greetings from the bay state...

Mission Control, this is Tranquility Base. The Eagle has landed.

a break from packing not fudge...

Francis Coppola makes a fine wine, if you didn't know by now, and Chet Baker is the best after-hour soothe.

This place is a mess, but I've done this kinda thing before; too many times, I fear. I'll have to have the space cleared before I can finish throwing books, CDs, etc., into more boxes.

So I play a little Yahoo chess and browse clever shit like this:

The real reason Bush must be impeached, though, is that if he is not impeached, this usurper will simply ignore any bills passed by Congress, will act despite any resolutions passed by Congress, and will break any law that he thinks gets in his way. Furthermore, future presidents, Democrat and Republican, will use Bush as a precedent to ignore Congress and break laws themselves.

What, you think I'd, like, just STOP!!?

okay, i lied...

This is my last post before heading north.

David Broder, a.k.a., "The Dean" of Washington pundits, is old and should retire. Unfortunately necrotized brain-pathways with the expected accompanyment of synaptical misfirings apparently don't inhibit pundit *cough* "elites" in this town from dispensing the usual drivel:

Now, however, you can see the independence party forming -- on both sides of the aisle. They are mobilizing to resist not only Bush but also the extremist elements in American society -- the vituperative, foul-mouthed bloggers on the left. . . . A "decent respect" begins at home, with an acknowledgment of public opinion.

Okay, at first glance one might ask, "what's wrong with that?" Please know Broder fancies the leader of such a group to be the loathesome Lieberlips. And don't we all know he's about as resistent to Dubya as any 14th Street tranny crack-whore would be. Motion to add a "k" on the end of "The Dean"?

Meanwhile, I could really take offense to being called "foul-mouthed" but then I thought, "Fuck it! And fuck David Broder!"

I mean is it foul-mouthed to say Broder continues to show his ass in public, and shouldn't it be deemed more foul his doing it than my saying it?

Good to be putting down some miles from that crowd at least.

oh brothers... !

This will be my last post before I depart the Occupied Capital of America; rolling up the coast and going home, looking forward to catching some games at Fenway with the boys of summer.

For 15-plus years I made a go and made many stops. I will miss my friends here, more friends than I realized I had. I will miss the electrical charge of briefly working Capitol Hill and coming into contact with genuine power, or driving up the parkway to Camden Yards and to Fells Point after. There were laughs to be had with the alumni softball team including the post-game galavants to the Bottom Line or Dupont Circle or Adams Morgan. I will never ever forget my very good production and the always inspired people with whom I worked at Channel 10 where it seems I spent half my life. And even the lovely former Mrs...

Adieu, S. Je t'aime. We had some laughs, eh?...

Letting it and them all go, not easy. For once you get outside and away from the pontifications and assorted blatherings between establishments along Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington D.C. is indeed an elegant and charming city, and I have had some excellent times.

Meanwhile, the brothers have been encouraging and helpful. Here's a sampling...

From Brother Elder:

Your evacuation from your DC digs made me think of the helicopter falling off the roof of the American Embassy in Saigon in ’75 (remember that footage?). Yeah, it’s huge change after 16 years for you. But, you know, that kind of change brings huge energy to a person. And you gonna need sum energy, dood.

From which Brother Younger has his riff and with illustrations:

Operation Frequent Wind

Washington D.C., “The Occupied Capital,” fell to Right Wing radicals two years after g. returned to New England …


See also: Operation Frequent Wind

Before daybreak on January 27, the [truck rental] dealership was hit by rockets and heavy artillery. Continuing rocket fire and debris on the runways caused Homer D. Smith, the U.S. Transportation Secretary, to advise the Bush Administration of the editor of the blog “Barking Up Trees” after 16 years of combat was now unfit for politics and that the emergency evacuation of the Washington area would need to be completed by rented truck towing old red car. Reports came in from the outskirts of the city that the Republican were moving. At 10:48 a.m., Martin relayed to Condi his desire to activate the "Operation FREQUENT WIND" evacuation plan; Rice gave the order three minutes later. The American radio station began regular play of "White Christmas," the signal for liberal personnel to move immediately to the evacuation points.

Under this plan, CH-53 and CH-46 helicopters were used to evacuate blue state voters and friendly Republicans to ships, including the Seventh Fleet, in the Chesapeake Bay . The main evacuation point was the DAO compound at Tyson’s Corner; buses moved through the city picking up passengers to help load the truck and get all g.’s personal belongings out of the city quickly, with the first buses arriving at Tyson’s II shortly after noon. The first CH-53 landed at the DAO compound in the afternoon and by the evening, 395 liberals and more than 4000 Blue state christians had been evacuated. By 11:00 p.m. the U.S. Marines who were providing security were withdrawing and arranging the demolition of the DAO office, Liberal equipment, files, and cash.

The rest, they say…is history.

Yep, them's me brothers.

h/t to Wikipedia

peyton gets his...

Pats fans sigh heavily and go on with their lives; a luxury that.

the ex- always said i was intellectually lazy...

... especially so when Wolcott flings this kind of doodoo around:

Siegel's I couldn't finish because when Siegel gets into his magniloquent mode, he gives every sentence the reverberating weight of Critical Judgment rendering an irreversible verdict and fluffs his wigged curls as if auditioning for Moliere.

Frasier Crane I'm not -- okay? -- contrary to popular schenectady.

Actually I was fine up until he said "Moliere." I'd Google or Wikipedia the feller but I'm feeeling laaaazy.

headline of the day...

Hillary Runs For the White House as "New Thatcher'...

Which begs the question: Wasn't Maggie Thatcher, a.k.a. "Attila the Hen," a hellish shrew who enjoyed stepping on the little people?

Oh wait... !

my interview with dubya...

BARK: Thank you, Mr. President, for taking the time to see us.
POTUS: Sure, sure...
BARK: Do you want the straight fastball or the curve?
POTUS: Oh yeah? Tell ya' what -- mix 'em up. I'm ready for ya'.
BARK: Okay -- Mr. President: Assuming one can reasonably interpret last November's elections as a "No Confidence" vote for your administration; and coupling that with your declaration, for escalating troop levels in Iraq, of failure being "not an option," this is my question: If there is no confidence in your handling of the war in Iraq, and a consensus builds to where any sort of -- quote/unquote -- "victory" would require you and Mr. Cheney to resign from office, would you do so?
POTUS: What??! What the hell kinda question is that?
BARK: Uhm, that'd be the straight fastball, sir; if a little high and hard.
POTUS: Well, it's outta the strike zone and I reject it.
BARK: Then you think you can still succeed in your war policy in Iraq?
POTUS: Damn straight!
BARK: Which goes to the issue of "No Confidence." Can you provide one example where your administration has succeeded at anything in the past?
POTUS: Whaaa... ? Le'me guess: the curveball?
BARK: Right.
POTUS: You're startin' to piss me off.
BARK: Just pitching you questions, sir.
POTUS [sighing heavily]: One example... ?
BARK: Yessir.
POTUS: Uhmmm...
BARK: I mean besides successfully suppressing the vote-counts in Ohio and Florida in '04...
POTUS: That's it, we're done here.
[handlers wrestle with cameraman] Bet you think you're a smart guy, huh?
BARK: Whatever. I just wanted to wipe that smirk off your face.
POTUS: You wanna pray your taxes are in order. [to security] Get 'em outta here. And get that tape.

just suppose we juxtapose, revisited...

I'm (and Chris Kelly's) just sayin'...

But it is kinda weird, isn't it? That the same week this twisted tub o' lard in Missouri gets caught abducting a new kid for his menagerie, Bush says he needs more teenage corpses to stuff in the national crawlspace?

The President and the Pizza Dispatcher. One is a psychopathic moron whose motives are known only to himself, and the other is Michael Devlin.

What, you were expecting another comparison to Hitler?

what'd i tell ya' 'bout schottenheimer... ?

