Story Of The Year --- Unless the "story" is how awful current popular music is, I don't get the band name. Saw SOTY last night in support of Sugarcult, a band we like a lot. Do yourself a favour and show up late, time it so the only thing you hear from SOTY is "thank you, goodnight." I don't know what was better, the heavy metal guitars and riffs, or the mongrelization of Avail and Finch thrown into one stewpot. If you take the absolute worst song Avail ever wrote, and then make it worse, excise anything fun in it, add some bad vocals, and sprinkle dopey guitars over it, have everyone in the band jumping up and down together like they're the Aquabats or something, and then have a sealion do a barking "arggghrrrhrr" in the chorus, you sir, will have Story Of The Year. Drinking didn't make them any better. If you're down with that band, you're on the wrong website, pal, because that music won't find any friends in the Bunker.

How Sweet It Is! Arsenal Players Fined and Suspended --- The FA handed out various penalties to the jackasses involved in the fracas during the Man Utd v. Arsenal match of September 21. Read the results, here.

Richard Blow Calls Bullshit On Krugman-bashers --- Writing for the Tom Paine website, Richard Blow details how the rabid right wing is trying to smear New York Times Op/Ed columnist Paul Krugman. They don't attack his assertions or his facts, they seek to smear him ad hominem. If you've read Krugman's book "The Great Unraveling," you know that what Krugman does is hold Bush people accountable for their actions and business dealings. He uses his economic acumen to point out the lies and blunders of Bush's economic policy. Many of the articles written in 2001 and 2002 are astonishing for the accuracy in predicting what we are faced with now at the ass end of 2003. Krugman is right. Blow is right. The right relies on lazy journalism and a lazy populace. When they can call opponents of the "war" in Iraq traitors and say they are "sickening," it really points out the deplorable state of American politics. Where are the wise men and women, fashioning intelligent policy after considered debate, interested only in the public well-being and not their own self-interest?

Al Sharpton, Go Home --- Don't think there aren't loathsome toads on the left side of the political spectrum. Al Sharpton, who has never passed up an opportunity to advance himself and his political futures whenever any incident (crime, university admissions, police actions, etc) could possibly be painted with a racial tinge, is now accusing Howard Dean's campaign of being anti-black. Washington Post has it, here. That tactic has served him well over the years. Anytime someone disagress with the mighty Sharpton, they get called racist, and Sharpton then whips up a considerable frenzy among people who listen to him but don't check their facts. Will Sharpton be satisfied if in the 2004 election many black voters remember only his condemnation of Dean and not the facts? Will Sharpton be pleased if Bush wins re-election because Dean lost votes among blacks thanks to his comments? Sharpton, shut your hole, go home, and get over yourself.

How Deep The Rabbit Hole Goes --- Howard Kurz, in today's Washington Post, writes a frightening account of how TV media is spinning everything to the right side of the spectrum. Including misrepresenting a recent Clinton interview, spinning the innocuous comments as an indirect attack on Howard Dean, and how Bush failed to answer a New York Times reporter's question about reducing the number of our troops in Iraq next year, dismissing the question as a "trick." Kurz goes on to detail that many California Republican strategists are now considering running Dennis Miller against Barbara Boxer. Yes, that Dennis Miller. What's shocking is that so many people, even now, refuse to believe that Miller is a shill for the Republicans. It's true, kiddies. I've always hated Dennis Miller. He's not funny, for one thing, and for another, he's the epitome of false learning. Anyone remember his contemptible attempt at NFL commentary? Sheee-it.