Remember getting on that playground carousel as a kid and spinning until you thought you'd throw up? Remember feeling like your brain would explode when you hovered over that first Geometry test? Okay, follow my lead. Grab a firm hold of the chair you're sitting in and click on this link: National Debt Clock. Did you do it? Okay, breathe in, breathe out. Now focus. Just look at all the red--total debt, personal debt, interest debt, mortgage debt, credit card debt, Social Security liability, prescription drub liability, Medicare liability, bankruptcies, foreclosures, etc. The red just goes on and on and on. It's mind blowing, isn't it?
Let's have a little history lesson in National Debt 101. America has always been in debt. It racked up approximately $75 million in unpaid expenses by winning its freedom from England in the Revolutionary War. From there, the U.S.started cutting into its debt until the Civil War rolled around when it ballooned from $65 million to almost $3 billion. Again, the post-war nation rebounded with an extended period of prosperity until we entered World War I. When it ended, the debt reached more than $25 billion. After World War II, America's gross public debt shot up to $260 billion. (Do you see a pattern here?)
The national debt continued to rise over the years, but it really took off in the last two decades. Thanks, in part, to his "Bush Tax Cuts" program, and starting new wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the debt under President George W. Bush exploded from $5.7 trillion to $10.7 trillion by the end of 2008. The spending continued when President Barack Obama took office thanks, in part, to his economic stimulus package and bailouts of the banking and auto industries. After his first 28 months in office, the national debt increased by 25 percent.
Here's the problem. America just maxed out its credit card. On May 16, the national deficit hit $14.3 trillion, the same amount as the $14.3 trillion national debt ceiling. In other words, the United States reached its legal borrowing limit. That did receive a mention in the national media and the Treasury Department put a temporary hold on spending until it shuffled several funds around to keep the country financially afloat. According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. would only suffer a default after all emergency measures are exhausted and it runs out of cash of pay its bills. Treasury officials say that will happen on August 2 unless Congress does not raise the debt ceiling (again) before then. If that does not happen, they say an economic catastrophe will follow.
My question is when in the heck is America going to wake up and deal with its financial overspending habit? The only president over the last 30 years to live within a budget was President Bill Clinton, and he did so by working with a Republican-controlled Congress. Unfortunately, it looks like America's lack of financial sense will only continue. Last week, President Obama announced during a major speech on Middle East policy that he will relieve Egypt from paying the one billion dollars it owes the United States. Shortly after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, government officials there ripped the U.S. for its action and scores of protesters took to the streets vowing vengeance. It turns out America paid Pakistan approximately $20 billion in "counter-terrorism" aid over the last decade and plans on paying Pakistan another $2.3 billion next year alone.
I understand the United States is the world's "do gooder," but when do we pull back the reigns and focus on us? If we don't experience a sudden change of heart and chart a new course, getting sick on the financial carousel will be the least of our problems.
We love taking our munis (mountain unicycles) into the back country--especially up the many trailheads in the Bitterroot Mountains. This time around, my kids and I tried out Bass Creek Trail between Florence and Stevensville. Good times indeed.
I love my country. And I truly appreciate all those who ever served or continue to serve in the military. Those are just a few reasons why I love the Fourth of July. Every time I see the American flag and hear the Star Spangled Banner, which happened hundreds of times over the course of my television career --especially during my first 14 years as a sportscaster-- I feel my throat start to tighten up.
While I never served, I am the grandson of a World War II veteran and the son-in-law of a Vietnam veteran. I have had personal glimpses of what life is like in the service. My most memorable experience was a big-time eye opener in July of 2003. The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds were on a nationwide tour celebrating their 50th year of existence. They brought their squadron of $30 million General Dynamics F-16 Flying Falcons to Missoula to headline an air show. (By the way, my father-in-law worked at General Dynamics.)
Before we continue, how about a little Thunderbirds 101 tutorial. The Air Force designated its first demonstration team in 1953. The unit soon adopted the name Thunderbirds thanks, in part, to the Indian culture and forklore. Indian legend speaks of the thunderbird with great fear and respect. The types of planes flown by the Thunderbirds changed numerous times over the years as they performed all across the United States and around the world before millions of people. This year, the Thunderbirds will perform 58 times across the United States and Europe.
