whatever already!

2008-07-04T01:57:00.000-07:00

New column on Huffington Post and also my personal blog:

The rules are simple enough for the kids playing in the stickball tournament this morning in Kelly Park: There are to be three people to a team. There are four innings per game. Two outs per inning. You walk on three balls. You strike out on two strikes. The second strike can be a foul ball.

Any ground ball not stopped or caught is a single. If you hit the ball over the double court line without it being caught or stopped, you have hit a double. If you smack the ball hard off the fence, you have a triple. And if you hit it the ball entirely over the fence, of course, you have hit a home run. If you hit a deep foul ball over the fence, it is unclear whether it is to be counted as a foul ball or home run. In that case, the final decision is left to the whim of a grown up or the good will of the opposing team.

If you are eleven years old, and get a chance to bat, there are apparently traditions to uphold: You must wear an oversized Red Sox jersey with the name Papelbom on the back. (That is the Sox's closer for those not literate in such things. In an earlier time, one would have had the name Garciaparra on their jersey.) You dramatically roll your head from side to side to get the hair out of the eyes. Then you check the stick to make sure you are hitting at the ball from the ride end. (This is very important; however you hope that nobody sees you doing this.) Then you dig hard into the pavement with your converse high tops, lean way way back on your heels, and then smack at the ball--eyes closed allowed--with all of your eleven year old might. Whether you hit the ball or not, all is right with the world.

You hope you hit the ball of course. But if you don't, you still get to have your face painted, hang with the older kids, have a hot dog with anything you want it on it-- and then if you are really, really lucky you get to sit on your big brother's shoulder to watch the dedication of the square to an older boy in the neighborhood.

The corner of Cragie and Summer is to be renamed in dedication for another little boy who once played stick ball in this park. There are two honor guards, one of which will fire off live rounds, interrupting the morning quiet and send singing birds scattering. A representative of the mayor will say a few words.

This is the unveiling for a new street sign dedicating Spc. Nicholas Peters Square.

Nick served of duty in Iraq and came home in one piece while so many of his friends were not so fortunate. He survived the war but not the peace. Stationed at Ft. Hood, in Texas, someone in a bar did not like the fact that he was wearing a Red Sox jersey and killed him.

Days after his killing, his baseball coach would say: "I can still see a 6 year old Nick skating at the rink and at 8 years old hitting a baseball." Nick's little niece, her mother, Shanna, told me the morning of the stickball tournament, still sees Nick all the time. She declares to her mom: "Uncle is laughing at you!" One day while coloring, she nonchalantly orders: "Uncle! Color within the lines!"

Who is to tell her that she is wrong to believe that her uncle is still with her?

The stickball tournament in not just in honor of Nick, but also his friend, David Martini, who played stickball and baseball and hockey with Nick, and who too has died too young. All together, four other boys who played stickball with Nicholas Peters in Kelly Park have died too young deaths--victims of senseless violence, suicide, or drug overdoses.

When I return home from Somerville to Washington D.C., I find out that my friend Brian has been shot on the street because apparently the two kids robbing him did not think he was willing to hand over his cell phone fast enough. Even though he is shot three times, he is alright--albeit with one less spleen.

Unable to sleep, I go online and watch over and over again Bobby Kennedy's speech on the menace of violence in America which he gave on April 5, 1968: "The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old famous and unknown. They are most important of all human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one can be certain who suffer next from senseless act of violence. And yet it goes on and on and on...

"Whenever any American's life is taken by another American unnecessarily... Whenever we tear a the fabric of he lives which some other man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children--whenever we do this--the nation is degraded."

The next morning I have to go visit Brian in the hospital to see with my own eyes that he is all right. He smiles, banters with friends, nods off, and we are all reassured.

But what amazes everyone is that despite being shot three times, Brian either walked or ran quite a long way to put some distance between him and the shooter before the police were to arrive. It makes no sense and perfect sense. He wanted to get to a safe place.

