Now, Steve Smith is my boy.  My ace boon coon.  My dawg, etc...

But Chad Johnson?  He has got to be the most entertaining kat in football today.

Both of them rival each other with their touchdown celebrations.  In fact, seeing what either will do next is one of the key highlights of the game.  But Chad Johnson's "Riverdance" celebration was one of the greatest highlights in recent football memory.  Add to that the end zone putt and the proposal to a cheerleader this season.  He's even got Jim Rome wondering what's next.

Well, Chad answered it tonight:  He's going to use a deer.

Seriously.

Johnson told reporters that he had hit a deer with his car.  He nor the deer wasn't hurt, and the deer is living in his garage for the time.  He claims he will use the deer as a prop for his touchdown celebration on Saturday.

He's nuts.

First, there is no way they are going to allow that deer into the stadium, unless he somehow smuggles it in.  Second, while Marvin Lewis has allowed Johnson to cut up this year, Lewis will have his ass if he tries something like that.

Regardless, Johnson wants to make up for last week:

Fans in Detroit booed when he merely handed the ball to an official following his touchdown during a 41-17 victory Sunday that clinched the AFC North title. It was only the second time this season that he didn't celebrate a touchdown -- the other came when the officials needed time to decide if he had scored, spoiling the moment.

"But this Saturday, I'll be back to my old self," he said. "You can look forward to the celebration being part of something that has to do with Christmas. It's going to be fun. I might get in trouble, so I might as well let that out now. I might get in trouble for what I'm going to do, but it's worth it."

He's already said Tagliabue might suspend him for the last game of the regular season because of it.

I'll be watching the Dallas/Carolina game...but I hope CBS shows that Bengals/Buffalo game just so I can see what he'll do.

Make no mistake about it; what we saw on Friday was nothing short of an attempted coup. The New York Times wrote a very sloppy and biased story in order to do the bidding of the Democratic Party and provide a last-minute defeat for the Patriot Act's renewal, depicting the program as "domestic spying" and questioning its constitutionality.

In truth, the "domestic spying" program really consists of wiretapping messages.  And they are partially domestic.  You see, the NSA was still obtaining warrants for wiretaps that consisted of information that was being sent from one person inside of the U.S. to another person inside of the U.S.  The program in question, however, tapped calls that were between an international location and a domestic one. 

I'm not a lawyer, therefore I can't tell you accurately if it's legal or not.  Hell; if Orin Kerr couldn't do it, do you think I have a chance?  Right.

I can tell you one thing; this article gives more credence to the fact that the mainstream media should be considered more of an obstacle to national security rather than simply neutral.  The New York Times is more than willing to publish and distribute anything that will tip off our enemies and embolden them to continue engaging in terrorist activities.  And if they make a buck or two while doing so, that's part of the perks.

Thus, it's no wonder why leftists feel sensitive and even paranoid when it comes to patriotic issues.  Someone needs to question their patriotism.  The president should not have to beg the NYT's publisher not to publish something that's going to expose a tight-lipped national security intelligence program.  They should have done it on their own. 

Of course, the Democrats did what they always do when something negative comes up:  bash the president and pretend as if they never knew anything about it. However, members of the Senate Intelligence Committees knew about the program long ago, and President Bush states that congressmen have been briefed nearly a dozen times about the program.  Of the Democratic leadership and profilers, we know that Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, former Senator and presidential candidate Bob Graham have been briefed and/or notified of this program well ahead of the NYT article.

I agree there should be an investigation to make sure that the NSA is using the program properly and is not engaging in illegal activity.  However, Congress should not head that investigation.  It should be done by an independent group that will not turn this into a partisan issue.  If the 9/11 Commission can be formed, why can't another commission look into these programs and make sure they are being used in an appropriate manner?

But with Congress, all you're going to get are a bunch of hens clucking once they get in front of the mic and cameras, trying to look good while trying to make others look bad.  This is too important for the typical antics that happen in every high profile Congressional hearing.

But here's the real question:  how many Democrats are going to call for an investigation of this leak, of which the Plame leak pales in comparison?  With the possible exception of Joe Lieberman, it won't happen.

The playoff hunt is starting to heat up.  In the AFC, five of the six spots have all but been chosen.  Denver and New England locked up postseason births and pretty much their divisions, and Cincinnati and Jacksonville are set to do the same.  That leaves a three-way race for the last wild card spot, with Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Kansas City vying for it.

The NFC is a bonafide mess, with Seattle and the Giants at the top of the conference.  Chicago, Carolina are next with four losses, and Dallas, Atlanta, Tampa Bay, and Minnesota are right behind them.

With Tampa Bay getting blown out of the water Saturday by a resurgent Patriots team, a Carolina victory over New Orleans and an Falcons loss to the Bears should give Carolina a playoff berth.  Carolina has everything going in their favor, playing a weak New Orleans team that has all but given up the season. 

