Saturday's Headlines: 'So I killed someone. That makes me a bad guy?'

Posted at 7:04 AM, February 28, 2009

Friday's Headlines: Piven Won't Be Punished for Fishy Story

Posted at 6:05 AM, February 27, 2009

Thursday's Headlines: City Relying on Crane Safety from Instructor Who Admitted Mob Ties

Posted at 6:33 AM, February 26, 2009

Wednesday's Headlines: Murdoch's Apology Not Enough, Says Sharpton (Also: Index to This Week's 'Voice')

Posted at 5:52 AM, February 25, 2009

Tuesday's Headlines: Murdoch Apologizes for Chimp Cartoon

Posted at 6:21 AM, February 24, 2009

Monday's Headlines: Murdoch Too In Love With Newspapers

Posted at 6:13 AM, February 23, 2009

Sunday's Headlines: N.A.A.C.P. wants Post editor and cartoonist fired

Posted at 6:23 AM, February 22, 2009

Saturday's Morsels: Retrain Wall Streeters as Butlers!

Posted at 7:06 AM, February 21, 2009

Headlines: The Subtle Genius of Sean Delonas

Posted at 12:44 PM, February 20, 2009

Alert! Bernie Madoff will be a no-show at Friday's meeting of creditors. Leave your guns at home.

Posted by Harkavy at 12:35 PM, February 18, 2009

The monster won't be there. So, villagers, leave your torches at home. And that goes for your whips, chains, guns, and cudgels, too. And also the sick and helpless Americans who depended on their organizations' investments with Madoff. Don't bring them, because, as court-appointed trustee Irving Picard also notes:

For those of you who didn't get snookered by Bernie, BLMIS stands for "Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities." Of course, the "investments" may not have existed, and if they did, they weren't secure.

One more note: Cash will not be handed out at this meeting.

Obama signs the stimulus bill, talks about 'foreign dictators,' not the ones here at home

Posted by Harkavy at 9:22 AM, February 18, 2009

Americans just want a rescue from the onrushing Great Depression II, so the public's not clamoring in any organized way about specific methods on how to do it. That'll have to wait until the situation gets worse, which it will, and the bile bubbles over.

The arguing is apparently already heated inside the White House. Maybe the atmosphere in the Oval Office was too tense, and that's really why Obama fled to Denver to sign the bill, where he delivered his speech that mentioned "foreign dictators" while ignoring the bigger problem of the banking industry oligarchs on our own soil.

That sharp division in the Obama Administration exists, as papers have previously reported and as I noted earlier this morning in an item about Bill Moyers and economist Simon Johnson's provocative conversation last week about oligarchs.

But two of Obama's croniest cronies, David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel, apparently couldn't persuade their Chicago pal to take their advice and get tough with the banks. Instead, New Yorker Tim Geithner won the battle, at least for now.

For once, you wish that a president would listen to his cronies, not the "experts," no matter how "un-democratic" that typical pol behavior is.

Voices in the wilderness: Bill Moyers and Simon Johnson take on 'American oligarchs'

Posted by Harkavy at 8:03 AM, February 18, 2009

Lost in the babble about the Wall Street rubble was last week's provocative piece on Bill Moyers Journal. Beyond its hackneyed title, "Following the Money," it gets to the heart of the global financial meltdown (video, transcript).

Last night's Frontline episode, "Inside the Meltdown," was an interesting recap about last fall's crash, but it didn't make a point that we hadn't heard before, and it focused on the agony felt by Hank Paulson. Moyers's February 13 chat with economist Simon Johnson, also on PBS, got far less press but delivered much more meat.

Johnson's point: Bailing out the banks by yielding to ex-banker Paulson's pals, is actually bailing out America's oligarchs, and it's a bad idea. A better idea? Bust 'em up. >>MORE

...read on

Dow is down; GM bankruptcy fear is up

Posted by Harkavy at 1:06 PM, February 17, 2009

Grim developments this morning on Wall Street. See, among other stories, the Journal's "Dow Flirts with November Low."

So what else is new? Actually, there is something: A reconstruction of this blog to focus on the continuing bad economic news. Watch this space.

