2006 NFL Forecast and Football Cheat Sheet

Welcome to another year of AFC domination.

As I was going through these teams, absorbing the free agency signings and draft choices one thing became clear: The AFC is a much better division. While the NFC has some very good teams, you generally see a lot of 12-4 records or 4-12 records there. The AFC has many potential juggernauts, and there are always a couple of teams that come out of nowhere to surprise you (my Dark Horse picks).

Also, Seattle didn’t lose many players and should repeat as NFC West Champions, but they could just as easily fall into the dreaded Super Bowl Loser Curse. For the last few years, the previous year’s Super Bowl loser has failed to even make the playoffs the following year. It shouldn’t happen, but would you have picked the Eagles to finish 6-10 last year?

As you can see, making these picks is like trying to guess what the price of oil will be in December. But that’s what make those office football pools so much fun.

NFC EAST

1) Washington – The NFC Beast is almost back, with three good (but not great) teams here making it tough to call a winner. Tiebreakers and unfortunate injuries will probably determine the winner. I’m going to go with Washington just over the Giants, because of Washington’s truly scary defense and a smart guy like Joe Gibbs running the show. Unfortunately, Washington has an unsettled QB situation and RB Clinton Portis’ shoulder is iffy. I hate Daniel Snyder as much as the next guy, but if the QB works out, the Skins can do it.

2) NY Giants – Wild Card Team. Solid team, but too many question marks. Will Eli Manning play the way he did in the first half or second half? Will Plaxico Burress stop dropping passes and give Tiki Barber a break? Will the secondary pick off a pass once in a while? The Giants do have a great pass rush that will keep them over .500, and if some of those questions are answered they shouldn’t miss the playoffs.

3) Dallas – Wild Card Team. Lots of people are picking Dallas as their NFC Super Bowl rep this year. I don’t buy it. Terrell Owens is a nitwit, Drew Bledsoe is iffy and RB Julius Jones is not at the same level as Portis and Barber. The defense is good, but you gotta move the ball too.

4) Philadelphia – No offensive improvement and the defense is two years older. I’m two years older as well, but I don’t have to go past a wall of 300 pounders to sack a QB for a living.

NFC NORTH

1) Chicago – Not a great team, but if you were in the same division as Detroit and Green Bay you wouldn’t have to do much to win either. Lovie Boy has a nasty defensive team and a putrid offense that is so inept Brian Griese won the QB battle.

2) Minnesota – New owner. Check. New coach (Brad Childress). Uh, OK, check. New RB (Chester Taylor?!). Uh….check, I guess. New quarterback (Brad Johnson). Check please!

3) Detroit – All hail Matt Millen, HERO OF THE STUPID. Even President Bush laughs at Millen’s idiocy and incompetence. Millen, who lost 38 more games than he’s won since becoming GM, also has a new coach, quarterback and offensive coordinator. Unfortunately a fish rots from the head. Detroit and Millen’s sub-.500 lifetime winning percentage is safe for another year.

4) Green Bay – About the time he’s been sacked for the umpteenth time around Week 10, Brett Farve will say, “You know, Jerome Bettis sure looks comfortable on that sideline.”

NFC SOUTH

1) Carolina – Last year I predicted the Panthers would go to the Super Bowl, and they made it to the NFC Championship. They better go this year since I don’t want to look dumb again. The Panthers’ only problem was their running game, which seems to be fixed with DeShaun Foster staying healthy and top draft choice DeAngelo Williams. And how cool is John Fox?

2) Tampa Bay – I don’t know. I want to like Chris Simms since I was such a big fan of his dad, but I only see the Bucs as a .500 team. There’s some good young offense with Cadillac Williams and Joey Galloway, but the defense is almost unchanged since the Super Bowl, when the entire defensive line was older than me.

3) Atlanta – The Falcons defense is OK and they had some good offseason signings. But Vick is the Josh Beckett of the NFL – too impatient and quick to run before checking his receivers. I see another .500 season.

4) New Orleans – At least this year the Saints will play a few games at home. They are still not a good team, but Drew Brees and Reggie Bush will get them up to five or six wins.

NFC WEST

1) Seattle – The Super Bowl loser curse notwithstanding, Seattle should still win their division for the same reason the Panthers and Bears should win theirs – most of the other teams suck. On paper they look good, but I don’t envision another Super Bowl appearance against Carolina or the NFC East winner. The Seahawks just seem too, I don’t know – finesse? Maybe it’s the matching pants and jerseys.

2) Arizona – My NFC dark horse team. Getting to .500 would be cause for celebration in the desert. Last year the Cardinals were weird – they had a top 10 offense and defense but finished 5-11. The good parts – a great field goal kicker in Neil Rackers, two great wideouts in Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin and killer defense with Bert Berry and Chike Okeafor – returns. This year, Arizona also signed Edgerrin James from the Colts and has a new stadium. QB Kurt Warner is a question mark, but USC’s Matt Lienart is on the bench.

3) St. Louis – Not having a defense will catch up to you when Mike Martz leaves. QB Marc Bulger and RB Steve Jackson are good, but no names on D will doom the Rams.

4) San Francisco – One year, all these high draft choices will pay off. Unless Matt Millen comes back.

AFC EAST

1) New England – The weakest Patriots team in five years benefits from the weakest AFC division, just like last year. This year, Tom Brady returns with no Adam Vinatieri, no Willie McGinest, no David Givens (actually, nobody at all at WR) and no Ted Johnson. On the plus side, Rodney Harrison and the entire secondary are finally healthy, new RB Laurence Maroney looks good, and when you play Buffalo and the Jets twice each year you already have four wins.

2) Miami – Wild Card Team and my AFC dark horse team. Did you notice that Miami went 2-14 in 2004, and won its last six games last year to finish 9-7? This year a healthy Daunte Culpepper is leading the Dolphins and they don’t have to deal with that basehead Ricky Williams anymore.

3) Buffalo – I can’t get excited about a team that has named J.P. Losman as their starting QB. Willis McGahee will probably wear out faster than any other RB in football.

4) NY Jets – Bleah. All the Jets good defensive players left in free agency, former coach Herman Edwards served them, and Curtis Martin is out for the first half of the year. QB Chad Pennington has talent, but goes out for a month if he has a paper cut.

AFC NORTH

1) Pittsburgh – The champs return with most of the team intact, although Ben Roethlisberger proved he’s not as bright off the field. If he finds his helmet and stays healthy the Steelers should repeat. Fast Willie Parker can fill the Bus’ parking spot.

2) Cincinnati – Wild Card Team. I love what Marvin Lewis has done in Cincinnati, but now the roster reads like America’s Most Wanted. They should be OK if their good players stay out of jail and Carson Palmer’s knee is OK. The Bengals also must do much better on defense.

3) Baltimore – Not a bad team, but not a great one. Sounds like .500 to me. Does Ray Lewis scare anyone anymore? Will RB Jamal Lewis ever have another good year? Can Steve “Air” McNair do his magic again? Too many questions.

4) Cleveland – The Browns can’t catch a break (oops!) with their number one draft choices. They can’t settle on a QB either (the immortal Charlie Frye will start) and LeCharles Bentley, their top offensive free agent signing, went down for the season in minicamp. The defense is OK, but this is a tough division for a rebuilding team.

AFC SOUTH

1) Indianapolis – I seem to be the only one worried about the Colts’ running game. Substituting Dominic Rhodes and Joseph Addai for Edgerrin James is not a lock. The Colts defense is finally solid and Peyton Manning is still great, although he’s worse than Dan Marino at winning the big one – so far. I feel like the Colts think they deserve to win the Super Bowl, but to quote Clint Eastwood, deserve’s got nothing to do with it.

2) Jacksonville – Wild Card Team. Last year I picked Jacksonville as my Dark Horse and they surprised lots of teams by going 12-4. This year they’re still good but teams are ready for them. The Jaguars’ D is frighteningly good. If QB Byron Leftwich can move the ball a bit more and RB Fred Taylor keeps pounding, the Jaguars will go far.

3) Tennessee – Still rebuilding, especially at QB. McNair left, so backup Billy Volek was named the starter. He sucked so bad in minicamp that Kerry Collins was brought it, and Texas’ Vince Young sits on the bench, waiting. But with too many defensive holes and nobody for whoever the QB is to throw to, Vince may start sooner than he expects. Just be careful what you wish for.

4) Texas – Three wins would be an improvement over last year. Houston has no RB (after they passed on Reggie Bush) and an offensive line that has led the league in sacks allowed since the team started.

AFC WEST

1) Denver – The Broncos feature their best defense in years, but the X factor is the offense. Last year QB Jake the Fake Plummer finally learned he had to throw to the guys on his own team, and Denver went 13-3. Then in the playoffs he remembered he sucked and the Steelers smacked him all over the field. RB Mike Anderson is gone, and two guys named Bell are replacing him. Thousand-yard rushers appear to grow on trees in the Rockies, but Plummer’s consistency is the test.

2) San Diego – Lots of people have ripped the Chargers a new one for letting Drew Brees go. It was a stupid move, but if Philip Rivers does OK the Chargers could go over .500. LaDanian Tomlinson is the best RB in football and the defense is tight. Of course if Rivers blows, then they’re chumps.

3) Kansas City – Herman Edwards is a good guy with a big problem. For about 10 years, the Chiefs have had the best offense in football and have made the playoffs once. Perhaps the problem could be on the DEFENSE? What was done to improve the defense in the offseason? Oh, nothing? Then let’s move on.

4) Oakland – Now I’m not saying Kerry Collins is the best quarterback, but why would you replace him with Aaron Brooks, whose mistakes led the Saints to three wins last year? Remember Warren Sapp? He’s starting on the Raiders. Enough said.

The Very Busy Blogger Returns

Hi, remember me?

