What Am I Doing Here?

As I am watching Bob Costas sleepwalk his way through the Olympic prime time segment of the Beijing Olympic marathon every single night, I am wondering why I am here sitting in my kitchen with six month old mail piled up all over the place with nothing to write about.

There does not seem anything in my mind that is happening that really appeals to me as a subject of writing. The Russians signed a truce with Georgia and agreed to pull their troops out of their advanced positions in Monday. Well, it's Friday, and they kinda sorta have moved a little bit. Meanwhile, they blew up a key bridge just for giggles. Nothing to write about here. None of this news was very surprising. I considered sending Russian President for Life Putin a letter stating that he had made his point and could now pull back his troops. His point was that Russia is back as a military force ready to push around other countries again that dare rattle their cage and that the US is so spread thin that they will not make a move to protect one of it's stated allies. This fact must make the Ukraine, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania feel very secure. The Ukrainians are extremely worried that they are next on the list of Russian prom date massacres and have stated as much in their discussions with the US and their neighbors who are also quivering. The Russians in the last five years poisoned a presidential candidate, cut of gas and oil supplies, and massed troops at the border just to menace their border guards. Ukraine is Russia like Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska are to the US...key agricultural land, which Russia is sorely without. What? Siberia is not a place to grow corn?

So do I talk about Michael Phelps who, by himself, made the Olympics relevant again in the US? What is there to talk about that has not already been said? Phelps is a phenom. Phelps is the most gifted athlete in the last two years. He has more gold medals than any other athlete ever in any sport. Phelps looks like he is 15. He seems quirky. His diet is somewhere around 12,000 calories a day, which is 11,990 calories more than the Olsen twins combined consume in a day. What I wonder about Phelps is when he chooses to pack it in as a world class athlete (what else does he have to prove?) and hangs up the speedo racer suit that helped everyone break world records this year, what will his diet be like then? Will he continue to consume the Olsen twins every day? If so, will he bloom out to the weight of Tony Soprano or Marlon Brando? Will he then end up on The Biggest Loser? If he ends up on that show, then I am watching that. I am not watching him swim again. There's no point in that. No real drama there. But, ten years down the line when he weighs 463 pounds and is on a reality TV show trying to lose weight because he can't stop eating large pizzas with pepperoni every night followed by a 54 oz. milkshake from Sonic? That is something I want to see.

What about writing about the upcoming election? What is there to say about a botox addicted grumpy Republican running against Oprah? What is exciting about that? One married into $100 million dollars and the other....umm...umm...umm...I don't know...he probably has $100 million in a slush fund in Grenada. Who knows? My only thought right now is that I am praying that Oprah Obama does not pick my governor as the VP candidate. First off, selecting Tim Kaine would be a disaster for him and the state of Virginia. Kaine has no national Q rating. He really is not someone that would inspire those undecided voters in Oklahoma or Texas to vote for Oprah. If the state loses Kaine then all bets are off in Virginia and everything that he has gained here will go completely out the window. He also would get to opt himself out of the biggest budget mess that Virginia has seen in 15 years and we simply can't allow that. It's a rule. You're not allowed to leave office with a $1 billion deficit early. No way. You've got to stay and deal with it. Gov. Terminator in California is dealing with it so must everyone else. My message to Oprah Obama is to pick Wesley Snipes as his running mate.

Gorby Is Back!!!

We have not heard from Mikhail Gorbachev for a while. I was not sure that he was even still alive. Or if he was in a villa near the Black Sea under house arrest. I also wondered whether or not that red blotch on his head had grown larger or even morphed into the head of Stalin. Who knows. So, the former Soviet leader who gave us glasnost and the start of the era of oligarchy in Russia decided to weigh in on the whole Russia invasion of Georgia debate.

His op-ed in the Washington Post this past weekend was a bit of a surprise given it's tone of nationalistic propaganda. His point was that Russia had no other choice, but to launch a military offensive against Georgia. He advised that Georgia's provocation and sabre rattling of the Russian bear cage has been a spur in Russia's hide for years. He added that when Georgia attacked the capital city of South Osseita in order to target separatists and Russian "peace-keepers" that the ONLY reasonable response was to launch an invasion deep into Georgian territory, launch air strikes on Georgia's capital, and to start a naval blockade of the country.

