Posse Incitatus

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Couldn't resist borrowing that headline from the legendary 1960s Clint Eastwood flick...

What I am referring to are sports — the Michigan State Spartans (football) and Detroit Tigers (baseball) — and some hideous, sleazy ads the Democrats are running to fire up support for The One.

-- Michigan State hasn't lived up to expectations this season, as my esteemed co-blogger has mentioned several times. The Spartans lost by 1 point to Ohio State, by 3 in double-overtime to Iowa, and by 2 to arch-rival Michigan on a last-second field goal. Their offense has been anemic. But this past Saturday, the Spartans defeated the Wisconsin Badgers in overtime to improve their season record to 5-4. The victory took place at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wis., where the Badgers rarely lose. MSU scored the tying touchdown with a minute left in regulation following a 75-yard, 12-play drive. MSU held Wisconsin to a field goal in overtime and scored a TD on a pass from Andrew Maxwell to Bennie Fowler. Just what the doctor ordered to relieve weeks of frustration and heartbreak.

-- The Detroit Tigers, lackluster for much of the 2012 season until late August and September when they overtook the Chicago White Sox to win the American League Central Division, made it to the World Series with a 4-0 sweep of the New York Yankees. Then they ran into a buzzsaw, losing in four straight to the San Francisco Giants. Detroit hitters were abysmal for the most part, with multimillionaire sluggers Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera batting .071 and .231, respectively. Their ace pitcher, Justin Verlander, got rocked in the opening game, giving up 5 runs in just 4 innings. When it rains, it pours. Better luck next year.

-- Meanwhile, back to politics... The leftists are showing their ugliness with some really bad ads. One, by The Future Children Project, is a shameless exploitation of obviously indoctrinated children singing a creepy song about the horrors of Republican leadership... an America "where strip mines are fun and free"....oil fouling the seas, gays can be fixed, sick people just die...blah x 3.... The usual loopy, over-the-top claptrap from the left. But these poor kids bear an eerie resemblance to the Communist Youth League of the old U.S.S.R. This is scary stuff. And then there's that blubbery blowhard Michael Moore, who has teamed up with billionaire George Soros to sponsor a tasteless ad with senior citizens using foul language to threaten Mitt Romney and rail about how upset they'll be if Romney wins the election. Needless to say, swear words are very important to the substance-deficient Democrats. But the ad that appalls me the most features an ugly, tatooed wench by the name of Lena Dunham comparing voting for the first time with finding the right guy to lose your virginity to. Yuk! This loser exemplifies how sick and lost the left is. It's sad and alarming that their side will get nearly 50 percent of the votes cast.

 

Mother Nature's Monkey Wrench

A couple months ago I blogged about my fear that something similar to the 2000 election fiasco could happen again this November, only in more than one state.

It is possible this will be a close election, as many of the experts are predicting. (I suspect Romney will win, and it won't be as close as the so-called experts prognosticate. Exhibit A is the Wisconsin recall election against Gov. Scott Walker, which the pollsters and networks dubbed "too close to call" the night before.)

Early voting, provisional ballots, absentee ballots, disputes over voter registration lists and photo IDs... you name it, there's lots of potential for mischief. But on top of that, Hurricane Sandy is expected to wallop the Mid-Atlantic states and New England with heavy rains, high winds, and flooding that will cause power outages during the next few days.

We know from past hurricanes, tornadoes and blizzards that it can take weeks for crews to restore power to everyone, especially to homes and businesses out in the hinterlands. Just think how this election will play out if power outages are still present across several states.

Coupled with Democrats' desperate efforts to cling to power if it looks like their guy is getting tossed out of the White House, things could get really ugly in a hurry, and stay that way for months.

Perhaps it was in anticipation of possible widespread unrest that the Department of Homeland Security stocked up on millions of rounds of ammo a few months ago?

 

 

Spartans shock Badgers, Nebraska surprises no one

Yesterday I was able to snatch a few hours of free time from the Busiest Fall Fall Ever and take in some college football.

(I must admit that after the high hopes of this August, the subsequent failure of the Spartan offense made the lack of football time easier to bear.)

