This was my favorite moment from the debate, when Obama looked McCain in the eye and said people are saying "terrorist" and "kill him" about me at your running mate's rallies, and she doesn't object to that. And McCain blinks. He has nothing.
Showing posts with label John Lewis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Lewis. Show all posts
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
McCain Rejects Advice From John Lewis
Another John McCain lie exposed. At the Saddleback Forum in August, McCain was asked which three people were the wisest people he knew, whose advice he would rely upon heavily during his administration. Yesterday John Lewis advised him to pull back from the abyss of stirring racial hatred against Obama, that he and his running mate are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and what did John McCain do? He attacked John Lewis. McCain even put out another racist dogwhistle in his response, in which he claimed that Lewis' criticism is:
Hardworking means white. Especially in this context, since nearly everyone at a McCain rally who isn't a paid plant is white, and it is white people who are screaming "kill him", "terrorist", and "traitor" at McCain rallies.
McCain-Palin: Racism-R-US.
John Cole: Wise People Suck
...a brazen and baseless attack on my character and the character of the thousands of hardworking Americans..."
Hardworking means white. Especially in this context, since nearly everyone at a McCain rally who isn't a paid plant is white, and it is white people who are screaming "kill him", "terrorist", and "traitor" at McCain rallies.
McCain-Palin: Racism-R-US.
John Cole: Wise People Suck
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Jesus Was A Community Organizer
Jesus was a community organizer, and John McCain is a POW: a Prisoner of the Wingnuts. Only a Republican wingnut like Sarah Palin would have the chutzpah to mock community organizers in her first major speech on the national stage.
Hey, you know another community organizer? John Lewis, Congressman from Georgia, chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee fighting for civil rights during the 1960s; beaten to a bloody pulp by police during the Selma march in 1965; recently cited by Republican hypocrite John McCain as someone he would look to for advice. So, McCain would look to community organizer and American hero John Lewis for advice, but he sends out his pitbull in lipstick Sarah Palin to attack Obama as a lowly community organizer.
The Rethugs have nothing. They don't have any policies to offer except for four more years of George W. Bush's failed policies. So they're on the attack. We're not falling for it this time.
Insightful diary from organicdemocrat at dailykos.
Jesus Was a Community Organizer
Martin Luther King was too. So was Gandhi. Mandela. Also John Hancock, who organized a boycott of [t]ea imported from China.
The Republican Party is run by powerful corporate interests who feel threatened by any citizen organization. Mitt Romney made money at his East Coast hedge fund by taking over companies, firing his workers and looting their pension fund. (While Mitt was talking, Nero called. Wants his fiddle back.) Rudy Giuliani, as Mayor, lived in fear of community organizers from Harlem and Brooklyn who held him accountable for his brutal tactics. They have no credibility even with their base. Even Huckabee's "Aww shucks" act falls flat.
So they go out and hire an attractive young spokeswoman. Write a speech for her. Attacking Obama at his core. Before even introducing her properly to the public. It is not going to work either. Because Obama's brand is more established than hers.
[]
The proper response is not to go after Sarah Palin. Instead, hit McCain at his core. If Obama is a community organizer, the defining trait of McCain is POW. Take over that word. Own it. Mock not his war record, but the way he has been exploiting it for cheap political purposes. Obama cannot do it. Nor even Biden. But the rest of us can. We are the community they are mocking. Let us organize to give them a piece of our mind. Two million voices.
Every American knew a year ago that McCain was a POW. By offering up nothing more than that, no economic plan, not even a coherent foreign policy ( supposed to be his strong suit), the Republican are risking over exposure. And there will be even more today. McCain does not really have anything else to talk about.
McCain's greatest weakness is his association with Bush. Obama has gone after that. But the tactic of attacking an opponent at his strength is effective. Do not be afraid to go after McCain's strength as POW. Trivialize him.
What does POW stand for again? Prisoner of Wingnuts. He can't even make a phone call without permission from his minders.
What war did he get taken Prisoner in? The Culture War. The man who once derided Falwell and Robertson as "agents of intolerance" is now pimping for them.
McCain is a coward. He runs in fear from the Press that once adored him. The "Angry Left" that he is running from is that well known young radical, Larry King.
[]
THIS is what they were mocking tonight.
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Matt. 25:34-40
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Oh My
New York Times: Prominent Clinton Backer Says He’ll Vote for Obama
MILWAUKEE – Representative John Lewis, an iconic figure from the Civil Rights era and one of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s most prominent black supporters, said Thursday night that he planned to cast his vote as a superdelegate for Senator Barack Obama in hopes of preventing a fight at the Democratic convention.
“In recent days, there is a sense of movement and a sense of spirit,” said Mr. Lewis, a Georgia Democrat who endorsed Mrs. Clinton last fall. “Something is happening in America and people are prepared and ready to make that great leap.”
Mr. Lewis, an elder statesman of the black civil rights establishment who carries great influence among other members of Congress and in the black community, disclosed his decision in an interview as the Service Employees International Union was on the brink of endorsing Mr. Obama. It also came as fresh signs emerged that Mrs. Clinton’s support was beginning to erode from some African American lawmakers who also serve as superdelegates. Representative David Scott of Georgia, who was among the first to defect, said he would not go against the will of voters in his district who overwhelmingly supported Mr. Obama last week.
To mix a few metaphors here, Clinton's firewall has sprung a big leak.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Civil Rights Pioneer John Lewis: "To discriminate against someone because they are gay: It is wrong, it is wrong, It. Is. Not. Right."
John Lewis makes me proud to be an American:
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Today's Hearing on Hans von Vote Suppressor
I didn't get to see the Rules Committee hearing on von Spakovsky's nomination to the Federal Election Commission today, so here is a round-up of reactions.
McClatchy wins both the headline and reporting award with this story:
McClatchy: U.S. ATTORNEYS
Ex-Justice Dept. lawyer can't recall his role in controversial policies
WASHINGTON - Another former Justice Department lawyer went before Congress on Wednesday with few answers for his Democratic interrogators and a spotty memory.
Hans von Spakovsky, who's seeking a full six-year term on the Federal Election Commission, deflected questions about whether he undermined voting rights laws, saying, "I was not the decision maker in the front office of the Civil Rights Division."
Time and again during his confirmation hearing, he cited either the attorney-client privilege or a cloudy memory for his purported role in restricting minorities' voting rights.
Von Spakovsky couldn't remember blocking an investigation into complaints that a Minnesota Republican official was discriminating against Native American voters before the 2004 election.
