Moonshine - by Suza

"The tragedy is not that those who rose so high should fall so low. The tragedy is that those who had so low an appreciation for our government should have risen to such high positions in it." Herbert Block - 1974... Picked this snippet up from Digby, of course Block was talking about Ford and Nixon and the inexplicable and perhaps criminal pardoning of the the latter by the former. You can argue all you want about that, it's ancient history... personally, they should have tried Nixon and given the episode and him and the country and the rule of law some closure and credibility. And, inadvertently saved the future from a debate that is, quite frankly, irrelevant. All republicans are crooks, always have been, always will be... What moved me about the quote and it comes from a piece I recommend you read, is it's relevance to the shoddy bunch presently leading this country to nowhere, they despise government, they despise the rule of law, they despise intrusion, they despise the environment, they despise international treaties, they despise tolerance, they despise equality, they despise a 'Modern Society', so why in the hell are they running this country and not living on some off-shore island tax-shelter counting their pennies and bossing Macaca around all day long... they can afford it and America is just not going to work for them as a Democracy! Beats me why they even bother, there must be something deeper here, illuding me, something about the psyche of an affluent, power crazed, middle aged, white, hypocrite-cow-poke-wannabee that I'm just not getting... I can see I am going to have to ponder deeply about this... got it!

Merry... ?

As our dedicated, competent and infallable Administration mulls over their ever dwindling options (read: Option 1 - Dignify this terrible decision somehow.) with our go-getter, defeat is not an option and, let's face it, manly military brass we, the American People, spend our time grappling with the more mundane aspects of life during wartime, like trying to get through the holiday period relatively unscathed. And, as for relatives, we have few here in WNY so we always consider ourselves a scathe free zone. We spent Xmas day in the tranquil environs of exhaustion as the boys muddled their way through the tech world where, unlike the old lego days, my assistance is uncalled for if not downright frowned upon, that is until something goes terribly wrong and they fry something really important and I have to intervene before they wipe my hard drive and 'she who must be obeyed' loses her entire photo collection and I'm in the guest room for an extended but undetermined time. Xmas dinner presumed itself upon us with our one living close family member, the wife's 90 year old mother, who decked out in her seasonal finery... furs and silks, spent an inordinate amount of money at one of the finer eateries of Buffalo. She, wrongly, felt that we had ignored her through dinner, relegating her few oft repeated bon mots to distractions to the greater discourse. It is telling that the greater discourse between my wife and two young sons relied heavily upon the gluttonous eating habits of our esteemed patron as she carved her way through a fine menu, spectacularly outeating my 13 year old half bear/half boy of a son. We quibbled over the driving arrangements from the restaurant to home... I had gotten myself half in the bag prior to the festivities in a vain attempt to create, for myself, a half world where none of this was really happening to me and dining with Satan was just a scene from an old Joan Crawford movie. As the reality surged at my incomplete fortress and as she kept ordering more and more food, I, naturally, drank more and more, the second martini was unnecessary, the second bottle of Chateaux D'Chassilley gratuitous and the nightcap superfluous... I was a blithering idiot... happily slumped in the back with the two boys we dropped off Mrs. Creosote and wended to the family nest. Another Christmas Day over, now the holiday season can really kick-in, now the serious shopping can begin, now the chance to sin invested in our drunken revelries.

Starting To Feel A Lot Like Xmas

So I'm reading the God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and... well he's very persuasive isn't he? I've always been somewhat agnostic, perhaps even beating on the door of atheism but - ah there is always a but - I have tried to imagine a world with a God, a world where a beneficent being watches over us and provides guidance and love. Silly hippy shit when you get down to the bare bones but I've gone there, believe me. I was raised in the CofE, morphed to Quakerism, dabbled with Bhuddism, fell in and out of love with the Jesuits, procrastinated over New Age deism and finally shoved off the rock and let it all go... now, I understand that no matter what religion one endures they are all capable of turning good men into bloody pulps for no other reason than to serve the ones who presume to benefit from that flesh extortion. We have so diluted the words of our wise men, so polluted the messages from our forebears that we struggle to understand the very basic tenets that came down, apparently from on high... heavy with purpose and intent, laden with wisdom and brevity. It's all a pile of codswallop essentially, why? Because we never really live it, we never really embrace the ethos, it is a fight to be a spiritual being, it's bloody hard and ultimately unrewarding because no one else is playing by the same rules... to paraphrase Python here and, I think I can, " They're making it up as they go along". Each religion, be it Christian, Islam, Judaism, Hindu, Bhuddism, Hale-Bopp, they are all amorphous, continually adjusting to the currents of conventional wisdom and changing their message to suit the herd mentality they seek to control. I'm done with them all, if there is a God, he would never have let it get this stupid, he would never have allowed his so called Intelligent Design to become so fucked up, so grossly unGodly. If we can't live by a few simple rules laid down only a few thousand years ago, what does that say about the relevance of religion and the relevance of our God. If we continue to twist and manipulate the words of God for our own self interest then how committed are we to the original intent. The problem is... we have never been committed continually falling off and rehitching ourselves to the spiritual wagon but a few saw religion as a chance to lead and many saw it as a chance to conform, to be a part of something that provided safety and a reason to not have to think, they, in a sense, have resigned from the human race allowing themselves to become vessels and vassals for those who seek only to promote themselves. And that, ultimately, is what drove me away and finally led to my present state... I no longer believe in a God or those who purport to represent it on this good Earth... I am free and if there was a God he would be happy.

