And the 2014 version of the shoulda-coulda-woulda NCAA Division 1-A football playoffs offers some proof to that.
Aw, what the heck...let's just cut to the chase and show you what happened:
FIRST ROUND (seeding in parentheses): Northern Illinois (9) 35, Louisiana-Lafayette (24) 14; Missouri (16) 35, UCLA (17) 7; Arizona (13) 35, Arizona State (20) 21; Kansas State (21) 35, Colorado State (12) 33; Wisconsin (14) 14, Clemson (19) 7; Mississippi State (11) 28, Cincinnati (22) 20; Mississippi (18) 37, Georgia Tech (15) 7; Michigan State (10) 28, Central Florida (23) 7
SECOND ROUND: Florida State (1) 42, Northern Illinois 17; Boise State (8) 24, Missouri 6; TCU (5) 56, Arizona 7; Oregon (4) 17, Kansas State 7; Baylor (6) 21, Wisconsin 19; Alabama (3) 21, Mississippi State 2; Marshall (7) 21, Mississippi 17; Ohio State (2) 14, Michigan State 7
QUARTERFINAL ROUND: Boise State 22, Florida State 21; Oregon 49, TCU 28, Alabama 40, Baylor 7; Marshall 31, Ohio State 28
SEMIFINAL ROUND: Oregon 21, Boise State 7; Alabama 21, Marshall 14
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Alabama 49, Oregon 21
For starters, it was the fourth straight year a team that had never won these playoffs before went all the way (something Oregon did in 2011, followed by Notre Dame in 2012 and Baylor one season later; the Bears relinquished their title in this season's quarterfinals).
It was just the second time a Southeastern Conference club won it all in these playoffs...and, inexplicably, the very first time an SEC champion turned the trick. (Florida's 2009 D-1-A playoff champion was an at-large squad...in a year where the Crimson Tide ruled the most popular league in college football.)
Not only did Arizona and Marshall post playoff wins for the first time, but Northern Illinois did it, too...after five failures, starting in 1983 and then every campaign since 2010.
This year's MVP: Alabama QB Blake Sims, who fired three air scores in the title game, where he went 24-for-41 for 318 yards (in addition to running for 67 yards on nine tries against the Ducks; scored a TD, too).
Who knows...maybe the trend of a first-time champion winning this version of a major-college football playoff will continue.
Let's just stay tuned and see.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Just Because They're Finally Staging the College Football Playoff...
Well, that doesn't mean that this football fan's going to stop using his computer to wage his own version of a 24-team shoulda/woulda/coulda NCAA Division 1-A college football playoff.
I wasn't sure what kind of decision the 13-member selection committee was going to come up with when College Football 2014 (regular-season style) was about to come to an end (after all, the first-ever CFP Poll had three Southeastern Conference teams among the top four clubs in Division 1-A). I thought it was just going to be the BCS-Plus-Two.
Me, I can live with what Jeff Long, Tom Osborne, Condoleezza Rice, and Co. came up with.
I can live with a championship entry from each of four different conferences.
Still, I can't wait until this becomes an eight-team playoff...or a 16-team one. (Maybe the day will come when the NCAA takes over the 1-A playoff process.)
Maybe if Mark Emmert and his lieutenants ran this 1-A playoff, all ten of the leagues in that division- not just the five wealthiest leagues- would get automatic bids.
If Emmert and Co. ran it the way I do, this year's D-1-A playoff field would look exactly like this:
1. Florida State (13-0; ACC champ)/2. Ohio State (12-1; Big Ten champ)/3. Alabama (12-1; SEC champ)/4. Oregon (12-1; Pac-12 champ)/5. TCU (11-1; Big 12 at-large)/6. Baylor (11-1; Big 12 champ)/7. Marshall (11-1; Conference USA champ)/8. Boise State (11-2; Mountain West champ)
9. Northern Illinois (11-2; MAC champ)/10. Michigan State (10-2; Big Ten at-large)/11. Mississippi State (10-2; SEC at-large)/12. Colorado State (10-2; Mountain West at-large)/13. Arizona (10-3; Pac-12 at-large)/14. Wisconsin (10-3; Big Ten at-large)/15. Georgia Tech (10-3; ACC at-large)/16. Missouri (10-3; SEC at-large)
17. UCLA (9-3; Pac-12 at-large)/18. Mississippi (9-3; SEC at-large)/19. Clemson (9-3; ACC at-large)/20. Arizona State (9-3; Pac-12 at-large)/21. Kansas State (9-3; Big 12 at-large)/22. Cincinnati (9-3; AAC at-large)/23. Central Florida (9-3; AAC champ)/24. Louisiana-Lafayette (8-4; Sun Belt champ)
Actually, the Ragin' Cajuns are Sun Belt champs by proxy this time. Georgia Southern celebrated its first year of 1-A football by not only going 9-3...but also racking up an undefeated (8-0) SBC mark. But because the Eagles (with six Division 1-AA titles between 1985 and 2000) are still transitioning into 1-A football, they won't be officially able to qualify to taste postseason action in that division until next season.
You try asking the CFP committee (which also includes Archie Manning and Oliver Luck, two former NFL quarterbacks whose three sons between them have become famous NFL quarterbacks) how it came to pick Alabama as the group's Number One seed (leading to a date with fourth-seeded Ohio State) and how it came to select Oregon as the second seed (and Florida State the third banana).
They won't tell you.
But I'll be glad to tell you how THIS 24-team playoff field got determined.
First of all, besides all ten D-1-A circuits receiving an automatic bid apiece, a point system is used, and it's not unlike the system your state's high school athletic association probably uses to determine football playoff seeding.
A team receives 50 quality points for beating a 1-A club that had a winning record, 45 points for stopping a Division 1-A entry that suffered a losing mark or had a .500 season.
The club wins 40 quality points for defeating a Division 1-AA squad that racked up a winning campaign...and gets 35 for a victory over a losing (or .500) 1-AA team.
Yep...quality points are subtracted for losses, too: 50 for each loss to a winning 1-A team, 55 for every loss to a losing 1-A club (or one that won half its games), and 60 should our playoff entry lose to a successful 1-AA contingent.
And should that D-1-A playoff squad lose to a D-1-AA team that was .500 or worse...that's a loss of 65 quality points.
