Chick Ludwig of The Dayton Daily News:
Well, I learned something more about the 12-year veteran on Sunday. He's a pretty good actor.
After his cheap shot on Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer, von Oelhoffen raised his hands to his helmet pretending to be sorry. I didn't buy Kimo's act then. I don't buy it today. I won't buy it tomorrow.
That the NFL didn't fine von Oelhoffen, coupled with referee Larry Nemmers' refusal to penalize him, is a double slap in the face of the Bengals organization.
E-mailers have flooded my inbox, seeking my opinion on the play. I answer them with one word. D-i-r-t-y. Because every hit on a quarterback below the waist is exactly that.
What genuinely surprised me was the Bengals' reaction.
Instead of slamming Rudi Johnson and Chris Perry down the Steelers' throats in a test of manhood, offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski allowed Jon "Crazy Legs" Kitna to heave 40 passes. Two got picked off.
And tell me this: How could the Bengals....with their franchise quarterback on crutches, his knee encased in ice and out until August.....let Roethlisberger and von Oelhoffen escape Paul Brown Stadium without a bump or a bruise? I have a feeling they were too busy bickering at halftime.
Therein lies the difference between the two clubs.
One is hard. The other is soft.
Friday, January 13, 2006
This Is NOT Surprising
WASHINGTON — The Arab news network Al Jazeera announced Thursday that Dave Marash, an award-winning former correspondent for ABC News' "Nightline," is joining its 24-hour English-language network, to be launched this spring.In an interview Thursday, Marash, 63, described his new position as "the most interesting job on Earth."
Calling Al Jazeera "a thoroughly respectable news organization," Marash, who will co-anchor the news from the network's Washington studio, said the new show aimed to "win the high end. We want to give the most sophisticated, most nuanced and most global view of the day's events."
Calling Al Jazeera "a thoroughly respectable news organization," Marash, who will co-anchor the news from the network's Washington studio, said the new show aimed to "win the high end. We want to give the most sophisticated, most nuanced and most global view of the day's events."
Trees Do Cause Pollution
Everyone knows trees are "A Good Thing". They take in the carbon dioxide that threatens our planet with global warming and turn it into fresh, clean oxygen for us all to breathe.
But now it seems we need to think again. In a discovery that has left climate scientists gasping, researchers have found that the earth's vegetation is churning out vast quantities of methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent even than CO2. This is not a product of trees and plants rotting, which everyone already knew was a source of methane; it is an entirely natural side-effect of plant growth that scientists had somehow missed. Yet it is by no means trivial: preliminary estimates suggest that living trees and plants account for about 10 to 30 per cent of the methane entering the atmosphere.
The discovery, reported by an international team of scientists in the current issue of the journal Nature, is adding fresh fuel to the debate over the confidence we can put in global warming science. It does not affect claims that the earth is warming up, which centre on measured effects rather than their likely causes. It does, however, raise serious doubts over grand plans for combating the warming process - such as the Kyoto protocol. The protocol allows countries to offset their greenhouse gas emissions through reforestation programmes, with trees being thought to cancel out some of the warming effect by mopping up CO2. The discovery that these new forests would themselves generate another greenhouse gas raises, at the very least, doubts about the size of the net benefit.
But now it seems we need to think again. In a discovery that has left climate scientists gasping, researchers have found that the earth's vegetation is churning out vast quantities of methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent even than CO2. This is not a product of trees and plants rotting, which everyone already knew was a source of methane; it is an entirely natural side-effect of plant growth that scientists had somehow missed. Yet it is by no means trivial: preliminary estimates suggest that living trees and plants account for about 10 to 30 per cent of the methane entering the atmosphere.
The discovery, reported by an international team of scientists in the current issue of the journal Nature, is adding fresh fuel to the debate over the confidence we can put in global warming science. It does not affect claims that the earth is warming up, which centre on measured effects rather than their likely causes. It does, however, raise serious doubts over grand plans for combating the warming process - such as the Kyoto protocol. The protocol allows countries to offset their greenhouse gas emissions through reforestation programmes, with trees being thought to cancel out some of the warming effect by mopping up CO2. The discovery that these new forests would themselves generate another greenhouse gas raises, at the very least, doubts about the size of the net benefit.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Did VA Execute An Innocent Man?
