Now you can't see it...

But here are the mets starters in the dugout as they are about to win it in the 9th!

I know it is the 7th inning...

But should the bathroom line be this long?

For All the David Wright Fans

David Wright singles to First!

And Beltran knocks him in!

At the game!

Finally no rain and in the good seats! 5 rows from 3rd base!

Rainy day

But they are still playing!

David Wright at 3rd

Finally at the park.

Finally on the Way

Go mets!

On the Way to the Mets Game in Memphis!

And by on our way, I mean waiting in Jackson still for Dr.Wagner to arrive so we can leave!

Looking Out of a Hole

In Mississippi, people on Medicaid have to apply and then renew each year to stay on the program. That is actually what everyone in every state does. If that were the end of the story, my job would be done.

In Mississippi we also make you do each of these renewals in face to face meetings. They are called interviews. That is exactly what they are not.

The state pre-sets the time when you meet. Hope you can make it. When you are on Medicaid because you're 80 and cannot fend for yourself, well....I sure hope someone can give you a ride. Gotta work? No car? No problem! We just kick you right off. As you may know, Medicaid is for 3 groups of people: the elderly, poor children (not their parents), and the blind/disabled. Basically, these are the Mississippians least able to fend for themselves. They now have to go to these meetings to stay on the program. This would be fine if there was a true value to the policy. The time isn't used to vet the applicants. It is not used to root out fraud. It is not time to access and aid in the healthcare of the enrollee. This is what Gov. Haley Barbour says it is for. That's a lie. It isn't. I spent a year travelling to every office in every county in the state. I interviewed workers and managers in every office. No one was doing the things listed above. No one was under the illusion that they were supposed to do these things. Several openly laughed at the notion that it was their instructed job.

The twist is this. The face to face meetings are simply a requirement of over 600,000 citizens to hand deliver their paperwork. It is a policy designed to fail. The program requires 2300 face to face meetings a day to stay at its current size. St the same time they started to close down the very Medicaid offices that operate the system. County after county across the star have no Medicaid office at all. The counties that have offices often are open 4 or 7 hours a month. The offices don't even have signs to tell you that you're in the right place when you walk in the door. We are making our citizens meet people that don't show up for work, then when it doesn't work out, we blame the sick. Wonderful. Our infant mortality rate has skyrocketed. We actually now pay more to serve FEWER people on Medicaid. We have kicked off nearly 80,000 people so far. By far, most are kicked off because they have no office they can actually visit. Oh yeah...and we are breaking the law to boot.

I'm at the capitol. And its my job to make all this stop.

Two of the Halls of Congress

For days (weeks?) I've been at the capitol trying to end a tiny little Medicaid procedure. I probably only need a 10 min conversation today, but it may take me all day to get it. I'm feeling less than productive.

You were thinking coke...

But something else is good with rum....

Um...HOLY CRAP

Fox news Anchors WALKED OFF THE SET after getting frustrated with other Faux News Anchors going off on Obama! creezus!!

Then Chris Wallace (of FOXNews) actually went off on the "Fox and Friends" jerks to tell them that they're...um...Jerks. I mean, when your anchor is saying Fox is Bashing Obama, then...whew...um...i don't think i've EVER seen anything like this on Fox.

Amazing.

NOTE: i had a hard time making myself watch these clips because everytime i watch Fox and Friends i feel a little bit of my soul melt away.

The aftermath

Not only did Tulane blow out Oakland, but new Orleans blew out St. Patrick's Day ! I have never seen more beads left on the ground in my life. Big crowds tho. I now have a wonderfully stylish foam bushmills top hat! Klassy with a K baby!

Juan's Flying Buritos

Ok. No trip to NOLA is complete without a trip here. Now, I don't know if this speaks highly of this place or not, but it may be the only restaurant I've ever been to that played GG Allin on the radio. Hmpf.

9 to 0

Top of the 6th and we are rockin!

Bill Wuz Here!

Bill Clinton was on campus. We did our part. For the global initiative at the Baseball diamond.

5 to 0 in the 5th

Pretty day and we are winning!

AJ in NOLA

My brother AJ came with me to the Tulane game in New Orleans

Obama!

I don't know how it is elsewhere, but you can get an Obama shirt on any corner in Jackson, MS.

Vote Today!

If you are in Mississippi, I encourage you to vote for Obama!

