Cincinnati subway?

Given my interest in trains/transit, stories such of these interest me. (See link to nycsubway.org in the links at left, one of the most comprehensive transit sites out there) I came across this site today, oddly enough, from a link on politcal blog. (NRO's The Corner).

QUOTE(Introduction from pages devoted to Cincinnati's abandoned subway)

Abandoned tunnels are often the object of urban legend, but Cincinnati is in fact the site of the country's largest abandoned subway tunnel. But "abandoned" is not quite the word, as construction slowed to a stop in 1925 before even half of the 16 mile line was completed. Seven miles between Cincinnati's central business district and the industrial suburb of Norwood were tunneled, bridged, or graded, but no track was laid and no subway cars were ordered. No passengers ever rode between the six stations that were built.

The incomplete Cincinnati line sat fallow through the Great Depression and WWII. Bridges, stations, and retaining walls along the surface stretches deteriorated to such an extent that a few items actually collapsed. Nearly everything above ground was bulldozed to make way for portions of I-75 and the Norwood Lateral in the 1950's and 1970's, respectively. The mute two mile tunnel that remains under Central Parkway is unknown to many Cincinnati natives, and what most who do know of it know consists largely of hearsay and speculation.

This page is the most comprehensive and most accurate source of information regarding the subway either on the web or in print. It is by far the most popular subject on www.cincinnati-transit.net, and tens of thousands have visited it since its appearance in 1999.

http://www.cincinnati-transit.net/subway.html

Battlestar Galactica (new)

If you missed any of the first season, or never saw the original 4-hour mini-series of a pilot (like me), during the Sci-Fi mini-marathon of season one episodes last tueday they announced the release on DVD of season one + the original miniseries as part of the bonus items. Release date was 9-20, advertised as available at Best Buy.

As for season 2, it started turned on its head, had some lulls in the middle, and finished strong, with some more new twists. I had seen some rave reviews for the episode named Pegasus, which aired originally on 9-23.. It took me until 10-22 to finally catch up to that episode, and it did not disappoint.

We've talked on BG in the forums, at this thread.

Best Buy advertises season one at $48.99, seems a little steep. But I guess when put side-by-side with the sole and only season of the 1978 original at $92.99 that's not so bad. If you only have $22.99, you can buy the miniseries pilot to the current BG.

Costco has the Season 1 DVD combined with the Miniseries for 36.99 or 37.99, depending on which Costco. One in Florida (Clearwater) had it for 36.99, while one in Virginia had the 37.99.

Season 3 is due to premiere on SciFi in January 2006. There are lots of other things to watch between now and then, but SciFi has done well to move things along, by airing two seasons in the same calendar year. Sure, they are closer to British-length seasons than American ones, but that does serve to keep things fresh. The hokey-ness of the original 1978 BG has been avoided, and this, amongst the performances of the leads in the new one, will keep it on the air for some time to come, and far surpass the original.

Exasperating to lose in "extra 0:52"

THIS JUST IN: NFL admits 60:52 was played, and instead of scoring with 0:01 left, NE actually scored 0:51 after regulation should have ended. The NFL won't change the outcome, of course, but NE could not (and did not) drive down into field goal range in only the 0:29 they should have had left.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2173143

An NFL press release is admits as such this evening, and cane be viewed at this link: http://www.nfl.com/news/story/8895637


original draft below
Off the heels of Penn State's exasperating win yesterday, New England's place-kicker Adam Vinatieri did it again, kicking a field goal with 0:01 left to go up 23-20 over the host Steelers. While the Patriots' #4 won it, the game was a back and forth defensive battle. Either team had the opportunity to take a 10 or 14 point lead early on, but both defenses arose to the challenge.

The loss snapped the Steelers' 16 game regular season winning streak, and QB Ben Roethlisberger's personal 15-0 start as a starter. Ben threw no picks, and drove down to tie the game with less than 2 minutes remaining, but the Steelers scored too soon, leaving New England with 1;31 to go.

NE got a good kickoff return, to start on their own 37. NE had burned all of their timeouts previously, so they turned to Tom Brady, who completed 3 big passes on the drive, and on two of them, his receivers were able to get open fast (the rush was coming, knocking Brady down on two of the plays), catch the ball, avoid a tackle or two, gain the first down, and get out of bounds. (SEE ABOVE ABOUT THE EXTRA 0:52)

Polls,Bowls stand in way of playoff

Useless early season polls
Preason polls (and even early polls during the season) are more the conjecture of the voters rather than anything based on actual performance. It's a crapshoot at best. Part of the world of College Football has learned this -- the B©S standings did not begin to be released until October, but part of the basis of the BCS were the two major polls, the AP writes and the Coaches, so the BCS inherited the biased heirarchy of the early season polls.

Tendancy for split-titles
The bias inherent in these polls goes back a long way, even as an undefeated team finished worse than #2 last year (Auburn), it has happened to major teams in the past as well. Just year before last, USC was left out of the BCS title game, but the AP went with them. A similar split happened in 1997 between Michigan and Nebraska. In 1994, Penn State won the Big Ten and the Rose Bowl, but lost the Poll titles on sympathy to Tom Osbourne's Nebraska Cornhuskers, who had come back to beat Miami in the Orange Bowl the night before the Rose Bowl. Paterno had been down that road before -- he had 3 unbeaten seasons in six years (1968, 1969, and 1973), including an unbeaten streak of 30 games between 1967 and 1970, but was never voted #1, and one of the years, was voted #5 after President Nixon had declared Texas the champ.

