In that case Obama's poll numbers and the Democrats chances of holding on to the House this November are also increasing.

That's what I've been trying to tell you morons.

Jesus, PA.  Way to kill a solid at-work hangover. 

I love this line

The big decline cast new doubts about the strength of the economic recovery.

Let's see, double digit unemployment, staggering debt, run away government spending, no private sector investments, companies aren't hiring. Yeah, there might be just a few doubts about the strength of the recovery

So, what's going on in Europe, have they collapsed yet?

Is greece actually implementing those austerirty measures?

if you house was vastly devalued that perhaps you could not be considered an owner. 

Yeh, I "own" a whole lot of debt and I have a place to live, but it doesn't quite feel like I own anything tangible.

Posted by: Herr Morgenholz at June 11, 2010 10:15 AM (5aa4z)

I bought 350 rounds of .45 acp two days ago. I'll shoot it and someone else can 'eat it' IYKWIMAITTYD.

So I was checking some economic data about my area and found that housing prices have actually gone up since 2005.

As I said on the other doom and gloom thread, the housing collapse has not been uniform all over the country.

Where I live was the only area in america where home prices went up during the housing collapse.

Retail sales unexpectedly INCREASE!

I bought more underwear because with all the great economic news that comes out every day I keep crapping my drawers  with happiness at the prospect of recovery.

No shit!

Ben, or has the German Constitutional Court ruled on the bail out package?

ooo I forgot about that. Thank god for the German court, they are the only thing preventing total assimilation in to the EU.

I am really pull for the EU to break apart, slowly anyway.

maybe your area is doing ok cause a lot of people coming there are paying cash

Some of it in the last year is because the AF base has expanded (and is continuing to expand), so that helps. But I'm not sure what kept it up in 2008...

Comrades! All is well. Confidence is up.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Confidence among U.S. consumers rose in June to the highest level in more than two years, a private survey showed.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment increased to 75.5, the highest since January 2008, from 73.6 in May. The gauge was projected to rise to 74.5, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 65 economists.

Let us rejoice at this glorious news and thank Chairman Obama for increasing your confidence.

Ben, beyond the quite acceptable schadenfreude, why? It was a real pain-in-the-ass before.

Many reasons in no particular order.

- one less major competitor in the world

- it would never have worked in the long run anyway. You can't make national government that have existed in one form or another for the past 500 years just disappear and hand their sovereignty over to pan european technocrats.

-I won't have to hear how f'ing great europe is and how we should be more like them. As bad off as we are, we are able to weather stuff like this, they aren't.

-it will be easier to play european nations off against one another when they aren't part of a political union.  It will make them much more dependent on NATO and therefore be better for us as we run NATO but not the EU.

-maybe this will teach them that the best they can hope for is a loose economic union and that is enough. no common currency, but easier cross border trading, etc.

-It will be the end of an anti-democratic system that is the EU government.

-It would be better for them phase out of the euro now than later.

- It is inevitable.

Over at HA: White House requests comments to define “green jobs”

After spending two years on the campaign trail and more than another year as President talking about “green jobs,” the Obama team has decided to take a significant step forward.  TheyÂ’re now asking for imput from the general public in order to figure out what the hell they've meant for the past three years:

But the notice said there is “no widely accepted standard definition of ‘green jobs.’” To help find that definition, the Labor Department asked that readers send in suggestions.

BP PLC is considering deferring or reducing its second-quarter dividend to help quell the political uproar in America, as the U.S. government raised its estimate of the oil gushing out of the company's crippled well in the Gulf of Mexico.

great. The UK is f'ed. How many pensioners depend on the BP dividend? The UK doesn't have the money to cover those losses in subsidies to those pensioners.

 If Obama runs BP out of business, we will have done serious damage to our relationship with the English.

Posted by: Ben at June 11, 2010 10:41 AM (wuv1c)

You mean the relationship that Obama has almost completely destroyed?

Homer's 101 -- video of Patty and Selma shaving their legs

Barky's 101 -- never ending stream of comments from the ONT

Posted by: JDW at June 11, 2010 10:41 AM (uw+0A)

Yes, click on the following link:

www.soccersucks.com

I increased my spending on dried beans, ammunition, and water filtration equipment

But clearly not condoms! _{Oh snap!}

Posted by: curious at June 11, 2010 10:17 AM (p302b)

chaos

Nevergiveup,

Dude, do I feel stupid. I knew they were televised, but I didn't think ESPN was streaming (I'm at work) online without having to pay. I didn't even bother to look! Thanks, man! Really!

 you ever see ESPN take the world cup seriously then you will kow the end is near".....BEck

He is going out of his mind...

He says "no one gives a flying f (couldn't get the word) about soccer...

i don't listen, but he has a point. Soccer is terrible. The only thing worse than soccer is the american media's attempt to stuff soccer down our throats.

Its a terrible sport. It is loved everywhere but here. people should understand that by now.

Also, we will never be competative in soccer because the best atheletes in America become Football, Basketball, Baseball, and hockey players. The American Soccer teams gets the crappy leftovers to work with.

Posted by: Ben at June 11, 2010 10:41 AM (wuv1c)

You mean the relationship that Obama has almost completely destroyed?

he has been a dick, no doubt. The churchill bust, the ipod, the insults to cameron, but this is different. BP going out of business of cutting their dividend entirely will do major financial damage to the UK. If all of those old people were depending on the dividends to make ends meet  it will have to be made up somehow. And since they are europeans god knows the elderly can't depend on their families or charities, ,they will turn to the state, which has no money left.

I actually get into the World Cup

Sssshhhh, don't say that 'round these parts.You'll get branded a fagula.

<i>Zombies, pestilence, plagues, shit like that.</i>

Ah crap.  Ok, the pestilence and plagues I can handle but the zombies .. yikes.  I hate zombies.  One of the reasons I left California and never looked back.  All the pot smoking, berkenstock wearing, no showering flower children marching in lockstep and voting democrat time in, time out regardless of how bad they were screwing stuff up and just making crap worse.

So pestilence?  Sure.  Plagues.. ok, granted not a huge fan of boils but bring it on.  The zombies, those you can keep.

Nevergiveup,

Those are the "vuvuzelas" - the worst fuckin' horn in the world. It's some stupid South African soccer tradition. There was talk that they'd be banned. Unfortunately, SA is the host country - so they're everywhere. Just awful! Watch the games, with, I don't know, audio from South Park episodes. Those damn horns SUCK!

92 osted by: Ben at June 11, 2010 10:52 AM (wuv1c)

I gotta disagree on this one. I actually get into the World Cup. Maybe because one of my best friends was born in Italy so I kinda root for them and the USA, but especially if you go to an ethnic bar, this stuff can be great

I was in China in 2002 during that world cup. The atmosphere was awesome. Everyone was into it, but I can't watch the game. It really is like torture. It's slow, and not like baseball slow, because stuff actually happens in a baseball game. The players are weiners. They fall down and cry when they are touched.  There is little to no violence. Scoring is always low. It's just not fun sport to watch.  In my humble opinion

It is kinda cool that there is something the world cares about, but lets be serious, soccer will never ever be popular in america.  Also, i stick by my statement that america will never been good at soccer because it gets all the left over atheletes that can't cut it in the american sports.

I hear Nelson Mandella's great grand daughter died on the way to a world cup game today.

Boring soccer takes another innocent life. How much longer until we ban the soccer ball for all the deaths it has caused.

This sums up Soccer in my mind and the differences between the world and america.

http://tinyurl.com/2838x8j

Dang Straights - you would look totally hawt in an Manchester United road  jersey.

And, yeah, I'm a dude.

And now it gets interesting.....

"Those are the "vuvuzelas"

Eww. That word is like a combo of vulva & Methuselah.  That is some old ass trim. 

especially if you go to an ethnic bar, this stuff can be great

Yeah, I went to a Palestinian bar for the Running of the Jews and it was everything I could do to not get caught up in the excitement...

especially if you go to an ethnic bar, this stuff can be great

Yeah, I went to a Palestinian bar for the Running of the Jews and it was everything I could do to not get caught up in the excitement...

Posted by: Baron Von Ottomatic at June 11, 2010 11:08 AM (VoetP)

Word!

A panel commissioned by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is recommending nearly $1 trillion in cuts to the PentagonÂ’s budget over the next 10 years.

Not O/T at all. This is why the house values here will go down in the future when the growth of the base turns into...shrinkage.

 The rest of the world should be happy that the US has little interest in soccer.

I concur, because we would totally dominate it if it was our major sport. Imagine all of the great football(american) atheletes playing soccer. they would dominate. They are faster, stronger, and more athletic.

Since its the 1970's again...

More like the 1770's.

Not O/T at all. This is why the house values here will go down in the future when the growth of the base turns into...shrinkage.

Posted by: Mama AJ at June 11, 2010 11:10 AM (XdlcF)

Oh sure, you had to go and drop the "S" word...

I concur, because we would totally dominate it if it was our major sport

Who cares?

Why do we have to dominate the sport?

If you don't like it, don't watch.

I concur, because we would totally dominate it if it was our major sport

Who cares?

Why do we have to dominate the sport?

If you don't like it, don't watch.

I am not going to watch it. 

We don't have to dominate. I was responding to damian's comment. If all american kids grew up playing soccer, we would dominate it. We have the greatest atheletes in the world, but few if any  of them play soccer.

Imagine all the best atheletes in football, basketball, baseball and hockey playing soccer. We would be unbeatable.

That is my point.

Dang Straights - you would look totally hawt in an Manchester United road  jersey.

And, yeah, I'm a dude.

And now it gets interesting.....

Posted by: laceyunderalls at June 11, 2010 11:05 AM (pLTLS)

Pelosi: We'll stop blaming Bush when problems go away - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room" http://bit.ly/bDvdFK

Democrats will keep blaming George W. Bush until the problems from his administration end, according to Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

In an interview with MSNBC, Pelosi said congressional Democrats feel justified in blaming the Bush administration because of the problems it left behind for President Barack Obama.

