A view from Main Street America by a congenital Democrat and truth-seeking attorney. Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community. Posting on the Internets since 2004.
A 9/11 Reminder from a 2004 BuzzFlash Editorial: "Minutes of Silence That Should Live in Infamy: As Americans Leapt to Their Deaths from the Twin Towers, George W. Bush Sat Cluelessly in a Florida Classroom, Endangering the Lives of the Children Around Him, Until His Handlers Could Figure Out What to Do With Him."
I wish I had written this, but I'm just too pissed off:
Puppets from the Broadway show Avenue Q have a little fun at the expense of soon-to-be former Idaho Senator Larry Craig:
I don't think Larry Craig should resign because he's gay, or because he likes to have sex with men. I think he should resign because he's a hypocrite who has been voting against other people who share his sexual preference. I also think he should resign because he needs time out of the public spotlight to look closely at his behavior during his adult life. The rumors about Larry Craig are longstanding. He was identified in the page scandal in the early 1980s (when he also made the statement that he was not gay) and six months later he married his congressional aide and adopted her three children. Nice beard.
A grown man who's still having anonymous sex in public bathrooms needs to do a little soul searching.
It's excerpts filmed by someone who was there, with a little clip at the end of Mia Hamm being introduced onto the field as a sub during the Hall of Fame Game.
Coach Mom & I got to see the induction of Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy to the Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, New York on Sunday. We got there about 11:00 a.m. for the noon time ceremony and the Hall of Fame was mobbed. In 2004 we attended Michelle Akers induction(the greatest player in the history of women's soccer -- Mia Hamm described her as the best ever in her speech), and got there at the same time & sat in the front row of the lobby where it was held then.
This year it was held outdoors on the grounds. We brought chairs and set up in the 10th row amid a bunch of grumbling people who were standing behind the last row of chairs. I wasn't going to set Coach Mom's chair behind a bunch of people standing up! One woman behind us asked, who's that other woman being inducted with Mia? Julie something? So I didn't feel bad about encroaching on their space.
Unlike Akers, who was inducted first in her class, the Hall of Fame did it right and inducted Foudy & Hamm last. Former National Team head coach Tony DiCicco & retired National Team captain Carla Overbeck inducted Julie Foudy, who then gave a great speech. Anson Dorrance inducted Mia Hamm, and they were both very inspiring. Julie Foudy talked about her daughter Izzy and the cameras panned over her while the crowd oohed. Mia Hamm thanked her husband Nomar Garciaparra and talked about their two daughters, Eva (Ava?) and Grace, but the cameras did not show them. I don't think those kids have ever been photographed and apparently Mia intends to keep it that way. Good for her.
But as usual it was a disorganized mess from an event planning perspective. The Hall of Fame was blocked off during and before the ceremony for the VIPs. You could get into the gift shop, but there was a long line. And they weren't selling Foudy and Hamm shirts. Or if they were, they ran out early. Morons. They should have had a stand up OUTSIDE and they would have sold at least 1000. They were selling David Beckham's Galaxy jersey and many girls appeared from the gift shop wearing those. But what a missed opportunity. Thousands of people there, soccer in their hearts, money in their pockets, and kids tugging on their sleeves. (The crowd was estimated at 5,000.)
The game was supposed to start half an hour after the ceremonies ended. I walked back to the car to dump off our chairs. We walked towards the field. Now it is after 2:00 and Coach Mom has to eat. But there are only two food concessions open. Two ines total. I got in the shorter line (the one that didn't sell french fries). After waiting 45 minutes in line (and missing the entire first half of the Hall of Fame game, when Hamm and Foudy played) they ran out of everything but nachos. So I got Coach Mom a plate of nachos, cheese crackers and a candy bar (so she wouldn't keel over) and told them they had to let me cut the line when they got real food. Luckily an old friend of ours spotted us as we got into line & I sent Mom to talk to her while I waited. Again, event planning 101, if you expect a crowd of thousands, more than half kids, you'd better have plenty of food concessions. The line I was in was being serviced by 6 women using an extra large home sized grill. A dozen burgers and a dozen hotdogs at a time. To feed thousands of people. Planning, people, planning!
So, we saw part of the second half of the Hall of Fame game, saw Christie Welsh score two goals, but missed Hamm, Foudy, Overbeck, & Tiffany Roberts play though. We saw a few more of Coach Mom's former players and students. Coach Mom won the Oneonta Soccer Club raffle and got a big basket of soccer shirts and ephemera. We left the game with 20 minutes left & went to Brooks's BBQ where we just got our takeout chicken before the hordes from the game descended. Oneonta Daily Star: 5,000 greet soccer greats
8 games up on August 28th. Nice way to start the last month of the season. The Red Sox feasted on Chicago White Sox pitching over the weekend, and are primed for the Bronx bombers. Who gave up more than 16 runs twice last week. Ouch.