In case a team wins all its games, the club receives 55 extra quality points...something that happened for Jimbo Fisher's Seminoles this time around.
This system's got tiebreakers, too. The first one is the number of games won by all the Division 1-A clubs that played the tied teams. (This season, Alabama and Ohio State each earned 520 quality points...yet because the Buckeyes' D-1-A opponents won a combined total of 87 contests, while the 1-A foes of the Crimson Tide racked up 83 wins, Urban Meyer's players got the second seed for 2014.)
Head-to-head competition is the second tiebreaker...and if the tied teams didn't meet during the regular season, conference records are examined. (This tiebreaker kicked in for 2014, since Arizona State and Clemson not only totaled 265 quality points apiece, but saw their Division 1-A foes win 74 games each. No, the Sun Devils and the Tigers didn't taste it up this year...so it came down to the fact that ASU had a 6-2 Pac-12 record, topping Clemson's 6-3 ACC ledger.)
Had the circuit marks been the same for Todd Graham's and Dabo Swinney's teams, point differential would've been looked at...first in head-to-head competition, then in conference play, and next in all games.
If all else fails, the final step is a coin toss.
By the way...I'm going to use Lance Haffner Games' 3-in-1 Football to run this playoff cycle, and the games will be computer-vs.-computer style.
Can't wait to play these...and I'll give you the results as soon as possible.
Until then, may 2015 really rock for you! Thanks for reading this blog!
I wasn't sure what kind of decision the 13-member selection committee was going to come up with when College Football 2014 (regular-season style) was about to come to an end (after all, the first-ever CFP Poll had three Southeastern Conference teams among the top four clubs in Division 1-A). I thought it was just going to be the BCS-Plus-Two.
Me, I can live with what Jeff Long, Tom Osborne, Condoleezza Rice, and Co. came up with.
I can live with a championship entry from each of four different conferences.
Still, I can't wait until this becomes an eight-team playoff...or a 16-team one. (Maybe the day will come when the NCAA takes over the 1-A playoff process.)
Maybe if Mark Emmert and his lieutenants ran this 1-A playoff, all ten of the leagues in that division- not just the five wealthiest leagues- would get automatic bids.
If Emmert and Co. ran it the way I do, this year's D-1-A playoff field would look exactly like this:
1. Florida State (13-0; ACC champ)/2. Ohio State (12-1; Big Ten champ)/3. Alabama (12-1; SEC champ)/4. Oregon (12-1; Pac-12 champ)/5. TCU (11-1; Big 12 at-large)/6. Baylor (11-1; Big 12 champ)/7. Marshall (11-1; Conference USA champ)/8. Boise State (11-2; Mountain West champ)
9. Northern Illinois (11-2; MAC champ)/10. Michigan State (10-2; Big Ten at-large)/11. Mississippi State (10-2; SEC at-large)/12. Colorado State (10-2; Mountain West at-large)/13. Arizona (10-3; Pac-12 at-large)/14. Wisconsin (10-3; Big Ten at-large)/15. Georgia Tech (10-3; ACC at-large)/16. Missouri (10-3; SEC at-large)
17. UCLA (9-3; Pac-12 at-large)/18. Mississippi (9-3; SEC at-large)/19. Clemson (9-3; ACC at-large)/20. Arizona State (9-3; Pac-12 at-large)/21. Kansas State (9-3; Big 12 at-large)/22. Cincinnati (9-3; AAC at-large)/23. Central Florida (9-3; AAC champ)/24. Louisiana-Lafayette (8-4; Sun Belt champ)
Actually, the Ragin' Cajuns are Sun Belt champs by proxy this time. Georgia Southern celebrated its first year of 1-A football by not only going 9-3...but also racking up an undefeated (8-0) SBC mark. But because the Eagles (with six Division 1-AA titles between 1985 and 2000) are still transitioning into 1-A football, they won't be officially able to qualify to taste postseason action in that division until next season.
You try asking the CFP committee (which also includes Archie Manning and Oliver Luck, two former NFL quarterbacks whose three sons between them have become famous NFL quarterbacks) how it came to pick Alabama as the group's Number One seed (leading to a date with fourth-seeded Ohio State) and how it came to select Oregon as the second seed (and Florida State the third banana).
They won't tell you.
But I'll be glad to tell you how THIS 24-team playoff field got determined.
First of all, besides all ten D-1-A circuits receiving an automatic bid apiece, a point system is used, and it's not unlike the system your state's high school athletic association probably uses to determine football playoff seeding.
A team receives 50 quality points for beating a 1-A club that had a winning record, 45 points for stopping a Division 1-A entry that suffered a losing mark or had a .500 season.
The club wins 40 quality points for defeating a Division 1-AA squad that racked up a winning campaign...and gets 35 for a victory over a losing (or .500) 1-AA team.
Yep...quality points are subtracted for losses, too: 50 for each loss to a winning 1-A team, 55 for every loss to a losing 1-A club (or one that won half its games), and 60 should our playoff entry lose to a successful 1-AA contingent.
And should that D-1-A playoff squad lose to a D-1-AA team that was .500 or worse...that's a loss of 65 quality points.
In case a team wins all its games, the club receives 55 extra quality points...something that happened for Jimbo Fisher's Seminoles this time around.
This system's got tiebreakers, too. The first one is the number of games won by all the Division 1-A clubs that played the tied teams. (This season, Alabama and Ohio State each earned 520 quality points...yet because the Buckeyes' D-1-A opponents won a combined total of 87 contests, while the 1-A foes of the Crimson Tide racked up 83 wins, Urban Meyer's players got the second seed for 2014.)
Head-to-head competition is the second tiebreaker...and if the tied teams didn't meet during the regular season, conference records are examined. (This tiebreaker kicked in for 2014, since Arizona State and Clemson not only totaled 265 quality points apiece, but saw their Division 1-A foes win 74 games each. No, the Sun Devils and the Tigers didn't taste it up this year...so it came down to the fact that ASU had a 6-2 Pac-12 record, topping Clemson's 6-3 ACC ledger.)
Had the circuit marks been the same for Todd Graham's and Dabo Swinney's teams, point differential would've been looked at...first in head-to-head competition, then in conference play, and next in all games.
If all else fails, the final step is a coin toss.
By the way...I'm going to use Lance Haffner Games' 3-in-1 Football to run this playoff cycle, and the games will be computer-vs.-computer style.
