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Skiing at Lake Tahoe – Mark Twain at Lake Tahoe in 1870 – New Pac-10 Commissioner – The Lessons of the Billy Gillispie Firing – Health Care in America – I Guess He’d Rather Be in Colorado

Coaches Hot Seat has bivwacked to Lake Tahoe for a few days of R&R after a pretty tough stretch of long days of work in the very challenging times that we all find ourselves dealing with.  That sounds like a complaint, and complaints are a waste of time so back to the topics at hand.  If you have not been to Lake Tahoe we can only say….”Get yourself there at least once in your life.”  We are up here for some late-season snow skiing and any other things fun things we can figure out to do.  With temperatures at Lake level around 50 degrees on Friday, footballs of course came out and a spontaneous and brutal flag- football game was played.  After flag-football a short visit to the local casino and sports book to catch some of the afternoon PGA Tour golf (casino sports books usually have lots of TVs and when we arrived on Friday afternoon, the NCAA tournament, men’s golf replay, a spring training baseball game and several ESPN channels were on the large flat screens).  Yes, Lake Tahoe is a special place and below are a couple of photos that were taken on Friday of a beautiful sun-kissed day above the Lake.

 

 

 

 

Of course, the great Mark Twain visited Lake Tahoe during his travels “Out West” and in his American classic Roughing It he describes a trip in 1870 that a friend and Twain made from Carson City up over a part of the Sierra-Nevada Mountains to the Lake.  As usual with Mr. Twain, it is quite an entertaining read:  (If you are bored by Mark Twain just skip down the page until you see Thank You Mark Twain)

 

Roughing It:  Chapter 22 – “The Air The Angels Breathe”

 

It was the end of August, and the skies were cloudless and the weather superb. In two or three weeks I had grown wonderfully fascinated with the curious new country and concluded to put off my return to “the States” awhile. I had grown well accustomed to wearing a damaged slouch hat, blue woolen shirt, and pants crammed into boot-tops, and gloried in the absence of coat, vest and braces. I felt rowdyish and “bully,” (as the historian Josephus phrases it, in his fine chapter upon the destruction of the Temple). It seemed to me that nothing could be so fine and so romantic. I had become an officer of the government, but that was for mere sublimity. The office was an unique sinecure. I had nothing to do and no salary. I was private Secretary to his majesty the
Secretary and there was not yet writing enough for two of us. So Johnny K—- and I devoted our time to amusement. He was the young son of an Ohio nabob and was out there for recreation. He got it. We had heard a world of talk about the marvellous beauty of Lake Tahoe, and finally curiosity drove us thither to see it. Three or four members of the Brigade had been there and located some timber lands on its shores and stored up a quantity of provisions in their camp. We strapped a couple of blankets on our shoulders and took an axe apiece and started–for we intended to take up a wood ranch or so ourselves and become wealthy. We were on foot. The reader will find it advantageous to go horseback. We were told that the distance was eleven miles. We tramped a long time on level ground, and then toiled laboriously up a mountain about a thousand miles high and looked over. No lake there. We descended on the other side, crossed the valley and toiled up another mountain three or four thousand miles high, apparently, and looked over again. No lake yet. We sat down tired and perspiring, and hired a couple of Chinamen to curse those people who had beguiled us. Thus refreshed, we presently resumed the march with renewed vigor and determination. We plodded on, two or three hours longer, and at last the Lake burst upon us–a noble sheet of blue water lifted six thousand three hundred feet above the level of the sea, and walled in by a rim of snow-clad mountain peaks that towered aloft full three thousand feet higher still! It was a vast oval, and one would have to use up eighty or a hundred good miles in traveling around it. As it lay there with the shadows of the mountains brilliantly photographed upon its still surface I thought it must surely be the fairest picture the whole earth affords.

We found the small skiff belonging to the Brigade boys, and without loss of time set out across a deep bend of the lake toward the landmarks that signified the locality of the camp. I got Johnny to row–not because I mind exertion myself, but because it makes me sick to ride backwards when I am at work. But I steered. A three-mile pull brought us to the camp just as the night fell, and we stepped ashore very tired and wolfishly hungry. In a “cache” among the rocks we found the provisions and the cooking utensils, and then, all fatigued as I was, I sat down on a boulder and superintended while Johnny gathered wood and cooked supper.  Many a man who had gone through what I had, would have wanted to rest.
It was a delicious supper–hot bread, fried bacon, and black coffee. It was a delicious solitude we were in, too. Three miles away was a saw-mill and some workmen, but there were not fifteen other human beings throughout the wide circumference of the lake. As the darkness closed down and the stars came out and spangled the great mirror with jewels, we smoked meditatively in the solemn hush and forgot our troubles and our pains. In due time we spread our blankets in the warm sand between two large boulders and soon feel asleep, careless of the procession of ants that passed in through rents in our clothing and explored our persons. Nothing could disturb the sleep that fettered us, for it had been fairly earned, and if our consciences had any sins on them they had to adjourn court for that night, any way. The wind rose just as we were losing consciousness, and we were lulled to sleep by the beating of the surf upon the shore.

It is always very cold on that lake shore in the night, but we had plenty of blankets and were warm enough. We never moved a muscle all night, but waked at early dawn in the original positions, and got up at once, thoroughly refreshed, free from soreness, and brim full of friskiness. There is no end of wholesome medicine in such an experience. That morning we could have whipped ten such people as we were the day before– sick ones at any rate. But the world is slow, and people will go to “water cures” and “movement cures” and to foreign lands for health. Three months of camp life on Lake Tahoe would restore an Egyptian mummy to his pristine vigor, and give him an appetite like an alligator. I do not mean the oldest and driest mummies, of course, but the fresher ones. The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn’t it be?–it is the same the angels breathe. I think that hardly any amount of fatigue can be gathered together that a man cannot sleep off in one night on the sand by its side. Not under a roof, but under the sky; it seldom or never rains there in the summer time. I know a man who went there to die. But he made a failure of it. He was a skeleton when he came, and could barely stand. He had no appetite, and did nothing but read tracts and reflect on the future. Three months later he was sleeping out of doors regularly, eating all he could hold, three times a day, and chasing game over mountains three thousand feet high for recreation. And he was a skeleton no longer, but weighed part of a ton. This is no fancy sketch, but the truth. His disease was consumption. I confidently commend his experience to other skeletons.

I superintended again, and as soon as we had eaten breakfast we got in the boat and skirted along the lake shore about three miles and disembarked. We liked the appearance of the place, and so we claimed some three hundred acres of it and stuck our “notices” on a tree. It was yellow pine timber land–a dense forest of trees a hundred feet high and from one to five feet through at the butt. It was necessary to fence our property or we could not hold it. That is to say, it was necessary to cut down trees here and there and make them fall in such a way as to form a sort of enclosure (with pretty wide gaps in it). We cut down three trees apiece, and found it such heart-breaking work that we decided to “rest our case” on those; if they held the property, well and good; if they didn’t, let the property spill out through the gaps and go; it was no use to work ourselves to death merely to save a few acres of land. Next day we came back to build a house–for a house was also necessary, in order to hold the property. We decided to build a substantial log-house and excite the envy of the Brigade boys; but by the time we had cut
and trimmed the first log it seemed unnecessary to be so elaborate, and so we concluded to build it of saplings. However, two saplings, duly cut and trimmed, compelled recognition of the fact that a still modester architecture would satisfy the law, and so we concluded to build a “brush” house. We devoted the next day to this work, but we did so much “sitting around” and discussing, that by the middle of the afternoon we had achieved only a half-way sort of affair which one of us had to watch while the other cut brush, lest if both turned our backs we might not be able to find it again, it had such a strong family resemblance to the surrounding vegetation. But we were satisfied with it.
We were land owners now, duly seized and possessed, and within the protection of the law. Therefore we decided to take up our residence on our own domain and enjoy that large sense of independence which only such an experience can bring. Late the next afternoon, after a good long rest, we sailed away from the Brigade camp with all the provisions and cooking utensils we could carry off–borrow is the more accurate word–and just as the night was falling we beached the boat at our own landing.

 

 

Roughing It:  Chapter 23 – We Burn Our Possessions

 

If there is any life that is happier than the life we led on our timber ranch for the next two or three weeks, it must be a sort of life which I have not read of in books or experienced in person. We did not see a human being but ourselves during the time, or hear any sounds but those that were made by the wind and the waves, the sighing of the pines, and now and then the far-off thunder of an avalanche. The forest about us was dense and cool, the sky above us was cloudless and brilliant with sunshine, the broad lake before us was glassy and clear, or rippled and breezy, or black and storm-tossed, according to Nature’s mood; and its circling border of mountain domes, clothed with forests, scarred with land-slides, cloven by canons and valleys, and helmeted with glittering snow, fitly framed and finished the noble picture. The view was always
fascinating, bewitching, entrancing. The eye was never tired of gazing, night or day, in calm or storm; it suffered but one grief, and that was that it could not look always, but must close sometimes in sleep.
We slept in the sand close to the water’s edge, between two protecting boulders, which took care of the stormy night-winds for us. We never took any paregoric to make us sleep. At the first break of dawn we were always up and running foot-races to tone down excess of physical vigor and exuberance of spirits. That is, Johnny was–but I held his hat. While smoking the pipe of peace after breakfast we watched the sentinel peaks put on the glory of the sun, and followed the conquering light as it swept down among the shadows, and set the captive crags and forests free. We watched the tinted pictures grow and brighten upon the water till every little detail of forest, precipice and pinnacle was wrought in and finished, and the miracle of the enchanter complete. Then to “business.”

That is, drifting around in the boat. We were on the north shore. There, the rocks on the bottom are sometimes gray, sometimes white. This gives the marvelous transparency of the water a fuller advantage than it has elsewhere on the lake. We usually pushed out a hundred yards or so from shore, and then lay down on the thwarts, in the sun, and let the boat drift by the hour whither it would. We seldom talked. It interrupted the Sabbath stillness, and marred the dreams the luxurious rest and indolence brought. The shore all along was indented with deep, curved bays and coves, bordered by narrow sand-beaches; and where the sand ended, the steep mountain-sides rose right up aloft into space–rose up like a vast wall a little out of the perpendicular, and thickly wooded with tall pines.
So singularly clear was the water, that where it was only twenty or thirty feet deep the bottom was so perfectly distinct that the boat seemed floating in the air! Yes, where it was even eighty feet deep. Every little pebble was distinct, every speckled trout, every hand’s- breadth of sand. Often, as we lay on our faces, a granite boulder, as large as a village church, would start out of the bottom apparently, and seem climbing up rapidly to the surface, till presently it threatened to touch our faces, and we could not resist the impulse to seize an oar and avert the danger. But the boat would float on, and the boulder descend again, and then we could see that when we had been exactly above it, it
must still have been twenty or thirty feet below the surface. Down through the transparency of these great depths, the water was not merely transparent, but dazzlingly, brilliantly so. All objects seen through it had a bright, strong vividness, not only of outline, but of every minute detail, which they would not have had when seen simply through the same depth of atmosphere. So empty and airy did all spaces seem below us, and so strong was the sense of floating high aloft in mid-nothingness, that we called these boat-excursions “balloon-voyages.”

