Saturday, December 22, 2007

NY Jets WR Laveranues Coles Placed On IR - ESPN

Coles has a terrific statistical record, but needs to be on a team that knows how to employ his talent.

Ankle injury ends season two games early for Jets receiver Coles

By Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com

Veteran wide receiver Laveranues Coles, who has battled through a high ankle sprain that has affected his productivity for the past month, was placed on injured reserve by the New York Jets on Saturday afternoon, ending his season with two games remaining.

One of the toughest players in the league, and blessed with a high threshold for pain, Coles nonetheless struggled after spraining his left ankle in a Nov. 18 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Despite a noticeable limp at times, one that forced him to miss practice time, Coles stayed in the lineup.

He aggravated the injury last week when he fell off the training table on Saturday night at the team hotel, then attempted to play against the New England Patriots. Coles lasted only one offensive snap before he was forced to the sideline.
Earlier in the season, Coles, 29, suffered a head injury against Buffalo that forced him to miss one contest, snapping a streak of 104 consecutive appearances.
In 12 games this season, Coles, who is regarded as one of the veteran leaders in the New York locker room, had 55 catches for 646 yards and six touchdowns.
A former Florida State star, Coles was selected by the Jets in the third round of the 2000 draft. He signed with Washington as a restricted free agent in 2003, but then after two seasons with the Redskins was traded back to the Jets for wide receiver Santana Moss in a 2005 blockbuster deal.
The eight-year veteran has 561 receptions for 7,245 yards and 37 touchdowns in 121 regular-season games. He has seven straight seasons of 50 catches or more and has notched four seasons with 80-plus receptions and three years with 1,000 yards or more.
Len Pasquarelli covers the NFL for ESPN.com.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Family of girl to sue CIGNA over her death- Shameful

This is a classic, yet deadly and tragic case of when greed and financial circumstances clash with life.

Associated Press

The family of a 17-year-old girl who died hours after her health insurer reversed its previous decision and said it would pay for a liver transplant planned to sue CIGNA HealthCare, their attorney said Friday.

Attorney Mark Geragos said he also plans to ask the district attorney to press murder or manslaughter charges against CIGNA HealthCare for the death of Nataline Sarkisyan.

The insurer "maliciously killed her" because it did not want to bear the expense of her transplant and aftercare, Geragos said at a news conference outside his downtown Los Angeles office. He did not say when or in what court he would file the suit.

District Attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons declined to comment on the request for murder or manslaughter charges, saying it would be inappropriate to do so until Geragos submits evidence supporting his request.

Nataline died Thursday at about 6 p.m. at the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center. She had been in a vegetative state for weeks before she was taken off life support at 5:20 p.m. with the family's approval.

Nataline had been battling leukemia and received a bone marrow transplant from her brother. She developed a complication, however, that caused her liver to fail.

Doctors at UCLA determined she needed a transplant and sent a letter to CIGNA on Dec. 11. The Philadelphia-based health insurance company denied payment for the transplant, saying the procedure was experimental and outside the scope of coverage.
"They took my daughter away from me," said Nataline's father, Krikor, who appeared at the news conference with his 21-year-old son, Bedros.

About 150 teenagers and nurses had protested outside CIGNA's office in Glendale on Thursday. As the protesters rallied, the company reversed its decision and said it would approve the transplant.

Despite the reversal, CIGNA said in an e-mail statement before she died that there was a lack of medical evidence showing the procedure would work in Nataline's case.

"Our hearts go out to Nataline and her family as they endure this terrible ordeal," the company said. "CIGNA HealthCare has decided to make an exception in this rare and unusual case and we will provide coverage should she proceed with the requested liver transplant."

Asked to respond to the developments at Friday's news conference, CIGNA issued another statement reiterating its sympathy.

"Their loss is immeasurable, and our thoughts and prayers are with them," the statement said. "We deeply hope that the outpouring of concern, care and love that are being expressed for Nataline's family help them at this time."

In their letter, the UCLA doctors said patients in situations similar to Nataline's who undergo transplants have a six-month survival rate of about 65 percent.

One of the doctors, Robert Venick, declined to comment on Nataline's case when reached at his office Friday.

Mitt Romney Tells Lie: Father Did Not March With Martin Luther King - "Fudging" The Truth



Gloves to cover dirty hands of one who fudges the truth

Well, the long string of mistatements, flip-flops, and now an outright lie continues. It turns out, according to The Detroit Free Press, that former Governor and now Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney lied when he said that his father marched with Martin Luther King. So now, can we -- are we free to assume that -- state that his claim that he cried when he listened to the news that the Mormon Church elected to allow Black priests is false?