Money
The whole thing in College Football is the money. The Major bowls pay out millions, even to the losing school. NCAAA division I-AA, II and III playoffs don't pay out a pittance compared to that. The Bowls live off the poll system, wanting the best possible matchup to bring the most fans in. Sometimes numbers of fans outweighs a ranking. Penn State has been such a team -- one season they signed a bowl contract with the Blockbuster Bowl before the season began, contingent upon PSU winning 6 games. As it was, they had a 7-4 regular season, and lost the bowl game that year. Why did that bowl sign the advance contract? Simple. Money. PSU's fan draw was a huge factor, greater chance of a sell-out. Count other schools, such as Michigan or Nebraska in the same category. What makes this possible? Huge alumni contingents spread about the county, and more alumni willing to travel to bowl games. This in turn makes those schools a better choice on the bottom line than another school that might be close or slightly better on the field of play.

Solution: Playoff Likelihood: SLIM to NONE
Even an 8 team playoff among the Major conference winners (Big Ten, Big East, ACC, SEC, Big 12, Pac 10) and two wild cards (what the BCS currently consists of) would be a major step in the right direction. This would add three games to the bowl season beyond the current four - Orange, Sugar, Rose, Fiesta - that make up the current BCS. Even a one-game runoff would be an improvement, as it would allow for split years, or years with three or more unbeatens going into bowl season, to come away with one champ. The NCAA is unwilling to even go this far.

Ah, what I wouldn't give to have seen 1994 Nebraska play 1994 Penn State...

Judiciary committee members pontificate...

In one of the longest votes of recent memory, the Senate Judiciary Committee today is allowing its members 10 minutes each to announce their vote and the reasons behind it, before actually voting later this afternoon.

Most of the GOP members have not used the full 10 minutes, with Orrin Hatch coming in at just over 2 minutes used. All of the Dems have used the full time, and have split 3 for, 5 against:

All GOP For (10 members)

Dems For (3 of 8)
Leahy (VT)
Kohl (WI)
Feingold (WI)

Dems Against (5 of 8)
Kennedy (MA)
Biden (DE)
Feinstein (CA)
Schumer (NY)
Durbin (IL)

For a final tally of 13-5, or not that much different than when Roberts was up for the D.C. Circuit two years ago, when he got 3 no votes in committee before being approved unanimously by voice vote on the floor of the Senate. (Feinstein & Biden voted for Roberts in committee in 2003)

The Dems voting For the nomination have left a caveat to allow them to vote against a future nomination solely on the basis of a White House refusing to share privileged documents, as they did in this case with the Solicitor General's office memos.

We know Wisconsin almost went Red last November, and is trending that direction. I think that helped give Kohl and Feingold an excuse to support Roberts. One of the two is up next year for re-election.

12;55pm: the vote is done, 13-5, and the nomination has been forwarded favorably to the Senate Floor.

When both teams deserve to lose...

Monday night's late card on the Monday Night Football lineup was the Washington Redskins at the Dallas Cowboys. Throughout most of the game, the Skins could not get a thing going offensively, while Dallas was stifling on defense. With 56 minutes down of 60, things changed on a dime. Dallas was up 13-0, and had the Skins down to a 4th and 13 do or die situation, with 3:46 to go in the game.

All of a sudden, the Washington Quarterback, Mark Brunell (formerly of the Jacksonville Jaguars) bought enough time to heave a long pass that was caught by Santana Moss. Moss broke a tackle and was quickly in the end-zone, score 13-7. Skins kick off to Dallas, trusting their defense to get it done. All Dallas needed was a first down or two, again, to seal the game. They could not.

The way Washington played for the first 56 minutes, they deserved to have lost. The way Dallas played in the last four minutes, when they could have clinched the game on several occaisions, they also deserved to have lost.

So given that both teams then deserved to have lost, and a tie was not possible due to Dallas's previous scoring combination, the equities then weigh against Dallas in my mind, mostly due to being a Steeler fan (Dallas, Pittsburgh & Washington were in the same division in the 60s prior to the NFL-AFL merger), and that Washington was due. I still think Joe Gibbs should have stayed in NASCAR, but nice to see a nice guy win.

Extended post on Isaac's storm in forums

I've placed an extended post on the hurricane of September 8-9, 1900 that struck Galveston, Texas over in the history channel forum.

As the story goes, even though Isaac Cline was absolved by the US Weather Service, he felt he bore responsibility for not seeing the signs in time to have evacuated Galveston Island. Losing is pregnant wife didn't help him any, and he left Galveston permanently for New Orleans.

Another anecdote from a story I mentioned in the forums is below, indicitive of Cline's resolution to never see Galveston repeated:

QUOTE(Heidi Lutz @ Galveston County Daily News)

Cline told his grandson stories about the Mississippi River floods of 1903 with pride. A flood threatened the Mississippi River valley all the way south to New Orleans. Cline forecast water levels would reach 21 feet at the city.

The U.S. Weather Service office disagreed and urged him to rescind that warning and continue with flood warnings that omitted any forecasts on flood levels. He disobeyed orders and continued to forecast such high water.

The levees at New Orleans were not high enough to keep the Mississippi River in its banks were the river to hit 21 feet. Cline urged the Levee Board to raise the levees, if only temporarily, to avoid the disaster that would follow if the river overflowed into the city.

Though he met resistance in the beginning, he was persistent, and the Levee Board agreed to construct a temporary levee of sandbags and raise the levee from two to four feet - and as high as five feet in some places.

This temporary levee prevented the river from flooding the city for some four weeks, with the river cresting at 20.7 feet.

"He really made his mark with his work on the Mississippi River floods," Vorus Williams said.

http://www.1900storm.com/isaaccline/index.lasso

William Cushing, 3rd CJOTUS?

