Fireworks over Triborough Bridge through my kitchen window, 2010 and 2011 July 4th

• Below 2010 fireworks, above, 2011 version, June 30, 2011

• As well as can be seen through a Manhattan window,
• red fireworks above faint lights spanning Triborough Bridge
• 9:30pm

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Theft of radio tower copper wiring takes Houston Pacifica station off the air

• 6/30, KPFT Houston (Pacifica) back on the air after copper wiring theft from transmission tower. KPFT site says this kind of theft from radio towers is common around the country.

6/29, KTRK, "Copper thieves have knocked a local radio station off the air for most of its listeners. KPFT, or 90.1 on the FM dial, has been off the air since Sunday. The station's general manager says

• copper thieves broke into the station's transmission tower in northwest Harris County around midnight Sunday. They cut and stole wiring vital to the station's ability to broadcast.

The Harris County Sheriff's Office is investigating the incident...The station is still broadcasting in Galveston on FM 89.5 and available through a live stream at www.kpft.org."...

• via RadioDailyNews

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Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa supports Arizona law

• UPDATE: 7/4: Fox Sports MLB reporter crosses the line, suggests free agents might be affected by Tony LaRussa's opinion on Arizona law

6/30, KSDK TV: (Tony LaRussa): ""I'm actually a supporter of what Arizona's doing, you know, people don't fix your problem, and the government,

• national government doesn't fix your problem, and you've got a problem,

• they've got to take care of it themselves," said LaRussa."...

"Tea Party members show support for Arizona immigration reform at Cardinals game," KSDK TV 6/30, via Gateway Pundit

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Mo on Varick Street

• Mo Rivera spotted at 75 Varick Street on Wednesday,
• getty

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'Mariano Rivera, King of the Closers,' NY Times Magazine

7/4/10, "Before the seventh game of the 2003 American League Championship Series with the Boston Red Sox, Mariano Rivera, the New York Yankees star who is widely considered the greatest relief pitcher in the history of baseball, said a prayer. Rivera, a deeply religious man, prays with his family before every home game. But this was a special prayer, which he delivered within himself, because the two teams, so evenly matched, had fought their way down to this final contest.

• Rivera’s prayers remained unanswered until the bottom of the eighth inning, when, in one of the great comebacks in playoff history, the Yankees scored three runs against Boston’s ace, Pedro Martinez, to tie the game. Before heading for the mound, Rivera, the most stoical of athletes, had to leave the bullpen for a little shed nearby, where he proceeded, astonishingly, to weep.

“I feel a tremendous load on my shoulders,” Rivera recalled this past March, sitting in front of his locker at the Yankees’ spring-training camp in Tampa, Fla. Rivera was trying to convey something quite different from what that expression normally means. A closer, who generally comes into a game only in the highly pressurized ninth inning to finish off the opponent, must welcome the kind of burden most of us — and even some otherwise very effective pitchers ­— flee. “I know,” Rivera went on, “I am going to have a good opportunity to pitch.” Closers normally pitch one inning.

• That night, Rivera navigated his way through a supremely tense ninth inning. And then the 10th. And then, with the score still tied, the 11th. “It was always a battle,” Rivera said. “It was a beautiful game.” In the bottom of the 11th, Yankees third baseman Aaron Boone won the game, and the series, with a home run. And if he hadn’t? “Tell you what,” Rivera said, flashing a most unworshipful grin, “I would have gone out there again.”

In his 16th year with the Yankees, Mariano Rivera, who is 40, has become a kind of living god of baseball. While his regular-season statistics are remarkable, in postseason play, where the pressure is at its highest, he is sui generis. He holds the lowest earned-run average in postseason history (0.74) among pitchers with at least 40 innings pitched.

• On 30 occasions he has gone more than one inning to record a save; over the same period, all other pitchers combined have done so only a few more times more than Rivera alone.

In 2009, when he was thought to be slowing down and yielding his place to the Red Sox phenom Jonathan Papelbon, he pitched 16 innings in postseason play and gave up one run, while extending his career postseason saves record to 39 as the Yankees won the World Series."...

