One Illinois town to welcome Gitmo detainees, the new season of "The Biggest Loser" and the fascination with selling exotic animals

- The plan to send as many as 100 prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay prison to a prison in Thomson, Illinois is okay with me. The city has a mostly unused prison that could house the prisoners and would be beefed up in terms of security before they would be transferred, so I don’t have an issue with it. The move will create jobs in Thomson and both state and local political leaders are on board with the decision. Fact is, the Gitmo detainees have to go somewhere if we’re ever going to close that hellhole and a largely empty prison 150 miles west of Chicago is as good a place as any. President Obama announced the decision Tuesday, but the administration admits that the exact number of detainees to be transferred is "hard to pin down because categories of detainees may shift. While 100 may be the upper limit, the actual number at well below that (75 or perhaps even less)." Still, that’s approximately one-half to one-third of the 215 detainees currently held by the U.S. military at the camp in Cuba. The move should also please groups like the National Campaign to Close Guantanamo, which is led by former Rep. Tom Andrews and has been extremely vocal in speaking out against the facility’s continued operation. "We applaud the Obama administration for taking an important step forward toward closing the debacle in Guantanamo Bay," said Andrews. What I also found interesting was that al Qaeda has apparently been using Guantanamo as a primary recruiting tool. What, they’d be less pissed and potential recruits would be less likely to join if their comrades were still in captivity but simply held in a different location? Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and Sen. Richard Durbin visited the White House on Tuesday for a briefing on the plan to use Thomson Correctional Center for Gitmo detainees and came away extremely happy with what they heard. That’s probably because their focus is on the 2,000 potential jobs and up to $1 billion in federal money that would be poured into the area if this plan goes into effect. They would also feel much less heat for having a 1,600-bed facility that is emptier than a movie theater at a Paulie Shore premiere. Additionally, the wing of the prison housing the Gitmo detainees would be under the control of the U.S. Defense Department, while the Bureau of Prisons would assume responsibility for the rest of the facility. That’s another weight lifted off the state’s shoulders, which is something state officials will surely tout as well. No word on whether notorious Gitmo detainee and September 11 conspiracy mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would be housed in Thomson, but either way, it’s nice to know that someone will finally be getting some use out of the place……….

- You all know where I stand on NBC’s reality weight-loss show The Biggest Loser: I love it. It’s one of the very, very few reality shows with actual substance and a legitimate purpose, so it’s great to watch. Heck, NBC could chain-smoke seasons of the series, so to speak, and run one after another after another and still have tons (pun intended) of FAT people to help. The eighth season of the show ended on Dec. 8 and by the time the live finale aired and Danny Cahill became the biggest 'Biggest Loser' ever when he dropped 239 lbs. in seven months to win the title, a new season was already being filmed. And once again, the show has managed to dredge up enough über-FAT people to make its ninth installment its heaviest yet. The show will return to its couples format for the ninth season, which premieres Jan. 5. "The Biggest Loser: Couples" will feature 11 teams of two competing for the crown, including Michael Ventrella, a deejay from Chicago, Illinois, who at 526 lbs. becomes the heaviest contestant ever on the series. He is joined by his mother Maria, a corporate travel agent. "I would do anything for Michael," said Maria, who starts at 281 lbs. "At first I didn't think I could do it because I have too many responsibilities at home. I have a husband who is disabled, my mom in a wheelchair, a full-time job, home cleaning -- it's a lot. But then he needed it so bad and so I am here, and I need it for myself, too!" The Ventrellas are one of eight parent-child duos on the show this season, which should make for some interesting intra-family fireworks all season long. One of the non-parent-child teams is attorney Melissa Morgan and her husband Lance, a rancher, who hail from Aspermont, Texas. The California-based team of cousins Sam Poueu and Koli Palu also come to the Biggest Loser ranch with an interesting story. The cousins were inspired by the success of Tongan cousins Sione and Filipe in season seven and dream of having the same sort of impact on the people and culture of American Samoa. Season 8 will also feature identical twins James and John Crutchfield of Orlando, Fla., who weighed in at a combined 969 lbs. "I'm glad I'm here," James said, "because my only other alternative is surgery." As always, trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Hall will be there to beat the contestants into submission, break their spirits and build them back up as leaner, tougher and stronger competitors with a new lease on life. Be sure to tune in on Jan 5 when the new season begins and I promise you’ll be glad you did………