Under oath, he also said he didn't recall seeing data from the state of Georgia that would have undercut a push by senior officials within the Civil Rights Division to approve the state's tough new law requiring photo IDs of all voters. The data showed that 300,000 Georgia voters lacked driver's licenses. A federal judge later threw out the law as unconstitutional.
John Lewis, who spilled his blood for voting rights, and other Georgia Democrats have opposed von Spakovsky's nomination, 'saying his appointment "could potentially turn back the clock on 50 years of progress" in voting rights.'
salon.com: The grilling of von Spakovsky
NYTimes Editorial: Another Sorry Ascension
[] President Bush gave him a recess appointment to the commission last year. The new Democratic-controlled Senate now has the opportunity to strike a blow against electoral skullduggery with a blunt rejection of Mr. Spakovsky’s nomination for a full six-year term.
Slate: Implausible Deniability
The Internet foils fudging by three "voter fraud" warriors.
Senator Dick Durbin questions von Spakovsky:
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Get Out There and Vote
In 1964, Lewis coordinated SNCC's efforts for "Mississippi Freedom Summer," a campaign to register black voters across the South. The following year, Lewis led one of the most dramatic protests of the era. On March 7, 1965 -- a day that would become known as "Bloody Sunday" -- Lewis and fellow activist Hosea Williams led over 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. At the end of the bridge, they were met by Alabama State Troopers, who ordered them to disperse. When the marchers stopped to pray, the police discharged tear gas and mounted troopers charged the demonstrators, beating them with night sticks. Lewis's skull was fractured, but he escaped across the bridge, to a church in Selma. Before he could be taken to the hospital, John Lewis appeared before the television cameras calling on President Johnson to intervene in Alabama.
Friday, February 10, 2006
Yesterday's News
No time to post yesterday. Here's the news of the day (besides those mysteriously disappearing hawk's nests in Boston):
Novel defense: My boss said it was OK! Even though it broke several federal laws! That's what Scooter Libby is peddling. Looks like he got himself Oliver North's old lawyer, and they're going to play hide the salami by asking for classified documents which BushCo will then refuse to turn over:
Cheney 'Authorized' Libby to Leak Classified Information
Remember Bamboozlepalooza, where George Bush spent months barnstorming the country trying to get us to gut Social Security? Never one to give up on a horrible idea, Georgie "LaLaLa I Can't Hear You" Peorgie Bush wrote his entire insane Social Security privatization plan into this year's proposed federal budget. Like the rest of that fictional document, it is dead on arrival:
Bush's Social Security Sleight of Hand
And, as we all knew deep in our hearts, Bush knew Jack:
EXCLUSIVE EMAILS: Jack Abramoff Describes Relationship With President Bush
EXCLUSIVE: Abramoff Photos of President Bush, First Lady ‘Just Sitting In His Office’
Rethugs Frist & Hastert duped fellow members of Congress into giving Big Pharma immunity from lawsuits:
Hastert, Frist said to rig bill for drug firms
Frist denies protection was added in secret
That dumb kid who resigned from NASA still thinks he has a right to stifle science: Ex-Press Aide for NASA Offers Defense
Novel defense: My boss said it was OK! Even though it broke several federal laws! That's what Scooter Libby is peddling. Looks like he got himself Oliver North's old lawyer, and they're going to play hide the salami by asking for classified documents which BushCo will then refuse to turn over:
Cheney 'Authorized' Libby to Leak Classified Information
Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, testified to a federal grand jury that he had been "authorized" by Cheney and other White House "superiors" in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records.
[]
If Libby's defense adopts strategies used by North, it might be in part because the strategies largely worked for North and in part because Libby's defense team has quietly retained John D. Cline, who was a defense attorney for North. Cline, a San-Francisco partner at the Jones Day law firm, has specialized in the use of classified information in defending clients charged with wrongdoing in national security cases.
Among his detractors, Cline is what is known as a "graymail" specialist-an attorney who, critics say, purposely makes onerous demands on the federal government to disclose classified information in the course of defending his clients, in an effort to force the government to dismiss the charges. Although Cline declined to be interviewed for this story, he has said that the use of classified information is necessary in assuring that defendants are accorded due process and receive fair trials.
Remember Bamboozlepalooza, where George Bush spent months barnstorming the country trying to get us to gut Social Security? Never one to give up on a horrible idea, Georgie "LaLaLa I Can't Hear You" Peorgie Bush wrote his entire insane Social Security privatization plan into this year's proposed federal budget. Like the rest of that fictional document, it is dead on arrival:
Bush's Social Security Sleight of Hand
Last year, even though Bush talked endlessly about the supposed joys of private accounts, he never proposed a specific plan to Congress and never put privatization costs in the budget. But this year, with no fanfare whatsoever, Bush stuck a big Social Security privatization plan in the federal budget proposal, which he sent to Congress on Monday.
His plan would let people set up private accounts starting in 2010 and would divert more than $700 billion of Social Security tax revenues to pay for them over the first seven years.
And, as we all knew deep in our hearts, Bush knew Jack:
EXCLUSIVE EMAILS: Jack Abramoff Describes Relationship With President Bush
EXCLUSIVE: Abramoff Photos of President Bush, First Lady ‘Just Sitting In His Office’
Rethugs Frist & Hastert duped fellow members of Congress into giving Big Pharma immunity from lawsuits:
Hastert, Frist said to rig bill for drug firms
Frist denies protection was added in secret
That dumb kid who resigned from NASA still thinks he has a right to stifle science: Ex-Press Aide for NASA Offers Defense
Speaking to a Texas radio station and then to The New York Times, Mr. Deutsch said the scientist, James E. Hansen, exaggerated the threat of [global] warming and tried to cast the Bush administration's response to it as inadequate.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
John Lewis Proposes a New Marshall Plan to Rebuild New Orleans
'This Is a National Disgrace'
Opinion: A civil-rights leader mourns an African-American population left behind.
It's so strange that when we have something like this happening, the president gets two ex-presidents—his father and Bill Clinton—to raise money. What they propose to do is good, and I appreciate all the work the private sector and the faith-based community are doing. But when we get ready to go to war, we don't go around soliciting resources with a bucket or an offering plate. We have the courage to come before Congress and debate the issue, authorize money. That's what we need to do here. By next year we'll have spent $400 billion to $500 billion in Afghanistan and Iraq. That money could be used to help rebuild the lives of people. If we fail to act as a nation, I don't think history will be kind to us.