And Now, Something Pretty...

i

Here's something pretty so you don't have to look at my foot when you come back here. i hope to blot a little about the election later. in a nutshell i think Hillary wins 1 state of the four. maybe 2. i don't think it is enough and she can't overcome the map. with the way delegates are apportioned, close races just provide a marginal split.

So anyway, this is one of the prettiest cars I've ever seen. a 1963 XKE

Ever Seen Someone with a Sprained Ankle?

It isn't very pretty. It looks worse a day later! I can only imagine what sunday will bring.

Still arguing!

Like i said below, ...UNTIL...we were robbed by a blind ump! i think our entire coaching staff cleared the bench. this shot was taken WAY into what should have been the start of the 9th inning. We fought back hard, stacking the bases with players early on in the bottom of the 9th. every pitch was a nail biter. in the end, they were stranded on base. we lost the game splitting the double header in half. So close...better luck Sunday. I will be back home though. I better check on that ankle....

2 down. Bases loaded

Bottom of the 8th! We were really taking it to these guys. the batter walks. Down by 1 now, the next batter steps up. a nice line drive. The short stop retrieves it, tosses a SLOW throw to 1st base. It will be a tie ballgame and the bulldogs will be poised to blow this wide open, UNTIL...

AUZ-bun!!

This was the guy I spent my full day heckling. 3rd baseman Ben Ausbun (#6) from Air Force. I was pretty nice to the guy, not getting off color or anything, but i went at him for the entire game. I knew i hit a nerve when the stands started laughing in the second game when i just said his name. hadn't even made a comment yet. i was very proud. Unfortunately for us, the Mojo was slipping by this point.

What to eat between games

And by eat, I mean drink! Yay for a double header. When we arrived we didn't realized that the previous day's game was rained out and pushed to today, SOOOO after that first game, we get another! two MSU games in one day! nice surprise!

HOME RUN!!

Socking it out of the park!

Go democrats!

Riding to victory! My pal has some cool t-shirts.

Can you tell...

Which ankle I sprained? (HINT: look at the left one) Hobbling along, watching the MSU Bulldogs! I think this thing may be getting worse. at least i'm spending most of my day sitting. i was walking by a gentleman in a walker earlier. he outran me up the ramp into the stands...NO LIE!

3 to 1 in the 7th!

Air force better not defend the country in baseball! What a good game! We've had some excellent ptiching. lots of strike outs. Sorry my blackberry camera isn't any better than this.

Go Dawgs!

Gotta love swinging bully!

MSU home game this weekend

First home games of the year, and it is a Double Header!!

Oh, this is JUST What They Need

Seems Florida has come up with a new license plate to shout out that rich confederate past!

Bucket o blues!

The night ends at a house party where everyone came as the blues brothers!

The balcony bar

Is my favorite spot in New Orleans. Esp after the game!

We won!

4 to 3! What a great day!

Tie game!

We have a tie game on our hands! And we are in new Orleans....so we win regardless!

STRIKE THREE!!

Here is the view from the cheap seats! It was nice being in the student section. Lots of chants and cheers. Also it was pretty relentless for the opposing right fielder. A good time had by all!

We need a bigger boat!

At Tulane we serve crawfish out of canoes, or as we call it in Louisiana, a Peerow (p-row). They were wishing they'd used a bigger one for the crowd here!

Your College Baseball Team

Probably doesn't serve micro brew beer and crawfish! Go green wave!

Turchin Stadium Rebuilt!

This was the first game in Tulane's stadium. Just rebuilt since the hurricane. It was nice walking up to the stadium seeing people out tailgating. Tulane's campus is right in the middle of the uptown neighborhood in New Orleans walking from the car you pas by houses where people are outside cooking, playing music, and having a good time. You walk onto campus and there is a buzz of activity leading up to the stadium. I have to say they did a great job on this one. (I know it is sideways. I will rotate it when I'm back to an actual computer. The cell phone can do only so much!)

On the Way to Tulane

I guess 'jesus' was taken ...

Can't Sleep!

I'm ready for the Baseball game tomorrow in New Orleans!

This Blog Isn't Where You Go to Find Skirts

but this thing was both cool and HIL-arious!

Yer Pal Polly

Just to let you guys know, i got an interesting email this morning. I awoke to find an offer to run Hillary Clinton's Mississippi Campaign today. very flattering. I had to decline for other obligations, but hopefully my good pal Jaxxie can get the job. Still, pretty neat.

