I really don't want to make too much of this but . . . this guy is really . . . really . . . hell, just look at the picture:
Good grief, man. The basics, dude, just the basics. You can't shoulder that minimum level of respect???
I suspect this was just a momentary lapse and the image, above, simply captures our President just a bit slow on the uptick and he recovered quickly. I certainly hope so. But you must pay attention to detail at moments like this. At all times, at moments like this, on such a serious occasion.
I simply couldn't pass up posting this video; my Nole friends, I hope, will understand (some of them share the sentiment!):
Ten years ago I never would have believed they would have mismanaged -- at the insistence of Bobby Bowden -- the transition away from their legend to a new coaching regime so poorly.
Last week, in the aftermath of a great Florida win over Georgia, I began a post that (I presume) my guardian angel didn't want me broadcast. I finished it in the early morning before work and just as I hit submit, my browser locked up. I had other browsers up and running, however, and spent what seemed like 30 minutes frantically trying to save or copy the material in the locked-up browser but ultimately failing.
Yes, I liked it that much.
But it might have been a disturbing post for the good Gator fans who are appalled by Brandon Spikes' conduct in the Florida-Georgia game. If that description somewhat resembles you, consider yourself warned. Today, Florida has methodically mowed down yet another SEC opponent (a 27-3 win over Vandy) and I'm of a mind to revisit the "post that wasn't" with (I hope) a bit more reserved tone.
Last week, while some folks continuing obsessing over a non-gouge and the suspension of a middle linebacker guilty of nothing more than playing intimidating football and dishing out just as well as it was getting dished to him, not me!
I was more than willing to let them bump their gums on the subject as much as they wanted, I was busy enjoying the win. Additionally, I've been thinking about my lack of blogging for weeks (months?) now. I'll get back to politics and blogging on a range of subjects soon enough (very interesting developments during the last election cycle) but I had to laugh last Thursday morning when I saw the new edition of "Whipped Puppy," the alleged magazine of the Georgia Bulldogs:
It has become something of a Gator tradition to photoshop a fake Georgia alumni magazine in the wake of every victory by our beloved Gators over the Penal Colony.
Ordinarily, I would be congratulating the legendary Mr2Cents, who originated this "Whipped Puppy" tradition. This particular great job, however, belongs to A.S. Williams of Orlando. Known as Vindibudd, he's a recent Gator Grad who has the following websites you might like to review:
A former cartoonist at The Independent Florida Alligator, Vindibudd may be our new fark God. Unfortunately, Mr2Cents has apparently "retired" from active farking. We can only hope it is a temporary retirement.
About the Situation Involving Mr. Spikes
Okay, here's a post I made online when this "eye-gouging" incident first erupted:
This is one of those incidents where the reality of intimidating football gets lost on some people. Defensive football isn't simply about stopping your opponent. You want to intimidate your opponent. I never thought Spikes was trying to gouge the man's eyes out -- he was just properly intimidating a Dawg down on the ground and probably saying something like, "All day, baby, all day -- you gets nuttin!"
When I saw it live, though, I asked myself, "Is he really trying to gouge those eyes?" Which is probably the first thing that popped into the RB's mind, too. Know what I mean?
Leave it be. Big Boy Football.
I stand by that. He obviously wasn't trying to gouge the man's eyes out, and he just as obviously wasn't attempting to gouge his eyes out. What he quite properly was doing was sending a message. An intimidating message. And trust me, Washaun received the message and (to his credit) said that Spikes should not be suspended because of that play.
Apparently, the pussification of far too many things in our world continues unabated. And yes, I've been blown away by the lynch mob pontification over this issue. Completely blown away.
The "attempted eye-gouge that wasn't" will surely go down in Florida-Georgia history. Will it also serve as something of a national marker, however? And if so, what sort of marker delineating what sort of demarcation?
The people who wish to belittle Sarah Palin are still rattling on about her "quitting" on the people of Alaska, etc., when she obviously did no such thing. She quit on the clowns who are expert at rigging a system to falsely slime an honest woman. James DeLong strikes a blow for the long, slow march we will have to endure in order to bring some sanity back into our political process. Here's part of what he has to say about Sarah:
Her resignation from the governorship, which was mostly condemned by the pundits, was dead-on shrewd. Why let herself be tied down defending perjured ethics charges from people with infinite money, whose only desire is to shut her up or bankrupt her? Her willingness to be herself and pursue her own ideas without regard to whether or not they could lead to future office is a source of great political strength. Her public pronouncements, such as the Hong Kong speech, are serious and adult, unlike most of the vapidity produced by politicians, especially Obama. And Palin is mastering the art of short, sharp statements.
None of this is winning over the political class. Indeed, Palin’s refusal to fulfill their desires that she be a clown or take a proper role in the kabuki theater of Washington is making them angrier than ever and more determined to marginalize her. But the disillusionment with government among the tea-partying middle class is so great that every attack on her builds her stature on Main Street.
Exactly.
While people who are content faking the funk and cynically manipulating fellow fakers of the funk continue to try and heap slime in her direction, this woman continues to march. That's what I liked about her from the beginning and it's what I love about her now.
She is the "Great Intimidator" and behind many of the hyena laughs are punk ass bastards freaking out at her resiliency.
Florida 41, Georgia 17. Is ev'rybody sassafied now? Huh? I don't want to hear any more moaning. None!
What can you say about this guy, Tim Tebow, that hasn't already been said. People are already contemplating Tebow for President campaigns! Seriously (I think). ;-)
Well, I forgot to have my plate of cornbread and collard greens and only thought about it just this Monday morning. That's the Power of Tebow, a derivative of the Power of Urban! They have completely obliterated the need for some type of lucky routine. I was extremely confident on Saturday afternoon because I knew how much the "Big Kid from Big Duval" (yes, I do love that title) wanted to win this particular game.
And win it, he did.
To take it right down the field and ram it down Georgia's two-weeks-in-preparation throat -- super sweet! To (semi-officially) break Herschel's record in this game with an important touchdown that provided the winning score -- heavenly!