We've got to do more than the $10 billion that Congress appropriated. We need a massive Marshall-type plan to rebuild New Orleans. But in rebuilding we should see this as an opportunity to rebuild urban America. New Orleans could be a model. There must be a commitment of billions and billions of dollars—maybe $50 billion to $100 billion. I think even in other urban centers, there are people who are just barely existing. We sing the song "Hope is on the way," but it's taking a long time before hope arrives. It becomes very discouraging where you see people dying—children, the elderly, the sick—the lack of food and water. I've cried a lot of tears the past few days as I watched television—to see somebody lying dead outside the convention center. I went to Somalia in 1992 and I saw little babies dying before my eyes. This reminded me of Somalia. But this is America. We're not a Third World country. This is an embarrassment. It's a shame. It's a national disgrace.
Lewis is the U.S. congressman from the Fifth District of Georgia.
© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.
Note from truth: Hope this post comes out. Blogger is hopping all over the place. I've gotten 3 different templates in the past 10 minutes while trying to create a new post. None of them allow me to use the toolbar, that's why the excerpted text is not indented.
Gotta learn HTML.
Opinion: A civil-rights leader mourns an African-American population left behind.
It's so strange that when we have something like this happening, the president gets two ex-presidents—his father and Bill Clinton—to raise money. What they propose to do is good, and I appreciate all the work the private sector and the faith-based community are doing. But when we get ready to go to war, we don't go around soliciting resources with a bucket or an offering plate. We have the courage to come before Congress and debate the issue, authorize money. That's what we need to do here. By next year we'll have spent $400 billion to $500 billion in Afghanistan and Iraq. That money could be used to help rebuild the lives of people. If we fail to act as a nation, I don't think history will be kind to us.
We've got to do more than the $10 billion that Congress appropriated. We need a massive Marshall-type plan to rebuild New Orleans. But in rebuilding we should see this as an opportunity to rebuild urban America. New Orleans could be a model. There must be a commitment of billions and billions of dollars—maybe $50 billion to $100 billion. I think even in other urban centers, there are people who are just barely existing. We sing the song "Hope is on the way," but it's taking a long time before hope arrives. It becomes very discouraging where you see people dying—children, the elderly, the sick—the lack of food and water. I've cried a lot of tears the past few days as I watched television—to see somebody lying dead outside the convention center. I went to Somalia in 1992 and I saw little babies dying before my eyes. This reminded me of Somalia. But this is America. We're not a Third World country. This is an embarrassment. It's a shame. It's a national disgrace.
Lewis is the U.S. congressman from the Fifth District of Georgia.
© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.
Note from truth: Hope this post comes out. Blogger is hopping all over the place. I've gotten 3 different templates in the past 10 minutes while trying to create a new post. None of them allow me to use the toolbar, that's why the excerpted text is not indented.
Gotta learn HTML.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
US, Costa Rica 0-0 tie
Went to the CONCACAF Gold Cup matches at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA last night with Coach Mom. We arrived early wearing our DaMarcus Beasley shirts & camped out in the parking lot for an hour of fanwatching. The sun was hot but it was not humid and only about 80 degrees. Thank heavens the game wasn't on Monday, when temps were in the high 90s. The salsa music was blasting and the smells of propane and grilling smoke wafted through the air. Definitely going to be a Costa-Rica dominated crowd. Ticos! Ticos! Ticos!
Our next-door car was from New Jersey. The chatty fan told us that neither Donovan nor Beasley would play (he was wrong on both counts). He was going to the World Cup qualifier v. Mexico in Columbus on September 3rd and we encouraged him to go the Soccer Hall of Fame on August 29th, when John Harkes, Tab Ramos and Marcelo Balboa will be inducted. We are going to all the Gold Cup games on the east coast except for the finals, which are on the same day as AC Milan-Chelsea at Foxboro. Our neighbor informed us that the Gold Cup game would be a much better game. Hah. Better than John Terry, Frank Lampard, Damien Duff, Hernan Crespo, Andriy Shevchenko, Cafu, Paulo Maldini, Kaka, Christian Vieri? I don't think so.
The gates opened at 6:00 p.m. Security was a joke. I walked through the line for searching people with bags. A young security officer (female) looked into my binocular case and glanced at my unzipped purse, not touching either. I could have had a gun or a knife or just about anything. Surprising given this is just days after the London bomb attacks. The stadium had blocked off the stands behind the benches so the 15,000 or so fans were concentrated on one side. We walked up the ramp with a man carrying a heavy marching band style snare drum with metal posts to stand it up. We couldn't bring an umbrella, but this somewhat inebriated fan could have a drum. He sideswiped Coach Mom as we turned the corner & apologized. We watched another drunk fan, running backwards to take a picture of her friends, trip and fall, her digital camera breaking into pieces on the concrete.
Our seats were great, 25 rows up on the 18 yard line. Foxboro also has the silly "take away their soda bottle caps" rule, but at least Gillette, a modern stadium, has cupholders attached to the seat in front of each seat. (And I still have two caps in my purse from our last trip to Giants Stadium!)
The game was a lackluster affair. Keller was a rock in goal, and the defense was OK. Hedjuk played well until he got a silly yellow card late for diving, which means he will miss the quarterfinal game on Saturday. Jimmy Conrad, making his 3rd national team appearance, played very well at the back. He looked a little shaky on his first touch, but after that he made no major errors and won some nice balls in air. Sadly, Tony Sanneh has lost a step & I will be surprised to see him on the World Cup roster. Cherundolo is also a marginal player on the world stage. I see our World Cup back line as Hedjuk, Conrad, Gooch (Oguchi Onyewu), and Bocanegra. Here's my projected World Cup starting 11:
--------------------Keller-------------------
Conrad-----Gooch-----Bocanegra---------Hedjuk
----------------------Lewis-----------------
Donovan-------------------------------Beasley
-------------------O'Brien-------------------
---------------Johnson------McBride-----------
I'd give Spector a chance to crack the back line, but Arena doesn't seem to be giving him the chance to do so. Arena will probably play Reyna over Lewis, but I think Claudio's lack of pace will make him a liability. (Coach Mom would switch Donovan and O'Brien, but otherwise she is OK with my lineup.)
The offense couldn't finish. Not only couldn't we finish, no one wanted to shoot. Too many good offensive sequences ended with a pass that should have been a shot, a dribble into the corner, or just a giveaway. Our best offensive chance happened in the 2nd minute when John O'Brien backheeled the ball to Pat Noonan who smartly crossed the ball which Dempsey slotted in. Unfortunately Noonan was offsides and the US had little more offense until Arena put in Beasley, Donovan, and Wolff for the final 20 minutes.
The Costa Rica crowd was loud and boisterous. We cheered each US effort and apparently annoyed some CR's behind us, who began shouting "Beasley sucks" and "puta" (do you speak Spanish?). However, the CR fan sitting next to Mom was a nice man & they agreed on a few blown offsides calls by the line judge. We shook hands after the game.
