A giant step backward

MANIFESTO

Needless to say, I've always been a bit skeptical regarding the US's slavish devotion to Israel, and yesterday's unwarranted attack on an aid flotilla destined for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip makes me wonder how BO and the rest of the apologists (one of whom, unfortunately, happens to be one of my senators) will try to spin it.

To be sure, it'll be difficult to spin this positively, for, as Glenn Greenwald notes,

It hardly seemed possible for Israel—after its brutal devastation of Gaza and its ongoing blockade—to engage in more heinous and repugnant crimes. But by attacking a flotilla in international waters carrying humanitarian aid, and slaughtering at least 10 people, Israel has managed to do exactly that. If Israel's goal were to provoke as much disgust and contempt for it as possible, it's hard to imagine how it could be doing a better job.

Governor Clubwoman drinks the Kool-Aid

MANIFESTO

At this point in her political career, Connecticut's governor really isn't good for much else other than announcing today that "she has signed legislation designating March 30 'Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day.'"

I've posted about this new "holiday" before, and I still think it's stupid, especially in light of the fact that, like our officious governor, too many people believe that

"The deep divisions within our nation at the time of the Vietnam War were reflected in the way men and women in uniform were treated when they returned from that conflict. Few were truly welcomed home and far too many were actually insulted or abused."

I suppose it's impossible to put this urban legend to rest. The truth of the matter can be found here, but suffice it to say that Governor Clubwoman is simply spouting the benighted and unsubstantiated beliefs of morons like Dick Nixon and the other nutjobs of the present day.

Quote of the Day

SPORTING GOODS

“It’ll change the way we celebrate.”

— California Angels manager Mike Scioscia after Kendry Morales seemed to twist
his ankle during the victory celebration at home plate after Morales
hit a game-ending grand slam homer in the 10th inning last night

It turned out that Morales actually broke his leg when he jumped onto home plate. At the risk of sounding callous, I think this is hilarious.

The Huskies' Story, cont'd

SPORTING GOODS

What's striking to me at this point of the investigation is that the university knew something was coming down from the NCAA and still jumped the gun and gave St. Jim a five-year extension on his contract.

I know it's still way too early to assume anything in the case, but it sure looks as if it would have been a lot easier for everyone if St. Jim had retired in 2003 when he was first diagnosed with cancer. If, in fact, "Calhoun and athletic director Jeff Hathaway, as the leaders, did not adequately monitor the program," it's certainly possible that the lack of monitoring might have been due to the coach's concerns about other, health-related, problems.

I know this analogy is probably too far fetched, but the situation is kind of like the Iran-Contra affair. When it all hit the fan, the addled Gipper wasn't censured because of his involvement in the shadow government; he was censured because, in his early-onset Alzheimer's condition, he never knew what his subordinates were up to. Perhaps St. Jim's concerns about his health created a situation where he couldn't pay adequate attention to the doings of his staff.

If that scenario is accurate, it makes the contract extension all the more foolish.

The Huskies' story, cont'd

SPORTING GOODS

Here's the first of what could be many shoes to drop in the NCAA's investigation of the UConn men's basketball program:

The University of Connecticut athletic department announced Friday morning it has received a notice of allegations from the NCAA with regards to recruiting violations within the men's basketball program and will immediately begin the process of imposing sanctions in order to avoid further punishment by the organization ...

UConn's first steps toward appeasing the NCAA came Thursday night when it was revealed assistant coaches Beau Archibald and Pat Sellers resigned from their positions ...

Sellers, 41, recently completed his third year as an assistant coach at UConn after spending four years as the director of operations. Archibald, 33, a former player in 1999-2000, was in his third season as the director of operations.

The AP is also reporting that

The University of Connecticut says the NCAA has found eight violations in the school's men's basketball program.

The alleged violations include improper phone calls and text messages to recruits, and giving recruits improper benefits. Coach Jim Calhoun was cited Friday for failing to "promote an atmosphere of compliance."

UConn was 18-16 last season. Calhoun took a medical leave of absence in January, missing seven games with an undisclosed condition.

Two things about the last two paragraphs: First, it's really not surprising that St. Jim would be reluctant to "promote an atmosphere of compliance" during the investigation. He's thought he's bigger than the university for years; to have him think that he's bigger than the NCAA is of a piece.

Second, that 23-day long "medical leave of absence" story remains problematic. Rumors have emerged that Calhoun was actually suspended by the university for conduct unbecoming one of its representatives. That possibility, too, isn't inconsistent with many of the coach's previous episodes.

