No silly, not those Raiders, Al Davis died years ago, he just forgot to advise his still ambulatory carcass. I’m talking about the Texas Tech Red Raiders baby! Yes, Mrs. Randiego’s team is playing another huge game today, this week against the Oklahoma State Cowboys. OSU is the best team in Oklahoma according to Texas Radio (the one with the big beat).

Tech will get its first test as a top team with the Cowboys not far behind in statistics ad personnel. The Cowboys and Red Raiders rank in the top 10 nationally in total offense and scoring. They are fighting not only for a share of the lead in the Big 12 South, but also for the opportunity to stay alive in the BCS national championship picture. What may be the most interesting match-up is Tech’s No. 10 rushing defense against the Cowboys’ No. 5 rushing offense. Tech’s defensive line was by far the winning factor in controlling not only Colt McCoy — four sacks, one interception, one fumble — but also down in the trenches. Tech has allowed 349 yards per game this season and gave up less than 400 against Texas. The difference in the Longhorns and Cowboys are three talented running backs in Kendall Hunter (1,220 rushing yards) and Keith Totson (565 rushing yards). Add in quarterback Zac Robinson and the ability to run or throw, and suddenly a play-action pass to receiver Dez Bryant can turn the whole game around in a heartbeat. Robinson and Bryant have connected 60 times for 1,054 yards and 15 touchdowns this season. Another one could come down to the wire in Lubbock.

FAST FACTS: Cowboys — This is the third game in five weeks against a top 5 opponent on the road … OSU is trying to win two games in one season against top 10 opponents for the first time since 1976 … OSU hasn’t won in Lubbock since 1944. Red Raiders — Own the nation’s longest winning streak at 11 games, dating back to last season … Raiders have won eight of the last 11 in the series … Tech is 9-0 for the first time in 70 years.

The other huge game is Alabama and Liar Liar Nick Saban returning to a Saban-hate filled Baton Rouge and it’s LSU Cats. This could be ugly. The Tide can clinch the SEC West Championship with a win Saturday afternoon against LSU, and would appear to have clear sailing to a championship game against Florida in Atlanta. I don’t think so; am picking LSU to pull off the upset.

Elsewhere around the NCAA, it is not the most fascinating week. Utah already beat TCU in a curiously important, but sloppy game. That leaves Utah and Boise State left alive in the all important "mid-major that’s gonna get screwed by the BCS" category. Cal at USC is a big game, but won’t be a good one. The Trojans will wax the Bears badly. How the hell USC is rated #7 in BCS behind some of those other one loss teams is baffling. They did this to USC the last two years in a row at the end of the season, and, at least last year, they were probably the best team in the country and absolutely should have been playing in the title game instead of that pathetic Ohio State excuse. Who didn’t see that shellacking coming in the finale. Nobody; everyone knew, but there it was. Go figure.

In the National Favre League, there are actually, as opposed to the NCAA, several good matchups. Gosh bmaz, tell us about the mighty Bretts versus the Rams, you say. Okay, that is not the game of the week, but the Jets better watch out, the Rams show up to play at the damndest times. Steven Jackson is likely out though, so i will stick with the Favres at home.

The two best games look to be the Gents at Iggles and masaccio’s Titans at Da Bears. Both are wonderful matchups. Popular pundit wisdom seems to be that McNabb is going to rally the iggies over Eli. Yeah, I dunno about that. I think Good Eli comes to play and that the Giants are too consistent and solid for the Eagles, and the Philly fans get a little, um, you know, displeased. Again, go figure. And again, I am going to take the opponent of the Titans (they are not the Pats of Tom Brady and last year fer chrissakes, they gots to lose sooner or later). Plus it gives masaccio something to club me over the head with, and everybody enjoys that spectacle.

Other good games are the Bills at the Pats, I’ll take the Pats, the Cheeseheads at Vikings, where I’ll take the Pack, and the Colts at the Stillers. Don’t know about the last one; no clue. But I know this, Big Ben is hurting (although Byron Leftwich looked awesome last week) and Willie Parker looks to be doubtful again. Plus, the Colts just flat out need the win more and are starting to come together now that Bob Sanders is back. Colts pull out a narrow win, maybe by a Vinateri field goal. The Monday Night game is right here in Phoenix. 49ers are in town. This is just about as unfathomable a concept as is imaginable, but look for the Cards to whup the Niners and raise their record to 6-3. On a related note, look for the world to end.

