Redstate

Drudge says he's obtained a copy of the Democrat plan to attack the President over the recess.  PDF available.

I know there has been much heart burn about these issues. The Republicans in Congress don't seem to want to develop a coherent message. I think these will be the big three issues for the election along side the war in Iraq. I have been trying to keep an eye on the Congressional Leadership Conference with Congressman Pence. If the rest of Congessional Republicans can pick that ball up and run with it, and let the President handle the war, I will be optimistic with the coming election. Until then, I am holding my breath and hoping. I just hope I am wrong.

Here is a 2006 Senate outlook from John Miller at National Review Online.  Forcast:  Republicans +1 with toss up races in RI, NJ, and PA.

French PM Dominique de Villepin, famous for sniffing at the US back when we were pushing the UN against Iraq, is competing with our President for who can get the lowest approval rating.  He's hit 37% for daring to assert that employers should be able to unload workers when times are tough.  

Socialism strikes again, undermining the EU's aspirations of becoming a real competitor with the United States.

Miller is far too bullish.  Ramesh's follow-up post on NRO's Corner is closer to the truth.

My view?

We lose PA and MT.

We retain RI and OH.

Toss ups include MO, NJ, and MN.

And don't count Steele out just yet.

Basically, if all the tossups swing our way and Steele comes through, we end up with 55-56 seats.  If all the tossups go their way and Steele loses, we could finish with as few as 52 seats.  

GOP - 1 is still a good prediction.

I am unsure that the GOP can make spending a core issue this cycle.  Their record has eviscerated much of the Republican reputation for fiscal discipline.

The WCHA playoffs are done UND came out on top.  Which is unfortunate, I think, because they already had their national berth secured.  But it was an exciting tourney with some pretty impressive upsets.

UMD knocked off 2-time defending national champs Denver in the opening 3 games series.  Denver needed to win this tourney in order to secure a national playoff spot.  UMD was beaten by St. Cloud State.  St. Cloud and UMD would also have to have won the tournament to move on to the D1 tourney.  Then came the big upset.  St. Cloud beat the number 1 ranked team in the nation, the UM Gophers, to advance to the championship game vs. UND.  UND and UM both had secured spots to move on, so I really wanted to see St. Cloud win.  The more local teams in the Frozen Four, the better.

It was a good game, but St. Cloud was beaten by UND.

Round 1:

Wisconsin over Bemidji

Colorado over Cornell

Maine over Harvard

Michigan St over New Hampshire

Boston over Nebraska

Miami OH over BC

UND over Michigan

MN over Holy Cross

Round 2:

Wisconsin over Colorado

Maine over Mich St

Boston U over Miami Oh

MN over UND

Frozen Four:

Wisconsin over Maine

MN over Boston

Championship:

MN over Wisconsin

Bracket

Big East: 4 (UConn, Nova, G-Town and UWV)

ACC: 2 (Duke, BC)

MVC: 2 (Bradley, Wichita St.)

SEC: 2 (LSU, Florida)

PAC-10: 2 (UCLA, WA)

Big-12: 1 (Texas)

C-USA: 1 (Memphis)

WCC: 1 (Gonzaga)

CAA: 1 (Geo. Mason)

Big Ten: ZERO

Just sayin'.

I think this is about right.

I heard there may be a GOP challenge in Montana.

I'm starting to think that our best chances for a pickup are in NJ and MN as well.

Pennsylvania feels lost which isn't to say that Santorum couldn't come back, but it could be asking too much.

thier logic about using partiotism. If you support the troops, you support the war they are fighting. Yet the Dems consistantly say they support the troops, but NOT the war.

Do they think the military and ex-military as stupid?

That's the whole linchpin of the leftist ideology- that elite are brilliant and wise and therefore are entitled to dictate how the rest of us peons should live our lives.

is back in the running, according to some. Drudge had a report on his radio show last night, showing that AlGore has the ability to raise more money than Hillary.

He has all the wacko fringe on his side, and some of the wackos, like Tim Robbins have come out firmly against Hillary.