Saturday Dog Blog

Meet Hank... Hank's afraid of my dog, Hank doesn't appreciate the sideways humping and puppy fervor of the 'Coop'. Frankly, Hank is a grown up and Cooper is a mere unsophisticated child. But Cooper is growing up Hank and soon he will be able to play the more adult doggy games that you have come to love like, lying down, snuggling next to the ankle, sleeping and eating more than you actually need... yes Cooper will soon join the canine elite and be socially acceptable. Until then, Hank is not interested in Cooper and will insist upon his own space and his own more adult doggy games. Hank is a good guy, just a little set in his ways and moribund beyond belief. All hail Hank...

I'm So Giddy or ISG

When do we ever learn? When do we finally say... I've seen this movie before? In America, in the 21st Century perhaps never. The word leaking out from the ISG is that we should gradually 'draw down' our troops in Iraq and we should engage Iran and Syria in multi-lateral talks. No timetable exists for the draw-down and no incentives exist for Iran and Syria to come to the table and, quite honestly, what do we have to offer, so why should they? We have treated them like just so much shit on our shoe for the last six years but now we need to talk. I seriously believe that we should engage all the hostile parties in the Middle East but in order to do that we need to address the ancient problem - Israel and Palestine - therein lies the root of all our problems, an artificial state in a sea of artificial states... but not just a state, Israel is a state of mind, for us Judeo/Christians, Israel represents a benign, controllable buffer in a Holy Land beseiged by the infidel, for Arabs it is a twisting knife in an open wound. So how do we placate a fertile crescent of hostility while ensuring the continued existence of a predatory, expanding, will-o-the-wisp hegemony? Beats the crap out of me! Perhaps, though, we should have some fresh thinking on this one because what we are experiencing now is quite possibly the worst acid flashback an old drug addled hippy could ever imagine. Seeing Baker front and center, and Bush in complete and utter denial and an administration incapable of sticking to the script is giving me the most uncomfortable case of political reflux one can imagine. Now, these people were supposed to be the 'grown-ups' and under their careful, experienced tutelage America would enter a new golden age of prosperity and global respect... well that went real well... so the grown-ups called in or were forced to accept the 'old-grown-ups' to clean up quite a bit of a mess. But the OGU's were responsible for their own quite a bit of a mess and some of us still remember that and trust them about as far as we could projectile vomit them and, get this, the GU's feel about the same way, still recalcitrant after all these years. So they will ignore the ISG, make up their own shit and carry on as if none of us will notice. As Atrios would sat Na Ga Appen... we're all over them like flies on shit. I don't trust Baker and his Study Group and I have never trusted Bush and his bunch of NeoCon incompetents. We need fresh ideas and some real thinkers... so who are they? - suggestions.

Carville

The nattering classes are all a buzz about James Carville's somewhat puzzling personal condemnation of Gov. Howard Dean's '50 State Strategy'... and indeed the good Governor himself. Perhaps that derives from the fact that they, like Mr. Carville, don't really understand it and are therefore laboring under a weighty dillusion and convincing only themselves. The 50 State Strategy as I see it is a long term answer to the Republican machine built in the early eighties and late nineties which ultimately delivered them the House and Senate in '94. It was a grass roots operation that ignored, in fact abhorred, DC insiders and instead focused on the localized mobilization of a disenfranchised heretofore ignored, but large, voting bloc within this great nation. The aim was to re-take Governorships, State Houses, State Senate seats, Judgeships and gradually manipulate the structure and plurality in microchosm. They would create the talking points, they would direct the conversation and debate to the topics they felt were the motivational and emotional winners for them. The strategy... 'Start small, think big' worked. Dean is, in my opinion, of the same mind. For too long Democratic DC strategists have held themselves and their mandate in high regard, believing the center was the battleground without ever accepting that their 'base' really meant anything, therefore the base had no seat at the table and no voice within the machinery, culminating in a veritable petry dish of disaffection and a nationally assumed irrelevance. So, for the last 12 years, just enough of the center has , irresolutely and inexplicibly, held for the Republicans through fear and sytematically imposed ignorance. No matter the money, the ad buys and the righteous indignation the DLC and it's centrist ilk spewed forth they failed to bring a victory. '04, enter Dean and his plan... Dean went back to the Democratic roots and glavanized State leadership, he brought them money, realism and groundtroops, reconnected and reestablished the lines of communication between DC leadership and its most fervent supporters, empowered the grassroots and the netroots and began the much needed reformation of the Democratic groundgame. His plan was not derived from a need for immediate success but, much like the Republican scheme, had a long term goal, change the dialogue (The war in Iraq is unpopular, a need for the separation of Church and State is widely accepted, people are being left behind, the need for some kind of socialized medicine has become apparent, Corporations cannot run amok and must be overseen, the Constitution must not be interpreted as the executive branch sees fit, international treaties are not 'quaint'... all big issues) excite the base, motivate. (I still believe that Dean was as suprised as everybody else at the overwhelming success of the Democrats in the mid-terms but it truly was a referendum on Iraq and the mood of the American people had been severely misjudged by the WH and Republicans nationwide.) Therefore, he was not willing to wade in at the last minute on individual races with DNC $$$$'s because that was not the plan - '08 and '10 and beyond were his targets and should remain so, unlike the DLC and Carville, this is not about instant gratification and personal benefaction, it's about our party's future health and power, without power we can not create policy. As a by-note, it has also been proven, with a majority of those races, it would not have mattered much if we had thrown everything we had at them we would still have lost. So Carville, in the best interests of the party he supposedly loves, slightly more than himself and all those Ad $$$$'s, should STFU and keep his Rahm lust to himself.

