A suprisingly well-written article that focuses on two African-American Mets and how they view race and baseball:

 

"A lot of good athletes don't make it in football and basketball, but maybe they could make it in baseball if they played it," says Floyd. "I know a lot of my boys back home had more talent than me in baseball when we were young, but they didn't stay with it. "I want to do something to make kids realize baseball is fun, and it's out there for them. Sometimes kids just need to be put in the right environment."

This looks very cool:

 

Listening to all this talk about port security, Katrina relief, and Iraqi near civil war made me realize something which, of course, was there all along. We have just committed the most traditional sin-of-empire: overextension, this time in a multi-dimensional sense. The argument now made for the Iraq war: It was worth it, since we haven't had any terror attacks, Saddam was bad, they had elections (that still have not resulted in the formation of a government, by the way).  But, yeah, why is that actually so good for America?  Good that our country is now being drained of incredibly valuable resources, first and uppermost thousands of great humans/citizens, but also piles of treasure and more abstractly goodwill throughout the world and globo-economic stability...?   Leading to a complete leveling of the political landscape, total polarization in a red/blue plaid (despite all that "we are really purple" talk).   Katrina just showed how far away we really are from having a Secure Homeland: a government standing by as a great city and its people are overwhelmed by a hurricane every person in that city and in FEMA knew would someday come.  As is coming to light now with this port security uproar, and as John Kerry talked about a whole lot, ports are even more insecure than the Homeland.  All of this, all of these lives lost, this money spent, our global future darkened, for a never-ending war in the shape of a completely half-assed attempt of building even a rough outline of a peaceful, democratic state in the remains of a secular dictatorship that hated Osama just as much as we do, in a region whose only importance is drip drip dripping away with declining oil reserves...half a world away.  Look at the America we have today.  Are you really happy with it?

Political Wire:

 

Dick Morris is an idiot...but I agree.  I think Gore has a great shot...though he says he's not running and a lot of people believe him.  Mark Warner is the best of those who have expressed interest in running.  But I will definitely be watching to see if Gore changes his mind.

A good interview with DeMarcus Beasley is up on ESPN Soccernet.  As I've said here before, he's my favorite player on the US national (soccer) team and the key to any success they will have in Germany this June.  Obviously, they find themselves in the Group of Death with the Czech Republic, Italy, and Ghana, and that will be a hard one to get out of.  As Beasley states, it probably shouldn't have been that way:

 

When asked about the draw, Beasley reflects on the feeling in U.S. soccer circles that it was the Americans, and not the Mexicans, who deserved to have been in the protected top seeds group. Certainly, Mexico's draw of Iran, Angola and Portugal looks easier than what many are seeing as a group of near-death in Group E.

Measured in his response to questions about FIFA's decision, Beasley said, "I was disappointed by it because we beat Mexico nine out of the last 10 times; we also beat them at the last World Cup. "Everyone was disappointed that we weren't seeded. I wouldn't say it wasn't fair, but I was definitely disappointed. I felt, and the team felt, we deserved to be seeded. In terms of Mexico, we've dominated them."

Though Kos raises some good points, I actually agree with W on this one .  For those too lazy to click on the links, I refer to a UAE company getting the contract to manage several U.S. ports.  Bottom line: this is a global community we are a part of, and a big element of that is our integrated global economy.  Are we so bigoted that we cannot conceive that a company from an Arab nation could effectively administer an American port?  Do we need to stir up reactionary nationalism because we are not comfortable with that fact?  Please, let's understand that globalism is the future (and that goes for Bush too).

A different take (from that of Ludacris) on area codes, specifically as they relate to 20somethings in DC:

 

 Like a rear-windshield decal or an old college T-shirt, a cellphone number has become as much a part of an identity as a Social Security number. It represents a hometown, a college or a first job, and such memories are not casually thrown aside for a few good years with a 202 romance. For these area-code clingers, those 10 little digits provide a constant in the face of changing locations and uncertain futures.

 

Seriously.  I never thought they actually won. 

 

 

 

 

Blizzard O6's profile outside of my apartment.

