Time for Ohio State's Football Coach to Pay Up

Sometimes it’s best just to come clean. It’s a lesson Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel would have done well to follow. As dribs and drabs of his lying, misleads and misdeeds over knowing about and failing to report possible NCAA infractions have come into the public spotlight, he is quickly becoming a public relations nightmare.

Tressel is being investigated by the NCAA for not reporting possible infractions, then lying about knowing about them and now saying he told nobody about them after they were reported to him. Now I don’t want to pile on this guy, but having made five players promise to stay for another year after they were suspended by the NCAA for selling clothes and equipment for a few tattoos, it would seem to me the hammer has got to come down on him.

Let’s remember that it is an NCAA rule to report to them and the school any possible infractions (he didn’t when he found out about his players selling their stuff for some tats). Additionally, his contract with the school mandates he report possible misdeeds (he didn’t). Then he signed a letter reiterating this last point in September saying he knew of no violations (he knew of the possibility in April and didn’t bother to mention is to anyone until December, when federal investigators contacted him. Tressel told them it was the first time he’d heard of it). Oh wait . . . that’s what he has said, but now it turns out he emailed back and forth with an attorney who first brought up the issue. Oops. Three (or four or five) strikes and you’re out.

The notoriously whiney and inconsistent NCAA is investigating. This is a huge money program, and there’s a lot of talk Tressel and his players have pretty much gotten a pass so far.

Tressel, great guy that he is, suspended himself for two games . . . then upped it to five when he saw nobody was biting at his “self punishment.” He has been fined $250,000 by Ohio State as well. It’s a move to stay ahead of the possible NCAA punishment.

I’m thinking at least eight games. Ohio State may have the last half of its 2010 season, as well as a victory in the Sugar Bowl, yanked by the NCAA as well.

Tressel is supposed to be a leader, teacher, coach and mentor. The big money corrupts and has corrupted. Of course the players don’t get any of it, but Tressel does . . . tons of it. Forgetting all the endorsement (logos on uniforms, shoes, etc. ) and speeches, Tressel pulls in a cool $4.7 million a year. He’s the highest paid coach in the college football game. He is the captain of this ship.

Time to make him pay.

Shut it Down? The Kids in Washington Continue to Act Up

A few hours until your government, led by children fighting over the Tonka Toy truck in the sand box, shuts down. Arguing not over budget cutting, but posturing for the next presidential election and their own home-state fans, congress can’t get out of its own way, move off agenda-based cuts and riders attached to cuts and get the job done. The job you are paying them to do. So, troops don’t get paid, hundreds of thousands of government workers don’t get paid, parks and museums get closed and you suck wind.

Here's a novel idea . . . instead of shutting down the whole government. Let's start by making sure politicians don't get paid if the government gets shut down. After all, our troops won't get paid . . . so why pay a bunch of hacks in Washington if the men and women in harm's way aren't getting paid. Sheesh.

We're talking about two-tenths of 1 percent between a shut down and no shut down. Are you kidding me? That's a mac and cheese dinner instead of a steak once a month. Republicans need to strip the political issues (does anyone else seem to think funding or not funding Planned Parenthood is a political not a budget issue?) out of their financial papers and get back to what people said they wanted in the last election . . . make it work. And Democrats need to understand that cuts are coming and they ain't all gonna be pretty. We're broke, folks. A few months later, it's as broken as ever. Bullies in the play ground won't work, and I'm guessing there will be hell to pay for all of them if the government shuts down.

Then lets take down the names of those who manage to piss us off the most with their political rhetoric and 30-second sound bites and make sure they are told to go home in the next election. Thus far, the election changes haven't worked . . . I'd fire all of you and start over. The machine is broken, and tightening a bolt here and there isn't going to work. The Tea Partiers are shooting themselves in their collective feet if they press agenda-based riders (although reports seem to indicate it’s old-line Republicans hanging on to the riders and not new Tea Party folk) . . . the attack on Planned Parenthood is agenda-driven. Federal funds don’t pay for or subsidize abortions, so that argument is out . . . despite the fact that many conservative insist (and show their ignorance) that Planned Parenthood should be cut because some centers provide abortions and nothing more. It’s an attack on women and women’s health, plain and simple. And, personally, I find it more than a bit off-putting that a bunch of middle-age white guys are leading that charge.

The problem is there are no real consequences for politicians . . . they vote for this cut and that cut or to spend this much or that much, but their pay doesn't get cut (in fact it rises regularly and automatically with nary a vote, let alone my say or your say . . .  their benefits and perks are among the best in the country and they enjoy huge staffs and free travel . . . oh wait . . . that is free travel on your dime. So, as I said, let's start with cutting salaries if they vote to cut yours, making them pay for healthcare . . . cutting staff (after all, your secretary was let go in the recession) . . .  no travel outside the country and no travel outside commercial coach. There's no need for some congressperson from bum wherever to take a jaunt with his staff to Aruba for a week, especially in this climate.

Solve the problem . . . don’t delay it with half-baked delays, continued extensions and endlessly raising the deficit ceiling. The people who pay you are ticked off, and failing to do your jobs isn’t going to help . . . You want to tell us how great and hard-working you are? . . . Stop the sand kicking, lock yourselves in your offices and get working. We’re watching.

Pisses me off.