Colin Powell rumored to be selected for high-level post

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This blog post is to be filed under "hedging my bets" because it's based on a tip from a very good friend who texted me that Ret. General and Former Secretary of State Colin Powell was to be named as Deputy Commerce Secretary under Gary Locke.

But Dennis Hightower - who's referred to as the "Colin Powell" of business and serves on the Howard University Board of Trustees with Powell - was sworn in to that position August 11th.

So either there will be two deputies, or my friend's source (who's a friend of General Powell) got it wrong, or Powell's headed to another high level post, or some hybrid possibility's afoot.

But since my friend is not in the habit of calling or texting me with this kind of tip (or any kind for that matter) and remained firm that the news was certain when I fired off questions , I elected to pull the trigger on issuing this rumor. Moveover my friend and I both worked for several years on the Obama campaign and gained a lot of well-placed contacts, so the chance my friend's correct is pretty high.

But to be sure, I just called the White House and The Department of Commerce for confirmation - no "yea" or "no" but a promise to "check and call me back" as of this writing.

Powell the focus of many appointment rumors

Since Barack Obama became the 44th President of The United States, Powell, who endorsed him even though the General's a Republican and Obama's a Democrat, has been rumored for a high-level post. Last December it was Mid East envoy, before that it was defense secretary, and for a time education secretary. And while Obama has stated that Powell would have a role within his administration, he hasn't made that happen. Meanwhile, Powell has taken to the airwaves to express concern with the President's economic strategy.

Powell appears on CNN's Larry King Show three weeks ago to talk about the Gates / Crowley issue and said he was concerned with how much money the Obama Administration was spending and where it was going. On King's show, he said:

"And the greatest concern I'm hearing -- and I see as a citizen and I hear from my fellow citizens as I go around the country -- is, my gosh, where is all this money coming from? Doesn't this mean more taxes? And we have to do -- what the administration, I think, and the Congress, has to do a better job in helping the American people understand some of these most complex issues, health care being number one.”

So it may be that Obama's planning to put Mr. Powell in a position to help him focus on the health care issue, or the economy in general. Regardless of the direction, it's clear that President Obama wants Colin Powell in his administration in some kind of way.

Stay Tuned.

Billy Ray Cyrus defends Miley Cyrus' pole dance at Teen Choice Awards

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Last week, 16-year old singing sensation Miley Cyrus performed a song and dance number using a stripper pole at the Teen Choice Awards as she introduced her new single "Party in the USA."

I remarked that it was good, but well look, she's 16 and according to her Twitter page, still concerned about wearing her retainer, ok? Too young. Moreover her father Billy Ray Cyrus reportedly helped her create the performance!



The controversial production was the focus of much discussion and even outrage in some quarters. But according to US Magazine, Miley's father Billy Ray Cyrus defended his daughter's actions Thursday at the Hellman's/Facebook Feeding America event in New York City.

"You know what? I just think that Miley loves entertaining people, She loves singing, songwriting. I always tell her to love what you're doing and stay focused for the love of the art and not worry so much about opinions."

On the matter of opinions, the poll I ran asking what you thought of her dance presentation has drawn 1,763 votes with 38.84 percent preferring she had not used a pole and another 30.46 percent hating both the pole dance and Cyrus too.

What I find interesting is that people don't understand that even a negative online reaction is an endorsement of Cyrus in that it's additional content about Cyrus.

As I will present in a a future post, Miley Cyrus has a remarkable worldwide online search reach I've never seen before, reaching three continents. There's a marketing formula here that seems to tap into our basic primal instincts and generates buzz, traffic, ratings, and sales. ("Party In The USA" opened this week at number two in the Billboard Hot 100.)  In effect this approach actually uses society against itself.

Local bloggers meet at Berkeley J-School (YouTube video)

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Last night, Wednesday, August 19th at 6 PM (well, I got there ay 6:38 PM) Paul Grabowicz, the Associate Dean and New Media Program Director at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, hosted the second meetup of local bloggers in the school's library. It was a great event.

The idea of these meetings is, as the email put it, ...

"so people can get together to socialize, share ideas, solve common problems and explore ways we might collaborate.


We also want to find out what kind of training people might be interested in through the UC Berkeley J-School's Knight Digital Media Center"

And really that's what happened. The meeting itself, which I did not video as some people don't want to be on camera, started with the idea of breaking into groups around "editorial" concerns and "business" issues, but that was jettisoned because the free-flowing conversation the group established was going really well.