I had a special time in Jacksonville even though I didn't arrive in town until Saturday morning and I didn't make it into the stadium. I watched the entire thing out on the lawn outside the stadium. They had set up a big jumbotron with metal stands flanking the lawn. And it was packed. In the kind of heat and humidity that reminded you of the middle of August. It was incredible how hot it was! The setting, however, was great; it gave you the feel of Florida-Georgia because Dawg fans and Gator fans were mixed in close proximity (and, yes: there was some spectacular talent on display!).
I'm not going to say much more about the game or the event. Everything seemed scripted by the Gators. Georgia is in trouble and Mark Richt is in trouble. Since he pulled that crazy stunt at Florida-Georgia 2007, the Dawgs have gone down the tube. That, too, is expecially satisfying. And now Lane Kiffin appears to be getting the Vols together rather quickly. This could mean years and years in the wilderness for the Dawgs. To my shock, they still don't seem to be properly ashamed of that outrageous stunt they pulled. When the CBS feed on the jumbotron showed the dancing in the endzone, they -- incredibly -- cheered.
Georgia will never recover until that foolishness stops.
Finally, thank goodness Tim and so many of his fellow seniors or last-year on the team players won their final Florida-Georgia game and sent the Doggies back home to the Penal Colony in style.
I'm heading over to Jacksonville today to try and wade into the mass of humanity celebrating, and anticipating, the annual Florida-Georgia game. This will be last Florida-Georgia game for the most special Gator player ever so I had to come home for the occasion. However: as a tribute to those dadgum Dawgs, at the end of this post I'm placing a nice video one of their fans put together that I've posted before. It fits the Florida-Georgia theme and the passion that both sides bring to this game.
A tradition of sorts has been established over the last few years on this blog. In celebration of one of college football's greatest series, I reflect back on the first Florida-Georgia game I actually attended. Arguably, it is the most famous game in this incredible series -- I think it certainly has that status for Georgia. That win propelled them to the number one ranking in the nation the following week and they eventually won the national championship. Quite a first game to witness. So, Go You Mighty Gators! Beat the everlovin' hell out of Georgia!
Begin Modified Post from October 2005:
To begin to understand my special passion for this game you have to first understand that I love Georgians and have many, many family members in that great State. Both of my parents are, in fact, Georgians. My mother was born and raised on the Sumter County – Macon County line in Andersonville. My father was born in Ellaville and his cluster of family was then and is now centered around the town of Roberta. These areas are quite rural, quite agricultural. On my maternal side the family owned, and still owns, a few hundred acres of land on that county line adjacent to the Andersonville National Cemetery. In fact, for years my maternal Grandfather worked his farm and worked at the cemetery to support his large family.
On my father’s side, they were sharecropping but eventually began a logging company that generated work all over South Georgia. But in 1950s Georgia an African American with a sharp mind and a sharp tongue could fairly easily find some trouble. Give that same man some disposable income and there was likely going to be a problem. My father, the oldest son in his family, no doubt qualified for that sharp mind / sharp tongue category. I’m sure he was young and dumb in many, many ways. Neither of my parents went beyond the 8th grade in school but both were quite bright. And confident. Once my father married my mother and was successfully running the logging business . . . and had two (of his eventual six) children, things got to be too hot and he was basically chased out of Georgia.
Chased away . . . to the great State of Florida. Many other family members on both sides went away to Gary, Indiana or Detroit or New York City. Most others stayed in Georgia. Some others settled in spots further down the Florida peninsula. Despite the upheavals of the ‘50s and ‘60s, my father never gave up being a proud Georgia boy. That’s just the way Georgians are. So, when I was coming of age in the 1970s as a proud Florida boy making his way through secondary school and really disappointed by the fact that Georgia seemed to be ruining my Florida Gators football seasons on a regular basis (and questioning why this was the case), everything was really simple to my father: we Floridians just didn’t eat enough cornbread and collard greens.
Well damn, I thought to myself. I loved cornbread and collard greens. To this day I wonder about people who don’t share that love. And I knew my father was really perceptive and smart, but could it really be that simple?
Anyway, when I completed a tour of duty in the Army and finally began my freshman year at U.F., the most anticipated game for me on our football schedule was the Florida-Georgia game. So when November 8, 1980 rolled around I was hyped. I mean really, really hyped. I attended the game with my younger brother who was actually ahead of me in school as a junior at U.F. – this was because he would do his tour of duty in the Army AFTER graduating from college. As an officer. Smart man.
Unfortunately, by that November date my father was already in failing health and unbeknownst to me, would only live for a few more months. The game, as all Gators and Dawgs know, turned out to be a classic:
Herschel was unbelievable, and thus didn't disappoint. On one play, I saw him get tackled, his legs cut from underneath him, but he before he hit the ground, he tucked forward, somersaulted just inches from the ground, rolled on his back, and sprang up on his legs. He was amazing.
But so were the Gators that day.
Through eight games that season, Herschel had rushed for 1,096 yards, and the Bulldogs were undefeated and ranked second in the nation.
Was he really that good? On the third play of the game, Herschel answered, motoring 72 yards for a touchdown, and it looked as if it was going to be another long day for the Gators. He finished with 238 yards on 37 carries, and you'd have thought that would be enough, but it wasn't.
On the other side of the field, a little-known Gator wide receiver named Tyrone Young was having the game of his career. Young hauled in 10 catches for 183 yards from UF quarterback Wayne Peace. Every time you looked up, Young was making a big play.
The Gators, who came in ranked No. 20 following their forgettable 0-10-1 season a year earlier, trailed just 14-10 at the half. The Dawgs used two field goals to stretch the lead to 20-10 after three quarters.
Then magic happened.
