- Shouldn’t Gary Kasparov have his own jail cell by now, a special cell reserved just for him? He’s been harassed and thrown in prison often enough for being an outspoken leader of the opposition movement in Russia, he should at least have some frequent-visitor perks behind bars. His latest arrest and jailing come after leading a large protest in Moscow that ended in clashes with the police. Responding in the Communist fashion we’ve come to know and loathe, the police and government showed they have no tolerance for or appreciation of anyone trying to tell them they’re wrong, instead electing to exercise brute force and oppression. For his part in the protest, Kasparov has been sentenced to five days in jail, which is barely a slap on the wrist to him. You know me, I’m friend to any political or social dissident, be it individual or group, and I love protests like nobody’s business, so I’m 100 percent with Kasparov here. His gathering of 1,500 people may have been unsanctioned by the authorities, but that doesn’t mean that what they were saying was wrong. Their anti-government chants and resisting arrest are necessary because someone has to stand up to an unresponsive, abusive government that is slowly but surely dragging the country back to its Communist past. After the rally, during which Kasparov claims he was beaten (I believe him), two police officers lied and said they had been instructed before the rally to arrest him. Yeah, because you need to shut up someone who leads dissidents in speaking out against exclusionary election rules that have kept most opposition groups from taking part and changing a government they disagree with. The Kremlin has been busy trying to pave the way for a landslide victory for Putin’s party in the Dec. 2 parliamentary elections, and they obviously don’t mind paving that road with the blood of those who oppose them. Instead of actually addressing the issues raised by the opposition and other who accuse him and his administration of stifling democracy in Russia, Putin has chosen to beat down his opponents while pointing the finger at the West and accusing them of meddling in Russian politics. “Putin’s brakes don’t work,” Kasparov said in the courtroom. “I didn’t hear any orders from police, unless you count the strike of a club as an order.” I don’t, but Putin and his posse clearly do. Along with beating down protestors, the police also had mysterious men in black coats circulating through the crowd at the protest, shooting video, probably so they can identify protestors and make some sort of black list of who to seek out, harass and abuse in the months ahead. Also arrested after the rally was Eduard Limonov, author and leader of the National Bolshevik Party. He and Kasparov are two of the leaders of the coalition of anti-government organizations, which makes them good guys in my book. I’ll be looking forward to both of them being arrested and jailed several more times in the next few weeks just for speaking the truth…..
- Not a good weekend for the combination of love and television….first came news that the Hulkster, Hulk Hogan, will soon be shelling out a handsome divorce settlement after his wife of 24 years and co-star of the reality series Hogan Knows Best, filed for divorce. So whatcha gonna do, brother, whatcha gonna do, when the alimony payments run wild on YOU? Not only does Hogan know best, apparently Hogan also is about to know what it feels like to be a washed-up old divorcee. Still, at least the Hulkster didn’t find himself on the receiving end of the same kind of relationship pain that former Bachelor star (now there’s an oxymoron) Byron Velvick experienced recently. Velvick and the “love” of his life, Mary Delgado, had a bit of a domestic spat and the end result was Velvick with a busted lip after being punched by Delgado. Her name may be Mary Delgado, but bitch swings like Carlos Delgado. According to the police report, Delgado admits to striking Velvick and also that alcohol was a factor in the incident. I may be way out of bounds here, but personally I have no problem with what Delgado did. Why? Because after going on The Bachelor, that loser Velvick deserves whatever he gets. Punched in the face, blasted in the package, scratched on the arm, hit in the back of the head with a frying pan, I don’t care, dude deserves it. You contribute a single thing to that abomination of crap-ola that is one of the five worst TV shows of all time, you deserve any pain that can be inflicted upon you. If Delgado wants to break out the Chinese water torture or strap electrodes to Velvick’s body and crank of the voltage, let her do it. Maybe now prospective metrosexual tools, er, Bachelors will reconsider their decision to appear on the show. We can only hope……
- Every week/weekend of the college football season seems to get tagged with a catchy name, like Rivalry Week, Separation Saturday, etc. Maybe the name of this week should be Carnage Week, because head coaches are getting whacked at an alarming rate over the past few days and the firings don’t show any sign of slowing down. After Texas A&M (Dennis Franchione), Nebraska (Bill Callahan) and Mississippi (Ed Orgeron) went down in the first wave, Chan Gailey (Georgia Tech), Ted Roof (Duke) and Northern Illinois coach Joe Novak followed two days later. Coaches are fired or not retained after every season, but I can't remember anything close to this mass axing for as long as I’ve been a college football fan. Patience is becoming a rare, hard-to-come-by quality among athletic directors, university presidents, fans and boosters throughout college football. Coaches are being given a lot less time and leeway to build not just a winning program, but a perennial contender. Going 7-5 or 8-4 isn’t good enough at a lot of schools; you need to be 11-1 or 10-2 and going to a major bowl game nearly every year to keep your job. Also helpful are not making disparaging remarks about your athletic director in a book (as Callahan did) or selling inside information on your team to boosters in a pay-per-view newsletter (as Franchione did). Stay tuned for more coach firings, because I’m anxious to see if we can boost this up to double digits in the next week or so.
- Maybe all of those jokes about Native Americans and casinos aren’t that far off the mark. While many tribes have began sticking it to the white man (or pretty much any non-Indians) by taking their money at blackjack, roulette, poker, baccarat, craps, etc., to make up for the land we stole from them while driving them onto tiny reservations and subjecting them to all sorts of new diseases that killed thousands of them, the Seminole Tribe of Florida is having some issues with how their gambling revenues are spent. Leaders of the tribe, which was the first in the United States to offer high-stakes gambling, stand accused of spending millions of dollars in casino revenues on themselves and their friends and relatives instead of using the money to benefit to whole tribe. Those accusations have triggered a federal investigation and complaints from members of the tribe that the corruption has helped a select few at the expense of the whole. Each tribe member (about 3,400) does receive approximately $120,000 annually in profits from Seminole enterprises, but since 2000, Tribal Council members have spent more than $280 million from discretionary funds under their control on travel, posh homes, luxury vehicles, basketball courts, boxing rings and even cosmetic surgery. In other words, not only are the Seminole leaders busy suckering money from the white man through gambling, they’ve actually become the white man by engaging in all of his vices and luxuries. Just goes to show that corruption and greed are universal; a person from any race or nationality can turn into a lying, thieving, corrupt scumbag if given the proper opportunity and motivation.
- Another day, another protest against Vladimir Putin, another police-administered beating to innocent protestors. Like death, taxes and gawd-awful music from American Karaoke, this cycle of protesting and police brutality in Russia are things you can now count on in life. This time, the protest took place in St. Petersburg, where hundreds of angry protestors gathered to demonstrate against the anti-opposition election policies and other unfair actions taken by the Kremlin and President Putin in an attempt to keep their iron-fisted grip on the country. Police violently dragged many protestors toward buses in an attempt to stop their demonstration and clear the area. Some of the protestors who tried to resist and escape were brutally beaten, which is so far out of line that I can’t even begin to explain to you how pissed I am. Just because they have the testicular fortitude to stand up and speak out against injustice in their country and won't back down when The Man tries to shut them up, that gives you the right to brutally beat them, Russian police? What year is this anyhow, 2007 or 1977? Who’s running your country, a democratic government or the oppressive iron fist of the Communist Party? And President Putin, allow me to quote legendary pro wrasslin’ tag team Degeneration X here: If you’re not down with what I’m saying, I’ve got two words for you…….SUCK IT!
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