Almost done...

Finals have officially started, since my last class ended today at 9:30 AM.

The Kenton Co. Summer Picnic will be on August 28, 2005. I may be at that. I just hoped Fletcher and gang fixed the clock at the park.

Network programming causes a move of the President's conference. Why give him free advertising? It's sweeps month. Nobody wants to see a guy who can't pronounce things when they would rather be watching The O.C.

Read the comments here. Is that behavior one would expect from Democrats? I mean, the guy was a Senator for crying out loud!

Rick Ankiel begins conversion to the outfield. The former pitcher went 1-4 in his debut.

Ankiel hopes that the media and fans will let him work on his game in Springfield.

If he wasn't in Springfield, Ankiel said, "you would probably be talking to the man who hit that walkoff" home run, referring to Tyler Minges, who came into the game in the eighth inning for Ankiel and homered in the ninth to win the game 2-1 for Springfield.

"Our manager will determine where to hit him and what he wants to do with him," Bruce Manno, director of player development, said before the game. "As long as he's healthy we're excited to get him in there."

The 25-year-old Ankiel, once one of the Cardinals' brightest prospects, decided to stop pitching in March on a day he had been scheduled to make a "B" game start, and devoted his efforts to making it back to the major leagues as an outfielder. He had been plagued by wildness and elbow surgery in 2003 before pitching for the Cardinals last September, his first appearance in the majors in more than three years.

Manno said the back injury likely was caused by Ankiel's position switch. He also was afflicted by blisters early in the conversion process.

"It was more muscular than anything," Manno said. "It flared up on him and we had to really back him off, and once he felt he could do some things and felt good, we started giving him more activity."

Ankiel was always considered a very good hitter for a pitcher, with a .207 career average and two homers, a double, a triple and nine RBI in 87 major league at-bats. After being demoted due to wildness in 2001 he impressed as a designated hitter for the Cardinals' rookie league team in Johnson City, Tenn., when he hit 10 home runs.

Ankiel signed a minor-league contract with the Cardinals earlier this month after clearing waivers. He has spent his entire career in the St. Louis organization after getting drafted in the second round out of high school in 1997.

I remember watching him losing his strike zone. I just wish that he had played for Louisville.

Did John Rocker lose his strike zone? I wish him the luck hge'll need to survive in New York. I'm a forgiving person.

Marc Maron will perform at Go Bananas in Cincinnati, OH on Friday, May 6, and Saturday, May 7.

Evan Bayh ended his opposition to the trade representative-designate.

Under the deal announced Thursday night, Bayh instead will get the Senate Finance Committee to discuss his Stop Overseas Subsidies Act during a hearing to be held no later than July 15.

And Portman promised Bayh he would meet with Indiana manufacturers during a visit to the Hoosier state at a date to be worked out.

In a press statement, Bayh said, "My hold was never about Representative Portman's qualifications. It was an attempt to focus the attention of the administration and the Congress on the problems of unfair trade."

Bayh's spokesman, Dan Pfeiffer, added in a telephone interview that a key to the agreement was Portman's pledge to include an examination of China's subsidy practices as part of an overall review of U.S.-Chinese trade.

What about the other bill?

I'n not worried. Evan Bayh will win.

"She's either going to pass muster or not. I think it's an open question," said Paul Maslin, pollster for one of Clinton's potential rivals for the Democratic nomination, Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh.

"What will matter more?" asked Maslin. "All the attitudes people have about Hillary that date back to the Clinton administration - or her on her own, in her own right, as a senator from New York, casting votes, speaking out?"[...]

Maslin, the Democratic pollster, suggested that there are so many special aspects to a Clinton candidacy - her sex, her status as former first lady, her husband's role - that the calculations become uniquely tortured.

"It's very interesting, because she is both early and late in her political career," Maslin said. "Early, from the standpoint that she is only 4 1/2 years into being a U.S. senator, with a record that's still taking shape. ... How liberal is she? Is she now a New Yorker or is she from Arkansas or from Illinois? And late, from the standpoint she has now been in a very prominent way on the public stage for almost 15 years, and certainly longer than anybody else that's considering running next time."

Is Clinton, he asked, one of those people capable of remaking themselves and rewriting the political rules?

Or "is she burdened so much by the past, it will be hard for her to sort of step out of that clothing?"

Send a message to NBC by selling all your stock in General Electric. They dropped American Dreams.

Meanwhile, word is that the fate of NBC's "American Dreams" has now been sealed, and the period drama, long considered a long shot for renewal, will not return next season. NBC declined comment Thursday.

Dick Gephardt will speak at WUSTL's commencement. I hope to meet him sometime.

Former U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt, who recently established the Gephardt Policy Institute at Washington University, is gearing up to give the commencement speech there on May 20. The primary focus of the institute is to encourage young people - regardless of their political persuasion - to participate in the political process and public service because they are noble undertakings. Several of Gephardt's former staffers have taken that message to heart. Former aide Chuck Banks is preparing to kick off his campaign on May 6 for presiding commissioner of Jefferson County; while another former aide, Kevin Gunn, has recently become a Webster Groves city councilman.

Jay Reiff to manage Bob Casey, Jr.'s campaign. I still back Dr. Chuck Pennacchio.

Bob Wiltfong is in the news.

The weekend is full of other events, including a rap battle, a fake business seminar starring Bob Wiltfong of The Daily Show and what could be the final appearance of the soon-to-split sketch duo Superpunk.

Word has it that he will be in Louisville later this year but I will have that confirmed much later.