Prognosis: 5-11

So, I went to another Browns game yesterday with the anticipation that they were going to win. I told anyone who would listen that the players weren't just blowing smoke when they said they were "relieved" to have Carthon gone from the building, and that they felt Jeff Davidson could actually do something with the offense.

The Jets defense is really terrible, I told people. We're going to run the ball on them, you'll see. We haven't been losing because of our defense, and if the offense can get some things going, it will make the defense even better, I told them.

At the end of the day, 20-13: Browns. And it really wasn't that close.

I have no delusions that the Browns suddenly became a great team; the Jets were just HORRIBLE yesterday. If they hadn't busted off the kick return for a TD and our kicker didn't somehow miss a 26 yard kick, the final score of that game would have been 23-6, which is about how it looked. And the Browns made absolutely NO effort to do anything on offense the entire fourth quarter, or who knows what the score could have been.

The guys I was with yesterday were enamored with how bad Chad Pennington looked and how bad the Jets defense looked. Until we started simply running into the line to kill the clock, Droughns was hitting at about 5 yards a carry and Winslow was dominating their linebackers. From our offense, that's a sign your defense is in trouble.

In summary, the Jets are GOD AWFULLY BAD. How they're 4-4 (other than beating a lot of CRAPPY teams) is beyond me.

BUT, also, the Browns had a GOOD game plan, stuck to it, and executed it. To a man, all of the players said as much, and from what audio I heard of post-game comments, they truly meant it. They believe in this team and in each other, and they are actually motivated to play for Davidson.

The best thing about leaving that game was that we had won, and the Steelers lost to the freakin' Raiders. That pretty much made everyone's day.


All of this having been said, (as the title of the blog entry would indicate) I hardly think the Browns will be making a playoff run anytime soon this season. Their remaining schedule (as with their previous games played schedule) is BRUTAL. 9 games in 9 weeks, and only a few of them winnable. Observe:

@Chargers (league's #1 defense, and a guy by the name of "Tomlinson")
@Falcons (looking very good at the moment)
Steelers (struggling, and hopefully Browns players would like to get a little 41-0 payback)
Bengals (could be interesting at home, but they have too much on offense)
Chiefs (their offense looks to be as good as ever at this point with LJ)
@Steelers (probably can't knock off the Steelers on the road, no matter how bad they're playing)
@Ravens (ditto, though they're playing a bit better than the Steelers)
Buccaneers (games in the cold are never kind to Tampa Bay, and they are far from their late 90's/early 00's form)
@Texans (just not a great team, probably packed in by this point in the year)

I could see us winning three of those, maybe (Steelers at home, Bucs at home, Texans on the road). And that doesn't even factor in the number of life-threatening and limb-mangling injuries our team will no doubt suffer over the rest of the year.

So, prognosis is for 5-11 at best, I think. Record-wise, not an improvement from last year. But, with the injuries the Browns have had and against that schedule, to go 5-11 and have made a change on offense will be progress, albeit slim.

And, when you consider that they looked like they were heading for 1-15 after the Broncos loss, 5-11 looks damn rosey by comparison.

Re: Mo Carthon - Quote of the Fucking Century

Someone forwarded this to me today:

"It's one thing to be an asshole when you're winning and when [the offense] is executing. It's another thing completely when either one is not happening, and it takes a serious asshole to act that way when both ain't happening. He's not [Bill] Parcells regardless of how he holds himself. He likes to think he is, but he ain't... And it's not like [Browns players] suddenly got tired of his act. They've been tired for a long time."

Spoken by none of than....

Former Browns QB Trent Dilfer. No wonder he would rather back up a 22 year old near his hometown than compete for a starting job here.


Also in this morning's Plain Dealer:

On their first day back to work after the dismissal of Carthon and the ascension of Davidson as play-caller, there was palpable joy and relief (emphasis mine)-- at least in the offensive line section of the Browns' locker room.

Wow, I can't believe it took Romeo Crennel this long to can this guy. Makes me wonder about Romeo just a little bit...

Want more proof the Browns are cursed?

Gary Baxter tears up BOTH knees on one play.

"Browns cornerback Gary Baxter suffered season-ending torn patellar tendons in both knees Sunday -- a rare occurrence which could be career-threatening." (emphasis mine)

Rare and career-threatening? Of course it is. He plays for the Browns.

Guy's never been injured in his career. Signs a free agent deal with the Browns, gets hurt in his first season. And then in his second pre-season. He works and rehabs to get back on the field, and even before he can get to HALFTIME, he rips up both his knees.

Meanwhile, Peyton Manning gets hit low/high, gets his body bent completely over backwards and his helmet ripped off as a third guy hits him. He misses one series, right back in there.

THAT is what it's like to play for--and, by association, to follow--the Browns.

