Radical Georgia Moderate

I always used to worry that if someone was trying to pull a fast one on me, that they’d hide their intentions well enough that I might go along only to be burned later. I’ve found that I usually don’t have to worry about that, because given enough time most people just can’t resist telling everyone else how clever they are. Case in point: Georgia House Speaker Glenn Richardson.

At first he tried to say that the GlennTax (known to its three supporters as the GREAT Tax) wasn’t a power grab against local government.

Then he said, well maybe it’s just a little check.

Now, the cat is out of the bag, and even he isn’t trying to pretend like it isn’t what I and other people have been saying it is all along: an attempted coup against local governments.

Witness this quote from The Stache in this OnlineAthens forum (h/t Jmac):

These “government officials” simply want to keep their power to raise your taxes regardless of whether you can pay them rather than doing what is in the best interest of you, their constituents. The GREAT plan does not take away their taxing ability but rather takes away their ability to continue to raise taxes with no oversight. Even if the officials who raised taxes are voted out of office, those tax increases will never be reversed.

Local officials like to claim we are taking away local control. They think local control is allowing local governments, year after year, to raise taxes whether or not their constituents can afford it. It most certainly is not. There are few things more essential to the Republican philosophy than maintaining a government close to the people. Local officials simply are playing a word game. I think local control is letting citizens decide, through a vote, when the system needs to change and letting them decide each and every day at the cash register how much they pay in taxes.

The snark quotes surrounding “government officials” ought to tell you all you need to know about his view of local governments’ sovereignty, but he keeps going.

The plan “does not take away their taxing ability but rather takes away their ability to continue to raise taxes with no oversight.” I can’t even follow the “logic” here.

(Hey, look Glenn, I can use snark quotes too. See how I implied there that your explanation lacks any basis in logic without actually saying that by putting quotation marks around “logic”? I can keep going: “integrity” … “marital fidelity” … “sanity” … “residence in the district you were elected in” … “male genitalia” … “fresh breath”)

So… local governments are free to tax as long as the Legislature is in charge of approving, collecting, and redistributing those taxes to local governments. It’s just a little oversight, relax guy!

His attempt to redefine local control is a flimsy and idiotic rationalization. I mean, I guess if I were House Speaker I could say that people should be able to vote to install a monarchy, right? Oh, oops, that’s already what he’s trying to do, bad example. I know, let’s make a constitutional amendment outlawing constitutional amendments.

Moron.

Oh, and DuBose Porter, you’re a fucking wimp for not calling him out on this bullshit.

Posted without commentary…

The “absolutely fireproof” Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, site of the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history, is set to reopen soon:

On Dec. 6, 1946, fire broke out on the third floor of the Winecoff, which had 280 occupants at the time. Most of the deaths were caused by smoke inhalation, but some people died from falling or jumping out windows to escape the flames and smoke.

The fire’s cause was officially listed as unknown, but in a 1993 book “The Winecoff Fire” authors Sam Heys and Allen Goodwin outlined suspicions that it was arson.

The hotel lacked fire-safety measures now common in public buildings, such as sprinkler systems and corner stairwells or other fire escapes. The Winecoff fire, combined with two other deadly fires in the U.S. that year, led officials to create model fire safety codes for cities. The updated codes required sprinklers, multiple exits and bans on flammable materials in buildings.

It must be haunted. We should have a campout there with portable, low-quality recorders to try to capture some EVPs.

Amber and I have been wondering why everything described as (something)-proof seems to be part of a tragedy involving (something). The Titanic being the obvious example. I don’t believe in God, but the apparent karmic payback levied on anyone with enough hubris to make such a ridiculous statement does make me wonder if there’s something supernatural charged with balancing the universe.