(And in other sports news: Unfortunately, the real Dice-K showed up last night.)

The CT Senate race

MANIFESTO

The fact that a

Quinnipiac University Poll, conducted May 24-25, shows [Dick] Blumenthal leading the endorsed Republican Senate candidate, former wrestling executive Linda McMahon, by a 56 percent to 31 percent margin in the race to fill the seat being vacated by the retiring Sen. Chris Dodd

says much less about Blumenthal's popularity than it does about the laughable candidacy of the erstwhile crotch kicker.

David slays Goliath

MANIFESTO

In a turn of events I never would have anticipated as recently as a few years ago,

[Yesterday,] Apple, the maker of iPods, iPhones and iPads, shot past Microsoft, the computer software giant, to become the world’s most valuable technology company ... The click-clack of the keyboard has ceded ground to the swipe of a finger across a smartphone’s touch screen.

It is, to be sure, "one of the most stunning turnarounds in business history," and goes to show what vision can do. That is, while Microsoft continued to assume that the desktop (and later, laptop) computer was the be-all and end-all for everyone's technology needs, Apple went ahead and developed products that people didn't even know they wanted. Congratulations to a company I've supported for decades.

MSFT has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since the tech boom in the late nineties. Perhaps it's time for "the world’s most valuable technology company" (as of yesterday) to take its place.

The nerve of some corporations

MANIFESTO

I nearly drove off the road this morning when I heard a commercial sponsored by GE, asking me to contact my representatives in Washington in support of the company's F136 jet engine program.

GE, a monopolistic monster if ever there was one, is concerned that, otherwise,

Congress would be handing a $100 billion sole-source monopoly to a single contractor with $2.6 billion in cost overruns already.

Apparently the $183 billion in revenue and the $17 billion dollars in profits the company garnered last year aren't enough, and so it needs to recruit citizen lobbyists to add to those numbers.

All the news is bad today

MANIFESTO

Take yer pick:

The oil spill continues, and the back story is worse.

The execrable Linda McMahon is actually going to run for the US Senate in my state.

International and domestic equity markets are tanking.

True/Slant, a site I recently discovered and like, is being sold to the hideous Malcolm Forbes. (Matt Taibbi will now blog at rollingstone.com.)

And,

a broad expansion of clandestine military activity [has been ordered] in an effort to disrupt militant groups or counter threats in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and other countries in the region, according to defense officials and military documents.

I shoulda stood in bed.

UPDATE — Ah. There is some good news for us Macaholics.

What the republic has come to

MANIFESTO

Item:

Nevada State election officials have added chicken costumes to the list of items that are banned from the polls, along with items such as campaign T-shirts, and campaign buttons.

Because of US Senate candidate Sue Lowden’s (R-NV) idea of bartering with your doctor to pay for his or her service with chickens, and the subsequent mocking of her idea since she suggested it and said she stood by it, the wearing of chicken suits could be seeing as campaigning at the Polls which is illegal.

This is actually hilarious and just goes to show what people are willing to do (Those outfits can't be comfortable in the May heat of Nevada.) to prove a point.

As Texas goes ...?

MANIFESTO

In what was pretty much a done deal,

the [Texas] State Board of Education on Friday approved new curriculum standards for U.S. history and other social studies courses that reflect a more conservative tone than in the past.

At the risk of sounding arbitrary, any state that mandates that children be exposed to the neanderthal ideas of Phyllis Schlafly is too stupid to be considered seriously.

The logical extreme of libertarianism

MANIFESTO

In the right's pursuit of governmental non-intervention, a view like this is inevitable:

In an interview on ABC News’ Good Morning America today, host George Stephanopoulos pressed GOP Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul on “how far” he would “push” his anti-government views.

[In response,] Paul defended BP’s response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill last month and attacked the Obama administration’s crackdown on the oil giant as “really un-American“:

"... What I don’t like from the president’s administration is this sort of, you know, 'I’ll put my boot heel on the throat of BP.' I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business. I’ve heard nothing from BP about not paying for the spill. And I think it’s part of this sort of blame game society in the sense that it’s always got to be someone’s fault. Instead of the fact that maybe sometimes accidents happen."

I don't believe these morons (and, of course, I'm including the former governor of the country's largest state) will ever understand that the makeup of the society is such that government must get involved in episodes of this type. It's as if the Fourteenth Amendment never existed for these idiots.

