Miscellanous News.

A 7.2 earthquake in Japan has left at least six dead.
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Thanks to some questionable recent high court decisions, the NRA is running out of ammunition.
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More than 30 dogs have been seized in a possible dogfighting operation.
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The WSWS has part two of its commentary about the recent media reform conference in Minneapolis, and naturally it is critical of anything it sees as support for the Democratic Party.
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It seems the only way hack blogger Michelle Marshall ("Taylor Marsh") can draw attention to herself is to draw attention to Larry Sinclair.

The hits have been way down on her site, judging from how relatively few comments she attracts as opposed to a month or two ago.
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Years after Di's death, her butler claims he had sex with her, a claim that isn't very believable.

Miscellaneous.

Michael Vick will be sentenced today on dogfighting charges.

I hope he gets the max.

He didn't, it seems, but a slap on the wrist instead.
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Here is the latest on the Darren Mack mess.
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Oregon is about to get hit with a recession.
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Life's the Pits.

Eight rescued pit bulls involved in a dogfighting ring have found temporary homes.

Vick, Of Course,

plead guilty as part of a plea-bargain made with the feds.

I hope he is out of football forever.

As I Was Thinking About

animal killer Michael Vick, I came across this site devoted to pit bull rescue.

It's an interesting site, and it has a section about the disgusting "sport" of dogfighting. The stories are heartbreaking.

It's Time

to throw the book at another sadistic bastard:

Sheriff's deputies raided the home of rapper DMX on Friday, seizing several pit bulls and finding the remains of three other dogs but making no arrests.

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office received a tip more than a week ago about dogs being kept in inhumane conditions at the Phoenix-area home, said Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Detectives visited the home and then called one of the rapper's lawyers and told him that the conditions for the animals at the property needed to be improved or deputies would take action, Arpaio said. The dogs were not being fed or given water.

It was all the caretaker's fault.

Yeah, right.

Vick's Confession

has finally given the spotlight to a sick, sadistic "sport."

Life as a fighting dog is neither pleasant nor long, according to investigations by animal welfare groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) and the Humane Society.

Pit bull puppies bred by an organised operation will be taunted to make them more vicious and kept chained and hungry.

They will be forced to run on treadmills with "bait" animals such as cats dangled in front of them - the reward usually being to maul them afterwards - and encouraged to hang by their jaws from chains to strengthen their bite.

Their strength built up, they then progress to "test" fights against older animals.

Only the young dogs that display sufficient aggression and "gameness" - the willingness to carry on fighting even when exhausted and bleeding - will be used in competitive matches. The others are usually culled.

Cruelty, Yes.

Depravity, yes. Stupidity, no.

KGO's Bernie Ward was wrong about Vick last night. Vick should not be given a second chance, and the public won't allow it anyway.

Ward was right about vegetarians, however.

Michael Vick's Career

is over, as he has reportedly agreed to a plea deal including a prison sentence over dogfighting charges.

Vick's decision came after his last two co-defendants pleaded guilty Friday and agreed in deals with prosecutors to testify against Vick if they were called to do so at trial. A third co-defendant pleaded guilty in July under similar conditions.

With his plea deal, Vick is expected to avoid more serious charges related to a large dogfighting venture called "Bad Newz Kennels" that he is accused of almost entirely funding from 2001 to 2007.

The deal, in its form last week, was expected to include a recommendation from prosecutors that Vick serve at least a year in prison, according to two sources familiar with the discussions. The judge will have the final say in sentencing.

And:

Redskins coach and team president Joe Gibbs, a friend of Falcons owner Arthur Blank , said the case has been tough "for everybody in the NFL."

And:

Redskins defensive back David Macklin, a close friend of Vick's who played against him growing up in Newport News, said last week that the case has been hard on Vick.

Not has tough or hard as it was on the dogs.

As the World Turns.

Michael Vick loved his dogs so much he killed them with kindness.

I Think One

can stick a fork in Michael Vick and his career, for both of them are done.

He's allegedly in plea bargaining negotiations, which means he is as good as guilty over the dogfighting allegations:

If the announcement is that Vick has reached a plea agreement, the embattled star quarterback is expected to be sentenced to some time in prison, according to federal sentencing guidelines.