As I had some excerpts on the forum side, I thought I would make some extended comment over the story today on law.com that argues that John G. Roberts, Jr. will be the 18th Chief Justice of the United States and not the 17th as mentioned in his formal nomination to the Senate.

Briefly, Justice William Cushing was one of the original appointments to the initial 6-man Supreme Court, whose justices also had to ride circuit (forerunner to today's eleven appeals courts), acting as an appeals court composed of two Justices of the Surpreme Court and the district judge where the appeal was heard, with the caveat that the district judge could not rule on appeal on a case he heard originally. There was no such pre-emption on Supreme Court justices.

This "riding circuit" would last well past Cushing's tenure on the court (his death in 1810 ended it), and it was often a reason for short tenures on the court. As it stood, Cushing was the only original Justice to make it into the John Marshall era. (until reading the law review article, I had not realized that Adams had originally appointed the first CJOTUS, John Jay, to the position again upon Ellsworth's resignation. The Senate confirmed Jay, but he declined, resulting in Adams' nomination of John Marshall)


A few excerpts below:

QUOTE

In a 76-page law review article, set to be published next spring, Davies makes a forceful argument that William Cushing, a mostly forgotten associate justice appointed by President George Washington, in fact served as chief justice for two days in February 1796 before resigning and returning to the associate justice seat he had held since 1790.

QUOTE

In any event, Washington next turned to Cushing, sending his nomination to the Senate on Jan. 26, 1796. The Senate confirmed him unanimously the next day without hearings, and Washington signed the commission. It all happened without Cushing's knowledge, apparently, because he only learned of the appointment when Washington introduced him at a diplomatic dinner as chief justice.

QUOTE

What happened next, however, is disputed -- which is why most history books do not list Cushing as a chief justice. The rough minutes of the Supreme Court's Feb. 3-4 sittings list Cushing as chief justice, though those two words were crossed out at a later date, according to Davies. Cushing was having serious cold feet about serving as chief, partly because of the earlier turmoil. "He had cancer and thought he was going to die. He didn't want to be in the middle of a firestorm," Davies says.

Cushing soon sent a letter to Washington, in which he returned the commission, citing his "infirm & declining state of health." By Feb. 5, the minutes of Court proceedings lumped Cushing in with the "associate judges." He continued serving as associate justice until he died in 1810, at age 78.

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1127207113073

If John Rutledge, a recess appointee to CJOTUS that was rejected by the Senate, is among the recognized for a four month period, then any time served in that official capacity ought to be recognized. I have not yet read Ross Davies' 76 page paper, but have found the link on the University of Toledo Law Review Website (thank google for making it easy). In short, the table of contents for the article PDF indicate that Mr. Davies lays out what it takes to be CJOTUS, and what oaths Mr. Cushing took.

He goes on to examine contemporary appointments, and the use of resigned vs. declined in their nomination and confirmations. He presents evidence that both George Washington and the Senate considered Cushing CJOTUS -- as his replacement's, Oliver Ellsworth, nomination mentioned Cushing's resignation.

In short, Davies presents a compelling argument as to why Cushing should be remembered as the nation's 3rd Chief Justice, even if only for two days. A bill to effect such recognition was proposed in 1857, but lacked the documentary record Mr. Davies has amassed.

Back to the future?

Looks amazingly similar to the Apollo technology, right?

Now I heard over the weekend that the goal year was 2018... See this release from NASA.

QUOTE(NASA release)

In just five years, the new ship will begin to ferry crew and supplies to the International Space Station. Plans call for as many as six trips to the outpost a year. In the meantime, robotic missions will lay the groundwork for lunar exploration. In 2018, humans will return to the moon

The image below is their new launch vehicle:


Their main page, nasa.gov, points to a flash presentation on the new vehicle, which purportely combines the best parts of the Apollo & Shuttle programs.

I for one would consider it amazing if NASA got this new launch vehicle going in five years. One has to wonder what type of urgency it has with the recent re-grounding of the remaining active shuttle fleet (Discovery, Atlantis & Endeavor -- Enterprise never had engines and now resides at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport). The shuttle fleet was 60s-70s technology, and was due for a major overhaul. The new system, whether intentional or not, appears heavily based on the old Saturn 5 rocket of the 60s.

At this point, one has to think the shuttle program is all but dead. With the cost, if they want the new platform up and running by 2010, that doesn't leave much for the shuttle program itself. NASA's Return to Flight webpage has Discovery, which just returned from STS-114, flying as STS-121 in the next shuttle flight with a 6-man crew. It does not give a timetable, only tentatively labeled as March 2006, but at least indicates some intent to keep the program, even if only minimally, until the new vehicle is ready. At the rate they are going, we're probably talking 8 or 9 total shuttle launches at this two-a-year pate.

At the end of the Return to Flight article is this snippet, explaining the change in orbiter for STS-121:

QUOTE(NASA Return to Flight)

Discovery will be used for STS-121 instead of Atlantis, putting NASA in a better position for future missions to the Space Station. Atlantis will fly the following mission, STS-115, carrying Space Station truss segments which are too heavy to be carried by Discovery. By changing the lineup, the program won't have to fly back to back missions with Atlantis, as was previously scheduled.

I have to think the grounding of the program allowed this change to be made, as that greatly increased the amount of scheduled time between STS-114 & STS-121.

Another source for information on the new launch vehicle is this exetended article over on space.com

The preseason begins... the shootout sucks

Of all the rules changes the NHL has made this offseason, most pronounced is the elimination of ties by going to a soccer-like shootout after a 5 minute sudden death OT.

