More and More

Every day it seems there's a further encroachment on government by the extremist right-wing Junta that has taken power. Today, it's a new presidential directive to have a political appointee control all decisions made by the civil service. Now every decision on every operation, process, and service will be vetted by a political aparatchik. Get that, comrade?

The Soviet Union was famous for having a political officer with every military unit and government office. The sole reason for existence of the party was the continuation of the party.
All decisions were first political and second - if at all - practical. How different is that from how the Bush Junta works?

All their decisions are purely political. They are a living breathing (except Cheney) Potempkin Village. They are a political front that cares only about its own political survival. The bizarre part is how bad they are at it. The Soviet Union lasted 72 years. These guys are cooked in eight.
Of course, the Soviets were murderers and thugs from day one. The Bush Junta is still working up to it, though they've instituted torture and unjust imprisonment, so they're catching up. The Soviets controlled the media and the Junta has been enormously successful at that. But the Soviet's leftist ideology also allowed for a big planning government. They had a scheme - not a good one, but they had one. The Bush Junta has only Georgie and Cheney. They lurch from one crisis to the next, failing at everything (including the cover-up) and have no plan to persevere.

The Bush Junta and the Soviets are right and left, but they meet somewhere in the middle. Both have a firmly-held belief that individuals have only limited rights. Certainly, they have to right to be included in or informed on how they are governed. That's for their betters.

For the Soviets and the Junta, the only people who count as individuals are the wealthy and well-connected. Don't try to get an audience in Washington - or Soviet Moscow - without both deep pockets and political connections.

The Junta's downfall, as the Soviet's, is unjust and poorly executed wars. The Junta adventure in Iraq is tracking quite nicely along the lines of the Soviet disaster in Afghanistan. In both cases, a major military power quickly took the capital but failed to hold the countryside, as its own population steadily turned against the conflict as a tragic folly.

The Junta has two years left. What they will do to keep power is anyone's guess, but it will have
no limits. They will stop at nothing. They have stopped at nothing.

Now Iran

Headline in the Boston Globe: "U.S.: Iran giving weapons to kill troops."

In the words of the immortal Scooby-Doo: "ruh-roh!"

So much of the Junta's rhetoric about Iran is exactly parallel to the Iraq fabrications that brought us into the current quagmire. The gathering threat. The nukes. Now, the reports of Iran arming Iraqi insurgents.

Of course, the only part that's true is the nukes - as opposed to last time. The Cheney-led Chickenhawks are pining for a run at Iran, they're just looking for their flimsy excuse. And if they want to go, and when they think they're ready to go, go they will - straight to their nuclear-proof bunkers, while more brave American service-people fight and die over more nothing.

Of course, for all the escalation of words, and sanctioning of aggressive action taken against Iranians inside Iraq, there is no evidence that Iran is doing anything of the sort. Read that sentence again: there is no evidence that Iran is arming or training Iraqi insurgents. At least, that's what the commie rag Los Angeles Times says. Here's a section of their story. Remember, this is a news story, not an op-ed piece:

In his speech this month outlining the new U.S. strategy in Iraq, President
Bush promised to "seek out and destroy" Iranian networks that he said were
providing "advanced weaponry and training to our enemies." He is expected to
strike a similar note in tonight's State of the Union speech.

For all the aggressive rhetoric, however, the Bush administration has
provided scant evidence to support these claims. Nor have reporters traveling
with U.S. troops seen extensive signs of Iranian involvement. During a recent
sweep through a stronghold of Sunni insurgents here, a single Iranian machine
gun turned up among dozens of arms caches U.S. troops uncovered. British
officials have similarly accused Iran of meddling in Iraqi affairs, but say they
have not found Iranian-made weapons in areas they patrol.

The lack of publicly disclosed evidence has led to questions about whether
the administration is overstating its case. Some suggest Bush and his aides are
pointing to Iran to deflect blame for U.S. setbacks in Iraq. Others suggest they
are laying the foundation for a military strike against Iran.

Before invading Iraq, the administration warned repeatedly that Saddam
Hussein was developing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Those
statements proved wrong. The administration's charges about Iran sound
uncomfortably familiar to some. "To be quite honest, I'm a little concerned that
it's Iraq again," Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, head of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, said last week, referring to the administration's comments on
Iran.

So, Georgie's Officials are out telling the press that Iran is giving weapons to Iraqi's to KILL OUR TROOPS, which is a complete lie. Hmmm. And he said it in the State of the Union address as well.

It's clear to everyone watching that the White House is increasingly isolated and desperate. There is no question whatsoever that they - Rice, Cheney, Bush, Gates - think they can invade Iran without the permission of anyone, including the people's elected Congress. What frightens me is that they know that their program has been thoroughly debunked and repudiated by reality. Nothing they've done has worked - quite the opposite. Everything they've applied their hand to has been ruined. Their methods have proven over a period of years to be sloppy, lazy, and ineffectual.

So they know that this is their last chance. If they don't start a conflict with Iran in the next two years (less a month), the US may never fight Iran. And if the US doesn't start a war with Iran, THE US DOESN"T START A WAR WITH IRAN! The neocon nobility stands for nothing if not perpetual war to sow the fear that they need to stay in power.

Mark my words: if the congress doesn't take the constitutional bull by the horns and assert its control over the executive, we will be at war with Iran by the end of 2008.

Prez

Another State of the Union, another message that says nothing but: trust me. That message was old before it was new.

The central theme on Iraq is: 'sure it's a mess, but you just can't leave it messy, right?' But, Georgie, you messed it up. The fact that it's a mess doesn't get you off the hook for messing it up. Look: if you say: "I can drive real fast and get home in 10 minutes without any trouble," when it usually takes an hour to drive home, you can't then say "forget about all those people I hit and property damage I did, the important thing is to fix the car." No, it's not - and you should never be allowed behind the wheel again.

