Game Time playoffs begin!

The 2012 season of Game Time is down to just the championship game as 2 teams were eliminated Monday, July 23 in the playoffs.  Sam Logic led her team to victory with her usual triple-double in the opener and the Iowa guard-tandem of Trisha Nesbitt and Juco transfer Kathy Thomas teamed up with UNI's sharpshooter Brooke Brown and Iowa incoming freshman Kali Peschel to win their game. 

The first game of the night featured the #1 seed vs. #4 seed.  Only Cullen Painting had defeated Logic's Vinton Merchants/McCurry's team during the regular season but this game was close throughout.  UNI's explosive point guard Sharnae Lamar and Iowa's developing 6'5 sophomore-to-be Bethany Doolittle were excellent for the Pelling team with 24 and 16 points respectively, and swingwoman Stephanie Davisson showed she'll be part of the rotation at UNI this year, going 4-5 from 3 and adding 19 points.  Logic received excellent support from Amber Kirschbaum with 16 points and 9 rebounds.  They had their usual great balance as Jen Keitel had 12 and 9; Erin Dohnalek had 10 on 2-3 from 3, and Brooke Wheelwright added 3 3's and 11 points. 

Selected box scores for Vinton Merchants/McCurry's:

Sam Logic:  9-15 on 2's, 0-3 on 3's, 7-11 ft's, 25 pts, 12 rbs, 12 assts.
Amber Kirschbaum:  7-13 on 2's, 0-1 on 3's, 2-4 ft's, 16 pts, 9 rbs, 1 ast.
Mackenzie Westcott:  4-7 on 2's, 8 pts, 4 rbs, 2 assts.
Jen Keitel:  4-5 on 2's, 0-1 on 3's, 3-4 ft's, 11 pts, 9 rbs, 4 assts.
Erin Dohnalek:  2-4 on 2's, 2-3 on 3's, 10 pts, 2 rbs, 1 ast.

Selected box scores for Pelling/Culver's:

Sharnae Lamar:  7-10 on 2's, 3-5 on 3's, 1-2 ft's, 24 pts, 5 rbs, 4 assts.
Bethany Doolittle:  7-11 on 2's, 2-3 ft's, 16 pts, 3 rbs, 3 assts.
Stephanie Davisson:  2-12 on 2's, 4-5 on 3's, 3-4 ft's, 19 pts, 4 rbs.

The second game of the night featured the 2 and 3 seeds; Cullen Painting/Monica's/Bob's your Uncle vs. the Coralville Hy-Vee team.   Cullen features 2 Iowa players who only play half of the game as they recuperate from injuries, Morgan Johnson and Theairra Taylor and Hy-Vee was too good this night, especially on defense.  Brooke Brown scored 21 and their zone defense alternated well with a double-teaming player defense to keep Cullen from shooting well and overcame Cullen's rebounding advantage of 52-31.  Cullen was 20-44 from 2 and 7-35 from 3 point range while Hy-Vee went 13-29 from 3 for an 18 point advantage from beyond the arc, which overcame fine performances by Johnson and Taylor when they were in.  Johnson had 19 and Taylor 20. 

Selected box scores from Hy-Vee: 

Brooke Brown:  3-11 on 2's, 3-4 on 3's, 6-8 ft's, 21 points, 6 rbs, 2 assts.
Trisha Nesbitt:  3-6 on 2's, 2-6 on 3's, 1-2 ft's, 13 pts, 3 rbs, 3 assts.
Kathryn Thomas:  1-2 on 2's, 2-9 on 3's, 8 pts, 5 rbs, 4 assts.
Kali Peschel:  2-6 on 2's, 0-3 on 3's, 2-2 ft's, 6 pts, 3 rbs, 1 ast.
Amber Sorenson:  0-2 on 2's, 4-5 on 3's, 12 pts, 5 rbs.

Selected box scores from Cullen Painting/Monica's/Bob's your Uncle:

Theairra Taylor:  9-17 on 2's, 0-4 on 3's, 2-4 ft's, 20 pts, 10 rbs, 1 ast.
Morgan Johnson:  6-13 on 2's, 7-10 ft's, 19 pts, 13 rbs.
Brittni Donaldson:  3-5 on 2's, 3-11 on 3's, 1-2 ft's, 16 pts, 5 rbs, 4 assts.
Jessica McDowell:  0-4 on 2's, 2-5 on 3's, 6 pts, 11 rbs, 2 assts.
Hannah Breitbach:  2-2 on 2's, 1-10 on 3's, 2-2 ft's, 9 pts, 6 rbs, 6 assts.

