Odd man out?

ESPN reported today that Matt Leinart is in danger of being cut. I would put the percentage chance that this actually happens at 2% or nearly double the probability of my Furriners cohort making a 4 ft putt.

ESPN the Magazine NFC Preview - you're on the list!

ESPN the Magazine has apparently done 10,000 simulations of the NFC and has decided that the Atlanta Falcons have the best chance to be the NFC representative to the Super Bowl. While I find that prediction fairly absurd, it is I suppose plausible.

Where I have a problem is that they give the St. Louis Rams 6 wins. I'll do my own laundry for an entire year if the Rams win 6 games. Worse yet they have the Lions only winning 3 games. I'm not sure what statistics they are using but there is no way in hell the Lions win less games than the Rams.

Additionally they have the Chicago Bears winning as many games as the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers at 9. The Vikings alone should sack Jay Cutler 23 times this year. I call BS on each of these predictions. I'd be willing to bet a quarter that the Rams win less than 6 games, less than the Lions and that the Bears are a distant third to the Vikings and Packers in the NFC North.

ESPN the magazine - this is the most embarrassing thing I've seen online since Sarah Palin starting comparing herself to Shakespeare.

Mike Martz and Jay Cutler are at it again.

After the Chicago Bears - Arizona Cardinals preseason football game today I found this quote from Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune:

"He was intercepted twice, sacked four times and had a passer rating of 31. That's nine sacks now in essentially a full game of action over the last two weeks."

While math may not be my strong suit, right now the combination of Jay Cutler and Mike Martz are on pace to shatter the NFL sacks allowed record. At 9 a game that gives us a total of 144 sacks allowed.

Also of note in the same report by Biggs he noted how the Bears defense was not up to par in the following statement:

"The defense was again shredded on third down by hardly all-star caliber quarterbacks."

To Biggs' point Matt Leinart did dominate the Bears with his best performance of the preseason going 9 of 10 for 84 yards and a 135 rating, while just edging out the second best QB on the field Dan LeFevour who was 10 of 12 for for 100 yards and a 129.2 rating.

Suck on that women who are currently doing my laundry!

Ken Mehlman Is Pro-Gay Rights... Now

In the event you live under a rock and did not hear, former chairman of the Republican National Committee (2005-07) and Bush-Cheney Campaign Manager (2004), Ken Mehlman, this week publicly acknowledged that he is a homosexual.

Fine. I have nothing to say about that.

I bring this up to point to a short segment that The Daily Show did about this topic on yesterday's show and how it relates to my co-bloggers list of strongly held convictions:

1) Republicans/conservatives are unable and/or unwilling to "put themselves in someone's shoes" (so to speak).
2) College QBs operating in the spread take longer to adapt to the NFL (if they can at all).
3) Laundry is woman's work.

For this post, we are only dealing with #1.

And so I thought of that belief when Jon Stewart showed the soundbyte of Ken Mehlman responding to ABC News as to whether he regretted being part of Karl Rove's politics of divisiveness (i.e. courting votes using an anti-gay agenda):

"What I regret is the fact that I had not come to terms with this part of my life and, therefore, I was not able to do what I was able to do in other areas and work for a more inclusive and broader party."

Jon Stewart's comment:

"Right! You can't expect him to fight for the rights of a group that he didn't know he was a part of! I'm sure if he ever found out he was black, he'd be 100% against segregation too. It's like that old poem:

First they came for the gays
But I didn't know I was gay... so who gives a shit!"

Okay, so maybe Elijah Moon is on to something. And I share his opinion on #2 (I'm looking at you Bradford, McCoy, and Tebow). I am still not convinced that #3 is true though. No matter how much he rants about how only a woman should do laundry... I think he's wrong and I am not afaid to say it.

Dick Armey Is Full of Shit

That Dick Armey is full of shit should not be a news flash to anyone. If you do not know who Mr. Armey is (and the extent with which he is a shit containing vessel), I would argue you need to be better informed.

Anyway, I wanted to address a quote from Mr. Armey on Meet The Press this past weekend where he was (sort of) debating lame duck Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm.

