http://www.ufodigest.com/article/ufo-digest-spotlight-trial-richard-sauder-0
Robert D Morningstar
Mon, 07/26/2010
The UFO Digest Spotlight on...
The Trial of Richard Sauder
Edited by Robert D. Morningstar
Richard Sauder, 55, of San Antonio, Texas, author of "Underground Bases" and "Hidden in Plain Sight" was arrested on April 15th, 2010 after scaling the fence of the H-8 missile silo (a Minuteman III launch site) at Minot AFB near Parshall, North Dakota. Sauder climbed the fence allegedly to conduct a peaceful protest against nuclear weapons.
Sauder was initially charged with criminal trespass, a Class C felony, and taken to the Mountrail County jail in Stanley. He was held for 3 months pending trial, which occurred on July 23rd, with a positive resolution for the well known writer, as noted below by Richard Dolan (author of "UFOs & The National Security State" Volumes 1 & 2).
During his incarceration, Richard Sauder issued a statement (on July 14th) regarding his protest activities at Minot AFB.
Note from Richard Dolan, July 22, 2010.
I received a handwritten letter from Richard Sauder two days ago and have transcribed it, at his request, for general distribution. Since his arrest and incarceration on April 15, 2010, he has had no access to computers, Internet, or even ordinary phone calls, so his ability to communicate with the outside world is restricted to hand-written correspondence that must be examined by federal authorities. By the standards of Year 2010, this is painfully slow, but it is all he has.
----------------------------------------
A Serious Message from the Heart of America
by Richard Sauder
14 July 2010
I come in peace as a messenger to North Dakota and the world, here in the dog days of summer 2010.
That is why, on 15 April 2010, I went over the fence and staged a peaceful demonstration on U.S. Air Force nuclear missile silo H-8, at the intersection of 33rd St. And 76th Ave., near Parshall, North Dakota. For this manifestation of creative nonviolence, I was arrested and jailed. For three months I have been incarcerated in the Heart of America Correctional and Treatment Center, located in Rugby, North Dakota, at the precise geographical center of the North American continent.
I traveled to North Dakota from Texas, whose state symbol is a five pointed star. Because my purpose was both serious and prescient, I accordingly placed a five-armed starfish shell on the missile silo. I also placed five conch shells on the silo access hatch, to symbolize the vital importance of the sea. Silo H-8 is located in the midst of North Dakota’s booming oil field. When I straightened up, I saw men hard at work drilling for oil with a large derrick erected in a field just to the south of silo H-8.
Five days later, BP’s Deepwater Horizon Oilwell exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, and the consequences of that catastrophe will be unfolding for a long time to come, with dire impacts on the Gulf of Mexico, the Southeast USA, and much more besides. The entire situation is very serious.
Both BP and the USA government have knowingly lied about the gravity of the situation. This is no accident. The USA is ruling system is now a criminally corrupt “corporate-government,” governed of, by and for the Fortune 500 companies and Wall Street. The USA government is not now in any meaningful degree truly a “participatory” democracy or “representative” government.
And understand this: the nuclear missiles in North Dakota are the hellish, genocidal, hyper-violent weapons of last resort that prop up this systemic “corporate-government” criminal corruption. Liberty, freedom, peace and “justice for all” have nothing to do with it. On the contrary.
A wise man said long ago: “let those who have eyes to see, see!” Can you see how deeply criminal the USA’s corporate government is? The plain meaning of the ongoing catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico is a serious case in point.
So it is that as this oppressive system of military, political and corporate criminality crushes the Earth and her peoples under its ignorant yoke, I enter the scene as a latter-day Paul Revere, warning not that “the British are coming!” but rather “British Petroleum has come!,”and that we must “revere” the Earth much more than we have to date.
Just as BP’s actions have destroyed the Gulf of Mexico’s ecological soundness and integrity, so too has the U.S. government’s multi-trillion dollar mugging of the American people’s prosperity and posterity destroyed its integrity and claim to legitimacy. Wall Street, the Fortune 500, the Federal Reserve, and USA corp-gov puppets of the “Powers that Be” who lurk in our world’s shadows are carrying out the biggest criminal shakedown in recorded history.
The recent, so-called bail out and stimulus bills should really be called the National Mugging and National Shakedown Acts. They are funneling trillions of dollars from the people’s purses and pockets to accounts and financial institutions controlled by the wealthiest families and individuals on the planet. This is point blank robbery: the banks are robbing the people.
I say again: the nuclear missiles are the ultimate genocidal enforcer of this criminal economic arrangement, which is based on a global system of lifelong debt peonage designed to ensnare all humanity in economic bondage.
I cannot remain silent. I am here to say that I object. I cannot go along with this hideous agenda of national and global economic enslavement, which simultaneously dangles a nuclear sword of Damocles over our collective heads.
Why do we go about our business as if this state of affairs is acceptable? It’s not acceptable to me, and so I have acted, and am speaking publicly as part of the international, intergenerational, decentralized, leaderless, creatively nonviolent White Rose movement, the global direction of which lies in the eternal desire of the human heart to be free of tyranny and to be at peace.
For the White Rose, both the means and the end are the same: nonviolence. This planet has been plagued by an epidemic of warfare for millennia. But it is a logical absurdity to imagine that warfare can abolish warfare. Nonviolence offers the only sure path to a peaceful world, and this is the trajectory of the White Rose.
So how does it all play out? What’s the basic game plan? Quite simple! And the really good part is that in the end we get both our lives and our planet back from the ignorant oppressive clutches of the Powers that Be and their greedy, power mad puppets in the USA’s “corp-gov,” Wall Street, Fortune 500 and the Pentagon.
As it happens, we and the Earth are now entering into a so-called event horizon of near simultaneous, cascading ecological crises, major weather and climate change, geological and seismic disturbances, military and political upheaval, economic chaos, social unrest, agricultural problems, pollution overload and industrial emergencies.
As if on cue, BP’s Deep Water Horizon Oil Rig explosion and ongoing catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico is ushering in the opening phase of this onrushing event horizon that will crash over us in the coming months and years.
As it happens, the Powers that Be and their puppets do not know what to do about these many crises they have played such an influential role in creating and/or worsening; even worse, they don’t really care.
It therefore falls to us, We the People, to help ourselves by unilaterally: a) declaring a Jubilee Year for sweeping forgiveness of all odious and onerous debts, and b) nonviolently and peacefully withdrawing all support for the war machinations of this planet’s governments, military organizations, corporations, and financial institutions.
What does this mean pragmatically? At a minimum it means basic measures such as:
– Pull your money out of the big banks.
– Pull your money out of the criminal casino known as the stock market, also known as Wall Street.
– Don’t pay odious and onerous debts. The USA corp-gov and major financial institutions have criminally rigged the so-called economy.
– Reduce your consumption of goods and services from Fortune 500 companies.
– Simplify your material lifestyle.
– Do not participate in industrialized slaughter of your fellow humans. In other words, refuse to go to war for the corporate mercenary force known as the Pentagon.
– Boycott corporate propaganda and news services such as ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, etc.
– Patronize, or establish your own, alternative news sources or networks.
– As many as are able, engage in creative, nonviolent acts of civil disobedience at corporate, governmental, and military installations and headquarters.
– Remember, the goal is nonviolent reform, so act nonviolently even when provoked.
– Think outside the box, with the emphasis on creative nonviolence.
In short, we are free when we stop acting like corporate-government slaves and conscripts and start behaving like sovereign, free human beings.
No one can give you your freedom. You can only claim freedom for yourself. It comes down to this: either you are free or you are not. It’s your decision. Which will it be?
Either we get rid of the nuclear missiles or they will get rid of us. We must have global, nuclear disarmament. I have on three occasions in my life gone over the fence at nuclear missile silos to perform nonviolent acts of civil disobedience.
