College Football Update

The USC Gamecocks came so close yesterday, but got tripped up at the end by Tennessee in overtime, 23-20. The Cocks would have won if they hadn't lost their ground game to injuries in the 4th quarter. USC is now 3-2 overall, but 0-2 in the SEC, which hurts.

UMass held on to beat James Madison 31-26. The Minutemen are having a good year: 3-1 overall (the one loss coming to Top 10 Kansas State), and 2-0 in the Atlantic 10.

Cornell lost to Yale 21-7. The Big Red are now 1-1.

This week, I'm adding a new team to my semi-regular updates: SMU, Mary's alma mater. The Mustangs lost to Nevada 12-9 yesterday, to start the season at 0-4. Ouch.

What's Rummy Been Smoking?

In today's WaPo, Rumsfeld describes our policy in Iraq this way:

Today in Iraq we are operating on the same guiding principle that has brought success to our effort in Afghanistan: Iraq and Afghanistan belong to the Iraqi and Afghan peoples — the United States does not aspire to own or run those countries.

Since when has Afghanistan been anything close to a success? Most of the country is ruled by warlords, the illegal drug trade is the dominant industry, the Taliban is making a comeback, and freedom isn't really ringing, especially for women. Things are rotten in Afghanistan, and they're rotten in Iraq. But all Rumsfeld and the rest of this administration can see is success after success after success. And that's at the root of the problem.

Where's My T-Shirt?

I survived Hurricane Isabel, and I don't even have a lousy t-shirt. I do have power, though, which is more than I can say about a lot of people around here. The water situation is more complicated. The local water authority lost power at their purification plants, so I'm having to boil all my cooking and drinking water. It's almost like I'm on Survivor.

I Don't Hate Him All the Time

Salon has a very interesting interview with Crossfire's Tucker Carlson. Don't get me wrong — most of the time I think he's a sanctimonious little twit, but he's got some good stuff here. So sit through the "Daily Pass" ad and read the whole thing. The part about Karen Hughes is worth the price of admission.

College Football Update

In my higher education career, I attended a total of three universities. Each fall, I try to keep up with their luck on the gridiron.

After a great start, the USC Gamecocks got smushed by Georgia on Satuday, 31-7. They're at 2-1 for the year, but 0-1 in the SEC so far.

UMass also got their head handed to them, losing to 7th-ranked Kansas State 38-7. The loss drops the Minutemen to 1-1.

Cornell's season starts next week.

Rat of the Week

Howard Kurtz sets the scene:

Two weeks ago, MSNBC talk show host Joe Scarborough introduced a guest, attorney Mike Papantonio, to point a finger at the "Rat of the Week."

Papantonio slammed a wood-preserving company called Osmose, saying it makes a dangerous product used in playground equipment and has "figured out how to poison our children and make a profit in the meantime."

What Scarborough didn't say is that Papantonio is his law partner, and that their firm has filed a lawsuit against Osmose. Instead, he urged viewers to demand that the government recall the company's product.

After being called on it, Scarborough admitted he "made a mistake" and named himself the "Rat of the Week." That's a start, but he should also give up the stipend that he receives from the law firm, and never again book his law partners as his guests. MSNBC might also be starting to suspect that there's something fishy in Scarborough Country:

[MSNBC vice president Phil] Griffin said he had not known about Scarborough's continuing compensation from the firm. Asked if that would continue, he said: "NBC News is examining every aspect of this."

There is nothing in the tradition of right-wing hack television that would lead you to believe that self-interest wouldn't be involved, but this might just a little too blatant even for the SCLM.

New Blog

I've been negligent in my posting duties here even more than I usually am, I know. My only excuse is that I've been working on a new weblog, which launched (unoffically) on Friday. The weblog is called Kicking Ass, and it's the new blog of the DNC.

The backend code for the DNC blog is based on the code I first wrote (and rewrote) for this site. I was able to make a number of improvements, however, especially to the comments engine, and these changes will be rolled into this site when I get the chance.

I also did the design work for Kicking Ass. It's a tableless layout built with XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS, and when we don't screw up and put bad HTML into the CMS, it validates.

For the forseeable future, I will be posting both here and there, so be sure to check both sites if you want all my wisdom.