Quickies: the Elections Have Consequences Edition

.

A round-up of articles, news items, columns and blog posts that caught our eye this past week.





Time to pay the piper, gang:

Shortly after Nov. 6, Zane Tankel, who runs 40 Applebee’s restaurants in the New York City area, announced that his company was freezing employment and would not build any new restaurants. President Obama’s re-election, Tankel explained, meant that ObamaCare was likely to be fully implemented, costing his company millions of dollars and significantly raising the cost of hiring a worker.

Tankel’s statement prompted outrage and threats of a boycott, but he was far from alone. Already John Schnatter, CEO of Papa John’s Pizza, has announced that he would likely lay off some workers. Earlier, Schnatter said that ObamaCare would cost his business $5 billion to $8 billion annually, forcing him to increase the price of pizzas.

Meanwhile, two other restaurant chains, Olive Garden and Red Lobster, are moving many of their employees from full- to part-time work in order to avoid the law’s mandate that anyone working more than 30 hours must have insurance. An owner of 40 Denny’s in Florida, meanwhile, says he’ll add a 5% surcharge to customer bills in 2014 to cover his increased costs.

Restaurants which employ many low-wage employees will simply not be able to afford ObamaCare's expanded coverage mandates beyoned the mini-med plans they currently provide their employees.

And for the outrageously outraged lefties who think that these layoffs and hiring freezes are some sort of "revenge" against employees who supposedly voted for Obama and have vowed to boycott places like Applebee's: that revenge boycott list is going to keep growing and growing. You all have fun with that.








So, this is what smart power and leading from behind will get you:

Egypt's president on Thursday issued constitutional amendments that placed him above judicial oversight and ordered the retrial of Hosni Mubarak for the killing of protesters in last year's uprising.

Mohammed Morsi also decreed immunity for the Islamist-dominated panel drafting a new constitution from any possible court decisions to dissolve it, a threat that had been hanging over the controversial assembly.

Liberal and Christian members withdrew from the assembly during the past week to protest what they say is the hijacking of the process by Morsi's allies, who they saw are trying to push through a document that will have an Islamist slant marginalizing women and minority Christians and infringing on personal liberties. Several courts have been looking into cases demanding the dissolution of the panel.

The Egyptian leader also decreed that all decisions he has made since taking office in June and until a new constitution is adopted and a new parliament is elected — which is not expected before next spring — are not subject to appeal in court or by any other authority. He also barred any court from dissolving the Islamist-led upper house of parliament, a largely toothless body that has also faced court cases.

The moves effectively remove any oversight on Morsi, the longtime Muslim Brotherhood figure who became Egypt's first freely elected president last summer after the Feb. 11, 2011 fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak. They come as Morsi is riding high on lavish praise from President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for mediating an end to eight days of fighting between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers.

It's good to be the King!


And let's not forget our little gun-running operation in Benghazi, Libya which ultimately resulted in the deaths of 4 Americans and a cover-up as to what happened on 9/11 at our consulate there.








Time to pay the piper pt. II

Want to know what we see here?

Blue

Top Five Tax Increases Tax Increases as % of Income

#1 – New Jersey $6,933 6.82%

#2 – Maryland $7,194 6.74%

#3 – Connecticut $6,653 6.62%

#4 – Massachusetts $6,632 6.53%

#5 – New Hampshire $5,660 5.81%








And nearly 4 years on, more waste, fraud and abuse from Porkulus:

President Obama sought to fund “shovel ready” projects with the 2009 stimulus, so the federal government spent $29 million in taxpayer money to dig a port in Alaska that has no roads connecting it to other towns.

“It’s not normal,” Steve Boardman of the Army Corps of Engineers civil projects division told KUCB (Alaska) . “And it has prevented the construction of harbors in the past, when that supporting infrastructure is not there.” Boardman explained that they were able to build the port in part because “the project was ‘shovel-ready’ when $29 million of federal stimulus money became available in 2009,” as KUCB put it.

Construction of a road to connect the “port” to the nearest town two miles away won’t begin for years, but the federal government is now committed either to losing the money spent already or having to lay out even more cash to build that road.

That's how it is with these massive public works boondoggles. We've seen it played out here in California with high-speed choo-choos. Once you cross the Rubicon, there is no turning back.

