Government works?

Despite it being 40+ degrees, it was a miserable day. The heavens opened up and released a watery wrath, inundating the lovely cities of Boston, Cambridge, and surrounding areas. Naturally, someone at MIT Facilities dropped the ball and forgot to unlock the doors on the right side of the Green Building and in the front of Bldg. 33, forcing me to take longer and damper routes to my destinations. And did I mention that I don't have an umbrella?

The House of Representatives wasted my time and tax dollars today by calling in Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee to testify with respect to the Mitchell Report. I will stay true to my decree of not discussing the details of this little soap opera. What I will comment on, however, is the lack of professionalism displayed by our elected congressmen. Thank god I only caught the end of it; I don't think I could have handled all four hours (?) of name-calling, childish bickering, and representatives taking the moral high road and taking pleasure at beating Roger down with their Stick of Righteousness. And McNamee! Despite how much of a crook he is, he doesn't deserve to be called "immoral" and "a drug dealer" like he's on an elementary school playground. It was truly despicable.

Look. I understand why Congress should care about the use of PEDs in baseball. 1) As legislators, they have the responsibility to look into instances in which the law is being bent, and 2) as the representatives of the people, they are charged with dealing with the large issues that concern us. But this afternoon, they failed to accomplish any of those tasks. Instead, we saw a bunch of old and bitter men, who clearly think it's unfair that athletes get so much praise and attention, rip Roger Clemens to pieces for fun. For sport. For some sort of revenge. Regardless of his guilt, he did not deserve that and the House had no business doing it.

(Meanwhile, Osama Bin Laden laughs at our priorities as he sips wine on a European beach.)

Sick of the inefficiencies of the system? Then vote for change. Speaking of, the Democratic Party is going to have to instate some institutional changes after this nomination phase is over and done with. Superdelegates are becoming a huge issue. You know this is true because even the media, which likes to simplify away details, is being forced to come to terms with it. The fact that party elites could overrule the popular vote and singlehandedly decide the nominee is a frightening concept, essentially taking us back to the days before the McGovern-Fraser reforms. This situation is the talk of the town, and no matter how this ends up, the DNP will have to look at this process critically. All hell with break lose if the supers go against public opinion, and I don't think the Dems want to deal with that internal fallout with an important election around the corner.

On that note, the punishment for Michigan and Florida is also problematic. Removing a states' delegates makes sense if the only people affected are party elites. But the fact that members of the party-in-the-electorate, who had nothing to do with moving the primary dates, lost their voices just doesn't make sense. Our party system needs to catch up with the times...

Moving on to a little baseball: The Twins picked up free-agent Livan Hernandez to add depth and experience to their rotation. Err, right. Hernandez had a 4.39 ERA in the NL with the Diamonbacks last season. Yes, he's a workhorse, but no, he won't be an adequate replacement for Silva and Santana. A league adjustment alone will boost his ERA somewhere closer to 5.00, and that not even factoring in the fact that he's starting in the same division as the Tigers and Indians. *Sigh* Bill Smith--what have you done with this team?