Two Words...

Epic fail.

Some Countries Take Soccer Very Seriously...

Could you ever imagine the United States doing this?

The President of Nigeria has suspended the national team from international competition for 2 years. He decided that after losing two games in the tournament that Nigerian soccer had to be "restructured." Wonder what that means...

On the other hand, Nigeria isn't the only country furious at their national team. French president Nicolas Sarkozy is actually requesting an investigation the national team's implosion dreadful performance at the World Cup.

On a side note, I wonder if anyone in North Korea heard about them being slaughtered by Portugal 7-0?

House Democrats Showing some Spine on Afghanistan War

Every once in awhile, Nancy Pelosi really surprises me. Less often than not, it's for the better. However, this is one of those instances.

Pelosi told the Huffington Post today that there will be a "serious drawdown" of American troops from Afghanistan in the summer of 2011, citing rampant corruption among Hamid Karzi's government at the incredible expense of US taxpayers She has even wielded the threat of using the House's power of the purse to stop it. This is all following news broken by the Washington Post the other day, informing us that Karzai's government has "repeatedly derailed corruption investigations of politically connected Afghans".

And House Democrats weren't done there. Also today, Democrats blocked $3.8 billion in reconstruction funding, citing concerns about corruption in Afghanistan. You heard me: Democrats actually don't want to give taxpayer dollars to corrupt Afghani political figures and warlords. From the article:

"On Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she recently traveled to Afghanistan and found the corruption staggering. "I was just there for Mother's Day, in Afghanistan, that weekend, and traveled into the country even more remotely than Kandahar," Pelosi said in an interview in her office. "And the corruption issue, it's problematic. And you know what? A lot of it is our money. "This is about systemic, huge money," she said."

The move was inspired by a Wall Street Journal article the other day that opened:

"More than $3 billion in cash has been openly flown out of Kabul International Airport in the past three years, a sum so large that U.S. investigators believe top Afghan officials and their associates are sending billions of diverted U.S. aid and logistics dollars and drug money to financial safe havens abroad."

Did that sink in? $1 billion American taxpayer dollars have gone in the front door and immediately out the back, right in Afghanistan's international airport every year for 3 years.

It seems that at least in the House, Democrats are finally starting to feel the winds of change in American public opinion towards the now 9-year-long war in Afghanistan, now the longest armed conflict that the United States has ever been involved in. The war has become an incredible burden on American taxpayers: $280 billion to date with no real end in sight (the number passes $1 trillion if you also include the costs of the war in Iraq).

Also, it doesn't help the war hawks that more and more bad news keeps coming in from the front lines. The Kandahar offensive is moving much slower than originally anticipated. CIA Director Leon Panetta said yesterday that there are probably less than 100 al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan at this time. And I'm sure you all heard about a certain general of ours who recently being relieved of his command after a nonchalant interview he and his staff gave Rolling Stone. It's finally getting harder for lawmakers to justify this stupid war that we lost back in 2003 when we invaded Iraq.

Respect for Shephard Smith: +10 Points

Found on the Huffington Post

Shephard Smith takes Andrew Napolitano to task for defending BP. Apparently, according to Napolitano, the government is to blame for everything BP did, including having more safety violations than every other company "combined times 10".

"How does it feel standing up for BP?" Thank you, Shep.

I can't listen to the rest of this moron.

If you didn't just watch the USA-Algeria match..

1. You missed an absolutely incredible game.

2. Yes, we did just ADVANCE TO THE ROUND OF 16 AND WON OUR GROUP!

See you in the 16, Germany Ghana or Serbia!

USA ALL THE WAY!

2009: A Good Year to be Filthy Rich

Are you worth millions of dollars? Then chances are last year was a pretty good year for you, despite, well, you know, the global economic collapse.

According to the most recent Merril Lynch/Capgemini report on world wealth, the number of millionaires rose 17% to 10 million and their collective wealth rose to $39 TRILLION, a staggering 19% increase over the previous year.

You just read that correctly. 10 million people control $39 trillion in wealth. The rich in North America alone hold $10.7 trillion of that, according to the report. Just to put that in perspective, Morgan Stanley estimated the total monetary value in US dollars of all worldwide wealth in 2006 was...$100 trillion. Ok, so that was in 2006 before the world financial meltdown. So, for arguments sake, let's assume that a quarter of all that wealth was wiped out in the 2008-2009 collapse. Even assuming a quarter of all worldwide wealth was destroyed, 10 million people...out of nearly 7 billion...control MORE THAN HALF OF ALL GLOBAL WEALTH!

Let that sink in for a minute.

Rand Paul (and the rest of the American Right) Thinks the Unemployed Don't Want to Work

If that Kentucky Senate seat swings blue in November, the man that will have likely made that possible will be...Rand Paul: the gift that keeps on giving. When asked about his feelings on Senate Republicans blocking $120 million in aid to the unemployed, Dr. Paul had some pointed advice for the 10+ million Americans that are currently unemployed (keeping in mind that for every 5 unemployed Americans currently there is only 1 job to compete for):

"Accept a wage that's less than [you] had at [your] previous job" and "get back to work." Straight from the horse's mouth...



What's amazing about this and other similarly-worded statements from those on the far-right (now the mainstream Republican Party) is how it really reveals what they think of the unemployed: they despise them. Righties think that the unemployed really, really want to just sit around and accept government handouts for the rest of their lives. And they don't bother to differentiate between the real deadbeats that do exist in our society that leech off of our welfare system and the OVERWHELMING majority of job seekers just looking to get their dignity back and earn an honest, respectable wage for honest, respectable work: if you're unemployed, you must be a lazy deadbeat societal leech. The American right as done everything in their power to demonize the long-term unemployed regardless of the reason that they're unemployed. Can't find a job? Tough shit, starve! You probably did it to yourself anyways.

And why? Well, you can't have a system that is completely and utterly dominated by corporations (read: fascism) without creating a permanent underclass that is hopelessly dependent on those who horded all the wealth for themselves: decimate the middle class and drive once-prosperous citizens en masse into wage slavery. Is this the future the right wants for America?