I don’t know if journalists are supposed to walk around feeling like rock stars, but hell, I feel like Lil Wayne right now — minus the money, the cars and, of course, the nice looking women. Alright, that’s a bit much. But after three students recognized me last week from the picture in this column, and told me they actually wasted five minutes of their life reading my material — I mean damn — I feel like I’m walkin’ on water.

Thanks fellow classmates. It’s really appreciated. Who knows how long until The Guardsman pulls the plug on me and puts this column to sleep forever. Until that day comes, let me continue to be that guy that keeps ya laughing and forgetting about the stress of homework, exams and late night studying…

Tennis Hotheads
Watching the U.S. Open tennis highlights this past week was probably the highlight of my week. Check out Serena Williams absolutely lose her cool? Serena not only blew up, but her “little tantrum” caused her to lose a point, and the MATCH! Oh, I forgot to mention this was the championship!

Supposedly, Serena told the line judge that she would ‘kill her.’ Please go to YouTube and search for Serena’s rant, and to check out how scared the poor line judge looked. It only cost Serena 10,000 dollars out of her bank account. Even cool mannered Roger Federer got fined $1,500 during the tournament for dropping some profanity on a judge. I’m not knocking the sport, but I never thought tennis could get that serious…

Local Love?
I got a complaint from Mr. Juan Gonzales the other day that I don’t talk enough about the local sports. I can’t lie, it kind of irked me, but it makes sense considering the local papers don’t give City College any love.

Think about it, we have the best football program in the state, yet there is no television coverage even though we have the only college football team in the city.

Cross-country won the NorCal championship last season, but the city of San Francisco probably knows nothing about it. Hell, the men’s soccer team has been a national power since I’ve been attending classes here. Anything from the San Francisco Examiner? Nada.

I’d bet my bottom dollar that the most exciting basketball in the bay area comes out of the Wellness Center, from both the men’s and women’s teams.

Volleyball has a solid program, and the women’s soccer team, with new coaches, has structure  for the first time ever.

Point is, it’s no reason this program should be ignored. There is a lot of quality athletes that come through this program and move on to be successful. Where is the love for City College?

Three weeks of school have blown by and I’m already rattled. Dr. Hoskins, my biology teacher, is flooding my brain with about a million different cells, and Ms. Ganley has me reading a book about eating healthy. I live off Top Ramen noodles and microwavable burritos, are you telling me that’s not healthy?

How am I supposed to focus when football season is here and the San Francisco Giants are in a fight for a playoff spot? I tell ya, life is tough …

My Expectations of the 49ers

Forty-niner empire, bear me with me – I realize a lot of you out there don’t like to live in reality. I sometimes do, but in this situation I don’t see the red and gold team winning more than eight games.

Three things have stood out to me so far: the pass rush, Nate Clements, and the schedule.

The lack of a pass rush is vital. With the secondary being average at best, the defense needs to desperately put heat on the quarterback. Manny Lawson needs to step up and show why he was a first round draft pick.

Clements just needs to play better and justify why he was paid like an elite cornerback. He looked horrendous this preseason and in the game against the Cowboys he was constantly getting picked on.

That’s why the schedule worries me. Playing Arizona and Seattle twice, Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts, Atlanta, Green Bay, Favre and the Vikings, Houston, and Philly it can get hideous this season. Those teams can chuck it and without a pass rush and an average secondary, it will be a long season.

Random Rants

I love the reality show 24/7, especially with Floyd Mayweather Jr. being the focal point of the series. His attitude might be snobbish and arrogant, however, he’s an entertainer and that’s what boxers do – entertain. I can’t wait for their fight on Sept. 19.

A fellow student asked me my about thoughts on the T.O. Show. Well, I watched the first episode and I haven’t returned to the show since then. If you spend 30 minutes watching this, you must either like him for his body or just have no life. Just sayin …

Michael Crabtree, in an economy like this you are complaining about a few million dollars? Really? Do you know how much Top Ramen I could buy with that money?

By Bonta Hill
SPORTS EDITOR

Boys and girls, I welcome you back to school to another edition of the award-winning column, the “Water Cooler.”

