Obama is not killing Americans within The United States.

The latest conspiracy theory concerning President Obama has reared its head in the form of a letter from Eric Holder, Attorney General, to Rand Paul, Tea Party Senator from Kentucky. Senator Paul asked the administration whether “the President had the power to authorize lethal force, such as a drone strike, against a US citizen, on US soil, and without a trial.” This is an attempt by Senator Paul to catch the administration in a sound bite that he can use to make it seem as if President Obama is continuing his attempt to become a dictator by randomly killing Us citizens as he sees fit.

First, let’s examine Eric Holder’s response. It is as follows:
” As members of this administration have previously indicated, the US government has not carried out drone strikes in the United States and has no intention of dong so. As a policy matter, moreover, we reject the use of military force where well-established law enforcement authorities in this country provide the best means for incapacitating a terrorist threat. We have a long history of using the criminal justice system to incapacitate individuals located within our country who pose a threat to the United State and our interests abroad. Hundreds of individuals have been arrested and convicted of terrorism-related offenses in our federal courts.
The question you have posed is therefore entirely hypothetical, unlikely to occur, and one we hope no President will have to confront. It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the audited State for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States. For example, the President could conceivably have no choice but to authorize the military to use such forces necessary to protect the homeland in the circumstances of catastrophic attack like the ones suffered on December 7th, 1941 and September 11th, 2001.”

Nowhere in Eric Holder’s comments does he mention the killing of US citizens, but rather specifically points out the use of force to defend against terrorists. Nowhere in Eric Holder’s comments does it mention using military force against anyone in the Inited States randomly, but rather outlines actual examples of circumstances where it would be considered, and those examples are the Pearl Harbor attack and the 9/11 attacks. The only person who uses terms like “on US citizens” is, in fact, Senator Paul. The circumstances and possibilities that Eric Holder cite as examples of when the President may consider such actions are not only completely valid circumstances, but historically, it has taken less than that for a President to authorize the military to use force against its own citizens in the past. Case in point: the LA riots of 1992, also known as the “Rodney King Riots”.

Now, what you will hear quite a. It of is that President Obama is a socialist dictator who just wants unmilitary power and is doing whatever he wants to get that power, including ignoring the constitution. Lets examine this notion. The Posse Comitatus act, which is the law that limits the power of the federal government from using federal military personnel from to enact state laws, was passed in 1878. The original act referred largely to the United States Army. The Air Force was added in 1956 and the Navy and Marine Corps have been included as a regulation of the Department of Defense. The Coast Guard is not included. On September 26, 2096, President Bush urged Congress to consider revising federal laws so that the US armed force scoular restore public order and enforce laws in the aftermath of a natural disaster, terrorist attack or other condition. That last part…..”or other condition”….is pretty vague, don’t you think? You will never hear a Reublican say that President Bush wanting such powers as a socialistic, dictator-like move. No, no…..with President Bush it was just good policy. Well, the changes President Bush wanted were proposed in John Warner National Defense Authorization Act and was signed into law in October 2096 by…..wait for it….President Bush. It provided that:
“The President may employ the armed forces… to… restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when, as a result of a natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition… the President determines that… domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable of maintaining public order… or [to] suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy if such… a condition… so hinders the execution of the laws… that any part or class of its people is deprived of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law… or opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.”
In 2011, President Obama signed National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 into law. Section 1031, clause “b”, article 2 defines a ‘covered person’, i.e., someone possibly subject to martial law, as the following: “A person who was a part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners, including any person who has committed a belligerent act or has directly supported such hostilities in aid of such enemy forces.” Now which one sounds like a President trying to grab more power and which one sounds like a President trying to limit, and further elaborate on, the power the President has to do these things?

See, as I mentioned before, this is an attempt by Senator Paul to get a red-meat sound bite that he can’t grow at the overtly hostile base of there Republican party to further advance the delusional notion that President Obama isn’t an American. That he hates the Constitution. That he wants unlimited power. It simply isn’t true. The fact is that exceptions have been made in the last for the use of our military within our borders, and that it has in fact been the republicans, not the democrats, who have pushed for more power, while the democrats have acted to limit that power. This is yet another example of the political right in this country being co-opted by far right wing extremists and ideologues. Do your own homework. Do not listen to the powers that be, and you will find the truth.

Just a few thoughts.

When I was a young boy, before I knew what politicians were, Jimmy Carter was President. This is when I was very young, so I really didn’t know much of what was going on. About the only thing I really remember about Carter is that he spoke like some of my relatives down south.

