The part of the ESPN article that I really found interesting is that Clarett is taking online classes at Ohio University to finish his degree.  Allowing prisoners to take online courses online and get degrees is a great thing and something that makes me happy to think that someday I will be part of the industry that is creating life changing things like helping give people a second chance in life.  The fact that Maurice is seeking a degree is an example that he is maturing as a person. He very well could just be sitting in prison working out putting all his time into trying to return to football.  No where on his blog or in the ESPN article does it say that he will try to pursue his football career, Maurice wants to try public speaking about his mistakes to help others not make the same mistake he has.

As an Ohio State fan that remembers all the promise Clarett had as a football player, I was angry and disappointed when he started heading down the wrong path. I am glad Clarett seems to have learned from his mistakes and wants to do something positive for society with his life.  If he does end up trying to return to football, most likely in the Canadian Football League, all the power to him.

Read the ESPN article here:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3948006&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

Read Maurice Clarett’s Blog here:

http://mauriceclarett.wordpress.com/

Scenario 1:
Jack goes quail hunting before school and then pulls into the school parking lot with his shotgun in his truck’s gun rack.

1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack’s shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2007 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario 2:
Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.

1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2007 - Police called and SWAT team arrives — they arrest both Johnny and Mark. They are both charged them with assault and both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario 3:
Jeffrey will not be still in class, he disrupts other students.

1957 - Jeffrey sent to the Principal’s office and given a good paddling by the Principal. He then returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. He becomes a zombie. He is then tested for ADD. The school gets extra money from t he state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario 4:
Billy breaks a window in his neighbor’s car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.

1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 - Billy’s dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. The state psychologist is told by Billy’s sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy’s mom has an affair with the psychologist.

Scenario 5:
Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.

1957 - Mark shares his aspirin with the Principal out on the smoking dock
2007 - The police are called and Mark is expelled from school for drug violations. His car is then searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario 6:
Pedro fails high school English.

1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English an d goes to college.
2007 - Pedro’s cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against the state school system and Pedro’s English teacher. English is then banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given his diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario 7:
Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from the Fourth of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle and blows up a red ant bed.

1957 - Ants die.
2007 - ATF, Homeland Security and the FBI are all called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates his parents — and all siblings are removed from their home and all computers are confiscated. Johnny’s dad is placed on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario 8:
Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.

1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2007 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

Recently the TSA, transportation security agency (the ones that check people in airports), have been allowed to take laptops from people entering the country and look through files on it to see if there is anything suspicious. This only effects people coming into the US, not traveling within. Still the “Privacy People” are in a big up roar over it, even though it probably won’t ever effect most of them.  If I was frequently entering and leaving the US, the only thing I would not like about someone checking my laptop every time I had to enter the county is that it might take time out of my day, but if it helps improve national security I’m all for it.

So the most recent security measure that is being set into place is a satellite-surveillance program that would help protect the US by using imagery to find potential terrorist attack locations and to help with emergency response situations.

rja

WSJ.com -

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security will proceed with the first phase of a controversial satellite-surveillance program, even though an independent review found the department hasn’t yet ensured the program will comply with privacy laws.

Congress provided partial funding for the program in a little-debated $634 billion spending measure that will fund the government until early March. For the past year, the Bush administration had been fighting Democratic lawmakers over the spy program, known as the National Applications Office.

The program is designed to provide federal, state and local officials with extensive access to spy-satellite imagery — but no eavesdropping — to assist with emergency response and other domestic-security needs, such as identifying where ports or border areas are vulnerable to terrorism.

Since the department proposed the program a year ago, several Democratic lawmakers have said that turning the spy lens on America could violate Americans’ privacy and civil liberties unless adequate safeguards were required.

President Bush has sent a bailout proposal to Congress seeking authorization to spend up to $700 billion to buy troubled mortgage-related assets (banks).  The government’s plan is to bail out (buy a large percent of the company) of all of the banks that are on the verge of collapse because so many people decided to take out a mortgage on a home that they could not afford during the housing boom and figured that they could flip the house for a profit.  Those people are called speculators. They are the same type of people causing the price of oil to go up so high.  As we know the housing bubble burst and now people are not able to sell their house for the amount they thought they were going to and are stuck with a house that they can’t afford.  Now that these people can’t afford to pay their mortgage payment, other homeowners interest rates on their mortgages are going up and they don’t know why because they were to stupid to do even a Google search for what an “adjustable rate mortgage” is before they devoted 30+ years of paying off a loan on a house.

