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Month: June 2005

Ear Smorgasbord

Irishman Kevin McBride better protect both sides of his head…

Tyson: I’m going to gut him like a fish

MIKE Tyson spent much of this week explaining how he had mellowed as a human being, was comfortable with the place he had arrived at in life after a tortuous journey and how he was looking to a brighter future as a more humble and caring man.

Yesterday he said he would gut his next opponent like a fish, described him as a tomato can and said that if the opponent’s agent didn’t stop talking up the chances of amiable Irishman Kevin McBride there was a chance he’d get the guy killed.

As the 198cm McBride walked into the final press conference at a Washington university campus yesterday ahead of Sunday’s heavyweight extravaganza, Tyson’s mate bellowed out “Dead man walking”.

McBride, an amiable country boy from Clones, Ireland, could only smile ruefully as Tyson glared at him like a mad dog sitting behind a wire fence.

“Man, this is going to be a pit bull against a big soft labrador,” Tyson’s mate continued.

Then, Tyson threatened the man’s life.

McBride’s manager then climbed to the podium and announced to the assembled media from around the world that Tyson was an old man and that Kevin McBride, bigger, younger and stronger, would make sure the fighting geriatric never got another title shot. Tyson’s head almost burst at the effrontery.

“Sit down or you’re gonna get Kevin killed,” Tyson snapped.

“I’m gonna gut him like a fish. He’s a tomato can. This is gonna be a first-class education in humility. I just wish I was fighting you instead.”

I harken back to the ‘Rocky’ movies, where this spectacle was exactly that…just a put on, a promotional event to ratchet up interest in the fight. You know, the two fighters standing on stage, staring each other down while camera flashes pop and the rhetoric flies high. All a show right?

Not with Tyson. This guy is a complete psycho.

Kevin McBride’s trainers better pack a little extra protection with ‘em when they enter the ring. If Tyson starts chewing on Kevin like he did Evander, he’s gonna have to be felled.

Lot’s Going On

No, I haven’t gotten bored with blogging. It’s just that there’s lots going on right now in Bill’s real life and that’s taking precedent over everything else, including the blog. I suppose every person who supports a blog goes through periods like this. It bugs me. I’m busy as all get out, then around 10:00 PM or so I get to sit down at the computer and…everyone in the blogosphere has already written about anything that is remotely interesting. I could write the same things, or I could simply link to everyone else. Both are uninteresting to me.

It doesn’t help that the most reported stories in the world are Howard Dean, Russell Crowe, Hybrid Men and Michael Jackson.

Things will start settling out again (eventually) and I’ll be able to get in my typical 2 to 3 hours of blogging in the morning. Until then, well, things will be sporadic.

Worse Than Capital Punishment

What could possibly be worse than waiting on death row? Getting banned from using the Internet.

A British man the United States accuses of carrying out the world’s “biggest military computer hack” appeared in court in London Wednesday at the start of extradition hearings.

Gary Mckinnon was arrested Tuesday on charges of computer fraud issued in November 2002 by U.S. prosecutors claiming he illegally accessed 97 U.S. government computers — including Pentagon and NASA systems — over a 12-month period from February 2002, causing $700,000 worth of damage.

If found guilty, he could face up to $1.75 million in fines and 70 years in jail.

Mckinnon was released on bail to July 27 and banned from using the Internet.

I broke out in a sweat when I read that last line. Getting banned from using the Internet…like, forever. A fate worse than death.

Dean Denial Math

In the SF Chronicle piece referenced in Bill’s post below, Wade Randlett, a Silicon Valley Dem Party fund raiser noted a recent Business Week story saying Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman was lapping Dean on the fund raising circuit.

According to the story, the DNC has raised less than half of the $42.6 million raised by the RNC in the first four months of the year.Dean, whose schedule in San Francisco Monday included the roundtable, a visit to a gay and lesbian house party, and a fund-raiser, called the report “total hooey.””It’s silliness and gossip. We’re raising twice as much money as we did in 2003,” Dean said. “We’re raising a million dollars a week. We’re doing fine.”

Hmmm…first four months of the year…one million a week…isn’t that like, 16 million to the RNC’s 42 mil?!? Yeah, that’s total hooey. This is like watching the OJ slow speed chase all over again. Dean’s gotta stay!!

He’s Gotta Go

Dean has done it again…

“They all behave the same. They all look the same. It’s pretty much a white Christian party”…

Listen for yourself, here.

The question is, how long before the rest of the party throws him under the bus? Or, will they all commit political suicide and agree with Howard?

Either way, this is gonna be great.

MORE: And, like clockwork, here comes the backtrack:

Dean, speaking in a roundtable discussion Monday, downplayed the controversy over his rhetoric.

