Sunday, December 31, 2006

happy new year...

Please do check out my updated website Know It All. I've been working on it most of yesterday, and right past midnight. Way I figure it, being productive beats Hell outta watching Dick Clark's rockin' oldie-moldie.

The site can stand a bit more tweaking -- okay, a lot more, i.e., some text and audio/video additions -- and it'll kick butt, but I am pleased with the look so far.

*Heavy sigh!*

The weather drizzles in your nation's capital as I type ten minutes into '07, the shepherd keeping watch over the flock by night. But then, there are worse places to be keeping watch than in Dupont Circle. Fun spot. And I can derive enough of said fun vicariously. And at second glance, I note the posting time reflects when the new post is opened, in this case with three minutes left of 2006, and not when it's published, in this case a year later. Thus am I having a temporal discombobulation-- and I'm still freakin' SOBER!

HAPPY NEW YEARRRR!!

My NE Pats, acquitting themselves right proper yesterday afternoon, helped facilitate a righteous flow to my resevoir of glad tidings, particularly as they prevailed over a Titan team that looks like it'll be mighty impressive next year. And relieved I am Denver didn't make the playoffs, losing in OT2SF, for they would've been headed to Foxboro next week, and they plum give the Pats the flamin' fits. Besides, I much prefer a grudge match w/the J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets.

Boston & New York. New York & Boston. And the world, she goes 'round & 'round...

So sayonara, Oh-6! You gave a fun ride, ups & downs & all-arounds. But had I my druthers, I'd request from Oh-7 many more ups and far fewer downs.

Thanky!

As for you, dear reader, have yourself a merry little new year!

Saturday, December 30, 2006

giving edwards another look...

If waiting for Gore is like waiting for Godot, we may have to go to war (against Republicans) with the troops we have -- in this case, Hlllary and Barack -- and not necessarily with the troops we might want. I don't know about all y'all but I'm less than enamored of either, Obama's rock star flavor-of-the-month notwithstanding.

Let's get real, shall we? I like him well enough and would vote for him over anything -- emphasis on thing -- the Republicans have to offer, but I can't help but wonder: is America ready for its first African-American president? Outside shot: America is sooo groggy from the mass ensephalopathy caused by Dubya's reign, anybody'll look good. Meanwhile, St. John the McCain is finding his advocacy for escalation in Iraq is killing him in the polls. Even Hillary, the ultimate poll-whore, has steered clear of the issue and was rewarded with superior polling numbers. Still it's wayyy too early and the swift boats remain in dry-dock.

Even so, it echos: is America ready for its first African-American and/or woman president?

So I keep looking. And not expecting to be, I was fairly impressed with John Edward's appearance on Hardball this week. And now I see he's getting some attention, the kind Dennis Kucinich can only dream about:
[I]n the first blush of presidential courtship, Nevada Democrats welcomed the former North Carolina senator and Democratic vice presidential candidate with a standing-room-only crowd and pointed questions about the deficit, immigration and the war in Iraq.
This is encouraging, and particularly giddifying that Edwards has taken a page from the Blogosphere and is tying Dubya's desperation for escalation directly to McCain's tail, calling it "McCain's Plan." And, oh yeah, McCain's boy has just signed up with the Marines and looks to be slated for assignment to the sandbox. One's first impulse is to wonder if, gahd forbid, the boy gets clipped, will St. John's numbers soar? Imagine the old man's inner conflict then. I mean, c'mon, ol' Mr. Straight Talk has shown himself to be so obsessed with winning the office, he's offered to be YouTubed while fellating Dubya.

Meanwhile, Messrs. Falwell, Dobson, and Robertson (a.k.a., the 3-headed Christianist Hydra), greatly disillusioned with Mitt Romney's political windsockery, are deliberating joining the current and presumptive presidents for a five-way Around The World.

Major disturbances emanate from the right, people. They are on the run, and, depending upon whether you like it Greek-style, it either is or it ain't pretty.

saddam buys it...

Yahoo News:
President Bush called Saddam's execution "the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime."
And the kind of justice Dubya denies millions, including his fellow Americans? What is to be done about that?

Friday, December 29, 2006

fantasy congress...

