FOUL, you fucking idiots

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh119sPjApRb0dRyOtS8JAv4h3Hqq6kKu5ArNGWVXY9xUCbc16EWXUkYYm8Oz778p_YbSpZZDa1DQfqGuyw_da0510D9KODY25IzM0jNlc18qC2XPcaXCotNRJc29EBLjt-D7V70b9or9A/s1600-h/Picture+1.png"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 275px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh119sPjApRb0dRyOtS8JAv4h3Hqq6kKu5ArNGWVXY9xUCbc16EWXUkYYm8Oz778p_YbSpZZDa1DQfqGuyw_da0510D9KODY25IzM0jNlc18qC2XPcaXCotNRJc29EBLjt-D7V70b9or9A/s400/Picture+1.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346305264488136130" border="0" //abr /How many game-tying threes in the final 10 seconds will it take before coaches realize that YOU CAN FUCKING FOUL! IT'S RIGHT THERE IN THE RULEBOOK! IF YOU MAKE CONTACT WITH THE OPPOSING PLAYER, HE GETS TO SHOOT span style="font-weight: bold;"TWO/span -- AS IN ONE FUCKING span style="font-weight: bold;"TWO/span -- FREE THROWS. You can breathe on a guy in the NBA and get called for a foul. Yet, when the game's on the line, let's let 'em take a three! Fuck, five minutes of extra basketball never hurt anyone.br /br /If I'm an Orlando fan, I'm pulling a Tanya Harding on Stan Van Gundy's fucking kneecaps. What a devastating loss. (But strong free throw shooting by Dwight Howard at least kept the Magic in the game.)div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19679634-8586428349066561676?l=zachls.blogspot.com'//div

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Marine Corps special ops forces

a href="http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/06/27/military/z41b8d7fb7951825e882575da00753663.txt"Mark Walker:/abr /br /blockquoteSgt. Graham Jacobs, a team leader with the 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion at Camp Pendleton, struggled for an answer to what he and his men did during a recent deployment to an untamed region of western Afghanistan.br /br /The Wyoming native said he was searching for a "politically correct" response.br /br /He was told that wasn't necessary.br /br /"OK," he said. "We ran around and killed a lot of bad people."br /br /...br //blockquoteThere is much more and it not that simple.br /br /Marines resisted special forces operations for several years because they though all Marines qualified as such. While qualified they did not do much of the behind the enemy lines type of operations that are being done now in Afghanistan. I think they have learned to appreciate the role of these forces in the overall combined arms operations.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5051247-2325941201386670370?l=prairiepundit.blogspot.com'//div

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Michael Jackson Icon of Pop Dies

span style="font-style: italic;"bbr /by Gerardo Martibr //bbr /Within minutes, the news of /spana style="font-style: italic;" class="zem_slink" href="http://www.michaeljackson.com/" title="Michael Jackson" rel="homepage"Michael Jackson's/aspan style="font-style: italic;" rush to the hospital and abrupt death at age 50 was heard around the world. Brian Williams lead of the evening news was to have been a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/06/25/obit.fawcett/index.html?iref=mpstoryview"the passing of Farrah Fawcett/a (also today) which was suddenly trumped by the death of the King of Pop./spanbr /br /p class="zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged" style="margin: 1em; float: right; display: block; text-align: right;"a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Michael%2BJackson"img src="http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/126/20576.png" alt="Michael Jackson" style="border: medium none ; display: block; width: 164px; height: 240px;" //aspan style="font-style: italic; font-size:78%;" class="zemanta-img-attribution"a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Michael%2BJackson"Michael Jackson/a via a href="http://www.lasftm.com/"last.fm/a/span/pHour-long specials have already aired. MTV is replaying Jackson's music videos. Youtube is lighting up with a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7MmEMrCRfc"the moonwalk/a to recapture the magic of the wunderkind of dance. Expect a steady stream of long commentaries on the striking talent and career of Michael Jackson. Hear quotes from music celebrities old and new about the legend. Wait for the new revelations about the reclusive eccentric that will resurrect the myths surrounding the man and spin new theories of his oft bizarre behavior. On the heels of his own life will be speculation about his children's future.br /br /Two things I wish to add.br /br /Watch the beginning of a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtyJbIOZjS8"the video Thriller/a and find a statement from Michael Jackson - a religious statement.br /br /span style="font-style: italic;"/spanblockquotespan style="font-style: italic;""Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a belief in the occult. Michael Jackson" /span/blockquotebr /He left his Jehovah's Witness faith behind for the most part, but discussion of his religious orientation will show up at least briefly. Let's see what kind of memorial service will be performed.br /br /Did Michael Jackson leave any instructions about his passing? What might we learn about his religious convictions?br /br /And another thing. Michael Jackson is being remembered as a Black entertainer. This will be interesting to see how this plays out in emerging pop history. Specifically, it seems that Jackson was the first Black person to have a video played on the then-new MTV network. Michael Jackson, breaking free from the Motown label with his brothers to go to Epic, developed a solo career that expanded beyond racially constricted circles. His scarcrow in a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078504/" title="The Wiz (film)" rel="imdb"The Wiz/a with Diana Ross and Nipsey Russell was an African American counterpart to the original MGM Wizard of Oz film, but his breakout televised performance of Billie Jean on Motown's 25th Anniversary where he first performed the Moonwalk moved him beyond being an entertainer only for Black audiences. The music found in both a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Off-Wall-Michael-Jackson/dp/B00005QGAT%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dph07-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB00005QGAT" title="Off the Wall" rel="amazon"Off the Wall/a and Thriller topped all music charts and played across the radio spectrum.br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://cornerstork.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/lisa-marie-presley-michael-jackson.jpg?w=235amp;h=247"img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 198px; height: 209px;" src="http://cornerstork.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/lisa-marie-presley-michael-jackson.jpg?w=235amp;h=247" alt="" border="0" //aSocially, he publicly expanded beyond Black social networks. He was showed prominently hanging out with a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000222/" title="Brooke Shields" rel="imdb"Brooke Shields/a (white icon), befriending Elizabeth Taylor (white icon), and eventually marrying a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.lisamariepresley.com/" title="Lisa Marie Presley" rel="homepage"Lisa Marie Presley/a (daughter of ultimate white icon). His Sgt. Pepper-looking red military jacket alluded back to the Beatles (yet another white icon).br /br /Yes, Michael Jackson was Black. But his career was fully mainstream. Jackson avoided politics as far as I can tell (can someone correct me on this?), so he has not been associated with initiatives to further Black causes, Black rights, or Black issues.br /br /In the end, watch for race and religion in our newest, and perhaps most comprehensive, public discussion of Michael Jackson in the coming days.br /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Cross posted /spana style="font-style: italic;" href="http://praxishabitus.blogspot.com/2009/06/michael-jackson-icon-of-pop-dies.html"from Praxis Habitus blog/aspan style="font-style: italic;". /spandiv style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=627434df-531a-4f6b-8cf0-041b3e2247fb" /span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"/script/span/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/37589721331585843-901789139122178152?l=usreligion.blogspot.com'//div

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"You're outta here!" No, ALL of you

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Lpcm9K9YXVrjeQWDi72vzePI4FXH_DH3ytB3RDnE3bwLygm4bjBvTUkEXvVUR8vN3bGYgilkA5yRxVy4TmuvMjgq9qPoXS2jmT7rSwj3LyuAexBYMr5F8OyoHN3fv4qTaCAgxBF4yXA/s1600-h/umpire-strike-3.jpg"img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 267px; height: 392px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Lpcm9K9YXVrjeQWDi72vzePI4FXH_DH3ytB3RDnE3bwLygm4bjBvTUkEXvVUR8vN3bGYgilkA5yRxVy4TmuvMjgq9qPoXS2jmT7rSwj3LyuAexBYMr5F8OyoHN3fv4qTaCAgxBF4yXA/s400/umpire-strike-3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347360439091361730" border="0" //aGive prep umpire Don Briggs some credit, the man knows how to take control of a precarious situation. During a high school game last week in West Burlington, Iowa, the crowd became unruly after a disputed play at the plate. So he did what any high school ump would do: He ejected the entire crowd.br /br /We'll let the a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/061409dnspohsbaseiowa.3549243.html"AP/a explain:br /blockquotespan class="vitstorybody"span class="vitstorybody"An umpire emptied the stands at a high school baseball game, ejecting the entire crowd of more than 100 fans for being unruly. /span/span/blockquoteFucking love the AP. So concise.br /br /Briggs then called the police and convened with the school's superintendent, both coaches and the other umps, and after a 40-minute delay it was agreed the fans could return, under the condition that any negative comments made could result in ejection and a disorderly conduct charge.br /br /Sounds reasonable, sure. Thing is, neither the superintendent nor the cops saw any bad behavior by the fans whatsoever. So perhaps Briggs was overreacting just slightly.br /br /Iowa sounds so damned fun, doesn't it!? And hey, West Burlington won, 12-11. So everyone went home happy.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19679634-7981904005937895109?l=zachls.blogspot.com'//div

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Withered compliant local constituency parties

pIf Salford Constituency Labour Party let Hazel Blears off the hook, surely someone living in that constituency with Facebook account could find a hundred-or-so like minds?/ppHave you seen? She's added to her ludicrous cheque-waving apology with a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/blears-faces-censure-despite-walkout-apology-1703691.html"another one/a - this time in the Manchester Evening News./ppAgain, before I continue, by way of mitigation, let me invite you to use the search box on this site to confirm that I've been one of the blogosphere's few cheerleaders for Ms Blears./ppWhere were we? Oh yes. Hazel has said 'sorry', and her senior constituency party officials have urged everyone to em'move on'/em. /ppNothing illustrates the problem more than this does./ppHer wider CLP may not be so tame, but this is a high profile case, so the exception kinda proves the rule here: Constituency parties have given MPs a soft ride for far too long, allowing them to conduct their constituency business without much scrutiny, and allowing them to put the need for 'party unity' em(trans: a easy life and a promising career)/em above their need to be independent-minded representatives./ppIt is the job of the constituency party to keep the MP decent - a job that hasbeen all-but abandoned in a lot of cases./ppMost CLPs have been diminished in number over the past twenty years. Party reforms have reduced all means of challenging the orthodoxy on matters of policy and direction down to nothing. /ppNow, I'd argue that there is a strong case for MPs to be the main channels for empolicymakin/ememg/em, and that there are good reasons why members should only have a limited ability to intervene forcefully and directly on specific policy matters. /ppBut local parties need to have a more emadversarial/em relationship with their MPs than they do. They should be demanding that MPs account for the tame way that they have conducted their parliamentary business - and the kind of people who would have given Ms Blears a hard time have long-since left the party./ppBeing able to conduct a debate among party members while asserting one's independence and (Parliamentary) privileges is - as far as I can see - one of the baseline skills needed to be a good MP. /ppBut many local parties have been reduced to being a couple of dozen nodding dogs, with a slightly larger group of members who haven't seen the point of getting directly involved in their CLP for years./ppThe current crisis of representation underlines the need for every CLP to pull their candidate over the coals in the next couple of months. It also underlines the need for more new members - and this doesn't just apply to Labour either./ppOh, have I mentioned 'a href="http://www.reselect.org/"reselect.org/a' yet? /pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12478668-5708206555176735893?l=nevertrustahippy.blogspot.com'//div

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US workers have been earning too little rather than spending too much

a href="http://rommeldak.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/spending-too-much-or-earning-too-little/" This article illustrates the point /a. The US, the largest economy in the world, had the capacity to buy the goods and services produced during the boom. However, because wages for ordinary people were not rising fast enough, they had to borrow the money to do so. Part of what is behind the US consumer debt crisis is thus the low rate of income growth towards the bottom of the economic scale.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/38622711-1082556090158481882?l=vinospoliticalblog.blogspot.com'//div

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Prison Rape

A rare bit of good sense at a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmE2MmE4NmVlYWNiOTFmYTVmMWIzYWI1MmYzNjkzYzY="the Corner:/abr /blockquoteIt has been far too long in coming but, yesterday, the Federal Prison Rape Elimination commission released its report on elimination and prevention efforts regarding the biggest social problem nobody wants to talk about: prison rape.br /br /Anyone who looks at the problem can’t react with anything other than horror. According to the Bureau of Justice Statics, over 60,000 prisoners — the great bulk of them male — fall victim to sexual abuse in prison each year. A fair number of these men are “punks” who are subject to frequent, even daily, male-on-male rape for years on end.br /br /The federal report’s conclusions — a zero-tolerance policy, more direct monitoring, and the like — almost are all common sense. State, local, and federal governments should take immediate legislative and administrative action to implement nearly everything in the report. (Most of the practices are already commonplace in the federal and better-run state systems.) Although giving trial lawyers more business rarely makes sense, Congress may also want to reconsider laws that make it very difficult for prisoners to sue prison authorities absent concrete evidence of physical harm. It’s quite possible that many legitimate prison-rape claims get thrown out of court under current laws. And prison rape needs to stop. /blockquotediv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7163938-6906373562127005037?l=lefarkins.blogspot.com'//div

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