Get to hootin n hollerin, a whoopin and a whompin. Trash it up!

There’s a detail in the NYT story on the Wasilla Wonder that explains something that confused me on election night.

As late as Tuesday night, a McCain adviser said, Ms. Palin was pushing to deliver her own speech just before Mr. McCain’s concession speech, even though vice-presidential nominees do not traditionally speak on election night. But Ms. Palin met up with Mr. McCain with text in hand. She was told no by Mark Salter, one of Mr. McCain’s closest advisers, and Steve Schmidt, Mr. McCain’s top strategist.

Around 10:30 on Tuesday night, Fox announced that McCain and Palin were going to speak shortly.

McCain. And Palin.

For a while, I thought maybe Palin spoke while the networks were showing the festival of joy in Grant Park. But then I realized that Fox had announced Palin would speak, but that she didn’t.

So not only did Palin show up before McCain with her text in hand. But someone told Fox news that she would get to speak as well as McCain. I guess it didn’t work out that way, huh?

The election is nigh 24 hours in the bank, and the rumor wires and scuttlebutt are exploding with discussion of the makeup of President-elect Barack Obama’s cabinet and staff to be. Attorney General is a critical post in any administration; but perhaps at no time in the history of the United States as important as at this moment.

The thankless task of recreating the once shining star that was the Department of Justice will take a special skill set from the person chosen to be the next AG. DOJ Main is a festering mess; stocked with Cheney/Bush political lackeys and consiglieri, unqualified and inexperienced Regent plants, and literal criminals that have aided and abetted the evisceration of our Constitution and commission of torture and other war crimes.

A department of expediency over honesty and integrity was grown by the Bushies. From DOJ Main down through the line level career prosecutors in the various District US Attorney Offices, credibility and trust have been felled. The once shining continuity of impartiality, justice and rule of law is in dysfunctional chaos.

Janet Napolitano is the right person, the best qualified and most suited, by far, to meet the daunting challenge ahead at Attorney General.

Napolitano is well versed and experienced with constitutional law and civil rights, having been mentored as the hand picked protege of one of the country’s great Constitutional scholars and authorities, John P. Frank, one of the two legal fathers of the Miranda decision. She has sizable long term experience not only as the Arizona Attorney General (a huge office), but also as chief executive of an entire state government as Arizona Governor. Of critical significance, she was the US Attorney for the District of Arizona for six years under President Clinton, prior to her terms in state office as Arizona’s AG and Governor.

The job ahead is going to, in addition to the legal skills, require someone with Federal experience and the established ability to manage a giant bureaucracy. Janet Napolitano has a very rare combination of background and experience to fit that bill. The attention to bureaucratic detail, not just in Washington DC, but in all of the 93 US Attorney district offices is going to have to be immense. Wholesale institutional change needs to be implemented, and malefactors rooted out.

Janet Napolitano has this ability in droves over any other candidate discussed for AG. She is spectacularly good at bureaucratic detail and getting big entities working as an efficient team. Janet has an incredibly feel good aura around her, and it is contagious to those working with and for her. She is a master team builder, both in terms of efficiency and competence as well as morale and attitude. Janet has already exhibited her turnaround skills in her transformation of the Arizona Executive branch, which was in shambles when she took over. These are exactly the skills that will demanded from the new AG.

As Sara commented:

Whoever takes the AG’s job will be faced quickly with dealing with a host of major fraud cases stemming from the economic melt-down. Congress itself will certainly be doing the hearings and pointing to potential targets. We’ve got one that is just emerging now in Minnesota — Hedge Fund Operator charged with Three Billion in Fraud, taking down a whole group of industries, including Sun Country Airlines which was forced into bankruptcy. Apparently cases like this are scattered everywhere. And yes, they will be handled by the USA for the most part, but many of these are international cases and Main Justice will have to engage. My own sense of what will return DoJ to health is a new focus on cases where large segments of the public have been harmed — properly preparing and winning some of these, and then with a new slate of personnel evolving a better culture. What’s hurt them has been fake cases — emphasis on voter fraud (which hardly exists) over emphasis on slightly potential over hyped terrorism cases, not having bright lines regarding politics and the policy of DoJ, and all those light weights from Regents University. I think Obama will be very sensitive to significant improvements at DoJ.

