Another difference between Sarah Palin and Barack Obama

When Sarah Palin poses for a photo op with military hardware, she actually uses the hardware.

A search on YouTube for "sarah palin" and "m4" turned up this clip right away. Similar searches for Obama and Biden turned up video clips of...speeches.

European Court to rule on fate of planet, mankind

Well, it sure looks kind of scary.

Taking the definition of hubris to a whole new level, the European Court on Human Rights will rule on whether the Large Hadron Collider can proceed with their little experiments, which some fear will create miniature black holes which will "tear the earth apart".

Critics of the Large Hadron Collider - a £4.4 billion machine due to be switched on in ten days time - have lodged a lawsuit at the European Court for Human Rights against the 20 countries, including the UK, that fund the project.

The device is designed to replicate conditions that existed just a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, and its creators hope it will unlock the secrets of how the universe began.

However, opponents fear the machine, which will smash pieces of atoms together at high speed and generate temperatures of more than a trillion degrees centigrade, may create a mini-black hole that could tear the earth apart.

Now, I don't know much about smashing atoms and stuff, but I do know that when an EU court gets involved, things are bound to go horribly wrong.

Pakistan getting serious in fighting militants?

I don't remember hearing of anything on this scale during the reign of Pervez Musharraf.

Fighter jets pounded Pakistan's volatile northwest, killing at least 30 Taliban and destroying a large cache of ammunition, the army said Saturday, as advancing ground troops tried to flush militants from their hide-outs.

And assuming this isn't just a different interpretation of the same attack, it hasn't been a good week for the Taliban:

An air strike killed 30 Taliban in southeastern Afghanistan close to the border with Pakistan and Afghan police killed 18 more militants in the south of the country, officials said on Wednesday.

I found great amusement in this particular paragraph from the second link:

The Taliban could not be reached for comment and independent verification of the deaths was not possible.

Heh.

It's Palin

The naysayers' doubts notwithstanding, I think Sarah Palin was a great pick on McCain's part. While this may force the McCain campaign to tone down the rhetoric about Obama's lack of experience, there's enough on the issues to hammer him over, and that's what it should all be about, anyway. Hell, at least Palin's got more stick time as an executive than Obama does.

I was actually hoping Palin would be the pick, but didn't put much hope in that prospect when it looked like Romney or Pawlenty were the likely choices.

Check out Mark's Palin-worship at Dangling Invective here, here and here. And then, of course, there's this, which I suppose was inevitable.

Red Sox watch

September looms and we just can't seem to gain ground on Tampa Bay. Well, at least we're in the lead for the wild card race.

Over in the NL, the Cubbies have the best record in the majors, and assuming we don't make it to the World Series, I'll be pulling heavily for Chicago to take it all. They're long overdue.

Obama and Ayers

An add that BO is trying to keep you from seeing:



Via Michelle Malkin:

American Issues Project Responds to Obama Campaign’s Efforts to Compel TV Stations, Government to Censor Ad

Obama team fails to convince stations to kill ad in spite of threats, harassment and false claims

Washington, DC – August 26, 2008 – The Barack Obama campaign has resorted to a campaign of intimidation and legal threats to convince television stations and the federal government to force off the air an ad by the American Issues Project detailing the link between Sen. Obama and remorseless domestic terrorist William Ayers.

The Obama campaign has been contacting stations running American Issues Project’s ad in an unsuccessful attempt to compel them to pull the spot. The Obama campaign also sent a letter yesterday to the Department of Justice asking the government to investigate American Issues Project, its officers, board of directors, and donors. With no success on either front, the campaign has begun running its own ad in response. Notably, this ad fails to dispute a single fact in the American Issues Project’s initial ad.

“The Obama campaign knows it can’t argue the facts of the link between Obama and Ayers, so it is instead resorting to a desperate campaign of intimidation and legal threats,” said Ed Martin, American Issues Project’s president. “The scary question this raises is if Barack Obama demonstrates this little regard for free speech from his opponents during the campaign, what could the American people expect from him as a president?”

“The tremendous amount of time, money and effort the campaign is expending to run its own ads on the Ayers controversy and dispatch its hired guns all over the country – during the Democratic convention – speaks to the fear they must have that this issue is resonating with American voters.”

Read the rest at Michelle's blog

Obama beer?

