Wednesday, July 02, 2014

Tim Howard Wins USA Loses in World Cup Quarters

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Despite a record performance by goalie Tim Howard and a shot of adrenalin in the final 12 minutes by two USA rookies the bookies had it right, Belgium was the better team.  Yet perhaps the future is brighter with the World Cup drawing about 27 million viewers, second in sports only to the Super Bowl for a single sports broadcast, according to overnights.


The headlines said it all.

Human wall Tim Howard sets World Cup save record in U.S. loss to Belgium

Tim Howard Emerges As Hero In U.S. World Cup Loss


As one story reported...

Howard's performance emerged as a brilliant star turn in a tense game that saw Belgium's lauded young stars make repeated runs at the U.S. net, streaking past American defenders. They sent the ball high and low – and for more than 90 minutes, Howard turned them all away.

But two shots eluded the goalie in the extra periods, dashing the Americans' hopes of reaching the quarterfinals.

"We dreamed and again we fell short of our dream," Howard said afterwards. "Gosh, we were right there. We nearly had it. But this is a young group and we'll be back for more."

To put the 16 saves in perspective, we'll note that back in 2010, Howard was named man of the match for making 8 saves against England, in a 1-1 draw that was also his World Cup debut. His accomplishment in Tuesday's game might glow even brighter in the future, as a talented and young Belgian team could go on to rain goals down on their opponents.

Even Belgium's captain, Vincent Kompany, joined in praising Howard Tuesday.


Two words.. TIM HOWARD #Respect #BelUSA


Seems as if one fan went so far as to hack Wikipedia and change the Secretary of Defense photo into our new Secretary of Defense.



Here is what The New York Times had to say about the game. 



Wild Ride by U.S. Comes to End, but Soccer Is the Winner


World Cup 2014: Belgium Eliminates Team U.S.A.

SALVADOR, Brazil — It felt as if Tim Howard would never go down. As if the United States would never go down, standing there, taking shots like an undersize fighter clinging desperately to a puncher’s chance. Howard saved with his hands. His feet. His legs. His knees. At one point, Howard even had a shot bounce off the crest over his heart.

Trying to figure out where soccer fits into the fabric of America is a popular topic but, for one afternoon at least, there was this unexpected truth: All around the country, from coast to coast and through the nation’s belly, sports fans of every kind were inspired by the performance of a soccer goalkeeper. In a loss.

When it was over, the fans at the shimmering Arena Fonte Nova applauded knowingly, as if paying tribute to the ride this team provided. Americans purchased more tickets to games at this tournament than fans from any country other than Brazil. Television ratings in the United States blasted through ceilings, surpassing those of the N.B.A. finals or the World Series. Watch parties popped up in places far more varied than just craft breweries in Brooklyn, with fans gathering everywhere from Hermosa Beach in California to a library in Birmingham, Ala., to the Tulsa Drillers’ minor league baseball stadium in Oklahoma.

A gathering at Grant Park in Chicago was moved to Soldier Field to accommodate a crowd reported to have exceeded 25,000.

World Cups have been growing in popularity among Americans for some time, but this tournament has felt different. Explanations for the surge vary, with some pointing to Brazil’s time zone being favorable for American viewers, especially compared to South Africa four years ago. Others say soccer’s spike is simply the result of a growing Hispanic population in the United States as well as the inevitable aging of Millenials. A great number of soccer-loving children have now become consumer adults.

“These are all young people who grew up with the game, whether it be the English Premier League or Major League Soccer, and they don’t need to be convinced that soccer is a sport that is worthy of their attention,” said Don Garber, the commissioner of M.L.S. “The country has changed. This is a new America.”

Statistics seem to support that claim. Fourteen percent of people between the ages of 12 and 24 said professional soccer was their favorite sport, second only to the N.F.L., according to Rich Luker, who runs a sports research firm. That means a greater number of fans are more likely to continue following the sport even when the pageantry of the World Cup is over.

“Fans are connecting the dots,” said Jeff L’Hote, who runs a soccer-focused management consultancy. “One of the great things about the continued maturation of the sport is people know that Messi plays for Barcelona, not just Argentina.”

Whatever the baseline theory, the sheer entertainment value of this tournament has piqued interest even more. Including Tuesday’s games, 154 goals have been scored, which is more than the total for the entire 2010 World Cup. Also, for casual American fans who find watching games end in ties about as appealing as doing their taxes, the past few weeks have been a revelation: There were only nine draws in 48 group stage games, or four fewer than the average over the past four World Cups.

The grittiness of this United States team was an attraction, too. Drama, in one form or another, has followed the United States team ever since its pretournament training camp in May, starting with the uproar over Coach Jurgen Klinsmann’s decision to leave Landon Donovan at home.

Then came concerns about whether the Americans could win a must-have game against Ghana (yes, barely); whether they could get a decent result against Portugal (yes, agonizingly); and whether they could avoid a blowout against Germany (yes, mercifully).

“I think every player went to his limit,” Klinsmann said.

Tuesday followed a similarly tense script. Belgium, which won all three of its group games with late goals, was the aggressor from the start, neutralizing Klinsmann’s attempts to open up the American attack.

Divock Origi and Dries Mertens had early chances for Belgium, and things got worse for the United States when Fabian Johnson, one of the most reliable players on the outside, pulled up with a hamstring injury after half an hour.

The United States spent most of the rest of the game buckled in, holding off an onslaught from the Belgians with Howard standing squarely in the middle. Making it to extra time felt like a small victory on its own, but Lukaku’s fresh legs led to Kevin De Bruyne finally lashing a shot past Howard from close range. Moments later, Lukaku followed with a goal of his own, and the American fans slumped. The players, though, gathered together during the short break between the two 15-minute halves of extra time and steeled themselves for one last burst.

“If we were going home,” midfielder Michael Bradley said, “we wanted to go home going for it.”

And they did. Julian Green, a World Cup rookie, provided a flicker of hope with a smooth volley two minutes into the final period, and Howard made another slew of important saves to keep the game in range while the United States pushed and pushed and pushed.

The chances were there. Jermaine Jones blasted a shot over the net. A header went awry. Dempsey, at the end of a gorgeous passing play from a free kick, had his attempt smothered just yards away from the goal.

It was tantalizing and teasing. But this time the miracle never came. When the final whistle sounded, many of the American players simply collapsed, as if the strings holding up their legs had just been cut.

Howard was not one of them. He bent at the waist, only for a moment, his hands on his knees and his mouth open. Then he stood up tall and walked forward with his chest out.

It was fitting: Even in defeat, his tournament over, the American goalkeeper refused to tumble.

Ken Belson and Marc Tracy contributed reporting from New York.

Obama Beats Bush, Nixon and Carter as Worst Modern Day President since World War II

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POLL: Obama Worst Modern-Day President

By Colin Campbell 

AP
President Barack Obama is the worst president since World War II, according to a plurality of voters in a new poll published Wednesday.


The Quinnipiac University survey found 33% of American voters named Obama as the worst while 28% named his predecessor, George W. Bush.



"Over the span of 69 years of American history and 12 presidencies, President Barack Obama finds himself with President George W. Bush at the bottom of the popularity barrel," Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a statement.




Richard Nixon, whose presidency ended in scandal, received only 13% of the vote and Jimmy Carter scored 8%. None of the remaining eight presidents received more than 3%.


Asked about the 2012 presidential race, 45% of respondents said the country would be better off if the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, had won. Slightly less — 38% — said the country would be worse off under a President Romney.


"Would Mitt have been a better fit?" Malloy asked. "More voters in hindsight say yes."

[MORE SPIN ON POLL!]


U.S. poll: more voters see Obama as worst president in modern times

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two years into President Barack Obama's second term, more voters say they are dissatisfied with his administration's handling of everything from the economy to foreign policy, giving him the worst marks of any modern U.S. president, a poll on Wednesday said.

