BillJames

BillJames https://www.dailykos.com/news/BillJames News Community Action Copyright 2005 - Steal what you want Mon, 27 Jan 2020 06:06:37 +0000 Mon, 27 Jan 2020 06:06:37 +0000 Daily Kos rss@dailykos.com (Daily Kos) Daily Kos rss@dailykos.com (Daily Kos) No CT: "Smoking Gun," "Mortal Error," Friendly Fire, &, Finally, Who Killed JFK 50 Years Later. https://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/8/1254058/-No-CT-Smoking-Gun-Mortal-Error-Friendly-Fire-Finally-Who-Killed-JFK-50-Years-Later Disclaimer: THIS IS NOT A CONSPIRACY THEORY.  I don't want to see any comments claiming that it is.  It is not.  A conspiracy involves premeditated planning.  There was none in this case.   We are in the month of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of JFK.  And, conspiracy theories abound, because many people believe that the official story is flawed. When any "official" story appears to have logical inconsistencies, conspiracy theories sprout up to attempt to explain the discrepancies.   There is a movie now out on the Reelz network, called, JFK: The Smoking Gun, based on the book Mortal Error, by Howard Donahue and Bonar Menninger (St. Martin’s Press, 1992), which asserts that Oswald acted alone, without help, - but - that the bullet that actually killed the President came from an AR-15 held by a Secret Service Agent, George Hickey, in the car behind him.   <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/jfk-smoking-gun-tv-review-article-1.1504188">David Hinkley wrote in his review:</a> <blockquote>McLaren doesn’t come off as a conspiracy theorist or an agenda-crazed obsessive. He comes off as a detective building a case.</blockquote> <a href="http://ktla.com/2013/11/01/smoking-gun-documentary-who-shot-jfk/#axzz2k452F74T">Here is McLaren making his case, on KTLA-5.</a> Before you dismiss this, take a look at <a href="http://ktla.com/2013/11/01/smoking-gun-documentary-who-shot-jfk/#axzz2k452F74T">this video.</a> Bill James, of baseball fame, wrote a terrific book, Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence (Scribner, 2011). One of the many crimes he looked at was the assassination. He, too, dismisses the craziness of the CT's that claim that Oswald had help: <blockquote>President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. Obviously it is beyond the scope of this little book to sort out the facts of the Kennedy assassination. If you were to read one book a month about the Kennedy assassination, you could read them all in about twenty years—you could, at least, if the assassination buffs would stop writing them. The two books that I would recommend to you—not having read them all, obviously—are Case Closed, by Gerald Posner (Anchor Books, 1993) and Mortal Error, by Howard Donahue and Bonar Menninger (St. Martin’s Press, 1992).</blockquote>   Citing Posner's definitive book, which James calls "a systematic rebuttal of the specious material which forms the bulk of the other 200-plus books," James convincingly argues that Oswald acted without help. There was NO conspiracy.  After summarizing Posner's main points, James writes: <blockquote>I think it’s a wonderful book, and I feel that Gerald Posner has accomplished a public service in putting it together, granting that in my case he is preaching to the choir. But although I have the highest regard for Case Closed, and a genuine appreciation for Posner’s effort in writing it, that book ultimately does not win the contest to convince me. It finishes a strong second. The winner is Mortal Error, by Bonar Menninger, which is based on the work of Howard Donahue. [emphasis mine]</blockquote> After meticulously going over the material that McLaren has made into this movie, James continues:   <blockquote>On first hearing this theory, almost no one believes that it could be right. It sounds like just another helium balloon by someone who watched too many Mission: Impossible re-runs as a child. But I have read Mortal Error carefully, and I have to tell you, if there’s a flaw in his argument, I don’t see it. Unlike the conspiracy theories, which are almost universally based on conversations which took place in Russia in 1961, in New Orleans in 1962, or in Tampa in 1972, the Donahue analysis is based primarily upon a detailed, careful study of what happened in Dealey Plaza on November 22. The key points of his argument can be sorted into three classes: 1) Ballistics. 2) Circumstantial observations of the critical ten seconds. 