Posted by Matt on Monday, April 29th, 2013
Tampa Bay Rays’ reporter Kelly Nash on assignment in Boston: Easy on the the eyes. Lucky is her dome.
Sun Sports Rays reporter Kelly Nash was at Fenway Park in Boston watching batting practice.
Nash wanted to take a picture of her experience for her family, who is from Massachusetts.
According to FoxSports.com, Nash’s producer warned her several times to watch out for baseballs flying into their area.
However, Nash decided to turn her back to the field and snap a photo.
Posted by Matt on Monday, April 29th, 2013
From @trettbang on twitter.
Posted by Matt on Monday, April 29th, 2013
Justice O’Connor’s recently released opinion in Hindsight v. History…
Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor says she has second thoughts on whether the Supreme Court should have accepted Bush v. Gore — the deeply controversial case that effectively decided the 2000 presidential election.
“It took the case and decided it at a time when it was still a big election issue,” O’Connor told the Chicago Tribune editorial board last Friday. “Maybe the court should have said, ‘We’re not going to take it, goodbye.’”
In a 5-4 decision at the time, O’Connor voted with the four other Republican-appointed justices to shut down the recount in Florida, the decisive state in the election.
“Obviously the court did reach a decision and thought it had to reach a decision,” the retired justice told the Tribune editorial board. “It turned out the election authorities in Florida hadn’t done a real good job there and kind of messed it up. And probably the Supreme Court added to the problem at the end of the day.”
Posted by Matt on Monday, April 29th, 2013
Watch each card you play and play it slow
I doubt I was alone in my shock upon learning that certain American high schools still have segregated proms, even in places like Wilcox County High School in Abbeville, Georgia.
“How can a school do this?” Well, technically it’s not the school. Since desegregation of the school system in 1971, these segregated proms have been invitation-only private affairs put on by the parents, which is probably more disheartening. To state the obvious, there is clear support for the separate proms in the community.
Wayne McGuinty, a furniture store owner and City Council member, who is white, said he had donated to fund-raising events for both proms in past years and saw no problem with separate proms. They do not reflect racism, he said, but simply different traditions and tastes. When he was a senior in high school, in the 1970s, he said, there were separate proms for those who liked rock music and country music.
“This whole issue has been blown out of proportion,” he said. “Nobody had a problem with having two proms until it got all this publicity.”
You see. White people prom like this. Black people prom like that.
So while last weekend’s segregated affair still took place (gross), this weekend Wilcox County High School had its first integrated prom! How’d they do it? Hint: Leave the adults out of it…
Organized by students, it is open to all, at a ballroom in nearby Cordele. Nearly half of the school’s 380 students have registered, with roughly equal numbers of black students and white students.
A group of four female students — two black and two white — came up with the idea, and they have received an outpouring of support from across the country. Their Facebook group has 24,000 fans, and it has raised enough in donations to rent a ballroom and buy food and gift bags for every couple.
[...] In response, the Wilcox County school board plans to vote this spring on making future proms official school events, which would prohibit racial segregation.
‘Cheers’ to these kids. It’s great when people realize “tradition” isn’t always sacred. Break the cycle. Be better than those before you.
This story was unique in its mileage. Not only was it shocking to learn that such antiquated events occur, it was horrific to read some of the pushback by elected officials in the state. We’re not talking about some county clerk goober, either. Check out Georgia Governor Nathan Deal.
Gov. Nathan Deal won’t take sides in the controversy over some Wilcox County teens’ efforts to integrate their prom.
By email, his spokesman, Brian Robinson, said Deal would have no response to a liberal group’s call for state officials, including the governor to speak out.
He wrote, “This is a leftist front group for the state Democratic party and we’re not going to lend a hand to their silly publicity stunt.”
[Non-profit organization] Better Georgia asked Deal and others “to publicly support the students of Wilcox County who are fighting to end a ‘separate-but-equal’ high school prom.”
“Publicity stunt.” I guess that’s one way to put it.
Posted by Matt on Sunday, April 28th, 2013
Phosphorescent – Muchacho
Complex, persistent and juicy, with vivid blackberry flavors that have a floral edge and tangy acidity.
Grade: A-
Listen to this while: feeling good about your upgraded lawn furniture.