My thoughts return to that eleven year old kid playing in the stickball tournament. You want him to be safe. You think maybe you should have a heart to heart and tell him that when he gets older all that he has to do is not wear that Red Sox jersey certain places. If only it were that simple.

2008-05-27T01:16:00.000-07:00

A new blog the management of this one recommends.

As readers of this blog are well aware, I have been-- and still am-- on a learning curve as far as blogging goes. I'm going to cross post here for a while what I write on the new blog-- out of a sense of loyalty to my seven readers-- if that many have stayed with me!

Michigan Primary Results

2008-01-16T00:51:00.000-08:00

Why the Michigan primary results do not bode well for Hillary Clinton: Tom Edsall's post explains what all the bloviating cable commentators have missed. Extraordinary that everyone else has missed this trend...

The Michigan Democratic primary was on the surface a non-event. The national party has ruled the state's delegation will not be seated. Of the major candidates, only Hillary Clinton was on the ballot, pitted against "uncommitted" in a seemingly meaningless race (she won by 15 percent).
Yet the exit poll results from this strange contest reveal some troubling trends for the New York Senator.

Among men, for example, the battle was neck and neck. Clinton got 47 percent and the anonymous/non-existent opposition got 43 percent. (Clinton did substantially better among women, winning 58-37.)

The opposition was not, however, altogether ethereal. For the most part, voting "uncommitted" was a substitute for casting a ballot for Barack Obama, or for some voters, John Edwards.

Among black voters, Clinton was crushed by "uncommitted," 26-70. If that kind of margin among African Americans continues into future primaries, she faces major problems in the heavily black January 26 South Carolina primary and in the states with large black populations going to the polls on February 5 -- so-called Tsunami Tuesday. Clinton carried whites in Michigan by a 61-30.

Clinton ran poorly among young voters of all races, losing those under the age of 30 by 39-48 percent; splitting voters from 30 to 44 by 46-48 percent; solidly carrying the 45 to 56 age group by 54-34 percent; and winning voters 60 and older by a landslide 67-31 percent.

Josh Marshall has this interesting fact: Kucinich got almost as many votes as Guliani in Michigan tonight.

The pundits never seem to learn: Watching Andrea Mitchell talking about John McCain's candidacy on MSNBC she says his candidacy was over because of the Michigan results tonight. Of course, his candidacy was over even before the first primary. And Clinton was toast after Iowa... you get the idea..

2007-12-25T02:28:00.000-08:00

The environmental Pope? We can only hope so, and he follows through...

Meanwhile, Merry Christmas to all six or seven visitors to this blog.

2007-12-08T14:58:00.000-08:00

Powerline defends my Huckabee story.

Also on Huckabee: John Amato.

And an interesting new story by Sam Stein.

2007-11-25T00:23:00.000-08:00

Lance Armstrong running for political office?

2007-11-19T06:04:00.000-08:00

Apparently sold some books in the Czech Republic. The store there even has this website.

Now that we know this, the publisher should sent us to Prague, I think, to keep the momentum going. Alas, probably not, though.

2007-11-19T05:16:00.000-08:00

WSJ content to soon be free online...

2007-11-14T03:18:00.001-08:00

I have a new story out tonight at the Huffington Post: Justice Department Reopens Probe into Warantless Wiretapping Program. A Dan Froomkin column on this issue from a while back.

2007-11-06T16:48:00.000-08:00

Pakistan has apparently hired everyone in Washington D.C. for their payroll after declaring martial law. An army of their lobbyists is already descending on Capitol Hall, as this blog post is being written.

2007-11-06T16:41:00.000-08:00

This just in: Brent Wilkes found guilty on thirteen counts.

2007-11-06T16:37:00.000-08:00

Charlie Kaiser has been off to a really strong start as Radar's new media critic....