In a survey of 1,446 registered voters, 33 percent said Obama was the worst president since World War Two, while 28 percent pointed to his predecessor, George W. Bush, as the worst, the poll by Quinnipiac University found.

Voters were split over which of the two most recent presidents has done a better job with 39 percent saying Obama has been a better president than Bush and, 40 percent saying Obama is worse.

Most voters said Ronald Reagan, who served two terms in the 1980s, was the best president since 1945, the survey showed.

"Over the span of 69 years of American history and 12 presidencies, President Barack Obama finds himself with President George W. Bush at the bottom of the popularity barrel," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of Quinnipiac University's polling unit.

While Obama's job approval rating has inched higher to 40 percent, up from 38 percent in December, more voters gave him largely negative marks in key areas: the economy, foreign policy, healthcare and terrorism, according to the poll.

On the environment, 50 percent gave Obama positive marks.

The telephone survey, taken June 24 to June 30, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Bill Trott)


[EVEN MORE MEDIA SPIN]

Obama's Terrible Approval Numbers Are Terrible
By Abby Ohlheiser 14 hours ago

When asked a question often discussed with dread at family Thanksgiving dinners, a plurality of voters —  33 percent — believe President Obama (or "Nobummer," amirite?) is the worst president since World War II. In second place on the same question was George W. Bush with 28 percent. These are the numbers you will read in several headlines today. The thing is, the "worst president since World War Two" results aren't really the worst numbers for the president in the Quinnipiac poll from which they're drawn. 

Related Stories

Let's address the headlines first. In the Quinnipiac poll, Obama finds himself among a handful of post-war presidents who garner polarizing reactions from voters. Those presidents, roughly, are Kennedy, Reagan, and the three most recent: Obama, Clinton, and George W. Bush. When asked to choose the best post-war president, for instance, Ronald Reagan snagged 35 percent of voters. But 18 percent thought it was Kennedy. Clinton took 18 percent of voters, and 8 percent think it's Obama, putting him in fourth place. (George W. Bush, for what it's worth, had just 1 percent of voters on this question).

If you look at the political breakdown by party of who is saying Obama is the worst, it falls strongly along party lines, with a little bit of help from independents: 63 percent of Republicans chose Obama, while 54 percent of Democrats said George W. Bush. Independents voted "for" both:  23 percent said George W. Bush was the worst, while 36 percent chose Obama. On a similar question directly comparing Bush and Obama, the expected partisan divide is even stronger:


Obama has been a better president than George W. Bush, 39 percent of voters say, while 40 percent say he is worse. Men say 43 - 36 percent that Obama is worse than Bush while women say 42 - 38 percent he is better. Obama is worse, Republicans say 79 - 7 percent and independent voters say 41 - 31 percent. Democrats say 78 - 4 percent that he is better. 

So the core group of voters strongly opposed to everything Obama does think he's a bad president, and the people who voted for him have a more positive opinion of the job he's doing. That's not a surprise. 
Obama's Terrible Approval Numbers Are Terrible

Which brings us to the number that's arguably the actual worst thing in the poll for Obama: "American voters say 54 - 44 percent that the Obama Administration is not competent running the government." Politico's Mike Allen agreed, flagging that number as of most concern to the White House this morning. This is the second recent poll to give the president or his administration a bad rating on a "competency" question: an earlier NBC/WSJ poll found that just half of Americans believe Obama is a competent leader of the federal government.

Although the poll marked a slight uptick in his overall approval rating to 40 percent, the president didn't fare too well when respondents were asked to rate his performance on a bunch of crucial issues:

  • Voters were 40 - 55 percent against his handling of the economy;
  • They also were negative on his foreign policy, 37 - 57 percent. And on the related issue of terrorism? 44 - 51 percent. 
  • Same goes for healthcare: 40 - 58 percent against. 
  • He did better on the environment, with 50 percent of voters approving and 40  percent against.
Then again, basically no one else in government right now is doing so well in the polls, either.