The meetings drew about 25 people, including such luminaries as Scott Rosenberg, who wrote the book "Say Anything" about the history of blogging (and which I'm reading now), Mark Haas who's partner in business is the legendary Dave Winer (also featured in Scott's book), Dave Cohn of Spot.us which raises money for stories that journalists and bloggers want to cover, and Martha Ross who has a blog called Crazy In Suburbia, and George Kelly from the blog "All About George".

There were a large number of ideas thrown out during our talk session. One of them was a kind of Bay Area Advertising Network, which was Susan Mernit's concept for a way to tie together local bloggers into one "place" online that can draw better ad dollars. The other was a directory of news and blogging tools, to which Grabowicz directed us to the website NewsInnvotation.com.

(A momentary aside here. NewsInnvotation.com features new business models for news and is a kind of online think tank created by the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. It's worth a visit. What are some of those "new models"? The "hyperlocal" blog site - like Oakland Focus or Oakland North - the new news organization, publicly supported journalism like Spot.us, and "the ecosystems framework" which brings together individuals to join as one, which is something like what Susan's proposing.)

The talk part of the meeting ended with in all about 20 different ideas. Teaching workshops are one of them, and something I want to do as few people know about vlogging (I was the only vlogger in the room). Another one that was talked about at length was just getting more people to these events. Kwan Booth said that there were about 175 bloggers in Oakland and only a handful of them were there: about six. So we resolved to reach out and tell you all about these meetings; Booth wants to twist arms to get more people there. Seriously.

(But don't worry about having your arm broken. The next meeting is to be determined in September and then we're planning another gathering in Oakland in October.)

Then the meet-and-greet restarted and I took out the Flip Video Camera to get the impressions of the attendees (well, those who didn't mind talking to me with my camera on). In general, everyone was very happy.

I agree with Paul Grabowicz who said that he felt as if he was at the ground level beginning of something big. Media is going through a massive upheaval as more sites come online, ad revenues are spread around, and large media companies are being cut down to size, and all of this is really fun to be a part of for me.

But in all of this change, it's foolish for anyone to go it alone, even those with large media companies. (Er, heck, especially them!) Being a part of a group like ours - well, join our group - is the way to go. I went to meet other bloggers and just listen and it was cool to meet the other African American bloggers in this area. It was a lot of fun.

If you want more information, contact Paul Grabowicz at 510-642-3892 or grabs@berkeley.edu

Britney Spears must visit Oakland's Lake Chalet Restaurant!

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I couldn't wait to visit the new Lake Chalet Restaurant at the restored Lake Merritt Boathouse, so I made a plan with my friend Gab to be there when the doors opened for the first time right at 5 PM last Monday, August 17th.

As you may recall, I recently posted a video-blog of the day the ribbon was cut to dedicate the boathouse and Lake Chalet owner Lara Truppelli and Executive Chef Jarad Gallagher were kind enough to give me an interview at the bar as the eatery was under construction. Now, it's open and man is it terrific!

What's so exciting is the setting. The Boathouse is right on the shore of Lake Merritt and a seat at the "Pumphouse Bar" section of the place on a sunny day as Monday was is a treat to the kind of Oakland many of us have wanted to see and cause to happen for a long time. That's where we sat after we arrived.  The interior is both modern, futuristic in a way, and warm.

Lara came over to say hello and check on us; she and her husband Gar Truppelli really deserve all the accolades they get for creating a new destination place in Oakland right where it should be at Lake Merritt. As Gar said "It's wonderful. Three-and-a-half years it took to get to this."

We were like kids in a candy store, my friend and I, trying to figure out what to order. So, we turned to Gallagher who said he wanted us to try "something that we normally would not get" and offered several suggestions. Out of those, we ordered two dishes: Brandade Fish Sticks and Herloom Tomato and Buratta Cheese. We also elected to go on a kind of tour of Lake Chalet's cocktail offerings starting with me and Old Whiskey and a kind of mint drink Gab had that I can't remember the name of and I'm not going to bug her to ask about it.

Then Gallagher brought over a nice surprise: his special English Pea Soup.  Now I haven't eaten pea soup since I was six, but I never had English Pea Soup with White Truffle Oil, (and found this great blog post about making it!).  I hated pea soup; not this time.  Not this kind.  

