Bill Simmons: World Cup's 20 questions

Question No. 1: What's been the single best thing about the Cup so far?

I love the Cup because it stripped away all the things about professional sports that I've come to despise. No sideline reporters. No JumboTron. No TV timeouts. No onslaught of replays after every half-decent play. No gimmicky team names like the "Heat" or the "Thunder." (You know what the announcers call Germany? The Germans. I love this.) No announcers breathlessly overhyping everything or saying crazy things to get noticed. We don't have to watch 82 mostly half-assed games to get to the playoffs. We don't have 10 graphics on the screen at all times. We don't have to sit there for four hours waiting for a winner because pitchers are taking 25 seconds to deliver a baseball.

The World Cup just bangs it out: Two cool national anthems, two 45-minute halves, a few minutes of extra time and usually we're done. Everything flies by. Everything means something. It's the single best sporting event we have by these four measures: efficiency, significance, historical context and truly meaningful/memorable/exciting moments. You know … as long as you like soccer.

via sports.espn.go.com

Pretty good breakdown of the 4th grade sport the rest of the world loves.

Posted via email from liberalsarecool.com

Al Franken Demolishes GOP’s Anti-Thurgood Marshall Campaign

via brooklynmutt.com

Comedy and comedians are better at "the news" than the news.

Posted via email from liberalsarecool.com

GOP Outrage Recap

Just to recap

by DarkSyde

Wed Jun 30, 2010 at 07:32:03 AM PDT

Let me see if I have this straight: in the last few days members of the GOP have savagely screwed the unemployed, protected the bankstas, trashed Thurgood Marshall, implied rape and incest is part of God's plan, defended BP, threatened to either end social security or screw over 20 million plus people who have paid into the system for at least 20 years by making them wait until age 70 to see their benefits, and screwed homeless veterans with children. That about it, or is there more?

via dailykos.com

Is any part of this shocking? It's their playbook. Screw the masses, "conserve" what they have inherited and gained through old boy networks.

Posted via email from liberalsarecool.com

Glenn Greenwald v Jeffrey Goldberg

"I’m not interested in an overly personalized exchange with Goldberg, but there is one aspect of his response worth highlighting: the universality of the war propaganda he proffers. Those who perpetrate wars of aggression invariably invent moral justifications to allow themselves and the citizens of the aggressor state to feel good and noble about themselves. Hence, even an unprovoked attack which literally destroys a country and ruins the lives of millions of innocent people — as the U.S. invasion of Iraq did — is scripted as a morality play with the invaders cast in the role of magnanimous heroes." - Glenn Greenwald

via ryking.tumblr.com

Watch "War Made Easy" and see how every President uses almost the same phrases to build public support for wars. This notion that aggression is part of human culture and wars will always be around is BS. Without a central government hyping the false needs and bogus "mushroom clouds", almost everybody does not want to go to war and wants to be left alone to eat, sleep and be merry.

Posted via email from liberalsarecool.com

One Ant Equals Eight Million Jobs and $17 Trillion In Savings

"Most of our friends in the other party are planning on voting against this reform. In fact, just yesterday, I was stunned to hear the leader of the Republicans in the House say that financial reform was like using a nuclear weapon to target an ant. That's right. He compared the financial crisis to an ant. The same financial crisis that led to the loss of nearly eight million jobs. The same crisis that cost people their homes and their lives savings.

Well if the Republican leader is that out of touch with the struggles facing the American people, he should come here to Racine and ask people if they think the financial crisis was an ant. He should ask the men and women who've been out of work for months at a time. He should ask the Americans who send me letters every night that talk about how they're barely hanging on.

These Americans don't believe the financial crisis was an ant. They know that it's what led to the worst recession since the Great Depression. And they expect their leaders in Washington to do whatever it takes to make sure a crisis like this never happens again. The Republican leader might want to maintain a status quo on Wall Street. But we want to move America forward." - President Obama

via voices.washingtonpost.com

Boehner likens the troubled economy to an ant. He thinks the retirement age should be raised to 70. He feels we are at a revolutionary time not seen since 1776 [which trumps our Civil War?] yet doesn't feel the GOP will gain seats to get back the majority.

Out of touch. The Republican leadership is out to lunch without a care in the world.

Posted via email from liberalsarecool.com

The 24 Types Of Libertarian

via ryking.tumblr.com

It's the "white flight" option from Republicanism.

Posted via email from liberalsarecool.com

Oil Rain In Louisiana?

via realitychex.com

"It's raining oil right here in River Ridge"

Posted via email from liberalsarecool.com

How Mariano Rivera Dominates Hitters

via nytimes.com

Very informative video on how the greatest closer in baseball dominates batters with his signature cutter. Former teammante, catcher John Flaherty, offers insights.

Posted via email from liberalsarecool.com

Rand Paul Won't Answer How Old The Earth Is

Is Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul a creationist?

Last week, Paul spoke at a conference for the Christian Home Educators of Kentucky at a Louisville church where he dodged a question about the age of the earth and expressed skepticism about faith-based programs.

The first question during the Q&A was from a man who asked a two-part question, including how old Paul believed the world was.

"I forgot to say I was only taking easy questions," Paul joked, adding: "I'm going to pass on the age of the Earth. I'm just going to have to pass."

Andrew Willis of Elizabethtown, who teaches his four children at home, said he hoped Paul's answer would jive with his own belief that the earth is about 6,000 years old.

"I'm not at all surprised that he didn't want to answer that question," Willis said shortly after posing it. "I know that is hugely controversial."

via huffingtonpost.com

Hugely controversial?

Rand Paul, a doctor, believes the Earth is older than 6,000 years but the conservative base in KY has him screwed for having intelligence. He has to pander to the ignorant or he has to dodge a question from an audience member. So sad.

The Earth is upwards of 4.5 billion years old and Rand how to tip-toe the coded Evangelical "anti-science, conflicting Biblical allegories are real" line to get elected. Even more sad.

Posted via email from liberalsarecool.com

Clarence Thomas: He's the Chief Activist Judge!

 

Clarence Thomas: He's the Chief Activist Judge!

by Choire posted @12:20 PM

Supreme Court nerds should give this lengthy SCOTUSblog run-down on the term a serious read. Most notable to me: "Although some cases are decided five to four, that’s no more than twenty percent of the docket this Term (we’re running the final numbers now). Roughly half the decisions are nine to zero. Only slightly more than one in ten cases involved the narrow liberal-conservative divide (fewer, if we don’t include cases in which we presume Justice Sotomayor would have voted with the left had she not been recused)… Among all the Justices, it is in fact Scalia and Thomas—frequently heralded by conservatives as ideal members of the Court—who hesitate the least in invalidating legislation or (with respect to Thomas) calling for the overruling of prior precedent…. Just as fascinating is Justice Thomas’s openness to reconsidering almost every issue in the law that he views as wrongly decided. This Term, he wrote eight separate opinions suggesting the reconsideration of existing law."

via theawl.com

According to the GOP and Fox News, "Activist" only means overturning legislation passed by a Republican congress. When Thomas and Scalia's crew throw out a few laws to make up their rulings, most importantly the ones that discount States Rights or Rights of individuals, it's all fair play.

That being said, this coded Conservative talking point needs to die.

Posted via email from liberalsarecool.com

White House: John Boehner Way Out Of Touch To Call Financial Crisis An “Ant”

via oliverwillis.com

Thanks for really not caring, House Minority Leader.

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, took aim at Mr. Boehner, who in a newspaper interview this week called the financial legislation nearing final approval an excessive response to the problem. ‘This is killing an ant with a nuclear weapon,’ Mr. Boehner told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Monday.

At his daily briefing, Mr. Gibbs said Mr. Boehner was ‘opening one’s mouth and removing most of the doubt that you’re completely out of touch with America,’ noting that millions of Americans lost their jobs or their savings because of the financial crisis that the legislation is intended to prevent. ‘It demonstrates how out of touch you are currently and it demonstrates exactly the type of mindset that he would bring to leading the House of Representatives,’ he added. 

Good for Gibbs to say what the press won't.

Posted via email from liberalsarecool.com

The Top 5 American Players Who Didn't Make the 2010 Squad, But Who Will be Pivotal in the 2014 World Cup

via brobible.com

5. Gale Agbossoumonde
4. Mike Grella
3. Sacha Kljestan
2. Freddy Adu [Yes! that Freddy Adu]
1. Charlie Davies [pictured]

Posted via email from liberalsarecool.com

Rep. Gohmert Uses Idiocy To Warn Of Terrorist Babies

via youtube.com

“… they [ terrorist cells] would have young women, who became pregnant, would get them into the United States to have a baby.” …where they could be raised and coddled as future terrorists.” - Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)

They have figured out and gamed our system: have a baby here and 20 to 30 years later, destroy "our" way of life.

Gohmert claims they've "figured out how stupid" we are. Priceless.

Posted via email from liberalsarecool.com

Matt Taibbi's "Lara Logan, You Suck" Takedown

"Anyone who wants to know why network television news hasn't mattered since the seventies just needs to check out this appearance by Logan. Here's CBS's chief foreign correspondent saying out loud on TV that when the man running a war that's killing thousands of young men and women every year steps on his own dick in front of a journalist, that journalist is supposed to eat the story so as not to embarrass the flag. And the part that really gets me is Logan bitching about how Hastings was dishonest to use human warmth and charm to build up enough of a rapport with his sources that they felt comfortable running their mouths off in front of him....

If I'm hearing Logan correctly, what Hastings is supposed to have done in that situation is interrupt these drunken assholes and say, "Excuse me, fellas, I know we're all having fun and all, but you're saying things that may not be in your best interest! As a reporter, it is my duty to inform you that you may end up looking like insubordinate douche bags in front of two million Rolling Stone readers if you don't shut your mouths this very instant!" I mean, where did Logan go to journalism school - the Burson-Marsteller agency?"

via huffingtonpost.com

NOTE: Burson-Marsteller is one of the largest public relations agencies in the world.

It's the Sunday morning chat shows mentality: never fact check, always let the guests say whatever they want, be thankful that they are on your show.

When comedy shows deliver the "news", the journalistic depression continues....

Posted via email from liberalsarecool.com

Time To Rethink Afghanistan

via youtube.com

"We're f*#!ing losing this thing." - Staff Sgt. Kenneth Hicks

They call Afghanistan the "graveyard of empires" for a reason.

Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "The U.S. military has systematically overstated or failed to adequately measure the capabilities of Afghan security forces, whose performance is key to the Obama administration's exit strategy for the war, according to a new government audit. Efforts to prepare and equip Afghan forces are also plagued by a shortage of U.S.-led coalition trainers and mentors and a corrupt and inadequate Afghan logistics system."

Posted via email from liberalsarecool.com

US Supreme Court Decides Against Vatican

The US Supreme Court declined Monday to hear an appeal by the Vatican in a landmark case that opens the way for priests in the United States to stand trial for pedophilia.

Allowing a federal appeals court ruling to stand, the decision means Vatican officials including theoretically Pope Benedict XVI could face questioning under oath related to a litany of child sex abuse cases.

The Supreme Court effectively confirmed the decision of an appellate court to lift the Vatican's immunity in the case of an alleged pedophile priest in the northwestern state of Oregon.

via rawstory.com

Robes and crosses are not higher than the law. The Vatican can claim to have immunity, but American Catholic priests who break the law here can't simply fly to the Vatican for protection.

Posted via email from liberalsarecool.com

Soccer: America's Unlove Affair

"Soccer, the sport for fourth graders that foreign people take seriously."

- Stephen Colbert

via brooklynmutt.com

Time management is key to all US sports. How you play the last minute can last 10 minutes. Playing for the tie not an option in our sports. Aside from regular season football, that's our football, we always have a winner. We have breaks for our advertisers, they wear ads on their jerseys. The list goes on.......

Posted via email from liberalsarecool.com