The Wage Gap: a lack of common cents?

The Wisconsin Women's Council released a study on April 22 (Earth Day) called "Mind the Gap! Women, Wages and the Pay Gap in Wisconsin." It alleges that women make about 77 cents for every dollar made by a man. The report's evidence lies in the median wages earned by men and women.

At first glance, it's easy to get into a lather about it ... to the point of, say, standing on street corners with placards touting "equal pay" legislation.

But there's a glaring omission from the WWC's "report," an accounting for the types of jobs surveyed. I checked with the Bureau of Labor Statistics and found men to grossly outnumber women in higher-paying fields, and conversely women to grossly outnumber men in lower-paying, support- or service-oriented fields (p. 8). I'm no mathematician, but it wouldn't seem hard to come up with this 77-cent disparity if one were to simply gloss over the job titles.

In fact, the WWC is missing an important point on this. Despite the report's willful ignorance, this alleged "wage gap" has shrunk a great deal over the past 30-plus years; from about 62 percent to near 80 today. While women do predominantly populate lower-paying jobs, this closing gap would mean there are far more women in higher-paying fields. The Feministas should be CELEBRATING THAT instead of crying about this manufactured outrage.
Secondly, even the BLS' own report on women and earnings shows that men are punished far more severely, in terms of relationship to median wage, than are women (p. 5).

The NBA's ghetto culture

Either Amy Lawrence is an idiot, or ESPN is really as liberal as I've long feared.

There is a case to be made for the latter, as many of the TV and radio "personalities" seem to espouse such views. But there certainly could be a case made for the former as well.

Last weekend, I caught some of Lawrence's act on our local ESPN affiliate, 1230 AM WXCO. She was prattling on about the NBA, so I was only half-listening anyway. But then I heard her opine on why she felt the NBA spiraled into such decline since the retirement of Michael Jordan. She described the thuggish perception that many folks have of the NBA as being embodied by an "aggressive" style that's "in your face." She was close, but she missed the bigger mark.

The NBA's ghetto culture.

As a white guy from northern Wisconsin, I probably know as much about the ghetto as I do, say, uranium enrichment. But what I do know is what's espoused and glorified on TV. The "hip hop culture," as Bill O'Reilly calls it, deifies materialism and misogyny. My guess is it's an effort to show how The Man ain't keeping you down. This entails a lack of respect for anything other than oneself, embodied in the "look at me" SportsCenter highlights from most basketball games. There's more glory in a dunk, it seems, than an assist.

And it's the tattoos and baggy drawers that, IMO, is turning White America away from the game.

It's possible - and likely - that Lawrence never would've gotten away with saying it was the NBA's ghetto culture that has turned away a largely white fan base. And I found myself thinking the NBA simply needs a white superstar to bridge that gap. But I realized that perennial MVP candidate Steve Nash, and '07 MVP Dirk Nowitzki, are the closest things to the next Larry Bird that we're likely to see for a long time. So the NBA has its stars; all it needs now is an audience.

Thoughts on how the NBA can generate fan interest

The NBA has seen its postseason ratings decline precipitously over the years, and it's not hard to see why. They stretch a seven-game series out to nearly two weeks, and that's after allowing half the league into the postseason.

Commissioner David Stern needs to take a page from two events in recent years that should've taught him something already: One, the lockout of 1998, which delayed the start of the NBA season to January and shortened the season to I think 54 games. Every game mattered a lot more, and it's a lot easier to relate to a sport when its season fall within one calendar year. (The NFL is an exception, as the vast majority of its seasons fall within one calendar year, and I think it makes a big difference when a season is referred to as 2007 vs. 2007-08.)
Two, the NBA needs to recognize how popularity March Madness is at the collegiate level and whittle its seven-game series (at least in the playoffs) to best-of-three. I understand why they wouldn't want to go with a single-elimination tournament after an 82-game season, but a best-of-three would put heightened emphasis on that first game. Suddenly, Game 2 is an elimination game. And the better team should still be able to shine through.

And I have to believe that the revenue the NBA would be sacrificing from its gates would be more than made up in TV ad revenue for these newly important - and relevant - games.

Gas today: $3.39/.49/.59/D $4.09

Thundersnow

I officially live in a snowglobe, amid the winter that wouldn't end.
After a couple of weeks of temperatures well into the 40s, enough to melt most of our snow except for the piles on the north faces of buildings, I'm sitting here listening to pellets of ... something being pelted off my windows by a wind that must gusting at 40 to 50 THOUSAND miles per hour.
But that's not the best part; I'm also sitting amid flashes of lightning and gentle peals of thunder. That's twice this winter (once a few weeks ago earlier in March) that we've had thundersnow.

It's enough to make me think bears, bats, squirrels and the European Hedgehog have the right idea.

'Just words'

The other night, I gathered with some of the guys for some drinks, billiards and general bullshit in a buddy's basement. At one point, a lifelong friend of mine referred to his wayward pool game as "retarded."
At that point, another longtime friend of mine spoke up, a man who's a live-in caregiver for two older, cognitively disabled men. Meanwhile, I have a family member who is severely autistic and unable to care for herself. Both of which Friend A knew full well. So to put it diplomatically, an effort was made to "make him see the error if his word choice."

We asked if he'd go into Harlem and call somebody a "nigger." Or if he'd call a gay friend of ours a "faggot." Or someone else a ... (insert slur here). To my mounting disappointment, he defiantly insisted that the word "retard" should not mean to us what it did, ultimately insinuating that we were simply "oversensitive."

He tried to turn it into an offensive on how we can't make him find, or not find, something funny. The problem was, he hadn't been making a joke. And no one was saying a person should or shouldn't find anything funny. In fact, I reasoned, we often find things funny precisely because their absurdity and outrageousness say we shouldn't. I pointed out to this vocal backer of Barack Obama that Obama himself gave a renowned speech called "Just Words" (just prior to the Wisconsin Primary); a speech in which Obama referred to "I have a dream," "We hold these truths to be self-evident" ... all to illustrate the absurdity of insinuating that words have no resonance.

Meanwhile, Friend A insisted upon his freedom of speech. But it was pointed out to him that with every right comes a responsibility. Freedom of speech is not absolute, and anyone requiring proof is free to joke about a bomb in an airport sometime.

Instead, I was oversensitive.

This from someone who's never walked into a restaurant only to have nearly every set of eyes staring as you walk toward your seat; not at you but at the person you're with. ... This from someone who never went on a road trip with his parents to South Dakota when he was about 10, and was seated at a short lecture in some small nature preserve only to have another kid actually physically stand in the front of the room, point and laugh at your disabled companion. ... This from a person who's never had his eighth-grade principle clear him out of the classroom while he openly scolded the rest of the class for making light of your sister being "retarded." ... This from a person who was never the 13-year-old who - wanting nothing more as an adolescent than to fit in - had to walk back into that classroom.

