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Day By Day by Chris Muir
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Softball and Baseball Eliminated for 2012 London Olympic Games
Former University of Arizona Star, Jenny FinchThe two sports were kicked out of the Olympics, unwanted by international sports officials who felt they were too American for the world sports stage.
The decision, made during a secret vote in Singapore, is effective for the 2012 London Games, meaning the two sports will have a final fling at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The sports, the first eliminated since polo in 1936, are eligible to reapply for the 2016 Games.
U.S. women won all three gold medals since softball joined the Olympics, at the 1996 Atlanta, 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Games. American pitcher Lisa Fernandez, a three-time gold medalist, blamed the decision on IOC president Jacques Rogge.
“Rogge has basically conspired against the sports to get them removed. We had done our job as a sport world wide to show we belong,” she said. “I feel one person, the president of the IOC, a person from Europe, has taken it upon himself to ruin the lives of millions, actually billions of women.”
Crystl Bustos, who hit a record five homers during the 2004 Olympics, said the one-sidedness of the softball tournament should not have been used as a factor. The Americans outscored opponents 51-1.
Flap is certain that beating up their opponents by such a lopsided margin did not help matters.
Baseball was a demonstration sport at the 1984 Los Angeles Games and 1988 Seoul Games and became a medal sport in 1992 at Barcelona, where Cuba won the gold. The Cubans beat Japan in the 1996 final at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, where the 32 games had an average attendance of 28,749.
While professionals were first allowed to participate in 2000, major league baseball didn’t allow players on 40-man major league rosters to go. The U.S. team won the gold, led by former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda and current Milwaukee pitcher Ben Sheets, but the Americans didn’t even qualify for the Athens Games, eliminated with a 2-1 loss to Mexico in a qualifier.
“I think they’ve made a big, big mistake,” Lasorda said. “Baseball is played by all countries now, and softball, too. I think that’s really going to hurt the Olympics.”
Cuba won in Athens for its third gold medal in four tries.
“That’s like the World Series for people here,” Chicago White Sox pitcher Jose Contreras, who played for Cuba in the 2000 Olympics, said through a translator. “Not having the Olympics will be a big hit in Cuba and for the fans in Cuba.”
But for U.S. baseball players, the Olympics were less important.
“There isn’t any player growing up thinking they want to play in the Olympics,” said Sheets, who won a gold medal in 2000. “That was one of my greatest moments, but it has nothing to do with the big leagues.”
And the lack of American Professional baseball players participating hurt the sport as well.
Each of the 28 existing sports was put to a secret vote by the IOC, and baseball and softball were the only two that failed to receive a majority. The IOC then rejected adding squash and karate, which failed to get the necessary two-thirds approval.
IOC officials were unhappy about the absence of major leaguers. The NBA has sent its best players since 1992 and the NHL stopped its season for 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics.
“The lack of the MLB players — I think people have looked and said, ‘Well, all right, if there’s to be a change, that seems to be the logic of it,”‘ British IOC member Craig Reedie said.
Cuban Baseball Federation president Carlos Rodriguez took a similar view.
“Those who bear most of the blame are the owners of the professional leagues who refuse to free up their ballplayers to compete,” he said.
But, Major League Baseball really does not care and hence no baseball Olympics.
Ventura County reaction to the IOC decision is in this piece, Local Olympians ‘blindsided’ by softball rejection
American softball and baseball will survive without the Olympics.
Rugby and Cricket enjoyed by much of the British Commonwealth are not Olympic sports either but have great World Cup and Regional Nations Cup competitions.
So, could go Softball and Baseball, but, Flap doubts it.
The American amateur/college and professional leagues are too strong and will not fully participate on the international stage.
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Earth to Schwarzenegger: Get a Media Campaign for the Special Election
If California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wishes to win any of his reform initiatives on the November Special Election Ballot, he better get busy.
The California Teacher’s Association has been airing this television ad for at least a month in the Los Angeles market:
There has been no media response by the governor, although he has been shown on the nightly news either combatting protestors or being booed at new Los Angeles Mayor AV’s inauguration.
