He was due for a letdown after his marvelous ten-game run, and especially after the previous night's 52-point effort in their double-OT win over Houston. Desperately battling fatigue and attempting to carry a Shaq-less team on his shoulders, Kobe Bryant was held to only 40 points in last night's 93-87 win in Utah. Sometimes, even the great ones slump.

Did you know that gay men are having consensual sex at the University of California? Well, one right-wing affirmative action diva didn't, so she writes this column. [link via Pandagon]

In case any of you missed The Shield last night, my new favorite actress, Melanie Lynskey, once again lit up the screen with her presence, portraying a gorgeous young woman with a dismemberment fetish. She's awfully young to keep getting typecast as a psycho killer, though.

The most important thing to come out of Arizona since Mo Udall and Byron Scott, "Them Durn Librals", is back, with a name change ("Soapbox Canyon") and a shiny new haircut.

The perils of publishing: yours truly gets taken to the woodshed by Charles Kuffner over my recent piece about Michigan basketball at Off-Wing Opinion. Doesn't he understand that if the Wolverines are banned from the tournament this year, the terrorists win? My response to follow....

Memo to the Washington Post: if you really want to convince Democratic Senators to end the filibuster against Miguel Estrada, do not use one of the most corrupt judges in the federal judiciary, Lawrence Silberman, as your key witness.

Having seen Magic and Michael at their peaks, I can say without qualification that Kobe Bryant's last ten games have been the greatest exhibitions of pure basketball I've ever seen. Tonight's performance (52 points, including all 9 in the first OT) in the Lakers' 106-99 double-overtime win over Houston made him the first player since Jordan to score 35 points in ten consecutive game, and may have been the most impressive game of his career.

John Kerry is being set up to be the Al Gore of this election, attacked not for the substance of his views but for trivial personality quirks. Apparently, Kerry, who recently discovered that a grandfather of his was Jewish, is being attacked because the Boston Globe referred to him several times over a twenty-year period as "Irish", and he supposedly didn't demand a retraction. A grave sin, to be sure; I mean, do you want someone facing down Saddam, cutting the federal deficit, or aiding the underclass if he doesn't write irate letters to the hometown newspaper everytime it gets his ethnicity wrong. In any event, it's like George Bush not demanding a correction from a newspaper everytime he's referred to as a "successful businessman".

In any event, there is an undercurrent of anti-Semitic/Our Crowd snobbishness in the attack on Senator Kerry, and after what happened in the last Presidential campaign and in the Whitewater "investigation", it is safe to say that the Washington press corps is neither a very good judge of character nor a reliable barometer of truthfulness. I have no preference in the 2004 campaign as of yet, but Senator Kerry has already chosen the right enemies: if the Media Heathers don't like you, you might have what it takes to be a great President !!!

An interesting column here takes the media to task for enabling the anti-Asian bigotry of Howard Coble, Shaquille O'Neal, et al. Much of the stereotyping resembles that of classic anti-Semitism, in which evidence of academic or financial success is indicative of the group's duplicity, with no less poisonous a result.

The stunning death of Baltimore Oriole rookie Steve Bechler has once again raised the issue of whether sports teams adequately monitor heatstroke. Bechler is the third athlete in two years to die of heatstroke: Corey Stringer and Rashidi Wheeler, two football players, died in 2000 following lengthy practices. As with Stringer and Wheeler, Bechler was seriously overweight, and the use of the weight-loss drug ephedrine is suspected as having been a contributing factor. He was 23 years old.

Obesity seems to be a distinguishing characteristic of the modern athlete. As Sports Illustrated noted several weeks ago, Warren Sapp has become a role model for other football linemen, weighing in at a not-so-slender 303 lbs (the Raider he bested in the Super Bowl, Frank Middleton, tips the scales at an even more corpulent 360 lbs !) On the other hand, Mo Vaughn has seen a certain Hall of Fame career go into the proverbial toilet as his weight has ballooned, and the Lakers' chances of winning a fourth straight title were shattered when Shaq was unable to get himself into shape at the start of the season.

Fat athletes usually are the subject of good-natured ridicule; George Foreman has practically built a second career out of his love for food. Not too long ago, the LA Clippers had two 300 pound centers, Stanley Roberts and John "Hot Plate" Williams, neither of whom could last more than five minutes out on the court. Local basketball fans always got a good laugh out of that, ignoring the fact that both men were taking severe health risks by playing an arduous sport while out of shape. It may take the death of a young athlete to force teams to view this problem more seriously.

Another blogger has nailed the social and cultural phenomenon that is J-Garn. But remember, I saw her first !!

Every Sunday, readers of the Los Angeles Times are treated to vanity ads featuring some philanthropic achievement by Donald Sterling. Usually, its something along the lines of the Police Protective League granting the uber-landlord and Clippers owner their "Humanitarian of the Year" award at a dinner next week, where he will be feted by the likes of Norm Crosby, Billy Crystal, Al Davis, and other similar worthies. I can't believe anyone actually contributes money to those charities after seeing these pathetic cries for help; basically, the ads exist to justify the continued existence of Mr. Sterling, who otherwise could not provide a reason to the basketball fans of the city to not publicly stone him.

I attended my first (and last) Clippers game of the season Saturday night. Lord, what an awful franchise. In terms of raw talent, they probably have more good players right now than the Lakers; if Shaq and Kobe were injured, the difference wouldn't even be close. Elton Brand and Andre Miller are good young players, and Lamar Odom and Michael Olowakandi have shown flashes of brilliance. But even though the Lakers have just completed a dreadful first half, barely rising above the .500 mark, the Clippers are even worse, 7 games behind their co-tenants at the Staples Center. The team plays with no heart, no spirit, and it is evident that the players view their current predicament with no concern; as Ron Harper said years ago, he's just serving out his prison sentence. Sterling will not spend the money to keep good players, or do anything to indicate that he is serious about winning. But when it comes to hyping his philanthropy with cheesy ads, he has a deep pocket.

My first article at Off-Wing Opinion is up and presentable, and can be found here. Lots of pressure, now having to write something that more than a dozen people are going to read.

