Barry Carcetti For President

So, remind me again why I'm supposed to be so excited about Mr. Obama's presidency?

Just to recap the last couple of months in which Obama:

-tried to court the Evangelicals with a proposed extension/expansion of Bush’s faith-based initiatives program. Oh, but he wants to put in anti-discrimination policies for anybody using federal funds. Yeah, that’s tenable. “Faith-based”-organizations, mainly churches, are already tax-free entities. Let them raise their own funds. Why my tax dollars should go towards organizations whose policies/beliefs I disagree with is beyond me.

-delivered a hawkish speech to AIPAC; back in May he gave a very thoughtful and somewhat nuanced interview with Jeffery Goldberg over at Atlantic Monthly. Sure there was some overt pandering which makes sense given the apparent uncertainty Jewish-American voters have about him, but he came across as fair-minded and willing to engage in actual debate. In contrast, the speech he gave at AIPAC would make you think he had a double-jointed spine.

Alright, he’s a politician and, as Crazy Uncle Wright said, he does what politicians do. I get that. However, if you compare this to how he engages with his black constituency, it makes a fellow feel a bit uneasy. Obama feels comfortable addressing our collective shortcomings (obviously to the chagrin of Jesse "Castrate'em" Jackson") as fathers, brothers and sons, yet he can't do the same when speaking about Israel’s missteps vis-à-vis the Palestinians? He goes so far as to say "Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided." Is he campaigning for president of the United States or membership in Likud?

-voted for the FISA "compromise" - exactly what was the compromise here? I defy anyone to explain it. Anyone who sees this bill as a compromise seems disingenuous or uninformed. If you have the time, I’d highly recommend reading some of Glenn Greenwald’s extensive dissection and analysis of what this new FISA amendment actually entails.

Let's be clear: this “compromise” leaves the 4th amendment riddled with buckshot. It doesn’t curtail the executive branch’s snooping power; to the contrary: it legitimizes it and expands its breadth. As explained in this article, it's not as if the government (read: NSA) has a room full of guys with headphones on monitoring calls. Nah, this is more like something out of The Matrix. They have supercomputers that are able to snag and sift through terabytes of information and flag keywords and phrases in a nanosecond. They take this culled data and archive it indefinitely in a database. The telecoms who provide unfettered access in clear violation of our rights as private citizens then stand up and say: “Hey we were just doing our patriotic duty when called upon by the President.” Bull. Does anyone believe for a second that these companies didn't do what was in the best interest of the shareholders and the bottom line? How much in government contracts does AT&T have? How big is their K Street office? This isn't conspiracy theory, just an acknowledgment of the quid pro quo ethos of our political system.

So our brave Democrat-controlled Congress just voted retroactive immunity for crimes (and make no mistake, these were felony acts) that we will neither know nor ever be allowed to know the full extent of. Not only that but we're saying: hey, you broke the law and you can continue to do so into the indefinite future. We just got sold out. It’s so egregious, yet this seems to be eliciting at most a shoulder shrug from most corners, and anybody who calls attention to it is being branded a left-wing extremist. I don’t think the people of Wisconsin are in the habit of electing extremists though, so maybe you’ll listen to this guy:



Understand the extent of this: the White House-directed NSA has the authority and capability to warehouse all forms of electronic communication between the U.S. and any foreign location; email, text-messages, phone calls, faxes, voicemails--you name it, they can access it. They can do this whether or not it is demonstrably related to terrorism. They can do this whether or not there is a demonstrable threat to national security. Yeah, no room for abuse there.

Seriously, who am I voting for? If he can't stand up for something so obvious, what will he stand up for? This is the type of leadership that will reform our nightmarish market driven healthcare system? Hey, we might not stand up to the telecomm lobby, but we'll stand up to the AMA and Insurance lobby? This is the administration that will rein in Wall Street? Give me a f#$#ing break. To borrow a quote from Bubba: “This whole thing is the biggest fairytale I’ve ever seen.”

But Obama gets us out of Iraq! Right. Just from a logistic point of view, it seems we'd be out of there regardless of who was in charge. The war is too costly and our army is stretched to its limits. We have 160K troops currently deployed in Iraq plus an additional 25K in Afghanistan. Both candidates will withdraw troops and both will leave a sizable U.S. presence. You can bank on that.

