Mourinho For President

After putting up with Abramovich's interference way too long, Mour is free and up for grabs.

I bet right now many top managers are feeling less comfortable in their shoes, thinking that if they slip up a bit, the Club's owner is going to be dialing Mour's number... and they're all hitching to...

Let's see how many trophies Ab. will win, now that he can have it is way.
One thing is certain, the Russian has been quite ungrateful to the man who has won for Chelsea one of every trophy there was to win in England, in 4 years; the man who has made Chelsea a winning machine for nearly three years in a row, something that Chelsea, and many others teams, can't find in their past pedigree... and it's unlikely they will repeat that in the future...

The players, the fans and even the press will miss him. Only the adversaries will be glad to see him go.
I for one, and I think I speak for at least 50% of the Portuguese population, we wish him all the best, and best for us would be to see him managing the Portugal national team.
If only Ab. had asked to swap Mour for Scolari...

CALLING ALL UNITS...

I never though I would have to defend and praise the "pigs" (not that I'm a con, just don't like to get tickets or driving related fines)... but recently I have had to come to the rescue of a much vilified police force, that has nothing to do with parking tickets or clamping cars.

The PJ really are the good guys in the story. They are the ones we turn to, when no one else can help.

They are fallible, they are less than perfect, they have fewer resources to work than other police forces in Europe, and they probably have some bad seeds in the core. "Toss the proverbial stone".

Having said that, Portugal is one of Western Europe's safest countries and the Portuguese police has a good reputation among their European counterparts. All this can be checked. Please do.

We are used to do a lot with very few, as our former global empire attests.

Eventually, all came to nothing; we have but memories of the times of yore - however! one thing all Portuguese did not loose is their PRIDE, and no way you can't take that away from us. Ask C Ronaldo. He may be booed and jeered, but you can't break him and in the end he comes on top.

All the unfair accusations against the PJ are coming from people leaning towards the "suspects", dishonestly ignoring the joint investigation with the Scotland Yard, the tests done in the Birmingham labs, the dogs and whatnot.

These critics are the same people who excommunicate others for jumping ahead to conclusions and who scream out loud "the parents are presumed innocent". Well, the same goes for the Police. And the Portuguese law system, that is indeed, quite foreign to you.

Get this once and for all - if the PJ has or not concrete evidence, they would never come out and say it before the investigation is through! I have my theories as why this case is "leaking" more than usual, but I will not speculate about it.

I know it's hard, many people are sharpening their knives already, but wait for the end of the investigation to see which you can lynch: the Police or the culprits (if any).

One thing, is certain though - don't think that you, no matter who you are, don't think you have the exclusive of feeling for Madeleine, because we all do, including the men and women, parents or not, that are part of the Anglo-Portuguese Police. And anyone who truly wants to find the truth about Madeleine, has to side with the investigation and support it to the end. We are all suspects; no one is above suspicion, in the eays of the law.

The amount of pressure, criticism, speculation and media hype would probably be almost unbearable for one of us. Imagine having a constant shrill over your head all the time, people knocking your work constantly without having even the faintest idea of who you are or what you are doing… and still, you are there to help...

So, to cut short what could be a longer post, stand in equity and support the official investigation, because those professionals, always under fire, have shown to have huge,

massive B A L L S, taking the investigation where the evidence was leading them, no matter what the pressure and backlash might have been.

I hope they will be given some leeway, for the sake of the investigation.

Ludicrous McCann Media

Here we go again. Infamous accusations, smear, slurs and even insults, all served in a big bowl of speculation a la SKY NEWS...
This people have no code of conduct to go by at all? What has happened to impartiality, unbiased and rigorous information, etc?

Blind faith is quite medieval, so is the British media approach to this case. Why people choose sides when what is in question is evidence submitted to a Brit Lab, which seems to point to Madeleine being dead?
It is perhaps the harsh reality. Denial is understandable from the family, but the biased, deliberate smear campaign of the Brit media against the PJ, is what is Ludicrous. If the PJ are to be proven right, I'm sure then kudos and the glory of solving the case will go to the British cops present in the Algarve, that only take the scene when something positive occurs.

