Posse Incitatus

SCOTUS punts on Obamacare

Unlike my co-blogger, I am not really bothered by the Supreme Court decision.  The lawsuit was always a long shot, and the real test of any policy was whether it could muster popular support.  Hiding behind the judiciary to do one's dirty work is the liberal way, not the conservative.

Still, I think Justice Roberts has done something rather clever.  He upheld the law, but did so on very narrow grounds.  Obamacare is now officially a tax, and a rather big one at that.  I don't think there was ever a question of whether Congress could have gotten a some sort of universal health care bill through with something akin to the mandate, but Roberts has made them pay for it - the Commerce Clause and the Spending powers have both been sharply curtailed.

But enough of the deep legal stuff - in a practical sense Romney has now nailed his colors to the mast - Obamacare must be repealed.  The Supreme Court has declined to bail out Obama - he now owns this nasty, vile piece of legislation and must defend its gross excesses for the rest of the campaign.

The GOP is fired up, and independents who otherwise might be wary have a reason to show up and vote - not just for Romney, but for every GOP Senate candidate who swears on a stack of Bibles to repeal the thing.

Moreover, since it is a certified tax, reconciliation can be used to repeal it - only 50 plus one votes are needed out of the Senate.  No fillibuster.  As an extra added bonus, Romney could actually issue an executive order not to prosecute anyone for non-payment of the fine.  Oh yes, sweeping executive power goes both ways, my Democrat friends.  Reap the whirlwind.

This was always a fight that should have been settled in the political rather than judicial arena.  Relying on the courts is a fool's choice - far better to win over the American people than hide behind five black robes.

 

Digesting Disgust: Crow for Dinner, but Hope for the Future

I was dead wrong about the Supreme Court and Obamacare. Never in my wildest dreams did I think Chief Justice John Roberts would side with the left. But apparently he's been vitiated by the inside-the-Beltway mentality. He wants to be popular with the media and the establishment elites. He feared demonization if he were to overturn Obamacare.

Having been working all day, I have not had time to read any of the opinions or dissents, but I did hear one radio commentator quote Roberts as writing something to the effect of, "it's not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices."

Oh yeah? What about Brown Vs. the Board of Education, Loving Vs. Virginia and other cases in which the court ruled against racist, misguided legislators? In my humble non-barrister opinion, it is most certainly the Supreme Court's job to protect us against the consequences of our political decisions if our lawmakers flagrantly violate the constitution. And I will go to my grave believing the Obamacare mandate is a constitutional violation, not to mention that it sets a horrible precedent. (What ELSE will Uncle Sam mandate in the future? Calory limits? No Big Gulps? No transfats?)

So let's see, a few weeks ago in "Conservatism in the Batter's Box" I predicted our side would go three-for-three. We got a hit with Gov. Scott Walker's victory in Wisconsin a few weeks ago; the Arizona immigration case was something of a glass half full ("Show us your papers" provision, the most important, was upheld; others were struck down); and we clearly struck out today. I'll count Arizona as a walk: We got on base, but it wasn't a hit. In baseball, a walk doesn't count as a hit or an at-bat. So effectively, we are 1-for 2, or .500.

Roberts has done what other Republican-nominated justices — e.g. Sandra Day O'Connor, David Souter and Anthony Kennedy — have done way too often: throw government restraint down the toilet in favor of an ever-expansionist central authority.

But after an hour or so of feeling depressed, angry and disgusted this morning, I gradually began to cheer up and even feel better than ever about this fall's election. Today's ruling will energize conservatives and the Tea Party as much as Obama's spending orgies and Obamacare did two or three years ago. Mitt Romney can have a field day picking apart the flaws of Obamacare.

This gigantic, complicated and convoluted legislation is still loathed by far more Americans than support it. The potential for a stifling, all-encompassing bureaucracy to expand ever outward to run and oversee Obamacare is huge.

It is not at all out of the question that Republicans will take back the Senate in November and Romney will win the presidency. That is what I hope for, and I'll go out on a limb and predict it here and now. Democrats have overplayed their hand, and the economy will continue to suck. They own the anemic growth, high unemployment, failed stimulus, crony capitalism, and overkill of Dodd-Frank regulations. The American people are not stupid, and this fall's election could be a replay of 2010.

Now, let's indulge in some devil's advocate talk... Let's say the GOP retains the House (highly likely) but the Democrats keep control of the Senate (possible). Regardless of who wins the presidency, substantial changes to Obamacare probably are not in the cards.

But there's one thing that, although it will take longer, is guaranteed to turn public sentiment against this Orwellian legislation in an even more powerful way: The actual implementation of Obamacare. When people start realizing they cannot keep their old insurance plans, doctors and dentists; when scores of doctors throw up their hands in frustration and elect to stop practicing medicine because they've had it with the headaches (this will exacerbate what is already a shortage of doctors); when patients are put on hold for 45 minutes, wait in long lines and deal with mindless paperwork; when ardently pro-life people realize their tax dollars are funding abortion and abortifacients; when senior citizens find out they need to pay out of pocket or go to another country to have certain treatments done or medications prescribed... THAT is when the public will wake up once and for all and recognize that the devil is truly in the details.

Bottom line, I am still angry at John Roberts. But I am even more appalled that the naive sell-out, former U.S. Rep. Bart Stupek of Michigan provided the vote that pushed Obamacare through the House back in March 2010. It may take years to correct this mess, and we may never solve our healthcare dysfunctions. But then, up until the 1990s, many of the pundits believed welfare reform was a hopeless case, and it has succeeded impressively. 

I remain optimistic that we can improve our healthcare system and gradually dismantle this leviathan that the Democrats are gloating about as I type. Let them have their celebration. They will find out soon enough the validity of the adage, "Be careful what you wish for..."

 

Paterno's legacy - Penn State's shame

Some months ago, when the whole sordid Jerry Sandusky scandal broke upon the college sports industrial complex, I posited that despite the furious spin being pumped out by ESPN and Paterno's enablers, the truth was pretty awful.

Well now we know.  Does ESPN regret their maudlin attempt at Paterno rehab the week after he was sacked?

My suspicion is that we will now learn that “scandal-free” Penn State remained that way only because of a cult of personality combined with a totalitarian administration.

The scope and breadth of Sandusky’s crimes lead to no other conclusion.  If a serial pederast could remain on the payroll for decades at the right hand of the coach, what else is lurking in the mud of State College, PA?

DEATH TO THE BCS:  The playoff does not excite me because it will have a "gatekeeper" committee to ensure that upstarts never make it in.  There will be no equivalent to Butler going all the way to the finals. 

Still, a simple rule that you cannot claim a "national championship" if you lost your own conference title would be nice.  Have these people no sense of shame?

REALITY IN ANN ARBOR?  Speaking of football, 'tis the season for fluff pieces on how the program is doing, how recruiting is awesome and so forth.  As is the rule, U-M boasts the Bestest Recruiting Class Evah, with a new rating six stars - that only their prospects can earn.

All of which is to say, if they doing win a title in the next four years, whose fault will it be?

Meanwhile, on planet Earth, the usual fawning coverage of the World's Largest Open-Air Insane Asylum has a strange sense of reality about it.  By that I mean that the puff pieces contain notes of caution that maybe, maybe, the Skunk Bears aren't going to win so many games this year.

Yes, I know.  Crazy stuff.

It seems that even their fan-base stroking reporters are aware that last season's schedule (just to review, eight home games, five weeks before they left Ann Arbor) may have been a wee bit soft.  Replacing their usual creampuff season-starting scrimmage with illegally pumped-up fake national champ Alabama may produce different results, yes?

For the record, I predict they will go 2-2 and perhaps 1-3 in September alone.  The Tide and a frenzied Notre Dame under the eyes of Touchdown Jesus make for the hardest September since they opened against Appalachian State.  Add Air Force into the mix (Go Zoomies!) and EMU could be their only win heading into October.

 

Big Thursday

Our readers were no doubt shocked to see that the Posse effectively ignored the latest developments in the Fast and Furious scandal. 