I have been arrested and jailed, but nothing worth having comes without personal effort and sacrifice. Do you want nuclear disarmament? Do you really want to live on a planet free of the threat of nuclear apocalypse?
If you are serious, then you will have to do something. You. Personally. A wise and serious man once said: much is required of those to whom much is given.
The nuclear missiles can never be fired if the air is to remain habitable in any significantly human or humane sense. Five trillion dollars have been lavished on the USA’s planet killing, planet-impoverishing nuclear arsenal.
Trillions more dollars are being looted from the American people as you read these words.
So let the Jubilee Year began with all due alacrity. The people to whom this duty falls by rights, by which I mean the obligation to announce the Jubilee Year, have completely abdicated their responsibilities and have instead fallen in with the very worst sort of criminal element. And so the responsibility to declare a Jubilee Year necessarily passes by default to other hands. It is left to the ordinary people of the world, you and me, to announce the Jubilee, of release from onerous and odious debt, release from economic bondage.
And make no mistake. I reiterate that this has everything in the world to do with the nuclear missiles that menace the human race and the planet. The trillions of dollars spent on nuclear weaponry represent theft by taking from the people’s prosperity, the more so, as these weapons can never be used, so hideously and hellishly destructive would a nuclear war be.
Under these conditions it is both fitting and proper for the people to employ creatively nonviolent means to withdraw their support from a corrupt system that is dragging them down to collective ruin.
I am Richard Sauder and I endorse this serious message, straight from the Heart of America, in the dog days of summer 2010.
"Hier stehe ich. Ich kann nicht anders."
Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise.
---Richard Sauder
July 14th, 2010
RICHARD SAUDER RELEASED FROM JAIL...
Judge Releases Protester with "Time Served"
July 24, 2010
On July 26th, the Editor of UFO Digest, received this message through Richard Dolan:
"I just received a phone call from Richard Sauder, who has informed me that he stood trial on July 23, and was released from custody.
The judge did find him guilty for trespassing on a federal facility, but sentenced him to time served.
So, after three months of custody, Richard is free. He asked me to thank everyone who supported him while he was incarcerated. I am sure he will issue his own statement sometime soon."
Richard Dolan
UFO Digest celebrates the release of Richard Sauder and commends the judge who tried him for his wisdom and consideration in meting out justice to Sauder for "time served".
We applaud this judge for his fairness and we hope more judges in future will exercise such discretion, restraint and "2 Cents of Common Sense" in their deliberations on such cases of citizen's protests and exercise of civil disobedience in pursuit of a just cause.
Robert D. Morningstar
Editor, UFO Digest
July 26th, 2010
New York City
Showing posts with label San Antonio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label San Antonio. Show all posts
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Who You Callin’ a Maverick?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/weekinreview/05schwartz.html
October 5, 2008
The Nation
Who You Callin’ a Maverick?
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
There’s that word again: maverick. In Thursday’s vice-presidential debate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, the Republican candidate, used it to describe herself and her running mate, Senator John McCain, no fewer than six times, at one point calling him “the consummate maverick.”
But to those who know the history of the word, applying it to Mr. McCain is a bit of a stretch — and to one Texas family in particular it is even a bit offensive.
“I’m just enraged that McCain calls himself a maverick,” said Terrellita Maverick, 82, a San Antonio native who proudly carries the name of a family that has been known for its progressive politics since the 1600s, when an early ancestor in Boston got into trouble with the law over his agitation for the rights of indentured servants.
In the 1800s, Samuel Augustus Maverick went to Texas and became known for not branding his cattle. He was more interested in keeping track of the land he owned than the livestock on it, Ms. Maverick said; unbranded cattle, then, were called “Maverick’s.” The name came to mean anyone who didn’t bear another’s brand.
Sam Maverick’s grandson, Fontaine Maury Maverick, was a two-term congressman and a mayor of San Antonio who lost his mayoral re-election bid when conservatives labeled him a Communist. He served in the Roosevelt administration on the Smaller War Plants Corporation and is best known for another coinage. He came up with the term “gobbledygook” in frustration at the convoluted language of bureaucrats.
