reyonthehill

The following are my predictions for the NFL playoffs that start this weekend.

Wildcard Weekend:

Tennessee Titans over the Baltimore Ravens;

Dallas Cowboys over the Carolina Panthers;

Green Bay Packers over the Seattle Seahawks; and

Indianapolis Colts over the Denver Broncos.

Divisional Playoffs:

New England Patriots over the Tennessee Titans;

Philadelphia Eagles over the Dallas Cowboys;

Green Bay Packers over the St. Louis Rams; and

Indianapolis Colts over the Kansas City Chiefs.

Conference Championships:

New England Patriots over the Indianapolis Colts; and

Philadelphia Eagles over the Green Bay Packers.

Super Bowl:

New England Patriots over the Philadelphia Eagles, 32-26.

Note: I predicted the Bills (at pre-season; see 9/4) and then the Titans (at mid-season; see 11/11) over the Eagles in the Super Bowl.

At the beginning of the NFL season, and then at season midpoint, I made bold and astounding predictions.

Original posts dated 9/4 and 11/11.

"The poor who have neither property, friends, nor strength to labor, are boarded in the houses of good farmers, to whom a stipulated sum is annually paid. To those who are able to help themselves a little, or have friends from whom they derive some succor, inadequate however to their full maintenance, supplementary aids are given which enable them to live comfortably in their own houses, or in the houses of their friend." (Notes on Virginia, 1782.)

Source: University of Virginia

The following are the results of the 1816 presidential election. James Monroe became the president and Daniel D. Tompkins became the vice president.

The Iraq War has freed millions of people from a vicious dictator. The liberation of the Iraqi people is plenty reason for the United Nations to go to war with Iraq. A broad coalition, assembed from parts of Europe, Asia, the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East, would be adequate in the response of the threat that Saddam Hussein posed.

The real dilemma that the Iraq War has created for all Americans is that it has disabled the president's war on terrorism. The president can no longer address an "imminent threat" with intelligence data and have it be believed by the world or even his own country. The president can no longer depend on our longstanding allies who are skeptical of nation-building in the Middle East.

Can the president now go to war with Iran, who posed a bigger more imminent threat than that of Iraq, and still does? Will the American people trust the president with the intelligence that he presents? Will the allies help our nation despite the president's past selfish, despicable and petty actions? The president absentmindedly offended Europe and the United Nations without a care for future relations.

The war in Iraq was successful. But the war in Iraq has undermined the war on terrorism. Defeating terrorism was the primary reason we went into Iraq. Bush has failed the American people by putting us at risk. We have serious threats form Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and in another part of the planet North Korea. We cannot address these threats however since Bush has already applied his trump card with the "imminent threat" of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

I made a promise to a friend after the disastrous '02 midterm elections that if Bush wins in '04, I would move to New Zealand. That promise still stands.

Doom is in the air. Two major boosts to George W. Bush's re-election hopes have come through for him and a third is around the corner. The Massachusetts Supreme Court's correct ruling on marriage and the capture of the former Iraqi leader has Bush on a pedestal dancing.

The divisive issue of gay marriage will guarantee Bush nearly 45% of the electorate in next November's election, and that would be before he starts campaigning with his so-called "compassionate conservatism" agenda. This guy plays hardball with the best of them. The GOP stole education (and subsequently failed with the "Leave No Child Behind Act") and more recently medicare.

Bush can (and he will) play the "culture card" in weeks leading up to the election which will result in big, powerful support from blue-collar regions such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio. These will be critical states and Bush's erroneous stance on the gay marriage debate will only help him.

The delayed capture of the former Iraqi leader also gives Bush a great opportunity to silence critics of the Iraq War, who have grown increasingly adamant that the president has failed in his mission. Bush will politicize this to the maximum, you can bank on it.

The third strike for any challenger will be the on-the-rebound economy. It has been hiding, peaking its head out every so often, but the bulls will eventually be charging again, and it will be sooner rather than later.

I must reveal to you all that I am a liberal. That being said, it is also true that I am anti-American. My principle hobby is killing babies. And I have commited not one, but several acts of treason against these United States.

This is excellent commentary by Robert Kennedy.

As you point out, some of the most passionate ground troops for the anti-environment backlash have come from the Christian right. How do you make sense of that -- that these people are also inspired by religious conviction?

I would say what the fundamentalists call "dominion theology" is a Christian heresy. These are people who read the Bible in a certain way, to justify corporate domination of the planet, the same way people used to read the Bible to justify slavery.

Dominion Christians believe that the Apocalypse is coming soon, the planet was put here for us to exploit, to liquidate for cash, and we have a duty to do that -- even if we destroy nature in the process. Reagan's EPA chief James Watt was a radical dominion fundamentalist -- he believed it was sinful for us to protect the earth for future generations.

The industrialist who first recognized the potential for organzing these right-wing fanatics into a political movement was Joseph Coors, who was Colorado's biggest polluter. Coors engineered a pact between polluting industries and this marginalized, paranoid element that has existed throughout America's political history. This was in the 1980s, around the same time that world communism was falling apart, and so the right wing needed a new bugaboo. If you read Pat Roberts' book "New World Order," the evolution is clearly outlined; he says the new communists are the environmentalists. He calls them "watermelons" -- green on the outside, but red on the inside. And he makes the same association that the John Birch Society did -- that because Earth Day happened to fall on Lenin's birthday, this was evidence that environmentalists were the new secret spies of the new world order, as communism disappeared.

Robertson interprets American politics through the lens of his apocalyptic theology. He calls environmentalists "the minions of Satan," who are trying to turn America -- which is the New Jerusalem -- over to the philistines of the earth who seek to dominate us through internationalism and the U.N.

Source: Salon.com

Robert F. Kennedy speaks the truth:

"I mean, look at George W. Bush -- he knows nothing about any issue. He doesn't seem to have a single complex thought in his head or shred of curiosity. I mean, he claims he doesn't even watch the news or read newspapers. But people find something kind of charming and trustworthy about his manner -- and that's all they need."

Source: Salon.com