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About me


I'm Brendan Loy, a 26-year-old graduate of USC and Notre Dame now living and working in Knoxville, Tennessee. My wife Becky and I are brand-new parents of a beautiful baby girl, born on New Year's Eve.

I'm a big-time sports fan, a politics, media & law junkie, an astronomy buff, a weather nerd, an Apple aficionado, a Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter fanatic, and an all-around dork. My blog is best-known for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina, but I blog about anything and everything that interests me.

You can contact me at irishtrojan [at] gmail.com, or donate to my "tip jar" by clicking the link below:

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« February 28, 2008 | Main | March 1, 2008 »

February 29, 2008

Military snubs American plane maker

By David K.

The Air Force announced today that it has chosen Northrup Grumman, which is partnering with European airplane manufacturer Airbus -- rather than Boeing -- for its new fleet of mid-air refueling planes.

We're heading into an economic recession -- oh I'm sorry, I mean slowdown -- our ballooning national debt is being financed predominantly by Chinese banks, and now the Air Force is going to be sending billions of our tax dollars to Airbus.  I'm all for international trade and cooperation, but there'd better be some significant advantages to the Grumman/Airbus offering over the Boeing offering to justify this.

Cornell on verge of Big Dance

By Brendan Loy

Tomorrow night in Ithaca, New York at 7:00 PM, the Cornell men's basketball team, currently undefeated in Ivy League play, will host Harvard. Why am I mentioning this? Because if Cornell wins, they'll clinch this season's first automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament -- and will become the first Ivy League champion in 20 years not named Penn or Princeton.

Obama-Bloomberg '08?

By Brendan Loy

Hmm...

More here.

Hillary's self-pity

By Brendan Loy

Hillary Clinton: "Every so often I just wish that it were a little more of an even playing field, but, you know, I play on whatever field is out there."

Andrew Sullivan: "Is she f***ing kidding me? ... Clinton has more privilege, more clout, more intrinsic unearned advantages in this race than any non-incumbent Democrat in living memory. And still she failed. And still she whines. There are moments when you almost feel pity; and then you realize what a petty shameless narcissist she is."

This about sums up the Hillary Ad

By dcl

I can't comment without ruining it. Suffice to say, one of the more amusing campaign ad parodies ever. (Via John Gruber)

Clinton camp portrays March 4 as Obama firewall (!!)

By Brendan Loy

Hahahaha:

With an eleven state winning streak coming out of February, Senator Obama is riding a surge of momentum that has enabled him to pour unprecedented resources into Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont. ...

If he cannot win all of these states with all this effort, there’s a problem.

Should Senator Obama fail to score decisive victories with all of the resources and effort he is bringing to bear, the message will be clear:

Democrats, the majority of whom have favored Hillary in the primary contests held to date, have their doubts about Senator Obama and are having second thoughts about him as a prospective standard-bearer.

LOL!! So Hillary can "win" on March 4 just by picking off one state from Obama?? And here y'all thought I was kidding when I said Rhode Island is the new firewall!

Oh, and as for the notion that "the majority of [Democrats] have favored Hillary in the primary contests held to date" ... that is about the most tortured piece of transparently bogus political spin I've ever heard in my life. It strings together, into a logically incoherent whole, the following four pieces of nonsensical Clintonian garbage, each of which is utterly untenable on its own:

1) Caucuses shouldn't count at all (not just "caucuses should count less than primaries" -- this goes much further than that, suggesting that the preferences of individual voters who happen to live in caucus states do not matter at all);

2) Michigan and Florida should count, even though the party definitively stripped those states of their influence for violating the rules, and even though all the candidates agreed in advance not to contest those states, and even though Obama wasn't even on the ballot in Michigan, and even though, according to Hillary, caucuses states which followed the rules, and which both candidates did campaign in, shouldn't count (see above) -- I mean, just think about this: after signing a pledge to the voters of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada not to campaign in Florida and Michigan, she is now arguing that Iowa and Nevada don't matter, while Florida and Michigan do;

3) Independent and Republican voters don't matter, and their votes should be retroactively subtracted from the candidates' actual vote totals based on exit-poll estimates (more on that below), even though the local Democratic parties in many states consciously and deliberately choose to allow them to vote in Democratic primaries, and all candidates actively court their votes, and you can't win a general election without their support; and

4) Exit polls are completely accurate and can be fairly used to definitively assess -- for purposes of determining the rightful nominee -- candidates' relative strength among "Democrats" and "non-Democrats" (even though registered Democrats often self-identify as indepedents, and vice versa, so even if the exit polls were 100% statistically accurate, they'd still be wrong).

