Yes, it was heartbreaking, but gotta love Team USA
Goalie vs. Goalie: U.S. goalie Tim Howard, right, and Ghana's Jonathan Mensah, left, go for the ball during the World Cup elimination round, South Africa, Saturday, June 26, 2010. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
For the second time, Ghana proved to be the U.S. team’s undoing in the World Cup. If it had to happen, I personally am glad it was them. Ghana is the last African team left in the Cup, and they played brilliantly, putting up one hell of a defensive effort, and getting in two brilliant goals. The U.S. just ran out of gas, couldn’t penetrate the Ghanaian defense, and couldn’t find a way to score, despite numerous opportunities. Still, the team definitely inspired me, my household, and hopefully, Americans as a whole.
Great job, gents. Come home with your heads held high.
Complete World Cup coverage from Reuters. Or to make it more fun for yourself, try TDB.
Meanwhile, CBS Sports’ Mike Freeman cancels the haters. By the looks of the ratings, football/soccer may yet have a chance in the states. Maybe…) President Obama traded jerseys with Ghana’s prez, and PD also has news of the celebrities in South Africa for the game (cue Big Bill.) As for me, I’m now rooting for Ghana, having shown what they’re made of, to take it all the way. (They play totally beatable Honduras next.)
Come on, people: a mural for Art Teele?
File this under “Jesus, take the wheel.”
A memorial mural for Arthur Teele, the late Miami and Miami-Dade commissioner who committed suicide in 2005 in the face of corruption and sexual allegations, will be unveiled 10 a.m. Saturday at the fifth anniversary celebration of the Butterfly Garden at Northwest 54th Street and Sixth Avenue.
Miami artist Addonis Parker, who has created about 100 murals, painted the Teele mural, which was funded by the Miami Mayor’s Office of Film and Cultural Affairs and the Miami City Trust.
“I think he tried to help a lot of people,” Parker said of Teele, whom he met in 2001. “The stuff he accomplished screams louder than his mistakes.”
The “stuff he accomplished?” Where to begin … Read more
Florida “papers” law creator: trust me because … I never called anyone the n-word…?
Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, center, with Republican Leader Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach, left, and Speaker Marco Rubio, R-Miami, right, in Tallahassee in 2008. We're confident Snyder didn't call either man a ni---
I’m not sure what exactly Florida State Rep. William Synder is getting at in his defense of his plans to write an Arizona-style “show me your papers” law for Florida (since clearly, this state isn’t the object of enough derision now, what with only Rentboy Rekers, Bill McCollum and Rick Scott to presently humiliate us.) Snyder’s defense of his law as not being some fiendish attempt at racial profiling appears to entirely miss the point, by somehow bringing a slur often directed at American-born black people into it … Read more
(Video) Alex Sink: yes to immigration reform, ‘no thanks’ to an Arizona-style law for Florida
Just before a rally in Miamis predominantly black Liberty City neighborhood, the Democratic candidate for governor answers The Reid Report’s question regarding the intention of Florida’s Republican legislators to introduce an Arizona-style “show me your papers” law in this state. And she does so quite well, balancing the need to control our borders, with her desire (and most reasonable people’s) “not to have to take my passport with me to the grocery store.” Watch:
And about that proposed law … Read more
Journos trash Palin on open mic: ‘the dumbness doesn’t just come from soundbites’
A Fox affiliate in Sacramento, CA (and I love that it’s a Fox affiliate…) is offering no apologies after accidentally … we assume … airing unflattering comments about Sarah Palin which were caught on an open mic as reporters covered her previously closed to the “lamestream media” speech at CSU Stanislaus. The station, KTXL Fox 40, says the comments picked up were not from their reporters. But the off-the-cuff assessments of Palin’s remarks, described by one of the commenters as “just stringing together as many random quotes as possible” like a college student cramming together a last-minute presentation, sure are hilarious! The commentary starts at about 1:18, after Ms. Palin finishes warbling through … well … a bunch of strung-together quotes from Ronald Reagan. Listen:
More from Palingates on the speech. The obvious point made at PoliticusUSA: reporters know Sarah Palin is dumb, just like Republican politicos know she’s dumb. They’re just keeping her around because she’s good for ratings. (Oh, no, wait … I almost forgot … those mean journalists just hate Sarah because she’s beeeuuuuuuutiful!)
Saturday clicks: the two Alexes, Florizona, desperate McCollum and ‘hands across the sand’
Former Vice President Dick Cheney was hospitalized yesterday after reporting not feeling well. I will resist the urge to make a tasteless joke about doctors trying in vain to locate his heart and just wish him a speedy recovery.
Meanwhile, in Florida, Alex Sink heads to Liberty City today to rally with black Democrats, while another Alex becomes the first named tropical storm of the 2010 hurricane season. How the storm will impact the Gulf clean-up is uncertain at the moment.
Speaking of the clean-up, a viral, national/international protest called Hands Across the Sand is rallying lots of people to the idea of clean energy instead of offshore drilling. The global protest today, including one in Pensacola Beach, will draw a high profile supporter: Gov. Charlie Crist. From the in-box this morning, two items on the governor’s calendar:
TOUR OF GULF ON THE ORION TO VIEW SKIMMERS’ OIL SPILL CLEANUP EFFORTS WITH SECRETARY MIKE SOLE
Date: Saturday, June 26, 2010
Time: 10:00 am CDT
Location: Santa Rosa Yacht & Boat Club
Address: 300 Pensacola Beach
Gulf Breeze, FL 32562HANDS ACROSS THE SAND
Date: Saturday, June 26, 2010
Time: 12:00 pm CDT
Location: Navarre Pier
Address: Pensacola Beach, FL
From the Palm Beach Post yesterday, did Kendrick inadvertently Meek help bail out Jeff Greene? The questions keep piling up regarding whether Greene got TARP money via his investment payoffs from big Wall Street banks. Remember this?
