2012 Team USA Women's Olympic Soccer Watch- Another Crucial Showdown With Mexico

The Team USA women are 25-1-1 against our southern neighbors when it comes to playing soccer against Mexico.  

What's the lone loss?   It's one Team USA still hasn't forgotten.   It was a 2-1 Mexican win on November 10. 2010 during the CONCACAF Women's World Cup Qualifying Tournament in Cancun that not only clinched an automatic berth for them, but forced Team USA into the Third Place match vs Costa Rica and eventually a two leg playoff against Italy to become one of the last teams to qualify for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup.  

FIFA number one ranked Team USA has been on a ruthlessly efficient mission so far to make certain that no such slip ups happen in this qualifying tournament for the London Games.  They know that unlike the World Cup. if they falter in qualifying, they'll be sitting at home watching the Olympic tournament on TV instead of attempting to threepeat as Olympic champions.

They face off at BC Place in a highly anticipated Group B match against Mexico to determine who wins the group and plays Group A runner up Costa Rica in Friday's knockout semifinals to determine the CONCACAF reps for London.   The Group B runner up will play host nation Canada, who knocked off Costa Rica 5-1 last night at BC Place.

Team USA has never lost a game on Canadian soil, are 8-0-0 when playing in domed stadiums, have going into this match a 10-0-1 record in CONCAFAF Olympic Qualifiers and have blistered the nets with 27 goals in this tournament.   But FIFA number 21 ranked Mexico has scored 11 goals of their own in group play and ain't 'scurred' of the mighty USA.  

So throw those stats out tonight.   The last three USA-Mexico matches they have been determined by one goal margins, and much is riding on this one.
 

State Of The Union 2012

Now that GOP Amateur Hour  (last night's latest GOP debate) is over, the adult comes into the room to lay out his vision of what needs to be done in this country in the 2K12 and beyond in the State Of The Union speech later tonight.

Hopefully we won't have any displays of conservafool disrespect of President Obama as he does so, but with this being an election year don't put anything past the Grand Old Party Bigots.

These are some of the talking points President Obama wants to highlight in tonight's speech entitled An America Built to Last

-- In his State of the Union Address, the President will lay out a blueprint for an economy that's built to last -- an economy built on American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers, and a renewal of American values.

-- The President believes this is a make or break moment for the middle class and those trying to reach it. What's at stake is the very survival of the basic American promise that if you work hard, you can do well enough to raise a family, own a home, and put a little away for retirement.

-- The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive. No challenge is more urgent; no debate is more important. We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while more Americans barely get by. Or we can build a nation where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules.

-- The fact is, the economic security of the middle class has eroded for decades. Long before the recession, good jobs and manufacturing began leaving our shores. Hard work stopped paying off for too many Americans. Those at the top saw their incomes rise like never before, but the vast majority of Americans struggled with costs that were growing and paychecks that weren't.

-- In 2008, the house of cards collapsed. Mortgages were sold to people who couldn't afford or understand them. Banks made huge bets and bonuses made with other people's money. It was a crisis that cost us more than eight million jobs and plunged our economy and the world into a crisis from which we are still fighting to recover.

-- The President has been clear that we need to do more to create jobs and help economic growth. But under his leadership and thanks to action taken by this President, the economy is growing again. The economy has added a total of 3.2 million private sector jobs over the last 22 months.

-- American manufacturing is creating jobs for the first time since the late 1990s. The American auto industry is coming back. Today, American oil production is the highest that it's been in eight years. Together, we've agreed to cut the deficit by more than 2 trillion. And the President signed into law new rules to hold Wall Street accountable. He stands on a solid record and tonight will lay out a blueprint that will ensure an economy built to last over the long term.

-- For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq. We've decimated al Qaeda's leadership, delivered justice to Osama bin Laden, and put that terrorist network on the path to defeat. We've made important progress in Afghanistan, and begun a transition so Afghans can assume more responsibility. We joined with allies and partners to protect the Libyan people as they ended the regime of Muammar Qaddafi.

