Vegas

In Vegas for the UFC still.

Never having played Roullette(sp) in my life, I stepped to the table and threw down $5 on "23" and hit it first shot. Then I put down $10 on black and $10 on "30" in honor of Bernard King. Hit it. I followed that up with the same on black and $5 on "3" for John Starks and hit AGAIN! The place was going nuts, as my boy Stu can attest.

Btw, Stu, the whitest man since M. Wilson is like M. Wilson in that he's officially on the TSA "NO FLY LIST!" I swear, there could not be two people who look less threatening, and actually are!

To be continued...

Rolling

I am off to Vegas to continue my work for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a sport I've come to know and love.

It's Superbowl weekend, and since I want to continue my recent tradition of being wrong when it comes to head to head competition I am picking the Eagles, in a ROUT!

Kidding, but I do think they'll win.

Why you ask? Wait, you didn't? Whatever...

I figure if Belicheck is the best coach in the league, Andy Reid is second, so it's almost a wash.

Then I look at the Pats first Superbowl under Bill, and remember clearly they lost to the Raiders on the famous "tuck" play.

The next Superbowl they won was against the Carolina Panthers, and barely. It was a great game.

There's something to be said for winning, especially during the playoffs, but I have a hunch we are overrating the Pats slightly. I guess we'll find out real soon.

If T.O. was totally healthy I'd definitely pick the Eagles.

Maybe it's because I want to see someone else win, I'm not sure, but I'm going with the Eagles because I think the two most dynamic players on the field are Don McNabb and Bri Westbrook.

Regardless, all I want's a good game.

If you want to place bets with me you need to email me, or call, before Saturday night is over, since waking up for the game could be tough...

Crying Wolf

I'm watching Blitzer on CNN talk to Andrew Sullivan and Wonkettea about the poll results, and the great #s the Prez is receiving post-SOTU.

Truth is, DEMOCRATS DIDN'T WATCH! DEMOCRATS DON'T CARE! We're done with this guy! We're done with the garbage. We don't believe a word he says.

Do you think Dems are jumping online like they did during the previous SOTUs to weigh in on Bush's performance? No!

The only people who really care are Republicans who need ammo to defend themselves against Democrats, and others, who know this guy is a disaster.

People don't watch a replay of the game their team lost.

Puhhhlease.

SM

New album on the way.

Tune for yous.

Btw, not that the old Pitchfork was a good site, but the new one really blows (not contect, but look/feel).

Curious

Why do Republicans support a plan to end Social Security?

Polls show that 65% of Americans support the program. Some wonder why not all Americans? Well, I'm sure some who are rich don't care at all, then there are those who believe the lies, others who goose-step, and maybe they interviewed black men who live an average of 62 years, and yet the age is going to be raised to 68. Who knows why?

But it seems the number is fairly high, yet Republicans push on. The only reason is they want to shift the money to the private sector. There's no other reason.

They don't support a greater return to shore up retirement because if they did they'd be all for tweaking S.S., and then pushing for a separate, optional program, for those who want the government to invest their monies for them. They'd be stumping the nation on a platform titled "Save and Invest", but they're not doing that.

If Republicans were all for shoring up S.S, and supplementing retirement income with a separate program to help, that'd be noble and bold. But they don't like government programs, hence why they're ending this one.

The goal is to end the program, not change it. End it.

It's okay though, since "all politicians are the same..."

So tonight we get to hear the Ayatollah Bandar Bush lie to Americans one more time.

:)

Reuters: Democrats Say Will Hold Bush 'Accountable'

--damn that's funny.

Give the Republicans a shot of whatever they're drinking.

Shorter SOTU

President will announce that the Social Security Administration is harboring WMD and terrorists, so he must destroy it.

Good Call

AP:

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) has selected former President Clinton (news - web sites) to be the U.N. point man for tsunami reconstruction and ensure that the world doesn't forget the immense needs of the countries devastated by the Dec. 26 disaster, a U.N. diplomat said Tuesday.

Puts a face on the US that people actually do like and respect.

Nothing better than watching President Bush botch the Tsunami effort with his weak offering, and then turning around to appoint Jeb Bush as a pointman, to travel there, and assess the damages since he had just presided over disaster in his home state of Florida due to the hurricanes. The world needed to see the Bush family care.

See, an honest politician who wasn't trying to score points at a time of disaster would have left a sitting governor in his homestate to do the business he was elected to do, and instead appointed a former US Senator, from that same state of Florida, who currently has no job, who was in office during that same period, to go over instead.

That person is former US Senator Bob Graham.

Then again, if you're willing to take advantage of the worst disaster in US history, I guess I shouldn't be surprised when you do it abroad as well.

:(

My love is becoming too famous, which means the odds of me ever being with her are decreasing rapidly.

Really was unfortunate they cancelled Wonderfalls, but the DVD may save it yet.

This blogger has it right.

The Academy

If you open your newspaper you are almost sure to come across HUUUGE advertisements for the latest movies, especially the few that have been nominated by the Academy for an award.

Like I've said a few times here, I thought Million Dollar Baby was a terribly simplistic movie, with equally bad acting on behalf of director/star Clint Eastwood. Morgan Freeman was decent. Hillary Swank very good. The movie average at best.

