Apparently not Ordinary

So Fred Thompson says that ordinary Americans don't watch debates. Count me as not ordinary, I found the debate on Fox two nights ago rather lively. (Also, I did not catch Fred on Leno.) However, the post event spin puzzled me. Frank Luntz, pollster and spinologist gave the nod to John McCain. By the way, his focus group literally had little hand dials they spun to record their impressions, giving newer meaning to that much abused word. I found McCain to be vague, but the audience liked his style. His best answer was on why he didn't sign the "no tax increase" pledge, where he said he stood on his record. Rudy Giuliani took the toughest questions, and though I have a tough time forgiving him for the Michael Milken prosecution, he gave thoughtful, direct answers. On the pledge question, he said it better than McCain, standing both on his record and then saying as a matter of principal, a future President should not start signing pledges everywhere to appease interest groups.

I had been thinking I would be boosting Mitt Romney. I like him on the basis of being the tallest, having good hair and a sense of humor. But he seemed very flat. He made a pretty lame joke about the Democrat tax cut plan of $250 per person not even paying for a John Edwards hair cut. It didn't work for me when Mitt clearly spends some green on his own personal appearance. That John Edwards gets fancy haircuts never bothers me anyway, if the wealthy want to spend their money that way, thanks for keeping people employed. But to then get hypocritical and go after the rest of us who are trying to earn a living and shield a little of our money from Uncle; and blame our selfishness for the poverty in America galls me. But I digress. Mitt looked bad and for the life of me, I can't remember any distinguishing position he took.

Ron Paul got the most applause and the most boos. I thought he looked like a jackass. A case can be made for his positions, but he did little to persuade people and he sounds irresponsible. Also, he was the winner of the text messaging poll, go figure. (Mysteriously, the next day he was listed as second.)

Overall, it was a good debate except for the stupidity on immigration. All the candidates, except Paul, of course, talking tough and building walls; no one addressing the root causes of the problem. Perhaps more on that later.

I Told You It Was Rare

As previously discussed, Navy's short reign as the only unbeaten independent came to a nasty end tonight. Fortunately, I was busy romancing Mrs. B-Daddy on our anniversary and missed all but a few of the Navy lowlights. From the couple of plays I did see, all I can say is, dang, they used to tackle better than that. Congrats to Mr. Rice on his impressive running.

The Spirit of '89

Just popping in....

Being after Labor Day when most of America is back to school and work, we found that the natives were the exception rather than the rule out on the road and in particular, the tourist traps of the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley.

Euros..... they're everywhere. And if we can engage in a bit of stereo-typing, the French and Germans can be spotted a mile away. Thinner, less color and noticeably more angular facial features than Americans.

Of course, the folks from the British Isles look most like us but sound least like us.

The Czechs, however.... the Czechs generally look like how we wish we looked. The denial from our Western world Czech, Hungarian and Romanian supermodels and blonde Russian tennis players is reason alone to banish Communism to the trash heap of history. Bastards.

Many thanks to B-Daddy for the excellent work he is doing.

Presidential Handicapping

O.K., I admit it, I can’t predict who is going to win the nominations of the major parties, but I will make some fearless predictions on who won’t.

John McCain. Whenever I listen to John McCain speak, I can’t shake the mental image of Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg in the “Caine Mutiny” complete with twin metal marbles, looking for the missing strawberries. No way will the American people trust this guy with the button. You just know this guy is ready to snap.

Barrack Hussein Obama? Are you kidding me? Still too soon after 9/11. Too much unease with his names. (Osama-Obama, did I have to spell it out?) Also, he’s way too nice; his Democrat opponent is Hillary, after all. If things look close, look for the long knives to come out and Mr. Obama to be figuratively in a pool of blood on the floor before he knows what happened.

Ron Paul. I love this guy, even voted for him for President once before, way back in 1988. But there is a reason no other Republican candidate is advocating
immediate withdrawal from Iraq. It is a losing proposition, politically and historically, and the Republican base knows it. But maybe if he can gather enough support, the Republican leadership might remember that advocating and delivering smaller government actually wins elections (I’m thinking Ronald Reagan, I’m thinking, 1994 congressional elections.)

