Noooooooooo !!!

Canada wins 3-2 in OT

Cindy F'ing Crosby !! Ugh !!

OT Baby !!!

Parise scores with 24 seconds left and we are going to OT.It doesn't get any better than this. NBC has to be thrilled !!!

So much for fierce, moral urgency

Democratic controlled Congress approves, and Obama signs into law, a one year extension of the Patriot Act.

Three sections of the Patriot Act that stay in force will:

_Authorize court-approved roving wiretaps that permit surveillance on multiple phones.

_Allow court-approved seizure of records and property in anti-terrorism operations.

_Permit surveillance against a so-called lone wolf, a non-U.S. citizen engaged in terrorism who may not be part of a recognized terrorist group.

Obama's signature comes after the House voted 315 to 97 Thursday to extend the measure.

The Senate also approved the measure..."

This after eight years of non-stop demagoguery about how this amounted to shredding the Constitution. I guess it is too much to ask for an apology to George Bush.

Going for gold

USA v. Canada today.

I know the US won last week, consequently have the better record and are now seen by some as the favorite.

But Canada seems to have adjusted as witnessed by their destruction of a very good Russian squad earlier this week. And their roster is loaded with significantly more experience than the younger American team.

Before the tournament, anyone would have been thrilled if they were told the US team was guaranteed at least a silver. But human nature being what it is, we want the gold!! A loss today would not sting more than achieving the silver would inspire.

Anyway, the assessment is the same as it was last week. Ryan Miller will have to steal a win. Will he ??

US hockey will play for a medal this weekend

The only question is whether they are playing for gold or bronze. That will question will be answered by the outcome of today's game against Finland. Winner plays the winner of Slovakia-Canada for the gold.

The US squad should be able to beat Finland; a steady and solid team. Miikka Kiprusoff has been outstanding between the pipes for the Finns. But Ryan Miller has been better.

Here's hoping we have the US-Canada dream match up.

UPDATE:
Team USA jumps out to a quick 2-0 lead.

A quick summary of the Health Care Summit

Obama: Look, here's the problem. The American people just don't get it yet. By the way, we get to talk more because my time doesn't count since I am the President (i.e. - "I won")

Dingy Harry: We don't intend to use Reconciliation.

Pelosi: Health Care will be produce jobs almost as great as Porkulus!!

Republicans: Your bill is a financial disaster and huge government takeover.

Dems: Hey, here's a list of sob stories. And by the way, you're racist!!

Obama: Your concerns are: "legitimate debates" but shut up and let's move on; an item of discussion for later in the agenda so shut up and let's move on; out of bounds so shut up and let's move on; bogged down in numbers so shut up and let's move on.

And a lot of this in response to Republican speakers:



And the great conclusion from this freak show:

Obama: Hey Republicans, get on board or we'll use Reconciliation.

Do you still believe in miracles ??

30 years ago today (has it been that long??):



Maybe we have another brewing in Vancouver ??

Okay, now we send the pros instead of college kids. But maybe somewhere up there Herbie is smiling down on this team.

USA and Ryan Miller steal a win !!!

They beat Team Canada 5-3. 40 saves for Miller; many of them outstanding.

Obama was named MVP

It's Christmas in February for hockey fans

Whoever set the Olympic hockey schedule made sure that I will burn several hours in front of the today as rivals in North America, Eastern Europe and the Scandis vie for seeding (top 4 get a first round bye) in the elimination phase of the tournament.

The big game of course is USA-Canada. Given the pourous defenses both teams have shown, this could be high scoring, up and down action. But I think both coaches realize that they are not playing Switzerland or Norway anymore and will tighten up their systems. But Canada has to be the favorite as their roster is stacked and they have home ice advantage.

Can't say I agree with Coach Babcock decision to start Marty Brodeur. He may have been one of the top two or three goalies of all-time, but that Martin Brodeur has not shown up as often the last couple of years.

But the real key to the game will simply be can Ryan Miller steal a win for USA. Unfortunately, our fearless Slacker prediction: Canada 4 - USA 2

The Russia - Czech Republic tilt features a return to the spotlight for Jaromir Jagr's ridiculous mullet. News reports also say that Ovechkin and Malkin will be playing on the same line. So that alone will be worth watching. Russia is probably still stinging from their loss to Slovakia and are still our pick for gold. Russia 4 Czechs 3.

And finally the Scandi battle between Sweden and Finland: a rematch of the Torino gold medal game. The Finns have so far dominated their group with 5-1 and 5-0 wins over Belarus and Germany respectively. But Sweden is a much greater test and is also undefeated. Our prediction, the Swedes get revenge for Torino and beat Finland in an overtime shootout.

Maybe I undervalued beating Switzerland

I said I thought Team USA looked "very, very sloppy" in beating the Swiss. Maybe I was too hasty since the Swiss just gave Canada all they could handle before losing 3-2 in a shoot-out.

Or maybe Switzerland is really just that good ??? Nah!!

But it does sort of reinforce that Russia is the team to beat.

How men and women's brains differ during an argument

From Maxim.

Team USA wins again

6-1 over Norway. Looks like they found a little of that goal scoring touch. But hey -- it's Norway !! The big test will come on Sunday night when they play Canada.

Today I met a legend

For those of you who don't know, that is Bernard Marcel Parent -- Hockey Hall-of-Famer, Flyers icon and helluva nice guy!!! You probably remember him better like this:



Growing up in Philly in the seventies, Bernie was one of my all-time childhood idols. I remember being devastated when his career was cut short by an eye injury. He has always had a reputation of being friendly and approachable and I had in fact met him once before -- for all of two seconds and a handshake.

But today I ran into Bernie at a local Cherry Hill WaWa while we were both getting coffee. Recognizing him, I simply said "Hi Bernie". He then asked me if I was watching the Olympic hockey tourney and we then launched into a lengthy conversation about it. I got to talk hockey with Bernie Parent. In truth, I would pay money for this opportunity but I guess the hockey gods were smiling on me.

Anyway, Bernie's take on the Olympics:

* Like me, he thinks Russia is the team to beat.

* Unlike me, he is rooting for Team Canada, not Team USA - he gets a pass because he's Canadian and, well... he's Bernie Parent.

* He thinks the gold is up for grabs because you only have to beat a team in one game, not a series and Bernie should know better than anybody what a hot goaltender can mean for a team.

* He also thinks there is a very great disparity in talent between the top tier teams and teams like Norway.

Sheer genius - Dem plan to save the Senate is....

what else,... more Obama.

Anybody want to check in with Creigh Deeds, John Corzine or Martha Coakely on that strategy?

Team USA open hockey tourney with a win

3-1 over the Swiss. With the first US goal coming from Cherry Hill, NJ native Bobby Ryan.

The thing that stood out -- very, very sloppy play. Hands of stone in front of the Swiss net, too many defensive breakdowns and very weak goal given up by Ryan Miller. Of course it may have something to do with very little time to play together; we'll see how Canada looks against Norway. But they will definitely have to tighten things up if they want to compete for the gold. Fortunately, they get what should be another tune up game against Norway next.

Joe Biden: Just making shit up as he goes along

Seems Joe never doubted that the Iraqi troop surge would be successful. even when he said it wouldn't work, he knew that it would work militarily. Joe knew that only a political solution could bring security; despite the fact that the whole point of the surge was to stabilize the security situation enough to allow the political process to take hold.



Allahpundit charts the evolution of the Biden Doctrine:

If you’re keeping score at home, the supposed foreign-policy genius whom we call our VP has the following track record on Iraq: Voted against the Gulf War; voted in favor of the 2003 invasion; opposed the surge; called for the country to be partitioned and earned himself a healthy degree of infamy among Iraqis in the process; and has now taken to lying about his prior naysaying and insisting that the administration deserves more credit than it does. Point for point, it’s the precise opposite of conventional wisdom about how things have played out. To steal a line from Glenn Reynolds, they told me that if I voted for McCain we’d have a vice president who didn’t know anything about foreign affairs — and they were right!

Bayh's out

Didn't see this coming. Probably because I have been too busy watching the Olympics.

Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh will not seek re-election this year, a decision that hands Republicans a prime pickup opportunity in the middle of the country.

"After all these years, my passion for service to my fellow citizens is undiminished, but my desire to do so by serving in Congress has waned," Bayh will say, according to prepared remarks obtained by the Fix. He will make the decision formal at a press conference later today.

Bayh was first elected to the Senate in 1998 and was re-elected easily in 2004. National Republicans had recruited former Sen. Dan Coats to challenge Bayh in 2010 although polling suggested Bayh began the race with a 20-point edge. He also had $13 million in the bank at the end of the year.

"My decision was not motivated by political concern," Bayh is expected to say. "Even in the current challenging environment, I am confident in my prospects for re-election."

Bullshit !! It looks like the Dems are in absolute free fall. I don't think any of them are really operating under the delusion that the American public seriously loves the bill of good they're pushing if only they could sell it better.

They have watched Kennedy's seat flip to the Republicans with Biden's likely to follow. Clinton and Obama's old seats may also go red. So Bayh has to feel some heat running in a usually red Indiana.

However, I would caution the Republican leadership not to get too optimistic. November is still a long way off. But more importantly, the Republicans have not made a case for voting Republican and the largess of their previous majority is still a very recent memory. This is why voters have gravitated to Tea Parties and not the Republicans. But again, November is still a long way off and the Republicans have time to make their case.

In the meantime, anything that derails the Obama agenda is always cause for celebration.

US Marines into the breach once again

D-Day in Marja as the push to stabilize Helmand begins.

Thousands of U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers traveling in helicopters and mine-resistant vehicles began punching into a key Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan early Saturday, as the largest military operation to assert government control over this country got underway.

The first wave of Marines and Afghan soldiers swooped into the farming community of Marja at about 2 a.m. Saturday local time (4:30 p.m. Eastern), their CH-53 Super Stallion transport helicopters landing amid clouds of dust on fallow fields. As the troops, weighed down with ammunition and supplies, lumbered out and set up defensive positions, AV-8B Harrier fighter jets and AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters circled overhead in the moonless sky.

Two more waves of troops touched down over the following 90 minutes near other strategic locations in Marja. Like the earlier contingent, they did not meet with immediate resistance.

At sunrise, hundreds more Marines and Afghan soldiers plan to enter the area by land, using mobile bridges to ford irrigation canals -- built by U.S. engineers 50 years ago -- that have served as defensive moats for the Taliban. Heavily armored mine-sweeping trucks and specially outfitted tanks will try to carve a path through a belt of makeshift bombs buried around the town.

Good luck boys. Here's hoping for a very low casualty count.

And a word of thanks for the sacrifices these warriors make.

Winter Olympics are here -- Hockey rules !!

Although I am not a big fan of the Olympics themselves I do enjoy the winter games as it gives some television coverage to sports that don't generally get much air time. I enjoy watching the skiing, bobsledding, luge, snowboarding and even the curling (although here I am not really sure what the hell I am watching). But what makes the winter games special is the hockey tournament. It is truly the best collection of hockey talent!

Sooo ... our fearless Slacker prediction for the gold medal: Team Russia. But I will be rooting for the home team. And that's home team USA; not host country.

Another Kennedy seat up for grabs

This time it's Patrick Kennedy's House seat.

Rhode Island Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy will retire after eight terms in office, bringing an end to his House career just months after his father, legendary Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, passed away.

"My father instilled in me a deep commitment to public service," Kennedy said in a video announcing his retirement. "Now having spent two decades in politics, my life has taken a new direction and I will not be a candidate for re-election this year."

And for those of you who enjoy a bit of schadenfreude, there is this:

Patrick Kennedy's retirement means that for the first time in nearly five decades there will not be a member of the Kennedy family in Congress.

Somehow, I think the nation will manage to carry on.

Biden: Iraq one of Obama's greatest achievements

Don't know whether to laugh or hurl in response to this. From Biden:

I am very optimistic about -- about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration. You're going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer. You're going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government.

I spent -- I've been there 17 times now. I go about every two months -- three months. I know every one of the major players in all the segments of that society. It's impressed me. I've been impressed how they have been deciding to use the political process rather than guns to settle their differences.

So, Obama opposes the surge on the basis that it will only worsen sectarian violence and calls for an immediate retreat. Biden argues that the only solution is to divide Iraq into three individual countries despite the fact that a separate Kurdish state could trigger conflict in Turkey. And now these guys claim they are responsible for victory?? Don't think so.

Who is responsible: the US military and the prior administration for having the courage and political fortitude to believe in what those soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen could accomplish.

"Professor" is now a racist term

Charles Ogletree, ironically, a Harvard professor, thinks so:

Ogletree, founding and executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, says he sees the “professor” label as a thinly veiled attack on Obama’s race. Calling Obama “the professor” walks dangerously close to labeling him “uppity,” a term with racial overtones that has surfaced in the political arena before, Ogletree said. Describing his divisive confirmation hearings as a “circus,” Justice Clarence Thomas called the proceedings “a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas.…” It is perhaps ironic, then, that Ogletree, who represented Anita Hill when she made harassment allegations against Thomas in 1991, now sees a bit of the “uppity” label being placed on Obama.

“The idea is that he’s not one of us,” Ogletree says of the professor label. “He has these ideas that are left wing, that are socialist, that he’s palling around with terrorists -- those were buzzwords, but the reality was they were looking at this president as an African American who was out of place.”

