December 2009

Hi. Happy Holidays to everybody. Hope you have a great holiday season, and get a chance to slow down and enjoy time with family and friends. Seems like its harder to do every year. I will actually get 3 straight days of nothing but holiday fun, then its back to work. Back out on the road Sunday with the AF Basketball team in El Paso for their Sun Bowl Basketball Tournament. Its one of the top holiday tournaments in the nation. The 1st time we were there a few years ago they greeted the team with music and singers. I will never forget them trying to get then head coach Joe Scott to dance. Priceless.

2009 was a tough year for a lot of people. I hope as we make the turn to 2010 things (the economy-jobs) loosen up just a bit. We as a nation have to bounce back and hope for good things in the coming year.

Slow down, and please enjoy the holidays, and travel safe.

Happy Holidays!!! I love the snow and cold-Sorry. It puts me in the holiday spirit.....On my mind.....Kvor is working with the Colorado Springs Police Department and Teens With Promise on their annual Toy Drive. If you're shopping please grab one extra toy. You can bring it to us at Kvor at 6805 Corporate Drive or an Springs Police Department. Thanks for helping us spread the true meaning of Christmas.....The Tiger Woods drama has taken so many twists and turns. But here's where it gets interesting. The National Enquirer, US! and TMZ have been accurately all over this story. Traditional media has been way behind. You can say you don't care, but that's like saying you never look at a traffic accident as you drive by it. Tigers silence is not good, mainly because it gives everybody else so much room to speculate. Look at what David Letterman did. He beat everybody to the punch and didn't give them room to go anywhere, and its already out of the headlines. Tiger reportedly is going through marital counseling with his wife at home several times a day. if that's true, no matter how big his house is, its not big enough at the moment. Reportedly his angry wife has gotten a new pre-nup which will put millions in her pocket. Talk to you again soon.

Musings

Post election thoughts.......So Springs residents decide not to help out the city, and turn down a tax increase. Get ready for fewer city services next year, and perhaps slower response times from police and fire crews. But hey, its what you wanted. You won't swim in a city pool next year, and there's a good chance the softball, football or soccer field you and your kids play on will be in lousy shape. But hey its what you want. This city has severe issues, and its not with city council. Part of the problem is some (not all) some of the population is simply clueless. You know who you are......The Air Force Academy and the springs looked great on ESPN's Gameday Show before the Air Force Army Football game. You can't buy that kind of exposure.....There is a hunger strike in a prison in Southern Afghanistan. The prisoners are unhappy. You know what? Let them go hungry!!!!!!....... I love the holiday season, and believe it or not I love shopping amongst the crowds.....

Do What You Want-Be What You Are

I really feel for Colorado Springs City Employees who have been meeting by department and being told if they have a chance of losing their jobs. It just stinks. I hope and pray this city finally gets wise and realizes we need the upcoming mill levy increase. I don't care what the national reports are suggesting. Things are still not good for our local economy. I'm tired of reading about layoffs every morning. The Doug Bruce's of this community are doing nobody any good. I don't want to see my neighbors and friends losing jobs. You old farts who gripe about tax increases, yet scream when we don't have enough infrastructure and city services can't have it both ways.....Back on the road with Air Force Football. Hats off to Jeff Cosky who, for lack of a better term, is the travelling secretary for the Falcons. How he gets 172 of us around the country and back in 36 hours is incredible....Spent some time with former Air Force Basketball Coach Joe Scott recently. Glad to see he has a 2 year contract extension. He earned it. Also hung out with Denver Nugget Assistant Larry Mangino at Pepsi Center....Had a great summer of concerts. Saw Earth Wind and Fire and Chicago, Aerosmith, Jackson Brown( who was just okay) and my favorites Hall and Oates.....Do you get the feeling we may have a long, wet winter? Enough with the rain already....Why does President Obama feel he has to fix everything in this country in the first year of his presidency? But I like the fact he called Kanye West a jackass....One final thing. I am not a fan of the President. But you so-called birthers who are screaming the President wasn't born in this country are doing yourselves a dis-service. If that's all you can focus on you are losing credibility. Question him on health care, or the stimulus package, but please drop the birth certificate issue.