U.S. Draws Costa Rica 0-0, Wins Gold Cup Group
Tie with Costa Rica goes to the U.S.
The United States wins Group B based on its plus-5 goal-differential and now moves to Saturday's quarterfinals.
CONCACAF Gold Cup Notebook: Dempsey continues to impress coach
The temps quickly dropped between games, and we were happy to have brought beach towels in case of rain. Perhaps 4000 fans stayed for the second game. A group of 12 Cubans stood at the rail below us, and about 8 Canadians were over in the Sam's Army seats. I joked about Cuba needing to win or this would be their last day to defect, then read this today:
Cuban soccer player hopes to defect to U.S.
Canada won 2-1 so both teams are likely eliminated. The US will play one of the third place teams. Which team they play will be decided when the hurricane-postponed final group games are played in Miami tonight. Saturday's games are Honduras-Panama at 1:00, US - TBA at 4:00, and the Revs v. FC Dallas at 7:00. If it's 95 degrees as predicted we may only go to the last two games. Have to save our energy for the semis!
Our next-door car was from New Jersey. The chatty fan told us that neither Donovan nor Beasley would play (he was wrong on both counts). He was going to the World Cup qualifier v. Mexico in Columbus on September 3rd and we encouraged him to go the Soccer Hall of Fame on August 29th, when John Harkes, Tab Ramos and Marcelo Balboa will be inducted. We are going to all the Gold Cup games on the east coast except for the finals, which are on the same day as AC Milan-Chelsea at Foxboro. Our neighbor informed us that the Gold Cup game would be a much better game. Hah. Better than John Terry, Frank Lampard, Damien Duff, Hernan Crespo, Andriy Shevchenko, Cafu, Paulo Maldini, Kaka, Christian Vieri? I don't think so.
The gates opened at 6:00 p.m. Security was a joke. I walked through the line for searching people with bags. A young security officer (female) looked into my binocular case and glanced at my unzipped purse, not touching either. I could have had a gun or a knife or just about anything. Surprising given this is just days after the London bomb attacks. The stadium had blocked off the stands behind the benches so the 15,000 or so fans were concentrated on one side. We walked up the ramp with a man carrying a heavy marching band style snare drum with metal posts to stand it up. We couldn't bring an umbrella, but this somewhat inebriated fan could have a drum. He sideswiped Coach Mom as we turned the corner & apologized. We watched another drunk fan, running backwards to take a picture of her friends, trip and fall, her digital camera breaking into pieces on the concrete.
Our seats were great, 25 rows up on the 18 yard line. Foxboro also has the silly "take away their soda bottle caps" rule, but at least Gillette, a modern stadium, has cupholders attached to the seat in front of each seat. (And I still have two caps in my purse from our last trip to Giants Stadium!)
The game was a lackluster affair. Keller was a rock in goal, and the defense was OK. Hedjuk played well until he got a silly yellow card late for diving, which means he will miss the quarterfinal game on Saturday. Jimmy Conrad, making his 3rd national team appearance, played very well at the back. He looked a little shaky on his first touch, but after that he made no major errors and won some nice balls in air. Sadly, Tony Sanneh has lost a step & I will be surprised to see him on the World Cup roster. Cherundolo is also a marginal player on the world stage. I see our World Cup back line as Hedjuk, Conrad, Gooch (Oguchi Onyewu), and Bocanegra. Here's my projected World Cup starting 11:
--------------------Keller-------------------
Conrad-----Gooch-----Bocanegra---------Hedjuk
----------------------Lewis-----------------
Donovan-------------------------------Beasley
-------------------O'Brien-------------------
---------------Johnson------McBride-----------
I'd give Spector a chance to crack the back line, but Arena doesn't seem to be giving him the chance to do so. Arena will probably play Reyna over Lewis, but I think Claudio's lack of pace will make him a liability. (Coach Mom would switch Donovan and O'Brien, but otherwise she is OK with my lineup.)
The offense couldn't finish. Not only couldn't we finish, no one wanted to shoot. Too many good offensive sequences ended with a pass that should have been a shot, a dribble into the corner, or just a giveaway. Our best offensive chance happened in the 2nd minute when John O'Brien backheeled the ball to Pat Noonan who smartly crossed the ball which Dempsey slotted in. Unfortunately Noonan was offsides and the US had little more offense until Arena put in Beasley, Donovan, and Wolff for the final 20 minutes.
The Costa Rica crowd was loud and boisterous. We cheered each US effort and apparently annoyed some CR's behind us, who began shouting "Beasley sucks" and "puta" (do you speak Spanish?). However, the CR fan sitting next to Mom was a nice man & they agreed on a few blown offsides calls by the line judge. We shook hands after the game.
U.S. Draws Costa Rica 0-0, Wins Gold Cup Group
Tie with Costa Rica goes to the U.S.
The United States wins Group B based on its plus-5 goal-differential and now moves to Saturday's quarterfinals.
CONCACAF Gold Cup Notebook: Dempsey continues to impress coach
The temps quickly dropped between games, and we were happy to have brought beach towels in case of rain. Perhaps 4000 fans stayed for the second game. A group of 12 Cubans stood at the rail below us, and about 8 Canadians were over in the Sam's Army seats. I joked about Cuba needing to win or this would be their last day to defect, then read this today:
Cuban soccer player hopes to defect to U.S.
Canada won 2-1 so both teams are likely eliminated. The US will play one of the third place teams. Which team they play will be decided when the hurricane-postponed final group games are played in Miami tonight. Saturday's games are Honduras-Panama at 1:00, US - TBA at 4:00, and the Revs v. FC Dallas at 7:00. If it's 95 degrees as predicted we may only go to the last two games. Have to save our energy for the semis!
Thursday, June 16, 2005
I Love My Congressman
Rep. Waters Creates New “Out-of-Iraq Congressional Caucus”
WASHINGTON, D.C.--Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) has informed Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) that she and Rep. Charles Rangel, Rep. Barbara Lee, Rep. Lynn Woolsey, Rep. Xavier Becerra, Rep. John Conyers, and Rep. John Lewis are leading a newly formed Out of Iraq Congressional Caucus, with 41 members as of today.
Rep. Waters said: "The Out of Iraq Congressional Caucus is a newly formed effort whose sole purpose is to be the main agitators in the movement to bring our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Our efforts will include the coordination of activities and legislation designed to achieve our goal of returning our troops home. Through floor statements, press conferences, TV and radio appearances and other actions, we will provide leadership for the American Public who has been waiting too long for our collective voices against the war."
