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Happy Birthday, John!

and Adios EarthLink!

June 12, 2004 NOTICE: THE NEW ADDRESS FOR THIS WEB SITE WILL BE:

www.andrewclem.com

The new domain name should be active by Sunday at the latest. I plan to keep this page online at the old address (EarthLink) for the next couple weeks at least, for the sake of folks who haven't visited for a while. I bid farewell to EarthLink with regret, as my experiences with them have been extremely satisfactory. Unfortunately, they don't offer high-speed Internet service where I live, and their commercial Web hosting plans go way beyond what I need. Perhaps I shall return someday. Many thanks to all those who have expressed compliments about this Web site. Stay tuned for much more to come!

We didn't make it up to D.C. on Friday after all. The ceremonies honoring former President Reagan were deeply moving and very appropriate for such a great leader. He was controversial, but that is the mark of a true leader: one who doesn't just follow the crowd or say things to please people. I know that many people will never agree with his policies; I only wish that those who opposed him would at least recognize that he was earnestly doing what he thought was best for the country.

June 10, 2004 The Gipper's funeral: Jacqueline and I are hoping to catch the tail end of the observances in honor of Ronald Reagan up in Washington tomorrow, but I managed to fracture one of my smaller toes a couple days ago, and my mobility is quite impaired. Arghh! In the mean time, I invite you to read what I wrote about Reagan on the Web site which I manage for the local Republican party. It's at swacgop.org.

June 9, 2004 ¡ Viva la revolución Wi-Fi! By jove, they've done it again! As if all of Apple's recent spectacular breakthroughs in multimedia computer technology weren't enough, this week they announced another ultra-cool and useful gadget: AirPort Express, with which you can play music from your computer directly to your stereo, connect multiple computers to the Internet, or print documents from a laptop anywhere in your house without a cable connection to the printer. (To get it to work, however, you need to install an AirPort card in your Mac or Windows machine.) Will this make burning music CDs obsolete? Apple's stock rose above $30, nearly three times what it was a couple years ago...

Latin American communists have heaped scorn on the late Ronald Reagan, the defender of Freedom who once tormented them. An announcer on the state-controlled Cuban radio declared "The one who never should have been born has died," adding that he was a warmonger and the "father of the homeless," among other insults. Former Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, leader of the Sandinista Party, adopted a more pious though still bilious tone, lamenting Reagan's death but accusing him of committing crimes, apparently referring to Reagan's policy of supporting the Contras. Ortega concluded by saying, "may God pardon him." What is most galling is that such sentiments seem to be widespread in Latin America these days.

Russian President Vladimir Putin stopped in Mexico on his way to the G-8 summit on the coast of Georgia. He signed agreements with President Fox that will pave the way for building a new factory in Mexico to produce Russian-designed military equipment. Is Mr. Fox trying to get President Bush's attention?

On Monday morning I was invited by YuLee Larner to join her and another Augusta Bird Club member, Mary Vermuluen, to visit the McCormick Farm, about 15 miles south of town. That is where Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the mechanical reaper, developed his agricultural implements back in the mid-19th Century. The site includes several beautiful old stone buildings and a picturesque watermill (that functions!), and they have recently made improvements such as a nature trail to attract tourists. We saw several Baltimore orioles, two of which were attending a nest in a willow tree hanging right above a footbridge. We also saw an orchard oriole, the first I've seen this season; they are brown and black, rather than orange and black. Other highlights included several cedar waxwings (two at a nest), two brown thrashers, some kingbirds, a kingfisher, and a pewee.

In preparation for the next new stadium page, Citizens Bank Park, the page of the Phillies' old home, Veterans Stadium has been revised, with a dynamic diagram to better represent the baseball-to-football reconfiguration. After a hot streak in May, the Phillies have started to fall behind the Marlins in the NL East once again, while the injury-plagued Braves are gradually catching up.

The top-seeded U.Va. Cavaliers managed two victories in the NCAA regional playoff series in Charlottesville, but lost to Vanderbilt 7-3 in the deciding game (sold-out!) on Sunday. It was a bittersweet ending to a great season; just wait till next year! Two Cavaliers were drafted by big league teams this week: ace pitcher / slugger Joe Koshansky (by the Colorado Rockies) and Mark Reynolds (by the Arizona Diamondbacks).