 

We fished a good deal, but we did not average one fish a week. We could see trout by the thousand winging about in the emptiness under us, or sleeping in shoals on the bottom, but they would not bite–they could see the line too plainly, perhaps. We frequently selected the trout we wanted, and rested the bait patiently and persistently on the end of his nose at a depth of eighty feet, but he would only shake it off with an annoyed manner, and shift his position.

We bathed occasionally, but the water was rather chilly, for all it looked so sunny. Sometimes we rowed out to the “blue water,” a mile or two from shore. It was as dead blue as indigo there, because of the immense depth. By official measurement the lake in its centre is one thousand five hundred and twenty-five feet deep!
Sometimes, on lazy afternoons, we lolled on the sand in camp, and smoked pipes and read some old well-worn novels. At night, by the camp-fire, we played euchre and seven-up to strengthen the mind–and played them with cards so greasy and defaced that only a whole summer’s acquaintance with them could enable the student to tell the ace of clubs from the jack of diamonds.

We never slept in our “house.” It never recurred to us, for one thing; and besides, it was built to hold the ground, and that was enough. We did not wish to strain it.

By and by our provisions began to run short, and we went back to the old camp and laid in a new supply. We were gone all day, and reached home again about night-fall, pretty tired and hungry. While Johnny was carrying the main bulk of the provisions up to our “house” for future use, I took the loaf of bread, some slices of bacon, and the coffee-pot,
ashore, set them down by a tree, lit a fire, and went back to the boat to get the frying-pan. While I was at this, I heard a shout from Johnny, and looking up I saw that my fire was galloping all over the premises! Johnny was on the other side of it. He had to run through the flames to get to the lake shore, and then we stood helpless and watched the
devastation.

The ground was deeply carpeted with dry pine-needles, and the fire touched them off as if they were gunpowder. It was wonderful to see with what fierce speed the tall sheet of flame traveled! My coffee-pot was gone, and everything with it. In a minute and a half the fire seized upon a dense growth of dry manzanita chapparal six or eight feet high,
and then the roaring and popping and crackling was something terrific. We were driven to the boat by the intense heat, and there we remained, spell-bound.
Within half an hour all before us was a tossing, blinding tempest of flame! It went surging up adjacent ridges–surmounted them and disappeared in the canons beyond–burst into view upon higher and farther ridges, presently–shed a grander illumination abroad, and dove again–flamed out again, directly, higher and still higher up the mountain-side- -threw out skirmishing parties of fire here and there, and sent them trailing their crimson spirals away among remote ramparts and ribs and gorges, till as far as the eye could reach the lofty mountain-fronts were webbed as it were with a tangled network of red lava streams. Away across the water the crags and domes were lit with a ruddy glare, and the firmament above was a reflected hell!

Every feature of the spectacle was repeated in the glowing mirror of the lake! Both pictures were sublime, both were beautiful; but that in the lake had a bewildering richness about it that enchanted the eye and held it with the stronger fascination.
We sat absorbed and motionless through four long hours. We never thought of supper, and never felt fatigue. But at eleven o’clock the conflagration had traveled beyond our range of vision, and then darkness stole down upon the landscape again.

Hunger asserted itself now, but there was nothing to eat. The provisions were all cooked, no doubt, but we did not go to see. We were homeless wanderers again, without any property. Our fence was gone, our house burned down; no insurance. Our pine forest was well scorched, the dead trees all burned up, and our broad acres of manzanita swept away. Our blankets were on our usual sand-bed, however, and so we lay down and went to sleep. The next morning we started back to the old camp, but while out a long way from shore, so great a storm came up that we dared not try to land. So I baled out the seas we shipped, and Johnny pulled heavily through the billows till we had reached a point three or four miles beyond the camp. The storm was increasing, and it became evident that it was better to take the hazard of beaching the boat than go down in a hundred fathoms of water; so we ran in, with tall white-caps following, and I sat down in the stern-sheets and pointed her head-on to the shore. The instant the bow struck, a wave came over the stern that washed crew and cargo ashore, and saved a deal of trouble. We shivered in the lee of a boulder all the rest of the day, and froze all the night through. In the morning the tempest had gone down, and we paddled down to the camp without any unnecessary delay. We were so starved that we ate up the rest of the Brigade’s provisions, and then set out to Carson to tell them about it and ask their forgiveness. It was accorded, upon payment of damages.

We made many trips to the lake after that, and had many a hair-breadth escape and blood-curdling adventure which will never be recorded in any history.

 

 

Thanks you Mark Twain.

 

 

With the announcement that Pac-10 has hired a new commissioner, Larry Scott (now CEO of Women’s Tennis Association), we have a few recommendations for Mr. Scott to both better the Pac-10, but also to advance the game of college football from the stone ages.

 

John McGrath of the News Tribune summarizing almost everything that we would be interested in seeing new Pac-10 commish Larry Scott deal with in his first days on the job, but below we add 4 items that should be on the new commish’s agenda:

 

1.  TV Contract – The Pac-10 has a terrible TV contract in football and a mediocre one in basketball and we would recommend a quick move to leverage the great assets of the Pac-10 conference, not only football and basketball, but in all sports.  Speaking of the “Pac-10”

 

2.  “Pac-10” Conference Expansion – It makes little sense for the Pac-10 to sit idle while the SEC, ACC and Big 12 have built power conferences that produce not only a more attractive group of schools, but also allow for a conference championship game in football which is a big money maker for the conferences as well.  We would move quickly to expand the “Pac-10” to the “Pac-14” by inviting the following teams:

 

Boise State

BYU

Utah

Colorado

 

If Colorado did not want to leave the Big 12, we would then invite New Mexico to join the new “Pac-14.”  After the new Pac-14 was expanded to 14 teams we would divide the conference into “North” and “South” divisions which would look like:

 

Pac-14

North

Boise State

BYU

Oregon

Oregon State

Utah

Washington

Washington State

 

 

South

Arizona

Arizona State

Cal

Colorado (or New Mexico if CU stays in Big 12)

Stanford

UCLA

USC

 

Now that would be a great collegiate sports conference.  Who would the Big 12 replace Colorado with you may be asking…  If Colorado left the Big 12, we would move to expand the Big 12 by adding TCU, SMU and Houston to what would be the new Big 14. 

 

Now that would be two great collegiate sports conferences!  Will it happen?  Probably not, but bold people with big plans always make moves that may not make a lot of sense at the time but certainly will make perfect sense down the road.  We offer the SEC, Big 12 and ACC as conferences that have benefited tremendously by expansion and the Pac-10 would be energized by adding 4 more schools to their lineup.

 

3.  A Postseason Championship Tournament for college football already – The last thing that we would encourage the new Pac-10 commish to move on would be to work with the other BCS Boys (the willing one’s to start with that is) to set-up a postseason structure that will both recognize the importance of bowls in the history of the game of college football and a playoff format with at least 8 teams that would determine a legitimate national champion in college football.  There is overwhelming support for a college football postseason tournament among college football fans and a tournament would also generate billions of dollars that are going to be badly needed by college athletic programs in the coming years. 

 

4.  Start the Pac-10 TV Network – As media continues to fragment and more and more Americans look for their entertainment beyond the main-stream media, there are great opportunities for sports entities to establish their foothold in this new media world.  The Big Ten Network has led the way with a very high quality product for their first visit to the media rodeo and there are several other niche channels that are positioning themselves for great opportunities and growth as all of us look for very specific types and forms of entertainment.  Some of those networks/channels include:  The Golf Channel, The NFL Network, The MLB Channel, The Tennis Channel, ESPNU, and of course the Big Ten Network.  The Pac-10 with its very strong group of core schools that also have very strong fan bases is ideally positioned to start a network for their conference and to broadcast anything and everything that the networks and large cable channels do not want.  Another great feature of a conference network is the ability to extend the brand and reach of the conference far beyond the markets and cities that the schools and sports teams play in.  Since the Big Ten Network has kicked-off we have learned a lot about all of the schools in the Big Ten and much about the other collegiate sports that are played in the conference.  That exposure is invaluable to the Big Ten’s sports teams, but also to the individual schools that are able to extend their reach as they look to promote their school to potential future students, athletes or not.  The Bottom Line:  If we were running the Pac-10, or any collegiate conference for that matter, we would launch a conference network and hire the best people we could find the make that network a big success.

 

There you have our four main recommendations to new Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott.  As John McGrath in the News Tribune reports the new Pac-10 commish understands that the Pac-10 is not doing all that it can to generate revenue and to promote the conference when he said…

 

““I’ve picked up on the sense,” he said Tuesday, “ that some people find the Pac-10 may not be boxing at their appropriate weight, so to speak.”

 

The Pac-10 not only doesn’t box at its appropriate weight, but it also has lost its appetite to throw a punch .

 

Welcome to the West Coast, Larry. And welcome to “The Conference of Champions.” Now roll up your sleeves, and get ready to represent a conference that boasts everything but somebody with the conviction to champion it.”

 

Now that is well written John McGrath.  Very well written….

 

Now get to work Mr. Scott!

 

 

The Billy Gillispie saga at Kentucky came to an end yesterday and Gillispie’s firing should be a great lesson to athletic directors and university presidents everywhere, because Kentucky violated the primary tenet when hiring someone for a key position:

 

Key hires must always fit very closely with the values and culture of the company or organization.

 

Anyone that has spent any amount of time around Billy Gillispie or got to see his style of coaching when he was at UTEP or Texas A&M knew that Gillispie was a terrible fit at Kentucky.  In particular, the Lexington, Kentucky community has an inordinate amount of different strata’s of social status that the head basketball of UK would certainly have to embrace to some extent and deal with at a minimum.  Don’t get us wrong, Lexington is a great town with some great people, but it is a very unique place, really unlike any other university town in this country save Charlottesville, Virginia and that uniqueness must be recognized by anyone sitting in the most important position in the town, the head basketball coach for the Kentucky Wildcats.  No doubt, Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart will not make the same mistake twice and all ADs should keep uppermost in their mind when they are hiring people for key positions the following question:  How would this hire fit in at my university?  It’s not always easy to know a lot about someone in these days of coaching hires that often consider win/loss records, basic background and credit checks and an interview or two, but once a coaching candidate crosses the threshold of being qualified for the job, the MOST IMPORTANT THING is…

 

Does the candidate have the same values of the university?

Does the candidate have the save goals of the university?

Does the candidate understand and will embrace the culture of the university?

 

If the AD and other folks involved in hiring the coaching candidate with an affirmative to all of those questions, then that candidate must be scratched off the candidate list.

