The Sore Losers?

Posted on March 13, 2011 by bostonsblog

They just can’t leave it alone, can they?

I was flabbergasted to read in the Midlands section of this past Friday’s Omaha World-Herald about two bills being proposed in the Nebraska Legislature- bills that stem from the results of America’s most recent presidential election.

First of all, this state’s legislature- the only unicameral (one chamber) legislature in the United States- is billed as nonpartisan. If you’ve lived in this state long enough, you know that such a claim ranks right up there with a couple of longstanding myths…namely the one that we fight wars to bring about peace and the myth about how smoking calms your nerves.

As it’s currently comprised, Nebraska’s legislature is heavily Republican. In fact, the same state that gave the world Dan Whitney (AKA Larry the Cable Guy) is one of America’s most heavily Republican states.

And State Sens. Beau McCoy (of Omaha) and Mark Christensen (he’s from the town of Imperial, way down in the southwest corner of the state) are out to keep Nebraska that way.

Last week, McCoy introduced Legislative Bill (LB) 21, a measure designed to bring Nebraska back to a “winner-take-all” system of allocating electoral votes in a presidential election. (Right now, the only other state where a candidate who wins the popular vote isn’t assured of getting all its electoral votes is Maine.)

Nebraska abandoned the “winner-take-all” system in 1991. Its state senators voted to go to a method where two of the Cornhusker State’s five electoral votes go to the candidate who won the most popular votes, while one vote gets awarded from each of the state’s three US House districts.

Hardly any lawmakers here had any beefs about the state’s current electoral allocation system…until, in 2008, Barack Obama picked up one of Nebraska’s five electoral votes, preventing John McCain from putting all five of them in his own hip pocket.

Ever since then, many of Nebraska’s Republican figures have been fuming about it all…and screaming for a return to the WTA system.

The fuming’s going to continue, now that McCoy’s bill couldn’t make it out of the Unicameral’s Government, Military, and Veterans Affairs Committee (thanks to its members reaching a 4-4 vote on whether to advance LB 21).

And yep, McCoy wants to bring it back up next year.

Business executive McCoy and his fellow Elephants say that Nebraska’s electoral allocation system divides the state’s urban and rural areas (as if they’re not already divided!) and cuts the state’s overall influence in presidential elections…while the Democrats in the legislature say that the current method gives more candidates (especially the Donkeys) more of an incentive to stump here.

McCoy (he’s a first-term state senator) brought the bill up because he’s afraid the state that brought William Jennings Bryan into the world won’t be relevant anymore…especially if the results of the 2020 Census show that the first state to be admitted to the Union after this country’s Civil War ended will have to give up a representative, leaving it with four electoral votes.

And then you’ve got Christensen, who cooked up LB 654. [He's the same man who wants teachers and school administrators to start packing heat, in light of a shooting that took place here in Omaha five days into 2011. Maybe you heard of Robert Butler Jr., the Omaha student who picked off his school's (Millard South High) vice principal (Vicky Kaspar) and tried to kill its principal (Curtis Case) before Butler bumped himself off.]

Anyway, LB 654 is designed to make presidential and vice-presidential candidates show long-form proof that not only were they born here in the United States of America…but also that each of their parents were born here in the Land of the Big Mac, too.

I get the feeling that, later this year, US Rep. Jeff Fortenberry will be eating dinner with Christensen and McCoy.

And I get the feeling that Christensen (a rancher by trade) wouldn’t have asked for this kind of legislation if McCain had been able to keep 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in GOP hands. (Remember, the senior US senator from Arizona was born in the Panama Canal Zone…to American-born parents, one of them a high-ranking Naval officer. And, at the time, the Canal Zone was a US possession. After all, McCain was born in 1936…64 years before the Panama Canal was turned over to the country where it was built.)

Beau McCoy, Mark Christensen, and their many, many supporters seem to constantly ignore one simple fact:

Nobody ever asked to be born…and we can’t help the places where we were born.

I hope neither of these LBs makes it out of committee…let alone become law.

They both strike me as sour grapes.

It’s also funny how, when Arnold Schwarzenegger became California’s governor in 2003, some Republicans were licking their chops over how Hollywood’s Terminator would look giving speeches from the Oval Office. I remember US Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) championing an amendment that would change the US Constitution to allow foreign-born Americans who’d put in at least twenty years of citizenship here in the country that gave us rock and roll to make their own White House bids.

Think Christensen, Fortenberry, and McCoy would’ve broken their necks to get such an amendment ratified?

Speaking of think…I don’t know what an earlier US senator, George Norris, would’ve thought of LBs 654 and 21. Norris was the man who was the biggest advocate of stripping his home state of its House of Representatives.

And that as a measure for Nebraska- a state Norris served with distinction- to get through the Great Depression.

Maybe if the Cornhusker State could get back to having a bicameral legislature, better laws could get proposed.

And proposals such as LB 21 and LB 654 would have an extra filter to have to go through.

These two would-be laws were designed to invalidate a presidency…and designed to invalidate votes.

All in the name of politics.

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Doing What You’ve Always Done, Getting What You’ve Always Gotten

Posted on February 28, 2011 by bostonsblog

Take a look at this picture below.

It was captured at 75th and Blondo Sts. here in Omaha earlier this year…and, chances are, this same crater existed at this time last year (when a much more severe winter than 2010-11 has been thus far left thousands of potholes…potholes that annually turn Omaha’s streets into obstacle courses).

Last Wednesday, I ended up losing to another of the city’s potholes.

It was 2:25 PM, and I was on my way to my factory job. I was heading down 50th Street when, in order to avoid an oncoming SUV, I hit a hole north of the intersection of 50th Street and Underwood Avenue.

POW!! My right front tire went flat.

I was fortunate enough to be within driving distance of the BP station I’d been doing business with since the mid-1990s (the one mentioned in an earlier post, “BP or Not BP”).

And since then, I’ve been driving on three real tires and…a doggone donut. (Why did this country’s auto industry stop putting actual tires in the trunks of its motor vehicles?)

And ever since the next day, I’ve never again used 50th to get to my job. (The route I now use gets me there sooner. And even that route- I swap 50th Street for Saddle Creek Road- has some potholes, too. But at least there’s more room to manuever than with narrow, treacherous 50th.)

Every single year at this time, road craters are a local issue…especially the way this city’s government leaders handle the repair of these mini-canyons.

And it doesn’t have to be that way.

Would be nice if the city’s Public Works Department studied some other Midwestern cities. After all, some of them have been able to find solutions that keep the same old potholes from coming back, year after year after tiresome year, on the same old streets.

For starters, when Omaha fills its potholes, it could start filling them all the way, rather than leaving the corners untouched.

We’ve been told (and told and told and TOLD) what concrete does during the winter months, when that frozen stuff and the materials designed to melt that frozen stuff both hit the pavement. We know about the expansion and contraction of concrete during this time of year.

And with that knowledge, you’d think a city with such an annual problem such as this would find a better way to fix its streets so that they actually work like streets.

We don’t have to do what we’ve always done around here.

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Now, All at Once, It’s Controversial

Posted on February 19, 2011 by bostonsblog

I was born in, raised in, and educated in a state where, ever since America’s Woodrow Wilson years, school administrators have had no qualms about female high school students doubling (or tripling or quadrupling) as athletes.

It almost came to an end in 1920, when officials running the Iowa High School Athletic Association decided, all at once, that it wasn’t such a good idea for girls to play basketball after all: “It’s too dangerous a sport for girls to play.”

And, as a result, the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union got started.

Its most famous event was- and still is- the Hawkeye State’s girls’ high school basketball tournament (this year’s version is a month away). The event, held in Des Moines, used to be strictly six-player (two forwards, two guards, half-court, only the forwards shot the ball)- the case for girls’ high school hoops in Iowa- until the 1980s.

Then, while a six-player tourney continued, a five-player version was added.

And since the 1990s, it’s been five-player all the way.

Anyway, Iowa got a fifty-year (at the most) jump on America’s other states when it came to its high schools starting their own girls’ b-ball squads. Even so, with one exception, high school girls shooting hoops in the state that gave us Denise Long and Lynne Lorenzen was strictly a rural thing…until the early 1970s.

Then the one exception- Valley High School in West Des Moines, IA- got company.

Thanks to laws like Title 9 (to me, one of the few good things to come out of the Richard Nixon years), high schools in Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Sioux City, Council Bluffs, Waterloo, and other sizable Iowa burgs (to say nothing of the other schools in Greater Des Moines) finally started organizing their own girls’ basketball clubs.

And I’m glad it happened. (So are the first players on those teams and their parents.)

Meanwhile, in most of America’s other 49 states, their high schools- urban and rural alike- started forming their own girls’ BB squads…kicking and screaming. (States like Texas, Oklahoma, and Tennessee had followed Iowa’s suit long before Title 9 even got proposed. Did you know, for instance, that Wilma Rudolph played basketball in her native Tennessee years before hitting it big in track and field? And that, for girls back then, it was six-player in the Volunteer State?)

Well, this past weekend, Iowa finally had a first…a first someplace else besides a basketball court.

One year after Omaha North’s Brittney Taylor capped off three years of competing in the Nebraska high school wrestling tournament (the 2011 edition is going on right now at the Qwest Center Omaha) and capped off two years as a finalist in the Class A 103-pound division, Iowa’s own wrestling tournament (that one began in 1926, six years after the creation of IGHSAU) finally saw its very first female competitors.

This time, Ottumwa’s Megan Black and Cedar Falls’ Cassy Herkelman wrestled at Des Moines’ Wells Fargo Arena (same place where the Iowa boys’ and girls’ HS hoops tourneys take place).

Black’s two matches (they happened this past Thursday) took place without a hitch. (Okay, she lost them both.)

Herkelman’s match that same day drew the controversy.

The Cedar Falls High School freshman made history by winning her Class 3-A 112-pound match.

And it was all because Herkelman’s scheduled opponent, the highly-ranked Joel Northrup (a homeschooled soph who wrestles for Marion’s Linn-Mar High School), didn’t want to lay a hand on her: “Wrestling is a combat sport and it can get violent at times.”

Northrup’s dad, Jamie, is a youth pastor at Marion’s Believers in Grace Church. Seven years ago, Jamie encouraged his son to take on a girl at a kids’ wrestling meet…but Joel didn’t like the experience at all.

Northrup’s decision came down to his conscience and to his faith.

And that decision- made by the oldest of seven Northrup children- has drawn national attention. Joel Northrup’s decision caused ESPN’s Rick Reilly (remember him from Sports Illustrated?) to join nineteen other name journalists in covering the Match That Wasn’t.

Well, yesterday, Northrup and Herkelman did grapple.

And each wrestler lost.

Cassy lost her quarterfinal match to Indianola’s Matt Victor, 5-1, then in a consolation match, got pinned by Jordan Jones…whose team represents two Des Moines high schools: North and Hoover. (Hoover and North are two of Indianola’s rivals in the Central Iowa Metropolitan League, the state’s biggest and best-known conference.)

Minutes later, Joel himself took it on the chin. He succumbed- in overtime- to Pleasant Valley’s Tyler Willers, 3-2.

The oldest son of a preacherman wouldn’t comment after losing to Willers. Even so, Joel Northrup’s decision drew understanding and respect from Cassy Herkelman’s dad, Bill, who sent AP a text message.

All told, the Match That Wasn’t has raised the same old questions and the same old comments about whether a female competitor should even get involved in a predominantly male sport. I’ve read a few of them in researching the story: “Men will always be stronger than women.” “Girls shouldn’t wrestle- period!” “Why did Cassy even go out for wrestling in the first place?” “Why didn’t Cedar Falls start a separate wrestling team for girls?”

And then you’ve got the usual Bible quotes.

Me, I believe both Cassy and Joel played out the courage of their convictions. Both Herkelman and Northrup qualified for Iowa’s state wrestling meet…and both deserved to be there.

Maybe a time’s going to come where all fifty-one of America’s high school interscholastic sports organizations (Iowa’s got two of them-one for boys and the other for girls, although the boys’ organization runs a two-gender track meet) will be able to each conduct a boys’ wrestling tourney and a corresponding one for girls. It’s just a question of more Megan Blacks and Cassy Herkelmans- to say nothing of more Brittney Taylors- coming out for wrestling.

And that’s going to take some doing right here in a nation where, if you utter the word “wrestling,” the first image most of us Americans have is either of Hulk Hogan or of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. (Don’t, don’t, DON’T knock Hulk or The Rock! They’re cool people!)

By the way, Taylor had a chance to keep wrestling for Omaha North this year; she’s a senior. In 2009, she finished second in her weight class to Grand Island’s Andrew Riedy…who’s trying to get himself one more title this weekend.

And if you still think a girl in high school can’t win at wrestling, consider this: Taylor was 16-4 coming into her 2009 match with Riedy.

He’ll tell you some stories about who should and shouldn’t wrestle, you can believe that.

By the way…five states- Hawaii and California are two of ‘em- each conduct a state high school wrestling tournament for girls as well as one for boys.

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The Results Are In!

Posted on January 24, 2011 by bostonsblog

Finally, I’ve finished what could’ve/should’ve/would’ve been the 2010 NCAA Division 1-A football playoffs (well, at least this version of a would-be 2010 NCAA Division 1-A football playoff cycle)…and the outcome represents good and bad news for Ohio State University’s president, Gordon Gee. (That is, if the outcome had happened in Real Life and not on a computer.)

I went ahead and checked out www.lhgames.com after finding out that Lance Haffner and his people turned in a free download featuring all the 1-A teams that participated in bowl games during this past NCAA football campaign.

And I ended up using the LHG download rather than the one I originally was going to go with. (Sorry about that, Brian in Alabama!)

How the 23 games turned out was no less exciting.

Well, anyway, without further ado, here’s what happened:

FIRST ROUND (seeding in parentheses): Wisconsin (9) 49, Florida International (24) 7; Arkansas (16) 49, Hawaii (17) 38; Missouri (13) 35, Northern Illinois (20) 14; Texas A&M (21) 21, Oklahoma State (12) 14; Louisiana State (14) 49, Central Florida (19) 7; Virginia Tech (11) 28, Miami (OH) (22) 24; Utah (15) 38, Nebraska (18) 14; Oklahoma (10) 14, Connecticut (23) 7.

SECOND ROUND: Wisconsin 28, Auburn (1) 21; Stanford (8) 42, Arkansas 7; Ohio State (5) 28, Missouri 0; Texas A&M 35, Nevada (4) 14; Boise State (6) 27, Louisiana State 0; Virginia Tech 21, Oregon (3) 20 (1 OT); Utah 21, Michigan State (7) 14 (2 OT); TCU (2) 42, Oklahoma 14.

QUARTERFINAL ROUND: Wisconsin 35, Stanford 14; Ohio State 22, Texas A&M 21 (2 OT); Boise State 27, Virginia Tech 15; TCU 63, Utah 14.

SEMIFINAL ROUND: Ohio State 21, Wisconsin 0; TCU 24, Boise State 14.

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Ohio State 28, TCU 22.

The good news for Gee is that the football team that represents his school won this version of a computer playoff. (It’s the fourth time the Buckeyes did this, and it goes along with the titles the Scarlet and Gray picked up in 1996, 2005, and 2007. On top of that, this means the third time Jim Tressel has come out on top in these computer playoffs; two more titles and he’ll catch Tom Osborne, whose Nebraska Cornhuskers went all the way in the 1982, 1989, 1990, 1993, and 1997 versions of these playoffs.)

The bad news: Ohio State topped a team Gee doesn’t like…or respect.

How about some highlights?

*In the first round, Bret Bielema’s Badgers held Mario Cristobal’s Golden Panthers (one of two first-time playoff entries for 2010) to five rushing yards on 34 trips…and themselves picked up 473 yards on 59 runs. John Clay led everybody with 196 yards in 23 tries and two scores- one on an 80-yard run; freshman James C. White contributed 102 yards in 14 trips and a score; and Montee Ball enjoyed a 21/175/1 TD day.

*Greg McMackin’s Warriors and Bobby Petrino’s Razorbacks had a wild one in which the two clubs combined for 1,060 passing yards. The winners’ Ryan Mallett had a 24/37/325/4 TD/1 INT outing; in a losing cause, Bryant Moniz outdid him, going 33 for 61 for 607 yards and 4 TDs of his own (and an INT of his own). Moniz’ favorite receiver, Greg Salas, caught 11 balls for 286 yards and a pair of TDs.

The Warriors’ offensive line couldn’t protect Moniz all that well, though, what with nine sacks for 59 yards.

*Probably D-1-A ball’s hottest passer down the stretch, the Aggies’ Ryan Tannehill (who started 2010 as a wideout), threw a three-yard air score to RB Cyrus Gray with 25 ticks left in regulation to enable Mike Sherman’s club to slide past Mike Gundy’s Cowboys…and waste Cowboy RB Kendall Hunter’s 28/155/1 TD workout.

*Mike Haywood’s RedHawks had Frank Beamer’s Hokies on the ropes, 24-14, with 10:18 to go in the fourth quarter. Then Virginia Tech QB Tyrod Taylor went to work, scoring from four yards…then winning the game with his 11-yard toss to WR Jarrett Boykin with 1:05 to go.

*The Utes’ offensive stars were RB Eddie Wide (21 runs, 116 yards, 1 TD) and QB Jordan Wynn (16 of 27 for 293 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT); together with Utah’s D (four sacks of a club that totaled just 196 yards), Kyle Whittingham’s club spoiled Nebraska’s first playoff game in seven years (flinch).

Bo Pelini was in on that 2003 playoff game, too (a loss to Washington State in the first round, 19-7), as well as the 2010 game.

*All the scoring in the Oklahoma-Connecticut game happened between the 5:50 mark of the first quarter and the 8:19 mark of the second period. Even so, Randy Edsall’s Huskies (the other 2010 newcomer) had a chance to tie the game or send it into overtime (if not win it in regulation)…but Bob Stoops’ Sooners held UConn at the OU 15 as time expired.

*Here’s the biggest surprise of all: In the next round, Gene Chizik’s Tigers outgained the Badgers, 448-395 (with a 340-229 ground edge) and ran 69 plays to Wisconsin’s 61; meanwhile, Auburn’s Cam Newton (the newest Heisman man) got 137 rushing yards on 23 excursions and a TD while having an 8-for-17 passing day (with 108 yards, a TD, and a pick)…but it wasn’t enough.

Auburn never led.

*The Cardinal intercepted Mallett four times (with two of the thefts by S Delano Howell) to let Jim Harbaugh’s club move on.

*The Buckeyes posted the first of their two playoff shutouts by holding Gary Pinkel’s Tigers to a sickening 2-for-13 showing on third down. In the meantime, Ohio State RB Daniel Herron went on the kind of spree that made him this season’s playoff MVP: He shredded Missouri’s defense for 189 yards (in 22 attempts) and a score.

*Chris Petersen’s Broncos held Les Miles’ Tigers to 46 rushing yards in 32 carries, while RBs Jeremy Avery (11 runs for 103 yards) and Doug Martin (24 rushes, 92 yards, 1 TD) had a spree. And QB Kellen Moore (14 for 26 for 206 yards) flipped three air scores…all to WR Titus Young.

*The Hokies eliminated Chip Kelly’s Ducks by stopping Oregon RB Kenjon Barner at the one-yard line on a two-point conversion try after he’d scored a TD from that same spot with 12:59 to go in overtime.

*Wynn’s 23-yard scoring toss to WR Luke Matthews (with 9:45 to play in the second OT) embarrassed Mark Dantonio’s Spartans out of these playoffs.

*Andy Dalton (17/27/168 yards) had three air scores for Gary Patterson’s Horned Frogs, who not only scored this game’s final 28 points, but also held Oklahoma to 155 yards of total offense.

*In the quarterfinals, Wisconsin got its powerful ground game back, with White having a 14/127/1 TD game and Clay toting it 22 times for 105 yards and two tallies.

*Ohio State put pesky Texas A&M out of the playoffs when QB Terrelle Pryor, at 9:15 of the second overtime, heaved a 22-yarder to WR Dane Sanzenbacher, who took it to the house; Pryor then threw a conversion pass to RB Brandon Saine.

*Boise State’s balanced attack (256 rushing yards, 263 passing yards) combined with a sack-happy defense (six sacks- two by DE Jarrell Root) ended Virginia Tech’s spree.

*The Horned Frogs’ offensive display continued; this time, they totaled 703 yards (284 on the ground, 419 in the air) to send Utah home. Dalton had a 30-for-44 game in which he fired six TD passes- three scoring tosses to WR Jimmy Young (who caught seven passes for 142 yards). While all that was going on, TCU RB Ed Wesley had a 21-run, 154-yard, 2-TD game.

The Utes were their own worst enemy, thanks to 16 penalties for 86 yards.

*In the semifinals, the Buckeyes held the Badgers’ Clay to 15 yards in 14 excursions…while Herron broke loose for 96 yards on 20 runs. Meanwhile, the Frogs’ prowess on third down (12 for 20) combined with their ability to cause three Bronco fumbles cost Boise State a trip to the title game.

*In the championship game (the second in a row for the men from Fort Worth), TCU took a quarter to get untracked due to a pick and a lost fumble. What’s more, Texas Christian couldn’t stop Herron…who got 118 yards in 25 attempts and scored three times.

After taking the count to 28-22 (with 50 seconds to play in the fourth quarter- and that was thanks to Dalton flicking a one-yard air score to RB Matthew Tucker and following that with a two-point conversion pass to WR Josh Boyce), the Horned Frogs tried an onside kick…but the Buckeyes were able to snare the kick and merely run out the clock.

Well, there it is. It just goes to show you that Division 1-A football doesn’t really have any Little Sisters of the Poor…despite what the Gordon Gees and Jim Delanys like to teach.

Don’t be surprised if next season’s Division 1-A playoff cycle offers further proof.

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Breakthrough in Las Vegas

Posted on January 19, 2011 by bostonsblog

Time to confess another guilty pleasure of mine:

I watched this past Saturday night’s Miss America pageant. (In fact, I’ve been faithfully watching it most of my life…and started taping it or burning DVDs of the telecast in September 1989.)

Were you watching last year’s pageant (the last one- thus far- shown on TLC), when Caressa Cameron ended up bringing the crown back to Virginia?

The 2010 Miss America telecast (the last one- thus far- hosted by Mario Lopez) had Vivica A. Fox, Shawn Johnson (that’s right, Olympic fans and Dancing with the Stars aficianados, that Shawn Johnson), and Rush Limbaugh in there among the celebrity judges.

I can imagine what the plane ride from Las Vegas back to New York City had to be like not only for Limbaugh, but also for cohost (and Miss America 1989) Gretchen Carlson, who also cohosts Fox & Friends.

That’s right, the same Gretchen Carlson who, in September 1989, put the most famous crown an American can wear on the head of Debbye Turner. (I still remember being mesmerized by Turner’s marimba solo!)

This time, with ABC inaugurating its third stint at televising an event that got started in Atlantic City in 1921 (only to see the event switch to Sin City in 2006), it all came down to a pianist and a ventriloquist.

And the pianist won.

What’s more, she came from Nebraska!

Western Nebraska, at that!

I’ve got the feeling we’re going to be hearing from seventeen-going-on-eighteen-year-old Teresa Scanlan for a long time to come.

For starters, the Gering, NE native (she’ll turn eighteen on 2-6-2011) was named the youngest Miss America winner since 1938 (the year an Ohioan named Marilyn Meseke got the prize).

And after Cameron put that famous tiara on Scanlan, the first thing the newest pageant winner did was hold up her left index finger in a victory salute.

How many Husker football fans were watching ABC this past Saturday?

Scanlan became the first Nebraskan to even be named a Top Ten finalist. And, in this year’s pageant (hosted by The Bachelor’s Chris Harrison and DWTS cohost Brooke Burke), the Scottsbluff-Gering High School senior became the first 2011 finalist to slug it out in the pageant’s talent competition.

And she knocked it out of the park.

Teresa went right to the piano and did a piece by Calvin Jones: “Whitewater Chopsticks.” (I’d found out about “Whitewater Chopsticks” by watching a few other pianists play it on www.youtube.com, but Scanlan really tore through the piece in front of a live, international TV audience.)

The rest of the pageant’s remaining finalists (they invite twelve now to do the talent competition, but let only ten actually do their thing; the other two finalists are left to contemplate What Might Have Been) either sang or danced.

Well…not quite.

The next-to-last finalist to show off a talent was 22-year-old Alyse Eady (she’s from Fort Smith, AR)…our ventriloquist.

Eady brought not one, but two figures (don’t, don’t, DON’T call them “dummies”) to help her wow the crowd at Vegas’ Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino (as well as that worldwide television audience).

And Alyse did it with Patsy Montana’s “I Wanna Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart.”

As a vocal trio, too!

It almost worked. Had the judges picked a woman whose platform involved the Boys and Girls Club, she would’ve been the first ventriloquist to walk away to the strains of “There She Is” since Vonda Kay Van Dyke- the last of two Arizonans to win it all- took that walk in September 1964.

For anyone still thinking: “Well, there you are. It just goes to show you how corny this pageant still is!” think about this:

1. The Miss America Organization and all the TV networks it’s been working alongside the last dozen years or so have been bending over backwards to show TMAP is still poppin’…has still got it goin’ on…well, you dig where I’m coming from.

2. With Jeff Dunham and Terry Fator (he of America’s Got Talent) knocking ‘em dead, I wouldn’t put down the art of throwing your own voice. Besides, the world wouldn’t have ever heard of Lisa Whelchel (the Facts of Life star who went on to marry a pastor and become a stay-at-home mom AND a best-selling author) if she hadn’t decided, back home in her native Texas, to pick up a figure named Arthur and learn ventriloquism herself…and it got Whelchel on The New Mickey Mouse Club, Disney’s second try at forming a group of Mouseketeers.

3. Eady cited none other than Shari Lewis as a role model. (All those years of the new Miss America first runnerup watching Lamb Chop’s Play-Along and The Charley Horse Music Pizza had to pay off.)

Speaking of paying off…the world’s largest scholarship program for women worked out fine for the last two standing. While Alyse Eady walked away with a $25,000 scholarship, Teresa Scanlan pocketed $50,000…which she’s going to use to get through a Virginia school called Patrick Henry College.

Scanlan’s going to study politics there. What’s more, she wants to become a judge…and then a politician.

And you can’t beat her platform, either: Scanlan wants to help women identify and defeat eating disorders.

Some more history: The previously-homeschooled Nebraskan became the first pianist to win the pageant since…Missourian Turner’s successor as Miss America, Marjorie Vincent. (By the way, if you get on YouTube, you can check out Illinoisan Vincent’s talent performance, too.)

Well, now that a Cornhusker Stater “got ‘r done,” that leaves eighteen states, the US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico as still looking for their first TMAP winner. (Two from Washington, DC ended up wearing The Tiara- Miss America 1944 Venus Ramey and the very first to win it, Margaret Gorman. And Gorman was only fifteen!)

At any rate, despite all the questions the outcome of the 90th Miss America get-together already has raised (“Is 17 too young to be struttin’ your stuff in a bikini?” “Is Teresa Scanlan a good or bad role model for young girls?” “She may be 17, but why does she look 40?”), Scanlan’s going to make a fine Miss America.

I’m Jim Boston, and thanks for checking out this blog!

(PS: Eady would’ve made a fine Miss America, too.)

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Some Questions for Some of America’s Best-Known Conservatives

Posted on January 12, 2011 by bostonsblog

I’m still thinking about what happened this past Saturday in Tucson, AZ.

That’s where, at a local shopping mall, a man named Jared Loughner opened fire during a Congressional visit. He killed six people (one of them nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green) and injured fourteen others…including the US representative holding that meet-and-greet, Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ).

Giffords is fighting for her life…and, thankfully, is on the mend.

May she and the others who were injured sustain full and complete recoveries. (Hope they’re speedy recoveries, too!)

The last four days have seen lots and lots of statements about the Tucson massacre; today, the US House opened the floor to tributes to Giffords and to the six victims of Loughner’s bullets.

First of all, a proclamation honoring the Tucson victims and the US rep from their district was offered. Also, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and his predecessor, US Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA; she’s now the House Democratic leader) led the rest of the House in prayer.

Speaking of Boehner…John, if you don’t mind, I’ve got some questions about the whole Tucson uprising for you and your fellow big-name political conservatives.

First, let me ask Sarah Palin this question:

*Sarah, you spent all of 2010 and most of 2009 urging your fellow conservatives to reload instead of retreating. (You DID use that to defend Laura Schlessinger’s use of the “N” word on so-called talk radio. Remember?) Are you proud of what Jared Lee Loughner did this past weekend?

*Sharron Angle, you spent most of last year asking for “Second Amendment remedies” to America’s problems.

Were last Saturday’s Arizona shootings REALLY what you meant?

By the way, Sarah and Sharron, when you use terms like “lock and load,” “don’t retreat, reload,” and “Second Amendment remedies,” remember that not everybody thinks of these terms as metaphors. Keep in mind that when you put up Websites that feature guns and crosshairs- and you put pictures of people inside those crosshairs- you invite situations such as the one that took place this past weekend.

