Saturday, March 6, 2010

“Make a Comment - Mediate.com” plus 3 more

“Make a Comment - Mediate.com” plus 3 more

Make a Comment - Mediate.com

Posted: 06 Mar 2010 08:16 PM PST

And they're gone, gone, gone - AZCentral.com

Posted: 06 Mar 2010 07:05 PM PST

 Wow, I've been covering the Cardinals for a long time and never do I remember three starters leaving on the same day in the off-season.

WR Anquan Boldin traded to Baltimore. Cardinals get a third and fourth rounder and give up a fifth. Boldin gets a three-year extension worth $25 million. In Boldin's case, at least the Cardinals have replacements ready.

That's not the case at inside linebacker and free safety. Safety Antrel Rolle signed with the Giants, a five year deal worth $37 million, including $15 million guaranteed. In total worth, it's slightly under the deal Adrian Wilson signed a year ago. I'm told the Cardinals made a similar offer but Rolle wanted to be a Giant. 

Inside linebacker Karlos Dansby signed a five-year, $43 million deal with the Dolphins, including $22 million guaranteed. Dansby said the Cardinals were not a player at the end of negotiations, but I have a hard time believing the Cardinals weren't willing to retain him at that price. Maybe I'm wrong.

Rolle's agent, Drew Rosenhaus, said the Cardinals tried hard to re-sign his client. "We were negotiating with them until the last minute," Rosenhaus said. "I don't want anybody to think they didn't make the effort. It wasn't so much a negative against the Cardinals as it was Antrel being close to his home (Florida) and playing with Kenny Phillips (a fellow Miami alum)."

Taken separately, the Cardinals can make a strong case for letting all three players walk. They received something in return for Boldin instead of letting him leave via free agency after the last year of his deal. Rolle's contract is huge considering his production. He's a good player, but does he deserve to be one of the highest paid safeties in the game, to be paid more than Troy Polamalu and Ed Reed?

Dansby seemed determined to leave, too, and maybe $22 million guaranteed was too rich for the Cardinals.

But looking at the trio collectively, it was a damaging day for Arizona. The club is now weak up the middle defensively with questions at nose tackle, inside linebacker and free safety. 

The Cardinals have shaved a lot of salary off last year's bottom line. Kurt Warner is gone. Mike Gandy, Chike Okeafor, Dansby either have exited or are likely to go. That's nearly $30 million in last year's expenses gone.

It's little wonder the Cardinals signed Ken Whisenhunt to an extension last week.

Maybe the Cardinals can begin to repair the damage in free agency. Re-signing Matt Ware takes on a higher priority, and price tag, now. If the club can sign inside linebacker Larry Foote, maybe it will be OK without Dansby. Steve Breaston can take over for Boldin, but the team's depth will be tested. Who is the fourth receiver? Ed Gant? Onrea Jones?

What the Cardinals have to look seriously at now is re-signing defensive end Darnell Dockett, who has two years remaining on his contract. It's not going to get any cheaper. The club has the money, if you figure up all the salary trimmed from last year's payroll. If the Cardinals pony up for a coach and an elite defensive lineman this off-season, at least they will have some evidence to refute the age-old charge that they are cheap.

 

 

 

 

Friday, March 5, 2010 at 09:34 PM
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Many made long journeys for their chance to vote in Iraqi elections - San Jose Mercury News

Posted: 06 Mar 2010 07:40 PM PST

For Mezhar Albo Hassan and his family, voting in Iraq's election to choose the county's next leader was a family affair.

Albo Hassan, a San Jose handyman who left Iraq in 1991, said it was important for him to bring his three American-born children to the polls at the Alameda County fairgrounds. He wants them to see Iraqi democracy in action and to learn about their culture.

"If felt like I gave my voice to my country," Hassan said Friday after voting, sporting the trademark purple finger that signals a voter's eligibility. "I waited a long time for this."

The children, wearing hats bearing their country's flag and waving Iraqi flags, joined the thousands of Iraqi immigrants and first-generation Iraqis who are expected to converge on the fairgrounds for the three-day vote to select the parliament.

The fairgrounds is hosting Out-of-Country Iraqi voting for a second time in five years. There are eight U.S. sites, three on the West Coast — Pleasanton, El Cajon and Phoenix.

Hassan said he had trouble sleeping Thursday night, in anticipation of casting his vote for Prime Minister Maliki's slate. He said his aging mother is still living in southern Iraq, though his brothers have left and are living in Sweden.

Hirhyar Yousif, his two nephews and their father piled into a car drove all the way from Salt Lake City to vote in Pleasanton.

They left at 11 p.m. Thursday, weathered a snowstorm, and drove 750 miles over

11 hours to make sure they could vote in Iraq's second democratic election.

"It was good," said Yousif, through the translation of his 12-year-old nephew Rezgar Slivany. "I took off two days of work, so no pay for me."

According to the United Nations Web site, as many as 3 million out-of-country Iraqi voters in 16 countries could participate. Voters will pick among roughly 6,529 candidates to serve a four-year term for the 325 seats in the Iraqi Parliament.

The line to vote Friday was short, but turnout is expected jump sharply today and culminate Sunday with the elections in Iraq.

