If there is one thing thats great about watching the NBA, it's watching it on TNT.

I watched Houston beat Dallas in a great game tonight.  Both teams played tough, but Dallas just doesn't have enough heart to pull it out.

Both teams had great playmakers.  T-Mac at times put Houston on his back and rolled with it, including hitting the deciding shot of the game with 2.2 tics left.  Yao Ming is simply an offensive monster when he wants to be.  There's no question he's the heir apparent to Shaq.

For some reason, Dirk Nowitski has simply been off in this series.  He had a good fourth quarter in this game, but he's been nonexistent in the seven quarters prior to that.  You can tell Mark Cuban is frustrated at the way his guys are playing.

One guy that might be gone in the offseason is Keith Van Horn.  He had a good third quarter, but he looked lousy down the stretch, including not picking up McGrady on the winning jumper off the Yao Ming pick.  Magic Johnson (I'm about to clown him in a second) felt it was due to Van Horn being an "offensive player", but that's garbage. 

First, this isn't football.  You have to play on both ends on the court at all times; in fact, the biggest problem Dallas has is that they don't make defensive stops.  Second, it wasn't like it was a complex play.  All Yao did was set a high pick - a play they killed the Mavs with all night - for T-Mac to come around and shoot the 15 footer.  Switching off to the ballhandler is something you learn to do in middle school.  With only eight seconds left on the clock, you can't afford to give a sharpshooter like T-Mac that kind of space.

If you haven't been paying close attention to the filibuster controversy in the Senate, on Sunday Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell announced the Republicans had at least 51 votes to place them over the top to ban filibusters.

The Democrats took this very seriously, as Senator Joe Biden called for a compromise that would have all but two senators to be sent to the floor of the Senate for a vote.  That pretty much sealed McConnell's statement as fact.  Democrats know they are whipped.  Lo and behold, we get news today of private talks between Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid:

Officials said as part of an overall deal, Reid has indicated he is willing to allow the confirmation of Richard Griffin and David McKeague, both of whom Bush has twice nominated for the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. At the same time, the Democratic leader wants the nomination of Henry Saad scuttled. Democrats succeeded in blocking all three men from coming to a vote in 2004 in a struggle that turned on issues of senatorial prerogatives as well as ideology.

I know one thing:  if Frist makes a deal that doesn't include William Pryor, Janice Rogers Brown, and Priscilla Owen, I'm going to be very pissed, and there's going to be a number of conservatives that are going to be pissed as well.  The Republicans have the majority of the Senate and they have the votes to finish off this filibuster; they need to use their muscle. 

In fact, I don't see why Frist is so willing to seek a compromise anyway; the only compromise that should even be considered is that all of the judges they've tried to hold up to be placed on the Senate floor in place of keeping the filibuster option alive.  That's it.  If Reid and the Democrats aren't willing to do that, then tell them to take a hike.

Morrissey over at Captain's Quarters depicts this as backbone.  Let's hold our horses on that for a second, because we don't know what will come out of this.  Republicans have a way of screwing up these situations.  And it's gotten to the point that every time I hear about a compromise being forged, I cringe.  Somehow it's always conservative policies that get sacrificed.  Besides, this is more than just about getting judges confirmed; this is a matter of principle.  If the Republicans can't get their agenda with the advantages they were clearly given last November, then what else does the American people have to give them?

For those wondering, I am paying attention to them.

Right now there are only a couple of compelling matchups.  The rest look like sweeps. 

Here are the matchups:

Eastern Conference:

#1. Miami Heat vs. #8. New Jersey Nets

#2. Detroit Pistons vs. #7. Philadelphia 76'ers.

#3. Boston Celtics vs. #6. Indiana Pacers

#4. Chicago Bulls vs. #5. Washington Wizards.