A conservator at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts has discovered a "lost" Van Gogh painting; behind another painting, which he apparently painted over. Why did he do this?
In his early years, van Gogh often reused canvases or turned them over and painted on the other side to make the most of his limited funds. But by 1889, a year before his death, he was being supported by his brother. Van Gogh painted over "Wild Vegetation" not because he couldn't afford to buy another canvas but because Theo was slow to send along new canvases, according to MFA curator George Shackelford.
"He was so eager to paint that he wasn't willing to wait," said Shackelford. "We deduce he decided to sacrifice a picture, maybe of the ones that he had that he liked the least, and he painted straight over the very highly patterned design of the first canvas without introducing a layer of white. It's fantastically amazing."
Senate Democrats cave to Smirky McEavesdropper, give him even more power to wiretap, and unbelievably, put Serial Liar Alberto Gonzales in charge of oversight. 16 Democratic fools voted for this: thank heavens my Senators are more sane than these:
Evan Bayh (Indiana); Tom Carper (Delaware); Bob Casey (Pennsylvania); Kent Conrad (North Dakota); Dianne Feinstein (California); Daniel Inouye (Hawai‘i); Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota); Nancy Mary Landrieu (Louisiana); Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas); Claire McCaskill (Missouri); Barbara Mikulski (Maryland); Bill Nelson (Florida); Ben Nelson (Nebraska); Mark Pryor (Arkansas); Ken Salazar (Colorado); Jim Webb (Virginia).
Were they that desperate to go on vacation?
Wish you were at YearlyKos? (I do! Maybe next year.) TPM has videos of interviews with some of the attendees.
The Jose Padilla trial plods on; the government's evidence is so very weak that Padilla's attorneys put on no case. Not surprising since Bush's DOJ has a 29% conviction rate on terrorism prosecutions, compared to 93% elsewhere; they're all smoke and mirrors. Kind of like the entire Bush Administration. As Will S. said, all sound and fury, signifying nothing.
The Bush Administration killed a 4 cents a gallon gasoline tax in 2004 that would have gone to fixing the country's decaying roads and bridges. Heckuva job, George.
I guess it's still just surreal that perhaps the most likable NBA superstar of the last decade is on the Celtics, and I'm still savoring the whole thing, four days after the trade. It's funny, I've been trying to explain how significant this is to the lapsed Celtics fans I know, and I just keep coming back to the same point: Kevin Garnett will restore Celtic Pride. I guarantee it. He is the perfect player in the perfect place at the perfect time. He's a superstar who plays with the hunger and desperation of a 12th man. He's maniacal about winning.
In this episode of 'What lie should we tell the dumbDemocrats?', Dianne Feinstein is Charlie Brown and Leslie Southwick is Lucy.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
The Republicans have been lying to the Democrats for six years.
Their judicial nominees have been especially skilled at this. Both John Roberts and Samuel Alito said they would follow precedents; then they voted to throw out 35 years of civil rights jurisprudence and limit the time limit for damages for employment discrimination cases to six months. Congress just passed legislation to restore the law they passed so many years ago.
Dianne Feinstein has been claiming to be surprised and shocked that Roberts and Alito lied to her. But when she had a chance to keep another neo-Paleo-conservative off the Fifth Circuit, she blinked.
She voted to let racist Leslie Southwick's nomination proceed to the Senate. Because he said he would be good. Just like Roberts and Alito promised to follow precedent.
New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens looks at the ball after giving up the eighth run against the Chicago White Sox in the second inning as catcher Jorge Posada (L) walks to the mound during their MLB American League baseball game at Yankee Stadium in New York, August 2, 2007. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton (UNITED STATES)
An Ohio legislator, John Addams, (R-Looney Tunes), has introduced legislation that would bar a woman from getting an abortion without the father's consent. If she doesn't know who the father is, she would be required to give a list of her sexual partners, would then all be DNA tested to decide which man gets to decide whether she gets an abortion. Hey moron, if a guy doesn't want a woman to get an abortion, don't have sex. Or wear a condom. That's where the man's decision-making power begins and ends. Looney Tunes is a nice description for these sexist pigs.
A waitress in New Hampshire asked Romney about what he is going to do to help Americans pay health care costs. He gave her some platitudes and pointedly didn't ask her anything about her own situation. This reminds me of the 1992 debate where George H.W. Bush responded to the woman asking how the national debt had affected each of them personally. He blathered about his policy proposals. Clinton then walked right up to the woman and said "Tell me how it's affected you again." No wonder the Republican field is running scared from the YouTube debate. They'd have to answer tough questions from people who don't have cushy health care like they do, for one thing.
National Soccer Hall of Fame and Museum, Oneonta, New York
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