I was never an Obama-maniac, but I was enthusiastic about the prospect of his presidency. Right now, I’m finding it more difficult to call up such enthusiasm. All’s I wanted was a guy who was going to adhere to principle and not allow special interest and the Republicans to bully him. This was the big difference between Clinton and Obama. He seemed rooted in something that went beyond calculating how well a decision would poll. His stance against a gas tax holiday seemed to be further proof of this. He's not the other guy, and I’ll still punch his name come November. It’s just sad to realize that right now, that’s all I can look forward to: him not being the other guy (BTW isn't this the same murky platform that lost Kerry the election in '04? Well, that and those lunatic Swift-boat vets and that goofy wind-surfing photo). It falls so short of what seemed possible just a few months ago.

Last seen readying the duct tape and bat.

The Dark Knight Returns

I imagine if I ran into Chris Nolan and asked him about a random Batman comic book storyline from the eighties or nineties, he'd be able to converse about it for hours. This man knows Batman about as well as anybody. He expresses his respect and love for the character in practically every frame of his follow-up to 2005's Batman Begins. What Frank Miller did for Batman and comic books, Chris Nolan has done in his medium. The Dark Knight should satiate even the most demanding fan. More than that, it should satisfy even those unfamiliar with the source material. It's not just a damn fine comic book film; it's a great piece of cinema.

Nolan the Director

Nolan doesn't so much expand his vision of Gotham as much as he fills it in. He populates it with a colorful bunch of characters and he gives them room to breathe. You believe in the world of Batman, because the actors sell it. Everybody in this film turns in top-notch work. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are their usual sublime selves. Gary Oldman continues to contribute some of his best work as the doggedly honest cop, Lt. Gordon. Maggie Gyllenhaal brings the needed emotional heft to the role of Rachel Dawes. Many considered Katie Holmes who played Rachel in the first film to be one of that film's weak spots. I don't disagree, but you realize she was miscast; she was too young to play the role. Gyllenhaal is much more believable as the conflicted love interest in this film; she actually seems tough enough to be a resident of Gotham whereas Holmes seemed woefully out of place.

Then there's Aaron Eckhart, an actor whose work I've enjoyed since In the Company of Men. He brings just the right blend of humanity, idealism and cockiness to the role of District Attorney Harvey Dent. He's the films "white knight", but he doesn't come off as one-dimensional. Instead he's the parallel of Batman, except he crusades in the light of day. The film is explicit about such symbolism, but it's not as overbearing as the first film was about the idea of fear.

Though Bale spends a much greater portion of the film behind the mask than in the last, he still manages to show you how distinct Bruce Wayne is from Batman and not just through the usual aloof playboy routine. To be sure, that's in there (usually providing much needed levity in a few spots), but Bale develops layers to the character as he exposes how dependent Wayne has become on the Batman persona, how much it has enveloped him. But I didn't expect any less. Bale is probably my favorite actor right now. He's as eccentric as Depp when it comes to selecting roles (in the last few years he's played a Vietnam P.O.W., an unemployed veteran with a homicidal streak, and a warped magician; he's John Connor in the upcoming Terminator 4 for godsake!).

Oh yeah, Heath Ledger is in this film, too


Man, I don't even know where to begin with The Joker. The first time you see him, there's this sound that I thought was just background noise, but then after a couple more appearances, I realized it was his "theme music". And after that, my response almost became Pavlovian. When I heard it, my guard went up in an instant. You soon realize, this is a character that will literally do anything at anytime. He seems dangerous even when locked in a cell, denuded of weapons. He'll have you laughing for a moment and in the next breath gasping at his brutality. Even the way he taunts his victims becomes this sort of warped joke.

The obvious question: Is it better than Nicholson's? Yes. Why? Because it scared the crap out of me. And that's what the Joker was always supposed to do. If your only experience with the Joker is Cesar Romero on the affable but hokey 1960s television show or Jack Nicholson's iconic performance in the 1989 Burton film, then you're in for a shock/treat. This is the Joker in his purest form, the way Dennis O'Neil, Alan Moore and Frank Miller envisioned him. This is the Joker who murdered Commissioner Gordon's wife and left his daughter a paraplegic in the comic books. This is the Joker who killed the Jason Todd iteration of Robin. He is psychotic and never for a moment do you think he is anything less than real. He's a nightmare made material. The Joker is chaos in the flesh, a counterpoint to Batman's rigid authoritarianism. Yeah, I read a lot of Batman comics. And either Ledger did too or Nolan really drilled this role into him. It's every bit as iconic as Nicholson's; actually it's more so because you don't really "see" Ledger, only The Joker.