Found this at Hot Air headlines. The Wynkoop brewery in Denver is releasing a beer called "Obamanator" to coincide with the Democratic National Convention.

Traditionally, beers with names ending in "-ator" are reserved for Doppelbock (double bock) beers. This tradition started in Germany in the 17th century when the Paulaner monks brewed up an unusually strong bock beer which they called "Salvator". The beer is still brewed and sold today by the Paulaner brewery.

Doppelbock beers are distinguished by their high alcohol content, many of which are as high by volume as wine at 10 to 12%. Obamanator, however, is a Maibock. Maibocks (May bock) are usually 6 to 7% alcohol by volume.

This begs the question of whether Wynkoop brewery is confused over which beers are properly given names ending with "-ator" or is taking an oh-so-subtle poke at Barack Obama in which their Maibock beer is pretending to be a much more substantial beer.

I find it highly unlikely that Wynkoop doesn't know the difference between a Maibock and a Doppelbock.

Further reading on Maibocks and Doppelbocks if you're interested.

Biden worries about household bills?

Continuing with the discredited "McCain's so rich, he doesn't know how many houses he owns" theme, Joe Biden's first salvo against John McCain suggests that Biden and his wife are just another middle income couple with mouths to feed trying to make ends meet.

"If your kitchen table is like mine, you sit there at night after you put the kids to bed and you talk about what you need. You talk about how much you are worried about being able to pay the bills," Biden said.

"Ladies and gentlemen, that is not a worry John McCain has to worry about. It's a pretty hard experience. He'll have to figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at."

One of those kids Biden puts to bed at night is a practicing attorney in Washington, DC and another is Attorney General for the state of Delaware. His 27-year-old daughter Ashley is a social worker for the state of Delaware and was arrested in 2002 for interfering with a police officer during a brawl at a Chicago bar.

It's Biden

Of all the possibles on Barack Obama's short list of running mates, he went and picked Greasy Joe Biden. While I love Exurban League's "Smug & Plugs" moniker, I can think of a couple others that fit. Smug & Smarmy and Smug & Smugger come to mind.

As my brother said, "...he has labored mightily, and brought forth a mouse."

Tough Decisions 1, Barack Obama 0.

Ex-Urban League breaks it down

Jon at Exurban League has nailed this Presidential Campaign stuff:

Walking on water

Not my picture...lifted from the link below.

No, I'm not referring to Barack Obama. Vacationing this week in North Carolina (the obligatory light posting excuse), I went out on the deck this morning and spotted a guy who looked like he was standing on (not in) the surf sweeping with a broom. On closer inspection, he was standing on a surf board with what looked like a canoe paddle and was on his way out to do a little stand-up paddle surfing. What amazed me was the guy never seemed to fall down. He'd ride a wave, then just turn around and start paddling back out again.

I'd never heard of this particular variation on surfing, but I guess it takes time for word to spread from Hawaii to the east coast.

Delusions of grandeur

I don't think this guy's gettin' much done with this sorry-ass scooter near Morehead City, NC. Bet he's really regretting that DUI now.

Danish intelligence service goes PC

The Danish intelligence agency PET has followed our own government's lead and is advising against the use of words like 'martyr' and 'jihad' when discussing Islamic terrorism.

PET is worried that religious terms used to describe terrorism are creating a harmful link between the public's perception of Islam and terrorism.

The document is entitled 'Language use and the fight against terror'. It recommends avoiding the use of words like martyr, jihad, fundamentalist, Islamism and mujahedeen when talking about terrorism.

Anja Dalgaard-Nielsen, PET's head of preventative security, said that adopting the language and phrases used by extremists can legitimise their actions.

Thankfully, not everyone is buying into the idea.

I'll say what I want to say, and I think PET should keep to itself when it comes to the need for political correctness in public debates,' Martin Henriksen, the Danish People's Party's integration spokesman, told Kristeligt Dagblad newspaper.

More ChiCom chicanery

Remember those 56 kids at the Olympic opening ceremony representing the rich tapestry of the 56 ethnic groups that make up China's population? Yeah. Turns out they all came from one ethnic group...the majority Han Chinese.

Another section of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony has been exposed as faked - the children supposedly representing the country's 56 ethnic groups were in fact all from the same one, the majority Han Chinese race.

The children accompanied the soldiers carrying in the national flag at the most solemn moment of the ceremony.

