In an interview with KDKA July 9th, John McCain claimed he recited the Pittsburgh Steelers starting defensive line when under distress with his North Vietnamese captors.

"When I was first interrogated and really had to give some information because of the physical pressures that were on me, I named the starting lineup -- defensive line -- of the Pittsburgh Steelers as my squadron-mates!"

That's all well and good, but from 1967 to 1973 during McCain's imprisonment, the Steelers were just starting the process of assembling  the great teams everyone remembers.

Denver Colorado -In a break with tradition, Barack Obama has announced that instead of accepting the Democratic nomination at the Pepsi Center he will move his acceptance speech to the 76,000 seat Investco Field at Mile High stadium. In another break with tradition Obama will forgo the usual thank you and inspirational speech, opting instead for an interpretative End Zone dance to celebrate his candidacy.

"While John McCain will embrace the rhetoric and ideas of the Bush administration's last two nomination speeches, I will usher in a new era of acceptance speeches," Obama announced at a rally in North Carolina.

For many the decision did not come as a major surprise. Many supporters noted the candidate's teaser "announcement" in December 2006 before Monday Night Football.

The lamentation and rending of garments in the wake of Barack Obama's repeated, ill-advised comments on several issues (Wes Clark's comments, the death penalty, gun ownership, etc.) seems to have built itself into a Jupiter's spot of neverending self-powered cyclonic fury.  Woe is us, that we have been sold out by the Great Blue Hope!!  Change is a lie!!  Our country and Constitution have been sold up the river!!

There are all kinds of well-intentioned protests arising; "I will not donate any money..."  "I will not help to register any new voters..."  "I will still vote for him, but that's all!"

Well, I'm going to tell you what to do now.

SYFPH, and just run the damn play.

Seriously, I get up for a little coffee and some good reasoned discussion and instead find diary after diary of outrage and disappointment about FISA.

Understandable to some degree, I admit. Obama is my Senator, so yesterday I fired off a polite letter making clear my feelings about FISA, particularly the telecom immunity part. I'm sure he received thousands just like it.

I don't doubt (since he has said it over and over) that he shares my viewpoint.

But, c'mon folks. Get a grasp, step back and look at the big picture.

It's late here and my wife's asleep but I'm stayin up to watch the match anyway. I fully expect this to be a very lonely diary but if anyone else likes soccer/football and is watching, share your thoughts.

As with everything in life, much of the Clinton campaign's current argument can be explained away with a simple football analogy.

Today is FIFA's 104th birthday. In their honor, I've chronicled their douchebaggery over the last four years. (F-I-F-A is from the title in French for soccer's world governing body.) Fifa has done some unacceptable, misogynistic things.

One of the advantages of being from another country is when something huge happens and yet people go on about their daily lives as normal. Probably because the 'whatever it is' means nothing to them and their lives.

Which is fine by me.

For I am a Manchester United fan. Have been since the 70s. And just because I'm  a US Citizen doesn't mean I don't get to cheer the Red Devils on.

Especially as they're Champions of Europe.

As the Clinton campaign continues to push the idea of the popular vote and the MSM laps it up like the puppy dogs they are I thought I would take a different tack using a sporting analogy to make the point that if you change the rules, how the game is played also changes. Strategies adjust to reflect the rules.

So how would football be played if the team with the most yards (popular vote)rather than the most points (delegates) won ?

I know that No Child Left Behind is not a hot topic right now, but I must share with you this wonderful snark that appeared in our Indiana State Teachers Association UniServ District 2F May 8 Newsletter (PDF).

It demonstrates the absurdity of a one-size-fits-all education policy inflicted on schools from the top down.

Snark below the fold.

I wanted to be optimisti, hopeful even.  

I write this somewhat with tongue in cheek, but perhaps all Obama needs to do to hurt Hillary in West Virginia is remind West Virginians that Hillary loves Michigan.

It doesn't matter which candidate can claim most states won, pledged delegates or popular vote.  As we've heard time and again, it's like suggesting it matters in an NFL game who will wind up ahead on total yardage, red-zone scoring, and turnover differential -- excellent outcome predictors usually -- when one team will clearly end up with more points.  

Reading Paul Krugman's column in the NYTimes today,
http://www.nytimes.com/... where he creates the straw man argument that this was supposed to be easy for Obama, he had all the advantages all along, why is this close? I couldn't help but think about how he might have written about the Giants' inability to put away the Patriots early in the Fourth Quarter  of the Super Bowl.

It is 1976. The United States of America is celebrating its bicentennial year. The first stations of the Metro open, after seven years of construction. Patty Hearst is convicted of armed robbery. Olympic athletes head to Innsbruck, Austria, where the Soviet Union will dominate, winning 27 medals, 13 of them Gold — higher than the medal count of all but one other participating nation.

In the world of technology, personal computers are still nascent, and e-mail even more so. Steves Jobs and Wozniak found Apple, ironically on April Fools' Day.

In among the rest of the news is President Gerald R. Ford's rescinding of Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Executive Order 9066 resulted in the internment of 120,000 people during World War II.

I thought I'd bring up something totally different this time. Why not something unlikely like sports and SOCCER. You see I'm a huge Soccer fan, Manchester City is my team. So I was wondering, how is soccer doing in America. Do you cheer for a team and if so which one would that be?

Here's a goodie and for God's sake don't try this!

Joe Paterno Calls It Quits

University Park, PA - April 1, 2008 - It was announced today that Penn State football coach Joe Paterno will retire following the annual Blue/White Game on April 19th.  Accordingly to a source at the University, contract talks between the coach and University President Graham Spanier broke down on Sunday.

It been a great long while since I've done one of these sports diaries, but I thought it might be a nice break for those sick of the candidate ones & it was "Selection Sunday" for NCAA basketball.

Indicative of the volatile nature of college basketball, the teams that played for the national title last season — Florida and Ohio State — were not included in this year’s field of 65. Among the 34 at-large teams selected, only 6 came from outside college basketball’s power conferences for the second consecutive season.

Also, I thought I would ponder the most controversial/memorable moments in sports. But just like with my "TIC" diaries, where practically anything entertainment/gossip related can be discussed, the same goes for sports. Just because I'm too lazy to bring it up, doesn't mean you can't talk about it.....