I am in the process of putting together the necessary paperwork to launch a “write-in” campaign against Arron Schock for the 18th congressional district in 2012.  I will post more information as it comes available.

As sad as it is for me to say it, the dream that has hovered over half of my life is dying.  The American Football League, the attempt that I was making for a blue-collar, affordable pro football league for the average fan has collapsed.  It was sad how it died in just a matter of days.  The plan, the looks of the league, the very essence of what it was capable of accomplishing was a thing of beauty.  To think that a small group of khaki church mice could bring this idea literally to the very door of completion.  We progressed further, faster, with less people and for just a fraction of the money of any of our predecessors attempts.  I cannot tell of the immense pride that I have in this attempt and the people involved.  In the end what finally brought us down was actually the worsening economy; something that was literally out of our control. 

As sponsorship dollars were drying up and the possibility of a TV contract continued to elude us, the final draw was when the major sponsors that we were counting on were also leaving us dry.  Because of the direction of the US economy there just is no corporate support for a start up league right now.  There most likely will be no such support for many years to come either.  Therefore, I can see no ability for us to continue with this project.  We will be dissolving the American Football League immediately.

I do hope that someday I get an opportunity to be involved in such a project again.  Until then, I will continue to be a part of the discussion and I will continue on with my writing.  For all of you that were looking forward to this league, thank you for your support.

With the upcoming national election next year I thought that I would try and give you a basic conceptual view of the main political parties as well as ask a question for you to ponder.  With our mainline media so out of wack, they have through their propaganda moved so far from journalism as to become a part of the problem.  They have sold the American people a bill of goods that is as fake as a three dollar bill.  This idea that our only choices are either Republican or Democrat is not truthly the case at all.  The only reason that these two parties dominate our politics today is that they are the only candidates that are covered by our media.  With the majority of the American people being centrists and moderates (experts place this at being between 60 and 70%) it is no wonder why our government is so broken with our only choices not representitive of the majority of the American people.  Let’s look at what these parties represent in a nutshell:

Republican Party ~ Corporate Excussionists – The Republican Party for more than 100 years has been the party of wealthy and corporate America.  Their world view has been one of the wealthy not having to pay taxes, no controls over big business and that the American people that are not filthy rich should be the dutiful surf to those that are.  The only exception to this was the Progressives of Teddy Roosevelt.  The Republicans support a large military, big corporate government, the elimination of unions, a stong lobbiest class and no products or services for the working class.  There is nothing conservitive or Christian about the Republican Party.

Democrat Party ~ The liberal Democratic Party is the party for the government services leaches of our society.  What so many tern (unflateringly) as the “Welfare Queens” where the working class should pay the way for the non working class to live a middle class lifestyle.  All this as the working class more and more have to live at a near poverty level.  Their beliefs in big government services for the poor and aged, bigger government that never shrinks and no concept of our nations soverignity.  There is nothing pro American masses or pro worker aspects about the Democratic Party.

Libertian Party ~ the Libertarian Party is a small government, conservative, hands off personal lives type of party.

Constitution Party ~ This party is a conservative, Christian based political party that believes in American sovergnity, imigration reform, smaller government and an American “nucular family” point of view with their politics.

Green Party ~ This party is an ultra left wing, liberal, pro environmental party.  It has been gaining numbers steadily for years. 

The Modern Whig Party ~ This is a relatively new political party on the scene with a middle of the road, centrist view.  It was started by returning War veterans and believes in American sovergnity, centrist views, imigration reform, smaller government and a hands off approach to societal issues.

This still does not speak of the dozens of political parties that are out there.  The one thing that keeps us from fixing our system is not our voting, but how our media presents our choices.  We need them to be a little less the propagandists and more the unbiased journalist.

             It has now been a couple of days since the jury came back with their very controversial verdict in the Casey Anthony Trial and much of the country is understandably stunned.  We cannot comprehend how this woman can so obviously have killed her child and yet still avert justice.  We listen to pundits on TV and the radio; we read editorials and yet find no solace in their explanations.  We are left fuming over where the justice is for that poor little girl that lost her life.  What all of these experts seem to be missing is why Casey Anthony did get away with murder; a failure of the justice system to be blind. 

            The idealism of our founding fathers led to some of the greatest treaties in politics, government, culture and economics that the world has ever known.  There development of a fair and equal judicial system was a part of this.  The key to this fair and unbiased system was the concept of “Lady Justice holding a balance scale while blindfolded.”  This is meant to portray the idea that the law of the land is the law for all.  And, unfortunately, it has been totally lost in recent years.  The aforementioned case of Casey Anthony is just the most recent example of this terrible loss to our democracy. 

            What all of the pundits seem to have missed here has nothing to do with the evidence, how it was presented, the attorneys or any of the other excuses that they have presented.  It has to do with gender bias.  Had Casey Anthony been a man she would have been presumed guilty and most likely found guilty.  But, she is a young woman instead; she is attractive and relatively well off as well.  Therefore, she is presumed innocent and she better be found hovering over the body with the smoking gun in hand if you expect to find her guilty.  This form of gender bias is rampant in our justice system and has even been admitted to by the Dean of Harvard Law School (on CNN a number of years back) as well as others that follow judicial proceedings.  We are suffering through a system in which wealth, gender, color and religion are strong mitigating factors deciding the guilt or innocence of a defendant instead of evidence and the ability of the defendant to be able to commit the crime.  All that I can hope is that “We the People” learn from this and demand change.  The American Bar Association will undoubtedly hope that the outcry will die down as soon as possible.  Casey Anthony will be looking to become a millionaire from the book and movie rights.  And little Caylee… she just remains the victim.

               Recently, the release of the amount of financial losses incurred by the UFL became public.  It has come to view that the UFL has lost some $77 to $82 million over their first two years.  This is absolutely astounding considering that the rule of thumb for their business model is a loss of $2 per team per year.  By this model, the league should have only lost a total of $18 million over that same period of time.  This does not take into account that the UFL is a minor league and the $2 million formula is designed for a major league.  A minor league should be able to operate a much lower cost and therefore incur much lower losses. 

            A colleague and friend of mine, of whom I have a great deal of respect for has tried to explain this away.  Now, he currently works for the UFL, but he has a long resume studying alternative leagues backing him up, so I will listen to what he has to say.  What he said on this has confused me a bit.  He has stated that the old USFL (a league all of us use as the high water mark in alternative football) lost some $100 + million in their first year.  The USFL was “my league” and therefore I have studied it fairly thoroughly to say the least.  I watched as many of the NFL propagandists talked down the USFL during the 1985 season and through their Anti-trust suit leading towards what would have been a 1986 fall season.  People like Mel Kiper and Chris Berman would have waived such losses around like a flag; they didn’t.  In fact, the numbers tossed around at the time was that the USFL owners lost an average of $2 million per team per year.  They also admitted that this was an “acceptable loss” for a new league. 

            In 1983, the USFL came out with 12 teams and by this formula; they would have lost $24 million collectively.  In between the ’83 and ’84 seasons, the ownership sold 6 expansion franchises at $4 million each simply to refill their coffers (Chet Simmons).  This adds up to (6 teams at $4 million each) $24 million.  Therefore, the league, technically, had a loss of $0 for the 1983 season.  Do remember that the original USFL owners were not really interested in creating a second circuit for pro football; they were trying to make a quick buck.  They began selling their franchises to the first person that would make them a profit.  In the short three years life of the USFL they had a total turnover of ownership.  This inadequate leadership is the true tragedy of the USFL. 

            According to the anti-alternative football propagandists the USFL lost some $136 million over the life of the league.  If it were higher, you could bet your bottom dollar that they would have said so.  Where my colleague got his information I do not know, but I believe this time that he is in error.  How the UFL is losing so much money is another debate for another time.

Voices of Peoria

Today the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke stated that the recovery was taking hold.  Oh… My… God!  What planet has he been living on!  Maybe for his wealthy friends it has improved, but for the vast majority of us American… for We The People… our country is mired in a deepening depression.  Our good paying jobs continue to relocate to other countries.  Our Major Corporations continue to merger and buy one  another, narrowing the choice and vibrance of our economic future.  I am quite sure that Mr. Benanke’s friends and colleagues are doing very well indeed.  The question is, are we the average American doing any better?  I am sorry, but I just do not see any recovery now or any on the horizon.  Mr. Benanke needs to step down from Mount Olympus and walk amongst the rest of us to see how this country is progressing.  Wake up Mr. Benanke… wake up and smell the bacon.

Behind the Mask

In 2010, while I was working on my projects and writing teleplays beyond my normal work, there was murder after murder here in Peoria, IL.  It seemed almost as if we had fallen back into history and found ourselves in Dodge City.  People here (including me) were afraid to walk down the street at night.  They are afraid to go downtown to any of the bars and restaurants for fear of being mugged, or worse.  It is as if the city had been swarmed by sea of loci and these loci were feeding on everyone in sight. 

            Shortly after the fifteenth murder of the year (we are only 133,000 people here in Peoria), a friend of mine began working with a group of artists and ministers to put together a video denouncing the “hate” behind these terrible crimes.  They did complete the project and it was awesome.  Some of the best work I have seen and they only had themselves and inexpensive equipment to work with.  The Rap song that was the bulk of the video was far better than any that I have seen in a long time, and I do not really care for the genre.  My main problem with the whole thing is that it pointed the finger for all of these societal ills at a very powerful emotion… hate.  I truly do not believe that there is any hate involved in these types of crimes.  I do not believe there is much of any emotion involved at all.  Pointing at “hate” as the culprit is hiding the real problem behind a mask. 

            Over the past 30 years or so, some segments of our society have made heroes out of drug dealers, pimps and gangs.  Some segments have developed a sense of “me first” and “it’s not my business.”  We have accepted lying, cheating and stealing as borderline acceptable.  What we have done is throw away morals, ethics, responsibility and community standards.  In doing so, we have condemned our children to survive in a country of lies, cruelty, avarice and fear.  It is not hate that allows someone to rob and murder a person for $3; it is a lack of conscience.  It is not hate that guides someone into knocking down an old woman to steal her purse; it is a lack of compassion.  It is not hate that grants the tunnel vision a person needs to shoplift; it is a lack of responsibility. 

            So many in our society have come to a conclusion that the ends justify the means if it advances the agenda that they support.  It is alright to cheat on a test or lie on an application if they deem it necessary.  They can always make up for this by doing a good job later, and no one was hurt anyway.  This is the furthest from the truth; what was hurt was trust and integrity.  How can we possibly live amongst one another in such a cut-throat society?  If we are cure these societal ills we must take off its mask.

Here is the new instalment of my column this week.  It never ceases to amaze me the 4th dimensional twist that consumes the company that I work for.  They will alienate every employee and supervisor that works for them and undermine the once die-hard attitude of the people that both work and buy from them just so that they can float all the money possible to the top and to avoid offending the riff-raff that have helped to destroy such a well loved company they once were.  When I first began work there, everyone enjoyed being there and the customers were mostly good, honest working people.  Now, with the corporate culture in full control of the business, we no longer have the people necessary to do the work, the customers are mostly dishonest, shoplifting, vicious trash (decent people seldom darken our doorstep compared to what they once did) and all of the workers and supervisors are praying for the day that the economy comes back for them to leave skid marks running out door.  They will not even allow us to stop shoplifters.  Why should they?  They dump 2/3 of all losses on us.  No wonder we can never get a bonus (which is considered part of our pay). 

If you let the trash of our society run off the real customers and make life at work a living hell, what is left to work with?  Is it a wonder with us having to hire from our customer base that the majority of those now being hired get fired for theft?  Who’d a thunk it!?

It is hard to believe, but I have been talking, reminiscing and debating with the same group of people off and on for about the last 12 to 15 years.  It all started on the USFL Message Boards.  Man there was some fun debate there.  But, unfortunately, all good thing come to an end.  I have always enjoyed intelligent debate… fiery debate… even contentious debates, but it must still be a gentlemanly debate.  I am a strong Christian and it was only 10 years ago that I just missed going off to seminary.  This is why, though it was a difficult decision, I felt compelled to quit the UFLAccess forums.  The debates there had become abusive, dismissive, defamatory and even slanderous.  I did try for quite some time to pull things back to a more positive debating style, but it just got worse.  As I had said, I have known many of these people for a very long time and therefore it was difficult to leave; but, today it finally became necessary.  After their latest barrage of abusive attacks I decided that it was finally time for us to part ways.  I wrote them this afternoon and asked them to delete all of my contact information and to cancel my access to their forums.  I wished them well.