This Maverick’s son, Maury Jr., was a firebrand civil libertarian and lawyer who defended draft resisters, atheists and others scorned by society. He served in the Texas Legislature during the McCarthy era and wrote fiery columns for The San Antonio Express-News. His final column, published on Feb. 2, 2003, just after he died at 82, was an attack on the coming war in Iraq.
Terrellita Maverick, sister of Maury Jr., is a member emeritus of the board of the San Antonio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.
Considering the family’s long history of association with liberalism and progressive ideals, it should come as no surprise that Ms. Maverick insists that John McCain, who has voted so often with his party, “is in no way a maverick, in uppercase or lowercase.”
“It’s just incredible — the nerve! — to suggest that he’s not part of that Republican herd. Every time we hear it, all my children and I and all my family shrink a little and say, ‘Oh, my God, he said it again.’ ”
“He’s a Republican,” she said. “He’s branded.”
October 5, 2008
The Nation
Who You Callin’ a Maverick?
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
There’s that word again: maverick. In Thursday’s vice-presidential debate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, the Republican candidate, used it to describe herself and her running mate, Senator John McCain, no fewer than six times, at one point calling him “the consummate maverick.”
But to those who know the history of the word, applying it to Mr. McCain is a bit of a stretch — and to one Texas family in particular it is even a bit offensive.
“I’m just enraged that McCain calls himself a maverick,” said Terrellita Maverick, 82, a San Antonio native who proudly carries the name of a family that has been known for its progressive politics since the 1600s, when an early ancestor in Boston got into trouble with the law over his agitation for the rights of indentured servants.
In the 1800s, Samuel Augustus Maverick went to Texas and became known for not branding his cattle. He was more interested in keeping track of the land he owned than the livestock on it, Ms. Maverick said; unbranded cattle, then, were called “Maverick’s.” The name came to mean anyone who didn’t bear another’s brand.
Sam Maverick’s grandson, Fontaine Maury Maverick, was a two-term congressman and a mayor of San Antonio who lost his mayoral re-election bid when conservatives labeled him a Communist. He served in the Roosevelt administration on the Smaller War Plants Corporation and is best known for another coinage. He came up with the term “gobbledygook” in frustration at the convoluted language of bureaucrats.
This Maverick’s son, Maury Jr., was a firebrand civil libertarian and lawyer who defended draft resisters, atheists and others scorned by society. He served in the Texas Legislature during the McCarthy era and wrote fiery columns for The San Antonio Express-News. His final column, published on Feb. 2, 2003, just after he died at 82, was an attack on the coming war in Iraq.
Terrellita Maverick, sister of Maury Jr., is a member emeritus of the board of the San Antonio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.
Considering the family’s long history of association with liberalism and progressive ideals, it should come as no surprise that Ms. Maverick insists that John McCain, who has voted so often with his party, “is in no way a maverick, in uppercase or lowercase.”
“It’s just incredible — the nerve! — to suggest that he’s not part of that Republican herd. Every time we hear it, all my children and I and all my family shrink a little and say, ‘Oh, my God, he said it again.’ ”
“He’s a Republican,” she said. “He’s branded.”
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Texas city plans to convert human waste to energy
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0937395520080909
Texas city plans to convert human waste to energy
Tue Sep 9, 2008
SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - San Antonio unveiled a deal on Tuesday that will make it the first U.S. city to harvest methane gas from human waste on a commercial scale and turn it into clean-burning fuel.
San Antonio residents produce about 140,000 tons a year of a substance gently referred to as "biosolids," which can be reprocessed into natural gas, said Steve Clouse, chief operating officer of the city's water system.
"You may call it something else," Clouse said, but for area utilities, the main byproduct of human waste - methane gas - will soon be converted into natural gas to burn in their power plants.
The city approved a deal where Massachusetts-based Ameresco Inc will convert the city's biosolids into natural gas, which could generate about 1.5 million cubic feet per day, he said.