Posted by Matt on Sunday, April 28th, 2013
There will be a bomb Wednesday … in the student union. Let it be known.
You scrawled it. They called it.
This was written in a University of Nebraska-Omaha bathroom. Next thing you know, 20-year-old student William Gottner took a picture of it and posted it on Facebook. “Isn’t this ridiculous? Haha,” Gottner’s caption read.
No, man. This is not ‘haha.’ In fact, this could be the worst possible bathroom reading material. But maybe I just don’t understand Millennials.
The reason that Gottner found the threat so amusing, police said Friday, is because he wrote it himself.
Gottner, a junior from Bellevue, was arrested Tuesday and charged with making terroristic threats — a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. He has posted 10 percent of his $100,000 bail. He waived his preliminary hearing rights and is awaiting trial.
When police caught up with Gottner — they discovered him sleeping on a couch on campus — he told them that he wrote the note because he was upset at having been kicked out of his parents’ house.
Buddy. You’re 20 and in college. If you can scrounge up $10K for bail, you can get yourself a damn apartment. Then it shouldn’t be hard to find a kindred spirit and the two of you can get into some stupid, humorless, NON-VIOLENT pranks. Tosh.0 will probably put one the air and you can bring shame to your family in much less threatening manner.
Posted by Matt on Sunday, April 28th, 2013
Really well done by Chris Hayes and his staff. This site previously noted the muted Media response to the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, and some of the fishy circumstances that plagued the plant’s recent history.
In the aftermath of 9/11, heightened awareness of possible terrorist targets permeated the country. Logically, chemical plants such as the West Fertilizer Plant landed on many of these target lists. Many of these 15,000+ industrial chemical facilities contain large amounts of explosive materials and very little security.
Shortly after 9/11, Jon Corzine introduced the Chemical Security Act, approved 19-0 by the Senate Environment Committee, which would’ve required chemical plants to take certain safeguards, such as using safer chemical alternatives where possible, and bolstering plant security. The Bush Administration blocked the legislation as too burdensome on an industry that contributed roughly $8 million to the RNC and Bush Campaign between 2000-04.
a/k/a – Perry (right) with America’s Sweethearts.
Even Bush EPA head Christine Todd Whitman & DHS head Tom Ridge recognized the risks posed, and issued a joint-statement in October 2002 indicating voluntary safeguards put in place by the chemical industry were insufficient to protect plants and surrounding communities. Together they put together a plan to address the safety concerns.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Hayes pieced together a head-shaking, yet typical timeline of the Bush Administration’s response, which includes all the standard corporate cronyism and predictable Cheney-ness.
[Whitman and Ridge] came up with a plan to deal with the vulnerability. Whitman believed that the EPA was already empowered to expand her agency’s oversight of chemical plants under a section of the Clean Air Act and she and Ridge worked out a deal to do so.
That’s until the son-in-law of former Vice President Dick Cheney walked into the room, a guy by the name Phillip Perry, who was at the time the general counsel of the White House Office of Management and Budget. And he made it clear that the Bush administration was not going to support granting regulatory authority over chemical security to the EPA. According to reports, Perry claimed that their proposal was tantamount to overreach, and that they would need Congress to specifically authorize it.
So the 2 Cabinet secretaries went to Congress looking for a miracle. According to Whitman…
“Although both Tom and I agreed such legislation was necessary, strong congressional opposition–led by some Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee–to giving EPA even the modest additional statutory authority made it difficult to secure administration support for a meaningful bill.”
And so it goes. Hayes then moves forward to 2007, where Perry, now general counsel w/ DHS, makes another appearance…
And what he manages to do, in an uncontroversial bill, in an appropriations rider, is slip in industry-friendly language into the bill that moves the task of regulating chemical plants from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Department of Homeland Security. But DHS is given none of the tools it would need to actually do that. The Washington Monthly wrote this back in 2007:
“Perry reworked the language and helped to get it added to the spending bill in a conference committee. Under the new amendment, the DHS would have nominal authority to regulate the chemical industry but also have its hands tied where required.”
Let’s recap: The Bush administration’s own cabinet secretaries come up with a plan to regulate these chemical plants. It’s stymied by Phil Perry once. The Bush administration sides with the chemical industry when it’s brought before Congress. And then, basically in a backroom maneuver, Perry does the chemical industry’s bidding by moving the oversight of this from the EPA, which the chemical industry hates, to DHS, which the chemical industry thinks they can more easily manipulate.