- What the heck is the fascination with importing and selling illegal, exotic animals, world? Oh, that’s right – it’s a multi-million dollar business. People will always, always do stupid sh*t for money and take ridiculous risks for the chance to make a few extra dollars. Take U.S. Global Exotics, a business that acquires creatures from all around the world, then sells them for premium prices, as an example. The good folks at U.S. Global Exotics were doing their thing, breaking the law and minding their own business when Arlington Animal Services served a civil seizure warrant on their establishment. And oh, the wonders these agents found when they busted down the door of the Arlington, Tx. facility. In what is being called the biggest animal seizure of its kind in the country, authorities moved in to take custody of a many as 20,000 creatures, including snakes, wallabys, tarantulas, turtles and hedgehogs. "We're finding huge amounts of dead animals in with the living ones," said Jay Sabatucci of Arlington Animal Services. "We're finding turtles who are basically in a toxic soup of water and other dead turtles." This a massive operation, with the Humane Society of North Texas and the SPCA of Texas are among the organizations joining in to help city officials collect and catalog the critters collectedfrom the U.S. Global Exotics facility. Veterinarians from around the country and even one were flown in to provide their expertise into evaluation and treatment of the more exotic animals, so clearly this was a sophisticated operation that dealt in all kinds of bizarre and unique animals. "We have consulted with some experts," Sabatucci said. "Some of the methods of keeping the animals are not within guidelines. There are animals in there literally starving to death, not being fed. There are animals in conditions where the environment is either too cold or too warm for them." So check that, this was not a sophisticated operation, otherwise these a-holes would have taken care of the animals, fed them properly and known what sort of temperature and environment each kind of animal needed to survive. Amazingly, no criminal charges have been filed against the firm, which — according to its Web site — has been importing and exporting exotic animals for 11 years. That same Web site claims that U.S. Global Exotics is licensed by U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Umm, not any more, it’s not. "I'm a dog man myself, so it's hard for me to understand how someone would like something exotic like a wallaby or a tree sloth," Sabatucci said. "But there are people who wish to have these types of animals, and they’ll pay top dollar to have them." Sadly, all of that is true. In the meantime, the animals will be removed to an undisclosed location to evaluate their conditions and if a court awards the animals to the city, the survivors will be shipped to places where they will be properly cared for. This story just might have a happy ending after all………

- Quite the week for NFL player Richie Incognito. Already on thin ice for poor play, a bad attitude and frequent penalties while manning the left guard position on the offensive line for the lowly the St. Louis Rams, Incognito blew his lid in Sunday’s game against Tennessee and garnered not one, but two personal foul penalties for head-butting opponents in the first half. Coach Steve Spagnuolo benched Incognito after the second penalty and the two had a heated exchange on the sideline that was caught by television cameras. When faced with an easy decision following the game, the choice between keeping an underperforming, unstable idiot who was hurting his team nearly every time he set foot on the field or jettisoning said idiot, the team went with the latter. They released Incognito Monday, floating him out onto the waiver wire, where any time desperate enough for offensive line help could pick him up. Enter the Buffalo Bills, they of the 4-9 record and last-place standing in the AFC East. With their own young, inexperienced offensive line beset by injuries, the Bills elected to roll the dice and bring Incognito in for the final three games of the season. After all, how much damage could the guy really inflict in three short weeks? Even a guy who was named the dirtiest player in the NFL earlier this year by The Sporting News can't submarine a team that already sucks and has only three games left to play…..right? That depends. It depends on how successful coaches and Bills staffers are in keeping Incognito as far as possible from injured linebacker Kawika Mitchell at all times. Mitchell, who is on injured reserve and thus ineligible to play for the remainder of the season, clearly has a problem with one Richard Incognito. The two have played against one another before when Mitchell was with Kansas City and Incognito was in St. Louis. I’m not sure exactly what happened between them, but I know that Mitchell has a major, major beef with Incognito. Don’t believe me? Just read the following back-to-back tweets from Mitchell’s Twitter page (twitter.com/Ka_Mitchell55) immediately after reports of the Bills signing Incognito surfaced:

RT @ProFootballTalk Bills add Richie Incognito http://is.gd/5qtmn #NFL--BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT THIS YR. THE GUYS A BUM. DIRTY AND ALWAYS...

... WILL BE. REALLY WISH I WAS PLAYIN RITE NOW. SERIOUSLY... I KNO WE'RE N NEED OF OLINE BUT THIS GUY SUKS BALLS.

Wow…..just wow. Mitchell had some much vitriol built up that one tweet could not contain it. He needed two 140-character blasts to thoroughly expound upon his hatred of Richie Incognito. The first post recycles the idea of Incognito being the dirtiest player in the game, but a new revelation from the second post, something I did not know and have not heard anywhere else, is that Incognito “suks balls.” From one dude to another, that’s one of the more offensive things you can say. In most places, them are fightin’ words, to put it bluntly. And I have no doubt, given the two involved parties, that Mitchell and Incognito would throw down. Heck, Mitchell wrote that he wished he were healthy and playing right now, not to help his team, but so he could throw hands with Incognito. Ironically, there is drama in the Buffalo locker room and Terrell Owens has nothing to do with it. That being said, it’s been a train wreck of a season for the Bills and if I’m the team, I find a way to allow Mitchell to at least get out on the practice field so this fight can happen. Give your fans some real entertainment, because Lord knows the crap you’ve been passing off as football isn't doing the trick……….

- How about this: only people specifically invited to the White House for an event on the exact day they were invited to come are allowed inside? Is that too much to ask for the residence of our nation’s leader and one of the world’s most powerful men? First it was those tools the Salahis looking to jump-start their reality television careers by gate-crashing a state dinner. I won't devote any additional time or space to those ass clowns, but suffice it to say that their entry into that state dinner was a significant indictment of White House security. The incident that happened recently to Harvey Darden of Hogansville, Georgia, and his wife Paula wasn’t an exact replica of the Salahi incident, but it was still not cool. The Dardens couple arrived at the White House on the wrong day for a tour recently and instead of being turned away, they were led into a lavish invitation-only breakfast where they met the president, first lady and vice president. Darden says he was standing outside the White House security booth with his 62-year-old wife when he heard: "Mr. and Mrs. Darden, you are cleared to come in." They were escorted directly to the grand East Room where there was a buffet and a crowd of people, some in military uniforms, some in suits. It was right around that point Darden says that he began to realize that something was amiss. The Dardens labeled it "dumb luck," but the White House spun the story by saying that it a "nice gesture" and that it is not uncommon for staff to take people who are cleared for tours to other events if there is space available. Uh huh, sure. People show up for a run-of-the-mill White House tour and if they happen to show up on the wrong day, you invite them in for a breakfast with the president? I’m not saying that this is on par with the Salahi incident, but I really do think we need to allow only people specifically designated to meet the president to actually meet the president, y’know? The Dardens actually got into the White House on Veterans Day, weeks before Salahis’ infamous party crashing and were supposed to take a tour that was booked by their congressman. The White House also went out of its way to point out that the Dardens were put through numerous security screenings before being allowed onto the grounds. The reason they were escorted to the particular breakfast they attended was because the staffer who greeted them at the gate asked Harvey Darden if he was a veteran. When Darden said he told the staffer he was a Navy veteran, the staffer told him to stay for the breakfast. All in all, a relatively benign and harmless incident. That being said, I think my policy suggestion should probably be implemented anyhow, just to be safe…………