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.

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.

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.

''Fired Up, Ready To Go''

When glazing at a map of South Carolina most people would recognize the state capital of Columbia and the historic city of Charleston.

While both cities play integral parts in the race for the White House 2008, the small desolate county of Greenwood might carry the most importance as the state prepares for the January 29th Democratic primary.

This is the place where Presidential candidate Barack Obama first learned the chant ''Fired Up, Ready To Go'' by rambunctious council woman Edith Childs. During a speech he gave in front of twenty people at the local church several months ago, Ms. Childs belted out these five words and all of the residents responded in unison ''Fired Up, Ready To Go''.

Obama was unsure of how to respond to this upbeat and exuberant crowd so he replied by saying the same five words over and over again until he began to feel excited and essentially ''Fired Up''. As I discovered at his speech last Thursday at Washington Square Park, he utilizes this chant as a rally cry to bring all the people together and to get them behind one common cause.

As the Presidential scene heats up and Obama becomes even more prominent everybody will start to hear him echoing this sentiment. This is a terrific opportunity for him to distinguish himself with this one chant and gravitate all Americans to get up and make a difference.

Ron Paul, Bill O'Reilly, Politics, Blacks and Racism

This video spawned from the reactions I got from my first two videos on the subject of Ron Paul, Bill O'Reilly, Blacks and politics, as well as the "window" that was opened to another part of how society thinks.

Overall, I think it's very good to have a dialog on race as many of the improvements in American society and racial and sexual relations have come within the last 70 years, but many young adults active in politics now were born after the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and the Civil Rights Act before it. Thus, they lack a real tangible understanding of how America was and why these laws are on the books.

Congressman Ron Paul's presidential run has drawn many young people – many of whom lack an understanding that laws are in place to protect us from ourselves – or more to the point, each other. Thus, one person wrote to advocate dropping hate crime laws because they bought in to Ron Paul's expressed idea that to point out racism is racist – forgetting that Congressman Paul himself was recently recorded as pointing to an act that's racist.

But many Paul supporters got after me about asking a question about Paul's 1996 campaign newsletter and its racist statements for the CNN/ YouTube Republican Debates . I've not seen Congressman Paul address this question in the Presidential Race or in the debate of last week. As I state in both videos, I think it's time he did, and to denounce the support he gets from White Supremacist groups.

Some wrote comments that Paul's participation in the "African American hosted" debate moderated by Tavis Smiley was evidence of his lack of any racist thought. I disagree with this because Pau's a free marketier who seems to enjoy arguing with people (thus his appearance), but came away convinced that Paul could handle answering the question I posted for the CNN/ YouTube Debates. Indeed, a question that still remains unanswered.

I was also upset with that debate, as it placed the African American inferiority complex on display for a public audience. We see a debate where the Presidential candidates are thanked for attending and much time is spent chastising those who did not. In other words, thanks for remembering us Black Americans. Who cares if Giuliani, Thompson, Romney, and McCain didn't come? And why thanks the candidates who did come? Heck, they're supposed to be there in my view.

The other video that received a lot of views and controversy was my innocent video essay blasting Bill O'Reilly for his weird comments upon visiting Silvia's, an upscale Harlem soul food restaurant. O'Reilly said essentially that he was surprised to find the Black owners and patrons created a nice restaurant that was "like any other New York restaurant."

For Bill to make that statement in 2007, with the CEO of American Express being Black, and with other examples of Blacks who are running companies and cities, and restaurants, I was totally upset with Bill, and don't know what drove him to make statements like this.

Bill spent the entire week hammering CNN and other news outlets for hammering him on his statement. He enlisted the help of Fox News Contributor Juan Williams who was the voice on the other end of Bill in the now famous clip. Williams, who's Black, explained that O'Reilly had done nothing wrong at all and that they disagree all the time.

