Krazy Kitty ‘08?

Change in Tallahassee brings us the latest entrant into the GOP presidential sweepstakes … one that’ll make everyone forget about Jeri Thompson’s … assets.

Stay tuned …

Root, root, root for the Lord’s team, if they don’t win it’s Satan’s fault

As the National League champion Colorado Rockies enjoy their record-long eight-day layoff before the World Series, where they’ll meet either the Cleveland Indians or the Boston Red Sox, there’s one thing they’re likely to do a lot of besides working out:

Praying.

The team’s chief executive is a born-again Christian. So is the general manager and the team coach. Their two star players, along with many other members of their regular line-up, are not only believers but attend team-organised Bible studies.

The team doesn’t like to talk about it much – mainly because the overlords of Major League Baseball don’t think it’s good for business – but they have an explicit policy to recruit as many Christian ball players as they can.

In other words, the Rockies – uniquely, even in a country as religion-obsessed as America – play faith-based baseball. And, in their view, God just rewarded them – big time.

“You look at some of the moves we made and didn’t make,” general manager Dan O’Dowd said in the only interview he has given on the subject, long before the Rockies’ remarkable ascension over the past few weeks. “You look at some of the games we’re winning. Those aren’t just a coincidence. God has definitely had a hand in this.”

I don’t have a problem with athletes — or, for that matter, anyone — being religious or even ascribing their success in life to their chosen deity. But, seriously, with all that’s going on in the world, why would God or Buddha or Cthulhu or whoever give a rat’s ass about a baseball game?

What bothers me more than anything in this context is the degree to which ballplayers will ascribe their team’s success to God. What exactly makes one team more worthy of God’s grace than the other team? If the Rockies are God’s team, did he smite the Diamondbacks and the Padres to get His team to the World Series? Is God preparing to curse the Indians or Red Sox with locusts or plagues or jock itch? And if this is what God’s priorities are, shouldn’t we all be a little nervous?

But all this raises the question: why would a baseball team, in an industry notorious for such evil, unholy, horrible things as foul language, beer guzzling, and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, link themselves so closely to Jeeeeeeezus?

Until O’Dowd and other club officials talked about their faith, in an article that apppeared in USA Today, the Rockies’ faith-based approach was kept so secret it came as news even to other ball players and managers who face the Rockies 15 or 20 times a year. After the USA Today piece came out, the team managers clearly felt embarrassed at the revelation and have never mentioned it again.

But Christianity guides their clubhouse like nothing else. Players are not allowed pictures of naked women on their lockers. They don’t listen to loud, obscenity-laden rap music like other clubs. Players are strongly encouraged to attend chapel every Sunday, and Bible studies on Tuesday nights.

For some people, the God-squad approach is too much. “They have a great group of guys over there but I’ve never been in a clubhouse where Christianity is the main purpose,” one former Rockies player, Mark Sweeney, told USA Today. “You wonder if some people are going along with it just to keep their jobs.”

The Rockies’ come-to-Jesus moment came three years ago, when a pitcher called Denny Neagle was charged with soliciting a prostitute. The club decided to swallow the $16m (£8m) remaining on his contract – a huge sum, for a club with a total budget less than three times that – and let him go for the sake of moral purity.

[...]

The Neagle episode convinced them that Christian values and clean living were the best ways to build a winning team spirit. It didn’t hurt that Colorado is home to several high-profile evangelical organisations. The beer-producing Coors family, whose name adorns the Rockies’ home stadium, have a long history of involvement in conservative Christian groups. Colorado Springs, the town where the Rockies nurture their up-and-coming talent, is home to Focus on the Family, the powerful right-wing political lobbying group, as well as evangelical publishers and several mega-churches.

Of course! The batshit crazy fundie Coors/Dobson influence! Funny, I never thought of Colorado as much of a bastion of fundie whackjobs, even though (or maybe especially because) it borders Utah, but then again, Colorado is home to “South Park” and the “utopia” of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, so maybe it’s not that far-fetched after all …

And for the fundie Christian (read: batshit crazy conservative white people) fans of the Rockies, there’s an added bonus to their team’s piety:

One side-effect of the policy – one never discussed in American sports circles – is that the Rockies are one of the whitest teams in baseball. The game is dominated by players from the Caribbean and Latin America, but somehow the Rockies have a roster with one fresh-scrubbed all-American farm boy after another. Their catcher is Venezuelan, their second baseman is Japanese, but otherwise they are whiter than white.

Now I’m starting to understand why Tom Tancredo keeps getting elected to Congress …

Well, when you settle in to watch the Fall Classic beginning next Wednesday, remember that a Rockie home run or an error by the American League champ may not be just baseball. It might just be GOD’S WILL!