Can't wait to play these...and I'll give you the results as soon as possible.
Until then, may 2015 really rock for you! Thanks for reading this blog!
Sunday, November 30, 2014
I Couldn't Help but Move to the Groove
Time to end this month on a high note...in fact, a bunch of them.
Those notes came out of a venue called the Waiting Room (6212 Maple St., 68104; 402 884-5353), where today, from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM, the featured artist was...actually, a bunch of featured artists.
The performers were the students and teachers from Omaha's very own School of Rock.
And man, they cooked!
What attracted me to the outing was the fact that one of the rockers is young Ben Rosenberger, the drummer in our church's praise band. In fact, Ben's the praise band's youngest member...by far.
School of Rock Omaha's outing had a theme: "Rock Timeline."
And you bet your blue suede shoes the young rockers started out with some 1950s stuff. (They really had it going by the time I finally arrived at the Waiting Room...2:12 PM. So...if the SOR students played and sang "Blue Suede Shoes," I missed it.)
Now, I did get to hear "Hound Dog," "In the Still of the Nite," "(We're Gonna) Rock around the Clock," and "All I Have to Do Is Dream," among other items. [By the way...Ben played tambourine on "(We're Gonna) Rock around the Clock."]
And right from the time I got there, I found myself toe-tapping...and/or dancing to the beat. Just couldn't resist.
Another thing about the whole operation was that the School of Rockers formed five or six different bands (Ben himself was in a couple of 'em). As a result, every student got to tackle a different decade in rock...and that piece of strategy put the accent on versatility.
It all became clear when "Rock Timeline" moved into the 1960s.
School of Rock versions of "Little Sister," "You Really Got Me," and "House of the Rising Sun" got my attention.
And "Sugar Sugar" (as sung by a six-year-old girl who sang lead in a half-male, half-female band) and "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay" (in which a male keyboard player and a female lead singer featured on a number before that swapped roles so that he ended up singing lead while she played the keys) really stood out for me.
When the show barreled into the 1970s, I was still movin' and groovin' to the music of the SOR gang. Matter of fact, I found myself singing along to songs like "Superstition" and "My Sharona." And I really enjoyed Ben's drumming in "Psycho Killer."
Speaking of drumming...two little boys and a little girl (all three of 'em playing drums as well as handling the vocals) turned in a "We Will Rock You" that set the house on its ear. (Well, I like to think so!)
We also got a rousing version of "YMCA." (Where else can you hear this 1979 Village People classic done as 100% power pop?)
The school's Rock 101 class drove the proceedings into the 1980s; the first song in the set was "Should I Stay or Should I Go." (I got a kick out of this version, too.)
"Just What I Needed" turned out to be something I needed as well.
A few songs later came the same band that turned in "Sugar Sugar." This time, they came back for a fine, fine version of "Billie Jean."
Well, the timeline marched to a halt with the 1990s, where the set included songs like "When I Come Around."
In this set, every band that performed during the show did an encore song.
Those notes came out of a venue called the Waiting Room (6212 Maple St., 68104; 402 884-5353), where today, from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM, the featured artist was...actually, a bunch of featured artists.
The performers were the students and teachers from Omaha's very own School of Rock.
And man, they cooked!
What attracted me to the outing was the fact that one of the rockers is young Ben Rosenberger, the drummer in our church's praise band. In fact, Ben's the praise band's youngest member...by far.
School of Rock Omaha's outing had a theme: "Rock Timeline."
And you bet your blue suede shoes the young rockers started out with some 1950s stuff. (They really had it going by the time I finally arrived at the Waiting Room...2:12 PM. So...if the SOR students played and sang "Blue Suede Shoes," I missed it.)
Now, I did get to hear "Hound Dog," "In the Still of the Nite," "(We're Gonna) Rock around the Clock," and "All I Have to Do Is Dream," among other items. [By the way...Ben played tambourine on "(We're Gonna) Rock around the Clock."]
And right from the time I got there, I found myself toe-tapping...and/or dancing to the beat. Just couldn't resist.
Another thing about the whole operation was that the School of Rockers formed five or six different bands (Ben himself was in a couple of 'em). As a result, every student got to tackle a different decade in rock...and that piece of strategy put the accent on versatility.
It all became clear when "Rock Timeline" moved into the 1960s.
School of Rock versions of "Little Sister," "You Really Got Me," and "House of the Rising Sun" got my attention.
And "Sugar Sugar" (as sung by a six-year-old girl who sang lead in a half-male, half-female band) and "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay" (in which a male keyboard player and a female lead singer featured on a number before that swapped roles so that he ended up singing lead while she played the keys) really stood out for me.
When the show barreled into the 1970s, I was still movin' and groovin' to the music of the SOR gang. Matter of fact, I found myself singing along to songs like "Superstition" and "My Sharona." And I really enjoyed Ben's drumming in "Psycho Killer."
Speaking of drumming...two little boys and a little girl (all three of 'em playing drums as well as handling the vocals) turned in a "We Will Rock You" that set the house on its ear. (Well, I like to think so!)
We also got a rousing version of "YMCA." (Where else can you hear this 1979 Village People classic done as 100% power pop?)
The school's Rock 101 class drove the proceedings into the 1980s; the first song in the set was "Should I Stay or Should I Go." (I got a kick out of this version, too.)
"Just What I Needed" turned out to be something I needed as well.
A few songs later came the same band that turned in "Sugar Sugar." This time, they came back for a fine, fine version of "Billie Jean."
Well, the timeline marched to a halt with the 1990s, where the set included songs like "When I Come Around."
In this set, every band that performed during the show did an encore song.
Tell you one thing: Next time Omaha's School of Rock takes to the bar called the Waiting Room, I want to be there...I can't wait to see what Ben and Co. come up with next!
That's NOT Entertainment!
Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, Howard K. Smith, and so many other pioneering television journalists would be turning over in their graves if these legends could find out just how their current legatees are handling this business of newsgathering.
Sorry, folks, but I just don't see news as entertainment.
News is news...period.
The way the TV arms of this country's six biggest media companies followed this month's recent national events- starting with the 2014 midterm elections- soured me on continuing to watch their offerings, be they on these companies' broadcast networks or on their cable divisions.
