Since it is now all the rage to check out who’s going were on FlightAware, may I submit to you the following tail number: EJA915.
A Cessna Citation X, the Execjet-owned plane left Tuscaloosa, Alabama shortly after noon today, stopping in Las Vegas before proceeding to Santa Monica Airport–just a stone’s throw from Westwood. Obviously, that means that Karl Dorrell is going to be the next coach at Alabama. At least the Tide don’t have to play USC.
Some of you may have noticed that the filters for comments are alot stricter and trackbacks havebeen blocked. Basically, even with all the best spam blockers, I cannot spend half my day deleting crap. Some of the bloggers have figured out how to do the “Hillbilly Trackback”–leaving a link to thier posts in the comments section.
What if the Democratic Party staged a “Survivor”- like contest between its disparate interest groups, with a winner-take-all for whichever cause garnered the most votes? Well, watch the carnage now at Current TV.
Current’s “Seeds of Tolerance” video-making contest pits your favorite liberal causes against each other. Anti-war battles Darfur, if you know what I mean. Well, close behind in second place at the moment is We Belong, the Gay film. So go vote now.
Oh, and in typical liberal fashion, the “We Belong” folk have offered to donate their prizes to charity. I wouldn’t want to pay taxes on the prizes, either!
I know the Heisman Trophy has all but been given to Ohio State’s Troy Smith, but voters should consider Hawaii’s Colt Brennan, if only because he is abiout to shatter the NCAA record books.
Here are my picks for this week’s blog poll. In it, I try to compensate for the pro-Big XII and anti-Pac Ten biases in other human polls while trying to be somewhat following what is going on in the rest of the country–though I have to admit that this week, if it does not involve either Trojans or Bruins, I don’t much care.
Although three games remain in the Pac Ten season, the coaches have handed out their honors for the 2006 football season, naming USC’s Pete Carroll the coach of the year for taking the Trojans to the Conference Title despite being in a rebuilding year and handing out honors to 17 total Trojans. Highlights include:
All Pac-10 First-Teamers:
QB John David Booty
OL Sam Baker
OL Ryan Kalil
WR Dwayne Jarrett
WR Steve Smith
DL Sedrick Ellis
LB Keith Rivers
LB Rey Maualuga
All Pac-10 Second-Teamers:
OL Chilo Rachal
DL Lawrence Jackson
LB Brian Cushing
DB Terrell Thomas
Were Schwarzenegger born in the United States, rather than Austria, presidential politics would surely beckon. But the constitutional barrier to naturalized citizens seeking the White House, as unjust as it may be, will not be lowered in time to allow Schwarzenegger to run for president in 2008 or 2012, if ever. “I think that it will never happen in my lifetime,” Schwarzenegger said Sunday. “I think that it’s something that the people of America can debate … in the future. And this is a debate worth happening. You know, let the debate go on, but I mean, it’s not for me. I’m happy where I am; I’m happy to be a public servant and to serve the people of California.”
Tellingly, however, Schwarzenegger was much less definitive when Tim Russert asked him about running for the U.S. Senate against Democrat Barbara Boxer in 2010, as his governorship ends. “You know,” he replied, “I’m not really thinking about what I’m doing in 2010. I’m not ruling anything out, but I’m not really thinking about any of that. I’m thinking about, now, moving California forward.”
While it would be interesting to see how Arnold deals with Uncle Ted as a colleague, I somehow doubt that the collegial nature of the Senate matches with Schwarzenegger’s personal style. I’d much rather see him as President Gingrich or Giuliani’s* Secretary of State–bringing a global media focus on the diplomatic actions of the Country unlike any we’ve ever seen before–which would at the very least, remind people that our country is doing diplomacy…which would be a good thing.
* Oh, and for those who would question my assumption that the GOP will control the White House after 2006, consider this: “for 13 years in a row, during the successive UCLA and USC winning streaks in the rivalry, the Bruins won every game (1991-98) preceding a Democratic presidential victory and the Trojans (1999-2003) won every game preceding a Republican presidential victory; the trend continues (for 2004-05) if the GOP wins in ‘08. The coincidence also applies to the game immediately preceding seven of the past eight presidential elections - the exception is 1984; UCLA won the ‘83 game but Ronald Reagan won the ‘84 election.” Since the likelihood that Mitt Romney would win a general election is as high as the chances that UCLA will win this Saturday, I have assume that we’re looking at President-elect Giuliani in two years.
While construction has begun on the South runways at LAX–taking 25L/7R out of service–in an effort to reduce the likelihood of ground incursions, safety measures needed to protect passengers on the Northern runways at Los Angeles International Airport are facing stiff opposition from airport neighbors.
City Councilman Bill Rosendahl and Rep. Jane Harman, D-El Segundo, said they want to consider all of the arguments before deciding whether to approve it.
“I have to be convinced by the FAA that there is a safety issue,” Rosendahl said. “I will be meeting with the FAA in January to show me where there is a problem. I’m not commenting on any of the options until we are clear about the safety issue.”
Harman said she is concerned that in reconfiguring airport runways and terminals, Los Angeles World Airports officials are trying to get around a promise to cap passenger traffic at 78.5 million a year - a provision included in a settlement ending lawsuits challenging the modernization plan.
In a letter sent last month to LAWA Executive Director Lydia Kennard, Harman reiterated her opposition to any effort to increase passenger traffic.
“You and your staff claim that the north runway must be moved due to safety concerns, but I have not seen any documentation providing such justification,” Harman wrote.
“And, I fear that a western terminal is being proposed to undermine the growth cap, enabling gates to be in place when the current settlement agreement expires. Let me be clear, … I will do everything necessary to protect (the settlement) from being altered or broken.”
At issue is passenger safety, which is placed at risk because planes landing on 24R must cross runway 24R–where planes are taking off–before proceeding to the terminals at LAX, rather than pulling into a designated, safe taxiway before proceeding to the gates.
The longer safety improvements are delayed, the greater harm there is to passengers and the environment as flow controls restrict arrivals and departures at the airport when only three runways are operating. Combine that with a flow-controlled day at San Francisco when there’s fog and you’ve got aviation gridlock along the West Coast.
The Los Angeles Daily News’ Kevin Modesti has a humorous piece answering hypothetical questions posed by celebrities about the USC-UCLA Rivalry coming up this Saturday, including this poignant question:
Mr. G.W. Bush of Crawford, Texas, asks: If the rivalry is so hopeless for the Bruins, why don’t they just pull out?
The Bruins say they’ll keep playing this game until they achieve victory. It probably means nothing that they’ve hired James Baker to study the situation.
Given his record against USC–or any ranked teams for that matter–I would say that keeping Karl Dorrell in the employ of the University of California at Los Angeles amounts to a cut-and-run strategery for the Bruins!
Only twice in my life can I remember hugging someone at a sporting event. The first time was when, playing against American, a certain soccer player friend scored a hat trick and his father turned and hugged me. On Saturday night, when Brian Cushing ran an onside kick back against Notre Dame for a touchdown–sealing the victory, I turned to my seatmate and did the same. If you missed it check out the (somewhat grainy) video a friend emailed Saturday night and this photo-montage I put together…
However, the offensive totals for both teams were remarkably similar–with 404 total yards each on roughly similar time of possession.
Some say the difference was “efficiency”–that USC got its 404 yards on 60 plays, not 76 and faced fewer third and fourth downs–but the other issue was timing and finishing. USC scored the first three times it had the ball. Notre Dame drove, but was unable to score. At one point Irish quarterback Brady Quinn was completing but 33% of his passes; only once the Trojans went into a prevent defense was he able to find receivers for short dinks and dunks to make his stats look respectable.
The USC Trojans have claimed the number two spot in the AP and BCS polls on the strength of their win Saturday over Notre Dame. If the Trojans can beat UCLA on Saturday, a trip to Arizona for the BCS Title Game is all but secured.
While the Trojans are getting so much love that one computer vaulted them ahead of undefeated Ohio State, the humans are hating on the Pac Ten in general. California, 8-3, the #2 team in the conference is ranked 8 spots lower in the human polls than in the computer polls–and third-place Oregon State is five to six spots lower in the human polls than in the computers.
Meanwhile, the top three teams in the Big XII each have a four-spot human bias–ranking higher in the human polls than in the computer polls, while the ACC enjoys an across-the-board 2-spot advantage in the human polls over the computer polls. I know there is alot of talk about an East Coast Bias, and I am not one to argue for putting everything in the hands of the computers, but when discrepancies like this are so large–and so consistent, perhaps the human voters should use this week to re-examine their ballots before their decisions could cost schools millions of dollars!
It was a beautiful day in Los Angeles Saturday, providing the perfect setting for a beautiful 44-24 win by the USC Trojans over the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. The win over the #5 Irish widened USC’s lead in the BCS-used Coaches Poll and led the Men of Troy to pass Michigan in the Associated Press–setting up the possibility of a split national championship if the computers don’t play along.
Perhaps the most glorious point of the evening for the Irish was when they took the field before the game…after waiting for the Trojan football alumni and fans to clear the field after a salute to the Trojans’ Senior Class-the first ever to have never lost a game in the Coliseum.
I had to bite my tongue early in the game Saturday as the USC offense looked unstoppable, scoring on their first three possessions while Notre Dame’s alleged Heisman Candidate Brady Quinn flirted with a 33% completion rating.
With the Trojans up 21-3, USC awoke the ghosts of the Oregon State game in the second quarter–getting a blocked punt and two interceptions–threatening to fall apart entirely. Behind the Trojans’ stout defense, however, the Irish were only able to capitalize once, and halftime could not have come soon enough with the Trojans nursing an 11-point lead.
As I predicted, Charlie Weis called an onside kick after halftime. What I did not predict was that it would happen later in the half…or that USC defensive lineman Brian Cushing would run it back for his first career touchdown! OMG!!! Of course Reuters, incredulous, identifies him as quarterback John David Booty, who threw for three touchdowns and one for one himself, establishing himself as the front-runner in the 2007 Heisman race.
When they had the ball, Notre Dame was most successful when they abandoned their gameplan and went to the Texas-Tech style fun-and-gun offense, but the track meet which broke out in the second half was not enough to life the Irish on the score-board…only in the box score.
Fight on and Beat the Bruins!
The final score…five more years! five more years! (more…)
With FOUR players selected as Out Magazine “Athletes We Wished Played for Our Team,” Saturday’s match between USC and Notre Dame is clearly the Gay Viewers’ Game of the Century. Expect to see Trojan defender Brian Cushing either underneath Jeff Samardzija or exploding around the backside to take down Irish Quarterback Brady Quinn. But don’t be surprised if Tom Zbikowski puts up a fight on special teams.
The BoiFromTroy is a 6'1", 165 lb., 32 year-old, gay male,
Republican, sports fan living in West Hollywood, California who has
been writing on Politics, The Gays and USC Football since 2003. He is
also a contributor to Spot-On.com and covers Pac
Ten Football for FanHouse
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Charlie Weis 
As I predicted, Charlie Weis called an 
boifromtroy