The film clocks in at 152 minutes. It never feels indulgent, but it does leave you worn at the end. Nolan takes his time in telling the story and I applaud him for it. In too many films in the genre, the dramatic scenes feel like placeholders for the action sequences. Don't get me wrong, the action sequences in The Dark Knight are nothing less than spectacular (which is saying something considering how many comic book inspired action films have flooded the market as of late). What makes them work even better though is that they work in service of the story and not vice versa. The most impressive aspect of the movie to me was the tension that Nolan creates in the film. There are scenes that literally had me on the edge of my seat. There is a pervasive sense of dread that permeates the entire movie. The film certainly lives up to its moniker. This is the movie that all subsequent comic book films will be measured against.

I don't know where the franchise goes from here. As long as it remains in Nolan's hands, I'm willing to follow.

Yes, He's the Best Rapper in the Current Hip-Hop Era...

...but it's sort of like being one of the last emperors of ancient Rome. Generational bias to be sure, but I don't think anyone would argue that hip-hop will see a more fertile creative period than the late eighties to mid-nineties in its future.

Over a decade ago, back in my MTV-watching days, I remember seeing videos for a crew calling itself The Hot Boys. The group consisted of members Juvenile, B.G., Young Turk and Lil' Wayne. I laughed at what seemed like a bunch of backwater ostensible rap artists sporting the de rigueur thug aesthetic--wife beaters, shiny watches and baggy jeans. They had supplanted Master P's god-awful No Limit as the new face of the South. I figured they couldn't be much worse than "The Ice Cream Man" and his ilk. So on the strength of Juvenile's quirky hit song "Ha", I purchased his solo LP, "400 Degrees." I gave it a few spins. Then I proceeded to buy every release these guys put out.

Southern rap acts (with the exception of groups like Outkast) are often derided for the simplicity of their lyrics and song composition. I tend to attribute that to the fact that Southern hip-hop is sort of still in its adolescence. For years, the only notable things coming out of the South were the Geto Boys and Too Short (Luke and 2 Live Crew were always more affiliated with the booty bass scene, hip-hop's cheeky cousin). Now the South is coming into its own with the likes of artists like T.I. and Ludacris who can drop one-liners with the best of them. None of the Hot Boys would ever be mistaken for a cajun Rakim, but the group does have a notable musical legacy. This is thanks in large part to one man: Mannie Fresh, producer for the bulk of Cash Money's output in its nascent years. Fresh is one of the most under-appreciated producers in hip-hop history. Largely eschewing easily recognizable samples, Mannie Fresh crafted some of the most kinetic and idiosyncratic beats this side of Timbaland. Fresh gets frenetic with the primordial elements of rap: snares, high-hats and the thump of the 808 percolate at 120 bpm. You can hear his signature sound in the hit songs that defined and established the label: B.G.'s "Cash Money Is A Army", Juvenile's "Ha" and "Back that Azz Up", and Lil Wayne's "The Block is Hot" (BTW, the video for Juvenile's "Ha" is almost like a cultural artifact with its portraits of life in the wards of New Orleans in the late nineties; worth seeking out on YouTube). Granted many of the songs were lyrically execrable (especially those on any Big Tymers--a group comprised of Baby and Mannie Fresh--record), but the beats never disappointed.

So jump ahead ten years and Lil Wayne is the last Hot Boy standing (all the others having left the label, Cash Money Records, due to alleged financial improprieties by the co-founder of Cash Money Records, Bryan "Baby" Williams--infamous for his platinum dental work). I'd been aware of a growing groundswell of support championing 'Weezy Wee' (as he sometimes refers to himself) as the next greatest thing in hip-hop. Apparently he appeared on every third rap and r&b record released over the last few years. Prolific? Undoubtedly. Great? I was skeptical to say the least until I listened to a freestyle he did called "Dough is What I Got" on which he rapped over Jay-Z's first official un-retirement track, the oddly tepid "Show Me What You Got." The old guard (Jay-Z, Nas, Wu-Tang, etc.) had recently been lamenting in the press the perceived slow death of hip-hop in the last few years (ironically, the same death knell sounded in the late nineties during that generation's ascendancy). "Dough is What I Got" served as a rebuttal of sorts with Weezy launching a salvo directly at Jigga himself ("When it comes down to this recording/I must be Lebron James if he's Jordan"). After he threw down the gauntlet, the pressure for Lil Wayne to deliver a record on par with previous crown-claiming albums such as Paid in Full, Illmatic, Life After Death and Vol. 2 Hard Knock Life increased exponentially.