Back in '93, when I was temping in D.C. at Deloitte & Touche -- or as the admins liked to call it, "Toilet & Douche" (Oh so obvious, yes, I know.) -- I had just started ramping up my involvement in Fantasy Baseball & Football. One buddy at D&T suggested we create a league called "Fantasy Congress." Nothing came of it...

... until now.

h/t to Scott Thill via HuffPo

Haven't signed up yet, but I'm thinkin' on it.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

conspiracy of the day...

... if not of the 20th Century:
The DNC had gotten copies of the photographs taken of the three tramps in Dealey Plaza, and identified two of them as long time Nixon henchmen E. Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis. This put the DNC in a position to at least blackmail the President, if not expose him outright. This is why E. Howard Hunt lead the break-in; it was his own ass he was trying to save.

The photos resurfaced as part of a news story, and E. Howard Hunt sued the publisher, Liberty Lobby. He lost. Attorney Mark Lane provided witnesses that placed E. Howard Hunt in Dealey Plaza at the time that John F. Kennedy was killed.
Meanwhile, my particular take on Oswald as the loan gunman is a total mystification as to how it is possible any sentient being, or even a rum-dum from middle America, let alone a lawyer on the Warren Commission, who later would become the senior Senator from Pennsylvania, could swallow the notion of a U.S. marine as Soviet symp (with lots & lots of pictures, mind you).

Ah, for the good of our country...

Neh, it wasn't Castro neither. But here's who it was: Hoover, the FBI, and the amorphous Military Industrial Complex, i.e., the previous generation of the same fascist scum who put Bush in power, and are keeping him there because he's a useful idiot and they're making a frigging mint in war profits.

Oh, how do I know? I simply do.

Can I prove it... ?

Do I really have to... ?

It's like Jefferson says, that is every time he's resurrected: We hold these truths to be self-evident.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

no let-down here, thank you...

I'm a Christian no more; haven't been since before my junior year in high school -- Catholic, in Maine. Steve Miller still owned the Top 40.

The Mass and the Catechisms always put me to distraction, my eyeballs rolling every which way but toward the collared speaker mouthing the usual quasi-Latin/English nonsense. Best I can remember is "The Mass is ended. Go in peace!"

To which I never failed to join the flock: "Thanks be to God!"

So much for blind faith.

And yet I love Christmas! I love the spiritual pretext, I love the music. I love the family need and sense of personal duty. I love the time off from the working universe so that I may reflect.

This year I stayed home and avoided people, family and friends. I had my reasons. But it was still a good Christmas.

Hope yours was too.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

if the right one don' getchu, then the left one will...

Reading Marty Kaplan today, I am reminded the ever-pressing issue of our day remains Dubya's criminal intransigence (although he's "listening") as he prepares to ramp up the number of troops to the middle east:
He's still talking about victory in Iraq. He's even leaning toward a "surge" of troops in Baghdad that no one but the loopiest neocon ideologues is for, and that deserves its scare quotes; it would actually be yet another extension of duty tours for our courageous but vulnerable and war-weary soldiers. And not only has he rejected the bipartisan Iraq Study Group's proposal to talk with Iran and Syria; he's even ordered a Navy battle group into the Persian Gulf. Hey, Mahmoud, look how big my stick is!
What with the big buildup of ships in the Persian Gulf in concert with the machinations toward beefing up the troops already in Baghdad -- 20K was the talk before and just after election day, and then it was 30K and, at last check, up to 35K; anybody want to guess a whole lot more? 50? 60? 75K?

And then it dawned on me: The new troops aren't for Baghdad but for Tehran.

Reality-based analysts have said for a while now that bombing Iran in response to their nuclear proliferation would not stop them from doing so, but rather give them the incentive to accelerate, and could very well set the entire region on fire, such that the Shias in Iraq might take a suicide charge on American troops, they who are already beleaguered and bedraggled. And how about a second wave of Iranian troops? An uprising in Riyadh?

Powell and McCaffrey did say "broken," didn't they?

Oh, and the Iranians actually have an air force and missile technology, which Iraq did not after Op Desert Storm. I wouldn't think they'd sit still, like Saadam had to, while we shocked & awed the good Iranian people, who, by the way, were quite pro-western pre-Dubya, and are quite fed up already with president Ahmadinejad.