1) Goes for a 4th & 11 when he could've tried a 48-yd FG;

2) Throws the red flag to challenge an obvious call, costing him a timeout, which Kaeding could've used for another 10-yd pass, say, instead of going for a 54-ydr...

And the G.M. agrees with me: Marty looks to be toast soon.

my kind of dem...

Said it before and I'll say it again: I was a Republican in Maine during the 70s, a Democrat in Massachusetts during the 80s, and an Independant in Virginia since 1991.

I could go back to being a Dem, provided they cultivate this kinda attitude:

According to Novak, "Kagen told a group of activists that after he found himself in the restroom with Rove, he blocked the White House deputy chief of staff's departure by holding the door closed."

"You're in the White House and you think you're safe," Kagen allegedly said. "My name's Dr. Multimillionaire and I kicked your ass."

My only regret is not being there with a baseball bat for back-up.

Wait! Was this the same day when Jim Webb almost punched out Dubya?

Oh, man! I coulda sold tickets.

surfin' usa...

Just clicked past Glenn Beck bouncing with Tony Snow. They weren't in the 69 position but, although the sound was down, it couldn't've been anything but a mutual sucking.

vinatieri 15 - ravens 6...

Welhp... ! So much for me & the Bakerman scrounging for tickets in the parking lot outside the former PSI-Net Stadium. Don't even ask me what it's called today, I no longer care. The game will be either in Indy or San Diego and not Bal'mer.

Gotta believe Colts fans will root for the Patriots tomorrow if only to have the AFC Champ game play anywhere but Foxboro and stink of something called hoosiers. Fine with me, especially so that Peyton Manning is maybe the only quarterback in the game who Bill Belichick hasn't fucked up -- aside from the future President Brady, that is.

Adam Vinny? Like, oh my gahd! His karma ran over my dogma.

lady --spared-- has her baby...

Her name is Micaela.

Congratulations & Best Wishes to the family!

the not so silent majority...

Digby's on his feed:

It's clear to me that there is something pathologically wrong with the right wing in America in their inability let go of the 60's. (And I'm talking to you Joe Klein.) It isn't us --- it isn't the liberals. We are not obsessed with the past or trying to relive our glory days. The liberal baby boomers are looking to the future, just as we always did, while these boomer wingnuts are mired in the their pathetic, loser youths and punishing the rest of the country because they were anachronisms in their own time.

On the flipside, I'm convinced today's opposition to the Bush/McCain/Lieberman war will be far more sustained than was the counter-culture movement of the 60s, and the burgeoning progressive movement will project years, if not decades, further into the future, precisely because we are not the counter-culture but the culture itself. We are the doctors and the lawyers, the financial analysts and the journalists, unlike, say, the resistance of the 60s, which was comprised primarily of students, dropouts, and a disparate group of artists that evolved from the beat movement of the 50s, and added a more visual projection; all of whom were deemed hippies, peaceniks, and anti-war activists -- essentially, the counterculture. Admittedly, many of them would later become doctors, lawyers, financiers and journalists, but many of them became Republicans too.

Don't look now (Okay, go ahead and look!), but have you seen the surge-defectors(TM) in the Repo party the last couple of days?

But back to the 60s: It had to be the visual aspect of the movement that shocked the so-called silent majority most. Gone were the neat little buzz-cut dweebs with the white socks, gone was the peace & prosperity, or the perception thereof -- the metaphoric car in every garage; hello to the long & mangy haired, dope-smoking, peace-flipping, in-your-face kids. This happened in less than a decade and the spectacle was a shock to the collective's conciousness. And while fear and loathing is an instinctive initial reaction to discernible change, imagine the viscera at a considerably accelerated pace. Factor in the Kennedy & King assassinations with the Civil Rights upheaval... well, bets were coming off the table.

Of course, the silent majority eventually would be brought around to the Hippie's way of thinking, at least as it pertained to the war, but it would take more than a decade, or even two.

Some Americans would be surprised but there have been demonstrations in the U.S. protesting the occupation of Iraq, some have even risen to the level of the Vietnam era. The difference in perception is due to corporate media being more saavy in promoting their own interests, i.e., whatever the president says goes, while suppressing the appearance of dispute, and particularly so any unrest among the masses. Mass Communication can be summarized by the Greek Logos, Ethos and Pathos, loosely meaning the messenger, the message, and the audience's receipt of the message. Without one -- never mind two -- communication does not occur, and it didn't as the media effectively interrupted, intercepted and interdicted the message for several years following 9/11.

And so the American people were the last to climb aboard the anti-war movement, because they were the ones kept mostly in the dark. The corporate media consistently would not broadcast major protests or any kind of event that could adversely affect their bottom line; if people are out on the streets protesting, you see, they're not stimulating the economy by shopping or being good little worker bees. An exception helping to prove the rule came conveniently at the 2004 Republican convention in New York City, a singular opportunity for some very determined Americans, a half-a-million strong at least, who felt unprecedentedly oppressed by a government run-amuck, and aided by an overzealous while under-vigilant corporate media, to march and bellow in front of Madison Square Garden and show the rest of the world we weren't all assholes.

It is the Internet that makes all the difference. People communicate instantly and more directly, and, most importantly, peacefully, with others at a much greater speed and capacity, and, unfiltered at that, than they ever could before. It is where the individual can be seen, heard and read by many, and many more by the individual. It is the Internet that facilitated awareness by the people, where no other venue was available to them, so that they could make an informed change in Congressional control. Arguably the Internet is more precise, if a trifle slower than is rioting, in getting one's point across. People are more receptive when absorbing information at their own pace. Conversely, were the American people left to the tender mercies of today's corporate media, they would likely be less aware of this president's congenital mendacity, and probably would not have hired the first female Speaker of the House to act as a thorn in his side.

Absent the Internet then (or a gun), the only means of expressing outrage and to effect positive change is to demonstrate and/or to conduct civil disobedience of authority. Demonstrators, history teaches us, can be brought easily to anger, however, and the consequences of which may lead to disturbances, greater civil unrest, and bloody riots. One might want to consider this a good reason to keep access to the Internet neutral and available to all the people, as a safety valve. Meanwhile, AT&T, Verizon, or any other soulless corporate entity, or government bureaucrat for that matter, must never be allowed to act as its gatekeeper.

And while we're on that subject, control over the "public's" television, cable, and radio airwaves ought be revisited.

Power to the People!

yahoo chess update...

1550 Wins
858 Losses
97 Draws
1 game losing streak...

Wish I posted this four games ago when I was on a 10-game win streak, which was snapped before another two-game push and then Zap!

My goal is to get to a .667 win percentage, i.e., two wins for every loss. It wins pennants in baseball, or it did before there were divisional series. Heck! It'd've run away with the pennant.

Anyhoo...

does it really matter... ?

Roughly 13 seconds into Dubya's speech tonight... er, last night... I had to surf post haste to a cable station -- any cable station not covering the same Dubyan drivel/different day. It's like it was for that old lady in Flushing who went into epileptic seizures whenever Mary Hart came on the tube, when I see Dubya and hear that fingernail-to-chalkboard gargle of his, I commence to fibrulating and sputtering words -- words that somehow always begin with the letter "F."

Fffool... ! Fffiend... ! Ffffraud... !

Ffffflatulence... !!

Ffffff...

Well, you get the picture.

So I landed on A&E and caught the basic cable premiere of The Sopranos instead, Season One, its first two episodes. And it only occurred at the moment: I had never seen the pilot. So, like, bonus!

I mean, what's another twenty or so thousand of our brave but apparently inexpensive youth as they are made to render unto Ceasar what is decidedly not Ceasar's? It could be another 200 thousand and the end result would still be the same: America's abject humiliation. And for what? To enable this desperate excuse of a president his running out the clock on his administration and its responsibility?

The only surge that'll get you is in Dubya's pants.

