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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SiouxPal who wrote (159453)	2/1/2009 7:51:48 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 362725

I'm so glad to hear that.

To: SiouxPal who wrote (159453)	2/2/2009 12:18:20 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 362725

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently. ~Warren Buffet ___________________ Michael Phelps was just partying hard like a lot of 23 year olds around our country...Yet, Phelps is an international role model and he is accepting millions of dollars to endorse products...Many company's are very protective of their brands and who they use for the big endorsements -- over the years you never have seen Tiger Woods getting into much trouble at all (and he is the biggest global star when it comes to endorsements).

To: SiouxPal who wrote (159453)	2/2/2009 12:22:20 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 362725

Steelers Beat Cardinals 27-23 to Win Sixth Super Bowl (Update3) By Erik Matuszewski and Mason Levinson Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals 27-23 to win their record sixth Super Bowl championship and second in four years as Santonio Holmes caught a 6-yard touchdown pass with 35 seconds left to play. The Steelers drove 78 yards for the winning touchdown after the Cardinals scored 16 straight points to erase a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit and take a 23-20 lead in the National Football League title game at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. James Harrison added a 100-yard interception return for a touchdown for the Steelers (15-4), who surpassed the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers for the most titles in the Super Bowl’s 43-year history. “We’re going down in history with one of the greatest games ever played in the Super Bowl,” said Holmes, who was voted the game’s Most Valuable Player. “We finished it up the way we needed to and brought another championship back to Pittsburgh.” Kurt Warner threw three touchdown passes for Arizona, including two to Larry Fitzgerald in the fourth quarter. The Cardinals (12-8) won their lone NFL championship game in 1947, when the franchise was located in Chicago, and entered this season’s playoffs as 50-1 shot to win the Super Bowl. The Steelers’ last-minute win comes one year after the New York Giants scored a touchdown with 35 seconds left to beat the New England Patriots 17-14 in the Super Bowl. Offense Praised “Our defense gets a lot of recognition for what they are capable of, and rightfully so, but what you saw from our quarterback and our offense at the end of that football game is what they provided for us all year,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said in a televised interview. “When we’ve needed them the most, they’ve done it and done it big.” The Steelers entered the game as seven-point favorites and opened a 10-0 second-quarter lead on a Jeff Reed field goal and Gary Russell’s 1-yard touchdown run. Arizona pulled within 10-7 on Warner’s 1-yard scoring pass to Ben Patrick and again drove to the Pittsburgh 1-yard line in the final minute of the first half. With the Cardinals trying for the go-ahead touchdown, Warner’s pass was intercepted by Harrison at the goal line with 18 seconds left and the NFL’s defensive player of the year ran the length of the field to give Pittsburgh a 17-7 halftime lead. It was the longest play in the NFL’s championship game since the Super Bowl began in January 1967. The Steelers upped their lead to 20-7 midway through the third quarter on a 21-yard field goal by Reed. Arizona Charge Warner pulled the Cardinals within 20-14, hooking up with Fitzgerald for a 1-yard touchdown pass with 7:41 left in the fourth quarter. Warner completed all eight of his pass attempts on the drive, while Fitzgerald tied Jerry Rice’s record of six touchdown receptions in a single postseason. The Cardinals added two points with a safety with 3:04 remaining. Steelers offensive lineman Justin Hartwig was called for a holding penalty that nullified a first-down completion on a third-and-10 play, and since he was in the end zone at the time, it resulted in an automatic two points and the ensuing possession for Arizona. Quick Score The Cardinals then used 17 seconds to take a 23-20 lead, as Fitzgerald took a pass over the middle from Warner and broke free for a 64-yard touchdown on the next possession. The Steelers got the ball with 2:37 remaining and Holmes caught four passes from Ben Roethlisberger on the final drive, including a 40-yarder to the Cardinals’ 6-yard line. Two plays later, Holmes hauled in the winning pass amid three Arizona defenders in the back corner of the end zone. Holmes finished with nine receptions for 131 yards for the Steelers, who won their last Super Bowl after the 2005 season under coach Bill Cowher. His successor, the 36-year-old Tomlin, becomes the youngest coach to win a Super Bowl. Pittsburgh also won Super Bowl titles in 1975, 1976, 1979 and 1980 behind coach Chuck Noll and Hall of Fame players such as Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Lynn Swann and “Mean” Joe Greene. Like Tomlin, Arizona’s Ken Whisenhunt was in his second season as a coach. Whisenhunt was a Pittsburgh assistant for six seasons and won a Super Bowl ring as the team’s offensive coordinator from 2004-06 before helping turn the Cardinals’ franchise around. Winning Drought Arizona (12-8) before this season had one winning campaign season in 20 years since moving from St. Louis, and the franchise last won a league championship when it was based in Chicago. While Pittsburgh entered the game with five Super Bowl victories, the Cardinals had just five postseason wins in their history, with three coming this year. “They made the plays at the end of the game,” Whisenhunt said of the Steelers in a televised interview. “That’s what the good teams do.” This year’s championship was played amid the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression and the impact was evident in the scene around the game. The NFL, which has fired some 150 employees and taken other cost-saving measures, cut prices on 1,000 tickets to $500, compared with $800-$1,000 for the rest of the seats. Playboy and Sports Illustrated were among longtime Super Bowl party-givers who skipped the festivities this time. A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers said the game would generate about $150 million directly for the local economy, 22.3 percent less than when the 2008 championship was in Glendale, Arizona. The Giants-Patriots meeting featured teams from the largest and seventh-largest media markets in the U.S. The Phoenix area is the 12th largest, while Pittsburgh is 23rd. To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net Mason Levinson in New York at mlevinson@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: February 1, 2009 23:33 EST

