A WEREWOLF IN THE WHITE HOUSE?

AND A VAMPIRE: THE MUNSTERS ARE COMING, THE MONSTERS ARE COMING! As the Beltway Media/Idiot Punditocracy prepares to unleash the clichés re: Paul 'Eddie Munster' Ryan's pick for Veep, as ... hmm, let me guess ... a "gamechanging" choice, the fact remains THESE IDIOTS WERE ALL WRONG, particularly the King of 'Lame' Beltway Romney Republicans, poseur Mark Halperin.

Predicting the "safe" Portman/Pawlenty (Rachel: "ZZZZ") choice (as did Lawrence-knows-best, who thinks he's smarter than his colleagues, which mostly he is with such a low bar, and actually I think Ryan nosed out T-Paw, so no huge Larry-O misread), the pathetic Halperin will strut  his wrong about everything (some by design) political prognostications on Hardball to the guy who hasn't an earthly clue who's yanking his chain, and still believes J. Edgar was a JFK ally rather than a probable traitor.

Such is the world of the Beltway, folks, where political fantasies and fantastical narratives are spun on a daily, hourly basis, the better to keep We, The People in the dark and irrelevantly stupid, and the corporate power structure overseeing both parties but mainly the GOP largely intact. Were Jefferson to be around today, surveying this scene of profane iniquity, he would say the time is ripe for revolution. He would be right.

The revolution may yet happen at the polls where and when voters cast their lot between a radical, extremist vision of government in the person of Paul Ryan and a mainstream centrist prescription in the shape of President Obama. The latter isn't fully satisfactory to progressives, but we've been on a pragmatic half-loaf diet for quite some time. Ryan's choice, however, while energizing the ONLY radical base of political extremism in America, the neo-fascist right (my term, and it's accurate, Beltway idiots!) was so troubling to SANE individuals that my 'favorite conservative', David Frum, once again reaffirmed our confidence in him by casting his lot with President Obama once he heard Ryan was the pick.

Frum offered five 'hypotheses' for the "cautious Romney" selecting Ryan:

1. 'Like many Republicans, Romney has been genuinely radicalized since 2008.' Not even close. Romney is doing what he does best: rolling like a tumbleweed whichever way the wind blows.

2. 'Romney's camp shows he's not holding his base.' YES.

3. 'The donors demand it.' Don't the SuperPac donors want to win? Wait — they're radical right wingers, like the Koch brothers. Sheldon Adelson is the 21st century's Meyer Lansky. No matter who Mitt's Veep is, Adelson thinks his Chinese mob money can buy the win.

4. 'Romney imagines he can control Ryan better as VP than as Speaker.' C'mon David, don't be silly. Romney will let Congress take care of itself and sign whatever legislation Grover Norquist orders him to. He will kiss anybody's ass to get elected. That's as far as his 'strategic' thinking goes.

5. Romney crumbles under pressure. BINGO!

I'm with David reader Tom Doran on a 'sixth hypothesis':

"The more I think about it, the more the "pick Ryan because he's the best person to sell the Ryan plan" logic makes sense to me as Romney's rationale. Not that the plan itself makes sense - it's political leprosy - but Romney's calculus here has to be that he's already heavily committed to the plan and is himself the worst possible person to present it. Paul Ryan, as documented with hair-pulling frustration by Krugman, Chait and others, has successfully managed to play down the radicalism of his proposals in the eyes of the media. He comes across as a serious, pragmatic, decent, wonkish type rather than the Randian class warrior he is, which demonstrates serious political skill. Obviously I'd like to believe that this charade would be unsustainable under the glare of a total war campaign, but if he can pull the same trick on America that he's pulled on the Beltway, this could end up being very smart." 

A very prescient analysis. Shall we be realistic, not elitist here, and reiterate that one should NEVER underestimate the stupidity of the American electorate. Their capacity for manipulation (and by that I mean the so-called, clueless 'Independents' joining the wingnuts on the right) is boundless. Republicans have designed their electoral success and destruction of America's middle class around the electorate's in extremis self-destructive tendencies to vote against their (missing) enlightened self-interest.