Update - Looks like 4.3 other million Americans had the same idea:

The network said Thursday that the viewership tally makes the 9 p.m. debut of "Sopranos" the most-watched off-network series premiere ever on cable.

Question now is: How much of it was Dubya and how much of it was Gandolfini?

so mail it in already...

San Diego has the early 5-1/2-pt spread against the Patriots for next Sunday evening:

Chief among their concerns will be stopping running back LaDainian Tomlinson, who is coming off the greatest individual season in NFL history after scoring a record 31 touchdowns and throwing two more for good measure.

Team the greatest L.T. since Lawrence Taylor with one of the hotter up & coming quarterbacks named Philip Rivers, along with arguably the best tight-end since Kellen Winslow Sr., i.e., Antonio Gates, and you can see the mismatch on paper. Gates, meanwhile, pays the usual lip-service "respect" for New England, although it comes easily enough; but, he adds, the Chargers fear no one.

If a vaunted "Big O" wasn't enough, the Chargers have equivalent talent on the defensive side, led by the steriod-enhanced All-Pro linebacker Shawne Merriman, who's feared today more so, maybe, than is the aging Ray Lewis.

So why should the Pats even bother?

Mmm, well, maybe because they've been 'round this block before?

You remember, right? Super Bowl XXXVI? The Greatest Show On Turf? I mean, Marshall Faulk may be no L.T., but he'll do -- or did. Kurt Warner just came off an MVP season, or Faulk did, or they both did. No tight-ends to speak of, but those wideouts: Torry Holt, Isaac Bruce, and an underrated Ricky Proehl? Not too shabby.

The question then is, what kind of mind-fuck -- Bill Belichick's raison d'etre -- does the Pats coach intend for Rivers? Oh, the youngster's talented enough; but he's relatively inexperienced, appearing in his first playoff game. Consequently, one can count on Billy B. to present him, as he did Warner back when (and myriad QBs in between), with multiple looks to multiple schemes, the likes of which no signal-caller has seen since the chaotic improv of the sandlot. For bonus amusement, history has shown QBs, who've found themselves bewildered inside Belichick's hall of mirrors, usually play in a semi-stupor for weeks/months/years (Bledsoe, Warner, et al.) after -- that is unless the experience occurred during a playoff game, after which said QB would have the off-season to ponder it and/or his furry navel.

And then there's the opposing head coach; back in '02, it was the insufferable Mike Martz, who fancied himself a genius... until he ran into the genuine article.

Marty Schottenheimer? Puh-leaze! The poor-man's Donald Rumsfeld; barely an adequate plant manager. If anybody "blows it" for the Chargers -- He. Will be the guy.

Chargers D, says you?

Tom Brady, says I.

I rule!

Pats to take it 34-21.

Ravens over Indy.

Yo, Naahm: Tickets in Bal'mer a week from Sunday, dude!!?

Make it happen!

one man's sunday afternoon...

Michael Felger correctly diagnoses the cause of that which was my angst:

It wasn’t so much that the Patriots lost to the Jets the last time they faced them. It’s how they lost.

We’ve seen the Pats get beat before. We’ve seen them unable to overcome bad matchups (vs. Denver) and great individual performances (vs. Miami’s Jason Taylor). We’ve seen it come down to pure talent (vs. Indianapolis’ Peyton Manning). That happens.

But what transpired Nov. 12 at Gillette Stadium -- a 17-14 Jets victory -- was pretty much unprecedented in the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady era. The Patriots got caught napping. They were beaten by a less-talented team because they were out-worked, out-thought and out-coached.

I caught up with Felger's analysis after coming home from the Bakerman's (he who busted out a batch of his famed chili on spaghetti), after having enjoyed the Pats touching all their bases -- to mix a sports metaphor -- and put down the upstart Jetisons of New York. We were joined post-kickoff by the Harvster and Jay of Cape Cahd. Super Family Guy, however, normally the hailest of hearty fellows well met, didn't bother acknowledging his invites (& not just from me, u clever people), likely believing we'd assume he'd not make the scene. He would be right, of course -- but, dude, not even a courtesy call?