Los Angeles' worst sportswriter, Bill Plaschke, has decided to go after one of the last Los Angeles Dodgers with any heart, Kevin Brown, in his column this morning. Plaschke, who ran the Dodgers' best everyday player of the last twenty years, Gary Sheffield, out of town, and who attacked Game 7 hero Garret Anderson as a choker during the World Series last year, has now chosen to pick on Brown for wanting to pitch through injuries, and for selfishly pushing his team's interest ahead of his health. What makes this column historic, however, is that Plaschke has, for the first time, decided to attack a white athlete, rather than perform fellatio on him. It's so sad; he misses Eric Karros.

The Senate will recess tomorrow with no action on the Estrada nomination. Without at least the threat of keeping the Senate in session and forcing the Democrats to actually filibuster, there is nothing to compel weak Senators from caving in and agreeing to a vote on the nominee. The genius of Leahy's strategy has been to make the issue the non-cooperation of the White House with Democratic requests for background memos drafted by Estrada, rather than his ideological views. The White House has shown no signs of compromising (why would they, when they not shown any willingness to share other communications within the executive branch), so the nomination is close to death. Estrada was a relatively unknown pick, so the threat of a filibuster will be even greater the next time, when it's someone like Pickering (or better yet, a Supreme Court nominee).

Great Kinsley article about the Estrada nomination, and the increasing use of the "Fifth Amendment" by controversial judicial nominees who wish to hide their positions. Let's keep up the pressure, kids.

Some housekeeping to take care of: the college sports blog that I edit, Condredge's Acolytes, is shifting its focus from commentary on games and teams to longer pieces on college sports in general. Anyone who would like to contribute should drop me a line. I have also been invited to contribute to Off-Wing Opinion, which is only the best general sportsblog going nowadays. That offer was too good to pass up, so I will be offering my two cents on West Coast basketball on that site.

A certain amount of political hyperbole is to be expected, but this comparison is truly odious. The phrase, "weapons of mass obstruction" smells like it came straight out of a Karl Rove power point demonstration. In the meantime, another DLC favorite, Mary Landrieu, has come out in support of the filibuster.

It's official: Andrew Sullivan has discovered that there are gays in Hollywood.

First he claims to be a "war hero". Then he "discovers" a Jewish ancestor. Now he "contracts" prostate cancer. Will John Kerry ever quit reinventing himself?

Believe it or not, this is not a story from the Onion.

Today is the day Tom Daschle is supposed to announce whether the Democrats plan to filibuster the Estrada nomination. So far, only three members of the caucus are off the reservation, and the GOP's clumsy attempt to make the nominee's ethnicity his sole qualification for the position has backfired; what was a longshot last week is now being seriously discussed by Democrats, whether they have the yarbles to prevent the capture of the judiciary by an ideological fringe. The best way to help Democrats like Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln, Fritz Hollings, and Evan Bayh overcome their natural predilection for following the path of least resistance is to call, fax, and e-mail them 'til they surrender. And while you're at it, drop Charles Schumer a line thanking him for the brave stand he has taken on this issue.

UPDATE: The decision has apparently been made to filibuster. The battle is joined !!!

The Oscar nominations were announced this morning. It's too early to pick any of the winners with absolute certainty, but there is a quick and easy way to handicap a couple of the awards. For best supporting actress, pick the nominee who is most likely to fade into mediocrity within one week of the pageant. For best actress, go with the person most likely to embarass herself with a narcissistic, maudlin speach that goes on forever, and is interrupted several times by uncontrolled sobbing. I see Queen Latifah as the one who can best follow in the tradition of Marcia Gay-Harden, Mira Sorvino, Whoopi Goldberg, and Mercedes Ruehl. And I'm sure Renee Zellweger's acceptance speach will be one for the ages.

It's almost Tuesday, and the Senate has still not confirmed Miguel Estrada. Let's keep up the pressure....

If Melanie Lynskey can have a fansite (actually, two), then why doesn't Phoebe Nicholls have even one? Still, I'm not complaining; having seen the Kiwi starlet's absolutely wicked performance in The Shield a few weeks back, I might start one of my own.

Years ago, my parents decided to do a "family tree" for my grandparents on the event of their 50th wedding anniversary. Among the things we discovered was at some point, about three generations before my grandfather, most of our ancestors began to have names like Levi, Moses, and Aaron. I wasn't sure what it proved, if anything; five generations is going back awhile, and I've had a hard time identifying with my mother's faith, much less my great-great-great grandfather's. But it sure was groovy fun informing my late granddad, who was somewhere to the right of your average Republican congressman on issues of race and ethnicity, of our research, while also serving to remind the rest of the family that the answer to the question, "where are you from?", is, as for most Americans, likely to be more complex than we may have originally thought.

Now, apparently, it's John Kerry's turn to be eviscerated by the Alpha Girls, this time over whether he has taken too much pride in the fact that a recent geneological investigation of his family turned up a Jewish grandfather. The notion that this is somehow a character flaw strikes me as nothing more than thinly-disguised anti-Semitism, certainly more poisonous than anything likely to be dreamed up by Al Sharpton on the campaign trail, but it seems to be the conventional wisdom in the media. In some respects, it is not dissimilar to the racist glee the far right had for years about rumors of Clinton's black "love child". For a particularly crude anti-Semitic take on this, check out this "investigative story" in the Boston Globe, which seems to be particularly offended that Senator Kerry, actually visited a synagogue in Florida recently. Or this piece, where the writer all but accuses the junior Senator from Massachusetts of being a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty. Since the man is currently the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, we must resign ourselves to the fact that this will be the level of political discourse over the next year and a half.

Caught Catch Me if You Can this afternoon. A nice way to kill 2 1/2 hours, but it kind of irritates me that I have to spend between $15-20 for an afternoon at the movies. If I can spend less than that per month for cable, then I better get something special, something better than The Shield, or The Sopranos (at least, the first three seasons), or Alias, or even 24; the latter two shows I don't even have to pay for. The problem with the movie I saw today was that there was absolutely no reason for it to have been shot as a film. It could have easily aired as an original cable movie and lost nothing artistically, and I (and other patrons) would not have been out $20. And the annoying thing is, it was actually a pretty good flick.

If I didn't think my comparison was so obvious as to be banal, I would swear another blogger had ripped off my nickname for Ann Coulter.

Apparently, the GOP received a bit more help than just a campaign visit by W in last year's battle to retake control of the Senate. In New Hampshire, where John Sununu eked out a narrow victory over Jeanne Shaheen in a race for an open Senate seat, an out-of-state firm was hired by the Republican Party to crank-call Democratic phone banks on election day, thereby impeding efforts to get out the vote. This writer logically suggests that this was a tactic probably useful in other states as well. To me, this story, and not paranoid fantasies about rigged electronic voting machines, is troublesome, because it shows how far the current clique in office is willing to go to seize power.

