batista roars...

so Team USA has been playing in this olympic qualifying tournament the last couple weeks. all this week, i've made a point of at least watching the first quarter before i crash (games start at 11 every night on ESPN 2; they've played every night this week).

things i've observed:
- jason kidd is still a great point guard. he's pushing the ball like a champ, just as well as steve nash can. can't shoot as well as nash, but he's a better defender.
- carmelo is a fucking baller. leading scorer and rebounder on the US, playing the 4 spot. hitting threes, just dominating inside.
- kobe is playing great defense, and seems to be playing with a good attitude. he and kidd are the team leaders.
- chauncey looks slow out there. i think deron williams should get most of the backup PG minutes.
- michael redd is too streaky. he's not what they need in their "designated shooter". mike miller has been a little sporadic as well, but i think he's a better option. where the hell is ray allen?
- you might know esteban batista, a backup center for the hawks. well, he looks really good playing for uruguay. leading scorer and rebounder in the tournament. last night dwight howard, amare, and tayshaun all tried to check him, to no avail. hope the hawks keep him around and play him more than last year. i think he's a free agent. he's like oberto/zaza with a serious mean streak, could be a solid nba backup.

on the whole, the squad looks right. best Team USA since the original Dream Team in '92.

quit piling on:

usually the first thing i look at when a new flagpole comes out is the "reality check" section. i suspect this is true of a lot of people. i really enjoy it, even if many of the letter are dumb or fake.
but i just looked at this week's edition. check out this little zinger:

As much as people give lip service to wanting something more, something different out of life, love and relationships, the truth is that very few people actually live outside the box. That’s why Wal-Mart and McDonald’s and law school are so popular: People don’t know what else to do.

ouch. fuck you, jyl.

electoral methodology:

PC just mentioned this "initiative" to me at lunch. i pull up slate and the first thing i see is this article. this could be seriously bad news, particularly as voters often have little understanding of the implications of what they're voting on when it comes to referendums (myself included).

i am, however, intrigued by the mentioned "national popular vote" plan. makes tons of sense. even with partisan resistence, it seems at least plausible you could get states with half the electoral votes to sign on. and that's all you'd need.

Sueyu Baby

i just saw that the sauce commented on the "tofu baby" cartoons in the flagpole...check it out

miscellany:

AG and one of his h.s. chums have started a blog. note it to the right in the "links" area. excellent nerdy pop culture commentary we can all aspire to.


tomorrow night kenniebloggins, kbowman, the poet and i are going to see this hero perform at the tabernacle. pricy, but i think it'll be off the fucking hinges.


saw that PUSH! is playing this saturday at caledonia. count me out. i'll just drink a miller chill and hang at the bocce ball birthday party in addieville.


anybody wanna see superbad with me this weekend? may try to catch it friday night. expectations are up there.


i really don't have shit to say. those last two items were serious reaches.

The internet

My favorite stuff on the web right now:

1. Hibachi!
2. Sun Ra Quilt of Joy
3. Ectoplasmosis
4. Strange Maps
5. Tokyo Mango
6. WFMU MP3 blog
7. Boing Boing

never thought i'd see the day...

the evil mastermind is resigning!!

unfortunately i'm sure we haven't heard that last of him. he'll probably just find another puppet candidate to create. but this makes me happy none-the-less.


also, here is why the dems need to nominate obama. anti-hillary sentiment, however baseless, could cost them congress as well as the white house.

a conley is born...

say hello to dave and his "bundle of joy", baby girl ryan elizabeth.

Natty Lite

In some ways I should probably hate the Cardinals, Met-killers in '85, '87 and, most painfully for me, the '06 NLCS with the Mets a Carlos Beltran hit away from the World Series. But this Rick Ankiel thing is too amazing to hate. Projected as the next Clemens in early 2000 to Knoblauchian headcase following a 5 wild pitch meltdown in Game one of the 2000 NLDS to multiple years back in the minors to leading his league in home runs this season...all leading up to this. Roy Hobbs? This is even better. Who knows if it will last once the pitchers start reading his book. But for now...wow.

a pretty good fit?

hawks update. many of you probably remember that i wanted the hawks to draft mike conley. still think he has a good chance of being a tony parker clone, and i'm not sure that horford will be anything more than a solid rebounder [which admittedly has value]. but i wanted to bring to everyone's attention that former aggie acie law IV played very well in the recently completed rocky mountain review. in fact, draftexpress reports that he was one of the summer's best performers. some highlights of their analysis:

Law displayed was an innate ability to drive to the rim and find open teammates without hurting the flow of the offense. Every time he touched the ball he was looking to make a play, and consistently made good decisions when defenses were collapsing around him.

Law proved to be a highly capable mid-range shooter, even with a hand in his face. Law effectively uses his size to get shots off over other point guards, and though he doesn’t always get a lot of separation, he compensates with great touch.

He has a veteran-like swagger in his game that should rub off on his teammates over time. Though he is limited in some ways by his athleticism, he does a good job of compensating on both ends of the floor.

i never understood why everyone rips law for "not being a true point guard". ok, he's no steve nash or jason kidd. but he's just as much of a natural point as chauncey billups or mo williams. furthermore, unlike many others who take the same criticism, law actually played point guard in college. for all four years.

what with recent trades, etc, unfortunately for the haws the level of play in the eastern conference has improved somewhat. it's hard to imagine the pistons, bulls, celtics, cavs, heat, raptors, and magic not making the playoffs. but i still think the hawks have a 50/50 shot of breaking their playoff drought this year.