A brain cramp from the former VP

"We are ready for an unforeseen event that may or may not occur." --Al Gore, VP

French PM de Villepin might actually be doing something right, even though nobody in France will give him credit. France has very generous governmentally-mandated unemployment benefits, which in most cases pay people 80% of their salary for TWO YEARS after they're fired or laid off.

This means that anybody who has been hired has almost absolute job security, because who wants to pay someone for two years after they're fired? Might as well get some work out of them, even if they are incompetent.

The problem is, for young people without job experience, many employers are afraid of hiring them full-time (if they don't work out, the company is stuck with paying them for two years). So unemployment among young people runs over 20%, and many young people accept 6-month contracts to gain experience, but have to deal with job insecurity and look for jobs constantly.

De Villepin has wisely realized that to make it easier to hire young people, the government has to make it easier to fire them, so that companies are willing to take the risk. But since the French have been conditioned for two generations (the riots of May 1968 are now almost 38 years old, but the mentality hasn't changed) to be ENTITLED to job security, those who would most benefit by this reform stupidly oppose it, and France's best and brightest are voting with their feet, and seeking jobs in England and America.

French conservatives have tried this before. In 1986, they tried to go back on French universities' "open admissions" (where anyone who applied was accepted, regardless of academic performance), and impose admissions standards. This provoked huge riots in the streets by high school and college students, and one innocent bystander suffered a heart attack, and police could not revive him, then the French media blew this up into a "police brutality" case, and there was a huge outpouring of sympathy, and the bill to impose admissions standards was withdrawn from the Assemblee Nationale (French Parliament), and never discussed since then. (I lived in France in 1986, and saw this first-hand).  

I hope that De Villepin has the stomach for a fight, because he will get one, egged on by the French media, which are even more leftist than the American MSM. But if he sticks to his guns, he might end up really reducing unemployment in France, which has been stuck above 10% for decades. He could probably also forget about ever being elected President of France. Is De Villepin willing to do the right thing for his country, despite the personal consequences?

Maybe President Bush's numbers are also in the high 30's, but I'll still take our unemployment numbers below 5% any day!

...and Bill for their somewhat tepid support for him in 2000. He knew they wanted him to lose. Time for payback!

Al Gore: the New Nixon!

If AlGore gets into the Presidential race, he and Hillary would probably re-ignite the squabbles they had in the Clinton White House, in public. Whoever won that battle would be carrying lots of baggage against the GOP candidate, who could use everything the loser said about the winner in TV ads against the winner.

Sore Loserman could become the GOP's best friend if he really wants to challenge Hillary.

Then, if he wins the primary, we could always play back his global-warming speech in New York, and point out that the temperature was below Fahrenheit 20 during that speech! Or what about those big campaign contributions from poor Buddhist nuns?

Just prior to the turn of the last century, Rudyard Kippling wrote a fairly nauseating poem urging America to take up the "burden of empire", and he referred to people of color as the "White man's burden".  It wasn't that the Europeans WANTED to enslave and exploit people in Africa and Asia, it was just that those people NEEDED the guidance of the civilized white man.  Kipling described the natives of those countries as "half child and half devil".

Today, the left in this country seems to have adopted pretty much the same disgustingly patronizing attitude towards Americans in general; we're just TOO STOOPIT to understand how opressed we are (that's pretty much a direct quote from Michael Moore), and the only hope we have of ever being free is to let them and people who think like them control every aspect of our lives (except in the bedroom, of course).  Naturaly, they don't WANT this burden, but until the Little People understand how widespread and dangerous the Moneyed Class is, they'll have to be there to protect us from our own foolish urges.

This may be a mild distinction, but I think that in trying to actually get ideas across to the left, it's important to understand the twin motivators of galloping paranoia and an overwhelming "Smarter than thou" attitude.  In order to convert them, you have to attack these two pillars, but in order to get thier cooperation, you need to frame your argument using them as a frame of reference.

That should sink him pretty quickly.

Since it's an open thread (thanks, Macho Nacho).......

After the signing of the shameless, detestable Terrell Owens -- aka Me-O --  to a fat juicy contract, Jerry Jones had to know this.  But I'll spell it out.

