NFL. 2012. GET. IT. ON...

Guess who's back...Back again...The BTPC's NFL picks are back...Tell a friend...

Slim Shady may have sang those lyrics, but they apply today to the return of our old friend, the National Football League.  And with that return comes the return of your favorite NFL prognostication device: the BTPC picks column.  That's right...where else can you go to get NFL game predictions that are, statistically speaking, at best the same as flipping a coin.  Probably lots of places.  But you're not there, you're here.  Therefore, we shall give you what you want...

Dallas v. NY GIANTS (-3.5)
One game to start it off tonight.  The Cowboys go to Gotham.  How lucky are the Giants?  They win the Super Bowl, yet every single bit of attention is focused on the Jets thanks to Rex Ryan and Tim Tebow. Tom Coughlin is living right, people.

Meanwhile, Dallas hasn't been able to put a healthy team on the field once this preseason.  Laurent Robinson is gone, Dez Bryant has to BYOSS (Bring Your Own Security Squad), Miles Austin has been hobbled and Tony Romo's security blanket Jason Whitten has a lacerated spleen that has kept him from doing anything.  Add on top of that the fact that the one thing the Giants do very, very well is rush the passer and the Cowboys have lost so many Centers, they traded for one for the Miami Dolphins.  So in summary, Dallas is looking at having issues with hiking the ball, protecting Romo and catching the ball.  That's enough to make one start to worry.

Factor in that the Giants owned the Cowboys last year, winning both games, one being the pivotal season closer that sparked the Giants Super Bowl run and that worry becomes dread.

Then...mix in the fact that Jerrah "Does My Face Look Too Tight" Jones has been talking smack about beating the Giants all off-season and that dread should become sheer panic.

We think the Giants use tonight to serve notice to the rest of the league.

BTPC pick: Giants laying the 3.5

Colts (+10) v. BEARS
Andrew Luck, Julius Peppers.  Julius Peppers, Andrew Luck.  Oh...did we mention Brandon Marshall is back with the only QB he's ever really loved?  Or that he has a doppleganger on the other side of the formation in Alshon Jeffery.  Jeffery is like Marshall with out the personality disorder.

BTPC pick: Bears laying the 10.

VIKINGS (-4) v. Jaguars
Hey, Blaine Gabbert, look on the bright side...it will be so loud in the dome, no one will hear how bad you are sucking...

BTPC pick: Vikings laying the 4.

JETS (-3) v. Bills
The Jets decided to bring in a QB who can't throw, but who brings instant controversy to pair with a QB who has failed to live up to expectations.  And they brought in Tony Sparano to be the offensive mastermind who will unleash these two crackens.  As a Miami Dolphins fan, let me give you Jets fans some insider scoop on Sparano: he hasn't been holding anything back.  This is how bad his offense is.  Enjoy...

BTPC pick: UPSET SPECIAL: Bills getting 3

TEXANS (-12) v. Dolphins
As a Dolfan, we're just hoping this team looks better at the end of the year from what they do today (which we predict will be "like shit").

BTPC pick: Texans laying 12

Rams (+7.5) v. LIONS
Jeff Fisher's mustache has gone to St. Louis.  The Lions have a wealth of offensive weapons. Unfortunately none of them can run the ball.

BTPC pick: Rams getting 7.5

PATRIOTS (-6) v. Titans
We went heavy on Patriots on our Fantasy team this year. Brady, Gronk and Lloyd.  That probably does not bode well for them...

BTPC pick: Patriots laying 6.

SAINTS (-7) v. Redskins
Gonna be loud for this game, as Saints fans give one long, loud and enthusiastic F*ck You to Roger Goodell.

BTPC pick: Saints laying 7.

Eagles (-9.5) v. BROWNS
This is how bad things go for the Browns: they use their first round pick on a RB, who has already undergone two "procedures" before week 1 of the season.  Then their best defensive player, CB Joe Haden gets suspended for 4 games. Did I mention their rookie QB is 53-years old?  It's never a great thing with the best thing to happen to your franchise in weeks is the former owner dying...