Veterans Day - 2006

Peace
Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour,
And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping,
With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power,
To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping,
Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary,
Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move,
And half-men, and their dirty songs and dreary,
And all the little emptiness of love!
Oh! we, who have known shame, we have found release there,
Where there's no ill, no grief, but sleep has mending,
Naught broken save this body, lost but breath;
Nothing to shake the laughing heart's long peace there
But only agony, and that has ending;
And the worst friend and enemy is but Death. Offered Without Comment - Rupert Brooke 1914

Who the F***?

I've been reading a lot lately... books even, aint that quaint... I suppose it has distracted me from writing but sometimes the stuff out there is just so good it leaves me speechless. Billmon has been on fire lately and soothes my savage breast, Atta J. Turk makes me laugh and cry, he is a true American, he cares about his country more than most and remains unafraid and uncompromising. Professor Alterman has found a new, more appropriate home away from the compliant and conniving corporate Bush enablers of MSNBC, he is my blogfather in the sense that he woke me up to the mendacity, hubris and ignorance of this administration. Fear also has no home here, here or here. They are all remarkable in their persistance, relevance and reliability meaning, they actually fact check and research their material, which is not always the case with traditional media. DKos, MyDD and FDL have been a constant comfort for me the last few years, I just require honestly presented information, no BS and they provide that... I don't consider any of the above mentioned to be extreme, they may be construed as such by the traditional medias and by right wing froth mouths intent on polluting the world with misinformation and innuendo but, if you read a DKos or Atrios or Billmon on a regular basis you find wit, wisdom, insight and positivism... something we all need and should aspire to in these dark days. I have pretty much eschewed the main stream forms of information dissemination and rely, pretty much, on alternative media sources for objective, reliable news reporting. Is this 'modern' or just a reaction to 'conglomonewsspeak' irrelevance? Discuss... Art by Peter Bruegel (The Elder) Philosopher-Artist.

The American Inquisition

This post may be a little incoherent at times but, that is how I feel... I feel dislocated, confused, agitated and depressed. I never thought I would see the day that torture and what constitutes it, what defines it would be debated as a means to passing a law to institutionalize it. It boggles the mind that our congress would even contemplate such legislation never mind conceive an alternative bill that may appear more palatable to their delicate dispositions. I understand that we are in trying times, mostly self-imposed, but trying times all the same. We lost close to 3,000 innocent people a few years ago and approach the three thousand milestone in Iraq this year. We have young men and women out there, fighting and dying in a quagmire and we must protect them anyway we can but, we have just put them in further danger, maybe not in Iraq but in the next battlefield of our choosing or maybe not in a battlefield at all and perhaps not even a soldier... we have endangered all Americans throughout the world, we have conspired to relinquish any shred of decency or credibility we have managed to maintain through this trying time that may have prevented a terrorist or a regime or non-compliant government to restrain themselves when confronted with the capture and detention of an American subject. If we think that terrorists have acted like animals in the past, think what they may be capable of now armed with our own belligerent attitude towards torture and interrogation. This is not even an argument about moral high grounds or ethical standards, it is black and white... Americans do not torture period. There is absolutely no evidence that torture has ever provided this nation or any other nation any substantive material that could effect the outcome of a real or perceived threat to its well being. Torture may have proved useful in the pursuit of witches (see: midwives) or Catholic heretics (see: Protestant Reformation) but as a tool of credible information gathering its purported success is risible... By its very definition, it is a tool of coersion, used by despots to gain confessions from political, religious or familial opponents, once again real or perceived. That this administration wishes to codify and thus legalize extreme forms of 'aggressive interogation' actuates their fall from marginalized ideologues to all out tyrants. That they acted only because the CIA and Army refused to continue these techniques until they were sure that they could not be prosecuted for war crimes, of which they surely knew they were guilty of by any definition of the Geneva Conventions and our own Statutes, is a remarkably damning idictment of how low they have sunk. And that this Administration has had to force through a bill that ultimately saves their own skins from future prosecution because by ordering these techniques in the first place they are guilty of the same crimes, we know they know their actions are criminal and punishable by all international agreements and laws. That they are extracating themselves from the same procedures and proceedings that they will deny entirely to 'enemy combatants' that they and they alone determine provides sufficient evidence that they consider themselves above not only international law but the laws of this land that 140,000 men and women now fight for. Their conceit is unbridaled, their arrogance beyond contempt. We, the American people, must abide by the laws passed down to us from generation to generation, good laws that are easy to abide by and grant us freedom from tyranny and oppression, laws enacted by reasonable men to ensure our liberty and unfettered pursuit of happiness. Our current government considers some of these hard fought for laws inconvenient and even 'quaint', they will circumvent the ones they see as encumbering them and create new laws to save their hides... this is not government, it is totalitarianism.