Cripes, if one wants to do his own thing rather than have the government get involved, he'd better be prepared to put out his own house fire.

UPDATE — Steve Benen elucidates.

Another lost decade?

MANIFESTO

Needless to say, the first ten years of the century were emintently forgettable marked as they were by huge job losses, an immense national deficit increase, a return to 19th century jingoism, virtually no movement in the equity markets, etc., etc., etc.

Now, Paul Krugman is suggesting that yet another lost decade could occur by 2020:

[P]olicy makers aren’t doing too much; they’re doing too little. Recent data ... suggest that we may be heading for a Japan-style lost decade, trapped in a prolonged era of high unemployment and slow growth.

Couple this with the fact that

ballooning pension obligations have stoked battles between anti-tax crusaders and public sector unions, with the legislature paralyzed in between,

and my golden years may not be so shiny after all.

Reverse jinx?

MANIFESTO

Maybe things will get better on Wall St. now that my only holdings are short, but equities sure don't look good right now.

The Blumenthal "misspeaking," cont'd

MANIFESTO

Colin McEnroe makes me feel a bit better about the state's current AG, but I wish Blumy would've had the wherewithal to figure this kind of stuff out for himself rather than go off half-cocked about people impugning his record of service.

UPDATE — Oops. Perhaps I spoke too soon.

Why MLB stinks

SPORTING GOODS

It's easy for me to be a fan of Major League Baseball: I support a team that's ordinarily in the hunt for a playoff spot every season.

Nevertheless, I can understand why some people couldn't care less. Case in point: The Pittsburgh Pirates haven't had a winning season since 1992.

It's ludicrous for MLB to go on with such an oppressive situation as this.

The morning after

MANIFESTO

Bye bye Bysiewicz (for real this time).

The hideous Arlen Specter gets what he deserves.

And Dick Blumenthal is still looking like a jerk in his nonsensical assertion that he "will not allow anyone to ... impugn [his] record of service to [his] country." What's he gonna do? Start a fistfight?

I suppose this looks like bad news for the Democrats, but Murtha's seat stays blue, and the egregious Rand Paul seems to be running against everyone.

UPDATE — Colin McEnroe is a bit overwhelmed by it all.

A bad day on the ethics front

MANIFESTO

I suppose I'm a fan of Dick Blumenthal. I think I'm a friend/fan of his on Facebook. I certainly had no qualms about voting for him in his venture to replace Chris Dodd as one of the state's senators. Now, unfortunately, I have a qualm or two. It seems the pure-as-the-driven-snow State AG has averred that he served in Vietnam some decades ago when no such situation transpired. When called to account on this baldfaced lie, the AG was, shall we say, less than forthcoming about the whole thing.

He didn’t apologize. But as he scrambled to resuscitate his battered U.S. Senate campaign Tuesday, Democrat Richard Blumenthal said he “regrets” “misspeaking.”

Then he swung back.

“I will not,” he declared, “allow anyone to take a few misplaced words and impugn my record of service to our country.”

Blumenthal made the remarks at a 2 p.m. press event at a West Hartford VFW Hall, as he scrambled to contain the damage from a New York Times expose charging that he has falsely claimed to have served in the military in Vietnam, rather than at home in the marine reserves.

That's two strikes as far as I'm concerned: first, the lie and then the nonsensical verbiage. Of course he "regrets" the incident—it's made him look like a lying lowlife. And the notion of his "misspeaking" is every bit as bad as a White House Press Secretary's dismissal of his boss's previous extensive statements on a serious issue as "inoperative."

And then we have the sad story of

Indiana Rep. Mark Souder, an eight-term Republican who promoted abstinence education, [who] said Tuesday he'll resign from Congress after admitting an extramarital affair with a part-time staff member.

Souder, an evangelical Christian who has championed family values and traditional marriage, apologized for his actions but provided no details during an emotional news conference at his Fort Wayne office.

... Throughout his time in Congress, Souder made his evangelical Christianity a centerpiece of his public persona. He was known for his outspoken views on religion and his uncompromising conservative positions on social issues such as abortion.

“I sinned against God, my wife and my family by having a mutual relationship with a part-time member of my staff ... My comfort is that God is a gracious and forgiving God.” Souder said.

Whatever. The truth of the matter is that Souder is just another sanctimonious blowhard who couldn't keep his pants on.

And finally we have the extremely interesting story of one Adam Wheeler, whose

plan to fake his way into and through Harvard University worked for years ... until he tried to get a university endorsement for a Rhodes Scholarship his senior year.