Even though their success might be driven by an angel, I guess it’s a good thing for the Rockies’ sake that they don’t have to play the Angels …

(cross-posted at Daily Kos)

BC Bowl: Maybe they should call it "Pedophilia Manor"

(ed. note — see replacement post above)

Now, I know it’s not fair for me to take two turns on behalf of Florida in the ongoing Batshit Crazy Bowl, thereby skipping racymind’s turn for Texas. But, honestly, how can anyone pass this up?

The Palace Mobile Home Park is a place that welcomes sex offenders. Ninety-five of these 200 residents are convicted sex offenders, including some pedophiles.

The adults-only, nondescript, low-income trailer park near St. Petersburg, Florida has gained a reputation among sex offenders on probation as a good place to live and stay out of trouble.

“Out there … it’s a jungle,” said Michael, who did not want his last name used for this report. “In here, it’s our own little piece of paradise. We’re safe here.”

[...]

In many ways, the Palace provides him a second chance at life. New laws across the country have limited where sex offenders and predators can live, banning them from places where children might congregate. This trailer park is far enough away from schools, churches, playgrounds and bus stops, allowing Michael to call it home without running afoul of the law.

“As a sex offender — when you come out, you’re told you can’t do this; you can’t be around children; you can’t go to parks; you can’t go to the beach; you can’t go to the library,” he said.

Nearly 600 sex offenders have lived here in the past couple of years, according to manager Nancy Morais, who said she was sexually assaulted by a family member as a little girl.

Not only does she allow the sex offenders to live here, she also offers therapy to help them become part of society again. “Put him on the right track, and we have a better chance of seeing society be a little bit safer with this person,” she said. “Can I guarantee they’re all gonna be good? Of course not.”

That’s right, folks: America’s Wang™ is home to a trailer park for sex offenders. How nice that there’s a place where they feel “safe.” </snark>

Feelings among non-offender residents are surprisingly mixed:

But not everyone who lives here feels safe knowing they are surrounded by convicted sex offenders.

One resident, who asked not to be identified, railed against the trailer park’s management for not informing them from the outset about this rehabilitation program.

“They told us nothing. My place is worth nothing now,” the resident said, speaking in a whisper.

Another woman said she had no problem living among the offenders, but she said it comes with consequences: She won’t allow her grandchildren on the premises.

Others don’t seem to mind. Teresa Atkins moved into the Palace a year ago. She is not an offender and didn’t know, at the time, that almost half of her neighbors were.

“I’m very safe here. None of these men want to go back to jail. They will do anything to keep from going to jail,” she said.

I don’t know exactly what it takes to be the batshit craziest state in America. I also know it’s a subjective measure. But any state that has a trailer park that welcomes sex offenders, well, it’s gotta be in the discussion …

For those who need a good laugh today

It’s not so much laughing at the model. It’s laughing at the anchors laughing at the model that gets me. (Plus I remember Jim Vance and George Michael — no, not that one — from my days in D.C.)

Enjoy the non-political schadenfreude.

More trouble for Thompson

You know, the shitty thing about being a presidential candidate is that, no matter how presidential you look, people find all the skeletons in your closet.

I suppose Fred Thompson is finding out about that now. Just a day after revelations surfaced regarding Thompson’s ties to the radically anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church, today we learn that ol’ Fred apparently influenced the state of Tennessee to remove an environmental inspector who was going to cite Thompson’s client, a coal company, for numerous violations.

In 1980, as a private attorney, Thompson represented Carbonex, whose strip mines located near Dayton in rural eastern Tennessee had been cited by Baker for environmental violations, according to state records viewed by the AP. Among the violations were mine waste that polluted streams and inadequate cleanup of sites after coal was mined.

In an April 1980 memo to his superiors, Baker — then 27 years old — listed violations at the Carbonex mines and added that his descriptions “cannot express how bad these sites really are.”

“It is evident that this company willingly ignores their mining plans, notices of noncompliance, the department’s designee and the state law,” Baker wrote.

Carbonex officials complained vigorously to state officials about Baker, demanding he be removed from the case. Baker’s superiors defended his actions, writing in one memo that he was “to be commended for keeping the pressure on.”

Requests for removal of an inspector had “often come up before with companies who have a tendency to violate the law and regulations,” Arthur Hope, then assistant director of the state’s surface mining office, wrote in a May 1980 memo.

“Such changes, in my opinion, are diversionary tactics to win a reprieve while another inspector is becoming familiar with the operation, then the same tactics will be tried again,” Hope wrote.

In June, Thompson arranged for state conservation officials to be flown to the mining sites on a Carbonex plane to meet with company officers. Shortly afterward, records show, Baker was removed from the case and an order to cease operations was lifted because state officials said reclamation work had begun.