'You have to trust me to try and fix it with a nominal escalation in violence.' No, frankly, we don't. It's not your army, Georgie. It's our army. And we want it back. There is no rationale for the "surge" other than it looks like something somebody might do if they had a plan to succeed in Iraq. Georgie says that the bad guys are the same bad guys as 9-11 - a transparent fabrication - and that if we leave, the "sectarian violence" (read: civil war) with burn out of control. So what we need, in Junta logic - to shift to a different analogy without a decent segue - is to pour gasoline on the fire to contain it.

The Dick Cheney appearance on CNN's Wolf Blitzer Ego Hour really says it all. Read it - it's a Dooz. There is no rational way to address it - it's every lie that they can possibly make, all crunched down together. What fabrications have been discarded? Can we use a version of the revealed lie, or does Cheney have to deny that he ever said it? So many decisions.

And increasingly, as the poll numbers plummet, these guys are acting entirely out of their own delusions, entirely on their own. Georgie's down to 28% approval - and he's saying 'trust me?'
But, at a deeper level, he's not even saying that. On the deepest level, he's a dictator. He deeply misunderstands and fails to appreciate the American democracy that he's pushing out to the world. His concept of democracy is 'in name only,' like his good friend Vlad Putin's Russia. He believes that he is the sole 'decider' on all American law and policy.

Dick Cheney and Rummy yelled it at him. When he asked Condo, she just nodded. He asked Colin, but Colin said nothing. Everyone brought within 100 feet of him believes the same thing: the president is an absolute ruler. That's how Secretaries and Deputies and judges and cleaners are chosen. Right wing (meaning stupid)? Check. Think the president is an absolute monarch like the Emperor Constantine? Check.


"Trust me" almost always means "screw you," and never more so than in this case. Make no mistake: if the US is ever going to suffer another Civil War, it will be over executive power. And if it comes to that, I hope there are enough American left to fight it. Watching Congress and much of the public blindly follow this Junta for five years is discouraging.

End Game

More Game

Okay, so Brees chucks out of the end zone and is called for intentional grounding – okay call. That’s a safety, so it’s 18-14 Bears.

It makes you wonder how Bill Belichick can keep protecting Brady year after year, with all the injuries their OL has suffered.

Two good throws for Rex and the Bears are threatening, at the Saints 40. It’s started to snow, which is an advantage for the Bears.

Fourth Quarter.

It’s the Championship Quarter. Really, New Orleans can’t argue with a four-point deficit (although it should only be one). If they have what it takes to be a Super Bowl contender, they will win this quarter. To be a champion you have to play like a champion.

Berrian for 11, Berrian for 33 – TD Bears! Great work on an under-thrown ball that the DB was in the way of. It could easily have been picked. Berrian caught it on his back. Rex was getting clobbered by a Saints DL and just got the throw off.

Bears 25-14.

Nice drive by Rex. He was four for four and got the TD under heavy pressure. This is Bears football – a fluky play here and there, solid D and a defensive score, all covering up some terrible plays by the offense.

Rex is nightmarishly streaky.

Lovie is challenging a non-fumble by Brees, and he might get the call (these refs are proving to be homers). But after the Bears picked up the ball, they dropped it and a Saint fell on it – how far will the review go? They’re supposed to review everything they see – beyond the scope of the original challenge.

Replay shows that a Saint touched the Bear (Ogunleye) who recovered the non-fumble, so he’d be down there. It’s a turn-over. Not a bad call.

Bears ball at the NO 30. Five-yard loss by Jones – but flag on NO. The refs are officially killing them. That bogus three in the first half doesn’t look so big now.

Down to 12:00 in the game. Bears at the 11.

Which is the exact number of yards that Cedric Benson runs for a TD.

Bears 32-14.

It’s so odd because it doesn’t feel like the Bears are killing them, but things just break their way and they get scores. Not that they aren’t earning the points, because they are (for the most part).

I’m not terribly bummed at the outcome for two reasons. First, NO would be such a sentimental favorite in the Super Bowl that the Pats would be complete WWE style bad guys for beating them. We don’t need any more writers calling Belichick and company names for being cold and efficient football machines.

Second, we can get sweet revenge for 1985 at last. It will be so nice. I hope we can crush the spirit of the whole region, I really do.

Hmm. Maybe that’s why people don’t like Pats fans.

Brees throws a pick – but it seemed like equal possession. Doesn’t a tie go to the offense? No matter – Bears run a play.

10:00 left. The thing about Pats fans is that we’ve really been through the fan’s meat grinder over the years, and have suffered more than our share of taunting by opponents. And we don’t really taunt at all. We’re like our great coach – we celebrate when it’s time to celebrate.

Like last week’s Chargers game – Shawn Merriman does a dance when he makes a play. Our guys mocked that dance after we won the game. It was his dance – if it was so offensive, why wasn’t it offensive when he did it? And our guys did it after we won, not when the game was being contested. They celebrated only when they had something to celebrate.

Two firsts for Bush, clock stopped at 8:16. The Fat Lady is warming up with hot lemon tea.

Urlacher pastes Colston over the middle so he drops a pass. Honestly, how can a QB put one upstairs to a guy in front of a Pro Bowl middle linebacker? 4th and 13 – incomplete. Bears ball.

Is that an aria I hear?

Pats-Colts in 30 minutes. I won’t be able to do anything but scream during that one. In 2004 I yelled so loud during the Super Bowl that I set off the house alarm (true story).

I know it’s moot, but a Saint just pushed the Bears FB out of bounds and the refs wound the clock anyway. They must really need to get to the bar.

TD Jones – and the song is sung for good.

39-14 Bears.

Great season for the Saints. One of the buggers about football is that the disappointment of a loss lingers more than anything, obscuring a great season - or is that just me? This Saints team has a bright future and I hope the city has some sort of silly-ass parade and bacchanal for them.

That goes for the Bears as well, because the Pats are going to shred them. The Pats don’t make the kind of (forced) errors that the Bears need to win. They’re too disciplined and too well-coached.

Signing off. Go Patriots!

More Game

Second Half

Saints kick – good coverage. Bears start at their own 15 or so (all yardage approximate). Berrian up to the 40 – he’s dangerous. Deep ball – no good – that should have been a flag. Their feet got tangled and they fell before the ball got there. Bears to punt. Rex threw more on that possession – not a good adjustment, if that’s what they’re going for.

Oh, good. A make-up call. A bogus hold will bring back a great punt return. Gotta love the Zebras. They’ll kill your inner child faster than a tax audit.

Reggie Bush! 16-14.

I’ve had a lot of success in Madden playing with Bush and McAllister together in the backfield. He’s a huge difference-maker.

His 88 yard TD is longest ever in a championship game.

Grossman is going to have to win this for Chicago, and that must scare the crap out of Bears fans.

Rex – terrible throw on 3rd and 12, should have been picked if the safety wasn’t diving at a shadow or a mole or a penny on the field.

Saints are driving with short throws and a few slashing runs for balance. Deuce for 7 on a catch, then for 8. The FB Mike Karney catches a first then bulls ahead for a rushing first. Bears blitz – Saints pick it up – but contact down field brings no flag – 3rd and 10.

I sure hope they call the Pats-Colts like this. Thug Colts GM Bill Polian is already working the refs for calls.

Saints miss a 47 yard Figgie, but seem to have the momentum. This is when I think of that terrible call in the first half that gave Chicago a free 3 – it would be 14-13 Saints without that. It could turn out to be the call that puts the wrong team in the Super Bowl.

I’m going to post this because, odd as it may sound, I have to switch to a different laptop.

Saints-Bears, First Half

I’ve never tried this before, so I thought I’d put down a few comments during the Saints-Bears game, just to see how it comes out.

It’s into the second quarter now, and the Bears are up 6-0. There have been two plays of not, one game-changing and one just a little odd.

The big play so fare was the Saints fumbled kickoff return that the Bears turned into a possibly decisive 3 points. That’s actually the second time that the Saints defense has kept the Bears to 3 when they were very much threatening to get 6. Thing is, it wasn’t a fumble.

Clearly, obviously, painfully not a fumble. It was a terrible stupid call that any human with working visual senses could see. So why wasn’t it challenged? It was.

And when Sean Peyton threw his red flag, I thought “it’s really bad that they forced him to waste a challenge on this because it’s such an obvious call that they should have gotten it right in the first place.”

But guess what? They upheld it.

Now, I’ve muted the game because Joe Buck is so annoying I want to track down his parents and throw them into Gitmo where they can be waterboarded and otherwise not tortured for having failed to stop him from growing up. So I don’t know what was said. I’m assuming that the ref said there wasn’t clear video evidence or something, but that’s a crock. It was a rotten turn for New Orleans.

The Bears hit a long pass (I think it was Mohammed) but the Saints stopped them again – 9-0 Chicago. That defense is showing up big time, and Rex Grossman stinks. But the Saints offense needs tri move it. They O-Line is lousy. The Bears DE’s are killing both tackles, but the Saints are getting them help and throwing shorter to protect Brees.

The odd thing that happened earlier was that there was a running play, and afterward the ref shoved a Bears guy to get to the ball, but the Bear didn’t see who shoved him in the back so he turned around and started shoving a Saint, but the same ref broke them up. You wonder if the ref owned up to it: “hey - I shoved you Dude, not him.”

Anyway, Saints punt again at 5:51 of the second. They got one first down, but the Bears are pressuring Brees and tackling well.

The Saints D is looking tired. They’re getting pushed off the ball along the whole line. Thomas Jones hit for 15, and now for about 30. Now for 8. You’d think they’d stack against the run – and they are, but it’s not helping, and they don’t want Mohammed to go for 50 on them. Jones for 8, down to the 2, two minute warning.

Touchdown Bears. 16-0. This is just where they wanted to be, sitting on a two or three score lead that will let their pass defense to its magic. Of course, the Saints are the #1 passing team in the NFL – be careful what you wish for. Henderson & Colston just caught a 20 and a 15 with 1:06 left in the half. Good blitz pick-up by Reggie Bush. Saints down to the Bears 20. Brees firing out of shotgun. Maybe that’s what they’ve needed – just set up and fire.

3rd and 10 at the 25 (after a motion penalty). First down at the 7 with :51 on the clock. Bears blitz up the middle gets picked up – TD Colston.

That was huge. There’s a few miles of psychological distance between 16-0 and 16-7.

That was a real Madden video game drive – just chucking out of shotgun formation.

Let’s see what the Bears do with the :40 on the clock.

Grossman just chucked it to the ballboy 15 yards out of bounds, and then took a knee – halftime.

The other thing pf not in the first half was when the Bears had it third and goal at the 3. They set up to play and the Saints took a time out – a basketball TO. You almost never see that in football where the clock is key and timeouts are few. In basketball, the clock is not normally a big factor, and they get like 7 TO’s a half. The Saints called the TO after the Bears offense set up, just to see what personnel and formation they’d gone with.

