Find out how Cooch took $55,000 from the disgraced "U.S. Navy Veterans Association," in apparent exchange for his promise to get the Virginia Office of Consumer Affairs (which had "notified Thompson's group that it no longer qualified for an exemption from state registration requirements") off the group's back. Can we say "pay-to-play?" Find out more.
Parts 2 and 3 of this tribute to Glenn Brenner are on the "flip." I can't believe it's been 20 years since Glenn Brenner passed away at the young age of 43, from an inoperable brain tumor. If you never had the privilege of watching Glenn Brenner, day and and day out, as I did for a few years after I came to Washington, DC for graduate school in 1984, you don't know what you missed. But watch these videos and you'll get an idea, and why so many of us - myself included - still miss Glenn Brenner so much. He truly broke the mold, in the best sense of that expression.
Sad news: E Street Band sax player, music legend, and Norfolk native Clarence Clemons has passed away.
Clarence Clemons, Bruce Springsteen's longtime saxophone player and a legend in the music industry, died Saturday from complications following a stroke he suffered about a week ago.
Clemons' sax has been one of the most defining elements of the E Street Band's sound. He has suffered from numerous ailments over the last few years. He had double knee surgery and even had to perform from a wheelchair at one point.
Wow, that one hurts. I've been a huge Bruce Springsteen fan for years, and also a big fan of Brooooce's E Street Band. Sadly, two key members of that band -- keyboardist Danny Federici (who died in April 2008) and saxophonist Clarence Clemons -- have now left us forever. Rest in peace, "Big Man" -- you will live on through your music and will not be forgotten!
The NCAA men's basketball title game has been brutal, ugly, a bricklayer's delight. Midway through the 2nd half, Butler is shooting 18% and UConn is shooting 32%. Mo Elleithee tweets, "There are a lot of college basketball teams watching this game right now and wondering how the hell they lost to these teams." Call it the Michael Dukakis Blues:
Connecticut's poor showing on the court comes after a poor showing in the stands. I look forward to a vigorous defense of his birthplace from Lowell.
The Washington Nationals have announced that, contrary to baseball's conventional wisdom that would have their biggest basher batting fourth, they'll put offseason acquisition Jayson Werth second in their lineup. As the Washington Post's Adam Kilgore details, if he stays healthy, the move could get Werth to the plate as many as 30 additional times over the course of the season.
Look, this is Washington, DC. We don't let things like "facts" bury our crazy memes:
Cutting taxes will INCREASE revenue!
Slashing funding for Metro will IMPROVE service!
Americans only care about the deficit and not about jobs!
And we bat our home run hitters fourth! Because that's how the late great Connie Mack did it at old Shibe Park!
Unless the New York market gets the third team it could easily support, the Nats are always going to be in an uphill financial battle against the Mets. But the Tampa Rays have shown the ability to close a much wider financial gap with brains & luck - things the Mets have found hugelylacking lately. I'm still not convinced Werth's contract was such a bright idea, but this is a smart move to get the most out of their investment.
UPDATE 3/28: The Nats' dumb marketing doesn't seem to match their smart lineup-setting.
The shot that sprung 11th-seeded Virginia Commonwealth to yet another unimaginable height was not meant to come off Bradford Burgess's hands, but he was open - wide open - and so the Rams collected perhaps their easiest basket of the night in the heart of the territory Florida State's imposing front court had protected so well.
Burgess's lay-in with 7.1 seconds remaining in overtime provided the final margin in VCU's 72-71 victory over the 10th-seeded Seminoles. on Friday night at the Alamodome. The Rams, who seemed destined to languish in the National Invitation Tournament after going 3-5 in February, will face top-seeded Kansas on Sunday with a spot in the Final Four on the line.
Here are a couple of the best YouTube covers of Nelly's "Just a Dream Cover." Which do you like best? Also, you can check out the rest of my "best of YouTube covers" at this link. Enjoy!
The Green Miles has used part of his holiday vacation to get better acquainted with NBA Jam for Wii. Two of the unlockable hidden teams in the game are the Democrats & the Republicans. The Democrats feature Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Al Gore, and Bill & Hillary Clinton. The Republicans include George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John McCain & Sarah Palin.
NBA Jam's player ratings often don't make a lot of sense (John Wall of the Wizards is one of the fastest players in basketball yet isn't exceptionally fast in the game), and the political teams are no different. For instance, Bill Clinton is a better dunker than Barack Obama.
But hey, you don't play a game like NBA Jam for its realism. It's incredibly entertaining & for a political junkie like me, the Dem & GOP teams dial up the fun even further. John McCain drove in for a layup & as Joe Biden jumped for the block, I found myself yelling, "Don't bring that weak stuff up in my house, John McCain!" Kinda cathartic after McCain's legendarily soft showing on Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal.
As I went up for a dunk with Biden, the announcer asked, "Can he finish?" To which I replied as Biden threw down, "You even have to ask if Joe Biden finish? PLEASE." And it's always annoying when the computer starts a comeback by raining 3s - but it's exponentially more grating when the shooter is Sarah Palin.
One set of ratings may be a subtle political statement: All of the Republicans are really good at stealing.