This concept is about as ludicrous as the college football overtime rules. At one point in the past, there was no regular season overtime -- a tie was a tie. Then a five-minute sudden death overtime with normal skating rules was added --- winner got two points, tie was one point each, and loser got zero points. This led to an incentive to preserve the tie by teams, forcing the NHL to come up with the OTL category in the win-loss-tie record, with the overtime loss retaining one point instead of zero, allowing both teams to fight it out for the win without threat of losing the point, except if they allowed an empty net goal. The first year they included the OTL category in the total loss category as well. Ever since, it has been a separate stat.

A few years into that system, the NHL felt it necessary to open things up by reducing the number of skaters in regular season overtime to four on four. This stayed pat for five or six seasons before the instant change.

Playoff overtime is still full 20-minute continuous overtime with intermissions until somebody scores.

Why, you ask, am I so against this new method? Simple. It awards an extra point to a team for a "win" that is not earned at full game speed. Just like College football eliminates special teams, punting, and even the clock, by placing the ball already in field goal range, allowing little buffer, and only having a play clock. That "win" of an extra point could add up in the end of the year and potentially get a team in or keep a team out that would have been in under the old system.

Steelers sack Carr 8 times in 27-7 road win

The Steelers left no doubt, scoring on their first drive enroute to a 20-0 halftime lead over the host Houston Texans. Roethlisberger had a week similar to week 1, but passing a little more. 14/21 for 254 yards and 2 TD passes to Hines Ward. Willie Parker had a 10 yard TD run, and Jeff Reed had 2 FGs to break Gary Anderson's team record for consecutive field goals. He entered the game tied with Anderson at 19 straight dating back to last season.


(Clark Haggans (53) sacks David Carr (8) in one of 8 sacks by the Steeler D)

The Steelers did not commit a turnover for the 2nd straight week, and Willie Parker amassed another 100 yard game on the ground. Safety Troy Polamalu was the defensive star among stars, recording 3 sacks amongst 6 tackles

Steelers.com recap
NFL.com recap
ESPN.com recap

The win extended the Steelers' regular season winning streak to 16 games, and Ben Roethlisberger's regular season record to 15-0. The all-time record is 18 games, a streak that the Steelers ended last season when they beat New England on Halloween. (Prior to NE's streak last year, the record was held by the 71-73 and 83-84 Dolphins at 16 games) Roethlisberger had a small letdown from his week 1 perfect rating, as he came in at a 138.0 (** League says it's 139.8 in the offical stats) rating for today, still not too shabby, with an overall season rating of 153.7, or one-tenth below perfect. All in all, a satisfying but frustrating game, at least in the 3rd quarter, when Houston was able to score. But the Steelers answered right back. Hard to believe that the Steelers only allowed 221 total yards from watching the game, and held Houston to 108 net yards passing after the 59 sack yards lost.

Steelers team stats through 2 games

Up next is New England at Heinz Field on 9-25, who lost 27-17 at Carolina.

Tempers flare at New Hampshire

Several drivers blew their cool at Loudon, New Hampshire yesterday, in incidents involving both Busch Brothers (defending champion Kurt and rookie Kyle), Scott Riggs, Kasey Kahne, Micheal Waltrip and Robby Gordon.

The most pronounced of these were an incident between Kahne and Kyle Busch on lap 165. Busch blatantly wrecked Kahne into the wall. After Kahne refired his car, he waited on the apron until Busch was coming up on him, and proceeded to cut him off on the track, damaging his car slightly. Busch would still finish, but Kahne's car was parked by NASCAR and Kahne given the rest of the race off. (Nevermind that his car was in such bad shape his day was over anyway).

Another was between the 15 NAPA Chevy of Michael Waltrip and the #7 Jim Beam Chevy of Robby Gordon. They had been beating and banging for 3rd and 4th on the track when a caution came out behind them on lap 191. Apparently Gordon slowed quicker than Waltrip, and Gordon got spun. Like above, Gordon waited for Waltrip the next lap, but didn't find him, instead causing havoc including forcing Tony Stewart, the points leader, to stop on the track to keep from hitting him. So Gordon got out of his car, waited a lap, and then threw his helmet at Waltrip's car, this time being almost hit by Stewart again as they played dodgeball with Robby Gordon... Gordon later cursed on a TV interview, and will most assuredly get docked money and points for that offense, based on recent and past history over the last 18 months. (Busch series points leader Truex faced a 25 point hit for a similar offense last week, as did then-Cup series leader Dale Earnhardt, Jr., last fall after winning at Talledega, albeit the latter was in jubilation and not anger)

In what might have been the most civil disagreement of the day, was one where defending Cup champion Kurt Busch was wrecked by the #10 of Scott Riggs on lap 3. Busch did have a temper, and proceeded to confront the crew chief of the #10 on top of the #10's pit box. At least from the video, it appeared to be a discussion only, with no fists or anything, but NASCAR is likely not happy with Busch putting himself in a position to get into an altercation. Busch finished 35th, and fell to last of the top 10, 142 points behind leader Tony Stewart.

A story on NASCAR.com forwarns of fines, points hits, probations and even possible suspensions, threatened from as short as 1 race to as many as 9 (rest of 2005 season).

On a side note, both the 24 of Jeff Gordon and the 8 of Dale Earnhardt Jr had competitive weekends after making crew changes, starting 2nd and 3rd, respectively, before finishing 14th and 5th, respectively, with both leading laps. It was Earnhardt's best qualifying effort of the season.