It’s funny how having a full-time job, being a full-time father of two wonderful yet demanding children, working on your house and going to graduate school part time can eat away at one’s blogging schedule. I knew when I started I was going to do this part time, but I have certainly been guilty by absence.

I like writing the long essays and editorials posted here, but writing them takes a while and I don’t have the time to write these long features anymore. So I’m going to take a page from the Daily Koses and Instapundits of the world and go for shorter, and more frequent, updates.

There’s lots going on right now from national elections to a bizarre looking gubernatorial race here in Massachusetts. I don’t normally follow celebrity news, but I have become fascinated with the Britney Spears/Kevin Federline dance of the nitwits, and want to write something on that once I figure out which one is the brain behind that relationship. Click here to see these fascinating minds at work.

So I’ll post my football thoughts tomorrow, and more frequent updates in the future. I promise.

Energy Blues, Part I

Watching Democrats and Republicans alike grapple with $3-$4 a gallon gas is like watching “Dumb and Dumber” and “Groundhog Day” back to back. It’s tough for anyone with half a brain to slog through the half-assed pandering, partisan finger pointing and quick-fix remedies that the geniuses in Washington are offering to people that are paying $50 or more to fill up their car for the unforeseeable future. But hey, there’s no IQ test to run for public office, right?

Here’s some of our more dimwitted politicians showing their fascinating minds at work:
· "Since George Bush and Dick Cheney took over as president and vice president, gas prices have doubled!" charged Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), standing at an Exxon station on Capitol Hill where regular unleaded hit $3.10. "They are too cozy with the oil industry."
· "Energy independence is our Democratic vision and our goal, and we intend to achieve it within 10 years," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi stated.
· Senator Majority Leader Bill Frist said, “The Republican plan will help people who are emptying their wallets at the pump with a $100 rebate check … but we’ll do it the right way.”

The goofball $100 rebate is thankfully dead, but the remaining bad ideas, quick fix ideas and Congressmen are still around. The sound bites are to be expected, but basic supply and demand economics – for everything from oil to beer and diamonds – is pretty much out of Congress’ control. I’ll fill the tank of the first elected official who honestly admits, “What can we do to lower gas prices? Basically nothing.”

Thank goodness for smart guys like Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post, who conveniently pointed out this simple fact that anyone who has taken Economics 101 can figure out. The easy answer is not to blame President Bush, ExxonMobil or gougers at the pump, but to simply look at ourselves and repeat: Supply and Demand.

First, let’s look at demand. We demand more energy than ever for our gas-guzzling SUVs and minivans, our myriad of electrical appliances, air conditioners for our homes and offices, planes to get us everywhere and…well, you get the idea. Americans used to be alone in their titanic demands for oil and fossil fuels, but we are now joined by growing populations and economies in emerging giants like China and India, the two most populous nations on earth. Ten years ago when gas was about $1.25 a gallon, nobody in those countries even had a toaster oven. Now emerging middle classes there want just as many cars, refrigerators and electric dryers as we do.

Now, the supply issue. As we know, most of our oil comes from countries that are extremely unscrupulous, if not outright hostile, to American and Western interests. The first is our so-called phony “ally” Saudi Arabia, who continues to fund anti-Western and anti-Israeli madrasas that teach terrorism. Iran is an unapologetic terrorist state that wants nuclear weapons and has a radical president that wants to wipe Israel off the map. Nigeria is in the midst of a civil war with rebels blowing up pipelines. Venezuela has a leftist president who is nationalizing its oil industry and hates America. Iraq is in shambles thanks to a non-existent Marshall Plan. Think all of this would have an effect on oil prices? Congress apparently doesn’t.

Environmental mandates, while necessary, also contribute to the rising price of oil. The 2005 Energy Policy Act, besides being laden with tax breaks for large oil companies, also included some environmental caveats. One of these was stating that more ethanol (MBTE) must be integrated into gas this year to make it cleaner burning and more environmentally friendly. Sounds good, and it is good. Unfortunately, it also mandated that it must be American-made ethanol, which – thanks to subsidies – is some of the most expensive ethanol available. The transition was so sudden it has contributed to short-term gas shortages and higher prices across the board.

If you look back over the last 40 years, every gas price hike was followed by typical partisan posturing, finger-pointing, price gouging investigations and howls of execration at oil companies who are recording high profits (Note to Barbara Boxer: If the price of my commodity tripled over five years, I would have record profits too). But supply and demand explains everything quite simply.

Here’s some information from April 27’s Washington Post, that sums up the problem in a nutshell. After a Congressional press conference to discuss how Washington would knock down gas prices, the Senators went back to their offices:

Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) hopped in a GMC Yukon (14 mpg). Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) climbed aboard a Nissan Pathfinder (15). Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) stepped into an eight-cylinder Ford Explorer (14). Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) disappeared into a Lincoln Town Car (17). Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) met up with an idling Chrysler minivan (18).
Next came Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), greeted by a Ford Explorer XLT. On the Senate floor Tuesday, Menendez had complained that Bush "remains opposed to higher fuel-efficiency standards."

As for Barbara Boxer, after her photo opp denouncing big oil for causing the problem, she got into her Chrysler LHS (18 mpg) which drove her back to her Senate office – one block away.

More Info:

50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth: 16 years old and more important than ever.

Stacking the Supreme Court Ain't Easy

Many partisans are either aghast or ecstatic that John Roberts and Samuel Alito have become the newest Supreme Court justices. Both men come with thin paper trails but conservative ideologies, and interest groups are calling this either manna from heaven or Armageddon, depending on whatever side you’re on.

The two justices represent more than two new faces. They represent the president’s efforts to remake the Supreme Court in his image and install at least two justices who meet with his views on how ideological justice is meted out in America. In fact, every president who makes a Supreme Court appointment tries to do the exact same thing.

What these presidents end up realizing is that picking the right judge that will perfectly meet their expectations is like picking the right person to be your spouse. You always think you’ve made the perfect choice, and sometimes you have, but you never know what someone will really be like five years down the road. Times change and people change, and what you thought was gospel five years ago you now regard as immaturity, if not outright idiocy. And just as big events like marriage, a new job and a new child make you see things differently, I would imagine being named one of the nine most powerful people in the government with a job for life gives Mr. Roberts and Mr. Alito a perspective that I can only imagine.

And that’s the main reason why handpicking justices is not like shooting judicial fish in a barrel. Many presidents have suddenly found that their perfect judicial soulmate either doesn’t have the ideology they expected or underwent an uncharacteristic change of heart upon assuming the bench. That’s why partisans shouldn’t be passing out champagne or hemlock with our new Supreme Court makeup. The Court’s decisions are maddeningly arbitrary depending on the strength of lawyers arguing the case and the legal merits and parameters of the case itself, all viewed by nine people who have disparate views of the Constitution.

Here’s a roundup of some twentieth century Supreme Court justices that came in with apparently rock-solid credentials and ideologies. Each President who selected them did so because they wanted to extend their respective beliefs and governing style to the Judiciary long after they were gone from office. Each President was extremely surprised and probably very unhappy with the way things turned out.

David Souter
Appointed By: George H.W. Bush
Track Record: Souter was one of the most recent “stealth” nominees who got the nomination because he didn’t have a paper trail or reputation. Smarting from the Robert Bork rejection, Republicans believed Souter was a solid conservative who would fly in under the radar.
Surprise!: A New Hampshire native, Souter was a Republican but actually retained the socially libertarian, independent streak typical to Northeastern Republicans. On abortion and the government’s right to seize private property, he has been giving Republican partisans angina since joining the Court.

Harry Blackmun
Appointed by: Richard Nixon
Track Record: A lifelong Republican and a background in tax-related cases helped Nixon after two previous nominees (Haynsworth and Carswell) fell through. He was also Chief Justice’s Warren Burger’s best friend and the two were called the “Minnesota Twins” because of their background and similar voting record.
Surprise!: Blackmun wrote the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade and became one of the court’s foremost liberals, championing gay rights, affirmative action and an anti-death penalty spokesman. By the end of his tenure, Burger was no longer speaking with the Twin who was best man at his wedding.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Appointed by: Theodore Roosevelt
Track Record: His father was a famous poet, and Holmes was one of the first judges to recognize the rights of trade unions and workers, and was known for balancing property rights with majority rule.
Surprise!: Holmes steadily relied on morality over due process, and endorsed sterilizing retarded adults with his words, “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” He was extremely disparaging to lower class and minorities, and voted to weaken the Sherman Antitrust Act. Trustbusting Teddy was probably not amused.

Felix Frankfurter
Appointed by: Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Track Record: Founded the ACLU, tried to save Sacco and Vanzetti and one of America’s first Zionists. Also one of FDR’s closest advisors.
Surprise!: Frankfurter became the poster boy for judicial restraint, repeatedly voting against decisions that would limit the authority of the executive and legislative branches of government. Except for ending segregation, he repeatedly was in the minority on many of the progressive Warren court votes. He retired in 1962, unfortunately ruining the possibility of a Frankfurter/Burger Court.

Hugo Black
Appointed by: Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Track Record: Former KKK member who had never been a judge. Enough said?
Surprise!: The biggest surprise of all. Black served 34 years on the Supreme Court and became one of its most erudite members and intellectual powerhouses. Wrote majority opinions that championed civil rights and civil liberties, wrote eloquent decisions that denounced McCarthyism and his views on free speech and due process became court dogma, and are still practiced today.

More information:

FDR’s Court Packing: No president was more blatant about stacking the Supreme Court than FDR. After the Court threw out much of his New Deal legislation in his first term, FDR called the institution “Nine old men waiting to die.” He introduced a bill that would allow him to appoint a new justice for each sitting justice that was over 70 (six of them at the time). The Democratic Party, including Roosevelt’s VP, attacked it as an abuse of presidential authority, and the bill went nowhere. But the older justices started retiring, and by the end of his tenure, FDR had appointed eight associate justices and one chief justice.