After last week's wrenching loss the Skunk Bears, it seemed to me that Michigan State was reverting to type - not necessarily the Same Old Spartans of the John L. Buffoon era, but rather the scrappy underdogs who delight in pulling upsets.

There is a movement to fire the offensive coordinator, and while I'm generally opposed to spur of the moment decisions, the case can be made that something has to be done to ignite the Spartan offense.  This team would be 8-1 with any kind of offense - and it arguably could have beaten Notre Dame if the defense ever got to rest.

Still, a bowl game would be nice, and maybe next year the Spartans will be what we thought they would be this year.

SKUNK BEARS GET SHUCKED BY HUSKERS: While the total collapse of Wolverine football under RichRod was amusing to watch, serious observers of the sport knew that the Skunk Bear faithful would never allow the Winningest Program Evah to achieve the epic fail of their basketball team.

Still, last year's mark was a fluke of scheduling, as everyone outside of Ann Arbor knew.

Despite the studly machismo of Brady Hoke's ripped abs, the Skunk Bears are a one-dimensional team.  Nebraska took out that dimension and if the results were not pretty, they were predictable.

THE OIRISH ARE WHAT???  The white-knuckled decision not to can Brian Kelly in the wake of several lapses of judgement seemd vindicated as Notre Dame is now 8-0 for the first time since Lou Holtz was lucid and intelligible.  Normally, this wouldn't mean much since they have yet to place USC, but the Trojans suddenly aren't looking so hot.  (I think a bigger victory for Arizona was Toledo.)

At any rate, the season is now deeply interesting. 

Our economic house of cards

"Quantitative easing" is one of those technocratic/bureaucratic terms that most people don't understand — kind of like derivatives and credit default swaps.

It is something the Federal Reserve does to pump more money into the economy and prop up tottering banks. Under normal circumstances, the Fed would purchase government-backed securities. But since the financial crash of 2008, the Fed has been buying an ungodly amount of "assets" from troubled financial institutions. You know, toxic garbage like mortgage-backed securities.

Many, myself included, believe that this artificial expansion of the money supply has contributed greatly to gasoline prices being twice as high now as when Barack Obama was sworn into office. And Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who can come across as a crackpot and gadfly, is actually right on the money when he calls for an audit of the Federal Reserve.

This past summer, Paul's bill calling for a Fed audit passed with bipartisan support, 327-98. And wouldn't you know it, Scary Harry Reid refused to even bring Paul's bill up for a vote in the Senate. Reid  knows where his bread is buttered, and doesn't want to risk upsetting President Obama, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner or Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.

The Fed goosing the money supply and enabling incompetent and/or crooked bankers is bad enough. But compound that with obscene trillion-dollar-plus annual deficits and anemic growth due to the wrongheaded economic policies of a bull-headed statist and his cabal of left-wing ideologues, and you've got an economy in serious jeopardy.

The sad thing is, even if Mitt Romney triumphs in 12 days, so much damage has been done, economic ruin still could happen. To the public, most of whom are ignorant of basic economics, all that matters is on whose watch did it happen? And that just might put Republicans out of business for a generation.

When a football game takes a back seat

The Michigan Wolverines defeated the Michigan State Spartans Saturday, 12-10, breaking a four-game losing streak to MSU.

Congrats to the corn-n-blue, but here's my advice to their fans: Don't get too excited about beating a 4-4 team by 2 points on a last-second field goal. The fact is, the Spartans this season are a slightly above average team with an anemic offense. They are a huge disappointment compared with preseason expectations.

The Big Ten this season is a weak conference. Our best team (Who is it, Ohio State? Michigan? Nebraska? Wisconsin?) would be obliterated against the likes of Alabama, Florida and Oregon. But frankly, the presidential election and my professional career weigh much heavier on my mind than the fortunes of my alma mater's football team.

I watched some of the debate, but as an avid sports fan, spent more time with the Detroit Lions-Chicago Bears football game and the National League championship between the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals.

