The Curse of Barack Obama strikes Chase Utley.

Signe Wilkinson is doing a bang-up job chronicling what the pundits inexplicably call "these economic times." (Isn't every time economic, kinda like the weather?) Check out her cool portfolio here.

Meanwhile, it looks like the great commonwealth of Pa. is deciding that Boscov's is too big to fail. There could be hope for the Newspaper Economic Preservation Act of 2009 after all!

One of the great things about baseball is that usally you're back on the field within 24 hours of a crushing loss, with the ability to put a terrible play or miscue in your rear view mirror pretty quickly. Not so with football -- where a lousy game or a stupid comment is allowed to fester for days. So it has been with Donovan McNabb and his stunning admission that he didn't know there was only one overtime period and that a tie was possible in their 13-13 deadlock with the (equally?) lowly Bengels.

Everybody and his brother has an opinion, so you knew that Warren Sapp would be weighing in.

 WARREN SAPP: "…when I heard him say it I almost passed out. I thought, 'This will follow you for the rest of your career.' Your legacy in the league, Donovan, will be throwing up in the Super Bowl, Rush Limbaugh and now 'I didn’t know they were ties in the NFL.'"

Hey, he forgot getting booed on draft day. I think that Sapp was absolutely right, that these are the moments that define the McNabb decade in Philly -- and you could surely say that's unfair to ol' No. 5. It was Limbaugh (and the booing fans who, let us not forget, wanted future Pot Hall of Famer Ricky Williams) who was the idiot, not McNabb, and as for throwing up in the Super Bowl, that's never been proven despite the ring of truth.

But this tie thing is completely on D-Mac.

Look, the guy's never had Hall of Fame passing accuracy, and time has shown that he's not really a leader in the locker room, either. But he did seem to have three pretty big things going for him in the early 2000s heyday. He was a potent threat to run with the ball, he had the aura of a smart quarterback, and his team won.

But now he's too banged-up to carry the ball anymore, and his post 2004 record as a starter is mediocre. But his comments about the tie in Cincinnati were the last straw -- because he looked, fairly or not, like kind of a dim bulb on Sunday. So now No. 5 not only has no legs and no winning karma, but maybe he's not as intelligent as you thought all along.

What's left? 

Much more to come.

A peek into my not-so-distant future:

When a newspaper cuts its staff, those who remain in the depleted newsroom become valuable. But as The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. slowly says farewell to 151 newsroom folks who took buyouts last month, at least two longtime journalists have been reassigned to the mailroom.

Reporter Jason Jett and Assistant Deputy Photo Editor Mitchell Seidel have been filing, sorting, and delivering mail for more than a week, according to sources.

Jett and Seidel, who could not be reached for comment, apparently declined to take one of the buyouts offered this fall as part of a companywide move to cut costs.

An isolated incident? Maybe...or maybe not.

Talk about a sign of the times in the journalism industry. Staffers at the Longmont Times-Call recently received an internal e-mail inviting them to work as valets at a private Christmas party for the Lehman family, who own the paper. And at least two employees have already accepted the offer.

Ironically, on the day that those two stories were highlighted on the Romenesko journalism blog, so was this essay:

Journalism is becoming a more egalitarian profession—and that’s a good thing.

True, but who knew it was like this! At least people will be able to stop complaining about media "elitists" soon.

"My readers know more than I do."

-- media-reform guru Dan Gillmor.

Help! My readers think that the best pizza in Philadelphia is...Pizza Hut! You see, there was this thing called the 2008-2009 Daily News People Paper Awards. I'm not sure exactly how the "the people" made their choices known (this thing seems to be only in print with no online component...how 1963 of them), but on the issue of "best pizza," Philadelphia has spoken, and the answer is that chain that brought the pizza to your basic non-ethnic heartland communities in Kansas and such, Pizza Hut.

 They must really be bummed out at Papa John's.

Other famed Philly institutions that won 2008-09 Daily News People Paper Awards include the best family restaurant, Olive Garden, as well as Ruby Tuesday (best salad bar) and Dunkin Donuts (guess). As for Pizza Hut being Philly's best pizza, Mr. Tacconelli, Mr. Celebre, Mr. Marra and quite a few others must be -- depending on their condition -- shedding a tear or rolling over in their grave right now.

UPDATE: Here's a slightly more informed discussion of the topic... 

Apparently, palin' around with a washed-up '60s radical like Bill Ayers isn't enough to get Barack Obama admitted to the International League of Extraordinary Terrorists. If I didn't know better, I'd say that al-Qaeda doesn't like our new president. Didn't they see the secret fist jab?

CAIRO,Egypt (AP) - Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri insulted Barack Obama in the terror group's first reaction to his election, calling him a demeaning racial term implying that the president-elect is a black American who does the bidding of whites.

The message appeared chiefly aimed at persuading Muslims and Arabs that Obama does not represent a change in U.S. policies. Al-Zawahri said in the message, which appeared on militant Web sites Wednesday, that Obama is "the direct opposite of honorable black Americans" like Malcolm X, the 1960s African-American rights leader.

Al-Zawahri also called Obama—along with secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice—"house negroes."

Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahri uses the term "abeed al-beit," which literally translates as "house slaves." But al-Qaida supplied English subtitles of his speech that included the translation as "house negroes."

See, this what happens when you watch too many McCain-Palin rallies on CNN International. Somewhat seriously, this also gives you an idea of why Islamic terrorists want someone like a George W. Bush or a John McCain in the White House, and not a Barack Obama. Their main job is to win the hearts and minds of impressionable young Muslims around the globe, and we all know that Bush was a boon to terrorist recruitment.

