You're still not No. 1.

Not so fast Serena.

I hope everybody had a good holiday weekend....i'm so full of grilled meats (pause) i'd prolly bleed hot links right now.

While I was gone Roger Federer and Serena Williams won the men's and women's championships at Wimbledon. But neither one is number one.

ESPN is doing their usual agenda setting in trying to get you to believe that Federer is the greatest of all-time, but even after 15 Grand Slams I still can't see it.

They must've forgotten that just last year when Federer got bounced in the first round of the Aussie Open and he couldn't beat Rafa to save his life, everybody was saying he was possibly done.

Now that he's won his last two Grand Slams (with no Rafa) i'm supposed to believe that he's the GOAT? Better than Sampras? In this weak men's field?

NOPE!

If he had won these last two finals vs. Rafa I could probably buy it, but for now that notion is going to have to sit on the shelf (at least until I can get it 3/$1).

As for Serena, there's a difference between being the best and being the number one ranked player.

Serena is the best player in women's tennis by far, but she's not the number one player simply because she doesn't play enough.

Even with Serena's win at Wimbledon, Dinara Safina is about 2000 points ahead of her in the rankings...what does that tell you about Serena's activity?

I say if she wants to be seen as the world's number one player, she has to play in more than just the Slams.

If she wants the number one slot, she's gotta be willing to do what the number one player is doing, that's just my opinion.

NBA Free Agency: Where Expiring Contracts happen.

As Free Agency gets underway and speculation about who is going where flies around the league, the sexiest trades these days involve getting nothing for something.

The expiring contract deal is the new "in" thing in basketball. It works with a team trading players, draft picks and/or cash to another team in exchange for a player(s) whose contract is up at the end of the next season.

The giving team gets assets that may help their team, and the receiving team gets money off of their books the next off-season to go after whatever big free agents are out there (or just to save some money).

Everybody seems to be gearing up for the "big free agent class of 2010" that involves Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Tyson Chandler, Manu Ginobili, Richard Jefferson, Joe Johnson, Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Redd....

What they cram to understand is that most of these players aren't going anywhere, and there will be a ton of teams with no big free agent signing and a lot of money to blow.

Something tells me that while 2009 will be where Expiring Contracts happen, 2010 will be where Highly Overpaid players happen.

Stevie Wonder Show Review: Summerfest 6-28-09

Stevie's Set:

Part 1: http://www.zshare.net/download/62052055888aaa64
Part 2: http://www.zshare.net/download/620516759df4dc2c/


Every now and then a concert is a bigger than just music...the Stevie Wonder/John Legend concert at Summerfest this past Sunday was one of those times.

Sunday's show was Wonder's second since the passing of his good friend Michael Jackson (Stevie was labelmates with the Jackson 5 when they first arrived on Motown in 1969.), and the pain clearly showed in his facial expressions throughout the performance.

He cried several times during the show, including a complete breakdown when "The Way You Make Me Feel" was played over the sound system during one interlude. His daughter Aisha Morris had to come console him on stage, and he nearly missed his cue for his next song.

The set list was virtually the same as last year's performance, with the exception of the Michael Jackson tributes. During the show he sang "I Can't Help It" with John Legend and another MJ tribute song that was unfinished.

Stevie decided to play a medley of MJ songs over the sound system instead of his usual encore at the end of the show, and the show ended on a positive note when he tried to moonwalk to one of the songs.

The effects of the economy were visibly apparent as well. While last year's show was virtually sold out, this year's show saw entire sections empty with the Marcus Ampitheater at about half-capacity.

John Legend joined Stevie on stage for several songs during his set (the only scheduled show with both artists all summer), but I missed his set because his forehead is big and he talks about cheating too much (jokes).

A New Day.

It's the dawn of a new era here at M&P News...

I like politics and I follow them on a regular basis, but there's 12 trillion political blogs out here, and at the end of the day that's not my passion.

I love music and sports, so from now on M&P will reflect that (along with politics when I feel like going there).

So tune back in and enjoy the show, you won't be disappointed.