Western Conference:

#1. Phoenix Suns vs. #8. Memphis Grizzlies

#2. San Antonio Spurs vs. #7. Denver Nuggets

#3. Seattle SuperSonics vs. #6. Sacramento Kings

#4. Dallas Mavericks vs. #5. Houston Rockets

Although this weekend didn't show it, there are a few compelling matchups. 

In the East, the Pacers/Celtics series is expected to be a good one.  This is Reggie Miller's last hurrah, so they have to make this one last.  As for the Celtics, the band is back together again, and they got some good supporting players to help them be a threat.

The Chicago/Washington series is a symbolic one.  They possibly represent the future of the Eastern Conference, if not the whole NBA.  Both have young teams that are hungry, and can make things happen in the next couple of years.  The "Baby Bulls" are favored by some to make it to the Eastern Finals.

Out West, the first upset of the playoffs happened last night, with the Spurs falling to the Nuggets.  Rejuvenated by the mid-season hiring of George Karl, this has now become a hungry team led by Carmelo Anthony and Kenyon Martin.  Lucky for them, Tim Duncan still isn't back to fighting trim after missing 12 games in March and April. 

Dallas/Houston should be another compelling matchup.  Dirk Nowitski is one of the hottest players in the sport, but the Mavs are still dragging on defense.  Dallas doesn't have a chance to win if he goes 5-19 from the field tonight, however.

I see the other games as routs.  Miami didn't need Shaq to blow out New Jersey on Sunday.  Wade is simply too fast for Kidd to cover and Jones is the deep threat from beyond the arc, so all Shaq has to do is just stand there for the most part and grab a few rebounds until his thigh fully heals.  The Sonics are just too much for the Kings, although the Kings threatened a comeback late Saturday night.  Phoenix will have an easy time outscoring Memphis, and Detroit has too many weapons for a Sixers team that looks old and unprepared.

Tonight's games are Indiana @ Boston and Houston @ Dallas.  If you can't watch the games, check back here and peek at the Sports Ticker above to check out the scores.

(Photo:  Yahoo's The Contender Page)

In the last episode (which ended a couple of minutes prior), we saw Sergio Mora defeat Ishe Smith in a very close fight that pitted power and braun against speed and technical ability.  The boxer won.  The guys loved it, as they were glad Ishe was gone.  As soon as Sergio returned to the training house they all congratulated him and gave him a toast for getting rid of Ishe.

The next day, they got back to their training, and a number of them were noticing Alfonso.  Alfonso really impressed a number of people when he defeated Peter in the first episode, and the fact that Peter had returned to win another fight made Alfonso's reputation even stronger in the eyes of the boxers.  Well, all except Ahmed.  He thought Alfonso was out of shape.  What's ironic is that Alfonso ran his sparring partner out of the ring with some heavy blows at the time Ahmed was talking smack.

Later on, the boxers got together along with Stallone and Sugar Ray to present Sergio a new pendant; a gold one that had the Roman number four (IV) engraved in it.  Sergio also got a reward, in which he could take anyone else with him.  Sergio picked Alfonso to accompany him, and they went with Sugar Ray and Stallone to a country club to golf.  As both Alfonso and Sergio are both Mexicans, Sergio joked that they're used to cutting the grass on the golf course.  Both were pretty much out of their element, but it seemed as if they had a fun time.

Later, Joey started talking about how dangerous Ahmed was.  Ahmed may have lost the fight with Ishe, but that didn't take away any respect the guys had for him.  Personally I felt it was stupid to bring Ahmed back just for Ishe's sake.  Once again, they brought back a guy that has a pretty good shot of defeating someone down the line.  Ishe's gone, and there really wasn't any fireworks between those two, so now they're stuck with a guy that could do some damage.

Joey realized that, and started getting Ahmed to trust him.  He felt the best way to neutralize Ahmed's emotions was to get Ahmed to confide in him and thus take his guard down.  It worked, as Ahmed felt Joey was trying to help him out.  As we saw in the last episode, it's every fighter for himself.  Ahmed doesn't know that yet.