A Google search for The Winecoff Fire turns up a blog that appears to be maintained by the authors of the book mentioned in the article. Check it out.

h/t Cracker Squire

From GatorCountry, as quoted by AOL FanHouse, here’s a story told by Gators tight end and special teams player Derek Baldry:

“On the point-after attempt, after the 48th point, one of the guys rushing, I guess, decided he didn’t want to go too hard. Instead of shooting through the gap, which is where he would have come through me, he kind of ran into me and kind of pulled up and said ‘whoa, whoa, whoa’ as if I were going to deliver a hit to him. Verbatim he said, ‘I don’t want to rush this s— anymore, I’m too f—-g tired.’ That’s what he said.

“As he was saying ‘whoa, whoa, whoa,’ I thought the play had been whistle dead or a flag had been thrown or something. I didn’t understand what was going on. I kind of looked around real quick and I saw the refs with his arms up in the air, showing it was a good kick, and that’s when I tapped him on the head and ran off.”

Losing sucks, but it happens sometimes. I love my alma mater, and will root for the football team whether they’re 13-0 or 0-13. As long as they don’t quit like a bunch of spineless prima donnas.

Fulmer should kick that player off the team. Or better yet, kick himself off the team for coaching quitters. This is unacceptable.

Cross-posted to my Rocky Top Talk diary

Update 10:13 p.m. Fulmer disputes the allegation.

Ainge first disputes it, but then says:

“If it happened, then whoever said that would need to take a hard look in the mirror because there’s a lot of guys that would do anything to go out and play on the special teams for the University of Tennessee.

“If that were the case, I wouldn’t want him playing for me on my team, period.”

Photoshop = cathartic

For your edification, here is a list of all the “Fire Phil Fulmer” Myspace and Facebook groups I could find. I take no responsibility for any of the content in those groups. There could be some angry, disturbing, profane things in them. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Facebook Groups

• Fire Fulmer
• Fire Fulmer
• Fire Phil Fulmer
• Fire Phillip Fulmer
• GET FULMER OUT OF UT
• FIRE PHILIP FULMER!!
• Phil Fulmer needs to be fired!!!!
• Fire Phil and Chavis
• Fire Fat Phil
• The Get Rid of Phillip Fulmer Association
• If Fulmer coaches forever, eventually he will win us another championship
• UT Fans Sick Of The Vols Under-Achieving
• Phil Fulmer is a choke artist

MySpace Groups

• Fire Phillip Fulmer
• Fire Fat Phil

. . .

Other resources
There’s also FireCoachFulmer.com. If you’re looking for news stories or blog posts, really, there’s no shortage. Just hit Google or Technorati.

And if you missed it, my letter to Urban Meyer and list of 10 candidates to replace Phil Fulmer were featured in SPORTSbyBROOKS yesterday.

Cross-posted to my Rocky Top Talk diary

It’s amazing what knowing the betting rules will do for one’s score. I’m not out of this thing yet anyway.

If you’re a Tennessee fan, I’ll give you two more reasons to demand Phil Fulmer’s head on a stick.

The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results. Our dry drunk president is afflicted with this illness. And the University of Tennessee’s football coach is so lacking in the creativity department that he is mimicking our dry drunk president’s failed leadership style, right down to ripping off his vapid pseudo-kamikaze slogan.

Players were mostly silent as coaches tried to motivate a team still shaken by a 59-20 loss to Florida on Saturday.

“I think you stay the course,” head coach Phillip Fulmer said of his team’s mindset following a 1-2 start. “We believe what we believe in. We’ve won a lot of games this way.”

He also shares something else with George W. Bush: shifting blame to anyone and everyone other than himself in order to save his own cowardly hide. Witness Fulmer allowing his players to take the blame for the loss to Florida:

Execution, not lack of talent or UT’s gameplan, is what cost the Vols, Karl said. And it’s what had him feeling so down Sunday and into Monday.

“We feel bad because we didn’t execute it,” Karl said. “When you get the so-called worst loss in Fulmer’s era and I was also part of the 5-6 team, it’s not something I like to be a part of. I’ve got to go tell all my family when I get older that I was part of this team. It’s not something I want to be a part of. It’s something we got to work on to turn it around and get in the right spot.”

