More oppression courtesy of the Chinese government, a pot-related problem for Lil Wayne and JaMarcus Russell's downward spiral continues

- Well lookee here, the Chinese government is at it again – not that they ever really let up in their shameless and brutal oppression of their citizens. At this point, there have been so many examples of that oppression in action that you may be asking yourself what is left to do and honestly, it’s a fair question. But we’re dealing with the Chinese government here, people. There is no end to their capacity for brutal oppression, repression and any other kind of pression you want to talk about. In this case, it’s banning individuals from registering internet domain names and launching a review of millions of existing personal websites in the toughest government censorship drive so far on the Internet. No longer can your average Chinese citizen step out of the smog-choked atmosphere surrounding their dwelling place, sit down at their computer and register a domain name like most other people in the world. No, as of Monday, people applying to register a domain name in China must present a company chop and a business license. That exciting announcement came courtesy of the China Internet Network Information Center, a government-backed organization (of course). On top of that, the government is bringing the hammer down on those who already have the rights to domain names that, for any reason at all, might offend the government’s delicate sensibilities. Thus, Internet service providers have started to review their client base for potentially fraudulent or "harmful" individually owned sites, with the term "harmful" often used by the government as a catch-all that covers anything that it’s not down with. This issue has been occasionally debated in China over the past decade, but on both prior occasions, the government took no official position on whether to explicitly allow personal websites. Individuals could simply sign up for domain name ownership on the web, but that approach is now dead and replaced by the new, dictatorial version. In general, individuals account for the overwhelming majority of all owned domain names worldwide, so this is a significant issue. You could clearly see such a step coming, what with the non-stop crackdown on all things individual and freedom-related in China nowadays. Any sort of user-generated content provides the chance for the individual to speak out against The Man and China wants none of that. I have not checked the world rankings lately for Communist, dictatorial states who systematically strip their citizens’ freedom, but I have to imagine that this decision has vaulted China to the top of that list or at least damn close to it……….

- No one is more of a friend to stoners than me. By now, you all know that I believe the world would be a kinder, gentler, mellower and better place if our pot-loving friends were in charge – assuming we could get them up off the couch and pry their lips from their bongs often enough to make any decisions. So I love stoners and while I personally don’t have a problem with my man Lil Wayne, I can see where potential home buyers in the Miami area might have an issue with everyone’s favorite chronic-loving rapper. Seems that L. Wayne is attempting to sell off his Miami apartment but is having trouble doing so. Why? Is it because of the terrible market for real estate? Nope. Is it because he has an absurdly high asking price and refuses to compromise? No again. The reason the apartment isn't selling is because potential buyers are either forewarned or scared off by the pervasive smell of the hippie lettuce emanating from every square inch of the apartment. "My fiancé and I called to make an appointment to see it, and the broker, deadpan, goes, 'I have two questions: Are you offended by the smell of marijuana?'" a prospective buyer explained. "And do you mind coming late in the afternoon? It's currently rented by Lil Wayne and these are not morning people." Wow…..freaking wow. In other words, the place reeks of bud and these stoners don’t feel like getting up early so you can come check out the apartment. Amazingly, these potential buyers weren’t put off by these warnings and actually showed up to see the property. When they arrived, they were greeted by scantily clad women and an apartment full of weed smoke. "Once we got there, a member of Wayne's posse opened the door to the overwhelming smell of marijuana," the potential buyer said. "Two hot, rap-video-looking girls were walking around in nothing but a bra and underwear, blasting hip-hop. We just went in and looked around and tried not to stare. He had a perfectly organized closet of crisp t-shirts on hangers, neatly stacked piles of XXL magazine, and a fully stocked bar featuring multiple bottles of Hennessy Black." And you didn’t take the place on the spot? You should have asked if the girls came with the place and if you could also keep the Hennessy. What did you expect from a guy who once told Katie Couric in a CBS special that he loves to hit the bong and made no apologies for it? "I'm a rapper. That's who I am, Miss Katie, and I am a gangster and I do what I want. And I love to smoke. And I smoke," he told Couric. Lil Wayne added that he would" stand up for marijuana any day." Or sit down on the couch, or whatever. In case anyone out there is interested, the apartment boasts three bedrooms, two bathrooms and is listed at $520,000. Make an appointment, make sure you won't be taking a drug test any time soon and go ready for a party………

