2007 NBA Draft

(Photo grabbed from Blog-a-Bull, who likely grabbed it elsewhere.)

Wow. What a night it was for us Gator fans. 3 from the back-to-back champs went in the first ten picks. Al Horford went to Atlanta with the third overall pick and Corey Brewer went to Minnesota with the seventh. Those of us in Chicago were thrilled to land the colorful Joakim Noah with the ninth pick. And it's not just a thrill for the Gator fans here; Bulls fans have been raving about the pick, elated about his speed, size and heart.

The Bulls still need to make a trade or two to pick up a serious scoring threat (Kobe, anyone?), but even if they jettison a few names, this fall's Bulls will be one of the fastest, tallest teams out there and a true defensive powerhouse.

Round two saw Chris Richard join Corey Brewer in Minnesota and Taurean Green join the number one overall pick from the team the Gators steamrolled to pick up their second national championship, the towering Greg Oden out in Portland.

As for draft coverage Yahoo has a great Winner and Loser run-down and ESPN columnist Bill Simmons offers his predictably excellent and hilarious draft blog.

A Tree Grows In SOCTUS

Dear Leader George Bush's stocking of the Superme Court of the United States with far-right idealogues is really starting to pay off.
Oh joy.

From Crooks & Liars:

In one full term, this Court has severely curbed local efforts to promote racial diversity in schools, upheld a right-wing ban on a necessary medical procedure for women, curbed students’ free speech rights, crippled Congress’ ability to keep corporate money out of political advertising, prevented taxpayers from challenging the constitutionality of Bush’s faith-based initiatives, made it almost impossible for women to prevail on claims of longterm sex discrimination . . . and they’re just getting started.

Road Apples, Romney Style

This is insane. Therefore you oughta read it.

That it's about the behavior of a Republican presidential candidate means you must read it.

Romney's Shaggy Dog Story.

(And be sure to read the comments... full of yuks.)

BushCo and 9/11 : BFF

Yet again, a Bush administration top dog can't pass up a chance to hold the specter of 9-11 over the heads of Americans. The swine.

This time, though, they did it over the bodies of 9 South Carolina firemen who recently died in a warehouse fire. The fucking swine.

O'Neal Compton has the rundown.

Friday Roundup

Another crazy week here. Isn't summertime supposed to be all relaxing and slow? Even in the workplace?

In any event, posting will be light next week too as I'm headed to Miami for some decidedly somber business. Then it's up to Orlando for some visiting and other business. Orlando folk, gimme a call, eh?

In the meantime, filmmaker, firebrand, lightning rod, provocateur, etc, etc, Michael Moore has a new film out soon. Sicko is about his inspection of America's fundamentally, pervertedly flawed health care system. Something I've had an ongoing, intimate experience with since 2002, my happy-go-lucky cancer year. I'm looking forward to seeing the film, for sure, but as with any of Moore's projects, I'll be bringing a grain of salt along. In fact I'll bring the whole shaker.

The Nation magazine has a great article on Sicko. Why not read it?

Friday Roundup

No posts this week, guess it was a busy one.

Well, on to today's roundup:

• More here on how the wannabe terrorist boobs the feds keep busting (and the administration keeps hyping) are little more than schmucks with more pipe dreams than pipe bombs (yea, I used that phrase last week, I like it). This time security technology expert Bruce Schneier shines the light of reason on what is never presented to the American public without a heavy dose of frothy fear-mongering. Sez he, "There is a real threat of terrorism. And while I'm all in favor of the terrorists' continuing incompetence, I know that some will prove more capable. We need real security that doesn't require us to guess the tactic or the target: intelligence and investigation -- the very things that caught all these terrorist wannabes -- and emergency response. But the "war on terror" rhetoric is more politics than rationality. We shouldn't let the politics of fear make us less safe."
• The legendary and notorious Yes Men have struck again with typically insightful and hilarious results. This time at Calgary's Gas and Oil Exposition. (If you hasn't seen the film on these guys... rent it now!)
• And on a slightly more depressing note, ever wonder how all that outsourcing of labor and manufacturing is gonna affect the American economy over the long haul? I mean, of course, how it will affect normal plebeians like you or I, not our corporate masters or the guy passed out at the bus stop in a puddle of his own (hopefully) vomit. Well, economists aren't too keen on the way things have played out and warn that, basically, China's got America's proverbial balls in the proverbial vice. And they could turn the crank anytime they please. Global Research's Richard C. Cook has the run-down.
• And if that isn't depressing enough for you, try this website. Apparently there are a good number of people who believe the Earth is flat. It's not a joke, sadly enough. So, maybe this isn't so much depressing as it is hilarious. But the Q&A page employs a rationale so akin to the modern anti-Darwin, creationist movement's rationale, that it's guaranteed to depress you again once you remember just how big and just how stupid the Creationist movement in America is.
• And finally, not one to leave you on too depressing a note, I got blogger and friend Patrick Hughes' new book, Diary of Indignities, in the mail this week. If you've enjoyed his blog, Bad News Hughes, well, you won't find a whole lot particularly new here. But you will revisit a multitude of painful humiliations anew and find that, even though you know the stories this time around, they're still awfully goddamned funny.

