The Right State

Both sides are doing it, so it is okay.  This kind of thinking always blows me away.

So, both are tacking away from their party’s ideological ends to appeal to this unpredictable swath in between.

McCain is moving away from the unpopular President Bush if not from the Republican Party itself. He emphasizes bipartisanship while pressing two issues that resonate strongly with voters of all stripes.

He “stood up to the president and sounded the alarm on global warming,” one McCain commercial says. Another promotes a “bipartisan plan to lower prices at the pump, reduce dependence on foreign oil through domestic drilling and champion energy alternatives.”

Barak Obama’s talking points have moved swiftly to the middle and away from the hard left since he won the Democrat nomination for President.  He moved so fast, his hair would be blowing if it were long enough.  The reaction of the left is predictable: the hard left is criticizing his move to the center while his apologists contend that both sides are doing it so it is okay.  But both sides are not doing it.  Most of the time, in most elections, Democrats appeal to their base in the primaries and then converge on the middle when the nomination is won.  For Democrats this means a lot of movement.  As John Hawkins pointed out in Right Wing News, Democrats have to lie about who they are to get people to vote for them.  Republicans, believing we are a center-right country politically, do not feel they need to reinvent themselves after a primary battle.  Therefore, Republicans move very little, if any, after a primary battles.

Barak Obama has moved drastically and dramatically to the right in order to appeal to moderate voters.  The problem is not that he moved to the center, but he moved so fast and so far.  Even liberal bloggers are asking what issue will he cave in on next (google ‘Obama moves right’ and see what comes up).  Polls asking that very question are rampant.   USA Today sums it up this way:

Barack Obama is facing a rebellion from the liberal blogosphere that helped him lock up the Democratic presidential nomination.

In recent days, Obama has criticized the Supreme Court for saying that child rapists cannot be executed and refused to oppose a decision knocking down a handgun ban. He announced a plan to support “faith-based” social work and said he would vote for a bill giving immunity to telephone companies that allowed warrantless wiretapping of their customers.

Barak Obama’s move to the center has been swift.  Going with so many of the issue important to conservatives has angered the hard left.  Despite their anger, the far left will put on their happy faces once the two candidates begin their campaigns fro real.  Moderates on the other hand may need to take a hard look at who they have been supporting.  McCain as the moderate espouses liberal stands on some issues and conservative ones on others.  Obama has just recently moved right making a McCain presidency more appealing to moderates.

John McCain, despite the APs equivocations, has not moved to the center.  He is the center on a lot of issues.  That is one of the reasons he does not have the solid backing of conservatives.  John McCain has justly earned the title of Maverick by poking his finger in the eyes of Republicans and conservatives.  He voted against drilling in ANWR before running for President.  He supported the global warming nonsense before he won his nomination.  He has always distanced himself from President Bush.  He was critical of the war in Iraq from the start when he advocated the sending of additional troops.  The Maverick has always crossed party lines much to the chagrin of his fellow Republicans (remember the Gang of 14 on selecting federal judges).  The Maverick has crossed party lines on numerous occasions much to the chagrin of his fellow Republicans and conservatives.  On and on I could go.  John McCain is and will always be a constant thorn in the flesh of Conservatives.

John McCain is and will always be who he says he is.  He does not change.  Barak Obama is who he says he is right now…, unless of course he misspeaks.  Or… his wife, Michelle misspeaks.  Or…  And then he is who he says he is now, after the redefinition.  For Obama redefining himself is a constant theme. 

Everybody does it is a poor excuse (my mom did not buy it when I was a kid either).  Besides, everybody doesn’t do it.  Obama is constantly shifting positions, while McCain has been fairly constant.  There is a huge difference between John McCain and Barak Obama.  At least there is right now.  Who knows?  There is still plenty of time for Obama to reinvent himself yet again into a new, younger John McCain.

