Bill's Big Diamond Blog

Bush Throws Out First Pitch, Crowd Throws It Back

Courtesy of YouTube, baseball’s season on the mainland has begun— with the President being booed as he throws out the first pitch in Washington. A 28% approval rating doesn't sound too encouraging at the park...

h/t to Buck Naked Politics

Slate Calculates How Well-Done Hillary's Goose is Cooked

Slate’s Delegate Calculator (h/t to Jon Alter at Newsweek) tells the tale: no matter how well Hillary Clinton does tonight, her goose is cooked. She has to ring up a 58% total in ALL the remaining primaries just to get a non-super delegate lead (and even then, she’d need 419 superdelegates to go over the top).

As Alter puts it:

For all of those who have been trashing me for
saying this thing is over, please feel free to do your
own math. Give Hillary 75 percent in Kentucky and
Indiana. Give her a blowout in Oregon. You will still
have a hard time getting her through the process
with a pledged-delegate lead.

Try the Slate Calculator yourself. If it doesn’t satisfy your political inner junkie, it will at least add to your procrastination skills. It will also help to answer the eight questions Dan Balz poses about today’s primaries.

(See Memeorandum for discussion)

Voter Integrity, Texas-Style

Ever wonder what’s up with those legislators who are more concerned with knocking criminals off the voting rolls and making sure voters all carry ID’s than they are with making sure everyone eligible can actually vote?

Here’s a video that was sent to me today. It should help us all understand the double-standard of legislators who are preoccupied with keeping our integrity levels so high…

What's a Seven-Letter Word for Impunity?

Welcome, celeb-Fitz! Our favorite unfired federal prosecutor.

Yes, the all-around funster, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald taped an appearance on the weekly news-quiz-comedy radio show, “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” yesterday in Chicago. What you can’t see on the radio, but can view in today’s NY Times, is a shot of the protector of the Constitution receiving a gift from host Peter Sagal.

You’ll have to click on the link to find out what the gift is. A hint? It rhymes with what people sometimes become during blackouts (no, not in couples on elevators!) and is an energy-efficient mode of transportation. Oh…and it’s a nickname.

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

Joey Chestnut has brought home the bacon, er, hot dogs. See Richard Sandomir’s TV Sports piece on the return of the Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Championship to the USA. An American once again wears the Mustard Yellow Belt! All hail.

One eater was introduced as “a vegetarian who
only eats meat in major competitive eating
contests.” Competitors were said to be looking to
open with a burst of consumptive speed or that
critical “12-to-13 dog minute.” Fans clapped
their mustard-yellow Thunderstix. To the
multiple record-holder Patrick Bertoletti, the
barker/analyst Richard Shea said, without
breaking into giggles: “You went head to head
with Joey Chestnut and beat him in a jalapeño
pepper-eating contest. What do you bring from
that contest?”

PS- If you make the pilgrammage to Coney Island, remember that this is the last summer it will be the amusement paradise we all know and love. A developer of questionable background is clearing out all the carneys at the end of the season in favor of a huge project. Each carney who signed a lease for the last summer has reportedly signed a gag agreement in order to retain their lease.

From Wikipedia: Astroland owner Carol Hill Albert, whose family had owned the gritty but storied park since 1962, sold the site to developer Thor Equities in November 2006 for an unspecified amount. Thor Properties proposed a $1.5 billion renovation and expansion of the Coney Island amusement area to include hotels, shopping, movies, an indoor water park and the city's first new roller coaster since the Cyclone. The developers hope to start construction in 2007 and complete the project by 2011. As part of the renovation, they announced that Astroland would close by the end of 2007.

PPS— Despite the grand plan, many wonder if the developer plans to gut the building zone and ultimately hold up the city with the threat of leaving a blighted area— unless major zoning variances are granted to put up the most profitable possible development.

Missile Defense

Maybe we don’t fully understand the Bush Administration’s missile defense system. Nick Anderson has created a game that can help:

Link to play:

"Well, Wolf, I cannot tell a lie..."

Perhaps the Pentagon chief Robert Gates thought that replacing the head of the JCS would quiet the outcry from retired generals. But that was BEFORE Gen. Washington began making the rounds of the news shows…

H/T Crooks and Liars.

Oh God, Get This Schmidt OFF of Me!

All right, enough with the doom and gloom.

Let’s take a moment to laugh at the misfortune of others.

Many thanks to one Florida blogger, Sinfonian, who has a feature on his Blast Off! blog, the Daily Schadenfreude.

My favorite: March 15…lots of soda water, Jean. Lots.

h/t The Politico

Oars In and Stroke, Stroke, Stroke

I thought that it might be a good release from the depressing and relatively powerless feeling we all have about the huge and intractable issues we’ve been discussing lately to spend a little time on something we CAN easily stick a fork in— NYS legislative pork.

The good people at the Albany Project have obtained searchable lists of ‘members items’ (read- pork) from New York’s august Assembly and Senate over the last few years. Here’s one such item that community member “pontificator” wants to know more about:

2004-2005 SENATE MAJORITY INITIATIVE FORM 2004-2005
Project Title: Schuyler, Town of
Location of Project:
County: Herkimer
Description of Project: Funds for feasibility study for proposed rowing regatta course
Funding Level: $20,000.00
Previous Funding 2002-2003
Requested Agency to Administer Program: Parks
Program Contact Information:
Name: Hon. Ken Dodge Title: Supervisor Address: Town of Schuyler 2090 State Rte. 5 Utica, N.Y. 13502
Phone: 315-337-9609
Senator's Name: Senator Seward
Date: September 15, 2004

One of the best aspects of this project is that the district in question has so few appropriate places for a regatta to be run. It’s in the Catskills— away from large bodies of water. Maybe for $20,000, somebody would study the feasibility of digging a canal to the Hudson River.

More Advice...

Things Not to Do Today…

Go hunting with Dick Cheney. I’m seriously concerned for his daughter Mary. They’ll be off at a secluded hunting lodge in South Dakota. Dick will be in a bad mood and armed.

Not a good combination.