Friday Roundup

• I'd meant to mention this a few weeks ago, but things have been mighty busy on this end... the rP00P blog is back! Get your music fix. Have some laughs... and apparently see a picture of me during a not-so-open mic night at the Art Institute Museum last month. Dig the backing band.
• The Existentialist Cowboy is also back after some time off. And, again, this is something I've been meaning to mention for the past few weeks. Today's excellent post dissects the vitriol and finger-pointing emanating from the modern GOP. Or as the cowboy himself puts it, "What we are witnessing from outside America's increasingly radical, imperialist party is the ugly puss that oozes from an open sore: Republicanism, desperately seeking scapegoats."
• Everyone's favorite smartass lefty blog, Sadly No!, continue the hilarious feather rustling of right-wing simp blogger, Ace of Spades. Previous posts-turned-spats revealed ol' Ace's puzzling take on women parts. Specifically, that he finds vaginas icky and they, for some reason, to him, resemble an assemblage of "play-doh and bacon." Today's post investigates Ace's particularly cock-eyed take on modern feminism.
• It's been a while, so why not check in with one of the greatest, funniest sites in the intertoobs, Engrish.com?
• And finally, I've somehow managed to keep my head above water over at Chicago's finest food blog, Drive Thru. And despite being ungodly busy lately, I found the time to post a couple articles this week. If you're so inclined, just look for my byline.

Summer Art Fun

Photographer Merideth Allen has authored a series of photographs that I find hilarious, beautiful and oddly compelling. The series, "Melting Ice Pops," is comprised of pictures of melting popsicles against summertime-y scenery. The popsicles are the cartoon-face variety you get from an ice cream truck or the helados cart. I would love to own a few of these prints.

(Via the mighty Boing Boing.)

Another Half-Baked Terror Plot Herocially Foiled

Another kooky, ill-considered "terror plot" was thwarted this week. And wouldn't you know, all signs once again point to the plot being more pipe dream than pipe bomb. Sound familiar?

Hell, even the reporter from Fox News called the plot, "impossible to carry out."

But of course the Bush administration and their apologists never let little things like facts mess up some good fear mongering. Thusly, pundits and politicians around the nation wasted no time in filing another notch in the bedpost, as they unsurprisingly hailed this latest bust as at once a justification of their "extraordinary" techniques... and, curiously, at the same time, a reason to continue to expand the legal reach of those techniques.

Attytood brings the goods. From his post:

Look, here's what you need to know about the JFK Four (one suspect is still at large.)They were yet another band of ne'er-do-wells with a homegrown hatred forthe U.S. They had no terror training or know-how, no links to Osama bin Laden,al-Qaeda, or the big-bucks funding mechanisms of the kind that carried outreal terror on 9/11. Their driving force in this plot of "unthinkable devastation"was a government informant, a twice-convicted drug dealer eager towin a lighter sentence. Aside from the most important aspect that their plan was not feasible, they also had no explosives to carry it out.

People who think that violence and bloodshed are an answer to anything are indeed danger to a civil society, so unless the facts are radically different than what's been reported so far, we should have praise for law enforcement, including the NYPD and the FBI, for not letting this kind of nonsense get very far. It shows yet again that the law-enforcement approach to fighting this type of threat -- so ridiculed when John Kerry dared even mention it in 2004 -- remains the one that in most cases works best. That said, the plot was not exactly the biggest thing going on the world right now.

***UPDATE***

Tonight, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann aired a piece about the "nexus of politics and terror," in which the Bush administration's calculated use of these so-called terror busts is chronicled. How they have been used to put political feathers in the president's cap is scrutinized.

Crooks and Liars hosts the video. WATCH IT.

Endless War For Endless ______?

Profit, I guess.

Sooooo, lessee what's in the news today.

Bush Administration Calls for Permanent US Bases in Iraq

In the words of the late, great Gomer Pyle, "Surprise, surprise, surprise."