The best movie I've see this year is Shaun of the Dead, hands down.

It's a horror and a comedy, and they pull off both aspects. Yet it's not considered at all. Now I know comedies and horrors get zero Academy consideration for some reason, but this movie combined both and was flawless in pulling it off.

All Lives Created Equal

Unless you're Iraqi:

The Chronicle of Higher Education today has a top-drawer article about the researchers from Johns Hopkins and Columbia Universities who published the study in the British medical journal The Lancet suggesting there were 100,000 Iraqi civilian dead from the war and the occupation. Lila Guterman, the article's author, notes that, "On the eve of a contentious presidential election -- fought in part over U.S. policy on Iraq -- many American newspapers and television news programs ignored the study or buried reports about it far from the top headlines."

Because they're liberal.

Choice portion:

Guterman's article dissects the U.S. mass media's attempts to dismiss the study's findings while European newspapers front-paged the story. The results of Guterman's interviews with the "experts" American newspapers relied upon to discredit the Lancet study should cause red faces at some of our national dailies. For example, "The Washington Post, perhaps most damagingly to the study's reputation, quoted Marc E. Garlasco,a senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch, as saying, 'These numbers seem to be inflated.' "Mr. Garlasco says now that he had not read the paper at the time and calls his quote in the Post 'really unfortunate.'He says he told the reporter, "I haven't read it. I haven't seen it. I don't know anything about it, so I shouldn't comment on it.' But, Mr. Garlasco continues, 'like any good journalist, he got me to.'

Exit Strategy

As John Kerry noted, I'm sure this will be it.

Now, I wouldn't be surprised if the new government, as soon as it's possible, begins to negotiate some modality like that. And I wouldn't be surprised if they even asked us to leave in some way over a period of time. I wouldn't be surprised if the administration privately, behind closed doors, asked them to ask us to leave.

I think there are plenty of ways to skin this cat. But the most important thing is that you've got to have stability.

Uhh, John, that maybe important to you, but probably not as much to them, at this point.

It's Like Pontiac Excitement!

That's the excitement one gets upon owning a new Pontiac Sunfire, aka, not that exciting. Similar are my feelings about the "historic day" in Iraq.

All one has to do is read the articles about the situation to know it's STILL never going to work.

This guy is forming a coalition with this guy, who represents this group, but neither group has 2/3s, which is what's needed to rule, and then this other group that didn't vote is probably going to be pissed about this other coalition, of which they've been locked out of. Meanwhile, America's guy Allad Alawi is being criticized by America's last guy Ahmad Chalabi of having run the Madison Avenue campaign, and as you well know the Iraqis living on Jihad Way are well aware of what Madison Avenue is, and the effect it can have on their lives.

"I don't think it was a massive endorsement," Mr. Chalabi said of the voting. "Everyone knows that his mandate is a Madison Avenue mandate."

EVERYONE!

Just another example of how in-touch America's foisted candidates are with regular Iraqis.

Not only are countries rarely, if ever, succesful in transforming their nations via democracy, but none that I know of have had a nation spend $200 Billion to help them do it! Of course, there are reports that we cannot even spend the $18 Billion pledged to rebuild because the situation is still so bad. Seriously, where is the success story of a flourishing democracy around the world? Poland? And that happened from within; the people wanted it.

I'm sure the President will talk about how monumental this day is in his SOTU Address, but hopefully someone will run this tape back for him next year. Not to say it's a bad thing to watch some people embrace democracy, and the opportunity to vote, but for once can this guy temper his own bullshit?

Here's a good take on the scene.

I know I'm excited about all this...Pontiac, Pontiac, Pontiac styyyyyle...

Riiiight

AP:

WASHINGTON - President Bush will propose a dramatic increase to $100,000 in government payments to families of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and in future combat zones.

The plan to increase the tax-free "death gratuity," now $12,420, will be part the 2006 budget proposal submitted to Congress next week, the Pentagon's personnel chief said in an Associated Press interview. Veterans groups and many in Congress have been pushing for such an increase.

"We think the nation ought to make a larger one-time payment, quite apart from insurance, should you be killed in a combat area of operations," David Chu, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said in the interview in his Pentagon office.

Or, we think it's a great way to entice poor people to fight our wars.

This is a lot different than the money Saddam gave to the families of suicide bombers in Israel. A LOT DIFFERENT!!!

Perpetual Smile

Yep, that's what I gots!

I'm walking around all day with my kazoos, yo-yo, whistle-pop and all the things that imply BIG FUN because there's gonna be a fucken democracy in the Middle East, and it starts today, nizzles.

That's right, there's gonna be...wait, there is one, it's called Israel.

My bad. I meant there's going to be an Arab democracy, and it starts today! That's right. And without the heroic leadership of this guy it never would have happened.

Freedom is on the Mizzarch!

The Life of a Dick

Here's the most recent photo of a Dick, honoring holocaust victims at Auschwitz.

Here's Cheney at the UN discussing genocide.

Here's a younger Cheney making his way to the Kennedy Funeral.

And here's a much, much younger Cheney preparing to goto the FDR funeral with Don Rumsfeld (left), Mary Matalin, and to his right, Karen Hughes.