Dear Penn State, I applaud you for working with the NCAA in doing the right thing by suspending the rest of your football season. By doing so you not only honor the victims, but you've taught a valuable lesson to us all about leadership. Now the healing can begin for your campus as you move forward to bring justice to those at fault, rebuild your once esteemed program and return it to prominence. I wish you all the best in your efforts. (This would have been my post if our society frowned on moral turpitude...)

Instead...

Time To Hit The Showers!

Molester State

I have wondered for awhile now what crime, if any, trumped sports' wins & losses in this society. Apparently, none. #PaternoDefenders -Richard Hunter, Dallas radio host

 So Thursday night, we learned that Joe Paterno has, as they say, lawyered up. Joe Pa has sought out the services of prominent criminal lawyer J. Sedgwick Sollers, whose claim to fame was representing George H.W. Bush in the Iran-Contra affair. Many of Paterno's backers would say that the only lawyer he should be getting is one to sue Penn State for wrongful termination. I would say those folks are short-sighted. What would he be suing for, his own money back? Others would say that Paterno searching out a lawyer so quickly has him concerned that he may be more culpable in all this than people are letting on. But the facts (as we allegedly know them) remain that he obtained information about an "inappropriate" situation and he followed the chain of command by sending it up the line to the athletic director. The facts (as we allegedly know them) make Paterno sound like a naive child that everyone in a big room wanted to protect from some obviously harsh realities. The way they've made it sound, if Joe Paterno came anywhere near an R-rated movie, people would start fumbling for the remote. Yahoo Sports writer Pete Lieber, great article here

Now enter the lawyers and the manipulation of the law for Joe Paterno. Just like the Catholic bishops and Wall Street executives, he'll spend not one second in jail for his crimes of indifference and cover ups. Ain't that America...*insert John Cougar Mellencamp song here*

So SMU gets the death penalty for a much lesser offence and Penn St. gets to keep playing football this weekend. Is this a prejudice towards Texans?

 Everybody involved kept their mouths shut about it because they didn't want to jeopardize their positions. I got news for you, your job does not define who you are; It's just a way to keep the lights on. What matters is the content of your character.(a great man said that) ZERO CHARACTER IS ON DISPLAY FROM PENN STATE HERE...ZERO

The key words that have come out of Joe Paterno Wednesday and Thursday are, "With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more." I've heard some talking football heads twist those words into what amounts to a guilty verdict when Joe Pa isn't even charged (to date) with a crime of any kind. I believe if you twist those words the right way you find a saddened old man who is slowly starting to pull back the layers of ignorance. We can't possibly know, at this point, how high and how thick the wall was that may have been built around Joe Paterno in this case. When most people would tell you that he wasn't exactly heading up the program anymore, rather simply acting as a figure head, a grandfatherly visage, a mentor to young men, whose real coaching days were long in the past, is it so hard to imagine that the powers that be have gone years going by a "what Joe don't know won't hurt him" mantra in this case?

Or maybe the marbles are still in full motion in Joe Paterno's 84-year old head. Maybe it's all an act. Maybe he knows every bit of it, but also knows the world will buy a ticket to the show where he plays the role of the credulous old man. He's going to need that lawyer no matter how you look at it, because in this litigious world we live in, civil suits abound. That may be an understatement in this case.
Either way, it's going to play out like an HBO mini-series with twists and turns and shocks and more horrible details that will ratchet up the ire of us all. As the puzzle pieces come together, we just need to remember what Joe's new lawyer will undoubtedly know, whatever your take on it, there's always going to be another side.

He may have met his legal obligations with regard to reporting. But his moral obligations started before the second incident. I suppose that up in Pennsylvania child abuse is OK if the team wins, but even in Texas most of us have higher standards than this barest minimum.  -Robert Rister, Texan

 I'm outraged that the NCAA would allow Penn State to play football this weekend. Looks like denial ain't just another river in Egypt.

Let's Review

Seemed apropos for today. Enjoy! :)

Joe Paterno = Everything Wrong With America Today

Pretend you don't see the problem. Yep. 