Anyhow, the Pats did what the Pats do, another blessing for Patriot Nation; and, yes, I'm counting. Am now looking forward to the challenge represented by a formidable Chargers team, in San Diego, and what it will pose for the most battle-tested playoff team of this young century, which boasts the best road record of the season, and which yet remains the underdog. Is L.T. really that good?

Local Locale TBD (Harvster's?). Yo, Monsier de Plume, wanna travel?

fantasy congress update...

I just started a league called "New England Expatriates" with team name "The Common Wheels," as I am sooo clever.

Am now recruiting others to join.<<-- click here!

Register and search for New England Expatriates. Drafting for 110th Reps hasn't begun yet, so now is the time.

strangled in the crib...

Scratch Rudy:

The loss of the battle plan is a remarkable breach in the high-stakes game of presidential politics and a potentially disastrous blunder for Giuliani in the early stages of his campaign.

The document was obtained by the Daily News from a source sympathetic to one of Giuliani's rivals for the White House. The source said it was left behind in one of the cities Giuliani visited as he campaigned for dozens of Republican candidates in the weeks leading up to the November 2006 elections.

Campaign slogan for anybody running against Giuliani:

"Lookin' for security? Look somewhere else!"

Next!

bcs: the last abomination in sport...

Oh, is it that time of year again? When we all piss & moan about the Rich White Boys Club? The club that prevents the paying customer a major college football playoff system, keeping in place a [toilet] bowl system where they control the flow of cha-ching, and thus render all but one January game as exhibitions?

Bastards!

You know it, I know it, the Taiwanese people know it: Michigan or USC both could spank Florida, and thus Florida has no business matching up with Ohio State for the big enchilada.

Now, Michigan and USC: that'll be entertaining enough, sure! But there's nothing to be gained from it, and nobody watches the consolation game during the Final Four in March -- because nobody gives a damn who wins 3rd place.

And do the semi-consoled players go full throttle in the secondary bowls? Maybe. C'mon, they're college kids; they don't know any better.

But you do remember Willis McGahee, don't you? One of the lucky ones he. And, granted, his knee went kablooey in the title game against OSU a couple years ago, but it cost him a full season in the NFL, and, likely, a more lucrative contract. Inevitably -- and maybe it's already happened 3 or 30 times -- there'll be some poor sap playing for Sasquatch U in the Tostitos Bite Me Bowl for no marbles, lose a limb in a pile-up over a loose ball -- maybe his -- and never make it to the Show. And he coulda been a contendah!

Rich White Boys. I say stick those pricks in uniform and send 'em to the sandbox.

Disclaimer: I say that as a white boy, although luckily I'm broke!

oh good christ... !!

Headline on Editor & Publisher:

AP Poll Finds Worries About 2007, 1 in 4 Expect Second Coming of Jesus

... which explains all but the last 5% of Dubya's approval ratings.

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!

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?

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.

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.

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.

merry christmas...

Health and laughter...

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.

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.

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.

boycott walgreens... or at least pretend it isn't there...

Celine... ? Under my Christmas tree... ??

Take my drugs! Please!

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.

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.

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...

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!

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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?

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!!!

no mystery solved...

John Seery pretty much nails the thinking:

Consider, for a moment, that [Bush] might be pursuing an agenda beyond mere ego and arrogance and idiocy.

I attended a private art sale in McLean back in '02. Refreshments were served around an elegant dining room table. People milled about, chatting about the works and what-not. The conversations meandered, but the issue in most minds was the imminent invasion of Iraq by the U.S. One man suggested it had everything to do with 9/11 and was therefore just. I remember meeting resistance, and some condescension, when I suggested it had everything to do with the oil in Iraq, and, for that matter, so did 9/11.

Why do they hate us so? Because we're greedy oil addicts who value and respect their lives not at all -- that's why!

