Tuesday, November 30, 2004

ChicagoSports.com - Acronym BCS stands for Bowl Chaos System

The problem with all these criticisms of the BCS is what is the alternative? Picking names out a hat might sound nice, but that's going to be unfair too. More importantly the season is not yet over. No one thought that K-State was going to win a couple of years ago in the Big 12 Championship.

Every game matters and that is true reason why the game is so fun to follow. The last thing we need is a playoff system that dilutes any importance in the regular season. Even the NFL, which I consider the best run major sport, has problems. Look at the NFC. The season is almost over for the Eagles. They barely have to play for homefield advantage.

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Los Angeles Times: GOP Plants Flag on New Voting Frontier

Isn't this the traditional GOP foundation? The suburbs have always been a Republican strength. Dems have dominated rural areas and cities since the days of the Grange. The GOP of has dominated the suburbs and outer rings of cities, think where Hillary grew up. The Dems problems is that they always lose the suburbs/exurbs. If they don't get more cometative in those places, they will find getting back into office much more difficult.
Former players, turned analysts, failed to offer objective reactions - 11/23/04

More importantly, should ESPN be acting like a journalist to begin with? The whole network's existence is to show sports. Oh yeah, BTW, they have this highlight show where the sportscasters make jokes too.

Is there that much serious reporting done by ESPN? Should they be held to the same standard as the WSJ or CBS News? I say no. Their job is to report on the sporting events; who's hurt, what happened, etc. Any pretense that they are actual journalists is ridiculous. Sure, some come from newspaper backgrounds and Peter Gammons has some sort of insight. However, his opinion on matters of baseball are simply opinions.

I certainly don't agree with the analyst's opinions, but that's what they are. Nothing more than that. The fact that there are few journalists on ESPN shouldn't be a shock to anyone.
Fox to Replace ABC for BCS Coverage (washingtonpost.com)

"But for many fans of college football, the deal represents another impediment to the postseason they long for: a playoff that would crown an undisputed national champion."

Who longs for this? No true fan of college football cares that much. Did they do studies? Poll people?

Every game counts and that's all you need to know. It's what makes college football great. With baseball watering down its playoffs, CFB is the only sport left where the regular season means anything.

Monday, November 22, 2004

washingtonpost.com: The Yikes Years

This look at the inherent instability of the world and the Americans that examine it has a lot of good things going for it. I'm not sure why the editors let him get away with the whole Dupont Consensus though (plus Fergusen). It seems a little too quaint.

More imprtantly, there are no ideas to solve the problem, just an examination of the big downsides. I'm no neo-con, but at least they are not as dreary as the rest of them.

What's lacking now is a true architecture for the world. The old system worked for 4 decades, but is now out of date. What's the next step? Pre emptive attack? That seems like a way to make more enemies.

What about a federation? The US and its leaders decide what is important. That probably means stability. What about appointing/designating specific countries to police their region. We agree to some basic principles, stability, free speech, whatever. Then the designated country is responsible for those things in its sphere of influence. If the country cannot keep the peace, then it should be replaced by a new designate. The tougher question is how do you keep these folks accountable? What do you do if you don't agree with what they are doing? Ethnic hatered anyone? At least it's an idea.

Monday, November 15, 2004

TheStar.com - Journo as movie fan? Not this man

This could also be true for the ESPN gang too. How much of ESPNs programming is derived from showing sports and then Sportscenter reporting on it?

The other thing is Entertainment gossip/"newz" is that it has always been manipulated. Since the days of the studio chieftans and their PR machines ruled, there has always been some sort of manipulation. Do we want critical reports and investigative journalism on movie stars or just to see the "real life" soap opera? I think the public just wants an idea of what's really going on in Hollywood. Much more and your head starts to hurt.

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Paterno: Decline of The Lion King (washingtonpost.com)

I''m not so sure what the Penn State faithful have to complain about. The fact, which I'm sure many have pointed out, is that the only reason they have a reputation in football is Paterno. Even if he lives and coaches another 15-20 years, we can only be so lucky to have in College Football.
Latest Conspiracy Theory -- Kerry Won -- Hits the Ether (washingtonpost.com)

Don't we wish. When I was younger at a job many years ago, I was accused of being a conspiracy theorist. I wish I could be one again, but it is better to accept the election and learn from it. Interesting thing to see and hear since this was on NPR last night. Maybe if the story echoed some more, it might be true?

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Seizing a Stable Majority (washingtonpost.com)

What? "The budget can never be balanced until health is transformed." Is he nuts. The last person that tried to transform healthcare was Clinton and he was beaten back by Gingy and his minions. Frickin' hypocrites!! Anyways, the budget can be balanced, it's just a matter of making the choices.

It's ridiculous to think that healthcare is the key to transforming the GOP. Minorities won't come to the Reps for healthcare. They have no credibility. This is just ridiculous on its face. Gingrich needs to go back to ditching his wives on their deathbeds and sleeping with his students.
NewDonkey.com

Monday's blog is a great tactical piece about what the Dems need to do in the South. The demographics about rural voters is that they are no longer of the FDR generation, but more of the Wallace generation. No longer tied to the Dems, they have shifted to the GOP as the party that best represents their interests. Dems need to go to the suburbs and win there. That's the only place that has the movable votes.

Monday, November 08, 2004

Democratic Values - How to start winning the red states. By William Saletan

Community, Opportunity, Responsibility? We've heard this before. Will it work again? I'm not sure that the future is with this method, although the alternatives sound far worse. These CORe values do make a lot of sense. It's difficult to see this message working in the current political landscape though. Dems need to get more Southern, although in the end there will not be too many left. When I was at school there was talk of a dealignment rather than a realignment of the South. In the end, this theory is turning out to be false. The realignment has finished. Not many Zell Millers or Seligmans left.

