Friday, April 04, 2008
Gopher Football Spring Practice #4
from Chip Scoggins
The Gophers put on full pads for the first time this spring Thursday, and judging by the commotion during practice and Tim Brewster’s mood afterward, they liked the results.
Brewster began his post-practice update with this: “If you didn’t like that practice, you don’t love football because that was a great practice,” he said. “Hard-nosed, physical. I feel really good about what we accomplished today.”
Brewster called it one of the best practices the team has had since he took the job.
Here are some highlights:
– The team finished practice with goal line. They did four snaps (two from the 2-yard line and two from the 1-yard line). The defense won the competition 3-1.
– The team will have two live scrimmages and the spring game.
– The team is thin at wide receiver right now without Eric Decker and the incoming freshmen (Brandon Green, Brodrick Smith) who will play a lot. Brewster said Marcus Sherels and Ralph Spry have performed well so far. He also said Jimmy Thompson made a long catch-and-run Thursday.
– Brewster really likes the competition at center. Jeff Tow-Arnett is slightly ahead because he has more experience, but Trey Davis and Ryan Wynn are pushing him hard.
– We were talking about how the secondary could change completely from last season and Brewster said he will go out on a limb and predict that safety Tramaine Brock will be one of the four starters. I think it’s safe to write that one in ink.
– Brewster reiterated that juco safety Simoni Lawrence could move up to SAM linebacker.
– I talked to Tony Mortensen about long snapping and he said he’s getting better at it. He joked that he could use a 7-foot punter though.
– Steve Davis had a nice gash on his nose after practice. He said the coaching staff now makes each defensive position do five up-downs every time they don’t pursue to the ball. The linebackers, he noted, did 45 on Thursday. “They’re trying to eliminate loafing,” he said.
– We don’t have access to the team again until Tuesday so we’ll check back then. Have a great weekend.
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from GopherSports
The Minnesota football team came out hitting and battled through its most intense practice of the spring as the Golden Gophers drilled for just over two hours in full pads indoors at the Gibson-Nagurski football complex Thursday afternoon.
It was the first practice of the spring in full gear for the Gophers, and according to head coach Tim Brewster it was one of the program’s best workouts of his tenure at Minnesota.
“If you didn’t like that practice, then you don’t love football because that was a great practice,” Brewster said during his post-practice media session. “It was hard-nosed and physical. I feel really good about what we accomplished. Today was an outstanding day.”
Minnesota came out and again focused on fundamentals early in the workout before turning its focus to team drills, taking plenty of reps in both 7-on-9 and 11-on-11 situations from all over the field.
Both sides of the ball experienced their fair share of bright spots, with quarterback Adam Weber making several completions over the middle from midfield during the 7-on-9 portion of the workout.
Two of his favorite targets were wide receivers Marcus Sherels and Ralph Spry, who both made nice grabs in the center of the field to keep the chains moving.
The Gopher defense, though, stiffened in the red zone and with less room to defend held its own. Linebacker Nathan Triplett came up big for the defenders, snagging a pair of interceptions on the goal line.
Minnesota closed out the practice with an exciting session on the goal line that saw the defense turn away the offense on three of four snaps from the one- and two-yard-lines.
“It was a competitive practices and that’s what it’s going to take for us to get better as a football team,” Brewster said. “The kids competed from the time they got out on the practice field to the end. I think they all left the field with a sense of accomplishment.”
The Gophers will be back at it on Friday afternoon, when Minnesota returns to the parctice fields for its fifth spring workout.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Gopher Football Spring Practice #3
Shells and thud
Posted on April 1st, 2008 - 7:09 PM
By Chip Scoggins The Gophers practiced in helmet and shoulder pads (shells) on Tuesday in what coach Tim Brewster calls "thud" tempo - hitting but no tackling.
Here are some notes and Brewster's thoughts from practice No. 3:
- The defense forced a few sacks against an offensive line that is relatively young and inexperienced. Brewster said there is good competition at center between Jeff Tow-Arnett, Ryan Wynn and Trey Davis. "All those three guys have a great opportunity to win that job," Brewster said. "It will be interesting to see how that plays out."