 

A coach that is hired that does have the same values, goals and understands and embraces the culture of the university will have a lot more running room from the administration and fan base and there is no better example of that then Rich Brooks.  Brooks struggled in his early years as the head football coach at Kentucky, but turned things around with the support of the university.  As we have written here in the past at Coaches Hot Seat, Rich Brooks is a rascal, but he is one of those enjoyable rascals that doesn’t take himself and the rest of the world too seriously.  Rich Brooks’ experience at Kentucky should be a great lesson to both current head coaches and assistant coaches moving up through the ranks towards head coaching jobs.  Being an ass, to alumni and fans, to the administration and even to the coach’s players is no way to go through life and if a coach hopes to build a strong program where he can coach at for a long time or move up to a bigger job that coach should make sure he builds strong relationships to all stakeholders in his program and that he also be a role model to the local community.  A head coach of any sport does himself no good by making enemies of anyone, but particularly of the people that make the hiring and firing decisions at his university and of the fan base that pays his salary. 

 

A head coach must recognize and understand the many different stakeholders that exist within and around every collegiate sports program and never be too far away nor alienate people that can help that head coach move his program forward in a positive way.  Sadly, too many coaches make enemies for no other reason than slights or criticisms that are really just part of the job of being a head coach.  It is very important that a coach’s ego not enter into the equation when dealing with the administration of his university or with the natural criticism that will arise from the fan base on the myriad of decisions that a coach has to make on an ongoing basis.  A head coach should consider criticism as not only part of the job, but sweet music to his ears because that means there are people out there that are passionate and give a damn about the program that the coach leads.  We should all be so lucky to be leading an organization that has thousands or hundreds of thousands and sometimes even millions of fans and followers.  Yes, we should all be so lucky.

 

The Bottom-Line:  Administrators need to make sure they hire coaches that fit the values, share the goals and understand and recognize the culture of the university.  Coaches need to completely understand that there are a lot of stakeholders in the sports program that he leads, including the people that hired and could fire him, the alumni and boosters, and the general fan base of the school.  All of these stakeholders are important to the success of the sports program the coach leads and they all should be given their due and recognized for their importance to the ultimate goals that the coach has for his program.

 

Sadly, Kentucky made a very bad hire in Billy Gillispie because he did not match the values, goals or culture at Kentucky and after getting hired Billy Gillispie showed to everyone that he did not give a rip about the stakeholders that have supported the UK basketball program for years and in fact paid Billy Gillispie’s salary.  What kind of arrogant ass doesn’t give a damn about the people that hired him and pay his salary?  Answer:  An arrogant ass that is now out of a job and may find himself out of coaching permanently if he does not figure out in a hurry that world does not revolve around Billy Gillispie. 

 

 

In our continuing comments here at Coaches Hot Seat on the policies being proposed by President Obama and his administration we address tonight health insurance.  Before we address health insurance, we must first say that Barack Obama took a very brave position yesterday to send more troops to Afghanistan and to finish the job of destroying the people that attacked us on 9/11, Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda.  It would have been very easy for a man in Barack Obama that campaigned on getting us out of a meaningless war in Iraq to expand the war in Afghanistan and in parts of Pakistan, but we believe that President Obama had no choice to move forward with plans to destroy Al Qaeda, to address the problems of the Taliban and to bring some stability to the region.  The line below in President Obama’s speech shows to us that he both understand the risks of inaction in Afghanistan/Pakistan and the real reasons that we must fully engage both our military and diplomatic efforts in that area of the world:

 

“So let me be clear: Al Qaeda and its allies — the terrorists who planned and supported the 9/11 attacks — are in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he said. “We have a clear and focused goal to disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future.”

 

The United States’ efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan will not be easy and it more than likely will get worse before it gets better, but we have no choice in this matter.  We must find and destroy Al Qaeda and we must make sure that Afghanistan and the Afghanistan/Pakistan border area does not become a region of the world that allows terrorists a place where they can exist or plan harmful actions against our country.  No, we really do not a have a choice in this matter, in engaging the Al Qaeda where they are at and to work to insure the stability of this region, and it is good to have a President in the White House that understand this very basic premise:

 

If you attack the United States of America we will hunt you down and remove you from the face of the Earth.

 

Yes, it is that simple.

 

Getting back to the topic at hand, health care and health insurance, President Obama made a statement at the White House a few weeks back, which we paraphrase:

 

“If we don’t do something about healthcare, it will bankrupt our country.”

 

A truer statement may have never been made in the White House.

 

The American people probably do not understand the very grim prospects that face our nation if we do not do something very soon to address the out of control costs associated with health care and we are only talking about Medicare and Medicaid, not the 40 or so million Americans that do not have health insurance or normal access to our health care system.  Yes, this is very simple, either we deal with health care costs and the large amount of Americans that do not have health insurance right now, or our country will be destroyed by health care.  Yes, it is that bad.

 

Let’s forget for a moment the skyrocketing costs of Medicare and Medicaid which must be brought under control by our government, and most certainly will be because there is no choice but to drive down costs in those two programs.  Yes, let’s assume that our government will make policy decisions in the very near future that will bring under control the costs of Medicare and Medicaid and turn our attention to the most contentious issue, namely that our country must find a way to bring all Americans into our health care system through the universal availability and requirement for health insurance for all of our citizens.  Yes, there is only one way that the extraordinary costs of our health care can be brought under control, and that is to get all Americans on board and as a full participant in our health system.  From what we can gather about the proposed Obama health care plan the US government would both create a standardized health care insurance plan that all Americans could purchase or at the very least would set up a minimum level of health insurance that private insurance companies would have to offer to all American regardless of pre-existing health conditions.  The government would subsidize in some way the purchase of either the government offered plan, which would compete along with private insurance plans in the marketplace, OR subsidize the purchase of private health insurance to Americans that could not afford to purchase health insurance.

 

From where we sit, something along the lines of the health care insurance plan offered by the Obama Administration must be adapted by our country because the current situation with so many people without access to our health care system because they do not have health care insurance cannot be allowed to continue.  We also believe that if we can the vast majority of Americans into some type of health insurance plan, the government working with doctors, hospitals, and health insurance companies will be able to leverage economies of scale and the innovation of the American people to first slow down and then get under control the out of control costs that are imbedded in our health care system.

 

If our government can craft a health insurance plan that would allow all Americans, regardless of pre-existing conditions, to purchase an affordable health insurance plan for themselves and their family then our country will have taken the first step towards reforming our entire health system for the better.  If our country does not address at this time the Americans that do not have health insurance and the skyrocketing costs of health cfare in our country, there will come a time when in the not that far too distant future when we will be forced to deal with health care, and at that time what our country will have to do to reign in the cost of health care will be very painful indeed.

 

Let’s hope our government can begin to address the long-run costs of health care in America and the 40 plus million Americans that do not have access in a normal way to our health care system.  Yes, let’s hope so, because failure on this issue is simply not an option.

 

Next issue up:  Energy, which is an issue where we part dramatically from the Obama Administration and the left in our country…

 

For those of us that spend the majority of our time around or on concrete, even if we live in the stunning beauty of the Bay area, there really is nothing like leaving the City behind to return to the mountains, to the country and to “real” life.  To that point, John Denver’s…

 

I Guess He’d Rather Be in Colorado

 

 

 

Eagles and Horses

 

 

…and this appearance of John Denver with the sorely missed Johnny Carson….

 

 

 

Johnny’s Carson Final Show

 

 

 

 

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Happy Spring To You – Benjamin Franklin and the Rising Sun – NCAA Basketball Tournament = Legitimate National Title – How to Handle the Greedy Bastards on Wall Street – The Great Kenny Chesney

Happy First Day of Spring to everyone….After Fall, which signals the arrival of football season, Spring is the second best season because it promises renewal and opportunity.  Whoever spun up this world and Universe that we live in, we all must be thankful that we have our four seasons, because there is a certain rhythm and timing to how the seasons arrive and leave that is just right for us humans.  The arrival of Spring brings forth many emotions and memories, and with all the hyperventilating and mismanagement in our nation’s Capitol these days, for many of us at Coaches Hot Seat Spring brings to mind the following story of Benjamin Franklin and the signing of our US Constitution:

 

“Franklin believed, as did many of the delegates, that the newly crafted Constitution designed to replace the Articles of Confederation gave the federal government too much power, and he fought hard to shape it differently. Many of the delegates relied upon Franklin’s aged wisdom and held back their own support because of his concerns. But a few months before the final passage of the document, Franklin made one of his last political contributions to the new nation and threw his full support behind its passage.

 

“… I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; … Thus I consent Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best. … On the whole, Sir, I can not help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to it, would with me, on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument.”

 

Franklin himself did not deliver the speech but rather asked a colleague, James Wilson, to read it for him. His age prohibited him from standing very long. He was too feeble to even walk in and out of the hall each day. Instead he had prisoners carry him into the Great Hall and prop him up in a chair. Most of his contributions were written by him and delivered by another. But when the man who had seen the Revolution from beginning to end gave approval for the great document, it signaled a new era, and the beginning of a remarkable new nation.

The Constitution was eventually adopted by the delegation, and as Franklin sat watching each member sign their name on the nation’s new Constitution, he remarked to one of his colleagues that during the debates he often noticed the painting on the back of the Convention Presidents chair, where George Washington presided. It was the painting of half a sun. Franklin told his colleague that he had wondered if the sun was rising or setting, and now he was certain it was rising.

 

Franklin’s last political role was as President of the Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. He was one of several of the Founding Fathers that fought against the practice throughout the debates believing slavery contradicted the principles of individual liberty the nation was founded upon. But it was one political battle they were unable to win. Still, Franklin never gave up and even submitted resolutions abolishing slavery to the new government in his last two years of life. He died April 17th, 1790.

As Franklin left Independence Hall after signing the United States Constitution, a young citizen inquired: “What kind of government did you give us? A monarchy or a republic?” Franklin responded “A republic, if you can keep it!””

 

We cannot help but wonder where are the Benjamin Franklin’s of our Republic today?

 

Even with all the problems we are having with our economy, this time of the year is very special.  The baseball teams are doing their thing at spring training, college football teams have gotten the equipment and gear out for spring practice and one of the most beautiful things in the world is appearing in our newspapers and on the Internet each day….

 

 

 

The Bracket for the NCAA Basketball Tournament!  Man, that NCAA Tournament Bracket is a beautiful thing to behold because that bracket exemplifies everything that is right just about America.  Americans settle their championships on the field of play, or on the court in the case of basketball and there is nothing like college basketball players giving it all during the regular season and during their conference tournaments to get what is without a doubt much, much more than just “March Madness.”  Yes, the NCAA Basketball Tournament is a thing of beauty, of great challenge that we all get to follow with great gusto and that inevitably involves exhilarating wins and devastating losses.  Yes, that is how things are settled in America…except of course for college football which is run by the biggest bunch of weasels, greedy weasels actually, that have dreamed up a system in the BCS that is a disgrace to the United States of America.  OK, these Bastards on Wall Street are worse than the BCS Boys, but no by much!

