Russian Volleyball Coach Found Dead in Hotel Room of Apparent Suicide

Volleyball is a huge sport in Russia with millions of dollars invested in teams and gold medal dreams for each Olympics. This year the Russian women were favorites in the tournament only to be knocked out of the quarterfinals to the eventual gold medalists of Brazil. 

Following the disappointing finish, head coach Sergey Ovchinnikov returned to his position with Dynamo Moscow as they resumed training in Croatia. There, he reportedly hung himself in his fourth-floor hotel room. 

Russian men's coach Vladimir Alekno feels that the Olympics defeat weighed heavily on his counterpart: "He took the Olympics very personally. I saw what he was going through and how upset he was after the defeat. He didn't talk much. Even after victories he was always thinking about something and smoked a lot."

Ovchinnikov was 43 and for now the police are ruling his death a suicide even though it seems super suspicious to this sports blogger. 

Australia Mining Slowdown Hitting Economy Never Down on Luck

Australia, known as the lucky country for its resource abundance and temperate climate, is about to find out how long its latest winning streak will last.

BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), the world’s biggest miner, last week mothballed projects valued at more than A$50 billion ($52 billion) by Credit Suisse Group AG and Deutsche Bank AG. At the same time, Australia’s resources minister called the end of a bull run in commodity prices, and the central bank chief predicted the cresting of the investment wave within two years.

The deceleration of the industry that helped secure 21 recession-free years heightens focus on the views of a minority seeing economic contraction in a nation where consumers took on more debt than Americans at the height of the mortgage bubble. While Bloomberg News surveys indicate growth exceeding 3 percent in 2013 and 2014, Deutsche Bank sees the danger of a recession.

“There is a view around Australia that says this is a different economy,” said Adam Boyton, chief economist for Australia at Deutsche Bank in Sydney, who previously worked at the nation’s Treasury. “My point is: was it skill or luck that drove iron ore and coking-coal prices higher from the Australian perspective,” he said. “It was more luck than skill.”

The windfall Australia gets from exports, called the terms of trade, will slump 15 percent in the final three months of 2012 from a year before, a magnitude that presaged a recession in three of the five times it’s happened in the past half century, according to Boyton. The central bank estimates the terms of trade reached a 140-year high last year.

Fred Barnes: How Ryan Recasts the Race

After naming Paul Ryan as his running mate this month, Mitt Romney gave better speeches, especially when Rep. Ryan was at his side. Gov. Romney's poll numbers ticked up in Ohio and Virginia, both swing states. His online fundraising shot up like a geyser (68% of it coming from new donors). The Romney Facebook page added 510,000 friends in five days.

Those are the most tangible signs of the Ryan Effect on the presidential campaign. Yet they are not the most important. Once Mr. Ryan entered the race, everything changed: the issues, the substance of the candidates' speeches, perceptions of Mr. Romney and President Obama, the role of a running mate.
Never before has a vice presidential candidate become a central figure in a presidential race. There was no Gore Effect in 1992 or Cheney Effect in 2000. And never have a running mate's ideas become leading issues overnight, likely to dominate the campaign through election day.

The Ryan Effect turned the race upside down. The thrust of Mr. Obama's bid for re-election had been maligning Mr. Romney and pandering to Democratic interest groups. Mr. Romney was concentrating on attacking Mr. Obama for the subpar economic recovery and weak job growth.

The economy remains a central issue, as do Mr. Obama's overall record and Mr. Romney's past one. But now the looming fiscal crisis, Medicare, and the size and role of government are front and center of the campaign. The presidential contest has been elevated into a clash of big ideas and fundamental differences. Neither presidential candidate, but especially Mr. Obama, could have imagined this. Credit Mr. Ryan.

This shift has been damaging to the president and helpful to Mr. Romney. The slogan of Mr. Obama's campaign is "Forward," but he's become the status-quo candidate. Mr. Romney, having adopted slightly revised versions of Mr. Ryan's bold plans for reducing spending and reforming Medicare, is now the candidate of change. This might have happened to some extent without Mr. Ryan in the race, but it certainly wasn't inevitable.

With his ambitious agenda for tackling debt and spurring growth, Mr. Ryan makes Mr. Obama seem smaller. With no plan of his own, Mr. Obama has made a fetish of ignoring the fiscal emergency. That stance no longer looks tenable.

