By Jonathan Miller, on Tue Oct 16, 2012 at 12:15 PM ET
As many political commenters have noted, the first Obama/Romney debate a few weeks ago was our nation’s first Twitter debate. Twitter commentary during the debate was as potent, if not more, than the traditional post-debate spin from the talking heads.
Tonight, the RP Nation is being empowered to join in the fun. During tonight’s second debate (which begins at 9:00 PM EDY), we will be running a live feed on our home page that will include up-to-the-second tweeting of our bipartisan group contributing recovering politicians, including Michael Steele, Krystal Ball, Jeff Smith, and Rod Jetton.
And you too can join in. Just use the hashtag #RecoveringPol, and your tweets about tonight’s debate will be broadcast live at The Recovering Politician.
So bring on your spin, commentary, observations, and jokes. We look forward to opening the civil discussion to a whole new audience.
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Tue Oct 16, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
This week two teams, the Dirty Diapers and Targaryen 2012, joined your hero in a tie for first place. Meanwhile, a logjam has formed in the middle of the standing at 3-3.
The RP himself is sitting on a .500 record despite have scored the most points thus far.
Bringing up the rear – the lowly Bandits. Why are they sitting alone at the bottom of the table? It might have something to do with the fact that over 25% of their points have come from their defense and kicker.
Join Team HTC for the Lexington, KY premiere screening of “Hitting the Cycle” on Thursday, October 11th @ 7:30pm! The film will be shown at The Kentucky Theater with an exclusive cast & crew after party immediately following the show at Portofino Restaurant (249 East Main Street, across the street from the theater).
“Hitting the Cycle” an independently produced feature film shot entirely on location in Lexington, Ky., was named Best Dramatic Feature Film at the 2012 Manhattan Film Festival in New York City.
The fictional story follows Jimmy “Rip” Ripley, a professional baseball player nearing the end of his career, who reluctantly revisits his long-forgotten hometown to face his estranged, dying father. While attempting to reconcile his fractured past with an uncertain future, Rip begins to gain insight into the choices, opportunities and sacrifices that people confront when they outlive the life of their dreams.
“Hitting the Cycle” screened at the 10-day Manhattan Film Festival in late June, and won the Best Dramatic Feature Film award at a ceremony on July 1st. Hitting the Cycle previously won an award in May at the Tupelo Film Festival in Mississippi.
Lexington native J. Richey Nash portrays the lead character of Rip in Hitting the Cycle. Now based in Los Angeles, Nash also wrote, produced and co-directed the film (along with Darin Anthony). Oscar-nominated actor Bruce Dern plays Rip’s father. Co-producer (and RP Sister) Jennifer Miller is seen in the picture above with Nash accepting the Manhattan Film Festival award.
Though many of the film’s stars and primary crew members are Hollywood-based, Nash decided to bring the production to Lexington because of the diversity of available filming locations and the growing number of production and talent resources (Kentuckians comprise two-thirds of the cast and crew). The opening scenes from Hitting the Cycle take place at readily recognizable Lexington venues, most notably the ballpark of the Lexington Legends, the popular local Minor League Baseball team. The remainder of the story unfolds in “Sayreville,” Rip’s fictional hometown. Shooting locations included public parks, private homes, bars, restaurants, a high school, and several University of Kentucky hospital buildings.
“Lexington was the ideal place to shoot this film not only for its beautiful scenery and varied locations, but also for the tremendous support of the local community,” said Nash. “We had such a great experience. I wouldn’t hesitate to come back to Kentucky for another film project.”
Don’t miss this opportunity to be among the first in Lexington to see “Hitting the Cycle” on the big screen, then mingle with the filmmakers and cast at the after party! Reserve your tickets today before this event sells out!
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Tue Oct 9, 2012 at 3:00 PM ET
Welcome to the new and improved Tuesday edition of your Recovering Politician Bowl update!
Our low scorer of the week, at 70 points was the aptly named Bungals, managed by RP Webmaster Justin Burnette, while the week’s high scorer at 126 points was The Dirty Diapers, who are managed by Friends of RP Rebecca and Jacob Parker.
This week saw yours truly, the hero of this story, take his rightful place at the top of the leaderboard with a 4-1 record. Bringing up the rear of the standings are the Bandits and Augies, each at 1-4.
By Jonathan Miller, on Mon Oct 8, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
A lot of virtual ink has been spilled about Friday’s controversial infield fly rule call in the Major League Baseball playoff game between the Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals.
