HULK SMASH!!!
The mind boggles.
Well at least he won't be breaking the law on that day, like his Veep , and AG
appear to be...
If there is a "dash" in yer URL, haloscan will almost always butcher, hence send to TinyUrl
...for processing, before making a hotlink in a comment...
AG
-RF
Why isn't the President going to the stadium? Hmmmmmmmm?
But, but, he's UNIVERSALLY LOVED.
Haven't you heard?
I don't think he's avoiding the game for security reasons if you're trying to imply that. He went to Yankee Stadium for the World Series a month after 9/11. Also, universal love has nothing to do with security (Lincoln was loved but shot).
Joshua Ruszkiewicz
Chief Editor, The Political Times
Maybe he's avoiding for politican reasons. I don't think they can declare a non-free speech zone at a stadium.
I don't think he's avoiding the game for security reasons if you're trying to imply that.
I am hardly implying that, Joshua.
I'm implying, now stating, that he will be greeted with, let's say, unenthusiasm. One or two might even boo! Horrors!
"Universally loved" drips with sarcasm.
I am still puzzling how Booth got that pistol through the metal detectors and past Lincoln's phalanx of secret service men.
(forhead slap) there weren't any!
http://www.loungewizards.com/pancake2/pancake.php?
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/08/
20030828-1.html
There, I fixed it. Click the link and it wont make you puke.
Doh! Must be a limit on URL sizes. Copy and paste the link, and you get better results than clicking.
OT -
really stupid reivew of Conason's book in the sunday NYtimes, which for some bizarre reason they pair with Morris' new book.
Check this out:
"His chapter on ''crony capitalism'' -- the web of deals, ventures and profiteering on the part of President Bush, his family members and their allies -- is worth the price of the book, but it's drawn entirely from newspaper, magazine and Web site accounts, and from other books."
I think that's called...sources?
Sorry,
Lincoln was many things, but universally loved was not one of them.
derek g, who said anything about Lincoln being universally loved?
David: I think that "Pulled from his ass" is a more credible source these days.
This reminds me of the game we used to play when someone whispered something to the person next to him/her, and the whispered statement took on a life of its own.
He who controls the past controls the present.
pie:
That would be fun game to play here. We could start with something like, "Bush cuts veteran's benefits" and by the time we were finished it would be something like: "It's Clinton's fault!"
Hey, wait a minute. That happens all the time!
Never mind.
Y'all don't know much about football if you think he'd be greeted with unenthusiasm. With the exception of a Redskins home game or maybe San Francisco there isn't a stadium in the country that wouldn't be 98% Shrub backers. He might get a few polite glares from military families he's been busily screwing over, but otherwise NFL owners are one big bunch of corporate yahoos.
Maybe he's avoiding for politican reasons. I don't think they can declare a non-free speech zone at a stadium.
If said stadium is under the auspices of the Patriot Act, I think Ashcroft has already defined it a "non-free speech zone" by proxy.
Think they'll get his Patriot Act tour to perform during halftime? 
How about New York?
Reading these press briefings is an exercise in high frustration. I know you are supposed to stay "on message", but Jesus H. Christ. Sometimes the response has absolutely nothing to do with the question, and on questions that are clearly public interest, such as "What is the President's reaction to what North Korea said?"
Not that this was any different from any other administration, but holy fuck, the press corps in Washington must be infinitely patient...
98% of football fans pro-Bush yahoos? Not owners, mind you, but fans. Complete bullshit. And I have spent an embarrassing portion of the last 25 years watching the game and talking to fans at the stadium, in the bar, etc. You have no idea what you're talking about secularhuman. Football fans probably tilt slightly to the right in comparison with the general population (and the ones actually attending the games are richer and more likely to be male), but any number differing from the standard approval rating by more than 10 could only be the dream of a Bush-lover or football-hater.
Anyway, as for this tradition that's probably "happened before," Eric Hobsbawm would get a kick out of that.
I think that's called...sources?
But David, for the NYT the word sources must be preceded by “senior Bush administration” or followed by “close to the Whitehouse”.
Pie,
I was referring to:
I don't think he's avoiding the game for security reasons if you're trying to imply that. He went to Yankee Stadium for the World Series a month after 9/11. Also, universal love has nothing to do with security (Lincoln was loved but shot).
Joshua Ruszkiewicz
OT, but Reverend Lou is after Arnold:
Religious Group Urges Schwarzenegger to 'Come Clean and Repent'
This should ensure that nobody in Missippi mistakenly votes for Arnold.
Okay, derek. I think ol' Joshua is the one who totally misinterpreted the exchange.
sorry. M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I
This is the "first annual" handing out of the traditional football? Pedants will be well aware that you can't call something annual until the Second Annual event.
This has Rush Limbaugh's paw prints all over it.
This has Rush Limbaugh's paw prints all over it.
Oh, right. Rush, the ESPN hire.
No sweat, edub. Your orginal spelling is actually how some people
(mis)pronouce Mississippi.
Among the faithful, I'm sure the Whistle Ass cult of personality is leading to the rediscovery of many l9ong-forgotten "traditions." One of which may be the quiet talk among some of the original Founding conservatives of placing the government under the leadership of a new King named George.
Who cares?
Ummmm.... that review on Conason's book is kinda... contradictory? It's effectively saying, "Yeah, it's an awesome book, but like it had nothing to do with Conason. He had no original ideas, he was merely a compiler." Riiiiiiiiight.
Hey, I like football, NASCAR, Harley Davidsons, and cars with huge V8's that go "VROOOM VROOOM!!", does that make me a conservative?
I've got a trademark on the phrase "President for Life Bush".
I used to be a real pro football freak--Sundays, eyes glued to the tube, afraid to miss a play.
Then the players union called a strike, and what happened?
The players scabbed on their union.
Combine that with the militarization of the Super Bowl displays (when they're not supertripe pop crap), the off-field violent macho druggies, the hyperauthoritarian coaches, etc., and who needs to support such garbage?
And now the presentation of the first ball . . .
Oh, right. Rush, the ESPN hire.
I saw my first Rush-era ESPN football commercial tonight. It was sort of a muddle, but I think Rush was there, and on the left side of the set, ironically enough. If you weren't tuned in to the whole controversy, you might not have even known he was there.
Unread Conason book review:
All these things we already didn't pay any attention to before? Well, they are all here again, only that makes them the same things we didn't pay attention to before already, so don't pay any attention to them again.
I really hate these people. First it was baseball now its football.
To address the issue at hand: no, there is no traditional Presidential presentation of the game ball for the first game.
This photo op is a creation of Karl Rove and his minions and has nothing to do with tradition or football. It's a political event designed to get votes.
The L to the O to the B to the O to the T to the O to the M to the Y
August 20, 2003, NYT
No Time to Lose in IraqBy THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
"Everyone has advice now for the U.S.: bring in U.N. peacekeepers, bring in the French. They're all wrong. There are only two things we need: more Americans out back and more Iraqis out front."
August 31, 2003, NYT
Policy Lobotomy NeededBy THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
"Our Iraq strategy needs an emergency policy lobotomy. President Bush needs to shift to a more U.N.-friendly approach, with more emphasis on the Iraqi Army (the only force that can effectively protect religious sites in Iraq and separate the parties), and with more input from Secretary of State Colin Powell and less from the "we know everything and everyone else is stupid" civilian team running the Pentagon.
There is no question that we would benefit from a new U.N. mandate that puts U.S. forces in Iraq under a stronger U.N. umbrella."
I wanna be sedated
Gee, why doesn't ass whistle fly into RFK in a jump jet wearing a football uniform.
Friedman thinks Colin Powell is Secretary of State. What an idiot. Everyone knows Rumsfeld is Secretary of State and Defense. Geez, this guy needs to get with the program. North Korea realizing this today said "fuck it, we're building nukes."
"Q Claire, how old is this tradition of the first game football of the 2003 NFL season?
MS. BUCHAN: I don't know. I think it's been done before."
That's from Duck Soup, right? Also, thank you Northrup.
Friedman....
Umm....
Dude, I think you're really cool, and have good points and all that gay stuff, but dude... get a clue!
Seriously, he's talking out of his ass. He says one thing one week, and says pretty much the opposite the next. He really needs to take a look at his prior columns, and form some sort of logical logic instead of going all over the place each column.
Mayhap he needs to shave his mustache. The Mustache made him do it!
Perhaps in his defense, the UN bombing and the Imam Ali bombing had an effect on his thinking. There's no crime in changing one's mind over good reasons. If so, without looking at the entire article, he'd better say so.
C -minus time traveler
Football is the opiate of the masses....
But, umm... seriously, shouldn't church and state be separate? 
stencil - he could fly into RFK, but nobody would be there, unless there's a DC United game going on. the 'Skins moved to a new monstrosity off the Beltway a few years back. Everybody hates it.
I assume this was dreamed up by the NFL as a steal from the genuine Baseball tradition of throwing out the first ball. They've got a whole schlock-a-thon planned next week complete with Britney Spears, IIRC (though no hot lesbo action is anticipated) leading up to the decidedly untraditional Thursday night season opener.
As far as I know the only traditional place for ceremonial guests at football games is the coin toss, which would, to be fair, be a huge security nightmare in Fedex Field, with a capacity somewhere around 80,000 plus.
Of course, to capture the true meaning of football in American life, Dubya should lay down the ceremonial first bet. Anyone got the early line?
robbiey:
i think you're dead freaking wrong, but i respect your passion. maybe not 98% -- i'll admit to hyperbole on that for fans, and call it underweighted for owners -- but the deviation from the political norm is going to be major, not 10%. And as an institution, the NFL -- which is defined by its ownership and its leadership which is and always has been overwhelmingly conservative -- is smack dab in the Republican pocket, which is why Rover Boy and his dog Shrub cooked up this ``game ball'' crap with Tagliabue. (the same way Rove sullied the Baseball Hall of Fame by calling for that disgraceful snub of Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon.) Anyway, when I light the coals in the Qualcomm parking lot I don't really want to be thinking about politics, and neither do my fellow football addicts. (But next time you're at the ballyard try to find an anti-Bush sticker on any car ohter than your own.)
other than your own, that is....
Secularhuman: Uh, surely the fact that you live in San Diego - which is predominantly Republican - has some correlation with the number of right-wing Chargers fans.
BTW: secularhuman:
that' s Jack Murphy Stadium to you.
(sorry I grew up listening to his brother(?) Bob call Mets games)
W will be spending the night at my house.
secular human,
You have my complete agreement re the owners. The fans probably vary from city to city a great deal. Not only DC & SF, but also Detroit, Chicago, Boston, Buffalo, NYC, etc. have a good number of lefty football fans. The typical bears fan is a moderate-to-conservative dem. And if you live in the city, driving to the game is actually more trouble than it's worth. When I lived in Cincinnati (a pretty right-wing town), I never went to more than a few games, but the cross-section was more Repugnican the city but less than those sinkholes of moral egradation, the Cinti suburbs (look up Rob Portman on Google). Outside of a few southern towns, I'm happy to tell you, it's not as bad as you think.
Robbiey:
I currently live in Cincinnati and went to my first (and no doubt last) Bengals game last year - a friend is a huge Tampa Bay fan, and he came down from his home in Michigan to watch the Bucs slaughter the Bengals.
I didn't see a WHOLE lot of politics on display in the parking lots/garages during the tailgating, but this being Cincinnati, I'm sure it trended right.
And the burbs...oh, God, the burbs...scary thing is, Portman, though he's slightly to the right of Genghis Khan, is an order of magnitude more humane than the guy from the 8th district (think Butler County), John Boehner. Our local rep is Steve "Combover" Chabot, who is famous for (a) NEVER taking any government spending for the district, even when it's needed (like Highway funds) and (b) being the single most pro-life member of Congress.
Someone get me a gig in Madison or Seattle or somewhere...
WF
(who actually ran for Cincinnati City Council in 2001. Came in dead last)
Joshua R.-
Lincoln was so loved that 11 states secceeded from the union rather submit to his rule.
Hi Wes, we actually know each other, and you keep popping up when I least expect you. I'm Robert, who you know from CityBeat/Xavier Grad Assoc. I now live in Boston. Cheers, and of course your take on Cinti politicos is spot-on.
Lincoln was so loved he was regularly compared to an ape even among members of his own party.
i better not see Bushit's monkey face at the start of the packer season. grrrrrrrr.
I wouldn't guess a lot of Lions fans at games are GOP. Or Raiders fans.
this asshole has to poke his nose in everything. it's bad enough we have to have that piece of shit limbo on espn.
This should ensure that nobody in Missippi mistakenly votes for Arnold.
sorry. M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I
That's ok, edub. "Missippi" is how we pronounce it down here.
You mean I can't vote for Arnold? Then why the hell am I constantly subjected to looking at his bad face lift?
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