This article has nothing to do with politics. Somehow today, I feel like taking a political day off and want to discuss what, for many,  is a more powerful national force.

That force is called “fantasy football.”

It has been known to split the bonds of family. Completely spit up lifelong friends (if only for a season or two.) And I’m sure if I completely researched it, it may have even led to a divorce, assault and battery or even a homicide or two.

I’ve been involved in a few leagues over the past three or four years. They all start out as cordial, back slapping, high fiving mostly guy groups who may just substitute this form of competition from a childhood playground type that they no longer can physically do. Arthritis, bursitis, knee and back aches and even heart concerns leave a lot of us unable to perform as we once did. I’m convinced fantasy sports are just a substitute.

As friendly as they all begin, almost inevitably, hard feelings seem to sprout up along the way. As though losing a fictitious computer game to a rival by an artificial scoring system somehow diminishes one’s manhood.

Some leagues actually encourage “smack-talk”. That’s akin to stabbing your victim and then pounding your chest while standing over him. “Dissing” your opponent is also encouraged. That’s like what we used to call “ranking” on someone. You know, phrases like, “you suck”, “your mama is fat” “I da best” and on and on. For more examples, just tune in to MTV for an hour or so…you’ll get the idea and an earful of hate.

With all that being said, here is my tale of woe as I entered the world, for the first time, of fantasy commissioner this year.

I wanted to do a friends and family only private league. That would, almost necessarily, eliminate those who start out the season and then just quit playing. These lunatics are far more common in free public leagues, but can be found elsewhere. They are easily recognized by them playing in week 10 a quarterback who was jailed in week 4 on a marijuana charge. It kind of takes all the fun out of beating the guy; to say nothing of the ridicule you might suffer if the team beats your guys!

So I set it up with a private password and send out about a dozen invitations.

My son is first to sign up, then his girl and future brother-in-law. With me, that makes four-we need 12. Then a friend chimes in….we got five now.

Understand there is not an unlimited amount of time here to get to the magic number. I think about three weeks, is all. After that, the league is dissolved and we get to start over.

So, I then email #1 son who is in the Navy and has never played fantasy before.

He answers back in a few days and says “cool” because he has just joined a league on base. He also can not for the life of himself figure out how to log in and sign up. So, after going over a few things with him on the phone-while the grandkids were running and screaming in the background-I sort of gave up on the explanation part. I invented an identity and signed him up through my site.

I still have no confirmation from him if he even knows how to log on to the league’s web site, but his name is on the list.

Then I attempt to sign his wife up (she would be the bigger sports fan of the two). Now she has just moved to the Carolina hills and has almost no access to the internet (yet), so she says to go ahead and sign her up with another bogus account and phony address (since she really has no permanent one yet), so I do and she is also in.

We are now up to a shaky seven.

#2 son tells me his boss and his boss’s son wants to join. He said the same thing two weeks ago. Thusfar they have not done so.

I do hazily remember that I had nine fully vetted and duly signed up with 48 hours to go before the deadline. I panicked and took the league public-hoping to avoid the indignity of dissolution.

Big mistake.

I furiously sent out emails or phone calls to everyone I could contact and told them to change leagues ASAP. The three missing teams needed to be recognized would have to come from the public.

Of course, my plan did not go the way I had hoped. Before a few of the entrenched nine could switch their allegiance to the new league, five perfect strangers signed up. Now I had my twelve, but I had at least a couple of people upset as well.

I reasoned to myself, if everyone just took the two minutes out of their busy schedule a week or so ago and did what they said they wanted to do; my forcing the issue and unwittingly excluding a few players would not have happened.

The season hasn’t even started and my friends and my family may not be talking smack to me, but I sure sense they are thinking smack.

Me? Commissioner? Ever? Again? As a New Yorker might say: “fuggitaboutit!”

This is rich. This is really good. I can’t stop smirking. I love it when a phoney is exposed. I love it more when a lot of them are exposed. There are no innocents in this mess, anywhere.

We have a dishonest campaign chairman for a lying former first lady who was married to a convicted perjurer claiming a disingenuous snake oil salesman; charlatan trial lawyer sabotaged her campaign by not being forthcoming about a number of sneaky sexual trysts with an equally sneaky and secretive woman.

And all the while, the abundantly biased and dishonest media tries to conceal the whole thing.

What did these people say about ol tricky Dick? It wasn’t the crime; it was the cover-up?

Yikes. The movie rights for this might start at seven figures!

Let me attempt to unpack this.

John-Boy Edwards was already involved with a campaign worker before announcing his candidacy for the Democratic nomination, somewhere around the time his devastated wife was tugging on his shirtsleeve to tell him her cancer was in remission. Of course, upon hearing this encouraging news, he immediately jumped in bed with his surrogate and probably impregnated her. No safe sex for him…he’s invincible, don’t ya know.