Republican Zeit-Geist Revisited

I have a friend, he's a good friend... personable, bright, gracious and generous. We have dinner together, alone or with our respective families. We talk sport, art, science and occassionally politics. He's a Republican... I am not. Recently he has been emoting right and proper about all the successes this administration has had over the years and is becoming damn right vociferous even, one could say, shrill about it all. He has been sending me links to all the usual Right Wing RNC Talking Points regurgitators including, of all people, Howie Kurtz to prove his veracity and well read credentials. I have read a few, truth be told, but found the going a little tough, indigestible almost, too many unsubstantiated facts, hearsay, innuendo and obfuscation. Let's face it, armed with a good vocabulary, a few years incubation in an obscure conservative petri dish, a multimedia interface linked directly the WH Press Office and any totalitarian nut job can become a recognized pundit. There is no mystery to this game I'm afraid, the internet has seen to that. Because the dialogue was becoming so heated I have yet to respond to his last missive. He informed me, in no uncertain terms, that Valerie Plame and her husband engineered the entire Plamegate embroglio, from her sending "Ambassador" Wilson on his Niger expedition, to his rebuttal in the Times Op-Ed, to the fact that Wilson's report differed vastly to his Op-Ed piece, to the now direct correllation between the civil suit and the release of her book to the fact that there was no crime committed by this administration in the release of her name to the press etc, etc, etc. Now that's what I call a plan, the Wilson's may go down as the most consumate of grifters, devising a scheme so perfect in it's conception and execution that it takes your breath away. It's tentacles reaching in to the very depths of the Italian Secret Service, across continents, through the inboxes and outboxes of Parliaments and Administrations and finally into the State of The Nation Speech itself. Cunning, very cunning... funny how they haven't been charged with anything though, aint it? His next target was Iraq... where apparently the USA has acheived complete victory and I mean complete victory. Everyone has surrendered their arms and has gone back home to tend their flocks and fields. The Middle East has learned a valuable lesson about American might and will. Freedom and Liberty those bastions of Western Civilization have weilded their mighty swords and brought to an end the age of tyrrany. Who's writing this stuff anyway Hans Christian 'bloody' Andersen... the carnage is just effing unreal and unrelenting day after bloody day, what planet are some of these right wing dictocrats on anyway, certainly not the third one from the sun, here it's a complete mess, the Middle East is in complete turmoil with the threat of all out war between Israel and her disenfranchised neighbors all too real. Where is the logic? The smarts? The Policy, any Policy? We sent Condi, phew! Everything will be fine now... she'll tickle those ivories and give them that winning, confident smile and everything will stabilize, you watch... I did, it got worse and she is, quite frankly, the worst SoS this country has ever foisted on a poor, unsuspecting world. I could go on... I think I refered to this administration as a bunch of crooks and hoodlums who had carved off every good piece of meat left on the bones of this once proud country, that they had robbed the poor and the middle class and had always intended to do so, they like their workers starved and compliant. They will continue to deregulate in the middle of the night, they will pass laws that Congress has not had time to read, they will promote out of the box blithering idiots into positions that require experience, knowledge and forethought, they will hide behind a compliant SCOTUS and a 'wind-up' AG, they will continue to call all those who oppose them unpatriotic and friends to the terrorists and they will never, ever admit that they made any mistakes. And that, my dear reader, is just this week.

Dem Blues

Now, this boy may have the worst teeth in the tournament but, he played a hell of a game and perhaps single handedly brought about the inevitable Spanish demise. I thought the Spaniards would go out in the next round having enough talent to dismiss the French aging aristos, hey, my bad... looks like they had one game left in them and I believe this was it. They are playing like ex champs though and you have to give the French begrudging credit for putting on a great display against the most consistently 'bloody awful in a big game team' in history. What is it with the Spanish... ? I loved this team they put on the field, from Puyol, Fabrigas to Raul and Torres, they looked like world beaters. Too Bad. The French will be euthanized against Brazil and rightly so. So we are down to eight. My final four... Germany, Italy, England and Brazil... for all the naysayers out there... every one of these teams will deserve to be there.

Just As An Aside

The nuclear deal with India always had the smell of a failing second term policy initiative hanging around, over and under it. It was a lightweight, almost second rate, decision by what amounts to an administration devoid of foreign policy savvy. They pissed off most of the planet and had to make it look like they had friends somewhere, anywhere... even India. The Indians for their part played us like a fiddle and got everything they desired without having to give up a damn thing. Now, not even reported in the American media we find this. I'm appalled that a democrat even thought this worthy of debate... must be some rather large 'pork' at stake. Please, somebody tell these fatuous assholes that a nuclear deal with India, a country that has not signed on to the NPT, was a political stunt and not even this administration, Cheney withstanding - he just loves to go against the flow don't he - believes this has any legs whatsoever. It was a stunt and a bad one at that... why is anyone voting for it. Shhhheeeesssh!

