Yes, I watched the “fiasco” that was the CNN / YouTube debate last night.  Personally I was not as outraged as some of my Republican counterparts for many reasons.

Did CNN mis-represent some of the questioners?  Without a doubt.  If they were duped they went all too willingly.  That said, I just have to ask:  Exactly what did you, as Republicans, expect from CNN?  That network exists to aid Hillary Clinton, not you.

To the charge that CNN should have identified the questioners as supporters of another candidate and / or another party – I think the questioners did a fine job of that all by themselves.  If you couldn’t tell simply by the tone and texture of the questioning that you were confronting a Democrat you didn’t belong on that stage.  And several didn’t by the way.

As for the questions not being the standard fare for a Republican debate, I turn to the YouTube side of things.  This isn’t the first such even that YouTube has had a hand in.  The last one was a total circus.  CNN claimed they were going to try to clean it up by pre-selecting the questions to use.  Again, you expected what from CNN and YouTube?

Frankly I’m a little troubled, maybe even embarrassed, by those who are crying because they didn’t get the type of questions they were expecting.  So far I haven’t heard much of this from the candidates, by the way.  Mainly it’s the conservative pundits.  I don’t know if you’ve noticed this guys, but this is a Presidential campaign.  The questions may have been a little outside of what you’d expect at a Republican-only debate.  Some may have been shallow.  Some may have been “gotcha” traps.  So what?  None of them were totally out of bounds.  I expect any candidate that expects my vote to be ready to answer any of those questions at any time.
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CNET UK recently revealed its Top Ten Terrible Tech Products.  For most this will be a misty trip down memory lane and you may cringe to see a number of things that you thought, at one time, were wicked awesome!  If you do nothing else, watch the Barcode Battler video.  The guy who demos the unit is hilarious.

The highlight of the list is undoubtedly Windows Vista coming in at number 10.  I don’t know if this is an attention grab or a case of short memory.  I am certainly no fan of Microsoft’s latest OS, but, ME was a much bigger turd at its inception.  I guess that observation won’t titillate today’s reader nearly as much as another swipe at Vista.

Thanks to Slashdot for the pointer.

Like everyone else I find the death of Washington Redskins’ Safety Sean Taylor a great tragedy.  I don’t know what we’ll ultimately find the cause to be.  And, I’m not going to pretend, like some, that I am shaken to my core as though I’d lost a member of my own family.  I’m not a huge Redskin fan, and honestly I wasn’t much aware of Taylor until this incident.  But, the death of any young person, healthy and still moving toward their prime, is a tragedy.

That said, I’ve been struggling with what, if anything, to say about the matter. I didn’t want to seem indifferent by ignoring it.  On the other hand, I don’t believe I have anything to say on it that isn’t already being said across thousands of blogs, fan sites, and news outlets.

Then I noticed that FoxSports’ Jason Whitlock had posted on the matter.  Without expecting much I clicked in.  Whitlock is one of those guys who is quick to turn any and every story into a race issue.  So I proceeded, fully expecting to learn how this was my fault.
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One of my YouTube subs, College Humor is totally hit or miss. That said, this 24 spoof is a hit, and for those who remember the infancy of personal computing it’s a hilarious romp down memory lane.

Last week embattled Louisville football coach Steve Kragthorpe held a press conference to put to rest rumors that he’d be leaving for SMU.  I’m glad to hear the coach will be staying, but the thing that really caught my attention was his claim that he was making more at Tulsa than he is at Louisville!

Is this accurate?  I doubt it.  I mean, I don’t see why he’d lie so blatantly and publicly, so maybe there is a way you can massage the numbers to make the claim technically and barely correct.  But in what numbers I could find, and this is really tough to research especially with Tulsa being a private school, his U of L compensation should be well above what he was or would be getting at Tulsa.

