The Nuclear Option

I live in Philadelphia...Right now my Eagles Football team is a dismal 3-6...So in normal times..I'd be fading out NFL Football right about now and turning my full attention to the NBA...

Only problem is...I can't...We are in the middle of an NBA lockout..A strike that has already cost us the pre-season and now is threatening to cost us the entire NBA season.
Not cool!

I have avoided writing about this before because so much else has been going on..Herman Cain, his women, The Penn State sex scandal, which I still haven't written about..and oh, did I say ,Herman Cain and his women?

NBA players rejected the league's latest offer Monday and began disbanding the union, likely jeopardizing the season.

''We're prepared to file this antitrust action against the NBA,'' union executive director Billy Hunter said. ''That's the best situation where players can get their due process.''

And that's a tragedy as far as NBA Commissioner David Stern is concerned.

''It looks like the 2011-12 season is really in jeopardy,'' Stern said in an interview aired on ESPN. ''It's just a big charade. To do it now, the union is ratcheting up I guess to see if they can scare the NBA owners or something. That's not happening.''

Billy Hunter said players were not prepared to accept Stern's ultimatum to accept the current proposal or face a worse one, saying they thought it was ''extremely unfair.''

Stern had urged players to take the deal on the table, saying it's the best the NBA could offer and warned that decertification is not a winning strategy.

Last year, Stern said it would be risky for NBA players to decertify their union because it would not only put an end to the NBA players association, but also would nullify the labor contract.

''It's a nuclear option,'' Stern said at the time, ''but I'm not sure whether it isn't the nuclear option that falls on the party that launches it.''

Instead, players went a different route, believing that filing the disclaimer is much quicker that the decertification process and gives them a chance to win several billion dollars in triple damages.

''This is the best decision for the players,'' union president Derek Fisher said. ''I want to reiterate that point, that a lot of individual players have a lot of things personally at stake in terms of their careers and where they stand. And right now they feel it's important - we all feel it's important to all our players, not just the ones in this room, but our entire group - that we not only try to get a deal
''We're prepared to file this antitrust action against the NBA,'' union executive director Billy Hunter said. ''That's the best situation where players can get their due process.''


David Stern had urged players to take the deal on the table, saying it's the best the NBA could offer and warned that decertification is not a winning strategy.

Derek Fisher, flanked at a press conference by dozens of players including Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony, said the decision was unanimous.

Hunter said the NBPA was in the process of converting to a trade association and that all players will be represented in a class-action suit against the NBA by attorneys Jeffrey Kessler and David Boies - who were on opposite sides of the NFL labor dispute, Kessler working for the players, Boise for the league.

''The fact that the two biggest legal adversaries in the NFL players dispute over the NFL lockout both agree that the NBA lockout is now illegal and subject to triple damages speaks for itself,'' Kessler said in an email to The Associated Press. ''I am delighted to work together with David Boies on behalf of the NBA players.''

Stern was not impressed with his legal adversaries.

''Mr. Kessler got his way, and we're about to go into the nuclear winter of the NBA,'' he told ESPN. ''If I were a player ... I would be wondering what it is that Billy Hunter just did.''

Hunter said the NBPA's ''notice of disclaimer'' was filed with Stern's office about an hour before the news conference announcing the move.

Hunter said the bargaining process had ''completely broken down.'' Players and owners have been talking for some two years but couldn't reach a deal, with players feeling the league's desires to improve competitive balance would hurt their free agency options.

And beyond that, the owners' desire for a 50-50 split of basketball-related income, after players were guaranteed 57 percent under the old deal, meant players were shifting at least $280 million per year to the owners.

II-

''This deal could have been done. It should have been done,'' Hunter said. ''We've given and given and given, and they got to the place where they just reached for too much and the players decided to push back.''

Over the weekend, Stern said he would not cancel the season this week.

Regardless, damage has already been done, in many ways.

Financially, both sides have lost hundreds of millions because of the games missed and the countless more that will be wiped out before play resumes. Team employees are losing money, and in some cases, jobs And both the NBA and NBPA eventually must regain the loyalty of an angered fan base that wonders how the league reached this low point after such a strong 2010-11 season.

The proposal rejected by the players called for a 72-game season beginning Dec. 15.

On Sunday, the league made a very public push on the positives of the deal - hosting a 90-minute twitter chat to answer questions from players and fans, posting a YouTube video to explain the key points and sending a memo from Stern to players urging them to ''study our proposal carefully, and to accept it as a fair compromise of the issues between us.''

In the memo, posted on the league's website, Stern highlighted points of the deal and asked players to focus on the compromises the league made during negotiations, such as dropping its demands for a hard salary cap, non-guaranteed contracts and salary rollbacks.