Janet Napolitano has tackled massive business fraud cases as Arizona AG, including the Arizona Baptist Foundation case, at the time one of the largest mass fraud cases in US history, which she personally shepherded through initial investigation and criminal prosecution. Napolitano has the guile, skill and determination to take on any entity and see that justice is administered, something to keep in mind in light of the economic collapse caused by financial and energy concerns.

Terrorism experience? Janet Napolitano has that in spades too. Janet, as US Attorney for the District of Arizona, was one of the leaders on the Oklahoma City Bombing Case, and shepherded the case against Michael Fortier, who was not only convicted, but was turned and made the critical witness against Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. Napolitano is so strong in terrorism/security that she is also being considered for head of the Department of Homeland Security.

If there is a nationwide functioning nerve center of any Presidential administration, it is the justice system and Department of Justice, if for no other reason than the fact that the FBI and US Attorneys are everywhere, in every jurisdiction across the United States. Trust, competence, morale and efficiency must be restored in the heart of the nation’s justice system.

These institutions have historically propagated and renewed themselves from within, with each generation training and mentoring the next generation. That has been blown up under George Bush and his lackeys Ashcroft, Gonzales and Mukasey. There is now effectively a two generation gap missing and/or devoid of competence in the career ranks at DOJ. The good people, that were there before, either left in disgust or were marginalized out of relevance, and the successor generations are incompetents and Regent Law type plants. The very substrate we will need to turn around the Department of Justice is missing from it.

If it was a normal situation, a normal Presidential turnover, the situation would not be so critical. But things at DOJ are not normal. Just having someone that is good on the issues, or thinks like we do, or that we admire, is not nearly enough right now. It is going to take both that and the ability to institute it top to bottom in a huge bureaucracy, as well as the people skills to quietly inspire their subordinates to get it done. Just a popular name or a vision isn’t going to cut it; the complete package is required.

The other names that have been bandied about – Eric Holder, Sheldon Whitehouse, Artur Davis, Pat Fitzgerald, and others – all have either legal acumen or leadership acumen in differing amounts; but none have the vast amounts of both that Janet Napolitano does. Then you have to figure in her inherent ability to make people around her feel positive and motivated, even in dire circumstances.

Janet Napolitano is the complete package. President Obama, make her your Attorney General. It will be one of the smartest decisions you ever make.

George Allen race-mongers. And loses.

McCain’s campaign fear-mongers. And loses.

The vote plugs along all across the nation. My wife and I have cancelled out John and Cindy McCain’s votes, so we got that going for us. Take that Grumpy John.

I have talked to Marcy a couple of times and things are good where she was stationed. One of the calls was literally because she was bored, so there are certainly no shenanigans afoot. Turnout heavy there too, and she reports noticeably elevated levels of youth turnout.

That is what I am hearing from friends around the greater Phoenix valley as well. High turnout; elevated youth and minority turnout. You gotta love it. Win, lose or draw, seeing participatory democracy in action is awe inspiring. I honestly, I swear, can see in the eyes of every bit of the public i have encountered today an expression and look of hope and excitement. A look that has been largely absent since 9/11.

And that is what it, and today, is all about. The President, and whatever man holds that job, really has limited powers in many regards. Can sure screw things up royally, we have seen that power, but as far as the affirmative power to transform our society, that physical capability is fairly limited. But, put the right guy, at the right time, in the job; a guy that has the power to lead, to inspire, to motivate – well then you have something special. We, hopefully, are on the cusp of just that.

Barack Obama, irrespective of the policy specifics that we may each agree or disagree with, is a leader. He is a motivator. He brings hope. And there lies the real power; the power to get people moving and believing again. And that is what we need. The Republicans are right, America is exceptional when it is motivated and joined in the battle at hand. George Bush and the Republicans have sapped so much of that out of us at this point that we are in dire straits.

Today that changes. Today the switch is flipped. Get fired up! Get ready to go! Let’s rock and roll folks!

Obama Wins Dixville Notch!!!