 The Game Time championship game is at 6 pm Wednesday July 25, and is being televised by Mediacom on channel 22 in many areas of the state. 

US Debt. Once again we ask, why not argue the facts?

Remember 06? Remember Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barack Obama promised to change things if the people gave them control of Congress.

They did, and they did.

In the last fiscal year before the Dems took control of the budget process the Republicans added $459,269,261,648.20 to the United States public debt. Yes, that's about four hundred fifty nine billion dollars, give or take a few. Such profligate spending was unsustainable, five fiscal years ago. The United States could not have continued deficit spend at the rate of $1,258,271,949.72 per day.

Nancy Pelosi promised no new deficit spending in her first year. Harry Reid promised to hold the debt ceiling to 2007 levels. No less a geohistoric personage as Barack Obama labelled such borrowing as unpatriotic, actually employing the "U" word to describe the then President, Republican W.

The Democrats kept their promise: they changed the unsustainable rate of federal spending. In their first fiscal year, the Democrat Congress, lead by Nancy Pelosi in the House and Harry Reid and Barack Obama in the Senate, Democats increased the public debt of the United States increased by $1,061,672,666,771.06. That's one trillion sixty nine billion dollars.

The rate of debt began to accumulate more than twice as fast we did the previous year. That's a daily debt rate of $2,908,692,237.72, almost three times as fast as the Bush/GOP debt rate that Barack Obama labelled unpatriotic. Three freakin' times as fast.

The Democrats have increased the deficit by more than one trillion dollars per year in every one of the five fiscal years since, and FY 2012 is only three quarters complete! The total new debt Democrats have incurred is a whopping $6,793,814,813,967.81.

These are big numbers but easy facts to convey. The average person hears about debt, but they never hear anything close to the real numbers. Maybe we ask the average politically apathetic, undecided voter, the proverbial "everyman" if they feel the benefit of an extra $21,720.67 from the United States government? If the answer is no, as we suspect it will be, let 'em, know that is the extra tax burden they will pay for just new debt, not everything from Uncle Sam mind you, just debt, since the Democrats took control of the US Senate and said goodbye to reality.

So, GOP, its up to us to educate them. Let's do it.

Prime Time Playoffs Start With Two Great Games

By:   Randy Larson
         Prime Time League Commissioner

The four teams in this year's Prime Time league conducted 2 fierce battles Sunday afternoon to see who gets a chance at bragging rights by winning the league championship Tuesday night at 9.  The regular-season champs at 5-1, the Vinton Merchants/Gatens Real Estate team, was beaten by previously winless Culver's/Iowa City Ready Mix, 100-93.  And in the second game of the day, the 2 and 3 seeds, Jill Armstrong and LL Pelling/McCurry's, finished with almost the identical score, won by Armstrong 99-93.

The triumphant 4 seed was led by their 4 Iowa players with great assistance by William Penn's Keith Steffeck.   Here are their lines:

Eric May:  9-13 on 2's, 1-5 on 3's, 3-3 ft's, 22 pts, 7 rebounds, 1 asst.
Aaron White:  3-7 on 2's, 2-8 on 3's, 10-12 ft's, 22 pts, 8 rebs, 2 asts.
Anthony Clemmons:  4-7 on 2's, 1-6 on 3's, 3-3 ft's,  14 pts, 5 rbs, 2 asts.
Kyle Meyer:  3-6 on 2's, 1-1 on 3's, 2-2 ft's, 11 pts, 3 rbs, 1 ast.
Keith Steffeck:  4-5 on 2's, 4-5 on 3's, 20 pts, 5 rbs, 4 assts.
Eric May played his best game of the summer when it counted and the Culver's team made the size mismatches work for them more than Vinton could.  Obviously they had great balance, and shot well, shooting 26-47 on 2's, 10-28 on 3's, 18-20 on ft's, and  only getting out-rebounded by the much bigger Vinton team, 40-38.  Dallas Hodges led them with 5 assists.

