Late night?  Who, me?  I got a whole 3 hours of sleep before the banging from the roofers woke me up.  Fresh as a daisy I am.  But we’ll get to Qualifying in India when we get to it, for now let’s contemplate how huge yesterday’s loss was for the Rangers.  In a word, immense.

The only thing missing was Bill Buckner.

ek you say, how can you be so sanguine after a close fought 10 – 9 victory in 11 innings?  Well for one thing the home team has won 7 of the last 7 game 7s and there is that natural Senior League advantage in a Senior League park.  Also Washington wasted Holland who’s been the only starter who looked good the entire Series in relief when he could have started today on full rest.  In fairness my Dad points out that if they’d won Washington would have looked like a genius.

Instead they’ll pitch Matt Harrison, who gave up five runs in 3 2/3 innings in Saturday’s 16 – 7 blowout.  The Cardinals will counter with Chris Carpenter who hasn’t looked all that impressive but better than Harrison.  The Bullpens are a ‘pick ’em’ after all the work they’ve had though Ogando and Feliz appear particularly tired.

Napoli will start which is good for the Rangers because they desperately need his bat, though how long his bad ankle will permit him to squat is a question.  Cruz will also start despite his groin pull.  Holliday will be benched in favor of Craig which is no handicap for the Cardinals given his pathetic .158 average.

And they have the Rally Squirrel-

Unless there is a rain delay this is the last game of the season and as I mentioned last night the Collective Bargaining Agreement expires December 11th, so enjoy your Baseball while you can.

So we might get some Baseball tonight, but everyone except the players seems to be focused on last night’s rainout and the potential for a Carpenter/Harrison matchup tomorrow in Game 7.

And how’s that parity thing working out for you Bud?

Major League Baseball had what might have been considered a stroke of good luck in its matchup against N.F.L. football on Sunday night. NBC had what looked like a dreadful game on paper, with the winless Colts – minus the marquee quarterback Peyton Manning – against the powerful New Orleans Saints.

The game was a blowout from the start, with the final 62-7 score the most lopsided regular-season game since the merger of the N.F.L. with the A.F.L. in 1970. If ever the World Series had a chance to demonstrate its ratings strength, this was it.

Instead, it seems that younger viewers prefer even the least-compelling N.F.L. game to one of baseball’s most compelling.

In the 18-49 rating that determines so much about ratings supremacy in television, Sunday night football beat the World Series game – a close contest with a 1-0 score through seven innings – with a 5.2 rating to a 4.2 for the baseball game.

The downside is that the Cardinals have to get there first.  I’m putting up the Rally Squirrel early not because I believe in magical thinking, but because I really like Phineas and Ferb.

Still, there is no denying a lot rides on the outcome of tonight’s game (not the ratings, that’s cast in stone) if you want the Cardinals to win or the Rangers to lose or just want to see another Baseball game this year.

You may not know this, but the Collective Bargaining Agreement between Major League Baseball and the Player’s Association expires December 11th and there is no guarantee that there will even be a 2012 season, let alone games in March (though informed speculation is that there will be no problems).  This explains the dearth of news on reporting dates and other off season events.

Tonight’s matchup is Jaime Garcia against Colby Lewis.  On paper Garcia is stronger, but if LaRussa has a brain fart like he did in Game 5 and sends in the wrong pitcher from the Bullpen this season could be over sooner than you would hope.

I’m firmly expecting there will be another game and an eventual Cardinal victory.  Regardless there will be another stage of the disappointing end to the Formula One season Saturday (Qualifying) and Sunday at 4:30 and 5:00 am ET respectively.

Banking and Politics: On a Razor’s Edge

By Mike Lux, Crooks and Liars

October 27, 2011 11:00 AM

This is a do-over moment for the President. Ron Suskind’s book, “Confidence Men,” made clear: Obama wanted to do the right thing on the big banks in 2009. He wanted us to choose the path Sweden chose to get back to economic health in the 1990s -rather than the one that led to Japan’s lost decade - a path that involved directly taking on the big banks. He wanted to take over Citibank and send it to resolution authority. But Rahm Emanuel, Larry Summers and Geithner didn’t follow his orders, slow-walked things until they weren’t relevant anymore, and gave us the policies that are potentially sending us to our own lost decade. These missed policy chances gave us a terribly weakened economy, and gave the public the perception the President was soft on Wall Street. Obama now has a chance to get this economy back on the road to a real recovery, and to simultaneously show that he will stand up the Wall Street tycoons.