BTPC pick: Eagles laying 9.5

Falcons (-2.5) v. CHIEFS
Here's how sad things are for the Chiefs: they actually decided Romeo Crennel would be a good choice as HC, you know...because that stint with the Cleveland Browns went so well...

BTPC pick: Falcons laying 2.5.

Seahawks (-3) v. CARDINALS
The Russell Wilson era begins.  Meanwhile, the Cards at least have Kevin Kolb and his contract.  So there's that...

BTPC pick: Seahawks laying 3.

BUCS (+2.5) v. Panthers
Josh Freeman was the poor man's Cam Newton before Cam Newton.  That Martin kid is gonna be a heckuva RB.

BTPC pick: Bucs getting 2.5

PACKERS (-5) v. Niners
Rodgers was praising Alex Smith this week.  It's almost as if he's been watching tape on Smith and feels really sorry for how bad he is.

BTPC pick: Pack laying 5.

BRONCOS (+2) v. Steelers
We're not willing to bet against Peyton Manning, even if he hasn't played in a real NFL game in over a year and has, in the interim, had 4 neck surgeries.

BTPC pick: Broncos getting 2.

RAVENS (-6.5) v. Bengals
Sure would be funny if all this Ravens buzz ran into a Bengal buzzsaw and faltered.  True story, Ray Lewis is 113-years old.  Ed Reed's body is 4-years older...

BTPC pick: Bengals getting 6.5.

RAIDERS (-1) v. Chargers
The "Hey...I'm not dead yet" game for two NFL QBs.  We'll take the one we'd rather have.

BTPC pick: Chargers getting 1.


Season to date: 0-0-0
2011 Record: 120-117-11
Career to Date: 386-361-29

The Official Move of the Romney Campaign...

The Romney Campaign might as well issue a press release making the facepalm the official hand gesture of Romney-Ryan 2012.  It all started back with Sen. Reid's successful hijacking of their message.  Remember all that reporting a while back on the crappy employment numbers?  No?  Oh yeah...that's because for two weeks, the narrative of the 2012 campaign was Reid's accusation that Romney wasn't releasing his tax records because they would show he hadn't paid hardly any income taxes.  Remember that?  You know...all the stuff about "a source" telling him.  Then Pelosi coming out and backing Reid?  Romney saying he's only releasing two years and that's it, he'd not be talking about it anymore. Of course you do.  And the fact that you do is proof of how successful Reid's ploy was.

To counter that hijacking, what was Romney's move?  He went and picked a fight with The Big Dog, aka William Jefferson Clinton, over...of all things...WELFARE.  WTF?!  Your response to getting played by Harry Reid is to go pick a fight with Superman IN HIS FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE?  Guess what...that was another 3-4 days lost.

Add in the charges Romney threw around in Ohio about Obama trying to disenfranchise military voters, which kind of blew up when the associations representing each branch of service members asks to file amicus briefs supporting the Presidents argument...shit's kinda been adding up in the L column for old Willard, and things haven't been going well.  

Enter the VP choice.  Yeah...it was time for Mittster to channel his inner Stella and get his groove back.  So, which way did he go?  Romney goes the McCain way.  That's right.  He made "a bold" choice.  That's code for "looking at the electoral map, we're gonna get our teeth kicked in.  If we don't want to get embarrassed, we need to make sure all the wingnuts turn out.  Let's pick someone who appeals to the far right."  Seriously, what VP pick that was obviously geared to energizing your base has worked in modern times?

So...after picking a VP pick that gifts Obama a custom-made argument to the seniors of Pennsylvania and Florida (who needs those states!), the Romney-Ryan express rolled out in to the country side.  Surely things improved.  Presidential candidates always get nice bumps when they announce their VP picks, especially if they're base is lukewarm and the pick was chosen to energize the faithful.

Uh...not so much.  While Romney has gotten a slight bump in popular vote polls and some state-centered polls, electoral forecasts still have Obama winning comfortably.  FiveThirtyEight has it forecast at Obama 291 - Romney 243.

