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Patrice Cormier

Posted by JC Murphy on Friday, January 29, 2010 7:28:54 AM
The elbows of Gordie Howe are part of his legend. A player doesn't get the nickname 'Mr. Elbows' for no reason. Elbows have been part of the game forever, and so have elbowing penalties. These things aside there is no excuse for the couple of elbows thrown by Patrice Cormier over the last month.
 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hzeOhL8_9g&feature=related

Preaching about respect for the opponent and the game has all been said before here. Simply put, the lax leadership of the various commissioners, presidents, and rule enforcement officials has created any anything-goes atmosphere catering to the lowest common denominator of fan-all in the name of the almighty dollar. Couple that with a toothless sanction/suspension system and you get a defenceman from the Quebec Remparts convulsing face down at center ice. 'Suspended indefinitely' sounds pretty on paper.
 
If the leagues were serious about stopping crap hits like the ones in the video clips above, there'd be a blanket suspension across all leagues: If you want to play this way, be prepared to be suspended for as long as the injured player is out plus one season. No exceptions, no appeals. Of course, dropping the instigator rule is such a logical option to help along the process of discouraging this type of play as not to be given even remote consideration.
 
Excuses abound, but no matter how good a kid Cormier is said to be, or how popular he is with his teammates, its all simply a poor attempt to excuse and justify bad behavior, so go ahead and make all the allowances that have been tried before. None of it is going to get the Tam kid out of a hospital bed any faster, or for that matter make it clear whether he'll ever pay again.
 
Patrice Cormier has received a preliminary suspension and may even be disciplined further. Its a shame that the hockey establishment can't be sanctioned for the soft discipline program in place that has allowed cheapshot hockey to flourish.
 
Thanks for reading.
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On The Public Dime

Posted by JC Murphy on Tuesday, January 26, 2010 3:40:34 AM
Now that the government has inserted itself into the regulation of salaries of the upper managements of private businesses, is it time for a citizens group to be formed to regulate the salaries of government workers and, especially, members of congress?

In the same vein, now that the country is waking up to the high hack content in the US Politburo, hopefully the next election will bring to our 'leadership' the same ten percent unemployment that the government has inflicted on the country.

Think about that for a few minutes. In your opinion which fifty-four in congress should find themselves in the unemployment line? Here are mine (in no particular order):

1. John Murtha (PA)  2. Nancy Pelosi  (CA) 
3. Barney Frank (MA)  4. x-John McCain (AZ) 
5. Harry Reid (NV)  6. Lindsey Graham (SC)  
7. Richard Durbin (IL)  8. Maurice Hinchey (NY) 
9. Alan Greyson  (FL)  10. Diane Feinstein (CA) 
11. Barbara Boxer (CA) 12.. Max Baucus (MT) 
13. John Conyers Jr. (MI)  14. Charles Rangel  (NY) 
15. Diamond Jim McDermott  (WA)  16. Mary Landrieu (LA) 
17. Joe Lieberman (CT) 18. Charles Schumer (NY)
19. Patrick 'The Leak' Leahy (VT)  20. Ben Nelson (NE) 
21. Steny Hoyer (MD)  22. Alcee Hastings (FL) 
23. Henry Waxman (CA)  24. Patrick Kennedy (RI) 
25. Ed Markey (MA) 26. Kent Conrad (ND) 
27. Anthony Weiner (NY)  28. Arlen Specter (PA) 
29. Bart Stupak (MI)  30. John Sarbanes (MD) 
31. Tom Harkin  (IA)  32. Jerrold Nadler (NY) 
33. Maxine Waters (CA)  34. Carl Levin (MI) 
35. Russ Feingold  (WI)  36. Earl Pomeroy (ND) 
37. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL)  38. John Dingell  (MI) 
39. Bob Menendez (NJ)  40. Tim Johnson  (SD) 
41. Jane Harman (CA)  42. Sherrod Brown (OH) 
43. Sheila Jackson Lee  (TX)  44. y-Chris Van Hollen (MD) 
45. Stephen Lynch  (MA)  46. Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) 
47. Debbie Stabenow  (MI)  48. Sander Levin (MI) 
49. Rob Andrews (NJ)  50. Bill Nelson (FL)  
51. Niki Tsongas (MA)  52. Dan Boren (OK) 
53. John Lewis (GA) 54. John Kerry (MA)
(x-replaces Christopher Dodd (CT) retiring)
(y-replaces Byron Dorgan (ND) retiring)


.....And the latest Politburo spending extravaganza contains a two percent pay increase for government employees. Guess the belt tightening only applies to the serfs. Increased hope for the bureaucrats, not even pocket change for the rest of us. There's your hope and change folks.

