You Think You're Brave? Think You Can Stand Up Against Anyone?........

..........

If you still think that after reading this story, then you are one tough motherF***er.

Hands down the toughest woman I have ever heard of.

Humalia Akrawy Speaks Out

What would you do if you were a 22 year old Kurdish Muslim woman in March of 2003, when an army drawn from several countries invaded your homeland?

If you were Humalia Akrawy you would remember your brother, killed under Saddam -- and remember how they sent back just one leg and part of an arm to demonstrate his death and their power to your family. You would look at your father, who no longer has full use of his hands after being tortured by Saddam.

And then, despite the disapproval of many but with the blessing and support of your family, on 23 March you would volunteer to become a translator for the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army.

But what would you do when Ba'athists and jihadists ambushed your car, injuring your brother and trying to kill you, and when they later killed your 24 year old sister thinking she was you -- pumping 60 AK47 bullets into her body? Or when you received a letter saying, "We know we missed killing you, but we will be back" and then your home was blown up, injuring another brother and killing the Iraqi policeman guarding it?

If you were the remarkable Ms. Akrawy you would help your remaining family members move to a safe area in the far north of the country and then return to your job. And this time, instead of insisting on a lower profile role, you would eagerly agree to become the translator for Lieutenant General Petraeus himself, the commander of the 101st - despite all the media exposure that entailed - and you would proudly do that job in the face of continued death threats against you.

"Memmoorreeeess......"

......

Like the corners of my miiiinnnnnnddd......



What a Season.........Thanks Bosox....

Germany's Largest Newspaper Endorses Bush.........

.......

(via soon to be blogrolled David's Medienkritik)

I'll get back to more Red Sox celebrations soon, as I 'm gonna ride that one out for a while. I have to recover from the last two weeks so I can officially celebrate with friends the enormity of this Red Sox win. Right now, I can't due to the extreme fatigue set in physically. So, on to something less stressful, like the elections....yay!

Another October Surprise: Germany's Largest Newspaper Endorses Bush

Medienkritik has now translated BILD's list of reasons in their entirety. Here they are: (my notes will be in italics)

1. Bush has clear priorities. He sees the inhuman Islamic fundamentalism and the murderous mullahs as the largest danger for the Western world.
(we are still at War folks.)
2. Bush has learned the lessons of history. Military strength, not pleasant talk, is the only thing that helps against violent fanatics. And with Bush -- unlike with Kerry -- there is no doubt about this.
(Kerry has stated he will "respond to any attack with full force"- and that's the problem, we can't wait for the next attack, we have to go do something to prevent it. This is what Bush has been doing the last three years.)
3. Under Bush, the US, as a superpower, will continue to bear the financial, military and casualty burden in the fight against terrorism in a "holy war" which Islamic fanatics unilaterally declared.
(Which is nothing new for us, we protected Germany during the Cold war and now they are cool with us protecting them from Islamic terrorists too. Better watch out though Germany, once we are through with this, you guys are on your own. Have fun paying for your own military for a change.)
4. Along with fighting terror and the terrorists, a re-elected Bush will do everything he can to prevent nuclear proliferation. That is especially true with regard to the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.
(This is a HUGE point- Kerry would ruin the multilateral progress we have made in North Korea. With China and the Russia applying pressure, we could actually do something to Kim Jong, without this -which is what Kerry proposes- we are giving him what he wants. Don't even get me started on Kerry's idea to give nuclear fuel to Iran.)
5. Bush has learned that America can defeat every country in war, but needs allies in peace. Thus, his second term will be characterized by cooperation with international partners. But he will not depend on how Syria or Libya vote at the UN.
(The UN is not our babysitter. We cannot rely on an institution made up of people who want to see our demise. There is a profound difference between multi-lateral action and UN approval.)
6. Bush knows that Europe and Germany don’t have the military at their disposal to become involved in any further foreign military engagements. Therefore he won't ask them for help. Kerry will do exactly that – and will further burden already damaged German-American relations.
(See point #3. And Europe, you better start figuring out how to pay for a military pretty soon. We can't afford to protect you guys much longer.)
7. Under Bush, America will remain a reliable partner for Israel in its fight for survival. That must especially be in our German interest.
(See WWII.)
8. Republicans have always been stronger supporters of free trade than Democrats. That is also true of Bush when compared to Kerry. And that is good for Germany as an export nation.
(Economically, Kerry will be a disaster. Even the Germans realize this.)
9. Every new American administration makes mistakes. Bush has already made his. Kerry, on the other hand, has of yet held no (executive) position in the government. He would be worse prepared than most Presidents preceding him.
(Better the devil you already know then the one you don't.)
10. With Bush, we know what to expect. With Kerry, nobody knows what he stands for and where he wants to lead America – and the world.
(Kerry has revealed his ideas in terms of foreign policy, and they give the Germans ZERO confidence.)

All of these reasons, minus the European angles, speak volumes of the differences between the candidates. Later today, I am going to list my reasons for who I'm going to vote for.

Tman's October Bosox Blog Posts..........

........

Partly for me, for posterity, partly for you dear readers to enjoy. Don't thank me, I'm a giver.

In order-

And So It Begins....

The Red Sox Nation Exhales Slowly...

Ok, It's Official Now....

My Mom hates this slogan, but she can get her own blog...

For those who wonder about the Curse and whether or not IDIOT UP!! is a good slogan...

In Lieu of Celebratory Bosox Posting I Give You.....

I Heard There Was A Debate Last Night...

The Sports Guy Drunk Blogged Game 2...

Thanks Kerry- No really, thanks...

Jeebus am I tired....

This Team Refuses To Die....

You Know When They Say- "You Just Watched History?"... and This Team STILL Refuses To Die....

Ladies And Gentleman, I Give You Your 2004 American League Champion Boston Red Sox.., This just in and So This Is What It Feels Like..

As We Inch Ever So Much Closer To The Apocalypse

So Is Johnny Damon Really Jesus?.....

Is This Really Happening?? ..........

And Finally, we have todays-

Keep Your Eyes Out For the Four Horsemen....

Unbelievable run. Hey Yankee fans, don't worry, there's always next year.

Keep Your Eyes Out For the Four Horsemen............

.........

Apocalypse watch is officially on....

RED SOX WIN THE WORLD SERIES!!!!!!

"I don't believe in curses, I think you make your own destination."-- World Series MVP Manny Ramirez.

Curse or no curse, the Red Sox are your 2004 World Series Champions. That is a sentence many people from Boston never thought they would hear. But this year, as I've said before, something felt different.

There wasn't a game seven disaster with the Yankees. Many close calls that normally would always go against the Red Sox in October for some reason, well, didn't. This team would not die. They were literally hanging over the ledge, Yankees boot pressed against the neck, the best post season closer in Baseball history coming in the eigth inning with a one run lead ready to shut the door and send yet another World Series back to New York. But they wouldn't go quietly in to the night. They fought back, scrapped, clawed, out-hustled, and out played the Spankees for another four straight. The Red Sox would be in the world series.

Then on to St Louis. You heard the stories, four guys in the lineup hitting over 30 homers this year, over 100 RBI's, gold glove fielders in every corner, etc.etc..A formidable opposition, without question. Well, maybe not so much. The Red Sox disposed of the Cardinals in four straight games, as the pitching and bats of the Idiots proved too much to handle. Once they beat back the Evil Empire in that fateful game four, the Idiots never lost a single game the rest of the playoffs. That's eight in a row.

Unbelievable.

Here are some places you should visit to get the full force of the Red Sox Nation Celebration-

Bill Simmons of ESPN kept a running diary of most the games, with some priceless memories. A personal favorite from last night-

"6:10 - Following a Ramirez single, Fox shows Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore wearing Red Sox sweatshirts and clapping excitedly. I wish I was actually driving the Red Sox Bandwagon right now, just so I could screech to a halt, whirl around, point to them and scream, "Get off! RIGHT NOW! I mean it! Get off! Move it! Gather your things and GET OFF!" Damn straight. You freaking posers. Fallon is from New York for chrissakes.

Boston Dirt Dogs. Best. Photoshops. Ever.

The Boston Globe Sports Page probably has the best collection of photos and video along with some great writers such as Bob Ryan and Dan Shaughnessy. Dan will probably retire now that he can't bitch about the curse anymore.

Soxaholix have had some great comic strips during the last few weeks, I suggest reading them all.

Thank you Idiots, you have given me the best sporting moment in my whole life.

Is This Really Happening??

..........

The World Series. The Red Sox. Up 3-0 against the Cardinals.

Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz making Gold Glove style plays on defense.

Pedro reverting to vintage Pedro and absolutely DOMINATING the Cards dangerous bats for seven innings.

One game and 27 outs from ending 86 years of torture. Magic number: 1.

'Course, this was kinda fun to watch.....