3) Circumstantial observations after the fact.Donahue is a ballistics expert who has testified in many criminal cases in that role.</blockquote> James notes that when he first read Mortal Error, <blockquote>"Well, he could be right, he could be wrong, I’m not a ballistics expert, and I don’t see how anybody can really claim to know.” Later, however, after reading Posner’s book, after watching a couple of documentaries which include copies of the Zapruder film, I returned to the analysis, and my reaction was different: not merely that Donahue could be right, but that he actually was.The situation is not as complicated as the language in which it must be stated. If you can wade through the math until you get an intuitive feel for what the argument is about, you can figure things out.</blockquote> You may not agree with this, but it does explain a lot.  It would explain why a call to Washington to report the assassination called it an "accident."  It would explain why within seconds, people at street level smelled gunpowder, when Oswald fired from 4 floors up.  It would explain why Oswald is recorded as having said "I did not kill the President," and "I'm a patsy."  Why?  Because, if this is correct, he was looking through his telescopic sight, attempting to line up a shot, when he saw the President's head blow open. You, the reader, are welcome to roll your eyes, and dismiss this all as yet another CT, when, in fact it is not.  I will just add that the 3 most dangerous words in the English language are "I know that." When we say "I know that," we cut ourselves off from any learning. <a href="http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/santacruz/ci_24248479/wallace-baine-baine-street-scariest-jfk-theory">As Wallace Baine notes:</a> <blockquote>The Hickey theory is not a conspiracy theory. It is the opposite. And, on a larger scale, it tells us something entirely different about how the world works. That sometimes, stuff just happens for no good reason, and unspeakable tragedy is a result, that there is no grand design, for good or ill. Most of the things that happen to us, good and bad, are the function of random dumb luck and cosmic accidents.</blockquote> rss@dailykos.com (David B) 11-22-63 1963 Assassination BillJames BonarMenninger CaseClosed Ct GeraldPosner HowardDonahue JFK LeeHarveyOswald MortalError November22 President John F Kennedy PresidentJohnFKennedy _1254058 Fri, 08 Nov 2013 15:12:00 +0000 Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest: Wisconsin GOP's vow of omerta on redistricting busted wide open https://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/2/8/1062726/-Daily-Kos-Elections-Morning-Digest-Wisconsin-GOP-s-vow-of-omerta-on-redistricting-busted-wide-open <div class="dkimg-c"><a href="http://campaigns.dailykos.com/signup_page/electionsdigest"><img src="http://images1.dailykos.com/i/user/73/Elections-MorningDigest.jpg" alt="Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest banner" height="100" width="550" /></a> <div class="dkimg-cap">Want the scoop on hot races around the country? Get the digest emailed to you each weekday morning. <a href="http://campaigns.dailykos.com/signup_page/electionsdigest">Sign up here</a>.</div> </div> Leading Off: • <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/lawmakers-were-made-to-pledge-secrecy-over-redistricting-9643ep0-138826854.html">WI Redistricting</a>: Wow. Remember those documents related to redistricting that Wisconsin Republicans had bitterly resisted sharing with plaintiffs in the pending lawsuit against the new legislative maps? You'll recall that last month, the three-judge federal panel hearing the case <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/05/1051717/-Daily-Kos-Elections-Morning-Digest-Mufi-Hanneman-the-most-conservative-Dem-running-in-a-blue-seat-?detail=hide">sanctioned the GOP's attorneys</a> for failing to produce the materials, and excoriated them in the harshest of terms. Well, since any further resistance probably would have meant jail time (I mean, I don't even really know, but if you're held in contempt, that's certainly a possible punishment), Republicans finally caved and forked over the goods. And ho-lee sh*t. I'm not even sure I can do justice trying to summarize what they produced, but it all describes a remarkable conspiracy to draw the new maps in utter secrecy and try to protect the process from public scrutiny by covering it with a bogus cloak of attorney-client privilege. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tasked no fewer than three reporters to come to grips with this document dump, and here's how they lead off: <blockquote>As legislative leaders secretly developed new election maps last year to strengthen their majority, Republican lawmakers were told to ignore public comments and instead focus on what was said in private strategy sessions, according to a GOP memo that became public Monday. Other newly released documents also show almost all Republican lawmakers signed legal agreements promising not to discuss the new maps while they were being developed. [...] "Public comments on this map may be different than what you hear in this room. Ignore the public comments," the talking points also say. </blockquote> There is just a ton of stuff at the link, and I really encourage you to read the article in full. But here's one little excerpt that's particularly worth sharing: <blockquote>Senate President Mike Ellis (R-Neenah) said Monday he had never before been asked to sign a confidentiality agreement during his four decades in office. He said he visited Michael Best's office to review his map last year but those at the office would not permit his aide to see it. He said the meeting lasted about five minutes. "It was a pain in the you-know-what," he said. </blockquote> The reporters don't quite explain why the GOP's attorneys would insist on this, but I can. The lawyers were trying to limit who had access to which documents in order to better preserve a claim of privilege or confidentiality—the more people who see something, the harder it is to argue it's secret. On top of that, they made lawmakers come into Michael Best's offices (funny enough, I've been there myself—they're literally adjacent to the capitol, so it's not exactly that big of a pain) because they didn't want to send any documents by email or hardcopy. That is, they wanted to minimize the number of documents that could become discoverable in litigation (i.e., materials that you're obligated to share with the other side). The smaller the paper trail, the better—in their view. So is any of this going to matter? I think so, yes. One key argument in the lawsuit (which has already gotten a favorable hearing from the judges) is that Republicans deliberately disenfranchised excessive numbers of voters on the state Senate map to maximize their electoral gains. (Some 300,000 voters will go six years between electing senators, rather than the normal four.) The court has previously said that maps must strive to minimize the number of people so affected, and since the GOP's nakedly partisan aims are exposed for all to see thanks to these new documents, it will be very difficult for Republicans to argue that they moved 300,000 people out of necessity. I'm really looking forward to this trial beginning... though if the GOP had any sense, they'd cut a deal now. rss@dailykos.com (David Nir) 2012HouseOpenSeatWatch AdamKinzinger AZ-Sen BillAdkins BillJames BobKerrey BobRucho CA-01 ChrisMurphy ChrisShays CT-Sen DCCC DKEMorningDigest DonManzullo IL-16 IllinoisTeaParty JimPendergraph John Kasich JohnKasich JonBruning JonHuntsman KentuckyRedistricting KRISTINOEM KY-04 LindaMcMahon MaggieHassan MarcyKaptur MattVarilek MI-Sen MichaelShaffer MikeSteinberg NathanSmith NC-09 NE-Sen NH-Gov NormingtonPetts NRCC NY-09 OH-09 OH-Gov OvideLamontagne PA-Sen PatMcCrory petehoekstra Polls PublicPolicyPolling PulseOpinionResearch RichardCarmona RichardVinroot RobertPittenger RoryLancman RuthSamuelson SamAanestad SamCoppersmith SD-AL StephanieHersethSandlin SueMyrick SusanBysiewicz TedGatsas TexasRedistricting ThomTillis TomMcClintock TomSmith UNH UT-Sen Wisconsinredistricting YankeeInstitute _1062726 Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:00:05 +0000 Occupy Charlotte https://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/29/1031355/-Occupy-Charlotte Update Occupy Charlotte,NC The city council in Charlotte, NC is reviewing a draft ordinance that would prohibit camping on city property. Like other cities across the country that have proposals for dealing with the Occupy movement, this will prevent the occupiers a place for around the clock protest.  