Which is more disturbing...

that despite the collapse of the "science" of climate change:

(1) the White House is still intent on forming a new federal agency to deal with this non-existent problem; OR

(2) the fact that AP fails to mention any of the myriad of scandals related to climate research??

Answer: AP is worse. The Obama White House has an obvious political agenda. The press shouldn't; but obviously does.

Some are more equal

Obama, after a year of savaging business in general, and the banking industry in particular, has decided that he doesn't "begrudge" bonuses for "savvy" bankers.

President Barack Obama said he doesn’t “begrudge” the $17 million bonus awarded to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon or the $9 million issued to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein, noting that some athletes take home more pay.

The president, speaking in an interview, said in response to a question that while $17 million is “an extraordinary amount of money” for Main Street, “there are some baseball players who are making more than that and don’t get to the World Series either, so I’m shocked by that as well.”

“I know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen,” Obama said in the interview yesterday in the Oval Office with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday. “I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free- market system.”

Change !!!

John Murtha assumes room temperature

From Breitbart:

U.S. Rep. John Murtha, an influential critic of the Iraq War whose congressional career was shadowed by questions about his ethics, died Monday. He was 77.
The Pennsylvania Democrat had been suffering complications from gallbladder surgery. He died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., spokesman Matthew Mazonkey said.

I don't know Murtha personally and have never liked what I have read. So I will not shed a tear at his passing. Nor will I dance on his grave.

What I do know -- there is now another seat in play, probably in a May special election. The White House cannot be happy.

Belated Happy Birthday

Because we were away, we weren't able to post this on the 6th. But we would be severely remiss if we did not note what would have been the 99th birthday of Ronald Reagan.

RadSlack is back

Was out of town when the blizzard of '10 hit and just got back. Missed the Super Bowl too. A complete break from the world for a few days is incredibly refreshing.

Life imitates Monty Python

Pakistani diplomat, Akbar Zeb was denied recognition as the Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Apparently his name has created an international incident.

Despite having served for years as a distinguished Pakistani diplomat, Akbar Zeb reportedly cannot receive accreditation as Pakistan's ambassador to Saudi Arabia. The reason, apparently, has nothing to do with his credentials, and everything to do with his name -- which, in Arabic, translates to "biggest dick":

For those of you that are Python ignorant:



Maybe his name is based on personality and not endowment ?? Then we could just call him John Edwards.

Countdown

...to Krazy Keith's termination??

A 44% drop in ratings ?!? What, did he go from 1,000 viewers to 666??

With ratings like that he will soon be working for this blog -- we have had almost 1,000 hits in shortly under a year. He'd be fun to have around for shits and giggles. And we love a good conspiracy theory.

Unemployment rates or zombie virus progression ??

Hard to tell from this video.

Darwin award nominee

This fool tried to create a rocket sled.

The victim -- who had a reputation of doing crazy things at parties, according to investigators -- had made an explosive backpack by filling a motor muffler with gas and gun powder. He placed aluminum on both ends of the muffler and lit it, trying to get a rocket launch effect.

According to an investigator's report, the victim had combined gunpowder, match heads and gasoline and filled the muffler with this combination. He donned a plastic garbage bag as a cape and a motorcycle helmet. He strapped the muffler/pipe device to his back. He asked another person to light a wick and then began to sled down a hill. At some point during the ride, the device exploded.

The article notes that the victim was drinking alcohol prior to the accident. Anybody even remotely surprised by this ??

The article also notes that the identity of the victim was not released. However, our crack-addled crack Slacker research staff was actually able to come up with an exclusive photo of the attempt prior to the accident:

Unprecedented

The administration seems to like that word, so let's use it where it really does apply -- Obama's latest budget proposal.

In its budget proposal to be released on Monday, the White House predicts a record $1.6 trillion budget deficit for the fiscal year that ends September 30, the Capitol Hill source said.

According to the estimate, deficits will narrow to $700 billion by fiscal 2013 before gradually rising back to $1.0 trillion by the end of the decade, the source said.

Of course Reuters still can't help themselves from carrying water for Obama dutifully noting:

But Democrats point out that most of the fiscal mess has been inherited from the previous administration of Republican George W. Bush, who cut taxes and created an expensive prescription drug-benefit while pursuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The recession, which began in December 2007 and ended last year, also worsened the fiscal picture by depressing government revenues while forcing up spending on unemployment benefits and other safety-net programs.

So... time to break out the chart for some context nuance!!