I saw him play (live) a number of times, and this part of the Kurkjian article rings sooo true:

You knew if you threw a complete game, you would have to throw 25 pitches to Rickey Henderson," Flanagan said. "His knowledge of the strike zone was so good, you kept asking yourself, 'Why are the umpires giving him so many pitches?' It takes good hitters about 10 years to develop the discipline that he had in the strike zone. I don't know where he learned it, but he had it as soon as he got to the big leagues. He could wait so long at the plate, he was able to wait longer before swinging than anyone I've ever seen. He really made you work. And he made you angry."

A friend saw Rickey a couple times during one of his stints with the Newark Bears, and related this story a while back:

A sunny summer Sunday afternoon sitting about 5 rows back of the first base dugout.  This is tough seating for Newark - Rickey's fault.  He was a good draw.

Anyway, the bottom of the first comes and the Bears are down a run or two.  The home plate ump has a moving strike zone and even the hitters in the Atlantic League can adjust for that by waiting.  Rickey is DH'g and leading off.  

He strolls out to the box, slowly, savoring the crowd and the cheers.  He steps into the box and takes the first pitch.  Ball one.  Steps out, and then back in.  Does not look for a sign.  He takes the next pitch.  It's in the same spot.  Strike one.  Rickey steps out slowly and looks back at the ump.  Steps back in.  Takes the next pitch, also in pretty much the same spot.  Ball two.  Rickey steps out and shakes his head.

The crowd is getting a little antsy, and getting on the ump because his moving strike zone is pretty evident by now.  Rickey says something to the catcher and steps back in.

The next pitch is in the same spot.  Strike two.  Rickey steps out, shaking his head.  He then proceeds to walk all the way around the batters boxes and plate.  Slowly.  Like when you played Simon Says as a kid and the call was "baby steps".  Heel to toe.  

The crowd is going nuts.  The ump is getting hot from Rickey showing him up.  As Rickey reaches the end of his orbit and prepares to re-enter the box, things quiet down.  Some guy - experienced in the ways of heckling - takes the  moment and yells:

"No worries, Rick.  You're goin' to Cooperstown.  That ump ain't."

The ump whirls to look and see who said that.  Rickey busts out laughing and doubles over.  The crowd roars.

Rickey steps in, singles firmly to right*, steals second and later scores.

Everyone knew it then, and now it's here.  So, who are you going to play for this year, Rickey (since you never officially retired)?

The most important thing above all is that what is tried works. I'm convinced by the lessons of the past and by economists like Krugman that tax cuts are not the answer. At the very least, they are not necessary for the rest of it to work.

The bad news was if that was the optimistic version, I don't want to know what the other version looks like.  

The good news?  I only know one person who is threatened with job loss...

"Listen, people are always saying, `Rickey says Rickey.' But it's been blown way out of proportion. People might catch me, when they know I'm ticked off, saying, `Rickey, what the heck are you doing, Rickey?' They say, `Darn, Rickey, what are you saying Rickey for? Why don't you just say, `I?' But I never did. I always said, `Rickey,' and it became something for people to joke about."

But I always felt the rules favored him with the 2 inch strike zone because of his stance.

(a) IMO, there's never a bad time to discuss baseball -- especially during the off-season when there is less baseball news;

(b) IMO, it's a good thing that the baseball HOF voting has come along to finally replace the endless discussion of college football;

(c) The fact that Rickey's election to the HOF was NOT unanimous is more controversial than Utah NOT being recognized as national champion in NCAAF, despite having the best record.

"I'll be honest with you. I don't think journalists should be anywhere allowed war.

 guess who?

The irony, these people say, is that those who joined up with the Obama campaign early on -- some at the risk of alienating their old bosses in the Clinton administration -- now find that the Clintonistas have a patron who is taking better care of her people, as they see it, than Obama is of those who worked for him.

[..]

"Look, I think [Hillary Clinton] is loyal to a fault," he commented by e-mail. "She takes care of her own people, even when that is to her detriment, as was obvious during the campaign. Biden to a lesser extent, but there it is obvious that he would bring his own people from his Foreign Relations Committee staff into the government to advise him."

"As for Obama, as great as he is, loyalty is not his primary consideration in personnel selection," he continued. "He wants to pick the best and brightest, and he doesn't particularly care whether or not you were there with him from the very beginning. How else do you explain the Jim Jones pick for NSC?"

This AP piece mentions a fire bomb attack on a synagogue in France.  The story goes on to say it is part of, "new wave of anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim attacks over the violence in Gaza."  Strangely the article mentions no example of anti-Muslim violence.  I was unable to Google a recent example of anti-Muslim violence in France.  

Read on:

There are numerous CIA officials who support the nomination of Panetta, just as there are opponents to his candidacy.

Reporters need to make sure they canvas the entire community before placing front-page articles in front of the American public. They must know that the overwhelming majority of CIA officers would not talk to the press; therefore, they should be skeptical of those who do.

And when they want to deny the fact that there is a serious morale problem at the CIA because of recent intelligence failures, reporters such as DeYoung and Warrick should not consult a CIA spokesman such as Mark Mansfield, a well-known agency flack, to deny such facts.

You would never ask a barber if you need a haircut, and you certainly wouldn't ask a CIA spokesman about internal problems at the CIA.

"We would expect Genachowski to pursue the Obama communications agenda [which he helped develop] of promoting greater broadband deployment and access, an open Internet and network neutrality, competition and innovation, and media diversity, among other broad goals," said Kaut and Arbogast" in MultiChannel.

link

But unlike his role in the Bush administration, where, as assistant to the President for Iraq and Afghanistan, he reported directly to President Bush, General Lute in the Obama administration will report to Mr. Obama through the president's National Security Adviser, Gen. James L. Jones.

NYT

On Friday August 10, 2007, Lute stated that the United States should "consider" reinstating the military draft to relieve the "stressed" volunteer service from multiple tours of duty.[5] This was immediately followed by a comment that it would be a major policy shift and that he did not see a current need for a draft. [2]

Wiki

This looks promising:

But he expressed doubt about whether the Iraqis have the ability to change and whether the United States has the ability to force them to do so. "I have reservations about just how much leverage we can apply on a system that is not very capable right now," he said.

[...]

Lute, a career Army officer who serves as the operations officer at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been a vocal internal advocate of more political measures, arguing that there is no military solution to Iraq.

WaPo