Maybe the “award-winning” part is not entirely accurate, but who’s really paying attention?

This past summer, my life consisted of three things: baseball, Facebook, and more baseball. Pretty exciting, huh? While some of you may have already dozed off and stopped reading, these topics I’m going to talk about will surely get you going like a triple non-fat latte.

Mike Vick is Back

It’s good to see the Philadelphia Eagles step up and give this kid a second chance. A lot of people out there think that Vick should have done more time and doesn’t deserve a shot at resuming his career.

I’m in no way condoning what Vick did — his slaughtering of dogs because of their lack of performance in dog fights was egregious, but don’t you think that after losing $130 million, endorsement deals and spending two years locked up that he has paid the price?

I think he’s done more than enough. After watching his interview on “60 Minutes”, Vick seemed very remorseful, saddened and crushed by what he did. Whether or not he plays at the level he did before his conviction is one thing, but his second chance is well deserved. Let’s hope he doesn’t blow it.

Random Observations

Who the hell thought the San Francisco Giants would be playing meaningful baseball in late August? I sure didn’t. While it has been exciting to see this young team scrap and claw to be in this position, it’s tough for me to see the club making the postseason…

Here’s a shocker — David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox, has been accused of testing positive for taking banned substances. Do the fans even care anymore about players using steroids? Commissioner Bud Selig doesn’t. Why should I?

Tiger Woods lost a major tournament for the first time when leading  going into the final round. Tiger can blame his putting game on this one. It was awful at the PGA tournament. I can hear Tiger cursing himself as I type…Til next time.

On Saturday, Apr. 18, the world learned of a farce called justice in Iran: the sentencing of Roxana Saberi, a journalist who has citizenship in both the U.S. and Iran, to eight years in Evin Prison for espionage.

Saberi’s press credentials were revoked by the Iranian government in 2006. However, the freelance journalist continued filing stories with the BBC and NPR. The Iranian government ignored this infraction until Jan. 2009, when she was arrested. Reports concerning the initial charge are conflicting.

Saberi reportedly told her father in phone call that she was arrested after purchasing a bottle of wine. Iran’s state news service reported the initial charge was for working as a journalist without proper press credentials. In early April, Saberi’s charges were suddenly expanded to spying for Washington.

Her one-day trial was conducted in secret and no evidence has been presented so far. Reza Saberi, the imprisoned journalist’s father, told NPR his daughter had been tricked — or coerced, to use an American legal term—into making incriminating statements. She was told she would be released if she confessed. Roxana Saberi is reported to have later withdrawn her confession, but that had no apparent effect on her case.

President Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton have both called for Saberi’s immediate release, professing that she is not an American spy. Sadly, given the Bush administration’s lack of respect for due process concerning so-called “enemy combatants” imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, our new president’s pleas lack merit.

I suspect this crisis is only a preview of international relations to come that will find the U.S. on shaky moral ground. Bush’s legacy will be one of superiority and disrespect for the rule of law. It’s people like Saberi who will suffer the damage to this country’s standing abroad.

Saberi has been cast as an innocent pawn, larger political theatrics being played out here. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged prosecutors in the case to ensure Saberi a chance to defend herself. Ahmadinejad has also recently made optimistic statements about normalizing diplomatic relations with the U.S. and begin negotiations with President Obama concerning his country’s nuclear program.

Iran’s judiciary, however, represents a more “hard-line,” anti-Western philosophy, according to The Wall Street Journal’s Gerald Seib. He and several other columnists believe Iran’s judiciary is trying to use Saberi’s conviction to manufacture a crisis that will prevent Washington and Tehran from breaking a 30 year mutual silent treatment.

Political jockeying and international rights reputations aside, journalists, who simply and nobly strive to proliferate the truth, are too often victims of the stories they cover. The International News Safety Institute reports that 109 journalists were killed in the line of duty in 2008, and 24 more have died this year.

“Killing the Messenger,” the title of the INSI’s report detailing the increased number of journalist casualties in recent years, couldn’t have a better title. It illustrates how reprehensible are those who would murder, or otherwise silence, messengers of truth.