Princess laid four more eggs this week, which makes 22 so far this year. George is still singing regularly, and has recently gotten into the habit of flying into my office, apparently enjoying the songs being played on iTunes. The louder the volume, the louder he sings.

June 6, 2004 D-Day 2004 Pictured at the right is the central arch at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA, which on June 6, 1944 suffered a higher percentage of combat deaths than any other town in the United States. The town's soldiers who died on Omaha beach belonged to the 29th Infantry Division, a National Guard unit that is still operational. The black and white stripes were painted on all Allied aircraft flying in the congested invasion zone, to avoid friendly fire casualties. Jacqueline and I visited the memorial in 2001, not long after it opened. You can visit the D-Day Foundation Web site at: www.dday.org/

President Bush showed more poise and spoke more clearly than he had on other recent occasions during his D-Day interview with Tom Brokaw from an American cementary in Normandy. He explained the similarities and differences between the current war on terrorism and World War II, above all the extremist ideologies that motivate the enemies of freedom. He reminded everyone that it took several years for Germany and Japan to become stable and democratic, and that prevailing in this conflict will require patience and determination. I was a little disappointed, hoewver, that the President declined the suggestion that he call on the American people to sacrifice and share the heavy burden shouldered by our combat troops. It would have been a perfect opportunity to get Americans to accept high gasoline prices. The transcript is at: www.msnbc.msn.com.

As described at mlb.com, Yankee Hall of Famer Yogi Berra was stationed aboard a naval vessel offshore during the Normandy landings, the operation code-named "Overlord." Other big league players who served in the armed forces during World War II include Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Bob Feller, and Warren Spahn. Almost without exception they were modest, selfless, patriotic-minded citizens just doing their duty. The article linked above also refers to the letters exchanged between Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis and President Franklin Roosevelt, who urged that baseball be continued in spite of the war, for the sake of national morale. With some of the best players serving in uniform, the quality of play fell noticeably, and the minor leagues almost evaporated. That was what led to the creation of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League, featured in the movie A League of Their Own.

June 5, 2004 Former President Reagan has passed away at a particularly critical moment for the conservative movement he fathered. Setbacks in Iraq have many on the right questioning the whole idea of internationalist foreign policy, of which Reagan was an enthusiastic champion. When I was young and left-leaning, I often disparaged him as dangerous and/or incompetent -- just as so many people are disparaging President Bush today -- even though I grudgingly admired his sincere devotion to core principles. Eventually I came to respect him for his leadership abilities and for being right about most of the major issues of foreign, social, and economic policy. During a study session with fellow grad students at U.Va. in the mid-1990s, I opined that Reagan might be as close as we would ever come in our lifetime to having a truly great president. Of course, that elicited hearty scoffs. As his biographer Lou Cannon wrote, Reagan was underestimated by many of his political opponents, and he capitalized on this over and over again.

Image courtesy of the
Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation,
all rights reserved.

For what should Reagan be remembered? Most obviously, for defying conventional wisdom and standing up to Soviet expansionism around the world, ultimately reversing and defeating it. When he took office in January 1981, no serious person could have imagined that the Soviet Union would peacefully dissolve eleven years hence. It was Reagan who went ahead with deploying Pershing II missiles and cruise missiles in Europe at the climax of the Cold War, it was Reagan who refused to make concessions to Gorbachev at Rejkyavik in 1987, and it was Reagan who called on Gorbachev to "tear down this wall" in Berlin later that year. These breathtakingly bold actions were called "reckless" by hysterical opponents at the time, but they were part of a strategic vision that paved the way for the West's unequivocal triumph in the Cold War. By neutralizing the fear wielded by Soviet imperialists which had much of the Western world paralyzed, he not only spawned a renaissance of investor confidence but undermined the authority of the Communist regimes of the Warsaw Pact, hastening their demise.