2007-11-06T16:11:00.000-08:00

The American League Golden Glove awards are just out. Some surprises: Adrian Beltre beat out both .Alex Rodriguez and Eric Chavez at 3B. And Orlando Cabrera of the Anaheim Angels or California Angels or whatever they are beat out Derek Jeter at SS.

(In an exclusive interview with this blog, baseball authority John A'mato explains that Jeter got off to a "rough start... because of the intense cold that blanketed the East Coast" at the start of the season and that Cabrera was "consistent throughout.")

I know I don't ordinarily write about baseball, but we are trying a new business model at this blog, to increase readers. We are grateful to the eleven unique visitors we now have, but we would like to try for more. On the other hand, we don't want to alienate our base... by getting into an entirely unexpected area. Aargh.

2007-11-06T15:20:00.001-08:00

The New York Daily News reports that Bernard Kerik is going to be indicted.

Greg Sargent fact checks Guliani's recent comments to the AP about Kerik. Why didn't anyone else do this-- especially the AP-- after Guliani gave a preemptory interview to the AP about his former police chief just as Kerik stands to be indicted by federal authorities?

2007-11-06T01:10:00.000-08:00

Watch this video. Mind boggling. Abusing small children on Medicaid-- for profit, or course. Why else?

Is the Huckabee Surge for Real? (Part 1)

2007-11-04T01:04:00.000-07:00

Is the Huckabee surge for real?

This analysis is not bad: "Huckabee's populist economic message could also help give the GOP ticket a boost among once Republican-leaning but now disaffected voters in Ohio. Of course, there would be concern that his socially conservative positions could turn off moderate suburbanites."

One reason that Huckabee's campaign has been so successful so far, I think, is because he is in fact a masterful politician. He can appear on Bill Maher one day and bash Bush's foreign policy and even sound like a progressive when he talks about education or economic policy. Then, not long after, he will appear before a group of Christain evangelicals and speak to the right of everyone else on the stage on issues like school prayer and abortion-- without either of his two constituencies being that cognizant of what he said to the others.

But as he climbs in the polls, and receives greater press and blog scrutiny, his various constituencies are more likely to see what he says when he is not speaking directly to each of them. A case in point: Maher, a fan, and who has had Huckabee on his show more than once, appeared taken aback recently when a guest talked about Huckabee's recent comments suggesting that illegal immigration was related to legalized abortion. The downside to an ascending candidacy is that CNN and Youtube are paying attention.

Meanwhile, one thing is all but certain: This will almost certainly become an issue again for Huckabee-- another example as to how climbing in the polls leads to more intense scrutiny-- by the media, bloggers, and one's fellow candidates. One of the reasons that Fred Thompson did so well-- before he declared his candidacy on Leno- was that as long as he didn't enter the arena editors didn't want to send their reporters out to scrutinize his past until he was indeed a candidate.

Other than say, Sam Brownback, was any other Republican candidate doing opposition research on Huckabee. I think it is safe to assume that someone working for Rudy Guliani has done a Google search, and if they have, and found anything, call John Solomon at the Washington Post with the details.

(The scuttlebutt from the campaign trail is that Solomon is the go-to-guy for candidates with the goods on their competitors. Complaints from reporters at other newspapers are that editors at their own papers are less likely to print negative stuff on candidates without saying where it has come from, while Solomon can remain mum where the goods came from; and through Solomon, an ambitious operative has in the Washington Post one of the most powerful platforms an operative leak an allegation about a rival or amplify one already made.

(I think there is a good discussion that journalists and bloggers should have about the motives of their leakers should be more transparent to their readers. As far as I know, only Josh Marshall has even addressed this issue, while taking a shot at deconstructing Solomon.)

In any case, after discursing, this story has in recent days been read by more people than when it was originally posted and published in Nov. 2002.

Meanwhile, Matt Yglesias weighs in about this and other things.

And Susan Milligan in the Boston Globe gave many readers in neighboring New Hampshire their first exposure to the Dumond issue in this story.