Romney fields questions on King
Campaign says claim not literal

December 20, 2007

BY TODD SPANGLER
FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said he watched his father, the late Michigan Gov. George Romney, in a 1960s civil rights march in Michigan with Martin Luther King Jr.
On Wednesday, Romney's campaign said his recollections of watching his father, an ardent civil rights supporter, march with King were meant to be figurative.
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"He was speaking figuratively, not literally," Eric Fehrnstrom, spokesman for the Romney campaign, said of the candidate.
The campaign was responding to questions raised by the Free Press and other media after a Boston publication challenged the accuracy of Mitt Romney's account.
In a major speech on faith and politics earlier this month in Texas, Mitt Romney said: "I saw my father march with Martin Luther King."
He made a similar statement Sunday during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." He said, "You can see what I believed and what my family believed by looking at our lives. My dad marched with Martin Luther King. My mom was a tireless crusader for civil rights."
Romney's campaign cited various historical articles, as well as a 1967 book written by Stephen Hess and Washington Post political columnist David Broder, as confirmation that George Romney marched with King in Grosse Pointe in 1963.
"He has marched with Martin Luther King through the exclusive Grosse Pointe suburb," Hess and Broder wrote in "The Republican Establishment: The Present and Future of the GOP."
Free Press archives, however, showed no record of King marching in Grosse Pointe in 1963 or of then-Gov. Romney taking part in King's historic march down Woodward Avenue in June of that year.
George Romney told the Free Press at the time that he didn't take part because it was on a Sunday and he avoided public appearances on the Sabbath because of his religion.
Romney did participate in a civil rights march protesting housing bias in Grosse Pointe just six days after the King march. According to the Free Press account, however, King was not there.
Broder could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.
The Boston Phoenix reported Wednesday it could find no evidence that Romney and King ever marched together.
Mitt Romney's older brother, Detroit attorney Scott Romney, said he recalls his father telling him the elder Romney marched with King, possibly in 1963, but he could not remember exactly when the event took place.
Fehrnstrom called the Romney brothers' recollection and the historical materials a "pretty convincing case that George Romney did march with Dr. Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders in Michigan."
The governor's record was one of supporting civil rights. He helped create the state's first civil rights commission and marched at the head of a protest parade in Detroit days after violence against civil rights marchers in Selma, Ala., in 1965.
Mitt Romney's campaign planned today to further research George Romney's papers for evidence of his march with King.
Free Press Library Director Alice Pepper contributed to this report.

What's "The Zeitgeist" - An Important Point

Some people ask me what Zeitgeist means. Well, it basically means "The sprit of the age" and that's what I try to capture in this blog.

At times that means the content may piss some people off. Like the whole deal with Laure Manautou and the photos -- which aren't on this site save for one tame one -- or the Debra Le Fevre Teacher / Teenager sex controversy.

But the bottom line is that those issues also tend to dominate Technorati, which is the main source I use to make decisions on what goes here -- except politics of course. In this area I'm a stauch supporter of Senator Obama for President and anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that.

But the bottom line is I'm trying to give you a balance of what's going on in the World but via my eyes. See? Hence, Zennie's Zeitgeist.

I find that people in America, my country, are far too neurotic about generally small issues. It seems that people in other countries have less hangups than we do. Perhaps New Media will cause us to relax a bit over time.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

"Leave Laure Manaudou Alone" A YouTube Video Plea From chauffeurdebuzz

This YouTubeer issues a plea in French and dressed in drag for the World to leave Laure Manaudou alone:



But not to be outdone, we have Chris Croker getting into the act..Well, someone dubbed his video:



I'm not sure the World's stopped searching for her photos. Wow.

Lakota Nation Cedes From US As We Seek Laure Manaudou Nude Photos



Yep. As most of the World, it seems, is looking for Any Laure Manaudou nude photo set it can find, and we're supporitng either Barack Obama or Ron Paul for President, the Lakota Indian Nation , which is based in the United States, has annouced that it's quitting America and establishing its own nation. Before you laugh, remember that long ago Indian tribes established treaties with the U.S. Government when America was but a wee idea of a country.

Not any more.

But America's growth does not invalidate the treaties, I would think. This is a story to watch.


Lakota withdraw from treaties, declare independence from U.S.

The Lakota Sioux Indians, whose ancestors include Sitting Bull, Red Cloud and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from all treaties their forefathers signed with the U.S. government and have declared their independence. A delegation delivered the news to the State Department earlier this week.

Portions of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming comprise Lakota country, and the tribe says that if the federal government doesn't begin diplomatic discussions promptly, liens will be filed on property in the five-state region. Here's the news release.

"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us," said Russell Means, a longtime Indian rights activist. "This is according to the laws of the United States, specifically Article 6 of the Constitution," which states that treaties are the supreme law of the land.

"It is also within the laws on treaties passed at the Vienna Convention and put into effect by the U.S. and the rest of the international community in 1980. We are legally within our rights to be free and independent," he added during a press conference yesterday in Washington.