It was challenge time, and this time it was the cart races.  One member of each boxer's family would sit in one of the chinese-style carts.  The boxer would have to pull the cart around a horsetrack.  The first race would eliminate the last three boxers, and the winner of the second race won the challenge and would also win a Toyota Tacoma pickup.

This was probably the most important challenge of the show to date, if only because of the results.  First, Anthony pulled his hamstring and could barely walk after the race.  The second thing stunned everyone.  Joey was well ahead to win the challenge, but when he got to the finish line, he stopped and dropped the cart.  Peter raced ahead for the victory.  Joey said he did it because Peter deserved the truck more than he did since he had a wife and kids.

However, Sergio smelled a rat.  Sergio remembered Joey discussing a book he had read called The 48 Rules of Power, which showed people how to get an upper hand in almost any situation possible.  Well, Sergio had read that book too, and knew Joey was using some of the tips from it to his advantage.  Sergio told Jeremy, the head trainer, about it, and that's when Jeremy stirred the pot.  While Peter was in the showers, Jeremy said, "He gave you a $40,000 truck so he could win a million."  It was a very compelling argument, and Sergio sat in front of the cameras and explained everything Joey was doing came from that book.  Probably one of the best segments of the season.  Or at least it was for me, because I love the detective work.

Jeremy told Peter he should fight now while he got the chance.  Peter kept it in mind, but didn't think Joey was that conniving in order to do something like that.  When it came time to make the fight, Peter decided not to choose Joey to fight, since he gave him the truck (and Sergio had a field day talking about that one), nor did he let Anthony fight since he was injured.  Instead, he played matchmaker and chose Ahmed and Alfonso.

Ahmed Khaddour vs. Alfonso Gomez.  It was a good fight on paper, and Ahmed was believed to give Alfonso problems coming into this fight.  Ahmed had good hands, and some good power that possibly could neutralize Alfonso's busy hands and aggressiveness.

In the first round, they exchanged punches, both getting a feel of what the other will throw.  Finally, Alfonso broke up that monotomy with a flurry of straight jabs that got Ahmed covering up.  Ahmed never answered at the end of the round.  Alfonso won it easily.

In the second round, Ahmed tried to come out throwing hooks, but Alfonso was able to weather that storm.  Then he delivered his own, as he pummelled Ahmed with those jabs.  Ahmed's defense was poor;  he couldn't stop the barrage of jabs coming right for him and didn't know how to properly defend against them.  Alfonso showed he had some strength following those punches, and Ahmed once again had no answer.  Another easy round for Alfonso.

In Round three, Ahmed once again came out swinging.  He mixed it up a bit, connecting with hooks and uppercuts.  One good punch actually sent Alfonso's mouthpiece flying.  That shows Ahmed does have good strength.  However, that only made Alfonso mad, and he finished the round in a flurry, tagging Ahmed at will.  The round was a lot closer than the other two, but Alfonso still won it.  That means Ahmed will have to knock him out, and I don't think that's going to happen.

The fourth round saw Ahmed try a different tactic.  He didn't simply charge in and start banging, he stayed to the outside and tried to use his reach.  It seemed as if the fight came to a standstill, because Alfonso never fought anyone that used their reach (a weakness, maybe?).  Ahmed actually looked like he was getting the better shots off, but it was still too close to call.  I'd be tempted to call that a 10-10 round, leaning Ahmed's way.

The fifth round was dramatic.  Ahmed had finally turned the tide of the fight his way, and was rocking Alfonso with some HUGE shots.  At one point Alfonso looked as if he was going to go down.  Had that been an experienced fighter, he would have realized that and not given him any space whatsoever.  Alfonso was clearly hurt, and started to tie Ahmed up.  Once the ref broke them up, Alfonso raised his hand, possibly as a sign that he was alright.  Ahmed did the exact same thing and was met by a straight right hand.  It was poetic justice for two reasons:  (1.) Ahmed showboats too much when he should be serious about knocking this guy out and (2.) Ahmed had been eating that jab all night long.  Alfonso finished with a good combo to end the round, but I don't think it was enough to steal it.