Mr. Armey had this to say:

I'll give you anywhere from a minimum of $2T to a possible $8T worth of real stimulus to the economy from the private sector if we can just relieve the private sector that's sitting on it's cash from the fear that this administration is going to screw up the future of this economy.

This gives me yet another chance to post this link from Mr. Barry Ritholtz and also this well written blog post from Furriners.

According to the Total Liquid Assets graph in the Ritholtz post, there is just over $1.8T of cash on the balance sheets of America's 500 largest nonfinancial companies. I am guessing that is where Mr. Armey is getting his suggestion that "a minimum of $2T" of stimulus could be given to the economy if not for Obama's policies. The problem is that the graph shows that the balance had already risen to over $1.4T as early as 2005! And that was when the economy seemed to be doing okay (and it was - provided you were already very wealthy).

While there may be a small kernel of truth to the private sector having some concerns about the implications of so-called ObamaCare, Mr. Armey has no interest in having an intelligent discussion of policy. Instead, he chooses inflammatory rhetoric with no legitimate factual basis. He is a partisan hack only concerned about his own self-interests (read: he is full of shit).

Kevin Seifert of ESPN - You're on the list

Kevin Seifert, the NFC North blogger for ESPN had this to say recently about the Lions move of Amari Spievey to Safety:

"I wouldn't consider this move a sign that Spievey is a bust, however. There was talk even before the draft that his long-term future was at safety."

My problem here is that a position change does not automatically make a player a bust. Bryan Buluga who was drafted in the first round by the Green Bay Packers was recently shifted from Tackle to Guard. The thought was that he was not going to get to play at Tackle and he might be an upgrade at guard. Some suggested before the draft that guard may be a better position for Buluga in the NFL. I have not heard of anyone calling Buluga a bust because of this change. This is not to say that I believe Amari Spievey was a great draft pick or that he will be successful at Safety but the Lions have a desperate need at Safety and if Spievey, as a third round pick, can fill that void, then I would call that a success. The point is, the guy has played all of two preseason games so let's hold off on the bust label until at least the third preseason game.

Pat Tillman Documentary

Late last week a documentary about Pat Tillman's time in Afghanistan was released. While I really don't have much thoughts on this movie or Pat Tillman's service to the country, other than to say he is clearly a better man than me, I do think the Tillman Story points out a Repubocrisy that baffles me.

Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire in a war that was undermanned and without clear direction. After his death there were lies told by many high ranking officials as part of a cover up. For some reason the American military complex is put on a pedestal by the right and any critique proves how un-patriotic you are. I think the story of Pat Tillman is an example that all corners of our government has issues. I think it also illustrates how many great people serve our country at all levels. What I don't understand is how conservatives can make excuses for the corruption, the wasteful spending and devastating affects our military has on service men and women, their families and the civilians in the countries we occupy (help spread democracy to). The fact is the military is a government agency and it is no more or less corrupt, wasteful, or harmful to American citizens than any other branch of the government. As mentioned previously on this blog we should look at every government agency including defense when we try and figure out how to reduce the budget. The military does not deserve a free pass by the right any more than President Obama deserves a free pass by the left. They all work for us and they should all be held to the same standard.

I Knew This Was Probably Too Good To Be True

I think it's safe to say that the loyal readers of Furriners that don't actually exist know that we do not think highly of a certain couple rookie quarterbacks.

Here is where I have posted on Jimmy Clausen.

I posted this on Tim Tebow.

What our currently non-existent readers may not know is that we also do not think highly of Sam Bradford or Colt McCoy. And, in fact, I have previously mentioned McCoy in this blog a couple times.

So I got to say I was a little giddy when I read that McCoy was "on the bubble" for the final 53 man Browns roster. Alas, newer reports cast doubt on the previous report.

Regardless, everyone seems to agree that McCoy's career is off to an inauspicious start.

My recommendation: if the Browns need another QB, they could get Matt Leinart from the Cardinals... he would make a solid #3 QB.

By the way and for the record, Sam Bradford has not been much better. I have restrainted myself from yelling "I Called It!!" because it is, of course, WAY too early for that - but here is what Rotoworld said about Bradford a couple days ago (8/24):

If Bradford doesn't play better than he has, it will be a concern for the organization.