The reasoning for doing this, other than preventing our country from going into another Depression, is that the government will be buying up stock ( about 80% ) from these companies and selling them off down the road for a profit.

Now, I feel that this is an unfortunate thing that we (tax payers) have to do because of human stupidity, but its necessary.  If we don’t buy these banks, the Chinese government or Chinese banks will. They have already been in talks with a number of them.

If the thought of possibly paying your house payment to a Chinese company doesn’t scare you here is something that will, and it’s ACTUALLY happening:

From CNN

The administration’s proposal also requests that Congress authorize an increase to the nation’s debt ceiling. Currently, it’s set to rise to $10.6 trillion for fiscal year 2009 - which runs from October 2008 through September 2009. But the proposal requests that limit be increased to $11.315 trillion to allow for the purchases of mortgage-backed assets.

The debt limit theoretically is a ceiling on how much debt the country is allowed to take on. Budget experts say the debt ceiling acts as a break on spending mostly because of political pressure, because lawmakers don’t like to vote to raise it. But lawmakers are free to change it if they have reason.

Wikipedia

There she participated in a movement therapy pilot program that laid the way for a standard treatment for children with severe disabilities; she published the work Movement Therapy: A Possible Approach in 1978. Declining a role in the family business, she then began a special education teaching career working with children with Down syndrome and other disabilities at Agua Fria High School in Avondale, Arizona.

Now we all know who has a baby with Down Syndrome…that’s right Sarah Palin.

Looks like theres stuff going on that the public may not know about.

NFL.com

» Defensive helmet radios: Teams will now be permitted to have one defensive player on the field with a radio in his helmet. This gives the defense the same ability to communicate its signals as the offense.

» Incidental facemasks: The foul for incidental grasp and release of the facemask has been eliminated. Twisting, turning or pulling the facemask will remain a 15-yard personal foul.

» Forceout rule: The forceout rule has been eliminated. A player who receives or intercepts a ball must land with both feet inbounds. This affords the receiver and defender equal opportunity to complete the play.

» Reviewable plays: Instant replay will expand to include field-goal and extra-point attempts as well as illegal forward handoffs. This provides a mechanism for correcting an obvious onfield officiating error.

» Second half coin toss: Clubs will now have the option to defer the opportunity to kick or receive the kickoff to the second half.

» Muffed snap: It will now be a live ball when a direct snap from center to a player who is in position to receive a hand-to-hand snap goes untouched. It was previously called a false start, but now either team may recover and advance the untouched snap.

» NFL’S “third-quarterback” rule — sometimes misunderstood:

Seventeen years ago (1991) the third-quarterback rule was instituted to enable teams to have an emergency quarterback available who was not on the 45-man game-day active roster, since many teams, for strategic purposes, only carried two quarterbacks on their game-day roster.

Everybody thinks they understand the NFL’s “third-quarterback” rule. But do they?

The rule states that if a third quarterback is inserted before the fourth quarter, a team’s first two quarterbacks cannot be used in the game at any position.

Another aspect of the rule is sometimes misunderstood. It is a coach’s decision as to whether a third quarterback will be used.

The active quarterbacks do not have to be injured for a team to use its third quarterback.

ESPN

CINCINNATI — Maybe receiver Chad Johnson can go by the name that his head coach hates.

The Cincinnati Bengals receiver has legally changed his name to Chad Javon Ocho Cinco in Broward County, Fla., a switch that became official this week. Johnson, who lives in Miami, didn’t return a message left on his cell phone Friday night.

“It’s something I don’t think anyone has ever done before,” he told the team’s Web site. “Have I ever had a reason for why I do what I do? I’m having fun.”

Two years ago, Johnson gave himself the moniker — a reference in Spanish to his No. 85 — and put it on the back of his uniform before a game. Quarterback Carson Palmer ripped it off before the kickoff. After the season, coach Marvin Lewis — who dislikes Johnson’s attention-getting stunts — referred to the receiver as “Ocho Psycho.”

Bengals spokesman Jack Brennan said the Bengals had no comment on the matter.

P.S. Not sure if you can hear it on this version of the speech, but the crowd was chanting ” Re-Elect” at the beginning and middle of his speech.