"Janitor Jack" Spills The Beans in The April Vanity Fair

Wow. I've got to get a copy of the April Vanity Fair. Jack Abrimoff's ratting on everyone in the GOP, according to Arriana Huffington.

Another "Tapestry" Episode Tonight

Without going into length or detail, I'll explain that I went out to work at this cafe and in the process of getting dressed after my gym visit Saturday, realized I was wearing basically the same combination of clothes I had on when I went to that party I blogged about.

I thought, I'd I run into the people from that party.

Well, I did. All the ones I wrote about.

There was one person I sent the link to the blog to, and I did it in part because I knew he'd pass the information on one way or another. He played true to form, and I know this without physical evidence, just my hyper-sensitive feelings.

Part of me feels good this happened-- very good -- the other part of me is puzzled why this weird combination of interwined events and people keeps happening each day. I mean, Wednesday I meet a person -- the African American woman who seemed just plain not interested in meeting the only other black man in a group of people we both knew -- who's at the event I attend the next day , and who knows other people that I know through different people. But all in the same room.

There's also some reason for the occurence of actions that cause me to know more about some people than I really wish to know.

There's some reason for it. This "tapestry" event happens and lasts sometimes for days, or with breaks, or in 2004 it was 60 unbroken days long. 60 days where I met someone one day who knew someone I knew and that person came up in conversation and then I saw that person or the person we were talking about the very next day in another setting where I didn't plan to see them, and with yet another person I knew that they didn't know I was acquainted with.

60 straight days.

But for the first time I think I may be aware of how to get at the reason. I will have to pray more to get it, but I feel I know that some message is being sent to me. Either from my late father and stepfather and God -- something.

I think what gets me is that after years on Earth of really doing a lot of interesting things, there's this spritual push that is telling those who would cause me to feel "invisible" that I'm here.

But also it's a push that says "These folks may not be the people who will be friends to you." It goes with the overall lesson I've gained since the death of my father and stepfather last year. It's this:

There are two kinds of people: the ones you want to be your friends, and those who really are your friends. Sometimes, the people who are your friends may not look the way you want them to, or have this or that, but they do possess kind hearts and are there for you. That's what matters the most.

Cherish them.

This is something my mother has been trying to tell me as well. I hear it loud and clear.

Three Kinds of Macs At The Same Time

I'm working here at a San Francisco cafe called The Grove -- on Filmore Street -- and I was sharing a big table with two nice women (students at the Academy of Art College) who happened to have Macs, like mine. Only one was 17-inches and the other 15-inches. Mine's 12-inches.

The place is dimly lighted, so the site of three backlit Apple logos was strangely interesting to those who walked in. It would have made a great commercial.

Former Bush Aide Accused of Scamming Retailer....I Hope It's Not True

You wonder if he was actually doing this or set up. It doens't make sense that a top Bush aide would do this, but maybe he wasn't making enough money. Or, perhaps he was spending too much of it. It's too bad in that he's also black, and regardless of party, I root for anyone who's able to score a good occupation.

Colorado Representative Writes Racist E-Mail Assailing "Welfafe Pampered Blacks" Suffering From Katrina

Boy, this guy -- Rep. Jim Welker, a Republican -- really put his foot in it. According to the Rocky Mountain News of Colorado, He wrote a racist email that (I think) he felt was justified because it was based on an article that was insulting toward African American, yet written by a black minister.

Hey, Rep., there are a lot of blacks who hate themselves for being, well, black. It's a kind of sickness; check out what Bell Hooks said.

My guess is Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, the black minister who wrote the crap you're about to see and who's pictured here, has that problem. But it doesn't make it OK for someone else to pass on his garbage.

Still, it happens.

The increasingly and wonderfully complex society that is America shines through in this story, however, because someone else white exposed the World to Welker's email.

