Obama has done "Nothing", PT. 5

When I started this series I worried the fact that I don't blog regularly would make this ineffective. That is part of the problem, what I didn't appreciate is that he would actually accomplish so much on a daily basis. I end up in this paralysis of trying to decide what to post I end up not having enough time to decide which story to run with and post the details on the blog.

Today on the anniversary of the historic election of the 44th President of the United States Mr. Barack H. Obama, I get to reflect on the entire experience and the emotion I felt through the campaign culminating with the victory on Election Day. Don't worry by reflecting I don't mean I am going to type out all of my thoughts from the first day I learned of Barack Obama until now. Fortunately there are 2 resources that chronicle this in a way far superior than anything I can ever dream of doing:

1. The HBO Documentary BY THE PEOPLE: THE ELECTION OF BARACK OBAMA which premiered last night. I think what the Obama Campaign did in Iowa is a movie all by itself coming from obscurity against a Goliath candidate and coming out victorious, but the entire story just might have you in tears... Watching this movie is watching history, but for the first time I can reflect what I was doing, what I was thinking, how I felt, and how I was involved!
2. Obama's Campaign manager David Plouffe wrote a blog post on Huffington Post in response to Ariana Huffington (as the Humanity Critic so elegantly stated her elaborate plot to have people take her hamfistedly clumsy articles seriously). DAVID PLOUFFE: No Difference Between President Obama and Candidate Obama. This article is a masterpiece chronicling the administration that already has made a significant down payment on the change so many fought for last year.

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Obama has done "Nothing", PT. 4

On January 29, 2009, President Obama signed his first bill into law, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which overruled the Supreme Court's decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. which I wrote about in a previous blog post.

The bill amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 stating that the 180-day statute of limitations for filing an equal-pay lawsuit regarding pay discrimination resets with each new discriminatory paycheck.

A first bill to amend the statutory limitations period and supersede the Ledbetter decision was introduced in Congress but was never enacted, as after having been passed by the House it failed to survive in the Senate due to the opposition of most of the Republican Senators.

President Obama has long championed this bill and Lilly Ledbetter's cause, and by signing it into law, ensures that women like Ms. Ledbetter and other victims of pay discrimination can effectively challenge unequal pay. Read more!

alildabwilldoya on Twitter

I failed to post a note on the blog that I am on Twitter now. I can be found at http://twitter.com/alildabwilldoya.

Forget what you heard Twitter is a good resource for news, information, commentaries from the pundits of your choice, and keeping up with the happenings and thoughts of your bff's! What makes it really great is that it does all that in only 140 characters per tweet.

Perfect for someone that tends to drag on their thoughts like me........ Read more!

Obama has done "Nothing", PT.3

This one is called:

"Cleaning up after the Bush Bank Bailout"

I was never convinced of the necessity of Bush's Bank Bailout, but as Vice President Joe Biden stated, "Instead of being in the middle of a depression, we are talking about coming out of a recession."

I see the bailout as part of the strategic vision of Republican strategists to maintain their relevance. The largest transfer of wealth to the wealthiest of Americans ever. They saddled the next administration with debt beyond what most of us could even comprehend which has severely limited the Obama administration from achieving their own initiatives as they try to clean up the mess that was left.

Lastly, the best part of their strategy is in play now, as they have spent the last several months painting the Democrats as the ones responsible for the bailouts and uncontrollable federal spending. Brilliant strategy and it has worked masterfully.

In steps the Pay Czar, one of Obama's much maligned "czars" (a conservative media phenomenomem that is dismantled here on http://factcheck.org/). When Obama took office he mandated some structure be put around the reckless management of the billions of funds released by the Bush Administration that was largely (if not completely) unaccounted for.

The Pay Czar is delivering a payback in his latest move to deny salary or bonus from Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis. Lewis was set to receive millions in salary and bonuses while his company posted $2.24B in losses for the 3Q after accepting $45 billion dollars from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) (a.k.a Bush Bank Bailout).


Kenneth Feinberg, is the U.S. Treasury Department's special master for compensation and is scrutinizing pay packages at bailed-out banks. In fact Lewis will pay back about $1 million he has received so far out of a $1.5 million annual salary. Lewis will be the first of many CEO’s to have their pay packages scrutinized which under the Bush administration had little to no accountability for the funds they had received.

Read more!

Obama has done "Nothing", PT.2

This one is called:

"Why do they hate you?"

Wonderful video, I love President Obama's attitude! Spoken like a Nobel Peace Prize Winner!!!After this I bet he asks Michelle Obama if she wants to try for a son.....


Watch CBS News Videos Online Read more!

Obama has done "Nothing", PT.1

Starting a new series chronicling this notion that Obama has done nothing. Since I don't blog with regularity this is probably a bad series for me to take on, but I am going to give it a shot. Debating whether I want to do some investigative reporting and chronicle the hundreds of things that he has already done or just highlight the many things to come. We'll see.

