Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of October 23, 2013. Give me your feedback below and tune in to The Chad Hasty Show for these and many more topics from 8:30 to 11am. Remember, you can listen online at KFYO.com or on your iPhone/Android with the radioPup App.

Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images
Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images
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It Was Worth It

Was the government shutdown worth all the bad press and polling numbers? If you ask Senator Ted Cruz and his staff, the answer is yes. According to the Daily Caller, an internal memo lays out why the defund it effort was worth it.

Ted Cruz’s office has written a memo that takes aim at the “establishment politicians and members of the pundit class” that “continue to second-guess efforts to defund Obamacare” and blame the Texas senator for the government shutdown.

“The defund plan produced tangible results that create both immediate and long-term benefits for the country and the conservative cause,” the memo, which has been circulated in political circles and obtained by The Daily Caller, argues.

Here is the Cruz argument about why the defunding Obamacare effort was worth it:

First, it intensified the nation’s focus on Obamacare. Second, it energized Americans by showing there are people in Washington willing to take real action to stop Obamacare. Third, it exposed, for all to see, the Democrats’ refusal to compromise out of blind devotion to their extreme liberal agenda. Lastly, it proved the need for Republicans to unite and stand firm together in their resolve to defeat Obamacare.

Cruz’s office takes particular issue with those who blame Cruz — and not the Democrats — for the shutdown. On Monday, for example, the liberal MSNBC website asserted as fact that President Obama “is coming off a big win in the government shutdown — a 16-day fiasco where Republicans looked like they couldn’t keep the government working.”

The memo dismisses that thinking: “Despite claims made by the left, members of the media, and many other members of the DC establishment — it was Harry Reid & President Obama, not Senator Cruz & the House Republicans who forced a government shutdown.”

“President Obama is responsible for shutting down the government because he refused to negotiate with the House of Representatives to keep the government open,” the memo states. “President Obama issued 15 veto threats to bills the House of Representatives passed, with significant bipartisan support, to re-open the government and fund vital government services, such as the Department of Veterans Affairs and the national parks.”

What do you think? Was the effort worth the bad press and bad polls?

Bullying?

This story is a great example of why we have so many losers in this country. The type of people that think EVERYONE should win something and that everyone is entitled to something. This is the type of parent that sets a horrible example for his kids. A father in Texas is accusing an opposing high school team's coaches of bullying. Why? Because they won a game 91-0 according to FOX News.

The coach of a Texas high school football team has been accused of bullying in a formal complaint after his team beat another school 91-0.

In the complaint, the dad of a player on the Western Hills High School football team claims Aledo High School football coach Tim Buchanan encouraged his players to bully their opponents by running up the score. Buchanan learned of the online complaint against him Saturday, the day after his team beat Western Hills in a 4A matchup.

"It wasn't good for anybody," Buchanan said. "I've sat and gone over and over and over it on what we could have done differently. The score could have very easily been 150 to nothing."

Buchanan tells MyFoxDFW.com he pulled his starters from the game after the first quarter and even eventually brought in his third-string players, but it was clear the game was going to be a blowout. The clock was also run continuously starting in the third quarter.

In the report, which was released Tuesday, the unnamed dad lists both football teams as victims and the Aledo High School coaching staff as the offenders. The parent claims “everyone in the football stadium” was a witness to Buchanan and his staff’s “unsportsmanlike conduct.”

"We all witnessed bullying firsthand, it is not a pretty sight," the complaint reads according to MyFoxDFW.com. “I did not know what to say on the ride home to explain the behavior of the Aledo coaches for not easing up when the game was in hand.”

Buchanan, whose team is averaging 69.3 points a game and is on its way to a 7-0 record, said he is not sure what else he could have done besides telling his players to take a knee.

"I'm not gonna tell a kid that comes out here and practices six to seven hours a week trying to get ready for football games ‘Hey, you can't score a touchdown if you get in, you're gonna have to take a knee,' cause that may be the only touchdown that kid gets to score in his high school career,” Buchanan told MyFoxDFW.com.

Under state law, Aledo's principal must investigate the complaint and prepare a report. The complaint was filed with the school district, which the law requires to provide bullying complaint forms on its websites.

The University Interscholastic League, the governing body for high school sports in Texas, only has a mercy rule for six-man football that ends a game when one team gets ahead by 45 points by halftime or later. There is no mercy rule for 11-man football, though coaches can agree to end a game early, UIL spokeswoman Kate Hector said. Buchanan said he wasn't aware of that option.

There were about 1,500 fans still in the stands at the end of the game, most of them Aledo's, he said. About 5,000 were at the Bearcats' stadium in Aledo at the beginning because it was a recognition night for band members' parents. A cold front that brought rain added another reason to leave when the game started to get out of hand, Buchanan said.

While blowouts are not uncommon in Texas high school football, Aledo has racked up several of them this season, due in part to being placed in a new district that has not been as strong in football. The Bearcats' average victory margin in four district games is 77 points.

The University Interscholastic League bases its realignment decisions on enrollment and geographic location to minimize travel time, a move aimed at reducing class absences. When Aledo was placed in a different district before last season, its travel time to the furthest location was cut from two hours to about 35 miles, Buchanan said.

Buchanan's team ran just 32 plays but scored on about every third one during Friday's game. Aledo rushed for 391 yards. It scored eight touchdowns on the ground, two each on passes and punt returns, and one on a fumble recovery.

"It certainly didn't seem like they were trying to run up the score in this case," Hector said.

Western Hills had 79 yards rushing and 67 yards passing.

The UIL follows NCAA rules, but most other states follow guidelines of the National Federation of State High School Associations, said Bob Colgate, the federation's director of sports and sports medicine.

Colgate said many of the federation's 48 member states and the District of Columbia have adopted a mercy rule in 11-man football. He noted that a survey published in February found that 16 states reported using a mercy rule with point margins, which are set by individual states, ranging from 30 points to 50 points.

Aledo Principal Dan Peterson said his report on the bullying complaint should be completed this week. It will be given to the father who filed the complaint and the staff at Western Hills.

Hector said anyone can submit a proposal for a rule change which could then be considered by the UIL's legislative council.

Buchanan said his school, winner of four state titles since 1998, and district are very supportive of the football program. The same, he said, cannot be said of Western Hills.

"It's not so much money as it is lack of emphasis," he said. "If you're going to have a program, support it."

What a pathetic person this dad is. He is part of what is wrong with this country.

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