The absolute lunacy of this Hillaryland spin is beyond staggering. At this point, there are just no words for it. These people are living in an alternate universe. The nonsense they put out seriously has no relation whatsoever to reality. It is... Just. F***ing. Ridiculous.

P.S. By the end of this campaign, I wouldn't be surprised if Team Clinton is putting out press releases touting the fact that Hillary Clinton has won 100% of the vote among voters who voted for Hillary Cilnton. That's how circular and self-serving their spin is becoming. It's like they say, "Let's see what logically incoherent combination of criteria we can concoct to prove that Hillary's winning the nomination." At what point will they realize it's time to give up? At what point will the empress finally recognize that she has no clothes?

Ricin found at Vegas hotel

By Brendan Loy

No CNN Breaking News alert for this?

Police in Las Vegas, Nevada, are investigating the discovery of what they said is the deadly poison ricin in a hotel room.

Preliminary tests show the substance is ricin, authorities said, but other tests to confirm it are under way. ...

Authorities were called to an Extended Stay America hotel around 3 p.m. PT Thursday after a man brought a bag with a small container to the manager's office. The man said he found it while retrieving items from a hotel room.

The substance is "100 percent ricin," [police captain Joe] Lombardo said.

The FBI says it sees no link to terrorism. I love how they always say that, even before anyone has any idea what's going on. "We don't know who did this, or why, in fact we have no clue what's going on, but we see no link to terrorism." Not that I'm suggesting it is linked to terrorism, I just think sometimes the denials are premature. (Then again, it doesn't help that the media asks the question about everything. "Excuse me, Mr. FBI Spokesman? Joan Smith's house in Paducah, Kentucky just burned down. Do you suspect a link to terrorism?")

Hillary: vote for me or I'll sue!

By Brendan Loy

If Hillary Clinton loses in Texas because of the state's bizarre primary-caucus hybrid, will she file a lawsuit challenging the process? (Hat tip: Joe Mama.)

Her campaign has truly become a shining exemplar of unintentional self-parody and self-destructiveness.  It's like they honestly don't understand how they look, pulling one self-serving stunt like this after another.

At some point, Hilldog, you've gotta recognize that there's a process, there are rules, and while they may be deeply imperfect, they are what they are, they're decided beforehand, everybody knows about them in advance (or, if not, it's their own damn fault for not paying attention), and you can't change them in the middle of the game because you don't like the (potential) outcome. Good grief.

Happy Leap Day!

By Brendan Loy

It's February 29!

Some people today are celebrating their first birthdays since John Kerry was a presidential candidate. (Quite a few, actually. Apparently there are about 4.5 million Leap Day babies. Some of them even have a website!)

And, as the AP points out, this is the first Friday Leap Day (which I'm sure is significant, uh, somehow or other) since 1980, when Ronald Reagan was a presidential candidate, and the last until 2036, when Chelsea Clinton will be a presidential candidate. (Or at least, that's what my sources at Diebold tell me.)

Anyway, it's a good day to be a frog. Ribbit!

Also, if you're a woman, today is traditionally considered a good day to propose to your man. If you're a Greek woman, though, set that wedding date for next year; getting married during a leap year is apparently considered bad luck.

You can read about the history of Leap Year here.

CNN Breaking News

By CNN

Prince Harry is being withdrawn from service in Afghanistan immediately, Britain's defense ministry says.

Classy Arizona fans strike again

By Brendan Loy

Fans in the Arizona student section, a.k.a. the "Zona Zoo," got themselves in hot water earlier this month for loudly chanting "F*** the refs!" during a nationally televised basketball game against Stanford. The university responded with an effort to crack down on such misbehavior. As part of that effort, interim head coach Kevin O'Neill sent out a video message to his school's students earlier this week, urging them to "be positive" in their chants:

O'Neill also apparently gave the students an in-person lecture about the vulgarity issue before last night's game against USC. And he told the Daily Wildcat in an article published yesterday: "I'm going to encourage them not to use vulgar profanity directed at anyone. The bottom line is we have the largest student section I've ever seen, but I think we need to carry ourselves in a first-class manner indicative of what our university, athletic department and basketball program are."

But alas, during the waning moments of USC's 70-58 win over the Wildcats last night, some bozo in the Zona Zoo decided it would be a good idea to throw a full water bottle at the USC bench -- nearly hitting head coach Tim Floyd. Here's the video:

To his great credit, O'Neill quickly grabbed the microphone, vigorously scolded the perpetrator, and apologized to Floyd and the Trojans. Good for him. Hopefully Arizona can get this nonsense under control.

On an unrelated note, I love how ESPN named O.J. Mayo the "Rogaine Player of the Game." LOL! I'm sure he deeply appreciates the honor.

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