Orioles in the hunt at Memorial Day Look-in; Gausman on the mound Tuesday against Nationals

BALTIMORE, May 28, 2013- On this day after Memorial Day a look at the standings in the American League East has to whet your appetite for the baseball still to be played this coming summer and fall.  The Red Sox, given up for dead two weeks ago, have crept back to first place, just a game ahead of the Yankees.  The Orioles, who came back to beat the Nationals in Washington on Monday, one day after one of the most bitter defeats a team can suffer in Toronto on Sunday, sit three and one-half back.  Tampa Bay is still very much in the race, a game or two behind the Orioles.  On Tuesday night a pitcher on whom the Orioles fate very much depends will make his second major league start against the Nationals.  Kevin Gausman, just 22, and with only 13 minor league appearances behind him. looked sharp in his first start last week in Toronto.  He was charged with four runs over five innings, but some fielding problems behind him led to some of those runs, and his pitches were eye-popping.  

Freedom's Extreme Price

BALTIMORE, May 28, 2013-On this Memorial Day, 2013 many Americans think back to the bloody battles that took so many American lives during World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East (although in the latter case, the death toll over the years pales in comparison to the first three wars I have listed).  Even as the last survivors of WWII fade into history and the inevitable march of time, our nation must ensure that their deeds never fade.  It is the sacred duty of all Americans to make sure of that; otherwise their supreme sacrifice would have been in vain. North Carolina public television made a documentary some years back that is shown annually in that part of the country.  It told the story of three men from Lenoir County, North Carolina as they enlisted and then fought their way across Europe with a division charged with routing Nazi units dug in to defend Germany from advancing Allied armies.  Eddie Hart, one of those men, fell in Holland and died shortly thereafter.  He was 22.  After the war his grave was adopted by a local Dutch woman as a way of honoring those who had freed her from the Nazis.  She kept in touch with Mr. Hart's sister, Hattie Hart Holloman, through the years.  When the Dutch woman, Betty Vrancken, died, her brother took up care for Mr. Hart's grave.  All told, the Vrancken family has cared for Mr. Hart's grave for more than 70 years.  The film concludes with the Holloman family in Holland visiting Mr. Hart's grave for the first time.  Powerful stuff.  In a nation where many abhor the military and the role it plays in keeping America free, the lack of Pride and Respect shown on Memorial Day is really very sad. It is so easy to cite incidents where an American soldier committed some evil deed, or even when a decision poorly made sent military forces abroad when they were best kept at home.  We all forget that we are human and humans are involved in anything mistakes will follow.  Our mistakes, thank God, are very few in the big scheme of things, and the good we have done is a shining example of the noble nature of free men.  

Comparatively Speaking

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, May 23,2013-It was the bottom of the 5th inning in Toronto, Friday night, and the Orioles led the Blue Jays, 9-3.  But Baltimore's pitcher, Chris Tillman, had already thrown a lot of pitches (over 100 in less than five innings) and Toronto had runners at first and second with nobody out.  Adam Lind, the former Oriole, was the hitter and he hit what used to be called a Baltimore Chop - a hellish ground ball bashed into the ground and now bouncing high.  It also had a whirling dervish of a spin that Oriole third baseman Manny Machado would have to short hop.  Machado had been playing deep behind the bag, and now he charged fearlessly.  In a flash, he scooped that short-hop, secured it in his glove, stepped on third base ahead of the runner and, falling into foul territory, leaped into the air, and, using only his arm, fired hard to first.  Chris Davis saw that the throw would pull him off the bag, but he, too, performed brilliantly, catching the throw in foul territory and pirouetting with his arms fully extended, tagging the shocked Lind with his glove hand before the runner could touch first base. Toronto fans wiped their eyes and realized that the Orioles had just turned a double-play.

In the Oriole Television booth, Jim Palmer, the Hall-of-Fame righthander, said "if I was selecting a team, I'd want him - Machado - on my team."

Gary Thorne, the impeccable play-by-play announcer, didn't miss a beat.  "You had him on your team," he said without a hint of sarcasm.  

There was a second of dead air.  But just.  Palmer, sharp as he was on the mound in his heyday, quickly realized what Thorne was saying. He almost whispered, "I guess I did."  

Machado is coming so fast.  Hits bang off his bat like missles in a moonless sky.  Nobody knows how to get him out because his bat is under such breathless control.  And his fielding is seamless, amplified always with impeccable confidence and an ease that makes even superstars envious.  And yet, as good as he is, as good as he can and, I think, will be, he has so far to go to catch up with the man Thorne recalled: the sainted Brooks Robinson.  Brooks defined greatness: a great hitter and even better clutch hitter, a fielder for the ages for the greatest Oriole teams. Some hitters would swear he was an apparition.  He was there, playing where third basemen were supposed to play, next to the third base bag, mouthing that Arkansas cornpone chatter now and then, and looking oh so unimpressive.  And then some big hitter would turn on a fast all and blister it directly down the line - a certain double.  CERTAIN.  But then Brooks, instantly transforming from a regular guy into something beyond human, seemed to defy time and space, seeming to disappear and then reappear right where that line drive was streaking by him, or trying to, and in that same instant the glove extended and when time slowed again to normal, there was the ball in the glove and the umpire, who'd seen that enough times to know what was coming, already had his arm up to signal that the astonished hitter was now out. The hitter would stop, stunned, just stunned.  He would stand there, looking at that Brooks fellow, looking at that ball in his glove, looking at the out, again.  Can Manny Machado be that good?  It is asking so much.  