The Dummies at Harvard

Last year, I ranted my politically incorrect thoughts about the problems now-outgoing Harvard President Larry Summers was having. The elevator pitch was that Summers had been unfairly excoriated for suggesting the reason women are underrepresented in scientific circles is because there may be genetic differences between men and women. The PC Mafia seized upon this statement to force an unnecessary apology from Summers, and the arts and science faculty (a very small minority at Harvard, given the plethora of colleges, students, alumni and staff) issued a non-binding no confidence vote.

Now that this saga has come to a regrettable conclusion, the PC Mafia is glowing in their successful revolution, completely ignorant to how this situation has tarnished the reputation of the university they think they run. If Summers is guilty of anything besides a brusque manner and some ill-advised public commentary (which is backed up by scientific fact), it is acquiescing to the wishes of a minority that has somehow dictated the behavioral rules and political attitudes that are acceptable in ZIP Code 02138.

It was irrelevant to this group that Summers was an extremely smart, financially astute and well-connected Democrat who was Clinton’s Treasury Secretary. It is unimportant that he was committed to growing Harvard’s already-elephantine endowment, making the university a center for stem cell research, expanding operations across the Charles River into Allston and reinvigorating the science department, which has seen prestigious professors leave for other institutions during the last 10 years. All that mattered to this group was that Summers had made public comments that did not adhere to their ultra-liberal views on religion, race, sex and the government.

Summers’ problems actually started in 2002. This same group of faculty, along with a similar minority of students, was repeatedly calling on Harvard to divest from Israel because of its treatment of Palestinians. I have long felt an undercurrent of anti-Semitism from liberals who call for such action, and Summers, who is Jewish, said such talk was “Anti-Semitic in its effect, if not its intent.” You can decide for yourself if that is accurate, but to the PC Mafia it was a call to arms, and the war began.

Another problem arose with Cornell West, one of Harvard’s noted African Studies professors. I read West’s excellent book Race Matters just after college, and it should be required reading for anyone studying social sciences. But that was over a decade ago, and West was getting more recent notoriety for appearing on hip hop albums, acting in The Matrix Reloaded and publicly supporting vapid charlatan Al Sharpton’s presidential campaign. Summers said that West should put more effort into academic endeavors instead of rapping and acting. But the bogus racism cries began and West left for Princeton in a huff. And the subsequent talk of gender in scientific studies and the problems installing a new Arts and Science Dean have been well documented.

It would be one thing if Summers had misappropriated funds or Harvard had begun a slide toward mediocrity in one or more of its schools. It also would be noteworthy if more than one college of Harvard’s faculty expressed no confidence in Summers, or alumni spending was drying up due to his actions, or applications were going down because of the struggle. But none of these were true. The entire situation emanated because Summers had offended the PC Mafia’s sensibilities and it’s ultra-liberal ideology – and woe to the Democrat who does not completely toe the ultra-liberal line in 02138.

The original concept of a university is not just a place of higher learning – it is supposed to be an open exchange of ideas, inquiry and debate. Sadly, this is not always the case in many corners of academia. Diversity cannot be limited to matters like race and gender; it must also include ideology and freedom of expression. Ralph Waldo Emerson expressed this at Harvard in “The American Scholar” in 1837, and Emerson would surely shudder at the lack of academic speech and freedom at the university today. If a university allows a single, radical group from any ideology mandate the terms of debate it will undermine the very tenets it requires to be an independent center of higher learning.

So while the PC Mafia chortles, it can dwell on the following: Harvard has a vacancy at the presidency. It also has deans who are leaving or have left from the business, education and engineering schools – some of these were announced before Summers’ resignation and some have been recent announcements; we may never know if they left as a result of the fiasco. Harvard’s CFO has also given notice, and a member of the university’s governing board left shortly after Summers gave notice. Pretend you are looking for a deanship or higher position in academia, bring great leadership and fundraising skills to the table, but your political views are not 100% in line with the contingent that ousted Summers. Would you apply there?

More information:

A Defense of Larry Summers by Former Boston University President John Silber: If you haven’t heard of John Silber, he is basically the Rudy Guiliani of academia. On one hand, he took a mediocre university awash in red ink in 1971 and turned it into a powerful and esteemed institution that now has several excellent colleges and a large endowment. On the other hand, his people skills were horrific and he also experienced no-confidence votes from the faculty. An interesting read from someone with a good perspective.

A roundup of opinion pieces by the Harvard Crimson: Get ready to be surprised.

Nuthin' Funny About These Cartoons

Hundreds of thousands of Muslims are taking to the streets in protest. What are they so mad about? How fanatics have usurped their great religion and unfairly demonized them to the West? That terrorists murder innocent civilians and children in Baghdad, Chechnya, Afghanistan and across the Middle East in the name of Allah? That their governments permit them almost no freedom of speech, freedom of the press or even the right to choose their own leaders?

No. The widespread protests, which have resulted in arson, murder and vandalism are over a cartoon that defames the prophet Muhammad. You probably haven’t seen the cartoon (you can see it here), and it’s quite obvious very few of the protesting Islamic radicals have seen it either. The cartoon is obviously in poor taste, but nothing compared with what President Bush and other political figures get on a daily basis in editorial cartoons and in print around the world.

Many of these protests are whipped up by authoritarian regimes in Iran, Syria and other Arabic despot states to detract their citizens from their own failures. But even with that in mind, the fanaticism and intolerance shown by these protests illustrates a troubling ethical and judgmental divide that the West should heed. Nobody protests an unarmed reporter being murdered or beheaded, or a group of Chechen rebels killing schoolchildren. But if a cartoon unbecoming to Muhammad is buried in a small paper in a small Western country? Look out!

You may remember a few years ago, an artist made a picture of the Virgin Mary partially composed of elephant dung. And the famous photographer Andres Serrano had a work of art called “Piss Christ” of a crucifix in a bottle of urine. It’s your call on whether these were part of the American freedom of expression or an offense to Christianity. There were protests and outcries, but nothing that approached what we’re seeing in the radical Muslim community. And other religions from Judaism to Buddhism have been the recipient of some truly heinous words and artwork through the centuries, yet did not respond with the violent and intolerant. In fact, many Muslim countries routinely run cartoons or editorials calling for the extermination of Jews and the destruction of Israel. Yet you don’t see Jews, Israelis or even Germans burning flags, destroying embassies or threatening Muslim lives in response.

Another thing is equally troubling; the self-censorship of many American and European media outlets in response to this virulent double standard. They are refusing to run these rather tame cartoons. A French paper even fired its editor after he chose to run them. If anything, every newspaper and television news source should show the cartoon to demonstrate its commitment to freedom of expression and refusal to kowtow to the demands of Muslim extremists, whose so-called “protests” are just a cover for their prejudice and justification for jihad.

Fight or Flight?

I really didn’t want to talk about Iraq since there are several thousand blogs talking about that topic, but there’s been a lot of partisan sniping flying around with people being called unpatriotic, chicken hawks, warmongers, Nazis, etc., and those are the polite words. I rose above this name calling when I was about 9 and it’s dispiriting to the troops with their lives on the line to hear this. When debate is framed around schoolyard insults, it’s no wonder people tune into Entertainment Tonight for some erudite discussions.

It’s a shame because buried beneath the finger pointing is a good general debate about what should happen next. I’ve previously stated here that I strongly supported the war in Iraq and still do because our goals there are so important to the Middle East and spreading democracy is the best way to end terrorism. But I also understand why so many people in and out of Congress think it’s time to bring the troops home, because Iraq has degenerated into a completely avoidable quagmire that could have been prevented with a Marshall-type plan. That nobody in the administration anticipated the anarchy that would arise if Iraq fell symbolizes the incompetence of so many at the highest levels of our government. The current debate demonstrates democracy in action – talk that would get many of the war’s dissenters beaten or murdered under Saddam Hussein and many Arab governments.

The other irony about our discussion is that every side is almost correct in their assertions. Anti-war demonstrators are correct in stating our presence is helping to fuel the insurgency, that prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib have undermined the moral mission of ousting a dictator and the reasons for going to war look at best deceptive and at worst dishonest. Pro-war demonstrators are correct in stating U.S. troops are all that is keeping Iraq from becoming a full-blown civil war of Yugoslavian proportions, Iraq has undergone two successful elections and now has a civilian government and measuring success should be done not by how quickly we get out, but by how quickly we can help build a functional Iraq.

It’s tempting to throw in the towel when terrorists murder innocent Iraqis and U.S. troops alike because everyone to Bush and Rumsfeld on down bungled the whole post-war rebuilding process so badly. But as the sign in the stores say, “You Break It, You Bought It.” We broke Iraq and it is now our job to fix it. That is why, with all due sympathy and respect to the get-out-now-and- bring-them-home crowd, it is important to stay until the job is done and Iraq can defend itself. This thought has been correctly discussed by the more even-tempered and open-minded Republicans, including John McCain and Condoleeza Rice, and by most of the generals and soldiers who are actually in Iraq and know best.

As a PR flack, I think it’s unconscionable that the President and the Pentagon are not giving more information on where things are going well in Iraq and where they are not going well. They’re spending too much time on partisan name-calling and labeling anyone who disagrees with them unpatriotic and cowardly. The President is not losing his popularity battle in Iraq – he is losing it here at home because he has not sold Iraq to the American people, let alone to foreign nations. Where are the war heroes we can cheer on? Where are the visits to injured soldiers, which Rep. Murtha does every week? Why do we need to seek out obscure blogs and third-party web sites to find any trace of progress?

I’ll post some further ideas on that last paragraph soon.