The Debate

Another unconvincing victory for England...? I think so, but there is a caveat. This England team has not had to stretch it's legs yet and that is reason for hope. Let's look at England so far... in the group stages England faced a tactically challenged Paraguay, they won unconvincingly but pretty much did all they had to, first game... just win. Game 2... T & T were a difficult team, they were obviously bouyed by their draw against Sweden and came in smelling another big scalp, England controlled them and eventually beat them 2-0. Was it a good game for England? No, but it didn't have to be, they suffocated T & T, kept a clean sheet and through the three points advanced. Game 3 against Sweden, England probably played their best soccer of the tournament so far in the first half. It was a statement to a scrappy, overacheiving Sweden side that we can beat you but you will not beat us. The second half England cruised, the Swedes got back into it but never really looked like beating England. The Ecuador game was a debacle, Ecuador were a joke and looked like a team of fricking amateurs. England were never seriously threatened except for the attempt on goal so brilliantly denied by Ashley Cole, but they played with one up front and therefore limited their own chances against a side they should have clobbered. So, apart from the second half of the Sweden game this England side has not been tested, they have not had to raise their game. The next round will be different and hopefully with the increase in pressure England will increase their intensity, it is my belief that they will... England will beat Portugal. As for Beckham, enough already, we live in an era of specialist players and Beckham is perhaps, arguably, the ultimate specialist, do I want him in my team, a team where pace, work-rate and a direct approach to goal are the keys to success, you're damn right I do. When all else fails, I want the best set piece finisher in the business, his name is David Beckham.

It's only a game

The only African representative in the last 16... hhhmmm! I thought the game was developing incrementally on the continent? I have noticed a marked difference in how the African nations are now and how they were oh, say 12 years ago, the swashbuckling style has been replaced by a more controlled possession game... it may be an evolution for African soccer but all that style acheives is that you become easier to beat for the European and South American teams who have been playing that game for over half a century. It is something they are used to and can tactically break it down if the opposing team has inferior manpower. I think that is one of the issues for Africa to overcome, do they play us at our game and be suseptable to superior players or return to their old style where practically anything could happen at any given time any where on the pitch. It's hard to counter that as European and South American sides found to their dismay. Another problem is that there are now so many African players playing for European clubs who, I am sure, curb their enthusiasm and impetuousness. Shame really, I liked some of those old African sides, not because of some condescending Western European geshtalt, but because I liked to watch a game break open and see great players forced to be great by an opposition who didn't care two hoots if your name was Zico, Maldini, Plattini or Gascoine, they came here to play football... Africa style!!! I think Ghana will have a terrible time against Brazil who are starting to rev the engine. As for the rest of the draw, only England face South American opposition... I'll admit, I'm uncomfortable with this draw, I don't like teams that are willing to lose 3-0 just to rest some of their players, it shows a lack of ambition and smugness, I'll pick England to win but I think it will be a bloodbath. Sweden v Germany, too Northern European for my taste... Germany wins, what a shocker. I think both Portugal and Italy will get through but if there is an upset Italy v Australia could be the one. Spain v France could be another bloodbath with Spain edging it. Switzerland v Ukraine... watch it, through sheer dumb luck it may be the game of the round - ohhh! Ukraine wins it. There that's it we will be down to eight.

All The Usual Cliches Apply

Crikey Bruce!!!! You'd think the guy had just scored the most important goal in Austalian soccer history... or sumpthink! Got to hand it to the Antipodeans here though, cracking game... lots of goals, action, tension, drama. And why the eff not, this is a pretty good Aussie club with lots of talent and that irrepressible Aussie cockiness, they deserved the draw, against an embarrased Croatian outfit and a birth in the final sixteen.... good on ya mates! Personally, I'm still smarting over my hapless Czechs, they were my sleeper team, my win-win, gosh darn it. I suppose I have to talk about the US Soccer Team, I'm sad to see them go and really thought they had a chance to carry on, it's an old maxim about golf I think... something about not being able to win a championship on Saturday but you sure can lose one. I think the US was done after Game 1, it's really hard to recover when you only have three games to play, especially at this level of competition, and when you lose game one, so convincingly, it's especially hard to recover. It is hard to believe that the US was caught so flat footed but I blame Arena, you have to have your team up for game 1, throw everything you have out there and be damned. I know I have championed caution in the first round, but every team threw their best eleven out there, if they had them, and played a strong game either offensively or defensively. I just don't think that, against the Czechs, we had our best eleven out there and for that I blame Arena, I still think the lad from New England should have been selected, I like his game and he is a proven goalscorer with enough experience for this level of competition. I probably would have taken Adu as well, blooded him, if he is the future... then let it be now. So we've got some games coming up... Argentina v Netherlands is a classic in waiting. I'll pick my last eight tomorrow... stay tuned!