Then when I started to become more aware, and while I was in my formidable years, Ronald Reagan was President. He was charismatic. He was photogenic. He was Presidential. While I didn’t really know about policy, I knew he looked and talked like a man who was getting the job done. He took a bullet and kept going. His wife was a strong woman that seemed to be everywhere, but they still reminded my generation of our grandparents.

Then I hit my twenties, and Bill Clinton got elected. This is when policy, and how what happens in Washington effects the rest of us, came to my attention. While Bill was in office, everyone did well. Sure we were involved in conflicts around the globes, as we always are, but we had peace. People seemed to be working and doing well. It’s when I began to lay the early groundwork in my landscape career, and I didn’t fare too bad. This was another President who was charismatic, but in many different ways than Reagan. He was young. He was hip. He played the saxophone for crying out loud. Women flocked to him. Hell, many women in my family to this day see him on tv and swoon just a bit. Slick Willy…..a hell of a President to have at the helm in your twenties. Maybe it’s the way I’m wired, or maybe it happened during the fun-loving decade of my twenties, but everyone seemed happier and the world was just a better place during the Clinton years.

During my thirties, I was raising a very young family, beginning to move up in my career and i was watching the country fall apart. George W. Bush was President, and there was a very different feel. Two towers fell in New York. An historic and significant building in the government was hit. And all of a sudden, we have amassed our armies at the border of a country in the Middle East. Just as the name “Vietnam” was for my parents,the word “Iraq” was about to be written into our history of war. We were already occupying anther nation, and we were now waging war on two nations. Servicemen and women were sent away, and then kept getting sent back because the war never seemed to have an end. Back home, things were looking worse and worse. The government had gone from a six year run of balanced budgets to not being able to balance the budget in any year. The government took a record surplus and rapidly turned it into a deficit. We took a private market that had the confidence to add twenty two million new jobs in eight years, and made it the most stagnant we had seen in years. Then, it happened. The market crashed. Homes literally got stopped in mid-construction, never to be finished. Builders were going out of business everyday. The unemployment numbers skyrocketed and we all looked at each other wondering who was next. At the height of this free-fall we were shedding seven hundred thousand jobs a month. That is staggering. Three quarters of a million people every month were going home to have a discussion with their spouses about what they were going to do know that they didn’t have enough money coming in. We had come a long way from the happy, prosperous and peaceful times of Bill Clinton. This was dubbya’s America. You may have enjoyed those times, but I surely didn’t. Under Bush’s two terms, this households income became dead stagnant. Raises were something that couldn’t even be discussed. Bonuses ceased. More of the cost of health insurance was transferred onto us. Employer 401k contributions were no more. Less money was coming in and more money was going out. More and more people we knew were getting let go every day. Renee and I had just decided where we wanted to lay down roots and we bought a home, then wondered if we were going to be next to get cut and we would lose that home. America under Bush wasn’t the America our parents had known, and t was the America I wanted to leave for my kids.

So here we are, reeling from the Bush years, and we are all wondering how to put it back together again. Our choices were John McCain and Barrack Obama. One wanted to continue to wage war, while one said it is time for America’s longest war to end. One insisted the current economic policies, those that got us into such desperate times, were the right ones, while one said that the proof was in the ruins Bush left behind to proclaim those policies as failed. One picked a religious zealot with zero knowledge of the world beyond her blackberry as his successor should something happen to him while the other picked a seasoned statesman of the people. One scared the shit out of me while the other was spot on with his ideas. Enter President Obama. You want to talk about the right man at the right time,,,,well this is the definition in person. Under the first term of Obamas Presidency we have seen the blood letting stop, and begin to reverse itself. The stock market has doubled, private sector jobs have been added every month, wars are coming to an end and hope has been restored. I now have three children and a small business, so believe me when I tell you, the future has never been more important to me, and I rest easy at night knowing that people who share my values are in positions to fight for a future that is better for my kids,

What will we see from the White House in the next decade? Nobody knows. But I do know this….I would like to see our current trajectory continue.

Let’s talk about guns.

Let me start this article by saying that I believe in a person’s right to own a gun in order to protect oneself and their families. There are guns in my own home. I also believe in ones right to carry a gun. Having said that, I also believe there has to be limits and reasonable restrictions.

