The Little Conference that Probably Will

Those shrieks of anguish you heard last night around 8:30 were from major conference bubble teams that just watched the USD Toreros take down the heavily-favored Bulldogs of Gonzaga in the finals of the West Coast Conference Tournament. This after another improbable come-from-behind victory against St. Mary’s the night before in double OT.

Its very possible now that 3 West Coast Conference teams will make the field of 64 when its named this Sunday and because of USD’s win last night and thus automatic bid, teams like Ohio St., Arizona St. and Syracuse may be on the outside looking in as it was felt Gonzaga and St. Mary’s would make the tournament as at-large bids regardless of how they did in the conference tourney. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has his latest bracket, here, and has all 3 teams in. We had some thoughts on the WCC prior to the season.
.
First year coach Bill Grier was a Zags assistant for years and was brought down here to duplicate some of the underdog magic that has won-over much of the nation as Gonzaga has acquired the moniker, “America’s Team” for some of their deep runs in the tournament over the past decade or so.

Quick NBA note: The talking points have gone out. Apparently, the Golden State Warriors are “the team that no one wants to play” in the playoffs. Hmmmm… let’s see who else is in the West that is currently playoff bound: San Antonio, Phoenix, Lakers, Hornets, Utah, Dallas, Houston. Anyone there you would prefer to play?

Masters of the Obvious, we are.

Hey, give us a break. We gave Larry Craig the business here and here… you didn’t think we were going to let Spitzer off the hook now did you?

Those looks, well her look, has to be the most pitiable we’ve seen in ages. Its that mushroom cloud blooming over her marriage, her career, her children…. her entire life while she sticks it out (for now) next to Slappy.

Alright… enough of that. Here’s a roundup of related items:

Why’d he do it? Call it the Bill Maher syndrome: just makin’ up for some lost time. Also known in some circles as the BwD syndrome though its yet to kick in.

And Jonah Goldberg gives a nice “private matter/public shame” reading of the situation here.

Some thoughts on the matter here from a woman who probably cancels vacations when something like this goes down.

And this from ‘Kos-ville. Careful… what you’re about to read could be considered tantamount to waterboarding. Thankfully, the commenters take this idiot to task on account of his “logic”.

Finally, this from Dr. Laura on whom we could’ve bet would have a take like this. The woman is insane and we mean that in the most complimentary of ways.

H/T: Hot Air, Drudge, Daily Kos, NRO

Would it be possible for You to not make our lives a living hell... again?

So what’s next for the Democrats as they try to un-screw the mess they have made for themselves with respect to the presidential primaries? Mail-in ballots, anyone?

The idea that has been gaining some traction is to declare the original Michigan and Florida primaries null and void and have a “mulligan” - a do-over. Since the state of Florida said they are not footing the bill for another election, the DNC has been advancing the idea of mailing out the ballots, themselves.

Mind you, Floridians are the same folks who couldn’t grasp the butterfly ballot and then found something to bitch about with the electronic ballots because they were easier for Republican operatives to hack (hey, ever notice there are no charges of voter fraud when Democrats win?) and now these apparently electorally-challenged folks will be expected to a) go to the mail box b) open the ballot envelope c) correctly select the candidate of their choice d) place ballot in the self-addressed envelope e) place stamp somewhere on envelope if not an SAS envelope and finally, f) place envelope back in mail box for pick-up.

Now there is something we cannot stress enough: it is of paramount importance that each of these steps be executed in the EXACT sequence as laid-out above. Any deviation from the above will immediately result in howls of disenfranchisement and lawsuits. (After years of suffering the slings and arrows of derision for our somewhat unconventional ways out here in California, can we just say… "thank g#d for Florida!"...whose behavior of late has us Californicators looking like models of sanity, rationality and probity).

Believe it or not, we’ve got a significant degree of sympathy for our Democrat friends…. how is it possible for this mail-in ballot plan NOT to be an absolute grease-fire?

And even if the entirety of the Michigan and Florida delegates are seated it appears unlikely that either candidate will have enough delegates needed (2,025) to clinch the nomination (currently, Obama leads 1589 to Clinton’s 1470, courtesy RCP).

So, it looks like an open convention, where unless some sort of deal is brokered between the two candidates, things could get ugly down on the floor. Of course, Hillary has got a deal. How does Veep grab ya, Messiah? That from the candidate who is currently losing. Classic.

It’s going to be a fun summer. As we noted before, we were too young to be down with 1968 but the politically charged atmosphere of these Olympics and the train wreck that the Democratic national convention may be has us looking forward to our own little ’68 mulligan.

The Dreaded "M"-word.

