Washington Home & Garden Blogs

By Rich Galen

By Rich Galen

Photo by Shariff el Sheikh/Local Kicks
"The press box consensus is that it will cost the Lerner family between $15 and $20 million to
sign Stephen Strasburg, which is a lot of sunglasses from the kiosk at Tyson’s Corner shopping
center," Rich Galen writes.

June 9 was the date set for the annual baseball “first year player” draft.

The Nats acting-interim-provisional-temporary general manager, Mike Rizzo, held a pre-game presser prior to Sunday’s game with the Mets to talk about this year’s draft. The Nats will have the number one and the number 10 overall picks. They get that pick at number 10 because they couldn’t sign their first round pick (also a pitcher) last year.

It is all-but-certain that the Nationals will pick the pitcher from San Diego State University, Stephen Strasburg. The press box consensus is that it will cost the Lerner family between $15 and $20 million to sign him which is a lot of sunglasses from the kiosk at Tyson’s Corner shopping center.

There is no consensus as to who the Nats might pick at number 10, but it is unlikely they will roll the dice on two pitchers.

Each of the major sports handles it’s draft differently.

If the National Football League didn’t hold its draft on a weekend, it would have long since been deemed a national holiday. Takes a level of confidence to pick 300 pound linemen to play in the NFL at the same place where the Rockettes do those high kicks during the annual Christmas show.

For months preceding the NFL draft local radio sports shows listen to callers describing why the home team needs to draft some kid from Upper Iguana State for the O Line because they need someone who can get off on their left foot and this kid is the best in the country for that.

On the other hand, the NBA is so full of thieves and thugs that the league had to institute a lottery among the 14 worst teams to determine the order of the draft. This was designed to prevent teams who had no shot at the playoffs to purposely lose games to ensure they got the first or second pick. This, is because one player – a Patrick Ewing, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant or LeBron James – can turn a perennial loser into an instant winner.

None of that happens in baseball. The current draft process didn’t even start until 1965. Rick Monday was the first player ever picked. He went onto have a pretty decent 19 year career with the Athletics, the Cubs and the Dodgers batting .264 and hitting 241 lifetime home runs. Not exactly Shaquille O’Neal numbers, though.

To show how dicey this major league thing is, especially with young pitchers, the second player drafted that year was a kid named Les Rohr by the Mets. According to baseball-reference.com Rohr appeared in six major league games over three seasons (67, 68 & 69) pitching about 24 innings and ending up with a career record of 2-3.

I think this is where the phrase “Les is Rhor” may have come from.

On the other hand, in that same draft, the Cincinnati Reds picked Bernie Carbo in the first round and a kid named Johnny Bench in the second. They more-or-less built the “big red machine” around those two picks, so one never knows.

Rizzo didn’t give up much in the way of news. Team president Stan Kasten was sitting in the last row of the briefing room to ensure no news was made. Rizzo said there were about 1,600 players eligible for the draft and that the Nats had “about 800 names on [their] draft board.”

He also said the draft pool is “weighted toward pitchers” and that overall it was an “average talent pool.” Rizzo said that for position players (non-pitchers) it was probably the “thinnest pool in the past several years.”

On Tuesday, Rizzo said, as the draft goes on, the time for last-minute shifts is over. “We honor the board,” he said.

When he was asked whether picking first had any downside to it – meaning it might be hard to sign the overall number one pick – Rizzo said, “No. No downside at all.” Then, after a pause, he said “the only downside is how out got the number one pick based on your performance the year before.”

If things don’t change soon, the Nats may well have the overall number one pick next year, too.

Contact the writer at galen@mullings.com.

By Rich Galen

President Barack Obama is trying so hard, to be so cool in the face of Iranian internal brutality, that he is in danger of strengthening the hard liners in Tehran.

No one knows - or might ever know - who actually won the election for President of Iran last week. Current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might have, in fact, won re-election, but the Iranian government is certainly not acting like it.

Reporters - Middle Eastern and Western - closely covered the massive street demonstrations by supporters of the other two candidates, especially the man who is presumed to have been Ahmadinejad's closest rival, Mir Hossein Mousavi. Reporters covered the brutality of the Iranian police, military and the para-military basijis attacking demonstrators throughout the weekend.

Then, the Iranians changed the rules and forbad reporters from going out into the streets, while they shut down internet-based e-mail and web services.

The Obama Administration sent its most powerful voice on foreign affairs, Vice President Joe Biden, out on Sunday to talk about the Iranian elections. Biden stepped up to the plate by saying he had "doubts" about the announced outcome.

Oops. Off key again. Back to the bunker under the Veep's residence for you, Joe
.
At a Rose Garden presser with the President of South Korea, Mr. Obama said, according to the BBC, "it is not productive, given the history of US and Iranian relations to be seen as meddling in Iranian elections."
So, it is only productive for the United States to meddle in the elections of countries with which we have warm and close relations?