They were dressed in costumes associated with the country's ethnic minorities, including those from troubled areas such as Tibet and the muslim province of Xinjiang. Such displays of "national unity" are a compulsory part of any major state occasion.

But the children were all from the Han Chinese majority, which makes up more than 90 per cent of the population and is culturally and politically dominant, according to an official with the cultural troupe from which they were selected.

Things to do in Denver when you're dead

A week before the Democratic convention in Denver, a Somali-born Canadian citizen dies of cyanide poisoning in a Denver hotel room. In his hotel room is a quart-sized container full of sodium cyanide. The dead man, Saleman Abdirahman Dirie, is possibly the same Abdirahman Dirie who posted an exhortation to kill infidels in a blog comment last month. Authorities, of course are completely stumped over any possible linkage between these facts.

An FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force has been sent to Denver, although Special Agent Kathy Wright said there's no information to conclude that Dirie had terrorist ties, the Rocky Mountain News reported.

[ ... ]

"It's an isolated incident," Denver Police Detective John White told the newspaper. They refused to speculate on why he had such a large quantity of the poisonous substance with him in the swanky all-suite hotel so soon before the convention in Denver, Aug. 25-28.

"We don't think it's any act of terrorism," Sonny Jackson, a spokesman for the Denver Police Department, told FOXNews.com. "We have no reason to believe it was. Nobody knows what was in this gentleman's mind."

Jackson declined to elaborate on why the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force got involved in the case.

"That's just normal," said Jackson. "You'd have to ask them why they got involved. They may have more expertise with the chemicals."

[ ... ]

...the FBI echoed police, insisting terrorism isn't suspected.

"At this point we don't have any nexus to terrorism," the FBI's Wright told The Associated Press. She didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment from FOXNews.com.

Of course, I don't believe for a minute that the FBI isn't crawling all over Dirie's former life to figure out what he was up to. But why can't cops just be honest and say what every reasonable person would think? Is it politically incorrect to suspect someone may have had terrorist intent?

These statements just make them look like idiots.

HuffPo response to unbridled Russian aggression: It's our fault

Russia's claims that their only military goal is to return Georgia's South Ossetia province to the status quo pre-6 August are belied by their bombing and looting of Gori and apparent drive on the capital city of Tbilisi.

So, who are the writers at Huffington Post howling at? Certainly not the Russians...

Musings from Moscow
"While the conflict has aroused the predictable hostility and posturing of the U.S. government..."

How the Bush Administration Created the Disaster in Georgia

Georgia On My Mind
"In the annals of U.S.-Russian relations, Secretary of State Rice has proven once again to be not up to the task at effectively managing the one area of foreign policy that is her principal area of expertise..."

Why Russia Invaded Georgia: Payback Time From the Orthodox World to the West

George W. Bush is to Georgia as George H.W. Bush is to Kurdistan
"I'm not bothered by 41 having an Oedipal thing to work out with 43. I just wish it they could do it around the dinner table, instead of breaking so much crockery on the world stage..."

Russian Crisis Reveals Condi Rice as Worst Secretary of State Ever
"Rice supposed to be an "expert" on Russia. But it is her Cold War mentality and extreme hawkishness that allowed her to rise through the ranks within the U.S. foreign policy establishment..."

These people make me sick.

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine: Snake oil salesman

Ed at Hot Air linked to this video clip in which our brilliant governor, Tim Kaine, claims that Russia "complied" with Barack Obama's requests to cease hostilities against the sovereign state of Georgia, which, of course, they haven't contrary to their claims.

Even if one doesn't consider the continued presence of Russian troops on Georgian soil a hostile act, there's this.

What a douchebag.

After Georgia, what?

By every indicator, Russia appears to be forcibly (re-) annexing the sovereign nation of Georgia. This begs the question of what comes next. Russia has been audibly unhappy with the pro-western sentiments of the Ukraine, and the Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania must be getting a little bit nervous. Belarus, which sits between Ukraine and the Baltic states, is a close ally of Moscow and is already well within their sphere of influence, anyway.

That Russian president Dmitry Medvedev called a "halt to military action" is meaningless in the context of the rest of his statements.

Medvedev said on national television that the military had punished Georgia enough for its attack on South Ossetia. Georgia launched an offensive late Thursday to regain control over the separatist Georgian province, which has close ties to Russia.