- Brewster said he likes what he sees from Otis Hudson at right guard. He said Hudson told him that he feels more confident now than at any point in his career.
- Brewster said the offense might line up Adam Weber and David Pittman in the backfield together and then motion one out and throw it to him. "There is no limit to the things that we can do," Brewster said.
- Brewster said he likes what he sees from Steve Davis so far this spring. He admitted the transition to linebacker was hard for Davis last season but he felt Davis looked more comfortable in the final few games.
- Brewster said the defensive line will have some good depth once everyone arrives in the fall. He said right now the staff is counting on juco transfers Tim McGee and Cedric McKinley and freshman Jewhan Edwards playing right away.
- Brewster is particularly impressed with McKinley. "Big Ced comes in June. He is a physical specimen. He plays with a motor. He's a little bit rough around the edges, but he's going to be a really good player."
- Another day, more high praise for safety Tramaine Brock. Brewster: "He's a vicious player on the field. I love his temperament. He absolutely plays the game the way I see the game being played, with tremendous toughness and passion. He is an absolute joy to coach."
- Eden Prairie coach Mike Grant and son Ryan attended practice.
- Brewster said juco transfer Simoni Lawrence can play linebacker or safety. With so many teams running the spread, Brewster said the SAM linebacker walks out on slot receiver. "The SAM linebacker is basically a strong safety," Brewster said. "He's not a box player. He's a space player."
- I ran into former safety Brandon Owens at the facility. Owens, whose career was cut short by a devastating shoulder injury, said he would like to get into coaching. Brewster said he would help Owens pursue that career but he said Owens needs to commit himself to getting his degree.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
U.S. Government Threatens El Salvador Solidarity Movement
An Interview with Cherrene Horazuk
In recent months the U.S. Department of Justice has sent threatening letters to the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), which works in solidarity with grassroots social justice movements and the left in El Salvador. The government is accusing CISPES of being an 'agent of a foreign power' - specifically of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), the leftist political party in El Salvador. This echoes the FBI's groundless accusations against CISPES in the 1980s, which led to a seven-year campaign of illegal U.S. government harassment against CISPES that the FBI later had to apologize for.
CISPES works to build solidarity in the U.S. with the Salvadoran popular movement and with the FMLN. CISPES has done this work since 1980, when it was formed at the start of the civil war in El Salvador, during which the FMLN led an armed struggle for liberation against the brutal U.S.-backed right wing Salvadoran military dictatorship.
The following is an interview with Cherrene Horazuk, who was Executive Director of CISPES from 1993 to 2003. She talks about the current government attack on CISPES, the history of such attacks, and some thoughts on why this is happening now.
Fight Back!: What is going on now with the U.S. Department of Justice harassing CISPES?
Cherrene Horazuk: The U.S. Department of Justice sent threatening communications to CISPES in January saying that they thought that CISPES was contracted by the FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front) to run the FMLN's electoral campaign and to fundraise for the FMLN presidential campaign in the U.S. There are presidential elections in March 2009 in El Salvador and the FMLN slate of Mauricio Funes and Salvador Sanchez Ceren has a good chance to win. The Department of Justice said they read in the Washington Post and on web pages that the FMLN had contracted CISPES to do this, so they insisted that CISPES turn in all documents relating to a contract with the FMLN or presidential candidate Mauricio Funes. They wanted documentation because they said CISPES would be required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) of 1938.
Of course there is no such documentation because CISPES hasn't signed any contractual agreements or taken orders to do the solidarity work that CISPES does. CISPES organizes solidarity in the U.S. based on shared values with the Salvadoran social justice movement and the FMLN. It's a relationship of solidarity.
Fight Back!: What is the history of FBI and U.S. government harassment of CISPES and of the Latin America solidarity movement? Tell us about what happened with CISPES in the 1980s.
Horazuk: From 1981 to 1987 the FBI carried out one of the largest domestic spying endeavors in recent U.S. history. They investigated more than 100,000 individuals and more than 3000 groups. That included CISPES committees, Central America solidarity groups, church groups, student groups, social justice organizations and anyone that in any way shape or form was speaking out against human rights abuses in El Salvador and Central America. Anyone speaking out in support of grassroots progressive human rights groups and revolutionary organizations was investigated.