By the same token, the fact that Mr. Ryan's plan is politically risky makes the normally cautious Mr. Romney seem larger for having picked him. He's not like the hapless 1948 Republican presidential contender Tom Dewey, without the mustache. He recognized that his criticisms of Mr. Obama had failed to create a sense of urgency about the nation's faltering economy. Mr. Ryan is adept at describing, with facts and figures, the peril America faces and the urgency of facing up to it.

For the president, the unavoidable presence of Mr. Ryan is bound to be unsettling. "Ryan psychs Obama out," Harvard's Niall Ferguson writes in this week's Newsweek. It would seem so. In three face-to-face encounters, Mr. Obama has conspicuously shied away from engaging with Mr. Ryan.

According to the White House, the president has reached out to Mr. Ryan in the past but gotten nowhere. This isn't true. Mr. Obama spoke to Mr. Ryan in January 2010 at a Republican retreat, said he'd read the "Roadmap" that presaged Mr. Ryan's budget, and noted that he agreed with "some ideas in there" and disagreed with others. "We should have a healthy debate," the president added.

Instead he unleashed an assault. Mr. Obama's allies, including budget director Peter Orzsag and Democrats in Congress, quickly pounced on Mr. Ryan and his proposed policies. Then, at a White House health-care summit a month later, Mr. Ryan delivered a withering critique of the president's overhaul of the health-care system. Mr. Obama responded briefly, then called on another speaker.
It was at their third meeting in April 2011 that Mr. Obama took on Mr. Ryan, seated directly in front of him. His attack was brutal. He suggested the budget drafted by Mr. Ryan as chairman of the House Budget Committee would jeopardize food safety and care for children with autism or Down syndrome. Mr. Ryan was not asked to reply, much less debate those issues.

Mr. Ferguson believes the reason Mr. Ryan "psychs" the president out is that "unlike Obama, Ryan has a plan—as opposed to a narrative—for this country." Mr. Obama may be sensitive for another reason as well. He's been called the smartest president ever. But Mr. Ryan is not only more knowledgeable than Mr. Obama about fiscal and economic issues, he's more adept at debating them.

Mr. Ryan frustrates his detractors. Like his mentor, the late Jack Kemp, he is upbeat and friendly and eager to seek out converts. He is willing to compromise to bring them on board, too, as he did in welcoming Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon as co-sponsor of his Medicare reform initiative.

In frisking Mr. Ryan, politically speaking, Democrats and the media have been unable to decide where he is most vulnerable. Over the weekend, the New York Times referred to him as a libertarian, while the Washington Post questioned whether he's even a deficit hawk.

What particularly upsets opponents is Mr. Ryan's image. "The disarming thing is his sense of mission is greater than his sense of ambition," says Ryan adviser David Smick, a Washington economic consultant. "This is disconcerting to his critics."

They would like to do to him what they did to Sarah Palin when she was John McCain's running mate in 2008. Mrs. Palin's biography raised questions about her qualifications to be vice president, but after 14 years in Congress Mr. Ryan's qualifications are sterling. Critics are left with the option of attacking him as an extremist or a phony. But the evidence from his career in Washington indicates that he is neither.

There's one more fruit of the Ryan Effect, noted by my Weekly Standard colleague William Kristol. The Republican campaign, he writes, has turned into a movement. A "mere electoral effort" has become a cause. Only Mr. Ryan could have produced this phenomenon.

For the moment, Mr. Ryan has upstaged Mr. Romney. That won't last. The top of the ticket always dominates. But Mr. Ryan has given the Romney campaign what it lacked: the ideas and the energy that provide a clear path to the White House.

Obama Outspends Mitt Romney On Digital Ads 4:1

Seen an Obama ad online lately? The numbers say, yes. Since President Barack Obama kicked off his reelection effort last spring, his campaign spent $31

million on digital ads through June of this year. That's nearly four times the $8.1 million that Mitt Romney's campaign reported spending on digital ads

through June.

OFA dropped nearly $4.5 million alone on digital advertising and text messages in June, according to original ClickZ Politics analysis of Federal Election

Commission filings. In contrast, Romney's campaign spent just around $500,000 on digital ads last month.

The disparity has been present throughout the election season. By March, Obama had paid nearly $19 million for digital ads compared to Romney's $5.2 million.

And at this stage in the game the numbers don't indicate that conservative super PACs will fill the digital gap for Romney. By May of this year, Super PACs

had spent about $7.8 million on digital ads backing Republican presidential primary candidates or opposing Obama, according to ClickZ Politics analysis.