Then comes this ad beginning a few days ago from the Alliance For a Better California
Click here to view this ad. or here.
And who are these folks?
The Alliance for a Better California represents nearly 2 million teachers, firefighters, nurses, health care workers and average, every day people who are devoting our careers to helping others. For some reason Governor Schwarzenegger has decided that we are the enemy. We are not. We want what’s best for Californians and we don’t understand why the Governor is blaming us for all the problems of our state.
Instead of dealing with the problems Californians care about, the Governor is still pursuing an agenda that will do nothing to fix schools, traffic or the state’s budget — and he’s still threatening to hold a special election costing taxpayers $70 million on ideas that aren’t ready for prime time.
Governor Schwarzenegger is out of touch with the people he claims to represent, and we won’t be fooled by his empty promises. If he insists on holding an unnecessary and expensive special election, we will put our own good ideas directly before the voters of California, and we will win.
The Alliance for a Better California includes:
* American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
* Association of California School Administrators (ACSA)
* California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA)
* California Faculty Association (CFA)
* California Federation of Teachers (CFT)
* California Labor Federation
* California Professional Firefighters (CPF)
* California School Employees Association (CSEA)
* California Teachers Association (CTA)
* Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
* SEIU Local 1000This commercial is not being answered by the Governor either.
Governor, you need to hire a new political director and media advisor unless it was your intent all along to NOT pursue the special election and merely trade its reform measures away?
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LAUSD: Roy Romer’s Secret Slush Fund
Former Colorado Governor, Democrat Party Chief and Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent has been dipping into the special interest money to form a secret non-profit slush fund, praising his and the school district’s accomplishments.
Days after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his support for an effort to break up the LAUSD, Superintendent Roy Romer quietly created a nonprofit organization that has raised nearly $150,000 to tout the school district’s accomplishments, the Daily News has learned.
Despite having the district’s nearly $1 million public-relations operation at his disposal, Romer founded Friends of L.A. Schools — with himself as CEO — to counter criticism by Schwarzenegger and then-mayoral challenger Bob Hertzberg that the Los Angeles Unified School District was too large and inefficient.
“This began in February when there was a lot of criticism of the district, to disband the district, and I felt we needed to communicate positively about what this district was about and what it’s doing,” Romer said Friday in a phone interview. “And when you get into the area of communications, I like not to spend public money if I can avoid it.
“Everybody else in town was talking about LAUSD and we thought we should talk about it too. There’s no secret or mystery about it.”
Disclosure of the fund raised questions among school board members who said they had only a vague knowledge of it and would press Romer for a full explanation next week.
Well, some of that “pay to play” construction money for the LAUSD had to go somewhere and why not to an old Pol like Romer.
The LAUSD is spending tens of millions of dollars on new schools and on a district administration bloated with waste.
Either break-up the district or let Mayor AV have a crack at it under the City of Los Angeles.
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Bear Flag League Summer Conference: Patterico has a DEAL
The Bear Flag League Summer Conference is coming up soon!
Patterico has a DEAL for all of you Hugh Hewitt fans.
Now, get over there and take him up on it!
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Governor: Ready for Politics of Compromise?
Bill Mundell, Chairman, Californians for Fair RedistrictingIs the Governator getting SQUISHY?
But coming to terms with Democratic legislators on several of Schwarzenegger’s proposals will be complicated. And interests on both sides, in the end, might prefer a November war.
“I wouldn’t go to Vegas and bet on (a deal),” noted Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata on Friday.
Flap handicaps it at 50-50 that Arnold goes for the compromise, is picked to death by the public employee unions and then loses in 2006.
How Arnold can even consider compromise is beyond belief.
But, perhaps it is his left-wing family value system?
A group of Democratic staffers and administration officials have been meeting for about five weeks to discuss the Schwarzenegger proposals and areas of compromise.