That's the danger. Here's the good news. Paul Ryan is an extremist ideologue who thinks, deep down, he's smarter than everybody else. He may have fooled his constituents (though not so much when they read details of his radical right wing budget), but once the people — as distinct from the Beltway Idiot Punditocracy, Halperin-Toddy-Moron Joe-Andrea-Politico-Russert-CNN, et al shameless purveyors of Romney misinformation — see Ryan savaged by good Catholics like the Franciscans and the Nuns, that gee-whiz objectivist Ryan facade will begin to crumble away.

The thing to understand about Paul Ryan is that, first and foremost, he is an ideologue. And, as with every ideology ever conceived, its practical application from paper to concrete and rarefied pseudo-academic Ayn Rand cultism (from which Andrea Mitchell's husband Alan Greenspan emerged to become a leading protagonist in the economic savaging of the middle class, I should add) is a house of Tarot cards built on a foundation of lies. Mitt Romney is counting on Paul Ryan to fool the people the same way he has wowed the Beltway Media groupies.

Paul Ryan doesn't respond well to those who don't give him anything but googly-eyed adulation (expected from Chuckles and Russert, for instance) but some really tough moral pushback from, say, the Catholic Nuns is bound to unnerve him. His speech today was flat and uninspiring. And his most hypocritical line was this: "My dad died when I was young, and he was a good and decent man who said: "Son you’re either part of the problem or part of the solution."

How ironic. Back when Paul Ryan's dad died he took advantage of Social Security survivor benefits, at 16, to put himself through college. And we don't begrudge him that. Once part of the solution, bettering himself through the social compact we all share, Paul Ryan has become part of the problem, seeking to gut for succeeding generations the very same socialist program — not Ayn Rand, who was a notorious hypocrite in this regard, and not Atlas Shrugged — that placed him where he is today: One step away from the presidency.

Sandra Fluke, SUPERSTAR!

IS SHE AWESOME OR WHAT!!! FIRST SHE SLICED THE PIGMAN INTO CUTLETS FOR THE KOCH BROTHERS cannibalistic bacchanal (with a few zingers here for the PORCINE ZOMBIE — he's the last to realize he's dead), now she's got her sights set on squeezing Mitt's grape-sized balls into a, well you know ... Mitt's already trembling with fear and fixin' to hide behind Ann's skirts.

REPEALING OBAMACARE WILL KILL PEOPLE: BIG EDDIE WEIGHS IN

IT SEEMS THE WINGNUTS/REPUBLICANS ARE WHINING BIG-TIME OVER THE HARD-HITTING OBAMA SuperPac Ad featuring a worker whose wife died of cancer after he lost health insurance as a result of Bain closing his plant. Michael Kinsley writes:

"It is uncontested that lack of insurance is what killed this woman. And this is hardly a unique situation. It is statistically certain that, in our absurd current healthcare system, layoffs will cause people to lose their insurance, and it is statistically certain that losing insurance will cost some of them their lives. This puts the Republican nightmare scenarios about "death panels" in the healthcare debate two years ago in some perspective. Romney has promised to stop implementation of the Obama healthcare reform on "Day One" of his administration, and to kill it by legislation as soon as possible thereafter. So even if he isn't responsible for the death of Ranae Soptic, he will be responsible for future deaths, if he is elected — and this time with malice aforethought."

Call it what you will. The AWFUL TRUTH is that Republican policies aimed at denying health care to people where it exists (see Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, here and here) and Mitt Romney's BLOODTHIRSTY vow to repeal Obamacare on "day one" have resulted and will result in people dying. I call it mass murder. What do wingnuts and Republicans call it: "Fiscal responsibility," "tax cuts for the 'job creators'," or "thinning out the herd?"

DAILY CALLER CREATES FREE OBAMA CAMPAIGN AD!

FOLKS, THIS IS ONLY ONE OF MANY REASONS THE DAILY CALLER IS OUR FAVORITE WINGNUT RAG! The Foster Friess-Tucker Carlson frat house is so COLLECTIVELY and INDIVIDUALLY STOOPID they don't even realize what a positive endorsement of the President's policies and re-election Maryland's impressive and awesome First Lady just gave us in a ready-made FREE campaign commercial, courtesy of the Daily Caller. Thank you very much.

