Costas

Costas Now did a show on sports and the media, a subject I enjoy. Oy. The last 15 minutes focused on racism. The introductory segment seemed to indicate that we'd be focusing on how a largely white media fails to adequately understand and cover the modern black athlete. Costas decided to make the segment, instead, about how white reporters cannot call out black athletes for being thugs, even though we all know they're thugs, because the reporters will be called racists.

Don't even want to get started on the "bloggers" segment.

What Is a Humble Newsie to Do?

All you former Eugeneians might be interested to learn KEZI news anchor Rick Dancer has left the newsroom to run for Secretary of State in Oregon. In Oregon, the Secretary of State's job is largely to monitor elections, election financing and fraud. Rick announced his big news on KEZI after the Oscars on Sunday night and, apparently got a good block of time to make his announcement and be "interviewed" by one of his colleagues.

The Register-Guard ran an article today about the announcement and how Dancer failed to mention that he is running as a Republican. The article focuses on the "equal time" issues and the fact that Dancer's former boss, Carolyn Chambers, who owns KEZI where Dancer has worked for the last 20 years, is a huge player in the state Republican party.

Here's what I love from a guy who's job for the last 20 years has been to report on state and local news, including, one assumes, politics, and who is running for a job that would require him to be in charge of state election laws:

Dancer also said he is unaware of Chambers' support for the party.

"Obviously, I'm a news guy; I don't know what she does with her finances or her money," he said.

So, four days out of the gate, Dancer has reveled himself to be either an idiot or a liar. He should do just fine as an Oregon Republican politician.

We Get It

I've grown weary of pictures of Hillary looking insane (no links). We get it. The woman has a tendency to make funny faces when she's talking, and since she's being digitally recorded every minute of her life, there are innumerable opportunities for finding "funny" pictures of her. Reputable news organizations should be able to resist using these photos, unless they are specifically discussing how Hillary tends to make funny faces. Of course, how this could be a relevant topic in relation to who the next President of the Unites States will be, I can only imagine.

But we get it. Enough.

God Bless America

for freedom of the press:

The Washington Times demonstrates that in America we are allowed to publish anything we want, no matter how bat-shit.

'Sudden jihad syndrome' poses domestic risk

By Sara A. Carter
January 2, 2008

Sympathy for al Qaeda has produced "sudden jihad syndrome" in domestic terror cells unaffiliated with foreign terrorists and people seeking to carry out attacks in the U.S., a law-enforcement intelligence analysis says.

In case, you're wondering, the "law-enforcement intelligence analysis" was from the Texas Public Safety Department's Bureau of Information Analysis. I'm sure that's solid.

Go Ducks

It's only a few minutes in and the CBS announcers for the Sun Bowl are already pissing me off.

So far they have referred to the South Florida Bulls as the Bulldogs and now we've been treated to a discussion of how "sneaky" Oregon is being in their play calling. It was suggested that with a whole month to prepare, coaches put in these sneaky plays.

Intelligent football people know that the key to the spread offense is misdirection. It is sneaky by design. In fact, without the sneak, the spread offense doesn't work. This is why it does not work at the pro level, where speed and discipline negate the benefits of misdirection.

Intelligent football people know this.

UPDATE: Intelligent football people who have done their homework know that Oregon always lines up to go for two points on the conversion and the holder makes an on-the-field decision as to whether to go for two or to reposition and kick the extra point. It should surprise only the lazy announcer that Oregon would go for two.

UPDATE: Baby Bash?

From his wikipedia page:

He had planned to play field hockey for the junior college he attended in California during the mid-1990s^[2]. After his first year, however, he began selling crystal meth and dropped out after discovering that he was more likely to make fast money through dealing than the likelihood of becoming a professional basketball player^[2]. Bash eventually tore his ankle several times without surgery, permanently ending the possibility of ever playing basketball at even a semi-professional level.

Incompetent Politics

We have a ballot measure battle out here in the sticks. Measure 50 would raises taxes on a pack of cigs by $.85. This money would be used to provide health care for the poor.

Big Tobacco has been running ads against it. Brilliantly, they have framed the issue as a huge give away to HMOs. More people with health care = more money for health insurance companies. They are also going with the "we must protect the sanctity of our Constitution" and "what's next? Coffee??!?!?!??"

The Yes on 50 people, or the Healthy Kids Initiative, just fired back with their first commercial. They have decided to go the (troubling) nativist route and attack the out-of-state tobacco companies that don't care about our kids. Not only should we on the left be deeply troubled that the best weapon our allies have is a claim to "homeland," but Health Kids manages to screw the pooch by having their narrator mispronounce "Oregon."

You out-of-staters may not know this, but we Oregonians are very, very, infinitely very touchy about how "Oregon" is pronounced.

The Healthy Kids folks are running a commercial that has one message, "vote yes because the 'no' crowd is from out of state." Then they manage to fuck up the pronunciation of the state name. How the heck did this get by anyone who actually lives in Oregon? Why was it run? Why? Why? Why?

I wish I could show you the video, but the Health Kids folks are also not competent enough to post their freakin' commercial on the YouTubes, let alone post it to their website.

Boobery.

And lastly, very prominent on the website is the message that Lance Armstrong(!) endorses Measure 50! That's right, out-of-state adultering cheaters think this is a great idea! You should too!

Register Guard to Eggheads: Fuck You

Picture on the front page of the Register Guard:


A University of Oregon athlete soaks in one of the heated pools at the athletic department's expanded medical treatment center at the Casanova Center. Among the features are nutritionist and X-ray stations, multiple pools and flat-screen televisions aplenty.

The article that goes with the picture includes this gem, "The first thing that jumps out to visitors, and this is no surprise because it's an Oregon trademark, is that there are flat-screen TVs everywhere." Yes, this has become quite the trademark here at Oregon. I remember when the UO first offered us a flat-screen in every office. i thought they were joking! The article goes on, "In the expanded space, spread out over 14,580 square feet, a recovering athlete will seemingly never be out of range of a flat-screen tuned to some type of sporting event."

Then we get this column from the R-G's new sports columnist. The shorter version is that you don't really need a college degree to be successful, whether you want to be a sports columnist, multi-millionaire, athletic director, or baseball coach. It is this column we are informed/reminded that the UO waived it's requirement to hold a BA to be the athletic director in order to hire AD Kilkenny. Of course, since we were waiving the requirement about any relevant experience, waiving the degree requirement is no big deal.

Boy the R-G hates the UO.

More Questionble Media

The Oregon Daily Emerald (my source for news to know) ran a sports article today by Josh Norris calling for the immediate dismissal of Michael Vick from the NFL. He is alleged to be heavily involved in a dog fighting ring. I was, at first, ready to dismiss the author's claim that Vick's actions were more heinous than anyone else's in the NFL (remembering here that Ray Lewis helped kill a guy), but I was convinced.

What Vick has allegedly done is breed these pit bulls, otherwise capable of being gentle and loving, for no other purpose than to later watch them rip into each others' throats for hours on end with the inevitable result being death, either by a shotgun blast outside of the dogfighting arena or through a more merciful injection of euthanasia when it is determined the dog can no longer fight.

But then Norris had to take it too far and ruin the whole thing.

Even worse, money is allegedly bet on these dogs. Not a couple of hundred dollars, either. As reported by Dohrmann, among others, a source familiar with Vick and what goes on at his house says that Vick was "one of the heavyweights" of dogfighting and that sometimes the purses surrounding the fights reach as high as $10,000.

I'm not sure how the betting of a collective $10,000 is worse than raising a dog to kill or be killed, and I am almost sure that Norris didn't mean this either, but Christ, how about a little editing?