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Tuesday, July 01, 2014

Watch, weep, enjoy, whatever - cyber attacks in real time - the ultimate reality show!

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This Site Shows Who Is Hacking Whom Right Now — And The US Is Getting Hammered

By Jeremy Bender 

U.S.-based computer security firm Norse has released a real-time animated map that illustrates ongoing cyberattacks around the world. Without a doubt, the U.S. is getting constantly hammered by hackers.

In just 45 minutes, the U.S. was the victim of 5,840 cyberattacks.



[Click on this link for real time attacks]

Screenshot/map.ipviking.com

A view of the cyberattacks carried out against the U.S. within a 45-minute span.  Within that span of time, the U.S. suffered from 27 times more cyberattacks than Thailand, the second most targeted country. Thailand was the target of only 220 cyber attacks during these 45 minutes. 

The Norse map does not represent all hacking attempts in the world. Instead, according to Smithsonian Magazine, the map relies on a Norse honeypot network — a network purposefully designed to detect hacking — to provide a representative snapshot of global hacking attempts.

In actuality, there are orders of magnitude more hacking attempts on any given day than recorded by Norse. For instance, there are an estimated 20 million attacks per day against locations within Utah. There are 10 million daily hacking attempts against the Pentagon alone.


China is responsible for the vast majority of these attacks. Within the 45-minute span, China accounted for 2,513 attacks. The U.S. accounted for the second highest number of attacks, with 1,550 attacks originating within America. However, a number of American attacks targeted computers elsewhere in the United States.

It is likely that these intra-U.S. attacks are the result of "zombie computers"  — computers that have been compromised by a hacker and carry out attacks at the hacker's discretion.


Chinese cyber attacks are highly damaging to both the U.S. economy and national security. China is currently developing a new plane that is modeled after stolen plans for the U.S. F-35 fifth-generation plane.

Obamaville - July 1, 2014 -- Déjà Vu all over again

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So today we look at the headlines then ask ourselves how things have changed during the 6 1/2 years of the Obama presidency.



 Headline - President continues to send more troops to Iraq to fight terrorist invasion!


Headline - Obamacare limited by Supreme Court ruling!



 Headline - Mideast Peace Talks go up in flames as Israel attacks Hamas!



Headline - ISIS terrorists capture huge parts of Syria and Iraq and move toward Lebanon and Jordan!


Headline - Russia defies UN and USA and moves more troops to Ukraine border!


Headline - Russia bans American astronauts from flights to International Space station!



Headline - Tens of Thousands of Illegal immigrants overwhelm American borders!


Headline - GMC teeters on brink of bankruptcy again with 30 million cars recalled!


Headline - US Federal Deficit blows past $17.5 trillion - has now tripled under Obama!


Headline - Obama has now completed over 176 rounds of golf during his 78 months as president!


Headline - America's hope for Energy Independence - the Keystone Pipeline - still not approved by Obama!


Headline - American military veterans face death at home as well as in wars with neglect and corruption permeating the Obama Veterans Administration  health program!



Headline - Health care costs and health insurance costs prepare for massive increases to pay for new Obamacare program!


Headline - Democrats and Obama continue to blame Republicans and Bush for everything that has gone wrong since Obama was elected and Democrats took control of the presidency, house and senate 6 1/2 long years ago!

Whew!  Has anything really changed?



Thank God the USA plays in the World Cup today or it would be a most depressing Fourth of July weekend.

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Love 'em or hate 'em - Fox News Continues Domination

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Fox News Exec Talks 50-Quarter Ratings Streak, Megyn Kelly and Benghazi

By Michael O'Connell

Perennial ratings victor Fox News Channel celebrates a new feat this week: it just wrapped its 50th consecutive quarter (and 150th consecutive month) as the most-watched cable news network in both total day and primetime. Its a record only matched by ESPN, which has enjoyed a similar dominance in the sports category.


