Let's say THREE-peat
Topic: Football
Yeah, i ralize that Phil Jackson has a patent on the word, but fuck him, these New England Patriots ain't no pampered Air Jordanasskissing Bulls, THIS is more America's team than any other team in the history of sports can claim to be!!!

With the exception of Corey Dillon and Mike Vrabel, New England is so devoid of superstars.Tom Brady, who many, including myself, thought should share the MVP with Deion Branch because he was playing with the death of his grandmother weighing down on his soul, would not be starting on any other team in the NFL!

As the bostonbrat.net shows---Opinions on the pro prospects for Tom Brady were mixed. Scouts had no quibble with his attitude. He was fearless, hard-working, and willing to learn. They also gave him high marks for his accuracy on passes to the flat and over the middle. It was Tom's body that had many concerned. He stood 6-4, but weighed only 205 pounds. He didn't run well and couldn't throw deep with much effectiveness. Most pegged him as a career back-up--someone who could fulfill a support role, but certainly not a player worthy of a high pick.

Most of the Patriots would be struggling for a starting job on any other NFL team, but under the auspices of Bill Belichick, they are all shining now, and everyone is now enviously looking on. Belichick and owner Robert Kraft exemplify something that is missing in corporate America today--FAITH in their workers, or at least their football team since i don't know how many jobs the Kraft corporation has outsourced.

In a country where a C student can be president but too many bright young men are forced to go to Jude Fawley University, the Patriots are a dynasty that working Americans can live with.

Unlike the Yankees, the Patriots are not a checkbook dynasty, and any free-agent with sense will be looking to play there next season to be part of that historic THREE-peat team, and for the first time in their history New England might be teeming with superstars!!!

The road to the THREE-peat is a lot harder in the NFL than it was for the Bulls...while the refs in the NBA would go out of their way to protect Michael Jordan--you used to get called for a foul if you looked at him wrong!!!

In the NFL there are a plethora of rules against the New England Patriots, and in addition to calling for the bookies, the refs enforce these rules with the fanaticism of an SS officer.

Am i saying that the refs are working in concert with the bookies???

Let's say that Ray Charles could have seen a certain pick that wasn't called, but instead they saw a costly New England penalty, and instead of the penalties offsetting, the Patriots were heavily penalized!!!

"> ALSO courtesy of THE MAXX!!!


Arbeit Macht Frie

We also got to see the first PC Super Bowl,with only godaddy.com daring to go against the dictates of our theocratic FCC!!! Listening to Howard Stern this morning i was appalled by the hoops godaddy.com had to go through to get this commercial on the air, and i was saddened that SIR Paul McCartney didn't have the chutzpah of John Lennon, who would probably have had a "wardrobe malfucntion" and would have mooned Amerikkka.

Posted by eminemsrevenge at 9:50 AM EST

Updated: Monday, 7 February 2005 1:26 PM EST

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Topic: Football
Courtesy of THE MAXX!!!

Now Playing: Lynn Samuels on Sirius
Topic: Three-card Monty

Post-Election Buzzkill: Why Iraq Is Still A Debacle

February 02, 2005 [ Printer-friendly version ]

Quick, before the conventional wisdom hardens, it needs to be said: The Iraqi elections were not the second coming of the Constitutional Convention.

The media have made it sound like last Sunday was a combination of 1776, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Prague Spring, the Ukraine's Orange Revolution, Filipino "People Power," Tiananmen Square and Super Bowl Sunday -- all rolled into one.

It's impossible not to be moved by the stories coming out of Iraq: voters braving bombings and mortar blasts to cast ballots; multiethnic crowds singing and dancing outside polling places; election workers, undeterred by power outages, counting ballots by the glow of oil lamps; teary-eyed women in traditional Islamic garb proudly holding up their purple ink-stained fingers -- literally giving the finger to butcher knife-wielding murderers.

It was a great moment. A Kodak moment. And unlike the other Kodak moments from this war -- think Saddam's tumbling statue and Jessica Lynch's "rescue" -- this one was not created by the image masters at Karl Rove Productions.

But this Kodak moment, however moving, should not be allowed to erase all that came before it, leaving us unprepared for all that may come after it.

I'm sorry to kill the White House's buzz -- and the press corps' contact high -- but the triumphalist fog rolling across the land has all the makings of another "Mission Accomplished" moment.

Forgive me for trotting out Santayana's shopworn dictum that those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it but, for god's sake people, can't we even remember last week?

