Tuesday, July 28, 2009
The Madoff Reserve
From Raw Story:0 comments
Eliot Spitzer: Federal Reserve is ‘a Ponzi scheme, an inside job’
More and more, the political hit on Eliot Spitzer smells more and more.
posted by Gotham 4:17 AM
Support The Troops, My Ass
Just heartbreaking.0 comments
George W. Bush went along when his cabinet trumped up their phony little war in Iraq.
Then we put our military population into the craziness of "battle of the bulge" type madness and stress for years on end, and drove them absolutely dog-barking mad. Many became totally homicidal, ruined human beings.
Now we unceremoniously dump them back on the streets and tell 'em, "Tough shit, kid. Good luck, see ya!"
What Maj. Gen. Mark Graham, commander of Fort Carson in Colorado said, according to AP:"When we see a problem, we try to identify it and really learn what we can do about it. That is what we are trying to do here. There is a culture and a stigma that needs to change."
What Maj. Gen. Graham meant:"Wow, we fucked these kids up really bad...and it's gone public. Crap! Now, we gotta come up with a way to dig ourselves outta this mess!"
Good luck, general. It will probably take larger minds than yours.
What a nightmare.
posted by Gotham 4:03 AM
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
I Think We Had The Yips.
0 comments
"I think I had the yips." — Mike Pelfrey, May 17
I think this article just about sums up the kind of year it's been for our fabulous, furry Amazins so far.
So, since we'll be watching a fourth place team the rest of this year (and maybe next), here's my advice to Fred Wilpon and his boy on how to putter around the yard to make their family business better for us, the paying fan.
Fred, it's time to Metsticize the Mets. It's been a very interesting experiment, watching you try to twist them into some sort of Fantasy Brooklyn Dodgers team, but no, they really are the New York Mets, with their own history and legacy, stars and moments. So, it's time to lose the Wilpon White ersatz Dodger uniforms and give the fans back the original blue pinstripe Mets home unis, and drag out the Mets image that you've seemed to have stored in the utility closet ever since you bought out Nelson Doubleday's share. Go ahead, sprinkle some Mets Dust around the park. It could only help.
Two, yes, you've got a very nice stadium toy — although most of us won't be going to it, especially to watch minor league ballgames at bigger league prices. No, the bulk of your fanbase is now a TV base, just like the NFL.
Well..., I have to tell ya honestly, Mr. Wilpon, from the couch you've got yourself something totally unremarkable.
Folks used to complain about all those circular, multi-purpose stadia — of which Shea Stadium was among the first — calling them "cookie cutter." They had a point, but I was always amazed how much you could individualize a basic round, concrete bowl. Now, with the rush to build all of these "legacy" fields around the majors, baseball owners have inadvertantly done the exact same thing people blamed the old parks for. Using the same architects who designed and built the bulk of these new parks for your new field was a very bad idea. Your new park is chock full of already-used ideas from these other new fields.
With the exceptions of Camden Yards and the ballpark in Houston (whatever it's called this week), which were among the first, and that new Yankee park thing uptown, on TV these parks are just as cookie cutter as the old bowls were. With the bowls, there were always some unique visual feature of Shea, Dodger Stadium, old Busch, Three Rivers Stadium, Veterans' Field, etc. which told you immediately where you were. With all these new "old" parks, it's become obvious a fan needs to be in the stadium itself to discern what makes it unique. On TV, I can no longer tell your new field apart from ones in St. Louis, Colorado, San Francisco, Arlington or Philadelphia, or a raft of other fields which have the same general color scheme, same brick and bridgework design.
You will argue that, I'm certain. But sit and watch the film. Sit and watch 50 MLB games strictly from camera angles and you'll see the Arena Football-ness of what we've been left with. The unique features the architects tout are all above the tight camera angles needed of the play on the field. So, on TV, all these stadia look to be the same arena-esque playing field. I would guess no more than 30%-40% of the action takes the camera high enough to show you a McCovey Cove, your touted rightfield overhang or any other spiffy feature of a new park. It's increadibly boring. Boring, as in dull, as in "Who's got the remote?"
