Friday, August 31, 2007

Friday YouTube Nugget

Chenquieh, jagshemash:

This week's nugget derives from my embarrassing devotion to finding new music through TV ads. I'm sure you've all seen that hip Dell Inspiron ad with a bunch of artsy types creating all sorts of interesting scenes with the aid of their laptops....anyhoo, the song in the ad is ultra-catchy and, when I looked it up, discovered it was the amazing Flaming Lips!

So, in the tradition of Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" (Volkswagen) and the Kinks' "Picture Book" (HP), I give you "W.A.N.D." by the Flaming Lips. Thanks, Madison Avenue.


Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Senator Wide Stance (R-My Own Private Idaho) or "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Ass" By Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho)


"Oh! Hi....hi there. Didn't see you in there...actually I did. Tee-hee. You look pretty cute sitting there with your pants around your ankles. Would you like some company? I bet we could squeeze in there together and have some fun...here, let me put my bag down. Are you cut.....Oh my God Jiminy, yes! I can't wait to get that in my mouth...mmmmmmfffffffgkgkgk"

- purported transcript from men's room at Minneapolis-St. Paul aiport between Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and an undercover officer.


If it's Tuesday, it must mean another "family values" Republican gasbag asshole has been exposed to the world as the ass-loving, men's room-cruising, rough trade-loving hypocritical tea queen that he is. This week's lucky recepient of the "Do As I Say, Not As I Suck" award is the honorable Sen. Larry Craig, Republican from Idaho:


"(CBS/AP) Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, who has voted against gay marriage and opposes extending special protections to gay and lesbian crime victims, finds his political future in doubt after pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges stemming from complaints of lewd conduct in a men's room.
...Minutes later, the officer saw Craig gazing into his stall through the crack between the stall door and the frame, fidgeted with his fingers and returned to gazing through the stall for about another two minutes. "


GAZING INTO THE STALL? FOR TWO MINUTES?!!!! Holy shit....this guy was aching for some man-meat!!! Let's return to the tale of ribaldry...

"After a man in the adjacent stall flushed the toilet and left, Craig entered it and put his roller bag against the front of the stall door, "which Sgt. Karsnia's experience has indicated is used to attempt to conceal sexual conduct by blocking the view from the front of the stall," said the complaint, which was dated June 25."


June 25?!! And we're only finding out about this now? Damn, this guy knows how to snuff a story...well, for a couple months, anyway.

"The complaint said Craig then tapped his right foot several times and moved it closer to Karsnia's stall and then moved it into the area of the officer's stall to where it touched Karsnia's foot. Karsnia recognized that "as a signal often used by persons communicating a desire to engage in sexual conduct," the complaint said. Craig then passed his left hand under the stall divider into Karsnia's stall with his palms up and guided it along the divider toward the front of the stall three times, the complaint said."


Translation: hey stud...I'm looking for a cock to suck and lucky me, here you are. Why don't you let me in so I can pleasure you in a 6'x3' space?

"The officer then showed his police identification under the divider and pointed towards the exit "at which time the defendant exclaimed `No!,' " the complaint said."


Whoops....er...I was reaching for a piece of toilet paper! Really! And my foot just happened to brush yours even though we're in different stalls and most men would rather drink straight from the urinal than come into physical contact with anybody else in there! Honest! I've got a wide stance! (eds note - these are all actual excuses offered by Senator Craig)

"Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper which first reported the case, quoted the Aug. 8 police report as saying that Craig had handed the arresting officer a business card that identified him as a member of the Senate. "What do you think about that?" Craig is alleged to have said, according to the report."


Hahaha....you just have to love a guy caught in the most humilating and damaging moment in his professional career still trying to throw his weight around. I hope the cop laughed in his face.