-- We cannot go back to an economy based on outsourcing, bad debt, and phony financial profits. The President intends to keep moving forward and rebuild an economy where hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded -- an economy built to last.

2012 Williams Watch- Serena's Surprisingly Out

Up until this match with Russia's Ekaterina Makarova, Serena had been on a roll.  She's won all three in straight sets and had been on the court no longer than 79 minutes.

And then she had what you can probably categorize as a bad day at the office in surprisingly losing 2-6, 3-6 to Makarova.  Seven double faults, four in one game and a first serve percentage of less than 50% will get you beat.   

Then again she only tends to win the Australian Open in odd numbered years, anyway.  

So chomp on those Hater Tots Serena detractors, do your happy dances and spout your bigoted rhetoric about the Williams sisters in online tennis websites, discussion boards and online newspaper comment threads. 

The French Open, Wimbledon, the Olympics and the US Open still have yet to be played.  

Karmic Wheel Catches Up With Eucharia Uche

Remember Eucharia Uche, the lesbophobic coach of the Nigerian Super Falcons Phobes who boasted about eliminating suspected lesbian players off her team?

The comments generated a firestorm of international criticism and earned Uche a June 29 chat with FIFA Director of Women's Competition's Tatjana Haenni to remind her about FIFA anti-discrimination policies.

After failing to get out of group play during last year's FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany her squad also failed to qualify for the 2012 London Games.

Nigeria has also been relentlessly attacking Equatorial Guinea ever since they upset them in 2008 and became a challenger to Nigerian dominance of African women's continental football.   They have been subjected to long and loud Nigerian transphobic gender griping and filed CAF and FIFA protests misgendering Equatorial Guinea players.  

It was an interesting 'things that make you go hmm' moment when Equatorial Guinea was ousted from the 2012 Olympic qualifying final due to a player eligibility issue and replaced by Cameroon.

Back in October Nigeria battled Cameroon to see who would join South Africa in representing the continent at this year's women's Olympic soccer tournament.

The Super Falcons won the first game of a two leg playoff in Abuja 2-1 but lost the return leg game on October 25 in Yaoundé by the same 2-1 score.  

The 3-3 aggregate score meant the London Olympic berth was decided by penalty kicks, and the Super Falcons subsequently lost the penalty kick shootout 4-3.  

That means for the first time since 2000 the Nigerian women's team will not be marching into an Olympic stadium and competing in the women's soccer tournament when the Games commence, which is unacceptable to Nigerian football fans. 

That failure combined with the Super Falcon failure to qualify for the 2011 All Africa Games tournament in Mozambique and their highly publicized failure at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup led to Uche's dismissal by the Nigeria Football Federation as the national team head coach.


No word yet from the Nigeria Football Federation on who will replace Uche.  The decision will be made by the end of the month and has a wide international list of candidates of both genders, but the Super Falcons and women footballers in that nation are justifiably lobbying for another female coach to replace her. 

But for the Super Falcons anybody will be better than the controversial lesbophobe and former international player who excelled more in generating negative press than stacking international football wins and major tournament appearances.

And yeah, karma is a rhymes with itch isn't it?

Newtron Bomb Dropped In SC Primary

Newton Leroy Gingrich won the Republican primary in South Carolina by a double digit margin Saturday night over Gordon Gekko, Jr Mitt Romney,

It was a battle in the Palmetto State of Greed is Good vulture capitalism versus good old fashioned Southern Strategy 2.0 racist populism in which Newt at times along with Rick Santorum made you wonder if they were running for Grand Wizard of the KKK instead of vying for the Republican party presidential nomination .

Newt garnered 40.8% of the vote in South Carolina to become the third different GOP candidate to win a Republican primary contest and guarantee that Mitt Romney would not clinch the nomination before the end of the month.   

Willard had already received the bad news earlier in the week that Rick Santorum won the Iowa caucus and everyone and their mama expected him to roll in his backyard primary in New Hampshire.  