If I were a Rams fan, I would have been concerned the second they turned in the card to pick a System QB with the #1 overall pick.

Republicans are shooting themselves in the foot.

I keep hearing how much a landslide victory for the Republicans this November's elections will be but then I hear something like Rick Scott has been selected by the voting public in Florida as the Republican candidate.

I understand the anti-incumbent fever that is supposedly sweeping the nation, but this is not the outsider you want. This is particularly true if you care about the deficit and national debt. With Rick Scott at the helm his company paid over $1.7 billion to settle various lawsuits brought against them for Medicare fraud. Rick Scott got rich by stealing from the government and you want to put him in charge of government money? To put the irony of this in terms Republicans can get on board with imagine if Arianna Huffington in charge of Fox News.

My point is you guys have a golden opportunity to gain seats and you're blowing it. It has been almost universal that in the mid term elections for a Presidents first term his party loses seats but if you guys keep voting people like Rick Scott in you're practically putting up a white flag.

Iman Feisal Abdul Rauf

Rauf, of course, is the iman behind the Park 51 Community Center project.

And I'm certain that all Furriners readers have a competent grasp of google so this will not replace your own research should you be interested in learning about this gentleman's background. However I did want to single out a couple recent "takes" of Fareed Zakaria.

Take #1 (from 8/8)

Take #2 (from 8/22)

Also, here is a quote from John Podesta on Charlie Rose last week (~8/19):

The Iman who leads that effort was somebody that has been embraced by Republicans and Democrats. (He is someone) who Condi Rice and Karen Hughes sent on the road on behalf of the State Department as a goodwill ambassador explaining the best traditions of America. This is exactly the kind of voice that we want to hear. A voice that repudiates Al Qaeda - that is against terrorism.

Barack Obama & The Park 51 Community Center

Allow me to rant a bit:

Mitch McConnell (human/turtle hybrid?) was on Meet The Press this weekend and he said this in response to a question about the controversial community center/mosque:

Obviously, this is not about freedom of religion. Typically, these kinds of decisions have been made by local officials. What's been different about this one is that you have the President of the United States weighing in on this issue - actually on each side of the issue within 24 hours which has helped stimulate a great national debate - not about freedom of religion but about the appropriateness of the location.

Okay, so that is not THAT unreasonable (for a modern day Republican/conservative anyway). However, a couple things I will note for the record. As this article indicates, President Obama's comments were made at a Ramadan Iftar dinner on 8/13, so if that is not an appropriate venue to comment on an issue concerning Muslim-Americans, I don't know what could be. Moreover, Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich had long since taken this out of being a strictly local issue. Here is a column commenting on Palin's opposition from 7/19 and here is a column that Gingrich published on 7/28. Now, I will grant you that they are nothing but citizens with an opinion, but you must grant me that these are not ordinary citizens.

Also, I was watching an episode of Charlie Rose last week as Mr. Rose was having a conversation with John Podesta (a former Chief of Staff for Bill Clinton) and Kenneth Duberstein (a former Chief of Staff for Ronald Reagan) regarding the first year and a half of the Obama presidency. Mr. Duberstein (more on him later) - though still very much the conservative - said this:

I think what (Obama) said Friday night on religous freedom and what America stands for was absolutely appropriate... the presidency should be on the high plain of talking about principles of America... he was absolutely right to talk about that but he should have said that the placement of a mosque is a local issue by New York City and New York state.

Okay, I don't necessarily agree with the need to comment on the jurisdiction of the zoning issues... but whatever... my point is that even rational conservatives recognize that the appropriateness of the POTUS addressing this issue.

The Chicago Bears, Mike Martz and Jeff Backus

I have long held the opinion that Mike Martz's offense sets up the offensive line to fail (see below). I don't think this is a revolutionary thought but it serves to explain my point later in this article.