I think 52 out of the 59 FBI bureau offices in the U.S. were involved in the investigation. They started the investigation within months of CISPES's founding in 1980. It included surveillance, harassment, intimidation, break-ins to offices and houses. Some people lost their jobs as a result. The worst impact is that some Salvadorans were investigated that were then deported back to El Salvador, and the U.S. government turned their names over to the brutal Salvadoran military and those people were never heard from again.
In 1987 CISPES filed a lawsuit against the FBI because we got some files under the Freedom of Information Act. Congressional hearings were held, and ultimately the FBI was found to have carried out a completely illegal investigation, in which they found no proof of any wrongdoing on CISPES's part. All the wrongdoing was by the FBI in their illegal spying and harassment. As a result the FBI was ordered to cease and desist. That case also led to some law changes that curtailed domestic surveillance, made it harder for the FBI to do spying. Of course that was then later reversed under the Patriot Act. At the end of the lawsuit the FBI actually had to issue a statement saying they were wrong.
Fight Back!: Why was CISPES specifically targeted?
Horazuk: We were the largest solidarity organization in the U.S. We took a clear position against the U.S. government support for the right-wing death squad regime in El Salvador and we stood strongly in solidarity with the people of El Salvador fighting back against that regime. We were supportive not just of the grassroots movement, but also the revolutionary movement and the FMLN. The FMLN was fighting against a brutal right-wing death squad government that was propped up by millions of dollars of U.S. military aid. The right-wing government was shown to be responsible for countless massacres and torture and for the vast majority of the 75,000 deaths during the Salvadoran civil war.
CISPES stands up for the Salvadoran people's right to self-determination, and I think because of that the U.S. government saw the solidarity movement and CISPES particularly as a threat to U.S. policy in Latin America. This was in the early 1980s in the context of newly-elected President Reagan saying he was going to 'draw the line' in El Salvador to prevent a revolution there, after the left-wing Sandinistas had just overthrown the pro-U.S. military dictatorship in Nicaragua. The Reagan administration thought El Salvador would be next and were providing millions of dollars a day in military aid to stop a progressive victory in El Salvador.
CISPES organized delegations to El Salvador throughout the war for people from the U.S. to go see for themselves what our government was doing there. Thousands of people from the U.S. went with CISPES to El Salvador during the war and saw what was really going on. President Reagan was saying there were no massacres, no bombings, but people went and talked to survivors of bombings and massacres. People saw that our government was lying, it was a huge learning experience for a whole generation of activists.
In addition, people who went on CISPES delegations also saw that there was a resistance movement fighting back, an alternative. People traveled to the FMLN's liberated territories and saw a different vision of a better society. People came back to the U.S. and rededicated themselves to the fight against injustice and oppression, to the fight for fundamental change in El Salvador and here at home.
This is some of the context of the FBI's harassment of CISPES in the 1980s.
Fight Back!: Why do you think this harassment is happening again now? There's not an armed struggle or a war going on in El Salvador now - why do you think they're interested in CISPES again all the sudden?
Horazuk: I think what the Department of Justice is doing is a clear attempt to intimidate El Salvador and Latin America solidarity activists, who know very well the history of the FBI investigation into CISPES in the 1980s.
There's not an armed struggle in El Salvador right now, but there's a growing wave of left-wing governments in Latin America and a growing wave of support for leftist policies in the region by the people.
The Salvadoran presidential elections are coming up in March 2009 and the FMLN has a good chance of winning. The U.S. did a lot to try to manipulate the last Salvadoran elections in 2004, using scare tactics and misinformation. The U.S. told Salvadoran voters that if the FMLN won then the U.S. would cut off Salvadorans living in the U.S. from sending money back to their families in El Salvador. These 'remittances' that Salvadorans in the U.S. send to their families in El Salvador are the only thing keeping many Salvadoran families from starvation and keep the Salvadoran economy from total collapse. I think this harassment of CISPES is part of the U.S. government trying again to prevent support and visibility in the U.S. for the people's movement in El Salvador.
It's important to understand that the right wing ARENA government in El Salvador isn't just any old government. It is one of the U.S. government's closest allies in Latin America, and does whatever the U.S. government tells it to do. El Salvador is the only country in Latin America that still has troops in Iraq as part of the U.S. occupation forces, even though over 70% of the Salvadoran people oppose their troops being there. El Salvador is used as an experiment for U.S. foreign policy. The implementation of free trade, privatization, dollarization, all these policy initiatives, they use El Salvador as a testing ground.
The U.S. is opening up an international 'police training school' called ILEA in El Salvador. ILEA is just like the School of the Americas but for training police forces instead of military forces. The ARENA government maintains El Salvador as a subservient U.S. puppet in the region. The U.S. administration doesn't want to lose that. So they are trying to create a situation where they can guarantee that El Salvador will remain a U.S. ally. They really don't want to see a grassroots popular opposition to that, and they don't want to see a government elected in El Salvador that will put people before profits.
The FMLN is committed to creating a different society. It's a society that does not say that there should be a race to the bottom. Instead it's about making sure people have adequate food, health care, education, housing, that people in the countryside have land to grow crops on, that labor policy would not be to just open more free trade zones and pay people pennies to manufacture good to ship to the U.S. The U.S. government considers it a huge threat for people to see there's an alternative. And people in El Salvador want that alternative.
Fight Back!: What can people do?
Horazuk: I think people should follow closely what's happening in El Salvador. Presidential elections are coming up in March 2009 and the right forces are likely to commit fraud and possible violence to try to hold on to power. The ARENA party is run by the richest people in El Salvador and has been in power 19 years now. The founder of the ARENA party, Roberto D'Aubuisson, is the founder of the death squads in El Salvador and was the mastermind of the assassination in 1980 of Archbishop Romero, which sparked 12 years of civil war. ARENA is not likely to give up power willingly. And unfortunately until now they have been able to count on the full support of the U.S. government.
But the Salvadoran people are ready for a change. In the election itself there will be a need for people to be aware of right-wing fraud and violence and to denounce that. There will be a call for international election observers before and during the elections.
People should do what you can to support CISPES and to support progressive movements in El Salvador. The CISPES website, www.cispes.org, has the latest campaigns and action alerts that you can help with.
Throughout Latin America the people are showing that another model is possible besides the U.S.-imposed model. Those of us here in the U.S. have a responsibility to oppose the oppressive things our government does in our name with our tax dollars in Latin America. And we should also learn from and support those that are fighting back.
In recent months the U.S. Department of Justice has sent threatening letters to the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), which works in solidarity with grassroots social justice movements and the left in El Salvador. The government is accusing CISPES of being an 'agent of a foreign power' - specifically of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), the leftist political party in El Salvador. This echoes the FBI's groundless accusations against CISPES in the 1980s, which led to a seven-year campaign of illegal U.S. government harassment against CISPES that the FBI later had to apologize for.
CISPES works to build solidarity in the U.S. with the Salvadoran popular movement and with the FMLN. CISPES has done this work since 1980, when it was formed at the start of the civil war in El Salvador, during which the FMLN led an armed struggle for liberation against the brutal U.S.-backed right wing Salvadoran military dictatorship.
The following is an interview with Cherrene Horazuk, who was Executive Director of CISPES from 1993 to 2003. She talks about the current government attack on CISPES, the history of such attacks, and some thoughts on why this is happening now.
Fight Back!: What is going on now with the U.S. Department of Justice harassing CISPES?
Cherrene Horazuk: The U.S. Department of Justice sent threatening communications to CISPES in January saying that they thought that CISPES was contracted by the FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front) to run the FMLN's electoral campaign and to fundraise for the FMLN presidential campaign in the U.S. There are presidential elections in March 2009 in El Salvador and the FMLN slate of Mauricio Funes and Salvador Sanchez Ceren has a good chance to win. The Department of Justice said they read in the Washington Post and on web pages that the FMLN had contracted CISPES to do this, so they insisted that CISPES turn in all documents relating to a contract with the FMLN or presidential candidate Mauricio Funes. They wanted documentation because they said CISPES would be required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) of 1938.
Of course there is no such documentation because CISPES hasn't signed any contractual agreements or taken orders to do the solidarity work that CISPES does. CISPES organizes solidarity in the U.S. based on shared values with the Salvadoran social justice movement and the FMLN. It's a relationship of solidarity.