This was because we were months ahead of the mainstream press on the story and anything we added would just be a repost of the breaking news you can read somewhere else.  The whole point of this blog is to provide unique content you can’t get anywhere else.

There was simply no place for us in the larger feeding frenzy and I for one wanted to see how things developed before offering any additional commentary.

Having a few days to observe, I think Congressional investigators are playing this just about right:  This is not a political issue, it is about accountability.

Hundreds of innocent people – including two federal officers – are dead.  The Justice Dept. has allegedly been investigating this for more than a year, but still we know nothing.

Clearly, this is a cover-up of the highest order and the assertion of executive privilege has escalated its scope.

It is now incumbent on investigators to keep asking these questions and force the administration to admit that it is either incompetent, criminal, or both.

The Democrats, on the other hand, are clearly hoping to turn the tables, as they did during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.  Their hope is to generate sympathy for a hard-working and embattled president, unfairly tied to a tawdry, trumped-up scandal about sex federal gunrunning.

The Dems were successful in 1998, but there were two critical differences:

1.  Unlike Fast and Furious, the Lewinsky scandal generated no dead bodies.

2.  Bill Clinton and his press operation were masters of manipulation and spin.

Anyone watching this White House knows that these are the most inept press operatives to take the stage since the Nixon administration.  When the opposition is rebroadcasting your news conference, you have a problem in messaging.

Today's House vote is expected to be bipartisan - as of yesterday, four Democrats had declared their intent to vote Holder in contempt and more are expected to do so.  This is because when one strips away the Dem propaganda, there is simply no logical reason for the Justice Dept. to cover this up.

WHAT ABOUT OBAMACARE?  Meh.  My esteemed co-blogger has given me the lead on this legislative/judicial fiasco, but as with Fast and Furious, I will only comment if there is a glaring point that no one else has made.  Taking the time and effort away from a relaxing summer evening with the Younger Posse Members and the joys of the ranch merely to say the same thing as the rest of the professional blogosphere is not a good use of my time.

Based on my reading of the court and the plain text of the Constitution, it should be struck down in whole.  But we all know the Constitution only says what nine lifetime appointees who lied their way onto the court say it means.

Detroit Follies Continue

Detroit has been on the verge of bankruptcy for several weeks now, and the buffoons on the city council continue to fiddle like Nero.

Three months ago, the city worked out a consent agreement with the state of Michigan to have an independent financial advisory board take the reins and straighten out the city's tangled and precarious finances. This avoided the sledgehammer policy of putting in place an autocratic emergency manager (allowed under a new state law, but something that would stir up a hornet's nest in Detroit for years to come). It also gave hope that fiscal sanity could be attained, however long it would take.

But Detroit's corporation counsel, Krystal Crittendon, sued to prevent the consent agreement from going into effect. She claimed the state owed Detroit for utility bills and revenue sharing funds it promised but didn't deliver. Her groundless claims were promptly tossed out by an Ingham County Circuit Court judge.

So Mayor Dave Bing, who's been a huge disappointment as a feckless leader (but at least is honest and respectable, unlike his thuggish predecessor), asked Crittendon to resign. She refused, and the city council refused to go along with firing her. 

While that sideshow goes on, Bing has stated he will seek outside counsel from now on. (Indeed, he already did hire a private law firm — Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone — to represent the city as it worked out the consent agreement with the state.)

The stubborn Detroit City Council members and their loud, in-your-face supporters who turn out for public meetings are in denial about this basic fact: Detroit is broke, and if Gov. Rick Snyder is forced to appoint an emergency manager to take over the city's distressed finances, that will mean an even firmer grip than the financial advisory board would have had.

Further, the city's choices absent the financial advisory board or an emergency financial manager are bad, and the consequences will be unpleasant, to say the least. Either Detroit lays off scores of public workers to cut spending, worsening already poor service delivery, or the city files for bankruptcy. The latter scenario, in addition to further tarnishing the Motor City's image in the national media, would lead to higher long-term borrowing costs.

