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Babolat Propulse 4 Shoe Playtest
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mad dog1
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Join Date: Jan 2010
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Mad Dog1's Babolat Propulse 4 Full Review
Mad Dog1's Babolat Propulse 4 Full Review:
Tennis experience/background:
I've played tennis since I was 13. After college, I stepped away from the game and got back into the game 3.5 years ago. I play for fun and exercise. Tennis is also a healthy and safe outlet to relieve stress after a long day or week at work. I can go to the court and take out my aggression on a poor hapless ball without breaking any laws and hurting anyone.
I play with a bunch of guys who range between 4.0-4.5 in skill.
Describe your playing style (i.e. serve & volley):
I was a serve & volleyer in my younger days. Having lost a step or two or three due to age (42 yo), I now consider myself a baseliner, but am not afraid of approaching the net to get passed or to flub a volley.
i appreciate a shoe that is light, comfortable and durable since I treat tennis as exercise and don't mind running alot. Weighing in at just under 160 lbs, I'm not an excessive toe dragger nor am i excessively hard on my shoes.
Current shoe:
New Balance MC 851 – this is one of the lightest and as a result one of the most comfortable tennis shoe I have worn. Positives: The light weight and low profile make it a very fast and fleet feeling shoe. I can definitely get to the ball quicker in these. Running shoe like comfort. Negatives: Not very durable. I've almost worn through the outer sole on the medial side of the forefoot in less than 2 months playing 4 hours a week.
Previous shoes:
Nike CB 3.3 – this shoe weigh a ton. Positives: Incredible outer sole durability and heel cushioning. These last me a little over 5 months before I broke into the midsole. Negatives: Long and uncomfortable break in period. Lace straps snapped after 3 months so I ended up punching lace eyelets in the upper. Traction eroded as the outersole wore down. The AirMax heel does not offer great stability. An enclosed air packet is not inherently stable. Think trying to pop a balloon by sitting on it. Narrow forefoot fit. I normally wear a 9.5 and had to go up an entire size to fit comfortably and even then it wasn't great. The narrow forefoot fit caused some pain under the ball of my foot that disappeared as soon as I switched to new shoes.
Adidas Barricade 5 – this is another tank of a shoe. Heavy in weight. Positives: felt lighter than they weighed. Another extremely durable shoe. These last me almost as long as the CB 3.3s. toe durability wasn't quite as good as the CBs. By the time I wore a hole under my big toe, the rest of the outersole still had another month or 2 of life left. Once broken in, these shoes were very comfortable. AWESOME heel cushioning offering more stability than the CBs. Fantastic forefoot stability. Great traction for the entire life of the shoe. Fit was a bit wider than medium in the forefoot. Negatives: Long and uncomfortable break in period. Weighed a lot and felt kind of tank like.
Babolat Propulse 2 – lighter, lower profile, high performance shoe. Forefoot fit was a bit tight which I remedied by wearing thinner socks. Positives: Loved the close to the ground, low profile feel. Ventilation was the BEST. The vents underneath the shoe were extremely effective in keeping the feet cool and moisture free. The Michelin rubber compound provided some of the best traction – even better than adidas. Relatively quick break in period. Outersole durability was very good. Last me about 4 months so not quite as durable as the B5s or CB 3.3s. Very good support. Negatives: Forefoot cushioning was a bit thin especially as the outersole under the ball of the foot wore away. Landing on the forefoot was a bit jarring on the feet and knees. My joints would feel more fatigue wearing these vs the B5s.
KSwiss Defier DS – Generous medium width fit. nice wide stable shoe last that works well with hard orthotics. Positives: decent durability and an all around solid performing shoe. Didn't feel too heavy. Durability was acceptable. I wore through the outersoles in 4 months.
Negatives: Ventilation wasn't great. Feet sweat a lot in these. Felt a bit clunky and clumsy.
Nike Air Breathe Cage, Asics Challenger 7, KSwiss UltraNatural – Since these shoes are much older, I won't offer any comparisons.
How many hours did you play with the shoe?
25 hours so far
Comments on shoe performance:
9/10 I really love the new P4s. If these shoes offer durability as good or better than the P2s, I can say that out of all the shoes that offer excellent durability that i have tried to date, these are at the top. The P4s offer great comfort, fit and performance. They accommodate my orthotics well. They fit very comfortably and they offer excellent stability and traction. They hug my feet and do not feel heavy, clunky or tank-like.
Babolat has done a SUPERB job with their newest shoe offering! BRAVO!!!
9/10 AWESOME! Super comfy. This is the 1st tennis shoe of the more durable offerings that is just so comfortable after the brief break in period that i would wear these around on the weekend. There are no tight spots causing any pinching; no hard plastic materials that dig into the ankle or the outer part of the forefoot and toes, etc. The Cell Shield upper molded nicely around my feet. The cushioning is first rate! I really liked the low to the ground feel of the Propulse 2s but my only complaint was that the forefoot cushioning seemed a bit thin. The Propulse 4s aren't quite as low profile as the 2s, but they are still feel closer to the ground that than the CB 3.3s and the Barricade Vs both of which had really thick cushioning under the heel. While the Propulse 4 heel cushioning isn't as thick as the CB3.3 or B5s, the heel Kompressor cushioning system offers comparable levels of shock absorption while still allowing me to feel connected to the court. The forefoot cushioning is the best i've felt in any tennis shoe. it's not overly rigid like the CBs and Barricades but it's more cushioned. When i bounce on the balls of my feet, i can feel the Side 2 Side technology with the 3D Dynamic Fishbone providing the cushioned feel and then springing back like a shock absorber. While I'm not sure it helps get me to the ball quicker, it sure does an excellent job at providing effective cushioning.
-arch support:
I can't comment on the built in arch support since I wear prescription orthotics; I will say that my hard orthotics seated in the heel cup very nicely. I believe this is due to the Propulse heel cup design. Most shoes have a rigid plastic cup for the heel counter. If the plastic cup is too narrow, the orthotic never seats quite right into the heel cup. The Propulse heel counter is 2 pieces rather than 1 fixed piece. There's a rigid counter on the left and right side; the width is adjusted by the heel strap. You pull the strap tighter to tighten the heel counter and loosen the strap to accommodate a wider orthotic. I find this design to work exceptionally well with hard orthotics. I had a hell of a time getting my orthotic to seat comfortably in the Nikes, Adidas and Asics. The narrow heel cup would squeeze my orthotic forward in the shoe bed. The friction of the orthotic rubbing on the inside would create a very annoying squeaking sound as well. Over time, the orthotic eventually seated properly in some shoes while they never did in others. This wasn't a problem with the Propulse 4. I give the Propulses big props for this design.
10/10 Because of the Propulse 4s low profile design, stability is excellent as is support. Additionally, like the prior generations of Propulses, the FootBelt straps do a great job of securing the foot as well as securing the shoelaces to keep them from coming undone. The heel cushioning is excellent while being very stable. The CB 3.3 heel cushioning was excellent but not very stable.
9/10 Ventilation is xlnt. Not quite as airy as the Propulse 2s with the built-in underfoot air vents, but superior to the Defier DS, CB 3.3s and B5s.
-sole durability:
After 25 hours, the medial side of both shoes is starting to show significant wear. the tread under the ball of the right shoe is showing approximately 50% wear. tread is balding, but traction is still excellent.
-toe durability:
After 25 hours, the medial side of the left big toe area has significant wear.
9.5/10 Traction is excellent. The Michelin rubber provides the right amount of bite, grip and give. The P4s really excel when making sharp stops and quick acceleration to the ball. They feel connected to the court. With the CB 3.3s, the feedback was always rather vague i think in large part due to the Air Max cushioning. The B5s were pretty good after they were broken in.
8/10 These shoes feel lighter than the B5s and CB 3.3s for sure. I think the P 4s are about the same weight as the KSwiss Defier DS but they feel much more agile and nimble. The only shoes that feel noticeably lighter and quicker are the NB 851s but at the expense of durability.
General reaction/comments on overall performance:
The P4 is a good looking shoe! The Pittsburgh Steelers colorway looks like it means business! Per the TW product description, slight break in required and I agree. VERY quick break in period. Took about 10-15 mins. After a few hard cuts on the court, i had to tighten the laces and VOILA! the Propulse 4s were broken in. Per the TW product description, length is true to size; width is medium. I agree on the length. I am finding the width to be a bit wider than medium. I describe it as a generous medium fit in the forefoot/toebox. These are a bit roomier than the Propulse 2s. The fit of the heel is medium.
Last edited by mad dog1; 03-21-2013 at
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Lamb Chops with Herbs
Community Recipe from
- 2 clove(s) garlic
- 2 tablespoon(s) olive oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoon(s) fresh rosemary finely chopped
- 1 1/2 teaspoon(s) fresh thyme leaves finely chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon(s) kosher salt
- 1 pinch(s) black pepper
- 1 teaspoon(s) balsamic vinegar optional
- 8 whole(s) lamb loin or rib chops
- 1. On a cutting board, smash the garlic, drizzle it with a tiny bit of the oil, then chop and smash it up until it forms a sort of paste. Scrape it into a small bowl. Add the rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper, remaining oil and combine.
- 2. Add the balsamic vinegar if using. Combine.
- 3. Rub the mixture evenly over the lamb chops. Cover and refrigerate in a single layer for at least 30 minutes and as long as 4 hours. Take meat out of the refrigerate at least 30 minutes before you plan to cook it.
- 4. Preheat a grill pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Scrape some of the paste off of the chops. Cook the chops for 2 minutes on each side to brown. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until the desired degree of doneness (about 3 minutes more for medium rare depending on the size).
- 5. Set aside to rest for 5 minutes before serving.
April 2013
This recipe is a personal recipe added by CKSchirmeier and has not been tested or endorsed by MyRecipes.
My Notes
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Nice, France
My Rating
This would have been an excellent tour had it not been for one unruly person in the tour group. My husband and I were ready for our pickup at 8:45 a.m., which is fifteen minutes prior to our pickup time and when we were told by Viator to be ready. At 9:30 a.m. our driver arrived only to tell us that she had to return to another hotel to pick up two guests who weren't ready when she first arrived. By the time our tour started, we were already an hour behind. When the last couple got in the van, the male passenger immediately began to use obscene profanity, which he continued to use throughout the entire day. This same couple was also at least ten minutes late returning at the designated time at each stop on the tour. Finally, on the way to the last stop on the tour in Cannes, the driver told the passenger to be quiet so the rest of the group could hear what she was saying. The passenger continued his ranting and use of profanity. After ruining our day, the passenger then tried to not pay for the tour! The driver should have had the authority to leave the couple when they weren't ready at the designated pickup time and also to remove the couple from the tour. Because of the delays caused by this couple, instead of returning to our hotel at approximately 6:00 p.m., we were dropped off at 7:45 p.m. and missed our dinner reservation for the evening. It is truly a shame that the actions of one couple ruined the tour for the other four of us. It makes me never want to do a group tour again.
Nice, France
My Rating
Our driver was waiting for us when we arrived at the airport holding a sign with our name. He was driving a luxury car which was very clean and nice. The driver was also very friendly and pointed out various sights along the drive to our hotel.
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Product Information
- Angry Birds Star Wars AT-AT Attack Battle Game from Hasbro
- Part of the Angry Birds Star Wars brand
- We recommend this product for ages 5 and up
What It Is
The new Angry Birds Star Wars app comes to life in the offscreen world with a line of toys and games from Hasbro. Just like in the app, kids can build structures and knock down Star Wars-inspired Angry Birds characters. The AT-AT Attack Battle Game comes with 21 blocks and eight AT-AT pieces. Kids build the structure by following the instructions or creating their own configuration. Then add in the pigs, and, like in the app, launch birds to knock down the pigs. The set includes a Rebel Trooper Echo Base Gear bird, an exclusive Luke Skywalker Echo Base Gear bird, an R2-D2 egg, a Han Solo bird, a Luke Skywalker Hoth Pilot bird, a Darth Vader pig, an AT-AT Commander pig, two Stormtrooper pigs, an AT-AT Driver pig, and two Snowtrooper pigs.
Is It Fun?
The AT-AT Attack Battle Game has elements that are derived from the Angry Birds Star Wars app, but interpreted in a way that works as a real-life skill-and-action game. It adds a social and interactive dimension to the electronic game. The build-it-up-knock-it-down action is perfectly positioned for younger kids.
Even though this is called a game, there is no scoring system. Kids can create their own scoring system if they want to play a game that has winners and losers, but younger kids who just like to crash things might enjoy it as it is, especially with the Star Wars characters.
Who It's For
The Angry Birds Star Wars AT-AT Attack Battle Game is for ages 5 and up. It will appeal to kids who like skill and action games.
What To Be Aware Of
The game also includes a code to unlock special content within the Angry Birds Star Wars app. Purchase of the app is required.
Do not aim at faces or eyes. Use only the figures designed for this product. Do not modify the figures or the figure launcher.
Apples to Apples Freestyle Game
from Mattel
Game of Things Expansion Pack
from Patch Products
Crab Stack
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Trivial Pursuit: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas Quick Play Collector's Edition
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Clue: Firefly Collector's Edition
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Star Wars Tabletop Pinball
from Moose Mountain
Ultra Rollors
from Day6 Sports Group


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Talk:List of diplomatic missions of Oman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the List of diplomatic missions of Oman article.
Article policies
|WikiProject Arab world
|(Rated List-class, Low-importance)
|WikiProject Western Asia / Oman
|(Rated List-class, Low-importance)
Discussion at WP:FOR on formatting and content of "List of diplomatic missions" article[edit]
There is now a discussion at WP:FOR on the formatting and content of "List of diplomatic missions" articles. As this discussion ostensibly could affect this article, editors are encouraged to provide their opinions on the WP:FOR at this link - Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_International_relations#Formatting_of_diplomatic_missions_lists - please do not discuss on this article talk page as valid points for consideration may very well not be seen by editors at large. Thank you, --Russavia Dialogue Stalk me 00:10, 14 August 2008 (UTC)


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Topic Page
Nation Topics - World
Arab Awakening Foreign Policy War and Peace World Leaders Global Organizations Regions and Countries
News and Features
Right in the wake of House majority leader Dick Armey's explicit call
for several million Palestinians to be booted out of the West Bank, and
East Jerusalem and Gaza as well, came yet one more of those earnest
articles accusing a vague entity called "the left" of anti-Semitism.
This one was in Salon, by a man called Dennis Fox, identified as
an associate professor of legal studies and psychology at the University
of Illinois. Leaving nothing to chance, Salon titled Fox's
contribution "The shame of the pro-Palestinian left: Ignorance and
anti-Semitism are undercutting the moral legitimacy of Israel's
Over the past twenty years I've learned there's a quick way of figuring
just how badly Israel is behaving. There's a brisk uptick in the number
of articles accusing "the left" of anti-Semitism. These articles adopt
varying strategies. Particularly intricate, though I think
well-intentioned, was a recent column by Naomi Klein, who wrote that "it
is precisely because anti-Semitism is used by the likes of Mr. Sharon
that the fight against it must be reclaimed." Is Klein saying the global
justice movement has forgotten how to be anti-anti-Semitic? I don't
think it has. Are all denunciations of the government of Israel to be
prefaced by strident assertions of pro-Semitism?
If this is the case, can we not ask that those concerned about the
supposed silence of the left about anti-Semitism demonstrate their own
good faith by denouncing Israel's behavior toward Palestinians? Klein
did, but most don't. In a recent column in the New York Times
Frank Rich managed to write an entire column purportedly about Jewish
overreaction here to news reporting from Israel without even fleeting
reference to the fact that there might be some factual basis to reports
presenting Israel and its leaders in a bad light, even though he found
time for abuse of the "inexcusable" Arafat. Isn't Sharon "inexcusable"
in Rich's book?
So the left gets the rotten eggs, and those tossing the eggs mostly
don't feel it necessary to concede that Israel is a racist state whose
obvious and provable intent is to continue to steal Palestinian land,
oppress Palestinians, herd them into smaller and smaller enclaves, and
in all likelihood ultimately drive them into the sea or Lebanon or
Jordan or Dearborn or the space in Dallas-Fort Worth airport between the
third and fourth runways (the bold Armey plan).
Here's how Fox begins his article for Salon: "'Let's move back,'
my wife insisted when she saw the nearby banner: 'Israel Is a Terrorist
State!' We were at the April 20 Boston march opposing Israel's incursion
into the West Bank. So drop back we did, dragging our friends with us to
wait for an empty space we could put between us and the anti-Israel
sign." Inference by Fox: The banner is grotesque, presumptively
anti-Semitic. But there are plenty of sound arguments that from the
Palestinian point of view Israel is indeed a terrorist state, and
anyway, even if it wasn't, the description would not per se be evidence
of anti-Semitism. Only if the banner had read "All Jews Are Terrorists"
would Fox have a point.
Of course, the rhetorical trick is to conflate "Israel" or "the State of
Israel" with "Jews" and argue that they are synonymous. Ergo, to
criticize Israel is to be anti-Semitic. Leave aside the fact that many
of Israel's most articulate critics are Jews, honorably committed to the
cause of justice for all in the Middle East. Many Jews just don't like
hearing bad things said about Israel, same way they don't like reading
articles about the Jewish lobby here. Mention the lobby and someone like
Fox will rush into print denouncing those who "toy with the old
anti-Semitic canard that the Jews control the press." These days you
can't even say that the New York Times is owned by a Jewish
family without risking charges that you stand in Goebbels's shoes. I
even got accused of anti-Semitism the other day for mentioning that the
Jews founded Hollywood, which they most certainly did, as recounted in a
funny and informative book published in 1988, An Empire of Their Own:
How the Jews Invented Hollywood, by Neal Gabler.
So cowed are commentators (which is of course the prime motive of those
charges of anti-Semitism) that even after Congress recently voted
full-throated endorsement of Sharon and Israel, with only two senators
and twenty-one reps voting against (I don't count the chickenshit
twenty-nine who voted "present"), you could scarcely find a mainstream
paper prepared to analyze this astounding demonstration of the power of
AIPAC and other Jewish organizations, plus the Christian right and the
military industry, which profits enormously from military aid to Israel,
since Congress has stipulated that 75 percent of such supplies must be
bought from US firms like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.
The encouraging fact is that despite the efforts of the Southern Poverty
Law Center to drum up funds by hollering that the Nazis are about to
march down Main Street, there's remarkably little anti-Semitism in the
United States, and almost none that I've ever been able to detect on the
American left, which is of course amply stocked with non-self-hating
Jews. It's comical to find the left's assailants trudging all the way
back to LeRoi Jones and the 1960s to dig up the necessary anti-Semitic
gibes. The less encouraging fact is that there's not nearly enough
criticism of Israel's ghastly conduct toward Palestinians, which in its
present phase is testing the waters for reaction here to a major ethnic
cleansing of Palestinians, just as Armey called for.
So why don't people like Fox write about Armey's appalling remarks
(which the White House declared he hadn't made) instead of trying to
change the subject with nonsense about anti-Semitism? It's not
anti-Semitic to denounce ethnic cleansing, a strategy that, according to
recent polls, almost half of Israelis now heartily endorse. In this
instance the left really has nothing to apologize for, but those who
accuse it of anti-Semitism certainly do. They're apologists for policies
put into practice by racists, ethnic cleansers and, in Sharon's case, an
unquestioned war criminal who should be in the dock for his conduct.
The Nation has warned repeatedly that the Bush Administration was
threatening to undermine perhaps the best chance in a generation for a
cooperative relationship with Russia that would make the world safer.
The US-Russian nuclear weapons reduction agreement, announced May 13 and
scheduled to be signed when George W. Bush and Russian President
Vladimir Putin meet in Moscow on May 24, confirms our worst fears--and
indeed may even create new dangers.
An unprecedented kind of cooperation between the two former cold war
rivals is essential because of the disintegration of Russia's Soviet-era
nuclear infrastructures, a development that has made the dangers of
nuclear proliferation and accidents even greater than they were during
the cold war. The only solution is very deep, rapid and irreversible
cuts in the number of nuclear weapons in both countries, along with
taking those that remain off hairtrigger alert. This treaty, which was
virtually dictated to an impoverished and militarily weak Russia by the
Bush Administration, falls far short of that goal--it doesn't even
mention de-alerting--and thus represents a potentially tragic lost
The treaty calls for each side to reduce its strategic warheads from
about 6,000 to between 2,200 and 1,700. On the surface, those cuts may
seem to be "historic," as the White House is claiming. Leaving aside the
fact that the lower numbers are still obscenely high, the reductions are
not to be realized until 2012, and during that ten-year period neither
side is obliged to make cuts on a specified schedule. Since the
agreement also permits either side to withdraw from the treaty with
three months' notice, the United States or Russia could legally carry
out few or no reductions for almost a decade and then abrogate the
treaty before it expires. (The withdrawal clause was also insisted upon
by the habitually unilateralist Bush Administration; because the treaty
was all but imposed on Putin, it's unlikely to have much strong or
lasting support in Moscow in any case.) Worse, reductions made may turn
out to be virtual because neither side, on White House insistence, is
required to destroy its decommissioned warheads--it may store as many as
it wishes, as Washington has made clear it intends to do. Moscow will
almost certainly do the same, and, given the widely recognized lack of
security at its storage facilities, will thus multiply the already
considerable risk of Russia's nuclear devices falling into the wrong
hands--that is, fueling the danger of proliferation that has been
especially alarming since September 11.
Nor will a treaty that does not provide for irreversible nuclear weapons
cuts diminish Moscow's sense of insecurity, already exacerbated by the
Bush Administration's unilateral withdrawal from the ABM treaty, its
determination to build a missile defense system and its steady military
encirclement of Russia. (By 2003 there will be a US or NATO presence in
at least nine of the fifteen former Soviet republics.) This is hardly
offset by Russia's new quasi-deliberative role in NATO on select issues
and will make Moscow even more reluctant to destroy its nuclear weapons
unless Washington does.
Yet another danger may lurk beneath the misleading facade of the Bush
Administration's "historic" treaty. The agreement does not even mention
the thousands of small, tactical nuclear weapons on both sides. The
omission is ominous in two respects. Such weapons are more vulnerable to
theft and other kinds of proliferation. And, as we learned when the
Administration's new nuclear doctrine was leaked in March, the Pentagon
is devising scenarios for the early use of such weapons and thus for
building new ones. That would require a resumption of nuclear testing,
and Moscow would probably follow suit. The result would be a new and
more dangerous nuclear arms race: The first one built nuclear weapons
not for use but as deterrents; the new race would build nuclear weapons
with the intention of using them.
In announcing the agreement, Bush claimed that it "will liquidate the
legacy of the cold war" and "begin the new era of US-Russian
relationships." In fact, this treaty is more likely to perpetuate and
even increase some of the worst aspects of the cold war. And the "era"
it marks may well be more dangerous than the one we have only barely
survived. The struggle for a truly new era of US-Russian relations and
nuclear security must therefore be redoubled before there are no last
Osmín, a Cuban trucker, is living in Florida legally--but that
didn't matter to the department of motor vehicles. When he was stopped
on May 2 by a policeman who wanted to see the permit for a job he was
working on, as well as his license, he handed over all the necessary
papers. Although they were in order, he was sent to the driver's-license
office because the document granting his temporary stay will expire
later this month. When dutifully checking in at the DMV the next day, he
explained that his application for permanent residency is pending,
allowing him legal stay until it is resolved. But the clerk, guided by
the governor's new antiterror restrictions, didn't understand the
intricacies of his immigration status. He confiscated Osmín's
license--good until 2007--and sent him home, unable to drive and unable
to work. "I feel very bad," said Osmín (who didn't want to have
his last name used out of fear it might harm his residency application)
the following workday, stuck inside. "I have to pay my bills, I've lost
a complete day of work and I don't know when I'll get my license back."
Spurred on by post-September 11 fears, more than a dozen states, from
Colorado to Delaware, have passed or are considering restrictions on
issuing driver's licenses to noncitizens. Some, like Georgia, Minnesota
and New York, may tie license expiration dates to the expiration of
immigration papers, as Florida, New Jersey and Kentucky do now.
Florida's Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles now sends
records of all its transactions to the FBI every night. A Michigan bill
would authorize DMV staff to contact federal authorities if there is
"reasonable cause" to believe an applicant is an illegal alien. Even
legal refugees from Bosnia or El Salvador can get tripped up in the new
red tape. "If you make it difficult for people to get a driver's
license, you're going to get a lot more people driving without a
license, and we might have more uninsured drivers on the road," says Ben
Johnson, associate director of the American Immigration Lawyers
Association. "Getting tough on driver's-license law isn't going to make
the country any safer."
Declaring his state's enlistment in a "war against illegal immigration,"
South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon introduced legislation to
have local cops enforce federal immigration laws. Florida is working
with the Immigration and Naturalization Service on a groundbreaking plan
to deputize police officers as INS agents. "This gives police another
legal hook to justify their profiling and will prevent illegal
immigrants from reporting crimes against them," says Dan Kesselbrenner,
director of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers
Heightening surveillance of foreign students, bills pending in
California, Minnesota and Georgia, and a new Virginia law, would require
colleges to report noncitizens to the INS if they repeatedly miss class
or withdraw. An Oklahoma measure would prevent noncitizens from
enrolling in flight school. "While everybody's in the patriotic mood,
people's tolerance level is a little bit lower," says Lena Lee, a
research assistant for South Carolina's House of Representatives,
describing a bill to restrict university enrollment of students who come
from a "state sponsor of international terrorism" as determined by the
US Secretary of State. "The rush is on to get the legislation out.
People are kind of blindly doing it--with good intent."
Oklahoma's Joint Homeland Security Task Force even brought up blocking
foreign students from certain courses. Representative Bill Paulk, a task
force member, said legislators are particularly worried about nuclear
design and computer classes. "Obviously," he said, "there are some
courses you would not want foreigners to take."
For more than a century, a recognizable pattern existed among those
migrating to New York City: They came first either through Ellis Island
or up from the American South, and more recently via JFK. As the
newcomers quickly helped build larger communities, they began to occupy
distinct places in the mental and physical geography of the city.
Yet the fastest-growing migration of the past few decades into the city
severely complicates the demographic pattern to which most New Yorkers
are accustomed. Mexican migrants, whose (counted) ranks nearly tripled
to 275,000 between 1990 and 2000, are indeed coming in significant
numbers, but they are staying for quite varying amounts of time and
inhabiting quite varying parts of the city. Spatially, there is no
Mexican equivalent of the Puerto Rican neighborhoods of the Bronx, or
the Dominican enclave in Washington Heights. That the vast majority of
those who come across the Rio Grande are undocumented also suggests that
it may be a while before the Mexican community will have a direct voice,
either politically or via organized labor, in city affairs.
Enter Jimmy Breslin. Yes, the same pugnacious figure familiar to New
Yorkers for his four decades as a muckraking columnist, and to national
audiences most recently for his intro to Spike Lee's Summer of
Sam. Could there be a better guide to the new pattern of immigration
than Breslin? From a scholarly standpoint, the answer would obviously be
yes--the recent work of Arlene Dávila and Agustín
Laó-Montes, Nancy Foner and others is a good place to start. Such
scholarship shows that the current wave of immigration fits no one mold,
with some groups, particularly Mexicans, establishing a transnational
pattern of going back and forth to their home countries, thus making it
impossible even to identify a single unified process of Latino
immigration. But from the perspective of gritty, everyday, street-level
New York, or at least that fast-disappearing world of tough talk and
no-nonsense reporting, Breslin has no match as a firsthand observer of
the newcomers' place in the city's social hierarchy. Ultimately, the way
Breslin, an older, working-class Irish-American, grapples with the new
migration tells us more than a little bit about the changing meaning of
the American dream.
Breslin's new book, his eighth nonfiction work, tells of The Short
Sweet Dream of Eduardo Gutiérrez. Gutiérrez, an undocumented Mexican
laborer, died in a 1999 construction accident in the Hasidic
neighborhood of the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. For Breslin,
Gutiérrez's story not only typifies the hardships that Mexican
migrants face in coming north but shows how harsh the working conditions
are when they arrive. Gutiérrez, in other words, hardly lived the
life of a latter-day Horatio Alger. Instead of fortune, the city
provided only loneliness and a gruesome but entirely preventable death
in a cement foundation.
Gutiérrez's tragic demise sets Breslin on course to discover the
origins of what would otherwise have been yet another mostly forgotten
existence. Breslin goes to central Mexico, to the small town of San
Matias (near Puebla), to recapture Eduardo's life and surroundings
there, and then follows his tortuous journey north across the border,
before arriving in Brooklyn. In the process, Breslin accomplishes twin
goals: to show how Mexican migrants are increasingly making their way
well beyond the Southwest, steadily transforming the demographics of
Midwestern and Northeastern cities; and, more dramatically, he
illustrates how that migration probably has more in common with the
Middle Passage than with any of the heroism now accorded to the
immigrant journey through Ellis Island.
Breslin opens with a series of outsider's observations of life in
impoverished San Matias. Ninety percent of Mexican children will never
go to school beyond the sixth grade, and instead go to work, which in
places like San Matias is sporadic and pays almost nothing. Thus, as a
result of stories told by relatives and others within their community,
the young of San Matias live their lives with pictures of American money
in their heads. And "such poor, dark-skinned children," Breslin
observes, soon become the young adults who are migrating along with
counterparts from India, China and elsewhere to become New York City's
new majority, by which he essentially means people of color.
Getting here from San Matias is no mean feat. After hearing from his
girlfriend Silvia's brother-in-law of construction work in Brooklyn that
paid $6 or $7 an hour (to undocumented Mexicans), less than one-third of
what unionized American workers receive, Eduardo was tempted to go
north. After Silvia, only 15, told him that she was headed for Texas,
Eduardo, four years older, had even less reason to stay home. Breslin
then vividly re-creates both journeys, supplementing the two stories
with documentation of parallel dangers that Mexican migrants experience
every day: dangerous coyotes (smugglers), rattlesnakes, heat exhaustion,
drowning in the Rio Grande, suffocation in a tunnel leading to Tijuana,
getting hit by a train in Texas or a car in San Diego, local police,
airport security and, above all, the Border Patrol. Thus harrowed, both
Silvia and Eduardo nevertheless do land safely: the former in Bryan-College Station, Texas, where she works at both the Olive Garden and a
barbecue joint; and the latter initially at JFK, only after being
delivered COD by a coyote on a flight from Los Angeles.
Sympathetic as the author is to the courage and struggles of those who
endure such hardship in coming north, there are still some troubling
dimensions to Breslin's account, particularly in his somewhat simplistic
choice of terms to describe the process. He so often uses "the Mexicans"
as the subject of his sentences that one begins to fear Buchananesque
calls for big walls along the border (fortunately, they are not there).
Breslin also far too simplistically refers on many occasions to how
Mexican migrants are lured by The Job, and at one point riffs: "They
come across the riverbanks and the dry border, those people who want to
work, who want to scrub floors and clean pots, or mow lawns." Yet as his
own telling of Silvia's double shifts in El Paso and of Eduardo's later
job-hopping in New York suggests, the specific work matters much less
than the simple fact of a paycheck. Migrants seeking wages who will
accept the least-desirable work is surely more accurate than talk of
Mexicans who want "The Job," but then again, drama is Breslin's primary
Once away from the airport, Eduardo enters a frighteningly impersonal
city, and here Breslin emphasizes the changing meaning of the
contemporary immigrant experience: "Once, they came in dreadful old
ships, from Magilligan in Northern Ireland, from Cobh in southern
Ireland, from Liverpool and Naples and Palermo and Odessa.... Those able
to stand always scoured the horizon for the first look at a city where
the streets were decorated, if not paved, with gold." The numbers of
subsequent nonwhite migrations, particularly those of Puerto Ricans and
Dominicans, are missing from Breslin's litany, which illustrates the
degree to which the traditional mythology of immigration into New York
City needs to be rewritten continually. But here as elsewhere, Breslin
should be indulged, for the experience of Mexican immigrants in New York
is skewing more than a few familiar demographic patterns.
Eduardo's experiences in Brooklyn illustrate some of the unique features
of contemporary Mexican migration. He settles with a handful of others
from San Matias in Brighton Beach, an area whose Eastern European Jewish
identity grew rapidly with the influx of Russian and Ukrainian
immigrants in the early 1990s. On a few occasions, he and a friend would
go to Sunset Park, an increasingly Latino neighborhood and one of the
few areas of the city with a visible Mexican presence. Indeed, as the
ongoing research of John Mollenkopf and others demonstrates, even though
their ranks are growing rapidly, Mexican migrants are tending to favor
heterogeneous ethnic neighborhoods rather than grouping together.
Breslin's re-creation of Eduardo's life in the city may help explain one
of the reasons this is so. As Eduardo and his roommates drink a few
beers after a long day's work, they reminisce of home and discuss plans
to go back. That so many do go back and forth, perhaps, diminishes the
necessity for those who stay to form distinct neighborhoods of their
Those working here as undocumented laborers also face conditions hardly
conducive to sticking around. Despite repeated building-code violations
elsewhere in the neighborhood, a slumlord named Eugene Ostreicher was
able to continue building in South Williamsburg, using undocumented
Mexican laborers like Eduardo. While working for Ostreicher in November
of 1999, Eduardo poured cement on the third and top floor, which was
supported by only three flimsy, improperly fastened beams; the structure
soon collapsed, and Eduardo drowned in cement three floors below.
Breslin thus takes aim at a variety of targets: Ostreicher, who was slow
to face punishment, and whose cozy relationship to City Hall (via Bruce
Teitelbaum, ex-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's liaison to the Hasidic
community) had allowed him to keep building despite past violations; the
city's Department of Buildings, a bastion of frightening corruption and
inefficiency; and, to a lesser extent, the construction unions, which
allow the use of nonunion labor. Some of Breslin's examples do seem
tangential, like his discussion of a phony Pell Grant scheme run by
Ostreicher's Hasidic neighbors, or of Mayor Giuliani's war on sex shops.
But there is no doubting Breslin's crusading spirit, and he's always
good for a memorable barb or two--as when he reminds us that pre-9/11,
Giuliani did "virtually nothing each day except get into the papers or
to meet girlfriends."
As the book closes, with Eduardo dead and Ostreicher facing minimal
punishment at best, the meaning of the former's sweet dream is
uncertain. He came to New York with a desire only to make enough money
to go home, perhaps with Silvia. But now he is sent home in a casket
paid for by the Red Cross and the Central Labor Trades Council, the
latter doing so to "get into the newspapers." Though by no means the
first group to come to America with the primary goal of making money in
order to take it back home, Mexican migrants find a labor market that is
increasingly transient, unregulated and brutal. Still, despite the
hardships, they are helping to create a new, transnational version of
the American dream. It is a story that we all need to consider, and
Jimmy Breslin has successfully helped open the door.
"I have concluded that we should attempt to achieve normalization of our
relations with Cuba," Jimmy Carter proclaimed in a secret Presidential
Directive shortly after taking office in 1977. With that signed order
Carter became the first and only US President to make a rapprochement
with Fidel Castro's revolutionary government an explicit goal of US
foreign policy. Although his Administration succeeded in negotiating the
creation of "interest sections" in Havana and Washington, Carter's
objective "to set in motion a process which will lead to the
reestablishment of [full] diplomatic relations" eventually fell victim
to the cold warriorism of his national security advisers.
Twenty-five years later, when Carter became the first US President to
travel to Cuba, meet Castro and address the Cuban people, he again
called for normalization of relations. His historic five-day visit, May
12-17, has dramatically renewed the national debate on US policy toward
What the former President described as "an opportunity to explore issues
of mutual interest" has mobilized almost every conceivable interest
group--commercial, political, humanitarian--across the ideological span
on a gamut of contentious issues relating to Washington's approach to
Havana. As the Pope did during his visit to Cuba in 1998, Carter has
astutely managed to simultaneously draw attention to the archaic nature
of the forty-year US embargo on trade and travel, to the merits of civil
dialogue, and to human rights and democracy.
Carter's trip was carefully scripted to balance competing political
interests as well as his own multifaceted personal agenda. Before he
announced his travel plans, Carter dispatched emissaries to Washington
to discuss with numerous NGO and lobbyist organizations the merits of
such a visit; he then received a comprehensive intelligence briefing
from the Bush Administration and a steady flow of delegations and
specialists at the Carter Center in Atlanta, who shared their expertise
on Cuban issues. Pro-dialogue coalitions like the Cuban American
Alliance Education Fund issued statements signed by numerous grassroots
organizations in "full support [of Carter's] initiative for dialogue."
The rabidly anti-Castro Cuban American National Foundation criticized
him for entering into "discussions with the Cuban regime, thereby giving
[it] a measure of legitimacy."
In Cuba, Carter's schedule included three meetings with Castro, two
state dinners, a baseball game and visits to Havana's most prestigious
schools, laboratories and hospitals, as well as meetings with Cuba's
leading dissident, Elizardo Sánchez, and Oswaldo Paya, the
organizer of the Varela Project--a petition drive to reform political
and economic structures. Most significant, in a live nationally
televised address to Cuban citizens from the University of Havana,
Carter carefully underscored the themes of changing both US policy and
Cuba's socialist political system. US-Cuban relations, he said, had been
"trapped in a destructive state of belligerence for forty-two years,"
and he called on Washington to "take the first step" by lifting the
embargo on trade and travel. At the same time, he called for the
"fundamental right" of free speech and association in Cuba, and for
Cubans to be allowed to "exercise this freedom to change laws peacefully
by a direct vote."
For the Cuban government, what Carter said was far less important than
the spirit of recognition and mutual respect in which he said it. As the
only one of the ten US Presidents Castro has faced over the past
forty-three years who has come to the island, Carter got the red carpet
treatment--symbolic and real. A Cuban band played "The Star-Spangled
Banner" when he arrived, and Castro made it clear that there were no
conditions on his visit. "You can express yourself freely whether or not
we agree with part of what you say or with everything you say," Castro
stated in the reception ceremony at the airport.
When Castro first issued his invitation to Carter to visit Cuba, in
October 2000, George Bush had not yet been elected. Now, with a White
House that, as the Wall Street Journal recently described it,
"sees a President whose bacon was saved in Florida in 2000 by the
Cuban-American vote," Carter's trip has taken on a whole new political
cast. Since the Administration could not find any grounds to block his
visit, it tried to undercut Carter by sending Under Secretary of State
John Bolton to the Heritage Foundation to proclaim, "Cuba's threat to
our security has been underplayed" and to allege that Castro had "a
limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort"
that Cuba was sharing with "rogue states." Carter exposed this canard,
and infuriated the Administration, by using his visit to Cuba's leading
biotech facility, on May 13, to share the results of his pre-travel US
intelligence briefing with Cuban scientists and the US press corps: He
had asked the CIA if there was any evidence that Cuba was sharing any
information that could be used for terrorism, "and the answer from our
experts on intelligence was no."
The Bush Administration clearly fears the impact of Carter's trip. In an
effort at damage control, the White House promptly scheduled a speech in
Miami on May 20, at a fundraiser for brother Jeb's re-election campaign,
in which President Bush will express his presidency's hostile policy
toward the Cuban government and, lest US citizens get ideas from the
Carter visit, outline plans to further restrict travel to Cuba.
In tact and in substance, the Carter trip stands in stark contrast to
Bush's political diatribe. His visit cannot help but contribute to the
momentum on Capitol Hill, and throughout the country, to rethink
Washington's retrograde approach to Havana. This past fall Cuba made its
first cash purchase of US foodstuffs in forty years. As trade barriers
are slipping, a bipartisan coalition in Congress--the Cuba Working
Group, led by Arizona Congressman Jeff Flake--has organized a task force
to begin breaking up the embargo piece by piece. Its first focus is on
an amendment to the Treasury appropriations bill to free travel to the
island--legislation that is likely to get a significant boost from
front-page New York Times photos of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter
walking through charming Old Havana.
"The point is that engagement is more likely to encourage Cuba in the
direction of reforms than unrelenting confrontation," says Wayne Smith,
who served as the Carter Administration's first chief of the new US
interest section in Havana from 1977 to 1981. That point is obviously
lost on Bush. But it isn't lost on his predecessor in the Oval
Office--or on the majority of Americans, who believe that diplomatic
dialogue is far more likely to advance US interests than pandering to a
constituency in Florida to get the President's brother re-elected as
I arrived here in Chile May 8 as a material witness in a criminal
complaint against former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet for the murder
of an American friend just days after the 1973 coup. But by the time the
week was over, I found myself giving face-to-face testimony against one
of the former top officials of the US Embassy in Chile and--in
effect--against former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
The last time I had seen former US Consul General Fred Purdy was on the
morning of September 17, 1973, when I and a handful of other young
Americans living here at the time stood nervously outside his office and
pleaded with him for some sort of US protection. Six days earlier
General Pinochet's military had seized power, declared a state of
internal war and unleashed a ferocious and bloody spasm of terror and
murder. But a gruff, impatient and profane Purdy snubbed our plea and
literally pushed us back into the chaotic streets, telling us we had
nothing to fear from the new military regime--and that the US embassy
could and would do nothing for us.
We would soon learn that at about the same hour we were begging Purdy
for help, a truckload of Chilean troops had kidnapped our fellow
American Charlie Horman from his home a few miles away. Within
forty-eight hours Horman was summarily and secretly executed. As
memorialized in the 1982 Costa-Gavras film Missing, his body
wasn't found for another month, and his killers were never identified.
Within days of Horman's execution, another young American friend, Frank
Teruggi, was also seized and murdered by Chilean forces. And Chile was
plunged into the seventeen-year nightmare of Pinochet's military
dictatorship that stamped out at least 3,000 other lives and sent nearly
a million into exile.
Purdy has never admitted he was wrong, and it's likely he still believes
he never made a mistake. US policy-makers from Henry Kissinger in the
1970s to Otto Reich, George W. Bush's top man on Latin America, have
always been quicker to praise Pinochet for his fealty to American-style
free-market economics than to condemn him for his butchery.
Now, however, Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia--the courageous Chilean
magistrate who last year indicted Pinochet on kidnapping and murder
charges--is helping set the historical record straight. At the behest of
Charlie Horman's widow, Joyce, Judge Guzmán opened a formal
criminal probe into the circumstances of Horman's death, including any
US role. As a witness in Judge Guzmán's chambers for three days,
I was asked to confirm under oath that in the wake of the military
takeover, Purdy and the embassy turned their back on Americans in
need--especially Americans thought to have been sympathetic to Socialist
President Salvador Allende, deposed in the coup.
Under Chile's arcane Napoleonic legal system, Purdy, who now lives in
Santiago, was subpoenaed for a careo--forced to be personally
confronted by me in the presence of the judge. Purdy, now 73, may be
visibly aged but he is the same truculent functionary I remember from
that morning twenty-nine years ago. His objections to my testimony were
loud enough to be heard by others in the waiting room outside the
judge's chambers. He vociferously argued that he had done everything
possible to save American lives in the aftermath of the coup and that
Horman could not be rescued, primarily because he had never sought the
help of the embassy. In recent declarations to the Chilean press, Purdy
had claimed--with no substantiation--that Horman might have been picked
up because he was friendly with an armed ultraleft group. So here we
were, back to 1973. According to Purdy, honest people had nothing to
fear from the Chilean military.
But Judge Guzmán was clear. "I have to tell you, Mr. Purdy," he
said calmly, "there are indications you were involved in a cover-up and
that you have not been fully forthcoming with the investigation." Judge
Guzmán then officially declared Purdy inculpado--a
"suspect"--in his investigation.
Thus Purdy becomes the first former US official to face possible
criminal penalties in a case arising from the 1973 Chilean coup.
Infuriated by the judge's ruling, Purdy stomped from the chambers and
angrily confronted a waiting claque of courthouse reporters. With TV
cameras rolling, Purdy--pressed to explain his behavior in 1973--grabbed
a reporter by the arm and shouted in an odd Spanish-English mix,
"Momen-fucking-tito!" Purdy's indignation, featured
prominently in Chilean newscasts, takes us to the moral center of this
story. Purdy was shocked that a US official might actually be held
responsible in a foreign court for crimes perpetrated by US policy. The
obscure Purdy is now an important symbol in the quest for international
justice. If the "Pinochet principle" established that former heads of
state lack immunity from human rights violations, then so do ex-consuls
Purdy was caught in Guzmán's net only because he retired here and
could not escape a Chilean subpoena. But Guzmán's bigger targets
are sixteen other former US officials, including US Ambassador to Chile
Nathaniel Davis and Kissinger. More than a year ago, Guzmán
requested that Washington make these officials available. Only by
questioning them can anyone begin to answer key questions like what the
US government did or did not know about the murder of its own citizens
and to what degree functionaries like Purdy were following a State
Department line of cover-up for the Pinochet junta. So far Washington
hasn't responded to Guzmán's request. Kissinger told a British
audience in late April that while "it is quite possible mistakes were
made," a certain number of errors are inevitable and "the issue is
whether, thirty years after the event, the courts are the appropriate
means by which determination is made."
Some pieces of the Horman puzzle that have emerged from thousands of
pages of recently declassified documents indeed point to some level of
US involvement. "There is some circumstantial evidence to suggest US
intelligence may have played an unfortunate part in Horman's death,"
reads one State Department memo, obtained by the National Security
Archive. "At best it was limited to providing or confirming information
that helped motivate his murder by the GOC [government of Chile]. At
worst, US intelligence was aware that GOC saw Horman in a rather serious
light and US officials did nothing to discourage the logical outcome of
GOC paranoia."
The Chileans might have been paranoid, but Washington was coldly
calculating. The Nixon Administration found it more compelling to
support Pinochet's regime than to fully investigate and solve the murder
of its own citizens. In early 1974, shortly after Horman and Teruggi's
bodies had been found and Pinochet's blood orgy was rising to fever
pitch, the State Department official in charge of Latin America, Jack
Kubisch, had a private meeting with then-Chilean Foreign Minister Adm.
Ismael Huerta. A confidential US Embassy cable to the State Department
reports that in that meeting "Kubisch raised this subject [of Horman's
murder] in the context of the need to be careful to keep relatively
small issues in our relationship from making our cooperation more
The multilingual Judge Guzmán exudes erudite refinement. The son
of a well-known poet, bearded and partial to blazers and regimental
ties, Guzmán seems more the country squire than crusading
magistrate. But his patience and polish, his deliberate
even-temperedness, have led not only to indictments of the
once-untouchable Pinochet but also of fifty-five other Chilean officers.
As he ushered me into his chambers, he stopped first to shake the hands
of several suspect former and active police officials he had cited who
were waiting in an adjacent room. "Sometimes it is very difficult to
have to treat these men you know are criminals and murderers as
gentlemen," he said. "But that's why we have laws to punish them."
In accord with those laws, Guzmán says that if the United States
doesn't act soon on his request to gather testimony from Kissinger and
other US officials, he'll have no choice but to file for their
extradition to Chile. Kissinger could satisfy Guzmán's request by
testifying before a US judge, who would ask the questions Guzmán
wants answered. Guzmán doesn't want to indict Kissinger; he only
wants to hear his testimony on these supposedly "relatively small
issues." But there's a better way: Kissinger should get on a plane to
Santiago and spend a few hours with the judge to help clear up these
crimes. And he can be sure that Judge Guzmán will, at all times,
treat him strictly as a gentleman.
State officials rush to declare their own versions of the "war on
In anticipation of the Second Coming, evangelicals leap to Israel's
Likud says it does not anticipate
That Palestinians will have a state.
So they, in turn, are meant to stop this shrying,
And try to make their peace with occupying.
It is probably safe to say that the war crimes trial in The Hague of the
former Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic is not going well. At least
so far. No credible witnesses have come forward to testify against the
man who is credited with starting four Balkan wars. No documentary
evidence has been advanced to prove his "command responsibility" for
murderous ethnic conflicts. The prosecution's bungling has turned what
was once touted as a "water-tight case" into a battle of wits, allowing
Milosevic to mount a fifth war--legal and psychological--against the
court itself.
It is, of course, an uneven battle. The court is supported by the might
of the United States and its vast eavesdropping and
intelligence-gathering facilities. Behind the scenes, Americans have
tried to induce some of Milosevic's former henchmen to testify against
him. (That includes the notorious paramilitary leader known as Arkan,
who was gunned down inside the Belgrade Intercontinental two weeks after
he lunched there with an American intermediary for the CIA.) Publicly,
the United States has linked all financial assistance to Serbia to the
extradition of suspected war criminals; the hope is that some of them
may provide the needed information about Milosevic's "command
The former dictator, on the other hand, has to rely mainly on himself,
his wife and a few supporters. The image of a solitary individual
standing up against the world not only appeals to his vanity but also
seems to energize him. His defense strategy is brilliantly cunning,
designed to play on Serbia's psychological vulnerabilities and continued
Serb resentment of the 1999 NATO bombing. From the outset he has said
that the court is illegal, that it is NATO's victors' justice and that
he would not accept its judgment. Yet, acting as his own defense
attorney, he has used the tribunal as a stage for his antics, playing
the role of a defiant David to NATO's Goliath, the victim of powerful
foreign enemies, and in the process doing all he can to make his a trial
of the whole Serbian nation.
Opinion polls suggest that his strategy is working in Serbia. Even
though four out of five Serbs want to see Milosevic tried
in a Serbian court for crimes committed against his people, a majority
applaud his stand at The Hague.
This is unfortunate. This public perception is likely to discourage
potential witnesses from coming forward. In the absence of compelling
evidence against him in court, Milosevic's political rehabilitation becomes a distinct
possibility. More significant will be the impact on the world's first
permanent court--which is to be established also in The Hague--to
replace ad hoc courts like the one sitting in judgment of Milosevic. But
it is up to the ad hoc tribunal to come up with the precedent-setting
legal standard of "command responsibility" (the conditions under which a
tyrant, even if not directly involved, can be held responsible for
crimes committed by his subordinates).
This raises several broader questions: What sort of justice, exactly, is
being served in The Hague? Why is it that the prosecution, having
claimed to have a water-tight case, appears to be flailing in the dark?
Was the court manipulated by the Clinton Administration? What exactly
was the secret intelligence that the United States and British
governments supplied during the 1999 Kosovo war to prompt the court to
indict Milosevic?
Louis Sell is one of those rare anonymous State Department officials who
venture to write books in their retirement. He was highly regarded by
his superiors and held the rank of political counselor in two major
embassies: Belgrade and Moscow. His tour in Belgrade, from 1987 to 1991,
coincided with Milosevic's rise to power and the outbreak of war in
Yugoslavia. This has placed him in the middle of things. Scores of
secret cables, sensitive intelligence reports, raw National Security
Agency telephone intercepts and even satellite photos landed on his desk
each day. He not only had access to everything the analysts and spooks
produced on the Yugoslav crisis but was one of the few people capable of
placing such material
in the proper context. (He had served in
Yugoslavia in the 1970s and is fluent in Serbo-Croatian.) He returned to
the region in 1995 as political deputy to former Swedish Prime Minister
Carl Bildt, then the European Union's chief negotiator for the former
Yugoslavia. After the Kosovo war, Sell served as director of the
International Crisis Group in Kosovo.
By background and experience, Sell is a bureaucratic insider. Unlike the
more senior officials--Richard Holbrooke or Gen. Wesley Clark--he has no
need to defend his reputation. Nor is he a man prone to
self-glorification. His twenty-eight years in the State Department
conditioned him to shun the limelight. This may be why he could
apparently not bring himself to give the reader his own take on events.
Instead he has chosen a journalistic format, relying mainly on published
sources--news dispatches, opinion columns and books. This was a poor
choice. He knows far more than most authors he quotes in his Slobodan
Milosevic and the Destruction of Yugoslavia.
Indiscriminate reliance on Western press reports is risky. For example,
Sell reproduces a German tabloid story about Milosevic's alleged
involvement in drug trafficking. Far too often he resorts to "Western
journalists" as the only source of this or that information; far too
often the phrase "everybody knew that..." crops up in the narrative as
the sole source for a given Serbian crime. Although he tries to write
dispassionately, his anti-Serb bias gets in the way from time to time.
In one instance, he writes that the high command in Belgrade sanctioned
the July 1995 attack on Srebrenica; the source for the assertion is a
book published in 1994. Is this sloppy writing? Careless editing?
Sell does offer a shrewd assessment of the former dictator. He sees him
as someone "without any core beliefs or values other than his own
political survival." Milosevic, he writes, "was not very good at using
power for anything other than keeping it." He was an enormously
destructive figure. Obsessed with power, he deliberately impoverished
not only Serbia's economy but also its intellectual and social fabric
"in order to eliminate the very capacity for independent alternatives to
The book follows familiar lines; I doubt whether it contains anything
that has not been said before. One does come across interesting tidbits:
Washington took an almost instant dislike to Carl Bildt, because he "had
not developed the habit of deference to Washington" and was unwilling
"to take direction." Needless to say, Bildt did not last long in the
There is, of course, nothing surprising nowadays in high-level American
officials expecting deference from little nations or their
representatives. But this is only a part of America's post-cold war
attitude toward the rest of the world. It also permeates US policy in
the Balkans. Despite the rhetoric about justice and eagerness to help
the people of Serbia, the book suggests that the United States was
interested in the Hague court as a political tool rather than a
mechanism that would add another dimension to international law by
holding individual leaders responsible for war crimes and crimes against
humanity. Everything that would detract from Washington's
policy--whatever that policy is at any given moment--must be dismissed
out of hand or ignored. With a sleight of hand, Sell dismisses British
and French experts who found conclusive proof that Muslim snipers had
fired on their own people in order to stimulate sympathetic media
coverage for their plight. He ignored Canadian Gen. Lewis MacKenzie, who
said he had personally seen a similar incident. Sell also ignores the
fact that Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger accused Milosevic of
war crimes in Bosnia and Croatia in December 1992; Eagleburger's speech
in Geneva no longer fits the official narrative.
Within a year, Milosevic had reinvented himself as a born-again
peacemaker. By 1995 he was the "guarantor" of peace in Bosnia. (He was,
indeed, most responsible for the successful outcome of the peace talks
at Dayton, Ohio.) He shared the stage with Bill Clinton during the
signing ceremonies in Paris. Clinton flattered him. "It's nice to hear
your voice," Clinton told the dictator. The American President, aboard
Air Force One to visit US troops in Bosnia, chitchatted with the Serbian
dictator about the Dayton agreement. "I know it cannot go ahead without
you," Clinton said, according to a recently published transcript of the
conversations monitored by Croatian intelligence.
So, even though "it had long been clear that Milosevic was responsible
for ethnic cleansing and other crimes...in Croatia and Bosnia," Sell
tells us, he was not indicted, because the Clinton Administration was
unable to find a "smoking gun" that would directly link him to the
misdeeds. We are led to conclude that the Administration did not assign
high priority to the task.
On the eve of the Kosovo war, however, the US government became active
in seeking to tie Milosevic to war crimes in Kosovo in early 1999. The
State Department's war crimes intelligence review unit was given a
boost: The number of its analysts and the urgency of its task were
increased. Having no diplomats or spies in Serbia, Sell reports,
analysts used satellite photos to study troop movements inside Kosovo.
The outcome was "precisely the kind of evidence needed to indict
Milosevic on the basis of 'imputed command responsibility'" for ordering
ethnic cleansing or failing to stop it. Canadian jurist Louise Arbour,
the chief prosecutor at the time, must have known that the intelligence
she was given did not meet the standards of proof required in a court of
law. She traveled to Washington, London and Bonn apparently seeking a
policy context for the tribunal's action against Milosevic; but she got
"totally ambiguous" responses. As NATO planes continued to bomb
Yugoslavia, the flow of intelligence material reaching the tribunal
increased, but most of it was part of NATO's massive propaganda campaign
against Milosevic. This must have preyed on the minds of the
prosecutors, leading them to believe that they had a substantial case
that would hold up in court. Indeed, the initial indictment was confined
to war crimes committed in Kosovo in 1999.
The tribunal may indeed have been manipulated by outside forces, as some
of its officers feared. As is frequently the case in the Balkans, a
story always seems clear at a distance, but the closer you get to the
scene of events the murkier it becomes. The drafters of the
indictment--somewhat to their surprise later--had not taken into account
the fact that Kosovo was a secessionist province that had declared
independence in 1991, as a result of which it was placed under Serbian
police rule. The province remained quiet as long as the Albanian
struggle was confined to peaceful means. However horrific the Serbian
repression, it did not include ethnic cleansing. But by 1997, the
Albanians had taken up arms. Milosevic had an armed insurrection on his
hands. Moreover, when the Kosovo war ended, the liberated Albanians had
lost their moral high ground; they embarked on a killing spree of the
defeated Serbs under the noses of NATO peacekeepers.
Once Milosevic was deposed, the legal weaknesses of the Kosovo
indictment became painfully obvious, and the prosecutors moved to
include Croatia and Bosnia, the latter being the prime stage for the
charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Like Sell, I too have
no doubt that Milosevic is guilty as charged, at least with respect to
most counts dealing with Bosnia. I witnessed a good deal while covering
his wars from 1990 to 1996. But it is crucial that this be established
in a court of law. Although the pool of Milosevic's partners in crime
has been shrinking (most recently with the suicide of his former police
minister), a number of them are still at large. The tribunal needs these
former Serbian officials; some should be offered immunity from
prosecution in exchange for their testimony. The prosecutors should work
with local Serbian authorities and hire local private investigators
rather than depend on the might of the United States to force the
extradition of suspected criminals. Without such witnesses and in the
absence of spectacular documentary evidence, the tribunal is heading for
On late-night television the other day I watched Spencer Tracy and
Marlene Dietrich in the 1961 movie Judgment at Nuremberg, about
the trials of Nazi war criminals. It was a riveting courtroom drama. The
evidence against the accused was overwhelming. By comparison, the Hague
tribunal is more like the trial of Al Capone, the Chicago mobster who
was responsible for a series of gangland murders. Although everybody
knew Capone was guilty, police could not prove it. Eventually he was
sent to jail for tax evasion. One way or another, I suspect, Milosevic
will end up spending many years in jail. Let's hope this will be done
for the right reasons.


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Matheus Axel and Roberto Gaucho
During military service you can make very close "friends!" It happens to Matheus Axel and Roberto Gaucho. It's a hot summer Sunday in the headquarters and all the soldiers are out, enjoying their day off with their girlfriends. Except for Matheus and Roberto, that is. They prefer to stay in their room and play their secret games. They are very horny and want to stick their fat Latin cocks up their arses. Matheus is the first to drill Roberto's hole but, after a while, he wants Roberto's cock inside of him. There's plenty of sweat as they flip fuck bareback and shoot their loads of cum in lustful ecstasy!
Website: CLICK HERE
Added: 08 Jan 14
Tags: latin, cock, military, drill, headquarters.
Views: 4239
military / uniform


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40 year old woman | Arcadia, CA, USA | Seeking men 18-110 within 25 miles
I Deactivated my account...as of 5/18 I will no longer be on here...if you want to contact me...now if the time...carpe diem
***I Deactivated my account...as of 5/18 I will no longer be on here...if you want to contact me...now is the time...carpe diem***** I am an artist, writer, singer, adventurous, deep, a healer, caring, fiercely devoted to the man who calls his name into my heart. He has enough in common with me for a connection...but enough different from me to make it interesting. Not looking to "hook up" or a one night stand. At all. Move on if you are. Also please don't bother asking me to send you a picture of parts of my body...won't happen. Don't want one of any parts of your body either. Not at this juncture anyway. Looking for a man to walk the path of life with for a while and see where it goes. Final destination goal for us would be love...but there will be lots of time and turns before true love is reached. It is all about the journey though. Looking to start one. A real one.
Coffee and conversation , Cooking , Music and concerts , Exploring new areas , Nightclubs/Dancing , Performing arts , Religion/Spiritual , Travel/Sightseeing , Wine tasting
Dancing, Swimming, Walking / Hiking, Yoga
I exercise 3-4 times per week.
I have Cats
I like Birds, Dogs, Exotic Pets, Fish, Horses, Other
I have 2 beautiful cats. One is named Ammachi and the other is named Annika.
I enjoy diverse pleasures such as the silence of meditation circles versus the loudness of live shows and music festivals. I love dancing, hiking, drumming circles, art shows, The Magic Castle, live music, Ocean, Desert, and Mountains.
I have not owned a TV for 10 years, and don't plan on it. I love connecting with people in a real way over Nature, laughter, adventure, passion, depth and fun.
A Wish Can Change Your Life. A book which serves as a 10 week meditation working on The Tree of Life.
Z{{Cta}} {{#if HasMoreInfo}} ?{{CtaSecondary}} {{/if}}
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|3'8" (111cms)
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|Auburn / Red
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|Cigar aficionado
|No Way, Occasionally, Yes, but trying to quit
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Massage Therapist, Reiki Master, Fire Cupping, Writer, Teacher, and Singer.
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|$50,001 to $75,000, $75,001 to $100,000, $100,001 to $150,000, $150,001+
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|Wants kids:
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|Black / African descent
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Letters: community colleges, Del Mar horse racing and more
However, when Hedgecock states that the "2000 presidential election was decided by a handful of voters in Florida" he is wrong. That election was NOT decided by Florida voters, but by five members of the U.S. Supreme Court who thought their judgment was superior to that of the voters. Had the Supreme Court not interfered in what should have been the state of Florida's right to count its voters' votes, President Gore would have taken office in January 2001. – Martha Heinz, Tierrasanta
Hedgecock continues his dishonest offerings of vacuous propaganda as he warns us that voter fraud may decide the next election. Of course there is no record or history of voter fraud ever deciding a national election. The day Fido walks on all fours into a voting booth and casts a vote is the day I'll take Roger Hedgecock and his fear-mongering seriously. – William Franklin, San Diego
Action, not talk, on Balboa Park
I would like to thank the City Council, Mayor Sanders and Irwin Jacobs for a job well done providing leadership on the Plaza de Panama project. I myself, cannot wait to experience and enjoy a traffic-free all pedestrian Plaza de California, Plaza de Panama and all the other beautiful location at Balboa Park.
It is absurd that anyone would oppose redirecting vehicle traffic and reclaiming these public places. Getting the vehicles out of the park is the first priority, just a disagreement over how to do it is the question. The DEMOCRATIC process has already approved this decision and the opponents are now resorting to legal strategies to stop/delay the project, hopefully they will not succeed.
The Plaza de Panama plan that was approved was the best plan put forward and the only plan that has the financial backing. The city approved a "precise plan" for the park in 1992, and still nothing has been done! I would rather see something happen rather than nothing but more talk! Is it going to take another 20 years?
Ultimately, let's move forward to a better Balboa Park, and accept democracy, and see it get built. Let's all enjoy the 2015 centennial with a better Plaza de Panama and pedestrian friendly Balboa Park. – Arlene Dabbas, Plaza de Panama Project
Poor time to pursue water rate increase
That the Helix Water District would even consider a water rate hike during an economic crisis like the one we are in is incredulous, unfeeling and illogical.
They raise the rates; we will be forced to use even less water. Landscaping will die; neighborhoods will look even more blighted. As our home values further deteriorate, homes will become abandoned, and an abandoned home uses NO water. Who will buy their water? Who will be left to pay their increased rates?
I urge the board of directors to use their conscience and their good sense; do not raise water rates. – Mary Jane Gray, La Mesa
Welcome, World; pack a canteen
In response to "Golden opportunities" (Opinion, July 15): Visionaries and millionaires go to bat for making our city a multimecca, inviting the world to our threshold. Is there a magic formula to ensure that the legion of visitors' toilets will flush?


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For your consideration, a massive modernist ceramic hanging lamp circa 1970's-1980's. This heavy and massive ceramic hanging lamp is in a desert buff white matt glaze over thick a thick ceramic body. It features modernist perforations, which create a wonderful pattern when the lamp is illuminated, and a soft light underneath. This artful piece measures 15" in diameter, 11" tall, and weighs a hefty 7lbs. Marked on the bulb socket "American Crafts Inc. National Wholesaler" "426 South Main Street Coolidge Arizona". The ceramic fixture is not identified with a maker's mark, but is undoubtedly created in the Southwest and speaks volumes of a mid-century modern design influence creator.
If you are the pending buyer of this item, go to My Account to view, track and pay for this item.
Offering Paintings, Art Glass, Ceramics and Fine Collectables, Specializing in Mid-Century
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Bang Bang: 8 Rappers Blamed For Chicago's Gun Violence- By Bossip Staff Categories: Bolitics, CELEBRITY, CNN
Why blame outdated gun control laws or gun-crazy Republicans who reject stricter firearm legislation when you can blame Hip-Hop for gun violence? Let's be real, Hip-Hop DOES influence our youth in both negative and positive ways but the main cause of inner-city gun violence? Nah.
Here are eight rappers blamed for gun violence, especially in Chicago, where a new Moguldom documentary series on the city's "gun problem" was recently filmed (For more info, follow them on Twitter: @MoguldomFilms or visit on Facebook).


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Kenya Moore and Apollo Nida circled around each other and talked out their differences on Sunday night's The Real Housewives of Atlanta — while his wife Phaedra Parks fumed!
And was Apollo's wandering eye the beginning of the end of his relationship to attorney Phaedra?
RHOA fans might wonder after seeing Sunday's episode and reading Radar's recent report on how Phaedra and Apollo have been leading separate lives.
PHOTOS: Brawls, Huge Lies & Collapses: The 30 Most Outrageous And Over The Top Reality TV Moments
On the show, there has been plenty of evidence that Phaedra isn't happy in her marriage.
And Sunday's episode, titled "Flirting with Disaster," showed Phaedra wasn't able to keep her troubled husband — who is facing fraud charges –away from sexy Kenya.
While on vacation with the whole gang in Mexico, Kenya and Apollo got into a intense discussion about whether he could have slept with the single beauty if he'd wanted to.
PHOTOS: 12 Biggest Bravo Reality Star Weddings & Engagements Of 2013
Apollo dismissed his friends Todd Tucker and Peter Thomas so they could have a private chat. Kenya said she was a fan of Apollo's until he tried to attack her by saying she had texted him inappropriately and propositioned him at a Los Angeles hotel.
"The stuff you were throwing out there didn't happen," she said. "I have been completely respectful toward you. I never offered anything to you, Apollo."
But the RHOA husband insisted he could have slept with her if he'd wanted to.
Faked Scenes, Lies & Payoffs – The Ultimate Guide To Reality TV Shows
"Any man could fall victim to it," he mused, and then cited, "My physicality and your physicality."
Kenya insisted, "I have never crossed the line.
"I just need you to stop lying on me."
At the restaurant in Mexico, Phaedra suddenly appeared and growled to co-star Kandi Burruss, "What is he doing over there with her?"
PHOTOS: Punches! Hair Pulling & Drunken Battles! The 13 Nastiest Fights EVER On Real Housewives
Walking over to Apollo and Kenya, Phaedra demanded, "What's going on here?"
Earlier in the episode, Kenya had ordered everyone to take their clothes off and swim in a natural spring in a underground Mexican cave.
She stripped down to a yellow bikini and Apollo undressed to his shorts while Phaedra also participated in the swim to keep an eye on her man.
PHOTOS: Real Housewives Show Off Their Hot Bikini Bodies!
But Bravo camera's caught Apollo ogling Kenya's bootylicious body as walked out of the cavern!
In another Sunday storyline, Kenya told her friend Miss Lawrence of Porsha Williams, who divorced football player Kordell Stewart, "She had an arranged marriage with Kordell and she was basically hired to be his beard."
Kenya said, "It sounds like he wanted her to be quiet … he thought he was getting a trophy wife and she wasn't much of a trophy."
The pageant queen added, "At this point, I'm tired of people lying," meaning Porsha and Apollo!
People We Love! Hollywood's Most Inspiring Rogues, Renegades & Rule Breakers
Meanwhile, Kandi told the group about her upcoming nuptials to fiancé Todd, "We haven't started making plans for an actual wedding," because problems with her disapproving Mama Joyce!
"I'm hoping once we get married the fight is going to be over," Kandi said.
Todd said Kandi was being too passive and needed to drag Mama Joyce into mother/daughter therapy!
Watch the video on RadarOnline.com
While Porsha and Phaedra took a relaxing dip in a pool together, Kenya brought the other ladies to a healing circle.
