Happy Xmas, everyone

This year has been a terrifically long one, with pain and sickness and death and loss and grief for so many, many people I know. I don't know how we make it through at times, except for the gift of each other. Thank you for all your kindnesses and support through all our travails this year. As a friend elsewhere said today, "Merry Christmas, and I hope that whatever your struggles may be, you find some measure of peace."

I'll leave you with a song that I think represents the best of the spirit that so many try to hold this time of year. Regardless of your beliefs, hoping for a year without fear seems like a good thing.

Happy Xmas (War is Over) - John Lennon

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young

A very Merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight

A very Merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
A new one just begun
And so happy Christmas
We hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young

A very Merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
War is over, if you want it
War is over now

Happy Christmas

Senator Whitehouse Slams the Wingnuts

And they go apopleptic on the Net . . . I love it! He struck a raw nerve on these mutants, now didn't he? Here's the Senator's must-see slam:



The Right reacted with feverish and wimpy whining. Here's a sampler:

“Resorting to polemical and outrageous claims of racism is the last refuge (or sometimes the first) of liberals who can’t win substantively on issues.”

Hahaha … gotta laugh: pot meet kettle. The vitriol against President Obama has been NOTHING BUT RACIST, beginning with Glenn Beck, FAUX News, birthers, Teabaggers, etc. etc.

“Sheldon Whitehouse becomes Alan Grayson.”

And this is bad . . . How?

Then there were the usual lame and stupid expletives: “uber moron,” “clueless clown,” etc. whine/whine/whine . . .

My very favorite: “Video: Sheldon Whitehouse Calls ObamaCare Opponents Racist, Then Denies!”

And they have the video to “prove it!” Here’s the setup: A breathless Washington Times reporter corners the Senator and tries to score a gotcha moment. But this foolish tool of the Right was hardly the Senator’s intellectual equal; he swatted her down:

“I didn’t say that, you should listen more closely. I’ll stand by the speech.”



While the wingnuts play this short clip ad nauseum –- there's a breathless and desperate tone to their whining -- the full speech can be viewed above, in its total, magnificent context.

One is hard-pressed to find a more toxic, “malignant and vindictive” subspecies of human than these practitioners of the “paranoid style in American politics.” Senator Whitehouse exposed the truth about them in eloquent and contextual history. The wingnuts can't handle the truth; they never could. So they get hysterical and cling even more tightly to their guns, racism, and paranoia.

Responding to Carlos

Well, they did get their 60 votes last night, and yes, they did drag Byrd out at 1 am to do it, but they'll get through the other two votes, and we'll be off to conference by Christmas. The more I read about the bill, the more I'm sad for the bill that we're not getting, but I'm an optimist at heart, so I have to hope that the good parts of this bill (and there are a bunch) make a real difference. I think that the more we learn about Obama, the more it's revealed that he's no idealist, and that he's not actually driven by the fierce urgency of much of anything, but he is (at least in his own mind) a pragmatist, and only targets what he thinks *can* get done, not what *should* get done.

So let's say at the beginning of the process, he believed that he'd never get a couple of senators (say, Lieberman and Nelson) to vote for the bill that he had said publicly he wanted. Given the monolithic nature of the GOP, I suppose the options were (1) that Harry Reid would grow a spine and somehow do enough arm-twisting to get it done, which certainly would have involved giving them something, although I know not what, or (2) this, or (3) put forth a good bill and let the conservatives kill it. I might have gone for (3), except that since it would have been a bipartisan (there's the magic word) effort to kill the bill, and out media is a bunch of morons, it almost certainly would have been painted as the fault of Obama and liberalism (read: Kenyan socialism) and a victory for "real" Americans, who will try their damnedest to follow Sarah Palin off a cliff.

Question: Is there an electoral defeat so convincing that at least *some* Republicans would be willing to break ranks with the teapartiers of the world, and is there a Democratic mind out there who can engineer it?

Healthcare Kabuki Theater and President Obama's Waterloo

The Democrats will have their healthcare bill, barring any unforeseen circumstances, including supernatural interventions invoked by Senators Brownback, DeMint, Vitter, Coburn, and House GOP loon Michelle Bachmann. Apparently they have turned the evil eye on venerable Senate Dean Robert Byrd, who is frail and ailing. Shame on them for forcing Senator Byrd onto the Senate floor at one a.m. in a wheelchair to cast his vote. Such unbecoming lack of “comity” is enough for progressive Democrats to give the bill qualified, but unenthusiastic, support.

It’s far from perfect. It’s not even a good bill. In fact, it’s an insurance companies and Big Pharma bonanza, unless it is drastically improved, amended, and its implementation closely monitored by Congress. The Chicago Tribune has the nitty-gritty.

Progressive Democrats argue that this is a first step toward universal coverage, that they can revisit it later and make it better. Perhaps. But history shows that bad social legislation either ends up in the historical dust bin or compounds its flaws. The best social legislation is that which is done right at the outset, or is designed from scratch: Social Security, Medicare, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Social Security was a limited, generational pension plan that could be built upon and improved over time. Medicare, I would argue, was more progressive in its original form, with Parts A and B –- hospital and outpatient care –- than with Part C, the so-called “Medicare Advantage” adopted in 1997, and the prescription drug sellout to Big Pharma in Part D, passed in 2006. Both Parts C and D were enacted by a Republican Congress.

Part C was Newt Gingrich’s backdoor scheme to privatize Medicare, which he said should “wither on the vine.” Part D was a deficit-busting transfer of wealth to Big Pharma rammed through during the Bush regime. Adding insult to injury, Obama Democrats voted down the pro-consumer drug reimportation amendment, which would allow the government to negotiate drug prices down by importing the same drugs from the same manufacturers for a fraction of their U.S. price. These drugs in countries like Canada and Germany are priced as much as 3-1 and 4-1 or more cheaper. A clear slam-dunk for the consumer was defeated solely because of the White House cheapskate $80 billion deal with Big Pharma.

Has anyone noticed those obnoxious anti-healthcare reform doom-and-gloom TV commercials with a darkened warehouse, a morose, supposedly unemployed worker or two, and the ominous voice-over about an “economy in crisis,” lost jobs, etc. urging us to call Congress and tell our representatives to vote down healthcare because “we just can’t afford it”? It got so that those commercials, paid for by the insurance companies and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, were so ubiquitous and patently false that I was compelled to dive for the remote and change the channel every time they came up. Which was often.

I mention this only because the sudden relief from the absence of such scummy crapaganda was instantly noticed, recorded and recalled here. It couldn’t be for lack of funding –- the anti-healthcare lobby has outspent proponents of progressive, pro-consumer legislation by roughly a 2-1 ratio. So what gives? For one thing, the ads stopped running right after Joe Lieberman’s despicable grandstanding in which he shot down the public option and Medicare buy-in for those 55-and-over, that he had publicly endorsed only two months before, in one fell swoop.

Was Traitor Joe really responsible for the sudden cutoff of the noxious anti-healthcare reform ads? Hmm . . . Not coincidentally, immediately following Lieberman’s sashay down the walk of infamy, President Obama Consiglieri Rham Emanuel was locked in Harry Reid’s office browbeating the Senate Majority Leader to cave to Traitor Joe’s demands, all of them.

Who the hell is Joe Lieberman anyway? He’s not too smart, he’s lazy, he hasn’t read the bill and doesn’t know what’s in it, and he’s a lousy campaigner. Clearly, he was enjoying the limelight, not fully realizing (I believe) the depth of anger he provoked in the progressive community, until Senator Al Franken took him down on the Senate floor and the netroots reacted with (surprise, surprise, corporate shills) characteristic ferocity. In the space of a few days, MoveOn.org has raised $1 million to defeat Traitor Joe.

Senator Sherrod Brown, one of the good guys, said of Traitor Joe in an unguarded moment, the time for retribution is not now, it can come later. I’ll buy it. Traitor Joe should know by now that his petty pique will have its consequences at the ballot box. He’s in the progressive movement’s crosshairs for defeat by a real Democrat who will fight for consumers and against the insurance companies. Opponent X to Traitor Joe can expect a sizable campaign fund of millions, thanks to good governance netroots fundraising. President Obama could find himself busy raising money from fat cats to offset the other DINOs targeted for defeat by the fighting progressives.

As that old SNL skit proclaimed, “believe me now or believe me later” . . . the message was heard loud and clear. Not only by puny Joe, who has all but gone underground, but in the White House too. Consiglieri Emanuel unleashed Capo Uno David Axelrod to discredit, rather hysterically, Dr. Howard Dean, who suggested that if the bill were not improved or fixed in Conference it should be killed. One of Dr. Dean’s objections is the bill’s onerous non-denial of pre-existing conditions if insurance companies are permitted to raise premiums at a 3-1 ratio for certain categories of older individuals. Well, argued Senator John Kerry, taking to the floor to insinuate that Dr. Dean didn’t know of what he spoke, prior to this reform this ratio could be as high as 10-1 or 25-1.

Wow. The problem is, Mr. Kerry, not every American is a multimillionaire heir to a ketchup fortune. The point Dr. Dean made is this: If the average policy is $15,000 and an older American with a pre-existing condition, say diabetes, is suddenly charged at the higher 3-1 ratio for insurance coverage, would you consider it onerous for someone making $80,000 or less? Is this the Senate’s idea of affordable healthcare? Do the math.

Watching the Republicans posture politically against a bill they don’t really oppose is like watching GOP kabuki theater. When Mitch McConnell came out to oppose the bill, he was not surrounded by the usual coterie of Republican Senators. Why? Make no mistake about it: The insurance companies and Big Pharma want this bill, and the Republicans know it. So does President Obama, who gave little more than lip service to the public option. Senator Russ Feingold, another good guy, laid the blame squarely on Don Obama’s shoulders:

“Unfortunately, the lack of support from the administration made keeping the public option in the bill an uphill struggle. Removing the public option from the Senate bill is the wrong move, and eliminates $25 billion in savings. I will be urging members of the House and Senate who draft the final bill to make sure this essential provision is included.”

Frank Rich of the New York Times, analyzing the President’s actions during the bank bailout earlier this year, argued that President Obama is a corporatist at heart. Watching the President charge on 60 Minutes that Wall Street bankers “don’t get it,” then deliver a different, more sedate message to bank CEOs in a White House meeting in which three CEOs stiffed the President and didn’t bother to show up, was too cute by half. The President’s pulled these stunts quite a bit lately, and they’re beginning to wear thin with his erstwhile progressive Democratic base, which has grown increasingly restless. Do not forsake us, Mr. President.

Glenn Greenwald of Salon argues in a provocative piece that President Obama

“clearly intended from the start that the final health care reform bill would contain no [public option] and was actively and privately participating in efforts to shape a final bill without it. From the start, assuaging the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries was a central preoccupation of the White House -- hence the deal negotiated in strict secrecy with Pharma to ban bulk price negotiations and drug reimportation, a blatant violation of both Obama's campaign positions on those issues and his promise to conduct all negotiations out in the open (on C-SPAN). Indeed, Democrats led the way yesterday in killing drug re-importation, which they endlessly claimed to support back when they couldn't pass it. The administration wants not only to prevent industry money from funding an anti-health-care-reform campaign, but also wants to ensure that the Democratic Party -- rather than the GOP -- will continue to be the prime recipient of industry largesse.”

Senator Feingold was one of the few Democrats to speak truth to power: "This bill appears to be legislation that the president wanted in the first place, so I don’t think focusing it on Lieberman really hits the truth."

In a weird way, the most vociferous GOP opponent of this legislation is one of the Senate’s most conservative members, Dr. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. Senator Coburn is perhaps one of the few remaining honest Republicans in opposition. The guy is obsessive about deficits, above all, and shows no sign of even regarding government as a necessary evil. He is a bona fide nutcase who would probably be better off as a full-time self-described “country doctor.” But Coburn is honest in his convictions, and McConnell is more than willing to let him take the point in opposing the bill with rambling, semi-coherent diatribes.

In a bit of Kabuki drama, Senator Coburn said the American people should pray that someone doesn’t show up to vote. Senator Dick Durbin called him out on this, noting that senators should not wish ill upon any member. The assumption was Coburn had referenced the ailing 93-year-old Senator Robert Byrd, who everyone hopes can make his entrance into the Senate chamber in a wheelchair to cast his vote. Ooops . . . Much to Senator McConnell’s chagrin, Coburn hasn’t been seen since.

What a mess. Back to those ubiquitous and obnoxious anti-healthcare ads: They ceased airing because the insurance companies, in their own words, “won!” Thanks to President Obama and allies like Traitor Joe, who carried substantial water for the President, Max Baucus, and the rest of the DINOs, the insurance industry and its wheel-greasing lobbyists will get the sweetheart deal of their dreams. Given his MO, the President probably genuinely believes he can compel the insurance execs to “do the right thing,” suddenly transforming themselves into good corporate citizens and honest, caring stewards of our nation’s healthcare.

The insurance companies and Big Pharma played a shell game of both sides, Republicans and center-right Democrats against progressive Democrats. As usual, progressives, consumers, and the American people were sold down the river to corporate interests. Who do they think they’re fooling? Is the White House still in a post-campaign hubris of “yes we can”? Have they checked their numbers lately? Have they forgotten who elected the President? Senator Byron Dorgan, another good guy, who introduced the drug reimportation amendment, that was implicitly defeated by President Obama, said of the Senate: “My father always told me never to buy anything from someone who’s out of breath. And there’s a breathless quality around here, with all the deal-making.”

Indeed, all the wheeling and dealing makes Clinton’s “triangulation” look like child’s play. Is President Obama on-track to be the greatest president since FDR? Not likely, despite the premature Nobel Peace Prize. The President now seems less like an FDR and RFK Democrat than a strange blend of wonkish fellow Illinoisian Adlai Stevenson and mini-me triangulator Bill Clinton, an Obama ally who said failure to pass this –- any -– healthcare bill would be a “colossal failure” for Democrats. Master politician that he is, Bill Clinton is right. Not passing this bill after all that’s transpired would be a surefire electoral bloodbath for Democrats.

There's always the chance of redemption. Failure is truly not an option. Yet, the conundrum is the inherent danger in passing such a flawed bill and the insurance companies reverting to what they do so well -- gouge their customers -- in spades. Ironically, President Obama might get his healthcare bill and his Waterloo too, after all.

High stakes. It didn't have to be this way. I hope it works out, but I'm not optimistic.

Something's Rotten in Denmark . . .

President Obama cuts a deal behind closed doors with China, India, South Africa, and Brasil, makes a few tough-sounding statements, then admits there are no binding provisions, before hightailing it out of Copenhagen.

Sound familiar?

What's the melting of the polar ice caps, species extinction, underwater Pacific island-states, water wars, floods, violent weather, continental dust storms, and tropical populations collapsing from the blistering heat . . . in the greater scheme of things?

Whatever happened to the fierce urgency of now?

The other day, Gail Collins wrote:

I used to cover Lieberman when he was the majority leader of the State Senate in Connecticut. We got along very well, except for one interview, during which he talked about working for J.F.K., and how he kept a Mass card from Robert Kennedy’s funeral to remind him of the principles to which he had dedicated his career. Showing me the card, he remarked casually that he hadn’t looked at it for some time.

I wrote an article using the neglected Kennedy card as a metaphor for Lieberman’s fall from his old ideals into the pragmatic politics of a party leader. He was outraged and wounded, and I believe I apologized.

Taking back the apology now.

We really miss Ted Kennedy's feral voice in the Senate on behalf of healthcare for the American people. And I keep coming back to John Lewis's question whenever he was confronted with a issue of principle over politics, of justice over expediency: "What would Bobby do?"

I could tell you, but you can guess the answer.

The cutting edge of journalism

CNN.com's lead story when I checked it this morning was headlined: "Debate over 'war on Christmas' claims"

The lede: "Is there a "war on Christmas"? Some Americans say so, arguing that there are continuing attempts to devalue the spiritual nature of the holiday. But others dispute these claims and say Christmas is not under attack."