Another rich, old, white dude who wouldn't step aside when it was his time. He refused to give the next generation, or the next one, or even the next a shot at success... A prideful good old boy, who's indifference destroyed the lives of others. He undoubtedly deserves jail time. 

 Just like the banksters, catholic bishops and many of our past leaders needed jail time for their indifference...but did they get it?

Not in America.

I know what you're saying,

'Just like a true American,  you convict with half-assed information and no trial.'

(Half-assed is a poor choice of words with regard to the subject matter...#badpuns)

 But the fact of the matter is that this is a big problem in our country.

We've seen it before in the Catholic church; Where not one bishop sits in a jail cell for any of the gross covering up of child rape and molestation by it's priests in this country. 

After all, the church is too big to fail just like the white-collar criminals who run Wall Street and the banks.

There's a lot at $take;

Just ask the good folks of Penn St University who support the legend of JoePa...

I tell u who the real culprits in this case are:

$$$, winning in college football and our society in general; 

A cult of personality consumed with greed and victory at any cost. 

Like the priests in the church, this child rapist is obviously a sick individual who needs help.

Does JoePa need help? Are the board of trustees for the school sick individuals who need help? Is the athletic director not a sane individual with morals?

I believe they'll find that not only were the administrators involved in the cover up, but some of the parents even knew what was happening and looked the other way to save their beloved Happy Valley. (More with the puns.)

  

In a massive shakeup, Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and school president Graham Spanier were fired Wednesday night by the board of trustees amid the growing furor over how the school handled child sex abuse allegations against an assistant coach.

Paterno said in a statement earlier Wednesday that he was "absolutely devastated" by the abuse case, in which his former assistant and onetime heir apparent, Jerry Sandusky, has been charged with molesting eight boys over 15 years, with some of the alleged assaults taking place at the Penn State football complex.

 "This is a tragedy," Paterno said. "It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more."

Paterno has come under harsh criticism — including from within the community known as Happy Valley — for not taking more action in 2002 after then-graduate assistant and current assistant coach Mike McQueary came to him and reported seeing Sandusky in the Penn State showers with a young boy. Paterno notified the athletic director, Tim Curley, and a vice president, Gary Schultz.

Paterno is not a target of the criminal investigation, although Curley and Schultz have been charged with failing to report the incident to the authorities.

I say f*** him and everyone else who supports child molestation.

Joe, you're no Pa of mine...

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance reminds you that the right to complain about the results of an election are directly connected to having voted in it. Here is this week's blog roundup.

Off the Kuff has a school finance lawsuit update.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme catches Greg Abbott being a blithering hypocrite.

Shocker! Hold the presses: Herman Cain and Rick Perry each discover that running for President is hard! Letters From Texas weighs in.

BossKitty at TruthHugger is awakened from a 2011 blog sleep. The run-up to the 2012 Presidential Campaign is disgusting already. Nothing is as it seems and candidates are fluent in fairy tales. The distance between the educated voter and the uneducated voter is huge. Guess which group holds the majority ... Campaign Season Op Ed: BossKitty Awakens

There don't appear to be any obvious winners in the wake of Rick Perry's implosion and Herman Cain's Black Walnut meltdown, according to PDiddie at Brains and Eggs. Unless you count Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, that is. And they were winning beforehand.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the insanity of tax talk in Texas. We can't keep doing the same thing and expecting different results: Texas tax facts.

Irritated by road construction? McBlogger says don't blame TXDOT, blame the contractors.

Neil at Texas Liberal noted the unexpected passing of an old friend with a reminder that if you value someone in life, you should contact them now.

Sunday Punching Back Funnies

Many Texas credit unions had a steady stream of new accounts open on Saturday as "Bank Transfer Day" drew attention online and on the streets across the state. While statistics for Bank Transfer Day are not yet available, credit unions reported a surge in traffic. Statewide, credit unions reported 47,000 Texans had joined, and $326 million was moved by November 2 –- four times the usual growth rate, reports the Texas Credit Union League.