The left falls out of love with the internet, free speech not such a great idea after all

The FCC and FTC now see the internet as too much competition, or at least that's long been the far left's whiny agenda (Cass Sunstein, 2001). Free speech used to be their mantra. After the internet became popular, they dropped the idea like a hot potato. Now the right has taken up the banner. The left looks back at the halcyon days of major newspapers, and aims to get government and taxpayers to put them back in the decider's chair (Castro and Chavez like it that way too).

• Legacy media at one time protected the people, now they protect the government:

5/29/10, Jeff Jarvis: "The Federal Trade Commission has been nosing around how to save journalism and in its just-posted “staff discussion draft” on “potential policy recommendations

• to support the reinvention of journalism,” it makes its bias clear: The FTC defines journalism

• as what newspapers do

• and aligns itself with protecting the old power structure of media."...

Among ideas FTC discusses to prop up existing newspapers: "* “Additional intellectual property rights to support claims against news aggregators.”... ...the FTC frets about “difficult line-drawing being (between) proprietary facts and those in the public domain.” Proprietary facts?... * Antitrust exemptions. The FTC looks at allowing news organizations

• to collude to set prices to consumers and with aggregators....

* Government subsidies. After saluting the history of government subsidies for the press — namely, postal discounts, legal notice publication, assorted tax breaks, and funds for public broadcasting — the agency looks at other ideas: a journalism AmeriCorps paying journalists; increased funding for public broadcasting; a national fund for local news suggested in Columbia’s report on journalism; a tax credit for employing journalists; citizen news vouchers (a la campaign checkoff); grants to universities for reporting. It also looks at increasing the present postal subsidy (which would only further bankrupt the dying postal service in the service of dying publications); using Voice of America and Radio Free Europe content (aka propaganda) in the U.S.; and enabling the SBA to help nonprofits.

• * Taxes. At least the FTC acknowledges that somebody’d have to pay for all this. In one section, the FTC looks at licensing the news: having ISPs levy a fee on us that the government then dolls out to its selected news purveyors — call that the internet tax.

• It’s nothing but a tax and it would support incumbents surely.

In another section, it examines the aforementioned iPad tax; a tax on the broadcast spectrum; a spectrum auction tax; a tax on ISPs and cell phones; and a tax on advertising (brilliant: taking a cut of the last support of news in America).

• * New tax status. The document spends much space looking at ways to

• make journalism a tax-exempt activity and suggests the IRS should change its regulations to enable that. ...

The real problem I see here, again, is the alignment of the legacy institutions of media and government. Here, the internet is not the salvation of news, journalism, and democracy. It’s the other side."...

from "FTC protects journalism's past," buzzmachine by Jeff Jarvis, via Washington Examiner, via RedState.com

• "Cass Sunstein's republic.com, the epitome of liberal chic, chronicles the unhappy decline of the Internet as an object of liberal ardor.

In the beginning, the Internet was dominated by .edu, .org, and .gov domains. This provided a convenient meeting place for the diverse and multicultural. Gradually, however, the

• dot-coms took over, producing "consumer treadmills"...Sunstein concludes that the Internet is in need of regulation because free choice does not always produce genuine freedom. Nothing characterizes Sunstein's concept of freedom more than Rousseau's injunction that men must be forced to be free. In fact, Sunstein seems to believe (with apologies to Socrates) that

the unregulated life is not worth living."...8/30/2001

• (See also brutal dictators Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and their many admirers in the US). ed.

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Memorial Day 2010

Both pictures World War II US Air Force pilot Ed Mullen, surviving, sometime in the 1940's. Above with his Stearman biplane.

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Sparky Lyle 'extra innings in New Jersey'-NY Times

"At 19, Mr. Lyle signed with the Baltimore Orioles, and spent the 1964 season playing for their affiliate teams in Bluefield, W.Va. — where the manager was Jim Frey, who would go on to lead the Kansas City Royals to the 1980 American League pennant and who is now vice chairman of the Somerset Patriots — and the Fox Cities in Wisconsin.

• It was Mr. Frey who first used Mr. Lyle as a reliever.

“I told him, ‘You know, I can throw every day,’ ” Mr. Lyle said. “He said, ‘You can?’ I said, ‘Yeah, my arm doesn’t get sore.’ So that’s how that got started.”

• The following year found him in the Red Sox organization, where Ted Williams, then a spring training instructor, introduced him to the slider.