... Wheeler was arrested on Monday and indicted on 20 offenses, including larceny, identity fraud and pretending to hold a degree. Harvard estimates Wheeler duped them out of $45,000 in financial aid, grants and scholarships. He is scheduled to appear in Middlesex Superior Court Tuesday.

While all of these incidents have to do with duplicity, if I had to rank the above in terms of malfeasance, I'd certainly rank Wheeler's deceit last. I always get a kick out of the smartypants in the Ivy League getting taken for a ride.

The Central Falls story

MANIFESTO

Now that the

Rhode Island school that attracted nationwide attention in February for its decision to fire its entire staff has reached a tentative agreement to rehire them,

it's interesting to see the shakeout.

Certainly, BO and Education Secretary Arne Duncan looked (and look) like fools in this episode with their "just fire 'em all" accountability nonsense in the poorest town in Little Rhody.

But the most interesting reaction seems to me to be the students', who

were questioning the wisdom of a School Department that had been so willing to fire an entire staff of teachers, many of whom “have a better bond with us than parents,” said sophomore Jaimeelee Velasquez, 15.

“It’s not the teachers,” said 18-year-old junior Jon Osorio. “It’s the students who need to do [the work], too.” Teachers “can’t hold our hands all our lives.”

His friend, Bryan Gaviria, 17, agreed: “Teachers can’t do nothing more. It’s up to you to do your work and study for your quizzes.”

You hear that, you Harvard/Yale/University of Chicago cloistered duo? Even high school students can figure out that teaching is more than a pass-fail enterprise.

Old news

MANIFESTO

I was talking about this topic with some friends over the weekend, and we all decided we weren't in favor it:

When "multigenerational" is ... defined to include at least two adult generations, a record 49 million, or one in six people, live in such households, according to a study ... by the Pew Research Center.

Now, needless to say, much of this phenonmenon is caused by "'boomerang kids' flock[ing] home," but I have very good friends who've opted to do this voluntarily. It doesn't appeal to me—or my offspring—but I suppose the setup is at least economically advantageous.

Who knew?

SPORTING GOODS

"Softball is seen as a 'lesbian sport.'"

Thanks to TPM for pointing this out to me.

Thicker than water — the conclusion

STUPIDITY

The fighting Troy sisters—they of the contested winning lottery ticket—have had their day in court, and, as is inevitable, one party is greatly disappointed.

The judge, of course, has it right when she states,

"There is something in this tragedy that touches most people. While the court may be able to resolve the legal dispute, it is powerless to repair the discord and strife that now overshadows the once harmonious sisterly relationship."

To be sure, it's a sad story, but it sure does sound like there was a certain amount of dementia involved.

Stat of the day

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

One-fourth of American homes now has no traditional landline even though they do have mobile phone service, while only 15% have a landline with no cell phone.

The Centers for Disease Control have been tracking the statistic since 2006. Back then, it found that 11% of homes only had a mobile number. In just 3 years, that number more than doubled to 23% in 2009.

... [F]or those between 25 and 29, 50% did not have a landline number, while people over 65 are still relying heavily on the traditional service—only 5% of them have decided to go cell-only.

This kind of reminds me that I need to do something about my AT&T land line, which, given the state of electronic economics these days, is hideously expensive.

The wrong man at the wrong time

MANIFESTO

After just a thirty-month tenure at the school, University of Connecticut President Michael Hogan has just announced his decision to take a similar job at the University of Illinois. It seems like everyone, including (and, perhaps, especially) Governor Clubwoman, is irked.

Older than John McCain

MANIFESTO

I can't believe there's any earthly reason for anyone to vote for the octogenarian apostate, Arlen Specter.

What a disgrace he is to the US Senate and the people of Pennsylvania.

The UConn mess, cont'd

SPORTING GOODS

While "no taxpayer money or student tuition monies [are] involved. All of these bills are being paid through self-generated funds by the athletic department," it's nevertheless the case that

The University of Connecticut has asked state officials to more than double the amount it will pay a Kansas City law firm to defend the school against an ongoing NCAA investigation into the men's basketball team.

The state Office of Policy and Management has agreed to allow UConn to spend an additional $375,000 to pay Bond, Schoeneck & King of Kansas City. The original contract with the law firm, first approved by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal's office, called for a three-year contract capped at $300,000.

But state records show that UConn overspent that amount in a one-year period between April 2009 and April 2010, when more than $338,000 in legal bills were paid.