Thanks for reading.
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Transparency Apparency

Posted by JC Murphy on Sunday, January 24, 2010 12:56:45 AM

The word transparency has gotten used, overused, and misused since even before the last presidential election cycle, back to 2006 and the broken promises to the American people providing congressional 'honesty' and 'ethics' and 'open debate' and 'bipartisanship'. Just like Lucy holding the football out there, we fell for it. Twice. We buried our heads in the sand, knowing that what we were hearing wasn't matching up with what we were seeing. But what if it was?

What if we've been seeing transparency the whole time? Could it be that the new above board out-in-the-open way of doing business we were promised during the last two election cycles have been completely on display the whole time? Think about it. It didn't take Speaker of the Politburo Pelosi longer than it took to dial the numbers to redecorate the office that came with her new job title. Ayatollah Reid and the Democrat Party have been pretty consistent with the in-your-face style of being in control, even moreso after Al Franken was seated as #60.

Once the pressure was off transparency grew easy. Why should any of us have been surprised that the corruption was finally out in plain sight? It's been hiding in plain sight for decades. How else could John Murtha have been allowed to stay in DC for thirty years? The people of his Pennsylvania district must figure its safer to send him far enough away for the local banks to be considered safe from looting. Murtha is the poster child, but by no means the only tainted one. Being an honest member of congress is the exception rather than the rule.

Listen to the President talking about health care negotiations....on C-Span. It sounds like he pulled that out of the air just for something to say, as if he's been at a loss for words at any time during this first year. He almost sounds as though he's channeling the Jon Lovitz character Tommy Flanagan as he searches for any words that may convince the American people to continue riding the Pelosi-Reid-Obama train wreck. As if that's not bad enough, the smirky Pelosi brushed aside the C-Span suggestion as 'just one of those campaign trail promises'. How does this women continue to get reelected? Oh yeah, California. If there's any more shining example of why that state is broke, ladies and gentlemen meet Nancy Pelosi: 'We're broke? Well then print some more money and order ten more Gulfstreams.'

Point being listen to what they say and watch the accompanying actions. The current administration and politburo allies have been consistently transparent. The corrupt practices have been going on right under our noses in a completely transparent fashion while we were distracted focusing on their words.
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Redbird Roid Rage

Posted by JC Murphy on Tuesday, January 19, 2010 6:22:15 AM
2009 was a tough year to be a St. Louis Cardinals fan. Not so much from their record, since they won the division, but a couple small events that most have likely forgotten. Couple those things with off-season doings and the hat gets hung behind the door.

Lets skip back a few months. Watching Stan Musial at the All Star Game being treated like a piece of cardboard left out in the rain was pretty brutal. When asked for an opinion on the Manny Ramirez sex change debacle Albert Pujols offers up a non-answer worthy of Mark McGwire's congressional testimony. Enough together to raise the hairs on the back of my neck but still a drop of benefit of the doubt remained. However.

The return of Mark McGwire as hitting coach appears to be drawing rave reviews from the rest of the Cardinals faithful. Couple that with the soft comments of Pujols concernng McGwire's steroid use and what is left of my benefit of the doubt hit the ground running-right out the door. At what point do Cardinals fans start wondering if maybe something smells a little funny? You know, like tainted HGH must smell.

Okay, you're right, everyone does deserve a second chance. McGwire did finally come clean (no pun intended) but it has to seem pretty self-serving even to the most hardcore Cardinals fan. If he'd said years back 'yes, I took them while rehabbing some injuries' I'd be standing behind him...but he didn't. He stonewalled, changed the subject, left the room, did anything he could to avoid answering the question. Now that an opportunity to get back on the MLB money train has come his way he's gotten teary-eyed and remorseful. Nah, not buying it.

Does the return of Mark McGwire make me less of a baseball fan? That process had already begun as the players grew bigger while the ballparks became smaller. Even Freddie Patek would be a thirty-homer guy in the Safeway parking lot sized stadiums in use today. The McGwire comeback doesn't help though. Steroids have created an image problem for Major League Baseball that has grown as large and nearly as fast as some of the players. Ignoring it obviously hasn't worked. Acknowledging the problem and taking even baby steps to fix it would be a start toward bringing jaded fans like me back.