This from a person who's never had to wonder what it was to like to fully appreciate the construct of a full "family of four," including everything from sibling rivalries to riding on a roller coaster at a county fair.

Nope. I was oversensitive.

It was all I could do to keep from shoving his pool cue so far up his ass he'd have to say "Aaaah" to chalk it. If for no other reason, than this is a person who openly prides himself on his "enlightened" and "liberal" view of American society.

How in God's name, it was put to him, could he then so loosely use a pejorative that would denigrate and belittle the ONE segment of the population that could never speak up for itself. A black guy walks into a room, an obviously gay person, a woman ... etc., and I know damn well he wouldn't use any of the aforementioned terms in their presence.

Instead, he chose the one demographic who could be sitting right next to him, hear him call him a "retard," and never think to - or be able to - speak up on his own behalf.

I spoke to Friend A the next day for quite some time, and the "retard" subject never even came up. Nor did an apology. I didn't ask for one because an apology sought is worthless. And I didn't bring up the "retard" issue because I was still pretty hot about it and didn't want to lash out at him. Yet I'm sitting here, two nights later, still stewing about it to the point of writing some anonymous blog about it that I half wish he'd read, and half wish would be nothing more than idle venting that will alleviate this hurt and mild sense of betrayal.

I guess I'm oversensitive.

A playwright gets it right

David Mamet - who apparently is a playwright of some renown - recently penned a piece for the Village Voice outlining his recent conversion from "brain dead" liberalism to that of more classical conservatism. It's a long piece, and he meanders, but it's worth a read for the points he does raise.
His overriding assertion is that the "sides" shouldn't hate each other the way they do. This is a view akin to my own.
I've told friends for years that there are a whole lot of people making a whole lot of money on the fact that our country is divided into red/blue, liberal/conservative, black/white, etc. I find myself falling into the same trap - even if it's just to temper some of the vapid rhetoric I hear constantly thrown at President Bush, Republicans and conservatives - but I try like hell to rise above this. That's not to say I have no concept of "right" and "wrong," but I do recognize shades of gray in most issues.
One of these days maybe I'll lay out my beliefs in this space. (Might not be a bad idea to help sort out the nuances of the issues. Maybe everyone should do that.)

Voice of Reagan dies at 75

Hal Riney, the man who voiced Ronald Reagan's "Morning in America" commercials in 1984, died Monday (March 24) at his home in San Francisco. He was 75. Links to the commercials are below along the right. Some brilliant ads.
Apparently he was a man of some renown in the advertising community, and he had an interesting back story. This from the San Fransisco Chronicle:

S.F. ad man Riney dies

(03-25) 15:24 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Hal Riney, the San Francisco advertising man whose iconic and memorable work helped establish the city as a leading creative center for the industry, died of cancer in his San Francisco home Monday. He was 75.
Whether his client was an automobile manufacturer, a wine cooler or the committee to re-elect President Ronald Reagan, no one could put as graceful a spin on Americana as could Hal Riney. He made likable, engaging advertising in a career of nearly 50 years.
Some would say he is best remembered for creating the brand and image of General Motors' Saturn automobile division, establishing a memorable alternative to Detroit car culture in the process. Others would argue he is equally famous for the codgers Frank Bartles and Ed Jaymes, who sing the praises of the Gallo wine cooler that bore their names. Another case could be that his best work came in 1984, when he wrote soft-textured, 60-second montages of Americana, telling stories of swelling national pride, making people comfortable about re-electing Reagan. The ads - titled "It's Morning Again in America" - assured the public it would be folly to return to the days before Reagan's tenure.
Western style
These advertising campaigns and many more had a unique and relaxed Western feeling to them and stood in contrast to so much in a New York-dominated industry. Importantly, Riney's ads prompted marketers to pay attention to the San Francisco ad scene. He narrated many of them, and his gravelly voice is as memorable as the products he promoted.
Before Riney, Howard Gossage had established San Francisco's ad industry roots. Riney's proteges, Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein, who started with Hal Riney & Partners doing "Billy Ball" ads for the Oakland A's, left in the spring of 1983 to establish what is today one of the country's top agencies, and they in turn encourage the next generation of San Francisco creative advertising people.
In fact, Riney's disciples went on to found no fewer than 28 advertising agencies, said Goodby.
"He created an atmosphere and body of work that attracted the highest level of creative people outside New York," said Goodby, co-founder of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco. "Some would say higher."
Throughout his work, Goodby wrote of Riney, "there was an optimistic, perhaps even romantic, vision of America. It was a land populated with people of similar values, small-town Fourth of July parades, and rocking chairs on shady porches. There was little tolerance of fakery and cant. It was this vision he mined in his 1984 campaign for Reagan, and even in his advertising for beer and automobiles."
Hal Patrick Riney was born July 17, 1932, in Seattle and was reared in Longview, Wash., a lumber mill town on the Columbia River. His father was a cartoonist, writer, newspaper publisher, actor, salesman and gambler who was jailed after writing "a check that wasn't the best check he could have written," Riney recalled.
His father abandoned the family, including his mother and older sister, when Riney was 5, but he was an idyllic figure for the young Riney, who kept a photo of him in his office above his Underwood typewriter.
His mother was a teacher who became a volunteer at a fire lookout during the summers of World War II in Washington's Cascade Range - where Riney fell in love with the outdoors.
He graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in art in 1954. After a stint in the U.S. Army, he took a job in the mail room at the San Francisco office of BBDO, then the city's largest advertising agency. He was soon promoted to art director.
Nine years later, he became the agency's creative director. It was at BBDO, in the mid-1960s, that he hired composer Paul Williams to create a theme for Crocker Bank of San Francisco. The song, "We've Only Just Begun," went on to become a No. 1 hit by the Carpenters.
During that time, Riney met Jerry Andelin, the art director with whom he would collaborate until his retirement.
In 1976, Riney opened the San Francisco office of New York agency Ogilvy & Mather. David Ogilvy later said it broke his heart when Riney ultimately left to start his own agency, said Steve Hayden, vice chairman at the New York agency.
"Hal Riney went on to prove just what a massive talent he truly was," Hayden said. "Like David before him, Hal trained an entire generation of stars that continue to dominate the industry to this day, and proved irrefutably that his beloved San Francisco could provide all the talent needed by the world's biggest accounts."
Lee Clow, another famed adman, now global director of media art for TBWA Worldwide in Los Angeles, said, "Hal Riney was one of our fiercest competitors and, personally, one of my greatest inspirations. The man was truly a genius. His voice for storytelling and his art changed the way we think about advertising. His work will continue to inspire us."
Writing at the bar
He may have been considered a genius, but for many he was unassuming. Riney told the story - dating to when he was a member of the 1984 Reagan re-election group called the Tuesday Team - of writing three of the Reagan ads, and a few others that the campaign did not use, in about 2 1/2 hours in a San Francisco bar, Reno Barsocchini's. At the time, the bar was just below his office on Battery Street.
"It was lunchtime, and I remember a guy sitting next to me, one of those guys who hangs around the bar, and he says, 'What are you doing, Hal?' I said, 'Well, I'm writing the president's advertising.' And he thought that was bull- and just snickered," Riney told The Chronicle in 2004.
Riney was a demanding manager. "You had to be on your guard because he always had his wheels churning, a project going on in his head," Goodby said. "There was the feeling he was operating on a higher plane than your presentation seemed to be on. I would also say our sense of humor was wetter than his. He would consider the humor we do a little crass," Goodby said of himself and partner Silverstein.
In 1982, on a trip to Honduras, Riney's Sahsa Air Lines flight was hijacked on the tarmac in Tegucigalpa. Honduran rebels with semiautomatic pistols and bombs rigged with dynamite held the plane. He made a daring escape.
"I just opened the goddamn emergency hatch, jumped out and ran like hell," Riney told The Chronicle that year. "I zigzagged while I ran, expecting shots that never came." Coming home, he circulated a memo to his staff that read, "A belated thank you for your concerns while I was on that airplane. Actually, my research shows that there were 37 in favor of rescue, 29 in favor of blowing up (the airplane) and the remainder undecided."
Goodby recalled that in early 1983, Silverstein had been persistently prodding him to quit the Riney agency and start their own. When the two finally went in Riney's office to give him notice, Riney asked, "What brings you fellows in?" Silverstein said, "Tell him, Jeff," leaving to Goodby the unpleasant task of giving him the news.
"He said, 'If you fellas get tired of making your own coffee over there, you should call me up,' " Goodby said. "I thought that was a sweet reaction."
Goodby omitted mention of the video he made that shows Goodby, Silverstein & Partners on a gleeful pleasure cruise, torpedoed by a vengeful Riney.
In 1985, Riney purchased the Ogilvy & Mather office and renamed it Hal Riney & Partners. It later created the Saturn campaign, centered on the pretty-as-a-picture town of Spring Hill, Tenn., where the car was manufactured, free of the auto industry baggage of Detroit. The tagline was "A different kind of company. A different kind of car," and it was the most successful new model introduction in GM history.
In 2003, the agency was sold to the Publicis Group of Paris and renamed Publicis & Hal Riney.
Hall of Famer
Among his awards, Riney was inducted into the American Advertising Federation's Advertising Hall of Fame in 2002, and the American Association of Advertising Agencies presented him with its lifetime achievement award in the same year.
In his private life, Riney was a doting father who wrote and illustrated hundreds of unabashedly sentimental letters to his children. One of these included a poem explaining that the Easter Bunny was actually a lawyer for a special-interest group who, once a year, assuaged his guilt by distributing candy.
Riney died surrounded by his family, and his death was announced by his wife, Elizabeth Sutherland Riney.
He is survived by his widow and his children, Ben, 21, and Samantha, 19, from a previous marriage.
Memorial gifts can be sent to Save the Children at www.savethechildren.org or to Earthjustice, for its work to protect Pacific fisheries, at www.earthjustice.org. A date for a memorial service will be announced by the family.
E-mail George Raine at graine@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Brett Favre calls it a career

As the intonations of another stellar season fade into our memories, we're suddenly aware that they were the ebbing bars of a coda to a symphonic career.

Brett Favre reported on Tuesday that he will retire. He is scheduled to address the media in a press conference (live on Packers.com) at 11 a.m. Thursday at Lambeau Field.

Favre's legacy among Packer fans is dichotomous. He's been both earthy and aloof; the Wrangler-pluggin' plowboy from down home, and a guy who always seemed outside arm's reach of the community that worshiped him. He's concocted plays of the breathtaking variety, for better and for worse. For every last-gasp touchdown to snare a victory from the jaws of defeat, there was an inexplicable interception that left even his most adamant supporters scratching their heads.

Favre walks away from the NFL as its all-time leader in passing yards and touchdowns, passes attempted and completed, interceptions, and in both victories and consecutive starts by a quarterback. (He started 275 consecutive games, including playoffs; next on the list is 31-year-old Peyton Manning at 160.) Popular both among sportswriters and his fellow players, Favre was voted All Pro seven times and to the Pro Bowl nine times, respectively.

For me, Favre represents the last tether to an era when I came of age along with my hometown team, as the 1990s saw the Packers rise from the NFL's septic tank. Favre was the subject of the first significant move by newly hired GM Ron Wolf, who went on to add Reggie White as a free agent a year later, nudging the Packers down the road to immortality. The '90s was a heady era for a young guy such as myself, watching his childhood team rack up not just victories, but winning seasons! This from a team that did better with its three-game strike replacement players in 1987 than with its regulars, and that had gone 9-24 at home from 1986 to the point that Favre took over under center in 1992. All of a sudden people were talking about a Super Bowl? For us?

Aaron Rodgers, who will slide in for Favre, could become a fine quarterback. He will be no Favre, which could be a mixed blessing for the fourth-year Cal product. He insists on wearing Lynn Dickey's No. 12, so he'll have some karmic issues to overcome right off the bat; especially if his early injury bug has been any indication. But finally the Packers, the youngest team in the NFL, have a quarterback who can grow right along with the guys who've been starting for a couple of years now. I think the fans will give Rodgers plenty of slack; it's the players who'll need to be more forgiving. Say what you will about Favre, but he was no first-year starter. And that's what the starters will have to keep in mind when Rodgers inevitably struggles. Obviously, only time will tell.

But in bidding farewell to Favre, I'll feel only the pang of hoping I appreciated what I had as a fan. But I'll shed no tears into my keyboard and will leave the slobbering Maddenesque tributes to others across the Internets. I won't refer to him as a "friend" or deify him like I fear many in Packerland will. I'll simply thank him for his effort, and for a job well done. Somehow, I think that's all he'd want.

Obligatory Favre tribute:

Bob McGinn, Journal-Sentinel: Favre knows it's time for change
Ray Ratto, San Francisco Chronicle: Best ever? Maybe best highlight
Bob DiCesare, The Buffalo News: Still time to unretire
Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel: Rides off into the sunset
Tom Sorensen, Charlotte Observer: Fearless Favre will be missed
Bill Plaschke, LA Times: Everyman's QB
Michael Wilbon, Washington Post: Favre's star power
Kevin Sherrington, Dallas Morning News: Makes the right call
John Romano, St. Petersburg Times: Retirement leaves NFL duller
Judy Battista, New York Times: Goodbye on his own terms
Joe Posnanski, Kansas City Star: Throwback to old-time QBs
Barry Horn, Dallas Morning News: Favre would be a first-string broadcaster
Bob Wolfley, Journal-Sentinel: Stay out of the broadcast booth
Bob Ryan, Boston Globe: Favre barely among top 10
Gene Frenette, Florida Times Union: Please don't audible and return
Randy Galloway, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Retirement hardest transition for QB

Highlight archive:

The Day that Football Died - Annette Summersett
Favre era begins: comeback vs. Cin 9/20/92
On-field interview from Cincy game
Interview with Larry McCarren PRIOR to Cincy game
Favre's first start: Pitt-GB highlights, 9/27/92 (ESPN's Chris Berman "not trying to start any quarterback controversy")
Favre-Freeman beats Vikings in OT 11/6/00
Favre-Jennings beats Broncos in OT, 10/29/07
Favre goes 4-0 vs. Raiders, 12/9/07
Favre's last playoff win, vs. Seahawks, 1/12/08
NFL Network tribute, 3/6/08 (Steve Mariucci)
NFL Network 'Total Access' interview, 2/8/08 (Deion Sanders, Mariucci)
Farewell press conference, 3/6/08 (Yahoo version; Opening remarks, why he retired, on his legacy, on Aaron Rodgers, on what's next)

William F. Buckley, RIP (1925-2008)

One of the founders of the modern conservative movement, William F. Buckley, has died at the age of 82. He had a quixotic sense of humor and possesses the intellectual wit and wisdom I can only hope will spread throughout our current state of political discourse.
He'd filed his final column with National Review on Feb. 2.

Tributes to Buckley:
ABC Evening News - Buckly vs. Gore Vidal ("I'll sock you in the goddam face", Aug. 28, 1968; Commentary on the presidency I: Oct. 28, 1968; Commentary on the presidency II: Nov. 5, 1968)
Alfred Regnery, American Spectator - Conservatism's heart and soul
Ann Coulter - RIP, enfant terrible
Charlie Rose video - An appreciation
Chicago Tribune (w/video) - Often imitated, never duplicated
John Judis, The New Republic - He was a rebel, but not a heretic
L.A. Times - The last true conservative
Michael Barone, U.S. News & World Report: Buckley: a history changer
National Review - A celebration
New York Post - Transcendant
Peggy Noon, Wall Street Journal - May we not lose his kind
Rich Lowry, National Review - Buckley's life: a success
Rush Limbaugh - personal account
Slate - Why did William F. Buckley talk like that?
Toronto Globe & Mail - As long as he was alive, the liberals could never win
Wall Street Journal - Buckley transformed American politics
Washington Post - Conservatism loses its most eloquent voice

Obit (Associated Press)
Conservative author Buckley dies at 82
By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer 59 minutes ago
NEW YORK - William F. Buckley Jr. died at work, in his study. Communism had fallen long before. A Republican was in the White House. The word "liberal" had been shunned like an ill-mannered guest.
At the end of his 82 years, much of it spent stoking and riding a right-wing wave as an erudite commentator and conservative herald, all of Buckley's dreams seemingly had come true.
"He founded a magazine, wrote over 50 books, influenced the course of political history, had a son, had two grandchildren and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean three times," said his son, novelist Christopher Buckley. "He really didn't leave any stone unturned."
Buckley was found dead in his study Wednesday morning in Stamford, Conn. His son noted Buckley had died "with his boots on, after a lifetime of riding pretty tall in the saddle."
His assistant said Buckley was found by his cook. The cause of death was unknown, but he had been ill with emphysema, she said.
As an editor, columnist, novelist, debater and host of the TV talk show "Firing Line," Buckley worked at a daunting pace, taking as little as 20 minutes to write a column for his magazine, National Review.
Yet on the platform, he was all handsome, reptilian languor, flexing his imposing vocabulary ever so slowly, accenting each point with an arched brow or rolling tongue and savoring an opponent's discomfort with wide-eyed glee.
"There's no `weltschmerz,' or any sadness that permeates my vision," he told The Associated Press during a 2004 interview at his Park Avenue duplex. "There isn't anything I reasonably hoped for that wasn't achieved."
President Bush called Buckley a great political thinker, wit, author and leader. "He influenced a lot of people, including me," the president said. "He captured the imagination of a lot of people."
But Buckley was also willing to criticize his own and made no secret of his distaste for at least some of Bush's policies. In a 2006 interview with CBS, he called the Iraq war a failure.
"If you had a European prime minister who experienced what we've experienced, it would be expected that he would retire or resign," Buckley said at the time.
Luck was in the very bones of Buckley, blessed with a leading man's looks, an orator's voice, a satirist's wit and an Ivy League scholar's vocabulary. But before he emerged in the 1950s, few imagined conservatives would rise so high, or so enjoy the heights.
For at least a generation, conservatism had meant the pale austerity of Herbert Hoover, the grim isolationism of Sen. Robert Taft, the snarls and innuendoes of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Democrats were the party of big spenders and "Happy Days Are Here Again." Republicans settled for respectable cloth coats.
Unlike so many of his peers and predecessors on the right, Buckley wasn't a self-made man prescribing thrift, but a multimillionaire's son who enjoyed wine, sailing and banter and assumed his wishes would be granted. Even historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., who labeled Buckley "the scourge of American liberalism," came to appreciate his "wit, his passion for the harpsichord, his human decency, even ... his compulsion to epater the liberals."
Buckley once teased Schlesinger after the historian praised the rise of computers for helping him work more quickly. "Suddenly I was face to face with the flip side of Paradise," Buckley wrote. "That means, doesn't it, that Professor Schlesinger will write more than he would do otherwise?"
Buckley founded the biweekly magazine National Review in 1955, declaring that he proposed to stand "athwart history, yelling `stop' at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who urge it."
Conservatives had been outsiders in both mind and spirit, marginalized by a generation of discredited stands — from opposing Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal to the isolationism that preceded the U.S. entry into World War II. Before Buckley, liberals so dominated intellectual thought that critic Lionel Trilling claimed there were "no conservative or reactionary ideas in general circulation."
"Bill could go to the campus with that arch manner of his. And he was exciting and young and conservative," conservative author and columnist George Will told the AP in 2004. "And all of a sudden, conservatism was sexy."
In the 1950s, "conservatism was barely a presence at all," Will said. "To the extent that it was a political presence, it was a blocking faction in Congress."
The National Review was initially behind history, opposing civil rights legislation and once declaring that "the white community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail."
Buckley also had little use for the music of the counterculture, once calling the Beatles "so unbelievably horrible, so appallingly unmusical, so dogmatically insensitive to the magic of the art, that they qualify as crowned heads of antimusic."
The magazine could do little to prevent Barry Goldwater's landslide defeat in 1964, but as conservatives gained influence, so did Buckley and his magazine. The long rise would peak in 1980, when Buckley's good friend Ronald Reagan was elected president.
"Ronnie valued Bill's counsel throughout his political life, and after Ronnie died, Bill and Pat were there for me in so many ways," Reagan's widow, Nancy Reagan, said Wednesday in a statement.
Buckley's wife, the former Patricia Alden Austin Taylor, died in 2007 at age 80. Christopher is their only child. Buckley is also survived by two brothers and three sisters.
Christopher Buckley remembers his father's one losing adventure, albeit one happily lost. William F. Buckley was the Conservative Party's candidate for mayor of New York in 1965, waging a campaign that was in part a lark — he proposed an elevated bikeway on Second Avenue — but that also reflected a deep distaste for the liberal Republicanism of Mayor John V. Lindsay.
"By this time I realized he wasn't just any other dad," Christopher Buckley told the AP. "I was 13 at the time, and there were mock debates in my fifth grade home room class. And there were people playing him, so that was kind of strange.
"And that's when you get the sense that your dad is not just Ozzie and your parents are not Ozzie and Harriet. But he was a great dad, and he was a great man, and that's not a bad epitaph."