See, the DC's MO is well-known by now. They will attend events, pressers, conferences, etc. held or attended by Democrats and progressives, and try to trip somebody up in a 'WINGNUT-AMYGDALA OMG-CUE THE 'TA-DA' SOUND!' moment with a sound bite they can isolate for one more out-of-context Romney LIE. In this instance, the breathless DC headline is, Md. first lady, "I don't know why anybody needs an AK-47." (YAWN.)

I hate to keep repeating myself with these DUMBASSES, really exceptionally STUPID people, but their point is ... exactly WHAT? The President is already on record that we should restore the assault weapons ban, which is something most reasonable Americans, including many NRA members, agree with. Meanwhile, watch as Maryland's First Lady takes batting practice off the POOR SAP DC Reporter (someone's got to employ these people) hitting one out-of-the-park homer after another:

Team USA Wins GOLD In Women's Soccer: Can Anyone Say Dynasty?

AMERICAN DOMINANCE IN THE WOMEN'S GAME IS COMPLETE: FOUR GOLD MEDALS, THREE IN A ROW. When the women take the pitch, America is SOCCER COUNTRY, and that's no small feat in a sports-obsessed nation that is still reluctant to embrace the game.

 Not so at Wembley Stadium, one of the cathedrals of international football. Abby Wambagh knows her soccer history well; one British commenter noted she was trying very hard to make her mark at Wembley with a goal. Consider the stadium was packed to the rafters, with 83,000 paying fans and nearly 90,000 total, present.

Pretty impressive. And a worthy stage for the show put on by Team USA. Not that Japan played poorly. They hit their marks, they attacked and pressured the American defense, even scoring one goal on one of those mad scrambles in front of Hope Solo. Who, by the way, isn't only the Muse among others, but my pick for game MVP. I know, it probably went to Carli Lloyd for her two goals — that's the way these things work — but Hope made three critical and outstanding saves which secured gold for Team USA. Here's one of them:

The other was an acrobatic (they were all acrobatic and reflexive) fingertip deflection that bounced off the top wood, a ball that was going in. But the most outstanding, game-saving Solo save came as the U.S. clung to its tenuous 2-1 lead and Japan pressured with numbers. Soccer games have more dramatic highs and lows than other high-scoring sports, which is precisely the allure of this game. Suffice it to say that a 2-1 lead is a very nerve-wracking proposition. You could see it on the faces of the fans in the stands.

So that was the backdrop. Suddenly a tired American defender on the right side of her field had a momentary lapse in concentration allowing a Japanese striker to steal the ball. With the defense exposed and no defenders in the neighborhood, the Japanese striker invaded Hope's box, at an angle, perfectly profiled to make the kill. She had the luxury of picking her corner. She picked the far corner, to Hope's left and drilled a low shot with plenty of pace. Hope reacted.

One commenter said Solo guessed right but I don't think so. She's an outstanding instinctive keeper who reacts to a ball's trajectory as well as any goalkeeper I've seen. Like they say in baseball, it was a "bang-bang play." As the ball headed for the low far corner post, for the viewers following its inexorable flight to the net, the play slows down. Suddenly, there's this flash of green and we see Hope in flight, intercepting the ball like a Patriot Missile, deflecting it safely out of harm's way.

Bang-bang, and a gold medal save. One of the women on this American squad noted with a mixture of pride and humor that after their epic win over Canada, a young boy said, "when I grow up I want to be a soccer player on the women's team." It sounds almost apocryphal, yet so true. This team sparked a familiar something in young kids' imaginations. We all know what it is. We've all had that feeling (boys, at least) relating, for the first time, to playing a game, picking our sport.

Like it or not, sports traditionalists, soccer is part of American culture. Next up: reviving the women's professional league.

THE KING IS IN BRITAIN TO CHEER HIS TROOPS ON

KING PELÉ, THE GREATEST FOOTBALL PLAYER OF ALL TIME, arrived in Britain to collect an Honorary Doctorate from Edinburgh University for his "significant contribution to humanitarian and environmental causes, as well as his sporting achievements — including winning the World Cup three times with Brazil, as well as being named FIFA’s player of the century and the International Olympic Committee’s athlete of the century."