One reason to filibuster the Estrada nomination, quite beside the fact that it might work, is that it allows us to see which Democrats in the Senate are worth keeping. One member still on the fence, Mary Landrieu, is quoted here as saying that while she is impressed with his personal story, she has some doubts that he is in the "mainstream". If he is having problems getting the support of one of the most conservative Democrats in the Senate, someone who boasted in her recent campaign for reelection how often she votes with the President, it signifies that his nomination may be in trouble. Keep up the pressure, kids.

Fascinating interview of LeBron James, by noted writer Neal Pollack. Who knew he dreams of becoming a novelist?

Life is good. I came home tonight to be greeted by a shipment from Amazon: What Liberal Media by Eric Alterman. The first page I opened to describes the early-90's editorship of Andrew Sullivan at The New Republic as being akin to "watching a middle age accountant try on a pair of nipple rings". Priceless ! Buy this book now !!

Let the games begin. The debate over the Estrada nomination has begun in the Senate, with a decision to filibuster the nominee expected some time next week. So far, one Democrat has publicly broken with the caucus (Breaux), although it goes without saying that Zell Miller will knife us in the back over the long run. If an appropriate precedent is going to be set, this filibuster has to focus on his lack of honesty before the Judiciary Committee and on his ideology, in order of importance. The filibuster is a powerful weapon, but it is also a dangerous one. This is not a tactic that we can use against every conservative judge, and we certainly do not want the precedent of having the minority party shut down the Senate every time a President nominates someone for the federal courts.

I just realized that I will turn forty in exactly eight months. When my father was my age, he was married, had four children, he was preparing to take the bar exam, had already gone through a bankruptcy, had run the Southern California operations for two presidential campaigns, been the chief assistant to the State Assembly Rules Committee, and had run for office twice (unsuccessfully). He used the occasion of the big 4-0 to quit drinking, thereby changing the life of our family dramatically. I still think about him every day, and occasionally will dream he is still with us, having rationalized that sometime after his death, his cancer went into remission and he was miraculously resuscitated. The only edges I have on my dad is that I passed the bar exam when I was twenty-six, (although, unlike him, I loved the whole experience of taking the test so much, I took it twice), and that, in spite of a lifetime of incurring debt, I have yet to file a BK. There's still time, however....

Fox News is reporting that the Democratic caucus in the Senate is set to filibuster the vote on the Estrada nomination. However, Senators John Breaux and Byron Dorgan are apparently trying to find a face-saving way to support the nominee, seeking talking points from the GOP staff of the Judiciary Committee. Drop them a line, if you will, and let them know where you come down on this.

A terrific anecdote about the wackjob who produced Then He Kissed Me and You've Lost that Lovin Feelin', in today's Altercation. How was that guy ever able to avoid being institutionalized? Sad, how some stars burn brilliantly for such a short time, only to have to live out the remaining decades of their lives (btw, the story of the actress whom he murdered is especially poignant).

It seems if I upgrade or use another blogging program, I can post pictures. That's something I'm definitely going to look into.

Orrin Hatch today predicted that the Democrats would tie up the Senate until next week, but that ultimately the GOP would have enough votes to confirm Estrada. Hah !! If this goes past the weekend, we got 'em.

Meanwhile, more nefarious plots are being hatched concerning American foreign policy. There's no rest for the wicked....

For those of you too intimidated by this new-fangled web technology to send an e-mail to your Senator, you can always fax him your opinion on the Estrada vote, thanks to People for the American Way. It's easy, and you don't even have to think about what you want to say.

Apparently, the Moonies seem to think that the possibility that the Democrats will filibuster the Estrada nomination is something of a joke. The vote is scheduled for Wednesday morning...btw, Mr. Estrada was also on Ted Olsen's legal team in the Florida vote challenge, so if you liked the jurisprudence revealed in the Bush v. Gore decision, you'll just love his lifetime tenure on the federal courts.

The Senate is scheduled to begin floor consideration of the Estrada nomination tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. E.S.T. For those of you who want to bitch about the Bush judicial picks with a clear conscience, other than whining about Ralph Nader, here are some more Senators to contact: Presidential candidates John Kerry and John Edwards; Diane Feinstein; Joe Biden; and moderate Republicans Lincoln Chafee and Susan Collins. Let them know that not filibustering is not an option.

I'm involved in a rather interesting discussion over on the Eschaton board concerning electronic voting machines, and the potential they have to be abused by parties and politicians. As always, I am a skeptic when it comes to conspiracy theories, but the issues raised should not be ignored. In Florida three years ago, numerous counties did not recount the ballots after the November election, relying instead on a re-reading of the electronic tally taken that night. If the first count was wrong, or if the computer tallying the results had been misprogrammed, we won't know whom the electorate picked.

They are not wasting time over the Estrada nomination. Bush's nominee, and likely future Supreme Court pick, goes before the entire Senate on Tuesday. The Democratic response, to date, has been tepid; other than some perfunctory talk about Pickering, there has been no call for a filibuster, even though Estrada, his obvious intelligence aside, is an extremist who pals around with white supremacists and has refused to allow his legal memos be released for public scrutiny. Anyone who cares about the make-up of the federal courts for the next generation needs to act now to contact Senators and remind them that "advise and consent" is not merely a throwaway clause in the Constitutution, and that any far-right nominee put up by the President for consideration to the appellate courts must be stopped. My 1/30 post has the e-mail addresses for five swing Senators; spam 'em all.

Interesting take on one ramification of the Estrada nomination, by labor lawyer Sam Heldman. Part of his larger point is that many of the protections we think workers receive from unions get shredded by the courts, which seem to bend over backwards to appease companies, even those in blatant violation of the law, at the expense of workers. I think it goes without saying that most of the practicing lawyers who get nominated to the federal courts tend to come from the management side of the equation.

Unbelievable. The Space Shuttle explodes over Texas, with no likely survivors. No explanations forthcoming as to why. My thoughts are with the astronauts and their families.