Vinton was led by Iowa incoming freshman Adam Woodbury who had 20 points. They also displayed great balance with Jarrod Uthoff scoring 18, Zach McCabe 17, Josh Oglesby had 14, and former Kirkwood and Iowa City West center Okay Ukah showing his moves inside by scoring 12.
Here are those 5's box scores:

Adam Woodbury:  10-14 on 2's, 0-2 ft's, 20 pts, 5 rbs, 1 ast.
Jarrod Uthoff:  6-13 on 2's, 1-3 on 3's, 3-3 ft's, 18 pts, 13 rbs, 6 asts.
Zach McCabe:  3-7 on 2's, 2-4 on 3's, 5-6 ft's, 17 pts, 9 rbs, 2 ssts.
Josh Oglesby:  1-2 on 2's, 4-10 on 3's, 14 pts, 3 rbs.
Okey Ukah:  6-7 on 2's, 12 pts, 1 rb.

Vinton continued its' season-long unselfish play which resulted in good shooting, 29-54 on 2's, 9-24 on 3's,  and 8-11 on ft's, but couldn't stop Culver's from scoring and hurting them on the offensive boards.  They tried a zone in the middle of the 2nd half and got the lead with it but after leading with 3 minutes to go, couldn't stop Culver's in the man-to-man they finished with.  Head coach Randy Larson said "I loved how Adam developed offensively, shooting 10-14 tonight, and Zach was always good all summer.  Jarrod showed how incredibly versatile and talented he is and I think he's going to be a very good Big Ten player.  Josh is as good a shooter as there is in the Big Ten and I look for him to be right in the mix for a starting spot.  We just never developed enough cohesiveness on defense and didn't talk enough, and tonight when the other team shot better than usual, that beat us."


In the 2-3 seeds game, Jill Armstrong rode its' 3 big horses, Jarryd Cole, Melsahn Basabe and Mike Gesell to victory.  Their opponent, LL Pelling/McCurry's, was missing its' 2nd-best player, Ali Farokhmanesh but despite that, held the lead much of the game, before succumbing.  Cole and Basabe both had 34 points and combined for 31 boards.  The game was a series of big man match ups, as Cole and Basabe faced rapidly-developing Iowa center Gabe Olaseni and Prime Time veteran defensive star Brennan Swayzer.

Although Olaseni scored 31, in the end it was too much talent in the frontline for Jill Armstrong's team, with Gesell making sure the ball got to them, finishing with 12 assists.  They also held LL Pelling's star Devyn Marble in check, as he scored 14 but was 6-17 from the field and 2-6 from the line.

Box Scores of selected players:

Melsahn Basabe:  13-23 on 2's, 0-3 on 3's, 8-10 ft's, 34 pts, 19 rbs, 3 asts.
Jarryd Cole:  15-23 on 2's, 0-2 on 3's, 4-4 ft's, 34 pts, 12 rbs, 3 asts.
Mike Gesell:  3-11 on 2's, 2-4 on 3's, 2-2 ft's, 14 pts, 6 rbs, 12 asts.
Darius Stokes:  0-3 on 2's, 1-3 ft's, 1 pt, 2 rbs, 1 ast.

Upper Iowa's starting guard Joey Woods did a good job defensively on Gesell but without a couple of missing players, starting power forward Tucker Wentzien and sharpshooter Farokhmanesh, their teamwork kept them in the game, but didn't let them prevail.  Former Winona State Hall-of-Famer Kyle Schlaak scored 20.

Selected box scores:

Gabe Olaseni:  14-22 on 2's, 3-6 ft's, 31 pts, 6 rbs, 2 asts.
Kyle Schlaak:  8-11 on 2's, 1-1 on 3's, 1-1 ft's, 20 pts, 9 rbs, 1 ast.
Devyn Marble:  6-13 on 2's, 0-4 on 3's, 2-6 on ft's, 14 pts, 5 rbs, 8 asts.
Joey Woods:  5-10 on 2's, 1-2 ft's, 11 pts, 5 rbs, 6 asts.

The winning teams meet for a late-night championship game, televised on MC-22 on Mediacom at 9 pm Tuesday, July 24.  The game is scheduled for 9 to allow Iowa players who have a night class on Tuesday to play without a class conflict.

The Game Time league semifinals are tonight, July 23rd, at 6 and 7:30, and are also televised on MC-22, as is the championship Wednesday at 6.  

Obama Era: Expert Consensus Shows Transition from Work to Welfare Equals Poverty.

