The "Curse of Jim Brown" still haunts Cleveland

The city of Cleveland has not won a championship since Jim Brown led them to the NFL title in 1964 against the Baltimore Colts winning 27-0. Brown retired from football just before the 1966 season because Art Modell would not give him time off during the preseason to finish filming "The Dirty Dozen". Ironically, the Browns returned to the championship game that year and lost to the Colts 33-0. As a 12year-old, I went down to Cleveland Stadium and bought a ticket to this game for $10 and froze my ass off. Cleveland sports has suffered the loss of many superstars and fan favorites over the years, many of which have gone on to win titles themselves.

Paul Warfield, Manny Ramirez, and Ron Harper were all part of Cleveland teams that made it to the championship game and eventually won with another team. They even got rid off a couple of good coaches that have gone on to win championships. I can remember when the Cavs hired Chuck Daly and he told them that he could win with James Edwards and Bill Laimbeer, who were considered journeymen in the NBA at the time. The Detroit pistons are forever grateful. Then the Cleveland fans and media ran Bill Belichick out of town because he said Bernie Kosar had"diminished skills" and traded him to Dallas, where Kosar got a Super Bowl ring riding the bench. And here is where the real irony comes in.

When Cleveland wouldn't remodel Cleveland Stadium or build a new one, Art Modell took his team to where? Baltimore, a city that also lost their beloved Colts, and he won a Super Bowl. Oh, and let's not forget the man who the team is named after, Paul Brown, who was run out of Cleveland, and then in 1970 the NFL rewarded him with the Cincinnati Bengals, who also won a Super Bowl. In actuality, the Steelers play in a division with three Browns franchises. By the way, the new Browns passed on several players that may have gotten them over the hump. They took Tim Couch over Donovan McNabb, and Joe Thomas over Adrian Peterson, the closest thing to Jim Brown I have seen.

The Cleveland Indians, I hate that name, finally made it to the World Series in the 90's, and ironically, the Atlanta Braves won their only World Series title during their National League Dynasty run against Cleveland. The NBA made sure Cleveland got LeBron James during their secret draft lottery, even though Lenny Wilkins threw the last game of the season when he was coaching the Toronto Raptors, guaranteeing Denver would have the worst record in the league. They played Cleveland that night and the Cleveland fans went into panic mode in fear of losing their homegrown hero. There is no doubt LeBron James will win a championship, but will he do it in Cleveland?

Cheney Has Put Military in Peril

Now that he is out of office, we are learning more about Dick Cheney's role in the Iraq war. It had always been speculated that he was running the show from behind the scenes and the more he talks publicly, the more we see how much influence or control he had, and also just how evil this man is. What were his true motives? One motive was the oil, the other was the rebuilding of a country you destroy using his company Halliburton.

According to Wikipedia, in recent years the company has become the object of several controversies involving the 2003 Iraq War and the company's ties to Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney retired from the company during the 2000 U.S. presidential election campaign with a severance package worth $36 million. As of 2004, he had received $398,548 in deferred compensation from Halliburton while Vice President. Some commentators have speculated on a possible conflict of interest from Cheney receiving deferred compensation and stock options from Halliburton.

Bunnatine Greenhouse, a civil servant with 20 years of contracting experience, had complained to Army officials on numerous occasions that Halliburton had been unlawfully receiving special treatment for work in Iraq, Kuwait and the Balkans. Criminal investigations were opened by the U.S. Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Pentagon's inspector general that continue to this date (2/24/09). In one of the many examples of abuse, Greenhouse said that military auditors caught Halliburton overcharging the Pentagon for fuel deliveries into Iraq. She also complained that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's office took control of every aspect of Halliburton's $7 billion no-bid Iraqi oil/infrastructure contract. After her testimony Greenhouse was demoted, allegedly for poor performance, though USACE. Greenhouse had received excellent performance ratings in the past

So in my opinion, I still believe Cheney has ties to this company along with Rumsfeld and they probably would lose a lot of potential income if the Iraq war was to end and Halliburton was not allowed to help rebuild Iraq. It will be interesting to see what happens when we leave. But the problem was starting this war in the first place. Though they try to convince the American public that this was a necessary war, common sense people knew different. Now those who are blindly patriotic have finally seen the light and put a man in charge who will try to fix this mess. But the problem is we have dug in so deep that our reputation is again at stake, much like it was in Viet Nam, and our military is being weakened by fighting in a place we never should have been.