That's right...no more Hardball. No more 60 Minutes. Since the cable provider I've hooked up with dropped C-SPAN and C-SPAN 2 from the provider's basic lineup, the only meat I'm going to get when I turn on my TV set will come from PBS.
Nobody else on the tube today is performing the role of watchdog.
TV reporters working for the commercial media firms aren't asking the tough questions...questions that help viewers get better informed.
For instance, the TV reporters (and no telling how many other journalists in other media), while watching the Nuts (oops, I mean Republicans) retake the US Senate and solidify their hold on the US House, could've asked the new lawmakers- the ones vowing to get the Affordable Care Act repealed- to disclose their own replacement(s) for this law they hate so much. (Never mind that the components of the ACA were originally cooked up by GOP minds!)
These same journalists could've asked the Democrats seeking (and unable to gain) office to explain running away from their party's post-1933 accomplishments...let alone its post-2009 achievements.
And the voters who just got through setting foot at their neighborhood polling places could've themselves used tougher questions...especially the voters in Florida, Kansas, Michigan, and Wisconsin. (People in those four states complained bitterly about their governors- Republicans all- misusing them. But that didn't stop those same voters from reelecting all four of them to second terms.)
Too much cowardice going on on the air...and I don't want to be in on it anymore.
In the meantime, I'll continue to read newspapers...and I'll continue to get right here on this Internet and go to the online versions of those papers, as well as sites like www.factcheck.org and www.dailykos.com.
Online, you're not as likely to run into the cowardice that's prevented correspondents from Big Media from asking John Boehner to explain not taking Steve King or Mo Brooks to task for their racist comments...or asking this country's Speaker of the House to talk about that meeting he and Mitch McConnell attended hours after Barack Obama's first inauguration. (You know, the meeting where McConnell, Boehner, and other key Republicans got together and vowed: "We're not going to work with this 'N-word!'")
And then there's the grand jury's decision in Ferguson, MO, where twelve people decided to let Darren Wilson go free.
These last three-going-on-four months, the only outlet in which I saw any mention of the role White privilege has played in Wilson's murder of Michael Brown (it wasn't enough to take Brown to the police station) was...www.dailykos.com.
Would a reporter from CBS or CNN still have a job after addressing White privilege in America?
Yes, Big Media, it's been quite a ride all these years of watching the news unfold on my (or my mom's or anybody else's) TV set. Lots of history being made.
But when your reporters aren't encouraged to ask tougher questions than the ones out there, and it's all because you're more concerned about profit and about glitz than about truth, it's time for me to get off the ship.
When I watch news on TV, I don't want to be entertained.
I want to be informed.
Sorry, folks, but I just don't see news as entertainment.
News is news...period.
The way the TV arms of this country's six biggest media companies followed this month's recent national events- starting with the 2014 midterm elections- soured me on continuing to watch their offerings, be they on these companies' broadcast networks or on their cable divisions.
That's right...no more Hardball. No more 60 Minutes. Since the cable provider I've hooked up with dropped C-SPAN and C-SPAN 2 from the provider's basic lineup, the only meat I'm going to get when I turn on my TV set will come from PBS.
Nobody else on the tube today is performing the role of watchdog.
TV reporters working for the commercial media firms aren't asking the tough questions...questions that help viewers get better informed.
For instance, the TV reporters (and no telling how many other journalists in other media), while watching the Nuts (oops, I mean Republicans) retake the US Senate and solidify their hold on the US House, could've asked the new lawmakers- the ones vowing to get the Affordable Care Act repealed- to disclose their own replacement(s) for this law they hate so much. (Never mind that the components of the ACA were originally cooked up by GOP minds!)
These same journalists could've asked the Democrats seeking (and unable to gain) office to explain running away from their party's post-1933 accomplishments...let alone its post-2009 achievements.
And the voters who just got through setting foot at their neighborhood polling places could've themselves used tougher questions...especially the voters in Florida, Kansas, Michigan, and Wisconsin. (People in those four states complained bitterly about their governors- Republicans all- misusing them. But that didn't stop those same voters from reelecting all four of them to second terms.)
Too much cowardice going on on the air...and I don't want to be in on it anymore.
In the meantime, I'll continue to read newspapers...and I'll continue to get right here on this Internet and go to the online versions of those papers, as well as sites like www.factcheck.org and www.dailykos.com.
Online, you're not as likely to run into the cowardice that's prevented correspondents from Big Media from asking John Boehner to explain not taking Steve King or Mo Brooks to task for their racist comments...or asking this country's Speaker of the House to talk about that meeting he and Mitch McConnell attended hours after Barack Obama's first inauguration. (You know, the meeting where McConnell, Boehner, and other key Republicans got together and vowed: "We're not going to work with this 'N-word!'")
And then there's the grand jury's decision in Ferguson, MO, where twelve people decided to let Darren Wilson go free.
These last three-going-on-four months, the only outlet in which I saw any mention of the role White privilege has played in Wilson's murder of Michael Brown (it wasn't enough to take Brown to the police station) was...www.dailykos.com.
Would a reporter from CBS or CNN still have a job after addressing White privilege in America?
Yes, Big Media, it's been quite a ride all these years of watching the news unfold on my (or my mom's or anybody else's) TV set. Lots of history being made.
But when your reporters aren't encouraged to ask tougher questions than the ones out there, and it's all because you're more concerned about profit and about glitz than about truth, it's time for me to get off the ship.
When I watch news on TV, I don't want to be entertained.
I want to be informed.
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Mourning in America
Did you vote this past Tuesday (if not sooner)?
I did.
At a little after 12:00 Noon, I arrived at my neighborhood polling place (Omaha's Dundee Presbyterian Church) and spent the next 45 minutes filling out my four-page ballot, being careful to fill the circles completely. (Lots of candidates and lots of special ballot issues this time.)
Yes, I got home just in time to rest a little bit before going off to my factory job. Man, I was still fired up about having voted.
When I got home from work and turned on my TV set to find out just how this year's US midterm election went, I was furious.
MSNBC's and CNN's election-coverage hosts were talking about how the Nuts had just snagged complete control of Congress.
That's right. I said "Nuts."
The Associated Press had reported that America's voters, as a group, were in a funk over the state of the nation's economy. The online article that AP reporter turned in talked about how a sizable number of electors were displeased over the way Barack Obama had been doing things lately.