Kenya cried and said the Mexican shamans would do something to make her fertile.
She said the shaman would bless Kandi, too, and Kandi said she and Todd wanted a son.
PHOTOS: Real Housewives, Real Health Scares – 15 Frightening Medical Fears Of The Ladies Of Bravo
"This is going to be able to help me have my future child," Kenya concluded after the fertility ceremony.
"I feel something special is happening and I'm headed in the right direction."
Opening up more than she ever had, Kenya sobbed to the other housewives, "I feel like I push guys away.
"I wanted the husband first. All of you guys had children before you got married."
But later, Kenya reverted to her usual flirty form as she joined the guys for cigar smoking, tequila shots, and a heart-to-heart with Apollo that had his wife outraged by the episode's end.


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Fallin Tours Response
By AP
Oklahoma City, OK – Fallin to tour Okla's regional response system
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin will tour the Office of Homeland Security's regional response network.
Fallin plans to view the network's equipment Saturday as part of the annual Septemberfest event at the governor's mansion, located east of the state Capitol.
Oklahoma Homeland Security Director Kim Carter says the public and participants in the Septemberfest event are invited to participate in the tour.
The state's regional response system is made up of 108 response units, including bomb squads and search-and-rescue units.


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Andrew Renneisen (b.1992) is an American documentary photographer and 2014 graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
In 2013, Andrew was selected for Eddie Adams Barnstorm XXVI and was honored by the Alexia Foundation for World Peace and Cultural Understanding with an Award of Excellence for his project, Violent Times. The following year he was recognized for the same award for his project, Hip-Hop, Save Me – the first time a student has ever been recognized twice by the foundation.
Andrew's clients and publications include The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Associated Press, Pro Publica, Rolling Stone, USA Today, The Washington Post, TIME, and ZUMA Press, among others.
Andrew currently lives and works in New York City, and just finished an internship with the New York Times.


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Bigger mobile ad budgets, more device use expected
December 26, 2013
The coming year promises to be even better than 2013 was to mobile marketers, with a pair of new reports pointing to bigger budgets and more opportunities to reach mobile users coming down the pike.
Consumers 56pc more apt to respond to tablets ads versus desktop: report
December 23, 2013
Underscoring the growing opportunity for brands to reach tablet users, 56 percent of North American consumers said they are more apt to respond to a tablet ad than a laptop or desktop ad, according to a new report from Adroit.
87pc of moms use mobile, up 34pc: report
December 20, 2013
Moms are increasingly relying on mobile to manage their schedules, email and social media, according to a new report from BabyCenter.
CPG, auto mobile ads drive highest interaction rates: report
December 18, 2013
Consumer packaged good brands and automakers are averaging some of the highest click-through and engagement rates in the industry by focusing on engagement rather than conversions, according to a new report from DG Mediamind.
Mobile video viewing more than doubles YOY: report
December 17, 2013
Mobile and tablet share of online video views increased 133 percent between September 2012 and September 2013, according to a new report from Ooyala.
Weaker mobile vendors to be weeded out in 2014: Yankee Group
December 12, 2013
Mobile industry consolidation will step into high gear next year as growth maxes out in several segments, leaving weaker players to either be acquired or exit the market, according to a new report from Yankee Group.
Facebook is most trusted review platform: report
December 10, 2013
When looking to make informed decisions on purchases, consumers tend to check social media for input, and according to a recent report from Social Media Link, Facebook is the most trusted review platform over Pinterest, YouTube and Twitter.
Need for mobile-optimized search strategy intensifies: Forrester
December 6, 2013
Marketers need to kick their mobile search strategies into high gear now that 89 percent of consumers use a search engine on their mobile device, according to a new report from Forrester Research.
Retailers retreat from mobile marketing as flash sales interest wanes: BDO
December 3, 2013
With only 38 percent of retailers investing in mobile marketing this year - down from 50 percent last year - a new report from BDO USA suggests that momentum is dying down for the medium as marketers find that they cannot prove mobile's ROI.
Children�s apps should focus more on educational content
December 3, 2013
Parents are placing a higher priority on educational content within mobile applications, pointing to the need for marketers and developers to highlight the ways in which it benefits learning.
Disney keeps ahead of app curve with cross-promotion, updated content: report
November 27, 2013
Disney yet again tops the list of global brands in the mobile landscape, according to a report from Distimo.
Marketers should leverage neuroscience to better understand the mobile consumer: report
November 26, 2013
Digging deeper into understanding what consumers feel and care about during the mobile purchase cycle is crucial in developing mobile user experiences, according to a report from Plastic Mobile.
App downloads drop 13pc as use matures: report
November 22, 2013
Mobile-savvy consumers downloaded fewer applications and spent less on apps and downloadable content in 2013 than the year before, according to a new report by Deloitte.
Push ads across devices to drive click-throughs, conversions: NYU professor
November 18, 2013
NEW YORK � A New York University professor at the Mapping Mobile @NYUStern conference said that pushing ads to consumers on both desktop and mobile can increase click-through rates and conversions.
Samsung's share of Android activity doubles: report
November 14, 2013
Samsung devices hold a majority of Android activity and are gaining steam, with the brand's share of Android smartphone activity having more than doubled in the past eight months, according to a report from Mixpanel.


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Rosenthal: Kip Wells To Texas
Though the Red Sox seemed close, Ken Rosenthal now reports that the Rangers have acquired righty Kip Wells from the Pirates. Guess Jon Daniels stepped in with something better than Abe Alvarez.
UPDATE: The Pirates snagged 22 year-old reliever Jesse Chavez in the deal. Chavez just got promoted to Triple A.
Full Story | Comments | Categories: Kip Wells | Pittsburgh Pirates | Texas Rangers
ESPN, MLB Radio: Stairs To Texas
According to ESPN, the Rangers have acquired DH type Matt Stairs from the Royals. MLB Radio adds that the Royals received 26 year-old righty reliever Joselo Diaz in return.
Full Story | Comments | Categories: Kansas City Royals | Matt Stairs | Texas Rangers
Stark: Mets To Get Roberto Hernandez, Oliver Perez
According to ESPN's Jayson Stark:
"Mets are closing in on a big deal with the Pirates, for Roberto Hernandez and Oliver Perez. Still haggling about the rest of that deal."
The Mets have been interested in these guys for a while; first I heard of it was back when Jeff Keppinger was dealt.
SI.com now reports that Xavier Nady goes to Pittsburgh in the deal. I'm told that the Mets also have coveted Edwin Jackson as a project for Rick Peterson, but that interest may be on hold with this acquisition.
UPDATE: Word via Scott Miller of CBS Sportsline is that the Mets could spin Perez along with Heath Bell to the Padres for Scott Linebrink. Perez, of course, began his career with San Diego.
Full Story | Comments | Categories: New York Mets | Oliver Perez | Pittsburgh Pirates | Roberto Hernandez | Xavier Nady
Duaner Sanchez Out For Season
Duaner Sanchez, one of the game's best setup men, is out for the season after separating his shoulder in a car accident, according to Ken Rosenthal. I'm just glad to see he is OK.
Omar Minaya has 51 minutes to step it up and find a replacement. I think MetsBlog caught wind of this shortly after midnight.
Full Story | Comments | Categories: Duaner Sanchez | New York Mets
Carroll: Red Sox Looking At Craig Wilson, Geoff Jenkins, Moises Alou
In his latest update, Will Carroll tell us:
"The Sox are also looking for cheap outfield help as a backup in case tests on Trot Nixon come up with a poor result. There are several names in play, including Craig Wilson, Geoff Jenkins, and Moises Alou. The question here will be price and fit. The Sox, even if Nixon is out for the year, could go with Gabe Kapler and Wily Mo Pena if the price is too high on an acquisition."
My hunch is that the BoSox go with the latter solution, but I'm surprised how little action there has been on Alou.
Full Story | Comments | Categories: Boston Red Sox | Craig Wilson | Geoff Jenkins | Moises Alou
CBS: Padres Acquire Todd Walker
According to Scott Miller of CBS Sportsline, the Cubs are about to send Todd Walker to the Padres. Another low-rent fix for Kevin Towers.
UPDATE: Ken Rosenthal has learned that Walker was dealt for 19 year-old righty Jose Ceda, currently in rookie ball.
Full Story | Comments | Categories: Chicago Cubs | San Diego Padres | Todd Walker
McAdam: Red Sox Discussing Extension With Lugo
Via RotoWorld:
"The Providence Journal's Sean McAdam said on WEEI radio that the Red Sox have been in contact with Julio Lugo's agents to discuss a contract extension."
Nothing on this from the Boston Globe guys just yet. The D-Rays are going to have to scramble if they want to get something better than a couple of compensation draft picks for Lugo. One hour left.
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ESPN: Lidge, Ensberg Deals Dead
Buster Olney informs us that Brad Lidge will not be dealt, and Jayson Stark has indicated that a possible Padres trade for Morgan Ensberg is off. Plan B for the Pads looks like Aaron Boone…ugh.
Full Story | Comments | Categories: Brad Lidge | Houston Astros | Morgan Ensberg
Tejada Off The Market
Ken Rosenthal has taken Jayson Stark's 5% chance of Miguel Tejada being traded and one-upped that by indicating that Tejada is off the trade market entirely.
The Orioles had various offers floating about, but Peter Angelos ultimately did not see one he liked. We'll never be positive that the Angels really offered Ervin Santana and Erick Aybar. But if they did, the Orioles may have made a mistake by passing.
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Edes: Red Sox Inquire On Kip Wells
Check out Gordon Edes's latest blog posting for the Boston Globe. Through a Pirates source, Edes has learned that the Red Sox are discussing a trade for starter Kip Wells. Wells has been decent with a 3.16 ERA this month. He shut down the Giants last time out.
UPDATE: ESPN's Amy Nelson says this one is on the verge of getting done. Also, word via Sons of Sam Horn is that this deal could be for Abe Alvarez.
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