Today's entry: Obama's first trip to New Orleans

While it's Obama's first trip to New Orleans, it's the administration's 18th trip to the city and administration officials have made 35 trips to the Gulf Coast since March.

When Obama became president, FEMA said there were more than 120 Louisiana reconstruction projects stalled in federal-state disputes. Since January, 76 of those have been resolved.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, has credited Obama's team with bringing a more practical and flexible approach to the reconstruction process. "There's a sense of momentum and a desire to get things done," he said in August. Read more!

2009 NFL for Dummies (Weighing in on Week 5)

I haven’t really made any predictions this season, but outside of the Broncos, Bengals, Titans, Saints, and Panthers I don’t think it would have changed much if I had done this pre-season. Keeping this one simple I am going to divide up all 32 teams by conference and place them in categories as to how they have performed and how I think they will perform this season. Having signed up for the NFL Red Zone package this season I am hoping I am better equipped than ever! After 5 weeks of NFL football as the fat fish (Coach Bill Parcells) used to say, “you are what you are:"

NFC

Elite Teams – best teams in the league, the teams you should sit down and watch every week

• Saints - They have been here before and always leave the critics wondering if they have staying power, but with their schedule unless Brees goes down I don’t see them losing more than 3 or 4 games. Aside from QB their overall depth has vastly improved.
• Giants – They are probably the best and most consistent team in the NFL. Even with injuries they find ways to win.
• Vikings – This was destined to be a good team w/o having a decent QB. Now with Favre surrounded by all of this talent and a great defense if he can hold up this team is scary!
• Eagles – Just to show I am not just going down the line and picking the teams with the best records, this team has a top 5 player at so many positions and backups that would start on some teams. Their only loss is to Saints and they kept rolling w/o arguably the NFL’s best QB in McNabb. Unlike previous years if McNabb or Westbrook goes down expect this team to keep rolling

Likely Playoff Teams – these teams should be in if they win the games they are supposed to win

• Falcons – More than anything with the NFC South having 2 inept teams, the Falcons are playing pretty good football and likely to win 10 or 11 games.
• Cardinals – Someone has to win the NFC West! I would like to pick a pretty talented Seattle team but they will have a hard time fighting through all of the injuries and also have a pretty tough schedule. The 49ers are the hot pick but I doubt they have the staying power. Although Super Bowl losing teams often miss the playoffs the following season, the Cardinals only need 6-7 more wins to get in and with the Rams twice, the Lions, the Titans, and the Panthers remaining on the schedule this is almost a lock!
  

In the Hunt – teams that will make it hard for their conference and divisional foes

• 49ers –In a mediocre NFC West basically all of the teams have a shot! This will come down to head-to-head matchups in the division of which they have already won in games against the Cardinals and Seahawks, but with no depth on this young team injuries are going to take a toll.
• Seahawks - This is a very talented team, but w/o QB Matt Hassleback for a few weeks they looked awful. When Hassleback is laying this team has a chance to win, but with key injuries on the OL I don't think this team will keep there key players healthy enough to hold up.
• Bears – This was a decent team without a QB, now they have a franchise QB in Cutler. Team that up with some good coaching and this is a team that definitely has a shot. If they can hold serve against the Vikings late in December this could be a Wild Card team.

Window Shopping – teams that will find themselves a play or two away when they look back on the season

• Packers – this team will likely be 9-7, but this year I don’t think that is going to get you in the playoffs in the NFC (except for the NFC West where the division winner may be 9-7). They are going to have to beat one of the teams in the hunt head-to-head. Fortunately they will get a shot!
• Cowboys – not only will they not beat any teams in which they are the underdog, but they will certainly lose to teams when they are the favorite. Looking at the December schedule they could possibly lose all of their last 5 games.

What Happened? – These teams can’t be this bad...

• Redskins – I think I am one of the few people surprised as the Redskins were picked to wallow by most critics, but I just thought they had too much talent. Another early 1st RD draft pick will be great for their new coach.
• Panthers – this is actually a recurring theme for the Panthers, up one season down the next….

Looking forward to the 2010 Draft – stockpile more talent, it may be a few more years

• Lions, Bucs, and Rams – not even worth the editorial……

AFC

Elite Teams – unlike the NFC, this team is in a class all alone

• Colts – Manning is having his best start to a season, which is actually better than pretty much any QB ever!! Good to see this team pass the torch and keep rolling. We are going to need at least 2 teams to beat them to show the rest of the league it can be done

Likely Playoff Teams – these teams should be in if they win the games they are supposed to win.

