Posted on Baseball

in which my mets are doomed before opening day

George Vescey in the NYT:

It is growing late. Too much cable money is being squandered. Jerry Manuel’s laughter has run out its novelty. He is probably set up to fail, waiting for the next era, whatever that will be. In theory, it’s always nice to have a new baseball season, but at Dante Alighieri Stadium, abandon hope.

Unfortunately, I think Vescey’s nailed it.  Even with all the cable money the Mets have, they aren’t doing anything intelligent with it. Somehow the obvious opportunities are missed by ownership and GM Omar Minaya.  There are players we could have signed, and deals we could have made.  Only one team can be the Yankees, but the Mets have the money to compete for players with all the other teams, and they don’t.  In addition to that,  the Mets coaching staff has just recently started telling their pitchers that they need to throw more strikes!  Why should they have to point this out??  How insane is that?

At what point do we determine that GM Omar Minaya has failed and that the Wilpons must replace him?  Who knows.

Hope everyone else enjoys Opening Day.   Me, I’ll just be praying for miraculous wisdom to suddenly fall on the front office, and for an overachieving pitching staff for my Mets this year.   More wins?  Let’s not get crazy.

2 Comments Posted on Random Musings

the state of the middle ground

America was not designed to be run by elitists – nor was it designed for pure mob rule.  What we need to find here is some middle ground – a government that will be responsive to the needs of the people without being subject to the whims of daily polling and public opinion that is too often swayed by a slanted press corps.  That’s not where we are in the state of American politics.   What we have is a bloated federal bureaucracy that is incapable of being the kind of government we need, and the American people are beginning to wake up to that truth — that’s the idea behind the growing tea party movement in this country.   It could be reasonably argued that both parties (yes, even the Republican Party) share the blame for the massive spending,  but the sins of one party should not serve as an excuse for the other party to continue the bad behavior.  That’s where I believe the average citizen, and the tea party protests serve the purpose of drawing the line here, to say, “Enough of this.  It’s way past time for Congress to start being more responsible with taxpayer money.”  Nothing at all wrong with that.

The average citizen may not be the most eloquent, and in some cases,  may know just enough to question the direction of government policy without getting a front row seat to the halls of power.  Engagement in the political process by all citizens should be encouraged, but at the same time, we also have a responsibility to be able to argue intelligently on the issues of the day. While I believe that everyone should have a voice, I think it’s in the best interest of opponents of the policy positions of President Obama and the Democrats to know what they are talking about.  The media will continue to do what it does best — shredding the reputation of good and decent people who care about their country to burnish their merit badges and keep their invites to the hot cocktail parties.  It’s up to us not to give them any additional ammo by bringing our A game, doing our research, and being armed with the facts when discussing policy.

Posted on Democrats, Liberals

somebody’s not reading from the script

Watch Al Sharpton say something interesting on Fox News:

In case you didn’t catch it,  Al said that the American public overwhelmingly voted for socialism when they elected President Obama.  But that’s not possible.  How could such a committed capitalist free-marketeer as President Obama have any intention of implementing anything close to a socialist agenda? Quite a mystery to me.   Guess we have to watch the effects of what he and the Democrats do and decide for ourselves what we want to call all these new laws.

Posted on Random Musings

dirty tricks

This is wrong, unethical – and somewhat boneheaded.  But enough about what I think about the Dems’  new (old) trick to pass the health care bill.

Let’s read what the Washington Post had to say about it (bold text my addition).

Pelosi (D-Calif.) would rely on a procedural sleight of hand: The House would vote on a more popular package of fixes to the Senate bill; under the House rule for that vote, passage would signify that lawmakers “deem” the health-care bill to be passed.

The tactic — known as a “self-executing rule” or a “deem and pass” — has been commonly used, although never to pass legislation as momentous as the $875 billion health-care bill. It is one of three options that Pelosi said she is considering for a late-week House vote, but she added that she prefers it because it would politically protect lawmakers who are reluctant to publicly support the measure.

On something as big as an overhaul of the American health care system, the American people deserve better than backroom deals and “deem and pass” rules.   If the Democrats honestly believe that what they are doing is providing the best bill to fix the problems we have with coverage and cost, then they should be required to sign their names to it — or at least give the bill as it currently is constructed an up or down vote in the House.  If they don’t, then why put their fellow Democrats at risk of being voted out of office in 2010 by making them sign on to this bill?   It’s an unnecessary risk, but one I’m willing to watch them take heading toward the next election.

2 Comments Posted on Democrats, Liberals

too much awesome

(h/t Hot Air)

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, ladies and gentlemen (on the  must-pass health care bill):

You’ve heard about the controversies within the bill, the process about the bill, one or the other. But I don’t know if you have heard that it is legislation for the future, not just about health care for America, but about a healthier America, where preventive care is not something that you have to pay a deductible for or out of pocket. Prevention, prevention, prevention—it’s about diet, not diabetes. It’s going to be very, very exciting.

But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.

The Democrats need to pass this bill so that you can find out what is in it, because obviously all these Republicans haven’t been telling you the truth. Got it. Just one problem with this though — if this is such a great bill and we are just too stupid to realize all the benefits of the health care bill, that’s the Democrats’ fault. The job of selling this belongs to the majority party, and to President Obama. It’s their failure to do that that could ultimately save us from this health care bill or anything like it.