Alfonso won by unaminous decision.  Ahmed suffers another defeat.  Looking at the fight twice, Ahmed would have probably knocked Alfonso out within another two rounds.  Alfonso definitely benefits from the short 5-round fights.  I don't think that will help him down the road.  Whoever fights Alfonso in the semis can learn a lot by watching this fight.  Ahmed, however, takes that journey home again with that barbie doll fiancee of his, and wishes Alfonso well.  He says he'll be back.  Let's hope he's a lot smarter than how he fought on this show.

Next week we have fight 3 of the Quarterfinals.  See ya then.

My Other Contender Posts:

1.  The Contender Quarterfinals:  Ishe vs. Sergio
2.  The Contender, Episode Eight:  Jimmy vs. Joey
3.  The Contender Episode Seven:  Juan vs. Tarick
4.  The Contender Episode Six:  Anthony vs. Brent
5.  The Contender Episode Three:  Ishe vs. Ahmed

(Photo:  Yahoo's "The Contender" Page)

This is the first episode of not only the quarterfinals, but of the night (two episodes viewed Sunday).  Check back later for the next episode.

We start the show with a pretty tense situation.  Juan De La Rosa received some cuts and injuries in his first round fight against Tarrick Salmaci, and quit.  Now the remaining fighters has to vote one of the previous losers back in the competition.  The guys wrote down their vote, and Ahmed Kaddour won.  "Hollywood" was back in the competition.

Later we find out why he was let back in.  Some of the guys had grown tired of Ishe's antics and attitude.  He was rude to everyone and he seemed as if he didn't like anyone.  So four of the remaining seven colluded prior to the vote and agreed to bring Ahmed back in order to frustrate Ishe.

The tension between Ishe and the other boxers came to a head in the kitchen.  Jesse and Peter were sitting around when Ishe came into the kitchen.  Ishe got a bit paranoid, and stepped up to them.  Jesse questioned Ishe about trashing everyone's fight record. Tempers flared between Ishe and Jesse until the rest of the guys finally pulled Jesse out of the room.  Sergio felt the guys were ganging up on Ishe because they didn't want to fight him.  That's possible, since everyone felt that after the Ahmed fight Ishe was the biggest threat.

The next day, Ahmed returned, cocky as ever.  The funniest thing was he wore a t-shirt saying "Champion of Contender".  Hilarious, especially considering he lost his first fight.  Afterwards Sugar Ray laid out the plan for the rest of the series.  There are no more teams.  Every challenge would be individual ones, and whoever won the challenge was to be the matchmaker:  either they could choose someone to fight, or they could match two guys up to fight.  Very intriguing choice.

The challenge was a medicine ball obstacle course.  There were three legs of the course:  Leg one had the boxers holding two medicine balls with boxing gloves while walking a balance beam.  Leg two had the boxers jumping from tree stump to three stump with three medicine balls.  Leg three placed them into a maze while holding four medicine balls, and then had to shoot two of them into a metal hoop.  The finale was to take one of the remaining balls and throw it at a bust of a boxer's head to win the competition.

After each leg, there were boxers eliminated.  Anthony, Alfonso, Peter, and Ahmed were eliminated after Leg One.  Sergio and Ishe were eliminated in Leg Two.  In the final leg, Jesse finally beat Joey to win the first challenge of the second round.

After they got back to the gym, Stallone called Jesse up for his decision.  Jesse first asked Ishe to come in the ring.  He apologized to Ishe for acting rash and angry the other night.  He then said he would give Ishe someone to fight, and he chose Sergio.  In my opinion, it was a defining moment.  Jesse has been known for constantly criticizing boxers throughout the show - Ishe, Anthony, Juan - over not stepping up when being challenged, whether from a rival or by injury.  The fact that Jesse was claiming he wasn't ready to fight, and backed off from the spat with Ishe the night before is telling.  When it comes down to it, strategy was as important as the macho bravado, if not more.