"I am very happy," said Yousif, a 2007 U.S. immigrant who took two unpaid work days off from Wal-Mart to come. "In my country, I lived in northern Iraq and was not able to do this."

Daniel Rasho voted for first time in the 2005 elections, but the Turlock resident didn't know then about Pleasanton polling and instead drove seven hours, one way, to vote in Irvine.

This year his trip took an hour. He came with his son Raymond and aunt, Lusania Karma.

"I take pride in this," said Rasho, who immigrated in 1976. "We lost a lot of people, but hopefully we get something out of it."

As did many families, San Jose's Nema Al Jewad and his wife, Ghosoon Mohamed, brought their three children, Husian, 3, Mortatha, 5, and Barah, 12 with them.

"I'm happy to voice my choice for who will take care of Iraq," said Al Jewad, who left Samawa, Iraq in 1990 and now owns a Middle Eastern Halal market, Anwar Bazaar, in San Jose.

The elections and democratic process in Iraq is evolving. After decades of rule by Saddam Hussein, Iraqis held a democratic vote in 2005 that consisted of more than 200 political parties and about 7,000 candidates for 275 seats. However, the ballot didn't have the names of the candidates only the slate (party). This year all the candidate names are shown to voters.

Walnut Creek's Valia Hermes, 27, became quite familiar with the ballot, thanks to e-mail updates beforehand and election-day translations from her mother, Rose Worda, who made the trip from Modesto to vote as well.

"It's important for us to have a voice for the Assyrians living there," said Hermes, who came to the U.S. at 4 months of age. She is Assyrian, a Christian minority in Iraq. "... I don't directly benefit because I live here, but for the people there it gives them one more voice."

Her mother Worda, who voted in 2005, was not able to vote Friday because she did not have the proper paperwork. But she vowed to return today to vote.

"I don't want to miss this opportunity," she said. "I have been looking forward to this for years."



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Student band to make its debut at June event - Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

Posted: 06 Mar 2010 06:36 PM PST

One is never too young to appreciate and play jazz, America's cultural gift to the world.

This opinion is shared by Los Angeles Unified School District's Beyond The Bell performance and visual arts coordinator Tony White, J.B. Dyas of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz and master musician Ndugu Chancler. It also inspired White and Los Angeles Unified School District Assistant Superintendent Al Cortes to create an all-district jazz band which will make its professional debut at the 32nd annual Playboy Jazz Festival in June.

L.A. All-District High School Jazz Band charter musicians Kyle Poole, Daniel Granados, Oscar Lopez, Bryan Johnson, Javon Harvey and Heizer Montes gained attention and respect from pioneering and master musicians attending the recent press conference announcing the June 12 and 13 festival lineups at the Hollywood Bowl.

The sextet played straight-ahead and bebop jazz so well, entertainer and festival master of ceremonies Bill Cosby called them to the press conference stage at the Playboy Mansion to show them off as young lions of music.

Many of the teen jazz players from Los Angeles high schools made memorable marks last summer when they joined Los Angeles County High School for the Arts' trombonist John Egizi, saxophonists Max Zooi and Levon Henry, drummer Sam Miller and guitarist Adam Moezinia to perform with jazz legends Wynton, Branford and Ellis Marsalis for First Lady Michelle Obama's music series at the White House.

Teenagers selected for the all-district big band of 15- to 18-year-olds are already intense, White said, and must remain so to handle the heavy-duty rehearsal schedule preparing them for the PJF debut concert on June 13.

"There will be at least 12 to 15 rehearsals of several hours each and they'll have to get to the rehearsal sites on their own," he added.

The big band was the brainchild of White and Cortes, who administers afterschool performing arts, athletic and academic activities within the Beyond the Bell program.

"There have been other attempts to put together a group like this, but to my knowledge none have ever played at the Playboy Jazz Festival," White said. "This performance will be really significant at this time because it will showcase teen talent and stress the importance of all school districts and politicians supporting education and the arts."

The band will also give teenagers a taste of professional expectations, White and Dyas added.

"They'll get a sense of belonging to something important, connect with and learn from one another and better understand the value of collaboration," White said. "They'll acquire professional skills and see the real world is about responsibility, reliability and commitment."

Dyas, the Monk Institute's education and curriculum development vice president, said a jazz band is an excellent example of democracy.

"A jazz band is ethnically diverse, allows individual freedom through improvisation, stresses responsibility within the group and values team work," Dyas noted. "If the country could work as well as a jazz group, we'd have less problems."

Peer-to-peer education is effective, said Dyas. He cited an upcoming institute-sponsored trip taking LACOHSA teens to Seattle for an "informance" with other teen jazz musicians.

"They'll play with and talk to their like-age audiences about the importance of jazz to America and the world," he added. "We want them to know there's much more to American music than hip-hop and rock. We want them to find passion in life. It doesn't have to be in music, but it has to be in something."

Chancler, who will perform at the festival in June, has multiple musical skills that allow him to play and record with such stylistically diverse artists as Miles Davis, Theolonious Monk, Weather Report, Herbie Hancock, Willie Bobo, Frank Sinatra, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Carlos Santana, Flora Purim, George Duke and Lionel Ritchie.

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