I haven't used Philly Future much in the past few months since I'm in the process of moving to Denver, so I created a new blog here:

Rising Sign, Blogspot-style. Please do stop by and say hello. I'll miss you, Philly.

But not you, Phillies.

First of all, a hearty "right freakin' on!" to the Live 8 coverage here at Philly Future. Nice work by Albert and everyone else.

Anyway, here's a burning question about the Phillies. They're 42-41, 8.5 games behind the Nationals, and four games behind the rapidly healing Braves for the wild card slot. Most reasonable baseball analysts know that this team is dead in the water and SHOULD be a seller in the upcoming trade frenzy.

Here's the problem: Ed Wade has to know that his tenure as GM is over if the Phillies don't make the playoffs. We all know that they're NOT making the playoffs, barring a series of well-timed but tragic team plane crashes in Atlanta and Miami. Why should any of us expect Wade to trade Abreu, Wagner, and anyone else of value in order to help the team next year? Wade would effectively be voluntarily putting his head on the chopping block.

Leave it to the Phils to find the worst possible scenario and milking it for all it's worth.

Phillies Owners, wherever you are: If you're going to fire Wade, now is the time. Don't wait until after the season, because it'll only mean two more years of empty blue seats in a beautiful ballpark.

P.S. If Ryan Howard is traded, I'm swearing you morons off forever.

Sandra Day O'Connor is retiring from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Harry Reid came out with a list of suitable candidates a few days ago (when we all thought Rehnquist was the Justice who would retire): Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Mel Martinez of Florida, Mike DeWine of Ohio and Mike Crapo of Idaho. So those are obviously the most pallatable conservatives to Reid and would likely ensure an easy confirmation process.

How difficult does Dubya want to make this fight? His political capital is lower than at any other point since 9/11, the people are already fed up with Congress and unlikely to kindly look upon another filibuster fight. I'm not sure the Republicans in Congress even want a prolonged battle over judicial nominations right now.

To paraphrase the Oscar-shafted "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka", "there are two ways out of here...the window or the stairs." Let's see which one GWB takes.

I don't read Powerline much, but I had to laugh when I saw this today:

The mainstream media continue their faux outrage over the link that President Bush drew between September 11 and the Iraq war in his speech Tuesday night; here is one of countless examples. This is, frankly, mystifying; as one of our readers pointed out yesterday, the connection between the Iraq war and September 11 was made explicit in the text of the Congressional resolution that authorized military action in Iraq.

Okay, so Iraq was responsible for September 11 because Congress said so in a Congressional resolution written after they had been presented with ridiculously trumped up intelligence from the White House? I'm supposed to regard the Saddam and 9/11 as fact because of that?

You know, Congress also came up with something called "No Child Left Behind" and the "Clear Skies Initiative". Are we supposed to believe that those laws have helped education and cleaned up the environment, too?

Yellowcake! Boo!

I took the day off in order to help my girlfriend move this afternoon, so for the past 45 minutes I've been chugging coffee, manning my post on the couch, and intently watching The Price Is Right.

I'm a junkie for this show. My college years are somewhat hazy, but I believe I even planned my college class schedule around Bob Barker's work schedule. Once, my mother scolded my brother and me for screaming profanities at the television during The Price Is Right. He was 20 years old at the time. I was 23. Like I said, I'm a junkie.

The show really is a tremendous outlet for suppressed anger. It sure beats punching a pillow or, you know, exercising. In fact, I think more of us should spend time yelling at frat boys, heavy middle-aged black women, old people, perky college girls, and random military members on leave -- the only contestants allowed in the TPIR studio, apparently. This upsets me because I've clearly missed my window of opportunity. I'm an almost-thirty year old white guy, eight years out of college. I'll have to wait at least 30 more years to be on the show. While I'm sure Bob will still be hosting, it's a little creepy that the Barker Beauties I'll inevitably trying to feel up in the year 2035 aren't even born yet.

Okay, I just barked at a U.S. Navy guy because he had the last bid, and ended up bidding $20 UNDER the highest bid instead of just bidding one dollar more like any other normal person would have. I yelled that he was too dumb to defend my country. I think I need to go outside now.

Sure, he may have been a bland, robotic presidential candidate backed by an impotent and scared campaign staff, but John Kerry gets this one right:

Iraq, of course, badly needs a unified national army, but until it has one - something that our generals now say could take two more years - it should make use of its tribal, religious and ethnic militias like the Kurdish pesh merga and the Shiite Badr Brigade to provide protection and help with reconstruction. Instead of single-mindedly focusing on training a national army, the administration should prod the Iraqi government to fill the current security gap by integrating these militias into a National Guard-type force that can provide security in their own areas.

It's not surprising that the Miss America pageant is being yanked from the cold, dead hands of Atlantic City. Broadcast television gave up on the pageant after ratings progressively tanked throughout the 1990's, and for good reason: if we wanted to see beautiful women engage in scantily-clad self-promotion, we'd watch Fear Factor. At least those women are eating cockroaches and not boring us with how they're going to achieve world peace. Everyone knows that world peace can only be achieve by bombing the crap out of innocent brown people.

The bigger point is this -- Atlantic City is going to lose the pageant, likely to some locale in the South. CMT is going to televise the event for the foreseeable future. It's a brilliant play by the CMT folks because Southerners Love Pageants. I used to date a girl from Tennessee who was involved in these things at an early age. It's disturbing stuff.

Things I learned while Googling for this post:

- Oprah Winfrey was Miss Fire Prevention and Miss Black Tennessee in 1971.

- Pennsylvanian Sharon Stone was 1976's Miss Crawford County.

- Imelda Marcos was Miss Manilla 1953.

None of this information will earn either of us a promotion. Sorry.

Hard to tell what exactly happened, especially because I'm stuck in the office, but I hope whomever kicked this officer after he collapsed is getting the crap beaten out of him right now.

Officer Dies Following Protest

PHILADELPHIA-June 21, 2005 — A Philadelphia police officer who was hurt trying to make arrests during protests in Philadelphia has died. Protestors are demonstrating against a major bio-tech conference in Center City.

Philly.com story here.

"I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in A, B, C, and D. Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?"

-Barry Goldwater, 1964

Some bloggers tend to rag on Bull Moose, especially when it comes to pointing out Democratic shortcomings, but I think this post is particularly relevant and eloquent regarding the incessant Dem in-fighting and subsequent missed opportunities of late:

Don't fool yourself - one can feel all righteous about taking on the "right wing Taliban", but you are only playing into the hands of the Rovians and the DeLayicans who seek to portray progressives as a secular, anti-religious, effete elite. This is a time of growing Republican unpopularity with the American people - wouldn't it be nice if Democrats offered an attractive alternative and not merely some venom marinated in rage?

Words of wisdom from my friend regarding last night's Mike Tyson fight: "I feel bad for Mike Tyson the same way I feel bad for M.C. Hammer."

Courtesy of The Moderate Voice:

VINELAND -- A Philadelphia man lost his pants, but not his wallet, during a robbery at the Red Barn adult bookstore.

The 56-year-old victim told police he was in the North Delsea Drive store's theater Tuesday afternoon and got up to go to the bathroom after watching an adult movie. The man said the only other theater occupant punched him in the chest when he returned. The punch caused him to fall backward to the floor.

While his feet were in the air, the victim said, the suspect grabbed and yanked his shorts off. In the process, his wallet fell to the floor. The suspect escaped with the shorts, which contained the victim's cell phone and car keys.

The robber was described as a black man who is about 28 years old with a thin build, red baseball hat, white jacket and jeans. He escaped in a red 1990s Dodge van, police said

Pretty easy to remove someone's shorts when they're not likely to be buttoned or belted, I suppose.

Thanks to kos:

Franklin and Marshall Univ (PDF). 5/31-6/1. MoE 4.1%. (2/23-3/20 results)

Santorum (R) 37 (43)
Casey (D) 44 (44)

Again, Bob Casey hasn't done ANYTHING yet, while Santorum digs a deeper and deeper hole for himself. Meanwhile, Martha Burk needs to learn how to play along for the greater good:

She and other women's leaders said Democrats might be better off losing the race than electing Casey.

"In terms of women's lives, what difference does it make whether we have a pro-life Democrat and a pro-life Republican?" Burk asked.

So what, Bob Casey isn't the best pro-choice candidate. Learn how to pick your battles, Martha. You may as well start betting on the correct horse while you can. It's not a one-issue race.

I want to strangle petitiononline.com for screwing up the spacing on the petition, but here it is anyway:

Do you agree that the eyesore blocking the Philly skyline needs to go? Today's your lucky day! Go sign the Remove The Horrible Phillies Sign petition!

How to save your Big Tobacco pals without really trying

No shame in the Justice Department's game, for sure. They're in the process of letting the tobacco companies off the hook:

During a second day of closing arguments in the trial, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler speculated about the Justice Department's decision to seek a $10 billion, 5-year quit-smoking program, far smaller than a $130 billion, 25-year program proposed last month by a government witness.

"Perhaps it suggests that there are some additional influences being brought to bear on the government's position in this case," Kessler said.

Judge Kessler's bio