Tags: Democrats, National Elections, Iraq, Sports by Chuck
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What happened to all the good guys?  I remember a time when football players were gentlemen on and off the field.  When the worst thing a player did was to use drugs and even those incidences were few and far between.  What happened to football greats like Troy Aikman, Terry Bradshaw, “Mean” Joe Green, Reggie White, Dick Butkus, Walter Payton, Lawrence Taylor, Franco Harris, Larry Csonka, Len Dawson, Jim Brown, Mike Singletary, and Howie Long.  What happened to players who were role models on as well as off the field?  Now it seems like coaches draft the largest players and the players with the worst attitudes.  While there are still great football players in the NFL and whose behavior is a reflection of times gone by, there are still a great many like Albert Haynesworth.  He is the perfect example of the large player with attitudes being drafted by today’s coaches.

The 6-foot-6, 320-pound Haynesworth stomped on Dallas Cowboys center Andre Gurode’s head Sunday, knocking off his helmet, then kicked and stomped his face. Gurode needed 30 stitches to repair the cuts left by the tackle’s cleats, and plans to talk with his family about whether or not to press charges, his agent told Nashville police Monday.

The league suspended Haynesworth for five games — more than twice the length of the previous longest suspension — for flagrant unnecessary roughness. He won’t be paid while he serves the suspension, effective immediately, which will cost him approximately $190,000.

Its not like this player was a great guy until he came into the League.  Haynesworth has a history of bad behavior going back at least as far as his playing days at Tennessee.   Most of those problems were limited to practice and therefore did not catch the attention of the public.  The NFL’s newest bad boy has also been accused of road rage before charges were dropped.  He has also been accused of kicking teammates.  NFL scouts apparently knew of Haynesworth’s problems in college since he was not drafted until later in the first round.

After the game, Haynesworth was said to be remorseful and apologetic.

“What I did out there was disgusting,” Haynesworth said Sunday. “It doesn’t matter what the league does to me. The way I feel right now, you just can’t describe it.”

The apology is a matter of too little, too late.

While I blame football players for their own actions, some attention must be given to the coaches who draft players with known problems.  To draft a player who appears to be out of control is courting danger.  Then people like Tennessee Titan Coach Jeff Fisher pretends to be surprised when one of their prized players goes nuts.  These players are drafted for their football skills, not their ability to socialize with others.

Makes me wonder if the coaches should not catch some of the blame for drafting these ticking time bombs.

Tags: Sports by Chuck
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At what point does free football tickets become influence?  According to the Dallas Morning News Texas State lawmakers have been receiving free football tickets for some time, but its not influence.

Tickets to University of Texas football games may be out of reach for some fans, but state and federal lawmakers have routinely taken the opportunity to attend games at no cost, according to a newspaper report.

The UT System gave the elected officials 1,962 free or discounted tickets to UT football games during the past five seasons, according to records obtained by the Austin American-Statesman under the Texas Public Information Act.

But don’t think it influences the decisions of lawmakers because it doesn’t.  Well, at least that is what one legislator said.

“That’s certainly up to the university. That’s not up to me. I’m a recipient, and I’m happy to be one,” said state Sen. Florence Shapiro, who received 51 free or discounted tickets. Shapiro, R-Plano, heads the Senate Education Committee. She said she often discusses higher education matters with fellow lawmakers and university officials while attending games.

Yeah, right!  As an avid sports fan, I can say I have not once discussed anything important at a football game.  But the important question is, will receiving free football tickets influence a lawmaker?  The easy answer is, yes, it will.  It is idiotic to think it won’t influence their decisions.  The practice of giving free football tickets to state lawmakers should be ended.  The legislators are being manipulated and they do not even know it.  They are pathic.

Tags: Texas, Sports, Politics by Chuck
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The Seattle Seahawks and Texas A&M University have settled a lawsuit over the 12^th Man moniker. The Aggies sued the Seahawks days before their 2006 Super Bowl match against the eventual champion Pittsburg Steelers.

