Saturday, October 28, 2006

A Personal Note: The End For A True, True, Icon - Red Auerbach

When you look at who Arnold “Red’ Auerbach was, and what he accomplished, you almost have to believe that it wasn’t true. That one man could not have done so much.






It was with tremendous sadness that I learned a short time ago, that Red had passed away this evening, a phone call from my sister, my basketball soulmate.
The news immediately took us back, to December 12, 1964, the first Boston Celtic game we attended (against the Gus Johnson-led, Buddy Jennette-coached Baltimore Bullets). We would attend hundreds-and-hundreds of games over the next few decades, but those games in the 60’s, still, are very special.
It wasn’t just Red’s 9 NBA titles as Coach (including in that run, eight-consecutive championships). Or the seven crowns that followed, as either General Manager or President.








It wasn’t just the unprecedented move, trading away a beloved established veteran (Ed McCauley), for the rights to a rookie, just out of college, and delayed coming to the team due to the 1956 Olympics (Bill Russell). Or outfoxing the rest of the league, drafting a junior-eligible “Can’t Miss” kid, a hick from French Lick, Indiana (Larry Bird).

No, Red made not only the Boston Celtics who they became, the standard of excellence Red lived also went towards establishing the league, all at a time when it wasn’t certain the league would survive.

In that era, struggling to draw fans to the game, the league played “doubleheaders”. Red, along with the legendary owner, the late Walter Brown, often agreed to be the team to go into whichever city, to play the “first game” so that local owner could bring in a crowd and, if they were lucky, break even for the night.

Red, in those early days, took on the role of the villain, baiting the referees (like his career-long head-butting with the late Mendy Rudolph) and, while still on the bench, lighting up his trademark cigar, once the victory was secured, but despite a minute, or two, left in the game.



(One of Red’s favorite story was of a game played in Cincinnati, against the Royals (led by the Big ‘”O”, Oscar Robertson and the big forward, Jerry Lucas). The team passed out 5,000 cigars so fans, once the Celtics were beaten, could blow smoke in Red’s face - no such luck, the Celtics won the game)
I’ll put some links below so you can look up stats and more information.
But understand a true giant as left us. While his successes are captured in choppy, flickering, black-and-white footage, his spirit, character and work ethic have indelibly stamped the game of basketball - and will continue to do so for decades to come.
Oh yeah, one more story.
If you want to win a bar bet, challenge someone to name who is the only man that can say he was traded for Bob Cousy.
In the late 1960’s, to early 1970’s, former Celtic legend Bob Cousy was coaching the Cincinnati Royals. With not a very good team, Cousy, some 8-years+ retired, activated himself to become player-coach, but was blocked, initially, by Auerbach - Cousy, the player, still belonged to the Boston Celtics and Auerbach was demanding compensation.
Cousy and the Cincinnati Royals ended up sending a young guard, Bill Dinwiddie to the Celtics.
Red wins again.

Updated Links
Boston Herald: Red leaves long legacy: Celtics legend dead at 89

Updated Links II - More About Red Flooding In

Note: There’s a bevy of links to more in Ryan’s piece

Editor's Note

Good Evening Garlic Fans

I hope your weekend has gotten off to a good start (unless your in the Northeast, we're it's been an all-day rain event).

Just a note, with my apologies, for the light posting the past few days. Yours truly has been under-the-weather and just starting to feel back to normal, and anticipate getting back to regularly-scheduled posting tomorrow (Sunday).

Many thanks for visiting, and reading, The Garlic.

Peace
JTD

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Top Ten Cloves: Other Harold Ford Television Ad Commercials Considered By Ken Mehlman and the RNC

News Item: The GOP's Southern Strategy Updated: Winking Blonde Bimbos and the Beating of Jungle Drums

10. Remind Tennessee about that old Henry Ford quote while showing Republican candidate Bob Corker in white, Ford convertible

9. Blatantly lie, tying him with actor Wesley Snipes in that tax fraud case

8. Run a commercial in which, mistakenly, of course, image of Willie Horton appears, instead of Harold Ford

7. Run clip of Bush 41 saying “little brown ones” and quick cut to image of Ford

6. Edit footage of Harold Ford, with former White House Domestic Policy Adviser Claude Allen and have them standing in front of a Target store

5. Having David Duke standing in front of a Confederate flag, and opine on what it would mean to elect Ford

4. Blatantly lie and claim that it was Harold Ford who gave Senator George Allen the “macaca” word

3. Digitally alter video of Ford to have him standing on a lawn and wearing a jockey uniform

2. For the television version of the radio “Tom-Tom Drum” commercial, everytime Ford’s name is mentioned, a subliminal video clip of an old Duke Ellington number at the Cotton Club is inserted