Two "Virtually Unknown" Cellists Who Shouldn't Be

BALTIMORE, May 7, 2013- There was a moment in Julius Klengel's life when he placed his superb personal reputation on the line to make a stunning recommendation, a recommendation that could do him no personal good but could easily inflict a lifetime of irreparable harm.  The year was 1919 and the music conservatory at Cologne, Germany had lost its well-known and distinguished Cello Professor to an unexpected death and wanted Klengel's choice for the replacement.  Klengel (1859-1933) was not only one of the leading cellists of his age, he was also the best teacher of cello technique, bowing and, for that matter, all things cello.  What's more, he had by far the best collection of students. Whomever he selected would doubtlessly be the choice as the new professor at Cologne, which itself was one of the oldest and best music conservatories of its age.  Klengel's choice, however, would do nothing less than rock the classical music world.  His unequivocal choice to be the lead cello professor at one of the world's best schools was a 16-year-old Emanuel Feuermann.  The governing body at Cologne was shocked.  Actually flabbergasted would be a better world, and a few were literally appalled. As a group they wrote back to Klengel, questioning how a 16-year-old could be ready for such a position.  Klengel was unswayed.  He wrote back from his teaching position at Leipzig to say that the wonderkund Feuermann was so far superior to other choices that his young age should not stand in the way.  Feuermann, who despite his tragic death 23 years later at age 39, is today regarded by many as the greatest cellist ever.  In short order he was appointed to the Cologne position in 1919. Eventually, even critics applauded the unexpected success of the choice.  Students, at first piqued by Feuermann's age, learned to look past the young man's age to his shocking virtuosity and realized that to be in his presence was to be in the presence of genius.  And only a genius could recognize such reciprocal talent.  Only a giant would have the nerve to make such a recommendation.  

Today, sadly, and really, almost tragically when you consider the consequences of it, Klengel is but a footnote in musical history.  His brilliant compositions are still in repertoire, but not to the degree they deserve, and his greatest work, the Double Cello Concerto, once recognized as being on a par with Brahm's Double Conerto for Violin and Cello (the recording by Feuermann and Jasca Heifitz is the benchmark for the work), is hardly ever performed in concert.  A modern recording of the work is recently available with Xenia Jankovic And Christoph Richter as the Cellists. and the Radio-Philharmonie Hannover as the Symphony.  It is superb.  Today, the Cello Concerto in B Minor by Dvorak is recognized as one of the greatest ever, and deservedly so.  But it is played so often that it is almost beaten into the ground.  Every cellist of note records it.  But a detective is required to find many of Klengel's works; look on You Tube for videos of the great works and I think there is one - for twelve cellos - to be found. 

Cellists as a lot are the stepchildren of the classical music world.  It is the violin that much of the great chamber music is composed for, and it is the violin that gets the billing when the world's great composers write their concertos. In a concerto the great virtuosos perform with the great symphony orchestras. The music uses the full rich sound of the symphony orchestra to highlight the virtuosity of the solo instrument player.  So, when the billing says Hilary Hahn and the New York Philharmonic, you know the highlight of the performance will be a Concerto that allows Hahn to show off her stunning skills along with one of the World's greatest orchestras. And what could be more mournful or soulful than a great violin solo, or more joyful than Bach's Paritas.  Well, if you want to know. and of course, selection is totally subjective, I would vote for Bach's Cello Suites, which are, in turn, oh so joyful, oh so contemplative, oh so beautiful.  When you hear them for the first time, performed by a great cellist, you will be stunned to know that the music you hear is by one artist and one instrument.  

That we today have a firmer idea of how Bach intended 'the Suites' to sound is the remarkable product of the scholarship and musical detective work of the other cellist you should know: Dimitri Markevitch.  Back in, I think, 1964, he was the first virtuoso to perform the six suites, in order and in their entirety, at Carnegie Hall.  He authored a wonderful history of the cello and the men and women who play the instrument.  "Cello Story," and somehow unearthed previously unknown works for cello by, among others, Beethoven.  The Bach detective work is astounding.  Into modern times, the only somewhat original copy of the Suites was a hand-written copy by Bach's female friend.  At one juncture, the copy is so bad that cellists for centuries only guessed at what was supposed to be in that place.  Markevitch, fluent in several languages, began nosing around the archives at several Lutheran Churches in Germany that stand now and stood then, then being at the time of Bach (1685-1750).  Low and behold, he uncovered two different copies of the Suites, made by music directors alive at the time.  And Markevitch didn't merely gloat about his discoveries.  Using his new information, he published a new edition of the Suites incorporating the two new copies, which had other information about how Bach wanted them played besides the missing notes.  

Markevitch also recorded the Suites using the new information.  If you look hard enough, you can still find the recordings.  He also recorded Beethoven's seven cello sonatas.  If you're a cellist, you know that most experts only accept that there are six.  Some even say five.  But Markevitch found a work that was written for another instrument but which Beethoven, in his own hand, wrote a note explaining that the work was also meant to be played as a cello sonata. 