One more nugget:
Now here’s what makes this all the more incredible. In 2006, when a bill was introduced in the Senate to make chemical plants safer, a bill that was blocked by Republicans, the young Senator who introduced that bill was now-President Obama.
As we pointed out a few days ago, West Fertilizer possessed 1,350 times the amount of ammonium nitrate that would normally trigger safety oversight by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Yet it’s not clear the plant was even on the DHS radar.
Hayes closes with the Chemical Industry’s continued fight against any EPA oversight.
Given that the Bush-backed bill moving oversight of big places storing fertilizer from EPA to DHS is law of the land, and Republicans in Congress aren’t going to change it, the administration has been considering recently granting the EPA the original authority that Christine Todd Whitman wanted. The chemical industry lobby hates this. So in February, 10 Republicans and one Democrat teamed-up with a bunch of chemical industry groups to fight this tooth and nail. Here’s a letter from the groups to members of Congress. It reads in part:
“We have concerns about EPA’s arbitrary application of the General Duty Clause as well as the potential for future expansion of the General Duty Clause to regulate the security of chemical facilities.”
We still don’t know the cause of the explosion. However, initial reports indicate ongoing negligence and noncompliance on behalf of the company and the situation itself exemplifies our willfully defanged regulatory apparatus (on state and federal levels).
So ‘Where’s Philip Perry?,’ you ask. He’s semi-retired and sells roadside crystals in Northern California.
No just kidding. He’s obviously in private practice working on behalf of megacorporations and doing terrible things. For instance, check out his work for Monsanto against those bastard alfalfa farmers who just wouldnn’t stop complaining about Monsanto’s genetically engineered alfalfa seeds infecting their crops and creating Hulk Weeds. (Monsanto Co. v. Geertson Seed Farms, 130 S. Ct. 2743 (2010))
Conventional alfalfa farmers brought suit seeking an injunction against the Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service‟s deregulation of a genetically engineered alfalfa strain resistant to the
herbicide Roundup. Monsanto Co., owner of the Roundup Ready Alfalfa, appealed the District Court‟s
injunction barring the deregulation and planting of the alfalfa to the United States Supreme Court, which
reversed the permanent injunction.
Perry earned his dimes. When the opinion was issued, Perry’s clients dumped a RoundUp-filled Gatorade cooler on him in celebration of their victory. Or at least they should have…
Posted by Matt on Wednesday, April 24th, 2013
Yes, the Koch Brothers are looking to buy more pulpits from which to whine about how rough life is for the Captains of Industry in a country where the top 1% has only captured 93% of all income gains in recent years.
But before this happens, 2 Jenner & Block attorneys who represent Guantanamo detainees managed to sneak in an excellent piece/plea:
I recommend reading in full here, but among the highlights…
Now, more than three years later [after Obama's Executive Order], the prison remains open with 166 prisoners, including 86 men cleared for release in 2010 by the presidential task force! Moreover, in the intervening years, no new reviews have been undertaken. Most of the men still in Guantanamo Bay have been imprisoned there — without charge or trial — for seven to 11 years. Most are locked in small maximum security cells, shackled when moving outside, served poor food, provided third-rate medical care and prohibited from having any visitors except lawyers.
[...]
For the first three years of the prison’s existence, captives were held in wire mesh cages and in isolation from the world. Many were subjected to “enhanced interrogation techniques,” otherwise known as torture. They suffered daily degradation, physical and emotional distress, deep depression and a profound sense of hopelessness. Even now, the vast majority of these men — many of them totally innocent of any wrongdoing — have never been charged with a crime or given any hope of a trial at which their involvement in any alleged acts of terrorism could be fairly resolved. It is no wonder that they have reached the point of despair, which in turn has led to the current hunger strike.
[...]
The remedy must thus come from our fellow Illinois lawyer, President Obama. There simply is no reason — none — why charges cannot be filed and trials cannot proceed in an orderly manner against those detainees for whom the government has reasonable evidence of guilt, and the remainder returned to their home countries. Despite road blocks imposed by Congress, the president has adequate authority to do this, and we urge him to take steps to exercise that authority. The disgrace that is Guantanamo cuts to the very heart of America’s most fundamental commitment to the rule of law and the elementary concept of justice. It should be dealt with as Obama promised some four years ago.