- And so the fall of JaMarcus Russell reaches a new low. After coach Tom Cable benched the former No. 1 overall pick before Oakland's Nov. 22 home game against Cincinnati for completely inept play, journeyman signal caller Bruce Gradkowski took his place in the starting lineup. Gradkowski actually managed to lead the Raiders to two stunning wins in his four starts, taking down AFC North powers Cincinnati and Pittsburgh with last-second heroics. However, Gradkowski suffered ligament damage in both knees in Sunday’s 34-13 loss to Washington and could not start the second half. Russell entered the game in his place, passed for just 74 yards and failed to move the offense consistently while being booed by the crowd at the Oakland Coliseum. By game’s end, his season totals looked like this: two touchdowns, 10 interceptions, a 48-percent completion rate and a quarterback rating of 65.0 (158.3 is perfect, most NFL quarterbacks are in the 80s or above). When news came down this week that Gradkowski would miss this Sunday’s game against Denver, the logical move seemed to be giving Russell the start because the Raiders seemingly had no better options, no matter how much he has sucked this season. After all, what are they going to do, bench him for some third-string quarterback who played in a non-BCS conference and has been thoroughly underwhelming in stints with both Cleveland and Seattle? Oh, that is what the Raiders are going to do? Never mind. Instead of giving a guy they wasted a top draft pick and tens of millions of dollars in guaranteed money on, the Oakland Raiders will turn to former University of Akron great Charlie Frye to start at quarterback when they visit the Denver Broncos on Sunday. Frye, who has not played at all this year and worked strictly with Oakland's scout team, has started just one game each of the past two seasons (2007 in Cleveland, 2008 in Seattle). But apparently he and his noodle arm give the team a better chance to win than a FAT, rocket-armed draft bust from LSU. It will be good to get back out there with the offense and run some plays that aren't on cards," Frye joked. "I've got a lot of fire in me. I've been that crutch and that supportive guy all season, so now it's my turn to be the fiery leader." But as humiliating as it must be to get passed on the depth chart for a second time this season, Russell has no time to pout. That’s because this week, Oakland also signed free agent signed J.P. Losman, who spent the past few months playing with the Las Vegas Locomotives of the first United Football League. Never heard of it? Don’t worry, the UFL is one season old and probably less than that from its demise. But a guy who had to go to football’s minor leagues to get a chance to play is now on Russell’s heels for the No. 2 spot at quarterback an if Russell’s not careful, Losman might rip that gig from him. Now would be a very good time for you to start giving a damn about conditioning, film study and acting like a real professional, JaMarcus. You are almost certainly going to be cut this offseason and no team is going to bring you in if you are pushing 300 pounds, refuse to learn the nuances of their offense and don’t seem to care one bit about being a good player or part of a winning team…………