Said Edinburgh University's Principal, Sir Timothy O'Shea: "Pelé is one of the foremost sporting figures of our age, who is the epitome of sporting brilliance and élan, excellence, dignity, and fair play, as well as an inspiration." He concluded: "It is said Pelé was the most talented football player the world has ever seen. We agree."

As any monarch worth his crown, Pelé had words of wisdom and inspiration for his young countrymen, about to embark on the quest for the only honor that has eluded the most storied football franchise in the history of the game: the Olympic gold medal. "Brazil is seen as a country that has everything to be important to the future of Humankind. Therefore, we must unite to truly be the start of a better world."

The King Trailing Smiles. Posing With UK Gold Medal Rower K. Grainger, The Spry 71 Years Young Pelé Doesn't Look A Day Over 50.

Of Saturday's match against Mexico, which beat Brazil in a friendly at Cowboys Stadium in June, Pelé refused to place responsibility on young Neymar's shoulders to decide the game: "We have other great players, and I hope that the team plays well enough to take this medal." He did advise Neymar to vacate his left wing position, where he can be isolated by hard tight marking, and play more centrally to impose his skills to their fullest.

The King lamented not having had the opportunity to play in the Olympics:

“Always when people tell me that Brazil doesn’t have the gold medal in the Olympics, I say: ‘Yes, I started to play at 17 in the World Cup. I became professional and the professional could not play in the Olympics, so I never played in the Olympics.’ I hope now that I am here I can get the gold medal I never got. I want to go back to Brazil with the only medal we never got.”

But he was philosophical. "We're here to suffer. When you're on the pitch you don't suffer as much, because you try to run, engage in combat. Off the field, watching, kicking the fence and the chair, the suffering is very great." Then the King was gracious to a fault: “The most important thing for me is not to disappoint those who love me and admire me.”

Musical Break: A Lady Alex Treat!

CONFIRMING HER EXQUISITE TASTE IN MUSIC, Lady Alex played this song as soundtrack for a segment tonight on her very excellent guest-hosting of Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell Lady Alex, and how can you ever go wrong with Jack White? (I hope they get rid of that hideous lame NOW muzak (sounds like the soundtrack for a plumbing commercial) and return to original music. Just sayin'.

Here's Chris Matthews Before A Little 'Birdie' Named Steve Capus Whispered In His Ear

GEE, I'M REALLY POSITIVELY MORTIFIED NOW ... CHECK OUT THE LOWER RIGHT CORNER STATS. Be supportive of Chris, you say? HELL NO! We've gotta hold his feet to the fire, otherwise he can FLIP TO HIS PEERAGE GROUP before I'm halfway done eating my Philly Cheesesteak. But I'll say this much: Chris knows I don't really mean it, it just feels good to curse him out and vent WHEN HE DESERVES IT. There's always Lady Alex to whisper how much she "adores" him ... So it all evens out. KUDOS to HARDBALL for trying to even the Media bias scales, at least for an hour each day. (P.S. — My guess is to get "Andrea Mitchell Reports" numbers simply flip the "Hardball" ones.)

MEMO TO CHRIS MATTHEWS: "RESPECT" IS EARNED

GIVE US ONE REASON TO "RESPECT" A LYING RATBASTARD LIKE MITT ROMNEY AND THE RIGHT WING OBAMA HATERS AND FASCISTS WHO WILL BE VOTING FOR HIM. NICE TRY, CHRIS, BUT WE'RE WAAAAAAY PAST THAT.

LET'S JUST SAY IT AND SAY IT: REPUBLICANS ARE AMERICA'S BIGGEST MASS MURDERERS

PRIORITIES USA HAS RELEASED A HARD-HITTING AD with THE TRUTH Republicans CAN'T HANDLE: Their Health Care Policies KILL PEOPLE. Believe it or not, it's no use trying to avoid the truth. Here's the proof. And here.  So-called "conservatives" are in deep denial — a psychological protective mechanism that masks a much deeper pathology than simply choosing from an ideological menu. They cling to their guns with an irrational fear of their own government, and resist rational gun control measures over unnatural, irrational fear of the "other."