Once you have aligned the political forces behind a project and that project has wetted its beak at the trough, you quickly have a tax-payer funded black hole if the project was ill-conceived and not well-planned from the start.








This is Sarah sez- worthy:

By now you've heard the outrageous quote from Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on his doubts about the origins of planet Earth. When asked to give its age, he replied: "I'm not a scientist, man. … Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to answer that. It's one of the great mysteries."

He's not a scientist—no, indeed—and his comments have brought on a slew of finger wags and face-palms from the godless left. The answer was "so confused and error-riddled," wrote Phil Plait in Slate, "it's difficult to know where to start." We all should understand the age of Earth is not a matter of opinion, but a scientific fact: Our planet formed 4.54 billion years ago. If Rubio suggested otherwise, it's because he's uninformed or stupid.

But take a wild guess as to what Bible-thumping former Illinois back-bencher's view on creation and the age of the world sounds an awful like that of Rubio's. Check it out, here.







Here's Kobe Bryant:

“I’m not working too hard, to be honest with you. The shots that I made were all jumpers. It doesn’t take much energy to knock those jumpers down,” he said. “Bringing the ball up and having me kind of initiate the offense and score and stuff like that, it’s making me work a little more than I will when Gatsby gets back.

“When Gatsby gets back, I don’t have to do that. The game’s going to become even more easy for me.”

Gatsby?




But of course...

OK, gang, that's it for today. We'll see you tomorrow.

Not so random thought of the day (UPDATED)

After viewing that shameless spectacle on ESPN Thursday night, one overriding thought dominated our conscious: We look forward to the Lakers kicking Miami's ass next spring in the NBA Finals... should that glorified all-star team LeBron is now part of even make it out of the East.

Some more smack for your reading pleasure via Bill Plaschke of the L.A. Times:

That was why this show was so wrong. It wasn't about a lack of journalistic ethics, but human ethics. James used his awesome power not to inform or entertain, but to belittle. After his announcement, there appeared video of Cleveland fans screaming at a bar television, then burning a James shirt in the street. Maybe this would have happened if James had been a little more discerning, but I doubt it. Cleveland had been nationally embarrassed, and reacted in the small way that James made it feel.

I thought he would never arrange the show if he wasn't going to Cleveland. I thought wrong. It turns out, when it comes to LeBron James, I thought wrong about a lot of things.

I thought he was a leader. But by going to a team that already has an established superstar who has already won one NBA title, he showed he is a follower. He doesn't want the ball in the final minute. He doesn't want the pressure in the final month. The way he crumbled against Boston in this year's postseason was not a blip. The King doesn't have the stomach to be the Man.

Precisely. By going to Miami, James finally made the public admission that he and many of us knew all along: he is not the alpha dog that his brand and marketing machine wanted us to believe.


Exit question: How does D-Wade's second fiddle taste, LeBron?


(UPDATE #1):



We've had several people over the last few days volunteer that while they really didn't like the Lakers, they would be more than willing to root for them next spring should they meet the Heat in the Finals.

Plenty of room on that bandwagon, folks!


Follower update: Conservative Generation is in the house!

Laker victory parades: past and present.

The Laker championship victory parade went down yesterday in downtown Los Angeles. There were a lot of people there... including, we're assuming, the majority of the Lakers players and front office staff. There were probably some arrests, also. We think most everybody had a pretty decent time. Hopefully they can do it again next year.

OK, that's enough. One of the collateral benefits of a) having a blog and b) the Lakers winning championships is that we can post the video clip below.

This is from the 2001 championship parade and the star this time around is Laker reserve forward, Mark "Mad Dog" Madsen" and quite possibly the greatest victory parade speech of all-time.

To those who speak Spanish...

It never gets old. Never.




And as an added bonus, Madsen proves his dance skills are nearly as stupendous as his speechifying.



It's incredible. The camera loves him. It can't tear itself away from the spectacle.



Having a blog totally rules.

CHAMPS!

We were just getting back from sea trials in time for Thursday's game 7 match up between our beloved Lakers and the hated Boston Celtics. Attendant responsibilities at work have prevented us from commenting on it until now.

After the game, Ron Artest thanked, among others, his psychiatrist. In the history of post-game shout-outs we can't recall a player calling out his shrink. Such was this season where the Lakers put it on cruise control the last few weeks of the season only to turn it back on for the playoffs and their rematch with the Celtics, which for such a storied rivalry has been pretty one-sided in favor of the Celtics.