1) Why the hell are we discussing this as if it's news?

2) Was that paragraph originally written for some sixth grader's report?

3) Isn't that structure applicable to any topic, anywhere? To wit:
"Is the world flat? Some Americans say so, arguing that the world looks flat from where they're standing. But others dispute these claims and say that the world is round."

What fucking uselessness we're surrounded by.

Edit: Two stories below that, there's a clearly scintillating article: "Opinion: Hate-based violence must stop".

Enlightening, this is not.

Good for Al Franken

This counts as a slap-down in the Senate. It may not be much, but Senator Franken made his (and our) point. In a legislative body that likes to wallow in the gallows of its traditions -- I say bring back caning -- the so-called "comity" of the Senate in search of an SNL comedy skit got caned thanks to Senator Al Franken's exquisite actor's sense of timing:



Senator Al spoke for millions of us who are itching to get back at Traitor Joe, the most loathsome, despicable, and petty member of a pretty loathsome deliberative body . . . That is, save for the saving grace of Al Franken, who answers to no one but the people of Minnesota -- which is as it should be -- a point he made quite clear to the insurance company shill standing before him.

P-Span: Joe Lieberman Socks

A little humor goes a long way ... MoveOn's anti-Lieberman ad with sock puppets:

Not to leave out his colleagues

I didn't want to insult the Democratic leadership in the Senate, so I have included a picture of them as well:

For Emperor Lieberman

A lyrical tribute to the gentleswine from Connecticut (pictured below):

Big man, pig man
Ha, ha, charade you are
You well heeled big wheel
Ha, ha, charade you are
And when your hand is on your heart
You're nearly a good laugh
Almost a joker
With your head down in the pig bin
Saying 'Keep on digging'
Pig stain on your fat chin
What do you hope to find
Down in the pig mine?
You're nearly a laugh
You're nearly a laugh
But you're really a cry



(h/t to the Pink one)

Demoralized

Why are the 80% of the Dems who have a clue caving in to the 20% who don't? Is it because just like the GOP, they're only in it for themselves?

This is more passive failure than the active destruction of the country that went on under the GOP, but failure it is nonetheless.

Memo to Harry Reid: Run Joe Lieberman OUT of the Democratic Caucus On a Rail!

And strip him of his Homeland Security chairmanship NOW!

This unprincipled jerk had the gall to go on Face the Nation and rail against the Medicare buy-in for people 55 and over WHEN JUST LAST SEPTEMBER HE WENT ON RECORD AS PROPOSING THE EXACT SAME THING!



HOW MANY WAYS ARE THERE TO SPELL HYPOCRITE?

This is personal; it's not about the national interest, it's not about principle. It's all about Joe Lieberman sticking it to liberal Democrats for casting him aside in his last election, so he's opposing the liberals' major agenda item -- because HE CAN.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

Kick Traitor Joe out, Mr. Reid, take away his chairmanship NOW, and go to reconciliation. His presence in the Democratic Caucus has become toxic and viral. Healthcare legislation is too damned important a NATIONAL issue to be held hostage by a gang of reactionary corporate shills from small states who are bought and paid for by the insurance industry.

Go to reconciliation and BE DONE with Lieberman, Landrieu, Lincoln, Nelson, and Stupak. NOW.

And don't listen to MIA President Obama, when Rham Emanuel reportedly tells you to cut a deal with Traitor Joe. I don't think so. Progressives have had enough. We will compromise no more. Grow a spine -- and a set of cojones -- while you're at it Mr. Reid, or we'll find someone who HAS.

GOLDFINGER . . .

This one's dedicated to the Beckista patsies: How many gold bars have you stored in your own private Forts Knocks to date???

Beck - Not So Mellow Gold

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

We Need a Little More Irish in the U.S. Senate

For those who still read this blog (where have all our friends gone?), I think we may agree that the U.S. Senate needs a little more blunt language directed at its most heinous members. Can we start with Traitor Joe Lieberman?