It hasn't helped that in addition to the weight he voluntarily strapped to his neck like a beautifully bold-striped Brooks Brothers tie (ie., Ryan's Medicare and SS views), he's also got to deal with the fact that Ryan vigorously defended the stimulus under W and voted to bail out the auto industry and the banks. (Yeah...Ryan is such a die-hard free market capitalist, alright).  And it seemed pretty moronic to kill at least the relatively "good press" you have been getting since the pick by talking about what you said you were done talking about: your taxes, when you claimed to have gone back and looked and you paid at least 13% each year.  (BTW, that's a tell on Romney.  He actually thinks Joe Sixpack will think it's great he paid 13%.  Romney has no idea that majority of Americans are taxed at a higher rate).

Of course...that was before this week's HUGE FACEPALM moment.  Over the weekend, crazy-ignorant Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), who is the GOP's nominee for Senate "misspoke" by explaining that women who are victims of "legitimate" rape don't get pregnant, the body has "defenses" against that.  Obviously, Akin didn't misspeak.  He just screwed up by pulling back the curtain and exposing his warped and ignorant view of the world.  By the way, this yahoo is currently on the Science and Technology committee in the United Stated House of Representatives.  And you wonder WTF is wrong with that august body...

Why does this matter?  Well...it just so happens that dreamy Paul Ryan has been a big supporter of Rep. Akin.  They worked together to restrict access to abortions in house legislation.  Remember that whole brouhaha over "forcible" rape?  Yeah...that was them.  So, since Willard picked Ryan as his new BFF, he's gotten caught in Hurricane Akin.

And it gets worse.  Romney ain't exactly been an oak on abortion.  This is the guy who pretty obviously went from pro-Choice to win his governor's race in Mass., to pro-Life once he starting running for the GOP nomination simply for the votes.  He claims his views have "evolved."  Well...if that's the case, it's legitimate for folks to wonder if he's "evolving" to join the Ryan-Akin club.

Romney originally came out with a pretty weak statement on the whole Akin affair.

"Gov. Romney and Congressman Ryan disagree with Mr. Akin's statement, and a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape," said Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg in a statement.

That was Sunday.  On Monday, Romney moved to calling the comments offensive and wrong.  On Tuesday, he released a statement pretty much calling on Akin to drop out of the race telling Akin to consider "what's in the best interest of the country."  As RNC Chairman Reince Preibus said:

"I think that it was pretty clear that Mitt Romney believes that everything that Todd Akin said was unbelievably at odds with rational thinking. He led the charge. Everyone followed suit. We all followed Mitt Romney's lead yesterday," said on MSNBC's "Jansing and Co."

Well...that's that, right?  Save by Romney?  Uh...just one problem.  See...they all didn't follow the Mittster's lead yesterday:

Republicans who are drafting the party's platform approved strong anti-abortion language Tuesday that makes no exceptions to allow abortion in cases of rape or incest victims, a statement of principle that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said is too limiting for his own beliefs.

Repeating the party's official 2008 position, the 2012 platform calls for "a human life amendment" to the Constitution and says "the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed." It makes no specific references to exclusions, and it's expected to be adopted with little dissent on Monday's opening day of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla.

DOH!  How do they explain this?  Well, according to Preibus, this is the PARTY's platform, not Romney's, so it's all good.  Well...it's nice to know the guy you guys want to lead the country can't even lead his party on their platform, but ok.  You've dodged that bullet.  Unless...

Mitt Romney may not be able to “defend” Todd Akin’s theory that women can’t get pregnant from “legitimate rape,” but apparently the physician behind this controversial theory was an “important surrogate” for Romney’s presidential campaign in 2008. Dr. Jack C. Wilke, former president of the National Right to Life Committee, is known as the “father of the anti-abortion movement.” A 2007 statement from the Romney campaign hailed Wilke as “a leading voice within the pro-life community and will be an important surrogate for Governor Romney's pro-life and pro-family agenda.”

OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! COME ON, MAN!  Seriously...the facepalming in this Romney campaign is reaching epic proportions...

But, we're gonna help Romney out.  We've got some advice.  Mitt, if you really want to carpe diem, you'll go down to Tampa and when you give your speech, you'll stand tough...AGAINST the crazies in your party.  That's right, blast 'em.  Tell them their way of thinking is what cost the party the Senate in 2010.  And if they keep it up, it's gonna cost them the White House and eventually make the whole party irrelevant.  Think about it, Mitt would get great press, he'd come off as a strong leader and he'd undercut the attacks he's gonna continue to get hit with going forward.  But Mitt ain't gonna do that.  He'll pander.  He'll get the usual bump out of the convention and then he'll lose in November.  Just like Kerry in 2004 and McCain in 2008.

2012 Fantasy Team -- 6353 Wantabo: I am the one who knocks...

Yesterday, we had our annual fantasy football draft.  It's our 10th anniversary of this league, made up primarily of a bunch of us who worked together back in the day. We've come a long way.  Back in the day, we would score the games by hand, using USA Today's sports section.  (Note for the kids: USA Today was/is something called a newspaper, although not really a "real one" because it had...wait for it, COLOR photos. But we digress).  Anyway, everyone would have to score their own games too as a backstop for our scoring, then we'd send out a league email.  Eventually we moved to Sandbox on the internet and now, like millions of others, we just use Yahoo.

Anyway, this year's team is named after two of the best scenes on the best show currently on tv, Breaking Bad.  Our team name? 6353 Wantabo: I am the one who knocks...

We were picking 5th in a pretty standard scoring 10-team league.  Each week you start: QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, TE, FLEX (WR/RB), FLEX (WR/RB), K, DEF

Our strategy was to get one of the top 3 QBs first (Rogers, Brady or Brees), then get one of the top 2 TEs (Gronk or Graham).  Oddly enough, Arian Foster fell to 5, but we stuck with the plan.  As you can see, it obviously left our RBs weak.  But we just rolled with it and kept picking receivers.  Yet another way fantasy football has changed in the past 10 years.  Used to be you HAD to get a stud RB to have a chance.  Now, it's such a passing league, that as long as you get one of the elite guys at QB or TE, where the drop off between the elite and "good" players' point totals are so much more severe, you're positioning yourself well.  And let's face it, how many RBs make it through an entire season without missing time as opposed to QBs or WRs?

As you can see, we went heavy on Patriots (which causes no small amount of heartache for a Dolphins fan like us).  However, once Brady and Gronk got on the team, we decided to go with Lloyd there in Rd. 4.  Might was well load up with as many as possible.  If Brady has a great year, so will we.  Sure, we're probably guaranteeing a loss in week 9.  So be it.  At least we won't be piece mealing the roster with our key guys all off different weeks.  And yes, the Jeffery pick was high.  But a) we're straight homers and b) there's a lot of Gamecock fans in that league.  Somebody was gonna take him.  FWIW, we think Jeffery is gonna be a beast this year.  We did think getting the Bills D after just about everyone else had picked Ds was pretty good (the addition of Gilmore and Mario Williams to an already good D just makes them that more attractive.  Plus you have Spiller in the return game).  And it seems crazy that Cutler dropped that low when you factor in that he's got his favorite target back (Marshall) along with a clone of said target (Jeffery) and they're both playing with the asst who was in Denver when they both blew up.

Anyway...Championship or bust...