• Broncos – not sure how the other critics see it, but I still can’t call the AFC’s only other unbeaten team “elite.” Fortunately for them they play well at home, but they go on the road now. The Broncos kind of remind me of the Steelers last season, you keep wondering how many games can a team win going down to the last play of the game?? The Steelers rode that all the way to a 6th Super Bowl. This team will likely win 11 games!
• Chargers – For whatever reason the critics are down on the Chargers, but I see this team at worst only losing 2-3 more games and actually winning the AFC West. Pound for pound the most talented team in the AFC.
• Jets – Although the critics want to make them an “elite” team because of the outstanding play of Rookie QB Mark Sanchez what I see is the best OL in the NFL making it easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy for the young QB. The scheduling gods set it up good for this team to make the playoffs…
• Patriots – As long as Tom Brady is the QB and Bill Belichick is the coach I am picking this team for the playoffs.
• Ravens – I am looking for the Ravens to do what the Steelers did last season, battle close and win a lot of tight games. Fortunately for them the schedule has most of their toughest games at home.

In the Hunt – teams that will make it hard for their conference and divisional foes

• Steelers – last year’s Super Bowl champs are similar to the Panthers in being unable to string along consecutive strong seasons. They won their fair share of close games last season, but luck is starting to run out! They will make it hard on every team they play.
• Bengals – When the scheduling gods smiled at the Jets they decided to unleash their wrath on the Bengals. They have fought through a tough schedule already, but it just keeps getting harder. This is a good team, unfortunately they are undoubtedly in the toughest division in the AFC and there will not be room for letdowns.

Window Shopping – teams that will find themselves a play or two away when they look back on the season

• Texans – basically the AFC’s version of the Cowboys, just a coincidence they are in the same state
• Dolphins – unfortunately for the Dolphins they just ran out of room at the top of the AFC.

What Happened? – These teams can’t be this bad...

• Titans – This team is the biggest surprise of the season. No one picked them to be bad, more less potentially the worst team in the league. We knew the QB Kerry Collins would eventually fall off, and the hole in the middle left by Albert Haynesworth leaving for the Redskins appears to be like a tire punched in the sidewall.
• Jaguars – This one you could kind of see coming, but never thought this would be a team that would be getting blown away. They have too much talent and have always been too fundamentally sound to be playing as inept as they have shown thus far.

Looking forward to the 2010 Draft – stockpile more talent, it may be a few more years

• Browns, Raiders, Bills, Chiefs – not even worth the editorial……

So to sum all of this up my playoff picks are the teams I listed as “elite" or “likely playoff teams.” I hope the teams “in the hunt” make it interesting down the stretch. My Super Bowl picks this year are the Eagles (NFC) and the Colts (AFC). I will admit this is a change from my pre-season picks (as it pertains to the Colts) as I thought there would be more of a drop-off under a new coach, but I forgot Manning does the “real” coaching on this team. I look for the Ravens and Chargers to really ride the Colts to the bitter end. The Eagles will have an extremely rough road in the playoffs, as they may not win their own division, but their potential to make big plays will give them a shot to come out victorious in any situation. I can’t help but get excited predicting a Super Bowl that puts what I believe are the 2 best QB’s in the NFL on the field to battle it out, and to sweeten the deal we will have the Black QB (McNabb) on one side, and the Black HC (Caldwell) on the other. Pretty Sweet!!!

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Choose the Better Right

Using the sermon points of the the believer, the Bible, and the ballot box I have scored these principles with my own commentary to reach what I see as an obvious conclusion.

I. Participate in the Process

This election had the highest voter turnout of any election. I believe more Christians voted in this election than any election before. Christian pastors made an outcry to White Evangelicals to go out and vote Republicans and President Obama prevailed overwhelmingly. I believe many were like me and after truly evaluating Biblical principles and not divisive talking points and wedge issues came to an obvious conclusion.

Score: It is unfair to assume that because more people participated in the process that the winner of the election was the benefactor of this participation so we will call this one even.

II. Vote Biblical Values

a. The Sanctity of Human Life
If you read the context of this question it put a much larger context around this principle than the typical non-negotiable pro-life rhetoric. Candidates should be chosen based on who has the best chance to pursue the practical and proven policies which could dramatically reduce the number of abortions in America and therefore save precious unborn lives, rather than those who simply repeat the polarizing legal debates and "pro-choice" and "pro-life" mantras from either side. Republican candidates have received a free pass from upholding all other Biblical and Conservative principles by stamping Pro-life on their campaign poster.

Score: That being said I do believe that God’s Word is non-negotiable so I will ignore the other principles on the sanctity of human life and score this for McCain.

b. Justice For All
With more than 2,000 verses in the Bible about how we treat the poor and oppressed, candidates must convey what they will do to overcome the scandal of extreme global poverty and the shame of such unnecessary domestic poverty in the richest nation in the world. Such a central theme of the Bible simply cannot be ignored at election time, as too many Christians have done for years. Any solution to the economic crisis that simply bails out the rich, and even the middle class, but ignores those at the bottom should simply be unacceptable to people of faith.

