Sounds like the country's in trouble

I've written about the horrors of not changing the channel immediately after Olbermann before, but last night, I thought I was safe. It was only the post-debate show following an AFL-CIO Presidential Forum on MSNBC moderated by Olbermann himself (and moderated extremely well, might I add, but then KO's been my boy for about 15 years now, so I'm kind of biased.)

I should have known to jam my fingers on the remote as soon as Buchanan's mug sullied the screen. I should have known he's the harbinger of bad tidings. But no, I pressed on. And on, as Chris Matthews pressed his panelists hard to tell us who "won" the debate, and used terms like "home-field advantage" in an apparent attempt to confuse Olbermann into thinking he was back on SportsCenter. But then things turned even more inane than the Barry Bonds question posed to Barack Obama.

The panelists started analyzing Hillary's accent. I swear. It went like this:

Eugene Robinson, columnist for The Washington Post: Did you notice though that when she's the former Arkansas first lady, she has the southern drawl.

Matthews: Did you notice the Chic-ah-go? That little Chic-ah-go there?

Robinson: Well, she's from there, so she earned that. But it really came back, it was very strong tonight.

Matthews: That "ah" sound that I of course got to know through my father in law, but the fact is, she's very good.

Robinson: It's called a Midwestern twang.

To be fair, Matthews and Robinson had wry smiles on their faces when they were saying this, but I got the sense that this exchange was only halfway tongue-in-cheek, to use my own pun. I was really waiting for Buchanan or former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown to pipe in with a "And you know, it was really critical for Obama to avoid the sibilant S there, and he did, which was really good," or "Joe Biden made a few brief whistling sounds on some long vowels. I think he may have had a canker sore."

The panel had just finished an analysis of the way Hillary was able to keep the tonality of her voice even despite the difficult acoustics of cavernous Soldier Field, and the way Edwards seems much better in front of 200 than 20,000.

It makes me wonder why Vin Scully has never made a run for president. Smooth voice, gracious in front of radio AND television audiences, and the ability to quote the hometowns of the Los Angeles Dodgers night after night as though he were your senile uncle sitting across the dinner table. Truly in the mold of The Great Communicator himself, Ronald Reagan.

Is it just me, or does it sound like we may have strayed a bit too far from our democracy here? There is not yet a word in the English language for a system of government that selects its best orator as imperial leader, but may I suggest Toastmastocracy?

Copyright or wrong?

Enjoy those nostalgic clips of a credible O.J. Simpson calling memorable NFL action while you can. Chances are that soon you won't see that or anything like it on YouTube.

The Web video-sharing site is planning new software that will search and destroy copyrighted material uploaded to the Web site without prior consent of the rights-holder. That software is slated to be put into use next month, in response to a March lawsuit by Viacom and other suits filed by the UK Premier Football League, the National French Football League and music publishers Cherry Lane and Bourne among others.

In the interest of full disclosure, YouTube was acquired last year by Google, which owns Blogger, the host for Time Stops For No One. Which of itself speaks to the issue at the very core of this debate: who has a right to intellectual property?

Is it the artist who creates it? Is it the producer who packages it? Is it the distributor? The end seller? Or is it, at least to some degree, in the public domain?

Ironically, Google, along with Microsoft and Yahoo, is at the other end of a lawsuit accusing sports leagues, book publishers and others of trying to stretch the purvey of their copyrights too far.

Such convoluted debates and strange bedfellows are nothing new in the world of the Internet, only about a decade into wide popular use. YouTube is microcosmic of the speed at which the World Wide Web grew, blossoming in two year's time from a way for one family to share pictures into the largest video sharing site on the Web, and spawning any number of copycats and competitor sites along the way. Much like music-sharing site Napster before it, YouTube is being attacked by established media companies for a dissemination of content that is copyright-protected in realms such as television, radio, newspapers and magazines.

