NFL Free Agent Signings, Yvette Prieto Moves on MJ, Matt Cassel Traded

By Josh Hart

Mar 1, 2009

Matt Cassel has been traded from the New England Patriots to the Kansas City Chiefs. Pats fans had better hope Gisele Bundchen takes it easy on Tom Brady on the honeymoon. Sexy bikini model Yvette Prieto has put the moves on MJ, and Michael Jordan and his new sweetie have a new South Florida home. The NFL kicked off the free agent signings period with a 'what recession' $100 Albert Haynesworth contract from the Washington Redskins. Where else but DC could come up with the Haynesworth bailout? But what about the rest?

There is early movement. The Cowboys reached agreement with ex-Falcons LB Keith Brooking on a three-year contract Saturday. The Texans signed former Cardinals UFA DE Antonio Smith. Jay Cutler is uposet in denver as the trade rumors continue to roll in. Meanwhile the Broncos signed former Eagles staple Brian Dawkins to a deal.

Soap Opera Tragedy: The Customer Service Saga Continues

By Lynda Hirsch

Mar 1, 2009

It is time for another installment of "As Time Warner Doesn't Turn." When last your heroine (me) had a throwdown with Time Warner she decided, as any good soap opera heroine would, to return to the guy (in this case, guys) who had done her wrong. For a while she was treated fairly. Even got a gift card in the mail. Then last week TW could not help itself and reverted to form. Tragedy struck when the dreaded Mongolian Worm (not a phony soap opera ailment but a real-life virus that kills your computer) paid a visit to my computer. Here is a little tip: If you go online and a pop-up says, “You have a computer virus. Click here to get rid of virus,” don't do it.

Like a tech version of James Stenbeck, do not believe anything that pop-up says. Trust in this culprit and the end is near for your computer. I click the box thinking that instead of James Stenbeck, I have met super soap hero Jack from "As the World Turns." The computer goes kaboom. I get the computer fixed for a mere $200. Sadly, my Internet is still down.

Another Blind Eye to Human Rights

By Michael Barone

Mar 1, 2009

On the last day of her trip to East Asia, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke briefly of the place of human rights in American policy toward China. "Our pressing on those issues" -- issues she didn't identify any more fully -- "can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis."

Cries of dismay quickly came forth from Amnesty International USA, New Students for a Free Tibet and Freedom House. Has the United States given up on championing human rights and democracy altogether?

Now it can be said in defense of Clinton's remarks that previous administrations of both parties, from the time of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, have given human rights at best a subordinate place in their dealings with China. And that our past calls for China to observe human rights have been met for the most part with stony silence and acts of defiance. And that the stricken American economy at this point is in need of continued Chinese purchases of Treasury bonds.

Still, for anyone with knowledge of American foreign policy over the last four decades, Clinton's remarks were jarring. It is one thing not to press a tyranny very hard on human rights; it is another thing to come out and say you're not going to raise the issue at all. It is a kind of unilateral moral disarmament. One arrow in the quiver of American foreign policy has been our pressing -- sometimes sotto voce (as in the Helsinki Accords), sometimes in opera buffa ("Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!") -- tyrannical regimes to honor human rights. Hillary Clinton has put that arrow over her knee, broken it in two and thrown it away.

Former Cartel Leader Extradited From Mexico

By Jim Kouri

Mar 1, 2009

Miguel Caro Quintero, the alleged former leader of the now-defunct Sonora Cartel, was extradited by the government of Mexico to the United States on Feb. 25, 2009, the Justice Department announced Friday in a report to the National Association of Chiefs of Police.

Miguel Caro Quintero arrived in the United States on Thursday and was transferred to the District of Colorado to face charges including racketeering and narcotics trafficking. Miguel Caro Quintero made his initial appearance this afternoon in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

Charges are also pending against Miguel Caro Quintero in the District of Arizona. Prior to his extradition, Miguel Caro Quintero was serving a prison sentence in Mexico for drug-related crimes.

The Sonora Cartel, a former drug trafficking organization based in Mexico, was responsible for exporting to the United States and distributing multi-ton quantities of marijuana during the 1980s and 1990s.

Caro Quintero and his older brother, Rafael Caro Quintero, were identified as significant foreign narcotics traffickers under The Kingpin Act in June 2000, subjecting them and their associates to economic sanctions. Rafael Caro Quintero was accused of being the mastermind behind the kidnapping and murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique Camarena in 1985 and was prosecuted by the government of Mexico.

"The extradition of former kingpin Miguel Caro Quintero who reigned with impunity for too long is a victory for citizens of both the United States and Mexico," said DEA Acting Administrator Michele M. Leonhart.

"After serving time in a Mexican prison, Caro Quintero will now answer for his crimes with the one consequence kingpins fear most: extradition to the United States. DEA will continue to work with our courageous Mexican counterparts in our relentless pursuit to bring the highest level drug traffickers to justice."

The District of Colorado case is being prosecuted by attorneys from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Colorado. The charges in the District of Arizona are being prosecuted by attorneys from the Criminal Division's Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section. The Criminal Division's Office of International Affairs provided significant assistance in the extradition of Miguel Caro Quintero.

Hollywood Bailout $246 Million

By Marion Edwyn Harrison, Esq.
Feb 28, 2009

$50 Billion Daily But Only $246 Million Over 11 Years to Stimulate Hollywood? Senator Thomas Allen Coburn (R-OK) or Senator Tom Coburn, M.D., as he usually styles himself, truly is a taxpayers’ hero. His latest achievement strikes a taxpayer-giveaway the very description of which probably is the closest to humor anything in the monstrous “stimulus” package contains. “Believe it or not,” with apologies to Robert Ripley, the stimulus legislation as proposed includes the sum of $246 million to be dished out in a certain fashion to Hollywood - over the next eleven years.

Perhaps the definition of stimulus is to be so broad as to include irritation, sardonic humor and longevity. Does this inclusion in the $820 billion (or whatever the final figure may be) package portend a continuation of our recession or depression for eleven years? One WEBSTER definition of the noun stimulus is “something that rouses or incites to activity.

Dem Attacks Obama Power Grab, Ty'Sheoma Bethea Big Night

By Tim Morgan

Feb 25, 2009

Ty'Sheoma Bethea had a really big night on Tuesday. The young girl was invited by President Obama to sit beside the first lady during his speech to Congress in prime time for big ratings numbers on Tuesday night. The speech was the usual Obama fare but so far on Wednesday the market seems unimpressed. Another that seems to have some serious reservations in Robert Byrd, the senior US Senator from West Virginia and according to a report from Politico, Byrd claims Obama is in power grab.

U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday as investors found little new in a major speech by U.S. President Barack Obama on how he planned to stabilize the economy, while gloomy home sales data weighed on the market.