It begins?

Are they already trying to pull out enough rope to hang themselves in '08?

What's Really Important

I've often considered the priorities of Gov Richardson to be smoke and mirrors, mostly image and not all that much concerned with issues in the state. From the braggadocious commercials detailing the recent film exploits of New Mexico (without mentioning the huge tax breaks for filmmakers or the fact the state has to pose as some other locale) to his enormous entourage at public events and insistence on being treated as a kind of royalty (Yes, the Governor of New Mexico has a list of demands when he graciously makes an appearance much like Brittany Spears or Madonna).

I've always considered Richardson to be nothing more than a politician, a very good one, but nothing more. Harsh, perhaps but the evidence is there and always has been. Now that the governor's race is over, many expect Richardson to focus on an 08 Presidential run and his statements on a recent poll give me no reason to think any different about his priorities...

Richardson said he's honored that a majority of voters consider him good presidential material. He said New Mexicans are proud when a local leader gets national attention and brings more visibility to the state.

Because apparently, what's important is New Mexico's visibility. Maybe Richardson's networking skills and visibility will get New Mexico a date with California. Now that's hot.

A Silver Lining?

A little fun from National Review this morning...

I always vote for people who do the least amount of damage on the populace — which normally would be a Republican. (I call this my “Run from Godzilla” Theory.) But now I’m inclined to believe it’s a Democrat who will do the least harm. Having no apparent belief system or coherent set of ideas, they can’t possibly do anything. And that’s the kind of government I can get behind.

Christmas at Rockefeller

So last night I'm ready for some prime time TV with the only goal in mind to avoid election coverage. It's not that I was nervous or anything, just can't stand the way it's covered as if it were a sporting event.

Thanks to my handy Dish network guide I see that NBC will be showing an actual program at 7, so I navigate there only to be bombarded by a "brief" interruption. At first it was the mostly harmless local stooges but then there were a few minutes for the NBC news team.

You would have thought it was Christmas for Brian Williams and Tim Russert. The glee in the pair's eyes as they projected the Honorable (and I mean that, I've met him and I've followed his votes and speeches and writings) Sen. Santorum's loss in Pennsylvania was just shameful. Donkey cheerleaders, that's all they are.

The rest of the night followed suit, from the local broadcast projecting Richardson with ZERO percent reporting to the obligatory use of the word democrat every sentence.

The question now becomes, since they got what they wanted, what next? Speaker Pelosi chills my veins but the potential for unintentional comedy intrigues me.

On the Verge...

As I stood in line this morning, eighth in line for precinct 355, I thought back over the past several weeks when my decision to vote was in question.

For whatever reason I seemed to have forgotten why I should vote. Be it my love of campaign ads, my current workload or just plain laziness I didn't even plan to.

But then a certain commercial caught my attention. Perhaps you've seen it. Sponsored by some PAC calling themselves the "September" fund, it is an ad promising the societal riches granted by the democrat fairy. Ugh. democrats, a better plan my butt.

I must admit that I am ashamed a commercial was the primary reason I got myself out to the polls this morning. Only partly really because that commercial got me to remember why I vote, why I believe the things I do and that became the real reason.

Earlier I was fine with believing that if this state was willing to elect Patricia Madrid, they deserved it and the connotation of having the dumbest congressperson which would inevitably come with it. But not anymore.

Happy election day everyone.

Bono: Hollywood Hypocrite

Nothing new.

Daily Nazi Comparison

So, here's today's comparison of conservatives to Nazis:

Global Warming Skeptics Should Have Nuremburg Style Trials

Actually, I don't even know if global warming skeptics are conservatives, but it certainly is more likely. I think it's just plain good science to be skeptical. One of the first things you are taught as an engineer is the danger of extrapolation. Heck, you can extrapolate anything and make it look bad, or good.

I'm sick of hearing people around me talk about Algore's "An Inconvenient Truth" as if it were gospel. Is it an "inconvenient truth" that this year's hurricane season is decidedly less damaging and lethal as last year's, in spite of the fact that more and more CO2 is pumped into the atmosphere? Well, they've still got a month left in hurricane season, so I bet they've got their fingers crossed, hoping a big one hits Manhattan...