Though FNC, like all cable news networks, saw year-to-year losses in the second quarter, its average 1.6 million viewers and 267,000 adults 25-54 still gives it large margins of victory in primetime -- where its biggest competition might be with itself. Recent weeks have seen 9 p.m. anchor Megyn Kelly enjoying multiple nights out-rating her lead-in, reigning cable news champ Bill O'Reilly. That achievement is not lost on FNC executive vp of programming Bill Shine, who spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the streak, the year of changes and some recent coverage choices. 

"For us, that was a big change, we hardly make any adjustments our primetime lineup," Shine says of the decision to move Kelly from daytime to prime. "[She's] much newsier. And I think we're fortunate to have good timing."


That timing includes Kelly's arrival during the rocky launch of HealthCare.gov and the recent story of released P.O.W. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl -- which Kelly was one of the first to cover heavily. She's also found herself at the center the pop culture conversation, at least more so than her FNC colleagues, with interviews like June's heated exchange with former vice president (and Republican) Dick Cheney. 

"I think it shows who Megyn is," says Shine. "She's a great broadcaster and she's a great journalist. I think it also shows some of our competition and some of our skeptics what we do over here. I always say a lot of people who don't like us, don't watch us."

There are people watching, though. And while there have been big changes to primetime, Shine sees the network's few changes to its talent roster as one thing that has kept them around. "I think we've had a lot consistency. You look at people like Bill and Sean [Hannity], they've both been here since day one. Shep Smith and Neil Cavuto have both been here since day one."

Some critics have called out that consistency as one reason why FNC's average viewer is now over 65 years old, but Shine says an increased median age is something affecting all networks.

Roger Ailes, Fox News President
"It's happening to most everyone in television, and in terms of the economics of it, we don't buy and sell on that data," Shine tells THR. "We buy and sell on the demo, and we're still clearly winning the demo race amongst our competitors -- combined in some cases. Is it something we keep our eye on? Absolutely. But it's not something I currently go home and lose sleep over."

Shine also says his eye is on the competition. He's not ignoring CNN's decision to ditch live news coverage for documentary news at cable news' traditional flagship hour of 9 p.m. -- "They've decided to go in another direction, and I think you've got to give them some time to see if it works." -- though he is committed to live programming and now considers their primetime block beginning at 5 p.m. with The Five. That show now goes back and forth with Kelly for the No. 2 or No. 3 telecast on cable news.

One thing Shine says he's not paying attention to is criticism over the network's reputation for conservative slant. And he's quick to point at Kelly as someone who can potentially chip away at that reputation. He also says that the recent reassurance in attention on the U.S. handling of the 2012 attack on the American diplomatic mission at Benghazi, Libya, has vindicated FNC's decision to heavily cover it for the last two years.

Fox personalities
 FNC was one of several outlets that recently greeted former Secretary of State and potential 2016 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, promoting her book Hard Choices, and focused some of the interview on Benghazi.

"What we heard for years was that it was not a real story -- four dead Americans, including the first U.S. Ambassador in a generation -- but as soon as the Secretary's book came out, it was enough of a story for her to devote an entire chapter of it," says Shine. "And at the beginning of the book tour, all of the broadcast journalists were basing the news around the Benghazi stuff. It is kind of ironic and humorous for a story that apparently was not important and only being pushed by Fox to end up being so significant in terms of newsworthiness." 


Second Quarter 2014 Primetime Averages

FNC: 1,596,000 viewers, down 16 percent (267,000 adults 25-54, down 16 percent)

CNN: 459,000 viewers, down 31 percent (157,000 adults 25-54, down 31 percent)

MSNBC: 577,000 viewers, flat (160,000 adults 25-54, down 16 percent)

HLN: 338,000 viewers, down 35 percent (124,000 adults 25-54, down 30 percent)

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