Although we can expect digital dollars from the right are or will begin to coalesce around Romney, there does not appear to be enough digital spending from

the right yet to compensate for Obama's widening lead.

A possible caveat: the Romney camp spent over $9 million on unspecified media buys in June. Those were placed by a somewhat mysterious outfit called American

Rambler Productions, a firm that reportedly was established to handle Romney's media buys. In recent months, the campaign has listed some digital ad

expenditures with American Rambler rather in addition to those made through its original digital consultancy, Targeted Victory.

The campaign spent around $500,000 with Targeted Victory in June, though it's unclear whether any additional digital ad buys last month went through American

Rambler, named after the vehicle brand that helped turn around American Motors Corporate when Mitt's father George Romney served as the automaker's chairman

and president.

Earlier this week, the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism unveiled a study that claimed, "Barack Obama holds a distinct advantage

over Mitt Romney in the way his campaign is using digital technology to communicate directly with voters." The study pointed to volume and frequency of

tweets, YouTube videos, and site blog posts along with Facebook likes to support its arguable conclusion. Since released, the study has come under scrutiny

by some who suggest it applied metrics that don't provide a clear view of actual social media engagement among voters with the campaigns.
The report and media coverage of it bolstered the perception that Democrats do digital better than Republicans, but the reality is much more nuanced than

that. The volume of Obama's digital and social media efforts, coupled with the campaign's big digital ad spending lead show the Democrats are simply doing

more digital marketing. While the Romney camp seems to be allocating a smaller portion of the budget to digital, signs indicate that a sophisticated, data-

driven approach is in place. Simply put, the Republicans may be focusing their efforts primarily on key voter segments in battleground states rather than

spreading their digital ads around elsewhere.

Still, there's little doubt the spending gap will have some digital consultants on the right scratching their heads and wondering why Romney isn't budgeting

more money to digital advertising.

Together, OFA and the Democratic National Committee spent $33 million on digital ads through June, according to ClickZ tallies. The DNC allotted almost $2

million to digital ads since last spring, mainly through Bully Pulpit Interactive, the same digital ad agency Obama's campaign is using. However, it's

unclear whether all of the DNC money backed Obama or other Senate or House candidates.

Like the Obama:Romney split, the overall Republican:Democrat breakdown is nearly 4:1. Combined, the Romney camp and Republican National Committee spent $8.4

million on digital ads through June. Some of the $238,000 from the RNC was placed through Connell Donatelli, the consultancy that handled John McCain's

digital advertising in the 2008 election. The committee is also buying ads direct from Google, Facebook, and Twitter. Records show the RNC spent around

$84,000 direct with Facebook this year, and about $17,000 with Twitter. While Google grabbed just around $5,000 from the RNC in direct buys in 2012, most

likely much more has been spent through Connell Donatelli and possibly Targeted Victory.

Joey Kovar's MTV Family 'Heartbroken' By His Death

Fans, friends and close family members are reeling from the news of Joey Kovar's untimely death Friday (August 17), possibly caused by a drug overdose. The

news of the 29-year-old "Real World: Hollywood" castmember and aspiring actor's passing has left many saddened and in shock.

"RIP Joey Kovar my heart breaks," tweeted Kovar's "Celebrity Rehab" castmate Mackenzie Phillips. "My love and prayers go out to your family."

"Road Rules" and "Challenge" veteran Mark Long also tweeted his sadness over learning the news.

"RIP Joey Kovar #sad," he wrote.

"Sad news about Joey Kovar," added Katie Doyle, a fellow "Road Rules" and "Challenge" alum. "Never do drugs. #RIP"

Bunim-Murray Productions, the production company behind "Real World," "Road Rules" and "The Challenge," offered their sincere condolences over the loss of

their friend.

"Joey was a gentle and big hearted guy and his real world family will miss him. Our sympathies go out to his family and friends," the company said via their

Twitter account. "Our deepest condolences go out to the friends and family of Joey Kovar. RIP dear friend."

"Real World: Cancun" and "Challenge: Fresh Meat" castmember CJ Koegel also expressed his sadness about Kovar's death via Twitter and included a link to a

photo of Kovar on Instagram that has the words "We lost a member of our family but he will never be forgotten" written underneath it. The photo was re-

tweeted by "Real World: New Orleans" castmember Ryan Knight.

"RIP Joey way too young," he wrote.

Kovar's fans have also expressed their condolences and sympathies for the addiction Kovar suffered with publicly.