I must call attention, however, to one pernicious legacy of the Reagan years: the idea now popular among many anti-tax activists that budget deficits don't matter. Remember Arthur Laffer? Of course not. He and his wacko theory of "supply-side economics" (rightly scorned by then-candidate George H. W. Bush in 1980 as "voodoo economics") have been relegated to the dustbin of history. For many hard-core tax cutters, the fact that there is no longer any serious intellectual foundation for their beliefs does not seem to matter. True, the burgeoning deficits of the 1980s were not solely Reagan's fault, because the Democrats retained control of the House, and in a divided government policy responsibility is inherently hard to pin down. It would be hard to deny, however, that the deficits were to some extent deliberate, as part of a stimulative package not unlike the Keynesian "pump priming" of the 1930s. There were particular reasons why the United States managed to cope with and overcome those huge deficits -- mainly the massive [capital] inflows from Japan during the 1980s -- but those conditions no longer exist. Reagan's stewardship of the U.S. economy was on balance positive, but the Wall Street mini-crash of 1987 revealed the nation's shaky financial foundations that were not shored up until the Republican Revolution of 1995, when fundamental budget reforms were enacted.

Sixty years ago today, Allied forces liberated Rome, after a frustrating nine-month campaign in the mountains of Italy. This triumph was overshadowed by what happened in northern France the very next day...

The diagram on the Milwaukee County Stadium page has been revised based on a very detailed and clear photograph in the book by Ira Rosen. That page has a temporary "dynamic" diagram with an "experimental" warning track version. I also corrected on that page the spelling of the name of Bob "Mr. Baseball" Uecker, thanks to a tip from a new visitor to this site, "Hazy Dave," who has fond memories of Eddie Mathews and Hank Aaron. Soon after this Web site migrates to a new host, I anticipate adding interactive features such as a comments page for each of the stadium pages. Stay tuned!

June 4, 2004 The announced resignation of CIA chief George Tenet is probably a good thing, even though he was regarded as a fairly effective and dynamic manager. Is he just the "fall guy" for the Bushies? Among all the officials who testified to the 9/11 Commission, Tenet would seem to have the most to answer for. I remember vividly the terror warnings in the mid-summer of 2001. Tenet testified that he did not meet with Bush even once during the month of August, which seems absolutely incomprehensible in such a context. Of course, if Bush in fact brushed him off, that would be another matter, but there is no indication of that thus far. Tenet offered to resign a year ago, but Bush urged him to stay on. His public testimony struck me as less than forthright, but until the full truth is known, (which may not happen for years), it will be hard to make any definitive judgments.

Speaking of the 9/11 Commission, there has been some grumbling among Democrats about the role of its Executive Director, Philip Zelikow, because he worked in the first Bush administration and has ties to some current administration figures such as Condoleeza Rice. I happen to know Prof. Zelikow, who became Director of the White Burkett Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, where I worked as a graduate student during the 1990s. He has a stellar reputation in academic and policy-making circles, though his selection to replace Prof. Kenneth Thompson (my dissertation adviser) occasioned some hard feelings in the Department of Government and Foreign Affairs (now called the Department of Politics), since he had not attained tenure at his previous post (Harvard) and was therefore considered by some faculty members to be ineligible for the rank of full professor at U.Va. In any event, Zelikow's academic credentials, dedication, earnestness, and personal character are beyond reproach.

The Oakland Coliseum page has been revised with an improved "dynamic diagram" that better depicts the 1996 renovation/expansion and the football reconfiguration. One of the diagrams shows the warning tracks, adding realism but at a slight cost in terms of clarity. I invite comments as to whether warning tracks should be included on other diagrams. Annette Gaudino (a Yankees fan living in the Bay Area!) recently alerted me to a factual error on the that page: I had written that Jason Giambi was thrown out at home plate in the AL divisional series in 2001, but it was actually his brother Jeremy Giambi. Thanks, Annette! I may get names mixed up, but I'll never forget that amazing acrobatic assist by Derek Jeter.

Speaking of the Yankees, they have been on a hot streak lately, pulling 3 games ahead of the Red Sox in the AL East. A-Rod is finally hitting commensurate with his salary, while Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui are starting to live up to their high slugging reputations. Actually, ALL the division races remain quite competitive, especially the oversized NL Central division. Without Sammy Sosa, the Cubs have fallen to fifth place. Oh-oh...

June 3, 2004 Three days hence will be the 60th anniversary of "D-Day," the invasion/liberation of France. Even though it was postponed by a year to build up an overwhelming numerical superiority over the Germans, the battle on the beachhead was still a very close thing, with heavy Allied casualties. Such historical perspective can help us to understand the war in Iraq today, especially the lamentably negative coverage of military events in most of the mainstream press. To see what I mean, read "If D-Day Had Been Reported On Today" by William A. Mayer, in Strategy Page. I was going to write a series of parody World War II news items like this, but someone is already on the case.