Last Update

OK. it's in now. McCain and Obama sweep the Potomac Primaries (Maryland, Virginia, and DC) Basically Hillary will need to make a stand in Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. if she cannot win a couple of those (at LEAST one, preferably all if you want to see her win), then that's it for her campaign. you heard it here first. There's some momentum she's running against. the time is short and she's gone through some turmoil that usually means disaster for a campaign on what is (to my mind) the final stretch.

MY DC VACATION

I spent a few days in DC and Baltimore in September. During this trip I saw all the major DC sights by night. I saw some old friends and I got another taste of a city I really like. I also saw my first Major League Baseball game. It was the DC Nationals vs. the Pholding Philadelphia Phillies. I was lucky enough that my college pal Swirly got us 2 tickets to the LAST baseball games at RFK stadium! what a cool time.

To my surprise, there was a Mississippi Bar BQ Joint right there at the stadium! I got to sit out past 3rd base with agreat view and even saw a few foul balls go my way. I ate a hot dog and had beer, fulfilling the traditional baseball activities. I sang take me out to the ballgame. and it was pretty well awesome.

The second day was a bit different. First of all, my newly beloved Nationals won! We also sat in a waaaay different area. Sometimes when you sit VERY high up in a big stadium it's called sitting in "Heaven" because you sit so far up you feel like you are up in the clouds! I'd never sat anywhere that high and i was shocked how good the view was. it was actually pretty fun sitting up high. take a look at a few of those shots. It was incredible how steep those stands get up high! The previous day you would see a 'beer man' appear about every 45 seconds. Up in the clouds i saw one kid walk to the base of the stands. he had 6 beers and yelled up the steps. He told us he had beers if we wanted them, but he wasn't going to haul them up the steps if we weren't buying! i didn't blame him. the idea of walking up those steep steps with a cooler of beer is truly terrifying! There was a guy that sat next to me with an "Isotopes" baseball cap from the REAL baseball team named made up team from the Simpsons. ha!

I had a great time, Swirly bought me a hat that i'm wearing right now, and i can't wait to go back.

Super Duper Tuesday and Beyond...

After having a pretty heavy political week of my own, I was happy to let all the Super Tuesday stuff go by without much of my attention yesterday. However, i'll give you my take. If you didn't know already, the way Democrats and Republicans hand out delegates in a primary vary, even within the same state. Many, but not all, of the GOP primaries are "All or Nothing", meaning you win, you get all of the delegates. Second place gets nothing. The Democrats split up the state's delegates to first and second (generally) if the 2nd place voter reaches a given threshold. With Hillary and Obama winning different states, this left us roughly tied. actually it gave Hillary more by popular vote and Obama more by delegate count. under this system you can have a smaller gap of delegates awarded to the 1st and 2nd place candidates in California than you do for the same candidates in Puerto Rico!!! I'm not going to get into "super delegates" and what that means here until it actually begins to mean something.

After Super Tuesdsay, the GOP found itself a 2 man race. Sorry Ron Paul, it is now mathematically impossible for you to win. Everyone, me included, said it was all over and McCain would beat Huckabee for the nomination. The GOP elite seem to hate these too guys so much that they don't know what to do with themselves. meanwhile we get a few more states into the mix...and Huckabee wins them ALL! In the South. the Midwest. and the West.

You may be thinking "Now wait a minute Polly! I saw McCain won Washington. it wasn't a sweep!" and it SEEMS that way (and maybe it will be that way in the end), but you should know this and sit in disbelief that this has made no press. in Washington state, with 13% of the vote left to count, the race was neck and neck for McCain/Huckabee. Literally seperated by 1.8%!. so what does the chair of the GOP (Luke Esser) in Washington do? HE HAD A GUT FEELING THAT McCAIN WOULD WIN AND CUT OFF THE COUNTING OF THE VOTES!! seriously. It seemed that the 30 point lead McCain had before has evaporated and the fix needed to go in to handle the situation. Huckabee wasn't too happy, as you can imagine.