“This announcement illustrates the changing tide in Washington around the issue of the Iraq Occupation,” says National Director of PDA Tim Carpenter. “This caucus will allow a collective dialogue within Congress on this issue, in which the tens of thousands of grassroots activists within PDA will be working to support.”
In addition, Rep. Waters will speak at today's 5 pm rally in Lafayette Square Park in support of Rep. John Conyers' (D-MI) hearings today on the Downing Street memo. Before the rally Rep. Waters will be attending the hearings. The hearings are being held from 2:30-4:30 pm in Room HC-9 of the U.S. Capitol, with overflow at the Wasserman Room at 430 S Capitol St. SE.
Current members of the caucus include:
Rep. Neil Abercrombie, Rep. Xavier Becerra, Rep. Corrine Brown, Rep. Julia Carson, Rep. Donna Christensen, Rep. John Conyers, Rep. William Delahunt, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, Rep. Sam Farr, Rep. Chaka Fattah, Rep. Raul Grijalva, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Rep. Rush Holt, Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Rep. Barbara Lee, Rep. Shelia Jackson-Lee, Rep. John Lewis, Rep. James McGovern, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Rep. Jim Moran, Rep. Grace Napolitano, Rep. Eleanor Holmes-Norton, Rep. John Olver, Rep. Major Owens, Rep. Donald Payne, Rep. Nick Rahall, Rep. Charles Rangel, Rep. Janice Schakowsky, Rep. Bobby Scott, Rep. Jose Serrano, Rep. John Tierney
WASHINGTON, D.C.--Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) has informed Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) that she and Rep. Charles Rangel, Rep. Barbara Lee, Rep. Lynn Woolsey, Rep. Xavier Becerra, Rep. John Conyers, and Rep. John Lewis are leading a newly formed Out of Iraq Congressional Caucus, with 41 members as of today.
Rep. Waters said: "The Out of Iraq Congressional Caucus is a newly formed effort whose sole purpose is to be the main agitators in the movement to bring our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Our efforts will include the coordination of activities and legislation designed to achieve our goal of returning our troops home. Through floor statements, press conferences, TV and radio appearances and other actions, we will provide leadership for the American Public who has been waiting too long for our collective voices against the war."
“This announcement illustrates the changing tide in Washington around the issue of the Iraq Occupation,” says National Director of PDA Tim Carpenter. “This caucus will allow a collective dialogue within Congress on this issue, in which the tens of thousands of grassroots activists within PDA will be working to support.”
In addition, Rep. Waters will speak at today's 5 pm rally in Lafayette Square Park in support of Rep. John Conyers' (D-MI) hearings today on the Downing Street memo. Before the rally Rep. Waters will be attending the hearings. The hearings are being held from 2:30-4:30 pm in Room HC-9 of the U.S. Capitol, with overflow at the Wasserman Room at 430 S Capitol St. SE.
Current members of the caucus include:
Rep. Neil Abercrombie, Rep. Xavier Becerra, Rep. Corrine Brown, Rep. Julia Carson, Rep. Donna Christensen, Rep. John Conyers, Rep. William Delahunt, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, Rep. Sam Farr, Rep. Chaka Fattah, Rep. Raul Grijalva, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Rep. Rush Holt, Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Rep. Barbara Lee, Rep. Shelia Jackson-Lee, Rep. John Lewis, Rep. James McGovern, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Rep. Jim Moran, Rep. Grace Napolitano, Rep. Eleanor Holmes-Norton, Rep. John Olver, Rep. Major Owens, Rep. Donald Payne, Rep. Nick Rahall, Rep. Charles Rangel, Rep. Janice Schakowsky, Rep. Bobby Scott, Rep. Jose Serrano, Rep. John Tierney
Sunday, June 05, 2005
My Kind of Town, Chicago Is
I need to blog about my great soccer jaunt. My mom & I flew out of Newark on Thursday last week to Chicago to see England's national team (men) play the US at Soldier Field on Saturday. After a direct flight (a nice change from hub-hopping) we took an airport shuttle to our hotel. We rode with tourists from New Hampshire and three name-dropping gay men from LA ("I hear Tom Cruise goes there all the time", etc.). The husband of the NH couple was nice but when he began advocating that the Twin Towers in NYC be rebuilt I tuned him out. (Like who would ever work in that building? Only out-of-towners think that's a good idea.)
We stayed at the Swissotel, & I got a great rate from a site called travelzoo which included a buffet breakfast for both of us each day. The hotel is at 323 E. Wacker Drive, a fancy business hotel 3 blocks west of Millennium Park & 3 blocks north of Michigan Avenue. I asked the desk clerk for a room facing the lake, but with our bargain rate he wouldn't budge. We had a room on the 29th floor overlooking the city. The room was great, soft high-thread-count sheets, down comforters, floor to ceiling windows, huge bathroom with both shower stall and deep bathtub, and Ethernet. Not that I could figure out the Ethernet connection, but we weren't there to go on the computer.
I had bought a great little tour book, the Eyewitness Guides Top Ten Guide to Chicago. It's small, fits in your purse, and really condenses the highlights of Chicago into a series of lists. The perfect guidebook for a short trip. We went for a walk after stowing our bags & walked down to Millennium Park, marveling at the architecture. I made dinner reservations at the Berghoff, 17 W. Adams Street. Not realizing how close it was, we took a cab there. We had a great German meal -- Mom had sauerbrauten & I had wiener schnitzel, with a bratwurst & knockwurst appetizer, & sauerkraut & red cabbage. We had glasses of the house amber beer and rewarded ourselves with apple strudel for dessert. Not traditional German strudel, it was made with phyllo dough, but delicious. We walked home and again enjoyed all the little architectural details of the buildings; many had big elaborate clocks extending from the corner of the building.
Friday we had our first hotel breakfast/brunch -- trays of fresh watermelon, pineapple, honeydew & cantaloupe, cheeses, smoked salmon, salami & ham, scrambled eggs, Irish oatmeal, cheese blintzes, hash browns, two kinds of sausage, bacon, grilled tomatoes, french toast, and then a whole other table of breads & cereals. Brunch cost $18 per so we were happy to hand them our voucher at the end of the meal.
