Work, Play and Politics

What's Holding Back VW's Move Up-Market

2009-08-01T10:04:00.005-04:00

Their dealerships.

As some of you know I recently purchased a new Infiniti G37x. The second runner-up: the Volkswagen CC. I looked at about a dozen other cars in making my decision and by far in the entry-level luxury sedan class, IMHO these are the cream of the crop. In another post, I'll probably give you my view on all the cars I looked at.

But back to the VW. Between the CC and the G37 both cars had their strengths and weaknesses. And it's easy to make a case for either car. But part of the car buying process is also the environment that you enter: the dealership. In this area there is a huge gap between the two companies. Infiniti is emblematic of the experience you expect from a luxury car dealership, although I'd say that it still lags behind the standards set at Lexus. But VW, is just a car dealership. The vast majority of their buyers and cars that they sell are not targeted to luxury buyers. As such the facilities and staff don't support the luxury experience you're buying when you spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $40K for a car.

Now I'm not just talking about leather sitting areas and offers of bottled water. It's deeper than that. I went into 2 VW dealerships as I made my evaluations. One was a relatively nice, clean dealership, the other kind of small, dark with a epithet-ridden, chain-smoking sales person. Nice guy, but extremely rough around the edges. The sales person at the 'nicer' dealership still had a distinct "car salesman" feel to him. But what's worse is that at neither dealership did anyone in the place no how to get my iPod to work in the car that called out iPod integration as a key feature. Now for me iPod integration was a key decision criteria because I spend so much time in the car and listen to my iPod all the time. What was even stranger about this is that the CC seemingly shared the same MMI interface that the Audi A4 had, which worked flawlessly and easily. But I digress a little.

So at the end of the day you have no different of a buying experience than you'd get at a Chevy dealership, very limited knowledge of the cars by the sales people, no niceties like free loaner cars when you bring yours in for service -- yet you're being asked to plunk down (at least for me) a lot of dough for a car that genuinely competes with cars by Infiniti (and in my mind superior to) Acura, Audi, BMW and Cadillac If the CTS drove the way it looked it would be in my driveway).

This also takes me back to Volkswagen's first attempt at hitting the luxury market, the 2004 $100K luxury sedan with a W12 engine that competed head on with the BMW 7-Series, Mercedes S-class and the Audi A8 on which it was based. At that time, and even today, who would buy a $100K VW? What's crazier is that it looks like they're bringing the Phaeton back in 2010 of 2011.

But this brings me back to my original question. Does VW really think that their existing dealers can support the full brand experience that people are looking for when they are going to spend up to $100K for a car? It just sounds crazy to me, but they seem to be doing it. And let me reiterate, this has nothing to do with the quality of the cars themselves. The CC is a beautiful, well performing car (although stupidly has a sunroof that only tilts up).

Why VW doesn't learn from Honda, Toyota and Nissan and create a luxury brand (Acura, Lexus and Infiniti respectively), with a separate dealer structure to support the move upmarket? Oh wait, they have. It's called Audi. I don't get it.

2 Views, 1 Magazine -- on the Bailout

2009-07-10T00:41:00.004-04:00

I was catching up on some magazines tonight and was really surprised to see 2 diametrically opposed views on the banks and the bailout. Fittingly, one story ran in the front of the book and the other at the end.

The first article is an opinion piece by Allen Sloan who -- I think rightly so -- points out that "...before you accept the Street's version of events, recall that you didn't hear complaints about "socialism" when the government bailed out creditors of Bear Stearns and AIG, and let Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley become bank companies so that they could borrow hugely -- and cheaply -- from the Fed." Sloan does add that perhaps there's more to the banks desire to pay back the TARP funds may not be just to get out of the political spotlight, but also to buy back the warrants that the Treasury got for lending the funds before they become worth too much. Basically they took the money when they needed it and want to give it back before the value of the warrants rise too high and the American people get their fair return. Nice work guys.

But there is another side of the story that starts 64 pages later that tells the Banks' side of the story. Basically it's the banks crying about how they were vilified by the press and the public as they were taken through the bailout process and the feeling that they were mistreated by the government -- both in terms of changing of the deal as the process continued and politicians demonizing the banks in public sessions to score political points.

Through all the complaining there was a really good paragraph towards the end:

So has TARP done its job? "It was one of the largest government appropriations in history," says Thomas Chen, CEO of the investment bank Piper Jaffray. "And a mere seven months later we're letting capital be returned on the basis that the problem is fixed. So you have to ask: (1) Has it all been fixed?, or (2) Was it necessary in the first place?" Chen believes the program had a short-term calming effect on the economy -- more than a financial effect. Says Thomas Nides, Morgan Stanley's chief administrative officer: "The original concept was to accomplish one thing: to stop us from going off the cliff, to send a clear message that the government was not going to let the system collapse. For that I give them an A+."

I think Chen and Nides have this about right. For all the flaws of TARP, I think it did what it needed to do -- it averted an all out crisis.

One final thought on the 2 articles. Which view is more right? Are the banks having a bout of selective memory? I think so. Mostly because of the adage "Follow the money". Paulson, Geithner and Obama aren't going to get rich off TARP. But the bankers have not only kept their jobs, but it seems as if they may prosper greatly as the government takes on all the responsibility for their mistakes in the form of toxic assets, and through access of cheap money, leaving the bankers to make boatloads of money. I think the bankers doth protest too much.

Steve Forbes Would Like Us to Drive Tanks & Raise the Gas Tax

2009-07-09T23:00:00.005-04:00

In Steve Forbes' Fact & Comment article, "Car-Wreck Regs" in the current issue of the eponymous magazine, Forbes unfortunately twists historical statistics regarding highway safety and fuel consumption to seemingly support the continued development and production of gas guzzling cars that people have stopped buying.

Let's walk through a little of his tortured logic:

CAFE Rules Will Kill People: Forbes reaches back to an old study that found that about 2,000 additional people per year are killed in car accidents because CAFE standards drove manufacturers to build smaller, lighter cars. Now I'm sure that there is data that supports this and Forbes does a nice job of invoking an old trick -- if you reference a study you boost the credibility of your argument, regardless of the quality and bias of the study. Many "industry studies" are designed specifically to support a pre-determined point of view. So you have to determine whether or not the assertions pass your own personal smell test. Let's consider a few things then . The study compares cars build in the mid-nineties to cars built in the early '70s. But this doesn't take into consideration that in the intervening 30+ years that we have developed lightweight, yet stronger composite materials that are not only used in cars but airplanes. And it presumes that there has been no advances in car frame design or other safety systems like air bags or ABS braking systesm to make cars even safer. Not to mention that cars today meet much higher safety standards than cars of the past did. All in all it feels like Forbes' article is bunk.

New SUV's are cleaner than old, poorly tuned compacts. This is another truly stupid argument. Yes, it is very likely that a new car will have better emissions than a 15 year old car. So yes, it's better to have newer cars on the road than older ones. But smaller, more fuel efficient cars will be cleaner than large SUVs. So why not make more of the newer cars, smaller cars? Again, Forbes loses.

Rising CAFE Standards Increase Oil Consumption. Forbes uses some impressive statistics -- improperly -- to make his case. He points out that Fuel consumption has grown dramatically over the past 30 years -- a whopping 60%. But what he doesn't point out is that the number of cars on the road grew by 74% and with suburban sprawl, the number people who drove to work and the number of miles that they drove grew dramatically as well. These are the real reasons why consumption increased, not Americans' wild desire to drive more because mileage is better.

So what is Forbes' great idea instead of improving CAFE standards? Raise taxes. Yes, Steve Forbes who typically thinks that any idea to reduce taxes is a good one is suggesting that we raise the gasoline tax. His model for this strategy -- Europe. Another amazing flip-flop for Mr. Forbes. It's hard to think of any other article that Forbes has written that holds up Europe as a model for America to follow. He holds that high taxes is why Europeans are buying smaller, fuel efficient cars. But what happened to the problem with smaller cars being less safe? Either he doesn't care if Europeans crash to their deaths or he forgot what he wrote a few short paragraphs before.

Tom asks where the Republican Outrage is

2009-01-23T10:10:00.003-05:00

My old college friend Tom has written a post that notes that outside of Republican talk radio (Rush + everyone on FoxNews), there has been little outrage and anger from everyday Republicans. The implication is that Republicans are more respectful than Democrats. I'm not sure I buy into the argument.

As I commented on Tom's blog, I think the reaction hasn't been the same because of the 61% disapproval rate of the guy who left and the great amount of optimism that Obama has inspired in the US and around the world.

But let's not assume that Republicans are just nicer or more polite than Dems. I think a lot of it has to do with the extreme amount of grace that John McCain has shown and others have followed. But the elbows on John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and others are as sharp as anyone's on the Hill.

I do hope that Obama can use the honeymoon period to try to create a wave of bi-partisanship, but we'll see. At least he seems to be governing to the middle (as evidenced by many of his Cabinet selections and other appointments). And I do believe that the level of tranparency he's trying to bring to government can be sustained and works to regain the trust of the American people.

Where do disaffected Republicans move to?

2008-11-05T13:41:00.003-05:00

You always hear the liberals talk about moving to Canada or any other country if some right-wing guy wins an election. But where would Republicans go? They can't go to Canada or most any European country because they are all far more socialist than even the most distorted vision of an Obama presidency would be. Russia, no. The Middle East, no. South America -- well maybe some of the Neo-Nazi types would feel comfortable in Argentina.

But seriously, they won't go anywhere, just like the liberals who threatened to go to Canada didn't leave and were never serious about it. Why? Because there's no better place to be and if you really want to help make the country better, you can't do it from thousands of miles away. You have to be here, working shoulder to shoulder.

As both McCain and Obama stated last night (even Karl Rove said it on Fox News), today ESPECIALLY after a bruising election season, we are all Americans who love this country and we must all come together to fulfill the promise of America and restore our standing in the world. For all our warts, as Ronald Reagan's words still ring true: "America is a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere."

Pakistanis Decry US Air Strikes

2008-11-04T17:16:00.003-05:00

In CentCom Chief David Petraeus' visit to Pakistan, several officials complained that the Predator attacks were resulting in a "loss of precious lives and property" and engendering "anti-American" sentiments.

All I can say is FU and who cares. The Al Qaeda operatives who are being targeted, as well as the people in area that have been harboring them, didn't like Americans in the first place, so nothing lost there. Besides, towns in South Waziristan don't have any real infrastructure to worry about being blown up anyway.

If the damn Pakistanis didn't cave (pun intended) into the tribal leaders who supported Al Qaeda in the first place and let them set up shop again after they were chased out of Afghanistan we wouldn't be having this discussion at all.

Go Vote!

2008-11-04T17:14:00.001-05:00

The opportunity to vote is both a right and a privilege. Don't pass it up. But if you do, I don't want to hear any complaining for the next 4 years.

Tyson Chandler Gets It

2008-10-13T17:35:00.003-04:00

This has nothing to do with hoops. As many of you know, Tyson Chandler is the 7-foot starting center for the New Orleans Hornets. But he also seems to be one of the many young black Americans that the Obama campaign has gotten engaged in politics.

In his recent blog post, Chandler talks about attending an Obama rally with a few teammates where he got to meet Obama. A few of his comments towards the end shows that he understands the social responsibilities that he has now that he's become a multi-millionaire by playing in the NBA.

It's funny, because when Obama was giving his speech, he said he was gonna give a tax cut to 95 percent of the people. He says, "If you make under $250,000 a year, raise your hand." And everybody there raised their hand, except for this one small section of guys. That was our section. And everybody around us was laughing.

But you know what, it's a bigger cause. And the way I look at it is that I can afford to pay more in taxes. But my parents, my grandparents, my cousins ... with what they make, they can't afford to cut back in their household with what they're trying to survive with. I can afford to make cuts and still survive. They can't take that knock.

I think that's what's going on now and the reason why the middle class is struggling so much. The upper class, we can take that hit. Obviously, nobody wants to take it, but we still can. And we can afford to live nice lives.

I've lived in both situations. And not only that, I'm obviously the only one in my family that can say that I'm a millionaire. I've seen my entire family struggle. So, would I rather see my whole family struggle while I get a break, or have me not get a break while the rest of my family gets one? I'll take my entire family getting a break.

Israeli Generals Weigh in on Obama

2008-10-10T12:46:00.001-04:00

In this short film, many of the most respected military and intelligence experts in Israel discuss the impact of the Bush/McCain foreign policy on Israel, the need for the United States to engage directly with Iran, and their personal feelings about Sen. Barack Obama.

Retired Generals of the Israeli Defense Forces and high-ranking Mossad officials on Barack Obama... from www.JCER.info on Vimeo.

Jayson Stark on the Mets Pitching

2008-09-25T18:21:00.004-04:00

As the season winds down and I chew through my fingernails, I thought I'd share a couple of great articles by ESPN's Jayson Stark detailing Johan Santana's greatness and just how bad the Mets' bullpen has been and how the NL East race has been decided by relief pitching.

Merrill Hoge Calls VY a "Baby"

2008-09-22T13:00:00.002-04:00

I thought that the writers at the Tennessean have been tough on Vince Young, but take a listen to Merrill Hoge's critique of Vince's future as an NFL quarterback.

Palin & McCain Blocking 'Troopergate' Investigation

2008-09-17T23:52:00.003-04:00

So this is how the 'reform-minded' Palin operates? Palin who initially welcomed the investigation, saying "hold me accountable," is now trying to delay the investigation until after the election is over. The McCain campaign said on Monday that Palin, who was not subpoenaed, was unlikely to cooperate.

For someone who proclaims she has nothing to hide, she's acting as if there's an awful lot to hide. Yeah, she's just the person to clean up Washington.

The best line on the whole situation was from Democratic state Sen. Kim Elton who is chairperson of the Legislative Council that is overseeing the investigation. Contending the deal had been broken, Elton said, "Bluntly, I feel like Charlie Brown after Lucie moved the football."

Perhaps the McCain campaign should change their slogan "Election first, truth second".

Read more on Yahoo News

A few more fibs from Palin Convention Speech

2008-09-09T11:14:00.003-04:00

OK, I'm sure many of you have seen these, but just in case you didn't:

"I sold it [private jet] on eBay". Well not exactly. Give her credit, she had it listed on eBay for $2.7M. But when the Alaskan government didn't get a bid that met the minimum they were looking for, they went to a private broker who sold the plane for $2.1M. Now forgetting about how whether or not she lost money on the transaction, does she not know the difference between listing an item for sale and actually selling it? It made a great sound bite and made her look hip to technology, but it just flat isn't true.
Fiscal Disciplinarian. She wants you to think that she hews to fiscally conservative Republican principles, but she doesn't really score that well there either. As Governor she was able to deliver a surplus due to higher oil revenues resulting from record oil prices and levying her own version of 'windfall profits' taxes on the oil companies operating in Alaska. This is the same kind of 'windfall taxes' that she and the other Republicans consider anathema when proposed by Obama.

There's a good article on Palin's performance as Governor in the Boston Globe called "A forceful, but narrow agenda". Take a read.

VY Close to Losing Locker Room

2008-09-08T11:59:00.003-04:00

It's been well chronicled over his first 2+ seasons that Vince Young has had issues with letting go of bad plays and accepting responsibility for his level of play. Most of these concerns have been aired by the media and fans. But Week 1 seemed to take these concerns to a different level. Now he may be losing confidence in the locker room, which is the death-knell of a starting QB in the NFL.

