August 14, 2009

Vick signs with Eagles:

Not many released convicts find work as quickly as Michael Vick. Even fewer can command the salary he is likely to get.

The Philadelphia Eagles picked up Vick in a one-year deal with an option year after he served 18 months of a 23-month sentence for running a dogfighting ring. He will get $1.6 million the first year rising to $5.2 million if he stays for the option year. There are also $3 million in incentives.

Once one of the NFL's most highly paid quarterbacks with the Atlanta Falcons, Vick was known as much for his feet as his arm. He is not expected to compete with the Eagles starting quarterback for the position, five-time Pro-Bowler Donovan McNabb, but could be on the field with him as a double threat.

Vick can start to practice with the team immediately but will need NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's clearance before he steps on the field in a meaningful game. That is expected to happen some time before week six of the regular season.

Afghan long haul:

Beating the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan will take "a few years," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday. There is no guarantee that there will be additional U.S. troops to achieve it.

There will be no troop requests in the report that U.S. commander in Afghanistan Gen. Stanley McChrystal is due to submit to the administration in the next few weeks Gates said. But President Barack Obama has told Congress he plans to seek an additional 22,000 service personnel to ease stress on combat troops.

McChrystal is likely to focus on missions required and the type of troops needed to achieve them.

There are currently 62,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Another 6,000 will join them by the end of the year. There are also 30,000 non-U.S. NATO troops.

"The administration has raised the stakes by transforming the Afghan war from a limited intervention into a more ambitious and potentially risky counterinsurgency," a Senate Foreign Relations Committee report released last week said.

"There were too many variables to predict" how long U.S. forces will be needed in Afghanistan even after defeating the Taliban, Gates said.

Meanwhile the administration is shifting its poppy eradication policy that has alienated Afghan farmers. It plans to spend $300 million to help farmers shift to other crops.

Sen. Webb to Burma:

U.S. Senator James Webb, D-Va., has arrived in Myanmar, formerly Burma, and will meet its military leader Than Shwe in the wake of the trial of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi, already under house arrest was sentenced to an additional 18 months, which will effectively bar her from campaigning in next year's scheduled elections.

Webb, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific affairs, will be the most senior U.S. official to meet the Myanmar leader. Webb was spoken of as a possible pick as Democratic vice presidential candidate and is close to President Obama.

The U.N. Security Council expressed "serious concern" Thursday about the Suu Kyi verdict and demanded the release of all political prisoners. China which has close ties with Burma's military leaders pushed for this language. It diluted a U.S. proposal that "condemned" the verdict and specifically called for Suu Kyi's release.

Sentenced for giving water:

Walt Staton left bottles of water in the desert along a route used by illegal immigrants. His action got him convicted in an Arizona court Tuesday.

Staton, a member of an activist group No More Deaths was sentenced to 300 hours picking up trash on public property and a year's probation. He had left the water in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, a desert area.

His lawyers argued this was a humanitarian gesture. The prosecution said he was challenging established U.S. law on immigration. They cited his writing "good luck" in Spanish on the bottles in support.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said that the plastic containers he left posed a threat to the health of animals in the refuge.

Staton was originally convicted of littering but refused to pay the $175 fine.