I think this may be the first political type of post I have done since the election started. I refrained from doing any political post before now because I want everyone to vote but I want them to learn about the candidates themselves and vote for their candidates because they think they are the right ones for the job. I want people to be informed and to get informed on their own. I want people to discover for themselves values and issues they think are important and vote accordingly. I don't want people voting for candidates just because I am. I want people to think for themselves and do what they think is right.
I hope the election went well for everyone because it sure didn't for me. If you haven't figured out by now I tend to lean just a little to the right when it comes to politics. I have had people ask me how can you be a republican when both of your parents are democrats? The answer is simple and can be summed up very easily. In my view the republicans stand for small government where people should take care of themselves and not depend on the government. The democrats believe in big government and believe the government should provide for all our needs and services. I know this is very broad and simple definition of republicans and democrats but this is how I see it. Since I believe everyone should take care of themselves and not look for handouts from the government that puts me in the republican party. It shouldn't surprise anyone that I don't believe in taking money from one class of people and redistributing it to another. In its simplest terms it is called welfare. Welfare has been proved to make people lazy and even more dependent on government.
Obama doesn't worry me as much as Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid do. I can't stand to even look at Pelosi she looks so clueless whenever she speaks. Pelosi and Reid will try to push their liberal agenda down the American people's throats but I think Obama will govern from the center and not agree with everything they try to do. I really think he will do what he thinks is best for the country whether or not I agree with him. I won't fault him or anybody else for doing what they believe in or think is best for the country I just hopes he has an open mind and listens to the other side too, I think he will.
I'm not real upset that Obama got elected I don't dislike him like I did the Clinton's. That just may be the best thing about Obama getting elected now the Clinton's will be out of the White House for at least another 8 years, that's something I can live with. If you remember the first thing Clinton did when he got into the White House is reneged on his tax cut promise to millions of Americans. After just 3 weeks in office he declared the country couldn't afford it and all tax cuts would be suspended. I will be interested to see if Obama does the same thing, it wouldn't surprise me. If he does the republicans will take over the house in 2 years and they will control the senate within the next 4. That is what happened to Clinton and it will happen to Obama if he doesn't make good on his promise to cut taxes to the middle class. Since I am squarely in the middle of the middle class (I think anyway, who can ever tell) I am looking forward to that tax cut but I'm not expecting it to arrive anytime soon. I just don't think it is going to happen.
The stock market went down today and I am sure that had something to do with the election results but it will bounce back, it always does. I think it will be a slower recovery than if McCain had gotten elected but that's my opinion.
I am not a big McCain supporter either. He is one of the problems with the republican party. Some of the republicans think they need to pander to everyone much like Clinton used to. I think the republican party needs to get some "balls" and go back to their roots. The party has lost its way and seems to be wondering around lost. Let's get back to the conservative values that made the party great.
Here is a list of what I think us conservatives need to do:
1. We need to get people to believe in themselves and take care of themselves.
2. We need to tackle the immigration issue, put up that fence in the southwest, throw the illegals out of the country and make them come into the country legally.
3. We need to get independence off foreign oil. We need to drill, drill, drill and drill some more baby. Wind and solar, while sounds nice, isn't the answer to complete energy independence.
4. We need to start building more nuclear power plants. We need to get rid of the red tape and fast track the nuclear plants and get them online as soon as possible. We need to further develop clean coal technology.
5. We need to start developing hydrogen fuel cell for cars no matter how long it takes to develop. Hydrogen fuel cells are a long term solution but there is no reason this country can't be leading the way. Hybrid cars aren't the answer. Do you realize that if everybody owned a hybrid car and plugged it in at night to recharge the batteries that there isn't enough electrical power in the country to charge them? And quite possibly when you plug that car into your wall outlet you may be polluting even more because your power maybe coming from a old worn out coal plant that is discharging more pollutants into the air than a gas powered car does?
6. We need to stop bailing out Neanderthal companies that just can't seem to keep pace with the needs or wants of the people. We need to even up the playing field by taxing imports as much as other countries tax our exports. I believe in free trade but I also believe in an even playing field.
7. We need to build a strong defense and a strong military. We need to be able to keep our country safe and strong. We're not safe from the terrorist and probably never will be again. We need to chase terrorist no matter where they go and let them know they can't hide from us.
8. We need to privatize social security and let the people have the say how their retirement is handled. We need to make it mandatory everyone must have a retirement account (presently called social security) but have a choice where it is invested. If you were to take the money you pay into social security plus the matching money your employer pays in for you and invest it in your own plan and keep the capital gains without being taxed you will have over $1,000,000 when you retire at 62. Right now you are left with about $225,000 the way the government does it.