1. Do spoof of that Desperate Housewives commercial, with Nicolette Sheridan in towel in towel, and replace Terrell Owens with Harold Ford














With Karl “The Math” Rove by his side, RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman explains how he sees nothing wrong with using blonde bimbos and tom-tom drums in ads, saying, if they are successful in the Midterm elections, “we’ll be flooding the networks in 2008”


Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Top Ten Cloves: Other People That Rush Limbaugh Knows Are Just “Acting”

News Item: Rush Limbaugh On the Offensive Against Ad With Michael J. Fox

10. Madonna ... Do I have to say more? ... Sure, she’s acting all motherly and whatnot ... But I know, with virtual certainty that the only reason she wants that Malawian kid is for some sick, twisted ritual with that nutty Kabbalah cult she runs with...

9. Stephen Hawkings... He gave a lecture, my friends, on “Does God Play Dice?”... The question should be, what does Stephen like to play, when he’s running around Las Vegas - and yes, running around, not sitting his little pimp chair ... I happen to know a few cocktail waitress that can answer that question

8. Bob Woodward ... Oh yeah, sure, he’s the big shot reporter... Acts all prim-and-proper ... Let me tell you friends ... He’s on mission ... Been on it since the Nixon days ... He has a grudge against Papa Bush and he’s working his every waking moment on bringing down the son ... He wants nothing more than to take down this President ...

7. That Nobel Peace Prize guy, Muhammad Yunus... Wait’ll you see the dirt on this guy ... It will make the S&L scandal look like penny candy

6. This Barack Obama guy ... He should be re-title his new book to “The Audacity Of Running For President” ... Shake a few branches of that family tree ... Who was the one making money, over there in Africa, putting the slaves on the ships? ...

5. Mother Teresa - You see this a lot with these “liberal types” ... Sure, when the cameras were around, she’d have all these sick and poor people around here ... As soon as the cameras left ... Bang, she’d jump into her Mercedes and hightail back to her mansion

4. Tammy Duckworth... I’ve seen her playing basketball! ... Basketball! ... I think she only carries around that prosthesis, you know, for the campaign... She’s doing what all Democrats and Liberals do - Act Holier-than-thou and try to get the Sympathy vote

3. That television reporter ... That tow-headed, NBC guy, David Gregory... Mr. I’m-Going-To-Clean-Up- Washington ... His only goal every day is to irritate our President ... Just loves getting under the President’s skin ... I heard, on good authority that he was - Quote - good friends with Mr. Jeff Gannon ... And it was only a lover’s spat that got Gannon, and Talon News, booted out of the White House Press Room ...

2. Larry Page and Sergey Brin... Those Google guys ... Sure, they say they just want to help the world with providing information ... But don’t you believe that for one-second folks ... They have an agenda... Especially after they go out and spend billions to buy that pornographic, YouTube thingy...They just want that every time you hit that “I Feeling Lucky” button, that you get “real lucky” ... If you know what I mean

1. Oprah Winfrey ... Little Ms. Talkshow... Getting everybody to read all kinds of crazy books ... But you know what? She’s the one stirring up things ... Pushin’ for that Obama guy to run for President ... That’s because they have a secret deal ... One of those special handshakes ... ‘Cuz, if this guy gets in, first thing he’s going to do is to legalize same-sex marriage, just so Little Ms. Perfect can go off and marry that friend of hers...


Crooks and Liars has the Video, From Keith Olbermann’s Countdown on Limbaugh mocking Michael J. Fox

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Breaking News! Analyst: President May Soon Need To Deny He Has Troops In Iraq

White House Plunges Into New Iraq Strategy; Moving From ‘Keystone Cops’ To ‘Marx Brothers’

Denials Of “Stay The Course” Signal Major Shift; Possible Complete Erasing Of Iraq May Come In Time For MidTerms

In a shocking departure from what has become a mantra for the Bush Administration, a new Iraq strategy (or “tactic”, as the White House prefers it referred as) has leaped out, with President Bush taking the lead.

It began Sunday, in what is being called ‘Operation Hello, I Must Be Going’,, when President Bush denied, during an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopolous, that he has ever had a “Stay The Course” strategy.

That was followed up on Monday, first with White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett, in an interview with Hannah Storm, on CBS’s Early Morning program. Bartlett, responding to a question, stated that “it’s never been a stay-the-course strategy.”

Later yesterday, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, after a head-banging exercise of redefining the words “strategy” and “tactics”, acknowledged ‘Operation Hello, I Must Be Going’, indicating the President has, indeed dropped the strategy of “Stay The Course”.

Snow wouldn’t define ‘Operation Hello, I Must Be Going’ as a new strategy.

“I’m not sure we can launch a new strategy,” Snow offered, referring to the Inspector General’s report earlier this year that indicated the Bush Administration was “out of strategies”.

Poll Booster Or Is Bush Making His Bed For Final Days Of His Term?

This wouldn’t be the first time the Bush White House has turned on a dime.

After building up for the invasion and occupation of Iraq, with calls of WMD’s, mushroom clouds, and that Saddam Hussein was in bed with Al Qaeda and involved in the attacks of September 11th, the administration has, for the past year, or so, denied that they ever present the case in that fashion.

“Yes,” said David Aaronson, editor of 'What Color Is My Coat Today?', the Capital Hill Newsletter that tracks politicians who turn on their own party, “but they were married to the Keystone Cops strategy at that time. They were just continuing that policy. I think you’ll see a much smoother operation, now that they have moved over to ‘Hello, I Must Be Going’ and the Marx Brothers. They’ve got a lot more to work with going this route.

What isn’t clear as of yet if the ‘Operation Hello, I Must Be Going’ is an interim move, designed for poll-boosting just before the Midterm elections, or if the Bush White House plans on riding it out, perhaps through the end of his term in 2008.

New Sophistication Highlights Bush, White House Still Sharp

“This is pretty significant,” offered Hugh P. Varicator, a consultant with the conservative hawkish think tank, “Cry Wolf”, that is said to be closely affiliated with The Project for the New American Century (PNAC), and, some say, may be an adjunct to the White House Iraq Group, or WHIG. “It shows an administration, sharp as ever, on their toes, and coming out punching.”

Varicator said, that on a deeper level, it shows that the President is undertaking a much more sophisticated approach to his Iraq War policy.

“It signals that they’ve come to realize their Keystone Cops approach isn’t working ... They need to step up and shifting to the Marx Brothers shows a sophistication that we haven’t seen before. They’re going to have to be even sharper - Snow’s fumbling and head-banging not the best presentation you want to come out of the box on - with their rhetoric now.

Operation Hello, I Must Be Going Laying Ground Work For Complete Denial Of Iraq?

Aaronson agreed and said that it opens the door for an even bolder strategy that may now be available.

“The President has within in his reach, now that he’s moved away from ‘Stay The Course’, an even bigger message he can start pounding out - denying he even has any troops in Iraq.”

“That’s what could be the big picture behind all this,” offered Aaronson. “It would take an enormous effort on the part of the White House to undertake denying troops are in Iraq, but not that much of difference on what they did to get them into Iraq in the first place.”

A key factor in denying troops are in Iraq, concedes Varicator, is the health of Vice President Dick Cheney.

“With his heart condition and after the woozy spell he had last month, after his appearance on Meet The Press, it’s not clear he could keep up the pace required for such an operation.”

Aaronson says the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would be able to buy into it (“She has no problem pitching whatever it is the President wants out there), however Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, like Cheney, could also be a liability.

“First off, we may not have to worry about Rumsfeld,” said Aaronson. “It’s pretty likely, with Operation ‘Hello, I Must Be Going’, that they throw him under the bus, sometime between the Midterms and January. If not, the White House knows, it’s a ticking time bomb with Rummy, the way, at press conferences, he asks and answers his own questions ... He’s likely to let something slip out.”

In Iraq, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Malaki said that he was “unaware” that President Bush has shifted over to ‘Operation Hello, I Must Be Going’.

“They haven’t told us about it, said a visibly stunned al-Malaki. “It’s been nothing but ‘Stay The Course’ for months and months every time we talk. I don’t know what to make of this ... We’re still waiting for that Road To Democracy he’s promised us ...Sounds like he wants us to build it now.”

With two-weeks to go before the MidTerm elections, President Bush is hoping it's "thumbs up" for his new Iraq War Policy, "Hello, I Must Be Going"

Monday, October 23, 2006

Minced Garlic - New Keith Olbermann Special Comment - Advertising terrorism










Last Thursday, and/or Friday, numerous news programs, cable news programs, made note of the new Republican television commercial, the one depicting the images and words of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri (and I’m too tired right now to source all those references).


And the discussion around it was placed in the context of Midterm elections. How the GOP was, once again, framing the Democrats as soft on terrorism.

No one took the Republicans, the RNC, or the Bush White House to task for the moral implications of this advertisement.