An Opposing View from a Columnist I Greatly Respect

What's Wrong with the Republicans

These should be salad days for the Republicans. They control all three branches of the government, have 28 state governors and a majority of the state legislatures. They have gerrymandered Congressional districts to make their incumbents almost invulnerable, and the bulk of the social issues they espoused in the last elections, particularly opposition to gay marriage, passed with wide margins.

Why then, does this increasingly feel like a party under siege?

Decades need to pass before we can properly assess how presidents and their parties have changed our country. But if the 2004 elections represented the height of Republican power, it also signals a finale. There are too many cracks in the foundation, and Bush’s second term is succumbing to what many called “second-term-itis,” marked by the scandals and infighting that have always plagued second-term presidents.

A fish rots from the head, and the president is partly to blame for not keeping his house in order. Originally elected on a platform of compassionate conservatism, Bush’s tenure has been marked by the largest increase in government spending and fiscal unrestraint this side of The Great Society. Government is bigger than ever. Republicans are wasting more money than Paris Hilton at Neiman Marcus, with bills so laden with special interest perks and pork you can smell the methane here in Boston. The massive governmental growth and unchecked spending, combined with tax cuts and a war in Iraq costing millions each day, has brought our budget deficit to new heights. We are also billions of dollars in debt, mainly to China, who will one day stop buying our bonds and move on to a stronger currency if things don’t stop. The GOP can no longer realistically position itself as the party of fiscal restraint and smaller government. The current administration has completely squashed that notion.

Bush would never have been elected and re-elected without massive support from the evangelical community, and he certainly owes them his support. What is alarming is how they appear to be hijacking the center of the party and not only pushing it farther to the right, but dancing on the edge of the church/state abyss. There have been alarming messages of intolerance and bigotry sent by the Republicans on homosexuals and ignorance disseminated by the ridiculous “intelligent design” theory vs. evolution. American schools do a bad enough job teaching biology and science as is. I find it very difficult to believe that someone as educated and erudite as President Bush truly believes that intelligent design (remember when it was fobbed off as creationism?) should trump evolution as a school standard. There is also no way a medical doctor like Bill Frist could have diagnosed Terry Schiavo and said the evangelicals’ medical assessment was correct (he was wrong). Both are obviously pandering to this wing of the party.

The recent fiasco over Harriet Miers illustrates how GOP infighting is drawing to a head. Evangelicals, dead-set on overturning the abortion issue, attacked Miers for not being conservative enough. Miers was obviously not the most qualified or brightest candidate for the job, but when religious groups have more sway over a nominee than the Senate, it’s a good sign that your party is too beholden to outside influence.

With the president’s low popularity, you can see how the GOP is beginning to splinter. Fiscal conservatives are now demanding action on spending. Moderates are spending more time with Democrats. Republican Congressmen and Senators up for re-election next year are tracking the polls and are strategically shifting their policies away from an increasingly unpopular war and president.

So what will happen to the Republicans in 2006 and 2008? Of course, it’s too early to tell. But the party’s leadership is losing too much Independent voter support on wedge issues like abortion, stem cell research and gay marriage by kowtowing to the religious right wing of the party, which is likely a minority of the overall party but overabundant in the party’s leadership.

But don’t forget what I mentioned first – the Republicans are in full control, and you don’t get that way by making mistakes. Republican congressmen and women are ensconced by redistricting, and won’t lose many seats (if any). And the Party is smart enough to sense that if the President is poison and seen as beholden to a radical fringe, the party can easily nominate a centrist candidate like John McCain and Rudy Guiliani who will appeal to those Independents and swing voters like me who decide elections. Frankly, I think the Party is now so far to the right that it has no choice but to steer back toward the middle to get votes it needs. The whole idea is so crazy it just might work.

Come back in the next week or two when I tear the Democrats a new one!

The Deserted Canyon of Heroes

Whenever I’m in New York on business, I always have a late afternoon meeting at One State Street Plaza, which is practically the southernmost building in Manhattan (you can catch the Staten Island Ferry across the street). When I’m done and bid my colleagues goodbye, I walk north up the very beginning of Broadway, where the charging bull statue sits poised to charge, divert west to pay my respects at Ground Zero and then return to Broadway.

This southern end of Broadway up to City Hall Plaza is known as the Canyon of Heroes, and is where the legendary ticker tape parades began when the city wanted to honor those who were deemed worthy of the city’s ultimate affection. If you walk up Broadway from here, there are plaques in the sidewalk that note the date of the earliest parades and who they honored. The first parade was in 1889 in honor of the 100th anniversary of George Washington’s inauguration. Parades occurred regularly from 1919 (General Pershing, King Albert of Belgium and Edward Albert, Prince of Wales) through the twenties, thirties, forties, fifties and sixties.

What’s remarkable in this period, besides the sheer number of parades held each year, is who the city honored. The vast majority of recipients were foreign leaders and war heroes. Reading them is a who’s who of 20th century foreign and U.S. military history. In no particular order, New York honored everyone from legends like Winston Churchill to leaders of disparate countries like France, Italy, Romania, Korea, Pakistan, Turkey, Chile, Liberia, Indonesia and even Ethiopia, where Rastafarian demigod Haile Selassie received TWO parades in different decades. Even dictators (albeit U.S. allies) like the Shah of Iran and South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem were honored with parades. Did every foreign leader who visited New York receive a parade? I don’t know, but think of the pride they must have felt, and the impression they took home of America, after everyday New Yorkers showered them with ticker tape and affection.

Military heroes also received kudos. Following World War II, Eisenhower, Nimitz, Halsey, Clark and other top generals and admirals were honored. Extraordinary heroes like astronauts and icons like Amelia Earhart, Pope John Paul II, Howard Hughes and Nelson Mandela received parades. And of course veterans and athletes have been honored as well.

The odd thing is when you get to the 1970s, the parade lineup changes. First, while the fifties and sixties featured dozens of ticker tape parades, the 1970s feature just two. The 1980s had four, the 1990s had nine, and the last parade happened on October 30, 2000, to honor the New York Yankees’ World Series championship. And the honoree also changes – since the 1970s, parade recipients have overwhelmingly been athletes. There are some exceptions – John Glenn, Mandela, the Pope – but New York also seems to have deemed foreign leaders unworthy of parades after President Chung Hee Park of South Korea in 1965.

I can speculate on several reasons for this change. Even before 9/11, the security, sanitation and logistical costs to stage these parades impacted their frequency. New York almost went bankrupt in the 1970s and could barely afford to pay its employees, let alone eat the cost of a parade. And there are plenty of other parades in Manhattan and the other boroughs for almost every race, ethnic group and sexual nature. These parades also tie up traffic and parking for miles, and can be a real pain if you want to cross Fifth Avenue without going miles out of your way. And one minor point – ticker tape doesn’t exist anymore with the advent of technology, but the name “ticker tape parade” has stuck.

But instead of spending resources on the April Fool’s Day Parade or the Brazilian Independence Day Parade, I think the city should get back to honoring real heroes. And don’t limit heroes to local sports teams – that sends the wrong impression that only athletes are worthy of great admiration and accolades. More than ever today, people need to appreciate the unsung heroes around us and kids can learn you don’t have to be an athlete to be considered great. Here are my recommendations for people who are worthy of a ticker tape parade today:

· The New York Fire Department – Heroes not just of 9/11, but every day.
· The New York Police Department – Ditto
· Tony Blair, Prime Minister of Great Britain – Our greatest friend and ally and a true world leader. This would be a nice throwback to the old days of honoring foreign leaders who have assisted us.
· Rudolph Giuliani – One of the greatest mayors not just of New York, but anywhere. Imagine where New York would be today if he was not there to lead the city’s 90s renaissance, and help it through its darkest day. His legend will grow in time.
· The Human Genome Project Architects – A slew of U.S. and international scientists who have identified every gene in human DNA, which has the potential to revolutionize the medical, scientific and social science worlds for decades.

More information:

Chronological List of New York's Ticker Tape Parades

Ranking the Baseball Re$ult$

On Opening Day I made my fearless baseball predictions. Click on the link to see how I did. Unlike the stock pundits who tell you to put your life savings in established companies like Pfizer and Worldcom, and the tabloid psychics who predict Britney Spears' marriage will last forever, I actually check back to see how smart I am (or was).

I also pontificated the day earlier that a baseball team's chance of success was directly linked to how much money they have. Now when it comes to business and issues like world trade, capitalism rules. But in sports a team with either cheap owners or zero new revenue streams is screwed. I don't want to repeat myself (click on the link to see my rant again) but I said if your favorite team has a small payroll you shouldn't waste adrenalin worrying because there is no way they will ever win their division, let alone pass .500.

I was questioned on that strategy by some people in my work and leisure life who are too lazy to post a comment on the blog, so let's see how my payroll theory worked out.

TOP AMERICAN LEAGUE PAYROLLS

1) NY Yankees -- Won AL East
2) Boston Red Sox -- Won AL Wild Card
3) Anaheim/LA Angels -- Won AL West
4) Seattle Mariners -- Last place, AL West
5) Chicago White Sox -- Won AL Central

The low-salaried and hyped Cleveland Indians and Oakland A's were good teams but didn't make the post-season, proving the Moneyball approach still doesn't work.

TOP NATIONAL LEAGUE PAYROLLS

1) NY Mets -- Third place, NL East
2) LA Dodgers -- Fourth place, NL West
3) Philadelphia Phillies -- Second Place, NL East
4) Atlanta Braves -- Won NL East
5) Chicago Cubs -- Fourth Place, NL Central

Interesting! However, there are a glut of teams in the $80-$100 million range. The winners, all close behind the top five, were the Cardinals ($83 million, sixth place); the Astros ($75 million, seventh place) and the Padres (the fluke this year at a puny $55 million). The NL West was pretty much a wash with nobody wanting to win. Also, the NL East also has the most teams in the top of the payroll ladder than any other baseball division, and all of those teams obviously can't make the playoffs. I'm not using that as an excuse, but it's worth noting.

