Hope is Golden and Redeemed

ussoccer
A good coach can make all the difference. A bad coach can ruin your World Cup and stomp on your dreams.

I am truth and I approve this message:

Nick Gholson, Times-Record News (TX): Made in China

They are calling the United States men’s basketball “The Redeem Team.”

Well, Hope Solo is “The Redeem Queen.”

Less than a year ago, this kid was blackballed by her U.S. teammates. They wouldn’t eat with her. They wouldn’t fly on the same airplane with her.

Her sin was telling the truth. – that her coach was an idiot.

Solo had been the U.S. team’s starting goalkeeper for the first four games of the 2007 World Cup. She was unbeaten with three straight shutouts.

So what does coach Greg Ryan do? He benches her in the semifinal game against Brazil. With 36-year-old veteran Briana Scurry minding the net, the U.S. lost 4-0.

After the game, Solo was on her way out the door when a reporter asked her what she thought of the coach’s decision. When a PR guy told the guy to only ask questions to the girls who played in the game, Solo got ticked off and gave this answer:

“It was the wrong decision and I think anybody who knows anything about the game knows that. There’s no doubt in my mind I would have made those saves,” she said “You can’t live in the past. It doesn’t matter what somebody did in a gold medal Olympic game three years ago. Now is what matters.”

Ryan benched Solo again for the third place game. Not long after that, he announced she was no longer on the team. Captain Kristine Lilly explained that it was a team decision made by the group.

And we all know the rest of the sorry story. Congratulations to Hope Solo for triumphing over the coach who made the worst decision in the history of sport.

Obama-Biden '08

BarackObama.com

ThinkProgress: Obama Selects Joseph Biden As His Running Mate

McCain: People with Subprime Mortgages Need to Work a Second Job, Skip a Vacation

Coronado Shores

It is truly unbelievable how out of touch John McMansions is with the problems of ordinary Americans.

TPM: McCains Bought Second Beach Condo At Around Time McCain Said Struggling Homeowners Needed To Skip Vacations

Here's the speech he gave chastising Americans, while he was buying (or his rich heiress wife was buying) his 10th, or 11th, or 12th house.

TRANSCRIPT:
JOHN MCCAIN: A sustained period of rising home prices made many home lenders complacent, giving them a false sense of security and causing them to lower their lending standards. They stopped asking basic questions of their borrowers like "can you afford this home? Can you put a reasonable amount of money down?" Lenders ended up violating the basic rule of banking: don't lend people money who can't pay it back. Some Americans bought homes they couldn't afford, betting that rising prices would make it easier to refinance later at more affordable rates. There are 80 million family homes in America and those homeowners are now facing the reality that the bubble has burst and prices go down as well as up.

Of those 80 million homeowners, only 55 million have a mortgage at all, and 51 million are doing what is necessary -- working a second job, skipping a vacation, and managing their budgets -- to make their payments on time. That leaves us with a puzzling situation: how could 4 million mortgages cause this much trouble for us all?

What's wrong with all those poor people? Couldn't they just marry up and let their rich spouse buy them another house?

John McCain Doesn't Know What Kind of Car He Drives!

I'd have a hard time forgetting if I drove one of these.

And the hits just keep on coming.

dailykos: Ok, Now McCain does not know what car he drives!

In our news interview, he was asked what kind of car he drove, he could simply not answer. As with Politico’s question about home ownership, he didn’t know and had to ask a nearby aide. "A Cadillac CTS," she told him.

What the hell is his carbon footprint, anyway? The guy has to be generating 100 times more carbon into the atmosphere than me, with all his (I mean hers) houses, and cars, and private planes.

Private Plane McCain, planet killer. Who doesn't know how many houses he owns, what car he drives, or the difference between Sunni and Shia.

The Ultimate Collector

Ms. Lattimer [daughter of deceased collector John Lattimer, a prominent urologist at Columbia University] will also hold on to a box said to hold Napoleon's penis.
Photo: Edward Keating/The New York Times

NYTimes: In a Father’s Clutter, Historic Oddities

My Next Purse

USMagazine: Barack Obama Inspires New Handbag

The Golden Girls

Some videos on the USWNT's gold medal performance, with interviews with Pia, Christie, Kate, Hope, and Carli:





All stolen gleefully from Sideline Views.

For more videos and interviews, check out the team's blog: USWNT Blog

Golden Tasha

As a 10-year-old, Natasha Kai already had star potential. Tuesday, the University of Hawai'i sophomore leaves to play in an international tournament in China.
Kai family photo

Nice 2004 article on Natasha Kai, our first Hawaiian to win a gold medal. Pre-tats.

HonoluluAdvertiser: The Natural

As a young child, Kai, who is of English, Irish, Scottish, German, American Indian, Filipino, Chinese, Hawaiian and Spanish descent, was always active, participating in soccer, summer track, and even P.O.N.Y. baseball for one year.

"She would always be running around on the street, going to the beach in the summer, or jumping on the trampoline (in the Kai's yard)," Sharon [her mother] said.

She's a one-woman UN!

Natasha Kai of the U.S. (R) celebrates with teammates after winning their women's final soccer match against Brazil at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 21, 2008.
(Shaun Best/Reuters)

Political Gold

John McCain spent more money on household help last year ($273,000) than he gave to charity ($210,000). That's out of an income of more than $5,000,000. (Rich, under even his definition.) And remember that much of the McCain charitable contributions goes to their own children's elite private schools.

People are losing their homes all over this country after the mortgage industry was deregulated by McCain advisor Phil Gramm, and John McCain owns 12 homes, takes enormous entourages out for coffee, and gives a pittance to charity. He's more like Mr. Potter than George Bailey. As a matter of fact, he looks a lot like Mr. Potter. I think that will become my new name for Lame John: John McPotter. And the rest of us live in Pottersville.