• from article, "Mariano Rivera, King of the Closers," by James Traub, above photo interactive diagram from NY Times Magazine article

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Philly sports radio follies-Philly Mag

• 6/25, "Game On," Philly Mag

"Heavyweight 610 WIP and upstart 97.5 The Fanatic are waging a furious battle for the city’s obsessed sports-radio listeners, but the real action is going on off the air. Here, the behind-the-scenes story of how Angelo threatened to walk, what staffers honestly think about Eskin, and, for the first time, what really happened the day Mikey Miss took a swing at his producer."...by Richard Rys

• 6/30, "Mike Miss Fires Back" Philly Mag

"One of the great things about having a Philly Post blog on phillymag.com is that when Philadelphia magazine writes a piece that involves you, you get to answer back. The story “Game On” in this month’s Philly Mag is a sometimes revealing and introspective look inside the Philadelphia sports talk radio wars

• between my station, 97.5 FM The Fanatic (and 950 ESPN for those of you who still only have AM radio), and the other sports talk radio station in town.

The story has an interesting hub: sports talk host from the other station is fired by that other station and surfaces at the new shop in town, where he comes back to beat his former station in the ratings and becomes part of a thriving new station. The fired sports-talk host who landed at the new station would be me."...by M. Missanelli

via SBD

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Time Magazine said with Obama we'd be 'safe' now, we could 'sleep' now. Day 70 of neglect, human and animal cruelty

• Obama will discuss possible 'arrangements' for accepting help, announced Tuesday, 6/29. After 70+ days. Previously he "saw no need," per the Washington Post.

• Cover, New Yorker Magazine, 11/17/2008

This ran immediately after Obama's election. Time Magazine among the breathless: "Why is the cover great? It doesn't do a victory dance. Rather, it whispers to the reader:

• "Everything's okay now — we have our country back."

It's set at night, a time when creepy things happen, but also a time when people sleep,

• safe and sound. It is beautifully rendered. Simply spectacular."...

After 70 days, many offers of help, almost none accepted, storm season now beginning, Obama reports today he'll consider aid from 12 countries.

• As of 6/14, he "saw no need" according to the Washington Post:

6/14, Washington Post, Eilperin: "Four weeks after the nation's worst environmental disaster, the Obama administration

• saw no need to accept offers of state-of-the-art skimmers, miles of boom or technical assistance from nations

around the globe with experience fighting oil spills."... photo of suffering, oil soaked bird from Boston Globe. photo of beach from Drudge Report. Time Magazine and its friends were quite wrong. It has been articulated in the Obama Justice Dept. It is "payback time" for America. Why not? No one in the political class objects.

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New Tivo-like device to pause and playback XM and Sirius radio

• 6/28, MacWorld

"TiVo has let us pause and replay live television for a while now, but what if you want to do the same with XM or SIRIUS radio? Now you can, thanks to

• Rogue Amoeba's new update for its XM and SIRIUS desktop client, Pulsar. Along with some interface improvements, the 2.0 update gives Pulsar the ability to pause,
• replay, or fast forward live radio.

Pulsar, which runs on Mac OS X 10.5 or higher, lets XM and SIRIUS customers tune in to their favorite channels without having to deal with clunky Web browser interfaces. The interface of the $20 app gives you station listings, information on what is currently playing, and station artwork. You can also save your favorite channels.

• With the version 2 update, you can pause live radio stations, and pick back up where you left off. You can also use a new Next Song command to skip songs you don't like, or jump backwards to catch something you might have missed, thanks to Pulsar’s enhanced buffering capabilities."...

"Pulsar update lets you pause and playback satellite radio," via RadioDailyNews

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G20 heavyweights drop pledges previously made in favor of climate profiteers

• 6/27, Earth Times, Toronto

"The leaders of the world's 20 most powerful developed and developing states (G20) on Sunday dropped a pledge to invest in climate-friendly energy generation from their final summit statement. ...

• Earlier drafts of the statement for the summit, which brought together the leaders of key states such as China, India and the United States, said that G20 members "reiterate our commitment to ... investments in clean energy."
• But that phrase was left out of the final version, which

• instead reiterated leaders' "commitment to a green recovery and to sustainable global growth."