Buffalo plane crash kills 49 on board, one on ground; cockpit audio tape

Posted by Harkavy at 9:25 AM, February 13, 2009

Plane horror this morning outside Buffalo. A Continental commuter plane from Newark smashed into a house, killing one person inside and all 49 on plane, according to reports. Additional info: One of the victims was a 9/11 widow. See earlier links.

Now, the rest of the stories on other stuff — the stimulus plan, the futile effort by same-sex couples to marry, more Madoff-related news, grim economic news from Europe, and so on...

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Newsday: 'Hundreds of same-sex couples attempt to marry in NYC'

Wall Street Journal: '2 Madoff Employees Questioned '

N.Y. Daily News: 'President Obama turns attention to home foreclosures'

N.Y. Times: 'Stimulus Offers Glimpse of Obama's Battle Plan'

N.Y. Post: 'Brooklyn Brew-Haha Over "Barack" Beer'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Obama stimulus plan may mean huge infusion of funds to city for jobs, schools, Medicaid'

N.Y. Post: 'Mogul's $cam Is Dreck: Wife'

Wall Street Journal: 'Following Apple, Microsoft Plans Stores'

N.Y. Post: 'PUT GUILTY BIRDS IN GOOSEGOW'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Brit says Bernie Madoff Ponzi scam led to father's suicide'

N.Y. Post: 'Anguish Of Drag Victim's Family'

Wall Street Journal: 'SEC Looks at Hedge Funds' Trades'

N.Y. Post: 'CITY'S $8M TAB FOR 'PRIVATE' PENSIONS'

Wall Street Journal: 'Markets Remain In a Rut'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Friends of fat cats? Suddenly, 3 Dem pols look like they may be protecting rich from taxes'

N.Y. Post: 'Master Of Our Own "Domain"'

Wall Street Journal: 'Next Challenge: Spending Money'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Intel czar sees new threats as Afghan situation worsens'

N.Y. Post: 'UNHOLY TERRORS STEAL CATHOLIC-SCHOOL CASH'

Wall Street Journal: 'Mexican Immigrants Look Homeward'

N.Y. Post: 'DOC "OC" WOE STRIKES A 2ND TIME'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Church saves six schools, closes eight others in Brooklyn & Queens'

Wall Street Journal: 'On Street, Reluctance to Blow the Whistle'

Wall Street Journal: 'States Recruit Worried Californians'

Jurist: 'Federal court rejects cases linking childhood vaccines to autism'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Con Ed must open books after $1M bribery scheme'

Wall Street Journal: 'Bharara Seen as U.S. Attorney Pick'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Gotti enforcer Charles Carneglia ID'd as Queens teen's killer'

N.Y. Times: 'Ailing Banks May Require More Aid to Keep Solvent'

Reuters: 'Global stocks, commodities up on hopes of U.S. loan plan'

CNN: '35 women, children killed near Iraq festival'

Wall Street Journal: 'Toyota Offers Buyouts, Ends Bonuses'

Wall Street Journal: 'State: Madoff Wife Withdrew Funds'

International Herald Tribune: 'Europe's economic slump deeper than expected'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Judd Gregg withdraws as President Obama's Commerce Secretary nominee, after Richardson before him'

Wall Street Journal: 'Wave of Bad Debt Swamps Companies'

Wall Street Journal: 'Clinton Signals Asia Is U.S. Priority'

Plane from Newark crashes into Buffalo house; 49 killed

Posted by Harkavy at 7:14 AM, February 13, 2009

A commuter plane from Newark, Continental Connection Flight 3407, smashed into a house near Buffalo at 10:20 last night. Everybody on the plane was killed.

Reuters: "Doomed plane suddenly lost contact - tower tapes"

Buffalo News: "After the crash, tower warned other planes to watch for icing"

Times story.

Times slideshow.

Post: "AIR-CRASH HORROR: 49 DIE AS NEWARK PLANE HITS BUFFALO HOME"

Post: "Widow Of 9/11 Victim Dies In Buffalo Plane Crash"

Dumped via Facebook? Probably. Hooked up by stimulus bill? Maybe.