When Dodd-Frank was passed, we were promised there would be no more bank bailouts, and that our government was once again capable of doing what needs to be done in terms of bringing the Wall Street tycoons who wrecked our economy to heel. Now is the moment to prove that right. Start by putting the zombie bank Bank of America in receivership where they belong – the Dodd-Frank bill gives us the resolution authority to get that done. Next, drop efforts to give bankers immunity for the million-plus counts of perjury and fraud they have likely committed with the robo-signing and other foreclosure-related scandals, and force them to the table so they will finally write down the mortgage debt on all these underwater mortgages. Finally, get DOJ involved in helping to investigate fraudulent banking practices, and get the anti-trust division involved too, because unless these banks start to get broken up, our financial marketplace will continue to be badly warped by their overwhelming market power.

…

These are huge steps, but the Obama administration has the ability to do them. If the 2008 crisis proved nothing else, it is that our government in a financial crisis has the ability to do whatever needs to be done in a crisis. There’s a story that when Bear Stearns was being forced by Hank Paulson to merge with Morgan in 2008, that the Bear Stearns board was balking at the incredibly low price they would be getting on their shares of stock. Paulson calmly informed them he had brought a team of FBI agents with them, that if the merger was not agreed to he would be seizing every computer in the building and the FBI would start combing through the books and emails to see what illegal acts were committed. The Bear Stearns board immediately voted to go forward with the merger. The management of these huge banks on Wall Street know they have been blatantly violating all kinds of laws for a long time, which is why they are so eager to do a quick settlement with the state AGs and the feds for legal immunity. The administration has the tools, both legal and regulatory, to force them to the table and get things done. But they need to step up and make it happen. Given the deep and overwhelming problems in the financial and housing sectors, doing big things is the only way to get the economy back on track.

And they all lived in fairy-tale land happily ever after.

Or…

Not so much.

Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Sometimes (like Krugman) you have to re-arrange the order.

Over before it began

by digby

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

So here’s what’s happened so far. The President put forth a jobs bill, which didn’t make it through the congress, as expected. This jobs bill was highly touted as containing “ideas” that Republicans had proposed in the past and therefore, it should have “something for everyone.” Needless to say, the GOP wasn’t interested in any one from column A and one from column B negotiating. After the defeat of the big jobs package, the Democrats announced they were going to propose popular pieces of the bill and force the Republicans to prove once and for all that they don’t care about the plight of the average American as they join together in Scrooglike conformity.

Unfortunately, the Republicans decided not to play (surprise!) and are instead proposing their own combinations of the most toxic conservative elements of the President’s bill and the President is apparently signing on, thus signing into law a terrible GOP policy while simultaneously giving them a “bipartisan” win.

…

What, at this point, is the rationale of the Democratic Party? We’ll kill terrorists twice as hard and only slash the safety net half as much? We’ll pass the Republican agenda so they don’t have to?

…

I’m not sure what the President hopes to gain by proposing and then signing deeply unpopular GOP legislation, but that appears to be the plan.

Do you get it now digby?

(References supplied)

Haupt v. United States, 330 U.S. 631-

(A)lthough the overt acts relied upon to support the charge of treason-defendant’s harboring and sheltering in his home his son who was an enemy spy and saboteur, assisting him in purchasing an automobile, and in obtaining employment in a defense plant-were all acts which a father would naturally perform for a son, this fact did not necessarily relieve them of the treasonable purpose of giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Speaking for the Court, Justice Jackson said: “No matter whether young Haupt’s mission was benign or traitorous, known or unknown to the defendant, these acts were aid and comfort to him. In the light of this mission and his instructions, they were more than casually useful; they were aids in steps essential to his design for treason. If proof be added that the defendant knew of his son’s instruction, preparation and plans, the purpose to aid and comfort the enemy becomes clear.”

Tar sands pipeline will comfort our enemies

By Steven M. Anderson, The Hill

10/25/11 11:21 AM ET

The Keystone XL pipeline doesn’t help.  This pipeline would move dirty oil from Canada to refineries in Texas and would set back our renewable energy efforts for at least two decades, much to our enemies’ delight.  It would ensure we maintain our oil addiction and delay making the tough decisions regarding energy production, management and conservation that we need to start making today.

Transcanada, the company that would own the pipeline, makes various claims about the pipeline’s supposed security benefits.   It claims the pipeline will reduce dependence on Mideast oil, that tar sands will feed a growing US demand, and that it will provide a supply cushion in times of natural or man-made disasters. None of these claims holds up. Transcanada says the project will supply roughly half of the amount of oil the US imports from the Middle East and Venezuela – but conveniently leaves out a crucial detail:  This tar sands oil will not reduce imports from those nations.

The Keystone XL is an export pipeline. Valero Energy Corporation, the pipeline’s largest customer, has explicitly told investors that it plans to focus its Port Arthur refinery on exports.  Canadian oil won’t replace imports from hostile countries because Texas refiners are serving global demand rather than domestic need.

Steven M. Anderson is a retired Army brigadier general, and senior mentor with the Army’s Battle Command Training Program.