THE 2ND AMENDMENT.
Whenever there is a conversation about gun control in this country, the first argument the pro-gun side uses is the 2nd amendment. Well, I contest that this argument is an invalid one. The 2nd amendment is an amendment that specifically calls out its purpose….to maintain a strong militia to defend our countries freedom. Nowhere in there does it say anything about just being able to own a gun for owing a guns sake. In addition, it was written at a time when if an invasion happened, all citizens would be called upon to defend the nation because we didn’t have a military like we do now. It was also written when the kinds of guns that are capable of causing the massive devastation we have now didn’t exist. The deadliest weapon of the age was a musket for crying out loud. We need to start looking at our founding documents with some reasonable understanding of the time in which they were written. We can’t just take these words as a strict, rigid basis for everything we do. Remember, when these documents were written, women were not allowed to vote and black people were property. Context people…..context.

CONCEALED CARRY.
As I mentioned above, I support concealed carry…..but not in an absolute sense. In the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy, many have come out and said things like “If the teachers were allowed to carry weapons at school, this could have been prevented.” or “We need to start putting armed guards at our schools.”. I couldn’t disagree more. A school is a place a gun should never be. I believe this not only for the safety of our children, but also because in a culture that is so terribly in love with guns to begin with, the last thing we should be dong is exposing children to guns at an even earlier age, and with daily regularity. Perhaps if we start teaching our children that guns are not toys, not a part of the majority of America’s everyday life and that they have a place, we could start changing a culture that is inherently violent and loves guns so much that we have calendars of children the age of the Connecticut victims holding various types of weaponry. While concealed carry can be a law that can have positive benefits, this is not the case for every single aspect of our lives. The wild west is over people. We live in a modern age and need to think about our laws in that sense.

ASSAULT WEAPONS.
The mayor of my town recently asked me to define what an assault weapon is when I posted that I think we need an assault weapons ban. I don’t know the exact definition. In my own opinion, it’s like the old definition of porn….I can’t define it but I know it when I see it. The rifle used to kill the children at Sandy Hook is an example of that. What is the real purpose of such a weapon? This is not a hunting weapon. It isn’t needed for self defense. It is a killing machine….period. It has no place in our society outside of law enforcement and the military. This goes for any weapon that allows an operator to fire hundreds and hundreds of devastating rounds in a very short period of time. Here is where the most extreme will lose their minds, because we do have an extreme fringe in this country that believes our currently elected leadership will try to overrun the country and we will all need to form a civilian militia in order to defend the American way from it’s own leaders. This is insanity personified. This is not happening and needs to stop being used as an excuse to have hundreds of weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition. And the people who make a very good living selling this fear and paranoia on the airwaves need to take a long, hard look at the morality of their life’s work. We have a problem people. Assault weapons need to be done away with. This isn’t a discussion anymore. This is clearly evident.

BACKGROUND CHECKS.
This is a no-brainer. Of course we need background checks. Diligent, through background checks. If you have a history of mental illness….you should not be allowed to have any gun. If you have a history of violent crimes….you should not be allowed to have any guns. You should not be able to walk in to a gun show and buy anything without proper background checks. This is base line logic here folks. I don’t want to hear about the government compiling a data base of gun owners to know who to target. Once again…..cookoo. We have to get real people…..we need to know who has guns. The same folks that are more often than not against background checks are ironically the same people that want means testing for Medicare and social Security, or want poor people to submit to drug testing for government assistance…..but we are un-American if we say we want to know if a gun owner has a history of beating his wife. Have we lost our minds? We are better than that folks. Way better. I’ve heard many people say that we have declined as a society because we have taken god out of it. Well I submit that we have declined in society because we have taken logic out of it. We have let extreme fringe nutjobs control the discussion, and ultimately, the policy as well, without applying logic to it to see of it made sense. What we are currently doing doesn’t make sense.

Every time something Ike Sandy Hook happens, we say “this isn’t the time for this discussion”. Well, do you wait until your kids second bad report card to see of it improves before you talk with them, or do you deal with it in real time…..as it happens? Do you wait until an employee fouls up again and again before dealing with the problem, or do you nip it in the bud? Do you wait to see if your child’s illness clears up on its own when they come to you feverish and vomiting, or do you call a doctor and deal with it? This IS the time. Are we going to have a society led by logic and reason, or fringe ideology? Are we gong to have a society that constantly has to pay respects to the innocent lives lost so often, or are we going to be a society that sees those lives live out to their fullest? Are we going to be a society that continues to accept the same excuses and arguments for the same insane behavior, or are we finally going to be a society that says enough, and realizes that we ourselves have the power to change this? I write this article as a father of three children, ages 11, 8 and 1. I was sick to my stomach seeing the events unfold in Connecticut. I am also disgusted that we have decayed our society so much that the same childhood freedoms that my generation enjoyed are not enjoyed by my children. For the love of everything that you hold dear, let’s fix this now.

