RattlerGator Blog

2014 11.19 Africa Review

Courtesy of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, the U.S. National Defense University, and the United States Department of Defense, here are a representative sample of articles on African matters, either from around the African continent or about Africa-related activities: 

The 'Caliphate's' Colonies: Islamic State's Gradual Expansion into North Africa
The caliphate has a beach. It is located on the Mediterranean Sea around 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of Crete in Darna. The eastern Libya city has a population of around 80,000, a beautiful old town and an 18th century mosque, from which the black flag of the Islamic State flies. The port city is equipped with Sharia courts and an "Islamic Police" force which patrols the streets in all-terrain vehicles. A wall has been built in the university to separate female students from their male counterparts and the disciplines of law, natural sciences and languages have all been abolished. Those who would question the city's new societal order risk death. Darna has become a colony of terror, and it is the first Islamic State enclave in North Africa. The conditions in Libya are perfect for the radical Islamists: a disintegrating state, a location that is strategically well situated and home to the largest oil reserves on the continent. Should Islamic State (IS) manage to establish control over a significant portion of Libya, it could trigger the destabilization of the entire Arab world. Der Spiegle

Al Qaeda branch releases video of French, Dutch hostages
Al Qaeda's North African branch, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), released a video Monday purporting to show a French and a Dutch hostage who have been held in the Sahara since being kidnapped separately in Mali in November 2011. In an online video identified by the private SITE jihadist monitoring group, French national Serge Lazarevic and a man identifying himself as Sjaak Rijke appeal to their governments to negotiate their release from the AQIM militants. There is nothing in the footage of Lazarevic to suggest when it was shot, but Rijke says he is speaking on September 26 this year and refers to a US-Taliban prisoner exchange conducted in May. France 24

Mali: Last Chance in Algiers
As northern Mali experiences renewed violence, peace negotiations in Algiers offer a unique opportunity to resolve the crisis. But after almost two months of negotiations, peace remains a distant hope. The Malian government and participating armed groups have struggled to find common ground. Influential radical groups that are absent from the negotiating table are tempted to resort to violence to derail the process. Conflict resolution will require reconciliation of competing interests regarding security in the Sahara, organisation of the Malian state structure and local balance of power between divided communities in the north. In the face of armed clashes, it is tempting for mediators to move quickly to achieve a deal that would only guarantee security in the short term. But rushing the process will not help. Time is needed to build the foundations of sustainable peace. After months of deadlock, Algeria arranged international mediation that had long been handicapped by institutional rivalries. The mediation team led by Algeria should maintain this momentum and take the time necessary to build broad consensus for a future agreement. International Crisis Group

Islamic State Allegiance Could Cost Egypt's Sinai Jihadis Popular Support
Last week, the Egyptian militant group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (ABM), which operates primarily in the Sinai Peninsula, pledged its loyalty to the so-called Islamic State (IS). In an email interview, Zack Gold, a visiting fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, discussed the implications for Egypt.WPR: What are the major armed groups operating in Sinai, to what degree do they coordinate activities and do they have any foreign support? Zack Gold:Egypt's Sinai Peninsula has been a base of armed activity, both militancy and smuggling, for many years. Following the uprising of 2011, however, the remnants of smaller jihadi groups amalgamated into Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, the "Supporters of Jerusalem." World Politic Review

Sinai caught in the middle of Egypt's 'war on terror'
With soldiers firing warning shots to herald the nightly curfew and jihadist militants beheading informants, Sinai's residents find themselves caught in the middle of Egypt's "war on terror". The Sinai Peninsula has become a hotbed of Islamist militancy after decades of neglect under former president Hosni Mubarak, and amid a security vacuum triggered by the army's ouster last year of his successor Mohamed Morsi. Militant attacks remain commonplace almost two years since the military launched its "war on terrorism" in northern Sinai bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip. A brazen suicide bombing on 24 October killed 30 soldiers near the North Sinai capital El-Arish, sparking a state of emergency and a curfew being slapped on several areas of the province. News 24

 Subcommittee Hearing: Fighting Ebola: A Ground-Level View (video)
Witnesses: Mr. Rabih Torbay, Senior Vice President for International Operations International Medical Corps - Mr. Brett Sedgewick, Technical Advisor for Food Security and Livelihoods Global Communities - Darius Mans, Ph.D. President Africare. House Comittee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations

Obama on Ebola in West Africa: 'We are nowhere out of the woods'
President Obama said Tuesday that despite progress, West Africa is "nowhere near out of the woods" on Ebola. "It underscores how important it is to continue to push forward until we stamp out this disease entirely in that region," Obama said before a meeting on the virus with national security and public health officials. "Until we do, there are threats if additional outbreaks, and given the nature of international travel, it means that everybody has some measure of risk." White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said later that the president was referring to the country of Mali, which was declared free of the virus, only to see it come back. Obama said that attention on the virus in the United States has ebbed in the past week, "the challenge remains." The Washington Post

Guarding The Ebola Border
On a map, a border is a solid black line. On the ground, it can feel like a fiction. I'm standing on the edge of a shallow stream through the forest that separates two West African countries: Ivory Coast and Liberia. Here there is no fence. No sign. No border guard to prevent my crossing. On either side of this stream, people speak the same local language, Yokuba, a language incomprehensible to most of their countrymen. They share the same currency, the West African CFA franc, as well as a currency of trust built up over generations of intermarriage and communal life. There's even one tribal king who can settle disputes on both sides. Ebola changed all that. NPR