It is now not possible to be proud to be a Cowboy fan.

I don't know what I'm gonna do - do I pick another team, after 37 years of wearing the Death-Before-Dishonor Silver Star?  Probably not. If I do, it's gotta be AFC, I'm not cheering against the Cows, even after this.  Lose interest in the NFL entirely, as long as Me-O is in town?  Probably.  Take up NCAA football I guess, cheering for my OkState Cowboys (sigh......).

Either way, after posting this, I'm replacing my tagline.

Jerry Jones, there's a word for you, pal.  It's the same word that Crash Davis called the umpire in 'Bull Durham' that got him ejected from a game.

I am profoundly concerned by such a widespread entitlement mentality and what it portends for Europe, let alone the EU.  

Even more bothersome is to see the seeds of such thoughts being planted here.  Once upon a time, "Personal Responsibility" meant something in the US.  Now it's a slogan used by Democrats to accuse Republicans of Corruption.  The Donkeys can't point to policy examples of letting people run their own lives, so they rail over how the Republicans have run their own on the shady side of the street.  I find it heartening that their smears have garnered little tractions, mostly since people are not yet so brain-dead as to believe a politician who says "but he's the dishonest one."

In a heartbreaking turn of events, the GOP can't come back with much, having given much of the store away in vote-buying schemes over the past several years (in which this humble commenter recalls the new Prescription Drug plan with the least fondness possible).  Where are the calls for people to take charge of their own lives with the policy to make that possible?  When did Compassionate Conservative decide to leave Conservatism behind for the "Compassionate" firesale of our fiscal discipline?

This one is worth praying for.

Though my love for Dallas was trumped by my love for Stillwater: I gave up on Jones when he put Barry "I never met a bribe I didn't like" Switzer in charge.  Switzer managed to ride Jimmy Johnson's program to a Super Bowl, then crush it with the same lack of discipline or leadership that nearly got OU eliminated from competetive college football for life.

I was out with The Wife™ and some friends on Friday night (it just happened to be a bar...) and the news flashed across the TV of the TO signing. One of The Wife™'s friends is a Broncos fan too, we both cheered loudly for that signing, as it meant that TO was going to break apart the Cowboys and not the Broncos (we had to explain this to a couple of others).

I must say though, I expect this from Jerry Jones especially the paying him $10 million guaranteed this year (5 bonus, 5 salary) is stooooooopid, and that's why I love it!

Were you proud of the Cowboys back when Hollywood was playing? His exploits -- drugs, wild behavior, egotism -- make the current goofballs like T.O. look tame.

To be sure, Hollywood changed his life around... with the help of federal prison time.

Just curious.

military types are stupid:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49341

Ah, yes, another brilliant liberal to explain the world to us rubes. The arrogance and smugness of these guys are simply astonishing.

Every year that goes by, it is more apparent that Jerry Jones is incapable of creating a winner without Jimmy Johnson. Big Bill is mostly BS and signing TO is just plain desperate. They probably figure that TOI can control himself for at least a year like he did in Philly and Big Bill might win a playoff game before he tucks tail and goes to play the ponies fulltime. Hopefully, TO will suffer a career ending injury in camp.

I hate Terrell Owens and wish there was some other way we could have improved the team, but Dallas needs to improve on the field and Owens is the best reciever we've had since Irvin.  I'm sick of every drive seeming to end on the 50 yardline because we didn't have the talent to compete offensively.  A few years ago it was because of the salary cap, but now we have money and need to spend it.

I think the contract that Jones gave Owens should keep him inline for at least one season.

Peter King at Sports Illustrated writes on this better than I can.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/peter_king/03/20/mmqb/index.h
tml

 

A step by step methode and increasing effort to further weaken an already weak approval rating has been fairly affective and the President hasn't been short at giving them plenty of ammunition. They are managing a fairly well thought out attack methode and a way to stop it should be eyed very carefully.

I can't help but think that the war will be gone over with a fine toothed comb more and more as November approaches. Repeating a message that has come under so much scrutiny may not be such a good idea. Adaptation and a ability to adjust quickly may be a better platform.

I think the old message and old methode might both be under too much strain to withstand much more without a far more reaching loss of populartity and confidence even if eventually the current ideals end up working. Timing and Results are the actual BIG ISSUES. Similar methodes that take an entirely different approach can result in the same outcome. Something that displays the ability to adapt in as far as the public eye is concerened may be the booster shot the Republicans need at the exact time it's needed.

Expect attacks on all fronts. Increased attacks in Iraq, more in Afganistan, more worldwide. An effort to show that things are out of control surely will be the terrorist attempt to influence the American public. Planned military countermeasured beforehand would be wise.

Something should be publically said to the affect of;

"All societies adjust, all governments adjust, all people adjust to differing, changing, dynamic events during our time on earth. We have always adjusted to the threats at hand." Now list several instances, WWII, Desert Storm, 911 etc... "As the terrorist adjust, we shall adjust with them, before them and finally beyond them".

Rather than giving the undecided's, and liberal Republican's, the conservative Dems and the watchful more of the same thing, starve the issues altogether and show something different with the same goals.

A caller to laura Ingraham's show Googled him and found that HE joined the Army after flunking out of junior college. He described himself in his odious rants about the military.

This is why it's unwise to pay attention to celebrities when they aren't reading from a script.

And even then it's dicey.

Great speech by the president today in Cleveland.  The president discussed the highlighted the city of Tal Afar, Iraq, as an example of what the whole of the country could look like with continued effort on the part of the Iraqis and the United States.

The description of coalition successes and failures in Tal Afar was detailed and candid.  The description of life in Tal Afar during the "al Qaeda occupation" (interesting phrase) was gripping and chilling.

Too bad none of it will appear in tonight's news summaries.

Text of the speech is not up yet.

age about 10-15 when the HH was on the scene.  Whole big difference though, IMHO.  Keep in mind, I'm not holding the 'Who is the biggest jerk in Cowboys history' contest [then you gotta drag out the Deion, the Irvin, the Clint Longley discussions].  Don't care.

I disagree that HH's antics made Me-O look tame, but really does not matter.  FWIW, since you asked, HH was a huge tarnish on the Silver Star, but really, most of the truth did not really seep out until his declining days or even afterward. But for me the big difference is this -- I don't recall HollyWierd calling Staubach a queer, or complaining in public about whatever he was unhappy about, and otherwise dividing the locker room.  Publicly demanding to renegotiate a 7-year, spectacularly lucrative contract, 1 year into it.  HH, and the same with Michael Irvin, was absolutely a team player, on and off the field, and in the locker room.

But aside from past history, because Me-O is such a collossal jerk, I don't want him on my team.  That is all.

Out one side of your mouth, you say, 'come on over', and out the other side you dance on my Star.  But ya know, the Broncs do have a coupla prominent OkState alums, Tatum Bell and Darent Williams (if you can keep him out of prison).

I'll consider it.  But Jake the Choking Snake?   Ah, I don't know.....

.. so that Pittsburgh can beat them in the Super Bowl again.  :-)

we LET you in the 'Thumb Club', by letting Seattle into the playoffs -- probably the sorriest NFC representative to the SB since Carter was president.

I do not understand either...how can you support the troops and NOT the war they are fighting? It is just democrat weirdness.

via CNN.

It's worth a read.

and asked them to please pick up the pace on Judicial Nominations.

Like every previous war, Iraq is complicated. However, we need to ask one simple question:

What if Pres. Bush had not invaded Iraq?

Robert Kagan, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote last May:

"One problem is that we always know what did happen as a result of war, but we never know what didn't happen. What if we had not gone to war in Europe in 1917, Korea in 1950, or even Vietnam in the 1960s?"(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/17/AR200506170
1217_pf.html)

What would have happened if Pres. Bush had not invaded Iraq? Let me offer some ideas:

1. Sen. Kerry would have run for President in 2004 saying that the Bush administration had left a madman in power with WMDs. Kerry, and many other Democrats, would have quoted Clinton-era statements about Iraq and the threat it represented to the US.