The text above and the subsequent excerpt were from a column by Peter Kerasotis in Brevard County’s Florida Today newspaper. It turns out that he began matriculating at U.F. the same quarter that I did (the last year for quarters at Florida). As he wrote, the Gators made a valiant comeback and in the fourth quarter took the lead, 26-21. Up in the endzone of my hometown Gator Bowl sat me and my brother and a bunch of Florida students. We were going crazy. My memory says we were in the endzone stands looking directly at the Gator defense as they were harassing the hell out of Georgia’s offense. This meant Georgia had their backs to us and all the action unfolded directly in front of us. The screaming was incredible. Georgia was on their goal line and we were doing our best to drown them out. First down and second down occurred. The stadium was literally rocking. Victory was at hand and the partying was going to be super good.
And then them damn cornbread and collard greens-eating Bulldawgs broke our hearts.
Larry Munson’s call of that play up in the Georgia radio booth has become quite famous. This is my interpretation of his exact, heartbreaking call. I’m not so much of a Gator that I can’t acknowledge that this is a classic call:
Florida in a stand-up five, they may or may not blitz.
Belue third down on the 8 . . . in trouble . . . he got a block behind him . . . going to throw on the run . . . complete on the 25 to the 30!
Lindsay Scott 35, 40, Lindsay Scott 45, 50, 45, 40.
Well, I can’t believe it. Ninety-two yards and Lindsay really got in a foot race.
I broke my chair. I came right through a chair. A metal steel chair with about a 5 inch cushion, I broke it. The booth came apart. The stadium . . . well, the stadium fell down . . . now they do have to renovate this place . . . they’ll have to rebuild it now.
This is incredible. You know this game has always been called the World’s Greatest [Outdoor] Cocktail Party. Do you know what’s gonna happen here tonight? And up at St. Simons and Jekyll Island, and all those places where all those Dawg people have got those condominiums for 4 days?
Man is there going to be some property destroyed tonight!
26-21, Dawgs on top. We were gone. I’d gave up, you did too. We were out of it and gone.
Miracle!
It was at this game, at this moment, where every other University of Florida football game became simply a game and this became THE game on our schedule for me. Truth be told, it already was that for me but this really, really nailed it down. It was also where I learned to have a certain contempt for the defeatist element among Gator fans. All around me, the students gave up. All around me, it seemed as if the life went out of everyone and we turned the stadium over to Georgia. But there was still time left and we had a potent offense capable of coming down the field. In fact, we did make a bit of a drive (IIRC) but couldn’t quite bring it home.
Georgia won.
They had their miracle.
And I had to live with my father’s good-natured ribbing about his Georgia boys. That’s part of what makes this game so special. In some ways, I feel a little sorry for Floridians who don’t have any Georgia relatives and vice-versa. It makes a remarkable social event even more special. For instance, in honor of my father and for psychological satisfaction alone, I try to make sure that I have at least one plate of cornbread and collard greens leading up to this here game. Yes sir, buddy!
And every ass-whuppin we’re able to deliver to them these days, they damn well deserve. So yes, I’m enjoying the hell out of our recent domination.
Beat Georgia. Beat the hell out of Georgia. And then slap ‘em silly some more!
Y’all excuse me while I go get me another plate of them good ole, down home, collard greens.
Go Gators!
End Modified October 2005 post
There you have it. I'll close with the tribute to those Jah-Juh Dawgs.
Good luck to both teams. However . . . Go You Mighty Gators !!!
We are so blessed with good fortune in Gator Nation that we are suffering from the luxury of ridiculous bitching and moaning over the lack of . . . perfection.
Last year (not this year, mind you; last year, a national championship year) Gator fans were incredibly displeased with the performance of our offense for much of the season. This year, we're suffering through the same criticism It's more legitimate this year but its still ridiculous. For those who are complaining this year, I can't help but wonder what they were thinking up through the third quarter of the Arkansas game . . . LAST year. A national championship year in which we put up at least 30 points on every SEC team, including games leading up to the Fayetteville contest. But my goodness, the angst on most, if not all, Gator sports boards. The strong criticism was everywhere.
Here's my strong opinion: this game of football (the ultimate team game) is much more interesting (and fun) when fans don't insist on simultaneously navel-gazing while acting as if they have perfect 360-degree vision.
The obvious issues "we all see" out there on the field may not be the "issues" that need to be addressed at all. The probability is that they aren't, they are only the end-result and visible manifestation of the actual issues. They are (so-to-speak) so simple, even a caveman can see them. This is true even if some player is spilling his guts to some "Gator Sports Insider" who thinks he's getting the straight stuff and "verifying" everything we cavemen think we see.
It's like watching a replay from a bad angle that can't possibly tell you whether a ball was fumbled before crossing the goal line yet insisting that the ball was clearly, and indisputably, out. Absurd foolishness, and we're seeing way too much of that kind of stuff written by Gator fans and numbskull sportswriters all across America.
Here's another strong opinion: we have the greatest coach we've ever had, the greatest staff we've ever had, the greatest quarterback we've ever had, and quite likely the greatest defense we've ever had.
We don't have the greatest offense we've ever had and whaddayaknow . . . we're still working out some kinks with red zone production. Cool by me, because we have the fewest serious issues and concerns of any team in the nation -- any team -- and we can close out the year as national champions even if our red zone production doesn't improve.
Our team is just that good.
But football being football, we may wake up one Sunday and find that our offense scored like crazy but our great defense was shredded and we lost a game we probably shouldn't have lost.
Again, this is why we and many other programs have never had an undefeated season in the modern era. It is a supremely difficult thing to accomplish and you have to have a healthy dose of good fortune.
We are well into the season and I've not commented much about the Sunshine State college football squads. Now is a good time, prior to the Florida-Georgia game, so here goes nuttin and sumpin all at the same time.