Posted by Harkavy at 9:05 AM, February 12, 2009

While you're waiting for the stimulus bill to hook you back up:

• It's not you, it's my social-networking. Further confirmation in this morning's Daily News of something that thousands of you already know: Facebook's great for dumping a girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse. Catey Hill notes:

Note the generation gap. If dumping via the net had been so popular with people over 21 back in 2004, maybe the electorate would have broken up with George W. Bush. One major problem: Facebook didn't even exist in 2004.

• Need a car? Go to Dubai. From "Laid-Off Foreigners Flee as Dubai Spirals Down," in the Times:

• Duh. Here's something that our government just can't admit. From the Wall Street Journal's "Latin American Panel Calls U.S. Drug War a Failure":

Other stuff...

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

N.Y. Times: 'Obama's Battle on Stimulus Shows Threats to His Agenda'

Village Voice: 'Tolling Bridges, Taxing Rich, Chaining City Workers to Desks Among City's Budget Options'

Seeking Alpha: 'Another Round of Farcical Congressional Hearings'

CNET: 'Facebook valuation "shocker" another reason to be skeptical of media hype'

Wall Street Journal: 'Hints of Stability in Financial System'

N.Y. Daily News: 'A-Rod mess gets Selig pumped up'

Seeking Alpha: 'What About Federal Gift Cards?'

Wall Street Journal: 'Homebuyers Go Green to Cut Bills'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Mother cries "tears of happiness" after baby's life-saving brain surgery'

Jewish Daily Forward: 'Israeli Uncertainty Buys Obama Time'

Wall Street Journal: 'Pakistan Admits Links to Mumbai Attacks'

Jewish Daily Forward: 'For Bashir Filmmaker Ari Folman, an Animated Catharsis'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Lupica: Time for Jets officials to follow lead and head for retirement'

Wall Street Journal: 'Sirius XM Seeks White Knight'

Seeking Alpha: 'Glimmers of Hope Amid Market Doom and Gloom'

Wall Street Journal: 'A Baby, Please. Blond, Freckles -- Hold the Colic: Laboratory Techniques That Screen for Diseases in Embryos Are Now Being Offered to Create Designer Children'

N.Y. Post: 'GANDHI GLASSES GO UNDER GAVEL'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Mayor puts city unions on notice'

Wall Street Journal: 'Flood of Foreclosures Slows'

Seeking Alpha: 'Four Myths About the Obama-Geithner Plan'

N.Y. Daily News: 'How you can get financing for a car'

N.Y. Times: 'Pakistan Announces Arrests for Mumbai Attacks'

Wall Street Journal: 'China Won't Bid for AIG Unit'

N.Y. Daily News: 'It's Gilly & Mike and nary a gun fight in sight'

Wall Street Journal: 'Economy to Receive Less Support in Short Term'

Wall Street Journal: 'More Tech Start-Ups Call It Quits'

N.Y. Post: 'QNS. KID IN BUS ORDEAL: TRAPPED ALL ALONE'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Dumped via Facebook?'

N.Y. Times: 'Crime Ring Accused of 82 Fraudulent Home Sales'

Wall Street Journal: 'Bharara Seen as U.S. Attorney Pick'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Another billion in N.Y. woe'

Wall Street Journal: 'Karl Rove: Obama's Legislative Victory Comes at High Cost -- Republicans did well to oppose the spending bill'

N.Y. Post: 'BLACK SUNDAY VERDICT SECRET'

N.Y. Times: 'Analysis: Obama Faces Double Dilemmas in Mideast'

N.Y. Post: 'CAR-DRAG HORROR ALONG 3 HIGHWAYS: 20-MILE TRAIL OF BLOOD ACROSS QNS. & B'KLYN'

N.Y. Daily News: 'A-Rod crawls back to Cynthia, and Madonna's not happy'

N.Y. Times: 'A Hollywood Sequel for Michigan Workers'

N.Y. Post: 'BOOST FOR CITY TEACHERS, COPS'

N.Y. Times: 'Uncovering the Perks of Albany's Fallen G.O.P.'

