If any of you saw the Washington Wizards game tonight, their 124-100 win against Golden State is a sound off.  Wizards was pumped up!  What a debut for Coach Tapscott.  In his TV conference yesterday, he said that he will hold each team player accountable.  I would say that is a very good motivator, wouldn't you?

Eddie Jordan, the head coach for the Wizards since 2003 was fired on the 24th due to the Wizards 1-10 record for the season.  Since I am a big basketball fan, I had to talk to friends and fellow fans about the news, get their views.  My position is very favorable to Jordan's firing.  When you pay someone in position of leadership and they do not deliver, the franchise suffers.  My husband and I have been season subscribers for 5 years and we decided not to renew our subscription this year.  It is very diffcult to justify the fees we pay when we see the wizards win the first half of the game only to loose it on the second half of the game.  It is hard to stomach! 

Anyone who is in a position of leadership, has to instill discipline, inspiration to his team, he has to be held accountable for his team's record.  I believe it is the coach's responsibility to bring direction to his team -- focus!  This season, the wizards were definitely NOT focused and they seem to have lost the drive.  It is as if something died, there was no direction and no team effort.  There is a saying, there is no "I" in "TEAM".  This is extremely toxic!   Now we are going to have to explore the success of the Celtics some other time. Now that is a TEAM!


I understand the decision.  I believe we all have to be held accountable, but most of all, positions of leadership should be held accountable for their team's/company's/group's/division's/governmental agency's performance and actions.   Does it really make sense bailing out car-maker companies whose CEOs own 2 or 3 jets when their company's are in the brink of bankruptcy?  I would think that getting rid of these "jets" will pay for thousands of employees' salaries.  How about AIG sending 2 Tiffany's champaign glasses as Christmas gifts to clients?  Didn't this company get a bail out infusion a month ago?

When I hear bail out in the "billions" and "trillions' of dollars being thrown out there in the news, I want to know where this money is coming from?  Will my grandchildren be paying for this so called bail out?  We also need to be asking, what is the game plan?   Do we have the right players in the team?  Have these companies showed a business plan to get their companies back on track?  Has anyone really sat down and done the analysis?  What is the strategy if the bail out does not work?  Why can't we get a task force with the best economic minds in the US, shut the door and do not let them out until they formulate a grand solution?   

This article was in the Vienna Connection -- can you believe it?  Yes Virginia, we have a $1.2Bil shortfall for 2009 and we are tied with Massachussetts in the #7 slot of 29 states with a shortfall, http://www.cbpp.org/1-15-08sfp.htm , again, really? seriously?  If only 50% is real estate tax revenue, what does other 50% consists of?  It is definitely not transportation.

Connolly Favors Federal Bail Out for Local Governments

By Julia O'Donoghue
Wednesday, November 19, 2008

U.S. Representative-elect and current Fairfax County chairman Gerry Connolly (D) indicated that he would advocate adopting an additional Economic Stabilization Act to give federal assistance to local governments.

"When you are looking at bailing out GM, Ford and Chrysler, how about bailing out us? There has to be aid to localities for the purpose of stimulus," said Connolly at a county board legislative committee meeting Nov. 14.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors also backed a resolution adopted by the Virginia Association of Counties that requested the federal government give money directly to localities and not only to state governments.