Put another way, it's not like the obstinate rabble-rousers who loath the state's involvement in their city's finances have any kind of bargaining chip with which to negotiate, let alone a logical, rational and feasible plan for fiscal recovery. 

So Detroit is paying a corporate counsel AND a private law firm to do things the corporate counsel does not want to do (and some members of city council do not want her to do). Just asking: How did Mayor Bing hire this outside law firm without getting city council approval to spend the money to pay their fees? It gets curiouser and curiouser.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER — Due to a crazy schedule in recent weeks, I've been late to the game with some of my commentary, and irregular with my posts. Here's another late acknowledgement, but one I thought important to post: R.I.P. to two great men who passed away in recent weeks: author Ray Bradbury and World War II hero Robert Slaughter.

Bradbury, author of "Fahrenheit 451" and "The Martian Chronicles," died June 5 in Los Angeles at 91. Not only was he an extraordinarily gifted writer and commentator; he was the consummate gentleman.

Slaughter was a D-Day veteran and died June 15 at 87 in Roanoke, Va. A 6-foot-5-inch giant of a man, his heart and patriotism were as large as his stature. He was instrumental in raising money and support for the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Va. The small town in the Blue Ridge mountains was an appropriate location since 23 of the 35 "Bedford Boys" died during the D-Day invasion 68 years ago. My brother gave me an autographed copy of Slaughter's excellent book, "Omaha Beach and Beyond — the Long March of Sergeant Bob Slaughter." Check it out if you are so inclined.

INDEPENDENCE DAY — No, I'm not talking about July 4; just contemplating the day this week when the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the flagrantly unconstitutional, so-called "Affordable Care Act," aka Obamacare. That day will provide us with some independence gained from an overbearing, overreaching government run by arrogant, know-it-all progressives whose real-world experience is limited to delusional ivory tower fantasies and left-wing think tank legerdemain.

This week will be my final week of taking a demanding night class on a compressed schedule while working full-time, so if the Supremes rule on Obamacare Monday, I may not be able to comment until Tuesday night or Wednesday. But I would strongly encourage my esteemed co-blogger, K.N. McBride, to post his "two-cents-worth" the same day of the ruling. I can hardly wait to see the lame spinning going on by the administration's desperate talking heads. It's almost getting to the point where I feel sorry for them. Almost.

Barack Obama's 'Sister Souljah' Moment

Another left-wing kook has spouted off with a smear against a Republican — to wit, Mitt.

Romney, according to Politico reporter Joe Williams, is a lot more comfortable with "white folks" than with minorities. Williams made the statement while being interviewed by MSNBC host Martin Bashir.

Politico has suspended Williams because of this remark, as well as some tasteless and highly offensive jokes he tweeted in recent weeks, including one directed at the candidate's wife, Ann, and making fun of Mr. Romney's, ahem, appendage. Just another arrogant jackass leftist (as if there weren't enough already).

My guess is Williams hasn't even watched Fox News, or he wouldn't have referred to the Fox reporters and anchors as whites when the network actually has far more "persons of color" (to use a leftist phrase) than does lilly-white MSNBC. But I digress.

This is an opportunity for President Barack Obama to denounce Williams' remarks and tweets, to distance himself from alienating, polarizing and ugly speech. The liberals mistakenly call conservative talk radio "hate speech" or label it angry and full of vitriol. But the true hatred and rage is often found on the left.

But Barack Obama, unlike Bill Clinton 20 years ago, will NOT come out and criticize Williams for fear of alienating black voters. Just as he refused to compromise on entitlement reform and Obamacare, he'll stubbornly stick to his misguided guns on this issue, missing a golden opportunity to shore up support among moderates, independents and average, middle-of-the-road types in "flyover country" who might want to believe in him but have been given no reason to do so.

Clearly, Obama is following the identity politics playbook, pandering to gays, hispanics, blacks, public employee unions, environmentalists, et al. He is hoping he can cobble together enough of these votes to compensate for a grave loss of support among the broad middle that voted for him four years ago.