It's certainly true that the money will be reimbursed, but it's also the case—which the university is ignoring—that this three-quarters of a million dollars could be used for scholarships for needy (non-athletic) students.

And the bill is only going to get larger as the NCAA investigation into the school's recruitment of Nate Miles and the program's ties to former UConn team manager-turned-agent Josh Nochimson continues.

Oh, and it goes without saying that St. Jim has received a five-year extension on his contract in the midst of all this.

UPDATE — Colin McEnroe weighs in on the issue.

Dogs and their days

MANIFESTO

The Red Sox win a game, and the DJIA is up over 300 points.

I'm not necessarily encouraged by either development.

Elena Kagan

MANIFESTO

Readers of this blog may remember the set-to the Constitution State experienced when Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz was challenged in her bid to become the state's Attorney General. The situation was ultimately resolved, but the prospect of the state having an attorney general who, you know, has never actually practiced law in a court is a little unsettling.

And now we have the case of Elena Kagan, BO's selection to be the latest justice on the SCOTUS. She's apparently been a successful Solicitor General, but she's never been a judge. The whole thing is a bit bizarre. (Andrew Pincus defends the selection here.)

And while I don't think SCOTUS justices should necessarily represent certain constituencies of Americans (For one of the more laughable—and infamous—disagreements with this position, see here.), it's striking that, should Kagan be approved, the SCOTUS will have no Protestants on it in a country where more than half of its citizens identify themselves as same.

Stick a fork in them?

SPORTING GOODS

As negative about the Sox as Dan Shaughnessy is this morning, I feel even worse. While Shaughnessy isn't ready to throw in the towel anent the Olde Towne Team, as the season progresses I really think they won't be able to do much better than their current .500 status.

Meltdown

SPORTING GOODS

I happened to be in the Fens last night for the Sox' latest debacle. If Josh Beckett is going to hit two batters in one inning (one with the bases loaded) and walk in another run, the Olde Towne Team is in serious trouble.

Looks like another season where I'll be paying more and more attention to the National League.

UConn makes its bed

SPORTING GOODS

I feel about St. Jim pretty much the way I feel about Big Papi: They each made great runs, but it's probably time to call it a career.

It'll all be taken care of

MANIFESTO

Item:

A U.S. House of Representatives panel has slated a hearing on the causes of [yesterday's] market swoon for next Tuesday, with its chairman, Rep. Paul Kanjorski, urging the SEC to investigate as well.

That makes me feel ever so much better.

And the Poor get Poorer

MANIFESTO

New York City Mayor Bloomberg proposed yesterday that "more than 12,000 city jobs ... be cut, including around 6,500 teaching positions."

Needless to say, this is a tough onion to bite into, but the move apparently is necessitated by Albany's "cutting too much funding to New York City schools and other agencies."

The Daily News is apoplectic today as it opines that

Gov. Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Senate Democratic conference chief John Sampson and Senate Republican Minority Leader Dean Skelos ... have backed away from tackling pension and health care costs that are draining money from critical government functions. New York can continue to pay wages and benefits that far exceed those available in the private sector, or New York can eliminate teachers.

Take your pick. Paterson, Silver, Sampson and Skelos have already made their choices. They have thrown the kids under the bus ...

However, when one looks at the small stories, one can't help but be taken by episodes like this:

Jessica Stillman, 24, a third-grade teacher at the [South Bronx's PS 277], recalls a young boy who started off the year throwing chairs and storming out of her classroom.

To gain his trust, and help him avoid the home life that contained "things that an 8-year-old should never be exposed to," she asked him to stay after school to be her helper.

To get him to practice writing, she pretended she needed his help to write notes to other teachers. At times, she would catch glimpses of a troubled home life. A conversation about favorite snacks revealed that he sometimes had only a bag of Cheetos for dinner.

Early in the school year, 28% of Ms. Stillman's students scored proficient in English on a New York City diagnostic test. In March, 77% did.

Ms. Stillman will be the first teacher to be laid off at P.S. 277.

I suppose I'm a fan of teacher tenure, but when "1,600 [city] teachers ... received 'unsatisfactory' ratings last year," it's an outright tragedy when a wonderful talent like Ms. Stillman has to be let go.

Series' Finales

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

I've never watched an episode of Lost, but this is a good précis of famous television series' finales that may or may not have succeeded.

The American People

MANIFESTO

Apparently, Jon Stewart shares my antipathy for politicians telling me what I want.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
American Apparently
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Robin Roberts

SPORTING GOODS

The number of people who knew that a current television personality shared a name with a Hall of Fame pitcher is no doubt dwindling, but I was always struck by the happenstance—especially since their genders were dissimilar.