What's more, the report stated that, in general, those who cast ballots this past Tuesday didn't like the leadership of either major political party.
That didn't stop most voters from giving the Nuts enough seats to give them 52 Senate seats all together when the 114th Congress convenes on 1-7-2015. To top it all off, voters enabled the Nuts to extend their lead in the House.
That's right. I said "Nuts." (After all, Republican leaders had chased the moderates out of that party...leaving the Nuts to dominate it.)
The way I tell it, voters had no good reason to give the so-called GOP control of the US Senate while giving the party more US House seats than it's presently got.
Voters: You really believe the people who shut down this country's government and who continually ignore your needs because you don't have Karl Rove's or David Koch's or Charlie Koch's money actually have your back?
This past Tuesday, you poured gasoline on an already-raging fire.
And when John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and Co. get through, we're all going to pay.
You've signaled that you've given up on this country. That's the only way I see it.
.
Today's Republicans- especially the Washington ones- have already made it clear that they don't care about passing jobs bills or infrastructure bills or immigration-reform bills or stronger gun-control laws or raising the minimum wage (let alone making the Affordable Care Act- whose guts came from Republican minds to begin with- better).
They only care about getting Obama out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
It's a question of time when it comes to how fast McConnell will call for a vote to repeal the ACA...and another one to impeach the nation's first non-Caucasian chief executive (simply because he's non-Caucasian).
You voters, as a whole, let that happen...and so did the ones who wouldn't darken a polling place this week.
Tuesday night, a coworker at my job asked some of her fellow crewmembers if they'd gone to the polls that day.
It HURT to hear some of those coworkers say "no," let alone hear their excuses: "I didn't study up." "I didn't know it was Election Day." "I forgot."
Not even the presence of a minimum-wage-increase initiative here in Nebraska could get those folks to the polls. (Luckily, this state's lowest wage, now $7.25 per hour, will go up...to $9.00 an hour by 2016.)
And what about the Wisconsinites who've been complaining about Gov. Scott Walker's antics...only to let him get back in? And the Kansans who've taken their governor, former US Sen. Sam Brownback, to task over his gutting education funds in the Sunflower State...only to reelect him anyway?
These people had better not complain the next time their governors throw rank-and-file citizens under the bus!
Now I've got a message for the Democrats who lost a couple of days ago (especially the ones seeking national office or trying to upgrade their national gigs):
STOP BEING SO DAMN MEALY-MOUTHED!!! TELL PEOPLE WHERE YOU REALLY STAND...AND DO IT AS FORCEFULLY AS POSSIBLE!!!
Democrats keep throwing away all sorts of votes in midterm elections because these people just won't stand up for their accomplishments. For instance, instead of sticking up for the ACA, too many Donkeys ran away from it!
Gutless!
Alison Lundergan Grimes really didn't deserve to trade her secretary-of-state-in-Kentucky job for a US Senate seat from the Bluegrass State. It hurts to say that...but when Grimes didn't have the guts to say she voted for Obama (in at least one leap year), she probably lost a ton of support.
And Bruce Braley ultimately cut his own throat by saying that Chuck Grassley was just a farmer without a law degree. Not even an endorsement from The Des Moines Register could bail Braley out. (Sure didn't help Willard Romney in 2012.)
You just don't knock farmers in Iowa...home of some of the world's most productive topsoil. I spent most of my childhood in Des Moines, and even I know you don't knock the men and women who feed the world.
What's more, I wanted Braley to win in the very state I came from!
Instead, voters in the Hawkeye State elected Joni Ernst...only because of her cute little "hog castration" commercials.
You know what? Ernst is going to prove just as embarrassing to Iowans as- if not more embarrassing than- the newly-reelected Steve King.
I can imagine all the meetings Ernst, Thom Tillis (North Carolina's newest US senator), and Ted Cruz are going to have to spread their nut-job ideas.
So, there you are. I'm still angry about what just went down.
It's hard for me to see whatever silver linings emerged from this century's fourth US midterm election...even the fact that some Florida voters kicked the oily, despicable Steve Southerland out of the US House and replaced him with Gwen Graham, or the fact that here in the Cornhusker State, some of us voters threw Lee Terry Jr. out on his rear end and enabled Brad Ashford to get the seat.
Now Terry the Younger can enjoy that "good house" a lot longer.
Still, I'm at the point where I'm reluctant to turn on my TV set and watch the 114th Congress spend the next two years doing further damage to the American Brand.
But then, too many of us asked for this.
SHAME ON US!!!
I did.
At a little after 12:00 Noon, I arrived at my neighborhood polling place (Omaha's Dundee Presbyterian Church) and spent the next 45 minutes filling out my four-page ballot, being careful to fill the circles completely. (Lots of candidates and lots of special ballot issues this time.)
Yes, I got home just in time to rest a little bit before going off to my factory job. Man, I was still fired up about having voted.
When I got home from work and turned on my TV set to find out just how this year's US midterm election went, I was furious.
MSNBC's and CNN's election-coverage hosts were talking about how the Nuts had just snagged complete control of Congress.
That's right. I said "Nuts."
The Associated Press had reported that America's voters, as a group, were in a funk over the state of the nation's economy. The online article that AP reporter turned in talked about how a sizable number of electors were displeased over the way Barack Obama had been doing things lately.
What's more, the report stated that, in general, those who cast ballots this past Tuesday didn't like the leadership of either major political party.
That didn't stop most voters from giving the Nuts enough seats to give them 52 Senate seats all together when the 114th Congress convenes on 1-7-2015. To top it all off, voters enabled the Nuts to extend their lead in the House.
That's right. I said "Nuts." (After all, Republican leaders had chased the moderates out of that party...leaving the Nuts to dominate it.)
The way I tell it, voters had no good reason to give the so-called GOP control of the US Senate while giving the party more US House seats than it's presently got.
Voters: You really believe the people who shut down this country's government and who continually ignore your needs because you don't have Karl Rove's or David Koch's or Charlie Koch's money actually have your back?
This past Tuesday, you poured gasoline on an already-raging fire.
And when John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and Co. get through, we're all going to pay.
You've signaled that you've given up on this country. That's the only way I see it.
.
Today's Republicans- especially the Washington ones- have already made it clear that they don't care about passing jobs bills or infrastructure bills or immigration-reform bills or stronger gun-control laws or raising the minimum wage (let alone making the Affordable Care Act- whose guts came from Republican minds to begin with- better).