First update: Oops. I forgot that I written a post-- at this very blog!-- (that was a self-deprecating reference to the fact that I have all of about eleven readers currently to this blog) about Huckabee and Dumond when the former governor was interviewed on Meet the Press and Tim Russert actually asked him some questions from my Arkansas Times story. (I pledge to my eleven readers that I will probably not link again to my own blog soon. That I did not remember my own blog posting probably indicates that anyone should consider it memorable-- except for the fact that former Governor Huckabee may have given misleading answers to some of Russert's questions.)

Second update: I should have remembered this as well. John Amato has the video of that appearance by Huckabee on Meet the Press. Personal thanks to Tim Russrt for asking the right and tough questions as well as to John for posting the video and advancing the story as well.

Third update: Columnist Scott Leigh of the Boston Globe believes that the Huckabee surge is for real: "A recent Rausmassen survey has [Huckabee] tied for second with Fred Thompson in Iow, with neither far behind."

2007-10-17T23:57:00.000-07:00

A new story out tonight. Since nobody else seems to be linking to it....

(I wanted to make a joke here about: what is blogging for except for self promotion? But since beginning this modest blog, I have come to respect the people who do them-- and the worst offenders of bloggers using their blogs for self promotion are professional MSM journalists who blog. I should name names.... )

Update: Actually, there have since been a few links to that story here and there.

Second update: Another story. Been working hard lately.

Book Party

2007-06-20T11:43:00.000-07:00

Book Party....

Tomorrow evening, Thursday, Jeff Lomanoco and myself-- and our publisher-- are hosting a party to celebrate the publication of our book, the U.S. v. I. Lewis Libby.

It is Thursday evening, from 6 P.M. to 9 P.M., at the Knew Gallery in Georgetown, which is located at 1639 Wisconsin Ave., N.W. The phone number of the gallery is 202-338-4558.

Jeff and myself, as well as our publisher, are better at editing and publishing books than hosting parties. With none of us being very tech-savy at all, we sent out invitations as PDF attachments and via Evite, not understanding spam filters sent our invitations directly to your spam boxes. For most of those who think you were not invited, you indeed, were. (At least in most cases-- some of you actually weren't-- but those are few in number.)

There is also an after-party of sorts, for friends who could not come until late, and because so many people are finding out about our party at such late notice. (By after-party we mean drinking beer or going out to a late dinner, not going to some club and hanging out with some sports celebrities or something. Gawd, the proprietor of this particular blog is so damn boring. (*sadness*)

To all our friends, family, colleagues, and acquaintances, we look forward to seeing you there.

2007-06-13T10:06:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Lake Braddock High School Class of 2007!

More specifically, this blog congratulates David and Jennifer, my nephew and niece respectively. (If I misspelled anything, my other nephew Daniel says "Good enough"-- we have cake to eat.)

This blogger is taking the rest of the day off to celebrate.

(Not that I blog that often anyways. *apologies*)

2007-04-04T23:55:00.000-07:00

A lengthy post late tonight about how Paul Wolfowitz's girl friend somehow-- on loan by the World Bank to the State Department-- has now become the highest paid Department employee. I am definitely going to be writing more about this.

Here is the lede to the post:

Employees of the World Bank have been "expressing concern, dismay, and outrage" regarding favoritism shown by the bank and the Bush administration towards the one-time girlfriend of World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, according to an internal memo circulated within the bank by the World Bank Group Association, which represents the rights of the bank's 13,000 employees.

Among other things, the April 3 memo alleges that Shaha Riza, Wolfowitz's romantic interest was given a "promotion [that] clearly does not conform" to bank procedures. Moreover, the memo alleges, she was then given a raise "more than double the amount allowed" by the bank's rules.

A copy of the memorandum was leaked to myself and other journalists Wednesday evening as World Bank employees have become more outspoken in their criticism of Wolfowitz's tenure as president of the bank.

