Will the title stay in the U.S.?

The headline reads: "Amazing comeback is complete for Oracle — now it’s down to Race 19 Wednesday"...

From the (hometown/race site newspaper) The San Francisco Chronicle: "Oracle Team USA is on the verge of the greatest comeback in the 162-year history of the America’s Cup. It won two more races Tuesday to erase what had been considered an insurmountable lead by Emirates Team New Zealand. Twice trailing by seven races in the series, the defender has won seven in a row. The score is tied 8-8 going into Wednesday’s climactic race, which will conclude the longest finals in Cup history. Oracle has actually won 10 of 18 races, but it started two races in the hole because of a jury penalty for cheating in the America’s Cup World Series."

Will tomorrow's cheer be, "USA! USA! USA!"...? Stay tuned...

Getting "barbecued"...

The illegal alien and the ambulance chaser... (photo: San Francisco Sentinel)

A round-up of "Meg Whitman-employed-an-illegal-alien-as-a-housekeeper"-related stories...

How quickly things change: Here's a strategy: Tear apart the candidate on the front page and then bury the exculpatory follow-up on page 11. How's that unbiased journalism working for you? Bonus quote: "In fact, had she gone ahead and fired Nicandra Diaz Santillan based on such a letter, she would have exposed herself to potential anti-discrimination violations, lawyers said."

Why all the fuss? "Why Meg v Maid Saga Is a Big Deal: The Latino Vote" That explains a lot...(h/t: Calbuzz)

From Gateway Pundit: "This [below] was beautiful. Greta Van Susteren destroyed far left hack and attorney Gloria Allred on her show tonight. Great blasted Allred for her despicable hit on Meg Whitman and for using an illegal alien to smear the Whitman family. Greta ate her lunch. Gloria Allred did not see this coming– watch Gloria’s smile melt away about 15 seconds into the segment. 'Gloria, this is almost delusional!'”

"CNN reporting on Gloria Allred reads like a press release - an embarrassingly written press release: Apparently, CNN is shameless. Its headline is 'Gloria Allred is a girl's best friend.'" (h/t: Althouse)

From the esteemed blog, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, "Gloria Allred is doing more to drive illegal immigrants underground and to target Latinos for racial profiling than anything the State of Arizona has even thought of doing."

Nailing it (as usual): Debra Saunders at the San Francisco Chronicle calls the accusations (a) "Campaign stunt: a bunch of garbage"...

The story doesn't stop with Meg, Jerry, Gloria and the housekeeper: "Fiorina, Boxer both say they never hired domestic help" (SJ Mercury News)

So, how is this (meaning smears) and all of the other "the GOP hate Spanish-speaking folks" efforts playing with Hispanic voters? Put it this way, the dial is moving - in the wrong direction for Democrats. A recent Gallup Poll finds "Hispanic voters' support for Democratic candidates waned in August and September. As a result, Hispanics in September favored Democrats by a 13-point margin (51% to 38%), compared with 32-point margins in June and July."

Hurd it all before...

On Friday, as news was breaking on Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd's abrupt departure from the world's largest electronics company, I joined John Batchelor and NY Times reporter Ashlee Vance on John's show to begin unraveling this shocker story. (You can hear the podcast here.) So shocking, that the seismic waves crossed Silicon Valley, hit Wall Street before closing and traveled 'round the world in an eyeblink (causing HP's stock to drop close to 10 percent).

Mark Hurd, former HP CEO...

The big question was all about the "why?" Originally, it was said to have been born out of a sexual harassment investigation but HP said it found no evidence to support that claim. In the course of searching for facts, however, it was discovered that other improprieties had taken place/occurred. HP's board confronted Hurd and he stepped down (receiving more than $20 million in parting cash in the process).

Today we learn who it was he was accused of harassing (then cleared) and then, reportedly, conducting improper business with or because of...