Well, read on for yourself:

Rep. Welker cites his 'poor judgment' in forwarding essay

By Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News
March 10, 2006

A Loveland lawmaker has been blasted by his colleagues for e-mailing an essay written by someone else that accused "welfare-pampered blacks" of waiting for the government to save them from Hurricane Katrina.
Rep. Jim Welker, a Republican, said Thursday morning that he forwarded the article because of its message about society victimizing people by making them dependent on government programs.

He said he didn't agree with everything in the essay.

One passage says, "President Bush is not to blame for the rampant immorality of blacks."

House lawmakers - black and white, Republican and Democrat - expressed outrage that Welker would forward such an essay.

Rep. Debbie Stafford, R-Aurora, who worked with Katrina evacuees when they came to Colorado, said she was "appalled and sickened."

"These (were) poor people. Many of them were senior citizens and had no way to escape the hurricane," said Stafford, who is white.

Rep. Terrence Carroll, D-Denver, called it "one one of the most irresponsible e-mails someone in this chamber has sent out."

"It shows (Welker's) complete and utter disregard, at worst, and the misunderstanding, at best, of the lives of people of color," said Carroll, who is black.

After the uproar, Welker issued the following statement late in the afternoon:

"Forwarding this e-mail, particularly without comment, showed poor judgment on my part. I found the opinions expressed by this individual, especially if taken literally, to be offensive and inappropriate. I should not have assumed that this would be clear when received by others."

He earlier said he should have put a disclaimer on the e-mail, and will do so in future e-mails of other writers' material.

Welker said he forwarded the e-mail over the weekend on his own computer.

But Democratic lawmakers have asked the legislature's technical staff to determine why copies of the e-mails forwarded to them by people who were upset with the content bear a time stamp of Monday afternoon, when Welker was in a committee hearing with his laptop computer.

Welker, who is white, said he wasn't implying anything about blacks by forwarding the essay.

"Some of my best friends are of different skin color, like Ed Jones," said Welker, referring to Sen. Jones, a Colorado Springs Republican who is black.

Jones said that he and Welker are friends, but not best friends.

Jones said it was wrong for the author to accuse New Orleans blacks of being immoral, but he agreed with Peterson that there is a problem in New Orleans with generational welfare.

Essay author Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, who is black, is praised on one Web site for taking on the NAACP, a "tool of the largely 'elite, socialist' Democratic Party."

Carroll said Peterson has "made his whole career shilling for the hard right."

Welker last year took heat from his own caucus for saying he feared that if gays were allowed to marry, then people might eventually marry their animals. Republicans said they were embarrassed by his comments.

On blacks, Katrina

Excerpts from an essay by the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson posted Sept. 21, 2005, on WorldNetDaily.com:

- "Say a hurricane is about to destroy the city you live in. What would you do?

If you're black . . . you'll probably wait for the government to save you."

- "When 75 percent of New Orleans residents had left the city, it was primarily immoral, welfare-pampered blacks that stayed behind and waited for the government to bail them out."

- "About five years ago, in a debate before the National Association of Black Journalists, I stated that if whites were to just leave the United States and let blacks run the country, they would turn America into a ghetto within 10 years. (But) I gave blacks too much credit. It took a mere three days for blacks to turn the Superdome and the convention center into ghettos, rampant with theft, rape and murder."

- "Had New Orleans' black community taken action, most would have been out of harm's way. But most were too lazy, immoral and trifling to do anything productive for themselves."

- "Blacks are obligated to help themselves and not depend on the government to care for them. We are all obligated to tell them so."

- The Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson is a conservative black evangelical minister from Los Angeles and host of a nationally syndicated radio show.

The New Community Centers: The Gym and The Farmers Market

On this lovely Saturday, I went to the great Lake Merrtt Farmers Market on Grand Avenue, then put my food in the car and went to Gold's Gym for a good, long workout.

I like people. What I most enjoy about meeting others is they're a window to another world. A different way of seeing, heck, just by the fact that they occupy different places in space than I do. But that's not what this is about.