Huckabee, Dems visit Wausau

Former cannon-fodder ... errr, Senate candidate Tim Michels introduces former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Thursday before an audience of about 300 at Stoney Creek Inn just south of Wausau.

Must be an election coming up. All of the "final four" are crawling around Wisconsin these days leading up to our primary on Tuesday (Feb. 19). Three of them will have visited Wausau - Mike Huckabee at a rally at Stoney Creek Inn last Thursday, Barack Hussein Obama at an invite-only meeting with students and some faculty at Northcentral Technical College on Saturday morning (photos), and Hillary Clinton in a public rally either Sunday or Monday.

I attended the Huckabee rally, for which they cleverly closed off most of the banquet hall, to crowd everyone toward one end and make it look more packed than it otherwise would've been. That's politics; I would've done the same thing. I do wish they would've distributed Huckabee signs, though, so folks could wave them in front of the dozen-or-so cameras assembled in the back.


Huckabee was a humorous speaker and came across as a genuinely good guy, even following his obligatory Packer reference with, "See, this is the part of the speech we call 'pandering to the locals.'"


He looked at me! He looked at me! *swoon*


Huckabee signs autographs on his way out the door. (It was about 5:45, and he was due in Green Bay about 8 p.m.)

Huckabee's speech hit all the right notes, of course, and I was impressed with what a smooth speaker he is. Even on debates I've noticed that. His theme Thursday was clever, in that it urged Wisconsin to stand apart from other states as the one that confused the pundits and voted for Huckabee. It was just refreshing to hear someone be candid about their place in the race.

I actually would've liked to hear Obama (I understand he gave a pretty thrilling address at UW-Oshkosh), but I understand why he closed his appearance. If the 17,000 he drew in the People's Republic of Madison was any indication, Wausau, lacking a convention center, never would've had room for those who would've turned out. It would've been a logistical nightmare. When President Bush visited in October 2004, he packed the amphitheater at Marathon Park. Obviously it was too cold for Obama to use that venue, though I bet he could've filled it.

I might attend Hillary's thing, depending on what time it is. (After all, the Daytona 500 is Sunday.) I'll probably end up voting for Hillary; in the primary, anyway.

UPDATE: I'm watching some speeches from candidate visits on Wisconsin Eye right now and thought I'd tack on a link to the channel's campaign videos.

A human without a soul

We can't help how we feel. And sometimes a story will strike us a certain way and we just can't shake it.

I ran across such a story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune the other day that will stay with me for a long time. And it will make me give my 7-month-old son a big bear hug every day.

Demond Reed is dead. Were it by an accident, I would be sad but would move on with my life.

Demond was beaten to death by the woman entrusted to care for him.

Demond was 4.

His father, Tony Reed, a 21-year-old from Chicago, was visiting relatives in Minneapolis. He was pulled over in late January and was arrested on an oustanding felony warrant. So he asked his cousin, Carla Poole, a 37-year-old in Minneapolis who turned out to be a drug addict, to care for Demond for the time being.

He couldn't have imagined that would be the last he would see of his little boy.

Demond's sin? He soiled his pants. Imagine the audacity of a 4-year-old soiling his pants.
A 4-year-old boy. Who was constantly asking questions about the animals in his alphabet book.
Poole's reaction? She ordered her other children, ranging in age from 4 to 11, to hold his arms while she beat him.

Feel free to stop reading anytime. It gets worse.

After Poole saw what she'd done, she laid Demond's body on a bed for two days before calling police, Feb. 6, to tell them he'd gone missing. Then she wrapped his cold body in a black plastic bag and threw him in a cluttered closet. ... Like an old pair of Nikes.

Before doing all of that, she'd ordered her children to make up stories about what had happened to Demond. Eventually, the 11-year-old told police the truth. This truth included her recounting that Demond's face looked like it was "pushed in."

Are you nauseous yet? Wait.

An autopsy revealed multiple bruises over Demond's body, puncture wounds and bite marks on his stomach, broken ribs and an injury associated with an object being forced into his mouth.

Apparently she's undergoing "psychological evaluation," this woman who was of sound enough mind to have four children of her own. The Star Tribune stated there was no evidence she'd ever abused them, though a baby came away burned and with broken bones after being in her care. (Charges were never filed because police couldn't determine which of the adults present committed the act.)

For years, I told everyone who would listen that I was against the death penalty for anything short of DNA proof. That it shifted the nature of our criminal-justice system from "rehabilitation" to "vengeance."

I've changed my mind.

Demond deserves vengeance.

Demond Reed, 4

Mitt steps aside

Maybe I should stop picking a horse in this race; they keep coming up lame.

After rooting for Fred Thompson to give us more than he did in his brief run (more like an amble) toward the White House, I was forced to pick someone else after he dropped out Jan. 22. That someone was Mitt Romney, the only one left in the race still espousing conservative ideals, and a brilliant businessman to boot.

Today, Mitt quit.

He addressed the CPAC conference in Washington, D.C., (might be a better version here) and almost sounded like he was on the brink of tears in telling them how much they meant to him and how he was stepping aside for the good of his party and the country. Technically, he "suspended" his campaign, which allows him to hold onto his delegates until the convention, leaving himself one last possibility to power-broker.

Otherwise, the only thing standing between John McCain and the Republican nomination is Mike Huckabee ... oh, and Ron Paul.

Thank you, Schmuckabee, for refusing to drop out of the race though you never had a prayer outside the Bible Belt. Thank you for splitting the conservative vote in hopes McCain will pick you as his vice president. How do I know you had a deal, despite your denials? Because McCain released his delegates to you in West Virginia to give you your first win since Iowa.

Thank you, ignorant Americans who voted for McCain because ... why, exactly? Because he was a POW and you consider him a war hero? Bob Dole was a war hero too, and look how that turned out.

Even after McCain admitted that the economy wasn't his "strong suit," even in this time when foreclosures are at a record high and economists are warning us about a looming recession, you idiots STILL voted for McCain over Romney, a man who made a quarter-billion dollars as a venture capitalist and has pulled at least one major company from the brink of financial ruin. Why? "He's a war hero and doesn't want us to lose in Iraq." TELL ME that's not the reason you voted for him.

No one ever mentioned the fact that McCain is 72. But they sure as hell will in the general election. Those Democrats, who would rail to high heaven against such an "age-ist" stance if it were someone on THEIR side, will absolutely abuse McCain's age in the general.

Romney may be the genius I imagine him to be. He apparently is already floating the idea of running in 2012. He'd be a leading candidate either way, as he'd either be going against an incumbent Democrat, or a President McCain who will be 76. In that case, bowing out graciously now would save him some money, and save him from suffering an actual defeat down the line.

Stupor Tuesday 2008

I hope Mike Huckabee isn't counting on a Christmas card from Mitt Romney this year. ... Or any year, for that matter.
It's because of Huckabee's insistence on staying in the race that the anti-McCain vote is being split between him and Romney, thus accounting for McCain's big lead right now.
Not bad for a guy who hadn't won since Iowa and was supposedly out of money. But I suppose, if Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani can still get votes despite dropping out of the race ...

McCain is racking up state after state. And I know it doesn't quite work this way, but if you combined Huckabee's votes with Romney's (as they're both anti-McCain votes), Romney would run away with it.

Bubba has some interesting observations on the presentation of it all. He's right. With all the on-screen graphics, I feel like a sugared-up diabetic with ADD. And if that's not enough information to trip your braker, CNN has panelists breaking the votes down so far, Roland Martin was discussing at length how Hillary Clinton did among white women in Tennessee.

Can't wait for November.

Last man in Iwo Jima photo dies

Last man in iconic Iwo Jima flag-raising photo dies

On CNN.com
REDDING, California (AP) -- Raymond Jacobs, believed to be the last surviving member of the group of Marines photographed during the original U.S. flag-raising on Iwo Jima during World War II, has died at age 82.

The iconic image of U.S. Marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi in February 1945.

Jacobs died January 29 of natural causes at a Redding hospital, his daughter, Nancy Jacobs, told The Associated Press.
Jacobs had spent his later years working to prove that he was the radio operator photographed looking up at an American flag as it was being raised by other Marines on Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945.
Newspaper accounts from the time show he was on the mountain during the initial raising of a smaller American flag, though he had returned to his unit by the time the more famous AP photograph was taken of a second flag-raising later the same day.
The radioman's face isn't fully visible in the first photograph taken of the first flag-raising by Lou Lowery, a photographer for Leatherneck magazine, leading some veterans to question Jacobs' claim. However, other negatives from the same roll of film show the radioman is Jacobs, said retired Col. Walt Ford, editor of Leatherneck.
"It's clearly a front-on face shot of Ray Jacobs," Ford said.
Annette Amerman, a historian with the Marine Corps History Division, said in an e-mailed statement "there are many that believe" Jacobs was the radioman. "However, there are no official records produced at the time that can prove or refute Mr. Jacobs' location."
Jacobs was honorably discharged in 1946. He was called up during the Korean conflict in 1951 before retiring as a sergeant, his daughter said.
Jacobs retired in 1992 from KTVU-TV in Oakland, where he worked 34 years as a reporter, anchor and news director. E-mail to a friend

Super Bowl XLII: Giants spoil Pats' perfection party

GLENDALE, Ariz. - It wasn't the "No. 1" that the New England Patriots were expecting.
After a season in which victories became routine for the 18-0 Patriots, a truly outstanding performance by the New York Giants hung a digit in the loss column for the Patriots in the game that mattered the most.

Eli Manning found Plaxico Burress in the corner of the end zone to stake a 17-14 lead with 35 seconds to play, and the Giants' defense harrassed and held Tom Brady on the Patriots' final desperate drive to preserve the win Sunday in Super Bowl XLII.

The Giants' defensive line - LDE Michael Strahan, NT Fred Robbins, DT Justin Tuck, RDE Osi Umenyiora - anchoring a defense that led the league in sacks during the regular season, pressured Brady all evening, sacking him five times.

There were other highlights, of course, but the first one that comes to mind for me is Manning's escape of a sack on their go-ahead scoring drive. Facing a third-and-5 at his own 44 with less than a minute to play, Manning spun out of the grasp of DE Jarvis Green (97) and LB Adalius Thomas (96) before regaining just enough composure to find David Tyree at the Patriots' 23. Tyree went up for it like a jump ball and clinched the ball to his head while fighting off Pats S Rodney Harrison for a clutch grab. Amazing play, reminiscent of Steve McNair's escape during the Tennessee Titans' final near-TD drive against the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXIV.

Safe to say, Big Blue Interactive will be abuzz for sometime about this one. Patriots Planet ... not so much.

Meanwhile, the 2007 Patriots join the ranks of the 1934 and 1942 Chicago Bears, who went unbeaten until losing in the league championship game. So yes, 1972 Miami Dolphins, you can pop your rancid champagne as the only team to seal the deal.

Reflections

It makes me wonder about some games that weren't:
* The Super Bowl that wasn't; how the Packers would've fared against New England if they could've gotten it done in the NFC Championship game two weeks ago. It's a sickening recollection of the 1996 NFC Championship game when the Cowboys trounced the Packers and went on to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XXX.
* And even about the Packers' NFC Wild Card game Jan. 4, 1999, when they got jobbed out of what should've been a Jerry Rice fumble that would've sealed the win and sent them to Atlanta, then possibly Minnesota, then possibly a rematch with Denver in Super Bowl XXXIII.
* And, I suppose, no bitter recollection of missed football opportunities is complete without wondering how the Packers would've fared at Carolina for the 2004 NFC Championship game had the Pack's defense been able to hold Philly on the now-legendary 4th-and-26 ... or if Favre hadn't panicked and thrown up a duck that got picked off in overtime ... or if Ahman Green had scored on 4th-and-goal, or if the Packers had gone for it on 4th-and-1 inside Eagles territory instead of punting ... (hm, guess I'm still not over that one).

Had a good time, though. Bubba and Sara came up from Neenah with Ron and Don, and our friend Joni joined us. Had some Italian beef roasting in the crock pot all day, and washed it down with a big sandwich cookie decorated up as a Super Bowl party favor, which was sugary enough to malnourish an African nation for a month.