In South Dakota, the Democratic candidate, Stephanie Herseth, won by a 51-49 margin the special election to replace former Representative Bill Janklow, a mean-spirited Republican who was convicted of [manslaughter] after having killed a motorcyclist while running a red light last summer. I saw Ms. Herseth in a debate with Republican candidate Larry Diedrich on C-SPAN a week or so ago, and she lives up to her reputation for being poised and articulate. She is only 33 but comes from a political family; in fact, her grandfather was governor. Will she be the next Tom Daschle?

While on a bike ride east of town today I saw a hairy woodpecker, an oriole, a pair of red-tailed hawks, some blue-gray gnatcatchers, a few cedar waxwings, and for the first time this year, a white-eyed vireo.

In Venezuela, the National Elections Council ruled that sufficient petition signatures have been validated in order for the recall referendum against President Hugo Chavez to go forward. The constitution stipulated that signatures of 20 percent of the electorate were necessary for such a referendum to be held. It will be interesting to see whether Chavez lives up to his promise to abide by democratic norms.

June 2, 2004 The Skydome page has been revised and now includes a "dynamic diagram" to account for the retractable roof and the football reconfiguration. The Braves' bottom-of-the-ninth rally last night was about as dramatic and heroic as you can get. Nick Green (???) knocked a three-run homer with two outs to tie the game, and J. D. Drew homered on the very next pitch to win it. Unbelievable! It just goes to show that baseball is the one sport where there's always hope to come from behind and win -- a uniquely American attitude, it would seem. Donald Sensing's blog "One Hand Clapping" contains some reflections on this, as well as an even more upbeat assessment of Bush's handling of the transition in Iraq than I have offered recently. He quotes Canadian writer David Warren, who wrote:

No one else will say this, so I will. The Bush administration has handled the transfer of power in Iraq more cleverly than anyone expected, including me. The summoning of the U.N. envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, looked like very bad news (a poisonous old Arab League chauvinist who brokered the sell-out of Lebanon to Syria in 1982). In grim moments, I believed the Bush people were cynically using him to wash their hands of Iraq, and as it were, dump the quagmire back in the swamp of the U.N. Instead, they froze the ground beneath Brahimi's feet, and skated rings around him, haggling behind his back with Iraq's new political heavyweights to leave him endorsing a fait accompli. If it were not vulgar, I would say the Bushies suckered the U.N. into signing on to the New Iraq through Brahimi. A sovereign, free Iraq which will, incidentally, have a few things to say about the U.N.'s $100-billion "oil-for-food" scam, in due course.

It all makes you wonder if the President has been taking deliberate advantage of his modest intellectual reputation to catch his adversaries off balance, lowering expectations so that perceived successes are magnified. Strategy Page has a "report from the front lines" with far more balanced view of the situation in Iraq than you're likely to get from Dan Rather or Peter Jennings.

How's this for inspiring: An organization called Spirit of America has set up a program to teach kids in Afghanistan how to play baseball. I'm a little skeptical of the whole "hearts and minds" aspect, but such efforts certainly can't do any harm. After all, think about all the major league baseball players who come from Japan and countries in the Caribbean that used to be occupied by U.S. forces.

Has anyone noticed how expensive gasoline is getting? I sure have. It makes me nostalgic for the 70s: inflation, corruption, international crises, and disco. Seriously, the higher the price of gasoline goes, the happier I get. Americans will scream bloody murder, of course, and the tapes of Enron executives chuckling about screwing over California electricity consumers a few summers ago could not have come at a worse time. I detest all that stupid talk about Big Oil artifically jacking up prices, and I cringe at the thought of new laws forcing people to adopt silly "conservation" measures such as 55 mph. In a free market prices are supposed to reflect relative scarcity, and with the booming economies in China and, yes, here in the U.S.A., demand has been rising faster than production can be expanded. This is normal: Get used to it! Al Qaeda and Hugo Chavez are acutely aware of the political leverage they enjoy by virtue of Americans' addiction to cheap energy.