Tired

That was the problem for the U.S. against Brazil.
I can relate.

U.S. and A! Part II

Yes, I've written quite a bit about them this week. But seriously, you should root for this team. Because it looks like America. And represents us better than we deserve. I've seen them close. They're all pretty cool. At the risk of sounding like a corporate whore, watch it on Sunday at 2 pm.

U.S. and A! U.S. and A!

Quite a game. Quite a post-game, too. And I have more work to do in Africa.

Courage on the field

It's the ultimate over-used sports cliche.
Except it's not a cliche this time.

Five of Iran's World Cup soccer team wore green wrist bands Wednesday when they played South Korea to show solidarity with protesters back home.

Apparently, the protesting athletes were punished for their act of free speech. They didn't qualify for the World Cup, but they're now my favorite team.

One of our mayors is missing

This is kind of strange:

The linking of Nova Bus with the Town of Plattsburgh satisfies the efforts at partnership between Quebec and eastern New York state. That is a partnership that former Plattsburgh Mayors Clyde Rabideau and Daniel Stewart vigorously pursued, along with the Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber of Commerce and other development gurus in this region. That relationship has continued to help shield the North Country from the full effects of the national and global recession.

Did our local editorial board throw the current occupant under the bus?
h/t ncg

I thought he moved to Florida

Clown.

Bush critic + Obama critic=Journalist=Canned

Dan Froomkin gets the axe, even though he has a following. I'm not sure I now have any reason to read that paper.
Here's a trenchant Froomkin essay from a while back on what's wrong with newspapers.

Not very good at all, really

The United States had rather a rough go of it against a group of Brazilian men in a contest of association football.

The horn of Africa

Vuvuzelas are the new Thunderstix. And predictably, someone's calling for a ban. Get some earplugs, or a mic filter, and relax. It's part of the game down here.

Mmmmmm... ox liver

With onions. Just had it for breakfast at the hotel. Very liverish. They love their meat in South Africa. In the student-heavy (Pretoria Universitaat and Pretoria High School for Girls) district near the Loftus Versfeld Stadium, three of every four restaurant's lead item seems to be burgers. Wimpy is huge.
Only way to get raw vegetables is to order a salad--usually with meat. Haven't found any cooked veggies anywhere, though with the restrictions on walking around (more on that later), I can't say I've done a thorough investigation.

That's amore

We make high-quality Italian soccer players right here in the US of A. That's today's lesson from Africa!

Not in Iran, but...

...this DailyKos post is fascinating. An Iranian sports journalist is apparently feeding a Kossack buddy updates from the revolution. They met on a soccer forum.
Sometimes, we do more than report the scores.

In Africa

Covering a soccer tournament that's a warmup for a bigger soccer tournament. By the way, it's colder in Johannesburg than it is in Plattsburgh.

Daaiiissyy... Daaiissy...

Remember the scene in 2001 where HAL the computer gradually has his plug pulled, and starts to lose what's left of his virtual mind? That's what the New York state legislature is like today, slowly losing sentience and starting to shut down all systems.
"Ii'mm... haallff... craaazzy...."

More on the draft

Our Insider draft series continues with a look at what lurks past the 10th pick. Short answer: not much.

Another reason to like track

I am on the record heartily supporting the sport of athletics. Today's USA Track and Field blog just adds to it. The COO of the sport in the U.S., Mike McNees, devotes a column to the horrors of plastic bottles. He makes an argument often regarded as wacko environmentalism sound like what it is--common sense.

Certainly our elite athletes must take great care to not drink from unsealed containers, given the potential consequences of a positive doping test resulting from a tainted bottle. A career could certainly be ruined. This does not mean, however, that every 12-year-old miler or collegiate official needs bottled water. I participated in more than a few track meets in the days when bottled water was something my mom poured into the steam iron, and when suggesting one pay $4 for a bottle of water from a concession stand might get you committed. There are alternatives, not the least of which is the best public water supply in the world. It is a public water system, by the way, in which we have collectively invested billions of dollars, only to turn up our nose at in favor of an environmentally toxic plastic bottle filled with water that is produced and bottled without a fraction of the regulatory quality control of our public water.
The ban-the-bottle movement is not new, and at least two states have banned the use of public money for bottled water. But in spite of growing awareness of things like the floating Pacific garbage patch, the effects of plastics in our environment, the energy costs to produce and distribute bottled water, and the cost to buy it, that movement is gaining traction very slowly.

What other leader of a major U.S. sport would even bother to identify a problem like this, let alone call for ban on bottled water at U.S. track meets, as he does at the conclusion of his column?
Read it all.

One thing on McHugh

The local paper today neglects to mention that the 23rd Congressional District is doomed to be subsumed into some other district in two years. That's because the 2010 census will show a relative population loss in New York compared to the subsidized South and the welfare West, and the state is likely to lose at least one House seat. Redistricting will take place. And the 23rd as we know it will cease to exist.
By the way, here's something I forgot about McHugh: He's relatively progressive on gays in the military.

Speaking of drafts

ESPN Insider is starting a month of NBA draft coverage. Here's my opening salvo.

Obama drafts McHugh

Ten-hut!
The president names North Country Congressman John McHugh as Secretary of the Army. Bipartisanship we can believe in!
Just as interesting is the scramble it will set off for the 23rd District. It's been solid GOP, but then so was the 20th. Wonder who's going to chase it. State Sen. Darrel Aubertine or McHugh aide Robert Taub, mentioned in the Washington Post article? Janet Duprey? Don Kasprzak? Dr. Bob Johnson? Aragorn? A Watertowner, a Malonite, a Plattsburgher? Fun to watch, and the new blood will be good for the district.

Happy border day!

Now that you can no longer visit Canada with just a driver's license, Jim Kunstler tells you what you're missing as he passes through the eldritch, Lovecraftian streets of Watertown, into the great northern safehouse. Step 1: Read. Step 2: Weep.
Oh, and there's this nifty tidbit from Kunstler's brand new comments section:

As for the Canada/USA difference - I still haven't figured that out. It seems to be due to subtle policy differences, including the fact that they ditched their arbitrary and inefficient (e.g. the East Syracuse police department) local governments years ago in favor of regional systems. One thing I will share is an anecdote from a bus trip I took from Montreal to Albany. This other American and I were talking with two British men sitting behind us when we pulled into Plattsburgh. It was their first trip to America (besides NYC), so they were shocked at they commercial strips. When they asked what those weird buildings were, we told them they were drive through banks. They just started laughing (enough said)!

Corrections and amendments

Credit where due, to the local paper, which atones for its rough headline about an area student with this:

CHEERS: to Leo Lee, the precocious 11-year-old speller from Plattsburgh who almost made it into the semi-finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee last week, making the entire North Country proud.

And a follow-up. I did some roughing up of my own regarding Sen. Betty Little a while back, thinking she was positioning herself for a run at the 20th Congressional seat. Obviously, she isn't. My bad.