So the first fight of the quarterfinals was Ishe Smith vs. Sergio Mora.  There's no need to go into their backgrounds, since we've done that in the first round.  Both of them were surrounded by family, getting them prepared for the fight.  In an exclusive scene on Yahoo's "The Contender" page, there were some more fireworks between Jesse and Sergio over what Sergio felt was Jesse ducking Ishe.  Ishe and Sergio had some words for each other as well, although it was more of a competitive spirit than true animosity.  Soon it was fight time.

The first round started as a feeling out process.  Ishe came into the fight saying he didn't respect Sergio's punching power.  Ishe didn't do much defending either, and looked to load up on a few punches.  Sergio got some good combinations which finally got Ishe on defense.  A close round for Sergio.

The second round was weird.  I say that because I couldn't tell whether Sergio got stung by one of Ishe's punches, or it was a legitimate rope-a-dope strategy.  In a five-round fight, that doesn't make much sense.  Anyway, Sergio started off the round with some decent hooks, but Ishe turned it around and had Sergio pinned in the corner.  Ishe nailed him with some great shots to the body and rocked Sergio a couple of times.  However, after every flurry, Sergio would taunt Ishe, telling him to bring more.  Hmm.  Round clearly went to Ishe, though.

Both fighters came out cautious in the third round before Sergio struck first.  However, they had no effect on Ishe, and it was apparent that Sergio could not go toe-to-toe in this fight.  Ishe hit Sergio with some great power shots that hurt him.  Sergio once again was getting trapped in the corner, and the crowd grimmaced everytime Ishe would unload on him.  That was probably one of the most lopsided rounds we've seen in this series.  Ishe by a mile.  At the end of the round, Ishe was forced off of Sergio by the ref, and ended up falling to the canvas.  I say both were inadvertent.  Ishe was trying to end the fight and the ref was aggressive in getting Ishe off of Sergio.  No harm no foul though.

In Round four, both fighters stalled.  What part of the game is this?  It seemed as if both were hesitant to do anything.  Finally they get it on, and Sergio shows his speed, getting off some decent combinations, but nothing to make me feel he outright won the round.  I gave it a draw, leaning Sergio's way.

Round five once again is the deciding factor.  So many fights in this show has come down to the fifth round so many times it's seems scripted.  Oh well.  This time Sergio went straight after him, once again showing his speed and agility.  This time it was Ishe that was placed on the ropes.  But the real difference in this round was Sergio's defensive skills, which frustrated Ishe to no end.  Ishe couldn't touch him in that round, as Sergio was bobbing and weaving while hitting Ishe with some nice, crisp jabs.  Sergio never really hurt Ishe, but Ishe didn't have the talent to hang in there with a technically sound guy like Sergio.  At least not five rounds, anyway.

Sergio won the fight by a split decision.  I say it should have been a draw, but I can deal with that assessment.  Besides, it's hard to accurately judge an edited fight.  They should at least consider placing the fights unedited online.

Ishe was definitely down after the fight, and after 17 years of boxing Ishe questioned whether he would continue his boxing career.  He felt he let his wife and kids down, and was tired of training so hard just to be let down.  He hung up his gloves and left.

The next episode was only minutes away.

My Other Contender Posts:

1.  The Contender Quarterfinals:  Ishe vs. Sergio
2.  The Contender, Episode Eight:  Jimmy vs. Joey
3.  The Contender Episode Seven:  Juan vs. Tarick
4.  The Contender Episode Six:  Anthony vs. Brent
5.  The Contender Episode Three:  Ishe vs. Ahmed

Remember the Kentucky/Michigan State game from the NCAA Tournament?