[1] About my Gators: not overly impressive? Is that what I heard from Nessler last night on TV? Yes, I'm sure of it. Hmmmm. That's the kind of take that seriously lacks perspective. Florida is first in the BCS rakings for the first time EVER, and 7-0 with an offense that hasn't had sustained excellence for any one game this year. But we're still a top-ranked offense. Not overly impressive? We are 7-0 with a defense that is managing its injuries and consistently smothering opponents, even when the offense makes them endure multiple turnovers and severe game-changing situations. Not overly impressive? We are 3-0 against the West for the first time in forever, including a win in the State of Mississippi. Any fool following the Gators knows they have some kind of weird juju in Missasipp that they've been working on us for years. They threw all of it, and the kitchen sink, at us last night. Superman -- Superman! -- threw two pick-six interceptions last night. I don't think I've ever seen him do that! I can't really remember him throwing one but I'm sure he's done it a time or two. Still, we won, and we won fairly comfortably. Not overly impressive?
Not overly impressive???
The hell you say!!!
The only point I will grant is this: Tim is trying to too hard. Much too hard. We need to figure out a way where he will grant himself permission to push the re-set button and allow the game action to come to him rather than him forcing the issue. Incredibly, I suspect Superman has allowed some of the foolish NFL talk to get the better of him. To hell with those idiots, my man. Just go play ball and allow the set-pieces on the field dictate your actions.
Now . . . here come the Dawgs. Them other Dawgs. The Dawgs we hate. With a genuine passion. They are going to have something special for us this year I do believe. It would make their season to spoil our quest for another conference & national title but it would especially please them to be the team that ends our quest for a perfect season. They've done that before, you know. I just want to win that game however, whatever. Survive and advance, survive and advance.
I should arrive in Jacksonville by Wednesday to celebrate Tebow's last Florida-Georgia game. Superman will be hyped and so will all of Gator Nation.
Come on BigOrangeand Blue !!!
The kid from Big Duval, in his home county, against the hated Dawgs. I may not be able to get tickets, but I have to be in the vicinity. Win or lose, I have to be in the vicinity. I will also make sure I've had plenty of my lucky plates of cornbread and collard greens. Go Gators!
[2] About the Canes: they're back! Just not quite as far back as I presumed after that great start to the season. Jacory is the real deal but (like so many kids from the Bottom) he believes too much of that South Florida hype. I hated to see the Canes lose to Clemson but I was extremely pleased to see two kids from North Florida perform well for the Tigers and remind South Floridians -- you don't play better ball than us, my friends. You just have more people. Parker from Jacksonville and Spiller from Union County were both magnificent! Next year will be the real test for the Canes but they are clearly headed in the right direction. And it may be a sign in me that the Gator in me is responding to this resurrection but . . . that hit yesterday where the Cane knocked off the Clemson players helmet? Clearly a dirty hit where the guy lowered his head and, with the crown of his helmet, aimed only at the guys head. I was amazed the television crew seriously wondered what Dabo Swinney was upset about. Hell, look at the videotape! It was a very dangerous hit and the school or the conference should discipline him. It was one of the most dangerous hits I've seen in quite some time.
[3] About the Noles: just go ahead and fire Bobby Bowden, okay? I thought Jim Smith said exactly what needed to be said. Damn how many national idiots in the sports media state the absurd over and over and over again (Bobby Bowden deserves the right to determine when he retires -- no hell he doesn't!) No employee ever attains the right to tell his or her employer the terms of their continued employment, including the end date. It just doesn't happen and its crazy talk to assert so in the Bobby Bowden case. Bobby isn't coaching the team now and he hasn't coached them for years. It's all an absolute farce. Meanwhile, Jimbo is making a very good case for himself as the next head coach. He has done a fantastic job developing Christian Ponder into a superior quarterback and if the Noles are smart enough to get behind him -- and I think a strong faction of the Bowden acolytes will never accept him, just as so many Spurrier acolytes actively worked to undermine Ron Zook at Florida; it's a weird thing to observe but it is real -- he will bring them back to sustained prominence.
[4] About the season: two self-serving predictions; (a) Florida will have a rematch with LSU in the conference title game. People have prematurely fallen in love with Alabama and forgotten how much desire the Bengal Tigers will have to beat Nick Saban and Alabama. I just don't think Bama quite has it this year and the key for me has been their inability to do much with Julio Jones (who is a terror!). They need Julio to have any hope of beating us and to have a good chance of beating LSU. I don't think it will happen (sorry, Ree -- and I hope like hell this doesn't jinx us against Georgia or Carolina); (b) Florida and Texas appear to be headed for a collision in the Rose Bowl if they (the Horns) can get by Oklahoma State. I'm not sure they can but I am sure that Oklahoma last year worried me more than this Texas bunch. Our defense will eat Colt McCoy alive.
The blemish, of course, on Orange Park, is the least of it.
Word this week that a child was missing in Orange Park came as something of a shock. That is my hometown. And it is an idyllic place to raise a child. Little 7-year-old Somer Thompson, unfortunately, has been killed and then dumped into the trash. I can't explain logically why that particular bit of news is all the more infuriating but it is. It is. Her body was found in a landfill and now the hunt is on for her killer(s).
I look at her picture (how can you not?) and I imagine her walking home and getting angry, running away from her siblings:
And you just say to no one in particular, but you do just say it: "You can't run away from the pack, baby girl! You have to stay with the group!"
So we've lost a precious little child and beautiful Orange Park gets a blemish.
Orange Park remains a great town. Life continues, but this pain will surely linger around the town. Many, many people move to O.P. because it is such a great town. It has grown tremendously, however, and "Orange Park" is now a very broad region covering most of northeastern Clay County and part of Duval County close to the I-295 intersection with Blanding Boulevard. So I wasn't really, really initially tuned in to the news about this girl because so much has been going on at work, and I was still recovering from a road trip to witness a beautiful niece getting married up in Carolina, etc.
But then I heard "Grove Park Elementary."