PENALTIES UPDATE (11:00 pm, 9-19):
Brian Vickers (#25 GMAC Chevy), Crew chief fined $10,000 & placed on probation until end of year; team hit 25 driver & 25 owner points
Kasey Kahne (#9 Dodge Dealers Dodge), fined $25,000 & hit 25 driver & 25 owner points & probation through end of year
Michael Waltrip (#15 NAPA Chevy) fined $10,000 & hit 25 driver & 25 owner points for inappropriate gesture on a TV broadcast
Robby Gordon (#7 Jim Beam Chevy) hit twice -- 25 driver and 25 owner for each of the following: inappropriate language on a TV broadcast and attempting to hit another competitors car during a caution period. First was $10,000 fine, 2nd was $25,000 fine.
details on NASCAR.com

Is there ice forming in Hades?

WaPo (gasp) supports Roberts' confirmation (HT: Redstate):

QUOTE(Washington Post @ 9-18-05)

JOHN G. ROBERTS JR. should be confirmed as chief justice of the United States. He is overwhelmingly well-qualified, possesses an unusually keen legal mind and practices a collegiality of the type an effective chief justice must have. He shows every sign of commitment to restraint and impartiality. Nominees of comparable quality have, after rigorous hearings, been confirmed nearly unanimously. We hope Judge Roberts will similarly be approved by a large bipartisan vote.

QUOTE(Washington Post @ 9-18-05)

For this reason, broad opposition by Democrats to Judge Roberts would send the message that there is no conservative capable of winning their support. While every senator must vote his or her conscience on the nomination, the danger of such a message is considerable. In the short term, Mr. Bush could conclude there is nothing to be gained from considering the concerns of the opposition party in choosing his next nominee. In the longer term, Republicans might feel scant cause to back the next high-quality Democratic nominee, as they largely did with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5091701133.html

My take is that the Post realizes the fight is lost on Roberts, and that they need to save their capital for the fight on the O'Connor replacement. This brings me to some speculation from Erick at Redstate:

QUOTE(Erick@Redstate)

As Robert Novak is reporting this morning, many in the Senate think that whoever Bush nominates to the Supreme Court to fill O'Connor's spot will be filibustered by the Democrats, if they can hold it together. The President would like to avoid that if possible -- hence Larry Thompson's name has been floated. The thinking is that Thompson could pass through the Senate without a filibuster and that he would be to the right of Alberto Gonzales. The President is still not considering Gonzales.

QUOTE(Erick@Redstate)

The President is going to have to find someone who is considered "top notch" that can keep Senators in line and also keep conservatives happy.

http://www.redstate.org/story/2005/9/17/112359/844

I see it as a wee bit distressing that they are even worrying about polls. If the Dems try to filibuster, the democrat half of the "gang of 14" will either break the filibuster by keeping their word, or force the GOP half to keep their word by voting for the constitutional option, killing judicial nomination filibusters once an for all. Either way, whomever Bush nominates will get confirmed.

It is often said the difference between 40% in the polls and 60% is action vs inaction. Clinton was in the 60's but didn't do very much at all, and as such is still searching for a legacy. For all the complaints, no one can say that Bush has done nothing. The one thing never asked in those types of polls is why those polled approve or disapprove. A breakdown between disapprove because of doing too much, or disapprove for doing too little would be nice.

Cheney's surgery excuse to elevate Condi??

The following story brings me to the long anticipated (by me at least) thought that Cheney would use a medical excuse to resign, and Bush to appoint current Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to the office of Vice President. She's been confirmed by the Senate twice, most recently earlier this year, so I don't see her having a problem being confirmed.

Such a scenario would immediately vault her to frontrunner status as heir-apparent for the 2008 GOP nomination. (That field is still wide open, with Virginia Sen. George Allen and former NY Mayor Rudy Guiliani leading early straw polls, such as the one that Patrick Ruffini runs monthly.)

Granted, the surgery described in the article below appears to be minor.

QUOTE(AP)

Cheney to Have Surgery Next Weekend
Sep 16 5:26 PM US/Eastern
WASHINGTON

Vice President Dick Cheney will undergo an elective surgery next weekend to treat an aneurism in an artery behind his right knee.

The condition, discovered earlier this year during a routine checkup, needs to be treated "as to not become a problem over time," Steve Schmidt, counselor to the vice president, said Friday.

"The procedure will be performed under local anesthetic," Schmidt said. "It will take place next weekend. It will involve a short hospital stay. The vice president will return to work shortly thereafter."

Schmidt said more details will be announced next week.

fan favorites Jr & Gordon see crew changes...

This week, after star drivers Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. missed the 10-race chase to the Nextel Cup, their teams have undergone major crew changes. Each now has a new crew chief, with Gordon jettisoning the pit box chief that led his 2001 title effort, and Earnhardt reuniting with his cousin Tony Eury, Jr., who had been car chief on his team for 6 wins in 2004.

Of the ten drivers who made the chase this year, five are from Roush Racing. Those are Mark Martin, Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth. Of the ten, there are only two Chevys (the defending manufacturer's champion), leader Tony Stewart and 2004's most-wins driver Jimmie Johnson. The remaining three are Dodges of Rusty Wallace, Ryan Newman and Jeremy Mayfield.

Those on the best momentum streaks right now include Stewart, Busch and Kenseth. Under the old system, Stewart would win running away, as his point total after Richmond would have been 250+. Now he is only up 5 points on 2nd place. Kenseth was down 610 points, now he's down 35. Kenseth was 24th in points 10 races ago -- he finished tied for 8th. That is one hell of a climb, all the while Tony Stewart was finishing with top 10s. Stewart had won 5 of 7 races at one point early in the summer.