How The Crouch Stole Christmas

Despite their best efforts England could only manage a draw against the yellow peril that is Sweden. England allowed what is for the most part a mediocre team room to play in the second half after making Sweden look very average in the first session. Maybe England took their foot off the pedal a little... they only had to draw and apart from a five minute golden period in the second half Sweden never looked likely to actually beat England. Cole had a great game, the back four was fairly solid except from the brain freeze at the end which allowed Sweden the tie, it really should have been Robinson's ball, he really looked like a 26 year old on the play. The England midfield played allright, it wasn't really a midfield game what with eleven Englishmen on the field and half the Swedish team playing in the EPL, it kind of looked like a competitive football game you could catch on any given Saturday all over the playing fields of England. The Swedes tend to be pretty lucky against England, I think it might be a case of England never really taking the Swedes seriously which is easy to do considering they have never won a damn thing. As for my pet peave, the tall one is wasting someone elses air-space as far as I'm concerned. I think everyone was looking forward to Rooney and Owen and instead we got more of the inept Crouch on crutches show. The Swedes must have been very happy to see Owen go down so early, it pretty much gave the back four the night off, Crouch is so easy to mark and take out of a game that they never had to worry about penetration. You could almost see the England team make a concious effort to start taking long shots, Cole, Lampard even Rooney all joined the shoot from 30 yards club, I think they have no confidence in Crouch to either lay the ball off usefully or get a decent shot on goal, he was completely ineffectual in this game and Sven has to consider using someone else up front with Rooney or perhaps Owens injury is not as bad as it looked... here's hoping. If I have to watch Crouch through another 90 minutes I swear, my TV not make it through the game. Ecuador 0 - 3 Germany, I'm still not a believer as far as Germany goes but this was a nice result from a game I thought Germany might find very difficult. It seems a lot of the South American sides, Brazil withstanding, look great against inferior opposition only to be crushed by a competitive team. Germany are certainly competitive if just a tad young.

Weekly Rap

Merde.....!!! Those French huh? I really can't explain it... it's beyond credibility but the French really are awful. I like the Koreans, don't get me wrong, but France are showing what can happen to a team, full of star players and formidable and recently acquired reputation, when they have no heart, no imagination and no guts. Team USA on the other hand... showed that a team with a basic lack of imagination and no real tactical plan but tons of guts and heart can achieve the impossible despite all the referees efforts to deny them the deserved outcome. They were splendid and a joy to watch and what about the fans? That was perhaps the most rousing, awe inspiring rendition of the national anthem I have ever witnessed, considering where it took place and the USA's current political standing in the world, it actually made me feel good about the US again... loud and proud, well done fans! In the grand scheme of things, the World Cup is living up to it's billing. It has been thrilling so far with very few ho-hum games, a couple of yawners but for the most part excellent. The stadiums are full and the fans excited, there has been very little hooliganism - good - and little if no trouble in the stands. I thought the second round of games would sort out the men from the boys but some of the boys are just not willing to leave this world stage yet... you get a hard earned point, you sneak a win... suddenly you have a sniff. Speaking of sniffs, I wouldn't like to be Czech right now, my pick to win it all looked decidedly bland the other day and thoroughly deserved to be run over by a very plucky Ghana club. Spain are running roughshod over Tunisia right now after a veritably queezy first half, I still can't get my head around this Spanish side... so much talent, so likely to lose in the next round.

France... France... France

When the bloated, aging, French soccer aristocracy have forgotten how to play the beautiful game... it's time for a revolution mon amie. This was an awful performance from the French but since '98 what have they done? I'll tell you... not effing much. It is time for French soccer to move on from the legacy group and find a new identity, I like French soccer and think they deserve their place at the top table, but they have to start developing some fresh talent if they ever want to go further than the first round. Today's display was pretty dull. England starting to look better all the time eh? Brazil... take away all the circus crap and they look like a hard working blue collar team, this is the most unexciting Brazilian team I can remember, still, lots of hard work and effort, except for Ronaldo, will win you a few games. Czech republic are looking like favorites now, in my book... pace, skill, imagination they have it all, it really depends on Koller's injury, they are definitely less threatening without him in the line-up. The next round of games is going to be really interesting and I think all the armchair pundits will be selecting like crazy after this next round... me too!!!

Oh! Deary Me...

I must admit I didn't see the game, I really wanted to, just circumstances prevented me from being able to sit my ass down in front of the TV. Now, I personally expected a close game, I thought the Czechs would win but it would be close and the fact that the US would give a good account of themselves against the second best team in the world would propel them into a classic against the Azzurri. My Bad! Team USA didn't even turn up... I watched the highlights and frankly, they were effing awful. They seemed to have no strategy as to how to play your opening game in the World Cup, admittedly the Czechs were going to be a handful and will continue to be so throughout the tournament but, you have to have a effing game plan to counter these teams. Team USA had nothing... nothing I tell you, fricking Angola looked more organized. USA has some real talent and I mean that, real talent but, the talent has to show up... Landon Donovan is a liability, the guy is so inconsistent it boggles the mind and yet he is so lauded in this country, like he's the second coming of Pele or something. The guy has no instinct for the game at this level, he couldn't cut a German club team, so why do we expect so much from him in Germany '06? I still think Arena is over-rated, a good organizer but not a strategic thinker on a game by game basis...! Hey, I could be wrong!

