As everyone in the State of Arkansas knows by now, Frank Broyles, the most powerful man in the State, is retiring at the end of the year. The big question is: who will the new AD be and will it strictly be John White's call? Football fans in particular better hope not. That pointy head would like nothing better than to appoint some milquetoast anti-athletic type just to show his (White's) authority.

Also how will this affect the State's leading politician Houston Nutt? You know, the guy who would never approach anything head on when he can talk in circles and approach it from some odd angle. We can hope for a buy-out of his contract, but I doubt that it happens, at least until after the season. Nuttcase will win just enough games to save his job, then repeat the cycle again next season. Nutt has to hope the new AD has a nice, soft, kissable ass, so he can continue to do what he does best.

Is everyone else as sick of mud-slinging, character-assasin negative campaign ads as I am? To me, if a candidate can't tell me why I should vote for him or her instead of myriad reasons why I shouldn't vote for the other: "my opponent molested a sheep in 1977" or "tell Jim Billy Farkleberry ta' quit tearin' them tags off his mistresses, I mean mattresses, 'cause that don't represent ------- (name state) values", I tune out most of the rest of the message. Candidates should run on their own merits or lack thereof. In most cases, I can see compare and contrast, but the whole barrage of ads not even mentioning their own candidate and focusing entirely on their opponent are what turn so many people off to the political process to the point that they don't even vote and thus the candidate who wins is voted in by only a small percentage of the overall population, but his or her boneheaded decisions affect all.