Posted on Democrats, Liberals

fratricide

While we can all agree Rahm Emanuel is not the most warm and cuddly guy in politics, this Eric Massa sounds like a real jerk, and it doesn’t surprise me that these two hate each other’s guts.   It seems that the Democrats just can’t help themselves when it comes to the fratricide now in progress among the Democrats in Congress, those “retiring” from Congress, and the White House.  Conservatives and Republicans do very much enjoy watching this.  However, shredding Rahm Emanuel is very inside baseball stuff for the common people.   All those people want to know is: who will stand up and fight the Democrats’ health care plan?  We don’t like it.  President Obama and the Democrats are clearly headed in the opposite direction from what we want.

What has been proposed is not reform.   The House plan is nothing new and doesn’t make any positive radical changes to reduce cost AND increase coverage — because IT CAN’T DO BOTH.  Reduced cost will most likely mean rationing.  This is common sense.   Increasing coverage, mandating coverage, fining employers and individuals for not having insurance  — explain how health care will be cheaper under this strategy.  It will not.  I would be wasting my time waiting for the Democrats to include anything Republicans can support in the legislation, because they don’t have any intention to accomodate the minority party.  That’s just as well, because I don’t want any Republicans to have their names tied to this political anvil.

Posted on Conservatives, Democrats, Liberals, Republicans

heading toward the cliff

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is willing to sacrifice the political futures of her fellow House Democrats in order to get the health care bill passed.  That’s generous of her, and the Republicans will absolutely accept that result.  I just wonder how many left-leaning true believers are left in the Democratic Congress.  The answer to that question will determine the future of this health care bill.   Sure, there are a few like Nancy Pelosi who would sacrifice the rest of their political life to get this country-changing reform passed.  But I’m willing to bet that at the core, most Washington politicos value self-preservation over ideology.  They have seen the writing on the wall with the recent Republican victories and are considering future votes more carefully than they would otherwise.

Most Democrats will choose their jobs over following the Speaker over the political cliff.  That’s my prediction.

Even though our side seems to be winning the argument on health care reform, there’s still no reason to be overconfident.   There is still work to be done, and when the current legislation goes down in flames, we need to be ready to take advantage of that failure with our own vision and solutions.

Posted on Conservatives, Republicans

choosing sides

There is nothing guaranteed about a possible Republican recovery in 2010.  In case fellow Republicans get too overconfident about our chances due to some current Democrat chaos over health care,  let me remind them that voters hate us too.   Perhaps that is a slight overstatement of our position, since there are many contributors on both sides to American discontent with our political system as it stands in February 2010.  But our hands aren’t all that clean.   The Republicans also contributed to our own demise by failing to learn the lesssons of the past.  It’s my belief that there have been Republicans who have acknowledged those mistakes and have committed to fix what’s broken.   With all due respect to Glenn Beck and his acolytes, blame should be applied selectively when choosing Republicans to criticize for our recent struggles.  We can’t just declare a pox on both of their houses, and consider starting a third party.    It doesn’t work here in America, because no third party has ever had the popular support or legitimacy to be a threat to the Republicans and Democrats except as a spoiler in contested elections.

About choosing sides– Why did anyone assume that Scott Brown would cast 100% conservative votes when he got to the Senate?   He’s a Republican from Massachusetts.   While he is a significant upgrade from the Democrats Massachusetts voters usually elect, he’s still not going to be a conservative Republican like Senator DeMint.   Time to lower expectations here.   If Brown votes against health care, it’s still important enough to forgive him for voting for the jobs bill, although that was a really stupid decision on his part.

Speaking of Massachusetts Republicans — or is he a Utah / Cali Republican now? —  former Governor Mitt Romney went out of his way to endorse John McCain in his AZ re-election bid.   Romney is choosing to have a short memory here.  He was absolutely trashed by McCain and his silent partner Mike Huckabee during the campaign, and Romney is still endorsing McCain?  Classy move.   Not so smart for his future political ambitions.  This could hurt Romney going forward, since many conservatives still don’t trust him, and this adds to the distrust factor with them.

On the other hand, Sarah Palin will probably get a pass for her endorsement of McCain.   Everybody understands why she felt that she had to do this.   It’s a loyalty thing, and I respect that.   But being stuck with the baggage of McCain is not a desirable position for anyone with future political aspirations.   If you’re anyone other than Sarah Palin, a McCain endorsement doesn’t do you any good anyway.   What could possibly be gained by the favor of a failed presidential candidate with limited future prospects?   I don’t know the answer to that.

Posted on Baseball

isn’t that special

The geniuses employed by the New York Mets have decided to make throwing more strikes a priority of their pitching staff this spring training.  What a brilliant idea.  Too bad we didn’t think of this last year.

I love this line from MLB.com:

In the case of the 2010 Mets, the notion is that each pitcher will benefit from throwing more and higher-quality strikes.

You don’t say.  That probably would have worked for the 2008 and 2009 Mets too.  Yes, I admit that there have been considerable weaknesses in the Mets pitching staff for a few years now, and you can’t turn Oliver Perez into anything more than a 3rd or 4th starter, but there could be improvements made here.  The starting rotation couldn’t possibly get any worse than what we have had in the past, and there’s no way we could have as many pitching injuries as we have had the past 2 seasons.  Of course,  I say this every year,  but really and truly this COULD BE the year where bad things stop happening to my baseball team.  It’s February.   There is still time to hope and believe for better days before the upcoming baseball season begins. 🙂

Hope and change.  That’s what I want — not for my country, but for my beloved Mets.