USA vs. Japan Soccer Action and Cheney "Peppers" Hunting Buddy

On Friday night I went to see the USA men's soccer team play Japan at SBC Park (click title for article) in an exhibition match. The match was in preparation for the World Cup this summer in Germany. The US won 3-2, but it was a much more commanding win than the score indicates because Japan scored their second goal very late in the 2nd half when it was all over, pretty much.

Landon Donovan, Eddie Pope, and Taylor Twellman all had great games. Clint Dempsey scored the second goal on an assist by Twellman, but then he proceeded to dance in place like an arrogant wanker (in my humble opinion), thus causing me to lose respect for him. Whenever the Japanese guys scored a goal, the player who scored ran into the net, grabbed the ball, and ran it back to midfield to reset for the next play. That's a very respectful and cool way to go-the Japanese players have a lot of class. Still, I wonder what they would have done if they'd scored a big winning goal at the end?! There were a lot of Japanese fans in attendance (among over 37,000 in the crowd)-all waving bright blue flags whenever they had anything to cheer about. I can't wait for the World Cup this year!!

Also, that ole gunslinger Dick Cheney shot a man down in Texas with a shotgun over the weekend. He "sprayed him [Harry Whittington, age 78] with shotgun pellets on Saturday while the two were hunting at the Armstrong Ranch in south Texas, said property owner Katharine Armstrong." The men were hunting quail when the accidental shooting happened.

Here's more of the story:

"The vice president didn't see him," she continued. "The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by god, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good... It broke the skin," she said. "It knocked him silly. But he was fine. He was talking. His eyes were open. It didn't get in his eyes or anything like that."

She said emergency personnel traveling with Cheney tended to Whittington, holding his face and cleaning up the blood.

"Fortunately, the vice president has got a lot of medical people around him and so they were right there and probably more cautious than we would have been," she said. "The vice president has got an ambulance on call, so the ambulance came."**

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060212/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cheney_hunting_accident

**I find it very telling that the VP always has so many medical people on the ready nearby him.

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