There's science behind this; so right wingers reject science. They construct elaborate support mechanisms and a parallel reality in which DENIAL is the order of the day. Think about it. How can these people go to work every day, look themselves in the mirror, without constructing a parallel reality that rejects facts, science, and the truth? This Priorities USA ad simply puts a HUMAN FACE on the mass killing being perpetrated by Republican policies — on women's health; health insurance coverage; and banning assault weapons, among other RATIONAL, CIVILIZED AND LIFE-AFFIRMING DEMOCRATIC REFORMS REPUBLICANS HAVE VOWED TO KILL (POLICIES THAT, YES, KILL PEOPLE). So what are the wingnuts getting all in a lather and frothing at the mouth about? I know I know — It's their natural state.

Better Than Mud Wrestling?!

IN CASE YOU'RE WONDERING WHY WOMEN'S WATER POLO IS GAINING POPULARITY ... Check out this
shot of an underwater breast exposure, courtesy of NBC's Olympic coverage: (Where's the
Al Michaels spot commentary? That right wing sleaze would be perfect for it.)

 

YOUR INIMITABLE "LIBERAL MEDIA BIAS" AT WORK

READ ALL ABOUT IT HERE. OH CHRIS (MATTHEWS), ABOUT THIS CHART: NOTICE how high on the NEGATIVE OBAMA coverage your SUSAN "gives it to us straight" PAGE friend, USA Today's Washington Bureau Chief, stands. How about those "liberal" standards, The New York Times and WaPo? Your hometown Philadelphia Inquirer? And the Media frauds and shysters still wonder why we hold them in such contempt?! I know I know, they make us stupid and gullible, until someone comes along (to mix my metaphors) and rips the scab off their corporate political games to reveal the men and women behind the curtain. And those other charts would be more benign, were the "positive" (trans: reposting Romney LIES and press releases) coverage not so skewed in Romney's favor. (Not to mention critical coverage of House and Senate candidates, given the Democratic Party's SCOTUS-Citizens United secret billionaire/corporate funding disadvantage.)

Speaking of The MSM/Beltway Media: Here's The Duchess (Turning Her Wrath On The 4th Estate)

AND REAFFIRMING A POORLY-KEPT SECRET BEHIND ALL THE BELTWAY (HALPERIN) SMIRKS of MSNBC "analysts." The Duchess SLAM of the hapless wingnut who posted this toon serves as a DOUBLE-SLAM of their not-so-secret collaborators outside the "fair and balanced" FOX universe:

Lady Alex Shows The Color of Her Grace

LADY ALEX EMERGED FROM HER SINISTER HALPERIN HYPNOTIC TRANCE to guest-host The Last Word (Without) Lawrence, sporting trimmed locks and a healthier rapport with the non-Beltway truth. She even ventured to speak it, saying Romney had lied. But Lawrence is an oasis where the truth can be spoken without equivocation or corporate right wing agendas.

The test will come when Alex returns, squeezed by relentless peer pressure from Republican Lite Moron Joe (where the corruption of Lady Alex may have begun) to corporate Beltway propagandists Chuckles Toddy, GOP suck-up Luke 'The Force Is Not With Me' Russert, and the Grande Dame of the Washington Establishment, Andrea Mitchell, whose studio is the site of a perennial parade of 'OAMs' — permanent campsite of the corporate pro-Romney GOP Establishment, 'Occupy Andrea Mitchell' regulars Reince Priebus, Haley Barbour, John Sununu, Nicole Wallace, Kevin Madden, Vin Weber, et al. And how can we forget the High Priest of the Beltway Media, David Gregory, a one-man truth-shattering wrecking ball.

It's a remarkable thing, how, in this Olympic-sized absence of corporate conservative Beltway Media filters (above), the truth will spontaneously break out in vibrant colors and a clearing fog. As the song goes, "I can see clearly now, the rain has gone." I liken it to the passing of a destructive hurricane, when the air is crisp and clean for the briefest of moments, and the cause of the destruction of our capacity to process decisively important political news is revealed in sharp relief as the Beltway Media veil is lifted. Sadly, we can hardly savor it for long before the nightmarish status quo ante returns after Sunday's Closing Ceremonies. (Do you suppose this unfiltering process of spontaneous truth outbreak, writ large, is why some pine for the Olympics never to end?)