I see so many people I know at both places that for me the market and the gym are community centers. Then, I overheard two women talking:

Tall Black Woman: "Do you work out at Club One, still?"
Short White Woman: "Not as much; say, there's something I need to ask you."

And I realized that the same is true for other people too. In an Internet world, it's great to still have places where you can meet people: the market, the gym, and the cafe and bar too.

Don't forget the bar!

The Hypocracy of Sexual Relations in San Francisco -- Or At Least The Marina District

I'm writing this having just arrived from a weird fund-raiser in the Marina District. Well, I came from having coffee and talking at The Balboa Cafe after attending the event nearby on Broadway.

I was invited by a woman I met at Bix about two months ago, and with her friend, who was also at the party. As it turns out both know folks I know who were also there. Plus there was a black woman I just met the night before at the Balboa, but who seems to have some problem with talking to any other black person in a mostly-white audience. I experienced this the night before, as she and I were sitting with another group of people, but had never met before. At the Balboa this seemingly nice woman got drunk and told off some guy who was uneventfully talking to her other women friends -- and did so with such anger she both revealed inner problems she had and nearly got tossed out of the bar.

So, to my surprise, I saw her the next day -- today -- at this event.

What got me about the entire night was how -- once again -- I'm made to feel like some alien amoung white women who don't want black guys (and in this case a black woman who had obvously terrible problems that led to anxieties about black men). These women have certain ways they communicate this, and that's fine with me, but it also is tiresome.

It hit home with me when the person who invited me made a comment that I should be able to see some mark on a man's lower chin after kissing him.

Hey, I'm totally straight and love women. But it's one of those weird signals a white woman who's not interested in black men will send to a black man. (Most black men try to ignore this, but there's this caste system in place I'm totally tired of. I told her "I'm straight. What are you talking about?")

As the evening progressed, her friend who likes her cocktails had a few and got what she normally gets -- horny for someone white regardless of age. (I've seen it before.) This led her to basically have some form of boring "hidden" sex at the bar of the host who owned the place and with the host -- a nice upper-middle aged and pauchy Caucasian fellow who complained earlier of not being able to meet anyone -- in full view of everyone else.

What cracked me up was how her other friends were both upset and yet pretending like they didn't know what was going on -- except me. I pointed it out, and asked if they were using a condom. Moreover, I wasn't even aroused. Why? My enormous ego, which said "If that chick's going to go for someone who's not as good-looking and nice as me, no way am I gonna want her."

Aside from that, was going through my mind was this: she's way, way drunk and not only letting this happen, but her friends are too. So what happens when everyone's sober? Why the act of blindness? I didn't get it.

As for why I wasn't agressive? Simple. Given that she was drunk, I'm not going to be tricked or teased into an action that could get me in trouble later.

Patriots cut LB McGinest after 12 seasons

NFL.com wire reports

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (March 9, 2006) -- The New England Patriots released linebacker Willie McGinest in a salary-cap move, ending a 12-year relationship with the NFL's all-time postseason sack leader.

The release of the two-time Pro Bowler was announced March 9, the day after the NFL owners voted 30-2 at their meeting in Grapevine, Texas, to extend the collective bargaining agreement with the players for six more years, resulting in a new salary cap figure of $102 million.

The 34-year-old McGinest carried a salary cap figure of more than $7 million for next season. The veteran linebacker is now a free agent and can sign with any team, including New England.

NFL Adopts "Baseball Style" Revenue Sharing Adjustment - Observation

The new NFL CBA includes and adjustment where the richest revenue teams place a portion of their revenues into a pool which is then used by the smaller revenue organizations. This is very much like the system in the current Major League Baseball Collective Bargaining Agreement, but the percentage of the top-tier-teams revenue gotten is not as great.

Commissioner Tagliabue Press Conference, Special League Meeting, Dallas Texas, March 8, 2006

This from NFL Media.com today

Commissioner Tagliabue:

We just concluded two long days of meetings. Last night we went until about 1 a.m., and this morning we started around 7 a.m. and finished at about 6:59 and 59 seconds before the 7 p.m. deadline. The membership approved the Collective Bargaining Agreement and accepted the offer of the Players Association for the six-year extension of the Collective
Bargaining Agreement by a vote of 30 in favor and two voting against.