Oh my goodness! That's just up the way from my family's house and actually located well within the town limits. That school used to be known, in the days of segregation, as "T.C. Miller" and it was my school for first and second grade. It isn't actually located in Grove Park (which is an Orange Park subdivision); it's located in one of the primary black communities in town. Like so many casual insults inflicted on black communities in the wake or integration, the school was closed and we were shipped off to W.E. Cherry Elementary or S. Bryan Jennings Elementary. Later, the school was greatly expanded and renamed Grove Park to placate (I'm sure) the white parents that would now have to send their kids to a school in the middle of a black community.
No perfect place exists on this planet, however, and Orange Park is idyllic. Just a great place to raise a kid. An online friend who grew up in Grove Park and also graduated from the University of Florida was discussing just how surreal the news of this missing child was for him. He, too, attended Grove Park Elementary and walked home from the neighborhood school.
Now that memory is blemished by the evil obsession that lurks. And lurks. An evil that prowls great neighborhoods waiting for the chance when some child, somewhere, will let down his or her guard and in an instant be gone.
I pray that the Lord will give strength to the family, especially the siblings who were walking with her that beautiful Orange Park day . . . and then -- all of a sudden -- weren't.
So . . . they punked Barack Obama, huh? Damn fool. Eventually, even the press is going to figure out that Barack Obama isn't nearly as popular as people presume. In America, or internationally. A "popular" President simply doesn't get punked like that.
While talking with a good friend during the last week, I've wondered -- we both have -- about the remarkable squandering of multiple great opportunities by Barack Obama. This friend is much more of a fan of Obama than I am but we both hate to see "the first" fail so miserably, so predictably, in his first year as the Chief Executive.
And fail, he has.
I'm beginning to think some grown up needs to sit down with him and have a detailed discussion on what is, and is not, "presidential." My man (our man) the President doesn't seem to have a clue. Pimping for an American city to host the Olympics is definitely NOT PRESIDENTIAL.
While talking with the same friend I referenced earlier, I decided to send the friend a commentary from Britain's Melanie Phillips -- Who Does He Think He's Kidding? -- because I'm intensely interested in seeing, and assessing, how successfully the opposition is "tagging" Barack Obama. Phillips quoted a devastating Washington Times assessment (they called Obama's efforts "the worst foreign policy ever") and they tagged him thusly:
Actions in Mr. Obama's world are consequence-free. The only country the Obama team has tried to strong-arm is Honduras, which is desperately trying to stave off a socialist takeover by an anti-American autocrat whom the State Department has concluded is worthy of full U.S. support. This has delighted Cuban dictators Raul and Fidel Castro and Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, who are very willing to let the United States carry their water. Venezuela, meanwhile, has signed a major arms deal with Russia, continues to build the anti-Gringo ‘Bolivarian’ bloc, bullies U.S. ally Colombia and plans to launch its own nuclear program.
Then there is the catalogue of Mr. Obama's embarrassing moments on the world stage, a list which includes: giving England's Queen Elizabeth II an iPod with his speeches on it; giving British Prime Minister Gordon Brown a collection of DVDs that were not formatted to the European standard (by contrast, Mr. Brown gave Mr. Obama an ornamental desk-pen holder made from the oak timbers of Victorian anti-slaver HMS Gannet, among other historically significant gifts); calling ‘Austrian’ a language; bowing to the Saudi king; releasing a photo of a conference call with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which the president was showing the soles of his shoes to the camera (an Arab insult); saying ‘let me be absolutely clear. Israel is a strong friend of Israel’s’; saying the United States was ‘one of the largest Muslim countries in the world’; suggesting Arabic translators be shifted from Iraq to Afghanistan where Arabic is not a native language; sending a letter to French President Jacques Chirac when Nicolas Sarkozy was the president of France; holding a town-hall meeting in France and not calling on a single French citizen; and referring to ‘Cinco de Cuatro’ in front of the Mexican ambassador when he meant Cinco de Mayo. Also of note was Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton giving Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a ‘reset’ button with the Russian word for ‘overcharge.’
The obvious tag?
Incompetent.
I said to my friend that Phillips' opinion, and the Washington Times editorial, are both clearly biased against Obama. His problem, however, is the fact that the above conventional wisdom is increasingly being accepted by independents (Republicans are absolutely mobilized after seeing just a few months of this crowd in action). Independents -- that's where the action is, and they are rendering a harsh judgment of the Obama Administration and Obama himself. Now he pulls this loser stunt with the Chicago Olympics effort.
Fourth among four!?!
When you think about the times and the mood of the country (anti-elitist, anti-incumbent), Obama is (unfortunately for him, and probably unfortunately for African Americans) the ultimate elitist incumbent -- a good, presentable, articulate African American who says exactly what the super elite want him to say and does precisely what the super elite wants him to do -- to hell with whether it upsets the average American and fails to produce political results internally or externally.
That's not a good prescription for the future success of the Obama Administration or the 44th President.
Luckily, along comes Victor Davis Hanson with a very good prescription that recognizes the only possible way for a Democrat to successfully govern as Chief Executive. Read it and weep, Democrats:
1) Fiscal sanity that leads to federal spending freezes and a balanced budget that in turn soon allows a paying down of the debt.
2) An oil/nuclear/coal/natural gas rapid development effort (again, to exploit especially new fields in Alaska, California, the Gulf, and North Dakota) to tide us over until alternate energy and new conservation lessen dependence. The alternative is to dream on about “green jobs” while we go broke trying to pay for scarcer imported oil, and lose our autonomy in the next price hike or Mideast crisis, even as we suffer amoral rants from oil-rich unhinged thugs like Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Gaddafi, and Putin.
3) A new national consensus on security to decide that when and if we go to war, to see the effort through, on the principle that whatever the mistakes we commit in battle are far outweighed by the cost of defeat.
4) A bad/worse choice gut check reform on entitlements, especially concerning those unsustainable like Social Security and Medicare, that calibrates payouts in terms of incoming capital—whether by raising age eligibilities or curbing automatic cost of living hikes.
5) Clear, demarcated, and enforced national borders, and an end to illegal immigration through greater enforcement, employer sanction, border fortification, and a change in national attitudes about unlawful entry.