- Memo to everyone in and around Nairobi, Kenya at the moment: Be on the lookout for 12 members of the Eritrean national soccer team who failed to return home after competing in a regional tournament in your city. I don’t know who the exact individuals are that you are looking for, so I can't tell you exactly what to be on the lookout for. If these guys are smart, they won't be wearing anything with their nation’s name or flag on it, so as to blend in as well as possible. No one quite knows – or at least is saying – why these men went AWOL. What we do know is that they comprise up nearly half the 25 players and coaches Eritrea sent to the Cecafa Cup, a tournament for nations from east and central Africa. Team organizer Nicolas Musonye alerted police when only 13 team members showed up for the trip home after the tournament ended Sunday. Kenyan police are now searching for the missing players and if these guys are caught, they will be in quite a bit of trouble because none of them has a visa to remain in Kenya, national police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said. "The men were last seen on Sunday after the tournament ended," Kiraithe said. "They had requested a police escort to and from the stadium for the game, but had some free time after the game and absconded from their hotel." Big ups on working the word absconded into your statement; I can count on no hands the number of law enforcement officials in these here United States I would expect to be able to successfully execute such an attempt. What’s funny about this situation is that the Eritrean government originally denied the absence of any players. Even more hilarious was Information Minister Ali Abdu claiming that the missing players would get a "good welcome" on return despite "betraying" their country. Assuming that by “good welcome” you mean a firing squad, then I agree. Heck, the reception for the team was already going to be chilly at best after they team lost in the Cecafa Cup quarter-finals. Not surprisingly, this is not the first time Eritrean players have tried to avoid returning home: A similar incident occurred during the 2006-07 tournament in Tanzania. Just to be sure it doesn’t happen again, officials are looking to make changes in the Eritreans’ travel plans for the next Cecafa Cup. "For the next Cecafa Cup, we have decided to have a police escort for the Eritrean team for the whole duration," Musonye said. The obvious conclusion to draw would be that these players are looking for defect and their first step would be seeking political asylum in Kenya. Eritrea is a notoriously oppressive country that routinely tramples all over the basic human rights of its citizens and the United States accuses Eritrea of arming Islamic insurgents who are trying to topple Somalia's U.N.-backed transitional government. For the geographically clueless among you, Eritrea is a tiny nation that won its independence from Ethiopia in 1993, and the two countries fought a two-year border war in the late 1990s. As for the missing players, Kenyan police seem relatively confident that they will be found soon. "Being players who we have escorted during the tournament, it is not like they are unknown to us. The possibility of them [successfully] hiding themselves from us is very limited," Kiraithe said. Here’s hoping you all manage to stay free and on the lam, missing Eritrean soccer players………..

- Let this be a warning to all of my fellow fantasy football players out there: Your employer may not have quite as accepting an attitude about your love of fantasy football as you might think. Take the example of now-former Fidelity Investments employee Cameron Pettigrew and three of his ex-coworkers who learned the hard way that Fidelity Investments does not give a crap who you start at your flex position this week or what kind of matchup your fantasy D/ST has on Sunday. Pettigrew, who called himself the "Fidelity Man" in the league he played in with several co-workers, was fired because his bosses found out that one of his co-workers had sent him an intra-office instant message busting his chops for how poorly Buffalo Bills quarterback Trent Edwards, one of Pettigrew’s starters, was playing and that Edwards was killing his fantasy season. Not long after that message, Pettigrew says he was called into his boss’s office and “for the next 90 minutes, they asked me about everything I ever knew about fantasy football.” At the end of that meeting, Pettigrew was shown the door and his three league mates/co-workers received the same treatment. He has since lashed out at the decision, saying it is a "complete overreaction." Fidelity is sticking to its guns, saying, "We have clear policies that relate to gambling. Participation in any form of gambling through the use of Fidelity time or equipment or any other company resource is prohibited." I have to say…..I hope there is more to this story. If these four guys were fired simply based on playing fantasy football and talking about it on company time, that’s a reach. Now, if the company had detailed records showing them wasting significant chunks of time playing fantasy football when they were supposed to be working, then fine, fire them. But the gambling excuse is weak for a variety of reasons. First, many leagues are free, meaning players neither pay to participate, nor do they receive cash prizes if they win. I don’t know if Pettigrew and his pals were playing in a free league, but it’s something to consider. Even if they were part of a league where everyone chips in $10 and the winner takes all of the money at season’s end, that’s not gambling in a legitimate sense. These guys had at least some control on the outcome, which you definitely don’t have in true gambling. In the end, Fidelity looks like it will get away with firing Pettigrew and his three amigos, so I’d advise all of the other fantasy players out there to check into their company’s policy on such matters before you too find yourself Pettigrew-ed…………