*Jan Brewer, I’ve got something for you now. You know, your state has some of America’s most lenient gun-control laws…and when laws like that are that lenient, they invite mass murders like Saturday’s.

Now, you did express sadness over the weekend’s shootings. I just hope that sadness you expressed is genuine.

What if another Arizona Democrat in the US House, Raul Grijalva, had been the target of assassins’ bullets? Would you STILL feel sorrowful?

*Okay, Rush Limbaugh, it’s your turn. After all, you’ve had a huge role these last 23 years in coarsening the political discourse here in the United States. The conservatives DO control America’s political conversation today, you know.

As you get your golf pointers from Hank Haney (Tiger Woods’ old coach), are you cracking any jokes about the shopping-mall murders?

*You find last Saturday’s events funny, too, Glenn Beck?

*And as for you, Michael Savage…yeah, you! You once told your listeners that if people are political liberals, they’re suffering a mental illness.

Now, Michael, I want you to think about Jared Loughner.

Now think about Gabrielle Giffords.

Which of these newsmakers do you consider to be sane: Giffords or Loughner?

*Andrew Breitbart, you and your fellow conservative bloggers aren’t immune to this questioning, either. You’re just as culpable for the environment that brought six lives to an end in Arizona’s second-largest city (and threatened fourteen other lives) as are the country’s so-called talk-radio hosts and those who wouldn’t vote a couple of months ago…to say nothing of the politicians living on character assassination to get votes.

Last year, some of you conservative bloggers called for the vandalism of certain House members’ offices due to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act- one of the biggest reasons the GOP’s Tea Party segment started making headlines to begin with.

Giffords’ Tucson office was one of those that sustained damage.

Are you conservative bloggers glad Giffords took a bullet to the head?

Would you have preferred her death?

Listen, these questions NEED to be asked! If you’re going to call for bloodbaths such as the one that happened eight days into this new year, and they take place, you need to claim responsibility instead of passing it off.

*Now to you, G. Gordon Liddy.

The whole world knows that your role in the Watergate scandal helped drastically reduce Americans’ trust in their country’s politicians. Yet, that hasn’t stopped you from calling for more incidents like the 4-19-1995 bombing of Oklahoma City’s Murrah Federal Building. (Remember that one? 168 people were killed, thanks to the likes of American-born terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.)

Are you satisfied with what went down in Tucson last weekend?

*Finally, I’ve got one more question…and it’s for the new Republican majority in the US House of Representatives.

I watched some of today’s House proceedings on C-SPAN, and all the representatives I watched- Democrats and Republicans alike- had praise for Gabrielle Giffords, the other thirteen people nursing injuries from Jared Lee Loughner’s bullets, and the six people who were killed trying to help Giffords make our brand of government work (another of the victims was a judge over there in the Grand Canyon State, 70-year-old John Roll).

I truly hope that your sorrow is genuine.

And I realize that some in the GOP are chomping at the bit, eager to get back to Business As Usual…including the high-pitched, highly-polarized, highly-polarizing vindictive that helped bring the Tucson shootings about.

America doesn’t NEED Business As Usual.

So…are you and the Democrats in the House going to, at long last, stand up to the National Rifle Association and strengthen America’s gun laws?

Don’t wait until another US representative- be he or she a Republican, a Democrat, a member of some other party, a member of no party at all- gets shot at, let alone killed, before you finally say: “Enough is enough!”

Please…both sides…make the healing last and last and last.

Please give Giffords something to come back to her job to.

It’s long been time for us to act like the civilized country we like to proclaim ourselves to be.

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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Posted on January 9, 2011 by bostonsblog

It’s a date that COULD live in infamy.

No, I’m not making light at all about what Franklin D. Roosevelt said to Congress in one of the most pivotal speeches in human history. My dad ended up being one of the 12 million Americans who served in this country’s military during the four years the United States fought in World War 2.

Dad served in the Army from 1942 to 1944; he was originally stationed at Camp Wheeler, GA, then he was transferred to Fort Warren, WY.

And the Army was where the seeds of Dad’s future got planted: He learned auto mechanics.

By 1952 or so, James A. Boston Sr. was working alongside my paternal grandfather (James Boston; 1895-1990) and one of my uncles (Hughes Boston; 1918-1999) in the auto reconditioning business in Des Moines, IA.

By 1965, Granddad and Uncle Hughes were ready to retire from the gig…and Dad became the sole proprietor of Boston Clean Car Service.

And Dad kept at it until he called it quits in 1996.

Only he found it some kind of difficult to retire from something he truly loved. (Dad loved the challenge each vehicle he worked on provided.)

Well, Dad worked off and on as a freelance auto reconditioner until, on 7-13-1998, he suffered a stroke.

He ended up between hospitals and nursing homes until his death on 12-9-2000.

Last month, Dad would’ve turned 89…and I don’t know how he, Uncle Hughes, and Granddad would’ve felt about Barack Obama giving the most recent inaugural address in American history…or Obama’s efforts to end America’s record as the last major nation to enact some sort of program where all of its citizens can enjoy affordable health insurance.

And I don’t know how my dad, uncle, and their father would’ve felt about America’s newest installment of Congress…the one that just got into session this past Wednesday.

Yeah, you know…the Congress where the Democrats still have a majority in the Senate (barely; they’ve got 51 of the 100 seats) and the Republicans, after a four-year wait, are back in charge of the House.

And this time, the Republicans are out to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (on the books since 3-23-2010).

In fact, there’s going to be a House vote next Wednesday on repeal.

YECCH!!

You know, last Wednesday, when this country’s 112th Congress was about to settle in, the newest House Speaker, US Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), promised “transparency, greater accountability, and a renewed focus on the Constitution.”

In his first speech in his new gig, Boehner talked of humility, openness, and responsibility…as well as “great challenges.”

He also said that Democrats would be heard during this new Congress.

Yeah…right.

Boehner left the Capitol to go emcee some celebratory events later in the day…and as soon as he left, it was Business As Usual. (A party-line fight broke out over GOP rules changes…like taking territorial delegates’ voting power away and alterations on “pay as you go” budgeting to allow for tax cuts without corresponding spending cuts.)

And, of course, the Elephants didn’t ask the Donkeys for any pre-repeal-vote input.

And how about that stunt (that’s right…I said “stunt”) where 135 US representatives- albeit Democrats and Republicans alike- each read a piece of the Constitution- aloud at that?

And they didn’t read the whole thing, either!

I checked out www.usatoday.com after I got home from work that night and read about the new House’s antics…and got a very telling quote from American Enterprise Institute spokesperson Norm Orenstein.

Orenstein called Boehner’s first speech as Speaker of the House “lovely, reasonable, statesmanlike.”

Norm also said: “We’re very soon moving from low-key discussions of openness and bipartisanship and humility into pedal-to-the-metal confrontation.”

I DID go out and vote on 11-2-2010…and I know that millions of Americans who also cast ballots that day (and voted Republican- something I refuse to do) are going to take a look at what’s going on and say: “I voted Republican last year…but I didn’t vote for THAT!”

We sure forget our history, don’t we?

In fact, Paul (the one from the Bible, not the one from the Beatles) would’ve called so many of us here in the United States “baby citizens.”

Here’s why: When it comes to getting ready to cast a ballot, far too many of us just don’t do our homework on the candidates for this or that office. It’s tempting to just rely on ABC or CBS or CNN or Fox Gossip (oops, I mean Fox News) or MSNBC or NBC to check out this or that candidate…but watching the tube isn’t enough.