Homer: It's pronounced 'nucular'. Nucular.

North Korea is now nuclear. Indeed, why wouldn't they be? Whatever slap on the wrist they recieve won't hardly affect the North Korean leadership. After all, it's a "worker's party," the leadership could care less about the peasants. One bit of news that might play in to this is that a South Korean is to be the next secretary general of the UN. Speaking of South Korea, maybe a temporary solution would be to arm them. A MAD scenerio to keep North Korea in check. Probably should arm Taiwan and Japan too. In this context, armed means nuclear missles hardwired to targets in North Korea. The missles could be tied into a sensor network which would only allow their launch upon detection of a nuclear blast in the host country.

Why would anyone think Islam is evil?

The Pope tried to soften his quotation that Islam is evil so that Muslims will stop vowing war, burning churches and killing nuns.

Crocodile Hunter

It really sucks that the Crocodile Hunter is dead. You've got to wonder about the revenge on the stingrays thing though. If one of you guys after being killed by a random animal would like other members of that species killed on sight, you should probably let me know those sentiments ahead of time otherwise I might not think to do it.

Zombies

Very short video link.

Security

A selection of entries from the Crypto-Gram (a "security guru"'s newsleter)

Hours-long waits in the security line. Ridiculous prohibitions on what you can carry on board. Last week's foiling of a major terrorist plot and the subsequent airport security changes graphically illustrates the difference between effective security and security theater.
[...] Instead, the arrests are a victory for old-fashioned intelligence and investigation.

Getting inside the terrorists' heads (funny cartoon):
http://www.wondermark.com/d/220.html

By January 1st, 2007, everyone crossing the border between the U.S. and Canada is supposed to have a passport. This is because of terrorism, of course. But now we learn that ferries and private watercraft will be exempt. One of two things is true. Either passports are required for security, in which case we should interfere with ferries. Or they're for show, in which case we can just do what's convenient. Or maybe we just know that terrorists never take ferries. I get that security is a trade-off, but this is kind of silly.
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/07/18/chertoff-edmonton.html

Here's a collection of 11 prison shivs confiscated over 20 years ago in New Jersey. Think about these, and the adverse conditions they were made under, the next time you see someone's pocket knife being taken away from him at airport security.
http://www.designobserver.com/archives/016492.html

Israeli Pres. Accused of Rape

See here.

However, we've already beat them to this ...he should take heart, because nothing happened to Slick Willie!

Got all bases covered

What, exactly, is this guy protesting?

Old Hat

To me, the Reuters photo scandal just proves what we've known all along about these wire services. It's almost expected, so I'm not terribly outraged (as I should be), just exasperated.

Personally, I think they're on the button at Powerline by saying that a faked photo is much less serious than a staged one. Also bad are the "stories" that go out on the wire that are pretty much editorials, and crappy ones at that. I'd like to see a crackdown on these wire services. Of course, not a government one, but a market-based one. Problem is, of the majors (AP, UPI, Reuters), I've seen these problems in all of them.

They Can Have Him

Pat Robertson joins the environmentalist wackos on "global warming".

Must be Global Warming

Revised Atlantic hurricane forecast.

One Winged Landing

This is pretty amazing. An Israeli pilot lands an F15 after one wing is destroyed in flight.

More AP idiocy

Well, this time it's apolitical, but it's still utter incompetence and just plain bad journalism.

The AP headline says Ken Jennings "blasts" the show that made him. However, read his blog entry that was the source of the story. The AP has fallen for a humor piece. Every day, I hate the AP more and more....

Another AP "story"

The AP writes a love letter about Castro's "impossible mission" during the '50s. No mention of the prison camps, and the only time the word "dictator" is used is to describe Batista, not Castro.

Makes me wanna throw up.

age-old cliche....

As predicted, the media is gonna shower our senses with images of helpless victims of countries that harbor terrorists *sighs*. Yet not one showing of all the Israeli victims of Hamas, PLO, Al-Aqsa, Hezbollah attacks over the decades. A big *middle finger* for NYC (where ABC, CBS, etc are). Stop bombing Lebanon? How about stop voting for killers to your government. Then we'll leave you alone. Morons.