And as far as my personal life, it has been three years since I took a full-time job in Detroit (90 miles from my home). Some of the time I have stayed in the Detroit area to avoid the commute. For a while  I stayed at my sister's home in Ann Arbor, 45 miles away. And currently I am taking a commuter van from Brighton, Mich., along with a dozen other people. I drive 47 miles, leaving home about 5:40 a.m., and then get on the van to ride another 43 miles, leaving at 6:30 a.m. and arriving at my office about 7:20 a.m.

My quality of life will escalate tremendously if I can put an end to this long-distance arrangement. As it is, my commuting time adds about two full workdays to each week. Frankly, I am getting burned out, and I suspect it is adversely affecting my performance on the job.

Since late 2008, our nation has been through brutal economic times. Tens of millions of well-qualified people have been unable to find a job, or have worked at low-wage jobs way below their capabilities. 

Many, such as myself, have had to make personal sacrifices to pay the bills. Whether it's pulling up roots and moving to another state, renting a dingy room in another city to be close to a job, or enduring ungodly commutes, people will do what they have to do to earn a  living.

I firmly believe that if Mitt Romney wins the election, we have a very good chance of seeing economic recovery. This will have a positive influence on millions of lives, including those whose lives have been disrupted by the economic malaise.

But there are so many economic headwinds worldwide and with our federal government's fiscal morass, that economic improvement will come slowly even if Romney wins. And if the incumbent stays in office, not only will there be no improvement in the economy, things could well get worse.

Meantime, I will seek to improve my situation, for the sake of my health, my marriage and even for the Posse. Think of it this way: More time and energy means more and better blogs!

VOTER SUPPRESSION — The Democrats love to scream voter suppression whenever conservatives attempt to require photo IDs at polling places, but in truth the Democrats wrote the book on election fraud. (Think 1960 Chicago -- Kennedy vs. Nixon). The media just doesn't call them on it very often.

Remember the Oakland County, Michigan Democrats who registered bogus tea party candidates to siphon votes away from Republicans? Several of them were convicted. Now comes word that in 23 Florida counties, numerous registered Republicans received letters stating they won't be allowed to vote unless they prove their citizenship.

We need to keep a close watch out for shenanigans as the election draws nearer. It is becoming more apparent that fraud may be the only way to keep Barack Obama in the White House.

 

 

Romney in control

A rare weekend double-post allows me to update my August prediction.

While I was wrong regarding the negative bounce (which was basically because of Bill Clinton), the underlying dynamic remains the same.

With two weeks remaining, this is Romney's election to lose.  I have said this many times privately but it bears repeating here:  Romney will carry Michigan.

The polls show a narrow race and statewide polls are notoriously inaccurate.  Michigan pollsters tend to be worse than most, consistently underestimating GOP support.  Both of Granholm's victories were far closer than the polling indicated and Jim Blanchard's narrow loss to John Engler in 1990 was surprising in part because he had a lead in statewide polling.

Polling is an increasingly imperfect and unreliable tool to gain information.  In many ways, polling outfits are like intelligence officers trying to gain an accurate picture of the battlefield.  At this point, polling is as reliable as aerial photography - it provides some insights, but it easily defeated.

Not that people have the same interest as military officers in deception, but they are interested in preserving their own privacy and opinions.  It is simply harder to pin them down.

Thus in addition to polling, one must draw upon other evidence - numbers of volunteers, yard signs, general enthusiasm and so forth.  Living as I do in a predominantly Democrat area, I am surprised at the lack of Obama signs and the relative proliferation of Romney ones.  I have even seen Romney seens in the "student ghetto".  Either the area is suddenly trending conservative, or people are tired of four years of failure.

At this point, the Obama campaign has nothing left to offer.  Their latest lines of attack - binders and "Romnesia" are nothing more than playground taunts.  The debates have shown Mitt Romney to be a serious man with serious plans.  He has been dignified and sincere - not at all like the caricature people have been shown.

Despite all the noise about "ladyparts" and attempts to turn the campaign into a referendum on abortion, Romney has made it clear that these issues don't interest him - his focus is the economy.  In this, he is on the same page with voters.  Social issues can wait until we have some money in our pockets again.

Against this background, the Libya debacle only makes Obama look even  more feeble.  The death of an amabassador is not a "bump in the road" or a "not optimal" development.  The sabre-rattling and transparent "wag the dog" scenario that only heightens the sense of weakness and unseriousness. 