6) Zero tolerance on government corruption. There is no reason why someone like a Charles Rangel is still the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
7) Tort reform, including limits on personal injury settlements and loser-pays law suit reform.
8) A renewed commitment to national and regional missile defense, on the expectation that the next two decades are going to be terribly dangerous, as lunatic regimes may well threaten to hold an American city or ally as nuclear hostage.
9) Federal investment in hard infrastructure projects, not redistributive entitlements or Murtha-like earmarks, such as freeways, dams, water projects, electrical grids, ports, rail, etc., with regional needs adjudicated by national bipartisan boards.
10) A move to lower taxes, preferably by alternatives to the present income tax system, whether by a consumption tax or flat taxes, calibrated to commensurate spending cuts.
This is clearly the path forward we are ultimately going to travel. You can bet your bottom dollar a majority of these points will be undertaken. Obama can lead the parade if he so chooses. Or he can get washed away by the tide of history.
I do love the tendency in so many to spout something and then insist on its truthfulness because, well, because they just said it. From the political left, right and center there has been no shortage of critique hurled upon neoconservatives in the last few years. Bret Stephens, in the Wall Street Journal, writes an international piece illuminating what was thought to be (just a few months ago) the most discredited wing of an ostensibly brain-dead conservative movement:
[Russia's] ambassador to the U.N. last week bellyached that the U.S. "continues
to be a rather difficult negotiating partner"—and that was after Mr.
Obama cancelled the missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech
Republic. Thus does the politics of concession meet with the logic of
contempt.
All this must, at some level, come as
a surprise to an administration so deeply in love with itself. "I am
well aware of the expectations that accompany my presidency around the
world," Mr. Obama told the U.N.'s General Assembly last week with his
usual modesty. He added that those expectations were "rooted in
hope—the hope that real change is possible, and the hope that America
will be a leader in bringing about such change."
Yet what sounds like "hope" in, say,
Toronto or Barcelona tends to come across as fecklessness in Warsaw and
Jerusalem. In Moscow and Tehran, it reads like credulity—and an
opportunity to exploit the U.S. at a moment of economic weakness and
political self-infatuation.
For those much-scorned neocons, none of
this comes as a surprise. Neoconservatives generally take the view that
the internal character of a regime usually predicts the nature of its
foreign policy. Governments that are answerable to their own people and
accountable to a rule of law tend to respect the rights of their
neighbors, honor their treaty commitments, and abide by the
international rules of the road. By contrast, regimes that prey on
their own citizens are likely to prey on their neighbors as well. Their
word is the opposite of their bond.
That's why neocons have no faith in
any deals or "grand bargains" the U.S. might sign with North Korea or
Iran over their nuclear programs: Cheating is in the DNA of both
regimes, and the record is there to prove it. Nor do neocons put much
stock in the notion that there's a "reset" button with the Kremlin.
Russia is the quintessential spoiler state, seeking its advantage in
America's troubles at home and abroad. Ditto for Syria, which has
perfected the art of taking credit for solving problems of its own
creation.
Where neocons do put their faith is in
American power, not just military or economic power but also as an
instrument of moral and political suasion.
Amen!
I have faith that we'll be done with Barack and Michelle soon enough. Soon enough. The sky is not falling and all damages inflicted under this bizarre administration can be undone. Given that we cannot possibly opt out of our leadership position in the world, nor can we possibly wash our hands of foreign entanglements, neoconservatives will be proven not simply technically correct in the broad sweep of their prescriptions but self-evidently prudent in those same prescriptions. Academics, business elites or left-leaning defense experts who didn't have nearly enough faith in American neoconservatives but far too much faith in China or Russia, Syria or Iran, will be proven to be the educated fools that they are.
Poland and Israel, yes. India and Australia, yes. Indonesia, Ethiopia and Botswana, yes. Some of these places Barack is insisting we cozy up to? Hell no!
All we have to do is remain vigilant, keep the faith, keep living and stay active.
I suffer from red-green color blindness and thus have to be careful with my clothing combination's and I must be especially attentive when I visit a new city while driving -- how are the lights configured, how deep is the color of the red or green light, etc. -- so you'll understand why this next story from UF caught my attention. I'm posting the complete release.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Researchers from the University of Washington and the University of Florida used gene therapy to cure two squirrel monkeys of color blindness — the most common genetic disorder in people.
Writing online Wednesday in the journal Nature, scientists cast a
rosy light on the potential for gene therapy to treat adult vision
disorders involving cone cells — the most important cells for vision in
people.
“We’ve added red sensitivity to cone cells in animals that are born
with a condition that is exactly like human color blindness,” said William W. Hauswirth, a professor of ophthalmic molecular genetics at the UF College of Medicine and a member of the UF Genetics Institute and the Powell Gene Therapy Center.
“Although color blindness is only moderately life-altering, we’ve shown
we can cure a cone disease in a primate, and that it can be done very
safely. That’s extremely encouraging for the development of therapies
for human cone diseases that really are blinding.”
The finding is also likely to intrigue millions of people around the
world who are colorblind, including about 3.5 million people in the
United States, more than 13 million in India and more than 16 million
in China. The problem mostly affects men, leaving about 8 percent of
Caucasian men in the United States incapable of discerning red and
green hues that are important for everyday things like recognizing
traffic lights.
“People who are colorblind feel that they are missing out,” said Jay
Neitz, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Washington.
“If we could find a way to do this with complete safety in human eyes,
as we did with monkeys, I think there would be a lot of people who
would want it. Beyond that, we hope this technology will be useful in
correcting lots of different vision disorders.”
The discovery comes about 10 years after Neitz and his wife Maureen
Neitz, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Washington and
senior author of the study, began training two squirrel monkeys named
Dalton and Sam.
In addition to teaching the animals, the Neitz research group worked
with the makers of a standard vision-testing technique called the
Cambridge Colour Test to perfect a way the monkeys could “tell” them
which colors they were seeing.