Here's a script the American people, the lobbyists, the despicable corporate interests, and immoral insurance companies can understand (where's any mention in the Senate of Aetna dropping 600,000 "customers" to protect its obscene profits?):

The Public Option Is Dead, Long Live Medicare for 55 and Other Cave-ins Along the Way

This is not what progressive Democrats and Obama voters bargained for:

• First, a bailout of Wall Street -- Big Banking and too-big-to-fail investment firms -- with no strings attached, no curbs on indecent bonuses, and no regulatory reform (waiting, waiting . . .);
• Second, a watered-down stimulus bill with inadequate funds, few job-creation measures (paging FDR and the WPA) thanks to the President's sought-after vote of a Republican dope from Maine, Senator Susan Collins; as if she and her colleague Olympia Snowe suddenly controlled the entire progressive agenda in their stupid, half-measures middle-of-the-roadkill hands;
• Third, the healthcare reform soap opera, still in progress with tumbling ratings, and a Democratic compromise (cave-in?) with itself behind closed doors to get the votes of reactionary senators Ben Nelson, Blanche (what she does with every mention of a government-run public option to compete with the private insurers and keep prices down) Lincoln, malleable Mary Landrieu, not to speak of Traitor Joe, the Democratic Caucus court jester, who is biding his time to deep-six healthcare with much fanfare for his insurance lords; and
• Finally, the heavy medal Nobel (in anticipation of a swift) Peace Prize President, who seems determined LBJ-like to consume the entire Democratic progressive domestic agenda in the execution of foreign wars, the pursuit of terrorists, protecting the nukes of a failed state from falling into the wrong hands -- which is it or all of the above?

No, this isn't what the voters bargained for, although as they say, the devil's in the details. Is the Democratic compromise to kill an already watered-down beyond recognition public option in favor of extending a Medicare buy-in to those uninsured Americans 55 and up a good thing? Some prominent progressives -- Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich, Anthony Weiner -- say yes, which is reason enough to believe the reactionary insurance ("we won!") industry shills in the Senate won't back it once the CBO numbers come in . . . or they'll water it down beyond all recognition so Harry Reid can slap a reform tag on it, and the President can hold his extraordinary "I've achieved healthcare reform for the American people" signing ceremony with insurance executives, just offstage, the only ones smiling broadly at the prospect of 30 million more customers to gouge.

"We won!" Did we?

Where in the World Is Our Path to Success in Afghanistan? This Pentagon Flowchart Has the Answer

This is no joke, folks, it's the genuine article, uncovered by NBC's Richard Engel. And just yesterday, Afghan President Karzai helpfully offered his own timeline. He wants to keep the family in the drug trade with USAID and the world’s finest military to protect his brother’s narco-trafficking ass and Swiss bank accounts courtesy of the American taxpayer for AT LEAST 15 MORE YEARS!


Here’s my version of the Pentagon flowchart for VICTORY in Afghanistan:

The World's Greatest Fans!

Carnaval 2010 in Rio is coming early this year. Flamengo, Brasil's most beloved (“o mais querido”) football club with a 40-million-strong fanbase in the Scarlet & Black Nation, a club whose 115-year history is as rich and storied as the history of football itself, became Champions of Brasil Sunday.

The title ended a 17-year drought for Flamengo in 2009 as the team capped a Cinderella season vaulting from 14th place to 2nd, with three games to go, then to first place with one game left in the season. In its last 17 games, as it made its victorious run at the title, the team’s record was a dazzling 12 wins, 4 ties, and 1 defeat.

Yesterday, with the team playing its last game at home, in majestic Maracanã Stadium, they needed one more win to make the fans explode in an awesome display of color and improvised pageantry. And they did. Flamengo won its last game, 2-1, and the celebration was on. The poet Nelson Rodrigues (who rooted for another team but could never hate Flamengo) said, as he gazed upon a sight such as this, “Flamengo, this force of nature, is like the wind, the rain, thunder and lightning”:


From the very beginning, Flamengo was the club of the people, representing the everyday struggles of the common man and woman against seemingly impossible odds with faith, perseverance, and hard work. Game day Sunday with Flamengo playing at Maracanã is a foil for the great expression of joy from the masses.

