Friday, October 30, 2009

Oregon expects that every Duck player and fan at Autzen will do there duty on Saturday!


Oregon vs U$C on Halloween. The eyes of the nation will be at Autzen when the Ducks take the field. ESPN Gameday on TV and radio are there along with a live prime time nationwide telecast on ABC or ESPN2. A sold out stadium. Both teams ranked in the top 10 with a possible Pac-10 Championship on the line with a big boost to the Rose Bowl for the winner.I can't think of a bigger game in a long time. I will be there! Let's Go Ducks...... Win the day!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Sad Day For Southern Oregon Duck Fans...... Fitz Brewer RIP




It was announced today at the weekly lunch meeting of Medford Linebackers that Fitz Brewer had passed away early this morning. Linebackers is a booster organization for high school sports in Medford and Fitz was, it's fair to say, its most enthusiastic member.Fitz never lost an opportunity to speak positively about high school sports and about his Black Tornado. But Fitz also loved the Oregon Ducks!

To generations of Southern Oregonians, and particularly many many local media reporters over the years, Fitz was the number one Duck fan in Southern Oregon who was always available for a quote, and often a humorous spiritual message about the importance of being a Duck. If there ever was a Duck 24 / 7, it has been Fitz. He was also a generous supporter of the Duck Athletic fund.


Fitz played football for the Medford Black Tornado and after graduation from Medford High school in 1949 Fitz went to the University of Oregon and played football for the Ducks. Fitz never let anyone ever forget those facts! Upon graduation from the University of Oregon, in 1953 he served as a first lieutenant in the Army artillery during the Korean War.In 1968, Fitz opened a branch of the Portland-based Atkinson & Company in Medford and operated the location alone for more than twenty years, building a reputation for his expertise in conservative corporate and municipal bonds and in local securities.
Fitz has served on the Boards of the University of Oregon Foundation and the Rogue Valley Medical Center Foundation, and is a past president of the University of Oregon Alumni Association.He was an Elder in the Presbyterian Church and a long-time member of the Medford Linebackers, the Elks Lodge, the Medford Rotary Club, the Masonic Lodge and Hillah Temple Shrine. He was one of the founders of the Oregon Club of Southern Oregon.

A lifetime resident of Medford, Fitz and his wife of 49 years, Ann, have four grown children and several grandchildren.

Fitz has given much to this community, in volunteer time, money, enthusiasm, boosterism, arm twisting, and positive attitude. He has been more than a Tornado and a Duck.

On a personal note the meetings of the Oregon Club of Southern Oregon will be a duller place without his presence. He could light up a room with his stories and enthusiasm for the Ducks.

As a friend wrote in an email today "As Fitz steps inside the gates of Heaven, you can be guaranteed that God will hear about a team other than Notre Dame."

(Click on the title for a link to an official Oregon archives photo of Fitz playing football for the Ducks with Delmer Clemens.... grandfather to Kellen.)

Condolences to his family and friends.

Fitz always had good seats at Oregon Games but this Halloween night against U$C he will have the best seat in the house. The Ducks lost a very good friend today.




(Some of the information in this post is taken from emails I have received from some of his many friends.)

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

ESPN Gameday Location at Autzen Stadium ( UPDATED)


(On Saturday ESPN Gameday will be in the parking lot in your upper right hand corner of this picture)

(ESPN Gameday will be to your left of this picture in the parking lot on the side of the Cas Center shown in front of Autzen Stadium)

EUGENE - ESPN College GameDay, the nation’s premier college football pre-game program making its fourth Eugene appearance this weekend, will stage its production from the Casanova Center parking lot.

The paved parking lot is located parallel to Martin Luther King Blvd. and north of the Casanova Center, and offers a significant view of Autzen Stadium.

The two-hour live show, presented by The Home Depot, features Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso and Desmond Howard, and is aired nationally beginning at 7 a.m. (PDT).



ESPN Radio’s “College GameDay” program, which will also be in Eugene on Saturday. Hosts Ryen Russillo, Brad Edwards and Trevor Matich will broadcast from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Moshofsky Center, and will have interviews with USC head coach Pete Carroll and Oregon coach Chip Kelly. All the action can be seen via webcam and heard via stream on ESPNRadio.com, and on KUJZ-FM (95.3) in Eugene.



The BCS championship trophy will also be in Eugene this weekend. It will be displayed Friday at two Fred Meyer locations—from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the River Road location, and from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on West 11th Ave.—and will be at Autzen Stadium for Saturday’s game.


All this and Halloween too!

UPDATE:

Click on the title for a link to a web cam so you can watch them set up for ESPN Gameday !

Monday, October 26, 2009

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Oregon Ducks are Bowl Eligible !


In all the excitement over the win over Washington yesterday and the news that ESPN's Gameday is coming to Eugene for the U$C game the fact that Oregon at 6-1 is now Bowl eligible was overlooked. After Boise State some duck fans could not see where Oregon would get 6 wins! Let's Go Ducks.... Win the Day!

For Conservative Movie Lovers: John Ford, John Wayne, & "They Were Expendable" Part II


Last week I posted part I of Leo Grin's article about John Ford and his experiences during World War II. I have now posted a link to Part II of his article that deals with the Battle of Midway and the Academy Award wining Documentary John Ford made of the battle.

June 4, 1942. The Battle of Midway. John Ford was on his back, covered in debris, unconscious. All around him bombs were dropping, buildings were erupting into monstrous fireballs, and young marines were dodging deadly lines of machine-gun strafing sent down by Japanese fighter planes. Ford and his assistant, young Jack MacKenzie Jr. (whose father was an RKO cinematographer) had been perched on the roof of a power station on Eastern Island, brazenly filming the morning attack by the Japanese and reporting enemy plane positions to headquarters, when a bomb landed a scant twenty feet from their position. The shockwave was so great that MacKenzie later recalled he was “bounced flat on my face by the terrific explosion,” adding, “we almost lost Commander Ford.”


Te read the rest click on the title for a link

ESPN GAMEDAY at Oregon on Saturday! (UPDATED)




It's official ESPN Gameday will be in Eugene, Oregon on Saturday October 31 to broadcast their show live from Oregon's Autzen Stadium for the Oregon Ducks Halloween night game with Southern Cal aka U$C. Let's Go Ducks.... win the Day!

ESPN Gameday came to Autzen Stadium twice in 2007.... for the Arizona State Game and for the Cal Bears game. What a Haloween Night this will be. Game starts at 5:15 PM

Witches and Goblins and Jack-O-Lanterns bright
Come to Autzen Stadium on a cold October night
U$C can hear the sound of Oregon runners where nothing can be seen
And.... the strangest things can happen when Oregon wins on Haloween




UPDATE: OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON :

EUGENE, Ore. – ESPN College GameDay has confirmed it will produce its weekly college football preview show from the University of Oregon Saturday morning preceding the No. 10 Ducks' home game vs. No. 4 USC.

Kickoff for the football game, which will be televised on either ABC or ESPN2, is scheduled for 5 p.m.

