"let's not play the blame game"
· 1000 from Lafayette area with 500 boats turned back by FEMA
· Wal-Mart trucks with food and water turned back by FEMA
· The USS Bataan off coast ready to help, but underused by FEMA. See also here
· Shipments of diesel fuel turned back by FEMA
· Firemen from Houston turned away by FEMA
· More fire fighters turned away
· Angel Flight South Central seaplanes getting a run around from FEMA
· DMAT Teams available but still on call
· Red Cross kept out of New Orleans - actually attibuted to the state Homeland Security department. See also here
· Northcom (Northern Command) ready to act, but not given needed orders
· Mobile medical lab stalled in Mississippi. Doctors and hospitals offering aid but not getting response
· NYT article discusses controversy and provides additional claims of FEMA interfering with rescue efforts
· Florida airboaters stalled by FEMA.
· Amtrak, water tanker aircraft not utilized by FEMA
· Morticians turned away.
· Maryland fire fighters blocked by FEMA
· Generators turned away by FEMA in Slidell
Now that that's settled, a quick rundown of this past weekend:
Penn State won its home opener against South Florida, 23-13. I was there, along with 99,234 other people. No one cares what the hell I think about our team but I'm going to tell you anyway.
On a positive note, the PSU defense is impressive, particularly the defensive line and cornerback Alan Zemaitis, who reminds me of a young Aeneas Williams. On the other hand, our offense needs to figure out what the hell the problem is because they were not up to par. Zemaitis scored a touchdown on a fumble recovery early in the 1st quarter and the offense was working with a short field all day, yet still struggled against a very ordinary USF defense. Our quarterback, Michael Robinson, is a tremendous athlete but I don't think he's being used properly in the offense. Against USF he was 9-15 for 90 yards, an interception and two fumbles. He isn't a pocket passer and does not have great accuracy. He is a more athletic version of Ortege Jenkins. They ran him on a lot of QB draws, but they need to get him outside way more, on rollouts, play actions and even some option plays, or else throw out the sophomore Morelli if they want to run a traditional north-south offense. Our running back, Tony Hunt, had a solid day overall, and our stud freshman recievers, Derrick Williams and Justin King, showed flashes of their potential (King had a 60 yard reverse, and Williams was our leading reciever with 3 catches for 38 yards) but we're gonna have to do a lot better than that if we're going to score any points in the big ten, which is loaded this year with iowa, purdue, ohio state, and michigan all fielding potential top 10 teams.
Mike Stoops went chickenshit on us on Friday and punted from the Utah 40 with 3 minutes to go on 4th and 4 even though we had driven for 2 straight touchdowns and our defense was getting run over. So we lost once Utah ran out the clock. I hate it when coaches fucking choke under pressure. I'd rather have them go head first into the fire instead of puss out. I thought Mike Stoops was the former but I was wrong. By the way, we blew a game last year in the same manner (3 straight runs from the Wisconsin 35 as time ran out, gain of 0 yards, missed 50 yarder as time expired). So that's just not encouraging, that our coaching staff somehow doesn't know how to or want to win.
I just saw the tail end of Wheel Of Fortune: NFL edition with Hines Ward, Jevon Kearse and Torry Holt with respective contestants. Torry Holt's lady won and solved the puzzle to win the final round, cashing in for $40,000 while dancing with her family and a jovial Holt to that lame wheel of fortune orchestral music. Look, you can't tell me something like that isn't funny. What's funnier is that I just found out it was a rerun, since tomorrow's episode features Warrick Dunn, Brandon Stokley and "Kurt Warner, New York Giants." They run reruns of Wheel of Fortune? What?
September 1 has rolled around, which is not special except that per NCAA rules, it's the first day colleges can contact high school juniors and express interest in them as student athletes. I got off the phone with my sister an hour ago and she has gotten letters from the women's soccer programs at #1 Notre Dame, #11 Tennessee, #13 Illinois, and #16 Boston College, along with Oklahoma State and DePaul. I'm not bragging for her, as I know she would never, ever talk about herself and would never, ever want me to do so for her, but I just thought it was fairly exciting so I decided to share it with you. Interestingly enough, PSU has an unbelievable women's soccer program, preseason #8 nationally and the winner of a 5-2 beating administered to #4 Virginia on Sunday. Note to self: attend a few of these games.
As far as my all-state running career was concerned, the only instances I have of being recruited were a brochure given to me at a meet from some random junior college, response e-mails from the coaches at UNC and Maryland, and a phone call from and very pleasant half hour conversation with the then-new head coach at Georgia. We all know how that worked out.
Last week I qualified for the pokerstars sunday money tournament by finishing 4th in a 3600 player hold em tournament. I was unavailable so I couldn't play. What a waste.
I haven't done any homework yet, but I do have a facebook now. I make no implications.