Barack Obama – 15
John McCain – 6

Big upset, GOP always wins Dixville (except for Bartlett being Bartlett)

UPDATE FROM HOWIE: Dixville Notch, New Hampshire has 75 residents and 21 registered voters. They just voted at midnight– and the winner is… Barack Obama, a huge break with tradition for an overwhelmingly Republican bastion. The last Democrat to win there was Hubert Humphrey in 1968. Obama took 15 votes, McCain 6 and Nader 0. Jeanne Shaheen also won. And the other hamlet that votes at midnight, Hart’s Location, population 42, also gave Obama a win– 17-10.

McCain & Keating Bahama Boondoggle

Teddy at the Campaign Silo pointed out yesterday, citing a damning new article in The New Republic, that John McCain was almost certainly the source for a set of illegal leaks during the Keating Five investigation — leaks that, if proven, would have been cause for his expulsion from the United States Senate for perjury, not to mention the underlying corruption and malfeasance from his relationship with Charlie Keating.

As The New Republic related:

One day in early March 1986, John McCain, an Arizona congressman, sat down to write a letter. McCain had heard that a long-time friend and donor, Charles Keating, was upset for being listed as a member of McCain’s campaign finance committee when a more prominent position would seem more appropriate. So McCain apologized. Needlessly it turned out, for "Charlie," as he signed his letter, would reply a few days later: "John, don’t be silly. You can call me anything…I’m yours until death do us part."

The entire article is a must read; it is a brutally clear exhibition of John McCain’s deeply ingrained, pathological, self serving dishonesty and soulless backstabbing lack of honor.

Now the thing that most, if not all, have overlooked here is the timing of Charlie Keating’s retort; it is not just that it was before McCain was sworn in as a United States Senator, it was right as Keating was pumping big money into McCain’s general election campaign for his first run at Barry Goldwater’s old Senate seat.

Charlie Keating wasn’t helping a friend, he was buying what he considered to be a future President. And they both knew it.

As Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Tom Fitzpatrick, who knew McCain intimately, both socially and professionally, presciently said back in 1989:

You’re John McCain, a fallen hero who wanted to become president so desperately that you sold yourself to Charlie Keating, the wealthy con man who bears such an incredible resemblance to The Joker. Obviously, Keating thought you could make it to the White House, too.

He poured $112,000 [amount later shown to be far greater] into your political campaigns. He became your friend. He threw fund raisers in your honor. He even made a sweet shopping-center investment deal for your wife, Cindy. Your father-in-law, Jim Hensley, was cut in on the deal, too.

Nothing was too good for you. Why not? Keating saw you as a prime investment that would pay off in the future.

So he flew you and your family around the country in his private jets. Time after time, he put you up for serene, private vacations at his vast, palatial spa in the Bahamas. All of this was so grand. You were protected from what Thomas Hardy refers to as "the madding crowd." It was almost as though you were already staying at a presidential retreat.

Twenty years later and Fitzpatrick’s words still drill right into the dishonorable heart of John Sidney McCain III.

What kind of man was Charlie Keating buying? A man just like himself; a man who was all ambition and no conscience. A man completely self centered and who had no compunction bleeding senior citizens dry, bullying and berating adversaries and corrupting the process of government. A man like John McCain.

It was a Faustian bargain. It was also a bad joke on the rest of us and a disaster for many old people who lost their life’s savings to Keating.

The money was never really Keating’s to give. But he never would have got his hands on it if you and the rest of the Keating Five didn’t halt the government takeover for two long years while Keating’s people continued their looting.

And now, the tab for the Savings and Loan heist must be paid from taxpayer pockets.

But the most telling part about John McCain is not that he was centrally involved in the Keating Savings & Loan scandal, many politicians get involved in political corruption scandals. Four others, although to a far lesser extent, were indeed involved alongside McCain in the Keating scandal. As bad as that was, the worse, and telling part about John McCain, was the lying and backstabbing of his friends and associates for the sole reason of saving his own pitiful skin. John Sidney McCain did not hesitate for one split second to plant and twist the shiv in the back of everybody around him, from Charlie Keating himself to his fellow Senators.