“This is one of those flaps that comes up once in awhile when I get tough,” Dean said. “We have to be rough on the Republicans. Republicans don’t represent ordinary Americans and they don’t have any understanding of what it is to go out and try and make ends meet.”

Dean said that he had been addressing the matter of Americans standing in long lines to vote.

“What I said was the Republican leadership didn’t seem to care much about working people,” he said. “That’s essentially the gist of the quote.”

Cow’s outta the barn Howie.

Moving to the Center?

Hillary Clinton’s handlers have made a big deal about positioning the Senator from New York in the political center, especially on matters concerning abortion and immigration. Well, so much for that. Today, the real Hillary Clinton slipped out from under the carpet.

During a speech in Manhattan this morning, Hillary delivered the following ‘sensitive, non-partisan’ comments about the Bush administration and her colleagues across the aisle:

“There has never been an administration, I don’t believe in our history, more intent upon consolidating and abusing power to further their own agenda.”

“I know it’s frustrating for many of you; it’s frustrating for me: Why can’t the Democrats do more to stop them? I can tell you this: It’s very hard to stop people who have no shame about what they’re doing. It is very hard to tell people that they are making decisions that will undermine our checks and balances and constitutional system of government who don’t care. It is very hard to stop people who have never been acquainted with the truth.”

Mrs. Clinton described Republican leaders as messianic in their beliefs, willing to manipulate facts and even “destroy” the Senate to gain political advantage over the Democratic minority. She also labeled the House of Representatives as “a dictatorship of the Republican leadership,” where individual members are all but required to vote in lock-step with the majority’s agenda.

Referring to Congress’ Republican leadership, she said, “Some honestly believe they are motivated by the truth, they are motivated by a higher calling, they are motivated by, I guess, a direct line to the heavens.”

Then, leavening the moment a bit, she referred to reports from the Clinton White House that she would try to channel with a favorite First Lady of the past. “Now, I talk to Eleanor Roosevelt all the time, and she has never said there is any reason to only have one point of view,” she said. “But apparently they have a different direct line.”

“We can’t ever, ever give in to the Republican agenda,” she declared. “It isn’t good for New York and it isn’t good for America.”

Abetting the Republicans, she said in some of her sharpest language, is a Washington press corps that has become a pale imitation of the Watergate-era reporters who are being celebrated this month amid the identification of the anonymous Washington Post source, Deep Throat.

“The press is missing in action, with all due respect,” she said. “Where are the investigative reporters today? Why aren’t they asking the hard questions? It’s shocking when you see how easily they fold in the media today. They don’t stand their ground. If they’re criticized by the White House, they just fall apart.

“I mean, c’mon, toughen up, guys, it’s only our Constitution and country at stake,” she said. “Let’s get some spine.”

Commenting on Justice Janice Rogers Brown, Clinton said, “If you read about her, try not to get upset – I had to read about her and it kept me upset for months,” Mrs. Clinton said of Judge Brown. “This is a woman who truly sees the world in 19th century terms. You know, during the Clinton administration, we used to talk about building a bridge to the 21st century. This administration wants to build a bridge to the 19th century.

“They want to undo and turn the clock back on the progress of the 20th century, whether it’s the right to organize, whether it’s the right to be able to have a choice when it comes to the most private and intimate decisions that a woman has to make, whether it is to protect the environment.”

A particularly “excruciating test” for the nation’s political future, Mrs. Clinton predicted, could come this summer in a showdown over a nominee to the United States Supreme Court, if one or more current members retire.

President Bush “wants to nominate someone, I believe, who will be a confrontational nominee so that he can provide support to his far-right extremist base,” Mrs. Clinton said. “And we have to stand as firmly as possible against that.”

There she is, doing what she does best – throwing red meat to a angry mob.

Anyone can stand up in front of a room filled with sympathizers and lob insults, but did Senator Hillary Clinton propose any real solutions to problems faced by our nation?

Not one.

Hillary, you can’t get elected to the presidency if you don’t have a simple plan. By the way, you need a clue too.

No matter how she’s packaged, Hillary Clinton is a typical liberal Democrat, nothing more, nothing less. If she continues to deliver speeches like this one, she’ll never get any further than the Big Apple.

So, We’re Stuck With Her

WENATCHEE, Wash. (AP) A judge has upheld Washington’s 2004 gubernatorial election, rejecting Republicans’ petition to nullify the 129-vote victory of Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire.

Judge Bridges: Overturning election would have meant “judicial egotism”

“An election such as this should not be overturned because one judge picks a number and applies a proportional deduction analysis,” Bridges said. “To do so within the context of the facts of this case would constitute the ultimate act of judicial egotism and judicial activism.”

More from the Seattle Times.