Archive for August 26th, 2007
Falcons Trying To Get Signing Bonuses Back From Vick
August 26th, 2007
It’s too bad they can’t get everything in his bank account.
The Falcons will try to recoup $22 million already paid to suspended quarterback Michael Vick, a person with knowledge of the team’s plans told the Journal-Constitution on Saturday.
Vick was suspended indefinitely by the NFL on Friday after he pleaded guilty to federal dogfighting charges in Virginia. That cleared the way for the Falcons to pursue money paid to Vick in signing bonus money.
Vick has received roughly $40 million in guaranteed bonuses — and even more in base salary — but teams are only allowed to try to recoup money paid in signing bonuses, per the collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union.
To collect the money, Vick must remain on the Falcons’ roster. Therefore the team will not release Vick until the matter is resolved, the person familiar with the situation said.
The Falcons are expected to cut ties with Vick, once their most popular player, once the signing bonus matter is finalized.
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Oh, To Be Adored By The Ultra Rich
August 26th, 2007
Hillary Clinton held a fund-raiser at her favorite vacation spot, Martha’s Vineyard, Saturday.
She was cheered by the adoring praise and pandering of some has-been stars.
Clinton—accompanied by her husband and their daughter Chelsea—smiled broadly and swayed to the music as singer Carly Simon and her two children, Ben and Sally Taylor, sang “Devoted to You” for a Martha’s Vineyard crowd of more than 2,000.
Simon, along with actors Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, showered the Clintons with praise and predicted the senator from New York will be elected as the nation’s first woman president.
“Is it Mrs. President or Madam President?” Simon asked a smiling Clinton.
The Clintons frequently vacationed on Martha’s Vineyard during their years in the White House. The senator told the crowd that the family has been vacationing in the island for 14 years.
Bill Clinton told the crowd his wife would make the strongest president among those seeking to succeed Bush in January 2009 because she has the best plans to deal with national security, climate change, health care and education.
“If we were not married and Hillary asked me to do this, to be here tonight, I would be here,” the former president said.
In her speech, the New York senator blasted the Bush administration on everything from failure to address problems with global warming to education and the economy.
She aimed her sharpest remarks at what she described as the Bush administration’s “indifference and incompetence” in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.
“It is a national disgrace,” said Clinton who is traveling to New Orleans this week to mark the second anniversary of the disaster. “What happened because of Katrina was a turning point in our country.”
Clinton also sharply criticized Bush for his handling of the Iraq war, repeating her call for the U.S. to begin withdrawing its troops from the country.
“I believe that if he does not extricate us from Iraq by the time he leaves office, that when I am president I will,” she said. “I want to be a president who gets back to setting big goals for our country.”
Katrina happened two years ago. It’s time to get over it.
Running against Bush seems a bit foolish to me since he’s not on the ticket, but then I’m not a political advisor.
If she becomes president I’ll bet she “extricates” us from Iraq just as quickly as the Democratic Congress has.
When a person is president he or she has to look at the big picture and forget about being a partisan until it’s time for election again. He or she should not be in campaign mode the entire first term.