The relationship between Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, which has been rocky, has warmed up in recent weeks. The governor’s wife, Maria Shriver, took Núñez’s 14-year-old daughter to lunch last Saturday, and Núñez and Schwarzenegger met privately Thursday night to discuss the proposals. Veterans of Sacramento note that personal relationships can play a major role in policy outcomes.
“Right now, we’re all in a good mood,” Núñez said this week after the Legislature overwhelmingly approved the budget. “This is the time to do it.”
“The budget agreement was a big step in the right direction,” said Margita Thompson, the governor’s press secretary.
California conservatives are nervous with the Governor.
Is he a true RINO?
Is he a one half term expedient replacement for the failed Gray Davis?
Flap bets that all of the initiative measure sponsors are equally nervous.
These more conservative Republicans are worried that Schwarzenegger, concerned with his sinking poll numbers, is too willing to make a deal with Democrats.
“There’s no question that concern is out there,” said Joel Fox, a former Schwarzenegger campaign aide who helped run the effort to put the governor’s initiatives on the ballot. “People worry that one day he wants to compromise and one day he wants to fight.”
But, compromise deals are possible.
Lawmakers could agree on some form of redistricting that would allow judges, instead of lawmakers, to create voting districts if Schwarzenegger agreed to loosen the state’s term-limits law, for example.
And with polls showing voter support for the anti-union initiative and disapproval for the governor’s budget reform, a deal is possible in which Democrats agree to some version of budget reform if Schwarzenegger agrees not to campaign for the union initiative.
Perata and Núñez have said in the past few weeks that they would be willing to consider one aspect of the governor’s proposal to curb state spending — a provision to allow for midyear budget adjustments if the economy is hit with a dramatic downturn.
The state’s term-limit law should not be changed under any circumstance.
Are you kidding me? Give those Leftie Democrat legislators more time? No way!
And trading some budget restraint for Paycheck protection?
An equally bad move.
California voters are in the mood for budgetary reform and will support it at the polls. The Governor does not need to trade anything.
Paycheck Protection is about the unions robbing their captive members to support their left wing causes. It is leading in the polls and will pass – thereby preventing millions of dollars in union dues to be used against non-union endorsed candidates (meaning most all Republicans).
Why would a Republican Governor campaign against such a measure?
The trick in reaching compromise will be in persuading all of the interests that a deal is a good thing.
Elements on both sides appear to be intent on fighting. A coalition of labor unions that has been attacking Schwarzenegger released a new television ad Friday featuring a teacher criticizing the governor.
And Bill Mundell, a Southern California millionaire who is helping bankroll the redistricting initiative, sent out an e-mail to 1 million supporters this week urging them to call the governor’s office and demand that he not negotiate on the initiative.
Still, agreement and bipartisanship, political analysts agree, is what voters want. That could be enough to drive a compromise.
“The problem for both sides is this doesn’t work like a seesaw,” said Darry Sragow, a longtime Democratic strategist. “It’s not like if Arnold goes down, Democrats go up. If there’s divisiveness and partisanship, everyone goes down.”
So, Arnold the ball is in your court.
Make the RIGHT choice!
Cross-posted to the Bear Flag League Special Election Page
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Ron Reagan: You are NO Ronald Reagan
Ron Reagan, you are no Ronald Reagan.
Ron when interviewing a guest at least know the facts – how embarassing:
Memo to Ron Reagan: If you are going to debate Christopher Hitchens on terrorism, it is best not to do it on air. Part of Hitchens’ rebuke to Reagan:
CH: Do you know nothing about the subject at all? Do you wonder how Mr. Zarqawi got there under the rule of Saddam Hussein? Have you ever heard of Abu Nidal?
RR: Well, I’m following the lead of the 9/11 Commission, which…
CH: Have you ever heard of Abu Nidal, the most wanted man in the world, who was sheltered in Baghdad? The man who pushed Leon Klinghoffer off the boat, was sheltered by Saddam Hussein. The man who blew up the World Trade Center in 1993 was sheltered by Saddam Hussein, and you have the nerve to say that terrorism is caused by resisting it? And by deposing governments that endorse it? … At this state, after what happened in London yesterday?…
RR: Zarqawi is not an envoy of Saddam Hussein, either.
