It appears that the two U.S. soldiers who were kidnapped met brutal demises by the new Al-Qaeda leader. I guess Pete Townshend was right, "Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss." Let's hope that whatever allowed these guys to be separated from the other members of their unit is corrected. The soldiers were done in quickly as the bad guys didn't waste any time with negotiating or grandstanding.

Meal of Links

Who has the better Nike ad on a building, LeBron or Wayne Rooney? Decent World Cup day today. Germany gets through group play unbeaten over Ecuador. Sweden ties England in the last minute and England still hasn't beaten the Swedes in 38 years. I'd say LeBron could probably beat Sweden by himself. One of my faves for England, Joe Cole, with a big day. Paraguay beat Trinidad and his friend, Tobago. And the Poles won, God bless'em. Weekend schedule starting to take shape. Germany-Sweden on Saturday, England-Ecuador on Sunday.

Dan Rather has left CBS and is contemplating an offer from Mark Cuban to do some work for HDNet. Don't underestimate Cubes and his passon for journalism. I think Rather would fit in nicely over there, having an hour a week, spending large amounts of time on any given story. It would allow an old mainstream media guy to particpate in the new media. Maybe you can teach an old dog fa-shizzle.

Whoa, Nelly! Her new song is not that bad. But I like the new one by Muse, "Supermassive Black Hole".

World Cup Photo of the Day















Check out that cool camera from the Movietone News guy.

Exercise Yard

The Indians finally bit the bullet on Jason Johnson, forever known as the "Innings Eater", and designated him for assignment. Look for the Royals to hop on obtaining him. We are replacing him with Jeremy Sowers, the People's Phenom. Sowers is seemingly the latest in a long string of prospects who the Tribe neglects to give significant playing time to as a youngster.

Nomar Stalker ran down the list today. Do you remember Manny platooned with Wayne Kirby at the start of his career? Wayne Kirby, for cryin' out loud. BTW, was he the brother of Terry Kirby or his cousin? Richie Sexson. Brian Giles. And don't forget Grady Sizemore was ticketed for Buffalo last year before Juan Gone's hammy exploded.

Here is the Tribe's flawed reasoning on Sowers: They aren't certain the performance of a youngster learning on the fly would be any better than Johnson's. Yep, Sowers might be just as bad as Johnson, who gave up 108 hits in 77 innings. Then again, he might not, but we might ruin him if he's brought up too early. Sowers is 8-1 with a 1.27 ERA and 2 shutouts at Triple-A Buffalo. Ugh!

I wonder if the Mets thought that about Doc Gooden and whoever he replaced in their rotation of the mid-eighties.

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25 Across: Bateman of "Family Ties" (7 letters) Answer: Justine