This We'll Defend- Happy 237th Birthday to the US Army!

On Jue 14, 1775, the Continental Army- the direct predecessor to the US Army- was created at the outbreak of the Revolutionary war to coordinate the militias of the 13 colonies in their campaign against the British. George Washington was the Continetal Army's first commander.

Compensation varied from colony to colony, but despite the low wages, cold weather, poor shelter, dwindling food supplies and constant danger, many soldiers decided to stay with the Continental Army even when it was at its low ebb. Battles such as Ticonderoga, Trenton and Valley Forge proved to be turning points for the Continental Army as cannons and Hessian mercenaries were captured and lines of communication between British and Loyalist forces were cut.

After the revolutionary war, the Congress officially created the US Army on June 1784. Since its modest beginnings as a loosely organized organization of poorly trained and equipped farmers defying the British monarch, the US Army has become one of history's most formidable fighting forces and the tip of the spear in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations across the globe.

To those that have served and continued to serve, you have my most sincere gratitude and appreciation.

Happy Flag Day From Not Another New England Sports Blog!

I know, I know....bad flag etiquette on Julianne Hough's part, but I can't help myself

As far as holidays go, Flag Day came about fairly recently in this nation's history.
According to Mike Dlaka's US Flag.org, Flag day as we know apparently got its start in 1889 when a New York City kindergarten teacher named George Balch planned a series of activities and ceremonies for his pupils for June 14th to mark the anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777 in which the 13-starred version of the stars and stripes became the nascent nation's official standard. The New York State Board of Education had liked the idea and recommended a statewide observation a few short years later.

Better examples of flag etiquette on display in Bath, ME. Bobcatnorth photo via Flickr

However, it wasn't until Harry Truman signed an act of Congress in 1949 declaring June 14th to be Flag Day that it became an official holiday.
Unfortunately, kindergarten educators in New York City are making headlines for the exact opposite reasons than George Balch. A principal in Brooklyn, NY has decided to pull Lee Greenwood's 'God Bless the USA' from a graduation ceremony for kindergartners. Despite the pupils spending months learning the lyrics, principal Greta Hawkins told teachers that "We don't want to offend other cultures" and ordered the teachers to drop the song from the program. While the school sees a number of children who's parents immigrated from Mexico, Pakistan or Ecuador, the country singer's patriotic song had been featured in previous 'moving up' ceremonies at the school and drew no complaints from staff or teachers.

Flag mural on building in downtown Butte, MT circa 2009.

Larry Blackwood photo

To add insult to injury, apparently Hawkins selected Justin Beiber's 'Baby' to replace the offending Greenwood tune. Sadly, the school district backed Hawkins' ban of the Greenwood tune by claiming it was not age-appropriate [yet the Beiber tune was- NANESB!].

American flag adorned with Geronimo flies over a souvenir stand overlooking the Little Colorado River west of Cameron, AZ in the Spring of 2012

For those of you with worn, faded, tattered, defaced and torn American flags, just as important as getting a replacement [which shouldn't be too difficult this time of year- NANESB!] is the proper disposal of the old flag. While there are certain rules and etiquette to be observed, many chapters of the VFW have made it easier for the public to turn over old flags for proper disposal, some of them even having a drop box where you can leave it if the lodge is closed.

Sports Chowdah Update- Quick Work For LA As They Win Stanley Cup; Cain And Able; Marlins Flounder After Late Sox Rally; Thunder Interrupts Heat Wave

Alan Diaz- AP Photo

RED SOX- After being swept by the white-hot Washington Nationals at home over the weekend, the Red Sox hit the road for Miami where their woes looked like they weren't going away anytime soon after Beckett was touched up for 4 runs against his former team in the Marlins 4-1 win on Monday.

The loss was followed up on Tuesday night by a strong outing by Clay Buchholz where he gave up one run and struck out nine in seven innings of work, outduelling Mark Buehrle in a 2-1 Boston win.