G20 members are deeply at odds over the climate question. ..."The issue shows that the G20 can't do everything," one diplomat commented drily. Summit host Canada, in particular, has fought against approving overly ambitious language on clean energy. ...

• Environment group WWF reacted angrily to the omission. "They went through this document with a vacuum cleaner to remove any reference to clean energy. In the Pittsburgh G20 summit (in September 2009), there were 8 references to 'clean energy' -
• in this one, there is zero," WWF climate expert Kim Carstensen said. "...

The text also watered down a Pittsburgh pledge to phase out subsidies of fossil fuels. The final version said that that pledge should only apply to "inefficient" subsidies "that encourage wasteful consumption.""...

• "G20 summit drops clean energy pledge," Earth Times, via Tom Nelson

photo CaptainsQuarters

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Judge says he won't decide Texas Rangers case based on media wishes...

• 6/28, Forbes Sports Money, Maury Brown:

"“We will not decide based on what the fans want ... what the media wants ... what Mr. Ryan or Mr. Greenberg wants, or what (Baseball Commissioner) Bud Selig wants,” (Judge) Lynn declared from the bench.

• If the revised plan falls short of satisfactorily addressing the interests of all affected parties, “I will deny confirmation, and we’re back to square one, and it will be on the heads of those who support this motion.”

This was all before Stephen Shimshak, an attorney representing the Commissioner’s Office, let the following fly after the phone conference was done, not knowing that the call was still on.

• "If [Lynn] doesn’t confirm the plan we’ll just terminate the franchise.
• We'll take over the g--damn franchise."...

If the feeling of trepidation for the baseball interests in this case wind up to be true, as I reported for Forbes on Friday, the case becomes landmark as it will determine, not only for Major League Baseball, but all sports leagues,

• who has the right to (be) selected as an owner within a league format.

A week from Friday (July 9) is coming up fast on the calendar. It seems then, and only then, will we know exactly where Judge Lynn is leaning."

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Yankees anticipate Jeter and Mo back in 2011, Cashman hasn't spoken to Torre since book

• Updated with Levine and Cashman quotes via NY Post.

6/28, NY Times: "Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera will be in Yankees uniforms next year. That was the message Brian Cashman, the Yankees’ general manager, and Randy Levine, the team’s president, delivered Monday night.

• “Obviously, we don’t negotiate in public, but I would find it highly, highly unlikely if both of them are not back with the Yankees,”
• Levine said at the TimesCenter, in response to a question about their contracts, which expire this year. ...

Despite all the hugs between Joe Torre and the Yankees this weekend in Los Angeles,

• Cashman said he has not spoken to the team’s former manager since 2009,
• when Torre’s book, “The Yankee Years,” was released. "...by Ken Belson

Update, NY Post, 6/29/10 on Levine and Cashman remarks:

• Levine: "Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera are the Yankees."...

• Cashman on Rivera: ""It's going to be hell replacing him," Cashman said.
• "He has been the most meaningful Yankee during this stretch."...

Cashman and Levine on Torre:

• "The GM said he has not spoken with Torre since Torre's book came out. He praised the Dodgers manager professionally but said: "On a personal level, there's not much to speak to right now."

• Levine said Torre is welcome back at Yankee Stadium and said: "There is no animosity here.""

NY Post, "Levine: Jeter, Rivera will remain Yankees," by Brian Costello, 6/29/10

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Mo's strike zone chart, Sunday night Dodger game

• Strike zone chart for Mariano Rivera, 6/27 v Dodgers, via NYYFans.com,
• poster doesn't see big help given Rivera, sees the opposite in some cases.

UPDATE: 6/28: Russell Martin viewed the tape and said the pitch to which he objected was in fact a strike. ""I saw the replay, it was a strike on the corner. It’s just frustrating. I’d seen that pitch called a ball on us the previous inning, so …""

• from LA Times Dodgers blog, by Steve Dilbeck, "Russell Martin continues spiral as frustration for Dodgers catcher boils over," via Baseball Musings

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Late inning pressure situations, Yanks over Dodgers in 10

Granderson scores tying run in 9th, getty Torre arguing with home plate umpire Chris Guccione, 9th inning, 6/27, ap