Fight Back!: What is the history of FBI and U.S. government harassment of CISPES and of the Latin America solidarity movement? Tell us about what happened with CISPES in the 1980s.
Horazuk: From 1981 to 1987 the FBI carried out one of the largest domestic spying endeavors in recent U.S. history. They investigated more than 100,000 individuals and more than 3000 groups. That included CISPES committees, Central America solidarity groups, church groups, student groups, social justice organizations and anyone that in any way shape or form was speaking out against human rights abuses in El Salvador and Central America. Anyone speaking out in support of grassroots progressive human rights groups and revolutionary organizations was investigated.
I think 52 out of the 59 FBI bureau offices in the U.S. were involved in the investigation. They started the investigation within months of CISPES's founding in 1980. It included surveillance, harassment, intimidation, break-ins to offices and houses. Some people lost their jobs as a result. The worst impact is that some Salvadorans were investigated that were then deported back to El Salvador, and the U.S. government turned their names over to the brutal Salvadoran military and those people were never heard from again.
In 1987 CISPES filed a lawsuit against the FBI because we got some files under the Freedom of Information Act. Congressional hearings were held, and ultimately the FBI was found to have carried out a completely illegal investigation, in which they found no proof of any wrongdoing on CISPES's part. All the wrongdoing was by the FBI in their illegal spying and harassment. As a result the FBI was ordered to cease and desist. That case also led to some law changes that curtailed domestic surveillance, made it harder for the FBI to do spying. Of course that was then later reversed under the Patriot Act. At the end of the lawsuit the FBI actually had to issue a statement saying they were wrong.
Fight Back!: Why was CISPES specifically targeted?
Horazuk: We were the largest solidarity organization in the U.S. We took a clear position against the U.S. government support for the right-wing death squad regime in El Salvador and we stood strongly in solidarity with the people of El Salvador fighting back against that regime. We were supportive not just of the grassroots movement, but also the revolutionary movement and the FMLN. The FMLN was fighting against a brutal right-wing death squad government that was propped up by millions of dollars of U.S. military aid. The right-wing government was shown to be responsible for countless massacres and torture and for the vast majority of the 75,000 deaths during the Salvadoran civil war.
CISPES stands up for the Salvadoran people's right to self-determination, and I think because of that the U.S. government saw the solidarity movement and CISPES particularly as a threat to U.S. policy in Latin America. This was in the early 1980s in the context of newly-elected President Reagan saying he was going to 'draw the line' in El Salvador to prevent a revolution there, after the left-wing Sandinistas had just overthrown the pro-U.S. military dictatorship in Nicaragua. The Reagan administration thought El Salvador would be next and were providing millions of dollars a day in military aid to stop a progressive victory in El Salvador.
CISPES organized delegations to El Salvador throughout the war for people from the U.S. to go see for themselves what our government was doing there. Thousands of people from the U.S. went with CISPES to El Salvador during the war and saw what was really going on. President Reagan was saying there were no massacres, no bombings, but people went and talked to survivors of bombings and massacres. People saw that our government was lying, it was a huge learning experience for a whole generation of activists.
In addition, people who went on CISPES delegations also saw that there was a resistance movement fighting back, an alternative. People traveled to the FMLN's liberated territories and saw a different vision of a better society. People came back to the U.S. and rededicated themselves to the fight against injustice and oppression, to the fight for fundamental change in El Salvador and here at home.
This is some of the context of the FBI's harassment of CISPES in the 1980s.
Fight Back!: Why do you think this harassment is happening again now? There's not an armed struggle or a war going on in El Salvador now - why do you think they're interested in CISPES again all the sudden?
Horazuk: I think what the Department of Justice is doing is a clear attempt to intimidate El Salvador and Latin America solidarity activists, who know very well the history of the FBI investigation into CISPES in the 1980s.
There's not an armed struggle in El Salvador right now, but there's a growing wave of left-wing governments in Latin America and a growing wave of support for leftist policies in the region by the people.
The Salvadoran presidential elections are coming up in March 2009 and the FMLN has a good chance of winning. The U.S. did a lot to try to manipulate the last Salvadoran elections in 2004, using scare tactics and misinformation. The U.S. told Salvadoran voters that if the FMLN won then the U.S. would cut off Salvadorans living in the U.S. from sending money back to their families in El Salvador. These 'remittances' that Salvadorans in the U.S. send to their families in El Salvador are the only thing keeping many Salvadoran families from starvation and keep the Salvadoran economy from total collapse. I think this harassment of CISPES is part of the U.S. government trying again to prevent support and visibility in the U.S. for the people's movement in El Salvador.
It's important to understand that the right wing ARENA government in El Salvador isn't just any old government. It is one of the U.S. government's closest allies in Latin America, and does whatever the U.S. government tells it to do. El Salvador is the only country in Latin America that still has troops in Iraq as part of the U.S. occupation forces, even though over 70% of the Salvadoran people oppose their troops being there. El Salvador is used as an experiment for U.S. foreign policy. The implementation of free trade, privatization, dollarization, all these policy initiatives, they use El Salvador as a testing ground.
The U.S. is opening up an international 'police training school' called ILEA in El Salvador. ILEA is just like the School of the Americas but for training police forces instead of military forces. The ARENA government maintains El Salvador as a subservient U.S. puppet in the region. The U.S. administration doesn't want to lose that. So they are trying to create a situation where they can guarantee that El Salvador will remain a U.S. ally. They really don't want to see a grassroots popular opposition to that, and they don't want to see a government elected in El Salvador that will put people before profits.
The FMLN is committed to creating a different society. It's a society that does not say that there should be a race to the bottom. Instead it's about making sure people have adequate food, health care, education, housing, that people in the countryside have land to grow crops on, that labor policy would not be to just open more free trade zones and pay people pennies to manufacture good to ship to the U.S. The U.S. government considers it a huge threat for people to see there's an alternative. And people in El Salvador want that alternative.
Fight Back!: What can people do?
Horazuk: I think people should follow closely what's happening in El Salvador. Presidential elections are coming up in March 2009 and the right forces are likely to commit fraud and possible violence to try to hold on to power. The ARENA party is run by the richest people in El Salvador and has been in power 19 years now. The founder of the ARENA party, Roberto D'Aubuisson, is the founder of the death squads in El Salvador and was the mastermind of the assassination in 1980 of Archbishop Romero, which sparked 12 years of civil war. ARENA is not likely to give up power willingly. And unfortunately until now they have been able to count on the full support of the U.S. government.
But the Salvadoran people are ready for a change. In the election itself there will be a need for people to be aware of right-wing fraud and violence and to denounce that. There will be a call for international election observers before and during the elections.
People should do what you can to support CISPES and to support progressive movements in El Salvador. The CISPES website, www.cispes.org, has the latest campaigns and action alerts that you can help with.
Throughout Latin America the people are showing that another model is possible besides the U.S.-imposed model. Those of us here in the U.S. have a responsibility to oppose the oppressive things our government does in our name with our tax dollars in Latin America. And we should also learn from and support those that are fighting back.
Rapper DMX interview in XXL magazine on Barack Obama (hilarious!)
Are you following the presidential race?
Not at all.
You’re not? You know there’s a Black guy running, Barack Obama and then there’s Hillary Clinton.
His name is Barack?!
Barack Obama, yeah.
Barack?!
Barack.
What the fuck is a Barack?! Barack Obama. Where he from, Africa?
Yeah, his dad is from Kenya.
Barack Obama?
Yeah.
What the fuck?! That ain’t no fuckin’ name, yo. That ain’t that nigga’s name. You can’t be serious. Barack Obama. Get the fuck outta here.
You’re telling me you haven’t heard about him before.
I ain’t really paying much attention.
I mean, it’s pretty big if a Black…
Wow, Barack! The nigga’s name is Barack. Barack? Nigga named Barack Obama. What the fuck, man?! Is he serious? That ain’t his fuckin’ name. Ima tell this nigga when I see him, “Stop that bullshit. Stop that bullshit” [laughs] “That ain’t your fuckin’ name.” Your momma ain’t name you no damn Barack.
Not at all.
You’re not? You know there’s a Black guy running, Barack Obama and then there’s Hillary Clinton.