9. We need to have competition among all school systems. Competition and choices makes for better services and products. This is how it works in the "real" world why can't it work in our school systems? Our colleges and universitys' seem to do alright with the competition for students I'm sure the rest of our school systems would do just fine too. Competition would rid our schools of the bad teachers that presently litter our school systems. Would some school systems fail? Probably but so what, maybe they shouldn't be teaching our children anyway. People should be able to take the money from the state for each student and use in whatever school they choose. It can be either privite, public or charter, it shouldn't matter it should be our choice.
10. We need to get rid of special interest groups they are ruining this country.
11. We need to get rid of pork barrel spending. I am tired of senators and congressman taking money for their home districts for useless an unnecessary programs and projects.
12. We need to get rid of big government.
That's a few of my points I think the republicans need to do to get back to their roots.
I am not a President Bush fan either. I am grateful to him for keeping us safe ever since 9-11 and I don't think this was an easy job. But I didn't like him taking a big government under the Clinton administration and making it even bigger during his administration. I didn't like his stance on immigration, I didn't like his pandering to big oil and I didn't like his bailout of the banking industry.
We need to get new leaders for the republican party, leaders who will take us back to what the republican party is suppose to be. There are a few people out there that can fill this void but we need to find more.
It reminds of the title to Bernard Goldberg's book "Crazies to the Left of Me and Wimps to the Right." How true it turned out to be.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
How to Go From Hero to Goat in 5 Minutes
Anybody who reads my post knows I am not a big fan of Notre Dame football but even I felt a little bad for the field goal kicker for the Irish. The poor guy hits a long field goal in the third overtime to tie the game up again to sent it in to a 4th overtime and then he misses a chip shot in the 4th overtime. From there Pittsburgh runs the ball down near the goal line and hits what amounts to a point after attempt to win the game. As much as you can put the blame on the field goal kicker for ND for losing this game I put the blame on the ND defense for not being able to stop Pitts during regulation. I think ND was up at one time 17-3 and again late in the 4th quarter they were up 24-17. Pitts ran the same play 3 times in a row late in the 4th quarter to tie the game up. Now I'm no genius but when a team runs the same play 2 times in a row don't your think you should defend against it the third time too just in case they may try it again? The blame for this loss goes clearly on the coaching staff.
The ND/Pitt game was the best game I watched yesterday. It was a well played game with both teams playing hard and clean. Clausen is finally living up to his billing as a quarterback. The offense finally looks like it is coming around and is much improved from a year ago. The defense is improving too but they have to be able to stop the other team when it counts. Until they are able to do that they will be just an average team. The next few weeks will be interesting because the Irish play a lot of average teams and the games can go either way. Somewhere the Irish will get the final win and become bowl eligible but I have my doubts if they will get to play on New Years. The next few games will be entertaining until they get to USC and then they will get slaughtered.
What the hell was Wisconsin thinking yesterday? They had the game won against MSU and gave it away. MSU was prime to be beat yesterday and Wisconsin blew it. MSU didn't even deserve to win the game and in the end neither did Wisconsin. The Big Ten championship is going to come down to the Penn State/MSU game at the end of the year. Talk about a confernence being turned upside down. MSU better enjoy this year because next year they will be back where they belong at the bottom of the Big Ten.
I suppose I have to mention Michigan somewhere in this post. I think they are trying out Obama's economic plan this year. Mich is redistributing their wins to the less fortunate. Socialism doesn't work in economics or football. When I look at Michigan's remaining schedule I can see them redistributing more wins. When the season started I knew the offense would struggle because Rodriguez doesn't have the type of quarterback he needs to be successful. But the defense? Come on, they returned most of the starters from last year. This defense should be able to dominate teams like Purdue and MSU. While the offense is showing gradual improvement in every game the defense continues to get worse. I can't tell you how many times they have stopped the opposing team behind the line of scrimmage just to let them go and get a first down. It comes down to this, TACKLING. Michigan doesn't tackle very good. This all comes down to coaching. I'm not going to blame Rodriquez for the defense, although he needs to take responsibility for hiring the guy, I am going to blame the defensive coordinator. When Ron English was the coordinator Mich rarely missed tackles. Rodriguez hired Stanford's defensive coordinator from last year. Stanford. When was the last time any Stanford team won anything? They hired him because his teams are always at the top of the NCAA in sacks on the quarterback. But what good does it do to get to the quarterback if you can't tackle him once you get there? Hey Scott Shafer I got an idea why not teach your players how to tackle. That's all I got to say about that.
On a brighter note this week Michigan Tech beat Tiffin in a thrilling come from behind win 32-28. You can read the complete story here:
www.michigantechhuskies.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=18800&ATCLID=1615982
Here is this weeks top 6.