His strategy is bound to fail, if not because it is transparently cynical and calculating, then because many of these special interest groups are disillusioned and disgusted with their savior who's let them down (e.g., black unemployment remains high, and ACLU types who fretted over waterboarding and Guantanamo Bay cannot be pleased with frequent drone attacks that kill innocent women and children and leave no possibility of miranda rights or civilian trials for targeted terror suspects).

Just watch, this election will only get uglier, and Obama will let it all happen. After all, he absolutely cannot run on his horrendous record. This is basically all he's got.

SANDUSKY CONVICTED — Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted by a jury tonight on 45 of 48 counts of child sexual abuse. This guy has given me the creeps from the first time I saw him and heard him speak. This whole episode is disgusting and so sad for the many young men whose innocence was robbed and whose lives have been shattered. 

The failures of top Penn State officials, including ousted former president Graham Spanier and the late head football coach Joe Paterno, to promptly and thoroughly investigate Sandusky, have resulted in more ruined lives than would have been the case had they been responsible and taken action rather than protecting the football program.

I hope Sandusky feels awful about what he did for a long, long time. But I am afraid that just might not be the case, because he seems like a psychopath, through and through. Let this be a lesson to institutions, companies, government agencies and other organizations that arrogantly think they're above the law.

Wacht am Michigan

All is proceeding as I have foreseen.

First, there is Romney’s growing campaign in Michigan.  As I wrote here some weeks ago, Romney is able to lay it on thick – his beloved boyhood in Michigan, how he will be the first Michigander ever elected president, and the people are responding.

Meanwhile, as threatened, the UAW and its public-sector allies have dropped the signatures for their last-ditch attempt to enshrine union control of Michigan into the state Constitution.

Even at the height of union power, one wonders whether such a sweeping measure could gain approval.  Now, when unions are at their nadir, it seems like a suicidal move.

No matter how deceptive the language, the business community understands that this is a life-or-death matter.  What is more, the local units of government, who normally stay out of these partisan pie-fights, are going to be forced to intervene against it – I refer to the Michigan Municipal League, the Michigan Association of Townships and others.  This measure would destroy their ability to control costs and would effectively leave the UAW and its affiliates in control of the state.

No elected board can tolerate that.

The cruel fact is that in a showdown between elitist priorities and government union workers, the unions are going to lose.  Even liberal-dominated East Lansing decided to privatize their school bus service, laying off their union employees in a desperate bid to cut out-of-control costs.

For those who think that the people of Michigan will ignore these warnings and blindly vote for something that sounds nice and good, I will remind them that we’ve been there before.  In 2006, voters were asked to approve a measure sponsored by the teachers’ unions to guarantee school funding in perpetuity.  Schools!  For the children!  A slam dunk, right?

Wrong.

Both candidates for president will be asked to pick a side.  For Romney, it’s an easy call:  The proposal will kill jobs and render Michigan a wholly-owned subsidiary of Big Labor.

Obama’s decision is trickier.  If he opposes it, he will destroy his union support.

If he supports it, he will lose the vital center and give up swing states – and likely lose Michigan in the process.

If he takes no stand – the most likely outcome – he will come across as looking weak and indecisive, just as he did in Wisconsin.  He’ll lose ground everywhere.

Thus the third option is his worst, and also his most likely.

OH, ABOUT THE “V” WORD:  Speaking of self-destructive behavior, the state Democrat’s new mantra of screaming “VAGINA!!!” all over the place is a sure-fire winner, isn’t it?  Nothing like having to explain to your kids why Democrats have to use potty mouth all the time.

I’ve said it before:  Everytime I see the Michigan GOP up close, I am amazed at the utter and total stupidity on the display.   They have many good ideas, but I quake with fear at the thought trying to explain themselves to the public.  I am filled with a sense that no one in their right mind would trust this bunch of mush-mouthed, stumble-tongued morons with so much as a burnt match, let alone the apparatus of government.

But then I behold the Michigan Democrats, and I am comforted, for they are much, much worse.