The new country would issue its own passports and driver licenses, and living there would be tax-free, provided residents renounce their U.S. citizenship, he said, according to a report from Agence France-Presse.

The Lakota say the United States has never honored the pacts, signed with the Great Sioux Nation in 1851 and 1868 at Fort Laramie, Wyo.

"We have 33 treaties with the United States that they have not lived by. They continue to take our land, our water, our children," said Phyllis Young, who helped organize the first international conference on indigenous rights in Geneva in 1977.

Means said the "annexation" of native American land had turned the Lakota into "facsimiles of white people."

In 1974, the Lakota drafted a declaration of continuing independence. Their cause got a boost in September, when the United Nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. The Bush administration opposed the measure.

NY Times Says Obama Was "Present" In Illinois For Vote - But THREE PERCENT OF THE TIME

The NY TImes and by extension the Huff Post, are trying to make a big deal out of Barack Obama's Illinois record but seem almost silly doing so.

Out of over 3,000 votes he made, he was only present, but didn't cast a vote three percent of the time.

So where's the story?

No story.

Laure Manaudou Nude Photos Search Dominates Technorati - Six Of Top 15 Searches





The hunger to read about Laure Manadou and see her in the flesh is arguably a World-wide phenomenon. Today, six of the tope 15 searches on the blog directory Technorati are for Laure Manaudou , using tags that have her name spelled in different ways. The photo I included shows this tag breakdown.



What's interesting is that with all of this, U.S. Presidential Ron Paul is still one of the top searches, and I can't remember a day when his name as a tag has not appeared on Technorati. So he has something in common with the "French Mermaid."



As for Laure, I think her standing will continue at least until the matter of who posted the pictures is resolved.



Olympics Video Update:



Britney Spears 16-Year Old Sister Jamie Lynn Gets Pregnant

Wow. I wonder what happened -- well, I know what happened -- to cause this lapse in judgement where Briney Spears's sister Jamie Lynn got knocked up. The question is will she keep the baby? Also, isn't she to young for all of this at 16?

Laure Manaudou Nude Photos and Video Story - Laure Manaudou Feels "Violated" But Source Of Picts Still Not Known

The unfortunate story of Laure Manaudou and the nude photos, which have been made into several kinds of videos like the one below, continues.



It's captured the attention of Europe as people from hundreds of countries have sought online content on the matter of Laure Manaudou's photos. "The French Mermaid" -- once known to a few in Europe -- is now known to manu around the World.

At first, her now ex-lover Luca Martin claimed that the apperance of the photos was not his doing, and that may be, but Canada.com has an account that would certainly seem to set the scene for that kind of behavior on his part:

Italian swimmer Luca Marin has denied putting explicit pictures of his former lover Laure Manaudou on the Internet following their spat at the European short-course swimming championships in Hungary. France's Manaudou, who took gold in the 100m backstroke and 400 metres freestyle in Debrecen, threw away a ring given to her by Marin before arguing with him in front of other swimmers and the camera in the changing rooms on Sunday.
Nude photos and a video of Manaudou have now appeared on the web.


And dontmiss.fr has this translated account:

More is known today about the big clash, which took place between Laure Manaudou and her ex-boyfriend Luca Marin this weekend in Hungary at the European Championships. This one would not have appreciated how Laure would have returned the engagement ring he had given with much love a few weeks ago ... So, Luca has burst into the call room where Laure Manaudou patientait before disputing his women's 200 meters freestyle, in the morning. "He verbally assaulted. She returned," said Patricia Quint, coach of the French national team women.

In other words, Laure Manaudou embarassed Luca Martin in front of "other swimmers" (read: friends) in the changing rooms last Sunday -- just before the photos surfaced online.

But it appears that Luca Martin may not be the only person with an axe to grind against Laure Manaudou. Look at this bio of Laure I got over at RightFielders Women Sports Celebrities:

Laure Manaudou Biography

As a biography, Laure Manaudou was born on October 9, 1986 in Villeurbanne. She has had a stellar career in swimming, which started in the 400 m freestyle at the 2004 Athens Olympics, where she won the gold medal. She became a hero in her native France, as it was the first time France had ever won a gold medal in women’s swimming. Manaudou also won the silver medal in the women’s 800 m freestyle and a bronze in the women’s 100 m backstroke while at Athens as well.

During the 2005 World Aquatics Championship in Montreal, Canada, Manaudou won the women’s 400 m freestyle.

While at the 2006 European Swimming Championship in Budapest, she would win the 800 m freestyle, 400 m freestyle, 100 m backstroke, and the 200 m medley.

During the 2007 World Championship in Melbourne, she took the gold in the 400 m freestyle, silver in 800 m freestyle and 100 m backstroke, and a bronze in the 200 m medley.