Of course, don't take my handicapping seriously. My long track record of not understanding the voting populous started at an early age. I remember toddling after my Mom as she did volunteer work for the Goldwater campaign. Living in Orange County at the time (it wasn't the O.C. yet and it definitely wasn't cool) I met no one who wasn't voting for Barry. I even remember the AuH2O bumper sticker that appealed to the budding geek in me.Needless to say, I was shocked when Johnson won. "But Mommy," I said, "the Democrats must have cheated. We don’t know anyone who voted for Johnson.” “Not this time,” my Mom patiently replied, “it was a landslide.”To this day, Barry Goldwater is my favorite presidential candidate among those I can actually remember.

Move On (Not that MoveOn)

There is an old saw, attributed to Will Rogers, "Idon't belong to any organized party. I'm a Democrat," Apparently, the Republicans' continued drift to the left includes the same lack of organization. Larry Craig announced yesterday that he was reconsidering his resignation if he could beat the rap (after a guilty plea mind you) for disorderly conduct in the Minneapolis airport men's room. As previously discussed by your able host, his conduct, lewd or not, deserves jail time just for his violations of "Man Law".

Meanwhile, he will drag his family through more humiliation because he wants to remain a senator. I think this kind of behavior is why average Americans don't trust politicians. Not the conduct in the men's room, but the insatiable lust for the spotlight, power and privilege that accrues to our elected elite. Most healthy Americans conclude that there is something a little off with those who have such cravings at the expense of their families and their own dignity.

The cynic in me is waiting for an announcement like: "My drinking caused me to engage in risky behavior. Through this experience I found Jesus, who told me to check in to Betty Ford."
The announcement I'd like to see: "I am resigning from the U.S. Senate, effective immediately. I am sorry for my conduct, it did not meet the standards of my office. I am sorry I have hurt my family and let down the people of Idaho. Please forgive me."
In a better world, Larry would already be joining his family at Coeur d'Alene.

Go Goats

At the risk of never being allowed to blog in this space again, I bring your attention to a "not even once in a blue moon" set of circumstances. Yes, the vaunted midshipmen of Navy stand alone as the only undefeated team among Independents in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (like the way that just rolls of your tongue, unlike "Division I" for instance). Granted, Navy opened against a Temple team most noted for its on the field futility over the last several seasons. Still the mids showed they are going to again have a potent running game under Coach Paul Johnson's triple option offense.

Meanwhile, the other independents all lost. Notre Dame opened at home and posted one of their worst home opening losses in program history. Gotta love them Yellowjackets. (Full disclosure, on any given Saturday one of my favorite teams is the Notre Dame opponent.)

Army lost to the Akron Zips. I first became aware of the Zips in their roll as fodder for the likes of Penn State, Purdue, Iowa and Nebraska so those big schools could pad their records for bowl consideration. New Army head coach Stan Brock looks to have his work cut out for him. Army has lost four straight to Navy, something taken very seriously by guys who show up to work at the Pentagon wearing stars on their collars. Given that coach Brock was a protege of Bobby Ross, the losing coach in three of those efforts, I make the following fearless prediction. If Navy beats Army this year, Coach Brock is gone before Christmas. It looks like Navy has the talent to beat Army again, but I am not making that prediction. In a storied rivalry over 100 years old such as Army-Navy, history is replete with upsets. (Certainly most readers of this column would agree that USC was more talented than UCLA last year, for instance.) I would say that Army's fours straight losses actually give them the edge this year.

Finally Western Kentucky also lost to .... who cares?

Don't Sleep on This Guy.... He's not Going Anywhere.

As promised, starting tomorrow and continuing for the next week and a half, B-Daddy will be your primary care-giver as a visit to kinfolk in Colorado will take us out of pocket. Some more outside help has been lined-up but the Labor Day weekend and resulting logistical difficulties has made confirmation sketchy. We may drop a line or two this weekend upon landfall in Colorado.

