Friday, August 19, 2011

Oakland Is MTC's Home And Should Stay That Way

As the San Francisco Bay Area talks about the economy, jobs, and spending, or more to the point wasteful spending, here we have the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the MTC, in the Oakland office that's just a brisk 70-foot walk from Lake Merritt BART, moving out of that cool building on 8th and Oak Street, and spending, according to Oakland Local , $150 Million to build a new place - in San Francisco. Oh, and a place that's so far from BART, compared to its current home, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission might as well change its name to the Boonies Transportation Commission. What does the MTC have against Oakland? Drive-by shootings and robberies happen in San Francisco, too. You just don't read about them because the local media's brainwashed against reporting them. There is much to like about Oakland, not to mention the fact its more racially diverse than San Francisco, and finally has a decent set of restaurants and bars to frequent. All of this, and more, including three sports teams, where San Francisco, technically, has one, and the MTC wants to leave Oakland. Please, save the $150 Million for a more worthy objective than something so self-centered as this one. Stay tuned.

Jersey Shore: Season 4 Episode 3





Last night was Jersday.

Mike wants a threesome with two blonde twins, but Deena stole one of the girls, then Vinny stole her and then Deena stole her back, but then Deena realized she's straight and she let the girl go back to Deena's bed.


Deena did almost hook up with a good looking Italian "lean cuisine," but the guys in the house were being jerks about it.

Situation and Snooki hooking up came to light, and Snooki denies it.


Snooki tells Ronnie that it's not the same without him and Sammi together and that they're meant to be. So he takes Sammi to a roof top beautiful romantic restaurant and the two get back together...yes, Ronnie and Sammi are dating again. This is the start of a lot of drama. Vinny even talks about how their relationship makes HIM want to kill himself:





Mike's twins are stalkers, they call call call and when Mike never answers Ronnie pretends to be Mike and brings them over.



Pigeons in Florence are crazy, because they just randomly attack inside the home even.

Pauly and Vinny played a lot of foosball.

Some things and Other Things-the Preseason#1 edition


By Dr. Bill Chahckes-Executive Editor-Football Reporters Online

Well it’s been awhile since we’ve written, so with the lockout firmly in the rear view mirror and pre-season well underway, here are some things to think about during a thunderstorm soaked northeastern U.S weekend.

Just when it seems Mike Vick’s issues are behind him, there he goes running his mouth again. His commenting on the Eagles being his third choice of team to mount his comeback from incarceration may or may not have any long term effect on his overall rising status as the “it” guy at QB in 2011, but it the short term, it has to have a few fans annoyed to say the least. Seems to me that Andy Reid and Joe Banner weren’t thinking too clearly when they went all “NY Yankees” in the shortened Free Agency period. Lots of personality there at the “linc”, maybe too much?

Speaking of the Eagles Free agent moves, WR Steve Smith didn’t waste any time cutting the cord with his former teammates and fans after signing his new contract to move down I-95. While he was very apologetic on his facebook page, he released a statement late last week clearly stating that the “NYG’s are now my enemies.” He also states that Giants head coach Tom Coughlin felt he had a “long way to go” but the doctors from both teams cleared him to begin preparing to play. Let’s see how much of that new contract he’ll earn before he re-injures himself. Not that I didn’t like Steve as a person, and I still do, once you get past the “Front” that this business makes players put up. I just think there are lots of stories out there about what happened with those contract discussions, and unless Steve or his agent decides to tell us directly, we’ll never know. Forget the posturing you heard on NY sports radio, there is a deeper truth here.

The new CBA and the landscape of free agency in the league has had a trickle down effect to other pro leagues, with the UFL contracting to four teams from five recently. It’s quite sad, because we’ll miss the Hartford Colonials franchise, staff, and players. While several of the Hartford players were selected in a “re-allocation” draft, players like Andre Dixon and Colt Brennan were left out to dry. We feel for them and wish them luck. Many have said that the NFL needs a developmental league similar to what they did with NFL Europe and the UFL would be a perfect fit.
To me, more pro football is good for the game and it’s fans.

The NFL Supplemental Draft was rescheduled for this coming Monday, August 22nd. Clearly the only storyline here that means anything to anyone is “where will Terrelle Pryor play in the NFL?” The NFL decided that Pryor will have to sit out five games, just as if he had returned to Ohio State to play his final season of college football. There are several dissenting opinions here, and we discussed it a bit on last night’s “FRO” show on Blogtalk Radio. Matt Marino is of the belief that what Pryor did in college should not have an impact on his pro career, but I believe Mr. Goodell and company needed to send the message out that ”college players who run afoul of the rules will not use the NFL as an escape hatch.” Still some NFLPA player reps have trouble agreeing on this methodology of punishment. If anyone remembers the actor Robert Blake from the 70’s hit TV show “BARETTA,” he had an opening line in the theme song “don’t do the crime if ya can’t do the time.” While most athletes beg for a chance to show they have the ability to play at the professional level, some guys from big time programs continue to live a life of supposed entitlement. Maybe they wouldn’t need to sell Jerseys for meal money if the NCAA gave them a stipend to live on each month. To me, Andrew Luck is starting to look even smarter then he is every day! For every “Ham” Newton, Matt Stafford and Sam Bradford out there, there are just as many Mike Barnard’s, Josh Harrison’s, and Mike Montoya’s who are waiting for their shot at the brass ring.

Let’s face it: while we love the game, the life expectancy of “Football Athletes “ is shortened by as much as 25 years due to numerous health issues from playing, from damaged joints, to traumatic Spine and Brain injuries. While the NFL is waking up to this cold hard fact, the players association keeps tweeting about how much money per active player goes into the health benefits program. (Nolan Harrison get over yourself please! The only person you making happy aside from yourself is Al Davis) But it’s a fraction of what is needed for the pre-1993 players. Lawsuits will continue to be filed, like the one involving Jim McMahon this week. The NCAA & the NFL are making an oil tanker full of money. Accept the fact that, yes, the players should know the risks, but no, no one bothered to tell them what those were. John Mackey passed away recently. We believe he died for the cause. Kudos should go out to the “Veteran Players” who support the retired players movement like Tony Gonzalez. They know they are only one step away from being in the same boat as Earl Campbell, Conrad Dolbler, and Brent Boyd.