Weeking Viewing: Inside the Meltdown

With the job losses mounting and the economy getting worse by the day, it's important to learn how this mess started in the first place.

This PBS documentary is a good look at the beginning of the financial collapse a few months ago.

Follow the Leader

Wait, that's not Michael Steele!

"It's been a long time, I shouldn'ta left you/without a strong rhyme to step to..." (c) Rakim

Me and Ty have been on a hiatus for a little while since life has been kicking our respective asses, but in the words of Ice Cube, once again its on.

This weekend, I watched an articulate man talk about the state of the GOP on DL Hughley Breaks the News. He didn't shout, he didn't bash Obama and he talked about plans to get the GOP back to the basics that resonated with him as a youth.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele even had the heart to call Rush Limbaugh an entertainer (which he is), his show incindiary (which it is) and proclaim that he is not the leader of the Republican Party (which he's not?).

Then he apologized to Rush for it.

*pauses for logic to set in*

Yes, the leader of the RNC apologized to a talk show host who's never held any type of public office for calling him a...talk show host.

Cube, take it away:



As soon as I had a shred of hope for the GOP, they cut the rope.

Barack Obama: Popular (for now)

NaDa SuRf - PoPuLaR
Uploaded by MiKaEl94

The approval rating polls of the Obama presidency are out, and President Obama is doing all right. He has a 68% approval rating overall, which is about where Reagan was for his first approval rating, but behind George Bush Sr. This isn't really surprising, as most incoming presidents start out with fairly high approval ratings. That said, he still isn't winning over many self-identified Republicans, as only about 1/3rd or them seem to think he's doing an okay job. So much for the whole post-partisan pipe dream.

But for the most part, Obama's a pretty popular dude. So popular, in fact, that even congressional Democrats are seeing their numbers go up. A whopping 50% of the country actually approves of the job the D's in the House and Senate are doing, which is huge because, cmon, who likes Harry Reid? Only 38% thought their Republican counterparts were doing a good job, because of, I don't know, we'll say the stimulus. Except less than half of those polled even think the federal government will manage to not screw that up, so maybe no.

Anyway, the point is President Obama is popular for now, and I'm still surprised this song was as big of a hit as it was.

Michele Bachmann: Still Talking

Pictured: Michele Bachmann, with some Turner fellow

Remember Real America's very own Michele Bachmann? She's the Congresswoman from Minnesota's 6th District, which is a oasis of horror in an otherwise tolerable at times state. Around election time, she said she was going to personally find every anti-American in Congress (hint: it's the Democrats) and personally crucify them, so their souls will be saved. Anyway, now she's back kicking the troof to the yoof. Here are some gems from a recent talk-radio appearance.

• ACORN, the radical squirrelfucking vote fraud machine that Barack Obama founded soon after he was born in Kenya, is being given $5 billion from the stimulus package by that guy, the President, even though they're under federal indictment (except they're not and they're . . . not.)
• President Obama has a grand scheme to redistrict the entire country with the census, leaving Democrats in power for "40 years." Aside from the fact that redistricting is done at the state level, not the federal level, cmon. These are the Democrats we're talking about. This si the same party that had a seemingly permanent majority after the 1964 elections and wound up giving away the country for the better part of 4 decades immediately following. Step your conspiracy game up, Michele.
• Apparently we're running out of rich people. Not sure how she even noticed; the rich people in her district consist of the warden at Stillwater and the one successful guy who graduated from St. Cloud State (if there is one.)
• "We are LITERALLY losing our country." She said this. God I hate people who don't know what literally means but say it anyway. It figureatively makes me want to jump off a bridge.
• Also, the stimulus will destroy medicine. That's right, liberal secular humanist Michele Bachmann has to rely on human beings and their "science" everytime she gets sick, instead of praying to Baby Jesus to drive the Flu Demons from her insides like a Real American. Sellout.

No matter what happens with our awful Senate recount, Michele Bachmann will always be the funniest person ever sent to Congress by the state of Minnesota.

Angry Dick.

Sometimes Dick and Bush just don't get along (no matter how many beers you've had to make it work, but that's another story).