N.Y. Times: 'The Recession Takes Down a Yacht Club'

N.Y. Post: 'ALOMAR: EX OFF BASE'

N.Y. Times: 'Queens Driver Unknowingly Drags a Body Nearly 20 Miles'

N.Y. Post: 'TAIL OF JUSTICE IN DOG KILLING'

N.Y. Times: 'An Officer Is Accused of Beating a Suspect'

N.Y. Post: 'MRS. MADOFF IN $15M GRAB: SHOCKING WITHDRAWALS ON EVE OF BUST'

N.Y. Times: 'Police Say Shooting of Brooklyn Man, 18, Was Justified'

N.Y. Post: 'ANDY TAKES SLY POKE AT PATERSON'

N.Y. Times: 'Her Time Short, a Brooklyn Woman Exerts a Passion to Paint'

Wall Street Journal: "Fed Faces Constraints In Market-Revival Role"

Sneak attack: Stimulus bill, just passed, sparks fears of internet monitoring

Posted by Harkavy at 3:38 PM, February 11, 2009

The devil may or may not be in the details, as broadbandreports.com explains:

See Public Knowledge here, on this issue.

Anyway, the gigantic bill passed, 61-37. Roll call here.

Who needs a bailout? The New York soldiers heading to Afghan War frontlines.

Posted by Harkavy at 9:33 AM, February 11, 2009

Bailout? If by accident of birth, you were in Kabul yesterday, you'd be dying to bail out. You would have been running for your life while crazed Taliban stormed major government buildings and blew themselves up. A score of non-Taliban people were killed and fourscore wounded yesterday in Afghanistan's capital in the ominous assault.

Not to worry: Hell is on the way. U.S. troops, led by New York's 10th Mountain Division, are returning to Central Asia after being unjustifiably diverted from Uzbekistan (where they named their camp's muddy streets after the L.I.E., Fifth Avenue, and so on) to Iraq a few years ago to be blown up by Iraqi rebels. Bad news, everybody: There's a spring offensive coming against the Taliban, and it won't be like the relatively bloodless capture of Baghdad. It'll be like what happened after George W. Bush declared, "Mission accomplished!"

See the sprightly agitprop "10th Mountain Division Leads New Deployments to Afghanistan" from the Defense Department's American Forces Press Service. Or check out the previews from ABC and CBS.

So, prepare yourselves for depressing news this spring of a non-financial variety: The expected sudden rise of U.S. deaths in Afghanistan will shove at least some of the Wall Street-inspired news off the front pages.

After all, if by the grace of Darwin or God you happen to live in the U.S., you may very well lose your home or job, but you probably won't be blown up. Unless you've been brainwashed by the government's ad campaigns and have joined the military. In which case, you, too, might find yourself in beautiful downtown Kabul trying to stamp out the Muslim fanatics.

It was only 25 years ago that Ronald Reagan hosted the Taliban in the White House, praised them as heroic "freedom fighters," and drummed up money for them. And Texas oilmen feted the creepily fundamentalist Taliban leaders with backyard barbecues.

Now the Taliban are returning the favor by trying to barbecue Americans. They no longer need a stimulus from the White House.

You need one, so have another cup of coffee and click on these headlines...

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Bloomberg: 'Bank Failures May Reach 1,000 on Bad Loans'

N.Y. Post: 'BE MY CUT-RATE VALENTINE'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Mother cries "tears of happiness" after baby's life-saving brain surgery'

N.Y. Post: 'COP WILL SURRENDER IN BEATING'

N.Y. Daily News: 'A daring river rescue by man down on luck'

Wall Street Journal: 'Obama Wants Funds Restored to Stimulus'

TheDeal.com: 'The Street jeers Geithner's speech'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Job well done?! 4 Merrill execs got $121M in bonuses on eve of bailout'

N.Y. Times: 'In New Procedure, Artificial Arm Listens to Brain'

N.Y. Post: 'B'KLYN COP SHOOTS TEEN GUNMAN'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Gov waffles on tax hikes for wealthy'

Reuters: 'U.S. mortgage applications slump to 8-year low'

Wall Street Journal: 'Attack in Kabul Leaves 26 Dead'

N.Y. Post: 'SULLY AND PAL RELIVE BIRD BLITZ'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Another day, another $294G'