At the end of the fourth quarter, Kentucky's down by three with about 11 seconds remaining.  They come out, and tries the three with less than eight seconds left.  Misses.  Gets the offensive rebound and takes another shot.  Misses again.  Finally, they're able to get the ball back again, the kid takes the three just before the buzzer goes off, bounces around a bit, and finally goes in.  Overtime.

You see, any other team would have been told to wait on that shot until there was maybe three seconds left on that clock, and then took the shot on the basis that if they hit it, there wouldn't be enough time for the opposing team to score themselves.  But taking the shot with eight seconds to spare gave them enough time for two more chances to hit the basket. 

The moral of this story?  If you get the chance to get something done, take it.  Don't wait until the last minute, and don't be afraid to take the shot.

That message needs to be given to the Senate Republicans.

The Republicans have clear majorities in the House, the Senate, and they have the White House.  They handled the Democrats in almost every way in Election 04.  So why are they acting like the losers?  And why does it seem as if they are anticipating losing?  They don't seem sure of themselves at the moment.

Right now they are in danger of losing the Social Security reform battle.  John Bolton's nomination is about to be killed.  They failed at saving Terri Schiavo.  They're in danger of losing the filibuster battle.  For a party that now has an 10-seat advantage in the Senate, there is no way this should be happening.  With the Republicans allowing everything to be obstructed - something they campaigned on and won with in 04 - the Democrats look like the ones who are in control of the Senate.

We can blame the Lukewarmers in the Senate - and that blame would be right on target - but the problem lies deeper than that.  These are men that lack conviction and backbone.  A number of them simply don't believe in the principles they campaigned on.  You can't wait until campaign time to become a conservative.  You need to become one as soon as you get into Washington.

There is a growing section of the electorate that isn't willing to wait until their elected representatives are ready to do something.  They want change now.  The Minuteman Project, the reaction to the Schiavo affair, the reaction in North Carolina to the illegal alien in-state tuition bill; these are signs that people are tired of waiting for their politicians to do what they elected them to do.

As I said earlier this week, the Republicans will only lose the House and Senate through self-destruction; failure to maintain the confidence of the voting populace because they couldn't get anything done.  Since November, what reasons have the Senate Republicans given the electorate to vote for them in 2006 or 2008?  None.  If they continue acting like a bunch of wimps and won't stand up for the conservative principles and issues upon which they were elected, they won't have a majority to waste.

Two incidents grabbed my attention today.

First, is it necessary for the police to slap handcuffs on a five year old child?  Well in St. Petersburg, Fl it is.  Wizbang's Kevin Aylward pointed to a story yesterday in Florida where a five year old little girl was handcuffed and arrested for throwing a tantrum.

That's right.  A tantrum.  Take a look at the first video, while she was in the classroom.  Then there's the video in the office.  Watch some of her antics first, and then scroll to the 5:00 mark on the office video, where they handcuff her. 

I could see if this was a 14 year old kid raising hell.  But a five year old little girl?  Let's get real for a second; if you can't control a five year old child - even if you can't whup her, which is all she really needed - then you have problems.  The police shouldn't be sent to a school because the teacher and the administration can't control that child.  Lord knows if three of them got out of hand, much less one, because the school would have been in utter chaos.

When situations arise and you are limited by options, competent people adapt and find solutions.  Period.  The principal could have easily found an empty, but ventilated room, had the child placed in there, and waited until either she calmed down or her mother got there.  There was no need to send the cops there.  They should be concentrating on real criminals, rather than handling disturbances that could have been easily done by the school administrators.

What you had in that school was an undisiciplined child being an undisciplined child.  Look at the office video.  At the 3:00 mark, she was acting the fool; pulling stuff off the boards, standing up on tables, HITTING the administrator, etc.

But at the 4:30 mark, she happened to glance out of that window, and she immediately sat down.  Could it be that the cops walked in?  Of course.  That tells you that she knew what authority was, and she knows what she can get away with and at what time.  She sat there and didn't say another word for that moment on.  If the teachers and administrators would show that kind of authority, then they wouldn't have that problem.  Instead, they let the kids run over them and then resort to extremes in order to fan the fires they allowed to burn.

Every day we're given more and more evidence that a growing number of teachers and administrators that are supposed to be educating today's children are woefully inept and simply not capable of handling these students.  Today it's a five year old girl getting handcuffed.  Tomorrow it's a child being suspended due to pointing a chicken finger at someone.  How about a child being suspended for doing cartwheels?

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Or, how about a 8-year-old child beating a principal with a wooden pole?

Yeah.  The principal sees the child walking on campus with a pole in his hand, just about as tall as he is.  She tries to take the pole away from him, and he turns into Buford Pusser.  She ended up receiving several lacerations to the head.

When it gets to the point that you are getting opened up by an eight year old child, it's time to retire.  I don't care who you are.  If you can not defend yourself against elementary school children, then you shouldn't be teaching elementary school.  I do feel for this woman, but it's just another example of the incompetence of school administrators.  At the very least, she should have went and called for help.

As a result, the school went on total lockdown, even after the cops took the kid away.  All outside doors were locked; the kids never left their classrooms.  They even ate lunch in there.  "Crisis counselors" were called in to help with the grieving. 

It's no wonder why these incidents happen.  Schools are being ran by a bunch of whimps.  I don't want to bring children in the world after reading these incidents.

That's a tough one to swallow.

Don't get me wrong; I wish them well, and I understand that kind of money is hard to say no to.  But there is something wrong when you have a league that continues to bring in guys inexperienced and not ready to play at that level, and it results in a product that continues to get worse year after year.

To be perfectly honest, Raymond Felton is the only Tarheel that I am confident will have some success in the league.  His ballhandling ability and competent decision making at point will help him stay in the league.  However, it's ironic that the guy with the least amount of experience (Williams) will more than likely be the first Tarheel picked in the draft.

I don't know if the age limit that has been proposed will work (a good number of kids will just go semi-pro overseas or head to the NBDL) but something's got to give.

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UPDATE:  A good point by Adam Gold at 850TheBuzz.  ESPN and all of these national sports reporters are so full of crap, claiming that they broke the story that all these guys were going to leave (including NBC-17 Raleigh, who claimed Williams was going to stay, which was hilarious considering he will have the highest pick of all of them). 

The Buzz broke that story Tuesday Afternoon, and those fools fell in right behind them because they knew The Buzz is a local station and thus didn't have to acknowledge them nationally.  Everyone in the Triangle knew these guys were going to leave, so it isn't news to us.  You got to love how journalists take credit for stuff they didn't do (that goes for you too,  Mitch Albom).

That's the only way to explain this:

Enter Maxine Waters. Waters has poisoned racial politics in Los Angeles for years; she essentially declared the Los Angeles riots a strike against racial injustice. Never saw a cop she doesn’t think is a racist. Yet here she was at the hearing declaring herself absolutely fed up with the race war between Hispanics and blacks that is raging on the streets of downtown L.A. “Why isn’t anyone talking about the Mexican Mafia (a gang of illegal Mexicans that controls the California prison system)?” she thundered. ‘I don’t care if you’re pink or purple or white or black or brown, I want you out if you’re committing crimes.’ There is no excuse not to control the border, she said. ‘I’m a liberal with a capital ‘L’,’ she said, ‘but I’m sick of it.’

Yeah, so this was something I didn't expect, and I'm sure no one else did either.

But you should have.  One thing Molotov over at Booker Rising has been on top of is the growing conflicts of interest between the black community and the illegal alien population that continues to grow in the United States.  Particularly in the South, illegal aliens are taking jobs away from black people more than any other group.  And in North Carolina, they were trying to pass a bill allowing illegal aliens in-state tuition status, which would have been detrimental to black people trying to get into schools in the state.