"Reading this article has left me completely heartbroken," wrote MTV reader MelindaLauren05. "I watched Joey on the Real World and Celebrity Rehab and I

rooted for him to find sobriety the whole time. I can't imagine what the family is going through but I do know what it is like to struggle with addiction. I

feel lucky to have overcome mine, but it still is always a shock to find out someone struggling has lost their struggle to the disease. My deepest sympathies

to his family in this time of need."

"Joey was so inspirational to me," added reader DamianW. "He was so honest, caring, and motivated. One of my favorite cast members. You were and are a great

dude. mad love, homey."

Mission Impossible: Managing Joe Biden

The most emotionally powerful minute of Joe Biden’s two-day swing through rural Virginia almost didn’t happen.

After the vice president paid a solemn visit Wednesday to the memorial honoring the victims of the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting here, reporters asked him

about his feelings upon seeing the site.
As Biden began to answer, his aides intervened, yelling “Let’s go,” and trying to shoo reporters back to the motorcade.

(PHOTOS: Joe Biden over the years)

Only when it became clear that the vice president wanted to express himself did his entourage stop interrupting to let the candidate speak.

When he did, Biden recalled his own family tragedy — losing his young wife and daughter in a 1972 car accident — and paused repeatedly to keep his

composure.

It was the side of Biden — comfortable with his emotions, and with a gift for human connection — that makes him appealing to many voters. And the moment

never would’ve taken place if he had not effectively overruled his would-be handlers.

It was a vivid illustration of a phenomenon that pervades the 2012 campaign: The consuming effort by operatives to stamp the spontaneity and life out of

modern politics.

(Also on POLITICO: Ryan: Biden is ‘desperate’)

Of course, Biden’s two-day swing through small-town Virginia also offered a perfect example of why this brand of control-freak politics has emerged. His

unrehearsed comment to a mixed-race audience in Danville that the Republicans and their Wall Street allies want to put people “back in chains” made

national news as an example of rhetorical excess.

In an era of Twitter and saturation news coverage — when one stray remark can upend a day’s news cycle and campaigns struggle to shape their preferred

message — politicians and their aides are increasingly intent on restricting the media’s interaction with candidates. Barack Obama or Mitt Romney both shun

the sort of freewheeling news conferences that used to be a staple of campaigns. And when reporters do seek to engage the candidates, the staff minders

attempt to shut it down with ham-handed aggressiveness.

All candidates live with the contradiction — a media culture that implores politicians to seem authentic but is ready to punish them when they really are —

but the challenge is especially exquisite in Biden’s case.

(Also on POLITICO: Axelrod: 'Chains' not racial comment)

He is an irrepressible, garrulous and emotive politician, who’s flourished and fumbled through 40 years in national office by practicing politics the old-

fashioned way — from the gut and without much script. He’s as fine a one-on-one politician of any officeholder of his generation, a talent especially

prized because it is not a particular gift of Obama’s.

But his penchant for off-message moments regularly sends aides in the West Wing and at Chicago reelection headquarters into orbit.

Who's playing racial politics in this campaign? It's Mitt Romney

    Yesterday, Joe Biden said something stupid. Now it’s hardly the first time those words have been spoken and likely won’t be the last. But this time

Biden’s words created something of a firestorm.

When talking about Mitt Romney’s support for repealing Dodd-Frank and other regulations on big banks, Biden said, "They’re going to put y’all back in

chains." This was a play off Republican charges that Democrats have shackled the private sector (an assertion that might come as a surprise to Dow watchers).

Still, it was a dumb thing to say, and considering that half of Biden’s audience was made up of African-Americans, looks ever more foolish and insensitive.

But what is so fascinating about the incident is not what Biden said, but the Republican reaction to it.  After taking a second to unclench their hands from

the pearl necklaces around their necks, Romney campaign officials quickly attacked Obama for reaching "a new low" and the candidate himself criticized the

President’s campaign of "hate." Here on the Rumble, the perennially aggrieved Derek Hunter writes that this is yet another example of "liberal racism."

But if you really want to talk about who is playing the race card this year, it’s worth briefly revisiting the latest attack ad from the Romney campaign on

welfare:
    Yesterday, Joe Biden said something stupid. Now it’s hardly the first time those words have been spoken and likely won’t be the last. But this time

Biden’s words created something of a firestorm.

When talking about Mitt Romney’s support for repealing Dodd-Frank and other regulations on big banks, Biden said, "They’re going to put y’all back in

chains." This was a play off Republican charges that Democrats have shackled the private sector (an assertion that might come as a surprise to Dow watchers).

