Another NFL Draft

This year’s NFL draft wasn’t chock full of big names and dramatic trades. The buzz wasn’t as shrill as it had been in recent years for a number of reasons. But for those of us who thoroughly geek out on this stuff, it was still a wild weekend.

A number of lesser trades sufficed in the absence of blockbusters and a series of first-round head-scratching picks left the board wide open for a number of surprises.

Perhaps the biggest trade involved a lowly fourth round pick. The New England Patriots gave up that 4th rounder for the contract of perpetually disgruntled wide receiver, Randy Moss. A gamble to be sure as Moss’ attitude seems to be antithetical to the team mentality that has allowed the Pats to blossom into thee NFL dynasty of the era. But, when taking the rest of the Pats offseason movements into account, this move makes them a bedwettingly monstrous offense should Moss buy in to coach Belichik’s philosophy even just a little. And with several upgrades and smart draft picks the Pats defense can finally operate above skeleton crew capacity for the first time in nearly 3 whole seasons. It looks like, once again, New England can be penciled in as “the team to beat."

My hometown Chicago Bears have emerged from the drubbing they received in the Super Bowl a couple of months ago ready to pick right back up where they left off. Though they made no major moves, not even on disgruntled DB Lance Briggs, they did, however, draft smart.

Initially, I’d been left a little cold by the Bears’ draft day decisions, much like the past few seasons. But after reflecting on the amazing returns from last year’s draft, I took another look at this years haul, draftees, undrafted rookies and all. I gotta say that I like what I see.

With the 1st round pick the Bears somehow against all odds wound up with the best tight end in the draft, University of Miami’s Greg Olsen. A large presence with soft hands, he should be an immediate threat on offense, especially when combined with veteran Desmond Clark in two TE sets. From where they sat on the board, Greg Olsen was easily the best possible pick for the Bears.

In the second round, they went with a little-known DE from Central Michigan, Dan Bazuin. After watching tape of this guy on every local sports show for the last week and seeing him in action at this weekend’s mini-camp, I’ve become more impressed by the day. Dan has talent and has an even better attitude. Whether or not he ever winds up starting, he’ll be a great addition to the line and should play his heart out with every down he gets.

The third round saw a mild reach in selecting the undersized, but fast and record-breaking RB from NIU, Garrette Wolfe. Sure, a bit of a reach, but the Bears staff see something in this guy. And from the buzz around town, so does the rest of the city. We got to see a lot of Wolfe due to the NIU games getting plenty of airtime here. He’s got some great moves and a ton of upside. Will be ever be a feature back and uproot a Cedric Benson-type? No, probably not. But in this modern NFL it’s been proven that you absolutely must have a one-two punch at running back. Wolfe’s speed and juking ability could be the yin to Benson’s yang.

Other picks at Guard and the defensive backfield all look solid and should shore up any loose ends that might result from, say, a pissy pants, wanna be superstar, deciding to sit out all season just to prove a point.

There were also a big haul of undrafted free agent rookies. That the QB for national champs, the Florida Gators, Chris Leak went undrafted wasn’t particularly shocking—he’s been maligned as both too short and too soft to make any mark in pro ball. But the kid helmed a championship team fer chrissakes, that’s got to be good for something. And to get a chance to learn under fellow Gator Rex Grossman (also supposedly undersized and soft) makes him a perfect fit. Leak may not play a down this year, but his development will be most interesting to watch.

Another pick-up here that I’m particularly jazzed about is New Hampshire WR David Ball. Ball obliterated Jerry Rice’s Div I-AA receiving records and despite being labeled as a plodding dwarf. Indeed, he’s kinda short and pretty slow but the guy can grab a football and has plenty of moves for after the catch. UFA pick ups don’t get much smarter or better than this one. I’d love to see him get some playing time this year.

And finally, one more undrafted rookie to mention. DB Jay Skaggs from UNLV was a good player on a terrible, little-noticed team. But what endeared him to Bears management was his passion and tenacity.

The following is from an article on Skaggs from the Sun Times – nod to the Windy City Gridiron for their post:

The 6-1, 220-pound safety from UNLV was on a bad team that finished 2-10 in the Mountain West Conference, hardly on the radar of most scouts. So Staggs started by finding phone numbers for teams on NFL.com. Then he called front offices and relentlessly sought numbers for West Coast scouts. He kept a chart of all his calls.

''When I called a scout, if I didn't hear from him, I called twice the next day,'' Staggs said. ''If I still didn't hear from him, I called three times the day after that.''

He practically lived in the UNLV football office as he put together two DVDs of himself, one on defense and one on special teams. He mailed them to anyone he thought could help him, spending more than $4,000. At the small Texas vs. The Nation All-Star Game in El Paso, he brought ''swag bags,'' including a profile of himself and the DVDs, and went around passing them out to scouts. He also had seven tackles, a sack and a forced fumble and recovery during the game.

''With my work ethic and love for the game, who knows what can happen?'' Staggs said. ''This is my passion.''

He got in contact with Bears scout Marty Barrett and finally was hooked up with special-teams coordinator Dave Toub, who liked what he saw. When Staggs went undrafted, Toub acted fast to get him on board, and now he's in position to perhaps replace Cameron Worrell, who made the Bears as a tryout player in 2003 and left for Miami in free agency.

Now, how can you not root for a guy like that? I predict that by the next mini camp, the city of Chicago will be absolutely in love with this guy.

So, all in all, it was another fun draft even if a good bit of the fun happened from trading veterans and picking up some leftovers after ESPN had turned off the lights and headed back to Bristol. Now, we’re left to wait and plan our fantasy league draft plans, hit a training camp scrimmage or two and drool about the whats-his-name snoozefest that is the preseason. I can’t wait.

(For some great and funny draft coverage from one of the big boys, make sure to check out ESPN's Sports Guy, Bill Simmons column.)

Obligations

Since I've been busy lately and I need to post some damn thing...

My favorite Polvo song lyric has to be, "...following the grapevine down into the goldmine..."

And really, were I somehow to teach a class on 90's indie rock, Polvo would be a chapter unto themselves--not because they're the gold standard of the decade, but because the represent the particular aesthetic, the particular characteristic of the era.

Propaganda Prospecting in a River of Blood - or - Just Another Day for the American Right

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or in Iraq with far more important things to worry about, you’ve likely heard all about yesterday’s tragic massacre at Virginia Tech.

The dude was, predictably, a loner with some serious issues. But that news didn’t stop Right wing pundits from attempting to claim the South Korean national born, naturalized American citizen as an Al Queda-connected, Muslim… or claiming that this was the best reason yet for arming every man and woman on every college campus across the nation--Now, I’m reasonably pro-gun, but you’ll probably draw the same conclusions as me about a campus full of fully armed, hormone-flooded, testosterone-crazed, booze-soaked, kids freshly escaped from a lifetime under mommy and daddy’s watchful eyes. Yea. Great idea.

So, shall we visit some of the swine who’ve come to graze on the still-warm corpses in Virginia?

* Well there’s the National Review’s John Derbyshire, whom you may remember from this post where he publicly chastised the captured British sailors last month. Well, the human-swine hybrid is at it again. Today, he bravely describes how, had he been on campus yesterday, he would have gone all Chuck Norris and put a stop to the madness.

*Then there's ding-a-ling winger, Debbie Schlussel, who has gone to bat for America's racists and "War On Terror" (tm) types--with decidedly diminished returns as more info on the murders has been released. Her wild speculations aired on, where else, Fox News where she cast an ever wider net in attempts to fire up the ol' base and maybe win a few strays back with some blatant racist pandering.

*Not to be outdone for comedy's sake, another National Review-er, Carol Iannone, tosses out this gut-buster, blaming the killings on co-ed dorms and English lit.

*Should I even bother with the "Bowling for Columbine"-esque, rapid-response of the NRA types? Though, there is this.

I will be on the lookout for more wingnut responses and will post the more sub-human of 'em.

**Update Below**

*A late entry to this knuckle-dragging, morally corrupt gang is bible-thumper, Ken Ham, who feels that were every US public high school be converted to a christian academy, Monday's tragedy could have been prevented.