Can't believe this site has been up and running for over a month. It seems so much.... longer.... really, really, longer.

Not sure what the site will get into upon returning but we're confident its going to involve immigration. When Congrees returns to work this month, rest assured more shenanigans will be in the offing because this is an issue that is simply not going to go away. It is rapidly becoming the Freddy Krueger of legislative issues.

Quite frankly, there is no more important issue than this right now. Our friends in Washington have deluded themselves into believing its merely a policy issue when, in reality, as most Americans realize it is so much more than that.

In short, this issue strikes at the core of this country's value system and central to this value system is a belief in the "rule of law".

"No, sir, you do not have a 'right' to enter my country whenever and however you feel. We have laws here and you must obey the laws governing how to legally enter this country." "No, Mr. Congressman, we don't want more laws that we know won't be enforced. We wish simply that the laws that are already on the books be enforced."

The detachment of the Beltway establishment from the rest of the country was never more evident than this past June and July. It was stunning.

But, hey. We'll tackle that when we get back. Adios.

Hey, Everbody's Gonna Get Laid!.... except you Republicans.

One of the interesting side stories of the Larry Craig scandal (Larry Craig….. the airport restroom Senator guy. Yeah, it was so last week but can you stay awake for more than 2 or 3 news cycles?) is the glaring inequities in the quality and content of the sex scandals between the Republicans and the Democrats.

Barney Frank and Bill Clinton are the poster boys for Democratic sex scandals. Whether its running a brothel out of your town home or spending some down time with the chubby intern, these two guys were gittin’ it done plain and simple.

Republicans Mark Foley and Larry Craig on the other hand…. abject failures. Pathetic, as a matter of fact. All the hoopla, all the embarrassment and shame for what? Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Just evidence of weird, creepy and…. unfulfilled advances.

Rudy remains the Republicans best hope of leveling the playing field a bit if he wins the nomination. No real dirt on Mitt but we do believe a Mormon sex scandal would be off the charts.

Read here for some more musings on the matter.

http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2007/08/carrying_the_clos.html

"The Doctor will see you now. Hey, pal... what part of 'now' didn't you understand?"

The Chinese government’s aggressively proactive health care system was the subject of a post last week. Now it looks like the Democratic Presidential candidates are in a heated duel to see who can out-nanny one another on the subject of health care.

While Hillary cozies up to this notion of a nation-wide smoking ban, John Edwards is going to insist that you see a doctor……. and he isn’t taking no for an answer!

Edwards told a crowd in Cedar City, Iowa with absolutely nothing better to do on a Labor Day weekend than to listen to him:

"If you are going to be in the system, you can't choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK."

If…. you are going to be in the system? We’re grateful for Edwards' graciousness in leaving us this choice but, of course, in or out, there will be no such choice when it comes to footing the bill for this.

Click here for full article.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070902/ap_on_el_pr/edwards_2

First Saturday........ wow!

The first full Saturday of college football provided ample evidence of why college ball is a superior product to the NFL if for no other reason than there were 14 channels showing games throughout the day…. 8 channels even if one does not have the Game Day package. The NFL will force feed whatever game they think we want to watch to the two networks on Sunday morning and afternoon and unfortunately, they think we all want to see Brett Favre every Sunday. And "no" - not getting a stinking satellite dish for the NFL's bland, mediocre product.

…but hey, enough griping…. and how about them Mountaineers? Of course, this reference is to the Appalachian St. Mountaineers who went into the Big House and beat the #5 Michigan Wolverines. Aside from the outcome of the game, what was amazing about it was that often times when a heavy underdog makes a run at the favorite, there is a point in the game when the favorite finally wakes up, gets its act together and reasserts control of the game.