"The security of our peacekeepers and civilians has been restored," Medvedev said. "The aggressor has been punished and suffered very significant losses. Its military has been disorganized."

The Russian president, however, said he ordered the military to defend itself and quell any signs of Georgian resistance.

"If there are any emerging hotbeds of resistance or any aggressive actions, you should take steps to destroy them," he told his defense minister at a televised Kremlin meeting.

Sounds to me like the neo-Soviets are planning on sticking around in Georgia for a while. Beyond their apparent plans to occupy Georgia indefinitely, Russia is hinting that they don't see much need for Georgia's president to stick around.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier Tuesday that Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili should leave office and that Georgian troops should stay out of South Ossetia permanently.

If I were one of Russia's western neighbors, I'd be sweating a little right about now.

Update: Ed Morrissey at Hot Air sees things the same way vis a vis Russia's long-term plans for Georgia.

Stand With Georgia

Well, the Cat's away, so as blog mouse I will play.

But it's time to be serious. I've added the "Stand with Georgia" graphic on the right side of this blog. Click it and you'll go to the Georgia Ministry of Foreign Affairs blog. They had to use blogger due to the Russian cyber attacks on their network infrastructure.

The graphic was created by Jon at Exurban League.

Confirmed: Obama a tool of the Hollywood Left

From JWF via Hot Air headlines...London's Daily Mail reveals the true nature of Barack Obama's relationship with Hollyweird's far left political fringe.

Oscar-winner [George] Clooney, 47, is said to be helping the Democratic candidate to polish his image at home and abroad.

But he is also sharing with Obama his strong opinions on Iraq and the Middle East.

Sources say the actor has tried to hide the pair’s friendship for fear his Left-wing views and playboy image would hurt the Presidential hopeful’s bid for the White House.

Like JWF said...too late!

Democrats responsible for urine-filled bottles on road

It seems that John Edwards is the only Democrat interested in domestic drilling, but since he no longer holds any office - not to mention his interests lie with the wrong kind of drilling - he's no help with the current price of gas.

Another unexpected consequence of high fuel prices which we can lay squarely at Nancy Pelosi's feet is urine-filled bottles discarded on highways.

Police say there's been an alarming rise in urine-filled plastic containers found along a three-mile stretch of Interstate 84 in eastern Oregon.

A litter crew for the Oregon Department of Transportation picked up an estimated 200-300 urine filled plastic bottles, along the highway, about half of which were found in a short stretch dubbed "Three Mile Hill."

Police say that drivers — particularly commercial trucks — are typically driving very slowly through the area.

Police think the price of fuel may be causing drivers to travel slower than normal to save fuel while at the same time passing rest areas or truck stops.

I hope that Oregon uses convict labor for highway litter clean-up.

Iowahawk gets a form letter

Iowahawk has received the dreaded intimidation letter from Accountable America, and we now can see firsthand their heavy-handed fascism at work.

Dear __MR. BURGE_____

According to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request of public campaign finance records, we have determined that you made a contribution of __$20, 3 BEAN SALAD, 24 PACK OF LEINENKUGEL___ to the __JOHNSON COUNTY GOP POTLUCK__ on __7 JUNE 2008__. I imagine it is difficult sleeping at night knowing that your __$20, 3 BEAN SALAD, 24 PACK OF LEINENKUGEL__ helped directly fund the most criminal administration in the history of the United States, the illegal torture of innocents, and the indiscriminate slaughter of billions of children worldwide. Of course, this presumes such crimes actually bother you and your disgusting cronies at the __JOHNSON COUNTY GOP POTLUCK__.

We can only hope that he and his family are safe.

Oh, and read the whole thing.

How global warming zealots hurt their own cause

The faithful followers of Al Gore and all the rest in the climate change religion have damaged their own cause, perhaps irreversibly. By clinging to the dogma of anthropogenic climate change from carbon emissions, branding skeptics as heretics and insisting on saving the planet by destroying its global economy, they've more than earned all the scorn they get.

Their intractable stance - that the world must stop using fossil fuels now and switch to energy sources that don't yet exist - is the cause of the current price of oil. When Nancy Pelosi responds to the question of why she so staunchly opposes expanded domestic oil production by saying "I'm trying to save the planet", thinking people know right away we have a problem.