Anyway, that’s the first half. More later…

Championship Games

Saints at Bears:

Here's the problem with this match-up: whatever the numbers, the Saints are the Storybook team that everyone is rooting for. And that spells trouble for the Bears. Chicago is an all-defense team that can get a lead and ride it. That allows shaky QB Rex Grossman lots of chances to make big plays, and lets the offensive line chew on the defense after they get up on them. It's a formula that's worked well against the Junior Varsity Conference - and worked last week against a Seahawks defense that liked to watch the pretty ball fly past their heads. If they hadn't lied about QB Matt Hasselbeck's broken fingers, I might have gone with Chicago.

But give the monsters their due - they were tough and resilient when it counted.

The Championship game will be classic offense vs. defense. The Bears will test the Saints early and often, trying to establish that lead that will let them pound the ball and play cover-2 all day.
The Saints - well they're just happy to be there. They have the #1 offense in the league, and I suspect they'll use the whole playbook on this one. They'll let it all go and attack with abandon. If they try to play it safe, they'll get clobbered. What will rookie Head Coach Sean Peyton do? If he unleashes his stellar talent on offense, he has a good chance.

I think Cinderella's slipper will fit.

Saints 24-21

Offense:
Run Pass Total
Bears 15 14 15
Saints 19 1 1

Defense
Bears 6 11 5
Saints 23 3 11

Patriots at Colts
Ah, here we are. Back to the rivalry. This time, we meet in the Colts track & field house. This time, we face old friends - yes, that's Dan Klecko you see. And Adam Vinateiri. I like to think that, in a WWE wrestling kind of plot, we sent Adam to sign with the Colts. See, he's going to help them get to the Conference Championship, and right up to the last play, when he will kick the winning field goal - THE WRONG WAY! What's that - Vinateiri is pulling off his Colts jersey - and he's WEARING A PATRIOTS JERSEY UNDERNEATH!

Well, okay. Not so much.

But this won't be close enough to put Adam in that position. The Pats are going to get the Colts by the throat and hold their head in the toilet bowl and give them swirlies all day (a "swirlie" is where you stick someone's head in a toilet bowl and flush). Credit the Colts defense with playing tough in the playoffs. They held KC's awesome running game in check, and stifled Baltimore
effectively. But that stops now.

There's a reason the Colts were last in the league against the run. They've been able to scheme around it, out-guess the opponent (no huge task against Herm Edwards and Brian "the Former Brain" Billick). But Bill Belichick is not someone to be out-guessed or out-schemed. If the Colts are over-playing the run and leaving their DB in man coverage, Brady will burn them. If they've got their front seven playing over their heads and stopping the run without help, Belichick will change their minds about standing up to the run.

Belichick's coaching - and Brady's quarterbacking - remind me of the greatest basketball team ever - the 1986 Celtics. Everything you tried to do against them was wrong. If you tried to play half-court, they'd kill you in transition and then decimate you with their stifling half-court defense. If you tried to run, they'd run you off the court. Nothing the other guy tried to do was the right thing, because the Bird-McHale-Parish-DJ-Ainge-Walton team reacted and countered, always with a better move.

Belichick does the same thing. He prepares and then alters as necessary. And he has Brady to execute.

Patriots 34-21

Offense
Run Pass Total
Colts 18 2 3
Pats 12 12 11

Defense
Colts 32 2 21
Pats 5 12 6

One thing troubles me: when the Saints and Pats play in the Super Bowl, the Saints will be the sentimental favorites. And the media has become bored with the stolid Belichick Patriots. There will be a huge groundswell of support for the Saints, so when we beat them we'll be the bad guys.

But I can live with that.

Oh, Come on!

Oh, for crying out loud. It just gets worse and worse. Now Prince Georgie has decided not to re-authorize the "Terrorist Surveillance Program." So his illegal wiretapping program is finished. Right.

First of all, they've never said that this is the only illegal surveillance program that's watching you. AG Gonzo has been specifically vague about that. So by shutting this down, presumably nothing else will be exposed and we can all just stop looking and be on our merry way.

And they didn't even give a reason. Not that they had to. Everything the Junta does is political.

Which brings me back to a saw that I will keep sawing: I never want to hear from any Repub or media pundit that a Democrat has done something for "purely political reasons." They've made every life-and-death war-and-peace global warming economic who will starve Armageddon decision with nothing but their political gain in mind.

Why stop illegal wiretapping? Because it will get them in more political trouble. If there really is a rationale for doing it for national security, then there is no rationale to stop it. If it's politics - stop now.

Because by stopping now, they can hope to avoid congressional oversight. By stopping now, they can preserve their claims to omnipotence. See, the congress didn't have the power to stop them, it was their own choice to stop.

This Junta believes it is empowered to do anything it wants, and it wants to do some very nightmarish things. It wants to eavesdrop. It wants to torture. It wants to make war, and it wants to give all the nation's money to the rich and cut off the poor and strangle the middle class.

The do-nothing 109th congress was happy to let them do it. The (hopefully) fighting 110th will not.

What's the statute of limitations on shredding the constitution? Certainly more than two years - which means that there will be investigations.

Two Up

Well, two out of four is, I suppose, fifty percent. And that's what I got this weekend, though I was 100% last week, bringing my playoff score to 6-2. Where did I go wrong?

Indy at Baltimore
Prediction: Ravens 28-17
Result: Colts 15-6

I think I over-estimated the Ravens offense in this one. The Colts shut down the Chiefs the previous week, and they shut down the Ravens this week. Good for them. At least, when their season ends next week, they can say their defense played two good games.

What really cheeses me here is that former Patriot Adam Vinatieri kicked five figgies that won this for Indy. Why couldn't they have stayed with the now-unemployed Vander-shank? It's just not fun rooting against Adam. We have too many great memories together.

Seattle at Chicago:
Prediction: Hawks 22-19
Result: Bears 27-24

This was a belated instance of justice fulfilled. The Hawks should have lost to the Cowboys last week. They prevailed because of the second North Dallas Forty ending this year - which is astounding. The holder dropped the snap on a chippie to win, and that was the season. Well, not now. I think this Bears team would have beaten the Cowboys as well, so justice will out.