It was, and is to this date, classic John McCain. More from the late, great Tom Fitzpatrick in 1989:

Since Keating’s collapse, you find yourself doing obscene things to save yourself from the Senate Ethics Committee’s investigation. As a matter of course, you engage in backbiting behavior that will turn you into an outcast in the Senate if you do survive.
…
Those who survive will be the sociopaths who can tell a lie with the most sincere, straight face. You are especially adept at this.
…
You sought out a master criminal like Keating and became his friend. Now you’ve discarded him. It shouldn’t be surprising that you are now in the process of selling out your senatorial accomplices.

You’re John McCain, clearly the guiltiest, most culpable and reprehensible of the Keating Five. (emphasis added)

Pat Murphy, the former editor and publisher of McCain’s hometown newspaper, The Arizona Republic, is another man who knew McCain well, as both a close friend and professional subject. Murphy had these words of wisdom and caution on the eve of McCain’s last Presidential run in 2000:

Those of us who’ve known John McCain since he began his Arizona political career made two mistakes.

First, overestimating the Washington media’s willingness to look beyond a politician’s self-serving façade.

Second, underestimating McCain’s skill in camouflaging his bullyboy ways and reincarnating himself as a lovable maverick glowing with political virtue.

If McCain becomes President, America will have more than a prickly president with a low boiling point. He carries grudges, fibs rather than admits mistakes, cannot endure criticism, threatens revenge, controls by fear, is consumed with self-importance.

My friends, this is the once and future John Sidney McCain III. It is an angry, unattractive and dishonorable picture, but it is the real deal. The real McCain. The singularly self serving, erratic, say and do anything dishonesty and perfidy exhibited in his campaign against Barack Obama are proof positive that he is indeed the same old McCain.

John McCain hasn’t changed, he never will. And he is not fit to serve as President of the United States.

McPrickly/Cheney by twolf

Ruh roh, Ronald Reagan has formally endorsed Barack Obama for president! Okay, it is the non-zombie Reagan, Ron Jr., but still:

I assumed most people already knew that I had supported Obama. Anyone who has spent five minutes listening to my program would have known that. But if it helped to make it official, I’m happy to make it so.

This hot on the heels of the news that Dick Cheney, appearing at a Wyoming rally today, gave his glowing formal endorsement to John McCain.

The Salon War Room reports:

The vice president, who may still be a scary costume on future Halloweens even once he leaves office, told a Wyoming Republican event Saturday that he was "delighted" to support McCain and Sarah Palin. "I believe the right leader for this moment in history is Senator John McCain," Cheney said.

Whoo doggie. What a way for John Sidney McCain III to kick off the last weekend of his campaign. First, Ronald Reagan’s former Chief of Staff Ken Duberstein, one of the leaders of the ultra-influential Off The Record Club, flat out endorses Obama and says McCain isn’t fit for the office of President. McCain recovers by getting an endorsement, but it is from the only politician in America with a lower personal approval rating (15% last noted) than George Bush. And now Ron Reagan weighs in.

Very impressive.

In other news, as Marcy points out, John McCain is going to wrap up his campaign in Prescott Arizona.

I would suggest McCain’s decision to make the sentimental stop in New Hampshire, as much as the stop in Prescott, suggests McCain knows any stumping he does this weekend will do little good. Instead, he’s going to relive his glory days of surprise wins in New Hampshire; he’s going to try to elevate this losing bid in hopes it might some day have the same relevance as Goldwater’s 1964 presidential bid. McCain’s campaign stops this weekend are about McCain and his ego, not about mobilizing Republicans to go to the polls.

Yep, it is all about McCain’s ego alright. It always is with John McCain; he cares about only one thing in life, and that is himself. McCain constantly schleps into Prescott trying to lay claim to the mantle of Arizona’a own, Barry Goldwater. But McCain has no such claim, and he never has.

Unlike John McCain, who mindlessly gloms onto Prescott to falsely build himself up with the legacy of another, Barry Goldwater was a native son. Barry’s roots in Prescott were not false and fraudulent; they were real. Goldwater started and ended his campaigns on the steps of the Yavapai County Courthouse, smack dab in the middle of the historic downtown Prescott Town Square, because it was right across the street from the successor to the original Goldwater family store in Prescott.