But Williams is a friend of O'Reilly and thus not really eligible to make comments as he's got a bias toward his friend. O'Reilly is not my friend or yours – we don't know him well enough to be comfortable with the "friendly racism" he expresses, nor should we. Williams is certainly a good friend, but he didn't get Bill off the hook in this case.

In closing, I'm happy we have an active dialog about race and racism, but I'm most displeased with the debate's display of African America's inferiority complex – it's something that must be eliminated and soon. We need to remove these mental chains and grow.

New England Patriots Sued For "Deceiving Customers"

Over at our NFL Business Blog, David Kaye reports that a fan is suing the New England Patriots for "deceiving customers" in the wake of their cheating scandal.

Barack Obama Ahead In Iowa - First With Likely Caucus Goers

Much to the apparent dismay of Politico's Ben Smith , who's downplaying the news, Senator Barack Obama's ahead in Iowa according to a poll of likely caucus-goers. It's a 4 point lead.

Jets ticket holder sues Patriots and coach Belichick, seeks damages of more than $184 million

By DENNIS WASZAK Jr., AP Sports Writer
September 28, 2007

NEW YORK (AP) -- A New York Jets season-ticket holder filed a class-action lawsuit Friday against the New England Patriots and coach Bill Belichick for "deceiving customers."

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., by Carl Mayer of Princeton Township, N.J., stems from the Patriots being caught illegally videotaping signals from Jets coaches in New England's 38-14 season-opening win Sept. 9.

"They violated the integrity of the game," Mayer's attorney, Bruce Afran, told The Associated Press. "This is a way of punishing Belichick and the Patriots."

Mayer is seeking more than $184 million in damages for Jets ticket holders.

Belichick was fined $500,000 by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, and the team was fined $250,000 for violating a league rule that prohibits clubs from using a video camera on the sidelines for any purpose -- including recording signals relayed to opposing players on the field. New England also must forfeit a first-round draft pick next year if it makes the playoffs or a second- and third-rounder if it doesn't.

"They were deceiving customers," said the 48-year-old Mayer.
"You can't deceive customers."

The lawsuit maintained that because other teams found illegal videotaping by the defendants, Jets ticket holders should be compensated for all games played in Giants Stadium between the Jets and Patriots since Belichick became head coach in 2000.

The two calculated that because customers paid $61.6 million to watch eight "fraudulent" games, they're entitled to triple that amount -- or $184.8 million -- in compensation under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act and the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act.

"How many times have the Patriots done this? We find it hard to believe they did it just once," Mayer said. "We just want to get to the truth of the matter of what the Patriots did to the Jets. I think the ticket holders are genuinely concerned about it. This is a type of misrepresentation."

Patriots spokesman Stacey James declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Mayer and Afran, who consider themselves public interest lawyers, have been thorns in the side of New Jersey politicians for years, filing lawsuits and demanding investigations to advance their grievances. They are well known in the state but generally have had little success in their causes.

Both have lost bids for elected offices, and Mayer once served as a presidential campaign adviser to Ralph Nader.

Their demand in March for a probe of Gov. Jon S. Corzine's gifts to a former girlfriend was rejected by a federal prosecutor. In 2006, a judge vetoed their effort to block Corzine's appointment of Rep. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., to fill the governor's seat in the U.S. Senate.

They also failed to get a court to order a special election to replace Gov. James E. McGreevey when he resigned in 2004.

Now, they're taking on the Patriots.

Their latest lawsuit asserted that the secret videotaping violated the contractual "expectations and rights" of Jets ticket holders "to observe an honest match played in compliance with all laws and regulations."

The actions of Belichick and the Patriots violated federal and state racketeering laws, as well as the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act and New Jersey Deceptive Business Practices Act, according to the lawsuit.

"Having been a lifelong Jets fan, as soon as I heard this, I was completely outraged," Mayer said.

"The NFL just slapped them on the wrist. I'm a consumer lawyer, and this is consumer fraud."

Associated Press Writer Jeffrey Gold in Newark, N.J., contributed to this report.