Is the Carter III the greatest thing since yogurt with fruit on the bottom? Well, not exactly. It's still serves as pretty solid testimony to his dominance over the current field of contestants.

What makes Lil Wayne so appealing? He's a singular personality in a genre full of clones, wannabes and interchangeable voices. It comes down to his charisma and inventiveness, his willingness to attempt things that might fail (e.g. his fondness for riff-heavy guitar-backed tracks). You get the sense that when he steps in the studio, he just follows whatever impulse enters his mind. This is simultaneously his greatest strength and weakness. Take a song like "A Milli"--simple driving beat, repetitive sampled hook; he takes it and runs roughshod over the track with an at times haphazard flow, creating something that feels both ephemeral and classic in the same breath. Then he'll follow that up with a fairly derivative track like "Got Money" that wears its pop aspirations on its sleeve (but again, he miraculously saves even that effort with a few playful lines, specifically his riff on Rhianna's ubiquitous "Umbrella" song). He carries the album the way Will Smith is able to carry a movie with a mediocre script (*cough*I Am Legend*cough*).

The Carter III suffers from the same maladies as many contemporary rap albums: too much filler, too many guest stars, inconsistent production. Still it manages to overcome these faults on enough occasions to make it a worthwhile purchase (or if you prefer ala carte, I'd recommend between 8-10 of the albums 18 tracks). I don't know how long the reign of Wayne will be, but I'm not mad about it.

On a side note: I'm not sure what to make of Wayne's Zapp-like obsession with voice modulation. I swear at least a third of the tracks on his new album use Auto Tune.

Tracks worth a listen, or two:

• A Milli


• Dr. Carter - concept song about him literally saving hip-hop


• Phone Home -Wayne expands on his "I'm a Martian" conceit


• Tie My Hands - moving piece about the aftermath of Katrina


• Mrs. Officer - gives a new meaning to a classic NWA song


• Lollipop - infectious melody, showcases Wayne's eccentricity perfectly


• Lollipop Remix - ft. Kanye who's much less annoying on other people's albums

Movie Recommendation of the Year (So Far, Or At Least Until July 18th)

I'm pretty much in awe of Pixar at this point. Forget the commercial success of their films. In the last decade plus, they've turned out a level of quality cinema that rivals the output of any studio you could mention. They're so far beyond their competitors that it's no longer a competition. I'm speaking not only in terms of story quality but somehow technology as well. Wall-E is the best looking computer-animated film I've ever seen.

A lot of critics have talked about the brilliance of the film's opening act, but this makes it seem as if the movie falls off in the latter parts. It doesn't. Not one iota. Andrew Stanton, the film's writer/director, doesn't sacrifice the poignancy of the early scenes with the ending's unbridled optimism. It felt like a natural conclusion to me. Stanton knows how to craft a tale. He showed that with Finding Nemo and cements it with Wall-E.

Everyone at Pixar knows the key to a great story and that's character development. Every film they make is character driven. Compare this to Dreamworks' most successful franchise: Shrek. The initial Shrek was a character driven story and by far the best of the series. After Shrek, the series devolved into a loose collection of pop culture references and sight gags held together by an extremely thin story. There was no growth of the core characters from one movie to the next. The creators way of expanding the story was to literally add more stock characters. And the result has been an unmemorable (and depressingly high-grossing) series of disposable celluloid candy.

Wall-E is equal parts love story and environmental cautionary tale. Stanton never lets either aspect overpower the other and that keeps the film from being too sentimental or pedantic. The social satire is fairly barbed for a kids' movie, but I loved it for being somewhat daring in that respect. It accomplishes what I think Mike Judge was trying to do with his little-seen film, Idiocracy, a film that had similar ideas and roughly the same message, but went about delivering it in a much more blunt (and subsequently less funny) manner.

Wall-E is the best film released theatrically so far this year. It's also one of the best things Pixar has ever done. I still give Ratatouille the slight edge in that respect. I'm admittedly biased towards Brad Bird, but considering the difficulty of turning a movie that deals with the intricacies of running a restaurant's kitchen into something entertaining to an audience, let alone a predominately child audience, I have to give his project a slightly higher props. Still, Andrew Stanton and his team have crafted a work worthy of Disney or Miyazaki. I can't pay a higher compliment.