Well that's the sorta stuff you get over there. on the Democratic side, Obama cleaned Hillary's clock. now he was expected to win these states, partly bc he fares better in Caucus states than she does. He's done well in poorer states, states with larger black populations, and whiter states with higher income residents. Hillary has done well in the middle and much better with Latinos. it was a rout. she had to cough up $5 million of her own dough and ask staff to give up paychecks for a while. on top of that, she ditches her campaign leadership. not good signs and no good PR going into the "Potomac Primary" of Virginia, DC, and Maryland. Her best chance (same with huckabee) will be in Virginia. the rest should go Obama. If he sweeps here, she will be in contention, but certainly down in the delegate count and will have no chance of moving ahead in the race until March. a long time to stop a free fall.

I was very worried Obama wasn't going to be able to pull this out in the end. I'll be very positive on his chances if he sweeps again tonite...and that seems to be the word on the street.

UPDATE! One More from the Coast

Read the link above. I'll give you some updates today plus more on the election!

Hey, Its Yer Pall Polly in the News...

I'll post a little more on this monday. This article doesn't touch on the part of my testimony last week when the Director of Medicaid tried to take the mic away from me when i testified in front of the legislature. Evidently he REALLY doesn't like it when he's caught lying in public. natch!

Get Down On It!

and there you go. Obama 55% and Hillary at 27% in South Carolina. no more insight than what i gave before. it was going his way...nuf said. the win for hillary comes from whatever she can pull out of Super - Duper Tuesday. otherwise, Welcome, President Obama.

in a side note i'll elaborate on later...I'm glad for the chance to get ALL OF THIS out of the hands of the babyboomers. the first generation to be so self entitled from craddle to grave also gives us a lot of the societal strife we've had to fight through. i'm tired of wading through your waters. thanks for getting us here, but i'm glad to get loose of your baggage.

last political gasp

Seems Obama is carrying SC. i like him better and better. this has been a BIG load off my mind. can't wait to get all this primary stuff behind us.

Let's Get This Outta the Way

I have a MEGA soft spot in my heart for Memphis. a friend of mine from HS went to U of Memphis for basketball, and i've followed them ever since. right now they are Number 1 and are playing like EXACTLY what any fan would want to see. unselfish. tough. great!

THAT BEING SAID,

Tulane is doing ok this year, beating multiple SEC teams for the first time since the 1940s(!) so i will take what i can get. MSU started out not so hot, but "HOLY MAROON AND WHITE!!"* they just beat those jerks at Ole Miss by TWENTY POINTS!! ...they are 5-0 in conference play too. best recored in the SEC. holey jamoley, creezus meezus! what goes on here!?!

either way, i like it!

*used with permission.

Can We Give this Woman A Prize?

Seriously, i feel the same about Notre Dame.

Quick Update: Glass Half Full or Empty Edition

You may recall below that I predicted Obama to carry Nevada. Well, he didn't...and he did.

see, the delegates for each caucus site was predetermined, soooo...that means if the turnout was really high or low in a particular spot, it didn't matter because the winner took the delegates assigned, regardless of the number of caucus goes there.

What this means is that Obama DID win the state, in that he got the most Delegates out of Nevada, committed to vote for him in the grand total, state by state. However, the problem here is that Hillary got more PEOPLE to vote for her. their vote just didn't count as much, it seems. What really determines the winners here is just who gets the best press out of Nevada. So far, i cannot tell. maybe it is even.

Update, Hot Off the Press!!

I just read this a minute ago:

Despite second- and third-place finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, John Edwards might have a shot at winning the Nevada caucus. The first Nevada poll to come out in a month suggests Edwards is still a force in the Democratic race, pulling in 27 percent of the support, essentially in a statistical tie with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

So, add that to what i said below about Nevada. Interesting. he DOES have a lot of (various) union support. maybe this is materializing into something new?? i like this guy, partly because his politics and policy read like someone that isn't looking to play it safe for a re-election down the road.

OK, Let's Run Through This

Time to update.

before Iowa the press was losing their minds over the Obama/Hillary Race. the thing was, it WASN'T an Obama/Hillary race, but they don't care. Edwards? who's he? they like the idea of the first legit female candidate and first legit black candidate (legit=has a chance. no offense, those who came before). They weren't interested in anything else and this emphasis made Iowa out to be THE (first and) FINAL word on the election. well, you can't get everything you want. the breakdown wasn't too far off as predicted. Now it IS a big deal that Hillary got 3rd after being up for so long, but those old high poll numbers were bogus. just like any other numbers that come out WAY ahead of time--they're based on name ID and are relatively meaningless. Obama had momentum and a machine working for him. Edwards had a good machine too. Hillary had a smaller machine made of the leftover parts and BARELY got third.