Governors from the South that are super charismatic/smart. I wonder if Clinton would/could have won this one too? It'd be hell of a lot closer? Maybe not and Bush probably would have still won.
<> The GOP wants to overreach. That's the point of the Rove idea. It's to destroy the Democratic party's power and marginalize any ideas or influence. The whole point from the begining was to do this. Look what happened in Texas. They destroyed the party there and it hasn't recovered yet. There are not enough people that are upset at the Prez to be able to form the proper coalition.

They have built a strong foundation in the christian right so they can't be outflanked by the Pats. They have the rich with the tax cuts. They have the "war on terror" to tie them together. It's simply the reformation of the GOP majority. Sure they had a lot of problems (illegitimate presidency, poor economy, etc.), bit that coalition is very motivated and is a majority.

<> Now how can the Dems break this hold? I'm not sure right now. There are many that would say that the key is to build out of our base (Lefty Enviros and Unions). Others would say let's steal the middle (Soccer Moms, wired workers, and their ilk). What the Dems need is someone who is a charismatic member of one of GOPs bases and to steal enough to form a coalition with the traditional dems to reach a majority. This is the Bill Clinton Strategy. (Although he had the advantage of the "war hawks" being on vacation with the interregnum of no war (Cold or on Terror). <>There needs to be another plan. No candidate from the NE will win the Presidency for the Dems in the next 50 years. (or for the Reps, Giuliani will never beat the Bushes).

<> The challange is can anyone figure out a strategy to beat the GOP. Assuming what we know now, what does a candidate need to do to win?

Friday, November 05, 2004

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: The Day the Enlightenment Went Out

Excellent column. The point about the enlightenment and our country's movement to the fundamentalist illuminates the sorry state of the nation.

The biggest thing about the election is that they country is closely divided. If the Red outnumbers the Blue, then what are the folks in the Blue states suppossed to do? Civil war? Well maybe we shouldn't relive the past too much :)

To me, the important thing is that we are on the edge of winning. However Dems do need to take a couple of Red states to win the White House. The low hanging fruit on this point is to get a native son to win it. A matter of fact it is the only way that Dems have won the White House since 1964. No offense to all those good folks from NY or Mass. or California or Michigan, their is no way that they can win the Presidency unless they get the cultural gap that exisits.

This gap is not a big deal. However the inferiority complex of being from a Red state is the foundation of it. New Yorkers braggin about the Yankees or the pain they felt in on 9/11 does not unify the country. What did Clinton and Carter and Johnson do differently that Humphrey, Mondale, Dukakis and Kerry? More importantly, where were they born? The South is the key. It is based on stealing a few states than running the table. This is the big problem with Gore. He didn't win his home state. If he won Tenn, then things would have turned out differently.

Now on the state and local level, the Dems have an even bigger problem. Losing with good candidates in the Senate and House shows a serious weakness in the Party that must be addressed. It is here that the culture gap again rears its ugly head. What to do about it? To be honest, it will take a true leader to move it forward. This gets back to the Democratic problem of needing a superstar to win, but this person must have the ability shift the party to the win column. Another devastating loss will bury the party.

Thursday, November 04, 2004

Tipsville . . .

Tidbits about the new Democratic leadership. I beleive that McAullife did a great job. Dean taking that spot would be intriguing, but DEAN? The water thing is retarded. Ohio borders a large body of water and we lost that too.

This election has really hurt. The big thing is that the GOP won doing everything wrong: they ran toward their base not the center; they had massive turnout; exit polls had Kerry winning in key states that ended up the reverse; undecideds broke for Kerry as they were suppossed ... and Kerry still lost. This is unprecedented.

Rove and the gang are truly the best. They saw that the center and undecideds were going to break against them months ago. The only way they could win was to play up the people's fears and then drive up their voters. They did that and even using the "dynamic scoring" suggested in Slate, they still killed 'em. I'm not sure I understand how they got such motivated voters out there in the right places, but they did it. Now what? There is a lot of things that will go wrong for the country. As much as I want to believe that Bush has the interests of the people at heart, he will screw us. No pharmacutical or energy company left behind. No plan for education and research. No plan in Iraq or on the War on Terror. No oversight in/on/by Congress. No pork barrel plan sounds too bad.

Who's left to change this? The media? The Dems? The people?

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Kerry Concedes Defeat; Bush Wins Second Term (washingtonpost.com)

How are you doing? We need to go to the matresses on this and go all out in Ohio. If we lose fair and square OK, but we need to know.

This does bring up the point that we again underestimated the abilites of the GOP. Why were the exits so far off? What happened to all that confidence? What happened to the ground game? What happened to the massive turnout assuring Kerry of victory?

Everything went the way it was suppossed to and we still lost.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

What Bush Threw Away (washingtonpost.com)

It doesn't matter that this is just an election against Bush. That's ok, that's what elections are for. A pithy critique of what Bush could have had. I agree that Bush could have truly been one of the great president's on these United States, but he gave it up for an attempt at a narrow victory. More importantly, I don't think he had the leadership vision that the country needed.

I have always said that he was smart enough to know who he needed to hire and listen to. The problem may be with the Oval Office and the fact that it makes the smartest advisors stupid. Did anyone bring up what kind of opportunity he had for the history books? They failed Bush when they said let's go for the Democratic Party's throat. They failed the country.
Electoral College Math Could Cover a Blackboard

Great examination of the sexy six :) This thing is in the bag. The turnout numbers are going to be huge and Kerry will win by more than you think. The only worry is the voter intimidation tactics of the GOP. For folks that are all about "freedom on the march," they sure want to suppress the vote. Is it better that someone vote in Afghanistan than Cleveland? Not sure that they are the same, but it is an interesting GOP paradox.