SSV Cuddlefish 1964 
England 1:0 Paraguay (David Beckham made a free-kick in the fourth minute that skittered off the head of Paraguayan captain Carlos Gamarra and into the net.)
TnT 0:0 Sweden (Wow! Great game. Player of the match has got to be Shaka. Avery John out with a red card in the first minute of the second half. Soca Warriors captain Dwight Yorke picks up a yellow.)
Argentina 2:1 Côte d'Ivoire
my fantasy football starting eleven
UPDATE: Match One
Germany 2 : Costa Rica 1 at the half
(Yeah! Wanchope has a goal!)
UPDATE: Germany 4:2 over Costa Rica. Wanchope scored both goals for Costa Rica. Scoring goals for the Germans were Lahm, Frings and Klose with two goals.
UPDATE: Poland 0:2 Ecuador
For the smug, comfortable, well-off Americans, it doesn't seem to matter how long the war in Iraq goes on - as long as the agony is endured by others. If the network coverage gets too grim, viewers can always switch to the E! channel (one hand on the remote, the other burrowing into a bag of chips) to follow the hilarious antics of Paris, Britney, Brangelina et al.
The war is depressing and denial is the antidote. Why should ordinary citizens (good people, religious people, patriots) consider their role in - and responsibility for - the thunderous, unending carnage? Enough with this introspection. Let's go to the ballpark, get drunk and boo Barry Bonds. The nation is in deep denial about Iraq. For years the president and his supporting cast of arrogant, bullying characters have tried to put the best face on this war. They had no idea what they were doing when they ordered the invasion of Iraq, and they still don't. Many of the troops who were assured that the Iraqis would welcome them with open arms are now dead. And there's still no plan.
Paul Wolfowitz, who fashioned the phony intellectual underpinnings of this catastrophe, told us that Iraqi oil revenues would cover the cost of reconstruction. He was as wrong about that as the president was about the weapons of mass destruction. (And as wrong as Dick Cheney was last June when he said the insurgency was in its last throes.)
Photo by Ryan McManus
"Punkt 9" - Muff Potter
"Madaline" - Catfish Haven
"Following Waves" - French Kicks
"Once, We Were Monsters" - The Age of Rockets
"Rockabilly Blues" - The Two-Bit Terribles
"Jump Back" - Rufus Thomas
"Pig is a Pig" - Plasmatics
"Drunken Angel" - Lucinda Williams
"Let's Have A House Party" - Lou Ann Barton
"Ghost Highway" - Mazzy Star
Bonus Video: John Lennon - "Mind Games"
We're playing those mind games together,
Pushing the barrier, planting seeds.
Playing the mind guerrilla,
Chanting the mantra peace on earth.
Energy services company Halliburton Co.expects net income and earnings per share to double over the next three to five years, Chief Financial Officer Cris Gaut said on Thursday.
Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft continued to oversee the Valerie Plame-CIA leak probe for more than two months in late 2003 after he learned in extensive briefings that FBI agents suspected White House aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby of trying to mislead the FBI to conceal their roles in the leak, according to government records and interviews. Despite these briefings, which took place between October and December 2003, and despite the fact that senior White House aides might become central to the leak case, Ashcroft did not recuse himself from the matter until December 30, when he allowed the appointment of a special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, to take over the investigation.
According to people with firsthand knowledge of the briefings, senior Justice Department officials told Ashcroft that the FBI had uncovered evidence that Libby, then chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, had misled the bureau about his role in the leaking of Plame's identity to the press.
By November, investigators had obtained personal notes of Libby's that indicated he had first learned from Cheney that Plame was a CIA officer. But Libby was insisting in FBI interviews that he had learned Plame's name and identity from journalists. Libby was also telling investigators that when he told reporters that Plame worked for the CIA, he was only passing along an unsubstantiated rumor.
Officials also told Ashcroft that investigators did not believe Libby's account, according to sources knowledgeable about the briefings, and that Libby might have lied to the FBI to defend other -- more senior -- administration officials.