Another family staying at an Obama Inn

Just caught a "minor" headline this morning.  The percentage of Americans living in poverty has reached a near fifty year high.  The raw number of Americans living in poverty has already reached historic worsts in each of the three Obama years.
  

We've long known that the Obama years have seen labor force participation (the percentage of Americans already employed or seeking employment) drop to Carter Depression era lows.
 

The conclusion inescapably indicts the Obama socialist approach. 

In 2012 the United States faces record public debt and has experienced its first credit downgrade (even the Revolutionary Government of 1778 had better credit).  At the same time, after six years of Democrat budget control and a nearly four year experiment with European socialism/crony capitalism the United States has record levels of government spending in whatever way the liberals have chosen to spend it (e.g. the 09 budget, the Stimulus, nationalized health care and record Social Security and Medicare spending).   The liberal states like New York, Illinois, and especially California spend pour even more water into that ocean of spending.  Yet the independence and affluence that comes with employment is collapsing and the dependence that arises from poverty and welfare is at a historic worst.  All but the committed ideologue can recognize that President  Obama's socialism destroys employment and increases poverty and dependence if they know the clearest of facts.

Where then are the Republican ads telling the public these alarming facts?   The idea that we have lost a generation of labor and nearly two generations of national wealth in only three years are the kind of shocking numbers that even the simplest of viewers could grasp, so why don't we tell them? 

Zack Beauchamp/Think Progress: Boy, you've got it backwards; mass murder is not progress.

Zach Beauchamp over at Think Progress blames expiration of the Clinton era  Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.  The 1994 law prohibited the sale of one of the firearms used by the psychotic Aurora shooter used in his theater rampage. 

So?  Psychotics or terrorists intent on mass murder will find weapons.  If he could not have obtained an AR-15 he would have used a different firearm.  If he could not have obtained a single firearm he'd have brought several. 

Failing to obtain a firearm would have changed the means, not the result.  Fertilizer can become an instrument of mass murder.  Arson, literal fire in a theater so to speak.  The Aurora monster had smoke grenades (which are already pretty illegal).  Zach, have you heard of a Molotov Cocktail?  Gasoline kills.  Think about the mass casualties if the Aurora shooter's bombs would have worked as intended.

However, repealing the the no gun zones in movie theaters might have at least stopped a shooting rampage.  Such bans ensure that the only firearms present are in the hands of the criminal shooter (almost always already illegally in those hands as well).  The presence of a brave and armed citizen, or more than one, would have been more likely to stop or limit the carnage than attempting to disarm, and then, when that fails, search everyone to keep weapons from madmen dedicated to murder.

It was much easier to obtain firearms fifty years ago.  It was much easier to carry those weapons into now restricted places.  Yet the growing cultural phenomena of mass shooting has grown with each such restriction.  More restrictive possession of firearms may not cause gun crime but it does not prevent gun crime, either.  Particularly the psychotic mass murders. 

Liberal reaction to Aurora has displayed two enduring principles of liberal thought:

1.  Never let a crises go to waste.  Beginning with ABC's defamatory link of the shooter to the Tea Party the anti-Second Amendment choir has been at full throat, practically climbing over the victim's bodies to advance their cause.

2.  Occupy a parallel false reality.  The statistical fact that more gun control merely results in more gun crime, where literally only the criminals have guns, is lost on the liberal.  The liberal solution is simply do more of what has in many ways already failed.  A free society simply cannot ensure perfect safety and law enforcement cannot be everywhere, even in places like North Korea or New York City.  While law enforcement cannot be everywhere a widely and legally armed citizenry, if not everywhere, can be anywhere, just like the evil doers themselves.

Even the website appears an oxymoron.  More mass murder is definitely not progress.  But our failing culture needs to start examining the real causes of rage that create these mass killers and stop worrying about their anti-Second Amendment agenda.

ABC/Brian Ross reach new low in liberal hate.

Human existence is replete with tragedy.  The fragility of life itself is what renders life so precious.  All that we know and love can be taken from us at any time and at almost any place.  Fires, earthquakes, floods and tsunamis sweep away thousands.  Stages collapse and kill concert audiences.  Balconies collapse and kill partiers. 

Psychos engage in killing rampages.  The Aurora shooting reminds us that dangerous psychos are and have forever been in our midst and can strike at any time and almost anywhere.  Tragedy seems almost a cliche and certainly an understated word for the horrific mass murder last night in Aurora Colorado.

