Peter

I thought that, for the most part, it was a very good speech. I have read it, but have not seen it as it was delivered. There was one part where I cringed a bit. That was the part where he brought up comments that his grandmother supposedly made. I understood the point that he was trying to make, but wondered whether he was saying things about his grandmother that he really should not say -- especially in a political speech. Apparently, some are now referring to the speech as the "Throw your grandmother under the bus speech." I have no doubt that Sean Hannity will be focusing on this aspect of the speech. Editor's note: I am a McCain supporter.

Someone e-mailed me the speech. People can read it and make their own judgment about it. Here it is:

I agree with my namesake. You are 100% correct.

Depends on the team, depends on the need. Why does any team trade up?

I would have no problem with the Bills drafting Ellis. I would much rather take him at 11 than any of the wide outs in the draft.

You make some interesting points. This is not one of them. Do you remember the Iran/Iraq war? There are plenty of people in Iran that are itching to meet Allah sooner rather than later. Iran has changed somewhat over the years. There is a younger generation that would like to reach out to the West. We had our opportunity when Khatami was pm. We pissed that away. I dare say that the surest way to unify the Iranian people behind Ahmadinejad would be to start bombing Iran. Iran presents some interesting challenges and opportunities. W's administration has not been particularly skillful in dealing with Iran.

Say what you will, Mike Mayock is very good at what he does. I trust his judgment as much or more than any of the commentators out there. That does not mean he is infallible. No one is. Nevertheless, he does his homework, knows what he is talking about, and his views are well thought out.

Who said they would be trading up to take a WR?

"Mission Accomplished" W never thought much of the rest of the world and reportedly never ventured outside the US (other than Mexico) before he became president. He has succeeded in making it difficult for many of us to travel outside the country. As a Republican, I am counting the days until W leaves office. I just hope that McCain can bring the party back to what it was under Reagan. The Bush presidency has been horrible on so many different levels. The best part of the Bush presidency was the tax cuts. Because of his other policies, W has made it very difficult politically for them to be made permanent.

If we take a wide out in the first round, it does seem that it would be best to trade down and take one later in round one and pick up the extra pick. There appear to be questions about this year's wr class and whether any of them even merit a first round grade. The other thing is that there does not appear that any one of the top receivers is vastly superior than anyone else in that group. There was a lot of buzz about Sweed, but there are also a lot of questions about his health. There also has been a lot of buzz about Malcom Kelley, but I heard him on Sirius the other day try to explain why did not participate in the OU pro day and it did not sound particularly convincing. He is now scheduled for April 9th (I believe) so we will see how he does. The kid out of Indiana (Hardy?) is supposed to be a beast, but also is another Travis Henry when it comes to birth control as I recall. The kid from UCLA is supposed to be great, but he is basically what we already have (small and fast). In any event, I could see the Bills trading down from 11 or picking the best player available at another position with the 11th pick.

If Obama is the nominee, I would not be surprised to see Condi Rice or Colin Powell as the VP choice. I really like Powell myself (but I have doubts about whether his wife would want him to run). I do not suspect that either would deliver much of the African-American vote away from Obama. Yet, they would insulate (at least somewhat) McCain from any ridiculous charges of racism when McCain is forced to go after Obama regarding his liberal positions and questionable associations. I could also see Crist (notwithstanding the rumors). He was instrumental in delivering Florida in the primary and would be instrumental in delivering Florida in the general.

Shouldn't we resolve Kemp v. Lamonica first?

This is hilarious given LJ's HBO Real Sports interview a few months ago.

Florio said that Pacman wrote about as much of that letter as he did of the Bible.

I heard that "song" a long time ago. It was discussed extensively on this board. I am not a rap fan. Yet, it actually was pretty good except for some of the lyrics that you hear in a lot of rap songs. Mostly, the lyrics talk about what you probably would expect division one athletes and, for that matter, most college guys would be talking about -- rightly or wrongly.

This confirms what we already knew. JP is very good with deep passes, but struggles with short and medium throws. As the one guy said, hopefully the revamped o-line will help solve this problem. Yet, we better have a running game this year. JP is probably not going to have the luxury of facing 8 man fronts as often as he has the past few years. Defenses have defended against our run game first these past few years. If we do not have a running game for defenses to respect, it is not going to be pretty.

Certainly, the victims should all be in our thoughts and prayers. Based on what I have read, every one of them has a unique and interesting story. The students all seemed to be bright young kids who had promising and rewarding futures taken away from them -- for reasons that have nothing to do with anything that they did. The professors and teachers were outstanding. The Holocaust survivor's story is particularly poignant. I saw the parents and friend of the graduate student who went to Penn State undergrad on Larry King last night. They had so much dignity. Their son also seemed to be a remarkable person. Nevertheless, I would like to learn more about Cho -- not to glorify him or his action -- but to try to understand more about him and his family. The little I know is that his parents gave up everything to come here for a better life. They arrived here with next to nothing but their kids. The parents seemed to have sacrificed their lives for their kids. They work as dry cleaners, which has to be a difficult and thankless job. The daughter graduated from Princeton. She obviously must be pretty accomplished. The son (Cho), based on what I have read, was picked on since he arrived here. In fact, it has been reported that he was laughed at when he spoke in class when he was younger and basically stopped talking to people after that. That might explain why he did not respond to anyone or was afraid to have any kind of relationship with anyone -- beyond text messaging. The whole affair is very sad and depressing.

That certainly is the safest (and perhaps) best course of action. Marv and Dick have "deftly" created so many holes to fill that a great player that also fills a need is bound to fall to us at 12.

The following article provides some insight into his past and is completely consistent with what you are saying. Article describing Cho's childhood Kids can be cruel - especially to those whom they perceive as being different. Clearly, there is no excuse or justification for what he did. Nevertheless, it does make sense for schools to try to spot this type of thing early on and try to help young kids (especially from other societies) adjust to the culture here. The same is true for kids like the ones at Columbine. Again, let's be clear, there is no excuse for what these kids did. Yet, the more we can find out about the underlying causes, the more we would be able to do something about it.

You make a good point.

Are you referring to Cho or Ted Nolan?

You are right. We all have come across people who have been like that. You made me think of something I was thinking about last night. Sean Hannity (and everyone else) was making a big deal about the play that Cho wrote. Obviously, it was pretty creepy -- but no more so (and much less than) most of Quentin Tarantino's movies.

Newsflash, not all psychotics go out and kill 30+ people at a University or anywhere else. Wouldn't be nice to find out what made Cho tick so to speak.

Maybe I am a contrarian, I am interested to find out what in this kid's life set him off. He clearly was insane. Nevertheless, there appear to be clues in the package that he sent over to NBC. The more we learn about this guy, the more society may be able to do something about the next guy. As for the "mass media" rant, as best as I can tell, every network I watched last night (including Fox) showed pictures of Cho from the package he sent to NBC and/or recounted what Cho had to say. It also is all over the Drudge Report.

Regarding the Falcons, I could see BP picking Okoye, his former player from Louisville, which is where PFT has Okoye going. If they do not chose Okoye and AP is still available when the Falcons pick, you might be right. This whole thing is such a crap shoot.