Now that breakdown was roughly 1/3 of the vote to each candidate, but you would have thought Obama got 75%! we roll into NH and the press is losing it. Hillary was blown out...but she wasn't the split was 1/3 each, but to hear the headlines, you would have thought she had been shot dead on election night. NH comes. a place where Edwards has minimal presence. a place where Hillary has a geographic advantage over Obama, and WHAT!?!?!?!...Obama gets 2nd place!?! this time the vote percentage breaks in the 30s for Hillary AND Obama, but Hillary loses.

the press flips out.

They had polls that showed Obama ahead. what goes on here!?!?! never mind that most barely squeaked by the margin of error. didn't you hear that Hillary was found dead in Iowa!?! it was a comeback only in the eyes of the press who created the imaginary gulf between her and Obama in the first place. sadly for Edwards, it IS a 2 person race now, as he doesn't have the money to keep going in a fashion that will survive South Carolina and Nevada and the press aren't doing any favors. Policy-wise, he's the one real 'change' candidate, if anything, because he's not an elected official now and doesn't have to worry about pissing off anyone. he can lay it all out as he likes.

RIP John Edwards.

So now hillary has the momentum again! she's surging! her numbers are growing (wow, outside of the margin of error even in some places!)...she's AHEAD! not so fast. even though Obama got 2nd place, as i counted it, he actually left with the SAME NUMBER OF DELEGATES as Hillary coming out of NH! did you know that? either way, both candidates have the money to survive the next 2 states: Nevada and South Carolina.

Nevada.
Another caucus state. I give this to Obama. This state isn't used to Caucusing for presidents. usually the thing is decided by the time they get to Nevada. Obama gets some organization muscle from the Culinary Workers Union (read massive casino worker/white/latino influence) which, not only is huge, but they are allowing caucusing to occur at some of the resort job sites. add that onto the organization he already has and he's formidable. How formidable? more muscle than the NEA (teachers) Union seem to be offering hillary. also enough to make some people SUE to stop the caucusing at resort locations...a few of these plaintiffs actually being from the board that approved the caucus location rules (voting 'yay')! now why that sort of hardball action? because it is that close (nationally) and they can't spare a single vote. they are playing the margins because they don't have a knockout here for Hillary. I say Obama wins it. anyone giving you a spread here is guessing....and i'm not even going to hazard a guess.

South Carolina.
As you may have heard, 1/2 of the voters in the SC Democratic primary are black. perhaps more than half that number are women, SOOO....the question is, how will the black women break? I'm interested in their opposite number too. how do white democratic men break? in the beginning, Hillary had a great deal of support from establishment, black community leaders. these sorts of folks have been uneven against Obama in the past and they SURE seem awfully quiet about their support now compared to 4-5 months ago. maybe i should elaborate more, but i just don't see it for Hillary here either. Obama in SC.

if this happens, expect the press to have a meltdown. i may need to amend all this if trends change, but as of now, this is how i see it. More on the 'tears' episode for Hillary, which i find VERY interesting, in just a little bit. oh, i should add this. I've personally shifted my support to Obama. Now i don't plan to attack either one, but i will give you my take on the race as it goes by. i just figured i would fess up to how i felt.

Now, you wanna know why? with Obama, you get bigger/better coattails for other down ticket races that are out there. if it was the other way around (feel free to convince me), i'd support Hillary. it comes down to not much more than that...well, a little more, but i'll share that later.

Not Too Far Off

I'm usually terrible at getting election breakdowns, but i wasn't too far off this time. the real question is how hard the press try to throw Hillary overboard now. With just about 5 days until the New Hampshire primary, i'm unclear how much of a boost or how much damage can be done in such a short matter of time.

For the GOP, the question is where Huckabee falls after the NH primary doesn't work in his favor and how much can McCain pull up there. he's the only scary one in the GOP field.

Iowa Caucus Results

OK, here are my predictions. I'm not in Iowa. i have no contacts in Iowa. I don't pretend this is any more than my hunch.

Edwards and Obama end up on top. maybe 2-3 points separating them. i give it to edwards due to the difficulty of the caucusing process and the fact that he has a lot of old pros working the rooms for him. Obama has more steam, but the process here is different than simply voting today at some point when you get free. it may hurt him. Hillary gets 3rd. the question is how bad. she isn't a paper tiger, but may be a balsa wood tiger.