Here's what I got right:

Eagles at Saints:

Prediction: Saints 27-24
Result: Saints 27-24

What can I say? A stopped clock is right twice a day, too.

Pats at Chargers:

Prediction: Pats 35-14
Result: Pats 24-21.

That was one of the great games in team history, and that's saying something for a franchise with three Super Bowl wins in five years, and a best-ever 21 game winning streak. The coaches stepped up to make the right adjustments. The players made the plays in crunch time when it mattered, and the great Tom Brady produced when he had to. Just a complete tour de force.

I hope Bush can remember "Coach Bill's" name this time around...

Football

Indy at Baltimore

I must admit to being surprised at Baltimore's success this year. They're a long time gone from their 2000 Super Bowl winning season. It's a testiment to Brian Billick's coaching prowess - even though he was on the 'likely to get canned' list as recently as mid-season. Having a solid QB helps. And I think this is a team that shows how important it is to have a solid roster top to bottom. There are some stars here, for sure, but there are also lots of lunch-pail guys who get the job done. Adelius Thomas reminds me of Willie McGinest with his mix of power, speed, and versitility. Ray Lewis is no longer the guy who tore up the Giants in 2000 like a police chief with a parking ticket, but he gets it done and is a vocal leader. He's a really likable guy when he's not covering for murderers.

Tony Dungy's Colts are the same team that folds under pressure each year in the playoffs, but has great shiny trophies from the regular season. Peyton Manning always finds ways to lose in the playoffs, and will do so again. The Colts boast the worst run defense in the league. Yes, 2-14 Oakland and all the other bottom-feeders were better, which is really odd. It's odd because if the Colts are built to get a lead fast and hold it, you'd think that teams would have to pass on them, not run. They'e #2 aganst the pass, but that's an obvious reflection on their total inability to stop the run.

Forget about the regular season. The Colts can't play championship level football.

Offense
Run Pass Total
Colts 18 2 3
Ravens 25 11 17
Defense
R P T
Colts 32 2 21
Ravens 2 6 1

Result: Ravens 28-17

Pats at Chargers

Let's finish the AFC and get ready for the Championship Game. The Patriots will be too much for the Chargers. There are a lot of reasons why this will happen, but I'll settle for two: coaching and quarterbacking. There has never been a better playoff coach in the NFL than Bill Belichick. Lombardi was 9-1 to Belichick's 12-2 in the playoffs, but remember that Lombardi only had the Championship game to play after the regular season. Belichick has had to play two or three games just to get to the championship game.

Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer simply can't coach in the playoffs. inexplicable, he's one of the top regular season guys ever, but craps out in the tournament. Sorry, Marty.

Quarterbacking - Philip Rivers vs. Tom Brady. Forget it. Both teams have stout defenses, with the edge to the Patriots. LaDanian Tomlinson, the league MVP, will be the X-factor. New England will have to to something to stop him. But Belichick is the kind of coach who can stop LT and make Rivers win it with his arm. And as a first-year starter in his first playoff game, I don't like his chances against the Patriots defense.

Offense:
Run Pass Total
Pats 12 12 11
Bolts 2 16 4
Defense:
R P T
Pats 5 12 6
Bolts 7 13 10

Patriots 35-14

Bottom line in the AFC is that there are two coaches with Super Bowl rings, and two coaches who have a history of poor playoff perforemances, and no hardware at all. Why can't Tony and Marty coach in the playoffs? What is it? Something in their style? Do their players get the feeling that a 14-2 regular season is "Mission Accomplished?" It's hard to say. I know from watching the Patriots for years that they are palpibly hungry and ready to fight for every blade of grass on the field. Tom Brady looks as though he would kill anyone who gets in his way, including their extended family, realitor, and most people who ever met them or served them at a restaurant. Nothing stop him, or diverts his unreal focus.

Maybe Tone and Marty just don't instill that in threir teams. With Dungy, I think the problem goes to the make-up of the team. They are mentally soft, and physically small. They can't rise up - there's nothing to rise with. They are fair weather low character guys who don't deserve to win - and deep down they know that.

Seahawks at Bears

I still don't know how the Bears have done it. 13-3 and home field in the NFC playoffs. I watched the Pats beat them this year, and they struck me as another try-hard team with a half-decent defense - nothing special. But here they are, the top seed in the NFC. Fine.

The Bears are better on offense and defense. But I still have to go with coaching. Mike Holmgren (Super Bowl winner - and twice loser) had some key injuries this year, and snuck into the playoffs 9-7, but is still the more experienced hand. Lovie Smith has won nothing, and won't win anything until he grows an offense. He should take a page from Belichick, who was also a defensive guru as a coordinator, but has become an offensive innovator as a head coach.

Offense:
Run Pass Total
Hawks 14 20 19
Bears 15 14 15

Defense
Hawks 22 16 19
Bears 6 11 5

Hawks 22-19

Eagles at Saints

The Saints will keep marching in, if for no other reason than their pass offense. Drew Brees had a career year and proved all of his doubters dead wrong. I would actually like to see Jeff Garcia do well. I always have a soft spot for CFL guys. This is an interesting match up of teams who can both pass, and teams that can both stop the pass. Will it be a shoot-out or an interception-fest? Neither, probably, because neither of these guys can stop the run. Look for a ton of rushing yards and some play-action passing.

Offense:

Run Pass Total
Eagles 11 3 2
Saints 19 1 1
Defense:
Eagles 26 9 15
Saints 23 3 11

Saints 27-24

Always Wrong

The thing about always being completely turned around dead wrong about absolutely everything is that it can't be an accident. A stopped clock is right twice a day. If it's just random blundering, there will be kernels of success. But the Bush Junta has managed - for six years now - to avoid being right on every question. No topic, from the domestic to the scientific to the moral to the international, has been spared their toxic wrongness.