Still, it was a dumb thing to say, and considering that half of Biden’s audience was made up of African-Americans, looks ever more foolish and insensitive.

But what is so fascinating about the incident is not what Biden said, but the Republican reaction to it.  After taking a second to unclench their hands from

the pearl necklaces around their necks, Romney campaign officials quickly attacked Obama for reaching "a new low" and the candidate himself criticized the

President’s campaign of "hate." Here on the Rumble, the perennially aggrieved Derek Hunter writes that this is yet another example of "liberal racism."

But if you really want to talk about who is playing the race card this year, it’s worth briefly revisiting the latest attack ad from the Romney campaign on

welfare:

Romney Calls Obama ‘Angry and Desperate’ at Close of Battleground Bus Tour

 Closing out his four-day bus tour, Mitt Romney stood on the steps of the courthouse here and ripped apart President Obama’s campaign strategy as one of the

“diversions” that have taken the nation’s highest office to a “new low” that appears “angry and desperate.”

“You don’t hear any answers coming from President Obama’s re-election campaign,” said Romney, speaking at his third and final event in Ohio, the last

stop on his bus tour that weaved in and out of four battleground states, dramatically opening with the announcement of his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan.

“That’s because he’s intellectually exhausted, out of ideas, and out of energy,” said Romney of Obama in what was one of his most strongly worded

speeches to date. “And so his campaign has resorted to diversions and distractions, to demagoguing and defaming others. It’s an old game in politics; what

’s different this year is that the president is taking things to a new low.”

The Obama campaign shot back at Romney’s speech, saying that the presumptive GOP nominee seemed “unhinged.”

“Governor Romney’s comments tonight seemed unhinged, and particularly strange coming at a time when he’s pouring tens of millions of dollars into negative

ads that are demonstrably false,” said Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt.

There have been several attacks lodged against Romney in recent weeks by the Obama campaign and groups that support it. Romney has been accused of being a

felon and dodging taxes; it’s been implied that he had a role in a woman’s death in a pro-Obama SuperPAC ad. Just today, Vice President Joe Biden suggested

that Republicans were trying to put Americans “back in chains” with their budget proposals.

But today Romney released a new television ad that accused Obama of stripping funds from Medicare, which followed one earlier this week that accused Obama of

removing the work requirements from welfare reform. The welfare ad has been criticized for being over the top, as Obama’s proposal does not call for

dropping all work requirements and instead allows for states to ask for a waiver for more flexibility in how citizens can earn welfare checks.

Romney drew on quotes from the president’s 2008 election, recalling that Obama said that those who don’t have fresh ideas “use stale tactics,” and that

when you have no record to run on, you “paint your opponent as someone people should run from.”

“That was Candidate Obama describing the strategy that is now the heart of his campaign,” said Romney tonight, as the crowd of thousands erupted into

applause. “His campaign and his surrogates have made wild and reckless accusations that disgrace the office of the presidency.”

“This is what an angry and desperate presidency looks like,” said Romney.

Romney continued his criticism of Obama, who he says has divided America while in office, accusing the president of demonizing some and pandering to others.

“His campaign strategy is to smash America apart,” said Romney. “If an American president wins that way, we all lose. But he won’t win that way.”

Nashville weekend for Taylor Swift, Conor Kennedy? Did Swift buy Nantucket home?

Did country music sensation Taylor Swift take Conor Kennedy, grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, home to Nashville to meet her parents this weekend? The 22-year-

old singer/songwriter and the 18-year-old JFK Jr. lookalike were spotted all over Nashville on Saturday August 11, 2012, but it is not certain whether or not

Swift introduced Kennedy to her family. The couple, who has reportedly been dating for some time, made their relationship public in July shortly after Conor

’s eighteenth birthday.

A fan posted a fuzzy photo of what was thought to be Swift and Kennedy together in Nashville with Swift’s parents. People magazine confirmed that the photo

is not Swift and Kennedy, but of Taylor and her brother Austin taken in June.
View slideshow: Taylor Swift heats up romance with RFK's grandson Conor Kennedy with weekend visit to Nashville hometown
A member of Taylor Swift's inner circle told People:

“Taylor is swept off her feet. She thinks he is the one right now.”

Kennedy biographer Laurence Learner told People: “It’s great [he] can have a happy summer.” Conor Kennedy’s mother, Mary Kennedy, committed suicide on

May 16, 2012. Mary Kennedy and Conor’s father RFK, Jr. were embroiled in a bitter divorce battle at the time of her death. Conor Kennedy has been appointed

the executor of his late mother’s estate

Reports are also circulating this weekend that Swift purchased a 13-room home overlooking Nantucket Sound for $4.9 million.