Word on the street: Richardson is directing his people to cast 2nd choice votes for Obama. Kucinich is telling his people to give votes to Edwards.

Caucus goers that support candidates with less than 15% of the total in their particular sight have the option of leaving or casting their votes elsewhere, for another candidate. Richardson is directing his people to cast 2nd choice votes for Obama. Kucinich is telling his people to give votes to Edwards. Edwards has people that are experienced at doing this. Obama's 20 year old college supporter hasn't ever done this...but there's a lot of people like her.

Man Troubles

If you are a supporter of Hillary Clinton as your first choice for President, you should read this article. I've always liked Hillary, and felt that she spent a decade or so being the punching bag of choice for Rush Limbaugh and his ilk. I always felt it was unfortunate and unfair. None-the-less, she's fallen into this roll. Often she's the target of irrational hatred. I've rarely seen someone so hated by people that cannot articulate an explanation of their hatred ("I just don't like her" isn't a reason, by-the-way). She has the experience to be President and (despite what she claims) it is little different than what Barrack Obama possesses. She claims the difference is that she's got the experience to handle the big bad Republicans, and she knows how to come out on top.

Her problem is that this is a bit of a rosy view of her history of fighting Republicans. Her history is less fighting them and more of being a lightening rod for their attack. being able to take a punch is different than connecting punches yourself (note i said CONNECTING, not throwing punches). While she may not deserve the grief she gets, it has forever made her a polarizing figure. High DIS-approval ratings don't make for big time victories. More to the point, the prevent coattails that can create a true mandate in the House and Senate (more on that in a the next post). Consider this, from the article above:

A lot of men don't like Hillary. A lot of men say they don't want to vote for Hillary--even Democratic men. The new L.A. Times/Bloomberg poll, released Dec. 28, shows that only 19 percent of Democratic men favor Clinton in upcoming caucuses and primaries - less than one in five.

These are DEMOCRATS. This is why EVERY conservative commentator has spent at least a year talking up Hillary as unbeatable. they know she's the most beatable and that's exactly who they want to face. it is their best (only?) hope of winning this thing. The mock fearfulness they have is akin to Br'er Rabbit begging not to be thrown into the briar patch. It is exactly what they want. The viability of any Democrat polling at 19% among Democratic men should be seriously called into question.

Thanks for Clearing that Up.

Well as reported in this Washington Post artice, the RIAA has cleared up just what they mean in that warning. In a brief filed recently, they assert that you are violating the rule if you buy a cd and put a copy of the tracks on your own computer for your own personal use.

Now, in an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees, the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step further: In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.

The industry's lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from legally bought CDs are "unauthorized copies" of copyrighted recordings.

Ike Turner Dead at 76

Ike Turner (a Clarksdale, MS native such as myself) died today in his sleep. Often infamously noted for drug and alcohol fueled physical abuse of his loved ones (Notably Tina Turner), Ike Turner's musical contributions were substantial. In 1951 he recorded Rocket 88, which is about the Oldsmobile 88 which had just come into production 2 years earlier. The song has perhaps the earliest example of 'fuzz' or guitar distortion. As the performers were making their way up Hwy 61 from Mississippi to record the song (with soon-to-be musical giant Sam Phillips), their amp fell out of the back of their car. the damage created a distorted sound that has given inspiration to countless rock and roll songs. It has been argued by many that this is the first Rock 'N Roll song, which is saying something.

Did You See This?

Here's what the NYTimes ran today:

U.S. Says Iran Ended Atomic Arms Work

By MARK MAZZETTI

Published: December 3, 2007

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 — A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains frozen, contradicting judgment two years ago that Tehran was working relentlessly toward building a nuclear bomb.

The conclusions of the new assessment are likely to reshape the final year of the Bush administration, which has made halting Iran’s nuclear program a cornerstone of its foreign policy.

The assessment, a National Intelligence Estimate that represents the consensus view of all 16 American spy agencies, states that Tehran is likely keeping its options open with respect to building a weapon, but that intelligence agencies “do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons.”

Pretty straightforward, huh? well, god help you if you were watching FoxNews today at lunch when this story broke. Their headline? IRAN COULD HAVE NUCLEAR BOMB BY 2010.

Seriously.

the spin never ends.