Next week, Romney can rightly ask:  Why did you lie to the American public for so long?  Why can't your administration figure this out?  You've been president for four years - how long does it take you to organize things?

I also hope that Romney reminds the public that the entire situation in North Africa belongs to Obama.  It was he who decided to attack Libya without Congressional authorization and created a swathe of instability that has led to anarchy in Benghazi and revolution in Mali.  This needs to be brought up - Obama's unconstitutional Libya intervention was a disaster.  It was a "war of choice" just as much as Iraq but with a far worse outcome.

Battered Spartans Fight for the Streak

I've been busy before, but this fall has raised the bar to unheard-of levels.  It says something when not only can I not blog football, I can't even watch it.

My disappointment in this team should go without saying - MSU is not a contender for much of anything.  Next year it will be much better, but as of now, I despair of them beating the Skunk Bears.

Still, the Spartans have pulled of more profound upsets before, and perhaps with their backs to the wall lin Ann Arbor they will find the strength and determination within themselves to win that fifth straight game.

Here's hoping.

Shameless Granholm Just Won't Go Away

Often the people who are the most obnoxious, annoying and unwelcome are also the least aware of how much they are despised. Case in point: Jennifer Granholm, aka Governor Tinkerbelle, probably the worst governor in Michigan history.

After running Michigan into the ground for eight long years ("The Lost Decade"), Jen-Jen fled to the Left Coast with her equally useless hubby to feed at the public trough with her fellow travelers at the University of California, Berkeley. Let her preach her "green jobs" drivel to her kind of crowd, but please leave us Michiganders alone!

But no, Jen-Jen recently appeared on the airwaves in the Great Lakes State endorsing Proposal 2, one of several horrendous ballot proposals in Michigan this election. (I suspect some union cash must have induced her to do so.) Proposal 2, endorsed by greedy and self-serving unions, would enshrine in the state constitution the right to collective bargaining by public union employees. Sheer idiocy!

Are its supporters brain-dead? Have they not seen how like-minded people got slapped down in Wisconsin, New Jersey and Indiana? Are they not aware that public employee unions have destroyed California's fiscal condition and chased out millions more people than earthquakes, mudslides, wildfires and Hollywood crazies combined? Want to turn Michigan into another Greece, and return to the dysfunction of the Granholm years? Then vote "yes" on Proposal 2.

For the record, I am very leery of adding anything to the state constitution, because once you start tinkering with that esteemed document, a lot of mischief can occur. One of the great things about our state governments is most of them take seriously their respective constitutions' requirements for annual balanced budgets. Yes, states like California and Illinois borrow from the future to pay current bills to keep their union patronage rolling, but they are the exception, not the rule.

Indeed, in recent years even leading Democrats, such as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Rhode Island Treasurer Gina Raimondo have clashed with unions to get their states' fiscal houses in order. Granholm continues to live in la-la land, and it is her kind who will cast their ballots for Barack Obama in three weeks.

I am dead serious — as serious as a heart attack — when I say that if their side wins in this presidential election, our country is finished.

 

Personality Vs. Pocketbook

For a couple of years now, I have been pretty certain that our economic misery and President Barack Obama's train wreck policies, including stifling regulations and reckless deficits, would be the main impetus causing voters to fire Obama on Nov. 6, 2012. Obamacare, which has grave fiscal, economic and financial ramifications, is also something I have long regarded as devastating to Obama's re-election prospects.

But after seeing Thursday night's debate between Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan, and having endured nearly four years of Obama's insufferable arrogance, I am beginning to wonder if personality and attitude might play just as big a role in deciding the election outcome. That is, the personalities and attitudes of Obama and Biden compared to Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.

Obama's narcissism, ego and haughty attitude have been covered ad nauseam, so I won't get into that here. But Joe Biden's obnoxious, juvenile behavior — including demented looking grins, raised eyebrows and creepy giggles — coupled with bald-faced lies during the debate are enough to make me sick. (It doesn't help that clueless Obama campaign manager Stefanie Cutter keeps spouting off with asinine and ludicrous statements about the Benghazi coverup. Cutter is an absolute embarrassment, but with this administration, that's to be expected.)