So amid all the talk of turning points, historic days and defining moments, let us steadfastly refuse to drink from the River Lethe that brought forgetfulness and oblivion to my ancient ancestors.

Let's not forget that for all the president's soaring rhetoric about spreading freedom and democracy, free elections were the administration's fallback position. More Plan D than guiding principle. We were initially going to install Ahmed Chalabi as our man in Baghdad, remember? Then that shifted to the abruptly foreshortened reign of "Bremer of Arabia." The White House only consented to holding open elections after Grand Ayatollah Sistani sent his followers into the streets to demand them -- and even then Bush refused to allow the elections until after our presidential campaign was done, just in case more suicide bombers than voters turned up at Iraqi polling places.

And the election doesn't change that.

Let's not forget that despite the hoopla, this was a legitimate democratic election in name only. Actually, not even in name since most of the candidates on Sunday's ballot had less name recognition than your average candidate for dogcatcher. That's because they were too afraid to hold rallies or give speeches. Too terrorized to engage in debates. In fact, many were so anxious about being killed that they fought to keep their names from being made public. Some didn't even know their names had been placed on the ballot. On top of that, this vote was merely to elect a transitional national assembly that will then draft a new constitution that the people of Iraq will then vote to approve or reject, followed by yet another vote -- this time to elect a permanent national assembly.

And the election doesn't change that.

Let's not forget that many Iraqi voters turned out to send a defiant message not just to the insurgents but to President Bush as well. Many of those purple fingers were raised in our direction. According to a poll taken by our own government, a jaw-dropping 92 percent of Iraqis view the U.S.-led forces in Iraq as "occupiers" while only 2 percent see them as "liberators."

And the election doesn't change that.

Let's not forget that the war in Iraq has made America far less safe than it was before the invasion. According to an exhaustive report released last month by the CIA's National Intelligence Council, Iraq has become a breeding ground for the next generation of "professionalized" Islamic terrorists. Foreign terrorists are now honing their deadly skills against U.S. troops -- skills they will eventually take with them to other countries, including ours. The report also warns that the war in Iraq has deepened solidarity among Muslims worldwide and increased anti-American feelings across the globe. Iraq has also drained tens of billions of dollars in resources that might otherwise have gone to really fighting the war on terror or increasing our preparedness for another terror attack here at home.

And the election doesn't change that.

Let's not forget the woeful lack of progress we've made in the reconstruction of Iraq. The people there still lack such basics as gas and kerosene. Indeed, Iraqis often wait in miles-long lines just to buy gas. The country is producing less electricity than before the war -- roughly half of current demand. There are food shortages, the cost of staple items such as rice and bread is soaring, and the number of Iraqi children suffering from malnutrition has nearly doubled. According to UNICEF, nearly 1 in 10 Iraqi children is suffering the effects of chronic diarrhea caused by unsafe water -- a situation responsible for 70 percent of children's deaths in Iraq.

And the election doesn't change that.

Let's not forget the blistering new report from the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, which finds that the U.S. occupation government that ruled Iraq before last June's transfer of sovereignty has been unable to account for nearly $9 billion, overseeing a reconstruction process "open to fraud, kickbacks and misappropriation of funds."

And the election doesn't change that.

Let's not forget that we still don't have an exit strategy for Iraq. The closest the president has come is saying that we'll be able to bring our troops home when, as he put it on Sunday, "this rising democracy can eventually take responsibility for its own security" -- "eventually" being the operative word. Although the administration claims over 120,000 Iraqi security forces have been trained, other estimates put the number closer to 14,000, with less than 5,000 of them ready for battle. And we keep losing those we've already trained: some 10,000 Iraqi National Guardsmen have quit or been dropped from the rolls in the last six months. Last summer, the White House predicted Iraqi forces would be fully trained by spring 2005; their latest estimate has moved that timetable to summer 2006.

And the election doesn't change that.

And let's never forget this administration's real goal in Iraq, as laid out by Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and their fellow neocon members of the Project for the New American Century back in 1998 when they urged President Clinton and members of Congress to take down Saddam "to protect our vital interests in the Gulf." These vital interests were cloaked in mushroom clouds, WMD that turned into "weapons of mass destruction-related program activities," and a Saddam/al-Qaida link that turned into, well, nothing. Long before the Bushies landed on freedom and democracy as their 2005 buzzwords, they already had their eyes on the Iraqi prize: the second-largest oil reserves in the world, and a permanent home for U.S. bases in the Middle East.

