Lynndie England, Ralph Nader and the First Daughter's liver.
Brilliant.

Where the hell did THIS come from? (and in one of the worst weeks of my life, it's a tiny, but profound bright spot)
Unsubstantiated, but credible reports on Bigsoccer that a bond issue was approved in Harrison a few minutes ago, clearing the way for the Metrostars to start moving dirt for their own stadium. Finally.

My best guess of what's going to happen in the first round...just don't count on my best being very good.

(home team first)

Colorado 1 Los Angeles 0

Los Angeles 1 Colorado 0

Tied 1-1 on aggregate

LA wins AET.

Nice and symmetrical, isn't it? I just don't see many goals in this one (but I'll be pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong when I watch tonight). Not with Joe Cannon and Catenaccio Rapids at home in the first leg (a year later, that seemingly bizarre decision by Tim Hankinson to pick up Joe Cannon is looking prescient. I still think Hanki is one strange dude). Not with LA looking very average through the homestretch. I haven't seen LA play since July or so, but who drives their midfield? What happened to all those people who were saying Herzog was one of the greatest pickups in league HISTORY in May? I'm picking LA based on players like Ruiz and Kirovski, but I've got no idea which way this one is going to go.


New England 2 Columbus 1

Columbus 3 New England 0

Columbus wins 4-2 on aggregate

Don't ask me why, but I've got the feeling the Crew's unbeaten streak comes to an end Saturday at Foxboro. It's GOT to end sometime, and as much as Columbus's fans want people to believe they've got some sort of great team on their hands, the reality is they've got a solid, experienced team, a terrifically skilled young forward who's finally starting to live up to his scary potential in Edson Buddle, and they haven't let up a bit since qualifying early for the playoffs, unlike a certain team from New Jersey.
Even if they lose this Saturday, I have a hard time seeing Columbus falling to the Revs, but stranger things have happened.



Metrostars 3 DC United 1

DC United 2 Metrostars 1

Metrostars win 4-3 on aggregate


Look, this is all prayer and hopeful thinking. I can't stand the thought of losing to DC in the playoffs, so I'm going to predict the best outcome I can envision for the Metros - edging out DC on something like a Cornell Glen breakaway or a Guevara penalty. These are two young, erratic teams that haven't shown the ability to put anything together for more than a game at a time - and usually not even as long as that. It won't be pretty - Team Thug DC will make sure of that - but it should be fun to watch for everyone except me, who will be alternately screaming at the television, hiding my face with a blanket and hurling things around the apartment.


I'll do the other one tomorrow...

And you thought vitriol-spewing, context-twisting, utterly dishonest demonization of "librrals" as America Haters was principally a tactic of national GOP types.



This is an image from a flyer which was created for the campaign of Ohio state senator Joy Padgett (R - Coshocton) - in fact, she's copped to helping make it. Her opponent is Terry Anderson (D - Athens) If Anderson's name sounds familiar, perhaps it's because you've been in his fine blues bar in Uptown Athens, or you're familiar with him from his time spent at Ohio University's Scripps School of Journalism.

More likely though, you remember the seven years Anderson (then the AP's Beirut bureau chief) spent as one of Hezbollah's most infamous hostages. Most would think that spending over half a decade in captivity and in fear for your life is hardly the thing to make you a terrorist sympathizer and America Hater.

What's a small-time ideological hood like Padgett to do? You start by taking a picture of Anderson doing his job - interviewing the Hezbollah members who were his captors to better illuminate, for himself and for us, the thinking of terrorists - and position it alongside a quote he made in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 - a question as sensibly reflective and important to ask as it is antithetical to the blinkered, crook-backed ideology of neoconservatism:

"Are we willing to accept that they hate us, not because they're crazy, but because we've done something wrong?"

Then you just have to have the base temerity to condemn the man - a man who I daresay is better positioned to speak on terrorism than most, having been a direct victim of it - as a terrorist sympathizer. And worse than that, a liberal!!

This is exactly what Padgett's campaign has done.

This isn't just dishonest. It is disrespectful, disgusting and unconscionable.

In response, Terry Anderson showed up to their debate in Marietta on Tuesday, read a prepared statement condemning Padgett's attack, and left. Withdrawing from debates is usually not an advisable thing to do, but I wholeheartedly applaud the censure of an opponent who's struck way below the belt.

