Blog posts: One Year Ago Today!

March 18, 2009 [LINK / comment]

U.S.A. 9th-inning rally at WBC

Just when things looked the bleakest, the "home team" came through in [the] clutch and put three runs on the board in the bottom of the ninth inning, thereby earning a trip to the final round of the World Baseball Classic. Attendance at Dolphin Stadium was pretty meager, about 13,000, but they were plenty loud when David Wright hit a two-run single, turning a 5-4 deficit into a 6-5 victory over Puerto Rico. In the top of the ninth, Puerto Rico had added a run, taking a 5-3 lead. In the bottom of the inning, Shane Victorino and Brian Roberts led off with singles, and walks by Jimmy Rollins and Kevin Youkilis loaded the bases and then narrowed the gap to one run. It was about as dramatic a finish as you could have asked for, and the former Virginia baseball star made himself a hero at the bat:

Wright on!

I was following the action "live" on MLB GameDay. The pricing options for MLB TV are out of my range, for now at least.

Venezuela and the United States will play Wednesday night to determine seeding positions for the final series at Dodger Stadium later this week. In Pool 1, Mexico has been eliminated, but Japan, Korea, and Cuba are still alive.

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UPDATE: The Washington Post has a complete wrap-up of last night's game. It may seem a little odd for we Americans as "Goliath" to be celebrating a victory over the the small "David" of Puerto Rico. With the large number of injuries suffered by the U.S. team, however, the odds were more even than one might have thought. Dustin Pedroia, Chipper Jones, Ryan Braun, and Matt Lindstrom were all taken out; see MLB.com. When the possibility was raised that the U.S. team would lose both its first-string and second-string catchers, manager Davey Johnson said he would rather forfeit the whole WBC rather than move somebody like Kevin Youkilis to that position. Indeed, putting a star player's health at risk would be dangerous for Johnson.

March 18, 2009 [LINK / comment]

Obama's budgetary tricks

I had previously taken note that President Obama has reformed certain aspects of budgetary accounting (see Feb. 27, next to last paragraph), such as including the full estimated cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In other respects, however, he is taking a big step backward toward greater obfuscation and less transparency. As explained by WaPo columnist Charles Krauthammer (also at Real Clear Politics; hat tip to Stacey Morris), Obama claims as "savings" money that would never have been spent in the first place, such as by making the "baseline" assumption that the "surge" in Iraq would have continued for ten more years. What??? But the worst part is how he uses the crisis to push an agenda that he had already formulated before the crisis erupted, and then goes ahead and pretends that those measures will solve the crisis:

And yet with our financial house on fire, Obama makes clear both in his speech and his budget that the essence of his presidency will be the transformation of health care, education and energy. Four months after winning the election, six weeks after his swearing-in, Obama has yet to unveil a plan to deal with the banking crisis.

...
Clever politics, but intellectually dishonest to the core.

In Obama's defense, most of the 8,570 "pork barrel" earmarks Krauthammer mentions were already in the budgetary "pipeline" before Inauguration Day, and there's only so much he could have done about that. Still, it's sad to see Obama cave in to the Democratic Congressional leadership so early in his term. For someone who is so "audacious" in his agenda, he seems very timid when push comes to shove.

Is Obama thin-skinned?

From whitehouse.gov, Feb. 17:

After meeting with the Chairmen of the House and Senate Budget Committees, the President gave a reminder of the new priorities in his budget, and responded to knee-jerk critics. [Italics added.]

That's not the kind of neutral-toned language I'm used to seeing on the presidential Web site. I hope this doesn't portend a more belligerent attitude in the future.

On the other hand...

I hate to say it, but Tom Tomorrow's comic strip mocking the outrage at Obama's program expressed by certain congressional Republicans has a lot of validity to it. Too bad so few of them stood up against President Bush's fiscal profligacy.

A few good Democrats

It often seems that the Democrats are united behind President Obama's highly dubious agenda of "change," but every once in a while a few of the relative moderates stand up and say "enough's enough!" In this case, eight Democratic senators resisted the attempt to railroad through a bill aimed at "cap and trade" bill to fight greenhouse gas emissions, even though the scientific basis for it is still shaky:

• Robert Byrd, W.Va.
• Blanche Lincoln, Ark.
• Mary Landrieu, La.
• Carl Levin, Mich.
• Evan Bayh, Ind.
• Ben Nelson, Neb.
• Bob Casey Jr., Pa.
• Mark Pryor, Ark.

SOURCE: macon.com; public-spirited hat tip to Megan.

And a good Republican

Waldo takes note (in his typical ironic sense, of course) that a Republican in Northern Virginia has won an election by appealing to sensible moderate voters. Heresy!

March 18, 2009 [LINK / comment]

McCormick's Mill early spring

I stopped at McCormick's Mill on a nice day last week, and saw several Tree swallows for the first time this spring, plus a few other birds of note. At other places that day I also saw some Towhees and a White-breasted nuthatch. Highlights:

• Tree swallows -- 4
• Bluebirds -- 3
• Sharp-shinned hawk
• Yellow-rumped warblers -- 6
• Song sparrows -- 15
• Purple finches -- 8
• Canada geese -- 6
• Ring-necked ducks -- 4
• Phoebe
• Meadowlark
• Red-bellied woodpecker
• Black vultures -- 6
• Grackles -- 20+

Robins are now back in full force, another sign of imminent spring, while Pine siskins are still showing up at our feeder most days. I heard a bump on the window about ten days ago, went outside, and found a dead Pine siskin lying on the ground. What a pity.