I love NFL football. But I'm completely disinterested in NCAA football. Why?
If you hate watching meaningful football games, you should love college football's Bowl Championship Series. Maryland played East Carolina this week at RFK Stadium. Announced attendance was 38,062, thousands below capacity - at a stadium just nine miles from the Maryland campus. Feel the bowl excitement!
If you hate Cinderella stories, you should love the BCS. Texas Christian University has gone undefeated this year, but cannot win the national title. Boise State has finished undefeated twice in recent years, both times winning the Fiesta Bowl, without being allowed a chance at the national title either time.
If you like preserving wealth & power in the hands of the privileged few over a true meritocracy, you should love the BCS. Only 14 teams have appeared in the 13 BCS Championship games, with 10 of the 26 slots going to just 3 teams (Oklahoma, Ohio State & Florida State).
College football's lack of a playoff system is one of the great enduring atrocities of modern sports. Look at it this way: Can you imagine any other sport dismantling their playoff system in exchange for a lone title game in which the participants are based in large part on subjective opinions? What if the NCAA proposed canceling the NCAA basketball tournament & just letting #1 & #2 play for the title? Or if the NFL skipped the playoffs and put the Patriots & Falcons in the Super Bowl right now?
Amazingly, the BCS still has some misguided defenders. Just listen to this convoluted defense of the system from Not Larry Sabato:
Do you know who this man is? The Washington Nationals just gave him the 16th-largest contract in the history of professional sports - 7 years, $126 million.
He's Jayson Werth, an outfielder most recently with the Philadelphia Phillies. It's not clear who the Nationals were bidding against - the Phillies offered about half of what the Nats did & there's no indication any other team had significantly raised that bar. Jayson Stark reports, "The Nationals offer on Werth was so far above everyone else that Boras didn't even ask other interested teams if they wanted to match it."
While Werth has been one of the best all-around players in baseball the last few years, he's already 31 & will turn 39 early in the final year of this mammoth contract. Baseball Prospectus, trying to project Werth's 30s by looking at what similar players have done in the past, predicts he'll be merely an average outfielder by the 4th year of the contract & a payroll-hogging albatross in the 6th & 7th years.
Here is the best amateur cover of U2's "Pride (In the Name of Love)" that I've found on YouTube. Not even close, this guy is absolutely amazing! Note: click here for all my "Best of YouTube" videos, and enjoy!
The Washington Capitals start their season this Friday against the Thrashers. Hopefully, this will be the year they take home Lord Stanley's Cup. In preparation for that, the Caps are training hard at Kettler Iceplex in Arlington, Virginia. Here's some video from this morning's workout. Go Caps!
Last night on ESPN's SportsCenter, I was listening to Buster Olney declare that, given that the Nationals haven't signed him to a long-term deal yet, the Nationals had made a horrible mistake by not trading Adam Dunn. At 2006's trading deadline, I heard the knights of the keyboard say the same thing about the Nationals holding onto Alfonso Soriano. So I thought I'd look back at MLBTradeRumors.com & list all the prospects who'd been linked to a potential Soriano deal at one time or another:
Yusmeiro Petit, Renyel Pinto, Jason Vargas, Erick Aybar, Brent Clevlen, Jair Jurrjens, Humberto Sanchez, Lance Broadway, Brandon McCarthy, Matt Garza, Scott Baker, Jason Kubel
It's still too early to pass final judgment on most of these players. But four full seasons after the 2006 trading deadline, not one of them has been an All-Star. Some, like Jurrjens, Garza, Baker & Kubel, have had one or more good years, but all four have regressed to average (or worse) this year. Others have already flopped.
My point is not that the Nationals made the right or wrong decision in either case (the compensation pick they received for Soriano turned into Josh Smoker, who currently sports a horrific 3-10 record with a 7.44 ERA in single A). My point is that people anointed as experts often say stuff that isn't just questionable in hindsight -- it's not supported by fact at the time. Because in 2006, it wasn't just in baseball that pundits were making bold predictions that turned out to be dazzlingly wrong.
Trying to figure out who this most reminds me of ... I'm actually thinking a non-elected: The amorphous, shape-shifting blob of a Supreme Court nominee that was John Roberts. From the IFC series The Whitest Kids U'Know:
The only question is, do you spell it "falafal" or "falafel?" Regardless, I'm greatly looking forward to the release of Remy's album, by Comedy Central Records, on September 14. I think I'll go out and celebrate either at this place or this one or maybe even this one. Go Remy and Go Falafel!
The purpose of Blue Virginia is to cover Virginia politics from a progressive and Democratic perspective. This is a group blog and a community blog. We invite everyone to comment here, but please be aware that profanity, personal attacks, bigotry, insults, rudeness, frequent unsupported or off-point statements, and "trolling" (NOTE: that includes outright lies, whether about climate science, or what other people said, or whatever) are not permitted and, if continued, will lead to banning. For more on trolling, see the Daily Kos FAQs. Also note that diaries may be deleted if they do not contain at least 2 solid paragraphs of original text; if not, please use the comments section of a relevant diary. For more on writing diaries, click here. Thanks, and enjoy!