 

What great fun it was to watch all those games yesterday between trying to get some work done and is there anything better than hearing Dick Enberg call a college basketball game as he did between VCU and UCLA?  A lot of people don’t know it, but Dick Enberg was the play-by-play announcer for most of the UCLA basketball team’s NCAA titles in the 1960s and 70s during John Wooden’s great run in Westwood and Enberg is one of this country’s great treasures.  Yes, it is time to crank up the televisions, get those chicken wings, fries, blue cheese dressing and someone get us a cold beer, would you please?  Sit back and relax and….

 

HAIL, ALL HAIL to the

 

NCAA Basketball Tournament, for it is GREATNESS

 

Yes, this is going to be great fun…

 

Please forgive us for leaving college sports, but since a few of us have worked with these Wall Street Boys in the past, we have to get the following off our chest.  If you don’t care about the Wall Street Boys destroying our economy by their actions or if you can’t stand profanity, STOP READING NOW!

 

Moving away from college sports and to the main event of the last few days, the AIG bailout and the bonuses to people at AIG that probably deserve to be arrested, this AIG mess is just one piece of what has become “Bailout Nation,” where anyone with enough influence and power in Washington D.C. can get their hands on the American taxpayers money without much work at all.  There is really so much that can be said about what has gone on during the past decade or so on Wall Street, but since a few of us here at Coaches Hot Seat have worked in finance in New York and had a chance to see these Wall Street Boys up close and personal on a regular basis, we can only say that yes, we could trust one of these Greedy Wall Street Bastards but only if…

 

He was standing in front of us, away from his computer and phone and he had his hands over his head.  Yes, at that moment and only as long as his hands were up, we would trust these Bastards on Wall Street.  Yes, Gordon Gekko, the character played by Michael Douglas is a cartoon character because he combines a lot of different personalities that one would see on Wall Street, but generally his character rings true for many of these Greedy Bastards on Wall Street:

 

 

 

Of course, Wall Street plays a very important role in the life of our modern nation state and ideally “The Street” would be a place that would be filled by smart bankers, traders and brokers that were as interested in serving their clients as best as possible which would thus serve the American people as well, but alas, the vast majority of these Greedy Wall Street Bastards only care about making money.  Oh, there a few Wall Street executives that we might let watch our dog, if we had a video camera that was watching them during the entire time, so yes I suppose you could say that some of these Wall Street Bastards could be trusted, but only under strict conditions….

 

Ronald Reagan had a statement that he used when he started making deals on the nuclear arms deals with the Soviets….

 

“Trust but Verify”

 

That is the way you have to be with these Wall Street Bastards.  You can Trust them, but only if you Verify ever damn move they make.  The problems that we are currently experiencing in our financial system go right back to the fact that the last Administration didn’t Verify anything that these Greedy Wall Street Bastards were doing and when you let Greedy Bastards do whatever they want they will destroy the entire Republic and world if they think they can turn a dollar while doing it…  Yes, that is the problem, these Greedy Wall Street Bastards really only have one master that they serve, the almighty $.  That is their only concern, and thus if a company like AIG can make billions of dollars selling derivative contracts that they have no chance of ever paying off on if the market moves against them….those Greedy Bastards at AIG will sell those derivative contracts that they cannot back-up with actual money.  Thus, the American taxpayer is now on the hook for $170 billion to AIG with another $100 billion or so to go out just to that company and another Trillion dollars or so just to clean up the mess that these Greedy Bastards on Wall Street have created.  How nice….

 

After these Greedy Bastards on Wall Street have royally fucked-up the world and brought our Republic to the edge of the abyss, they then turn to Washington D.C. and the American taxpayer to bail their sorry asses out.  How nice…

 

Luckily for these Greedy Bastards on Wall Street they have been greasing hands in Washington D.C. for decades and they have people in high places that are actually Greedy Bastards acting and talking like public officials and when those Greedy Bastards on Wall Street showed up in Washington D.C. last September “their” Greedy Bastards working for the government pretty much wrote the Wall Street Boys a blank check…  How nice.

 

That brings us to the current “outrageous” situation that our Republic finds itself in, where it is either bail out the Greedy Bastards on Wall Street or they will destroy the entire country.  That used to be called “blackmail” or “extortion,” but if you are wearing a Brooks Brothers suit and have been spending hundreds of millions of dollars for access to our elected representatives, the money just starts flowing, and this time in the hundreds of billions dollars with no end in sight.  Of course, the Dunces in Detroit have picked up on this very effective blackmail technique that has worked so well for the Greedy Bastards on Wall Street and the Dunces running the American car companies have also told the American taxpayer, “Either bail us out or we are out of business and their goes 3 million jobs.”  How nice…

 

All of that brings us to March 2009 and stories about giving bonuses to a group of morons at AIG that have probably not done a lick of real work in their lives, and again the CEO of AIG says that we have to pay these “bonuses” or it will destroy the entire financial system.  How nice…

 

So what can be done to get control of these Greedy Bastards on Wall Street you may ask?  Well, for starters you do not hire a guy at the US Treasury that is in bed with the Greedy Bastards on Wall Street.  It is our opinion the current US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is in bed with these Greedy Bastards on Wall Street as is the new commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission.  Tim Geithner was head of the New York Federal Reserve before move to the US Treasury position and he might as well been serving these Wall Street Bastards ice cream, because he sure wasn’t keeping an eye on these Greedy Bastards for the past few years.  No, Tim Geithner is not the man to end the madness, the greed, and the foolishness that is still going on to this day…  What the American Republic needs at the US Treasury and running the Securities and Exchange Commission are people that can put these Wall Street Bastards in their place and make sure they toe a line that they will never cross…

 

Instead of Tim Geithner, who in our opinion is a lapdog to the Wall Street Boys, the American Republic needs a bulldog that will actually work for the American people and chew ass when necessary, which when one considers the motives of these Greedy Wall Street Bastards, that ass chewing should go on practically a 24 hours a day…

 

Here is what a Treasury Secretary that was interested in serving the American people and not Wall Street would have said to these Greedy Bastards shortly after he took over his new job in February.  A legitimate US Treasury Secretary, mindful that these Greedy Bastards on Wall Street have almost bankrupted the country and destroyed our economic system with their actions, would have called in the CEOs of all the major banks, brokerages, hedge funds, and even a few CEOs from overseas banks that seem to be so heavily involved in our capital markets.  The Treasury Secretary would have gathered all of these CEOs, approximately 30 people, into a board room in lower-Manhattan and after the door was closed and it was only the new Treasury Secretary and the Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman in the room with the 30 Greedy Bastards, the new Treasury Secretary would say….

 

“Now listen up you fuckers.  I know what kind of horseshit Vegas-style casino you have been running for the past 8 years and I want to make myself very clear so that everyone has a very firm understanding of the position of the American people, who I represent.  The horseshit is over.  We, that is the American people, are no longer go to let you Greedy Bastards run a Vegas-style casino on Wall Street and pocket the billions of dollars in profits in the good times and then lay off the losses on the American taxpayer when your little casino blows up on your asses.  That’s right, its over boys, and you better either get with the program or you going to have a lot more to worry about than whether your drapes are the right color of if the steak at 21 is too well done, because if I hear about, if I even smell that anyone in this room starts trying to get cranked up another horseshit Vegas-casino I will drop down on you like Batman.  No, make that I will drop down on you like Batman, Superman, Spiderman and the whole damn Justice League right on your heads.

 

Now let me make this very clear.  I could call the press right now and perp walk every on of your sorry asses out the front door of this building and I am very confident that there is something going on in everyone’s books in this room that would put all of you away for a very long time.  Just imagine, the American people would be cheering wildly if I perp walked your asses out of this building, because right now the American people would like to see all of in jail.  Hell, I would like to see all of your sorry asses in jail, but….we are going to give you Greedy Bastards one more chance…  Call this your “Get our of jail card” and you are using that card right now. 

 

All of you Bastards, the Greedy Bastards in this room have destroyed trillions of dollars of wealth, the wealth of American people by your outrageous greed.  How the hell does that make you feel?  Was that extra house in the Hamptons, that jet that can fly your sorry asses to Aspen, that huge boat you have off the coast of France, worth destroying the American economy?  WAS IT WORTH IT?  Damn, the people in this room are about the sorriest group of Bastards I have every run across and damn I would like to take every one of you around the country to see the damage you have wrought in communities all over this nation.  Does all of the damage you have done to this make you feel good?  Do you get a hard on when you hear about foreclosures and families and old people getting thrown out in the streets?  DOES THAT GIVE YOU A LITTLE THRILL?  Damn you, damn each and every one of you to HELL.

 

Now let’s get this very straight.  The horseshit is over.  The casino is shut down.  All of you are going back to the fundamentals.  You are going to take deposits and make loans.  You are going to underwrite companies and bonds and make markets in securities, you will do trading and risk your money and if you’re bad investment decisions cause your institutions to fail….guess what?  Your institution will fail.  There will be no running to the American taxpayer to bail your sorry asses out because this is the last damn time you will ever get one red cent from the American people.  That spigot has been closed and it is closed for good.  Now you will be able to make a lot of money, but dammit if I hear about even one of you dreaming up some bullshit derivative contract so you can make an extra 1 million dollars on a trade or if the people in this room start creating investment products that have no utility except to try and skin someone out of a few dollars, you can be assured that the next thing that will happen is several FBI agents will be handcuffing your Greedy asses and perp walking your ass right out in front of the cameras.

 

I hope I have made myself clear. 

 

Oh yea, if a word of this meeting leaks to the press the Securities and Exchange Commissioner will make sure to send a dozen examiners to all of institutions and comb your books looking for any violations of US law.  If we find any violations, then I can only say two words…  “Perp Walk.”

 

I hope I have really made myself clear..  Oh yea, don’t fuck with me, or anyone from the US Treasury or SEC.  If someone from the Treasury calls you, call them back, and quick and show respect for our people, because we work for the American people.

 

I really hope I have made myself clear.”

 

The general tone of that meeting would be much like Alec Baldwin’s character in Glengarry Glen Ross in what should have been an Oscar winning performance….

 

 

 

You see, that is the only way that these Wall Street Bastards will understand that the US Treasury is serious about representing the American people in a way that will make sure the Greedy Bastards on Wall Street will not do the same damn thing all over again….

 

Does anyone really believe that the current US Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, could or even would want to deliver that kind of speech to these Greedy Wall Street Bastards?  Please, if Tim Geithner told a group of 10 year olds that he was going out for a couple of hours and that they should not take any ice cream out of the freezer, that freezer would be emptied of ice cream shortly after Geithner left the room.  That is not the kind of person the American People need at the US Treasury or Securities and Exchange Commission right now.  No we do not need people in those positions that are, OK, let’s be honest here..