Markevitch was a wonderful man, a true humanist, who, in addition to everything else he delved into, also collected music written for the cello.  Cellists have complained, from time to time, that the repertory for cello is somewhat bare.  I personally don't believe that.  Feuermann was one of the great cellists who often searched for more cello music, and cellists, on their recordings, often play a violin sonata adopted for the cello.  On the other hand, some really beautiful cello works were ignored for years because of the supposed difficulty of the piece.  The great French composer, Jean Barriére (1707-1747) wrote stunning, technically sophisticated cello music that was over-looked for years until recorded in the last two decades by the German Cellist Thomas Demenga and the French Cellist, Bruno Cocset.  

At any rate,  Markevitch directly addressed the perceived problem.  His collection of cello scores is said to be the largest in the world.  Markevitch died in 2002 and several renowned institutions the world over vied for his collection, including several in the United States.  After much wrangling, they have ended up in Switzerland, at the Geneva Conservatory, where he resided at the time of his passing.  The Conservatory has promised to put an index on line and they have posted a site where the index will eventually be.  Now, it has some information about Mr. Markevitch, his life and the cello library.  See: http://www.cmusge.ch/biblio/cmg/Markevitch_en.htm.  

                                                                        

Green Day's American Idiot: blunt and provocative

BALTIMORE, May 13, 2013-In many ways, Green Day's "American Idiot," which wrapped up its stay in Baltimore over the weekend, is like a cold slap in the audience's face delivering, as it does, a biting, visceral commentary on this era's teens and the secular, aimless environment they grow up in, courtesy of an increasingly disinterested parental class.  

Centered around the rock group's deeply personal songs and their coldly sober lyrics, the 90-minute long show follows several teenage characters as they live out their seemingly stunted dreams and vivid nightmares in today's emotionless, homogenized suburbia.  The show opens with three boys 'hanging out' at one of their houses, largely doing nothing.  The lead character tells us he hasn't showered recently and, what about it, really.  He needs his guitar and his computer and his musical accouterments, but so what? After a bit he and a buddy run away to the big city where the hero finds love, or is it just sex?  After that, the cast spins into other musical examinations of societal benchmarks, including 9/11, racism, feminism, perceived racism and feminism, and so on.

Alex Nee, still at student at Northwestern, is the lead character, and he and his cast mates put on a breathless, churning show without an intermission.  Walking out after the show, more than a few in the packed house remarked on how physically fit the entire cast had to be, since there were no rest periods for any of them. And the Saturday night show, which I watched from the back row of the most distant section, was the second one the cast performed that day.  Others in the lead cast included Thomas Hettrick, Casey O'Farrell, Alyssa DiPalma, Jenna Ruball and Kennedy Caughell.  There were many others.   

Covering Up the Benghazi Cover-Up

BALTIMORE, May 10, 2013 - The minute the Benghazi hearings wound up in the United States House of Representatives, the far left media (i.e., most of the media thrust upon Americans by way of TV, Radio and Print) began a concerted campaign to convince voters that there was nothing criminal about the failure to protect our consulate there, or the personnel who staffed it, or the cover-up of the failure to respond at all to an all-out attack on United States Sovereign Land in Benghazi by our arch-enemy, Al Qaeda.  As it turns out, what went on after the September 11, 2012 attack had begun wasn't merely a benign failure to respond.  Witness after witness told Congress that those in charge, whoever they were, actually acted several times to stop cold a number of military responses to the bloody attack that killed four Americans, including the United States Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens. You are reading that correctly: several military responses actually were underway when someone up the ladder, apparently in Washington, stopped them in their tracks.  None of this fazed members of the media determined to steer any implication of wrong-doing away from obama or Hilary Clinton. Anyone not fitting into the "low information" category knows, naturally, that the evidence points directly at this "dynamic duo," but evidence doesn't affect those anchored in the far left, or uber left, as they are sometimes called.  One of these 'Bagdad Bob' types tweeted late in the week that the GOP was to blame for everything.  Sadly, the only thing most in the GOP are responsible for is their abject fear of challenging the rolling tide of governmental debauchery currently rinsing all vestiges of valor, integrity and nobleness from their last Washington strongholds.  

Unless you were able to watch those hearings on Fox, or were totally determined to pull together the testimony from the sources that offered summary reports, this is what you missed:  