The soup and the Herloom Tomato and Buratta Cheese were out of this world!  Gallagher said he had the Buratta Cheese delivered from Italy and so wanted us to give him our impression of it and the tomatos. As we said in the video, just great.  The meal dances in your mouth. 

Since we were part of the first set of patrons to arrive at the Lake Chalet it was a perfect place to talk and to just stop and admire the place. Then the rush came in and the Lake Chalet became a kind of cool center of Oakland.

It seemed as if almost everyone in the town walked in at some point that night: people who live around the Lake, folks young and old, and even celebrity politicos like California Attorney General Jerry Brown, who, Lara told me, was really helpful in helping them get a good lease agreement, my friends the ever-energetic Oakland builder Mike Baines, and Bob and Barbara Schock (Bob's a well-known Oakland-based lawyer), and of course Helen.  I think we ended up closing the place down.

Yeah. We did.  Thanks Lara and Gar! 

Folks, I love this place. You've got to visit it. Soon.

Don Hewitt of 60 Minutes passed on

Just a quick note on the passing of Don Hewitt of 60 Minutes, and who created the show. What he developed changed the face of television news and made CBS News relevant through the 21st Century. He will be missed.

Welcome William Wong to CityBrights on SFGate.com

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I write this with a large degree of bias because he's my friend, but I'm welcoming William Wong to SFGate.com and the CityBrights blogger section. "Bill", as I call him more than deserves to be here. He's written expressively about his Asian American culture and in the process has given all of us a great window into a world too often ignored in America.

Bill wrote for the Oakland Tribune for more years than I can remember and offered views on everything from Oakland politics to sports and of course his life. But Bill's also written for the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner, too. His work has received much attention. But his best stuff in my view is in Images of America: Oakland's Chinatown and in a multi-part series ran in the Oakland Tribune about his trip to China and a rediscovery of his roots.

I'm a big believer in celebrating great people while they're here, and that should be done for Bill Wong. Please join me in welcoming Bill to SFGate.com and CityBrights!

Salon.com's loss can be a gain for its ex-employees

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This one comes from the Scooby-do "ruh?" files, er, Valleywag.com. John Cook explains that San Francisco based news website Salon.com is laying off six people to become more of a "true website."

Salon CEO Richard Gingras told Gawker they released three editors, one writer, one photo editor, and one producer. After some digging, Valleywag's Cook produced this list:

Jeanne Carstensen, managing editor
Kevin Berger, features editor
Katharine Mieszkowski, senior writer
Joy Press, culture editor
Caitlin Shamberg, multimedia editor
Julie Coburn, photo editor

My recommendation is that all of them start their own blogs and video channels, and then get their own sponsors or sign up as a You Tube Partner, as I have been. My prediction for news in new media is that more and more it will become personality-driven. That is we'll follow people and news about or by people far more than brands, unless the brand happens to be a person.

Do we have this already? Yes. It's in - drum roll please - the entertainment industry. We follow bands and singers less than record labels. It's as if record labels are a dime-a-dozen and performers move from one to the other or start their own. That's where news is headed.

Why?

I think it's a function of how people use the web: to look for information about other people. We like to learn what other people have to say or what they did; it's no surprise that the largest internet traffic draws are people and what they do. Now, very soon, that something's going to be reporting, blogging, or vlogging about the news.

In the wake of this development websites like Salon will die a slow death. Sites like The Huffington Post will survive and thrive because they get that people want to read what, for example, Alec Baldwin thinks about Michael Vick.

Is this a bad development? No. It's more honest. By that, I mean it's more attune to where our culture is going. I really don't like the idea that we had to rely on a few brands to deliver the news. It opens a lot of questions in hindsight, like what other news did we miss because an editor considered it not newsworthy?

The Drudge Report hit the Internet big time after reporting on a story Newsweek buried: the affair between then-President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Now, we know who Matt Drudge is and Newsweek's a shadow of its former circulation self.

With this Drudge the man has become Drudge the brand as much as Rush Limbaugh has on radio. Yes, they're both conservative, but they set the standard for the future of news. And since nature abhors a vacuum, liberal personalities will grow to take on Drudge and Limbaugh on the Internet and radio. Indeed, we already have Andrew Sullivan and his blog, as one example, and Taylor Marsh as another. News by pundit. It's only a matter of time before we have more names that become brands, moving from place to place online or being in many places at once.

Buckle up.

