Yes...

From Espn.com, courtesy of Scoop Jackson...

KG and Oprah:
How do you make Mother Moses cry? In a year when ball players were getting press for "str8 stupidness" it seemed strange that Kevin Garnett's written appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show went notice-free.
He wrote her a letter. They gave her the letter on-air as a surprise. In the letter, he said he wanted to donate something to her Angel Network, which was building houses for those who lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina. His pledge: To build one house per month for the next two years. That's 24 homes! Two seasons of "Extreme Makeover." Financially funded by one person … with no commercial return on his donation. A gesture that should have landed him on the cover of Time alongside Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono as Persons of The Year. A gesture that made Oprah -- read it again, Oprah -- break down.
But still, no member of the media wrote a story about it. USA Today scripted a blurb; ESPN.com made a mention. But overall -- nada.
Now, let Kevin Garnett or any other athlete run a stop light; let them miss a practice unexcused; let them miss a child support payment -- Bam! Lead story on "SportsCenter," forum discussion on "Rome Is Burning," breaking news on CNN.
In an era when it is too often publicly asked: "Where are our kids' role models?"; in a society that is starved for areas of positiveness to come from our professional athletes; in a world where we have been conditioned to believe that every one of these young superstars is unappreciative, ungrateful, undeserving and a void soul, a situation arose that could have shifted the entire perception of their existence. What Kevin Garnett did was just that big.
But guess who dropped the ball? Us. The media, for not saying anything about it, and the public, for not demanding that we do.
The moral of this story: How do you make the media not pay attention to you when you are a superstar athlete? Do something humane.

In the pursuit of fairness that this blog always strives for (and rarely achieves), here's a good post defending Howard Dean. From The Huffington Post:
12.15.2005

If Any Dems are Upset at Dean, They Should Look in the Mirror
In yesterday’s edition of the Hill is a story detailing apparent tensions between some Members of Congress and Democratic Chair Howard Dean. At issue are recent comments by the Governor on what should be done about Social Security and Iraq. Some Hill staff and Members grouse that by wading into the policy arena, Dean has broken a commitment to avoid talk about issues in favor of focusing on money and party building.

Said one unnamed aide, “There were serious concerns when Gov. Dean took over that he understand what his role was and what it wasn’t. There were meetings with the congressional leadership and Mr. Dean where it was discussed and the governor implied that he understood what his role was and was not, that he was the mechanical part of the party, not the standard bearer or message person. Subsequently, there have been episodes that have been concerning.”

In the spirit of full disclosure, I worked for Governor Dean’s bid for the White House and have a lot of warm memories of that campaign (as well as an ulcer that I take medication for, to be fair). However, I tried to read this story objectively.

The record of the party in the 2006 elections will make or break Dean’s chairmanship. Should the Democrats not make a competitive showing, it will give his opponents in the party establishment the rope they need to hang him. The Governor knows this. He has done an incredible amount of work to get the party infrastructure and grassroots networking close to where it needs to be for the party machine to be fully effective. In less than a year, he’s done what no other chairman thought of doing – placing a handful of staffers in every state in the country. His record of fundraising is better than most party chairmen have done at this point after a presidential election – no small feat considering how tapped-out donors were from the Kerry campaign.

What the party lacks now is a coherent and detailed message on key issues, and the Governor knows this.

His low point as chairman, to me, was his appearance on Meet the Press a few weeks ago, particularly this exchange:


DR. DEAN: We have an alternative agenda. We made it very clear. We want a strong national security based on telling the truth to our people at home, our soldiers and our allies. We want jobs in America that'll stay in America, and we believe that renewable energy is one of the areas where we can do that. We want a health-care system that covers everybody, just like 36 other countries in the world. We want a strong public education system. And most of all, we want honesty back in government. I think that's a pretty good agenda.

MR. RUSSERT: But those are words that will appeal to people. But when you go behind them, for example, what is the Democratic position on Iraq? Should we withdraw troops now? What do the Democrats stand for?

DR. DEAN: Tim, first of all, we don't control the House, the Senate or the White House. We have plenty of time to show Americans what our agenda is and we will long before the '06 elections.

