I was told that it said on Sean’s web site “join the mob.”    It does not.  It says “become a part of the mob.”   Sadly my pleasure at taking a shot at joining up with the Sopranos was brief.   The mob that Sean refers to is the various gaggles of his followers who are showing up at town hall meetings with one purpose in mind, disruption which often has led to chaos.

But what exactly is a mob, excluding of course Meyer Lansky and such?  According to the preferred definition in Webster’s it is “a large or disorderly crowd, especially one bent on riotous or destructive action.”

Now isn’t that just about the most patriotic thing you have ever heard?  Almost as patriotic as the graphic of Sean on his web site with a billowing American flag in the background.

All of this in the long run will be good news.  The disorderly crowd bent on riotous or destructive action is pretty much what is left of the Republican party along with a bunch of good Christians cheating on their wives.  Oh, I forgot the birthers.   Toss them in the salad bowl too.

This is why Sarah Palin might really be the front runner for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination.  It makes perfect sense since she never makes any sense.   What a fit!  Really the only question is who gets the number two spot on the ticket.  There are obvious choices, of course, Sean and Rush.   But I say go with Lou Dobbs.  He would make the perfect Palin compliment.   She makes English sound like gibberish and he makes gibberish sound like English.

Well I must go now.  I turn 65 in March and I just got word that I need to get in line at ths Social Security office to fill out my form on my death options for President of Kenya Barack HUSSEIN Obama.

But on Saturday July 25th Lou Holtz outdid himself.   What you say? You thought he was retired taking his wit and wisdom to ESPN.  But once a coach, always a coach and Lou coached one (possibly) last game in of all places, Tokyo.   Its true, its true because I was there.

So here is the deal.  Lou was asked to coach a group of former Notre Dame players, some of them really FORMER against the Japan National team.  Yes, they play American college football in Japan.  In fact this year is the 75th anniversary of the introduction of American football in the land of the rising sun.  It came shortly after baseball was introducted by a travelling team led by Babe Ruth.  While baseball has taken a stronger hold in Japan, at least six colleges play the sport.  When those players are done there is no profesional league to join so Japan takes the best of them and forms a national team.

When I was asked by the American organizers to join them for a week I thought they were crazy.  Why, I asked, would you spend all that money to take a public address announcer all the way to Tokyo, put him up in a five star hotel, and pay all of his expenses  just to do the English version over the loud speakers?  I was told some of the players wanted it to feel like a home game and one way to do that was to make it sound like a home game.  Well I am no fool and no one likes a free trip more than me, so I said yes, take me to Tokyo and treat me like a king.

As it turned out we were all treated like kings and queens.  Many in the travelling party took their wives or girlfriends.  In fact I would have to say that of all my Notre Dame experiences over 45 years only my son’s graduation and my induction into the Monogram Club rank with this adventure in Japan.  The former Notre Dame players were awesome to be around.  It was the first time I have actually mingled with the athletes and coaches.  They were incredible ambassadors for the University and the football program.

Still the point was to play and win the football game which was a tall order.  Some of our players have been out of school for two decades or more.   One of the trainers told me between practice sessions in South Bend and Tokyo he ran out of bandages to wrap hamstring pulls.

But leave it to Lou Holtz.  He did not travel to the other side of the world to lose.   So his game plan was simple.  First, do not pass the ball because we had not passing quarterbacks and second, put the best athletes you have on the field regardless of position.  Notre Dame had one big thing going for them, they were big compared to the Japanese National team.

So Lou puts a former cornerback at Quarterback (Ambrose Wooden) and a former linebacker at fullback (Brandon Hoyte).  The most valuable player in the game turned out to be a true running back by the name of Jay Vickers.  Vickers I think played in less than a dozen games while at Notre Dame.  But he was tall and fast and ended up running for well over one hundred yards in the Japan Bowl.  But the highlight of the game for me was a player by the name of Melvin Dansby.  Mel has been out of school for a dozen years and he was hurting so bad while we were in Tokyo (those old football injuries come back to haunt) that it was difficult for him to walk more than a few blocks.  I saw him come into the game on defense and assumed Coach Holtz was just being nice to him.  The ball is snapped, Dansby cuts between the tackle and the guard and in one swift move sacked the quarterback.  My voice broke over the loudspeakers when I called his name.

That is the kind of week it was and it was capped after the game when the Japanese players joined the Notre Dame party for a lovely reception.  They were taking pictures of us and we were taking pictures of them.  In one too short of a week my faith in good sportsmanship was finally renewed. Thanks guys, thanks Lou.