*And what would a list of self-promoting swine be without his Foxness, Bill O'Reilly? Here every one's favorite stoke-victim-in-waiting employs his famous, post-modern political jujitsu to use the tragedy to attack the politics of those who used the tragedy to even mention the subject of gun control. Dizzy yet?

Billy Pilgrim's Wild Ride

(Photo borrowed from Rolling Stone magazine)

This news is omnipresent right now... no, not more Imus bullshit. (Though, if you want to see the human side of that bit of nastiness--not the political posturing and maneuvering--the real, honest to goodness, human faces on the receiving end of the supposedly glib, racist, pap, you could do much worse than this here.)

No, today, it's another story. (Always another story for another day here on the good ol' internets.) You see, writer, philosopher, survivor, Kurt Vonnegut has passed away.

There's really not much I can add to the eulogizing goin' 'round the web right now, except to simply add that if you haven't yet read any Vonnegut, just what in the hell are you waiting for?

2007's been a lousy year so far for... well, for all kinds of people and for all kinds of shit. But as it happens, it's also been a lousy year for folks that I greatly admire. They've been dropping dead at a somewhat alarming pace. Maybe it's not the pace, though. Maybe it's more the quality of people that have shuffled off lately. I dunno... it's a little sad to start thinking about.

And anyway, there's still a pile of work to get done before I can go home. And once I'm safely home, there's still our unconcerned neighbor's car alarm that will certainly go on and off all goddamned night. And even if it didn't, our bank account's still in the red. And that's nowhere near as red as all the blood that's getting spilled in our nation's name over in a place called Iraq as our corrupt and inept politicians rob us all several generations into the future. And...

And then again... I won twenty bucks at poker last night. And I got Red Sox tickets the other day. And I've got some good friends coming to town soon. And there's all those great restaurants waiting to be discovered and all those great albums the keep on coming out regardless of tastemaker prognostications... And, hell, I've just started reading a new book. It looks pretty good.

So, maybe sad isn't exactly the right word for what I'm feeling.

(Photo borrowed from Nezua, the Unapologetic Mexican)

Some worthwhile Vonnegut interviews: Rolling Stone, NPR, Salon, PBS, In These Times, Playboy (interviewed by Joseph Heller).

Just What They Needed?

I almost never shop at Circuit City for various reasons. One of those reasons happens to be that, year after year, they give the lion's share of their corporate political donations to the Republican party. Off the top of my head, I think the figure averages to something like 80/20 for the GOP.

Add to that the godawful customer service and knowledge-base that their shoddy, Wal-Mart-esque treatment of employees garners and there's very little incentive to even walk in the door. And I didn't even mention the uncompetitive prices and perpetually under-stocked inventory.

So, it's not like I need any more incentive to stay the hell away from Circuit City. But should you need it, look no further.

These days, it doesn't surprise me in the least to read about how American upper management treats long-term, mid-level employees. It's always another variation on the cannibalistic urge to swell the corporate coffers and bloat the corporate aristocracy. It's a sickening symptom of the cancer that's killing the American dream... AKA: America's Soul.

Barbara Ehrenreich writes about the media reaction to this wickedness.

From the article:

"Columnist Bill White of the Allentown Morning Call pictures Circuit City CEO Philip J. Schoonover getting a warm welcome to hell - very warm. Satan tells him, "This place is full of overpaid, outsourcing, golden-parachuting, employee-abusing worms like you." Schoonover's sin? Laying off 3400 employees because they had been around for too long and needed to be replaced by minimum wage workers...

...Times columnist David Leonhardt showed some pious sympathy for the laid-off, who will, after a 10 week cooling off period, be able to re-apply for their old jobs at much reduced pay. But he goes on to explain that Circuit City's employee abuse is just part of the larger corporate demand for 'efficiency.'"

Read the entire article: Circuit City Slaughter.

Right Wing Bloodlust On Parade

Crooks and Liars points us to leading "conservative" publication, The National Review, where that famous Right Wing support of our troops is on full, naked, dog piled, electrode-to-the-genitals, display.


From human-swine hybrid TNR opinion columnist, John Derbyshire:

Once again, it's me and Ralph Peters on the same wavelength, deploring the cowardice of the British sailors and marines kidnapped by Iran. When it happened, I said I hoped the ones who'd shamed their country would be court-martialed on return to Blighty, and given dishonorable discharges after a couple years breaking rocks in the Outer Hebrides (which, believe me—I've been there—have a LOT of rocks). Now, I confess, I wouldn't shed a tear if some worse fate befell them.

Read the C&L entry.

Read the pathetic article itself.

Been Down So Long...

...Don't Hardly Know What Diplomacy That Doesn't Come From The Barrel of a Gun Is.

If you too have forgotten that diplomacy really isn't defined by sabre rattling and troop surges, perhaps it'll lift your spirits to read this: "Syria Tells Pelosi It's Ready for Peace Talks."

R-O-C-K (Updated)

My friend Jon gave me a ticket to see the band Explosions in the Sky last night. I like the band. They're an instrumental, quiet-to-loud-to-bombastic, indie quartet who, as they've matured, have even begun to take on qualities of the more emotive, multi-tonal, neo-classical composers of yesteryear (maybe Stravinsky or Shoenberg). The results are a big, almost cinematic sound that often sounds like a full-fledged symphony instead of a few guitars and a drum set.

Explosion in the Sky played an excellent show. They've nailed their live act down. It's exciting and flawless... But somehow, that wasn't enough. The loud-quiet-loud-quiet-real loud formula (or the reverse) paid diminished returns and by the fourth song, I had pretty much tuned out. And that makes sense, cuz they're the kind of band that I have trouble paying attention to for an entire album, let alone an entire live show. The utter lack of hooks or pop nuggets just tends to wear on me after a few songs. Thus it went at the sold out show last night.

But alas, tonite I've got a chance to get that mojo back.

Me and Mrs. Delano have tickets to go see young indie, up and comers, The Besnard Lakes. Their new album, The Dark Horse, is awash in Phil Spector-ish, Beach Boys meet Jesus and Mary Chain sweetness. Or as one review aptly put it, "The band reminds me a lot of Low, if, instead of stripping down their songs to bare-bone affairs, they turned it up to eleven and invited Roger Waters to the party."

That reviewer also posted an mp3 of one of the best songs, "And You Lied To Me."

***Update***

Wow. What a show it was.

They were one of the best live bands I've seen in years. I really like the new album, but live, the guitars move out from the background. They're big, loud and, for lack of a better word, glorious. And the smoke machine was a perfect accompaniment to the shimmering walls of sound and pop nuggets exploding from the small stage.

Do what you must to see this band live.

What's That Stink?

Ahh, the hypocritical, braying jackassery of the Republican Youth Korps is ripe upon the spring air: Eagles vs Ducks: Promoting War from the Safety of Home.

Turning Worms

MoveOn.org has been, as far as I'm concerned, a mildly useful organization. But I've never been much for rallies or hosting discussion groups... especially as a proxy for an organization that's ever-closer to the Democratic party.

So, I've removed them, finally, from ye olde blogroll. But as I aint exactly one to close a door without opening a window, I've added a new link.

Sadly, No! is a smarmy, belligerent, wickedly funny political blog. Juvenile yet skewering, it's a fun counterpoint to a blog like Glenn Greewald's super-serious fillets. No a bad one-two punch.

Write Your Own Caption

This photo is just too precious to limit to one or two smarmy captions.

So, please feel free to add your own on the comments section.

"President Bush Gives Little Brown Worker Lesson in NAFTA/CAFTA Economics."

Jim Beam Brain Bake

Things are slowing down a bit finally. The Great Big Move is nearly finished, but as this new house is officially the 9th place I've lived in the last ten years, there's an incredible amount of furnishing and tweaking to come, cuz, I don't intend on moving again for quite a goddamn while.

Among plenty of other exciting homemaking decisions, we've decided to make a foray into the world of satellite tv. And I'm as giddy as a toddler anticipating Christmas morning about it all*. We're getting the DVR's and about a jabillion stations. The miracle man come Friday morning with the little dish and the magic boxes. I only hope I can get some sleep the night before.