Tag Drei

So the general opinion of the England win against Paraguay, especially from the Yankee pundits on ABC and ESPN Deux, is that they were boring and lacked imagination or any creative spark. This is from the same people, mind you, who called Sweden "The high scoring Swedes", I kid you not, Sweden have scored one goal in their last seven games...! As for England, they have performed no worse and no better than the other favored teams so far. Argentina had a nice first half but if Crespo is your number 9 forget it, I don't care how good Requelme is... Crespo is not the answer, the second half was more representative of how Argentina will perform in this World Cup, let's face it... unlike in past world cups they lack that creative cheat they really need to win a big game. Portugal looked OK today, but they do seem a little small, a big physical side with some smarts - unlike Angola - will give them fits. Having said all this, it is the first round of the group stage and a win is important as shown by the refusal of the bigger clubs - see Holland - to lose no matter how ugly they looked.

The World Cup is Everything but...

There happens to be all kinds of crap going on right now... prisoners commiting suicide at Gitmo, apparently in an attempt to create some good PR for the Taliban, thanks for that quote General Cretin. The Taliban meanwhile, good PR or not, have regrouped and are now considered by our military as an insurgent force. We got Zarqawi, good. His own people sold him out... bad. We've turned another corner in Iraq, good. That's now twelve corners since this administration started this mess, now if we were playing Monopoly, and we might be for all I know, we would have gone round the board three times and hit every piece of property on it... bad. Not even a get out of jail free card. Iran continues to toy with us like we were her effing bitch and Europe, yeah cheers, thanks a lot... fer nuttin. One classic quote on Atrios... Larry Johnson on the 'Bush Era' "I wish we were making all this crap up".... too funny, too sad! Hey, it's Sunday, go read a good newspaper. Learn something, or go on one of the blogs I have links to, they are informative and they care...?

England 1 - 0 Paraguay

Your classic World Cup opening match for England, nothing fancy, get the early lead and start poaching, sit back and see what happens. Not inspiring, I'll admit, but this is the world cup and to lose your opening game, well, it can be devastating. Now to my thoughts... Crouch was awful, always on the wrong side of his man and the ball, hence the gazzillion free kicks he gave away. He is not my favorite player and if truth be told I don't think he is a World Cup caliber player... he looks very naive out there, for a 6'-7" man to be consistantly out-jumped and out-thought by the Paraguayans, as good as their back four were, is a scandal. The English back four was solid, although I think Ashley Cole still lacks match fitness and any semblance of a brain, he practically gave the ball away every time he had possession and was nearly punished severely once. Gerrard played well and kept his composure, he is maturing into a very fine player. Lampard and Cole are just a dynamic combo in midfield and I see great things from both of them especially Lampard who just oozes class. As for the Paraguayans... not a bad outing, not very creative though for a South American team. I fancy them against Sweden who for all the world look like a team without a clue. The longer this match with T & T goes on the worse it will get for Sweden... at least that's what I think.

World Cup - Tag Eins

So Germany beat Costa Rica 4-2. This is an interesting score, not that Germany scored four goals but that they conceded two. This is Costa Rica after all, not exactly a powerhouse of world soccer, now they are there and you have to give them that, but Costa Rica are a third world soccer power and Germany should have beaten them perhaps by a score of 4-0. Germany going forward and scoring goals is OK, Klose is a nice player, not Gert Muller, or Klinsman but a nice player none the less. But to concede two goals to Costa Rica is a little worrisome. Fast and loose is not Germany's style and against a stronger opponent they will not have the room they had up front today which in turn will increase the pressure on the defence and, if they let in two against Costa Rica, I would be concerned. Now watching the Poland-Ecuador tilt, talk about contrasting styles... but this is what makes the World Cup so remarkable... Northern Europe against South America, Africa against Asia, wow... Two-Nil Ecuador, beautiful goal... beautiful game... gotta go watch the last ten minutes.

Kenny Boy Update

Going down... Guilty on all six counts. Who smells presidential pardon in '08? The New York Times is reporting that Ken Lay has been found guilty on all six (6) charges and Skilling has been found guilty of conspiracy. Gosh... it couldn't happen to a nicer pair of guys now could it?

Silence is Golden

Been down for a while now, can't say why... just haven't had the urge lately. I am writing something other than a blog right now and I supoose that has taken up a lot of my time. Anyhoo... World Cup is just around the corner now and I will try and post as much as I can during it... toodles!