N.Y. Times: 'Comeback for 10-Year-Old Spaniel'

N.Y. Post: 'ALOMAR IN "AIDS" SHOCK: EX-LOVE SUES MET GREAT'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Doc in NYPD drug scandal arrested for prescribing 'roids'

TheDeal.com: 'Madoff in court Wednesday'

N.Y. Times: 'New School Faculty and President Remain at Odds'

International Herald Tribune: 'U.S. is looking to the "vultures" to rescue banks'

N.Y. Post: 'BRAVE GAL IDS "HIT MAN"'

Wall Street Journal: 'Economists React: Treasury Announcement Fails to Satisfy'

N.Y. Post: 'I WAS ANGEL OF FAKE DEATH'

N.Y. Times: 'Gates Orders Review of Policy on Soldiers' Coffins'

N.Y. Post: 'LOTTERY MAY BET ITS MARBLES ON THE MARKET'

Newsday: 'Michelle Obama lands on Vogue's March cover'

N.Y. Post: 'SHOVEL MURDER'

N.Y. Times: 'On Trail of War Criminals, NBC News Is Criticized'

N.Y. Post: 'BIG PUSSY $ETTLES WITH EX'

TheDeal.com: 'Pink slips on Wall Street'

Wall Street Journal: 'Foreclosure "Tsunami" Hits Mortgage Servicers'

N.Y. Post: '"GRAFT" RABBI OFF HOOK IN DOC ASSAULT'

Forbes: 'Geithner's Cash For Trash'

TheDeal.com: 'Tim Geithner and the politics of TARP II'

Forbes: 'Why A $99 iPhone Is Bad For Apple'

Bloomberg: 'French "Grand Sale" May Be Last Hurrah for Retailers as Purses Snap Shut'

Bloomberg: '"Time Bomb" Ticks in Hungary as Economy Turns Public Opinion Against Roma'

Bloomberg: 'NYSE Euronext's Niederauer Fails to Stop Share Decline With Expense Cuts'

N.Y. Daily News: '"Booty call" sparked fight'

Bloomberg: 'Geithner Leaves Key Questions Unanswered, Risking Sabotage for Bank Plan'

TheDeal.com: 'Blankfein on risk management and regulatory reform'

Bloomberg: 'Buffett, Who Invests "Forever," Finds Shorter Time Horizons Unprofitable'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Mark Green wants his old public advocate gig'

Bloomberg: 'Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Outperform Competitors Slowed by Writedowns'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Paterson puttin' Lotto faith in stock market'

Bloomberg: 'Corn, Soybeans Decline on Skepticism That U.S. Plans Will Revive Economy'

Bloomberg: 'Embraer Aims to Win More Military Plane Orders as India Upgrades Air Force'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Reverse ban on pics of soldiers' coffins, say families of fallen soldiers'

The economy needs steroids, but Alex Rodriguez confesses he took 'em

Posted by Harkavy at 9:28 AM, February 10, 2009

The deadliest war since World War II — the slaughter in the Congo — drags on and on amid relatively little notice.

Arabs and Jews are still killing each other, and Israel's about to elect an even harder-line government.

The Taliban are seizing more and more of Afghanistan, where bloody battles with U.S. troops this spring promise to kill Americans at a shocking rate. (And Americans are still being blown up in Iraq.)

The global economy is melting down, and a frighteningly high number of Americans are losing their jobs, their homes, their pensions, and their minds. And it's banks and hedge funds that are getting "stimulated."

We have a black president — can you imagine! — and even though he's relying on a disheartening number of the Clinton Era's schnooks and more conservative advisers (like Tim Geithner), he's smart, charismatic, and serious-minded, unlike George W. Bush.

But Barack Obama's task is more than daunting: He'll be delivering the worst economic news Americans have heard in 70 years — he's already calling this "the lost decade" — in addition to trying to solve problems that no other president has had to face.

Despite what Seeking Alpha urges this morning, let's get to the important news: Alex Rodriguez's steroid use.

Ultimately, the Yankee Rodriguez is a coward for not coming clean in front of Selena Roberts, who broke the story and has already enshrined him in baseball's Hall of Shame.