The premier college football pre-game show, which has aired weekly on ESPN since its inception in 1989, last broadcast from Eugene on Nov. 3, 2007, when Oregon, ranked fourth at the time, hosted then No. 6 Arizona State. That year, GameDay also originated from the UO campus on Sept. 29, when the 11th-ranked Ducks hosted No. 6 California.

The program features hosts Chris Fowler, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard, and will air live from 7 a.m.-9 a.m. (PDT). The show began producing the telecast from college campuses around the country in 1993.

Details surrounding the exact site of the production will be released early this week, with the general public encouraged to be part of the production free of charge.

This will be the fourth Eugene appearance for the show, which includes features, predictions and highlights of some of this week’s top games from around the country, and the fifth time the Ducks have played a role in the network’s award-winning college football preview show. The production’s first Oregon appearance occurred in 2000 when it made its first-ever appearance in the Pacific Northwest on Sept. 23 prior to the Oregon-UCLA game.

Oregon and UCLA also were featured in 1998 when the show originated from the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Oregon Ducks 43, Washington Huskies 19 (Final)


In college football the Oregon Ducks beat the Washington Huskies, in Seattle. A great day to be a Duck! Bring on U$C. Let's Go Ducks!


UPDATE: ESPN Gameday in Eugene next Saturday for U$C ??????????

Friday, October 23, 2009

Washington Week Part III The Game!


I can hardly wait till 12:30 noon on Saturday for the Oregon game against Washington on ABC regional TV. I am not worried about U$C, football polls, standings or potential bowl games. All I am thinking about is beating the Washington Huskies. I hate those guys! I know it's only a game but just thinking about it gets me riled up. I hope those young kids on the Oregon football team realize the importance of this game. Play clean but play hard and bring home a victory! Win the day and Let's Go Ducks!

The following is an old post written by someone else but it empresses my feelings when the Ducks play the Huskies.I have edited it to update it

I AM MIGHT OREGON

To Any Oregon Players Who May Read This .... I am sorry for the distraction you may face this week on account of the fans, the media and our hunger for another win over the Huskies.. True Duck fans everywhere are behind you. This tribute is for you: I am Mighty Oregon. I am the 30 year old couple coming back to campus for the fist time with both little ones in tow. One wears her first green and yellow cheerleader outfit; the other wears #3 even though he's too young to understand why. I screamed IT NEVER RAINS AT AUTZEN STADIUM, even though you can see the thunderous clouds forming and know it will rain. God, I love this place and the Ducks. I am the 60 year old woman meeting her freshman grand-daughter who is now the 3rd generation of UO students in our family. Despite my age, I'd strap it on Saturday and hit someone if it weren't for my gender and this blasted arthritis. I am Mighty Oregon and I have always believed I was different. You can see it when you look up into the stands. My green is not the same as Miami's and my yellow is not that of Michigan. But the differences go much deeper than my colors. I genuinely believe in these things. To be a "real" Oregon man or woman speaks of character, not of geography. All are welcome to walk through my gates, not just the wealthy or the elite. The Big 10, Big 12 and the SEC may have their "nations," but we have always been family. We bleed green and yellow. Make no mistake...we loathe defeat, but even in defeat, we would rather be an Oregon Duck than anything else. We are family and you are the sons of Musgrave, Wilcox and Rashad (or Moore if you prefer). You come from a long line of brothers whose names include Fouts, Sirmon, Wheaton, Droughns, Harrington, Dixon and now Masoli. It is a great heritage and you belong. So this Saturday, when the warm ups are over and the prayer's "amen" spoken, when you hear the roar of the Huskie fans when you stand in the tunnel and feel your heart pounding your chest, listen for my voice when you run onto the field. Behind the frenzy of the shakers and deafening roar, I will tell you something in a whisper you may miss. I will be telling you that you are my sons and I am proud of you for the way you wear the green and yellow, for the way you have stood up in the face of adversity and the way you have fought tooth and nail to win each game. I am telling you that you are my sons and I love you. To all of you - LET'S GO DUCKS!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

WASHINGTON WEEK PART II: THE PICK



TODAY, OCTOBER 22, 2009 IS THE 15TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PICK

I have re-edited a post I made a few years ago for "Washington Week," the week the Oregon Ducks play the Washington Huskies in football. In Washington Week Part I (posted below) I outlined why Oregon fans learned to hate the Huskies and were always losing to them. Now on to Part II.

Washington Week Part II: "The Pick"

On October 22, 1994, Oregon football changed. The 1994 season didn't start out that way. Oregon lost to Hawaii, Utah and Washington State. There were only 25,000 fans at Autzen for Utah. At that game I looked around the parking lot and wondered "where is everybody?." The Ducks had beaten U$C in LA but we thought it was a fluke. Then came the Washington game in Eugene on October 22, 1994. I didn't want to drive three hours from Medford to Eugene to watch another Washington "blow out" of the Ducks. ( see post below) I had been there too many times before. In those days with two teenage children at home my kids took turns going to the games with me as we had two season tickets. It was my daughter's turn and so we drove to Eugene. I always like to park on the campus side of the Willamette River and take the footbridge over to Autzen. On a nice day it's a wonderful walk over the river and through the woods to Autzen. I parked on Franklin Blvd. and walked by the New Oregon Motel. It was full of Husky fans. We had also stopped by the book-store on campus and it was full of Husky fans. We got to the game and took our seats and the game started. Washington was ranked the # 9 team in the nation. Oregon kept it close. Oregon was leading by four points when Washington scored to go ahead 20 - 17 with 7:44 minutes to play. The game seemed to unfold as it had so often. "nice try"..." a moral victory" ... "close but no cigar". NOT THIS TIME. Danny O'Neil Oregon's QB led the Ducks on a 98 yard drive to regain the lead. It will forever be known as "The Drive." The Ducks now led 24-17 with 2:40 to go in the game. Washington then started their own drive and advanced to the Duck 8 yard line with 1:09 to play. With each yard the Huskies made, every Duck fan knew that Washington would score and win the game as they had so many times before. " So close, but no cigar." Then there was a play that will live forever in every Duck heart. Washington had plenty of time to give the ball to heralded tail back Napolean Kaufman. Instead, QB Damon Huard threw the ball in the flat toward Dave Janoski. Kenny Wheaton the Oregon CB timed the throw perfectly and stepped in front of the Washington receiver and intercepted the ball and ran it all the way back for another Duck touchdown to win the game 31-20. I was standing watching the play with my daughter. We both began to jump up and down!!! We then hugged as we both jumped up and down!!!. It was redemption! My daughter and I will always have that moment in time. On my dying day I will remember it. The play became known as "THE PICK". It is shown on the big screen at every Oregon game just as the team comes on the field. Jerry Allen the radio broadcaster's call of the play has become a favorite of Duck fans "KENNY WHEATON'S GOING TO SCORE....KENNY WHEATON'S GOING TO SCORE" I have a framed print of the play hanging in my office.(See picture above) After the game the many Husky fans looked crushed. The three hour trip back to Medford was like floating on air. Oregon went on to win the Pac 10 Championship that year and the entire family went to the Rose Bowl. It was the Ducks first time since 1958.
It was the beginning of the Golden Age of Duck Football ! Lets Go Ducks!... Beat the Huskies!

To see a video of "The Pick," and Jerry Allen's call of the play on the radio, click on the title for a You Tube link. It still sends chills down my back 15 year later!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

" The White House must stop dithering while America’s armed forces are in danger."



Speech by Dick Cheney tonight:


Thank you all very much. It’s a pleasure to be here, and especially to receive the Keeper of the Flame Award in the company of so many good friends......

Most anyone who is given responsibility in matters of national security quickly comes to appreciate the commitments and structures put in place by others who came before. You deploy a military force that was planned and funded by your predecessors. You inherit relationships with partners and obligations to allies that were first undertaken years and even generations earlier. With the authority you hold for a little while, you have great freedom of action. And whatever course you follow, the essential thing is always to keep commitments, and to leave no doubts about the credibility of your country’s word.

So among my other concerns about the drift of events under the present administration, I consider the abandonment of missile defense in Eastern Europe to be a strategic blunder and a breach of good faith. It is certainly not a model of diplomacy when the leaders of Poland and the Czech Republic are informed of such a decision at the last minute in midnight phone calls. It took a long time and lot of political courage in those countries to arrange for our interceptor system in Poland and the radar system in the Czech Republic. Our Polish and Czech friends are entitled to wonder how strategic plans and promises years in the making could be dissolved, just like that – with apparently little, if any, consultation. Seventy years to the day after the Soviets invaded Poland, it was an odd way to mark the occasion.

You hardly have to go back to 1939 to understand why these countries desire – and thought they had – a close and trusting relationship with the United States. Only last year, the Russian Army moved into Georgia, under the orders of a man who regards the collapse of the Soviet Union as the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century. Anybody who has spent much time in that part of the world knows what Vladimir Putin is up to. And those who try placating him, by conceding ground and accommodating his wishes, will get nothing in return but more trouble.

What did the Obama Administration get from Russia for its abandonment of Poland and the Czech Republic, and for its famous “Reset” button? Another deeply flawed election and continued Russian opposition to sanctioning Iran for its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

In the short of it, President Obama’s cancellation of America’s agreements with the Polish and Czech governments was a serious blow to the hopes and aspirations of millions of Europeans. For twenty years, these peoples have done nothing but strive to move closer to us, and to gain the opportunities and security that America offered. These are faithful friends and NATO allies, and they deserve better. The impact of making two NATO allies walk the plank won’t be felt only in Europe. Our friends throughout the world are watching and wondering whether America will abandon them as well.

Big events turn on the credibility of the United States – doing what we said we would do, and always defending our fundamental security interests. In that category belong the ongoing missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the need to counter the nuclear ambitions of the current regime in Iran.


Candidate Obama declared last year that he would be willing to sit down with Iran's leader without preconditions. As President, he has
committed America to an Iran strategy that seems to treat engagement as an objective rather than a tactic. Time and time again, he has outstretched his hand to the Islamic Republic's authoritarian leaders, and all the while Iran has continued to provide lethal support to extremists and terrorists who are killing American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Islamic Republic continues to provide support to extremists in Syria, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories. Meanwhile, the regime continues to spin centrifuges and test missiles. And these are just the activities we know about.

I have long been skeptical of engagement with the current regime in
Tehran, but even Iran experts who previously advocated for engagement have changed their tune since the rigged elections this past June and the brutal suppression of Iran's democratic protestors. The administration clearly missed an opportunity to stand with Iran's
democrats, whose popular protests represent the greatest challenge to the Islamic Republic since its founding in 1979. Instead, the
President has been largely silent about the violent crackdown on Iran's protestors, and has moved blindly forward to engage Iran's authoritarian regime. Unless the Islamic Republic fears real consequences from the United States and the international community, it is hard to see how diplomacy will work.

Next door in Iraq, it is vitally important that President Obama, in his rush to withdraw troops, not undermine the progress we’ve made in recent years. Prime Minister Maliki met yesterday with
President Obama, who began his press availability with an extended
comment about Afghanistan. When he finally got around to talking
about Iraq, he told the media that he reiterated to Maliki his
intention to remove all U.S. troops from Iraq. Former President
Bush's bold decision to change strategy in Iraq and surge U.S. forces there set the stage for success in that country. Iraq has the potential to be a strong, democratic ally in the war on terrorism, and an example of economic and democratic reform in the heart of the Middle East. The Obama Administration has an obligation to protect this young democracy and build on the strategic success we have achieved in Iraq.

We should all be concerned as well with the direction of policy on Afghanistan. For quite a while, the cause of our military in that country went pretty much unquestioned, even on the left. The effort was routinely praised by way of contrast to Iraq, which many wrote off as a failure until the surge proved them wrong. Now suddenly – and despite our success in Iraq – we’re hearing a drumbeat of defeatism over Afghanistan. These criticisms carry the same air of hopelessness, they offer the same short-sighted arguments for walking away, and they should be summarily rejected for the same reasons of national security.

Having announced his Afghanistan strategy last March, President Obama now seems afraid to make a decision, and unable to provide his commander on the ground with the troops he needs to complete his mission.
President Obama has said he understands the stakes for America. When he announced his new strategy he couched the need to succeed in the starkest possible terms, saying, quote, “If the Afghan government falls to the Taliban – or allows al-Qaeda to go unchallenged – that country will again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can.” End quote.

Five months later, in August of this year, speaking at the VFW, the President made a promise to America’s armed forces. “I will give you a clear mission,” he said, “defined goals, and the equipment and support you need to get the job done. That’s my commitment to you.”

It’s time for President Obama to make good on his promise. The White House must stop dithering while America’s armed forces are in danger.
Make no mistake, signals of indecision out of Washington hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries. Waffling, while our troops on the ground face an emboldened enemy, endangers them and hurts our cause.

Recently, President Obama’s advisors have decided that it’s easier to blame the Bush Administration than support our troops. This weekend they leveled a charge that cannot go unanswered. The President’s chief of staff claimed that the Bush Administration hadn’t asked any tough questions about Afghanistan, and he complained that the Obama Administration had to start from scratch to put together a strategy.

In the fall of 2008, fully aware of the need to meet new challenges being posed by the Taliban, we dug into every aspect of Afghanistan policy, assembling a team that repeatedly went into the country, reviewing options and recommendations, and briefing President-elect Obama’s team. They asked us not to announce our findings publicly, and we agreed, giving them the benefit of our work and the benefit of the doubt. The new strategy they embraced in March, with a focus on counterinsurgency and an increase in the numbers of troops, bears a striking resemblance to the strategy we passed to them. They made a decision – a good one, I think – and sent a commander into the field to implement it.

Now they seem to be pulling back and blaming others for their failure to implement the strategy they embraced. It’s time for President Obama to do what it takes to win a war he has repeatedly and rightly called a war of necessity.

It’s worth recalling that we were engaged in Afghanistan in the 1980’s, supporting the Mujahadeen against the Soviets. That was a successful policy, but then we pretty much put Afghanistan out of our minds. While no one was watching, what followed was a civil war, the takeover by the Taliban, and the rise of bin Laden and al-Qaeda. All of that set in motion the events of 9/11. When we deployed forces eight years ago this month, it was to make sure Afghanistan would never again be a training ground for the killing of Americans. Saving untold thousands of lives is still the business at hand in this fight. And the success of our mission in Afghanistan is not only essential, it is entirely achievable with enough troops and enough political courage.