At least they finally fired Maurice Carthon. Finally. It only took six games of being LAST in the league on offense, and apparently the intervention of the owner and GM, but they finally fired him.

I'm pretty sure I could dunk over Strickland

So, we were fortunate enough to see Ted Strickland speak at a very small (as in, less than 100 people in someone's driveway) gathering, and then were able to meet (and get this photo taken with) him afterward.

Look at me. I'm huge. I could totally post him up, and he'd be no match for my turn around baby hook shot on the low block.

His education policy is a little better than mine, but that won't matter when he's staring up at the bottoms of my Nike Airs after I rain a furious dunk down on him.

Cynicism

GOP losing grip on married moms

So, the question then becomes: do they still have enough clout and balls to rig this many elections on 11/7? If the polls continue these trends across the board as they have been, and somehow the Republicans still manage to sweep the elections, will that be enough to convince people that the elections in this country are fishy?

You Know, I Can't Really Recall....

State Department Confirms Rice Met With Tenet on Terror Threat

Why isn't this getting more play? Oh, yeah, because of Mark Foley. Dammit, they're always one step ahead.

The Ballad of Mark Foley

The Replublican Party of Moral Values and Accountability, indeed!

I really don't know where to start with this one. As someone who wants all of those hypocritical, conservative, war-mongering teabaggers out of office in November, part of me was happy to see the proverbial shit hitting the fan about this. Nothing would make me happier in this election than to see Dennis Hastert out as a casualty of this scandal.

But, I can't focus on that today. There are too many things making me angry about this scandal right now to focus on the potential positive. I mean, I've heard of dirty politics, and readily acknowledge that essentially every campaign is going to have its share of mud-slinging from both sides, but the end-around that the Republicans are trying on this one truly takes the cake for shamefulness and makes me hope that they all get their own special levels of hell for their deceit.

Issue #1: "Who's to Blame?"

Kirk Fordham, the former chief of staff for Foley (who resigned yesterday, incidentally) has said that he notified top Republican House officials prior to 2005 about Foley's issues. Hastert's people are saying that's not true.

RCC chairman Tom Reynolds says he "did what anyone would do in their workplace: I heard something, and I took it to my supervisor [John Boehner]."

Boehner says that he notified Hastert, and that the speaker said it had been taken care of. He also said that it's Hastert's responsibility to do something about it.

In other words, no gives-ies backs-ies!

Hastert says he didn't know anything about it. Also, when asked about resignation in the Chicago Tribune, he's managed to throw the blame onto anyone and everyone:

"No. Look, I've talked to our members," Hastert said. "Our members are supportive. I think that [resignation] is exactly what our opponents would like to have happen—that I'd fold my tent and others would fold our tent and they would sweep the House."

When asked about a groundswell of discontent among the GOP's conservative base over his handling of the issue, Hastert said: "I think the base has to realize after awhile, who knew about it? Who knew what, when? When the base finds out who's feeding this monster, they're not going to be happy. The people who want to see this thing blow up are ABC News and a lot of Democratic operatives, people funded by George Soros."

So, who do we believe? Who's playing the spin game? Who covered it up? Who's merely trying to throw someone else under the bus to save their own ass? Or, more importantly, who isn't?


Issue #2: "How Can we SPIN This?" and/or "What Sheer Lies Can We Tell to Take the Heat Off?"

In the past few days, we've heard every possible way of deflecting this scandal away from those who are mired in it. For example:

First, when the e-mails and IMs came out, it was because he's an alcoholic. Then, when the shit-storm got deeper as it was reported that he had Internet sex with a high school student (in his office prior to a House vote), it was because he was once molested by a clergyman.

Ann Coulter:
"Who Knew Congressman Foley Was a Closeted Democrat?"
In fairness, though, Ann Coulter is a closeted nut job hack, but you don't see me writing any articles about it. Oh, wait.

Sean Hannity:
"Gerry Studds, Democratic Congressman, 1983, he had sex with a 17 year old page. That's just, not that long ago." (emphasis mine)
Yeah, it was only 23 years ago, Sean. And has nothing to do with Mark Foley.

"And, we're also getting information tonight, that there are Democratically funded websites by people like [George] Soros that had knowledge of this long before it was made public."
I believe it was Jon Stewart who said it best: "Doesn't the responsibility for this really fall at the feet of buckfush.blogsport.org/bardcollege.edu? DOESN'T IT??"

And finally from Hannity, you knew it was going to come up. It was only a matter of time:

"You know something, I-I don't want to bring [former President Bill] Clinton into it... you're gonna say, 'Well, Monica was 19,' but hang on a second..."
Actually she was 22, which is a long way from 16 in terms of adult consent, voting age, drinking age, and generally EVERYTHING ELSE. But other than that, Sean, right on.