Wallace and Martin are in their final full-time seasons in the series, Wallace with 56 career wins and Martin with 34. They might be sentimental favorites, but I'd be highly surprised if they crack the top-3.

Many greats leaving the league...

In the last week, two of the top four scorers of all time have decided to retire from the NHL, in Mark Messier (#2 overall) and Ron Francis (#4 overall). Franics is #2 on the assist list, behind Gretzky, with Messier 3rd on that list.

All time scoring, total points (#6 & #7 active for 2005-2006 season):

CODE

1. Wayne Gretzky 2957
2. Mark Messier 1887
3. Gordie Howe 1850
4. Ron Francis 1798
5. Marcel Dionne 1771
6. Steve Yzerman 1721
7. Mario Lemieux 1701

(next closest active player is Joe Sakic (Colorado Avalanche) at 16th overall with 1402 points)

Yzerman (Detroit Redwings) has a chance to pass Francis this year, as does Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins). Lemieux with an average season could get to Howe at #3, with a 149 point season (accomplished 4 times in his career with a high of 199 in 1988-1989 season, and most recently 161 in 1995-1996). Lemieux has said he will play 2-3 more years including this one; Yzerman has made no such commitment, signing only a one-year contract with the Wings. Both could set themselves up to finish #2 and #4 or #3 and #4 alltime.

Crosby figures in first scrimmage win

The Penguins press release is presented here in its entirety. It is a very good sign for Pens fans and fans of Sidney Crosby. The kid has a lot of pressure on him, specially from Canadian media. Not so different from when Lemieux reported for the first time back in 1984. The advantage Crosby has is Lemieux's experience.

Some have said that the only real difference between Gretzky and Lemieux was their willingness to embrace their role as superstar. Gretzky was natural at it, while it took Lemiuex some time, many years, to get to that point.

Mario was way above Gretz in career points-per-game prior to his comeback in 2000, as the only player above 2.0 points per game. As it stands going into 2005, Mario is just ahead of Gretz in that category, around 1.92 ppg. He had 70+ points in only 43 games in the comeback season, but has mostly been injured since that point. The new rules (some of the "new" are the "old" rules prior to about 1997 or so) and the promised-for-the-umpteenth-time enforcement of the rules against obstruction stand to provide Mario, skating alonside Crosby or Recchi or others, a real chance to gain the extra points back lost to regain the 2.0 career ppg.

QUOTE(pittsburghpenguins.com)

CROSBY FINDS CHEMISTRY IN TOURNAMENT WIN
by Joe Sager
pittsburghpenguins.com
09/15/2005

Instant chemistry.

That’s what the Penguins where looking for and that’s what they found when they paired John LeClair and Mark Recchi with Sidney Crosby. Recchi scored two goals and Crosby and LeClair both had three assists to lead Team Herbie to a 4-1 win over Team Badger in the first game of the Penguins training camp tournament at Mellon Arena on Wednesday.

The LeClair-Crosby-Recchi line clicked instantly. Recchi became Crosby’s top target with the puck.

“I think you could put anyone with (Recchi) and they’d do well,” Crosby said. “Anytime I get the puck I know he’s going to try to get open. John is so big and he can get body position on guys. I think it’s just a matter of finding these guys the puck and they don’t have trouble putting it in.”

Rookie Jonathan Filewich also had a big day. He scored Team Herbie’s other two goals.

“It’s very exciting. It gets me off to a good start and allows me to get some confidence at the beginning, which is key,” he said. “I was so nervous coming to camp here. It was nice to get the nerves out of the way.”

Recchi scored the first goal of the tournament off a nice pass from Crosby, who was behind the net. Recchi beat Sebastien Caron to the stick side for a 1-0 lead. Filewich scored an unassisted goal to boost the edge to 2-0 at the end of the first of two 25-minute periods.

Erik Christensen broke the shutout for Team Badger when he took a pass from Sean Collins and drilled the puck past a drawn-out Marc-Andre Fleury.

Filewich boosted Team Herbie’s lead to 3-1 when he converted on a 2-on-1. Crosby skated down the ice near the far boards. Draped with a defender, he slid a pass across the ice to Filewich, who buried a shot past Caron’s glove hand. It drew cheers from the crowd.

“I was yelling at him the whole way down and I wasn’t too sure if he saw me,” Filewich said. “He made a beautiful pass and I just put my head down and shot. Luckily, it went in.”

Recchi capped the scoring with 7:32 remaining when he converted on a 3-on-1. LeClair broke in on goal and dropped a pass to Crosby at the top of the crease. He slid the puck to the far post where Recchi slammed it home to make it 4-1.

The contest featured the tournament’s first fight as well. In the first period, Dennis Bonvie and Ryan VandenBussche dropped the gloves for a small fray.

Team Francis and Team E.J. take the ice at 11:30 a.m.

http://www.pittsburghpenguins.com/team/fea...arts/1336.0.php

Truex's gesture costs 25 driver/owner points & 10k

After a spectacular wreck at Richmond last Friday night, Busch series points leader Martin Truex, Jr. apparently flipped the bird to the driver who had wrecked him.

The wreck occured when truex had position on the outside of Mike Wallace in the 38 car coming off of turn two. Wallace did not see Truex, and had no communication from his spotter that he was there. Wallace's car slammed full on into Truex's driver side, forcing hs car up the wall, where it rode perpendicular to the track the lenghth of the straightaway before righting itself.

Truex lost 16 laps making repairs, before returning to the track, and in the process, gained 4-5 positions (or 12-15 points) for finishing the race. Once back on the track, the aforementioned incident apparently occured under caution, but was not caught on TV. The car itself had been a top-5 car, having been black-flagged by NASCAR under green for one hood pin that had been sheered off by the 17 car of Matt Kenseth. He lost a lap under green heeding the black flag, and was racing Wallace for position.