Swift, a longtime admirer of the Kennedy family, first met Rory Kennedy and her daughters Georgia, 10, and Bridget, 8, at one of Taylor Swift’s concerts.

Rory Kennedy had a lot to say about Taylor Swift. She told People.com that “She’s [Swift] awesome.” Speaking at a recent television Critics Association

tour in Beverly Hills, Rory Kennedy revealed that Taylor is close to the entire Kennedy family, saying “She’s a great friend of all of ours.”

Even Ethel Kennedy, widow of RFK and grandmother of Conor Kennedy had something to say on the subject of Taylor Swift. When asked if she thought the country

music singer and songwriter would make a good addition to the Kennedy clan she said, “We should be so lucky.”

With GOP ticket complete, crowds swell

On his second day as a vice-presidential candidate, Rep. Paul Ryan emerged Sunday as a tough-talking sidekick and flattering biographer for Mitt Romney,

playing roles that Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, has sometimes struggled to master.

Ryan, who has frequently clashed with President Barack Obama over the size and mission of the federal government as chairman of the House Budget Committee,

denounced the president's policies as failures and his governing style as corrosive.

"President Obama came into office with hope and change," Ryan said at a factory here. "His policies have been put in place. They are not working. They are

failing us. He didn't moderate one bit at all. So now he's turned hope and change into attack and blame, and we're not going to fall for it."

But Ryan focused just as much on his new boss, Romney, repeatedly telling his success stories at stops across North Carolina. He recalled the troubled Salt

Lake City Olympic Games, which Romney left Bain Capital to oversee in 1999.

"Remember the chaos, remember the waste, the bloated spending the corruption. Who did they turn to? Who did they ask to turn it around? This guy right here,"

he said, pointing to Romney, who stood ramrod straight, beaming toward Ryan.

Ryan's burst of campaigning came as Democrats seized on his selection to try to define him as an extremist politician who would destroy Medicare and deprive

women of
abortion rights.

"Congressman Ryan is a right-wing ideologue, and that is reflected in the positions that he's taken," said David Axelrod, a senior adviser to the Obama

campaign.

"He is quite extreme -- good, good person, you know, genial person -- but his views are quite harsh," Axelrod said on the program "State of the Union" on

CNN.

Offering a critique that is expected to be central to the Obama team's argument, Axelrod said that Ryan's proposal to remake Medicare would allow private

insurers to peel away the healthiest seniors, leaving the federal program covering the oldest and the sickest, sending costs soaring.

On the campaign trail Sunday, Romney looked deeply relieved to have a No. 2 to split up the labors of a presidential campaign, projecting a new sense of an

energy and ease.

"I am so happy, I am so happy to have my teammate now, the two of us! It's now two on two you know," Romney said.

At one point, Romney joined the crowd at an event in Mooresville, N.C., in chanting "Paul, Paul, Paul," -- yelling his name six times into a microphone.

Romney, who is more of a hand-grasper than a high-fiver, seemed to adapt to Ryan's more casual style, slapping the hands of voters behind a metal barricade.

The crowds at Romney campaign stops have swelled significantly since he named Ryan as his running mate, breaking records for the candidate. There were 8,000

people at an outdoor rally in Manassas, Va., on Saturday, at which a number of attendees fainted because of long lines and humidity. On Sunday, Romney's

speech inside the NASCAR Technical Institute in Mooresville drew about 4,000 people, many standing outside in a parking lot. At the event later here in High

Point, the campaign rally drew 8,000 people. It was so warm inside that people broke off pieces of cardboard boxes to fan themselves. But it did not seem to

dampen their enthusiasm for the new ticket: standard speech lines aroused thunderous applause.

The two men traveled to North Carolina on the second day of a four-day bus tour that will also take them to Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin. Romney made clear

that North Carolina was crucial to his election strategy, telling an audience here Sunday if "we win North Carolina, we're going to win the White House."

Big Al on London Olympics: Usain Bolt, water polo and USA, China

Usain Bolt -- the world's fastest man -- has options awaiting him as the London Games head into their stretch run.

Bolt says he may want to play soccer for Manchester United. Not exactly the sport most Americans were hoping the long-legged Jamaican would find himself

playing.

That would be the one with the touchdowns.

