Heh:

“Your argument makes no sense,” [D.C. Circuit Judge Harry] Edwards told Jacob Lewis, an associate general counsel with the FCC.

“I’m sorry I’m not making myself clear,” Lewis said.

“You’re making yourself very clear. That’s the problem,” Edwards replied.

Judge Edwards also said, “This is totally ridiculous. I can’t believe you’re making this argument.” And another judge on the panel called the argument “gobbledygook.” (The topic was “whether the government can force broadband Internet service providers to give law enforcement authorities access for surveillance purposes.”)

(Hat tip: Fark.)

My horse, Sinister Minister, had the lead for a few seconds as they neared the stretch, but then Barbaro took command and won easily. Here’s Dave Johnson’s call:

source file
MP3 File

(If you just want to hear the stretch call, jump ahead to 1:44. “Down the stretch they come!” is at 2:08.)

And so now, as happens pretty much every year, I stop rooting for “my horse” and start rooting for the Derby winner instead. Horse racing is one sport in which I am a blatant and unabashed bandwagon fan: I just want to see somebody win the Triple Crown! Go Barbaro, win the Preakness!! :)

In a dream come true for Wonkette, it seems that Porter Goss’s resignation from the CIA may have something to do with WatergateGate (a.k.a., the “Boring Ol’ Congressional Corruption Case NOW WITH HOOKERS”). In other words, Max was right. Or at least, that’s what the New York Daily News is reporting:

CIA Director Porter Goss abruptly resigned yesterday amid allegations that he and a top aide may have attended Watergate poker parties where bribes and prostitutes were provided to a corrupt congressman.

Kyle (Dusty) Foggo, the No. 3 official at the CIA, could soon be indicted in a widening FBI investigation of the parties thrown by defense contractor Brent Wilkes, named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the bribery conviction of former Rep. Randall (Duke) Cunningham, law enforcement sources said.

A CIA spokeswoman said Foggo went to the lavish weekly hospitality-suite parties at the Watergate and Westin Grand hotels but “just for poker.”

Intelligence and law enforcement sources said solid evidence had yet to emerge that Goss also went to the parties, but Goss and Foggo share a fondness for poker and expensive cigars, and the FBI investigation was continuing.

Larry Johnson, a former CIA operative and a Bush administration critic, said Goss “had a relationship with Dusty and with Brent Wilkes that’s now coming under greater scrutiny.”

Johnson vouched for the integrity of Foggo and Goss but said, “Dusty was a big poker player, and it’s my understanding that Porter Goss was also there [at Wilkes’ parties] for poker. It’s going to be guilt by association.”

“It’s all about the Duke Cunningham scandal,” a senior law enforcement official told the Daily News in reference to Goss’ resignation.

A few thoughts. First, when your defense involves the phrase “just for poker,” I think you’re pretty much officially f***ed. Second, I love the sentence “Goss and Foggo share a fondness for poker and expensive cigars.” Instead of a blue dress, will the “smoking gun” in this case be a subscription to Cigar Aficionado? Heh. (Also: the more cigars are involved, the more potential there is for crude Bill Clinton references — always a bonus.) Last but not least, I want to know more about Goss’s “relationship with Dusty and with Brent Wilkes.” Heh heh, heh heh.

One of my favorite sporting events, the Kentucky Derby, is today (Saturday) at 6:04 PM EDT. (Someday soon, I’m going to compile a “life’s to-do list” on Bloypedia, and “go to the Kentucky Derby” will definitely be on it.) In the past, I’ve usually rooted for the Pat Day horse, in honor of my late Grandma Loomer (who lived in Arkansas for years, and became a big fan of Day), but alas, he’s retired now, so I have to fall back on Plan B and choose my favorite horse strictly based on its name. (Kinda like how I picked Gonzaga back in the day.) This year’s choice is obvious: Sinister Minister. Heh. And no, that’s not a commentary on my uncle and aunt, Scott and Carol, who are both ministers. :) I just think it’s a great name for a horse.

The best thing about the Derby, though, isn’t rooting for a particular horse — it’s listening to Dave Johnson’s call. “And down the stretch they come!” Alas, ever since NBC took the Triple Crown from ABC a few years ago, Johnson no longer does the TV call. But you can listen to him on Westwood One (finally, something good coming out of Westwood!), either via the Internets or on a local station (670 AM if you’re in South Bend). Woohoo!

Charles Krauthammer:

For 2,000 years, Jews found protection in dispersion — protection not for individual communities, which were routinely persecuted and massacred, but protection for the Jewish people as a whole. Decimated here, they could survive there. They could be persecuted in Spain and find refuge in Constantinople. They could be massacred in the Rhineland during the Crusades or in the Ukraine during the Khmelnytsky Insurrection of 1648-49 and yet survive in the rest of Europe.

Hitler put an end to that illusion. He demonstrated that modern anti-Semitism married to modern technology — railroads, disciplined bureaucracies, gas chambers that kill with industrial efficiency — could take a scattered people and “concentrate” them for annihilation.