Saberi’s case is a potential travesty that can be avoided. Human beings should not be bargaining chips in a sordid international game of seven-card stud.

Let Saberi go, or at the very least, present the body (habeas corpus), which requires more than a one-day show trial complete with fickle charges and secrecy.

If she is truly guilty of espionage, wouldn’t her case be a great opportunity to show the superiority of Iran’s national security to the rest of the world? If she’s innocent, wouldn’t freeing her show that Iran’s respect for the law outshines even our own?

I plead with Iran, and I hope others will join me: Don’t let Saberi, whose health has become precarious, according to her father, deteriorate inside the walls of Evin Prison. President Obama, make a deal, and release some of the prisoners the US has been holding for years without trial.

In the pursuit of stories, journalists need to be willing to place themselves in harm’s way. If they don’t, critical international stories will go unreported, allowing those who would commit atrocities to act with impunity and in secrecy.

The population served by dedicated journalists, like Saberi, owes them protection when the ground is suddenly and unjustly swept away. Our freedom is dependent on the information provided by professionals like her.

We are not separate; we are the same. And presently, we are imprisoned.

Its the beginning of May and for City College students that the end of the semester is only a couple of weeks away.

For somebody like me, finals couldn’t come at a more stressful time.

Think about it–the NBA playoffs have bombarded my television nightly, the Giants look like they could be major players in NL West, and the teams for NHL poster boys’ Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin’s are ready to face off in an anticipated second round playoff.

How the hell am I supposed to study? Is there any way we can create 36-hour days? This isn’t fair to any sports geek.

I’m guessing I have to sacrifice certain things to succeed at this place called school. Where is the justice?

Look at the 49ers Draft

On paper this was one of the better drafts in recent memory for the 49ers. Thanks to the Chokeland, I mean Oakland Raiders, they passed on what most experts think is the best play-maker in receiver Micheal Crabtree. He dropped into the ‘9ers lap at the tenth pick—a move a lot of us faithfuls are not upset with.

The late round picks didn’t fill all holes in the ‘9ers arsenal, yet the potential of this year’s class is intriguing. The seventh round picks from a couple of LSU players. Safety Curtis Taylor and defensive tackle Ricky Jean-Francois could turn out to be real sleepers.

Taylor has good size but injuries during his senior season caused his stock to drop. Jean-Francois was named defensive MVP of the 2008 national championship game. Character issues were the kryptonite for Jean-Francois’ inconsistent play.

With 49ers coach Mike Singletary, known for his motivational speeches, Taylor and Jean-Francois can be integral parts of the 49ers for years to come and finally live up to their potential.

Random Thoughts

The Nuggets won by a score (this is not a misprint), 121-63. A 58-point loss for the Hornets, at home! Let that sink in for a minute. Still can’t fathom it? Welcome to the club, you are not the only one. I told friends the Nuggets would advance to the second round, but not that easily.

What is the best word that describes the San Jose Sharks’ first round loss to the Anaheim Mighty Ducks? Disappointing? Pathetic? Heartless? I’m going with the word teaser. Teasing fans into believing that home-ice advantage would bring the Sharks a Stanley Cup championship. I should have known better.

Since this will be the last time I’ll let you readers inside my wacky head, I must add my thoughts about a legend who became a household name:

Madden, who was a great coach for the Oakland Raiders, decided to step away on April 16 to spend more time with his grandchildren after working the broadcast booth since 1979.

From his Thanksgiving tradition of giving away a turkey, or turducken to the player of the game, to picking his famed “All-Madden” team and traveling the country in his “Madden Cruiser”, there will never be another announcer like Madden. His originality and quirky style will forever be missed.

As long as I can remember, football and Madden have always been associated with each other. Madden made even the most clueless fan understand the originality of the game. He will be missed by many fans.

Madden and his and longtime partner Pat Summerall will always be my favorite broadcasting team.

In mid-March, US Attorney General Eric Holder announced the Drug Enforcement Administration would no longer target growers in states permitting legal medical marijuana use.