Game 7 was no oil painting as the late great Chick Hearn would say but it was the glamour boys from Tinsel Town who absolutely gutted-out a first-ever Game 7 win against the Celtics, overcoming horrible shooting and a 13 point deficit to take the championship. It was a role reversal of perceived stereo-types between the two teams that made the victory all the sweeter.

We thought of Pops after this victory who moved out to the West Coast the same year the Lakers did in the early 60s. More and more of the ghosts, curses, bad memories and bad history are being cast aside as these Lakers lay claim to being the most successful franchise in team sports history.

B-Daddy has some thoughts on the victory and how it stands against the backdrop of the Celtic-Laker rivalry, here.


(pictured above is the unspoken MVP of the team, forward/center, Pau Gasol without whom these two-straight championships would not have been possible.)

The inevitable Tiger Woods is no A.C. Green column

"Tiger is having a halftime moment in his own life."

"...and to those who speak Spanish..."

6 seasons removed from their last which included two miserable finals appearances, a trade demand and a complete overhaul of their roster, the Los Angeles Lakers won their 15th title as a franchise last night beating the Orlando Magic, 99-86. The championship also represents head coach Phil Jackson’s 10th title pushing him ahead of the Boston Celtic’s Red Auerbach who had 9 for the all-time lead among NBA coaches.

From the likes of Smush Parker, Luke Walton and Kwame Brown to Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and Derick Fisher as his band mates, Kobe finally gets his.

But who are we kidding? This is all just a sorry excuse to rebroadcast perhaps the most excellent moment in the history of championship parades. From 2001 championship…



Congratulations to the Los Angeles Lakers who in addition to being the team of the 80s, cement their status, with 4 titles and 6 finals appearances in this decade, as the team of the aughts.

…however, the success of Florida’s sports teams do not come without some negative consequences.

Folks, you all remember Congresswoman Corrine Brown from the great state of Florida and her rambling, mispronouncing gradulation of the Florida Gators, her alma mater a few months ago? Well, she’s back. And if Corrine Brown waxing eloquent on another championship-contending Florida team wasn’t enough she is teaming up with fellow Congresswoman and Kobe Bryant fan Maxine Waters to run a little NBA finals smack.

The firewall at work prevented us from watching this while on the clock so we broke no less than 4 state and local traffic regulations in order to get home to watch the equivalent of a planetary alignment in absurdity.

Alas, imagine our shock and dismay when the clip provided below was not even close to the absolute train wreck wished, hoped for, and totally expected. Just some good-natured ribbing and Maxine Waters exhibiting a firmer grasp of the facts with respect to the Lakers than she does for the vast majority of legislation she sponsors.



Exit question: Can we spring a trade? Maxine for Stu Lantz? Us Laker fans would take one for the team (USA).

H/T:Deadspin

What is your favorite NBA team's Myers-Briggs typology?

Here’s a cool little political spectrum/personality trait-like graph we pulled from AOL Fan House that charts team quality (bad on bottom and progressing upward on the “Y”-axis through the better teams) and offensive tempo (plodding, walk-the-ball-up-court on the left progressing rightward on the “X”-axis to uptempo, fastbreaking… Showtime! offenses).




By this reckoning, the Lakers have the best and and one of the most uptempo team in the Association and we are inclined to agree. Laker center and wunderkind, 21-year old Andrew Bynum missed the 2nd half of last season and is just getting his sea legs underneath him again after playing so well before his knee injury. Because the Lakers played the last half of last season and made it to the Finals without him, its like they added a #1 overall draft pick-caliber player to the roster this season.

How stacked is this Laker team? We caught a little of a replay of a Lakers/Suns first round playoff game from 3 years ago where the Lakers had a starting lineup of Smush Parker, Kobe, Lamar Odom, Kwame Brown and Luke Walton. Good lord…. Only Kobe remains a starter and Lamar comes off the bench as a sixth man.

Another way to look at it is through the eyes of our little brother, “Matty” who asked us the other night how it is one can know how deep the Laker roster is. This didn’t take much thought knowing the utter disdain our brother holds for the play of this person so we replied, “Is it because Luke Walton and his game doesn’t see the light of day from the end of the bench?” Bingo. Hey, we like Walton. Smart, hard-working and completely void of any real NBA caliber athleticism. A starter 3 seasons ago to riding high pine this season so maybe Matty's one up on us.

