Thoughts & Experiences from the Mile High City
A Deepening Leadership Crisis – David Gergen
This is a really insightful post of the lack of trust amongst the leadership of our country today. Not only a trust in our President, but trust in the leadership of all levels of government and most of the private sector.
Where will our next great leader come from? Is it one of the candidates running for President? Is there someone else out there?
We need a great leader to come forward. I hope they come soon, because we definitely need it.
I am getting tired of all the naysayers out there that say the University of Idaho football and athletics should move back to Division I-AA, also known as FCS. Idaho is in the right conference and the right division.
Has the football team struggled the last 10 years? Yes!
Has the basketball team struggled? Yes!
But there are signs of improvement in the football program. I think Rob Akey is the right person to lead the turnaround. He came in and had to deal with a disaster of a team, one that Dennis Erickson tore apart in one year.
Akey had to let go 18-20 players who were dealing drugs, stealing from teammates, and couldn’t handle the academics of college. They are now playing mostly freshman and sophomores. While they are getting experience, they are making mistakes and it is costing wins, but the future is quite bright.
There are signs are getting brighter for Idaho’s basketball program. They have a good coach who can guide them. I am also hearing that they are getting commits from some good recruits. Face it, the basketball program can only get better.
Now I am a person that thinks that Idaho needs to build an outdoor football stadium, but I wouldn’t get rid of the Dome. It is too heavily used by the student body for intramurals and workouts. It would also make a great practice area for various sports.
Having an outdoor stadium would add so much. Also when Idaho played their home games at Martin Stadium in Pullman, Idaho averaged higher attendance than the Kibbie Dome holds.
Basketball needs a new arena for basketball and volleyball. The Kibbie Dome does not cut it for those sports. The new arena could even be used for the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival where good jazz gets lost in the vastness of the Dome.
I am a supporter of Vandal athletics and the University of Idaho as a whole. They are going through a transition in their athletic program, but the academic program is growing. The enrollment is up, they are getting more grants and research dollars (over $100 million since 2003), and is consistently rated as one of the best values in education.
The search for a new President is on and it will be nice to get that settled and the new person into the position.
Everyone just needs to be patient with the football and basketball programs. They will come around. The future is bright for the University of Idaho.
Go Vandals!
Here is an interesting video from CatholicVote.com. Take a look.
http://catholicvote.com/cv_homepage_theater_live.swf
I am Catholic, but I am wondering if focused on one issue is too narrowly focused. Should they be focused on all of them?
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Hochuli to fans: “I failed miserably” – The Denver Post
The San Diego Charger fans need to leave it alone. Ed Hochuli has admitted he made a mistake and has moved on.
The rantings of Charger fans are not going to change the call or the outcome of the game. The Denver Broncos won the game.
I think the Charger fans should be more upset at their defense who failed to stop the Broncos on two attempts to get a touchdown and who failed to stop them when they went for two.
Hochuli is showing a lot of class in responding to emails that he is receiving from Charger fans. It is time to see some class from the Charger fans.
I just want to say that Major League Baseball has done a disservice to the Houston Astros, the hottest team in baseball.
Why do you ask?
Well they sent the Astros to play the Chicago Cubs to play a game in Milwaukee when they were supposed to play in Houston.
Now they couldn’t play in Houston because of Hurricane Ike. But they could have played the game somewhere else. Maybe Arlington, anywhere else besides Milwaukee.
Milwaukee is an hour from Chicago. So who do you think the crowd was rooting for? Not the Astros. The Cubs dominated them in the first game through a no-hitter by Carlos Zambrano. They were then one-hit by Lilly the next evening.
Major League Baseball did a disservice to the Astros. They could have handled it a lot better.
Update: Here is an article from the Denver Post discussing the situation with the Houston Astros, “Bad brew for Astros’ home”.
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TheHill.com – Democrats’ latest idea: gas stamps
You have got to be kidding. Gas stamps? Is this the only thing the Democrats have?
Gas stamps are throw back to the great depression. This is a great example of a top-down, entitlment approach to government the democrats are known for.
Instead of looking for ways to lower the price of gas, they are pushing an answer that is over 70 years old and technology that is still in the laboratory.
We need real action on maximizing our oil and gas supplies today while planning for the future, utilizing new technology that will help us in the future.
Not take a big step backwards!
Tree sitters cost state $21M plus
The tree sitters at the University of California (Berkeley) have cost the state of California over $21 Milion and they are only being charged with misdemenors. They finally came out of the last tree this last week.
That is ridiculous, just ridiculous!
For those of you who don’t know, the Unviersity of California wanted to build a sports training center and make iife/safety code fixes to Memorial Stadium. In order to do that, they needed to cut down a grove of oaks and redwoods.
The extremists took exception to the plan to cut the trees. It didn’t matter that they weren’t students or affiliated in any way with the University. It also didn’t matter that the University was going to plant over two trees for everyone they took down.
They recently lost the last of their court challenges.
I feel that it is ridiculous and crazy that these people are only being charged with misdemenors. They all should be charged with a felony and forced to reimburse the University and state of California.
What they cost the state and the Unviersity is more than money. The city was the laughing stock of the nation when Tennesse fans invaded last year. It also solidified the reputation of Berkeley being the nutcase of the world.
I just want to say that Scrabble on Facebook is just plain worthless.
I am playing a game and it keeps taking letters of the table and points from me. When I go back to play those same letters where I played them before, that spot is not open.
I miss Scrabulous! It was stable, easy-to-use, and fun.
The new Scrabbleis horrible, a bad way to do business.
If they were going to do this, they should have had something working first!
Mile High Soapbox 