Score: This one is not even competitive the candidates are on complete sides of this principle score this one for Obama.

c. Peace on Earth
From the biblical prophets to Jesus, there is at least, a biblical presumption against war. We must choose the candidates who will be least likely to lead us into more disastrous wars and find better ways to resolve the inevitable conflicts in the world. The candidate that best understands that our security depends upon other people's security (everyone having "their own”, so no one can make them afraid). I do not want a pacifist president, but we can insist on one who views military force only as a very last resort, when all other diplomatic and economic measures have failed, and never as a preferred or habitual response to conflict.

I would also regard God's fragile creation and choose the candidate who will likely be most faithful in our care of the environment. A candidate that will take on the growing threat of climate change, and show a strong commitment to the conversion of our economy and way of life to a cleaner, safer, and more renewable energy future. This could accomplish at the same time a key priority like reducing our Middle East oil dependence. In addition job creation and economic renewal from a new "green" economy built on more spiritual values of conservation, stewardship, sustainability, respect, responsibility, co-dependence, modesty, and even humility.

Score: Again this is not a competitive comparison Even if you don’t believe in global warming; McCain has pronounced himself as war-monger who is only rivaled by former Vice President Cheney in his desire to see the destruction of all conflicting nations. Score this one for Obama.

d. Moral Conviction
If you read the explanation of this principle this really needs know explanation. Healthy families are the foundation of our community life, and nothing is more important than how we are raising up the next generation. Only one candidate exemplifies and articulates strong family values. The White House should be used to speak of sexual restraint and integrity, marital fidelity, strong parenting, and putting family values over economic values.

Score: You have one candidate that divorced his wife after she was in a car wreck and began an affair with hispresent wife. In addition selected a running mate that had an illegitimate child (do the math child’s age minus years married), and raised a child that did the same thing. In the middle of all of the backlash made false claims that they would marry (which still has not happened) and the baby daddy (never thought you would hear this term applied to someone proposing to be in the White House) is contemplating posing in Playboy magazine and the proposed mother-in-law has been arrested for six felony drug counts. The moral valley actually goes much wider and deeper than the few items I have mentioned.

This would basically disqualify McCain from the position if there were NO other opponent, but there is… Obama is married and actually loves his first and only wife, he has 2 beautiful children and almost let’s no occasion pass when he is not speaking passionately about the important role of a strong father and mother and the strength of the American family as the backbone of all that is good in our great Nation. Throw in his running mate that lost his wife and raised his children as a single father commuting from DC to Delaware daily so that he could be with his family at home. Even if you absolutely hate Obama with every fabric of your being, you have no choice you have to score this one for Obama.

III. Choose the Better Right

Just reviewing the 4 basic Biblical principles above I amazed that anyone could come to any other conclusion than to vote for Barack Obama. Even if you disagree with my opinions if you listed it out every single component of each of these Biblical principles and actually evaluated the candidates positions based on facts (not rhetoric that you hear on MSNBC or Fox News) it is undeniable that the agenda being promoted by Obama lines up significantly more so than what is being promoted by McCain. I believe if a lot of liberals or progressives actually took time to evaluate the specifics of his views they would be a little more tentative about their support. The “Change” Obama speaks of is not just rhetoric to be more tolerant it is actually pursuing the teachings of the Bible not just cherry-picking them for political gain.

IV. Ask for Wisdom (Proverbs 29:2)

If you note in the scripture referenced it says that when the “evil rule the people groan.” The people have never groaned as loud as they did this November and throughout the campaign season. Obama won more so from the people’s displeasure with the Bush administration than he did on his own merit or anything that John McCain did or said. Only the wealthy thrived under Bush the rest of us are left to support the burdens of their prosperity.

V. Pray for our Leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-2)

Regardless if the candidate you supported prevailed as Christians we are called to pray for our leaders. I fault all of the so called Christians that failed to pray for President Bush as we watched him digress from the Christian and Conservative principles that he campaigned for to succumb to his ambition for economic gain and power. Let us not allow President Obama to lose his tenacity to pursue God’s agenda because Christians fail to support him with our prayers.

VI. God continues to Sit on the Throne (Daniel 12:20-21)

In verse 21 Daniel says God sets up Kings and disposes them. I truly feel that God allowed President Bush to lead this nation for two terms to prepare us for President Obama. Obama could have never succeeded under the mindset that Americans held at the turn of the century. God allowed us to see a disintegration of everything Americans believe before they could see beyond their fear and hatred and accept one that is truly capable of promoting God-centered qualities and equality. President Obama presents the best picture to both sides. To liberals he represents a purer representation of Biblical and moral principles that go beyond your personal faith, but just make plain sense to all men. To conservatives he stands as one that can actually articulate actionable items to achieve those moral and biblical standards not just use them as rhetoric to score political points.