Musings

Wasn't it fun to watch Tom Watson challenge for the British Open? I love how much the competitor in Watson came out during the match. He said going in he wasn't there to just play well, he was there to win it. Great Show....82% of KVOR listeners believe the Rampart Range Shooting Area should not have been closed. An accidental shooting that left an Aurora man dead was the catalyst for its closure by the US Forest Service. Have never been up there. From what I have been told the place was poorly kept by those who used the range.....Bronco Football practices are underway with a new head coach, a new quarterback, but the same expectations-Win, or else. I have a feeling Denver will find itself back in the playoffs.....Congrats to a close friend, Larry Mangino with the Denver Nuggets. Larry joined the team as an assistant before last season, and look what happens-54 wins and a Western Conference Final Berth against the Lakers....Did you see where Jeff Kingery, the longtime Play by Play voice of the Colorado Rockies will work just one road series the rest of the year? The Rockies reduced his role because Jeff got upset and yelled at a bus driver taking the team from Dodger Stadium back to their hotel in June. According to the Denver Post Kingery had been warned about his behavior in the past. Are you kidding me? He has one of the greatest, and toughest jobs in the world to get, and he risks it because he apparently has anger issues? Geez Jeff, we can understand if you had a fight with your wife, or a relative was sick, but damn-a bus driver makes a wrong turn and you get up in the guys grill? And the Rockies have had to warn you about your behavior in the past? GROW UP!!! Its sad, because he is in the last year of his contract with the team. I will be surprised if they bring him back...An update on Kingery The Denver Post says Kingery can work as many road games as he wants as long as he pays his own way. So he is not traveling with the team as just about all broadcasters do. You wonder if he wants to or has enough time in this season to make up and apologize to the Rockies....Say what you will about President Obama, but asking the Harvard Professor and the Cambridge Cop who's paths crossed, to come to Washington and have a beer is certainly unique. How bout inviting North Korean leader Kim Jung Il to the states for a Washington Nationals game, a dog and a cold one?

Brave But Chicken

There are a lot of angry, mean people in our society. Here's proof. Go online, read any story where it allows you to post comments. Take 5 minutes and read some of the comments. I think its one of the bad things about the Internet. The anonymity the Internet gives people. The hatred and anger that's out there, all protected by the computer I am typing on right now. It makes cowards of people, and whats worse, makes people less accountable. It emboldens them to, in my opinion, ultimately do things that are wrong and even illegal. Whatever happened to someone standing up, saying something and sticking by their word? It's gone, relegated to a "hide behind the curtain," mentality with a signature of "abc89." And how mean are the comments they make? I hope their not my neighbors or yours, but they probably are. You wonder sometimes why things are in the toilet?

And You Want Us to Help?

North Korea recently announced prison sentences of 12 years for two American journalists who entered the country illegally. A spokesman says Americans Laura Ling and Euna Lee were found guilty of a "grave crime." The American Government is working some behind the scenes channels in an effort to win their release. But the Obama administration must be careful that North Korea does not try and link this incident to efforts by Western Powers and South Korea to get the North to curtail its nuclear ambitions. Now this may sound cold and callous-I have a problem with this story. The two women, along with support crew from their American employer Current TV, were indeed on North Korean soil. They were filmed on the other side of the Tumen river separating North Korea from China. Through a translator they were heard on the video as saying they were in a North Korean courtyard and do not have permission to be there. So why should the United States now rush to their rescue? They knew what they were doing. They knew they did not have any permission to enter North Korea. I don't care who is signing my paycheck, you can't ask me (and its still unclear if Current TV ordered the women to make a foray into North Korea) to violate a country's law like that, and especially one as unpredictable and unstable as North Korea. And now we're supposed to bail them out? I feel for them and their families-however they created this mess themselves. And whats worse is now North Korea can use the journalists in a high stakes negotiating game, as they continue to threaten the West with nuclear tests. Just because you're a journalist you don't have carte blanche to wander into any country. Had that been me, I would not have been within 10 miles of the North Korean border. Sources say for the moment the two women are being held in guest houses and probably, despite reports, won't go to the vile and heinous detention camps. But they never should have crossed the river to begin with. And now their families are forced to plead with our government to intervene and win their release. Sometimes when you make your own bed you have to lie in it.