Now we have true threats from countries like Iran and North Korea, who just conducted another illegal nuclear test yesterday. This test was conducted at an underground site in North Korea, and unlike their missile launch of a few months ago, they drew criticism from their Russian and Chinese allies as well. North Korea insists, as does Iran, that these nuclear weapons programs are vital to the defense of their countries. In a way, I can't blame any country that wants to protect itself from attack by having the same weapons as your attacker. You know the old saying, you don't bring a knife to a gunfight. When you look back through history, that's how the United States stole most of this country from the Native Americans, and how most of the world super powers have controlled most of their territories around the world, through superior weaponry.

But we have also seen the United States hold the title of World Police mainly due to the fact that we are the only country to use the atomic bomb, and we used it on a mostly civilian population, just to show them we could eliminate them from the face of the Earth, and to send a message to the rest of the world. Since then, the Soviet Union (succeeded as a nuclear power by Russia), the United Kingdom, France, the People's Republic of China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea, have all tested nuclear weapons, with North Korea being the real threat to world peace, as their leader is not a rational man. It is speculated that Israel also has nuclear weapons, as they are a real target in the Middle East, and Iran is using this as their excuse for needing these weapons. But Iran is at least willing to talk about their role in the nuclear world.

The best thing would be for every country to eliminate these weapons from their arsenal, but you know that would never happen, even if they all agreed to it. Somebody, including the U.S. would still try to horde these weapons "just in case", and now that nuclear power has been used as a reliable source of energy. you can't tell who is using it for what. Everyone misunderstood what Joe Biden meant when he said Pres. Barack Obama would face a major test from the international community in his first year as the leader of this country. What he really meant was no matter who got elected they would face this challenge, he was just campaigning for it to be his man and not John McCain.

Very few people have the "luxury" of knowing when or how they are going to die. I can think of three groups offhand. Terminally ill patients have a slight window as to the exact time, death row inmates, and suicide bombers. But we are headed for certain destruction with the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and I can only hope that the Planet of the Apes is in the distant future.

Welcome Back Michael

I am glad to see Michael Vick finally released from prison. He got more time than he deserved only because he lied to the Feds about his role in his dog fighting operation. It has been documented that he received this sentence because he didn't cooperate with the authorities when first approached about this problem. This may be true, but how many people do cooperate when they are caught doing something illegal and you have no proof? They never could have convicted him without the testimony from his partners, who had gotten busted for something totally different, which led the authorities to the home where the dogs were kept. No, I am not condoning dogfighting or any other illegal activity, but let's compare a few cases that have involved high profile athletes in the past, starting with the most recent controversy in the news.

Everyone hated Barry Bonds for allegedly using steroids and not admitting it to the Grand Jury. They have no proof he used and everyone supposedly connected to Bonds, meaning his trainers that allegedly supplied him with steroids, refuse to roll over on him, going to jail to keep from testifying against him. Yet people have told on Roger Clemens and he continues to openly deny his roll in using steroids. Meanwhile players like Andy Petite, Jason Giambi, and other Yankee baseball players have been forgiven. Alex Rodriguez has admitted using steroids and has even lied about when he used them, but he is still being hailed as one of the greatest players of all time and the league still is promoting his image and counting his home runs as if he had done nothing wrong, hoping that one day he will surpass Bonds' record.

Let's go way back now to someone who lost time for standing up for what he believed. He didn't commit a crime, he just refused to enter the military because he didn't believe in the Viet Nam war. Yes, I'm talking about Muhammad Ali. At the time, many people were not going into the military and using their religion as a valid reason and were called "Conscientious Objectors", but when Ali refused to be inducted into the military in 1967, the Government refused to accept his religious stance and stripped him of his boxing license and took away his passport while he appealed the ruling. He was 25 at the time, and although Ali loses three years of his career due to this and is hated by many who feel he is unpatriotic, eventually Ali regains his popularity as the whole country starts to sour on the war during the 70's and Ali becomes a hero for standing up against the war.