1. Alabama
2. Texas Tech
3. Florida
4. USC
5. Texas
6. Oklahoma
There's my top six for this week. I don't like Alabama at No. 1 but I can't find a reason for them not being there for now. Texas lost to Texas Tech last night but I think if they played 10 times Texas would win 8 of the games. I will still rank Texas Tech above them because they beat Texas when they had too. I can't put Oklahoma above Texas either because Texas has already beat the Sooners this year. Texas Tech plays Oklahoma State next week and Oklahoma the following week so stayed tuned I have a feeling this may change. I also moved Florida and USC up because I think in the end they may be the best teams in college football. And still no Penn State, sorry I'm not a believer.
My Heisman is as follows:
1. Colt McCoy - Texas
2. Gramham Harrel - Texas Tech
3. Tim Tebow - Florida
I think the Heisman race has come down to three finalist with Colt McCoy having a slight lead on the other two right now. I like watching Gramham Harrel of Texas Texas but I think he is a product of a system. Colt McCoy is the real deal.
Be sure to tune in next week when I give some more useless uninformed predictions and opinions.
The ND/Pitt game was the best game I watched yesterday. It was a well played game with both teams playing hard and clean. Clausen is finally living up to his billing as a quarterback. The offense finally looks like it is coming around and is much improved from a year ago. The defense is improving too but they have to be able to stop the other team when it counts. Until they are able to do that they will be just an average team. The next few weeks will be interesting because the Irish play a lot of average teams and the games can go either way. Somewhere the Irish will get the final win and become bowl eligible but I have my doubts if they will get to play on New Years. The next few games will be entertaining until they get to USC and then they will get slaughtered.
What the hell was Wisconsin thinking yesterday? They had the game won against MSU and gave it away. MSU was prime to be beat yesterday and Wisconsin blew it. MSU didn't even deserve to win the game and in the end neither did Wisconsin. The Big Ten championship is going to come down to the Penn State/MSU game at the end of the year. Talk about a confernence being turned upside down. MSU better enjoy this year because next year they will be back where they belong at the bottom of the Big Ten.
I suppose I have to mention Michigan somewhere in this post. I think they are trying out Obama's economic plan this year. Mich is redistributing their wins to the less fortunate. Socialism doesn't work in economics or football. When I look at Michigan's remaining schedule I can see them redistributing more wins. When the season started I knew the offense would struggle because Rodriguez doesn't have the type of quarterback he needs to be successful. But the defense? Come on, they returned most of the starters from last year. This defense should be able to dominate teams like Purdue and MSU. While the offense is showing gradual improvement in every game the defense continues to get worse. I can't tell you how many times they have stopped the opposing team behind the line of scrimmage just to let them go and get a first down. It comes down to this, TACKLING. Michigan doesn't tackle very good. This all comes down to coaching. I'm not going to blame Rodriquez for the defense, although he needs to take responsibility for hiring the guy, I am going to blame the defensive coordinator. When Ron English was the coordinator Mich rarely missed tackles. Rodriguez hired Stanford's defensive coordinator from last year. Stanford. When was the last time any Stanford team won anything? They hired him because his teams are always at the top of the NCAA in sacks on the quarterback. But what good does it do to get to the quarterback if you can't tackle him once you get there? Hey Scott Shafer I got an idea why not teach your players how to tackle. That's all I got to say about that.
On a brighter note this week Michigan Tech beat Tiffin in a thrilling come from behind win 32-28. You can read the complete story here:
www.michigantechhuskies.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=18800&ATCLID=1615982
Here is this weeks top 6.
1. Alabama
2. Texas Tech
3. Florida
4. USC
5. Texas
6. Oklahoma
There's my top six for this week. I don't like Alabama at No. 1 but I can't find a reason for them not being there for now. Texas lost to Texas Tech last night but I think if they played 10 times Texas would win 8 of the games. I will still rank Texas Tech above them because they beat Texas when they had too. I can't put Oklahoma above Texas either because Texas has already beat the Sooners this year. Texas Tech plays Oklahoma State next week and Oklahoma the following week so stayed tuned I have a feeling this may change. I also moved Florida and USC up because I think in the end they may be the best teams in college football. And still no Penn State, sorry I'm not a believer.
My Heisman is as follows:
1. Colt McCoy - Texas
2. Gramham Harrel - Texas Tech
3. Tim Tebow - Florida
I think the Heisman race has come down to three finalist with Colt McCoy having a slight lead on the other two right now. I like watching Gramham Harrel of Texas Texas but I think he is a product of a system. Colt McCoy is the real deal.
Be sure to tune in next week when I give some more useless uninformed predictions and opinions.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
I Need Help!!!
Oh boy here we go again another weekend of depressing football games. I think I may find some help from a doctor to help cure my weekend depression. What did I ever do to deserve the punishment of watching Michigan and Detroit Lion football games? Haven't I had to endure enough torture this fall? Between the two of them they have 2 wins in 15 games. Oh well I can always hope for the future because that is all I really have anyway.