I predict that the Chicago Bears will rank in the top 3 in the league for most sacks allowed not because they have an awful line but because of Mike Martz's offense. I also believe that left tackle Chris Williams will be benched at some point this year because he will be blamed for a bunch of sacks that are really the fault of the system he is in. I also believe the even if Lovie Smith retains his job next year the either Mike Martz or Mike Tice will not.

This bring me to my real point. As a Detroit Lions fan I get tired of hearing every year about how we need to replace Jeff Backus. While I am a Backus supporter I think he is at best, in the middle of the pack for left tackles. Jeff Backus, however, is not the reason the Lions have been so bad over the last decade. I think he was always thought of as solid until the arrival of Mike Martz and that Martz's system ruined the perception of Backus's ability. At the end of last season Jim Schwartz indicated that Backus should have been considered for the pro bowl. Many in the media found this laughable. I dare say that Jim Schwartz has a much better idea of how Jeff Backus preformed last year than any member of the media and give that Schwartz has not shown a propensity for blowing smoke up peoples ass, I will give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. If you really want to drink the Lions Kool aid then you will believe that having Rob Sims at left guard will lead to an even better season for Jeff Backus. My guess is that Backus would actually have to make a pro bowl for people to stop ranking left tackle as the Lions top need in the off season. Do I think Backus is destined for a Pro Bowl appearance in the near future - No. Do I think he is better than most people give him credit for - Yes.

Speak For Yourself, Elijah!

Last week, Roger Clemens was indicted for perjury pertaining to what he told a House Committee in 2008 about his (non-)use of PEDs.

ESPNews kept running the same little clip over and over again with Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) saying:

No one wants to see somebody like a Roger Clemens fall but I got to say he had several members of our committee basically almost begging him not to do this. He asked for it and I think he got more than he bargained for.

It seems to me that members of congress are comically misinformed when it comes to sports and sports culture. Most famous was the late Senator Ted Kennedy's infamous introduction of "Mike McGwire and Sammy Sooser" back in 1999 (a few months after they had captivated the nation with the home run chase of 1998).

And I so I say that Roger Clemens is a fucking asshole. I think there are a LOT of people thrilled to see him "fall". This isn't Lance Armstrong. This isn't Tom Brady. Or Lolo Jones. Or 2007 Pro-Bowl QB Derek Anderson. They are beloved sports icons.

This is Roger Clemens. He is a prick. Fuck him.

Rational or Irrational?

Rational or Irrational is a game I have decided I would play based on a conversation I had yesterday with my borderline extreme conservative cousin. Below is a list of topics and the odds (in the form of a percentage) that I think they have of happening. The timetable for my estimates is "in my life time" - I have the over under at 50 right now.

- Muslims impose Sharia Law in the US - 0.0000000001%

- The Chinese control the US because of our National Debt issues - 0.00001%

- We see increased natural disasters as a result of man made CO2 - 94%

- Percentage of Americans that will believe Barack Obama is a Muslim during the next Presidential election - 22%

- Percentage of Americans that are complete morons - 22%

- Democrats grow the balls to repeal any of the Bush tax cuts - 4%

- Military spending gets a serious look for cutting our national deficit - 9%

- Another Stimulus bill gets passed - 7%

- Another Stimulus bill gets passed with no tax cuts - 0.00%

Islamic Cultural Center and Mosque or Terrorist Training camp?

I'm always amazed at how quickly people are able to forget the events of the past and how little acts of restricting one groups rights based on irrational fear, leads to a overt oppression of these groups.

Limiting the rights of Muslim Americans based solely on their religious affiliation is unconstitutional and flies in the face of the expressed goals of President George W. Bush and Republicans (at least republicans before Obama was elected). Back in a couple of 2001 speeches President Bush said the following:

I also want to speak tonight directly to Muslims throughout the world. We respect your faith. It's practiced freely by many millions of Americans, and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah. The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself. The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends; it is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them.

This is a slippery slope that Republicans (and some Democrats) are leading us down. If it is not OK to have a Islamic cultural center two blocks from an attack by Islamic extremist then how far away is OK? Why stop at the Islamic center what about Muslims who live near the twin towers site? Can Muslims visit the 9/11 attack locations?