The agreement, announced by both entities Monday, allows the Seahawks to use the 12th Man slogan within a seven-state area in the Northwest region of the United States. The team must publicly state that A&M owns the phrase each time it is used, according to A&M officials.

The Seahawks also will pay a licensing fee to A&M, though A&M representatives refused to release how much, saying the final documents haven’t been filed in court yet.

A&M has used the 12th Man slogan for decades, but the Aggies made it official in 1990 when they received the licensing trademark, which is a step the Seahawks never took.

The Seattle Times has a little bit more on the Seahawks conditional use of the 12^th Man name.

The Seahawks can essentially use the 12th Man anywhere, but have to acknowledge that the slogan is being used under copyright of the school when mentioning it in print or on a team-sponsored broadcast.

The Aggies have been using the name, 12^th Man for decades going all the way back to a 1922 football game against Centre College.

The tradition of the Twelfth Man was born on the second of January 1922, when an underdog Aggie team was playing Centre College, then the nation’s top ranked team. As the hard fought game wore on, and the Aggies dug deeply into their limited reserves, Coach Dana X. Bible remembered a squad man who was not in uniform. He had been up in the press box helping reporters identify players. His name was E. King Gill, and was a former football player who was only playing basketball. Gill was called from the stands, suited up, and stood ready throughout the rest of the game, which A&M finally won 22-14. When the game ended, E. King Gill was the only man left standing on the sidelines for the Aggies.

To this day, the student body of Texas A&M will stand during the entire football game showing their willingness to enter the game if needed. The 12th Man tradition might have been born in 1922, but the gained national prominence when Head Coach Jackie Sherrill instituted the 12th Man kickoff squad made of eleven non-scholarship players. For those unfamiliar with the school, the tradition of the 12th Man is a very big part of the University.

A statue of E. King Gill greets fans to Kyle Field as they enter the football stadium at tradition rich Texas A&M.

Hat tip to Outside the Beltway

Tags: Texas Aggies, Culture, Sports by Chuck
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Powerline’s Paul Mirengoff, apparently is a big supporter of George Mason University, has been writing about the Cinderella team from Virginia. While I agree with most of what he says about UConn’s easy bracket schedule and GMU’s more difficult road, I have to disagree with him concerning having a smaller contingent of teams in the 64 team bracket. Paul writes:

A final aside — in the slimmed down version of the tournament I’d like to see, George Mason still would have had its shot. By virtue of finishing the season tied for first in the Colonial Athletic conference, they would have played off against the co-champions for the right to enter the tournament, and to play against the champion of another “mid-major” conference. Had they won both games, they would have been deep into the tournament with the opportunity to upset Connecticut or whomever.

George Mason might have made it into a smaller bracket, but other good teams would not have been so lucky. One team, Texas A&M University, made the 64 team bracket by the skin of their teeth with an at-large bid. This team went into the tournament with a 21-9 record having beaten #7 Texas in College Station and came within five points of beating them again in the Big 12 Tournament. This A&M team would not have made a slimmed down version of the tournament. The Aggies, seeded 12^th beat 5^th seed Syracuse fairly handily. But then they lost to Final Four bound LSU when a Tiger pointer made a desperation three pointer at the buzzer. I do not know if A&M could have defeated the Duke Blue Devils, but the Aggies tough defense would have made it close. For those reasons I do not support a slimmed down version of the bracket.

Tags: Sports by Chuck
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Today is the day.  The Aggies, seeded 12th, will play Syracuse, seeded 5th.  Its been a long time since the Aggies were in the 64 team bracket.  Both teams are playing well.  It will be a good game.  I wish them well.  Go Ags. Whoop!

Update:  The Aggies won a thriller against a good Syracuse team who was hobbled by their injured point guard.  Syracuse had a very good defense.  Next up: LSU.  Another good team.  The Aggies are playing like they belong in the field of 64 teams, considering they have not been there in 19 years.  I look forward to Saturday’s game.  Go Ags.

Tags: Sports by Chuck
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