As expected, the Senate Judiciary Committe approved the nomination of Miguel Estrada this morning, 10-9, on a straight party-line vote. Since the President needs at least nine votes from the other side to impose cloture, this provides a possible sign that maybe the Democrats have started to fight back on judicial nominations. One of the more unfortunate aspects about being a liberal, however, is that our interests are too often represented by a party that contains a substantial accomodationist wing. Senators like John Breaux, Ben Nelson, Evan Bayh, and Mary Landrieu pay lip service to defending civil rights, choice, etc., but are never willing to do what's necessary to uphold those beliefs (of course, Zell Miller is a Dixiecrat, and makes no effort to hide his Republican leanings). Failure to support a filibuster in this situation is tantamount to a Yes vote on the Bush nominees, and no amount of whining about Ralph Nader's last campaign will change our responsibility to fight the politicization of the judiciary by any means necessary.

One of the pet political causes of the Green Party is to mandate proportional representation in Congressional races, together with an "instant run-off", where your second pick for an office gets your vote once he's eliminated. We used the latter system at Berkeley for student elections, and it allowed people to vote the Boring Party slate before they got around to selecting the people they really wanted to see in office. Proportional representation, on the other hand, is an idea whose time has definitely not come, as one can see from this week's election in Israel. Although it might be good to have some reasonable threshold for enabling small parties a chance to elect candidates without having to seriously compromise its views, like, say, ten percent, the notion that a candidate or party supported by one out of twenty voters can gain office strikes me as absurd. Fifty percent is a mandate, thirty percent is a movement, five percent is a fringe. And unless Sharon can convince some Fifth Column within the Labor Party to join his government, he probably will have to call new elections. Again.

Hopefully, the President's view that "different threats require different strategies" will be followed in dealing with this newest member of the "axis of evil".

Tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary Committee has its first contentious vote of the session, on the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Estrada, who has no judicial background, is a far-right lawyer favored by the Coulter wing of the GOP to be the first Latino to be picked for the Supreme Court. If you want to stop the next Clarence Thomas before he starts, and stick it to the Bush Administration by stalling his nominees to the federal court, contact the members of the Judiciary Committee before the vote. Better yet, focus on Arlen Specter; remind him that he once promised never to approve the nomination of a fifth vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, and has to run for reelection next year in a Blue State.

Since the Knicks and Hawks were in an all-important battle to determine their lottery positions for next year's draft, I missed most of the State of the Union last night. However, one of the sets in the corner at Yankee Doodles did have the speech on, and from my brief glimpses, I could have sworn that the President now has light brown hair. Since most of the recent photos taken of W indicated that his hair was, in fact, gray, I was stunned. Certainly, the man who brought integrity back to the White House would not be trying to pull a fast one on the American people, to pretend he's something that he's not, to do something that metaphorically indicates that he's not comfortable in his own skin.

Well, as it turns out, I wasn't having a buzz-induced hallucination. He not only is dying his hair, he's doing a really lame-o job of it, almost as if Carrot Top were now his fashion consultant. [Link via Eschaton]

With the Super Bowl fresh in everyone's mind (btw, I like how JJ Abrams and company incorporated that Victoria's Secret ad involving J-Garn into the show Sunday; you guys might eventually get an audience with stunts like that, but I still think you should bring back Anna Espinoza), one media website is hosting a debate about the racist nickname of the Washington NFL team. Scroll down for Prof. Stephen Carter's suggestion; it's the best of the lot.

One of the more inexplicable failures of the news media has been their collective failure to investigate the missing year in George Bush's Air National Guard duty in the early-70's (a convenient time-line can be found here). One would think that it would be an easy story: at a time when the President is threatening to send Americans into harm's way, thereby starting a war of dubious value to our national security, his own background deserves to be scrutinized. If, in fact, he did serve a full term in the National Guard, the media could help to discredit one of the favorite shiboleths of the left, that the President "went AWOL" for a year from his military service.

Likewise, if Bush can't account for himself during the year in question, then it goes not only to his credibility as a leader, but also to his lifelong ability to get ahead through family connections, the so-called "white affirmative action" that he has benefited from since he used a 560 verbal SAT to get into Yale. In any event, bogus conspiracy theories are not the sole province of any ideology: for every fabricated story about "Whitewater" and Vince Foster, there were similar tales about Reagan paying off the Iranians before the 1980 election, and those "scandals" weren't discredited until someone actually went out and did some reporting. If the media ignores this story, it isn't going to go away.

There is no joy in Oakland this morning, after yesterday's 48-21 debacle. Hopefully, this will be the last hurrah for Al Davis, uber-jerk and classless twit, who has to watch a second coach he's driven away win a Super Bowl.

The Raiders remain the most popular football team in LA, notwithstanding their return home in 1995, a fact which continues to baffle me. The team's last eight seasons in the city involved a series of threatened moves elsewhere, incessant whining about the stadium and level of fan support, and an increasingly violent collection of fans at the Coliseum, for which the predominantly Yuppified fans in the East Bay are a weak substitute. The team got a little better in the early-90's (for a while they seemed to own John Elway), but they were never all that exciting, and fan support vacillated. The team refused to market itself, other than putting its dumb slogan ("Commitment to Excellence") and logo on MTA buses, without a mention of the team, ticket info, etc. Since the colors and logo had come to be adopted by local street gangs, the only effect it had was to convince many locals that the Crips had developed some market savvy. Invariably, the team never put its tickets on sale until June, which meant that early season games were poorly attended; there were enough football fans in the region to assure that its games at the end of the season would be sold out. Davis would ignore the late games, and spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get a stadium deal out of Oakland, or Sacramento, or Irwindale.

After the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, the Coliseum sustained a little damage, but was otherwise good to go for the football season. While the rest of the region struggled to rebuild actual damage to our homes and businesses, including having to rebuild substantial sections of the 14 and 10 Freeways, Davis used the occasion to bitch about some small cracks to its foundation, and threatened a move out of town. After hearing his spiel for ten years, this area finally gave up. To this day, even the threat that the Raiders might return is enough to sink any stadium deal. Now he's Oakland's problem, and the good people of Alameda County have now experienced their share of complaints about the stadium, attendance, community support, etc.

When the Raiders left, the city was without a football team. Since pro football truly is the national pastime, the NFL was not going to disappear from the psyche of local sports fans, so we adapted. Many fans continued to root for the Raiders, and they remain surprisingly popular with Latino and African-American fans. The Cowboys, the Browns, the Packers, the Eagles and the 49'ers also have significant followings; oddly, although the Raiders remain popular, the Rams, the area's first major league sports franchise, are all but ignored, even when they were winning the Super Bowl several years ago.

