...will be installing Wade Phillips as their new head coach.
Bad move.
Phillips, lest we forget, was the head coach of the Bills for several seasons. During that period, he played a major part in creating a quarterback controversy that ruptured team unity and divided fan loyalties. After initially installing Rob Johnson as the starter, Phillips made Doug Flutie the starter after Johnson was injured and Flutie showed that he could win games under center. The following season, the Bills held a competition between the quarterbacks. Johnson was installed as the starter (youth and his large $$$ contract may have had something to do with it - it could not have been based on his poor body of work in actual games), and proceeded to demonstrate that a good arm and athletic ability are of limited use if you have no pocket presence and no survival skills.
Despite the visual evidence every weekend that Johnson could not even lead the team to the restroom, much less down the field, the Bills persisted in starting him. This was badly handled by Phillips, who seemed to be unwilling or unable to stamp his authority on the team. The result was massive under-achievement by the Bills, the departure of Flutie to San Diego, followed (surprise, surprise) by the dumping of Johnson and his eventual replacement by Drew Bledsoe.
Everything I have seen and heard about Phillips suggests that he is not a head coach; his current co-ordinator role is perfectly suited for him. Which probably explains why he is about to be announced as the new head coach of the Cowboys, since Jerry Jones appears to be about to revert to his preferred role as the behind-the-scenes head coach. He is going back to the model followed after the departure of Jimmy Johnson, when he appointed coaches such as Barry Switzer and Chan Gailey. None of those coaches had the authority and ability to be true leaders, which is what Jones wants. If the rumors are true, Norv Turner has been passed over because he told Jones that he thinks that Jason Garrett is not ready to be an offensive co-ordinator. In other words, Norv will not meekly do Jerry's bidding, whereas Wade Phillips will. If Wade Phillips could not resolve the Doug Flutie - Rob Johnson situation, what hope does he have of keeping Terrell Owens in line?
Jerry Jones has been dining out for 15 years on his one great decision - the hiring of Jimmy Johnson. He uses it as the means of justifying an unhealthy level of personal hubris when it comes to managing the Cowboys. It is my belief that this approach will doom the Cowboys to mediocre on-field performance in the next few years.

Link: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/2/2/155526/0531

...is the deterioration in voter interest and participation in the electoral process, to the point that many electors appear to have a defective understanding of what exactly they are voting for or against. Here is an example where the voters of Michigan passed an amendment to the state Constitution, which as written forbids state employers to offer benefits to the same-sex domestic partners of employees. The amendment has been upheld by the Michigan Supreme Court. The only remaining legal question is whether an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court will result in the amendment being struck down. A similar (though not identical) amendment in Colorado was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court on the grounds that it violated the Equal Protection language in the U.S. Constitution.
Some observations (albeit from a distance) based on reading the thread to which this posting is linked:

1. At a time when Michigan is struggling to compete economically, passing an amendment like this, which is going to deter highly-skilled creative people from living and working in the state, is incomprehensibly short-sighted. Although the amendment does not prevent private employers from offering same-sex partner benefits, many private employers look closely at state and local laws and attitudes as part of the process of deciding where to locate facilities. This amendment cannot be construed as anything other than an attempt to discriminate against a section of the population on the grounds of sexual orientation. One thing that recent corporate decisions show us is that most corporations are solely concerned with hiring the best employees, regardless of race, color, creed or sexual orientation.
2. The African-American community (not only in Michigan) needs to become much more aware that it has a problem with anti-gay attitudes. Such attitudes undermine the legitimacy of complains about racism. Most people have a low tolerance for listening to hypocrites, and the significant incidence of anti-gay and anti-Jewish sentiment in the African-American community should be giving that community pause for thought.
3. Michigan cities do not score very highly on the Creative Class City Rankings, with Detroit Rated 39 and Grand Rapids rated 44 out of 49. Enacting legislation against gay people will impede any efforts by Michigan to move it's cities up this table, when there is a clear correlation between acceptance of diversity and city rankings.
4. If the supporters of this amendment wanted to protect "the sanctity of marriage" when will they table the amendments to outlaw divorce and adultery, which are far more widespread than single-sex couples co-habiting? Until such amendments are proposed, I will stick with my current conclusion that this amendment was proposed by bigots and Biblical quote-miners.

Some people in Michigan need to wake up and start shouting from the rooftops that institutionalized bigotry is not a useful strategy for assuring the state's economic future.

Others have written elonquently about the death of Barbaro, and the lessons that his breakdown and failed recovery teach everybody. However, this quote from the on-course veterinarian when Barbaro was injured neatly sums up the underlying challenge when treating horses:

If you chose to design the worst orthopedic patient in the world, it would probably look like a horse," said renowned equine surgeon Larry Bramlage of Lexington's Rood & Riddle equine hospital. "They're wonderfully made for running, but they're not very well made for convalescence."

..despite the fact that I am British, and somewhat self-effacing (stop laughing in the back of the room), I feel the need to engage in some blatant self-promotion.
So....

I present my latest self-indulgent egomaniacal waste of time...the Corporate Realist's Dictionary, where a 28-year I.T. veteran explains the real meaning of many modern words and business phrases or acronyms, including inventing some of his own. Any resemblance to corporations or persons, living or dead, is probably intentional.
The author of this dictionary will accept money, compliments and dates with beautiful and wealthy women. Hate mail, abusive phone calls and invitations to vacation at Caribbean locations whose names begin with G and end in o will be firmly rejected.

Link: http://www.therockalltimes.co.uk

In the words of Derek and Clive, "we nearly shat"...a great article today in this esteemed periodical.