Their claim is that this has come about because of the Democratic National Convention being held in Charlotte, NC in 2012. rss@dailykos.com (big mouth) BillJames Charlotte Commissioner DNC NC Occupy Charlotte OccupyCharlotte Protest Republican _1031355 Sat, 29 Oct 2011 23:55:13 +0000 The Daily Show/Colbert Report Chat thread 05.05.11 https://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/5/5/973516/-The-Daily-Show-Colbert-Report-Chat-thread-05-05-11 <table> <tr> <td><a target="_top" href="http://www.comedycentral.com/index.jhtml"><img src="http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/2285/keithlesslogo.jpg" border="0" width="150" alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us" /></a></td> <td>Tonight on TDS, Jon Meacham; and on TCR,  author Bill James discusses the history of crime and its influence on American culture in Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence. Meanwhile, <a href="http://teamcoco.com/schedule">Conan's got</a> John Krasinski, Blake Griffin, and Ian Edwards.</td> </tr> </table> <table> <tr> <td></td> <td><img alt="sausage grinder of snark" src="http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/5559/zenspringteagrinder2.jpg" defang_border="border" /> </td> </tr> </table> rss@dailykos.com (TiaRachel) BillJames Community Jon Stewart JonMeacham JonStewart SausageGrinderofSnark Series StephenColbert The Colbert Report The Daily Show TheColbertReport TheDailyShow _973516 Fri, 06 May 2011 02:55:02 +0000 ACTION ITEM: Hold anti-gay county commissioner in Charlotte accountable for anti-gay slur https://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/1/3/933186/-ACTION-ITEM-Hold-anti-gay-county-commissioner-in-Charlotte-accountable-for-anti-gay-slur Here in North Carolina, we expected area Repubs to be up in arms over Richard Burr's vote in favor of repealing "don't ask, don't tell."  But even by this state's standards, a county commissioner here in Mecklenburg County (Charlotte) has gone several miles over the top. Last week, Democratic commission chairwoman Jennifer Roberts asked her colleagues if they wanted to sign a letter thanking Burr, Kay Hagan, Larry Kissell and Mel Watt for voting to repeal the policy.  When Bill James, a Repub who represents the southeastern part of the county, found out about it, <a href="http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/12/30/1942056/bill-james-offers-yet-another.html">he responded by suggesting that gays are all "sexual predators."</a> Staggering bigotry, even by North Carolina standards.  Fortunately, it won't be allowed to stand.  At tomorrow's county commission meeting, there's going to be a resolution <a href="http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/01/03/1951913/county-board-to-talk-about-james.html">condemning anti-gay bigotry</a>.  But this is only the first step.  Suffice to say that a little bit of heat needs to be put on James when he runs for reelection in 2012. rss@dailykos.com (Christian Dem in NC) BillJames Homophobia LGBT North Carolina NorthCarolina _933186 Mon, 03 Jan 2011 21:57:39 +0000 Idiot county commissioner in Charlotte: gays are sexual predators https://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/12/31/932658/-Idiot-county-commissioner-in-Charlotte-gays-are-sexual-predators Here in North Carolina, we expected area Repubs to be up in arms over Richard Burr's vote in favor of repealing "don't ask, don't tell."  But even by this state's standards, a county commissioner here in Mecklenburg County (Charlotte) has gone several miles over the top. Earlier this week, Democratic commission chairwoman Jennifer Roberts asked her colleagues if they wanted to sign a letter thanking Burr, Kay Hagan, Larry Kissell and Mel Watt for voting to repeal the policy.  When Bill James, a Repub who represents the southeastern part of the county, found out about it, <a href="http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/12/30/1942056/bill-james-offers-yet-another.html">James hit the roof</a>. <blockquote> In an e-mailed response Monday to Roberts, James wrote, "Homosexuals are sexual predators." He also sent around a copy of a 1988 article about child molesters from the Archives of Sexual Behavior, and he highlighted one out-of-context sentence: "Eighty-six percent of offenders against males described themselves as homosexual or bisexual." </blockquote> Staggering bigotry, even by North Carolina standards.  