Then there’s the matter of how to handle the terrorists we capture in this ongoing war. Some of them know things that, if shared, can save a good many innocent lives. When we faced that problem in the days and years after 9/11, we made some basic decisions. We understood that organized terrorism is not just a law-enforcement issue, but a strategic threat to the United States.

At every turn, we understood as well that the safety of the country required collecting information known only to the worst of the terrorists. We had a lot of blind spots – and that’s an awful thing, especially in wartime. With many thousands of lives potentially in the balance, we didn’t think it made sense to let the terrorists answer questions in their own good time, if they answered them at all.

The intelligence professionals who got the answers we needed from terrorists had limited time, limited options, and careful legal guidance. They got the baddest actors we picked up to reveal things they really didn’t want to share. In the case of Khalid Sheik Muhammed, by the time it was over he was not was not only talking, he was practically conducting a seminar, complete with chalkboards and charts. It turned out he had a professorial side, and our guys didn’t mind at all if classes ran long. At some point, the mastermind of 9/11 became an expansive briefer on the operations and plans of al-Qaeda. It happened in the course of enhanced interrogations. All the evidence, and common sense as well, tells us why he started to talk.

The debate over intelligence gathering in the seven years after 9/11 involves much more than historical accuracy. What we’re really debating are the means and resolve to protect this country over the next few years, and long after that. Terrorists and their state sponsors must be held accountable, and America must remain on the offensive against them. We got it right after 9/11. And our government needs to keep getting it right, year after year, president after president, until the danger is finally overcome.

Our administration always faced its share of criticism, and from some quarters it was always intense. That was especially so in the later years of our term, when the dangers were as serious as ever, but the sense of general alarm after 9/11 was a fading memory. Part of our responsibility, as we saw it, was not to forget the terrible harm that had been done to America … and not to let 9/11 become the prelude to something much bigger and far worse.

Eight years into the effort, one thing we know is that the enemy has spent most of this time on the defensive – and every attempt to strike inside the United States has failed. So you would think that our successors would be going to the intelligence community saying, “How did you did you do it? What were the keys to preventing another attack over that period of time?”

Instead, they’ve chosen a different path entirely – giving in to the angry left, slandering people who did a hard job well, and demagoguing an issue more serious than any other they’ll face in these four years. No one knows just where that path will lead, but I can promise you this: There will always be plenty of us willing to stand up for the policies and the people that have kept this country safe. On the political left, it will still be asserted that tough interrogations did no good, because this is an article of faith for them, and actual evidence is unwelcome and disregarded. President Obama himself has ruled these methods out, and when he last addressed the subject he filled the air with vague and useless platitudes. His preferred device is to suggest that we could have gotten the same information by other means. We’re invited to think so. But this ignores the hard, inconvenient truth that we did try other means and techniques to elicit information from Khalid Sheikh Muhammed and other al-Qaeda operatives, only turning to enhanced techniques when we failed to produce the actionable intelligence we knew they were withholding. In fact, our intelligence professionals, in urgent circumstances with the highest of stakes, obtained specific information, prevented specific attacks, and saved American lives.

In short, to call enhanced interrogation a program of torture is not only to disregard the program’s legal underpinnings and safeguards. Such accusations are a libel against dedicated professionals who acted honorably and well, in our country’s name and in our country’s cause. What’s more, to completely rule out enhanced interrogation in the future, in favor of half-measures, is unwise in the extreme. In the fight against terrorism, there is no middle ground, and half-measures keep you half exposed.
For all that we’ve lost in this conflict, the United States has never lost its moral bearings – and least of all can that be said of our armed forces and intelligence personnel. They have done right, they have made our country safer, and a lot of Americans are alive today because of them.

Last January 20th, our successors in office were given the highest honors that the voters of this country can give any two citizens. Along with that, George W. Bush and I handed the new president and vice president both a record of success in the war on terror, and the policies to continue that record and ultimately prevail. We had been the decision makers, but those seven years, four months, and nine days without another 9/11 or worse, were a combined achievement: a credit to all who serve in the defense of America, including some of the finest people I’ve ever met.

What the present administration does with those policies is their call to make, and will become a measure of their own record. But I will tell you straight that I am not encouraged when intelligence officers who acted in the service of this country find themselves hounded with a zeal that should be reserved for America’s enemies. And it certainly is not a good sign when the Justice Department is set on a political mission to discredit, disbar, or otherwise persecute the very people who helped protect our nation in the years after 9/11.
There are policy differences, and then there are affronts that have to be answered every time without equivocation, and this is one of them. We cannot protect this country by putting politics over security, and turning the guns on our own guys. We cannot hope to win a war by talking down our country and those who do its hardest work – the men and women of our military and intelligence services. They are, after all, the true keepers of the flame. Thank you very much.

Sen Lamar Alexander: White House "don't create an Enemies List!



In 1973 I supported the impeachment of Richard Nixon even though I agreed with him on many political issues and in spite of his being a boy hood hero of mine. I felt he had abused the power of the Presidency and I value freedom over any political party. I am certainly NOT calling for the impeachment of Barack Obama; but, I am very concerned by acts and words of his administration that have or could have a chilling effect on free speech in this country. Today, Senator Lamar Alexander, not know as a firebrand within the Republican party, gave an important speech on the floor of the United States Senate outlining why he and others have a concern for the undue exercise of Presidential power by the present administration. The White House is not Chicago! The text of Senator Alexander's speech:



Floor Remarks: “Don’t Create an Enemies List”

Sen. Lamar Alexander


In 1969 and during the first half of 1970, I was a wet-behind-the-ears, 29-year-old staff aide in the West Wing of the Nixon White House. I was working for the wisest man in that White House, Bryce Harlow, who was a friend of President Johnson, as well as the favorite staff member of President Eisenhower, and President Nixon’s first appointee.


Based upon that experience and my forty years since then in and out of public life, I want to make what I hope will be taken as a friendly suggestion to President Obama and his White House: don’t create an enemies list.


As I was leaving the White House in 1970, Mr. Harlow was heading out on the campaign plane with Vice President Spiro Agnew whose job was to vilify Democrats and to help elect Republicans. The Vice President had the help of talented young speechwriters, the late Bill Safire and Pat Buchanan. In Memphis, he called Albert Gore, Sr., the “southern regional chairman of the eastern liberal establishment.” He labeled the increasingly critical news media, “nattering nabobs of negativism.”


Those phrases have become part of our political lore. They began playfully enough, in the back and forth of political election combat. After I had come home to Tennessee, they escalated into something more. They eventually emerged into the Nixon enemies list.


In 1971 Chuck Colson, who was then a member of President Nixon’s staff and today is admired for his decades of selfless work in prison reform, presented a list of what he called “persons known to be active in their opposition to our Administration.” He said he thought the administration should “maximize our incumbency . . . [or] to put it more bluntly, . . . use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.” On that list of 20 people were people like CBS correspondent Daniel Schorr, Washington Star columnist Mary McGrory, Leonard Woodcock, the head of the United Auto Workers, John Conyers, the Democratic Congressman from Michigan, Edwin Guthman, managing editor of the Los Angeles Times, and several prominent businessmen such as Howard Stein, of the Dreyfus Corporation and Arnold Picker, vice president of United Artists. The New York Times and the Washington Post were made out to be enemies of the Republic.