This is still the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time. And the election, as heart-warming as it was, doesn't change any of that.

This is from "Arianna Online"

WHY GW isn't the second coming of Hitler
Topic: Fourth Reich Blues


In "liberal" circles, the accusation that George W. Bush is the Second Coming of Adolf Hitler has become almost passe, but is it even remotely accurate?

If you have read William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, especially the footnotes, you would realize that the homoerotic adulation that the dittoheads of the GOP lavish upon George the Second is almost a mirror image of the Nazi party's apotheosis of the Austrian colonel, but how well does our beloved little retarded Reichskanzler stack up against the original fuehrer???

Well first, let's start with the obvious---

Hitler served honourably in the army when his country was at war. GW may or may not have served in the National Guard, in an attempt to dodge serving his country during a time of war.

Hitler was a charismatic and powerful speaker. Georgie-boy has the charisma of a snake, and the speaking ability that could only gain him fame as a member of the Howard Stern whack-pack if he wasn't born George and Barbara's little boy, and if he wasn't subsequently embraced by the 'christian' Reich, he may well have been one of those homeless dudes you people avoid like the plague.

Hitler had a majority supporting him. After two elections, George the second thinks his first victory a few months ago was some sort of landslide that gave him a mandate to inflict his will and that of the cash fundamentalists upon this country. Click HERE if you don't know what a landslide in a presidential election is!!!!

Hitler was sober as a youth, and we all know the stories about Herr Bush, but recently i have learnt that auld Adolf was doing some serious drugs as he got on in age.

This brings up a serious question---Is George Bush clean and sober as he smirks around the White House??? i have noticed that no one questioned his sobriety during the infamous pretzel incident!!!!

Being an avid fan of football, i can tell you that no one watches the Super Bowl alone, unless they have to, especially a guy.

You can reasonably argue that GW may not have the guy gene because he was a cheerleader, but even a bitchboy watching the Super Bowl would want company. Reporters from the alleged media should have questioned why does a man watch a football game alone when he has a Secret Service detail that would be more than willing to sit down and watch the game with him. The whole purpose of the Super Bowl is to watch the game and talk shit to your droogs.

Having gotten drunk on many an occasion, and having eaten my fair share of pretzels...the only way i could choke on a pretzel would be if i was stoned out of my bird, and since i'm not smart enough to be the POTUS, i should hope that the current resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue could at least manage to chew a pretzel while watching football at the same time...this is not major multi-tasking, is it?

i am also aware of the recidivism of druggies, and while some may argue that he has Jezeus, he also has a track record of breaking 60% of the Ten Commandments, which to me is like a crackhead saying--I don't smoke crack no more, I just snort a little cocaine.

Drug abuse has a tendnecy of inducing paranoia and the auld folie de grandeur---Has anyone seen my WMDs lately?

Both men seemed to be driven by the clarion call of "Auslander Raus!"--"Out With Foreigners!"--and just as Hitler made the Japanese an exception to his Aryan philosophies, Herr Bush and company seem to have exempt the Saudis from their Deus vult jihad against Islam.

George Bush the Younger is also know for his loyalty to his friends, and those who were in Hitler's inner circle could have psalmed--What a friend we have in Adolf.

Too many people have forgotten some of the comments George the Second said while campaigning for the 2000 elections...Jews cannot go to heaven because they don't have JC as their personal lord & saviour..."If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot
easier, just so long as I'm the dictator..... heh, heh (nervous laughter)"

Not into the nation-building thing, "It is [ now ]the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world."

Yes, i realize it is fashionable to compare GW and the dittoheads to the Nazi movement, but Amerikkka is becoming more and more like the now dissolved Soviet Union!!!

The Russia of cold war memories was a Goliath of propaganda and ideal-driven imperialism, and it was brought to its knees by rock n' roll, blue jeans, and some dude named Osama bin Laden.

While many people are cruising on post-Clinton prosperity, many more are slowly awaking to the fact that a man who trades Sammy Sosa and runs an oil company that couldn't find a drop of crude probably cannot run a country much better.

So why the great devotion to George Bush???

First off, as a First World nation we are probably the dumbest fucks on the planet..."C" students with a sense of entitlement...which is why all the goodwill 'political capital' in the aftermath of 9/11 was squandered. There is also the Santayana principle--Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

As we get daily reports that are more Vietnamesque than the war in southeast Asia, many are lulled by the limbaughistic tauntings that this is not another Vietnam, and surely it isn't. If you compare American casualties juxtaposed with the genesis of the Vietnam war, you will see that American casualties are closer to Viet Cong numbers, but all the devout Fourth Reichers will simply dismiss this as unpatriotic rhetoric.

The right to bear arms is virtually God-given, if you're white, just as the rite to free speech, if you're a cuntservative!!!

It's amazing that what Malcolm X said a little over forty years ago is probably more true today---

I'm not a politician, not even a student of politics; in fact, I'm not a student of much of anything. I'm not a Democrat. I'm not a Republican, and I don't even consider myself an American. If you and I were Americans, there'd be no problem. Those Honkies that just got off the boat, they're already Americans; Polacks are already Americans; the Italian refugees are already Americans. Everything that came out of Europe, every blue-eyed thing, is already an American. And as long as you and I have been over here, we aren't Americans yet.

Well, I am one who doesn't believe in deluding myself. I'm not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner, unless you eat some of what's on that plate. Being here in America doesn't make you an American. Being born here in America doesn't make you an American. Why, if birth made you American, you wouldn't need any legislation; you wouldn't need any amendments to the Constitution; you wouldn't be faced with civil-rights filibustering in Washington, D.C., right now. They don't have to pass civil-rights legislation to make a Polack an American.

No, I'm not an American. I'm one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy. So, I'm not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-saluter, or a flag-waver -- no, not I. I'm speaking as a victim of this American system. And I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.
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And to think, some people believed we averted the Y2K problem!!!


[ An almost completely unrelated aside---the photo from the top of this post was from my brother's Xanga site...in an act of total synchronicity, i discovered THAT fact when i did a google-search for the picture!!! ]

Now Playing: Lynn Samuels
Topic: Dittohead Dogma
Third Columnist Implicated with Payola Charges

By E&P Staff

Published: January 27, 2005 11:00 PM ET

NEW YORK Michael McManus, whose syndicated column, "Ethics & Religion," appears in 50 newspapers, was hired as a subcontractor by the Department of Health and Human Services to promote an administration marriage initiative, according to an article posted yesterday by Salon.com, the online magazine.

Senior writer Eric Boehlert wrote that Salon had confirmed that McManus "championed the plan in his columns without disclosing to readers he was being paid to help it succeed."

This report emerged one day after President Bush ordered his Cabinet secretaries to stop hiring commentators to help promote administration initiatives, after revelations surrounding commentators Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher.

According to Salon, Dr. Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families at HHS, had responded to the latest report by announcing that HHS would institute a new policy that forbids the agency from hiring any outside expert or consultant who has any working affiliation with the media. "I needed to draw this bright line," Horn told Salon. "The policy is being implemented and we're moving forward."

McManus could not be reached for comment.

Horn told Salon that McManus was paid approximately $10,000 for his work as a subcontractor to the Lewin Group, which was hired by HHS to implement the Community Healthy Marriage Initiative. McManus provided training during two-day conferences in Chattanooga, Tenn., and also made presentations at HHS-sponsored conferences.

Horn said he first learned about the payment on Thursday.

"In the wake of the Gallagher story," Boehlert wrote, "he asked his staff to review all outside contracts and determine if there were any other columnists being paid by HHS. They informed him about McManus. Horn says the review for similar contracts continues."

Horn said HHS was not paying Gallagher and McManus to write about Bush administration initiatives but for their expertise as marriage advocates. "We live in a complicated world and people wear many different hats," he told Salon. "People who have expertise might also be writing columns. The line has become increasingly blurred between who's a member of the media and who is not. Thirty years ago if you were a columnist, then you were a full-time employee of a newspaper. Columnists today are different."

In 1996, McManus co-founded Marriage Savers, which, among other things, asks clergy not to conduct marriage ceremonies unless the couple has had lengthy counseling first.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E&P Staff (letters@editorandpublisher.com)
[ This story was reported on Lynn Samuels. ]

So the dittoheads keep telling us George the Second IS NOT Hitler reincarnated...but WHAT do you call a government paid press???

Topic: Fourth Reich Blues
US women get closer to combat
Some say move imperils units, violates law
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | January 26, 2005

WASHINGTON -- The Army for the first time is placing women in support units at the front lines of combat because of a shortage of skilled male soldiers available for duty in Iraq and is considering a repeal of the decade-old rule that prohibits women from being deployed alongside combat forces, according to Pentagon officials and military documents.

The Army's Third Infantry Division has added scores of female soldiers to newly created ''forward support companies" that provide maintenance, food service, and other support services to infantry, armor, and Special Forces units that commonly engage in combat.

Army officials acknowledge that the changes will increasingly place women, who make up about 15 percent of the armed forces, in combat situations, but believe they are following federal law, which prohibits female soldiers from serving in units that engage in direct combat.

The Army maintains that it has not changed the overall Pentagon policy regarding women in combat, which limits women to serving on surface ships and in attack aircraft. But internal Army documents indicate the service is ignoring a 1994 regulation barring women from serving alongside units that conduct offensive operations.

The change made by the Third Infantry Division was prompted by a shortage of trained troops caused by the unexpected length of the Iraq war and has set off a quiet, but highly charged debate within the Army over the role of women in the military. As a practical matter, the guerrilla tactics used against US troops during the occupation have also blurred the traditional lines between combat and support functions and is expected to prompt a wholesale review of the definition of ground ''combat" within the Bush administration.

''After this operation is over the question of how they define combat has got to be raised," said Lory Manning, a retired Navy captain who heads the Women in the Military Project at the nonpartisan Women's Research & Education Institute in Washington.

US law prohibits women from serving in combat units, and the Army insists it is following the law. At issue is a separate Army rule that also bars women from front-line support units.

Opponents to putting women in ground combat fear their presence on the front lines -- even in a support role -- will harm the cohesion and effectiveness of fighting units, a view Republican and Democratic administrations have held for decades.

''The issue remains unresolved," said Elaine Donnelly, president of the conservative Center for Military Readiness, who contends that the military is ''implementing illicit plans to force female soldiers into land combat units for the first time in our history." She asserts that the Army is circumventing regulations through ''subterfuge" by labeling the female soldiers as being ''attached" to the new units as opposed to ''assigned" to them.

Others military specialists, however, contend that the US experience in Iraq provides a powerful new argument for permitting women, who make up about 10 percent of the force there, to take on more combat roles because they have been shown to be as capable as men in handling the rigors of combat.

The Third Infantry Division is the first to attach support units to combat forces, but those changes will be expanded to other units as part of the Army's effort to make its forces more mobile and flexible. Most of the division, based at Fort Stewart, Ga., has arrived in Iraq since Christmas to start a second tour there, and all its deployed units are scheduled to be in the country by the end of the month.

The Army, as required by law, has notified Congress of the division's changes.

''The whole structure of our Army changed," said Lieutenant Colonel Pamela Hart, an Army spokeswoman. ''The Third ID is the first unit to deploy with the reconfiguration, so this will be the first time where this is in question."

Women soldiers have found themselves in the line of fire more often in Iraq and Afghanistan than in any previous wars. Since the start of the Iraq war in March 2003, about 30 women have been killed, most of them in hostile action, according to official statistics. In one attack, Army Private Teresa Broadwell, 20, was awarded a Bronze Star for returning fire when her military police unit was attacked in Karbala in October.

Army documents show that the strain the war has placed on personnel is a factor in women serving in units previously for male soldiers only.

A confidential Army brief given to commanders last summer declared that there are ''insufficient male soldiers [with the needed skills] in the inventory to fill forward support companies." The paper, a copy of which was obtained by the Globe, said that continuing to exclude women from support units that deploy jointly with combat troops would create ''a long-term challenge," contending that the pool of male recruits may be ''too small to sustain [the] force."

The Army could not immediately quantify how many women are serving in the forward support companies in Iraq. A company generally has 60 to 200 soldiers.

Late last year, Army Colonel Robert H. Woods Jr., a senior personnel official, suggested in a brief that the next step may be to either ''rewrite" or ''eliminate" the regulation that prohibits what the Army calls the ''collocation" of women with combat units.

Military specialists disagree about the implications. Opponents like Donnelly contend that it could be just the beginning of placing women in broader combat roles, a move she asserts has not been taken for good reason.

''If it stands, the same would apply to other units," she said. ''It will be an incremental change that is unjustified and very harmful to those land combat units," including weakening their fighting ability and creating romantic liaisons that would harm unit cohesion.

She is lobbying members of Congress and Pentagon officials to have women in the forward support companies reassigned.

''We have push-button wars and the battlefield is different, but there are certain things about combat that haven't changed," Donnelly said. ''Female soldiers are at a physical disadvantage."

The changes are being made out of ''expediency," she added, and if more male soldiers are needed, then the Army should recruit them.

Some of the division's soldiers also want women removed from the support companies.

''We are trained to engage in direct ground combat on land, and the collocation of gender-mixed forward support companies with us would seriously distract from the mission and possibly cost lives," a Third Infantry Division soldier who asked not to be identified wrote in a letter this month to Representative Duncan Hunter of California, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

The soldier said that when the division participated in the initial Iraq invasion, six female medics attached to his all-male battalion were romantically involved with male soldiers and one female medic became pregnant. ''It became an enormous distraction for the company commanders who had to constantly separate the pairs and deal with the pregnancy," the eight-year veteran told Hunter. The letter did not identify the soldier's battalion.

Still, proponents of giving women more opportunities in the military say research suggests Iraq has been a positive experience for women and the military.

''The general take is that they are doing very, very well," said Manning of The Women's Research & Education Institute.

''They are able to bond with men or pick up and shoot an automatic weapon when that is necessary. They have no problem living hard in the field," Manning said. ''All those old excuses for why women can't be in combat are falling by the wayside."

The Army, for its part, is closely watching the Third Infantry Division deployment. According to the December briefing by Woods, the Army will ''incorporate lessons learned from Third ID into future decisions on policy affecting assignment and utilization of women soldiers."

Bryan Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com.



? Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Topic: All My Children

Just found out that Ruth Warrick died, even though it happened nine days ago!!!

You would think that the pogromiesters at ABC/Disney would have notified the faithful viewers of one of their longest running show of that fact, but maybe they're too busy with coronations and pretending to be a news channel for that!!!

The mighty SHEagles!!!
Topic: Football

If you click here and go to the Pirate Stern Bulletin Board, you'll see that i am very arrogant about how great the Patriots are, and if you interview some of my friends, you'll see how dispassionate a gambler i can be.

The most shocking bet i ever made, to my friends at least, was when i bet the Ravens to beat the Giants in the Super Bowl. Contrary to what some people believe, i am not one of those people who follow the hype, which is why i hated both the Steelers and Cowboys during their heydays, but seldom bet against them in the big dance.

Gambling is like football, the object is to win.

It would amaze you to realize that i have only been to TWO Giants games in my life, yet i had gone to almost a hundred Jets games! The reason being it was always easy to get free Jets tickets from their fans who were usually pissed off by mid-November, and the fascination of watching the Jets blow thirty-point leads in the fourth quarter was irresistible.

So now we come to the age of the Patriots dynasty, one that will be remembered for as long as there is football.

The Shitsburgh Steelers were invincible, and having beaten the Patriots on Halloween they were looking for the treat that is the Super Bowl, unaware of the trick that is the Patriots!!!

With Bettis and Staley, they had two of the biggest power backs in the game, and Big Ben Roethlisberger looked like he was poised to do something that immortals like Marino, Elway, Montana, or Eli Manning couldn't do...take their team to the Super Bowl during their rookie campaigns, the Steelers are the only viable threat to the Pats three-peating that i can see right now.

Philly fans may beg to differ, but in their hearts they're hoping beyond hope for some kind of Rocky story in Jacksonville.

The press is already playing it as the second "African American" quarterback who can win the Super Bowl, but we already know that Donovan McNabb is a nigger by association!!!

Terrell Owens end-zone antics was coonshow cute, but he will be forever hated and detested for his halftime encounter with a white woman, even if it was fictitous. Almost forty years after Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Amerikkka is still offended when some black buck looks like he might fuck one of their women!!!

And there is still the stigma that many little Black kids face growing up--Hey you call us spearchuckers, so why cain't we be quarterbacks???

The only thing interesting about THIS Super Bowl will be the race card, since none of the sports media has the balls to start whispering THREE-PEAT!!!

Let FREEDOM ring???
Topic: Dittohead Dogma

Saudi Arabia: Flogging Used to Silence Protesters
Cancel Sentences That Violate Convention Against Torture
(New York, January 17, 2005) The Saudi government should act immediately to stop the sentence of flogging imposed on 15 anti-government protestors, Human Rights Watch said today.

For all the Saudi government's promises of reform, this sentence is a terrible disappointment. The Saudi government is flogging those who attempt to exercise the basic rights to free speech and association.

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch

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The protestors, including one woman and two foreign nationals, were among 21 people who had been arrested following a public demonstration on December 16 in Jeddah. The protest called for an elected government, independent judiciary and a new Islamic constitution. A religious court sentenced them to a range of 100 to 250 lashes and two to six months imprisonment for taking part in demonstrations against the government.

In an unusual move, the government on January 11 publicly announced the sentence. Previously protestors and political dissidents have been sentenced to jail terms and fines, but not flogging. When religious courts have handed down flogging sentences, it has usually been for morals offenses such as adultery, and the government has not taken the step of publicly announcing the sentence.

"For all the Saudi government's promises of reform, this sentence is a terrible disappointment," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "The Saudi government is flogging those who attempt to exercise the basic rights to free speech and association."

Holy shit!!!
Johnny Carson, King of Late Night, Dies

Jan 23, 2:14 PM (ET)

By JEFF WILSON

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Johnny Carson, the "Tonight Show" TV host who served America a smooth nightcap of celebrity banter, droll comedy and heartland charm for 30 years, has died. He was 79. "Mr. Carson passed away peacefully early Sunday morning," his nephew, Jeff Sotzing, told The Associated Press. "He was surrounded by his family, whose loss will be immeasurable. There will be no memorial service."

Sotzing would not give further details, including the time of death or the location.

The boyish-looking Nebraska native with the disarming grin, who survived every attempt to topple him from his late-night talk show throne, was a star who managed never to distance himself from his audience.

His wealth, the adoration of his guests - particularly the many young comics whose careers he launched - the wry tales of multiple divorces: Carson's air of modesty made it all serve to enhance his bedtime intimacy with viewers.


(AP) Johnny Carson works on his monologue to open "The Tonight Show" in his office at the NBC-TV studios...
Full Image


"Heeeeere's Johnny!" was the booming announcement from sidekick Ed McMahon that ushered Carson out to the stage. Then the formula: the topical monologue, the guests, the broadly played skits such as "Carnac the Magnificent."

But America never tired of him; Carson went out on top when he retired in May 1992. In his final show, he told his audience: "And so it has come to this. I am one of the lucky people in the world. I found something that I always wanted to do and I have enjoyed every single minute of it."

His personal life could not match the perfection of his career. Carson was married four times, divorced three. In 1991, one of his three sons, 39-year-old Ricky, was killed in a car accident.

Nearly all of Carson's professional life was spent in television, from his postwar start at Nebraska stations in the late 1940s to his three decades with NBC's "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson."

Carson choose to let "Tonight" stand as his career zenith and his finale, withdrawing into a quiet retirement that suited his private nature and refusing involvement in other show business projects.


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In 1993, he explained his absence from the limelight.

"I have an ego like anybody else," Carson told The Washington Post, "but I don't need to be stoked by going before the public all the time."

He was open to finding the right follow-up to "Tonight," he told friends. But his longtime producer, Fred de Cordova, said Carson didn't feel pressured - he could look back on his TV success and say "I did it."

"And that makes sense. He is one of a kind, was one of a kind," de Cordova said in 1995. "I don't think there's any reason for him to try something different."

Carson spent his retirement years sailing, traveling and socializing with a few close friends including media mogul Barry Diller and NBC executive Bob Wright. He simply refused to be wooed back on stage.


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"The reason I really don't go back or do interviews is because I just let the work speak for itself," he told Esquire magazine in 2002 in a rare interview.

The former talk show host did find an outlet for his creativity: He wrote short humor pieces for The New Yorker magazine, including "Recently Discovered Childhood Letters to Santa," which purported to give the youthful wish lists of William Buckley, Don Rickles and others.

Carson made his debut as "Tonight" host in October 1962. Audiences quickly grew fond of his boyish grin and easy wit. He even made headlines with such clever ploys as the 1969 on-show marriage of eccentric singer Tiny Tim to Miss Vicki, which won the show its biggest-ever ratings.

The wedding and other noteworthy moments from the show were collected into a yearly "Tonight" anniversary special.

In 1972, "Tonight" moved from New York to Burbank. Growing respect for Carson's consistency and staying power, along with four consecutive Emmy Awards, came his way in the late 1970s.


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His quickness and his ability to handle an audience were impressive. When his jokes missed their target, the smooth Carson won over a groaning studio audience with a clever look or sly, self-deprecating remark.

Politics provided monologue fodder for him as he skewered lawmakers of every stripe, mirroring the mood of voters. His Watergate jabs at President Nixon were seen as cementing Nixon's fall from office in 1974.