“He told me it was the best pitch in baseball because it was the only pitch he couldn’t hit even when he knew it was coming,” Mr. Lyle recalled. “He said, ‘I’ll tell you how it spins. You got to work out the rest of it yourself.’

• “I was in Double A, and I would lie in bed at night with the ball in my hand, thinking: ‘How do I make it spin like that?’ I was living in a converted garage, and one night about three o’clock in the morning I went out and started throwing this ball against the side of the garage, and it started going” ...

“The next day I went to the ballpark, and my catcher, Bob Montgomery, was warming me up, and I said, ‘Slider,’ and he says, “You don’t have a slider.’

• And I said, ‘Yesterday I didn’t have one, but I got one today.’"...

from NY Times by Bruce Weber, 5/28, "Sparky Lyle Extra Innings in NJ" via nyyfans.com

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'Chamberlain's problem is everything else,' and he needs to be demoted

Commenter Bruce Markusen on Chamberlain

• "Velocity is not Chamberlain's problem. His problem is everything else. He falls behind in the count too often, relies too much on his slider, especially on three-ball counts, and seems incapable of making adjustments when things start going badly. To me, he looks like a classic example of
• a guy who just assumes he will always have a spot in the big leagues and doesn't need to work at the craft.
• Here's what he needs now: a demotion to Triple-A and the accompanying wake up call that would come with it."

from Baseball Think Factory, 5/30/10, response to Bill Madden column, "Comic relief from Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain is no joke for Joe Girardi"

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Jack Curry strong addition to YES Network-Mushnick

"Jack Curry has been YES's best addition since it dropped Giuseppe Franco. His Yankees pregame sessions almost always include two or three

• TWKs (things worth knowing) about the Yankees or their opponents. Curry doesn't try to dazzle;

• he tries to inform. To that end, he's dazzling."

from NY Post column by Phil Mushnick, 5/30, "Francesa's world cup rant way off base"

• Jack Curry is a natural on television and very talented at give and take analysis in a live setting, doesn't routinely ignore what others say. Whatever he was for the NY Times, he is better in his current tv role than most other people doing it. Bob Lorenz is incapable of give and take in a long, analytic setting, is more an announcer type. Curry is the better choice. I've heard Lorenz do play by play and he was good at that. It is a different kind of give and take, not so much responding to analysis and juggling different thoughts, and he seemed more comfortable at it. ed.

Update on Bob Lorenz persona, 7/11/10 from a baseball website: "Or as that escapee from The Wax Works, Bob Lorenz, asked Flush Flaherty last night…“Safeco Field, a hitter’s ballpark or a pitcher’s ballpark…or somewhere in between?” "

• P.S. Curry has been on YES Network's winter Hot Stove show in past years. For whatever reason, Curry didn't stand out to me in that venue. I am aware that Lorenz has won one or more local awards.

A lot of people have won awards for a lot of things. Many times awards don't mean what others think they do. As I stated, he is a good announcer type. I have written for several years about the YES Network's presentation, and recently mentioned the more human, accessible feel SNY studio shows have. That's what I've observed over a long period of time.

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Angels first win in 2010 when trailing after 7 innings-AP

5/29: "The Angels won for the first time this season when trailing after seven innings (1-23)." (last item in article).

• AP, "Morales hurt after game-ending slam, carted off"

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Threat to carbon trading, cap & trade, UK Society to review climate change claims, science not settled

UPDATE: 6/1: UK MET OFFICE WEATHER PROFITEERS DOUBLE DOWN, predict MORE BARBECUE SUMMERS. This after being DUMPED BY a UK resort area for years of inaccurate forecasts.

• 5/29: ""Bullying of people into silence has unfortunately been effective."" Society scientist.

UK Society that named eventual Climategate endorsers now forced to review its claims about so-called man made global warming. ""The bullying of people into silence has unfortunately been effective.”"

• 5/29/10: "The admission that the society needs to conduct the review is a blow to attempts by
• the UN to reach a global deal on cutting emissions. ...

Britain’s premier scientific institution is being forced to review its statements on climate change after a rebellion by members who question mankind’s contribution to rising temperatures....

• It will publish a new “guide to the science of climate change” this summer. The society has been accused by 43 of its Fellows of refusing to accept dissenting views on climate change and
• exaggerating the degree of certainty that man-made emissions are the main cause.

The society appears to have conceded that it needs to correct previous statements. It said: “Any

• public perception that science is somehow fully settled is wholly incorrect —

• there is always room for new observations, theories, measurements.”