Mid-way through the 4th quarter, after throwing his second interception, it appeared that VY had opted out of the game. The official word was that VY experienced tightness in his hamstrings. Fisher all but ordered Vince out there and 4 plays later, he had to leave the game after taking a hit on his knee. But take a look at these quotes from teammates:

"I am under the assumption something happened and to him and he was hurt. I don't know what the situation is so I am not going to comment on it." -- Kevin Mawae, Center and President of NFLPA

"No one is going to quit on this side of the ball." -- Keith Bulluck, All-Pro OLB

“You can’t lose confidence as a quarterback. You have to have a short-term memory and handle adversity when it does come…You have to find a way to persevere no matter what the situation is." -- David Thornton, OLB

“Vince is an emotional guy. You never know what’s going through his head,’’ Hall said. “I’ve been with Vince a long time. I love him like a brother. I don’t know what he’s going through, all I can do is try to motivate him and get him going." -- Ahmad Hall, FB and former University of Texas teammate of Young

The Titans front office has been consistent, perhaps to a fault, it it's public support of Young during his evolution as a quarterback. But if Young doesn't get his head together soon, the front office won't be able to gloss over Young's deficiencies or risk fracturing the locker room or worse losing it alltogether.

Politicians Never Learn: The Truth is Out There

2008-09-05T01:37:00.005-04:00

No, this has nothing to do with aliens (why in God's name are they making an X-Files movie now anyway?).

I'm continuously amazed that politicians say things publically that aren't true. It's as if they think that nothing they ever say or do has been recorded or documented in someway. And have they not heard of Google? That's how reporters do their research today.

Anyway, one of Sarah Palin's best lines Wednesday night had to do with the boondoggle called the Gravina Island Bridge -- more famously is known as the "Bridge to Nowhere", reviled as the worst example of pork-barrel politics. Let's not forget that this was pushed through Congress by Alaska's Republican delegation, led by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) who threatened to quit if the funding was pulled.

In her speech Palin boasted that one of her great achievements as a reformer and fiscal leader was to kill of the ill-conceived project, proclaiming that she "...championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress...I told Congress, 'thanks, but no thanks,' on that bridge-to-nowhere." Oh really.

First of all, when running for Governor she was an advocate for the Bridge. And only when the funding was cut off by Congress did she abandon the project. According to a press release from her own office she stated:

“Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport, but the $398 million bridge is not the answer,” said Governor Palin. “Despite the work of our congressional delegation, we are about $329 million short of full funding for the bridge project, and it’s clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island,” Governor Palin added.
-- State of Alaska, Governor's Office, Press Archive
September 21, 2007

And what's worse, according to CBS News, Palin kept all $233M in federal funds that had already been appropriated for the project and had it allocated to other transportation projects in the state.

So is this really the kind of change she's going to bring to Washington? For all those that think her to be naive, she seems to know all the ropes already.

GOP Wants it Both Ways on Preggo Palin Teen

2008-09-05T01:23:00.004-04:00

Hands off Bristol Palin. Too bad that no one told that to Levi Johnston 5 months ago.

Well that's at least what the GOP wants from the media, unless it suits their purposes.

While Republicans continue to show outrage at teen pregnancies in the inner cities or in Hollywood, somehow little Bristol Palin gets a pass. Is it because he family is rich (or at least now famous) enough for her to not have to worry about ruining her life? Or is it just that it's a better story to talk about the courageous choice she is making in keeping the baby and getting married before her 18th birthday. Any other 17 year old girl, in almost any other family and she's trailer-trash and the poster child for irresponsibility. Now she's the poster child for the "Right-to-lifer's" and the un(sex)-educated. How's that position on teaching abstinence working for you now?

Here's a link to a great article about the GOP's double-standard regarding the Palin familty situation by the Associated Press (that despicable tool of the liberal elite media) as it appeared in the NY Daily News.

Was that Sarah Palin or Rob Schneider?

2008-09-05T01:08:00.003-04:00

Just catching up on a few thoughts.

I love how even when trying to show how inclusive and progressive the GOP is by making the bold move of putting a woman on the ticket, they still can't shake their misogynistic roots. There were a number of signs saying "Coldest State, Hottest Governor" and a great shot caught by CNN showing an old guy wearing a button that read "Hoosiers for the Hot Chick".

I mean I've heard of pandering to the base, but perhaps it was Palin's good looks, not her ultra-conservative values that were the biggest present to the GOP base.

But I can envision a great SNL skit featuring Rob Schneider, reprising his role as "The Hot Chick", impersonating Palin.

Live Blogging from the McCain Acceptance Speech

2008-09-04T23:06:00.002-04:00

Here are my reactions as they came while watching McCain's speech:

Does McCain realize that the big spending, do nothing people in Washington have been the Republicans over the last 8 years? Federal spending have risen to the highest levels in history under the Bush administration -- and for the first 6 years did so under a Republican controlled Senate and House.

Gotta give props for his position on the surge. Good tactical decision that improved the situation. But the fact that he still thinks that in hindsight that attacking Iraq -- not pour resources to finish the job in Afghanistan, not Iraq, not Syria who both provide more support to terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah -- is just bad judgment.

Again, why is this both parties. The lost trust ALL happened under a Republican controlled White House and Congress. Can the "Straight Talk" guy keep it straight?

Red Meat Time: One thing that always bothers me about the "legislating from the bench" argument is that it presumes that conservatives don't do the same. It's really just that they just mean it's OK to "legislate" as long as it comports with conservative principles.

Education: Interesting comment on education. Does that mean that we can choose to send our kids to school that teach creationism over science? abstinence over sex education? Oh, wait, I guess by the video of Palin's pregnant 17 year old daughter that doesn't work very well ;)

I do like the message about reaching across party lines. I wish that more politicians thought this way. He's a good man. Probably in any other election, he'd have my vote. Certainly would have voted for him over Hillary.

He's got a really compelling story. If you haven't read his first book "Faith of my Fathers", pick it up. I really enjoyed it when I read it when it first came out.

Big finish: Great, great finish. Terrific cadence, terrific message. I feel like the real McCain finally came out.

Sarah Palin: A Bridge to Nowhere

2008-08-31T10:20:00.006-04:00

John McCain has really lost the right to proclaim himself a "maverick". I know he's saying that he didn't choose the safe pick when he announced Sarah Palin as his VP on the ticket ahead of Romney, Pawlenty and Ridge. He even went as far to say that this pick was made on his gut, not on the polls. But I've got to call "Bullshit" on this one. The political calculus here is so obvious.

I'm sure that there are many good attributes in Mrs. Palin's favor, but this is the most obvious case of pandering to a number of constituencies, not least of all the disaffected Hillary voters who feel that the Hill-dog got mis-treated in the Democratic primaries. Palin is supposed to be the:

Bridge to Women Voters: The ultimate pander. In the wake of Obama's victory over Hillary, McCain did everything he could to court the 18 million people who voted for Hillary. Now he took the 'daring' step to bring a woman onto his ticket as VP. But once these female democratic voters start to see some of Palin's positions -- e.g. hard-core Pro-Life and lifetime NRA member -- I don't think the average 'soccer mom' will connect with this particular 'average hockey mom'.

Bridge to the Future: Yeah, McCain is the old guy. He doesn't come across as hip or knowledgeable about any technology invented after 1982. So while people like Bobby Jindal (R-GOV LA) and Tim Pawlenty (R-GOV MN) were in the mix, they had that extra Y chromasome that knocked them out of the running. But Palin's youth and inexperience (2 years as governor of the least populated state and 2 terms of Mayor of a town of 9,000 people; I realize I'm glossing over her run as sports reporter) will blunt McCain's position that Obama is too inexperienced to be President -- especially since at 72, being "one heartbeat away from the presidency" never felt so close

Bridge to Conservative Voters: This one he got right. I do not doubt that in the coming weeks you will hear a lot about the truly heart-wrenching story (no sarcasm intended) of her choice to continue with the pregnancy of her son Trig even though she knew he would be born with Down's Syndrome. It was no shocker that Dr. James Dobson was one of the first to praise her selection. And her other positions on gun control (or lack thereof) and offshore drilling will certainly thrill the conservative base.

But in the end, she will be a Bridge to Nowhere, much like Senator Ted Stevens' (R-AK) misguided project to build a $350M bridge to connect 4 seals to 3 polar bears.

Now the upside from the selection for me is that I think the late night talk show hosts should have a lot of good material to work with. There is no doubt that Jon Stewart will comment on Palin's relative hot-ness in the political world. I mean this is the guy that made a joke about spying a Merkel camel toe in a picture at a G-8 meeting. A few other potential jokes I expect to hear (all of which are terrible. read at your own risk. please play mental rim shot in your head at the end):

Yes, Sarah Palin is immensely popular in Alaska. She has the caribou vote all wrapped up

Sarah Palin will be very comfortable in the White House. After all she grew up in one herself...but it was called an igloo.

Buster Olney on Mets Bullpen Woes

2008-08-19T14:43:00.003-04:00

In today's chat, Buster Olney of ESPN said what every Met fan has been trying not to admit.

Let's face it: The Mets' bullpen will be as good, in the next six weeks, as Aaron Heilman is.

It's painful, but it's true. Unless Wagner gets back soon, we're doomed.

The Intersection of Sports and Politics

2008-08-19T00:47:00.007-04:00

I just got back from vacation, so this one is a little overdue.

Unless you've been living under a rock or only get your news from US Weekly, you know about the Russian invasion of Georgia last week. I'm not going to talk about the timing of the invasion with the opening of the Beijing Olympics, although I have been rooting vociferously against the Russians. And it would be really cool if an American raised a Georgian flag while on the podium and proclaimed "We are all Georgians!". And perhaps "traitors" Becky Hammon, an WNBA standout, and JR Holden (Bucknell '98), who are playing for the respective Russian women's and men's basketball teams, should have withdrawn from the Olympics at the last minute in protest (I'm sure there would have been a line of rich Republicans -- is that redundant? -- who would have taken care of any economic harm that would have followed). But none of those things are going to happen.

I want to talk about pro-sports here. Pro athletes, especially the highest profile athletes like Michael, Tiger and Kobe have gone out of their way to stay out of any political or social controversies for fear of harming their global brands. Despots and terrorists buy sneakers too, I guess.

This position is in stark contrast to earlier stars like Jim Brown, Muhammad Ali and perhaps most famously, 1968 Olympians Tommie Smith and John Carlos' "black power salute", who used their celebrity to stand up for important issues of their day.

But what seems worse is that even in light of the invasion of Georgia, athletes are still going to the highest bidder, regardless of recent events. Just days after Russia began the invation, Jannero Pargo, who despite the foreign sounding name is really from Arkansas, signed a 1-year deal to play for Dynamo Moscow of the Russian League. Frankly, I think it's despicable. Players should understand that their brand can be ruined just as easily by the actions they take, not the just stands they refuse to take. I'm going to be the first one boo Pargo should he ever return to the NBA. And if Kobe or LeBron goes to play for a Russian club for $50M of corrupt oil and gas money, they should be unanimously reviled as well.

Now I don't want to limit this rant to the NBA. There are a heck of a lot more players leaving the NHL to cash in with the dollars being doled out by the Russian Continental Hockey League (KHL). Just this past year perennial All-Star Jaromir Jagr and goalie Ray Emery joined the Russian league. I hope you choke on your borscht.

Two More Points on Favre

2008-08-08T13:29:00.003-04:00

I thought it was pretty telling that during his press conference yesterday that he admitted that his primary motive over the past few weeks has been spite. "Maybe that was a little vindictive nature or whatever. But I realized that was not going to happen," Favre said. Ya think?

There was a lot of talk going on about Roger Goodell's involvement in the Favre saga. Of course it was all under the auspices of the "best interests of the game". But could there have been a better outcome for Goodell or the NFL but to have one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time end up in the NFL's biggest market and play with a team that hasn't been really relevant in the 40 years since Broadway Joe led the Jets to victory in SB III? No doubt that Goodell took one out of the same book that David Stern used to push Isiah out of the Knicks job and usher in Donnie Walsh and Mike D'Antoni.

Thankfully the Favre Saga is Over

2008-08-07T13:40:00.003-04:00

But it's interesting to read all of the stories today. It's amazing how so many "experts" are completely at odds on this story. Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN just wrote one of the more "pro-Brett" stories while fellow ESPN writer Jeffry Chadiha just wrote a piece that puts the blame more on Favre than the Pack. FoxSports.com Jay Glazer, who seems to have gotten this story more right than anyone else, appeared on PTI the other day and clearly laid out all of the retirement/un-retirements that Farve did over the last 3 months and felt that the Pack did the right thing in trying to deal with the situation from the beginning.

One of the dumbest stands came from PTI's Michael Wilbon who kept screaming that the Pack should just release Brett, almost comparing holding a player to a contract, which pays a mere $12M a year, to slavery. Of course Brett's release potentially could have helped Wilbon's hometown team the Bears, so I'm sure that colored his judgment somewhat. But I'm sure if it was Carlos Zambrano screaming to get out of Chicago, Wilbon would have had a much different take on the subject.

I guess it's pretty clear who Brett's friends in the media are. But while the story of Favre's future with the Jets will be covered heavily, the constant 24-hour news cycle that was "Favre Watch 2008" is finally over.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Kristic Crazy Talk

2008-08-05T14:42:00.003-04:00

Well another NBA player goes to Europe. No, it's not star, just someone who thinks he is. Nenad Kristic.

OK, he was a decent player in the league and at one point looked like he could be a legit center. But on the Nets he was clearly the 4th option and I don't think that he was going to get a whole hell of a lot better, especially coming off 2 injury-plagued years where he played just 26 games in 06-07 and 45 in 08-08.

Yet for some reason he feels he should have been paid like an elite player. Quoted in the Begen Record, Kristic said he plans to return to the NBA.

"That's my plan," said Krstic, who signed a two-year deal with Triumph in Moscow on Monday. "I'm going to try to play really good in Russia and see what's going to happen."
"I didn't want that," Krstic said of the Cleveland deal. "When you look at big guys in the NBA, they signed really big contracts. I know I am on that level. I know I'm healthy right now. I took that like disrespect. To accept that offer from an NBA team only because it's an NBA team, I didn't want to do that."

What level does he really think he's on. I know you can't teach height, but height is at least supposed to allow you to do things like rebound and block shots. Never in his career has Kristic averaged 7 rebounds per game or one blocked shot per game. At 7 feet tall, Kristic's inability to put up any

Yes, Kristic can score, but so can a lot of guys. At the $10M/year that Kristic was looking for, I'm much rather have a guy like Tyson Chandler, the Hatian Sensation or the Celtics' Kendrick Perkins, who at about $4M/year is a bargain. The truth is that the Nets will probably get just as good collective production from Josh Boone, Sean Williams and rookie Brook Lopez with a much improved defensive presence.

Just because Isiah was dumb enough to give Eddy Curry $10M/year, doesn't mean that anyone else would give a similar contract to Kristic...even Kevin McHale.

Statistical oddities

2008-08-05T14:37:00.003-04:00

In ESPN writer Buster Olney's blog, a few statistical oddities dug up by ESPN Research:

• Mark Simon of ESPN Research did some thinking about the parallels between the '69 Mets and the '08 Rays:

How are the 2008 Rays similar to the 1969 Mets?

Speaking of weird similarities, we have this from Greg Dohmann of ESPN Research:

Yankees and Mets Through 111 games of 2008
	Yankees	Mets
W-L	61-50	58-53
Div. rank	3rd	3rd
Hits	1,034	1,035
Runs	538	539
ERA	4.12	4.09
WHIP	1.35	1.35
Since July 1	17-11	18-11

Clips Sign Ricky Davis -- Another Solid Move

2008-07-29T11:23:00.002-04:00

The LA Clippers continue to rebound nicely from the Boozerish departure of Elton Brand. In their latest signing they pick up 10-year vet Ricky Davis. While Davis isn't as good as Corey Maggette, he can play a very similar role. Even better, Davis has a much better handle allowing him to back up the 1, 2 or 3 spots and really lead the second unit.