It would take quite a while to discuss all of Biden's lies, but one of his key pieces of B.S. was his statement that Obamacare does not require Catholic institutions such as hospitals to pay for contraception in its employees' insurance policies. This was one of numerous lies outlined on Powerlineblog.com (Biden's Whoppers). 

Mark my words, Obama will be far more aggressive and accusatory in this Tuesday's town hall style debate than he was in the Oct 4 debate. Due to his uber-arrogance and disdain for Mitt Romney, Obama apparently thought he could go through the motions and make fast work of the Catcher's Mitt, but he was sadly mistaken. He won't let that happen again. Indeed, Obama and his campaign are like the cornered, wounded animal. These last 23 days are going to get really ugly.

But what Biden did Thursday, and what his boss is likely to do this Tuesday, are likely to turn off millions of "on the fence" voters and prompt them to cast their ballots for the Romney/Ryan ticket. Biden did what Democrats are wont to do simply because of their nature: overreach and overplay their hand. Too often, these people whose politics are based on emotion, idealism and unhinged rage say and do stupid things, and it all comes unraveled in the end.

Millions of people are out of work or perhaps earning low wages despite holding a college degree. Millions more wish they could have a full-time job with benefits, but are consigned to working part-time and receiving no benefits. Many of these people will vote for Romney/Ryan because they realize the current occupant of the White House is an economic illiterate.

But some of these people may still be so enamored of the "Hope and Change" drivel, so pro-abortion, or so into class warfare, that they will still support Obama/Biden. I would posit that there's a third group: Those who might fit into this latter group, but who have been so disgusted with Biden's egregious antics and Obama's calloused, casual bullshit — golfing, hobnobbing with Hollywood stars, appearing on inane TV entertainment shows such as "The View" and "The Late Show with David Letterman" — that they will throw up their hands and say, "enough is enough."

Academia and the news media carry Obama's water religiously and will do all in their power to get him re-elected. But those who want change they can really believe in, change for the better, change from a dismal status quo, might just be an unstoppable freight train come Nov. 6.

 

Is Obama Losing It?

By "losing it," I mean his sanity, dignity and sense of reality, not the race for president. As for the latter, I think it's obvious that since Barack Obama's pathetic debate performance, the president is trailing in numerous opinion polls (even though those polls are slanted in favor of the incumbent by oversampling Democrats and not focusing on likely voters).

What makes me question whether President Obama really wants to get reelected is his silly, stupid and inane speech about how Mitt Romney wishes to "let Wall Street run wild" (SOS — same old strawman) and crack down on Big Bird.

“For all you moms and kids out there, don’t worry, somebody’s finally getting tough on Big Bird," Obama said Tuesday in his idiotic stump speech. "Who knew that he was driving our deficit? So (Romney) decided we’re going after Big Bird, Elmo’s making a run for the border and Oscar’s hiding out in a trash can. Gov. Romney wants to let Wall Street run wild again, but he’s going to bring down the hammer on Sesame Street."

A third grader could have written a better speech.

This comes on the heels of the asinine ad attacking Romney for his desire — stated during the Oct. 3 debate — to halt government subsidies to the Public Broadcasting System.

The Ragin' Cajun, James Carville, was quoted in Politico as complimenting the president for his Big Bird strategy: “It’s on ‘Saturday Night Live,’ it’s part of the culture," Carville said. "If you have something that’s universally known and universally popular, and it gets attacked, it’s a good idea to put it out there and defend it.”

Maybe in normal times that might be sage political advice, but these jokers seem clueless about how miserable our economy is and how deeply millions of Americans are suffering. They also seem tone deaf about the serious goings on in the Middle East and the disgust Americans feel toward the White House for lying about the Benghazi consulate attack and the way we ignored warnings about the threats posed to our personnel there. This is downright surreal.

The American people deserve much better. Such childish behavior and juvenile antics with all that's going on are not just disappointing, but appalling.

With all due respect, Mr. President, if you find yourself in a hole, quit digging.