P.S.: Sure we could argue about the irony of a movie with a strong environmental/anti-consumerism message being distributed by a company that has reaped tens of billions off of Happy Meal tie-ins and will undoubtedly reap more from sundry promotional knickknacks related to this film, but that'd be no fun.

Finals Post-Mortem

• The '07-'08 Lakers are the worst team to make the Finals since, well, the '06-'07 Cavaliers. The only difference is that it took the Finals to expose the Lakers while everybody knew last year that Cleveland was a joke from the outset.



• Pau Gasol makes Dirk Nowitzki look like Charles Oakley.



• Lamar Odom spent four of six games doing a Carmen Sandiego impression. For chrissakes man, you're the third option! You've got no pressure. Take a deep breath and just play next time.



• The Lakers' defining image of this year's Finals should be Sasha Vujacic petulantly swatting away the hand of someone trying to pat him on the back as the Celts were unraveling the Lakers thread by thread in game 4.



• The '07-'08 Celtics are the first (and I don't mean this in a bad way) mercenary team to make the "Big Three" formula work. Remember the '96-'97 Rockets? '03-'04 Lakers?



• Boston's Big Three wouldn't seem to have enough collective ego to fill a Gatorade bottle. How can you hate these guys? How can you even mildly dislike them? And this is coming from a lifelong Pistons fan.



• Rajon Rondo shook off his rep and made himself a legit NBA starting point. Yeah, he still makes indefensible decisions, but once he develops a consistent shot to go along with his speed and harassing defense, he'll be a force. Remember a few years ago, people were talking about trading Tony Parker. Takes a few years for most players to fully develop as NBA PGs.



• In a perfect world, the first two rounds of the playoffs would be best-of-five and there would never be more than a two-day layoff between games (and that would only be to travel between coasts). Since that won't happen, I'll settle for the games starting at 8:00 EST. I guarantee the only people who saw the end of game 6 were Bostonians and sports writers. Stern, you're killing the league chasing a few extra advertising dollars. C'mon, I'll even take 8:30!



• In DC comics, they had this thing called Crisis on Infinite Earths years and years ago. One of the outcomes was a re-written history of Superman. The pre-Crisis Superman could do stuff like balance the Earth on his pinky finger while drinking a fifth of vodka. Post-Crisis Superman, while still the strongest character in the DC universe was considerably less 'super.' (He was able to be killed after all.) In my geek-oriented mind, this is the perfect analogy for Jordan and Kobe. Jordan did things (the flu-game for example) that nobody should be able to do. You never doubted for a second after the '91 Finals that a Jordan-led team would go anything less than the distance. He could have won 10 titles if he so chose. Despite his inexplicable performance in this year's Finals, I still think Kobe is the best player in the NBA. Nonetheless, he'll be spending the next couple of years trying to rehabilitate his on-court image. Who'd have thought that considering the NBA's spin masters' Herculean attempt to transform The Mamba into the NBA's greatest teammate and family man? There is a contemporary athlete who compares favorably to Jordan; he just happens to play golf and not roundball.



• Seriously, I'm expecting Kobe to hold another press conference. Teary-eyed, he'd explain his execrable Finals performance while a stone-faced, steely-eyed Jack Nicholson icily sat next to him.



• Also in my dreamworld, Barkley and Bill Walton would do the color-commentary for the Finals. Throw Magic in there just for extra comedic effect.

You Can't Get There from Here

So, it ends the way I think most Pistons fans expected it would end. Not the series per se, but the "If It Ain't Rough, It Ain't Right"-era. I can't even say I'm all that sad. For the last four years, life as a Pistons fan has been full of nothing but frustration.

The Pistons have the best overall level of talent of any team in the league excepting only the Spurs perhaps. Yet each of the past four seasons, we've watched them fall to teams that quite simply wanted it more. Last year it was the Cavs, the year before that the Spurs and prior to that the Heat. Two of those three lost series are completely inexcusable.

I grew up watching the Pistons in the 'Bad Boys'-era and that kind of set the standard for what I expect from a Pistons team. I expect a team that come playoff time leaves everything out there on the court, every game--every single game. When the Pistons lost to the Celtics in '88, it was heartbreaking not only for the team, but the fans. You saw the pain on those guys faces. You saw how badly they wanted it. And as a fan, it made you want it too. The next year when Isaiah finally led us past the Celtics, we lost another heartbreaker to the 'Showtime' Lakers. These were my formative experiences with not only the Pistons, but pro-basketball itself. I rooted for a team back then that played as if the fate of the free world depended on boxing out properly or getting back on defense. I cheered a group of guys that even if they didn't win, you absolutely knew without a doubt that they'd played as if each game were the last 48 minutes of basketball that would ever matter.

