Recipe of the Day

Ingredients:

One generation of gangsta rap culture.
Several immature individuals highly overpaid for playing a game
Lots of beer
A pinch of adrenaline
A total lack of self-control

Mix thoroughly and what do you get? An NBA basketball game of course!

However, worse than what happened at the game, was the response of the ESPN commentators on SportsCenter this morning… it was all the fan’s fault! Pahleeease! Yes, there was uncalled for fan involvement… yes, the fans got out of control… yes, the fans showed poor judgement… but to exonerate the players? I don’t think so.

Presumably, the players were the ones with clear heads and the fans clouded by alcohol (I guess that’s a fair assumption). The players were the ones out there making more in two hours than most everyone else in the arena makes in a year. Couldn’t they show a little discipline? Evidently not.

Seems to me that this was only the tipping point of a trend that’s been brewing for a long time. I stopped watching basketball long ago. Gone are the days of classy players like Wilt, Larry, Doc, Pistol Pete, Kareem, etc…. replaced by a generation raised on gangsta rap and seemingly determined to bring those same values to the court.

It won’t be long now until the NBA and even colleges will have to provide terrorist level security just for a basketball game. I fear that basketball is only the start. Seems that football is headed in the same direction.

A sad day when what used to be a valuable learning experience (sports) turns into a bad example for our youth.

Bush To Veto Kids Health Insurance

Compassionate Conservatism
While spending $10 billion a month on his war of choice in occupation of Iraq, Pretzeldunce Smirky O'Fucktard has threatened veto any reauthorization of the kids health insurance program that goes beyond an increase of $5 billion over five years, the cost of two weeks in Iraq because it's socialized medicine, or some bullshit like that.
Wow.
Too bad Pelosi has insisted, "Bush isn't worth impeaching." You have to wonder what kind of garbage that Rove has on her.

The Majority of Foreign Fighters Are.....Saudi

The Liberal Media
Fox "News" kind of let THIS ONE slip under their radar........

Although Bush administration officials have frequently lashed out at Syria and Iran, accusing it of helping insurgents and militias here, the largest number of foreign fighters and suicide bombers in Iraq come from a third neighbor, Saudi Arabia, according to a senior U.S. military officer and Iraqi lawmakers.About 45% of all foreign militants targeting U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians and security forces are from Saudi Arabia; 15% are from Syria and Lebanon; and 10% are from North Africa, according to official U.S. military figures made available to The Times by the senior officer. Nearly half of the 135 foreigners in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq are Saudis, he said.

Weren't hijackers from who hit the towers almost all SAUDI ? Those Iranian and al Qaeda "terrorists" must run faster than Saudis. Are we as stupid as the "liberal media" thinks?

Supportin' the tr...

Bush may make warmongering neocons Petraeus his fall guy. From ThinkProgress:

[Preznit Honor an' Accountabilitude] has mentioned Gen. David Petraeus “at least 150 times this year in his speeches, interviews and news conferences.” But some in the military worry that “the general is being set up by the Bush administration as a scapegoat if conditions in Iraq fail to improve. ‘The danger is that Petraeus will now be painted as failing to live up to expectations and become the fall guy for the administration,’ one retired four-star officer said.”

"Not muh fault -- damn generals on th' ground..."
*****

Republicans Hope for Terror Attack

The Sky Is Falling!
Officials worry of summer terror attack' reads an Associated Press headline today as Americans are served up their weekly dose of fearmongering. The latest shit your pants ooga booga fear factor episode comes from ABC's Brian Ross:

Senior U.S. intelligence officials tell ABC News new intelligence suggests a small al Qaeda cell is on its way to the United States, or may already be here.
But, according to the White House, there is no credible evidence of an imminent threat. (although Skeletor's belly feels funny)

A more accurate headline would be officials don't worry about another attack, they crave one - to save their fucked up foreign policy and attempt to improve approval ratings that are now at tricky dicky levels. It's a bit scary that the newest Republicocksucker talking point is all about how people will all see the wisdom of the Cheney Regime when the next terrorist attack comes.
They yearn for that terrorist attack they need to save their Party like David Vitter lusts for kinky sex with prostitutes.

We're fightin' them there so we can be scared shitless here. If there's one thing Republicans are good at it's fear.

