Brandon Spikes Video Sex Tape About Race More Than Sex

Allegedly Brandon and Girl.   There..  Are you happy now?

The Brandon Spikes Video Sex Tape Issue is just that because Former University of Florida and now New England Patriots Linebacker Brandon Spikes is in a video having sex with a hot white girl.

If Brandon Spikes were in a video having sex with a black woman, hot or no, it would not be news unless she was Beyonce.

There, this blogger said it.

When the matter of the Brandon Spikes Video Sex Tape came to the attention of this space, the first thought was "He was probably with a white girl." Thanks to YouTube there's now confirmation of that assumption in the supply of safe-for-review videos of photos of Spikes and his well-endowned brunette girlfriend of something like a year ago - before he was drafted by the New England Patriots.

 Does it matter that she's white? No. But for some people, including the person who leaked the video it does.

In a country that still has a really screwed up problem about race that borders on a kind of mental illness, there's a fascination that some people have with seeing a black guy and white girl get it on. When you live a while you hear all kinds of stupid comments along these lines.

As one who's dated interracially since he was, oh, 14, the litany of comments by those who have neurotic issues with interracial dating could fill a book.

Indeed, after the O.J. trial, the saying was "There's an O.J." Hey, it may have been you making the comment. Thanks for being stupid.

I will tell you I'm livid because I was right about why people are really interested in the The Brandon Spikes Video Sex Tape Issue.   So I figured, why not hit America between the eyes?  Here's my punch.

Why American society insists on being stupid about race is beyond me. If I had my way, I'd relegate every person with a race issue to a mental institution and order them to hang out with people who don't look like them every day. After a while, race would take a back seat to other matters, like dress and diction for example. Stuff we all can work on.

You can't change skin color and wanting to is a sick desire as well.

But I digress.

The best move for the NFL is to declare this a non-issue and move on. Why feed into the morbid desires of people who get, shall we say, excited, about putting this stuff online?

I'm sure - in fact I know - NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has better things to do than investigate a sex tape of a brother getting it on with a white girl.

Commissioner, listen to Admiral Ackbar: IT'S A TRAP!

Sources for articles: Hard News By Nikky Raney

When writing a hard news piece (for print or web) it seems as though quite a few news outlets are publishing and producing stories with few sources.

Hard news is timely and usually also involves proximity. Some examples include fires, murders, business, politics, international affairs, etc.

With hard news the inverted pyramid structure (more about that here) is very useful.

Hard news generally will involve the reporter going out and obtaining interviews first hand. Although the news is timely and up-to-date that does not excuse laziness with sources. More and more there are news outlets serving stories that could easily be confused as blog posts - meaning the sources used are usually aggregated from other news sources. With blogging that is fine - bloggers are not held to the same standards as journalists.

With a hard news story there should always be a first hand interview included with someone directly involved with the story.

For example: If the reporter was assigned to cover and report about a local drug bust a source that is essential to the story would be a police officer or any other authority involved (it will later be discussed how to deal with those type of stories in terms of semantics). Another person who would be ideal to interview would be neighbors or friends that would be willing to go on record. If there is a family member that would be willing to contribute to the story that would be great.

Interviewing the police officer is essential, because that is where the information that will be in the lead is obtained. Finding out the who, what, where and when can all be done by an interview with the authority who was at the scene.

In some scenarios secondary sources are also good to add to go along with the first hand sources. Secondary sources would include information gathered via another news source or outlet that the reporter did not go out and directly get first hand (like citing another news source or web site).

The next blog posts will go into detail for the sources essential to features, columns, reviews, editorials, etc.

For the record, blog posts will most likely include side commentary and opinions from the blogger as well as news obtained from secondary sources (other web sites), and in some cases (like this entry) the information provided comes directly from the blogger.

Brandon Spikes Video Sex Tape Much Ado About Nothing

Spikes at U Florida 

UPDATE - Brandon Spikes Video An Issue Of Race 

Brandon Spikes, the man that Michael Oher of The Blind Side said was his favorite college defender to play against, is now the Internet's focus because of a sex tape that was somehow leaked online - one that he admits has him in it.

Here's the catch: it was created before he was drafted by the New England Patriots in the 2010 NFL Draft.

What's funny is the whole episode gives new meaning to the thoughts expressed about the 6-3, 249 pound Spikes by New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick right after the Pats drafted him this year, according to CBS Sports:

04/26/2010 - COULD SURPRISE: Linebacker Brandon Spikes: A 5.06-second 40-yard dash time hurt Spikes' stock, but not Bill Belichick. He sees Spikes as a big, productive force on the inside who moves as well between the tackles as any linebacker he's seen in recent years.

Now, we can say "That's what she said."