That's no accident.

I like to blame the parents of these "leaders" for the wrongness, because much of it stems from their upbringing. Just as Rightists like to blame poor parents for their children's behavior, rich parents must stand up to what they've done.

And it's this: they raised a generation in a complete moral vacuum. And it's not the kids of the liberals who show no public or private morality - it's overwhelmingly the conservatives. They were obviously raised to be utterly self-involved and narcissistic. They covet their privilege while happily denying comfort to others. If the butler is hungry he can take from the pantry - but not too much.

They demand moral behavior while refusing to behave themselves. Their movement propagandist, Rush Limbaugh, is a serial divorcee and womanizer (obviously a guy who looks like that has to be rich to become a 'womanizer') and a drug addict. But he's happy to sit in judgement of the "San Francisco values" of Nancy Pelosi - a grandmother married 30+ years.

These are simply bad people. They are people who must conceal their real thought and intentions because they are so repugnant to civilization. We see their intents when they have the power to enact them. Bush is a third-world style tin pot dictator. And every opportunity he gets, he proves it.

Like last night. He's sending more American troops to fight in Iraq. Why? For him, and nobody else. The military didn't want it - so he's changing generals. The troops don't want it, the public doesn't want it, and the congress doesn't want it.

But who else exists for Georgie but Georgie?

He is, by nature, wrong. A 'right' leader serves the public first - himself second. Georgie is the opposite.

Where a real leader only makes policy decisions based ion their concept of the public good, Bush and his Junta make all decisions based on their political fortunes. A leader of courage and character does things that he thinks are right, despite a political cost. Georgie does what's best for Georgie, despite what's best for everyone else.

But by acting that way, failure is inevitable.

Iraq, if it was to be fought at all (which it was not), was a political challenge. They fought it as a purely military challenge - and did it wrong at that. Trying to kill insurgents without stopping the underlying political causes of the insurgency is sheer stupidity. It's like fighting the ocean with a bucket.

Meanwhile, decisions that should have been made on a purely military basis are made on an entirely political basis. They thought the American people wouldn't support a force of 300,000 to 500,000 - which the military wanted - so they went with the political 130,000 figure.

Every decision about the war has been wrong. Why? Because the leaders - Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Rove - are amoral cowardly lizard-creatures who are not capable of making human decisions.

New War?

While preparing to receive whatever lies the Junta Leader will pour forth this evening in order to justify getting more Americans killed for nothing, do not miss the start of the next Republican Junta war, coming to a country nowhere near you.

New war? Well, what do you call it when we attack armed (and unarmed) people who are in, you know, another country? Help me out here - that's war, right?

Right - nothing new. We've been at it in Iraq and Afghanistan for a number of years. So we shoot some people on the other side of the world. Presumably, they had it coming. Though, outside of the Taliban, al Qaeda, and Saddam's trigger-men I'm not sure if anybody we're killing right now "had it coming."

But wait - there's more. We just killed a bunch of people in Somalia. Yes we did. And one of them may have been an al Qaeda leader, so that's good. We used a modern version of "Puff the Magic Dragon," a converted cargo plane featuring a gatling gun (think of a machinegun times 1,000) and a 105mm howitzer.

Which is great for shooting up impoverished Somali villages where we think there may be a guy we hate. So is this a new war in Somalia? Not yet? But wait - there's still more.

What if we put boots on the ground? What if actual American forces (what's left of them) arrived to fight in Somalia?

According to this story, they're expecting a little help in their anti-Islamist action.

Also Wednesday, Somalia's deputy prime minister said American troops were needed on the ground to root extremists from his troubled country, and he expected the troops soon. It was the first indication that the U.S. military may expand its campaign.

Look: Iraq is a colossal debacle. We all know that. It's the millstone that will drown all the Republicans. The only reason that the Democtrats have a slim majority in the Senate is that Senators are on 6-year terms, and don't all come up for election at once. If they had, it would have been a wipe-out. They can expect to lose a lot more in 2008.

Instead of a perpetual Republican majority, Karl Rove may have destroyed that party forever.

Afghanistan - the only war we should have fought - is also in the crapper because we didn't rebuild it. The neocons believe in destruction, not reconstruction. When they fight, they fight; they don't rebuild. So when you are following neocons into battle, you're going to be there a long long time.

Actually, nobody "follows" neocons into battle. They are the uber-chickenhawks. They sends others to die for their crazy ideas.

Anyway, Afghanistan is another of their great failures. But their regime is predicated on being glorious warriors (with other people's blood). Without war and fear, they got nothing.

So what do they do? How about a new war? The Solali's and Ethopians have pretty much won this one, so the Junta can just go in and mop up a bit. Great photo-op. And since we didn't start this war (for once) we won't be expected to rebuild the place, so we won't get the blame when it's perpetually downtrodden and war-torn.

For Georgie, it's win-win.

So look for our brand new war, coming soon to a continent conveniently close to the one we're already fighting in.

4-0

Well then. 4-0 on my football predictions - not too shabby. My anonymous commenter hit it huge by calling that the Eagles-Giants game would be decided by a figgie in the last two minutes. I hope he made some money on that one.

For my part, I got some things more right than others. I had Seattle winning 38-31, but that was way too many points (actual score 21-20), and the Hawks only won on a North Dallas Forty ending. Which is bizarre, because Denver was eliminated from the playoffs 21-20 on a NDF ending earlier in the season. I've never seen that before in the NFL, and it happened twice this year.