But still, the moment is instructive to compare how much clearer the truth becomes absent these conservative corporate filters. Which begs the question, "why then submit to their relentless ratings-driven propaganda and misinformation?" Because they feed us the crumbs, an occasional kernel of the truth or a liberal point of view to compel the misguided to the misconception that these kernels are indispensable to our overall understanding of the truth. They're not, of course. But one thing the political TV Machine is extra good at is luring us into their web of deceit.

But I was speaking of Lady Alex. She closed with a fine commentary the other night. When the air was crisp and she grasped the truth vibrating with the awful color of hate.

BIG EDDIE BACK IN THE SADDLE! TALKS OLYMPICS ...

AND HE'S DIGGIN' VOLLEYBALL! Eddie doesn't know the first thing about it, but like any open-minded sports fan he appreciates the skill, "dexterity" (we call it finesse), power and defense, watching a two-man Brazil team beat Poland in beach volleyball. I know why Eddie liked it; the big guy for Brazil, Alison, is a scrappy bearded redhead power hitter. If there were an All-Madden beach volleyball team, Alison would definitely be on it! They're in the gold medal final.

Alison, BIG EDDIE Lookalike (sort of, maybe 30 years ago) Doing His Thing.

The American women's teams (1 and 3) will play for the gold, as favored Brazil came up short and was relegated to playing for bronze. But on the hard court, it was ALL Cardiac Girls: Defending Olympic champions Brazil beat back SIX (count 'em, SIX) match points from a tough, sneaky-dangerous Russian team, before finally putting them away in a THRILLING five-setter. It turned into a battle of wills, and should never have been this close.

The Ladies Done Good When It Counted, Though! 

 The men's football final is a Latin classic: Brazil v. Mexico. All in all, it was a good day for Brazil, with every volleyball and football team in action advancing to medal contention.

Gunslinger: Leandro Damião Notches 2 More Goals To His 

Tournament-Leading 6 As Brazil Cruises Past S. Korea, 3-0.

Finally, a personal note of solidarity to a GOOD GUY: we're keeping Ed and his wife, Wendy, in our thoughts as she battles cancer. Hang in there, Big Eddie. For what it's worth, we're totally confident Wendy will beat this disease.

TRMS: BEST INTRO TEASE EVER — REID RAGE!

"HARRY REID, ACTING OUT IN A WAY THAT IS UNCHARACTERISTIC FOR HIM, AND  THAT SEEMS TO HAVE UNNERVED THE ENTIRE REPUBLICAN PARTY. THAT'S COMING UP." (Video to come ASAP.) I just LOVE "REID RAGE." Rachel has outdone herself! I've gotta say this: I can't get enough of this new Harry Reid incarnation. As the TRMS graphic shows, Harry getting in touch with, and releasing, his inner Hulk is unnervingly awesome. Keep it going, Harry, we're LOVIN' IT!

 

USA WOMEN HEAD TO SOCCER FINAL, IN EPIC MATCH

WITH A STORYBOOK NARRATIVE OF ITS OWN: It's a rematch of the 2008 Women's World Cup final against Japan, the winners, and a chance for redemption. The USA 4-3 win over Canada in OT was one of those games for the ages. It was almost not fair to the Canadians, especially to their splendid goal scoring machine, Christine Sinclair. But at its essence, it's simply a cruel game sometimes, in that the Canadians made three critical errors resulting in two American goals.

Every team makes mistakes from which, however, they have a better chance of recovery than against this opportunistic and merciless USA team. The American players just keep coming at you and make their own opportunities. There's a word for that: character.

Let's take a look at Canada's errors:

1. The main player here and one of the stars of the game with two goals, Megan Rapinoe, is the awesome natural old-school winger with the slashing speed to get behind defenses, and that wickedly precise right foot. Rapinoe's equalizer, with the U.S. down 1-0, came from a corner kick on the left wing swung it in with a right-footed service, a wicked seeing-eye curveball laced with plenty of English that found net through bodies and legs inside the near post.

But here's the thing. There is a reason most teams plant a defender on the near post to cover corner kicks, while the goalkeeper covers the far post along with defenders zoning in the neighborhood. The reason is to guard against precisely the kind of goal Rapinoe scored with her sinful inswinger. In fact, it's Soccer 101 Fundamentals, so much so that I'd be very surprised if Rapinoe's goal doesn't end up on soccer training videos teaching how not to defend corner kicks.