Advanced Republican Obstructionism

Filibusters Are Bad Only When Dems Do It
Republicunts are fucking evil and obstructionists to the core, as if you haven't realized it. But it's much, much worse than most people realize. From Hilzoy :

Remember the Congressional Ethics Reform package, for instance? It passed both houses of Congress by substantial majorities: 96-2 in the Senate, and 396-22 in the House. And yet, strange to say, the Republicans are refusing to let it go to conference, where both houses agree on a uniform final version of the bill to enact.

Party over country or the voice of WE THE PEOPLE, the Republicunt party is representing their corporate masters, and of course, themselves. But it gets better...

And now, for their latest trick, they have decided to filibuster all legislation on Iraq, including of the amendments to the Defense Appropriations Bill.The vote on cloture for this amendment, which would have allowed a straight vote to occur, was 56-41. All the Democrats, Bernie Sanders, and seven Republicans voted for cloture; the rest of the Republicans plus Joe Lieberman voted against.

If you need any more reasons to drink heavily, or just plain get pissed off at the way we have become a fascist country, read the entire post at Osbidian Wings . Arrrggghhhh!!

al Qeada in Iraq Threatens Iran

Bbbbut Chimpy Said They Were Butt Buddies
In an inconvenient truth that calls bullshit on the bald faced lies by the Cheney Menstruation and its brain-dead 26 percenters of a link between Iran and Al Qaeda, the leader of an Al Qaeda affiliated group inside Iraq is fixin' to Jihad against . . . Iran, if they don’t stop supporting the Shiites inside Iraq.
The response from the Reich-Wingnuts and the "liberal media?" Crickets.....

Bush's Political Comeback

Any Second Now....

Poised for an astonishingly amazing rebound from septic tank levels of approval, Chimpy McCrustwad's "hand will be bolstered" by the revelation that al Qaeda has regained enough strength to behead all of our kids, kill the food on our families, prevent obgyn's from practicing their love, destroy our malls and convert all of us to Islam, according to al Jazeera the A.P.
Oh, and Skeltor's belly is tingling...... See Olbermann's comment a couple of posts down.

Keepin' us more safer

If by "safer" you mean "ignore science and medicine but mention Bush three times on every page." Like so many things this WH has done, this is unbelievable. It would be funny if it weren't so fucking disturbing. This was our nation's surgeon general, not some paltry little hack spokes-tool:

Former Surgeon General Richard Carmona told a Congressional panel Tuesday that top Bush administration officials repeatedly tried to weaken or suppress important public health reports because of political considerations.

The administration, Dr. Carmona said, would not allow him to speak or issue reports about stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, or prison, mental and global health issues. Top officials delayed for years and tried to “water down” a landmark report on secondhand smoke, he said. Released last year, the report concluded that even brief exposure to cigarette smoke could cause immediate harm.

Dr. Carmona said he was ordered to mention President Bush three times on every page of his speeches. He also said he was asked to make speeches to support Republican political candidates and to attend political briefings.

Politics above public health. Fucking assholes.

Did James Brown, and Look How Far That Got Him

Castro calls Chavez radio show: 'I feel good'

Chavez has a radio show? Do they get Air America in Venezuela?

Donations and Validity

A story about rising donations to universities in 2006.

Give a kid in Africa basic necessities, or send some cash to your university? Which is it going to be. Universities need to compete harder for donatinos these days, but they still have a number of benefactors. Makes sense to help out with the discovery of new medical advances, a bit tougher to support the liberal arts and their seemingly mindless exploits....

Philosophy Imitates Seinfeld

John Stuart Mill on higher and lower pleasures: "many [people], in all ages, have broken down in an ineffectual attempt to combine both."

George Costanza: "Food and sex, those are my two passions. It's only natural to combine them."

Under the poverty line, kinda

I never miss a chance to snark at Europe, but this seems numerically illiterate:

One in six Europeans is living below national poverty thresholds, with children particularly vulnerable, according to the results of an official study.

The facts are clear, 16 percent of Europeans remain at risk of poverty and 10 percent live in jobless households," he said of the data which will be formally presented to EU leaders at a summit in Brussels next month.

Wow- that sounds bad, right? Except that poverty is defined as "60 percent of their country's median income" in Europe, and not an absolute figure. Using this sliding measuring stick almost guarantees that there will always be a significant population of Europeans "under the poverty level."



If we compared income to US levels how many really fall below?