- Don’t pay any attention to the news that the NBA and its players' association will return to the bargaining table this week to resume talks toward a new labor agreement. They can talk this week, next week and every week in between now and next summer and a deal isn’t going to get done. The two sides are far enough apart on key issues and have dug in deep enough in their respective positions that a deal isn’t forthcoming until games are missed, angry fans begin ripping both sides for those missed games and the league and its players begin to feel the financial pinch of a work stoppage. So even if commissioner David Stern announced the meeting during a conference call Monday to announce regular-season games in London next March between New Jersey and Toronto, blow right past that announcement and keep your eyes on the prize. The reality is that the two sides haven’t met at the negotiating table since the league's All-Star weekend in February, so they aren’t exactly rushing through the process with a sense of urgency. At the February meeting, the players rejected the owners' proposal for a deal to replace the one that expires June 30, 2011. The union countered with its own proposal, but Stern intimated that it is too similar to the current CBA and thus not enough of a paradigm shift for the owners, who are seeking significant changes to the system. Of course, those changes are based on the owners’ claim that the league will collectively lose about $370 million this season, which the union disputes. "I would say that our revenues are robust, and it's taking more expense and effort to produce them than it has historically," Stern said Monday. "So we are looking for -- we are not pleading poverty. We are pleading the need, we are stating the need for an improved revenue versus expense model that would be demonstrably sustainable and continued to allow our sport to grow." Some fans might look at the higher-than-expected salary cap for the coming season and the fact that projected revenues were up and wonder what the owners’ problem is, but the league contends that expenses were also up. This can be traced in no small part to the fact that owners hand out bloated, long-term contracts like fun-sized Snickers at Halloween and then wonder why their league is sinking financially. Asked about the likelihood of a lockout next summer, Stern was in no mood for that sort of talk. "You're asking someone that question who is committed to do anything possible to avoid it," he said. "So I'm not going to put odds on it, because that would mean that we failed, and I don't want to anticipate failure." First off, I don’t believe that for a second and also, don’t tell me a guy as smart as D. Stern isn’t capably of reading the writing (in red ink) on the league’s CBA wall……….
- Most of the time, I pay little or no attention to the air waiters and waitresses on any flight I take. Unless they are passing out my meager meal, reminding cell phone degenerates to turn off their phones in flight or pouring me half a can of Sprite into those tiny airline cups, I don’t have much use for them. Had I been on last week’s JetBlue flight that featured an air waiter-passenger brawl followed by said air water quitting, nabbing beers from the galley and exiting the plane via an emergency chute, I may have bothered to pay attention. Steven Slater is the air waiter in question and he found himself in a scrap with a passenger who boarded the plane in Pittsburgh, where the flight originated. As with so many a-holes on flights, this female passenger was looking to cram her too-large baggage into the overhead bin and had another passenger jockeying for the same space. “She was competing with another passenger for the slot. They were shoving luggage around," said Slater's attorney, Howard Turman. "He (Slater) came over to assist, she started cursing and -- based on the information -- slammed the overhead luggage bin on his (Slater's) head," Turman said.
Turman added that the female passenger said "F--- you" to Slater. To Slater’s credit, he took the alleged expletive in stride and didn’t react then and there. However, when the flight landed at JFK, Slater approached the same passenger as she was retrieving her bag from the bin while the plane was still taxiing to the gate. Right, because you’re going to beat the plane to the gate or get through the dozens of people in front of you to exit the plane first when it arrives at the gate. Fly even once and you know that passengers are required to stay in their seats with their seat belts fastened until the pilot lets them know that the plane has reached the gate. This woman, who appears to be totally ignorant of the most fundamental practice of air travel, cursed Slater again and then became even more irate when informed that she would have to wait at baggage claim to retrieve luggage she was forced to check at the gate. Seriously, how do you not know that? If you check a bag, it’s going to be at baggage claim when you deplane and not waiting for you at the gate. The third of the passenger’s tirades was enough to send Slater over the edge and according to passenger Phil Catelinet, Slater commandeered the plane’s public address system and said, "To the passenger who just called me a motherf-----: f--- you. I've been in this business 20 years, and I've had it." Sporting a small gash on his head from the day’s battles, Slater grabbed some beer from the beverage cart once the plane stopped at the gate, then deployed the emergency slide and deplaning on his own. He has been suspended pending an investigation, later arrested and ordered held on $2,500 bond and not to have contact with two specific JetBlue employees following his arraignment on Tuesday. Slater admitted that it was "more than likely" he will lose his job, but that hasn’t stopped him from becoming a freaking cult hero across the country. I look forward to each and every one of you rallying to his defense…………