But Dubya and Big Dick Cheney feel they can't go out this way, as abject failures possibly facing war crimes indictments, and, with the new Rumsfeld, Bob Gates, they have no other option than to do to Iran what they've done to Iraq, this in hope they can wrench any semblance of victory from Defeat's clutches.

Iraq is lost (and so is Afghanistan), nothing more to be done there. So Dubya's petulance compels him to lash out at Iran. The only question is whether a meager 50 thousand troops extra can make a difference against a second country that's far stronger than was Iraq circa 2003. The question, in case you were on Beta Centauri the last three years, is rhetorical.

And so, against everybody else's better judgement, including a unanimous JCS', Dubya does have a mission in mind for the troops, he's just not sharing it with those who have to carry it out.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

there are no straight fundamentalists in foxholes (or in colorado either, but that's another story)...

Well, well...
Seventy-three percent of US military members would accept openly gay and lesbian service members being in their units, according to a new poll released by Zogby International and the Michael D. Palm Center.
The army may be breaking, but it's evolving too.

lmao...

From the Sports Guy, Pg 2 section at ESPN:

Q: The Sox should just tell Manny he got traded to Boston. He won't know the difference.
--Mike H, Noxen, N.H.

SG: I love this idea. They could go all out with this: Call him up, tell him he's been traded to Boston, have him pack up all of his stuff, fly him in circles in the team jet for five hours, then drop him off in Cambridge and tell him he's on the West Coast. He might fall for it. By the time the season starts, it will be too late for him to complain. I really think this could work.

Monday, December 18, 2006

if there is a god, he plays QB for NE...

Totally bummin' over the Brady/Bridget split. Tom Brady, you should like to know, is the one player other football players want to be, which is small consolation for us lesser mortals -- that even the lesser Gods can experience envy, and which makes me wonder why they called the ancient Greeks' religion mythology.

Bridget Moyhnahan I discovered when she played the android-enamored scientist in "I, Robot" with Will Smith. Dug her intelligence, dug her passion, and dug her hottie self; but then I only buy Playboy for the articles.

So one imagines the life: being the pro QB who everybody wants to be, dating the babe everybody wants. What could be sweeter? Certainly not reality! Ol' Bridge is 37 and wants rug-rats, clock ticking and all. Tom is near put a decade younger and has options. Sounds a little like Brad & Jen only in reverse: She wanted the career/he wanted the rats. And as any man with those kinds of options could, Brad upgraded; although having said that, I gotta believe Angelina, she w/the vials of Billy Bob's blood, is definitely higher maintenance than Jen-babe Aniston could possibly be.

And, y'know? I think I could settle for her.

Can't wait to see who Tommy-boy emerges with next.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

give a monkey a laptop...

Spent a portion at Ch.10 and it was productive taking care of the mail and some bills, but the DVD burner crapped out a third time. The discs are inexpensive but time is indeed money, and so I was mightily annoyed.

I'm not sure what my next step will be, that is once I've finished dubbing the KIA library. VHS is history, just ask the video stores. Even so, my laptop doesn't accept half-inch, hi-8 or three/quarter. And it's all I can do to keep up with the techology or even keep to within 4 or 5 years of it. Everybody sings the praises of "Final Cut," and -- Good Christ! -- there's no reason I can't read the damnable boilerplate and learn to edit with the thing, it's just a matter of sitting down and doing nothing else. And my attention span, y'see... ?

I coulda been a contendah.

But here's what I don't get: Why didn't William Holden leave with the cupcake rather than blow her off and then get his ass shot off by Norma Desmond? And is it me, or didn't Gloria Swanson play it a hair over the top?

But nevermind that, ever have a bottle of wine that tasted foul the first glass but left you wanting more after the last?

The ultimate collector's edition.

the doody floateth

Joe Lieberman, a.k.a. the turd in the punchbowl, continues to swirl:
While much of Washington kept rapt attention on the health of Democratic Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota, an article in Salon today speculated that President George W. Bush could tip the Senate to a Republican majority via other means -- namely, appointing Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut to be America's next Ambassador to the UN.
Fine. Get 'im gone. But imagine a resentful collection of Democratic Senators voting against the prick, denying him the seat at the U.N. Now wouldn't that be fun? Of course he'd have to resign before receiving the guarantee of getting confirmed to assure a Repo majority, although I'm made to wonder if there might not be even ONE Republican who'd vote against him.