 

Owned lock, stock, and barrel by the Greedy Bastards on Wall Street.  

 

So much more could be said on this subject, but with Wall Street and foreign banks collecting billions of dollars from the American People and many more hundreds of billions that they will want in the coming months, the Wall Street Boys still have the upper hand.  To understand the danger of large and wealthy financial interests having partial or total control of our Republic take a look at the following quotes from 3 great Americans:

 

“Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long time and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves.  I intend to rout you out, and by the grace of the Eternal God, will rout you out.”  Andrew Jackson

 

“Speculation is only a word covering the making of money out of the manipulation of prices, instead of supplying goods and services.”  Henry Ford

 

“Merchants have not country.  The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.”  Thomas Jefferson

 

How true Mrrs. Jackson, Ford and Jefferson.  How so very true….

 

We need to take back from our country from the large financial institutions that have actually grown so large that when they make stupid, moronic and foolish decisions it is not just their survival on the line, but the American Republic as well.  That cannot be allowed to continue, but as we here at Coaches Hot Seat look around we see very few people who have the guts or the desire to speak truth to power, with power in this case being the Greedy Bastards on Wall Street who we have no doubt would destroy our Republic and not give it a second thought.  Those Bastards must be brought under the control and regulation of the United States government, for if they are not they will do all of this over again, and if they lose enough money, they will be back in Washington D.C. to bail out their sorry asses again, and again, and again…

 

People can alibi for these Greedy Bastards on Wall Street if they like, but all one has to do is look around and see what the terrible mismanagement of their companies has wrought on our nation.  Bonuses for these morons at AIG?  If there was in justice in America, the Justice Department and the Congress would be launching wholesale investigations into everyone on Wall Street (and in Washington D.C.) and their actions in recent years.  Guess what?  When you own Washington D.C., you can almost destroy the Republic and still get someone from the US Treasury to insist that a US Senator put in a provision in a bill to pay bonuses to these morons at AIG.  That is the real problem, the Treasury is filled, all the way to the top, with people that are in collusion with these Greedy Bastards on Wall Street, and that is very bad news for our Republic.

 

We can only wonder how many billions or even trillions more these Greedy Bastards on Wall Street will loot from the US Treasury before they are done…  Clearly, there is no one in Washington D.C. that has neither the will nor the power to stop them, so on it goes…most importantly to the great detriment of our children and grandchildren that will have to pay the bill for these Greedy Bastards on Wall Street.

 

What can you say but, Damn you Greedy Bastards on Wall Street, Damn you to Hell.

 

With the second day of the NCAA Basketball Tournament set to tip-off later today all we can say is, “Would someone please get me a cold one?” 

 

Music to soothe the soul…

 

The Great Kenny Chesney

 

 

You Had Me From Hello

 

 

 

Me and You

 

 

 

Back Where I Came From

 

 

 

That’s Why I’m Here

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day – Bobby Bowden has 382 Wins..PERIOD! – The Adventures of Lane Kiffin – “Another Guinness Bar Keep” – Irish Music and the Beauty of Ireland

First, to everyone…

 

HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!

 

We are happy to see that FSU is appealing the NCAA’s decision to have FSU ‘vacate” wins when ineligible football players played in games a few years back.  FSU has made it very clear that it did not know that these FSU players were cheating with this online course and the NCAA has not produced any evidence that FSU knew these student-athletes were cheating and therefore it is OUTRAGEOUS that the NCAA would insist on taking these wins away from Bobby Bowden.  As for us here at Coaches Hot Seat, much like with the Oklahoma/Bob Stoops case a couple of years ago, we are not going to reduce Bobby Bowden’s total win number no matter what the NCAA comes back with on FSU’s appeal.

 

No matter what the NCAA says to FSU’s appeal to not “vacate” the wins involving Bobby Bowden, the official record at Coaches Hot Seat WILL BE:

 

Joe Paterno – 383 – 127 – 3   (.750)

 

Bobby Bowden – 382 – 123 – 4   (.754)

 

That’s the official record and that is not going to change at Coaches Hot Seat no matter what the stuffed shirts in Indianapolis end up saying.  Of course, if the NCAA would like to push the limits on FSU being forced to “vacate” wins for allowing student-athletes to participate in games even though they did not even know that were cheating in a course, we can certainly go further down that road if the NCAA likes, but that is not a road that we would recommend the NCAA look into…especially since so many people at the NCAA used to work at colleges and universities in administrative positions where they had direct authority over things that they should have known about…No, that is a very ugly road the NCAA needs to not only not go down, nor even look down if they are smart…

 

Memo to the NCAA:  You punished FSU plenty with the other penalties and scholarship limitations, but this decision to “vacate” wins is BEYOND THE PALE and SHAMEFUL.  Of course, it matters little to us what you say on this “vacate” wins at FSU issue, because Bobby Bowden has 382 wins….PERIOD!

 

 

We could say that we have been surprised about the adventures of Lane Kiffin at Tennessee, but as we said when Kiffin was hired last fall and continue to believe today, Kiffin is so far over his head and so completely unqualified for the Tennessee head coaching job, we have not been surprised at all with his bumbling moves.  There is so much that could be said about Lane Kiffin’s short stay with the Raiders, but one has to factor in that not only was Kiffin completely underprepared to take over the head coaching job at Oakland, but Kiffin was working for a dysfunctional organization that is run by a fruitcake.  That fruitcake here is of course Al Davis, and there are literally dozens of stories that we could pass along in this blog that have been told to us by people that got to witness the entire Al Davis – Lane Kiffin debacle close up, but passing along rumor and second-hand stories is not what Coaches Hot Seat is about.

 

Coaches Hot Seat is about opinion, and it is our opinion that Lane Kiffin was a terrible hire by the Oakland Raiders (Al Davis has been looking for the Second Coming of John Madden for years and he has made some terrible hires hunting his “Second Madden” with Lane Kiffin being a prime example) and he is a terrible hire for the Tennessee Volunteers.  Having observed Kiffin up close in several different situations when he was on Pete Carroll’s staff at USC and when he was the head coach of the Oakland Raiders it is our opinion that Lane Kiffin is a very immature person and that immaturity has shown itself in spades with all of these stories Kiffin has told and the bluster and cockiness he has acted with since being hired by the Vols.  Immaturity by itself is not a crime and all of us were certainly young at one time, but it is stunning to us that the University of Tennessee would hire and turn their football program over to a man that is so immature and unprepared to take over a job like Tennessee.  On top of Kiffin’s immaturity, it is our opinion that Lane is one of these folks as Barry Switzer has said…

 

“Was born on Third Base and thinks he hit a Triple.”

 

A very interesting question is what Lane Kiffin would be doing right now if his last name was not Kiffin, because no doubt Kiffin had advanced in his career so quickly because of his last name.  There just can be no disputing that fact, because how could the former co-offensive coordinator at USC (and we use co-offensive coordinator loosely) and a guy that failed miserably as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders possibly be hired as the head coach at one of the top schools in the SEC, if he did not have a well known Papa?  Good question… 

 

This is very simple.  Lane Kiffin is the head coach at the University of Tennessee because his last name is KIFFIN.  There is no other logical reason why Kiffin would have ever been considered to replace a coach in Phil Fulmer that put up a .745 winning percentage.  It just makes no sense that anyone using his head would taken such a big gamble in hiring a guy that has not proven one thing during his college career that he could possibly handle something like the head coaching job at Tennessee and for the life of us we cannot understand what UT athletic director Mike Hamilton was thinking.  From where we sat Tennessee should have went in either one of two ways with a new coach.

 

1.  Hire a very experienced head coach that was ready to take on the challenge of the SEC as the head coach at Tennessee

 

2.  Hire a current coordinator that has experience coaching in the SEC and recruiting in the southern United States and is also ready to take on the challenge that is Tennessee football.

 

Instead of one of those two things, Tennessee hired a coach in Lane Kiffin that has spent all but two years of his adult life coaching and attending school in the state of California.  In Kiffin’s one head coaching job he was 5-15 with the Oakland Raiders and since most of us here at Coaches Hot Seat saw many if not all of the Raiders’ games when Kiffin was the head coach, we can confidently say that it looked like Kiffin didn’t have a clue to what he was doing in Oakland.  What exactly Mike Hamilton and the folks at Tennessee saw in Lane Kiffin’s background or what Kiffin told them during his interviews, besides outright bullshit that is, we cannot fathom, but then again we are not the one’s that will have to deal with the consequences with handing one of the most storied football programs in the game over to what is nothing less than a rank amateur, and an immature rank amateur to boot.

 

Just for laughs, we had everyone at Coaches Hot Seat predict how long Kiffin will last at Tennessee and what will be his overall record be with the Vols.  Here is the average of what over 50 people here at Coaches Hot Seat believe Lane Kiffin will end up doing with the Vols:

 

Coaches Hot Seat Prediction on Lane Kiffin at Tennessee:

 

Seasons Coached:  Fired after the sixth game of his third season at Tennessee

 

Overall Record:  13 – 17

 

Normally, we would not predict that Lane Kiffin would be fired in the middle of his third season at Tennessee, but we believe that if things do turn ugly at UT, that Kiffin will pop off at the Vols’ fans and that will be the beginning of the end for Kiffin.  Probably one of Kiffin’s biggest weaknesses is that he tends to run his mouth on things he knows nothing about and Kiffin is going to find out in the upcoming season that the running of his mouth in the last few months will end up costing his team a lot of wins because there will be some very motivated head coaches and players facing off with Kiffin this season that will be hunger to lay a whipping on the boy….and some whippings the boy will get!

 

As for Lane Kiffin hiring his Papa Monte to be his defensive coordinator, how is that exactly supposed to work?  Will Monte Kiffin, one of the most storied defensive coaches in the history of the NFL really take orders from his son, a guy that Monte has to know is not qualified to be the head coach at the University of Tennessee?  Well, at least we know that Lane was not confident enough to go out and hire a defensive coordinator that he could have a normal head coach – assistant coach relationship with, but instead hired his Daddy.  That about says it all about Lane Kiffin, doesn’t it?