Methane gas, which is a byproduct of human and organic waste, is a principal component of the natural gas used to fuel furnaces, power plants, and other combustion-based generators.
"The private vendor will come onto the facility, construct some gas cleaning systems, remove the moisture, remove the carbon dioxide content, and then sell that gas on the open market," Clouse said.
The gas will be sold to power generators, he said.
Some communities are using methane gas harvested from solid waste to power smaller facilities like sewage treatment plants, but San Antonio is the first to see large-scale conversion of methane gas from sewage into fuel for power generation, he said.
Following the agreement, more than 90 percent of materials flushed down the toilets and sinks of San Antonio will be recycled, he said. Liquid is now used for irrigation, many of the solids are made into compost, and now the methane gas will be recycled for power generation.
(Reporting by Jim Forsyth, Editing by Chris Baltimore and Lisa Shumaker)
Texas city plans to convert human waste to energy
Tue Sep 9, 2008
SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - San Antonio unveiled a deal on Tuesday that will make it the first U.S. city to harvest methane gas from human waste on a commercial scale and turn it into clean-burning fuel.
San Antonio residents produce about 140,000 tons a year of a substance gently referred to as "biosolids," which can be reprocessed into natural gas, said Steve Clouse, chief operating officer of the city's water system.
"You may call it something else," Clouse said, but for area utilities, the main byproduct of human waste - methane gas - will soon be converted into natural gas to burn in their power plants.
The city approved a deal where Massachusetts-based Ameresco Inc will convert the city's biosolids into natural gas, which could generate about 1.5 million cubic feet per day, he said.
Methane gas, which is a byproduct of human and organic waste, is a principal component of the natural gas used to fuel furnaces, power plants, and other combustion-based generators.
"The private vendor will come onto the facility, construct some gas cleaning systems, remove the moisture, remove the carbon dioxide content, and then sell that gas on the open market," Clouse said.
The gas will be sold to power generators, he said.
Some communities are using methane gas harvested from solid waste to power smaller facilities like sewage treatment plants, but San Antonio is the first to see large-scale conversion of methane gas from sewage into fuel for power generation, he said.
Following the agreement, more than 90 percent of materials flushed down the toilets and sinks of San Antonio will be recycled, he said. Liquid is now used for irrigation, many of the solids are made into compost, and now the methane gas will be recycled for power generation.
(Reporting by Jim Forsyth, Editing by Chris Baltimore and Lisa Shumaker)
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Parker long has thrived on matchup with Kidd
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Ak2hAirJ8hVsuBgENSOH43K8vLYF?slug=jy-parkerkidd022808
Parker long has thrived on matchup with Kidd
By Johnny Ludden, Yahoo! Sports
Feb 28, 2008
The call came from the Bahamas. Tony Parker was on the other line, and he wasn’t happy. He had gone to the Caribbean to soak up some sun, and yet his mind kept drifting 1,300 miles to the northwest. The San Antonio Spurs were actually interviewing someone for his job.
This wasn’t news to Parker. He knew the Spurs had planned to bring Jason Kidd to town. Parker had said all the right things, too. Publicly, and in private to his coach, Gregg Popovich. He told everyone he understood why the Spurs would want to shower their free-agent dollars on Kidd. This wasn’t any point guard. It was Jason Kidd! The NBA’s best. Who wouldn’t want him?
Deep down in his heart, though, Parker was never comfortable with the idea. Hadn’t he just beaten Kidd in the NBA Finals? He didn’t play his best, but he was only 21. He would get better. Kidd was 30. And all this talk about the two of them playing together? Neither of them could shoot. Someone would eventually have to go. Parker was betting it wouldn’t be the guy getting the $94 million contract.
Parker’s family and friends called to tell him the Spurs had rolled out the red carpet for Kidd the second his private jet touched down at San Antonio International Airport. Tim Duncan drove Kidd around town. Popovich arranged for a chef to cook dinner for Kidd and his wife. Parker grew more frustrated. Finally, he picked up the phone and called a reporter.