It was really a tremendous effort by owners across the entire spectrum of the league, no matter how you define the spectrum – whether it's in terms of longevity, whether it's in terms of big-market, small-market or high-revenue, low-revenue. Everyone came together after these two full days of discussions and reached a consensus not only on the Collective Bargaining Agreement, but on some major new revenue-sharing features to support the ability of all teams to function well under the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The consensus was forged really by all 32, but nine teams worked this afternoon to take two different concepts that had evolved over the last two days and meld it into one concept. The first concept had been developed in the last two days by the New York Jets and the New England Patriots, Woody Johnson and Jonathan Kraft. The second concept had been developed by the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens, particularly Art Rooney and Ravens President Dick Cass. Then over the luncheon hour, three other owners spoke with me about a concept for putting together the two proposals, the two
different sets of ideas, and a process to take the Jets-Patriots concept and the Ravens-Steelers concept and blend it into one.

Those three owners were John Mara, Jerry Richardson and Pat Bowlen. Then when we resumed this afternoon, all of those owners plus Jerry Jones and Arthur Blank played a critical role. We ended up with one single resolution that brought all of the different ideas together. It was sponsored by the nine teams that I just mentioned: Giants, Steelers, Patriots, Ravens, Falcons, Panthers, Broncos, Jets and Cowboys. And that's what we presented to the membership and explained it. Once it was all explained, we had the vote and it was adopted without any changes. The blending of the two proposals into one, which was developed this afternoon between 3:15 and 6 p.m., was accepted on the basis that it was presented and developed by those nine teams. In addition to Art Rooney, Dan Rooney was involved in that process. In addition to Arthur Blank, Rich McKay was involved in that process, plus all the owners I've already mentioned. I'll be glad to take questions.

Q: Can you discuss the new revenue sharing agreement?

PT: The revenue sharing basically is a commitment of almost $500 million over the first four years of the deal and then several hundred million additional dollars over the last two years of the deal. I think the total amount over the life of the deal gets to over $850 or $900 million of incremental revenue sharing to be funded in some significant degree by the high-revenue clubs. "High-revenue" includes the top five, the next group, six through 10, and to a lesser degree the clubs who rank 11 through 15. All of those clubs in differing proportions ended up making the alliance or the commitment to fund the
revenue sharing.

Q: How will those funds be redistributed among the membership?

PT: The lower-revenue teams will draw from that fund. The overall concept was geared to the idea that when a team spends to the midpoint between the salary cap and cash over the cap on an average basis, to spend to that level a team should not have to spend more than a specified percentage of its own revenue. So there is an objective standard in there.

Q: What number, percentage-wise, is fair or equitable?

PT: The target in this concept was 65 percent maximum, as a percentage of your own revenues. Of course, the players are getting an unprecedented high level of total revenue, approaching 60 percent of the total.

Q: What will the salary cap be for the 2006 season?

PT: The salary cap for 2006 will $102 million and for 2007 be $109 million.

Q: When will the free agency period begin?

PT: Free agency is going to begin after a 48-hour hiatus, so that clubs can use the additional funding within this cap to re-sign players rather than release players, if that's the way they choose to proceed.

Q: Can you describe some of the other landmark changes that are included in this new CBA?

PT: There are several major features, a lot of major features. There is a significantly expanded post-career medical coverage for players. They already have five years postcareer. There is a healthcare-IRA-type element set aside that the players will get funded in proportion to the length of their career. It's quite a significant improvement in benefits.

The franchise player rules basically stay as they are with some minor tweaking. For the first time a player is tagged and the second time a player is tagged, then in the eventuality, which is very rare, that a player would be tagged a third time, the structure has been modified so as to virtually ensure that in the future there would not be any three time tags, that players and clubs would be able to work out multi-year agreements, including signing bonuses, either the first time a player was tagged or the second time a player was tagged.