       (1) The United States Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, was acutely aware that Al Qaeda had massed militia in and around Benghazi in the days leading up to the September 11, 2012 attack on the US Consulate there.  He pleaded with Secretary of State Clinton and those above her (i.e., Obama) to authorize a strengthening of Security at the Consulate.  Not only was his request summarily denied, but some security assets were actually shifted out of Benghazi in the days prior to the attack;
       (2) No one in Benghazi knew anything about an American-Made video that cast the Muslim faith in a bad light.
       (3) There was no spontaneous protest outside of the Consulate in Benghazi at anytime prior to the September 11, 2012 attacks on the Consulate there.
       (4) The only thing that occurred in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 was a well-planned and well-orchestrated, vicious attack on the American Consulate and later on the Annex to the American Consulate.  The few American Soldiers and Diplomats left to defend American Sovereign Ground on which those facilities stand fought valiantly for hours upon hours, during which time they pleaded for military assistance.  No such assistance arrived.  Two former Navy Seals who heard about the attack on radio frequencies they were listening to notified officials they were in Benghazi and available to help.  They were ordered, expressly, to "stand down," i.e., to neither respond nor help in the defense.  Both ignored the order and responded anyway.  For hours they assisted in the defense.  Then, assuming U.S. air planes or helicopters were nearby, they put a laser beam on an Al Qaeda emplacement.  No plane or copter used the laser to locate and fire upon the emplacement.  But Al Qaeda terrorists at the emplacement used the laser beam to pinpoint the two American Defenders.  They were fired upon and killed, and are two of the four Americans Killed at Benghazi in the attacks.  The other two were Ambassador Stevens and another American Diplomat.  Some 31 Americans survived the attack, which lasted for approximately 12 hours.
       (5) Greg Hicks is an American Diplomat detailed to Libya during the time of the Benghazi massacre. When the massacre was taking place, Hicks was in Libya's capital, Tripoli. As the attacks were taking place, Hicks was in radio contact with Ambassador Stevens. He vividly recalls that his last conversation with the Ambassador included Stevens saying to Hicks, "Greg, we are under attack."  
       (6) Hicks directed an American Special Forces contingent to respond to Benghazi and relieve the Defenders who, by then, were exhausted after hours of desperate fighting against an enemy that out-manned them and had superior fire power.  These elite soldiers, who were literally chaffing at the bit because they, too, were monitoring the radio, gathered their gear and responded to an aircraft for the trip, but as they were boarding the commander of the group received a communication ffrom someone up the ladder from Hicks who told them, also, to "stand down."
       (7) One question that the Hearings did not provide an answer for was the identity of the official or officials who gave the stand down orders to the two former Seals and to the elite unit directed into the fight by Greg Hicks. One retired American General said that the only person authorized to issue "stand down" orders was Obama. Hicks, in the months since the Massacre, has been demoted by the State Department, not for his activities during the attacks, but because he spoke with a Congressional Investigator without having a State Department Lawyer present. (I can understand why someone charged with a crime might insist on legal representation during an interrogation by the government. This is because the government opposes the person being questioned; in other words, the interrogator and the suspect are adversaries. But I thought Hicks and the Congressional Investigator were on the same side.  They are not adversarial.  The danger of leaking classified material could be overcome by attorneys reviewing a transcript of the interview before it was made public. Anyone with a brain understands that the reason Hilary Clinton needed an attorney present when Hicks was being questioned on the record was because she wanted to make sure that certain questions were never asked and certain topics were never broached. Tell me I am wrong.)
       (8) Approximately 31 Americans survived the Benghazi Massacre.  Did you know that before these Congressional hearings? Stunningly, not a single one of these survivors had spoken publicly in the eight months between the attack in Benghazi and the start of the Congressional Hearings.   Since most Americans were unaware that there were American survivors of the Benghazi attacks, it is equally apparent that most Americans did not know the identities of these survivors.   The hearings allowed a few of these survivors the opportunity to insert their version of events, and to make a public record of their identity. Swish the implications of that around in your mouth for a bit.  Rumors were circulating in and around Washington circles and elsewhere that many, if not all of these 31 survivors had been sternly warned by their superiors at the State Department (i.e., Clinton Functionaries), and by Obama Functionaries, not to make public statements about events at Benghazi.  But, of course, the elite uber left would have us all believe that it is only natural for such warnings to be issued, or was it that there were no such warnings? And yet some Americans are ready to elect this woman President. How goofy do you have to be to have that desire percolating in your mind? If Mrs. Clinton had even a small shred of decency she would announce immediately that she is not a candidate for President. But she doesn't, so she won't. President Obama vaguely denied these allegations in the days leading up to the Congressional Hearings.  His actual statement was to the effect that he was not aware that survivors had been told to remain quiet and out of public view. But he is an honest fellow. The sky is scarlet.
       (9) It is a matter of public record that obama, hilary, Susan Rice (former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations), and Jay Carney, the Obama press spokesperson, said for months after the attacks that the violence at the consulate in Benghazi was the result of spontaneous demonstrations brought about by Muslim outrage over a video made by a California resident.  The video is said to denigrate the Muslim Faith.  But, as it turns out, Obama, Clinton, Rice and Carney were all aware from the time of the attacks that the video played no role whatsoever in the Benghazi Massacre.  In fact, the hearings revealed that a full two days after the Massacre a top-ranking State Department official told the Libyan Prime Minister that the attacks were a planned operation by Al Qaeda terrorists.  Did you get that?  Let me repeat. Two days after the attacks in Benghazi a top State Department official told Libyan leaders that the attacks were a planned Al Qaeda operation, and yet the Secretary of State, the President, the UN Ambassador and the White House spokesperson all continued to tell the public that it was spontaneous reactions to an American-made video that caused the Massacre of Four Americans.  In other words, for months the administration gave an account of Benghazi that was not only knowingly false, but was made for the sole purpose of propping up a falsehood that Obama was campaigning on. What was this falsehood that was a central tenet of his campaign to be re-elected? Over and over again, at virtually every campaign appearance, he told people that he had personally killed Osama bin Laden, and that this one act had virtually neutered Al Qaeda.
       (10) Several days after the Al Qaeda attack on Benghazi, the bodies of the four murdered Americans were flown into Andrews Air Force Base in Washington.  Their coffins, each draped in the American Flag, were unloaded from the airplane and lined up, side-by-side on the tarmac in front of their families and top American officials, including President Obama, Hilary Clinton, and Vice President Biden.  Family members have told the press that Obama and Clinton seemed cold and distant at the ceremony on the tarmac. The Congressional Hearings revealed why.  Obama and Clinton had agreed between themselves that they would stick to the video charade even for the families of the dead Americans.  Both promised family members that they would bring the maker of the video to justice, when all the while they both knew this person had absolutely nothing to do with the deaths of the four Americans. 

