News out of Federal Court today is that the other two defendants in the dogfighting case have agreed to pleas. As part of their plea agreements, these two scumbags have rolled on Michael Vick and painted a wretched picture of the abomination that is dogfighting.
The worst of it is the revelation that Michael Vick personally participated in the killing via hanging or drowning of dogs that were not viable as competition fighters. If true, the knowledge that Vick had his own hands, physically, on dogs as they were put to death should be the end of his career as a professional football player.
There is no excuse for this behavior. There can be no rationalizing because of his ethnic background or the region of his birth. Callous disregard for life crosses all boundaries. To be able to murder an animal simply because it didn't live up to his expectations as a moneymaker shows the sociopathic tendancies that lie beneath the facade that Vick shows to the public.
Initially, I had assumed that Vick would plead out, do a year in some minimum security slam and be back on the field before the end of the football season. Now, if he does not do at least five years in Federal prison, I will be greatly disappointed.
And frankly, I don't give a damn about his ability to earn a living. The world needs ditch diggers too. He doesn't deserve another chance, he had eight of them already. I know we are supposed to be forgiving, but this goes beyond the pale.
Slam the door on this scum, and let's never hear from him again.
Okay, let me get this straight:
Bud Selig blackmails Jason Giambi into testifying before the Mitchell commission by threatening to suspend him if he refused. This of course comes on the heels of Giambi slamming baseball for not doing anything about steroids back when they first suspected something. Giambi meets with Mitchell, presumably admits to steroid abuse and possibly names other players -- this assumption is drawn from Selig's post meeting statement: "He was, I thought, very frank and candid with Sen. Mitchell." And the upshot is that Giambi will recieve no punishment. Huh?
Now what is Selig going to do with Barry Bonds? The whole point of this steroid crusade has been to get at Bonds. Selig hates him, hates that he now holds the home run record, that's obvious. So if Barry drops by the office and says, "Oh yeah, by the way, I was using steroids the same time as Jason. Thought you'd like to know." What is Bud going to do? Leap up and yell, gotcha!? There's been no mention of astrisking Giambi's stats. Selig has left himself no room to maneuver here. What was the point?
See where Sean Penn's best new buddy, Hugo Chavez, has ripped his country's constitution to shreds to put himself into position to declare himself President for Life? I wonder how Sean's journalistic side will report on this. Will he declare that Chavez has done such a wonderful job at turning his democracy into a brutal dictatorship that he deserves the title. Wasn't Penn just reporting how beautiful and wonderful things were down in Venezuela? Putting aside all that jailing of reporters and laws prohibiting free speech, according to Penn, Venezuela is a veritable paradise. Run by a lovable teddy bear. Who would dare complain about Chavez being dictator for life? Literally. I'm sure he has the full support of Sean Penn, Danny Glover, and Harry Belafonte. Huh?
Okay, how ridiculous is it that David Stern (commish of NBA) thinks that only one referee in the entire league is crooked? When you ask the general fan about athletes cheating, i.e., steroids or something, you get percentages like 50% or 75%. But Mr. Stern wants us to think that out of all the refs in the league, it is only one guy who succumbed to the siren's call of gambling or illegal activities. Oh come on now! David, wake up and smell the Starbucks! How quickly he's forgotten those undefendable calls in the playoffs. His pronouncements of an isolated case ring a little desperate to me.
Here's my thing on Karl Rove -- I think instead of riding off to be with his family or write a book or work for another campaign, he's going to become a political assassin for the Republicans. Bush in particular. Hear me out. Now divorced from the White House, he can say whatever he wants, offend whomever he pleases with little fallout on the Pres. This guy's been inside the system for nearly eight years and I think he's got a touch of J. Edgar in him. I'll bet he's got a list of fun dirt on all the Dems who've pissed him off and Republicans who he thinks deserted him and George. And now it's payback time. He can burnish his place in history along with the Pres by evicerating the Dems and affecting the next two elections. You read it here first.
I'm very concerned about this Space Shuttle thing. If you haven't seen the chip in the tiles, it is 2 x 3 inches and about 1.5 inches deep. The problem as I see it is that it is where three tiles join together, not in the middle of one tile. I saw some video of NASA recreating the chip in a tile so that they could stick it in front of a jet engine to see how it holds up to the heat. That's just peachy, but it is not the same as a hole in the joint between tiles. I'm no NASA engineer, but this worries me greatly. I'm astonished that NASA isn't perfectly duplicating the problem for their failure testing. People's lives are at stake here. I hope they know what they are doing.