Really? No choice?

Mr. Red Blotch Head, there is always a choice. Especially when it comes to military responses. Russia had a number of options available to her besides launching a full blown invasion of a independent sovereign nation. They could have reinforced their peace-keeping forces. They could have pulled out their forces. They could have evacuated people out of the area who wanted to leave. They could have taken a defensive stance against the Georgian military in order to drive the army out and repel the offensive against their own troops. However, what is forgotten in all of this is that South Ossetia is NOT a part of Russia. It is part of Georgia. The Georgians have every right to lay claims to their own territory. They have every right to deal with separatists in the region who were waging war against the government (even though the Georgian government is so corrupt that they deserve to be attacked). Georgia's mistake was that they also attacked Russian military peace-keepers. Bad move. Complete miscalculation. Georgia had to know that if they were silly enough to attack the Russian military that the bear cage would be opened and the result would have been a typical Russian over reaction.

The Russians did have a choice on how to deal with the situation. They had several reasonable responses in order to protect it's people and military. However, they went Mike Tyson (in his prime) on Georgia hitting knock out blow after knock out blow whenever and wherever it was possible. They even bit Georgia's ear (twice). It eventually took the French (of course!) to broker a cease-fire to end the pummeling. The Russian military is deep into Georgian territory beyond the lines of the South Ossetia region. They have assisted another break-away region in Georgia to rebel against the Georgian military. It is this type of response that causes other countries to avoid trusting and working with Russia (except for rogue countries that no one else will play in the sandbox with), which in this flat world economy will prove to be a major disadvantage.

However, this is where Gorbachev was correct in his op-ed piece. The United States has done very little as a major super power to elicit trust and cooperation from the international community by acting in the same manner of overreacting by using it's military to go overboard in protecting it's interest. Gorbachev stated that the US response of condemning Russia was narrow minded. He is correct. The US to react with righteous indignation about this crisis is utterly ridiculous and proves that the current US administration lives in a major double standard. It's OK that we rain on someones parade for no apparent logical reason, but not OK for someone else.

It is Gorbachev, in the end, that also provides the over reaction that is consistent with his home nation's response to everything. So no one should be surprised. Russia did have a choice in how to respond. They chose the most illogical and disproportionate response. Of course, they did what we would do...so who could blame them?

When Russia's Bear Cage Is Rattled...It Gets Opened

I have been asked by a number of people in the last twenty-four hours about my thoughts about the Russian invasion of the country (not the state) of Georgia on Friday. This story was the second or third most read story on most news oriented websites yesterday. The top stories in the U.S. were John Edwards confession of his extramarital affair in 2006 and the Olympic opening ceremony in China. So the timing of a Russian invasion of one of it's former republics was good timing from the Russian PR perspective.

Not that the Russians particularly worry themselves over bad international PR. Matter of fact, they were more than happy to have this PR event as proof that the Russian "super power" is nothing that satellite nations on it's border want to mess with.

The Russians have had heated relations with all of it's former republics since each of them became sovereign after the fall of the USSR. They have taunted them, threatened them, and even punished them at times for their insolence. The Russian FSB poisoned a pro-American presidential candidate in the Ukraine. They cut off gas and oil supplies to that country out of spite. They have been threatening the country of Georgia for years that if they rattled the Russian bear cage hard enough that they would just open the cage.

So none of this is of any surprise to anyone who knows Russian history. Russian history is cluttered with multiple incidents of jumping on top of smaller countries on their border in an effort to expand their territory. They have been doing this for centuries. They have just been looking for an excuse to strike another neighbor and prove to the world that the big Russian bear has now woken up and is ready to eat and destroy everyone in it's wake. They got that excuse with Georgia.