The establishment of Israel was a Jewish declaration to a world that had allowed the Holocaust to happen — after Hitler had made his intentions perfectly clear — that the Jews would henceforth resort to self-protection and self-reliance. And so they have, building a Jewish army, the first in 2,000 years, that prevailed in three great wars of survival (1948-49, 1967 and 1973).

But in a cruel historical irony, doing so required concentration — putting all the eggs back in one basket, a tiny territory hard by the Mediterranean, eight miles wide at its waist. A tempting target for those who would finish Hitler’s work.

His successors now reside in Tehran. The world has paid ample attention to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s declaration that Israel must be destroyed. Less attention has been paid to Iranian leaders’ pronouncements on exactly how Israel would be “eliminated by one storm,” as Ahmadinejad has promised.

Former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the presumed moderate of this gang, has explained that “the use of a nuclear bomb in Israel will leave nothing on the ground, whereas it will only damage the world of Islam.” The logic is impeccable, the intention clear: A nuclear attack would effectively destroy tiny Israel, while any retaliation launched by a dying Israel would have no major effect on an Islamic civilization of a billion people stretching from Mauritania to Indonesia.

As it races to acquire nuclear weapons, Iran makes clear that if there is any trouble, the Jews will be the first to suffer. “We have announced that wherever [in Iran] America does make any mischief, the first place we target will be Israel,” said Gen. Mohammad Ebrahim Dehghani, a top Revolutionary Guards commander. Hitler was only slightly more direct when he announced seven months before invading Poland that, if there was another war, “the result will be . . . the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.”

Last week Bernard Lewis, America’s dean of Islamic studies, who just turned 90 and remembers the 20th century well, confessed that for the first time he feels it is 1938 again. He did not need to add that in 1938, in the face of the gathering storm — a fanatical, aggressive, openly declared enemy of the West, and most determinedly of the Jews — the world did nothing.

When Iran’s mullahs acquire their coveted nukes in the next few years, the number of Jews in Israel will just be reaching 6 million. Never again?

Hat tip: Glenn Reynolds, who adds, “Given the Iranians’ words and actions, I think that Israel is legally and morally justified in launching whatever sort of preemptive strike it chooses.”

It’s not exactly a defensive battle in Ottawa, where the Senators lead the Sabres, 4-3 with 15:00 left in the second period.

UPDATE: Okay, so I exaggerated… the first to seven will win. Holy crap! It’s 6-6, going to overtime! And neither team has led by more than one goal at any point. Crazy, crazy game. Buffalo scored a short-handed goal (the Sabres’ second short-handed goal of the game) with 1:37 left to tie it at 5-5, then Ottawa took the lead 6-5 on a power-play goal with 1:13 left, and then Buffalo scored the game-tying goal with 10.7 seconds left to send it to overtime!!

UPDATE 2: BUFFALO WINS!! Sabres score 18 seconds into overtime, and win 7-6!! Again: HOLY CRAP!! That’s the fourth-fastest overtime goal in NHL playoff history, and the fastest since 1986. Over on Bfloblog, TreyMatt wasn’t far off: “What’s the over/under for how quick this OT is decided? 9 seconds?” Lots of funny comments over there. Anyway, wow… four goals in the last two minutes of the game… wow.

P.S. It was 2-2 after one period, 4-4 after two periods, and 6-6 after three periods. The Sabres led 1-0, then fell behind 2-1, and from there the game followed a predictable pattern: tied 2-2, Senators lead 3-2, tied 3-3, Senators lead 4-3, tied 4-4, Senators lead 5-4, tied 5-5, Senators lead 6-5, tied 6-6. But then Buffalo broke the pattern and won it in overtime. Talk about “stealing” a win… the Senators must be so demoralized right now. How did they lose that game?? (Hint: their goalie sucks.)

Anyway, it was totally worth taking a long study break to watch that one. :)

P.P.S. Here’s Rick Jeanerette’s call of the game-winning goal. Actually, it’s his call of the entire overtime:

source file
MP3 File

UPDATE 3: Here is Bfloblog’s wrap-up of the game.

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Rep. Patrick Kennedy is checking himself into a rehabilitation unit, CNN learns. Visit CNN for the latest.

[Brief interruption of moratorium to provide an important website FYI…]

As noted previously, BrendanLoy.com is now officially on a dedicated server, as of 4:00 AM. (”BrendanLoy.com: dedicated to your blog-reading entertainment!”) Congrats to resident Aussie commenter/guestblogger Melanie Dickson, who was, according to my stat log, the first visitor to the newly transferred site. Er, assuming the Adam Internet user from Adelaide, South Australia who accessed the site using Windows XP and Firefox at 4:00:40 am (5:30:40 pm local time) was indeed Melanie — which seems a pretty safe bet. :)

However, there was another website outage this morning, from roughly 11:19 to 11:41 AM. That follows in the footsteps of yesterday’s two roughly hourlong outages. Apparently this is “the result of a major networking component having intermitent problems.” WestHost is working on the problem, and hopes to have “a permanent resolution ASAP.” Until then, further intermittent downtime is, I guess, possible… but hopefully it will be kept to a minimum! (Grumble, grumble.)

