I know SFL will be coming by with some beefcake later, perhaps.  But let it not go unnoticed that today was the day that the people at Korean Central TV wanted to show a game live to the people of North Korea.  The point was to show the North Korean people that they, in fact, could compete with anyone in the world and such.

Whoops.

[ ESPN Flash video not available. ]

Per ESPN: “As the 7-0 loss to Portugal concluded, the North Koreans quickly halted Monday’s coverage. ‘The Portuguese won the game and now have four points,’ the Korean Central Broadcasting commentator said. ‘We are ending our live broadcast now.’ It then cut to factory workers and engineers praising North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.”

Best.  Segue.  Ever.

(Oh, and Kim was supposedly handling the whole strategy thing for the boys in South Africa.  That worked out well.)

The joke just writes itself, really.

I mean, I’m not expecting Tony to go to NASCAR events or high school football games in September on Friday nights.  But: for fuck’s sake.

(Incidentally, Barry & Plugz went golfing on Saturday, according to same linked wire article.  A little less upper-crust than yachting, to be fair.  But still — noted.)

ADD: For no good reason, post-jump…. Yacht Rock.

Read more »

Sad news in the world of real, red-blooded football and not the wussy kind they are going to “celebrate” starting tomorrow: Los Angeles no longer has a professional football team.  The bill for University of Seventh Choice: bowl eligibility yanked, 2005 national championship trophy repossessed, scholarships cut drastically.  (“Scholarship.”  There’s a turn-of-phrase for you.  But anyway.)

Of course, Pete Carroll (l., with Reggie Bush) won’t be around for the downfall, in that he is now coaching the Seattle Seahawks.  He bravely hit the silk after last year’s disastrous season (complete with spanking at hands of Tree). 

[Come to think of it, Mr. Bush didn’t fare too badly either, what with his fancy new ring courtesy of the Saints’ winning the Super Bowl in February.  Sadly, though, Reggie may become the second U$C tailback to be de-Hesimaned.  Impressive, when you think about it.]

But all that needs to be said, really: it couldn’t have happened to a more appropriate set of bastards.

Looks like the pick for the Supreme Court slot is coming in.  Tomorrow’s Headlines Today — Meet the Press head goon D. Gregory asked Atty. Gen. Holder about the pick, and he said, “soon, baby.”  And then Gregory asked Holder specifically about Elena Kagan — but nobody else, before moving on, quickly, to the shithead who tried to blow up his SUV in Times Square.

If you’re a degenerate gambler and near a bookie who takes bets on Supreme Court picks, if the odds are any better than even money, I’d put a fiver on her.  Just a guess.

ADD: Politico (via TPM) basically have the same thing, as of yesterdayish.  So this is one of two things — (1) Gregory parroting what Politico said, or (2) an actual, honest to God “thing.”  The way Holder responded tells me it’s quite possibly a real-thing.  He didn’t throw out the obligatory “if she’s the nominee” until after giving a spiel about who wonderful she is.  Also.

Yes, kids — it’s Derby Day again!  And as is tradition, we have for you the Kentucky Derby Open Thread.  Because it can’t be all ecological disasters and Republican dumbfuckery and totally-random traffic stops in Phoenix here at Stinque.  After all: degenerate gambling, especially on Sport, is what makes America great.  (That, and the Bill of Rights and the ample amounts of food and  the national parks and all that.)

Handicapping this is a total mess, because the track is… a total mess.  Rain — lots of it — hit Louisville overnight, and is forecast to continue.  My best guess at it is Super Saver, Devil May Care (a lady horse!) and American Lion (4-11-7 on your picksheets).  But with the usual twenty-horse field, it’s a total guess.  (Dartboards, oddly enough, have twenty divisions, which are numbered for your convenience.  Have at it.)

Post time at 1828 ET.  Fire away.

Oh, Gordon Brown.  Dude’s rumored to have a bit of a temper.  But the pain, the shame of saying what you really think with a live microphone still attached to your shirt:

Here’s what happened. Brown was in Rochdale doing a television interview about the deficit. As he was speaking, a woman called Gillian Duffy, a 65-year-old Labour voter, heckled him about the subject.He engaged her in conversation and they had a rather awkward chat that was filmed live on TV. It was a bit excruciating – mainly because she seemed to be criticising him for everything – but eventually she said local schools were getting better.

Brown tried to joke about her wearing the right colour, red, but that did not seem to go down well. He was still trying to speak to her as she was walking away. That was all I saw. It struck me as a fairly typical “politician meets grumpy voters” moment.

But Brown then got into his car, still wearing the television microphone. Apparently, he was recorded saying that the encounter had been a disaster and that she was a “bigoted woman”. Short of doing a Prescott and punching someone [in re John Prescott, a Labour minister that actually did such a thing once], that’s about as bad as it gets.

Brown is on Radio 2 now. The “bigoted woman” remark has not been mentioned yet. But he sounds extraordinarily tetchy.

One: “Tetchy?”  God help us.

Two: I’m sure that some candidate after a campaign stop in — say — Arizona might be wont to say something just like that, out of principle.  But to do it a week before the polls?  YIKES.

This is running up every flagpole on (what used to be) Fleet Street, which is deeming it at the moment as an earthshaking disaster.  The Guardian liveblog (here) has more.  So far?  A posting of the Channel 4 tape (complete with the hot microphone), a non-apology apology on BBC Radio 2, followed by a call to the woman to actually apologize, and then a DRIVE BACK TO HER PLACE to apologize in person.  But also: opposition parties cautiously trying to retain their glee, followed by a suggestion that the woman may be — OH DEAR — the Brit’s version of Joe the Plumber.

Black Eagle, during the Easter Egg Roll, said this:

President Obama said Monday that he was revamping American nuclear strategy to substantially narrow the conditions under which the United States would use nuclear weapons, even in self defense.

[snippety snip]

…The United States is explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, even if they attacked the United States with biological or chemical weapons, or launched a crippling cyberattack.  Those threats, he argued, could be deterred with “a series of graded options” — a combination of old and newly designed conventional weapons.  “I’m going to preserve all the tools that are necessary in order to make sure that the American people are safe and secure,” Mr. Obama said during the interview in the Oval Office.

Well. 

Haven’t looked at The Corner yet, but I’m guessing they’d be somewhat lukewarm to the idea.