Right! I'll hold my breath.

Friday, December 15, 2006

appalachian state 28 - umass 17

Congrats to the Mountaineers... ! The game was entertaining, which is what sports oughta be - win or lose. Life goes on.

It'll be interesting to see when & where the running backs, Richardson & Baylark, go in the NFL draft next spring.

----------

Appalachian State defeats UMass to repeat as I-AA champs

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) -- Kevin Richardson led Appalachian State to its second straight Division I-AA national championship, running for 179 yards and four touchdowns in the Mountaineers' 28-17 victory over Massachusetts on Friday night.

Richardson's third touchdown put the Mountaineers (14-1) ahead 21-14 at the beginning of the fourth quarter. He added another for 2 yards with 1:51 left that gave him the I-AA record for rushing touchdowns in a season with 30.

Appalachian State is the first team to win consecutive crowns in six years, and the Mountaineers relied heavily on Richardson.

The Minutemen (13-2), hoping to win their first title since 1998, cut it to 21-17 on Chris Koepplin's 42-yard field goal with 8:46 left. UMass got the ball back, but Appalachian State's Corey Lynch had an interception to seal it.

Appalachian State is the first team to take home the newly named NCAA Division I Football Championship. The NCAA is phasing out the terms Divisions I-A and I-AA that applied to football. I-A is now the Football Bowl Subdivision, while I-AA is the Football Championship Subdivision.

The large contingent of Appalachian State fans, who didn't have to travel far from Boone, N.C., swarmed the field as the final seconds ticked off the clock and celebrated as fireworks went off.

Appalachian State was ranked fourth nationally in rush offense, and Richardson came into the game with 1,497 yards on the ground.

Richardson broke the TD record of 29 set by Colgate's Jamaal Branch in 2003.

The Mountaineers' freshman quarterback, Armanti Edwards managed the game well and finished 12-of-19 for 146 yards. He also ran 15 times for 81 yards, and Appalachian State totaled 285 yards on the ground.

Richardson's counterpart for UMass, Steve Baylark, tried to carry the Minutemen. He ran for 133 yards on 24 carries.

UMass tied it at 14 in the third quarter on Liam Coen's 17-yard pass to Brad Listorti, who tiptoed a few yards down the sideline to stay in bounds and score.

The Minutemen got the ball after James Ihedigbo intercepted a pass by Edwards at the UMass 19, stopping Appalachian State's first prolonged drive of the second half.

UMass had not allowed an opponent to score in the second half during the playoffs, but Appalachian State responded with a drive that lasted nearly 6 minutes and was capped by Richardson's 4-yard run with 13:22 remaining.

The Minutemen then had to settle for a field goal. Appalachian State got the ball back and scored to put the game away. UMass scored on its first possession when Matt Lawrence ran through the pile a yard for a touchdown.

Appalachian State tied it at 7 at the end of the first quarter on Richardson's 45-yard touchdown run. He ran up the middle and then veered left toward the end zone to avoid defenders.

Richardson put the Mountaineers ahead 14-7 on his 6-yard scamper with 49 seconds left before halftime.

The drive started after a young woman wearing an Appalachian State jersey and holding a big yellow foam finger ran onto the field during a television timeout. She was escorted away by security.

The attendance was announced at 22,808, a sellout and overflow crowd and the largest for the I-AA title game since it moved to Chattanooga in 1997.

for as many marbles one can find in 1-AA...

UMass Amherst Alumni Association
Washington, D.C. Alumni Club

UMass Amherst vs. Appalachian State
Division I-AA
FOOTBALL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Game-watch

Friday, December 15, 2006
8:00 p.m. kick-off
Union Pub
201 Massachusetts Ave NE, Washington, D.C.
http://www.unionpubdc.com/
Cost: Free

Cheer the Minutemen on to victory with your fellow alumni as they play the Appalachian State Mountaineers in the Division I-AA national championship game! UMass Amherst will be fighting to become the national champion, and all D.C. area alumni are called upon to come root for the team.
Food and drink are purchased on your own.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

all you need is a b.s. in scatology...