The tests are similar to ones given to elementary children the world
over, in which students are asked to identify a specific pattern of
colored dots among a field of dots that vary in size, color and
intensity. The researchers devised a computer touch screen the monkeys
could use to trace the color patterns. When the animals chose
correctly, they received a reward of grape juice.
Likewise, decades were spent by Hauswirth and colleagues at the
University of Florida to develop the gene-transfer technique that uses
a harmless adeno-associated virus to deliver corrective genes to
produce a desired protein.
In this case, researchers wanted to produce a substance called
long-wavelength opsin in the retinas of the monkeys. This particular
form of opsin is a colorless protein that works in the retina to make
pigments that are sensitive to red and green.
“We used human DNAs, so we won’t have to switch to human genes as we
move toward clinical treatments,” said Hauswirth, who is also involved
in a clinical trial with human patients to test gene therapy for the
treatment of Leber congenital amaurosis, a form of blindness that
strikes children.
About five weeks after the treatment, the monkeys began to acquire color vision, almost as if it occurred overnight.
“Nothing happened for the first 20 weeks,” Neitz said. “But we knew
right away when it began to work. It was if they woke up and saw these
new colors. The treated animals unquestionably responded to colors that
had been invisible to them.”
It took more than a year and a half to test the monkeys’ ability to
discern 16 hues, with some of the hues varying as much as 11-fold in
intensity.
Dalton is named for John Dalton, an English chemist who realized he
was colorblind and published the first paper about the condition in
1798.
“We’ve had Dalton and Sam for 10 years. They are like our children,”
Neitz said. “This species are friendly, docile monkeys that we just
love. We think it is useful to continue to follow them — it’s been two
years now that they’ve been seeing in color, and continuing to check
their vision and allowing them to play with the computer is part of
their enrichment.”
With the discovery, the researchers are the first to address a
vision disorder in primates in which all photoreceptors are intact and
healthy, providing a hint of gene therapy’s full potential to restore
vision.
About 1 in 30,000 Americans have a hereditary form of blindness
called achromatopsia, which causes nearly complete color blindness and
extremely poor central vision. “Those patients would be targets for
almost exactly the same treatment,” Hauswirth said.
Even in common types of blindness such as age-related macular
degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, vision could potentially be
rescued by targeting cone cells, he said.
“The major thrust of the study is you can ameliorate if not cure
color blindness with gene therapy,” said Gerald H. Jacobs, a research
professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara,
who was not involved in the research. “There are still questions about
safety, but in these monkeys at least, there were no untoward effects.
Those who are motivated to ameliorate their color defect might take
some hope from the findings.
“This is also another example of how utterly plastic the visual
system is to change,” Jacobs said. “The nervous system can extract
information from alterations to photopigments and make use of it almost
instantaneously.”
Ever since Lane Kiffen began his buffonish antics, I've tried to convince Gator fans that he was being purposeful and it was a very smart thing to do. This has usually provoked derision and Kiffen jokes, etc. I kept trying to say to friends Kiffen was setting up a situation where it would be very difficult for him to "lose" in the big picture even if he actually lost the game, especially because he was always very likely to lose the game anyway.
Hell, my younger brother seriously wanted Florida to put 75 points up on the board! Obviously, that didn't happen and across the nation today, Lane isn't the idiot he was proclaimed to be all summer long.
Yesterday, the proof was in the pudding. No, he isn't an idiot.
Give Lane Kiffen his props.
He has assembled an extremely competent staff of good coaches and great recruiters. Give him two more seasons and he should have them back to where they were. Sure, they laid an egg against UCLA last week and will probably lay a few more this season but . . . they were ready for Florida.
Because their coach laid so much out there all off-season!
We were on the verge of the expected 30-point victory and then Tim (who obviously really wanted this game and that fact threw him off a bit, along with an apparently excellent defensive scheme -- score another one for Kiffen) and then Superman fumbled near the goal line.
Needless to say, that was a huge change in momentum.
It was then and there that I gave up on the 30-point victory and decided to be satisfied with the victory instead.
Urban, however, is the master chess player and he probably knew all along how well-focused Tennessee would be. He certainly wouldn't have had difficulty recognizing how over-hyped the fanbase and probably the players were. So he reverted to being a methodical, if unimpressive, machine after trying an initial over the top pass play. Cool with me.
South California did lose yesterday, didn't they? BYU did get smacked yesterday, didn't they?
Survive and advance. Three up, three down.
Go Gators!
And kudos to you, Lane Kiffen. It may be a little late but . . . welcome to the family.
You do remember those words from Bill Clinton, don't you?
The era of big government is over!
Quick, somebody go run and tell Barack before it's too late. Thanks to a nice prompt from Cris Mattoon, I've been directed to a good piece from the chair of the California Republican Party, Ron Nehring, that highlights the dilemma currently facing Barack Obama because he has declined to travel the centrist road paved by Bill Clinton:
Concurrent with the President's plummeting approval ratings, a new Rasmussen Reports poll shows 51% of Americans believe Congress is too liberal, while only 22% believe it's too conservative. [RattlerGator: think about that for more than a few minutes, please]
Health care marks the end of this phase of the Obama presidency.
Next week the President will attempt to reshuffle the deck with a speech to a joint session of Congress. With broad majorities in both chambers it's something he shouldn't have to do, yet it's something he must do, for while the liberal leadership in Congress may support the health care plan, the American people do not. The President will attempt to change the terms of the debate to get his way despite the objections of so many Americans.
Going into 2010, Republican victory is not yet assured. We have to work for it. The President's numbers are unlikely to remain in the tank forever, and when they tick up a bit there will be a long line of liberals in the media to talk about the "comeback."
That comeback, however, is likely to be limited by what Bill Clinton possessed and Barack Obama lacks: an ability to put aside liberalism when it's a loser with the public. It was in 1994, and it is today.
Naturally, I agree. We'll see what he does in this speech. Does he tell the hyena's on the far-left to take a hike? Or will he double-down and roll with the cult-of-personality freaks?