News Came Late; Not Spikes Fault

Actually, someone did Brandon Spikes a favor by not releasing the tape until after he was drafted. Had it happened before Brandon Spikes hit the NFL Draft, say between the NFL Combine and the NFL Draft, when the media's focus on each draft-eligible player is greatest, it could have served to push him down from his position as a second round pick, to where he may not have been drafted at all.

Spikes has one problem, his 40-time. But that's something a good coach can overlook - Bill Belichick did. But a perceived character issue like allowing yourself to be filmed doing it is harder to overcome. The NFL's owners place a big premium on character, so this certainly would have hurt him to some degree.

Still, the episode also says that the player evaluation process can't be so good as to let an issue like this pass it by. But it did. The tape was created years ago. This space is more interested in who put the thing online and why?   That should be the NFL's concern as it conducts its investigation.

Stay tuned.

Yankees On Top, Mike, Rudy, NYC shaky? by Suzannah B. Troy

Right now the Yankees are where they want to be on top according to Brian Costello of The New York Post.

Below a quote from Costello's piece.

“I thought we battled through a tough month with some injuries and an extremely tough schedule physically,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “I thought our guys played extremely hard and found a way to have a winning month. In our division, that’s extremely important.”

George Stienbrenner must be smiling down from Heaven although captian Derek Jeter is not at the top of their game. Costello reports this, "Derek Jeter, who went 0-for-3, also continues to struggle. He is now hitless in his past 12 at-bats and is in a 2-for-30 skid."

As you know if you are following my blog, and I know this is sacrilege, I am not a fan of Derek Jeter. He is a nice person and I have read in the gossip columns quite the ladies man but he can't compare to my favorite captain Thurmon Munson, may he rest in peace.

I won't be going to any Yankee games since Bloomberg and gang made Babe Ruth my other favorite Yankee, they made Babe Ruth's ghost homeless and at the tax payers expense when most can't afford a seat or popcorn, a hot dog and beer.

Consider me a Phil Mushnick except he is better behaved and I am prettier. Also if you have not read Juan Gonzalez's piece on a private developer picked by king Mike Bloomberg to run the "new" $340 million dollar Yankee Stadium parking lot who happens to be behind in rent owed to NYC for two years as in owes NYC $8.7 million dollars than click here and read. Hey Juan can we have any update on this story and I want to know do we the people collect interest on the money owed? Hey folks if you and I do not pay that kind of money or far less we go to jail.

A best friend who is a minority wrote me if he shoplifted from Sephora would he get one day of community service? He was referring to Caroline Giuliani, the ex-mayor's daughter and by the way it is pretty amazing that Rudy is worth $60 million dollars post leaving office and that Caroline is starting to hold herself like Paris Hilton.

Paris if you want to carry cocaine around, oops I mean chewing gum around than party in NYC because here if you are rich you can get away with anything. Note: In Leonard Levitt's book, NYPD Confidential he gives lurid details of mayor Rudy Guiliani's lurid affair with a young woman that worked for him and also how he kept rewarding her with promotions and raises - the biggest when he dumped her for yet another adulterous affair.

Remember after 9-11 when we needed the mayor here because the NYPD and FDNY were having major friction downtown and he could not be bothered because he attending a Yankee game? I felt sorry for Caroline's cry for help shoplifting until she became appeared in the press like a Paris Hilton wannabe.

Paris give A-Fraud, oops, A-Rod a call. He is single and he likes blondes a lot. I saw A-Rod referred to as A-Fraud on The New York Daily News website and that summed it up for me. A-Rod makes me long for hiring unknown players for smaller salaries that don't take anything for granted including their wive and kids but hey I know he has his fans. Will an "S" have to go after his stats as well?

I love NYC and I want any NY sports team to win. I am happy for the Yankees but I can't help but think NYC is own shaky ground. There are some very rich people that think they are above the law and their egos are bigger than the Empire State building. Note to the Yankees: Stay humble or you will tumble from Suzannah B. Troy an old school fan.

GOP Congressman Kline dodges veterans

Congressman John Kline (R-MN) was conspicuously absent from the Goodhue County United Veterans Organizations "Candidate's Forum" in his district last night. The forum was not far from where Kline has made his home since relocating from Texas. Do you suppose he didn't want to have to explain the disconnect between his rhetoric and his votes?

Why would a former Marine officer serving in Congress not vote to support funding for Veterans Affairs?  I don't know; since action speaks louder than words maybe vets and other voters just learned how little Kline cares for the honest, working Minnesotans in his adopted District.