Ex Vice President Dick Cheney is telling sources that he was mad at George Bush for not giving Scooter Libby a full pardon after he was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plame case in 2007.

The source told the New York Daily News that he is furious with Bush and feels that Libby deserved a full presidential pardon.

Libby's 30-month sentence was commuted after intense lobbying by Cheney in the last hours before Libby was to go to jail. Because of the commutation, Libby is still a convicted felon and can't practice law.

If he doesn't know he can't lie in court and get in the way of an investigation, maybe he shouldn't.

Who wants to be Obama's King of Money?

Apparently nobody. After Bill Richardson withdrew his name from consideration to be Seceretary of Commerce, Judd Gregg, the New Hampshire Republican who was to replace him, has ALSO pulled his name out.

The reason given is policy differences. Gregg is I guess not thrilled with the stimulus package, or maybe he just wants to wait and become Money King of a more prosperous country that will not soon be living out of a cardboard box. Either way, wasn't Obama's whole "reach out to Republicans" thing fun while it lasted?

Take 2.

Where will he find his fun now?


From the "Here we go again" department: Brett Favre announced his retirement for the second time from the New York Jets today.

There wasn't a tear-filled press conference like last time, but i'm sure his former teammates in the Jets locker room are crying tears of joy and burning his uniform right today.

ESPN and the other major networks won't tell you this, but Brett Favre is a major a--hole.

Not only did he distance himself from his teammates his entire time in New York (not to mention his past few years in Green Bay), he got his coach fired, and he cost the Jets a third-round pick, which they could have used this year to get a QB to fill the slot he just left.

I still don't think this saga is over though, be prepared for Favre to try to play for another team with a system that's more familiar (read: Minnesota).

Republican Congressman Is a SECRET MUSLIM!

It's hard out there for a Republican. The party is still recovering from a horrible November 4th and for the first time in a long time they find themselves searching for an identity. But Texas Congressman Pete Sessions (also the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee) finally has an idea for who the GOP should emulate. The Taliban.

Remember the Taliban? They were harboring bin Laden, so we were pissed at them. Then we kicked their asses from here to Tienanmen Square and they went away, joining Dip Set but then their album kept getting pushed back and now they do PSA's about how your TV antenna won't work anymore I think, although that black guy keeps saying we need to fight them, again, maybe. They were a backwards thinking, war-loving, science-hating gang of religous fundamentalists, only the red states don't like them because they won't eat the Moon Over My Hammy at Denny's. Anyways, Sessions thinks maybe the Republicans can learn a thing or two from the hated and deposed oligarchy.

Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban," Sessions said during a meeting yesterday with Hotline editors. "And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person's entire processes. And these Taliban -- I'm not trying to say the Republican Party is the Taliban. No, that's not what we're saying. I'm saying an example of how you go about [sic] is to change a person from their messaging to their operations to their frontline message. And we need to understand that insurgency may be required when the other side, the House leadership, does not follow the same commands, which we entered the game with.

It doesn't really matter, but could you imagine what would have happened if Barney Frank would have said this about his party? Sean Hannity would literally eat him alive, with Freedom Dressing for flavor.

Anyway, Pete Sessions is the American Taliban. Why do Democratrs foster the type of atmosphere that makes Republicans want to be like Our Enemies?

Strategery?

Given the state of today's economy, it's ironic that Obama's selection for commerce secretary would be the toughest sell.

Obama's decision to nominate Republican Judd Gregg to the position today is causing a ruckus because it could possibly give the Democrats a super-majority in the Senate.

The Democrats currently have a 58-41 advantage in the Senate. Whenever they can seat Al Franken of Minnesota, that will push their advantage up to 59-41. The Gregg appointment will take away a seat from the GOP, and given that New Hampshire's governor is a Democrat, its highly likely that a Democrat would be appointed to Gregg's vacant slot.

That would give the Democrats a filibuster-proof 60-40 advantage, which means that the GOP wouldn't be able to do anything to stop the Democrats from pushing whatever legislation they wanted through Congress.