Our legal system has had no problem charging and trying the Oklahoma City terrorists, individuals who have committed mass murder and other horrifying crimes, including major political assassinations. We are confident that the criminal proceedings against alleged terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, arrested last week in Watertown, Mass., will once again demonstrate how we respond to horrible acts with fidelity to the law. We should rely on our criminal justice system — the finest in the world — to properly charge and try the individuals at Guantanamo who warrant charges and trials. Although the United States Constitution does not permit preventive detention, that is precisely what we are doing at Guantanamo. To repeat what the president said in January 2009, our nation does not have “to continue with a false choice between our safety and our ideals.”
So the point still stands. Anytime you’re ready…
Posted by Matt on Wednesday, April 24th, 2013
American Sports’ most over-analyzed and unnecssarily lengthy event is coming to a long weekend near you. The internet needs another mock draft, so here ya go…
Chiefs’ new coach Andy Reid is known for unorthodox motivational techniques…
1. Kansas City Chiefs – Luke Joeckel, OT – Texas A&M: This draft is full of giant men who will prevent opposing defenders from hitting the next mediocre Chiefs’ QB. Joeckel is the safest bet.
Other possibilities: OT Eric Fischer
2. Jacksonville Jaguars – Dion Jordan, DE/OLB – Oregon: Like a deranged pop star, the Jaguars have a lot of needs. Let’s just leave it there.
Other possibilities: QB Tim Tebow (pronounced “TEE-boe”); 1 Season-ticket purchaser – Though he currently plagues the Jets*, Tebow always seems to be a terrible possibility for Jacksonville – a terrible town with terrible fans.
3. Oakland Raiders – Star Lotulelei, DT – Utah: Lotulelei has been dropping, probably due to recent anti-Tongan sentiment. But we’re holding tight on the talented DT. Anyway, it’s the Raiders, so they’re probably going to fuck it up and draft Geno Smith. Aren’t they?
Other possibilities: QB Geno Smith; This Guy:
4. Philadelphia Eagles – Sharrif Floyd, DT – Florida: The Eagles go for Philly-native Floyd, which will definitely work out well for the Floyd family in this notoriously warm-hearted metropolis.
Other possibilities: Smith, Fischer
5. Detroit Lions – Eric Fischer, OT – Central Michigan: The Lions will be the first organization to circumnavigate the globe by going 1-step forward / 2-steps back, all the while embarrassing themselves. This offseason they added a much-needed safety and scatback, yet somehow managed to lose 2 DEs and 2 OTs. Last year’s 1st rd pick Riley Reiff might be moved inside – to Guard, not inside the office. Luckily, Martin Mayhew will trip into this pick. Fischer is a great call – even though I’ve never seen him play. can’t miss?
Other possibilities: CB Dee Milner, DE Ezekial Anzah – Someone might snatch Fischer before the Lions pick, so their next logical move for the Lions’ franchise will be to draft Anzah, who screams, ‘bust.’
6. Cleveland Browns – Dee Milliner, CB – Alabama: Dare I say it – the Browns made some smart moves this offseason. So look for new owner Jimmy Haslam to start appraising his assets. He might as well go out on a high note and return to the more glamourous world of convenience stores and rest stop showers. Milliner should be solid opposite Joe Haden as long as his shoulder doesn’t fall off, though it might take him a while to adjust to the NFL as he’ll get to yawn through Brandon Weeden reps in training camp.
Other possibilities: Anzah, A damn good lawyer
7. Arizona Cardinals – Lane Johnson, OT – Oklahoma: This guy used to be a QB, so who knows? He might start the season at LT but end it behind center.
Other possibilities: Smith (you know you want to…!), G Chance Warmack – Someone made a joke that the Cardinals were going to trade for Carson Palmer. hilarious. anyway, Larry Fitz is destined to waste the remaining years of his prime in this godforsaken QB Desert of the Waiting to Die.
8. Buffalo Bills – Geno Smith, QB – West Virginia: Gotcha.
Other possibilities: QB Ryan Nassib, Warmack – Warmack is the obvious pick to replace Adma Levitre – so obvious it’s almost assured the Bills take 3rd round talents Geno Smith or Nassib.