Now make no mistake, politics was not such a gentlemanly affair in those days either. After Barry Goldwater had won the Presidential nomination in 1964, Daniel Schorr had told CBS viewers that Goldwater had – quote – “travel[led] to Germany to join-up with the right wing there” and – quote “visit[ed] Hitler’s old stomping ground.” -- unquote. Schorr later corrected that on the air.


What was different about Colson’s effort, though, was the open declaration of war upon anyone who seemed to disagree with administration policies. Colson later expanded his list to include hundreds of people, including Joe Namath, John Lennon, Carol Channing, Gregory Peck, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Congressional Black Caucus, Alabama Governor George Wallace. All this came out during the Watergate hearings. You could see an administration spiraling downwards. And, of course, we all know where that led.


Now the only reason I mention this is because I have an uneasy feeling, only ten months into this new administration, that we’re beginning to see symptoms of this same kind of animus developing in the Obama administration.


According to Politico, the White House plans to “neuter the United States Chamber of Commerce,” an organization with members in almost every major community in America. The Chamber had supported the President’s stimulus package and some of his early appointments, but has problems with his health care and climate change proposals.

The Department of Health and Human Services imposed a gag order on a large health care company, Humana, who had warned its Medicare Advantage customers that their benefits might be reduced in Democratic health care reform proposals—a piece of information that is perfectly true. This gag order was lifted only after the Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said he would block any future nominees to the Department until the matter was righted.


The White House Communications director recently announced that the administration would treat a major television network, Fox News, as “part of the Opposition.” On Sunday White House officials were all over talk shows urging other news organizations to “boycott” Fox and not pick up any of its stories. Those stories, for example, would include the video that two amateur filmmakers made of ACORN representatives explaining how to open a brothel. That’s a story other media managed to ignore until almost a week later when Congress decided to cut ACORN’s funding.


The President has not stopped blaming banks and investment houses for the financial meltdown even as it has become clear that Congress played a huge role, too, by encouraging Americans to borrow money for houses they couldn’t afford.


He was “taking names” of bondholders who resisted the GM and Chrysler bailouts.



Insurance companies, once the allies of the Obama health care proposal, have suddenly become the source of all our health care problems—because they pointed out, again correctly, that if Congress taxes insurance premiums and restricts coverage to those who are sicker and older, the cost of premiums for millions of Americans is likely to go up instead of down.

Because of that insubordination, the President and his allies have threatened to take away the insurance companies antitrust exemption.


Even those of us in Congress have found ourselves in the crosshairs:


The assistant Republican leader, Sen. John Kyl of Arizona, said to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that the stimulus plan wasn’t working. The White House wrote the governor of Arizona and said, “If you don’t want the money, we won’t send it.” Sen. McCain said that this could be perceived as a threat to the people of Arizona.


Sen. Bennett of Utah and Sen. Collins and I as well as Democratic Senators Byrd and Feingold all have questioned the number and power of the 18 new White House czars who are not confirmed by the Senate and have suggested that is a threat to constitutional checks and balances. The White House refused to send anyone to testify at congressional hearings. Sen. Bennet and I found ourselves “called out” on the White House blog by the President’s communications director, Anita Dunn.


Even the president, in his address to Congress on health care, threatened to “call out” members of congress who disagreed with him.


This behavior is typical of street brawls and political campaign consultants. It is a mistake for the President of the United States and the White House staff.


If the President and his top aides treat people with different views as enemies instead of listening to what they have to say, they’re likely to end up with a narrow view and a feeling that the whole world is out to get them. And as those of use who served in the Nixon administration know, that can get you into a lot of trouble.

This administration is only ten months old. It’s not too late to take a different approach – both at the White House and here in the Congress.


Here is one opportunity. At the beginning of this year, shortly after the President’s inauguration, the Republican leader, Sen. McConnell, addressed the National Press Club. He proposed that he and the President work together to make social security solvent. He said that he would make sure the President got more support in that effort from Republicans than President George W. Bush got from Democrats when he tried to solve the same problem. President Obama held a summit on the dangers of the runaway costs of entitlements which I attended. Every expert there said making social security solvent was essential to our country’s fiscal stability. There is still time to get that done.

On clean energy, Republicans have put forward four ideas: build 100 nuclear plants in 20 years, electrify half our cars and trucks in 20 years, explore offshore for low-carbon natural gas and for oil, and double energy research and development for alternative fuels. The administration agrees with this on electric cars and research and development. We may not be far apart on offshore exploration. And, at his town meeting in New Orleans last week, the President said the United States would be “stupid” not to use nuclear power. He is right, since nuclear reactors produce 70% of our carbon free electricity. So why don’t we work together on this lower-cost way to address clean energy and climate change instead of enacting a national energy tax?


On health care, the White House idea of bipartisanship has been akin to that of a marksman at the state fair shooting gallery: hit one target and you win the prize. With such big Democratic congressional majorities, the White House figures all it needs to do is unify the Democrats and pick off one or two Republicans.

That strategy may win the prize but lose the country. Usually, on complex issues, the President needs bipartisan support in Congress to reassure and achieve broad and lasting support in the country. In 1968 I can remember when President Johnson, with bigger majorities in Congress than President Obama has today, arranged for the Civil Rights Bill to be written in open sessions over several weeks in the office of the Republican leader, Everett Dirksen. Dirksen got some of the credit; Johnson got the legislation he wanted; the country went along with it. Instead of comprehensive health care that raises premiums and increases the debt, why should the White House not work with Republicans step by step to reduce health care costs, and then, as we can afford it, reduce the number of Americans who don’t have access to health care?

The President and his Education Secretary Arne Duncan have been courageous-- there is no better word for it-- in advocating paying teachers more for teaching well and expanding the number of charter schools. These ideas are the Holy Grail for school reform. They are also ideas that are anathema to the labor unions who support the President. President Obama’s advocacy of master teachers and charter schools could be the domestic of equivalent of President Nixon going to China. I, among others, admire his advocacy and have been doing all I can help him.


Having once been there, I can understand how those in the White House feel oppressed by those with whom they disagree, how they feel besieged by some of the media. I hope the current White House occupants will understand that this is nothing new in American politics—all the way back to the days when John Adams and Thomas Jefferson exchanged insults. The only thing new is that there are today multiple media outlets reporting and encouraging the insults 24 hours a day.

As any veteran of the Nixon White House can attest, we’ve been down this road before and it won’t end well. An “enemies list” only denigrates the Presidency and the Republic itself.

Forty years ago, Bryce Harlow would say to me, “Now Lamar, remember that our job here is to push all the merely important issues out of the white house so the president can deal with the handful of issues that are truly presidential.” Then he would slip off for a private meeting in the Capitol with Democratic leaders who controlled the congress and usually find a way to enact the president proposals.

Most successful leaders have eventually seen the wisdom of Lord Palmerston, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who said, “We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies.