The governor of the US state of Virginia has ordered a DNA test to establish the guilt or innocence of a man executed for murder in 1992.
Roger Keith Coleman was convicted of raping and murdering his sister-in-law, but always maintained his innocence.
The US is not thought to have used DNA tests to clear someone after execution.
Democrat Governor Mark Warner said new techniques in DNA testing could provide a definitive verdict not available at the time of the trial.
Mr Warner, who has been tipped as a possible presidential candidate for the 2008 election, is due to leave office on 14 January.
"This is an extraordinarily unique circumstance, where technology has advanced significantly and can be applied in the case of someone who consistently maintained his innocence until execution," he said.
"I believe we must always follow the available facts to a more complete picture of guilt or innocence."
...Opponents of the death penalty hope an quashing of the conviction could spur efforts against the US use of executions.
But Tom Scott, a prosecutor who worked on the original trial, said there was overwhelming evidence of Coleman's guilt, and said he was confident the verdict would stand.
Ira Robbins, a criminal law professor at the American University, told the Washington Post that an "innocent" verdict "could be the biggest turning point in death penalty abolition".
Coleman always maintained his innocence, declaring before he was electrocuted in 1992: "An innocent man is going to be murdered tonight.
"When my innocence is proven, I hope America will realise the injustice of the death penalty as all other civilised countries have."
Uh, I guess the injustice and uncivilized ways of this country will have to continue.
RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) -- New DNA tests confirmed the guilt of a man who went to his death in Virginia's electric chair in 1992 proclaiming his innocence, a spokeswoman for the governor said Thursday.
Apparently, Coleman didn't think rape and murder uncivilized.
Roger Keith Coleman was convicted of raping and murdering his sister-in-law, but always maintained his innocence.
The US is not thought to have used DNA tests to clear someone after execution.
Democrat Governor Mark Warner said new techniques in DNA testing could provide a definitive verdict not available at the time of the trial.
Mr Warner, who has been tipped as a possible presidential candidate for the 2008 election, is due to leave office on 14 January.
"This is an extraordinarily unique circumstance, where technology has advanced significantly and can be applied in the case of someone who consistently maintained his innocence until execution," he said.
"I believe we must always follow the available facts to a more complete picture of guilt or innocence."
...Opponents of the death penalty hope an quashing of the conviction could spur efforts against the US use of executions.
But Tom Scott, a prosecutor who worked on the original trial, said there was overwhelming evidence of Coleman's guilt, and said he was confident the verdict would stand.
Ira Robbins, a criminal law professor at the American University, told the Washington Post that an "innocent" verdict "could be the biggest turning point in death penalty abolition".
Coleman always maintained his innocence, declaring before he was electrocuted in 1992: "An innocent man is going to be murdered tonight.
"When my innocence is proven, I hope America will realise the injustice of the death penalty as all other civilised countries have."
Uh, I guess the injustice and uncivilized ways of this country will have to continue.
RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) -- New DNA tests confirmed the guilt of a man who went to his death in Virginia's electric chair in 1992 proclaiming his innocence, a spokeswoman for the governor said Thursday.
Apparently, Coleman didn't think rape and murder uncivilized.
Not Newsworthy
The mainstream U.S. media outlets have failed to report a major terrorist plot against the U.S. - because it would tend to support President Bush's use of NSA domestic surveillance, according to media watchdog groups.
News of a planned attack masterminded by three Algerians operating out of Italy was widely reported outside the U.S., but went virtually unreported in the American media.
Italian authorities recently announced that they had used wiretaps to uncover the conspiracy to conduct a series of major attacks inside the U.S. Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said the planned attacks would have targeted stadiums, ships and railway stations, and the terrorists' goal, he said, was to exceed the devastation caused by 9/11.
Italian authorities stepped up their internal surveillance programs after July's terrorist bombings in London. Their domestic wiretaps picked up phone conversations by Algerian Yamine Bouhrama that discussed terrorist attacks in Italy and abroad.
Italian authorities arrested Bouhrama on November 15 and he remains in prison. Authorities later arrested two other men, Achour Rabah and Tartaq Sami, who are believed to be Bouhrama's chief aides in planning the attacks. The arrests were a major coup for Italian anti-terror forces, and the story was carried in most major newspapers from Europe to China.
"U.S. terror attacks foiled," read the headline in England's Sunday Times. In France, a headline from Agence France Presse proclaimed, "Three Algerians arrested in Italy over plot targeting U.S."