Now we have D-Lowe, hero of Game Seven in the ALCS versus the Spankees. If he can pull off the same magic, we are going to finally see a world series crown in Boston.

A World Series Crown in Boston. It just sounds weird. I dunno. All true members of Red Sox Nation will not believe it is truly ours until we see the final out called by the umpire thus confirming that we have won.

No sw**p talk either. Just win one more freaking game gentlemen. I wonder just how many of us Sox Fans are as exhausted as I am right now. Probably all of us.

People have been asking me what will happen if we finally win the series, how will we react, what will have to bitch about, blah blah blah. Well, guess what- I tell you when we get there. Until then, that is a matter of pure speculation, and I WILL NOT believe that this isn't some cruel dream I've been in for the last two weeks.

Best Moment Last Night: Two Yankees fans were at the bar we watched the game at last night wearing their Spankee colors (yeah I don't get it either). They tried the usual "1918" bullshit, to which we replied "don't worry fellas, there's always next year". It proceeded to get uglier, and it appeared to reach fighting words when my bud started using some colorful language to describe his recent relations with said Yankee fans mothers, and I thought that ass kicking would soon commence. Instead, Yankees fans took stock of their odds in the fight: Two drunk Yankee fans against a small horde of pumped up Red Sox fans. It was a lose/lose for them, so they quietly departed by the end of the eigth.

Classic moment. We got two YANKEE fans to shut the hell up and go home. Unbelievable. Never thought I'd live to see the day. What a ride this has been.

IDIOT UP BABEEE!!!!

So Is Johnny Damon Really Jesus?.............

......

mASSbACKWARD makes quite the strong argument......

A teaser-

"Our Papi, Who art in Fenway
Hallowed by thy team.
Thou kicketh ass,
On Yankee grass,
And at home, as you did in the Bronx."

Now go my son, and enjoy our Red Sox mania in peace.

The Belmont Club and the Missing Explosives Story........

......

I'm sure many of you have heard the latest story that the US Military somehow neglected to prevent over 380 tons of high grade explosives from being stolen from a warehouse in Iraq. Let's ignore the fact that it's in the best interest of the US military to protect these ammo dumps, and one would have to take an Olympic leap of logic to propose that the Military "forgot" about 380 tons of explosives, considering that this is how soldiers are dying in roadside bombs.

Instead I direct you to the Belmont Club, and their take on the issue.

"In this context, the loss of 380 tons of RDX is similar to worrying about a toothache after being diagnosed with AIDS and Ebola. Some 600,000 tons of explosive are said to have been dispersed throughout Iraq prior to the conclusion of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The loss of the RDX is serious, but in the overall scheme of things, one of the least worries."

Of course, this is somehow Bush's fault too, right?...........(shaking head)......

As We Inch Ever So Much Closer To The Apocalypse..........

.............

Sox go up 2-0 against the Cards in the World Series.....A hero emerges, again.....

(courtesy of Boston Dirt Dogs)


Schilling has his ankle held together by threads and sutres right now, and the Docs stated that that would probably be the last time they can perform this surgery top allow him to play this series. Curt did his job, so it's now up to the rest of the band of idiots to finish off the series.

Pedro game three, Lowe game four, game five I believe is a mystery right now. Who knows. One thing for sure, the Red Sox never make things easy. As Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe notes, observe these two numbers - 8 and 21. They represent the number of errors and men left on base, respectively, for the Red Sox during Games 1 and 2 of the World Series. Most teams would not win even regular season games with numbers like these. Few teams would win playoff games with numbers like these. But only the 2004 Red Sox can beat the NL Champion Cardinals, with perhaps one of the most ferocious lineups, whilst committing such cardinal baseball sins. Yes, that pun was intended. I said it before, and I'll say it again, this year is different. I may be proven wrong before the series is over, but either way, it's been one hell of a ride.

A friend of mine commented last night that watching post season Red Sox baseball this year feels like seeing a months worth of Grateful Dead concerts squeezed in to a few days, minus the drugs. I think the members of Red Sox Nation are ready to go in to hibernation after this is all over for the rest of the winter. Who can blame us after this ride?

My friend Evan (who we miss at Headquarters by the way, don't be a stranger Ev!) has noted the possibility of the following- "as the red sox are just about to pull off the greatest come back world series in the bottom of the ninth, a meteor the size of maui hits the altantic ocean sending a tidal wave that covers the east coast and when the flood ebbs there will be soxs fans still cheering". One cannot argue with this logic, as the Red Sox beating the Yankees in such dramatic fashion, thereby leading them to win the world series is about as apocalyptic as you can get.
It certainly wouldn't suprise any members of Red Sox Nation, of that I am certain. We are all riding a wave of stunned bliss, scratching our heads in wonder that this band of Idiots can continue to defy logic and sanity, battling through the darkness and emerging victorious time and time again. Next stop, Saint Louis, where you can count on the fearsome bats of the Cardinals to wake up and start hitting dingers. We shall see.

Pedro said that he wants to hit, so of course this will be interesting. Would anyone be suprised to see Pedro hit a ninth inning single to score the go ahead run? If you would be, then you haven't been watching this years Red Sox. Absolutely nothing would suprise me about these Idiots anymore. Nothing.

.............................

In other news, the Titans get spanked by the Vikings 20-3, thus sending them one game closer to lottery time. This team is in big trouble, and everyone here in Nashville is in agreement about it. It's a shame too, because we all had high hopes about the Titans this year, but the offseason losses combined with an inordinate amount of early in the season injuries has decimated this team. There is still time to turn it around, but we will have to do it without McNair for at least a few games as he re-injured his sternum on Sunday. Maybe he should talk to Curt's Doctor, I dunno....

IDIOT UP!!!

............
Update:
Random thoughts from the last two Bosox games:
Tim McCarver, please shut up. Heard during the Yankees game 7-"A walk is as good as a home run". Please enjoy the aptly titled site ShutUpTimMcCarver.com .

Also, I am waiting for Joe Buck to get it over with and start fellating McCarver on national television. Did anyone else catch this over the top fawning from Buck Saturday night?- Joe Buck: "Tim, one of the things I learned as a little boy watching you broadcast the World series, is that you can't see the wind. you just see the effect of the wind...." *slight pause* McCarver: "I don't remember saying that, but I know I said it". Christ, get a room you two...

Well This Isn't All That Comforting................

........(Via soon to be blogrolled FuturePundit)

Bill Napier, Chandra Wickramasinghe, and his daughter, Cardiff University student Janaki Wickramasinghe have proposed that thousands of undetected comets could be hiding in our Solar System.

The Solar System could be teeming with almost invisible comets, according to some astronomers' calculations. If they are right, such extra comets would significantly increase the risk of a catastrophic impact with Earth.
These objects have never been observed, but the astronomers argue that 'dark comets' provide a likely explanation for an astronomical puzzle: we can only see a tiny fraction of the comets that theory predicts.Astronomers think that many comets come from the Oort cloud, a field of billions of icy objects that lies up to 100,000 times farther away from the Sun than the Earth does and marks the outer boundary of our Solar System. The icy objects are sometimes driven towards the Sun by gravitational tides generated by the shifting masses of stars in our Galaxy. When this happens they become comets, orbiting the Sun every 20 to 200 years on paths that lie at an angle to the planets' orbits.
Given the size of the Oort cloud, astronomers have calculated that there should be about 3,000 comets in these orbits, 400 times more than are actually observed.

Looks like we'll be able to test the hypothesis shortly-

Earlier this month, NASA announced that it would launch an orbiting infrared telescope called the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) in 2008, which will map much wider areas of the sky. Given enough time, it should be able to detect the dark comets, says Napier.

Ugh. I hate that "given enough time" part. Yes, let's cross our fingers and hope that we get enough time. Wonderful.
NASA has been spending $3-4 million a year to find and characterize the estimated 1,100 large-sized NEOs, a goal it set in 1998 under pressure from Congress. This is is a pittance in relation to the overall trillion dollar NASA budget. We absolutely must divert funds from the current NASA budget towards expanded search and mitigation research.

Not much use in having a space station in orbit when there is no one left on the ground to visit it.
Maybe not in my lifetime, or in the next few generations lifetimes, but this is going to happen to the earth again one day. Not if, but when...
.

So This Is What It Feels Like...............

.........

Victory huh? I like it. In my 32 years of existence on this planet I have never tasted such sweet October victory here in the Red Sox Nation. Yes, we won the pennant in '86 but it wasn't anywhere nearly as incredible as this. This was history. The greatest comeback ever in baseball post season. And to think that these Idiots were one out away from losing game four in the ninth inning against Mariano Rivera, the best closer to ever take the mound in the post season. Simply stunning folks.
People are asking if this will be all for naught if we don't win the World Series, and there is some truth to that. However, from now on, whenever a team goes down 0-3 in a seven game series, the Sox will get mentioned. Also, after the heartbreak we suffered a year and three days ago, popping the champagne in the Bronx has that extra little oomph about it. Watching Yankees fans throw down their Baseball hats in disgust is a prize worth savoring in Red Sox Nation for at least a few days.

Tonight I have my first relaxing evening in a week. Then we fire up this insane train again for another ride. Buckle Up kids, with these guys you know it's gonna be a rough ride.......

The Sports Guy opened his mail bag to give everyone a glimpse in to the life of we here in Red Sox Nation......my personal fave so far-

"I've gained 10 pounds in seven days (steady diet of pizza, McDonald's, and beer). I haven't slept more than 4 hours a night in a week. I can't form a rational thought in my head. I have ridiculously large bags under my eyes. I'm emotionally spent. I've listened to Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" on my iPod 87 times in a row since Sunday with no interruptions. I have no voice. My immune system is as sturdy as balsa-wood. My thumbs hurt from the 673 text messages I've sent in the last 5 days. I haven't exercised in three weeks. My body is ready to crumble.


... AND I COULDN'T FEEL BETTER!


To the Yanks fans ... I'll refrain from the taunting I've endured from your end for years. All I have to say is welcome to 24 years of my life so far. The scene at the end of Shawshank Redemption when the warden looks in the lock box when the police are streaming down the road and he finally realizes Dufresne screwed him ... I'd like to think that's how Yankee Nation felt last night.

IDIOT UP BABEE!!!

This just in....................

.........

Ladies And Gentleman, I Give You Your 2004 American League Champion Boston Red Sox......

...........

IDIOTS!!!!!!!!



All of you in the Red Sox Nation, here is the roundup of news, interviews, pictures, columns, etc...

IT'S A CELEBRATION BITCHES!!!!!!!!!

Here's something you don't hear everyday.....

GAME ONE OF THE WORLD SERIES WILL BE AT FENWAY PARK......

Hung over? Check.

Exhausted, both physically and mentally? Check.

Still in a state of disbelief mixed with shock and awe? Check.

We get to do this for one more series? ..................check.

More later...must recover....Red Sox Nation......IDIOTS!!!!

You'd Think We Don't Need to Have This Conversation Anymore............

.......

You'dn be wrong.

(I like saying You'dn. Yes Mom, I know it's not a word. But I like it, and it's my blog, so there.)
Saddam Hussein's Philanthropy of Terror
by Deroy Murdock , Media Fellow
Hoover Institution at Stanford University
Adapted from a September 22, 2004 presentation at the Hoover Institution

Did he still possess Weapons of Mass Death? Seemingly not, at least not in the quantities America and its allies expected. But wasn't there another reason America and its Coalition partners invaded Iraq? Didn't Saddam Hussein have ties to terrorism?
The notion that he did not is an article of faith among the critics of President Bush, Tony Blair and their allies. Saddam Hussein, they argue, knew little if anything about terrorism, especially al-Qaeda. Listen to a few of these more notable detractors:

"Iraq was not a terrorist haven before the invasion," 5 Democratic candidate John Kerry told Philadelphia voters September 24. At the September 30, 2004 presidential debate, Kerry asserted, "Iraq was not even close to the center of the War on Terror before the president invaded it."

Really John? Perhaps you'd care to explain this table then...



John Kerry is not fit to be our president in this day and age of Islamic terrorism, and SADDAM HUSSEIN WAS ACTIVELY INVOLVED WITH ISLAMIC TERRORISM, AND WAS A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER TO THE SECURITY OF THE UNITED STATES.

How anyone can read this report and think otherwise absolutely BAFFLES me.

This Team STILL Refuses To Die...........

..............



Above:Curt Schilling checks to see if his foot is still attached to his leg.

And so here we go again. Game Seven. ALCS. In the Bronx. Red Sox-Yankees. History and all that. You literally cannot make this stuff up, there is nothing in history besides perhaps the Olympic "Miracle on Ice" US hockey team that compares to the comeback we witnessed from this band of idiots.

Curt Schilling had his tendons sutured together so that he could pitch last night, in a gut-check performance worthy of Steve McNair. He pitched lights out for the first six before surrendering a one run homer to Bernie Williams, the guy who already owns the record for the most post season home runs. He kept it together through that speed bump and gave the Red Sox seven solid innings.

Seeing as how this is Red Sox-Yankees playoff baseball, we must have some controversy. And we had plenty. Mark Bellhorn, hitting something like 2 for 1000 in his last at bats in this series hit a three run homer that appeared to hit a fan and fall back in to play. This being Yankee stadium, the play was initially ruled a ground rule double. But something is different this year, and a call that 99% of the time would have gone the Yankees way was overturned and the play was called correctly as a home run. You could almost feel the air leave the stadium after that call was overturned. It was as if the force had suddenly been drained from the Dark Side. Darth Vader was starting to get nervous. To further confirm the fact that this year the Yankees will not be able to rely on getting 99% of the calls, we had the Arroyo-Rodriguez moment at first base in the eighth. A-Rod hit a slow grounder towards first, and as Arroyo fielded the play he noticed no one was covering first base so he turned to tag out Rodriguez. A-Rod proceeded to attempt to slap away the ball out of Arroryo's glove, thus causing interference, thus he should be ruled out automatically. Instead, before A-Rod even reached the bag he was called safe (Hellooo?) and Jeter scored, cutting the lead to 2. But as I said before, there is something different this year, and again the umps had a pow-wow and ruled in favor of the Red Sox. A-Rod called out, Jeter goes back to first base, pandemonium ensues in the crowd, riot police are called out. Someone at the bar asked me how come they had so many riot police on hand, I replied that anytime you get 50,000 New Yorkers together, there will be a sizeable contingent of the cities finest available at a moments notice. Scheffield flied out to end the inning, the cops filed back off the field and play resumed.

Somehow the Red Sox survived yet another twist of fate and were able to pull through again. I'm telling you, there is something different this year from years past. I don't see the same swagger in the Yankees this year, and the Red Sox seem to still act like they are playing little league baseball in April. It seems as if the Yankees are all standing around waiting for someone to step up and make a big play, whereas the Red Sox have a different few guys each night making some unbelievable plays. It just feels different, I don't know.

Tonight will be the final test. Is this team for real? Can they finally slay the Yankee monster once and for all? Will the curse be reversed? And will someone explain to me how a guy can pitch 90 plus for seven innings while his foot is hanging by a thread to his leg?

Will I finally get some rest?.........stay tuned sportsfans...

You Know When They Say- "You Just Watched History?".....

.........

I saw some of that tonight....Curt Schilling pitches the game of his life as the Idiots force a game seven........must sleep....more tomorrow.......

IDIOT UP!!!!!

Osama Bin Laden Is Dead Folks........Dead, Dead, Dead.......

............

Maggot food. Pushing Daisies. A stain on a cave wall in Tora Bora. No longer amongst the breathing.

Matthew Heidt (former Navy Seal) of Froggy Ruminations brought up this conversation on his blog (soon to be added to the roll-you go read NOW!) which goes along with what I have been thinking ever since we liberated Afghanistan.

Here's what I think. Osama was a publicity FIEND, and before 9/11 he took every opportunity to spout some garbage about the great satan, and had multiple interviews with all kinds of news sources. For instance, this ABC John Miller interview is an example of the publicity that he craved like a fat kid loves cake. Even since the Marines and special ops handed Afghanistan back to the Afghans, you have seen Osama how many times?

Exactly.

I always thought that the most damaging thing to the US Osama could do would be to publish a photo of him holding up a recent newspaper, which would thus prove his existence. He wouldn't have to reveal much to do so, he could be photographed against a blank wall, and whichever paper he chooses would be irrelevant so long as it has a date. Instead we have nothing. Just some hard to hear taped recordings of his voice, which mean nothing. I think he's dead, and frankly, that would be fine with me.

This Team Refuses To Die......................

.......

PAPI!!PAPI!!!PAPI!!!!



Unbelievably, the Red Sox Nation lives on another day in the 2004 ALCS as the Idiots beat up the Bronx bombers again, 5-4, in 14 innings. Ortiz was the hero again- his eigth inning homer off of Gordon and his incredibly relentless at bat against Loiza in the 14th which produced a game winning single were the difference makers.

I have no fingernails left. I feel like I ran two marathons. I fell asleep replaying the game in my head, hoping to coast a little further on these victory fumes. Four games in four days, and the Sox have gone from dangling over the edge of elimination to, well, still dangling over the edge of elimination.

I refuse to think about the fact that they have to go to the Bronx and win two in a row to get to the World Series. I am going to run with this for at least a day. There will be no sacreligious Yankee champagne celebrations on the hallowed grounds of Fenway. Put that shit back on ice and take it to the Bronx babee-

RED SOX NATION IS NOT DONE YET.