The few players who've expressed concerns about the MLB image give hope even considering the weak-kneed leadership of Commissioner Bud. Unfortunately, Selig, the greenback-driven owners, and the cavalier attitudes of guys like Albert Pujols will keep that Cardinals hat hanging behind the door.

One last thought: Whether you believe the Vikings were running up the score or not with that late touchdown pass against the Cowboys, considering the shot Kurt Warner took the day before what the heck was Brad Childress thinking even having Brett Favre in the game up 24 with two minutes to go?

Thanks for reading.
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2010 Resolutions for America

Posted by JC Murphy on Tuesday, January 05, 2010 11:16:44 PM
1) Suspend federal education funding until an independent accounting is made. The money is going somewhere and wherever that is it isn't working.

 2) Shut down law schools for at least ten years. If you want to be a lawyer you'll have to go elsewhere to study and practice.

3) Drop federal and congressional salaries back to the average median salary of the rest of the country. Sacrifice is only called sacrifice when its everyone sacrificing-Pelosi Politburo included.

4) No more federal funding to countries with terrorist ties, direct or indirect. Period. In the same vein, American companies caught doing business with terrorist-friendly countries will pay a fine double the amount of their best gross-profit fiscal year from among the last twenty.

5) The phrase 'terrorist ties' is redefined to mean 'anyone who has ever carried out, attempted, or spoken out about attempting a terrorist act and has EVER set foot in your country'. If this has happened the US cash cart doesn't stop on your street. No exceptions.

6) Tighten border and airport security. Since blue-eyed Swedish supermodels and 80 year old grandmothers seem not to be terrorist threats the focus in that direction can be redeployed. Numbers 2&5 will help with the implementation of this process.

7) States become responsible for their own fiscal policies, programs, budget shortfalls, and failures. No more federal bucks. If your state wants all of the cool hip bell-and-whistle programs your state legislature figures out on its own how to pay for them. Again, no exceptions.

8) Consolidate all of these government 'lists' into one master list that keeps bomb-carrying terrorist cowards off airplanes. 

9) Suspend government hiring from those schools who've contributed the 'best and brightest'. Our government is polluted with people who have all the pretty theoretical stuff down pat but fail miserably in the common sense practical applications department.

10. The election year turnover has to at least match the highest state unemployment rate in the country. If it doesn't, forced retirement of the longest-serving members until percentage is reached.
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Wonderings and Curiousities

Posted by JC Murphy on Wednesday, December 09, 2009 6:04:47 PM
Just some more thoughts floating around my mind.

For eight long years....The previous administration.....George Bush did/didn't....George Bush is/isn't....Bush/Cheney....Its now impossible not to hear these words (and what usually follows) without a rolling of the eyes. None of what happened during the Bush years is sound justification for the crap being inflicted on the country and its future. 
 
Why is it that voters who didn't fall in kneejerk fashion for the weak 2008 Republican offering are held to a greater amount of blame than those who voted for the weak 2008 Democrat candidate? What the national leaderships of both major parties and their media lapdogs don't seem to understand is the simplest of principles: Run a strong candidate of character and the voters will come.
 
In the same vein, why is it a reflex reaction to assume that those of us who live outside of the Beltway or far away from either coast are automatically assumed to be too daft to understand 'politics'? Knowing right from wrong doesn't take an Ivy League education, only common sense.

When did this country switch to looking at everything through a legal prism vs. the traditional right/wrong method? Over the last few months we've seen in full high-def clarity they aren't even close to the same thing-as if it weren't completely obvious before that if we'd have been paying attention in the first place. Turn off the reality TV and start participating in the reality beyond the remote control.

The quickest way to turn the country around? Start with 'number one'. Instead of going into personal attack mode at the first hint of criticism look in the mirror. There is a difference between constructive and destructive criticism. Americans have simply lost the ability to know the difference.

Can anyone identify the exact date when reporters stopped reporting?

If there's really anything to take from Max Baucus showing the world he's just another run-of-the-mill D.C. hack for nominating his girlfriend for a government position, no pun intended, its just how completely incestuous the US Politburo has become.

A new opinion of 'Global warming' in Hurricane Algore's own words: He lied to us. He played on our fears. (Make sure you're screaming them)

Republican pundits and talking heads yap loudly about having a tent big enough for 'diverse opinions'. However, nothing is more of a turnoff than ridicule from the Republican elites for being an independent with views closer to libertarian than republican. Hearing highbrow scorn from folks who don't tend to land anywhere in between when traveling from one coast to the other sends the message that voters with differing values really aren't welcome.