Rob Neyer, one of my favorite sports journalists, offers this dispassionate, very persuasive, and counter conventional-wisdom analysis as to why the umps got the call right. Here’s an excerpt:
Now, before we get to the heart of the thing, let me clear up a couple of things.
Friday night, a great number of observers — and I use the word “observers” quite literally — complained that left-field umpire Sam Holbrook didn’t make the call immediately, as (supposedly) stipulated by the rule. But that isn’t what the rule says. What the rule says is that he should make the call immediately after it comes apparent that it’s an Infield Fly.
Usually, that happens a split-second after the ball is hit; most of the time, it’s quickly apparent that an infielder might easily make the play. This just wasn’t one of those times. Because of where the ball was hit — short left field — it wasn’t apparent until a) the baseball began its descent, and b) there was an infielder in the vicinity.
But what’s truly odd about the complaint is that making the call “late” actually helped the Braves. If an umpire had screamed “Infield Fly” immediately, the runners might well have held their bases. Instead they went halfway down their respective baselines, and actually advanced one base apiece. Even if you think they would have gotten there anyway, the delayed call certainly didn’t hurt the Braves.
So let’s forget about that complaint, and focus instead on the only valid point of dispute, a simple question:
Could that fair fly ball have been caught by an infielder with ordinary effort?
By Jonathan Miller, on Mon Oct 8, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET
We’re in trouble. And the people we sent to Congress to solve America’s biggest problems are completely stuck.
On January 1, unless our leaders stop the partisan brawling and focus on solutions, we’ll face massive budget cuts and tax increases that could send the U.S. economy back into a tailspin.
We all remember what economic meltdown is like. None of us — in any party — want to go through it again. We can head this crisis off at the pass, but not unless we fix the Senate filibuster. If we don’t, then we can assume that any policy solution will be sabotaged through the filibuster process.
The filibuster is used in the Senate now more than ever before — in part, because it’s easier to do than it used to be. A senator doesn’t even have to hold the floor to force a filibuster anymore. Often, all a senator has to do is signal that he or she intends to filibuster a bill to bring the whole process to a dead stop.
Just one senator can take the whole body hostage — and he or she can do it in secret without ever having to make his or her case.
It’s outrageous. And because elected officials are using it to block legislation introduced by their opposing parties, it’s preventing potential solutions from receiving due consideration in Washington.
Our Senate leaders can help stop the gridlock by putting limits on how and when the filibuster can be used when legislators return to Washington in January. But they won’t — not unless they feel the heat from all of us.
In his latest column for The Huffington Post, The RP discusses the work of a new grassroots movement that, like No Labels, brings Democrats and Republicans together to address our nation’s critical problems. It is called “Fix the Debt,” and it already involves more than 100,000 Americans in urging fiscal sanity on our national leaders.
Please join the great work of “Fix the Debt” by clicking here.
Here’s an excerpt of the RP’s column:
Already, the fear of the fiscal cliff has caused businesses to slow hiring and investments, and Moody’s, the credit-rating agency, has stated that it will consider downgrading our credit rating if responsible actions to begin bringing down the debt are not taken as part of an effort to avoid the cliff.
Our political leadership needs to take action before the debt becomes so burdensome that it severely hampers our country’s ability to compete, maintain our social safety net or create jobs.
However, there is hope.
Already, a group of former lawmakers, experts, business leaders, and concerned citizens from across the political spectrum have come together, putting their ideological differences aside, in pursuit of a common-sense plan.
This new bipartisan group, called the Campaign to Fix The Debt — chaired nationally by former Sen. Alan Simpson and former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles — has already received support from over 180,000 Americans in a petition drive to hold elected officials accountable, demanding that our nation’s fiscal path remains front and center in the public discourse.
Of course, generating a solid plan to reduce our national debt — without knee-jerk reactions or extreme measures — is an uphill climb, to say the least.
But initiatives like the Campaign to Fix the Debt prove that we do have leaders willing to look at both sides of the ledger — spending and revenue — in order to find a deal.
By Jonathan Miller, on Wed Oct 3, 2012 at 3:30 PM ET
Photo courtesy of @MarkZuckerman
It’s a Cinderella story. Or maybe a Miracle on Grass.
After losing 538 straight times to his Mount Rushmore colleagues, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt this afternoon finally won the Washington Nationals’ Presidents’ Race held on every home game day at Nationals’ Park since 2006.
Teddy’s cause had been championed by a blog, Let Teddy Win!, that followed his exploits, and even had the support of leading politicians such as John McCain, who blamed his political hero’s losing streak on a “massive left-wing conspiracy.”
Please join me in wishing the Trust Buster/Rough Rider a hearty Mazel Tov!