Are Things Better Than They Were Four Years Ago?

The big question leading up to every Presidential election is “Are things better than they were four years ago?” The Republicans would have you think that things are vastly worse than they were when Obama took office. Well, that’s why we have these pesky little things called facts, and we all know how much Republicans hate facts. Let’s break down how things are now compared to four years ago.

FOUR YEARS AGO…..
We were shedding 700,000 jobs each month. Yeah…remember that? 700,000 jobs each and every month disappearing. I remember thinking that its not a matter of if, but rather when I would lose my job.
NOW…..
The private sector has added 4.3 million private sector jobs. That is a 4% increase. Now some Teabaggers and other uninformed FOX News viewers will tell you that Obama is adding government jobs. Not true. Public sector employment is down 608.000 workers since January of 2009, a 2.7% decline. At the same point in Bush’s term, public sector employment was up 3.7%.

FOUR YEARS AGO…..
The DOW was at 7949.09 the day Obama took office. Down significantly from where it had been for years until Bush took over.
NOW…..
As of yesterday, the DOW was at 12943.36. It is up 4994.27 since Obama has taken office. That equates to not only more confidence in traders, but actual tangible differences for you such as gains in your 401k, not losses, as was happening at a dramatic rate under Bush.

FOUR YEARS AGO….
Americans could be denied medical coverage due to a pre-existing condition. And don’t be fooled by what that actually means. This isn’t just for the guy who smoked and drank his whole life and never did a thing to take care of himself and after he developed cancer suddenly wanted coverage. Its for people like my daughter. She had several urinary tract infections when she was a toddler. All is better now, but she can go her whole life not being sick, and having health insurance and if something major happens to her in her 60s and some insurance agent digs into her record and finds out that she didn’t state on her enrollment forms that she had urinary tract infections when she was two, she can be dropped and denied coverage.
NOW…..
Pre-existing conditions are a thing os the past. You don’t have to go broke and lose everything because you got sick.

FOUR YEARS AGO…..
Your child had to figure out health insurance on their own once they went away to college. Not an easy thing to do when you are trying to get an education and work a part-time job just to help pay the way.
NOW…..
Your child can stay on your plan while in school, helping millions of Americans retain coverage without adding to the massive debt college students graduate with.

FOUR YEASR AGO….
My income tax was higher than it is right now. Yes Republicans…..your income tax was higher under Bush. You can deny it all you want, but see, these are facts, and facts don’t lie.
NOW…..
I am paying a lower income tax, which means that I have more of the money I earn, which means I have more money to spend which I then spend in local store, which increases demand, which leads to stores needing to hire more people, which leads to a growing economy. Ok….take a minute to breath Teabaggers. I know your head is spinning because you don’t hear these facts on FOX News of out of Rush Limbaughs mouth. But these facts are true.

FOUR YEARS AGO…..
We were embroiled in two wars, Afghanistan and Iraq, with no end in sight.
NOW…..
we have ended one of those wars and set a time table to end the other. Do not get me wrong here, I am very disappointed that we aren’t out of both nations completely by now, but the fact that we got out of Iraq alone makes us better off now than four years ago. How many Americans lives won’t be lost due to this move? How many families will remain whole and not suffer the pain that so many have felt now that we aren’t fighting in Iraq? Yes, that alone makes us better off now than four years ago.

FOUR YEARS AGO…..
A hate crime committed based on gender, sexual orientation and disability were not illegal. Yes it is true conservatives….look it up.
NOW…..
Thanks to legislation passed, these acts are now a crime. How is that not better than four years ago?

FOUR YEARS AGO…..
If you were gay, and wanted to serve your country in the military, you had to do so in the closet.
NOW….
Thanks to the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, anyone who wants to serve our country can do so openly and without fear of prosecution. Don’t listen to the Republicans on this. Having a military that includes everyone who wants to defend this nation strengthens our security, not weakens it as the right wingers will have you believe.