Wolfowitz, who as Deputy Secretary of Defense was considered an architect of the U.S. war with Iraq, disclosed to bank board members that he had a romantic relationship with a senior bank communications officer, Shaha Riza, shortly after he was nominated to head the World Bank. Bank regulations disallow bank employees from supervising spouses or romantic partners, but Wolfowitz reportedly attempted to circumvent the rules so he would be able to continue to work with Riza. Informed by the bank's ethics officers that that would not be allowable, the problem appeared solved when Riza was detailed to work at the State Department's public diplomacy office in September 2005--even though her salary was still to be paid by the World Bank.

To read the post in its entirtey, click here.

And John Cassidy has this profile of Wolfowitz out this week in the New Yorker.

2007-03-06T20:04:00.000-08:00

A book.

Philip, my editor, has some background on the subject. He previously edited Joe Wilson's book. After that, he edited Tyler Drumheller's book. So he really knows this terrain. I'll be doing the book with Jeff Lomonaco, a friend who is a professor of political science at the University of Minnesota.

Wonkette has the full story. But what's with the photograph accompanying the post? One of the people in the picture is celebrity Hollywood/celebrity lawyer Mark Garagos. I don't know who the other person is... Scott Petersen? If anyone knows, email me at murraywaas@gmail.com.

I know that by promoting my own book in my own blog makes this a vanity blog of sorts. But aren't most blogs vanity blogs?

In terms of full disclosure, I should admit it is not really an "instant" book. Jeff and myself did, however, begin the book at 11:34 A.M this morning and finish it at 11:42 A.M., before we watched the verdict on CNN, and then leisurely retired for a lunch of mixed greens, venison, and red wine. Other than the venison, the luncheon was entirely vegan and politically correct in every other aspect.

2007-03-02T20:15:00.000-08:00

Jeralyn has the text of the jury notes to the judge regarding the jury's "reasonable doubt" issues, and her own observations as to what she thinks it all means. Additionally, here is what Christy has to say.

Meanwhile, here is the NYT story on the jury notes.

And finally, Stan Brand on what he thinks is going to happen after a verdict.

2007-03-02T12:33:00.000-08:00

Libby trial development: This just in from the court:

"The Libby jury delivered two notes containing questions when they were excused today. Both twill be available on the public docket later today. Court will convene at 9 a.m. on Monday March 5 to address the notes."

There will almost certainly be news reports-- and more importantly at Firedoglake-- about the notes. At that time, I'll update and link to the stories and post. (On the other hand, I have to go out and get a hair cut, so those who want it sooner should just click on Firedoglake later, or check out the NYT website.)

2007-02-27T19:33:00.000-08:00

This may be nepotism or favoritism of sorts (although it's not like I recommended anyone for a junket to Niger or anything-- have to have a Plame reference in every post so as not to alienate my readers who only want to read about the Libby trial), but I recommend that everyone who reads this blog-- all six of you, and on some days as many as seven or eight-- vote for this particular blog for the Travvies award, an award for the best travel blogs. The blog has already been named as a finalist. (It is always an honor to just be nominated by the Academy!) Even if she doesn't win, maybe some more of you will come by her blog.

Meanwhile, congratulations to this blog for winning an award as Best D.C. blog. (I first came upon this blog... well never mind for now.) He/she should also win for best acceptance speech/blog post:

"We won this together. The journey of a thousand miles began with your single click. I thank my grandmother, my mother, my brothers back home, my brothers who are here with me now, and my aunt who's back at the hotel. And Jennifer Holliday and Velvet -- thank you, Jennifer Holliday and Velvet.

"I never gave up the dream of becoming Best DC Blog. When told I couldn't do it, I just pushed harder. But without all of you, I couldn't have have achieved any of this."

I personally voted for Thong Speed. The name of that particular blog alone had me at hello.

2007-02-26T15:59:00.000-08:00

The jurors have gone home for another night without reaching a verdict.