Everyone knows how I feel about the US Invasion of Iraq. Its no suprise, right? So take a look at the article below and read the quotes I've bold faced...these aren't Iraqi soldiers speaking...they aren't terrorists...they are 20 year-old athletes who want to be free as much as you and I and this is the opinion of the US that they have. This is why Kerry speaks of fostering a better opinion of America through out the world. Read:
PATRAS, Greece -- Iraqi midfielder Salih Sadir scored a goal here on Wednesday night, setting off a rousing celebration among the 1,500 Iraqi soccer supporters at Pampeloponnisiako Stadium. Though Iraq -- the surprise team of the Olympics -- would lose to Morocco 2-1, it hardly mattered as the Iraqis won Group D with a 2-1 record and now face Australia in the quarterfinals on Sunday.
Afterward, Sadir had a message for U.S. president George W. Bush, who is using the Iraqi Olympic team in his latest re-election campaign advertisements.
In those spots, the flags of Iraq and Afghanistan appear as a narrator says, "At this Olympics there will be two more free nations -- and two fewer terrorist regimes."
"Iraq as a team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential campaign," Sadir told SI.com through a translator, speaking calmly and directly. "He can find another way to advertise himself."
Ahmed Manajid, who played as a midfielder on Wednesday, had an even stronger response when asked about Bush's TV advertisement.
"How will he meet his god having slaughtered so many men and women?" Manajid told me. "He has committed so many crimes."
The Bush campaign was contacted about the Iraqi soccer player's statements, but has yet to respond.
To a man, members of the Iraqi Olympic delegation say they are glad that former Olympic committee head Uday Hussein, who was responsible for the serial torture of Iraqi athletes and was killed four months after the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq in March 2003, is no longer in power.
But they also find it offensive that Bush is using their team for his own gain when they do not support his administration's actions in Iraq. "My problems are not with the American people," says Iraqi soccer coach Adnan Hamad. "They are with what America has done in Iraq: destroy everything. The American army has killed so many people in Iraq. What is freedom when I go to the [national] stadium and there are shootings on the road?"
At a speech in Beaverton, Ore., last Friday, Bush attached himself to the Iraqi soccer team after its opening-game upset of Portugal. "The image of the Iraqi soccer team playing in this Olympics, it's fantastic, isn't it?" Bush said. "It wouldn't have been free if the United States had not acted."
Sadir, Wednesday's goal-scorer, used to be the star player for the professional soccer team in Najaf. In the city in which 20,000 fans used to fill the stadium and chant Sadir's name, U.S. and Iraqi forces have battled loyalists to rebel cleric Moktada al-Sadr for the past two weeks. Najaf lies in ruins.
"I want the violence and the war to go away from the city," says Sadir, 21. "We don't wish for the presence of Americans in our country. We want them to go away."
Manajid, 22, who nearly scored his own goal with a driven header on Wednesday, hails from the city of Fallujah. He says coalition forces killed Manajid's cousin, Omar Jabbar al-Aziz, who was fighting as an insurgent, and several of his friends. In fact, Manajid says, if he were not playing soccer he would "for sure" be fighting as part of the resistance.
"I want to defend my home. If a stranger invades America and the people resist, does that mean they are terrorists?" Manajid says. "Everyone [in Fallujah] has been labeled a terrorist. These are all lies. Fallujah people are some of the best people in Iraq."
Everyone agrees that Iraq's soccer team is one of the Olympics' most remarkable stories. If the Iraqis beat Australia on Saturday -- which is entirely possible, given their performance so far -- they would reach the semifinals. Three of the four semifinalists will earn medals, a prospect that seemed unthinkable for Iraq before this tournament.
When the Games are over, though, Coach Hamad says, they will have to return home to a place where they fear walking the streets.
"The war is not secure," says Hamad, 43. "Many people hate America now. The Americans have lost many people around the world--and that is what is happening in America also."
George W. Bush meets with the Queen of England. Heasks her, "Your Majesty, how do you run such anefficient government? Are there any tips you cangive to me?"
"Well," says the Queen, "the most important thingis to surround yourself with intelligent people."
Bush frowns. "But how do I know the people aroundme are really intelligent?" The Queen takes a sip of tea. "Oh, that's easy.You just ask them to answer an intelligence riddle." The Queen pushes a button on her intercom."Please send Tony Blair in here, would you?"
Tony Blair walks into the room. "Yes, my Queen?"
The Queen smiles. "Answer me this, please, Tony.Your mother and father have a child. It is not yourbrother and it is not your sister. Who is it?" Without pausing for a moment, Tony Blair answers,"That would be me."
"Yes! Very good," says the Queen.
Back at the White House, Bush asks to speak withvice president Dick Cheney. "Dick, answer this for me. Your mother and your father have a child. It's not your brother and it'snot your sister. Who is it?"
"I'm not sure," says the vice president. "Let meget back to you on that one."
Dick Cheney goes to his advisors and asks everyone, but none can give him an answer. Finally, he endsup in the men's room and recognizes ColinPowell's shoes in the next stall. Dick shouts, "Colin! Can you answer this for me?Your mother and father have a child and it's not your brother or your sister. Who is it?"
Colin Powell yells back, "That's easy. It's me!"
Dick Cheney smiles. "Thanks!"
Cheney goes back to the Oval Office and to speakwith Bush. "Say, I did some research and I have theanswer to that riddle. It's Colin Powell." Bush gets up, stomps over to Dick Cheney, andangrily yells into his face,"No, you idiot! It's Tony Blair!"
I was telling my good buddy Teresa a story about my tangle with a terrorizing arachnid in my backyard and I thought I'd share. Between you and I, I think its probably much more safe for my general existence to stay out of the yard. Nature and I have no business mingling!
But anyway, last week around 6:30 in the morning I was busy putting the trash out to the curb. There is a small walk way that runs from the back of my house to the front. As I was walking towards the back of the house I felt something on my face and stopped immediately because I'd realized what I'd done.
I had walked face-first into a spider-web. This was no ordinary spider web. This thing could've caught a chrysler mini-van in its grip!
So there I am standing still with the web stuck to my face. And normally I'm not afraid of spiders. But as I stood there with the sticky string tickling my face, I glanced to the right and upward and there it was....A GIANT MOFO'in Spider. This thing was roughly the size of a golf ball and judging by the fact that it started scuttling down its web towards me (it was probably thinking "HOLY SHIT I HIT THE LOTTERY!!!") it wasn't afraid of me.
Everything after that was a bit of a blur. I know that I shrieked a repulsive, girl-like wail. I know I flailed my arms wildly and probably screamed "get it off me" or something relatively valiant. And at some point, I lost my balance and fell head-first into the hedge that separates my property with my owner's.
So there I am thrashing in the bushes, wailing and gasping and kicking. Branch gouged me in the back and neck as their leaves flew up in a wild flurry. I managed to jump to my feet (somehow) in one of those bewildered "I'm cool....I'm alright..." kinda states.
For the rest of the day I could feel that spider crawling on me. Every little tickle or itch made me pause for a second. I spent most of the day pulling bark and leaves from hair as well.
So last night I go out on the back porch to put the dogs out and who should I run into? My arch nemesis, Bastard Spider. It had spun a web on my back porch roughly the size of a large trash can lid. It sat in the middle of the web staring at me. Eyeing me up. I know what it was thinking too....
"there's the one that got away..." I imagined the spider telling his grand-spidlets about the time he almost caught the great white honky
And being the good almost-Buddhist person that I am, I swallowed my urge to take a baseball bat and smack that sumbitch into left field. On the flip side of that, I'm going to take pictures of it tonight if its still there. Then you will see exactly what I'm talking about.
Republican-Party Brain Power at work
Republicans Look to Harvest Amish Vote
1 hour, 36 minutes ago
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
BIRD-IN-HAND, Pa. - The Amish live without electricity, cars, telephones, and usually, without voting. But they are being sought out this year as Republicans try to sign up every possible supporter in presidential battleground states.
Amish almost always side with the Republican Party
when they do vote** — making them an attractive, if unlikely, voting bloc in the neck-and-neck campaign between President Bush (
news -
web sites) and Democratic nominee John Kerry (
news -
web sites). A majority of the nation's Amish live in key swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio.
**Bush can have this demographic...a large majority of Amish consider it a contradiction to their devotion to pacifism. I heard that Bush's next vote rally will be to try and get the homeless animals to cast their vote for Republican...hahaa (sorry Rob).
Good Mornin', Amigos...
I left my last post up for a little while longer than normal just so everyone had a chance to read. I was hoping for more comments. After talking to a good friend of my on the phone yesterday, I was scolded for being one-sided. HELLOOOO???? I am one-sided. But I also want to stress something to you. I want you to vote. I'd love for you to vote out Bush cause I believe he needs to go. BUT, I don't want you to vote him out just cause I said you should. What I'm tryin' to say here, folks, is that you should make your own educated vote. Don't vote for someone just because you're a staunch republican or a "yellow-dog" democrat. Place your vote for the right reasons. MMMkaaay?
On that note, check this out:
NEW YORK (AP) -- In an unprecedented series of concerts in nine swing states, more than 20 musical acts -- including Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, John Mellencamp and the Dixie Chicks -- will perform fund-raising concerts one month before the November 2 election in an effort to unseat President Bush.
The shows, which will begin October 1 in Pennsylvania, will take an unusual approach: as many as six concerts on a single day in cities across the states expected to decide the November presidential race. Other stops on the tour are North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin and the key state in 2000, Florida.
"We're trying to put forward a group of progressive ideals and change the administration in the White House," Springsteen told The Associated Press in the most overtly political statements of his 30-year career. "That's the success or failure, very clear cut and very simple."
The artists of different generations and genres will tour under the name "Vote For Change," with shows October 1-8. But the money generated will go to America Coming Together, which promises on its Web site to "derail the right-wing Republican agenda by defeating George W. Bush."
