Friday, May 30, 2008
Oops
By VictorM:Here's something you probably thought would only happen in America:
On Wednesday, the Czech Republic displayed Latvia's flag and played the Latvian national anthem before their [soccer game] friendly against...
Lithuania.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Dishonest Argument
By VictorM:For months now, DC United, a Major League Soccer team, has been trying to built a soccer stadium at Poplar Point. There are a lot of pros and cons with that idea, but I won't address that here.
My beef is with columnist Marc Fischer, who rejects the idea on the basis that the city should not contribute money. He then uses a set of numbers to make his point. He dishonesty distorts the likely number of events at the new stadium. He starts by saying that DC United might play 35 games, yet, when he summarizes his argument, he reduces that number to 30. Using this number, he refuses to consider the many other likely events at the location. One of the people commenting on the piece, reminded mister Fischer of those events:
United soccerOverlooking all these events was no oversight. This is a journalist for a major newspaper purposely ignoring information because those facts didn't suit his opinion.
Freedom soccer
Bayhawks lacrosse
Concerts
US National Team matches
International soccer friendlies (clubs and countries. Ever seen how well El Salvador draw here Marc?)
NCAA Final Four/College Cup soccer (mens and womens)
NCAA lacrosse (mens and womens)
High School football (DCIAA Championship? WCAC Championship?)
HBCU college football
X Games
Women's World Cup (when it comes back)
International rugby
And other assorted conferences, competitions, etc.
I don't know if the city contributing to the stadium is a good idea or not, but with journalism like this, how can I form an intelligent opinion?
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Hillary can win it all!
By VictorM:*yawn* yes, Hillary's poll numbers look pretty decent, and according to Gallup, might even indicate that she is right about her argument that she would do better in the general election against John McCain than Barack Obama.
But Hillary supporters shouldn't get too giddy. For one, she's not going to run in the general election; and two, this explanation makes sense to me:
Chuck Todd noted last night that Clinton's polls have gone up likely because Obama is no longer running against her. He noted this is a historical phenomenon: the loser's polls go up because they aren't getting fire from the primary campaign.
Lying us into war
By VictorM:Scott McClellan, former press secretary for George Bush, is coming out with a book, which conservative pundits will decry as meaningless because anything that contradicts their view of the world will be written off as "he's just trying to sell books."
Anyway, there's nothing too surprising about this passage about the selling of the rational for the Iraq war, only that it comes from an insider:
"[Bush] and his advisers confused the propaganda campaign with the high level of candor and honesty so fundamentally needed to build and then sustain public support during a time of war," McClellan writes. "The collapse of the administration’s rationales for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should never have come as such a surprise... In this case, the 'liberal media' didn't live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served."Sure, the media should have done a better job. What about you, Scotty? Were you not a citizen of this country when you were press secretary?
Selling books or not, telling the truth now or not, one thing doesn't change: you're as big a creep as all the neocons you were a spokesperson for. But fear not, your buddies in the media will give you a pass as well.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Football over sex
By VictorM:A comment on this post, calling football (soccer) "90 minutes of pointless running" didn't come as a surprise. Living in America I'm used to that sort of thing. But it made me think about how differently people can view the same thing. Take a look at the findings of a recent study in Europe:
seven out of 10 Spanish football fans prefer watching the match to making love... Football-mad Brits are just not aroused in the same way - 66 per cent of those questioned admitted they had cried over a match... Surprisingly, the... Swedish were the most passionate - 88 per cent said that they had kissed or embraced a stranger during a gameI wonder what it must feel like for our know-it-all commenter to believe he's so right and the whole world so wrong, yet find himself swimming against a wave that is only growing stronger.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Howard Dean: the unfunny comedian
By VictorM:In an email about the John McCain campaign team, Howard Dean has this information to share:
Shocking indeed *rolls eyes*.Last week, John McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, sent a memo to the McCain campaign staff about a brand new "conflicts policy."
This policy was designed to identify staffers with "conflicts" working within McCain's organization after three advisers resigned from the campaign. One was found to be working for an anti-Democrat "527" organization, and the other two -- a regional campaign manager and the convention CEO -- were found to have lobbied for the Myanmar junta in 2003.
Here's the punch line: Rick Davis, author of the memo and the person in charge of finding these "conflicts" within the campaign, founded his own lobbying firm, and, according to the Politico, "has made at least $2.8 million lobbying Congress since 1998."
But it gets worse. Charlie Black is McCain's chief political adviser. Over the past seven years, lobbying filings show he's used his connections with George Bush and Dick Cheney to lobby administration officials for dozens of wealthy clients. The Washington Post reported that "Black said he does a lot of his work by telephone from McCain's Straight Talk Express bus."
