deadlines...

'And from my neck so free The Albatross fell off, and sank Like lead into the sea' ...

—The Rime of the Ancient Mariner-Samuel Taylor Coleridge

To be clear, I was sitting on the couch in my parent's living room, ottoman between legs, like the night Mookie Wilson became immortal and Queens was the center of the world 20 Autumns before, when it happened. Lord Charles, the hammer, the hook—whatever you call it. The first time I laid eyes on one while standing in a batters box was the last time, some kid from Bayside High made me look silly. So as the St. Louis Cardinals celebrated in front of me and Carlos Beltran walked off, defeated and despondent, my first thought was of wonderment...

"Who throws a fucking 3-2 curve ball in the ninth inning of the seventh game of a National League Championship Series?!"

The answer, of course, was Adam Wainwright, that's who...

In the days that passed the natural inclination of most Met fans was to curse Beltran for keeping the bat on his shoulder and taking the backwards K. None of those fans have every seen a curve ball up close and personal, and therefore didn't know any better. But while the Beltran K and the failure of the team to advance to the World Series in 2006 was fated by Wainwright's 12-to-6er, it would not compare to what would befall the franchise over the next four years...

I don't have the time or inclination to rehash days gone by, suffice to say that the Mets, historically are a likeness of the Mariner in Samuel Coleridge's epic "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and Beltran, fair or not represents the albatross in this current playing out of Met struggles. The trading of Seaver, the one inning too long for Gooden and the surrender of the Scioscia home run, Benitez, and Heilman and Yadier. The Beltran strikeout laid on the neck of the franchise like the albatross...

Beltran has been a great Met, when he has been healthy he has been everything we ever asked of him. He was no Mike Piazza, but who could be, Beltran came in and was a 5-tool player for this team. He played hurt until he couldn't play no more and hurt he was still better than the majority of center fielders in the game, so I'm sorry to see him go in that sense. But it occurred to me this morning as the Mets approached 6 1/2 games behind the wild card leading Atlanta Braves that there is a distinct difference in this team than the one that was playing the game just one week ago. They are free, the rain has fallen, there is water and there is wind. Regardless of how this season plays out, and whether the Mets keep it interesting through September or succeed in the improbable by cinching a wild card playoff birth, the albatross is gone. Never again will anyone have to answer for not swinging at a curve ball...

Never again will a Met's player have to answer for what happened in the past, because the all of a sudden, the Mets have a future...

the 8th district...

Ohio Congressmen and Speaker of the House John Boehner got his gift horse, and he didn't just look it in the mouth, he took a boot to its kisser...

Republican lawmakers have drawn a line in the sand that shows they have no understanding of mathematics. We've spent the last 10 years with tax law in place that was initially enacted for general relief and then to stimulate job growth. We were all too busy chanting USA!, USA! and collecting a sparse check for $600-1,100 to notice anything fishy....

The cuts were trumpeted as a way to jump start job growth by providing incentives for businesses to hire, particularly in the small business sector. The cuts were supposed to help small businesses of this great nations survive under the crushing weight of the previous tax code. I worked for a small business in 2003-2006, and now that small business is one man in and out of a hospital bed without health insurance. So much for his piece of the pie. But that's not on Mr. Boehner, no, he was just s spoke in the wheel then voting yay to whatever President George W. Bush and his administration cooked up. Rising costs for two wars, weapons development programs and homeland security measures be damned, they cut revenue anyway. Fund medicare as a legacy?, 'sure, why not, let's get sushi and not pay!' Even President Ronald Reagan knew better than to get involved in a 'real' wars when he made his deep cuts in government revenue. But for all of his candy-coated sentiment and his wife's 'Just Say No' bravado we all got high enough that when we came out of our stupor the country had evolved into an oligarchy. President George H.W. Bush sealed his fate by campaigning on the call of 'Read My Lips...' and we all decided to take the power back. It was 1992...

Well, here we go again...

Ten years of tax cuts and spendthrift ways. Its 1992 all over again and Mr. Boehner is going to speak for a party so fractured they have forgotten what to call themselves. Mr. Boehner is today's H.W. Bush. Given the deal of a lifetime with all the trimmings, cuts in entitlements, smaller government, and without stripping defense contracts, Boehner draws the line and says no new taxes. He speaks not for his 8th Congressional District of Ohio that makes an average of $43, 753, but for his place of residence in West Chester, Ohio, who's motto reads; "Where families grow and businesses prosper." A place where Proctor and Gamble, BAE Systems, GE Aviation and CEVA Logistics all hang a hat. Indeed a growing township that I'm sure is making more than $43, 753 per household...

I wonder, when the President provides a deal that includes $3 Trillion in spending cuts over 10 years, which is 3/4 of the cuts that Congressman Paul Ryan has projected using conservative think tank estimates, what's the issue? Is it the fact that on top of that the President would like to roll back elements of the tax code, not on personal income tax mind you, but on corporate profits made overseas, and breaks on the use of private jets? Breaks on those high-level corporate administrators that took the Bush tax cuts, put them in their pockets, pushed economically toxic waste investment strategies and then ask for some help from their own default? American people be damned, for these folks first class isn't good enough they need to fly private!...

Goldman Sachs recently laid off 1,000 people and took those same jobs to Singapore and hired 1,000 residents of the Malaysian country. This wasn't 1,000 secretarial and mail room jobs, these were college educated trading positions, and in some cases, MBA holding individuals that lost out on their cherry gigs because they make too much money. If I were Goldman Sachs my next move would be to apply for work visas for every new hire in Singapore, put them on the books as American workers and celebrate with 1,000 additional heads for the tax cut tally. But I'm not Goldman Sachs, I have a conscience. I also believe in the free market, the same market that would have crushed them like grapes if they didn't receive their piece of corporate welfare, courtesy of my job and the jobs of millions of Americans. Thanks for that...

Exxon Mobil is only required to declare 5% of its overseas profits for the benefit of its corporate income tax. That's like saying for every dollar you make the government is taking a nickel. A NICKEL. Five Cents! Sure Exxon Mobil employs hundreds of thousands but they also lobby against energy reform and rattle sabers with OPEC millionaires in countries that breed teenage America-haters. They have played both sides to the middle like an Upton Sinclair novel and come off looking Dickensian...

I'm not looking for Mr. Boehner's ear or Mr. Ryan's or anyone else screaming 'hell no we won't tax.' I'm not looking for the ear of Senator Harry Reid or any other democrat who think that saving entitlements for this generation is worth losing the next three generations. Your children's and their children and so on. I'm looking for the ear of the 8th Congressional District of Ohio. Hamilton, Middleton, Huber Heights, Eaton, Greenville, Piqua, Troy and those parts of Dayton, those residents that hold Mr. Boehners fate in their hands every two years. Mr. Boehner has made his decision for Christ. He has once again put you under the bus. Don't let him lie to you again. Tax code changes are not job killers, corporations are. These conglomerates can choose to do the right thing and be good for their communities in a way that satisfies all, they just choose not to. Mr. Boehner is up for reelection like every member of this 112th session of Congress. Send him out on a rail because he doesn't remember what it was like to make a salary $43, 753 and he surely doesn't care to know either—no matter how many tears he sheds. Vote for the Republican challenger to current President Obama as well, I don't mind, but be sure to know that when you do he was not the only one who failed you, Mr. Boehner is getting a little surf and turf action going on tonight regardless of whether a deal goes down...

The American people want action from their President and he has answered their call. Why won't Mr. Boehner and his cronies pick up the line?...

I implore those residents of Ohio, to pass this along to those they know from the 8th district of Ohio. Pass along just a little logic from the constellation...