It's been a long week already...

A Democratic Congress cannot purge an officer corp that values Jesus/Family/Country over Duty/Honor/Country but they can put a hold on any further promotions of these 1 to 4-star squirrels...

U r soy gay... Anybody for a tinki-winki?

Looks like the Sox and Dice-K have called off the wedding...

And now I hear it's Wednesday's Child that's full of woe.

Grrr...

Sunday, December 10, 2006

a wknd spent civil-like....

Spent the night last in Brooklyn after walking the day in the Village with the lovliest of young ladies. And nowhere near online was I. A fellow can get used to such things, living life and not browsing it.

Ach, the 21st century! You can have it.

What'd I miss -- Did Dubya pull the troops out yet? Did the Pats squash the Phins?

Can I stay home from work tomorrow?

Ach, reality!

Saturday, December 09, 2006

good times at the union pub, cap hill...

Le'see: Dave, Bruce, Bruce, Brian, Daniel, Ellen, and the guy who graduated in '55, and a few others; we were a smaller contingent, but certainly louder than them Grizzlies -- especially after the final results:

UMass 19, Montana 17
By Amy Beth Hanson, Associated Press Writer | December 8, 2006

MISSOULA, Mont. --Steve Baylark ran for 169 yards and two touchdowns and caught five passes for 76 yards to lead Massachusetts to a 19-17 victory over Montana on Friday night in the NCAA Division I-AA semifinals.

Third-ranked UMass (13-1) advanced to the championship game against the winner of Saturday's semifinal between top-ranked and defending national champion Appalachian State and fourth-seeded Youngstown State.

No. 2 Montana (12-2) saw its 12-game winning streak come to an end.

Baylark scored on a 35-yard run with 12:10 left in the first quarter and on a 6-yard run with 8:33 left in the half.

The Minutemen, who trailed 17-14 at halftime, pulled to 17-16 when Domenique Milton forced Montana quarterback Josh Swogger to fumble and the ball rolled through the end zone. UMass' Chris Koepplin added a 43-yard field goal with 13:25 remaining.

Montana's first score was a 23-yard field goal by Dan Carpenter 3 seconds into the second quarter. The Griz went up 10-7 when Muckie Foreman intercepted Liam Coen's pass and returned the ball 58 yards for a score with 11:54 left in the half.

Montana ran the 2-minute drill to perfection just before halftime, taking a 17-14 lead on a 1-yard run by Brady Green with 10 seconds left.

Friday, December 08, 2006

ah yes, but can u laugh & pee at the same time... ?

"Edge Designs is an all-women run company that designs interior office space. They had a recent opportunity to do an office project in NYC. The client allowed the women of this company a free hand in all design aspects. The client was a company that was also run by all women execs. The result... well...

"We all know that men never talk, never look at each other, and never laugh much in the restroom [ladies, take note]. The men's room is a serious and quiet place. But now, with the addition of one mural on the wall lets just say the men's restroom is a place of laughter and smiles."


I saw this one somewhere before. But when m'man The HAMster forwarded it in an email, it had to go up.

from milk cartons to obgyn...

How far Mary Cheney has come...

knocked up and giving foamers the fits...

What, did they prefer she abort?

jest askin'...

a thousand words that fail me...



... unless you consider >BRRRRRAPPP... !! Budda Budda Budda... !!< as words.

why... ?

Report: Bonds to re-sign with Giants for 2007

I understand that San Franciscans love the bum, but nobody else does. And it didn't look like there was another team out there willing to sign him. So why would the Giants give this cheat $16M for a farewell (and not soon enough) tour, one the rest of America, including MLB itself, doesn't want to see -- where he breaks Hank Aaron's home run record?

You wanna play for us, Barry? How much money you got socked away??

No, I won't take a check!

Thursday, December 07, 2006

posting for the locals...

UMass Amherst Alumni Association
Washington, D.C. Alumni Club

UMass Amherst vs. Montana
Division I-AA Semifinals Football Game-watch

Friday, December 8, 2006
7:30 p.m. (E.S.T.) kick-off
Union Pub
201 Massachusetts Ave NE, Washington, D.C.
http://www.unionpubdc.com/
Cost: Free

Cheer the Minutemen on to victory with your fellow alums, as they play the Montana University Grizzlies in the Division I-AA Football National Semifinals. This event is being held in conjunction with Montana University's alumni club in Washington, D.C.; so we need all UMass alumni fans to come out and cheer as loud as they can for the Minutemen! Food and drink are purchased on your own.