There are sufficiently good reasons for weaning ourselves off of fossil fuels in favor of new energy sources without engaging the contentious issue of climate change. Cleaner air and stopping the transfer of wealth to countries inimical to our interests should be enough to get everyone on the same page. But no. Al Gore and the rest of the Gorons would have us believe that if we don't drastically reduce carbon emissions right fucking now we'll suffer simultaneously from floods, droughts, extreme heat, extreme cold, more frequent and more intense hurricanes, and coastal plains under water from rising sea levels. Never mind that the evidence doesn't support their theories.

The reality is that the Gorons - along with the Democrats whose campaign coffers they fill - don't want lower fuel prices. Their fear is that if gas drops to, say, $2.00 per gallon, there will be less pressure from the public to develop alternative energy sources. As usual, the lefties reveal their low opinion of the American public. Americans don't want dirty air and they don't want to send supertanker loads of money to countries that hate us. But to clean up the air, we first have to stop transferring wealth out of the country and keep our economy strong by not having all our disposable income depleted by the high costs of filling our cars and heating our homes. And the Democrat-controlled Congress wants to make matters worse by raising the federal tax on gasoline to make up for tax revenue lost by people using less gas.

True energy innovation will be a product of a robust economy, not a product of a government edict to Detroit to build more fuel-efficient vehicles. Expanded domestic oil production will provide jobs, lower the cost of fuel and drive real economic growth. A sound energy policy that includes domestic drilling and incentives to develop low-cost, clean and sustainable energy alternatives will achieve what the enviro-whackos want in years, not decades.

WSJ on Enviromania

An excellent piece in the WSJ by Daniel Henninger. The first two paras:

For years, hyperactive environmentalists have burned votive candles to the spirit in the sky, hoping she'd levitate energy prices high enough to make alternatives to oil economically feasible. That day has come. Result: The oil has hit the fan.

With gasoline over $4 and with life as they love it in the suburbs being shut down, did people call for the windmills? Nope. A heavy majority want to drill the bejeezus out of anywhere in America we can find familiar black slop.

Perhaps the first use of "bejeezus" in the Wall Street Journal, and surprise, "bejeezus" flunks Blogger's spell check.

Why you can't get a cab in NYC

If you've ever wondered why you can't get a cab in New York City, it's because they're all at Laguardia. I decided to step out for a smoke while my flight home goes from "delayed" to "you're screwed" and saw all these cabs there.

Why Pelosi had to adjourn

Thanks to my brother Chuck, who e-mailed me this link to Nancy Pelosi's promotion tour for her new book titled (ahem) Know Your Power. There's a reason she had to bug out of Washington...she's got book stores to visit and books to sign!

It's a pretty packed schedule, but it looks like most Fridays are open.

Update: By the way, this book isn't exactly lighting the literary world on fire. It's currently ranked #1,422 on Amazon.

Update: Don't know why there are duplicate posts on this. I tried to delete the old one, but the updated one got deleted. Hey, it's Blogger, and it's free. I'll just leave it as is.

Update: Self-correcting...the duplicate post went away by itself.

How stupid is Nancy Pelosi?

This stupid. In my last post, I linked to Hot Air's item about the GOP revolt in the House over Pelosi's refusal to allow a vote on domestic drilling. That post links to this News Busters item which includes a transcript of a George Stephanopoulos interview with Pelosi in which Stephanopoulos asks over and over in various ways why she won't permit a vote. Some of her more vacuous statements are rebutted here.

Free our oil, Mr. President. We're sitting on 700 million barrels of oil. That would have an immediate effect in ten days. What our colleagues are talking about is something that won't have an effect for ten years and it will be 2 cents at the time.

She's talking about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This is a reserve of oil kept in case of national emergency. We've got a big problem, but it hardly constitutes an emergency. The last time anything was released from the SPR was after Hurricane Katrina. Releasing oil from the reserve would be a band-aid approach that ignores the long-term problem.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But if you feel you have the better arguments, why not give a straight up or down vote for drilling?

PELOSI: Because the misrepresentation is being made that this is going to reduce the price at the pump. This is again a decoy, it’s not a solution.