Incidentally, the dedicated server is located in Salt Lake City, Utah, if you’re curious. Its “name” is “ded1088.” Since I’ll be sharing the server with David, Briandot, Texasyank and DrawingDead, I was thinking that the five of us should be classified under a new “Brendansphere” subgroup known as the “DedHeads.” :)

And now, I will resume “dedicating” myself to my studies… moratorium back on…

UPDATE: We’re back online, after another 56 minutes (2:36 to 3:32) of downtime. Gah. Hurry up, WestHost & Cisco, fix this problem!

UPDATE 2: It turns out, this most recent outage was specific to my site, not a WestHost problem per se. It’s Google’s fault! (among others)… Details after the jump.

On a happier note, here’s a nifty video all about WestHost’s data center in Utah, where BrendanLoy.com physically lives. More info here.

But, hmm, if I ever get sued for obscenity, does this mean I’ll be judged by “contemporary community standards” in Utah? Uh-oh… this may mean cutting back on posts about lesbian cheerleaders and boobies. :)

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CIA Director Porter Goss has resigned, senior Bush administration official tells wire services. Visit CNN for the latest.

SI’s Justin Doom:

The Harvard Crimson noted that condom boxes will be installed in a number of freshman dorms, which typically isn’t a huge deal, but the headline was “Condom Boxes Erected in Freshman Dorms.” The story’s lead paragraph noted how the project was “… the climax of two and a half months of planning …”

As a college newspaper veteran and former sports editor at Arizona State University’s State Press — where, at one time of another, we got away such things as “Devils stick it to Beavers” or “ASU rips through Trojans” — it’s nice to see the tradition of Needlessly Immature College Newspaper Headlines lives on. Bravo, Harvard Crimson. Bravo.

Okay, back to the blog moratorium. I have a ton of work still to do, and the blog seems to be doing just fine without me. :)

Mark at Bfloblog previews the Sabres-Senators series, which starts tonight (Friday) at 7:00 PM.

P.S. Casey is going to Game 4, and he has awesome seats! Lucky bastard.

Congressman states alcohol was not involved in the 3 a.m. incident.

(shamelessly Kennedyphiliac guestblogger, duly noting the unverified allegation that Congressman Pat told Capitol Police he was tardily rushing to the House floor to cast his Vote, fears that the Torch has been passed to a New generation. / Again.)

WASHINGTON (May 4) - Rep. Patrick Kennedy crashed his car near the Capitol early Thursday, and a police official said he appeared intoxicated. Kennedy said he had had no alcohol before the accident.

…”I was involved in a traffic accident last night at First and C Street SE near the U.S. Capitol,” Kennedy said in a written statement released by his office. “I consumed no alcohol prior to the incident. I will fully cooperate with the Capitol Police in whatever investigation they choose to undertake.”

Kennedy appeared to be intoxicated when he crashed his car into a barrier on Capitol Hill early Thursday morning, said Louis P. Cannon, president of the Washington chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police.

IOW: the Union. / Accordingly, my (Union-friendly but also union-Experienced) antennae instantly Transmit to me that there’s also Other Stuff going On here. / but Be that as it May ~ to continue:

Cannon, who was not there, said the officers involved in the accident were instructed by an official “above the rank of patrolman” to take Kennedy home. No sobriety tests were conducted at the scene.

A letter written by a Capitol Police officer to Acting Chief Christopher McGaffin said Kennedy appeared to be staggering when he left the vehicle after the crash about 3 a.m. The letter was first reported by Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper.

Kennedy said he was late for a vote, officer Greg Baird said in the letter to McGaffin. Baird is acting chairman of the Capitol Hill chapter of the FOP police union. The last vote of the night had occurred almost six hours earlier.

Kennedy, the son of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and his staff declined to discuss any further details of the accident…

…Kennedy…has been open about [his] mental health issues, including being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Ah, me. / Ahh well then, Gather up the clan at Hyannis Port for the Crisis conference again, b’hys. Once more, into the breach.. / ‘What’s the point of being Irish if you don’t realize that the world will eventually break you heart?’ ~ Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-NY. RIP.

Finally, a store designed just for Brendan in the South Bend area!

As discussed previously, WestHost is moving my website over to a dedicated server tonight, so there will be some (more) downtime overnight, probably starting around midnight and probably lasting 45 minutes or so. (I say “more” because the site had two roughly hourlong outages today, for unknown reasons apparently unrelated to my issue. An odd coincidence, that my last day on a WestHost shared server is the most troublesome I’ve had. Hour-by-hour unique hits chart here.) I’ll let you know when the switch is complete.

UPDATE, 4:07 AM: I do believe the switch is now complete, and I’m on a dedicated server as of 4:00 AM.

Apparently the worlds richest man wishes he didn’t hold that honor.

“I wish I wasn’t. There is nothing good that comes out of that,” said Gates.

Gates was in the news recently for his financial situation when Microsoft stock took an 11% plunge after it announced future earnings might be lower than expected due to recent investments in areas aimed at competeing with rivals such as Google. Based on his holdings Gates lost around $3 billion with that drop.

Tell you what Bill, if you want to unload some of that excess cash i’d be more than happy to take on the burden it must bring : )