Supposed legal justification for torture, new Hoosier coach

Picture: A little reading time for Leah.

Of Note:

-WaPo lead article reveals legal argument for torture. This guy Yoo was off the deep end from the start as far as I'm concerned. He obviously believes in an imperial presidency and the god like powers of the president in times of crisis. What I don't understand is that the WH believes that a memo from the Justice Department gives them cover and authority. I mean, John Yoo as the final say on what is law? Come on. Of course, maybe he's just a handy fall guy for the press and others to point to and blame. (Lots of blame to go around and it's the guy in the WH that holds the buck - you remember Harry-the-buck-stops-here guy.)

-lots of activity and energy all around me as Diane and Danielle and Naomi and Leah get ready to head north for a couple of days. Might be a tad quiet around here during that time, especially if I'm at the golf course.

-Tom Crean new coach of the Indiana Hoosiers boys basketball team. Looks like a very good choice to my very nonexpert eyes. Kravitz gives his two cents worth here.

Hoops and Havoc, Hope and Harmony

Sampson gone at IU. That was a quick resolution to a nasty situation. Marty forwarded this article from the Chicago Sun-times in which the author concludes his story with:

Imagine, a university president pleading kids to play a basketball game. That's what life has come to at Indiana, once a cradle of hoops, now an epicenter of havoc.

But just before that poses the possibility of history repeating itself. Remember?

In 1989, Michigan coach Bill Frieder announced in mid-March that he was leaving for Arizona State, prompting an incensed Bo Schembechler to replace him with assistant Steve Fisher. You know how that turned out: a national championship.

I hope the young men who have shown their loyalty to their coach can now find it in themselves to do the right thing and get on with their own lives; Kelvin Sampson apparently has. Think it's time to move the hoops from havoc to harmony.

Friday Follies: Obama, Clinton, Woods, Wie, Sampson, LST1166, Halberstam

This and that from around the world of news and sports:

-1st time ever in the US a global primary - voting by mail, fax and the internet. Hey, what a grand idea! Obama won this one, too!

-visited with Jim and Wilma and Erin and Colin yesterday afternoon at Jim's place while Tiger and Michelle were doing their golf thingee in sunnier climes. Hurray for the sterling showing by Mz. Wie! Would love to see her get a win and quiet the critics not to mention boost her own confidence about a gazillion percent.

-Hillary and Barack had a debate in Texas last night. What little I've read indicates that they were very civil to each other. Good for them. Hillary's closing statement - a good one and one in which she refers to her life as a public servant. Bless her.

-Sampson story at IU gets complicated. Players reported to have given ultimatum: Coach goes, we go, too! Oh boy... In the poll at cbssports.com (see linked article), 48% say fire him now.

and other stuff:

-a picture of the USS Washtenaw County (LST1166) off loading troops at Chu Lai in May or June, 1965. I'm probably on that ship somewhere. That landing was the first of many after the folks in Washington decided to go big in Vietnam - turned out to be a very bad decision. Discovered the picture while looking for more information on Di An, Vietnam. Good neighbor Jack Lents was there in 1966 and 1967.

-did finish The Coldest Winter. It's a goodie. Some of the notes I took while reading it:

-MacArthur's G-2's job is to prove his boss is right.
-the decision to go north of the 38th parallel by MacArthur in July of 1950 kind of the opposite of what the elder Bush did in Iraq War I when he chose not to go to Baghdad some 40 years later.
-MacArthur's life up to Inchon: luck on his side; post Inchon: luck ran out.
-the Cold War era closed out the Colonial era.
-General Ridgeway wanted a grinding war, a war of attrition, one in which the Chinese would pay dearly. Sounds like something tried in Vietnam, too.
-Maxwell Taylor, who later played a major role in Vietnam, told his troops to abandon Pork Chop Hill, a little piece of Korea that had seen both sides win and lose and suffer high casualties. The truce was signed a few weeks later. Good neighbor Jack Lents arrived in Korea the day the truce was signed.
-One of the many consequences of the Korean War: NSC-68 came to pass and the United States became a National Security State; when Eisenhower left office several years later, he warned the American people of the dangers of the Military-industrial complex.
-Another consequence: Democrats were labeled as weak on Defense and soft on Communism which led both Kennedy and Johnson to make decisions about Vietnam that had more to do with standing up to that charge than the reality of the situation.

The book is another good one from Halberstam and I highly recommend it.

Time for breakfast and more of Halberstam - The Next Century. Do you remember something called the peace dividend?

Saturday Wrap: White Slavery, Irish Eggheads Prevail, etc

-Netflix movie tonight: Lilya 4-ever. Set in Estonia and Sweden, this one is about a young girl abandoned by her mother who finds life is not very pretty both in her own neighborhood and in the new one she moves to in hopes of a better life. In the middle and in the end, men are pigs (there is one young male, not yet sexually active, who is angelic). Very good.

-Irish prevail over Blue Devils , 28-7. This moves ND to a record of 2 and 9. Could be 3 and 9 after next week's game with Stanford. Of course, could be 2 and 10 as well. The more probable? Of note: First quarter, with both teams demonstrating a balanced ineffectiveness, ended zero to zero with each team missing field goals.

-Hoosiers top Boilermakers, 27-24. Late field goal stops Purdue's comeback efforts. Guess Lewis was hot!

Saturday Wrap: IU starts 3-0, Irish 0-3; Tiger Super

College Football

Up in Ann Arbor this afternoon, something awfully good happened to the Wolverine football team, that squad that had started the year by being blown away at home by Appalachian State and Oregon. That something happened to be the hapless Irish who looked verrry bad in making the Michigan team look verrrry good. Going to be a pretty long year in South Bend if something dramatic doesn't happen. One thing for sure: makes my Saturday afternoons a lot more freer because I won't be sitting on the edge of my seat watching and listening to the Irish. Hey, they finished the last season in an embarrassing way; and they have started out this season in an equally embarrassing way. Terry Brennan, Gary Faust, Tom Davie are names that are associated with not so good Irish football teams. Lets not be adding another to that list.

Meanwhile, in Bloomington, the Hoosiers win big for the third time this year. Me thinks I'm backing the wrong horse.

Golf

Tiger was super today though not as good as Zach Johnson and Mark Calcavecchia. Tomorrow? Probably more of the same for Tiger but not for Zach and Mark.