Army names new units that will deploy to Africa
The Minnesota National Guard's 34th Infantry Division headquarters and soldiers from 11 other states will deploy this spring to support U.S. Ebola response operations in West Africa, officials announced Sunday. In all, about 2,100 soldiers from the National Guard and Army Reserve are expected to deploy to Liberia and Senegal to relieve troops who deployed to the region in September and October as part of Operation United Assistance. The deployment of the Guard and Reserve soldiers was announced Friday. Army officials released the list of specific units tapped for the deployment on Sunday after notifying soldiers and their families. The soldiers, as well as those already in country, are expected to be deployed for six months. About 1,200 Guard soldiers are expected to deploy from these units. ArmyTimes

Algeria opposition calls for new elections
A coalition of Algerian opposition parties and political figures has called for new presidential elections because of the continued hospitalizations of the country's leader. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 77, was elected to a fourth term in April, but he has rarely appeared in public since suffering from a stroke in 2013. He was briefly hospitalized in France last weekend. Tuesday's opposition statement said the leader's absence is a sign of the "serious crisis in the country." The coalition, which includes Islamist and secular opposition parties, and former government ministers, also called for an independent commission to oversee elections. AP on Yahoo News

Tunisia: Political comeback of Ben Ali's cohort a setback to democracy 
The political party Nidaa Tounes has won 85 seats in the newly-elected 217-member Tunisian parliament. This compares with the 69 seats won by the Islamist party Ennahdha, which after the last election in 2011 held the majority in the Constituent Assembly. The elections on October 26th were welcomed by most Arab, African and international media observers who saw in them a model of democracy for a region torn by strife and dictatorship. Lebanese columnist Rami Khouri described the elections as "the most significant domestic and national political development in the modern history of the Arab world". Despite social unrest and severe economic challenges, Tunisia's political factions were able to agree and compromise for the sake of national unity, "in sharp contrast with the hysteria and hallucinatory emotional excesses" in Egypt where the army overthrew the elected Islamist president to great popular acclaim, Khouri wrote in the Daily Star. African Arguments

Tunisia 2.0 - from revolution to republic
For someone who has not been sleeping much, and working punishing hours for months, 27-year old Anis Smaali is in an extraordinarily good mood. He is running a team of 5,000 election observers for Mourakiboun - a group that monitored Tunisia's parliamentary elections in October and on Sunday will be observing the first freely contested presidential election in the country's history. "These are the most important elections in the history of Tunisia," he says with a broad smile. "After this we will have a real government with a five-year mandate. Tunisia is showing that a real and sustainable democracy is possible in the Arab world." Less than four years ago, Mr Smaali was among hundreds of thousands demonstrating outside the Interior Ministry, calling for an end to dictatorship. BBC

Nigeria: Policing the Police
[...] The population of the police is about 370,000, a minuscule fraction of Nigeria's 167m. If the police are unable to manage police affairs, how do we expect them to protect millions of Nigerians? How many other cases, like Banor's, are in police's files? Could Banor have acted alone? We are wondering if the police realise the implications of what they are telling the public. Are they confirming stories about dismissed police officers making their way back to service? Could it be that the police take finger prints of criminals, but do not have finger prints of their personnel? Why is the police pay roll not computerised as has been the case with the Nigeria Immigration Service since 2006? How are the police using the technologies that are available to them? How did Banor's matter get to the stage of the allegations against him? Is his case common in the police? Vanguard on allAfrica

Cameroon under pressure from Boko Haram
Cameroon's military are battling cross-border raids by Nigeria's militant Islamist group Boko Haram, as the BBC's Thomas Fessy found out when he joined soldiers on a patrol. A soldier is standing on the back of a flatbed pick-up truck leading the convoy. His high-powered twin-barrelled gun is turned towards Nigeria. In reality, though, the weapon is aimed at what Boko Haram call their "caliphate", or Islamic state. The border village of Amchide is mostly deserted. Only a handful of people can be seen as we drive through. They are hastily throwing a few belongings on a cart as they prepare to leave. They probably did not have time to take anything when they fled during an attack, and came back to recover their possessions. BBC

Zambia to hold presidential by-election January 20
Zambia's interim leader announced a presidential by-election on Jan. 20 and called for calm and tolerance amid concerns about a tense contest to succeed President Michael Sata, who died in office last month. Interim president Guy Scott, who became the continent's first white leader since the 1994 end of apartheid in South Africa, said he hoped all contestants, both from the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) and opposition parties, would desist from violence. "It is my prayer that peace continues during the campaigning and the presidential by-elections," he told a news conference. Questions about the stability of Africa's second-biggest copper producer arose when Scott fired a presidential front-runner, Edgar Lungu, as PF secretary-general on Nov. 3, without explaining why. Reuters

The real value of the Zimbabwe torture ruling
The South African Police Service (SAPS) really doesn't want to investigate torture in Zimbabwe. When the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) and the Zimbabwean Exiles Forum (ZEF) first asked it to do so in 2008, even giving detectives a dossier of evidence to get them started, the police took no action. When a court action (brought by SALC) forced it to do so, it appealed. When it lost that appeal, it appealed again. All to no avail. In late October, the Constitutional Court - the highest court in the land - ruled that SAPS must investigate the complaint. Failure to do so would violate South Africa's obligations under both domestic and international law. For SALC and international justice campaigners, the verdict was vindication after a long and difficult fight. ISS