The British writer Edward Dicey was once introduced to President Lincoln as “one of his enemies”. "I did not know I had any enemies,” was the Lincoln’s answer; And Dicey later wrote, “I can still feel, as I write, the grip of that great boney hand held out to me in token of friendship."

So here’s my point. These are unusually difficult times, with plenty of forces encouraging us to disagree. Let’s not start calling people out and compiling an enemies list. Let’s push the street-brawling out of the White House and work together on the truly presidential issues: creating jobs, reducing health care costs, reducing the debt, creating clean energy

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Washington Week Part I


This is a re post of a post I make every year when the Oregon Ducks play the Washington Huskies with a few minor changes.

To every Oregon Duck Fan "Washington Week" is the week the University of Oregon Ducks play the University of Washington Huskies in football. This year the game will be Saturday in Seattle at the "mistake by the lake" on ABC TV at 12:30 PM.
There has been bad blood between these two schools for years.. It started in 1948 when there was a tie between Cal and Oregon to go to the Rose Bowl. In those days ties were settled by a vote of the Pac 8 schools. (the Arizona schools were then not part of the conference.) Oregon expected the Northwest schools to stick together but Washington voted for Cal and as a consolation the Ducks led by QB Norm Van Brocklin went to the Cotton Bowl. Before Autzen stadium was built Oregon would play some of it's home games against Washington at Multnomah Stadium in Portland. In the 50's it was not unheard of for fistfights to erupt in the stands between Duck and Washington fans. In 1968 I drove to Seattle to watch Oregon beat Washington 3 to 0 on a Ken Woody field goal during a rain swept game. During the 1970, 1980 and into the 1990's Washington dominated the Ducks and were the premier team in the Northwest. Husky fans would descend on Eugene and Autzen Stadium in their god awful purple and would almost outnumber the Duck yellow and green. They would fill up Eugene hotels like locusts and bring their large band. Husky fans became known for their arrogance. Once on a trip to Seattle I ask a Husky fan the outcome of a game and was treated like a fool to expect anything but a Husky win. My Dad, not a football fan, was treated the same way when he struck up a conversation with a Husky fan at a hotel before an Oregon/Washington game. I know it's only a game but I learned to hate the Huskies and their fans. At Husky home games they would blow their siren after each score as they beat the sh** out of hapless Duck teams. That all ended on October 22,1994, and I was there!!! (Has it been 15 years!) To be continued... Lets Go Ducks!

Sunday, October 18, 2009

For Conservative Movie Lovers: John Ford, John Wayne and "They Were Expendable"


Leo Grin in Breitbart has a wonderful article on John Ford's war time experiences during World War II and one of my favorite movies, "They Were Expendable" which I can watch over and over again.. A sample of the article is as follows:

“[John Ford] was the only one of the Hollywood directors who fought who did not forget his men.”

– Captain Mark Armistead, USN –

Thus quotes Joseph McBride in his masterful biography Searching for John Ford, at the head of the chapter dealing with the director’s wartime activities. It is usually seen as lamentable when a genius is pulled from the practice of his art for any extended period, but here we must make a special allowance. As filmmaker Lindsay Anderson (1923-1994) explains in his essential critical volume About John Ford (which, like the McBride book, should be sitting proudly and dog-eared on the bookshelf of every conservative film fan): “War service took Ford away from the making of films for some three years when his powers were at their height. One would regret this interruption more had it not led directly to the making of a masterpiece.”
The masterpiece of which he speaks is a 1945 war film called They Were Expendable, and if you are a conservative who has never seen it, then you have denied yourself one of the most moving and achingly poetic expressions of your worldview ever put to celluloid......

(To read more click on the title for a link..... it will be well worth your time)

Historian Douglas Brinkley in Medford

Saturday night the Jackson County Library Foundation kicked off it's inaugural Southern Oregon Art & Lectures season with noted historian Douglas Brinkley. Dr Brinkley spoke at the South Medford High School Auditorium on the subject of his latest book "Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America." Since Teddy Roosevelt is one of my favorite Presidents and the Oregon Ducks had a bye my wife and I obtained some tickets from a colleague who is on the Library Foundation Board. There was a nice turnout and Brinkley gave a nice talk about Teddy Roosevelt.After his speech he took questions from the audience and was ask as a historian what characteristics made a great president. He said both TR and FDR were great Presidents but TR always told the truth and FDR was noted not telling the truth , and I paraphrase, always telling people want they wanted the hear.

An Ashland bookstore was selling some of Brinkley's books in the lobby and I purchased his book titled "Ronald Reagan, D-Day and the U.S. Ranger Battalion." The book tells the story of "The Boys of Pointe Du Hoc" from D-Day in 1944 through President Reagan's speech there in 1984 on the 40th anniversary of the allied landings at Normandy. A few years ago I had the opportunity to visit "Pointe Du Hoc" where the Rangers scaled the cliffs to pierce Hitlers "Atlantic Wall" and where Reagan spoke. After his lecture Brinkley autographed books and I had him autograph my book. All an all a pleasant night in Southern Oregon.

The following is an old post on this blog:



Ronald Reagan Speech -- Pointe de Hoc, Normandy, June 6, 1984 (The 40th anniversary of D-Day)

We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied peoples joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.

We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but forty years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.

The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers -- at the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machine-guns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After two days of fighting only ninety could still bear arms.

Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there.

These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.

Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender's poem. You are men who in your 'lives fought for life...and left the vivid air signed with your honor'...

Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith, and belief; it was loyalty and love.

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.

You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.



Some who survived the battle of June 6, 1944, are here today. Others who hoped to return never did. "Someday, Liz, I'll go back," said Private First Class Peter Robert Zanatta of the 37th engineer combat battalion, and first assault wave to hit Omaha Beach. "I'll go back and I'll see it all again. I'll see the beach, the barricades and the graves." Those words of Private Zanatta come to us from his daughter, Lisa Zanatta Henn, in a heartrending story about the event her father spoke of so often.
Private Zanatta's daughter wrote to me: "I don't know how or why I can feel this emptiness, this fear, or this determination, but I do. Maybe it's the bond I had with my father. All I know is that it brings tears to my eyes to think about my father as a 20-year-old boy having to face that beach."
Through the words of his loving daughter, who is here with us today, a D-Day veteran has shown us the meaning of this day far better than any president can. It is enough for us to say about Private Zanatta and all the men of honor and courage who fought beside him four decades ago:

We will always remember We will always be proud. We will always be prepared so we may be always free.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Friday Night Lights ( Update:South Medford Wins)



2009 "BLACK & BLUE BOWL" TONIGHT !