He went on to admit, when pressed, that the party didn’t have specifics yet. Knowing the Governor, my feeling is that his gut was probably churning having to say something like this. During the campaign, and during his tenure as Governor, it was his staple to not bring up a problem and pin it on someone, unless he had a plan on how to do better. It’s the hallmark of any good candidate or party. Howard Dean looks at Ken Mehlman being able to rattle off the Republican position on issues, and knows his party looks weak in comparison in regards to detailed plans and positions it can provide. He knows plans, not platitudes, no matter how right or wrong, are what attract voters.

And so, with a party still fractious and arguing over what positive agenda to adopt as a position on Iraq, Social Security, ethics and a host of other issues, Howard Dean began to lay out some plans. On Social Security, he said he favored raising the cap protecting salaries of over $90,000 from being taxed. On Iraq, he began to support the notion that there should be a phased redeployment, sooner rather than later. Are they perfect plans? Maybe not. But the point was, finally, a lead Democrat was offering a positive agenda.

If Democrats on the Hill are upset, all they need do is look in the mirror. If there wasn’t an enormous and obvious gap in positive and forward-thinking messaging, there would be no void for the Governor to fill. The added benefit would be that voters might actually start to find more appeal in the party. Yes, even as disastrous as the GOP has been, voters still are not preferring Democrats at the level they should be.

In response to the Governor’s statements, Congressman Earl Pomeroy told a reporter that Dean should “shut up.” My advice to Pomeroy and other Democrats who really want to see the Governor walk in lock step is all to themselves shut up and lock themselves in a room for however how long it takes to come up with a positive, detailed, and unified agenda. Until they do so, I expect that the Governor will continue to speak.

Fairweather Fan...

"I wonder how I'd look in Laker yellow..."


Now that they've lost their last three games (all in the closing minutes), it looks like this team is coming back to .500. My original prediction. Last nights loss to San Antonio was a heartbreaker. They had their shot to beat the best and came up short again. I hope Kevin Garnett gets to wear a championship ring someday. I just don't know if he'll ever be standing at center court in Minnesota to receive it. My prediction on Garnett is that he's an obvious hall of famer but he'll struggle for a ring like many before him. Barkley, Malone, etc...

Tony Snow of FOX...

From Tony Snow of FOX "News"...

" In resisting President Bush's infinitely variable approach to the ever-shifting situation in Iraq, Democrats have reverted to form. The cries for benchmarks and deadlines merely embody their weird faith in plans."

I never believed my parents when they told me to have a plan in life. Now I have proof. Hardy har har.

Congrats...

Congratulations to the #21 Maryland Terrapins for their win over #6 Boston College in mens hoops. Great quality win.





Not so much for the #2 Texas Longhorns who were spanked by the #1 Duke Blue Devils by 31 points. Anyone still doubt the talent on this Duke team?

SHUT UP!!!

From San Antonio's WOAI:
Saying the "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong," Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean predicted today that the Democratic Party will come together on a proposal to withdraw National Guard and Reserve troops immediately, and all US forces within two years.

Oh how freakin terrific and wonderful. Howard Dean has opened his big mouth yet again. Instead of concentrating on raising money for the '06 elections, we get yet another stupid quote from the mouth of Dr. Dean. It seems to me that Howard Dean is to the Democratic party what Terrell Owens is (sorry, was) to the Philadelphia Eagles, a bad teammate with potential that constantly sticks his foot in his mouth at the worst possible time just to see his name in the paper. Mr. Dean needs to realize that just because a majority of Americans want to bring the troops home as soon as possible, this doesn't mean that a majority of Americans want us to fail in Iraq. That's just simply put, stupid. Even if it were a true statement (which it is most decidely not), it was a stupid comment that will come back to haunt him and the Democrats in '06. I was very supportive of Howard Dean as DNC Chairman when it was first announced. I was hoping that he would be the kind of figure that could raise a lot of money for Democrats on his name recognition while keeping a low profile in the media. Instead, everytime I turn around it seems Dr. Dean is in the news saying something controversial and giving ammunition to the far right wing to beat us over the head with. These are the comments that make Americans think you are weak on defense. You can be against the war. We all know you were against it from the start. You can be against the way the thing has been handled every step of the way. Please don't say we are going to fail though. That's not the right message to send to our military and the American people, and it's not the sort of rhetoric that's going to help us gain any traction in '06 or '08.