OK, here's the best part, the English team was STAYING IN OUR HOTEL! Mom recognized one of the players in the elevator as we returned from brunch. She walked into the elevator and said, "Well, good morning, Mr. Crouch!" As in Peter Crouch, who would be making his England debut on the tour. He was folded into the corner of the elevator, wearing his white England shirt over khakis. The other guy in the elevator -- shorter than me --said, also with an English accent, "Of course you recognize him, he's 6'7"." Mom said, well, who are you? (knowing that there are many young players here for England & that we may not know all of them.) I couldn't understand his name through his accent but he said he played for Charlton -- Mom said "Oh, you play with Danny Murphy!" Then she turned to Crouch & said she was looking forward to seeing him play. He was pretty shy & awkward. We were gleeful after we got off the elevator! We took another walk, this time down State Street and Michigan for a bit of shopping. We tried on $200 hats in Marshall Field, then I got some t-shirts with the American flag on them at Old Navy & Mom & I both picked up new purses in TJ Maxx. We walked over to the Daley Center to see the Picasso sculpture in the plaza. On the way home we hit a Borders where Mom bought 3 English soccer magazines.
That afternoon we went to see the Cubs play the Rockies at legendary Wrigley Field. We took the El from the Lake station to Addison. Amazed at all the legal scalpers working the street just outside the train station. Guess I overpaid for tix by purchasing them on the internet before the trip. With the Cubs in a nosedive the Cub fans are not beating down the door. Like Fenway Park, though, Wrigley Field is its own draw. We made it into our seats high above home plate in time to see poor Mark Prior get hit on the elbow by a comebacker straight at him, the ball hit so hard it was caught on the fly by the third baseman. Well, at least the Cubs romped. Derrick Lee hit two home runs. He is an impressive physical specimen -- reminded me of Dave Winfield.
We took the El home and repaired to our hotel room to freshen up before our Friday night dinner at Bar 36, a fancy wine bar. We went down the elevator to the hotel lobby to see a guy in a periwinkle blue uniform with his back to us, signing the shirt of a young boy. It was Andy Johnson, Crystal Palace striker who finished second in the Premier League in goals (behind Thierry Henry, natch). In person, he looks much smaller than he does on the field. Slight, almost. Then we spotted Joe Cole (with John Terry, most improved player on Chelsea). I said to Mom, Mom, you better go get your camera! So she headed off the elevator, where she had a nice conversation with Joe Cole. While she was gone Sol Campbell (Arsenal) and Wes Brown (Manchester United) walked in and began signing autographs and posing for pictures. Then Alan Smith and Phil Neville (both Man U.), who with nasty looks on their faces walked briskly past the people in the hallway & went directly to the elevator. I thought at the time that it was just their personalities, but Smith may have had his famous dust-up with Steve McLaren about the fact that the manager had decided to start Peter Crouch at striker rather than Smith.
Mom finally arrived back & I took her picture with Wes Brown. We struck up a conversation with a transplanted Englishman who was very impressed with our football knowledge (he introduced us to other Brits by saying, "These two young ladies know their football! They watch it on the satellite!"). He took our picture with Sol Campbell (swoon) and Andy Johnson. I got pictures of Mom with Sven Goran Eriksson (the manager) and David James (Manchester City). We missed out on pics with Ashley Cole and Jermaine Dafoe.
OK, here's the embarrassing part. I saw Kieran Richardson wearing the same training outfit, but he looked too young to play. I thought maybe he was the ballboy. So I asked him, "Are you going to play?" He replied "I hope so!" I suppose my question didn't seem so stupid to him as he had never before appeared for his country. He made the most of it, didn't he? Richardson's dream England debut I told Mom the story later and she said, oh, he's a Man U player, but they loaned him out to West Brom this season & he scored the goal that kept them from being relegated. Mom knows all.
While all this was going on I had called the restaurant to tell them that we were going to be 15 minutes late appearing for our reservations. So we finally left to go to dinner. We chortled throughout our dinner, passing the camera back & forth to look at our gets.
Oh, and the "Charlton" player we met in the elevator? A practical joker. I saw him again in the lobby and asked his name. "Michael," he replied. "Owen". Yeah, like I wouldn't recognize my favorite English football player! Every time I saw him after that for the next two days I sang out "Michael! Michael Owen!" He was shameless, nothing bothered the little s**t.
Saturday we went for a walk to Millennium Park to see the new sculpture, "Cloud Gate", which was partially on view. Known in Chicago as "The Bean", it is a, well, bean-shaped sphere made of 110 tons of steel. Only about 20% of the sculpture was completed & exposed, but you could see the sky, the skyline, and the curious on the plaza in its reflection. We took each other's pictures reflected in The Bean, then headed back to the hotel.
And once again, there was the England team, this time heading out for a bit of pre-match training. At this point the word was out with England fans so our hotel, lobby and entryway were filled with autograph seekers. We stood our ground & took a few photos. A burly man threatened my mother with expulsion for taking a picture inside the lobby (he said he was with security) so we went outside & took pics of the team in the hotel entrance. The team waited around until Peter Crouch came out, last, his head down, looking dejected. Probably had just learned he would not play in the game today.
After all the meetings with the team in the hotel, the game was almost anticlimactic! We intended to take the bus, but the 146 bus did not come for 30 minutes, until a bus came which refused to open the doors because it was too full. So we hailed a cab & had it let us out at the Roosevelt Rd. train stop. We joined the throngs walking to the game. A mostly English crowd, it seemed, from the yelling and the singing. We passed two men inside an underpass selling the new England strip out of a black sports bag ($40 each). They sold out in less than a minute.
Security was pretty routine. They looked cursorily inside my binoculars & my purse. We found our seats on the Club level & I headed out for food. I got sandwiches & sodas. Stupid Soldier Field rule: fountain sodas served in cups, you can't have either a lid or a straw. However, if you order coffee, you can get both a lid & a little stirrer. I don't know, I think I'd rather be hit by a cold flying projectile than a cup of hot coffee. But that's just me.
US was missing our "A" team: No Damarcus Beasley, Eddie Johnson, Eddie Lewis, Claudio Reyna, John O'Brien, Frankie Heyduk, Clint Mathis, Pablo Mastroeni, Oguchi Onyewu, Tim Howard, or the ageless Cobi Jones. England was missing even more: David Beckham, Michael Owen, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Sean Wright-Philips, Gary Neville, Wayne Rooney, Paul Robinson, Wayne Bridge, Danny Murphy, Ledley King and more.
The US played what I call "boot and chase" soccer, preferring long crosses to the forwards to controlling the ball on the ground up the field. England cleaned our clock, really; Landon Donovan (known by doubters as "Landon Gone") was invisible. Josh Wolff worked his butt off but couldn't finish. I was impressed by Richardson, of course, with his two goals, and Joe Cole, who looks like he will be quite the playmaker some day. Alan Smith leaned in on everyone and fouled repeatedly.