Back around 1997, I decided I would adopt a team. Having lived in this area my whole life (so far), I didn't have any ancestral tie that I could use to root for, say, the Giants or Bears. The Rams and Raiders were out. I grew up hating the Broncos, Cowboys and Niners, and couldn't easily reverse those feelings. The Browns had a large local following for years, but at the time had abandoned Cleveland for Baltimore. So I looked around for a team that had no local following, a team that would be uniquely mine. And thus, I have been a Tampa Bay fan for the past five years.

In the past, I've questioned whether the CIA was allowed to gather intelligence on domestic entities, such as SD-6. It was my understanding that such activities were verboten. But last night's episode really begs credulity. I mean, the Company doesn't actually have a SWAT team that they can send into Downtown LA office buildings, shooting willy-nilly, making arrests, etc., does it?

As the streets of San Diego fill up with the I.T. providers and tech-support geeks playing dress-up that comprise RaiderNation, we will be treated to one of the least predictable Super Bowls in ages: the top offense, heretofore unstoppable, playing the best defense. That would be Tampa, a team that plays with the thuggery and nastiness of the classic Raider teams of the 70's and 80's. Looking back at past Super Bowls, it seems whenever a great defense has been matched against a great offense, the defense has prevailed: B-more two years ago, the Giants in XXV, the Bears over New England, the Steel Curtain over the Cowboys, etc. The only exception that comes to mind was the inexplicable loss by the Vikings in Super Bowl IV. With that in mind, go with the Raiders Buccaneers.

How the mighty have fallen. Check out Mr. Samgrass' response to a stinging letter sent by Studs Terkel, on the subject of his departure from the Nation magazine. Sometimes, it's just better to let something drop, or people will think you've become a bore.

Good timing, Smythe. The week I decide to rip the LA Weekly a new one is the week it publishes a valentine to my brother, the sort of story Howard Fineman might write about Bush if W ran a Downtown music club. Understand that my criticisms about the Weekly were limited to its coverage of the Valley, not its typically prescient music columns.

Adam Felber has discovered a Newer Testament: the Book of Lieberman.

Another good reason never to go to trial is what happened to me (or rather, my clients) today: a near-total defeat. I need a drink.

A sidenote about yesterday's post: I must reiterate that having a prospective competitor to the LA Weekly is a good thing, even if the initial set of contributors are the type of hack-pundits usually published by the L.A. Daily News. For those of you who live outside of LA County, one of the things you have to remember is that half the population in the city lives in the San Fernando Valley, myself included. I cannot remember the last time the Weekly published an informative or intelligent story about the Valley; during the recent secession vote, the only times it could be bothered to comment on the issue was to say that it was a movement of, by, and for, racists. As skeptical as I was about secession, quite frankly the notion that this was some sort of white separatist movement is bullshit.

Normally, I would be infuriated by that sort of take, as it derives from the outdated view that the Valley is a predominantly white enclave, which hasn't been true since Yorty was mayor, as well as unintentionally endorsing the view, widely shared west of the 405, that the rest of the city has a parasitic relationship to Valley homeowners. But the Weekly's coverage of this area is so bad (its restaurant guide lists more restaurants from the "trendy" Silverlake area than from the Valley) that I find the throwaway to be more a testament to provincialism than something I need to take seriously. In some ways, it resembles the cliched view that East Coast sportswriters have of California, as a place too "laid back", too "Hollywood", to be passionate about our teams. I am optimistic enough about the forward progress of human development to believe that such opinions will eventually die out, hand-in-hand with the morons who share them.

Considering that the alternative is the execrable Daily News, a newspaper whose only worthwhile attribute is that it reprints the NY Times crossword puzzle every day, a new weekly holds the possibility that the other half of Los Angeles is finally going to get covered in a serious manner. And for that reason alone, I am mildly excited by the debut of the Examiner.

For those of you who have neither read Jonathan Harr's classic book, A Civil Action, nor seen the movie, let me recap its moral, a lesson I have come to appreciate after Day Three: never, ever go to trial if you can somehow avoid it. There are just too many factors involved that are beyond your ability to control. Your success is dependent on unpredictable witnesses, evidence that might never see the light of day, and other factors that are just plain unforseeable. One moment you're convinced your client is about to be hung out to dry, the next, the other side commits some unbelievable blunder, on an issue not connected to the merits, that imperils its case. And then the next day, the positions are reversed. With one more day to go, I still have no idea how this is going to end, but there is no way I will ever go to trial again unless I have literally no other option.

With the recent demise of NewTimes, Los Angeles has been without competition in the free weekly department for the past few months (which was just the way the publishers of LA Weekly wanted it; the Justice Department has been investigating the deal they made to shut down their rival). The good news is, former Mayor Riordan is about to bankroll a new tabloid-style weekly, one that its editor, Ken Layne, insists will be "very big on sports, and we're also going to have a big gossip section right in the middle", and which will be available to the public in June. The bad news is, well, get a load of whom the LA Times reports will be writing for the new LA Examiner: "...Lynda Obst, Billy Crystal, James Q. Wilson, Joel Kotkin, Jill Stewart ...Susan Estrich, Gene Lichtenstein and Andy Klein." I guess Michelle Malkin and Norah Vincent weren't available. Too bad this venture, backed as it is by some of the top figures in SoCal blogging, doesn't possess a little more creativity in that regard. But at least it's something. [link via Matt Welch]

Day One of the trial is complete. I am not by training a trial lawyer, and have only done a few of these since I "got made" over thirteen years ago, but each one produces an incredible rush of adrenaline going into court. It's a feeling I haven't had since I ran high school track, just an enormous high mixed with nervousness, anger, frustration and intellectual fire; I can see why so many successful litigators turn to alcohol, since it's one of the few socially-sanctioned ways to come down afterwards. And the thing of it is, I have pocket briefs to prepare, will probably be up all night, and I have to be in court again at 9 a.m. tomorrow. I'm not cut out to do this.

Frank Rich explains it all...is there some way he could be persuaded to keep his column, or at least start a blog?

Tomorrow I begin a trial at the U.S. District Court, so I will be indisposed for most of the week. If anything of interest happens, I'll share.