Except Mr. Keith Olbermann

Olbermann also noticed the commercial, and how reprehensible it was. And he promised, which he delivered earlier this evening, a Special Comment on it.


And Mr. Olbermann wasted little time of the nearly 20-minute commentary. Within approximately the first 90-seconds, Olbermann drew the comparison of this heinous ad, with that of the reaction to the footage CNN recently ran, of Iraq insurgents, snipers, tracking and killing American soldiers.

How the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Duncan Hunter (R-CA; You know him. The man that wants to wall in America and the one who is such a fan of the cuisine at Gitmo) bellowed how CNN is “the publicist for an enemy propaganda film” and that CNN used it “to sell commercials.” (While one of Mr. Hunter’s colleagues, Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA) snorted that CNN’s video was “nothing short of a terrorist snuff film.”

Olbermann than quickly pointed out that, in fact, “The Republicans are paying to have the messages of bin Laden and the others broadcast into your home.” And also, how the party of the President, this majority-controlled Congress, has “adopted bin Laden and Zawahiri as spokesmen for the Republican National Committee!”

Ah, the irony.

Kind of like ... Well ... Banging your head against a podium and attempting to sell how a strategy is a strategy and how a strategy is not a tactic (But, it can be that there is a strategy inside of a tactic ... Or, if it can rewrite a position you’ve held for over four-years, well then it is a strategy and the tactic are just tactics.)

You can’t say we weren’t warned (or threatened) The great and powerful Decider decided long ago that “You’re either with us or against us.”

“Eleven Presidents ago, a chief executive reassured us that “we have nothing to fear but fear itself. His distant successor has wasted his administration insisting that there is nothing we can have but fear itself. This administration has derived benefit and power from terrorizing the very people it claims to be protecting from terror. It may be the oldest trick in the political book: scare people into believing they are in danger and that only you can save them.”

Links

Read, or watch the video of Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment: Advertising terrorism

And rather then post a long list of links, you can scroll down the right sidebar to the “Garlictorials” section and click on to read the other “Minced Garlic” posts on Keith Olbermann’s Special Comments.

Top Ten Cloves: Surprises Found In Discovery Of Ancient Dentist Tombs In Egypt

News Item: Tombs Of Ancient Dentists Discovered In Egypt

10. Scrolls found show ancient Egyptian dentists started trend of taking Wednesday’s off

9. With respect for higher learning, Wisdom Teeth were never removed and treated like gods

8. Only 1-out-of-5 Ancient Egyptian dentists recommended daily brushing

7. Most ancient Egyptian dentists used packed wet sand for tooth fillings - High-end dentists used mud from Nile River

6. Earliest form of vending machine also discovered - Live, bucking ponies in front of Ancient Egyptian dentists offices used to entertain small children

5. Out-dated Popular Mechanics and Life magazines found in primitive waiting room

4. Drawings show pulling teeth similar to building pyramids - Rope tied around infected tooth and then pulled by thousands of slaves

3. Hieroglyphics depict earliest known documentation of Muzak

2. Ancient Egyptian dentists had weak lobbying group; Better organized Ancient Egyptian Optometrists had the pull to get the “All Seeing Eye” on money, jewelry, buildings, tombs and pyramids

1. Records found that majority of Ancient Egyptian dentists flunked out of Ancient Egyptian Medical Schools


Ancient Egyptian Optometrists, with a better lobbying group, beat out the Ancient Egyptian dentists, and branded the “All Seeing Eye” on money, jewelry, buildings, tombs and pyramids

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Weekend Special - Sautéed Cloves 22 October 2006


















During the recent terror threat against the NFL, which turned out to be a hoax, league officials said today that they were "fully engaged" and had "all their employees involved in the hunt for the terrorists", as seen here, with brothers and quarterbacks Eli and Payton Manning patrolling the streets of New York, and ready to strike down any threat














Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) stunned party officials when he intimated that he may step down after the Midterm elections, and go into Real Estate.

After his shaky land deal, Reid said he was "amazed" at the amount of money he could make

"Almost ten times what I get mucking around in this place"













"That's right ... You say things are going remarkably well in Iraq and I'll say I never said 'Stay The Course'... Karl says they'll be falling all over themselves and that it will really screw them up ..."
















There's been confusion in the White House this week, with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld after it was said that he is "inspired by God" in his work

The Pentagon hasn't confirmed yet if the God Rumsfeld is inspired by is the same God that told President Bush to invade Iraq, or if it is the Higher Father that the President gets advise from frequently

















After reportedly saying he was "sorry" for testing a nuclear device, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il now is saying that what is being reported as a nuclear explosion was nothing more that "some special effects"

With his love for movies well-known, Jong Il indicated that he has been shooting a movie about a small Asian country leader, who leads his people in fighting off a much larger, imperialist devil force that attempts to sanction his country.