Tonight at Spieglberg Stadium will be the cross city high school football game between the South Medford Panthers vs the North Medford Black Tornado.
Football has always been big in Medford. Before they split the town into two high schools the Medford Black Tornado were a perennial powerhouse in the state of Oregon. It was sometimes referred to as "The University of Medford." When I first came to town in the 1970's there was still only one high school and I had a difficult time identifying with the Black Tornado. I had grown up in the Coos Bay/ North Bend area and had a strong dislike for the Black Tornado as a result of everything from football to their debate team. Therefore I was happy to see the school split. I was even happier, when I discovered that we lived in a area on the east side of Medford where my kids were on track to go to South Medford. Therefore from the time the kids were in grade school we made a practice of going to South Medford football and basketball games. The kids are long gone into the adult world but my wife and I still have season tickets for South Medford football and basketball. When the school was spit North Medford took the the records, mascot, and for some, the arrogance of the Medford Black Tornado! About the time my kids were ready to go to high school South Medford had developed a reputation on the east side of Medford as the "poor school" and many east side parents played games on where they lived in order to get their kids into North Medford. The dividing line runs east to west but the North Medford district on the more prosperous east side grew faster with new subdivisions than did the east side south of the dividing line.. There were reports that some real estate agents warned parents about buying homes in the South Medford area. We refused to play games and our kids went to South and each got a very good education from very caring teachers.Don't get me wrong, North Medford is a good school with good parents and kids and the old divisions seem to be disappearing.We are lucky to live in a community where there are good schools that give it's students many opportunities in sports and academics.

Since the split South has been the dominate basketball school and North the dominate football school.

Since the split 24 years ago South Medford has won 9 Black & Blue Bowls and North Medford has won 14.

Both teams play their home games at Speiglberg Stadium. This year, South Medford will be the home team for the Black & Blue Bowl, so we will be able to sit in our reserved seats. The North Medford fans will be required to move across to the other side of the stadium to the visitors section.

GO SOUTH!


UPDATE: SOUTH MEDFORD WINS OVER NORTH MEDFORD 28 TO 21!


South Medford tried to give the game to North Medford with a large number of turnovers and penalties and only took the lead for good late in the fourth quarter
and then had to withstand a late drive by North to win the game. South held deep in their own territory to take over the ball and run the clock out. South is a superior team and had some spectacular plays but North Medford gave them a real scare. Congratulations to both teams. High school football at it's best.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

NFL: Michael Vick Yes...... Rush Limbaugh No ! UPDATE





NFL Quarterback Michael Vick plead guilty to Federal charges "Conspiracy to Travel in Interstate Commerce in Aid of Unlawful Activities and to Sponsor a Dog in an Animal Fighting Venture". In addition, he admitted to providing most of the financing for the operation itself, as well as participating directly in several dog fights in Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and South Carolina. He also admitted to sharing in the proceeds from these dog fights. He further admitted that he knew his colleagues killed several dogs who did not perform well enough. For this he was sentenced to Federal prison

In late November 2008, Vick was transported to Virginia to face the state charges. He submitted a guilty plea to a single Virginia felony charge for dog fighting, receiving a 3 year prison sentence, imposition of which was suspended upon condition of good behavior, and $2500 fine.

Upon release from federal prison,on August 13, 2009, Vick signed a one year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles. He will earn $1.6 million. On September 15, 2009, Vick was activated to the 53-man roster. All with NFL approval

On October 14, 2009 the NFL forced Rush Limbaugh's partners to drop him from a group trying to buy the St Louis Rams.

I lost interest in the NFL a long time ago...... What a bunch of hypocrites!

UPDATE:


Charles Krauthammer's Take


From last night's Fox News All-Stars.

Look, he has been libeled. These accusations are truly outrageous, without basis, broadcast on CNN. And Rick Sanchez has apparently not apologized or even withdrawn [the accusation]. He sidestepped and said, well, there are other accusations. That's disgraceful.

And the comment he [Limbaugh] made about McNabb: I don't think it makes him any more racist than the comment Larry Summers made about women in the sciences made him a sexist.

And is this all you can pin on Limbaugh who has been on the air three hours a day for 20 years? The total number of words there has to exceed the Bible and Shakespeare combined — and all you got on him is the Donovan McNabb?

I think this clearly is a case where a club, the NFL has decided, it does not want an outspoken conservative. But you can't say that. It's obviously about ideology, so you blame it on racism, which is a false accusation, and I think they ought to apologize to him.

He doesn't have a right to own an NFL team. It's not a legal case, and they can say no. It's a private club. But it's the wrong thing to do.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Three Ducks in Pasadena (OREGON 24 - UCLA 10)




This last weekend my wife and I met our daughter in Pasadena, California to attend the University of Oregon football game with the UCLA Bruins.UCLA plays their home games in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Oregon won 24 to 10 and it was good seeing our daughter who took a flight in from Washington DC where she lives. We drove down I-5 from Medford and we stayed at the Pasadena Hilton which was the Oregon team hotel. In addition to the game we got to got to go to "Old Pasadena" and visit the shops and had a couple of good meals at some of the restaurants there. All in all a very good trip.

TRIP DOWN
We left Medford early on Thursday and traveled down I-5 with a stop for a picnic at a nice roadside rest area. While driving we listened to Rush Limbaugh on the radio and some of our music CD's.Thursday night we found a nice Best Western Motel across the I-5 freeway from the Harris Ranch. I would highly recommend the Best Western there. It was all on one floor and the rooms have all been newly reconditioned. We then drove over the freeway overpass to the Harris Ranch for dinner. I had my favorite the tri tip steak diner with eggs. On Friday we continued on down the road and took the "grape vine" over the mountains into L.A. We got to the Pasadena Hilton after a few false turns about a half hour before our daughter arrived from LAX in her rental car. While waiting we met a nice couple who were Ducks from Eugene who had flown down for the game.Throughout the weekend we kept running in to this couple and enjoyed their company.


PASADENA

After we met up with our daughter we checked into our room and then walked over to a large Record/CD store about 6 block from the Hilton. We then walked over to Old Pasadena and did a little shopping. I found a great book on Bob Dylan at Barnes & Noble. The book covers all of the songs from his albums released between 1962-1969. After freshening up in our hotel room we went back to Old Pasadena for dinner and then we called it an early night to get ready for the game.

GAME DAY - SATURDAY

We got up early and had breakfast in our room from items we had purchased the night before at a fancy grocery store. We watched ESPN Football Gameday on TV. We then took our daughters rental car to Old Pasadena to a parking lot where they had a shuttle bus to the game. We got to the Rose Bowl about 2 1/2 hours before the game and walked all around the outside and got some great pictures. We greeted the three Oregon Team buses when they arrived at the Rose Bowl. We then found a nice shady spot to rest while we waited for them to open up the stadium. The new President of the University of Oregon and his wife came by and gave us a "Go Ducks!" We also saw the nice couple from Eugene again and talked to them. Once they opened up the stadium we walked around the stadium inside the fence and stopped at the "Rose Bowl Hall of Fame." We then go some chicken teriyaki with a rice bowl and found another place in the shade next to the couple from Eugene. We then found our seats in the corner end zone (the upper left in the picture above on the press box side) along with about 8 thousand other Ducks. We met a lot of Ducks from Southern California, Arizona and Nevada.