The Georgian republic of South Ossetia has attempted to separate themselves from Georgia for the last decade. The population of the republic (slightly more than the city of Lynchburg, Virginia) are mostly Russian and have thrown their lot with Moscow. The Georgian, pro-US government (mainly because of their corruption which is always a lure to the Bush White House) have attempted to reel them back into the fold ever since. The Georgian separatists have been fighting the Georgian military for a number of years to a virtual stalemate. Russian military peace-keepers (the ultimate of oxymorons) have been in the region in order to keep the peace between the two sides. The Russians have threatened the Georgians that if they made any significant attempt to re-take South Ossetia by force would result in nasty consequences. On Thursday, the Georgian military entered South Ossetia to once and for all to re-take the republic. They launched air strikes and troops directly at the Russian "peace-keeping" troops.

As a result, the bear cage was opened on Friday.

Now, the rational response to the situation would be either to reinforce Russian peace-keeping troops and drive the Georgian forces out (leaving out the question as to whether or not Russian troops should have been in Georgian territory anyways) or pull all of their military and citizens out of the region. However, in the world of the three degrees of President Asterisk (Bush), rational thought is non existent. Russian President Medvedev who is a clone of Prime Minister (and president for life) Valdimir Putin who is a clone of President Asterisk "decided" to hit the nail with a tank instead of a hammer. The Russian military under the guise of protecting it's "peace-keeping" troops and it's citizens launched a full blown invasion of South Ossetia and Georgia. They launched air strikes on both key financial, military, and civilian targets in Georgia. They thrusted 2,500 ground troops and moved their naval fleet to the Georgia coast to the west. Scores of citizens and troops have been killed (some count hundreds and others state something close to 1,500) in the melee.

Georgia has appealed to it's ally the U.S. and to the U.N. for assistance which is akin to asking New York City citizens to rescue someone from a mob of thugs. The response from the US and the UN has been sharp words, but little action. Georgia who has applied to be a member of NATO (another major sore point for Russia) have seen that application go out the window. They are now going to be on their own.

Russia wants to prove a point. The point is that they are again re-emerging as a financial and military power. This is steeped deep in their history. Their history is full of self-imposed and outside influenced paranoia. They fear their own selves and any other country near them for fear that they will be invaded and possibly subjugated (e.g. the Mongols, the Finns, the French, and the Germans). The response of Russia given their paranoia is to always appear to be a significant threat to anyone who messes with them. They rattle their own bear cage to show everyone that it is ready to strike at any given moment. Their message: "Hit the cage with a stick and we'll let the bear out. Period. No mercy will be permitted as a result." This is the classic Russian motto to the world. We have now seen it again.

So now that Russia has proven their point. Yes, they are paranoid. Yes, they have re-emerged as a significant financial force in Europe. Yes, they have the appearance of military might. The only reasonable option. As if the President Asterisk clones in Russia are reasonably rational!! The only reasonable option is shut the operation down. Stabilize South Ossetia to the level where there is peace in the region with negotiations on what is in the best interests of the people of the region. Let the people of South Ossetia decide their fate. With the bear or the poor soul that rattled it's cage.

Unbreakable Heart

The on-line front page of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution web-site reads: "Miracle Run: Georgia Wins SEC". That's right. Georgia wins SEC. And no it was not the football team. It was the men's basketball team. A team that has not had a sniff of post-season action since the Jim Harrick days (You remember him. He's the mob boss that ran the team into multiple NCAA violations.) A team who last won the conference tournament 25 years ago (I was 11 and only drinking NyQuil on the weekends). That team. The same team who won four basketball games all on their rival's home court in three days. All upsets. A team that was 4-12 in the conference and the bottom seed in their own division. A team that had no chance. A team coached by a man who had been given five years to clean up shop and as a result had nothing to show for it. Until now.

Coach Felton raised the SEC Tournament trophy over his head on the gym floor at Georgia Tech this evening. His team around him with championship hats and t-shirts worn over their uniforms. His team rallied around his leadership at the right time. They took dynasty by the tail and shook that animal to the floor. It became theirs to take. And they took it. Not without a fight in the end. The Bulldogs rallied to a 19 point lead in the first half. They needed all of that lead as their meters began to run empty. As the second half started, Arkansas began to take advantage of the Bulldogs weary legs and brains. They forced the Bulldogs into bad shots and bad turnovers. They used their speed to rush past them on the defensive side for easy shots. The lead started to slip away. Their legs turned to stone. Georgia players could not get past the Razorbacks defensive players. They did not have to legs to take jump shots. Their minds started to wander as the ball seemed to slip away from them on key possessions. Arkansas pulled to within three.