Canada? Don't screw up. We'll come down on you like a defenseman cross-checking you into the boards at the the blue line in the seventh game of the Stanley Cup finals.

Then, in classic Obamian circle-speak, he also said, "But when I see violence directed at peaceful protesters, when I see peaceful dissent being suppressed… it is of concern to me and it is of concern to the American people."

Well, it's all right then. Our President is concerned and all is well.

Meanwhile those who are really concerned - the actual Iranian people - found a way around the government shut-down of the Internet by turning to Twitter to send messages about what was going on.
Twitter has become such a big deal in supplying information internally and externally, that the U.S. State Department asked the message service to delay a scheduled maintenance shut-down so that demonstrators could continue to tweet.

SIDEBAR

I am on Twitter and have 346 people "following" me. I don't know why, as I rarely do anything interesting. But having people "following" me, I feel a need to feed the beast. This was the tweet I sent yesterday afternoon at the security checkpoint at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport:
At DFW behind a woman who didn't have her D/L out, didn't take off her shoes & had a bottle of water in her bag. Why am I always behind her?
Which led to no fewer than 25 responses on my Facebook Page (2,133 friends, but who's counting?)

END SIDEBAR

Mullpal Air Force Col. Ken Backes has written a scholarly paper on the use of Twitter and similar services for exactly this kind of activity. There was no way for demonstrators to set up a central switchboard for sending an receiving messages, but Twitter provided a mechanism for spontaneous communications outside the reach of the government.

We'll see if this hands-off policy by Barack Obama emboldens the Iranian government and the ruling Ayatollahs.

A significant portion of the Iranian population isn't waiting. They're Twittering their pleas for support.New Topic

I will be in Morgantown, West Virginia for the rest of the week as a judge in the Miss West Virginia and Miss Teenage West Virginia pageants.

Hmm. Maybe some of the things I do are interesting. I'll be tweeting from the site.

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For more information or to make your reservation, please call 301-588-6300 or email, jerry@reddogcafe.com or zena_polin@yahoo.com.

By Rich Galen

One of the issues with reading a terrorist his Miranda rights in Afghanistan is … how do you know whether
the terrorist speaks English? Maybe we will have to issue Miranda Warning Cards in English, Arabic,
Pashto, Dari, Uzbek, Turkmen, Balochi and Pashai which, according to the CIA World Factbook are
languages spoken in Afghanistan.

Oh. Before we begin today's "Bashing Barack" remember that on Wednesday I invited you to create your own Catchy Caption to the photo of Michelle Obama and France's First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.
I am sad to report that an overwhelming number had the "B" word involved and, therefore, cannot be repeated here.

The best usable caption was: "I'm just glad she's not looking at me."

On to the really amusing stuff: An article in the Weekly Standard maintains that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is being given a broader role in interrogating prisoners taken during raids on terrorist dens in Afghanistan.

I think that's perfectly OK. But it turns out that according to U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) the Obama Administration has determined that at the moment of capture a terrorist becomes a prisoner and must be read his/her Miranda rights.

For those of you who may have slept through each of the 1,273 Law & Order episodes in all of their various flavors, here is the officially accepted "Miranda Warning:"

You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense.

According to Rogers who is a former FBI Agent and former officer in the U.S. Army,
"The problem is you take that guy at three in the morning off of a compound right outside of Kabul where he's building bombs to kill US soldiers, and read him his rights by four, and the Red Cross is saying take the lawyer -- you have now created quite a confusion amongst the FBI, the CIA and the United States military.
"And confusion is the last thing you want in a combat zone."

Actually, what I'm certain Rep. Rogers meant to say was "MORE confusion is the last thing you want …" because, having been in a combat zone, I can attest to the fact that there is no shortage of confusion among everyone, everywhere, all the time.

One of the issues with reading a terrorist his Miranda rights in Afghanistan is … how do you know whether the terrorist speaks English? Maybe we will have to issue Miranda Warning Cards in English, Arabic, Pashto, Dari, Uzbek, Turkmen, Balochi and Pashai which, according to the CIA World Factbook are languages spoken in Afghanistan.

And that's only if you determine that the terrorist you have just arrested by saying: "Freeze!" or its equivalent in Arabic, Pashto, Dari, Uzbek, Turkmen, Balochi or Pashai is Afghan.
If he is Pakistani the card would also have to contain the Miranda warning in Punjabi, Sindhi, Siraiki, Pashtu, Urdu, Hindko, Brahui, and Burushaski.

If he is from any of the other countries bordering Afghanistan like Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, or Turkmenistan then you would have to add Persian, Turkic, Kurdish, Luri, Balochi, Turkish, Tajik, Russian, or Uzbek.

You, I think, begin to see the issues. Miss his language and next thing you know you are staring down at an order signed by Rookie Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor declaring any evidence collected as unusable at trial because your terrorist didn't know he could put a sock in it.

I do not present problems without presenting solutions. Well, I don't know what to do about the fact that the Washington Nationals are now 0-8 in extra inning games this year, but that's for another day.