Asked if there was a statute of limitations on blaming Bush, Pelosi said: "Well, it runs out when the problems go away.

123

I would rather watch video of the riots at soccer games than the games themselves.

I would rather drive a nail into my foot than watch soccer, at least I can quit hammering when it hurts too bad.

I never got the Ramones...The Clash, a little. I was more of a Zeppelin & Black Sabbath man/pre teen.

Asked if there was a statute of limitations on blaming Bush, Pelosi said: "Well, it runs out when the problems go away.

Posted by: conscious, but incoherent this morning at June 11, 2010 11:20 AM (YVZlY)

God help me...I really think I would not be able to control myself if in the same room as that SCrunt!!

F soccer.any sport where grown men are lauded for their ability to fake an injury is the gay.

I take it you've never pulled a groin muscle?

Comrade Odipshit pushing more spending (billions) to spike the books on the faux recovery.

Why, you might ask, does the economy show even these enemic signs of recovery in the first place? 

Well pardon me if I share my own weak minded opinion.  Businesses (and individuals for that matter) are looking at massive tax increases when the Bush tax cuts expire, and they are doing everything they can to move their revenue and sales numbers into this year so that they can take advantage of the lower tax rates.  While this cooking of the books will make them look better in the short term, unless there is a true recovery which they are banking on the make the numbers come out in the end, then the numbers for next year could look worse than they actually are trigger a true collapse.  In other words, the numbers we are seeing in the economy right now aren't real numbers and that explains why companies aren't hiring.  If the numbers weren't being spiked, companies would absolutely need to be hiring employees to keep up with demand.  Increases in productivity can only account for so much.

Grab you ass for the last quarter and all of next year, imo.

personally i don't really see 300lb football players.....6ft 7 basketball players dominating at soccer....but i may be missing something.....

Free safeties, cornerbacks, wide receivers, running backs, not every bastketball player is a Center, any position at baseball.

I'm not talking about offensive lineman, or basketball centers. Sure their bodies are too large. 

You can't tell me that the fact all the best american atheletes play every other sport than soccer doesn't result in us having a weaker soccer team and that if for some reason all of the watchable sports disappeared and everyone started playing soccer, that we wouldn't be the best in the world.

F soccer.any sport where grown men are lauded for their ability to fake an injury is the gay.

I take it you've never pulled a groin muscle?

i have playing goalie in ice hockey. it is extremely painful, but we don't run off the ice crying. you finish the game.

163 We have the greatest atheletes in the world, but few if any  of them play soccer.

We have both the population base, and the money to make world class soccer players if there was significant interest.

This always has been something that has perplexed me. With all the kids/junior soccer leagues and all the soccer moms across tha country and the rapidly growing Euro/Hispanic populations; why hasn't soccer rose to the level of at least the NHL in this country?? Me personally I can't watch it, maybe that explains it, If a white, American, male, Christian don't watch it, it doesn't rate. More latent RACISM on my part I guess.

circa, @114

that's how i feel too.

It's a girls sport.

Yeah because those hideous Europeans don't profit or get major poon from being renowned futbol stars.

Loser homos.

 With all the kids/junior soccer leagues and all the soccer moms across tha country and the rapidly growing Euro/Hispanic populations; why hasn't soccer rose to the level of at least the NHL in this country??

One answer as to why, Money.

Tell me what NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL players make.

Then compare that to MLS players.

IF you are a great athlete, and you live in america and want to play sports in america, you play one of the major four, because that is where the money is at.

Posted by: Kratos (missing from the side of Mt Olympus) at June 11, 2010 11:27 AM (9hSKh)

Did Abner Doubleday have anything to do with inventing soccer?

Just asking

so we are not only supporting the pensions of public employees and the unions but also the brits?

no. BP is a public stock. The stock holders are getting the dividends. it just so happens that  many of the stockholders are pensioners in England who depend on that dividend.

So we aren't paying for their pensions, but we sure can destroy them if Barack decideds to kill BP.

BP should and has volunteered to pay for the cleanup, legitimate claims, and the well closing, but that ass hate Salazaar said the administration was going to suggest BP pay 6 months of salaries to oil workers affected by the administrations decision to put a moritorium on offshore drilling. BP essentially said no, that was a government decision to temporarily end offshore drilling, so the effects are their responsibility. 

Posted by: polynikes at June 11, 2010 11:39 AM (m2CN7)

Only for casualties among the fans ... the most interesting part of soccer.

Did Abner Doubleday have anything to do with inventing soccer?

Just asking

Posted by: Velvet Ambition at June 11, 2010 11:41 AM (H0HL3)

No...If he did, their would be alot more tobacco chewing and ball scratching in soccer.

I take it you've never pulled a groin muscle?

Posted by: laceyunderalls

Never. But then, they get a great deal of exercise.