Politics and baseball

1. What? Is this Hillary Clinton saying something ballsy?... "Let me just put this in perspective: If HIV-AIDS were the leading cause of death of white women between the ages of 25 and 34 there would be an outraged, outcry in this country," said the New York senator. Yes, it was. And then I double-checked, and she was speaking at Howard University, a historically black college. I'll give her some credit when she actually goes out on a limb sometime. What a thermometer she is (a thermometer checks the temperature of a room and adjusts accordingly, whereas a thermostat sets the temperature of the room). One of my fears this election is that I'll be forced to vote for a retread like Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, or John Edwards.

2. The Supreme Court ruling to disallow diversity plans in school assignment is some scary shit. Our nation's schools are already more segregated than during the time of Brown vs. Board of Education, and these diversity plans were just attempting to combat this rampant segregation where it could be done. A bunch of white parents decided to fight it, saying they don't want a bunch of brown kids to go to their white school, and the Supreme Court just - shockingly and sadly - backed them up. As Barack Obama said yesterday, "Until we view them as our children, and not their children, we'll never see progress."

3. Fred Thompson scares the shit out of me. I waited on these nice people from New Mexico the other day, and I couldn't help but steer the conversation to politics. "So, what do you think about your governor running for President?", I asked them, and they proceeded to tell me why Bill Richardson was a heinous liar about many things, and then told me that they were going to Fred Thompson. "Oh, really? Why do you like him?," I asked nicely. "Oh, he just seems to honest and like a regular guy, and I liked him on that show." It's amazing how Republicans can denounce Hollywood types like Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon from being involved in the political process, but there are much more right-winged Hollywood types actually involved in real politics these days on that side. It's not about the Hollywood types; it's about who you agree with.

4. Was anyone else watching the Yankees/Orioles game yesterday? The umps suspended the game after Derek Jesus delivered the two run single in the 8th inning to give the Yank-Mes the lead. It was a ludicrous decision, as the chopper up the middle would have been fielded if the game was dry. The rain was pouring at that point, and it just should been called. Melvin Mora was hopping mad about it, and I don't blame him for a second; apparently he was tossed from the game. I have to believe the Yankees are paying off the umpires for those kinds of moves.