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.