The Obama presidency scares them. Ironic, huh?

 "I call it 'Ritmo' -- like Gitmo, but it's in Raymondville," said Jodi Goodwin, an immigration lawyer from nearby Harlingen.

-- Washington Post, Feb. 2, 2007.

OK, first of all, the bad news. Dick Cheney is not going to jail, not any time soon, at least, and not because of the bizarre report that the vice president of the United States has been indicted in a small, obscure county deep in the heart of South Texas in a scandal over federal prison and detention abuses there. Aside from the obvious fact that a Willacy County, Texas, grand jury lacks authority over federal actions, the indictment of Cheney, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other is not even signed by a judge, and the result of a wacky -- controversial wouldn't do the man justice -- renegade lame duck DA. It's almost not even worth noting that Cheney's alleged tie -- investing his millions in Vanguard mutual funds that are major owners of publicly traded federal prison contractors -- is weak beyond belief; by the grand jury's reasoning, one could surmise that others with Vanguard 401K plans (example: journalists at the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer!) could be charged as well.

That's a shame, because a) as noted here many times, Cheney's role in authorizing torture and other unlawful practices in the Bush administration deserves a real criminal probe and b) the strange false-alarm over this vice presidential indictment will probably obscure the fact that what has been taking place in Raymondville, Texas, during Bush and Cheney's time in office is a crime -- maybe statutory, maybe not, but definitely a moral one.

Willacy County, scene of today's indictments, is also home to the largest of a new generation of detention camps where thousands of undocumented immigrants -- the vast majority of whom have committed no crime other than seeking America's promise of a new life, without proper papers -- are now detained in conditions that could be described ironically as hot, flat, and crowded -- living in massive tents with poor food, non-existent health care and facing months if not years deprived of their basic liberty.

It wasn't always that way. For years, American policy was to catch and release undocumented immigrants, but that all changed with the GOP's politically charged crackdown on illegal immigration, which led in 2005 to a new policy of detaining undocumented non-Mexicans until they receive a deportation hearing and are usually booted from the country. The new policy meant doling out millions to politically connected prison firms and contractors (including the formerly Cheney-run Hallibuton) to hastily build these detention centers, including $65 million for the one in poverty-stricken Willacy County, some 260 miles south of Austin, that isn't even a structure but, as most simply call it, "Tent City."

Remember, these immigrants -- the majority at "Ritmo" hail from El Salvador, torn apart by years of civil strife -- have committed no crime beyond seeking to enter America without paperwork, and yet the Willacy County facility is in many ways quite simply a prison, like Gitmo, stark and surrounded by barbed wire. Here's how "Tent City" was described by the American Civil Liberties Union:

The Willacy County Detention Facility is the largest immigration detention facility in the country. The facility is made up of ten large tents, each of which is designed to house 200 people. The tents are windowless and lights are on around-the-clock, making it difficult to sleep. No partitions exist to separate the showers, toilets, sinks, and eating areas, and detainees report that they are occasionally forced to eat with their hands because no utensils are provided.

 The Washington Post article fills in more details:

Because lights are on around the clock, a visitor finds many occupants buried in their blankets throughout the day. The stillness and torpor of the pod's communal room, where 50 to 60 people dwell, are noticeable.

Goodwin described a group of women who huddled in a recreation yard on a recent 40-degree day with a 25-mph wind. "They had no blanket, no sweat shirt, no jacket," she said. "Officers were wearing earmuffs, and detainees were outside for an hour with short-sleeved polyester uniforms and shower shoes and not necessarily socks."

Perhaps more troubling, lawyers said, large numbers of immigrants have been transferred from Boston, New York, New Jersey and Florida, far from their families and lawyers. Because some immigration judges do not permit hearings by teleconference, detainees are essentially deprived of counsel.

There have been other problems inside "Tent City" -- mealworms were found inside some of the food there last year, for example, and another study found a stunning lack of available healthcare at Willacy -- but by now you probably get the idea. In many ways, this immigrant detention program is a metaphor for what we've seen time and time again during the Cheney-Bush years, a rushed and ill-conceived federal action (despite the harsh impact on those captured, the program's effect on solving the undocumented immigration problem is fairly minimal) that's meant big bucks for a few connected contractors, with little or no thought toward its degrading impact on real human beings, or on how America is perceived by the rest of the world.

Now, a nation that famously asked for the world's tired, poor, hungry and sick is taking refugees from a war-torn and poverty stricken corner of our own continent, and making them more hungry and depriving them of sleep before sending then away. How sad. That's not just an indictment of Dick Cheney, though. That's an indictment for all of us who allowed a harsh tent city called "Ritmo" to rise on our watch.

UPDATE: Here's the predicted cold water! Still, stay tuned for a different take on this issue.

For real! (per the Associated Press).

That said, it may not be what you expected, either. Talk about your runaway grand jury!

McALLEN, Texas — A South Texas grand jury has indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on charges related to the alleged abuse of prisoners in Willacy County's federal detention centers.

The indictment criticizes Cheney's investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and "at least misdemeanor assaults" on detainees by working through the prison companies.

Gonzales is accused of using his position while in office to stop an investigation into abuses at the federal detention centers.

There's not a chance in hell of this standing up -- but it does speak to something else important: How enormously unpopular Dick Cheney and the Bush administration are across this country, even in the president's home state of Texas. How else does something like this could even happen. Some days it seems like the Democrats in Congress are the only ones who don't get it.

Fascinating story -- I hope to have more later.