Truex had led 2nd place driver Clint Bowyer by 94 after Richmond; now it is only 69 with 7 races to go in the 2005 season. Truex is the defending Busch Series points champion, and has dominated Busch series competition in 2005, with most wins (6), most top 5s (14) and top 10s (18).

The penalty was 25 driver points from Truex, 25 owner points from owner Teresa Earnhardt (DEI/Chance2), a $10,000 fine, and probation for the rest of 2005. It is a very similar penatly that was given to Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in the cup series after his win at Talledega last fall, where he used a four letter word in regard to how little his accomplishment (5th win at that track) compared to his father (10 wins at that track) on the live TV interview in Victory Lane. In that case, Jr. was the points leader after the race, but the subsequent penalty bumped him to 2nd in the points, a position he would not recover.

Kennedy disarmed, Biden flustered

I touched on this briefly on the forums side, but felt compelled to expand upon it a little.

Sen. Kennedy (D-MA) went out fourth after Chairman Specter (R-PA), ranking member Leahy (D-VT), and Senator Hatch (R-UT). He led his remarks off with a rant on the afteraffects of Hurricane Katrina, proceded to bring up race, and spent most of his time asking longwinded questions, and interrupting Roberts's responses. His interruptions got so bad that the Chair had to intervene several times so that questions could be answered by Roberts.

Kennedy closed with a false premise, misreprenting the Reagan administration position on Title IX, extrapolating his misrepresentation to Roberts.

To which Roberts promptly dissected the false premise, which dealt with the Grove City Title IX case, and how far federal funds required colleges to comply with title IX. Kennedy attempted to make it into Roberts and Reagan into being in favor of discrimination, while Roberts relayed that the IX regulations only applied to the portion receiving federal funds, i.e. the admissions office. It should be noted that the Court sided with the Reagan Adminsitration in Grove City.

QUOTE

KENNEDY: Then, even though you acknowledged that the program- specific aspect of the Supreme Court decision was going to be overturned by the congressional legislation, you continued to believe that it would be, quote, too onerous for colleges to comply with nondiscrimination laws across the entire university unless it was, quote, on the basis of something more solid than federal aid to students.
Judge Roberts, if your position prevailed, it would have been legal in many cases to discriminate in athletics for girls, women. It would have been legal to discriminate in the hiring of teachers. It would have been legal not to provide services or accommodations to the disabled.
Do you still believe today that it is too onerous for the government to require universities that accept tuition payments from students who rely on federal grants and loans not to discriminate in any of their programs or activities?
ROBERTS: No, Senator, and I did not back then. You have not accurately represented my position.
KENNEDY: These are your words.
SPECTER: Let him finish his answer. That was a quite long question.
ROBERTS: Senator, you have selected…
SPECTER: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Senator Kennedy just propounded a very, very long question.
Now, let him answer the question. ROBERTS: Senator, you did not accurately represent my position. The Grove City College case presented two separate questions, and it was a matter being litigated, of course, in the courts. The universities were arguing that they were not covered at all by the civil rights laws in question simply because their students had federal financial assistance and attended their universities. That was their first argument. The second argument was, even if they were covered, all that was covered was the admissions office and not other programs that themselves did not receive separate financial assistance. Our position, the position of the administration — and, again, that was the position I was advancing. I was not formulating policy. I was articulating and defending the administration’s position. ROBERTS: And the administration’s position was, yes, you are covered if the students receive federal financial assistance and that the coverage extended to the admissions office. That was the position that the Supreme Court agreed with. We were interpreting legislation.
The question is: What is the correct interpretation of the legislation? The position that the administration advanced was the one I just described: The universities were covered due to federal financial assistance to their students. It extended to the admissions office.
The Supreme Court in the Grove City case agreed with that position. So the position the administration had articulated, the Supreme Court concluded, was a correct interpretation of what this body, the Congress, had enacted. Congress then changed the position about coverage. And that position was, I believe, signed into law by the president and that became the new law.
The memo you read about Secretary Bell’s proposal, if I remember it, was, well, he said: If we’re going to cover all of the universities, then we shouldn’t hinge coverage simply on federal financial assistance.
And the position I took in the memorandum was that, no, we should not revisit that question. We should not revisit the question that federal financial assistance triggers coverage.
KENNEDY: Well, you’re familiar — I have the memo here. I have 22 seconds left. Your quote of this: If the entire institution is to be covered, however, it should be on the basis of something more solid than federal aid to the students. I think most of the members of the Congress feel that if the aid to the universities, the tuition and the loans and the grants are going to be sufficient to trigger all of the civil rights laws, your memoranda here, If the entire institution is to be covered, however, it should be on the basis of something more solid than federal aid to the students. That’s your memorandum.
ROBERTS: Well, Senator, again, the administration policy was as I articulated it. And it was my job to articulate the administration policy.
KENNEDY: My time is up, Mr. Chairman.

Full morning transcript from CQ via Confirmthem.com (covering Specter, Leahy, Hatch & Kennedy)


Fast forward to just after noon. Grassley (R-IA) followed Kennedy, and was fairly bland. Grassley is a farmer after all. Disgraced (for plagiarism) former presidential candidate (1988) Joe Biden (D-DE) followed, and at one point interrupted Roberts after 15 seconds of an answer with the retort: "You're filibustering" to which the room erupted in laughter at the idiocy of the comment.

Roberts for chief

I have tended to post these things in the "Supreme Court" thread on the "PDT News Network" forum, but thought it appropriate to post some personal thoughts here, as opposed to actual news bits.