*I should add that as a responsible and moral citizen, I only intend to watch nature and educational programs on my new magic dish, oh, and C-SPAN. And maybe some ESPN. But, really, that's all. Really.

419 Is a Joke

Familiar with the Monty Python skit about the dead parrot? I knew you were.

Know what a 419 scam is? Sure you do.

How about the anti-419, scambaiting movement? Of course.

So, what do you get when you combine all three?

A goddamn, certified inteweb classic.

See Xeni's post on Boing Boing for much more about this video and scambaiting in general.

When Fascism Come To America, It'll Be Wearing a Miniskirt

For me, "conservative" cheerleader and professional attention-seeker, Ann Coulter usually garners the kinda attention span usually reserved for a channel-surfing stopover on Sabado Gigante or one of those ouch-it-hurts-sports-injury gawkfests... in other words, she's a fly-by oddity. Or, oughta be.

I find her politics and personality wildly repugnant but at the same time I find her to be such a cartoon of a normal human being, that I can't be bothered to laugh at her, let alone fume about her. But I can only wish she'd remain little more than an occasional blip on my personal radar.

It's just that, every couple of months her inner fascist orbits a little too close to her inner child and she says something so outrageously offensive/stupid/titillating that it gets picked up and circulated 'round the blogoshpere, and sometimes the tv-o-sphere. And I become a little more familiar with Ann Coulter.

As I understand it, she's garnered a large following in America's "conservative" community. She's a perennial major player on the GOP punditry circuit where book deals, speaking engagements and TV appearances have earned her a very, very agreeable income. From there, Coulter plays to the baser instincts of the GOP faithful, oftentimes uttering statements (usually in the form of the defensible opinion--actual or calculated) that would get plenty of other media darlings publicly shunned for a lifetime or two. Tellingly, she's retained her seat in the Pantheon of "conservative" icons as much by explicit approval of those masses, as by implicit approval by the leaders of those masses.

Despite the repeatedly violent and vicious pronouncements vomited from the mouth of Ann Coulter, the GOP has yet to publicly denounce her; yet to claim she's gone too far. Whether it's bemoaning a missed opportunity to assassinate a "liberal" political figure, daydreaming of exterminating America's left-leaning citizens, or, now, the jocular, verbal emasculation of a Democratic presidential candidate, Coulter's words are met with a roar from the groundlings and ever more invitations from the elite.

The always excellent Glenn Greenwald writes about the phenomenon behind this tacit approval of Coulter and her peers by the GOP in today's column, The Right-Wing Cult of Contrived Masculinity. It's perhaps the most insightful, most damning post Greenwald's wrote yet. And that, my friends, is saying something.

Weedend Weekend Reading

Essential reading from the LA Weekly (via BoingBoing):


A Terrible Thing to Waste
Convicted as an ecoterrorist, a brilliant young scholar nose-dives in prison.

*Thanks to Mr. Freejack for pointing out my Friday moment.

Smackdown - Swiftboat Financier Edition

Ho ho!!! In this modern political world, as accountability dies an ever-quicker death, it's a rare and beautiful thing to witness the paying of the piper. We saw a little bit of it when BushCo. hung FEMA director and horse show judge, Michael Brown out to dry. And over the course of the I. Lewis Libby trial we've seen a wee bit more of it as the goons under the microscope step all over each other to avoid the public glare. But recently, Senator John Kerry had the wonderful fortune of facing a major financier of the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth.

Sam Fox floated 50k to the smear group during their infamous 2004 attack on Kerry. This week, Fox, as a reward for his vigorous GOP fundraising, was up for an ambassadorship to Belgium. But as these things work, his nomination was reviewed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who's senior members include one Senator John Kerry.

Follow the link below to read an article and transcript on the under-oath smackdown Kerry laid on the visibly nervous Fox. While it's ultimately meaningless, it must have felt damn good.

Major Swift Boat Donor To Kerry: "You're A Hero"

Movin' On Up

Back to light posting as we pack up (our just throw out) our junk and move it on across town to our new digs. We felt like we deserved better, so we went out and found a house that doesn't appear to be in danger of being condemned by the city anytime soon. Unlike our current house.

We've also got a guest room. So why not come up for a visit?

Newsness

Mrs. Delano III has begun her own foray into blogland. She poses as one Hari Covert and posts with an eye toward foodstuff. Have a look at Hari News.

And as for me, I'm on a trial run over at the Gaper's Block offshoot, Drive Thru. As Gaper's is a daily "goings on" blog covering all things Chicago, Drive Thru is a food-based look at life in Chicago. It'll cover everything from restaurant reviews to food events to recipe swapping and about a thousand things in between. I'm very excited to be a part of something new, exciting and positively lusty like Drive Thru. And really, it was a natural choice to go for it, because conversations about Chicago food issues make up about half of the chit-chat in our house. So why not start writing about it?

My first submission is titled, "Far Away Flavors Made Easy." It covers shopping for cheaper and easier to find herbs, spices and exotic ingredients in Chicago.

Back With A Bummer - UPDATED

After a much needed Blogging break, I think I'm ready to get back on the horse.

So, I'll kick things off right where they left off, with a death announcement.

From outer space, freak and roll band, the Sun City Girls:

02/20/07

With deep regret, we must announce that Charles Gocher passed away yesterday in Seattle due to a long battle with cancer at the age of 54. He is survived by the two of us who adopted him as a brother 25 years ago and his many friends around the world. He will be missed more than most could ever know. Our thanks to everyone for their support and encouragement during the past three, very difficult years. Many of you were not aware that Charles was ill and that’s because he wanted it that way. Details of a memorial in his honor will be announced soon.

---Alan and Richard Bishop

Charles was a mutant of a drummer. How Evan Jones framed Coltrane, how Art Blakey led his players with rhythms that just shouldn't have been possible, how Keith Moon was the thunder behind Townshend and Entwhistle's lightning. Gocher was all this and plenty more.

May the dead tongue continue to sing and sing and sing.

Sun City Girls website.

UPDATE - And of course, being a Sun City Girl, Mr. Gocher did much more than just play the drums. As evidenced below - followed by a Gocher drum clinic.

Robert Anton Wilson, Out (UPDATED)

Writer, Philosopher, Prophet, Hellraiser, Freethinker, Robert Anton Wilson passed on this morning. No doubt he left looking forward to his next great adventure. If you never read any of his work, get to it. Wilson's writing has the powerful ability to actually change the way forever how one sees themselves in the universe and, indeed, how one sees the universe itself. Time, space, truth, nature... you'll see none with the same eyes as before.

From his blog:

Robert Anton Wilson Defies Medical Experts and leaves his body @4:50 AM on binary date 01/11. All Hail Eris!

On behalf of his children and those who cared for him, deepest love and gratitude for the tremendous support and lovingness bestowed upon us.

(that's it from Bob's bedside at his fnord by the sea)

RAW Memorial February 07date to be announced .

UPDATE: Reason Magazine Online has a great atricle on RAW with links and commentary.

Florida Gators Win It All

My Florida Gators won the NCAA Football Cham-peen-ship last night by eviscerating the overwhelmingly favored Ohio State Buckeyes. The Gators played intense, nearly flawless football making the Buckeyes look at first confused, then downright lost. It was a real treat.

Robert Weintraub, writing for Slate.com, has my favorite take on the event: Urban Renewal - The Florida Gators and their genius coach maul Ohio State.

And here's a few more of my favorite pics:

Death Cult Glee Club

Just a reminder:



Juan Cole remembers. He gives us the Top Ten Ways the US Enabled Saddam Hussein.

Bad Moon Rising - Government Approved Science

It's hard to understate how frightening an idea this is. While America's eyes are turned Eastward and our hearts are warmed with the self-destruction of the American Right, those same Rightists have managed to sneak into legislation a major tenet of Neocon ideology.

New scientific publishing guidelines give strict partisan oversight to scientific findings and the flow of scientific information. The new rules essentially subject all data to political interpretation before being made public. This effectively creates an in-house propaganda unit for every government-funded scientific research project.

Before, many of these projects were spun and distorted by extra-agency government units whose take could be measured next to the actual scientific findings. In other words, there was always a division between the scientific results and "the official findings." Not anymore. This new directive clears the way for political manipulation of research, data and of course, results.