That's when I started drinking. I had taken multiple Advil just to deal with the pressure of the moment. I started thinking that beer would be helpful as the lead was three and it looked like the run would end as everyone expected. However, the Bulldogs heart would not stop. Arkansas threw everything at them. They threw presses, shoulders, knives, candy, rocks, sinks, and small appliances at the Bulldogs. To no avail. They refused to break. I know that it is the worst cliche in sports: bend but not break. However, I can not think of anything better to describe it. That is what I saw. I saw the Bulldogs bend. Bend like a pretzel made by someone who was blindfolded and gaged with an Arkansas T-shirt. They did not break.

With less than two minutes left in the game, you could see the Arkansas players on the bench looking bewildered, shocked, and embarrassed. They could not believe that they were going to go down to Georgia. Georgia? Play-offs? Play-offs? Don't talk about play-offs? Georgia? In an half empty arena with only their cheerleaders, boosters, family members, band, and coaches to watch it live and in person. Georgia found the last burst of energy they could muster. They managed to make enough shots to stay afloat. Then they made their free throws and sealed the most improbable run in SEC tournament history. This was overall a team with huge heart. An incredibly gutsy heroic performance under absurd circumstances. Tornadoes ripping through downtown Atlanta, the Dome smashed, moving to Georgia Tech's home court, four upsets in a row, three victories in thirty hours, a SEC crown, and an automatic bid to the Dance. This weekend is why sports matters. It is why we watch sports. It is drama. It is heroes. It is beating the odds. That is what Georgia gave us all this weekend. As people across the state cleaned up from the damage they sought solace in a college basketball team down to nine players, the last seed in the league, with a coach on a bubble, win four in a row and take home a trophy. The SEC is not like Little League where everyone who steps on the field gets a trophy. No one gets a trophy unless you win. This is Big Boy world. Georgia walked away with the trophy and the hearts of Bulldog fans everywhere.

Some Random Foolishness On Selection Sunday

I personally feel that the Georgia Bulldogs story at the SEC tournament marred by severe weather is the biggest story of the weekend.  The Bulldogs have a total of nine scholarship players able to suit up for the game.  They have won three tournament games in a row and the last two in a ten hour span.  Their top scorer of their semi-final game fouled out with seven minutes left.  Some may say that they got lucky by having to not play Tennessee.  It does not matter.  Georgia against anyone in the tournament means they are a serious underdog.  This afternoon at 3:30 ET they will play Arkansas for the only shot they have to make it to the NCAA Championship.  People all over Georgia will be cleaning up after two days of severe storms and tornadoes today as the skies have cleared.  Maybe the Bulldogs today will give them something positive to think about.  Here are some links to other sites with more information about the Bulldogs:

Georgia Sports Blog

Online Athens

Virginia Commonwealth University is not a bubble team.  Period.  They are out.  Period.  Don't even think about it.  It is sad.  They had the best record in the CAA by three games.  They won 24 games, but they are out.  They deserve to be out.  They deserve to be out because no one who loses to a fair inferior team in their conference tournament while on the bubble should go.  VCU played William and Mary last weekend in the CAA semi-final in Richmond--and lost.  They were favored by 599 points in that game and they choked that game away by poor shooting and sloppy play.  That does not cut it in March.  So congratulations to the Rams--NIT bound!!!