The NHL learned the hard way what happens without parity and a salary cap. One day baseball will too. I'm going to hold my breath until Bud Selig and Don Fehr figure it out.

There, I'm done.

More Info:

Baseball Prospectus on the salary cap and Why there's no middle class in baseball

Why People Can't Trust the Media

Public perception of the press tends to rise following terrible events like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, and subsequently plummets back to its typical nadir somewhere between Al Qaeda and child molesters. Big events make the public understand the importance and necessity of the media, and answering this need helps the media rediscover its goal of informing the public. But why does the public hate the media so consistently?

I always get a chuckle whenever the media is forced to do a story on itself, especially when they’ve just been outed as scumbags in any public opinion poll. Why do a story on why people hate you? The answers lie in how the media operates and how it affects overall media credibility.

· First, most of the media is not issues-driven. It is events-driven. Reporters could do an ongoing investigation and explanation into how City Hall works, or they could cover a breaking news story on the one mid-level manager who is arrested for embezzlement. Guess which one makes the news?

· In newsrooms across America, conflict is king. An inner city neighborhood can spend years getting cleaned up and revitalized without any press mention, but if there’s a single shooting on that street once a year it makes the news and will be stigmatized thereafter. Many local newsrooms have a mantra: If it Bleeds, it Leads.

· While some journalists are excellent and knowledgeable about the topics they cover, most are as lazy as the rest of us, and don’t bother digging into a story to discover what has led to the conflicts they cover. A journalist might cover a strike, but not bother going into details or specifics on why the two sides could not work out an agreement.

· A lot of news, particularly local news, needs to be “easy” so the general population will understand it. Most newspapers and newscasts are written at a sixth grade reading level, with exceptions being well-regarded publications like The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. People tend to read newspapers quickly and stories are getting shorter in most publications as newsrooms are cut.

· Reporters should maintain objectivity. Many don’t. Some news organizations such as Fox and The New York Times barely disguise most of their coverage slanting left or right, offending independent readers no matter how good the coverage may be. There’s another side to objectivity; on news magazine shows like Dateline, reporters often go overboard to report divergent views on any topic, often interviewing extremists whose absurdity undermines the entire show. This happens every day.

· The media often acts with a mob mentality. If one reporter is covering something, the odds are good that several reporters are there too, and you can get the exact same report from any of them, although sometimes these events are truly newsworthy.

· There’s fierce competition to be the first with “breaking news” among reporters. Unfortunately, being first also means you have the least amount of time to get your facts checked, and wrong information is often reported. This happened in last year’s election when Dan Rather issued a false report about the President’s National Guard duties, which cost Rather his job. Recent reports about widespread crime in the Superdome during Hurricane Katrina were also exaggerated by the media.

If the press is at its best during times of crisis, I would say the press is at its worst when covering elections and politics. Many voters get their political information from the news, and it’s unsurprising that even blanket coverage is unable to get a majority of voters to the polls on Election Day.

· Events, Not Issues: The press rarely covers political issues because campaign events like stump speeches are visual and makes better TV. An event is usually fast and – here we go – easy to cover and report.

· The Horse Race: The media tends to cover the race on who is winning – in votes, popularity and fundraising – rather than what the candidates’ platform is or the issues that affect voters. In fact, the whole campaign gets screwed because the media has a serious addiction to poll numbers. Why? Because it’s easier to do than reporting on substance.

· Scandalmania!: When a scandal hits, all bets are off and a media feeding frenzy ensues. The media can easily and quickly destroy a candidate over an issue that most voters will find irrelevant, such as Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky or Bush’s National Guard record. Political candidates are unfairly held to higher standards because of the media’s scandal scrutiny, and I am positive many fine potential candidates have eschewed public office because of a very minor and explainable lapse in their past. The focus on scandals has also helped undermine trust in political institutions and the media in general. Reporters also routinely ask candidates personal and controversial questions they would never ask private citizens.

The media, of course, would retort that it is giving the public what it wants. And that is partly true. The media wouldn’t focus on the superficial if the public wasn’t watching it. While I’m sure the average person who reads The New York Post and tabloid-style local news would agree how vapid it is, the bottom line is that is still how they are getting their information. And while high quality media outlets exist, the people who read and view them tend to be better educated and informed than the masses who don’t. It’s a chicken and egg situation.

With the Internet and additional news sources permeating all the time, people have a wider choice than ever to get new information. If you complain about the news or hate the media, try to find alternate ways to get your information. And if you’re a member of the media, stop taking the easy and acceptable way out. People want to know more than you think, and providing that is the key to regaining trust.

More Information:

Arthur Chrenkoff’s Blog – “Good News from Iraq.” An Australian, wondering if anything good was happening in Iraq that wasn’t being reported, starts his own blog and finds remarkable progress going unmentioned in the mass media. He claims he has stopped publishing, but we’ll see. Somewhat right wing, but still has good stuff.

Frontline: Why We Hate the Media – Old (1987) and long, but interesting. Includes comments from Mike Wallace and Peter Jennings about combat reporting that will make your jaw drop.

The Era of Our Discontent

Was Katrina the straw that broke America’s back?

The first decade of our new millennium is becoming one of our country’s most turbulent – ever. We entered 2001 (the millenium’s real start) with a contested presidential election, where the Supreme Court needed to intervene and the candidate who received fewer votes ended up as the winner. Although the procedure adhered to the Constitution, many cried fraud and never recognized the president as our leader.

Then we entered into one of the steepest and deepest recessions in modern times, with millions losing their jobs. The stock market crashed and crashed again, wiping out billions in savings. Many had to defer retirement or come out of it altogether. College savings and 401Ks were decimated, and the market has yet to fully recover. Some industries like technology and marketing were utterly squashed, with once-successful companies folding overnight.

September 11 was one of the worst days in our country’s history, and ushered in terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism as the evil of our age, just as communism was for our parents and the Third Reich was for our grandparents. We had lived in relative peace without an enemy since the Berlin Wall fell. The attacks ushered in a new war for our times and fear re-entered the American psyche, where it continues to lurk. This was not a battle between soldiers on the battlefield – this was a battle with a culture of death that wants us utterly destroyed and could strike anywhere and at anytime.

Corporate malfeasance and fraud at Enron, Worldcom, HealthSouth, Adelphia, Tyco and scores of other companies brought down Fortune 100 giants. The public’s attitude toward big business changed as well – from respect to suspicion and mistrust. Corporate earnings and governance remain under a cloud and the public is almost inured to seeing corporate fines, layoffs and other mismanagement as the market remains flat.

Then we invaded Iraq. It’s your call whether this war was a necessary battle to oust the world’s worst dictator and bring democracy to the Middle East to flank our war on terror, or an oafish attempt by a misguided leader on a personal vendetta who was relying on faulty intelligence. But one thing is universally accepted: Iraq is a mess right now. Anarchy has engulfed the region and there are not enough troops to quell it. The military brass totally flubbed, if not outright ignored, how the country would be remade. There was never a Marshall Plan for Iraq and it shows. Most tragically, American troops and innocent Iraqis who want to help rebuild are dying there. The administration’s Iraq misdirection and the rising fatality list are rapidly undercutting support for the war at home.

And the last year has seen two horrific natural disasters – the tsunami in Asia that killed over 200,000 and Hurricane Katrina, which leveled and flooded the cities of New Orleans and Biloxi. Katrina once again displayed bureaucratic overlapses, as local, state and federal officials completely bungled repeated efforts to either repair levees in advance or administer aid afterward, both of which likely condemned the city and its residents. The damage to Louisiana’s refineries caused gas prices, already sky high to begin with, to record breaking heights at over $3 and $4 a gallon with no relief in sight.

When you look at the president’s paltry approval rating, consumer confidence index and the country’s overall psyche after riding through the last five years, it’s apparent we are entering a character crisis. Not an energy crisis or recession, but a crisis of confidence where American optimism is eclipsed by resentment and unease. The terrible performance by all levels of government in New Orleans could be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back – a breakdown of faith in our infrastructure and overall direction of how America should be.

Unlike September 11, when our country united in strength and bipartisanship, the country now posts a sinking morale by the cumulative effects of the events described above. While some were unavoidable and some were not, how the government reacted to each one has led to a growing disgust that the government cannot protect its citizens or execute imperative needs – winning the war in Iraq, saving lives in New Orleans, getting gas prices under control and so on.

I believe we are now in the midst of one of the darker periods in our history, similar to the Great Depression of the 1930s and the so-called “National Malaise” of the 1970s. Like those decades, Americans are currently under a cloud of doubts about an uncertain future and the national optimism is tempered by an ugly reality and faith in the government to help or protect us. You can sense a simmering beneath a surface, like when a teakettle is about to boil and let a torrent of steam out.

I don’t think there will be mass riots and upheaval like the 1930s and 1970s, but public backlash from both eras did generate massive changes in the political system. The Great Depression brought a governmental revolution in Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal, and the counterattack of the Seventies delivered Ronald Reagan and the resulting era of conservatism. Both men were dynamic leaders who made America stronger and restored faith in the government and confidence in the American people.

It’s far too early to predict the 2006 elections, let alone 2008. But whichever party produces a candidate that delivers a whole new message of self-reliance, optimism and independence from the status quo has got a head start.

More info:

Ether Zone: Katrina and the End of Illusions -http://www.etherzone.com/2005/raim090705.shtml

Jim Lehrer – Politics After Katrina (transcript) –
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/political_wrap/july-dec05/bop_9-2.html

NFL Forecasts and Football Pool Cheat Sheet - 2005

Why is football the most popular sport in our great country? Let us quickly review:

1) Parity. Unlike baseball’s rich team/poor team conundrum that alienates small city fans and makes the same teams win over and over, the NFL encourages competition by ensuring every team gets the same money to spend on player salaries and from TV contracts. A level playing field means every team gets a chance to win. A team may be lousy one year and great the next year (or vice versa) but you can never blame the league or finances. It keeps the game fresh and exciting.

