Sick, Sick Senator Craig

Looks like another sick bastard is about to resign from the Senate. Republican Senator Larry Craig will resign for his escapades in men's bathrooms trying to rustle up some homosexual sex.

Personally, I couldn't care less if he is gay. The idea that this married, champion of "family values" is seeking out anonymous sex in a public bathroom is just plain sick.

Gotta love those Republicans like Craig, Mark Foley (child predator), Senator David Vitter (linked to DC Madam), and who can forget about the good Reverand Ted Haggard (married evangelical minister who has a meth problem and loves to call on male prostitute friends for fun). All of them were big on "family values."

Real Season Predictions

Bears

Looking over the schedule, I think they will end up 12-4 with a first round bye. I think their D will be dominant and in addition to the usual suspects (Urlacher, Harris, Briggs, Vasher, Tillman, Brown, etc.) that Adam Archuleta will be a major contributor. Special teams will continue to shine and be a real strength for this team. Rex will have a breakout year with 25 TDs and 13 Ints for 3700 yards. Cedric Benson will end up as a 1400-yard back with 12 TDs. Even with the inevitable injuries that will occur during the season, the Bears depth will carry them to a great season. After getting a taste last year, the Bears will win the Super Bowl this year.

Redskins

They will be an improved bunch on D (not saying much), but the D-line and the failure to put pressure on the QB will continue to haunt them. Landry will be an impact player, but he is a rookie who will make some serious mistakes, especially after teams have some film on him and recognize his tendencies. Sean Taylor will still make blunders because he goes for the big hit. Fletcher is a tackling machine, but injuries will slow down the linebacking corps (Washington, Fletcher, and Rocky will all get hurt - Rocky's knee is suspect). The O-line will be a disaster and this will be Portis' last year with the Skins. JC will show signs of being a good one, but without a reliable #2 wide receiver, a weakened running game, and a porous O-line, there is only so much he can do. You win games in the trenches and the Redskins don't have it. End result is a 7-9 record.

Season Predictions (the JKD Way)

Last night, Rex went 1-1 for 0 yards and JC was 5-5 for 54 yards and a TD.

So, using JKD's method of projection, that means that over the course of the season the two QBs will end up as follows:

Rex: 160-160, 0 yards, 0 TDs, 0 Ints

JC: 800-800, 8640 yards, 160 TDs, 0 Ints

It is "POSSIBLE."

Another Day Another Haugh Bear-Bash

Today he is complaining that Greg Olsen should not have been playing in the second quarter when he sprained his knee. It is just plain ridiculous. The guy is a rookie who can use some more plays anyway.

Hopefully, it is not more serious - it did not appear to be.

JC WAS AWESOME!

Wow, Jason Campbell was 5-5 for for 54 yards and a TD. That means that if he had played the whole game and led the team on 10 possessions, he would have ended up 50-50 for 540 yards and 10 TDs. Amazing!

Of course, I am projecting his stats using JKD's method. You agree, right JKD? Whateva!

I watched some of the plays with Blades playing middle linebacker and he still looks tiny.

Couple of NFL Notes

Dr. Z at SI has his predictions out - Chicago 11-5, knocked out of the divisional playoffs. Washington 6-10.

Peter King lists his top 500 NFL players. Five Bears in the top 100 (Urlacher #7, Harris #25, Briggs #35, Hester #69, and Tillman #75). Five more Bears within the top 200 (Kreutz #108, Anderson #121, Vasher #130, Berrian #158, and Grossman #166).

No Redskins in the top 100. In the top 200 there was Samuels #121, Washington #148, Taylor #159, and Moss #191.

It is still early.

Iraq - No Surprise

Little real progress has been made as 13 of the 18 benchmarks that were established as the rationale for "THE SURGE" have not been met. Those benchmarks were set up to be very achievable.

Bushie wants to borrow another $50 billion from the Chinese so that he can continue to flush $3 billion a week down the toilet with his SURGE STRATEGY.

It is ridiculous. I will venture to say that if Congress finally cuts off the unlimited funding, sets a hard deadline, and only funds enough to redeploy the troops out of Iraq, they would see their abysmal approval ratings improve. If they continue to blindly support Bushie, they will sink to even lower depths.

Briggs Panicked

Briggs crashed his car and apparently freaked out. He did call a tow truck and the police (initially reporting it stolen). It does not appear that alcohol was related. It is still possible, but at least no one was hurt.

Move along folks, there is nothing to see here.

David Haugh at the Trib

This guy just loves to stir up controversy. He wrote a piece about Briggs and implied that it must have been a alcohol related crash. It may very well have been, but why speculate? Lance Briggs is not a guy with a history of off-field troubles. No one was hurt and at least to this point there is no evidence that alcohol was involved.