In closing, to me this is such an obvious conclusion I cannot help but be disturbed by many Christians that have chose to disregard the teachings of the Bible and aggressively demonize President Obama. I have actually heard him ridiculed for statements that are specific principles and teachings from the Bible that all Christians supposedly use as instructions for our life. What is it that blinds you to the abhorrent symbol that McCain and Palin represent of morality, conservatism, and human decency. Is it really Obama’s stand on abortion (which is a topic for another day) that bothers you?

"God's Politics" will often turn our partisan politics upside down, transcend our ideological categories of Left and Right, and challenge the core values and priorities of our political culture. There is no easy jump from God's politics to either the Republicans or Democrats. God is neither. In any election, we face imperfect choices, but our choices should reflect the things we believe God cares about as people of faith. Therefore, people of faith, should be "values voters" but vote all our values not just a few that can be easily manipulated for the benefit of one party or another.

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There is about as much BLAME as there were FANS....

Spilling out of the Cowboys-Giants Inaugural Game at the new Cowboys Stadium, 2 themes came out of this historic game where 105,121 fans attended.

1. Romo is a bust…..
2. This team will underachieve for yet another season.
   

Since I spent ½ of the game too tipsy to even stand up. I spent a couple hours watching the game and putting my thoughts on this blog on my day off last Friday. I noted down every offensive and defensive series and chronicled what I thought went right or went wrong and who I felt was responsible.

Here are some of the common themes for the Cowboys Offense:

• WR’s can’t get open
• Good downfield blocking by WR’s
• Giants D adjusted to Cowboys play at the line of scrimmage to force turnovers
• Offense look good in the red zone
• Penalties kill drives
• Poor execution of all aspects of a play can lead to turnovers
• Jason Garret tends to panic when the Cowboys get behind
• Seems like Giants picked up on some tendencies on Garret’s play-calling or the formations we are running
• The Lead Draw is the "money" play
• Offensive line dominated huge running lanes, no sacks on Romo!

Here are some of the common themes for the Cowboys Defense:

• No pass rush
• Defense did a good job stopping run
• Manningham abused Scandrick (I mean like criminally)
• Jenkins actually played pretty well when he was in (I think this switching starters every week is over after this week)
• Lot of blitzing out of nickel which was very ineffective
• Giants WR’s making some circus catches
• Poor tackling
• If you heard the all of the talk about Demarcus Ware and did not know his #, you would think it was #90 (Jay Ratliff is a B-E-A-S-T)
• Penalties killing a lot of good defensive stops
• Safeties out of place a lot completely biting on play action
• If this was a hockey game they would pull Scandrick out of respect for his manhood (I think Steve Smith just went AI and broke his ankles and left him laying on the ground)
• Safeties still unable to cover TE’s
• We are playing the PREVENT defense with 4 minutes left and a 1 pt lead?
• Eli Manning appears to have mastered the 2 min offense.

As you can see despite Romo’s turnovers the offense put up 31 points and was actually pretty dominant. Definitely had Romo not turned over the ball the Cowboys may have won, but they actually could have won in spite of the turnovers had the defense just stepped up for one more drive.

So let’s evaluate the popular themes vs. what actually happened.

Romo is a bust!

Romo played awful, but he didn’t play “he is a bust” awful, he just had another awful game and the excuses a-r-e running out but you have to love that even when he plays awful the Cowboys still often find themselves in a position to win because he never gives up (excluding the Eagles game last season).

I think Garrett actually called a pretty good game, but a few things concerned me which I casually mentioned in my notes above. He panicked when we got down. Everyone cites the drive Romo threw the ball downfield as bad play calling by Garret, but I actually think this was a good call. The running game was dominant, conventional wisdom would be to ram the ball down their throat, but he wanted to catch them off-guard and burn them over the top with a pass downfield. The problem here is that the FS for the Giants was lined up 30 yards off the ball, and Sam Hurd was triple-covered on the play.

So the Giants evidently picked up that going deep on an obvious running down was a tendency for Garrett and they were ready for it. In addition, Romo did an absolutely awful fake to Barber to set up the pass.

This played out on an earlier play as well, the Cowboys lined up on the ball and the Giants were in man-to-man defense. The Giants LB Antonio Pierce saw the formation and audibled the defense into a zone and the DB was sitting in the perfect spot for an INT that turned into a TD for the Giants. It’s as if they knew exactly what the Cowboys were going to run out of that formation in that situation.

So back to Garret panicking… After the final Romo INT, the Giants scored and took the lead. Garrett sends the offense out and throws 3 straight downfield passes. You would have thought we were down by 20 points with 3 minutes left to play, when we were actually only down 6 with 11 minutes to play?? He should have been MUCH more patient and not panicked but stuck with what had been working the entire game. You change your game plan when it is not working, if it is working keep going to the well it won’t come up dry.

The other issue is the WR’s. I mentioned the offensive line play was dominant. Granted the Giants were down a couple of guys, but I watched them the week before just unload relentlessly on the Redskins and I truly felt Romo might not finish the game because he would get sacked so many times. That never happened, the offense rushed for over 250 yards and Romo never got sacked and rarely got pressured. So it makes you say why did we have 3 INT’s and only 127 yards passing if the offensive line was dominant?