“I know I’m the best point guard for this team,” Parker said. “I can lead this team.”
The following morning Kidd announced he was staying in New Jersey. Parker’s comments didn’t have much, if any, impact on his decision. The Nets had secured a commitment from Alonzo Mourning to join them, and Kidd’s friends had always doubted his wife would ever agree to move to San Antonio.
But what happened next said something about Parker and why the Spurs should feel optimistic Thursday night when Kidd again visits. Every time the two point guards have met since that fateful week in July 2003, Parker has walked away the winner.
Kidd never had the benefit of playing next to a big man of Duncan’s caliber in New Jersey, and he has a significantly better supporting cast now that he’s lining up next to Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard. But there’s also a reason why Parker said he was “very happy” to hear that the Dallas Mavericks had traded for Kidd: It meant he no longer had to worry about Devin Harris.
No team has matched up better with the Spurs in recent seasons than the Mavericks. Harris was a part of that. He’s one of the few guards quick enough to stay in front of Parker, and he also gives him trouble on the other end of the floor. The trade also cost Dallas 7-foot backup center DeSagana Diop, whose length had bothered Duncan on occasion.
Kidd’s arrival in Dallas very well may end up being filed in the Spurs’ be-careful-what-you-wish-for folder. The Mavericks need an on-court leader experienced enough to wrestle away some of the sideline play-calling from coach Avery Johnson. The hope, at least, is that Kidd will coax his new teammates to run and to cut back on Dallas’ isolation-heavy offense. The Mavericks also welcome Kidd’s toughness.
“You can’t say Jason Kidd isn’t going to help them,” Parker told reporters in San Antonio. Privately, however, Parker is surprised Dallas made the trade. He never understood why Mavericks owner Mark Cuban didn’t re-sign Steve Nash and he doesn’t understand now why he would part with Harris. When Chris Paul used his own quickness to expose Kidd during Dallas’ loss to the New Orleans Hornets last week, Parker smiled.
Parker never had a problem with Kidd listening to the Spurs’ recruiting pitch. He likes Kidd and has long marveled at his game. Popovich and GM RC Buford were the targets of Parker’s frustration, and there are other reasons why their decision to pursue Kidd, while entirely justifiable, wasn’t the best.
To free up more salary-cap room to sign Kidd, the Spurs traded their first-round pick that summer. Duncan had urged them to consider drafting a fellow Wake Forest product. When the Spurs sent the pick to Phoenix and Dallas immediately followed by taking Duncan’s preferred choice – the same Josh Howard who will be running alongside Kidd Thursday – Popovich wondered aloud in the draft room whether they had made a mistake. The Suns, meanwhile, used the Spurs’ pick on Leandro Barbosa, who developed into the NBA’s reigning Sixth Man of the Year.
Looking back, the Spurs helped improve their two biggest rivals all for the right to insult their own young point guard. Two championships later, Buford can afford to joke that his tombstone won’t be complete if the names “Howard” and “Barbosa” aren’t engraved under his own. At times, Popovich has sounded more than willing to even hammer them onto Buford’s granite himself.
But there’s something else that came from the Spurs’ interest in Kidd: It made Parker better. Parker may never admit it, but whenever he sees Kidd there’s part of him that feels like he needs to prove himself all over again.
After Parker arrived for training camp in the fall of 2003, Popovich reminded him of his comments. You think you’re the best point guard for us? You think you can lead this team? Then show me.
For the next month whenever Parker threw away a pass, whenever he took an ill-advised shot, Popovich was in his ear again. Show me.
Sitting on a podium in Cleveland last June, Parker showed his coach and everyone else. The best point guard for the Spurs?
In one hand he cradled the Finals MVP award. The other held his third championship trophy.
Johnny Ludden is the NBA editor for Yahoo! Sports.