At the time, that was decidedly not a popular view; deemed cynical on an intellectual level, unpatriotic on the visceral. But what the hell, I never liked being agreeable for the sake of harmony. And I never had any respect for lemmings, particularly when they came in human form.

But the cat's out of the bag now: We're there because it's the oil, stupid! Always were.

But will we always be?

ah yes, the testimonial...

Air America plays the Avacor commercial repeatedly. They must because I've heard that elderly goofball so many times now, I want to set his hair aflame.

I paraphrase (I think): "Well I'm 72 years of age and I gotta tell you I have a fuller, thicker head of hair than when I was 18. Avacor really works!"

You know, it's great the old man loves his shag. But, dude, you're 72 years old! Who gives a flyin' flatulent fig whether your hair's thicker'n your skull or your middle?? YOU ain't gettin' any anymore!! Now get offa yer hi-chair and goda bed!!

Hadda get that out...

wakey wakey, good people...

Bob Koehler agrees with me:

Rangel's proposal forces us to stop being in denial about what we know. It forces us to put words to it. And as we do so, the ache of awakening only intensifies. And the more we look at what we're really asking of our kids - or other people's kids - the more we realize that the draft is a bad idea because the military itself, down to its core principles, is a deeply flawed institution that needs rethinking as we confront the requirements of the 21st century.

I wonder, for instance, what sense it makes that an institution that manifests the worst of human nature and is premised on blatant moral relativism - it's acceptable to kill, might makes right - commands half the federal budget? Pageantry and parade rhetoric aside, this is an institution that dehumanizes not only "the enemy" but, all too often, its own children.

Koehler, of course, says it better.

Also of course, Nancy Pelosi would do the entire world a favor by allowing this debate to proceed.

a voice in the wilderness...

Sam Harris in a tidy summary:

As an atheist, I am angry that we live in a society in which the plain truth cannot be spoken without offending 90% of the population. The plain truth is this: There is no good reason to believe in a personal God; there is no good reason to believe that the Bible, the Koran, or any other book was dictated by an omniscient being; we do not, in any important sense, get our morality from religion; the Bible and the Koran are not, even remotely, the best sources of guidance we have for living in the 21st century; and the belief in God and in the divine provenance of scripture is getting a lot of people killed unnecessarily.

I'm not one who subscribes to "atheism" any more than I do "theism" because I adhere to the principle of not knowing: "I Don't Know!" And while not presuming wisdom here, I have heard said the path toward it begins with that phrase.

I don't know if there is a God or if there is not. But like Harris, I do applaud those who seek truth through empirical methodologies and, short of that, logic. Lowest on the totem pole ought be the so-called faithful who are anything but. I don't mean thoughtful people who are able to acknowledge their intellectual inconsistencies as to their respective conclusions, I'm talking about the desperate and the grasping sorts in need for spiritual security and insist on calling it "the truth." Would that that could satisfy them, let alone inspiring their taking it to the Nth degree and imposing this "truth" on others.

Best that type just piss off and down wind.

the questions are begged...

Chances are if one hauls off and belts the POTUS, one gets some time behind bars. But what if one's soon2be a U.S. Senator?

Webb confessed that he was so angered by this that he was tempted to slug the commander-in-chief, reported the source, but of course didn’t. It’s safe to say, however, that Bush and Webb won’t be taking any overseas trips together anytime soon.

More questions: 1) How much time would Webb get, and 2) After he's done his time, would he be carried out of the slammer on the shoulders of thousands or millions?

h/t to TPM via Kos

go find a job...

My mantra post holiday of navel-gazing...

Liquidated the 401K, not a whole helluva lot for 6 months. The bastards that lay a body off without adjusting top-end benefits are why a lot of people voted for the Democrats this time around. Guess the gay-abortions thing didn't have its usual zest.

Okay, the employment agencies have been buzzed; online applications via Careerbuilder: in progress; sent out emails with MP3s and resumes to Boston/Springfield/Hartford radio stations - nary a nibble. Experience dictates proactive follow-up, but that can't happen until I finish my business here, tie up the proverbial loose ends. After that, and if I'm ready to actually move to a new city, only then can I put on the full-court press.