Back to my flight. My news director said there was an opportunity to fly with one of the pilots and asked if I was interested. I jumped at the chance. The photos above and the video below pretty much tell the rest of the story. What a thrill! Would I do it again? You bet I would. Thanks to the Thunderbirds, all our Armed Forces, our veterans and their families. Happy 4th of July.
Politics can be dicey. For former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, his way of "politics" is criminal. After spending more than two years professing his innocence, a federal jury found him guilty on 17 charges of corruption, including trying to sell or trade President Obama's old Senate seat. Now Blagojevich faces up to 300 years in prison, although experts think he'll serve significantly less time than that.
Can a Senate seat ever really be for sale? What about the president's seat in the Oval Office? Can it ever be for sale? Political seats may not be sold or traded, which is illegal, but they can be bought. More than ever, today's races are all about money.
Sen. Jon Tester
There may be no Senate race more pricey than Montana's. Congressman Denny Rehberg, a six term member of the U.S. House, wants to take Senator Jon Tester's Senate Seat in a race Newsweek Magazine calls one of the most important in the country and one that may determine which party controls Congress after the 2012 elections.
Rep. Denny Rehberg
You don't think politics is about money? You don't think Montana's Senate seat is "for sale?" Here's a recent tweet by Tester: "We need to raise $100K by 6/30 to plant the seeds for a winning grassroots campaign. Help us grow w/$5 now." Rehberg wrote this on Facebook: "A contribution of $25, 50, or $100 will allow us to combat the special interest groups who want to keep Democrats in control of the U.S. Senate and Barack Obama in the White House."
(For what it's worth, as much as I don't like watching political ads, I'm glad they'll be coming like a tidal wave because in the current economic climate, they provide great financial revenue for small television station like ours.)
Those political dollars are merely "small potatoes" compared to the presidential race. Check out these eye-popping fundraising numbers from the last two presidential campaigns.
2004:
George W. Bush raised $367 million
Sen. John Kerry raised $328 million
2008:
Sen. Barack Obama raised $745 million
Sen. John McCain raised $368 million
Political insiders at the Washington Post report President Obama, thanks to his online and "in person" prowess, will likely top the one billion dollar mark in fundraising. Numerically, that's nine zeros or $1,000,000,000. You still want to tell me political races are not "for sale?"
I love hockey! It’s a sport unlike any other. And I played so many of them on so many different levels–baseball, basketball, football, soccer, volleyball, racquetball, golf, etc. Hockey is the only sport I know that, once you enter the field of play, it’s a 100 percent release of energy 100 percent of the time. In football, you have huddles. In baseball or softball you standaround more than hustle. Even in basketball, there are times when you can somewhat ease up on the floor. Once you go over the boards in hockey, it’s all-out, all-hustle, all-the-time. Emotions are high, hitting is fierce, tempers may flair and celebrations are explosive. The mere amount of effort put into each shift leaves you gasping for air as you return to the bench. But only moments later, you’re ready to jump over the boards and do it again.
With that in mind, here are my Top 10 hockey memories:
10) My Failed Ownership Venture:
Back in the late 1990s, I was part of an ownership group that tried to land a Central Hockey League franchise in Topeka, Kansas. We received league approval to form an expansion team, but the only problem was the 7,800 seat Kansas Expocentre did not have ice-making equipment built into the floor of the main arena. We could not find adequate funding so we turned to the voters. Despite a public campaign, the $1.1 million proposal failed, and so did our ownership hopes. (Bottom line: we did the dirty work for the Topeka RoadRunners which had the best regular season record in the North American Hockey League this past season.)
9) Learning & Re-learning the Game:
My family moved to Calgary, Alberta in Canada for grades 5 through 7. I never really learned to skate very well because all the kids my age were already skating circles around me by the time I was introduced to hockey. But once the snow fell, this former baseball little leaguer hit the pavement on our cull-de-sac to play street hockey with friends just about every day. We played countless hours in all temperatures and weather conditions. As a family, we also joined our Canadian neighbors by watching “Hockey Night in Canada” where my love for the game was kindled.