Ah....there is just so much to love about this story. A career homophobe, a disgusting piece of bigot shit who voted against every single piece of legislation he saw that protected the rights of gay and lesbian Americans, a worthless troglodyte who pandered to each and every extremist, anti-gay lobby in the nation....is now exposed to be what he presumably reviled and hated. A deviant cruising in men's rooms for cock. Good luck getting the support from those churches and religious political action groups that lined your pockets for the last 30 years (although, come to think of it, they're all probably closet cases themselves).


My prediction for Sen. Craig's immediate career path: rehab, followed by a cameo on Project Runway.


Fantasy Football Team #1: The Ray Lewis Posse

In the league "Pacman's Entourage":

QB: Donovan McNabb
QB: Matt Hasselbeck
RB: Shaun Alexander
RB: Deuce McAllister
RB: Cedric Benson
RB: Chris Henry
WR: Anquan Boldin
WR: Jerrico Cotchery
WR: Mushin Muhammed
WR: Santonio Holmes
TE: L.J. Smith
K: Robbie Gould
K: Josh Scobee
DB: Chris Hope
DB: Jermaine Phillips
DL: DeMeco Ryans
DL: London Fletcher

Damn....not a single Bill on the roster.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Bedtime for Gonzo

My prayers have been answered....Hallelujah!
(until the President makes his recess appointment of some other incompetent criminal hack as our next AG)



from this morning's New York Times story on the resignation:

"The official who disclosed the resignation today said that the decision was Mr. Gonzales’s and that the president accepted it grudgingly. At the same time, the official acknowledged that the turmoil over Mr. Gonzales had made his continuing as attorney general difficult.

The unfair treatment that he’s been on the receiving end of has been a distraction for the department,” the official said." (emphasis mine)

I'd say the biggest distraction for the Justice Department has been that their top-ranking official has been taking a shit on the Constitution for the past two and a half years. Oh well, with the departures of Rove and Gonzo, the stench of corruption and malfeasance at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave is slowly starting to dissipate

Friday, August 24, 2007

Friday YouTube Nugget

Greetings and salutations:

For this week's Nugget, I thought I'd pay tribute to a soul icon as we are coming up on the 40th anniversary of his death. Otis Redding was taken from this world far too soon and he had so much more to give. This clip gives you a small indication of how powerful an entertainer he was....this is taken from his legendary appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. Recorded six months before his death in a plane crash in a Wisconsin lake, this shows Otis wowing the "love" crowd with his version of Sam Cooke's "Shake". Note that his backing band is the equally legendary Booker T. & The MGs.

Otis Redding would be turning 66 on Sept. 9.


Thursday, August 23, 2007

My (REVISED) Fantasy Football Draft Rankings

*one of my leagues is an auto-draft and the switch is being flipped today, so I took advantage of the weekend to do a little tweaking. You will notice that I've dropped TEs to the bottom of my rank order. My feeling is, if you don't get either Antonio Gates or Tony Gonzalez, then TE is about as worthless a fantasy position as you can find. Hell, there were 23 kickers who had over 100 fantasy points last season, compared to 7 TEs.

My other two leagues have their live draft this Sunday night (wonderful idea, BTW, to hold 4 hours of drafting over the Labor Day weekend. Christ!)