Join the Alumni Association now at UMassAlumni.com/membership/.

late night fucking hysterical...

Funniest goddamn show on TV known to nobody: "MythBusters" on the Discovery Channel.

Sample that set me laughing my shorthairs off: The holiday frozen turkey. If dropped, could it break your foot?

These engineering/math geeks create a robo-homemaker (pair of rubber hands) that drops a frozen turkey on a prosthetic foot, complete with skeletal bone-structure within a plastirubber coating. The turkey crushes the thing into a thousand parts.

Oh, but it gets better. These crazies create another prosthetic. A dog this time, with bulging eyeballs.

The turkey is dropped.

The dog's spine is shattered, it's left eyeball goes flying.

Best effect in Slo-mo Instant Replay.

I'm dyin' here.

and speaking of...

Yo! Hillary, Barrack -- Listen Up!

If either of you heard Matt Lauer's interview w/Al Gore Wednesday morning? I'm thinking if you jump on his "Inconvenient Truth" bandwagon now? you might keep him out of the '08 Presidentials and, as such, kicking both of your'n asses.

Friendly advice.

another question that'll get you kicked out of the pressroom...

As you fancy yourself "the Decider," sir, I wonder what might your response be to what former Vice President Gore -- who, by the way, was preferred by the American people to you to the tune of over a half-a-million votes -- had to say today about your decision to invade Iraq, and I quote: "This was the worst strategic mistake in the entire history of the United States."

(What, too many inflections?)

and the sun also rises... ?

Headline of the Day:

Mayan Activists: New Mel Gibson Film Is Racist

Yes? And... ?

I'd welcome the Mayans to the 21st Century, but I'm afraid they'd turn to me.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

blow me down... !

As popeye liked to say...

'Course, this bit of news makes my eyes bug out: Sox sign J.D. Drew and Julio Lugo. Couple that with a fade on the trade of the fanny that is Manny (love a good giddy, silly rhyme) and the lineup looks monstrous (er, of the green variety):

1) Youkilis, 1b
2) Lugo, ss
3) Big Papi, dh
4) Manny, lf
5) Drew, rf
6) Varitek, c
7) Lowell, 3b
8) Crisp, cf
9) Pedroia, 2b

depth: Pena, Hinske, Cora...

And if the Sox cowboy up on the signings they seem intent on signing, i.e., Daisuke Matsuzaka and Eric Gagne, the pitching staff looks like:

Rotation
1) Schilling
2) Beckett
3) Matsuzaka
4) Papelbon
5) Wakefield

Bullpen
Lester, Delcarman, Hansen, Okajima, Timlin, Gagne(?)...

Be afraid, Yankee scalawags!! Be very very afraid!

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

deconstruction v. total destruction: lay your bets...

Can't get enough of the rampant psychoanalyses of Dubya these days. For example, p.m. carpenter's take:
He could heedlessly let his mind go to seed and still attend, though not be bothered with actually studying at, the finest schools; he could disdainfully go to the head of the Vietnam-dodging line and still wear a uniform for fun; he could abruptly create disastrous business ventures and still profit.

Fast forward to middle age and he was still counting on magical promotions and privileged protection, no matter how distasteful his behavior. After monumentally screwing up the high office he was handed, Pop's Old Guard and others who serve his exalted status rush predictably to the rescue. It's OK, everything will be alright, we'll take care of it, you just go ahead and be you, George.
Throughout American history, the damage done to humanity by the Bush family has been extensive and beggars the imagination for its range from the intricate to the brutal. One can only hope this is the end of the line for the lineage. Jeb's prospects for '12 (forget '08, but one cannot harbor too romantic the notion given the short American attention span) will be the acid test.

One saving grace? That Dubya does to his family's "legacy" what he's done to the Iraqi people.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

sunshine being the best disinfectant...