Many have pointed to this incident as the focus of their anger about the cover-up.

 obama also repeated this completely false narrative many days after knowing the truth, during a guest appearance on the Letterman Show, and again during his speech before the United Nations.  Even worse (if anything could be worse than the spectacle of a United States President doing what he did in front of the wives, mothers and fathers of the four slain Americans), Obama ordered functionaries to stage a televised, middle-of-the-night seizure and arrest of the "Shadowy" California Man, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who made the film about the Muslim faith.  Although the man's arrest was based on an alleged parole violation, the spectacle was quickly aired throughout the Middle East by al-Jeezera, the television network based in Qatar that is widely viewed by Middle East Muslims.  The seizure and arrest were depicted as American retribution against the man who made the anti-Muslim film.  The actual violation for which the man was arrested is a very low priority item on law enforcement's list and the televised, middle-of-the-night staging was only done at Obama's behest.  The arrested man is a Coptic Christian.  Coptic Christians date to 42 AD, when, shortly after Christ's Ascension, Saint Mark journeyed to Alexandria, in Egypt, and founded a Christian Church Community.  The first patriarch of the Coptic Church was also installed then, and the line of Coptic Patriarchs has been unbroken since that time.  The Coptic Church has broken away from both the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.  As indicated above, Obama actually called the arrested man, Mr. "a shadowy character."  This shadowy character remains imprisoned. 
       (11) Rep. John Beiner, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, has promised that more Benghazi hearings would be scheduled to permit other survivors to testify and also to provide a forum for Congressional Investigators to testify.

Despite the compelling testimony describing a cover-up orchestrated by obama and hilary clinton (the current President and the top candidate from the far left to replace him, the far left press has trumpeted the line in print and in broadcasts that the sole purpose of the hearings was for the Repubicans to tarnish clinton.  While it is a truly ridiculous argument, the truth is that no one had to help the wife of one of only two American Presidents to be impeached while in office, to wipe mud all over herself. 

The Bullpen is tired, but so far they aren't losing games

BALTIMORE, MAY 5, 2012-There is indication that the Orioles bullpen is tired.  If you didn't notice, it's because, with one exception, the fatigue hasn't translated into losses.  In fact, as the Orioles fly home from Los Angeles, they are tied with the Yankees for second place, just two games behind Boston. The one exception to the tightrope success story the bullpen is managing was the loss in Oakland in the fourth game of the road trip.  The Birds had won the first three and looked like they would sweep the powerful Athletics.  They took a lead, but the A's would score, too.  Then the Orioles would score more and so would Oakland.  In the ninth the Orioles pushed across another run and went to the bottom of the inning up by two.  Normally that would be lights out for the other team because the Orioles have the premier closer in the game these days.  Jim Johnson had an Oriole-record 51 saves last season and is smoking again this year, with eleven to start May.  But on this Sunday the Orioles did not have Johnson available; he had pitched in four straight games and the skipper, Mr. Buck, said that no matter what, the consecutive games streak would not hit five.  Oakland scored two to tie the game and won it in the tenth.  Going into the eighth inning Sunday in LA, the Orioles had built up an 8-4 lead and had the whole bullpen available inasmuch as Monday was an off-day.  Troy Patton has been one of the members of that pen who have been ultra-dependable, but not Sunday.  He walked two and was hit hard and by the time he was pulled the Angels had enough runners to virtually do-in that lead.  Out came Mr. Buck and another of the ultra-dependables responded.  Darren O'Day is a side-winder and has brutal stuff.  But he, to, has been nicked up on this trip.  Today, after giving up another walk, he induced a weak grounder to Chris Davis, then sprinted to first base to take Davis' throw, barely beating the runner.  Jim Johnson came in to pitch in the ninth, but it wasn't a save situation since the Birds were still ahead by four runs.  Jim Palmer, the great righthander and hall-of-famer turned TV analyst talks of the pen's overworked pitchers leaving their deliveries up in the strike zone, where major league hitters have a tendency to hit them a long way.  Showalter has talked of having the starters pitch deeper into games and it is a nice thought, fraught with drawbacks.  On the first game of the trip, Wei-Yin Chen threw eight shut-out innings, becoming the first Oriole starter to last that far.  But in his next start Chen was gone after five and suffered one of the two losses in Seattle.  It was a 7-4 trip, and the team could not hope for more on such a brutal spin through the American League's three West Coast cities.  And the one reliever not affected by the dust ups is closer Jim Johnson.  With a lot of home games up next, tucked around a three-game trip to Minnesota, the chance to get all the pitchers on the same page is there to be had.  The question is whether the ultra-dependables can be depended on to seize the opportunity.  It's up to them.

The Festering Sore That is Benghazi

BALTIMORE, May 3, 2013- Comparisons between the sordid low-brow national humiliation that is Benghazi - where four Americans, including our ambassador, were murdered, the ambassador only after being tortured in front of a seething mob of radical islamic extremists - and the Watergate Scandal, a decades-old affair involving top governmental officials who compromised their reputations and their souls in an attempt to cover-up a seemingly innocuous break-in at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, seem to grow more real and more plausible each day.  