This is the very essence of corruption. The very meaning of the word. This type of manipulation and secrecy of science combined with, on the other hand, the corporate secrecy of science effectively takes science out of the public sphere. And in our brave, new, modern world this amounts another face of the rising American fascism.

The Bush administration is clamping down on scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, the latest agency subjected to controls on research that might go against official policy.

New rules require screening of all facts and interpretations by agency scientists who study everything from caribou mating to global warming. The rules apply to all scientific papers and other public documents, even minor reports or prepared talks, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Read the article: New publishing rules restrict scientists.

All About 2012

The date December 21st, 2012 A.D. (13.0.0.0.0 in the Long Count), represents an extremely close conjunction of the Winter Solstice Sun with the crossing point of the Galactic Equator (Equator of the Milky Way) and the Ecliptic (path of the Sun), what that ancient Maya recognized as the Sacred Tree. This is an event that has been coming to resonance very slowly over thousands and thousands of years. It will come to resolution at exactly 11:11 am GMT.


LEARN MORE HERE.

What Darkness Lurks...

Digby over on Hulabaloo points us to several columns by John Marshall of Talking Points Memo covering the quickly growing tendency of right wing loyalists to paint the myriad of Republican failures as, wouldn’t you know, the failures of the American people. They’re out there on the net and in the newspapers and on the cable news suite right now talking up this crap. Scolding average Americans everywhere for being down on the war, down on the Repubs and for wanting change. Typical.

Theirs is a kind of power that’s meant to appeal to the kid in all of us… the locked-in part of our human psyches that will always have a need of a parent figure, a need to be told what’s what, a need to have the world interpreted for us. That we’re all far more capable of figuring it all out for our selves with a little hard work and reflection is meaningless to them and is, indeed, something they hate to see in the populace at large. It's why they shout loud enough and stamp their feet strong enough to drown out the sound of our own conscience talking to us. And should anyone cognizant enough to hear their own voice start speaking, it's why they mock and deride and marginalize.

This is their philosophy of governing… the occluded, perhaps subliminal side of everything they stand for, but never talk about in classrooms or conventions or on TV. This is why the demand from us servitude, compliance and ignorance. It’s also why we see, down so many avenues, their attempts to cover-up, to silence, to censor.

It is why we people like us call them people like them "evil".

In order to gather their power, to wield it and sustain it, they must actively smother what so many of us understand to be mankind’s greatest assets—our spiritual, emotional, intellectual freedoms.

A snip from Digby’s post:

I'm sorry that these starry-eyed neocons who looked at George Bush and saw a genius are disappointed that the rest of the country didn't support their vision. They were given more of a chance to prove themselves than dreamers and fools usually are --- and they failed on a grand scale. This is what the Bushites deserve and what they should expect for ram-rodding through a war without real public support and then screwing it up royally. The families of all these dead and wounded soldiers, unfortunately, didn't deserve this and neither did the poor Iraqis who didn't know they were going to be guinea pigs in a 7th grade neocon thought experiment based on cartoons and psycho-babble.

Neither War Nor Politics Nor Gossip, Yet, Of All

With so much going on in the world around us right now, it’s important to call attention to some of the less fantastic, less dramatic, less bloated headlines.

Film director, Robert Altman died today at the age of 81. He was/is one of my all-time favorite directors. The first film of his I saw was The Player towards the end of my high school years. The opening shot, a record breaking long take with swooping, shifting camera angles, was like a slap in the face. And if the opening shot was a sustained smack, then the rest of the film was like a boxing match. A pinnacle of storytelling, camera work and acting that gave my teenage self an entirely new perspective on filmmaking.

If you haven’t seen any of his films, well, get to it. Here’s my top five (in order of release date):

1) M*A*S*H
2) Nashville
3) The Player
4) Short Cuts
5) Gosford Park

The Party Expands

As I continue to reassess what this blog should be all about, if exist at all, why not glide on over to Ed Ballinger's band new, squeaky clean, I Should Care Less.

Fun fact about Ed: He like to put Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream in his underpants and head out on the dance floor to do the Electric Slide. You didn't hear it from me though.

News Alert!

This just in:

FOX NEWS FUNDS TERRORISTS TO THE TUNE OF TWO MIL.

Number One Son, Heed This Ancient Parable

The following was grabbed part and parcel from Billmon's Whiskey Bar blog. I think it sums up the situation nicely, don't you?

What the Dems are saying:

Pelosi praised "the beauty and genius of our democracy," and thanked voters for giving Democrats the chance to lead.

"Democrats pledge civility and bipartisanship in conduct of the work here," she said, calling for "partnerships … not partisanship."

What the Dems are actually thinking:

MARSELLUS: Step aside, Butch.

Butch steps aside, revealing Marsellus standing behind him, holding a pump-action shotgun. KABOOM!!!!

Zed is blasted in the groin. Down he goes, screaming in agony. Marsellus, looking down at his whimpering rapist, ejects the used shotgun shell.

BUTCH: You okay?

MARSELLUS: Naw man. I'm pretty fuckin' far from okay.

BUTCH: What now?

MARSELLUS: What now? Well let me tell you what
now. I'm gonna call a couple pipe-hittin' niggas, who'll go to work on homes here with a pair of pliers and a blow torch. (to Zed) You hear me talkin' hillbilly boy?! I ain't through with you by a damn sight. I'm gonna git medieval on your ass!

--Quentin TarantinoPulp Fiction.

Again, this was lifted from the always wild and wooley, Billmon's Whiskey Bar. Borrowed sentiment to be sure, but borrowed with love.

Post 201 - Who Will Lead Them?

Wowee Zowee, what a night. Was up till well past three savoring the spectacle. And catching GOP pundits and Fox News all red-faced and pissy while calling so damn many races for the Dems was sheer political porn. It was H-O-T.

All in all, a great night for me, for the American Left, for all of America, for the world. It's wildly encouraging to see the American public put their foot down. Yea, a couple years too late, but hell. Better late than never, I guess. As I read somewhere last night, "Subpoena Powers: Active!!!"

Last night's victory drink: Trader Joe's carbonated blueberry juice and a splash of 100% cranberry juice over vodka.

Last night's victory dinner: Truffles on soft-boiled eggs with shaved parmesean and brown butter.

Last night's hero: The American public. Wow. Not even the GOP's fiendish shenanigans could sully the upsets. Hoo-rah!

Last night's zero: Joe Lieberman. Sucked in enough Republican votes to down Ned Lamont by a good 10% margin. And the way things look to be shaking out, he'll be the deciding vote in a tied senate. Ugh.... let's hope payback aint quite the bitch it's said to be.

Ok.... now I'm late for work. But I will say that a hangover never felt so good.

**UPDATE**
The flight's not over!!! Glenn Greenwald explains the day after in "The Great Victory - crushing the developing myths." Read it now!!!

200th Post!!! - Now Go Vote!!!

Champagne, confetti, horns and those little things you whip around that make a noise like a spine realignment-- for everyone!!! It's the 200th post on Finish My Wine dot Com!!!!

Woo hoo!!!

Ok, here's a broom and a trash bag. Clean up and then go vote if you haven't already. If you have, I think I saw a dude stashing a few beers in the lettuce drawer of the fridge. Grab me one, cuz I done voted already.

Continuing election coverage:

*CSPAN*

*CNN*

*Crooks and Liars*

*Huffington Post*

*Alternet*

**UPDATE**
Check out Gore Vidal's ‘The Most Important Election in My Lifetime’
Check out Glenn Greenwald's "Tradesport predictions and other election matters "

A Good Time To Look Forward

Yea, yea… not much posting lately. As I approached (and still do... this is #199) the 200th entry for Finish My Wine dot Com, Michael Benton from the blog, Dialogic, invited me (and you and everyone else) to participate in an upcomming issue of Reconstruction, an online cultural studies magazine. The issue will be about blogging and Michael wants writers from across the blogosphere to pen entries about their motivations behind blogging and any ideas on the theory and practice of blogging.

It sounds like a great project. A diverse blogging public checking in with their take on the hobby/job/obsession… It couldn’t be a more relevant topic these days as the number of blogs on the internet continues to explode (over 55 million to date!). However, there’s been little discussion as to what they mean to those who create them and those who frequent them. And there’s certainly been no effort to centralize the discussion.