I'll say this for major league baseball: having a zero-tolerance policy towards gambling has its advantages. Anybody who makes a bet on any game knows that it could mean disgrace, ignominy, and the end of his career. Although I feel that the sport's treatment of Pete Rose has been a travesty, based on a ridiculously biased report drafted by someone who could give Ken Starr a pointer or two about selling a slanted investigation, at least the punishment makes sense. Bet on a game, even if it doesn't involve your team, and you're out.

Overseas, the policy is a bit different. Rather than aggressively trying to keep the sport clean, the governing bodies for soccer have a different approach: unless the player bets against his team, it's not a problem. Mainly, that policy grows out of the tolerance for legalized gambling that exists in Europe, particularly England. As with college sports in this country, it is easier to find athletes willing to fix games because the salaries aren't extravagant, and the temptation is much greater.

Perhaps the best English player of the moment, and one of the most feared strikers ever, Michael Owen, is currently having to justify having established an off-shore account for purposes of betting, including wagers on Premier League soccer. The reaction of the Football Association has been telling: as long as he keeps his bets on the ponies and on Man Utd. and Chelsea, and doesn't bet on his team, Liverpool, to lose, there's no problem. Putting aside the fact that an athlete who is dropping a small fortune to bookies is likely to be an easier target for blackmail, the whole message this sends to fans and to other players is that the sport is more willing to coddle athletes and appease gambling interests than to deal with the appearance of corruption.

So that was Ming Yao? He scores six early, two in the fourth, and another two at the end of OT, but was otherwise the Asian continent's version of Shawn Bradley (who, I should also point out, is a pretty good shotblocker). Shaq took him to school, a point soon to be forgotten in light of the Rockets' 108-104 victory Friday, and about the kindest thing you can say was that Yao did not lose his composure. Steve Francis, on the other hand, was unreal, scoring 44, including a three at the end of regulation to tie the game, faking out the refs with the elan of an Argentinian soccer player in drawing a flagrant foul in OT, and absolutely dominating the pathetic backcourt of the Lakers. While Yao's dunk with ten seconds to go in overtime got in the highlight reel, it was Francis dribbling out the shot clock, drawing the entire Laker defense to him, that enabled Yao to be so open in the first place. All in all, the best game of the regular season so far.

Well, now we know what the Republican solution to exorbitant medical costs is: blame the lawyers. Or rather, attempt to punish victims of medical quackery by proposing a law for no other reason than to slap a potential opponent in next year's election, John Edwards. Explain again, how does putting a cap on pain-and-suffering damages discourage frivolous lawsuits? I mean, if a lawsuit is frivolous, there aren't any damages to begin with; thus, there's nothing to cap. And if a jury awards a patient huge damages, then, at least according to the twelve people who heard the case, that lawsuit wasn't frivolous.

Bush's latest stunt is in the same tradition as basing the entire policy for education reform on blaming the teachers' union. In fact, passing the president's latest proposal will increase lawsuits, even if it works as advertised, since incompetent doctors are less likely to be weeded out by increasing malpractice costs. As I noted when discussing last year's bankruptcy "reform" bill, an enterprising lawyer will always know how to game the system to his advantage.

Believe it or not, there may be something to Pete Townshend's excuse for downloading kiddie porn. I was a bit bothered when his explanation was almost word-for-word identical to David Westerfield's: that he was just doing research to see what was out there. Well, as it turns out, he actually wrote a paper on the subject of how easy it was to obtain child pornography on the internet, and published it on his website. [Link via Cursor] If this controversy doesn't provoke some civil libertarian discussions about the free use of the internet, than nothing will.

For years, there was this flaky billionaire named Marvin Davis, who was always threatening to purchase either a football franchise or a film studio. Whether it was the Tampa Bay Bucs or United Artists that were up for sale, Davis' name would always be in the news, before, surprise, surprise, he would back down, and the prize would go to someone else. For a short time, he actually did own a studio. After a while, though, it became clear that he wasn't serious, so he began to be politely referred to as a "tire kicker", someone who interested in looking but wasn't really a player. Perhaps the nadir was when he let his name be linked to a move to build a football stadium next to the Inglewood Forum several years ago, when the NFL was looking to put an expansion team in LA. Just having his name tied to the project was enough to discredit what had been a serious proposal, one that was almost a done deal when Al Davis was still in town, and the league actually went back to negotiating with the Coliseum; better that, they reasoned, then to be dicked around by someone they knew was going to back down in the end.

The last ten years, Marvin Lewis has been the Marvin Davis of the NFL. Unquestionably a terrific defensive coach, his name has been on the short list of almost every vacancy in the head coaching ranks, pro or college, since 1996. After his defense in Baltimore won the Super Bowl two years ago, he was all but offered the head position in Buffalo, but had cold feet at the last second, and stayed with the Ravens. Last season, California was set to announce his hiring when he backed down, and decided instead to become an assistant coach under Steve Spurrier with Washington. He was considered for jobs at Carolina and Tampa Bay, but by then, his reputation was as someone who wanted the attention, not the job, and he got passed over both times. Only a month ago, he was offered the head position at Michigan State, but turned it down. Just when it seemed like he was about to get a reputation for being someone too gutless to be a head coach, he agreed tonight to accept the job with the worst franchise in football, the Cincinnati Bengals. It is hard to imagine a worse situation for him; he will now be a coach for a team that won't spend the money, that is notorious for incompetent drafting, and has little talent to speak of. And they went 2-14 last season. Good luck.

EJ Dionne is all wet on this analogy. John McCain fights special interests; Joe Lieberman is their supplicant.

On a whim last week, I rented the DVD of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I won't pretend that it's one of the greatest movies of all time, but it remains one of the few films I've seen that never gets boring. The DVD is a revelation; one of the reasons why the movie has remained so memorable was just how beautifully it was shot. Apparently, the principal reason the film was even made was to hype a candy bar that Quaker Oats was selling, which, as it turned out, disappeared almost immediately. The commentary track, which consists of the five child actors, is a gas. As you might have guessed, the alternate language tracks are also worth a few minutes of your time; one hasn't lived until you hear Julie Dawn Cole dubbed into French !!