To: SiouxPal who wrote (159453)	2/2/2009 12:25:07 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 362725

Phelps Apologizes After Being Photographed With Marijuana Pipe / By Larry Siddons Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Michael Phelps apologized after being pictured in a U.K. newspaper with a marijuana pipe, saying his behavior at a college party three months ago was “regrettable.” “I acted in a youthful and inappropriate way, not in a manner that people have come to expect from me,” the record 14-time Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer said in a statement through his representatives, Octagon. “For this, I am sorry. I promise my fans and the public -- it will not happen again.” Marijuana, the drug commonly associated with devices such as the one he was photographed using, is an outlawed substance in Olympic sports. First-time offenders caught using it get a two year ban from competition. The 23-year-old Phelps, who won a single-Games record eight gold medals at the Olympics in Beijing in August, has never has been cited for doping violations. The News of the World, a London-based Sunday tabloid, published a photo of a person it identified as Phelps using a long glass pipe, commonly known as a bong. In his statement, the Baltimore native didn’t identify any substance used at the party, in South Carolina in November. Nor did the newspaper, although it said the devices are “generally used to smoke cannabis.” “Michael is a role model, and he is well aware of the responsibilities and accountability that come with setting a positive example for others, particularly young people,” the U.S. Olympic Committee said in a statement. “In this instance, regrettably, he failed to fulfill those responsibilities.” Disappointed USA Swimming also said it was disappointed in the behavior of its biggest star. “That said, we realize that none among us is perfect,” the governing body said in a statement. “We hope that Michael can learn from this incident and move forward in a positive way.” It isn’t the first time Phelps has run into post-Olympic problems involving substance abuse. In 2004, after winning six gold medals at the Athens Games, he was charged with under-age drinking after a traffic stop in Maryland. He was sentenced to 18 months’ probation. Cannabis, or marijuana, is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which sets rules and oversees testing for Olympic-level sports. Athletes at that level are subject to drug testing at meets and during time off, with no advance notice. Phelps told reporters in New York a year ago that he had asked the U.S. Anti- Doping Agency to test him more frequently than usual to avoid questions of whether his swimming was aided by steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs. He never has failed a drug test, according to U.S. and world doping agency results. Phelps’s performance in Beijing helped General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal unit draw ratings 13 percent higher than for the 2004 Athens Games. The swimmer was named the USOC’s male athlete of the year and Sports Illustrated magazine’s sportsman of the year.