Holder’s approach is starkly different from that of the Bush administration policy to raid state-sanctioned medical marijuana dispensaries because they violate federal law. The 1970 Controlled Substances Act classifies marijuana as a schedule I controlled substance with a “high potential for abuse” and “no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.”

California and 12 other states have tenaciously legalized marijuana as medication, however. Holder’s policy statement is a victory for states’ rights and indicative of a more respectful, less pulpit-style administration. States now have the right to assert their own will concerning drug laws and enforcement, at least in respect to marijuana.

The new federal medical marijuana enforcement policy is a historic step toward liberalization of America’s traditionally conservative drug laws, which have built a nation of prisoners and an immoral economy of people-keepers, attorneys, judges, police, parole officers and councilors. I’m in favor of any change allowing states to realize the liberty of their citizens to the fullest extent.

As I thought about our nation’s recent sensible shift in drug policy, I began to wonder when I’m in favor of states’ rights and when I am not. I might not a republican as strict as Thomas Jefferson was, who generally defended the rights of states to govern themselves.

I welcome the right of states to implement drug policy, but I’m appalled by Proposition 8. I fail to grasp how a tyrannical majority could presume to inflict oppression and degrade a percentage of America’s population to a lower class: One undeserving of the Declaration of Independence’s creed of natural equality; one slipping through the cracks of the 14th amendment’s equal protection doctrine.

As separate as the issues of medical marijuana and same-sex marriage may seem, they embody two opposing sides assaulting my morality when I think about states’ rights. But the conundrum is short lived, for there is a difference in the details of these issues that allows reconciliation.

First, the Obama administration’s new drug policies encourage harmless liberties — the right to make health decisions for one’s self — whereas Proposition 8 denies liberty. The propagation of freedom is an important and intrinsic American ideal; good enough for a final, shot-in-the-dark justification for the Iraq War , so it should be good enough for my political sensibilities.

The war on drugs is an advent of the 20th century, while the principle of equality among citizens under the law is foundational to the United States’ concept of democracy. Equality is a conviction too fundamental to be threatened by a bare majority in a state-wide election.

I hope California’s Supreme Court will look past the intricate, state-based legal reasoning presented March 5 and agree with the somewhat loftier argument of Attorney General Brown — who said the natural rights of liberty prohibit Proposition 8. And as for the new administration, I’m glad there are some positive news to report. Though some policies — like the wars in the Middle East and the economy — leave me uneasy, I’m glad for a small respite in this tired, lost and strange war on drugs.

It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to sip some H2O and spit sunflower seeds with you. Good to be back after a nice spring break. A break in which all I did was watch baseball, sleep, play baseball on Playstation 3, eat and watch more baseball. Talk about a great spring break —what can top that? Parties, booze, and sunshine? I’ll take my television remote, tune into some baseball and pop open a bag of ruffles any day of the week.

Tragedy hits Baseball

Speaking of baseball, a couple of tragedies hit the sport hard in the first two weeks of the 2009 season. Anaheim Angels prospect Nick Adenhart was killed, as well as three of his friends, in a car accident in the early morning of April 9. This happened just hours after he had pitched six innings of shutout ball against the Oakland A’s. Adenhart was perceived by many as one of the top young pitchers in baseball.

Adenhart, 22, was the passenger in a gray Mitsubishi Eclipse when a driver in a red Toyota Sienna Minivan ran a red light and hit the Mitsubishi.
Andrew Gallo, the driver of the minivan, had a blood alcohol content of nearly triple the legal limit and has been charged with three counts of murder. Every ballpark in baseball honored Adenhart with a moment of silence on the day the public learned of his death. The Angels will wear a black patch with the number 34 on the front of their jerseys the rest of the season.

Harry Kalas, longtime voice of the Philadelphia Phillies, has also left the baseball community. Kalas collapsed in the broadcast booth Monday April 13 while getting ready for the Phillies game against the Washington Nationals. Kalas had been the voice of the Phillies since 1971 and also joined NFL Films in 1975. He was a narrator for “Inside the NFL” since 1977. Kalas was 73.

