Dropping The Ball

There are seemingly few things that political partisans in the U.S. can agree on in America right now, especially when it comes to making or applying rules and regulations. The NFL referee lockout, however, is a possible exception.

Whether you're Democratic or Republican - or even if you don't even like pro football - the NFL referee lockout seems to be getting a unanimous thumbs down from fans, teams, coaches and businesses alike - especially after last night's horrible game, decided not by the actions of players but by the officials on the field. Virtually everyone connected with NFL football has said this lockout is hurting people on all sides.

We understand both the labor issues with the referee lockout and the problems from the fan perspective. We've even come up with some less-than-orthodox solutions to the problem - though we highly doubt NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will be listening to us.

The primary cause of the dispute is - no surprise - the greed of the NFL owners and their desire to offload their pension responsibilities to the referees. As bad as the calls are, the worst effects of this dispute aren't the horrible calls or the angry fans. The biggest problem this labor dispute is causing is a tendency by every player and coach on both sides of the ball to get used to manipulating the very rules of the game.

It's the kind of warped interaction that Mitt Romney and the I.R.S. not only recognize - they may have even perfected it.

In case you missed it, Mr. Romney and his campaign finally released his complete 2011 tax returns last Friday, after being hounded by voters, the media, and even other politicians.

If you just take a quick glance at the summary of what's in Mitt's 2011 tax returns, you likely won't find anything unusual for someone as rich as Mr. Romney. His effective tax rate - the amount he paid after all his deductions were taken into account - was 14.1 percent. The Romney's donated over four million dollars to charity in 2011 - nearly thirty percent of their income - for which they claimed a deduction of $2.25 million.

The problem with Mitt's taxes comes in when you add to those multi-million dollar numbers two statements he made in the last three months.

The first statement came in July, in an interview with journalist David Muir, when Romney stated, "I don’t pay more [taxes] than are legally due, and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due, I don’t think I’d be qualified to become president." The second statement came in August, due to prodding from Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, when Mitt Romney claimed that he'd paid at least 13% income taxes in each of the last ten years.

Now, these two statements normally wouldn't add up to a problem - except, of course, when you follow the unbending laws of mathematics and add those statements to Romney's 2011 tax return. Because unlike the substitute refs in the NFL, we can see Mr. Romney's infraction clearly from hundreds of miles away.

In order for Mitt Romney to have paid a tax rate of 14.1% in 2011, and for his statement in August to be true that he'd never paid less than 13% income taxes in each of the last ten years, Mr. Romney has to have paid more taxes than were legally due in 2011.

Which means, by his own standards, Mitt isn't qualified to be president.

If this were an NFL game, even the replacement refs would likely call a penalty on Mr. Romney for a foul that flagrant. We hope voters do the same thing this fall at the polls.

Excuses, Lies, And Responsibilities

Excuse us if we're a bit slow today. Over the weekend our staff members took a break to recharge their physical, mental, and emotional batteries. We slept in, spent time with family, got out and exercised - even built a bookcase. We did a little work too, as we began to look over Mitt Romney's taxes, which we'll likely tackle tomorrow.

We also ran into a few friends over the weekend, including a veteran of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. He's what's jokingly called a "short-termer" by at least a few of our more recent veterans, having only spent two tours of duty "over there," one in each foreign nation. Having been deployed overseas more than once, our friend is back home now, but still a part of the Army Reserves.

What amazed us is that he's also thinking about re-enlisting as a full-time soldier and going back for yet another tour of duty. His current employer, fed up with all the time off he's had to give our friend, is making the vet's life a living hell. At least his employer has followed the letter of the law (so far) by holding our friend's job open for him when he returns from his tours of duty, something many employers have not done for other returning members of the military.

How America has treated our veterans over the last decade - especially over the last few years - is more shameful than most Americans know or should accept. We're more than willing to admit, though, that conditions for our returning vets are not nearly as shameful as they were for those who returned after serving during the Vietnam war.

That said, too many Americans - especially those putting party over country like Nebraska Sen. Mike Johanns - still aren't willing to work as hard for our service members when they return as our military volunteers have worked for us when we send them "over there."

Last week was a perfect example of this kind of cowardice currently on display in the U.S. Senate.

After helping to craft a bill that would have assisted returning members of the U.S. military to get jobs, rejoin the regular workforce, and help cut the unemployment rate, four Republicans in the U.S. Senate - including Nebraska's own Senator Mike Johanns - decided to block the vote against the same bill they helped create. Each Senator seemed to give different excuses for their changes of heart.

The biggest excuse given was the false claim that the bill wasn't paid for. The bill was indeed paid for, in the same way virtually every bill in Congress is; over time, not all at once. Just as almost no individual pays for a house completely, up-front these days, multi-year government programs are also not paid for up-front, out of the current year's budget. That's not how either business or government is run in America today - and has been the case for longer than the life of anyone reading this commentary.

Both current Sen. Ben Nelson and U.S. Senate candidate Bob Kerrey - a veteran himself - were livid at the Republican voting blockade. They each noted that any procedural excuse that was made was something that could have been worked out, had the Congressmen been willing to put the needs of our service members above their slavish devotion to the Republican party.

To us, this sorry episode reminded us that some politicians are willing to act like our service members, fulfilling their responsibilities even when it's hardest - like in an election year, with an economy still struggling upwards.

Others, like Senator Johanns and his chickenhawk Republican cohorts, are still ducking their responsibilities to our military, and their own constituents, because of their fear of the extremists who currently control the Republican Party.

With an atmosphere like this, how any responsible American could vote for a Republican for Congress this year is beyond our understanding.

Friday Funday: Autumn, Again!

As the weekend approaches, and we look forward to time away from the keyboards and the drawing board, we noticed a small note on our calendars that gave us some extra reasons to smile today.

Saturday is the official start to the fall season, one of our favorite times of the year.

Our staff generally enjoys autumn, and the many changes that come with it. The weather finally welcomes football season, even as it begins to say goodbye to baseball. A chill has already begun slipping into the air - especially in the evenings - which means we finally can dig out some of our favorite clothes.

The colors change in the trees too - at least outside our Nebraska and Washington, DC offices. There often seem to be autumn surprises too, like the great news late last night that all 33,000 U.S. troops originally sent to Afghanistan for the surge strategy have now left that nation. Hopefully, some of those service members will be welcomed home with a fall harvest feast.

Unfortunately, thanks to one of the most worthless sessions of Congress in history, millions of Americans won't be celebrating with them. They'll be going hungry instead.

The reason they'll still be hungry boils down to Senate Republicans abandoning their duty to the American people by putting off until after the November election the passage of the Farm Bill. As today is Friday, and we traditionally try to keep things positive, we won't delve too deeply into the reasons House Republicans have held up a bill that not only helps farmers but controls the food stamp program, and other food assistance measures for millions of poor and working poor Americans.

Suffice it to say, those members of Congress are headed home to campaign - and we hope some of them get what's coming to them from their constituents.

All things considered, we're glad that it's fall. Political debates have begun in earnest, like the one in Massachusetts last night, where Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren wiped the floor with Republican incumbent Scott Brown. More debates in Nebraska, Virginia, Maryland and Florida between other candidates are coming up too.

For many of the candidates we support, the most recent polling has been looking positive too, headed into fall.

Summer isn't quite done yet though, with Major League Baseball still going strong. There's a distinct chance this year for the Washington Nationals to go to the World Series - the Nats did clinch a plyoff spot last night -  so we may be paying attention to baseball well into the heart of the fall season.

In short, it's autumn again - a great reason for us to look forward, and smile.