No Pro Bowl party next weekend, but hopefully a couple of folks over to watch the Daytona 500 the Sunday after that. Then ... pitchers and catchers report and we embark on baseball season.

Go Pats, I guess

As kickoff for Super Bowl XLII approaches (let's see, it's about 11 p.m. the night before ... pregame should be starting anytime now), I'm having a hard time with this one. Part of me realizes what a great story it'd be for the Giants to knock off the 18-0 Patriots. But a much larger part of me wants to see the Pats seal the deal, if for no other reason than to shut the 1972 Dolphins up once and for all.
But I'm not sure the Dolphins would gracefully bow out of the spotlight. In fact, they might actually get worse.

The '72 Dolphins, the only team in NFL history to finish an entire season undefeated (having gone 17-0), have been anything but gracious victors in the decades since their remarkable achievement. They make a spectacle of themselves everytime a team approaches that hallowed "undefeated" mark, often appearing on the sidelines when a team goes 12-0 or 13-0 and (privately) popping open champagne whenever the last unbeaten team falls. It was cool when they did it on that Monday night in 1985 (Gifford and Namath look so young ... and sober!) when the 12-0 Chicago Bears rolled into Miami to play the Dolphins, but that's because it was in THEIR Orange Bowl.
But lately they've been in the media again, most notably coach Don Shula chirping about how the '07 Pats should have an asterisk because they got caught cheating in the first half of the first game of the season. And Mercury Morris was on Sirius NFL Radio the other day running off at the mouth about how they'll "welcome" the Pats into "the club" if the Pats finish the deal Sunday.

Welcome them into the club? Punk, you'll be lucky if they let you stand in line outside THEIR club! What the Patriots would do by winning the Super Bowl would be SO much more impressive than what the '72 Phish accomplished. In fact, Shula, since you only played a 14-game schedule and were able to keep your team together longer because of the lack of free agency, shouldn't YOUR team be the one with the asterisk?
Besides, the Patriots' only violation was one of semantics. The guy who got caught videotaping the Jets' defensive signals on the sidelines was guilty of just that ... doing it FROM the sideline. Teams are free to do this from the stands or the lux boxes.
And it'd be different if they'd gotten caught in the last game of the season.

Anyway, if the Pats win, the '72 Dolphins would probably just keep cropping up to remind people that they, too, did what the Patriots will have done, even though they would not have. Just go away, Phish, and quit tarnishing your legacy with the rantings of a bitter washed-up jock.

About the game

The Patriots opened as 14-point favorites, but the line has moved to Patriots (-12). If I were going to lay money on this one, it'd be on the Giants to cover because I feel good about their not losing by two touchdowns.
The biggest factor is going to be the matchup between the Giants' secondary and the Patriots' receivers.

When the Pats have the ball
NY can get pressure on QBs, as evidenced by their league-leading 53 sacks this season. And the key is they can do it with their front four, which will not only help them shut down the Patriots' beatable running game (115 ypg/regular season) but also can free up LBs Kawika Mitchell (weakside), Antonio Pierce (middle) and Reggie Torbor (strongside) to drop back into coverage. This will be key if they're to take away Randy Moss (98 rec, 23 TDs) and Wes Welker (112 rec, 8 TDs).
The Giants' DBs were injured late in the season, so depth could be a concern.

When the Giants have the ball
QB Eli Manning has had an oustanding postseason, having thrown 4 TDs and no INTs, with a passer rating of 99.1. He'll be tested against a Pats defense that can shift to accommodate any offensive system.
But the big difference-maker for the Giants could be their running game. Big back Brandon Jacobs (6-4, 256 lbs) and the much quicker Ahmad Bradshaw (200 lbs) would free up a lot of options for Manning if they can get loose on a New England rush defense that was fairly stingy during the regular season (98 ypg).
Plaxico Burress hauled in 11 balls for 154 yards against the Packers in the NFC Championship game, and while I expect Asante Samuel to be stuck to him like a rap sheet to an Eagle fan, we're still talking about a 6-5 wideout vs. a 5-10 corner. Samuel is one of the best in the game, but so is the Packers' Al Harris, whose lunch was summarily eaten - and lunch money subsequently stolen - by Burress two weeks ago.

Prediction (because every jag in the country has to have one)
Giants 21
Patriots 31
* Pats will trail, and won't clinch until late in the game.

Mac comes back with Florida win

While not official as of this moment, CNN and other sources are reporting that Rudy Giuliani is contemplating not only dropping out of the race for the presidency but throwing his support behind John McCain as well.
CNN just projected McCain as the winner of the Florida primary, edging Mitt Romney by about 4-5 percent. As Giuliani finished a weak third after staking his entire campaign on his performance there, he is effectively done and is likely to drop soon. It appears he still will participate in the Republicans' CNN debate Wednesday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. I'd like to see him stick it out for one more week, though, through Super Tuesday (Feb. 5). I think he owes at least that to his supporters and volunteers.

Romney outspent McCain about 10-to-1, so I don't understand why he hasn't gained more traction. Someone with his business credentials should be making more gains among people who are increasingly citing the economy as their primary concern. While National Review endorsed Romney, they also wrote a piece recently drubbing him for his lack of empathy; for being a bit technocratic on the trail.
I think he's going to rue his decision not to buy TV advertising in the Miami market. While it is the most expensive such market in the U.S., the result of Romney's decision may be manifested in a graphic that CNN just flashed; that McCain won 50 percent of the Cuban vote, Giuliani 34 percent and Romney a paltry 10 percent.

Even though national polls show McCain as the only Republican to regularly beat Dem frontrunners Clinton and Obama, Romney has less baggage for the Dems to attack.

Fred steps down

Fred Thompson bowed out of his bid for the presidency today. With that, the former Tennessee Senator ended a sad chapter that began too late, offered too little fire, and has now ended too soon.

An actor with an impressive filmography, folks expected him to tap that ability to "play the role" of the tall, conservative father-figure type we all envisioned. But alas, he lacked the theatrical skills of Ronald Reagan.

He campaigned as though he expected the votes, the money and the media attention to simply roll his way once he finished teasing the public about whether or not he'd run. Confidence? Maybe. Presumptuousness? Perhaps. Laziness? That probably will be the perception. A strong field of Republicans prevented him from hijacking the media attention he probably thought would come so easily. And more ballsiness like his refusal to participate in the grade-school 'show of hands' could've played pretty well nationally.

He should've announced months ahead of time that he'd officially start campaigning after Labor Day, then hit the trail with that same confidence but this time with all the gusto of a man who felt it was not his desire but rather his DUTY to become president.

Coulda, shoulda woulda ...

Packers lose to Giants; this one hurts

Somewhere, there's a box of "Green Bay Packers, NFC Champions" T-shirts headed for India.