It’s okay to check out your local newspaper (be it the print version or the online one). It’s all right to read a newsmagazine or two or three (the Internet version or the slick version).

And I like www.factcheck.org. (Maybe you like The Huffington Post or its polar opposite, Newsmax.) I like going to FactCheck because it’s more evenhanded than most sources of its kind…and I used that Website a lot during the 2008 election cycle.

Speaking of 2008…an estimated five million Americans who happily cast ballots that year stayed home last year and chose to watch election coverage rather than being a part of it.

The reason many of those people gave: “Well, you know, the Democrats weren’t motivated enough.”

I don’t know about that kind of reasoning.

I mean, whatever happened to motivating yourself?

Does somebody always have to lead you and me by the hand before we get fired up about something? I mean, I think about all the people who put their lives on the line- and in many cases, they gave up their lives- so that everyone of voting age in America can go out and cast a ballot at their neighborhood polling place.

And it doesn’t matter if the battleground was Bunker Hill, Iwo Jima, Pork Chop Hill, Baghdad, or Birmingham.

My feeling is: When you decide not to go to a polling place when there’s an election, you’re thumbing your nose at all those people who put their lives on the line to expand the right to vote beyond male Caucasian landowners…the nation’s original voting base.

When we don’t check up on the men and women who want our votes, when we don’t check up on these people’s platforms and philosophies, when we don’t differentiate between the wedge issues Republicans like so much (and this country’s media leaders like to dwell upon, ’cause they seem more glamorous to cover) and the real issues still to be faced here in America (issues that affect whether or not we get to hold down jobs, educate the children in our lives, get and keep ourselves healthy, etc.), we put ourselves in danger of losing this country.

And we get plenty of Rand Pauls and Steve Kings…and lots of Sarah Palins and Michele Bachmanns.

I still hope I’m wrong about the United States reaching the point where it ceases to be a major political power. I feel we need to get back that “can do” spirit…and fast. (We’re going to darn sure need it in order to keep up with China and India- the two countries that outrank the US in population; they’re also two of the nations that are outperforming the United States when it comes to educating children and getting them ready to make it into the workforce when the children become adults.)

I’m also still not sure the proposals Boehner and his fellow Republicans have for America are what the nation needs to get back on its feet…since these proposals still favor the country’s wealthiest people. (They’re the people who are still refusing to release three trillion bucks into the economy; this money could mean more jobs and more investment in American industry.)

And I want to see health care reform strengthened, not repealed.

After all, it got into the books because of the need to slow down the rising cost of health care in America and to make sure more of us here in these fifty states have health insurance. (PPACA builds on the existing health care system here in the United States…you know, most patients seeing private physicians for care that’s covered by private insurers.)

Doesn’t sound like a government takeover of health care to me.

There’s another election coming up next year…and I hope we, as a nation, can bone up this time. Let’s get that “can do” spirit back.

After all, it’s how America got through the World War 2 years.

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Gordon Gee, Check This Out…and Then, Eat Your Heart Out

Posted on December 26, 2010 by bostonsblog

You bet your life I’ve been itching to put up this post…especially in the month since Ohio State University’s president, Gordon Gee, got interviewed by the Associated Press on 11-24-2010.

Gee- on his fifth gig as a university potentate (he’s already been in charge at West Virginia, Colorado, Brown, and Vanderbilt)-defended NCAA football’s Division 1-A “bowls and polls” system. And in the process, he knocked TCU’s and then-still-undefeated Boise State’s chances of making it to the Extra Bowl (okay, the BCS championship game next month at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, AZ).

When Gee talked about the schedules put together by football teams in 1-A’s six wealthiest leagues- Ohio State’s Big Ten, West Virginia’s Big East, Colorado’s Big 12, Vandy’s Southeastern, the Atlantic Coast, and the Pac-10 (that one’s going to be Colorado’s next circuit starting next academic year, when the league becomes the Pac-12)- he cracked: “We do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor.”

Gordon admitted that he doesn’t know “enough about the Xs and Os of college football.” And he talked about how SEC squads and their Big Ten counterparts go through a “murderer’s row every week.”

And when the subject came to Boise State and Texas Christian, Gee said: “I think until a university runs that gauntlet that there’s some reason to believe that they not be the best teams to (be) in the big ball game.”

Hey, Gordon…you’re talking garbage.

After all, the athletic department at the very school you currently run scheduled a pair of 2010 games involving those so-called Little Sisters of the Poor: Conference USA’s Marshall (your Buckeyes won, 45-7) and the Mid-American Conference’s Ohio (a 43-7 conquest for your Bucks).

Okay…so TCU played a 1-AA team this time around, Tennessee Tech (the Horned Frogs crushed the Golden Eagles, 62-7).

Gordon Gee, I remember when Ohio State used to play 1-AA Youngstown State (the team Jim Tressel used to head up) in football.

And the Buckeyes would always slaughter the Penguins!

And, like this season’s Auburn and Ohio State teams, Boise State didn’t play a single Division 1-AA team in 2010.

If you’ve been a regular reader of “Boston’s Blog,” you know I’m no fan of the so-called BCS system. As far as I’m concerned, not even tradition is a valid excuse for continuing that system of ending any NCAA Division 1-A football season.

And if NCAA Divisions 1-AA, 2, and 3 can conduct football playoffs, Division 1-A ought to have them, too. (Matter of fact, Mark Cuban- that’s right, that Mark Cuban- had the right idea when he offered $500 million to the people who keep 1-A football in the Dark Ages. $500 million to convert 1-A to a playoff system.)

By the way, Mr. Gee…I’m one of the many football fans using computers to conduct this or that version of an NCAA D-1-A playoff system.

Gordon, mine involves 24 teams; all eleven D-1-A football-playing circuits get an automatic bid. And that leaves thirteen at-large squads. Seeding is involved, just like in the Real Life football playoffs the NCAA runs (and the men’s and women’s basketball tourneys conducted by the NCAA)…and it isn’t based on the AP, ESPN-USA Today, or Harris Interactive polls. (And the so-called BCS rankings aren’t used in determining who plays where, either!)

Instead, a point system akin to that used by your state’s high school athletic association to determine pairings for your state’s prep football playoffs is used. A team like, say, Ohio State gets 50 quality points for beating a fellow Division 1-A club that had a winning season. If, say, the Buckeyes took care of a 1-A team that didn’t have a winning season (that means 6-6, too!), the Bucks get just 45 points.

Had Terrelle Pryor’s squad taken on a team from D-1-AA and beaten it, Ohio State would’ve picked up 40 points if the 1-AA team won most of its games…and 35 if the 1-AA contingent lost half or most of its games.

An undefeated club earns an additional 55 quality points.

A team surrenders quality points every time it loses a game, too. If, say, the Scarlet and Gray lose to a winning Division 1-A club, the Buckeyes cough up 50 points. If Ohio State should lose to a 1-A team that, at best, finished at .500, that’ll cost Tressel’s team 55 points.

Now if the Buckeyes lose to a team from Jim’s old division, and that squad enjoyed a winning year, Jim Tressel’s current gig relinquishes 60 quality points.

If the Division 1-AA football team stank (or went .500) and STILL beat Ohio State…the Bucks are out a whopping 65 points.

Gordon, are you hip to this?