 

Today's Democrat Party

It goes without saying that today's Democrats are generally in bed with trial lawyers, environmentalists, public employee unions and teachers' unions. They tend to be stridently pro-abortion, in favor of entitlements in the name of compassion, and distrustful of Americans who are allowed the freedom to live their lives as they choose. (Long live the nanny state! Watch out for those evil soft drinks and light bulbs! Don't you DARE call it a Christmas party! It's a HOLIDAY party! We wouldn't want to offend our Muslim brothers and sisters...)

Liberal Democrats (and make no mistake, that's the vast majority of Democrats) have an almost childlike, naive belief that government can make things better for all people, and that equality of outcome is as essential as equality of opportunity.

These policies have resulted in a $16 trillion national debt; an out-of-control welfare/entitlement state that is on the verge of bankrupting the United States and sending us into a Greece-like death spiral; a distorted, dysfunctional health care system; a moribund housing market and unprecedented corruption and cronyism in government.

As if these facts were not bad enough, Democrat statements and actions often provide the wretched icing on the cake. It has long appalled me that so many liberals have an over-the-top sense of self-importance that can manifest itself in outrageous ways, and an off-the-charts self righteousness that is nauseating. 

From the late Ted Kennedy claiming that Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork favored a return to Jim Crow laws, to the snarky anti-Bush bumper stickers and name calling (Nazi, Hitler, war criminal, etc.), to Democrats from the Wisconsin Legislature fleeing to Illinois to avoid allowing a vote on eliminating collective bargaining for government employees, to Congressman John Lewis bellowing about the GOP's Contract with America, "“They’re coming for our children. They’re coming for the poor. They’re coming for the sick, the elderly and the disabled....” It just never ends, the drama queen garbage.

This past week in the Michigan Legislature, a female Democrat lawmaker thought it important to use the word "vagina" during a debate on an anti-abortion bill. The majority Republicans prohibited her from speaking on the floor for the remainder of the debate.

So, Rep. Lisa Brown of West Bloomfield has decided to perform "The Vagina Monologues" Monday night on the steps of the Michigan Capitol along with Eve Ensler, creator of the off-Broadway play.

This kind of stunt is oh, so typical of over-the-top, lefty Dems. It is why their party is far more responsible for the polarizatiton in today's political arena than are the Republicans. The left-leaning media repeatedly parrots the mantra the GOP has gone "reactionary" or sharply right wing since the days of Ronald Reagan. They heap derision and condemnation on the Tea Party, which is virtually all that stands between us and a hopelessly corrupt, bloated welfare state following in the footsteps of Greece. 

To hear the old media describe our current loggerheads, it's all the GOP's fault for not having the willingness to compromise. But the better question is, why compromise with outright inanity and B.S. that simply isn't serious or substantive?

Three C's, One Score, One Concomitant Portent

Cincinnati, Cleveland  and candidates. And, bear with me, a FOURTH "C", a concomitant portent, i.e., the 2012 presidential election.

Heres the lowdown: President Barack Obama gave what was billed as an important speech today in Cleveland, Ohio. His Republican opponent in the presidential race, Mitt Romney, gave a speech in Cincinnati, Ohio — not surprisingly, a city with a far more conservative reputation than that of the "Mistake by the Lake" (sorry, couldn't resist that jab at Cleveland).

Coincidentally, as Major League Baseball engages in its annual ritual of interleague play (something that only began 15 years ago in a 150-year-old sport), the American League Cleveland Indians played at the National League Cincinnati Reds today. Cincinnati routed Cleveland, 12-5.

Get my drift? It's looking more and more like the candidate who spoke in Cincinnati is going to rout the incumbent who bloviated in Cleveland. Matter of fact, I'll guarantee it. Yes, I'll come on this blog and eat crow if I'm wrong, but I don't see anything rescuing the crippled Obama Hope and Change vehicle, which is basically like the Hindenburg on fire — it's a disaster, it's going to crash, the only question is how much damage will be done.

Obama's speech was more of the same finger pointing, whining about how the misguided policies of the past left him with such a hopeless mess that even he, with his supernatural, messianic, awe-inspiring intellect and gifts, could not dig us out of. Excuse me while I race to the kitchen for a soup pan -- blowing chunks is not out of the question.

