Oh, and if you missed her speech, go watch it.  RIGHT NOW  It was amazing.  See if you can find Ruy’s speech too.  He was on a roll.

I Tried To Stay Awake – Part II

Good citizens get nvolved in the election process, watch the conventions, and pay attention so they can vote fully informed.  Right?

I’m not so sure that is true about the 75,000 “voters” ACORN signed up in Cuyahoga County, Ohio recently.  The board of elections there is looking at all of them with a suspicious eye, because:

1. They found multiple cases of many people living at the same addresses, with those addresses being vacant lots, a restaurant, empty houses, etc.
2. They found multiple cases of people being registered many times using different addresses
3. There are already more registered voters in Cuyahoga County than there are adults over 18, according to census records.  (Same with Philadelphia, and probably other cities.)

So let’s all go out and vote, early and often it appears.  At least if you’re a Democrat.* 

Maybe our voting places need to do what they do in third world countries – dip your finger in ink when you vote so you can’t go somewhere else and vote again.

But I digress.  I did try to watch part of last night’s Republican convention, but after an afternoon of canning salsa (thanks for the recipe,Louis!), I barely made it through the first speaker.  Maybe I will do better tonight.

This morning’s papers are blaring front page news of “more problems” with McCain’s VP pick.  I am waiting for them to blare news of their in-depth coverage of Obama’s close working relationship with unrepentant bomber “he’s just a guy who lives in my neighborhood” Bill Ayres.  Now that the University of Chicago library has finally allowed public access to documentation on it, it seems the Annenberg Challenge was run by those two for something like six years.  Together they distributed over $100 million in grants to Chicago schools, with no visibile results.

Maybe we will read about how Michelle Obama was given a 160% raise after her husband was elected, and the million dollar grant he then directed to her employer, the University of Chicago Medical Center.  And what was her job?  Some kind of outreach coordinator, where she coordinated (created?) policies to send uninsured people to other hospitals to save UCMC money.  Wow – what a heart of gold! 

Maybe tomorrow’s stories will investigate Larry Sinclair, a limo driver in the Washington area who claimed he smoked cocaine and had gay sex with Obama in 1999.  After he went public with his allegations he found himself picked up in D.C. on an arrest warrant out of Delaware.  Sort of vague charges.  Issued by the attorney general who is, um, Joe Biden’s son. 

Maybe tomorrow’s paper will have Obama’s claim that he has more executvie experience than Sarah Palin because he has spent almost two years – get ready for this – running his campaign for president.  Yes, he actually said that.  Running for president qualifies him to be president!  Says he is spending over $10 million a month and has over a thousand employees, so that gives him executive experience.  Of course, that would be the same two years he claims as experience for being in the senate - guess they count twice.

I’m not holding my breath.  We will continue to get a litany about Palin’s husband’s 22 year old DUI ticket, her 17 year old daughter’s pregnancy, and quotes from the daughter’s boyfriend’s Facebook page (He calls himself a redneck!  He doesn’t want to have children!).  At least the daughter’s pregnancy stopped the rumors that the Palin’s youngest son is actually their daughter’s.

The newspapers and TV aren’t doing their job, and our country will suffer the consequences.

I need to stop paying attention to all this stuff, but it’s like watching a train wreck - you can’t stand to look but can’t turn away.

Guess I’ll go help the historical society set up their garage sale.  You know, real life.

*Nothing in this column is meant as an indictment of Democratic voters, as I have many friends who vote a straight D- ticket.  Once per election. 

Sunday Soliloquy

Coverage of preparations for Hurricane Gustav are showing how much FEMA and Louisiana’s governor Bobby Jindal have their act together.  He asked the feds for help days ago, and together they have evacuated 90% of coastal residents.

You do all remember that we have a federalist form of government, right?  State governors have final say over affairs within their state and the federal government cannot come in to help without being invited.  That permission wasn’t given until wa-a-ay  too late last time.

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Many on the liberal blogosphere are gleefully hoping the hurricane is mishandled so it can be used for political fodder.  Michael Moore said on national TV ”Gustav is proof that there is a God in heaven.”  And former DNC chairman Don Fowler is on tape laughing about the fact the storm will hit on the first day of the Republican convention.   People’s lives and homes are on the line and they are hoping it’s bad just for political gain.

Shame on all of them.

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The federal government and FEMA have been very busy over the past few years developing a comprehensive Incident Command System in case of natural or man-made disasters, and teaching it all across the land. 

As an elected official I have personal experience with this system, since every employee of every governmental entity has to learn where they fit in it and take online tests to receive certifications.  (I had to study for tests on three sections.) 

If things go wrong in dealing with this hurricane it won’t be because of lack of preparation.  There are some things you just can’t prevent or foresee.

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The Democrats and the media seem to be in full panic mode over Sarah Palin, with misogynism falling out of talking heads everywhere.  Their chief point seems to be that she is not experienced enough to be qualified.  Compare her accomplishments with Obama’s at_this_site.   Good grief is she more experienced and better prepared.  And ethical.  (It’s kind of humorous, too.)

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I found screen shots of the decision on Daily Kos to make up and run the story about Sarah Palin’s youngest son not actually being her own but her daughters.  Daily Kos is as left wing a blog as you will find anywhere, and they actually had a poll about whether to run the story even though they knew it wasn’t true.  A plurality of those responding (49%) said control of the government was at stake and anything was worth it to win. 

Despicable.

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 N~ came in my back door this evening and excitedly told me to come see what was in my garden.  Since I had just picked everything I couldn’t imagine what he was talking about.

“Ticks!” he said excitedly.  “You have lots of ticks in your garden!”

This is what he saw.

                        

It’s a squash bug, or squash vine borer, a key pest of winter squash and pumpkins.  I had seen them all over the butternut squash while I was in the garden earlier.  They are very large bugs, and I would hate to meet a tick that big.

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I’m making a birthday cake for Kelli, whose birthday is on Tuesday, for Elaine’s Labor Day picnic tomorrow.  Happy Birthday Kelli!