Vegas does what California never could manage!

LAS VEGAS — O.J. Simpson, the one-time football great who was acquitted in perhaps the most-watched murder trial of the 20th century, was sentenced Friday to a minimum of nine years in prison for his role in a 2007 raid on a Las Vegas hotel room in which two collectibles dealers were robbed of a trove of sports memorabilia.

Shortly before the sentence, Mr. Simpson, wearing a blue prison jumpsuit, his arms handcuffed in front of him, made a surprise statement in which he told Judge Jackie Glass of Clark County District Court: “I didn’t want to hurt anybody. I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong.”“I stand before you somewhat confused,” Mr. Simpson, his voice breaking, said in the rambling statement in which he uttered the word “sorry” at least four times.

Judge Glass seemed unimpressed, “The evidence was overwhelming,” she said before pronouncing sentence first on one of Mr. Simpson’s five accomplices, Clarence Stewart, 54, and then on Mr. Simpson himself.

I guess it's easier to convict when nobody gets killed and the gun doesn't even get used! .... or maybe it's just because these district attorneys were actually trying to convince and impress the jury & judge, not the cameras as those incompetents Clark & Darden!

It's a good day but I think there are very high chances this will be overturned on appeal and a new trial will be required. Simpson's lawyers talked about jury selection and the lack of blacks on it but I think the fact all accused were tried together is the main point here. How can the co-defendant Stewart have been tried fairly when O.J. Simpson is on trial with you?! He should have had a seperate trial.... Does throwing out the sentence for one dude automatically throws the other one out too?

Sadly, this isn't the last we hear about that psychopath

This whole country is skating in sand!

This space is really for hockey but sometimes life intrudes and you really need to share those thoughts.

I'm a pessimist by nature but this really looks bad. This will end up being one of those 6-10 years recession and there is very little that can be done to prevent it.

This country has been on a 20 year conservative bend which has brought about serious deregulation and complete apathy regarding consolidation and monopolies by ever-expanding corporations. Bigger is better and let them do that as they wish, the search for profit will benefit everyone!

While that philosophy has some responsibility for the current situation, the main culprit is a mindset that invaded the financial world in those last 20 years: assets & stocks always go up in value.

Who cares if I am borrowing billions to buy crappy stocks, mortgages or buildings, in 10 years, their value will double and I will be making loads of cash!

No worries about those awful subprime mortgages and people not paying them, the value of those assets is great and will be worth so much in 5 years!

Crap is crap and will not become valuable in the future. Buying shitloads more of that crap to have a bigger pile is not making it valuable.

This is really what happened! All those financial institutions and banks went on a mega buying spree, buying anything they can, lending to anyone in the spirit of becoming bigger, with more assets and therefore more value... but once the market suddenly goes down steadily for the first time in over a decade... UH OH, that huge bunch of crappy stuff we bought just to bulk up our figures is suddenly not an afterthought but a serious anchor holding up everything.

And this is only the first wave... we seem to have weathered it and are working hard on restructuring and tightening up things but this isn't a closed economy. So far, this has mainly been an internal affair with credit and asset overvaluation but the tentacles of the giant financial spider are now starting to feel that poke:

Europe and Asia are now just starting to feel the effects of that first wave and their economy are starting to shrink and waver from the tight fists of those financial institutions with ties to America... on top of the strong effect the diminished exports to the US will have. That will tighten those countries' economies and after a while, this will be felt back in the USA with lower exports to those countries: 2nd wave bringing down our economy.

However, not all is bleak and I don't see this being as bad as the Great Depression. For one, we have a much better understanding of macroeconomy and agents acting on the overall economy but mainly because of the incredible diversity of our economy. Some sectors might go down but others will continue to thrive.

As I live in Las Vegas, let me also say a few words on subprime mortgages and foreclosures. Before the slowdown, things were completely crazy. There was so much construction going on that contractors had 2 year waiting lists. You could get as many mortgages as you wished without any problem and people kept outbidding each other for whatever was on the market.

... But who was buying those houses? Families looking to live the American dream? couples or single people looking to move away from renting? Seniors looking for a nice place to retire? No, the market was completely run by speculators, by house flippers. Those people thought buying and selling houses was a career and this is all they did. Let's buy this McHouse built shoddily in 2 months and resell it in 6 months for 20% more! because it ALWAYS increases in value right?? That's how things work in America!

I do not know of any family losing their home... Nobody I know has had somebody they know lose the house they are living in. All those foreclosures are from those house flippers who were poisoning the market by quickly buying then sending the market up (and up and up) by putting the houses back on the market at a premium.

Why would they bother looking at the house, making sure it's a good built and a nice place to live in?? They won't live there at all! They just want to own it to resell it... so better to buy it quick before that family comes for a visit next Saturday!

It was all extremely unhealthy and hopefully the credit tightening will push out those kitchen house flippers out of the market.