Curiously, what was deemed worthy of a worldwide media blitz abroad was virtually ignored by the U.S. media, and conservative media watchdog groups are saying that is no accident.
Nope. The media's too busy discovering that mining is a dangerous occupation.
News of a planned attack masterminded by three Algerians operating out of Italy was widely reported outside the U.S., but went virtually unreported in the American media.
Italian authorities recently announced that they had used wiretaps to uncover the conspiracy to conduct a series of major attacks inside the U.S. Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said the planned attacks would have targeted stadiums, ships and railway stations, and the terrorists' goal, he said, was to exceed the devastation caused by 9/11.
Italian authorities stepped up their internal surveillance programs after July's terrorist bombings in London. Their domestic wiretaps picked up phone conversations by Algerian Yamine Bouhrama that discussed terrorist attacks in Italy and abroad.
Italian authorities arrested Bouhrama on November 15 and he remains in prison. Authorities later arrested two other men, Achour Rabah and Tartaq Sami, who are believed to be Bouhrama's chief aides in planning the attacks. The arrests were a major coup for Italian anti-terror forces, and the story was carried in most major newspapers from Europe to China.
"U.S. terror attacks foiled," read the headline in England's Sunday Times. In France, a headline from Agence France Presse proclaimed, "Three Algerians arrested in Italy over plot targeting U.S."
Curiously, what was deemed worthy of a worldwide media blitz abroad was virtually ignored by the U.S. media, and conservative media watchdog groups are saying that is no accident.
Nope. The media's too busy discovering that mining is a dangerous occupation.
Taxes and Spending
The federal government posted the first budget surplus for December in three years as corporate tax payments hit an all-time high, helping offset a record level for spending, the Treasury Department reported Thursday.
The department said in its monthly budget report that government receipts surpassed spending by $10.98 billion last month. A year ago, the government ran a deficit of $2.85 billion in December.
The improvement reflected the fact that government receipts were up 12.1 percent from a year ago to $241.88 billion while government spending rose by a slower 5.6 percent to $230.9 billion. The figure for outlays still represented an all-time high for spending for any month.
Corporate income tax collections totaled a record $73.5 billion last month, surpassing the old record of $72 billion set in September.
Even with December's surplus, experts are predicting that the budget deficit for this year could well surge above $400 billion, reflecting increased government spending to help with reconstruction efforts in hurricane-ravaged states along the Gulf Coast.
Two questions:
1. How is it that every time taxes are cut, tax revenues soar? Howard Dean, call your office.
2. How do Congressman sleep at night spending as much as they do?
The department said in its monthly budget report that government receipts surpassed spending by $10.98 billion last month. A year ago, the government ran a deficit of $2.85 billion in December.
The improvement reflected the fact that government receipts were up 12.1 percent from a year ago to $241.88 billion while government spending rose by a slower 5.6 percent to $230.9 billion. The figure for outlays still represented an all-time high for spending for any month.
Corporate income tax collections totaled a record $73.5 billion last month, surpassing the old record of $72 billion set in September.
Even with December's surplus, experts are predicting that the budget deficit for this year could well surge above $400 billion, reflecting increased government spending to help with reconstruction efforts in hurricane-ravaged states along the Gulf Coast.
Two questions:
1. How is it that every time taxes are cut, tax revenues soar? Howard Dean, call your office.
2. How do Congressman sleep at night spending as much as they do?
Quote of the Day
“We all make mistakes, I know I have ….” -- Ted Kennedy, today during the Alito hearings. Now that's an understatement.
Monday, January 09, 2006
Marvin's Feisty
Even in his moment of despair, Bengals coach Marvin Lewis tried to paint a better picture in light of the circumstances. Palmer blew out his knee. Chris Henry suffered a knee injury. The Bengals fell apart in the second half.
"It's unfortunate," Lewis said. "We're not going to sit here and baby and cry like their quarterback did."
Lewis was taking a shot at a Roethlisberger comment made earlier this year about low hits to his knee. Face it, these guys don't like each other.
"It's unfortunate," Lewis said. "We're not going to sit here and baby and cry like their quarterback did."
Lewis was taking a shot at a Roethlisberger comment made earlier this year about low hits to his knee. Face it, these guys don't like each other.
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