Tyson Chandler Gets It

This has nothing to do with hoops. As many of you know, Tyson Chandler is the 7-foot starting center for the New Orleans Hornets. But he also seems to be one of the many young black Americans that the Obama campaign has gotten engaged in politics.

In his recent blog post, Chandler talks about attending an Obama rally with a few teammates where he got to meet Obama. A few of his comments towards the end shows that he understands the social responsibilities that he has now that he's become a multi-millionaire by playing in the NBA.

It's funny, because when Obama was giving his speech, he said he was gonna give a tax cut to 95 percent of the people. He says, "If you make under $250,000 a year, raise your hand." And everybody there raised their hand, except for this one small section of guys. That was our section. And everybody around us was laughing.

But you know what, it's a bigger cause. And the way I look at it is that I can afford to pay more in taxes. But my parents, my grandparents, my cousins ... with what they make, they can't afford to cut back in their household with what they're trying to survive with. I can afford to make cuts and still survive. They can't take that knock.

I think that's what's going on now and the reason why the middle class is struggling so much. The upper class, we can take that hit. Obviously, nobody wants to take it, but we still can. And we can afford to live nice lives.

I've lived in both situations. And not only that, I'm obviously the only one in my family that can say that I'm a millionaire. I've seen my entire family struggle. So, would I rather see my whole family struggle while I get a break, or have me not get a break while the rest of my family gets one? I'll take my entire family getting a break.

Israeli Generals Weigh in on Obama

In this short film, many of the most respected military and intelligence experts in Israel discuss the impact of the Bush/McCain foreign policy on Israel, the need for the United States to engage directly with Iran, and their personal feelings about Sen. Barack Obama.


Retired Generals of the Israeli Defense Forces and high-ranking Mossad officials on Barack Obama... from www.JCER.info on Vimeo.

Jayson Stark on the Mets Pitching

As the season winds down and I chew through my fingernails, I thought I'd share a couple of great articles by ESPN's Jayson Stark detailing Johan Santana's greatness and just how bad the Mets' bullpen has been and how the NL East race has been decided by relief pitching.

Merrill Hoge Calls VY a "Baby"

I thought that the writers at the Tennessean have been tough on Vince Young, but take a listen to Merrill Hoge's critique of Vince's future as an NFL quarterback.

Palin & McCain Blocking 'Troopergate' Investigation

So this is how the 'reform-minded' Palin operates? Palin who initially welcomed the investigation, saying "hold me accountable," is now trying to delay the investigation until after the election is over. The McCain campaign said on Monday that Palin, who was not subpoenaed, was unlikely to cooperate.

For someone who proclaims she has nothing to hide, she's acting as if there's an awful lot to hide. Yeah, she's just the person to clean up Washington.

The best line on the whole situation was from Democratic state Sen. Kim Elton who is chairperson of the Legislative Council that is overseeing the investigation. Contending the deal had been broken, Elton said, "Bluntly, I feel like Charlie Brown after Lucie moved the football."

Perhaps the McCain campaign should change their slogan "Election first, truth second".

Read more on Yahoo News

A few more fibs from Palin Convention Speech

OK, I'm sure many of you have seen these, but just in case you didn't:

• "I sold it [private jet] on eBay". Well not exactly. Give her credit, she had it listed on eBay for $2.7M. But when the Alaskan government didn't get a bid that met the minimum they were looking for, they went to a private broker who sold the plane for $2.1M. Now forgetting about how whether or not she lost money on the transaction, does she not know the difference between listing an item for sale and actually selling it? It made a great sound bite and made her look hip to technology, but it just flat isn't true.
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• Fiscal Disciplinarian. She wants you to think that she hews to fiscally conservative Republican principles, but she doesn't really score that well there either. As Governor she was able to deliver a surplus due to higher oil revenues resulting from record oil prices and levying her own version of 'windfall profits' taxes on the oil companies operating in Alaska. This is the same kind of 'windfall taxes' that she and the other Republicans consider anathema when proposed by Obama.

There's a good article on Palin's performance as Governor in the Boston Globe called "A forceful, but narrow agenda". Take a read.

VY Close to Losing Locker Room

It's been well chronicled over his first 2+ seasons that Vince Young has had issues with letting go of bad plays and accepting responsibility for his level of play. Most of these concerns have been aired by the media and fans. But Week 1 seemed to take these concerns to a different level. Now he may be losing confidence in the locker room, which is the death-knell of a starting QB in the NFL.

Mid-way through the 4th quarter, after throwing his second interception, it appeared that VY had opted out of the game. The official word was that VY experienced tightness in his hamstrings. Fisher all but ordered Vince out there and 4 plays later, he had to leave the game after taking a hit on his knee. But take a look at these quotes from teammates:

"I am under the assumption something happened and to him and he was hurt. I don't know what the situation is so I am not going to comment on it." -- Kevin Mawae, Center and President of NFLPA

"No one is going to quit on this side of the ball." -- Keith Bulluck, All-Pro OLB

“You can’t lose confidence as a quarterback. You have to have a short-term memory and handle adversity when it does come…You have to find a way to persevere no matter what the situation is." -- David Thornton, OLB

“Vince is an emotional guy. You never know what’s going through his head,’’ Hall said. “I’ve been with Vince a long time. I love him like a brother. I don’t know what he’s going through, all I can do is try to motivate him and get him going." -- Ahmad Hall, FB and former University of Texas teammate of Young

The Titans front office has been consistent, perhaps to a fault, it it's public support of Young during his evolution as a quarterback. But if Young doesn't get his head together soon, the front office won't be able to gloss over Young's deficiencies or risk fracturing the locker room or worse losing it alltogether.