I had Philly winning by way too many, and the Lone Commenter nailed it. I'll still take the win, of course.

The Colts 23-8 win was substantially different from the 31-28 win I had in mind for them. Holding Larry Johnson to 44 rushing yards is something of a miracle. I'm sure there were fewer atheists in Indy come Sunday morning.

For the Pats, it was not the laugher I had hoped for. It was a tense and competitive game - until the fourth quarter. The Championship Quarter. The Patriots Quarter.

Here's what I said before the game:

But I also get the feeling that the score will be closer than the game. Mangini has proven that he can keep his gang together in tough times. They are 25th on offense and 20th on defense (worse than Seattle or Buffalo). But they will find a way to hang around on the scoreboard, if not the field, until the 4th quarter. I get the feeling that Belichick will not call off the dogs with a 4th quarter lead. Look for extra points dropping in, needed or not.

Patriots - 41-17

Actual result: close game until the 4th, final score: 37-16.

Not too shabby. I'll do predictions for the Divisional Round later in the weem but here's a preview:

Patriots to win.

Super Bowl, Baby!

Coaches

It's official: Bill Cowher has left the Steelers. To "spend more time with his family." Can people still say that with a straight face? Is it permissible to pretend to believe that excuse any more? Please. That's so 1998.

Anyway, that opens up a few slots around the league. Atlanta fired their wunderkind Jim Mora. Arizona fired re-tread Dennis Green. And Art Shell was ejected from his second time around Oakland. Nick Saban made a graceless exit from Miami.

And there are a few coaches on life support. I'm happy that Romeo Crennel gets to have another crack at the Cleveland problem. Jon Gruden is holding on by his Super Bowl trophy. In New York, amazingly, officials are waiting for their team to lose in the playoffs to fire their bum, Tom Coughlin.

In Detroit, it's shocking that Matt Millen and company are still in place. How does this guy keep his job? He has failed to make the team even mediocre in six years. Six years! In NFL years, that's like six thousand. It's like a whole epoch. It's like the Egyptians saying: "we'll keep the pharaoh around for another millennia, just to see if the pharaoh system really works."

Cowher and Saban both quit for the money. In Saban's case, Alabama just kept adding zeroes to their offer until he said "yes." Cowher wants to get paid as a Super Bowl winner.

Which, let's face it, he's not. The Steelers were far from the best team last year. They were the recipients of what had to be Mafia-induced officiating. I can see Tony and the boys lighting up fat Cubans down at the Bing every time the refs threw another Steeler flag. It was pathetic.

He reminds me a bit of Little King Georgie in the White House. The presidency was stolen from its rightful winner by his daddy's cronies in 2000, but he's always acted like he got a banana republican 99% of the vote. George, you didn't win. Chin, you didn't win, either.

But I'll be glad to see Cowher out of the league for a year, at least. I'm so sick of the chin and the family and the spit - I tell you, Pittsburgh fans are going to start realizing how painful he was to watch by next September and start sending him thank-you cards.

Saban is the guy I'm really glad to lose. I don't know if he would ever have made the playoffs, but he sure knew how to play against his old buddy Belichick. The Pats had their worst games against Saban and the other mini-B, Eric Mangini.

It's as though the Belichick system is too hard for other coaches to figure out, but the guys who came up in it really get it and know how to play it.

But for all these vacancies, I hope they start going to the Romeo Crennels and the Charlie Weis's out there. Those two won multiple Super Bowls as Coordinators and proved that they deserved a shot (Notre Dame's Weis is still waiting for his). In the last few years, head coaching spots have been going to less deserving guys - Sean Payton (okay, he was good this year but only 10-6 good), Rod Marinelli, Jim Mora, Mike McCarthy, Jack Del Rio, Brad Childress, Scott Linehan, Mike Nolan.

Those guys never won anything (and I didn't even include Herm Edwards, Tony Dungy, and Lovie Smith who never won Super Bowls but had the reflected glory of the Tampa defense to cling to).

NFL Head Coaches should come from one of two groups:

1) Coordinators of Championship offenses or defenses.

2) College head coaches who have had top five BCS programs and Bowl wins.

Word is that GM's don't want to bring in guys like that because they end up wanting total control of the franchise. That's tough - you can't blame a GM for not wanting someone who will push them out of a job. But rarely does an entrenched GM get pushed out by the coach. Usually, if there is out-pushing, it's by the owner and would have happened anyway.

So there it is. Let's play some football!

Just Wild

It's Wild Card Weekend in the NFL, so who cares that Americans have resumed control of the American Congress? The Anti-American thugs who had trapped that institution for more than a decade are in abeyance, so it's time to talk football.

Let's start with the JV Conference, the NFC.

Dallas at Seattle:
Dallas is 5th in the league on offense and 13th on defense. Seattle is 19th both ways. So the 5th offense gets to dance around on the head of the 19th defense, right? Well, kind of, except that Dallas has the 24th ranked pass defense. Uh oh. Sure, Seattle is on;y the 20th pass offense, but you have to remember that the forgettable Seneca Wallace started at QB for a lot of the season. Seattle will be able to pass against Dallas. That's also a bit of a mystery, because Dallas has some studs on defense. Both teams will score, but Seattle has the edge in experience and a soggy, coffee-soaked home field.

It's funny to think that this game matches Tuna Parcelles against Walrus Holmgren. Last time these two met in the playoff was when the Tuna's Pats lost to Holmgren's Packers while Parcelles was working on his exit to Brooklyn. Seriously, Parcelles was negotiating a contract with the New York Jets to go coach them while he should have been preparing to play Brett Favre and Reggie White with the Packers. And Tuna wonders why we don't miss him around here?