Would it now be an easier accounting for women who haven't slept with Tiger Woods to come forward? I've lost count.

Thanks for reading.
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Short Cakes

Posted by JC Murphy on Monday, November 23, 2009 8:03:43 PM
Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder? Sounds like just another lame excuse for not getting out of bed in the morning.

As long as we're creating new excuses like Pre-TSD, consider Political Prisoner Inadequacy Syndrome. Trauma will be widespread when average Americans are jailed for failure to purchase health insurance. Will we truly be jailed just for that? Will Amnesty International and the ACLU plead our cases if/when this silliness becomes law? Will Nelson Mandela or the family of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn point at us and laugh?

Not that I distrust the Illinois Connection but who in that state is going to be profiting from the prison for terrorists that's likely going to operate there?

On the same line, its time for the country-clubbing president to have his frequent flyer miles revoked and get his butt back behind that big desk.

Senator Mary Landrieu. A few hundred million dollars. In DC and Louisiana what she did might be called 'politics'. In the real world there's a different 'P' word for it.

As long as we're seemingly in the mood to soak the 'rich', and in the spirit of fairness, how about a tax schedule that more accurately reflects the attitude of the country toward our elected 'leadership' in DC? The 'rich' who make exactly 174,000 dollars a year are taxed at an 85% rate, the 'rich' who make 193,4000 at 90%, and anyone making 223,500 feels the pinch of a 95% rate. Maybe then our esteemed Politburo, uh, sorry, Congress, would start feeling the frustrations that average Americans feel.
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Clearing the Post-Its

Posted by JC Murphy on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 11:01:13 PM
Decent speech by the President at the memorial service for the Fort Hood victims, but why does doing or saying the right thing always seem to take him longer than it should?

When I hear a Democrat say 'bipartisanship' I hear 'we need a Republican on board to blame when our idea doesn't work'. And yet the Republicans fall for it over and over. Time to replace the elephant with a picture of Charlie Brown holding a football.

Robin Williams once joked about English law enforcement procedure concerning unarmed police faced with a fleeing criminal: Stop, or I'll say stop again. Who knew years later this would be adopted as Obama administration policy toward Iran, and North Korea, and Afghanistan, and terrorism, and you get the idea? The only thing that so far has warranted a stronger Obama stand is the destruction of criticism and dissent.

Anyone see the photo-op cheshire cat grin of Imelda Pelosi being serenaded by fellow Democrats applause Saturday night, after the passing of that unconstitutional health care bill? I can't see that picture without adding the caption 'Look how much money I just spent'.

Can someone please tell Bill Clinton that the real conspiracy is how Al Gore is still somehow living on the government dime.

Where'd all the war protesters go?

Before the moon was bombed shouldn't we have given UN sanctions a chance, or at the least sent Hillary Clinton there to open a dialogue? Maybe even add the moon to the presidential apology tour list for landing there in the first place.

I guess its safe to assume that the wind beneath Bette Midlers' wings isn't Glenn Beck.

The NFL and its esteemed commissioner Roger Goodell carry the scent of hypocrisy once again. Goodell couldn't even hold Larry Johnsons' actual homophobic comments to the same standard as he did the imagined comments attributed to Rush Limbaugh.

What is diversity? Hearing a caller to a national sports radio show saying Limbaugh is blatantly racist because he's from Missouri, and that the Midwest is naturally racist because there's 'no diversity' has me concerned. Is diversity a region predominately white but with varying opinions stemming from differing ethnic and religious influences, or is diversity represented by a political party whose members all parrot the exact same words?
I guess diversity means Democrat.

Why is it whenever a member of the US Politburo, sorry, Congress, cites a statistic or percentage it sounds like they've made it up that very second?

If anything written here led you to believe I'm Republican, not hardly. I left back in 1990. Watching The Dede and Newt Funtime Road Show further cemented my feeling that Republicans are low-cal Democrats. Flipping the bird to the voters they're supposed to be courting by running candidates like John McCain and Dede Scozzafava, and then trying to justify it with a bend-over-and-accept-it attitude is a great way to ru(i)n a political party. Do I support third parties? No, but I understand the anger and frustration that comes from being ignored by the party leaders who've been holed up in DC for so long that they've lost the ability to relate to, or for that matter even talk and listen to, ordinary people.

If either party spent even half as much time protecting the greater interests of the country as they do playing politics they'd never lose another election.
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