All Posts Tagged With: "CONGRATULATIONS"
Congratulations to the Chinese ping-pong team
Xinhua
Both the Chinese men’s and women’s table tennis teams won the gold medal this week, with the women beating Singapore 3-0 Sunday and the men trouncing Germany by the same count. China has captured 18 of 22 table tennis golds since the sport was introduced in the Olympics in 1988, a feat that’s absolutely incredible when you consider how many countries play ping-pong and how little margin of error there is at the game’s highest level. When the Chinese need to be perfect at the table, they are — almost without exception.
I’d also like to say that watching ping-pong on TV is absolutely awesome. I pity the viewers in America who just aren’t getting much coverage — or getting it on MSNBC at 4:30 a.m. During one point in a Japan-Germany semifinals match, a Japanese player returned a shot with his paddle over his head — the spike came in that hard — and ended up winning the point. I was out of my seat and agape.
The “beating Singapore” link is a recommended read, and not just because it makes mention of cutie Li Jiawei, a native Beijinger who emigrated to Singapore because she didn’t make the Chinese national team. She’s not alone: her two teammates on Singapore’s team are also Chinese. To give you an idea of how difficult it is to make the Chinese squad: the world’s top five female ping-pong players are Chinese (Li Jiawei comes in at No. 6), as are the world’s top four men, according to the International Table Tennis Federation ’s August rankings. Let’s just say that “wall of champions ” in Peking University is filled with Chinese names.
But Li, we still like you.
POSTSCRIPT: Wired on “the truth about table tennis .”
CONGRATULATIONS BARACK!
History has been made, as the personally gifted and politically talented Obama, self appointed agent of “Change” has been proclaimed by news agencies as over the top in delegate count for the 2008 Presidential Nomination for the Democratic Party defeating the once seemingly certain nomination of Hillary Clinton.
While not ceding defeat her surrogates including husband Bill and Terry McAuliffe and others have signaled what can not be said while she is still trying to get a deal from Barack. That may be happening in back channels but it is not obvious that she will get what she wants anytime soon.
She wants to be offered or rejected for the VP slot and Obama will probably not make that decision soon. Hillary really has insufficient leverage to force him to accept her with Bills baggage right away at least.
Campaign funds are also likely on her mind as she and Bill have donated maybe $10 million or more to her campaign. Obama can arrange to have his campaign pay off her campaign debts, meaning she gets the money back.
On going power and presence at the top of the party hierarchy is also on her mind. If she isn’t VP, she could be in the cabinet, she could become Senate Majority Leader and she could have some “pocket vetoes” so anyone lobbying Obama for any position or appointment, will feel some pressure to lobby her at the same time.