Additionally, Davis' arrival should help bring Cat Mobley's minutes down to about 30 per game which should improve his effectiveness and take pressure off Eric Gordon, the Clips first rounder, to contribute out of the gate.

Dunleavy has a pretty good 8-man rotation to work with now with projected starteers Baron, Cat, Thornton, Camby and Kaman and Ricky Davis, Tim Thomas and Eric Gordon off the bench. Will it be enough to snag the 8th spot in the playoffs? Maybe. The Clips should be better than the Warriors and Nuggests. There's definitely a shoot out with the Mavs and Blazers brewing.

Omar: We Need Bullpen Help

2008-07-29T11:17:00.003-04:00

Within a span of 4 days the Mets bullpen has blown 2 leads after the 8th inning. Putting Joe Smith in the game is now akin to pouring gasoline on a fire. I hope he is sent down to New Orleans (AAA/PCL) as soon as possible.

With the high profile acquisitions for the Cubs (Harden) and Brewers (CC Sabathia), it's looking more and more like it's "NL East or Bust". The Mets have made tremendous progress in the post-Willie era and I'd hate to see it go down in flames because of a bad bullpen.

Omar, please do something. Anything.

Knicks Send Balkman to Nuggets

2008-07-28T16:41:00.003-04:00

Well so much for Isiah's statement that the Suns would have drafted Balkman 2 picks later, after Isiah was laughed out of the Garden after taking Balkman with the 21st pick in the 2006 NBA Draft. If there was even a whiff of truth to that, do you think that D'Antoni's Knicks would cast him off before playing a game?

Look for the Knicks to waive both Taureen Green and Bobby Jones, both of whom have non-guaranteed contracts. Given that the Knicks threw in money to the deal, effectively they paid to pick up a 2nd round pick in 2010.

On the flip side, I think this is a good move for Denver. Balkman should be able to play the hustle/energy role that Eduardo Najera did before fleeing to New Jersey this summer. In that role, there should be no concerns about Balkman's lack of basketball IQ which apparently was one of the key drivers behind shipping him out of town.

And there's even an outside possibility that they re-sign Green after he's waived by NY.

Hawks looking pretty smart

2008-07-28T13:06:00.002-04:00

The Hawks have apparently signed G/F Maurice Evans to a 3-year/$7.5M deal. That's basically what Josh Childress wanted in one year. Yes, Childress is a little younger and a little longer, but I think the Hawks get most of Childress brought at a steep discount. When comparing resumes, Childress' numbers look better, but it's also indicative of the larger minutes Childress got on bad teams (2007 excepted).

I also think that this signing bears out Hawks owner Michael Gearon, Jr.'s comments in Friday's Atlanta Journal Constitution:

"I disagree completely," Michael Gearon Jr. said when asked about negative perceptions. "You're saying it doesn't look good that we weren't willing to pay Josh Childress $10 million a year. But if we did that, I'd expect you to write, 'What the hell are those guys doing?' If you give out bad contracts, you can't compete. Are pieces needed to make the team better? Yes. But [general manager] Rick [Sund] is working right now to make us a better team.

"What's frustrating to me is the perception that we didn't offer more money than every NBA team to keep him. There's never been a European offer like this. Now there has been. Was Josh Childress worth $10 million to the Atlanta Hawks?"

And then this: "No matter what we do, I think some people will look at us as the glass being half-empty."

'Genius Bar' is Terribly Misnamed

2008-07-22T16:49:00.003-04:00

I love my Mac, but the support, not so much. Recently I had a problem with my battery. So what did I do, I went down to the Apple Store to go to the Genius Bar. Now I didn't know that you had to make an appointment before I went. One may say, "why didn't you check the website first". To those people, and to the morons (not geniuses) that named it a 'Genius BAR', the word BAR implies that you walk up and get served. Just like every bar I've ever gone to for a drink. Apparently Apple's definition of a bar means an area with a 4-foot high table with bar stools and the support people on the other side.

Of course I went down there and was told that no one could help me and I had to go back 10 days later. A major, major inconvenience. When I did go, I still had to wait 20 minutes past my appointment time (remember the Jerry Seinfeld quote about "HOLDING the reservation"), which didn't please my impatient 4-year old daughter.

Any way, the geniuses over at Apple should rethink their naming convention.

Tyronn Lue Disappointed -- Poor Baby

2008-07-21T16:03:00.002-04:00

I'm so tired of this. Loser talent who think they should get paid. The latest entry in the category is Tyronn Lue who signed with the Milwaukee Bucks for 2 years/$5M last week.

Lue was "disappointed" when the 2008 World Champion Celtics only offered him the veterans minimum of $1.2M annually. Lue complained that he was willing to take less to be a Celtic. Quoted in the Boston Globe Lue said "I'm disappointed. "We were trying to get it done there for so long. I don't know why an extra [$600,000] was a big deal. I would have taken less than I took with Milwaukee. But they didn't want to do it."

Tyronn, they didn't want to do it because you're not worth it. And it's nice that you thought that it was "only" $600K, but you went for money over a chance to win a championship. I don't blame you for going for the money, but $600K is a lot of money...in fact it's 50% higher than they thought you were worth. You may disagree, but it's not your money. I can't for the life of me think of what you've done in your career that makes you think you're worth it. Of course it only takes one team to give a stupid contract and this time it was the Bucks (so much for Tommy Hammonds being a genius rookie GM).

But enjoy yourself in Milwaukee where you will probably be 3rd on the depth chart behind Mo Williams and Ramon Sessions.

FIBA is not a threat to the NBA

2008-07-21T15:39:00.004-04:00

The latest over-reaction by NBA writers has been the impending collapse as a result of a devalued dollar and tax-free contracts in Europe sap the NBA of talent. What crap. First of all look who's leaving to Europe -- Juan Carlos Navarro and Bostjan Nachbar. Chicken Little, the sky is really falling! Both are eminently replaceable talents who don't merit the pay they're getting from the European clubs. JCN couldn't be a star on perhaps the worst team in the NBA and Nachbar was a 6th man on a bad Nets team. Put him on a team in the West or on the Celtics or Pistons and the guy doesn't get off the bench unless it's 'garbage time'. In fact they should take the money because they have no chance of being a star in the NBA. Two years from now and people will forget they were even in the league. And don't discount the fact that neither are American-born players.

Now Adrian Wojnarowski, a normally respectable writer for Yahoo Sports writes that Josh Childress may flee to Europe too and this could spell the end for the NBA. Yes, this would be a move by an American, but come on Wojo, you're better than this. Childress is a nice player, but he'll never be a great player. With tax and euro implications 3 years/$20M is like 3/$40M. Put in NBA terms, this is like Max Contract money. And no one in their right mind -- even if Billy King was still calling the shots in Atlanta -- would ever fork over that kind of money for a player of Childress' stature...or lack thereof.

So maybe Europe becomes a place where mediocre talent cashes big checks, but it's not where the best America players go, and it won't be. If LeBron signs with Belgrade instead of Brooklyn, call me. Otherwise, this is a complete non-story.

Nolan Out as Isles Coach

2008-07-14T14:23:00.002-04:00

It just seems to be getting worse as an Islanders fan. Of all the things that they seemed to have done right in the past few years...and that's a very small list...the hiring of Ted Nolan seemed to have been the best. But today, Nolan is out and the Islanders seem to be falling further into the abyss.

Garth Snow, who in his 2 whole years of experience as GM has become the NHL's version of Billy King-Elgin Baylor's love child, clearly orchestrated the move. Clearly, the environment Wang created where lackey-ship trumps leadership and competency is mostly to blame. Snow hasn't brought one free agent of consequence to the Island and the trades and draft choices he's made have been almost universally awful. Frankly the "philosophical difference" about building around young talent is not so much a strategy that Snow adopted, but simply the result of his ineptitude as GM.

But the hockey cognoscenti has applauded the work that Nolan did over his 2 seasons as the Islanders coach, believing that he got much more out of a roster that most analysts believed to be at the bottom of the league, than anyone could have expected.

However, as in most power plays (pun intended) between a GM and a Coach, the Coach loses.

A Celtic Team for a New Generation

2008-06-19T16:26:00.004-04:00

Bob Ryan wrote a great piece on the cover of today's Boston Globe entitled "Greatest of the Green". He notes that since it's been 22 years since the last Celtics championship, there's literally a whole generation who don't lay claim to the rich history of Celtics lore. Ryan starts:

This was a championship for a Lost Generation of Boston Celtics fans.

These are people for whom Bill Russell, the greatest winner in American team sports, and Bob Cousy, the legendary "Houdini of the Hardwood," are like figures out of King Arthur's tales. These are people for whom John Havlicek, basketball's consummate 'sixth man," and Dave Cowens, the mercurial redheaded center, are as personally relevant as comic book characters. These are people for whom even the great Larry Bird is just some guy wearing short-shorts who pops up occasionally on ESPN Classic.

These are the people who text instant observations to friends in Singapore. And these are the people who hungered for a Celtics championship they could call their own, one accomplished in their building with their heroes. Celtics championship No. 17 belongs to them.

It's really a great point. Now I remember the Celtics of the 80's with Bird, McHale and Parrish. Of course I was living in New York and rooting for the Knicks, but I remember them well. But I didn't really have a real appreciation of the great Celtics teams that came before them.

In Ryan's article he lists the Top 10 Celtics teams of all time and ranks this years' team #2. But in reading through the article, the write up on the '56-57 Celtics (ranked #8) blew my mind:

"Red Auerbach's personal favorite title, simply because it was the first. Rookies Russell (25 points, 32 rebounds) and Tom Heinsohn (37 points, 23 rebounds) carried the team to an epic double-overtime seventh game victory over the St. Louis Hawks. Many old-timey Celtics fans went to their graves swearing this was the greatest game they'd ever seen."

The combined 55 rebounds by Russell and Heinsohn (who I mostly know as the Celtics bumbling announcer and world-class homer) are more than the ENTIRE Celtics team had in any game in the playoffs...and that was just from 2 guys. It really goes to show how even current basketball junkies like me don't truly have the perspective of the rich history of the game. It's that same worship of today's players that skew our view of history. I mean even this week it looks like people finally put aside the myth that Kobe was the new Jordan and those guys played at the same time, ableit at different ends of their careers. But if you can't have perspective within a decade, it's no wonder that so many discount the accomplishments of those that played before we were even born. But it's wrong just the same.

17

2008-06-18T16:03:00.002-04:00

Congrats to Pierce, KG, Ray and Doc. Good guys can finish first.

Mets Mess

2008-06-18T15:42:00.005-04:00

Wow, it's getting as hard to be a Mets fan as it was to be a Knicks fan under the Isiah regime. As many have said, perhaps most vociferously Buster Olney, the Bob Irsay-like firing of Randolph was handled so poorly that you don't even want to be associated with the team and, much like with Isiah, you feel like rooting against the Mets just to ensure that Omar Minaya gets fired too.

But it really shows what a mess the whole team is. Not only is the team poorly constructed from a talent perspective, but the chemistry is beyond awful. Take a look at some of the comments from Newsday:

Wallace Matshews of Newsday makes Bush43 look like a Mensa-member compared to Minaya and the Wilpons. Jon Stewart, a huge Mets fan that ridicules the sitting President on a daily basis, would be turning in his grave if he was dead. Maybe today he wishes he was.
"It took Manuel all of one batter -- Reyes -- to learn first-hand what Randolph had been dealing with for the past two years: a roster of prima donnas as ungovernable as downtown Baghdad and as unaccountable as the Bush White House."

Matthews also calls the Wilpons the "worst owners in town". When you consider that the list includes James Dolan, Hank "Maxi-me" Steinbrenner and Charles Wang, it's really a staggering critique. Unfortunately it may be accurate.

Celts Win in Incredible Comeback

2008-06-13T00:49:00.009-04:00

Wow. That was a great game...if you're not a Laker fan. There will be a lot of great stories written about the game, but I'm shocked. I really thought the game was over mid-way through the first quarter and pretty sure it was after they were down 18 at the half. But another great third quarter, and really a dominating second half (57-33) turned what was once a 24-point deficit into a 6 point win.

But the really amazing part was listening to the post-game commentary. It's amazing to hear Michael Wilbon second-guess Phil Jackson's rotations and hear Jeff Van Gundy call Doc Rivers coaching "masterful". I wonder what "The Sports Guy" is thinking about Doc tonight. I'm sure he'll say that Doc Rivers was lucky that Perkins sprained his shoulder and he had no choice but to go to the small lineup. And in retrospect to hear people praise the Boston bench, the very same people who at the beginning ofthe season talked about how the Celtics may have the "Big 3", but had maybe the worst 4-12 roster in the league -- yes, I'm talking to you Mr. Wilbon.

Most interesting was to listen to the players and coaches in the post-game intervie Doc looked like he's won multiple championships talking about how it's not about winning 4 games in a series, but having to win 4 individual games. Paul Pierce sounded supremely confident, talking about how the plan is to close out the series in LA on Father's Day, while acknowledging that the closeout game is always the hardest game to win.

On the other hand, the Lakers sounded defeated. Phil Jackson started out his post-game interview stating that the series is not over, but his voice and his demeanor didn't make it look like he believed it at all.

Kobe had the funniest comments though:

When asked how the team will respond to such a debilitating loss after having such a large lead: "A lot of wine, a lot of beer. A couple of shots, maybe 20."

When asked 'what happened' to blow such a big lead: "We just wet the bed,. "A nice big one, too. One of the ones you can't put a towel over. It was terrible.."

Pure comedy.

McCain v. Obama on the Economy

2008-06-12T17:33:00.003-04:00

It's almost funny, if it weren't so sad and predictable, how both sides are trying to cast the other as the continuation of another failed President's policies. Obama calls McCain "Bush's Third Term" and McCain retorts that Barak's tax plan will take us "...back to the policies of the '60s and '70s that failed", invoking Jimmy Carter.

From my view, McCain's linking of Obama to Carter is well off the rails from an economic perspective, but may have some other interesting overtones.

From an economics POV, Barak's policies are more about getting back to the winning policies of the 90's under the Clinton administration, not Carter's. And strangely enough, much of the characteristics of the Carter years (high inflation, rising unemployment, rising gas prices and growing budget and trade deficits) resemble the current economy under Bush 43. And McCain is looking to extend much of the same economic policies that Bush promulgated, most notably the Bush tax cuts...which McCain voted against in 2001 and 2003, but now supports wholeheartedly. Kind of like "I voted against them until I voted for them", perhaps a weird homage paid to Senator Kerry who is seen as the anti-McCain from a Vietnam War perspective.

Now the other thought I've had on McCain's Carter-Obama linkage, is whether there is an ulterior motive of also trying to link them from an Israel policy point of view. Many Jewish voters are already concerned about Barak's support of Israel, partially because Hillary questioned it, on top of the fairly blatant lies about Barak's "Muslim upbringing" while living in Indonesia. While Carter was probably best known for delivering peace between Israel and Egypt in the Camp David Accords, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize, Carter has recently acted as if he is a founding member of Hamas, pounding Israel at every opportunity. Perhaps the most inflammatory statement being about the existence of more than 150 nuclear warheads in Israel's arsenal (which I think they should use one of to nuke Plains, GA...if the warheads do truly exist). It was a truly idiotic statement by Carter which could accomplish nothing other than to weaken Israel and prop up both Hamas and Iran's push towards becoming a nuclear nation. I can't fathom the upside in pushing for either of those objectives. I think someone should give Carter a CAT-scan as he has clearly suffered some sort of head injury.

Mets Blowing it Again

2008-06-12T16:42:00.005-04:00

It's just ridiculous. The Mets come off of a horrific road trip, falling below .500 again. I can't take it. Today is not helping. After almost blowing a terrific start by Mike Pelfrey yesterday, only to be saved by Carlos Beltran's 13th inning heroics, they blew another awesome outing by a starting pitchter -- this time Johann Santana -- giving up a 4-run lead after 7 innings and look like they will lose.

Mark Hermann wrote a nice piece in Newsday on how the team is feeling pain of the losses as much as their fans do. But this is just killing me. The worst part is my brother-in-law is a big Phillies fan. There's just no avoiding the fact that despite all the renewed hope resulting from the acquisition of Santana, this is a deeply flawed team. There is no timely hitting or pitching and apparently very little heart.

This just in. It's official. The Mets lost 5-4 in 10. Ugh :(

Harvey Korman -- We'll Miss You

2008-06-04T14:32:00.013-04:00

It was very sad for me to read that Harvey Korman died last week at the age of 81. Growing up he was one of my favorite actors and my memories of him are vivid. Probably my favorite movie of all time was Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles". Korman famously portrayed the conniving Attorney General "Hedley Lamarr", trying to force the residents of Rock Ridge from their town.

And Korman also starred in one of my favorite TV shows, "The Carol Burnett Show", one of the last taped-live vaudvillean comedy sketch shows and was the perfect foil to Carol Burnett and co-star Tim Conway. The best moments of course were those when Korman began to lose it during one of the sketches. Watching him and the rest of the cast try to make it through the sketch without completely breaking up was often much funnier than the actual content of the sketch itself.

One of his most memorable roles was one that few even know he played...the voice of the Great Gazoo, the little green alien who tormented Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, referring to them with the famously derogatory term "dum-dums".

He was a funny guy and will be missed, and remembered, by me.

Dunkin Donuts Hash Browns

2008-06-04T14:20:00.002-04:00

This morning I had the new Dunkin Donuts "oven toasted" hash browns. They were really good. They remind me a lot of potato latkes that I have during Passover (although not near as good as the ones my wife makes). It made me really wish that DD also served applesauce or sour cream as a side.

I just hope that they keep them around or at least bring them back for Passover. There's never anything to eat for breakfast (how many days in a row can you really eat matzah). At least then I can have something with my coffee.

Bangalore's New Airport is Awesome

2008-05-30T01:42:00.004-04:00

Well anything would have been an improvement over the HAL airport which probably should have been condemned a few years back. But other than the fact that it is 50km outside of the city center, I've got no complaints. At 3am, it only took me 1 hour to get to the airport, but they say during rush hour it can take upwards of 2 hours, so domestic flights will definitely be a real bitch.

I flew out of the new Bengaluru International Airport on the second day of operation. It's about 100 times larger than the old airport and really a beautiful mix of glass and marble. It seems to be a modern airport in just about every facet. Didn't even have to walk out onto the tarmac this time. Real gates and everything.

The only thing I can't comment on yet is the luggage process. For those that flew into HAL in the past, you're all familiar with the 1-hour+ waits to get your luggage. But so far so good.

India as an Innovation Hub

2008-05-29T18:13:00.006-04:00

I was reading Navi Radjou's recent blog post on the HBR site on entitled "Is India an Innovation Giant... or Pygmy?". Given that I just got back from India last week, I had some thoughts that I wanted to share.

My company, Symphony Services, provides product engineering services for software, telecom and web-based companies, so innovation is critical. As expected, we have a significant segment of our delivery operations in India, so India's ability to act as an innovation partner is key to our success. That being said, I see a few issues that can impact India's ability to continue filling the cup: Hubris and Infrastructure.

1. Hubris: India, Inc. has to stop reading it's own press clippings. I've heard predictions that by 2025 India will own ALL product R&D and that US personnel at software companies will simply be sales and marketing functions. This has 2 implications for me. First that there is a discounting of the importance of contact with the end customer in creating innovation products and services. It's the same kind of "we know better than the market" that is the battle cry of most engineering organizations. I saw it when at Kyocera and the paraphrase Chip Heath of 'Make it Stick' fame, that's why your remote control has 53 buttons. Secondly, it presumes that the rest of the world is either standing still or will just 'get dumb' at the same time. Not happening. Lastly, it seems as if no one realizes that this kind of message will play very poorly with the same people that they want to sell to.

2. Infrastructure. Anyone who's been to India knows what I'm talking about. A 2 hour commute to go 10km is insane. And the prospect of adding thousands of more $2500 cars to the current state of affairs is just a bad idea. Look at the impact that the creation of the national highway system had on the US economy in the 60's. It allowed the population to spread out, create jobs through the construction and the resulting housing boom that followed as people could commute to city centers. And the ability to facilitate interstate commerce was a boon to all sectors of the economy. With a similar investment, the potential for the majority of the population to begin to reap some of the benefits of the ITO/BPO boom would create dramatic change in the economy and create more options for entrepreneurs to thrive, not just in the tech sector, but in all aspects of the economy. Infrastructure would grease the skids for the Indian economy and spur the creation of new companies and fortunes to battle the existing oligopoly that exists today.

Arrival in Bangalore

2008-05-19T00:42:00.002-04:00

Sometimes you just get that expectation that things will improve. India is projecting a world-class economy, but it looks like no one has yet to tell the airports. As usual, I arrived in Bangalore airport and had to wait almost an hour and a half to get my baggage. It's seems incredible that it can take that long until you see the guy "driving up" with the luggage trolleys...on a bicycle. The only thing different from all my other trips to Bangalore airport is that I didn't have to walk through the mosquito killing fog on the way outside.

I understand that I'll be traveling back to the US through the new Bangalore airport which opens on Friday. I think it was built by Lufthansa, so the Germans probably know how to build a modern airport, so my hopes are high. The only downside is that instead of 20 minutes to the hotel, it will now take up to 2 hours. Mind boggling since the trip is only 50 kilometers or 30 miles for those of you slow with math. But that's Bangalore traffic for you.

Good News/Bad News

2008-05-19T00:39:00.003-04:00

Well shortly after decrying the fact that I couldn't get into the BA Lounge, I went to go check in for the flight to Bangalore. When I showed up, I found to my surprise that I did in fact get upgraded to Club World. That made for a much nicer flight, but I sure wish I found out earlier so that I could have gotten that massage. The good news is that a massage in my hotel is only about $15, so I'll be teeing one of those up.

Barney Frank and the Miss America Pageant?

2008-05-18T07:23:00.004-04:00

One of the things I look forward to in the Saturday Boston Globe is the political cartoons and quotes of the week on the Op-Ed page. I usually get a couple of good chuckles out of it and this week was no exception.

"People aren't good at doing things they dislike. Like asking me to judge the Miss America contest -- if your heart's not in it, you don't do a very good job."

Representative BARNEY FRANK of Massachusettes, on persuading Republicans to bail out the economy.

It's a funny quote considering that Rep. Frank is a well known homosexual.

But it's also disappointing that this is reality. It's amazing to me that the only time Republicans are behind a bailout is when the company is big enough to line their pockets for a re-election bid -- the Chrysler bailout under Reagan, tax breaks to oil companies and the Fed's recent actions for Bear Stearns. But when a bill is proposed to provide $500M in funds to keep people in their houses during the current mortgage credit collapse Republicans don't want to help. They don't want to "reward" banks for making bad credit decisions, sidestepping the fact that the real beneficiaries are the people who are currently living in those houses. What's worse is that the opponents of the bill suffer from amnesia when they make their arguments. The bill clearly states that the benefits only accrue to people who are already living in the houses, preventing others from literally cashing in on others' misfortunes for their own gain.

$1200 tax rebates are nice, but in a situation where we spend $4B a day to pay for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, $500M during the course of a year to help keep people in their homes and steady a precipitously declining housing market seems like a more than reasonable way to spend our taxpayers' money. Perhaps the people who get the rebates will then use them to keep their mortgages current and fill up their gas tanks instead of blowing the money on rent and moving expenses.

On the way to Bangalore

2008-05-18T07:05:00.003-04:00

It's been about a year since I've been to India and I'm on the way. I know it's something that I need to do...and I pushed to take the trip, but I don't really enjoy the trip. It's 9 days away from my family who I will miss terribly. I also leave with the fear of wondering what will happen when I'm away. I don't expect anything terrible, but it just seems that whenever I travel, especially on an extended trip, either my wife or my daughter...or both...gets sick. And with no family around, I know that it's a lot of stress on my wife, especially now as she's super busy with 3 clients and not enough babysitting time.

And in addition, I have a jammed-packed week in Bangalore and Pune. I've got my day almost completely booked. But more than that, I'm sure, as usual, that I will be dining alone each night. For some reason, no one ever seems to volunteer to go out even one night. That's one thing that I miss about working for the Japanese. There you were never alone and rarely sober after work. I will always remember that while I worked at Kyocera, that every time I visited Japan they worked it out that one person would go to dinner with me, if not a group. And on my first trip to Tokyo, one of my colleagues (Mishima-san) spent the entire day with me on the weekend...with his wife...showing me around Tokyo. Well above the call of duty. But I believe it is the cultural importance of developing personal relationships in Japan that drives that. India is a much different vibe. Nice people all the same, but not near as collegial an environment.

Well here I am waiting at Heathrow for my connection here at the KLM Holideck lounge using free Wifi, drinks and snacks. But as soon as I found out that the BA Lounge had a spa, I was bummed that I can't get in there. Unfortunately, the BA Lounge is only for Club World and above. You'd think in an international airport like this there would at least be one of those quick massage places where you sit in the chairs like they have at rinky-dink airports in the US and even malls. With 16 hours of flights and a 5 hour layover, that would have felt nice.

Office for Mac Sets Sales Records

2008-05-13T13:43:00.003-04:00

In what amounts to a "easy to show big percentage increases when your prior results are so poor" news item, Microsoft announced that it's sales for Office for Mac 2008 are the highest in 19 years and 3 times higher than Office for Mac 2004.

Of course these new sales records are due only to the Mac's success and not the quality of the new Microsoft suite. Can you imagine how many more would be sold if Office for Mac 2008 was any good? It is still a poor step-child to Office 2007. In particular, Entourage is still lacking true Exchange & Blackberry integration and many of the basic features that make Outlook superior. In fact, I've had to switch back to using Outlook in Parallels. It's "great" that it's native Mac for Intel code, but criminal that Microsoft delivers such a poor version compared to what they make available for Windows users.

It's hard not to presume that delivering sub-standard products for the Mac is part of an intentional strategy to drive business users back to the Windows platform even though Vista's stability and overall performance is so disappointing.

2009 NFL Draft Talk

2008-05-01T13:24:00.005-04:00

Well we're only 3 days removed from the 2008 Draft so of course ESPN & Scout's Inc. didn't waste much time to focus on next year with their first 2009 NFL Mock Draft.

After this year's draft I am not confident about the fortunes of the Titans in 2009. But I was surprised that Todd McShay projects the Titans with the 11th pick. I think they're going to miss the playoffs for sure...and I've been a Titans fan for 30 years...but I don't see them falling that far.

The only thing that I know is wrong about McShay's prediction is that he has them drafting a receiver. Won't happen. I just pray to God that they don't draft another RB. The Titans are now to RBs as the Lions are to WRs. And the guy McShay has projected to them doesn't come from a small enough school. Surely there's a WR from East Idaho State who runs a 4.29 that they will become infatuated with.

Now DE, DT or ILB Laurinaitis would be interesting to me.

Larry Brown to Coach Bobcats

2008-04-29T12:00:00.005-04:00

It warms my heart to see Larry Brown back in coaching again. After being thrown out of town by Isiah ("revenge is a dish best served cold") and Dummy Dolan it's great that LB will get a chance to reclaim his coaching legacy.

Brown, who was inducted into the BBHOF in 2002 is only 1 of 5 coaches with more than 1,000 wins (LB has 1,010). Four of the Five (Lenny Wilkins - 1,332 wins; Don Nelson - 1,280, Pat Riley - 1,210 and Brown) have coached the Knicks since 1991. And Isiah fired 2 of them (Wilkins and Brown) in his tumultuous tenure. Only Jerry Sloan (1,089 wins) has not coached the Knicks,

Making Peace with the Titans Draft

2008-04-29T11:36:00.002-04:00

It's been 2 days since the draft ended and I think I'm beginning to calm down. I'm not going to lie, Reinfeldt and Fisher ruined my weekend.

I still can't agree with taking a RB in the first round. If Chris Johnson isn't Marshall Faulk or Brian Westbrook this was a mistake. I think that if they really wanted Johnson, they should have tried to trade down a few slots. It seems like not only did they over-react to the mini-run on RB's (Jones and Mendenhall went the picks previous to the Titans), but they reached for a player who has eerily similar measurables to Chris Henry who the Titans reached for as a 2nd-rounder last year, who they have apparently conceded is a bust.

And Jeff Fisher's comment that they almost selected WR Devin Harris, but then "moved on" to other positions when all the top flight WRs were off the board at their second pick is just galling. Didn't they see the run happening? They couldn't figure out a way to move up 2 slots for Limas Sweed? They certainly figured out how to move up 21 slots to draft a DE from Winston-Salem State who nobody ever heard of.

The only saving grace was that they got Lavelle Hawkins from Cal in the 4th. Very productive receiver opposite DeSean Jackson and he should help a lot. Mel Kiper thinks this was one of the value picks of the draft, so I'm feeling a little better.

But all in all, I just don't see that the Titans got better this weekend while many other teams did. The playoffs seem much further away.

Fire Mike Reinfeldt

2008-04-26T20:14:00.004-04:00

I'm sitting here watching this year's NFL Draft. The Draft is one of my favorite days of the year. I read up on prospects, check out just about every mock draft from ESPN, SI, Rivals.com. But I'm ready to throw up.

I almost started screaming when I watched the Titans draft RB Chris Johnson from East Carolina. But I was watching with my 3 year old daughter, so I swallowed it. But I'm steaming. He's probably not a bad player, but the Titans had a Top 10 rushing offense, but LAST in the NFL in passing touchdowns. And they have spent the last 2 2nd round picks on RB's in LenDale White and Chris Henry. Not that there couldn't be an upgrade over either, but it basically admits that the last 2 drafts were mistakes, especially Henry. Johnson's stats sound very similar to Henry. But Johnson or similar backs could have been available in the 2nd or 3rd rounds. Especially for a position that was at most their 5th position of need behind WR, DE, DT and CB.

Jeremy Green of Scout's Inc. seems to agree.

Personally, I would have taken either Devin Thomas who was supposed to be the best WR in the draft or Kentwan Ballmer who would have been excellent alongside Albert Haynesworth on the DL.

Then the second round was even worse. All of the top WR's were sliding. None were taken in the first round and a series of picks of lower rated WRs left the cream of the crop. But the Titans didn't trade up and waiting around at #54 saw WR's Malcolm Kelly from Oklahoma taken at #51 and Limas Sweed of Texas taken at #53, one pick before them. And in between the 2 WRs was Quentin Groves of Auburn who would have been great on the DL. They did end up with Jason Jones of Eastern Michigan who was rising up draft boards, but it's terribly disappointing to me...and I'm sure more so to QB Vince Young that they still don't have a WR thorough 2 rounds. I can only hope that they can get Mario Manningham or Andre Caldwell. This is depressing.

Knicks Crushed by Grizz

2008-04-02T23:57:00.003-04:00

Only a few hours after Knick fans saw their hopes raised with the hiring of Donnie Walsh as team President, the team on the floor brought them right back down to reality. The Knicks, now 20-55 were crushed by the Memphis Grizzlies 130-114.