 

We certainly wish Lane Kiffin and his coaching staff a lot of Luck of the Irish, because they are going to need it…especially if Kiffin keeps popping off on every thought that wanders into his brain…

 

Yes, this is St. Patrick’s Day which here at Coaches Hot Seat means that we will be leaving work early today to commence an Irish Pub Crawl in the great city of San Francisco…..This should be a very Green and very Fun day in the City by the Bay…

 

The Irish are not only a group of people that are a lot of fun to have a drink with, they also played a very important role in preserving Western Civilization after the Fall of the Roman Empire as Thomas Cahill argues in terrific book, How the Irish Saved Civilization.  Here is a summary of Mr. Cahill’s book from Wikipedia:

 

“Cahill argues a case for the Irish people’s critical role in preserving Western Civilization from utter destruction by the Germanic tribes (Visigoths, Huns, Franks, Angles, Saxons, Ostrogoths, etc.). The book retells the story from the collapse of the Roman Empire and the pivotal role played by members of the clergy at the time. A particular focus is placed upon Saint Patrick and retells his early struggles through slavery; basically retelling portions of The Confession of Saint Patrick. Early parts of the book examine Ireland before Patrick and the role of Saint Augustine of Hippo. Particular focus is placed upon Saint Columba and the monks he trained and the monasteries he set up in the Hiberno-Scottish mission. In a sense, these holy men salvaged everything possible from the destruction of the Roman Empire.”

 

How the Irish Saved Civilization is a terrific read and since they saved Western Civilization that gives us another idea for a toast later today….

 

“Here’s to the Irish.  Thanks Boys!”  Gulp – Gulp  “Bar-keep, another Guinness please my good man.”

 

The beautiful music and scenery of Ireland…

 

 

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1999 Trip to Eugene for Oregon – USC Game – Mike Bellotti Moving Up, Chip Kelly Moving In and Lots to Wonder About – BCS Nonsense and the NCAA Basketball Tournament – Bill Gates Sr. and “Showing Up For Life” – Iran & Afghanistan Under President Obama and Unfinished Business – Fleetwood Mac

Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti’s decision this past week to move up to the AD position and hand the Oregon football program over to his offensive coordinator Chip Kelly brought back a lot of memories for several of here at Coaches Hot Seat of trips to see the Ducks play at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon.  For those college football fans that have not made the trip to Eugene during the fall to see Oregon play at Autzen have certainly missed a lot, because the Oregon fans and gameday in Eugene make for one of the great settings in the game of college football.

 

One particular trip stands out and that was a late September (always go to see Oregon play before October if possible to try to avoid the cold weather and rain that seems to show up every football season once the leaves start falling) 1999 when a few of us drove up I-5 to Eugene from San Francisco for some golf on Friday and a Saturday night game at Autzen against the USC Trojans which was of course in the Pre-PC years (Pre-Pete Carroll).  Of course, Pete Carroll arrived at USC in 2001 and after taking over for the hapless Paul Hackett (who was HC of the Trojans for that September ’99 game in Autzen against the Ducks) and after putting up a 6-6 record in ’01, Carroll has reeled off 82 wins in 7 seasons.  (Yes, that is correct, Pete Carroll has won 82 games in the last 7 seasons, putting up an 82-9 record during that time!  Wow!).

 

We left San Francisco early on a Friday before sunup so we could get in 18 holes of golf and still arrive in Eugene to catch some of the nightlife on Friday night with our crazy Oregon Duck friends.  After a beautiful ride up I-5 past Mt. Shasta (14,179 ft.)…

 

 

 

and a round of golf in Southern Oregon we arrived in Eugene at dusk and quickly checked into our hotel in the downtown area.  If traveling to Eugene for an Oregon football game always try to stay downtown so you can both enjoy the nightlife and you will also be able to wake up on Saturday and take a beautiful walk across the Willamette River to Autzen Stadium (Our preferred hotels are the Residence Inn Eugene or the Hilton Eugene or a very nice hotel just a short drive from the stadium is the Valley River Inn).  Well, on this particular college football weekend even with a weakened USC Trojans football program in town to play the Ducks, the town was electric and with a late afternoon/early evening kickoff slated for Saturday we had some great times that Friday partying late into the night with both the Duck and Trojans fans. 

 

After sleeping in late, watching college football and having room service send up some lunch we were raring to go so we made the short 20 minute walk across the Willamette River to meet up with our Oregon tailgating buddies who had parked their large RV only steps from Autzen stadium.  One of the great things about college football is that electric feeling (That feeling can be felt at this very moment while writing this blog) one gets while walking towards a college football game and the anticipation and joy that is in the air as one ponders the idea of the football game that is about to be played.  Arriving at the RV that feeling is amplified when very quickly a cold draft beer out of a keg is put into one’s hand and a plate of ribs with potato salad is offered.  Yes, that is a damn good feeling. 

 

Arriving at a college football stadium at 2PM with a 7PM kickoff leaves plenty of time for the rehashing of past Pac-10 football games and for plenty of lies about golf shots and fish that just got away and most of all it leaves plenty of times for laughs.  Yes, that is something that is uniquely American during the tailgating before a college football game, the laughter, the joy, the happiness that comes from being with friends, which is tied to the anticipation of the coming football game.  For those that don’t know it, the happiness that one feels before college football games is uniquely American and it certainly refreshes the spirit, and even the soul, that very few other things on this planet can do on the same level…  Yes, that is an uniquely American feeling…

 

On that particular Saturday in late September 1999 Mike Bellotti’s Oregon football team was 2-1 after an opening season loss to Michigan State and USC under Paul Hackett was 2-0 with Carson Palmer under center (Yes, that Carson Palmer).  The laughs, jokes, and the tossing of the football continued into the early evening until we all filed into Autzen Stadium just before kickoff and again there is that feeling, that electric feeling that runs up and down one’s spine as you see the crowd in their seats and the two teams down on the field loosening up for the game.  (Yes, there is that feeling again!).  We got to our seats about 15 rows up from the field behind the Oregon bench on about the 40 yard line.  Damn, as one looked across the field at Autzen Stadium it is very easy to remember now that even then Oregon had some unique uniforms and staring across the field one could see the USC Trojans in their traditional scarlet and gold, a uniform that the entire country has become reacquainted with in the past few years. 

 

To make a long story short, that night Oregon beat USC 33-30 in a triple-overtime thriller that had all of us on the edge of our seats and included one of the great lines ever delivered at a college football stadium.  With about half the fourth quarter left to play and it looking like the Ducks were going to get beat by USC several Oregon fans near where we were sitting started to head for the aisle towards the exit and that is when one of our Duck buddies stood up during a quite moment in the game and yelled at the fans that were leaving…

 

“Hey, these guys aren’t even Oregon fans and they’re not leaving!”

 

That got a big cheer from the section we were sitting in as we took a few bows and a few of the Oregon fans that were leaving actually went back to their seats, and those were very lucky fans as they got to see Oregon come back, the 3 overtimes and the conclusion to a great football game.  As we filed out of Autzen Stadium that night to what can be called nothing but unadulterated joy (there is that feeling again) it was not the chill of the evening nor the beauty of the stars that were overhead that is well-remembered, but rather the laughter of us and our friends in the shadow of the lights of Autzen Stadium as we partied late into the night.  Yes, we have plenty of cold beer and no we are not going anywhere soon!

 

One great thing about Eugene, Oregon…..You can sleep in and get a late breakfast and be on I-5 heading south and still be back in the SF Bay area by 8 PM if the CHP (California Highway Patrol) is not being too frisky along the way!  Even if one lives in Marin County north of San Francisco a must after a long Sunday drive from Oregon to the Bay is to go ahead and cross the lighted Golden Gate Bridge into the City for dinner at the Balboa Café that always includes a cold beer, a great hamburger and some strong coffee with dessert.  As one sits in the Balboa Café in the Marina District of San Francisco after a great weekend of golf and college football and looks around across the table at towards good friends and then the room and hears what is a subdued crowd to what was there on Saturday night there is that quiet satisfaction that life cannot possibly get better than this.  No, it really cannot….  A drive back across the Golden Gate Bridge lit-up in all its glory with great city of San Francisco to one’s back and our families just ahead in Marin create a perfect end to the perfect weekend, especially if you have the windows down, the sunroof open and Journey blasting in the CD player! 

 

Journey

 

 

 

All of these memories of that trip to Eugene and many others came flooding back this week with Mike Bellotti’s move to the AD position at Oregon and college football fans out there everywhere should know that Mike Bellotti is one of those very good football guys in the game of college football that in our eyes was looking a little haggard and rundown in recent years.  No doubt, the arrival of Pete Carroll in south-central Los Angeles and the rise of the USC Trojans has aged Bellotti, and that 1999 game mentioned earlier was right in the middle of a 4 year run from 1998-2001 that included two 10+ winning seasons and two Pac-10 conference titles.  Most of that success ended though in 2002 with Pete Carroll’s arrival on the scene and although the Ducks would win 10 games in ’05 and 10 games last season under Bellotti, there would be no more conference titles and that certainly has to be a big disappointment to Mike as he moves to a new phase of his career.

 

Getting back to Mike Bellotti moving to the AD position at Oregon and Chip Kelly moving up to the head coaching position with the Ducks, we cannot but wonder if the people at Oregon realize what they have got themselves into.  Yes, it does look to us that Kelly has many of the attributes to be a successful head coach at the I-A level, but let’s not forget that only 3 years ago Kelly was the offensive coordinator at New Hampshire and now he is leading one of the top football programs in the Pac-10.  Yes, that is a huge jump, both in job status, but also is a jump over dozens of qualified assistant and head coaches in the game of college football that must be now wondering how they can jump from an OC position with a I-AA team and 3 years later be the head coach in the Pac-10.  Yes, that is a BIG jump.

 

Mike Bellotti must realize as he moves into the AD job at Oregon that his relationship with Chip Kelly is going to change in a very fundamental way and that there has to be a decent chance that in the next few years that Bellotti might just very well have to fire the guy that he both brought to Oregon and who he recommended to take over for him as the head coach of the Ducks.  Vince Dooley at Georgia went through a similar transition when Ray Goff was elevated to the head coaching job with the Bulldogs as Dooley continued on as full-time AD.  Dooley had to fire Goff after 7 years of mediocre football (46-34-1  .568) and we are quite sure that the Oregon fans will not tolerate Kelly to have much if any of a drop-off from what has been only a little better than average play in the past 5 years (41-21  .661 and no conference titles) at Oregon.  Chip Kelly will not have much of a honeymoon because he has been on-site and deeply involved with Oregon football program in the past two years and the Duck fans are hungry to both challenge USC for Pac-10 titles and at worst to solidify the title of “Second Best team in the Conference.”  If Chip Kelly cannot move Oregon forward then Mike Bellotti is going to find himself in a very uncomfortable position and as long as Chris Peterson keeps rolling along at Boise State (as we expect Peterson to do.  We also have a terrific matchup this fall as Oregon visits Boise and the blue field on September 5.  Yes that will be a very big game for Kelly!) the possibility that a coach like Peterson could be hired at Oregon and do a better job.  Since Peterson coached under Bellotti at Oregon and was passed over for a guy in Kelly that has much less experience, especially head coaching experience, Oregon fans will not wait around forever for Kelly to rev up the Duck football machine again.