Union officials repeatedly have said the system issues are perhaps more important to them than the split of basketball-related income, but owners say they need fundamental changes in both to allow for a chance to profit and to ensure more competitive balance throughout the league.

The previous CBA expired at the end of the day June 30. Despite a series of meetings in June, there was never much hope of a deal before that deadline, with owners wanting significant changes after saying they lost $300 million last season and hundreds of millions more in each year of the old agreement, which was ratified in 2005.

Owners wanted to keep more of the league's nearly $4 billion in basketball revenues. And they sought a system where even the smallest-market clubs could compete, believing the current system would always favor the teams who could spend the most.

The NBA's last work stoppage reduced the 1998-99 season to 50 games. Monday marked the 137th day of the lockout; the NFL lockout lasted 136 days.


Looks like it's going to be a longggggggggggggg winter!

Weekend Humor

Jahlil got off the elevator on the 50th floor and nervously knocked on his blind date's door. She opened it and was as beautiful and charming as everyone had said.

"I'll be ready in a few minutes," she said. "Why don't you play with Spot, my dog, while you're waiting?" He does wonderful tricks. He rolls over, shakes hands, sits up and if you make a hoop with your arms, he'll jump through."

The dog followed Jahlil onto the balcony and started rolling over. Jahlil made a hoop with his arms and Spot jumped through--over the balcony railing. Just then Jahlil's date walked out.

"Isn't Spot the cutest, happiest dog you've ever seen?"

"To tell the the truth, " he replied, "Spot seemed a little depressed to me!"

Have a great Weekend Everyone!

R.I.P. Heavy D.

1967-2011

          Rest In Peace Dwight Arrington Myers ,known to the world as Heavy D.  "The Overweight Lover"

I'm still in shock at his untimely death two days ago...Rather than write an obituary...There will be plenty...I thought it better to spotlight what I think are three of his greatest performances.










Thanks Heavy D. Thanks For everything!

Girls, Girls,Girls.....

Am  I going to be writing about Herman Cain and his women every week?   This is the third post I've written in just a week about him and his alledged sexual impropriety!

One of my friends on Facebook joked that everytime he sees Herman Cain he feels like yelling -"WHERES ALL DE WHITE WOMEN?"  I had to laugh.. Because up until the day before yesterday..I didn't know the race of his accusers..I assumed that they were like Cain, African-American...I don't know why..because they could have been Asian or Latin....That's what anonymous means...You don't know..But now we do know...

A woman has come out of the fog and given her name and shown her face and buddy...I wouldn't want to be Herman Cain right now...This is a fourth woman!!!

50 year old Sharon Bialek, who identified herself as a registered Republican and single mother from Chicago, accused Cain on Monday of making an unwanted advance after dinner in Washington in 1997 when she asked for help finding a job after being laid off by the National Restaurant Association, which Cain headed.

On Tuesday, she told ABC's "Good Morning America" program that she wants Cain to admit his alleged misdeeds and apologize at his press conference.

"I'm not a liar," said Bialek, who was flanked by her celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred.

She took issue with Cain's decision to joke about the controversy on TV: "I don't think there's anything funny about this subject and for him to do that is just deplorable.

"What I'd really like, it's not too late, that he can step forward and just end this," Bialek said. "End it by saying, 'I did some inappropriate things. It was a long time ago. I apologize.'"

Asked if she believed Cain was fit to be president, Bialek replied: "Not until he tells the truth."

Cain had said he was done answering questions about sexual harassment allegations against him after earlier reports that two other women lodged formal complaints against him when he headed the restaurant association. Another woman also said she was harassed but did not file a complaint. Sharon Bialek is the first accuser to go public.

While I don't think his count is as high as Tiger Woods, I do suggest that he apologize to anyone else who he even thinks he may have offended , including this woman and soon or his run for the Republican  Presidential nomination will be a bigger joke than it already was.

R.I.P. Joe Frazier

1944-2011

I have just awakened to the tragic news that Boxing Great and Philadelphian, "Smokin" Joe Frazier has passed away.  It was just this weekend that we learned that he was suffering from Liver Cancer and in hospice care....I was floored by that news....and now I hear that he has died.

I had the pleasure of actually meeting him about ten years ago...In a bar...He bought me and my friends drinks and laughed and talked with us...He was a real nice guy....Back in the 70's...I have to admit, I was an Ali fan during their classic three wars...but even then..I always had great respect for that man's left hook and that warrior heart of his....

