They don't make sci-fi covers like they used to

You don't even find colors like this any more, let alone images.

Yes, we expect to see knee-high boots in space. That makes plenty of sense. But why the pistol version of the trusty Pilgrim blunderbuss?
The green lady with the pointy teeth may have helped inspire the green chick from the original "Star Trek" series (memorably portrayed in one episode by Yvonne Craig--formerly Batgirl on the 60s television serial "Batman."

I'm not going to get into the suspicious hand placement or an analysis of rocket placement and design. I'm just going to give the artist the benefit of the doubt.

John Brunner had an excellent reputation as a sci-fi author. I'll have to check to see if he's still alive.

Yes, it's one of those "Double Novel" books with another flashy cover on the other side. The other cover's not bad, either, so maybe I'll post that one someday, too.

The MSM makes it official--early departure from Iraq dangerous

Like I've been saying (hat tip to Captain's Quarters).

(CNN) -- Pulling U.S. forces from Iraq could trigger catastrophe, CNN analysts and other observers warn, affecting not just Iraq but its neighbors in the Middle East, with far-reaching global implications.

Sectarian violence could erupt on a scale never seen before in Iraq if coalition troops leave before Iraq's security forces are ready. Supporters of al Qaeda could develop an international hub of terror from which to threaten the West. And the likely civil war could draw countries like Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran into a broader conflict.

(CNN)

It's a good thing the MSM was able to hold off on this story during the lead-up to the 2006 elections, isn't it?

Buccaneer Draft

1. Gaines Adams, DE, Clemson
2. Arron Sears, G, Tennessee
2. Sabby Piscitelli, S, Oregon State
3. Quincy Black, LB, Utah State
4. Tanard Jackson, CB, Syracuse
5. Greg Peterson, DT, North Carolina Central
6. Adam Hayward, LB, Portland State
7. Chris Denman, T, Fresno State
7. Marcus Hamilton, CB, Virginia
7. Kenneth Darby, RB, Alabama

The last four are probably training camp fodder unless I misread the Bucs' depth. Denman might hang on to back up Jeremy Trueblood at right tackle.

Piscitelli has a good shot at intriguing Buccaneer fans. The guy resembles John Lynch at safety. No, I'm not saying he is John Lynch. He just has the same build and the same way of hitting, based on a few choice college highlights.
There are two instant differences from Lynch. Piscitelli has a rep for missing tackles, but he's also faster than Lynch. If Piscitelli can learn to tackle better, he could become immensely popular starting at safety for the Bucs.

Gaines Adams is a tough read. I see him as the best available option for the Bucs to boost their rush on the outside--but I'm not supremely confident that Adams will turn into a star or anything. That's what I'll hope for, of course. He's a step slower than Simeon Rice; other than that they're very similar athletically.

Arron Sears was an interesting choice in the second round. The Bucs have put plenty of bucks into offensive linemen, lately. The drafting of Sears makes it look like the Bucs are very serious about converting Dan Buenning into a center.
Should be interesting times on the offensive line this year.
On the downside, they need to settle on a starting lineup before the group is going to gel and get its teamwork down.

When the Bucs won the Superbowl, the offensive line avoided serious injuries.
The next time that happened, the Bucs won the division (losing in the playoffs to the Redskins).

Quincy Black is one of the best athletes in the draft, but he has a rep for lacking game instinct.
I'm not sure that's something that can be taught. If Black gets the knack for football, he may turn into a great cover-2 linebacker. He's got insane speed for the position, by all accounts. If he doesn't acquire some instincts, then maybe he's destined to become a special teams ace.

The Bucs hedged their bets on Piscitelli by drafting Tanard Jackson out of Syracuse. Jackson is listed as a corner, but the Bucs apparently project him as a safety with nickel corner flexibility (Dwight Smith type).