 

As for the legacy of Mike Bellotti, there is no doubt in our minds that Mike elevated Oregon football to a level it had never seen before but that in the end Mike Bellotti will be defined by what he was not able to do once Pete Carroll arrived at USC in 2001.  We are confident that if the USC football program had stayed down that Bellotti would have won a couple more Pac-10 titles in the past 7 years, but as Sergeant Joe Friday used to say, “Just the facts ma’am.”  The facts are that to a great extent Pete Carroll and the Trojans snuffed out Oregon and several other Pac-10 football programs in the past 7 years…  Yes, this has been a mighty great 7 years for the USC Trojans…

 

Fight On!

 

 

 

Sorry about that Duck fans, but “The Facts are the Facts.”

 

Getting back to Oregon and the future for Chip Kelly, if Kelly can at least share one Pac-10 conference title and average at least 8 wins over the next 4 years he will have a chance to stay at Oregon for awhile because the expectations in Eugene are not the same as they are at USC, UCLA or Washington.  If on the other hand, if Kelly has a .500 or losing season in the next 4 years and it looks like the football program is not moving forwards, Mike Bellotti is going to find himself in a very uncomfortable position in that he will have to evaluate Kelly as an employee and not as a former member of his staff and a friend.  Big difference between the two and Mike Bellotti may very well learn that difference in spades in the coming years.

 

Good Luck to you Mike Bellotti, and to you Chip Kelly.

 

 

The NCAA Basketball Tournament and March Madness are always great fun around Coaches Hot Seat as we get to watch a lot of college basketball games in the postseason that ACTUALLY MEAN SOMETHING!  Following a great regular season that included what must have been around 100 terrific matchups that we got to see on TV and in person, the NCAA does something that college football will never be able to do with the bogus BCS:

 

CROWN A LEGITIMATE NATIONAL CHAMPION BY THE PLAY OF TEAMS ON THE FIELD OF PLAY.

 

What a novel idea.  All of us grew up playing sports that use the regular season to determine the participants in a POSTSEASON PLAYOFF (As our children do now) and every sport in collegiate athletics determines their CHAMPION with a postseason tournament or competition where the teams face off on the field of play or court, except of course for college football.  It is patently UN-AMERICAN for anyone that is an AMERCIAN citizen to defend the bogus BCS, and there is just no getting around that fact.  If you are for the BCS, you are the opposite of what America stands for, which is competition where teams face each other in the arena to determine who is the best.  Anyone that could possibly argue that point is either profiting from the current bogus BCS or they are incredibly ignorant.  For all of these folks in the media that defend the BCS, we certainly do not want to see you talking up the NCAA Basketball Tournament, because you should be promoting a BCS for college basketball if you actually had any integrity or common sense.  No, that will not happen because anyone proposing a bogus BCS format to replace what is the greatest postseason tournament in any sport on any level in United States would be laughed out of the country.

 

How sad it was to see Mike Slive (the SEC commissioner and head of the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee), who is a genuinely good man, talk up the process that the committee went through to pick the teams that are playing in the tournament.  Mike Slive is smart enough to know that he is an incredible hypocrite with his stance on the BCS and sadly all of his good work elsewhere will be for naught because he and the rest of the BCS buddies that have instituted and operated what is in our opinion an illegal cartel that breaks US law.  In 2050 when people look back at the period of college football between 1998 – 2010, they will read about the “BCS era” when a group of men hijacked the game of college football to both protect and promote their own very selfish interests.  Yes, at its core, the BCS is a very selfish organization that is run by men that do not give two rips about the teams that are “jobbed” every year by the BCS, which by its very nature treats one set of teams with certain conferences in a preferred way over teams in the other conferences.  That is on its face as UN-AMERICAN as something can get and we can all be thankful that these BCS bastards were not around before the NCAA Basketball Tournament was created, because they would have screwed that up as well, all in the name of $$$$$$$.  Shameful, but these are very shameful people and if they have broken US law, as we believe they have by colluding to treat the teams in the “BCS” conferences in a preferential way, we only hope the BCS Boys are prepared for what awaits them.  We also hope the BCS Boys have set aside enough capital reserves (lots of $$$$$$$$) to pay for the lawsuits that will surely come in the future to “disgorge” the money that was collected by the “BCS” conferences while they have been running an illegal cartel that in our opinion violates US law.

 

Yes, we will have a playoff in college football and there will not be a damn thing that the BCS Boys will be able to do to stop that from happening…  Yes, it will be great fun to watch the BCS Boys grasping for air as the little kingdom they have built up is destroyed and replaced with a system to determine a champion in college football that actually embodies the principles of the United States of America.  Until then BCS Boys, pay very close attention over the next few weeks and see what a real postseason supposed to look like and operate..   Yes, all of you BCS Boys are hypocrites and you should be ashamed for the way you have treated so many of the student-athletes in our country, which for you seem to be nothing more than second-class citizens if they are not part of the “elite” conferences.  Shameful, but when you meet these BCS Boys in person, it is not surprising, not surprising at all….

 

Lastly, at Coaches Hot Seat Central college football, basketball and other sports are no where near all that is on our minds or up for debate for that matter, as should be the case for all Americans.  We recently linked a story in the Miscellaneous News section titled Greed and Need where Timothy Egan who wrote about speaking with the father of Bill Gates, Bill Gates, Sr..  A few of us here at Coaches Hot Seat lived in Seattle during the dot-com bubble in the late 1990s and we would from time to time run in Mr. Gates Sr. at various events around town or at the BurgerMaster near the University of Washington.  What first must be said is that Mr. Gates Sr. is one of the greatest guys one could ever hope to meet and we were excited to read in this article that he has written a book that is about to be published “Showing Up for Life.”  That should be a great read and we could not agree more than with what Mr. Gates, Sr. says when he quotes Gunther Grass:

 

“The first job of a citizen is to keep your mouth open.”

 

Yes, we could not agree more with that sentiment and thus we will comment from time to time here in this blog on the current policies that are being put forward by President Obama and his Administration.  There are many things we agree with President Obama on, some things we don’t agree with him on but feel must be done in this extraordinary time, and some things we completely disagree on and feel cannot be allowed to become the law of the land.

 

Today’s comment is on President’s Obama wind-down of the war in Iraq by the removal of most US combat forces from that country and the addition of some military forces to Afghanistan.

 

Anyone that is a regular reader of this blog knows that some of us here at Coaches Hot Seat were involved in the first Gulf War with Iraq in 1991 and we made our views on both that war, why we believe we were struck on 9/11, and the latest war with Iraq in a post last September 11 in this blog with:  God Bless to all that lost loved one’s on 9/11 – “To reap the whirlwind.”

 

To sum up that post, all of us believe that the last Iraqi war commenced by George W. Bush was not only asinine but also an incredible waste of US resources (Almost $1 Trillion dollars now) and Treasure (the deaths and injuries of thousands of American soldiers).  To completely understand what an incredibly stupid move it was for the US to invade Iraq, read Thomas E. Ricks great book on the Iraqi War, Fiasco, and his terrific follow-up to that book on the “2007 surge” The Gamble.  It is our firm conviction that the Bush administration came to power hoping to find a way to get the US into war with Iraq and that the 9/11 attack was merely the stalking horse that was used to gin up the American people to believe that Saddam Hussein poised a threat to the U.S..  Nothing could have been farther from the truth.  Yes, Hussein was a hell of a problem for some of the Iraqi people and the Israelis would tell you he was a threat to their country, but Hussein was nothing more than a gnat to a country like the US.  Just look to how US forces obliterated the Iraqi Army in 3 days in 1991 during Operation Desert Storm to see how quickly we could dispatch any move that Hussein would have made on us or our allies. 

 

Yes, the latest Iraq War was unbelievably asinine, because try to imagine for a moment that if December 1941 if President Franklin Roosevelt had gone to the Congress and said, “December 7, 1941.  A day which will live in infamy….. Now, Japan attacked us, so we will attack CHINA!”  On 9/11 a very small group calling themselves Al Qaeda attacked the United States and almost immediately as detailed in several books written by people on the scene in the White House in the days after 9/11, Bush and his gang turned and started putting together an attack on Iraq.  Yes, we overthrew the Taliban in Afghanistan and chased Al Qaeda up into the mountains along the Pakistan, Afghanistan border, but now here we are heading towards 8 years after the 9/11 attacks and Osama bin Laden and his top deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are still on the loose.  How is it that the United States can attack and destroy the huge powers of Germany and Japan in four years and we cannot fully obliterate the Al Qaeda and its leadership going on 8 years now?  That is a damn good question and if you read the book Jawbreaker by Gary Berntsen, who was a key CIA field commander in Afghanistan and was at Tora Bora in the fall of 2001 when we had Osama bin Laden surrounded and still let him get away  you will start asking questions that no one really wants to answer.  Yes, that is a damn good question of why Osama bin Laden and al-Zawahiri are still on the loose.  Who would benefit from bin Laden being on the loose, especially if you wanted to gin up support for an asinine war against a country that did not attack us?  Answer that question, and you have the answers to many questions…

 

Which takes us back to President’s Obama decision to draw down most of the troops in Iraq over the next 20 months or so and to implement additional US military forces into Afghanistan.

 

We agree completely with Obama’s move to draw down our troops in Iraq and we believe it is time to see if the Iraqi government can sink or swim on its own.  If once we take out most of our combat troops and the Iraqi government collapses then we will be right back where we were with Hussein with a strongman in charge of Iraq and the US sitting on the outside, and flying over, making sure that Iraq doesn’t harass their neighbors or our allies or most importantly destabilize the Persian Gulf region.  We believe that cannot get our troops out of Iraq a moment too soon, because we are frankly tired of spending billions of dollars in Iraq when we have crumbling schools, roads and infrastructure here in the United States.  Not only is it outrageous that the United States has spent upwards to a trillion dollars in the country of Iraq, it is almost criminal in our minds because there are so many unmet needs here at home.  It sure seems like our deteriorating schools and dozens of other ills that were facing our nation in 2003 meant very little to the last occupant of the White House, because he put us into a war that not only should we have never fought, it was against a country that did not attack nor threaten the US and that fact by itself is in direct opposition to the things our country has always stood for.

 

Now that this disastrous Iraqi War is going to be put behind us, the focus again turns to Afghanistan and our unfinished business in that country.  You see we have this odd little notion that when someone attacks the United States of America that person and his associates must pay a very heavy price for that move against our country, as Japan and Germany did in World War II, and what should be uppermost on Obama’s mind in addition to establishing some form of long-term stability in Afghanistan, is finding and killing Osama bin Laden and his close associates.  Yes, we said killing Osama bin Laden, because we hope that if and when US forces find bin Laden that they kill that sorry bastard and not try to bring that sorry son of a bitch out alive to be tried in some kind of trial.  Our country does not need to try bin Laden because he has already admitted on videotape to planning and orchestrating the 9/11 attacks and if he is found, he must be killed, preferable in a very brutal way.  He must be killed the same way his operatives attacked the US on 9/11, because unfortunately there are some people on this planet that want to do nothing but terrorize the planet, and people like that must be dealt with in a very clear and lethal manner.  Of course, we are very confident that President Obama is not as ignorant as George W. Bush when Bush so stupidly said that he wanted bin Laden “Dead or Alive.”  You see George, a President does not talk like that, because you are the head of state of the most powerful country on the Earth, and even though you may think that you wanted bin Laden “Dead or Alive,” you certainly don’t say it.  That is common sense 101, but evidently they were not teaching common sense at Yale or Harvard when Bush was attending school there.  As just average American citizens we can say it though…

 

“We want that sorry son of a bitch bin Laden dead.”