Years later, I was a sportscaster in Topeka, Kansas and discovered two of my co-workers had hockey roots. We all purchased roller blades, rented out a school gym on Saturday mornings and recruited players. Soon enough, we enough people to play full games, and even played the Kansas State University hockey club in a most spirited game.
8) The BIG Hit:
The Glacier Hockey League (GHL) in Missoula, Montana is a “no check” league. Granted, body contact happens, but if you intentionally body check an opponent, you get sent to the penalty box to think about it. A couple of years ago, we were playing in a rather chippy game. I’m not very big (5′ 10,” 160 lbs) but I was in front of the net trying to screen the goalie and generally cause havoc. That’s when a much larger defenseman on the other team fully laid into me. I flew straight backwards, my stick catapulting out of my hands. Amazingly, there was no whistle! He headed the other way with his teammates on an offensive rush. I was so charged up that I popped back up on my skates, scooped up my stick on the fly and set my sights on him. As they broke in, our goalie turned away the shot. The d-man started circling around the back of our net so he could hustle back to his defensive position. I cut across the front of our goalie crease and lowered my shoulder. He never saw it coming. I solidly hit him shoulder to shoulder. This time, he went flying and slid across the ice into the boards. Amazingly again–still no whistle! I returned to the bench, vindicated, satisfied, and with a BIG grin under my caged face mask.
7) Spring League GHL Championship:
I was invited to play with several former teammates and friends in the highest GHLleague in the Spring of 2009. When I showed up, I found out some of them opted to play down a level. I also discovered four of my new teammates were Missoula Maulers (Tier III junior hockey team) who were about a third my age and at least 10 times more talented than me. Yikes! It was a challenge skating, passing and playing defense with such gifted players. Still, I found my place and even had a game where I scored a goal and had a pair of assists. We eventually won the championship in a game that was the most hectic, high spirited and fast-paced I’ve ever been a part of.
6) Family Outings/Maulers Videographer:
My family has fond memories of attending many Spokane Chiefs games together, especially when they played the Tri-Cities Americans in front of 10,000+ fans on Saturday nights. The Maulers may have a smaller venue, but fans are right on top of the action and they know how to rock the Glacier Ice Rink. Whilemy TV duties cover those of a “news anchor,” I gladly volunteer my photography skills to shoot Maulers games on week nights. It continues to be one of my favorite things to do. Check out video I shot below of a hockey puck that landed in a fan's beer.)
5) My Time with the Cup:
The Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2001. As part of his time with the cup, forward Scott Parker brought it to Spokane where he played a year of junior hockey. I was a sportscaster with KREM-TV at the time. I took my young son Jace where we had the chance to meet Scott and see the cup up close. It was an absolute thrill to see and touch the world's greatest trophy. It was also a thrill to read the names of so many players on it that I followed decades earlier when I lived in Canada.
4) Road Trips with the Spokane Chiefs:
As a sportscaster, I traveled with the Chiefs to Cranbrook, British Columbia in 2000 where they eventually lost to the Kootenai Ice in the Western Hockey League Finals. At the time, Kootenai’s old rink was so small that the officials actually had to stop play once after the puck hit the ceiling. One year earlier, I accompanied then Head Coach Mike Babcock (now of the Detroit Red Wings) and his team on a bus trip to Kamloops, BC. Accompanied by a cameraman, I put together a series of reports that showed Chiefs fans what it was really like to be young Spokane Chief hockey player. (See video link below.) One other fond Spokane memory was when Coach Babcock plastered me into the boards during a sports challenge shoot.
3) Hockey With & Against Jace:
There’s nothing like coaching your own kid. In my second year of playing hockey, I helped behind the bench as my son played his first season. It was a total blast spending time on the ice twice a week teaching youngsters the joy of the game. Even though that was many years ago, I still run into many of those same kids at the rink and they still say “Hi” or stop and talk with me. There’s always a special bond between hockey coach and player. Fast forward to my son’s freshman year of high school. He played in a house league with against other teams. Part way through the season, the league scraped together a team of adults of similar talent level so the teenagers could play a different squad. I talked my way onto the team and found myself playing against my son for the first time ever. It was a memorable game. We playfully chopped at the back of each others legs and intentionally bumped several times throughout the game. My first shot of the game found the back of the net, as did my second. I later had a potential hat trick goal waved off when I deflected a slap shot into the net, but the goal mount came loose and the officials waived it off. However, the damage was done. Final score: GHL 4, Sentinel High 0. Bragging rights: Father 1, Son 0.