1.  Go see Bob Dylan.  Bob is on a summer tour of minor league baseball parks along with John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson.  We were lucky enough to not only get them in South Bend but got them on July 4th.  Ain’t that America!   This might be the best band Dylan has ever toured with and there is no question it is the best dressed band I’ve ever seen.  Bob was in fine form, he even played guitar and, I swear on a stack of bibles, smiled a lot.

He opened with “Yankee Doodle.”  Then to match the day’s weather he did a killer version of Rainy Day Woman.  It then stopped raining. Really there were 9 thousand witnesses.

bobdylan.com is a very cool web site and you can check out the remaining stops on the tour.

2. Go see Public Enemies.  Any movie with this much hype is bound to draw some fire but I thought it was terrific film making and Johnny Depp is, well, Johnny Depp.  My only criticism is the fact that John Dillinger’s last bank robbery was right here in South Bend.  It may have been the most violent and chaotic of Dillinger’s career.  This is not depicted in the movie.  The film does a good job getting across the popularity of Dillinger at the time.  People hated banks.  If Dillinger could come back, just think how popular he would be today.

3. Read Public Enemies.  Bryan Burrough’s massive book does a much better job at describing the ENTIRE era.  The incompetence of the fledgling FBI, and the ego of J. Edgar Hoover is on full display here.

4. Go see Sugar.  This small film is the best movie I have seen in 2009.  You can go to any of the movie sites (imdb.com) to get all the details but let me say that it is most realistic baseball film ever because the “actors” can actually play baseball.  My wife thought it was sad, I thought it was warm and wonderful.  Find it somewhere.  Locally it is playing at the beautiful Vicker’s Theater  in Three Oaks, Michigan.

You should probably get all of this in now because I think there could be another Michael Jackson tour very soon.  So what if he is dead, that is the beauty of it.  That promoter in Europe who scheduled 50 dates (someone should check his bathroom cabinet) could have roving memorials.  I am telling you people will pay for this.  Never forget, some people are worth more dead than alive.

Gun sales are booming around the country including right here in my hometown of South Bend.

Our congressman apparently has taken note of this and, according to the South Bend Tribune, was one of 65 Democrats signing a letter to the Attorney General asking him to not reinstate the assault weapons ban.  In the letter, Joe Donnelly and his 64 democratic colleagues pointed out that the “gun control community is intentionally misleading Americans into believing these weapons are fulling automatic machine guns.”  No said gun pal Joe these firearms fire one shot for every pull of the trigger.  Thank you Joe, that sure makes me feel a whole lot better.  Gee, just a question Joe, how many shots do you think some wacko can get off  one pull of the trigger at a time?

This is pure and simple political pandering.  Indiana’s Second District in any two year cycle can be a swing district and Joe just refuses to piss anyone off.  Well I am pissed off about this and so are a lot of my friends who, just for the record, vote in every election.

Let me be clear.  I ardently support sportsmen and sportswomen.  In fact, if it were up to me they can cull the local deer heard year round for all I care.  What concerns me, and that concern continues to grow, are nuts who are culling the human race.  The lifelong racist and hate monger (and now we find 0ut kiddie porn devotee) who went into a rage  and killed a guard at the  Holocaust Museum apparently went from the deep end to the end of the edge because of all the crap he was hearing about having his guns taken away.  And what about the crazy much younger man in Pittsburgh who killed the cops?  Same thing.  Someone SHOULD have taken their guns away!

This isn’t getting out of hand it IS out of hand and with what is going on with the internet and, occasionally, on Fox News we need to get a handle on it.

The Department of Homeland Security two months ago released a report about far right wing terrorism.  Congressman Joe Donnelly is a good man and I happen to think him signing that letter was pure and simple politics, not the real Joe Donnelly.   So read that report Joe and keep in mind that most of your constituents are not screaming about having their precious guns taken away.  It is time to take a stand for what is right.

Sometimes we just lose interest though. You know like all of those illegal immigrants who were coming to this country to rape our women, molest our children, steal good jobs and run Taco Bell out of business.

When was the last time you heard a good rant about immigrants other than that guy on CNN who is pretty much a one trick pony? Of course we still need a fair and sensible immigration policy in this country and, of course, no one is doing anything about it.

In part that is because we have moved on to brand new bogeymen, the dudes locked up at Guantanamo. Right wing radio and television entertainers have done a pretty good job whipping this one into a frenzy and they really should because they are running out of ammunition to scare the crap out of many Americans. Even Democrats have caught bogeyman fever this time. The turned on their own President. This had nothing to do with the reality of the situation but it has everything to do with running for re-election.