This contradicts a comment by the society’s previous president, Lord May, who was once quoted as saying: “The debate on climate change is over.”

• The admission that the society needs to conduct the review is a blow to attempts by
• the UN to reach a global deal on cutting emissions.

The Royal Society is viewed as one of the leading authorities on the topic and it

• nominated the panel that investigated and endorsed the climate science of the
• University of East Anglia....

Sir Alan, 72, an electrical engineer, is a member of the advisory council of the climate sceptic think-tank, the Global Warming Policy Foundation....

“One of the reasons people like myself are willing to put our heads above the parapet is that

• our careers are not at risk from being labelled a denier or flat-Earther

• because we say the science is not settled.

The bullying of people into silence has unfortunately been effective.”...

The rebels are concerned by a document entitled Climate Change Controversies, published by the society in 2007. The document attempts to refute what it describes as the misleading arguments employed by sceptics.

• The document, which the society has used

• to influence media coverage of climate change, concludes:

“The science clearly points to the need for nations to take urgent steps to cut greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, as much and as fast as possible, to reduce the more severe aspects of climate change.”

• Lord Rees admitted that there were differing views among Fellows but said that the new guide would be “based on expert views backed up by sound scientific evidence”. "...

TimesOnlineUK, 5/29, "Rebel scientists force Royal Society to accept climate change scepticism," by Ben Webster ****

• 5/28: "Uncertain Science," Newsweek

4/19/10, MLB games are staging area for carbon trading profiteers NRDC, others

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Michigan lawmaker seeks central source for checking reporters' backgrounds and credentials

5/28: "A Michigan lawmaker wants to license reporters to ensure they’re credible

• and vet them for “good moral character.”

(State) Senator Bruce Patterson is introducing legislation that will regulate reporters much like the state does with hairdressers, auto mechanics and plumbers. Patterson, who also practices constitutional law,

• says that the general public is being overwhelmed by an increasing number of media outlets--traditional, online and citizen generated--and an
• even greater amount misinformation....

“What’s the definition of a reporter? I haven’t been able to find out? What’s a reporter? What’s a journalist?” Patterson said. “I thought you had to have a degree in journalism but apparently not. ...

Patterson said he wants a

• central place where members of the public can go to find out about reporters’
• credentials, background and experience.

“I’m talking about a central depository for information so someone can go find all that out,” Patterson said, comparing his idea to the

• vetting process for expert witnesses who testify in court."...

"Michigan considers law to license journalists," Fox News by J. Winter, via MichaelSavage.com

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Multiple US baseball players get extra screening at Canadian border. No protests?

5/28/10: "Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones was detained by Canadian immigration officials for a few hours Thursday night after he landed in Toronto for this weekend's series....

• Jones said at least one other Baltimore player had to go through extra screening, too....

"They said I had a criminal record," Jones said. "My mom raised me better than that. I've never done anything like that, been involved in anything criminal in my entire life. It was a long, pointless situation because of the circumstances, but I'm glad everything got cleared."

• Jones had to leave the airport for extra screening. He was not able to go until about 5 a.m.

• "We went to immigration," he said. "I was considered detained."

Jones blamed the incident on a case of mistaken identity.

"They had the wrong person," Jones said. They thought I was somebody else."

• Jones said he was not told whether he had been mistaken for NFLplayer Adam "Pacman' Jones," who has had frequent legal troubles."...

from KLTV, Texas, "Orioles' Jones detained for hours entering Canada," 5/28 photo earlier this year protesters at Coors Field where Diamondbacks visited Colorado Rockies

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Yankee radio flagship WCBS continues ratings roll

5/25: In April Arbitron ratings: "The opening of baseball season was...good to WCBS-AM (880), which carries the Yankees. WCBS-AM, which was already on a roll, zipped up to fourth place overall, while all-news sister WINS (1010 AM) slipped a bit and ended up out of the top 10 for the first time in several years.

• WFAN, boosted by the opening of the Mets' season, had a 50% increase in its overall audience share from March to April. It also finished first among men 25-54, one of those hard-to-reach groups that sports radio targets.

WFAN also averaged four times the audience share of its sports-radio rival, WEPN (ESPN Radio, 1050 AM), which undoubtedly probably increases the ongoing desire of ESPN to find a stronger signal, preferably on FM."...

• "Lite tops list of radio stations among 25-54 year olds," Hinckley, NY Daily News, 5/25

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Eric Shanks named new Fox Sports president

Neil Best, 5/27: "Eric Shanks, a high-ranking DirecTV executive, was named president of Fox Sports Wednesday, at 38 becoming what is believed to be the youngest president ever of a broadcast network sports division. Shanks will succeed Ed Goren, 65, who was named vice chairman.