The WR’s could never get open. The fault for this falls squarely on the management. There is just no excuse for the play we are getting at WR. We have been talking about this being a problem for years, even when TO was here, but this year to have a #1 WR that has been inconsistent throughout his entire career, and a group of guys that would make great 4th and 5th WR’s on most rosters is just unacceptable. yes, they can geenrate 300 yards of passing against bad teams, but at some point you need guys that play good against god teams....We are paying TO $9M and he is playing in Buffalo, and every week I have to watch WR’s drafted in the 3rd and 4th rounds going for 100 yards in a game. We have not drafted a top WR in over a decade. Even with additions of TO and Roy Williams you have to make an effort to find and develop young talent.

I see guys like Smith and Mannnigham for the Giants that were drafted in the 3rd and 4th rounds. I see players like Dwayne Bowe and Desean Jackson who are 1st rounders that we passed on who all indications are they will be top 10 WR’s. You don’t even have to leave the NFC East and see how every team has built a core of young WR’s that are paying huge dividends. While the Cowboys are still trotting out guys that we have been hoping would breakthrough for over 3 years…..

I saved my break down of the defense for another blog post. So let’s look at the other theme:

This team will underachieve for yet another season…..

What we really saw in this game is the better team won. When the Giants got the ball with 3 minutes left and only down by 1 point everyone in the stadium and watching on TV had a strong sensation the Cowboys were about to lose this game. Best case the Giants would score quickly and give the Cowboys offense a last second chance to come back. I couldn’t help but recall the week earlier watching the Ravens defense close out the Chargers in a similar situation. Thinking that is what good teams do, in crunch time whether it’s the defense or the offense on the field they close it out for the win. Although I could not appreciate it until the morning after this was a great game and when I review my picks for this season this is a game I felt the Cowboys would lose.

I am not sure what the expectation really should have been, you have a team that went 9-7 last season decide that they would actually get better by having less talent!!! This may actually work for team that goes 12-4 and loses in the Conference Championship, but this logic never works for teams that miss the playoffs. If the Cowboys can go 9-7 this season I think they will have actually OVER-ACHIEVED!!!!

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I believe there is supposed to be a "D" in DEFENSE

There is a recurring theme I see is on the Cowboys defense this season.

Aside from an overall lack of talent and depth most of the players genuinely don’t seem like they know what they are supposed to be doing on the field????

You get a player like Orlando Scandrick that is money playing man coverage in the slot, but put out on an island as the starting CB half the time he appeared to not know where he was supposed to be on the field and who he was supposed to cover. Taking your DB’s and playing them in what they call "quarters" is not working. Unless you are getting a pass rush, it just leaves too many holes. Given time a WR can run out of the ¼ of the field covered by 1 DB and run into the area covered by another one, but the DB’s don’t seem to understand where they should be and who they should cover when that happens. Heaven forbid you put 2 WR’s in the same 1/4, all hell breaks loose!! I am not even sure Dave Campo the Secondary coach understands it because he has certainly been unsuccessful getting the players to execute it properly.

Wade and Jerry have really messed this Defense up!

Let’s start with the personnel decisions: You lose Canty, Henry, Ellis, Williams, Jones , Johnson, Thomas, and Burnett. In today’s NFL basically any player that plays on the base or nickel defense is a starter so we lost effectively 8 starters:

1. Starting with the sheer amazement that we have no depth at LB for a defensive system that is centered around the LB position? This is unacceptable. I undetsand that getting Brooking for Thomas is a fair trade off, and it was probably time to allow for Spencer to take over as a starter. The real problem is there is no depth, it used to be when Ellis went out, and you had a fresh beast of a rusher like Spencer coming in, now you basically can’t sub them out at all. In the Nickel Carpenter taking over for Burnett is laughable. If there was a spot for a nickel LB in the Pro Bowl Burnett would have been that player. To replace him with Barbie Carpenter has been a huge liability.
2. As for the DB’s we went from having more depth at DB’s then we knew what to do with, to not even being sure if we had a player worthy of starting. As I mentioned earlier I think our DB problem is the system as much as it is the talent, but this CB experiment between Jenkins and Scandrick is deplorable. A head coach needs to be able to make a decision. The CB position is all about confidence and not naming a starter doesn’t give your young DB’s much confidence, and it actually makes the entire defense less confident.
3. On the DL, I always said we will see how much we miss Canty based on the production of Ware and so far he has zero sacks, so I would say we miss him quite substantially. I can understand losing Canty, but we made little effort to bring in adequate depth. We released Tank Johnson who was basically costing us nothing, and brought in Igor who I think is OK, but the numbers speak for themselves so far….