Modern science rarely knows what makes the mass murderer kill those he does not know.  An obvious lack of humanity is the easy answer.  The deeper or more proximate motivation is perhaps unknowable.

Upon hearing the news of the shooting, in the most apolitical of environments-a movie theater-every person of decency (indeed, perhaps every person who is capable of human empathy at any level) could have only one response: heartfelt anguish for the victims and their shattered families.  What else could one feel?

We here at TRS certainly did not suspect an act of domestic terror, as practiced and advocated by President Obama's close friends and allies, William Ayres and Bernadette Dohrn.  We did not believe the monstrosity to be the product of the political violence advocated by the Occupy Wall Street movement.  Nor did we suspect the massacre was motivated by the racial hatred of the New Black Panther Party.   Politics and political motivation were the furthest thoughts from our reaction.

It is often said that adversity reveals character, it does not make it.  ABC News and Brian Ross revealed the true nature of their character this morning.

Brian Ross actually went on air with the following:

The baseless speculation of Ross' commentary is far more than an example of liberal bias that motivates most of the news media; it is a spectacular display of the hatred the liberal media feels for conservatives.  Running on air with a smear of conservatives, with no or distorted evidence is nothing new, of course. 

But, imagine the thought process that lead to Ross' statement.  Someone almost immediately engaged in the inference that this shooter (like the Gabby Giffords shooter, which at least occurred in a political setting) was somehow connected to a conservative political group.  Only the deepest of hatred of one's political adversaries could have triggered even the initial suspicion of Tea Party's complicity in a horrific mass murder.  The initial suspicion itself is the product of nothing more than a conviction that the Tea Party is composed of persons of such profound evil that they were presumptively involved in the worst of crimes.

We do not need to wait for an apology or a correction, but we should wait for the Tea Party in Colorado and whoever is the James Holmes involved with the Tea Party to drop one whale of a defamation suit on ABC and Ross.  Hopefully the verdict will be so large that ABC News is simply put out of business.  That might provide some justice and it just might make Ross' fellow traveller's with some circumspection before they indulge their impulse to engage in defamatory speculation for political gain.

Food Stamps for Foreigners, Yes, there is a Santa Claus

The Obama Administration's capacity for wealth destruction and dependency creation quite literally recognizes no limits.  We picked up a link from the Daily Caller that was so fantastic that it required some personal research.

Yet, the story is true.  The United States government, acting through Tom Vilsack's USDA, has partnered with a foreign government (maybe more than one), Mexico, to encourage and facilitate food stamp dependency for foreign nationals living in the United States.

It has been widely known that the number of Americans susbsisting on food stamps has reached and maintained record levels under the Obama economic debacle.  The Administration wears the record level of food stamp dependency it has created as a badge of honor; prima facie evidence of its success in radically transforming America.

But seriously, foreign nationals living on American taxpayer dollars? 

The Obama response to criticism of its ongoing collaberation with a foreign government to encourage foreign nationals to obtain American federal welfare is simply more race baiting.  Republicans could only object to foreign nationals receiving American welfare because we hate Hispanics-such an argument is regular bottom shelf stock in the Hispanic aisle of this Administration's racial division superstore.

Could even taxpaying Americans of Hispanic descent, who have seen their unemployment level nearly double under the Obama Administration's tenure and who pay the same astronomic prices for fuel and food that does everyone else regardless of ancestry, find such gibberish credible this time around?  Could someone whose last name is Garcia or Gonzalez that turns out every morning and goes to work only to see a third to a half of their paycheck disappear in taxes, possibly find justice in those tax dollars paying foreign nationals, whether from Mexico, Madagascar or Malaysia, to live on American welfare? 

Given the billions of dollars the Obama Administration has sent to Brazil for offshore oil exploration or Finland for electric cars or China for solar panels, the question for tax paying Hispanic voters is why their tax dollars are supporting foreign people and industries when real Hispanic unemployment is hovers around 20% and Hispanic families have seen their family income collapse under the Obama work to welfare transition?

H/T Hot Air: Armed Senior Saves The Day

Picked up this great video at Hot Air blog. 

A 71 year old hero saves an internet cafe filled with sheep, I mean young people.

"If there's one thing this last week has taught me, its better to have a gun and not need one than need a gun and not have one."  Clarence Worley.