Dennis Hastert:
"All I know is what I hear and what I see. I saw Bill Clinton's adviser, Richard Morris, was saying these guys knew about this all along. If somebody had this info, when they had it, we could have dealt with it then."
Umm, according to almost everyone else, Dennie, YOU HAD IT ALL ALONG!!


But, this one takes the cake. On Bill O'Reilly's Fox News show, THEY LABELED FOLEY AS A DEMOCRAT ON THE AIR THREE TIMES! Some might say that's just a mistake, but if it is, it's a HUGE one. I have my doubts about it being unintentional, especially since they offered no public retraction and later simply displayed him as "Former Congressman Mark Foley (FL)." Clever, indeed.

Tonight on three separate occasions, during two different segments, Bill O'Reilly showed video of his fellow culture warrior, boy-crazy Congressman Mark Foley, with the tagline "Former Congressman Mark Foley (D-FL)."

***

Consider that, according to the Columbia Journalism Review and Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) Research Center, Fox News viewers have far more misconceptions on such important issues as Iraq's involvement in the 9/11 attacks than viewers of other networks. Consider also that the average O'Reilly viewer is 71. And that’s just an average. So for every 30-year-old Factor fan, there's a 112-year-old screaming about "secular progressives" and whomever else has criticized Bill. So we can promise you that the average O'Reilly fan is sleeping well tonight with the knowledge that the creep in Florida who was trying to bed boy pages was a Democrat after all.

(link)

So, you can blame the Democrats, or you can just decide to LABEL FOLEY A DEMOCRAT.

All of this is morally reprehensible. They're complaining that the Democrats are trying to politicize this, yet I haven't heard much of anything coming from Democratic campaigns. And, they also forget: they're the people that tried to IMPEACH Clinton for a consentual sexual relationship not even 8 years ago. What's that old saying about those who live in glass houses?

Where Have We Gone Wrong?

I generally don't like to be a downer, but with the recent rash of school shootings popping up again, the many rhetorical questions abound:

"How could someone do something like this?"
"How could no one have seen the signs that this person was troubled?"
"What's wrong with society?"

There will never be sufficient answers to those first two questions, but I think the third question is one that's worth examining. What, in fact, is wrong with our society?

Charles Carl Roberts IV... married, father of three. Sounds like the ideal life, no? Why, then, would this man barricade himself into a one-room school, tie up 10 young girls, and then kill five of them and himself (while wounding the other five fairly critically) at the first sign of law enforcement?

Why?

Roberts left behind evidence that offered a small glimpse into his mind:

Roberts apparently remembered molesting two relatives 20 years ago and dreamed about molesting again. Police raised the possibility that Roberts, who brought lubricating jelly with him, may have been planning to sexually assault the Amish girls. Roberts, 32, left separate notes for his wife and each of his three children, who are all 6 years or younger, at their home in Bart, [State Police Commissioner Jeffrey B.] Miller said.

In the notes, Roberts also said he was haunted by the death of his prematurely born daughter in 1997. The baby, Elise, died 20 minutes after being delivered, Miller said.

Elise's death "changed my life forever," the milk truck driver wrote to his wife. "I haven't been the same since it affected me in a way I never felt possible. I am filled with so much hate, hate toward myself hate towards God and unimaginable emptiness it seems like every time we do something fun I think about how Elise wasn't here to share it with us and I go right back to anger."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/04/amish.shooting.ap/index.html

So, why didn't anyone get this man some help? Why didn't he talk to someone about this "hate" and "unimaginable emptiness" before it boiled over?

Who knows?

But, for me, this shines a light on a much bigger problem: our society has given up on helping those in need of help. I will endeavor to keep this from being a political rant, but the mantra of the country has switched from helping those in need to expecting that those in need will just pull themselves up by the proverbial bootstraps.

Between our education problems, health care problems, and public assistance problems, people in need have fewer and fewer resources with which to "pull themselves up" anymore. But, before we idict society as a bunch of uncaring selfish jark-offs, let's examine a little deeper.

Lou Dobbs (a man I usually don't particularly care for) has this to say:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has hit an all-time high and Wall Street firms are posting some of their best earnings ever. For the first time in our nation's history, the Forbes list of the 400 wealthiest Americans includes only billionaires. In fact, having only a billion dollars means you're not on the list. As a group, the Forbes 400 has a collective net worth of $1.25 trillion.

So the rich are doing well. But how about the middle class?

More Americans than ever are living in poverty, living without health care, paying more for housing and for the costs of our public education. And real wages are falling.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/03/Dobbs.Oct4/index.html

Pull yourselves up by the bootstraps indeed.

So, rather than being a completely uncaring lot, it would almost seem that the majority of this country has been forced so much to cover their own collective ass to stay afloat that taking care of those who are in need has been forced to the back burner.

So, in other words, I don't think ALL of society has stopped caring as much as I think that the majority of society no longer has the means with which to care effectively.



