- In a game of legal chicken and with his NFL career potentially hanging in the balance, Michael Vick blinked first. Reports began coming out this afternoon that Vick had accepted a plea deal from federal prosecutors in the dogfighting case against Vick and three co-defendants. Billy Martin, Vick’s attorney, made a statement confirming the plea deal, so it is in fact true. The plea hearing for Vick will be held next Monday, August 27, at which time we’ll learn the terms of the deal. Speculation has placed the time of Vick’s impending prison term at 18-36 months, although the final decision on sentencing is in the hands of the judge in the case. However, you have to figure that Mike Vick will be locked up for 2-3 years and has also has the impending discipline from the NFL, it’s reasonable to say that he won't have a chance to play football again before 2009 or 2010. Bear in mind that having a chance to return to the NFL and finding a team willing to sign him are two different things. The Atlanta Falcons, Vick’s current team, appear poised to cut him at some point, although Commissioner Roger Goodell has asked the team to withhold taking any disciplinary action until the league has its say. But the Falcons will have ample time to cut Vick in the months ahead. Once he’s released from prison at the end of his sentence, Vick is going to be off-the-charts radioactive, and any team that signs him will have to deal with all of the scrutiny, criticism and outrage from animal rights activists and dog lovers who will come out en masse to protest in any city where Vick signs. One interesting question is posed by Vick’s decision to plead guilty, and that question is what happened to the defiant guy who had his attorney read a statement back on July 26 that declared Vick’s intention to take the necessary steps to prove his innocence and fight these wrongful charges against him, thus clearing his good name? How did, “I’m not guilty and I’m going to prove it to you,” turn into, “Ok, I am guilty, what kind of plea deal will you give me?” Did I simply hear Billy Martin wrong when he read Vick’s statement outside that federal courthouse in Richmond, Va.? Was he speaking in some obscure, secret code where not guilty translators into, “Not guilty until me co-defendants roll on me and I’m so screwed that I have to take whatever plea deal the government offers,”? I’m actually angrier now than I would have been if Vick had just kept his mouth shut initially and not tried to lie to us all for as long as possible before caving in when he saw he couldn’t beat these charges, and I suspect most people feel the same way. If that figure of 18-36 months is accurate, here’s hoping that Judge Henry Hudson goes high and sticks Vick in the hole for the full 36 months.
- Not exactly an overtly profitable weekend at the box office, although perspective can be skewed when four major blockbuster movies (Ocean’s Thirteen, Spiderman 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and The Bourne Ultimatum) have come out since the beginning of May. The winner for this weekend is the R-rated comedy Superbad, which brought in $31.2 million, knocking last week’s top earner, Rush Hour 3, out of the top spot (not a tough assignment, I know). However, Superbad cost only $20 million to make, so it’s well on its way to turning a tidy profit for the studio. It is amazing how you can keep production costs low when you’re not paying exorbitant salaries to mediocre lead actors, eh producers of Rush Hour 3? Superbad may not be in the same zip code when it comes to box-office earnings as Bourne Ultimatum, but that’s not the goals the movie is aspiring to anyhow. I’m sure that everyone involved with the project has to be happy with what turned out to be a great opening weekend for a genuinely funny movie.
- Use small words, speak slowly and mix in lots of colorful pictures. That’s my advice to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper as he meets with W. this week to re-assert Canadian sovereignty in the oil and natural gas-rich region of the Arctic that has become a zone of contention for multiple global superpowers. The Russians have been the most aggressive in asserting control over the Northwest Passage, which Canada laid claim to in 1973. Well, that’s assuming you consider sending miniature submarines down to the ocean floor to plant pressurized capsules containing your nation’s flag to be aggressive. Why Harper is meeting with W., I don’t know; it’s not as if the United States and Canada alone can make a final decision on this issue. Of course, one study suggested that the region in question could contain as much as one-fourth of the world’s undiscovered supply of natural gas and oil resources, so you know that W. will literally go to war on this. If there’s oil involved, perhaps even if it’s only vegetable oil, that tool is going all in…..
- Speaking of W. being a tool and of war……it looks like boosting the number of U.S. troops in Iraq not only isn’t helping to correct the mess in Iraq, it’s also causing major problems for our military. According to interviews and data analysis conducted by the Associated Press, the Army has exhausted nearly all of its personnel options and faces several undesirable and difficult decisions in the months ahead if W. doesn’t wise up and change course in Iraq. (W. getting smart? Unlikely.) With all 38 of the Army’s combat units deployed, just returning home or already designated for deployment to one of those locations, there are no fresh troops to replace the five extra brigades W. sent to Baghdad earlier this year. Options for solving the dilemma include accelerating the use of national guard units, breaking a promise to keep no soldier in Iraq for more than 15 months or reneging on a promise to give soldiers a full year at home before returning them to combat. Most Army brigades have already completed two or three tours of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan, so maybe it’s time to consider a different option. Yes, I’m going to go all left-wing, liberal, hippie, peacenik on you and suggest that we END THE F’ING WAR IN IRAQ! You’ve said it, I’ve said it, your mechanic has said it, your butcher has said it, Congress has said it, dead people have said it, tribes living in the bushes of Africa who have no idea what America is or that it even exists have said it, so let’s give it a try. Give peace a chance……..
- How many reality shows can bill themselves as portraying “The Real Orange County” before one of them gets it right? MTV must feel like it didn’t quite “git ‘r done” with the three seasons of Laguna Beach the network did (two seasons too many), because MTV is back with Newport Harbor: The Real Orange County, which is basically just Laguna Beach in a different town. Same basic personality types, same kind of wealthy kids engaging in the same typical high school drama, just in a new setting. LB got tired and played after one season, but here’s MTV, trying to squeeze a little more life out of the phenomenon that began in 2003 with The O.C. Problem is, that show fizzled out last year and is mostly forgotten about, yet here’s MTV, trying to capitalize on the phenomenon one more time even though it’s dead and buried. Here’s where I come out on this: I don’t need to know if Chrissy likes Stephen or Kyle or if Alex A. and Alex M. are fighting or if the water polo team will get new uniforms this year. Take this whole genre/concept and bust a cap in it’s a**, MTV, before I go ahead and do it for you.
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