Indy faces San Diego, and everyone has the Chargers picked to go down in flames.  Lucky for them, the Chiefs got trounced by the Giants Sat night, thus they still have a decent chance to finish second in the West.  However, all of that is moot if there is only one team out of the West getting a wild card birth. 

Everyone's calling the Colts/Chargers as the game of the week, but it isn't.  If either lose, nothing will really change.  The TRUE GOTW is Steelers/Vikings.  This is where we see whether the Vikings are man or mouse.  Both teams have shown signs of toughness, as the Vikes are running a six game win streak, going undefeated since Culpepper went down and Brad Johnson took the helm, and the Steelers got back into winning form by whupping the Bears, ending a three game losing streak.  A loss by either team, and their playoff chances could go down the drain with it.

The Bears/Falcons game should be very interesting as well.  The Bears' vaunted defense allowed the Bus to run over them last week, something that definitely surprised me.  If they come in the game with that same attitude this week, it'll be a track meet.

The picks:

- Arizona over Houston

- Pittsburgh over Minnesota (although I kinda hope I'm wrong)

- Seattle over Tennessee

- Carolina over the Saints

- Miami over the Jets

- Indy over San Diego

- Jacksonville over San Francisco

- Philly over St. Louis

- Cincinnati over Detroit

- Oakland over Cleveland

- Washington over Dallas

- Chicago over Atlanta

And Monday Night:

- Green Bay over Baltimore

A lot of key games this week:  Indy/San Diego, Pittsburgh/Minnesota, Washington/Dallas, Chicago/Atlanta.  Add the Giants/Kansas City and New/England/Tampa Bay games from Saturday night.  Cincinnati/Detroit and Carolina/N.O. are crucial now as well considering they may lock up the divisions with a win.  Minus that terrible Monday Night game, the NFL is doing a fairly decent job of booking this year.

It's been a few weeks since I've talked about it in detail, so here we go:

- First, of course, the Panthers.  Just when I think they have all of the gears moving in the right direction, they stink one up at home to the Bucs.  Now, don't get me wrong; losing to the Bucs isn't an embarrassment, as they can beat anyone on any given day.  But considering how well we played against them a few weeks ago, it should have been closer than what it was.  The final score was 20-10, but that was after a touchdown in the final minutes.

If the Panthers are going to go to Detroit, and it's still a possibility, they need to find some kind of consistency on the offensive side of the ball.  The running game has been nonexistant most of the year, Delhomme has had his most error-prone season yet, and there has got to be someone else that can get open other than Steve Smith.  Smith is unbelievable; no doubt about it.  But he cannot carry the whole team on his back.  The boys got to put in work.

Luckily for us, we have New Orleans this week, which should all but give us a playoff birth (particularly with an Atlanta loss to Chicago this week).  But Fox has to come up with something before the big game with Dallas on Christmas Eve.

- I'mma go ahead and put my two cents in right now:  Indy will NOT make it to 16-0.  I never thought they would to begin with, but still.  They are a great team, but not invincible.

Between San Diego and Seattle, they'll lose.  My money is on Seattle.  More on that in a minute.

- It's something about the Colts' run that doesn't sit right with me.  When UNLV was running the tables back in 91 in college basketball, you knew you were watching a great team.  Every Chicago Bulls championship had that aura about it, and so did the Cowboys teams of the 90's.  But I don't get that same feeling with Indy, and I believe they can be knocked off at any time.

I think it's because we were watching the Colts get hoed by the New England Patriots less than a year ago.   Now several of the Patriots are hurt, or gone, and that makes it seem as if the Colts only became the toast of the NFL by default instead of beating the real Patriots.  It just doesn't seem genuine to me.

- It's got to be tough being the Chiefs.  They pull out a big win last Sunday in Denver and then this past Sunday they make a great 54 drive in the final seconds of the Dallas game for what was to be the game-tying field goal to send it into overtime, and the kicker shanked it wide left.  And it doesn't get any easier than that, considering they have to play the Giants on Saturday.  If they don't make the playoffs, they can point to that loss.

- Another team that I can't figure out is the Chargers.  What the hell was that?  It's one thing to lose to the Dolphins, but they beat you with offense?  It's way too close to the end of the season to lose games like that, and the Chargers won't have an easier time at it than they did on Sunday.  Indy on Sunday, Kansas City on Christmas Eve, and Denver on New Year's Eve. 

- Ugh.  If you thought that Falcons/Lions stinker was bad on Thanksgiving, check out Christmas:  Chicago/Green Bay on Fox, Baltimore/Minnesota on ESPN for Sunday Night Football.  Good luck not falling asleep on those two.

