Murda Inc. at the high school basketball championships

Every March for the past four years I have headed up to Glens Falls Civic Center to cover the New York State Championships and the Federation tournament.

It's a good chance to see some future Division I talent; usually a few players from each tournament find themselves playing in the NCAA Tournament 12 months later.

Some of the players to go through the tournament include Duke hero Christian Laettner, Knick washout Stephon Marbury (and his cousin Sebastian Telfair), and NBA all-star Chris Mullin.

Sunday afternoon, however, there was a celeb of a whole different kind in the building.

I'm talking about Irv Gotti, who was inexplicably shouting and waving a towel behind the Holy Cross bench during its matchup with perennial power Lincoln. Whispers about Gotti spread throughout a bemused but mildly frightened press row.

(Side note: I've been saying "murda inc" as a joking way to assent for about five years now, dating back to Ja Rule's explosion.)

So sitting maybe 100 feet away from the gangbanger and rap mogul who gave me one of my favorite catchphrases -- in a snowy upstate New York city on a Sunday afternoon -- was surreal.

Did I approach Gotti afterward?

No way.

Hell no.

Murda is so much more hilarious and ironic when you're nowhere near Irv Gotti.

Nader supports...Hillary?

Say what you want about Ralph Nader. God knows I have, even on this blog. Al Gore might be wrapping up his second term right now if not for Nader.

But here's a man who bleeds democracy, who continues to be as great a personal rights advocate as this country has ever had.

Today, Nader came out with a statement supporting the candidacy of...Hillary Clinton, who also happens to be one of the main reasons Nader is running again in 2008.

In the past, he has said she lacks any political fortitude. That and his usual criticisms of the major party candidates: too much lobbyist interest, too much outside money, a squelching of third parties, etc.

Here's his statement today, however, in light of several recent calls from Dem leaders--like Richardson, Leahy, Casey--to quit the race, handing the nomination to Obama.

Via Politico:

"Senator Clinton:

Just read where Senator Patrick Leahy is calling on you to drop out of the Presidential race. Believe me. I know something about this. Here’s my advice: Don’t listen to people when they tell you not to run anymore. That’s just political bigotry.

Listen to your own inner citizen First Amendment voice. This is America. Just like every other citizen, you have a right to run. Whenever you like. For as long as you like.

It’s up to you, Hillary. Just tell them – It’s democracy. Get used to it.

Yours truly, Ralph Nader."

Politics, continuing to make strange bedfellows.

March Madness, local style

Some people get lucky enough to experience sports' greatest thrill once, maybe twice in a playing career. Getting there as a coach is even harder.

Other people go back year after year no matter where they are.

Meet Scott Cherry.

I talked to the Saratoga Central Catholic grad--who won the 1993 national championship with North Carolina as a player and never missed the Sweet 16--yesterday. Now, he's at Western Kentucky as an assistant coach. We talked as Cherry, who was also on the George Mason staff when it went to the Final Four in 2006, was readying for the No. 12 Hilltoppers' meeting with top-seeded UCLA.

(UPDATE: UCLA is trying to hold off Western Kentucky right now. The winner will advance to face Xavier).

(SECOND UPDATE: UCLA held off a late Hilltopper charge and will face Xavier for a trip to the Final Four).

Superman that rapper

The Soulja Boy backlash is on.

The annoying, dance-craze inducing rapper was apparently the victim of a pretty dangerous crime when a 12-year-old boy was arrested and accused of throwing a rock through a hip-hop performer’s tour bus windshield Thursday night, police said.

Bloomington Police Lt. Pete Avery said the boy told officers, “I hate Soulja Boy.”

I wonder if this king of thing ever happened to Kriss Kross.

Jumping the Hope Shark

A funny, funny but unfortunate screenshot from MSNBC's Web site above during yesterday's "race speech" from Barack Obama. It's worth a click.

Also, this:


Yup, we've reached the Jesus-toast phase of the Obama campaign.

Frankly, I'm surprised it took this long.

A grunge epiphany

Is it weird that I'm mad about finding similarities between songs that have been out for almost 15 years? Too bad. This is what I still listen to.

So go and check out Alice in Chains' "God Am" and then listen to Stone Temple Pilots' "Wicked Garden."

You can even skip to the chorus.

And then you'll realize, as I did this morning, that somebody's stealing from somebody.