With that in mind, here are the 24 clubs that would’ve made the 2010 NCAA Division 1-A football playoffs if NCAA officials and university presidents had had the guts to put something like this together (they’re listed in order of seeding):

1. Auburn (13-0; SEC champ)/ 2. TCU (12-0; Mountain West champ)/ 3. Oregon (12-0; Pac-10 champ)/ 4. Nevada (12-1; WAC champ)/ 5. Ohio State (11-1; Big Ten at-large)/ 6. Boise State (11-1; WAC at-large)/ 7. Michigan State (11-1; Big Ten champ)/ 8. Stanford (11-1; Pac-10 at-large)

9. Wisconsin (11-1; Big Ten at-large)/ 10. Oklahoma (11-2; Big 12 champ)/ 11. Virginia Tech (11-2; ACC champ)/ 12. Oklahoma State (10-2; Big 12 at-large)/ 13. Missouri (10-2; Big 12 at-large)/ 14. Louisiana State (10-2; SEC at-large)/ 15. Utah (10-2; Mountain West at-large)/ 16. Arkansas (10-2; SEC at-large)

17. Hawaii (10-3; WAC at-large)/ 18. Nebraska (10-3; Big 12 at-large)/ 19. Central Florida (10-3; Conference USA champ)/ 20. Northern Illinois (10-3; MAC at-large)/ 21. Texas A&M (9-3; Big 12 at-large)/ 22. Miami (OH) (9-4; MAC champ)/ 23. Connecticut (8-4; Big East champ)/ 24. Florida International (6-6; Sun Belt champ)

All games except the title game are played on campus sites; the higher seed hosts each of the remaining playoff games. And if these contests were held in Real Life, the 1-A playoffs would start a week after the Army-Navy game. (There’d be a different round each week until the title game…and by the way, the top eight seeds sit out the first round.)

In addition, Gordon, these playoffs involve tiebreakers.

The first tiebreaker involves victories by a playoff entry’s Division 1-A opponents. Stanford ducks the first round because all the Division 1-A teams that played the Cardinal during 2010 won 65 games, while Wisconsin’s opponents in the division totaled 64 wins.

And Texas A&M prevented Alabama (the Crimson Tide also went 9-3 this season) from nailing down what would’ve been a third straight playoff appearance because the Aggies’ 1-A foes were successful 84 times this year…and all of the 1-A teams that took on ‘Bama got only 78 victories.

This time, the system had to go beyond that first tiebreaker. This happened because LSU’s and Mizzou’s 1-A opponents racked up 80 wins apiece. Les Miles’ Tigers didn’t play Gary Pinkel’s Tigers this year; as a result, the third tiebreaker- conference records- kicked in.

And that was a dead heat, also: While Missouri went 6-2 in the Big 12 North, Louisiana State finished 6-2 in the SEC West.

Seeding between the team from Columbia, MO and the squad out of Baton Rouge, LA came down to point differential in conference play.

In Big 12 play alone, MU had a 213-126 advantage (an 87-point difference); LSU’s SEC score was a combined 212-165…meaning the Bayou Bengals were 47 points better.

Had the conference point differential been dead even, the fifth tiebreaker would’ve been the all-games margin.

And if that’d been deadlocked, Gordon, it all would’ve come down to a coin flip.

Now, Mr. Gee, let me explain why Michigan State won the Big Ten’s automatic bid. (Remember: If this had been left up to the BCS people, Wisconsin would’ve been awarded the automatic bid.)

The Big Ten had trichampions in the league’s 2010 football season. The Spartans faced only Wisconsin…and beat the Badgers, 34-24. Meanwhile, Bret Bielema’s club also took on Ohio State…and, yep, it happened.

31-18, Wisconsin.

Yeah, Gordon, I know you don’t like TCU football. You made that abundantly clear.

But here’s why Gary Patterson’s club got the second seed (and Chip Kelly’s Ducks got shunted to the third seed): This season’s Ducks played eight Division 1-A teams that had nonwinning seasons (three of them- Tennessee, Arizona State, and Washington- went 6-6) plus had their own Division 1-AA encounter (Oregon demolished Portland State, 69-0).

On the other hand, the Frogs took on just six D-1-A clubs that turned in nonwinning campaigns in 2010- with only BYU going 6-6 (not good enough to give the Cougars a fifth straight playoff appearance).

Well, Gordon Gee, that’s all I’ve got to say right now…except: I hope you find this blog. I hope you check it out…and I hope you stay tuned, because as soon as I get these games played on this computer (the mode I use is computer vs. computer, and I use Lance Haffner Games’ 3-in-1 Football), I’ll post the results on this blog.

And maybe you’ll agree with me when I say: If a university or college meets the NCAA requirements for membership in Division 1 (Division 1-A in football), it’s not really a Little Sister of the Poor.

After all, good is good.

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It’s a Thankless Job

Posted on December 19, 2010 by bostonsblog

Yes, it is.

Being Omaha’s mayor truly is a thankless job.

And it’s all because, if you get elected, chances are very good you’re going to be forced to face some hastily-organized (or carefully-organized) group ready to bring out a petition boasting enough signatures to force an election to get you out of there.

That’s what the River City’s current mayor, Jim Suttle, is up against at the present time.

The successor to fellow Democrat Mike Fahey wasn’t even in there a year and a half (Suttle took the oath of office in June 2009) when a group called the Mayor Suttle Recall Committee got together earlier this year to see if it couldn’t end the ex-city council member’s reign.

The committee’s rationale?

Jeremy Aspen’s group claimed Suttle has given Omahans “excessive taxes, broken promises, and union deals that cost taxpayers millions.”

If Aspen and Co. get their wish, Suttle will be just the second mayor in Omaha history to get recalled…and that depends on whether a recall election scheduled for 1-25-2011 takes place (and its outcome if it does take place).

You see, this coming Monday and Tuesday, a hearing will be held so that the one-time business executive and his legal team can state the case against a recall. It’d be up to the court to block the recall drive.

The first Omaha mayor to get thrown out of office through the recall process was Mike Boyle, who was thrown out of his seat in 1987 over illegalities on his part.

Illegalities have absolutely nothing to do with this latest recall drive.

It’s all about political differences.

Still, the MSRC is gambling that the City of Omaha, Douglas County, and the State of Nebraska will spend about $900,000 on what could be the first local election of 2011…after the MSRC raised $287,639 by 11-23-2010.

We’re told that the drive to get Jim Suttle out of the mayor’s office here in town is a byproduct of America’s alleged discontent over politics. Fact is, here in Omaha, it’s ridiculously easy to start a recall effort: All you need to file a petition to yank an elected official out of there is 10% of the total registered voters.

With that in mind, the recall group needed 26,643 John Hancocks.

It got 28,720 signatures…plus another 9,000 or so that didn’t prove to be valid.

All right…what did Suttle do to rile up the Jeremy Aspens and their supporters?

Well, as soon as he got in, Suttle signed a lease for a car…at a time when Omaha’s finances and credit rating were hurting badly.

Then, he created two new positions out of one…with each new job paying more than the one did by itself.

He ordered the cutting of every local government entity except the Omaha Fire Department. (The city’s fire department has come under, well, fire for being the Big O’s leading money waster.)

Recently, the city’s real estate tax went up 4.9%, the burg’s wheel tax (for street maintenance) shot up by $15 AND became applicable to non-Omahans if they drive here, and a 2.5% restaurant tax was added.

I got on eomahaforums.com to get much of the information going into this post…and found out that a local resident called Suttle’s office to get the city to stop the OFD’s “shoddy” (if not “illegal”) accounting practices. (As things turned out, Nebraska State Auditor Mike Foley said that that private citizen was absolutely right about the OFD’s books!)

