Not to mention the team that you'd rather not face could always lay an egg in Rd. 1.

I still ended up finishing in second but the payout between 2 and 4 was about 200 bucks.  The owner i shafted to this day won't trade with me or even respond to my offers.  

The big discussion on NY sports talk radio and in the papers during the week preceding was whether Coughlin would play his regulars and for how long.  "They had nothing to gain" by playing all out, record-wise or standings-wise.

IF you'll recall, the Giants played their brains out.  They didn't win, but they left a mark.  And, a month or so later, when those two teams met in the Super Bowl, playing as hard as they could paid off because they had identified  weaknesses (slight though they may have been) in the Pats.

As for the actual situation, seems to me you're perfectly entitled to try and get a better matchup.  In pro sports there are league rules against doing this because the fans aren't paying their money to watch a team try to lose.  (At most, a team can get away with being relatively indifferent to victory, as when they rest their starters.)  Don't see how any of that applies in fantasy sports.

Firemen come with hot water and free him.

The Obama administration has asked an appeals court to dismiss a lawsuit accusing former Bush administration attorney John Yoo of authorizing the torture of a terrorism suspect, saying federal law does not allow damage claims against lawyers who advise the president on national security issues.

Such lawsuits ask courts to second-guess presidential decisions and pose "the risk of deterring full and frank advice regarding the military's detention and treatment of those determined to be enemies during an armed conflict," Justice Department lawyers said Thursday in arguments to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Other sanctions are available for government lawyers who commit misconduct, the department said. It noted that its Office of Professional Responsibility has been investigating Yoo's advice to former President George W. Bush since 2004 and has the power to recommend professional discipline or even criminal prosecution.

The office has not made its conclusions public. However, The Chronicle and other media reported in May that the office will recommend that Yoo be referred to the bar association for possible discipline, but that he not be prosecuted.

"The president will suffer a setback in the mid-term elections. The Democrats will lose seats in both the House and Senate. The good news--this will force Bam back to the middle, and that would help the markets."