Seattle - 38-31

Giants at Philadelphia

There's a new Rocky movie out and all the Iggles people think it's about their team. Actually, Invincible is out on DVD and that's definitely about them. And this game will be for sure about them. The Giants are not a playoff team in any other time or place. If they were in the AFC they'd be 3-13. The 7-9 Bills are a much much better team than they are. The Gints are 14th on offense and 25th in defense. Please. Not that they don't have some talent, because they do. In fact, whenever I play these guys on Xbox, they kick my butt. Eli seems to be able to hook up with his quality receivers at will, and Tiki is beyond the tackling skills of mere mortals.

Of course, they're great in theory. In reality, Eli can't hit a city bus burning at a corner stop in Queens. Tiki is elusive - but so completely annoying that nobody wants to watch him. Seriously, he had like 250 yards in the last game, and nobody knew it but the scorekeeper. You wonder if his twin brother Ronde is like a SUPER nice guy. Maybe all the selfishness and ego landed in the Tiki body, and the Ronde body just plays football?

Philly, meanwhile, is on a miracle run with Jeff Garcia at the helm. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Garcia showed every sign of being completely washed up before the season started. Nobody wanted him after dismal starting performances in Detroit and Cleveland. But that was pre-Romeo Cleveland, and post-Bobby Layne Detroit. Of course he didn't play well there. He only hit three Pro Bowls for Coach Mooch in San Francisco. Sure he had much better players around him back then (including Terrell Owens). So what? Isn't that the whole point of football? To have a better team and lead it to victory?

Meanwhile, Philly fans are going way too far in thinking that Garcia may be an answer after this year. The guy is 37 and fragile. He'll be a great back-up QB (a guy who can win a couple for you so you don't lose a whole season) for another three to four years, but that's it. McNabb is the future.

Philly - 33-10

KC at Indy

This is an intriguing match-up because KC does a few things really well, and those are the things Indy is really bad at. KC is #16 on offense and defense, but 9th in run offense. Indy is dead last at stopping the run. 32nd out of 32 teams. KC has a back who is both fast and strong. He's elusive and bone-crushing. And there's no way Indy will be able to stop him. Which is leading a lot of football pundit types to lean toward KC. But there's a reason that Indy is 12-4 and KC is 9-7. That reason is the Indy offense - #3 overall, #2 in passing. And they have the #2 pass defense, but that's meaningless. When you play the #32 rush defense, you don't put the ball in the air.

Speaking of misleading stats - do you know who has the best passing defense? Oakland. Yes, the 2-14 Raiders are #1 against the pass. Because after you get a three TD lead on them, why bother passing? I mean, you're killing them 21-0, are you going to throw for 300 yards? No. So they're 25th against the run, and you run on them all day. You kill the clock from the end of the first quarter.

So, Tony Dungy is a very bad playoff coach indeed, but has had success in the first round. So here's his first round red meat, the win that he can point to while fighting to keep his job. Sure, Indy will get their doors blown off next week in Baltimore, but who cares? They get to have a big home win this week.

Indy 31-28

Jets at NE

This is the only match-up this week where both teams have double-digit wins (12-4 NE vs. 10-6 NY). This is a Jets team that has beaten the Pats this year, and made everything difficult for them. This Jets team is coached by last year's Pats Defensive Coordinator, Eric Mangini. He knows these guys, he's coached them. He's proven he can beat them at the Razor. And, come Sunday, he's going to take an epic pounding.

Bill Belichick is the best coach in the history of the game. Tom Brady is one of the five best QB's to ever lace on cleats. The difference between the Pats and the Jets is the difference between a Corvette and a Chevette. This is the New England time of year. This is when the championship players on the roster make big plays happen and keep their cool when they need to. New England is peaking at exactly the right time. It's taken all year, but they've found their long passing game and their running game has returned. They are 11th on offense - #12 run and #12 pass - and 6th on defense.

But I also get the feeling that the score will be closer than the game. Mangini has proven that he can keep his gang together in tough times. They are 25th on offense and 20th on defense (worse than Seattle or Buffalo). But they will find a way to hang around on the scoreboard, if not the field, until the 4th quarter. I get the feeling that Belichick will not call off the dogs with a 4th quarter lead. Look for extra points dropping in, needed or not.
Then it's on to San Diego. Bill Belichick vs. Marty Schottenheimer in the playoffs.
Looking good!

Patriots - 41-17

Wrong Question

As usual, the media are asking the wrong questions about Iraq. Shocking, I know.

What's being asked is: "do you support a surge of troops to Iraq?" What that really means is "do you support an escalation of the violent involvement in Iraqi affairs by the US military? Which is fine, but that's not why it's the wrong question.

It's the wrong question because it demands that the answer include or imply information not on the record. That is, what the 'surge' or 'escalation' of troops will actually do.

If you were to approve or disapprove of something, you'd want to know more about it, right? I mean, what would you say if I came to you and asked "do you approve of adding more cleaning staff to the Air Canada Centre?"

You'd probably ask if there were enough cleaners there already. Or if there was a particular mess to clean up. Or if you expected some extra dirt, or something.

You wouldn't say yes or no. But here we are being asked by Georgie's people: "how about a surge?" And you're supposed to have an opinion?

What are those 15,000 to 30,000 troops going to do? Dunno. Maybe security in Baghdad or something like that.

The whole thing is ab exercise in seeming to do something and actually doing nothing. There is no way that a push of 10-20% more troops will have any effect whatsoever. Even 100-200% more troops wouldn't be enough. It's too late to send more fire trucks after the house has burned down.

Georgie wants to cling to his illusions of policy until he leaves office, so that the next president can be the one who faces reality by bugging out. There is nothing more or less to this move than to create some breathing room with the public and the new Congress.

But it's well past the time when his old tricks still worked. Best thing he can do now is lawyer up and wait for the subpoenas.