Yesterday, the Buffalo Sabres became the second NHL team in a week, and the fourth in the last eight years, to file for bankruptcy protection. As I noted before, this represents a very disturbing trend in the sport, especially since neither Ottawa nor Buffalo are really the weak sisters of the league; the franchises in Tampa, Carolina, Phoenix and Anaheim have attendance and media problems that are at least as severe, with no hope that things are going to get better anytime soon. And of course, the labor contract expires at the end of next season, although this is one problem that can't be blamed on greedy players, who, after all, are paid far less than their counterparts in basketball and baseball.

The best case scenario may well be that only a couple of teams will fold; the worst case is that the league may well go the way of the NASL. However, I do not believe that the long-term prognosis for the sport is all that bad. Even if the league dies, or is truncated in a dramatic fashion, I would expect many of the franchises to live on. There is clearly sufficient international interest in the sport to survive even the roughest of patches, and if it came down to it, I would expect to see a stronger, and more realistic, ice hockey league exist with teams in Europe and North America.

If this is true, then I don't see why we don't enlist the help of a few expatriate Nigerian bureaucrats as well. All is fair in the war against terror. Speaking of which, Neal Pollack is back, with an expose on the evil doctor who now leads the Senate.

I'm a couple of days behind on this story, in large part because it reflects something very rarely seen in public figures: moral courage. The last part of Governor Ryan's speech against the death penalty exhibits how even the most ordinary of men can sometimes achieve greatness. It's the best piece of oratory in years. [link via Jeanne d'Arc]

Kudos to the PGA, for holding its first tournament of the year at a pitch-and-putt course on Maui. The sponsors of the Mercedes Championship may want to consider holding next year's competition on a course that could at least challenge me. Try adding a rough, or sloping the greens, or placing a bunker or two in front of the greens, or something to prevent the winner from having to shoot 31-under par.

I have to admit, I did not see the twist coming at the end of Alias last night. It's to the credit of the writers and producers of the show that almost no one else did, either; none of the spoilers published on the various fansites even mention the reversal involving Sloane and his wife. In fact, the hints I had been receiving seemed to indicate that the big surprise was going to be in the next episode, airing after the Super Bowl in two weeks. Good job !!

Gee, what a surprise--the Bush Administration is now blaming Clinton for our deteriorating situation on the Korean Peninsula. Well done; I was wondering when they would get around to following their modus operandi; after all, admitting mistakes is something no Republican President has done since Francis Gary Powers was shot down. Economy bounces from recession to stagnation to recession, after Bush enacts an ill-conceived tax cut for millionaires; blame Clinton. America is attacked by terrorists, in large part because we seem to be more concerned about Iraqi oil that Al Qaeda; blame Clinton. Enron and other companies perpetrate a fraud on American investors for ten years, then help finance the selection of Bush to the Presidency; blame Clinton.

I'm certain that Jen and Barb's drinking will be blamed on Bubba, sure enough. Of course, it would be equally unfair to say that Bush is entirely responsible for each of those problems, particularly concerning corporate fraud. Nobody, myself included, likes to dwell on screw-ups. Nevertheless, however predictable this reaction might be, the tendency not to acknowledge its errors is one of the most troubling political aspects of this Presidency. The 50-50 split within the country necessitates that Bush make a special effort to draw the other half of the country behind his policies. In the aftermath of 9-11, he did that, speaking to us as Americans, not conservatives, and the nation supported most of his proposals to fight terrorism. Now that memories of that terrible day have faded, the partisan divisions have returned. No consensus has been formed about tax policy or Iraq, but this president seems to think that the country will give him a pass if he ties it in to the "war" on terror. Or if he just blames his predecessor. It would be nice if the country had a president whose word we could trust on matters of policy, someone who could admit to, and learn from, his mistakes. Someone like, say, Clinton.

The David Broder of SoCal bloggers, Matt Welch, has returned after a lengthy hiatus (if he's the broder of LA blogs, then I guess Kevin Drum is the EJ Dionne; I guess I'd be one of the Post's lame-o sportswriters, like Tony Kornheiser)

This is inappropriate on so many levels, I wouldn't know where to begin. "Justice" Thomas is still on the Supreme Court, and there's always the off-chance that one of the companies involved in the publication of his memoirs might have an issue or two that may one day be decided by the Court. Obviously, as hard as this might be to fathom, he might write something that is false, or even defamatory; in fact, since he probably won't admit he perjured himself back in 1991, I think it's a safe bet that he will do so. As pleasing as the thought of this bum being sued in a civil action while on the Court, especially in light of what he did to the previous President, such a suit would further damage the prestige and credibility of the judicial branch. More telling is just the fact that this is so classless.

The election is still some three weeks off, but if recent polls are to be believed, Ariel Sharon may be in some serious trouble. This was supposed to be a contest that would solidify the Likud Party's position in the Knesset, while discrediting the dovish wing of the Labor Party. It's not turning out that way, though.

The Fox Network lacks courage for not picking up Joe President; it would have been a perfect lead-in for 24.

He's not in my Humor section, since most of his posts are straight political takes, but every now and then, Jesse Taylor of Pandagon channels Peggy Noonan sooooo perfectly, I pee in my pants. We're barely two weeks into the new year, and he's already clinched a '03 Koufax Award for this brilliant parody.

Today's bankruptcy filing by the Ottawa Senators, the third such filing in the past eight years, is probably a good indication that the NHL may be the first of the major sports leagues in this country to seriously retrench. As much as I love the sport, ice hockey is a terrible TV draw (for example, two of the USA matches in the last World Cup got higher ratings on ESPN than all but one of the games of last season's Stanley Cup Final, even though the hockey games were on in prime time, while the soccer games started in the wee hours of the morning). Attendance around the league is wildly inconsistent. It draws talent from such a narrow base in North America that the star players in the sport are disproportionately from Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. Yet the NHL continues to play out the fiction that it is one of the major sports leagues in America, and maintains an assortment of franchises in the Sun Belt that are prime candidates to follow the Senators, Kings, and Penguins into bankruptcy protection.

Joshua Marshall has finally given Bush's Korean policy the doctrine it deserves: Strategic Ridiculousness.

It appears blogger John Ellis has lost one pound in the past week. Wow !!

The problem with hyping the "five men from Canada" into some elite team of international fugitives comes the next time the Administration wishes for us to take a threat seriously.

Big Brother once again punishes a man for freely exercising his Second Amendment rights. Or maybe it was because Tennessee State ran a poor transition game. Whatever.