Parker long has thrived on matchup with Kidd
By Johnny Ludden, Yahoo! Sports
Feb 28, 2008
The call came from the Bahamas. Tony Parker was on the other line, and he wasn’t happy. He had gone to the Caribbean to soak up some sun, and yet his mind kept drifting 1,300 miles to the northwest. The San Antonio Spurs were actually interviewing someone for his job.
This wasn’t news to Parker. He knew the Spurs had planned to bring Jason Kidd to town. Parker had said all the right things, too. Publicly, and in private to his coach, Gregg Popovich. He told everyone he understood why the Spurs would want to shower their free-agent dollars on Kidd. This wasn’t any point guard. It was Jason Kidd! The NBA’s best. Who wouldn’t want him?
Deep down in his heart, though, Parker was never comfortable with the idea. Hadn’t he just beaten Kidd in the NBA Finals? He didn’t play his best, but he was only 21. He would get better. Kidd was 30. And all this talk about the two of them playing together? Neither of them could shoot. Someone would eventually have to go. Parker was betting it wouldn’t be the guy getting the $94 million contract.
Parker’s family and friends called to tell him the Spurs had rolled out the red carpet for Kidd the second his private jet touched down at San Antonio International Airport. Tim Duncan drove Kidd around town. Popovich arranged for a chef to cook dinner for Kidd and his wife. Parker grew more frustrated. Finally, he picked up the phone and called a reporter.
“I know I’m the best point guard for this team,” Parker said. “I can lead this team.”
The following morning Kidd announced he was staying in New Jersey. Parker’s comments didn’t have much, if any, impact on his decision. The Nets had secured a commitment from Alonzo Mourning to join them, and Kidd’s friends had always doubted his wife would ever agree to move to San Antonio.
But what happened next said something about Parker and why the Spurs should feel optimistic Thursday night when Kidd again visits. Every time the two point guards have met since that fateful week in July 2003, Parker has walked away the winner.
Kidd never had the benefit of playing next to a big man of Duncan’s caliber in New Jersey, and he has a significantly better supporting cast now that he’s lining up next to Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard. But there’s also a reason why Parker said he was “very happy” to hear that the Dallas Mavericks had traded for Kidd: It meant he no longer had to worry about Devin Harris.
No team has matched up better with the Spurs in recent seasons than the Mavericks. Harris was a part of that. He’s one of the few guards quick enough to stay in front of Parker, and he also gives him trouble on the other end of the floor. The trade also cost Dallas 7-foot backup center DeSagana Diop, whose length had bothered Duncan on occasion.
Kidd’s arrival in Dallas very well may end up being filed in the Spurs’ be-careful-what-you-wish-for folder. The Mavericks need an on-court leader experienced enough to wrestle away some of the sideline play-calling from coach Avery Johnson. The hope, at least, is that Kidd will coax his new teammates to run and to cut back on Dallas’ isolation-heavy offense. The Mavericks also welcome Kidd’s toughness.
“You can’t say Jason Kidd isn’t going to help them,” Parker told reporters in San Antonio. Privately, however, Parker is surprised Dallas made the trade. He never understood why Mavericks owner Mark Cuban didn’t re-sign Steve Nash and he doesn’t understand now why he would part with Harris. When Chris Paul used his own quickness to expose Kidd during Dallas’ loss to the New Orleans Hornets last week, Parker smiled.
Parker never had a problem with Kidd listening to the Spurs’ recruiting pitch. He likes Kidd and has long marveled at his game. Popovich and GM RC Buford were the targets of Parker’s frustration, and there are other reasons why their decision to pursue Kidd, while entirely justifiable, wasn’t the best.
To free up more salary-cap room to sign Kidd, the Spurs traded their first-round pick that summer. Duncan had urged them to consider drafting a fellow Wake Forest product. When the Spurs sent the pick to Phoenix and Dallas immediately followed by taking Duncan’s preferred choice – the same Josh Howard who will be running alongside Kidd Thursday – Popovich wondered aloud in the draft room whether they had made a mistake. The Suns, meanwhile, used the Spurs’ pick on Leandro Barbosa, who developed into the NBA’s reigning Sixth Man of the Year.
