Saturday, October 14, 2006

Oakland Raiders Suspend WR Jerry Porter For Four Games - ESPN



This isn't an Art Shell move, it's an Al Davis move and it stinks. More on this later.

Raiders' Porter suspended four games
ESPN.com news services

ALAMEDA, Calif. -- The Oakland Raiders suspended disgruntled wide receiver Jerry Porter for four games without pay Saturday for conduct detrimental to the team.

Porter, when contacted by ESPN for a response, offered a "no comment."

The suspension, which will likely be appealed by the union, would cost Porter slightly over $235,000 in salary. Sources said Porter was informed of the decision on Friday.

Porter, Oakland's leading receiver a year ago, was inactive for the first four games of the season after clashing with new coach Art Shell and making public a trade demand at the start of training camp. The Raiders granted Porter and his agent, Joel Segal, permission to seek a trade.

"It's crazy," Porter said of his situation earlier this week. "I pretty much stay quiet and do what I'm asked. What am I supposed to do? I'm playing the cards the way they're dealt to me."

The Raiders were traveling to Denver on Saturday for Sunday night's game against the Broncos and unavailable for comment on the decision to suspend Porter.

Porter has been working with the scout team in practice, falling behind unheralded receivers Alvis Whitted and Johnnie Morant on the depth chart as Oakland opened the season 0-4. Whitted, who took Porter's spot in the starting lineup, has six catches for 70 yards, while Morant has no catches as the team's fourth receiver.

Porter has been on the sideline during the four losses to open the season, often seen joking around while the Raiders have struggled on offense without him.

Some players have questioned the decision to sit Porter while the team has struggled mightily on offense, but Shell has stuck to the decision. Shell has refused to elaborate on why Porter has been inactive.

"He's working. It's not that he's not working," Shell said earlier this week. "I've never said he hasn't worked. He's doing what he's asked to do and you can't ask for anything more than that."

Porter, in the second year of a five-year contract worth $20 million, had been hoping to be dealt before Tuesday's trade deadline.

Porter led the Raiders with 76 catches last season and had 942 yards receiving and five touchdown receptions in 2005.

Porter, a second-round pick out of West Virginia in 2000, has 239 catches for 3,215 yards and 24 touchdowns in six seasons with the Raiders. He has never reached 1,000 yards receiving in a season, missing the mark narrowly with 998 yards in 2004 and 942 last season.

Porter will be eligible to return from the suspension Nov. 12 when the Raiders host the Broncos.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this repo

Michelle Malkin's YouTube Video Banned By Community; She Cries About It



Michelle Malkin's a conservative columnist who I've always believed just became Republican to snag a white guy, and turned her initially personal scheme into this rather intense effort to make herself into a celebrity. She's succeeded.

(Now before you get after me, I'm going to explain that in my experience most of the time a woman said they're "Republican" it was followed by the person's expressed interest in someone white and male. Now there are exceptions to this, and I a good woman friend of mine is one of them, but she's almost the exception to the rule. I'm not writing that people who make the choice of party always do so for romantic reasons, but it's a factor. Now if you're a black single guy and Republican, does it mean you want to meet white chicks? I would say so, because you're certainly going to meet a lot of them. Plus, since being a minority of any kind hasn't been attractive to Republicans, why would anyone black, Asian or any other minority be so interested in the G.O.P. except... In Michelle's case, she's married, so I'll bet her choice of party came before her selection of mate.)

Now, she's gone a bit too far with her move into the vlogsphere using YouTube. A recent video she posted was banned. Now poor Michelle Malkin's pissed because she thinks the YouTube exec did it, when the community of users was responsible.

I think what Michelle Malkin's missing is that YouTubers generally don't like videos that express hate for a group of people, even if it's under the heading of "anti-terrorism." It's why this video Michelle Malkin hosts below wasn't flagged; it doesn't go as far as the first one.

Michelle Malkin, you're learning. It will take time, but you'll get the message.

Here's her rant: