Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Michael Vick Takes PETA Course in Respect for Animals

This article was obtained from www.peta.org

In August 2007, NFL quarterback Michael Vick pleaded guilty to federal dogfighting charges. The 18-page indictment gave gruesome details of the operation, which shocked the nation.

Vick Meets With PETA President

On September 7, 2007, Vick made an arranged visit to PETA's headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, for a private meeting with PETA president Ingrid Newkirk. Newkirk told Vick that PETA advocates an end to all exploitation and needless violence based on prejudice, including the prejudice against other species, and that PETA believed that arming himself with information and materials would allow Vick to better live up to his responsibility to counsel children not to engage in cruelty to animals. Newkirk also explained that although PETA realizes that it is in his legal interests to take PETA's course in basic animal empathy, our position that he deserves jail time and a lifetime ban on animal contact remains firm. During their meeting, he expressed his willingness to learn and his belief that everything in life happens for a reason, and he offered an apology to PETA and to "everyone" for "what I have done to dogs."

Initial Lessons in Empathy

Vick left PETA that day with some initial reading materials for empathy development, including Animals, Nature & Albert Schweitzer, edited by Ann Cottrell Free, which contains a particularly moving passage from the kind doctor:
I must interpret the life about me as I interpret the life that is my own. My life is full of meaning to me. The life around me must be full of significance to itself. If I am to expect others to respect my life, then I must respect the other life I see, however strange it may be to mind. And not only other human life, but all kinds of life: life above mine, if there be such life; life below mine, as I know it to exist. Ethics in our Western world has hitherto been largely limited to the relations of man to man. But that is a limited ethics. We need a boundless ethics which will include the animals also.

Vick Returns to PETA for Basic Course

On September 18, 2007, Vick returned to PETA to take the "Developing Empathy for Animals" course, a one-day seminar including who animals are, alternatives to cruelty, animal protection philosophy, and humane lesson plans. PETA has now made the course available online, in the hope that it will be adopted by the NFL for all players to take and used as a means to teach children across the nation the values of empathy, compassion, and nonviolence.

Continuing to Stop Violence

Although the Vick story served as the first glimpse for many people into the gory details of dogfighting, the abuses detailed in Vick's indictment are as widespread as they are horrific. In the last year alone, PETA has responded to more than 14,000 calls and e-mails regarding other dogfighting and individual cruelty-to-animals cases. The crucial step now is to urge policymakers and law enforcement officers to treat all cases of dogfighting and cruelty to animals the same way that they prosecuted Vick's high-profile case. To that end, please join PETA and ask the NFL to require all its players, some of whom have been involved in a series of cruelty-to-animals cases, to attend PETA's "Developing Empathy for Animals" course.

Clinton Cackle Annoying This Four Year Old Kid - No Kidding

I saw this over at the blog Wonkette :

BY SEANIBUS AT 10/01/07 07:30 PM
I just played Slate's recording of the laugh and my four year old came tearing over to my desk and said "Please don't play that Ha Ha Ha thing again, daddy. It is annoying me."
I am not making this up.

Hillary Clinton - Clinton Cackle? - Cackle Can Lose Elections



Barack Obama does not cackle, he's too presidential for that.

Ron Dellums Endorses Sen. Clinton - After The Mayor Gets A Bone From Her



Mayor Ron Dellums made the massive error of backing Senator Hillary Clinton in the Presidential race, a sure sign that Barack Obama will win the nomination.

Of course, this didn't come as just a simple endorsement -- it came as yet another Clinton deal. In this case, Hillary placed Mayor Ron Dellums in some role in her campaign.

How many times she's done this in some form makes one dizzy. But what's really wild is that Dellums would back someone who's flipped-flopped on so many issues and supported the Iraq War that it's not funny.

Plus, Dellums apparently can't bring himself to back a young Black Senator named Barack Obama. It's funny with some older African Americans in Oakland. They're so afraid of anyone Black who can be in charge that they'd back someone White. I'm serious about this, and would not write it if it were not true.

The real mental slaves are those who say to me -- who are Black -- that Barack can't win because he's Black. I tell each person that they're afraid of Black success. They're not comfortable. They're also some of the same people who gave me problems when I worked to bring the Super Bowl to Oakland.

Former Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb said it best to me in 1999: "Oakland is a crab-barrel city. You (speaking to me). You're young. Black. Smart. You're a threat."

I guess the same could be said for Barack Obama, which makes me fight harder all the more for him. Dellums will wind up on the wrong end of this race, because we're going to win.

But the message Dellums is sending is one I find terrible. It says the endorsement Oakland's African American leaders can be bought and that's a terrible sign. I say to anyone young and Black, pay this no mind, and continue to back Barack Obama.

Dellums Endorses Clinton - After The Mayor Gets A Bone From Her

Mayor Ron Dellums made the massive error of backing Senator Hillary Clinton in the Presidential race, a sure sign that Barack Obama will win the nomination.

Of course, this didn't come as just a simple endorsement -- it came as yet another Clinton deal. In this case, Hillary placed Mayor Ron Dellums in some role in her campaign.

How many times she's done this in some form makes one dizzy. But what's really wild is that Dellums would back someone who's flipped-flopped on so many issues and supported the Iraq War that it's not funny.

Plus, Dellums apparently can't bring himself to back a young Black Senator named Barack Obama. It's funny with some older African Americans in Oakland. They're so afraid of anyone Black who can be in charge that they'd back someone White. I'm serious about this, and would not write it if it were not true.

The real mental slaves are those who say to me -- who are Black -- that Barack can't win because he's Black. I tell each person that they're afraid of Black success. They're not comfortable. They're also some of the same people who gave me problems when I worked to bring the Super Bowl to Oakland.

Former Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb said it best to me in 1999: "Oakland is a crab-barrel city. You (speaking to me). You're young. Black. Smart. You're a threat."

I guess the same could be said for Barack Obama, which makes me fight harder all the more for him. Dellums will wind up on the wrong end of this race, because we're going to win.

But the message Dellums is sending is one I find terrible. It says the endorsement Oakland's African American leaders can be bought and that's a terrible sign. I say to anyone young and Black, pay this no mind, and continue to back Barack Obama.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Betsy Morgan - CBSNews.com Head Now CEO Of Huffington Post - NY Times



Besty Morgan at the Webby's -- From Flickr.com


Betsy Morgan
Originally uploaded by jdlasica
As New Media advances and overtakes Old Media, more and more executives are making the transition, thanks to well-financed efforts like The Huffington Post.

In this case, the Huff Post -- a blog site that's a amalgam of articles with commentary, and of which this writer is a contributor -- has brought on Betsy Morgan .

Morgan says, "This is a tremendous opportunity to work with Arianna and Ken. In less than three years, The Huffington Post has distinguished itself as a major player in interactive news. HuffPost's range of contributors is extraordinary, its breadth of coverage expansive, and its network of online communities unparalleled. I look forward to helping steer the site toward even greater heights."

Earlier this year, Morgan said that CBS needed to figure out how to get bloggers onto the site, whom she calls "microjournalists." Now, she will be in the middle of a blogger-laden company.

Ms. Morgan joins The Huffington Post from CBS Interactive, where she was in charge of the network's 24-hour on-demand news service. Under Ms. Morgan's leadership, CBSNews.com has been an industry-leading provider of advertiser-supported free video across the web and wireless platforms. CBSNews.com has been recognized with several prestigious industry awards.

Before joining CBS Interactive, Ms. Morgan was a Vice President of CBS News in charge of business development, digital media and new television ventures. She began her career at CBS as the Head of the CBS Television Network's Strategic Management Group working in the Office of the Chairman and CEO of CBS. She has also worked for News Corporation's American Sky Broadcasting and before that started her career in investment banking. Ms. Morgan has a BA in political science and economics from Colby College and a MBA from Harvard Business School.

Monday, October 01, 2007

Barack Obama Rally and Hillary Clinton Rally In Oakland



Sunday September 30th 2007 was a day that featured an event I seriously doubt will ever be replayed in my lifetime, or yours. On a day where Senator and Presidential Candidate Hilliary Clinton was expected to be the host of a rally in Downtown Oakland, California, local and state organizers with the Obama for America campaign held a rally of their own to open the new Northern California field office. An office located not just in Downtown Oakland, but only two blocks from where Senator Clinton was to speak.

The Obama people blocked off a one-block stretch of land between 14th and Broadway and 14th and Franklin, and erected a stage for bands, then opened the doors of their new Oakland home at 436 14th Street, Suite 305.

For a time, it seemed as if there were more Obama supporters than Clinton supporters, and that was because there were. As time went on, many of the estimated 5,000 people that came to hear Senator Clinton seemed to be causal attendees.

Each one of which was greeted by the smiles and waving signs of Obama supporters. It was a total circus that was a peaceful, fun Democratic Party fest, where everyone was actually quite happy to see the friendly competition for attention – from people and the media.

What this says about politics today is simple: people are energized and will turn out to vote in large numbers. What's striking about today's event was how excited people were to be involved and to debate and talk about issues. In the video that comes with this, the opinions expressed are not of the minority. There was no one unhappy with the proceedings, there were no fights of any note, and you'd have to be a proctologist to find any.

This is certainly the most exciting Presidential race I've seen, and it's good for the City of Oakland to have another day in the spotlight during this contest. Moreover, it showed the best of the Obama campaign in how they conducted themselves, as they outnumbered the Clinton die-hards and could have been rude and nasty, but were anything but.

At the end of the video, a Clinton volunteer said she wanted to see both Obama and Clinton on the ticket. I agree. I think everyone wants to see that, judging from today's events.