Wednesday night's game was the rubber match of the series, with Felix Doubront getting the start against Miami's Ricky Nolasco. The Red Sox got on the board when Mike Aviles grounded out with Scott Podsednik coming home from third in the top of the 3rd inning before Big Papi added to the lead with a 1-out solo homer in the top of the 4th to make it 2-0 Boston. This was followed up by an Adrian Gonzalez RBI single and aBig Papi sac-fly in the top of the 6th to make it 4-0.

Doubront was doing well on the mound for Boston, hurling 5 and ⅔ innings of no-hit baseball before giving up a solo home run to SS Jose Reyes in the bottom of the 6th to give the Marlins their first run of the game.

Miami would then cut the Red Sox lead in half with an RBI groundout from Justin Ruggiano in the bottom of the seventh to make it 4-2. However, that's as close as the Marlins would get. In the top of the 8th, Pedroia, Gonzalez, Ortiz, Saltalamacchia and Punto would each get RBIs- with all but Salty's coming on singles [Salty had a sac-fly while Punto managed to drive in two runs w/his single- NANESB!] to make it a 10-2 ballgame, which would be the final from Miami.

Doubront had his best outing of the season, going 7 innings while allowing two runs on three hits and a walk while striking out 9. Vincente Padilla, Andrew Miller and Matt Albers came on to close things out for Boston once the game was blown wide open in the top of the 8th.

Thursday is a travel day for the Red Sox as they return to the Windy City, this time taking the El all the way up to the Addison stop on the North side where former Red Sox GM and the Chicago Cubs will play host to them at Wrigley Field- the second oldest ballpark in use in the majors. The last time the Red Sox played a regular season game in Wrigley was not that long ago- 2005. Prior to that, the last time the Red Sox played in Wrigley was the 1918 World Series- their only title for 86 years.

While the Red Sox have struggled mightily just to remain right around 500 this season, the Cubs have the worst record in the majors right now at 21-41, more than a dozen games out of first place in the NL Central.

Jeff Samardzija [5-4; 3.96 ERA] is scheduled to get the start for the Cubbies while the Red Sox starter hasn't been announced as of Wednesday night. The game is scheduled to get underway at 2:20 PM ET (1:20 Central) from Wrigley and the game will be televised on NESN and the MLB Network.



OTHER MLB NEWS- Matt Cain pitched the first-ever perfect game in the 122-year history of the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night. This would be the 22nd perfect game in the history of the big leagues, but already the second of the 2012 season [The ChiSox's Phillip Humber retired all 27 Mariners batters he faced in a road game at SafeCo field in late April- NANESB!].

Cain threw a grand total of 125 pitches on Wednesday night against the visiting Houston Astros- 86 of them for strikes- while San Francisco's batters chased Astros starter J.A. Happ from the mound after he allowed eight runs in three and ⅓ innings. Cain's bid for perfection was preserved thanks in large part to a diving catch by outfielder Gregor Blanco in the top of the 7th, robbing Jordan Schafer of a base hit. The 10-0 win over the Astros was almost an afterthought as Giants 3B Brandon Crawford fielded pinch-hitter Jasn Castro's ground ball and threw to first for the final out.

The last time there was two perfect games in the same season was in 2010 when Oakland's Dallas Braden threw a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays on Mother's Day and Philly's Roy Halliday retired 27 straight Marlins less than 3 weeks later. A few days after Halliday's perfect game, Detroit's Armando Galaraga was denied perfection against the Cleveland Indians with two away in the bottom of the 9th by a blown call by first base umpire Jim Joyce, who later admitted to blowing the call and apologizing to Galaraga.

This is the first no-hitter for the Giants since July 2009 when Jonathan Sanchez no-hit the San Diego Padres at AT&T Park. Interestingly, this is not the firt time the Astros have been no-hit by the Giants; Juan Marichal no-hit the Astros on June 15, 1963.

Cain's perfect game came after Seattle Mariners starter Kevin Millwood and five relievers combined for a no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers at SafeCo during the series opener. This is the 5th no-hitter of the 2012 season, the first time since 1917 that there have been five or more no-hitters before mid-June.