Haugh is an idiot for calling Rex's performance against the 49ers "shaky." The guy had a huge game. He led the offense on 5 scoring drives, including 2 long ones that covered the length of the field. Rex had a 112.7 rating and left the game after the first half with the Bears leading 31-13.

He argued that the Bears should start Griese for the final preseason game. I love this quote, "Starting Griese would be subtle and smart ... and a move Smith will never make." This implies that Smith is not subtle or smart. How many games has Haugh coached in the NFL?

Haugh has a right to write what he does, but he is dealing in gossip in order to sell papers and try to build a name for himself.

Rex Bashing Nonsense

Last night Rex had a passer rating of 112.7 and led the team to 31 first half points. He threw for 211 yards and 2 TDs in the first half. But, some people want to focus on his interception and botched snap. That is ridiculously unfair.

He has had a great camp. In the preseason, he has gone 30-41 (73%) for 320 yards. He has 2 INTs and 2 TDs. He had a solid outing his first preseason game. Made mistakes in his second preseason game, and then had a great outing last night.

As the season wears on and he gets more experience as the starter, the organization, the coaches, the players, and many Bears fans (including myself) believe that he won't make the same errors. That is what comes with experience. If he continues to make errors, then we will have something to talk about.

What I find objectionable from one particular Rex hater (A.K.A. JKD) is that one week he will seriously try to argue that Rex would have 10 turnovers in a game based on him throwing an INT, and having a fumble, and 2 botched snaps (that the Bears recovered) in the first 22 minutes of a game. But then, on a week where Rex is great, he will focus again on the negative. If he were truly objective and fair, I would have expected JKD to argue that Rex would have thrown 4 TD passes, led the Bears to 62 points, and had 400 plus yards passing if we projected out his first half stats. Of course, that was not offered.

I am surprised JKD didn't put up another foolish looking billboard about Rex on his website. Of course he is not a hater and is not just trying to pile on to Rex. JKD is just being objective. RIIIIIIGHT!

Bottom line - You just can't win with Rex haters.

Rex is Back

No problem this week against what is supposed to be a solid San Francisco team. He went 13-20, 211 yards, 2 TDs and 1 INT. He threw the interception for a returned TD and had another fumbled snap that he recovered - that has got to stop, but that will get worked out in preseason. I will take the following production any time.

First drive - 60 yards, TD
Second drive - 32 yards, FG
Third drive - 80 yards, TD
Fourth drive - 73 yards, TD
Fifth drive - 5 yards, INT (TD the other way)
Sixth drive - 20 yards, Punt
Seventh drive - 20 yards, TD

Redskins Sign Kendall

In a move they had to make, they signed Jets guard Pete Kendall. The guy is 34 and the Redskins are giving him a raise. The Redskins traded a 5th round pick for him (it becomes a 4th rounder in 2009 if Kendall plays 80 percent of the snaps this year).

I am pretty much mixed on the trade. The Redskins had to do something - the left side of their O-line was a disaster (particularly at guard). I am not convinced Kendall will really be all that good and he is old. All that said, if Kendall can just be adequate, it will be better than what they had.

Bears and Colts Preseason

No question the story of the game was Rex's blunders. He was extremely accurate, but he couldn't hold on to the ball. He's got to work that out. Three fumbles and an interception in less than a half of football won't cut it. That said, I have faith in Rex. He's had a great camp and I'm comfortable with him as the starter.

Bears D looked good. Special teams looked good. Bears rushing attack needs to improve, but the backup QBs looked great.

More Bushie B.S.

Bushie has been saying for months that we should all wait to see General Petraeus' report in September to see if the "Surge" worked. Here is part of the press briefing by presidential spokeswoman Dana Perino:

Q Dana, there's a report out today that the September Iraq report will be written by the White House, and not by Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus. Is that accurate?

MS. PERINO: Well, let me remind you of a couple of things. The Congress asked for these reports from the President; they asked for the President to report to the Congress.

OK, so now it is clear the White House is going to write the report. Prepare for more Bushie B.S.

Oh, and as if we don't need more evidence of the horrible toll the war is taking on our soldiers. The suicide rate of soldiers has hit a 26 year high.

Seeking the Truth about Tillman

Will the NFL get involved in trying to secure all of the documents the White House is hiding regarding Pat Tillman?

It would be nice to actually have a President that answered to the people. The secrecy that shrouds Pat Tillman's death can in no way be what he fought and died for.

Another Brutal Day on the Market

Down another 200+ points today. When folks open up their quarterly IRA statements and see how much damage they have taken this quarter it won't be a pretty sight.

Of course, it was completely predictable. The nation is awash in debt and all of the sub-prime borrowers who cannot keep up with payments have destabilized the economy. What is happening now is a direct result of the loose credit standards that made getting a loan easy. Now, investors will require much higher returns which means that interest rates will continue to rise.