2) Game infrequency. Unlike the 162 games of baseball or 10-month NBA season, there are only 16 NFL games a year, excluding playoffs. Each game becomes an event, even at the collegiate and high school level in some places (rent “Friday Night Lights” to get a better idea of this).

3) Betting. Yes, unlike the confusing over/under baseball spread, it is insanely easy to bet on football. Legal and illegal football pools span across the country, and due to parity it’s possible for any team to beat another on any given Sunday.

4) Labor Happiness: Compare the NFL owners’ relationship with the NFL player union to baseball and the NHL. Everybody is happy. There hasn’t been a work stoppage in almost two decades. Regular non-sports unions that are dying on the vine should look the NFL player’s union for tips on relevance and keeping members priorities in line.

Bottom line is that the NFL is an extremely well-run and smart organization that deserves credit for making football America’s national pastime. NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue probably never played a snap in his life, but mad props to him for being a genius.

My NFL 2005 picks are below, along with my “dark horse” pick as most improved team from last year. Picks are in the order of finish.

NFC EAST

1) Philadelphia Eagles: Last year I predicted Terrell Owens would be an unselfish team player as much as I trusted OJ to search for the real killer, or words to that effect. Turns out I was only off by a year. Philly will benefit from being the only good team in this division, and expect T.O. to be trade bait in the offseason, if not earlier.

2) Dallas Cowboys: Is it me or is Parcells just not angry anymore? A mellow Parcells means a mellow football team. Dallas has a good running game with Julius Jones, but the defense needs to step up and be, well, angrier.

3) NY Giants: The Giants missed the memo that most NFL franchise QBs are developed, not drafted first (see: Brady, Tom, Theisman, Joe and Montana, Joe). Even successful first-round choice QBs do not always lead their teams to Super Bowls (see: Manning, Peyton and Vick, Mike) or victories (see: Bledsoe, Drew). So the Giants’ season rides completely on the arm of one person. They could be 10-6 or 3-13. I’ll split the difference at 7-9. The Giants also must do much better defending against the run.

4) Washington Redskins: Think Joe Gibbs wishes he was back in the NASCAR pit? At least he can always blame Most-Hated NFL Owner Dan Snyder, who puts the coal into the reverse Midas touch.

NFC NORTH

1) Minnesota Vikings: Addition by subtraction. Take away talented but petulant WR Randy Moss and watch a good team get better without distractions. Plenty of WRs (Nate Burelson and Troy Williamson) left for Culpepper to throw to, and a good defense helps top another weak division.

2) Green Bay Packers: I like Brett Farve – hey, everyone likes Brett Farve – but this is the least talented team he’s fronted since coming to the Bay. The team didn’t do much to improve the spotty defense and the offense is getting older for Farve’s probable last season. If it is, watch for Green Bay to plummet in 2006.

3) Detroit Lions: GM Matt Millen makes the head of FEMA look like a genius. In four years as GM, his Lions have yet to post a winning record, have won three road games and have one of the league’s worst defenses. So after drafting nothing but a QB and several WRs for the last few drafts what does he do this year? He drafts ANOTHER RECEIVER, meaning underachieving QB Joey Harrington now has four starting receivers, including three number one draft choices and another second round choice. Millen wouldn’t even last a week as a federal employee. He’s lucky Chicago is in the same division.

4) Chicago Bears: This team still has no idea who the starting QB will be this Sunday, but it’s looking to rookie Kyle Orton, with 35-year-old Jeff Blake backing him up. Shemp Howard is available if Blake falters, which should happen by the sixth game. Talk about the Bad News Bears.

NFC SOUTH

1) Carolina Panthers: Last year I picked the Panthers to win the division. By the second game, their six best players on offense and defense (especially Julius Peppers, Steve Smith, Stephen Davis, DeShaun Foster, Kris Jenkins, etc.) got injured and the team fell to 1-7. Halfway through the season, they started coming back and the Panthers finished 7-9. If everyone stays healthy, this is the team to beat in the NFC. Carolina also made some great free agent pickups on the offensive line and cornerback, and now start the two CBs who led the league in pickoffs. Look out!

2) Atlanta Falcons: Wild Card Team. Call me nuts (go ahead, you can) but I think Atlanta overachieved last year. Vick’s health is always iffy and he still lacks a big-time receiver to throw at. The Falcons also have a rough schedule, with games against Philadelphia, New England and the Jets in the first month. If they come out of that at 2-2 or better, they’re the real deal.

3) New Orleans Saints: Rough times ahead. The Saints burn me every year because they look so good on paper but choke when the game is on the line. Now they have a crisis at home and may have to play 16 road games. While the offense can put up points, the D is not as tight in the no-longer Big Easy.

4) Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Take your QB choice – Brian Griese, Brad Johnson or Chris Simms, who has played one game and promptly got injured. While you’ve got to like a RB named Cadillac Williams, the offensive line is stacked with Hyundais. Are there any leaders here?

NFC WEST

1) Arizona Cardinals: My NFC Dark Horse Team. Last year great coach Denny Green came to the desert and doubled the team’s win total. OK, it was from 3 to 6 games, but the Cardinals no longer officially sucked. The team has also drafted extremely well and has a great defense with Bertrand Berry and Chike Okeafor. The big question is starting QB Kurt Warner, who is certainly past his prime but showed signs of life in NY last year. But Green has brought in veteran QBs before in Minnesota – remember Randall Cunningham and Jeff George? – and all produced for him.

2) St. Louis Rams: Wild Card Team. The Rams seem to have their groove back on offense with new RB Steven Jackson, and Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce are still there. St. Louis played well enough to make it to the playoffs last year with a shoddy defense, and their free agent pickups (Dexter Coakley!) won’t make them worse.

3) Seattle Seahawks: Last year was Seattle’s golden opportunity and they blew it. Seattle’s receivers drop more passes than I do in pickup games. They tried to improve their toast defense by drafting Lofa Tatupu. Guess whose kid he is?

4) San Francisco 49ers: The good news is that everybody has written off this team as the NFL’s worst this year and has given them a free pass to next year’s first round choice. The bad news is that the team and its fans have to suffer through 16 games to get there.

AFC EAST

1) New England Patriots: Well duh. Have the Jets or Bills built up enough to dethrone the champs? Nope. Tom Brady will never start on anyone’s fantasy team, but would you want anyone else as your real starter? Of course not. That said, I don’t see the Patriots as a juggernaut this year. There’s a new defensive coordinator and Belichik will be the de facto offensive coordinator, and toughman LBs Tedy Bruschi and Ted Johnson are gone. But the Patriots should still win 10 or 11. Interesting fact: No team has EVER won three Super Bowls in a row. The 49ers, Cowboys and Steelers won four or five, but not consecutively. Hmmmm.

2) NY Jets: Wild Card Team. Similar to their Meadowlands roommates, the Jets’ season will rise or fall based on their starting QB. There have been special team upgrades and Ty Law and Lavarneaus Coles are interesting pickups. They may even best the Patriots at one of their meetings as long as Curtis Martin keeps outrunning Father Time.

3) Buffalo Bills: The Bills are not a bad team, but they’re in a punishing division and won’t go higher than 9-7. Buffalo also axed Bledsoe in favor of rookie J.P. Losman, who costs a lot less but has only thrown five passes in his career. Good defense and pretty good running game, but not enough to win the AFC East.

4) Miami Dolphins: Last year Miami was the best bad team in football, which is about the same as being the smartest bum in the gutter. It says something when the most talented guy on the team is the head coach. Saban needs a QB as good as his LSU players before the Fins are ready to compete.

AFC NORTH

1) Pittsburgh Steelers: Did anyone guess Ben what’s-his-name would win 15 last year? Of course not. Will he win 15 this year? Nope. Teams are ready for him now provided they do what the Patriots did in the playoffs – break down The Bus and force him to make mistakes. Since the AFC North isn’t football’s premier division, that won’t happen too often. Pittsburgh does boast a tough defense and my favorite RB with Jerome Bettis, still plowing through lines at 37.

2) Baltimore Ravens: Another solid team that just didn’t make enough improvements in the off season. QB Kyle Boller is OK – not great and not bad. Definitely not good enough to get them past the wild card if they make it that far. RB Jamal Lewis is out of jail but has a gimpy ankle. The defense is still money, but Ray Lewis is starting to coast on his reputation and isn’t the threat he once was.

3) Cincinnati Bengals: I’d love to rate the Bengals higher as they’ve finished at 8-8 the last two years, have a good QB in Carson Palmer and a good coach with Marvin Lewis. But to win those extra two or three games you’ve gotta up the defense and there wasn’t enough done in the offseason to improve here. They might get to 9-7 and even second in the division, but that’s all – for now.

4) Cleveland Browns: Best of luck to new coach Romeo Crennel, a longtime Bill Parcells and Bill Belichik sidekick who finally gets the chance to run his own team. Unfortunately it’s the Cleveland Browns. This is his mulligan year.

AFC SOUTH

1) Indianapolis Colts: Why can’t the talented Colts win the big one? Here’s my theory. Head coach Tony Dungy is really smart and a nice guy. QB Peyton Manning is really smart and a nice guy. That’s why. This team needs more killer instinct – more Dick Butkuses. The Colts need the eye of the tiger! When a finesse offensive team (Colts) meets a smashmouth defensive team (Patriots), the defensive team almost always wins. The offense won’t always score enough if the nice guys are getting their asses kicked by the bigger boys.