Anyways, who cares about the bubble teams except for the fans of the schools that are still talking Big Dance?  These are not teams that usually make it to the Sweet 16.  These are teams that mostly get drilled in the first two rounds.  So what difference does it make?  What is more important are the top seedings.  At this point, UNC (if they beat Clemson), Memphis, and UCLA have earned their way to #1 seeds.  I am skeptical about Memphis, but I was the one that said that Hawaii deserved a chance to be in the BCS so I will be quiet on Memphis until they get rolled in a Sweet 16 game.  Tennessee had their chance at a #1 seed, but they lost yesterday to Arkansas.  Georgetown had a chance but lost last night to Pittsburgh.  Duke had a chance but lost to Clemson. So it comes down to Kansas and Texas in the Big 12 (one of my least favorite conferences, I don't care about anyone in this conference).  Ugh!!!   By the way, for those who are wondering I am still on the fence as to whether or not Virginia Tech should be in.  They almost knocked off UNC yesterday and they won at least one game in the tournament.  They had a first round bye into that tournament.  They lost their last regular season game to a better Clemson squad.  I can say this:  they deserve to get in more than VCU.

My daughter went to her first movie gathering with a group of boys and girls.  I am telling you now that it's all over.  Life as I know it is now finished.  My life now will surround around scaring her and her boyfriends to death by acting like a complete lunatic when they come around.  So I'll meet them at the door with a Hannibal Lector mask.  Or maybe my mask from my C-PAP machine.  Or maybe have a dead deer laying on the welcome mat at the front of the door.  Or maybe have them listen to my iPod on an endless loop.  Show them photos of her on the potty when she was two (thanks Mom for that idea!!).  Show them my concealed weapons permit.  Show them the pictures of the last boyfriend after being met by some of my "made" guys.  Long and short I will be over protective.  Why?  Because it is my job.  Because I know how boys are.  That reason alone should allow me full range to lock my daughter up until she is 25 (if only if they will let me...hmm...).  

Georgia In My Heart

I have been under a rock for the last week. Licking my wounds after VCU fell off the bubble and into the scrap heap that is the NIT. I went to Fairfax to collect my thoughts, get in touch with what was real, and to party like a rock star. Fairfax, Virginia is a suburb of Washington, DC. It is it's own city to itself. It is the definition of sprawl. A concrete and glass jungle being fueled by migrant workers, over the top waitresses, gang members, and coffee addicts. You can get anything you want in Fairfax, and none of it is free. I stayed at a hotel which overlooked the parking lot of the local mall. This meant I could get my suburban white boy groove on across the parking lot at a restaurant located in the mall. In the mall restaurant with the back drop of big screen televisions and mojitos I contemplated my life and decided that I wanted to go home. I watched the disconnected and disenfranchised of suburban life drink themselves into a coma. I remembered that when I was in Charlotte, NC that I was one of them. I am now older and more predictable. In the end, I just wanted to go home after night #3.

So last night I headed home and found that everything was still intact. The house had not been destroyed by a giant beetle. My daughter had not called Columbia asking for more Pop Tarts. My wife was as tired as ever. All good. After everyone went to bed I checked the scores from the various conference tournaments. I checked the SEC tournament being held in Atlanta. It was about 9:30. That's when a series of improbable events occurred. The first event occurred outside the Georgia Dome. Almost out of nowhere a devastating tornado strikes the center of downtown Atlanta. Mississippi State and Alabama were locked up in a close battle in the Georgia Dome when the building started to literally shake. The scaffolding started to sway. Debris started to fall onto the floor. Pieces of the roof were broken off. People in the arena not knowing whether it was a tornado or terrorists became scared and sought cover. The game stopped. I watched pieces of this occur safely in my kitchen. I turned to CNN and found out that the CNN Center had been hit as well as a swath of the downtown area from the Georgia Dome towards the Phillips Arena, CNN Center, and the Olympic Park. Roofs were blown off, homes destroyed, glass all over the street. CNN was off the air as CNN International (likely being beamed from a bunker somewhere in Columbia) was on the air reporting with a rookie reporter who probably never had as much luck as he did last night when he was thrown into a major story of a tornado hitting the downtown of an urban large city.