Dobbs continues:

The number of Americans without health coverage rose by 1.3 million last year, up to 46.6 million, according to the Census Bureau. What's worse, more than one in 10 American children are now uninsured. Fewer employers than ever are providing health care to their employees and those who are still lucky enough to receive employer-provided coverage are paying a much larger share: The Kaiser family foundation says the cost of family health insurance, in fact, is up 87 percent since 2000.

The costs of higher education are also hurting middle-class families like never before. In this increasingly credentialed society, the total cost of tuition, fees, room and board at four-year public colleges and universities has ballooned 44 percent over the past four years. And the proportion of family income it takes to pay for college is growing for families everywhere. The biggest jump, according to the National Center for Higher Education, is in Ohio, where college costs now take 42 percent of the average family budget, up from 28 percent in the early 1990s.

Our dependency on foreign oil is also hamstringing working men and women. Gasoline prices are back on the decline (for now), but many Americans this summer were shelling out double what they used to pay to drive their cars. And gas prices now, while lower than at their peak in August, are still about 60 percent higher than in January 2001.

...

So what has been keeping our middle class afloat in the face of rapidly rising costs? American families have been living on, as well as in, their homes. More than one-third of homeowners are spending more than 30 percent of their income on the cost of housing, a level that pushes the edge of affordability. Nationwide median home values from 2000-2005 jumped 32 percent, and homeowners have been pulling equity out of their houses in order to keep up with escalating tuition bills, health care costs and energy costs.

Costs of everything are on the rise. Wages are not. People are staying afloat by basically "rebuying" their houses (using the equity they have) and putting themselves into debt further and further into the future simply to meet the needs of today. We can all say, "why didn't that guy get himself some help or some therapy?" but we're not truly able or willing to provide him with that assistance, because hey, we all have problems and there just isn't enough money to go around anymore.

Or is there? All of this isn't to say that there aren't people out there with the means to help who are not doing so.

The government used to play a large role in helping people to take care of these basic needs, but we've siphoned so much money out of the federal budget to pay for a pointless war and irresponsible tax cuts (so that each member of the Forbes 400 now cracks the "billionare" plateau--hooray!!) that the safety net that used to be there is either gone or much, much smaller.

Two Proverbs

The conservative mantra about welfare has always been to say that if you give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. But, if you teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime.

and

A man much wiser than I once said to a group of us at a political meeting for educators that, we have so many problems in this country, but if we just fixed the problem of education first, the rest would inevitably take care of themselves.


What does all of this mean? The two statements are fundamentally the same, but smack of the problem: the snotty conservative proverb is great on paper, but if none of those heartless jackals are willing to FUND any sort of education for poor people, they won't ever learn to help themselves. And this is where we've gone wrong.

We have two classes of people: those that don't care to help, and those that don't have the means to help. No one likes paying taxes, but they are a necessary evil, if you will, in this country in order to keep the country afloat. I would gladly give my meager tax cut back to the government to invest into education and health care if it meant that every American member of that Forbes 400 list of billionares had to give their GIGANTIC tax cuts back for the same reason. And, really, put your mind to work and imagine what the $300 BILLION spent on invading Iraq could do for not only education and health care, but in our crusade-like quest to feel safer here at home.

Dobbs finishes:

Perhaps one of our nation's leading business magazines would like to create something called a Forbes or Fortune 250 Million list, which would reveal the dire financial pressures that our public policies have produced for working men and women and their families. It's time for all of us to focus on that deep chasm we have allowed to open between the wealthiest Americans and the middle class and those who aspire to it.

Otherwise, there will be 250 million casualties in what has become nothing less than class warfare.

Indeed, Lou.

This isn't even *just* an American issue. Another man much wiser than I once told President Bush that, before we can truly combat terrorism, we need to "drain the lakes of poverty on which the mosquitos of terrorism breed." Eloquently put, and perfectly true.

Unfortunately, and sadly unrealistically, that would mean that the rich elite that run this country would have to shed their greed and be willing to part with some of their own resources. For every Warren Buffet, there are tens of Jeffrey Skillings, Andrew Fastows, Bernard Ebbers, and Dennis Kozlowskis who are willing to bilk the American public of their lives' savings and livelihoods in the name a of few more millions for themselves.

It would seem that, until we examine the policies of this country, America is doomed to continue asking "why" for a long, long time.

WttMH Sports Ticker

• Your 2006 Cleveland Indians win 8 of 9 to finish at 78-84. Huzzah.


• Your 2006 Cleveland Browns finally win a game, in come-from-behind fashion. 24-21 in Oakland. 1-3 on the year, but at least showing a pulse.


• My 2006 Michigan Wolverines look focused, avenging a third loss from last season against Minnesota on Saturday night. Other than a road night game at Penn State, the schedules set up perfectly for a matchup of unbeatens in November in Columbus, with big National Title game implications.