Better than the last four years and the Horns, but still disappointing. Just a frustrating day in the trenches, as we were outplayed at the line of scrimmage on both sides.
Now to wait for the bitterness to fade before I can look back and savor this team’s improvement from last season and wonder about which bowl and opponent the Ags will draw.
… and a bizarre quarter it was. The Ags now trail 19-13 after a blocked punt for a touchdown, along with a strange 1-point safety on a blocked extra point. Tack on two field goals and a non-productive Aggie offense and there you have it.
Not over yet, and certainly not the embarrassment of recent years, but the Ags look tired on defense and their offense needs to step up and accomplish something.
An Aggie lead 13-6 on a last-minute, 98-yard fumble return. The third quarter will be crucial, as the Longhorns have come out of the half roaring almost all season, outscoring their opponents 92-3 in the third. Meanwhile, it’s been the worst quarter for the Ags, who have edged their opponents 46-40.
Oh yeah, Turkey Day leftovers and Aggie football. Such a sweet day to be a Texan.
Or at least make it respectable this year against the Horns.
Holy crap, I’m late this week.
Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go on.
—Andrew Jackson
Thank you for visiting Target Centermass. In return for your kindness, I give you this wonderful editorial from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
T-Day, ready-to-eat
Pause a moment over your Thanksgiving turkey to remember those whose only repast today will be labeled MRE, for “meals-ready-to-eat.”
Two days ago, thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops and police commandos began an offensive against Sunni Muslim insurgents in a group of lawless towns southwest of Baghdad, popularly known as the “triangle of death.” Call it Fallujah, Round Two.
Americans being Americans, the U.S. military dubbed the new push Operation Plymouth Rock. It began in the town of Jabala but was planned to reach across the Sunni area southwest of Baghdad, where rebels rule the streets after scaring off police.
It’s the gritty urban warfare that many observers warned would come. The enemy wears no uniform. Civilian casualties haunt young Americans to whom the deaths of innocents is an abhorrent reality.
What they face today and tomorrow is almost impossible for most of us to imagine — like missing a meal, or taking Thanksgiving dinner out of plastic stamped “MRE.”
On this day — and every day — we remain grateful for the sacrifices made by our men and women in uniform.
After cringing at the headline and thinking, “Great, Libya’s at it again,” I found myself somewhat surprised by the content of Gadhafi’s complaint.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi says the international community should have offered Tripoli a better payback for renouncing its efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.
Mr. Gaddhafi told France’s Le Figaro newspaper that he was “a bit disappointed” that Libya was not better rewarded for what he described as Tripoli’s contribution to international peace. In clearer terms, that translates as Libya’s decision last year to scrap its efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.
That decision has led to the end of years-long United Nations sanctions against Libya, and helped improve diplomatic ties between the North African country and a number of Western nations. That includes relations with France whose president, Jacques Chirac, arrived in Tripoli Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Chirac’s visit to Libya is the first by a French head of state in more than half a century.
British, German and Italian leaders have also visited Libya in recent months.
But Mr. Gadhafi told Le Figaro that in exchange for scrapping its weapons program, Libya should at least receive guarantees from the international community to protect its national security, and help in transforming its weapons material for peaceful, civilian use. The Libyan leader specifically faulted Japan, Europe and the United States.
Since Libya was not rewarded, Mr. Gadhafi warned, other countries like North Korea and Iran would not be inclined to follow Libya’s example and dismantle their own weapons programs. He said he had already had talks to this effect with officials from the two countries.
Yes, I feel Gadhafi’s move should be rewarded more than it has been, though perhaps not to the extent Gadhafi actually wishes. I certainly concur with assurances of national security, at least in terms of outward threats, and assistance in “civilizing” Libya’s weapons material seems reasonable.
I would hesitate towards rushing to any other immediate rewards, and that hesitancy is driven by two factors. First, there should not be so much of an immediate reward so as to actually induce other nations to get the idea that starting and dropping WMD programs is the way to a fast buck. Second, Gadhafi still has much he can do to better the lives of Libyans, including granting them a greater voice in their own governance. Further rewards should be held in reserve for such steps.
One reward I would most assuredly and whole-heartedly back would be for the English-speaking world to reach a consensus on the spelling of dear ol’ Moammar’s name. The above article spells it Gadhafi. This article has it as Kadhafi. Actually, here’s a site with thirty-freaking-two variations. This needs to be resolved. Perhaps this is something the United Nations could actually manage.
Amid threats of strikes, promises of disruption, cries of fraud, and even a bizarre allegation of candidate poisoning (hattip OTB), Ukraine is pushing itself towards the brink of anarchy in reaction to the results of their presidential run-off election.
Opposition leaders called Wednesday for a nationwide strike to shut down factories, schools and transportation after officials declared Ukraine’s pro-Kremlin prime minister the winner of a presidential runoff election that many countries denounced as rigged.
The call by reformist candidate Viktor Yushchenko and his allies for an “all-Ukrainian political strike” risked provoking a crackdown by outgoing President Leonid Kuchma’s government, which has said the opposition’s actions in the aftermath of Sunday’s bitterly disputed runoff were, in effect, preparations for a coup d’etat.
A strike could also further divide the country: Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych drew his support from the pro-Russian, heavily industrialized eastern half of the country, while Yushchenko’s strength was in the west, a traditional center of Ukrainian nationalism.
To prevent the crisis from widening, Yanukovych said negotiations with Yushchenko’s team would begin Thursday, the Interfax news agency reported, citing Ukrainian television. The opposition has said, however, that it would talk only about a handover of power to Yushchenko.
The Central Election Commission’s decision to declare Yanukovych the winner “puts Ukraine on the verge of civil conflict,” Yushchenko told hundreds of thousands of his cheering supporters who massed for a fourth straight night in central Kiev’s Independence Square.