And you know Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is seeing dollar signs. Plus, Bob Hayes did pretty well for himself in Dallas.

No no to water polo

I have decided water polo is just not fun.

Treading water, getting punched in the face, a good chance of losing your speedo. No thanks. (As if I would ever wear a speedo.)

Women's hoops

While all the fuss surrounding the Team USA Men's Basketball Team, has anybody noticed the USA Women have not lost a game in 20 years? Thirty-nine straight

wins heading into this years semifinals.

And how about Tulsa Shock center Liz Cambage's dunk last week. Let us hope she brings some of that Kangaroo jumping ability back to Tulsa.

Red, white and blue for gold

Is this a first? USA vs USA for the gold medal? That's what is happening in women's beach volleyball.

At least it will be another win for the home team, which has found itself trailing China in the medal race. As of Wednesday, there were 102 gold medals left

to hand out.

I expect a close race to the end between the two countries, with the Americans favorites to bring in a slew of track and field competitions.

Assad Vows to Rid Syria of ‘Terrorists;’ Violence Mounts

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has vowed to purge his country of what he called “terrorists,” as security forces continue to fight rebels who have tried

to seize control of parts of Aleppo and Damascus.

Syrian state-run media quoted Mr. Assad Tuesday as saying he would show no leniency towards “terrorists.” He met with Iran's visiting national security

council secretary, Saeed Jalili.

Syrian state television showed the meeting, the first time Mr. Assad has appeared on television in two weeks.

Jalili pledged continued Iranian support to Syria, which he said was part of an “axis of resistance” against foreign opponents.

Earlier Tuesday, Iran said it was holding the United States responsible for the lives of 48 Iranians who were kidnapped by Syrian rebels in Damascus on

Saturday.

State-run media say the Foreign Ministry told the Swiss envoy in Tehran that it expects the U.S. to use its influence to secure the Iranians' release without

any preconditions.

Switzerland represents U.S. interests in Iran because Washington and Tehran do not have diplomatic relations. The U.S. has said in the past it is only

providing non-lethal assistance to Syrian rebels.

Iran says the 48 abducted were religious pilgrims, but the rebel Free Syrian Army described them as Iranian Revolutionary Guards on a “reconnaissance

mission.”

Activists say dozens of people were killed in anti-government-related unrest across Syria on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says it is time for world powers to begin planning for what will happen after Mr. Assad's regime falls.

She commented during a Tuesday appearance with South Africa's foreign minister in Pretoria.

“The intensity of the fighting in Aleppo, the defections, really point out how imperative it is that we come together and work toward a good transition

plan.”

Clinton said she intended to discuss the issue with Turkish officials during her visit to Istanbul on Saturday.

Iran's foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, visited Turkey on Tuesday to discuss the Syrian crisis and the abducted Iranians with counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu.

Salehi also has asked United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for help in securing the kidnapped Iranians' freedom.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that more than 1,300 Syrians had crossed the border into Turkey over the past day, raising the total number of

Syrian refugees there to nearly 48,000.

Tim Tebow, Andrew Luck featured on NFL Network this week

Tim Tebow’s New York Jets debut and Andrew Luck’s first NFL game highlight NFL Network’s live Week 1 preseason football schedule.

Four games will be broadcast live this week, with every other Week 1 preseason game broadcast on a tape-delayed basis. The live broadcasts are the Jets at

Bengals at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 10, the Texans at the Panthers at 4 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 11, the Titans at Seahawks at 7 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 11 and the

Rams at Colts at 10:30 a.m., Sunday, Aug. 12.

The NFL Network is only available in the Coachella Valley on DirecTV, Dish Network and Verizon FiOS. The NFL Network is not available on Time Warner Cable as

both sides have not reached an agreement.

A new wrinkle to preseason coverage for Week 1 begins with NFL Preseason Live at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 9. NFL Preseason Live provides live look-ins of

Week 1 preseason games, beginning with the opening kickoffs. Host Rich Eisen and analysts Marshall Faulk and Michael Lombardi will take viewers around the

league in NFL RedZone-style, delivering live game action and highlights of Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints facing Tom Brady and the New England

Patriots, Peyton Manning making his Denver Broncos debut against the Chicago Bears, Washington Redskins rookie Robert Griffin III in his first NFL action

against the Buffalo Bills, and more.

NFL Network will offer all 65 games of the 2012 NFL preseason schedule, beginning at 9 p.m. Thursday when Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos travel to

Chicago to face quarterback Jay Cutler and the Bears, followed by the Atlanta Falcons hosting the Baltimore Ravens at midnight.

In addition, NFL.com’s NFL Preseason Live returns to offer fans live and on-demand access to preseason games online and in HD. Full DVR controls allow fans

to pause, rewind and replay both live and archived game action. Additional viewing options include picture-in-picture and a quad view mode which provides

fans the ability to watch four games on the same screen.

New to NFL Preseason Live this year is the Condensed Games feature, which allows fans to watch every play from an entire game – from opening kickoff to the

final whistle – in 30 minutes and commercial-free. For the first time, NFL Preseason Live is available on Android and iOS tablets with a free download.

Curiosity Team Confident, But Terrified for Mars Landing

PASADENA, Calif.—Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is now feeling the tug of Mars, as are the scientists and engineers on the mission.

"We are rationally confident, emotionally terrified, and ready for EDL (entry, descent, and landing)," said Adam Steltzner, MSL's EDL phase lead.

In the final pre-landing conference before MSL reaches Mars early Monday morning at 1:31 a.m. EDT, mission scientists and engineers shared their closing

thoughts and expressed great confidence in a successful night ahead.

"I think we're going to stick the landing," said Doug McCuistion, the Mars Exploration Program director at NASA headquarters.

The spacecraft is now in EDL approach mode and will shortly transition over to EDL main mode. Its batteries are charged to 100 percent and it continues to

have strong communication with the Deep Space Network (DSN), "like having a full set of bars, in cell phone speak," explained Brian Portock, the MSL mission

manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The spacecraft is warming up its rockets to be used during EDL and this morning, the team determined the final opportunity to adjust the flight path was not

needed because it is right on target.

On Mars, the weather conditions are looking perfect for landing. There is a cap edge storm to the east of the landing spot in Gale Crater, but it does not

pose a major threat. "If this storm had happened three days ago, we might have been sweating a little bit," said Steltzner.

Though the team feels very confident, they were all careful to emphasize the possibility that tonight could be a "bad night."

"I believe that the team has done everything we can to deserve success tonight, although as we all know," said Steltzner, "there is nothing you can do to

ensure success." McCuistion added that it would be an incredible loss to the nation if NASA did not learn from a failure and try again.

The world tonight as MSL makes its entry into the Martian atmosphere. The team will also have no other choice but to sit back and snack on peanuts, a good

luck charm in the Mission Control room. "The amount of control the team has during EDL is identical to what someone at home watching on TV has," said

Steltzner.

Jets' Tim Tebow says 'I am not sure' of my role yet

Assuming starter Mark Sanchez remains upright -- and, more importantly, effective -- even New York Jets backup QB Tim Tebow doesn't seem entirely sure what

his game-to-game duties will be this season.
Tebow sat down with ESPN Radio in New York this week and talked to co-host Stephen A. Smith, who's done little to mask his skepticism of the Jets' decision

to acquire the charismatic but football-flawed passer.

When asked about his job description -- which seems to range from red zone specialist to Wildcat pilot to punt team decoy -- Tebow answered: "That's a good

question, and I'm going to be 100% honest: I am not sure.

"I think for me, it is whatever I am being asked to do I do with all my heart. I try to do a great job at it. ... It's so early in the process that I have to

say I can't give you a straight answer on that."

Being the forthright guy that he is, Smith also questioned Tebow's efficacy as a thrower (he was 2-for-4 with an INT in team drills Wednesday), to which the

quarterback responded:

    "First of all, it is not my place to try and debate and make my stuff look good. That's not my place at all. I appreciate you complimenting me saying

that I have an impact and that I can win football games. I really appreciate that and just as far as getting better throwing, I've been working extremely

hard on that.

    "There are some situations where I feel like I have done some good things. I am just going to continue to get better, but I appreciate the compliments,

and the rest I use as motivation."

Tebow also fielded a query about how he could genuinely root for and support Sanchez even though he aspires to be a starter himself in the NFL.

    "I think there are things more important than a football game. Your relationship and how you treat people ... that's more important to me than football

games.

    "As far as rooting someone on and supporting them? You can do that with still trying to go out there and do your best. If your best is better, then so be

it. If it's not, then you have to do the other roles you are asked to do. I don't think you have to have an attitude where you have to say, 'I don't want

someone to do their best.' Absolutely not. I want them to do their best.

    "I just want to do my best and continue to develop to the best that I can be, and if that's good enough to go out there and be a starting quarterback,

then that is great."