STANLEY CUP FINALs- After the 8-seeded Los Angeles Kings lost back-to-back games against the New Jersey Devils, the seed of doubt had been planted as to whether or not they could close the deal in the Stanley Cup finals.

It seemed understandable- prior to the two losses, the Kings had amassed an impressive 9-game road winning streak in the Stanley Cup playoffs, quickly dispatching the Vancouver Canucks and St Louis Blues- the top two teams in the Western Conference. Although they jumped out to a quick 3-0 series lead over the Devils, New Jersey managed to avoid the sweep. The longer the Devils lingered, the more questions there were about LA's ability to close them out and speculation over the series coming down to a 7th game.

But to get to game 7, the Devils would have to win game 6. Los Angeles decided to banish any talk of the series heading to a game 7 in the first when they got out to a 3-0 lead thanks to power play goals from Dustin Brown, Jeff Carter and Trevor Lewis.

Carter would make it a 4-0 game with an even stregth tally that got past Brodeur early in the second while New Jersey's Adam Henrique got the Devils on the board with a tally late in the period. However, by that point, the Kings already smelled the blood in the water, and just in case the 4-1 lead wasn't enough, teh Kings tallied two empty-net goals in the 3rd from Trevor Lewis and Matt Greene to win by a final of 6-1 and bring the Stanley Cup to Los Angeles.

Although they made an appearence in the 1992-93 Stanley Cup Finals, the Kings would lose to the Montreal Canadiens that year. This is the first Stanley Cup for the LA Kings francise, which joined the NHL the same year as the Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, St Louis Blues and Minnesota North Stars (now the Dallas Stars).

The presentation of Lord Stanley's Cup capped off an impressive 16-4 postseason run for the Kings who had to duke it out with the San Jose Sharks on the final day of the regular season to determine the playoff seeding between the two. The Kings lost in a shootout and fell all the way down to the 8th and final playoff spot in April, earning a first round matchup with the Presidents Cup winning Vancouver Canucks. Far from being a hapless and outclassed #8 seed, the Kings proved to be a buzzsaw that cut through the Western Conference teams facing them, including a clean sweep of the St Louis Blues.

For the second straight season, the goaltender from the winning team was awarded the Conn Smythe trophy. Jonathan Quick seemed like a no-brainer for the NHL's equivalent of the MVP award, garner a .946 save percentage and 1.41 goals against average on top of three shutouts in the playoffs. Quick faced all of 18 shots in Game 6, turning aside 17. Last season, Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas won the Conn Smythe and Vezina trophies as well as the Stanley Cup. This season, Quick is already a finalist in the voting for the Vezina winner and few would be surprised if he landed the hardware with the phenomenal postseason he's had.

A parade and rally sponsored by owner Phil Anschultz's AEG in the Kings honor is scheduled to take place in Downtown LA on Thursday.

NBA- Here's something I never thought I'd be saying back in 2008: "Go Oklahoma City!".

I seemed to have underestimated the disdain in which the Miami Heat is viewed by hoops fans from pretty much everywhere outside of South Beach- although my view of them has admittedly been slanted by having the Celtics lose to them in an arduous 7-game Eastern Conference final.

Perhaps the most surreal thing about this season's NBA finals matchup is that I actually find myself in the same boat as LA Lakers fans. Apparently a number of them are rooting for the Thunder based on a lingering fondness for Derek Fisher while I'm not the least bit interested in seeing Miami win another NBA title.

As far as that goes, things got off swimmingly in Game 1 from Oklahoma City Tuesday night when the Thunder overcame an early defecit to win by a 105-94 final. Kevin Durant led the scoring for Oklahoma City with 36 points to go with 8 rebounds and 4 assists. The Thunder's Russel Westbrook was no slouch, coming up with 27 points and 11 assists and 8 rebounds while LeBron James led in scoring for the Heat with a 30 point night.

Oklahoma City is off to a 1-0 series lead in the NBA finals. Game 2 is set to take place from OKC's Chesapeake Energy Arena at 9:00 ET and will be televised on ABC.