Another change is that drafted players in rounds two through seven will have a maximum contract length of four years. Someclubs have been signing players to five and six-year contracts. That had become an issue with the Players Association in this negotiation relative to the concept of free agency after four years. We agreed there would be a maximum contract length of four years for players drafted in rounds two through seven. The first round can still be negotiated with longer deals.

Q: Any changes in terms of club disciplinary procedures and forfeiting signing bonus?

PT: Yes. There are also provisions in there that modify the ground rules in terms of forfeiture of signing bonuses. There are also a number of areas that the discipline provided at the league level for the most part becomes the exclusive form of discipline, whether its suspension or fines, such as with the drug program and with other areas. League discipline would become exclusive.

Q: Any changes in the amount of the rookie salary pool?

PT: No. We had a lot of discussions about the rookie pool, but in the end I don't think we've made any changes.

Q: On the discipline aspect, you're saying that what Philadelphia did to Terrell Owens could no longer be an option?

PT: I'm not saying that. I'm saying that in certain areas we've modified what teams can negotiate. In certain other areas, we agreed that league discipline would be exclusive and that individual club contracts would not be individually negotiated departures from the league disciplinary pattern. That would not be permitted.

Q: You've said all along that this would get done at the 11th hour and 59th minute. It almost sounds like it was orchestrated.

PT: Do you have another question? Harold Henderson heads our Management Council and he had been hearing me say for several years that this would get done at the 11th hour and 59th minute. Frequently over dinner he'd say, "11th hour and 59th minute before what?" And I would say, "I don't know. It's just going to be at the 11th hour and the 59th minute."

Then the other night on Sunday when we had the second break off of negotiations and we were able to talk to Gene Upshaw late at night that his proposal would be presented, I think we got it done after 11 p.m. Then Harold finally said to me, "Now I know what you mean when you talk about the 11th hour and the 59th minute. We're now at the 11th hour and the 24th minute." So I say, "Wait until we get to Dallas. If we have more than 60 seconds to spare, it will be a miracle." And that's the way it turned out.

Q: How important is this new agreement to game of football and the league?

PT: I think it is important. Time will tell how important it is, but it was certainly an opportunity to continue building what we've been building. I think it's great for the fans. I think the quality of the game is at a tremendous level. The spread of talent around the league, the ability of teams to become competitive relatively quickly and to do what Marvin Lewis has done and what other coaches have done, it's a great thing. This preserves all of that. It continues with the elements that we have with the Players Association on the shared cost of constructing new stadiums. It continues a lot of our initiatives, Youth Football and other areas. So I think it's a very positive thing for the fans and the league generally even though it's a stretch from a financial standpoint for many, many teams in terms of the cost.

Q: Does this agreement affect the G-3 funding program for new stadiums?

PT: There are some changes in the G-3 funding program, yes. Basically it's an improvement.

Q: Are debts of some of the high-revenue teams addressed in this agreement?

PT: Not in any way that I could explain right now. We didn't get to the point of micromanaging the way teams operate. We set targets in terms of what should be a reasonable target that a club would have to spend on players to be competitive relative to its own revenues. Once we had that target agreed to, then we did a calculation, or thousands of calculations. Once you translated that target and tried to figure out how it would play out over the next six seasons, the question was, "What is the resulting revenue-sharing obligation that had to be funded?"

And that is what we funded. But we didn't get into micromanaging what teams do in order to generate revenue or to
figure out how to net out the costs of stadium construction, except in some of the structural elements of the agreement. There is a concept of TFR, which takes account of stadium construction costs, there's a G-3 credit that takes account of that, but we didn't micromanage what teams do. We want to have the right incentives for teams at every level, the right support through the league and to give great incentives for low-revenue teams to pick their revenue up, be it through new stadiums or other things. But it's not micromanaging.