Wrong...demonstrably wrong. When President Bush revoked the executive order placing a moratorium on offshore drilling, the price of oil per barrel on the commodities exchange dropped by over $20 per barrel in a week. And that revocation had little meaning without Congressional action. Commodities markets are based on future expectations, and the market was reacting to sentiment favoring increased domestic production.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So what exactly are you trying to say? You say you might allow a vote as part of a comprehensive package, but you won’t allow a vote on --

PELOSI: We have put on the floor. Free our oil. Strong bipartisan support for that. Use it, don't lose it. Strong bipartisan support for that. End undue speculation, strong bipartisan support for that. We've talked about these things. Invest in renewable energy resources so that we can increase the supply of energy for our country. Strong bipartisan support for that.

The present high cost of oil is an economic drain on all sectors of the economy. This reduces investment dollars without which research and development of new, sustainable energy sources grinds to a halt.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But why not allow votes on all that? ... If they want to offer a drilling proposal, why can't they have a vote?

PELOSI: They'll have to use their imagination as to how they can get a vote and then they may get a vote.

Uh...what?

---

Another kibitz from Mark:

I just love how Pelosi trots out the need to release oil for the strategic reserve. The very request proves that she knows we have a supply problem. Yet will she allow anything to actually increase supply? Not now, not ever.

But is it stupidity? Probably not. I think it's absolute arrogance. She just knows that she'll have a Democrat in the oval office and a filibuster proof majority in the Senate after the fall elections, so why do anything? And if McCain wins, or the Dems do not get the supermajority in the Senate, it will be the fault of Karl Rove, the rightwing blogosphere, and Diebold. It will not be the fault of the Congressional leaders who have brought their approval ratings to their lowest point in history.

Update: Would you buy Mary Kay cosmetics from this woman?

Game on: GOP to continue House protest

House Republicans today will continue their protest against Nancy Pelosi's refusal to allow a vote on domestic drilling before the House recessed for the summer break.

This makes for great theater, but I think it actually works to the GOP's advantage not to have a vote. This allows the Republicans to hold this issue up as one in which the Democrats' position is 180 degrees opposite that of 70% of Americans. Going into the election 90 days from now having the issue remain open can only hurt the Democrats

The Democratic leadership is completely wrong on this issue, and they're starting to realize that. Pelosi refuses to hear a vote because there's a damned good chance it'll pass, and if it doesn't it will be because Democrats voted it down.

A kibitz from Mark: Many of the House Republicans have taken to using the web to get their message out. (You may recall that the Speaker's lackeys are trying to muzzle Congressmen who use social networking sites.) You can follow Pete Hoeskstra and John Culberson on Twitter. Culberson also has a presence on qik, one of the few ways that the House Republicans were able to get the word out of Friday.

Co-blogger

Starting today, my brother Mark will be joining as co-blogger here. Please welcome Mark as he figures out what to post first!

Check out Mark's own blog, Dangling Invective.

British Muslims aiding Taliban

The Times of London reports that, according to retiring Brigadier Ed Butler, British Muslims are traveling to Afghanistan to join the fight against their own countrymen. Not only that, but Islamists in Helmand province are helping out with British Islamic terror plots in the UK.

British Muslims are actively supporting the Taliban and al Qaida in attacks on UK soldiers, the former commander of Britain’s forces in Afghanistan said today.

Brigadier Ed Butler, 46, claimed his troops also uncovered evidence that militant Islamic groups in Helmand Province are suspected of assisting terrorist plots in the UK.

Earlier this year suspicions were raised that the Taliban were recruiting an increasing number of fighters from Britain after RAF experts overheard secret transmissions spoken in broad Midlands and Yorkshire accents.

Amazingly, the Brits have known about this for nearly two years. British soldiers are being killed by their own fellow citizens in Afghanistan, and the British government is doing nothing to stop it.

Red Sox watch

The Red Sox have traded Manny Ramirez to the LA Dodgers. I'm a bit conflicted about this. It's damn near impossible for any Boston fan not to love the guy, but at the same time, I suppose if Boston hadn't been playing such crappy ball over the past few weeks I'd be more broken up about it.

---
Here's an update from the new barback... Jason Bay, the player who came to the Sox from the Pirates and took over left field for Manny, scored both runs in Boston's 12 inning, 2-1 win over the Oakland A's. He walked in the second inning and scored on a Lowrie sac-fly. He tripled in the 12th scored when Lowrie hit an infield single up the middle... The extra kicker - the A's walked Drew to get to Lowrie... I guess they'd rather have a rookie beat them than a veteran.
Mark