Super Bowl champs Baltimore Ravens at the Denver Broncos tonight at 8:30 EDT. Nice season opening rematch, the Ravens knocked on the Broncos in a wild double overtime game (a euphemism for a Denver choke job).

Incidentally there's a 5'5" return speedster for the Broncos - former LSU track star Trindon Holliday who set a couple records in that playoff game last year, for yardage and two returns for TDs, a kickoff (104 yards) and a punt (90 yards). But his effort was pretty much eclipsed by Denver's *cough*Manning's*cough* flameout and the loss.

Still, he's back so probably worth waiting to hit the fridge when the Ravens kick to see what he does first. (He fumbled a lot last year too).

Also don't forget your picks, pickers. It's on.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 04:20 PM | Comments (363)
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"Dominant."

Like one of those romance novel heroes who love-rapes the heroine/reporter.

Let's call him "masterful" and "rough-handed" while we're at it. Maybe throw in a "proud and impudent bulge."

There was no outright hostility, but the chill between the two world leaders — at loggerheads over NSA leaker Edward Snowden and a strike against Syria — was evident in clenched-jaw smiles and lack of eye-contact and touching, the experts said.

She blushed girlishly at his engorgement.

Oh wait that wasn't in the original text.

"There's no real warmth," said Erik Bucy, a professor at Texas Tech University who researches non-verbal communication.

"It looks like Putin's basically a hotel greeter at a five-star establishment and Obama is coming out of the limo as the important invited guest he's not particularly thrilled to see."

Body language "experts" are one step down from Counselor Deana Troi on Star Trek. When there's a planet being torn apart by twin suns' massive tidal forces, Deana Troi's there to tell you "I detect fear... anxiety... gravity."

Really, Merlin? That's just wonderful. I couldn't have picked that up from watching the planet imploding on the Giant Space TV.

Okay today's a blow-off day I guess.

No I'll link a real piece next.

More: Laurie David's Cervix quotes more:

From a jacket-buttoning pause to a hard-pumping handshake, Obama displayed tell-tale signs of dominance after he alit from a limo in front of St. Petersburg's Konstantin Palace....

A thin smile widened his cruel lips....

More:

"This is a show of power," Tonya Reiman said. "He leans in toward Putin with his upper body, placing himself slightly into Putin's personal zone. Notice Putin pulls back ever so slightly, which indicates that Obama has the upper hand."

An insistent hand dove wantonly into her silky bustles, searching out the steamy treasure of her maidenhead.

Posted by: Ace at 01:19 PM | Comments (356)
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It's a good question.

I'll add my voice to ask it: Where have all the strutting, preening Angry Doves gone to?

America needs your wisdom, Band Camp. Will you deny us your sage counsel?

Posted by: Ace at 11:40 AM | Comments (603)
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Yeah I knew people like this. People not from Dallas or Texas who nevertheless got on the "America's Team" bandwagon because their souls were rotten.

Oh he's not kidding. Two NFL franchises play in NJ, the state he governs, and three quarters of the Eagles live in Cherry Hill, NJ, but he's a True-White Cowboys fan.

Christie told a group of elementary students in June that when he was a kid, he was a big fan of then-quarterback Roger Staubach. But there was another reason he didn't root for his home team.

"My father was a Giants fan and I used to remember watching him when I was eight, nine years old and every Sunday he would watch the Giants and yell at the TV set," the governor said. "I used to think to myself why would I want to root for a team that makes you angry?"

And how's that working out for you, You Monster?

Tony Romo's late season Win/Loss percentage clocks in at around 0.448, just south of Kaboom's "45% is good enough" mantra.

I heard one time in college Tony Romo tried to throw a game but it got intercepted.

Tony Romo makes Danny White look like Gary Hogaboom.

Posted by: Ace at 11:09 AM | Comments (324)
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But I'll link it anyway because I don't have anything else.

I know @benk84 Brought It this morning, as he does most mornings. But he does so much Bringing that sometimes I'm forced to re-bring something if I want to bring anything at all.

The article reads as if the pitch meeting resulted in this Exciting Trolling Opportunity, and no one actually wanted to write the article, but they couldn't think of any good business reason to give up on thousands of hits.

Still, a half-hearted, I-can't-believe-we're-doing-this effort worked, sort of, for Kaboom (now rewritten with 500% more pictures and funny captions and 200% more hate).

Despite the audible sigh of "I'll Do This, If I Must" that comes through McKay Coppin's writing at every turn, it's still halfway decent.

In the most actively cited example of the Republican nominee’s foresight, Romneyites point to the candidate’s hardline rhetoric last year against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his administration. During the campaign, Romney frequently criticized Obama for foolishly attempting to make common cause with the Kremlin, and repeatedly referred to Russia as “our number one geopolitical foe.”

Many observers found this fixation strange, and Democrats tried to turn it into a punchline. A New York Times editorial in March of last year said Romney’s assertions regarding Russia represented either “a shocking lack of knowledge about international affairs or just craven politics.” And in an October debate, Obama sarcastically mocked his opponent’s Russia rhetoric. “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years,” the president quipped at the time.

That line still chafes Robert OÂ’Brien, a Los Angeles lawyer and friend of RomneyÂ’s who served as a foreign policy adviser.

“Everyone thought, Oh my goodness that is so clever and Mitt’s caught in the Cold War and doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” O’Brien said. “Well guess what. With all of these foreign policy initiatives — Syria, Iran, [Edward] Snowden — who’s out there causing problems for America? It’s Putin and the Russians.”

...

Admirers point to other examples of RomneyÂ’s unrewarded wisdom, as well.

During a foreign policy debate in October, the candidate briefly expressed concern over Islamic extremists taking control of northern Mali — an obscure reference that was mocked on Twitter at the time, including by liberal comedian Bill Maher. Three months later, France sent troops into the country at the behest of the Malian president, bringing the conflict to front pages around the world.

...

And Jennifer Rubin, the conservative Washington Post blogger who became RomneyÂ’s most outspoken advocate in the press, accused members of the news media of failing to take the RepublicanÂ’s arguments seriously, while allowing the incumbent skate through the race untouched.

“As for the media, they are the least self-reflective people I know,” Rubin said.

Indeed. I know Kaboom kids when I read them. The media was taught by Kaboom that there is no difference between truth and lie except for a splash of childish imagination, and now they retransmit Kaboom's dark philosophy to the nation with every report.

No but seriously, for people in a field which supposedly requires intelligence and "mind work" they do not think, at all, ever. They should be ashamed, but Kaboom also teaches children to recast one's shames as virtues.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:26 AM | Comments (245)
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I guess it depends on the meaning of "moderate".

At congressional hearings this week, while making the case for President Barack Obama's plan for limited military action in Syria, Kerry asserted that the armed opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "has increasingly become more defined by its moderation, more defined by the breadth of its membership, and more defined by its adherence to some, you know, democratic process and to an all-inclusive, minority-protecting constitution.

"And the opposition is getting stronger by the day," Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday.

...

A European security official with experience in the region said that extremist rebel factions were so strong and well-organized in the north and west of Syria that they were setting up their own public services and trying to create an Islamic ministate along the Iraqi border.

By contrast, the official said, more moderate rebel factions predominate in the east of Syria and along its southern border with Jordan but have largely devolved into "gangs" whose leaders are more interested in operating local rackets and enriching themselves than in forming a larger alliance that could more effectively oppose Assad's government.

"I've heard that there are moderate groups out there we could, in theory, support," said Joshua Foust, a former U.S. intelligence analyst who now writes about foreign policy.

"But I've heard from those same people and my own contacts within (U.S. intelligence) that the scary people are displacing more and more moderate groups. Basically, the jihadists are setting up governance and community councils while the moderates exhaust themselves doing the heavy fighting," Foust said.

I just hope whoever in the US government is vetting the opposition aren't the same people who vetted the local Benghazi militias that were supposed to be providing security on the night of September 11, 2012.

Meanwhile, the two whip counts as they stand today.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:21 AM | Comments (328)
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President Putin has tried to avert a diplomatic stalemate between Russia and America at todayÂ’s G20 summit by hinting of a compromise on Western military intervention in Syria.

The Russian leader also made conciliatory remarks about the KremlinÂ’s relationship with the White House.

“If there is evidence that chemical weapons were used, and by the regular army, then this evidence must be presented to the UN Security Council and it must be convincing,” President Putin said in an interview with Associated Press.

Asked whether Russia would support US-led airstrikes, he added: "I do not exclude that."...

Is this a semi-cave, or a taunt? If Putin knows the truth, and he's certainly in a better position to know than we or the UN ever were, and that truth ran against Obama, then its a taunt calling him out to present lies as truth on the world stage, further burnishing his image as the world's village idiot.

If the truth favors Obama, Putin is offering a gracious opening to build actual consensus for strikes and Obama looks foolish to decline. Either way, well played Vlad. Well played.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 09:30 AM | Comments (399)
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• Kerry: "If It Makes You Feel Any Better The Sunni's Will Pay Us To Attack"
  
• VDH: Syria In Historical Context
  
• Brutality Of Syrian Rebels Pose Dilemma In West
  
• Cooke: The Colorado Challengers
  
• Trumka Acknowledges Companies Cutting Worker's Hours To Avoid Obamacare
  
• Senate Resolution Allows For Boots On The Ground
  
• Obama Passes The Buck To Congress And The World
  
• Goldberg: Obama's Red Line Problem
  
• The Indian Economy Isn't Doing So Well
  
• We're Living In Bizarro World
  
• Car Bomb Rocks Cairo
  
• Well Done CNN!
  
• Oregon Flier Exposes Neighbors On Food Stamps
  
• Some Problems For Cory Booker
  
• Neat Video Of Ant Hill Excavation (Autoplay)
  
• Author's Shocking Claim About Hemingway
  
• Rand Paul: Why I'm Voting No On Syria
  
• Pot Use Up Since 2007
  

h/t to RD for that Hemingway article.

Follow me on twitter.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:31 AM | Comments (448)
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As hard as it is to believe, the Obama administration will probably do something more asinine today than it ever has before. It seems to have a bottomless well of capacity in that regard.

So we have something to look Forward! to, I guess.

Posted by: andy at 03:01 AM | Comments (189)
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The 2002 Barrack Obama - Updated

What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz Samantha Power and Susan Rice and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.

What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove David Axelrod to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income - to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression. That's what I'm opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics. Now let me be clear - I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein Bashar Assad. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity. He's a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi Syrian people, would be better off without him.

But I also know that Saddam Assad poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi Syrian economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi Syrian military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.

And Your Lamba Mu Name is Mohammed Ali Ackbar

UT Austin has a new Muslim fraternity:

In February this year, America's first Muslim Fraternity was established at the University of Texas; Ali Mahmoud is the President of Alpha Lambda Mu (or Alif Laam Meem) and its founder. [...]

They created the fraternity, based on the principles of Islam - mercy, compassion, justice, integrity, honesty, unity, love, and sincerity...

But no free beer. Or girls. I'm not even sure rock music is allowed. But there will be lots of discussion of the failures of American foreign policy I'm assuming.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:19 PM | Comments (609)
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