The Knicks have 7 more games to go, 5 of them near mortal locks to be losses (Hornets, Magic, Pistons, Celtics and Hawks) with the other two (Bobcats and Pacers) at least even money that they will lose as well. The likely ending record is 21-61, two games worse than the Larry Brown era and setting the franchise record for most losses in a season. "Evident progress" indeed.

Rays of Hope at the Garden

2008-04-02T22:18:00.004-04:00

I am probably the 1,376,498th person to write about Donnie Walsh taking over Basketball Operations for the Knicks. Surprisingly, it looks like Walsh was able to negotiate all the things that I thought were critical for success, but that I never thought Crazy Jimmy would ever agree to. So perhaps there is some light at the end of the tunnel for Knick fans. Yet the team is still fatally flawed with a mix of expensive, non-complimentary players. But the truth is that unless Isiah becomes the GM of another team, I have no idea how Walsh will be able to trade some of the terrible contracts to completely restructure the team.

But the most surprising thing of all was my reaction. Virtually nobody wished that Isiah would be fired more than me. For god sakes, the whole Isiah-Dolan regime created such a poisonous, life-sucking (not to mention team sucking) atmosphere, that I not only dropped my lifelong allegiance to the team out of protest, but I actively rooted for them to fail. Oh how I relished the Isiah death watch that started in November, enjoying each day that Isiah twisted in the wind and "Fire Isiah" chants fell from the rafters at the Garden. Good times.

But now that it seems Isiah's fate is sealed, watching his interview on ESPN after the hiring of Walsh was made official, I actually felt bad for the guy. To the very end he's toeing the company line and staying positive in his public statements (see video below). The trademark Isiah smile is still there, but you can see the resignation in his eyes.

Perhaps now he knows what it felt like to be Larry Brown for those 40 days and 40 nights.

Don't get me wrong. He can't be fired fast enough, but I'm not dancing on his grave like I thought I'd be.

Reflux, Endoscopy and My Fears

2008-03-19T15:17:00.003-04:00

I've always had a bad stomach. But I have really bad heartburn. At times I feel like I'm having a heart attack. The pain in my chest is so bad that sometimes I'm virtually incapacitated. I've taken Nexium which really helped. Then United Healthcare didn't support Nexium (bastards), so now I'm on Prilosec, which isn't doing as good of a job.

For years, Doctors have suggested I see a GI doctor. So has my wife. But every time the discussion has come down to getting an endoscopy and that's where the conversation stops every time. I have a terrible gag reflex. I haven't even gotten a throat culture in 20 years because I don't want to strangle the doctor. So the thought of having a scope being put down my throat paralyzes me with fear and anxiety.

Now I know that it's the right thing to do. I've heard about the possibility that the reflux could lead to esophageal cancer and other ailments. I've had several friends and colleagues tell me I should and they have stories about other people who have done it. I have not lost sight of the fact that none of them have had the procedure done themselves, but it is all good counsel.

So yesterday I finally broke down and went to a GI...just to talk. I was hoping he would have said the barium milkshake test was enough, but damn him to hell, he said I need the scope (even worse he suggested that in addition to having cut caffeine out of my diet, that I should cut out chocolate!! Heresy I say.). He told me about all of the sedation choices...all of which are conscious sedation options. I was hoping to get general anesthesia and not have to worry. I just don't know if even hopped up on Valium I can even deal with seeing them put the scope down my throat, even if I don't feel it.

So now I have to make a choice. Any thoughts from my legions of loyal readers (besides my wife)?

Isiah's Anniversary

2008-03-14T16:39:00.003-04:00

There are plenty of articles out there talking about the recent passing of the one year anniversary of Isiah Thomas' 4 year contract extension with the Knicks. In one of the articles by Alan Hahn in Newsday, it noted that the Knicks are 23-61 since the extension. That's actually 2 games worse than the Knicks' record under Larry Brown for which he was fired. Evident progress? Methinks not.

The "Fire Isiah" watch continues, but nothing will change as long as "Crazy Jimmy" Dolan is still running the circus...including Isiah's tenure.

Should Your Company Blog - A Conversation with AMR

2008-03-14T15:17:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I had an analyst briefing with Dana Stiffler and Phil Fersht at AMR Research, along with my company's CEO, talking about the latest trends with "captive R&D centers" in India, China and around the world. Happily, the meeting went very well (at least from my perspective).

After the briefing was over, Dana and I were talking about a few other subjects and blogging came up. Apparently, AMR is contemplating a corporate blog, but there's a lot of concerns internally about the appropriateness of a blog from an analyst firm. Dana asked my advice and I thought I'd share it with everyone.

For almost any company a blog can be a great tool to disseminate thought leadership and market your company. But of course it requires that you have something smart to say and people who can write well. AMR clearly has both. Their analysts are smart and articulate or they wouldn't have a very long shelf life. I mentioned that they much more advantaged than most companies, and certainly my own, where even with almost 3500 people, there are relatively who have an interesting and engaging point of view and even fewer who also have the writing skills to make the posts something that people would want to read and come back for more.

I told Dana that from a marketing perspective I thought the blog could be great -- getting a glimpse of what AMR analysts have to say would make people who aren't customers intrigued about becoming one. Bruce Richardson's "First Thing Monday" column exactly that. Lord knows at least once a week there is "locked" article referenced in FTM that I'd like to read. And now I'm talking to them about signing up for the service.

Secondly, the blog format would allow them to respond to news far more rapidly than having to write a more lengthly, formal report that has to go through AMR's approval process for published content. Interestingly, it seems that the lack of the formal approval process is the key reason behind the resistance to the blog at AMR. Frankly, I think the ability for an analyst to post a 'dissenting opinion' or at least an alternate view from the official AMR pronouncements would be awesome. It would enrich the dialogue and provide additional information and context for readers to assess the impact of the issue in question. I think that if it works for the Supreme Court, it would work for AMR.

So if you're deciding whether to create a blog for your company, the common sense advice is yes -- providing that you will have something engaging to say and that you can keep it up. You need multiple contributors to ensure you're posting at least twice a week. But if you have enough people and can spread out the responsibility, it's pretty easy to sustain.

At the last ITSMA event I had a chance to talk with Larry Weber, founder of W2 Group and Weber PR (pick up Larry's latest book "Marketing to the Social Web"). Given my situation of 3500 engineers in India, I asked what his advice was about who should be allowed to blog. He said to open up the floodgates because you never know who has something smart to say. It may be good advice, but I'm not sure that I'm going to heed it. At least not right out of the box. But depending on your situation, it might be the right move.

There are a million other people who are more qualified than me to give advice on this. Talk to your PR agency, colleagues and peers. Get involved in local groups like the Social Media Club or PRSA.

West Wing and the 2008 Democratic Nomination

2008-03-06T15:33:00.005-05:00

Is it just me or is it ironic that the brilliant TV show "The West Wing" which many saw as a homage to the Clinton Administration is coming back to bite Hillary in the ass?

The parallels between the Jimmy Smits character, Matt Santos, and Barack Obama are stunningly similar, just swap black for hispanic. His ability to stick with his convictions, stay above the political fray and provide a hopeful message for the future of the country is exactly the same storyline that Obama is playing out. With any luck for the country, the ending to the 2008 Presidential campaign will end the same way as the series did.

Pope Benedict Keeps Turning the Clocks Backward

2008-03-06T15:08:00.004-05:00

Maybe I'm the only one who does this, but often there are articles or Op-Ed's in the paper that I don't get a chance to read, so I rip them out and save them for later. Well I just read an Op-Ed from James Carroll who is a regular contributor to the Boston Globe. I love his stuff.

The piece entitled "Reviving an old insult to the Jews" was published on Feb 18th and is a great read. In it Carroll talks about the Vatican's recent decision to reauthorize the "so-called Tiedentine Mass. This "what was old is new again" Latin mass again portrays Christianity as superceding Judaism and calls for Jews to convert. The original text that the Vatican approved "resuscitated the conversion insult, praying on Good Friday that God 'lift the veil' from 'Jewish Blindness'. Catholics and Jews objected and the language was modestly scaled back to say that Catholics should still pray that God may "enlighten" the heart of the Jews "so that they may recognize Jesus Christ, Saviour of all Mankind". Yeah, that's a lot better.

It's amazing to me that in today's day and age where Catholicism is on the decline and multi-culturalism is flourishing, that Pope Benedict XVI is trying to return to the 1600's to try to keep Catholicism relevant, as if by repudiating the legitimacy of other religions will strengthen his own. I think that many will have the opposite response. Carroll finishes the article nicely stating:

"Something is wrong with that development [Vatican II's Nostra Aetate condemning the idea that jews could be blemed for the murder of Jesus, and affirmed the permanence of God's Covenant with Israel], now say Vatican reactionaries. To which the people reply, "No, What's wrong is you'."

Experience and the Democratic Nomination

2008-03-06T14:40:00.003-05:00

I was talking with my colleague Jerry Smith today about the latest turn of the Democratic presidential race. Jerry is a conservative Republican, so he's really enjoying all of this...and like many GOP faithful are praying for Hillary to win the nomination.

One of the subjects we discussed was all of the hullabaloo about Clinton's claims that she has the experience to take the 3am phone call and Obama doesn't. It's all crap. It's not as if Obama, or any President for that matter, will live in seclusion and make all the decisions by themselves. There will be advisors everywhere: NSC, Pentagon, Secratary of State, etc. It's the quality of the team that you can build that makes any enterprise successful. Great CEO's don't know the ins and outs of every element of their businesses and neither do great Presidents. Was Reagan an expert on any issue? Probably not. But he was a great leader and surrounded himself with experts.

Hillary touts her 8 years in the White House. Jerry quipped that he heard someone in the media (undoubtedly Fox News because he doesn't accept that any other media exists) that using that logic, a chef who served in the White House can make the same claim. Now I do not doubt that she was far more involved in the Clinton White House than the chef, let's not confuse lunch with Tony Blair's wife with foreign policy experience either. Hyperbole works both ways.

Now Bill Clinton is widely lauded as a great President. Interestingly he was the same age as Obama when he ran for President and did just fine. Jerry noted that he's usually go with someone with gubernatorial experience over a Senator. He thinks the executive experience goes a long way (editor's note: Jerry was a Mitt supporter. We all know how that turned out).

Let's look at Bill's experience prior to entering the White House (we will skip the extramarital encounters segment, but clearly that experience didn't help either when you consider that as the most powerful man in the world he hooked up with Monica). So what was Bill's great accomplishments at Governor of Arkansas -- finishing 49th out of 50 states in education? Did dealing with the backwaters of Arkansas provide any special insight into dealing with third-world countries.

And finally, I think that all Democrats can agree that experience doesn't necessarily lead to good results or good judgment. Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld served in government for years. So did our friend "Brownie". 'Nuff said.

She Ain't Getting My Vote

2008-03-06T14:28:00.003-05:00

As are many Obama supporters around the country, I was disheartened by the results from Tuesday. I was shocked at the outright drubbing Clinton gave Obama in Ohio.

But as McCain sealed the GOP nomination on the same day, I came back to what Obama said a few weeks ago: "I'm confident that I'll get all her votes, but I don't think that she'll get all of mine". I realize that I'm a sample size of n=1, but I think he's right. She's certainly not getting my vote if she gets to the general election.

Thoughts from Forrester B2B Marketing Workshop

2008-03-06T14:10:00.002-05:00

A couple of weeks back I attended Forrester Research's B2B Marketing Workshop at their headquarters in Cambridge, MA. Overall it was a good review of some of their recent research, but very little in terms of helping make actionable improvements in how I do my day job. The folks at Forrester said that the details come at other events, but when someone puts the word "workshop" in the title of an event, I expect a little more. Maybe that's just me.

But it's not to say that the day wasn't without value. There was a few good exercises and examples of successful integrated marketing campaigns and SEO that was helpful and good ideas of what we could be doing.

A few days after the workshop, I had a meeting with Mike Gauthier of E-Tractions, a Boston area integrated marketing firm that also appeared on a panel at the Forrester event. As we were talking he asked me if I felt inspired by any of the ideas from the conference. I responded that I was torn between inspiration and depression. There were a lot of great ideas, but the realization that we're not doing near as many of them as we should was really depressing. Some of it was stuff that we didn't even contemplate doing, but a lot came down to not having the budget or internal resources to pull it off.

In any case, I'm going to do what we can, try to experiment and see what happens. Hopefully if we can show some good progress, we can "find" some more budget down the road.

Big Mo' in Barack's Corner

2008-02-13T18:11:00.003-05:00

After a convincing sweep (if not a trouncing) of the mid-Atlantic primaries (VA, MD and DC) Obama has assumed the delegate lead for the Democratic nomination for the first time since Iowa. That's 8 states in a row and momentum is building. All the while Clinton seems to be stumbling and spinning, not winning.

Texas and Ohio are next and there are huge delegate stakes up for grabs. It will be interesting to see how the next few weeks go. Both Texas and Ohio look to be strongly in the Clinton camp with a high proportion of Latino and middle income voters respectively. Both of these groups have been solidly behind Clinton so far. However, Obama is reaching out to both of these groups. The proof will be in the pudding, but anything short of a convincing (10 point margin) victory by Clinton will be tough to spin if Hillary wants to recapture the mantle of presumtive nominee.

If by chance Obama wins either of these two states it's game over and the only President Clinton will be Bill. But buck up Hillary, being a Senator from New York is still a pretty good gig.

The General's Return to Indiana?

2008-02-13T17:55:00.002-05:00

The latest recruiting violations against Indiana coach Kelvin Thompson open a very interesting door. Already warned by IU brass to run a clean ship amidst reports of recruiting violations from his days at Oklahoma, it is not outside the realm of possibility that IU will relieve Thompson of his coaching duties.

What makes this all interesting is last week's resignation of former IU coaching legend Bobby Knight from Texas Tech after notching his 902nd career victory. Surprisingly, Knight resigned in the middle of the season, turning the team over to his son Pat.

While many thought that Coach Knight might remove himself from the coaching scene to hunt and fish, what a delicious thought that he would return to the place that made him an American icon and one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time. It certainly makes for a much better story than taking over the coaching reigns at LSU.

Santana a Met!!

2008-01-29T22:49:00.000-05:00

Is there a way not to be excited about this (that is unless you're a Phillies or Braves fan)? Of course they have to work out the dollars, but it's just money, right? $140M or so for 6 years? Why not. It's a helluva better deal than Zito got ($126M/7 years).

When I saw the deal on the scroll on ESPN, I was shocked. Carlos Gomez + 3 minor league pitchers? Pretty good deal. Sure it's 4 of the Mets' top 7 prospects, but that speaks more to the dearth of talent in the Mets farm system than anything. Humber didn't look like anything better than a #3 or #4 starter. Mulvey also looks like a middle of the rotation guy. Guerra probably has the highest ceiling, but he's 18. You can project all you want, but you never know.

See the Peter Gammons analysis

Bedard a better deal than Santanna?

2008-01-28T17:45:00.000-05:00

I'm hoping that Omar Minaya isn't so fixated on Johann Santanna that he missed out on the conversations with the Orioles for Eric Bedard. No doubt that Santanna is the better pitcher, but the cost in prospects and salary is greater than the difference in talent.

According to a report on ESPN.com, Seattle is about to acquire Bedard for 4 players, mostly prospects:
* Adam Jones (Seattle's #3 prospect)
* reliever George Sherrill (great numbers in relief)
* minor league pitcher Chris Tillman
* and a fourth undisclosed prospect

Now that seems to be much less talent than the Mets are offering up for Santanna (both Gomez and Martinez + 2 of the Met's top starting pitching prospects) and his salary demands for 08 and beyond will be lower too. I love Santanna, but if I could deal one of Gomez or Martinez, plus Aaron Heilmann and one of our starter prospects for Bedard, I'd feel better about that deal. What do you say?