Has anyone ever listened to Stephanie Miller? She's this liberal skidmark that's now on the drive home for me on the radio...It's the F-U Bush Praise Clinton hour with her. Seriously, I swear, I think she has staged "conservatives" call her because EVERY conservative that called on her show sound like stereotypical dumb hicks. I'm not kidding. Nobody combats her logically on that show in turn Miller & co mocks the guest and further spews liberal "facts" vs Bush......I actually tried calling several times but the lines were always "busy." I think she's a crock.

Coulter

This is hillarious. I never considered the politics of Google page ranking before. I even think now that this is probably just coincidence. Right now, 6 out of the top 7 Google hits for "ann coulter donny deutsch" are in the vein, "Donny Deutsch Shatters the Coulter Myth." The funny thing is that I downloaded and watched the segment and he did no such thing. He does a pretty good job repeating himself about how there is no liberal bogeyman. Coulter then has to repeat herself about how there is and it runs the DNC. The digg link above has some all over the place comments. If you follow through to the crooksandliars story you can see the dementia begin. I mean it's not like Coulter demolished him or anything, but neither did he "tear her apart." There really wasn't an overwhelming sense of confrontation in the piece at all. Some, but that wasn't the overall tone.

Panhandler

I don't claim to be the world expert on panhandling signs or anything. Still, I thought it to be fairly well understood that the sign should refer to to holder. For instance, if the sign says, "will work for food," it means that the guy holding the sign is offering to work for food. Likewise if the sign says, "Vietnam vet," the holder is indicating that he served in Vietnam during the war. So imagine my confusion when I saw a guy, on the side of the offramp, holding a sign which included, "POW MIA VA Hospital." Now if I'm wrong about him and he was actually telling his life story, e.g. a POW, then declared MIA, assumedly released, spent some time in the VA hospital, now wants your money, I hope someone buys him dinner then a house. The customary procedure though is to list _current_ descriptors on the sign. Therefore he is claiming to be a POW and MIA. Is he then a foreign soilder invading the US? Call the Army someone please. Or is he a US soldier claiming to be a POW and MIA on US soil? Sounds more like AWOL to me. Call the MPs.

it's just not surprising...

If Americans think WW III did not start on 9/11, then this should wake them up. The time for "dialogue" is over.....it should've been over a long time ago.

Israel vs the world

Someone didn't get enough attention from their mother

Are you freakin' kidding me?

The Happy Planet

Liberal environmentalist wacko group, The New Economic Foundation, has a study out being touted by the AFP in a recent story that comes to the conclusion that the Vanuatu is the happiest country on earth. Second? Get this: Colombia. Sixth, of course, is Cuba. Where does the US fall in this? Why, 150th, naturally.

(I'd link to the NEF's website, but, it seems, this great think tank has a pretty shabby website. I wonder if the AFP would write a story about the Heritage Foundation's index with the same sort of enthusiasm?)

Anyway, this index from the NEF is a liberal douchebag's fantasy-land index - it factors in "Ecological Footprint" and the nebulous "Life Satisfaction". Sounds like all they want to do is wag their finger in the face of industrialized Western nations in order to preach the happy, primitive, back-to-Gaia-mother-earth way of life that the noble savages exemplify. Somebody should tell these morons about how it was the industrialized nations that came up with the methods of controlling hunger, disease, and injury.

But what do I know? Of course, the proof is in the pudding, as we witness all those unhappy American refugees fleeing on boats to Cuba and across the border into Mexico on a daily basis.

Back to politics, holmes

Well, now that the World Cup is over, I can return to thinking about politics.

For starters, I'd been glued to the Mexican election results when there wasn't a game on. PAN candidate Felipe Calderon (successor to the current Pres., Vicente Fox) eked out an apparent victory by half a percentage point - this is after the obligatory recount following a narrow victory in the preliminary results. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the left-leaning candidate (and former mayor of Mexico City) has vowed to dispute the results, Algore-style, even though the non-partisan election commission has stated the results are irreversible. We'll see what happens, but I hope AMLO's beef peters away and Mexico proves that they can join the rest of the developed world in peaceful democracy by holding a fair election that all parties can recognize.