Effort to Recall Michigan Governor Abandoned After Walker's Wisconsin Win

Less than a week after Wisconsin governor Scott Walker handily survived a union-backed recall campaign, a group seeking to recall Michigan's Republican governor has abandoned their effort after coming up well short of the required 807,000 signatures.

This is actually the second time a liberal organization called Michigan Rising had attempted to reall Gov. Rick Snyder. Like Scott Walker, Snyder was elected to office with the backing of the Tea Party that saw a number of conservative candidates winning US House seats and governor mansions.

"It has become abundantly clear that Michigan Rising was not going to accomplish its goal," Fealk said.

The group will continue work to stop "the corporate takeover" of Michigan and plans to develop a progressive think tank and leadership development organization, he said

Meanwhile, teachers unions in Louisiana have begun circulating petitions to try and force a recall of Republican governor Bobby Jindal and a number of state lawmakers who backed the governor's statewide school voucher program.

The Louisiana Association of Educators Board of Directors unanimously voted Saturday to endorse the effort to recall Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Recall organizer Lee Barrios told the board she also is seeking endorsements from the Louisiana Federation of Teachers and the AFL-CIO.

She said a number of teachers signed the recall during a rally on the Capitol steps during the legislative session.

Barrios said there was some talk of dropping the recall because of insufficient signatures by the September deadline, but organizers decided to "double our efforts" and branch out and try to bring in organizations.

"We want it to look successful," Barrios told the LAE board.

In addition to Gov. Jindal, the Louisiana recall effort is targeting State Speaker of the House Chuck Kleckly- a Republican representing Lake Charles in Baton Rouge- as well as St Tammany Parrish GOP state representatives Kevin Pearson and Greg Cromer.

New York Daily News Celebrates Puerto Rican Day Parade by Running Ad Showing Cuban Flag

I may be late to mark the occasion of New York's Puerto Rico Day Parade, but at least I got the flag correct, damn it!

It seems as though the Daily News ended up screwing the vexilogical pooch in a print ad they ran to promote their float in this year's Puerto Rican Day Parade.
Although the float featured New York Giants (and former UMASS Minuteman) Wide Receiver Victor Cruz, the ad that the Daily News ran prominently featured an unfurled Cuban flag.


I do believe the only proper reaction to this monumental gaffe is what the kids are calling "facepalm" these days. Although similar in terms of layout, the Puerto Rican flag features a single white star on a blue sideways triangle against a background of red and white stripes while the Cuban flag features a red triangle against a backdrop of blue and white stripes. Interestingly, the similarities between the two flags' design was no accident. With both Cuba and Puerto Rico still under Spanish rule in the mid-19th century, the flags were designed by exiled revolutionaries from both islands who were living in New York at the time.

After the United States annexed Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam from Spain in the Spanish American War, Cuba declared its independence in 1902, adopting their current flag. However, Puerto Rico's status since then has been much more ambiguous with sentiment ranging from full fledged independence to becoming America's 51st state. Since the 1950s, the status quo of a Commonwealth whose residents are considered American citizens [thus freely travelling between the continental USA and Puerto Rico- NANESB!] but cannot vote in federal elections has been maintained.

Puerto Rican flags done oh-so-right

As far as flag-centered gaffes goes, this would be akin to showing an Italian flag in a print ad highlighting a St Patrick's day parade float. With the 2010 Census putting the number of Puerto Ricans in New York City at more than 723,000 (still the largest latino group in the five boroughs).

I mean seriously....how hard would it have been for a designer or editor to take maybe two minutes out of their schedule and make sure they were using the proper flag in the ad?

Pressure Mounts Over Intelligence Leaks From White House

Lawmakers from both parties have called for an independent investigation into intelligence leaks after a series of articles published in the New York Times disclosed details from a number of opeartions ranging from drone strikes on the Arabian peninsula and Pakistan, a double-agent that infiltrated a Yemeni Al Qaeda cell, a secret 'kill list' and the 'stuxnet' worm that crippled Iran's nascent nuclear program.

Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), the chair of the Senate Intelligence Community, said the leaks jeopardize American lives and would make recruitment of foreign nationals for clandestine counterterrorism activities even more difficult.

Feinstein said she had no reason to believe that the leaks to the New York Times originated from either the House or Senate Intelligence Committees. The articles cite a number of unnamed current and former advisors from the Obama Administration.

Top Republicans such as Arizona Senator John McCain and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King have accused the Obama Administration of passing on sensetive information to the New York Times to bolster his image of being tough and uncompromising on national security heading into the 2012 Presidential Election.

'This is the most shameful cascade of leaks I've ever heard or seen in government,' Mr King said [in an interview with] Fox.

'It's clear from those stories this came right from the White House, came right from the National Security Council, came right from the Situation Room... It has to lead to people very high up in the administration in his White House.'

Meanwhile, some agents with Israel's Mossad intelligence agency have not only claimed that the leaks from the White House put them in danger, but that the Obama Administration is taking credit for a computer virus that infected Iranian centrifuges as they attempted to refine uranium that was actually of Israeli design. Stuxnet surfaced in 2010 in Iran and targeted equipment operated by Seimens- including centrifuges- and would increase their operating speeds while continuing to provide operators with continuous false readings showing that the devices were running at normal speed.

Computer security experts believe that Stuxnet is closely related to the more recently discovered Flame or Wiper virus which has surfaced in computers used by Iranian government agencies. The flame virus would monitor keystokes and send screen captures of the infected computer back to a central command and control module before seeking out other systems to infect and then self-destructing via external command.

Sports Chowder Update for June 10- National Catastrophe at Fenway; The Devil Zone, NJ Stays Alive in Cup Final; The Heat is On- Miami Surges Past C's in Game 7

Jim Rogash/Getty Images

RED SOX- Damn those Beltway insiders!

The Boston Red Sox capped a rather forgettable week by getting swept by the first place Washington Nationals over the weekend. On Friday night, Nats phenom Stephen Strasburg struck out 13 batters in six innings of work while 19 year old rookie Bryce Harper went 3 for 5 with a homer and 3 RBI in Boston's 7-4 loss to the Nats.

Saturday saw the return of Daisuke Matsuzaka to the Red Sox lineup after an extensive trip through the Red Sox minor-league system as part of his rehab. Dice-K went 5 innings, allowing four earned runs and five hits and a walk while striking out 8 but was outdueled by Washington's Gio Gonzalez who went 6 and ⅓ innings and allowing two earned runs on three hits (including Saltalamacchia's 2-run homer) in the Nationals' 4-2 win.

Sunday's game saw the Nationals rally from a 2-1 defecit to briefly take a 3-2 lead on a 2-RBI double in the top of the 7th before the game was tied back up at 3-3 thanks to a Scott Podsednik RBI groundout in the bottom of the 7th. However, after Alfredo Aceves walked Bryce Harper in the top of the 9th, Nats outfielder Roger Bernadina belted a 2-out RBI double to give Washington the 4-3 lead, which they held on to after Tyler Clippard managed to get the last 3 outs of the game.

Having been no less than 2 and a half games out of the AL East lead last week, the Red Sox have fallen back to dead last and are now 6 games behind in the AL East standings. Earlier this week, Boston had dropped two out of three games against Baltimore at Fenway. For Monday, the Red Sox will head down to Miami to take on the Marlins. Josh Beckett [4-6; 4.04 ERA] will get the start against his former team while the Marlins send Josh Johnson [3-4; 4.56 ERA] to the mound. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN and gets underway at 7:10 ET.



ELSEWHERE IN MLB- Although they ended up losing the weekend series to the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Seattle Mariners managed to no-hit the Dodgers despite going through six pitchers to do so.