After such encounters, John –Boy loved to speak of the two America’s. He always “stood up” for victims. Hell, it’s probably even on his business cards. "I will stand up for victims". The man made7 or 8 figures speaking for those who can’t speak. Some, even from the womb or the grave. God, the man was clairvoyant! It seems, in reflection however, he couldn’t even stand up for the “love of his life.”  Quite simply how can anything he says be taken seriously again?

So what is the bottom line here?

Hillary did lose by a whisker because she was out flanked by a Chicago-machine community activist lawyer and a conventional, but highly successful slip and fall trial lawyer.

Her Rose law firm background that involved Wall-Mart, cattle futures, and Castle Grande real estate ventures (and a brief stint as a paper pusher in the Nixon impeachment) did not prepare her for the likes of Obama and Edwards.

She was out lied, again. Bill’s been doing it for years. Although a strong case can be made for her own dishonesty; she constantly gets beat at her own game.  And that, my friends, is really saying something!

And we here about how this is one of the world’s smartest woman?

Mexico's government condemned Texas' execution of Jose Medellin despite a world court order to review the case, expressing concern for the rights of other Mexicans detained in the United States.

Mexico's Foreign Relations Department said it sent a note of protest to the U.S. State Department about the case, which drew international attention because of allegations that Medellin wasn't allowed to consult the Mexican consulate for legal help following his arrest.

Texas executed the Mexican-born Medellin, 33, late Tuesday for the 1993 slayings of two teenage Houston girls after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his request for a reprieve in a split vote.

I honestly can not remember a time when I have been as disgusted with the liberal “international community” as I am now.

I have one and only one thought to impart on the Mexican government (as corrupt as it is) how about keeping your economic refugees to yourself.

We seldom read a story that details the laughable Mexican legal system. We only see the world targeting us.

If he committed this crime in Iran, what do you suppose his sentence would be?

How about Cuba? China? Russia? Indonesia? Most of Africa and Asia? The Muslim world? A beheadding would be the most merciful punishment.  Why do we never see stories detailing  these nation's alleged judicial abuses?

No need to answer that. We are vilified because we are free. We are free to enforce heinous crimes with appropriate penalties. That is nothing to be ashamed of.

If I were to steal across the border into Mexico and commit such atrocities on Mexican soil to Mexican citizens; there is no doubt in my mind, I would not be long for this world. There would be no trial.

Who the hell are these corrupt, phony, pompous Mexicans to tell us how we should enforce our laws? Perhaps they should tend to their own housekeeping before they accuse us of a messy house.

I say: to hell with Mexico. I’m sick to death with tyrants pointing fingers at us. And why do we care what they all think? Do they consult us on their laws?

I'm not sure who, exactly wrote this, but if  half true ( and it appears to be at least that) it is devastating for Obama. Kind of reminds me of the Hertz commercials.

I'd just like to share it...

 

 

 
 
Obama's "Not Exactly's":

 

 

  1.) Selma Got Me Born - NOT EXACTLY, your parents felt safe 
enough to have you in 1961 - Selma had no effect on your birth,  as 
Selma was in 1965. (Google'Obama Selma' for his full March 4, 
2007 speech and articles about its various untruths.) 

 2.) Father Was A Goat Herder - NOT EXACTLY, he was a 
privileged, well educated youth, who went on to work with the 
Kenyan Government. 
 

 3.) Father Was A Proud Freedom Fighter - NOT EXACTLY, he 
was part of one of the most corrupt and violent governments Kenya 
has ever had. 
 
4.) My Family Has Strong Ties To African Freedom - NOT 
EXACTLY, your cousin Raila Odinga has created mass violence in 
attempting to overturn a legitimate election in 2007, in Kenya. 
It is the 
first widespread violence in decades. The current government is 
pro-American but Odinga wants to overthrow it and establish 
Muslim Sharia law. 
Your half-brother, Abongo Obama, is Odinga's follower. You 
interrupted 
your New Hampshire campaigning to speak to Odinga on the phone. 
Check  out the following link for verification of that....and for more. Obama's cousin Odinga in Kenya ran for president and 
tried to get Sharia muslim law in place there. When Odinga lost  the 
elections, his followers have burned Christians' homes and then 
burned men, women and children alive in a Christian church 
where they sought shelter. Obama SUPPORTED his cousin before the election process 
here started. Google Obama and Odinga and see what you get. No 
one wants  to know the truth. 
 
5.) My Grandmother Has Always Been A Christian - NOT 
EXACTLY, she does her daily Salat prayers at 5am according to her 
own interviews. Not to mention, Christianity wouldn't allow her 
to have been one of 14 wives to 1 man. 
 