Kennedy Backs Barack

2008-01-28T11:29:00.001-05:00

The announcement expected today that senior senator and liberal standard bearer Ted Kennedy will endorse Sen. Barack Obama will have a huge impact leading up to Super Tuesday on Feb 5th. This is a big blow to Clinton and sure just about wrap up Massachusetts for Obama (along with support from Kerry and Gov. Deval Patrick). But more importantly, it should provide Obama with greater support from the Democratic base across the other states voting on Super Tuesday and Florida. This piece of good news for Obama comes right on the heels of Barack's impressive, one would say landslide, victory over Clinton in South Carolina where he more than doubled Hillary's tally.

The support from Kennedy also comes on the heels of the endorsement from Rep Mel Martinez of Florida. Martinez' endorsement could help prop up support for Obama from Latinos, where Clinton has been strong. Clinton's strength with Latinos was most notable in the recent Nevada primary where Clinton produced a 6 point victory in a race where Obama won the endorsement of the largest union in the state, yet Clinton peeled off enough of the union's Latino membership to pull off the victory.

You can also read between the lines that this is a rebuke of the more active and aggressive role that former President Bill Clinton has taken in the race. Bill came under intense rebukes from Democratic leaders like Kerry, Pat Leahy and Tom Daschle in the past few days for distorting Obama's positions much like former Republican strategist Lee Atwater used to do (most famously with the Willie Horton attach against Gov. Mike Dukakis is the 1998 election).

Johann Santana Countdown

2008-01-28T01:20:00.000-05:00

I just read that Santana could be a Met within 10 days. It's so hard not to get my hopes up. But the thought is absolutely tantalizing. Santana was dominant in the AL, but on the Senior Circuit he'd put up numbers that we haven't seen since Doc Gooden in
'84. They may even make them lower the mound again a la Gibson.

From a rag-tag rotation that virtually had a new 5th starter every time through the rotation and had John Maine as it's "ace" to:

Santana
Maine
Pedro
Oliver Perez
El Duque

All of a sudden that's a rotation that should win the NL. Maybe not The Series, but the NL.

Now if only Carlos Delgado could learn to hit again or if the Mets had any corner outfielders, that would be good too.

New Jersey to ban Plastic Bags

2007-11-21T14:26:00.000-05:00

This is actually really cool. I was stunned to read today's paper and read that the NJ State Assembly is proposing legislation to ban the use of plastic bags at grocery stores by 2010. Many grocery stores, especially progressive ones like Whole Foods and Dave's (local RI chain) have been aggressive in promoting the use of cloth bags that shoppers bring back and forth, but this is a really interesting move.

Good for New Jersey as they try to shed the images from the opening of the Sopranos of Elizabeth, NJ and the NJ Turnpike just outside the Lincoln Tunnel. I guess they're trying to put the "Garden" back into the "Garden State".

Bush Pardons Thanksgiving Turkey

2007-11-20T22:39:00.000-05:00

Yes, the annual pardon of the turkey. This "fluff piece" was reported by just about every news outlet on the planet. But what wasn't reported by anyone was the Presidential Signing Statement that went along with the pardon. While the turkey was spared execution, President Bush reserved the right to subject the turkey to waterboarding, electrocution and sleep deprivation.

There was also an unconfirmed report that the turkey was invited to go quail/campaign contributor hunting by Vice President Dick Cheney.

A senior staffer commented on background that he overheard the turkey saying "I think I would feel safer at Michael Vick's house." Apparently due to lack of news reaching Guantanamo where the turkey was being held prior to today's pardon, the turkey was unaware that Vick turned himself into authorities yesterday to begin serving his jail sentence early. There have been no further reports on the health and welfare of the turkey since today's proceedings concluded. Tom the Turkey, our prayers are with you.

Knicks Lose Again

2007-11-20T22:20:00.001-05:00

I think I'm going to have to start getting creative with these headlines. This is going to happen a lot. Tonight the Knicks were clobbered by at home by 26 points by the visiting Golden State Warriors. Marbury started and was torched by Baron Davis. But this is one case where you can't blame Stephon. When Davis is on, he's unstoppable. Just ask the Mavericks.

But the best part is this report on the game from the AP:

Marbury scored 18 points, but the Knicks were never in the game in the second half and were booed often over the final three quarters. So was coach Isiah Thomas, who saw no results from his decision to demote Marbury last week and heard "Fire Isiah!" cries on a few occasions during the game.

I'm positively giddy. Isiah will never get fired, but you can dream :)

On a related note, I listed to "The B.S. Report with Bill Simmons" podcast today which featured a great interview with Gus Johnson, announcer for the Knicks. It was funny and bizarre at the same time. I'm going to have to listen to this one again, because I can swear that Gus supported both Isiah and Steph. The Kool-Aid must really be flowing in the Garden. I can understand that Isiah was one of the greatest point guards of all time, but why people try to give his absolutely horrific post-playing career a pass because of it is beyond me. The guy just isn't cut out to do much else than sign autographs at card shows. The only thing that made me realize that there is still hope for Gus is that he was extremely honest saying that the Knicks have no chemistry and that Marbury is cannot the leader for this team.

Marbury Starting Again for Knicks

2007-11-20T16:41:00.000-05:00

The truth is truly stranger than fiction. Stephon Marbury, the player that the ENTIRE TEAM voted to suspend after abandoning it in Phoenix, is back in the starting lineup after 3 games. Boy, the dirt he must have on Isiah. Does anyone think this will turn around a 2-7 team? The whole thing is almost comical -- check that -- it's fall down laughing funny, especially if you're rooting for the team's demise as I am. I trust the only person laughing louder than me is Larry Brown.

Isles #5 In Yahoo! NHL Power Rankings

2007-11-20T16:31:00.000-05:00

Wow, 2 hockey posts in 1 day! Well for a team that almost nobody picked to be in the playoffs, the Islanders are in pretty rare air. Today's Yahoo! Power Rankings has the Isles climbing to #5!

Oh Yeah, Hockey

2007-11-20T11:26:00.000-05:00

I got a comment from a friend of mine from High School who found my blog that asked why hadn't I written about hockey yet? I haven't spoken to him in years, but he attributed his interest in hockey to my fervor for the New York Islanders during our high school years, when the Isles were a dynasty. Ah, those were the days. Bossy, Trottier, Potvin, Battlin' Billy Smith and of course Al Arbour.

So as any good Islanders fan would, I have chosen the day after the Isles beat the Rangers to write my first piece on hockey. Nothing gets better than that. And "goalie for life" Ricky DiPietro notched his 100th win of his career. Only 13+ years to go.

So a few quick thoughts:

I would love to be able to get into hockey again. But after the strike the NHL, which is making over $2B in revenue and in the black, decided to air their games on the Versus network rather than ESPN...or any other channel that is carried by cable. Great decision Mr. Bettman. I know the rinks are full, but now the only people who will be part of the fan base are those who actually go to the games. The only games I even have the opportunity to see are Bruins (boo!) games on NESN, which isn't available in hi-def by me. So it's impossible to really watch. So maybe I'll go to a P-Bruins game or even venture up to the (TD Banknorth) Boston Garden this year. But otherwise, except for the "Melrose Line" podcasts, it's impossible for me to follow what's going on and become the fan that I used to be. I still have my Denis Potvin jersey in the closet, but it doesn't get much use anymore.

The Isles are surprising again this year. Just like last year, no one expected them to be competitive. In fact, I think I recall seeing several pundits pick the Isles to be at the bottom of the standings. After the losing almost half of the scoring from last year (Ryan Smith, Jason Blake, dare I say Alexei Yashin), it was hard to argue. But I just think that it goes to show how GREAT of a coach Teddy Nolan is.

Was there anything cooler than having Al Arbour come back and coach his 1500th game for the Islanders earlier this month? Well one, thing, have the team come back and win in the third, by beating the Penguins 3-2. Al Arbour was as much of a symbol of the glory years of the Islanders franchise that I grew up with in high school as any player or member of the organization (props to Bill Torrey). I thought that it was a great idea and was happy to see that he's still got some coaching left in those old bones. Watch this Al Arbour tribute video

Seriously Cool: Oracle CRM OnDemand

2007-11-17T00:20:00.000-05:00

I was at the SIIA OnDemand conference last week as was lucky enough to see Anthony Lye, SVP of Oracle's CRM Ondemand business talk about Oracle's SaaS strategy and preview some extremely cool Web 2.0/Social Networking aspects of their new release. I thought there were a couple of important take aways for me. Some of them were covered by Phil Wainewright in his blog. Overall, I was thoroughly impressed by this presentation. This was so far from what I expected from Oracle. It was refreshing and exciting news. Everyone else in the business should watch out.

Oracle: OnDemand is for the Enterprise: I found it interesting that unlike many of the large, established ISVs, Nye was very clear that for Oracle, SaaS is NOT a SMB strategy. Clearly a swipe at SAP (at least to me). It was also a not so subtle swipe at Salesforce.com in my opinion because he was reinforcing the size of companies that are deploying Oracle CRM OnDemand, implying that most of Salesforce's clients aren't.

Web 2.0 Apps Rock: I thought that Lye was suprisingly honest that CRM really hadn't changed since Tom Siebel introduced his product over a decade ago (I don't recall how long it really is). Lye also mentioned that they realized that sales people hate CRM systems because it never actually helped them in their job...although it "solved" management's problem of projecting sales. So the CRM team re-thought their approach to the CRM application space as part of the version 14 release. That was a big driver towards providing the Web 2.0 mini-applications that he demonstrated. These applications are really targeted towards helping sales people be more effective. And OMG, these apps were way cool. Heavily borrowing certain UI elements from Apple's iPhone & Leopard OSX, Lye demonstrated how sales people could flip through various documents using an Apple 'Cover Flow' style UI. One of the cool elements was the preview technology that they had where you could mouse over a document and see a preview, no matter what the format, similar to Apple's Quick Look technology. The different applications that he showed included:

* Campaign management tool: This allowed sales people to choose from a variety of pre-developed templates for different campaigns. Besides the UI stuff mentioned above, what was cool was the addition of social tools where each sales person could vote on how useful/effective they felt each campaign was, using Technorati or Digg style ratings. Therefore the best campaigns should rise to the top and the effectiveness of the sales people should improve.
* Document sharing application: This app allowed sales people to browse through sales decks, collateral, white papers, etc. to find what they needed. Here is where the 'cover flow' and 'Quick Look' style technology was demonstrated. Again, the social "voting" capability was built in.

Mashups that Matter: Lye also talked about, but didn't demonstate how the application would allow managers to better understand the effectiveness of their sales people based on a variety of metrics that would help predict which lead should go to which sales person. It was not clear whether this is a future concept or something that's part of the new release. This Lye thought was a mashup with value, as opposed to simply providing the sales person with a Google map of the prospect/client. Lye also mentioned that they were also incorporting mashup capabilities that automatically flowed in news, press releases that were relevent to the specific client/prospect to ensure that sales people were constantly updated on what was going on with the client's business and therefore could proactively react when new opportunities arose.

Social Networking a big focus for Oracle: Related to the Web 2.0 apps that they showed, Lye also reinforced that these apps will start to find their way into many Oracle apps. In particular, the social networking aspect of the apps is part of Oracle's enterprise application strategy. Lye indicated that they are putting a lot of effort & R&D dollars around social networking.

Pods & Grids: My recollection (and my technical understanding) is a little fuzzy here, but I believe the main point is that at some point a univesal multi-tenant architecture loses performance and coupled with the fact that energy costs have doubled in the past few years, and are expected to double again in the next 5, you want to get the most out of the infrastructure you have. So they introduced a pod structure which allows you do mix and match your computing/hosting infrastructure to optimize performance and ensure that from a datacenter perspective you're maximizing the utilization of the infrastructure at all times. You can group any number of servers together to host a single instance, multiple similar clients in a MT architecture.

Marbury Keeps it Interesting

2007-11-15T01:07:00.000-05:00

Well maybe Marbury will be playing in Italy sooner than we all thought. After yesterday's startling news (how can we really be started by anything this knucklehead does anymore), that Stephon Marbury...Isiah's Boy...left the Knicks during their roadtrip, the clock on both his and Isiah's career starting ticking ever louder.

There were news reports beginning with the New York Daily News that Marbury was done as a Knick. That was followed by a great article by Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojarnowski that if Marbury goes, Isiah would be soon to follow. Unfortunately for Knick fans, somehow Dummy Dolan gets to stay no matter how this plays out. I even read an article today that said that Steph and Isiah came to blows on the flight out to Phoenix (a YouTube moment for sure if someone has the video).

But today it seems as if Marbury returned to the team, albeit $180K lighter, and is playing tonight versus the Clips. But wouldn't you know it, the Knicks, even with Z-Bo and Steph back on the court lost to the Elton Brand-less Clips and dropped to 2-5. What a shame.

They sure do keep it interesting at the Garden.

Bush Sure Can Pick His Friends Well

2007-11-15T00:31:00.000-05:00

OK, so this isn't news, but Bush's ability to completely misread the reliability of his "allies" is almost uncanny. While I could be referring to almost anybody, in this case I am talking about Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf...a key ally in the war on terror. Well except for allowing safe haven to Osama and Al-Queda in South Waziristan. But why pick nits.

As many of you know by now, Musharraf imposed emergency rule (i.e. declared martial law) last week, disbanded their parliament, dismissed and detained a number of judges, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry who was originally suspended by Musharraf in March 2007 and later reinstated to Pakistan's Supreme Court in July.

Oh, he also jailed, Imran Khan, a former Pakistani cricket captain who turned to politics and founded the Justice Party, and placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest Wednesday. All in all, a busy week for General Musharraf.

Rumors tonight say that Musharraf has agreed to step down as head of the military by the end of the month. But he has rejected calls to end the state of ermergency and leave the political stage altogether. Anybody believe this guy? I don't.

You sure can pick 'em George.

My First Social Media Release

2007-11-15T00:17:00.002-05:00

Well I finally put out my first Social Media Release (Symphony Services Helps ISVs Adopt Oracle SaaS Platform)!

Ever since I started getting up to speed on Social Networking and Social Media, and learned about SMRs, I wanted to try one. Well it took several months, and some convincing and education of my PR firm, but we did it. For any of you PR professional who are experimenting with social media and SMRs, I'd appreciate any feedback. I guess we'll know soon whether this gets any different treatment than a traditional release.

Halloween Fun

2007-11-05T15:24:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to pass on a couple of funny things I saw around this Halloween:

The first one is a good friend of mine who actually dressed as quarterback Michael Vick. I have no idea how his wife let him out of the house like that. That being said, I thought it was really funny when I saw it...a little disturbing...but really funny.

The other item was a quote from President Bush about Dick Cheney's costume. Clearly he's been watching Jon Stewart on the Daily Show for some time. Not just after Lynne Cheney's appearance last month. I guess this is the funny, personable side of Bush everyone talks about that has been hidden the past 6 years.

This morning I was with the vice president. I was asking him what costume he was planning. He said 'Well I'm already wearing it,' and then he mumbled something about the dark side of the force.

President Bush, on Vice President Dick Cheney's Halloween Costume

A-Rod Opts Out; Slammed by Gammons

2007-10-29T01:21:00.000-04:00

What cannot have been a surprise to anyone who follows baseball or Scott Boras, A-Rod announced through his agent (Boras) that he is opting out of the final 3 years of his deal with the Yankees.