Perhaps you’ve heard by now but Obama foreign policy advisor, Samantha Power resigned after it was disclosed that in an off-the-record remark, she called Hillary Clinton “a monster”.

Given our sporting backround, this term is usually used in a positive manner and shows a degree of respect. In this context, however, we’re pretty certain Power wasn’t referring to Hillary’s imposing defensive presence in the paint or her unnatural ability in getting off the edge on a pass rush.

So if it is indeed a negative term we still can’t help but feel the dismissal of Power odd. Afterall, on the Democratic “mean people suck” scale, “monster” pales in comparison to some…? most….? nearly every term used to describe the woman, no?

23/6 does some reading between the lines of Power’s resignation memo, here.

P.S. Gotta think Power was let go because either a) there was dirt on her that was going to come out later that would be more damaging to Obama or b) Camp Obama has painted itself into a corner with their sanctimonious awesomeness and felled the axe to maintain their image.

Update #1: Foxfier links here to a piece in Newsweek that laments the improbability of a Hillary Presidency because... we're all sexist pigs. Well, you are, to be exact - we're as pure as driven snow, brothers and sisters. But if you're scoring at home, you will have noticed the irony here as thus far the most egregious personal attack on Hillary has been made by another woman.

Update #2: Here's an angle that hasn't been discussed much because of perhaps its statistical insignificance, but: We know there are women out there that will vote for Hillary merely because she is a woman and men who won't because she is (and we suppose there is the random beta-male who because of modern technology has been spared his Darwinian sentence that will vote for Hillary because she is a woman)... but what about women who won't vote for Hillary because she is a woman? Trust us. They're out there. Think of that female friend of yours that claims to "have more guy friends than girl friends because girls can be so vindictive, petty and cliqueish" Hey, they said it, not us.

Still Can't Believe the Lakers got Gasol for #54 and a couple of draft picks Kupchak would've screwed-up anyway

Back in the '02-'03 season, the Lakers started wearing white uniforms for their Sunday home games and bumped up the start time for these games from 7:30 to 6:30. We're assuming the early start is a nod to folks who have work and/or school the next day... and to Jack Nicholson's after-game social schedule. And the white unis have that special Sunday go-to-meet'n-and-brunch vibe to them. We like.

Anyway, Lakes take on the Sacramento Kings this evening and can extend their lead in the Western Conference to 1-1/2 games over the San Antonio Spurs who lost earlier this afternoon to the in-desperate-need-of-a-victory, Phoenix Suns, 94-87, who are now 4-6 since acquiring Shaq.

Fighting Violence with..... Violence

Michelle Malkin has a great round-up of the violence and harrassment against military recruiters and recruting centers, here.

And, no... little Johnny can't be a Marine because I don't like the Iraq War. More judicial shenanigans, here.


H/T: Hot Air

One of these Players is expected to get a lot of playing time next year

When we first learned this past fall that teenage actor/singer Romeo Miller (aka Lil’ Romeo) was being recruited to play hoops at USC, we figured the kid must have some game. Afterall, USC and coach Tim Floyd have made good progress towards establishing USC as a consistent top-25 program nationally and have put themselves in position to go after the top high school players in the nation.

Well, turns out that Miller (who also happens to be the son of former rapper and current all-around entertainment mogul, Master P) does indeed have game... that is to say, if one’s definition of "game" happens to be "is good friends with Demar DeRozan" of Compton who is the No. 2 rated player in the nation according to Rivals.com. Story here.
.
At 5-10 and possessing a bum knee, Miller played in only 8 of his team’s 27 games because of that knee averaging 8.6 points a game for that L.A. area scourge, Beverly Hills High School.

Both Miller and DeRozan have signed letters of intent to play for the Trojans next year.

Coach Floyd has been accused of offering a scholarship to Miller as part of a package deal for DeRozan. For his part, Floyd said that Miller was “a good little player” but didn’t deny that Miller’s fame played a part, "The more buzz you can create, the more news stories you can create, the better served you are as a program." ... and Demar is showing up when, coach?
.
And speaking of USC… inspired performance today beating the #7 ranked Stanford Cardinal who with their 2nd straight loss here in L.A. (lost on Thursday to UCLA in OT) may have played their way out of the #3 seed in the South region as projected by ESPN.

UCLA slept-walk through their game against Cal this afternoon but in another improbable come-back (that would be 3 straight now) scored 5 straight points in the final 30 seconds to beat Cal 81-80 and most likely locked-up a #1 seed in the West region in the process. Our doubts about the Final Four prospects for the Bruins have only grown this past week. Our ‘barometer boy’, Josh Shipp had 12 points on just 5-13 shooting though he did hit the game-winner.

H/T: Mongo is responsible for the primary research as well as this... which Mongo was thinking was Lil' Romeo and which commentors, in their own vernacular, commended for being a long-lost example of hip-hop that was witty, funny and... good. Nice work, Mongo.

Doing a Job this particular American didn't want to do...

.... but did it anyway. Confident we've seen the last of the winter rains so its spring yard cleaning day here at BwD HQ which will result in a trip to the dump a little later. The yard clean-up allowed us to get on top of the most pressing reason for this turn-to...
.
.
.
.







... getting the "office" back in working order.

Beijing '08 Olympics Update

(One in an occasional series provided during the run-up to the ’08 Summer Games in Beijing, China. Archived posts in this series can be accessed by entering “Olympics” in the blog search box above).
.
Taiwan is petitioning the U.N. for membership. Now why Taiwan would want membership in this foul body is anyone’s guess but that’s not up for discussion at this point because what struck us is that our own country is balking at the idea.

OK. Let’s see if we can keep this straight. We trip all over ourselves in recognizing a predominantly Muslim break-away republic in the Balkans, an act by which may lead to war in the region, if not, beyond. However, we have yet to officially recognize Taiwan, a democracy in decent standing and a break-away republic of their own from the Chi-coms.

The march of the nations at the Olympic games is always a good time. And while we are keenly interested in how the steppe betties from Romania and the Czech Republic are showing, we will be glued to the tube to see what transpires when “Chinese Taipei” rolls in.

Homies Dissed

The California home-schooling set received a jolt on Feb. 28th when Justice H. Walter Croskey of the 2nd district court of appeals ruled with the two other members of the court that home-schooling was illegal, stating, “Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children”.

According to the article here, the consensus is that there may be no effective way of enforcing this. But this being America circa 2008 where we cannot enforce our own borders, we’re confident that some busy-body wing of the Board of Edumacation will take a jack-booted stab at it.

But that’s not the point…

That this statement that is so narrow in the context of freedoms and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution was agreed upon by 3 people one would think should know better is baffling.

We searched high and low in the Constitution and nowhere did we see anything regarding home schooling. What we did find, though, is a bunch of “shall nots” and “forbids”…. checks not against the citizens, mind you, but against the state. So, the judge has got it all backwards. Instead of there being no constitutional right to home schooling, there is nothing in the Constitution that prohibits home-schooling. In fact, we believe the 14th amendment re-enforces the legality of home-schooling (Several years back, two high school girls in the L.A. area sued their school district under the 14th amendment's “equal protection” clause for not providing them an equitable educational opportunity as other surrounding districts. Not sure how it turned out - we'll dig around for it).

In fact, the entire tone of the bill of rights suggests that our grand experiment in democracy is to be one big unholy mess bounded only by the common decency and good neighborliness of its participants. Equal parts drunken brothel brawl and tent revival meeting. And this speaks to the beauty of it all: that we are granted license to act like complete idiots but expected to exercise our God-given common sense to refrain from acts of idiocy. That is the only way this thing can work.

And because of this very expectation of rational self-interest, we indeed have home schooling as many of us have figured out that this whole public education thing ain’t working. KT, posted a Reason.TV spot hosted by Drew Carey on public education in L.A. The level of naked self-serving rhetoric on display by the teachers’ union is chilling. Its obvious the welfare of the children and the education that we are paying for and which is to be provided to the kids is the last thing on their mind.

And makes us question what the real motivation was behind the court's ruling.

Update #1: We totally forgot Ogre had a take on this matter here. He links to piece that pulls quotes from the court's ruling like this one: "keeping the children at home deprived them of situations where (1) they could interact with people outside the family, (2) there are people who could provide help if something is amiss in the children's lives, and (3) they could develop emotionally in a broader world than the parents' 'cloistered' setting."

The assumption of responsibility and moral high ground the state grants itself in lieu of the parents is staggering.

In the 5th, a Trifecta of "Superdelegate Sally", "Daddy Greenbacks" and "That Wascally Wove"

Y’all up for a little political voyeurism? Well, alright now. The Huffington Post has an interactive political donor map here that reveal who’s been giving to whom and how much was given. As it’s a HuffPo production, its got a decided celeb/entertainment slant but it’ll get you where you need to go.

And site, here, though less splashy, posts odds. Sweet. Who's gotcha 7-5, baby?

We checked out our ‘hood at the Huff site and we appear to be living among acolytes for the Messiah. And the Ronulans are well-represented, as well.

Speaking of Huffington, Arianna. She opines on Clinton’s wins in Texas and Ohio and comes to the conclusion that, yep…. Rove was responsible. These people…… these people.

H/T: We honestly don't remember. If we've boosted this from anyone in the Theocracy, let us know and we'll give due props.