So, I was digging around in the ol’ headspace in a effort to come up with an angle for why I started this blog-thing and why I continue to do it. And that’s where I hit a wall.

I’m just not sure if I’ve got much to offer at this point beyond foot-stomping political posts and link-heavy traffic-cop type posts. Work’s become severely encompassing and my rush hour creative energies, as feeble as they may be, have begun to turn elsewhere. There just doesn’t seem to be any point to keeping this up right now beyond sheer vanity… And anyone who’s known me for more than ten minutes can attest to my contempt for that particular deadly sin.

So… no determinations at this point. Just questions. We’ll see what happens.

Buuuuuuuut seeing as I’m taking the time to write all this, I may as well toss in some political snark, right?

I’m fairly politick’d out right now. The local TV ads for the mid-term seats have been wildly entertaining.. if only because to think of them in any other way would quickly become wildly depressing. And the Rove-ster’s October November surprise… wow. Hussein sentenced to hang just days before the American elections. Gee. Transparent AND irrelevant.

It’s like the GOP has so little to offer that even their whoppers have that stale fart smell about them. The kind you catch a wiff of in hospitals or, more appropriately, in funeral homes. It’s the smell of decomposition. The slow and inevitable march towards the grave taken step by step, cell by cell, microbe by microbe.

But who knows. With all the GOP election-day shenanigans poised to reappear this year, one can’t be too sure of exactly which way the shit will fly after it hits the fan. Really, the only thing you can count on right now is that, win or lose, the GOP and the Fox-ite zombie army are already figuring ways to blame the ills of the next two years on the still powerless Democrats and those rotten American traitors, the “liberals.”

Topical Post

There's something about people dressing up their pets that just cracks me up. So, in observance of this Halloween Holiday, I pass on to you these links sent to me from Mrs. Delano III.

Take your pick, Halloween Dogs and Halloween Cats.

All hail the Principia Absurdia!

The Omen: Part IV -- The Jitters

Well, Ill be dipped in shit. What do think this is a picture of?

A hint: Haloween aint the only thing scaring some folks right now.

Wonkette's got the answer.

Playa-Participata

The Rude Pundit pulled out an ice cold bottle of vodka for the president’s limp, uninspiring speech the other day. He clocked in with comments between frosty shots.

My favorites:

10:38 - Already bored. The Rude Pundit's thinking of the most frightening Halloween costume he could wear. Maybe it'll be a zombie Rush Limbaugh gnawing on Michael J. Fox's brain. Nah. Too much padding.

10:44 - Bush ain't "satisfied" with the situation in Iraq. Umm, gee, motherfucker, didn't you put that souffle' in the oven? If it doesn't rise, it ain't our fault.

10:49 - Oh, fuck, he's giving that creepy squint-smile. And he's off - acting like a phone psychic, predicting what people of the future will say about us. Apparently, "My mommy was blown-up in a worthless war" is not one of those things. Nor is "Boy, I'm glad we stopped using gasoline cars."

11:25 - Wonder if that burrito place is open for lunch? A burrito'd soak up all this vodka.

For the whole enchilada, er, burrito, read Live Vodka-Shot Blogging the President's News Conference.

Q4 - It's All Downhill From Here

Calamities, fiascos, and clusterfucks rule these days. I peer out from behind my mountain of paperwork and dream of a match, a match, my kingdom for a match. And I'd skip and spin down the stairs and out to door but not before watching it all catch and start to glow.

Despite the election fast approaching, I’m feeling way, way burned out on politics. Or maybe I’m just coming down with a cold… or maybe both. Anyway, for whatever reason, I aint exactly feelin’ it right now.

So, allow some of my friends to do the heavy lifting today:

*Rollie St. Bacon rolls the bones and comes up Carter. Though, if you prefer a little less milk in your coffee but are still in that 70’s frame of mind, dig his column on the day that rock and roll really died. And if rock and roll aint yr bag… Oh! Baby! You need to get out more. Maybe take a ride in a shagadellic make-out mobile.

*Mrotzie invites us along on her Roman holiday where her and her beau introduce pancakes to unsuspecting Italian villagers.

*Melissa in Ecuador keeps bringing it with stories and pics so spot on, you'd swear it was you that's been knee-deep in unruly mountain children and interesting cuisine.

*Bad News Hughes continues his zany adventure into the heart of darkness, AKA his own twisted life.

*And if all that readin’s got yer eyeballs a scortchin’ and a scratchin’, Ms. BeBe Gun’s got some excellent works of visual acuity for you to gander at.

*And finally, if all that sittin’ and starin’ at the screen’s got you ancy for some shopping, dig on Joanna Ballinger’s Red Attic handbag emporium. Do I need to remind you that them holidays are right around the corner?

Monkey Trouble

WFMU’s Beware of the Blog points us in the direction of the Best Damn Monkey Portraits Ever. As your doctor, I’d advise you have a look.

Bringing a Knife to a Gunfight

So Yahoo’s having an email Q & A forum with MoveOn.org’s director, Eli Pariser. Users can add a question to a long list sent in by readers. Apparently Yahoo, moderator Judy Woodruff and Pariser will pick out their favorites for him to answer in an upcoming column.

That’s all fine and good, I guess. MoveOn is a decent organization who, from what I’ve seen through my own involvement with them, are trying (and succeeding) to connect people of similar political persuasions. They aim, at the very least, to educate and if they can make an activist or donator out of participants, they’ll gladly do so.

That they’ve become downright demonized in the right wing media is sheer testimony as to how effective they’ve become at raising both consciousness and capital—and how much they scare the pants off “conservatives” and the GOP faithful.

After reading down the “what would you like to ask Eli Pariser” message board, one fact become glaringly, pitifully obvious… (And forgive the polarization here, I tend to despise lumping regular folks’ personal politics in to one camp or the other. It’s become a lazy, divisive technique of the base-catering goons on AM radio and cable news, but it serves to set the stage here.) … As I said, after reading down the message board, one fact just jumps right out and boxes your ears.

It seems that one side of this fight comes armed to the teeth with facts and has a strong grasp on issues and the players involved. By and large, they’re willing to consider the opinions of others and even attempt to bridge some of those great empathic gaps we all seem to keep falling in to these days.

The other side in this fight paints with strokes as broad as their sentences are short. They toss out characterizations about catchphrases without a hint of shame. They offer little in making their point beyond the petty mocking of opinions and ideas that they plainly don’t understand. There is little substance and less good will. They give us a clear look at the ass-end of the echo chamber. Manufactured outrage distilled to its basest, most simple sentiment.

Perhaps not surprisingly, these folks are made up of the blindly pro-Bush, the GOP grunts, and the "with-us-or-against-us" crowd. Nevermind that the torchbearers of the ideology that they're still clinging to have been unmasked and exposed as the plunderers and swindlers they've been all along.

Not that the “left-leaning” comments are spun entirely of gold. There’s plenty of knckleheaded brain farting and party-line lockstepping. But the genuine, thoughtful, knowledgeable, heart-felt sentiment comes overwhelmingly from that “left.”

I don’t know how long this is gonna be up, or how much you can stand, but if you feel like wading into those particular waters, check out Talk to Eli Pariser of MoveOn.org.

The King's Eyes and Ears Are Now Bionic

As the mid-term elections creep closer, and we find that Rove and the GOP are about to light the fuse on a one hundred million dollar advertising and propaganda blitz, and dictator-in-chief Bush signs in to law a regressive, twisted piece of legislation that strips every US citizen of their right of Habeas Corpus, the ever-floundering Department of Homeland Security has sunk a couple million into a data trolling service hoping to snare and analyze even the most inane of anti-American sentiment from across the globe.

Truthout’s Chris Floyd explains this latest insanity shat from the “with us or against us” mindset.

Why is the United States government spending millions of dollars to track down critics of George W. Bush in the press? And why have major American universities agreed to put this technology of tyranny into the state's hands?