What was a surprise to me was the reaction tonight on ESPN from Peter Gammons. Gammons said that the announcement -- during Game 4 of the World Series -- showed a complete disrespect for the game. Gammons went on saying that it was particularly disrespectful coming from a guy who claims he wants to play for a championship team, and that A-Rod's actions may show why he's never even played in a World Series. Gammons also added that this should act as a warning to those who are considering signing him to a $250M+ contract. Wow.

Pats Crush Skins

2007-10-29T00:58:00.001-04:00

52-7. Wow. I guess Joe Gibbs wasn't kidding during his press conference this week when he asked if anyone had a game plan to stop the Patriots. Clearly Joe got nothing from the beat reporters and came up empty with ideas of his own.

I'm going to pass on any commentary on the actual game, but just send a shout out to my good friend Mark D, but unfortunately a Redskins fan living in Rhode Island, just miles from Gillette Stadium. I'm sure he got dozens of calls from his friends after this beat-down. He already has an email from me :)

But one stat I do want to talk about. Yes, Brady, Moss, Welker and the rest of the receiving corps are on their way to setting just about every offensive record in the book. But the most stunning stat I noticed today was point differential. The Pats have a +204 differential. That's impressive. But it's even more impressive when you realize that only two other teams have SCORED more than 204 points this year.

Next week's "Showdown in Speedtown" between the Pats and Colts should be as good as advertised.

Red Sox Win World Series

2007-10-29T00:41:00.000-04:00

Really amazing postseason for the Sox. Pushed to the brink of extinction by the Indians, but then won 7 straight in route to their second World Series in 4 years. Definitely a lot of Red Sox Nation must have been holding their breath when Jamey Carrol lined one to the wall for the second out of the ninth. But Papelbon settled down and closed it out.

Tonight an extremely gutsy outing by Jon Lester, who last year this time was being treated for Hodgkins disease. Only 9 months after completing his chemotherapy treatment, he's the winner of the closeout game, going 5-2/3 innings and giving up no runs.

Gotta love that Mike Lowell, basically the throw-in as a salary dump by the Marlins as the "cost" to acquire ace Josh Beckett was just crowned the 2007 WS MVP. Good for him. He's a glue guy, a leader in the clubhouse and was probably the MVP of the regular season for the Sox.

Jacoby Ellsbury had an awesome series, being inserted into the leadoff spot at the beginning of the series. You're looking at the starting CF for the Sox for the next decade.

Now that brings a smile to my heart

2007-10-18T01:04:00.000-04:00

Celtics 101 Knicks 61

I know it's only pre-season and the games don't matter, but just seeing the box score from tonight's pre-season opener at the TD Banknorth Garden made me smile. The Knicks shot 25.9% from the floor and didn't have one player reach double digits. Nice.

And on the same day, MSG and Isiah ask the court to reduce the punitive damage award to Anucha Browne-Sanders. Not overturn the finding of the jury and exhonorate Isiah Thomas, but simply reduce the amount of the award. This seems to be a very different posture than the response from Thomas the day that the jury found him and MSG liable, where he stated his disappointment in the jury's findings that he sexually harassed Ms. Browne-Sanders. Where's the indignation now? I thought Isiah said that he was not guilty of the things that he was accused of? This hardly seems the response of an "innocent" man. When will the Knicks learn that this does not reduce the damages. It merely brings the story back to the forefront and the back pages of the NY papers. If they wanted to cut their losses, they'd have just paid the money and tried to put it behind them. Ah, the Jimmy Dolan brain trust is at it again.

Isiah and MSG Found Liable for Sexual Harrassment

2007-10-07T23:00:00.000-04:00

"Yes, and it counts!". That was my initial reaction to hearing the news that Isiah, Dolan and the rest of the Keystone Kops that inhabit the "World's Most Repugnant Arena". And yes, I danced a little jig in the hotel room as the news went across the scroll on ESPN.

There have been probably millions of words written about the trial and the result. Some of my favorite articles have been written by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, columnists Shaun Powell, Johnette Howard and Jim Baumbach of Newsday, Mike Vacarro of the New York Post, ESPN's Bill Simmons and countless others.

But of course I have to get my 2 cents in. I guess I see a few different angles outside the ordinary:
* Tawny Thomas' -- Isiah and Clarence: The irony is almost inconceivable. Could it have been timed any better than this? In the same week that Isiah, Dolan and just about everybody at MSG tries to sully the reputation of an up-and-coming black female in a sexual harassment suit, that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas releases his book 'My Grandfather’s Son' in which he recounts his clashes with, Anita Hill, the clerk that accused Clarence of sexual harrassment. Both in during the confirmation hearings, and again in the book, Clarence tries to disparage and defame the reputation of the woman making the charges against him. The same tactic that Isiah and the MSG execs used. The only difference in the two stories is that Isiah was found liable. Clarence Thomas is only a liability for the nation.

* Isiah and Imus: Where's the Outrage Now? So now what. In the aftermath, it appears that Isiah, Dolan or the Knicks will walk away nary a scratch (excepting the $11.6M that MSG and Dolan must cough up -- but who's kidding who, that doesn't affect the Knicks one bit). No suspensions, no lost draft picks, nothing that impacts the franchise. Personally I think that David Stern, the Commissioner of the NBA, missed an opportunity. He has hit players far worse for far less. But what's worse in my opinion is that the people who have the real power, the advertisers, have not weighed in at all. When Don Imus called the members of the Rutgers women's basketball team "a bunch of nappy headed ho's", Imus was widely derided, abandoned and in short order lost his job. Why did that happen, because the advertisers who supported his show for decades withdrew their support immediately. I am in no way advocating or defending Imus' conduct (although for full disclosure I was a long time listener and found Imus funny), what he did was nothing compared to what Isiah did. Imus called them names. Isiah SEXUALLY HARASSED Ms. Browne-Sanders and MSG enabled the environment and further fired Ms. Browne-Sanders in retribution. Where is the outrage from the advertisers now? Jimmy Dolan is an idiot, but even he, or perhaps his father Charles who owns Cablevision, might do something if all of their advertisers withdrew their support. So again I say, where's the outrage now?

On a related note, another show I listen to diligently is ESPN's Pardon the Interruption (PTI), hosted by renowned Washington Post columnists Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon. I love these guys, but in their October 2 episode they talked about the Isiah trial result. Both found Isiah's actions repugnant, but felt that he should still be allowed to coach the Knicks (which perhaps they felt was punishment enough). But moments after that segment, during the "Big Finish", Mr. Kornheiser mentioned that Don Imus was reportedly being given a new radio show and asked Mr. Wilbon whether he thought that was OK. Mr. Wilbon answered "no, not really". That was stunning to me. Wilbon had not even initially thought that Imus should have lost his job when the Rutgers incident occurred. But now he thought it was OK for Isiah to keep coaching while Imus shouldn't be given another chance after being out of work for 6 months? I was stunned and disappointed. I mean not only did Isiah SEXUALLY HARASS the person in this case, but he also used the term "black bitch" while referring Ms. Browne-Sanders and further stated in video testimony that it was OK for black males to use this phrase, but not for white males. How is Imus' actions worse than Isiah's, on any level? I don't know why Mr. Wilbon took this position. I don't think it was a "black solidarity thing". Perhaps it is simply a case of being too close to his sources, having known Isiah for many years as he covered the NBA. But certainly, Mr. Wilbon has fallen a few pegs in my book.

Finally, just yesterday I realized that the apocalypse is nearly upon us. Yes, it appears that Rev. Al Sharpton is the voice of reason. Clearly the end of times is upon us. But Rev. Sharpton is the only person calling on Isiah to recant his statements about the appropriateness of calling black females "Bitches". And suprisingly, has called for picketing MSG unless Isiah does so. Amazing.

SCHIP: Bush and GOP Play Poker with Sick Kids

2007-10-07T22:19:00.000-04:00

For a guy that hadn't vetoed any legislation in his first 6-1/2 years in office, Bush is certainly making up for lost time. And true to form for this "compassionate conservative", the people at the business end of his latest veto are again poor, sick and needy.

Both the House (265-159) and the Senate (68-31) passed nearly identical legislation to increase funding of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by $35 billion over 5 years. SCHIP provides health insurance to children whose parents cannot afford health insurance, but earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. The legislation would have increased the number of children covered by this program from 6.6 million to over 10.5 million -- roughly a 60% increase. And how would this be paid for? A $1 tax increase on cigarettes.

So let's recap, more poor children who have no healthcare would receive coverage and the cost of the program would be borne by cigarette smokers. Sounds good, right?

If you agree, you clearly have fallen for the trap that Bush was too clever for (first time for everything?). Lost in the shuffle of these good deeds is the evil undercurrent of socialized medicine. For this program, surely begins the slippery slope towards having the government responsible for health care for everyone in the country. Aha! Bush has caught you devilish democrats.

It's a joke. Bush is calling for a smaller increase that according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) will actually take 1 million children off the program over the next five years. The bickering over $6 billion a year is ludicrous given the $200 billion request that Bush has made for the war in Iraq for this year only. It's amazing that the President who has been a driving force for "No Child Left Behind" is against this. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) captured this sentiment best when he said "it's a bizarre thing that a president who believes in testing kids for math does not believe in testing kids for measles and mumps." But then again, this is the same president who recently stated that "Childrens do learn" in front of elementary schoold children while promoting "No Child Left Behind".

It's sad that the White House and the GOP have been able to gather enough support in the House to enable Bush's veto. Pelosi and the Dems have scheduled another vote this week to try to get the 15 more votes they need to make the legislation veto-proof (the Senate margin already is). Let's hope they are successful.

Requiem for the Mets

2007-10-07T21:59:00.000-04:00

I've been meaning to get to this and other subjects, but I happily spent most of last week on vacation with my family at Disney World in Orlando. I had a great time watching my daughter enjoy her first visit to Disney and meeting all the princesses. It was also good because I didn't have to be home watching the games or the lowlights on ESPN as the Mets completed their collapse.

The 5-12 finish to the season put the Mets in the pantheon of losers that include the '51 Dodgers, '64 Phillies and '78 Red Sox. Rare company indeed. But what I think makes this collapse worse than all of them is that 8 of the 12 losses came from the bottom of the division -- the Marlins and Nationals. If they got beat by good teams, contenders down the stretch, this would have been somewhat more bearable. But in the final week, the Mets showed less heart than the Tin Man, less courage than the Lion and with 12 errors in 3 games versus the Marlins, less brains than the Scarecrow.

The only other saving grace is that the Phillies and the Cubs (servers you right Wilbon...more on that in another column) were swept out of the playoffs. So the bragging rights by my brother-in-law Steve will be kept to a minimum.

Mets Lose Another, Fall Into Tie with Phillies

2007-09-28T00:15:00.000-04:00

Or maybe I should say "Mets fall into oblivion" because right now that's the only place they are going. There are 4 games left and at the end, the Mets will be on the outside looking in watching the Phillies play the Rockies in the first round of the playoffs. I'm so disgusted at the way the team completely collapsed. Bring on the NHL and NBA.

Trading Spaces: NBA Style

2007-09-27T15:45:00.001-04:00

Wow, has there ever been such an exciting offseason in the NBA? Big names like Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Zach Randolph...and yes, I'm including Al Jefferson in the mix too, have changed teams. Other lesser players have also changed zip codes. So far the Celtics and Rockets seem to be the clear winners of the offseason, although the Blazers and the (Seattle-Oklahoma City) Sonics have made moves with an eye towards the future.

But in recent days two more prominent players -- with perhaps the best nicknames in the NBA: The Matrix and AK-47 -- especially in the fantasy ranks, have asked to be traded. Now will their pleas go unheeded like those of Kobe and Jermaine O'Neal? That's still to be seen, but GMs and fans around the league are hoping to take advantage of the Suns and Jazz.

What's amazing to me in all the coverage is how little trade value Kirilenko seems to have. When motivated and given a chance to participate he's still a top player in the league. But of all the commentary, the most shocking was this one from ESPN's JA Adande: "And if Kirilenko does want to go elsewhere in the NBA, he should be wary of following in some dubious footsteps. There's a steady trend of players who have left the Jazz -- including David Benoit, Howard Eisley, Bryon Russell and Donyell Marshall -- only to see their stats decline when they got to their new teams." I usually like Adande, but what is he smoking comparing AK-47 to those guys. Kirilenko is a thousand times better than those guys.

Now many newspapers are talking about proposed trades. Few, if any make any sense. The one that makes the least sense is the Marion for Kirilenko swap. In my opinion, Marion will suffer the same ills that Kirilenko does in Jerry Sloan's plodding system. It's one thing for the Matrix to be 3rd fiddle to Nash and Amare. It's another to take a backseat to Boozer and Williams. Plus it doesn't solve any financial issues on Phoenix's side, so this is not happening.

Of course, the New York papers are talking about how nice it would be for either player to come to the Knicks. But they have nothing that anyone wants.

My thoughts? I think that either AK-47 or Marion would be awesome in Cleveland's maroon and gold. Both would thrive next to LeBron (who wouldn't) and solve a lot of problems on the offensive and defensive end. Plus the Cavs have some assets to send back and cap issues should fit. Here are 2 trade scenarios:

* Cavs trade Larry Hughes and Donyell Marshall to Jazz for AK-47. The salaries are a virtual match. Hughes has been a bad fit in Cleveland, but would satisfy the huge hole at shooting guard that has been there since Jeff Hornacek left. Marshall would still be good off the bench and would help stretch the defense to open the middle for Boozer and Paul Millsap.

* Cavs sign/trade Andeson Varajeo and Aleksander Pavlovic and a #1 pick to Phoenix for Marion. This solves the Cavs issues with both of their restricted free agents and brings possibly one of the 10 best players to put next to LeBron. The upside for Phoenix is that they get one very active big man back, a good shooter, one of the thousand draft picks they've traded away for cash the last 3 years...and continue the parade of foreign players onto the Suns roster.

Will something happen? Probably not unless one of these players flat don't report to camp and hold out. Otherwise, I don't see either team taking the proverbial "bag of donuts" that they will be offered. But if something does happen it could change the course of the NBA and fantasy leagues around the world.

Bush Taking a Beating in the Press

2007-09-27T10:40:00.000-04:00

Expecting an article on "Dubya"? Nope this one is about Reggie.

The once sure-fire future HOFer from USC is having a tough second season with the New Orleans Saints. Even before the beat-down that the Saints got from the Tennessee Titans the sharks were starting to circle Reggie. There were open questions about whether Reggie was really a franchise-back or just a feature-back. Paul Kuharsky, covering the Titans for the Tennessean, called Bush "overrated" before the Titans game. Shortly after the game, ESPN's Matt Mosely and Scout's Inc's Matt Williamson seemed to agree, especially after Bush couldn't fill the shoes of Deuce McAllister who left the game early in the first quarter with a torn ACL. Check out this quote from Mosely:

I know he scored two touchdowns, but when am I allowed to point out how overrated Reggie Bush is? We're led to believe that the Saints sit around dreaming up plays for a guy who can't run the ball effectively. I'm already sick of hearing how great he is at the second-level. Doesn't he have to get there at some point.

Now Bush will have plenty of time to provie his doubters wrong with Deuce out for the season. But first he's going to have to show he can run between the tackles. If he can't and the Saints continue to regress towards their infamous 1980 1-15 season and the "'Aints" heritage, his only highlight for the season will be kicking it with Kim Kardashian.

Another Devastating Loss for the Mets

2007-09-27T10:19:00.000-04:00

I'm actually glad that I can't get Mets games on TV up here in Rhode Island. I don't think I could turn the TV on at this point.