Former Keystone pipeline lobbyist hired by Obama campaign

The L.A. Times

October 24, 2011, 5:13 pm

President Obama’s reelection campaign has hired a former lobbyist for the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline as a top adviser.

The campaign said that Broderick Johnson, founder and former principal of the communications firm the Collins Johnson Group, would serve as a senior adviser for the campaign. Before founding the firm this spring, he worked for the powerhouse lobbying firm, Bryan Cave LLP, where his clients included Microsoft, Comcast and TransCanada, the company planning to build the $7-billion pipeline to carry crude from Alberta’s oil sands to the Texas Gulf Coast.

…

An Obama campaign official said that in his new role Johnson would “serve as a national surrogate for the campaign and our representative in meetings with key leaders, communities and organizations.  Broderick will be an ear to the ground for the campaign’s political and constituency operations, helping to ensure that there is constant, open communication between the campaign and our supporters around the country.”

Given his ties to Keystone XL, Johnson is bound to get an earful when meeting with some in Obama’s constituency.

The pipeline needs a permit from the State Department because it would cross a federal border. For more than a year, Keystone XL has been mired in controversy. TransCanada, the oil industry and several labor unions have said the project would create thousands of jobs in the United States and reduce the country’s dependence on oil from hostile or unstable countries. Environmentalists, including many Obama supporters, have argued that the extraction of the crude in Alberta lays waste to the land and increases greenhouse gas emissions. They caution that the proposed route would take the pipeline over the Ogallala Aquifer in Nebraska, the main source of drinking and irrigation water in the High Plains states, and they argue that the number of jobs created would be far fewer than claimed by the project’s backers.

Moreover, in the last several months, emails and other documents have raised questions about the State Department’s impartiality as it weighs Keystone’s permit application. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said late last year that her agency was “inclined” to grant the permit, although environmental reviews had not yet been completed.

TransCanada has hired a phalanx of former Democratic operatives since 2009 to lobby for Keystone XL, including Paul Elliott, the former deputy chairman for Clinton’s failed presidential campaign. Recently released emails show that the diplomat working on energy issues at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa had an unusually warm and collaborative relationship with Elliott. Another top State Department official worked with the Canadians to hone their message about the environmental impacts of developing oil sands. The outside contractor for the State Department’s environmental impact statement also counted TransCanada among its clients. The document was harshly criticized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Nebraska Legislature plans special session on Keystone XL project

The L.A.Times

October 24, 2011, 6:10 pm

The action throws a potentially significant new stumbling block into a Canadian company’s hope of winning approval before the end of the year for the 1,700-mile pipeline, which would move diluted bitumen — often heavy in sulfur, nickel and lead — from Alberta to the Texas coast.

“The key decision for current pipeline discussions is the permitting decision that will be made by the Obama administration, which is why I have urged President Obama and Secretary of State [Hilary] Clinton to deny the permit,” the governor, a Republican, said in a statement Monday.

“However, I believe Nebraskans are expecting our best efforts to determine if alternatives exist. Therefore, I will be calling a special session of the Nebraska Legislature to have a thoughtful and thorough public discussion about alternative solutions that could impact the route of the pipeline in a legal and constitutional manner.”

First, I want to emphasize that last night’s Cardinals loss wasn’t either unexpected or particularly decisive.  There were only 2 scores, a Solo Shot and a 3 Run HR, otherwise it was a pitchers duel just as I predicted.

It was kind of surprising that Derek Holland was the one to give the Rangers Bullpen a rest, but it was a ‘quality’ start on both sides so all the drek you read about advantage there is just that.

Tonight we have the Junior League version of Game 1 with C.J. Wilson and Chris Carpenter on the mound.  I don’t think having a DH gives the Rangers any benefit though it’s always more comfortable playing at home, especially one with a short porch.

What could be significant is how ineffective Wilson has been in the post season.  Counting Wednesday’s 3 – 2 loss he is 0 – 3 with a 7.17 ERA.

So I cheerfully expect some hitting after last night’s yawn fest.  Win or lose we’re headed back to Busch Stadium where the scalpers will be charging more for nosebleed seats than the Rangers’ measly $100.

As Stephen would say, the market has spoken.

WikiLeaks cables and the Iraq War

By Glenn Greenwald, Salon

Sunday, Oct 23, 2011 7:44 AM

That cable was released by WikiLeaks in May, 2011, and, as McClatchy put it at the time, “provides evidence that U.S. troops executed at least 10 Iraqi civilians, including a woman in her 70s and a 5-month-old infant, then called in an airstrike to destroy the evidence, during a controversial 2006 incident in the central Iraqi town of Ishaqi.” The U.S. then lied and claimed the civilians were killed by the airstrike. Although this incident had been previously documented (.pdf) by the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the high-profile release of the cable by WikiLeaks generated substantial attention (and disgust) in Iraq, which made it politically unpalatable for the Iraqi government to grant the legal immunity the Obama adminstration was seeking. Indeed, it was widely reported at the time the cable was released that it made it much more difficult for Iraq to allow U.S. troops to remain beyond the deadline under any conditions.

