Russell Time in Raiderland???

They're 2-5 and their formerly mobile quarterback can't get back from center. The offense has become very "Shell Era" like, scoring 9 and 10 points respectively, in their last 2 games. Has the time come to start playing the 32 Million Dollar (guaranteed) Man, the No. 1 overall pick, former LSU comeback king JaMarcus Russell? The argument goes that the Raiders aren't going anywhere good this year, the quarterbacks that have played so far haven't played that well (barring Duante's revenge game against the hapless Dolphins) and you can get JaMarcus' growing pains out of the way now so he's ready to win, and win a lot, next year. The argument against playing Russell starts with when he started his season; after the regular season started. His contract holdout caused Russell to not have one training camp practice under his belt and missing that experience in his rookie year puts him too far behind to be effective this year. Besides, even Tom Brady wouldn't do much behind an offensive line that couldn't protect him, and the Raiders' line has not done much to protect the quarterback these last few games. Putting JaMarcus into a situation where success will be so difficult to achieve may hurt his confidence, and can actually set back his development. Raiders coach Lane Kiffin (who is less then a year older then me!) is worried about that possibility, but seems more concerned with seeing JaMarcus do his thing consistently in paractice, before he'll let him do his thing during game action. The Catch 22 with that is that there aren't many opportunities in practice for the 3rd string quarterback to be on the field consistently, much less show consistency. The coaches biggest concern is getting guys on the field that "give us the best chance of winning," and at this point Russell is not that quarterback...yet...

Here's what I think: This team is not out of playoff contention at this moment. Before you laugh, look at the division. The leaders are the Chiefs and Chargers, both at 4-3 right now. 4-3 is also the record that would get the 3rd wildcard team into the playoffs (if they started today of course). 2 games back from 2 ways into the playoffs is far from impossible. In another two or three weeks however, if the team is 3 or 4 games away from a playoff spot with only 5 or 6 games to play, then it becomes, "what the hell," time so JaMarcus might as well get in there. Of course that's if he's ready yet. Hopefully, week 12 or 13 will afford him enough time to catch up for the lost training camp time so that he's comfortable leading the Silver and Black.

What'd'ya think??

SCHIP fight leads to smearing of 12 Year Old's Family

The Federal government is debating funding of SCHIP, a program that provides healthcare funding to States to provide healthcare to children whose families make too much for Medicaid and too little to afford private insurance. Congress passed an increase of funding for the program that would cover 4 million additional American children, and president Bush vetoed that increase. Before attempting to override Bush's veto, the democrats had 12 year old Graeme Frost give their weekly radio address in support of SCHIP. Graeme and his sister were seriously injured in a car accident and SCHIP provided the help necessary for his family to provide the months of necessary rehab. The right wing response was swift and brutal, making Graeme's family out to be upper middle class frauds that proves that SCHIP is unnecessary. If you have any friends that parrot the right wing claims about Graeme and his family you can respond with what you learn from the interview with Graeme's Parents on Keith Olbermann's Countdown show Monday...

Warrantless Wiretapping...Pre- 9/11?!?!?!

While the Dems act appalled by the Bush administration's use of warrant-less wiretapping of Americans, they continue to pass laws that allows for it's continuation. Last August, before Congress' summer recess, there was a buzz throughout Washington that an imminent terrorist attack was coming, in Washington. Coincidentally, the Bush administration was pushing Congress to pass a law (the "Protect America Act," that would take oversight of wiretapping away from the FISA courts and give it to (wait for it...) the administration's own Justice Department. Under normal circumstances this would be merely unacceptable; but at least the Justice Department normally acts independently and could be trusted to act within the law. This law however, would have given oversight to Alberto ("Geneva conventions are quaint,") Gonzalez' Justice Department while most Democrats, and many Republicans, were calling for him to resign for his major part in the US Attorneys scandal. Political expediency, and fears of that "imminent attack," led to a yes vote, but the law was only temporary is set to expire in February. Congress has tried to pass a re-authorization of the law with major changes. Mainly, oversight would go back to the FISA court, and the Congress would not grant civil immunity to phone companies that gave phone records over to the government, in possible violation of their customers privacy. The wiretapping without warrants would continue though. Bush has threatened to veto any law that does not include immunity for the phone companies.

The Dems, doing what they do, have indicated that they just may fold and grant immunity after finding out more about the scope of the information that the phone companies have provided. Most companies have not been very forthcoming, citing the administration's national security concerns. Verizon has been a little more upfront with Congress, admitting that they have fulfilled over 63,000 administration request since 2005, over 700 of them without a warrant. While the administration continues to stonewall against Congress' demand for information regarding the program, reports have come out that these request started before 9/11!

A former Quest executive, on trail for insider trading in 2001, claims that Qwest lost a lucrative government contract after refusing give customer phone records to the NSA in February of 2001. This might give Congress enough pause to stand up and DEMAND all relevant information about this program, when it really started, what's it's real purpose and what's its true scope. Then again, maybe not...

Epedemic of Rape and Mutilation of Congolese Women

Many of us saw "Hotel Rwanda" which enlightened us to the horrors of the 90's Rwandan genocide. Hutus in that country slaughtered the ruling Tutsis on an unimaginable scale until the Rwandan (and Tutsi controlled) army regained control and began slaughtering Hutus in return. Many Hutu's, particularly the perpetrators of the genocide, fled into what was then Zaire (now Congo), which sparked a conflict there. The conflict spread into a full-scale regional conflict that included Burundi, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia claiming the lives of millions of Africans. An outgrowth of this has been the continuous rape and mutilation of Congolese women by all sides of the conflict. Women that have been raped are attacked by an average of 2.8 men each and their genitals are often mutilated by sticks, bayonets or rocks. Many have been killed. John Holmes, the UN Humanitarian Chief writes in the L.A. Times about one particularly horrifying incident where a woman was raped by seven men, the last of which put his rifle inside her and shot away her reproductive organs. These horrors are the human costs of the too constant wars on the continent. There are economic cost as well, as a recent report illustrates. An annual $18 Billion a year is lost on the continent because of an estimated 15% reduction to the economies of African nations that go to war. The report also found that 95% of the arms that are used in the conflicts come from outside of the continent. The US was the only nation to vote against a resolution that would study a weapons treaty to track and limit these illicit arms sales (in fairness 24 other nations abstained from the vote as well). Another example of the far reaching effects of who we elect...

African Burial Ground National Monument in...NYC?!

An African burial ground was found in Manhattan during excavation for a Federal office tower. Protest kept the tower from being built and the bodies from being excavated, and now the monument for this site has been completed. This is a site that I will definitely visit next time I'm in New York (which I hope is very soon... damn I miss that city!). If you, like I, didn't know that slavery was as pervasive in the colonies' early history as it was in Charleston, South Carolina, then you might want to peruse the virtual tour of the "Slavery in New York" exhibit that the New York Historical Society put on in late 2005-early 2006.