- Any time a product has the success that Apple's iPad has achieved in a few short months on the market, there will soon be a line of competitors looking to challenge it. The iPad has already sold more than 3 million units, even though it costs $499 for the cheapest model, which has inspired other computer manufacturers to expedite their effort to compete. Count Dell as one of those competitors. Dell announced this week that its first U.S. tablet offering will be the Streak, a device first introduced in the U.K. and now making its way across the pond. However, competing with the iPad is pretty much the extent of the similarities between the Streak and the market leader in its field. The Streak’s screen is half the size of an iPad (five inches) and unlike the iPad, it can make cellular voice calls. Oh, and the Streak runs the world’s crappiest operating system, Windows. In short, it’s something of a tweener device, not big or powerful enough to be a real computer but too large to be a cell phone. In fact, Dell is promoting it like an oversized cell phone. As for price points, those are going to vary greatly depending on how you build your particular model as far as options. It goes on sale Aug. 13 at $300 if you sign up for a new two-year AT&T contract, which must include a data plan. By comparison, the cheapest iPad with cellular data connectivity is $629. To snare a Streak without an AT&T contract, you’ll need to pony up a hearty $550. Unlike the iPad, which is limited in its connectivity choices, the Streak can be used with any other phone carrier, although the $550 model can be used as a Wi-Fi-only device, just like the $499 iPad. The Streak is going to follow in the ill-fated shoes of the Google Nexus smartphones and be for sale only online, a decision that proved fatal for Google. Ironically, the Streak runs on Google's Android operating system. The device will also provide access to the 70,000 or so third-party apps available in the Android Market app store. Ultimately, the Streak is halfway between an iPhone and an iPad and will probably have less success in grabbing market share than either of the two. At six inches long and three-plus inches wide, it’s too large to fit comfortably in a pocket but not large enough to be handled like a real tablet. Sounds like a loser to me………
- Even the most casual football fan knows the story of the late Pat Tillman, an NFL star who gave up his football career to become an Army Ranger and ultimately died in Afghanistan in 2004. Tillman’s death is easily one of the most controversial in recent military history, as he was initially hailed by the army as a hero who died in battle but ultimately found to have been shot by friendly fire, a fact the army knew about even as it was lying and using his faux-heroic tale of fighting rebels to boost enlistment totals and promote their own agenda. Tillman’s family has vigilantly fought to get the true story of his death out and to force the army to stop its lies and propaganda using the trumped-up story of Pat Tillman’s death. Knowing that, I’m not sure how the family is going to react once The Tillman Story is officially released. The movie is produced by the Weinstein Company, which adapted the real-life drama for the big screen and is now fighting its own “battle with the MPAA” over the R rating given to the documentary. Now, it’s logical to assume that a documentary about a guy who gave up his NFL career to join the military after 9/11, died in Afghanistan in 2004 and surely fought many battles along the way is going to be graphic, gritty and raw - if done right. All military movies - the non-cartoon ones anyhow - are that way and the MPAA used the film’s strong language as justification to slap it with an R rating. That didn’t sit well with director Amir Bar-Lev, who contends “the language…is not gratuitous” and instead reflects “how many people would react when faced with the unthinkable.” His words were echoed by TWC head Harvey Weinstein, who angrily sniped that, “I want my teenage daughter, and the nation’s young adults to be able to watch Pat’s story.” I would concur with Messrs Weinstein and Bar-Lev, as Tillman’s is an amazing and inspiring story that needs to be shared with one and all. The MPAA’s horrible, small-minded decision prevents that from happening and so supporting the Weinstein Company’s Aug. 12 appeal of the rating is the only acceptable option. With the film due for release Aug. 20, this issue must be resolved quickly. Just think what the MPAA would have rated the film had Bar-Lev not changed the title of the documentary from I’m Pat F—ing Tillman, reportedly the last words Tillman said before he died, to The Tillman Story right before the film’s premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. And as you’d expect with a bunch of red-tape-loving, bureaucratic bastards like the MPAA, representatives for the association could not be immediately reached for comment………..
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! It’s time to head to freaking Bolivia, a place near and dear to my heart, for it is there that Nearly half of the 16,000 residents of Potosi, the capital of the province of the same name, have mounted a blockade that has cut off all roads, train and air traffic with the rest of the country. Angry dissisdents cutting themselves off from the rest of their country and wreaking havoc fires me up in ways I can't begin to describe and not only are these amazing rioters clogging up the roads, they are also accusing the government of not investing enough in the southwestern province they call home. For two-plus weeks, protestors have clogged up the streets and made their voices heard, They are demanding several projects, including construction of a modern airport, new roads and a cement factory. Oh, and in their spare time they are also waging a border war with a neighboring province, Oruro. Some protestors are engaging in a hunger strike, including Felix Gonzalez, Potosi province governor, and other officials as well as union leaders. Civic organizations are leading the revolt and said on Wednesday that the only mediator they will accept is Bolivian President Evo Morales. That’s a steep demand and needless to say, I freaking love it. This showdown could drag on a while because the pansies who run the government are on the record as saying that the government will not use force to end the siege. "In the government's strategy, the only solution to this problem is dialogue," Interior Minister Sacha Llorenti said. "Under no circumstances are we going to fall into any type of provocation. We are not going to use force precisely because some radical sectors want this to have a disastrous ending." Whatever you say, S. The longer this situation drags on, the more I get to enjoy it. Never mind that the federal government claims to have budgeted $577 million for new roads in Potosi province, a sum higher than for many other provinces. I think we all know what a propensity the government and its agents have for lying in any nation. The government also claims that it has also built schools, stadiums and parks in the province under a federal program. Residents don’t seem to be buying that story, nor did any of them seem swayed by a plea from the country's minister of mines, claiming that the region's mining projects and the royalties that it gains from them are suffering from the blockade. These people are willing to put themselves in a tough spot by accepting the reality of dwindling food supplies in exchange for keeping this blockade going. In so doing, they have inspired me and millions of other dissidents around the world. So riot on, Bolivian activists, riot on………
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