In addition to personnel and systems issues, lastly I must lament about the situational defensive decisions:

1. In the first game against the Bucs their QB (Leftwich) is considered sack-prone so we blitzed heavy and got burned in the running game. Wade did a good job in that game slowing down the attack and just sitting in the base defense and that was good enough to win that game. Well he built on that experience and decided to focus on stopping the run, and just playing the defense. Wrong decision! You are playing a much better team, with a QB that if you say we are going to sit back and make him have to beat you, he will beat you. Instead of giving up on the blitz packages, he should have spent the week focused on ensuring that when they blitz that they still have gap responsibility, that way if they run you are standing right in the running lane to make the play. You don’t give up you teach them to do it right.
2. The other is decisions like the one to go into a PREVENT defense with 3 minutes left in the game with the opponent only needing a FG to win the game. I love Wade’s comment, you have a series where you have 7 guys in coverage and 3 guys going out for passes you expect your players to make the plays to win that battle. Using conventional wisdom this makes perfect sense. Problem is this has never proven to be true, the PREVENT defense has only served to PREVENT teams from winning the game. It’s one thing to run it with under a minute and the other teams needs a TD but this was hardly the appropriate situation. Even our nickel defense is suspect, the PREVENT defense is completely useless…….

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RECOVERY.GOV

Obama preached transparency when he campaigned and he is using every available technology to achieve this promise. After my recent visit to the Midwest I saw the following sign over and over again. I couldn't help but think I have not seen ANY of these signs in Texas? Maybe Rick Perry is holding true to his claim not to take any Stimulus Money? We all know this isn't even remotely true.

Transparency causes one's rhetoric to match their record. This poses a problem for Governor Perry. Transparency illustrates via Recovery.gov the Stimulus spending by State.
Not only has Texas spent some of the Stimulus Money, but we have actually spent $3.5B of it. More than any other state except for California.

Instead of talking about being in a DEPRESSION we are discussing coming out of a recession. Read more!

Sonia from the Block!

President Obama's choice of Judge Sonia Sotomayor today was yet another remarkable and quick decision. Her qualifications are impressive, as our President is a Constitutional Law Professor he took the time to read through many court decisions and opinions by Judge Sotomayor as well as the other candidates.

Born and raised in a South Bronx public housing project to Puerto Rican parents, Sotomayor has distinguished herself in academia, as a big-city prosecutor, and as a leading figure on the federal bench. She would start with more federal judicial experience than any new Justice in 100 years.

First appointed to the Federal District Court by President George H.W. Bush, and then elevated to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals by President Bill Clinton, she has been confirmed by the Senate on 2 occasions. Which actually brings me to the point of my blog post today.

As we move into the Senate confirmations we will here endless speculation about her personal life and probably no more than 2 cases that seem to give concern to conservatives ignoring the remaining almost 20 years of court decisions.

Hence the brilliance of this pick. We have a woman that is without argument qualified. She has more federal judicial experience than those sitting on the court did when they were nominated, she graduated summa cum laude from Princeton and has a law degree from Yale, and has been a prosecutor, trial judge, and private lawyer.

To argue this pick could be 1 more dagger in the heart of the Republican Party. To gain ground they must appeal to minorities, their best opportunity is to gain ground with Hispanics the fastest growing minority. The treatment of Micheal Steele and Bobby Jindal by party loyalists represents the inherent resistance to anything but White Power! There is absolutely nothing to gain by challenging this nomination. The balance of the court (conservative vs. liberal) will remain virtually unchanged, and at the end of the day because of a Democratic majority in the Senate, her confirmation is inevitable.

So any argument of this selection can only serve to further ostracize the party. Read more!

I Thought Darth Vader Died?

I had to do a post on the amazing resurrection of Dick Cheney. I recall asking the question over the last 8 years at least a dozen times, is Cheney still alive? I have not heard anything about him for months if not years. Then he shows up at Obama'a Inauguration in a wheel chair, and now he won't sit down and he won't shut up.

I really find this debate un-intersitng, as I imagine most people do considering some of the crisis we face. So I watched the speeches made by both men (Cheney and Obama) to try to get some perspective. I came out of it only slightly more interested, but poised to write this post because of one statement Cheney made, "When they see the American government caught up in arguments about interrogations, or whether foreign terrorists have constitutional rights, they don't stand back in awe of our legal system and wonder whether they had misjudged us all along. Instead the terrorists see just what they were hoping for - our unity gone, our resolve shaken, our leaders distracted. In short, they see weakness and opportunity."

Wow! I am trying to find out how this concern plays into his relentless desire to perpetuate this argument on a public stage. If the Obama administration was the only voice this story would largely be buried by the momentous activity that has been accomplished in such a short time, but the fact that Cheney won't shut up continues to propel this debate into the top of the media headlines.....