Kevin Millwood threw six hitless innings before leaving with a groin injury on Friday night at SafeCo. That brought reliever Charlie Furbush out of the pen for ⅔ of an inning. Stephen Prior, who came on after Furbush and threw all of ⅓ an inning and faced just one batter was credited with the win. Lucas Luetge then came on for ⅔ of an inning. This was followed up by Brandon League and Tom Wilhelmsen, who got all three outs in the bottom of the 9th to preserve the 1-0 win (Seattle's only run came in the bottom of the 7th when Kyle Seagar brought Ichiro Suzuki home with an RBI single.

The combined no-no was the first of its kind this season and fourth no-hitter of the 2012 baseball season and already the second no-hitter this month. On April 21st, the Mariners themselves were on the other end of White Sox starter Philip Humber's perfect game.

Interestingly, this is not the first time six MLB pitchers were credited with a no-hitter. A June 2003 interleague game between the Houston Astros and New York Yankees unfolded in a similar manner when then-Astros starter Roy Oswalt left the game early with Pete Munro, Kirk Sarloos, Brad Lidge, Octavio Dotel and Billy Wagner combining to no-hit the Yankees in the Bronx.

NCAA FOOTBALL- Authorities in Alabama have identifies a suspect in the fatal shooting of three people at a party near the Auburn campus over the weekend. Two of the deceased have been identified as former football players- Edward Christian and Ladarious Phillips- as well as 20 year old Demario Pitts. Three others were wounded by gunfire at the party. Christian had previously quit the team due to a back injury.

Police are looking for 22 year old Desmonte Leonard of Montgomery, AL who is accused of opening fire at the apartment complex to party took place in and starting a fight with partygoers over a woman. Leonard could be facing three counts of capital murder.

Paul Bereswill/Getty Images

STANLEY CUP FINALS- After falling into an 0-3 hole in the Stanley Cup finals, the New Jersey Devils are within a game of tying up the series at 3-3 after their 2-1 win over the LA Kings on Saturday.

The Devils got on the board late in the first with a Zach Parise power play tally [right when the announcer was talking about the King's near-flawless penalty killing in the postseason- isn't it always that way? NANESB!]. It was an uncharecteristically sloppy goal that Kings netminder Jonathan Quick coughed up after attempting to clear the puck, but it put the Devils on the board .

Justin Williams got the Kings on the board and tied things up at 1-1 early in the second, but about five minutes later, the Devils re-took the lead on a tip-in from Bryce Salvador. Despite outshooting the Devils 9-3 in the 3rd period, Broduer turned aside every shot he faced and the Devils hung on to win by a 2-1 final, forcing a Game 6 on Monday night.

So with the Devils a win away from tying the Cup Final and the King a win away from Clinching it, Game 6 will get underway from Staples Center on Monday night at 8:00 ET; 5:00 Pacific time- the game will be televised on NBC and the CBC.

NBA- The Boston Celtics season- and in all likelyhood, the Big 3 era- has come to an end with their Game 7 loss to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals on Saturday night.

The Miami Heat surged late and pulled away from the Celtics late in the 4th quarter, outscoring the Celtics 28-15 to pull away for good and clinch the Eastern Conference title with the 101-88 win at South Beach. Lebron James led the scoring with 31 points 12 rebounds and two assists. On the Celtics side of the ball, Rajon Rondo led the way with 22 points, 10 rebounds and 14 assists.

The win sets up an appointment with the Oklahoma City Thunder who came from behind to best to San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals last week. This would be the second year in a row the Heat have advanced to the NBA Finals- last year they lost to the Dallas Mavericks 4 games to 2.

Game 1 between the Heat and the Thunder is set to take place Tuesday night at 9:00 ET in Oklahoma City and will be televised on ABC.

Weather Channel Anchor Claims She Was Fired Due To Status as Air Force Reservist

US Air Force Reserve Officer and Weather Channel anchor Nicole Mitchell is filing suit against the Atlanta-based NBC subsidiary network for not renewing her contract due to her military obligations.

The suit claims that when NBC/Universal bought The Weather Channel in 2008, Mitchell was told by the new management that her military schedule "impacts everyone."