9. New York Jets – Ezekiel Anzah, DE – BYU: Sorry Jets’ fans. You’re stuck with the Combine Hero. This guy can run to the gas station and be back home with a pack of Doublemint in the blink of an eye. But how fast can he cover 8 feet to the Quarterback? Nobody really knows. At least he had 4 sacks at BYU last year.
Other possibilities: Warmack, WR Tavon Austin, Some Class
10. Tennessee Titans – Jonathan Cooper, OG – North Carolina: When Chris Johnson runs into the backs of his linemen this year, these backs will be seriously upgraded. I love Warmack, but people think Cooper is the fit here. I don’t really care. ya know, Titans…
Other possibilities: Warmack, DE Bjoern Werner
Warmack’s primary negative: on scouting reports “Excessive sweating.” seriously.
11. San Diego Chargers – Chance Warmack, OG – Alabama: Run on Gurards! Not a common Rd. 1 occurrence. I thought the beastly Bama line had 2 standouts among the bunch – Warmack and Barrett Jones. This should help bolster the Chargers’ line before the move to LA.
Other possibilities: CB Xavier Rhodes, Norv Turner – Can they quit Norv?
12. Miami Dolphins – Xavier Rhodes, CB – Florida State: The Dolphins also need an OT and could trade up. or down. or merely abstain like the Vikings did a few years back.
Other possibilities: OT DJ Fluker, Austin
**13. Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Sheldon Richardson, DT – Tennessee: Conventional wisdom says this pick might be traded for Darrelle Revis (Revis Peninsula), but for the sake of argument let’s say Greg Schiano + company holds on to this pick. We could also pretend Schiano isn’t rapidly climbing the list of Biggest NFL Pudwhacks, but that would be a lie. Don’t lie, kids.
Rhodes would be a great pick here, but we have him going to the Dolphins. Richardson is a big man. He will fill a big hole. If the Jets snag this pick, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Austin selected.
Other possibilities: CB Desmond Troufant, Bag of d*cks (sent certified mail to Coach Schiano)
14. Carolina Panthers – Tavon Austin, WR – West Virginia: He may have scored a Lucky ’7′ on the Wonderlic, but count me as a fan. While undersized, Austin’s combination of speed and strength would give the Panthers the perfect weapon for Cam Newton to wildly overthrow in 2013.
Other possibilities: WR Keenan Allen, Troufant – Remember when they drafted Jimmy Clausen? I do. “Jimmy’s under center. Jimmy drops back. Jimmy throws a deep out. Jimmy is pummeled by a linebacker during the interception return.” Man, what an era…
15. New Orleans Saints – Jarvis Jones, OLB – Georgia: My favorite player to watch last year, and GW’s #1 rated prospect. Only freak 14-year old Jadaveon Clowney flashed dominance like Jones last year. He’s dropping because of a neck injury that pretty much every NFL veteran will have to live with following their playing careers. Football players have it so easy! If he gets to the Saints, this will be the steal of the draft. I love you #29.
Other possiblities: None should be considered. Don’t fuck it up.
16. St. Louis Rams – Keenan Allen, WR – California: Remember the Greatest Show On Turf? Yeah, that was a long time ago. Allen will be overdrafted, but should be a productive #2 receiver on a roster of #3 receivers.
Other possibilities: TE Tyler Eifert, WR Tree:
big target
17. Pittsburgh Steelers – Barkevious Mingo, OLB – LSU: This guy has shot up draft boards about 8 spots since I started writing this. He could go top-10 but I’m supposed to adjust the whole thing with all those priceless analytical gems I’ve thrown out there? No. We’re not playing that way. I actually did watch tape on Mingo. Beast. He won’t get past a team that rarely makes mistakes on Draft Day.
Other Possibilities: S Kenny Vaccaro, Eifert: Either of these guys would fill needs, but wouldn’t be surprised if the 49ers moved up to the 12-15 range to snag Vaccaro. In other news, remember this? Hope the guy is alright.
18. Dallas Cowboys – DJ Fluker, LT – Alabama: If there’s an early run on tackles (3 could go in first 4 picks), Fluker probably moves up. The one-time #1 rated high school player is a mammoth with some possible character concerns. But these are the Cowboys. Also, fuck the Cowboys.