And when Flamengo wins, things just don't seem as gloomy as they did just a day ago. It's no accident that Saint Jude, patron saint of impossible causes, is also Flamengo's guardian angel, or so the fans believe. As everyone's favorite passage in the team anthem goes, “I'd have a profound sadness, If there were no Flamengo in the world.”

It’s a special thing, and once you fall in love with Flamengo, it’s a forever thing. For me, it's a trip back to my childhood when I would go to Flamengo games with a home stitched red-and-black flag on a bamboo pole, soaking in the atmosphere, feeling the energy and the excitement approaching the stadium, that force of nature of 100,000 souls breathing, sweating, crying, bleeding scarlet and black.



League MVP Adriano "The Emperor," powered Flamengo's road to the Championship with an awesome offensive display of goals:



Once Flamengo . . . always Flamengo!

Comic Relief: Chinese TV Recreates Tiger Woods Accident With Alleged Vixen Mistress

Is President Obama Making a Mistake With His Troop Escalation in Afghanistan?

Eerie shades of LBJ's Vietnam troop escalation in the President's decision to increase America's military presence in Afghanistan by more than 30,000 troops. Let us hope Mr. Obama has learned the lessons of history (Vietnam) and his decision won't come to this:

Soccer Diplomacy: Take Note U.S., Brazil Is on the Rise

This is the kind in-depth diplomatic analysis that you won't get anywhere in the North American-Eurocentric media, which is unfortunate, because it is spot-on. In effect, the rise of Brazil as a major actor on the diplomatic stage heralds the death of the Monroe Doctrine and U.S.-European hegemonism in Latin America.

The reaction in this country to Lula's meeting with Ahmedinejad has been predictable: hysterical and hyperbolic. For so long, the United States has cornered the market on the projection of raw power as a substitute for diplomacy in pursuit of its vital interests that it is shocked!, I say, shocked! when a putative ally decides that its own vital interests do not always conform and align with those of U.S. military belligerence in the greater Middle East. In short, the critics should sit down, take a look in the mirror, and STFU. The days of dictation in place of conversation are over.

Brazil is speaking and doing business with Iran for the same reason the United States sold weapons of mass destruction to Saddam Hussein; poured millions in aid to the Pakistani military which openly collaborates with the Taliban and gave direct assistance to the 9/11 terrorists; and held hands with Saudi despots whose nationals perpetrated the greatest terrorist attack on U.S. soil, and who fund madrasas that breed suicide bombers to kill U.S. troops.

Brazil's nuclear program is much more advanced than Iran's, with the caveat that Brazil made public its determination to renounce development of a weaponized nuclear program. Brazil wasn't forced or intimidated to do so. It was a rational and civilized state decision: It isn't threatened militarily by any of its neighbors, and it can't possibly compete with the nuclear might of the United States any more than India, Pakistan, Israel, France, Britain, and China can. These are all regional nuclear states that are not on a par with the United States and its only credible nuclear deterrent state, Russia.

Brazil supports the U.S. goal of non-proliferation, containment of the nuclear states club to its current status quo, and gradual draw-down of nuclear weapons held by the nuclear states. At the same time, Brazil asserts it has earned a seat at the UN Security Council. It has a constructive diplomatic role to play toward achieving real and lasting peace in the Middle East for these reasons:

• Brazil can be a genuine honest broker;
  
• Its growing economic ties with the Middle East and absence from U.S.-European colonialist history in the region give it real bargaining power and influence to effect a lasting peace among warring parties; and
  
• As a non-nuclear power with an advanced peaceful nuclear energy program, Brazil has more credibility with Iran to move it away from weaponization than nuclear powers that seek to impose their will on Iran with threats of military intervention.

The suggestion that Brazil could play a leading role in promoting an overall easing of tensions in the Middle East through soccer diplomacy has genuine promise of success. Kids over there don't play much baseball or basketball. But they love their soccer, and they're often seen wearing the jerseys of their favorite stars on the Brazilian national team.

Let the games begin!