And if this is the big news, then jeers to the biggest sports-news organization, ESPN, for allowing Rodriguez to give his confession to Pete Gammons, a high priest of the game among sportswriters and a powerful figure to whom players have to genuflect.

If you were Selena Roberts — who had uncovered the steroid scoop (to Rodriguez's dismay) for Sports Illustrated, you would have the right to be pissed off that you didn't get a chance to confront Rodriguez yourself. After all, you were the lead writer of the story and Rodriguez not only wouldn't talk to you but accused you of "stalking" him and worse.

Gammons, who would go easier on Rodriguez because his goal is to protect the game instead of reporting on it, was a perfect choice for Rodriguez and ESPN, which not only ostensibly covers baseball but directly makes millions by broadcasting and touting it.

It's hard to believe that Rodriguez didn't get to choose his father confessor. And it's too bad that he got to choose, because Roberts, not Gammons, was the one armed with the information that would enable a reporter to call "bullshit" on what Rodriguez said.

You can bet that Roberts, a sportswriter who doesn't specialize in jocksniffing, probably knows more than any other reporter because she dug out the facts of Rodriguez's admission that he used steroids, but only from 2001 to 2003. She no doubt spoke with some of his teammates or at least insiders from that period. So there's a big difference between his having to face Gammons's softballs or Roberts's informed questions (the latter of which he hasn't addressed as I write this).

In any case, even with Gammons, Rodriguez's truth-telling is questionable. And assuming he is telling the truth about his steroid use and his feelings about it at he time, his current perspective on it is quite telling. It helps explain why his teammates have never been particularly fond of him.

Obsessed with his image, Rodriguez tells Gammons that he had "the greatest year of my career" in 2007. And that's the problem. In team sports, as fired Jets and Chiefs coach Herm Edwards famously said, "You play to win the game!"

Rodriguez hasn't delivered a championship to fans in the Bronx, so his "greatest year" doesn't mean much. He's all about himself, in a team sport with a long, long season in which players spend more time with their teammates than they do with their families. And teammates and fans see his selfishness.

As George Vecsey points out in this morning's Times, Rodriguez even had the temerity to rip Derek Jeter before he joined the Yankees, and Jeter — whose stats pale beside Rodriguez's — is widely seen by fans and teammates as the ultimate team player, especially because he doesn't seem obsessed with his stats.

[Correction: An earlier version of this story mistakenly said Selena Roberts works for ESPN, the same outlet as Pete Gammons. She doesn't.]

And now on to other news that might take your mind off the vitally important question of whether Rodriguez's use of steroids will doom his chances of being elected to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown...

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Seeking Alpha: 'Obama's Economic Fix'

New Republic: '¡Viva Chai!: The lefty hot spot in Obama's Washington'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Bam set to do 'Whatever it takes'

N.Y. Times: 'Geithner Said to Have Prevailed on the Bailout'

N.Y. Times: 'Facing Up to Some Truth Is a Start for Rodriguez' (George Vecsey)

N.Y. Post: 'LIAR. CHEAT. ALEX DROPS A-BOMB: I LIED'

Bloomberg: 'Geithner Says U.S. Financial System Badly Damaged, Needs Aid'

N.Y. Times: 'Video: Obama in Campaign Mode'

N.Y. Post: 'Tragic Hit Kid Back From Hell'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Voodoo made me drown my kids'

N.Y. Times: 'Local TV Stations Face Fuzzy Future'

Seeking Alpha: 'How the World Almost Came to an End on September 18, 2008'

Bloomberg: 'Selling AIG to Scarce Buyers Becomes Mission Impossible for Paula Reynolds'

Jewish Daily Forward: 'A Presidential Plan For the Middle East'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Stimulus bill narrowly survives Senate test vote'

Seeking Alpha: 'When Billions Look Like Pocket Change'

N.Y. Times: 'Rendition Case Under Bush Gets Obama Backing'

N.Y. Post: 'KEY FOR CAPTAIN MARVEL'

N.Y. Post: 'RABBI "ASSAULT"'