Other possibilities: Jerry Jones purchases a Samoan tribe and removes their tattoos with sandpaper because he gets off on that kind of shit.
19. New York Giants – Bjoern Werner, DE – Florida State: Osi Umenyiora is gone and Coughlin needs to have he stable of badass D-Linemen. I’m not sure the Berlin-native fits the bill, but he’s probably the best on the board at the position.
Other possibilities: LB – Alec Ogletree, OT Menelik Watson:
20. Chicago Bears – Alec Ogletree, LB – Georgia: Character concerns may be a ‘red flag’ for some teams. But not Phil Emery’s Bears! Bring ‘em on! Green Flag! Ogletree is an insane athlete at a position of need (with only a couple of arrests!). [GW is a big Bears' Fan and while I like Ogletree, I would love if the Bears could trade down and snag Arthur Brown + a pick]
21. Cincinnati Bengals – Kenny Vaccaro, S – Texas: The Bengals are a weird franchise so this pick might make too much sense for them.
Other possiblities: Watson, DE Datone Jones, A General Manger
22. St. Louis Rams – Tyler Eifert, TE – Notre Dame: I was torn between Eifert and RB Eddie Lacy, but it’s 2013 so I’ll take the impact guy in the passing game. However, Lacy is much more likely to be around at 22 as Eifert is rising like a Notre Dame grad’s opinion of himself after 1.5 cocktails.
Other possibilities: Lacy, WR Cordarrelle Patterson, S Eric Reid
23. Minnesota Vikings – Desmond Trufant, CB – Washington: A young man brimming with confidence will have his spirit broken after playing 6 weeks with the Vikings. This pick addresses one of many needs for a team that must have forget-me-now’d the entire NFL to make the playoffs last year. Seriously, how did that happen? (AP, we know…)
Other possibilities: Patterson, LB Manti Te’o: we’ll get to you soon…
24. Indianapolis Colts – Cordarrelle Patterson, WR – Tennessee: This will fill a need for Colts’ fans. That need is for every team to have a guy who flashes brilliance on occasion, but runs the wrong route resulting in a Pick-6 with 9 minutes left in the 4th Quarter. Enjoy this guy Colts’ fans.
Other possibilites: Lacy, D. Jones: The Colts’ have been a pretty solid drafting team for a while, so they could go a different direction and probably be a lot happier. I wouldn’t be surprised if they picked someone who gave the franchise more cause to pump crowd noise through the Lucas Oil stadium speakers.
25. Minnesota Vikings – Manti Te’o, LB – Notre Dame: In general, the Vikings like 2 things: (1) Adult Men dressed up in Nordic gear, wigs, and purple face paint; (2) Slow players from Notre Dame. Poor Leslie Frasier. Get rid of talented distraction Percy Harvin and give his roster spot to Te’o, who will similarly be a gigantic distraction. And while I wouldn’t necessarily classify him as a certain bust, he’s going to have a hard time making a difference outside of his patented sideline cheering. Also, good luck with pass coverage in a very pass-happy division.
Other possibilities: Not Manti Te’o.
26. Green Bay Packers – Eric Reid, S – LSU: The Packers (and maybe the Steelers) have been the best drafting team in recent history, so while RB Eddie Lacy seems like a logical pick, I’m not sure Ted Thompson sees a guy like Lacy as the best value or biggest need at #26. (Because he’s a RB who’s a suspect pass blocker. And it’s 2013.) Reid hits like a freight train on meth, which is a good thing (fyi).
Other possibilities: Lacy, DT Sylvester Williams:
I think Reid or Williams would be a solid pick here. BJ Raji + that other DT dude are free agents next year, so a hard decision (typical of good-drafting teams) might be a-comin’ for the Pack on the D-Line.
27. Houston Texans – Justin Hunter, WR – Tennessee: Andre Johnson is almost an old man. He’s still pretty great but the Texans need another WR. Or 3.
Other possibilities: Best Player Available, S Matt Elam
28. Denver Broncos - Datone Jones, DE – UCLA: oooh. I would like this pick. I think he’s ideally 5-technique. But I also thought Mike Williams (USC) was going to be a Hall of Fame receiver. So there’s that.
