- You do what you have to do to stay in power and if that includes holding jailed dissidents underground and paying pro-government gang members $100 a day to crack down on protesters, so be it, eh Syria? Those are the most recent allegations against the country’s embattled government has been as it attempts to crush dissent amidst months of demonstrations and public outrage. Mahmoud Suleiman al-Hamad, a financial inspector in the Ministry of Defense in Damascus until his recent defection to Egypt, made those claims in an interview this week and in the process provided a view inside a dark and violent crackdown that does not appear to be slowing. He spoke about what he saw from his 12th-floor office and how harsh the crackdown truly was. "I used to see them bringing in blindfolded and handcuffed detainees on buses who are kept in underground prisons, even some built under the streets," he said. "What is more horrific is the intelligence vans marked with the Syrian Red Crescent insignia that would drive through the protests as ambulances and start firing at protestors." Posing as aid workers or medical professionals and using that as a cover to needlessly gun down protestors in the street? Very clever, Syrian government. Among al-Hamad’s other allegations were instances where city buses filled with armed gangs left the ministry accompanied by four-wheel-drive vehicles "filled with weapons” and drove directly into the heart of areas where protests were taking place. Not surprisingly, al-Hamad blames much of the carnage not Syrian regular troops but on President Bashar al-Assad's intelligence service and the gangs of violent criminals he says were recruited to battle protesters. "Bashar al-Assad is no longer able to control these human monsters," al-Hamad said. "We have reached a phase of genocide, and this can't be tolerated under any circumstances." Yikes, he’s tossing out the G-word? That’s not good. Nor is the suggestion that gunmen were provided with accommodations "and high salaries of about $100 a day." Violently crushing a rebellion is one thing; doing it by paying criminals to serve as mercenaries is something else entirely. Even within the government, life was not exactly free and easy, al-Hamad said. The ministry forced employees to have vacations and travel be approved by the intelligence department. He ultimately escaped by traveling to Egypt through the airport with the excuse of registering my son in college in Cairo. And yes, escaping to another country in upheaval like Egypt is incredibly ironic……….
- How did the battle with one of his star players go for Sacramento Kings Paul Westphal? Go ahead and ask Westphal that question because he has plenty of time to answer it now that the Kings have fired him. They dismissed the third-year coach Thursday, amid a slow start and an intensifying dispute with young center DeMarcus Cousins. Westphal was 51-120 in two-plus seasons with the franchise, but it was his early-season battle with Cousins that garnered the most attention through Sacramento’s first seven games this season. On Sunday, Westphal unexpectedly released a statement Sunday criticizing Cousins' commitment to the franchise, stated that the 6’11 center would not play in the team’s game that night against New Orleans and said Cousins asked for a trade. Cousins’ agent refuted the trade claim and Cousins played in the team’s two ensuing games, losses at Memphis and Denver on consecutive nights. Cousins was the fifth overall pick in 2010 after he spent one season at Kentucky and has averaged 13.7 points and 9.3 rebounds in 26 minutes per game this season. He has a reputation among both peers and around the league as talented but troubled, an immature slacker who doesn’t always follow instructions or make an effort to be a part of the team. His flashes of promise on the court have alternated with outbursts against players, coaches, trainers and referees and his conditioning and work ethic have been regularly questioned. While Westphal’s firing isn't entirely attributable to his clash with Cousins, it certainly didn’t aid his case to stay with the team starting 2-5. On top of those factors, the NBA and Kings owners Joe and Gavin Maloof have given Sacramento a March 1 deadline to approve a plan to help finance a new arena, or the franchise could again explore relocation. The Kings nearly moved to Anaheim, Calif., in April before the league's Board of Governors elected to give Sacramento another chance. This season is that chance and it’s not exactly off to a roaring start…………