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "The woman who accused HP CEO Mark Hurd of sexual harassment and got him sacked has come forward and said she's sorry he got canned. [Jodie Fisher] also said--as he has--that they didn't have sex (or any other form of intimate relationship). Which begs the question: What exactly did he do that made her sue him for sexual harassment? In any event, she's in her early 50s now and works as a business consultant. When she was in her 30s, she was an actress and appeared in some crappy movies."

Jodie Fisher (from the SF Chronicle: "Here's one of her, um, headshots from IMDB.")...

The questions remain: what will become of HP, which had been recovering nicely after the departure of former CEO Carly Fiorina? Can the interim leadership and next CEO help keep HP growing and profitable? How will one man's departure from one of Silicon Valley's top companies impact the tech sector, not to mention the overall economy?

Some thoughts on "the Beautiful Game"...and America

The '94 World Cup that is...

I've been looking for this piece written for the World Cup the U.S. hosted in 1994. More15 years later (especially after watching the final match on Sunday), the op-ed seems to have stood the test of time...

June 30, 1994

Why Americans Will Never Love Soccer

By Jeff Bliss

THE TRUTH IS, we Americans will never go crazy about the game of soccer. And without sounding too much like Joe McCarthy, I have to say soccer is un-American.

Let me explain. Soccer is not about anything Americans appreciate. The very fact that it's called football elsewhere enrages enough red meat gridiron fans to keep soccer from ever being popular here.

First, real football players must weigh as much as an Army tank and wear twice as much protective armor. Soccer players run around in little more than their underwear. Americans like equipment: first-baseman's mitts, helmets, Kareem's eye goggles. Soccer has precious little of this.

Second, we didn't invent the game. OK, you think you're smart because you know about baseball's ties to cricket and American football's ties to rugby. The truth is we took these games and improved upon them. Soccer, on the other hand, belongs to the world (like the metric system).

Suggestions from the United States to modify soccer, such as allowing eye gouging and body slams, have been largely ignored. If it ain't ours and if it can't hurt you, we don't want it. (Suggestions to return the game to its pre-Columbian roots, with the losing team facing execution, have also been dismissed.)

Third, and most importantly, sports symbolize a people. As an example, let us compare baseball and soccer. Soccer is the perfect metaphor for the rest of the world. Now forget about calling me on my xenophobia. Baseball, our national pastime, is the story of individuals banding together for a common goal. Everyone has the same chance to be a hero or a goat, and every player has a specialized skill used for the good of the team. The examples, like baseball statistics, go on ad nauseam. Believe me.

Soccer, on the other hand, is about a bunch of guys who wander around a field chasing a ball. It is a game of turnovers. I've got the ball. No, now you've got the ball. No, I have the ball. No, you have . . . well, you get the idea. We don't like that in a sport or anything else in our lives. We want stability.

The rest of the world, however, thrives on guessing games. Three past winners of the World Cup -- Italy, Germany and Argentina -- are good examples of this. Since World War II, Italy has had how many governments? A bizillion? (I may be undershooting.) Germany can't decide if it loves or hates itself, and Argentina's national sport, after futbol (as they call it), is the coup d'etat.

One more thing. Soccer, played on a field only slightly smaller than the continent of Asia, is ridiculously low scoring, and tie games are not unusual (I bet those guys would hustle a little more if their necks were really on the line). We like scoring. We like it so much, we made touchdowns worth six points! A total of six points in a soccer game is usually regarded as scandalous (no one ever worries about a juiced-up ball in soccer). I know what I'm talking about. During my short-lived career as a high school and college soccer player, I scored a total of one goal -- just a few short of what most pro players score during their entire careers. (OK, so it was against my own team . . .)

And please don't mention youth soccer. I know all about its overwhelming popularity -- I played it. But the secret is that youth soccer is a conspiracy of parents across the nation. Get those youngsters out there running their heads off for an hour or more on Saturday mornings and they're less likely to raise hell around the house on Saturday afternoons. I know all about it -- I'm going to make my kids play it.

All kidding aside, soccer is a great game.

It's just not our game.

It’s all about ROI...

...return on investment - and it doesn't look like Meg Whitman is getting it.

Steve Poizner: stealing Meg Whitman's spotlight...