Sen. Hillary Clinton would have warned us that "(I)f left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capability to wage biological and chemical warfare and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons. Should he succeed in that endeavor, he could alter the political and security landscape of the Middle East, which as we know all too well, affects American security. This much is undisputed.". (http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/terencejeffrey/2005/11/16/175729.ht
ml)

Never underestimate Kerry and the Democrats! The Democrats would have turned the 2004 into a referendum on which party was willing to bring down despots with WMDs.

We saw this from the Democrats in the First Gulf War. They voted against the war and then they criticized the first Bush for leaving Saddam in power! (The Democrats jumped on the "get Saddam" bandwagon when Bush's approval ratings hit 91%.)

Again, never underestimate the Democrats. They would have found a way to attack Bush for not invading Iraq.

2. Saddam Hussein would have succeeded in mocking the UN and the Security Council. How many more times can you warn someone that this is your last warning? Is 12 years enough warning?
   
3. Iraq would have continued shooting at US and UK planes enforcing UN resolutions. How many times do you allow someone to fire missiles at your aircraft without interpreting it as an act of war?
   
4. What about the cost of doing nothing? Containment wasn't cheap. We did not choose between peace and war with Saddam Hussein. We were in fact at war with Iraq but we did not call it that.

Check out the AEI study: "War in Iraq versus Containment" By Steven J. Davis, Kevin M. Murphy and Robert H. Topel (You can find the full study online at: (http://www.aei.org/publication23916)

Michael Barone analyzed this study as follows:

"* Continuation of the pre-March 2003 conditions would have cost, in dollar terms, between about half and about two thirds of the cost of military operations in Iraq.

• Iraqis would have been much worse off economically had the United States stayed out of Iraq.
• More Iraqis would have been killed under a continuation of the Saddam Hussein regime than have died since March 2003.

As the writers acknowledge, there's room for argument here: There always is in counterfactuals. But the point is that a continuation of the 1991-2003 "containment" policy had high costs both for Americans and for Iraqis.

These should not be ignored when we consider the wisdom of going to war." (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/baroneblog/archives/060317/counterfact
ual.htm#more)

5. What about Israel? Saddam was not a friend of Israel. What would the Middle East look like with Iraq and Iran threatening Israel?

To be fair, Iraq is complicated. It's not easy to live with the fact that 2300 families have lost a son over there.

Yet, Bush's critics need to answer one simple question: What if Bush had not invaded Iraq?

So far, I have not heard anyone explain to me what they would have done.

Our inability to act against terrorism in the 1990s proved fatal on 9-11. As Clifford May wrote:

"It's easy to say that if we had left Saddam alone, nothing bad would have happened. But how is that different from what was said for years about Osama bin Laden? We knew his intentions. We didn't take pre-emptive action. Don't you wish we had? If Americans have learned anything, it should be this: When people say they intend to kill you, take them seriously."(http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-03-16-opposing-pre-emp
tive_x.htm)

Iraq is complicated but it is possible to succeed. As Senator McCain wrote today:

"If we should withdraw from Iraq and simply wash our hands of the situation there, we risk creating a failed state in the heart of the Middle East, a situation that would enable terrorists to train and plan attacks against the United States with impunity. We saw just such a situation develop in Afghanistan after international disengagement from that country, and it resulted in 9/11. We must not make that mistake again." (http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/viewpoints/articles/0319mccain0319
.html)

Put me down as someone who believes that taking out Saddam was the right thing to do. Also, Iraq will succeed despite all of the partisan doom and gloom.

--

Posted by canto talk to MY VIEW by Silvio Canto, Jr. at 3/20/2006 06:02:00 AM

He's consistently run on the platform of: "You're too stupid to spend your money correctly so I'm going to raise taxes and spend it for you..."

it's a great read.

      As a former leftist I can tell you that the "smarter than thou" attitude is alive and well among the left-wing elite. The very few friends that I still have in that bunch are convinced beyond a doubt that patriotic, G-d fearing, freedom loving Americans are REAL IDIOTS ! Everything that is said about these pointy headed elitists is actually true.