Vick's motivation to enter a guilty plea is likely fueled by the U.S. Attorney's Office announcement last month that it will seek a new "superseding" indictment against Vick by the end of August. With the cooperation of Vick's three co-defendants, there will likely be new, and more specific, allegations against Vick. The federal grand jury in Richmond is expected to hand up that indictment sometime early next week.

If Vick can reach an agreement by the end of this week, he would not have to answer to any additional charges.

This

is one of the most disgusting sites on the web, euphemistically calling pit bulls "sporting dogs."

Of course this is a dogfighting publication.

Sports Illustrated

has a couple of articles on the Vick dogfighting case.

Kathy Strouse will long remember the pit bulls she helped remove from Moonlight Road. Most were short, stocky and ferocious looking, but when she approached them and gave them treats, they were gentle and loving. "Those dogs were so happy, so delighted to have human contact," Strouse says. The animals were split up and sent to shelters around Virginia, the locations undisclosed for fear dogfighters might try to steal them. Eventually the animals will be euthanized. "These dogs can't be adopted," says Strouse. "You don't want dogs like these living next door. The only thought that gives me some comfort is, I would rather have them die while being held by someone who cares about them than in a fighting pit."

A Person

going undercover for the HSUS gives a detailed account of the sordid "sport" of dogfighting:

The referee then calls for the dogs to get ready, calls, "Let go!" and the dog that committed the turn is released first. Depending on the rules being used, the dog has 10 to 20 seconds to "scratch to" his opponent – to charge across the pit. If he does, the fight resumes. If the dog fails to do that, the match is over. Generally fighting continues until they're out of holds (they quit biting).

Fights average about 45 minutes. But they can be over fairly quickly, five to 10 minutes, if one dog is not wanting to fight. The longest recorded is 5 hours, 33 minutes. The longest I ever saw was about an hour.

I have not seen a dog killed in the arena, but certainly afterward. Bites are strong enough to break bone. [Dogs] suffer from dehydration, blood loss, shock. The dead are taken off to the side, some are thrown in pits — some guys have burn pits — some are thrown in the back of a pickup. More often you see owners, if the dog is in shock, set up an IV kit, getting fluids into the dog.

USA Today

has a cover story about the sick, sick, sick world of dogfighting.

It just makes me so angry.

It Should

be a no-brainer that Michael Vick be suspended from the NFL over the dogfighting scandal.

Here

is the link to the HSUS regarding the despicable Michael Vick allegations.

The NFL

may piddle around and wait until Michael Vick's dogfighting case resolves itself, but the public is going to keep dogging him:

But reaction to Vick's indictment, and the graphic allegations of how the animals were treated, has been swift and severe — from inside and outside pro football.

"This is going to be a significant blemish on the NFL, no matter what," David Cornwell, a former assistant general counsel for the league, said Wednesday.

The Atlanta-based attorney added that there was nothing the league's new boss "can say or do that's going to make this go away from an image perspective. I just don't believe in degrees of bad — when it's bad it's bad. And this is bad."

Vick's career is probably finished.

Life's the Pits.

It's taken the Michael Vick case to finally bring to the forefront the moral depravity of dogfighting:

"If he is indeed found guilty, the conviction would send the sort of message that needs to be sent,'' said Allison Lindquist, executive director of the East Bay SPCA. Dogfighting is a common, largely hidden blight almost everywhere in the country, she said, including the Bay Area. "This is an unbelievably sadistic, barbaric practice, and a lot of people try to glamorize it. It's not glamorous at all.''

The cold brutality described in the indictment hardly props up any fashionably roguish images. The 52 pit bulls found on Vick's estate were mostly emaciated, authorities said, kept ravenously hungry so that they would eagerly assail the flesh of the dogs they met in the ring. The losing animals, the indictment said, were sometimes executed if they didn't die in the fight. One dog, the grand jury reported, was hosed down after a loss and then electrocuted.

"I think it's the gratuitous cruelty that has really gotten to people,'' Pacelle said. "This isn't medical research. You can't argue that sacrificing these animals could save people's lives someday.''

I hope the bastard gets what's coming to him.

Life's the Pits.

I hope this s.o.b. gets the book thrown at him and he does hard time in prison.

Sure, "innocent until proven guilty," but they've got enough evidence to nail his worthless butt.
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