He made presidential history again in July 1988 when he had then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton on his show a few days after Clinton came under widespread ridicule for a boring speech at the Democratic National Convention. Clinton traded quips with Carson and played "Summertime" on the saxophone. Four years later, Clinton won the presidency.

Carson dispatched would-be late-night competitors with aplomb. Competing networks tried a variety of formats and hosts but never managed to best "Tonight" and Carson.

There was the occasional battle with NBC: In 1967, for instance, Carson walked out for several weeks until the network managed to lure him back with a contract that reportedly gave him $1 million-plus yearly.


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In 1980, after more walkout threats, the show was scaled back from 90 minutes to an hour. Carson also eased his schedule by cutting back on his work days; a number of substitute hosts filled in, including Joan Rivers, David Brenner, Jerry Lewis and Jay Leno, Carson's eventual successor.

Rivers was one of the countless comedians whose careers took off after they were on Carson's show. After she rocked the audience with her jokes in that 1965 appearance, he remarked, "God, you're funny. You're going to be a star."

"If Johnny hadn't made the choice to put me on his show, I might still be in Greenwich Village as the oldest living undiscovered female comic," she recalled in an Associated Press interview 20 years later. She tried her own talk show in 1986, quickly becoming one of the many challengers who could not budge Carson.

In the '80s, Carson was reportedly the highest-paid performer in television history with a $5 million "Tonight" show salary alone.

His Carson Productions created and sold pilots to NBC, including "TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes." Carson himself made occasional cameo appearances on other TV series.

He also performed in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, N.J., and was host of the Academy Awards five times in the '70s and '80s.

Carson's graceful exit from "Tonight" did not avoid a messy, bitter tug-of-war between Leno and fellow comedian David Letterman. Leno took over as "Tonight" host on May 25, 1992, becoming the fourth man to hold the job after founding host Steve Allen, Paar and Carson.

Carson was born in Corning, Iowa, and raised in nearby Norfolk, Neb. He started his show business career at age 14 as the magician "The Great Carsoni."

After World War II service in the Navy, he took a series of jobs in local radio and TV in Nebraska before starting at KNXT-TV in Los Angeles in 1950.

There he started a sketch comedy show, "Carson's Cellar," which ran from 1951-53 and attracted attention from Hollywood. A staff writing job for "The Red Skelton Show" followed.

The program provided Carson with a lucky break: When Skelton was injured backstage, Carson took the comedian's place in front of the cameras.

Producers tried to find the right program for the up-and-coming comic, trying him out as host of the quiz show "Earn Your Vacation" (1954) and in the variety show "The Johnny Carson Show" (1955-56).

From 1957-62 he was host of the daytime game show "Who Do You Trust?" and, in 1958, was joined for the first time by McMahon, his durable "Tonight" buddy.

A few acting roles came Carson's way, including one on "Playhouse 90" in 1957, and he did a pilot in 1960 for a prime-time series, "Johnny Come Lately," that never made it onto a network schedule.

In 1958, Carson sat in for "Tonight Show" host Jack Paar. When Paar left the show four years later, Carson was NBC's choice as his replacement.

After his retirement, Carson took on the role of Malibu-based retiree with apparent ease. An avid tennis fan, he was still playing a vigorous game in his 70s.

He and his wife, Alexis, traveled frequently. The pair met on the Malibu beach in the early 1980s; he was 61 when they married in June 1987, she was in her 30s.

Carson's first wife was his childhood sweetheart, Jody, the mother of his three sons. They married in 1949 and split in 1963.

He married Joanne Copeland Carson in 1963; divorce came in 1972. His third marriage, to Joanna Holland Carson, took place in 1972. They separated in 1982 and reached a divorce settlement in 1985.

On the occasion of Carson's 70th birthday in 1995, former "Tonight" bandleader Doc Severinsen, who toured with musicians from the show, said he was constantly reminded of Carson's enduring popularity.

"Every place we go people ask 'How is he? Where is he? What is he doing? Tell him how much we miss him.' It doesn't surprise me," Severinsen said.

The brisk sale of the video collection "Johnny Carson: His Favorite Moments From The Tonight Show," released in 1994, offered further proof of his appeal.

He won a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in 1992, with the first President Bush saying, "With decency and style he's made America laugh and think." In 1993, he was celebrated by the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors for career achievement.

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AP Television Writer Lynn Elber contributed to this report.