With wedge issues dying out like your 401k this just could be the last stand of the now far, far right Republican Party and if they don’t make it work they could become extinct and moderates will take over. God forbid.

So just like in all of your home communities every time someone says we need a new landfill to throw all of your garbage away people stand up in unison and say “not in my backyard.”

We owe much of the latest hysteria to Mr. Fear himself, Dick Cheney. Many people are saying he is setting himself up to run for President in 2012. I really don’t think so. What Cheney is doing is doubling down his bet that he can change the inevitable historical view of the Bush/Cheney years. He is betting there will be a terrorist attack on Barack Obama’s watch. And he might be right. Of course that will have nothing to do with Obama it will just be because a couple of nut cases figured out how to kill a few dozen people in the name of their God. And just like that Cheney is vindicated. And just think if it could be masterminded by a former Guantanamo detainee now housed (or better yet escaped from) a U.S. prison? If that isn’t a political lottery winner I don’t know what is.

So I say Obama goes all in with his chips, close Guantanamo and, in the memorable words of George “Mission Accomplished” Bush, bring em’ on.
And bring them to Indiana. First we have a state of the art maximum security prison in Terre Haute. This place is so good we sent Timothy McVeigh there and we executed him there. Surely our terrorists are smarter than their terrorists.
We have a very good Republican Senator (Dick Lugar) and a very good Democratic Senator (Evan Bayh) and we have a pragmatic Governor in Mitch Daniels who cannot run for re-election.

So lets bring the dudes to Indiana. I will double down my bet that none of them will escape, rape our women, molest our children, steal back the Taco Bells from the illegal immigrants or spoil the monthly meeting of the Terre Haute Kiwanis.
Plus we can show the world that we are still the best in the world at making some things, like prisons. After all we lead the world in prisoners so what is a few more.

There are few things in this world more important to me than the President of the United States coming to my alma mater. Over the years, as a reporter, I covered Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Regan (he loved the place) and both Bushes. I also covered LBJ and Bill Cinton when they came to the area but not to Notre Dame.
So to miss Barack Obama with what promised to be the most important speech of the bunch was agonizing. But like I said some things are more important including the marriage of my son Matthew (ND class of 2006) on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. By the way it was a beautiful wedding, and there might be some bias here, I cannot recall ever seeing a more handsome bride and groom. That also explains my brief absence from these pages.

Still I got to see the speech. By now there no need to replay the entire scene. In brief some Catholics were aghast that Notre Dame would invite and give an honorary degree to someone who is pro-choice. Protesters came to town weeks in advance, a sad looking lot who had no class. Their leaders were clearly publicity hounds. There were legitimate protests, of course, Our Bishop turned down his usual invitation to commencement.

There were calls for Notre Dame President, Father John Jenkins, to rescind the invitation and I am willing to bet there were some at the White House who told the President he was walking into a beehive he could easily avoid. Neither Jenkins or Obama flinched. If Notre Dame had rescinded the invitation I think it had the potential to be a long term disaster for the University. I work a few days a week on campus and I can tell you that a large majority of the senior class, including many who did not vote for Obama, wanted this ceremony, with the President of the United States, to proceed.

And it did and it was possibly the finest moment for Notre Dame since I came here as a student in 1963.

I did get to watch the speech and at a most unusual place, a small bar in the Cincinnati airport where I had a layover. It was a sports bar with two televisions and neither television was tuned to a sporting event. Instead about a dozen patrons and three members of the staff where watching the speech and it was quiet. No one even ordered a beer. When Obama finished two members of the staff started applauding and one by one so did nearly all of the patrons. I have never seen anything like it.

Everywhere I go in South Bend, fair minded people are saying the same thing, Notre Dame and Barack Obama got it right.

I am especially pleased for Father Jenkins. He was eloquent in his remarks and he was willing to put his reputation on the line. In the audience was our former President Father Ted Hesburgh (who by the way is marking his 92 birthday as I write this). I admire Father Ted more than any person in my life. No Notre Dame President will ever transcend Father Ted. But from now on we should just call Jenkins “Father John” because he just put himself in Father Hesburgh’s pantheon.

Damn laws!  But what really stuns me is the fact that weeks later the sanctity of my marriage remains in tact.  A check of my neighborhood shows that everyone remains married, happily or otherwise, the dogs have not run off to Iowa and no one is even talking about Iowa or Vermont or gay marriage and civil unions.  Apparently they just don’t care.  Or is it possible that they care about a lot of other things and gay marriage can’t even make the radar.  Unemployment at two counties adjacent to mine have  rates at or near twenty per cent.  Some folks I know are looking at their 401k’s and trying to figure out how they will ever send the kids to college.