Q: Beforehand, you had thought that revenue sharing did not necessarily have to be a part of this deal, but it is now part of the package. Can you discuss that?

PT: I always thought it would be part of the package. That was always my expectation.

Q: How pleased are you that this is done?

PT: I'm pleased, and more than pleased, I'm relieved.
###

Dubai Ports World Proves Their Smart Business People - Sell Rights for Cash Now; Get More Cash Later

While Dems and Repubs are happy over the annouced deal that DPW was to give up stake in the operation of American Ports, I applaud their business intellect. They've gotten so much attention from this that their rights have skyrocketed in value. So selling was the right thing to do.

Bit of History - Byron Price (1891-1981)

(From The Dish List)

Born in Topeka, Indiana on March 25, 1891, Byron Price graduated from Topeka High School (1908). While his father, John Price, was a farmer, Bryon Price chose to be a reporter. As a student at Wabash College, Price worked as cub reporter for the Crawfordsville Journal and Review and Indianapolis Star and News. After earning his B.A. degree, he joined the United Press staff and worked as a reporter and editor for the Chicago and Omaha bureaus before joining the Associated Press (AP) staff in 1912.

With the AP, Price served as a day editor for the Atlanta Bureau, acting correspondent and bureau chief in New Orleans, before being transferred to Washington, D.C. During WWI, Price took a leave of absence from the AP and enlisted in the Army (1917). At the end of his service (1919), Price returned to AP's Washington Bureau; the following year, he married Priscilla
Alden.

In 1922, Price was promoted to news editor of the Washington Bureau and bureau chief in 1927. Ten years later, he became executive news editor, a position he held until December 16, 1941, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt tapped him to head the newly created Office of Censorship.

On January 15, 1942, Price's office issued the Code of Wartime Practices for the American Press. While the code had no built-in legal penalties, the media were urged to avoid printing information deemed national security interests or demoralizing, such as troop and ship movements and photographs of dead American soldiers.

Reporters continued to seek out their usual sources, and government departments and agencies still issued press releases, but each department had a list of things that could not be published. Price's voluntary self-censorship program worked well. With the single exception of a Chicago Tribune 1942 report of the battle of Midway, no code violation was considered severe enough to warrant prosecution under the Espionage Act. Thus, wartime reporting tended to run heavily toward human-interest stories.

Price's office employed 14,462 people between 1942 and 1945. Weekly, these civil servants read and censored a million pieces of mail. US soldiers, subject to censorship by officers, were prohibited from mentioning anything about the surrounding military situation when writing home. US soldiers' families were encouraged to write light, happy, non-specific letters. The Office of Censorship kept records of every telephone, mail and telegraph inquiry it received between mid-January 1942 and August 1945.

The Office of Censorship was closed down on August 14, 1945. Price received numerous awards for his work, including an honorary LL.D. degree (1943) from Wabash College, a special Pulitzer citation (1944) for the creation and administration of the newspaper and radio censorship codes from Columbia University, an honorary M.A. from Harvard University (1946) and the Medal for Merit (1946) presented by President Harry Truman. The American Society of Newspaper Editors and ten other associations of the press, radio and photographers awarded Price special commendatory citations in 1945 and 1946.

After closing the Office of Censorship, Price served as President Truman's representative to occupied Germany. Appointed vice president of the Motion Picture Association of America (1945), he became chairman of the board for the Association of Motion Picture Productions, president of the Central Casting Corporation, first vice president of the Educational Films Research Corporation, and director of the Hollywood Coordinating Committee (1946).

In 1947, Price became Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations for Administrative and Financial Affairs. The only American among eight assistant secretary-generals, he supervised arrangements for construction of the new UN building in New York City. Price died August 6, 1981, at his Hendersonville, N.C. home; Price was 90.

(Sources: www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWpriceB.htm, www.depauw.edu/library/archives/ijhof/inductees/priceb.htm,
http://uncpress.unc.edu/chapters/sweeney_secrets.html, and www.cameron.edu/~johnh/defpg2.html)