The Watergate Scandal forced an American President - only months removed from a landslide re-election victory - to resign in disgrace.   Between the date of the break-in (June 10, 1972) and Richard M. Nixon's resignation on August 8, 1974, interest in the scandal waxed and waned.  Every time it seemed that the scandal would slip completely off of the national radar, some new witness would emerge with a new and unexpected revelation.  With Benghazi, that process seems to be repeating itself.  Initially it was portrayed as an unexpected reaction to an anti-Muslim film made by an American. A mob formed, we were told, then spun out of control and before we could act to save the ambassador, Christopher Stevens, he was dead.  We were also told by obama that Stevens died despite heroic efforts of Libyan citizens who took Stevens and carried him to a hospital.  It wasn't long before much of the initial story - told to us by ernest obama functionaries - proved completely false and, in fact, quite misleading.  It turns out that Ambassador Stevens knew of the growing threat from Al Quaida militia swarming to Benghazi after the overthrow of the Libyan Strongman, Mo Qadaffi, and the withdrawl of Western Military Assets which had taken part in the overthrow.  Stevens pleaded with Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and, through her, obama, to provide more security for the United States' Consulate in Benghazi.  He was rebuffed by Clinton, and, in fact, some of the sparse detail of American soldiers in Benghazi were withdrawn.  It seems that obama, locked in a frantic re-election bid with Gov. Mit Romney of Massachusetts, was campaigning on the fact that when he personally killed osama bin laden, he ended the Al Quaida threat.  On the night of September 11, 2012 (the anniversary of Al Quaida's jetliner attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and on the Pentagon), the emboldened Al Quaida militia in Benghazi launched a well-planned assault on the United States Consulate in Benghazi.  The few American soldiers and embassy personnel fought with bravery and extreme valor, but pleas for help from the Consulate were ignored and expressly rebuffed by Washington.  When the second-in-command in Libya, in Tripoli at the time but in contact with Stevens in Benghazi, directed a special military unit into the battle, he was over-ruled by Washington.  Other military assets, alerted to be ready to reaact to Benghazi, were never given a command to fight.  Two former Navy Seals in Benghazi heard the story of the battle on the radio and asked to intervene.  They were expressly ordered to "stand down." by Washington. They bravely ignored the order and became two of the four killed. This is only the tip of the iceberg.  Were this a normal time with a rational electorate, the corruption of Benghazi, with its fatal end game, would now be spinning inexorably toward impeachment.  Impeachment is certainly warranted.  But it will never be suggested by anyone in Washington with the power to begin the process.  And how shameful is it that no one representing the people has the courage and fortitude to stand up for the people?  The lies that make up the coverup are so ridiculous and poorly thought out that it seems almost as if those telling them - obama, hilary clinton and susan rice - seem almost not to care if they were caught because they think they are beyond the heavy penalties that normal times would compel for such heinous behavior.  The far left that controls the Democrats these days has already launched an assault on the Benghazi hearings taking place in the House this week.  If you need analogies to help you realize how profoundly evil the people mouthing those charges are, think of this:  Watergate, said to be the poster-child of government corruption, left absolutely no one dead.  The Patriot's Day bombings in Boston killed three.  In Benghazi four died at the hands of our most public enemy while obama, hilary clinton and their ilk in Washington stood by and did nothing, not because they couldn't, because they had the military assets at their beck and call that could have prevented all four deaths, but because they thought if they deployed those assets it would undermine obama's campaign point that he'd forever neutered Al Quaida by killing osama.  So, to spare the campaign a bit of embarassment, four died.  It makes the Watergate break-in pale in comparison.

Many thought - back in the early 1970's - that once Richard Nixon was re-elected in a landslide over George McGovern, any chance that the minor league-style break-in at the Watergate Hotel had of gaining national prominence went down the tubes.  There were similar thoughts at the end of 2012 when obama swept back into office on the strength of millions of dumbed-down voters who thought the young marxist was cool and a huge asset to American standing in the world.  They were wrong in the 1970's, history tells us, because some intrepid reporters just wouldn't let the story die.  Now, a very brave young reporter at CBS is playing a similar role in keeping the awful reality of Benghazi from being swept under the carpet.  That reporter is Sharyl Attkinsson.

She is, next to Rush Limbaugh, obama's worst nightmare.  First, she doggedly pursued the Fast and Furious Scandal that badly sullied obama's first term. Now she is on Benghazi like a hungry dog that won't let go of its prey.  A brief, if sensationalized recap of her battles with obama can be found here: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/sharyl-attkisson-cbs-reporter-who-broke-details-of-benghazi-fast-furious-scandals-in-talks-to-leave-network/.  And if you think CBS is doing the right journalistic thing, for once, and just sitting back and letting their reporter do her job, you would be 100% wrong.  She is said to be in talks to leave CBS and in the meantime network evening news division president Patricia Shevlin is using all of her corporate power to reign in the seemingly unstoppable Attkinsson.  Like most Leftists, Shevlin wants Attkinsson to back off of obama.  Like a good reporter, who sniffs the corruption swirling in the obama pond, Attkinsson has no intention of backing off.  There does not appear to be common ground. Attkinsson is not a conservative; but she is a very good reporter.  There are so few of them left.  Attkinsson and her pursuit of these stories reminds me of Michael Isikoff during the Monica Lewinsky scandal of the Clinton administration.  Not a conservative by any stretch of the imagination, Isikoff nevertheless pursued the Lewinsky story doggedly.  At the time he was a reporter for Newsweek.  When he had the story cold; that is, when he had multiple credible sources he wrote the story and did everything in his power to get Newsweek to publish it.  But the far-left-leaning editors wouldn't go with it and the next morning Matt Drudge had it spread all over his web site.  Even so, Isikoff's book, Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter’s Story was named the best non-fiction book of the year by Book of the Month Club.