According to Fox News, Gregg struck a deal with the governor to appoint a Republican in his seat, which is drawing some heat from the Democrats.

How this situation plays out could greatly affect legislation over the next couple years.

The future of the GOP

According to some new polling conducted by Rasmussen Reports, the Republican party's problem is it is too moderate. Or that it's too conservative. And that Sarah Palin is definitely the future of the party. Or she isn't.

Basically, nobody knows what Team Red should do. 43% of Republicans polled think the party needs to turn further to the right, with 55% saying they should look to Sarah Palin for the direction of the party. Unsurprisingly, most democrats think the Republicans have the opposite problem, with 64% saying the GOP is too conservative.

What's most telling is what unaffiliated and moderates think. 39% say the party is too conservative and 34% say it isn't conservative enough.

It kind of reminds me of the early part of this decade when Democrats were getting whooped up on, and all of your liberal friends were convinced that the only way to get back was to take the party further to the left. The D's made a comeback, but haven't really moved the party any farther leftward than they were in the 90's, when moderate Clintonites ruled the land. They just waited for the Republicans to screw up to the point where no one could stomach these trolls any farther and sort of fell in to power.

It seems to me that with the election of Michael Steele as RNC boss and the pre-emptive crowning of Sarah Palin as torchbeaer for 2012, Republicans are trying to have it both ways, by giving the image of a party moving to be more inclusive while moving to the right ideologically.

Will America respond to a Republican party that is more image-concious AND more conservative? Only if the Democrats REALLY screw up (which will probably happen soon.)

The Week in a Flash

Me and Ty have been gettin ready for the Super Bowl this week like most men, so let me catch you up on what's been going on in the world.

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was unanimously impeached by the state Senate on Thursday. He went on the morning show circuit this week to plead his case to the public, but he probably should have saved some of that money and bought a Snuggie.

Obama got his big stimulus package through Congress...now taxpayers are on the hook for another $819 billion dollars. Or maybe everybody in Congress will get part time jobs at Starbucks to pay it off, that's what thousands of college kids across the country do to pay off their debts.

On the Super Bowl, I got Pittsburgh, I can't stand Arizona because they slept through the last month of the season.

I leave you with some Miller High Life ads that didn't make the cut for the game on Sunday.

Russ Feingold's amendment to be

Wisconsin senator Russ Feingold will propose a constitutional amendment that would require a special election in the event of any Senate vacancies. They already do this in the House, so why not the Senate? Currently, 38 states allow for the governor to appoint someone to the senate for at most two years. As we have seen with Illinois and New York's vacancies, these can bring about controversies of their own, and besides have you looked at who they let be governor these days? Clearly these people can not be trusted, though as Minnesota has shown neither can voters.

This actually seems like a great idea, one whose time should have come years ago. In order for an amendment to pass, it needs a 2/3 majority in the House, a 2/3 majority in the Senate and then a simple majority approval in 3/4 of the state legislatures, so this will of course never pass.

Weekend Viewing: The War Briefing

This is a good documentary about the foreign policy issues facing Barack Obama in the coming years.

You can watch it in its entirety here.

Have a good weekend.

The Obamaberry

After Barack Obama was sworn in and official like a referee with a whistle, one of his first pieces of business was to make sure his favorite device came along too.

According to ABC News, Obama will be the first president to use a Blackberry in office.

Because of security concerns he'll only be able to talk to a few select people, but it's better than Bush's system of passing notes by carrier pigeon.

I wonder if he has to call the same customer service line that everybody else does...imagine taking that complaint call.

Maybe this will be his new ringtone:

Caroline Kennedy will NOT be your new senator New Yorkers

The New York Post is EXCLUSIVELY reporting that Caroline Kennedy has told New York Governor David Patterson she is withdrawing her name from consideration to replace Hillary Clinton in the US Senate. So now it is up to Andrew Cuomo, son of former governor Mario, to become the latestdynastic senator from New York. Gov. Patterson did say he is considering Cuomo, but Cuomo has not publicly expressed interest in the position. Otherwise Patterson will just pick someone who does not have any famous relatives, which shouldn't be allowed since their other senator's most famous relative is a daughter that was on Last Comic Standing.