After about an hour, apparently they decided at the Georgia Dome that George Bush had not decided to burn Atlanta down again and they re-started the last minutes of the game between Mississippi State and Alabama. The Bulldogs finished the job against the Tide and moved on to Saturday's semi-finals. Thirty minutes after the game was over I cranked up the laptop to watch on-line the last semi-final of the night between Georgia and Kentucky. As a Georgia fan I was looking forward to watching the last place team in the league get mauled by a surging Kentucky team thus ending another season of bitter disappointments and inconsistent play that has been the calling card of Georgia basketball since Jarvis Hayes was getting A's in classes he never attended. It was then that the folks at the Georgia Dome decided they were not safe after all from George Bush or the elements outside. They made a fateful decision. To postpone the Georgia-Kentucky game to the next day. I had never heard of a basketball tournament being postponed in March due to weather. So this set the stage of the winner of Georgia-Kentucky playing twice in the same game. Another improbable event. The delay gave Georgia the "call from the Governor" to stay their execution and an additional day of rest as they had upset Ole Miss in overtime. At 2 a.m, we learned that Georgia would play Kentucky at noon and will have to play the game on Georgia Tech's home court two miles away.

In order to be "fair" the SEC made another improbable decision. They decided since the Alexander Coliseum did not fit even half the crowd of the Georgia Dome that they would only allow the bands, cheerleaders, the press, and the families of the teams into the arena for the game. Everyone who bought a ticket for the tournament would not be allowed entry. So the tournament of one of the top conferences would play the remainder of their tournament in a near empty arena. Classic.

What was Georgia's record against Kentucky in tournament play prior to today's game? 0-8.
In another improbable event in front of an empty arena and TV camera, freshman Zak Swansey scored five points in OT and a crazy three point shot with 1.3 seconds left to help Georgia beat Kentucky 60-56. Georgia got the benefit of an incredible no-call on what obviously was a charging foul on Georgia as Kentucky called a set play on the inbound pass at the last second of the OT. Two games. Two upsets by the worst team in the league. And the gift of playing an improbable 2nd game on the same day roughly six hours later against Mississippi State which was a higher seed than Kentucky.

How many SEC games had Georgia won all year before the tournament? 4. By the second game in eight hours they had won two since Thursday. Now they played highly favored Mississippi State on their bitter rival's home floor in front of only the mascots. Led by Sundiata Gaines who pumped in 20 before fouling out with 7:18 left, Georgia provided one of the most gutsy performances in my memory by hanging in the game and eventually winning the game 64-60. Georgia played with heart, courage, and super human energy in an incredibly difficult situation. I was about ready to pack the game in when Gaines fouled out and hurt his hip with 7:18 left. I thought that Mississippi State would take the momentum and begin to distance themselves from the exhausted Georgia squad. Astonishingly, Georgia out hustled their opponents down the stretch. They flipped a switch and went into another gear that nobody believed they had all year in the last five minutes. They refused to quit. They banged for tough rebounds. They used their quickness to get good shots in the paint. They stayed on their feet. And they pulled it out in the end. It is unknown whether they were playing for their beleaguered coach (it's not his fault that Georgia is where they are as a program) or for better grades in their weight lifting classes, but it is clear that they had the heart and guts of a team refusing to quit under crazy circumstances.

One of the most critical measures of an individual or a team is how they handle crisis. I am not interested in how people do when things are going well. That's too easy. It's when people go through a crisis is where I can see what they are truly made of. Georgia met the crisis they found themselves in at the door, said hello, and kicked it in the knees. They met the challenge. Their reward? A chance at making the Big Dance with four straight improbable wins. A chance at 16-16 to make it to the Big Dance. A chance to win the SEC tournament championship by knocking off Arkansas (on their bitter rival's home court in front of only the cheerleaders and camera crew). Arkansas stunned a recklessly fun #4 ranked Tennessee squad today 92-91 to earn a bid to the Dance as well. Whatever happens no one will forget Georgia's unlikely run. I hope that the story ends with then punching a ticket to the dance and raising a trophy that no one on Earth felt that they would even see outside of a glass case let alone touch. If it doesn't end in story book format, then I will always have the knowledge that they became more than a basketball team. They became something bigger than themselves that each player will take with them in any walk of life for the rest of their lives. Isn't that what college athletics is supposed to be anyways?