I think Bush is more afraid of his visit to Seattle on Friday.

the u.s. made a few shots on goal, it's just that none of them went in.

Thanks Josh. Correction made. Could've sworn I read 0 shots on goal, but I guess we did manage a few. In any case, we appear to suck.

Those weren't shots, they were cries for help. We were unspeakably terrible yesterday; we didn't get beat, we got massacred. Worst team in the tournament.

Look for Roethlisburger to show up in some "wear your fucking helmet, morons" PSAs with his jaw wired shut. I wonder if he had a "no motorcycles or snowmobiles" clause in his contract. I hope so.

And in other news, is Robert Jamieson angling for Marty McComber's job after the PI tanks?

It would seem so, just like Marty he too could go from journalism to Mayor's PR hack.

We aren't the worst team in the World Cup, but we're down there. US v Togo could be interesting... or the pinnacle would be US v Iran...

That being said, Trinidad & Tobago gave Sweden a helluva jolt to the system with that outcome, and the Australians played like shit for 80+ minutes only to recover with 3 goals in the last 10 minutes. The Japanese were pissed.

Holy Moly... Bush to Baghdad first, Seattle second. This must be the week for him to tour areas that hate him...

This "morning news" blog entry meanders through 8 unrelated topics. It would be a helluva easier to read and comment about if it had a focus point of some kind.

I guess from now on, Irish Coffee it is.

Um, Spoilsport, I think you're missing the whole point of a "morning news" omnibus post.

Notice that Bush made a *surprise* visit to Iraq. He even told the media that he was going to Camp David this morning. How surrepticious.

Josh, I find it hilarious that US Soccer, time and again, can only find optimism in their few shots on goal.

I predict they'll get shut out in World Cup group play. No, not just shut out in wins: I predict they won't even score a GOAL.

Merry Fitzmas, feitkopfs. Here's what Ken 'Satan' Starr got for his time & your money when he was investigating Klinton Kronies during the Clinton-Flynt administration:

According to an Independent Counsel report on the web site of C-Span [http://www.c-span.org/report/Final%20ICreport/appe.pdf] convictions were obtained from the following individuals:
Robert Palmer
Web Hubbell
Christopher Wade
Neal Ainley
Stephen Smith
Larry Kuca
Jim Guy Tucker (Arkansas governor)
James McDougal
Susan McDougal
William Marks Sr
John Haley

Individuals whose convictions were obtained by a prosecutor other than Mr. Starr were:
David Hale
Eugene Fitzhugh
Charles Matthews
John Latham

Susan McDougal, Robert Palmer, Stephen Smith and Christopher Wade received pardons from President Clinton on 1/20/01.

Ken Starr's boss, the person who appointed him on the basis of special-
council authority that President Clinton approved, was Janet Reno.

============================

Here's what you got from Fitz:

Scooty Libber. Democrat 'activist' & law prof Susan Estrich tried to tell Stephanie Miller that the indictment of Scoot was based on 'no underlying crime.' He didn't out a covert agent because Plame wasn't covert & she wasn't an agent in 2003 or in the previous half-decade. She was a desk-bound analyst.

Last-ditch paranoiacs (Kos et. al) want to believe that Rove flipped for Fitz & threw Cheney under the bus. No likely, but we shall see. The unhinged Left sometimes has a stopped clock's chance of getting it right, but it looks like the Right bitch-slapped you bitches again.

They have an outside chance of scoring one against Ghana. Not against Italy. And Ghana's going to score at least three against them. In the outcry over our missing offense, our total lack of coordination or skill on defense has been somewhat overlooked. This team is BAD. We have no good players, no strategy, no ideas, no heart, no tenacity, no ball skills, no vision, no nose for the goal, no defensive anticipation.

yoos guys (as the kids in the midwest say) are so pessimistic! So the US got smoked in the opener. They still have two games to play. Let's see how they respond against Italy before we start jumping from bridges...

The high cost of low politics: "Almost half of each of the key Democratic subgroups disapprove of this type of anti-Wal-Mart campaign, including 49% of Democrats, 48% of non-whites, 51% of union households (!) , 51% of those who want Democrats to win control of Congress in 2006, and even 50% of 2004 Kerry voters all disapprove."

(www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/06/democrats_make_walmart_an_issu.html)

Know nothing about RT Strategies of their polling, but suspect it's bent to the right like Realclearpolitics. Still, you bent leftists maybe need to rethink your jihad. And read a recent Harper's takedown of Costco while you're at it. Costco is a corporate monster that munches little guys & girls via the insidious vehicle of eminent domain: Your tax dollars at work against you & for the progressive rich. (Last year, in its Kelo decision, the Supreme Court's liberals gave a green light to seizures of homes & hovels by the rich & powerful.)

All I know is, OJ was "innocent" too, but he lost everything in the civil trials.

If I was Rove, I wouldn't be making any plans.

FNARF WROTE:
"Um, Spoilsport, I think you're missing the whole point of a "morning news" omnibus post."

SMARM WROTE:
Jeez, a news "omnibus post" instead of, say, spaghetti thrown against the wall. Are you in ninth grade, or what?

Smarm: I know you are but what am I?

Mike, contests in World Cup Soccer are actually called matches.

Secondly, the U.S. is a historically non competitive soccer nation. Most nations focus on soccer, while in the US the sport is shoved to the fringes, paid attention mainly by immigrant Latinos and affluent white kids. Other nations' best athletes are playing against middle of the road athletes from the U.S.

Also, the U.S.'s ranking was inflated by a) rarely playing nations outside of the Americas (they did play one friendly against Germany this past year... and got throttled) and b) beating up on weaker squads from said Americas.

Don't forget 1998, when the U.S. finished 32nd out of 32 teams, and even got beat by IRAN.

Italy at their worst and a middling Ghana squad are still head and shoulders above the best soccer players the US has to offer. Have the bags packed and roll out the jet before the Ghana match, guys. Saves time.

I wasn't being optimistic about yesterday's disasterous match. The team looked terrible all over the place. My only point was that they did make a few shots on goal (and not zero, which was the text in the original post). One even caught the edge of the post and went out.

One of the Italian superstars was injured against Ghana. This could theoretically be cause for hope among US fans.

Gomez- I know about Matches. If this were a futbol blog, I would use the appropriate nomenclature. For the slog, I choose not to be pedantic.

As far as US's chances against Itally, I know we have none, but that's why they play game (sorry for the cliche, but it is apropos)...

I'll bet that Italy's backups could whip the US in a match, let alone Italy's starting 11 without their star. Losing a superstar is not a huge loss for Italy: just plug another star player in from off the bench.

Cause for hope for the US would be David Beckham, Ronaldo and Ruud van Nistelrooy suddenly admitting that they're actually US citizens and were faking their foreign heritage all this time... or the Italians and Ghanans suddenly, inexplicably disappearing from Germany and forfeiting their matches.