6353 Wantabo
1.	(5)	Tom Brady (NE - QB)
2.	(16)	Rob Gronkowski (NE - TE)
3.	(25)	Steven Jackson (StL - RB)
4.	(36)	Brandon Lloyd (NE - WR)
5.	(45)	Reggie Bush (Mia - RB)
6.	(56)	Vincent Jackson (TB - WR)
7.	(65)	Eric Decker (Den - WR)
8.	(76)	Pierre Garcon (Was - WR)
9.	(85)	Reggie Wayne (Ind - WR)
10.	(96)	Ryan Williams (Ari - RB)
11.	(105)	Denarius Moore (Oak - WR)
12.	(116)	Alshon Jeffery (Chi - WR)
13.	(125)	Jacob Tamme (Den - TE)
14.	(136)	Jay Cutler (Chi - QB)
15.	(145)	Mario Manningham (SF - WR)
16.	(156)	Buffalo (Buf - DEF)
17.	(165)	Mason Crosby (GB – K)

Romney & Ryan: Priceless...

Vetting your new VP pick: $150,000 

Charter air fare to whisk you and your newest best bud to announcement event: $25,000

 Finding out your VP wants to close down the tax shelters you've been using to reduce your effective tax rate so low that you're scared to release more than two years of tax returns: Priceless...

 

115 Days Out...

Election Day is Tuesday, November 6, 2012. That puts us 115 days out from the election as of today. If you've been paying attention lately, the Presidential race is heating up. President Obama has been beating Romney over the head with the Bain stuff, which gauged by the protestations coming from Romney's camp, certainly seem to be working. In fact, the Bain stuff is definitely working, as all you heard about this week was Bain and not the flat unemployment numbers that just came out. Well played, Team Obama.

Moving forward, we feel the need to remind our Republican friends here in SC of a bit of reality. See...here in SC, it is easy for Republican-minded folks to get caught in an echo chamber. Hell, everyone they know hates Obama, so they assume their guy is headed for a cake walk in 115 days. They're wrong. The reality of the Electoral Map is pretty daunting for the Mittster. Now...we are always wary of putting too much stock in polls and there are any number of pitfalls between here and November 6 that could dramatically change the electoral landscape, but...the snapshot 115 days out looks pretty damn good for the President's re-election. 

Take a look at RealClearPolitics "Battle For White House" polling feature and the row Romney has to hoe becomes clearer.  Right now, they have Obama sitting at 221 electoral votes to Romney's 181, with 136 votes they label as "Toss Ups." Take some time to look at the polling numbers for the toss-up states. Looks pretty good for the President. (Tip: it takes 270 to win).

Personally, we see this race as a flip of 2004. Sure, the Right may hate President Obama as much as the left hated W, but John Kerry oozed charisma compared to Mitt. His campaign is like the gang that couldn't shoot straight, from their stumbling all over the SCOTUS decision, to their inability to be ready for the Bain hits, to now whining in response. It's all just weak. Add in the fact that, personally, we are seeing signs of an improved economy everyday and we think that adds up to re-election. Of course, we shall see. But 115 days out, that's our opinion. Let's see what happens in the home stretch.

BTW, Team Obama has dropped what we think is the most devastating ad we've ever seen in a long time. We're talking "Bear in the Woods" effective.

Happy Birthday, America

Happy Birthday, America, or a day we like to call "Mr. Lee Greenwood Day." This one is for you. Prepare to swoon, Lady Liberty...

Four years after One Vote...

Four years ago, we elected a Mayor in Florence by one vote. In running for office, that individual told voters we needed to hire more cops, build a new fire station and deal with abandoned properties. In outlining his goals, Stephen Wukela did something rare: he candidly told voters millage would have to be raised if we were going to address these long neglected issues.

Four years later, the City has tackled those issues and then some, doing so in a way where the City's financial situation is strong and any change to your city tax bill is miniscule. Along the way, he's won over many of those who opposed him last time around.  That's a helluva better record than most politicians can ever claim.

Notwithstanding what happens this Tuesday, Wukela heads in to Tuesday's Democratic Primary in a unique situation: having delivered on his campaign issues and having done so in the way he told voters the issues would have to be handled. That is impressive, if for no other reason than because in this day and age, it's rare to see someone run for office, tell voters what they are going to do, how they are going to do it, then go out and actually deliver.

That is as successful as any politician can hope to be.

Vote Tuesday. Vote Wukela.


Wukela for Mayor from WukelaForMayor on Vimeo.