Friday, July 29, 2011

Wait, who's in office now?

Hypocrisy busts are too easy, but this one is so devoid of principle I cannot resist (hat tip @jamestaranto):

* "This theory of presidential power argues, in essence, that when the President acts in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief, he may make his own rules and cannot be bound by Congressional laws to the contrary. This is a theory of presidential dictatorship. These views are outrageous and inconsistent with basic principles of the Constitution as well as with two centuries of legal precedents. Yet they were the basic assumptions of key players in the Bush Administration in the days following 9/11."--Jack Balkin, Yale Law School, March 3, 2009

* " 'At the point at which the economy is melting down, who cares what the Supreme Court is going to say?' Professor Balkin said. 'It's the president's duty to save the Republic.' "--New York Times, July 25, 2011

He was against dictatorship before he was for it!

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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Longest MLB losing streaks

Thanks to SABR member Frank Vaccaro for this list (EndDate is the date of the win that broke the streak):

Rank Streak Team League Season StartDate EndDate
1 31 BKN na 1875 5/29-10/9
2 26 LOU aa 1889 5/22-6/23
3 24 CLE n 1899 8/26-9/18
4 23 PIT n 1890 8/12-9/4
23 PHI n 1961 7/29-8/20

6 22 PHI aa 1890 9/16-10/12
7 21 BAL a 1988 4/4-4/29
8 20 LOU n 1894 5/28-6/19
20 BOS a 1906 5/1-5/25
20 PHI a 1916 7/21-8/9

20 PHI a 1943 8/7-8/24
20 MON n 1969 5/13-6/8
13 19 BOS n 1906 5/17-6/9
19 CIN n 1914 9/5-9/23
19 DET a 1975 7/29-8/16 (Frank's wife's birthday!)

19 KC a 2005 7/28-8/20
17 18 CIN n 1876 7/11-8/25
18 LOU n 1894 8/15-9/6
18 STL n 1897 9/3-9/27
18 PHI a 1920 6/8-6/28

18 WAS a 1948 9/3-9/19
18 WAS a 1959 7/19-8/5
23 17 WAS n 1894 5/3-5/29
17 BOS a 1926 8/20-9/8
17 NY n 1962 5/21-6/8

17 ATL n 1977 4/23-5/12
17 SEA a 2011 7/6-7/27

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