Shout out to Lane Kiffin, Monte's son, out in Oakland. Poor kid, the stress of dealing with that crappy franchise and Al Davis has young Lane in the hospital. I'm rooting for Lane 'cause of his ties to the Bucs of course, but also, like most, I'm a closet Raider fan. It would be nice to see the Silver & Black not be such a laughing stock. Hang in there kid.
What's the deal with Kim Kardashian's ass?
They must be photoshopping those images, 'cause it gets bigger every time it turns up on one of those celeb sites. Then all of the sudden it looks only mildly large. Didn't we get all that big booty craziness out of our systems with JLo? And why is it sometimes she's going to great lengths to hide her butt, then other times she's practically shoving it in the photog's face?
Make up your mind girl! You're either rocking that thing or not! jeez
Have you seen the rush to judgement over the death of wrestler Bryan Adams? No? Let me set it up for you -- big guy + wrestler + dead = steroids. Simple, eh? Do you think we could please wait until the autopsy comes in? Nah, what fun would that be, let's get botox-baby Marc Mero back on TV for a little wrestling-bashing. Is this guy running for office or something? He's been whoring himself out for months now. Give it a rest, dude. Adams had a prescription for painkillers from a back injury some years back. Maybe a reaction from the medication? Not as sexy as another steroid scandal, but a possibility. But perhaps we could wait until we have some facts before we go off. Hmmm?
Open up the Sports section this morning and there it is, another pathetic attempt by local sports hack, Tom Jones (no, not that one) to slam the Red Sox. This time it's a quote from a player about how the Red Sox fans aren't classy like the Jankee's fans. Oh yeah, those New York fans, they're the best! Weren't they the ones throwing batteries at opposing players? This jackass spent all of spring training drumming up totally innane stories about the Sox trying to create/maintain a rivalry between two teams that have nothing in common except playing in the same division. I don't know what is more pathetic, this guy's drivel or the local hammerheads that buy into it. You should hear some of the jeering that goes on at home games against the Sox. It's embarassing. I can't imagine what drives this . . . oh wait, doesn't George Steinbrenner own a shipyard here? Don't the Jankees train here? A local journalist couldn't be swayed by something like that, could he? I'm aghast!
Some organisation that proclaims that it is the oldest news network in the world, AFP, is running a story on Yahoo News showing an elderly Iraqi woman holding two bullets that supposedly hit her home during a skirmish in Sadr city yesterday. Funny thing is that the rounds are unspent, that is, the bullets are still intact with the brass casings, that is, okay look they haven't been fired okay?! And not only that, they are ridiculously polished. It's fake, got it?! So is the world's oldest news agency just stupid or corrupt? Unbelievable.
And oh yeah, Happy Birthday to me. How come that didn't make the paper?
I've seen some copy about the Chinese monetary threat I mentioned a few days ago. I'm no expert on economics, didn't stay in a Holiday Inn last night, so I'm not going to fight these guys on what they say. Which is generally, that China is blowing a lot of smoke, they won't screw themselves over to get at us and so on. I hope they are right. But I would point out here that you can't expect a communist/capitalist hybrid country like China to behave like any other country. They have the largest standing army in the world for a reason: they expect every citizen to die for the greater good at a moments notice. A little economic hardship is nothing to them. We'll see.
Amazing how sensational Nicole Ritchie looks with a few pounds on her now that she's pregnant. She's been so scrawny for so long, that it's easy to forget that she was actually quite cute when she and Paris first burst onto the scene a few years back. Here's hoping she continues to eat normally for the rest of her life. She's got someone else to think about now, sometimes that's all the wake up call a person needs.
Seen that rapping Marine video yet? It's f**king awesome! I lost the code for it, but it's on YouTube so it should be easy to find. Check it out. As the father of a serving US Marine, I give it two really big thumbs up! Why can't the politicians be this eloquent?! update: I got the code, let's see if this works: update: Got the Marine's name -- he is SSgt Lawrence E Dean II
That new ATT broadband commercial sucks. That was quick. I had hoped they would crank out a couple more good ones before they ran out of ideas. Oh well. I do like the one with Roger Clemens calling his wife to get her opinion on him returning to the Jankees. "Just say the word honey." Very clever.
Saying a prayer for my sister. She's in Hawaii on the big island. They haven't had a hurricane there in years. I'm hoping she and everyone else gets through it okay.
Many Blogstream members are there
already! Quotes from members: "It's like blog lite!" -- "I like the instant
gratification!" -- "Stop spectating, get in the game!"
If you have not joined in, you are really missing out!