His name is Barack?!
Barack Obama, yeah.
Barack?!
Barack.
What the fuck is a Barack?! Barack Obama. Where he from, Africa?
Yeah, his dad is from Kenya.
Barack Obama?
Yeah.
What the fuck?! That ain’t no fuckin’ name, yo. That ain’t that nigga’s name. You can’t be serious. Barack Obama. Get the fuck outta here.
You’re telling me you haven’t heard about him before.
I ain’t really paying much attention.
I mean, it’s pretty big if a Black…
Wow, Barack! The nigga’s name is Barack. Barack? Nigga named Barack Obama. What the fuck, man?! Is he serious? That ain’t his fuckin’ name. Ima tell this nigga when I see him, “Stop that bullshit. Stop that bullshit” [laughs] “That ain’t your fuckin’ name.” Your momma ain’t name you no damn Barack.
Gopher Football Spring Practice Report #2
From GopherSports.com:
With nearly 200 of the state’s top high school coaches looking on, the Minnesota football team worked through its second of 15 spring practices at the indoor practice facility of the Gibson-Nagurski football complex Saturday afternoon.
The coaches on hand at practice were just a portion of the over 700 who attended the annual Minnesota High School Football Coaches Association clinic that featured a number of the Golden Gophers’ coaches as speakers, including head coach Tim Brewster.
The Gophers put on a good show for those in attendance, drilling for roughly two hours in helmets and shorts. Afterward Brewster said he was please with the spirit and tempo the team exhibited throughout the workout.
“I really like the way the team came out and responded to our challenge to have another great practice,” Brewster said. “Right now we are two-for-two this spring as far as our practices are concerned and our effort is concerned. Our attention to detail was excellent again today, which was nice to see because a lot of our players were practicing in front of their former coaches and that’s really special.”
Minnesota spent the majority of the practice working on fundamentals before ending the workout with a spirited 20 minutes 11-on-11 session.
Adam Weber took the brunt of the snaps under center at quarterback, with Tony Mortensen, Clint Brewster and David Pittman also getting in the mix.
Pittman was especially impressive in the quarterback run game and showcased his speed on a 30-yard burst of the right sideline that featured a nifty move at the line of scrimmage that had several defenders grasping at air.
“David does a lot of different things very well,” Brewster said. “He’s a very smart kid and he has learned the offense very quickly. He can really do some things with his feet that are exciting.”
The Minnesota defense also had another strong practice and produced a number of negative-yardage plays during the team session.
“I’m really excited about what we’re doing defensively under Ted Roof,” said Brewster. “There’s a tremendous attitude and effort developing. Swarm, attack and tackle is what we are emphasizing with the defense. And if we play with great effort and passion every snap we have a chance.”
Brewster noted that the veterans on defense continue to catch his eye. Defensive ends Willie VanDeSteeg and Lee Campbell along with linebacker Steve Davis sustained their solid play Saturday. Brewster also said he was impressed with the efforts of redshirt freshman Anthony Jacobs.
The Golden Gopher will get their first taste of contact next Tuesday, when Minnesota dons pads for the first time this spring.
The Race Chasm
This analysis is taken from electoral-vote.com.
Progressive author David Sirota has an interesting observation about where Barack Obama has done well and where he has done poorly. He constructed the graph below, which shows how well Obama did as a function of the percentage of the population that is black.
What it shows is that in states with few blacks (like Wyoming and Idaho) Obama does well. In states with many blacks (like Georgia and Mississippi) he also does well. However, in states with a medium concentration of blacks (like Ohio and Tennessee) Clinton does well. What's the explanation? Sirota says it is race. In places like Wyoming and Idaho, race simply isn't an issue. There are so few blacks in these states that many people don't even know a black person, so race is simply not part of anyone's daily life. In contrast, in George and Mississippi, it is a huge part of everyone's life, but since most whites are Republicans, blacks make up a very large percentage of the Democratic voters (often approaching 50%) and their overwhelming preference for Obama has carried him to victory.
The problem for him comes in the states with enough blacks that race is definitely an issue but not enough to affect the election much. This theory would predict Clinton victories in Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Kentucky and Obama victories in North Carolina, South Dakota, and Montana.
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