6.) My Name is African Swahili - NOT EXACTLY, your name is 
Arabic and 'Baraka' (from which Barack came) means 
'blessed' in that language. Hussein is also Arabic and so is >>> Obama. 
Barack Hussein Obama is! not half black. If elected, he 
would be the first Arab-American President, not the first black 
President. Barack Hussein Obama is 50% Caucasian from his >>> mother's 
side and 43.75% Arabic and 6.25% African Negro from his 
father's side. 
While Barack Hussein Obama's father was from Kenya, his father's 
family 
was mainly Arabs.. Barack Hussein Obama's father was only 12.5% 
African Negro and 87.5% Arab (his father's birth certificate 
even states 
he's Arab, not African Negro). From....and for more....go to..... 

http://www.arcadeathome.com/newsboy.phtml?Barack_Hussein_Obama_-_Arab-Americ 

 
 
7.) I Never Practiced Islam - NOT EXACTLY, you practiced it 
daily at school, where you were registered as a Muslim and kept 
that faith for 31 years, until your wife made you change, so 
you could 
run for office. 4-3-08 Article "Obama was! 'quite religious in 
islam'" http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=60559 
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=60559> 

 8.) My School In Indonesia Was Christian - NOT EXA CTLY, you were registered as Muslim there and got in trouble in Koranic 
Studies for making faces (check your own book). 
February 28, 2008. Kristoff from the New York Times a 
year ago: Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call 
to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark  that 
seemed delightfully uncalculated (it'll give Alabama voters  heart 
attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as "one of the 
prettiest  sounds on Earth at sunset." This is just one example of what Pamela 
is talking about when she says "Obama's narrative is being altered, 
enhanced and manipulated to whitewash troubling facts." 

9.) I Was Fluent In Indonesian - NOT EXACTLY, not one 
teacher says you could speak the language. 
 
10.) Because I Lived In Indonesia, I Have More Foreign 
Experience - NOT EXACTLY, you were there from the ages of 6 to 10, 
and couldn't even speak the language. What did you learn, how to 
study the Koran and watch cartoons. 
 
11.) I Am Stronger On Foreign Affairs - NOT EXACTLY, except 
for Africa (surprise) and the Middle East (bigger surprise), you 
have never been anywhere else on the planet and thus have NO 
experience with our closest allies. 

12.) I Blame My Early Drug Use On Ethnic Confusion - NOT 
EXACTLY, you were quite content in high school to be Barry Obama, 
no mention of Kenya and no mention of struggle to identify - >>> your 
classmates said you were just fine. 

 

 13.)An Ebony Article Moved Me To Run For Office - NOT 
EXACTLY, Ebony has yet to find the article you mention in your 
book. It doesn't, and never did, exist. 

14.) A Life Magazine Article Changed My Outlook On Life - 
NOT EXACTLY, Life has yet to find the article you mention in your 
book. It doesn't, and never did, exist. 
 
15.) I Won't Run On A National Ticket In '08 - NOT 
EXACTLY, here you are, despite saying, live on TV, that you would 
not have enough experience by then, and you are all about 
having experience 
first. 
 
16.) Voting "Present" is Common In Illinois Senate - NOT 
EXACTLY, they are common for YOU, but not many others 
have 130 NO VOTES. 

17.) Oops, I Misvoted - NOT EXACTLY, only when caught by 
church groups and Democrats, did you beg to change your misvote. 

18.) I Was A Professor Of Law - NOT EXACTLY, you were a 
senior lecturer ON LEAVE. 

19.) I Was A Constitutional Lawyer - NOT EXACTLY, you were 
a senior lecturer ON LEAVE. 
 
20.) Without Me, There Would Be No Ethics Bill - NOT 
EXACTLY, you didn't write it, introduce it, change it, or create 
it. 

21.) The Ethics Bill Was Hard To Pass - NOT EXACTLY, it 
took just 14 days from start to finish. 

 22.) I Wrote A Tough Nuclear Bill - NOT EXACTLY, your bill 
! was rejected by your own party for its pandering and lack of >>> all 
regulation - mainly because of your Nuclear donor, Exelon, from 
which David Axelrod came. 

 

 

 23.) I Have Released My State Records - NOT EXACTLY, as of 
March, 2008, state bills you sponsored or voted for have yet to >>> be 
released, exposing all the special interests pork hidden within. 
 
24.) I Took On The Asbestos Altgeld Gardens Mess - NOT 
EXACTLY, you were part of a large group of people who remedied 
Altgeld Gardens. You failed to mention anyone else but 
yourself, in your  books. 

 

25.) My Economics Bill Will Help America - NOT EXACTLY, 
your 111 economic policies were just combined into a proposal which 
lost 99-0, and even YOU voted against your own bill. 

26.) I Have Been A Bold Leader In Illinois - NOT EXACTLY, 
even your own supporters claim to have not seen BOLD action on your 
part. 

