Sandy Koufax is Back in the Park

++After a decade exile from the Dodgers, Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax is back at spring training as a pitching coach. The LA Times printed a spread of Dodgers at spring training showing the still fit 70-year old engulfed by autograph seeking fans.

++Only moments ago, Yankee great Mariano Rivera threw 25 pitches at batting practice and promised himself satisfied after his knee injury that cost him most of last year.

++This is all to say we have something to look forward to with spring training. Meanwhile, Kobe Bryant promises that the Lakers will make the playoffs and he doesn't fear any of the other teams going in. But making the playoffs comes first.

++Since I was a teenager, I bought every J. Ballard book that came out as it hit the bookstands or the Doubleday Science Fiction book club. Sadly,I have bought my last with "Miracles of Life: Shanghai to Shepperton,An Autobiography."(Liveright,2013). If you want to know the real details of "Empire of the Sun", the first part of the book describes Ballard's youth growing up in Shanghai before and after the Japanese occupation. Later, Ballard, a middle-aged suburbanite, outrages the literary world with the Atrocity Exhibition and his novel Crash that was made into a film. Ballard describes how he created an art exhibit of auto wrecks and filmed responses to it as inspirations for these two books. Fittingly, Ballard describes his time in medical school and his desire to become a psychiatrist,a profession which had not gained legitimacy in England at the time. In 2006, he found that he suffered from advanced prostate cancer, which had moved to his spine. With his doctor's help, he summoned up the energy to write this last book. We are glad he did and reading it I miss his vision even more.

++Forbes' most miserable city is Detroit, the Motor City. Former New York Times reporter and Detroit News reporter Charlie LeDuff chronicles his move from Los Angeles back to his hometown of Detroit. LeDuff's "Detroit:An American Autopsy" (Penguin,2013) reads like it is written by a Midwestern Jimmy Breslin. The street and the people are in every word. A great read about a city that has been abandoned.

++It is Sequestration time next week and Rush says that he is ashamed of his country for the first time.He laments that everyone believes the Democrats about how horrible it will be even though the cuts are  a miniscule part of our budget. Paul Krugman has been writing up a storm of how this is all insane and unnecessary. Rachel Maddow raised the real question why ,if Congress hates it, don't they just repeal it . Even Ezra Klein couldn't give her a straight answer about this because it was too logical a question.

++The reason my posts have gotten so sporadic is because I refuse to be held hostage to manufacturer crises, which this is one among a series. The problem is that in all likelihood it will trigger a new recession. Howard Dean looks at this more optimistically saying that the recession would be short and it will be the first time and probably the only time one can get cuts in defense spending. But President Obama who again had to dive into the breech proposed another smaller deal with about a week left. 

++The re-branding of the Republican Party doesn't seem to be working. John Boehner tried to tie Obama to sequestration even though Talkingpointsmemo nailed his Power Point presentation arguing for it in 2011. Polls show that over 50% of Americans hold the GOP responsible. 

++Whether it is Pew or Bloomberg, President Obama's approval rating is between 51-55%, the highest in three years. Pew showed that Americans favor Obama's approach to key issues all across the board. Only 22% of Americans now identify with the Republican Party and the approval of Congress is about 18%. Another poll of several thousand Americans showed that calling someone a Republican is now considered an insult.

++I remember that we had an election in November. You would never know it in Washington. The slight moves we have are in the area of immigration reform with Marco Rubio and pro-reform Republicans pretending to throw a snit fit over the Obama plan leaked to USATODAY. The Miami Herald pulled Rubio down a peg by showing how his plan matched President Obama's in every key point. While it looks like the Senate will pass a comprehensive reform package, it is not all that clear the House can or will. House Republicans are emphatically saying that there can be no road to citizenship, a key element needed to solve the problem. Down the street the Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO came to an agreement over mechanisms for migrant workers and visas for technology workers.

++The gun debate continues with Joe Biden urging people to buy double-barreled shotguns and not automatic weapons. Joltin' Joe has taken the wind out of the sails of the NRA by neutralizing the idea that Obama is coming after peoples' guns. Wayne La Pierre has gone bonkers urging Americans to buy guns to prevent debt riots and hurricanes. Louie Golmert of Texas says that the 2nd Amendment prevents the imposition of Sharia Law.

++The new and kinder GOP has been closing down Planned Parenthood clinics around the country and introducing more restrictive anti-abortion legislation at the State level.

++The good news is that Mississippi finally ratified the 13th Amendment of the Constitution abolishing slavery.

++The Not so Good News is that the Supreme Court is poised to gut the Voting Rights Act,which would have a devastating result on minority voting rights.

++I am taking a wait and see on the cases on DOMA and Prop.8. President Obama is thinking of weighing in on the cases and an ad campaign has started with Colin Powell and Dick Cheney urging same sex marriage. 

++The latest right-wing conspiracy theory is that President Obama through executive action will get the  Psychiatric profession to rule Christianity is a mental disorder.

++Senator Hagel looks like he will limp to the finish line. Yesterday he picked up support from Senator Shelby. It seems the right's campaign to say Senator Hagel was a member of the group "Friends of Hamas" didn't pan out since it became clear that no such group exists.

++The Log Cabin Republicans, who endorsed homophobic Mitt Romney, can't get love because they were excluded from the CPAC convention.

++Meanwhile, the "Good" Mormon Jon Huntsman came out for same sex marriage yesterday.

++And I'll leave this post with the return of Nate the Great Silver to political punditry. Nate has the Democrats retaining the Senate in 2014 and gaining a few seats in the House but coming short of a takeover because of gerrymandering.