Anyway, here's what I'm going with


1. LaDainian Tomlinson
2. Steven Jackson
3. Shaun Alexander
4. Joseph Addai
5. Willie Parker
6. Frank Gore
7. Rudi Johnson
8. Larry Johnson
9. Brian Westbrook
10. Laurence Maroney
11. Travis Henry
12. Reggie Bush
13. Deuce McAllister
14. Thomas Jones
15. Cedric Benson
16. Ronnie Brown
17. Edgerrin James
18. Willis McGahee
19. Brandon Jacobs
20. Clinton Portis
21. Peyton Manning
22. Donovan McNabb
23. Drew Brees
24. Tom Brady
25. Carson Palmer
26. Marc Bulger
27. Tony Romo
28. Philip Rivers
29. Matt Hasselbeck
30. Jay Cutler
31. Vince Young
32. J.P. Losman
33. Maurice Jones-Drew
34. Jamal Lewis
35. Marshawn Lynch
36. Ahman Green
37. Carnell Williams
38. Marion Barber III
39. DeAngelo Williams
40. Julius Jones
41. Tatum Bell
42. Chester Taylor
43. Matt Leinart
44. Eli Manning
45. Jake Delhomme
46. Jeff Garcia
47. Chad Pennington
48. Marvin Harrison
49. Chad Johnson
50. Terrell Owens
51. Torry Holt
52. Reggie Wayne
53. Anquan Boldin
54. Marques Colston
55. Donald Driver
56. Lee Evans
57. Roy Williams
58. Steve Smith
59. Javon Walker
60. T.J. Houshmandzadeh
61. Randy Moss
62. Hines Ward
63. Larry Fitzgerald
64. Calvin Johnson
65. Santana Moss
66. Jerricho Cotchery
67. Muhsin Muhammad
68. Santonio Holmes
69. Plaxico Burress
70. Deion Branch
71. Andre Johnson
72. Reggie Brown
73. Joey Galloway
74. Bernard Berrian
75. Terry Glenn
76. Donte' Stallworth
77. Laveranues Coles
78. Darrell Jackson
79. Antonio Gates
80. Robbie Gould
81. Nate Kaeding
82. Jeff Wilkins
83. Josh Scobee
84. Jason Hanson
85. Matt Stover
86. Neil Rackers
87. Joe Nedney
88. Shayne Graham
89. Josh Brown
90. Adam Vinatieri
91. Adrian Wilson
92. Chris Hope
93. Jermaine Phillips
94. Ronde Barber
95. Kerry Rhodes
96. Sean Taylor
97. Champ Bailey
98. Brian Dawkins
99. Sean Jones
100. Antoine Winfield
101. DeMeco Ryans
102. London Fletcher
103. Zach Thomas
104. Keith Bulluck
105. Lance Briggs
106. Donnie Edwards
107. Antonio Pierce
108. Cato June
109. Jason Taylor
110. Shawne Merriman
111. Jerious Norwood
112. Adrian Peterson
113. Fred Taylor
114. Ladell Betts
115. Brandon Jackson
116. LaMont Jordan
117. DeShaun Foster
118. LenDale White
119. Kevin Jones
120. Vernand Morency
121. Warrick Dunn
122. Chris Henry
123. Dominic Rhodes
124. Reuben Droughns
125. Leon Washington
126. Michael Turner
127. Ron Dayne
128. Mike Bell
129. Anthony Thomas
130. Jon Kitna
131. Brett Favre
132. Ben Roethlisberger
133. Rex Grossman
134. Alex Smith
135. Matt Schaub
136. Steve McNair
137. Trent Green
138. Jason Campbell
139. Byron Leftwich
140. Kurt Warner
141. Daunte Culpepper
142. Joey Harrington
143. Damon Huard
144. Braylon Edwards
145. Vincent Jackson
146. Mark Clayton
147. Chris Chambers
148. Kevin Curtis
149. Devery Henderson
150. Joe Horn
151. Jerry Porter
152. Derrick Mason
153. Eddie Kennison
154. Drew Bennett
155. Chris Henry
156. Marty Booker
157. Wes Welker
158. Mike Furrey
159. Amani Toomer
160. Michael Jenkins
161. Michael Clayton
162. Eric Parker
163. Peerless Price
164. Todd Heap
165. Tony Gonzalez
166. Chris Cooley
167. Jeremy Shockey
168. Kellen Winslow
169. Vernon Davis
170. Alge Crumpler

excluded from my draft rankings:
Michael Vick - has an pressing engagement with the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2007-2008
Jake Plummer - decided to leave football rather than play for Tampa Bay. He was good friends with the late Pat Tillman and I hope he devotes some of his time to helping the Tillman family in their quest for the truth about how their son died.
Isaac Bruce - a near Hall of Fame career, but he is way past his prime
Priest Holmes - PUP (Physically Unable to Perform).
Curtis Martin - retired

