Graeme McDowell Has It All in Open Win : Sports Channel News
June 20, 2010 by Mick Elliott
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Northern Ireland’s scruffy-faced Graeme McDowell, the man who on Sunday won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach to become the tournament’s first European champion in 40 years, had everything needed to alter history. On his side were a hot putter (third in the field), a steady and dependable swing (12th in greens hit in regulation) and plenty of help (the only real final-day pressure applied came from the 391st ranked player in the world, Gregory Havret, a Frenchman.)
“I couldn’t believe it,” the winner said. “No one was going crazy.”
That depends. McDowell, no doubt, was expressing his surprise that not a single golfer with a marquee name and promising final-round position had managed to mount a charge because there were certainly more than a few who went home less than mentally stable.
The voices in their heads that Dustin Johnson, Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson will be hearing long into the future are all saying pretty much the same thing: “One that got away.”
That’s because McDowell, the first Euro winner since Tony Jacklin took the title in 1970, won with a final-round 3-over 74, the highest last-day score by a U.S. Open winner in 25 years — Andy North in 1985.
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Graeme McDowell Has It All in Open Win : Sports Channel News
Renee Walker 24
Well, for a start she appeared on 24 last night for the first time in this new season 8 of the series.
Essentially, last night, if you missed this episode of 24 (hours), they brought Renee back, who had last season quit the FBI, only to then go deep undercover with the Russians as an informant for the FBI.
Well, last night she came back with a vengeance, chopping off some guys hand to get rid of his tracking bracelet.
Renee is headstrong and independent, and has been shown to disobey orders or push the limits of the law when she believes such actions are necessary.
Throughout the season, she takes in what Jack Bauer does and gradually becomes more rogue and puts justice before the job.
Yeah, Renee is off her nut this season as she has become Jack Jr.
An awesome prospect, hey?
This show is starting off with a bang and no doubt will be very big this year.
You can catch some of the video here, or you can catch up with last season's shows thanks to Amazon.
Seeing Rene in her season return will be enough motivation or inspiration required for most of the male fans of 24 to get the DVDs of last season!
*spoiler warning! Dont read if you dont want to know what happens*
24: Season 8
Renee Walker returns in episode 4 of the 8th season and is now a former FBI special agent after an incident with Alan Wilson in season 7 (it is implied that she tortured him to near death).
She is summoned to CTU because of her unique knowledge of the Russian Syndicate in New York after having worked as an undercover agent in their ranks six years prior.
Brian Hastings, the current director of CTU, requests that she resume her undercover identity to set up a competing buy for the nuclear fuel rods President Hassan's brother is attempting to procure.
Unhappy with her decision to go back undercover, Jack attempts to convince her that she is too mentally fragile to handle the operation.
Despite her inability to return to a normal life, and recent suicide attempt, Renee decides that she will indeed agree to go back undercover.
After Jack fails to dissuade Brian Hastings from allowing Renee to go back undercover, he volunteers his field experience as her partner in the operation.
The initial stage of the operation involves locating the head of the Russian Syndicate in New York, a man named Vladamir.
Renee visits an old accomplice in the mob, who is presently on parole, to convince him to take her and Jack to Vladamir.
After a brief conversation with her contact, he declines to help her because of the monitoring device attached to his arm which is part of the conditions of his parole.
She convinces the contact that she is able to remove the device without alerting the authorities. She then proceeds to place her contact's arm in a vise and without warning removes his thumb and the device with a nearby power saw.
Upon hearing the contact's screams, Jack rushes into the contacts shop to see what Renee has done and says that she has gone too far.
Obama To GOP: It's Over | The Plum Line
Obama listened politely for six hours, with occasional flashes of temper, but in the end, the message was clear: It's over. We're moving forward without Republicans.
Whether Obama and Dems will succeed in passing reform on their own is anything but assured, to put it mildly. but there's virtually no doubt anymore that they are going to try — starting as early as tomorrow.
That was the subtle but unmistakable message of Obama's closing argument. after hours of hearing Republicans repeat again and again that only an incremental approach to reform is acceptable to them, Obama rejected that out of hand.
Here's the key bit from Obama:
I'd like Republicans to do a little soul searching to find out if there are some things that you'd be willling to embrace that get to this core problem of 30 million people without health insurance, and dealing seriously with the pre-existing conditions issue. I don't know frankly whether we can close that gap.
And if we can't close that gap, then I suspect Mitch McConnell, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner are going to have a lot of arguments about procedures in Congress about moving forward.
Unless I'm misreading that, Obama is saying that unless Republicans support comprehensive reform as Obama and Dems have defined it — dealing with the problem of 30 million uninsured and, by extension, seriously tackling the preexisting condition problem — they will almost certainly move forward with reconciliation.
What's more, Obama also essentially accused Republicans of approaching today's summit in bad faith — after they had sat there with him for six hours. He said that even after the public option was taken off the table, Republicans continued to use the same "government takeover" slur.
"Even after the public option wasn't available, we still hear the same rhetoric," Obama said. "We have a concept of an exchange which previously has been an idea that was embraced by Republicans before I embraced it. somehow, suddenly it became less of a good idea."
This accusation, combined with his assertion that Repubicans need to do some "soul-searching" on whether they wanted to join Dems in tackling reform as they have defined it, amount to an unmistakable vow to move foward without them.
Democratic aides are already interpreting Obama's remarks along these lines. As one senior aide emailed: "We may make one last effort to try to get a Senate Republican."
In terms of who "won" today's debate, I tend to think Republicans actually accomplished much of what they needed to do today. it seems likely that some Congressional Dems will be just as skittish tomorrow as they were yesterday about moving forward alone via reconciliation. that means Dems still have an enormously difficult task ahead.
But Obama's message to Dems and Republicans alike today was that barring some kind of major change on the GOP side, this is exactly what he and Dem leaders are about to attempt.
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Update: to clarify, this was a call to Dems, perhaps more than anyone else, that the time has come for them to stiffen their spines and move forward with reconciliation, which Republicans, and even some nonpartisan observers, have repeatedly characterized as akin to marching off a cliff.
Also: This summit was always about laying the groundwork for Dems to go forward alone, barring a major capitulation from Republicans. As noted here repeatedly, Dems will find themselves in exactly the same position tomorrow as they did yesterday: Confronting the enormously difficult task of passing ambitious reform on their own.
Update II: a GOP aide emails the Republican take: "They badly needed a win today and they didn't get it. Not even close. Republicans were prepared. The President was pedantic and peeved."
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HCR Summit: Unhappy Obama
The change in the president's demeanor over the course of the health care summit is striking. this morning, the president was sunny and friendly. by the time John McCain spoke around noon, however, the president was clearly angry.
Why? because Republicans aren't following the playbook. The president wanted the summit to address bipartisan health care reform proposals. He wanted the summit to be about legislation not politics. this was a silly assumption. The GOP attendees have launched a full-scale assault on the Senate bill's costs and mandates, and the way in which the bill was passed last Christmas Eve. they have public opinion on their side.
Obama is flummoxed. The president simply can't defend the Cornhusker Kickback (which has since been removed), the Louisiana Purchase, and the Gator Aid that exempts Florida seniors from cuts to Medicare Advantage. So his voice rises, he attacks political gamesmanship, and he lectures. "The campaign is over," he told John McCain, as though the 2008 election decided political debate for all time. McCain's reply was classic. "I'm reminded of that every day, Mr. President," he said.
The summit just broke for lunch. No doubt the president will use the break to consult with his advisers, regroup, and plan the counterattack. But at the moment, the GOP is holding its own. The summit's a push. and in this political environment, score a push as a win for the opposition.
