Miscellaneous 50

1) I have no doubt in my mind that if in fact this START treaty had instead been proposed by a Republican President (replete, of course, with copious amounts of bipartisan support from every single former/living President and Secretary of State), fellows like Mitch McConnell and Jon Kyl would not only be supporting it but supporting it vociferously. I mean, come on here, let's just call it for what it is; flat-out and despicable partisanship.....and be done with it.............2) West Virginia's newly elected Senator, Joe Manchin - let's just say that he isn't exactly off to a courageous start. This, folks, in that instead of casting the difficult votes for (or against) the Dream Act and for (or against) the repeal of don't-ask/don't-tell, Mr. Manchin headed home for a Christmas party (please, keep in mind, Mr. Manchin has only been on the job for a couple of weeks here). He apparently didn't want to risk alienating either a) the base of his party for voting AGAINST these things or b) the socially conservative residents of his state for voting FOR them. I mean, yeah, I understand the delicacy of his situation and all......but, damn, isn't he also getting compensated here?............3) Looking for another BCS buster in the not too distant future? Try SMU. Yeah, you heard me eight. June Jones, folks, has taken this perennial doormat, a team that had never really rebounded from those 1987 "death penalty" sanctions, and has since delivered them to two consecutive bowl games. And the future is only going to get brighter. This, in that Jones has recruited as well as any nonBCS conference school (yes, I'm including TCU here) out there. After flirting with a great recruiting class for 2009 and 2010, Jones has really stepped it up for 2011. Of his 24 verbal commits thus far, 17 of them are three stars or better. Included in this haul are three of the top 100 from Texas (OT Carter Wall, DE Stephon Sanders, and RB K.C. Nlemchi), two of the top 100 from California (DE Davon Moreland and OG Dontae Levingston), and even a couple of studs from Louisiana; speedsters James Richardson (DB) and Jermaine Sams (WR). Add to that a real sleeper quarterback (Connor Preston from California) and, yeah, I'm telling you, don't be surprised to see a 13-0 SMU squad by 2012 or 2013 - yet another fly in the ointment, so to speak.