Now that I do have some perspective, I decided to actually weigh in :

Cheney slams Obama's decision to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. However, the effort to shut down the facility, began during Bush's second term, promoted by Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Cheney has yet to cite any specific plots that were disrupted by aggressive interrogations. Cheney is seeking the release of CIA reports that will show information gained from the interrogations, but the fact that suspects gave up information after harsh questioning does not definitively preclude the possibility that they might have given up information through less physical forms of interrogation – which is one of Obama’s central points. In addition, the hypocrisy of his line of attack, since his initial rallying cry is that the release of the memos by the Obama administration endanger our National Security? I guess it is OK to endanger National Security in an effort to vindicate your personal legacy??

Obama's line on this has not been without flaw, as he stated in his speech that, "We are not going to release anyone if it would endanger our national security, nor will we release detainees within the United States who endanger the American people.” In reality, he really can’t make this promise. If detainees are brought to U.S. soil it is at least possible that courts could order the release of prisoners brought to the U.S. to face military commissions or civilian trials and release a prisoner who is acquitted.

So to close lets just state what we do know as fact.... As Joe Biden says Cheney went too far and became an independent power center at the White House, keeping many of his activities secret from other policymakers and creating a Machiavellian decision-making process.

Mr. Cheney with all of the fear-mongering and proclamations about keeping this country safer 9/11 happened on your watch. You ignored warnings from experts in the CIA , the Defense Intelligence Agency , the State Department , the Department of Energy and other agencies, and used false and exaggerated intelligence supplied by Iraqi exile groups and others to help make the case for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Osama bin Laden and his chief lieutenant, Ayman al Zawahri , remain at large nearly eight years after 9/11. Your administration began diverting U.S. forces, intelligence assets, time and money to planning an invasion of Iraq before finishing the war in Afghanistan against al Qaida and the Taliban .

There are now 49,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan fighting to contain the bloodiest surge in Taliban violence since the 2001 U.S. invasion, and Islamic extremists have launched their most concerted attack yet on neighboring and nuclear-armed Pakistan.

So spare us from the rhetoric that accomplished little when you actually had the power to do SOMETHING!!!!

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Good Mavs or Bad Spurs?

I make no secret I have been down on the Mavs since the day Mark Cuban fired Avery Johnson.

I will give credit to Rick Carlisle (the new Coach) with inconsistent play all season, the Mavs rolled into the playoffs on a high, and won over 50 games. Fans immediately begin to ponder maybe this coaching change was the right thing to do.....

I still maintain my initial argument and position that this was not a good change. The most recent defeat of the San Antonio Spurs in the 1st playoff series the Mavs have won since losing in the NBA finals in 2006.

At first glance this looks impressive, a few things must be considered:


1) This is a Mavs team with 1 1/2 years of playing with Jason Kidd not just 2-3 months. I will give credit where it is due. Jason Kidd is the type of leader that refuses to let his team lose. He gives them "the heart" that has been sorely missed the past few seasons. I believe he will make an excellent coach in this league some day.

2) The Mavs roster was constructed to beat one team in particular, the San Antonio Spurs. Similar to the match up for the Mavs in 2007 against Golden State, this was a bad match up for the Spurs.

3) Finally, what we actually witnessed in this series was BAD SPURS. The Spurs went into this series without the services of Manu Ginobli. This is equivalent to the Mavs coming in without Jason Terry and Josh Howard combined. In addition, Tim Duncan played with a an injury for most of the series. The shooting was horrendous, the Spurs lacked any consistent offensive production outside of Tony Parker. If a Spurs fan made this claim I would clown them for making excuses for that profound beat down they experienced, which NBA pundits coined, "The End of an Era."

The proof will be in the pudding, the Mavs will be just like the teams that beat them in the previous 2 years. An impressive 1st round series, only to get mauled in the next round where the best team generally wins, not the best match up! The Mavs are already off to a good start in preparation for Summer Vacation. Read more!

Conventional Wisdom

Pondering on the Obama Administration's decision to release the Bush torture memos. It took me a while to figure out what I believe is the ultimate logic behind this decision.

Releasing under the vise of transparent government, attempting to turn the page on a dark side of American History. At the same time refusing to support pursuing legal action against members of the Bush Administration. This enraged Progressives, who are blood thirsty to see all of the members of the Bush team for an assortment of illegal actions that began before "W" even took office.

President Obama took a lot of heat for not pressing the issue, but as I reflect I see that he once again is manipulating this issue. It would be a perpetual wedge with conservatives to pursue legal action on this issue. So he introduced this in the mainstream, confident that the Democrats that are out for blood will be the ones to take on this issue and begin to put in place the appropriate actions to result in at a minimum consideration of the evidence for violations of the law.

This way just as he ran his campaign, he is not the one pursuing the unpopular issue that must be addressed. Relatively ingenuous... Not sure it will sell with Conservatives as at the end of the day his administration released the information, and the Conservatives have already drove the wedge in the ground deep enough that it will not be coming out anytime soon! Read more!