Curiously, corner kick goals, rare for their skill and beauty, are known in South American soccer parlance as "Olympic goals." Why? Well, the story goes that in the 1924 and 1928 Olympics the first South American teams, Uruguay and Argentina, entered the competition. Uruguay won back-to-back Olympic soccer titles. Its great rival Argentina beat Uruguay, fresh from their triumph in the Paris 1924 Olympics, by 2-1, one of the goals a direct corner kick.

The Argentines immediately dubbed it their "Olympic goal" to exact a measure of satisfaction from the Olympic champions. Not that it worked as Uruguay went on to repeat in 1928. But the name stuck. (It's just one in the myriad storied history of the greatest sport on Earth, which now has a new chapter written by Megan Rapinoe and her teammates.)

2. The Canadian goalkeeper should never have allowed herself to be called for holding the ball beyond the alloted six seconds. Most referees consider this a technical infraction and issue a warning before actually awarding the opposing team an indirect free kick at the site of the infraction. That's what the added time at the end is all about. But the way a goalkeeper avoids this is to put the ball on the ground and maintain possession as long as an opponent doesn't charge to challenge and force her to kick it away. There are ways within the rules to while away the time "making wax" as they say south of the border.

3. Once the free kick was awarded, the defenders on the wall, or blocking the opponent's shot must be keenly aware, and trained, to avoid a hand ball penalty being awarded to the other team. Basically, you must be prepared to give up your body, sans the hands and arms or elbows, otherwise stay the hell out of the red zone. The penalty awarded Team USA, compounding the indirect free kick, was totally avoidable by Canada.

Canada played a gallant match under relentless pressure from Team USA. The statistics tell the story: 18-9 shots, 12-4 corner kicks, and 54%-46% ball possession in favor of Team USA. Errors, as described here, are seldom self-inflicted. The best team won, in a game for the ages in the greatest sport on Earth, as delighted American fans, late to the game, are suddenly discovering.

TEA PARTY REMEDIAL ED: Gather Round, Kiddies, For A WHIPLASHING From The Duchess!

OH, AND THOSE POP-POP-POPPIN' SOUNDS AREN'T THEIR ASSAULT WEAPONS GOING OFF; IT'S the sound of WIDDLE WINGNUT BRAINS spontaneously EXPLODING!?!

DUCHESS ST. ROLLINS' DAILY AFFIRMATION: GOOD FOR THE LIBERAL SOUL

IF THEY WEREN'T SO DESTRUCTIVE, these pathetic wingnut clowns would be a howl. (They still are; HA!)

Quotable: Sandra Day O'Connor, History's SCOTUS Villain

SHE CAST THE DECIDING VOTE ON Bush v. Gore, yet remains to this day in DEEP DENIAL. Can you blame her? Former Supreme Court Justice O'Connor will forever be defined as one of the great villains of American jurisprudence, the so-called "swing vote" who cast the deciding vote AGAINST the Democratic process and IN FAVOR of her POLITICAL BIAS.

It's as simple as that. The die was cast for a Supreme Court Latin American-style extra-constitutional PUTSCH the moment O'Connor was overheard badmouthing Gore, saying she counldn't "stand the idea of that man" as president:

But to the liberal clerks it was all over. The brother of a Ginsburg clerk, who covered legal affairs for The Wall Street Journal, had learned that the paper would soon report how, at a party on Election Night, O'Connor was overheard expressing her dismay over Gore's apparent victory. Once that information became public, the liberal clerks felt, O'Connor would have to step aside. When, on the night before the Court convened, she sent out a sealed memo to each of her colleagues, those clerks hoped this had actually come to pass. In fact, she was merely stating that she, too, felt the Florida Supreme Court had improperly usurped the state legislature's power.

Was O'Connor asked during her CBS interview about this particular episode which goes directly to personal bias and, when made public, should have prompted her recusal? It's a rhetorical question; the MSM/Beltway Media really think we're this STUPID and forgetful. OF COURSE THE QUESTION WASN'T ASKED. Instead, O'Connor kept denying her responsibility — "I don't see how you can say anybody was the deciding vote. They all counted." — claiming she has no regrets (DENIAL is a strong defense mechanism for the knowingly guilty of malfeasance and malpractice of the highest order): "No, I mean it was a tough deal; i[t] was a closely fought election; and it's no fun to be part of a group of decision makers that has to decide which side the ball is going to fall on."