Here's what I think we should do about this Miranda thing. We should arrest the bad guys, and get them a lawyer pretty much immediately.
 
In fact, I think the U.S. Government should begin sending lawyers into combat zones with the operators so that they are ready to advise their clients at the very moment of arrest.

Then, after the lawyer has done his job by advising his client to clam up, the operator should inform the lawyer that all of those prohibitions against harsh interrogation techniques apply to the terrorist - not to the terrorist's lawyer!

Then: Tie the lawyer to a one-by-twelve with his feet about a foot higher than his head, get a big pitcher of water and hold it over his head, dribbling maybe just a few drops, and invite him to think very, very seriously about revising his advice to his client about keeping silent.
It's a war zone.
 
Things get confused.

By Rich Galen

So, Panetta got the message, delivered the message and got well with the White House (job number one);
but he still hasn't made nice with Pelosi. Watch to see how long it takes for Jeremy Bash to decide he needs
to spend more time with his family.

On May 15, 2009 the best political analyst in the Washington press corps, Dan Balz of the Washington Post wrote a front pager about Nancy Pelosi's assertion that the CIA had lied to Congress about torture. Here was the lead graf:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's extraordinary accusation that the Bush administration lied to Congress about the use of harsh interrogation techniques dramatically raised the stakes in the growing debate over the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies even as it raised some questions about the speaker's credibility.
The very next day, May 16, 2009, Post writers Perry Bacon Jr. and Joby Warrick wrote the CIA thought that was a crock. THEIR lead was this:

CIA Director Leon Panetta yesterday rejected House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's charge that the agency misled her about its use of coercive interrogation methods, escalating a controversy that has dogged the speaker for weeks and intensifying a debate over Bush administration policies that the Obama administration has tried to avoid.

In fact, Panetta wrote a memo to the CIA staff saying:
As the Agency indicated previously in response to Congressional inquiries, our contemporaneous records from September 2002 indicate that CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing "the enhanced techniques that had been employed."

Republicans jumped all over this - as did the news media - as Panetta calling Nancy Pelosi a liar. Pelosi stonewalled reporters and has refused to discuss the matter for the past several weeks notwithstanding there appears to be a yawning canyon between what she said and what he said.

While all this was going on, former VP Dick Cheney was here, there and everywhere suggesting that Obama was a lightweight in the intelligence/national security area and was leading the nation down a dangerous path.

Panetta and Pelosi were contemporaries as Members of Congress, and as Members of the Democratic caucus. Nancy Pelosi is not known as playing nicely with her fellow delegation members. In fact, Pelosi caused quite the dust-up when she refused to allow the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee - Rep. Jane Harmon (D-Ca) - from being promoted to chair of the committee when the Dems took control of the House following the 2006 elections.

Follow me here. The chief of staff at the CIA - the guy who is Panetta's closest advisor - is a man named Jeremy Bash. According to Congressional Quarterly [Bash] is best known for his role as chief minority counsel of the House Intelligence Committee and close aide to Rep. Jane Harman, D-CA.

So, Panetta's CoS used to be Harmon's top aide on House Intel. Harmon gets passed over by Pelosi. Bash goes to CIA with Panetta and out comes this memo pretty directly whacking the Speaker upside the head with a 2 x 4.

Where was Barack Obama in all this? Laying low. Or so it seemed.

But, given a choice between siding with the CIA director - who serves at the pleasure of the President - and the Speaker of the House - who doesn't care how pleased, or displeased, the President might be - guess where the White House came out?

Yesterday, the New Yorker Magazine, in a typically New Yorker-esque 7,600 word article by Jane Mayer, quoted Panetta as saying:

"I think [Cheney] smells some blood in the water on the national-security issue. It's almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it's almost as if he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point. I think that's dangerous politics."
Yikes. Talk about questioning the motives of your political opponent. Newt Gingrich got shouted down from all quarters when he called Sonia Sotomayer a racist for saying Latinas made better decisions as judges than White men. Newt backed off.

The same magazine said this about Panetta's role when he was nominated this past January:
The CIA director has four important jobs: manage the White House relationship; manage Congress, particularly to obtain budgetary favor; manage the agency's workforce and daily operations; and manage liaisons with other spy chiefs, friendly and unfriendly.

Given what I know about how Washington works, I think it is highly likely that Leon Panetta was called on the carpet by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and told that of those four "important jobs" he was getting an "F" on numbers one and two; a "C" on three; and an "Incomplete" on four.
In the way of Chicago politics - going all the way back to the Capone era - Panetta had to do some serious penance.

Panetta couldn't apologize to Pelosi. He would have quit first. But, at the urging of the White House he could and did take on the chief raspberry seed in the tooth of the Obama Administration, Dick Cheney, and that's what Emanuel told him his punishment was to be.

So, Panetta got the message, delivered the message and got well with the White House (job number one); but he still hasn't made nice with Pelosi. Watch to see how long it takes for Jeremy Bash to decide he needs to spend more time with his family.