I've always been partial to athletes who were absolutely hated by the beat writers covering them. Well done, Eddie Murray, for a memorable career, and for having the dignity and grace not to stick a bat down the throats of the scumbags of the fourth estate. Especially when you were with the Mets.

This might actually be a fun two years, if liberals are so willing. Bush's economic proposals are as tone-deaf as his father's; he actually believes that the reason the country is hurting is that Wall Street has to pay taxes on dividends !! He's just renominated Owen and Pickering to the federal circuit courts, only three weeks after the resignation of Trent Lott put an ugly spotlight on the piss-poor civil rights record of modern conservatism. The Administration "policy" about handling North Korea is almost deliberately incompetent, unable to distinguish between negotiations and "appeasement"; ironically, the reemergence of the PROK likely means that even if Bush starts a war with Iraq, the intended boost to his polling numbers will be as short-lived as they were for his dad. His reelect numbers are starting to plummet. And for the first time since 9/11, the Democrats are starting to fight back. Class Warfare, indeed. To the Barricades !!!!

Memo to Giants' fans: QUIT WHINING !!! Bad calls are a part of life, so get over it. Your whole raison d'etre seems to be based on the assumption that the refs would have called pass interference, then your kicking team would have made a field goal that it had botched on two separate occasions in the previous four minutes. Well, ask yourself this: how were the Giants' robbed if they couldn't hold a 24-point second half lead? Jeez, you guys are worse than those Cardinals' fans who still moan about Don Denkinger costing them the '85 Series.

The campaign to make Mother Theresa a saint hits a roadblock, in this well-reasoned piece by Jeanne d'Arc that peels away the hype, and suggests a more-deserving candidate, Archbishop Romero.

Rough day at work. I haven't been able to shake whatever sickness I have, and feel depleted and lethargic. I took on an appearance today at a confirmation hearing for a Chapter 13 debtor, but was not given a complete file, so I had to live through the embarassment of finding out the facts of my case in open court, in front of the judge, trustee, and opposing counsel. Still, I got the plan confirmed. Then I went to work on preparing another case for trial, but had repeated arguments with the chief trial lawyer, who was second-guessing everything I was doing. Finally, I just had enough, and went home. If it were up to me, I'd just tell her to go to hell, and let her handle the case the rest of the way, but it's my principal source of income right now.

I can gripe about this Administration's policy concerning North Korea 'til the proverbial cows come home, but Joshua Marshall has provided an encyclopedic analysis of the crisis. It's the reason blogs exist.

Interesting post by labor lawyer Sam Heldman on unjudicial behaviour by a certain Ninth Circuit judge, Alex Kozinski. I'm sure many of you have received links to various opinions by a certain Texas District Court judge, Samuel B. Kent. His opinions are often hilarious, nasty and cutting, very well written, and contemptuous of the fools who appear before him in his court. He is, in my opinion, the worst person on the Federal Bench. Similarly, Kozinsky is a rabid ideologue and bigot, whose opinions are in the same tradition (btw, his wife, Marci Tiffany, was the former US Trustee for the Central District of California, a political appointee by the first Bush, and a diletante whose obnoxiousness was tempered only by her aversion to hard work. For that, all local bankruptcy lawyers should feel some debt of gratitude). He is also very funny, which, unfortunately, is not his job.

In Los Angeles County, if you don't like the judge you've been assigned, you have at least one opportunity to recuse the judge, and you may do so for any reason, however petty. Although there are supposedly standards by which a Federal judge is supposed to recuse himself, it is an exceedingly rare process, and it's entirely up to the judge to decide whether he has a financial interest that may be affected (the appeals court might ultimately have a differing view, but such oversight is worthless when the parties have limited financial resources to challenge a bad ruling). At a time when the Federal Judiciary has become another political branch, and its judges have lifetime appointments, as well as unlimited power to settle scores and impose their beliefs on the parties that appear before them, such a policy invites the sort of judicial corruption exemplified by Alex Kozinski, Manuel Real, Lawrence Silberman, Clarence Thomas, and Antonin Scalia.

If a party to a Federal suit could recuse a judge at the beginning of a lawsuit, whether it's at trial or on appeal, it might discourage a judge from abusing his power in that matter. I have the impression that most judges, at least, aren't doing it for the paycheck. They love holding court, and gaining a reputation for being a local a-hole that parties either do not want to appear before, or wish to appear before them only because their views are so predictable, is one no judge truly wants.

Vacation over. Back to work.

The cruise did not end well. The gala event of every cruise, the final day of the "snowball" Bingo tournament, was a fiasco, as the P&O policy of allowing rugrats into the gambling room backfired terribly. Dozens of elderly players (and myself) were compelled to stand at the back of the room because some jackass parents thought it would be cute to bogart the seats with their obnoxious brat children. A ship the size of the Star Princess simply does not generate vacations as enjoyable as smaller cruise ships; it's way too big, and there are too many people on board. Also, my grandmother got sick, and I came down with something resembling a flu, except I already had my flu shot; I guess it's a stillborn flu. The only good news was the surprise win last night of Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, and the fact that four cubans entered the country successfully.

Strange day. Today we had our last stop of the trip, in Cabo San Lucas. Unlike the other ports, the ship was there for only six hours, which is almost nothing to me since half of that time I'm still asleep. By the time I was motivated enough to get out of bed and go ashore, I could do little more than walk around the city in a daze. Again, I stopped at a sports bar for a couple of hours and watched ESPN News, thereby getting all facets of the Parcells-to-America's Team story while developing a nice late morning buzz. As I was walking back to the tender that would take me back to the ship, I was accosted by a lady who wanted to sell me a doll for $5. I thought it would be nice to buy for my secretaries' kids, so I asked for two, and was able to bargain the price down to $8. Then I checked my wallet, and found out I had nothing. The expression on that woman's face; I wanted to cry.

The first day of the New Year was spent in Mazatlan, a "resort" town of about a million people that consists largely of luxury hotels and slums. I spent the day at a couple of sports bars in the "Golden Zone", a shopping area that seems largely designed to attract American tourists. One of the bars, The No Name Cafe, is apparently owned by a Chicago Cubs fan, and serves incredible shrimp dishes. And yes, they had all the games this afternoon. Cheap drinks, great food, I'm in heaven.

Ah, New Years Eve--champagne, streamers and horns, and casual sex with gorgeous young strangers in red cocktail dresses. If only....