President Obama on BlogTalkRadio Wednesday

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For the first time, a sitting American president will speak on an internet social network audio program.  According to Politicalcarnival Blog, President Obama will be on a speical show called "40 Minutes For Health Reform" on BlogTalkRadio.com this Wednesday August 19th at 5 PM to talk about reforming the nations health care system.  The President will join clergy and "people of faith" in a national campaign they've established to promote health care reform (of some kind).  The website FaithforHealth.org reports:

Over the next 40 days, people of faith are leading a national campaign for health care reform. While members of Congress are in their home districts, we’ll be holding hundreds of prayer vigils and in-district events. We’ll sign petitions, write our representatives, organize a nationwide conference call for people of faith, and air a national TV ad –all to say the faith community supports health care reform.

With his participation in this BlogTalkRadio show, Obama officially becomes the nations first "Socially Networked President", using Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to distribute his message.  The Obama Administration has correctly reasoned that since a growing number of people around the World get their news from muliple media sources, it's better to have him appear in blogs and on web-based news sites, social networks, and now audio internet broadcasts like BlogTalkRadio.

BlogTalkRadio goes into the mainstream

Obama has overnight thrust BlogTalkRadio into the mainstream. Right now, it draws about 4.5 million listeners, but really could double that mark and probably will grow to that point after Wednesday's show.  It's really a neat system where anyone can establish their own call-in program; all they need is a computer and a cell phone - account creation and show construction is free because BlogTalkRadio is ad supported.  (I have one called "Zennie62" and my good friend and NFL Draft partner Bill Chachkes has an incredible show called "Football Reporters" that airs Thursday nights at 6 PM PST - 9 PM EST. Bill's show averages over 10,000 listeners per broadcast.) 

I'm excited to see how Obama's decision to go on BlogTalkRadio impacts its growth over the next year.  It's a really great system that one can use with YouTube and USTREAM to broadcast a multi-media show as I did here:



Oh, and unless you think Obama doesn't have his own show account on BlogTalkRadio, think again!  It's here.

Oh. About those protestors..

If I were you, I wouldn't be concerned with the prospect of crazy, right-wing extremists flooding the Obama show with irate calls just as they have polluted selected health care town hall meetings with nearly all forms of bad behavior. The BlogTalkRadio system is such that the show producer can allow up to five callers and can select or even predetermine who gets to talk. In the case of Bill's football show, he sends an email to each one of us to call at a certain time; he's knows our numbers, which pop up on the show control board page, so he can just click on our numbers to talk.

Robert Novak RIP: he helped kids grow

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I know you're scratching your head over that title because you know of the now-late Chicago Sun-Times Columnist as a conservative and pugilist, and SF Chronicle Editor-at-Large has a great blog post on Novak's missed call on Salvadoran death squads, but "helped kids grow?"

Yes.

I discovered this for myself one day about two years ago when I was looking to write a blog attacking Novak, who died of a cancerous brain tumor today. In searching around I stumbled on a photograph featuring a group of African American kids and adults holding what looked like a plaque and an elderly Caucasian man dressed like...Robert Novak. This photo:

I fell out of my chair.

See, Novak has a well-cultivated and well-deserved reputation as a muckraking "Prince of Darkness" all the way down to the black three-piece suits he wore on television. I saw Novak as the kind of conservative one loves to hate, but I never thought of him as racist, just cold blooded, especially in the way he outed Valerie Plame. But that photo, and this one:

..changed my view of him - Novak has a heart - and then more so when I learned that these picts were from Youth Leadership Foundation (YLF) events, and that Novak was more than just a visitor, he was on the board of directors. Moreover, Novak contributed not a small amount of money to YLF. At their 2005 awards gathering he contributed $50,000.

Now, even if that may not have been all his own money - some board members get credit for causing others to donate - the effort required to raise $50,000 for any non-profit organization is considerable. Plus, the contribution was just for that event; Novak has been involved with YLF almost since its creation in 1997.

What does YLF do? It's based in Washington DC and has the charge of helping young people from DC's poorest neighborhoods between 8 and 15 years old who are "just passing" and need some attention and guidance to help them make the extra effort in school and in life to reach their potential.

Novak was as involved in YLF as he was in giving Washington politicians a headache. Today, you'll read a lot of blogs and columns about Novak, almost all of them referring to his work as a columnist. Well, that's not all there was to Novak. The "Prince of Darkness" as it turned out, was his stage name. It's not surprise that donations in Novak's name are to be directed to YLF, because in reality Robert Novak was a community leader who cared about kids and their growth into the leaders of tomorrow.