The 4-0 Lakers take on the 3-3 Houston Rockets this evening at the Staples Center.

The Week in Review

We lend the housing crisis some perspective.

Gay marriage: All about equality and respect for others.

We lend the Laker season some perspective.

More proof that this guy just ain’t ready for prime-time.

And our Radio KBwD feature.

Long View and Short View

Just a little over a year ago, Kobe was on the radio demanding a trade from the Lakers while also bashing the Laker organization and players on a fan’s video camera phone, the footage of which found its way to the internet. The Lakers made no significant roster moves other than bringing back Derek Fisher which looked to be merely window dressing so going into this season it looked to be a continuation of high drama off the court and mediocrity on it like the 3 previous ones since the Shaq/Kobe crack-up.

And even two months into the season, if we were to be told that the Lakers would be playing in the NBA Finals absent Andrew Bynum who had asserted himself as a front-line NBA center from the beginning of the season, we would’ve been forced to ask what calamity had befallen the cities of San Antonio, Salt Lake City and Phoenix… and New Orleans… and Oakland… and Denver…

Of course, it was the trade that brought Pau Gasol to the Lakers from the Grizzlies that changed the complexion of the entire season and also changed expectations. No longer was this a team that may hang on to a 7 or 8 seed but one that was expected to challenge for the Western Conference title and possibly the NBA championship.

That they did indeed make it to the Finals is cause for celebration and optimism for the future (trusting a full recovery by Bynum), but the manner in which they did “challenge” for the title is equally as troubling. Yes, having Bynum back will help the “physicality” of the Lakers and allow Gasol to move back to his natural power forward position but often times physicality and allowing yourself to get pushed around as the Lakers did all series and in disastrous fashion last night is not a mere physical thing but a matter of heart.

We suppose that we could chalk a lot of it up to inexperience and immaturity but the Laker young guns responded well in the Western Conference playoff rounds against two of the most punishing and grinding teams in the NBA in Utah and San Antonio. On the exponentially grander stage of the NBA Finals, though, it was obvious the Lakers weren’t ready and got beat not only by a better team but a team that understood the mental toughness that would be required to win the title.

As we said, we’re optimistic but also wary. There is an adage in sports, particularly applicable to the NBA and NFL that you have to lose before you can win. If the degree by which you lose or the manner in which you lose can be informative, the Lakers have themselves an entire off-season’s worth of excellent reading material. We’ll just call it the Lakers’ Beach Books series. And the book we hope they pay closest attention to would be: “The NBA Finals: Knowing What the Hell to Do When You Get There” by Magic Johnson, foreword by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Props Department: We got to hand it to ESPN analyst, Jon Barry, who shortly after acquiring Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett last summer predicted a championship for the Celtics. Further, after the Lakers struggled to win Game 5, Barry sensed the Lakers were in “big trouble” and predicted a “blow-out” loss for Game 6.

Not yet Ready for Prime Time Pt. II

"One, Two, Three... CAN-CUN'"

Just when David Stern thought it was safe to go back in the water.

In the midst of the dream matchup that will put the cherry on top of what has been one of the most successful NBA seasons in years, the Association once again has to deal with the specter of Tim Donaghy and game-fixing. (Our thoughts on the Donaghy scandal when it broke, here and here).

Former NBA ref, Tim Donaghy, who was convicted of betting on NBA games, alleges that other NBA referees manipulated games to better serve the NBA’s broader economic interests.

There is no other sport or league where the referees and the refereeing is more a prevalent topic than the NBA, in fact, its not even close. Refs will blow calls in the NFL and umpires may be criticized for an inconsistent strike zone or misjudging a foul pole home run but, invariably, these botches never carry the taint of conspiracy or “fix”. Indeed, the storyline in this very championship series has been the refereeing and specifically Game 2 where Boston enjoyed a 4 to 1 advantage over L.A. in going to the charity stripe.

And if you are a floundering Tim Donaghy, awaiting sentencing, what else is there to do but trot out one of the crown jewels of the conspiracy theorists: Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals where the Lakers prevailed over the Sacramento Kings on their way to a seven game series victory?