She allegedly was harassed for meeting her military obligations, told to clear any military assignments in advance and given less desirable shifts. Mitchell said she eventually was told there was no longer a place for her at The Weather Channel. Management cited "business reasons" and said there were no performance or ratings issues with Mitchell, the press release says. Mitchell said on her Facebook page she has e-mails from the company that clearly violate the Uniformed Services Employment Act.

Currently a major-select- is assigned to the 403rd wing Hurricane Hunters at Keesler AFB [which you'd think would be a natural fit for a reservist working for the Weather Channel- NANESB], Mitchell pointed out on her Facebook account that the Atlanta-based network would be in violation of The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 by not renewing her contract due to her Air Force reserve obligations. USERRA prohibits an employer from discriminating against an applicant or current employees based on their military service. According to the suit, Weather Channel producers would often complain of having to adjust the network's schedule based on her reserve obligations.

Curiously, the Weather Channel would sometimes include images of Mitchell serving with the USAF's Hurricane Hunters in their promotional materiel prior to her contract not being renewed. It's also worth noting that the same network who decided to hire Keith Olbermann's 25 year old girlfriend in 2009 saw Mitchell's service as an imepdiment to her continued employment with the Weather Channel.

Mitchell's suit comes around the same time as an aspiring Boston firefighter and veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan was spurned from renting an available apartment by an anti-war activist landlady who learned of his military service.

Badger State Beatdown- Scott Walker Becomes First US Governor to Survive Recall; Obama's Bad Week Continues

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker surivived Tuesday night's union-backed recall effort by a considerable margin. The results marked the first time that a sitting governor had survived a recall- a campaign that was about 18 months in the making and gained national attention for possible nationwide implications. Walker had earned the ire of organized labor and the left for legislation introduced curtailing the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions like the SEIU and AFSCME in 2011- prompting Democrat state senators to flee the state to prevent a quorum on such legislation.

Interestingly, the network who's 'personalities' were the most emotionally invested in seeing Walker unseated were the first ones who called the race for Walker. Less than an hour after the polls closed in the Badger State, MSNBC called the race for Scott Walker.



In the week prior to the election, the consensus among the media and punditocracy was that it would be an extremely close contest with Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett reportedly closing a significant gap with Walker. However, when the polls closed on Tuesday night, the results of the recall wasn't anywhere near as close as anticipated.



Not only did Walker handily surivie the recall effort, but Republican Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch retained her office by a similar margin against challenger Mahlon Mitchell. Kleefisch is the first ever Lt Governor in the USA to face recall.

Yay Wisconsin!

Three of the four state senators (all Republicans) also successfully held off challengers from the Democrat party in their respective state Senate districts. GOP State Senator Van Wanggaard [Senate District 21, which covers most of Racine county aloing the Illinois state line- NANESB!] was unseated by Democrat challenger John Lehman, giving the Democrats the majority in the Wisconsin State Senate. However, that majority would only be theoretical and may be short-lived- the Wisconsin State Senate has already adjourned for the year and the seat is up for re-election in November of this year- before the Senate re-adjourns. It's possible Lehman could serve out his entire term without the Senate ever being called into session.

Not surprisingly, some organizations did their best to spin the outcome in their favor, despite overlooking the agonizingly obvious in the process.

Win or lose, Scott Walker has joined ignominious company in suffering the humiliation of a recall election. 3rd ever. #wiunion
— AFL-CIO (@AFLCIO) June 6, 2012

Many of the same pundits, media figures and politicians who were emotionally invested in seeing Walker voted out of office before completing his first term could only point to the exit polls showing President Obama leading over presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney as a bright spot. However, these same exit polls showed that the race between Walker and Barrett was a dead heat- so their reliability is suspect at best.

Perhaps one of the most intruiging breakdowns of the recall is that Walker recived more than ⅓ of the vote from union households. Even before the polls closed, prominent Democrats such as former President Bill Clinton and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney began circulating the talking point that the only reason Walker could win was because of out-of-state support from the Tea Party and wealthy donors such as the Koch Brothers [rather conventiently ignoring the $20 million unions and Democrats spent on the recall, the margin which candidate Obama outspent candidate McCain in 2008 or President Obama's lavish Hollywood fundraisers this year- NANESB!].