Do the rights that media companies and record producers have held in traditional formats necessarily translate to the Internet? Businesses like the National Football League would say no. The NFL is limiting the use of video gathered at its training camps by newspaper reporters to 45 seconds on the papers' Web sites. Naturally, newspaper companies are up in arms. Why should there be a limit on the video they gather, the newspapers argue, when there has never been a limit on column inches? The National Collegiate Athletics Association, or NCAA, took a similarly controversial step this spring, when they banned live-blogging at its baseball championships because, they argued, it infringed on the exclusivity that television rights holders have to immediate information. Internet rights were a key point in negotiations leading up to this summer's new deal between the National Basketball Association and its television rights holders.

And so the fight between wealthy corporations rages on. And the Internet, which originally began as a forum for scholars at universities and colleges to freely exchange research and information, becomes more of a limited-access Information Superhighway, available only to those willing to pay up first. Is the public truly better served by yet another breeding and feeding ground for multimedia conglomerates than by a vast, easily-accessible library of information and cultural artifacts?

No, it isn't. And it is up to those of us who believe the public edification is a greater asset than corporate wealth to say how we feel about this matter. Before all means of communications are taken aw ... [THIS SEDITIOUS CONTENT EDITED BY GOOGLE, INC. THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS AMERICA.]

Phillies-Cubs live blog!

A day game at Wrigley, two contending teams (Phillies, Cubs), my favorite team (the Phillies), a Phillie debut, (Kyle Lohse), Chris Coste in the lineup (yay! what a pleasant surprise) a Pat Burrell homer (double-yay! what an even more pleasant bigger surprise), apparently another Phillies injury (that Lohse guy again. Can we send him back to the Reds now?), I'm off for the rest of the day and we're still in the top of the second. That means live blog time, folks! Check back often to see if I actually go through with this or succumb to a Snackwells run.

Update: 5:58 p.m., Phillies 10, Cubs 6, FINAL
Koyie Hill, aka the Cubs catcher Carlos Zambrano doesn't like to slap around, flies to Rowand, and that's it! Phillies win! And they suffered only one injury during the game, so a great day indeed. OK, well, many thanks to all of you for hanging with me though thick, thin and hand-tossed, and special thanks to Chris Coste, Alan's friend Chris, and Alan. Let's hope Jenn wasn't so turned off by my obsessive live-blogging that she stays in Bradenton this weekend. Naw. We all know this stuff is way hot, right? Chicks dig the live blog.

Update: 5:51, bottom 9th, Phillies 10, Cubs 6
OK, here we go. Myers is on the mound to close this one out, salvage a split (not bad), and head to Milwaukee to pound the nail in the Brewers' coffin. Three pitches to Fontenot, one out. Back to the bayou with you.

Update: 5:46, top 9th, Phillies 10, Cubs 6
Chris Coste reaffirms everything I've believed about him for the past year now, singling to make him 3-for-5 on the day. Roberson at second, Coste at first, one out in the ninth. Just for comparison's sake, we have who I hope is the Phillies former regular catcher, Carlos Ruiz, at-bat now, pinch-hitting for Gordon. Let's see if he can drive home an insurance run. He can! He can! A double, and now it's two runners in scoring position for Werth with still only one out. Lou looks perturbed. Not because he's going to drop back into a first-place tie. Because he won't be the beneficiary of Manuel's misinterpretation of the pinch-hitting skills of Ruiz and Barajas as indication that they, and not Coste, should see action behind the plate this weekend. Werth doubles (this could set some sort of 9-inning record for doubles) and now it's not even a save situation for ... wait, who is the Phillies closer now?

Update: 5:37, top 9th, Phillies 7, Cubs 6
Well, one inning to go, and a strained, crappy bullpen juuuuuuust holding onto a one-run lead. I know it's cliche, especially at Wrigley, but Phillies, c'mon, let's get some runs! Sean Marshall can't be the only Cub you can get to! Roberson leads us off right with a single. Oops! Nunez pops out on a bunt attempt and continues to wish it were still 2005. C'mon, Coste!

Update: 5:32, bottom 8th, Phillies 7, Cubs 6
Dammit! Soft spot for K-Kat gone. Quiet Riot singles home Soriano. Cubs within a run. Oh man. And, right on cue, Will Ohman is warming up in the Cubs bullpen. Double play ball! Damn, Lee beats it out. A walk to Ramirez and we have runners first and second and two out for Mark DeRosa.

Update: 5:26, bottom 8th, Phillies 7, Cubs 5
Hey, it's good to see Tom Gordon back. I have a soft spot for Thomas (as Highlands County locals call him instead of Tom) since I covered a few of his relatives as a sports writer for the News-Sun in Highlands County, Fla., where K-Kat (as Highlands County locals call him instead of Flash) grew up. He gives up another double (how many doubles have the Cubs hit in this game?) to Soriano. And the Cubs move into sole possession of first place as the Mets 12-4 win over the Brewers goes final. Phils drop to 4.5 games back. And its a four-game series attendance record for the Cubs. And there was much rejoicing ...

Update: 5:16, top 8th, Phillies 7, Cubs 5
Wuerst matchup ever ! Michael Wuertz vs. Jayson Werth. Wuertz induces a groundout to win said matchup. Did not know Werth was Dick Schofield's nephew. Finally, some useful information from WGN personnel! And no, the time American Idol Rewind is airing is NOT useful information. Some guy who looks like Kevin James just fell out of the stands diving for a foul ball hit by Iguchi and was whisked off by security. My guess is every Cub fan wishes that were Bartman. Or maybe it is ... I'd gain 100 lbs. too if I blew my team's chances of winning its first World Series in almost 100 years. (Somebody check Danny Ozark's weight fluctuations in the 1977-78 offseason).

Update: 5:07, bottom 7th, Phillies 7, Cubs 5
Welcome Phillies.com forum readers! J.C. Romero is hitting for some reason and flies out to Angel Pagan, who slips to avoid a lightning bolt from god for his blasphemous name. Ron Santo sings the seventh inning stretch. Do I have the heart to make fun of a paraplegic ... yes, but not now. I'm saving my vitriol for Dell Computer Support. Defensive change roulette! Roberson on in right, Werth from Right to left, Nunez in and playing third, Romero stays on the hill (thank god, since he batted in the top of the inning).

Update: 4:57 p.m., Top 7th, Phillies 7, Cubs 5
Computer crash. Never, ever buy from Dell. Awful company. But what did we miss? The Phillies wasted a trip through the middle of their order, and the Cubs do the same. J.C. Romero now pitching for Philadelphia. Oh yeah, and we missed a horrible 1987 recording by The Beach Boys, who, clearly hard-up for money and still a year away from cashing in on "Kokomo," recorded a promo album for the Cubs. WGN played a track in which the words from Barbara-Ann were reworked over a montage of mostly scary looking Cub fans. And now Cliff Floyd leaves the game with injury. Fewer players were injured in the Eagles-Bears NFC Divisional Playoff a few years back. Pat Burrell continues his belief that it's still April and is taken down for pinch-runner Chris Roberson.

Update: 4:29, end 5th, Phillies 7, Cubs 5
Matt Murton with an RBI single, runners first and second, two out. And those memories of that spring day in 2005 become all the more vivid. Of course, Geary wasn't the only one who got torched that afternoon. Sunscreen is a must even if its a relatively cool day in Florida. Rookie mistake, it was my first year down here. Inning over, Iguchi, Rollins and Howard due up, and Rocky Cherry was pinch-hit for, so everything's setting up for some Phillies runs in the sixth. Let's see how Fuqua blows this one!

Update: 4:23, bottom 5th, Phillies 7, Cubs 4
Hey, guess what! Lollapalooza is at Grant Park this weekend! Tomorrow and Saturday at Grant Park in Chicago, you can go pretend its still the early '90s! When Lollapalooza was cool! And underground! And not being promoted by the Cubs announcers during the game the day before! Plenty of tickets still available, kids! Geoff Geary's on. I have to commend Geary for turning into a competent Major Leaguer, but I still can't get that memory of the first time I saw him, getting torched by Braves minor leaguers in the late innings of a spring training game. Nice peg by Rollins, but Fontenot walks and Jacque Jones singles. First and second, one out.