• Both Shanks and Goren will report to Fox Sports chairman David Hill."...DirecTV release, 5/26

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Tom Hicks: 'Sports has never been my primary business'

5/27: ""The lack of privacy in sports is something that my family and I aren't willing to undertake any longer," he says. "We'll always be big fans, but we want our privacy back.""...Bloomberg, Helyar & Keehner

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Pettitte survives bottom of the 8th

Arod bunt error bottom 8th v Twins, 5/26, Pettitte watches, reuters "Bottom 8th: Minnesota

- J. Miranda at designated hitter

- D. Butera doubled to right center

- D. Span safe at first on third baseman A. Rodriguez's fielding error, D. Butera to third

- O. Hudson lined out to pitcher

- J. Mauer grounded into double play shortstop to second to first, D. Span out at second

bottom of the 8th, tie game, runner on 2nd, no out. before Arod bunt error, reuters bottom of the 8th inning v Twins, 5/26/10, reuters

• 5/28, Pioneer Press, Shipley: "But it worked Wednesday, when Mauer had a chance to

break a 2-2 tie with one out and men on first and third in the eighth inning. With lefty Andy Pettitte on the mound, the Yankees played Mauer to come back up the middle, cheating shortstop Derek Jeter toward second.

Mauer was looking for a fly ball to bring Drew Butera in from third on at least a sacrifice fly. Instead, he grounded sharply up the middle. Jeter barely had to move to start an inning-ending double play. Had the Yankees been playing straight, Mauer might have had the winning RBI." via btf

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Mariano Rivera pitched 2 saves in one day for 6th time

5/3/07, SportingNews.com: "Rivera saved two games in one day for the fifth time in his major league career, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the first since Sept. 29, 2004, against Minnesota."

• Making 5/26/10 vs the Twins Rivera's 6th time with 2 saves in one day.

• Today's earlier game is listed as a 5/25 start (meaning yesterday) but the final 3 innings were played today.

2007 game logs

• Also, at least the 66th win-save combination for Pettitte-Rivera (65th noted on 4/19/10) in regular season (they also have 10 in the post season)

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Red Sox exec Kapstein to seek democrat nod for RI lieutenant governor

• A one-time high powered players' agent, in 1988 Jerry (also known as Jeremy), married the daughter of Padres owner Joan Kroc and later orchestrated the sale of the team to Tom Werner.

Shaughnessy, 12/3/2005: "Kapstein married Linda Smith, the daughter of Padres owner Joan Kroc, wife of the late Ray Kroc, who made

• billions as the pioneer of McDonald's. ...

• In February 1990, Kapstein was hired by the Padres to oversee all club operations. His main job was to find a buyer for the ball club, and in April

he orchestrated the sale of the team to a group led by Tom Werner (there's an interesting name).

• Kapstein was still a member of the Padres' board of trustees when Lucchino came on board in San Diego (1995), and the two worked together until Lucchino came to Boston.

In 2002, working for a new Red Sox ownership group that included John Henry, the New York Times Co., and Werner, Lucchino brought several people with him from San Diego, including Mike Dee, Sam Kennedy, Steve Fitch, Glen Geffner, Dr. Charles Steinberg . . .

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Emmis Communications goes private

"The media company agreed to be acquired for about $90 million by closely held JS Acquisition LLC, a company formed by Chairman Jeff Smulyan....It owns Indianapolis Monthly and six other magazines throughout the U.S. Emmis

• Radio Division owns stations in Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, St. Louis and Austin."...via Poynter.org/Romenesko

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Jeter home run in 6th v Twins

Jeter homerun in 6th v Twins in conclusion of rain delayed game. Final score 1-0. reuters

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Immigration activists say Mexican police engage in racial profiling, beatings, and kidnappings of Central Americans

• Mexico's Calderon received thunderous applause from US braindead politicians as he presides over brutal racial profiling, beating, robbing and kidnapping of Central Americans.

5/25: ""There (in the United States), they'll deport you," Hector Vázquez, an illegal immigrant from Honduras, said as he rested in a makeshift camp with other migrants under a highway bridge in Tultitlán. "In Mexico they'll probably let you go,

• but they'll beat you up and steal everything you've got first."...