You can now change this. One downside to your new park is that it has no personality. It simply looks like any other in this new line of stadia product. Nothing there screams "Mets" when you view basic TV camera angles the way Shea always did. Whether the old, original behind-the-plate angle which showed the Queens skyline over those green walls, or the distinctive Mets Blue walls and screening and runway behind the plate from the centerfield cameras. Or the panarama cameras which showed the bullpens then either the Queens skyline or the 7 train tracks. On TV, every angle screamed "Mets, this is OUR yard."
On TV, the new field looks as person-less as the wrestling matches in old Sunnyside Arena, which was always dark, so you couldn't see it, or god-forbid, that ugly, cavernous concrete warehouse the Rays play in in Tampa.
So, forget fixing the team on the field, it doesn't really look possible this year. You can do something different with it for next year, and we'll start over.
But, right now, today, you can protect your investment by finding ways to keep us from switching the dial towards some other Must-see TV this summer. Do this by, first, scouring and studying every TV angle in your new park, and gussying up and Meticizing what the camera is looking at in every shot. Every shot should have a Mets identity, a Mets statement. Then, this will slowly become the Mets' home field, not just another cookie-cutter fad. THAT we would watch, as FANatics do, no matter what was on the field. This is Brand protection, pure and simple.
Oh, but if you COULD do anything about that boring rag-tag army you send out there every night over the next 2 1/2 mos., that would be nice. Thanks!
posted by Gotham 11:54 AM
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Sniveling Wankers On Parade
I love right-wing blogs.2 comments
Is there such a thing as "Bleeding heart neo-cons"?
So over the top. Oh, such outrage, such heartache! Such, "Somebody DO SOMETHING!!!" Such, "Who will rid me of these meddlesome Liberals?!?!"
Of course, they never seem to get around to getting their hands dirty doing anything themselves. Even if they live without a pot to piss in, wankers live in Nobility-land, and know Serfs will handle the unfortunate parts.
Here's a glorious case in point.
This wanker in LA writes that he's suffered (oh, how he has suffered!) from having Liberal parents (oh! The shame! The heartache!), and that's what has led to his current emasculation (which is OK on the right as long as it's clearly the fault of Liberals):I never met a real soldier. My family didn’t know much about the military. We fancied ourselves more artistic and sophisticated than that. As a boy, I lived in terror of the draft, afraid of my 18th birthday, when I would have to register with the Selective Service (or they’d come and get me). And all I ever heard at home was how the Vietnam War was maiming and disfiguring our beautiful young men — all for nothing.
Oh, the wankitude — it burns!
Now, however can you grow up big and strong like John Wayne and go kill those evil gooks and rip their entrails out like a hero when your parents insist on refusing to roll over and be sheep and accept the party line all through your childhood? How, ummmm..., well, just how... icky!?!!
Of course, we never underestimate a wingnut's zeal for both rolling in the ashes of — yep, you guessed it — 9/11 and spewing forth oh, such florid columns and blog posts.On 9/11, real war roared back with a vengeance — right in our own backyard.
Umm, no amigo, you were 3,000 miles away. This was in OUR patio.This was no channel-changer shot through a telephoto lens; this was horror, up close and personal (until the networks stopped showing the blood and falling bodies, and opted for a more “objective” bird’s eye view).
So sorry we interrupted your blood lust. But, I'd just as soon not have fellow NYers be a video game for you and your ilk. BTW, what WAS your point total that day? Hope you ran the board!That’s when we finally saw soldiers again — as real men and women — firefighters and police officers and military personnel all working together, the best of human nature on spontaneous display, surprising and selfless. That’s when we witnessed the triumph of the flag again, without embarrassment or excuses, hoisted up as a beacon in the midst of apocalyptic chaos and sorrow.
That’s when ordinary Americans, like me, who never knew real war or much suffering, began to understand what was truly at stake.
"And so we took straight to our couches!!"
OK, now buckle up, here comes the teary part:That’s when, for many of us, “soldier” took on a new meaning. Soldiers were no longer just toys or the pathetic pawns of a ruthless war machine; they were fellow citizens of integrity and courage, brave individuals from diverse backgrounds, willing to go places most Americans would never dream of going — often because their consciences told them to.