Update: 4:15, top 5th, Phillies 7, Cubs 4
Kasper informs us that Jeff Samardzija has been promoted to Class AA Tennessee. I hope you enjoy the lovely Kodak-Sevierville area, Jeff, and don't ever regret that decision to turn down football and the kleig lights, Jeff. There's a certain charm to Appalachia that can't be replaced. No matter how hard you try. And here comes Barajas with a two-out pinch-hit single! Well, I guess we know who's starting behind the plate tomorrow night. Fire up www.freetheoppressedchriscoste.com immediately!

Update: 4:04, bottom 4th, Phillies 7, Cubs 4
So I'm compelled to point out that Chris Coste, who will bat in the top of the fifth, has started off 2-for-2. Coste is now batting .367 in 49 at-bats this year. After batting .328 in 198 at-bats last year, his first in the majors. Yes, I know he's 34. I know he went undrafted. I know he's the consummate minor-league journeyman. But when he gets to the show, he produces, and there's no reason not to make somebody who has a career .331 batting average in 247 at-bats your every day catcher. Unless, of course, you are an oppressor named Charles Fuqua "Charlie" Manuel, who has passed Coste over for Carlos Ruiz (.251 in 247 ABs) and Rod Barajas (.207 in 116 ABs) all season long. Lee knocks home Soriano with an RBI double. Durbin's E.R.A. begins its ascent back up to 27.00. Whaddya mean Madson's got a strained ligament? It's not like he could pitch any worse! Get him up in the bullpen!

Update: 3:51, top 4th, Phillies 7, Cubs 3
Mercifully, the third inning is over. What, I can't enter the Pepsi Fan-Cam contest unless I'm a resident of Illinois or northwest Indiana? God Bless the anachronistic idea of a Superstation! It's the pride of Philadelphia, Ryan Howard, versus Rocky. And Ryan strikes out looking. Natch. Now it's Rowand's turn to see if he can pop Rocky's Cherry (you knew that was coming!).

Update: 3:41, bottom 3rd, Phillies 7, Cubs 2
Cubs broadcaster Len Kasper just pointed out that Sean Marshall's ERA has gone from 3.10 to 3.86. So the Cubs are worried that one of their starter's E.R.A is even approaching four. And we wonder why the Phillies have such trouble putting win streaks together. And just as I was about to write "and Durbin keeps rollin' along," Floyd singles to give the Cubs runners on the corners with two outs. Hoo boy. I think I'm still going to be blogging this game when Barry Bonds hits his 755th homer sometime after midnight Eastern tonight. Mike Fontenot doubles and it's 7-2 Phils. Werth slips but he appears OK. For now. Geez.

Update: 3:27, top 3rd, Phillies 7, Cubs 1
Rocky Cherry is now warming up in the Cubs' bullpen, setting up a potential gripping Rocky vs. Philly matchup. Burrell and Helms both score when Derrek Lee can't backhand a throw by Ryan The(quiet)riot at first on a groundball hit by Coste. And here comes Rocky. If the WGN producers are worth anything, they'll have the music after the break ... and they don't. Werth doubles to the wall, Coste scores.

Update: 3:21, top 3rd, Phillies 4, Cubs 1
Hey, a 1-2-3 inning! Way to go J.D.! By the way, J.D. Durbin's ERA is now down to 6.30 and has won his last three starts, notably a complete-game shutout at San Diego on July 22. So of course it was time to replace him in the rotation with Lohse. A guy who's 1-2 and has given up 10 earned runs in 17 innings over his last three starts. Nice going, Pat Gillick and C. Fuqua Manuel! Phils have second and third with one out after a Wes Helms double, btw.

Update: 3:11 p.m., bottom 2nd
Hey, a three-run Phillies inning! But that included a pinch-hit appearance by Adam Eaton, who batted for Lohse (right forearm contusion suffered in the first). It's 4-1, so in case you're wondering, the wind is blowing out. And it's hot at Wrigley, so WGN is showing disturbing pictures of scantily-clad grandmothers trying to put voodoo hexes on the Phils. Oh Arne Harris, where art thou? J.D. Durbin, he of the 27.00 ERA at one point last month, is now pitching.