The reason I knew of the coincidence was that the first major league baseball team I probably ever knew the name of was the Philadelphia Phillies. I happened to live in the Philadelphia environs in the late '50s, and so the Phillies were the team I could watch on television.

The team was dreadful, but it had one star: Roberts. When the future Hall of Famer got his 200th career win in 1958, it was about the only positive story on the Phils the Inquirer could report that year. Roberts could also hit and was one of the few switch-hitting pitchers I ever heard of.

Requiescat in pace.

UPDATE — A moving elegy can be found here.

Today's graduation story

MANIFESTO

As an irreligious card-carrying member of the ACLU, I have this story in my sights:

A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday against the Enfield [CT] Board of Education could determine whether holding graduations in a church forces religion on students and their families.

The school board's plan to hold graduations at First Cathedral in Bloomfield next month violates the First Amendment's order to keep church and state separated, say the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The groups are trying to block the town from using the mega-church as a graduation site for Enfield High School's and Enrico Fermi High's senior classes.

I really can't agree with the ACLU's position on this. As I see it, the place is a venue and nothing more. The notion of forcing religion (i.e., proselytizing) on graduates and their families is really foolish. The position is akin to arguing that if someone goes to school, he'll be educated—and we all know that doesn't always work.

Nevertheless, I'm not sure having the graduations at this venue is a good idea since

Board of Education Chairman Gregory Stokes has said the board set aside $32,000 for both graduations in its budget this year, assuming they would continue to be held at the church.

Phew! That's a lot of money for a ceremony that could be held for free on a football field—especially in a town that plans to lay off 39 teachers next year.

Today's self-loathing homosexual story

MANIFESTO

Ever since the days of the odious Roy Cohn, I've been amused by the hoops conservative male homosexuals jump through as they try to retain their popularity with their political ilk by arguing that their sexual preference doesn't exist.

I'll take a bit of a wide stance here and point out that today's example of this phenomenon starts here, links to here, and ends with a bang here.

When it comes to the Gulf oil spill

MANIFESTO

... I blame the Republicans.

What Red Said

SPORTING GOODS

While I certainly appreciate the wonderful years Big Papi gave Red Sox Nation, it's nights like last night that make me wonder how long the relationship can last: 0 for 4 with two strikeouts and two GIDPs.

It's as painful to watch as Willie Mays (Happy 79th birthday to the Say Hey Kid, by the way.) stumbling around center field in Shea Stadium when he was 42 years old.

The Connecticut Connection

MANIFESTO

I see that

A U.S. citizen who had recently returned from a five-month trip to his native Pakistan, where he had a family, was arrested at a New York airport on charges that he drove a bomb-laden SUV meant to cause a fireball in Times Square, federal authorities said.

While I realize that the suspect is a US citizen, I really wish he'd been some wingnut with a pathological ax to grind. The fact that another brown skinned Mideasterner tried to blow up New York will only promote the hysteria of Islamophobes such as the Constitution State's own Senator Sanctimony.

The fact that

FBI agents searched the home at a known address for Shahzad in Bridgeport, Conn., early Tuesday [and that] a phone number at a listed address for Shahzad [existed] in Shelton [where] he used to live in a two-story grayish-brown Colonial with a sloping yard in a working-class neighborhood

is sure to send the senator from AIPAC into paroxysms of anti-Arab vitriol.

Attorney General Holder has maintained that

U.S. authorities "will not rest until we have brought everyone responsible to justice," suggesting additional suspects are being sought.

This continuing investigation is sure to send Holy Joe and his ilk into further agitated tirades.

UPDATE — And out of the woodwork they come!

Spill, baby, spill!

MANIFESTO

As the Gulf Coast begins to feel the effects of one of the worst environmental disasters in its history, it's interesting to see how the "Drill, baby, drill" crowd is reacting to this catastrophe.

Time to use the Belichick model?

SPORTING GOODS

Over the weekend, I couldn't help but be reminded of Patriots' coach Bill Belichick's rationale for obtaining Wes Welker a few years ago:

At Miami, he just killed us, returning kicks, catching the ball in the slot, running reverses.

It might be time for Red Sox GM Theo Epstein to apply the same thinking to the Orioles' Nick Markakis, who, once again, killed the Sox with a 7 for 12 weekend.

UPDATE - DarLucky links to the awful truth.