2) Miracle on Ice:
Every hockey fan knows about the “Miracle on Ice.” I was fortunate enough to have a bit of a personal connection to it. The 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team went on an extensive pre-Olympic tour before going to Lake Placid, New York for the Olympics. Just a month before the Games began, the team played an exhibition game in Wichita, Kansas, against the Tulsa Oilers, winning 7-4. My family was fortunate enough to attend that game and cheer Team USA on to victory. What happened on February 22, 1980 turned out to be one of the greatest moments in American sports history as the group of college kids beat the most dominant hockey force in the world.
1) My First Season, My First Championship:
I moved to Montana in January of 2003. That summer, I hooked up with a group of guys that played roller hockey. One of them, Dave Fraser, suggested I play ice hockey in the novice division of the Glacier Hockey League that winter. So I went online and purchased a set of gear off eBay. I also bought a new pair of skates. Then I hit public skating sessions to try to improve my skating. Since I couldn’t stop, I recruited my co-anchor Jill Valley, a figure skater, to teach me how to stop. (Thanks Jill!) Big Sky Specialized picked me up in the GHL draft and I started my first season of competitive ice hockey. It turned out to be a five-month stretch that none of us will ever forget. We had a unique group of guys who got along great and learned to play together as a team. We finished the season in a dicey best-of-3 championship series against our main rivals. In the end, I was named Rookie of the Year and my teammates also won MVP and other individual honors. ClickHERE to watch a video of the championship-clinching game.
Big Sky Specialized 2003-2004 Glacier Hockey League Champions
To truly appreciate the New Orleans Saints’ Super Bowl XLIV championship, you have to understand their history. I was born in New Orleans on December, 4, 1962. I wasn’t born with a Saints pennant in my hand because the team did not yet exist, but just four years later I adopted the black and gold. On November 1, 1966, appropriately enough on All Saints Day, Commissioner Pete Rozelle announced New Orleans received an NFL franchise.
The future looked so bright when Saints played their first NFL regular season game on September 17, 1967, against the Los Angeles Rams in Tulane Stadium. (Yeah, you young ‘uns, the Rams used to be in LA.) John Gilliam returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown, but the Saints lost 27-13. From there, it was a downhill ride. New Orleans finished with a 3-11 record. The franchise did not have a winning season until two decades later. A rare highlight came on November 8, 1970 when Tom Dempsey, a player with a club as a right foot, kicked an NFL record 63 yard field goal on the final play of the game to beat Detroit 19-17.
The Saints moved into a new home in 1974 with the opening of the Louisiana Superdome, but playing in the largest fixed structure in the world did not change their losing ways. The team’s on-field misery hit a crescendo in 1980 when the Saints began the season with 14 consecutive losses. A local sportscaster called on fans to go to games with bags over their heads. They listened and that signaled the birth of the inglorious “Aints.”
New Orleans played its first ever playoff game in 1987, but lost to Minnesota 44-10. The Saints lost their next three playoff games as well. It wasn’t until December 30, 2000, that the Saints won a post-season game thanks to a 31-28 victory over the Rams.
In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina roared ashore. The category 5 storm killed approximately two thousand people, forced the levee system to fail sending hundreds of thousands out of their homes, and caused $81 billion in damage making it the costliest Atlantic hurricane ever. The Saints’ home field became “home” to about 30,000 Katrina refugees. It took $185 million to repair and refurbish the dome inside and out. That forced the distracted New Orleans squad to play its entire 2005 schedule on the road with “home” games at Louisiana State University, San Antonio and another at Giants Stadium in New Jersey.
In a major emotional boost to the struggling city of New Orleans, the vagabond Saints returned home to the Superdome on September 25, 2006 for a nationally telecast Monday Night game against the Atlanta Falcons. The repaired roof just about came down again only 1:25 into the game when Steve Gleason, a player whose college career at Washington State I covered as sportscaster, broke through the line and made one of the most emotionally-charged plays in franchise history.