Hey look, it's a post about What's His Name!

Have you seen this man?

A scant 19 years and two weeks ago, Michael Dukakis received a major party nomination for the presidency of the United States. Today, he's got the Q-rating of a low-level Estonian clerk. Naturally, landslide presidential election losers don't exactly get to linger in the forefront of the national consciousness. They're expected to sort of slink away, like a sheepish kid who's just embarrassed himself by screwing up his lines in the school play, and reappear in some other role later on. Al Gore emerged as an environmental advocate. Bob Dole as a Viagra pitchman. George McGovern as a Hunter S. Thompson confidant and Saturday Night Live host. But, aside from a few op-ed pieces, Dukakis has stayed hidden behind the curtains.

A precise measure of one's recognizability is hard to come by, but an accepted unscientific method is entering a person's name inside quotation marks on Google. My name, for instance, produces 1,130 hits, while Paris Hilton's nets approximately 32,900,000. So if her show is getting canceled, I've got as much chance of getting a half an hour on TV this fall as Dukakis does of winning in '08. Dukakis produces 354,000 hits, fewer than the 2,030,000 for John Kerry, 8,240,000 for Al Gore and 1,330,000 for Bob Dole, the three men who have failed to get to the White House after receiving major-party nominations since 1988. An even greater indictment of Dukakis' staying power is that Walter Mondale produces 622,000 hits, McGovern 569,000, Hubert Humphrey 439,000, Barry Goldwater 852,000 and Adlai Stevenson 483,000. And Humphrey, Goldwater and Stevenson are all dead. Needless to say, every man who lost an election as a sitting president or later became president (Nixon) produces more hits than Dukakis, which makes him the most anonymous presidential candidate since 1948. Thomas Dewey, most commonly remembered now as the guy the Chicago Daily Tribune mistakenly declared in a banner headline as triumphant over Harry Truman, gets only 83,000 hits.

So what happened? Well, unlike most politicians, it wasn't really like Dukakis to draw attention to himself. Especially if it involved a tank. So these days, he seems content with life as a full-time poli-sci professor at Northeastern University, an occasional author and as vice-chair of the Amtrak Reform Board, a position he held from 1998 to 2003. Compelling and important work to be sure. But wouldn't you think a living, cognizant former presidential candidate would pop up a little more often, given the prolonged '08 buildup we're in, and all the 24-hour cable networks, and a resurgence of the classic liberalism the Democratic Party has run pell-mell away from ever since his own nomination 19 years ago?

Yeah, but hey, if Paris can't get on TV, who can?

It probably wasn't the reporter's idea

Here's a good example of when editors do more harm than good. It was almost as much of a drag to read as it looks like it was to write.

Not my kid

Children are great consumers. They make little or no money but are walking revenue streams for companies, roping everyone from their parents to distant relatives to old forgotten family friends into buying them everything from diapers to strollers to baseball gloves to GameBoys to clothing to chocolatey cereals to ... well, you get the point. They might not know it, but children are a huge presence in the economy, and any exposure to advertisements in the coming month will remind you a stake in the kids market means big bucks to any number of corporate investors.

And wherever there are big bucks to be made, you can be sure the Pentagon will be getting involved. In this case, though, the Pentagon is spending a large amount of money, time and energy to go after something else: bodies. A steady stream of new recruits is the necessary fuel that keeps the nation's military running like a well-oiled money-making machine for the defense contractors and military industrialists that stand to benefit from an American policy of war-making.

But the quagmire of Iraq, frequent call-ups to active duty and orchestrated deceptions like the Pat Tillman coverup have prompted a decline in the number of young men and women so willing to make the Faustian bargain of entering the military, even as college money has been increased, standards for aptitude upon admittance have been lowered, criminal backgrounds have become less of an impediment for induction, and the maximum allowable age for new recruits has been raised.

So, the Pentagon has turned to a new and more aggressive ad campaign, trying new slogans and methods of persuasion on television, radio and expanding its presence online. Moreover, additional resources and energy have been focused on the advertising ground war -- face-to-face meetings with potential recruits. In streets, malls, at concerts and gatherings, and especially at school.