'White Widow alive and well' in Somalia: report
Dubbed the "White Widow," Samantha Lewthwaite - a British convert to Islam who is said to have been involved in the Kenya mall attack last year - is reportedly living in Somalia with her jihadist husband, Marco Costa, a wanted Al-Qaeda suspect, the Daily Mail quoted Kenyan sources as saying. The sources said Lewthwaite was 'alive and well' and living in the south Somalia, the daily reported. The paper said it had obtained a forged Mozambican passport bearing Costa's picture. The document clearly identifies him as Jamal Salim, who the paper said was on the run from Kenyan police since he shot and killed two police officers in Nairobi in 2011. Lewthwaite has previously used a false South African passport and alias. The couple, according to the Daily Mail, also appears in a selfie taken at their home, adding that police are using these and pictures of their two children as part of a countrywide manhunt for the suspects. Al Arabiya

Ivory Coast tells soldiers to return to barracks 
The Ivory Coast government is calling on disgruntled soldiers to return to their barracks after they protested in the streets over their benefits. The Defense Ministry said it would make concessions the soldiers, whose complaints earlierTuesday had raised the specter of widespread unrest. The demands of the soldiers - dominated by former rebels who brought the current president to power - include increased health care benefits and improved opportunities for career advancement in the military. Defense Minister Paul Koffi Koffi said the government will address those issues. Ivory Coast is still recovering from a bitter political standoff that left about 3,000 people dead after a disputed December 2010 election. AP on Stars and Stripes

DR Congo's Katanga 'catastrophic' as 71,000 flee homes: UN
The UN refugee agency said it was "deeply concerned about the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Katanga". Rampant violence in the mineral-rich southern region has uprooted about 400,000 people since 2012, and brought the total number of people internally displaced to nearly 600,000, UNHCR said. In October alone, the agency said it had registered 1,737 "incidents" in the territories of Kalemie and the so-called "triangle of death" comprising Manono, Mitwaba and Pweto in northern Katanga. The violence is mainly attributed to the Mai Mai rebel group which is fighting for a better distribution between the north and south of the wealth from the province's immense natural resources. Times Live

Food on Hold, Ex-Rebels in Bangui Face Bleak Future 
Ex-rebels in the Central African Republic have been threatening to blow themselves up to protest a government attempt to relocate them from camps in the capital, Bangui. The rebels are under pressure to move - an international aid agency says their food supply has been put on hold while talks about their relocation continue. Tensions are running high in the streets of Bangui around two camps containing ex-rebels, as negotiations over their future drag on. Peacekeepers from the United Nations mission MINUSCA have deployed to the area to prevent clashes between the ex-Seleka rebels inside the camps and anti-Balaka militia outside. VOA

Traffickers turn to teenagers to drive migrant boats across Mediterranean 
Traffickers in Egypt and Libya are increasingly using children to drive boats of migrants to Italy. Many of these teenagers are then detained and imprisoned by the Italian authorities, facing up to 15 years in jail and fines of hundreds of thousands of euros. This year, 18 children have been sent to jail in Catania, Sicily, on trafficking charges. Others are being held in juvenile detention centres in Agrigento, Palermo, Siracusa and Reggio Calabria. Lawyers in Sicily say more and more minors are being charged with offences as traffickers attempt to evade Italian authorities by sending children in their place. Said, now 19, was only 15 when he was jailed in Italy on charges of aiding and abetting illegal immigration and criminal association. The Guardian

Habyarimana case: the new Rwandan witness disappeared 
The new witness in the case of the attack against the plane of former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana - April 6, 1994 on the eve of the genocide - has been missing since Thursday, November 13. He was to be heard soon by the judges Nathalie Poux and Marc Trévidic. According to testimonies collected by RFI, Emile Gafirita was abducted in Nairobi, Kenya, outside his home shortly before midnight. He was stopped by two men who handcuffed him and forced him into their vehicle. No news since. Kenyan police ensures not have arrested him and they are investigating this matter. Emmanuel Mughisa had moved there two months ago, in the district of Dagoretti, Nairobi.Rwandan " without history, rather friendly and open , "according to nearby residents. [...] According to his French lawyer, Maître François Cantier Emile Gafirita had just received his call when he was removed on Thursday, but his name as a witness was known for several weeks by all parties, including the Rwandan regime figures charged in this case. The ProxyLake

 Global report says 36 million people enslaved: Mauritania is biggest offender 
[...] "From the Thai fisherman trawling fishmeal, to the Congolese boy mining diamonds, from the Uzbek child picking cotton, to the Indian girl stitching footballs ... their forced labour is what we consume," read the report. The biggest offender, with the highest proportion of its population enslaved, remains the west African nation Mauritania, where slavery of black Moors by Berber Arabs is an entrenched part of society. Mauritania has anti-slavery legislation but it is rarely enforced and a special tribunal set up in March has yet to prosecute any cases, the report said. In second place was Uzbekistan where, every autumn, the government forces over one million people, including children, to harvest cotton. Countries like Qatar in the Middle East were a major destination for men and women from Africa and Asia who are lured with promises of well-paid jobs only to find themselves exploited as domestic workers or in the construction industry, the report found. Al Jazeera

America: forging partnerships for Africa's future.

 

FSU Mess Serves as Vindication of Urban Meyer Era as Gator Head Football Coach

Some of you may remember the national beating Urban Meyer took during his tenure as Gator Head Coach when some lazy sportswriters clubbed him for running an out-of-control program full of thugs. It was an absolutely ridiculous assertion then and demonstrated a remarkable lack of insight into young males and the problems young alpha males get into with regularity.