Even Fox News didn’t have the energy to stoke the remaining embers of this “issue.”  Of course Fox was all tied up pr0moting its new national holiday, something to do with tea bags. God those folks are hilarious, just when Jon Stewart no longer has George Bush for a nightly routine he gets Fox News and its sit down comedians getting funnier than ever.

Most Americans have finally had their fill of fear mongering and the time could not be better for the Republican party because they just don’t have anyone who is good at it.  They are in such disarray it almost makes you wish for Karl Rove or Tom Delay to come back.  Oh wait, nothing could make me wish for that.

The entire issue of using gay marriage as a wedge will be dead in the next decade.  Most younger Americans already could care less and a growing number of the rest of us have more important things to worry about.

The last fling will be the campaign leading up to 2012.  You can count on Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney trying to bring the GOP Frankenstein back to life.  And they will be wasting their time.  That bogeyman is dead, has been for a long time.

Go Hawkeyes!

Harry was a throwback.  He was as much a part of the Phillies as any player and he was as famous in Philadelphia as the Liberty Bell.  That just does not happen any more.  Sure there are some real pros working in Major League press boxes around the country but the day is long gone where any of them will become a local icon.

Growing up I hung on to every word (and occasional malaprop) of Bob Prince doing Pittsburgh Pirate games.  “The Gunner” was a piece of work.  He was hard living and fast talking and in the 50’s he was to Pittsburgh the equal of dirt from the steel mills in the air.

In those days baseball was better on radio and more often than not the local teams games were broadcast on the most powerful stations in town.  At night a kid could dial around and  listen to games from the east coast  (Hello everybody, this is Mel  Allen)  all the way to  St. Louis and Harry  Carey  and Jack Buck.  It was like a geography course  on a radio dial.  For a kid who never traveled more than a hundred miles from Pittsburgh discovering Bob “The Commander” Elson on WCFL Radio in a remote outpost called Chicago was a true revelation. And having Ernie Harwell in Detroit and most of Michigan was a real treat. While Harry Kalas came a generation later he earned the honor to be among those great voices from the 50’s and 60’s.

One of those voices not only remains but is as strong and truly poetic as ever.  That would be Vince Scully  of the Dodgers.  Baseball is  about statistics and quirks and no stat  is more astounding as this;   Vince Scully started doing Dodger games in Brooklyn!  Think about that.  The Dodgers left Brooklyn in 1958.

I am one of those baseball nuts that laying out a couple of hundred bucks each year to buy the baseball package on satellite TV is a no brainer.  It would be worth every penny just to listen to Vince Scully.   He is so good at what he does that I did not realize at first that he works alone.  That’s right there is no other announcer in the booth with him.  He does play by play and he does the “color.”  He might as well also be the Baseball Encyclopedia.  The only impact time has had on him is that he no longer does games east of the Rockies.

Of course most of the games he does then are late at night here in the eastern time zone.  When I watch and listen I find I am not alone at that hour on my porch because an old friend is talking baseball with me.

If you love baseball you owe it to yourself to listen to  Vince Scully.  Now that Harry Kalas is gone it will be the end of a long glorious era when Vin hangs up the microphone.

Still there is ample proof that Notre Dame remains America’s pre-eminent Catholic University. How else can you explain the national debate that has been non-stop ever since it was announced that President Obama will be the commencement speaker in May. Late last week the Chicago Tribune had both an editorial (questioning the comments of Cardinal George) and an op-ed piece by William Daley (supporting the invitation).

All of this has to do, as you can read in my previous post, with Obama’s position of pro-choice and the Catholic Church’s position on abortion. So a difference of opinion over the invitation is understandable. But the situation is getting out of hand and I am concerned that what should be a glorious day for the senior class is going to be tarnished. That would be a shame.

Shouldn’t universities be an oasis where people of good will who differ have an opportunity to discuss their views in an atmosphere free of ill will?

To that end I have a suggestion. Notre Dame President Father John Jenkins should send a second invitation to President Obama.

This time ask the President to come to South Bend a little earlier than planned and that he join a cross section of the University in a town hall meeting.  Yes, we will discuss abortion and the church but also a woman’s right to decide what to do with her body.   But lets go even a few more steps.   Let us all talk about joining together to dramatically reduce the number of abortions in this country.   Also how can we increase the options for adoptions that neither make people jump through hoops or take out a second mortgage to pay for it.  Isn’t a university the perfect setting for such a discussion?   I think it is and I also think it would prove to the world that Notre Dame is America’s pre-eminent Catholic University.