• Torre restrained at home plate by 3B umpire in 9th,
• arguing strikes, with Garret Anderson who flied out.
• Garret Anderson was ejected in the 9th, Russell Martin in the 10th throws bat. 6/27 (below), getty

UPDATE: 6/28: Russell Martin viewed the tape and said the pitch to which he objected was in fact a strike. ""I saw the replay, it was a strike on the corner. It’s just frustrating. I’d seen that pitch called a ball on us the previous inning, so …""

• from LA Times Dodgers blog, by Steve Dilbeck, "Russell Martin continues spiral as frustration for Dodgers catcher boils over," via Baseball Musings

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'Hollywood Ending'-Newsday back cover

• Newsday back cover 6/28/10, Cano,
• Yanks come from behind to beat Dodgers 8-6

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5 to fill in on ESPN 1050 during Michael Kay July vacation

6/27, Mushnick: "With Michael Kay on radio vacation for two weeks next month (July), ESPN 1050 sub co-hosts, with Don La Greca, will include

• Osi Umenyiora, Al Trautwig, Gus Johnson, John Andariese and, here to sell his book, Pete Carroll."...

Keith Hernandez reveals how he stayed in shape as a player:

• "Once in a while, Keith Hernandez goes into free-form mode. Thursday night on SNY's Tigers-Mets, for example, after it was noted that Angel Pagan was missing a second game with right-side muscle spasms, Hernandez went for a dip in the stream of consciousness.

• "I never pulled a muscle in my torso. . . . When the coaches used to walk by [during spring training] I'd do my calisthenics, and then, when they turned their backs, I'd lay down. . . .

"You could not pay me enough money to do sit-ups . . . especially after a night out.""....

• from NY Post column by Phil Mushnick, "Pitchers can't command ball to be hit--and fielded"

6/27, Mushnick, Hundley says ESPN "a sexual harassment depot"

• "Brooke Hundley, the 22-year-old former ESPN production assistant who had an affair of some sexual sort with ESPN baseball analyst and ex-Mets’ GM Steve Phillips, 47, appeared last week on CBS’s “Early Show,” where she made not-nice to ESPN, called its Connecticut headquarters
• a sexual-harassment depot.

Of course, it’s unlikely that “Early Show”-rival “Good Morning America” would have been interested in such an interview, seeing how both ESPN and ABC are owned by Disney."...

• from NY Post column by Phil Mushnick, "OMG, stay tuned for the 4-1-1 on news!"

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Obama to Gulf coast Americans, Let me be clear: DROP DEAD.

• 6/26, "“Nobody’s in charge,” Taylor said.

“Everybody’s in charge, so no one’s in charge.""

• No oil skimmers sighted in flight over Mississippi. This is a crime by any definition. Easily preventable destruction. (Dead silence from Beltway elected representatives of the people).

McClatchy, "Gulfport, Miss.: "A morning flight over the Mississippi Sound showed long, wide ribbons of orange-colored oil for as far as the eye could see and acres of both heavy and light sheen moving into the Sound between the barrier islands. What was missing was any sign of skimming operations from Horn Island to Pass Christian.

• U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor got off the flight angry.

"It’s criminal what’s going on out there," Taylor said minutes later.

• "This doesn’t have to happen.”

A scientist onboard, Mike Carron with the Northern Gulf Institute, said with this scenario, there will be oil on the beaches of the mainland.

• “There’s oil in the Sound and there was no skimming,” Carron said.
• “No coordinated effort.”

Taylor said it was a good thing he didn’t have a mic in the helicopter, because he might have said some things he didn’t want his children to hear.

• “They’re paying all these boats to run around like headless chickens,” Taylor said, as reporters gathered to hear his assessment of the Sound.

There has been hope among state officials the islands would stop a lot of the oil and skimmers could take care of the passes or breaks between the islands.

• Horn Island was doing its part Saturday, observers pointed out. The wiggly lines of sheen were coming straight at it from the south, headed for the island’s southern beaches. The island had boom in place to protect the inlets and sensitive wetlands along its northern shore, the side that faces the mainland.

• Even the Pascagoula River was doing its part.

Carron pointed out the line where the river’s fresh water met the Sound’s salt water near Horn Island. All along the line was the orange oil caught between the two types of water and held at bay.