There's also this:

Waters' timing was impeccable. A day after she spoke, 100 black and Hispanic students at Jefferson High School in South L.A. attacked each other in a race- and gang-driven brawl; three days later, the same thing happened, this time, students also hurled bottles at the police. Principal Norm Morrow told the Los Angeles Times:"We just have a lot of issues with race," said Morrow. "It's coming out of the community, into the school." Cops in riot gear now patrol the school.

Actually I've heard some rumors that the Black/Mexican conflict was heating up in California.  I haven't been able to confirm this, but word is that Mexican gangs have pledged to kill over 2,005 black men this year.  It's more of a street rumor, but I've heard it more than once.  Maybe Waters didn't hear about this, but she sees the growing rift between the two groups and is taking note.

We haven't heard the last of this issue.  I wouldn't be surprised if we hear more black politicians speak out about the illegal immigration issue in the near future.

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UPDATE:  This will probably be the first of many updates on this issue.  I've doing some websurfing and found this from Dan Stein from last month.

I attended a Capitol Hill hearing today on "Interior Immigration Enforcement Resources." No one could have missed the fact that Democrats are preparing to pounce on the Bush administration's failure to fully fund authorized detention space and ICE enforcement agents. Time after time, Congresswoman Maxine Waters -- a newcomer to the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims -- underscored the hypocrisy in the administration's failure to live up its public commitments to improve overall immigration enforcement. Her comments were echoed by Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and California Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez. Strange coming from people with no real track record supporting immigration enforcement.

So Waters has stepped up her voice for border enforcement.  A surprising name in there is Loretta Sanchez.  After all, Sanchez won her seat after losing several times under her now-former husband's name, Brixey.  She dropped the name in order to sound as if she was Mexican in order to attract that voting bloc.  If she continues to stay on that platform, I don't see her winning reelection.  The Hispanic lobby will do whatever it takes to keep the borders flowing with illegals.

I'll have more later.

Considering the rightful outrage many conservatives have had over the obstruction of several initiatives over the last few months by so-called Republican "moderates" (I'd rather call them lukewarmers) - the latest being George Voinovich and Lincoln Chafee's public misgivings that have held up the nomination of John Bolton - I've found it quite ironic that Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords announced his retirement yesterday.

The idea that Jeffords is retiring due to health problems is hot garbage, of course.  The real reason why he is retiring is because his political career is DOA.  The night he made that backdoor deal with Tom Daschle to give him a chairman seat in that committee was the night he committed political suicide.  Facing opposition from both Democrats and Republicans during reelection, being the most impotent member of the Senate, and not to have the support and cash flow that would arise from a political committee doomed Jeffords to a fate that was obvious to anyone.  "Retiring" would at least allow him to save face.

Jeffords switching parties hurt the Republicans at first, but it ended up being the best thing that could have happened to them.  Jeffords fell on his own knife after threatening to do so for so long, and thus the Republicans could move on with one less nuisance within their own party.  Although Jeffords wasn't ran out of the party like he claimed, the Republicans recaptured the Senate with a stronger majority than ever and are better off without him.

If Senator Frist and the rest of the Republican leadership had backbone, they would place even more pressure on the RINO group.  After all; they need the Republicans more than than the Republicans need them.  If they want to follow the path that Jeffords took, then go right ahead.  The only one that is possibly untouchable is John McCain, who won reelection easily last year.  The Democrats would be happy to see a couple of them announce they are "independents", and then would try to snatch their seats during reelection.

I have no problems with these senators voting against the party line.  The problem is doing so without basing it on principle or to improve your politicial (and popular) standing.  If the Republican Party is truly a conservative party, and is willing to follow a conservative agenda, then they'd give these senators an ultimatum:  show us your vote, or we'll show you the door. 

But the Republicans will never do that because they are more interested in political success rather than conviction.  What's ironic, however, is the fact that it will be the obstruction of these senators - and the apathy of the Republican leadership towards them - that will cause the Republican Party to lose the Senate.  They can't get anything done due to the fence riders.