2) Jacksonville Jaguars: Wild Card Team. The Jaguars were my sleeper pick last year and they got to 9-7 by beating the Colts twice. Not many people know about them but they have a truly scary defense and a great QB in Byron Leftwich. He needs better WRs and RB Fred Taylor’s knee is iffy, but there’s no excuse for this team if they can’t make the wild card.

3) Houston Texans: By the time any coach is in his fifth year, he should have his team in the playoffs, expansion team or no expansion team. Dom Capers has got the Texans to .500 but that’s it. No secondary and no offensive line will hurt Houston. QB David Carr is pretty good but won’t win many games if he spends the whole time in the backfield running for his life.

4) Tennessee Titans: The unfortunate part of parity is that every seven or eight years, a team must cut a bunch of players loose to meet the salary cap, and the program goes under water for a year or two. This is what is happening to the Titans this year. I love QB Steve “Air” McNair who always plays tough, but this is what the P.C. police would call a “rebuilding year.”

AFC WEST

1) San Diego: Last year I said the Chargers couldn’t win at kickball. They responded by going 11-5, but trust me, they still couldn’t win at kickball. The guys who made me look dumb were QB Drew Brees (finally, a San Diego first round QB comes through!), LaDanian Tomlinson, the best RB in football, and defensive coach/guru Wade Phillips who turned the once-crappy defense into a 3-4 wall. They could be better on pass rushing, but the Chargers should have enough to make the playoffs again.

2) Kansas City Chiefs: A really weird team. They have an offensive powerhouse with QB Trent Green and RB Priest Holmes who can put up 40 points a game, and a Swiss Cheese defense that can give up 45 points a game. They actually made some steps to improve the defense this offseason, drafting Derrick Johnson and signing Patrick Surtain and Sammy Knight. If it all clicks, they could go far. If it doesn’t, Dick Vermeil can challenge Richard Simmons to a crybaby contest.

3) Oakland Raiders: My AFC Dark Horse Team. The Raiders won’t make the playoffs and might not make .500, but they only won five games last year and will upset some better teams. QB Kerry Collins has a howitzer in his arm, and he now has Randy Moss and Jerry Porter to throw at. RB Lamont Jordan ran for 1500 yards last year. And the defense…well, let’s just say they’re a “mature” bunch that should keep them from winning more than eight. Randy Moss and Al Davis certainly deserve each other. The whole team is so crazy it just might work.

4) Denver Broncos: For years, I refused to jump on the Jake Plummer bandwagon. I believe I have finally been vindicated, as Jake The Fake is still doing all the stupid things he used to do in Arizona. And while Denver keeps finding unknown RBs to rush for 1500 yards each year, what were they thinking signing Ron Dayne and Maurice Clarett? Denver isn’t a bad team and may even finish above Oakland, but this is a tough division and there’s no way they’re making the playoffs this year.

Taking Natural Disasters Personally

Disasters – natural and man-made – have a habit of bringing out the best and worst of everyone. Most of the time, it tends to be the former. Donations and condolences are pouring into the Gulf Coast, and I have complete confidence that the cities of New Orleans and Biloxi will be rebuilt. New Orleans is one of my favorite cities. My wife and I traveled there about five years ago and fell in love with the cuisine, the music and some of the friendliest Americans we’ve ever encountered. Everyone called us “honey,” the drinks were great and we still plan on returning some day.

And for bringing out the worst in people? Looters, gas price gougers and insurance scam artists are well known and have earned their special place in jail, if not hell itself. But while most of the world is looking to help and heal, political partisans seize the opportunity to promote and exploit their own interests by demonizing anyone who disagrees with them and absurdly linking their opponents to disasters. The attacks are so loopy and illogical they should be hilarious, but the virulence of the accusers wipes the smiles from our faces. Sadly, these attacks happen all too often and help destroy any bipartisan efforts. It’s also disconcerting and a huge turn-off to independents like myself.

Newt Gingrich ended his political career by blaming a hideous murder of a pregnant mother and the kidnapping of her unborn child on the welfare state, and then ended his hari-kari by urging everyone “to vote Republican.” Long before he helped re-elect the president, Michael Moore said the 9/11 terrorists erred by killing people who didn’t vote for George W. Bush. And today, with entire Louisiana and Mississippi towns and cities washed away, we have another hateful group of partisans rising from sewers and mudholes to advance their causes at the expense of victims, and trying to plant a political reason upon a natural disaster. Here’s the worst I’ve seen so far, but don’t worry – there will be more:

· Huffington Post: Nobody outside of California had even heard of Ariana Huffington before she ran for governor of California two years ago (and dropped out of the race after mustering a whopping 2% support). But her web site is well-known and somewhere to the left of Cuba. One of her bloggers says the Republicans have left all of us “raped, pillaged and terrorized” and says the president scares her more than terrorists. Another blogger claims that the hurricane would not have been so devastating if Carter had beat Reagan in 1980. And Ms. Huffington herself excoriates the president for not being in New Orleans already, somehow overlooking that the N.O.P.D. may be busy with things like saving lives and stopping looters to stop what they’re doing and provide a security detail for the president. Keep in mind that unlike me, many of the bloggers here consider themselves professional writers.

· Religious Right: When evangelicals and some so-called people of God aren’t hating homosexuals, advocating assassinations and claiming that life on earth began 6,000 years ago, they’re telling the rest of us how to live our lives. They’re also claiming New Orleans deserves what it got because of the city’s penchant for decadence. RepentAmerica.com says “This act of God destroyed a wicked city. From 'Girls Gone Wild' to 'Southern Decadence', New Orleans was a city that had its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin.” Another web site called Abominations (I can’t tell whether this one is a joke or not) says “Due to the hand of God the (Labor Day Weekend Gay Parade) in New Orleans and "May this act of God cause us all to think about what we tolerate in our city limits, and bring us trembling before the throne of Almighty God."

Nice, huh? There are also a bunch of people blaming the president and his environmental policies for the hurricane, just like they did for the tsunami last year. These are undoubtedly the same people who blamed Theodore Roosevelt for the San Francisco earthquake and President Chester Alan Arthur for the 1883 Krakatoa eruption. Most of these people are so partisan they can’t think straight and believe Republicans are the source of natural disasters, the boogeyman in the closet and the common cold.

Global warming is also being tossed around a bit. The jury’s obviously still out on global warming (I invite anyone who thinks the planet is getting warmer to spend the winter in Boston, where we had over 100 inches of snow last year and had to keep our heat on until Memorial Day). I’ve met a few meteorologists and climatologists who said it is absolutely natural for weather to be cyclical, even in 20- and 50-year cycles, but I don’t even pretend to be well-informed on this subject. Nobody can definitively say whether global warming exists or, if it does, whether it exacerbated the situation.

While sane people focus on how to help the victims of this tragedy, there are three items that I may revisit in this space, because each brings up important non-partisan issues.

1) Did federal budget cuts curtail improvement on New Orleans levee protection and improvement? Yes, you can read it here. Would this have stopped or cut down on the flooding? That’s another definite maybe, but whoever ordered those budget cuts has something to answer for.

2) New Orleans is a largely African-American city. In a cruel twist of fate, the upper class (and mostly white) French Quarter and Garden District have been spared the worst of the damage, while poorer, minority neighborhoods have been obliterated. It will be very interesting to see which neighborhoods are rebuilt first and where FEMA, relief and cleanup dollars go. How quickly, efficiently and fairly New Orleans is remade and how displaced refugees are compensated for their losses will speak volumes about how far this Southern city has come in race relations, political cronyism and civics.

3) Despite being the most generous nation on earth, the U.S. has been called “stingy” in its foreign and disaster relief efforts. This is nonsense. Last year, the U.S. gave over $1 billion to tsunami relief (and billions more in private donations) and spent an additional $19 billion in foreign aid, which included over $1 billion in loan write-offs to corrupt countries like the Democratic Republic for the Congo that squander the money. While the U.S. may not require foreign and disaster aid from abroad the way the Asian countries did, it will be very interesting to see how much foreign aid helps the poor people of New Orleans from foreign countries and individuals who said we do not enough for the world.

More info:

American Red Cross Hurricane Relief Donations

Salvation Army Hurrican Relief Donations

Missing in Action: Attractive Young White Women

Every day in the United States, hundreds of adults and children disappear. Many of these are runaways, who often return, and others are fleeing abusive situations and want to start over in secrecy. But scores of these people are never, ever seen again.

When people vanish, you usually never hear about it. Law enforcement certainly does its best, but they lack the resources to find every person who disappears. And if this missing person and their family are lucky, the media may cover it – for one or two nights.

But if the missing person is an attractive young white female, you can bet the media will cover it. In fact, you can bet the farm that the media will obsess over it with exclusive after exclusive, regardless of progress, until the case is solved.

Think back to all the famous missing persons cases over the last year or two: Natalee Holloway; Jennifer Wilibanks; Laci Peterson; Lori Hacking; Elizabeth Smart; Chandra Levy. What do these people have in common? All happen to be female, attractive, young and white.

Most of these women ended up dead and I do not want to belittle that fact. I’m sure the unprecedented attention reassured their families that their missing wives or daughters would not be forgotten, and the blanket coverage may have provided leads that helped crack the case. But what about the middle aged African American woman who goes out to work one day and disappears? How about the pretty Hispanic girl who is eight months pregnant and vanishes? And the elderly Indian man who disappears on vacation? Where are their stories? How come they are not profiled in the media? These people disappear every day too; why are they not considered newsworthy?

I can speculate why the media only focuses on missing attractive white women, and while I am treading onto dangerous territory here, I also want to be honest. Race and appearance is definitely a factor with the media – not law enforcement, but the media. Most of the news directors in this country are older white men. While this may be subliminal and not intentional or racist, they may relate to these missing white women as being the equivalent of their girlfriends, wives and daughters. They are also driven by some marketing or demographic gobbledygook that says missing attractive white women means higher ratings. This may very well be a sad reality about our culture and TV viewership, and is of little comfort to the families of minorities that disappear.