The Prescott store was an immediate success. It was the first Goldwater store to carry a line of high-fashion goods and to adopt the motto, "The Best Always." At the insistence of Morris, who became manager in 1879, it began catering to ladies. Home fumiture, fumishings, and fancy goods rivaled liquor, tobacco, and flour. Among the store’s best customers were the bordello girls, who frequently purchased champagne at $40 a case. Morris soon became as indispensable to the community as to the store, practicing what he often said-that successful people had the moral duty to repay, by whatever means, the communities that had helped make them. It was a belief that Barry Goldwater would take seriously seventy years later when he pondered how best to repay his city of Phoenix for what it had given him.

Biographer Edwin McDowell points out that Morris and his father Mike, now fifty-five and referred to as the "old gentleman," set a high standard of community service. They were the first to pledge $5,000 in bonds for a railroad into Prescott, and Morris and two partners helped finance the construction of a railroad to Phoenix. Morris later helped develop mines and real estate throughout the territory and served as secretary of the Prescott Rifles, which protected the people from Indian attacks.

And then there was politics. Although only twenty-seven, Morris was elected mayor of Prescott in 1879 by an almost 2 to I margin. It was the first of his ten terms as mayor over the next forty-eight years. He also helped organize the Arizona Democratic party in the 1880s when the territory was under the control of a Republican administration. Known as a Jeffersonian or conservative Democrat, Morris later served as president of the twentieth Territorial Council and vice president of the crucial 1910 Constitutional Convention, which led to Arizona’s statehood in 1912. Following statehood, he was president of the Senate in the second Arizona legislature. He often said, and later repeated to his favorite nephew Barry, that if a man believed firmly in an issue, he should stay with it no matter what the odds or how heavy the criticism pounds, but he was determined to succeed at whatever he tried.

Over the decades, Goldwater’s grew into a statewide chain of very high end department stores (think Macy’s of the west) in Arizona, first under their predecessors, then Barry, and finally Barry’s brother Bob. As Bob Goldwater became older, the department stores merged into May/Robinsons in the early 1980s, and are now occupied by Macy’s.

Almost the entire time until Goldwater’s name merged into May/Robinson’s, Barry and Bob kept a small store open, operating at a loss, in the Prescott Town Square across from the Yavapai County Courthouse to honor the tradition and history of Goldwater’s in Prescott, because that is who they were and where they had come from. On a lighter note, all of the Goldwaters, including Barry, also knew what was on the opposite side of the Yavapai Courthouse from the family store, which was located on Cortez Street. That would be the infamous Whiskey Row on Montezuma Street, which had The Birdcage, The Palace, and Matt’s, hard drinking saloons one and all.

That is the history of a man in love with and tied to Prescott. Barry Goldwater had everything to do with Prescott Arizona; John McCain has nothing whatsoever to do with the town, it’s history, or for that matter, Barry Goldwater.

John McCain is a dishonorable fraud; he was never close to Barry Goldwater, and he carries not one single ounce of his legacy. Barry Goldwater did not like John McCain; in fact, he despised him as an unworthy carpetbagger in Arizona. The direct descendants of Barry Goldwater are voting the conscience of their conservative grandfather, rejecting John McCain completely, and strongly endorsing Barack Obama. The reason is because John McCain is so far from the quality of man that Barry Goldwater was that it is laughable.

John McCain, I knew Barry Goldwater, Barry Goldwater was a friend of mine, and you sure as hell are no Barry Goldwater. Quit fraudulently and dishonorably holding yourself out as his heir.

Down to the nitty gritty. The big game is Tuesday. No, CTMET, I am not talking about University of Buffalo v. Miami of Ohio. I am talking The Obama State U v. McCain Community College. This OSU isn’t in the Big 10, and we are expecting victory baby!

But the good old boys at ESPN have been scheming to game the pre-election scene. Here is the play ESPN is running:

On the eve of the presidential election, with "Monday Night Football" from Washington as the backdrop, candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are planning to participate in one-on-one interviews on ESPN via satellite.
…
"We worked with our partners at the NFL to schedule a Monday Night Football game in Washington on this special night, and this presents a unique opportunity for John McCain and Barack Obama to reflect upon the last few months and address a large primetime audience on the final day of the campaigns," Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, production, said in a statement.