As with so many of the Bush measures that have quietly stripped away America's liberties, this one too is beginning with a whimper, not a bang: a modest $2.4 Department of Homeland Security million grant to develop "sentiment analysis" software that will allow the government's "security organs" to sift millions of articles for "negative opinions of the United States or its leaders in newspapers and other publications overseas," as the New York Times reported earlier this month. Such negative opinions must be caught and catalogued because they could pose "potential threats to the nation," security apparatchiks told the Times.

This hydra-headed snooping program is based on "information extraction," which, as a chipper PR piece from Cornell tells us, is a process by which "computers scan text to find meaning in natural language," rather than the rigid literalism ordinarily demanded by silicon cogitators. Under the gentle tutelage of Homeland Security, the universities "will use machine-learning algorithms to give computers examples of text expressing both fact and opinion and teach them to tell the difference," says the Cornell blurb.

Read the entire article: Sentimental Education: Academia Signs Up to Track Down Dissent.

So Un-Punk

ESPN color columnist Bill Simmons has a good rundown of the remaining three quarters of the NFL season. He’s consistently the only decent thing about the god-awful, wretched, tax write-off, waste of ink and paper that is ESPN The Magazine. If you’ve ever been tempted to pick one up or, heaven forbid, purchase a subscription, for fuck’s sake just don’t do it—Unless you’re a fifth grader with some extra allowance money. At least then, you’ll be reading something written for your age group.

In the interest of opening a window after closing a door, I’d suggest The Sporting News if you’re looking for a good sports magazine. While they do get a little long in the tooth covering the NASCAR circuit, and their NBA section rarely goes over 3 pages, their football and baseball coverage is always outstanding, even in the offseason. It’s written well and is typically devoid of Sports Illustrated-esque, human interest fluff.

Anyway, if you’re a football fan, read Bill Simmons’ Putting the Sleeper to Bed.

Melissa In Ecuador

Yowza, does time fly. I've been meaning to send out a word on and a link to this for over a month now. Ooops. My apologies.

My friend Melissa is down in Ecuador for four months. She's living with a host family and teaching wild mountain children at a run down school house. By all accounts it's been a hell of an adventure. She's got a blog up and running now with incredible pictures and stories. Check it out and get your vicarious on.

Melissa In Ecuador - "This is the blog of Melissa Resh while teaching in Ecuador. I arrived on August 4th, and I should be here until the beginning of December."

PS - The picture above is of a local dish called Cuy. It's basically a deep fried guinea pig.

Coffee, Microscope, Monkeywrench

New job duties have required being here more hours of the day and staying busy while I am here. With any luck I’ll pull in enough dough on the next paycheck to buy a Caribbean bungalow… or at least a case of Corona and tickets to that Naked Raygun / 7 Seconds reunion show in November.

Some recent observations:

1. Woke up to snow in Chicago this morning. My god. Snow already.


2. Payroll snafu has had my pay all goofed up for the last month. I was sure I never got one particular paycheck. Had payroll office put a stop payment on it. They said someone cashed it and had me come down to take a look. The signature on the back of the check was, of course, my own. I still don’t understand what happened. I’m gonna blame this one on the chemo. You bethca.


3. Death knell or not, right wingers and republicans will be pulling out every dirty trick from their nefarious bag in these next few weeks before the election. At the very least, it’ll make for some serious avant-garde theater. Grab some popcorn and enjoy.


4. These Chicago Bears are going to the Super Bowl. No doubt about it.


5. Meatballs are the future. My lovely lady made pasta with meatballs last night as the temps dropped and the wind howled. Just perfect. Though, the accompaniment (new episode of LOST) left a lot to be desired.


6. After rereading ReSearch’s book on Pranks in anticipation of next month’s publication of Pranks 2, I’ve got a spring in my pre-winter step. While we Americans may or may not be hopelessly fucked as prisoners of our own affluence, it’s good to know that there’s still a lot of good, wicked fun out there to be had. Sometimes I forget that.

Another Florida Fish Fry

Man-O!-Man, am I starting to get homesick. Well... not really. It's more like just plain old sick. Retching, heaving, collapsed in a heap sick. Hey, I'm kinda like the state of American Democracy. Weird.

Now watch this video.

Slack Friday

The merciful end of another wicked work week...

Well class, in lieu of any mildly-enlightened commentary or cranky foot-stomping, today we'll be watching a film. Make sure and take notes. You'll be quizzed about it on Monday.

RE: The Foley / Hastert Affair

I've got nothing to add to all this.

The Daily Show's been a gleeful recipient of the GOP all but writing the jokes for them lately. And in that kinda feeding frenzy they're at their best.

But for a slightly more studious look, take the time to read Glenn Greenwald's commentary. It cuts all the bullshit and makes no DC-esque pretenses. Highly recommended.

Read: Mark Foley and the Unmasked Republican Party.

Lube Job For Your Head

Stop what you are doing. Take a few deep breaths. Relax a little. Do that thing with your knuckles or your neck bone. Close your eyes and count to ten.

Now read this:

"Why normals are hideous." Excellent 1994 anti-normal rant from "Nenslo."

Repeat once every work week or as needed.

(Via the mighty Boing Boing)

GOP Hack Gettin' Served

While the substance of this little back and forth couldn't be more relevant, the video itself is for amusement purposes only.

(Props to Scoobie Davis and Atrios of course.)

On Not Letting The Turkeys Get You Down

Of course the bill passed. That’s the sort of thing that happens when the same party runs all three branches of government. It’s called paying the piper. It’s the postage due from the 2004 elections when enough Americans felt that Bush and the Republicans were in some way deserving of total control of the federal government. Anyone who didn’t see something as radical as this so-called torture bill coming, just wasn’t paying attention.

That said, those of us that oppose this home-grown tyranny, this creeping American fascism, are more in number now than ever before. And sadly, ironically, today we even outnumber the power hungry thugs behind this bill and their minions of media-fed fools.

As the tide turns we can perhaps find some kinda hope in our anger; in our disgust. Because the American left of the up and coming generation has had to grow up very quickly. And as we grow up we also grow out—exponentially. In the process, we’ve discovered among ourselves, a new breed of heroes, a new collection of voices, a new brotherhood that would never have existed had the greed of the sociopaths in power not have gone from a trickle to become a tidal wave.

They’ve made lifelong opponents of the previously ambivalent. And that’s the most encouraging fact of all. Especially today, in the face of what, with any luck, will come to be seen as the final victory of a fading faction.

In the end, our side’s most precious and lasting victory will be all the light bulbs over people’s heads that were turned on during these dark times.

Violence Rules

In a general sense, insanity has ruled this week. The very essence of America is about to be rewritten in the form of a bill charging first through the House and now through Congress. The Commander in Chief sez that this bill will help define his powers and responsibilities regarding detention and torture in federal cases, but bipartisan critics decry it as nothing more than an attempt to legally heap more power on the executive branch (one of the major goals of the NeoConservative movement).

The bill provides a green light to legal black holes for people the government describes (ever so vaguely) as threats. Considering the post 9/11 climate of federal surveillance and harassment of Americans involved in peaceful movements and protests, how long do you think it will be before we see citizens plucked off the streets or from their homes only to vanish into thin air for a few years? This is sickening and so fundamentally against the very essence of what America has stood for since our war of Independence from the English monarchy. These are indeed very dark times.

As if all that political and social angst wasn’t enough, how ‘bout some existential ennui? On my way into work today, an apparently despondent woman ended it all by jumping in front of the train I had just gotten off.

I got off the Brown line and was waiting for the Red when an announcement was made about a medical emergency at the next stop (only a couple hundred feet from the one I was waiting at). I was able to walk up the stairs to the overpass and look down the tracks after a few minutes. Firemen and track workers were busy fishing under the train with long poles. I still wasn’t sure what had happened a this point, but after seeing that it became pretty obvious. Pretty goddamn gnarly.

Anyone care to join me for a drink tonight? I’ll be at Chicago’s Horseshoe Bar digging the sounds of The Outlaw Family Band and trying not to mix my tears and my beers.

A Long-Ass Boston Red Sox Post

Well, my beloved Boston Red Sox are out of contention for any postseason play for the second year in a row. This despite having an excellent--albeit an oft broken down--team. And because they're all but done for the year, fans' dreams have turned to the off-season (when not lustily pondering another historic Yankees collapse).