Perhaps the Bucs' biggest need heading into the offseason was a defensive tackle who can penetrate and disrupt. They picked up free agent defensive end Kevin Carter, who has the size to move inside in a 4-3 scheme. That's not the impact I was hoping for. Peterson in the 5th round was the attempt to address the need in the draft.
Peterson is one of those roll-the-dice projects. He's a bit on the smallish side for a defensive tackle, but he has the initial burst that can lead to Warren Sapp-style disruption. Peterson will probably be expected to add a few muscular pounds while maintaining his speed off the center snap. I wish him the best.
The Bucs drafted one of the best nose-tackles in team history with a late-round draft pick back when the draft went on for almost twice as many rounds as it does today. Yes, I'm talking about Dave Logan--12th round pick Dave Logan. Maybe Peterson will turn out to be the guy the defense needs in the front four.

Rays bounce back from 2-game sweep by Angels, take 2 of 3 from A's

The Angels clubbed Devil Ray pitching but good, feasting on Edwin Jackson and Jae Seo before the middle relievers even had a chance to enlarge their ERAs.

The Rays got some nice pitching performances from James Shields (8 innings, 1 earned run) and Scott Kazmir (7 innings, 2 earned runs) to best the A's in the first and third games of their three game series.

B. J. Upton has continued to prosper at the plate, going 2-for-4 with a home run.

Casey Fossum took the lone loss to the A's in this series. He gave up six runs in the first inning.

Bucs pick Gaines Adams with No. 4 pick in NFL Draft

After QB Russell went to the Raiders, the next two picks were fairly predictable since the next two players were projected as immediately dominant at their positions.

The Bucs ended up drafting for need instead of for the best athlete. The Bucs' pass rush was awful last year, and Adams is the best pass rusher in the draft. The pick is a little bit of a reach in terms of value--but that's the same thing that would happen if another team traded up. Nobody was going to give the Bucs much to move to No. 4.

Adams supposedly doesn't work hard against the run. That remains to be seen.

Nobody knows how good a draft is, really, until several years down the line. If Adams produces on the field--good first round pick!

It's worth mentioning that anything might still happen today. It may be that that Lions have some interest in picking up Brian Kelly and Simeon Rice, and the could probably have both plus a draft pick in return for Calvin Johnson.

Maybe the Lions really do want another high-round WR in their stable--I don't pretend to know. It wouldn't surprise me if Rod Marinelli were interested in having two solid defenders from the team he once coached, however.

Rays Sweep Yankees

That's the beauty of a two-game series.

It's odd how well the Rays seem to match up with New York. The Rays won the season series in 2005 from the Yankees and managed to steal a few from New York last year despite some injuries the Rays could ill afford (lost slugger Jonny Gomes to a shoulder injury after a torrid start, and second-tier slugging infielder Ty Wigginton for a number of games late in the season).

On the downside, the Rays lost third baseman Iwanura to a strained oblique.

I thought his at-bat against Mariano Rivera looked suspiciously pathetic (swing & miss x3). Turns out there was a reason for it.

Rays top Yankees, 10-8

Alex Rodriquez clubbed a couple of homers, but the Rays downed the Yankees at Tropicana Field.
A win over the Yankees is always sweet. It was nice seeing the shots of Yankee fans at the Trop looking on with two out in the ninth and two strikes on their final hope.
Al Reyes struck out Melky Cabrera with a fastball up and in (over the plate, though, by my reckoning) to record the final out. Not that it had to be over the plate. Cabrera swung and missed.

Criswell predicts: Hollywood suicide

I predict that a young Hollywood actor will culminate his career as a rebel by suicide during the first few months of 1968.

--The Amazing Criswell

Well,if we allow plenty of leeway for "young" this one would certainly pass for part of the "87% of Criswell's predictions have come true!" blurb on the back cover.