Oakland Boathouse and Lake Chalet Restaurant now open

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On Thursday, August 5th, a well-attended dedication was held to honor the newly restored Oakland Boathouse and welcome a much needed shot in the Lake Merritt arm, The Lake Chalet at 1520 Lakeside Drive. The event, which you can relive minus the long speeches, in this video, attracted about 300 people just by eyeballing it.

It was a kind of reunion of Oaklanders. There was Mayor Ron Dellums, the Oakland Rowing Club (The Oakland Strokes) members, staffers from the City of Oakland Parks and Recreation Department and other offices and a lot of onlookers on a sun-drenched day. But the feature attraction was the Lake Chalet.

If you've been to the famous Beach Chalet and Park Chalet in San Francisco and enjoy the fun, festive indoor-outdoor setting, then the Lake Chalet will be like Heaven. Unlike the other two great eateries, it's right on the shore of Lake Merritt at the dock, basically part of it. Inside, the room is marked by a very long bar.

The bar's estimated to be the longest one in Oakland, if not the East Bay or the Bay Area (well, ok, someone go on a tour and check!). But take a look for yourself and let me know. As a whole, Gar and Lara Truppelli, the owners and operators of the "Chalet group" as I call it, hit this one out of the park. It's right for Lake Merritt and fills a need a long time in coming.

Food wise, Executive Chef Jarad Gallagher promises offerings that are as diverse as Oakland itself. I'm headed over there now to meet a friend and check it out; all this blogging's making me hungry.

Michael Vick 60 Minutes interview - what do you think?

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Michael Vick appeared on 60 minutes Sunday, in an interview with CBS Correspondent James Brown. Vick answered Brown's questions in a straight-forward way, and actually got me when he said "football's not important" but I still wonder about the "crowd issue" and hope he does work to surround himself with a better group of friends.

I think in these "event interviews" people expect and perhaps want to see the interviewee cry as a way of proving his or her realization that what they did was wrong (remember the old ESPN Roy Firestone cry sessions?) but I'm not sure that would make a difference here. Some would say "Oh, it was fake" and "They told him to cry" so it was better for Vick to just sit there and talk, which he did do.

Even with that, the views are mixed. According to Ben Carlson at The Atlantic Monthly, there seems to be an even split between people who believe that Vick's "rehabilitated" and those who don't. But what do you think? I created a poll to gauge your impression of Vick's interview, but since I think there are some who didn't see it, I'd like you to actually watch it first below and read the transcript before voting. Of course, I have no control over this - although I could have installed a javascript to hide the poll I suppose - but why bother.

With that, here's the Michael Vick interview in video and transcript form, followed by my poll.

Video of the Michael Vick Interview - Part One:



Video of the Michael Vick Interview - Part Two:



For more of the interview visit 60 minutes.com. Here's the transcript, provided by the Atlanta Journal Constitution and CBS.

MICHAEL VICK: The first day I walked into prison, and he slammed that door, I knew, you know, the magnitude of the decisions that I made, and the poor judgment, and what I, you know, allowed to happen to the animals. And, you know, it’s no way of, you know, explaining, you know, the hurt and the guilt that I felt. And that was the reason I cried so many nights. And that put it all into perspective.

JAMES BROWN: You cried a number of nights.

MICHAEL VICK: Yeah.

JAMES BROWN: About?

MICHAEL VICK: What I did, you know, being away from my family, letting so many people down. I let myself down, you know, not being out on the football field, being in a prison bed, in a prison bunk, writing letters home, you know. That wasn’t my life. That wasn’t the way that things was supposed to be. And all because of the so-called culture that I thought was right -- that I thought it was cool. And I thought it was, you know, it was fun, and it was exciting at the time. It all led to me laying in a prison bunk by myself with no one to talk to but myself.

JAMES BROWN: Who do you blame for all of this?

MICHAEL VICK: I blame me.

CBS Voiceover: Michael Vick was a human highlight reel, with a powerful arm, blazing speed, and an uncannity ability to elude tacklers. He’s the only quarterback in NFL history to rush for over 1,000 yards in a season though he was injured a lot, and never lived up to the high expectations in Atlanta.