The elephant in that off-season room is, once again, Manny Ramirez. The perennially cranky super-star has begun his annual "I want out of Boston" whining despite being too hurt (cough-cough) to play much over the past month and a half.

Granted, the Ramirez-David Ortiz combo is one of the best one-two lineup punches in all of baseball--the history of baseball, but Manny's lackadaisical attitude toward the city and the team consistently undermines his value. And now another phantom injury has conveniently kept him out of the lineup through the last gasps of a season that was not without its potential. While heroes like Jason Varitek and Trot Nixon fought through their injuries to return to the field despite little hope of the team reaching the postseason, Ramirez gets treated with kid gloves and heaping helpings of adoration for what, in this season and the last, amounts to little more than reverence for his potential.

As a lifelong Red Sox fan, I've gotta say that I'm sick of the merry-go-round. Despite all the analysis about his health and age and his historic skills, when we get down to it, it's about what Manny wants. And he's said what he wants... loudly, clearly. He wants out of Boston. Why not let him go?

Diarist, absolutelax395 had a front page column this Sunday on the Over the Monster sportsblog where he started a lively conversation about what Manny means to the Red Sox--past, present and future. His take is right along the lines of my own.

Well, once again, Manny wants to be traded and this time I am just as pissed as Gordon Edes is about this.

Boston Globe: "While the Red Sox crumbled when Rami­rez went on hiatus -- last night was the 22d game out of 30 Rami­rez has missed since taking himself out of the last game of the Yankee massacre Aug. 21, during which he has been paid $1.918 million (calculated on his base salary of $15 million this season) -- he had the audacity this week, through agent Greg Genske, to reiterate to the Red Sox his desire to be traded this winter."-Prosportsdaily.com

Manny has not played at all after the Sox took their fall even though so many other players rehabbed and worked so hard to get back to play for the struggling club.

It is time for Manny to go.

He goes on to write about likely options for trades and their potential ramifications (continued by readers in the comments section). He's dead on in suggesting that the Angels are the likeliest targets of a trade. Their prospects are above average and they've expressed and interest in adding a big name this offseason. But if I were to swap places with lil' Theo Epstein and have to come up with a plan, I'd be looking elsewhere.

I'd bend over backwards to work a deal with the Orioles... for a few reasons. (This is where I really geek out, be warned.) Shortstop and near-legend, Miguel Tejada wants out of Baltimore. Great. The Red Sox are likely to lose shortstop Alex Gonzalez to free-agency if they don't pony up... but frankly, I don't think he's worth the money. Even better. Now, seeing as Manny and Miguel's salaries are similar, a straight-up trade has gotta be possible.

I know, I know. Tejada would be a defensive downgrade from Gonzalez. But that bat would go a long way towards softening the loss of ManRam, as Jim Rome likes to call him. Additionally, Tejada's younger and far less prone to Manny-type dramas. Really, it's a win-win situation for both Baltimore (who need to retain some kinda big name) and Boston.

But what about the hole in left field?

Well, take a look at who's coming up for free-agency this winter. Carlos Lee is outta Texas. This year has been an off one for him, but after this exposure to American League pitching, it's a safe bet he'll snap back into form next year. That's my number one. But who's next? There's Alfonso Soriano who's definitely out of DC this winter. He's an excellent bat and has become a decent fielder. Plus there's the added "up yrs" to the Yankees, who would love to get him back. Aging vet Louis Gonzalez is another name being floated, but there really doesn't seem to be much gas left in his tank. Other options include (yawn) Aramis Ramirez, (gulp) Barry Bonds, and (ouch!) Cliff Floyd.

While a trade for Tejada would keep our power intact, a trade with the Angels would likely bring desperately needed pitching and some decent prospects. But whatever option does present itself, really, the only choice Red Sox management should be facing is the choice of where to send Manny Ramirez.

The Slope Just Got Slippery-er

Been a busy, busy week here. So, I'll leave my sentiments on the ongoing tourture-bill debate in the hands of someone named Tristero over on Digsbysblog. Considering the sham that is the "rebel Republican oposition" to Bush on American use of tortue, he writes:

So tell me, my fellow Americans: How does it feel knowing that your government will pass laws permitting the violation of the Geneva Conventions against torture?

How does it feel knowing the taxes you pay from money you earned are going towards the salary of legally sanctioned torturers?

How does it feel knowing that the only political party with an organization large enough to stand in opposition to the American fascists in charge of this country's legislature and executive were actually boasting that they were not going to get involved in one of the most important moral debates of our time?

And how does it feel to have George W. Bush, that paragon of moral probity, mental stability, and well-informed intelligence, granted the legal right to determine what is and isn't torture?

I'll tell you how I feel. I am outraged and ashamed.

Cognitive Dissonance - Weekend Edition

After a full day of football yesterday, I was left in TV coma-land doing the ol’ flip-flip-flip through the overpriced wasteland that is American cable TV. I wound up watching a good stretch of a documentary on slain 1990’s rapper/activist Tupac Shakur on MTV. Later, in the wee hours, I fought the sandman while catching most of a doc on the clusterfuck that was the federal raid on David Koresh’s eschatological Jesus cult near Waco, Texas in 1993. While both programs were well made and interesting in their own right, my main interest centered on how little I know about either subject.

See, it was the 90’s and I was off to my remote little Florida college town. That insular world of punk rock, skateboarding, studying and the fairly constant use of the word ‘party’ as a verb, made it easy to ignore anything under the Current Events banner—well, anything that didn’t pop up on our activist friends’ radars, anyway. The internet for most of this time was limited to the tech-geek-laden IRC and our spendin’ cash went to books and booze not the cable company (or electric company for that matter; which made for some pretty miserable un-air conditioned Florida summers… but that’s a different story entirely).

Watching those shows on TV last night I was struck with how little I know about either. I mean, had something like Waco happened today… hell, whiny, obsessive bloggers like myself would be pissing our pants and stomping our feet within an hour of the initial report. And Tupac’s legacy was something, as an admitted music vampire, that I should have known at least a little bit about. But most modern hip-hop was simply off my radar for years.

It’s like I (and I’m sure plenty of others of the era) lived in this weird little bubble where my reality was entirely what I needed it to be. Information (both vital and trivial) from the world at large just didn’t always make it in. My more pressing concerns—after getting enough hours (but not too many) at work and endless stream of papers and exams—were blissfully self-centered. Buying records going to shows, chasing girls, scoring particular chemicals and on and on.

There’s a particular happiness in all that which I sincerely miss these days. But at the same time, there’s no way I would want to live in that kinda bubble again. That kinda one-way relationship with the world, it’s occurred to me, is how so many of the Bush faithful relate to their world today. That communication cutoff… that isolation of empathy… that apathy towards anything outside of that bubble…

My own disconnect was partially a product of the times (watch the news or buy a paper if you want your current events), and partially a product of my age (“there’s a time and a place for everything and it’s called college.”). It’s interesting to me, and probably only to me, to realize the sorts of things I missed. Things like Waco and Tupac. I could go on to try and make some belabored political point outta this but, naaa. This post has become long enough.

But speaking of disconnect and that little college town: my Gators came up big all weekend in the sports world. We eeeked one out over Tennessee in college ball and ex-Gator Rex Grossman dropped several bombs on the Lions in Chicago’s killer NFL home opener. Additionally, ex-Gator rookie, Chad Jackson, scored his first NFL touchdown for the New England Patriots. Not a bad weekend for this particular distraction.

IRC Follies

Bash.org is apparently some kinda techie hangout humor site. I haven't spent much time poking around there, but I did find a collection of their favorite IRC conversation ha-ha's. (Internet Relay Chat is a text based chat and file swap forum that's apparently still around after nearly 15 years in existence.)

It's awfully goddamn funny. If you can deal with geek humor you'll find it even funnier.

Bash.org's Top 100 Quotes.

Eye vs. Eye

I've read a little bit about the documentary film Loose Change and its controversial attempts to shed light on the myriad of inconsistencies surrounding the attacks of 9/11 (aka the conspiracy theories). I've been meaning to see the film which is available to view for free on the internet--but haven't yet.