I pointed out that Obama was conspicuously absent from Wisconsin just days before the recall voting despite fundraising in neighboring Illinois and Minnesota- one of the first bad omens for the Barrett campaign. Despite recent GOP gains in the Badger State, Obama was still considered a favorite to win Wisconsin in the November 2012 presidential campaign until Tuesday night. However, if the Obama camp decided to stay away from the Wisconsin recall as a pre-emptive means of damage control, it didn't do them any good.

Walker’s win prompted Democratic and Republican strategists to reassess Wisconsin’s political landscape and the role the state will play in the presidential race. Until earlier this week, target states listed by President Barack Obama’s campaign didn’t include the state, which has voted Democratic in the past six presidential elections, albeit narrowly at times.

In a campaign video released June 4 -- the day before the recall -- Obama campaign manager Jim Messina listed Wisconsin as “undecided,” along with Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Ohio, North Carolina, New Hampshire and Virginia.

So not only would Obama be facing an energized Republican base in Wisconsin come November, but a demoralized liberal and union base who won't forget that he had abandoned just before to the recall.

If that wasn't enough, the same day Walker cruised to an easy win, Bill Clinton questioned Obama's economic proposals of allowing the Bush-era tax cuts to expire.

Incredibly, Bill Clinton – the man the White House sent to represent the President during the election – compounded the result by admitting that the country was in a recession and by urging Congress to extend the Bush tax cuts. That makes him the most senior liberal in the nation to cast doubt on Obama’s economic strategy.

In recent weeks, prominent Democrats such as Clinton, former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick and Newark, NJ mayor Corey Booker have cautioned the Obama camp that they should back off their attacks on private equity as a means of attempting to attack Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital.

Today's Train of Thought- Shine on You Crazy Diamond (Jubliee)

In honor of the Queen's diamond jubilee this week, I thought it would be worthwhile to look back at some of the technology that helped Brittania hold out during the dark days of the early 1940s when she stood alone against the totalitarian menace that had already consumed much of Europe.

The British remain convinced that railway preservation is almost exclusively the domain of the eccentric and cite the high number of restored and operational steam locomotives as evidence [although using that metric, South Africa- of all places- is no slouch- NANESB!]. This is seconded by songwriter, producer, rugby club owner and rail enthusiast Pete Waterman- who has a fairly extensive private collection of restored rolling stock and locomotives himself. Working as a gravedigger, apprentice at GE and railway clerk, Waterman began pursuing a career in music through building a collection of imports from the USA after the depot closed. After parlaying a successful stint as a DJ into a record label with Peter Collins in the late 1970s, Waterman's Loose Ends label signed such acts as John Travolta, Bananarama, Donna Summer and Dead or Alive [say what you will 30 years later, but they made Waterman a wealthy man at the time- NANESB!].



Waterman's commercial success in the music industry allowed him to enthusiastically pursue his passion of railroading. In addition to building his burgeoning collection, Waterman revived the dormant London & North Western name for his heritage railway as well as a car repair shop and charter excursion outfit.

Of course, preservation in England isn't limited exclusively to Pete Waterman.

Here, BR Swindon-built 2-10-2 'Black Prince' #92203- dubbed 'The Black Prince'- cools its heels at the station in Toddington, Glouchester as the engineer cranes his neck to get a better look at the RAF formation as it soars overhead. The flight consists of an Avro Lancaster, Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane.

Despite all outward appearences, this amazing scene was not an image captured at the height of the Battle of Britain, but rather a June 2008 image snapped by railpictures.net user Robin Coomes. The Black Prince is actually a few years newer than the RAF planes flying overhead. Now owned by the East Somerset Railway, the sleek 2-10-2 was built in 1959. The RAF flight shown is part of the Battle of Britian Memorial- the flyby was a favor from the flight crew in return for an afternoon on the ESR.