As I reported here on this blog on Dec. 8, Greg Biffle had a close encounter with the wall during a Goodyear tire test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The crash was nasty as his Ford Fusion - the one Biffle drove to wins in the last three Ford 400s at Homestead-Miami Speedway - was ruined when the fuel pump broke and the car burst into flames.
Now, five weeks later, he's pointing fingers at the LVMS safety crew.
I don't have to say anything, but that's not right.

Despite Biffle's claim that the emergency responders at the speedway were "slow and unprepared," he had multiple sources to help him quickly. Kyle Busch, who was also involved in the test, was able to get to Biffle and help him out of the car.
Biffle also claimed that he wasn't offered any advice, including going to the hospital. LVMS general manager Chris Powell issued a statement saying that "Mr. Biffle signed a form saying he refused being transported and he himself wrote 'I feel fine' on a release document.
Powell went on to say: "Mr. Biffle's statement was written as a response to a demand on the document that requested a reason for his refusing to be transported."
It may be hard to believe, but the speedway officials can't force anyone to go where they don't want to go.
On that Friday five weeks ago, Biffle flew home to North Carolina and was diagnosed with a dislocated shoulder.
Seems that now there's a dislocation somewhere in Biffle's brain cells.
To read the statement from Powell and the AP article written by motorsports writer Jenna Fryer on Biffle's return to the track since the Vegas wreck, here's a link:

http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/cup/01/11/gbiffle.vegas.crash.ap/index.html

Unfortunately, I wasn't there when the wreck went down, but I do know, based on being there at various events over the last two years, that the LVMS safety crews do an outstanding job.
Mistakes and poor decisions happen, but the LVMS safety crews did all that was necessary with Greg Biffle to make sure he came out of the wreck in tact, even if his favorite car was ruined.

Posted by Tom Zulewski at 03:40 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

The one thing George Bush got right during his speech to the nation Wednesday night is that it is time to change America’s course.

And that means cleaning house from the top down.

After losing more than 3,000 lives, maiming more than 20,000 soldiers and spending more than $400 billion on a war that is now impossible to win, it is time for a change, a change of leadership.

Early on during his speech, Bush tried again to tie the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 to Iraq, which even school children don’t buy any more.

He sent a not-so-veiled warning to Syria and Iran, saying that the United States was prepared to cut the flow of terrorists from those countries to Iraq, which means the bombers are warming up their engines for sorties over both countries.

He underscored that by saying he has sent an aircraft carrier strike force to the region.

And it all flies in the face of his best advisors, including loyal party members, who have encouraged him to scale back rather than escalate.

It was as pathetic as Lyndon Baines Johnson addressing the nation after the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution of 1964.

And, just as transparent.

With Johnson, it was the CIA and military-industrial complex pulling the strings.

With Bush, it’s Dick Cheney/Halliburton and a fanatic religious right that is so tightly wound that all it can see is a continuation of this modern-day Crusade.

Bush said the terrorists have been swept from Afghanistan.

So, where does that put Osama bin Laden, at the Baghdad Hilton?

He said this action will help stifle the bloodshed already suffered by American and Iraqi troops, but what does he think is going to happen when he sends them, as he said, door-to-door in Baghdad to flush out the insurgents?

He said that not only were there not enough troops in Iraq, but that “there were too many restrictions on the troops that we did have.”

So, Abu Ghraib was just a garden party?

A day earlier, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said that like Vietnam, “the only rational solution to the crisis is political, not military. Injecting more troops into a civil war is not the answer. Our men and women in uniform cannot force the Iraqi people to reconcile their differences.”

Tragically, the only differences that Bush has been able to reconcile are those that once separated the American public.

Once divided on the Iraq war, the latest USA Today-Gallup Poll pegs approval of Bush’s handling of the war at a meager 26 percent.

Yeah, it really is time for America to change its course.

Posted by Ed Kociela at 08:29 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

It's been barely a month since we crowned Jimmie Johnson as the 2006 Nextel Cup Champion, but the test session at Daytona International Speedway has arrived.
And we're back with some good ol' fashioned blather on what's going on...