Looking back, the Spurs helped improve their two biggest rivals all for the right to insult their own young point guard. Two championships later, Buford can afford to joke that his tombstone won’t be complete if the names “Howard” and “Barbosa” aren’t engraved under his own. At times, Popovich has sounded more than willing to even hammer them onto Buford’s granite himself.
But there’s something else that came from the Spurs’ interest in Kidd: It made Parker better. Parker may never admit it, but whenever he sees Kidd there’s part of him that feels like he needs to prove himself all over again.
After Parker arrived for training camp in the fall of 2003, Popovich reminded him of his comments. You think you’re the best point guard for us? You think you can lead this team? Then show me.
For the next month whenever Parker threw away a pass, whenever he took an ill-advised shot, Popovich was in his ear again. Show me.
Sitting on a podium in Cleveland last June, Parker showed his coach and everyone else. The best point guard for the Spurs?
In one hand he cradled the Finals MVP award. The other held his third championship trophy.
Johnny Ludden is the NBA editor for Yahoo! Sports.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Creature ID'd as coyote, not chupacabra
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071102/ap_on_sc/mythical_chupacabra
Creature ID'd as coyote, not chupacabra
Fri Nov 2, 2007
The results are in: The ugly, big-eared animal found this summer in Cuero is not the mythical bloodsucking chupacabra. It's just a plain old coyote.
Biologists at Texas State University announced Thursday night that they had identified the hairless doglike creature.
San Antonio television station KENS provided a tissue sample from the animal for testing.
"The DNA sequence is a virtually identical match to DNA from the coyote (Canis latrans)," bioligist Mike Forstner said in a written statement. "This is probably the answer a lot of folks thought might be the outcome. I, myself, really thought it was a domestic dog, but the Cuero Chupacabra is a Texas Coyote."
Phylis Canion and some of her neighbors discovered the 40-pound bodies of three of the animals over four days in July outside her ranch in Cuero, 90 miles southeast of San Antonio. Canion said she saved the head of the one she found so she could get to get to the bottom of its ancestry through DNA testing and then mount it for posterity.
Forstner said the testing provided an opportunity to demonstrate how science answers questions.
Chupacabra means "goat sucker" in Spanish, and it is said to have originated in Latin America, specifically Puerto Rico and Mexico.
"This is fun, not scary, but if people are worried about the chupacabra, it is probably even more important that we explain the mystery," he said. "Folks can fear what they don't understand, and a big part of the goal in science is to explain the natural world."
He said additional skin samples have been taken to try to determine the cause of the animal's hair loss.
Creature ID'd as coyote, not chupacabra
Fri Nov 2, 2007
The results are in: The ugly, big-eared animal found this summer in Cuero is not the mythical bloodsucking chupacabra. It's just a plain old coyote.
Biologists at Texas State University announced Thursday night that they had identified the hairless doglike creature.
San Antonio television station KENS provided a tissue sample from the animal for testing.
"The DNA sequence is a virtually identical match to DNA from the coyote (Canis latrans)," bioligist Mike Forstner said in a written statement. "This is probably the answer a lot of folks thought might be the outcome. I, myself, really thought it was a domestic dog, but the Cuero Chupacabra is a Texas Coyote."
Phylis Canion and some of her neighbors discovered the 40-pound bodies of three of the animals over four days in July outside her ranch in Cuero, 90 miles southeast of San Antonio. Canion said she saved the head of the one she found so she could get to get to the bottom of its ancestry through DNA testing and then mount it for posterity.
Forstner said the testing provided an opportunity to demonstrate how science answers questions.
Chupacabra means "goat sucker" in Spanish, and it is said to have originated in Latin America, specifically Puerto Rico and Mexico.
"This is fun, not scary, but if people are worried about the chupacabra, it is probably even more important that we explain the mystery," he said. "Folks can fear what they don't understand, and a big part of the goal in science is to explain the natural world."
He said additional skin samples have been taken to try to determine the cause of the animal's hair loss.
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