All in all, a pretty impressive storm.  And it earned me some extra sleep, since my Monday morning flight is now a Monday evening due to the chaos that is La Guardia now:

 

NEW YORK -- A record-breaking storm buried sections of the Northeast under more than 2 feet of snow on Sunday, marooning thousands of air travelers and making even a walk to the corner store treacherous.

The National Weather Service said 26.9 inches of snow had fallen in Central Park, the most for a single storm since record-keeping started in 1869. The old record was 26.4 inches in December 1947.

Via MSNBC.

 

What I'm looking forward to: hockey, short-track speed skating, and Balinese ice dance.

finally...

 

read up on gothamist.  Appropriate note of caution:

 

While Gothamist is excitedly anticipating a storm we will also inject one note of uncertainty. A couple of the forecast models have the nor'easter moving a bit further off the coast. If they turn out to have the more accurate forecast (which is not all that likely but we're just sayin') the current storm prediction will be a bust for the city. It would still be windy, but we won't get much snow.

 

Down with Joementum (and he's still in love)!

 

Join the revolution:

Windsor (CT) Democratic Town Committee:

Resolved

That the Windsor, Connecticut Democratic Town Committee votes no confidence in Senator Joseph Lieberman's positions for embracing President Bush's position on the Iraq war, including denial that we wrongfully entered the war; denial that the war is being conducted unsuccessfully and the absence of any reasonably detailed standards for withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

NY Times jumps on the Evo Morales sweater story.  This is really making me think about opening up that Socialist Chic botique in SoHo that I discussed earlier.  Maybe I can team up with BoliviaMall:

Images of Bolivia's first indigenous president adorn T-shirts and flags, an online Bolivian store called BoliviaMall.com is selling striped sweaters worldwide, and reporters from Madrid to Mexico City are writing about Evo Morales as a fashion symbol.

"This week a new front-runner has emerged in the men's wear style stakes," The Guardian in Britain declared in a fashion article shortly before Mr. Morales's inauguration. "Evo Morales, president-elect of Bolivia, has been rigorously working what is known in the world of fashion as a 'signature look.' "

 

Tonight, I had a conversation with a supporter of the Iraq war.  Unfortunately, I work with him.  I have talked to other supporters before -- however, many of those people are no longer supporters (I think the full-on support number is like 30% now).  I am a pretty politically motivated person, and I am very opposed to the war, but in work situations, I really try to avoid the topic.  But it came up.  And I methodically refuted every argument he hurled at me (is it even hard anymore?).  He actually tried to pull the "but Americans die every day from faulty products, accidents, etc." argument.  If that is really how war supporters view the deaths of our troops over there, than they are the ones not honoring the sacrifices made.  That really gets me. 

 

Anyway, he had met a Marine at a bar last night, and he and the Marine talked about their support for the war for hours, supposedly.  And this Marine and he agreed that the media was doing everything possible to suppress the truth about all of the great things Americans are doing in Iraq.  Are you kidding me?  I really fucking hope so, because we're entering our FOURTH YEAR of being there!  The nerve someone has to make that argument really really irks me.  Of course we are doing good things, we have some amazing people over there working their asses off.  But, what have we really done for a) the future of Iraq b) the future of America and c) the futures of all of the (now) widow/ers and (now) father and mother-less children?  We have introduced chaos, absolute chaos, into stability, perpetuated hate between civilizations, and set back American diplomacy several decades.  We have let bleed a wound that will not heal, that will fester, that will destroy many more lives and weaken our nation no matter what we do (withdrawal and "staying the course" are equally unpalatable and dangerous). 

 

How can someone who is an educated, high-paid professional be such a blind lackey of the Bush administration?  I suppose only be being so entirely detached from reality that, just as the Bush people were in convincing themselves that Saddam had nukes, he convinces himself it is all SO worth it, and that, yeah, if they didn't die from improvised explosive devices in Baghdad back alleys, blinded by night and the chaos of guerrilla war, they would've died from faulty some Firestone tires on their Ford Explorers.