Professional football will be considerable better this weekend. Actually, it began Thursday night. The NFL owners have ended the lockout of the regular officials and so the absolute terrible officiating by replacements we've had to endure the past three weeks has ended.
Although each game has had some problems, it all came to a head Monday night on one of the worst blown calls I've ever seen in officiating. I don't often say nasty things about officials as they are human and can make mistakes. I have been certified in two different sports and served in numerous events over the years until I hung up my counter (ball/strikes in baseball) and whistle (in swimming) in the late 1980s.
Although I never made a mistake . . . just kidding of course; as my dad used to say, "I called 'em as I saw 'em." . . . well, perhaps there are some folk who might disagree, I did gain a respect for officials that continues. Or should I say "continued" until the NFL lockout?
A blown call of an official last Monday night cost one team a win and brought irrevocable cynicism of the totally unqualified replacement officials. Thousands of "Tweets," Facebook entries, columns, comments by sports writers and radio/TV sports announcers and e-mails flooded the communications world. The outcry by fans could not be overcome by the NFL and very quickly it reached about the same agreement with their professional officials that they could have accomplished months ago.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell did apologize to the fans for subjecting us to the horrible replacements. I don't recall reading about his apologizing for letting the worst call of all, the last play Monday night, stand as called.
But, at least one part of the world is back to normal.
The future of the United States is still questionable. We have an election to get through in just over a month. Unfortunately Republican nominee Mitt Romney seems Hell bent for leather to give the nation away to President Obama. I think Romney had a better chance of beating Obama before he began to open his mouth. Instead, he is proving what many of us thought from the beginning of the process: He isn't the man for the job. (No, Maine Ron Paul supporters, Paul wasn't the answer, either.)
Since the President cannot run on his record as he doesn't have one, all he has to do is what he does best: Slightly change Romney's words and turn them against him. Take his gaff about the 47 percent of Americans who don't pay taxes, for example. Using government figures Romney said that 47 percent doesn't pay INCOME taxes. That, according to government figures is true. Obama jumped all over that saying all Americans pay taxes.
Ignoring the "income" part of it, the President's ad says we all pay sales taxes, property taxes and a whole host of others. Then he says, accurately, that Romney only pays 14% of the 13 million dollars in income in income taxes. That alone is a whole lot more than 99% of us have totally earned in our lifetimes. The ad also doesn't point out that, like all of us, Romney also pays that sales tax, real estate tax and the other taxes we all pay...only a lot more. The ad works. How many now will not support Romney because of that one statement.
That's not the only ad that has people wanting to vote against Romney. The President has convinced us poor folk that Romney is a millionaire who has no real feelings for us. Have you examined the President's net worth lately? No matter, even though he has done nothing but drive our economy close to the cliff and if given another four years might complete the drive, he cares for us. Check his worth.
We can go on and on but the simple truth is is that the Ptresident has nothing to show what he's done for us so he must resort to his only course...attack. One attack track is taxes. He says a Romney presidency will cause the middle class, which is now fewer than ever thanks to his policies, to have to pay more taxes so Romney's rich friends can get a tax break. The President says he will not increase any taxes but forgets his health plan is going to cost us all several thousand dollars more in the years to come. (I've been urging you for two years to read the tax act yourselves to see what it really contains. Have you done it yet? If not, you're in for some shock.)
Unfortunately, neither Romney nor the Republican Party has any clue on how to fight back.
Are you watching the uprisings in other countries? Did you read about the American ambassador that was murdered and dragged through the streets? What did our President do? Do you feel the unrest at all right here in the United States? The Occupy Movement, for example? What are you going to do about it when it comes?
It's easy to understand why people don't want Romney as their President but it's harder to understand why some Americans want Obama to be reelected. Just what has he accomplished for you, for this country?
Dave
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