John McCain's commitment to keeping Washington lobbyists out of his campaign is a joke -- but it's not funny. It's shocking.
The current Republican party is corrupt to the core. It only takes a few dishonest leaders at the top for the rest of the staff downstream to gravitated towards, attract, and promote shady characters. And that's what's been happening to the Republican party for a couple of decades.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The American Dream, reality TV show style
By VictorM:Once in a while a one in a million opportunity pans out. I'll let the Almighty Bruce tell you all about it:
One of the best stories in all of MLS had some very cheesy beginnings. Before the 2007 season Chivas USA teamed up with Univision's Sunday morning sports show Republica Deportivo to bring us a "reality" show in which young men competed for a place on the Chivas USA roster. Most of us thought it was a pretty heinous idea. A lot of players showed up to try out and after several weeks of eliminations one man, Jorge Flores, was named the winner. His reward was to be a contract with the team etc etc. No one expected anything to come of it. But hold the presses, this kid could play. He impressed the coaches and his teammates everyday in training, and in the end they gave him a real full time contract... [He came into] Saturday nights game against DC as a late sub and helping his team crank up the energy and get a big win. He finished it all off by scoring the final goal in the 3-1 win. Unbelievable story. I could not be happier for Jorge Flores!This is America. Now... who says a black man or a woman can't be president? Only fools!
Monday, May 19, 2008
Sounds like Mission Accomplished
By VictorM:My chief complaint about Democratic politicians is how poorly they use language to frame their opponents. This week we have a perfect example of efficient framing by Hillary Clinton.
John McCain said that he would the Iraq war by 2013. Hillary's reply:
"It sounded a lot like 'Mission Accomplished,' only postponed into 2013... From my perspective, it's just more of the same. It's a continuation of the Bush policies that have been failures."Perfect! Now, all Democratic pundits should just repeat that line ad nauseum.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Your modern Republican party at work
By VictorM:These comments by Gary Hart say nothing new, but it's good to keep this fresh in our minds:
Historians of early 21st century American politics will remark the degree to which radical forces, usually called neoconservatives, perverted language as recommended by the National Socialist Party in 1930s Germany. Continue to demonize liberals, blame them for all social and economic problems, and soon enough no one will be willing to admit to being a liberal. Claim that liberals and Democrats are too soft to combat terrorists and soon enough a majority, even in the oldest democracy on earth, will believe it. Open up entire electronic networks, such as Fox, and chains of radio stations, such as Clear Channel, and buy enough newspaper chains, and make all these media available to pre-programmed neoconservative ditto heads, and sure enough a subculture will emerge which distrusts its own government and believes that an entire political party is not to be trusted.This has all happened before. And where it has happened, authoritarian government emerges.I don't think the rank and file Republicans want what's happening, but there are two factors that have brought them close to success:
1. The Republican leadership is controlled by neocons who have the type of tendencies that has lead other countries to authoritarian regimes.
2. A great number of Republicans will close their eyes to just about anything just to be on the winning side. To them, the ends justify the means.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Goofy sport, eh?
By VictorM:David Beckham and his Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team visited Edmonton mid week to play an exhibition game against a second tier team from Vancouver. Commenting on David Beckham's arrival, Robert Tychkowski, of the Edmonton Sun had this to say:
It's like meeting cricket great Imran Khan Niazi, or catching a brief glimpse of bowling legend Mark Roth, or bumping into one of the top 25 javelin throwers of all time - a rare opportunity to see a once in a generation athlete in a goofy sport.My first reaction, based on the rest of the article, is that Mr. Tychkowski was trying to be funny. But I'm going to give him some credit and refuse to accept that someone can be that bad at comedy.
What I believe is more plausible is that Mr. Tychkowski is the stereotypical Canadian who wants to be like the Americans, and so, to be like the cool kids, he picks on soccer. What he doesn't realize is that that is so 90's. The cool kids, for the most part, have all moved on to either ignoring soccer or accepting the inevitable -- that soccer is here to stay.
The Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League averaged 36, 843 in 2007. David Beckham and his mediocre Galaxy team, in an exhibition game against a team that's not even from Edmonton and plays in the lower division, played in front of 37,104.
Goofy, eh?