- Speaking of the Falcons and sleeping, Monday night's game was horrible.  Seriously.  John Madden started talking bout how his tie turned colors because he dropped some mustard on it.  At that point, I had to laugh at how pathetic that broadcast had gotten.  It's not a surprise to me that the game had the lowest rating of the season.

- I watched Sunday Night Football this week too - Packers/Lions - and that was just as bad.  However, at least it did go into overtime.  But that had to be some of the worst coaching and team performances I've ever seen. 

- Mike Tice is a hard coach to figure out.  This marks the second year where everyone thought the Vikings were dead in the water, and Tice was so fired. All of a sudden they pull a rabbit out of the hat.  Everyone, including I, had given them their last rites after my Panthers put Culpepper out for a whole year.  Six games later, they are right in the thick of the playoff hunt.  They are in a three-way tie with Dallas and Atlanta for that last wildcard spot.

Does that mean he should keep his job?  I dunno.  It's hard to look back at his tenure and say he had brought stability to that franchise.  They are in the playoff hunt, but many had them winning the NFC North in the first place, which won't happen unless that Chicago defense continues to sputter just like they did against Pittsburgh on Sunday.  That's going to be a tough decision for Vikings owner Zigi Wilf.

- If Dallas and Washington don't make the playoffs, will Bill Parcells and Joe Gibbs retire?  Joe probably won't, because Snyder seems content with letting him rebuild the franchise, but Parcells is another story.  This is his third season, and he doesn't seem content to stay that much longer.  He tends to get tired of football pretty quickly, at least compared to other coaches.

- My Top 10:

1. Indianapolis
2. Seattle
3. Denver
4. Cincinnati
5. Pittsburgh
   
6. Giants
7. New England
   
8. Tampa Bay
9. Dallas
   
10. Jacksonville

No...the Panthers are not in my top 10.

- Last thought:  A number of sports talking heads have said the NFL, and especially the NFC, is terrible this year.  C'mon.  How many NFC teams would you have put into the top 10 last year?  Two?  Atlanta and Philadelphia, right? 

Now this year you have a lot of teams that have improved greatly in both conferences.  Seattle is the team I thought it would be last year.  The Giants have improved on both sides of the ball.  Denver is WAY better than I thought it would be.  Tampa Bay has improved, Dallas picked up Bledsoe, Cincinnati's offense has EXPLODED...I don't recall a better year of football in the last, say, five seasons.

If you would have said the NFC was terrible last year, I would have agreed with you.  It was pathetic even, as four of the six playoff teams had no business being there.  But this year, you can't say the NFC is bad, when you have the Giants, the Cowboys, the Panthers, the Bears, and the Seahawks.  All of those teams are legit Super Bowl contenders, and there's no guarantee that any of those teams, save the Seahawks, will make the playoffs.  You could make an argument for or against those being one of the 10 best teams in the league (Once again, except the Seahawks.  Anyone who made that argument doesn't know a thing about football.)

I'll have my picks on Friday, as there are a couple of NFL games on Saturday.

And can I be the first person to say "it's about damned time".  I am so tired of reading about that piece of turd that I don't know what to do. 

I don't know what half the black bloggers of the blogosphere are going to talk about now.  They'll be like John Madden last night on Monday Night Football, as the homeless Saints/Vicks game got so boring that he started talking for five minutes about how he dropped some mustard on his tie.  They even showed a closeup in the booth of the tie too. 

If there is one good thing I can say about Tookie, it's gotta be about that helluva fro that kat had back in the day. 

I ain't gonna lie; I'm jealous.  F'real.  I mean that mug was like asymetrical to the tee, all jazzed and afrosheened up and everything.  And see, you can't appreciate a good fro like that until you TRY to grow one yourself.  I couldn't grow a fro that hot to save my life (pun intended).  Tookie truly set a standard that all fro growers could aspire to attain. 

A children's book?  Pssh.  That kat should have written a FRO book.  I woulda granted him clemency just off of that alone.

And we AIN'T about to start talkin about those arms.  Sick.

But anyway, he's dead.  That's a good thing.  Now lets move on to things more important, like watching paint dry.  I would say watching grass grow, but ain't no grass growing in winter.  *shrugs*

From ESPN:

MIAMI -- Miami Heat coach Stan Van Gundy, who led the team to the best record in the Eastern Conference a season ago, resigned Monday citing family reasons.

A team official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that Van Gundy's resignation would be announced later Monday.

The team called a news conference for 11 a.m. ET, saying Van Gundy, team president and former coach Pat Riley and Heat owner Micky Arison would appear.

*L*  Bull.

This was a power move.  Plain and simple.  Miami, and notably Shaq, have wanted Stan out of there Shaq first went there.  Miami has gone 11-10 in 22 games, but Shaq has only played 3 games this year, and despite that the Heat was still on top of the Southeast division.  Once Shaq returned to the lineup full time (which, in all probablility, won't happen because Shaq can not handle that rigorous schedule anymore), the Heat would be a legit threat for the NBA title.

There was a lot of criticism for Kobe's behind-the-scenes actions in giving Shaq the boot in Los Angeles, and rightfully so.  But Van Gundy's firing - in DECEMBER, no less - shows that Shaq isn't beyond doing the same thing.  Thus, I never felt any sympathy for the man.

When Shaq went to the Heat, the question wasn't whether Van Gundy would leave the Heat, but when.  It was only a matter of time.  Nobody is being fooled into Van Gundy saying it was for "family reasons".  Shaq probably wanted Pat Riley to eventually return to coaching anyway, as I'm sure Riley will replace Van Gundy on the bench.

People thought the Detroit Lions were playing cutthroat when they fired Mariucci?  No....this is cutthroat.

We got three weeks left after today.  Who will step up and show they're big time, and who will fall behind the rest of the pack and just wait for a high draft pick?

First, my Panthers.  Carolina can all but lock the NFC South up with a win over Tampa Bay today.  Considering they blew them out of the water in the first game this year, I don't expect that much to be different.  As long as Foster can rumble through Tampa Bay's jurassic front four, I don't see any problems.

On to the rest of the week.  Is it me, or does it seem as if everybody in the national sports media is trying to hype up Jacksonville for their game against Indianapolis?  I mean, get real.  Jacksonville's defense normally gives Peyton Manning problems, but they've always done enough to get over the hump.  And David Gerrard isn't ready to face off against the two best defensive ends in the league.  G'luck son.

I'm expecting Chicago/Pittsburgh to be an all-out war.  We'll probably see some highlight-reel hits in that game.  You'll probably see someone being helped off the field.  It's going to get ugly at times, but it's ultimately going to come down to how many points Roethlisberger can score vs. how many Chicago's defense can score.  If the Steelers win, it's going to have to be in the air, because I don't see the Bus having enough gas in the tank to roll over that defense.

The game to watch?  Kansas City vs. Dallas.  Winner stays in the playoff hunt, loser gets January off.  Plain and simple.

Here's my picks:

- Pittsburgh over Chicago

- Cincinnati over Cleveland

- Tennessee over Houston

- Indianapolis over Jacksonville

- New England over Buffalo

- Oakland over Jets

- Sex Boat over the Rams

- Carolina over Tampa Bay

- Giants over Philly

- Seattle over San Francisco

- Skins over Arizona

- Denver over Baltimore

- Kansas City over Dallas

- San Diego over Miami

- Green Bay over Detroit

And on Monday Night:

- Atlanta over New Orleans

That's it.  No upsets.  Well, some would say that Pittsburgh beating Chicago would be considered one, but I digress.

Key games this week are Indy/Jax, Carolina/Tampa Bay, Dallas/Kansas City, Pittsburgh/Chicago, Minnesota/St. Louis, and Atlanta/New Orleans (actually that should be a horrible game, but the Aints played Atlanta hard last week, and a loss could knock the Falcons out of a chance for the playoffs).

Enjoy the games this week.

1940-2005.

I would post an image, but Blogdrive just changed the software layout, so I don't know how to.  Idiots.

Gee...does this make me a South Park Conservative now?

Heh.  Something tells me I'd fit right in.

Anyway, if you want to make your own South Park character, go here.

I wonder if I should put this on my sidebar?

Oh, and if you're wondering why it doesn't fit my current sidebar picture, it's because I grow my hair out in the winter.  That picture was taken last summer.

I've noticed there hasn't been too many people talking about Tom DeLay this morning, despite the fact that a judge threw out his original conspiracy charge yesterday.

That's not surprising, because there were a lot of people on both sides of the political spectrum that were ready and willing to throw DeLay under the bus once he was indicted.  Anyone with an objective mind, however, could see that the charge was bogus on its face, and that there was a serious chance that the charge wouldn't even make it to trial.  I was one of those who suspected that was the case, and I was right.

However, the judge allowed the bogus money laundering charge to stand, which was a fast-track indictment charge persued by Ronnie Earle after only four hours of deliberation by a newly formed grand jury.  Earle wanted to get that indictment in because he knew the conspiracy charge had no chance of making the charge stick.

Yesterday's ruling is here (Acrobat Reader req.).  It would be one thing if the prosecution had hard evidence that there was an explicit intent and action to shuffle money, that would be one thing, but now Earle has admitted that he didn't have the supposed note that points to the money going to several individuals.  Considering this was part of his indictment evidence, this charge should have been thrown out too.

There is still one more chance, though:  the charges by the defense of jury shopping are looming over Earle as well.  We could get a decision out of that one anytime now, and if the jury is thrown out for that, the Democrats will have a total embarrassment on their hands.