Other possibilities: CB Jamar Taylor, A championship parade postponement: Slow your roll, Broncos fans.
WWRK do?
29. New England Patriots – Sylvester Williams, DT – North Carolina: Williams + Wilfork could be trouble for opponents and take some pressure off of a thin secondary.
Other possibilities: Taylor, CB DJ Hayden: Or they could just strengthen the secondary itself, eh buddy?
30. Atlanta Falcons – DJ Hayden, CB Houston: A lot of names on the Falcons’ roster, so it should be Super Bowl or Bust for Mike Smith this year. They are thin on the outside, so take Hayden as the best available according to people who can pick him out of a lineup with his college jersey on. That’s not me…
Other possibilities: Watson, DE Tank Carradine
31. San Francisco – Matt Elam, S Florida: The 49ers have about 27 picks so they are probably the team most likely to trade up in round 1. Safety is clearly the need for this loaded team.
Other possibilities: Trade up to get a better safety, Harbaugh Ball-Gag.
32. Baltimore Ravens – Arthur Brown, LB Kansas State: Let me tell ya about this guy. He has speed. He tackles. He covers. He can conceivably play different LB positions (though prob ILB in 3-4). Bonus: He won’t invoke God when ordering lunch or stopping at a red light like old #52. In other words, he’s not an insufferable Hall of Famer. But expect big things.
Other possibilities: tapped out…
Good luck teams! looking forward to see who will be crowned Super Bowl champions on Monday!
Note: Look at all that Big 10 Talent!
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
* Jets’ 7 Plagues: Ryan Fatigue, General Manengitis, Butt fumbles, Namath-breath, Tebow, Santonio Holmeslessness, Rich Kotite.
** There has been a trade. I get it. Will ignore.
Posted by Matt on Monday, April 22nd, 2013
i think the word you’re looking for is ‘negligence.’ it’ll come to you buddy.
This week, Rick Perry will visit Chicago in an attempt to poach Illinois businesses from the Land of Lincoln.
Surely he’ll tout lower tax burdens, a lax regulatory environment, and um, he’ll probably forget the 3rd one, but I’m pretty sure it could relate to zoning, workers’ comp requirements, or possibly the dangerous lack of potable water climate.
Maybe Exhibit #1 should be the explosion at Adair Grain Inc.’s Fertilizer Plant in West, Texas.
While vocal politicians and media members are quick to blame the Boston bombing on the whole of Chechnya, the Muslim World, and Russia (let’s throw in the Czech Republic for the hell of it because we’re idiots), most have merely shrugged instead of shedding light on the Texas tragedy that is responsible for at least 14 deaths and 200 hundred injuries.
While the cause of the fire is still unknown, preliminary investigations into the West, Texas explosions indicate the following:
But according to records from the Texas Department of State Health Services obtained by StateImpact Texas, the plant had as much as 270 tons of ammonium nitrate at the site in 2012. To put that in perspective, the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, which killed 168 and injured hundreds, used 4,800 pounds of ammonium nitrate mixed with other chemicals and diesel fuel, or about 2.4 tons.
Again – at least 14 dead. 200 injured.
Media members and political vultures are quick to swoop in on any hint of terrorism driven by misguided Muslim ideology. After all, there’s a pattern that emerged in the mid/late 90s that can’t be ignored (like the similar pattern of right wing terrorism that is ignored.)
But while we’re looking for patterns, and more importantly the roots of such patterns, let’s look at the state sold by the elected officials and purchased by Big Business. A state that touts ‘tort reform,’ a lack of meddlesome unions, and that employers don’t have to own Workers’ Comp insurance:
Texas leads the nation in workplace fatalities, with 433 deaths in 2011. That’s nearly a hundred more than California, which has six million more people in its workforce.
Tragic but predictable?
West, Texas and Boston, MA have more in common than at first glance. The striking similarities concern the innocence of the victims and the bravery of the first responders. While we don’t know the precise motivation for the bombings or the exact cause of the explosion, the tragedies tore up their respective communities, though I’m guessing Small Town Texas will take longer to heal.
While the coverage of Boston quickly devolved into nauseating speculation and repetition, at least the public stayed generally informed.
So whenever the Media and our elected officials want to lend their powerful pulpits to the Texas tragedy, please proceed, because it’s long overdue.