Having been a Soldier, and to this day maintaining a great appreciation for Soldiers, I well remember the ease with which some young guys find their way to trouble. That kind of stuff is inevitable in any genuine collection of 85-120 young, athletic males. That's what the Urban Meyer transgressions were all about. None of the transgressions under Urban indicated any kind of problem within the program. They indicated you had young alpha males doing young and dumb stuff. That's mostly what you saw under Urban, and it wasn't swept under the rug by the Gainesville Police Department. That's what all those arrests proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

This felonious stuff going on at FSU, however, and the brazen coordination between TPD and FSUPD, is entirely different. Here's the latest:

In the early morning hours of Oct. 5, as this college town was celebrating another big football victory by Florida State University, a starting cornerback on the team drove his car into the path of an oncoming vehicle driven by a teenager returning home from a job at the Olive Garden.

Both cars were totaled. But rather than remain at the scene as the law requires, the football player, P. J. Williams, left his wrecked vehicle in the street and fled into the darkness along with his two passengers, including Ronald Darby, the team’s other starting cornerback.

The Tallahassee police responded to the off-campus accident, eventually reaching out to the Florida State University police and the university’s athletic department.

By the next day, it was as if the hit and run had never happened.

The New York Times looked into how the police handled the case, reviewing law enforcement records and interviewing witnesses, lawyers, the police and a university representative. The examination found that Mr. Williams, driving with a suspended license, had been given a break by the Tallahassee police, who initially labeled the accident a hit and run, a criminal act, but later decided to issue Mr. Williams only two traffic tickets. Afterward, the case did not show up in the city’s public online database of police calls — a technical error, the police said.

That's their two starting cornerbacks, ladies and gentlemen, and it was just a couple of weeks before their big Notre Dame game. No news, no discipline. Hmmmmmm. I'm not sure that passes the smell test.

And that response by John Thrasher, the sitting President of the University, is nothing short of embarrassing for an institution telling anyone who will listen that they desire admission into the Association of American Universities. At this rate, that will never happen. I wonder if FSU officials have taken note that the AAU just announced they have contracted with a firm to design and construct a national sexual assault survey to be conducted at American universities? Florida State University, no doubt, will factor into that study in unflattering ways.

But President Thrasher's response says to me that FSU officials are rightfully spooked, and especially spooked that there might be some incriminating trail that leads not just to Seminole athletics but to FSU's central administration. Which would also implicate, perhaps, Eric Barron at Penn State.

Uh oh.

Everything the Noles do is a signal to the New York Times to remain steady on this case. It's also a signal to me that there are disgruntled parties within FSU that are disgusted with the goings-on and, because of hard work by the Times investigative reporters developing local sources, feeding the New York Times the necessary information related to questionable activities. TPD and FSU clearly tried to bury this incident, they coordinated things so as to make it damn-near invisible . . . yet the New York Times found it.

How?

Floridians should understand that the New York Times has placed their "A" team on this investigative story. Okay? These aren't sportswriters. That says they don't think this is an interesting story, they don't simply think it's a good story. At minimum, they think this is a great story that might be worthy of a Pulitzer. Bogdanich already has one from his work with the Wall Street Journal and one from his work at the Times. McIntire was nominated for one previously and probably sees this as the story that will bring home the prize.

Mike McIntire:

http://journalism.nyu.edu/faculty/mike-mcintire/

http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/qa_new_york_times_investigative.php?page=all

Walt Bogdanich:

. . . Before joining The Times in 2001, he was an investigative producer for 60 Minutes on CBS . . .

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/walt_bogdanich/index.html

http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/profile/79-walt-bogdanich/10

John Thrasher might want to stop with the silly press releases that endear him (primarily) to football-first Noles.

These national reporters based out of New York mix and mingle a bunch. It isn't outside the realm of probabilities that 60 Minutes, when the season is done, will join the party and do a segment on this foolishness. It is a story ready-made for investigative journalism on television. Think about that dumb-ass press conference with Willie Meggs and Al Lawson laughing it up after announcing that no charges would be brought in a rape allegation case that was clearly sabotaged by TPD.

You practically can't pay for that kind of authentic stupidity and 60 Minutes can chop it up and make it look even crazier. 

The Noles are in deep, deep trouble and would be smart to give up the ghost right damn now. But get ready for the crazy conspiracy Noles who see evil Gators behind every tree. Elijah Stiers, the attorney quoted in the story who said the basic facts clearly indicate that criminal charges were warranted *and* that a sobriety test should have been given? What about him, you ask? Yep, he's a Jacksonville kid, and a Gator grad -- undergraduate and law. That's really going to get the Noles all stirred up.

I Support Keeping Coach Will Muschamp

Go ahead, Jeremy Foley, give him his extension.

I know you can't do that before the Carolina game but I have faith we'll close out the season in representative fashion -- even though we may suffer some more losses.

I have been a Will Muschamp fan from the beginning. I fully admit the decision to start Jeff Driskel at homecoming against Missouri sent me over the edge. You probably wouldn't have been pleased with me if you were next to me at Florida Field that game. I thought there was absolutely no saving Will after that disaster of a game where the team, in my honest opinion, was EXASPERATED with Jeff as a starter and played like it. We were a clearly superior team and gave the game (a crucial game) away on offense and special teams.

Thankfully, the Georgia game changed all of that. It is very hard to overstate just how important Florida-Georgia is to Gator Nation but winning that game by DOMINATING that game changes so much. Now that Will has that monkey off of his back, everything is different.