There are other lurking cultural issues at work. Virtually everyone on TV – the news, celebrities and even reality shows – is fit and attractive. Most people in the real world are not fit and are not as attractive as the people generally seen on TV. I’m willing to bet that overweight and ugly people also go missing, but will never be seen on the Today Show or an evening news show. And the overweight, ugly people that vanish outnumber the attractive white women that vanish any day.

Another question: Why are attractive, young white men ever featured as a famous missing person, or any man for that matter? Is this because a missing man could conceivably take care of himself, but national alarms must only sound for missing women because women are unable to save themselves and need rescuing? I don’t know if these answers are definitively yes or no, but nobody seems to be asking them.

And here’s the kicker: More men than women in this country go missing each year. Of the almost 50,000 active adult missing person cases tracked by the FBI, 53 percent were men and almost 30 percent are African-American. But you would never, ever know this from watching the news.

I’m not the only one ranting about this. In fact, this comes up every time the national media picks up the case of another attractive missing white woman. Then the media gets criticized so often they do stories on how they’re being criticized, and trot out the news president to say age, race and sex are not a factor in their news coverage. Say what?

Fortunately there are a handful of media who focus on missing people of all types. A story about three missing Hispanic boys in Camden, NJ, received national attention (the boys tragically suffocated in the trunk of a nearby car). The Lost Children’s Network is available online and on some satellite and cable station, and is color blind. And while FOX’s Greta van Sustern seems to have moved to Aruba to cover Natalee Holloway, she has thrown a few bones to covering some other missing people as well, and FOX’s “America’s Most Wanted” spotlights missing people of all ages, sexes and races. That’s not exactly fair and balanced, but it’s a start.

Links:

Amber Alerts: http://codeamber.org/
FBI Kidnapping and Missing Persons Investigations: http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/kidnap/kidmiss.htm
Lost Children’s Network: http://lostchildren.org/
National Center for Missing Adults: http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/

The Flack Dissects the Cindy Sheehan Situation

I am coming out of the closet by disclosing my current day job: Public relations flack for a company that I won’t reveal because I’d like to keep my current day job. But I’ve been doing this long enough that I feel I can comment on the current Cindy Sheehan situation, which the press has coined a “PR Nightmare” for the President.

PR is basically a marketing function and marketing has two objectives. The first is drive sales (or votes and donations, if you’re in public affairs). The second is branding or establishing an identity for a company, candidate, cause, etc., and making sure the entity you represent is correctly and fairly represented in the media or the all-important “buzz” on the streets and water coolers of our country.

You obviously answer to your employer (or client). If you’re working for an obscure company competing with a Microsoft, Citigroup, ExxonMobil or similar giant, you’ll take any press that you can get. But if you work for one of those three companies or the President, your job changes a bit. Getting press isn’t the problem – the problem is making sure that company’s or person’s image is held in high regard and doesn’t change for the worse. Some things you won’t have control over (i.e. Raffi Palmeiro’s press person didn’t know their client was a basehead), which leads to crisis situations you need to manage. But for the most part, you need to ensure the dog is wagging the tail instead of vice versa.

When you represent a big company, celebrity or politician, there will be a core group of press and people who will hate you no matter what. While you need to monitor what’s being said about your employer or client, you are not under obligation to address or even acknowledge everything that is said about you. For example, last year documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock made “Super Size Me,” his odyssey about eating at McDonald’s for a solid month while watching his body fat rise and health diminish. He asked if someone from McDonald’s would answer his questions and be part of his movie.

McDonald’s declined, which was perceived as the company ducking the situation. But from a PR perspective, it was the correct response. The movie was obviously anti-McDonald’s and the company would have achieved nothing from participating. It could even be seen as giving the movie a tacit endorsement or acquiescing to its claim that McDonald’s makes you fat and sick. If you worked for Greenpeace and a publication called “Oil Refineries Rule!” contacted you for an interview you knew would be a hatchet job, would you participate? Probably not, because you knew you’d be setting yourself up for a fall.

With that long-winded background information, let’s turn back to Cindy Sheehan. I am heartbroken over her loss and agree that the administration’s negligence has turned Iraq into a completely avoidable quagmire. But there she is, camped near the President’s ranch, and not going anywhere until she gets her meeting with the President. Is this a “PR Nightmare?” I think Iraq is more of a nightmare, and the woman is more of what I would call a “situation.” She’s not hurting anyone (bothering anyone is another story), but August is a slow news time and the press is following her cause with a fervor that is surprising. So should the President meet her to stop this “PR Nightmare?”

I’m not going to go into all the facts of the case since they’ve been well documented everywhere else, so I’ll just go through the highlights here. Right-wing partisans have predictably gone on a character assassination against Ms. Sheehan, as they tend to do when someone has the nerve to disagree with them. These have ranged from accusing her of being a traitor to parroting anti-Israel and anti-American views often embraced by ultra-liberals like Michael Moore. It’s also true that the President already met her last year after terrorists murdered her son and the media attention is being partly bankrolled by True Majority, a public interest group that wants to decrease the Pentagon’s budget.

While I’m as weary of mudslinging as everyone else, I sincerely hope this woman is not being used by left-wing partisans who seem to have coached her, because every interview she gives is becoming increasingly political and less personal. The personal story is far more compelling and likely to get her the meeting she wants. Die-hard Republicans also accuse her of supporting the President and now being an anti-war activist, but so what? Look at the opinion polls – plenty of people have turned against the war lately.

So, putting on the PR hat again, would the President gain anything by meeting with Ms. Sheehan again? If I was on the president’s staff, here’s what I would recommend (Note: This is not the day job I was referring to earlier.)

I would suggest that the President meet with Ms. Sheehan, but set the agenda as much as possible. Have someone bring her in without warning and have it take place on the ranch where he’s in control. This way, if she is being coached, she doesn’t have time to prepare a diatribe. Have no more than one aide present. Keep the meeting short – 10 or 15 minutes. But most of all, stay personal and reassuring – something the President is quite good at. Focus on the loss of her son. Don’t discuss policy, or fit a war into a bigger picture of a war on terror because that is not appropriate here. Do one fast photo and then let her go. If she doesn’t leave the ranch, starts bashing his politics again, or is disrespectful she validates the kooky right-wing conspiracy theory and the President looks all the better.

The President’s staff would say there are PR risks here – you validate your enemy’s position, capitulate to their demands, look weak, etc. Those are valid. But you also nip the situation in the bud and prevent further escalation. If the press got tired of this woman after a few days, you could ignore it. But it’s not happening and you need to control the agenda again. One of the great things about America is that you have the right to ask the president of the country or a company whatever you want without getting thrown in jail. And looking at the President’s approval numbers, these are the sort of things he should be doing to improve his overall PR image.

More info:
How the Right Wing is Smearing Cindy Sheehan (left-wing site, but this is accurate): http://mediamatters.org/items/200508100009

An Opposing View from Slate’s Chris Hitchens: http://slate.msn.com/id/2124500/

Abraham Lincoln’s Letter to Mrs. Bixby, whose sons died in battle during the Civil War (this letter was read in Saving Private Ryan) http://www.americancivilwar.info/pages/mrs_bixby_letter.asp

Why Do I Hate Rafael Palmeiro? Let Us Count the Ways

Rafael Palmeiro used to be – until this week – one of my favorite baseball players. He never had the biggest salary, the biggest mouth, the biggest ego or the biggest bat on the many teams he played. He just showed up every day and did his job better than almost anyone else.

He never hogged the media spotlight. He never asked for any big demands and he almost never put up the biggest numbers. He just quietly and effectively produced for 19 seasons and soon became one of the league’s respected elder statesmen, amassing 3,000 hits, 569 homers and four All-Star appearances.

What finally made him a household name to non-baseball fans was his testimony before Congress on the anti-steroid hearings last winter. While other players like Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa came off worse for the wear with evasive answers, Palmeiro was a model of credibility: “I have never used steroids. Period. I don't know how to say it any more clearly than that. Never.”

Well, we all know what happened this week. And now we can substitute new words to describe this so-called athlete: Phony. Stupid. Cheater. Busted. And those are the polite ones. Palmeiro must think we’re as dumb as he is with his lame “I don’t know where the steroid came from!” excuse. While not as creative as “Barry Bonds spiked my Viagra,” most people are aware of everything that enters their body.

There’s always a domino effect when big athletes are caught with their hands in the stanozolol jar. Sure, Palmeiro will lose a whopping 10 days pay. He will now be better known for this charade no matter what his final hit or home run total will be. Yes, he may not get into the Hall of Fame now. But there are additional punishments in store.

First, from this day forward I will refer to Rafael Palmeiro as “Raffi,” because his crybaby excuses remind me of the unbelievably annoying Raffi who sings for children. If you do not have small children, you have been spared a five-year prison term of listening to music that makes Clay Aiken sound hardcore.

Second, and most unforgivably, Raffi has made Jose Canseco into a respectable, honorable person. Canseco, the classic kid who tells on the kid who doesn’t do his homework, is bizarrely redeemed through this whole sorry affair. His claim of injecting Raffi and others with steroids now holds water, and he’s been transformed from clubhouse rat to courageous whistleblower. In a sleazy side note, Canseco’s ex-wife bares more in next month’s Playboy.

Raffi may have taken the heat off his fellow baseheads Jason Giambi and the other players caught under the new steroid rules, and I’ve still got my eye on Barry Bonds. But here’s hoping he’s hauled back before Congress to explain why he lied under oath. His magnificent performance in Washington last March has now replaced Pete Rose’s “I never bet on baseball” as the biggest lie to cripple a sport that’s already weak in the knees.