Four Ravens fined for improper conduct relating to officials

The numerous fines are unjust and uncalled for.

National Football League

Four Baltimore Ravens players have been fined for violating league rules prohibiting the abuse of game officials, the NFL announced Friday.

Bart Scott was fined $25,000 for verbally abusing game officials and throwing an official’s flag into the stands during last Monday night’s Baltimore-New England game.

Samari Rolle, Chris McAlister, and Derrick Mason were fined $15,000 each for publicly questioning the integrity of the officiating in last Monday night’s game.

“This is about the importance of sportsmanship and respecting the integrity of our game,” said NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations Ray Anderson. “We do not tolerate inappropriate conduct between teams and game officials. This includes reminding game officials that they are to conduct themselves at all times as professionals in their dealings with players, coaches, and other club personnel.”

Anderson went to Baltimore this week to speak directly with Scott and Rolle before issuing the fines Friday.

“Last Monday night’s game was well officiated,” Anderson said, “and it is the obligation of both players and coaches to maintain proper respect for game officials at all times.”

In addition to prohibiting physical contact with game officials, league rules also bar team personnel from verbal or other non-physical abuse of officials and from public criticism of their integrity.

"As I said earlier this week, our actions were not appropriate near the end of our game against the Patriots," said Ravens coach Brian Billick in a statement. "We, our players and coaches, understand and accept the fines levied by Commissioner Goodell. We believe in the integrity of NFL officials and don't believe they, in any way, favored the Patriots with their calls.

"As a team, we've discussed a number of times about not speaking publicly about any unhappiness we have with the officials. As emotional as the end of Monday's game was, I should have reminded the players of that in our post-game meeting. That's my mistake. We do appreciate the extra step taken by the Commissioner's Office when Ray Anderson came here yesterday to talk with some of our players."

Barack Obama Wins Kansas Straw Poll - Obama Rising

Barack Obama seems to be peaking right at the time an eventual front-runner in Presidential races does.

From LJ World.com

Topeka — U.S. Sen. Barack Obama won the Kansas Democratic Party email straw poll, party officials announced today.

Obama tallied 692 votes out of 1,904 votes cast for 36.3 percent. The poll was held this week and ended last night.

Second place went to U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton with 504 votes, or 26.5 percent. Former senator John Edwards had 355 votes or 18.6 percent.

After Edwards came U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, 6.8 percent; U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, 6 percent; New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, 4.7 percent; U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, 0.7 percent and former U.S. Sen. Mike Gravel, 0.3 percent.

The state Democratic Party plans to have its party caucuses on Feb. 5.

Iowan Garry Thomas Switches From Clinton To Obama, Then Tells The World

Going public and getting picked up by The Wash Post hurts Clinton's campaign, for sure.

Garry Thomas counted himself a Hillary Clinton supporter -- even signing up to be one of her 25 co-chairs in Iowa alongside with former Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack.

But Thomas now says he felt obliged to switch sides in recent weeks. "I think the Clinton campaign went negative," Thomas said in a telephone interview on Thursday. He attributed his defection to the new tone Clinton took last weekend, describing it as divisive. Obama officials said Thomas committed to them this week.

Clinton officials said they lost touch with Thomas in October, and are skeptical of his claim that he left them because of her tone (she did not launch her offensive until this past Sunday).

But either way, Thomas is now with Sen. Barack Obama, putting him on a growing list of Iowans who have switched from one candidate to another heading toward the caucuses. ... More.

Microsoft's Santa Has A Dirty Mouth!

This is too funny!

Turns out Santa himself is naughty and nice.

An artificial-intelligence Santa bot operated by Microsoft to talk to children wavered off topic saying: “It’s fun to talk about oral sex, but I want to chat about something else....”

Microsoft Tuesday confirmed the bot’s potty mouth and snipped Santa’s Web connection.

Read the rest, here.

Shootin Lucy | Punk Rock Band | Stork Club Oakland

This is a music video shot impromptu at a place called The Stork Club on 2330 Telegraph Ave. I just happened to have my camera and they were cool with it. Here's the result!

Keith Olbermann Picks Lou Dobbs "Worst Person In The World" For Immigration Rants - Video

This is simply one of the most "spot-on" monologues I've ever seen MSNBC's Keith Olbermann do. He gets after CNN's Lou Dobbs for Dobbs' really terrible and just plain racist rants about immigration. Check this out:

Donald Trump Leaves $10,000 Tip!

Yep. That's right! According to Derober, A Santa Monica-based Buffalo Club waiter who had a "tough month" got a nice gift from Donald Trump, a $10,000 tip!