Everything.

And the Vanderbilt game? Well, I feel vindicated. I have been championing Treon Harris as our most important recruit in the 2014 class since the summer. That's no slight to Will Grier but who cares about national rankings when you have a legendary high school quarterback in the class who took his Florida team to three stragiht state title games, won the final two appearances in the state championship game and was leading in that first appearance in the championship game in the fourth quarter as a sophomore. And, yes, he led that final team to the mythical high school national championlship title.

Treon has now beaten Tennessee, he has beaten Georgia, and it appears he'll have the opportunity to beat Jameis State University on Ron Zook Field.

This means we aren't likely to have a coaching change this year and it isn't likely that Boom is going to be kept for just one more year. If you can't sense the excitement and pure relief, and I mean RELIEF, all over Gator Nation you're just working too hard to not do so. Some of y'all can remain stuck in the negative shadows and even wallow in the residue of continued negativity, not me -- and I doubt if Jeremy Foley is either. The way these guys fought for Will Muschamp (and Treon Harris) against Georgia was a revelation. The way Treon efficiently handled his responsibilities against Vandy should have also been a revelation. For me, as I wrote earlier, it was a vindication. I've been 100% certain he could do what he did, and am just as certain he can do more still.

 

We need to close ranks as Gator fans and put a period on the sentence that describes an era that includes an unprecedented run of bad luck for the Gators at the QB position. That period is over. Whether you believe in Treon Harris or think Will Grier will ultimately prove to be the answer, that bad luck at the QB position is over. We may have two QBs next year that have the "it" factor but we know now that we'll at the very least have one. Boom had the misfortune of being head coach during that unprecedented period, much of which he simply could not control.

 

Again, that period is over. You may have noticed that the idiotic laughing about Will Muschamp as our coach has ceased. Some of that was always wishful thinking and a deep desire to panic us into a hasty move. Football people know; if we have the offense figured out, meaning we have a competent QB . . . look out SEC!

 

Treon is going to make some boneheaded mistakes in the coming weeks. Those are the odds and we should all be prepared for that eventuality if it happens. We may beat Carolina and FSU, we may lose to Carolina and FSU, we may split with them. But it's a new day in Gator Nation. And I'm cool with that. 

 

Gators, we've invested so much in this current staff and it would be a shame to flush that investment just as Coach Muschamp finally, FINALLY, with the crucial assist from Kurt Roper and Treon Harris, has the one position that couldn't be figured out . . . figured out, so yes -- we need to keep this football staff, period.

Bama Trippin' while Gator Clubbin'

 

[originally written September 30, 2014]

 

The game may have turned into

something of a debacle but the

Capital Area Gator Club road trip

turned out to be fun for all

 

A look back at the CAGC Road Trip to Tuscaloosa.

Road trip!

That was my initial thought when months ago I saw that Tallahassee’s own Capital Area Gator Club was offering a bus ride to the upcoming Gators vs. Bama game in Tuscaloosa. Little did I know then that by the time the actual game week would arrive, writing trip would be more appropriate. And, a bus ride to an away game isn't exactly a classic road trip. But mixing with Gators rarely disappoints and (as I think you’ll see) the Bama trip was no different.

7 a.m. departure

The excitement of a college football Saturday is hard to beat, whether you're watching at home, the sports bar, or with friends. Actually traveling to a game, however, is a different thing entirely. It's like convoying to a battle. This bus trip was a first-time experience for me. I've done very little with the local Gator Club over my quarter-century in Tallahassee so I was curious to see what was what on this writing excursion.

Stephen Lawson, Club president, greeted us Saturday morning at the prescribed location – Gator chompin’ to be sure but, because of work requirements, not joining us on the trip. It’s an election year for state government in Florida, Tallahassee is the epicenter of Florida politics, and Lawson is a partisan participant in this year’s gubernatorial election. So we’ll give him a pass.

Matt Hall, a recent UF graduate and current Master of Public Administration grad student at FSU, was placed in charge of coordinating things, making sure we had food for our tailgate, and all made it back on the bus for the return trip home. It would be too much to say that Matt turned out to be something of a bon vivant but he certainly did mix and mingle well and would provide some genuine humor on the long trip home (I’ll not write about the substitute bus driver who took over in Dothan on the ride back home but if you see Matt, ask him about it!).

We boarded our charter bus in the Killearn area of Tallahassee near Interstate 10 for a trip that would take ordinarily around 5 hours on a bus. Gameday, I knew, might add one hour to the time. So, as we settled in for the long ride, my mind floated as I cruised through my subconscious and variously sampled thoughts such as these:

• Is today the day I firmly believe it is? The day we announce to the college football world that the Beasts of the SEC East are back and we do so by sneaking out of Tuscaloosa with a bigtime win?
• How well does Jeff Driskel demonstrate some command presence to start the game and maintain it throughout? (remember, the question for me riding over to Tuscaloosa wasn’t whether Jeff would demonstrate such – I knew he would – the question was how well he would do so)
• Is the promised Capital Area Gator Club tailgate going to happen at our parking area?
• Will the Alabama campus make a beautiful impression on me?
• Will I be able to hook up with that group of 10 Gators who are graduates of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences who get together for one road trip a year and Bama is the choice this year?
• Is Treon going to get a series in the 2^nd quarter?
• Can Demarcus Robinson match Amari Cooper or at least come close to it?
• Can the Gator defense deal with the curve balls Lane Kiffin is going to throw at us?

Yes, that is yours truly front left -- trying to get some early morning rest on the way to Bama.

In hindsight, the answers to all of the posed questions floating around in my head on the ride over to Bama (with the exception of hooking up with the group of 10) were a resounding no, no, and no. But who could know that on the ride over? Everything was blissful as we geared our minds for spectator battle in support of our Gators. There was decent chatter back and forth all over the bus, Matt was doing a good job of mixing and mingling, and we were able to watch ESPN Gameday on the satellite television screens. Sitting behind me was Matt and Matt’s sister Alissa Rich, who is a pharmacist. Sitting across from me were two of Alissa’s friends, Katy and Karen, also pharmacists. Everything was copacetic on the Gator Club Bus as we bopped our way down the highway.

Trouble?

Well, not real trouble as it turned out, but I didn't know that at the time.

My first sign came after we exited Interstate 10, headed up US 231 out of Florida and into Alabama, and well after we passed through Dothan. In fact, it was as we were negotiating Montgomery. I had taken this same route months ago while driving from Tallahassee to Memphis to cheer on our basketball Gators in the March Madness regional. I clearly remembered passing through the area of the State Capitol, I remembered seeing the new Alabama State football stadium, etc., and then heading up Interstate 65 for Birmingham. But I was headed for Memphis on that trip, not Tuscaloosa. Why the hell is our bus driver heading for Birmingham ???

At Hoover, we made a turn and headed southwest for Tuscaloosa. Heavy traffic greeted us, and we eventually hit something of a slow parking lot crawl. As I feared. Most of the Bama traffic, I suspected, would be coming from places East and North of the place (Atlanta, Birmingham, Huntsville, etc.). We were coming from the South; why not take US 82 out of Montgomery?

Who the hell knows, I thought at the time, but that’s what we did. And I wasn’t happy. Later, I checked Google Maps of course – I’m anal in that kind of way – and noticed that US 82 in Alabama, incredibly, is a two-lane road. And may have been a longer slow parking lot crawl than Interstate 22. So, I thought to myself, you did exactly as you should have, Black Man: shut the heck up and let the bus driver handle his business.

All was fairly uneventful from there. We did run into heavy gameday traffic, our driver did briefly try an alternate route but quickly discovered the selected two-lane road was packed so he immediately turned around and got back on the interstate. Matt Hall smartly decided that we should have some of our “tailgate” food now as we crawled closer to campus and we all wolfed down the assorted sandwiches and chips.

The Bama Invasion

Eventually we arrived around 1:15 Eastern at our spot on Hackberry Lane; the town of Tuscaloosa, what little I took note of, looked okay. The campus, what little I saw, didn’t particularly look good or bad. The fans, however, would prove to be outstanding and cordial.

On arrival everyone quickly exited, but I had to take a picture of one particular Gator before we traipsed off to various spots on the Bama campus for further tailgating. Get a good look at Alissa Rich, y’all:

Yes, very pregnant. Believe it or not, this was the very first time she and her friends Katy and Karen were attending a Gator game on the road. Alissa is married to a Georgia Bulldog, recently moved to Tallahassee, and didn’t want to miss this opportunity to cheer on her Gators. So, against the advice of more than a few, she decided to soldier on with us to Tuscaloosa.

That’s dedication.

Our spot on Hackberry Lane was conveniently right across from a “Jack’s” fast food restaurant; this proved important for postgame munchies. From our location it was just a bit less than a mile to the stadium. Will Atkins and Clarence Anthony (yes, he’s Reidel’s brother), two Gator alums who came up from Gainesville to ride with us, headed off to meet acquaintances and check out the Bama campus, Matt and much of the bus crew headed off to tailgate on Alabama’s Quad, and I marched off a mile in the other direction looking for another story: Ryan Pender (President-elect of the Palm Beach County Gator Club), Brian Sapp (Director of Operations at the increasingly prominent White Oak Pastures farm in Bluffton, Georgia), and a group of fellow College of Agriculture and Life Sciences graduates who had decided to make this their one away game trip of the year.

They are a story I hope to write later in the year.

Eventually we all made our way into the stadium and checked out some of Bama’s pregame festivities.

It still bugs me to hear a Florida band, from Jacksonville no less, singing "Sweet Home Alabama" but -- what the hell, ain't much you can do about that.

All of us were tremendously excited and -- speaking for myself -- I had high hopes of coming out of there with a victory. It was now time for some SEC football!

And, well . . . the game was what it was. I’ve already written about that. The general consensus of the Capital Area Gator Club group was this: bad result, good experience.

The Post-Game

Will Atkins said he had an amazing time experiencing SEC football at a different institution. After linking up with some other Gator and Crimson Tide fans, he visited the quad and found it lively and well organized. “We had fun. I felt no real hostility from the Bama fans, certainly not as hostile as I expected them to be. In the stands, I sat next to the band – it was exciting and fun.

Alissa Rich, our pregnant Gator fan, may have best typified the road trip. Honestly, I was afraid she was going to have the baby in the stadium! As it was, she said Bama fans were funny and kind to her. After observing her hiking up the upper deck steps (her seat, like mine, was one row from the top of the stadium), and knowing she had likely climbed the interminable Bryant-Denny walkway that led to the upper deck and went around and around and around seemingly forever, some simply said things like this: “You go, girl, you’re my hero!” Or this: “If you have that baby in this stadium you have to name him Bryant!”