I've also been interested in a recent book that's been published by the editors of Heart Publications' Popular Mechanics magazine, Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts . They apparently take to debunking a cross-section of 9/11 alternative theories with a (surprise, surprise) scientific approach. I caught one the authors/editors on a Fox news segment recently. I felt that he, much like Fox News in general, was more interested in heaping condescending smugness down on the guy (name forgotten)representing the opposing viewpoint.

The Democracy Now! radio program recently hosted a debate between the two men behind the film and the two editors behind the book. Needless to say, it was tense.

For the same reasons I've wanted to both watch the film and read the book, I was drawn to the debate. While it wasn't necessarily disappointing, it wasn't particularly enlightening. But one glaring, shining fact hit me loud and clear; much like the spot on Fox, the Popular Mechanics debunking squad came armed with little more than condescending namecalling and smug poo-pooing sprinkled with the occasional rational rebuttal. While they may have thumped a handful of dents into the arguments of the "conspiracy theorists" (whom are likened to holocaust deniers at one particularly slimy point), they never manage to knock a hole a single one.

I've said it before and I'll repeat myself: While I don't necessarily believe any of the alternate 9/11 theories, it's become my position to give full shift to each and every one--from the wackiest to the more benign. I take this position because the only thing I'm damn sure of, the only thing that makes any sense at all, is that somewhere at some juncture the American public is being lied to; It's because, to paraphrase Michael Ruppert, we're given answers that don't answer and explanations that don't explain; It's because there's so much kept so hidden, that I reserve the right to call bullshit and to assert the possibility of even the wildest of 9/11 conspiracy claims.

As far as I'm concerned, it's one of the most potent weapons we've got against those that would have us hooked on their official party line.

Read the transcript of the debate: EXCLUSIVE...9/11 Debate: Loose Change Filmmakers vs. Popular Mechanics Editors of "Debunking 9/11 Myths"

9/11/2001 - 9/11/2006

The following is a post I sent to an e-group of mine on the morning of September 12, 2001:


Damn, I've been beside myself for the last 30+ hours now. (and seeing as i ate mexican last night, it's not the best place to be).

This is just so massive a thing (in every corner of every aspect) that the best anyone can do is attempt scattershot commentary or accounts. It's just maddeningly massive in scope. As they keep saying in the news, i too get the feeling that for a number or reasons, nothing will ever be the same.

This is all really testing the bounds of my pacifism. There are some very ugly doors being opened in the wake of this, which i suppose is the surest sign of victory for the 'enemy'. Despite my befiefs [sic], i too feel that vibe, that populist tendency to want to burn and bomb afghanastan [sic] to the roots to find the fuckers responsible... This is a very scary time. Not just due to the acts themselves and what they reveal about airline security et. al., but the opertunity [sic]this state (of mind, of near-martial law) affords the jingoists, the militarists, the trigger-fingered, the racists, the whole massive, world-wide rush to judgement [sic] and thus punishment. The US public (understandably) seems to have given their blessings to the feds and this leaves us in some real pretty shit. As it stands, we have the backing and the sympathy of almost the entire world. One or a series of ill-advised or emotionally provoked retaliatory attacks can easily swing that balance. And as we learned from the archduke's assassination in the WWI pregame warmup, all it takes is a simple, little shifft in world-public opinion and we might just find ourselves in the crook of a full-scale, world war.

Here in Boston today, the city is nearly shut down if only because everyone is locked into tv coverage (the fuckers picked today to turn off my goddamned cable too). There is heavy police movement and presence as i drive around the much-less-than-normally crowded streets. As the New York attacks were based out of Boston (at least partially) the FBI is also a major presence here. In fact there was just a massive raid on a hotel here netting 3 suspects and a bunch of evidence. Or so we're told. Apparently, there is also a raid or two in Florida, which shouldn't surprise anyone on this list, because, hey, it's Florida.

For me one of the worst aspects of all this is the loss of the Police and Firefighters who all responded to the first crash. Watching the (very newly promoted) NY fire chief on tv last night you could read the utter dejection and despair in his eyes. And indeed he said "I don't know how we [as in the fire dept., but by association everyone] are ever gonna recover from this."

Anyway....

I also hope that nobody on the list had relatives, friends or associates in the affected areas.
and all you new yorkers, DC'ers and others, start taking photos or sound recordings or interviews...

Get out there and get YOUR point of view...
FUCK the news networks, FUCK the gov't info agencies...
They serve their purpose, but what the hell are these newsgroups for (or the whole internet for that matter) if not that?

Off the soap box,

-bryan

Heavy-Handed Quote of the Day

I’ve really been trying to get things a little lighter on here. At least a little. You gotta believe me. Alas… we’ve all got our own particular perversions. And apparently I’m inclined to run everyone’s attention span and patience into the ground with mine.

Nevertheless, folks from the four corners of the Earth have begun to converge on Chicago for the outrageously rockin’ Touch and Go Records 25th anniversary party. It promises to be, at the very least, mildly legendary… though, personally, I’m predicting full-blown insanity.

And with that, I’ll leave you with yet another product of my own perversion, a quote by Michael Ruppert of the From the Wilderness website and author of the book I’ve recently begun, “Crossing The Rubicon”:

“The interchangeability of the terms ‘corporation’ and ‘fascism’ has long been established by traditionally progressive critics who document the amazingly large scale of American corporate welfare and the impact of corporate lobbyists on public policy. This represents an institutionalized and ongoing attack on democracy, where the benefits of national wealth are privatized while the costs are socialized; the public pays for its own victimization through waste, fraud, and abuse; and the government sells to the highest bidder its capacity to protect the general population.”

For those about to rock, I salute, and welcome, you.

*UPDATE: An interesting coincidence to my Ruppert quote from Yahoo News today: False Flag Operations: Declassified Military Documents Show How US Government Planned Terrorist Attacks Against its Own Citizens

Oh, The Depths To Which You'll Sink

As Joementum spirals downward, new allegations come out about Lieberman's White House connection. The "conservative" magazine, Insight, reveals a Rove-led effort to funnel millions of dollars through "major Republican donors" into Joe's doomed bid to secure the Democratic primary nomination.

Aint that a tad odd? The fellas at the very pinnacle of Republican power finding clandestine ways to get millions to a Democrat??? Something stinks to high hell here. And no one can figure out exactly what. At least one thing's obvious. Joe Lieberman is one dirty rat and oughta be treated as such by every Democrat in the nation whether he wins the mid-terms or not. What he's doing to his constituency, his party and his nation is inexcusable.

From the article:

A senior GOP source said the money was part of Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove's strategy to maintain a Republican majority in the Senate in November. The source said Mr. Rove, together with Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, directed leading pro-Bush contributors to donate millions of dollars to Mr. Lieberman's campaign for re-election in Connecticut in an attempt that he would be a "Republican-leaning" senator.

[...]The source said that under Mr. Rove's direction, the GOP has abandoned its Senate candidate in Connecticut, Alan Schlesinger, who has dropped to about five percent in the polls. Mr. Schlesinger has failed to win the support of any national Republican and has virtually no contact with the White House.

[...]The source said that under Mr. Rove's plan, Mr. Lieberman would vote with the GOP on national security issues and help provide the party with a 50-50 split on major legislation. The deciding vote would then be cast by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Read the entire nauseating article: GOP secretly channeled millions to Lieberman.

A Case Study In Propaganda

President Bush made yet another daffy speech. This week it was to veterans in Salt Lake City that he touted the progress in Iraq, the promising economy, and a few more fictions-du-jour. As it happens, the mayor of SLC, Rocky Anderson, led a protest against Bush and the war. Pretty amazing considering the conservative nature of Utah. He was subsequently interviewed by both Fox News’ afternoon program and MSNBC’s Keith Olberman.

Watch the two Youtube clips of these interviews. Notice a little difference between the two? It’s been done to death, but this juxtaposition provides a simple take on the caustic mix of propaganda and inanity that passes for journalism over at Fox News.

Late Night Rock Out

*This is in no way a total rip off of the Crooks and Liars' "Late Nite Music Club." Really.

Since I'm once again ga-ga over The Jam--more their later stuff now--here's a great video. I wanna see some serious air guitar from you slobs.