CH: Excuse me. When I went to interview Abu Nidal, then the most wanted terrorist in the world, in Baghdad, he was operating out of an Iraqi government office. He was an arm of the Iraqi State, while being the most wanted man in the world. The same is true of the shelter and safe house offered by the Iraqi government, to the murderers of Leon Klinghoffer, and to Mr. Yassin, who mixed the chemicals for the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. How can you know so little about this, and be occupying a chair at the time that you do?
Read the whole thing at Radioblogger.
Hugh Hewitt calls you a TWIT, Ron.
Flap agrees.
Stop embarassing yourself and get a REAL job.
The Political Teen:Download and view the video here.
Baldilocks has this piece, Not Just Flesh and Blood (UPDATED)
Poor Ron. Blissfully, he probably doesn’t realize how embarrassing the schooling was that Christopher gave him. It’s a blessing that Ron’s father isn’t here to see it.
But Ron’s problem is emblematic of those who refuse to see the nature of our enemy. He thinks that we can do something other than cease to exist in order to get the terror masters to stop blowing us up. He also thinks that history started on January 20, 2001 (the day George W. Bush was first inaugurated).
Unfortunately, I suspect that a WMD strike by the terrorists will get the attention of the George Galloways and the Ron Reagans of this world, however. Of course, that will be bad for the Western world, but it will be far worse for the Islamic world. We have hundreds (thousands?) of those things and a nuked USA/UK will have nothing to lose.
That fact ought to wake a few people up, but I’m not optimistic about it.
UPDATE: Hitchens and Reagan, the video.
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Daily Kos: Temporary Banning of the Tin Foil Hat Crowd
The conspiracy tin foil hat crowd have reared their ugly heads over at the Daily Kos.
Today I did something I’ve never done before (not even during the Fraudster mess), and wish I’d never had to do.
I made a mass banning of people perpetuating a series of bizarre, off-the-wall, unsupported and frankly embarassing conspiracy theories.
I have a high tolerance level for material I deem appropriate for this site, but one thing I REFUSE to allow is bullshit conspiracy theories. You know the ones — Bush and Blair conspired to bomb London in order to take the heat off their respective political problems. I can’t imagine what fucking world these people live in, but it sure ain’t the Reality Based Community.
So I banned these people, and those that have been recommending diaries like it. And I will continue to do so until the purge is complete, and make no mistake — this is a purge.
This is a reality-based community. Those who wish to live outside it should find a new home. This isn’t it.
Reality based community – UMMMMM HUMMMMMMM NOT.
But, wait Kos has second thoughts because who wants to lose readership.
Update: I’ve been reinstating some of the banned accounts as they email me. Some people wondered why there wasn’t any warning. There have been warnings from others — repeated pleadings for people to ground themselves in reality.
It’s telling that I have NEVER done something like this before. Because this has been an extreme situation. This isn’t about disagreeing with what people are saying. If that was the case, everyone would’ve been banned by now. The myth of the “echo chamber” is just that. A myth.
But as for warnings, well, this has been my warning. I wanted it clear that I was serious, and I think that has come through. I am reinstating those who ask to be reinstated. But the message has been sent.
What message has been sent?
Oh, yes, that you Lefties believe in censorship. Either allow comments or don’t. If they are not personal, trollish or profane what is the harm of discussion?
Michelle Malkin seems to agree with Kos but goes a step further.
We’ll see. But good on Kos for finally drawing a line and publicly castigating the crackpots. For now.
Wouldn’t it be something if the Democrat Party took a hint and tried draining its own fever swamps, too?
Not a chance, Michelle. Conspiracy theories are all these tin foil folks have.
The Jawa Report has an excellent take: Latest from Howie
Outside The Beltway : Daily Kos Purge of the Crazieshas this piece
Kevin Aylward at Wizbang has another take.