Irrational fear of a specific group led to the Japanese internment around WWII, yet America was never attacked by Japanese on American soil. It is similarly absurd to suggest the Muslims in America want to impose Sharia Law and establish terrorist training camps.

New Yorkers defend the constitutional right to build the mosque by a 64-28 margin. Luckily for us our laws are dictated by our constitution and not political whims. If you would like to start cherry picking which groups get protection under our constitution I say good luck but I think years from now we will look back on this event and be embarrassed by our paranoia.

Last US Combat Troops leave Iraq

John McCain once said:

To promise a withdrawal of our forces from Iraq, regardless of the calamitous consequences to the Iraqi people, our most vital interests and the future of the Middle East, is the height of irresponsibility" and "a failure of leadership."

He also said:

I still say setting a date for withdrawal is chaos, genocide

Below I have listed articles and videos of the complete Armageddon that is currently taking place in Iraq because of the President sticking to his timetable.










Yes, there you have it. Republicans were right all along.

Capatalism, Socalism, Patriotism and the Top 1%

Why is it when the tax codes redistributes the wealth to the richest Americans we call it Capitalism or Patriotism but when we look at making it a level playing field it becomes Socialism?

In a report by the IRS on taxes paid in 2007 they found that the 400 best-off taxpayers (the top 10th of the top 1%) paid an average tax rate of 16.6%, which puts them just slightly above the second lowest tax rate for that year. This means according to their tax return they only made around $35,000.

To make the top 400, a taxpayer had to have income of more than $138.8 million. As a group, the top 400 reported $137.9 billion in income, and paid $22.9 billion in federal income taxes.

About 81.3% of the income of the top 400 households came in the form of capital gains, dividends or interest, the IRS data show. Only 6.5% came in the form of salaries and wages.

Good news for immigrants

In what I assume will be a land mark decision that will sweep the nation given the current immigration concerns the Michigan legislature passed a bill that will allow non-certified teachers to teach Native American language.

Finally all of the immigrants in the US can learn to speak the native language of this nation. I would like to amend this bill to include the provision that anyone who dose not learn the Native American language can leave the country. Chalk one up for America!

Guns allowed at Arts, Beats, and Eats

It has been decided by the Royal Oak City Commission that people will be aloud to carry handguns at the Arts, Beats, and Eats festival in Royal Oak Michigan. I really don't have strong opinions one way or another regarding gun rights but the question I have about this is why?

Why do people need to carry a fire arm at a festival? I have been to this event and at no point did a firefight breakout. Additionally the festival has policeman (less now of course thanks to these same gun toting yahoos how keep pushing for lower taxes which costs jobs for public servants like policemen) to intervene in case of an incident.

These people need to understand that they are not John McClane and this is not the movies. Your life is not constantly threatened and not being able to openly carry a gun into a preschool class (those kids can be mean I tell you) is not a suppression of your rights.

Health Care and Pension costs in Public Education

Recently I have heard a significant amount of discussion about how educators make too much money and benefits. While I am not a big supporter of the Unions that have worked out these deals I would argue that the members of the teachers union are some of the most highly educated union workers in the US. Many of them would get equal pay in the private sector. I also find it odd that these same people believe that a CEO who is in charge of cleaning products deserves $28 million a year.

Regardless, the point I wanted to make involves the benefits. Right now teachers have a pension fund which has a large cost. There is a push to change this to a 401K system which I think is a fine idea as long as you are willing to spend the $150 million per state that it would take to make this switch. I would also point out that this will not have the saving you might think since you have already set the bar on pay and benefits and typically those numbers won't change much.

More importantly I wanted to talk about the health care costs. The rise in health care costs is not the fault of the teachers. Last year we had the opportunity to take significant steps towards reducing the cost of health care for Americans which would have included union members like teachers. When faced with this opportunity a huge percentage of people who would like to cut public spending opposed any changes.

The irony is that if these people were better educated they would be able to see how all of these issues were connected and they would have understood the benefits to lowering health care costs. This blind distrust of government spending will have an increasingly negative impact on Americans. As the old saying goes "you get what you pay for." Smaller government means a smaller voice for you.