In response to this stepped up campaign, groups like the Wage Peace Project have begun to raise their voices in concern over military recruiters' presence in school hallways, cafeterias and classrooms, spheres of influences that marketers from soft-drink companies to booksellers crave. To whom are we giving unfettered access to our children? Are high schools halls of learning or centers of commerce?

In a move that comes as something as a surprise to observers of the school system, and even to members of Wage Peace itself, the Lee County (FL) School District is placing new restrictions on when and where military recruiters can have contact with students at school.

It's a move worthy of applause, but a meaningless gesture if bird-doggers like Wage Peace as well as parents and concerned citizens ensure the new policies are enforced and any loopholes that arise are quickly closed. No one should have to die at 18 for a decision they were pressured into making at 17, 16, 15 or younger. Such needless carnage is, to put it in terms so often incorrectly used to describe those like the Wage Peace Project, unpatriotic and un-American.

Next plane to Canada leaves in 40 minutes

Ah, America, where more people are concerned about quarterbacks involved in dogfighting rings and NBA referees who fixed games than an attorney general who may have perjured himself in congressional testimony. Can we please just impeach Bush and Cheney and get out of Iraq already? How much longer do we have to go on with this until Nixon rises from the grave and announces he's running in '08? Think it's unlikely? A run-away administration, a no-balls congress, and a whole field of uninspiring presidential candidates ... that's what's called a power vacuum, and Nixon never, ever passed up an opportunity to seize unwarranted but available public trust. So what if he's dead? He was as good as dead in the mid-60s, and was sitting in the Oval Office before anyone knew what happened. Don't say you haven't been warned.

So, I think it's only appropriate that we profile some of the real dark horses for 2008. And we're not talking about the Mike Gravel kind of darkhorses, either. More like ...

Barbaro: Like Nixon, he must overcome being dead. Unlike Nixon, Barbaro was almost universally beloved. We all cheered him on in his valiant struggle to overcome a near-fatal injury in the Preakness (well, maybe not Michael Vick). We all felt the warm tingle of a single tear down our cheek when that nearly year-long struggle ended as we all feared it would (again, Michael Vick excepted. And probably Dick Cheney, too). Just like Ike in '52, either party would be lucky to have such a unifying force on the ticket.


Harry Potter: So what if he's fictional? Did you see how many people lined up to get that book? And he's still making news a week after it came out, the kind of publicity that Al Gore could only wish for. Sure, he's got Pagan leanings and there are all those questions and concerns from religious conservatives about what he really believes and stands for, but that's no different from Mitt Romney.



Charles Manson: America is a forgiving nation. Full of forgiving people. And we have technology to remove swastika tattoos, too, so that helps. Hey, he put a whole family under his spell, so don't doubt his persuasive abilities. He'd kick ass in a debate. Plus, he's got celebrity friends, like former housemate Beach Boy Dennis Wilson. Take that, Hillary!







Arnold Schwarzenegger: The governator's a legitimate politician, and a fast-riser at that, with ties to the Kennedy family. He's a true centrist with broad appeal. So what if the Constitution prohibits anyone who wasn't born in America from becoming president. You think the Constitution matters any more? Not in Bush's America. And not in Schwarzenegger's Amerika ... er ... make that America.



Jean-Claude Van Damme: OK, so he faces the same kind of uphill battle as Schwarzenegger, which is probably even steeper since he isn't a politician. But Van Damme always tries to outdo Schwarzenegger, and never underestimate the loyal fanbase of an action movie hero. They will vote, vote early, and vote often.








Paris Hilton: She's rich and the media loves her. Instant name recognition. Unfortunately for her, she's an ex-con, but Bush is an ex-coke addict, and he was elected twice. And she may be dumb as a rock, but again, so's Bush. If she can recruit Karl Rove to run her campaign, and my guess is she has the money to make it worth his while, all bets are off.


And I gotta say, with Rove on her side, Paris would be my pick out of this bunch. So my thoughts on the impending Hilton presidency? Well ... that's hot.