He was once a heavyweight champion, and a great one at that.Muhammad Ali would say as much after Frazier knocked him down in the 15th round en route to becoming the first man to beat Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden in March 1971.

But he bore the burden of always being Ali's foil, and he paid the price. Bitter for years about the taunts his former nemesis once threw his way, Frazier only in recent times came to terms with what happened in the past and said he had forgiven Ali for everything he said.

Joe Frazier, who died Monday night after a brief battle with liver cancer at the age of 67, will forever be linked to Muhammad Ali. But no one in boxing would ever dream of anointing Ali as The Greatest unless he, too, was linked to Smokin' Joe.

''I will always remember Joe with respect and admiration,'' Ali said in a statement. ''My sympathy goes out to his family and loved ones.''

They fought three times, twice in the heart of New York City and once in the morning in a steamy arena in the Philippines. They went 41 rounds together, with neither giving an inch and both giving it their all. They nearly killed each other..but in those wars grew a grudging respect, I believe.

In their last fight in Manila in 1975, when I was 17 and still in high school they traded punches with a fervor that seemed unimaginable among heavyweights then and now. Joe Frazier gave almost as good as he got for 14 rounds, then had to be held back by trainer Eddie Futch as he tried to go out for the final round, unable to see.

''Closest thing to dying that I know of,'' Ali said afterward.

Muhammad Ali was as merciless with Frazier out of the ring as he was inside it. He called him a gorilla, and mocked him as an Uncle Tom. But he respected him as a fighter, especially after Frazier won a decision to defend his heavyweight title against the then-unbeaten Ali in a fight that was so big Frank Sinatra was shooting pictures at ringside and both fighters earned an astonishing $2.5 million. Unheard of until then for a prize fight.

The night at the Garden 40 years ago remained fresh in Joe Frazier's mind as he talked about his life, career and relationship with Ali a few months before he died.

''I can't go nowhere where it's not mentioned,'' he told The Associated Press. ''That was the greatest thing that ever happened in my life.''

Joe... We'll miss you...You were a true warrior! You can rest on your shield now~!

Keith's Favorite Quotes

"I'm the man you think you are. . .If you want to know what I'll do, figure out what you'll do. I'll do the same thing, only more of it. . . . ."-Malcolm X



(Remember to vote tomorrow! That's what a real man who cares about his family and his nation would do.)

Keith's Favorite Quotes

"SOMETIMES WE EXPECT MORE FROM OTHERS BECAUSE WE WOULD BE WILLING TO DO THAT MUCH FOR THEM." -Author unknown

Keith's Music Spotlight

This song here, "Stay" is what I call real butter....This is a real soul song....A song that could stand with the best of the 60's and 70's....That's a huge statement to make..but in this case it's true.. The video reunites Tyrese and Taraji Henson from "Baby Boy", One of my favorite 90's movies.... Both Tyrese and Taraji have come a long way since then...So give a listen to "Stay"...One of my favorites..

Weekend Humor

When you occasionally have a really bad day, and you just need to take it out on someone, don't take it out on someone you know, take it out on someone you don't know, but you know deserves it...

I was sitting at my desk when I remembered a phone call I'd forgotten to make.

I found the number and dialed it.

A man answered, saying 'Hello.'

I politely said,
''This is Keith. Could I please speak with Robyn Carter?'

Suddenly a manic voice yelled out in my ear
''Get the right f***ing number!'
And the phone was slammed down on me.

I couldn't believe that anyone could be so rude.

When I tracked down Robyn's correct number to call her,
I found that I had accidentally transposed the last two digits.

After hanging up with her, I decided to call the ''wrong'' number again.

When the same guy answered the phone, I yelled 'You're an a#@hole!'
And hung up.

I wrote his number down with the word 'a$$hole' next to it,
And put it in my desk drawer.

Every couple of weeks, when I was paying bills or had a really bad day,
I'd call him up and yell, ''You're an a%$hole!''

It always cheered me up.

When Caller ID was introduced, I thought my therapeutic ''a@@hole'' calling would have to stop.

So, I called his number and said, 'Hi, this is Slim Shady from the telephone company.
I'm calling to see if you're familiar with our Caller ID Program?'

He yelled ''NO!'' And slammed down the phone.

I quickly called him back and said, ''That's because you're an a@@hole.
And hung up.

One day I was at the store, getting ready to pull into a parking spot.

Some guy in a black BMW cut me off and pulled into the spot I had patiently waited for.

I hit the horn and yelled that I'd been waiting for that spot, but the idiot ignored me.

I noticed a 'For Sale' sign in his back window, so I wrote down his number.

A couple of days later, right after calling the first a$$hole (I had his number on speed dial) I thought that I'd better call the BMW a$$hole, too.