I also found out that Suttle and his crew, after convening a series of town hall meetings to find out just what the citizens attending the meetings had to say about Omaha’s budget, ignored the outcome…especially the complaints about the River City’s fire department and about its union.

At least Suttle and his staff have been tackling O’s financial problems…and on 12-7-2010, Jim reported, according to the Nebraska Radio Network, that “We have stabilized the city’s finances for the first time in maybe a decade and Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s have given us glowing remarks as well as the banking industry.”

The restaurant tax helped.

Well, hey…this is a city with more eateries per capita than any other in the United States.

Many people who’ve championed the recall process (and yes, the State of Nebraska allows cities to do recalls) say it’s the only check-and-balance measure rank-and-file citizens have against this or that local government.

But in their drive to oust this former construction-company executive, things have bordered on the silly.

Take the time five weeks and a day ago where Suttle and some local boosters were strolling through Omaha’s Elkhorn business district. One man working to get signatures together to make Suttle a former mayor approached the ex-city council member…to get Suttle’s signature on the petition.

Thing is, our recall petition worker couldn’t even recognize Suttle!

And when asked if he’d like to meet with Suttle and air out his grievances about the way the mayor’s doing things, the recall person said he was too busy to meet with Jim.

Last year, Fahey faced a recall effort…but the people behind that effort didn’t have enough signatures. (Mike Fahey served from 2001 to 2009.)

Mike’s predecessor, former US Rep. Hal Daub (Omaha’s mayor from 1995 to 2001), survived a recall effort, too. The lifelong Republican (you thought local recall attempts happened only to Democrats?) gave residents of O six tax cuts during his time in office…but the last tax cut put Omaha at risk of falling short on paying for the construction of the Qwest Center Omaha.

The last Omaha mayor to serve without facing a recall attempt was…Daub’s own predecessor, real-estate magnate P.J. Morgan, who was at it during the first half of the 1990s, when the city was still smarting over the antics that got Boyle (now a Douglas County commissioner) canned.

Do we really have the money to wage a recall election?

Even Omaha’s Chamber of Commerce doesn’t like the effort to boot Jim Suttle: “We are concerned that the distraction cause by this recall effort will keep us from addressing issues that need attention at the local level.” (And that quote appeared in the Omaha World-Herald on 11-2-2010!)

And who does Jeremy Aspen want to see as the Big O’s next full-time mayor (if not Daub, who not only lost the mayor’s office to Fahey in 2001, but also got beat by Suttle in 2009)?

Jeremy, do you think Nick Nolte, Gabrielle Union, and Jamie King are going to want to come back to Omaha to be its mayor?

King, Nolte, and Union are having too much of a ball out in Los Angeles to want to come back here. (Well, I like to think so!)

I just think we’ve got better things to do with those $900,000 than to wage another election in the dead of winter. (How about using that dough to fix the potholes that are just right now waiting to develop?)

Let’s not make being Omaha’s mayor a thankless job anymore.

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…And They Let You Leave Your Car Overnight for Free

Posted on November 30, 2010 by bostonsblog

Last week, for Thanksgiving, I got the chance to do something for only the second time in my life:

I took a train ride.

It was the first such trip since my only other railroad experience. (That one happened during the summer of 1968, when my mom, younger brother Mike, and I traveled on the Rock Island line from Des Moines, IA to Davenport, IA.)

Can’t do that today, ladies and gentlemen…most (if not all) of the railroad companies have given up on transporting passengers, what with the rise of air travel in the 1960s and beyond (as well as the big, big increase in the number of motor vehicles on America’s roads since the end of World War 2…with the 1956 advent of the Interstate System adding, ahem, gasoline to the fire).

You want to get on a train today, it’s Amtrak.

First of all, the train I needed was scheduled to leave Omaha at 5:14 AM. (Because of that, I needed to take an extra day off in order to get some real sleep…and to get up at 2:00 AM on 11-24-2010.)

Omaha’s one of the few sizable US cities having an Amtrak station. (If you live in Des Moines or Davenport- or any of Davenport’s fellow Quad Cities- you’ll have to go someplace else on the map to catch an Amtrak train.)

As a result, the train I was riding stopped at Galesburg, IL.

It was supposed to arrive there at 11:41 AM…but, instead, was a hour late.

But my older brother Steve was at the Galesburg station, waiting on me to get off the train. And from there, he drove me to Davenport…the city where he spent most of his childhood. [Two aunts- Ellen and Elsie- raised him (in succession, not simultaneously). After Ellen died in 1963, Elsie Cooper got the legal guardianship...only to pass away in 1982.]

Elsie’s funeral was the last time I’d visited the Quad Cities…until last week.

And this past Thanksgiving holiday was a happy, happy time.

Mike, my younger sister-in-law Angela, and their soon-to-be-six-year-old son (my nephew) Jordan drove in from Des Moines to also be with Steve and his wife, my older sister-in-law Linda. (And their youngest son, my nephew Brandon, hopped on a plane from Washington, DC, to come to Davenport.)

Linda and Steve (he was in the US Navy from 1971 to 2006, reaching the rank of commander and spending some time as a Navy Seal) have an older son, Aaron, who’s stationed in North Carolina as a member of the Air Force. (Circumstances couldn’t let Aaron come to Iowa.)

And Brandon, formerly in the Air Force, is now a member of the nation’s oldest branch of the military. That’s right, the Coast Guard.

And just as Steve served with distinction, Brandon and Aaron are doing the same thing.

Steve and I had a darn good conversation on the way to Davenport that Wednesday…and an equally good one on the way to dropping me back off in Galesburg this past Friday. Each time, we got to talking about computer work, about sports, about family, and…about where America’s heading.

With a new Congress less than five weeks away from getting together (and, as I’m typing this, realizing that Barack Obama just got through meeting today with Senate leaders and the incoming House chiefs), Steve and I thought it’d be a great idea NOT to pay any members of this country’s legislative branch unless they get some bills passed that are going to help America’s everyday people.

And one of my coworkers thought that idea up first!

Steve and Linda live in Davenport’s northwest part of town. Man, they’ve got a nice house! (And that’s where we had Thanksgiving dinner…and, of course, watched that day’s football games.)

Man, what a vacation!

Another thing about the train ride out of Nebraska was that the route through Southern Iowa cut across some of the world’s most productive topsoil…as well as a couple of cities (Burlington and Mount Pleasant, IA) with enough historic buildings to make architectural preservationists drool.

Even saw a large abandoned house!

Speaking of abandonment…with the airline industry seemingly doing that to far too many of its customers, all the talk about airport security going too far to suit some travelers, and the continued rise nationwide in the price of a gallon of gas, it’s time for the government to look at putting more money aside to beef Amtrak up.

Yeah, yeah…I know John Boehner and his people aren’t even studying the idea of giving Amtrak more dough. But it’s worth a try.

And if America’s next Speaker of the House is interested in going beyond blowing smoke when it comes to putting more of this nation’s 310 million citizens back to work, he’ll think about helping to give Amtrak more of a leg to stand on.

After all, the rails are a big part of a crumbling infrastructure here in the United States.

Yes, you bet I’d be interested in taking another train someplace. (Thanks, Steve and Linda!!)

What’s not to love about an industry where the Omaha station lets you park your car/truck/van/sport utility vehicle at the station for the duration of your trip…for free?

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