27.) I Passed 26 Of My Own Bills In One Year - NOT EXACTLY, 
they were not YOUR bills, but rather handed to you, after their 
creation by a fellow Senator, to assist you in a future bid for 
higher office. 
 
28.) No One on my campaign contacted Canada about NAFTA - 
NOT EXACTLY, the Candian Government issued the names and a memo of 
the conversation your campaign had with them. 

This amazing statement was written by Bob Herbert in today’s N.Y. Times.

I’m not sure if it is possible to be any more wrong than Herbert is on this detail. Granted, he is almost never correct in his assertions anyway, but man, this is a whopper! I guess if you are going to lie, go ahead and make a big lie.

It has been asserted by liberals and conservatives and moderates alike that race is now and always was the central theme in Obama’s campaign. No one really knows the guy and no liberal even attempts to explain the man’s ever-changing positions. He will be the first black President. That is enough for them.

When it suits him, he uses his color as a weapon of mass distortion. It succeeds brilliantly among the ever guilt-ridden far left, academic fringe of his party.

These people can never be truly happy, since they (incredibly) feel unworthy of whatever they have accomplished. I guess they feel because they have something that somehow, they are depriving another person of it. Or, everything must add up to zero. My success has to be hurting someone.

 Guilt and false sympathy rule their pitiful existence. Their votes can be bought with simply a mention of skin color and a reminder of our racist history. Race is Obama’s trump card when all else fails. It is truly his default position on everything. Never mind that he is half white and half African. For political purposes the man claims he has suffered the struggle along with Jesse Jackson and M.L. King, when there is absolutely no validity to the arguement. But, it works.

When Geraldine Ferraro let the cat out of the bag during the primaries; a feigned uproar met her logical statement by the Democrat masses that were it not for Obama’s color, he would not be thought of as a viable candidate. She had a valid logical point, but when was the last time liberals embraced validity and logic?

Answer: never, when feelings and emotions and fairness are its competition.

Actually it is taken from a Paul Krugman opinion piece in the N.Y. Times.

It describes almost all of what is going on in Washington, now that the liberals have regained their power. It should scare the hell out of every normal American, but I’m afraid normal is losing out to hysteria today.

Speaker Pelosi actually said that she is only trying to “save the world”.

Krugman, in complete concert with such a monumentally arrogant statement, demands action and finds no problem in dismissing anyone who asks for even a debate on the issue as not only wrong; but immoral as well.

Does he understand the extent of the pain felt by middle and lower class Americans caused by the ever escalating gasoline prices? The nation runs on affordable oil, whether Krugman or Pelosi like it or not. There are no alternatives for the foreseeable future. Saying it isn’t so, does not make it so.  Is it moral to cause these families to do without, so they can get their car to work daily simply because the left wants to “save the world”?

 It is amazing how all liberals parrot each other. If you listen to one, you’ve heard them all.

That’s it. Sorry.  I give up. I just gave myself a headache. I gotta stop reading the Times.

There is a story today stating that the I.O.C. (International Olympic Committee) has just refused recognition of five of the seven athletes from Iraq because of something about Iraq’s political corruption or some other such nonsense. I mean really, if the I.O.C. routinely refused nation’s athletes based on ANY kind of corruption; ninety per cent of the world would be disqualified.

The Olympics were never supposed to be about politics; it’s always been about the athletes.  It should be about nothing else. I mean if they excused Nazi Germany to the point of giving them the games in the thirties… if they turned their backs on the gulags and oppression rampant in the Soviet Union and their satellites in the fifties and sixties and gave them the games… if they now ignore the atrocities having been done and now being done in this years host-China…

How in hell can they deny seven brave souls a chance to just show up and wave their flag? Some of these athletes may just be survivors of Uday Hussein’s reign of terror as Iraq’s previous Olympic head. If not, then they are at least familiar with their nation’s tragic history.

The IOC defends itself with this travesty by claiming Iraq refused a meeting in Switzerland with someone more legitimate than the present head of the Iraqi Olympic movement. They also claim that they have previously bestowed special considerations upon Iraq in the past few Olympics. So the IOC points their hypocritical finger at the Iraqi government.

 I think Iraq’s freedom worries some of the world’s despots. Most of them spare no expense to promote their own nation, yet seem to worry that this “freedom thing” may swallow their despotism as well. We would all be a more blessed world, if that were so.

I say, let ‘em play.  If not then this will make the already corrupt and disturbingly commercial Olympic movement seem very petty and as political as the nation they accuse of such.

Regardless, although I used to look forward to the every four year event, I now shake my head at what the IOC has become. To hell with it all, I ain’t watching.

 When they root out their own corruption; then they may have the moral authority to ban the seven brave souls who simply want to go to China and be part of the world again.