Toyota is making its debut in 2007 at Daytona with Dale Jarrett, Brian Vickers, and Dave Blaney among the drivers who will handle the Camry on the track.
On the morning session of Day 2, the car needs a little work.
Jarrett turned in the fastest Toyota time of the session with a 49.101 and speed of 183.296 mph. It was good for 14th place on the board and was just over two-tenths of a second off the top time, posted by Jamie McMurray (48.889, 184.090 mph).
Even Ricky Rudd, making a return to full-time racing after a year away, has his batteries recharged as Jarrett's replacement in the No. 88. Rudd was fourth best Tuesday morning in the Snickers Ford Fusion from Robert Yates Racing (48.947, 183.872 mph).
So what did we learn?
Toyota will be good - in time. It may be only a test session, but there are issues that need work when a car needs to find eight-tenths of a second in speed.
Robert Yates Racing hasn't done much in a while - Elliott Sadler posted RYR's last win at California in 2004 - but Ricky Rudd's return gives the organization instant credibility again. He was driving for Yates when he last won at Sonoma in 2002.
But remember - all this is only a test. The real thing is a little more than one month away.

Posted by Tom Zulewski at 04:30 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Cedar City Police Officer Jason Thomas was nearly killed in the line of duty on Friday night.

I don't think life gets much more serious. Yet when you read some the comments posted on our newspaper's Web site, www.thespectrum.com, it's apparent some folks just don't get it.

Take, for example, the comment posted today by somebody using the screen name "Mitch Cumstein."
He made a wisecrack about Thomas' build, joking that "the officer's staple of coffee and doughnuts paid off."

Hardy, har, har.

A man nearly lost his life and you joke about it? Where's your respect?

Another person, using the screen name of "chargingbear" has accused Thomas of profiling the suspect, a Native American, and stopping simply to cause trouble.

Are you kidding me? The officer was doing his job, trying to help a resident free his vehicle from the snow. This doesn't have a thing to do with the color of anybody's skin.

And yet another person, using the screen name of "marionw," disrespectfully asked, "So when do we build Thomas a new house?," a reference to former Cedar City and Enoch police officer Clint Kelly, whose former co-workers are building a home for his family in Enoch.

This isn't about a house. This is about a man's well-being.

I don't know Jason Thomas, but I have the deepest respect and appreciation for him. We all should.

Posted by Steve Kiggins at 01:15 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

When the American people care more about the feud between Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell than in an escalation in the war in Iraq, you know something is terribly wrong.

But, there it is on television each night — The Rosie vs. The Donald.

While our children continue to die in a hostile desert.

We’ve lost it.

We lost it when the president went with about a half-dozen contrived stories for his invasion of Iraq.

We lost it when private companies with direct ties to the White House were awarded contracts in Iraq without a bid.

We lost it when the United States sent troops into Iraq that were not adequately equipped with protective armor.

We lost it when the Patriot Act was passed.

We lost it when the president allowed New Orleans to become less than a poor village in a Third World country.

We lost it when we allowed the de facto Iraqi government to try Saddam Hussein instead of an international war crimes tribunal.

We lost it when the Democrats pledged that impeachment will not be a part of their strategy.

We lost it when the Democrats promised to reach across the aisle in an act of bipartisan cowardice.

And, Wednesday, the president will tell the world that he wants to send another 20,000 troops to Iraq — primarily Baghdad — and about $1 billion to use for creating jobs.

We lost it, period.

The United States can no longer hold onto its once honorable place as the leader of the free world, the beacon of democracy, the defender of liberty, the ally of human rights while this Nowhere Man makes all his Nowhere Plans for Nobody.

Those plans include not only sending more forces into Iraq, but apparently more unbridled attacks, as the air strikes against Somalia indicate.

Those plans include solidifying a wall between the U.S. and Iran instead of looking for a diplomatic resolution to that country’s nuclear plans.

Those plans include ignoring all conventional nuclear treaties by pushing to develop a new nuclear weapon, even though it would mean a new round of nuclear testing that would poison a whole new generation of innocent Americans as the radioactive fallout rains down on them.

And nobody does anything about it, even though the current polls show an abysmal approval rate for the president and his Iraq atrocities.

What will it take to mobilize the forces of good within the United States? Where is its conscience? Where is its soul? Where is its humanity?

Those who sit idle share the guilt for doing nothing while men and women of good will are cast aside by a power that is growing more and more out of their hands with each passing moment.

Posted by Ed Kociela at 08:41 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )