Tuesday, March 06, 2007
As One Season Winds Down, Two Others Begin
It's March. That means March Madness - an almost endless four weeks of conference championships and NCAA Tournament games and, with apologies to Aerosmith, I don't want to miss a thing.
And be sure to stay tuned to TLBR for all of your first, second, and third-hand accounts from the Road to Atlanta.
---
But And as the hoops season winds down - ostensibly without my present employer taking part - two other very important seasons begin: baseball and blogging.
The two are independent of each other, but not necessarily unrelated.
So that's a good thing.
Celebrating the convergence and subsequent divergence, here are some Tuesday afternoon quick hitters:
*** How popular do you think a guy named "Scooter" is going to be in prison? Dick Cheney's right-hand man is now going to be some Peruvian drug lord's "prag"
From the AP wire (you see, Borges, this is how you avoid losing your job...): Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was convicted Tuesday of lying and obstructing a leak investigation that reached into the highest levels of the Bush administration.
Libby is the highest-ranking White House official to be convicted of a felony since the Iran-Contra scandal of the mid-1980s. The case brought new attention to the Bush administration's much-criticized handling of weapons of mass destruction intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war.
The verdict culminated a nearly four-year investigation into how CIA official Valerie Plame's name was leaked to reporters in 2003. The trial revealed how top members of the administration were eager to discredit Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who accused the administration of doctoring prewar intelligence on Iraq.
Libby, who was once Cheney's most trusted adviser and an assistant to President Bush, was expressionless as the jury verdict was announced on the 10th day of deliberations. His wife, Harriet Grant, choked out a sob and sank her head.
He faces up to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced June 5 but under federal sentencing guidelines is likely to face far less. Defense attorneys immediately promised to ask for a new trial or appeal the conviction.
"We have every confidence Mr. Libby ultimately will be vindicated," defense attorney Theodore Wells told a throng of reporters. "We believe Mr. Libby is totally innocent and that he didn't do anything wrong."
(And here's where the term "closing the barn door once the horses have already left" comes into play)
Libby did not speak to reporters.
Boy, Scooter could've avoided a whole bunch of mess if he'd adhered to that policy earlier.
*** A loyal TLBR reader chimed in with this Scooter gem, regarding Scooter's demise from Chief of Staff to "fresh fish:" "Well, he worked for Dick before. How different will it be now?"
P.S., mean-spirited, cruel wit runs in the family.
*** Gerald Henderson cold-cocked Tyler Hansborough. Plain and simple. If he's on the street, he gets fingerprinted and has a mug shot taken.
But since he's on the floor in the primo ACC matchup, he gets tossed for one game - a seemingly meaningless ACC Tournament opening round game. And a quick check of the Duke stats do not have his numbers flying off the page.
But here's a legit question to ask John Swofford or John Clougherty: if it was a Virginia Tech kid, or someone from Clemson, how many games would they get?
If it was a kid from say, oh I dunno, Temple from two years ago...how quickly would the basketball world come down from its ivory tower to condemn the kid and the coach?
Yeah, that's what I thought. Oh, by the way, remember this quote from a recent American Express ad: "I don't look at myself as a basketball coach. I look at myself as a leader who happens to coach basketball."
Nice leadership there.
*** Speaking of poor ACC leadership, did you see who our big dumb president put on a task force to investigate the atrocious conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center?
So I suppose we'll be reading soon enough that she's moving the hospital's affiliation to the Navy...
*** While I have an idea of what a good A-10 Tournament story might be, it won't come close to topping this one.
*** Anna Nicole Smith died? Man, wish I had heard about that. Did she take drugs?
*** Well, we cross country runner-types have always complained that the sport never gets enough attention.
And this particular XC harrier has long debated that long-distance running is the only true sport (it is sport...all you need is ground and feet...anything else with more equipment and/or rules is a game).
But with the latest news regarding the 2007 World Cross Country Championship, things are getting some pub. And not of the good kind.
World Cross is an amazing event. And no matter where it's held, you always get spectacular, if not, repetitive results (the Four Kenyans battling the four Ethiopians, while one Spanish guy, one Australian guy, and maybe a Kenyan who moved to Denmark).
Well, the prospect of distance runners getting blowed up isn't very appealing. But, the urban legend of getting jumped in the woods if you were in the back of the pack at Van Cortlandt Park in the South Bronx never panned out. It just meant you broke your ass through 1.5 miles.
So USA distance folk, I give you my best coaching advice: when a gun goes off, run...because it's probably the start of the race; when a bomb goes off, run faster.
Ok, that's all. Gotta go put my sweatsuit on and fix my hair real pretty. Because the team bus is leaving in a bit for Atlantic City (apologies Mssr. Tom Waits).
yh&os,
And be sure to stay tuned to TLBR for all of your first, second, and third-hand accounts from the Road to Atlanta.
---
But And as the hoops season winds down - ostensibly without my present employer taking part - two other very important seasons begin: baseball and blogging.
The two are independent of each other, but not necessarily unrelated.
So that's a good thing.
Celebrating the convergence and subsequent divergence, here are some Tuesday afternoon quick hitters:
*** How popular do you think a guy named "Scooter" is going to be in prison? Dick Cheney's right-hand man is now going to be some Peruvian drug lord's "prag"
From the AP wire (you see, Borges, this is how you avoid losing your job...): Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was convicted Tuesday of lying and obstructing a leak investigation that reached into the highest levels of the Bush administration.
Libby is the highest-ranking White House official to be convicted of a felony since the Iran-Contra scandal of the mid-1980s. The case brought new attention to the Bush administration's much-criticized handling of weapons of mass destruction intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war.
The verdict culminated a nearly four-year investigation into how CIA official Valerie Plame's name was leaked to reporters in 2003. The trial revealed how top members of the administration were eager to discredit Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who accused the administration of doctoring prewar intelligence on Iraq.
Libby, who was once Cheney's most trusted adviser and an assistant to President Bush, was expressionless as the jury verdict was announced on the 10th day of deliberations. His wife, Harriet Grant, choked out a sob and sank her head.
He faces up to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced June 5 but under federal sentencing guidelines is likely to face far less. Defense attorneys immediately promised to ask for a new trial or appeal the conviction.
"We have every confidence Mr. Libby ultimately will be vindicated," defense attorney Theodore Wells told a throng of reporters. "We believe Mr. Libby is totally innocent and that he didn't do anything wrong."
(And here's where the term "closing the barn door once the horses have already left" comes into play)
Libby did not speak to reporters.
Boy, Scooter could've avoided a whole bunch of mess if he'd adhered to that policy earlier.
*** A loyal TLBR reader chimed in with this Scooter gem, regarding Scooter's demise from Chief of Staff to "fresh fish:" "Well, he worked for Dick before. How different will it be now?"
P.S., mean-spirited, cruel wit runs in the family.
*** Gerald Henderson cold-cocked Tyler Hansborough. Plain and simple. If he's on the street, he gets fingerprinted and has a mug shot taken.
But since he's on the floor in the primo ACC matchup, he gets tossed for one game - a seemingly meaningless ACC Tournament opening round game. And a quick check of the Duke stats do not have his numbers flying off the page.
But here's a legit question to ask John Swofford or John Clougherty: if it was a Virginia Tech kid, or someone from Clemson, how many games would they get?
If it was a kid from say, oh I dunno, Temple from two years ago...how quickly would the basketball world come down from its ivory tower to condemn the kid and the coach?
Yeah, that's what I thought. Oh, by the way, remember this quote from a recent American Express ad: "I don't look at myself as a basketball coach. I look at myself as a leader who happens to coach basketball."
Nice leadership there.
*** Speaking of poor ACC leadership, did you see who our big dumb president put on a task force to investigate the atrocious conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center?
So I suppose we'll be reading soon enough that she's moving the hospital's affiliation to the Navy...
*** While I have an idea of what a good A-10 Tournament story might be, it won't come close to topping this one.
*** Anna Nicole Smith died? Man, wish I had heard about that. Did she take drugs?
*** Well, we cross country runner-types have always complained that the sport never gets enough attention.
And this particular XC harrier has long debated that long-distance running is the only true sport (it is sport...all you need is ground and feet...anything else with more equipment and/or rules is a game).
But with the latest news regarding the 2007 World Cross Country Championship, things are getting some pub. And not of the good kind.
World Cross is an amazing event. And no matter where it's held, you always get spectacular, if not, repetitive results (the Four Kenyans battling the four Ethiopians, while one Spanish guy, one Australian guy, and maybe a Kenyan who moved to Denmark).
Well, the prospect of distance runners getting blowed up isn't very appealing. But, the urban legend of getting jumped in the woods if you were in the back of the pack at Van Cortlandt Park in the South Bronx never panned out. It just meant you broke your ass through 1.5 miles.
So USA distance folk, I give you my best coaching advice: when a gun goes off, run...because it's probably the start of the race; when a bomb goes off, run faster.
Ok, that's all. Gotta go put my sweatsuit on and fix my hair real pretty. Because the team bus is leaving in a bit for Atlantic City (apologies Mssr. Tom Waits).
yh&os,