It is no secret that I side with what was the Rehnquist-Scalia-Thomas bloc of the 1994-2005 court, and that the three of them were the best writers on the court. While I don't know how Roberts will rule, his writing and legal brillance heretofore lead one to believe he is in the mold of Rehnquist. This in and of itself is hardly surprising, as Roberts clerked for Rehnquist back when he was an associate Justice, and worked to help prepare Justice O'Connor for her confirmation hearings back in 1981.

Rehnquist was the sole remaining justice who had voted in the Roe v Wade case, and he often spoke or wrote about how Roe was wrongly decided and should be overturned. The question with Roberts is will he be as outspoken on the issue as Rehnquist was?

Roberts is clearly the right choice at the right time for this vacancy. As for the O'Connor vacancy, one can only hope Bush will follow through with his promise of a justice in the mold of a Scalia or a Thomas. I have faith that he will, as he has shown a knack for doing the opposite of conventional wisdom. They said it would be a woman to replace O'Connor; they all thought it was Edith Clement; he nominated Roberts. When Rehnquist died, they said he wouldn't complicate the process by switching Roberts to Chief; he did just that, and in such a way as to make the Senate still confirm him prior to the Court's October Term 2005.

There is no shortage of possible nominees for the O'Connor vacancy. The standard names of Alito, Garza, McConnell, Luttig, Owen, Brown, Jones, and even Estrada have made their way around the circles. The CW says Bush will wait until after Roberts is confirmed to name O'Connor's replacement, but I would not be surprised to see Bush make his pick before the Judiciary committee is done with Roberts.

Roethlisberger perfect in 34-7 win over Titans

I won't pretend to understand the formula for passer rating in the NFL, both in its components and why the perfect rating is 158.3... but Ben Roethlisberger, in going 9 for 11 for 218 yards with 2 TDs and no INTs, garnered such a rating.

QUOTE(ESPN.com glossary)

Passer (QB) Rating

Rating Formula:
Step 1: Complete passes divided by pass attempts. Subtract 0.3, then divide by 0.2
Step 2: Passing yards divided by pass attempts. Subtract 3, then divide by 4.
Step 3: Touchdown passes divided by pass attempts, then divide by .05.
Step 4: Start with .095, and subtract interceptions divided by attempts. Divide the difference by.04.

The sum of each step cannot be greater than 2.375 or less than zero. Add the sum of the Steps 1 through 4, multiply by 100 and divide by 6.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2128923

Or, step by step:
9/11 = .8181 -.3 = .5181 / 0.2 = 2.59 for first step
218/11 = 19.81 - 3 = 16.81 / 4.20 for 2nd step
2/11 = .1818 / .05 = 3.6363 for 3rd step
0.95 - 0/11 = 0.95. Difference is 0

By the caveat, each of the first three steps yields a value greater than the max of 2.375, and step four has no subtractions from 2.375. So 2.375 x 4 = 9.5 * 100 = 950.0 / 6 = 158.3333

And that's enough to make your head spin. Good thing they have 'puters that are set to calc that automatically. It's a lot of gobbledegook. If there was no max, it would have been 2.59 + 4.20 + 3.63 + 2.375 = 12.795 * 100 = 1279.5 / 6 = 213.25 but that's meaningless since the step #4 INT calc has to have a max for it to work.

Nunquam Obliviscar -- I will Never Forget

Image from Polipundit/Byrd Droppings.

It is my considered opinion that the Photos and videos from 9/11 are not shown enough. We as a nation have become numbed to the events of 9/11. It's as if the media as a whole have decided not to show such images.

Sure, there is a line between showing images respectfully and overshowing them, but clearly, they are undershown right now. It has been four years, and still the WTC site has not been rebuilt. Sure, the Pentagon got rebuilt in record time, but NYC cannot agree on how to proceed with the WTC site. For once, I am saddened that NYC has not listened to Donald Trump's plan for two new 115-story towers on the site. That project will best honor those who gave up their lives on the site. How? Because anything less than a complete restoration of the economic use of the site hands a victory to the Al Qaeda terrorists.

The latin in the title is the motto of the Clan MacIver -- "Nunquam Obliviscar" translates to "I will never forget".

Direction of music category/McKeever piano duo

I haven't figured out what exactly to blog about music-wise, starting with "music" and "broadway" for categories, but I am sure I will end up refining the music category into several subcategories.

As a first music post, I am putting out a link to two wonderful classical pianists, complete with audio downloads of several compisitions for four hands on two pianos:

http://music.download.com/mckeeverpianoduo

Both studied at the University of Cincinnati-Conservatory of Music, and both possess abilities with the ivory keys that this pianist only wishes he could have. Sure I can play notes, but my abilities pale in comparison to theirs.

*A disclaimer: I am related to the aforementioned pianists.

P$U doesn't need donations when...

they charge a full price ticket for a 15-month old who doesnt even occupy a seat...

On the field, Paterno got win #344 against a fiesty South Florida team out of the big east. PSU was up 17-0 late in the 2nd quarter, when, inexplicably, PSU called a timeout with 8 seconds left in the half. USF was lining up for a field goal, they had no timeouts left, and would have kicked save PSU calling timeout. The stoppage led USF to run a play, which ended up being a fade route in the far left corner of the endzone for a Touchdown. While PSU never was in jeapordy of losing, that blunder at the end of the first half seemed to take wind off of the sails.

All told, the experience a mixed one. Nice to get back up for a game, but between the ticketing hassles and the subpar offensive performance, we would have done just as well watching it on Gameplan at home.