Over the weekend several key witnesses stepped forward, and now even dyed-in-th-wool leftists like Bob Schieffer at CBS are backtracking.  On Sunday he called Susan Rice, the US ambssador to the UN, who went on TV to defend the "Video" line that obama and his functionaries were pushing, a liar.  Of course, Bob made it sound like it was breaking news when, in fact, he and the rest of the media had this story before the November elections, but they wouldn't go with it because it might/would have cost obama the election.  

Lest you forget, obama and his functionaries were campaigning in the fall under the premise that when he and only he killed osama, he virtually ended the terrorist threat.  A coordinated and successful military operation in the weeks before the election would have proved that obama hadn't done anything important, and, in fact, had made the situation worse by (1) bragging about it, which enraged Al Quaida; and (2) easing up on the anti-terrorist campaign and shifting resources to domestic entitlements (the so-called peace dividend).  When that exact thing happened in Benghazzi, obama, hilary and the rest of them panicked. They were afraid that if they ordered in the Marines they would look like fools.  I'm sure they didn't think anyone would die in the attack, but that, too, is the saddest of commentaries on their leadership abilities.  They didn't realize that when they pulled military and intelligence resources out of Libya after Qadaffi fell, they created a virtual vacuum of power there that Al Quaida raced in to fill.  When the seige of the embassy occurred, Al Quaida was armed to the teeth and had enough terrorists in place to overwhelm the few military folk on the ground there.  Really, if the same situation happened with Bush and Cheney in the White House, do you think even for a second that every military asset available wouldn't have been brought to bare on the Al Quaida fighters who were attacking the US compound.    The US ambassador and his aides had discovered the power vacuum around Benghazi before the attack on the US embassy.  They tried to convince Washington to beef up security there.  Hilary and obama ignored them because obama wanted to believe that Al Quaida was neutered in the wake of his killing of osama.  This incompetent thinking cost four Americans their lives.

No, obama and hilary would not have willingly let these people perish in the desert if they knew that the attack would lead to this.  But the fact that they didn't know, coupled with their incompetent reaction to the crises when it broke, would lead to their resignations and, if not, impeachment, were these rational times.  Thank God for Sharyl Attkinsson, just about the only link to reality left in Washington.  

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Time to Write McLouth's name on line-up card each and every day

BALTIMORE, April 30, 2013 - I have the highest respect for Oriole Manager Buck Showalter.  Being able to watch a baseball man with his knowledge and proven ability on a daily basis is a real treat for any baseball fan.  So when I offer comments that might seem to question one of his moves, it has to be taken in that context.  Baseball is the kind of sport that is made for that kind of 'sort-of-informed' second-guessing.  With that statement out of the way, I believe it is time for Mr. Buck to write Nate McLouth's name on the line-up card each and every day, as he does for the Oriole's other two outfielders, Nick Markakis and Adam Jones.  I also think it is time for Oriole fans to realize that with Manny Machado, the home team has a tiger by the tail.  
       McLouth's history has been well-documented.  He came up through the Pirate's organization and made the major league roster for keeps in 2006.  His best season came in 2008, when he hit 26 home runs, 46 doubles, and 4 triples in 597 at bats.  He drove in 94 runs, stole 23 bases and batted .276.  This is an astounding season.  After 2008, and for a variety of reasons, he went into a funk.  Some think it had to do with the Pirates trading him to the Braves, some think it was personal issues and believe me, in baseball, you just don't know why you stop hitting the ball like you were last week or last month or last year.  McLouth hit rock bottom in 2012 when he was released by Atlanta early in the season.  Dan Duquette quickly scooped him up for the Orioles and talked him into going to Norfolk and proving he could still play.  Although his average was only in the .240 range, the Orioles brass saw a smart player with a great swing, a fast runner and an outstanding fielder. He was called up in midseason and proved a God-send when Nick Markakis was lost for the season in early August.  McLouth won a bunch of games with clutch hits, but even more importantly, he was the perfect replacement at leadoff hitter for Markakis.  Few will forget his play in the playoff series with the Yankees.  There were games when only he seemed to be hitting.  In the decisive game five he smashed a homer off of CC Sabathia, only to have the woeful umpiring crew call it a foul ball.  Replays showed the ball nicked off the foul poll.  Fans confirmed this for reporters who went to section in Yankee stadium where the incident was best seen.  That lost run proved crucial later when the Orioles mounted a desperate rally in the 8th inning that came up one run short. McLouth has been even better this season.  But there are days when he isn't in the line-up because Mr. Buck and the Orioles' front office want to see if Nolan Reimold can hit like he did at the beginning of last season.  In the first 16 games of 2012 Reimold hit five homeruns and had six doubles.  He also had ten runs batted in just 67 at bats.  But after this amazing early run, Reimold's back gave out and season-ending surgery followed.  Reimold is back this year and his back is better if not yet perfect.  Unfortunately, his numbers are also down: in 24 games and 74 at bats he has three homers, two doubles and seven runs batted in.  In past seasons Reimold has shown the ability to hit the long ball, but it seems like his concentration on hitting for power has hurt his development as an all-around hitter.  In truth, last year in those sixteen games, his power numbers coupled with a .274 batting average are an aberration.  McLouth, on the other hand, has seen his numbers improve in every season he played 100 games.  There is every reason to believe his fast start can be carried on through the season.  He is hitting .329 in 82 at bats, with two homeruns, seven doubles and eight runs batted in.  He also has seven stolen basis and an astounding 15 walks.  These are the kind of numbers that make teams see the making of a perfect leadoff hitter.  