Also in the Post yesterday, did Bill McCollum, in his desperation to throw a roadblock in front of the smoke monster, violate election law by secretly funding anti-Scott 527s?
Why is Bill so desperate? See here.
Meanwhile, the GOP’s political kamikaze mission continues. Not only is in-coming House Speaker Dean Cannon still likely to put forward legislation that would allow oil drilling 6 miles off Florida’s shores, his Republican brethren are busy crafting a potentially disastrous, tourism and commerce-killing Arizona-style immigration law for Florida.
And if Republican politicians are crazy, it’s probably because their base is even crazier. A creepy new Rasmussen poll is made even creepier by the fact that the Republican polling outfit actually asked people if they support civilian control of the military (more than a fourth of the robot responders said they don’t…) As opposed to what, Rasmussen? A full-on, right-wing military dictatorship a-la Pinochet’s Chile (which incidentally, people of their ideological brand supported?)
Read more about the GOP’s caravan of crazy here.
And in other news, Politico runs down finreg’s winners and losers (sorry, GOP.) And Politico has this:
BREAKING: In a last-minute move, mine safety reporting disclosures were added to the financial overhaul bill, which passed a conference vote at 5:40 this a.m. Energy analyst Kevin Book of Clearview Energy Partners writes: “This is an interesting first move by Congress enabling investors to be added to as judge and jury for mine safety. The underground miners will have more disclosure since it is higher risk and has more violations.”
But there’s also bad news on the financial landscape: struggling homeowners who opt for “strategic default” may now face penalties, or even lawsuits, from Fannie and Freddie.
And by the way, Dave Weigel got hosed. Shame on you, Washington Post.
Alex Sink to rally in Liberty City today
Alex Sink takes it to the streets today, rallying in the Black community for the first time. Unfortunately, her rally and the pre-event start at 2:00 p.m. … the same time the U.S. kicks off against Ghana in the World Cup … damn, you, politics!!!
P.M. clicks: Kottkamp, Meek call in the big guns, JD Hayworth regrets, Sarah had a slush fund
The big clicks for me today are that OMG interview that “green” Senate candidate Jeff Greene did with the Washington Post, and their swift pushback on perhaps the piece’s most damaging quote.
Best headline of the day comes from Post on Politics: Are you there Kottkamp? It’s me, God. Earth to Jeff: prayer is wonderful, but it ain’t gonna plug that hole. Read more
Team Greene pushes back on Wapo interview, ‘crazy Koran’ quote
From the Greene press shop, which by the way is very fast on the uptake, by the way — no sooner had I put up this post and tweeted some comments than they rang — comes the “Koran has a lot of crazy stuff” quote from the now-notorious Wapo profile, in context: Read more
The Wapo’s remarkable Jeff Greene profile (Is this Greene’s Harold Ford/McChrystal moment?) **UPDATED**
UPDATE: Jeff Greene spokesman Luis Vizcaino says the Islam “crazy stuff” comment was taken out of context by the Wapo. He just read me the full answer Jeff Greene gave to a question from an audience member about Islamist terrorism, which puts the quote in context. As soon as he emails it to me, I’ll post it. That should help mediate that part of the Greene “problem,” but the larger problem, which I communicated to Luis, is that Greene simply doesn’t come across as a Democrat in the entire piece. And the article is really reminiscent of the Harold Ford NYT disaster interview that ended his Senate hopes. More to come …
UPDATE 2: Here’s the full Koran quote.
ORIGINAL POST: How to sum up the Washington Post’s lengthy profile of billionaire Senate candidate Jeff Greene? Gulfstream: yes, hookers and strippers: apparently no. But he does tell old people jokes and make curiously Republican-like statements about the Koran. Read it here, but be warned: the combination of WTF and OMG could leave you feeling dizzy. A few of the money quotes:
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ReidReport TwitterFeed- RT @TheReidReport Come on, people: a mural for Art Teele? http://bit.ly/8ZqMb7 #onlyinmiami
- RT @TheReidReport FL immigration “papers” law creator: trust me because … I never called anyone the n-word...? http://bit.ly/bu30te #sayfie
- RT @TheReidReport (Video) Alex Sink: yes to immigration reform, ‘no thanks’ to an Arizona-style law for Florida http://bit.ly/bXrSCy #sayfie
- @Greytdog in this case the soldiers were chanting too, watching the game (the lucky ones anyway)
- RT @mediaite RT @SportsGrid: Blame Bill Clinton? How A Rush Of Sudden Attention May Have Made Team USA Lose Focus http://bit.ly/aPDHIF/ WTF?
- @Greytdog @jeremyscahill human beings are tribal (add political parties too) not necssarily anything wrong with that if not taken to extreme
- RT @Greytdog @thereidreport @jeremyscahill sports - war, playing fields. Imagery interchangeable as is the language /& all part of our DNA
- @jeremyscahill I think most wingers are insane, but dude, being against the "U-S-A" chant is silly. Int'l sport is ABOUT nationalism.
- "@jeremyscahill ...waaaay too much time on their hands: http://bit.ly/cfbdwa"/yeahbut a little sports jingoism now and then is a good thing