What does this mean for the US, provided the results hold up? Well, Calderon is a free-trader (well, more of a free-trader than AMLO), which is the best news for us unless you are one of those protectionist psychos who says Mexicans are stealing all our jobs, in which case I recommend you get a little refresher in economics. In fact, the red/blue (well, blue/yellow) map of Mexico shows that border states favor Calderon, as they are the ones that benefit most from free trade. (I'm also happy to say that all Mexican states to which the wife has relations - Baja, Jalisco, and Chihuahua - all favored Calderon). So, it can only mean good news because 1) it demonstrates our influence on our southern neighbor that they can now hold a peaceful and fair election, and 2) free trade is good for both countries. In terms of the border, however, both candidates were not seeing eye-to-eye with US. Well, you can't have everything, I guess. The best thing to do is to just let free-trade raise the level of both countries to the point that they stop exporting their poor to us. In the meantime, we'll guard our border and say, "sorry, Felipe, but we gotta do what we gotta do."

French World Image

Don't worry, this is a foreign policy post... sort of. Zidane might well have cost France the World Cup by getting himself redcarded and not being there for the PKs. In doing so, though, he has done more than anyone in memory to reduce France's surrender monkey image.

nice threat LOL

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/5752440

Even soccer has their fair share of threats. Rooney will "split Ronaldo in 2." Gotta love the English...

yes, another World Cup posting

Being on vacation for the last week allowed me to catch up on games. Thank you TiVo. As for the KO stage,

bracket 1: I said Argentina will come out of this one and I'm sticking with it. Although Germany will give them a tough test. This can really go either way....

bracket 2: I'm personally glad Italy eliminated Australia, but you know why because of my bias ;-) - Shockingly, I think the Ukraine-Switzerland game was one of the better games of the Cup, but Ukraine pulls it off by PK. Italy should win this group

bracket 3: Again, as much as I like England, they're basically riding on Beckham's foot. I think their run ends vs Portugal a few days from now. But man, what a carded game that was between Portugal-Holland. The story of this Cup, unfortunately, will be the refs. Warn them, THEN card them! An instant red card is simply unheard of unless if it was something blatantly obvious (de Rossi's elbow on McBride causing blood)

bracket 4: Starts today, but I think Brazil will win this group. I'm sure everyone's inspired by Ghana....what's ironic is you have the most carded team (Ghana) playing the least carded (Brazil). That MAY go against Brazil but for the life of me, I can't see Ghana beating them. And then.....I don't think Spain nor France has a chance vs Brazil. Possibly Spain but their ghosts will come back.

Yep, I'm plaing it safe and I see Argentina vs Italy and Portugal vs Brazil. Although this ain't scientific....predicting soccer games is almost guessing.

As for the US: keep Eddie Johnson, Bobby Convey, DaMarcus Beasley, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Oguchi Onyewu, Carlos Bocanegra, Pablo Mastroeni, Tim Howard and build them. The rest of the roster? We'll find out for the next 4 years. There are plenty of players in Europe (EPL) that should be noticed as well as Adu and Twellman. I know their magical #5 ranking is probably gonna tank after this World Cup.

what a sad day for US soccer....

Well, the US proves their inconsistencies once again by losing to Ghana. Actually, that PK should've never happened. What Onyewu did was something I see high schoolers do often. This World Cup has been chokeful of yellow cards. Many can blame the US and rightfully so but they were robbed in many ways throughout the World Cup. They should bounce back in 2010. After all, it's being played outside of Europe. There should be young stars that can shine in 2010 as we're hearing swan songs from Reyna, Keller, Pope, etc.

As for Japan, once again they strike first.......and then get obliterated as the game goes by. As for favorites and looking at how the brackets are set up, I see Argentina, Italy, Portugal, and Brazil in the semis.......

Summer '06 - Light Reading Suggestions

Since today marks the beginning of the hot season, I thought I'd post a reading list of some of NRO's contributing staff and affiliates.

From one of the columnists:

"Another enjoyable summer pastime is reading The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern War at your nearest soy-swilling, peacenik-chic coffeehouse, nodding and murmuring approvingly as you sip a non-organic corporate beverage."

Enough is Enough

From a heartfelt post on Human Events - rarely does my blood boil about politics, but Moore has said enough to earn himself no.1 on my Piece of S**t list...

"A guilt-stricken JFK finally ransomed back the Bay of Pigs prisoners. Hundreds of these promptly joined the U.S. Army and many volunteered for action in Vietnam. One of these was named Felix Sosa-Camejo.

By the day Mr. Sosa-Camejo died while rescuing a wounded comrade, he’d already been awarded 12 medals, including the Bronze Star, three Silver Stars and two Purple Hearts. I’ll quote from his official citation:

“On February 13, 1968, the lead platoon was hit by an enemy bunker complex manned by approximately forty North Vietnamese Regulars. Upon initial contact the point man was wounded and lay approximately 10 meters in front of the center bunker. The platoon was unable to move forward and extract the wounded man due to the heavy volume of fire being laid down from the enemy bunker complex.

“Captain Sosa-Camejo immediately moved into the firing line and directed the fire against the enemy bunker. With disregard for his safety, Captain Sosa-Camejo ran through the intense enemy fire and pulled the wounded point man to safety. After ensuring that the wounded man was receiving medical treatment, Captain Sosa-Camejo returned to the fire fight and again exposed himself to the intense enemy fire by single handedly assaulting the center bunker with grenades killing the two NVA soldiers manning the bunker. As he turned to assault the next bunker an NVA machine gun opened up and he was mortally wounded. Captain Sosa-Camejo’s valorous action and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.”

From his limousine Michael Moore sneers at this Cuban-American and his Band of Brothers as “wimps and crybabies with yellow lines down their back.”

Maybe I’m biased, but nothing—absolutely nothing—Ann Coulter has said about John Murtha or John Kerry or the Jersey Girls strikes me as remotely comparable in vileness, cowardice and rank stupidity as Michael Moore’s blanket calumny against some of the bravest men of the 20th Century."

UNITED STATES SHOULD'VE WON 2-1!!!!!!!!

Okay, unless if there's a rule I don't know about, tell me how DaMarcus Beasley's goal was considered an offsides? What? Brian McBride just STANDING there is considered offsides? McBride did not touch the ball as it went into the net. I've seen COUNTLESS goals in the past where it went past their own team's player into the goal....and it counted! What the hell kinda call was that? Seriously!!!

This was one of the worst referees (Uruguayan) I've seen EVER for a soccer game. I've seen bad refs but this legitimately topped it. He called EVERY foul in the first 30 minutes of the game to the point where I think both teams racked fouls in the 20+....followed by yellow cards left and right. I mean, there were fouls for simply putting your hand on the back of an opponent. Of course, we come to find out the ref was banned back in 2002 for irregularities. Irregularities for sure....red card on the Italian elbowing McBride to a bloody oblivion is understandable (pretty much the only good call he made in the entire game)....but red card for a Mastroeni slide tackle? Red card on Pope? Historically, the people would get warnings before getting an yellow card! And then if you watched the last 20 minutes of the game, there were ZERO calls? ZERO calls in the last 20. Why not? The bastard did enough damage already. Shit, how did this guy ref again??????

America was robbed. Plain and simple. What a tremendous effort for having only NINE players on the field. At least Ghana beat the overrated Czechs. 2-0. I cheered my head off for the goal after the FIRST MINUTE. Good job Czechs for overlooking your opponents...maybe that #2 ranking is getting to your heads after all. All that's left is Italy to whomp on your asses and US to beat Ghana. Hopefully US has their head into the game vs Ghana. We'll see. After today's effort, I seriously think US can pull it off vs Ghana. Let's hope Italy destroys Czech Rep.

An Inconvenient Dataset

Bob Carter, a Professor at James Cook University in Austrailia, says this of Al Gore and his new film:

"The man is an embarrassment to US science and its many fine practitioners, a lot of whom know (but feel unable to state publicly) that his propaganda crusade is mostly based on junk science."

Professor Carter has just earned the lastest MSM bull's-eye...

