Thursday Wrap: Mukasey, Torre, Manchester

Notes to close another beautiful fall day:

-Mukasey nomination on the ropes? tpmmuckraker has lots more including a lot of discussion that delves into the legalities, illegalities and moralities of it all. One of the commentators writes:

The real travesty here, folks is not that the administration has tortured, not that they have decided to attack a country without cause, not that they have decided to exempt themselves and their hirees from prosecution in Iraq, not that they have decided "We the People" need to be spied upon with or without Constitutional permission.

The actions to fear is more basic and more dangerous is that Congress and the Senate is fully aware of the deeds and transgressions and has decided to allow it to continue. We have about 6 hundred folks up their in Washington voted in by "WE the People" who have decided not to submit or support actions to stop these events from happening now or in the future. Instead, they are condoning it (yes, I know they are speaking out against these clowns... but at the same time they are also voting to continue the actions).

That certainly would be a real travesty and certainly one of those not to be mentioned fears that I harbor. Please do not let it be so.

-Joe Torre to manage Dodgers. That would be the team that came from my birth city. Cool.

-Manchester (Goodbye, Darkness) done with Guadalcanal. Survives. On to Tarawa. Question for those of you who watched Ken Burns' The War: Did he spend any time at all on Guadalcanal? I don't remember it being mentioned. Manchester believes it was a decisive battle, one that showed that the Japanese could be stopped even when the Allies failed to support the Marines at Guadalcanal.

Bird Team Trumps Lents Team in Senior Game

In the Senior Game this morning, the Mike Bird, Leroy Streepy, Dave Strange and Vic Wallace team defeated the Jack Lents, Joe Gray, Ray Shaw and Diane Bird team by a score of two to one in singles match play. The particulars with the Mike Bird team players being listed first:

1. Mike Bird and Jack Lents - all square.
2. Leroy Streepy defeats Joe Gray.
3. Vic Wallace defeats Diane Bird.
4. Dave Strange beaten by Ray Shaw.

Wednesday Wrap: Pacers Win! More Manchester, etc.

Closing notes to a beautiful fall day:

-Holy Cow! Pacers win their opening game over the Wizards. New coach (Jim O'Brien) batting 1.000.

-William Manchester, in Goodbye, Darkness, not so lucky. Batting 0 for 2 in trying to lose his virginity. And now he's on the troop ship heading out of San Diego for the sunny, war torn skies of the Pacific, more particularly, Guadalcanal. A young, skinny Marine who has yet to make love to or kill another human being. Things are bound to change. (That would be some sixty-five years ago for those of you keeping track.)

-Netflix movie time: a honey of a tale: Heavenly Creatures. A couple of teenage girls getting close and having a whale of a hard time making things ok in 1953 and 1954 New Zealand. Great movie. Gets a five from me.

-reminder: Senior Games start at 10 tomorrow morning.

Wednesday: Senior Games, Debt and War, etc.

Thursday Senior Game:

The weather is so lovely, and is expected to remain so, that Thursday should again be devoted to a game or two out at the golf course. Thursday Senior Game: 10 am tomorrow, 9 holes and open. Bring a friend... And for those interested, an additional nine holes of good, clean fun.

Notes to start a Thursday:

-NBA season started last night. Kinda sneaked up on me. Are the Pacers competitive?
-Larry Hembree's article from last week is all about economics and more specifically about our growing debt. He uses the $9 trillion figure - current debt. And that for the most part does not include the expected $2 trillion cost of the Iraq War. Did somebody just say 'that unnecessary war'? Hey, when one of the people that works for you is found to be irresponsible in his or her spending, you take away that person's buying privileges, you cancel the credit card and take away the check book. What's so hard about that? Way past time for us employers to have a talk with our errant employees.

Time to get off online, do a little more reading (the Manchester recollections/memoir), explore some more with the new camera, and then head to the golf course. Sun's rising nicely.

Tuesday Wrap: Mukasey

-from the NYTimes via dKos: an op-ed suggesting we vote no on Mukasey as new AG because he believes the president is above the law. See dKos link to read more commentary and the fact that the leading Democratic presidential contenders are already saying no to Mukasey. Good for them...

-tomorrow looks like another lovely day. Come on over and enjoy part of it at the golf course...

Dave Wininger Loses Bet, Leads Team to Scramble Win

The Tuesday Afternoon Scramble:

Dave Wininger, after watching his four teammates miss a five foot putt on #6, saw his own roll off to the right and announced to anybody who might be listening that you just don't win when you miss your birdie on that hole. Dave was so sure that that would be the case again that he did something he rarely does: he made a bet. I was listening and I took him up on the bet, not that I was sure that we would win but that we still had a good shot at it. Four under at the time, three holes to go; the plan: birdie the last three and come in at seven under. That would win for sure. Darn if we didn't miss seven. But we did get eight and nine when my putter became golden and rolled in a couple of long ones, one from off the green on #9. That turned out to be more than enough as the other two teams came in at -4 and -3. Dave, always gracious, took his betting loss in stride and very quietly pocketed his winning share of the purse. The results:

1. Dave Wininger, Mike Bird, Larry Hembree, Mark Jones, Don Nolan (-6)
2. Mark Jeffers, Doug Denson, Lee Wininger, George Templin (-4)
3. Mike Kidwell, Tyler Kidwell, Curt Johnson, Joe Doyle (-3)

Tuesday: French Revolution, Blackwater

picture: Alleyway colors and stairs in downtown Bloomington.

Notes to get a day started:

-started the day with William Manchester starting his journey of recollection. First stop is Honolulu, then the Philippines.

-from the NYTimes (via Eric), an op-ed that gives an historical parallel to the war on terror of these last several years: the French Revolution, the Jacobins and the Reign of Terror. Not nice.

-from WAPO, a story that suggest the thugs from Blackwater may have been given immunity for their testimony on the most recent Blackwater rampage. What a crock...

Gotta stop. Breakfast and then the golf course... Hoping for a scramble this afternoon - the sun dropped below the tree line about 5:15 pm yesterday. Cool followed.