Mexico's Foreign Ministry said the law "violates inalienable human rights" and Democrats in Congress applauded Mexican President Felipe Calderón's criticisms of the law in a speech he gave on Capitol Hill last week.

• Yet Mexico's Arizona-style law requires local police to check IDs. And Mexican
• police freely engage in racial profiling and routinely harass Central American migrants, say immigration activists....

In one six-month period from September 2008 through February 2009, at least 9,758 migrants were kidnapped and held for ransom in Mexico — 91 of them with the direct participation of Mexican police, a report by the National Human Rights Commission said. Other migrants are routinely stopped and shaken down for bribes, it said."

• USA Today, "Activists blast Mexico's immigration law" Hawley

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As the US private sector dies, so does stadium boom

5/13/10: "One thing is certain: the bubble in stadium construction is over. Even if we weren’t in a weak economy, the fact remains that virtually every team now plays in a new venue already.

• The few franchises that do not have state-of-the-art new homes are concentrated in
• California and Florida—

• states with serious budget problems in which

• new taxpayer-funded stadiums would be unthinkable."...*****

US transitions to welfare state without enough actual production to support the larger non-productive sector. Certainly not enough to fill 30 baseball stadiums. 5/25/10, "Private pay shrinks to historic lows as gov't payouts rise," USA Today, by Dennis Cauchon:

• "Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year, a USA TODAY analysis of government data finds.

At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs —

• rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010....

The trend is not sustainable,(see Greece, ed) says University of Michigan economist Donald Grimes. Reason:

• The federal government depends on private wages to generate income taxes to pay for its ever-more-expensive programs.

Government-generated income is taxed at lower rates or not at all, he says. "This is really important," Grimes says."...

• 3/31/09, the Star-Ledger: "NJ radio station holds "funeral for the middle class" to protest state budget"

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Texas Rangers creditors: We can do better

• 5/25: Texas Rangers creditors countered today that there is 'a higher bid' out there than what MLB has offered:

"If (US Bankruptcy) Judge Lynn were agree with the creditors that better bids are available through the process, the judge would open the process back up and

• bidders such as Jim Crane and Dennis Gilbert would be allowed to make offers on the Rangers assets."...

from Biz of Baseball by Maury Brown

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Kevin Millwood, Michael Young, Vicente Padilla, and Mark McLemore among unsecured creditors

• Update: Matt Futterman from WSJ on John Batchelor show says monies owed these players are viewed as obligations of the Texas Rangers, not HSG, so they likely will be paid by the new owner.

5/25: "Alex Rodriguez...was listed as the (Texas Rangers) team’s top unsecured creditor. He is still owed about $24.9 million in deferred compensation....After Rodriguez, the next five unsecured creditors are also players or former players for the Rangers. They are:

• Kevin Millwood, a pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles ($12.9 million);
• Rangers third baseman Michael Young ($3.9 million);
• Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Vicente Padilla ($1.7 million);
• Mickey Tettleton, who retired from the Rangers in 1997 ($1.4 million); and
• Mark McLemore, a former Rangers second baseman who retired from the Oakland A’s in 2004 ($970,000). "...

from Bloomberg, "Rangers creditors said to oppose sale to Ryan Group," Keehner and Helyar

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Yankees drop to 5th in home runs-Klapisch

5/25: "But Cashman won’t relent to the army of second-guessers, insisting “Johnny would’ve never signed with us for $8 million for one year [his current contract with Detroit]. He was beyond our price point. I tell people all the time, Johnny Damon was never a choice for us.” ....

• Certain tenets the team once considered irrefutable are now in jeopardy.

Alex Rodriguez’s declining home run numbers

The slugger has only six HRs in 165 at-bats this season, which works out to one every 27 at-bats. Since 1998, Rodriguez’s HR to at-bat ratio never has been higher than 16.7.

• A deeper look at the numbers reveal an unmistakable loss of power. Throughout his career, 23 percent of A-Rod’s fly balls have cleared the fences. This year, the percentage has dropped to 9.7 percent.

The Yankees say they’re not worried....

In the meantime, the Yankees have been less able to rely on home runs to bail them out. The

• No. 1 HR-hitting team in the majors last year

• has dropped to No. 5 this season, although the Bombers still lead the majors in runs.

A-Rod’s numbers have been in a subtle decline since his MVP season in 2007, when he hit 57 HRs. This year, he’s on pace for 24....

Derek Jeter’s shrinking walk-ratio

The captain is on a pace for a career low in walks – 40 or so, which would represent a steep decline from last year’s 72 and even bigger drop from the career-best 91 in 1999. That’s when the Yankees were at their best burning out opposing pitchers with long at-bats.