Unfortunately we had to listen to a couple of soccer pretenders behind us who kept saying inane things like "Smith's going to get a card! That's the fourth time he's fouled! Referees are counting!" Right, he's going to get a card for a garden variety push.
I thought Clint Dempsey had left it all on the field & was calling for him to be subbed out when he scored late in the game. That made the score look respectable, but without an attack we really got skunked.
After the game we walked home past all the beautiful parks, fountains, and sculptures.
Sunday we again went walking, looking at architecture and eventually ending up at the Art Institute of Chicago, which is right next to Grant Park. Fantastic collections. I got to add another painting to my "Mel Kelly life list". My high school art teacher's room was covered with reproductions of great paintings. Each year the class had to memorize all the paintings in order and recite the names of the paintings and the artist. I think if you got my brothers & sisters in a room today between the four of us we could recreate the entire three walls. It started with "Starry, Starry Night" by Van Gogh, which I've seen, along with "Pines and Rocks" by Cezanne (Mr. Kelly called it Rocks and Pines, but who's counting). At the Art Institute I saw Seurat's "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte", which Mr. Kelly mercifully shortened to Sunday Afternoon in the Park. Check!
Monday we flew back to Newark & headed to Manhattan for a night on the town before England - Columbia. Tuesday we headed out early to Giants Stadium. Got there so early we pulled into the parking lot for the Aramark employees. There weren't any parking collectors there yet, so we just went in the open gate & saved $15. Parked next to an Aramark truck for shade & set up chairs to eat & crowd watch. Bought an England flag from a woman selling them out of a sports bag. ($10). Went into the stadium when it opened at 2:30 p.m.
Silly security rule at Giants Stadium: They sell you soda in 20 oz. bottles but won't give you the cap. (Note to self: Take a 20 oz. soda cap next time you go to Giants Stadium.) A 12-year-old Columbian boy in the row ahead of us almost got in a fight with an English fan (couldn't determine if she was English or American) who was shouting obscenities in his mother's ear. At halftime when I went out for soda, I proclaimed myself "Switzerland" as I passed through the two still angry camps. As for the game: The real Michael Owen favored us with a hat trick as England won 3-2. The fans chanted and sang. The sun shone. It was a great, great, great trip.
We stayed at the Swissotel, & I got a great rate from a site called travelzoo which included a buffet breakfast for both of us each day. The hotel is at 323 E. Wacker Drive, a fancy business hotel 3 blocks west of Millennium Park & 3 blocks north of Michigan Avenue. I asked the desk clerk for a room facing the lake, but with our bargain rate he wouldn't budge. We had a room on the 29th floor overlooking the city. The room was great, soft high-thread-count sheets, down comforters, floor to ceiling windows, huge bathroom with both shower stall and deep bathtub, and Ethernet. Not that I could figure out the Ethernet connection, but we weren't there to go on the computer.
I had bought a great little tour book, the Eyewitness Guides Top Ten Guide to Chicago. It's small, fits in your purse, and really condenses the highlights of Chicago into a series of lists. The perfect guidebook for a short trip. We went for a walk after stowing our bags & walked down to Millennium Park, marveling at the architecture. I made dinner reservations at the Berghoff, 17 W. Adams Street. Not realizing how close it was, we took a cab there. We had a great German meal -- Mom had sauerbrauten & I had wiener schnitzel, with a bratwurst & knockwurst appetizer, & sauerkraut & red cabbage. We had glasses of the house amber beer and rewarded ourselves with apple strudel for dessert. Not traditional German strudel, it was made with phyllo dough, but delicious. We walked home and again enjoyed all the little architectural details of the buildings; many had big elaborate clocks extending from the corner of the building.
Friday we had our first hotel breakfast/brunch -- trays of fresh watermelon, pineapple, honeydew & cantaloupe, cheeses, smoked salmon, salami & ham, scrambled eggs, Irish oatmeal, cheese blintzes, hash browns, two kinds of sausage, bacon, grilled tomatoes, french toast, and then a whole other table of breads & cereals. Brunch cost $18 per so we were happy to hand them our voucher at the end of the meal.
OK, here's the best part, the English team was STAYING IN OUR HOTEL! Mom recognized one of the players in the elevator as we returned from brunch. She walked into the elevator and said, "Well, good morning, Mr. Crouch!" As in Peter Crouch, who would be making his England debut on the tour. He was folded into the corner of the elevator, wearing his white England shirt over khakis. The other guy in the elevator -- shorter than me --said, also with an English accent, "Of course you recognize him, he's 6'7"." Mom said, well, who are you? (knowing that there are many young players here for England & that we may not know all of them.) I couldn't understand his name through his accent but he said he played for Charlton -- Mom said "Oh, you play with Danny Murphy!" Then she turned to Crouch & said she was looking forward to seeing him play. He was pretty shy & awkward. We were gleeful after we got off the elevator! We took another walk, this time down State Street and Michigan for a bit of shopping. We tried on $200 hats in Marshall Field, then I got some t-shirts with the American flag on them at Old Navy & Mom & I both picked up new purses in TJ Maxx. We walked over to the Daley Center to see the Picasso sculpture in the plaza. On the way home we hit a Borders where Mom bought 3 English soccer magazines.
That afternoon we went to see the Cubs play the Rockies at legendary Wrigley Field. We took the El from the Lake station to Addison. Amazed at all the legal scalpers working the street just outside the train station. Guess I overpaid for tix by purchasing them on the internet before the trip. With the Cubs in a nosedive the Cub fans are not beating down the door. Like Fenway Park, though, Wrigley Field is its own draw. We made it into our seats high above home plate in time to see poor Mark Prior get hit on the elbow by a comebacker straight at him, the ball hit so hard it was caught on the fly by the third baseman. Well, at least the Cubs romped. Derrick Lee hit two home runs. He is an impressive physical specimen -- reminded me of Dave Winfield.
We took the El home and repaired to our hotel room to freshen up before our Friday night dinner at Bar 36, a fancy wine bar. We went down the elevator to the hotel lobby to see a guy in a periwinkle blue uniform with his back to us, signing the shirt of a young boy. It was Andy Johnson, Crystal Palace striker who finished second in the Premier League in goals (behind Thierry Henry, natch). In person, he looks much smaller than he does on the field. Slight, almost. Then we spotted Joe Cole (with John Terry, most improved player on Chelsea). I said to Mom, Mom, you better go get your camera! So she headed off the elevator, where she had a nice conversation with Joe Cole. While she was gone Sol Campbell (Arsenal) and Wes Brown (Manchester United) walked in and began signing autographs and posing for pictures. Then Alan Smith and Phil Neville (both Man U.), who with nasty looks on their faces walked briskly past the people in the hallway & went directly to the elevator. I thought at the time that it was just their personalities, but Smith may have had his famous dust-up with Steve McLaren about the fact that the manager had decided to start Peter Crouch at striker rather than Smith.