"Loud" and proud

Just checking in to link you to a story I wrote about Mechanicville boys basketball coach Joe Loudis, a legend around these parts. I defy you to spend 10 minutes with this guy and not walk away wishing him well.

At 65 and after a spate of recent health problems, Loudis--a 400-game winner who's been in the game since 1968--and the scrappy Red Raiders are surprisingly in the state final four this weekend.

Wipe your memory

The shame of the self-destruction of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is that arguably better, even more bizarre stories get lost in the shuffle.

Like this one.

Apparently some woman sat on a toilet for two years, until her skin grew around the seat.

But she wasn't glued. She wasn't tied.

She just didn't want to get up.

I bet Silda Spitzer wanted to do the same thing this morning.

Shine your $#&^, Guvnah?

What a stunning, sad story this is, regardless of party lines. Once again (and this seems to happen every six months or so), a politico has pushed the envelope too far, costing himself public humiliation if not elected office.

Hart. Clinton. McGreevey. Vitter. Craig.

Now our own governor.

On midnight Tuesday, a New York governor who had scaled the state's heights on the back of a legendary stint as a corruption busting attorney general is now in his final hours in public office after being caught in a prostitution ring.

I was in close proximity to Eliot Spitzer for a few minutes in the press box at Saratoga Race Course this past summer when he met with reporters about the future of the racing franchise.

No one, to be sure, could have predicted that--even after a roller coaster of a year during which his poll numbers plummeted due to a controversial plan to give illegal immigrants drivers' licenses--such a promising political career would come crashing down in this ugly a manner.

The body watch is on.

Textual Harrassment

I'm not exactly sure how there's even time enough to send 1,200 text messages over the course of 14 days, but a man in the U.K. did so -- and some were sickly abusive:

"In one of the barrage of messages, Tim Tomkinson, 36, of Whiteford Road, Kettering, told his former girlfriend he would put an axe in her head if she got together with any other men."

So how did this serial texter avoid jail?

"The victim said she wanted to give their relationship another go," the report said.

In text speak, I don't see how this avoids an LOL.

A call to backing the hell off

OK, fine, I admit it. Even I was guilty of this about five posts ago.

But we've reached a breaking point.

Stop the insanity.

No more articles about Al Gore that use the word "inconvenient," whether it's in headline, leader or tagline.

It just has to stop.

I'm calling on journos and bloggers from across the political spectrum and across the world to join me. And as Don Corleone says, I won't be the one to break the peace we've made here today.

Just don't test me.

Hold up...heyyyyy....to my junkies who be thinkin' this is over

In a night of comebacks (see: McCain, John), it was striking to watch Hillary save her candidacy again. After 11 straight defeats, pulling out wins in Texas and Ohio was akin to her surprise New Hampshire win just five days after her Iowa drubbing.

I know what the rest of you know, which is to say no one has any idea how this race is going to play out. It's likely to remain a deadlock (Obama ahead by 100 delegates or so but nowhere near the nomination) until, possibly, the August convention.

Will Florida and Michigan vote again? Will the superdelegates tip in any significant direction? Will Obama trip up badly enough to give Clinton the daylight she needs for an earned nomination?

At this point, we have no idea.

But I wanted to link to an article over at Slate that, presciently, points out that the conventional wisdom that the democrats are screwing themselves now that McCain is waiting around as the nominee is shortsighted:


"Like the calls for Al Gore to concede the presidency to George Bush in November 2000, this anxiety about the imagined consequences of a protracted fight misreads both history and the calendar. In 2000, pundits seemed not to know that contested elections in previous years—notably the 1960 race between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon—remained officially unresolved until barely a month before Inauguration Day, and so they talked as if each hour of uncertainty brought the republic nearer to doom.

The calls to wrap up the Democratic primary race show a similar amnesia. To suggest that March 5 marks a late date in the calendar ignores the duration of primary seasons past. Indeed, were Hillary Clinton to have pulled out of the race this week, Obama would have actually clinched a contested race for the party's nomination earlier than almost any other Democrat since the current primary system took shape—the sole exception being John Kerry four years ago. Fighting all the way through the primaries, in other words, is perfectly normal."

I mean, I don't think anyone is going to complain that any phase of this election is too short.

Double L

Thanks to my friend Kyle for sending this my way. I suggest watching it immediately.