They only care about getting Obama out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
It's a question of time when it comes to how fast McConnell will call for a vote to repeal the ACA...and another one to impeach the nation's first non-Caucasian chief executive (simply because he's non-Caucasian).
You voters, as a whole, let that happen...and so did the ones who wouldn't darken a polling place this week.
Tuesday night, a coworker at my job asked some of her fellow crewmembers if they'd gone to the polls that day.
It HURT to hear some of those coworkers say "no," let alone hear their excuses: "I didn't study up." "I didn't know it was Election Day." "I forgot."
Not even the presence of a minimum-wage-increase initiative here in Nebraska could get those folks to the polls. (Luckily, this state's lowest wage, now $7.25 per hour, will go up...to $9.00 an hour by 2016.)
And what about the Wisconsinites who've been complaining about Gov. Scott Walker's antics...only to let him get back in? And the Kansans who've taken their governor, former US Sen. Sam Brownback, to task over his gutting education funds in the Sunflower State...only to reelect him anyway?
These people had better not complain the next time their governors throw rank-and-file citizens under the bus!
Now I've got a message for the Democrats who lost a couple of days ago (especially the ones seeking national office or trying to upgrade their national gigs):
STOP BEING SO DAMN MEALY-MOUTHED!!! TELL PEOPLE WHERE YOU REALLY STAND...AND DO IT AS FORCEFULLY AS POSSIBLE!!!
Democrats keep throwing away all sorts of votes in midterm elections because these people just won't stand up for their accomplishments. For instance, instead of sticking up for the ACA, too many Donkeys ran away from it!
Gutless!
Alison Lundergan Grimes really didn't deserve to trade her secretary-of-state-in-Kentucky job for a US Senate seat from the Bluegrass State. It hurts to say that...but when Grimes didn't have the guts to say she voted for Obama (in at least one leap year), she probably lost a ton of support.
And Bruce Braley ultimately cut his own throat by saying that Chuck Grassley was just a farmer without a law degree. Not even an endorsement from The Des Moines Register could bail Braley out. (Sure didn't help Willard Romney in 2012.)
You just don't knock farmers in Iowa...home of some of the world's most productive topsoil. I spent most of my childhood in Des Moines, and even I know you don't knock the men and women who feed the world.
What's more, I wanted Braley to win in the very state I came from!
Instead, voters in the Hawkeye State elected Joni Ernst...only because of her cute little "hog castration" commercials.
You know what? Ernst is going to prove just as embarrassing to Iowans as- if not more embarrassing than- the newly-reelected Steve King.
I can imagine all the meetings Ernst, Thom Tillis (North Carolina's newest US senator), and Ted Cruz are going to have to spread their nut-job ideas.
So, there you are. I'm still angry about what just went down.
It's hard for me to see whatever silver linings emerged from this century's fourth US midterm election...even the fact that some Florida voters kicked the oily, despicable Steve Southerland out of the US House and replaced him with Gwen Graham, or the fact that here in the Cornhusker State, some of us voters threw Lee Terry Jr. out on his rear end and enabled Brad Ashford to get the seat.
Now Terry the Younger can enjoy that "good house" a lot longer.
Still, I'm at the point where I'm reluctant to turn on my TV set and watch the 114th Congress spend the next two years doing further damage to the American Brand.
But then, too many of us asked for this.
SHAME ON US!!!
Friday, October 31, 2014
That's It! He's Got to Go!
I'm still steamed at the campaign ads brought out by the National Republican Congressional Committee in support of US Rep. Lee Terry Jr. (R-NE) labeling his biggest challenger, Nebraska State Sen. Brad Ashford (D-Omaha), as "soft on crime," and trying to tie him not only with convicted mass murderer Nikko Jenkins...but also with the Islamic State terrorists who've recently, among other things, lopped journalists' heads off.
Terry's ads are a complete and total pack of lies. That's all there is to it.
In one plug, Terry and the NRCC claim Ashford supports Nebraska's "Good Time Law," which gives prisoners a day off for every 24-hour period they spend behind bars without breaking prison rules. (This law dates back to the early 1990s.)
Jenkins was sentenced to 21 years in jail...only to spend just a decade behind bars. (Didn't matter that while still in the pokey, Jenkins time and time again showed violent behavior.)
He was let out of prison last year...after which he killed four people in ten days.
The NRCC's next commercial for Terry Jr. really took the cake, linking Ashford with the Islamic State people.
That's today's Republican Party for you. When its operatives see one of their party's incumbents/candidates in trouble, they take the "Willie Horton" page out of Lee Atwater's book.
Today's Republicans just love to sow fear rather than hope.
And then their spokespersons have the NERVE to wonder (often out loud) why their party continues to lose ground among voters.
I remember when Ashford was a Republican. Then he became an independent in order to try to get what was then (2013) Jim Suttle's job as mayor of the Big O.
Now I see why the 64-going-on-65-year-old Ashford switched from the Elephants (as a state senator, he pledged the GOP from 1987 to 1995) to the Donkeys:
Ashford (back in the Unicameral since 2006) got sick and tired of all those Republican antics...especially that party's stunts of the last five years.
Brad Ashford wants to get this country's minimum wage increased to $10.10 per hour, would like to target tax cuts to America's middle-income families, and is out to invest in the nation's education system and the country's crumbling infrastructure.
Terry Jr. doesn't want any of these things.
In fact, this namesake son of a legendary local news anchor (maybe you watched Lee Terry Sr. on KETV's Newswatch 7 during the 1970s) has participated in all fifty (and counting) House votes to strike down the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010...and all fifty times, Lee Jr. has come out in favor of repealing this law.
Ashford supports the immigration reform bill recently passed by the US Senate (the bill that puts border security first and also includes a tough-but-fair pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants currently living in these fifty states- and the pathway does come with a criminal background check, a requirement to repay back taxes, and a heavy fine, among other things).
Lee Terry Jr. doesn't support the bill...and it's simply because of its pathway to citizenship. (How would he feel about the bill if the lion's share of undocumented immigrants coming to these shores were from Ukraine rather than Mexico?)
Ann Ferlic Ashford's husband has said he'll reach across the aisle if elected to the US House.