Olbermann getting deserved props:
"Keith is a refreshing change from most of the coverage of civil liberties since 9/11," says Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor and frequent guest on Olbermann's show. "Reporters tend to view these fights in purely political terms, so the public gets virtually no substantive analysis. As long as two people disagree, reporters treat it as an even debate. They won't say that the overwhelming number of constitutional and national security experts say this is an unlawful program -- they'll just say experts disagree. It's extremely misleading."

not one to mince words...

Cenk Uygar:
Let's get this straight - once and for all. It was a Republican president, a Republican administration, a Republican Senate, a Republican House and entirely Republican government that started and lost the war in Iraq. No excuses. They screwed this thing up entirely. It is 100% their fault.
Can that, like, fit on a bumper sticker?

Oh wait, there's more:
At this point, these Republicans are incapable of and uninterested in governing. I wanted limited government, not anarchy. These guys are completely incompetent. I don't know if they have a secret plan to show how government can't work, but I am not interested. I don't give a damn about their ridiculous secret plans. I care that they suck.
And here for the last six years I thought I was going insane.

Nothin' like a niiiiice piece o'hickory.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

minutebiblical supplemental...

Being up on my Milton only thru Star Trek, I ponder the roll the Minutemen are currently on and think about the University of Massachusetts' Hamletian past flirtation with upgrading from Division 1-AA to Division 1, a la, say, UConn. The Huskies, for example, got a sense of what might have gone through Icarus' mind when they were recently stomped by Louisville, and could well be wondering if dropping down a level won't make life worth living again.

Meanwhile, UMass is 12-1, and it says here they're gonna, yes, stomp the higher seeded Montana Whatevers next Saturday. But I think back on the decision by the Whosiheimers -- what, the Board of Trustees? -- to keep the footballing Minutiamen in Division 1-AA, rather than graduate to Div 1, simply because "t'is better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven."

Ach! If we only knew.

Update: Buggering Bollacks! UMass hoopsters outscore Boston College in the 2nd half, but fall short 84-73. (I'm sorry, Tuscaloosa?? Yo, Heavynews -- Help!)

live free (to kick granite booty) or die... !!

From the AP via CBSSportsline (Yeah, baby, yeaaaahhh!!):

Massachusetts 24, New Hampshire 17

Dec. 2, 2006

AMHERST, Mass. (AP) -Liam Coen passed for 231 yards and two touchdowns and Massachusetts withstood a determined New Hampshire bid in the final seconds to beat the Wildcats 24-17 in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs Saturday.

UMass (12-1) has won 10 straight and plays at Montana in a semifinal game Saturday.

Massachusetts, which trailed 17-14 at halftime, blanked the Wildcats in the second half after having beat New Hampshire (9-4) 28-20 earlier in the season.

UMass went ahead for good late in the third quarter on a 31-yard touchdown pass from Coen to Brandon London that made it 21-17. The Minutemen tacked on a final three points on Chris Koepplin's 33-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter.

New Hampshire's late drive was halted with 33 seconds to play, when Rick Santos' pass was deflected to the ground on a 4th-and-one play from the 6. Santos was held to 129 yards and one touchdown.

Steve Baylark rushed for 198 yards and one touchdown for the Minutemen.

Although it fumbled the opening kickoff and was forced back to its own one, it took UMass only six plays to march down the field for the first score. Baylark ran in from the 1, with his earlier 60-yard run the key play in the drive.

Following the kickoff, New Hampshire needed only one play to pull even - an 87-yard touchdown trip down the sidelines by Chad Kackert.

UMass drove 84 yards in the second quarter to go back on top 14-7. Again Baylark produced the big play in the drive with a 39-yard run to the 6. Coen passed to Ian Jorgensen for the touchdown.

But New Hampshire bounced back following an interception by Jeff Pammer. The Wildcats evened the score at 14 on an 11-yard pass from Ricky Santos.

With 50 seconds to play in the half, the Cats went ahead 17-14 on a 41-yard field goal by Tom Manning.

now how would homer simpson put it... ?

"Mmmm... Santa's Butt!!"

paved w/less than good intentions...

