Has Success Spoiled the Red Sox Fans???

There is no question that Yankee fans have a history of obnoxious arrogance. Some would say that the team's historical sucesses have spawned this reality. Also historically, the Red Sox and the Cubs, as well as their fans, have been deemed "lovable" by many. Having been verbally abused for being a Yankee fan by many a Red Sox fanatic, I have always felt that Boston fans are among the worst on the planet - Bill Russell is among the many who agree. However, sports pundits have acclaimed the Boston sports fan as among the best. Similar to WMD in Iraq or that Iraq was involved in the World Trade Center attacks or that W has been over-mis-underestimated by the left-wing media (short of The Nation and Mother Jones...Oh, they mean Rupert Murdoch, I guess), repeat these calumnies, canards and lies often enough and the muddled masses say it must be so! Sorry, brethren, but it ain't so! An example follows as written in the Boston Globe about a Cape Cod "Fanatic."


By Maddie Hanna
Globe Correspondent / July 8, 2008

A Falmouth man accused of using a bat to beat a man he allegedly thought was a New York Yankees fan pleaded not guilty at his arraignment yesterday in Falmouth District Court.

Robert D. Correia, who faces charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and malicious destruction of a motor vehicle, was ordered held without bail, pending a dangerousness hearing scheduled for tomorrow.

On Friday, police said, the 20-year-old attacked a New York man, who police said was driving away from a Fourth of July fireworks display in Falmouth. When police arrived about 10 p.m., the fight had died down, Falmouth Police Chief Anthony Riello said yesterday. The initial investigation found that a group of young people from Falmouth had accused the man and his family of being Yankees fans because their car had New York plates, Riello said.

A Nashua man died in May after he was run over by a vehicle driven by a Nashua woman in what was called another fan dispute turned violent. Ivonne Hernandez, 43, was charged with reckless conduct, aggravated drunken driving, and second-degree murder. Police said she slammed into Matthew Beaudoin, 29, near a bar.

When the situation escalated Friday, police said, Correia hit the man with a bat. The man suffered injuries to his head and body. He was released from Falmouth Hospital, Riello said.

Riello said he did not know how many people were involved in the fight. He also did not know whether family members or bystanders had reported the Yankees taunts.

Robert Nolan, a Falmouth lawyer who represents Correia, said his client had been in his apartment nearby when the argument began. He grabbed a bat and went outside in an attempt to break it up, Nolan said. He dismissed the idea that Correia had swung at the man out of team rivalry.

"There's an awful lot of talk about this guy was attacked because he was a Yankees fan," Nolan said. Correia "never heard a word about Red Sox, Yankees, New York, anything like that."

Local authorities have withheld the name of the alleged victim. The New York Post has identified him as William Nestor, 29, of Northport, N.Y. The newspaper also reported that Nestor was in his car with his wife and parents when a group of rowdy young people approached.

"They were yelling, 'Yankees! Yankees!' " Nestor told the Post.

Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe said what started the argument was "largely irrelevant." Still, he said it was appalling that violence would enter an argument about baseball.

"I think that the idea of introducing a baseball bat into a verbal argument that people are having over whether or not somebody likes one sports team versus another sports team is absurd," O'Keefe said.

Nestor could not be reached.

Riello said police would issue a warrant today for another Falmouth man suspected of being involved in the altercation. The man, who allegedly threw himself into and damaged the New York family's car, will probably be charged with malicious destruction to a motor vehicle, Riello said.

Maddie Hanna can be reached at mhanna@globe.com.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

Southern Strategy Redux

Seems as if the GOP is rolling out its time-tested race-baiting ways: Obama is "...John Kerry with a tan..." and I am still seeing/hearing references to Obama being a Muslim and that he may be killed after the Dems convention. Even one of my saner correspondents (Manny being Manny) has made references to assassination, as well as his (Obama's) inexperience. What the hell does experience mean and what does it get us? W was experienced running Texas (as Kinky Friedman asked when he was running for Gov in Texas, "How hard can it be?" ) and GHWB was probably the most experienced politico we've ever elected. Rap Master Ronnie was experienced? JFK? Look where LBJ and Tricky Dicky got us!!!

So let's cut the crap and admit that a large segment of the population is racist and will not vote for Obama even though he's less African-American than Derek Jeter and Mariah Carey. Remember, Obama senior was from Africa by his own choice, not as an economic commodity. So the crazies on the religious right are barking at the moon, just itching for a reason to vote against Obama , even to the extent of voting for an addled pre-Boomer whose flip-flopping has resulted in his photo being in my illustrated dictionary next to "you've got to be kidding me!" McCain is the biggest GOP joke of a candidate since Bob "I've just met a drug named Viagra" Dole (apologies to the Capitol Steps).

The GOP’s Southern Strategy and Ronald Reag

Several Op-Ed pieces have appeared in the media this past month regarding the so-called “Southern Strategy” of the Republican Party and Ronald Reagan’s role in its success. The debate of late focuses on whether the strategy is racist and was Reagan a racist.

There is no question that following passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the GOP gained more and more political power in the southern states, until achieving a Republican “Solid South” resembling the old Democratic “Solid South”. Demographers, geographers, economists, historians, political scientists, journalists and pundits have offered a myriad of reasons for the change. One of my favorite Republicans, Kevin Phillips, wrote an excellent and prescient analysis of this trend in the late ‘60s: The Emerging Republican Majority. As good as this book is as a geography of political change, it, as well as most of the other analyses, misses the main point.

That point is racism. The Democratic Party in the South had its share of committed racists prior to 1964 (I am sure that many remain). Indeed, many of these racists stayed with the party until the 1980s, most likely due to local traditions. It was Reagan, however, in 1980 who won the racist votes for the GOP with his campaign speech in Philadelphia, Mississippi. At the urging of Senator Trent Lott (R-MS), then a member of the House, Reagan announced his candidacy for the presidency in Philadelphia and also stated his emphatic support for states rights. By so doing, Reagan sent a blatant message of support for racism, and he quickly was endorsed by the KKK (they were in attendance at the speech). For a more complete and erudite history of this event, please see http://www.gibbsmagazine.com/Reagan%20A%20Legacy%20of%20States'%20Rights.htm, as well as recent nationally syndicated columns by Bob Herbert, Paul Krugman and David Brooks.

The Reagan years, viewed with nostalgic awe by the GOP, was laced with race-baiting tactics and legislation, exemplified by Lott’s and Reagan’s attempt to grant tax-exempt status to the racist Bob Jones University (their efforts were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in an 8-1 decision). Note that Lott lost his Senate Majority leadership post by stating that the USA would b e better off if the avowed racist Strom Thurmond has been elected president. Just about every Republican in a leadership position in Texas, for instance, switched parties following Reagan’s endorsement of “states rights.”

Racism remains the most destructive domestic problem in the USA. We will not become a true “nation” until this is remedied.