Our CIA man in Pakistan

Yesterday, the Guardian had an in-depth piece about Raymond Davis, the American consular employee in Lahore, Pakistan, who killed two Pakistanis a month ago, then had another consular employee kill a third while driving to pick him up, by hitting that person with his vehicle.

The story made clear (shock me) that Davis is a spook working for the CIA.

Beyond the disgustingness of the Obama Administrastion, we have members of the U.S. mainstream media who allegedly have also known this about Davis but not printed it.

Meanwhile, the WaPost looks at the legal ramifications of the U.S. claiming Davis has diplomatic immunity. Of course, the warmongering editorial page of the post won't look at the ramifications of an ongoing undeclared war against Pakistan.

Angelo Mozilo has friends in high places

Or, another bankster gets a pass.

Former Countrywide CEO Mozilo will not be charged with any crimes related to Countrywide's role in the subprime housing bubble.

Must be more "looking forward" by the Obama Administration's Department of Justice.

Jim Edmonds is NOT a HOFer

Sorry, Cardinals fans, and others.

I swear, ESPN must ask every potential baseball writer, as part of the hiring process, if they are "Big Hall" or "Hall of Fame maximalist" guys.

Cincinnati Reds blogger Chad Dodson, given a temporary perch on ESPN's Sweet Spot, is the latest to drink the Kool-Aid, this time over Jim Edmonds.

Dude, look at his numbers. Zero black ink at Baseball-Reference. Little gray ink.

Yes, he was a great defensive CF (more on that below) ... but, because of injuries in part inflicted by the reckless OF play, he fell short of 2,000 hits.

You compare him to Duke Snider. And put him ahead of Andre Dawson, whom you rightfully said is an iffy HOFer.

Well, at the plate, he also compares to Ellis Burks. And Fred Lynn (with good injuries parallel). And Jason Giambi.

True, none of them have his mitt. But, of his Gold Gloves, he had one in a negative dWAR year and another at a 0.1 dWAR.

I recognize that CFs don't get a lot of respect at times from the Hall. But, that's no reason to open the barriers too much.

And, that said, I'm open to a debate on how much we should value defense in a CF versus the corner OF positions. I know B-R does positional adjusting and weights that. But, I just can't get past how much the injuries took away from Edmonds' career; it reminds me a bit of Pete Reiser.

Justin Bieber, Rick Fox, get a room FFS!

First, this whole idea of a celebrity all-star game as part of the NBA's All-Star weekend? Puhleeze. Spare me. What next? Slow-pitch celebrity softball as part of MLB's All-Star break?

Beyond this, are you are creeped out as I am by Rick Fox saying Justin Bieber has "the softest hair"?

And, no, I will not Photoshop a pic of Fox finding that out for himself. Besides, looking at his ugly shoes, why bother with a Photoshopping?

Maybe he and Rick can do a duo on next year's "Dancing with the Stars."

Walker is high on Koch

Yes, Scott Walker, the new GOP governor of Wisconsin, is high on Koch - money from the Koch brothers, that is. The Center for Media and Democracy has details.

Loch Ness Monster cousin is NOT found

In the British paper the Telegraph, there's a gullible story claiming that someone with a cell phone caught a picture of "Brownessie," hailed as the English cousin to the Loch Ness monster.

Well, the story's not totally gullible. It did interview one skeptic:

Photo expert David Farnell of Farnell’s photographic laboratory in Lancaster said: “It does look like a real photo but because it’s been taken on a phone the file size is too small to really tell whether it has been altered on Photoshop or not.”

OK, here's why I'm skeptical.

Shutterbug Tom Pickles describes the event:

“It was petrifying and we paddled back to the shore straight away. At first I thought it was a dog and then saw it was much bigger and moving really quickly at about 10mph.

Really? 10 miles per hour? I would think something swimming that fast would produce more ripples.

OK, so Pickles misestimated the speed. Then, we can rightfully ask, what else did he misjudge? The size?

He claims it was three cars in size. Moving even close to 10 mph, something that big would surely produce bigger ripples than in the picture.

Then, we have conflicting comments.

Pickles says:

“Its skin was like a seal’s but it’s shape was completely abnormal – it’s not like any animal I’ve ever seen before."

But kayak companion Sarah Harrington says:

“It was like an enormous snake.

Snakes don't have abnormal shapes. True, eyewitnesses have unreliable testimony, but that different?

The kicker? The story says Pickles and Harrington were out "as part of a team building exercise with his IT company, CapGemini."

OK, how many other people were getting built up? Any of them want to comment?

That said, speaking of comments, people on the story's website nail it. The "creature" looks too sharp, compared to the rest of the image. The perspective looks too "high" for it to be shot from a kayak, unless it was quite close. And, in that case, something three car lengths in size and moving at 10 mph would surely have swamped a kayak. In which case, the couple would have been seen being swamped by other IT team builders.

One other commenter notes a 24-year-old man and 23-year-old woman out on a lake together ... this might be a hoax not just to be a hoaxer, but to cover some tracks ...