Great post, Scantojr, to which the following should be added:

If Saddam had been left in power, his sons would have continued his murderous regime for decades after Saddam's death of natural causes in one of his pasha palaces. Saddam's sons were probably more brutal and bloodthirsty than Saddam himself. How many Iraqis (and others) would have died if the Baathist regime continued to rule Iraq for 30 or 40 years?

Saddam is now in jail, and his sons are DEAD. Whatever government the elected parliament of Iraq manages to cobble together will be a huge improvement over the Hussein dynasty.  

The DNC Will make it a core issue.  And Republicans need an answer...

Is exactly like Mahr and Carlin, an unfunny washed up old comedian with a cynical nasty streak and a dime store philosophy.

what are they going to say. "Hey we promise, and this time we really mean it!"

there is IMO no hope for the French, they will continue to decline in their smug stupidity untill they become majority or near-majority muslim. Then they will become Dhimmi and will be forced to work.

  They and several of the other Euro states have simply lost the will to survive as a nation and culture.

waiting to happen, but it does make things oh so entertaining!

While debauched and crazy, HH really loved the Cowboys and his teammates. T.O. don't love nobody but himself.

...can be found in this letter to the editor in today's Los Angeles Times (I referred to it in another thread)...

"It is the nature of liberals and progressives to squabble; like most intellectuals, they have various points of view and can't always reach a consensus. The right wing and Republicans, on the other hand, don't know what to do with sparring factions. After all, their success in manufacturing much of the current opinion can be, I believe, largely attributed to the ditto-heads who commonly march in lock-step behind whoever has the biggest mouth."

So, the Left can't come up with an idea because they're TOO smart and the Right can't think for themselves because they're too stupid.  Sounds like a great Democratic party platform to run on in '06...

I still like George Carlin as a comedian, though of course I disagree with him on all but a small handful of things politically, and those are generally ones that I disagree with both parties on.  Then again, I liked Hunter S. Thompson, and I disagreed with him equally, so.

when Hulk Hogan choked him unconscious.  I thought the lack of oxygen to his itsy bitsy brain might make him totally mute but alas, it wasn't to be.

You folks give up too easy. Guess what: polls, especially in races other than for President, don't really mean anything until just before the election. If Santorum was down 20 a week before the election, I'd agree with you. Any number of things could happen between now and then. On the bright side, I don't see it getting any worse for GOP candidates. With Dubya taking a bath, we are still breaking even. An uptick in the President's public perception could swing several races our way, including Santorum's race.

The liberals smarter than thou attitude is a construct to placate the mass of liberal useful idiots. Those people with no power that support liberal ideas.

The bottom line is Kipling's poem is pure democrat demagoguery. Just prior to the turn of the century the democrats (1896) the Supreme court in Plessy v. Fergunson upheld the legal basis for segregation. Southern Democrats by 1900 had created a system of white supremacy that disenfranchised blacks, as well as European immigrants of all races. Although appearing white racism, that too was just an obfuscation.

Liberalism is really a system where a very limited number of people can maintain control by appealing to emotions. Whether that is the emotions of race, or status.

Take the wind out of the sails of the anti-American liberals who want to claim they support the troops by protesting the war.

Take back the language of debate from the liberals!

and I'll even go one step further. I think the Dems are going to lose in a big way in November. I'm not saying this simply  because I want it to happen. I see fatigue among many people who are in the middle. I think many are tired of the naysaying, the constant attacks. I would bet many have stopped listening alltogether. I've had to stop listeng to the left because I just can't stomach the verbal diarrhea coming from the left. I can't stand people who will accept failure as an option and use it for selfish power hungry purposes.

under the auspices of fiscal conservatism, and shouldn't one do so, always?

The Chicago Bears didn't spend a dime during the free agency free for all.

Season ticket holder for fair disclosure ;)

The Big East has recovered rather nicely from their 0-3 start (as I predicted in the March Madness thread), sending twice as many teams to the sweet sixteen as anyone else.

As a side note, I see Adam just posted in RedHot crowing about the Hoyas, but it's worth echoing those sentiments and wishing him a happy birthday as well.