Cooper Manning will be your new senator from New York.

A New Day.

Unless you were frozen solid on the side of a road the past few days, you know that Barack Obama was sworn in as the nation's 44th President yesterday.

Now that all the pomp and grandeur is over, its time for Barack to get to work.

According to the LA Times, Obama has already met with economic and foreign policy teams to figure out early strategy on the economy and Iraq, and he read a letter that George Bush left him.

5 to 1 odds that letter was written on construction paper with a blue crayon.

Good luck Barack, oh man are you gonna need it.

Fin.

And with that, Dubya has left the building.

As the saying goes, don't let the doorknob hit ya where the good Lord split ya, PEACE OUT!

Must-Ignore-TV

If you're done watching the interesting and informative things Charles posted a couple days ago, you can turn your TV on tonight and see another President. Tonight at 8 pm EST, George W Bush will appear on all the TV stations, just like that other guy did a few months ago. He will talk, for fifteen minutes or so, about . . . who knows. He'll probably just talk about what a great country America is and how the surge is working, for laughs. Then he'll go away for real this time.

Tennessee: The place where Democrats have a spine

Pictured: Jason Mumpower after the vote

So something's up in the Volunteer State. For the first time in a long time, Tennessee's House of Representatives has a Republican majority of 50-49 (weird, huh?) and they were all set to elect a new House Speaker. The consensus pick among Republicans was Rep. Jason Mumpower, a very conservative legislator who has in the past voted to ban abortion in the state , voted against letting gay couples adopt, and has been accused of race baiting during the 2008 election. Having been named House Majority leader, he was supposed to become Speaker, until something happened.

Democrats rallied together and, instead of nominating the current Democratic Speaker, nominated a moderate Republican, Kent Williams. The Dems all voted for Williams, Williams voted for himself, and Mumpower lost by one vote. Now the Democrats ensure that all of the committee positions will not go to far right Republicans who want to ban the teaching of evolution and give every newborn baby an uzi and what not, and the Republicans are left holding their Charles Dickens. Can you imagine Harry Reid having the balls to do something like this? Of course not.

Tennessee is now officially interesting, to everyone, except this guy.

UPDATE: And here's video of the whole thing. The Republicans apparently tried to nominate Herc from The Wire, but the Democrats would have none of it and selected the terrible basketball player instead.

Must See TV: American Experience

With a week left until Barack Obama gets inaugurated as the next President of the United States, this series of documentaries on seven past presidents called American Experience would be a good refresher course on how the presidency used to work before Dubya stepped into the big chair.

You can watch all seven online at the link provided.

I've seen the Truman and FDR documentaries so far, I highly recommend watching those to give you some insight into how alot of the toughest decisions in our history were made.

This probably should have been a weekend post, but these are long (and worthwhile) documentaries.

Two "reporters," one with the mind of a child

Remember that guy everyone was falling over themselves to please in the debates, "Joe" the fake plumber? Now he's in Israel, where there is not a war (that would be Gaza,) acting as a war corespondent for the conservative blog Pajamas Media. Here is his "dispatch."



If you didn't sit through that, I'll sum it up. He had no questions of his own to ask the Israelis, then he ranted about why the media even having war reporters is a horrible thing, because it causes us to lose wars all the time. Particularly good is this little nugget.

You know, I liked back in World War I and World War II when you’d go to the theater and you’d see your troops on, you know, the screen and everyone would be real excited and happy for them.

"Reporter" Joe the 14:56, 14:57, 14:58 admitted that he prefers government propaganda to actual reporting. Why the hell did anyone care enough about this clown to pander to him in the first place?

The other big internet sensation/kinda reporter news, 10-year-old Florida kid Damon Weaver, who became net-famous when he somehow got to interview Joe Biden, was awarded press credentials for the inauguration next week after earlier being turned down for an interview with Barack Obama.

Forget that it's an obvious publicity stunt that's only there so everyone will say "haha that kid's hilarious" and then go back to freaking out about losing all of our jobs. From his interview with Biden, Weaver asked a question, listened, and generally came off like someone who's not an entitled asshole phony who is proud of his ignorance.