Jong Il says he sees Dolph Lundgren in the lead role and hasn’t decided whether to offer him the role, or just kidnap the actor and force him to do the film
















With Google now making donations to the Republican Party, there are reports that the verdict in Saddam Hussein’s trial, schedule for the day before the Midterm elections, won't be read in the courtroom, but released in video format, on YouTube

Google credits its' new lobbyist in Washington as working out the details with the Bush Administration, so that they could "make a big bang" with their newly-acquired acquisition


Huddle Up There, Fat Boy! ... The Results - The Garlic's Weekly Poll October 15 - October 21 2006

Huddle Up There, Fat Boy!

Well, he did surface long enough, to throw another log into the Spin Machine furnace, when he told the Talking Dirigible (Rush Limbaugh) that things we’re going “remarkably well” in Iraq.

But for the most part, since last month, when he and Rumsfeld did their Bad Cop-Bad Cop routine with the “Nazi Appeaser” smears, Vice President Richard B. Cheney has been most conspicuously out of the glare of the limelight, through the avalanche of karma hitting the White House and GOP the past few weeks.

And that left our Garlic Poll voters only the recourse of speculation, as to his whereabouts....

The Results - The Garlic's Weekly Poll October 15 - October 21 2006

Vice President Dick Cheney, since making his “Nazi” speeches last month, as been laying low. Most likely, Cheney is...

1. On the Taxi Squad of the Washington Redskins Tally 28%

2. Practicing his Tango. Since Sarah Evans bowed out, Cheney’s been tapped for ABC’s ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Tally 26%

3. Locked inside his Secret Bunker, working on the list of sanctions the Bush Administration will, covertly, bury North Korea with Tally 24%

4. Recovering from ‘Writer’s Cramp’, from all the notes he’s been making in the margins of Bob Woodward’s new book Tally 22%

This week’s Poll - With the Midterm Elections looming within the next three-weeks, and no new Iraq Strategy coming from President Bush, were likely to see the Republican candidates...

Scroll up to the top right corner to place your vote

Dick, The Magic Vice Prez








Around The Garlic Patch ... A Few Good Links To Check Out

It’s not often that we go Around The Garlic Patch (the intent is to do it more often - will continue to endeavor to meet that goal), however, there’s a few great reads that you should check out, as you have time...)



The Guardian Unlimited across the pond has a very good read on the “Tipping Point” of the conflict in Iraq

How Iraq came home to haunt America


Truthdig offers a very poignant and powerful piece, written by Kevin Tillman, brother of the deceased Iraqi Vet (and former NFL star) Pat Tillman

After Pat’s Birthday


For photography (and Americana) fans, a recent Boston Globe article told of Harvard University cataloging and preserving the story and history of that once iconic American company, Polaroid ... And there’s an accompanying Photo Gallery with it ...

Polaroid preserved: Harvard catalogs an era of innovation


Last, a very rare treat today in the Washington Post - A detailed portrait of ‘Doonesbury’ creator Gary Trudeau

Doonesbury's War


Also, take some time to scroll down the Sidebar to the right and check out our Links Section ... Many a great site or blog there to check out, such as our friends over at The Reaction, The Moderate Voice, Copeland’s Institute of Lower Learning (Where there’s still time to vote for who is the Worst President) and The Garlic’s biggest fan, America’s best satirist, Barry Crimmins

Huffington Post Caption Contest - Vote For #15 ... It's Mine!

Good Afternoon Garlic Fans

Hope all is well with you ...

Have a request for you on this fine, crisp Autumn day ... Your’s Truly has been chosen for a final round of a Picture Caption Contest on The Huffington Post...



Now, I know that such doesn’t move the needle on the “What-Is-Important-Today” scale, however ... Well, it is a contest and I do have a certain degree of competitiveness (not to mention, it can go towards bringing a few new folks over to The Garlic) ... The HuffPo does carry some pull ...

Here’s the link

Bush-Hastert Photo-Caption Contest - NOW YOU VOTE FOR THE WINNER!!!

The JTD entry is #15

Please Note - You vote via leaving a comment. On The Huffington Post, you have to Log-In in order to leave a comment and with that, it means you must have established an account. If you haven’t done so, you can “Click To Register” and fill in the form. It's short and painless and should only take a few seconds.

Many thanks for your consideration

Peace
JTD