She had been coached by Philippe Lucas from 2001 through 2007, and announced in May 2007 that she was leaving him to train with Lapresse Nuoto, a swim club in Turin, Italy. She did state that she would still swim for France.

In August 2007, she was kicked off Lapresse Nuoto and it was rumored that Manaudou and chief executive of LaPresse Nuoto club, Paola Penso, had a falling out. Evidently he did not like Manaudou’s attitude during training.

So it seems Paola Penso may also have a reason to spready nude photos of Laure around, but if true that opens up a new can of worms, like how did he get them?

At this point, it's hard, ir not impossble to find more information on Penso as connected with Laure, but it's not a stretch to think they had a relationship that could have gone toward the romantic. But first is first and he was a coach who considered her "difficult."

Here's what other news outlets are reporting:

Swimming star Laure Manaudou says she feels ‘violated’ by online ...
Times Online, UK - 1 hour ago
France rushed to defend Laure Manaudou, a swimming star and national heroine, yesterday after Italian rivals were blamed for circulating sexually explicit ...
Rocky romance means stormy waters for French swim siren
AFP - 2 hours ago
PARIS (AFP) — With Beijing on the horizon, she could become one of the greatest Olympic swimmers of all time but French siren Laure Manaudou spent the year ...
Laure Manaudou's heartbreak at nude photos betrayal
NEWS.com.au, Australia - 14 hours ago
By Amy Dale THE Beijing Olympic preparations of France's gold medallist Laure Manaudou are in disarray with the swimming beauty an emotional wreck after ...
In roles not always best suited or served
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 20 hours ago
NOW we know what Laure Manaudou's buttocks look like. If you're interested you can see her naked in the shower. Mark it up as another victory for the ...
Manaudou images posted on internet
NEWS.com.au, Australia - Dec 18, 2007
NUDE photos and a video of Olympic and world championship gold medallist Laure Manaudou of France have been posted on the internet. ...
Nude photos posted of swimming glamour girl
The Australian, Australia - Dec 18, 2007
NUDE photos of of international swimming's glamour girl Laure Manaudou and her ex-boyfriend Italian swimmer Luca Marin, is accused of posting them. ...
French swimmer in nude pics
NEWS.com.au, Australia - Dec 18, 2007
Her Italian swimmer former boyfriend Luca Marin is accused of posting video and pictures of Manaudou, who is the Olympic and world 400m world champion. ...
Former lover Marin denies trying to discredit Manaudou
Guardian Unlimited, UK - Dec 18, 2007
MILAN, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Italian swimmer Luca Marin has denied putting explicit pictures of his former lover Laure Manaudou on the internet following their ...
Lillhage stuns Manaudou in 200m freestyle final
Malaysia Star, Malaysia - Dec 17, 2007
DEBRECEN (Hungary): Sweden’s Josefin Lillhage scored a surprise victory over France’s Laure Manaudou in the 200m freestyle at the European short course ...
Nude photos shatter swim star
Ninemsn, Australia - 10 hours ago
By WWOS staff The Olympic preparations of French gold medallist Laure Manaudou have been upset by the release of explicit photos of the champion swimmer. ...
Sports Ticker
The Province, Canada - 23 hours ago
MOSCOW -- Russia tennis player Anna Chakvetadze escaped unharmed after several men broke into her house in Moscow Tuesday. "Five to six unknown people ...

Clinton Power Lust - Presidential Run Not First Time Hillary Clinton's Copied Bill; She Considered Arkansas Governor, Too

If you check Clinton's Wikipedia listing at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Rodham_Clinton

You'll find that she considered running for Governor when Bill Clinton didn't -- but the polling tests were not in her favor. Point? It's not the first time she's tried to basically copy and follow Bill: first as governor and now president, with the Senate as a stepping stone. This is certainly a power-hungry couple. The point is, are they really running to improve the country or satisfy a mutual lust for power? I think it's 3 of the first, and 6 of the last.

That's a blog post to write.

I just did.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

NH Poll With Clinton Ahead Is Misleading - Only 417 Surveyed and All Older Voters Via Landline Phone

CNN's jumping all over itself to report that Hillary Clinton's ahead of Barack Obama in New Hamshire with this poll. But if you look at the poll, there are two problems: first, it surveys "likely Democratic Voters" which is another way of saying people who have voted before, which is another way of saying older voters.

Second, only 417 people were surveyed, which is not a large sample at all. Over 1,000 people would be better.

Third, it was a phone survey, which means no cell phones were called, just landlines.

I could tell you without looking that Clinton would come out on top here, but even with this, the poll data shows that Obama's ahead of Clinton in undecided voters, and if things go any way like that Fox News focus group were the people were behind Clinton at first, then picked Barack Obama after the last debate, Clinton's in trouble.