Bears First Pre-season Game

It is early, but there were some good signs that you like to see. Rex hit his first 8 passes and carried over his sharp play from training camp. Cedric churned up 23 yards on 5 carries. Greg Olsen had 2 catches. The O-line looked great overall.

That was all good, but the D under new coordinator Bob Babich played a more aggressive, attacking style that the players really seemed to enjoy. Even Arch got a tackle behind the line of scrimmage on a blitz call. Briggs did not miss a beat after sitting out most of the off-season.

Hopefully the Bears will avoid injuries in the preseason.

U.S. Debt Owed to Foreigners

Because we have to finance our huge National Debt, the annual budget deficits, and our current account deficit, we have to borrow heavily from foreign governments and foreign central banks. The money we get to finance the Debt and deficits is raised through the sale of U.S. Treasury Securities (i.e., government bonds and government notes).

Currently, foreigners hold $2.2 trillion in U.S. Treasury Securities.

Back in 2000 (when George W. Bush took office), foreigners held $1.1 trillion in U.S. Treasury Securities.

Thus, based on the figures provided by the U.S. Treasury Department, over the last six plus years we have seen sold an additional $1.1 trillion in U.S. Government Securities.

Of particular note, in 2000 China held $71.4 billion in U.S. Treasury Securities and OPEC (which includes Iran) held $43.6 billion. Today, China now holds $407 billion and OPEC now holds $121 billion of our debt.

I have my opinion about the risks and benefits of giving foreigners more control of our debt and thus more control of our economic independence. You can look at the numbers and decide for yourself if you think it is wise.

U.S. National Debt

Most Americans simply do not know what the facts are about our economy. For anyone who is interested in facts and is willing to look at actual numbers, here are the National Debt figures provided by the U.S. Treasury Department.

8/8/07 - $8.94 trillion (current as of this post)
1/4/07 - $8.67 trillion (when the Dems took over Congress)
9/30/06 - $8.51 trillion
9/30/05 - $7.93 trillion
9/30/04 - $7.38 trillion
9/30/03 - $6.78 trillion
9/30/02 - $6.23 trillion
9/28/01 - $5.81 trillion
9/28/00 - $5.67 trillion
9/30/92 - $4.06 trillion

Look it up for yourself at the U.S. Treasury Dept.

Unless you believe the U.S. Treasury Dept is lying, you can see the dramatic increase under George W. Bush.

Under Clinton, the National Debt rose from $4.06 trillion to $5.67 trillion. Thus, it rose by a total of $1.61 trillion. This represents a 39.7% increase over Clinton's eight years in office [($5.67 - $4.06)/$4.06].

Under Bush, the National Debt has risen from $5.67 trillion to $8.67 trillion, for a total of $3 trillion. This represents a 52.9% increase over the six years of Bush and his Republican Congress [($8.67 - $5.67)/$5.67]. Since the Dems have took over, the rate of debt accumulation has greatly slowed down. This is just a simple, plain fact.

Notes About the Economy

The Dow is down about 1000 points from its recent high of 14,100 about a month ago. First let me say that Wall Street and Main Street are two very different things. Many of the multinational corporations that we think of as being American firms that are listed on the U.S. Stock Exchanges are shifting jobs to foreign countries and deriving more and more of their annual profits from overseas. So, while their stock prices may be going up, it is not having a similar effect on the average American working family.

That said, the credit crunch that is occurring and which is roiling the major markets and causing such angst is not at all surprising. The U.S. economy is propped up on the heavy debt of American consumers and on the horribly bloated $9 trillion national debt. We can all thank the Republican Congress and President Bush for exploding the annual budget deficits (remember that the deficits do not account for the costs of the Iraq War which has been funded with supplementals outside of the budget process). The 7 years of Bush and mostly Republican rule resulted in the incredibly outrageous explostion of the deficits and the National Debt.

The falling greenback and falling confidence in the American economy is going to force interest rates higher. This will further increase the number of home mortgage defaults that are already at a high level. We are seeing just the first part of the disaster playing out now. Home values are collapsing and Americans are having trouble keeping up with their debt payments.

Our soldiers and their families, as well as the Iraqis, have been paying for Bush's blunders for several years, but we will all be literally paying back the Chinese and all of our other foreign creditors for decades as a result of the disasterous fiscal policies Bush has implemented and pushed forward with the help of his Republican sheep in Congress.

I am increasingly more convinced that he will be remembered as a dolt.

Sill More Iraqi "Progress"

Looks like the power grid is about to collapse. All insurgents have to do is turn 10 air conditioners off and on a couple of times and the strain on the grid will cause it to fail.

How the f**k can Bush say that we are actually making progress? When the Iraqi politicians get back to work in a month, we'll see if there is any power to run the government. It is absolutely ridiculous.