U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

I'll let the goal speak for itself...



[Update: FIFA totally stinks and removed the footage of the USA goal. This reaction below, from Seattle, WA is just as good though. Enjoy :)]



[Update #2 - Found another version of the USA goal that FIFA hasn't gotten too...yet]

Click the jump to see the way goals are meant to be witnessed!

Why Obama should keep McChrystal on as Commander of the War In Afghanistan

Since the Rolling Stone article profiling General McChrystal came out, many Washington pundits have been calling for President Obama to fire him for insubordination. Throughout the profile, McChrystal's quotes have shown a man who expressed all too willingly that he felt he lacked support from top administration officials who disagreed with him about the Counter Insurgency strategy (also known as COIN) and the corresponding surge in Afghanistan. Now the ill-timed comments threaten to weaken his status as Commander-In-Chief, and more importantly, weaken the unified resolve to see the mission through.

McChrystal openly mocked officials such as Vice President "Bite Me" Biden and Ambassador Richard Holbrooke for advocating a purer counter-terrorism strategy with more drones and a lighter military footprint.

This is not good.  We have civilian leadership of the Armed Forces for a reason.  Sometimes in the midst of battle the good general thinks that the battle in front of him can always be won whereas the President must ask the question of whether the battle was worth fighting at all.

This flap is surely going to cause hurt feelings between the President and the General and many other Presidents such as President Truman could and did fire their generals for open disagreement.  I would not blame President Obama if he fired General McChrystal, but I think it is the wrong move.  After the lengthy review on Afghanistan's conflict, the President determined that it was a conflict worth fighting and that Counter Insurgency of "Clear, Build, and Hold" with extremely restrictive rules of engagement was the way forward.  General Stanley McChrystal literally wrote the manual.

Here's a chance for President Obama to illustrate that he's a different kind of President, that hurt feelings won't get in the way of seeing the strategy through.  The strategy might still fail, but at least we tried.  And in this era of foreign policy where the opaque goal is to not get 17 year old men with little to no employment prospects mad at you, unfortunately trying is all you can ask.

New Guster Song - Jonah

Here's Guster's new song, Jonah.  The track can be found on Download to Donate for Haiti, which will hopefully be on their upcoming album due to be released in the fall.  Listen for the Beatles-y part at 1:49.  Enjoy!

Dan Savage on raising his son in a "gay household"

Famed Sex Columnist of Savage Love, Dan Savage talks about raising his son and witnessing his son's process of coming to terms with his sexuality. Touching and funny.

USA vs. England

1783, 1812, and 1950. These are the times we've fought our cousins and won. It's time to add 2010 to our cap.

U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

"We're Like Shrek and Donkey"

'Nuff said.

Jim Gaffigan vs. Offended Christian

Very funny.

On Helen Thomas

What she said about Jewish Israelis moving back to Poland and Germany is despicable and just sad (See it here). She may be an anti-Semite, she may be a racist and she definitely is an anti-Zionist. However, Helen Thomas was one of the few White House Press Corps JOURNALISTS.

(Editorial note: I do not approve with the youtube heading use of "bimbo" to describe President Bush's last press secretary Dana Perino. Ms. Perino is by all reports a nice, smart lady. She's also very hot. And for that we salute her.)

Israel took the bait....

...and lost the moral high ground. It's been awhile since I've posted because there hasn't been an event that really provoked a response until now. (The Gulf Oil spill just makes me feel hopeless and depressed, and there's not much unfortunately that WE can do to solve the problem.)

Israel's response to the Turkish flotilla with humanitarian aid to Gaza was in the vein of recent military operations for the past 3 years: OVERKILL.  But Ernie, the Turks were trying to provoke a response!  Yes, they were but Israel took the bait and then some.  They used an inordinate amount of force and lost their moral high ground in the process.

A 19-year old U.S. citizen was found dead with a bullet in his his chest and four bullets through his head at close range.  (I think you got him guys.) And after all is said and done, the Israeli Defense Forces killed 9 people and wounded many more to stop the dangerous shipment of...musical instruments and coriander.  Wow, guys...WOW.

North Korea, which has a nuclear weapon (or two) likely sunk a South Korean battleship killing 40 sailors and South Korea responded by...resuming high level military drills. Hmmmmmm.  Is something amiss?

I love Israel and I want it to survive.  I wish its people stability, security and happiness. The existence of a Jewish State is an important and essential entity as a spiritual center and an ideological pushback on the world of anti-semitism.  It is because the existence of a Jewish State is so important, that Israel must act in its own self-interest and right now its own self-righteousness is slowly doing itself in.

Israel is a major world power that is lately not acting like one. A real world power understands that it cannot overreact to activists and dissidents.  A real world power allows those activists a space to express their views, however abhorrent, without the overbearing force of a police state.  The era of nation-state warfare is over.  Major world powers and armies are fighting against random groups of young adult men armed with rocks, knives, and light weaponry.  The task of traditional military powers is beating these forces without exacerbating the conditions that produced them in the first place.  Take a page from the Civil Rights movement, you can either be the sympathetic victim or the arrogant douchebag.  The next time Turkish activists try to pour food all over you, don't overreact and win the bigger battle.