Sorry Hawk, Great Danes' Bark Worse than their Bite

As many of you know, Lawhawk is an alumni of Albany University, in New York. The Albany Great Danes made it to the NCAA's march madness for the second year in a row, after defeating Vermont, 60-59, in a thriller to win the America East title. The Danes, who last year played # 1 ranked UConn tough in a 72-59 loosing effort, were ranked # 13 and and facing the #4 ranked Virginia Cavaliers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. However, the Danes again fell short of advancing to the second round.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Flat on his back after a hard foul, J.R. Reynolds figured he might as well give it a shot.

Why not? Everything else was going in.

The high-scoring guard with a balky hip made shots from everywhere on the court Friday -- including a just-for-fun fling from his back -- while leading Virginia to an 84-57 victory over Albany in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

"When you get it going like that ..." Reynolds said sheepishly, referring to his on-the-back bank shot. "That was a tough shot."

Everything came easy for the Cavaliers (21-10), who advanced in the South Regional with their first tournament win since 1995, when they reached the final eight. It was their most lopsided win in 37 NCAA Tournament games.

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The America East Conference champs gained distinction last year, when they made the tournament for the first time and, as a No. 16 seed, took mighty UConn to the limit. Huskies coach Jim Calhoun was so impressed that he later embraced Brown and told him: "You guys are special."

They returned to the tournament with senior guard Jamar Wilson, the conference's two-time player of the year, and a confidence bordering on brashness. They told everything that they had packed enough clothes to spend the weekend in Columbus.

Wilson missed five of his first six shots, allowing Virginia to take control. He finished with 25 points on 9-of-18 shooting, but it wasn't nearly enough.

"We've been eating and sleeping (thinking about) the Virginia Cavaliers," Wilson said. "The fact of the matter is, they took us out of our game."

And sent them home with a lot of clean clothes.

Well congrats to the Danes for a great run, hopefully they can improve again next year.

Senate Says No To Retreat

WASHINGTON — The Democratic Party's presidential field is dividing over the question of funding American soldiers in Iraq, with senators Obama of Illinois and Clinton of New York voting with an 82-to-16 majority for a Republican resolution against cutting any money for troops in the field. Senators Biden of Delaware and Dodd of Connecticut were in the minority.

The vote, along with the narrow 50-to-48 defeat of a binding resolution calling for the withdrawal of soldiers from Iraq by March 31, 2008, was a major victory for the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, a Republican of Kentucky who quietly worked for two months to persuade his caucus to vote together.

Assisted by two Democrats, Senator Pryor of Arkansas and Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and by an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, Senator Lieberman of Connecticut, the Republicans defeated a resolution sponsored by the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, a Democrat of Nevada, which would mandate that the military begin a retreat from Iraq within 120 days of its passage. They did so even though a strong hawk, Senator McCain, a Republican of Arizona, was absent. He was in Iowa campaigning for the presidency.

At least the Senate understands how important it is to continue funding for the troops in Iraq. And at least 50 members of the Senate understand how important it is to keep the troops in Iraq until the mission is accomplished. The war in Iraq is central to the global war on terrorism. Forget the chicken/egg debate of whether Al Qaeda was in Iraq before America's invasion or not, the simple fact is that they are there now. Al Qaeda is spending considerable resources in trying to win Iraq. America can not let that happen.

Remember, Al Qaeda is a war mongering entity without a country. Engaging them in a foreign country is much better than engaging them in our own. If we can continue to disrupt their operations, gather intelligence on them and keep them centrally confined to Iraq and Afghanistan, that is a victory in its own right. Not allowing them the moment to regroup, rethink and retool against domestic American targets is as important a goal as anything. This is the first time that Al Queda has been militarily challenged, and while America has unfortunately taken casualties, the casualty rate on the other side is higher and costlier.

My apologies to loyal readers

As many of you have noticed, this blog was not updated for several days. The reason is that Lawhawk has taken Mrs. Lawhawk on a well deserved second honeymoon to France. If memory serves, France was the intended destination of their first honeymoon, but they changed their plans after the events of 9/11.

It has been up to me to keep the faithful informed in Lawhawk's absence. However, as Lawhawk posted a few weeks ago, Mrs. Legalbgl and I were been blessed with the arrival of a baby girl on February 24. Since then life has been a whirlwind. No sleep nights, lots of work during the day, and to boot, an emergency trip to the animal hospital in the middle of the night for doggy legalbgl. Needless to say, I have not had much time in the last few weeks to post anything.

Well, rest assured, that Lawhawk's absence is short lived and I will endeavor to post more in the meantime. I thank you all, the loyal readers, for your continued readership.

Rose: 'I bet on my team every night'

I always said that I would believe it when there was proof. Well, an admission is proof!

NEW YORK (AP) -- Pete Rose bet on the Cincinnati Reds "every night" when he managed them and, despite his lifetime ban because of gambling, would like another chance in a major league dugout.

"I bet on my team every night. I didn't bet on my team four nights a week," Rose said Wednesday on "The Dan Patrick Show" on ESPN Radio.

"I bet on my team to win every night because I love my team, I believe in my team," he said. "I did everything in my power every night to win that game."

In a wide-ranging interview, the banned Rose said he thinks he should be reinstated because "I believe I'm the best ambassador baseball has." He hopes a new exhibit in Cincinnati is a sign baseball will soften its stance toward him.

If reinstated, the 65-year-old Rose said he would like to again manage in the majors.

Now, I understand Baseball's possission on gambling. Allowing ilelgal gambling jeopardizes the integrity of the game and threatens the leagues long standing anti-trust exemption. However, did Pete Rose do anything so wrong that justifies a life time ban? I believe that a punishment should fit the crime. A life time ban for someone who has dedicated his life towards baseball, was one of the greatest players of his time, is to long.

Baseball should reinstate Pete Rose and allow him to be judged by the voting members of the hall of fame.

Iran president calls U.N. resolution "torn paper"

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday dismissed any new U.N. sanctions resolution as "a torn piece of paper" that would not stop Tehran's nuclear work, the official IRNA news agency reported.

U.S., British, French, German, Russian and Chinese diplomats at the United Nations have reached a tentative deal on imposing fresh sanctions on Iran and hope to introduce the measure at the Security Council on Thursday, providing their governments agree.

"Issuing such torn pieces of paper ... will not have an impact on Iranian nation's will," IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as telling a rally in central Iran.

An earlier sanctions resolution passed by the Security Council in December was derided by Ahmadinejad in similar terms.

Senior Iranian leaders, including the country's most powerful figure Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have all ruled out halting uranium enrichment, which can produce fuel for use either in nuclear bombs or civilian power stations.

But moderate Iranian politicians have blamed Ahmadinejad's defiant rhetoric for pushing Iran toward international isolation and want a less confrontational approach.

Two prominent Iranian reform parties have urged the government to suspend enrichment to preserve what they call the national interest, a reference to avoiding isolation that could hurt the economy. But officials brush off economic worries.

Lets hope for the sake of the world that these reform parties have the political capital to rein in the mad mullahs in Iran. Iran is a key player in the middle east. They support terrorist activities in Lebabon, Syria and Iraq. They have the ability to play a destabalizing role in the region, which, given the worlds dependence on oil, has a destabalizing effect on the world.

The problem is that Ahmadinejad's rhetoric and defiance has put him on a collision course with the world. When U.S., British, French, German, Russian and Chinese diplomats all agree on something, you know it must be important.