 

You see for a couple of us that were living in New York in 1993 the first time the World Trade Center was attacked, and then all of us that watched live on TVs in our homes the World Trade Center and Pentagon get attacked in 2001, this is personal and that is why not only do we need to find bin Laden and his close associates, we need to inflict on “Al Qaeda” a force of power that will shake the heavens.  That is what we should have done in the aftermath of 9/11, find bin Laden and the rest of Al Qaeda and wiped them from the face of the earth, instead of taking our country into a meaningless and outrageously expensive war in Iraq, especially when we have had to borrow every penny that we have spent in Iraq and offload all of that debt onto our children and grandchildren.  Stupid doesn’t do the decision to go into Iraq justice, and maybe there is no word in the English language that can sum of the decisions of the morons that led us into that war.  As Thomas E. Ricks said in a recent interview about the Iraqi War:

 

“The single worst foreign policy decision in American history.”

 

Well, there at least on the Iraq/Afghanistan issue is as Mr. Gates, Sr. says…

 

“The first job of a citizen is to keep your mouth open.”

 

Hell yes, our mouths are open and as we get older we are only going to get louder.

 

We have noted that the great 70s band Fleetwood Mac is now out on Tour right now and they are headed to the Bay area this May.  For the younger folks, younger than 30 or so, many have probably never really listened to Fleetwood although they would certainly recognize many of their greatest songs…  If you want to get a party started off the right way, put out some cold beer and throw a Fleetwood Mac CD on the player or crank up their music via ITunes… 

 

Yes, Fleetwood Mac has some great music….

 

Rhiannon

 

 

 

Dreams

 

 

 

Don’t Stop

 

 

 

Go Your Own Way

 

 

 

You Make Loving Fun

 

 

 

Tusk

 

 

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Mountain West Conference Comes Forward with a Sensible Proposal to Reform BCS – Memo to BCS Boys: This is the BEST You Will Get OR You May Inherit the Wind – The Lonely Walk – Think Long and Hard BCS Boys – The Great Ray Charles

Looking over the Mountain West Conference’s BCS Reform Proposal (MWC Proposal .pdf) we cannot help but wonder if the BCS Boys should probably take a hard look at this proposal for what it is…A way for the BCS Boys to find a way out of the morass and in our mind illegality that is the BCS before the powers of the United States government (i.e which represents the American people) force a change to the BCS that would be much worse for the BCS Boys and for the precious bowl games that they have worked so hard to protect. 

 

There are still many people within the BCS structure, conference commissioners, bowl executives, college presidents, etc., and many members of the national media that blindly support the BCS that still fail to realize that they no longer control the future of the BCS because there are very powerful forces in this country, like the vast majority of the American people, many members of the Obama administration and many members of Congress, that believe the BCS is the absolute wrong way to crown a national champion and in fact that the BCS violates several US laws.  With all of these powerful forces aligned against the BCS and its inability to crown a legitimate national champion in I-A college football in a fair and just way that also does not violate US laws, the BCS Boys need to come to the realization that they can either embrace needed and necessary changes to the BCS or they can risk losing the current college football postseason structure entirely. 

 

On top of losing the current college football postseason structure, the BCS Boys by clinging to the bogus and in our minds illegal BCS, put themselves at risk personally for their past actions that we believe includes restricting competition in I-A college football.  Maybe the BCS Boys believe that it is worth the gamble to take on the US government and thus the American people over the legality of the BCS, but the BCS Boys should be mindful that once court proceedings begin and people on all sides of this debate begin to go under oath within courtrooms and before Congress, the BCS Boys will have to deal with WHATEVER comes to light, including if someone testifies that people within the BCS structure were involved in a criminal conspiracy to restrict competition in I-A college football.  If there was a conspiracy by people within the BCS structure to restrict competition and thus violate US laws and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act we again remind the BCS Boys that their actions would be classified as felonies.  Since we here at Coaches Hot Seat have on hand several thousand news stories that include statements by many different BCS Boys that clearly to us include comments that blatantly declare their disregard for US laws as it pertains to competition, we and many other people would be very interested to hear what would come out on what was said behind the scenes by the BCS Boys as related to constructing, operating and even using the BCS to restrict certain teams and conferences from being full and equal partners in the Bowl Championship Series.  Yes, that testimony under oath would be damn interesting….

 

The MWC’s BCS Reform Proposal has found a way to protect the current bowl system and from where we sit we do not have a problem in keeping in place the bowl structure, but only if a legitimate way to determine a national champion in I-A football utilizing a playoff is added to the current bowl structure that involves determining that champion on the field of play.  The MWC’s proposal does just that by keeping in place the bowls and by instituting a committee to pick the teams that will play in this new playoff format, which is the way all other postseason tournaments are put together to determine national champions.  Why anyone could possibly object to I-A college football determining their national champion on the field of play which is the way every other sport in collegiate athletics determine their champion we cannot quite understand, and with what will be facing the BCS Boys in the very near future on the unexplainable absurdity of the BCS will certainly either come to a head or the BCS Boys will come to their senses and implement a plan to determine the national champion on the field of play that includes equal and fair access to ALL football teams in I-A football.

 

We again remind the BCS Boys that the unknown should be their greatest fear because there is a chance that a federal grand jury could be seated in the very near future to look into the BCS and if/when (only a matter of when in our minds) that happens then the BCS will have allowed a can of worms to be opened up about the history and creation of the BCS, the operation of the BCS, and the actions of current and past BCS Boys relative to US laws pertaining to competition.  If that happens, if that can of worms is opened and a federal grand jury and the Congress starts really looking into the BCS and begins using subpoena power to put people under oath on the BCS we can only say, WATCH OUT!

 

Coaches Hot Seat Recommendation to the BCS Boys:  Agree to the Mountain West Conference’s BCS Reform Proposal before a very powerful force like the federal government steps into this debate and implements with the force of law a system that may very well end the current college football postseason.  We here at CHS believe that the college football bowls are both an important part of college football history and that the lower-tier bowls below the BCS games play an important role in rewarding teams that have had good or even very good seasons but do not deserve to be a part of a national championship playoff.  We do recommend that the NCAA and BCS Boys put together some new rules that only teams with 7 wins in a season have the right to participate in the college football postseason, but overall these lower-tier bowls are important and we would hate to see them disappear because the BCS Boys stubbornly refused to change and accept the new reality that they are now living under. 

 

Yes, our recommendation to the BCS Boys is very simple.  Take the MWC ‘s BCS Reform Proposal and run with it, because it will be the very best you can expect that will come out of the wash once very powerful forces step into this debate and take away your decision-making power.  Another very good reason that the BCS Boys should take the MWC’s BCS Reform Proposal and run with it is because once court proceedings commence and the BCS Boys are put under oath before Congress, not only will the final outcome and the future of the college football postseason be out of the BCS Boys’ control, the BCS Boys will in our opinion actually put themselves personally at risk for possible prosecution for violation of US laws.  Roll the dice if you like BCS Boys, but we don’t want to hear any crying when the final outcome is something that you nor anyone else likes and actually takes away some of the very good things about the current college football postseason. 

 

Our recommendation:  Don’t roll the dice, because you have no idea of what you are now up against and how quickly your world, both business and personal, can be turned upside down.

 

BCS Boys look long and hard at this MWC’s BCS Reform Proposal, because as we here at Coaches Hot Seat look forward into the future we see this Proposal as THE BEST possible scenario and outcome for the BCS Boys and the current college football postseason.  Yes, BCS Boys, for the first time in your life, it is time to face reality, to come to your senses, to not allow your past comments in the press and elsewhere go into court records under oath, because is that happens we can only remind the BCS Boys of the following quote….

 

“He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart.”

 

As to Mountain West Conference Commissioner Craig Thompson we say Bravo!  Bravo to the MWC Commissioner and representatives of the MWC Conference for standing up to the BCS and for what is right and good and should be equal and fair in the United States of America…

 

Yes, Bravo to the MWC Conference and to Craig Thompson who realized before they made this proposal and realize now that….

 

“It’s the loneliest feeling in the world.  It’s like walking down an empty street listening to your own footsteps.  But all you have to do is to knock on any door and say if you’ll let me in I’ll live the way you want me to live and I’ll think the way you want me to think, and all the blinds will go up and all the doors will open, and you will never be lonely ever again.”

 

That quote is from the movie Inherit the Wind by the great Spencer Tracy playing the role of lawyer Clarence Darrow in the Scopes Monkey Trial…

 

 

 

Because the MWC commissioner Craig Thompson and many others from the MWC have stood up to the BCS they have affirmed the best of America and have denounced everything that is wrong and evil about our country.  America is about settling things out in the open for everyone to see, and in our athletic events, on the field of play with teams earning and not given the right to play for a national championship.  The BCS is secret and behind closed doors and that just runs counter to good ole’ fashioned common sense.  No, the BCS is not an American way to determine a national champion in I-A football, and that is why it will be eliminated from the American sports scene and thrown onto the junk heap of history along with many other peculiar and unworkable ideas like:  Communism, Socialism, Marxism, Fascism, and on and on…

 

Yes, the National Champion in I-A college football will be decided on the field of play in a system just like or very similar to what has been proposed by the Mountain West Conference and only thing now to be determined if the BCS Boys are going to voluntarily move to such a postseason playoff system or if they are going to be forcefully move to such a system to determine a legitimate national champion.  That is the only question that is left to answer….so yes, it is up to the BCS Boys, but only for a little while longer….

 

Think hard BCS Boys, think very hard and we recommend that you make very wise and prudent choices…

 

We have lots more to come as soon as we find the time.  As everyone knows this current economy is quite a challenge and most of us here at Coaches Hot Seat are running around chasing our tails working hard to keep our companies above water without laying off anyone..  The demand destruction that we are seeing in the economy is unprecedented in our lives, but then again we weren’t really paying attention until the early 1980s which means for most our lives times have been pretty good…  We still believe, and that is from over 35 companies that are represented by members of Coaches Hot Seat, that the rest of 2009 and most of 2010 are going to be very tough so everyone should strap themselves in for some tough times ahead…

 

Nothing the American people and our Republic cannot handle though… 

 

The Great Ray Charles

 

 

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