With the season basically on the line, the Mets trot out former 1st-round pick Philip Humber for his FIRST EVER major league start. OMG, is this waht we're down to? I guess so. And the predictable result followed. Staked to a 5-run lead after 3 innings, Humber and the bullpen couldn't hold on. Humber, the former Rice standout is recovering from Tommy John surgery. The former strikeout king at Rice, couldn't log one in his 4 innings as he gave up 5 runs.

And the bullpen followed suit. Joe Smith the sidearm picture that was the surprise in spring training, gave up 2 more without recording an out.

The Mets pitching staff has given up more than 8 runs per game over the last 11. I don't see anything turning around either. Even if the Mets make the playoffs, and it's a BIG IF, I can't see them getting past the first round with this pitching. The hitting has been pretty good, but how many 9-8 games can you expect to win?

Justice and the 10-Year Warrantee

2007-09-26T17:39:00.000-04:00

So you thought white-collar criminals get off easy in America? Get this. Earlier this month it the Chairman of South Korean carmaker Hyundai, Chung Mong-koo (it's just fun to say, try it), had a 3-year sentence -- for embezzling $100 million -- suspended.

According to the Boston Globe "[the] Presiding Judge Lee Jae-hong told the packed courtroom that Hyundai has great influence over the nation's economy and Chung, its hands-on leader, is the symbol of the company. "I am also a citizen of the Republic of Korea," Lee said. "I was unwilling to engage in a gamble that would put the nation's economy at risk."

South Korea - what a country. The real irony is that the funds that were embezzled were used to pay lobbyists to gain government favors and for personal use. I wonder if Judge Lee's name was found in any of the books uncovered by the prosecution.

Hyundai has become the 6th largest automaker in the world, starting from obscurity about a decade ago. While the 10-year warrantee that they provided helped assuage buyers concerns over substandard quality (remember the Yugo?), I believe it was their sponsorship of the TNT NBA Halftime Show -- and especially Kenny Smith's lyrical pronunciation -- that really improved it's brand image and helped sales take off.

Bridge to Nowhere Goes Nowhere

2007-09-26T14:56:00.001-04:00

A piece of good news. The boondoggle of all earmarks has fallen short of funding and is officially canceled. The pet project of crazy Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) is finally dead. The bridge that would have connected dozens of people on Ketchikan island to another small island would have cost almost $400 million.

This had to be a terrible blow to Ted Stevens who has been lampooned mercilessly -- not without merit of course -- by Jon Stewart of the Daily Show. While there have been many collages of Stevens screaming at Senate colleagues from the Senate floor, none was better than the bit about Ted Stevens' description of the Internet as a series of "tubes". Sit back and enjoy the show.

Another Loss to the Nats?

2007-09-25T23:49:00.000-04:00

You've got to be f-ing kidding me. Another loss to the lowly Washington Nationals? And this time it's Glavine that gets lit up? The only saving grace is that the Phillies also lost and they still have to face Smoltz and Hudson.

But the Mets right now are terrible. They have to win the games against the teams they're supposed to beat. They have another chance to do so tomorrow night, but with rookie Philip Humber making his first major league start, I'm not so confident.

Games Left: 5
Magic Number: 4
Blood Pressure: through the roof :(

7 Games to Go...I Can't Look

2007-09-24T01:55:00.000-04:00

I'm sure for the true baseball fan what's happening in the NL East race is exciting. Probably so for a Phillies fan too. But I'm a Met's fan. Have been all my life. A week ago, all was good. A 7 game lead with a little more than 2 weeks to go. Then a death swoon that has the Mets holding on for dear life. And it really is for their playoff lives. It's pretty good odds that whoever loses the division will not make the playoffs. I really can't bear to look at scores in the morning or at night on the scroll on EPSN2. It's gut wrenching. At least after tonight, the Mets have a 2.5 game lead with 7 games to go. Please guys, hold on just a little longer.

And please don't let the Phillies get the Wild Card. After 10 straight losses, I have no confidence that the Mets can beat them head-to-head.

Political Roundup: A couple of quick hits

2007-09-24T00:49:00.000-04:00

I'm woefully behind in half the stuff I want to write, so I'll hit some of these issues quickly.

Russia Rejects Stronger Sanction on Iran: It's hard to say if this even qualifies as news. Of course Russia would object to sanctions. They are selling a lot of equipment, especially nuclear related equipment to Iran. Other than oil and gas (which were private institutions before Stalin, I mean Putin, "nationalized", the only burgeoning market for Russia is to sell dangerous materials to dangerous countries. The only thing surprising about the story is that the push for these sanctions came from -- wait for it, wait for it -- France! The pussies from Old Europe getting tough? Maybe this Sarkozy guy is actually pretty cool.

Can Someone Please Explain Why John Edwards is Popular?: I don't get it. Somehow this bozo is still in the top half of the Democratic field for President. Yes, he's good looking, affable and so on, but he's still just a shyster lawyer. He rails against high medical costs, but he made his millions through frivolous law suits which helped to raise the cost of medical care and insurance. He's pandering to the left of the party by flipping his position on the war in Iraq. Big deal. First, it's ingenuous. He's only doing it to be popular with the most activist parts of the party. Like Mitt Romney, I'm not sure I will ever believe him when he tells me the color of his eyes, let alone his "current" position on any issue. But there he is running 3rd or 4th (depending on whether Gore is included in the poll). Yet a guy like Joe Biden, who is arguably the smartest guy running for President in either party, is only polling at 2-3%. I guess voters are stupid. What's worse is that it looks like in an election that the Democrats can't lose, they are leaning towards nominating the one person that has absolutely no chance to win in the General Election -- Hillary. Exasperating.

Lebanon's Bloody Road to a Stable Democracy: Another anti-Syrian member of parliament, Antoine Ghanem, along with 4 others was killed a week ago. He was the 8th Anti-Syrian legislator killed since the February 2005 assassination in Beirut of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which sparked widespread protests that led to the ouster of Syrian forces from Lebanon (known as the Cedar Revolution). Of course this is happening leading up to Tuesday's scheduled Presidential Election in Lebanon where they are about to vote for a successor to Emil Lahoud, the current President and lap dog for the Syrian regime who must step down at the end of November. The timing of the assassination was so bad, even Hezbollah objected. The latest is that it appears that Lebanon will postpone the election by at least a month. The sad thing is that I don't believe that there's anyone on the planet who doesn't think that Syria was involved. But similarly, I don't think that any country of international body (think the UN) has the balls to do anything to help the citizens of Lebanon. The bloody march to democracy continues.

Petreus' Testimony to Congress: Did anyone expect anything different? Other than the opening line (let me paraphrase -- 'nobody helped me with my homework'), it sounded eerily like Bush's position on the war. I'm not a military analyst by any stretch, but it seems like the same story we've heard since the run-up to the 2004 election -- we're making great progress and the Iraqi military forces should be able to take over soon. Back in the first Bush-Kerry debate Bush stated that by January 2005 there would be over 125,000 Iraqi troops trained to take over some of the military and security duties of US-Coalition forces. I don't think we have that level today, nearly 3 years later. Especially when many non-partisan organizations like the GAO are painting a very different picture of the situation in Iraq, it's hard to believe General Petreus' "interpretation" of the situation.

Progress in Israeli-Palestinian Relations?: OK, here's another one where I won't hold my breath. Nothing would make me happier than a safer Israel and the end to the 60-year old conflict that began when Israel repelled a 5-nation attack on the very day it was formed. But while PM Abbas seems to be a reasonable partner in peace, most of the sticky issues (Jerusalem, right of return) aren't close to being solved. And it's not like Abbas represents the entire Palestinian people. Hamas is quickly turning Gaza into a fundamentalist Muslim theological state, and there is great suffering within those borders as the economy is in tatters. I'm not sure I see an end in sight. I wish I did, but peace still seems out of reach.

Continued Fallout from ADL Position on Turkish Genocide of Armenians

2007-09-24T00:13:00.000-04:00

It continues to sadden me to see what's happened on the suburbs of Boston in relation to the ADL's position on the Turkish Genocide against the Armenian population during WWI. To recap, see my earlier post.

Since then a lot has happened. Let me shortcut it:
* Andrew Tarsys, Director of New England chapter of the ADL, breaks with the ADL party line and calls the killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during WWI genocide
* ADL fires Tarsys
* After much pressure from various groups in the American-Jewish community, the ADL reverses itself and Abraham Foxman, Executive Director of the ADL calls the actions of the Ottoman Empire "tantamount to genocide".
* ADL re-instates Tarsys

All of this happened in a matter of little more than a week.

Now you would have thought that the actions of the ADL, and especially the defiant stand taken by Tarsys would have had a significant impact on relations between the Armenian-American community in Watertown and the ADL. But instead, the Town of Watertown decided not to re-join the "No Place to Hate" initiative that was started by the ADL to promote racial unity and make neighborhoods safer and nicer. What's worse is that Newton, an affluent neighboring town with a large Jewish community, also pulled out of the "No Place to Hate" program.

It disturbs me on two levels. First, the action by Watertown to pull out of the "No Place to Hate" program had its intended effect -- the ADL changed it's position to be essentially in line with what the community has been asking for, actually for decades. This was a huge deal for a prominent national organization like the ADL to reverse itself so quickly. But apparently it was not enough. I personally think that it's unreasonable to have expected more. Certainly there was fallout for the ADL, Israel and the Jewish community in regards to it's relations with Turkey, one of the few Muslim nations that has good relations with Israel. To have gotten what you wanted and then still walk away seems disingenuous.

That leads me to my second point. The results of these recent weeks is that a program that was designed to bring different groups together is now being used to drive wedges between them. I have read that leadership from both sides are trying to work things out together and re-build bridges, but I don't buy it. I think it's a shame that the divides between the Jewish and Armenian communities in the suburbs of Boston seem to be getting wider.

Titans Sign Simon

2007-08-30T14:05:00.000-04:00

This really feels like one of those great name, but not great impact signing. If this was 2004, I'm really excited. But 2007, not so much. Simon hasn't played a down of football in over a year and has some sort of arthritis. Some like Scout's Inc. analyst Jeremy Green don't think he's got a lot left. He makes a great point -- if Simon did have anything left, don't the Colts havea greater need for a run-stuffing DT than almost any other team in the league? I guess we'll see. All he's really being counted on for is for about 25-30 plays per game, stuffing the run on first and second down.

Coach Fisher and center Kevin Mawae seemed upbeat about the signing, but not everyone was so excited. The most telling quote that I saw was from Albert Haynesworth in The Tennessean: "The defensive line has been playing really good, the best we have played in the last three or four years. He is definitely an upgrade, I guess, but I think we were really good before," Haynesworth said. "We stopped the run, we rushed the passer. What else could you want? … Hopefully he can catch up in what, 12 days?"

I guess at the end of the day this is a low risk deal (1-year $1M). Let's see what happens. I guess it provides some depth in case Rien Long can't come back after Week 6.

Does the Fine Fit the Crime?

2007-08-29T14:19:00.001-04:00

I was reading Tuesday Morning Quarterback on EPSN and I'm baffled at the lack of overall quality in this article and will probably never read TMQ again. Besides the fact that the article was close to unreadable, I couldn't believe what Greg Easterbrook wrote about the whole Vick situation, comparing killing dogs to what happens in the food service industry. I won't quibble about methods of killing. Killing is not a good outcome and there is no "nice" way to do it. It comes down to WHY are you doing it. Vick killed the dogs because he wanted to. Because he could.

But I must address Easterbrook's STUPID positions on the extent of Vick's punishment. So Vick is a "first-time offender"? He's been doing this for years. At least 7 years and reports, even from his Dad, say it dates back to his early teenage years. This may be the first time he was caught, but not the first time he committed the offense.

Secondly, I am not crying for Vick's loss of $75M in salary, bonuses and endorsement income. He only lost so much because he was MAKING so much. The deal is, if you go to jail, you lose your income during that time. I'm quite sure that Arthur Blank, Nike or anyone else who gave Vick boatloads of money would have done so if they knew about these criminal and utterly reprehensible activities. The whole thing about the dollars involved is relative. If Vick was an "average joe" making $50K a year, he wouldn't have lost so much in raw dollars -- although it might have had a greater impact on his life. And there are other white-collar criminals who have "lost" much more than Vick in potential income because they made more. Thats' how it goes. That's why money isn't factored into sentencing.

Yi "brinks" -- Signs with Bucks

2007-08-29T11:48:00.000-04:00

Yes, the game of General Tso's Chicken that began on draft night is over. Yi and his team "brinked", and has decided to sign with the Milwaukee Bucks who picked Yi 6th overall in this years NBA Draft. Larry Krystowiak, Lenny Harris, Sen. Herb Kohl and David Stern can all exhale. This is excellent news, not only for the Bucks, but for the NBA in general.

After all the posturing from Yi's handlers about Yi holding out until next year's draft, particularly from agent Dan Fegan and many from the China Basketball Association was nothing more than bluster. The truth is that the Bucks are an excellent landing place for Yi. He's surrounded by great, young talent with Redd, Mo Williams and Andrew Bogut and Charlie Villanueva. A potential front line of Bogut, Villanueva and Yi is exciting to think about. All three are not only 6'11" or taller, but all are good rebounders, above average shooters and excellent passers. The only negative is that not one of them are shot blockers. Redd, Williams and Yi all possess excellent range and should also stretch the defense giving Bogut and CV more room in the blocks. This can be an interesting team in a year or two.

And Then There Were Two

2007-08-29T00:30:00.000-04:00

Well Alberto Gonzales finally resigned. One more down, two to go. Unfortunately for the country, Bush and Cheney will hang around for the next 16+ months.

It's not worth re-hashing all the episodes that led to this moment: the obfuscations, denials and changing stories. I think that many in the country are happy to have Gonzales leave office. I wonder what was the final straw that broke the AG's back to make him resign. The rancor -- from both sides of the aisle -- against his behavior as Attorney General have been long and loud. Nothing really new that I'm aware of happened. But again, let's not look a gift-horse in the mouth.

There was a lot of reactions to his resignation from the President, members of Congress and others. But I continue to be amazed at how Gonzales' (and by extension the Administration's) defenders try to turn the situation upside down and portray Gonzales as the victim of a 'great left wing conspiracy'. Take Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's response:

"I thank Alberto Gonzales for his public service and wish him well in his future endeavors. It is my hope that whomever President Bush selects as the next attorney general, he or she is not subjected to the same poisonous partisanship that we've sadly grown accustomed to over the past eight months."

This boggles my mind of two levels. First, I'm confounded by the remark about poisonous partisanship. First of all, the calls for Gonzales' resignation came from both sides of the aisle. Presidential candidate John McCain, Arlen Specter, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee and others were as or more critical of Gonzales as most Democrats. Further, McConnell reacts as if the Republicans never acted in a partisan manner before they lost control of the Congress this year. I don't think you'll find many who would objectively state that Republicans were not more partisan in their dealings in the preceeding six years and certainly far more so in the Whitewater investigation and Lewinsky sex scandal.

Secondly, for a party that takes personal responsibility as a core value, I'm amazed how they never apply it to themselves. I'm actually with Republicans on the idea that personal accountability for one's actions is incredibly important. The only thing that Gonzales could have done to bring more criticism on himself would be if he admitted involvment with Michael Vick and Bad Newz Kennels. But from bad intelligence, to bad "war" strategy and the inability to respond to a natural disaster that was forecast for a full week, this Administration has never taken responsibility for the choices that they have made.

That leads me to my next area of concern. One of the rumored replacements for Gonzales seems to be DHS secretary Michael Chertoff. How could Chertoff, who presided over the botched response to Hurricane Katrina, be given greater responsibility? What does it take to get in trouble? I guess the good news is that at least he hasn't shot anyone in the face yet.