But then what? Sucks being broke. Gotta sell the comics & the baseball cards. I'd estimated $10K's worth and would settle for $5K. Was thinking out loud to the sister'n law yesterday: "I'd like to chuck it all and go back-pack across Europe." She thought it a swell idea, but then anywhere outside her house might sound right smart after a long wknd of catering to this family, eh?

Could get back into Realty. The licenses are in referral, and it wouldn't take much to reactivate. Of course, the Realty board would want its cut, then the NAR, and, of course, the insurance companies... the bastards will all want their respective pounds of flesh. Jesus! It's such a racket. Everybody gets a cut. And you wonder why the Realty lobby is so strong on Capitol Hill?

Of course there's the Great American Novel. Lotsa money there. Just gotta go write it. Mebbe while I'm backpacking my way to the... brothels of Amsterdam.

Yeahhhh! That's the ticket.

t-day (observed) - early morning...

The boys were deliberating on trekking out to Amherst to catch the 1st round playoff game between the #3 seed Minutemen and Lafayette. The lady of the household, however, put the kaibash on that notion right quick: "Oh yeah! I got time," in a tone implying she didn't.

Even so, we're waiting on the bulk of the kin to arrive later: older brother with the mum; sisters and husbands, etc. Guess we'll catch it on the tube, i.e., if anybody's showing it. NESN, maybe? No chance we won't catch Notre Dame/USC tonight.

The Pats & the Bears tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I need s'more Z's.

enjoy... !

outlet pass along the left side of the beltway, a fast break to PA in the morning...

the holiday awaits...

slam dunk to MA for the weekend...

a day or two extra in beantown and then back to VA the middle of next week...

may blog in betwixt... or not... time & space being yet another relative...

and speaking of relatives: my family rocks... ! looking forward...

happy thanksgiving... !

(this thing on?)...

law'n order...

Laugh-line of the day:

Hot Babe: (pissed) He's dead?? Stupid! Stupid! You think a guy like that'd put a ring on my finger before now. "Pre-engaged" -- What the hell is that??

Det. Brisco: Don't ask me. All I know is "Post-married."

2nded...

Bob Cesca at HuffPo:

Congressman Charlie Rangel plans to reintroduce a bill calling for the reinstating of the draft under the banner statement: if you're prone to knee-jerking America into war again, you had better be prepared to put your hawk-ass where you hawk-beak is. Otherwise, think twice before you rah-rah another misguided armed conflict because Uncle Sam will be asking you for help. And that help will involve a bit more than slapping a yellow-ribbon magnet on your SUV before waddling downstairs to play SOCOM.

bush under the couch...

Paul Levy offers a little new age diagnosis:

Malignant egophrenia forces upon us the responsibility to come to terms with the evil inside our own hearts. If we solidify Bush as being evil and react with righteous indignation, we are guilty of the very same thing we're accusing Bush of (i.e, projecting the shadow). We then become a conduit for the very evil we're reacting to. Who among us has not been guilty of being a channel for ME disease at one time or another? If, when we see this virulent pathogen, we contract against it and react in any way, be it in judgment, hatred, anger or revulsion, we're helping to perpetuate the diabolical polarization that is the signature of the disease. Our reacting in this way, which is typical of many political activists, is itself an expression that we ourselves have the disease, or to say it more clearly, the disease has us.

So remember, kiddies: When you finally get to kickin' Dubya's sorry butt to the curb, y'gotta do it with a smile!

"kramer" totally loses it...

Michael Richards, a.k.a., Cosmo Kramer from the Seinfeld series, went off on a racial tirade this weekend on stage!! You might recall TMZ.com (via RawStory) had the scoop on Mel Gibson's anti-semitic rant a few months back. Here they have Richards, and on videotape. Needless to say, it's a shocker to the senses.

Say g'bye, Cosmo. It's all over for you, dude. You'll be lucky if you get a job washing dishes now.