These were men and women who cared enough to risk everything for others, and to stand proudly for an ideal.
That, of course, would cover about half of this current volunteer Armed Forces. The remainder were there simply to get some money to cover school or because the Bush Recovery from the 1st Bush Recession (2001-2003) had passed his/her town by, so that the military was the best job they could find. These folks were just in the wrong army at the wrong time. Some others simply liked to fire big, loud guns and would later join the private mercenary armies of Blackwater, Inc. or CACI for ten times what they made in the U.S. Army.
This next is the part I adore. Now, having rhapsodized over his romanticized wingnut view of the military and the U.S.'s role in the world, he's tickled there's someone else to do the dirty work and pay any prices to be paid. Now our hero doesn't have to get his thoroughly emasculated hands dirty. Lucky him!I never knew any soldiers. I never had to. I was always safely ensconced at home, free to live my life and pursue whatever interests I wanted. The closest I came to knowing a soldier was an NYPD cop, a friend who lost his wife in the World Trade Center attack. Despite the constant stress of his job, the long hours and bad weather and petty violence he saw on his beat — and the agony of his loss — I never once heard him say an unkind or demeaning word about anyone, of any race, or any religion.
On the contrary, I heard him say, quite matter of factly, that if he died on the job, it would be worth it, if it prevented more misery from happening. He was willing to give up his own life as part of his job. How many of us would ever consider, could ever fathom, such a commitment?
That’s a hero. That’s a soldier. And it’s no fairy tale — it comes from having a mind, a heart, and a spine.
God bless the men and women who share those attributes, and move forward everyday, knowing it could be their last. We are so grateful you really do exist.
"[Snif, snif] So that I don't have to do squat. Ahhhhh... Hey what time is American Idol on?"
This is why this whiny moron gets up my nose. All he does is fawn. Never once, in any graph of this screed does he mention actually DOING anything to support, help, comfort, fight the bureaucracy of the VA for, encourage others to give blood for, or somehow find a way to share in the sacrifice of the men and women who, for whatever reasons, are willing to risk their lives for him and others.
While this lad was angsting over Valet Parking on 9/11/2001, NYers were volunteering in record numbers, bringing whatever aid they could imagine to those doing the heavy lifting for the city and its citizenry. I hate to piss on this lad's pretty Pearl Harbor pipe dream, but it was a video game for him. This was OUR TOWN! We fought together to save, and to help those saving, our fellow NYers.
These were our boy-/girlfriends, brothers and sisters, friends, sons and daughters, spouses, neighbors, moms and dads, and colleagues who died. Wiped out because folks like this lad were too stupid or too lazy to follow the difficult lesson of his parents and question authority. Has this lad ever filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see his parents' COINTELPRO file? Or does he even know if it cost his parents anything in their lives? I seriously doubt it. Does he have any idea what it is actually like to have to comfort someone who spoke to a loved one or friend only a few hours before, and is now wandering about, stunned and frantic, clutching a picture of them, looking for ANY information as to their whereabouts, and you have to look them in the eye and help them find the courage to keep going — when you know in your heart that their loved one is gone because you've already been to every hospital in the area trying to help, and they are all practically empty — so you know everyone in the towers either got out in time and walked away, or died there. And it's not just that one person, but there's an army of thousands of NYers behind them with the same question and picture, aimlessly wandering the streets of the city hoping that SOMEONE will recognize their picture and give them some news — which doesn't exist.
This lad has only known one soldier. And that one was a cop. What a lazy, self-serving ass.
My advice to you, my comfy L.A. friend: Grow a spine, get off your ass and go do something — for someone other than your whiny, tragic little self. Anything would be a help. You want John Wayne to be your friend? Then, fine, call your Congressman and fight to improve conditions at your local VA Hospital — which is probably a pit. Wayne might like that. He might be your friend if you did that. Volunteer to read to a Marine who's now blind, or doesn't have arms to turn a page. Perhaps you might monitor your government to verify that they are doing positive things in your name, and not getting you in trouble with millions of people all over the world, who may later feel the urge to turn around and smack YOU in the face in retaliation for things you never even knew about.
Until then, please stop wanking in public.
It's so fey.
posted by Gotham 12:49 PM