Nick Adams
Birth: Jul. 10, 1931
Nanticoke
Luzerne County
Pennsylvania, USA
Death: Feb. 6, 1968
Beverly Hills
Los Angeles County
California, USA

Actor. He is best remembered for his role of 'Johnny Yuma' in the television western series "The Rebel" (1959 to 1962). The studios molded his acting persona in the same "troubled young man" persona as his close friend, actor James Dean.
(Findgrave.com)

On the other hand, Criswell's book was published in the same year (1968), so it is conceivable that Adams was dead before Criswell made the prediction. And even if that wasn't the case, Adams had descended to working on exactly the same type of low-budget films that Criswell himself worked on. Criswell may well have known Adams to the point of knowing that he contemplated suicide.

Enjoying it while it lasts

Tampa Bay	2	1	.667	-
Boston	2	2	.500	0.5
NY Yankees	1	2	.333	1.0
Toronto	1	2	.333	1.0
Baltimore	1	3	.250	1.5

MSM continues to massage public opinion on pre-war Iraq

John Hinderaker of the Powerline blog posted an excellent piece of media criticism here.

Hinderaker quotes the Washington Post and then quotes from the source of the Post's information--it doesn't look like a match.

Captured Iraqi documents and intelligence interrogations of Saddam Hussein and two former aides "all confirmed" that Hussein's regime was not directly cooperating with al-Qaeda before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, according to a declassified Defense Department report released yesterday.
(the Washington Post)

And the source of the "all confirmed" phrasing (from a footnote in the report, as provided by Hinderaker--I haven't been able to link to the source document):

Noteworthy is that post-war debriefs of Saddam Hussein, Tariq Aziz, al-Tikriti and al-Libi as well as document exploitation by DIA all confirmed that the Intelligence Community [b]was correct: Iraq and al-Qaeda did not cooperate in all categories.[/b] The terms the Intelligence Community used to describe the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda were validated, "no conclusive signs," and "direct cooperation...has not been established."

And this is how various dailies around the country fix the headline:

The Cleveland Plain Dealer:
"Report: Saddam not linked to al-Qaida"

The Pioneer Press:
"Pentagon debunks Saddam ties to al-Qaida"

The Kansas City Star:
"Report disputes prewar link
Hussein and al-Qaida were not directly cooperating before Iraq invasion, text shows."

Not every headline is as misleading as those above.

The Register-Guard (Oregon):
Report: Iraq, al-Qaeda contact limited

That's quite an improvement on the Post version, actually!

The story by Smith goes on to take a whack at Vice President Cheney concerning his statements that the current war in Iraq represents a struggle against al Qaida.
If that isn't a non sequitur then there's no such thing.

And the Post compounds the illogic with a Dan Froomkin column blasting Cheney based on their own inept reporting.

Cheney Sticks to His Delusions

By Dan Froomkin

Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, April 6, 2007; 1:20 PM

Faced with overwhelming evidence to the contrary, even President Bush has backed off his earlier inflammatory assertions about links between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.

But Vice President Cheney yesterday, in an interview with right-wing talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, continued to stick to his delusional guns.

Inflammatory assertions by Bush? A pity Froomkin offers no examples.

Cheney told Limbaugh that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was leading al-Qaeda operations in Iraq before the U.S. invasion in March 2003.

"[A]fter we went into Afghanistan and shut him down there, he went to Baghdad, took up residence there before we ever launched into Iraq; organized the al-Qaeda operations inside Iraq before we even arrived on the scene, and then, of course, led the charge for Iraq until we killed him last June. He's the guy who arranged the bombing of the Samarra Mosque that precipitated the sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni. This is al-Qaeda operating in Iraq," Cheney said. "And as I say, they were present before we invaded Iraq." (Think Progress has the audio clip.)

(The Washington Post)

Same total lack of logic, here.
It's a leap worthy of Superman, albeit a leap of illogical thinking rather than a single bound over a tall Metropolis building.
Froomkin starts out by saying that links between Hussein and al Qaida have been discredited, and then mocks Cheney for not being up to speed. The smoking gun is a statement by Cheney that does not refer to any collaboration between the Iraqi government and al Qaida.

As Bugs Bunny would say: "What a maroon."

Not your finest moment, Froomkin.