I said, 'Is this the guy with the black BMW for sale?'

He said, ''Yeah, it is.''

I then asked, 'Can you tell me where I can see it?'

He said, ''Yes, I live at ______. , in East Oak Lane.
It's a yellow ranch style house And the car's parked right out in front.''

I asked, 'What's your name?'

He said, 'My name is Donavan Hawkins.'' (Not his actual name)

I asked, ''When's a good time to catch you, Donny?'

He said, ''I'm home every evening after five. And don't call me Donny.I'm sellin a car, I aint tryin to get to know you''

I said, 'Listen, Don, can I tell you something?'

He said, ''What ?''

I said, 'Donny, you're an a$$hole!'

Then I hung up, and added his number to my speed dial, too.

Now, when I had a problem, I had two a$$holes to call.

Then I came up with an idea...

I called a$$hole #1.

He said, 'Hello'

I said, ''You're an a$$hole!'
(But I didn't hang up.)

He asked, ''Are you still there?''

I said, 'Yeah!'

He screamed, ''Stop calling me''

I said, ''Make me.''

He asked, "Who are you?"

I said, ''My name is Donny Hansen.''

He said, 'Yeah? Where do you live?'

I said, ''butthead, I live at _______., in East Oak Lane, a yellow ranch style home and I have a black Beamer parked in front.''

He said, ''I'm coming over right now, Donny . And you had better start saying your prayers.I'm gone knock yo a$$ out''

I said, 'Yeah, like I'm really scared, a$$hole,' and hung up.

Then I called A$$hole #2.

He said, 'Hello?'

I said, ''Hello, a$$hole,''

He yelled, ''If I ever find out who you are...''

I said, ''You'll what?''

He exclaimed, ''I'll kick your a$$''

I answered, ''Well, a$$hole, here's your chance.I'm coming over right now.' '

"Good..I'll be waiting." he yelled.

Then I hung up and immediately called the police, saying that I was on my way over to ________, in East Oak Lane, to kill my ex-girlfriend....

Then I called Channel 10 News about the gang war going down on __________ in East Oak Lane.
 .
I quickly got into my car and headed over to East Oak Lane .I laughed all the way up Lincoln Drive...

I got there just in time to watch two grown men beating the crap out of each other in front of six cop cars, an overhead news helicopter and surrounded by a news crew.

NOW, I feel much better.

Anger management really does work.

Don't try this at home!   Have a great weekend everybody!

Pointing Fingers

Yes...I'm laughing...and yes...I'm milking this...I'm getting so much traction from this story that it's not funny...Herman Cain is discovering , as Brother Steele did, what it means to be successful and a Black Republican.  Maybe he's learning what it means to be successful and Black period...

The man has been so angry at the recent allegations against him that he's broken out into song on television.  He actually has a surprisingly decent singing voice....After this joke of a campaign is over...He can audition for X Factor or American Idol...


Herman Cain started out blaming his accusers and the news media for the story alleging inappropriate behavior with at least two female employees(Now three as of this writing.) when he headed the National Restaurant Association.

He then turned to Democrats and liberals, arguing that they don’t want to see him win the GOP presidential nomination. And now Cain and his campaign are blaming Rick Perry's team for leaking the story, saying that he told Perry adviser Curt Anderson in 2003 about a charge stemming from his time at the restaurant association. (But if Cain told folks about this in ’03 to discuss opposition research on him in preparation for a Senate bid, why was he so unprepared to respond after the Politico story came out Sunday night? HMMMMMMMMMM!)

"The Perry campaign needs to apologize to Herman Cain and his family," top Cain aide Mark Block said on FOX yesterday. Perry and his campaign deny leaking the story. “We found out about the allegations against Mr. Cain the same time everybody else did," Governor Perry told Red State’s Erick Erickson, per NBC’s Carrie Dann.

I know from personal experience (I'll write about that later!) that the blame game only works for a short period of time. What ultimately matters is the story -- not who leaked it.

Indeed, here’s what  has been known since Monday: Two women accused Cain of inappropriate sexual conduct, and at least one  of these woman received a financial settlement because of it.

Over the course of three days,Herman Cain has tried to deflect blame, but hasn't been able prove all the allegations are false.

He's busy complaining (and singing) that he's being treated as if he's "guilty until proven innocent” . The problem for him is that while he's been deflecting blame, he's also evolved his explanation so much that it's actually confirmed some of the charges, making his denials on all of them harder to believe. Who knew he was such a playa?