The Saints advanced to the NFC Championship that season, but failed to get past Chicago to qualify for their first Super Bowl. However, all that changed in 2009. Riding the golden arm of quarterback Drew Brees and his 4,388 yards passing and 34 TDs, and an opportunistic big play defense, New Orleans finished with a 13-3 record. The Saints then rolled over Arizona, slipped by Minnesota and defeated Indianapolis 31-17 to win Super Bowl XLIV. Just four short years after the physical and emotional demoralization and devastation of Katrina, the New Orleans Saints became Super Bowl Champions.
The Saints may be just another team to many, but this victory was not just another win for another team in another sport. This victory brought a restored sense of vitality, hope and enthusiasm to a region still gasping to recover from disaster. (And with that same fighting spirit, I know it will overcome the effects of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico too.) I teared up when I watched Katrina unleash its fury on the city of my birth. I yelled for joy when Tracy Porter returned a Peyton Manning interception for a touchdown and clinched victory for the Saints in Super Bowl XLIV. I had a huge lump in my throat as I watched tears fill the eyes of Drew Brees while holding his young son on the field as the confetti fell from on high.
I am many things. Among them I am a Saint. A very proud Saint! (Super Bowl XLIV highlights below)
We now live in a world our great grandparents would not comprehend. As a young boy, I still remember how my great grandmother would watch from the porch as I chased her geese around the yard until they would get so angry they’d turn about and start chasing me. (Never understimate the anger of a gaggle of geese.) She would also easily (and kindly) destroy me in a game of Chinese Checkers. But if she were here today and I used the words “tweet,” “blog,” or “google,” she would have no earthly idea what I’m talking about.
The numbers spell out what a wonderous, wireless world we live in. According to Internet World Stats dot com, 2.1 billion of us use the Internet–that’s roughly a third of the world’s population. Com Score dot com reports there were 131 billion searches conducted by people over the age of 15 in December of 2009 alone. That’s four billion searches a day, 175 million searches an hour, and 29 million searches a minute. And you can bet the numbers are a lot higher now.
Mark Zuckerberg
Okay, let’s look at the social networking site Facebook. The idea began in the fall of 2003 when Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg was in his dorm room blogging about a girl that dumped him and tried to do something to get her off of his mind. He hacked into Harvard’s computer network, pulled photos out of the system and asked users who’s the “hotter” person. The site drew 450 visitors and 22,000 photo views its first four hours online. The following semester, he wrote a code for a new website called thefacebook.com. After a series of technical and financial moves, Facebook launched to the public in September of 2006. By December of 2008, it had more than 54 million visitors. By December of 2009, it had 112 million visitors. As of July 2011, it had more than 750 million users, passing Google as the most popular web site in the world.
Here’s my Facebook story. The “higher-ups” at work wanted us to expand our branding by expanding into social media. All four of my kids were already on Facebook, but I never really paid any attention to it. So with some corporate urging, I eventually decided to create a personal Facebook account in order to create my Facebook “fan” site, Mark@KPAX.
I fired up the account at work one night just before I went home. There wasn’t anything on it except maybe a photo and very limited personal information. When I logged in the next day, I had four or five “friend requests,” and some of them were from buddies of mine I hadn’t heard from in decades. As the friend requests continually trickled in, I clicked on their “friend lists” and found other past friends of mine. Instantly, I was hooked. I re-established friendships I wished I never lost. And they came from all facets and time periods of my life: childhood friends from my years in Wichita and Calgary, multiple requests from a large group of kids from my teenage church youth group, former friends when I was a missionary in Italy, old college buddies, former co-workers during my days as a sportscaster in Topeka and Spokane and as a newscaster here in Missoula, current co-workers, hunting buddies, family members who now live in different places all across the country, and the list goes on and on.
At an out of state family gathering, I logged on to a computer. My mother was there and I showed her my Facebook pages. She took an interest and noticed that all of her children and most of her grandchildren are also on Facebook. Ten minutes later, she had her own account and now I can proudly proclaim “My mom is my ‘friend.’”