• Last year, Jeter averaged 3.84 pitches per plate appearance. This year, either because of aggressiveness or impatience, Jeter’s average has dropped to 3.55. Going to work earlier in the count hasn’t delivered much of a dividend, as his .396 slugging percentage is notably below his .455 career average.

Overall, his .320 on-base percentage is most damning as a leadoff hitter."...

• from Bob Klapisch column, NorthJersey.com, "The Yankees have cause for concern" 5/25, photo above AP file photo, reference in current article as 'underachievers'

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Google considers itself above government, accountable to no one-Australian Communications Minister

5/25: "(Australian) Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has lashed out at Google, accusing the internet giant of the single biggest breach of privacy in history.

• In recent weeks Google has been criticised after revelations that its Street View photo cars were also collecting information about people's wireless internet connections....

He says Google considers itself accountable to no-one and he has singled out the internet giant's chief executive, Eric Schmidt, for special criticism.

• "I think that the approach taken by Mr Schmidt is a bit creepy, frankly," Senator Conroy said.

"When it comes to their attitude to their own censorship, their response is simply, 'trust us'. That is what they actually state on their website: 'Trust us'."

• Several national privacy commissioners have raised concerns over Google's collection of wi-fi data, a practice which has ceased since it was made public.

Senator Conroy says Google considers itself to be above government.

• "They consider that they are the appropriate people to make the decisions about people's privacy data and that
• they are perfectly entitled to drive the streets and collect as much private information by photographing over fences and collecting data information," he said.

"This is probably the single greatest breach in the history of privacy."...

• "Google have admitted to doing this and claim it was a mistake in the software code," he said....

Google has also been a critic of the Government's proposed internet filtering plan, but Senator Conroy insists his comments are not payback."...

• from Australian Broadcasting Co., "Conroy slams 'creepy' Google" photo google camera in Amsterdam, afp

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Supreme Court rules unanimously that NFL is 32 teams, not single entity

"The high court reversed a lower court ruling throwing out an antitrust suit brought against the league by one of its former hat makers, who was upset that it lost its contract for making official NFL hats to Reebok International Ltd.

• American Needle, Inc. sued, claiming the league violated antitrust law because all 32 teams worked together to freeze it out of the NFL-licensed hatmaking business and
• gave Reebok an exclusive 10-year license.

The company lost and appealed to the Supreme Court but the NFL did as well, hoping to get broader protection from antitrust lawsuits."...

• "The N.B.A. and the N.H.L., which also do not have antitrust exemptions, wrote briefs in support of the N.F.L.’s argument.

• Major League Baseball has an antitrust exemption....

The (NFL) league had supported American Needle’s application for the Supreme Court to review the case, hoping that the Court would recognize the N.F.L. as a single entity, which might have prevented other antitrust challenges and could have allowed the league to argue that it was a single entity in other business transactions. ...

• The case will now go back to district court. There, American Needle will have to prove that the N.F.L.’s deal with Reebok led to higher prices or in other ways harmed consumers. Even if American Needle wins such an argument — which could take years to achieve — there is no guarantee it can win a contract with the N.F.L.

“This isn’t necessarily a ploy to get a license, this is to protect competition and consumers and right a wrong,” said Robert Kronenberger, the president of American Needle. “Whether or not we get a license is immaterial.”"...

• Newsday article from AP, J. Holland, 5/24, "Court: NFL is 32 teams, not single business"

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Yankees-Mets series gets big ratings-Neil Best

5/24, Neil Best: "The ratings for the Subway Series were strong over the weekend.

• Friday's game averaged a combined 9.48 percent of homes in the area,

• 5.04 on YES and 4.44 on SNY.

Saturday's game averaged 11.0 in New York, Fox's fifth-highest rating ever for New York in the regular season. (Nationally, Fox averaged a 3.6 in major markets for its prime time experiment, a three-year high for its Game of the Week.)

• Sunday's game averaged a 12.2 in New York,

ESPN's second-highest ever for New York in the regular season and best in 10 years."

• "American Needle sticks pin in NFL: Yankees, Mets get big ratings"

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Dave Matthews plays in MLB park, says Americans are racist, we 'can take a bike' or walk, and his driver dumps 800 lbs. of human waste into river

Dave Matthews says on worldwide television that Americans are racist, he says the average person who doesn't have to travel like he does "can take a bike" or walk, and presents himself as a martyr for global warming while his band was charged with dumping 800 pounds of human waste into the Chicago River and onto passengers in an open boat including an infant. This must be MLB's kind of guy. Matthews also got to perform in a top MLB ballpark known for environmental and political correctness, Fenway Park, in 2006 and 2009.