Robyn Terry's husband isn't the moderate he and his supporters make him out to be. What's more, since LNT Jr. got to the nation's capital in 1999, his efforts to reach across the aisle have been some kind of rare. According to ballotpedia.org, the 52-going-on-53-year-old former Omaha City Councilmember has voted with his fellow Republicans 94.4% of the time here in 2014.
During last winter's highly-infamous sequester, many US representatives gave up their salaries.
Not Lee Nathan Terry Jr.
He decided to keep getting those paychecks on account of his and Robyn's ownership of "a good house" and the need to put one of their three sons through college.
To top it all off, Terry fils bragged that he didn't give a crap about what happened to all those families affected by that sequester.
How do you think Terry pere would've acted at a time like this?
You know, Lee Terry Sr. wanted this US House seat...back in 1976.
But fellow Omahan John J. Cavanaugh defeated LNT Sr. and held onto that House gig for two terms.
Ashford's hoping to be the second Democrat since Cavanaugh (and first since Peter Hoagland) to represent the Cornhusker State's Second House District.
If you live here in Nebraska's Second House District, why don't you ask yourself: "What's Lee Terry Jr. ever done to help us rank-and-file citizens?"
If your answer turns out to be "nothing, nada, zippo," join me in getting Terry the Younger out of Washington, DC and sending Ashford there to replace him.
See you at the polls on 11-4-2014!
Saturday, October 18, 2014
The Hawkeye State
One of my pet interests is politics. (Okay...if you've read "Boston's Blog" for any length of time, you get that I'm into politics as well as being into many other things.)
And from time to time, I've mentioned that I was born in, raised in, and educated in Iowa.
I reached voting age while living in Iowa. In fact, the very first year I could actually cast an official ballot was 1976, and the very first move I made as a registered voter was to pull the lever for Jimmy Carter.
I-O-W-A.
That's right. The Hawkeye State.
The Reasonable State.
It's the first state you visit if you have any iota of interest in becoming America's next commander in chief. After all, every leap year means that Iowa's the first state to get to decide who ought to be the Last Two Standing that November.
The state I was born in- its reputation as The Reasonable State notwithstanding- inexplicably (or with good reason, depending on your point of view) sent a man named Steve King to the US House next month in 2002.
If you've been watching TV these last dozen years, you've seen King interviewed on lots of political-discussion shows and seen him make plenty of sound bytes...and seen him make plenty of remarks that make you wonder: "Was this man really born in Iowa? Who let him out?"
I'm going to go Natalie Maines (remember her from the Dixie Chicks?) and say: "I'm ashamed that Steve King came out of the same state I did: Iowa."
When Iowa's junior US senator, Tom Harkin, announced that he was going to kick back after spending forty years in Washington (first as a US representative), some political pundits thought King would go after Democrat Harkin's seat and give it back to the Republicans...and, in the process, make the exact same move Harkin and Republican Chuck Grassley did: Supersizing a US House seat into one from the US Senate. (Grassley officially became a US senator in 1981; four years later, Harkin got in...and went on to successfully champion the Americans with Disabilities Act, signed into law by George Herbert Walker Bush in 1990.)
Yep..what a field day King and Texas' newest US senator, Ted Cruz, would have in that division of Congress, complaining about some people's "cantaloupe-size" calves (and plotting plenty of government shutdowns).
As things have turned out, Reince Priebus and his pals in the Republican National Committee didn't need Steve King to run for the US Senate here in 2014.
With US Rep. Bruce Braley looking to keep that Senate seat in the hands of the Donkeys, his biggest challenger is a state senator from Red Oak...a woman known for her "hog castration" commercials.
Iowa's one of the few US states still yet to elect a woman to Congress.
This year, it might elect two...or one...or none.
One thing's for sure: I'd rather see Staci Appel get Tom Latham's US House seat than see Joni "Hog Castration" Ernst beat out Braley to replace one of Congress' leading lights, Harkin.
Jimmy Fallon might like Ernst's campaign commercials...but if he ever decided to pull back the curtain and see behind the hog-castration demonstrations, The Tonight Show's newest host might not be so quick to fall in love with this farmer-turned military veteran-turned Iowa state senator.
First of all, at a time when more and more American workers continue to lose their buying power [due to 33 years (and counting) of GOP-led assaults on the nation's middle-income and low-income families], Ernst doesn't want the country's minimum wage increased.
I'd like to see her try to live on $7.25 an hour...let alone raise a family on that amount.
Second, Ernst wants to criminalize abortions...across the board.
Period.
End of discussion.
Iowa's latest Republican nominee for a US Senate gig has called Barack Obama a dictator...yet she probably, like so many of the Senate Republicans she's trying to join, just flat-out admires the job Vladimir Putin's doing heading up Russia's government.
And you know that, if the GOP takes over the United States Senate next January, and Joni Ernst is part of the takeover, she'll stump for Obama's impeachment.
Ernst, last but not least, thinks the very US government she's trying to join gives the country's citizens practically everything, and has attacked large groups of people for depending on the very organization she's trying to join.
I just got through reading, on www.dailykos.com, an article that talked of a 2013 radio interview Ernst was part of. In it, the Woman from Red Oak spoke of "reeducating" Americans about the values of being self-sufficient: "It's going to be very painful and we know that. So do we have the intestinal fortitude to do that?"
Yeah, Joni. Right. It takes great intestinal fortitude to further penalize millions of wage-earning Americans who don't get to log in enough hours of work to try and support their families and other loved ones.
In that same interview, Ernst complained about how Americans don't rely on family too much anymore...let alone on churches and on private organizations: "They used to have wonderful food pantries..."
Those food pantries are still out there, contrary to Ernst's teachings.
It's just that, in this day and age, the pantries are swamped.
What do you expect when items in general continue to get priced out of the range of rank-and-file Americans...Americans who probably haven't received a raise in pay since Mike and Molly premiered?
When people can't financially contribute to churches and private organizations because those same people can't get raises in pay and, in too many cases, have to decide whether to purchase groceries or get the utility bill paid up for the month, and those same people find that their relatives are in the exact same boat, where are those same people supposed to turn...in an economy that, in the 1980s, got flipped from consumer-friendly to investor-friendly?
Where?
Let's see Ernst answer that one.
You know, the last time a major political candidate went out to talk this same kind of trash, only to see that rhetoric go out nationally on TV, radio, the Internet, and every other medium you can think of...well, that candidate lost.
