October 16, 2013 archive

The good news for the Dodgers is that shortstop Hanley Ramirez will be playing today despite a busted rib that happened in Game 2 when he was Hit By Pitch.  The bad news is that despite his willingness to play injured he was entirely ineffective in Game 4, striking out 3 times.

Other than that and the fact they kept it reasonably close in Game 4 there’s not much good news at all.  The Cardinals scored first in the 3rd inning off a Single, a Sacrifice, an RBI Double, another Sacrifice, and a 2 Run Homer.  It would turn out to be all the scoring they needed.  The Dodgers pulled within 1 on the 4th with a Leadoff Double, a Walk, an RBI Single, a Sacrifice and another RBI single. Nolasco was pulled for a Pinch Hitter, but that never works.  Things stayed quiet until the 7th when the Cards added an insurance run from a Solo Shot by Robinson, wait for it, Pinch Hitting for Maness.  St. Louis 4 – 2, lead Series 3 – 1.

I’m not always right.

The Dodgers are up against it now.  They face elimination at home tonight and then twice in Busch Stadium.  They’ll be counting on the arm of Zack Greinke (15 – 4, 2.63 ERA R) who’s currently pitching even better than that against Joe Kelly (10 – 5, 2.69 ERA R) who is not.  If the Series extends you’ll see Kershaw and Ryu again who’ve proven no slouches in the post-season.

What they really need is offense in a Series that hasn’t shown much with the Dodgers scoring 7 times in 4 games against St. Louis’ 8.

So Dodgers fans, it hasn’t been a blow out by any means.  I wish you good luck.

Senate moving toward vote on budget deal

By BURGESS EVERETT, JAKE SHERMAN and MANU RAJU, Politico

10/16/13 9:30 AM EDT Updated: 10/16/13 2:28 PM EDT

The bill will barely scathe Obamacare and putting it on the floor will mark a huge concession by the House after sparking a prolonged government shutdown over insistence that the health care law be defunded or delayed as a condition to keep the government open. Dozens of conservatives in the House will be disappointed by the proposal.

The plan includes a proposal offered by McConnell in the 2011 debt ceiling crisis that allows Congress to disapprove of the debt ceiling increase, which means lawmakers will formally vote on whether to reject a debt ceiling increase until Feb. 7. Obama can veto that legislation if it passes. If Congress fails as expected to gather a two-thirds majority to override the veto, the debt ceiling would be raised.

The deal would also deliver back pay to furloughed federal workers, require income verification for people seeking health-insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act and also allow the Treasury Department to use extraordinary measures to pay the nation’s bills if Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling by Feb. 7.

McConnell was pushing hard to include language to give federal agencies more flexibility to implement the sequester, something Reid was objecting to Wednesday morning, sources say. Democrats argue that provision would make it harder to eliminate the sequester in the future and it was not included in the final package. A new round of sequester cuts will be enacted in January without further congressional action, mostly hitting the defense side of spending.

A Big Political and Procedural Victory for Democrats, But Not a Policy Win

By: Jon Walker, Firedog Lake

Wednesday October 16, 2013 8:19 am

After weeks of a needless shutdown the Republican party has folded. It sounds like the bill that will go before the House soon is a complete and total surrender from their original position on defunding Obamacare. There is no other way to frame it. The only “concession” they got from the actual shutdown was beefed up income verification on the exchanges. Basically, they shut down the government to ask President Obama to enforce and implement Obamacare more quickly.

…

This is not though a policy win for Democrats or progressives. This is a bad bill to end a bad month. The shutdown itself did real and needless damage to the American people. The government will also be funded at sequester levels, which is terrible for the economy but something Democrats already agreed to weeks before the shutdown started.

The irony is if Republican didn’t overplay their hand they could have been celebrating a real policy win on spending levels. Instead they come away looking crazy, incompetent, and weak.

There are those who are disappointed that Malala Yousafzai didn’t win this year’s Nobel Peace prize, particularly after her meeting with Barack Obama where she stated the obvious truth that unrestricted and unjustified by international law drone strikes by the United States on innocents, especially women, children, and ‘double tap’ strikes on first responders, is increasing, not decreasing anti-U.S. sentiment and terrorist activity.

It’s a sad commentary that a 16 year old has a better grasp of the facts than our political leadership, especially including Obama and the ‘best and brightest’ senior members of his Administration and the institutional Democratic Party.

And certainly her personal story and the sacrifices she has made to educate women in a culture where they are mostly viewed as the chattel slaves of men is compelling.

On the other hand the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons did as much as anyone outside the official United Nations mission and the British House of Commons to thwart the growing D.C. Beltway conventional wisdom consensus to expand a disastrous civil war in Syria with misguided at best intervention by the Great Powers of Britain, France, and the United States that would surely have resulted in humanitarian catastrophe for the Syrian population (but who gives a damn about brown people anyway) and quite possibly ignominious defeat (Iraq was such a success and arming Al-Queda and Taliban mujahideen with MPADS is so clearly a good idea) or a wider Mideast (hear that Saudis?) or perhaps even global thermonuclear war (the Russians and Chinese don’t play tiddly winks).

At 120+ I’m old enough to remember what it’s like to live in the over pressure confluence of New York and Boston and the casualties make 9-11 look like a bathroom slip and fall (which incidently do kill more people every year than all terrorist incidents since and including the attack on the World Trade Center).

We have the sense of proportion of a Fairy Cake.  I’m so (not) sorry you couldn’t get your next war on you NeoCon Nazis.

If you’re a Dodgers fan you’ve got to be feeling a little happier about your prospects tonight.  As for me my biggest real problem with them is I don’t have a cute video I can use like Squirrels in my Pants the way I do for the Cardinals.

Now if you’re a Cardinals fan on the other hand you can’t be well pleased with last night’s game.  Wainwright didn’t pitch like a stopper (for those unfamiliar with the term a stopper is a guy who stops losing streaks by pitching shut outs and one runs) and Ryu did.  In the 4th Wainwright delivered up a Leadoff Double followed by a Sacrifice and an RBI Double.  Another Sacrifice and an RBI Triple and it’s 2 – 0 Dodgers.

They pulled Wainwright in the 8th for a pinch hitter (have I mentioned they never work?) and the Dodgers added insurance off the Bullpen with three 1 Out Singles in succession scoring a Run before Choate was able to shut down the rally.  Dodgers 3 – 0, trail in the Series 2 – 1.

Tonight once again the Cardinals have a chance to force 3 elimination games on the Dodgers.  The L.A. boys will be sticking with Ricky Nolasco (13 – 11, 3.70 ERA R) after flirting with the concept of sending out Zack Greinke or Clayton Kershaw on short rest.  The Cardinals will counter with Lance Lynn (15 – 10, 3.97 ERA R) who’s main claim to post-season fame is the 2 innings (with W) he worked in the Cards 13 inning Game 1 victory.

Hmm, maybe I do have a cute video for the Dodgers after all.

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