The public opinion is being manipulated. There is a lot of misinformation.
One clear example is the supposed "deal" offered by the PJ to Kate. Forget what you saw in the movies or TV - under Portuguese law, the police has no power to offer any deals, so it's highly unlikely that they would even go there. One word of advice: try to get as much independent information from reliable foreign press agencies, because you can't get that from the likes of Skate&Gerry News, the public family TV.
As someone watching from abroad, it seems like I am hearing about two different cases, so different is the coverage from Sky News, compared to Spanish or Portuguese TV...

Of course, the usual resistance to learn other languages may be a hindrance to understand what really is going on. There seems to be only one side of the story being released in the UK media, and that is the emotional quasi-hysterical nationalist one.
The PJ is not answering the provocations from the relatives and the media, but if this keeps up like until now, I hope they sue.

Yes, the word is "Ludicrous" indeed. Furthermore, it's absolutely sickening to see how people in the UK, including the media, find it easier to come to terms with "a cover up or planted evidence" by the naughty Portuguese Police, than to understand that speculation aside, the couple is being questioned, as they should, after the forensic evidence has been return from the UK LABS... immagine what it would be like, if the results had come back from Portuguese labs... it isn't that we do not have capable forensic labs in the country as suggested; it was actually a very wise move, to publicly further the involvment of British elements in the investigations. Now mine the credibility of that...

Will the same Brits that question every little move by the Police, with the same mistrust they would only have against foreigners, be that strange looking food, or driving on the right side of the road, will the same people question the results out of the British Labs? If the results say it's Madeleine’s blood and that she is dead, then is it ludicrous to suspect of anyone that has been around the misfortunate little girl, at the time?

Ludicrous is the way some people and the British media has been questioning everything as this SOBERAN COUNTRY is nothing more than a colony... Talk about slurs and campaigns... the British tabloids have the mint of all that rubbish, bordering defamation on a number of occasions and I hope they will soon be prosecuted.

You may not like how the results of the investigation, but the McCann have created a Media monster, and it's not fair to press for the "results" you'd like, if they may point in a different direction. Sooner or later, people may have to face the harsh reality that the little girl is dead... and we all feel for her.

Finally, there seems to be some people more eager to believe in conspiracy theories such as "PJ cover up and planted evidence to frame the McCann", than in what seems to be the body of evidence collected by the Brit and Portuguese agents investigating the case together.
For those who seem to be fond of conspiracy theories, get a load of this one:
Gerry McCann's brother and Gordon Brown, good old Scottish lads, seem to have been buddies in school...
Imagine what being friends with the prime minister could do for your family...
Anyone believes what they want... or in other words, people believe more easily that which meets their inclination and expectations.

UPDATE Saturday 8, 14.15h

I salute the change of tone in some Sky News reporters, that just now admited they should pay more attention to what they'd been calling a "smear campaign" by the Portuguese press, was in fact "a reflection of the Police investigations" - funny enough, that's almost the exact words I used a few weeks ago, here (under nnrico) - here's the quote:

" The Portuguese press merely reflected the change of course in the investigations, puting aside the victimization of the parents, whom, like it or not, are partly responsible for what happened." End quote.

#4 "Wolves"

The wolf is a wonderful animal, a survivor, and one of the few species that mate for life; but this is not about the endangered kind, but about another frail group of mammals - the Portuguese Rugby team.

For the first time, a Portuguese national side will be present in a rugby World Cup event, in the finals, as one of the contenders - although they have NO chance at all... simply because they are the ONLY semi-professional rugby team to make it to the competition, ever!

Yes, that's right, they are not professional rugby players, their lives are not just about rugby - yet, they qualified and they are going to go versus the likes of Scotland, Italy or, get this, New Zealand's All Blacks...
Of course, they have no hopes of winning a match. It would be like Luxembourg or San Marino, with due respect, after qualifying to the FIFA World Cup, to beat Italy or Brazil.

These "wolves" as their fondly known in Portugal, due to their relentless spirit and courage, will attempt to score as many points as possible against the "giants" of the sport, while trying not to loose for more than a two-digit score...
However, they are ambitious enough to try a victory against the more accessible team of Romania, although even this will be unlikely... but small numbers of Portuguese men have already proven to be able to surpass bigger odds - after all, a fistful of Portuguese soldiers and sailors established one of the more extensive and durable empires of the world.

Whatever happens next to the "wolves", they will not be crying but howling of joy at the moon in France's Rugby World Cup 2007...