It will be the first NFL game played in the D.C. area on the Monday night before a presidential election in 24 years. The Redskins defeated the Atlanta Falcons 27-14 on Nov. 5, 1984; Ronald Reagan was re-elected the following day.

The Redskins, in fact, are an accurate barometer for presidential elections. According to Steve Hirdt of the Elias Sports Bureau, who coined the term "Redskins Rule" in 2000, the following bromide has held true for the past 17 presidential elections: If the Redskins win their last home game prior to Election Day, the party that won the popular vote in the previous election wins the White House; if the Redskins lose, the party that lost the popular vote in the previous election wins.

In this Monday’s case, a Steelers win would forecast an Obama victory; a Redskins win would indicate a McCain win.

Lovely. The last time we did this, Reagan won. And we are relying on the Steelers to win this time if we want Obama in the White House. Hope Willie Parker is back. On the plus side, maybe the Stillers will remember the pandering lie McCain pulled using them as a stage prop:

And then McCain told a rather moving story about his time as a P.O.W. "When I was first interrogated and really had to give some information because of the pressures, physical pressures on me, I named the starting lineup, defensive line of the Pittsburgh Steelers as my squadron mates."

"Did you really?" asked the reporter.

"Yes," McCain said.

"In your POW camp?" asked the reporter.

"Yes," McCain said.

"Could you do it today?" asked the reporter.

"No, unfortunately," McCain said.

Here’s one reason he likely couldn’t do it today — the Steelers aren’t the team whose defensive line McCain named for his Vietnamese tormentors. The Green Bay Packers are. At least according to every previous time McCain has told this story. And the McCain campaign just told ABC News that the senator made a mistake — it was, indeed, the Packers.

Now that’s some locker room bulletin board material. Let us hope the Stillers remember the Maine McCain. Funny thing is, knowing McCain, I would place a fair wager that the first story about the Packers was a lie too; there is about zero chance that he would have known even the Packer’s line.

Okay, let’s get to the games.

National Favre League – Well, we know the Steelers have to beat the Redskins. In DC. Oy. Man, all the games this week are good matchups. Probably the two most interesting are the Cowboys at Giants and Packers at Titans. The ‘Boys are due for a resurgence. But not until Romo is back, and that isn’t this week. Gents win at home. Packers have three losses; the Titans have none. Titans are 4.5 point favorites; but my gut tells me this is the week the Titans have a blip and the Cheesers eke out a win.

Bretts at the Bills also interesting. I dunno what the deal is there; Bills are at home though, that is a good bet. Favre messed up by not beating the Raiders; if the Jets win that game, they finish the first half 5-3, instead it looks like 4-4. Cards at Rams and Fish at Broncs also pretty interesting games. I am going to take the upset on both; Rams nip the Cards in St. Louis and the Fish run their Red Grange play set through the paper thin Bronco defense.

One other biggie. Peyton v. Cassell. Don’t laugh, Cassell is getting more comfortable every game; he is now a competent, if not yet good, NFL quarterback. Colts have been in a major funk; pats way more solid than people would have thought. Marcy isn’t going to like this, and I don’t have a good feeling about it, but I’m taking the upset special yet again. Colts and manning bust out with a win. Oh, and by the way, looks like Tom is getting down on one knee for Giselle. Good thing it only requires one knee, that is all he has got these days.

NCAA Gridiron Glory – I want really bad for Texas Tech to whack Texas. Man would that be fun. I am generally for anything that screws with the heads of the twits that populate the BCS Committee, and boy would a Tech victory do that. The other huge game this weekend is Florida at Georgia. Both teams have proved to be more flawed than they were thought to be at the start of the season. Both have overcome the skittish play and seem to be on track now; this is going to be a war. And don’t forget the stunt Georgia pulled last year; that left a mark. Tim Tebow runs over the Bulldogs.

F1 Circus – Well, we are down to the last race of the season, the Brazilian Grand Prix. Young Lewis hamilton of McLaren leads Felipe Massa of Ferrari by seven points and it boils down to this:

Another Formula One season comes down to the last race of the year, with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa vying for their first career title at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
In a thrilling season in which seven different drivers won races and as many as four led the series in points, Hamilton arrives in Brazil for Sunday’s GP with a seven-point lead over home-crowd favorite Massa.
Hamilton needs only a fifth-place or better finish to ensure he becomes F1’s youngest champion at age 23, and the first British champion since Damon Hill in 1996.