Kenny Boy

The Ken Lay - Enron Trial has a very familiar ring to it... it appears that we live in an age where the business and political elite are never responsible for the tradgedies that have befallen them. It is always the work of some dastardly underling or some overzealous prosecutor or... whatever else comes to mind in numerous legal strategy huddles convened at great expense by the plaintiff. Kenny Boy in his own words refutes all that has come before him in a personal letter on his "web site". And, as much as this administration believes that FISA courts are antiquated, he cites 4 of the indictments against him as originating from 70 year old banking laws that have never been used before and are therefore, shall we say, quaint. Never once does he admit or cede that the head of a corporation is responsible for the actions and ethical conduct of that corporation... that he was unaware of his underlings perfidy. I ask... is President or Chairman merely a titular position or with all that that title implies does it carry more gravitas? Mr. Lay shared in the success of his company, was quite the poster boy in fact... a veritable captain fantastic of his ship of industry, quick to revel in the kudos and millions granted him and yet when his "Mission Accomplished" moment was exposed, the curtain pulled back on the staggering deceptions and plunder that had occured he was equally as quick to blame everyone but himself. If he was too indifferent to or ignorant of the day to day operations of the company he headed then he should never have been Chairman in the first place. To understand a little more about this mans demeanor in court and the lack of seriousness he associates with the proceedings - go here.

Abstract

I've been listening to 'Funeral' lately... reminds me of a lot of things - James, The The, Fall, Sonic Youth, can't put my finger on it but, I like the sounds - French-English melange, track four 'Neighborhood' is great. Lousy packaging... they really should have a major label behind them but hey, that's the Indy world. They will be in Rochester on the 26th of this month... we should try and get them to Buffalo, don't know how to go about that but I'm sure someone does. They are a Montreal band so they are almost like effing locals. I may be completely behind the times here, it's been known, but let me know what you think.

News of the Screws

Ken Mehlman... what a nice guy! I've been watching him for a while now... smooth, outwardly confident, bullying, party-liner, corrupt. The perfect Repug operative. Totally convincing and convinced that 'the words' have come down from the mountain and are therefore - rote. He is an apostle of spin... a true believer in the power of on-point. Try, at your peril, to ask a direct question and expect anything resembling an honest answer... no such thing exists... only the persistent, repetive, timeworn message remains. But, poor old Ken has been caught in a lie and the clouds gather around his once effulgient star. Ken's fingerprints are all over a very dirty jar of cookies-read this - thanks to Dailykos for the story, they've been all over this like a cheap suit and rightly so. This whole Rove-Machina has been so sleezy from the very beginning that the more this kind of stuff gets out there the better. Ken - you can fool some of your people all of the time but you can't fool any of us, anytime... always knew you were a sleeze. Welcome to the reality based community.

Monday Morning Sports

Now this may be a bit unusual for me... sports on my blog but, it must be said that I am a big sports buff and enjoy the competitive cut and thrust of most american sports, football, baseball, competitive eating yet, my true love is the beautiful game - 'soccer.' The round ball, the use of a foot, head, knee or chest is for me the true sporting test and soccer is the greatest sport on the planet, watched and played by more human beings (dogs too!) than any other organized game and I challenge anyone to prove otherwise. I follow an MLS team, although rarely if ever make it to games and have a long abiding passion for the 'toon', that's Newcastle United to the uninitiated. Both my parents are from Newcastle and although I wasn't born in the toon it is my spititual home and Newcastle United remain the one true abiding theme in my life. All other affiliations may come and go but the black and white stripes stay. So we won another game over the weekend and what looked like a forgettable season just a few weeks ago has turned into a horse race into European competition for next year. Shearer has gone (Gor bless 'im) but we have Owen for next year and the boys might just make a good splash in '06-'07. As for american sport, the baseball season is well under way and the American League East is going to be the most competitive division in all of baseball which will definitely guarantee my attention throughout the long hot summer. Football season is now practically a year long event and although really a Giants fan (12 years in NYC will do that to ya! because it's impossible to watch the Jets) I watch the Bills pretty closely and can hold my own in polite conversation. So I open up Mondays (and only Mondays) to sport. The rest of the week I will try to comment on politics, art and music, local and national and will keep the cool photographs coming. That's Shoala Ameobi scoring from the penalty spot - Newcastle 3 - West Brom 0. Stay tuned sports fans (always wanted to say that!)

Life of Brian

Indulge me... but isn't it getting to look a lot like Life of Brian in Iraq right now? If you read Professor Cole, and I do, then the factional marginalization and sectarian in-fighting has become almost farcical. The only party worth any salt and by that I mean actually showing a united front, is the shiite coalition which seems to be holding fast despite incredible pressure from not only the US but internally as well. The other parties, neo Baathists, Sunni fundamentalists, secular coalitions even the Kurds are posturing, fermenting and ultimately splintering like so much old dead wood. I understand that Democracy can be messy, especially in it's formative state but this is getting really, well, counter-productive. Ahlawi has angled for so many positions within the yet to be formed government that I think he has spent all his bait. The Sunni fundamentalists (Splitters) have decided to not recognize anyone and the Kurds, much like the PLF are sitting alone in the ampitheater eating wolf nipple chips - get 'em while they're hot, they're lovely - my suggestion is... let's have another election, they seem like fun, what with all the purple fingers and smiling Iraqis and Shrub looking all smug and declaring another corner turned in our pursuit of global peace. Elections every news cycle, that might work... or we could nuke the crap out of Iran - that might be fun too!

New Name - New Look

I had all kinds of problems for a while... computer crashed, new OS, e-mail down, job woes and general disharmony. But I'm back and will be posting as frequently as possible.