The Infomercial

For those of you who opted for ANTM over the Obama infomercial, the full broadcast can be seen below. I thought it was very well done...but by this point you've probably deduced that I am far from an unbiased source.

Yes we can.

Spoiled

How spoiled have we become here in the city of Boston? So spoiled that in the nine days since the Boston Red Sox were eliminated from the playoffs (in the seventh game of the American League Championship Series, ensuring that they were no worse than the fourth best team in the world) we have seen the New England Patriots win twice and tonight will watch the Boston Celtics raise their 17th world championship banner to the rafters of the, ahem, Boston Garden--the sixth such ceremony we have witnessed here since February of 2002.

Three Super Bowl championships for the Pats.

Two World Series titles for the Sox.

Banner number 17.

Bob Ryan is right. These really are the good old days. Never lose sight of that.

Bill Weld

Former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld shows the world why he holds the distinction of being the first Republican I ever voted for. If there were more like him in the GOP then this country would be a much better place, and these last eight years would have been very different.

Why We Fight

Because a GOP victory won't only mean four years of John McCain and Sarah Palin. That administration would likely be followed by four years of Hillary Clinton and Ed Rendell.

Yes we can....and we must.

What Hasn't Been Said Enough

At least not recently.

You know who you are.

You know who we are.

Yes we can.

A Deserving People

Adlai Stevenson has been written about here many time before, and during last night's display it was impossible for me to not remember his words.

"In a democracy, people usually get the kind if government they deserve."

Thanks to Florida and Ohio we have had just that these last eight years. If the country falls for the performance of Sarah Palin then we will have the same thing for the next four.

Some of us deserve better than this. Some of us don't. Which are you?

A Good Baseball Read

My man Bill Simmons offers up a unique look at the departure of Manny Ramirez from Boston and the Red Sox lineup. Simmons has a writing style that is all his own, to be sure, but what makes this piece stand out is the position he takes:

He defends Manny.

I know, I know, this is crazy talk. How could anyone possibly? He was a cancer who didn’t respect this town, his teammates, or the game, right? Right?

Maybe. I’m never one to play the “blame the agent” card, because if watching Entourage has taught me anything it is that the agent, in the end, works for the client. Scott Boras is scum (to put it mildly) and Manny is naïve (to put it lightly) but the slugger doesn’t quite deserve the pass Simmons gives him here.

But maybe, just maybe, Manny didn’t deserve quite everything that was written in the Boston Herald or said on WEEI during his final days at Fenway either.

The article can be found here.

(Be sure to read the footnotes. They may just be the best part.)

Just Do It

This commercial really hit home back in the fall of 2004. It began to air as the baseball playoffs started and before the Red Sox actually won the World Series. But the Yankees had been vanquished and you could feel what was about to happen...even if you couldn't quite believe it.

This is for my friends in Chicago, the only city in America that can fully grasp the feeling that swept through Boston that year.