Manny Machado is, like Nate McLouth, off to a wonderful start.  Like McLouth, he is proving the last two months of 2012 were not an aberration. He was a number one draft pick back when the lowly Orioles were getting the top picks in the draft.  His minor league numbers are wonderful and his performance last season after he was brought up at the end of August and installed as the Orioles regular third baseman convinced many that he was a future star.  His fielding was nothing short of sensational and reminded some veteran fans of the immortal Brooks Robinson.  Brooks, for those too young to know, was the greatest fielder in the history of the game.  Fans like this writer realize in retrospect that he was severely spoiled watching Brooks play on a regular basis.  Only when Brooks retired did fans realize how good he really was.  Well, Machado makes many of the plays that made Brooks immortal. He has a strong and accurate arm and can make some of the longest throws an infielder has to make with extreme power and breathtaking accuracy.  This year, however, especially as the season has started to get a few weeks behind it, Machado's hitting has started to grab great and stunned attention.  Last year in 29 games and 191 at bats, Machado batted .268 with 7 homers and 26 runs batted in.  This year in just 119 at bats Machado has three homers and 17 runs batted in.  Better still, his average has climbed to .311.  In the last week he has crammed several multi-hit games into his repertoire. In short, this 20-year-old looks like a pro hitter with many more years of experience.  He looks like someone who will be an All-Star for many years to come.  With Nate McLouth leading off and Machado batting second in front of Nick Markakis, Adam Jones and Chris Davis, the Orioles might not need to go looking for a power hitter this winter.  They might already have him, or maybe they already have two or three of him.

in the immigration battle, has anyone polled the immigrants?

BALTIMORE, May 2, 2013- obama and other pro-open border folk want the American public to view illegal immigrants as people who want to come here to live the American Dream; that is, to become American Citizens, live for the red, white and blue, share the wealth and Mother, God and apple pie.  They are determined to reach that goal and just won't be denied in their quest for it.  Now, the BBC and a new poll have cast grave doubts on that tired stereotype.  

The new poll says that among legal immigrants already living in the United States, barely one in five of them want to actually become American Citizens.  Meanwhile, the BBC reported today that most of those folk coming into the USA only want to get jobs to send money back to their families.  As soon as they have sent a fair amount back, most of them want to return to Mexico to live.  In the BBC report, a man who had lived in the USA for nearly ten years before being deported said his memories of his time here are anything but good. And really, how much of a life is it when capture and deportation lurk around every corner, and every person with an American accent could be an undercover INS agent? The Mexican citizen interviewed by the BBC said he hopes that the Mexican government can reach an agreement with obama to allow people to come to America to work, but also to return home when they wish.  In other words, Mexicans want to come and go as they please. The story that is emerging for those folk who really want answers is that a very large group of Mexican folk want to be able to come here to earn money because the economy in their country is really bad and, because of out-of-control drug cartels and tremendous downward pressure from a swooning obama-impuned American economy.  But the same people who want to come here for a time to earn money have no desire to stay.  They are proud to be Mexicans and Mexico is their home.  Their families are there.  Most of them are sending a large part of their earnings back to those families.  These people want to do what a large number of Americans do when they travel to Middle Eastern countries to work in the petroleum industry:  they want to earn a big chunk of money and then return to their families and their home.  Many American landlords tell of renting an apartment to an immigrant "couple," only to find a short time later that upwards of eight to ten people are sleeping in the apartment rented to two people.  All ten have jobs, far more than is necessary to pay the rent and food costs.  The excess income is wired back to Mexico.  

This is food for thought, at least.  obama and the left are scheming to allow people to come here whenever they want.  But they couch those desires in talk that this is what these immigrants really want.  And of course, obama wants these people to turn into democratic voters asap.  But that isn't what a lot of them want, it is turning out.  One commentator, Mr. Limbaugh, has suggested that both sides could reach an immigration agreement in no time if the immigrants would agree not to vote in American elections for ten years.  

 Might it be that most immigrants don't ever want to vote here?

Mr. Glib has obama administration in full retreat

BALTIMORE, MAY 1, 2013-The BBC reports today that Bolivian authorities are so outraged at comments made by secretary of state John Kerry that they have decided to tell a United States Aid Agency to pack up and go home.  This, despite the country's profoundly desperate need for foreign aid.  A Bolivian spokesman told the BBC that elitist comments by other obama administration functionaries have already strained relations between the USA and the Latin American nation to the breaking point.  When Kerry, in a speech, referred to Bolivia and neighboring countries as the US's "backyard," it was the last straw.  

But don't expect to read further details of the Kerry faux pas in the leftist drive by media; in the USA, if the news doesn't make obama look good, it's not really fit to print.  That's why there are so many americans who are surprised when someone tells them that, in truth, obama is quite the fool.  Hundreds of years ago, Milton said that in a free marketplace of ideas, the truth will emerge.  

Trouble is, in America, you have to read the foreign press to take advantage of that marketplace.   The left has much of the American media in a vice grip and most reporters are little more than obama bootlickers and functionaries.  In England the media is made up of left-leaning types also.  But in their case these liberal folk have way too much integrity to become shills for a backwater marxist like obama.