Karl and his teammates felt like they were in the right spots Saturday. Their beef isn’t with the schemes of offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe or defensive coordinator John Chavis. The players’ assessment is that they didn’t make plays.

Impeach Fulmer!

Update 10:43 a.m. Right on cue, wide receivers coach Trooper Taylor channels a Southern cracker Republican Senator with a call to “Support our players!”

Speaking Monday at the Knoxville Quarterback Club, Taylor asked the estimated 250 in attendance to lend a helping hand.

“The Internet and talk shows are the toughest thing to overcome,”’ Taylor said.

Taylor said that a dozen of UT’s top recruits have received emails plucked from UT message boards blasting the team, the players and the coaches.

Why do you hate the University of Tennessee/America?

In the wake of Saturday’s debacle for the Volunteers of Tennessee against the Gators of Florida, I was nudged firmly into the Fire-Phil-Fulmer camp. I wrote a letter to Florida coach Urban Meyer thanking him for exposing the antiquated practices of the Volunteers’ coaching staff, as that game put an exclamation point on what was already obvious to some of us: that the staff hasn’t changed with the times, and is now unable to compete at a level that Tennessee fans expect.

Soon after, Corn From a Jar made the fair point that if some of us are ready to throw Phil Fulmer and his staff under the bus, that we should be able to suggest replacements. So that’s what I’m going to do here.

Here are the first ten choices to take over coaching the Tennessee football program that come to mind, in no particular order. Some of them are more realistic options than others. This list isn’t comprehensive, and isn’t meant to be “top choices” so much as “some good choices.” I haven’t vetted it much for feasibility. But I do think there’s at least an ever-so-slight chance of landing each of these coaches.

I am sure that I’m missing some good names from mid-major conferences here, and would love for you to suggest some in the comments. And if any of these choices are stupid, I’d love to hear why.

Bobby Johnson, Vanderbilt

Pros:

• Knows SEC East opponents and played them close with inferior talent, even pulled out some upsets (including Georgia and Tennessee)
• Prior to coaching at Vanderbilt, led Furman University to the Division I-AA nation championship game

Cons:

• Still an unknown how he would fare with better talent, since at Vanderbilt it’s easy to make excuses for going 4-8

Chris Petersen, Boise State

Pros:

• Only coach since 1900 to win 13 games his first season
• Upset Oklahoma in last year’s Fiesta Bowl to cap off an undefeated season
• Second-highest scoring offense in the nation

Cons:

• Only one year head-coaching experience
• Went undefeated with Dan Hawkins’ players, so he is unproven as a recruiter

Rich Rodriguez, West Virginia

Pros:

• Led West Virginia to four straight winning seasons
• Prolific offense has proven it can score against SEC-caliber defenses

Cons:

• Unlikely to be interested in the job, as he’s already spurned Alabama

Jon Gruden, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (NFL)

Pros:

• Won a Super Bowl
• Got his start coaching as a graduate assistant at Tennessee in 1986 and 1987

Cons:

• Has had three losing seasons since the Super Bowl win (with one winning season), opening him to criticism that he was just winning with the fired Tony Dungy’s players

Norm Chow, offensive coordinator, Tennessee Titans (NFL)

Pros:

• Was offensive coordinator for USC during its two recent national title runs
• Is interested in a head coaching job at the college level

Cons:

• No head-coaching experience
• Was passed over by Stanford for a head coaching job. (Stanford!)

Bobby Petrino, Atlanta Falcons (NFL)

Pros:

• A proven winner at the college level, put Louisville on the map with a creative, explosive offense when he coached there
• May be looking to GTFO of Atlanta with all the turmoil surrounding the team due to Vick’s dogfighting

Cons:

• Could just as easily not be interested in leaving Atlanta

Steve Kragthorpe, Louisville

Pros:

• Coached Tulsa, the school with the smallest student enrollment among bowl division programs, to winning seasons and bowl games in three of four seasons
• Despite loss to Kentucky, offense appears not to have missed a beat after Bobby Petrino left

Cons:

• Still somewhat unproven against top 25 competition

Greg Schiano, Rutgers

Pros:

• Turned Rutgers from an embarrassment into a top 15 program in a short period of time

Cons:

• Has already spurned offers to lure him away from larger schools, would probably take a fat chunk of change

Trooper Taylor, wide receivers coach, Tennessee

Pros:

• Knows the school, the players, and the SEC East
• High energy level, seems to be the only coach on the staff that players still respond to

Cons:

• No head-coaching or coordinator experience (called some of the plays in 2005 after Randy Sanders was fired as OC)
• Fans, alumni and donors may not be satisfied with any change without a wholesale house-cleaning of staff

Steve Spurrier, South Carolina

Florida tried to make Steve Spurrier submit a resume when he thought he might want his old job back after a stint in the NFL. I won’t be so bold as to ask for one for this list. I do think it bears mentioning that the Ol’ Ball Coach has abandoned the Fun n’ Gun that made him famous for a conservative, ball-control, let’s-hope-Blake-Mitchell-doesn’t-screw-up style of offense at South Carolina. We should ask whether he’s lost confidence in the Fun n’ Gun or whether he’s just adapting to the players he has to work with.

Duly noted

I considered these coaches, but intentionally left them off this list:

John Chavis, defensive coordinator, Tennessee
If a change is to be made at all, house needs to be cleaned.

David Cutcliffe, offensive coordinator, Tennessee
See John Chavis.

Jimbo Fisher, offensive coordinator, Florida State
His stock was high going into this season, but has tanked with the Seminoles’ woes on offense continuing.

Cross-posted to my Rocky Top Talk diary

Dear Urban Meyer,

Thank you for running up the score against Tennessee last night. For the few people remaining who needed to be convinced that the game has passed Phillip Fulmer and his staff by, we present your 59-20 effort where the Volunteers were outmanned, outsmarted and outclassed in every facet of play.

I hope Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Kentucky will show the Tennessee program the same graciousness and consideration for its long-term well-being and not let up even after victory seems secure. Every protagonist needs a worthy antagonist to bolster its own credibility in the eyes of outside observers. Phillip Fulmer is no longer capable of playing the role of protagonist for Volunteer fans, or of playing antagonist for fans of other SEC programs.

I believe Coach Fulmer to be a good man, and I wish him the best in his future endeavors. I appreciate everything he did for the program in the 1990s, and will hold the memories he helped create dear. But the only thing that can help the University of Tennessee’s football program now is for his tenure as coach of the Volunteers to end.

So, again, thank you Coach Meyer for sounding the clarion call that will (hopefully) make that necessary step possible.

Sincerely,
Rusty Tanton
University of Tennessee Alumni
Class of 2002

Cross-posted to my Rocky Top Talk diary

V-A-N-C-E S-M-I-T-H

That’s state Rep. Vance Smith, a road builder by trade whom House Speaker Glenn Richardson is backing for head of the Department of Transportation.

It’s safe at this point to generally assume that if Glenn Richardson backs something, it’s a bad idea. Really, I’m not just saying that because I intensely dislike him. But it doesn’t hurt.

It’ll be quite the racket for Glenn and his buddy Vance if that turkey somehow gets the job, what with Glenn wanting to commandeer local governments’ ability to tax.

Maybe we should just start cutting checks straight to the road lobby instead of dealing with middle-men like Richardson who are going to take graft off the top. At least then maybe mortgaging away our future might be a little cheaper.

Better yet, let’s just load a fleet of Apaches with asphalt mixers and have them fly over the metro area and surrounding counties, dumping it in all the places where roads don’t exist yet. Tell people to bring their umbrellas, and they’ll be fine. Just don’t ask the state to provide the umbrellas.

h/t Ben