Going through a recession is a bitch but hopefully it will be a strong wake-up call to everybody about the realities of life.

What team is coming to Vegas: Atlanta

This will be the first of a series of articles on troubled NHL teams that might be good target to relocate to my beloved oasis in the desert.


I do not see any league expansion in the next few years. Anything before 2015 seems unlikely. Any expansion would have to be 2 teams to bring it to a nice 32 and good old Bettman seems completely opposed to another Canadian team... and I can't imagine the clamor that would rise from Canada if two new American cities got teams.

It will have to come through relocation of one of the weak teams currently in the league... and there are no shortage of those in this economic climate!

The first team worth considering is the Atlanta Thrashers who, according to Jim Kelley,

"there are a steady stream of rumours that the franchise may be in danger of not making payroll down the road. Payroll issues are not uncommon for the U.S.-based teams at certain points of the season (football has an impact in terms of gate attendance early in the season and money is often tight late in the year), but it’s doubly difficult to arrange for letters of credit during a banking crisis and it’s especially difficult in Atlanta where lenders are concerned as to who is responsible (read liable) for paying back any loans that might be granted. There is fractured infighting in the ownership group there and the banks and others have taken note."

Atlanta is a weird sports market. The Falcons & Hawks are not very good nor creating any hype. The Braves were awesome for almost 15 years, a team built the right way with pitching, young exciting talent surrounded by good veterans yet it never generated the type of following that should come with 14 consecutive division titles!

The corporation owning both the Thrashers and NBA's Hawks on top of the Philips Arena is called Atlanta Spirit, LLC which is jointly owned by nine partners (yes 9, as in way too many) among whom the only names I recognized are majority partner Steve Belkin and Beau Turner (kid of Ted).

A blurb from Wikipedia illustrate nicely the joy of joint ownership:
In the summer of 2005, the Atlanta Hawks finalized a trade with the Phoenix Suns to obtain shooting guard Joe Johnson for Boris Diaw and two protected future first-round picks. While this trade met with the approval of the majority of the ownership group, it was rejected by Steve Belkin, who held a controlling vote as the Hawks Governor within the group. This triggered legal proceedings to force Belkin out of the group, which persist to this day.

I think nothing like that will happen on the hockey side simply because none of those 9 guys give a fuck about hockey and just saw the Thrashers as a nice asset to have to fill out their arena on basketball's off days... but this is definitely not the type of strong ownership that will create a winning culture.

Atlanta Spirit is actually in court right now on a lawsuit filled by David McDavid (yes, that is his real name), a Texan who was negotiating with TBS to buy the teams before it was sold to the Atlanta Spirit Group (thereafter known as ASG).

Some interesting info that came out of the proceedings so far: While the sale price was 96 million to both groups, McDavid needed to pay Turner $17 million in cash when the deal closed with $23 million more paid back over four years at 4 percent interest. The ASG group which include not only Ted Turner's son but also one of his son-in-law somehow managed to pay TBS $8 million when the deal closed while an additional $35 million is to be paid back over 10 years at 4 percent interest agreement.

What does this all mean? It means 8 million is all that was needed to buy the Hawks & Thrashers from daddy.... and then the kids couldn't even find that on their own! they had to gather up 7 other rich dudes to help out. This ownership group has been underfunded from the start and that sale should probably never have been approved by Bettman and David Stern.

As you can read from above, the ownership situation is messy without clear leadership and the product on the ice isn't much more encouraging. They got some nice pieces for Hossa last year but this team needs more than some average 2nd liners to compete.

When Todd White centers your first line, it definitely is not a good sign. Is Kovalchuk gonna stay with this team? Looking at that roster, I see 4 maybe 5 pieces worth having: Lehtonen, Bogosian, Exelby, Little... nothing too exciting!


Overall, Atlanta is in an area that will keep growing as one of the major economic centers of the SouthEast but the sports landscape is very crowded and the public difficult to satisfy. The team can probably survive there in the long run but it seems doubtful it will ever thrive and a combination of shaky or changing ownership and a rosier outlook in a new location might entice the Thrashers to fly away and make their nest somewhere else.

A Hockey wasteland... a complete wasteland

Living in the desert does force you to remember that not the whole planet is such a wasteland. There are places where vegetation grows on its own and people can actually hang out outside during the Summer.

There also are places where sports is not only something you see on TV but can actually view in person.

There are places where sports talk radio does not spend 4 hours dissecting a Division 2 college team.


Please let there be an NHL team in Las Vegas. This city is ready for a professional team and the NHL should jump in before the NBA or MLB get rid of their mental blockage over sports gambling.

I might dwell into arguments pro & con in future posts but those have been debated before... and all i can really say is that LV is the fastest growing metropolitan area and there is no other competition. How about being ahead of the curve for once and not 10 years late as with Atlanta & Carolina.