Morning Thoughts
A few thoughts while listening to that 30 second clip of "Til I Die" over and over:

Bill Handel had it right. Last night's appearance by the Bush twins was painful to watch. If you're going to joke, you need an effective delivery, and even if they had delivered well, their speech was so obviously scripted that it reminded you of the scripted nature of the entire convention.

"How deep is the valley, how deep is the valley...."

How 'bout them Yankees?

[T]he Yankees['] lead was trimmed to just 3 1/2 games on Tuesday following a 22-0 washout at the hands of the Cleveland Indians.

"The only thing you can say is that it only counts as one," said manager Joe Torre. "They sure beat our brains out right from the first inning on, and we didn't have an answer."

Since Aug. 15, New York has watched its lead shrink from 10 1/2 games, losing nine of 15 contests in that span....

"We can't worry about the Red Sox. We have to worry about us, what we can do here," said Jorge Posada, one of the few players who stuck around following the loss. "We have to remember that we're still ahead, remember that we have to pitch better. We have to start tomorrow. It's as simple as that."

The 22-run loss tied the largest margin of defeat in a shutout since 1900, equaling the mark set in 1975 by the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 22-0 win over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. The loss was also the worst in Yankees history, crushing the former mark of 18 runs.

"There's a certain level of embarrassment, no question," Torre said. "You have a lot of pride in what you do, so when somebody has their way with you, you have to take your lumps. If you accept winning, you certainly have to deal with losing."

George Steinbrenner was on hand to witness the latest loss, something that certainly couldn't have pleased the Boss. Steinbrenner remained in the stadium for an hour after the game, but he departed without speaking to reporters.

Unlike their last three losses, in which they fell short by a total of four runs, the Yankees were never in Tuesday's game as their pitchers allowed nine runs in the first three innings.

"How deep is the valley, how deep is the valley...."

And last night, as the fair and balanced baby seal clubbers replayed Laura Bush's speech, this came over the wire:

More than a dozen militants wearing suicide-bomb belts seized a southern Russian school in a region bordering Chechnya (news - web sites) on Wednesday, taking hostage about 400 people — half of them children — and threatening to blow up the building if police storm it.

"How deep is the valley, how deep is the valley...."