It's often said that it's hard to get a break when you get out of prison, no matter how determined you are to stay on the straight and narrow. The memorable scene in Heat where the ex-con has to kick back a portion of his minimum wage salary to stay on the payroll of his greedy manager illustrates the sword hanging over the head of any felon who wants to prove they are trying to rejoin productive society.

Fortunately, people at the top are listening and taking action to bring dignified work back to those caught transgressing against our social contract. The Bush administration has lead by example, operating a six year long effort to dredge up dozens of convicted and indicted members of the Reagan government and put them in charge of programs affecting the lives of millions of Americans. Take Poindexter, who went from destroying Iran-Contra evidence under Reagan to gathering our most private information under Bush's "Total Information Awareness" program. Or Robert Gates, wheeled out of the CIA 15 years ago for lying to congress, now brought back to restore honesty and integrity to the Pentagon. Also notable is John Negroponte's ascension to national security advisor after an infamous run circumventing US law in the mid 80s as ambassador to Honduras. It's heartwarmingly puzzling to think about how the ethically compromised ambassador to a small nation like Honduras could ever be tapped to become national security advisor. All I can say is that George Bush sure does believe in giving a man a second chance.

A cynic might question whether these plum new jobs for old crooks are a suitable path back to wholesome respectability. It really takes a mind as subtle as that of George W. Bush to see that to really reform a man, to free him of his past, you must put him in exactly the type of temptation that he succumbed to last time. If he succeeds and is not caught doing the same sort of things again (within statute of limitations) you can say that he has truly been rehabilitated. If you don't give him a chance to walk alone and un-surveilled past the unguarded cookie jar of our democracy, you'll never be able to blindly trust him again. On the contrary, it's only by surrounding him with smiling, familiar faces in a consequence-free environment like the Bush administration that we can keep such men from falling back in with a bad crowd.

Nicole's back from Berlin and brought some underwear that says "GERMANY" on it. Today's the first game of the round of 16, Deutchland's playing, and so far I'd have to say it feels pretty comfortable.

Jose opened the 90 mins cafe 2 years after he came here from Venezuela to work in his cousin's restaurant. He hopes to have tables outside and serve liquor once the licence comes through. Right now, they are working on Coffee in disposable cups. It told him he should get real cappucino cups for that authentic cafe feel, but that's hard because they don't have a kitchen to wash them in.

Have to say that it is a really cozy little hole in the wall - and when I say wall, I mean basement. Check it out : http://www.90mincafe.com/

Well, I'm sitting in Washington DC in a basement cafe watching Unavision, the corporate media of choice of our newest Americans. Pity the dominant language media of my country can't figure out that the Cup is worth doing well. ABC has had coverage on Saturdays only, with shameful lazy commentary that demonstrates the folly of pressing US multi-sport experts into service as football experts. They fumble about landing their heavy handed touch in an elegant world they know nothing about.

They keep making reference to inane and irrelevant 'human interest' stories as they have been trained to do for domestic consumption. Perhaps because the alternative is analysis painful enough to make you cringe. Case in point: yesterdays England Paraguay game featured the 'most famous player in the world' variously 'Michael Beckham' and 'David Beckett.' Its really a shambles.

This morning I am sitting in the 90 minutes cafe, a little basment nook that has been converted for the Cup. They don't have a liquor liscence yet, but they serve great coffee. They promise to stay open after the Cup, but I have my doubts. For now at least it is an intimate and loud hold filled with opposing shouts by Mexico and Iran fans. The Mexicans are of several varieties, both recently arrived and well integrated. The Iranians are a bunch of Americans, friends of an Iranian girl whose parents either fled the Shah or the revolution.

There is a photographer and a reporter from the Neo-Con rag The Washington Times hovering here. Doubtlessly they are doing some angle on Iran, or perhaps on how Iranians and Mexicans do and should hate one another. They haven't asked me for an interview yet, but I flatter myself that I could walk the right line between scorning their paper and not browbeating the gumshoes at the bottom of the totem pole.

Iran's quite good. I'll have to settle down and watch this.