• top photo from 2009 Fenway Park concert,
• photos 2 and 3 from 2006 Fenway Park concert

1. Dave Matthews said on worldwide television that he thinks America is a bunch of racists, even if they don't act like it:

• 9/21/09, CNN: "There's a fairly blatant racism in America...-- I just see it everywhere. There's a good population of people in this country that are terrified of the president only because he's black, even if they don't say it. And I think a lot of them, behind closed doors, do say it."...

2. Dave Matthews at a press conference said his carbon footprint is necessary because of his line of work, but that others "can take a bike." (This aside from the fact that global warming does not exist. We all want clean air and water, but that is a separate issue from catastrophic CO2 endangerment caused by evil Americans who must pay billions in "climate reparations.") ed.

• 5/20/10, CNS News: "people who do not need to travel as much as he does with his band “can take a bike” or walk to help save the planet."

3. Dave Matthews band was found guilty of dumping 800 pounds of human waste into the Chicago River and onto a river boat filled with passengers in August 2004. Their bus driver denied doing it for months and Dave Matthews backed him. Finally video evidence confirmed the crime and Matthews' driver was forced to admit his guilt. 3.10.05, BBC: "The sewage poured onto the open deck of a cruiser that was carrying more than 100 passengers last August....

• Mr Wohl, 42, from Selma, Texas, originally denied discharging waste from Chicago's Kinzie Street Bridge.

But a surveillance camera at a nearby health club proved the bus was on the bridge at the time."...

• 3.10.05, "Band driver admits dumping sewage"

8.30.04, Dave Matthews Band issues letter saying they believe their driver was NOT guilty. via nancies.org

• 4.30.05, BBC, "The Dave Matthews Band has agreed to pay $200,000 (£105,000) after their tour bus dumped human waste on a boatload of tourists in Chicago.

The band's bus dumped the raw sewage while crossing a bridge over the Chicago River in August 2004.

Last month, the driver of the bus pleaded guilty to the charges.

• The band also agreed to take steps to avoid any repeat incident, by recording when and where its tour buses empty septic tanks."...

"Band settles over sewage dumping"

• 3.9.05, CBS News, Chicago: "When Wohl was charged, prosecutors said he had talked to investigators and denied discharging waste on the bridge, prosecutors said.

Authorities used surveillance tapes from area buildings to zero in on the bus and consulted with engineers to determine the waste release was not an accident....

• Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has also filed a civil lawsuit seeking $70,000 in damages against the band and driver alleging they violated state environmental laws. That case is ongoing, and the next court date is scheduled for next month, according to Madigan spokeswoman Melissa Merz."

"Dave Matthews' driver: I dumped" by J. Holguin

• 8.26.04, mtv.com "Authorities in Chicago are considering criminal charges against the Dave Matthews Band after reviewing surveillance footage of an August 8 incident in which the group's tour bus allegedly dumped human waste into the Chicago River.

Police Commander Michael Chasen said he's certain that the band's bus is the culprit, thanks to the footage, which was shot from nearby buildings and shows a bus crossing the bridge as a tour boat passes below (see "Dave Matthews Band Sued For Stinking Up Chicago River"). Criminal charges could include violations of public nuisance laws and ordinances to protect public health and safety, according to The Associated Press....

Around two-thirds of the passengers sitting on the upper deck of Chicago's Little Lady were hit with the falling waste, the Chicago Tribune reported. Five passengers went to Northwestern Memorial Hospital for testing...

The state of Illinois filed suit against the Dave Matthews Band and Wohl on Tuesday, alleging that they violated state water pollution and public they violated state water pollution and public nuisance laws. The suit seeks $70,000 in civil penalties.

Jerry Fitzpatrick, the driver initially accused of dumping the waste, told the Tribune that "the band is very environmentally conscious. We wouldn't want to have anything to do with this sort of thing."

The Dave Matthews Band is on tour through October 8, when the group's bus will stop at the University of Florida in Gainesville for the final show of the Vote for Change Tour (see "Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, Springsteen, Others Join Vote For Change Tour").

