Lovely, Chuck ... how much has the insurance industry poured into your campaign coffers?� This is cold, cold stuff -- unless you are unimaginably dumb, Senator, which I somehow doubt.

Meanwhile, Cheney is working on his memoirs and waxing slightly more talkative than usual.� Watch out, Dubya .

Click to continue reading...

The United States Women's National Team got an 89th minute winner from Christine Nairn at Charleston's Blackbaud Stadium on Wednesday night to sweep their friendly series with Canada. "I was first of all excited to get in the game, but Cheney did all the hard work and I was just there to make sure it went in the goal," Nairn said. Click to continue reading...

How's this for an amazing scenario: The USA will play a two-game series against Canada, and in the first match a player will score her 100th career goal and in the second a player will score her first? And the two players who were a part of that 100th goal, will also play a part in the first goal. And both goals will come late in games and be game-winners? Click to continue reading...

The defending W-League champions, the Pali Blues, powered past the Colorado Force 3-0 on Friday night in Pacific Palisades, Calif., clinching the Western Conference title for the second consecutive year.

The Blues improved to 8-0-3, good for 27 points. Second-place Seattle, 3-0-6, can do no better than 24 points.

Click to continue reading...

Catching up on the news of the week, and feeling kinda naive (or something).� Why the hell is Tom Daschle stepping into the Health Care debate, getting all mushy and placating about the publilc option, and offering up a plan of his own?� Wasn't he kinda kicked out of the game?� Is he mad at Obama .

Click to continue reading...

Thanks for your comment on yesterday's post, Alice. I haven't checked out the video Bill Moyers aired - Torturing Democracy - yet, but plan to. Meanwhile, for a never ending stream of despicable and delusional Dickishess there is always the Dick Cheney page on the Huffington Post. I glance at it occasionally in the hope that something bad will have happened to him.

Click to continue reading...

Read Naomi Wolf's thorough and absolutely horrific article about the sexual perversity perpetrated by the Bushies in Iraq and elsewhere. I do not understand why Obama is rationalizing and temporizing about releasing the photos and really going after these sadomasochistic pricks.

The activities of these dudes so speaks to the fruits of the kind of self-righteousness and repression that is so often the hallmark of Bible thumping fundamentalism.

Click to continue reading...

TORONTO, Canada (May 25, 2009) – The U.S. Women's National Team scored twice in each half, with goals from Shannon Boxx, Megan Rapinoe, Lindsay Tarpley and youngster Lauren Cheney to defeat Canada 4-0 earlier this week. The match marked the U.S. Women's team first game in Canada since 2001. The Americans and Canadians will play twice [. Click to continue reading...

The United States Women's National Team beat Canada 4-0 on Monday night in a friendly at BMO Field in Toronto. Shannon Boxx opened the scoring for the USA in the third minute, with Christie Rampone making it 2-0 in first half stoppage time. Lindsay Tarpley scored in the 78th minute and Lauren Cheney finished off the US offense in the 81st. Click to continue reading...

Okay so I do, I really do want to be rooting for Obama but what's with this latest appointment? GE's defender on environmental issues,� Ignacia Moreno, has been hired to do the legal stuff for EPA? How did Obama explained this decision, I'm wondering. It kind of gives me a weird feeling in my stomach.

Click to continue reading...

First, the poem - a beauty by Mark Strand from today's Writer's Almanac ...

My Name

by Mark Strand

Once when the lawn was a golden green
and the marbled moonlit trees rose like fresh memorials
in the scented air, and the whole countryside pulsed
with the chirr and murmur of insects, I lay in the grass,
feeling the great distances open above me, and wondered
what I would become and where I would find myself,
and though I barely existed, I felt for an instant
that the vast star-clustered sky was mine, and I heard
my name as if for the first time, heard it the way
one hears the wind or the rain, but faint and far off
as though it belonged not to me but to the silence
from which it had come and to which it would go.

Click to continue reading...

In a bit of a rush this morning, as usual. Our black lab Willie came up lame yesterday. He has a chronic shoulder problem which something seems to have exacerbated. This morning he seems a little bit better, but still not himself. He'll be turning 10 this summer, so it's worrisome to see him hurting.

Click to continue reading...

So Abby Wambach and Kia MacNeill have garnered one match suspensions as Tonya Antonucci (WPS Commissioner) made the call (after the WPS Disciplinary Committee had decided differently).� Let the controversy roil and the debating continue.� It probably isn't a bad thing for WPS to have everyone kinda riled at this point in the young season.

Click to continue reading...

Nice bit here from Dave giving Dick a dose of his own medicine.

Pia has announced the USWNT roster for an upcoming friendly vs. Japan ... 5/20 and 5/23 ... meaning that 17 US players won't be with thier WPS teams for a bit - but for the most part won't miss any matches.� I was interested to see that, while the Breakers lose 4 players, one of them isn't Lil.

Click to continue reading...

First - I watched a snippet of Maddow in which she interviewed Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson about Cheney, et al.� He's the former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell.� One of the most interesting (to me) points he made with Maddow was to note what a fearful person Dick Cheney is.� I've always seen him as fear mongering - but seeing him as himself fearful was fascinating.

Click to continue reading...