Former MN Representative Shelley Madore: Cannon Falls VFW
Goodhue county United Veterans Organization Candidate Forum

Kline's opponent, former State Rep. Shelley Madore was certainly there, joining candidates at all levels from Governor through county offices to meet with vets and their families and talk about needs and priorities.  Madore's record in the Minnesota House shows a dedication to Veterans that you might expect Kline to want to counter in front of a receptive audience. Considering his startling anti-veteran votes on spending for Veterans Affairs he'd better find some friendly audience or Madore's "35 Cent Tour," which is gaining traction with the media and the voters, will become the story of the election.

Republicans, following President Bush's lead, led this country into an economic quagmire pursuing wars of choice while protecting big banks and special interests, but that's no reason for Kline to dodge his military family constituents.  Leaders get out and talk to voters, and if necessary explain why they made bad decisions, but Kline evidently lacks the commitment to the veterans in the district to face those tough questions.

True leaders don't sit back and spout ideology when the chips are down, they roll up their sleeves and take ownership of the challenges and problems.  They lead by example, not by talking points.  The men and women who put on this country's uniform deserve the respect of all of us, but a former officer couldn't be bothered to attend their forum?

The November election across the Twin Cities metro from the Bachmann-Clark contest will be a choice between a former marine officer who voted against defense department funding and now deliberately dodges veterans and a former legislator who's visiting every community in the district at every opportunity to make sure her constituents know how hard she works.

Ask the folks who went to Farmfest if their current Representative cares about farmers. Kline ignored that invitation, too, while Shelley Madore, who grew up on a farm and may already know more about the challenges than he does, made the trip and talked to farmers.  It's beginning to look like a pattern, with Kline avoiding any unscripted appearances while Madore shows she knows how to reach voters and has the courage to talk to them face to face.

The choice for voters is increasingly clear: Kline's content to sit at home, while Shelly Madore continues to show she'll work harder and do more.

Thomas Hayes is a political strategist currently managing the Madore for Congress campaign, entrepreneur, journalist, and photographer who contributes regularly to a host of web sites on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community.

Bumper Sticker targets Ocean Beach bums

A bumper sticker that targets Ocean Beach bums and aggressive panhandlers, has pitted a head shop against a local blogger in Ocean Beach (San Diego County). The sticker is similar to one from Mammoth Mountain that warns people not to feed bears, but OB's depicts the silhouette of a hobo carrying a bindle on a stick while walking a dog and reads "Welcome to Ocean Beach/Please don't feed our bums.”

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that an employee from The Black smoke shop, Ken Anderson and a friend came up with the idea a few months ago. The Black began selling bumper stickers and t-shirts with the message in June.

Frank Gormlie, who runs the "OB Rag" blog, says the stickers send the wrong message about Ocean Beach, which he describes as a "place of laid-back tolerance. The stickers carry a message of hate," Gormlie told the newspaper.

The 62-year-old wants a boycott of The Black, and is offering a free T-shirt to the person who removes the most stickers from public signs around town.

Dozens of opponents of the campaign, protested in front of the smoke shop on Newport Avenue, several times over the past few months, encouraging the public not to patronize the business. Opponents of the sticker say that it paints all homeless people with a broad brush, and spreads a message of hate and intolerance in a community known for being open-minded and inclusive.

Several counter-protestors, who support the bumper sticker, say that the campaign is directed at young, able-bodied transients who aggressively panhandle, urinate on the streets and sidewalks, and threaten residents who do not give them money.

Employees at the Black say they have sold out of the $2.50 sticker, but are ordering more and will continue to sell them.

Doesn't this just beat all? It is bad enough that millions of hard working Americans are being forced into homelessness by the worst unemployment problem in the history of our country but now when we have no place to go, the Non-homeless community wants us to starve as well. This "not in my community" mentality by those who have a place to live is heartless, void of compassion and beneath the America I know and love.

Is it really any wonder with the country's leaders in Washington calling the unemployed 'Bums and Hobos' and calling us spoiled simply because we want a fighting chance to survive, why communities are following that example? What is happening to America when it's children feel that beating up the homeless is some sort of spectator sport to be video taped and uploaded to the internet?

A new sticker has surfaced in Ocean Beach, but this time it has a gentler message about the homeless population.

The San Diego Regional Task Force on the Homeless created a new sticker with the image of a man in board shorts and flip-flops shaking the hand of someone with a sign that says “Will work for food.” Above and below the two men shaking hands, the sticker states “Welcome to O.B. Together We End Homelessness” Surrounding the image of the two men are the words generosity, caring, empathy, tolerance -- words some said better describe the feelings of those who live in Ocean Beach.

"Well, it's a wonderful sticker," said one resident.

To the "haves" Nation: it could very easily be you next on the streets. Try asking yourselves how you would want others to treat you if/when that happens.

The recession is 190 weeks old and the maximum unemployment benefits you can receive (in less than half the states) is 99 weeks. We have a net deficit of 10.5 million jobs over the past 3.5 years and it will take another 5 years at least to get these jobs back, if ever.

