Mike Vick On My Poker Blog

The following is an email sent to me by my long time homie, Danny Rice. I just thought he made a few intersting points. I'm not really sure where to put this post...in my CITY BLOG or here. I decided to put it here. I grew up in the country where all kinds of fighting took place from humans to Roosters (The Rooster never bet or raised his Roosters to fight, but I must acknowledge I didn't think that some individuals who purchased our Roosters were people purchasing our Roosters for their beauty).

Here is what Danny emailed a few in our crew:

There comes a time when enough is enough. For the past few months we have been absolutely bombarded with the Michael Vick story. Yes - I get that Americans love dogs (even these disgusting violent pit bulls that have been known to viciously attack children). And no - as bad as pitbulls are - it is not accpetable to kill a dog.

But honestly folks if we are to believe this is somehow an issue that even remotely affects our lives then we have absolutely lost our damn minds. But since the most powerful judicial system, media, and politicians and corporations and sporting institutions in the world want to demonize this man for his involvement in a large Southern rural sub-culture (which by the way is predominantly poor and white) - AND since Michael Vick's public downfall has become somehow more important than hundreds of dead Iraqis a day, hundreds of thousands of dead Somalians, not to mention 6 teenage Black boys in Louisiana (Jena 6) who are being abused, imprisoned and face two decades in prison for a school-yard fight against a racist white boy (who by the way did mock lynchings with his white pals and suffered nothing more than some bumps and bruises).. but let's get back to reality - please.

The NFL has tolerated, accepted, and promoted (all the way through the hall of fame) football players who beat the living shit out of their wives, girlfriends, not to mention football players who have been involved in vicious beatings and shootings of other human beings...yet somehow, some way the commissioner (Roger Goodell) of the NFL feels empowered to write a demonizing letter to Michael Vick as if he is below redemption. As if his crimes are so bad that he is no different then a serial killer.

And nowhere, nowhere do I see a pushback. I'm not a Michael Vick apologist, but something sickens my stomach in an awful way when Robert Byrd (D - West Virginia), one of the most powerful men in the Senate, let alone the world, gets on the Senate floor a month ago and spends our tax dollars to shout, with tears running from his cheeks that:

"It is a brutal, sadistic event motivated by barbarism of the worst sort and cruelty of the worst, worst, worst, sadistic kind. One is left wondering: Who are the real animals? Who are the real animals, who are the real animals -- the creatures inside the ring or the creatures outside the ring?The training of these poor creatures -- weigh those words -- the training of these poor creatures --weigh them -- the training of these poor creatures to turn themselves into fighting machines is simply barbaric. Barbaric! Barbaric! Barbaric! Let that word resound from hill to hill and from mountain to mountain, from valley to valley across this broad land. Barbaric, barbaric! The Book of Proverbs in the Holy Bible, the King James Bible, tells us a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. The immortal Dante tells us the divine justice reserves special places in Hell for certain categories of sinners. Madam president, I am confident -- madam president, I am confident that the hottest places in Hell are reserved for the souls of sick and brutal people who hold God's creatures in such brutal and cruel contempt! I yield the floor."

Really Robert? Really? I mean Ted Kennedy, the good liberal from Massachusetts patted Byrd on the back after his most emotional Senate floor speech and said, "Good job Bob."

Yet how about these words, Bob, do you recognize these words: "I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds," ] ..or how about these Bob? "the Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia."

Well he ought to recognize them, because he said them as a rising star of the Ku Klux Klan during a period in which Black boys and men were being lynched on a regular basis in the South.

Now the same piece of shit (I'm sorry if it smells like it then it just might be it) named Robert Byrd somehow believes he has the moral authority to damn Michael Vick to hell????? Does anyone else find an obscene familiarity, similarity, ugliness and eerieness in the current venom that is being spewed in unison by every sports writer, Byrd, Roger Goodell, the Virginia prosecutors, to that of the past?????

Enough is enough. Stephon Marbury pointed out that Americans love hunting and didn't understand the American theory of animal hierarchy. And he's right. What makes it acceptable to slaughter rabbits, deer, cows, chickens, ducks, hell you name it we'll kill it...but not dogs???? I don't get it and don't care to get it.

Michael Vick is a human being. And you know what he hasn't raped, hurt, or killed another human being. I don't care if people think he's an overpaid, spoiled athlete.. The truth is he is going to federal prison for being a BLACK MAN. Check the history - it is rare for people to serve time for dogfighting and a virtual precedent to have this amount of federal and state resources on something that no one gave a shit about until they heard Vick was involved.

Now that PETA (and I sincerely hope you are not a member) has spent all of its time and energy ensuring the public lynching of Michael Vick..are they headed to defend the Jena 6? I doubt that.

No something about the lives of Black boys somehow doesn't excite America the way some dead pitbulls does...Jesus..2007 ---- can anyone tell me things have really changed?

I'm done..and about to buy another Michael Vick Jersey! Sorry just the way I feel.

Danny

posted by Joaquin "The Rooster" Ochoa @ 5:08 AM 1 comments

I had been wanting to write a long post about poker and playing in some of the soft poker rooms in the city. Yet, I felt that you hearing about poker in the hand per hand sense would bore you.

Then I wanted to write you about The Rooster Consulting Group (where we swing our cock so you don't have to)and Poker In The Weeds were going to join forces in picking every winner for the football season for only 20.00 bucks to you dear reader. But we ran into Vinnie who wanted a cut of the profits and we decided to quit that venture...I think that is our 20th failed venture. But we are going to come up with one soon...stay tuned.

Then I wanted to point out the in the race for the biggest Metro-Sexual Blogger well This Guy beat out This Guy although I will make the case that Donkey Puncher only lost because of the shaved head. One can't use products on that hair as Poker In The Weeds pointed out. I tried to argue that DP still irons his short sleeved shirts when he goes out (which is totally gay). But the hair thing did register big. I think that Ikiris should rank up there also.



If you have time run over the
Al's and check out the pictures of his little dog. I've seen that little mofo dog grow and grow. I wonder what the over/under is on his weight after two years. I can't see that dog getting over 55 lbs.



I also wanted to thank
Garth for the invite to his party this coming weekend in DC. I hear there will be a few B-Listers there...Pifft!



There are a lot of funny blog writers out there and too many to name. Yet, I still have to rank
The Drizz (Or Drizzy to the Izzy as we call him here in Harlem) up there with the best of him. Why don't you pay him a visit...poor guy...nobody visits his blog.



In closing, just wanted to get some new stuff up here. Also, I wanted to say that you should all be reading Pauly Drama's Trucking


1. Pyramid by Paul McGuire
I quickly discovered that Seattle was a bastion for the super weird. You needed to have layered eccentricies in order to stick out among the masses of freaks. Goth-dykes with foot fetishes might freak people out in conservative cities and small towns, but in Seattle, that puts you in the core group of "normal people."... More

2. Cross-word by Sigge S. Amdal
Her hair was in explosive disarray across the pillow like the blood spurt pattern from a shotgun blast. It was slightly blond, streaked with brown and very beautiful. It looked like the crossroad of infinite options where only a handful suggested returning to the bed. She was fast asleep... More

3. Meeting Mama McGrupp by Change100
I had yet to meet Mama McGrupp. Pauly assured me it was for a good reason. All I knew about this woman was that she was five feet tall, chain-smoked, had a wicked New York accent, was overly fond of Amaretto, and never had anything nice to say about anyone... More

4. Kansas Clouds by Susan B. Bentley
Click. I got a photo of Kat just before she gave me the finger. Lying back down, I moved the lens across the sky, trying to capture a cloud on its journey. I sat up and took a picture of the track ahead. Nothing but mud and dust, bordered by fields of corn slowly moving in the breeze, nothing but empty for miles ahead... More

5. Summer Story by May B. Yesno
Friends are a difficult thing. As a matter of fact they are almost impossible. Difficult to find for the first thing and just as difficult to keep - especially in a mobile society... More

posted by Joaquin "The Rooster" Ochoa @ 8:12 AM 6 comments