Let's set the record straight on Sandra Day O'Connor's craven and unethical conduct: This was NOT about deciding for candidate A over candidate B. THIS WAS ABOUT ORDERING THE END — BY JUDICIAL FIAT — OF A LEGALLY ESTABLISHED STATE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS FOR DECIDING CLOSE ELECTIONS WITH A RECOUNT, AFFIRMED BY THE STATE'S HIGHEST COURT.

THIS WAS AN EXTRA-CONSTITUTIONAL COUP D'ETAT BY THE SUPREME COURT AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.

MEANWHILE, BACK ON EARTH ...

ANOTHER HATE CRIME TERRORISTIC SHOOTING IN THE WILD WEST UNCIVILIZED NATION that harbors more firearms than people, freely supplies and arms international drug cartels, criminals, terrorists, and right wing homicidal haters like the gunman who committed another slaughter at a Sikh temple, and whose preferred presidential candidate of the uncivilized crazies proudly trumpets taking existing healthcare away from women and denying it to more than 30 million of our fellow citizens.

Amazingly, one psycho wingnut noted that more people are gunned down every day in Chicago than were killed at the Sikh temple. Exactly right. So what's your point, bloodthirsty right wing ratbastard — since the victims and perpetrators are mostly people of color, they don't count?!

The right wing neo-fascist traitors are to blame for this continuing carnage and gun madness: the Tea Party, right wing radio — specifically Limbaugh, Hannity, Levin, Noory, Jones, and their legion of sicko bigoted imitators — FOX, the Republican Party (all of it!), the MSM/Beltway Media (you know who you are), the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson, the right wing Supreme Court, and the entire panoply of profoundly un-American extremists on the fascist right.

We must ask ourselves: what country is this, that can produce such a scientific and technological marvel as the Curiosity-Mars mission, yet is incapable of recognizing and accepting the science of Global Warming. A country whose right wing opposition traitors pursue a policy of inflicting DELIBERATE harm to our economic recovery for political gain.

what kind of country is this?!

TOUCHDOWN! MARS CURIOSITY LANDS ON MARS!

FOLLOW CURIOSITY'S FIRST STEPS ON THE MARTIAN SURFACE ON NASA TV. This is better than Sci-Fi, folks; this is REAL! CURIOSITY Tweeted the first pictures of its new home. Here we are looking at its shadow. The signal is strong, all systems are GO! WELL DONE, GUYS, WELL DONE! Stay tuned to NASA.gov to follow developments. Below the front and back (Discovery's shadow) pictures is the NASA simulation of the highly complex robotically activated autonomous guided landing sequence.

Quotable: Robert Gibbs, "Romney Can Go To Kinko's ... I'll Send Him The Nickels."

THE PRESIDENT'S FORMER PRESS SECRETARY, ROBERT GIBBS, WEIGHS IN ON THE HARRY REID-MITT ROMNEY DUST-UP:

“We could put this to rest tomorrow. Mitt Romney can go to Kinko's, photocopy his tax returns. There are several hundred pages. He could hand them out to people like CNN and to reporters all over the country, and we wouldn't talk about this tomorrow. We wouldn't say, 'Is he paying taxes? What's he paying?' The whole world would know what loopholes he's taking advantage of.”

Being generous with tightwad peanut balls Romney, Gibbs offered to foot the bill for the photocopies: “I'll send him the nickels. I think it's a nickel a page.”

DUCHESS ST. ROLLINS' DAILY AFFIRMATION

IN WHICH A WINGNUT TEABAGGER ASSWIPE GETS HIS NOSE RUBBED IN COW DUNG: 

THE THINKER KEEPS ON ROLLIN' AT THE SPA!

AS I'VE BEEN SAYING ALL ALONG, CREAM RISES TO THE TOP! Here's THE THINKER notching another win at the cradle of summertime racing, SARATOGA RACETRACK, "The Spa," at Saratoga Springs, NY. THE THINKER continues his inexorable march through the Allowance conditions toward Stakes company. JUST REMEMBER, FOLKS: ALWAYS BET ON THE THINKER!