According to a story that broke in The Wall Street Journal last night (Pacific Time), “Meg Whitman appears to have lost much of her wide lead in the race to be the Republican contender in California's November gubernatorial election. Two months ago, Ms. Whitman looked to be cruising toward the Republican nomination. Polls showed the former eBay Inc. chief executive leading her main opponent, state insurance commissioner Steve Poizner, by 50 percentage points.”

But, oh, how times (and polling numbers) have changed.

The WSJ story continues: “With three weeks to go before the June 8 primary, Mr. Poizner is pulling off an unexpected rally. A survey to be released Thursday shows Ms. Whitman's advantage dwindling to single digits, with 38% of respondents saying they would vote for her, and 29% for Mr. Poizner. (The widely trusted poll, by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, follows similar results in other recent surveys that suggest a sharply tightened race. A May 10 SurveyUSA poll showed Ms. Whitman leading Mr. Poizner 39% to 37%.”

This is bad news for Meg – even if she manages to beat Poizner.

The opponents grip and grin - for now...

With less than a month left in the race, the former eBay leader – despite pouring more than $68 million of her own money (she’s expressed a willingness to go all-in with a total of $150 million of her own moolah) – has lost her momentum. Just a few months ago, the Whitman juggernaut looked like it would not only run over Poizner – and Brown – but the American political process as well. And while her early money bought her high poll numbers (aka: name recognition), the issues, Poizner’s sniping and her lackluster political stands/record makes her a less-attractive candidate.

Gov. Moonbeam, Pt. 3?

And while Poizner is advancing, he shouldn’t necessarily start picking out drapes for the governor’s mansion (and neither should Meg). According to The San Francisco Chronicle, “If the election were held today, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown, who has spent no money on ads and held his first official event this week, would beat each of the GOP hopefuls in head-to-head matchups, the poll found. Brown, the state attorney general and former two-term governor, leads Whitman 42 to 37 percent and Poizner 45 to 32 percent. Brown faces no significant opposition in the Democratic primary election.”

It’s looking, more and more like Brown might not have any significant opposition from the Republican side of the aisle, either...

Speaking of the Whitman-Poizner/Brown race(s): Tonight on The John Batchelor Show, I'll join John, The Daily Beast's Tunku Varadarajan, and The San Francisco Chronicle's Joe Garafoli to discuss the surprising poll numbers Poizner is posting against Whitman in the California governor’s GOP race.

John Batchelor...

You can listen to the show at KSFO-AM 560 San Francisco,WTTK-FM 96.9 Boston, WABC-AM 77 NY, WMAL-AM 630 Washington, D.C., XM/Sirius Satellite Radio (ch. 158) and on more than two dozen other stations (check local listings for details). If you’re not in one of the broadcast areas, you can tune-in via any of those outlets’ websites.

See you on the radio...

Good Monday evening, radio land...

Tonight on The John Batchelor Show, beginning at 6 p.m. (Pac Time), I’ll join John and Carla Marinucci (The San Francisco Chronicle) to discuss California’s politics, economy and whatever else is making news in the Golden State.

You can listen to the show at KSFO-AM 560 San Francisco, WTTK-FM 96.9 Boston, WABC-AM 77 NY, WMAL-AM 630 Washington, D.C., XM/Sirius Satellite Radio and on more than two dozen other stations (check local listings for details). If you’re not in one of the broadcast areas, you can tune-in via any of those outlets’ websites.

And as always…thanks for listening.

Live from San Francisco...

I'll be in the KSFO-AM studios Wednesday night (Jan. 6) as I join the roundtable on John Batchelor's radio show from 7:30-8 p.m. (Pacific Time) to discuss events in California, the west and elsewhere.

John and I will be joined by Jim Carlton of The Wall Street Journal and Joe Garofoli of The San Francisco Chronicle.

You can listen to the show at WABC-AM 77 NY, WMAL-AM 630 Washington, D.C., and on XM/Sirius Satellite Radio. If you’re not in one of the listening areas, you can tune-in via any of those stations’ websites.

Thank you for your support!