A spokesperson for the Dave Matthews Band could not be reached at press time."

by A. Rashbaum, "Dave Matthews Band may face criminal charges over bus stink"

8.25.04, "Dave Matthews Band spokesperson John Vlautin said of the incident, "Our driver has stated that he was not involved in this incident," and added that the band "will continue to be cooperative in this investigation."...

8.25.04: Smoking Gun: "the fetid August 8 cascade, which landed, the AG reported, on persons with disabilities, senior citizens, a pregnant woman, a small child and an infant.""

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'Carbon offsets' market compared to 'CIA at height of cold war, sabotaging whole nations'

"Suddenly, these forests they run become assets, and they are worth

• billions in a carbon market as offsets."...
• MLB games staging area for carbon offsets propaganda

Johann Hari subscribes to CO2 endangerment and that today's environmental movement will only make it worse. He notes the normal 'conservation' movement was derailed in the 1980's when 'green' groups started taking big money from polluters. Players mentioned include BP, WWF, the Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club, Duke Energy, American Electric Power (AEP), the El Paso Corporation.

• This information has long been in the public domain but not widely reported. Mr. Hari now realizes phony profiteers have had plenty of time to set up the carbon offsets industry under the guise of environmental compassion. (If one observes that CO2 isn't a danger in the first place, one is left with the same criminal carbon offsets industry. ed.)

Hari, 5/21: "For environmental groups to take funding from the very people who are destroying the environment is preposterous –

• yet in the US it is now taken for granted....

Charles Komanoff, who worked as a consultant for the Natural Resources Defense Council for 30 years, says:

• "We're close to a civil war in the environmental movement.

• For too long, all the oxygen in the room has been sucked out by this beast of these insider groups, who achieve almost nothing....

Yet when I ask her to explain how Conservation International justifies the conceptual holes in the entire system of offsetting,

• her answers become halting. ...

There is a broad rumble of anger across the grass-roots environmental movement at this position. ...

• "At Copenhagen, I couldn't believe what I was seeing," says Kevin Koenig of Amazon Watch, an organisation that sides with indigenous peoples in the Amazon basin to preserve their land.

"These groups are positioning themselves to be the middlemen in a carbon market. They are helping to set up, in effect, a global system of carbon laundering...

• that will give the impression of action,
• but no substance.

• You have to ask – are these conservation groups at all?

• They look much more like industry front groups to me."

So it has come to this. After decades of slowly creeping corporate entanglement,

some of the biggest environmental groups have remade themselves in the image of their corporate backers: they are putting profit before planet. ... At Copenhagen, their behaviour was so shocking that Lumumba Di-Aping, the lead negotiator for the G77 bloc of the world's rainforest-rich but cash-poor countries,

• compared them to the CIA at the height of the Cold War, sabotaging whole nations....

It seems the US "green" groups have come to see the world solely through the funnel of the US Senate and what legislation it can be immediately coaxed to pass. ... By definition, if a bill can pass through today's corrupt Senate, then it will not be enough to prevent catastrophic global warming. Why?

• Because the bulk of the Senate – including many Democrats – is owned by Big Oil and Big Coal. ...

As MacDonald says, "Not only do the largest conservation groups take money from companies deeply implicated in environmental crimes,

• they have become something like satellite PR offices for the corporations that support them."

• It has taken two decades for this relationship to become the norm among the big green organisations."...

from "Polluted by Profit: Johann Hari on the Real ClimateGate," IndependentUK, 5/21/10, via Climate Depot

• Much of this could have been avoided, but media chose not to report key information.
• Oil interests were invited to the "climate" party up front:

Saudi Arabia and oil interests lobbied intensely for election of UN climate chief Rajendra Pachauri to head the IPCC. It's in the Climategate emails, 4/19/2002.

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Harness Racing on Sirius 126, XM 243, Saturday nights

"Back in the sulky again: Dave Johnson's harness racing show --

• "Saturday Night at the Races" -- debuted on Sirius XM last night.

• It'll be heard for the next 10 weeks on Sirius 126 and XM 243 at 10 p.m."...

from NY Post column by Phil Mushnick, 5/23/10, ""YES voices wrong to rip Rays up 7-2 for bunting"

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Mexican state runs ad threatening Arizona in Arizona Republic

• Ad was discovered by a twitter message from Arizona Sheriff Arpaio on 5/21. via Michelle Malkin via Gateway Pundit. sonora tourism. Having fun, Bud?

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Arizona sing-a-long for people to read the bill

Top Obama officials noting they have not read the bill. 71% in Arizona now support the bill (Rasmussen). via Gateway Pundit.

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