THE GAME

It was a sunny day in the mid 70's.The first half was fairly uneventful and ended with a 3 to 0 half time score with UCLA leading. The UCLA QB was unable to test Oregon's back up CB because he could not accurately throw deep. Oregon's defense played a great game and had some great sacks. At half time our daughter went to get us some frozen lemonades and missed Oregon's two touchdowns in the opening seconds of the second half. In the opening kick off of the second half Oregon took the ball in their own end zone and ran it back 100 yards for a touchdown. Then, when UCLA had the ball Oregon intercepted the UCLA QB and ran that back for a touch down with only seconds burned in the second half. When our daughter got back to our seats we told her to go away so Oregon would score again. This was picked up by other Ducks sitting around us in a good natured way. After Oregon scored again the UCLA fans who had been late arriving, to begin with, began to exit the Rose Bowl as we waved goodbye to them. All in all the UCLA fans are nice folks but I don't think they take football that seriously.The stadium replay folks managed by UCLA would only show replays when UCLA did something good. When an Oregon defensive player really blind sided the UCLA QB for a sack they wouldn't show it on replay so all 8000 Ducks started to chant "Show the replay" over and over but with no luck. I could feel the hit were I was and it was a spectacular legal hit. After the game with almost every UCLA fan gone "slick Rick" (UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel) or "New Weasel" came to a microphone on the side of the field to apologise for his teams poor performance and begged the fans to come back next week as they would "fix the problem." Oregon fans have hated Neuheisel since he went for a fake punt in the Cotton Bowl when his Colorado team lead Oregon with a big lead late in that game.He then went to hated Washington and led his players out to Oregon's midfield after he had defeated Oregon for a little celebration and picture taking.No love lost there! After the game the Oregon players came over to the Oregon fans to thank them for coming. It's always a good day when Oregon can come down to LA and get a victory on the road.

POST GAME - GAME DAY

After the game we got in a long, long line for the shuttle bus to take us back to Old Pasadena. The line was long but moved fairly fast and we then went to one of my favorite places to eat Buca di Beppo for dinner. We then went back to the Hilton, called our son to share the win with him,(He watched it on his computer on the internet) and then watched some more collage football on TV before we drifted off to sleep.


SUNDAY

On Sunday we checked out of the hotel and had a goodbye brunch with our daughter at a nice Pasadena restaurant before we headed back to Medford. We drove up I-5 through Sacramento and stopped at a motel in Woodland.

MONDAY

We drove the rest of the way back to Medford and our daughter made it back to Washington DC.


The Ducks have a bye next week and I sure need it. I have been to 5 straight games and I need some rest!

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

No Dalai..........Lama for Obama!


United States President Barack Obama will not meet with the Dalai Lama because he does not want to offend the totalitarian government of China where he will go "hat in hand" asking for more loans to finance his deficit spending programs.

And doom marches on!

Monday, October 05, 2009

The Long Weekend



This last weekend started Thursday night when we took a good friend up to Callahan's lodge up on the Siskyou Pass for her birthday dinner. On Friday night I went to the South Medford vs Lincoln High football game here in Medford. It was a nice night and South Medford won

Saturday morning my wife and I packed the car and headed up I-5 to Eugene for a Saturday night game at Autzen stadium between the University of Oregon Ducks and the Washington State Cougars. We met some relatives at Roaring Rapids Pizza Parlor( formerly Pietro's) between Eugene and Springfield about 12:30 and had a nice lunch talking with Berry, Debbie and their son. From there we drove back to Cottage Grove to checked into our motel. We then drove back to Eugene for the game. We parked on the campus side of the Willamette River and took the footbridge over to the game. It was a beautiful fall day.We had been invited to sit up in the the Athletic Directors sky suite high up in Autzen Stadium. We normally sit with the masses in section 13 but this was like being invited up from steerage class to first class on a old fashioned ocean liner. We first went up the escalators to the "Club At Autzen" and visited the fancy Duck Shop located there. We then took the elevator up to the sky suite ( Middle floor of the three floors shown on the picture above)The suite was like a living room with a wet bar and refrigerator filled with beer, wine, pop and bottled water. There was also a good selection of food and snacks. Facing the field were three rows of theater seats with a good view of the field. There were two TVs in the suite so we could keep track of other games. Best of all to this "old man" a private bathroom. No standing in line at halftime after a long walk for me this week. There were some friends there from Medford and we met several other nice couples from other Southern Oregon cities. We had a great view to the North past the other side of the stadium and could see all the way to the Coburg Hills and the vast greenery of Oregon. The view was almost surrealistic. Oregon took an early lead in the game and coasted to a 52 to 6 win.The stadium looked full at the start of the game. Many students left at half time and did not come back. We were the last folks to leave the sky suite after the game and walked back across the bridge and drove back to our motel in Cottage Grove. Sunday we had breakfast at the motel and drove back to Medford. What a great weekend. Go Ducks beat UCLA next week in the Rose Bowl!

Next home game we will be back in "Steerage class."

Friday, October 02, 2009

Top 10 Reasons Chicago Didn't Get the Olympics by Rich Lowry


When you want to cry humor is the best medicine.

From the National Review blog "The Corner":

10. Dead people can't vote at IOC meetings

9. Obama distracted by 25 min meeting with Gen. McChrystal

8. Who cares if Obama couldn't talk the IOC into Chicago? He'll be able to talk Iran out of nukes.

7. The impediment is Israel still building settlements.

6. Obviously no president would have been able to acomplish it.

5. We've been quite clear and said all along that we didn't want the Olympics.

4. This isn't about the number of Olympics "lost", it's about the number of Olympics "saved" or "created".

3. Clearly not enough wise Latina judges on the committee

2. Because the IOC is racist.

1. It's George Bush's fault.

Thursday, October 01, 2009

" When France chides you for appeasement, you know you're scraping bottom."


Obama's French Lesson By Charles Krauthammer.

Bismarck is said to have said: "There is a providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children, and the United States of America." Bismarck never saw Obama at the U.N. Sarkozy did.
Click on title for the column and see my post below titled "Sarkozy's Contempt For Obama".

And doom marches on.

Joe Lieberman on Iran



I have supported President Obama’s decision to make a good faith effort to engage the Iranian government in direct diplomacy. By doing so, the President has put the global spotlight exactly where it belongs: on Iran’s intransigence.


Unfortunately, however, there has been nothing in the Iranian leaders’ behavior since President Obama came to office to ever suggest they are now any more likely to reciprocate the President’s good faith, or accept their responsibilities under international law, than they were on January 20th. On the contrary, there is significant evidence past and present that gives us reason to believe that they will try to exploit the current attempt at engagement by the West, just as they have exploited past attempts at engagement, as an opportunity to ensnare us in a process without end, while they continue to advance toward a nuclear breakout.


I know that there are some who argue that, in the wake of the protests following Iran’s June 12 election, the Iranian regime will now be more amenable to striking a deal, in order to defuse tensions at home. I disagree. It seems to me that what we have witnessed in recent months in Iran is a consolidation of power within the regime by its most hard-line elements.


As a result, I fear that we are now dealing with an Iranian leadership that is even more ideologically inflexible, and thus less likely to accept negotiated compromises and agreements—including ones that are in their national self-interest. The fact is, the Iranians have lied and cheated and violated their obligations under international law for years—and thus far, they have gotten away with it. So why would they now change course?...

“The bottom line is this: it is not enough for the Iranians to engage in a process in Geneva today. That process needs to yield results—and quickly.”


While the Iranians engage in their "rope-a-dope" charade they are buying time to build their nuclear weapons right under our nose. How many times will we fall for this!

And Doom marches on