After the speeches, many demonstrators headed to the presidential administration building, the site of a tense standoff with riot police Tuesday night. The police presence was heavy again, with about 40 buses disgorging well over 1,000 officers with helmets and shields who stood in phalanxes up to eight deep outside the building.
The election was denounced as fraudulent by Western observers, who cited ballot stuffing, voter intimidation and other irregularities.
….
The commission said Yanukovych got 49.46 percent of the vote and Yushchenko 46.61 percent.
“With this decision, they want to put us on our knees,” the Western-leaning Yushchenko told the crowd, which responded with chants of “Shame! Shame!” and “We will not give up.”
Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz said the opposition was “organizing citizens, stopping lessons at schools and universities, stopping work at enterprises, stopping transport … and, thus, we’ll force the authorities to think about what they are doing,”
Yuliya Tymoshenko, Yushchenko’s key ally, said his followers would “surround all government buildings, block railways, airports and highways.”
“We have a strict intention to seize power in our hands at these sites,” she said, vowing a “consistent struggle that will lead to the destruction of this regime.”
She also said that the opposition would go to Ukraine’s Supreme Court on Thursday to protest the alleged election fraud, and urged supporters to remain on the square and not let down their guard.
….
Kuchma, the outgoing president, said Yushchenko supporters were trying to carry out “a coup d’etat.” He called “on all political forces to negotiate immediately” and on the international community to “refrain from interference in Ukraine’s affairs.”
Kuchma called the election “an examination of the maturity and democracy of all the Ukrainian people.”
“We will pass this exam,” he said.
The election commission announcement came after a flurry of statements on the possibility of negotiations to find a compromise, which Kuchma had proposed earlier.
Mykola Tomenko, a lawmaker and Yushchenko ally, told Yushchenko supporters earlier Wednesday that the opposition would negotiate “only about the peaceful handing over of power to Yushchenko by Kuchma.”
Yushchenko claimed victory Tuesday over Yanukovych in the presidential run-off and, in a sign he would not back off, took a symbolic oath of office.
The election has led to an increasingly tense tug-of-war between the West and Moscow, which considers Ukraine part of its sphere of influence and a buffer between Russia and eastward-expanding NATO.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has already congratulated Yanukovych on his victory, and the Kremlin-controlled Russian parliament denounced the Ukrainian opposition for its “illegal actions.”
….
Lech Walesa, the founder of Poland’s Solidarity movement, will travel to Ukraine to act as a mediator in the standoff over the disputed presidential elections there, his son told The Associated Press.
In addition, the Netherlands planned to send a special envoy, Niek Biegman, to Ukraine as part of its role as current holder of the European Union’s rotating presidency.
Opposition supporters have taken over blocks of Kiev’s main street, setting up a giant tent camp. Yanukovych supporters also became increasingly visible in Kiev, setting up hundreds of tents of their own on a nearby wooded slope. But many of their camps had been dismantled by Wednesday night.
I’m not familiar enough with the situation to comment, other than I think many of us are going to become much more knowledgeable very soon. It should be noted that both the U.S. and Canada have rejected the results.
Do go read the article on the alleged poisoning of Yushchenko. The before-and-after pictures are simply astounding.
I can’t find anything I feel like blogging, and I’m blaming the upcoming holiday. Unless something strikes me, I’m just going to spend a little bit of time updating the blogroll. Suggestions are always welcome.
Palestinians — the people of paradox.
They simultaneously drive one towards sympathy and disgust. They have been manipulated on the world stage by the whole of the Arab world for over a half-century but have continuously chosen to dance to the tune of the martyrdom. One feels pity for generations raised upon the rock of hatred, only to have said pity wiped out in a moment by their jubilation after hearing of 9/11. One marvels at a people that held in such beloved regard a terrorist-in-chief that stole billions at their own expense but, by their own actions, continue to subject themselves to worsening poverty.
Despite a slowdown in fighting, the Palestinian economy remains crippled by four years of violence with Israel, with nearly half the population living in poverty on less than $2 a day, the World Bank said in a report released Tuesday.
The international development bank paints a dire picture in its first assessment of the Palestinian economy since May 2003. Economic activity has plummeted, while poverty and unemployment climbed sharply since the current wave of violence began in September 2000, the report said.
The report was issued ahead of next month’s meeting of international donors, including the United States and European countries, whose money sustains the Palestinian economy.
The report cites Israel’s “closure” policies — a series of restrictions on the movement of Palestinian people and products meant to boost Israeli security — as the main cause of economic hardship in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
It also calls on the Palestinians to carry out further economic reforms.
An Israeli official replied that the Palestinian violence is responsible for the downturn in the Palestinian economy. “The Palestinian economy was growing in the years leading up to the terrorist uprising,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev.
According to the report, the Palestinian economy recovered slightly in 2003 after two years of sharp decline. It cited a slowdown in violence and drop in Israeli curfews in Palestinian areas as well as a modest rebound in the Israeli economy for the improvement.
Economic activity has stagnated in 2004, and remains well below the pre-uprising levels, the report says.
Per capita gross domestic product has fallen to about $930 this year from $1,490 in 1999, according to the bank. Unemployment shot up to 27 percent from 12 percent during the same period, while the poverty rate has more than doubled to 48 percent from 20 percent.
Those figures translate into 1.7 million Palestinians living below the poverty line, set by the World Bank at $2.10 a day. Nearly one-third of those people, or 600,000 Palestinians, live below the “subsistence” level of $1.50 a day — the amount necessary to meet basic nutritional needs, according to the bank.
The hope for these people is that Arafat is now gone. The choice to move forward is theirs to make.