World Cup - Days 2,3,4,5

Well, I've had a chance to watch most of the games so far, so I'll comment on them, going in order of interest:

USA-CR: Completely flat and uninspired performance by our boys. The worst performing side of the tourney by far. A national embarrassment. Only plus was EJ, some of Reyna's play, and Convey's aggressiveness. For the next match - replace Lewis with Boca (whose mother, BTW, used to clean houses with Wifey's aunt in Alta Loma) and Beasley with Dempsey. Move Donovan to attacking mid (replacing Mastroeni) and put EJ up with McBride. Or just bench Lando and put JOB in his place at mid. Anyway, as for the Czechs - pure class. They were awesome. They schooled us. Whether they really are that good or we were just playing so bad it made them look good will be answered when they play Ghana. Regardless, if they play the way they did against us for the rest of the Cup, they will probably reach the quarters at least, and deserve the semis.

Holland-S&M: My Oranje looked beautiful on the pitch, although I think they should have put more away - S&M's back four were very solid however. Man of the Match Arjen Robben looked good but was very selfish in several instances, taking extra dribbles to create a shot for himself when he could have easily chipped into the 6 or laid one off for an onrushing teammate. Regardless, his and van Persie's play were very inspired. S&M played very hard, but very ugly - they had chances, but couldn't convert. They will finish last in the real Group of Death.

Mexico-Iran: El Tri did not look that good in this game. Sanchez' mistake of failing to punch away a ball almost cost them dearly. Fortunately, Mirzapour made a big mistake and Mexico capitalized, and added a beautiful insurance goal with the new rush of confidence. I think the crowd really helped the Mexicans on this one, as you could hear the crowd was obviously partisan to them. Disappointing performance from Borgetti, who needs to pick it up by their 3rd match (Portugal). I think Mexico will beat Portugal and advance first in the group - then lose to either Holland or Argentina. Iran looked ok, but I think they will probably not even beat Angola. By that time they will have lost to Portugal and they will be too demoralized to play well. Too bad!

T&T-Sweden: Must suck to be a Swedish fan. They had tons of chances and failed to convert. God was on the Soca side that day - great performance by Hislop. Almost with the upset, if only Glen's shot had been slightly lower! However, England will not tolerate a draw with T&T. The Soca Warriors will be thrashed soundly, although I still believe a miracle is possible. Go Soca! Sweden will not advance now.

Japan-Aus: One of the best games of the tourney yet. Japan played well in spurts, but overall were outplayed by the Aussies, who were well-deserved in their dramatic victory after a cheap goal from Japan. I think the Aussies have a chance against Brazil. They are very physical - it ain't pretty, but it's effective, and Brazil may not be able to deal with it. Japan is set for an early exit - I don't even think they can beat Croatia, since Croatia has such a 12th man advantage in the crowd.

Argentina-Ivory Coast: Argentina did not look that sharp, but good enough to win. They will lose to Holland and advance second in the group. I'm a bit worried about Drogba when he plays the Oranje. He's an awesome force, a one-man team, and he might pull off the upset. He very nearly managed to level with the Argies on several occasions.

England-Paraguay: Snoozefest. Lucky goal for England means they get the points, but overall a very ugly game that I wish I hadn't recorded.

Brazil-Croatia: Brazil looked very much unlike the superpower we were expecting, and yet they were still awesome. Best player was Kaka, who scored and controlled the midfield with his hustle, also making some key defensive stops. Other bright spots were Roberto Carlos and Cafu. Dida wasn't really tested but was solid. Ronaldinho, although he tried to force the ball many times, was at least creative and pretty solid at helping to control the pace of the game. Low points for Brazil? No doubt - Ronaldo and Adriano. The game changed considerably when Robinho came in for the fat one. As for Croatia - they played very well and with a lot of heart. They deserved a draw in this game. I really liked Prso's hustle. The Croatians also have a significant 12th man advantage - the Croatian fans were rabid and inspiring, even up to the final whistle. I look forward to seeing the Croatia-Aus game.

Italy-Ghana: Didn't see the game, so can't really comment on it. It seems that the Italians are playing like, well, Italians during the World Cup. That is to say, very well. Italy seems to always do this - they rarely underachieve on this stage. I expect them to lose to CR (then get thumped by Brazil in the 2nd round), but it will be a good game. Ghana - still haven't seen them play, so can't comment. But they have a proven finisher in Essien, who I think will provide the final nail in the USA's embarrassment of a World Cup.

France-Switzerland: Another snoozefest. France deserved to lose this game, so are lucky to have a tie. They squandered so many chances - how do you justify not shooting the ball at the edge of the 6 with the keeper on his line? Swiss looked ok and I think could win the group.

Korea-Togo: Wow, was Togo surprising. Beautiful goal. However, the discipline of Korea was evident and they deserved the victory. I think the Koreans could well win the group, depending on if they can get over playing a European team in Europe.

Portugal-Angola: Snoozefest. Portugal looked like they would run away with it, but couldn't convert on key opportunities. Angola will be obliterated by Mexico, but might pull of a win against Iran. Figo shined for Portugal, so he needs to lead that team against Iran - I don't think they will beat the Mexicans.

Good times! Now I have two games I'm salivating over: Holland/Argentina and now CR/Italy. I still have the same cheering hierarchy: USA, Holland, Mexico, Costa Rica, and T&T, but I think that only Holland and Mexico will do anything now. Ticos have a chance, but Ecuador seems to be playing very well. My hope for the USA now is just not to get too embarrassed. Score at least once against Italy, or get a draw. Get a draw against Ghana. The US tactic needs now to change to play defensively and counterattack. It worked well against Brazil in '94 and it at least keeps the score respectable.

Latest Sowell...

The beauty of doing nothing is that you can do it perfectly. Only when you do something is it almost impossible to do it without mistakes. Therefore people who are contributing nothing to society except their constant criticisms can feel both intellectually and morally superior.

Oy Oy Oy

Hello Australia! So I switch over to the Tivo to check out the Japan Australia game. It's just ended... ok, I'll rewind a little into stoppage time to see if anything interesting happened. Cool, I got to see Australia put the nail in the Japanese coffin (3-1). Must have been an interesting game. Wait a minute, what did the announcer just say, something about the last ten minutes? I rewind to the game to the 83rd minute and it's 0-1 Japan! You bet this was an interesting game (at least the last part). Cahill knocks one in (off a throw in) to tie the game. Then in the 88th minute Cahill drills one off the post into the net, beautiful. Just under two minutes into stoppage, Aloisi gets that third point. I believe this is Australia's first World Cup game in 32 years.

World Cup - Day One

So, the first day is in the bag and we've had at least one thrilling game - Germany taking Los Ticos 4-2. Some offensive fireworks from the Germans, but nagging questions remain on their back line. I think the defense may not have adjusted to this new style of play - they looked like my old high school team trying to pull an offside trap. In my opinion, they will be shredded by a quality opponent, especially one with a speedy striker. The highlight of the game was Frings' rocket from 35 yards - I was out of my seat and yelling at the t0p of my lungs, it was so good (and I hate Germany).

Other thoughts:
-With Wanchope putting away both chances he was given, I still like the Ticos' chances, although they still played too defensively. If they win (not draw) their next match, they deserve to advance.
-The Poles looked terrible, although they had some bad luck too. They don't deserve to advance if that was the best they could muster in front of a (practically) home crowd.
-Ecuador looked good defensively, but I hate their keeper. He seemed too young and prone to mistakes, although he wasn't really tested. Germany will eat him alive.
-I loved Marcelo Balboa as a player (still remember that bicycle kick against Colombia), but listening to his commentary and his whiny frickin' voice makes me want to put a bullet in my head. He should be crowned "King of Obvious" for his commentary, which is also often meandering and directionless. I do like Tommy Smyth though, just because he has that Irish brogue. 'Celo should try to make a funny accent so we all don't want to kill him.

Looking forward to today. Go Soca Warriors! Go Guaranis! Go Elephants!

Awesome News

Abu Musab al Zarqawi is dead. What great news just a mere day before the World Cup! I first saw it on The Sun's website as I was cruising around looking for news of the Cup (around 5:15 EDT) before getting ready for work and thought "just another British tabloid reporting rumors" because it had not been reported by Drudge. Then I went to Fox News, then CNN, and indeed, I guess the news cycle was not started by Matt Drudge this time. That's what happens when you run a small operation, sometimes you have to sleep.

Again, what great news! Now, if the great news were to continue, Costa Rica would defeat Germany tomorrow, then Trinidad would defeat Sweden Saturday, then Mexico would defeat Iran Sunday, culminating in a US victory over the Czechs on Monday!