In 2005, according to USA Today, Kragthorpe was making $438K and change at Tulsa while then Louisville coach Bobby Petrino’s base salary was $810K in addition to $941K in bonuses and other extras.  Granted, it’s not like Kragthorpe is in danger of receiving any performance-based bonuses right now.  More recently, another USA Today article being quoted on Louisville fan sites mentioned Tulsa efforts to raise $500K per year for their football coach.  And we know that Kragthorpe signed on at Louisville for a base of $1.1M.

Of course you also have to consider endorsements and other opportunities available to a coach outside of their university’s compensation.
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While the BCS picture remains murky, the real losers in all of this are those of us who want a playoff.  Yes, even after the final games have been played there won’t be anything resembling clarity as to who belongs where in the BCS slate of games.  This would appear to be good, right?  After all, playoff system fires are stoked by the anger of deserving teams who get jobbed by the magic formula.

This year however any such anger will be tempered by the fact that no team has established itself as unquestionably deserving.  The quick and easy response to any complaintant not residing in the middle of the Pacific Ocean will be:  “Well, you shouldn’t have lost to x,” and in many cases it will be even worse:  “Well, you shouldn’t have lost to x and y.”  Everyone has a loss, and an embarrassing one at that.

As it stands, we are looking at an uninspiring Missouri v. West Virginia Championship.  I’m down with the Missouri part of it.  If they get past Oklahoma they’ll have earned their spot.
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Caught part of the Democratic debate in Vegas.  Some thoughts …

First the major items:

1.  You have to be absolutely frightened by how lightly this gang takes Pakistan.  Everyone except Dodd and Clinton would take a dangerous tack on a leader with nukes in his pocket.  Further, this all arose out of a “do human rights sometimes trump US national security?”  Again only Clinton and Dodd appeared to have any familiarity with the job of the President – to protect America from its enemies, both foreign and domestic.  That’s the problem with liberals.  It’s all about the agenda with them, while America can rot.

2.  The difference between Democrats and Republicans in a nutshell.  Richardson hit it without even realizing it: 

“States have to act when the federal government and the Congress doesn’t act.”

-  Bill Richardson

“Richardson has it completely backasswards!”

-  Brian Besaw

The federal government is not the default mechanism. (more…)

Turns out one of my favorite YouTube series, Man in the Box, is among the programming left floundering in the wake of the writer’s strike.  The result:  perhaps one of the best MIB yet.

I’ve embedded it here, however if you’ve never seen MIB you should check out what it’s like when the writers are paid and happy.  Might I recommend Casual Friday, Terry Likes Girls, and Terry is Going Out (you need to know Terry).

The strike couldn’t have come at a worse time either. Greg just put out a call for ties and has promised to work any and all ties received into a MIB episode. If the comments are any indication of what to expect, a cubic-butt ton of ties are headed to the office. Without the writers’ creativity the gang will be working overtime trying to figure out how to fit them all in.

Man, have I mentioned lately how much more awesome life is now that David Beckham is in the United States?!  But, this excerpt shows that we still have a long way to go to catch up to the rest of the world.  You know, those who are so much better than we are because they “get” the subtle nuances of the game.

A national watchdog body for soccer violence announced Monday that large groups of violent fans would be blocked from traveling to certain games. The monitoring body already labels games by risk level, and visiting fans will be barred from traveling to high-risk matches until a system of fan identity cards can be instituted.

Of course we’ll have to figure out our own ways to embrace the sport.  I mean, ID cards and banning visiting fans from games … that’s profiling.  And who are we to say what is a “high-risk” match?  One fan’s felony is another’s passionate love for the sport.

… now if a bunch of 1-loss teams can just hang on, this season could become the new high water mark for BCS impotence.  Right now we have 10 teams that have 1 loss or are still undefeated.  At least 1 Big XII team will have to fall out of that group before the season ends, and undefeated Hawaii will host Boise State in a couple of weeks in a game that will change the complexion of those two teams in that mix.

Currently we are lined up for a LSU – Oregon championship game which is, in my opinion, the best you could come up with if forced to simply pick 2 teams out of a pool of 8-10 deserving consideration … which is ludicrous.

But, there is more action to come. (more…)