Now, I am firmly entrenched in the world of social media. And it offers both social and work-related benefits. In addition to Facebook, I am also on Twitter. I also established a YouTube account that recently passed 75,000 page views. Plus, I have this blog site. (By the way, the links to all my sites are on the upper right side of your screen.) I never would have thought I could type my name into a computer, do a search, and it would go to a trio of personal web sites, or that anyone would even care.
Despite all this high tech madness, I do have one Facebook regret. If only I could receive a “friend request” from my great grandmother.
"I'll say it again in the land of the free. Freedom of choice...is what you got." Those words come from the title track of the album "Freedom of Choice" released by the new wave musical group Devo in 1980, about the same time I graduated from high school. (Yeah, I'm that old.) But those words ring as true in my ears today as they did in those of the founders of our country who wrote the Constitution. America is a country based on freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of action, but it seems over-regulation and the personal pursuits of a few seek to take away the freedom of choice by many.
Here's one simple example. The watchdog group Corporate Accountability International wants to retire Ronald McDonald. It claims the long-time face of McDonald's draws children to obesity the way Joe Camel lured kids to smoking, so it took out a number of advertisements in major newspapers to call for his dismissal. I get the point. I used to beg my mother to buy (Sugar) Frosted Flakes when I was a kid, in part, because I loved Tony the Tiger. But more than that, I loved the cereal and still do to this day. Does it have sugar in it? Yes. Is that bad for me? Some will argue that it is, but that's not the point. The issue is I have the freedom to do what I choose and then let the consequences follow. In a recent issue of the Wall Street Journal, Al Lewis wrote, "To blame Ronald for lifetime addictions to high-fat, highly processed foods is to deny personal responsibility. And if they get Ronald, who is next? Chuck E. Cheese, the plastic-faced Burger King and that pigtailed brat, Wendy."
If I chose to sit on the curb in front of my house and jam a screwdriver into my ear, shouldn't I be able to do that? Sure, it would hurt like heck and I'd have to go to the hospital and may lose my hearing or suffer other consequences, but isn't that my freedom of choice?
Okay, that's kind of an extreme example, but here's another one in my opinion. San Francisco, the city that already infamously outlawed the McDonald's Happy Meal, is on the verge of another freedom-limiting fiasco. A man named Lloyd Schofield gathered 12,000 signatures to achieve his goal of putting a ban on circumcision on the November municipal ballot. He says it is a form of mutilation.
Lloyd Schofield
"The foreskin is there for a reason," said Schofield. "It's not a birth defect. It serves an important function in a man's life, and nobody has a right to perform unnecessary surgery on another human being."
The ban would make it a crime for the procedure to take place on anyone under the age of 18. If found guilty, the person who performs the circumcision would face a misdemeanor charge and pay up to $1,000 or serve a maximum of a year in jail. Some doctors say circumcision reduces the risk of infection. Others do not. It is a prevalent procedure in the United States and important ritual in many religions, especially for Jews and Muslims.
Hey Lloyd, if you don't believe in something, that's fine. Don't do it. But why take away others' freedom of choice? Even Devo believes in that. (And yeah, their video below is bizarre at best.)
Remember getting on that playground carousel as a kid and spinning until you thought you'd throw up? Remember feeling like your brain would explode when you hovered over that first Geometry test? Okay, follow my lead. Grab a firm hold of the chair you're sitting in and click on this link: National Debt Clock. Did you do it? Okay, breathe in, breathe out. Now focus. Just look at all the red--total debt, personal debt, interest debt, mortgage debt, credit card debt, Social Security liability, prescription drub liability, Medicare liability, bankruptcies, foreclosures, etc. The red just goes on and on and on. It's mind blowing, isn't it? 
The national debt continued to rise over the years, but it really took off in the last two decades. Thanks, in part, to his "Bush Tax Cuts" program, and starting new wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the debt under President George W. Bush exploded from $5.7 trillion to $10.7 trillion by the end of 2008. The spending continued when President Barack Obama took office thanks, in part, to his economic stimulus package and bailouts of the banking and auto industries. After his first 28 months in office, the national debt increased by 25 percent.
I understand the United States is the world's "do gooder," but when do we pull back the reigns and focus on us? If we don't experience a sudden change of heart and chart a new course, getting sick on the financial carousel will be the least of our problems.
