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Gen. Stanley McChrystal  The Runaway General , the Rolling Stone Magazine article that cost Gen. Stanley McChrystal his job as commander of Allied Forces in Afghanistan, and exposed a culture of McChrysal's aides that were hostile to civilian military officers, is out on newsstands and online, and it opens with the now famous blast against NATO allies slated to attend a dinner he was assigned to go to. While Gen. McChrystal's comment that there was no one in the room who could beat him up, or: "I'd rather have my ass kicked by a roomful of people than go out to this dinner. Unfortunately, no one in this room could do it." ..made the press, there's more that didn't, until now. This is what else McChrystal's aide said after the writer Michael Hastings asked "Who's he going to dinner with?" The McChrystal aide says "Some French minister. It's fucking gay." Hastings says McChrystal's staff consists of "a

Oakland Parking is STILL a problem Yes. Another Oakland Parking problem. This space continues to receive tips and emails from Oaklanders and people visiting Oakland who have horrible parking stories they want to share with the World. Since Oakland's At-Large Councilmember and would-be mayoral candidate Rebecca Kaplan thinks it's OK for Oakland to use parking fees to balance its budget, even at the expense of the poor from what was yelled to this blogger earlier this year, and without provocation or apology from Councilmember Kaplan (and not bloggers who support her run for Mayor), this space will continue to present each Oakland Parking problem to her. The last one was from Nick Mitchell, who complained of the ugly DMV and Oakland system that works to cause late payment of parking fines . This one is from an Oaklander, Terese Tatum, who shared a letter sent to Oakland Parking Head Noel Pinto: Dear Mr. Arnold and Mr. Pinto, I have spent hours on the phone and left

Koman's off the hook, sort of While it's a bit harder for this space to be excited about FIFA World Cup 2010 after the USA was eliminated by Ghana 2-1 on Saturday, the fire for World Cup still burns. After all you have to love a sports event where Soccer fans Mick Jagger and Bill Clinton have a better chance of scoring than some of the teams. Take Brazil vs. Portugal, and England in it's match against Germany. In the Brazil vs. Portugal match, neither team scored; it ended in a 0-0 draw and both advanced to the second round. Brazil won Group G play, while Portugal was two points behind them. Now, Brazil will play Chile in the second round, with Portugal vs. Spain. Portugal needed a draw and so played like they did, much to the frustration of Brazil. "It's really boring when we have to play against an opponent with 11 players on the back, only trying to draw," Brazil's striker Luis Fabiano said according to The LA Times . England and the Disa

Frank Shamrock (Frank Alisio Juarez III) announced he's retiring from American mixed martial arts (MMA) fighting at at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum Saturday at HP Pavilion. Frank Shamrock is the four-time defending, undefeated MMA champion and a 7th degree black belt in something called "Submission Fighting," which is a type of wrestling sport. Shamrock's four time title defense included some memorably brutal battles, like the one against Igor Zinoviev in 1998 that ended in a knockout. It was called the most violent slam in Ultimate Fighting Championship history. (Warning, the video is violent .) Shamrock stopped UFC fighting in 1999 after what's considered to be the one of the greatest fights in UFC history against Tito Ortiz. After that fight, Frank Shamrock was considered the greatest ultimate fighter in history. After a brief stint as an actor, Shamrock returned to fighting in 2001 and had a number of memorable bouts through 2009, when he was

USA vs Ghana World Cup 2010: Oakland watches Gyan's Golden Goal : USA loses 2-1 in OT And so another nail-biting FIFA World Cup Soccer game ends for the USA, this time the wrong way. The USA lost 2-1 in overtime as this blogger returned to the Era Art Bar on Grand and Broadway in Downtown Oakland, CA for the anticipated single elimination Saturday match. But in the process, Soccer's importance to Americans grew by fantastic proportions, and in no place was this more evident than Oakland, California. The USA loss was a sad end to a great run by a USA team that wasn't really picked to go far in World Cup competition. But the hustling team paced by USA Soccer star Landon Donovan tied England 1-1 to start match play, then tied Slovenia 2-2 in a controversial match that the USA really won 3-2 but for a mistakenly discounted goal by FIFA referee Koman Coulibaly. Finally the USA won a match, beating Algeria 1-0. All that set up today's exciting overtime win. The

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Sidebar Oakland Sidebar Oakland, the bar and restaurant at 542 Grand Avenue in Oakland, CA, is hosting a No. 209 Gin Competition featuring some of the best bartenders in Oakland. What's cool about this event is it's a showcase for Oakland's new food scene, as in the past you had to go over to San Francisco to get a great drink. Not any more. The list of bartenders competing is a who's who of Oakland mix-a-lots: Matt B from Sidebar, Brian M also from Sidebar, Marjon B from Era Art Bar, Josh P from Pican, Alex S from Marzano, Matt from The Wood Tavern, Brian M from Lavende East, Jon C from The Grand Tavern, and Eric from Adesso. The best bartender will win a great prize, I'm told, and the winner will be selected by a professional panel of judges. Come on down to Lake Merritt, where Sidebar is located, this Monday.