• But where the failure came was in the human effort.

There were dozens of boats of all sizes running around, some leaving trails through the sheen. Two boats among a group near Ship Island were pulling boom in a line, but not using it to round up oil. That was at 10 a.m.

• Taylor slipped a note to a fellow passenger.

It said: “I’m having a Katrina flashback. I haven’t seen this much stupidity, wasted effort, money and wasted resources, since then.”

• Back on land in Gulfport, Taylor let loose.

“A lot of people are getting paid to say, ‘Look! There’s oil’ and not doing anything about it,” Taylor said. “There shouldn’t be a drop of oil in the Sound. There are enough boats running around.

• “Nobody’s in charge,” Taylor said. “Everybody’s in charge, so no one’s in charge.

“If the president can’t find anyone who can do this job,” he said, “let me do it.”

• Taylor and U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., took the morning flight on a National Guard helicopter with representatives of the state DEQ and BP.

After the flight Wicker said he feels it’s not too late for President Barack Obama to accept help from other countries that have offered the services of their large oil-skimming boats.

• Wicker blamed bureaucracy and the president, but said, “Mississippi has been a champ from the beginning of this.”

He also said he noticed BP has been slow to accept prevention plans from local governments.

• Taylor was ready for action.

Katrina wasn’t preventable, he said, but

• the disaster of oil reaching Mississippi beaches is preventable.

He had said earlier that if organized right, he believed a lot of small boats, working hard and working together, could contain the floating oil.

• Instead, the vessels of opportunity seem to have no game plan.

There should be some light aircraft spotting for and guiding them, said Carron, who was also puzzled by the response. “I don’t really understand it all.”

• Before he took the flight, Taylor said, he had submitted a detailed plan of action to BP and the Coast Guard commander. He was on the Coast on Saturday to see if any of it was being carried out —

• it addressed ways to solve the lack-of-communication issues between spotters and skimmers.

He was scheduled to go aboard a boat in the Sound to see the situation from that perspective as well.

Taylor was concerned Coast Guard Cmdr. Jason Merriweather, assigned to Mississippi,

• doesn’t have the authority to act independently;

that he reports to the Unified Command in Mobile; and that all his decision are filtered through that group.

• Carron said he was just as concerned with whether there’s submerged oil coming in with the orange floating bands.

And all the while the NOAA trajectories for where the oil is heading get progressively grim for Mississippi.

• Saturday’s briefing projected oil would be on the beaches of the barrier islands, the Chandeleurs, in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. For Sunday the projection of beached oil showed thicker lines as the bulk of the oil body moved closer.

For Monday the projection was more of the same, except it included a red X at Bay St. Louis, meaning the forecast is oil will reach the mainland there."

• "No skimmers in sight as oil floods into Mississippi waters," by Karen Nelson, Biloxi Sun Herald photo AP via Gateway Pundit

UPDATE 6/26: "Because the U.S. didn't want Dutch ships working the Gulf, the U.S. airlifted the Dutch equipment to the Gulf and then retrofitted it to U.S. vessels. And rather than have experienced Dutch crews immediately operate the oil-skimming equipment,

• to appease labour unions the

• U.S. postponed the clean-up operation to allow U.S. crews to be trained."...

from, "Avertible Catastrophe," Financial Post by Lawrence Solomon, 6/26 via Gateway Pundit

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Umpire admits missing call on Damon with bases loaded

6/27, AP: "Detroit manager Jim Leyland says another umpire is accepting responsibility for a blown call that went against the Tigers.

• Leyland says Gary Cederstrom acknowledged he erred when he called a third strike on Johnny Damon(notes) that ended the Atlanta Braves’ 4-3 win over the Tigers on Saturday night with the bases loaded.

Replays showed the full-count pitch from Peter Moylan(notes) was outside. A walk would have tied the game.

• Leyland said Sunday he called Cederstrom after the game and the umpire said, “‘I kicked it. I knew it right away.”’"...

"Leyland says Cederstrom admits missing call," by Charles Odum

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China says internet is 'complicated,' bans 2.3 million soldiers from blogging

6/26, BBC: "China has banned its 2.3 million soldiers from internet blogging, state media report.