Link: http://www.texasobserver.org/

Molly Ivins died today. For her entire journalistic career she aimed her journalistic pen at the ridiculous, the risible, the stupid and the pretentious. In short, she remained one of the few journalists in the modern USA prepared to speak the truth about those in power. I will miss her scything wit.
The media in the USA needs a lot more people with the courage of Molly Ivins, in order to avoid being reduced from near-irrelevance to total irrelevance.

Link: http://www.newsobserver.com/114/story/536847.html

One of the more puzzling aspects of corporate and governmental life is how incompetent people are seldom demoted or fired. Instead, they often get shipped to another position, as the leader of their current group seeks to make them somebody else's problem.
Here is a great example of this from the Carolinas...

Link: http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2007/01/republicans-and-congress-war-powers.html

...and claiming that Congress and the Senate have no right to cut off funding for the Iraq occupation, they are also suffering an attack of grand amnesia.
This little piece of research by Glenn Greenwald shows that 13 years ago, the Republican party was utterly convinced that the House of Representatives and the Senate did have the right to question and vote against funding for the US actions in Somalia, when the President was one William Jefferson Clinton.
Since the US Constitution has not changed since 1993, I fail to see what conditions are any different today...except that at the time the President was a member of the Democratic Party.
Hypocrisy always smells, especially when it is this obvious. I will wait (without holding my breath) for the mainstream media to start asking Republicans some awkward questions...

I am currently on a temporary assignment for my employer in Seattle. This requires me to fly back and forth between Dallas and Seattle. The last 2 times I have flown this route I flew with Frontier in one direction.
The most recent trip was from Seattle via Denver to Dallas on Friday. I had to change planes at Denver, which involved a 100 yard walk between gates. Once on board the plane, it soon became clear that the flight crew were determined to put on a show. As we settled down, the following message boomed out on the PA:

"Ladies and gentlemen, just about everybody is now on board the plane, and as you can see, there are a number of empty seats. Now is the time for you to ask the cabin crew if you can move closer to the person you like the look of..."
With the doors closed, the crew launched into what has to be the most comedic flight safety briefing ever seen, complete with mime, crew members chasing each other down the aisles while explaining where the emergency exits were, and witty asides. Since flight safety briefings are normally less exciting than watching paint dry, this was a new development. We were then informed of the entire beverage list available, which included Coca-Cola corporation products, but (said in a whisper) "No Pepsi, No Cherry Pepsi..".
Off we flew to Dallas. She then announced "our flight time to Dallas will be, ooh, about four hours....er, no, just kidding, 1 hour 27 monutes".
20 minutes out from Dallas we were informed "I have just been speaking to the pilot and co-pilot; they think they've found an airport, so we're going to land at it".
As we prepared for landing, we were informed "those of you with checked baggage...the baggage was left behind in Denver, and we don't know what is going to happen to it (hysterical laughter)...(pause)...no...no...sorry..that is so not funny...we did bring it after all...it can be picked up at Carousel 32".
After landing, as we were taxiing towards the gate, the crew chief intoned "our on-board computer shows that 6 of you have already unbuckled your seat-belts. The computer software therefore assumed that you had left the plane, and it has dumped your baggage on the ramp". Immediately after this she came back with "For those of you needing assistance, our uninformed, er, uniformed service agents will be at the gate to mislead and mis-inform, er, help you".
As we drew up to the ramp, she reminded us "please make sure you don't leave any personal belongings behind in the plane. Of course, if you want to leave some behind, make sure that the flight crew will like them. We appreciate money, jewelry, chocolate, that sort of thing. Spouses and children, no. And we hate cellphones because they tend to start ringing at odd hours and people always come back for them".
There were a lot more jokes, but I forgot a number of them. I have seen flight crews on SouthWest do this, but they always made it sound like they were going through the motions. The Frontier crew actually made it look and sound totally non-contrived.
A fun airline to fly. Now if they would only quit placing adverts with KSFO...

Link: http://time-blog.com/swampland/2007/01/re_the_clinton_playbook_1.html

My friends and some of my work colleagues know by now that my opinion of the mass media in the USA has been steadily declining for years. The media appears to function simply as an uncritical conduit for political messages and press releases, and as a platform for self-appointed self-perpetuating collections of "experts", "strategists", and "commentators", most of whom have a poor track record of accuracy. Most of the current commentators have been consistently and persistently wrong about the Iraq mis-adventure for years, but (a) will not admit to error, and (b)are still being invited on television and radio to pronounce on current events and predict the future.
The net result of watching all of this is that I regard all of the mass media TV and radio networks (along with their Web portals) as low-credibility sources of information. Many times they make statements which bear little to no relationship to reality or facts. Yet, when their errors are pointed out to them, they either ignore the correction and continue on, or they attempt to spin their way out of trouble.
From time to time I am challenged by folks to provide examples of media malfeasance. Here is one such example. Jay Carney, in his initial blog posting, attempted to draw a parallel between the current (un)popularity of President Bush and the popularity ratings of President Clinton. There was only one small problem - his numbers for Clinton's popularity were plain wrong. However, rather thsn accept that he made a mistake, he issues a response consisting of ad hominems against what he terms "left-wing dittoheads", followed by facts irrelevant to his original posting. Not surprisingly, he is given a hard time in the blog comments, some of which are fairly pointed.
Clearly, Jay Carney does not bother to check facts, does not understand The First Law Of Holes, and lacks any level of humility. Which in turn begs the question: how unprofessional do you have to be to get fired from a job like the one he currently occupies? This, folks, is about as good an example as you can find of mass media inaccuracy, arrogance, and unwillingness to change. Which is why I mostly ignore them.