The other boxer who missed time for a real crime was Mike Tyson who was convicted of rape, also at the age of 25 and also missed three years of his career while he sat in prison. But even though the evidence proved that he raped a woman, a lot of people couldn't wait for Mike to return to boxing because of his explosiveness in the ring. Kobe Bryant later found himself in almost the exact same situation as Tyson, but the woman he was with was not as believable as the woman Tyson raped. The strange thing about both of these cases is the perception most people have about hotels. It seems that if a woman comes to a man's hotel room alone it's ok to do whatever you want to her because that is what she is there for, especially if the man is a celebrity. So does that mean that every time I took a woman home from the club to my house I could have done whatever I wanted to her and gotten away with it, even when she objected? Or every time I invited a woman to my house for dinner and a movie, if she didn't leave by a certain time it meant she was fair game? Tell me what time that is so I know in the future.

The last example is something totally different. Michael Jordan retired from basketball in 1993 after winning his third straight NBA title. He had been criticized for being in a casino in Las Vegas the night before a playoff game, and later was said to have a major gambling problem. About a month after winning the title, his father was murdered and it was speculated that his death may have been related to gambling debts, although the official story attributed it to a random act of violence. In October he officially announced his retirement from basketball, saying he had lost his love of the game. That spring, he got with the owner of the Chicago White Sox, who also owned the Chicago Bulls, and signed a minor league contract to play professional baseball, claiming it was a wish he wanted to fulfill for his father. He stayed retired until March of 1995, returning just in time to lead the Bulls to the playoffs. They lost to Orlando that year, but won the title the next three years.

My point being is that we have accepted athletes back after layoffs. Michael Jordan missed just over 1 1/2 years of his career, while the two boxers missed over 3 1/2 years from their careers. Michael was 30 when he "retired" the first time, while the two boxers were both 25 when their careers were halted. Michael Vick will be 29 in about a month. Just like the other athletes, it's going to take awhile to get back to professional sports shape, but he's still young enough where his skills can still reach that professional level. Unlike the other three, Vick never reached that championship status, but Ali, Tyson and Jordan all regained their titles. So to think that Vick cannot play again is absurd, and I know he is determined to prove he can.

I know a lot of you animal lovers don't want him to succeed, but I'm a people lover, especially a woman lover. So if the American public can cheer for rapists like Mike Tyson and Kobe Bryant, I don't see a reason why Vick can't return to the career that he loves, as long as he proves he can still compete. Tyson never showed any remorse for what he did, yet he was released from prison early, serving only three years of a six year conviction. Besides, you never see PETA complaining about dogs that are put to death for attacking humans. I have never before seen so much publicity given to dogs, documenting that his 51 dogs could be rehabilitated after a career of fighting. A CNN report states that only one had to be put down because it was deemed too dangerous. If that is true, why can't they be rehabilitated after biting a human instead of being put to death? It also stated that half the dogs are in homes and the other half in a special sanctuary and not a shelter where they would have been put to death if no one claims them, like they do all other animals.

Lastly, Vick has served his time. This man has a lot to deal with and he should be bitter. I'm sure he had a chance to follow the case of Clifford Harris, better known as the rapper T.I, who was convicted of purchasing machine guns with silencers after being set up by his bodyguard. Now I like his music, he is a very talented young man, but he was already a convicted felon and if you know anything about his background, which he eloquently expressed in his TV show, you know his intentions were bad. But Vick had to spend more time in prison and is being vilified much worse than Harris, and he has lost much more money than Harris.

Plaxico Burris and Adam "Pacman" Jones had weapons related incidents that only warranted suspensions from the league, although Burris still faces weapons charges and his future is uncertain. What if Burris' gun had fell at a different angle and wound up shooting someone else? Why did he need a gun in the club anyway? How can you put Vick in a category that denies him a chance to return to his livelihood after he has served his time? What kind of society are we living in where we value animal life more than human life? I wish you the best Michael Vick and I hope you do the right thing.

The Return of Arrogant Ari

With all of the furor over the water boarding torture tactics, we have seen the emergence of the world's greatest liar Ari Fleischer. For those of you that don't know, Ari is the man who convinced America for George Bush that we should go to war in Iraq. From 2001-2003, Bush used Ari, the greatest White House Spokesman of all times, to convince the American public that the attack on Iraq was a necessity. Most people don't realize that Bush conducted very few press conferences during his first four years, he just gave speeches that did not allow follow up questions, and when he did, the questions were preselected so he could have Ari tell him what to say. This was vital to Bush's war and his chances for re-election. Just look at what happened to the administration when Ari left. Bush started holding his own press conferences and the rest of America started seeing how big an idiot they had elected. You can see Bush's popularity numbers begin to drop with the resignation of Fleischer.