• A new regulation prohibits the People's Liberation Army (PLA) from creating websites or blogs, citing confidentiality concerns, the official Xinhua news agency says.

China operates vast internet censorship, dubbed the "great firewall of China".

• Websites deemed sensitive by the government are routinely blocked.

"Soldiers cannot open blogs on the internet no matter (whether) he or she does it in the capacity of a soldier or not," Xinhua quoted Wan Long, a political commissar of the PLA, as saying.

• "The internet is complicated and we should guard against online traps".

The directive, which went into effect on 15 June, also banned military employees from placing job-hunting or lonely hearts advertisements in the media."

• photo caption from BBC/AFP photo, Communist Chinese army is the largest in the world.

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Ace in a rush

6/26, NY Times: "On Saturday, Santana did not give the impression he was worried about his recent performances.

• But after a taxing week, he seemed in a hurry to leave the clubhouse. He spoke with reporters for less than five minutes before the session ended.

He then turned to a Mets official and asked,

• “Are we done?”"

"Santana's rough week ends with another loss," M. Viera

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Hideki Matsui hits grand slam in first inning v Rockies

• Hideki Matsui greets team mates after hitting grand
• slam in first inning of the Rockies-Angels game, 6/26, ap

• Giambi greets Matsui, Rockies at LAA, 6/25, reuters

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Prince Harry throws first pitch in NY Mets game

• bottom with Fred Wilpon, 6/26/10, getty

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Mel Stottlemyre has interesting perspective on Torre-Harper

• 6/26, NY Daily News back cover

6/26, Harper, NY Daily News: "He (Torre) sounded convincing, as he always does, and yet earlier Friday Mel Stottlemyre, Torre's close friend and former pitching coach, was saying quite the opposite over the phone.

• "If the Yankees decided to honor Joe in some way anytime soon, I think Joe would refuse," Stottlemyre said. "That's just my opinion, but I've talked to him enough to know how he feels about some things.

"I just hope time heals the wounds, on both sides, really. I think maybe it will, at least for Joe. I don't know about the other side."...

• Torre can't forgive his former bosses for what he sees as forcing him out after a 12-year run as Saint Joe. The Yankee hierarchy can't forgive him for what it considers betrayal in the form of his controversial book, "The Yankee Years."

Stottlemyre has a unique perspective on it as a fierce Torre loyalist on one side but also as a highly regarded former Yankee who maintains relationships with members of the organization.

• And while he has been disheartened by the whispers he hears of Yankee people now trying to belittle Torre's value in winning all those championships,

• he also sounds as if he wished Torre had taken more time before writing a book that crossed

• some old-school lines in regard to clubhouse sanctity.

"I read the book and there were some things I was sort of surprised by," Stottlemyre said. "I'm

• pretty sure Joe wrote that book somewhat in anger."...

...You won't get an argument about Torre's accomplishments from GM Brian Cashman, the man who feels perhaps most personally wounded by Torre's book. "Joe's legacy as a Yankee is safe and secure," Cashman said Friday. "He was great here."...

• "Dodgers Manager Joe Torre and NY Yankees hierarchy show no signs of repairing rift"

• Arod following 6th inning solo home run, reuters

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NRDC spokesman Robert Redford has disconnected view of Gulf oil rig explosion and sports

"It was at a 2003 meeting of the NRDC board meeting at Sundance that actor and conservationist Robert Redford first devised this new strategy.

• "We have to go to sports," Redford said."

We all want clean air, clean water, and to preserve our environment. We don't need the new political system being promoted by MLB favorite and NRDC trustee Robert Redford, the rest of NRDC, and vast corporate interests.

• An NRDC trader says trillions of dollars will be needed in global warming transition,

Bloomberg, 12/4/09: "Companies need the financial markets to help them drive down their greenhouse gas emissions at a reasonable price, says the NRDC’s Andy Stevenson.

• “There are trillions of dollars needed to make this transition, and companies need the banks,”

• says Stevenson, a former trader for London-based hedge fund firm Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP."

Behind the talk about clean air, children, and helpless animals are business profits and political turnover bigger than most of us could imagine. Baseball players and fans should not exploited to advance this movement.

• 6/22, Robert Redford said on CNN this week that problems such as the Gulf oil spill stem from Dick Cheney setting up the MMS, the oil oversight bureau.Reporters checked into personnel at MMS and as it happens not one involved in BP oversight was appointed by the Bush administration, most were decades long federal employees although one in question was promoted during the Bush years.

Bush and Cheney deserve blame for many things, but problems will never be looked into and solved if you use them as a blanket excuse for everything. Have Redford and the NRDC demanded Obama return money oil companies gave him? No, so they have no credibility on this topic.

• MLB has given Robert Redford and NRDC special access to promote his views about the environment at least some of which are not accurate.
• MLB co-sponsored a Redford video played to fans in Fenway Park about his views on the environment (4/21/2008 NYDN article).
• Redford and NRDC ran a blaring video at Yankee Stadium during the 2009 playoffs according to a fan:

10/19/09, "Last night I was at Yankee Stadium watching the Yanks exciting extra-inning playoff win. Along with 50,000 other shivering fans we had to endure a scoreboard message from Robert Redford sponsored by the National Resources Defense Council demanding that we lower our standard of living to stop global warming.

• The volume was turned on so loud that Redford's voice could be heard above the howling wind and freezing rain of a mid- October evening in New York City. "...

NRDC's mission statement says global warming is political, that environmental injustice is unfairly

• "borne by people of color and others who face social and economic inequalities." They are about forcing the transfer of money from industrial nations (the bad guys) to unknown and unaccountable persons in the third world and/or their helpers in the endless "climate" industry (including groups like the WWF which displace masses of indigenous people and land).

Brutal equatorial dictators and their enablers have been cashing in on do-gooder instincts of Americans for many years. Because of global warming (which does not exist), we are told we're still bad and must give billions more every year. But the climate profiteers are good, trust them. The NRDC also promotes carbon trading programs in states and regions.

• 4/21/08, NY Daily News: "A public service video, narrated by Redford and co-sponsored by MLB, will be shown."...

As referenced above, fans are a captive audience to be convinced of a political theory involving the transfer of trillions of dollars. (One can read about NRDC's and Redford's activities).

• In NRDC and Redford's view, clean air and water are only possible by submitting to the global climate industry, already infested with organized crime, and which rests on the false assumption that US citizens are climate criminals

responsible for sinking islands in the Indian Ocean for which we must pay billions in perpetuity.

• Redford spoke to the George Soros climate pressure group Ceres in April 2009

and reportedly said one of the 3 reasons Al Gore's 2006 movie was a turning point was:

• "Wall Street realized there was money to be made in 'going green.'"

• Redford may know about Wall Street, but his recent CNN interview shows lack of command of other facts of life on planet earth. ****

11/1/05: "Among other things, the NRDC is a boutique law firm of lawyers who practice only environmental law....

• In fact, in its 35 year history, the NRDC has surpassed all other political action, citizens', and trade groups in "pro-environment" victories and accomplishments -- many of them
• through litigation."...***

Reference: 6/21, "Pelosi's lame blame game: No 'burrowed in' Bush appointees oversaw Deepwater Horizon," Washington Examiner.

• Reference, NY Daily news article 4/21/08, "Shea, Meadowlands among facilities helping spread green message," by Filip Bondy

As a point of interest, The NYDN writer enthuses about

• sports as laboratories for 'eco-ignorant masses':

"It is an ecological horror show, and the one good thing that can be said about our favorite pastimes is that these

• sports are becoming fresh laboratories for reform. People in high and visible places

• from Robert Redford to Bud Selig -

have come to understand that America's games can spur change among corporate partners and even among

• the eco-ignorant masses."...

Reference, Bloomberg News, 12/4/09, "Carbon Capitalists warming to climate market using derivatives"

• A CITGO OIL COMPANY Plaque IS ENSHRINED IN THE NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME. MLB.com, 7/18/06

Note: The global warming movement has succeeded mainly by using

• ridicule to silence anyone who dared question it.

• Many people are unwilling or unable to stand up to ridicule. This is my observation. ed.

• photo above from CaptainsQuarters

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'Green' energy company sends bomb parts to author who revealed 'green jobs' collapse

People in the 'green' movement are so nice. Except when they think they might be losing their US taxpayer funded gravy train.

• 'Green' solar company sends bomb parts and threats to Dr. Gabriel Calzada in further retaliation for exposing the collapse of Spain's touted government driven 'green jobs' industry.

6/24: "If the skepticism that Calzada’s revelations prompted were to prevail in the U.S.,

• Spanish industry would face collapse should U.S. subsidies and mandates dry up....

Following the release of Calzada’s report, Spain’s Socialist government has since acknowledged the debacle — both privately and publicly. This month, Spain’s government instituted massive reductions in subsidies to “renewable” energy sources."...by Christopher Horner, via Climate Depot ***

• Obama praised Spain as a model to emulate for a "green" society, lots of government subsidized renewables business, but it has already failed miserably, see below, 5/21/10, La Gaceta, Unemployment is at 20%. "Spain admits that the green energy as sold to Obama is a disaster,"(text from article by Cristina Blas on attached blog).

• La Gaceta, 5/21/10.
• Spain unemployment 20%, 4/30/10.

(If it sounds mean to not want to give free "taxes" to crooks, substitute "precious time and energy" for the word taxes. ed.)

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Withholding begged for use of skimmers and berms on US coast pays off for Obama-Pensacola Beach now closed

UPDATE, 6/26: Obama to Gulf State Americans, Let me be clear: DROP DEAD. (Still zero skimmers along Mississippi.)

• 6/24, AP: "A popular section of Pensacola Beach has been closed because of oil that washed ashore there.

Government officials closed about a quarter-mile section of Casino Beach on Thursday. Thick pools of oil washed ashore there Wednesday.

• Workers ran yellow tape 75 yards back from the water. Officials say the area was closed because heavy equipment is being brought in to clean up the mess.

Normally, there would have been hundreds of people on the sands and in the water but on Thursday only two sunbathers and a few people who had come to see the oil were in the area when the beach was closed."

• "Pensacola Beach closed because of oil spill," WWSB TV 7, Sarasota, Fla., via Gateway Pundit. photo from WWSB

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Arizona has some Yankee fans

Fans cheer Granderson's home run in the 10th v the Diamondbacks, 6/23/10, getty. Final score 6-5, Yankees.

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Jason Giambi pinch hit game winning home run v Red Sox in Colorado

Varitek watches Giambi home run 6/23, ap after Giambi's home run v Red Sox to win game. reuters with manager Jim Tracy, 6/23 after walk-off home run, ap

• 6/23, Rockies win 8-6. Giambi with Mike Lowell
• before Tuesday's 6/22 game in Colorado. ap

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The AP could act like an actual news outlet by telling the facts about the 'new' Arizona law instead of taking sides against the people

The AP makes a dramatic portrayal in a caption, says the Arizona law is controversial, MLB is at risk, etc. Not true. The Arizona law uses the same wording as existing federal law...which is not being enforced? And that the worst that will happen to anyone is they will be asked for ID. End of story.

• The AP neglects to say that large sections of Arizona have been permanently closed since 2006 due to uncontrollable illegal alien violence which is getting worse. The map below shows the land already lost due to Mexican violence the US cannot control. Is the AP in favor of criminals taking over Arizona and the US? Is it not suicidal to be focusing on ID cards instead of real danger? Even Arianna Huffington knows the bottom line.

6/23, AP, "State Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, center, discusses his proposed resolution calling on California to begin an economic boycott of Arizona over its controversial immigration law, at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, June 23, 2010. More than 40 lawmakers have signed on as co-authors of Cedillo's resolution that opposes

• the Arizona law requiring law enforcement officers to check the citizenship of

anyone they believe might be in the country illegally."... (This is not accurate!)

• (continuing, AP): "If approved, the resolution would call on the state to issue a travel advisory, cease California investments in Arizona and

urge Major League Baseball to reconsider having Arizona host the 2011 All-Star Game."

• AP sides with the government against the people in their sad description here. ed.

6/22: Jon Voight to Obama:

• "You have brought to Arizona a civil war."

• Arizona border, 3/16/09, from Now Public

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