Very few people knew what was happening in his life off the field. When police raided a farm he owned in rural Virginia in 2007, they uncovered an interstate dog-fighting operation called “Bad Newz Kennels.” They removed 66 dogs and exhumed the bodies of eight more. They also found dog fighting paraphernalia and a pit where fights were held.

The dogs that were saved, raised and trained to be vicious fighters, are now being rehabilitated in hopes of being adopted...all at the expense of Vick, who was ordered by a judge to pay nearly a million dollars for the effort.

JAMES BROWN: And the operation, Michael, that you pleaded guilty to bankrolling, to being a part of, engaged in barbarous treatment of the animals -- beating them, shooting them, electrocuting them, drowning them. Horrific things, Michael.

MICHAEL VICK: It’s wrong, man. I don’t know how many times I gotta tell, I gotta say it. I mean, it was wrong. I feel, you know, I feel, you know, tremendous hurt behind what happened. And, you know, I should’ve took the initiative to stop it all. You know, and I didn’t. And I feel so bad about that now. And I know, you know, that I didn’t I didn’t step up. I wasn’t a leader.

JAMES BROWN: In any way, for those who may say it showed a lack of moral character because you didn’t stop it, you agree or disagree?

MICHAEL VICK: I agree.

VO: For six years, Vick ran Bad Newz Kennels with his childhood friends, breeding, buying, selling and fighting pit bulls.

JAMES BROWN: Was there an adrenaline rush? Was it the sense of competition? What was it that gripped you about what you engaged in with the dog fighting?

MICHAEL VICK: Regardless of what it was – don’t even matter.

JAMES BROWN: Do you know what it was?

MICHAEL VICK: I know why. You know, I know why. And regardless of what it was -- and why I was driven, you know, by what-- you know what was going on, you know -- whether it was because of the competition or -- you know, whatever it may have been, it was wrong.

JAMES BROWN: Were any of those reasons, though? The competition? The adrenaline?

MICHAEL VICK: Yeah.

JAMES BROWN: Do you understand why people are outraged?

MICHAEL VICK: I understand why. And I’m going to say it again. Sickens me to my stomach. And it was, you know, the same thing that I’m feeling right now.

JAMES BROWN: And the feeling you’re feeling right now is?

MICHAEL VICK: Disgust. Pure disgust.

JAMES BROWN: When did you arrive at that feeling of disgust, Michael? When did the light go on?

MICHAEL VICK: When I was in prison. When I was in prison. I was disgusted, you know, because of what I let happen to those animals. I could’ve put a stop to it. I could’ve walked away from it. I could’ve shut the whole operation down.

JAMES BROWN: But you didn’t. Why not?

MICHAEL VICK: But I didn’t.

JAMES BROWN: What was keeping you going?

MICHAEL VICK: Not being able to say, or tell, you know, certain people around me that, “Look, we can’t do this anymore. I’m concerned about my career. I’m concerned about my family.”

JAMES BROWN: So for the cynics who will say, “You know what? I don’t know. Michael Vick might be more concerned about the fact that his career was hurt than dogs were hurt.”

MICHAEL VICK: I don’t-- I mean, football don’t even matter. You know, I mean, that’s-

JAMES BROWN: Losing a $135 million contract -- doesn’t matter --

MICHAEL VICK: It don’t matter. It don’t matter. I deserve to lose that because of what I was doing.

JAMES BROWN: You deserve to lose it?

MICHAEL VICK: Yeah, I deserve to lose it. I deserve to lose the $130 million. Why would a guy who was making a $130 million and, you know, on the flip side, you know, killing dogs or doing the wrong things, why would-- you know, he don’t -- he don’t deserve it.

VO: We met Michael Vick in Virginia. He wasn’t allowed to cross state lines without permission from his probation officer. He was accompanied by two men, former NFL Tony Dungy, who has been asked by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to mentor Vick... and someone you might never expect, Wayne Pacelle, president of The Humane Society of the United States.

JAMES BROWN: Why would you put your reputation on the line in working with Michael Vick?

TONY DUNGY: I’ve visited a lot of prisons. That’s something that I do. And I know that there are a lot of young men -- especially African-American young men, who need a chance, who made a mistake, who did something wrong, who had a problem -- but are looking to bounce back. That’s what I’ve always been concerned about. Not just for Michael Vick. But for hundreds of guys that I’ve talked to.