I'm a liberal, and I don't hate America. I'm sorely tempted, though, to hate weaselly, fucknut Americans like Padgett.

Read Terry's far more articulate response here.

Strange jag of soccer players in the news for being slightly touched in the head. 15 million pound Romanian flop Adrian Mutu tested positive for coke earlier this week - supposedly breaking up with his wife sent him a little off the rails, and who among us won't admit to indulging in some hard drugs and stoplight running in the streets of Bucharest after a breakup? - and now looks set for a suspension that's only 8 months shorter than what Rio Ferdinand got for not taking the test, after spending some time on the couch. Recovering manic-depressive Sebastian Deisler has been teetering on the edge of taking the black dog for a walk again. And recovering-everything Paul Gascoigne, who I couldn't write a post like this without mentioning, now wants to be known as "G8". Yes, for all the millions of euros, international fame, and easy access to posh clubs and hot and cold running women, being a professional footballer in Europe is clearly a mentally hazardous occupation.

It's a good thing we've still got TPC's favorite wacky Finn footballer, Aki Riihilati. He's only recovering from someone trying to put a thumb up his arse.

What do Lee Iacocca, Andrew Sullivan and Bob Barr have in common? (from dailykos)

Least Politically Correct Webpoll Ever...or at least, that I've seen today. But very cool design, and I'm ashamed to say I only scored a ....6.

Egyptia...oh wait, he's got an English passport doesn't he? - Anglo-Egyptian shopkeeper (ok, so the 'shop' is Harrods) and Fulham FC owner Mohammed Al-Fayed reportedly referred to a Turkish Cypriot group in the hunt to bid for the club as 'kebab salesmen'.

It's like raaaaaaaaaaaain.....

I know someone whose father worked right under Al-Fayed, and apparently he's a piece of work (as if you didn't already know, given his propensity for MI5-killed-Dodi-and-Di conspiracies). Let's just say if you're walking anywhere in Knightsbridge, he's probably got a bug listening to you.

Did anyone else hear Barbara Bush (the clod-in-chief's mother, not his drunken sorority chick daughter) giving a speech on his behalf on NPR tonight, actually saying that despite all the bad things we might hear, her son would never do anything to destroy Social Security, what with his parents being senior citizens and all? (clip here, about a quarter of the way down the page)

Like you'd EVER need Social Security, you stupid, obnoxiously arrogant, disingenous bitch.






However crude it might be - and it is, I admit - there's something liberating about calling Barbara Bush a bitch. Try it and see.

I mention I'm in the WOUB radio studio, because a) I get interrupted a lot to read stuff, and b) the keyboard is put in what must be one of the most ergonomically incorrect positions ever devised. I'm sure it was put this way just to keep people from doing things like, oh, writing long emails and things like this. So I'll write for a bit here, at least until I feel my warped, herniated discs about to explode out of my back.

I've decided that when I finally start my band someday, I'm going to call it A Violent Bar Brawl. That way, when we play shows in dirty little dives, they'll have to put on their posters "Coming Thursday Night at 9: A Violent Bar Brawl".

Watching David Beckham's ugly (not violent ugly, just aesthetically ugly) tackle that earned him a yellow card and a day off this past weekend, I jokingly told my friend Bill he just didn't fancy the trip to Azerbaijan. It looks like I was right.

Tonight, I get my tickets for Interpol and The Secret Machines in Columbus on the weekend.

I'll be back in a bit. I can't feel my spinal column anymore.

By now, you know that Sinclair Broadcasting is ordering all of its 60+ stations nationwide to air an anti-Kerry hatchet job of a movie next week, not only making a sham of what's left of the whole public airwaves concept, but then offering hilarious, though pathetic reasons ("Would they suggest that our reporting a car bomb in Iraq is an in-kind contribution to the Kerry campaign? Would they suggest that our reporting on job losses is an in-kind contribution to the Kerry campaign?" he said. "It's the news. It is what it is. We're reporting the news.") why this shouldn't be considered a straight gift to the GOP.

Let advertisers in your area know that you won't stand for it - now. Be firm, not obnoxious. And then sign this.

The official homepage of my new favorite Premiership footballer. Looks like he runs the whole show himself and all. Aki rules.

http://www.youforgotpoland.com/