Not long ago I submitted a comment at Thomas P.M. Barnett's blog that (last I checked) they declined to accept. It mentioned (as I recall) the fact that America remains a center-right nation and that Barack has failed to remain true to the tenets he sold to the American public in order to get elected (Post-racial? BS! Post-partisan? Double BS!). I suspect the comment was declined because many of Obama's supporters are frustrated at what they believe "should" be happening as opposed to what they now see is, in fact, occurring with BHO. I saw him clearly for what he was, and I continue to see him clearly for what he is, but for those independent-minded Americans who still desperately want to believe in him (like Barnett) -- they may as well go ahead and accept the obvious: Obama will continue to be punished for as long as he kowtows to the far-left.
As he should. There's still plenty of time for him to straighten-up, etc., but I just don't think he's going to be able to bring himself to do it.
I am on record as being absolutely flabbergasted by the swooning over the supposedly gifted oratory of Barack Obama. The man hasn't given a great speech since that Democratic Convention speech in 2004 when no one knew who he was.
That's it.
All of his hyped speeches since then have been demonstrably off -- except for helping him stay on course to win the Presidency (admittedly, an exception that nearly renders my point meaningless -- nearly). But great? Memorable? Please! They've been the effective delivery of a cherry-picked proxy but nothing more. So here's Mickey Kaus, no right-winger, wondering what I'm wondering about this upcoming speech before Congress:
[T]he best evidence that Obama's health reform might be sliding down the Liverpool Care Pathway is his decision to address a joint session of Congress next week.
Obama can give one more of these stunt speeches, maybe, before their
effectiveness is radically diminished. Why do it now? Especially when
he doesn't seem to have anything new to say. ... And when his last attempts mainly proved that what Politico calls "the most gifted explainer of anyone to occupy the Oval office since Reagan or Roosevelt" (please) was stunningly ineffective as a salesman--especially when it came to reassuring seniors worried about rationing.
... When even if Obama is atypically persuasive the best that will
happen, in the ensuing days, is that the bill will get out of a Senate
committee, leaving a long slog ahead. ...
It's possible that White House aides are deluded about Obama's
persuasive powers. It's possible that they're deluded about the impact
of invoking Senator Kennedy's legacy two weeks after his death.
It's also possible that they aren't deluded, and they know that
despite all the optimistic stories planted in the MSM, they are in big trouble--that public support has fallen dangerously low. ... The speech itself seems a sign of weakness. ... Update:Implausible but inventive alternate theory.
Okay, Barack. I've really not listened to or watched anything he has done since the inauguration, not intently anyway. This speech, I will.
Following up on my last Obama-bashing post, today I offer something of another. Bashing, perhaps, but definitely true.
Back in the days when I thought being a successful trial lawyer in the style of Willie Gary was my destiny, I remember reading some book called "The Art of Verbal Warfare" or something like that. Since then I've been somewhat conscious of how groups spin concepts and words to their advantage. With that as background, it will not surprise you that John Steele Gordon's post on Obama's Backward Progressivism resonated with me:
[T]hree hundred years later, despite the vast changes that have taken place, the basic political divide in the world remains between those who believe in empowering the state to do good for all and those who believe in empowering the individual to do good for himself under the rule of law while letting the invisible hand do good for all thereby.
With many fits and starts, individual power has been winning around the world and will, I am sure, continue to win. Thus, Obama’s idea of how the country should be run is really a throwback to an earlier world view. But in the greatest triumph of public relations in the history of politics, the Left succeeded some one hundred years ago in labeling its ideas as “progressive” — i.e., new and innovative. In fact they are deeply regressive. Louis XIV’s France, after all, was characterized by an autocrat who ruled with the help of a council that served at his pleasure and with the support of a small and vastly privileged elite; the great mass of the people had no rights whatever. How does that differ from Leonid Brezhnev’s Soviet Union? Other than the autocrat being chosen by heredity, not at all (and North Korea has even eliminated that difference).
Is there much difference between Barack Obama’s vision for America and Clement Atlee’s vision for Britain sixty-four years ago. Not really.
Going back to an idea that failed more than two generations ago may be “progressive” but it’s not progress.
I hereby nominate the following course of action by all conservatives: never allow for the mention of political "progressives" to pass without correcting the record and accurately calling them "regressives."
That's what they are, and that's what they've been for hundreds of years now.
Well, I've settled into a rut of hit-and-run on Obama so why change right now? Hmmm? Jennifer Rubin makes the point:
I wonder how the “temperament” cheerleaders feel now. That
temperament, according to many pundits, was the primary justification
for voting for the seriously under-qualified candidate. No, he didn’t
have legislative accomplishments nor any executive experience. He had
written memoirs, not policy books. But that was OK, we were assured. He
had judgment and a superior temperament — calm under fire and
the uncanny ability to remain above the fray. While John McCain
suspended and unsuspended his campaign, Obama was serene during the
financial meltdown.
Well now he’s “shrill,” as Will puts it, an angry and frantic figure
full of accusation and fear-mongering. The candidate whose “judgment”
was to make up for a deficit in experience has made a host of judgment
errors — from deferring to Congress on legislative drafting, to
believing that the recession changed Americans’ fundamental political
aversion to big government, to sullying the White House with a lot of
classless name-calling.
Among the many things the media cheerleaders got wrong (Obama’s
political “moderation” is the other great canard), the fawning over
Obama’s temperament turns out to be one of the most glaring. He is,
with regard to his predecessor and political opponents, among the least
gracious presidents in memory, rivaling perhaps only Jimmy Carter and
Richard Nixon in smallness of spirit. He hasn’t demonstrated any of the
promised ability to rise above the fray.
Okay. Least gracious. Smallness of spirit. Those will hang around the neck of Barack Obama from here on out. He has been tagged, successfully. And we're just waiting for a Michelle eruption -- sure to come before the 2010 elections have come and gone.
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