It's on to Florida and another Southern state with a sizeable electorate in which Mitt's vulture capitalism and Gordon Gekko wannabe persona probably won't play well with portions of the electorate.  

We'll see on January 31.

How (Not) To Write About Black Trans Women

Karnythia of the Angry Black Woman blog had an interesting post I ran across entitled How To Write About Black Women in which she slammed all the tropes, memes and blanket statements aimed at Black women when others outside our community write about us. 

One group she didn't mention is Black trans women, and here's where I was inspired to pick up the baton and happily run with it where Karnythia left off. 

(Moni cracks knuckles) 

Let's get started with this post, shall we?

Only acknowledge the existence of Black transwomen when we are murdered or the victim of a crime, salaciously involved in some scandal or news story you wish to highlight, during the November 20 Transgender Day of Remembrance, you wish to pump up your Nielsen ratings during sweeps week or you wish to use us to insult Black cis women you hate.

Ignore the African descended trans activists who have toiled for decades to represent our community or have eloquently written about those issues for years because only white transwomen do that.  Don't bother quoting Black transwomen on issues of importance to the rainbow community at large, write positive stories about them speaking on trans issues or believe there are engaged Black transfeminine leaders involved in fighting for the human rights of their community and others.        .

Use a sellout Black gay male drag queen, white trans activists at inside the beltway Gay, Inc organizations or local rainbow community orgs to speak as 'experts' on Black trans lives.

Violate the AP Stylebook guidelines on covering transgender people by misgendering Black transwomen at every opportunity.  When known, mention their old male names even if it isn't germane to the story in order to other them and reinforce the point they weren't originally born female.  

If a Black transwoman is a victim of a hate crime or discrimination, you take the police spokesperson or the right wing anti-trans organization word as gospel truth without questioning if the 'man' they are describing in their press conference is actually a transwoman..  Inject the 'deception meme' into the story, add any criminal record your research may have uncovered if they have one and make certain you use either the mug shot or an unflattering picture of her.  Throw in for good measure without any evidence to back it up shady commentary or your presumption the transperson in question was soliciting

Quotes of family members or neighbors misgendering that person work for the story as well.   .


When in the process of rebutting a critique a Black transwoman has written, call her 'angry', 'obsessed about race', take digs at her education and demand she produce dissertation level citations to prove her points. If that doesn't work, call her a racist.  If all of the above fails, call her a 'man'.

If you're a cis female or radical feminist do all of the above, flaunt your ability to menstruate, birth them babies and add misogynist to your list of charges. If you're a white transsexual separatist, obsess about surgical status in addition to doing all of the above.

Position the Black transwoman as the 'unwoman' juxtaposed to cis women and non Black trans women you have anointed with honorary cis privilege.  The Black transwoman doesn't exist except to fulfill the 'tragic transsexual' meme or as martyrs to use in order to fundraise for Gay, Inc organizations.  

They are also handy for browbeating Black civil rights legacy orgs into supporting same gender marriage, taking Black legislators to task to garner support for getting marriage equality laws passed for GL people or ramrod through unjust trans rights laws without public accommodations language.

If Black transwomen object to the erasure or the misuse of their fallen transsisters lives and histories in that manner, accuse them of being divisive, refuse to engage with them, microaggressively engage in tone arguments or lob sexist, bigoted and misgendering comments at them while doing so..

Presume that your cis privileged life and your observations based on collegiate gender theory classes trump the lived experiences and everyday lives of a Black transwoman.  Dismiss it when she states that race matters and aim pre-1963 Dr. King quotes at her while chiding her for not being colorblind   Obsess about the Black transwoman's sexuality and make blanket statements and presumptions that her only interests in life are partying, getting high, getting pumped and turning tricks. 

Make blanket statements and assumptions that she is neither concerned about nor intelligent enough to discuss the human rights issues that affect all transpeople or that she has spirituality, hopes, dreams and aspirations in life just like any other human being on the planet.