Monday, August 20, 2007

If you're not completely disgusted, you're not paying attention

The headline on DailyKos says it all - "Bush to America's Children: Drop Dead"

from today's NYT:
"The Bush administration, continuing its fight to stop states from expanding the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, has adopted new standards that would make it much more difficult for New York, California and others to extend coverage to children in middle-income families....In interviews, they (Administration officials) said the changes were aimed at returning the Children’s Health Insurance Program to its original focus on low-income children and to make sure the program did not become a substitute for private health coverage. "

(let me repeat that to ensure we're clear about the Administration's priorities)
make sure the program did not become a substitute for private health coverage

5 to 6 million children will go to sleep tonight without any health insurance. Countless millions more go without adequate insurance. The Bush Administration could care less as long as Big Insurance gets paid.
Somewhere, the ghost of Herbert Hoover laughs, knowing that finally there's a Chief Executive more painfully obvious in his graft.

From the Department of What The Fuck?!!!

General David Petraeus' testimony to Congress on the "progress" of the surge in Iraq will occur on September 11, 2007, the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

Along the same lines....this report, which has been hyped by President Gameboy and his enablers in Congress as being an honest assessment of the war's progress from Gen. Petraeus, will, in fact, be written by the White House. The key passage:

"An aide to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) said that "we are in talks with the administration and Senator Levin wants an open hearing" with Petraeus. Those positions only hardened yesterday with reports that the document would not be written by the Army general but instead would come from the White House, with input from Petraeus, Crocker and other administration officials."

Why does anybody believe a single goddamn word coming from the White House? If they were one-tenth as talented at governing as they are in Propaganda 101, we'd be the greatest fucking empire since the Brits.

Negligent, Bad, Bad Humanist Trying To Atone for Missed Friday YouTube Nuggets

Yeah....I know. I've been beyond derelict in keeping up with my Friday tradition. I think I'm up to two straight weeks blowing this off. Fine....here's an avalanche of YouTube goodies to quiet the rabble:


1) Traffic - John Barleycorn (live at Santa Monica, 1972)

Steve Winwood plays. You listen








2) The Rentals - Friends of P (1995)

Good god....is this song really 12 years old? Gaaak...I feel liver spots sprouting as we speak.











3) Isaac Hayes - Walk On By (1969)

Black Moses himself, before Shaft, an Oscar, Truck Turner, bankruptcy, "The Duke" in Escape From New York and of course "South Park". Hayes does to Bacharach here what Sherman did to Atlanta - he burns the mutha down. Supreme cover version of Dionne Warwick's hit.

...and the collars at Fenway get just wee bit tighter

It's been almost half a decade, but I'm actually interested again in a pennant race - specifically, the AL East. The Yankees (whom I detest) have gone 27-11 since the All-Star break to climb within 4 games of the division leading Red Sox (whom I also detest, just not as much as NY). Notwithstanding historic Yankee comebacks/devastating Red Sox chokes, I don't think the Yankees have it in them to complete the comeback....but August and September just got a hell of a lot more interesting.


Wednesday, August 08, 2007

An Historic Night



Congratulations to Barry Lamar Bonds who now stands atop Major League Baseball's all-time Home Run List. I'm a Giants fan and, yes, a Bonds fan. I acknowledge he may have taken steroids, but so did the majority of pitchers he faced. Until the man fails a drug test, I'm not condemning him. The hysterical sportswriters braying over the last year that Bonds signals the very end of Western civilization are the same lickspittle horde that slobbered over Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in 1998....hypocrites, one and all.

And the home page of Sports Illustrated's coverage of this is a disgrace.

Friday, August 03, 2007

Friday YouTube Nugget

This week's selection: Greetings from 1990 Madchester! Happy Mondays, man! You're twisting my melon, man!