 As if he didn't have enough problems with the two women...It's now been reported that a THIRD former National Restaurant Association employee considered filing a workplace complaint against Cain. Second, Chris Wilson, a GOP pollster aligned with a pro-Perry Super PAC who worked for the National Restaurant Association, has alleged seeing Cain engage in inappropriate behavior (and also denies leaking the story...Of course!).

 And third, as NBC’s Lisa Myers reported on “TODAY,” the lawyer for one female accuser who wanted to tell her side of the story, doesn’t want to come out publicly. “She has a life to live and a career, and she doesn’t want to become another Anita Hill,” said lawyer Joel Bennett. Instead, as the New York Times notes, Bennett wants to release a statement -- on his client’s behalf -- that makes clear her version of events is different than Cain’s, without violating her non-disclosure agreement.

Somewhere, Tiger Woods is laughing his head off!

What I've Learned

1. I am perplexed by adults who act like children.  Especially since most children want to be adults.

2.In Politics when people compromise...Everybody is usually angry afterwords.. In a Marriage, it's compromise that keeps a couple together...Go figure!

3.When your fortunes fall...your ego becomes the biggest coward!

4. I've done my best to keep from living up to other people's expectations!

5.My Father never missed a day of work that I can remember....And my Mother always said "Be thankful that you have a job and work everyday that you can...Don't take off for frivalous reasons...."Which is why I have always had a great work ethic.

6.When you're successful, you can talk all of the trash you want!

7.As much as I should've, I didn't learn the lessons of older and wiser people until it was too late.

8.Don't confuse perception with intelligence!

9.Life is by nature, unfair

10.God does not distribute all of his gifts evenly.

The Front Runner

Well, I have to admit...Just a few months ago I didn't know (or care) much about Herman Cain... He was just a disillusioned Black Republican running for President in a pool of mediorce and bizzarre candidates...But over the past few months the old boy has surprised me....He is actually the front runner in this wacky Republican campaign...

If no one took him serious before....Somebody must certainly be taking him seriously now....because a decades old scandal has been dug up about him...That's a sure sign that you're being taken seriously...when they dig up dirt on you to try and smear you.

Well Brother Cain, welcome to the big leauges!

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain admitted Monday to being accused of sexual harassment while at the helm of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s, but denied ever engaging in such activity.

Herman Cain decried a report that said the association had reached settlements with two women who lodged sexual harassment claims against him as part of a "witch hunt" associated with his recent surge in the polls.

"I have never sexually harassed anyone, and yes, I was falsely accused while I was at the National Restaurant Association," Cain said in an interview on Fox News, his first comments on the Politico story from Sunday. "I say falsely because it turned out, after the investigation, to be baseless."

Herman Cain sought to forcefully dispute the story, which says he had been accused of sexually suggestive behavior toward at least two female employees during his time as head of the restaurant lobby.

The report said the women signed agreements with the restaurant group that gave them five-figure financial payouts to leave the association and barred them from discussing their departures. Neither woman was identified.

Herman Cain told Fox News that he recalled an allegation by one of the women. "I was standing close to her and I made a gesture ... and brought my hand, didn't touch her, up to my chin and said, 'You're the same height as my wife because my wife comes up to my chin.'' My wife of 43 years. And that was put in there as something that made her feel uncomfortable as part of the sexual harassment charge."

Herman Cain said that he had never personally settled any sexual harassment suit, and that if the NRA had settled any claims, it had done so without his knowledge.


"If the Restaurant Association did a settlement, I wasn't even aware of it, and I hope it wasn't for much because nothing happened," he explained on Fox. "So if there was a settlement, it was handled by some of the other officers that worked for me at the association." This sounds a bit suspicious I must admit....He had to know, especially if money was being paid out.

Herman Cain said, though, during an afternoon speech that he wouldn't ask the association to release further information, and that his campaign viewed the issue as closed.

"As far as we're concerned, enough's said about this issue," Cain said.

Herman Cain's campaign has launched an all-out effort Monday to dispute the story. Campaign manager and chief of staff Mark Block forcefully denied the Politico story on television this morning.

"Herman Cain has never sexually harassed anybody. Period. End of story," Block said on MSNBC's Daily Rundown.Sure of that ,Mr.Block?

The initial report was based on anonymous sources(Naturally, Aren't all of these kinds of things based on anonymous sources?) and, in one case, what Politico said was a review of documentation that described the allegations and the resolution.

NBC News has independently confirmed that one woman received a settlement from the NRA after complaining about inappropriate sexual conduct by Mr.Cain.

The former Godfather's Pizza CEO sidestepped a question about whether he suspected his competitors for the Republican presidential nomination of leaking the information.No, Of course not!

Like I said...Welcome to the big leauges!