First, I will go over the CONCACAF Champion’s League final. Simple terms, RSL missed their chances, Monterrey capitalized on theirs. I haven’t watched replays or watched stat sheets, but it seemed that the only really good series that Monterrey got they converted into a goal. For twenty minutes of the first half, Monterrey played well, the rest, they did what they needed to win and that’s about it. Credit to them, and congratulations, I hope they make CONCACAF proud (even though I’ll be cheering for Man U or Barca to beat them). Regardless, RSL left it all out on the field and for that they can be proud. The best highlight of the match though, the stadium, sold out, with RSL fans, standing and singing all together. This is the first time that we’ve played a Mexican side and not had it be almost an away game. There were hardly any Monterrey fans and that was just awesome!
As for the game, Espindola really needed to put his chances at least on frame. The open net he missed in the 11th minute, that was the difference there. His header in the 2nd half, same, if you are going to take a header like that, with space to either volley or bring the ball down, you have to at least put it on frame. Saborio is playing better, but I’m not sure if he’s in full form right now. The good news is he’s getting there. I really didn’t like Monterrey’s style after they got up a goal. It is sad when you can characterize Mexican soccer by those traits, they get up, and then start rolling around like they got shot any time someone breathes on them. Overall the referee did a good job of controlling that. Overall the reffing was ok, but I think he did need to be more on top of things. There were way too many counters where a shirt of arm tug cut the momentum on the break and nothing was called. I think too many things were let go and not called, mostly because the ref was out of position. I didn’t get a good look at the header by Sabo that may have gone in, but again, poor positioning (and lack of goalline technology) prevented what could have been an equalizer. I will not blame the ref for the match, all I am saying is it could have been better. I did thoroughly enjoy Suazo’s yellow for simulation. The best performance I saw last night was Jamison Olave. He made Suazo his prison bitch and it was pretty funny. Suazo didn’t do anything as long as Olave was marking him and Suazo is the best striker in CONCACAF. I hope that RSL has something left in the tank still for Portland Saturday. Jeld-Wen is a great park and a great atmosphere. No wonder Portland is a different team at home than they are on the road. Not to mention that a guy with a chainsaw behind the goal may just be a bit intimidating.
Anyway, enough said on the match, on to the other big news yesterday, the birth certificate. What pisses me off is that it seems that the idiot fringe of the GOP has now taken over the base of the party. The whole birther conspiracy just bothers me on so many different levels. First is the whole idea of giant conspiracies just bothers me to no end. If two people know something, it’s not secret. The very magnitude of deception and cover-up required to even assume that Obama did not have a birth certificate pretty much guaranteed that he’s not lying. In order to get any number of identifying document, for instance, his driver’s license, marriage license, passport, bar license, among other things, he would have to prove place of birth and citizenship. The number of people involved and the level of deception required place the whole issue beyond the realm of possibility. But then, the birther movement, combined with the accompanying belief that not only was he born in Kenya, but that he himself is Muslim, was always less about finding truth and fraud as it was about nothing more than simple, old-fashioned racism. Nothing else suitably describes the lack of reasoning behind the whole movement. To illustrate some of the idiocy, remember how many who have said Obama is a Muslim who also criticized his pastor, Jeremiah Wright? If he’s going to a Christian church for years, with a pastor you don’t approve of because he’s a radical Black Pather type, then how is Obama a Muslim? It’s like 1+1=3 to these people.
What really bothers me is how now the birthers are congratulating themselves, like Donald Trump did yesterday, and then setting out to move the goalposts. Now the target will be Obama’s college transcripts. Many of the birther leaders likened Obama’s release of his birth certificate to Nixon’s selective release of the Watergate tapes. Sorry, but no. These are hardly even on the same level. Obama is not trying to cover for criminal activity, like Nixon was. But not like I expect anything less from these people.
What really bothered me about the whole birther movement is how little mainstream Republican leaders said or did to discredit the movement and actually call a spade a spade. Instead of condemning it in the strongest terms and calling these idiots racists that they do not welcome into their party, they gave only lukewarm, “I take the president at his word,” responses. Why not just come out and say, unequivocally, that there is no credence to this whole movement. Both the Democrats and Republicans continue to do this with the rightly marginalized “9/11 Truther” movement who believe that the terrorist attacks were faked by the government as a pretext to start wars in the Middle East. No major candidate from either party has ever endorsed this movement and every mainstream voice has consistently condemned this as sheer lunacy. Too bad we can’t say the same for the birther movement.
While I have no doubt that Obama was born in Hawaii like he said, that is not to say that I support all his policies, especially the policies that are continued from the Bush administration. The recent Wikileaks revelations from Guantanamo show more of this. All I am going to say about that is this: If Americans truly believe that our country is a shining beacon of liberty to the rest of the world, we better hold our government accountable and require them to behave in such a way as to actually be worthy of that title. Holding innocents prisoner, interrogating them, even torturing them, without trials, violating half of the rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. I understand some of the issues, sure, but even then, classify them as criminals, then they have those constitutional rights (even noncitizens have those rights before our courts) or classify them as enemy combatants, and give them the rights guaranteed by the Geneva Conventions. Our very credibility is on the line here. How can you reasonably expect other countries to honor their treaty obligations from the Geneva Conventions if we ourselves don’t?
I think that Obama is many things but my biggest issue with him is that he won’t start up for things he believes are important. He’s a pleaser and will cave to any opposition. Sure compromise is important, but compromise means that both sides get a deal they both may not like but can both live with. Not always will you be able to come to an agreement. In business I have to work with customers all the time, and many times I end up having to make a deal that makes me less money than I really want, but if there is someone wanting a deal that costs me money, i just have to walk away. Sometimes he needs to walk away from a bad deal instead of being so intent on making a deal that he concedes way too much. Health care was a prime example of this. Sure you got a deal, but the most important part of the health care bill, the public option, was gutted. It would also help if he understood what Teddy Roosevelt understood about the Presidency. It’s the bully pulpit. He won’t address critics, he runs from them. When Sarah Palin came out with “death panels” what did Obama respond with? Silence. So instead of shooting down bad information and addressing some people’s legitimate concerns, he said nothing, so Wasilla, Alaska’s village idiot drove the debate. The bully pulpit of the presidency means that the president will generally get the benefit of the doubt in debate and it does guarantee that people will at least listen to you. Obama doesn’t see to understand this. This country’s problems can’t be solved by simply inviting people over to the White House for a discussion over beers.