"I have to look at things realistically and appreciate that I have another weekend of maximum effort ahead of me," Hamilton said.

Massa retains a chance to become the first non-European driver to win the title since Canadian Jacques Villeneuve in 1997, and the first Brazilian champion since the late Ayrton Senna in 1991. But he has to win or finish second and rely on Hamilton finishing down the field.

Ferrari leads Mclaren in the constructor’s standings by eleven points; not an insurmountable lead, but a solid one. Last year, Hamilton had the lead over Massa’s teammate at Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen, going into Brazil and all hell broke loose and Raikkonen ended up winning the crown. Although my blood runs red for Ferrari, I think this is Lewis Hamilton’s year. Should be a great race to cap off an excellent season. Don’t count out Fernando Alonso, he may be out of the championship race, but he has been hot lately and would dearly love to upstage Hamilton and Massa to close out the year.

Well, that is the rundown my wheel friends. Whoop it up, suck some cool ones down, and enjoy the games. Why do we play the games? To win the games baby! Let’s get it on and trash it up!

UPDATE From the comments, per some commenter named Emptywheel:

For those who didn’t see this football-related news last night, Brigham Young’s direct descendant is telling his church to fuck off:

Former San Francisco 49ers’ Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young has two official “No on 8″ signs in the windows of his house in Palo Alto. On Friday, there were also three Halloween-themed signs in Young’s yard that also urged people to reject the gay marriage ban.

Young’s wife, Barbara, has also donated approximately $50,000 to the “No on 8″ campaign aimed at defeating Proposition 8. Steve Young, answering a doorbell ring at his home late Friday afternoon, declined to comment about the signs in his yard.

But in an e-mailed statement to the gay rights group Equality California, Barbara Young wrote: “We believe all families matter, and we do not believe in discrimination, therefore, our family will vote against Prop. 8.”

Good on the Youngs.

(this week’s video is Astronomy by BOC)

McPrickly/Cheney by twolf

Even the neocon nuts are fleeing John McCain and his campaign of shame. The latest surfer from the right to catch the Obama wave to the White House is Francis Fukuyama. That’s right, the guy who literally wrote The End Of History has figured out that Barack Obama is history in the making and John McCain is simply ancient and erratic history. And Fukuyama nukes McCain, Bush and Cheney in the process. It is a brutally scathing takedown.

I’m voting for Barack Obama this November for a very simple reason. It is hard to imagine a more disastrous presidency than that of George W. Bush….. While John McCain is trying desperately to pretend that he never had anything to do with the Republican Party, I think it would a travesty to reward the Republicans for failure on such a grand scale.

Ouch! Chris Buckley got terminated from the conservative magazine his own father created for less than that. Maybe if that is all Fukuyama said, none of the right wing freak show will notice….

Ooops, Francis did it again; he had more to say:

At a time when the U.S. government has just nationalized a good part of the banking sector, we need to rethink a lot of the Reaganite verities of the past generation regarding taxes and regulation. Important as they were back in the 1980s and ’90s, they just won’t cut it for the period we are now entering. Obama is much better positioned to reinvent the American model and will certainly present a very different and more positive face of America to the rest of the world.

Yowser! First Bush and McCain, now Fukuyama has gone and thrown Saint Ronnie of Raygun under the bus. That’s gonna leave a mark. Here, however, is the most beautiful part:

McCain’s appeal was always that he could think for himself, but as the campaign has progressed, he has seemed simply erratic and hotheaded. His choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate was highly irresponsible; we have suffered under the current president who entered office without much knowledge of the world and was easily captured by the wrong advisers. McCain’s lurching from Reaganite free- marketer to populist tribune makes one wonder whether he has any underlying principles at all.

Yep, Francis is right; America was trashed and burned by a bunch of pricks with more balls than common sense, ethics and good governance. You could almost salute Fukuyama for a clear and true stand like this.

Almost.

Almost, that is, if it were not for the fact that Fukuyama himself was one of those "advisors" with Cheney, PNAC and the neocons that helped Bush drive America over the cliff. You are a day late and several trillion dollars short Francis, where was all this good judgment when it counted?