And it's something that absolutely cannot stand. rss@dailykos.com (Christian Dem in NC) BillJames Charlotte Homophobia LGBT North Carolina NorthCarolina Recommended _932658 Fri, 31 Dec 2010 23:57:48 +0000 Breaking: A few more gay-directed gems from Bill James https://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/17/815708/-Breaking-A-few-more-gay-directed-gems-from-Bill-James A few more words of wisdom by North Carolina Commissioner Bill James regarding his opinion on the domestic partners bill (<a href="http://www.q-notes.com/1535/james-uses-anti-trans-slur-voices-concern-over-meck-domestic-partners/">QNotes, January 2009</a>): rss@dailykos.com (Verbalpaintball) BillJames Racist _815708 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:22:02 +0000 Quote for Discussion: Bill James on Steroids https://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/8/24/771993/-Quote-for-Discussion-Bill-James-on-Steroids <blockquote> It means that steroids keep you young. You may not like to hear it stated that way, because steroids are evil, wicked, mean and nasty and youth is a good thing, but...that’s what it means. Steroids help the athlete resist the effects of aging. Well, if steroids help keep you young, what’s wrong with that?  What’s wrong with that is that steroids may help keep players "young" at some risk to their health, and the use of steroids by athletes may lead non-athletes to risk their health as well. </blockquote> rss@dailykos.com (Jay Elias) Baseball BillJames Drugs performanceenhancingdrugs Steroids _771993 Tue, 25 Aug 2009 06:19:29 +0000 Obama, the polls, inevitability and Bill James https://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/16/398743/-Obama-the-polls-inevitability-and-Bill-James Strange diary title, I know.   I was inspired to write this dairy by <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/16/11262/716">Icebergslim's fine diary</a> today titled "Obama and Iowa"  In it she quoted the <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-field_dorningoct13,0,5742334.story?coll=chi-livingsub-utl">Chicago Tribune</a> as saying the following: <blockquote> Campaign officials say Obama's emphasis on ground organization reflects the nature of a presidential campaign that styles itself a popular movement and the preferences of a man whose early adulthood was spent as a street-level community organizer. </blockquote> Much has been written here about how the campaigns are going, though how we view a campaign depends on our perspective.  'Did this candidate look confident in the debate I saw'?  'Was that candidate effective at YearlyKos'? 'How was my candidate's ___ plan received in the press'? And always...'what do the poll numbers say'? rss@dailykos.com (snout) Barack Obama BarackObama BillJames inevitabiilty Iowa moneyball Polling Primaries Rasmussen Recommended _398743 Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:52:51 +0000 Courage Quotient for Democrats https://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/8/10/235283/-Courage-Quotient-for-Democrats Back in the 80's Bill James started a revolution in baseball metrics (stats). Discarding stats that fail to measure what's most important in performance - run production for hitters, run prevention for pitchers -  Bill and his merry band of run counters created a whole array of stats that better measured how much a player contributes to either offensive or defensive productivity. He called this new vein of stats Sabermetrics. One of the more useful stats that has come out of the Sabermetrics revolution is something abbreviated as VORP. VORP translates to "Value above replacement player." It's intended to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. The concept is simple to understand: establish a baseline for what any adequate major league player can be expected to produce, then determine how much above of below that baseline any individual player actually performs. rss@dailykos.com (lepermessiah) BillJames CleanElections Rescued Sabermetrics _235283 Thu, 10 Aug 2006 16:12:57 +0000 756 Home Runs and Secession https://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/6/14/218805/-756-Home-Runs-and-Secession You have heard this story before. The Southern chunk of the continent, after years of rising tensions, breaks off and tries to form a country by itself.  Bloodshed and hardship ensue, families are split apart, the war drags on for years, but in the end the tenacity of the rebels and the leadership of an incorruptible Virginia general carry the day. Wait.  That's not how it ends. rss@dailykos.com (anotherJames) Baseball BillJames Secession Theocracy _218805 Wed, 14 Jun 2006 19:46:23 +0000