Update: The Sports Guy checks in from Fenway- The Surreal Life at Fenway...my favorite line-

My last three notes of the game: "13th inning oh my God Varitek and Wakefield" ... "Stand up sit down bad back" ... "Central nervous system shutting down." If they found me dead outside Fenway after the game, they would have looked at this thing and assumed I had died of natural causes.

Ok, this makes me wanna hurl..............

.......

The Saddam Appeasement Society has started a photo log of apologies to the Iraq people for, um, liberating them? No wait, that's not right. We're sorry for ending the slaughter of infants? Nope, that's not it either. How about- for starting your country on the path of Democracy thus further encouraging other Arab countries to remove its bonds of oppression from despotic dictators?

Nope, too wordy. Just what the hell are they saying anyways? I missed the memo.

There is one picture in which the sign says "May Justice and Peace and Compassion Return to Your Country".......apparently someone took their head out of their ass just long enough to write the sign and then hurriedly returned it to its natural resting position. Yeah, Saddam was big on the peace and compassion thingy, just ask the Kurds....

Sean Gleeson took up the task of photoshopping a few of these nutballs, here's one of my favorites....



And by the way, is it me or do all of the folks in these pictures remind you of those foul smelling former hippy "universalists" who ignored Iraqis when they were protesting the war? Well, they don't seemed to have changed much.

Thanks morons.

Update: Ok, look at this one......



This freaking moron is wearing the palestinian flag with the Keffiyeh, the sign of "suppport" for palestinian suicide bombers. You know, the ones that gun down babies and pregnant women.

Peace in our lands, except kill the Jews first, or something like that........(shaking head).......

UPDATE II:

Photoshop winner, hands down......via Tim Blair

Jeebus am I tired..........................

......

A 19-8 embarrassment on Saturday, Soxaholix lays it out the best-

It's one thing to have the Yankees as your "Daddy." It's quite another to have them play the role of serial pedophile who keeps you tied up in some dingy basement turned torture chamber and rapes you violently 7 or 8 times a day for a week before killing you, dismembering you and then freezing your arms and legs and brain to feast on throughout the wintah.

Ya know, stuff like that. Yankees up three-zero in the series and the outlook was bleak. The ulcers in my stomach were giving themselves ulcers it was so depressing. We scored eight runs in that game, more than we had all series, and still lost by 11. All Sunday during football I had to put up with the "well Bob, this football team still hasn't put up as many points on the board as the Yankees did last night"....ho ho. Funny guys, those football announcers. I wanted to reach through the screen and strangle each and every one of them. Ho ho. hee hee...

So Sunday was spent watching my Titans get spanked AGAIN at home by the "up and coming" Houston Texans 20-10, as the Titans have gone in to Jekyl and Hyde mode this season. The team that played yesterday looked like the Junior Varsity team from high school in comparison to the one that went to Green Bay last week. McNair was picked off four times, and the offense never really got going. The defense played ok, but never came up with the big play when they needed it. And once again, we have a hungry young team to deal with next week in Minnesota. Bleh. This team is not scaring anybody right now, even with Steve McNair..

After that beating, I figured that a depressing Red Sox swan song would be the natural progression for this weekend. By 10:00 central time (freaking 10:00? and the game started at 6:45?), and the Red Sox down two runs in the fourth inning, one would have been wise to go to sleep and rest up for work today. But we in the Red Sox Nation never got this far by being wise. Remember? Idiot UP? So instead I proceeded to lose not one but two friends as the game wore on to sheer exhaustion. At one point I was watching at my best friends house and both him and another friend were snoring so loud I had to go back out to the bar to watch the rest of the game. Once I settled at ye'olde local sports tavern and found some members of Red Sox Nation, I began to get that feeling that this team WOULD NOT DIE TONIGHT. Even when the Yankees had a one run lead and brought in the finest closer in postseason history in Mariano, I still thought we were in it. Sure enough, Bill Mueller came through against Rivera AGAIN, as he has done before by hitting a two out single to tie the game. To finally and mercifully end the game, Big Papi Ortiz came in to hit a 2 run blast that kept the hopes alive for Red Sox Nation for yet another day. 11 pitchers and 426 pitches. And these guys finished the game at 1:30 Eastern Time. They have to play again today 16 hours after this game.

I only watched it on television and I'm exhausted. As I told many a stunned onlooker last night, it's never easy being a Red Sox fan...

Thanks Kerry- No really, thanks........................

(via Politicalities)

asshole..........

Second Presidential Debate
KERRY: Boy, to listen to that -- the president, I don't think, is living in a world of reality with respect to the environment. Now, if you're a Red Sox fan, that's OK. But if you're a president, it's not.

Ho ho! You funnyman you! Are you trying to piss off Red Sox Nation on purpose? What is your freaking problem?

Remarks at Taylor, MI
"We’ve been waiting since 1918 for the Boston Red Sox to win the World Series, and . . . if I had a choice between the White House and the World Series this year, I’m going to take the White House. How's that?"

I realize the chances of Massachusetts going to Bush this year are about as likely as well, the Red Sox winning the World Series, but christ John, could you maybe shut the hell up about it? Do you have to piss in the punch bowl of Red Sox Nation? This guy just baffles me.

Fridays And Victor David Hanson.......Like Chocolate and Peanut Butter............

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As usual, VDH spells it out for us again.....I repeat, this man should be in an office somewhere in Washington....preferably the White House...

The Therapeutic Choice
A war for our lives, or a nuisance to our lifestyle?

To all you of the therapeutic mindset, listen up. We can no more reason with the Islamic fascists than we could sympathize with the Nazis' demands over supposedly exploited Germans in Czechoslovakia or the problem of Tojo's Japan's not getting its timely scrap-metal shipments from Roosevelt's America. Their pouts and gripes are not intended to be adjudicated as much as to weaken the resolve of many in the United States who find the entire "war against terror" too big, or the wrong kind, of a nuisance.

Instead, read the fatwas. You hear not just of America's injustice in Palestine or Chechnya — not to mention nothing about saving Kuwait, Bosnia, Kosovo or Afghanistan of the 1980s — but also of what we did in Spain in the 15th century and in Tyre, Gaza, and Jerusalem in the 12th. The mystery of September 11, 2001, is not that it happened, but that it did not quite happen when first tried in 1993 during Bill Clinton's madcap efforts to move a smiling Arafat into the Lincoln Bedroom and keep our hands off bin Laden. Only an American with a JD or PhD would cling to the idea that there was not a connection between Group A Middle Eastern terrorists who attacked the WTC in 1993 and Group B who finished the job in 2001.

Read.The.Whole.Damn.Thing.

The Sports Guy Drunk Blogged Game 2.........

..................

And of course ulcer management is never without its humor.

A couple of excerpts from Daddy's Deja Vu in Game 2

10:25 -- After Pedro gets out of the sixth without further damage, we see him shaking hands with everyone in the dugout, apparently done for the night. Just to make sure Francona doesn't pull a Grady, Ortiz and Manny remove Pedro's clothes, stick a red ball in his mouth and duct tape him to the dugout water fountain.

He even reaches in to the Sportsguy mailbag, and pulls out this gem-

10:43 -- Timlin and Embree combine to get through the seventh. I have to admit, I just spent the last 15 minutes surfing the internet and checking the latest e-mails in my Sports Guy account, which has like 45,000 e-mails right now. Here's a good one from Stephen F. in Boston:

"Let me get this straight, Jack Nicholson is a Laker fan AND a Yankee fan? Can we just paint a mustache on him and call him Hitler?"

Yes, Stephen, Jack is satan in the flesh. I understand he has been permanently banned from the City of Boston.
My personal favorites-

(By the way, Olerud was released by a 58-win team this summer. Classic Yankees. They could pick up a hooker in Times Square, plug her in at second base and she'd hit .280. It's uncanny.)

Read it and weep Sox fans...

So When The Iraqi's Execute Saddam................

.................

How do you think they should kill him?

Hang him high, ole west style? Bullet to the head? Decapitate him with one of Zarqawi's rusty knives? Electrocution? Slow Chinese water torture until he goes insane and has a heart attack? Death by a thousand cuts? How about we shoot him, make clones out of his cells, raise the bodies, and then execute each one for every person he killed?

So many options, only one Saddam. So why this rant? This is why.

Babies found in Iraqi mass grave



A US investigator said bodies were bulldozed into the graves

A mass grave being excavated in a north Iraqi village has yielded evidence that Iraqi forces executed women and children under Saddam Hussein.
US-led investigators have located nine trenches in Hatra containing hundreds of bodies believed to be Kurds killed during the repression of the 1980s.

The skeletons of unborn babies and toddlers clutching toys are being unearthed, the investigators said.

This part made me want to fly to Iraq and shoot Saddam myself-

"Mr Kehoe said that work to uncover graves around Iraq, where about 300,000 people are thought to have been killed during Saddam Hussein's regime, was slow as experienced European investigators were not taking part.
The Europeans, he said, were staying away as the evidence might be used eventually to put Saddam Hussein to death."

Might be used as evidence? Are you freaking kidding me?

Hey Europe, sit down and shut the F*** up. The grown ups have work to do....

(might be used? shaking head......)

I Heard There Was A Debate Last Night.................

................

Anyone watch it? I was too busy letting the lovable misfits from Yawkey way rip my freaking heart out again and give me bunches upon bunches of ulcers.

Why do I do this? I have no idea. I am assuming it's in my blood. Even worse, both of my folks grew up in New York City, thus making it even more torturous. Thankfully, Mom has left the dark side since she has lived in Boston so it's a little easier on me.

So, the debates. Who won? Anyone have any comments? One thing everyone at the bar agreed with last night, we can't wait for this thing to be over with. The election that is.

I found out about this quote from Kerry that made me wonder if he is even from this planet-

John Kerry, while speaking in Taylor, Michigan: "We’ve been waiting since 1918 for the Boston Red Sox to win the World Series, and . . . if I had a choice between the White House and the World Series this year, I’m going to take the White House. How's that?"

The senator from Massachusetts has officially lost his freaking mind. Why don't you see if we can give some of those Patriot Super Bowl rings back while you're at it John? Good Times! Guess where you are not welcome this weekend? That's right, Fenway. If they let him near the stadium, I will personally drive up to Boston and kick him out my damn self. I ask again, is anyone even running his campaign?

Egads.

Soxaholic spells it out- We've got those Yankees RIGHT WHERE WE WANT 'EM!!!

In Lieu of Celebratory Bosox Posting I Give You.....

....................

Physical Menaces to Long Term

Sustainability


Mainly Asteroids...well, have fun reading..it's less depressing than being a Red Sox fan, I can tell you that.....


In discussing any menace, journalists, lawyers, and politicians, movie makers, and even scientists who have enrolled themselves in a cause, often take a worst-case approach. They say X could happen if we do Y, and therefore Y should be avoided at all costs. The anti-nukes make up worst cases as do the proponents of extreme laws about potential terrorism. So did the advocates of preventive war against the Soviet Union, and so do some present advocates of preventive war against Islam. A worst case attitude to the possibility of an asteroid hitting the earth would require devoting most of the GDP of the whole world to defenses against it.(ed.mmmhmmm) A worst case policy to a possible pandemic would require that every country quarantine itself, and indeed every state in the US quarantine itself.

Human society is not yet technologically powerful enough, economically rich enough or politically united enough to afford a worst case attitude. On a personal level, no person can afford a worst case attitude to menaces to his own survival.


Idiot up indeed....

Christopher Reeve...RIP......Long Live Superman!!!!!

.........

Yes, as many of you may know, Christopher Reeve has left his earthen vessel. The actor who became famous for playing Superman in the aptly titled movie "Superman", passed away from bedsore complications. As you also may know, Mr Reeve had been paralyzed from the neck down due to a horse riding accident. He continued to be a tireless proponent of research in to spinal injuries, and recently had made strides to open up more stem-cell lines for reasearch in this area. Hopefully his suffering will open the doors for a cure, and maybe one day the research he helped to spur will actually find a cure. For broken spines. What? It could happen.

Well, I would love to be tasteful and leave the tribute at that. However, I'm in a pissy mood after last nights spanking by the Yankees, so instead I'm posting a link to an entirely tasteless piece of work by the great Jay Pinkerton, entitled - My Dinner With Superman..

I warn you, if you are easily offended, or possibly related to Christopher Reeve, don't click the link. You will be offended, of that I am sure. The rest of you sick bastards, enjoy....

Those Evil American Troops.....Attack With Chickens!!!! CHICKENS PEOPLE!!! THE HORROR!!!!...........

.............(via Tim Blair)

Yes, those torturous evil soldiers from the United States have taken warfare to the poultry level. They are attacking our enemies........WITH CHICKENS!!!

Pied Pipers of Baghdad? Laughing Kids Follow Trail of Frozen Chickens

Soldiers from the 1-41 Inf. begin their bombing run as stunned Iraqis attempt to shield themselves from the frozen fowl. No target was too innocent as these satanic soldiers even threw the frozen missiles at WOMEN AND CHILDREN!!!!

Won't someone PLEASE think of the CHILDREN!!!

Oh Yeah...And Another Thing.........

................

MCNAAAAAAGHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Titans rout Packers 48-27, all is well in Titansland....

Chris Brown reminds everyone who's the best back in the league so far this year...again.....




Like a blur he ran for 100 yards in the first half, 148 yards and two touchdowns overall...

So...


In Review......

Titans win.

Red Sox line up the kill.

Women vote in Afghanistan..

The Saudi's are nervous because the women want to vote.....

And we all know that the Iranian regime should be eliminated, once again giving woman the right to vote..right?

Waiter?

Check please...........

CNSNews.com Publishes Iraqi Intelligence Docs........

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Recently I posted an article from CNSnews.com that demonstrated the undeniable facts that Saddam Hussein and his government was actively involved with International Islamic Terrorist groups. And when I mean "actively involved" I mean stuff like this-

(Sabah Khodada was a captain in the Iraqi army from 1982 to 1992. He worked at what he describes as a highly secret terrorist training camp at Salman Pak, an area south of Baghdad.)

What kind of training went on, and who was being trained?

Training is majorly on terrorism. They would be trained on assassinations, kidnapping, hijacking of airplanes, hijacking of buses, public buses, hijacking of trains and all other kinds of operations related to terrorism.

The people being trained were Iraqis in one group, and non-Iraqis, or foreign nationals, in another?

Non-Iraqis were trained separately from us. There were strict orders not to meet with them and not to talk to them. And even when they conduct their training, their training has to occur at times different from the times when we conduct the Iraqis our own training.

So you were training Iraqis, Saddam's fedayeen, members of the militia in Iraq. And someone else, other groups, were training the non-Iraqis?

They were special trainers or teachers from the Iraqi intelligence and al-Mukhabarat. And those same trainers or teachers will train the fedayeen, the Iraqi fedayeen, and also the same group of those teachers will train the non-Iraqis, foreigners who are in the camp. Personally, my profession is not this kind of training. My profession is to train people on infantry, typical infantry training, such as training on machine guns, pistols, hand grenades, rocket launchers on the shoulder and this kind of training. The special training that I'm talking about, such as the kidnapping and so, is conducted by those trainers who are not from the army; they are from ... al-Mukhabarat.And there was a person who is very famous. They call him Al-Shaba. [ph]. This is Arabic word means "The Ghost," who was responsible for all the training, and those trainers or the teachers.


Of course, did we see these reports on the front page of the newspapers this weekend? Did the major newsmedia lead broadcasts with a story that shows that Saddam was actively involved with these scumbags? Did they even try and report anything on it at all?

Well of course not. That would mean that Bush was right to get rid of Saddam, and that would help Bush get re-elected, so we can't have that now can we?

Well, CNSnews.com realized that no one would believe them in regards to the documents, so they did what a reliable media operation should do- publish the documents themselves. So if anyone has any questions about the documents and their veracity, you can see for yourself here...

And of course I'm sure this will be lead story on all of the news shows tonight right?

Right? Oh come on. They can't be that biased can they?

For those who wonder about the Curse and whether or not IDIOT UP!! is a good slogan.......

..........

I give you the immortal Terry Francona-

"I'm not a math major, but I don't think any of them were around [in 1918]," manager Terry Francona said of his players. "There's a lot of interest in everything the Red Sox do around here. They know that. But sometimes I'm not even sure they know how many outs there are in the inning, so I'm not too sure this other stuff is going to be a real factor."

Egads.....Here we go folks- IDIOT UP!!!!

Blogroll Updated..........

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Recently updated the Stuff Worth Reading list, with some worthy additions, as well as added a Yankee hating-Defeat the Evil Empire-October Suicide watch list for us Bosox fans out there.....enjoy.....

IDIOT UP!!!

My Mom hates this slogan, but she can get her own blog........

.........

until then it's time to-

IDIOT UP!!!!

Yes sportsfans, it is time to begin the final battle against the Evil empire. And this time, IT'S PERSONAL....



Skillzy has a good list of the various allies in our war with the Empire, my personal favorite is Soxaholix, who have already begun the battle with the Empire. How crafty are the idiots this year? This crafty-

BOSTON -- Once the champagne ran out Friday night, most of it sprayed or dumped, the Red Sox showed again how resourceful they could be. The players went through the beer as their primary weapon of mayhem, and then they began dumping ice water.