What Rocks!

Beat the Gators!

lefty mindset CSU. Not only are they COMPLETELY wrong, but you gotta love the way they torture the language.

     Notice they call themselves "progressives" and "liberals." Nothing could be further from the truth. These people are followers of a religion and their beliefs range between mild socialism to flat out primitive Marxism.

     Today's conservatives most closely resemble the old fashioned liberals who believed in human liberty. And what the heck is progressive about left-wing ideology ? It's only lead to the murder of millions and impoverishment of continents.

     As long as these fools continue to lie to themselves we will remain in power. Who was it that said we should thank G-d for our enemies ?

I think we can reclaim fiscal high ground with a "Contract with America" list of budget cuts the Congress promises to make.  This leaves us open to the older attacks: "The GOP wants to steal Social Security from the Elderly and School Lunches from the children," but the alternative is to allow the freespending congress to change the definition of "conservative" into "liberal with better hair."

However, Seattle is really an AFC team at heart-- they moved to the NFC when the conferences went from 3 to 4 divisions.

Hm, though, Pittsburgh along with Cleveland and Indianapolis via Baltimore were the 3 teams that came from the old NFL to the new AFC, somewhere around 1970 or so.

Pittsburg is an original NFL team, Indianapolis is an original NFL team through Baltimore, but......... the Baltimore Ravens are an original NFL team through the original Cleveland Browns.  The new Browns are an expansion team!

Quiz coming up.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/2006/State%20Polls/March%202006/Montana%20S
enate%20March.htm

According to the latest Rasmussen polls in Montana, Senator Burns narrowly trails  both Democrats:

Tester(D)    46%

Burns (R)    43%

Morrison (D) 48%

Burns (R)    43%

Two other Republicans considered for this race beat both Democrats by double digits:

Rehburg (R)  56%

Tester (D)   37%

Rehburg (R)  53%

Morrison (D) 41%

Racicot (R)  57%

Tester (D)   34%

Racicot (R)  56%

Morrison (D) 36%

Clearly, Senator Burns has been tainted by his perceived association with Abramoff, which doesn't mean that Montana has turned against all Republicans, since Rehburg and Racicot both poll over 50%.

Since the GOP could conceivably lose Senate seats in PA, RI, and possibly MO, something needs to be done to keep MT safely in GOP hands. I hope there is a primary challenger to Burns, who could give Montana Republicans a better chance to hold this seat in a tough year. Could anyone let Senator Dole over at NRSC know of this situation?

I personally have a great deal of respect for former Governor Racicot, who did an excellent job defending now-President Bush's interests during the 2000 Florida recounts. Unless he wants to wait to run against Senator Max Baucus (D) in '08.

But for the other 90% of America (I'm just kidding, heh heh) car crashes where the Dallas Cowboys are the road kill, well, NOT so entertaining.  Tragic.  Grievous.  

Like Romeo killing himself over that nitwit broad.

Like the Great Depression.

Like the Cub Curse.

Like Abe Lincoln, who would have saved the Union, I mean REALLY saved the union, being assassinated.

Like Jimmy Carter being elected President.

Like the Jimster being replaced by Barry 'Gunsmoke' Switzer.

Like has-been Emmitt Smith being replaced by never-will-be Troy Hambrick.  

Like anybody being replaced by Quincy Carter.

Sigh......car crash indeed.

Oh, sorry.

Indianapolis is an original NFL team through Baltimore

That's what I meant by 'Indianapolis via Baltimore'-- the Indy team came there via Baltimore.

Speaking of the Baltimore Ravens (which I don't count as an original NFL team, because they had to leave their name, colors and record book behind in Cleveland), the team name has come to grow on me-- it's unusual to see a team named after a literary reference.

Which leads me to: Las Vegas, which is going to get a pro sports team someday soon, it's growing too fast not to.  But what should it be named?

In following the new tradition with the Baltimore Ravens, I propose, for whichever sport it ends up being:

the Las Vegas Lizards.

(I originally thought of the Las Vegas Bats, but I think the Lizards works better.)

Fitting in so many ways...