Suffice it to say, today's Pistons haven't lived up to that legacy. I don't blame Joe Dumars who has been an exemplary GM over his eight-year tenure (note: Darko was a respectable gamble and even if we'd gotten Carmelo, I don't think the Pistons would have been appreciably better due to his attitude and off-court issues; Bosh would have been nice though...). I don't blame Flip Saunders either. There's nothing wrong with the Pistons' 'X'-es and 'O'-es. He's just not the type of coach who can impose his will and temperament on a team. I do wonder if Larry Brown would have had more success had he not felt that wanderlust well up in his heart. Maybe he could have stopped the team from believing too much of its own press.

The blame for the latest collapse falls squarely on the players' shoulders. Let's start with 'Sheed. I really felt he should have been traded after his inexcusable meltdown last season in the Cavs series. I don't care what he gives you on the court; he's a liability. He probably should have gotten his seventh technical last night and the mandatory one-game suspension that goes along with it (obviously a moot point now). I can't fathom how the significance of his foul situation doesn't alter how he carries himself on the court. That shows a total disregard for the team, the coach and the fans. And that's been his M.O. for a while now. I don't care if his game is all-world. It does a team no good if you can't rely on him when it really matters. Last night's offensive woes I can forgive, but antagonizing the refs? Inexcusable. The Pistons lost last night and Rasheed was a big part of that. Billups shouldn't be guarding KG, because our most talented big man can't keep his head in the game.



Rip, McDyess, Stuckey and Maxiell all get passes in my book. Rip slumps from time-to-time, but that's the life of a pure shooter. He runs his man ragged with endless screen-and-rolls and curls and loops; I get dizzy just watching the guy. I've never seen any of the other guys dog-it on a nightly basis. I was so impressed with the play of Stuckey and Maxiell. These guys have the composure of 10-year vets. Two solid pieces for the next iteration of the team I think we can safely assume. McDyess is like a figure from Greek-tragedy. Once an all-star forward whose game has changed to accommodate his diminished athleticism, he found the perfect role on a team with enough talent to get him to the promised land. Except nobody around him seems to want it half as much as he does.

That leaves Billups and Prince. Prince's problem isn't attitude so much as consistency and decision-making. He's always tenacious on defense, but he seems to slump too often offensively when he has the option of adjusting his game. I don't need him to be 'Melo, but you should be able to pencil '15' into his box score every night. He's typically a defensive mismatch for whoever the opposing team puts on him-- too quick for most forwards and too long for most guards. He's got time though. Chauncey I reserve my biggest criticism for. Unlike Wallace, Chaunce is mentally stable. He's a top-five point guard not just in the East, but in the league period. If the team seems to take games off, it's because the floor general lets it. You've got one of the best technically proficient SGs in the league, two Fs that can create their own shots against practically anybody and a bench that most of the league envies. How do you let your team come out so flat in game 3 against Boston? Too often these Pistons seem to look at their wins as 'cushions'--or reasons not to worry too much. Too often I've watched the team go on autopilot. 'Zeke never let that happen, especially not in the playoffs. Is it fair to compare Chaunce to arguably the greatest undersized-point in history? Not entirely, but despite what he lacks in the skills department, Chauncey has no excuse for the gulf between the two when it comes to having heart.



It's almost as if the worst thing that ever happened to the Pistons was the '04 championship. It must break the old team's heart to watch. Here these guys are squandering the prime years of their basketball careers for whatever reason. The Bad Boys spent those same years battling the Celtics and Lakers to the bitter and bloody end seemingly every game. Their end came at the hands of His Airness and the ascendancy of the greatest team in the modern era. That Pistons fans could all live with. Watching Rasheed Wallace sulk, curse out the cameraman before throwing a towel over the lens while the Pistons blow a 10-point lead and another prime championship run opportunity, well that's just too rough for me.

Hitting the Links

Overseas on vacation in Dubai, but still can't help sticking a finger in the soup:

Nothing unreasonable or inflammatory here, right? Right?

Obama on Israel

Guess not, but then again these people are professionals:

The Right on Obama on Israel

I can respect that:

McCain Divests

Not so sure I can respect that, Mr. NYT Bigshot (that clip is scary):

Down boy!