For their part, David Stern and the Association have dismissed these charges as the predictable actions of an untrustworthy and disgraced man who is willing to throw anything against the wall and anybody under the bus if it will possibly lessen his time in the can. Then again, David Stern is the same person who told us all the mechanisms to monitor and detect untoward behavior by their referees were in place and working just fine when the Donaghy scandal broke last summer… so why didn’t they catch Donaghy?

We’re always wary in taking to much from commenter reaction but the overwhelming majority from story here seems to be of the “Tell us something we don’t know” variety and therein lies the rub. The NBA and its refs could be completely 100% pure-as-the-driven-snow clean in all this but perception is reality and the perception among many, even some self-professed Laker fans, was that the Game 6 back in ’02 was rigged and that there was definitely something amiss in Game 2 of this series.

Too bad for David Stern because this season has been a lot of fun. He had a relatively incident free season for his players on and off the court, a rise in T.V. ratings and despite a horribly boring and mundane set of playoff series, he’s got the Association’s two flagship franchises back on top again and playing for the NBA championship. This conspiracy business, though, is a large factor in setting the NBA back as a second-class citizen to the NFL and it’s a problem Stern is stuck with and is a problem that will probably always dog the NBA thus keeping them in their current status in pro and college football’s rearview mirror.

About the Other Night

We were dreading this series match-up for precisely what went down Thursday night in Boston and it had nothing to do with the final score, though that obviously stung.

With about 5-1/2 minutes left in the 3rd period, the Celtics’ Paul Pierce goes down in a heap underneath the Celtics’ basket. Unable to walk off under his own power, he is carried back to the locker room by his teammates only to return a few minutes later to knock down two 3-pointers at the end of the 3rd sparking the Celtics to their eventual victory over the Lakers, 98-88. Diagnosis: slight knee sprain.

Maybe they applied some of that magic spray that they give to soccer’s Euro-floppers that has them miraculously revived after writhing on the ground like one whose right leg has just been amputated. Maybe Pierce did hear something “pop” and wasn’t taking any chances. Only Paul Pierce knows. But what has transpired in the aftermath should’ve have been embarrassingly shameful if the participants had any shame.

Back in the 1970 NBA Finals, New York Knick center, Willis Reed played Game 7 against the Lakers with a torn muscle in this thigh. Reed, who tore the muscle in Game 5, missed Game 6 and was all but scratched for Game 7 when he emerged from the tunnel of Madison Square Garden to join his team for warm-ups amid raucous cheering of the Knick faithful. Reed knocked down two jumpers for the first points of the game and was not to score again but that lift from their team captain was enough inspiration to get the Knicks past the Lakers for the title.

Of course, immediately after the game on Thursday, the Willis Reed comparisons were flying and we have scarcely been able to turn on the radio or T.V. without hearing them. The Reed comparisons were predictable and predictably lame. But an East Coast-centric press corps aided and abetted by gauzy-eyed New England fans were more than willing to buy-in to this latest Gospel.

We don’t understand this near-pathological need for New England fans to create Messiahs of their sports heros – to fashion these resurrection moments for them to take place in the great pantheon of New England sports lore. Whether its Bird returning after being face-planted in the ’92 playoffs or Curt Schilling’s bloody sock performance in the baseball playoffs a few years ago or this latest witness to Glory, New England fans want desperately to believe that these moments wash away the sins of years and years of disappointment they’ve endured until recently with the Red Sox, the general pathetic condition of their football franchise until 7-8 years ago and the tragic and abysmal fortunes of the Celtics over the past 15-20 years. We don’t recall even 4-time Super Bowl winner, Joe Montana receiving the worshipful prostrations by Niner fans that Patriot fans reserve for Tom Brady.

Its unhealthy and downright creepy.

And trust us – as sure as the Sun rises in the East, would this ever have happened to Kobe, it would not be “Willis Reed”, it would be “Drama Queen”.

To hell with Paul Pierce and Willis Reed, though. All you need to know about this series is 46-33, the margin by which the Lakers got their heads handed to them on the boards.

UPDATE #1: Proving our point, read here about some of the feedback L.A. Times Sports Columnist Bill Plaschke received from Celtic fans regarding his column on Friday which suggested that L'Affaire Pierce was somewhat less than genuine. You stay classy, Boston.

UPDATE #2: We're laying 3-1 odds that before this series is over, James Posey goes McHale on Kobe.