Well now Bush and Cheney are in deep trouble over the water boarding torture tactics and we have seen "Cheney the Invisible" more in the last week than we did in eight years. Since George can't talk for himself, we have also seen the emergence of Arrogant Ari. Every time I know this guy is going to be on TV I have to watch him. He is the master of misdirection, never answering an incriminating question and diverting attention away from the issue at hand. As long as Ari was doing the talking, the Bush camp was solid and reporters were scared to ask Ari any questions that disagreed with the war policies. Any reporter that asked such a question would be ignored or banned from future press conferences. Ari controlled the media.

Think back to what happened to the man who followed him as press secretary, Scott McClellan. His conscience wouldn't allow him to continually lie, and he wasn't good at it, so he resigned and later wrote a book about the experience. This was the first time Ari had to appear to do damage control for Bush and try to discredit McClellan. It worked and now he has appeared again to deflect the attention away from the real criminals, Bush and Cheney, and onto the congress members that knew and went along with it, in particular, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. No matter who else knew about these tactics, their role cannot be bigger than the people who perpetrated this act. As one reporter put it, if you see someone committing a crime and do nothing, you are guilty of a crime as well, but you shouldn't receive a harsher penalty than the ones who committed or ordered the act.

Don't get me wrong, I have no love for any democrat who voted for this war. At the time the republican party had the same control as the democrats do now, majority in the congress and the senate, so it was easy for the democrats to be outvoted on every issue involving the war. In fact, the republicans called anyone who opposed the war unpatriotic. Well one of the brave few who opposed this senseless unnecessary war from the beginning is now the president. While all the other democrats tucked their tails between their legs to protect their balls, Barrack Obama was one of the few that stood up for what they truly believed and voted against the war. It doesn't matter what party you represent, any politician that backed this war should not be in office. More on that later, back to the subject at hand.

Just before Ari left the Bush administration, he was starting to enjoy a surge in popularity for the way he handled the press, and had been voted by one media outlet as the sexiest man in America. But shortly after that he was implicated in the Valery Plame incident and resigned from office in July of 2003. He even worked out an immunity deal in 2007 that allowed him to lie without repercussions. Just read the Wikipedia account below of Ari's role in this incident and you will will understand his power to manipulate any situation.

In January 2007, during the first week of Scooter Libby's trial, it was revealed in court proceedings that former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer was granted immunity from prosecution by Patrick Fitzgerald in February of 2004. Fleischer reportedly acknowledged discussing Valerie Plame with reporters, but promised to cooperate with Fitzgerald's investigation only if granted immunity. Once the deal was struck, Fleischer told Fitzgerald that he had discussed Plame with David Gregory of NBC News and John Dickerson of Time in July 2003, days before leaving his job at the White House. Fleischer testified that he first learned about Plame and her CIA affiliation during a July 7, 2003, lunch with Libby. Fleischer also testified that four days later, while aboard Air Force One and during a five-day trip to several African nations, he overheard Dan Bartlett reference Plame. According to Fleischer, Bartlett stated to no one in particular "His wife sent him...She works at the CIA." Shortly after overhearing Bartlett, Fleischer proceeded to discuss Plame with Gregory and Dickerson. According to Fleischer, neither Gregory nor Dickerson showed much interest in the information. Dickerson has denied Fleischer's account. Gregory has declined to comment on the matter. With regards to the immunity deal, Fitzgerald told the court "I didn't want to give [Fleischer] immunity. I did so reluctantly." Libby's attorney, William Jeffress, sought to learn more about the deal, telling the court "I'm not sure we're getting the full story here." According to Matt Apuzzo of the Associated Press, "Prosecutors normally insist on an informal account of what a witness will say before agreeing to such a deal. It's known in legal circles as a proffer, and Fitzgerald said [in court] he never got one from Fleischer."

Swine Flu?

Ok now what's really going on? It's a week after the new swine flu outbreak has hit the world and we still don't know what the cause is. In fact, I'm watching CNN, John King to be exact, and he is saying the FIRST case of swine flu in an actual swine has just been reported. Get this, a pig has died after catching the swine flu virus from his Mexican owner. Are they serious?