Thursday, February 02, 2006

Fall Out from the Big Speech

These are comments from Gene Inger, a thoughtfully long winded, but mostly accurate analyst. Thanks to my brother Dortch for these comments, cut and pasted from Inger's newsletter.

There is a significant 'flap' developing with OPEC, as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries today warned that President Bush’s proposal to reduce much US dependence on Middle Eastern oil could badly jeopardize needed investment in Gulf oil production and refining capacity. Gee, well they should have been accommodative to the needs of the United States in many aspects over recent years and appreciative of the sacrifices the U.S. made for them not only in the region, but in the Balkans too.

Tennessee Tops Vandy Moves to 11-0 at Home. Pearl Wears Orange Jacket A-LA Mears

Yes, some great news out of Knoxville for a change. Tennessee Beats Vandy. Read it and weep Commodore fans.

And, read the article too--Bruce Pearl actually went to see legendary coach Ray Mears, and asked his permission to bring back the Orange Sports Coat against Vanderbilt and Kentucky! How cool is that!!??

(note to all non UT Fans--Ray Mears used to wear an orange jacket to every Kentucky and Vanderbilt basketball games in the 60's and 70's, which would absolutely perturb those fans)!!

Do you think Fulmer can coach his way out of this one?

The Vols finish the 2006 recruiting season with a class ranked anywhere from No. 15 to the mid-20s by various national services. Scout.com ranked Tennessee 24th in the nation and seventh in the SEC.

Fulmer declined to talk about specific players that spurned the Vols but spoke to the overall recruiting landscape at a press conference Wednesday evening.

"There's guys that just lie to you - flat lie to you," Fulmer said. "That goes back to upbringing."

The bad news for UT continued into the afternoon when Aleric Mullins from East Lake High in Wendell, N.C., signed with North Carolina. A source close to UT's program said Mullins told UT's coaches that he was committed to being a Vol during his Jan. 13 official visit.

"We certainly fought through some ups and downs as we fought the recruiting battles from a different position than we've been in since I've been a football coach," Fulmer said. "That's after a sub-par season, so that presented some challenges."

Sub par? How about disastrous?

Guess who was ranked number one this year--Our old nemesis--Florida!

Who Reads Newspapers Any More?

Read this article
about how advertising revenue continues to decline at the Tribune company's print newspapers. I'm sure they are scratching their heads wondering what to do. Look at your own habits. Do you read newspapers as much as you did, say, one, five, or ten years ago? I still subscribe to the Tennessean and the Wall Street Journal. Half the time one or both papers goes into the recycle bin having gone unread that day. The Sports section of the Tennessean is the only section worth reading anyway.

Here is one nugget from this article: Online revenue climbed 40% to $46 million, largely due to the improvement in classified help-wanted ads.. Times, they are a changin'.

Political Grandstanding at it's best

Specter must be up for re-election this year.

Senate hearings on record oil company profits