Just turned on to Matt Taibbi w/the Rolling Stone:
What's dangerous about what's going on right now is that an electoral defeat of the Republicans [Nov. 7], and perhaps a similar defeat in a presidential race two years from now, might fool some people into thinking that the responsibility for the Iraq war can be sunk forever with George Bush and the Republican politicians who went down with his ship. But in fact the real responsibility for the Iraq war lay not with Bush but with the Lettermans, the Wolf Blitzers, the CNNs, The New York Timeses of the world -- the malleable middle of the American political establishment who three years ago made a conscious moral choice to support a military action that even a three-year-old could have seen made no fucking sense at all.
The piece is passionate, well written, and can be summarized with a proverbial "for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing" schpiel, which makes me wonder if doing nothing in the face of evil, can one still claim the mantle of goodness. I doubt it... and I blog it... being the good, though never malleable fellow that I am.

Footnote: And even though I started this blog in '05, I can refer you to friends & acquaintances who can attest to my wanting Dubya to burn in Hell as far back as '02. One of whom (*cough* Heavynews) emailed me a week later: "Did they send you to Gitmo yet?"

a grip could we get... ?

Melinda Henneberger:
I hate to drag Stephen Hawking into this. (Whenever I think of him, I remember that he left his first wife for his nurse and think, "Is any of us safe?")
Oh, c'mon! Stephen Hawking? Left? For his nurse? Have you seen Stephen Hawking, Ms. H.? Physically he's a leaf of soggy lettuce. He "left" only if somebody was pushing him out the door -- literally. And maybe a nurse is in better position to take care of his rapidly deteriorating condition than was his wife? Y'think?

Melinda makes it sound like Newt Gingrich shoving divorce papers in his wife's face as she lay in bed undergoing chemo.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it was the great sex.

Like, brrr... !

and u call *me* rude... ?

As I have been deemed, uhm -- "a tad course," shall we say? -- in some of my diatribes hereabouts, I thought I'd offer a bit of the Rude Pundit's prose here, talented bastard he, purely as a "we're not worthy!" comparison to my relatively inadequate meanderings:
Of course Geppetto wanted Pinocchio to be a real boy. The old puppetmaker was tired of plucking splinters out of his fingers, tongue, and cock. For no matter how much you sand the pine sphincter of a marionette, it's still just an asshole made of wood. But flesh, god, how Geppetto dreamed of young, tender boy flesh, even as he pulled Pinocchio to him tight and wept about how wonderful it was just that he had been cut from his strings. When that Blue Fairy finally granted the wish, when she made his sticks supple and changed his sap to blood, Pinocchio knew that he had to try, once again, to run away, even if it meant becoming a donkey. Better an ass than just a piece of ass for an old man whose breath stunk of Lambrusco. So, on his pudgy new boy legs, Pinocchio ran, with that vile cricket constantly pimping for Geppetto, whispering in the boy's ear that he would be better off home.
The humorous allegory here being Gepetto as Bush to Malaki's Pinocchio.

Hoo boy! Those Italians.

another question that'll get you kicked out of the pressroom...

Are there any differences between the Mayberry Machiavellis and the Manson Family beyond scale and/or scope?

Friday, December 01, 2006

december 1st & it's september's weather...

I'm a little surprised Google would carry a results page for the myriad "I Hate Blogger" yabbos out there. Add me to the list.

Trying to create an updated variation of my Know It All page, and half-way through, Blogger's automated posting-protection program suddenly impliments a "word verification" requirement; all well and good to weed out the robo/repo bot commentary (as you would see should you choose to, say, comment below), but for posting on a blog, it's a royal pain in the posterior's apperature.

"Click on the Question Mark" they tell you. So I click on the friggin' thing and it provides you an explanation that if you click on the friggin thing it takes you to a disable feature - WHICH IT DOES NOT; just again to the directions, though perhaps only on the Mac. I am finding, you see, Mac and Blogger are not buddies. And I'm just the poor schmoe in the middle trying to work it out.

So I try to navigate the verification by typing in the weird-word... and the fuckin' Blogger system kicks me out and won't let me back in. Bastards!

I'm going home now. Will try one more time on my desktop PC (as Microsoft and Blogger seem to be so much more chummy!). If that doesn't work... well, there are other fish in the blogging cyber-sea.

Wish me whatever!

Update: On the PC... Bupkus! I HATE BLOGGER!!!