With no benefits and no jobs out there to take, in order to support our families, what are we supposed to do? It is a sad, true fact "Desperate people do desperate things." If you have not the heart to help your fellow man during these extraordinary hard times and you create even more desperation in those befallen by hard times, then God help you - as you may well get what you deserve and eventually be victimized by your own lack of humanity.

Infighting, divisiveness may kill the 99er movement

Infighting and divisiveness may kill the 99er movement before Washington indifference starves them all. There is a disturbing trend within the 99er community that may be even more destructive than Washington withholding a Tier 5. Certain groups on Facebook and other sites designed to unite the millions of 99ers in America, are actually banning people who post informative articles about the cause and attacking those who have lead the charge over the past 12 months.

Useless bickering about how many 99ers there really are in America and trivial infighting over who speaks for them is more the clash of petty egos and small-minded megalomaniacs seeking more attention than they themselves have been able to generate for the cause. Jealousy is a vicious, unproductive trait.

Results speak for themselves. The 99er Nation needs to remember who it was that helped them break into the mainstream media, who successfully delivered the 99er letter into the hands of President Obama, who organized the fax-email-call campaigns that forced Washington to finally write/introduce two Tier 5 bills this month and put the 99er cause on the map across America.

It has been the relentles s work of 99er Media (Rob C.), Cindy Paoletti (who wrote the Obama letter), the weekly BlogTalkRadio shows like Mr. G’s Unemployment Roundtable, Paladinette’s Jobless Talk, Monica Ross-Williams’ Reach Out Job Search, the highly organized leadership of U-Cubed, the dedicated members of PalTalk’s Tier 5 to Survive-unemployed unite plus the daily reporting on our movement by a handful of reporters from MSNBC (Ed Schultz), PBS, ABC, RTTV, Huffington Post (Arthur Delaney, Arianna Huffington) and Examiner.com reporters Detroit Job Search Examiner-Monica Ross-Williams and Rochester Unemployment Examiner-Michael Thornton (to name a few) that have placed us upon the precipice of realizing our Tier 5 unemployment insurance benefits.

The 99er community is not as few as 1.4 million strong, like the DOL would have you believe. The San Diego Unemployment Examiner called the DOL using credentials of Examiner.com and asked them point blank how many Americans have exhausted all UI benefits. They said (back when nobody knew who the 99ers where) that they do not keep data on "UI Exhaustees". Now, when everybody knows about our movement, the DOL releases that bogus 1.4 million number? It simply does not pass the laugh test.

The figure quoted of 1.4 million workers is NOT accurate. Even NELP said earlier last month that of the 15 million people on UI benefits 56% of them have been unemployed longer than 6 months. If you believe the figure that 2.5 million of those were cut off by Congress' failure to extend UI benefits for those who would otherwise be eligible (in June), that still leaves 5.9 million unaccounted for before Congress passed the latest extension.

If you do the math, you see that 3.8 to 4 million 99ers is a very conservative number, especially when we are growing by 50,000 per day. The new extension, being back dated to June 2nd has created many more 99ers just in the past month, as those who were prevented from advancing to tier 4 (only 6 weeks long) have been sent their final retro money for the 6 weeks and are now done with all tiers. Those who only qualify for the Tier 3 will join the ranks of the exhaustees by the end of this month.

Last September, when Congress was working to pass Tiers 3 & 4, they openly debated on the House and Senate floors using the phrase "over 3 million people would be helped" by that legislation. (That has to be available somewhere in those transcripts) This was 11 months ago. Most of the original UI exhaustees who fought for tiers 3 & 4 last fall, ran out of benefits in Feb/March this year. Every month since, this number snowballs.

There is a counter on the Jobless Unite website that does not include the 50,000 new 99ers per day. The counter has been up for several weeks and if that 50K daily number is correct (which also came from the DOL), we are now well over 5 million. Though the counter says 4.3 million at present.

I am not a statistician, but anyway you look at that 1.4 number, it makes about as much sense as the 9.5% US unemployment rate. It doesn't pass muster.

It is far less significant quibbling over the exact number of 99ers and far more important that every UI “exhaustee” unite in one loud voice to force Washington to pass the Tier 5 legislation for all states as soon as Congress reconvenes in mid-September.

If you or any victim of unemployment should be banned from the blogs and Facebook groups without cause, or if you are just sick and tired of the negative garbage some of these groups allow on their sites, you are welcome to join good, positive groups that post important information and filter the petty bickering or Troll activity that only detracts from our plight. Here are a few good ones:

EXTEND UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

Now: JOBLESS / Next: HOMELESS

New York State Department of Labor page on Facebook

Tier Five Or Die

UNEMPLOYED AMERICANS

TWITTER MARCH for the UNEMPLOYED