First off - Beulah's match report is up!� (This is on the Breakers' win over the Freedom ... which ranked somewhere below a broken windshield in Beulah's book ... understandably!)� Sorry to hear about your windshield!� As for Abby not getting up - that was a huge gripe of mine (and my compatriots) back in the WUSA days when "Get up Abby" was a favorite refrain when the Freedom were in town.

Click to continue reading...

Happy Saturday morning ... as the clouds roll in, bringing some much needed rain to these parts.� I went for a run yesterday after work and jogging by the fire house, noticed the sign saying that the fire danger was "extreme."� (Breathed a small sigh of relief that I wasn't lounging by the chiminea, endangering the neighborhood without realizing!

Click to continue reading...

Okay, of that group, which one(s) would you put your money on? Citi had a good day and the market bounced ... meanwhile, Newsweek has put out a great piece outlining the warring amongst the rich - a greed-fed battle they dub "the war between the estates." In the past two years, since the market peaked, investors [. Click to continue reading...

First off, our friend Alice (who suffers good-humoredly my unrelenting pressure to become a JordanCornblog contributor) is off to tour Florence today.  Happy travels, Alice! Happily, she will not have to leave before the USWNT faces Iceland in their second game at the Algarve.  She (and the rest of us) will be able to follow it [. Click to continue reading...

Russ Feingold is going to be introducing a proposed amendment to the US Constitution that will require special elections to fill vacated Senate seats.  Some states already do this by State law - and Feingold's amendment would require all to do so.  He states: "The controversies surrounding some of the recent gubernatorial appointments to vacant Senate [. Click to continue reading...

Saturday morning ... and please remind me to not eat handfuls of chocolate-covered cherries while Watching Rachel Maddow ... and before going to bed!  And I don't mean the sweet syrupy kind - but nice tart ones - delicious, for sure - and probably marginally good for me (yes, I do believe I could make [. Click to continue reading...

First off, get well wishes to HollyCornblog who is recovering from a bad ankle sprain sustained in a nasty fall at work.  Keep it iced and raised ... and, as we like to say to Willie (and to Ruby - but with much less effect), "Heel!" [sic] Between HollyCornblog and Hope Solo, things have been a [... Click to continue reading...

Having been asleep at the switch on the soccer front for awhile, I was pleased to receive a Google Alert about the USWNT's most recent win.  This one coming in Richmond, VA, where South Korea fell to the USWNT.  Vic Dorr, Jr. describes the game in the Times Dispatch.  Sounds like Angela Hucles continues her [. Click to continue reading...

I think if there was ever any doubt that Pia Sundhage is the ideal coach for the U.S. women's team, they've been erased. In gold.
This piece highlights some of the reasons why her approach works.
I can't help but wonder if the men's senior team had taken a similar chance, had been willing to go a different route and stretch their concept of the game by bringing in someone who looks at play in a fundamentally different way, if they might not be better off in the long run. Click to continue reading...

Michael Phelps broke Mark Spitz' gold medal record last night -an amazing feat, indeed. I don't know about you, but I find such milestones diminished by the hype ... the marketing ... the hoopla ... the commentary. The events and the raw footage about the events is enough. The look on Michael [.. Click to continue reading...

USA Women Olympic Match Report from du Nord reader Adam.
Quarterfinals:
-Fri Aug 15
USA 2-1 Canada
After a marathon match that included a rain delay and extra-time, the US emerged from the quarterfinals victorious over regional rivals Canada.
The US took the lead in the 12th minute when Angela Hucles tapped in a header from Heather O'Reilly. Click to continue reading...

First (from The Writer's Almanac), a wonderful poem by Marge Piercy to start your day with something introspective - before diving into the usual sports-centric deluge! This poem runs along the thought-path I was pursuing last night just before sleep. Guess it may be time to get reacquainted with myself . Click to continue reading...

Tomorrow at 6AM we'll start the next leg of the Olympic tournament journey. There's not a lot in the way of soccer news in the interim. The WNT Blog is a good place to track the USWNT's travels and preparation for tomorrow's showdown with Canada. An upbeat and determined Canadian squad is [...]SHARETHIS. Click to continue reading...

After a beautiful weekend away and a great visit with HollyCornblog and CharlieHopbrew, there's a lot to catch up on. I'm sure I'll be back in the swing in a couple of days ... but right now it's pretty slow-going. On the USWNT front, Lauren Cheney is replacing Abby on the roster, as the team [...]SHARETHIS. Click to continue reading...

It's obvious U.S. Women's Team and their chances for a gold medal suffer without Wambach. The question is, how much?
Here's my take for espn.com on the situation.
I'd also add that I like the inclusion of Lauren Cheney. She has a lot of experience for a youngster, and she has in fact faced a Brazil team with Marta in the PanAmerican games final as a member of the U20 team versus a full-strength Brazil. Click to continue reading...

The USWNT defeated Canada 1-0 just a few hours ago, to become Peace Queen Cup champs for the second time on a goal Angela Hucles! Hucles also won the golden ball as the tournament MVP! Here's the write-up from USSoccer. The "Aunt Pia" part comes from a recent entry in the WNT Blog, in which [...]SHARETHIS. Click to continue reading...