That candidate was Willard Mitt Romney...the same man who recently went to Iowa to fight to get Joni Ernst elected to the US Senate.
Yep, we've heard so much about how this year's midterm election is THAT crucial...about how control of this country's Senate is at stake.
And we've heard about how it all could come down to whether those Iowans who decide to vote on 11-4-2014 want to let Braley take the next step up the political ladder...or if they want to bring Ernst in.
Really, Iowa...are you sure you want to take a chance on a woman who truly doesn't want you to make ends meet?
Iowans: You sure you want to vote against your best interests, your self-interests?
Are you sure you want to put your reputation as the nation's Reasonable State on the line by giving Cruz another sidekick?
ARE YOU REALLY SURE?
And from time to time, I've mentioned that I was born in, raised in, and educated in Iowa.
I reached voting age while living in Iowa. In fact, the very first year I could actually cast an official ballot was 1976, and the very first move I made as a registered voter was to pull the lever for Jimmy Carter.
I-O-W-A.
That's right. The Hawkeye State.
The Reasonable State.
It's the first state you visit if you have any iota of interest in becoming America's next commander in chief. After all, every leap year means that Iowa's the first state to get to decide who ought to be the Last Two Standing that November.
The state I was born in- its reputation as The Reasonable State notwithstanding- inexplicably (or with good reason, depending on your point of view) sent a man named Steve King to the US House next month in 2002.
If you've been watching TV these last dozen years, you've seen King interviewed on lots of political-discussion shows and seen him make plenty of sound bytes...and seen him make plenty of remarks that make you wonder: "Was this man really born in Iowa? Who let him out?"
I'm going to go Natalie Maines (remember her from the Dixie Chicks?) and say: "I'm ashamed that Steve King came out of the same state I did: Iowa."
When Iowa's junior US senator, Tom Harkin, announced that he was going to kick back after spending forty years in Washington (first as a US representative), some political pundits thought King would go after Democrat Harkin's seat and give it back to the Republicans...and, in the process, make the exact same move Harkin and Republican Chuck Grassley did: Supersizing a US House seat into one from the US Senate. (Grassley officially became a US senator in 1981; four years later, Harkin got in...and went on to successfully champion the Americans with Disabilities Act, signed into law by George Herbert Walker Bush in 1990.)
Yep..what a field day King and Texas' newest US senator, Ted Cruz, would have in that division of Congress, complaining about some people's "cantaloupe-size" calves (and plotting plenty of government shutdowns).
As things have turned out, Reince Priebus and his pals in the Republican National Committee didn't need Steve King to run for the US Senate here in 2014.
With US Rep. Bruce Braley looking to keep that Senate seat in the hands of the Donkeys, his biggest challenger is a state senator from Red Oak...a woman known for her "hog castration" commercials.
Iowa's one of the few US states still yet to elect a woman to Congress.
This year, it might elect two...or one...or none.
One thing's for sure: I'd rather see Staci Appel get Tom Latham's US House seat than see Joni "Hog Castration" Ernst beat out Braley to replace one of Congress' leading lights, Harkin.
Jimmy Fallon might like Ernst's campaign commercials...but if he ever decided to pull back the curtain and see behind the hog-castration demonstrations, The Tonight Show's newest host might not be so quick to fall in love with this farmer-turned military veteran-turned Iowa state senator.
First of all, at a time when more and more American workers continue to lose their buying power [due to 33 years (and counting) of GOP-led assaults on the nation's middle-income and low-income families], Ernst doesn't want the country's minimum wage increased.
I'd like to see her try to live on $7.25 an hour...let alone raise a family on that amount.
Second, Ernst wants to criminalize abortions...across the board.
Period.
End of discussion.
Iowa's latest Republican nominee for a US Senate gig has called Barack Obama a dictator...yet she probably, like so many of the Senate Republicans she's trying to join, just flat-out admires the job Vladimir Putin's doing heading up Russia's government.
And you know that, if the GOP takes over the United States Senate next January, and Joni Ernst is part of the takeover, she'll stump for Obama's impeachment.
Ernst, last but not least, thinks the very US government she's trying to join gives the country's citizens practically everything, and has attacked large groups of people for depending on the very organization she's trying to join.
I just got through reading, on www.dailykos.com, an article that talked of a 2013 radio interview Ernst was part of. In it, the Woman from Red Oak spoke of "reeducating" Americans about the values of being self-sufficient: "It's going to be very painful and we know that. So do we have the intestinal fortitude to do that?"
Yeah, Joni. Right. It takes great intestinal fortitude to further penalize millions of wage-earning Americans who don't get to log in enough hours of work to try and support their families and other loved ones.
In that same interview, Ernst complained about how Americans don't rely on family too much anymore...let alone on churches and on private organizations: "They used to have wonderful food pantries..."
Those food pantries are still out there, contrary to Ernst's teachings.
It's just that, in this day and age, the pantries are swamped.
What do you expect when items in general continue to get priced out of the range of rank-and-file Americans...Americans who probably haven't received a raise in pay since Mike and Molly premiered?
When people can't financially contribute to churches and private organizations because those same people can't get raises in pay and, in too many cases, have to decide whether to purchase groceries or get the utility bill paid up for the month, and those same people find that their relatives are in the exact same boat, where are those same people supposed to turn...in an economy that, in the 1980s, got flipped from consumer-friendly to investor-friendly?
Where?
Let's see Ernst answer that one.
You know, the last time a major political candidate went out to talk this same kind of trash, only to see that rhetoric go out nationally on TV, radio, the Internet, and every other medium you can think of...well, that candidate lost.
That candidate was Willard Mitt Romney...the same man who recently went to Iowa to fight to get Joni Ernst elected to the US Senate.
Yep, we've heard so much about how this year's midterm election is THAT crucial...about how control of this country's Senate is at stake.
And we've heard about how it all could come down to whether those Iowans who decide to vote on 11-4-2014 want to let Braley take the next step up the political ladder...or if they want to bring Ernst in.
Really, Iowa...are you sure you want to take a chance on a woman who truly doesn't want you to make ends meet?
Iowans: You sure you want to vote against your best interests, your self-interests?
Are you sure you want to put your reputation as the nation's Reasonable State on the line by giving Cruz another sidekick?
ARE YOU REALLY SURE?
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