VO: Pacelle’s relationship with Vick is even more unlikely. His organization provided evidence that helped put Vick in prison. While Pacelle says he remains skeptical, he nevertheless enlisted Vick as an anti-dog-fighting ambassador.

WAYNE PACELLE: If we just punish Mike indefinitely and don’t pivot to this problem in the communities, where kids are victimizing these dogs and then going down a dead-end street themselves -- because there are no heroic dog fighters -- we will not be doing our job. And I felt we needed to get involved and we needed to do some creative things to reach these kids. So that’s why we have our community based programs. And I am really hopeful that Mike sticks with this and really reaches these kids because he can turn some of them around. I really do believe that.

VO: Their first effort was in Atlanta last weekend, where Vick talked to children in neighborhoods like the one he grew up in.

MICHAEL VICK (AT EVENT): I encourage you to love your animals. -- whatever animals you have, whether it’s a dog, a cat, a reptile, if it’s a horse. I encourage you to love that animal dearly and with all your heart.

VO: It’s a message Vick says he never heard when he was a kid in Newport News, Virginia, where he was first exposed to dog fighting when he was eight years old.

MICHAEL VICK: I was introduced very young, so I didn’t think it was wrong because I’d seen older guys, you know, condoning it and then, you know, doing it.

JAMES BROWN: You shared with me the story about, even the police riding through the neighborhood and seeing what was happening. Explain that situation.

MICHAEL VICK: When they got out the car and seen that, you know, it was two dogs fighting, they got back in the car and they roll -- they left. So that right there kind of made me feel like, “Okay, you know, this ain’t -- it -- it is not as bad as it may seem.” We didn’t think it was bad at the time. And, you know, that kind of put a stamp on it.

WAYNE PACELLE: We knew it was a huge issue before Michael Vick was prosecuted, but the public didn’t know. We estimate there are 40,000 professional dog fighters in the country and perhaps 100,000 street fighters. We’re talking about something that’s occurring in every part of the country, rural and urban, white, black, Latino. It is an industry.

JAMES BROWN: What’s the attraction?

WAYNE PACELLE: People enjoy watching these animals compete and fight. They get excited by the bloodletting. They gamble on the outcomes. The fights may last 10 minutes, they may last three hours. Dogs die from shock, they die from blood loss. They suffer, if they survive the process, to maybe fight again. All for what?

VO: When the allegations of dogfighting first arose, Vick made another monumental mistake — he lied about it to everybody: police, his family, his coaches and to NFL Commissioner Goodell.

MICHAEL VICK: I was scared. I knew my career was in jeopardy. I knew I had an endorsement with Nike and -- and I knew it was going to be a big letdown. I felt the guilt and I knew I was guilty, and I knew what I had done. And, not knowing at the time that, you know, actually telling the truth may have been better than, you know, not being honest. And it backfired on me tremendously.

VO: He told us one of his biggest mistakes was lying to Atlanta Falcons’ owner Arthur Blank, who bet the future of the franchise on the young quarterback, awarding him the largest contract in the history of the NFL at the time, $130 million, and stood by him as the charges piled up and Vick fell from grace.

JAMES BROWN: Fair to say that you broke his heart?

MICHAEL VICK: Definitely.

JAMES BROWN: How did that make you feel, given that he was still sticking with you when everybody else turned their backs on you?

MICHAEL VICK: I can’t, you know, describe the feeling. You know, the hurt deep inside, hurt that I never felt before, knowing that I disappointed him, knowing that he’d given me every opportunity to come to him and reach out whenever I needed him. And he cared about me and I took it all for granted.

VO: He also took his own talent for granted. Known for traveling with a large entourage of friends from Virginia, going on wild spending sprees, not focusing on football.

JAMES BROWN: You know what your reputation was like when you were playing?

MICHAEL VICK: Yeah.

JAMES BROWN: What was it?

MICHAEL VICK: I was lazy. You know, I was the last guy in the building, first guy out. I know that. You know, I hear everything that people say. And that hurt me when I heard that, but I know it was true.

JAMES BROWN: It was true?

MICHAEL VICK: It was true.

TONY DUNGY: I think everyone looked at it that way -- tremendous athlete, tremendous talent. Very, very gifted guy, who relies on his natural ability . He was exciting and probably didn’t scratch the surface of his potential. And he and I talked about that for a long time in Leavenworth. He talked about not working out, not training, not studying. You know, kind of taking things for granted -- gifts that the Lord had given him. Just really living on that and not working at it.

MICHAEL VICK: I just reached the point in my career where I just totally lost touch with my Lord and savior. And you know I thought I could do it on my own. And I couldn’t. So I had to -- I had to resurrect that back into my life.

JAMES BROWN: Now, you know, most people who get in trouble, all of a sudden they find God. And you say?

MICHAEL VICK: It’s the only way I made it through prison. It’s the only way I could live life is having faith and believing in -- in the higher power, believing in God.

VO: Vick also put his faith in the hands of a powerful group of attorneys, agents and media advisors who are trying to rehabilitate his image and resuscitate his career, and help him through interviews like ours.

JAMES BROWN: Michael, is this you talking? Or the Vick team of attorneys, image-shapers and the like?

MICHAEL VICK: This is Mike Vick. People will see my work out there, my work in the communities and my work with the Humane Society and how I really do care now, how I care about animals.

VO: And a lot of people will be watching. The NFL commissioner’s decision to permanently reinstate him is pending, and the Humane Society [of the United States] has high expectations.

WAYNE PACELLE: You know, Michael is somebody who needs to continue to demonstrate a commitment to this issue. I told him that we were not interested if this was going to be a flash in the pan involvement. And if Mike disappoints us, the public’s going to see that. So it’s not going to reflect badly on me or the Humane Society. It’s going to reflect badly on him.

JAMES BROWN: Will you be committed to all that you said -- that folks are hearing you say today?

MICHAEL VICK: Still. Still. And I’m going to let my actions continue to speak louder than my words. And I’m going to still be involved in the community, because I still -- regardless of football -- would have a voice that can have an impact on kids -- because I’ve been a living example of what not to do.

The poll:

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Miley Cyrus rumored to be in "Sex and The City 2" after pole dance

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The sex-based selling of "Hanna Montana" star Miley Cyrus continues after her controversial song and dance number at the Teen Choice Awards, which featured her use of a "stripper pole"as a key part of the production. Now, it's rumored by some and confirmed as true by other media outlets that the 16-year old pop star is to have a roll in the "Sex and The City" sequel.

I am frankly amazed over how this obvious marketing campaign is unfolding with amazing success. First, in June she signs with WalMart to have her own special line of clothing for sale designed by Max Arela, then there's the dance poll matter, and now this. That's buzz and to intensify the issue, WalMart's running commercials announcing her clothing line. It's clear just from a glance at Google Trends, Cyrus is on a buzz tear and she's taking WalMart,

The Vanity Fair photo issue still ranks as the highest buzz generator in her history, but 2009 has seen more sustained internet chatter and content related to her than ever before. And the formula is clear: music, fashion, and sex in different variations fed as a steady diet to a hungry public and to drive teenage girls into WalMart just in time for "back-to-school". With all the attention paid to the discussion of her Teen Choice Awards dance routine and her use of the pole, one would thing Cyrus drew the attention of older men - actually she, in political terms, solidified her base: the YouTube videos on the subject all have captured the 13-17 year old female demographic group and the male group.

What this proves is not so much that sex sells, but we've gotten to a point where we're using teenagers to do it, openly. Equally amazing is the development bothers few, certainly not to the point of even putting a dent in the buzz machine she's got going. It's wild.

Given some of the stories my friends who are teacher have told me about what goes on with students and sex in middle schools, we may be totally out of touch with what's normal to that group. To them the poll dance was nothing and Miley can do no wrong at all. But where all of this is going is that that same group of teenagers will flock to see her in Sex and The City 2 (if the rumors are confirmed), drawing them into a movie that would seem to have nothing to do with them. I've got to get a hold of that movie's script because it's can't play to the form of the past and have Cyrus in it, right?

What are they going to do, work in the whole Vanity Fair photo controversy all over again with Sam as the PR client for Miley? Hmmm...

Perhaps they should add Perez Hilton to the cast if only to keep her tweets honest. Witness this Twitter exchange:

@mileycyrus Maybe. But it seems more like selfishness/personal issues than sharing wisdom. Just saying what it can be perceived like.
about 5 hours ago from web in reply to mileycyrus

@PerezHilton I don't see the harm in sharing someone else's wisdom.
about 5 hours ago from UberTwitter in reply to PerezHilton

@mileycyrus Can you go 24 hours without quoting something? If you're quoting yourself, that's okay then. xoxo

Stay tuned.