- The tide has been moving this direction for a while, but sales figures from a Nielsen and Billboard report confirm that digital music has officially bypassed physical album sales as the preferred method of (legally) obtaining music. For the first time ever, digital sales topped physical album sales in 2011, to the tune of 50.3 percent to 49.7 percent. Digital sales rose a whopping 8.4 percent from the previous year, while physical album sales declined 5 percent. A major surge at the end of the year boosted digital sales, with a record 3.5 million albums sold in the last week of 2011. Despite the downtown, physical album sales and those who try to keep that dying beast alive can take solace in the fact that both physical and digital rose compared to the prior year for the first time since 2004. The push toward digital music was fueled early on by file-sharing services like Napster and digital music stores like Apple’s iTunes store and Amazon’s music store picked up the torch. Most consumers say they prefer shopping online to buying in a store, which is both sad and predictable. The slow death of the record store has inspired Record Store Day each April, but there is no way physical album sales will ever be anything other than a niche part of the market ever again unless some sort of apocalypse sets the whole world back a century and sends us all into a mini-Dark Age. What hasn’t changed is the low quality of music the masses are buying and listening to the most. For example, the most streamed song of 2011? Nicki Minaj's "Super Bass," with 84.9 million audio streams and 71 million video streams. Minaj’s music is terrible, but the world has always loved terrible music (see Spears, Britney and the entire man-band era). Lady Gaga was 2011's most streamed artist and she’s one of the few artists whose music is even worse than Minaj’s. One of the year’s best-selling albums was Adele's 21, which sold 5.8 million units. Her music has plenty of critical acclaim but isn't exactly causing anyone to hail it as the “Abbey Road” of the modern era. Also boosting digital music sales are apps from popular music magazines like Rolling Stone and Spin Magazine that allow users to purchase music while browsing. Yes, this digital music idea just might have some real staying power…………
- Aaaand yet another sign that filming a “Bourne” movie without the real Jason Bourne is a terrible idea. Even the universe is against the project and evidence of that can be found in the near-disaster that found the film’s star during a night of barhopping in Thailand while working on the film. Jeremy Renner, taking Matt Damon’s place as the star of the franchise, was hanging out with friends at Rachada Pub in Phuket Town when one member of the group, Vorasit Issara, general manager of the Sri Panwa Resort, dropped a glass on the floor. In most countries, a drunk dude dropping a glass on the floor is just another benign part of a normal night, but Issara’s glass drop sparked an attack from six members of the bar staff. Issara was allegedly stabbed in the stomach by Suchart Palae and attacked on the neck by Nareubate Tednok with a rotor axe - yes, an axe. The six bar employees have been charged with attempted murder following their confession to attacking Issara and his friends, Phuket City police superintendent Maj. Gen. Chonasit Wattanavrangku confirmed at a press conference following the incident. As Issara remains hospitalized with serious wounds to the stomach and neck and with bruises all over his body, the obvious question persists: Does this happen if Matt Damon is starring in “The Bourne Legacy”? The obvious answer is no. First, Damon probably isn't out in some lame bar where the staff attacks people just for dropping a glass. But even if he is there, Matt Damon has enough street cred (it’s true even though he’s a white dude from Boston) that he would get some respect. Oh, and the gods of cinematic karma wouldn’t be looking to smack Damon in the face with another reminder that he’s in a role he should not be in. Even though Renner fled the premises as the fight started (another un-Bourne-like response), he’s not getting away clean on this one. Filming for “The Bourne Legacy” is now underway in Manila………….
- Use your sick days and use them before it’s too late, state workers in New Jersey. If Gov. Chris Christie has his way, you will no longer be able to suck it up, go to work and hold onto your sick days before cashing them in for a huge payday when you retire. Some stat employees in the Garden State currently have the option of accumulating unused sick days and cashing those days in at the end of their career. The most prominent example in the past year was the mayor, police chief, deputy police chief and five other government employees in the city of Elmwood Park pocketing a cool $1.2 million for their unused sick days when they retired. Stories like that have caused a minor public uproar and now Gov. Christie wants the state’s Democrat-controlled legislature to end the practice. “That is a lot of money for you to be putting out for paying not to be sick, which is essentially what we’re doing here,” Christie said. Christie alleged that Democratic lawmakers aren’t taking action on his sick pay reforms, while those lawmakers argue that the governor’s plan g is unconstitutional and that he’s not accepting compromises. Those who oppose the governor’s plain claim taking away sick days now from employees who have been on the job for years and in some cases decades would be tantamount to a breach of contract. One possible compromise would be grandfathering current state workers into the system, but that sort of measure would do little to alleviate the current financial issues Christie is seeking to address. Yes, not all state workers can walk away with unused sick pay money when they retire. Some may argue that it is unfair and a double standard, but either way there is no arguing that if Christie’s idea went into effect, there would be plenty more fake coughs, bogus back injuries and feigned migraines……….
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