His voice was great and his intensity, passion, and smoothness was what made him one of the best at his craft. Even though I’m not from Philly, I feel lucky to have heard Kalas call a few innings.

Random Thoughts

Last time I got a chance to speak to you folks, I explained how bad I was at filling out brackets. North Carolina breezed through the whole tournament and beat Michigan State 89-72. I got a first place trophy in my Yahoo fantasy sports profile by picking the national champion—Nothing like bragging rights, and for once, I look like a genius.

You know it’s a slow day in sports when the NFL is promoting the release of the schedules for the 2009 football season. Word on the street is the 49ers will be wearing the jerseys from the glory days of the 80s. If that makes a 10-6 team, I’m all for it.

In a previous column I made a prediction and said the Giants will finish third in the NL West. If you have no offense you can’t win, no matter how good your pitching is. The Giants offense drew no walks in a recent three game stretch. No walks? So much for taking a patient approach at the plate.

The pitching has been off to a rough spot as well. Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincicum hasn’t looked sharp. Barry Zito has been … Barry Zito. The Giants are off to a slow start. Again, when does training camp start for the 49ers?

America, our shining city on a hill, is afflicted. The sickness is a malignant cancer spreading through the nation at an alarming pace and its immune system has crumbled. It has targeted liberty and exploited civic lethargy.

Supposed benevolent elected tyrants have failed us, shirking their responsibilities to American ideals. The ailment is a shift in a delicately constructed  balance between despotism and popular sovereignty during the Bush administration.

It’s not my intention, however, to write about the malevolence of recent administrations. Others have condemned corruption and power exceedingly well, albeit after the fact.

No, my concern is with the failure of the press. It function, as an implied check on our three branch system — the fourth estate.

Journalists walk a blurry tightrope, constantly subject to interpretation. We serve our country by opposing it, and unbridled cynicism is a requirement. The fourth estate’s failure is conducive to our current situation: an economy combusted, civil liberties a memory and American elitism the benchmark of foreign policy. How well will this republic function without the fourth estate? How well has it functioned since the press forgot its mission?

Daily newspapers are dying all over the country. It should make me reconsider my goal of becoming a professional soldier in the ranks, defending The Bill of Rights. It doesn’t though, because the old guard failed. They intentionally neglected, or forgot, their cause. They bought blindly and sold faithlessly an illegal war, failed to defend natural principles like habeas corpus, and chose false job security over their duty to inform.

Manipulating the commerce of the news, media corporations and the government with which they are irrevocably intertwined transformed our previously functioning noble check into a cheerleader for war mongers, murderers and thieves.
A four year hiatus in serious questioning of the tyrants, from post Sept. 11 to Hurricane Katrina, left the American people blind and sickened by the sweet fawning laxity of the news.

So I shed no tears for dying dailies. Their disintegration is fair punishment for dereliction of duty. Let the rotten house burn to the ground. On its foundation we can rebuild a system independent of the Scripps and Hearst stock prices and the press can again serve its readers — the American public — and not investors in media conglomerates whose only concern is profit margin.

Dave Krieger wrote in the final edition of the Rocky Mountain News, “I still don’t get how a newspaper with 200,000 paying subscribers and hundreds of thousands more readers on the Web cannot make a go of it… ‘Not our fault,’ the suits say. ‘[It's the] business model’s fault’ So who came up with the business model?”

A combination of stockholder greed and society’s frivolity finds the fourth estate in shambles. Society was more attracted to screaming, red-faced propaganda than to factual reporting, and the republic suffers. Consumers, as much as investors, define the business model of the news.

If we are to revive our republic, then we, as citizens, must realize again our responsibility to vigilance against those who would trample liberty. Or, as Thomas Paine wrote in The American Crisis, “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”

Paine’s eloquence applies both to the press and to American citizenry as a whole. True patriots of a republic realize that constant cynicism and opposition to power fuels the machinery of freedom. I hope to do this professionally but I realize my work is only as effective as those who might take the time to read it. Let us never again forget our responsibilities and hope we’re not too late.