C.C. McCall, then director of the surface mining division and one of the state officials who attended the meeting at the mine with Carbonex officers on June 11, 1980, wrote a Carbonex executive in a letter two weeks later that he had named a new inspector at the mine even though he still considered Baker to be “one of my finest inspectors.”

The change was made “in an effort to start afresh and adhering to your request for a new inspector,” McCall wrote.

Thompson had close ties to Alexander. Both men were proteges of then-U.S. Sen. Howard Baker of Tennessee. Thompson had served as Alexander’s campaign treasurer and then as legal counsel after he was sworn into office.

When the episode became public, there was a backlash over inspector Baker’s removal and he was put back on the Carbonex case. The coal company ceased operations in September 1980 after it was discovered it hadn’t paid severance taxes over its entire year in operation and had failed to follow reclamation rules set by the state.

The following year, Carbonex’s former president, John E. Keller, was sued by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, accused of being part of a scheme to sell illegal coal futures, according to court records. Keller was banned from selling coal contracts linked to future prices.

The more I see, the more obvious it is that Fred Thompson is in way, way over his head. Not only is there no substance whatsoever to his campaign, but he’s no knight in shining armor for the GOP. He’s just another corporate sell-out, another corrupt blowhard, just like the rest of the Republicans.

Honestly, anyone who describes him- or herself as Republican today almost by definition has to be corrupt. Clearly, Fred Thompson is no exception to that rule.

Today’s Daily Schadenfreude: the Republican Party

It seems almost uncivil to select the Republican Party, or Republicans in general, for the Daily Schadenfreude award twice in one week. But, as you know if you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, I’m fucking uncivil. So, let’s point and laugh one more time at the disintegrating, rotting carcass of the Republican Party, represented today by two notable departures.

First, former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is leaving Congress before the end of his term to die hit the buffet at Sizzler do something undisclosed.

The Illinois Republican had announced in August he would not seek re-election in 2008, but indicated he planned to finish his current term, which ends in January 2009. Republican aides, speaking on background only because Hastert had not publicly announced his new plans, said he now has told colleagues he intends to leave office late this year or early next year.

Also today, we’ve learned that batshit crazy fundie Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) (right, visiting fellow Republicans) will be pulling the plug on his failed presidential campaign tomorrow.

Republican Sen. Sam Brownback, the Kansas conservative who struggled to raise money and gain recognition in the 2008 presidential campaign, will drop out on Friday, people close to him said Thursday.

Money was a main reason for his decision, said one person close to Brownback who requested anonymity because the candidate had not yet announced his plans. Brownback is expected [to] announce his withdrawal in Topeka, Kan.

[...]

As recently as last week, Brownback indicated he would keep campaigning through Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses in January, saying he would exit the race if he finished worse than fourth there.

But his fundraising has sagged. Reports released Monday showed that of the eight Republican candidates, Brownback was seventh in fundraising from July through September and had a mere $94,000 cash on hand, less than any of his rivals. Brownback raised nearly $4 million overall and was eligible for $2 million in federal matching funds.

He spent a good chunk of his money on the Iowa straw poll, an early test of strength whose significance diminished after Arizona Sen. John McCain and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani decided not to compete. He finished third in the August contest behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Besides money, Brownback was hurt because he supports a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, an issue that angers conservatives who influence voting in Iowa and other states that are struggling to provide education, medical care and other services to an influx of immigrants in recent years.

So, we get to wave goodbye to a couple of truly odious wingnuts. Granted, we won’t necessarily be rid of Brownback, but here’s hoping the good people of Kansas, whose choice of a Democratic governor (Kathleen Sebelius) proves that they have some sense, will retain that sense when Brownback, as planned, runs for governor there in 2010.

Meanwhile, to the Republican Party, as you bid adieu to these two warts, I heartily congratulate you, for today’s Blast Off! Daily Schadenfreude is for you!

Punctuation is important

The period is the important part.

(inspired by Eschaton commenter Shaw Kenawe; click image to generate your own headstone)

Let’s play Celebrity Political Compass!

Remember a few months ago when I showed you the Political Compass, which placed nearly every 2008 presidential candidate on the right half of the ideological spectrum?

Well, this morning I found the following chart, based at least in part on the same concept:

But the interesting thing is where certain celebrities and political figures purportedly fall on that chart. Check this out:

My favorite part here is how Jerry Falwell is right next to Osama bin Laden.

But who’s the fascist next to Bill O’Reilly? (No, not Reagan … the other fascist.) Mussolini? Tito? And Thomas Jefferson between Ted Nugent and the Unabomber? Um, I don’t know about that one …

And what the fuck is Adam Sandler doing on this chart? How incongruous.

Anyway, have some fun with it … images link to their sources.