In other words, whoever leaked that cable cast light on a heinous American war crime and, by doing so, likely played some significant role in thwarting an agreement between the Obama and Maliki governments to keep U.S. troops in Iraq and thus helped end this stage of the Iraq war (h/t Trevor Timm). Moreover, whoever leaked these cables – as even virulent WikiLeaks critic Bill Keller repeatedly acknowledged – likely played some significant in helping spark the Arab Spring protests by documenting just how deeply corrupt those U.S.-supported kleptocrats were. And in general, whoever leaked those cables has done more to publicize the corrupt, illegal and deceitful acts of the world’s most powerful factions – and to educate the world about how they behave – than all “watchdog” media outlets combined (indeed, the amount of news reports on a wide array of topics featuring WikiLeaks cables as the primary source is staggering). In sum, whoever leaked those cables is responsible for one of the most consequential, beneficial and noble acts of this generation.

WikiLeaks suspends publishing to fight financial blockade

Julian Assange says banking bans have destroyed 95% of whistleblowing site’s revenues

Esther Addley and Jason Deans, The Guardian

Monday 24 October 2011 08.42 EDT

Julian Assange, co-founder of WikiLeaks, has announced that the whistleblowing website is suspending publishing operations in order to focus on fighting a financial blockade and raise new funds.

…

The website, behind the publication of hundreds of thousands of controversial US embassy cables in late 2010 in partnership with newspapers including the Guardian and New York Times, revealed that it was running on cash reserves after “an arbitrary and unlawful financial blockade” by the Bank of America, Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Western Union.

WikiLeaks said in a statement: “The blockade is outside of any accountable, public process. It is without democratic oversight or transparency.

“The US government itself found that there were no lawful grounds to add WikiLeaks to a US financial blockade. But the blockade of WikiLeaks by politicised US finance companies continues regardless.”

Assange said donations to WikiLeaks were running at €100,000 a month in 2010, but had dropped to a monthly figure of €6,000 to €7,000 this year.

Oh I am so totally putting up the Rally Squirrel, not because I’m superstitious mind you, but so you have something to watch instead of W throwing out the first pitch.

I can hardly complain about last night’s results and all of a sudden those sport pundit statistics that were trending against the Cardinals are working in their favor.  The Rangers now look sorry and sad and are playing against zombie Mr. October or as I like to call it- The Pujols Problem.

He’ll never get another pitch to swing at unless it’s a mistake and it’s too bad for the Rangers he also runs and fields and is setting the table for good bats.

Now will the Rangers win another game?  I fully expect it and tonight may be their best opportunity.  Derek Holland is marginally better on paper than Edwin Jackson, but it boggles my mind that they’re not putting up Wilson and Carpenter on 3 days rest so they’re available for a game 6 or 7.  Maybe for the Rangers this makes sense since if they lose tonight they face elimination tomorrow.

Both Bullpens are tired and need what are called ‘quality’ starts where pitchers, if not exactly successful, at least eat up some innings.  The constantly wrong commentariat are looking for a repeat of yesterday’s slug fest, so I confidently predict a pitcher’s duel.

If the Cardinals do not win tonight, or even tomorrow, their fans (and you should certainly be rooting against the Rangers at a minimum) ought not be discouraged.  Last night’s victory ensures a return to Busch Stadium and the Rangers are at a serious disadvantage there.

As it turns out, in a 1 – 1 series Game 3 can be kind of determinative (16 of the last 18) and I’m not at all sure why that is so.

It is the game in which you typically start your 3rd best pitcher for their one and only appearance while your Ace and 2nd best come up in your regular playoff rotation before their emergency, short rest, desperation starts in games 5 and 6 (if necessary).  Certainly the Rangers don’t want to visit Busch Stadium again where their team is at a distinct disadvantage, and any Cardinals victory at Arlington will ensure that.

On the mound will be Matt Harrison and Kyle Lohse.  Harrison has been doing much better in the playoffs with one win and a 4.22 ERA.  Lohse sports 2 losses and a 7.45, so you can expect an early hook if he looks like he’s in trouble.

The Cardinals will be able to play their pinch hitting phenom Allen Craig in Right with Lance Berkman moving to DH.

And in case you need a reminder of why we hate the Rangers, W is throwing out the ceremonial first pitch tomorrow night.

It might be a late game as they are predicting scattered thunderstorms and there could be delays.