I pose a simple question to President Barack Obama, how many innocent lives are you willing to waste in Pakistan?

During his 2008 Presidential campaign, Obama responded to inquiries about expanding the war in Afghanistan to include attacks across the Pakistani border. He stated, if Osama bin Laden was discovered in Pakistan, American forces wouldn’t hesitate to attack.

CIA drone — unmanned aircraft — attacks have continued since Obama took office, but bin Laden hasn’t been seen. The CIA claims these attacks are killing high-level al-Qaida members, who use Pakistan’s  Federally Administered Tribal Areas as a staging point for launching insurgent attacks into Afghanistan.

While this may be true, the unsanctioned expansion of America’s war in the Middle East to include yet another sovereign country carries a gruesome cost.

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly how many Pakistani civilians have been killed in CIA drone strikes since Obama took office. If the US military’s estimates are accurate, nearly half of those killed are not al-Qaida insurgents. Al-Qaida fighters in the FATA hide amongst the poor, nomadic Pashtun who populate the region.

The Pakistani government voices two legitimate complaints. The first: Pakistan is a sovereign nation that doesn’t need United State’s help to kill its civilians. Secondly, Pakistani officials argue these actions strengthen al-Qaida’s numbers — dead children are a powerful recruiting tool in areas like the FATA, where the population is historically sympathetic to the Taliban.

I’d like to believe my generation has a more global perspective than generations past. This means, I’m less likely to see any difference between a dead American child and a dead Pakistani one. Both are abhorrent; both unacceptable.

It was largely my generation who elected Barack Obama, partially because we hoped he shared our point of view when it came to foreign policy.

It’s an old and tired idea that the president of the United States must be willing to inflict such unjust collateral damage.

Does the office make the man or does the man make the office? My hope for Obama’s presidency was that he could change some of these outdated notions, such as the necessity of civilian deaths overseas to protect my sheltered existence. So far, if the wars in the Middle East are the measurement, we were duped.

As I sit on my reclining couch flipping through the sports channels, I think to myself, “Are we really in a recession?”

If you’re defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, you probably don’t even know how to spell recession. Big Albert is the first ever defensive player in the NFL to sign a contract that could be worth up to $115 million. The Washington Redskins have guaranteed Haynesworth at least $43 million; all for a man who hasn’t played a full season since his rookie year.

Recently, the Niners sent a private jet to pick up free agent quarterback Kurt Warner. They wined and dined him in an attempt to guide him toward the 49ers. Warner said he “heard a voice from God” that told him he should remain in Arizona and two days later re-signed a deal to stay a Cardinal.

The Niners want to implement a power running game, acquiring a quarterback who wants to throw the ball 40 times a game would have made no sense. Thank God.

One player I want the Niners to bring on is wide receiver Terrell Owens. Yeah, that’s right, I said it.

Niners head coach Mike Singletary is a coach who takes no bull and demands focus. He has command of his locker room and I bet he’d be able to get T.O. to put all his energy into football and stop acting like a kid. He has already humbled one loose cannon Vernon Davis.

Can you imagine Frank Gore, Vernon Davis, and Owens on the field all at once? No defensive coordinator in the NFL would look forward to playing against that trio; not on any given Sunday. (As of press time Terrell Owens signed a one year deal with the Buffalo Bills. There goes my fantasy!)

Just as money won’t buy a football championship, not scoring runs in baseball won’t win games. Will the San Francisco Giants have a player who can hit 20 home runs this season? Giants fans: get ready for a third place finish. The Giants should have spent money on Manny Ramirez — even in a recession that would have been a smart gamble.

While I am happy to be making $10 an hour at a coffee shop during our so-called “recession,” your boy Man-Ram, slugger Manny Ramirez, recently accepted a two-year $45 million offer from the Los Angeles Dodgers and actually felt disrespected by it.

Hell, I don’t blame him! I feel underpaid too — I write articles for the Guardsman, pour cups of coffee in the darkest morning hours, and I can still make my editor-in-chief smile on a bad day.

Tell me that’s not worth some millions. Perhaps “recession” is relative.