These are just some of the ways we are better off now than four years ago. Combine these facts, with many others not listed here, add the fact that millions of minority children have a political figure that inspires them to be more than what society tells them they will be and throw in the fact that Sarah Palin isn’t a possibility for an elected office in America, and we are extremely better off than we were four years ago. There is still a lot more improving to do, as is always the case when a Democrat takes over after a Republican. Bill Clinton took over a disaster of a mess after Reagan and Bush 1 brought this country down. He left Bush 2 a record surplus, 6 straight years of balanced budgets and an economy that added 22.3 millions new jobs under his watch. Then Bush turned record surpluses into record deficits, lost all of those jobs plus more and never balanced the budget once in two terms. So now Obama has to clean it up again, only it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time. And if we go back to the same policies that ruined us, we will go back to what we were four years ago. I don’t want that, I know you don’t want that. Please….think about that when you step into the voting booth this November.

Dont be lied to this election.

Well, once again we are bearing down on a Presidential election and the lies are rampant. Don’t be lied to this election. Know the truth, and use it to make an informed decision. Informed decision…..that is a Republicans worst nightmare. They need you to be misinformed, scared and worried so that you will vote for them. Well, let the Loud Landscaper enlighten you to some facts, which is another thing Republicans hate.

GOP Lie:
Obama will take away your guns.
Truth:
While in office, President Obama has introduced exactly ZERO gun control bills. He hasn’t pushed for gun control, given speeches about gun control nor fought for any form of gun control legislation of any kind.

GOP Lie:
Obama is a job killing President.
Truth:
Since President Obama has been in office, 3.4 million new private sector jobs have been created, and countless others have been saved. Hardly job killing considering that under the previous administration, Republican by the way, we were losing 700,000 jobs a month. Not a year…..a MONTH.

GOP Lie:
Obama’s administration has made the recession worse.
Truth:
Since taking office, President Obama has seen the DOW rise 60%. The DOW doesn’t rise 60% if the policies are worsening the recession folks. It just doesn’t happen. Also, the GDP is up 3.2%. A year after taking office, when the budget was “his” and his initial policies had time to have an effect, the unemployment rate has started to fall and is now down from 10.1% to 8.5%.

GOP Lie:
Obamas policies have led to a stranglehold on American businesses.
Truth:
Since taking office, Obama has watched corporations gain record profits. As a matter of fact, corporations are estimated to be sitting on record liquid capitol and have posted the largest profits in American history.

GOP Lie:
Obama is soft on the war on terror.
Truth:
Since taking office, Obama has actually added troops and resources to the war in Afghanistan, ordered the Somali pirates who kidnapped American citizens to be taken out and ordered the death of Osama bin Laden, a man who every conservative out there says was enemy number one and who our last Republican President openly stated he wasn’t worrying about anymore.

GOP Lie:
Obama greatly expanded the size of government.
Truth:
Government employment has declined 2.6% during the past three years. Doesn’t sound like an expansion to me.

You see, the GOP can’t run on record or values anymore so they must scare you into voting for them, and the best way they can do this is to lie to you about Obama. Don’t be sucked in by the lies. And remember, if they are willing to lie to you about this to get into office, what are they willing to lie to you about once in office?
OBAMA 2012!

A little socialism is a good thing.

When did the notion of Socialism become such a terrible idea in this country? Oh that’s right….when the Right Wing nut jobs decided to begin attempting to compare President Obama with Nazis. The truth is that Socialism is alive and well in this country, and has been for decades. The ironic part is that every Republican Teabagger Right Wing nut job that screams at the top of their lungs “SOCIALIST!” every time they see a picture of Obama utilizes Socialist programs everyday. They are just too blind with hate to see it.

Let’s start with the fire department. This is Socialism at it’s best. The fire department comes to the $90,000.00 home to put out a fire the same way it comes to the $790,000.00 to put out a fire. But perhaps these Teabaggers would like to forego their right to fire department services because its Socialism.

The police department is another Socialist programs. We all contribute to the general welfare pot so that the police are there to protect all of us. But, once again, perhaps these Teabagger nut jobs should just call a neighbor or family member to assist them when they are in need. We wouldn’t want them being part of a Socialist program.

And when these Teabagger Republicans get in their cars to drive to a Klan meeting…um, GOP rally, to yell and scream about the evils Socialist Obama, they drive on roads that were collectively paid for by all Americans. Wait…that sounds oddly like Socialism!

So now that we have seen Socialist programs that work and benefit all of us, let me ask this…why can’t we turn the healthcare system into a Socialist one? We have the greatest doctors in the world working in the worst healthcare system. Imagine what we could accomplish if we combine our superior doctors with the UK’s superior healthcare system! The possibilities are endless. We could literally change the entire nations mentality towards healthcare. We have all determined that it is nobody’s best interest to let someone’s house burn down and allow them to lose everything, no matter what their income level, so let’s do the same with healthcare. Also, let’s take the decisions out of the insurance companies and into our hands. Remember, we have a representative government. We decide who our elected officials are, so we will still make the healthcare decisions.

Now the Teabagger Republicans will tell you that this will lead us down a road towards European style Socialism, and it will “fundamentally transform America” and I say…YES! When it comes to healthcare, why not be like some of the European nations that are ahead of us on overall health, have lower infant mortality rates and higher life expectancy? What is wrong with that? We need a little fundamental transformation when it comes to our healthcare system. We have insurance companies looking at sick people as losses. We have people getting into the medical field to get rich rather than to help people. We have pharmaceutical companies making millions keeping us on drugs, most of which we must take to counteract the effects of the original drugs we need for our illnesses. We have an entire healthcare system that is designed to be reactive when it should be pro-active. Yes, we need a little Socialistic fundamental transformation when it comes to our healthcare system.

So don’t listen to Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Eric Cantor, John Boehner, Mitch McLipless or any of the other Teabagger Republicans when it comes to this issue. They have already tipped their hand. They are only interested in making sure Obama doesn’t get re-elected. They have no concern for you or the failing healthcare system. After all, the pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies give them millions to perpetuate the lie.

Super Bowl pick

Well, the Super Bowl is here. The greatest sporting event of the year, being held in the house that Peyton built, and that asshat, Brady, is playing in it. This is Tom Brady’s 5th Super Bowl appearance. Now let’s just put this into perspective….Super Bowl #1 for Brady was a joke. A bullshit rule that wasn’t even called right and an all time kicker got him to his first, and won him his first two, so let’s not put all that much stock into Mr. Brady’s Super Bowl resume. Nevertheless, this is his 5th. For Eli, this will be his 2nd…and what a 1st he had. Eli led his team to a come from behind victory over the cheating Patriots to end their quest for perfection. One of my favorite Super Bowls ever, right behind Peyton’s decisive victory over the Bears. Now Eli must defend big brothers turf….and he will. The Patriots defense isn’t enough to stop the Giants offense, and the Giants defense can get to Brady again, just as they did in their 1st Super Bowl meeting. My prediction, a close, low scoring game with Eli and the Giants coming out on top. And for Brady….a 2nd Super Bowl loss.

Conference Championship Weekend

We are down to the final four folks. Here is my breakdown of Championship Weekend.

Who I THINK will win:
Patriots:
They just don’t lose at home and that offense can put up some Nintendo-like numbers
Giants:
Eli just seems to find a way to get it done.

Who I would LIKE to win:
Ravens:
This is simple…..I HATE the Patriots and do not want to see them playing in a Super Bowl on the Colts field.
49ers:
I like Harbaugh. I like his defense. I’d like to see the brothers go head to head. I don’t want Eli to have one more ring than Peyton.

Well, there it is. I’m hoping for a 49ers/Ravens Super Bowl, but fear we will get a Patriots/Giants Super Bowl.

Divisional Round NFL picks

Well, I went 2 and 2 in my Wildcard Weekend Playoff picks, so here we go with my Divisional Round Playoff picks. And the winners will be….

Patriots:
I hate the Patriots with the fire of a thousand suns. As a Colts fan, I die a little inside each time Tom Brady wins a game. Having said that, they are tough to beat at home, and the one starting quarterback who should really be washing cars in Biloxi, Tim “Jesus Is Just Alright With Me” Tebow, is going into New England and WILL get his ass whooped.

Ravens:
Toughest game to pick, but I just think Baltimore will have a little too much for them.

49ers:
I think going outdoors is never good for a dome team, especially the Saints, and if there is any kind of inclement weather at all, San Fran takes it easily.

Packers:
Eli is on a streak….but this is Lambau in January….period.

NFL Wildcard Weekend picks

Welcome to the playoffs. PLAYOFFS BABY! Ok, the Wildcard Weekend Playoff winners will be:

Bengals:
I think the Bengals are going to have just a little bit too much for the Texans in what I see as the dullest game of the weekend.

Steelers:
The Steeler defense is going to present a rude playoff welcome to Mr. Tebow and wake everyone up to the fact that he simply is not an NFL starting QB.

Giants:
The giants simply will not lose to a dome team on their home field. Eli has the playoff experience….NY is a fairly rough place to play and Manning always seems to find a way to win.

Saints:
I would love to see the Lions pull off a major upset in NO, but the youth of that team combined with the Saints thriving on that home field tells me this could be a blowout.