The New York Giants rewrote the ending of the Packers' storied season with a 23-20 overtime win in the NFC Championship on Sunday at Lambeau Field.

This one hurts.

The game was minus-1 degree at kickoff and dropped to minus-4 by the end, but it was the hometown Pack who looked most affected; most notably Brett Favre. The man whose legend was predicated largely on his cold-weather prowess has now, in two games, looked less-than-mortal in ill conditions. On Dec. 23, the Packers went into Soldier Field and left a steaming hunk of nothing on the field en route to a 35-7 loss to the Chicago Bears. The temp was 16 degrees with a minus-18 wind chill, and Favre went 17-of-32 for 153 yards and two interceptions.

This Sunday, he went 19-of-35 for 236 and two TDs and two INTs. The last INT was simply a bad throw to CB Corey Webster (who he'd beaten for a 90-yard TD early in the game), which gave Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes a chance to avenge two missed field goals by hitting a 47-yarder that decided the game.

While it was cold for everyone, Favre looked more uncomfortable than most, ducking back under cover after each offensive possession; the camera caught him stuffing handwarmers inside his headscarf like he'd just discovered a new snack. He looked like he'd just gotten off the bus from Mississippi, when in reality his Giants counterpart, Eli Manning, also hails from the Magnolia State and didn't seem nearly as uncomfortable.

During those possessions, Favre's passes were often off target, negating the team's ability to go deep and take advantage of the Giants' starting two backup CBs. (Favre's last pick was on a deep out, which he usually makes.) So for all the Packers' troubles going deep, the Giants' defense did an outstanding job covering the short, high-percentage stuff as well. LB Antonio Pierce single-handedly blew up an otherwise wide-open screen pass; DT Justin Tuck another. The Giants also shut down the Packers' rediscovered running game, holding Ryan Grant to 29 yards on 13 carries a week after he'd gashed Seattle for 201 and three scores.

Manning didn't even wear a headscarf. He finished 21-of-40 for 251 yards. He wasn't outstanding, missing as badly as Favre on many throws, but he didn't look rattled either. The Packers slowed monster RB Brandon Jacobs (21-for-67) but had no answer for Plaxico Burress. The 6-foot-5 WR hauled in 11 balls for 154 yards against one of the best cover-corner duos in the league.

The Giants converted just 6 of their 16 third-downs; the Packers just 1-of-10.

But they had so many other opportunities. ... Tynes missed field goals of 43 and 36 yards, the latter of which would've won the game but for a bad snap and a bad hook left. ... R.W. McQuarters got Favre's first pick, early in the fourth quarter with the Giants leading 20-17, but he fumbled it on the return and the Packers' right tackle (and Auburndale native) Mark Tauscher recovered. The Packers tied it on a Mason Crosby field goal. ... Of the Giants' 6 third-down conversions, two were on huge penalties called on the Packers. One was a questionable (translation: complete bullshit) roughing-the-passer call on FS Nick Collins. Another was a more legitimate call on CB Al Harris for illegal use of hands while intercepting Manning early in the third at midfield. ... After McQuarters fumbled a Packer punt with 2:30 to play in the fourth, CB Jarrett Bush tried to pick it up, bobbled it, and the Giants wound up recovering. Bush, a young player who either was trying to get onto SportsCenter or was simply hoping to provide the spark his team's offense couldn't, could have given the Packers a 1st-and-10 near midfield. ... On the next play, Ahmad Bradshaw broke loose for a TD run that was called back on a holding penalty, and sighs of *whew* went up across Packerland.

But enough X's and O's.

My issue with Favre's duck-and-cover routine is because of the message I would think that sent to the rest of the players. Maybe they didn't care; it just looked bad to me on the other end of a TV feed, on a nice cushy sofa in a warm living room.

But it's easy to look for a scapegoat when you've invested so much emotion into this team. After an overachieving season that had the Packers as 75-to-1 odds to make the Super Bowl in August, we found ourselves wishing for a classic storyline of Old Man Favre spoiling the Patriots' bid for a perfect season in Super Bowl XLII before riding off into the sunset. This after watching the Giants upset the Dallas Cowboys a week ago and thus routing the road to the Super Bowl through Lambeau.

But this was the second time I've felt it was the Packers' last, best chance to win a Super Bowl; the other being the team's 20-17 overtime loss at Philadelphia on Jan. 11, 2004. That one, too, ended largely due to an inexplicably awful INT by Favre.

This one is going to take a few days, as it's difficult to decide right now if I want Favre to come back and put this young-but-burgeoning team over the top and into the Big Game, or walk away and let Aaron Rodgers, who is entering a contract year, take the reins.

Pending anything official from Favre, I guess I've got time to think about it.

Can Fred make it four?

Mitt Romney is breathing a huge sigh of relief after winning the Michigan primary, making it three Republican winners in as many primaries - Huckabee in Iowa, McCain in New Hampshire. (Romney won a virtually uncontested Wyoming caucus between Iowa and NH.)
Next is an elimination round of sorts, as Fred Thompson has all but said he would need to win the Jan. 19 South Carolina primary - or at least finish strong - to continue his campaign.
Current polls don't bode well for Thompson, as he trails Huckabee, McCain and Romney. So, as much as I like Fred, and as much of his water as Fox News has been carrying lately, I think we'll be bidding farewell to him soon.

Dems drinking their own poison

I'm loving this.
As the race for the Democratic nomination as whittled to three, the top two - Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama - are bickering about who injected race into their campaign rhetoric first.
Clinton said in an interview recently that Martin Luther King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. "It took a president to get it done," she said.
Black America took great offense, asserting that Clinton was minimizing MLK's efforts at civil rights reform; that no matter what he did or would've done, it would've gotten nowhere without Whitey.
Thing is, she's right.
No matter how many beautiful speeches MLK gave, and no matter how many non-violent protests and marches he would've organized, nothing would've killed institutional racism without legislative action. And who was in Congress at that time? White men. Why did MLK stage all of those actions? To stir emotions, in Americans both black AND white, and put pressure on the lawmakers.
But the knee-jerk reaction from Black America is simply the harvest of the seeds of what the Democratic Party has been sowing for generations. "Whitey is out to get you" ... "Whitey is keeping you down" ... "You need us to lift you up and out of poverty" ...

This same mind-set is evident in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Even two-plus years later, people still cry out to the government to help them. And now that the Democratic Party has the ideal opportunity to literally lift blacks out of the impoverished 9th Ward and rebuild new homes in another part of the city, on higher ground, with a fresh start. So what do the Dems promise this largely black population? To rebuild the 9th and put them all right back where they were; right back where the Democracts think poor, uneducated blacks belong ... forming a block by which to vote another Dem back into power.