When the bald guy's 15 minutes are up, can we make Damon Weaver the next pseudo-political mini-celeb with an elementary school understanding of how the country works?

George W Bush: A look back

Thanks to 23/6 for this. Truly the last eight years have had many shining moments.

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

Congress Goes Muslim

no more bacon for you Congress!

Fresh out of the prison that is the campaign trail, John McCain linked back up with his favorite co-defendent in Sen. Russ Feingold to enlighten their brothas on poison that is pork.

McCain and Feingold announced that they will push for reform on adding earmarks to bills coming out of Capitol Hill.

The same group of people who chastised auto execs for flying to Washington to ask for money approved $188,000 in spending for The Lobster Institute in Maine; $212,000 for fruit fly research in France; and $125,000 for a Mother's Day shrine in West Virginia.

The irony is killing me right now.

This quote by Feingold might be the worst one of the entire article:

"We can't afford this; we simply can't afford it," he said. "And we ridicule it, but we also are saddened by it because it's obvious that at least some members of Congress don't know how serious the fiscal situation we're in is or they would not be making these kinds of proposals."

If Young Jeezy knows it's a recession, how don't elected officials who get paid big bucks to represent us in these matters?

Something to think about this weekend.

Blowjobs and Bailouts.

Better Days for Ol' Larry.

Larry Flynt showed he still has a knack for getting publicity for the adult industry out of current events by teaming up with Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild fame to ask the government for a bailout.

Flynt claims the $5 billion request is not a publicity stunt, but this is the same man who coincidentally released a porno called "Who's Nailin Paylin?" during the presidential campaign season and been in front of the U.S. Supreme Court at least three times in his lifetime.

Nobody is taking the request seriously, unless Flynt and Francis bring a convoy of affected employees (i.e. porn stars) to Capitol Hill to "persuade" Congress...expect Flynt to get his money in two weeks.

Obama's big economy speech: Grim

Earlier this morning, president-elect Barack Obama delivered an economic address from the campus of George Mason University (remember them?) It was unsurprisingly short on details, talking about transparency and working together and new technologies and whatnot. The only actual policy was the announcement of a $1,000 tax cut to middle class families, because Bruce Wayne has enough money, maybe.

What was most memorable about the address was it's tone. Normally, presidents don't like to talk about how bad the economy is actually doing for fear of causing panic in the markets. While Obama wasn't willing to go in depth with the specifics of his recovery plan, he was more than willing to get specific about how awful the economy is. According to Obama, 2.8 million people have had to go form full-time to part-time employment, manufacturing is at a 28 year low, and the economy could fall as much a $1 trillion below capacity. No political entity was blamed for the terrible economy (though cmon, who do you think he was talking about when he said "an era of irresponsibility") because we're all post-partisan or something.

I guess there's nothing wrong with him outright saying the economy is in the toilet and it's getting worse before it gets better. It's not like it's a secret anymore. Still, it's a little odd to hear a president say things suck right now, even though we all know it to be true.

'Cism? You Make the Call

"I can't make things worse you say? Watch this."-Rod Blahblahblahblah


The best way to start the year off is with some good old 'cism, and its even better when its gubment 'cism.

With Illinois Gov. (for now) Rod Blagojevich in enough trouble for putting Illinois' Senate seat up for sale, I guess he figured he might as well kick it up a notch and appoint a Senator despite Senate Democrats pleading with him not to.

Appointing any old senator wasn't enough for Blagojevich though, he had to appoint a black man, Ron Burris.

Senate Democrats had already planned on not accepting anybody Blagojevich appointed, but the racial dynamic added on (Burris will be the only black Senator.) makes it an even stickier situation.

You hear that? That's the sound of Jesse Jackson fainting from the possiblities of all the grandstanding he'll get to do on this issue.

I wouldn't be surprised if Blagojevich just went all out and snorted coke in the courtroom as they send him off to jail, he clearly doesn't care about anything at this point.

Oh yeah, Happy New Year.