Bloomberg: 'JPMorgan Cracks Down on Unused Credit Lines as Banks Seek to Free Capital'

N.Y. Times: 'Months After Plant Closed, Many Still Struggling'

Jewish Daily Forward: 'A Voice for Jews of Color: Yavilah McCoy Advocates for Jewish Multiculturalism'

Bloomberg: 'Harvard's Holdren Wields Oscar-Winning Dire Warning for Obama Climate Job'

N.Y. Times: 'Love in the Time of Prostate Cancer'

N.Y. Post: 'HASID "PERV" BAIL BATTLE'

N.Y. Daily News: 'From Bloomy with love: Safe Valentine's sex'

N.Y. Times: 'Battle Plans for Newspapers'

Bloomberg: 'D.C.'s big doings in spotlight'

N.Y. Post: 'VICTIM PREGNANT: SAD NEW TWIST IN WEST SIDE SLAY-SUICIDE LOVE TRIANGLE'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Anti-war lawmakers worry over Obama administration's plan for Afghanistan'

N.Y. Times: 'Taliban Haven in Pakistani City Raises Fears'

N.Y. Post: 'ISRAEL HEADED "RIGHT" IN ELEX'

Damn Yankee: Alex Rodriguez confesses (kinda), and naturally he wants to now 'help kids'

Posted by Harkavy at 9:59 PM, February 9, 2009

So Alex Rodriguez finally confessed to having used steroids. What a shocker. He had no choice, because he had so clearly lied previously when he absolutely denied using the muscle-enhancing drugs. But, then, they say that steroids can shrink your balls, so his previous lack of courage is really no surprise either.

And now the Yankee who will forever be known to New York sports fans as "Roidriguez" or "A-Roid" says he wants to "help kids." Here's an idea for this expectant Mother Teresa: He can plow back a large share of his $25 million a year salary into the country's economy.

Naturally, like most other athletes, he thinks primarily of going to schools and preaching to them about the evils of steroids. How about spending some of that ridiculous money to help keep libraries and rec centers open?

In other words, spare us the message and spend the cash — especially during what Barack Obama now calls the "winter of our hardship."

Aiding and abetting Roidriguez's bullshit performance was ESPN's Pete Gammons, who, befitting his role as one of the high priests of baseball, lobbed questions at the pampered jock on the subject of what is commonly called "giving back to the community."

This is where repentant athletes get to show themselves off as people who are just here to help the rest of us. This is how they seek their absolution — by continuing to seek the adoration of their fans during heavily promoted speaking tours instead of perhaps anonymously doing good works.

Did Gammons have to participate in this charade by throwing Roidriguez some fat ones right down the middle of the plate? No, but he did, because most baseball writers owe their first allegiance to the game, not to their readers. It's the rite of professional sports for jocksniffing writers to play Ed McMahon for these Johnny Carsonesque stars.

ESPN's Selena Roberts broke the story, and Roidriguez accused her of all sorts of nefarious, "stalking" behavior. But Pete Gammons is a powerful member of baseball's establishment, practically an adviser to Commissioner Bud Selig. Was Roidriguez expecting these softball questions from Gammons? No doubt; it's part of the ritual. Here are two such questions — and Roidriguez's bullshit answers:

His best years were clean? Not by the one measure that steroids seem to affect: home-run power. When it comes to Roidriguez's "peaks and valleys," he's still lying.

ESPN's "Tale of the Tape" info box shows that during the three seasons Roidriguez says he took steroids he averaged 52 home runs a year. In his 10 other seasons, apparently without the muscle-building drugs that helped him and other players hit unusual numbers of homers, he averaged 39.2 homers a year. In other words, steroids apparently helped him increase his home run production by 33 percent. At least we know the drugs do work.

Guess he'll have turn his higher-power lie over to a higher power, too — perhaps Gammons, one of the sportswriters who will decide whether Roidriguez will be blackballed from the Hall of Fame.

If Roidriguez continues to wear sackcloth and obediently go along with the sports establishment, maybe that'll buy him a ticket to Cooperstown.

Otherwise, he'll just have to settle for continuing to fuck Madonna. Advice to Roidriguez: Lay off the steroids.