Let's do something different this week and start at the bottom of the food chain and work our way up.
First up is the Detroit Lions. They are playing at Chicago this week and I'm not sure anything else needs to be said. The Lions are looking for their first victory but I don't think they will find it here. Chicago has a good defense and Detroit has a terrible offense. I can't see the Lions improving this week since the game will be outside and could be a little cold too. Da Bears will run the football, throw the football and control the clock. Let me see now how about Chicago 31 Detroit 6.
Next up is Michigan State. Wisconsin comes into Lansing this week riding a one game winning streak while MSU is coming off their emotional high of beating some team to the east of them (I can't seem to remember who that team was.) If you look at the records of the two teams this seems like an easy pick since MSU has a much better record than Wisconsin. Wisconsin has been a big disappointment this year. At one time they were ranked number nine in the country and then Michigan beat them. They preceded to loose their next three to start 0-4 in the Big Ten. I really don't understand this team and I think they are better than their record indicates. When I consider this and the fact that MSU is coming off an emotional high from last week I think I will pick Wisconsin. I know the game is in East Lansing but I think in true Spartan fashion they will go into the tank this week. Wisconsin will stop Ringer which is the only offense the Spartans have. MSU is too one dimensional on offense to beat the better teams. Wisconsin 27 MSU 10.
Now we come to Notre Dame. A week ago I was ready to pick Pittsburgh in this game despite the fact that ND is playing at home. What happened? Well Pittsburgh got throttled last week and their quarterback got knocked out of the game and spent the night in the hospital. I'm not sure if he is playing this week or not but even if he is I'm not sure if he will be okay. I also remembered who coaches this team, Dave Wannsetedt, Mr. choke artist. I don't know if he has ever won a big game in either the NFL or college. Since I came to my senses now I will pick ND 27 Pitts 17.
Michigan plays at Purdue this week and this is the game to see who stays out of last place. Michigan's season is shot, a bowl game is out of the question and all they have to look forward to is next year. But Purdue is in worse shape with their decade being shot, a coach who is retiring after this year (at least I think he is), and going steadily downhill since Drew Brees and Kyle Orton graduated. Purdue has never been known to play good defensive football and now their offense is just as bad. If Michigan's disappointing defense plays anywhere near their ability I think the offense can get enough done to get them a win. I will pick Michigan 17 Purdue 13.
There you have it this weeks uninformed, fly by the seat of my pants predictions. Let's see yours.
Let's do something different this week and start at the bottom of the food chain and work our way up.
First up is the Detroit Lions. They are playing at Chicago this week and I'm not sure anything else needs to be said. The Lions are looking for their first victory but I don't think they will find it here. Chicago has a good defense and Detroit has a terrible offense. I can't see the Lions improving this week since the game will be outside and could be a little cold too. Da Bears will run the football, throw the football and control the clock. Let me see now how about Chicago 31 Detroit 6.
Next up is Michigan State. Wisconsin comes into Lansing this week riding a one game winning streak while MSU is coming off their emotional high of beating some team to the east of them (I can't seem to remember who that team was.) If you look at the records of the two teams this seems like an easy pick since MSU has a much better record than Wisconsin. Wisconsin has been a big disappointment this year. At one time they were ranked number nine in the country and then Michigan beat them. They preceded to loose their next three to start 0-4 in the Big Ten. I really don't understand this team and I think they are better than their record indicates. When I consider this and the fact that MSU is coming off an emotional high from last week I think I will pick Wisconsin. I know the game is in East Lansing but I think in true Spartan fashion they will go into the tank this week. Wisconsin will stop Ringer which is the only offense the Spartans have. MSU is too one dimensional on offense to beat the better teams. Wisconsin 27 MSU 10.
Now we come to Notre Dame. A week ago I was ready to pick Pittsburgh in this game despite the fact that ND is playing at home. What happened? Well Pittsburgh got throttled last week and their quarterback got knocked out of the game and spent the night in the hospital. I'm not sure if he is playing this week or not but even if he is I'm not sure if he will be okay. I also remembered who coaches this team, Dave Wannsetedt, Mr. choke artist. I don't know if he has ever won a big game in either the NFL or college. Since I came to my senses now I will pick ND 27 Pitts 17.
Michigan plays at Purdue this week and this is the game to see who stays out of last place. Michigan's season is shot, a bowl game is out of the question and all they have to look forward to is next year. But Purdue is in worse shape with their decade being shot, a coach who is retiring after this year (at least I think he is), and going steadily downhill since Drew Brees and Kyle Orton graduated. Purdue has never been known to play good defensive football and now their offense is just as bad. If Michigan's disappointing defense plays anywhere near their ability I think the offense can get enough done to get them a win. I will pick Michigan 17 Purdue 13.
There you have it this weeks uninformed, fly by the seat of my pants predictions. Let's see yours.
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