Honestly, if you were Ann Coulter's attorney at a sanity hearing where could you possibly start?
June is Torture Awareness Month. June 26th is the date that the United Nations has marked as the International Day in Support of Survivors and Victims of Torture. This year a coalition of human rights, civil liberties and faith organizations have joined TASSC International, a leading survivors organization, in declaring June “Torture Awareness Month." This awareness raising month is an effort to respond to the growing evidence that the United States government is engaging systematically in the use of torture and inhuman treatment as part of the “war on terror.”
Network to Rerun 'Pee-Wee's Playhouse'
After being shuttered for more than 15 years, the doors to "Pee-wee's Playhouse" are being reopened. The Emmy Award-winning show will get new life on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup, which will air all 45 original episodes beginning July 10, company officials announced Monday.
The full extent of European collusion with the CIA during operations to abduct terrorism suspects and fly them to countries where they may be tortured is laid bare today by the continent's most authoritative human rights body.
Several states have allowed the agency to snatch their own residents, others have offered extensive logistical support, while many have turned a blind eye, according to the Council of Europe.
The UK stands accused of not only allowing the use of British airspace and airports, but of providing information that was used during the torture of one suspect. The report adds that there is strong evidence to suspect two European states, Poland and Romania, of permitting the CIA to operate secret prisons on their soil, despite official denials.
The report follows an investigation by Dick Marty, chairman of the Council's legal affairs and human rights committee. It has been obtained by the Guardian ahead of its publication in Paris today. Mr Marty says that far from being hoodwinked by a "CIA plot", 14 European states were fully aware of much of what was going on. "It is now clear - although we are still far from having established the whole truth - that authorities in several European countries actively participated with the CIA in these unlawful activities. Other countries ignored them knowingly, or did not want to know."
Although Mr Marty concludes that the US must bear responsibility for the extraordinary rendition, he says the programme could operate only with "the intentional or grossly negligent collusion of the European partners".
While the mass killing of about two dozen villagers at Haditha continues to draw headlines, the more troubling killing of individual civilians by U.S. troops remains a more common occurence. These incidents often are never explained, and rarely witnessed by American reporters, who are growing fewer in number in Iraq and not often on patrol with soldiers due to the dangerous conditions.
However, one of the most intrepid of all the U.S. reporters over the past few years, Tom Lasseter of Knight Ridder, has filed a new report based on a mission he went on last Thursday just south of Baghdad where he monitored the killing of three civilians, a woman and two men, under the usual fog of confusion.
Ça roule pour les filles ROCK'n'roll
...« Certains sont persuadés que tout est truqué, s'insurge Alicia. C'est totalement faux. Nous travaillons dur pour pratiquer honnêtement un sport vraiment difficile. Aucune femme ne s'y engagerait si elle considérait que c'est humiliant. Ce sont des femmes de caractère. » Pour elle, le roller derby est même plus que ça : « On s'y forge une meilleure estime de soi-même ». Allez, roulez !
Republicans are worried about gay marriage and the burden of the estate tax on the rich. The rest of us are worried about war, economy, environment and civilization.
SAN ANTONIO - Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell offered a greeting to delegates to the Republican convention. "It's great to be back in the holy land," the Fort Worth native said to the cheers of the party faithful.For the 4,500 delegates at last week's biennial gathering, it was both an expression of conservative philosophy and religious faith, a melding of church and state.
At Saturday morning's prayer meeting, party leader Tina Benkiser assured them that God was watching over the two-day confab.
"He is the chairman of this party," she said against a backdrop of flags and a GOP seal with its red, white and blue logo.
The party platform, adopted Saturday, declares "America is a Christian nation" and affirms that "God is undeniable in our history and is vital to our freedom."
"We pledge to exert our influence toward a return to the original intent of the First Amendment and dispel the myth of the separation of church and state," it says.
“God wrote (the Bible) in English for a reason: So it could be taught in our public schools.”