McCain: We Are a Nation of Whiners Who Won't Pick Lettuce for $50 an Hour

McMansions made these remarks to a gathering of union members in 2006:

New Obama Ad

He's added McCain and Bush Sr. in the golf cart and John McCain's Saddleback statement that rich is five million a year income. Good!

How Many Cars Does It Take To Get A Cup of Coffee?

For John McCain, the answer is nine (9). That's pretty close to the number of house he owns!

McCain, who huddled with advisors at his desert compound in Sedona, Ariz., said nothing in public. A nine-car motorcade took him to a nearby Starbucks early in the morning, where he ordered a large cappuccino. McCain otherwise avoided reporters.

And John McCain doesn't drink coffee. He drinks cappuccino. Isn't that French? Didn't we rename French Fries 'Freedom Fries' in the House cafeteria in 2003? Maybe he should rename his favorite coffee drink Freedom Coffee.

Yes, I admit to a certain glee in pouncing upon Mr. I'll Run a Respectful Campaign.

Every patriotic American needs a set of 8 or 9 or 10 keys to remind McCain of how many houses he owns!

A Final Paean to Manny

A final ode to Manny from Charlie Pierce.

Charles Pierce, Boston Globe: Manny Ramirez's Long Goodbye
Exit stage left, dude. It's been fun.

Heard Any Good John McCain Jokes Lately?

Private Plane McCain

Huffpo: Heard Any Good "John McCain's Got a Lot of Houses" Jokes?

John McCain can't remember how many houses he has! It's not his fault, though. He had the number written down but he left it in his other plane.

Golden!

Goal!

The USWNT won a hard-fought gold medal this morning, defeating hated Brazil 1-0 in overtime. Carli Lloyd scored the winner in the 96th minute. Christie Rampone was my MOTM; on USSoccer they selected Hope Solo, and I can live with that. She made a point blank reaction save on Marta in the 72nd minute that was amazing. Even watching the game as a spectator was exhausting. So I'm too tired to recap fully. Read these excellent recaps/liveblogs:

Boltgirl on the Loose, here, and here.

(from which I learned that after the 4-0 loss at the 2007 World Cup, the Brazilian players videotaped the US players crying in the hotel lobby. Stay classy, pretty losers. I'm going to start calling Brazil the Anna Kournikova of soccer.)


Andrea Canales at Sideline Views.

Jere Longman, NYTimes

Beau Dure, USAToady


Natasha Kai became the first Hawaiian athlete to win a gold medal. She ripped off her shirt to celebrate, showing the world her sports bra (yawn) and her tattoos (awesome).

How sweet it is!

Bonus video of the USWNTs of basketball and soccer meeting. Watch Tobin Heath make Kara Lawson look tall! See their ball skills. Watch Diana Taurasi tear it up in soccer tennis.

USSoccer Photo Gallery

Yahoo Photo Gallery

Cute soccer mom pics:

Rylie Cate, daughter of United States' Christie Rampone, jumps from the podium in joy after her mom's team won the gold over Brazil in the women's soccer final at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008.
(AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)
United States' Christie Rampone, left, carries her daughter Rylie Cate and United States' Kate Markgraf carries her son Keegan on their shoulders as they are all smiles with teammate Carli Lloyd, center, during the medal ceremony for the women's soccer gold medal match at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008. The US won the gold medal by beating Brazil.
(AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Poor, poor Brazil, the greatest team that's never won anything.

Waaaaaahhhhhhhh! (Hey, Cristiane, there's NO CRYING IN BASEBALL)

Final note, a shoutout to Greg Ryan: She would have made those saves, you moron.

McCain Is A POW, All Hail McCain

Hilarious.



Dissent is treason.

More Help for McCain's Memory

This intrepid college student helps John McCain count his houses -- there are 10!



Nice job Aaron Walker!

This Will Jog John McCain's Memory

Maybe one of McCain's children or staffers can get him on the internet so he can watch this video, a GoogleEarth tour of his 10 houses worth more than $13,000,000, from the JedReport:



John McCain is fighting back, with his well-used line of attack "A noun, a verb, POW!"

"This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison," spokesman Brian Rogers told the Washington Post.

And a Hanoi Hilton to you!

McCain Doesn't Remember How Many Houses He Owns

HuffPo: McCain Doesn't Remember How Many Houses He Owns

and Obama pounces:

Better

New ad from Obama;

The Real John McCain

Latest video on McCain and the mortgage crisis from Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films:

John McCain: Clueless Rich Man

McCain thinks people who make less than $5,000,000 per year are middle class! Watch and be amazed:

Pig In a Window

 

A photograph of a pig in a shop window in Berlin, summer 2006. Looks vaguely Olympian to me!

Post #3000*

Down With Tyranny: McCAIN'S MENTAL HEALTH IS ONE THING-- BUT WHAT ABOUT A PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION?
Graphic: Side Effects of Ambien

McCain takes Ambien. It's the latest sleeping pill, and has bizarre side effects. Besides the medical jargon listed above, the manufacturer has acknowledged that people eat while asleep and sleepwalk -- even sleepdrive (pdf link) -- while on the drug.

When the phone rings at 3:00 a.m., who answers? Cindy? Deluded John McAmbien? He's confused enough as it is, what about when he's on drugs?

One of the side effects of Ambien is occasional memory loss, as well as hallucinations, delusions, and impaired judgment.

Maybe Ambien is responsible for McCain changing nearly every position he held in 2000 to Bush's positions in 2008. He's a deluded, hallucinating old man lost in the fog of his memories.

*Yes, this is the 3,000th post on this blog. Too much time on my hands.