But the ice ran out, so the players then started hurling tubs of water at each other, Pedro Martinez and Manny Ramirez retreating to the trainer's room time and again for more ammunition. Some were ready, like Trot Nixon and Alan Embree, who prepared for the onslaught by donning swim goggles.

It's hard to imagine what the Red Sox would do if they won the World Series.

I can't imagine what will happen to my hometown if we do win, I dunno- maybe NOT BE DEPRESSED AS HELL IN OCTOBER FOR A CHANGE????? That would be nice.

Sean McAdam lists five reasons the Sox are better than the Spankees this year...I like them all..

Personally, I see this going seven, and I think Curt Schilling will be the difference this year, as he is a bona-fide playoff Yankee killer. No, he didn't beat the Yanks with Gay-rod or Scheffield, but it doesn't matter. Pedro has his 95 plus stuff back, and Arroyo is pitching like a master. Combine that with our ridiculous bats, improved defense and a clubhouse that acts like they are all in third grade, and you have the best Red Sox team I can remember. Better than the Rice-Remy-Dewey-Yaz years, better than the 86 team.

I'll say it again sportsfans, this is our best shot in almost a century.

Bring it Yankee bitches...

The Titans have a make or break game on tonight.

In Green Bay. On Monday Night. Against a cornered wounded animal in Brett Favrrerrerr...never a good prescription for digging out of a hole. But if we want to keep talking playoffs for this team and not start talking draft picks for next year, they better get it done tonight.

Go Get 'em Steve.....

First Politics, then Red Sox.......and Titans...........

...........

Is it just me or does anyone else get the feeling that the democrats and their supporters (MoveON.org, InternationalANSWER.org) are dangerously encouraging our failure in Iraq and Afghanistan because it will help Bush lose the election?

Does anyone else think this is abominable? Actively encouraging our troops to defy direct orders, trying to scare people about the non-existent draft, encouraging attacks against US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, trying to negate the results of the latest Afghani elections? All of this so that they can get Bush knocked down?

Well morons, it's backfiring, BIG TIME.

Afghanistan had its first elections in years. The first person to vote in it was a 19 year old refugee woman. Tell me the chances of that happening while the Taliban were still in charge. Yeah, that's what I thought.

Australia re-elects John Howard, choosing to ignore the Australian liberal media and choosing a leader who will remain commited to fighting Islamic terrorism. Tim Blair has some roundups of Aussies reactions, as well as good buddy Mike Jericho. No problems mate, we trusted you guys to pull it out. As the Allahpundit says, tough day for the Mujihadeen.

Ali at Iraq the Model notes that Al-Sistani has decreed that they better damn well hold the elections in Iraq on time. This is probably due to the fact that the Shiites would be foolish to lose an oppurtunity to regain political control of the country, being the largest majority in the region. Successful elections in Iraq and Afhganistan spell trouble for the mujihadeen, and they know it. Expect the last gasp to be one serious bang folks. I am assuming that these guys will go down swinging.

Oh, and here's a roundup of some good news from Iraq (shock!-Horror!)...

I haven't read the transcript from the debate, and I didn't see it because I was at dinner with a strikingly beautiful, intelligent woman on Friday (I know, I couldn't believe it either). I'll get to it when I get the chance. Next post will be sports related.

Idiot up!

Mark Steyn.....The UN Should Be Destroyed...............

.......

I'm on somewhat of a roll today, tons of goodies floating around the web.

Mark Steyn makes the case that in light of the more recent devolopments in the UN's "Oil For Starving-Innocent-Iraqis-by-Supplying France-Russia-and-China-with-cheap-oil-while-lining-the-pockets-of-corrupt-UN-Officials" scandal , the UN no longer has any relevance in the world for anything other than appeasing dictators and making France feel important.

Things like this for example-
"In the late '90s, we understood that lots of shenanigans were going on . . . under-the-table payments and so on, to curry favor and win support for eroding sanctions," said Robert Einhorn, a former assistant secretary of state. "We made various efforts to limit the scope of this," he added. But the report said that U.S. officials were blocked by Russia, China and France in 2000 and 2001 when they tried to clamp down on oil sales outside the oil-for-food program."

THE U.N. NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED

Some excerpts...

The scale of the UN Oil-for-Fraud programme is way beyond any of the corporate scandals that so excite the progressive mind. Oil-for-Food was designed to let the Iraqi government sell a limited amount of oil in return for food and other necessities for its people. Between 1996 and 2003, Saddam did more than $100 billion of business, all of it approved by Kofi Annan's Secretariat.

In return, by their own official figures, $15 billion of food and health supplies was sent to Iraq. What proportion of this reached the sick and malnourished Iraqi children is anybody's guess. Coalition troops discovered stockpiles of UN food far from starving moppets. But let us assume there is an innocent explanation. Even so, by the UN's own account, Oil-for-Food seemed to involve an awful lot of oil for not much food.

Where did all the other billions go? According to Kofi Annan himself, some $31 billion went on other "humanitarian" spending for Iraq. Such as? Well, in 2002, the Secretary-General expanded the programme to cover other "humanitarian" categories such as "sport", "information", "justice" and "labour and social affairs".

In Iraq, "sport" meant Uday's rape rooms, and "justice" meant a mass grave out in the desert, but that's not to say there weren't attendant expenses involved. So Kofi himself directly approved such "humanitarian" items as $20 million for an "Olympic sport city" (state-of-the-art rape rooms) and $50 million for Iraq's Ministry of Information (Comical Ali's office).

As the US Defence Contract Management Agency's report put it after the liberation, "Some items of questionable utility for the Iraqi people (eg, Mercedes-Benz touring sedans) were identified". The Jordanian supplier of school furniture had to be let go on the grounds that he didn't exist.

As they say, read the whole thing.....

Paul Bremer and the Democratic Presidential Campaign/Liberal Media..................

...............

Many of you may have heard that recently Paul Bremer made a statement at a University that there were not enough troops in Iraq. Actually, the quote was more along the lines of there weren't enough troops on the ground when the loting was going on, and this is probably true. No one expected us to completely overrun the entire country in three weeks. And since Turkey denied us a northern passage, we were unable to get the 4th ID in to the Sunni Triangle and pacify places like Fallujah, which have obviously been our biggest problems.

However, this was spun by just about every single media outlet and Democratic operative as "Bush screwed up again, wouldn't send more troops to Iraq when Bremer requested it", etc.etc...

Bremer has been forced to come out and defend his statement, since it was so blatantly taken out of context- (via the Instapundit)


The press has been curiously reluctant to report my constant public support for the president's strategy in Iraq and his policies to fight terrorism. I have been involved in the war on terrorism for two decades, and in my view no world leader has better understood the stakes in this global war than President Bush.

The president was right when he concluded that Saddam Hussein was a menace who needed to be removed from power. He understands that our enemies are not confined to Al Qaeda, and certainly not just to Osama bin Laden, who is probably trapped in his hide-out in Afghanistan. As the bipartisan 9/11 commission reported, there were contacts between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's regime going back a decade. We will win the war against global terror only by staying on the offensive and confronting terrorists and state sponsors of terror - wherever they are. Right now, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Qaeda ally, is a dangerous threat. He is in Iraq.

President Bush has said that Iraq is the central front in the war on terror. He is right. Mr. Zarqawi's stated goal is to kill Americans, set off a sectarian war in Iraq and defeat democracy there. He is our enemy.

Our victory also depends on devoting the resources necessary to win this war. So last year, President Bush asked the American people to make available $87 billion for military and reconstruction operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. . . .

Mr. Kerry is free to quote my comments about Iraq. But for the sake of honesty he should also point out that I have repeatedly said, including in all my speeches in recent weeks, that President Bush made a correct and courageous decision to liberate Iraq from Saddam Hussein's brutality, and that the president is correct to see the war in Iraq as a central front in the war on terrorism.

This Guy Should Be In Government.........Specifically Foreign Policy........

............

Victor Davis Hanson once again hits the nail on the head in regards to Iraq. I wonder continually why he isn't more involved with our administration, as I rarely hear the rational analysis that he brings from any of the current administration. I understand that it's one thing to offer your opinion, and an entirely different thing to actually have to implement your policies, but it seems that Hanson has the ability to look at things from a much larger historical perspective. I wish that someone would give this man a job in the current administration. I can only imagine he is consulted already.

Anyway, here is your Friday VDH....some excerpts-

For decades, a corrupt Arab League — now unconcerned that Arab Muslims have murdered 50,000 black Africans but never losing a chance to damn Israelis for killing 30 Palestinian militants — whined that neocolonialism, Cold War realpolitik, oil, and imperialism precluded Western support for democratic reform.

Well now, Arab League, here you have your long-sought-after dream: The United States spent its own blood to take out a fascist, committed billions in aid to jump start democracy, and lobbied the world to forgive Iraqi debt — only to find either silence from the region's dictators or their active help for the beheaders and car bombers seeking to inaugurate an 8th-century fascist caliphate. The point? The Iraqi people and the Arab Middle East will soon have to go on record either accepting or rejecting the chance for democracy. If they choose theocracy, anarchy, or autocracy, well, the United States can say at least it tried to offer them a way out of their self-induced misery — but the region turned out to prefer the Dark Ages after all and must be left alone to suffer the consequences of that decision.

If an aggregate $50 billion in aid to Egypt; billions more to the Palestinians and Jordanians; the removal of the bloodthirsty Saddam Hussein and the Taliban; $87 billion invested in Iraq and an attempt to relieve its international debt; saving the Kuwaitis; protecting the Saudis; stopping the genocide of Muslims in the Balkans; and keeping the Persian Gulf safe gets us sky-high cartel oil prices and poll data showing that 95 percent of the Middle East does not like America, it is time to try something else.

Ok, It's Official Now..................

.........

Cowboy Up! is dead.......long live Cowboy up!

According to Johnny Damon, we Bosox fans now have a new rally cry this year.

(besides of course- )

This year the Rally cry is-

We're Idiots!!!!

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Johnny Damon officially laid ``Cowboy Up'' to rest as the Red Sox' identifying slogan prior to the start of their American League Division Series yesterday at Angel Stadium.

With cowboys about as plentiful in New England as surfers are in Nebraska, the Red Sox center fielder said there was a more appropriate way to capture the team's carefree attitude and individuality.

Idiots.

``We are not the cowboys anymore,'' Damon said. ``We are just the idiots . . . We like to have fun and I think that's why this team is liked by so many people out there. We've got the long hair, we've got the corn rows, we've got guys acting like idiots, and I think the fans out there like it.''


Actually, this is quite a better description of this team this year. A loveable bunch of misfits, who seem to think that they are playing little league at about halfway through the season. It also aptly descibes the fan base, as anyone stupid enough to follow the Red Sox during October deserves it.

So be it.

Rally on Red Sox Nation-

We're Idiots!!!

Let Me Make Myself Perfectly Clear..............

.......(via LGF)

Are you freaking kidding me?

Outside Observers to Monitor Elections

By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The United States, accustomed to giving advice on democracy, is in the unfamiliar position of getting some from international election observers schooled in Tajikistan, Ethiopia and other emerging democracies.

Ethiopia? Tajikistan?

What the hell is going on? Wait- I think I have the answer-

Former President Carter, for one, has said some U.S. voting systems don't meet international standards "even as many other nations are conducting elections that are internationally certified to be transparent, honest and fair."

That explains it. Jimmah Caahter, bastion of voting fairness himself, so freaking blind he couldn't find voting fraud in a recall vote for Chavez when over half of the country wanted to throw him out, now decides to circumvent our nations constitution by giving his blessing to international observers. Unbelievable.

Look folks, it's not that I have a problem with people observing our election procedures, and making sure that they are fair. But this needs to be done by AMERICANS. We DO NOT- I repeat- DO NOT NEED ETHIOPIA'S HELP. We are perfectly capable of maintaining our own standards of fairness and accuracy. And since the world has already stated they want Kerry elected, they need to stay out of our elections. They are not trying to get involved because of a non-partisan interest, they want to see Kerry get elected. This is unacceptable.

The reason the congress and our politicians have rejected the request to join the International Criminal Court is based on our constitution- Article III of the U.S. Constitution stipulates in Section 1 that "The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish". That means no foreign court or institution shall take legal precendent over our Supreme Court and US Law thereof.

I am not saying that allowing foreigners to observe our election will automatically violate this precedent, but what happens if they say it is unfair? Are we to then take the election before the UN and have it independently verified?

In short, what the hell does Jimmy think he's doing?

The Red Sox Nation Exhales Slowly...............

..................

Pedro is back as the Bosox win 8-3 to go up 2-0 in their five game series against the Anaheim Angels. The bullpen pitched a beautiful game as they took over for Pedro in the eighth and the trio of Timlin, Myers and Foulke pitched two shutout innings, retiring 6 of 7. The bats have continued to roar as well, as Boston put up 17 runs in two games in Anaheim including last nights four run ninth inning, effectively ending the game.

The Red Sox Nation can breathe a little easier.

For now.

The Yankees won last night too. And all true Red Sox fans know that the path to glory is always beset by evil, so it comes as no surprise to anyone that we will have to play the Yankees to get there. Wouldn't have it any other way.

But damn did Pedro look good last night. He keeps pitching like that, and the bats keep hitting like that, and this is gonna be one fun October....

VIce Presidential Debate Review...............

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Or, other wise known as Darth Vader vs. Snuggles The Fabric Softener Bear....

Here's what it sounded like to me, as I heard only a little on the radio......

Moderator: Mr. Vader, what do you propose to do about Israel?

:

"We will crush the terrorists anywhere they live, and we will do it in a calm, rational, and terrifying manner. Terrorists in Israel are the same as Iraq or Tatooine. They all shall die."

Mderator: Mr. Snuggles, you have 30 seconds....

:

"This guy is scawy, huh? Me and John wanna just hug you all, and give you kisses. And kill the terrorists because they are big meanies...but we'll do it without making everyone hate us so much, because we can be sensitive when killing these terrorists, just like the feel of freshly dried sheets against your bare bottom!"

moderator: Mr Snuggles, Senator Kerry said in a recent interview that he absolutely will not raise taxes on anyone under -- who earns under $200,000 a year. How can he guarantee that and also cut the deficit in half, as he's promised?

:

"Well, John and I believe that people are too rich in this country and they shouldn't be allowed to get so rich. So we want them to give some of their money back, so everyone can have soft, fresh smelling lives!"

moderator: Mr Vader, 30 seconds..

:
In our empire, everyone has a chance to become emperor, whether they choose the dark side or not. If you take money away from the rich, you will only leave everyone poor. The rich are creating jobs for the poor with their money and this has to continue in order to stabilize our economy.

Snuggles...........I...am...your....father....don't fight the dark side.."


...................................

Ok, in all seriousness, Cheney stomped Edwards from the looks of the transcript in terms of foreign policy. And Edwards and Cheney were a draw in terms of domestic policies. Both pretty muc followed their party lines as written, with Edwards promising to tax the rich to help the poor, and Cheney promising to cut taxes for everybody, and let states make their own laws. Typical Democrat vs. Republican argument, and I don't think we found out anything we didn't know about either candidate from this debate.

And So It Begins......................

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October at Fenway.........Red Sox Nation begins it's climbing of the mountain.....

By the way, is there a more attractive ballpark than Fenway? I present my case....



Already the talking heads make their cases......

Jayson Stark says the Red Sox have the best team in the playoffs, and proceeds to predict a Red Sox World Series. He does however, leave the quote at the end of his article from a pro Ball scout- "The Red Sox are the logical pick," said one scout, "except for one thing: They're the Red Sox."

The Sportsguy begins his seasonal ulcer management, and predicts in the ALDS Red Sox in five..

Dan Shaughnessy, veteran staff sports writer for the Boston Globe, agrees with the other pundits as well- this is the year-

"They started planning for this at 12:16 a.m. on Oct. 17, 2003, when Aaron Boone's confetti-drenched homer plopped into the left-field stands in Yankee Stadium. In that moment of finality and despair, Red Sox management made a commitment to take the team to a higher level in 2004."

For those who are loyal patriots in the Red Sox Nation, this is a team that you simply have to believe in. One of the best starters in baseball (a world series winning Yankee killer no less), the most runs scored by any team this year in baseball, and the clubhouse looks more cohesive than ever, including last years cowboy up madness. Getting rid of Nomar turns out to be a masterstroke by the management. Pedro even made the team photo this year...

All signs looking up.

But I've been here before. Actually, a few times. And every time, well, it doesn't always quite work out so well. In fact, it usually works out to be the single most depressing moment of the fall for me.

You would think I would have learned by now.

You would be wrong.

And so it begins.....



Cowboy UP!!!!!!

Toutatis Animation...............

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For those of you who enjoy looking at a white dot moving against a black background, here you go......oh, and uh by the way, that white dot is a three mile wide asteroid moving at 7 miles per second, and it missed the earth at about four times the distance of the earth to the moon.

Sleep well....

Can We Stop Having This Argument NOW?...............

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Folks, Saddam Hussein and Islamic Terrorism were like Guiness and the Irish, they just went well together....and yet even the Democratic nominee wants to ignore this proven fact.

Let's review. Again. For the umpteenth time.

"Iraqi intelligence documents, confiscated by U.S. forces and obtained by CNSNews.com, show numerous efforts by Saddam Hussein's regime to work with some of the world's most notorious terror organizations, including al Qaeda, to target Americans."

Once again, actual physical documents, discovered by US Forces upon liberating Iraq from Hussein's dictatorship, prove that Saddam was actively conspiring with Islamic terrorist forces to attack Americans, allies and their interests.

This is also supported by the numerous other suspicious activities of the Iraqi Intelligence Services, noted in extensive detail here, here, and here..

This is exactly what was presented to the UN by Powell in February of 2003. This was one of the main factors in going to war in Iraq.

And this is evidence that this was the right war, at the right place, at the right time.

Now that we have conclusively proven this connection, can we move on to the other issues now? Bush was right to attack Iraq because they supported Islamic terrorism in very dangerous and active ways, including instruction and training on WMD's.

Do other countries such as Iran do the same thing? Yes, most certainly. But that doesn't diminish the case for Iraq, rather it further supports the case to overthrow the corrupt mullarchy in Iran, and liberate other countries that are threats to our nation. And many of these nations realize this fact, and are trying to get out of the way as fast as possible. Iran is supporting terrorism in Iraq right now precisely because within the next year both Iraq and Afghanistan will have elected governments in place, instead of Islamic theocratic governments. They are losing, and they know it.

Kerry could do more to commend the actions of our military and our allies, and less harping on why the Iraq war was the wrong decision. He only looks more and more foolish by parading these points.

Christ, is anyone even running his campaign anymore?

Iraqi Tribal Leaders Are Turning on the Terrorists...........

......

If you aren't reading the Iraqi blog by Mohammed and Omar called IRAQ THE MODEL, you should be. They have been updating the situation in Iraq in ways that the media can't compete with.

The latest news in concerning the Tribal chiefs in the terrorist controlled areas around Iraq. Many of these tribal chiefs are coming out and stating that they will be joining the coalition troops as well as the new Iraqi security officers in fighting against them, which is most certainly good news. The reality on the ground is that the terrorists in Iraq have miscalculated the effects of targeting innocent Iraqis, and since they are too smart to fight our troops on the field of battle (we would simply crush them), they resorted to palestinian-style shoot-and-run techniques. Hell, some of them are Palestinians anyways, so this is the only way they know how to fight. From the sounds of the Tribal chiefs, this plan is backfiring immensely. It appears that the Fallujah residents very much want to be involved with elections, and realize that unless they get actively involved in removing the terrorists from their city, they won't get a chance to have their say in the new Iraqi Government.

On a related note, Mohammed at Iraq the Model took an informal poll of Iraqis concerning their upcoming elections....

I’ve spoken to a lot of independent Iraqis who represent a majority and I asked them about their standards for the candidate they would prefer and my questions were:
1-Would you like the elections to be held on time? Most of the answers were “yes” except for few who weren’t sure of the benefit of elections but no one suggested postponing the elections.

2-Who’s the candidate you’re going to vote for? What are the standards? The answer was: an honest person with clean history regardless of his race or sect.
3-If two candidates were equal in points and one of them is a member of the SCIRI or Da’wa party and the other one is independent, whom would you chose?
The answer was: “the independent one” without any hesitation.

There is much more to glean from Mohammed and Omar, and I suggest you check out their site for more on-the-ground analysis of the situation in Iraq.....

Football Season Starting to Look Depressing...........

.......

Ugh, what a crappy weekend football wise. UT gets stomped by Auburn, exposing a very weak secondary for the Vols, as well as the inexperience of the two starting freshmen QB's. Next weekend the Vols got to Georgia to play the undefeated Bulldogs, who are better and more experienced than Auburn, UT will make or break their season on this game. They win, and they can still challenge for the SEC title, they lose, and it's play for a decent bowl game, and work on getting some corners for next year.

And for my beloved Titans, here is how we can sum up the dismal performance against the very ordinary San Diego Chargers, who thumped the Titans 38-17 on Sunday.



Keith Bulluck, the Titans all-linebacker had an article in Sundays Tennessean stating that no one is "pressing the panic button" in Titansland quite yet. Well Keith, I'm here to tell you, it's been pressed. The loss at home to Indy hurt, but we were in that game. We NEVER should have loss to Jacksonville, we pretty much handed them that one. But San Diego? The Titans were barely even in this game, as Ladanian Tomlinson exposed our defense multiple ways, which allowed Dru Brees to look like Joe Montana for the day. Billy Volek actually played damn well in place of Steve McNair, so I can't blame that. The bottom line is the Titans have gone from a Super-Bowl contender to a lucky-to-make-the-playoffs team in three weeks. And to make things even more interesting, the next game is a Monday Night game at Green Bay, who also lost this weekend.

From growing up in Boston, I learned to never jump ship on the team you back, and if they go down, you go down with them. I will continue this tradition with the Titans. I have too much respect for the players on this team to simply abandom them because they are playing lousy football right now. You can't say that they are out of it this early in the season, but unless there is a miraculous turn-around next week, we will be lucky to go 8-8 this year....what a bummer....

Debate review...............................

......

Kerry had his chance to show me that he will protect our country more effectively than Bush will.

Here's some of his ideas.

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........

....

..

.

Yep, that's it. Kerry was repeatedly asked what he would do better or differently than Bush to protect America. He said he would do it, but offered nothing in terms of specifics. He basically continued his campaign slogan of "we will do the same things as Bush, only nicer and with more taxes...oh, and the French will like us again too.."

Everything Kerry offered to do is either already being done, or next to impossible to do. For instance, he talked about the 95% of cargo containers coming in to the ports in Florida that aren't inspected, but failed to offer any idea as to how to fix this. And this continued all night. Kerry saying "this is broken, this isn't working, this is a big threat" but offering nothing of substance to show what he would do differently.

The howler moment for me was this one-
(speaking about whether or not the war in Iraq was a mistake)

"When the Secretary General Kofi Annan offered the United Nations, he said, No, no, we'll go do this alone. "

BWHAT???? The UN said no such thing. In fact they said what they usually do- you're on your own guys. I was watching this with my best friend who is certainly no Bush fan, and his analogy was as such- "this is like a mismatched volleyball game, Kerry sets, Bush spikes.."

For example-

"My opponent says we didn't have any allies in this war. What's he say to Tony Blair? What's he say to Alexander Kwasniewski of Poland? You can't expect to build an alliance when you denigrate the contributions of those who are serving side by side with American troops in Iraq.

Plus, he says the cornerstone of his plan to succeed in Iraq is to call upon nations to serve. So what's the message going to be: "Please join us in Iraq. We're a grand diversion. Join us for a war that is the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time?"

I know how these people think. I deal with them all the time. I sit down with the world leaders frequently and talk to them on the phone frequently. They're not going to follow somebody who says, "This is the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time.""

Kerry also kept contradicting himself.

For instance-

LEHRER: Speaking of your plan, new question, Senator Kerry. Two minutes.

Can you give us specifics, in terms of a scenario, time lines, et cetera, for ending major U.S. military involvement in Iraq?

KERRY: The time line that I've set out -- and again, I want to correct the president, because he's misled again this evening on what I've said. I didn't say I would bring troops out in six months. I said, if we do the things that I've set out and we are successful, we could begin to draw the troops down in six months."

Huh? So you said you wouldn't bring troops out in six months. And then in the very next sentence you said you would bring troops out in six months.

I mean, wow. How about this one?

LEHRER: I want to make sure -- yes, sir -- but in this one minute, I want to make sure that we understand -- the people watching understand the differences between the two of you on this.

You want to continue the multinational talks, correct?

BUSH: Right.

LEHRER: And you're willing to do it...

KERRY: Both. I want bilateral talks which put all of the issues, from the armistice of 1952, the economic issues, the human rights issues, the artillery disposal issues, the DMZ issues and the nuclear issues on the table.

He wants both? ........(shaking head).......Oh and uh, by the way Senator, Treblinka was a Nazi concentration camp, not the vault of the KGB. Since you know, you went there and stuff, you probably should know the name of it...

I do have to say, this was an excellent format for a debate on foreign policy, and Jim Lehrer did an outstanding job in moderating. The questions were provacative and insightful, and Lehrer kept the pace tight and answers on point. Neither candidate was ugly, and both showed more class than they have so far throughout the campaign.

After watching that debate, barring some catastrophic failure on Bush's part, I cannot see how anyone thinks Kerry would be more effective at protecting the American people. Bush officially got my vote last night.

Update: Of course the blogosphere is abuzz with life over the debates this morning, as one would expect from the nation of pajama-wearing-anklebiters. Instapundit probably has the best round ups, although Allahpundit does have quite the list too...I think the best one I read was from Astuteblogger, with this post-
At least 10 (ten) times, on 10 (ten) DIFFERENT subjects, KERRY GAVE IRREFUTABLY HORRIFIC ANSWERS-