Mom finally arrived back & I took her picture with Wes Brown. We struck up a conversation with a transplanted Englishman who was very impressed with our football knowledge (he introduced us to other Brits by saying, "These two young ladies know their football! They watch it on the satellite!"). He took our picture with Sol Campbell (swoon) and Andy Johnson. I got pictures of Mom with Sven Goran Eriksson (the manager) and David James (Manchester City). We missed out on pics with Ashley Cole and Jermaine Dafoe.
OK, here's the embarrassing part. I saw Kieran Richardson wearing the same training outfit, but he looked too young to play. I thought maybe he was the ballboy. So I asked him, "Are you going to play?" He replied "I hope so!" I suppose my question didn't seem so stupid to him as he had never before appeared for his country. He made the most of it, didn't he? Richardson's dream England debut I told Mom the story later and she said, oh, he's a Man U player, but they loaned him out to West Brom this season & he scored the goal that kept them from being relegated. Mom knows all.
While all this was going on I had called the restaurant to tell them that we were going to be 15 minutes late appearing for our reservations. So we finally left to go to dinner. We chortled throughout our dinner, passing the camera back & forth to look at our gets.
Oh, and the "Charlton" player we met in the elevator? A practical joker. I saw him again in the lobby and asked his name. "Michael," he replied. "Owen". Yeah, like I wouldn't recognize my favorite English football player! Every time I saw him after that for the next two days I sang out "Michael! Michael Owen!" He was shameless, nothing bothered the little s**t.
Saturday we went for a walk to Millennium Park to see the new sculpture, "Cloud Gate", which was partially on view. Known in Chicago as "The Bean", it is a, well, bean-shaped sphere made of 110 tons of steel. Only about 20% of the sculpture was completed & exposed, but you could see the sky, the skyline, and the curious on the plaza in its reflection. We took each other's pictures reflected in The Bean, then headed back to the hotel.
And once again, there was the England team, this time heading out for a bit of pre-match training. At this point the word was out with England fans so our hotel, lobby and entryway were filled with autograph seekers. We stood our ground & took a few photos. A burly man threatened my mother with expulsion for taking a picture inside the lobby (he said he was with security) so we went outside & took pics of the team in the hotel entrance. The team waited around until Peter Crouch came out, last, his head down, looking dejected. Probably had just learned he would not play in the game today.
After all the meetings with the team in the hotel, the game was almost anticlimactic! We intended to take the bus, but the 146 bus did not come for 30 minutes, until a bus came which refused to open the doors because it was too full. So we hailed a cab & had it let us out at the Roosevelt Rd. train stop. We joined the throngs walking to the game. A mostly English crowd, it seemed, from the yelling and the singing. We passed two men inside an underpass selling the new England strip out of a black sports bag ($40 each). They sold out in less than a minute.
Security was pretty routine. They looked cursorily inside my binoculars & my purse. We found our seats on the Club level & I headed out for food. I got sandwiches & sodas. Stupid Soldier Field rule: fountain sodas served in cups, you can't have either a lid or a straw. However, if you order coffee, you can get both a lid & a little stirrer. I don't know, I think I'd rather be hit by a cold flying projectile than a cup of hot coffee. But that's just me.
US was missing our "A" team: No Damarcus Beasley, Eddie Johnson, Eddie Lewis, Claudio Reyna, John O'Brien, Frankie Heyduk, Clint Mathis, Pablo Mastroeni, Oguchi Onyewu, Tim Howard, or the ageless Cobi Jones. England was missing even more: David Beckham, Michael Owen, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Sean Wright-Philips, Gary Neville, Wayne Rooney, Paul Robinson, Wayne Bridge, Danny Murphy, Ledley King and more.
The US played what I call "boot and chase" soccer, preferring long crosses to the forwards to controlling the ball on the ground up the field. England cleaned our clock, really; Landon Donovan (known by doubters as "Landon Gone") was invisible. Josh Wolff worked his butt off but couldn't finish. I was impressed by Richardson, of course, with his two goals, and Joe Cole, who looks like he will be quite the playmaker some day. Alan Smith leaned in on everyone and fouled repeatedly.
Unfortunately we had to listen to a couple of soccer pretenders behind us who kept saying inane things like "Smith's going to get a card! That's the fourth time he's fouled! Referees are counting!" Right, he's going to get a card for a garden variety push.
I thought Clint Dempsey had left it all on the field & was calling for him to be subbed out when he scored late in the game. That made the score look respectable, but without an attack we really got skunked.
After the game we walked home past all the beautiful parks, fountains, and sculptures.
Sunday we again went walking, looking at architecture and eventually ending up at the Art Institute of Chicago, which is right next to Grant Park. Fantastic collections. I got to add another painting to my "Mel Kelly life list". My high school art teacher's room was covered with reproductions of great paintings. Each year the class had to memorize all the paintings in order and recite the names of the paintings and the artist. I think if you got my brothers & sisters in a room today between the four of us we could recreate the entire three walls. It started with "Starry, Starry Night" by Van Gogh, which I've seen, along with "Pines and Rocks" by Cezanne (Mr. Kelly called it Rocks and Pines, but who's counting). At the Art Institute I saw Seurat's "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte", which Mr. Kelly mercifully shortened to Sunday Afternoon in the Park. Check!
Monday we flew back to Newark & headed to Manhattan for a night on the town before England - Columbia. Tuesday we headed out early to Giants Stadium. Got there so early we pulled into the parking lot for the Aramark employees. There weren't any parking collectors there yet, so we just went in the open gate & saved $15. Parked next to an Aramark truck for shade & set up chairs to eat & crowd watch. Bought an England flag from a woman selling them out of a sports bag. ($10). Went into the stadium when it opened at 2:30 p.m.
Silly security rule at Giants Stadium: They sell you soda in 20 oz. bottles but won't give you the cap. (Note to self: Take a 20 oz. soda cap next time you go to Giants Stadium.) A 12-year-old Columbian boy in the row ahead of us almost got in a fight with an English fan (couldn't determine if she was English or American) who was shouting obscenities in his mother's ear. At halftime when I went out for soda, I proclaimed myself "Switzerland" as I passed through the two still angry camps. As for the game: The real Michael Owen favored us with a hat trick as England won 3-2. The fans chanted and sang. The sun shone. It was a great, great, great trip.
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