At this point, the ‘dog usually just accepts its fate, collects the game check and heads back home, thank you very much. Well, there appeared to be about 3 of those moments late in the game (full disclosure: this game was one of only 7 games in the nation, it seemed, that was not televised to us at BwD HQ. Tracking of the game was accomplished via game breaks and hi-lites) and App. St. refused to play its role. They just would not go away. They hung tough, made their own breaks and simply beat the pants off the Wolves for what is being called the greatest upset of all-time in college football.

(again, we weren’t able to watch the game live but apparently, Lloyd Carr, the Michigan head coach went for a two point conversion after a touchdown in the 3rd quarter. Of course, the conversion failed and of course he spent the rest of the game chasing that lost two points that not coincidentally was the margin of loss for Michigan.

This bit of going for the 2 points before you absolutely have to is maddening and is perhaps one of our biggest coaching pet peaves. It makes zero tactical, strategic and psychological sense to ever go for two points any earlier than the 4th quarter where you believe you may only get the ball back one or 2 more times. Again, coaches watch game film… they don’t watch football.)

Some observations from some of the other games:

One had only to look at the length of the grass on Notre Dame's home field prior to their game against Georgia Tech to determine the degree to which the Irish had upgraded their speed. The stuff was at grazing height. The Commanche National Grasslands has shorter blades than that of Notre Dame stadium. Of course the proof is in the pudding and that 33-3 beating only confirmed that Charlie Weiss’s speed project has a way to go.

This website’s figurehead was in mid-season form for last night’s ABC prime-time match-up between Cal and Tennessee. The man takes a lot of grief for his style but it was great to hear his signature “You’re looking live at…”, “Folks,…” and “Pardner,…” for what was a rollicking, back and forth affair.

Also, the nation got a good look at this much-hyped “West Coast speed” phenomena. Tennessee, themselves, has long had a tradition of recruiting speed (many of their skill position players over the years also ran track in the Vols power house track and field program) but it was obvious that Cal’s receivers and return men had another gear beyond what the same for the Vols possessed. And DeSean Jackson went from the fringes of Heisman talk to the ‘A’-list with his performance last night.

USC looked flat and completely uninspired against Idaho. One almost wonders if coaches prefer that to say the 79-10 nuking of North Texas by Oklahoma for season openers before going into the teeth of the schedule. What did the Sooners learn about themselves before facing Miami, F-L-A next Saturday? Pete Carroll on the other hand has plenty of ammo to work with over the next two weeks before SC goes to Lincoln to take on the Corn Huskers.

Man, that was fun. Lookin' forward to next week.

Summertime and the Living is Easy....

Because of some logistical wrangling and good ol’ fashioned procrastination we missed out on getting Charger season tickets. Though by no means do these tickets approach the demand of those say for the Green Bay Packers, it does demonstrate that no fan base is immune to the allure of a 14-2 season….. a choking away of a divisional playoff game not withstanding.

It will be missed. Attending professional sporting events and particularly the tailgating before and after held such a mystique while growing up. The same held for neighborhood parties and back yard BBQs in the summer. It seemed to be such an “adult” affair. The eating, the drinking, the smoking, the joke-telling and the conversation between the grown-ups was fascinating. Everyone appeared to be having a great time just talking…. no running around and playing tag, football or hide’n’seek…. just talking. My god, what could there possibly be to talk about for 3 straight hours was our general sentiment.

Regardless, when we grew up we wanted to do this sort of thing. We wanted to feel like part of a club or an exclusive group. And next to purchasing a home and holding down a full-time job... waking up at 7 in the morning, loading the truck, meeting with friends down at the stadium parking lot to do much of the same aforementioned activities for the rest of the day was, in our way of thinking, the most adult thing we’ve ever done.

It was affirmation, significant of the fact that… We had arrived!!!

The attached is a piece from the website Avocado Dreams that is linked to down below. The author, Wes Clark, grew up here in Southern California in the 60s and 70s and he expresses brilliantly similar sentiment in peering through the haze of Pall Malls on the back patio and into the semi-secret world of the adults. (Bonus points for repudiation of "hippies")

http://wesclark.com/am/adltclub.html