Obama is as delusional as his followers, and his drama queen angst is absolutely laughable. NEWS FLASH: Jimmy Carter messed up the economy FAR MORE than did George W. Bush and the Republicans. And Ronald Reagan's policies were showing definite signs of effectiveness just two yars into his first term. He didn't need to go out and piss and moan 3 1/2 years after he took office, because he was a doer, not a talker. More importantly, his convictions were sound, not based on naive and idealistic ivory tower pipe dreams.

Here's a quick refresher course, for Posse readers who are not "gray-beards" like yours truly: In 1980, inflation was at 13 percent, and the prime rate hit 20 percent. There was no such thing as a conventional mortgage as we know it now. If you bought a house, it was on a land contract, i.e., financed by the seller. You paid your "mortgage" to the person selling you the house. Unemployment was also high (about 7.5 percent).

On top of the economic woes, the Soviet Union was a nuclear menace that would threaten us indefinitely, and Islamofascists in Iran held Americans hostage under the Ayatollah Khomeini. Carter was a weak pacifist and appeaser.

Although the polls said the presidential race was "too close to call" in late October and early November 1980, Reagan won in a landslide. It's been more than three decades, yet the leftist partisans of the media and most of the polling organizations have not learned their lesson. It's only in the past few weeks we've been seeing stories about how, oh my gosh, Obama just might LOSE! WOW! We never dreamed that was possible. 

RUDE AWAKENING FOR THE DELUSIONAL!!! Your days are numbered, and your arrogance will be humbled in a few months. May you wretch as you chew that bitter pill.

 

 

Major League Pitchers and Rock Guitarists

Ever have one of those nagging feelings that you're forgetting something? It can last a few minutes, several hours, or in my case, several days.

This is no big deal; it's not as if I embarked on a cross-country journey and discovered hours later that I'd left my wallet at home. It was just a strange coincidence that almost rose to the surface when I wrote a bite-sized blurb the other day about former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Bob Welch's death, and noted that the Los Angeles Dodgers also had a Bob Welch — an All-Star pitcher during the 1980s.

It seemed to me Welch the Dodger had struggled with drugs and alcohol, but I looked him up and that was not the case. But I knew the Dodgers had a pitcher who had a long, sad struggle with substance abuse, and who no longer abides in the temporal world. Why did he have a name I should remember?

So I did a Google search and came up with the late Steve Howe, who died in 2006 at age 48. Howe, Rookie of the Year in 1980 and whose Dodgers won the 1981 World Series, shares the same name as the lead guitarist of the longtime progressive rock group Yes. Yes, it was Steve Howe who strummed those memorable acoustic notes at the beginning of the 1970s classic rock staple "Roundabout." The British Steve Howe is alive 'n' kicking at age 65.

HOWE THE PITCHER grappled with alcohol, cocaine and other drugs, going into treatment and relapsing, and getting suspended seven times by Major League Baseball, including for the entire 1984 season.  He died when he rolled his pickup truck in Coachella, Calif., in 2006. Toxicology reports found traces of methamphetamine in his blood.

Ironically, the two pitchers, Howe and Welch, both were born in the Detroit area, Howe in suburban Pontiac, Mich., and Welch in Detroit proper.

RACISM ALERT — The Los Angeles Kings won their first ever Stanley Cup Monday night, finishing off the New Jersey Devils in a 6-1 rout, taking the championship series 4 games to 2. Washington Post sports writer Cindy Boren tread on thin ice by noting in her blog that following the Kings' home victory, "For a refreshing change, there were no riots, no urban melees...." She was alluding to the fact that five times since 2000 when the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers won the chanmpionship, riots, assaults, vandalism fires and other mayhem broke out in L.A.

News flash: Few blacks give a rat's ass about hockey, but large numbers of blacks and hispanics are avid fans of basketball and the Lakers. Now, I certainly wouldn't accuse Ms. Boren of being a racist, but there are plenty of weak-minded, knee-jerk liberals in this world who would go ape-schmidt over her entirely accurate and reasonable observation. Watch your back, Cindy!