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Obama moving on
By VictorM:Josh Marshall has summarized the current state of the Democratic primary in a way that makes sense to me:
Keep running, Hillary, keep running.We seem to have arrived at an equitable compromise: Sen. Clinton is staying in the nomination race while Sen. Obama drops out to move on to the general.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Unassailable
By VictorM:Kvatch and his take on the Democratic primary and calls by Obama supporters for Hillary to leave the race:
Not only does the the Democratic Party need every supporter from both sides of the primary debate, if the two sides come together, we’re unassailable. Do you hear that? Unassailable! So if the Obama supporters would just lay off for a few minutes; give a woman who ran a tenacious campaign her due; and explain to those of us on the fence why, exactly, we should support Congressional dilettante, then maybe we’ll win this election.Clearly, Hillary should not be pushed out of the running, but... the math doesn't lie. It's time for the lady to sing.
As a follow up to a recent post on this matter, I must say that I don't lose any respect for Hillary if she fights on. I was just merely saying the math is against her and I don't see how she can win now. But in any case, a lively convention will probably do the Democrats a world of good. Still... practice, Hillary, practice... Do, Re, Mi...
Sunday, May 11, 2008
A good streak going
By VictorM:Last night the New York Red Bulls visited Los Angeles and defeated the LA Galaxy 2-1, with a winner by the fabulous Juan Pablo Angel.
And today over in England...
Manchester United won 2-0 to become champions of England on the very last day of the championship. As a bonus, Chelsea give up a goal in the last minute of the game to settle for a tie 1-1. Awwww... poor babies. :-p
And Fulham, a team that boasts 5 American players, scored a late goal to save themselves from relegation and stay in the premiership. Awesome stuff. This one really made my day.
The title says it all
By VictorM:Sometimes, less is more, and Glenn Greenwalds's title of a recent post says is all:
Neocons and the truth: Bitter enemies to the endThe rest of the post goes on to detail how neocons continue to push for an attack in Iran and are happy to make up shit to see that it happens before George Bush leaves office.
Terrorists are our enemies but neocons are this nation's biggest danger.
Friday, May 09, 2008
SOP
By VictorM:I saw the following on the front page of the Washington Post and had to laugh. They have it there as if it's big news. Come on, this is standard operating procedure for a leader in the current day Republican party:
PRESCOTT, Ariz. -- Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers].This type of activity just endears the senator to the conservative base of his party. And the rest of the party just thinks he has balls. Party on, like it's K-street days!
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Sing Hillary, sing
By VictorM:You know the saying: " It ain't over till the fat lady sings." Well, Hillary, the time has come to belt out a tune. The math is not in your favor.
I'm not thrilled with Obama's message of hope and "let's all play nice" nonsense, but he has won the Democratic nomination fair and square. Delaying the inevitable just plays into McCain's hands.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
The danger with conservatism
By VictorM:In an article in the Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine, I ran into this sentence:
Liberals love victims and want them to stay helpless, so they can help them, with government programs; while conservatives love those who refuse to be victims, and get up off the canvas and fight.I can understand conservatives thinking that liberal policies continue to leave people helpless as an unintended consequences. I don't agree with that assessment, but I can understand it. But to say that liberals want people to stay helpless, well, that's just sheer nonsense.
That attitude shows that conservatives can't just disagree with others; they must demonize them. As long as conservatives are in power, there will be no peace and no compromise. Their nature won't allow it. Those who disagree with them are traitors, anti-America, terrorists, appeasers, weak, macacas, etc.
This explains why there isn't much difference between George Bush and John McCain on the issues that matter.
Friday, May 02, 2008
Gasoline holiday tax
By VictorM:Both John McCain and Hillary Clinton made similar proposals to suspend the federal gas tax during peak driving months this summer. This holiday tax really is a rotten idea and here's why why:
Economists... say the oil companies may end up the biggest beneficiaries, while the aid to families wouldn't be enough to buy a $35 backpack.
The trouble with the plan, they say, is that oil prices are rising because of low supplies, and companies will continue to charge the average $3.60 a gallon and just pocket the money that would have gone to federal taxes...
Where supplies are fixed -- and oil/gas supplies, for all intents and purposes, are -- it is the demand that determines price. One oil company could cut its gas prices, but it can't sell anymore gas than it already is (because it already sells all the gas it has), so purchasers would have no choice but to get the rest of their gas from someone else. This leaves oil companies with no incentive for lowering prices. If I'm already selling out all my inventory, and I can't make any more, lower prices cannot boost sales or take sales from someone else. All they can do is cut my profits.
Your model posits suppliers bidding against each other to sell gas. But with supplies fixed and limited, in effect what is happening is that buyers bid against each other to purchase gas.
This sounds like a campaigning good idea that would be a failure if implemented. Sorta like George Bush's tax cuts.