In fact, one Alabama fan after the game came by in a golf cart, saw her walking back to God knows where, graciously offered her a ride, and personally drove her the near-mile back to our bus.

Yes, they had just won a big victory over a bigtime foe but that’s SEC family, y’all, and that’s what we do in this conference – knock the hell out of one another on the field, cheer like crazy for our team in the stands, and then head on back to the real world after it’s all over. Most of the time, in a very civil kind of way.

I had no idea then of just how much would go wrong during this season nor just how frustrated I would become with my starting quarterback -- a man I was certain would have an all-conference season and lead us back to Atlanta.

Though the season has been tremendously disappointing, hope springs eternal and -- as is ever the case --it's great to be a Florida Gator!

Now

Thank You, Barack Obama

Shortly after the election of Barack Obama I sat around with two friends who likely voted for him. One, from the West Coast, asked me what I thought about "my" President. I objected. I said he wasn't "my" President, he's "the" President. My friend went off. He said, "You see, that's the problem with America right there." But he misunderstood me. In my book, usage of "my President" indicates an affinity I have for the officeholder. I'm still a Soldier at heart. I'd never disrespect the Office of the President or knowingly disrespect the American holding that position who is acting in that capacity.

As an American, however, I always reserve the right to critique -- and sometimes criticize, heavily -- the President. But I'm beginning to re-think that "my / the" distinction I've held onto since Obama's election in 2008. Maybe, just maybe he *is* my President.

The Weekly Standard provided the necessary factoids yesterday for me to offer a hearty and genuine THANK YOU to "our" President this morning, and after sleeping on it I think I will. Here's why:

Five years ago, the Democrats held a 20-seat majority in the Senate and a 79-seat majority in the House. Then they passed Obamacare. They did so in clear defiance of public opinion and over unanimous Republican opposition in both chambers. After the American people’s clear verdict on Tuesday night, Republicans will likely have an 8-seat majority in the Senate and will have at least a 51-seat majority in the House. That’s a 28-seat swing in the Senate and 130-seat swing in the House since the pre-Obamacare days.

These are historic losses. Consider the following:

The last president who lost control of the House in one election and then lost control of the Senate in another was Woodrow Wilson, nearly 100 years ago.

If Republicans end up winning the Senate races in Alaska and Louisiana, as expected, then Obama will have lost 14 senators since his first year in office. The last time a president lost more senators from his first year onward was when Ulysses S. Grant lost 16 senators — from 1869 to 1875.

Prior to the 2010 election, the last time the Democrats lost at least 63 House seats while also losing control of that chamber was in 1894, shortly before Babe Ruth’s birth.

Obama was the first president in American history to lose 63 House seats in his first midterm election, and he has now lost additional House seats in his second midterm election.

Even in the unlikely event that the Democrats win all 13 of the House races that remain to be decided, they will still hold fewer House seats as of January than they have at any time since 1949, when Joe Louis was the undefeated heavyweight champ.

Damn!

I've joked to my many Democrat friends that Barack Obama may be the ultimate domestic double-agent, but not for the entities many on the right-wing suspect.

Could it really be that he's one of OURS?

Hell, no.

But it is just as likely that *we* are using him as it is that *they* are using him, and that gives me great comfort this week.

Florida-Georgia 2014 In Review

Here's a well-done recap of the 2014 Florida-Georgia game from GatorZone.com:

So sweet, so sweet, so sweet!

Whipped Puppy, 2014 Edition

Courtesy of Vindibudd over at GatorCountry.com -- here's what has become a treasured Gator tradition after a victory over the University of Georgia -- please enjoy the faux magazine cover that is . . . Whipped Puppy 2014 !!!

Great job, Vindibudd, absolutely great job !!!

Here's to Coach Muschamp continuing to cool down that hot seat.

Florida-Georgia 2014 was Pure Gator Domination

After the weirdest Gator season in three decades, this first half plus of the 2014 season has been equally weird. But thanks to the hated Georgia Bulldogs, we can now put all of that behind us. The score was 38-20 but it might as well have been 75-0 because it was just that sweet.

First up, the pre-game hype video:

Now, the post-game all-access video from GatorZone.com:

I will cherish this memory for a long, long time. Way to go, Gators !!!

After Florida vs Bama, Is It Time for Treon the Transcendent?

As the season evolved, the first real hint of serious trouble occurred in the Kentucky game. I didn't write a column in the aftermath of that game. I got so bent out of shape at the first half ineptitude of Jeff Driskel, that I probably thought I needed to calm myself. I had tremendously high hopes for the season and for Jeff's individual play. Ever since he committed to U.F., all I could see was his tremendous potential. When you look at him, you might think what I definitely thought: this guy should be an absolute beast at quarterback.

But it hasn't happened. He was surprisingly bad in the first half against Kentucky and then played much better in the 2nd half. But the Bama game was always going to be my litmus test for Jeff Driskel. 

My column for GatorCountry.com on that game was written on September 22, 2014. Titled Treon the Transcendent: Has His Time Already Arrived?, it reflected my tremendous disappointment with Jeff Driskel in the Bama game. I treated it as a final exam for Jeff, and Jeff failed the final miserably. This is how I opened the column:

As I sat in the scorching hot sun of Bryant-Denny Stadium, up on the second-to-the-last-row (row 30, seat 20, section NN) of the stadium, underneath a beautiful late-summer Alabama sky, I listened to a Florida band piped through the speakers perform Sweet Home Alabama I couldn’t help but think to myself: these sap suckers don’t know what’s about to hit ‘em! We’re gonna have us a game today!

I took video of the scene, and included it in the column:

I then wrote this:

Of course, Lynyrd Skynyrd isn’t just any Florida band. They are probably the most iconic Florida band of all-time and “Free Bird” is for man the signature song of the southern rock genre. Their talent transcended the Southland and launched them to worldwide fame; they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. And Alabama football, of course, isn’t just any other college football program.

So, I settled in to watch what are probably the SEC’s two most iconic programs of the modern era do battle. Two gentlemen from Atlanta happened to sit next to me. Both were cheering for the Gators but one was a UF alumnus and the other one was a season ticket holder of the Michigan Wolverines and a UM alum. As the game began and as a seemingly long first quarter played out (television timeouts, wow!), they joined me in my assessment: We’re gonna have us a game today!

Well, we kinda did and we kinda didn't. Bama embarrassed us. And I focused my anger on Jeff Driskel. I wrote:

There’s no charitable way to critique Jeff on this; all the available evidence demonstrates that Jeff doesn’t know how to command this offense so as to consistently move the chains. For the second SEC game in a row, Jeff’s inefficiency squandered a first half effort that was entirely sufficent to blow out Kentucky and compete with the Crimson Tide (yes, Bama out-schemed us offensively on over the top passes – I give them all the credit for that; 4 plays accounting for 250 yards or so is incredible) but our front seven completely held Bama in check in the first half. But it was hot as hell at that game, and the mathematical certainties clearly caught up with us.

Having failed his final exam, I turned my attention to the most important recruit in our 2014 class, the legendary yet unheralded (how can that be? ) Treon Harris and provided this definition:

tran·scend·ent

tranˈsendənt/

adjective; surpassing the ordinary; exceptional.

That defined the young man's high school career. Giving him the complete benefit of the doubt, I did my usual: until prove otherwise that, too, will define his Gator career.

Give him the damn ball, Coach, turn him loose!

So, now I head off to EverBank Field to see if our young, unheralded phenom can do the impossible.

Not just do the impossible, mind you, but do it under impossible circumstances, during an impossible football year for the Fightin' Florida Gators, after surviving a crazy sexual assault allegation that saw him banned from campus and disallowed from participating in a game he likely could have won for us against LSU.

Treon may be transcendent, but is he superhuman too ??? It may take that kind of effort to defeat the hated Georgia Bulldogs today. It's time to lace 'em up and have at it. Go Gators !!!

The Eastern Michigan Blowout Victory

After the Gators finally played a football game in the 2014 season, I wrote a column for GatorCountry.com subscribers. The game may or may not turn out to be historic, but it was a very easy win for the Orange and Blue.

Titled Sixty-Five Points for Seven Frustrations, this is how it began:

All is well in Gator Country this week as Gator Nation celebrates the ending of a 30-year aberration (a losing season for the Orange and Blue) with a sigh of relief and the giddy excitement of possibilities. The excitement of this season is heightened by the unusual circumstances surrounding it, circumstances that may be best encapsulated through seven particular frustrations attendant to the build-up of the 2014 college football season for Gator fans everywhere. 

Well, what were those seven frustrations (in an nutshell)?

Glad you asked:

Frustration 1: Opening Weekend (the non-game);

Frustration 2: Muschamp Era Transitions (Floridians like seeing the football tossed around via the forward pass);

Frustration 3: Beasts of the East, Humbled (the most successful athletic program of this era suffers 4-8 season with a loss to Georgia Southern -- nuff said);

Frustration 4: The Quarterbacks (Gator Nation is completely exasperated with inferior quarterback play);

Frustration 5: Running Backs and Offensive Line (Muschamp got caught emulating the Nick Saban model at the very moment when its kryptonite appeared on the scene in the form of Gus Malzahn -- not good for a coach in transition or a notoriously impatient fanbase.);

Frustration 6: The Receivers and Tight Ends (2013 was the perfect storm here, need more be said?);

Frustration 7: The Defense (generally superior play has been squandered in the Muschamp era because the offense can't get fixed).

What was my opinion when writing that column? "All of these frustrations, every single one of them, would be exorcised in the Eastern Michigan game." And that was true. For all of one game.

Then came Kentucky.

Still, I am stubbornly hanging on to at least part of the sentiment expressed near the end of that column:

Jeff Driskel? A whopping 45 attempted passes, with 31 completions with one touchdown and no interceptions. Take your pick on what was most important among those statistics (I’d say the combination of 45 passes and no interceptions – that was what Roper promised, and that is what Jeff delivered). Most intriguing for me, however, was the other quarterback that stepped on Florida Field. A Florida high school legend that won two straight state championships and one mythical national title. A man with a phenomenal pedigree but remarkably little Gator hoopla who stepped onto the hallowed ground of Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium and showed not only The (much-celebrating) Swamp but one and all: I am neither a wildcat quarterback nor a package quarterback, I am an elite quarterback, a pass-first-run-second quarterback, and don’t you forget it.

Treon Harris, ladies and gentlemen.

Two passing attempts, two touchdowns, 148 yards – a feat which set Gators and Gator Haters everywhere buzzing all over the universe. Yes, the mustard and ketchup crowd are in denial but it isn’t fooling anyone. Yes, the Canes have shut the hell up and are in full fear that a Dade County phenom with University of Miami ties is set to do his thing in Gainesville, F.L.A. Yes, my exuberance runneth over – but (until proven otherwise) I smell championships!

Until proven otherwise.

Come on, Treon. Make it happen, brother.