NCAA Drops the Hammer on Penn State … $60 Million Fine, 4 Year Ban on Bowl Games, Vacate All Wins from 1998-2011 (Paterno No Longer Winniest Coach) … Current & Incoming Players Can Leave PSU and Play Immediately

TheNCAA has dropped the hammer on Penn State University and although it was not the death penalty, it might have well have been and might have been worse.

The penalties were severe and due to the unique nature of the Sandusky sexual abuse crimes and the cover up, the NCAA whacked PSU. The sanctions and penalties from NCAA president Mark Emmert are as follows. It was stated they were meant to be corrective and punitive. The sanctions and penalties affect Penn State in the past, present and future.

1. A $60 million sanction, the equivalent of one years revenue of the PSU football team. The funds are be paid into an endowment for external programs preventing child sexual abuse or assisting victims.
2. Four year football postseason ban.
3.  Penn State must vacate wins dating from 1998 to 2011. The career record of former head football coach Joe Paterno will reflect these vacated records. There goes the winniest college football coach record.
4. Penn State must also reduce 10 initial and 20 total scholarships each year for a four-year period.
5. NCAA reserves the right to impose additional sanctions on involved individuals at the conclusion of any criminal proceedings.

CNN had reported that PSU would see fines in excess of $30 million, I’ll say, how about double that.

Emert went on to say that the NCAA recognizes that student-athletes are not responsible for these events and worked to minimize the impact of its sanctions on current and incoming football student-athletes, … “Any entering or returning student-athlete will be allowed to immediately transfer and compete at another school. Further, any football student-athletes who remain at the university may retain their scholarships, regardless of whether they compete on the team.”

Statement from NCAA president Mark Emmert:

In the Penn State case, the results were perverse and unconscionable,” Emmert said.

“No price the NCAA can levy with repair the damage inflicted by Jerry Sandusky on his victims,” he said, reffering to the former Penn State defensive coordinator convicted of 45 counts of child sex abuse last month.

The NCAA’s announcement followed a day after Penn State removed Joe Paterno’s statue outside Beaver Stadium, a decision that came 10 days after a scathing report by former FBI director Louis J. Freeh found that Paterno, with three other top Penn State administrators, had concealed allegations of child sexual abuse made against Sandusky.

UPDATE I: What I find interesting is that the NCAA enacted some of the sanctions that SM referenced yesterday and that was the monetary fine and providing the funds to a non-profit for abused children. Also we mentioned that an independent individual would be placed in charge to monitor what was going on with PSU going forward. That was part of today’s sanctions where compliance officers and groups were put in place to review what Penn State will be doing from this point going forward.

What exactly could punishment through nontraditional methods mean?I am wondering if there will not only be the typical loss of scholarships and bowl appearance, but also revenue form the football program going to non-profit programs for sexually exploited children? Also, will there be a third-party individual be put in place to oversee practices at the university?

NCAA Will Announce “Unprecedented” Penalties Against both Penn State University Football and the University

CBS News is reporting that the hammer is about to fall on Penn State University, Maybe even a Sledgehammer!

The NCAA is about to announce Monday morning “unprecedented” penalties against both the Penn State football team and PennState University. One individual describes it as, “I’ve never seen anything like it.” The penalties are in response to the hideous Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse convictions and the more recent independent report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh that chronicled repeated efforts by four top Penn State officials, including Joe Paterno, to conceal allegations of serial child sex abuse by Jerry Sandusky over a 14 year period.

CBS News has learned that the NCAA will announce what a high-ranking association source called “unprecedented” penalties against both the Penn State University football team and the school.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” the source told correspondent Armen Keteyian.

NCAA President Mark Emmert will make the announcement Monday morning at 9 a.m. at the organization’s headquarters in Indianapolis.

Read more

Shameful: International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge Refuses to Allow 1 Minute of Silence for Israeli Victims of the 1972 Munich Terrorist Massacre at Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics; However, NBC’s Bob Costas Will

SHAMEFUL, DISRESPECTFUL AND GUTLESS  ACT BY THE IOC …

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge reiterates that he refuses to allow a one minute moment of silence during the Opening Ceremonies of the London Summer Olympics for the Israeli victims who were killed by terrorists during the 1972 Olympics Munich massacre. Simply SHAMEFUL. On the 40th anniversary of the tragedy that saw 11 Israeli athletes and coaches by Palestinian terrorists, Rogge stated that it’s not “an atmosphere that is not fit to remember such a tragic incident.” Really, or is it discrimination?

Like it or not Jacques, this is a lasting image of the Olympics

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge won’t budge: There will be no minute’s silence for the Israeli victims of the 1972 Munich massacre at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics.

Rogge rejected the latest calls Saturday for a special observance to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the murder of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches by Palestinian gunmen at the Munich Games.

“We feel that the opening ceremony is an atmosphere that is not fit to remember such a tragic incident,” Rogge said.

The IOC has come under pressure from politicians in the United States, Israel and Germany to pay tribute to the slain Israelis during Friday’s ceremony.

The Late Great ABC’s Jim McKay … “they are all gone”

Could you be any more DISRESPECTFUL, not the right atmosphere? It is exactly the right atmosphere as a reminder of what happened 40 years ago.  Instead the IOC would rather keep their collective heads in the sand and pretend like it never happened. It is exactly the correct moment to put it on the world stage for all to see and to condemn violence, murder and terrorism. But no, instead Rogge comes up with excuses to have it remembered in other less public ways. Can you say GUTLESS! What’s the matter Jacques, are you afraid you might upset radical Islam? Or are you afraid you might upset and antagonize Muslim countries participating in the games? And if such countries would be upset over a one minute remembrance of the slaughter of athletes and coaches who were just participating in the Olympic games, what does that tell us about so-called mainstream Islam?

The IOC’s logic to all of this is if a murderous, terrorist act occurs in the woods and no one is there to see the remembrance, did it really happen? However, it would seem that all are not going to keep their heads in the sand and pretend like it never happened. NBC’s Bob Costas intends to remember the slain Israeli’s during the Opening Ceremonies and call out the IOC.

ABC News 1972 Munich massacre coverage

“I intend to note that the IOC denied the request,” Costas said. “Many people find that denial more than puzzling but insensitive. Here’s a minute of silence right now.”

Costas appears to be joining the efforts of Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and Ankie Spitzer, whose husband was among the Munich victims. Ayalon said the IOC refusal of his request to commemorate the victims was “unacceptable.” Spitzer, meanwhile, has been petitioning to have a moment of silence during the Opening Ceremony, to no avail.

“The IOC’s refusal is pure discrimination,” she said.

A note to the IOC, like it or not but the 1972 Olympic massacre of Israeli’s is part of your past. If you want to embrace the good of the brilliance and skill of Russian gymnast Olga Korbut (video) from the 1972 Olympics, you also have to deal with the bad. To simply ignore it does not trivialize those that were killed, it trivializes you. By pretending terrorism did not take place during the Olympics does not make it goo away, it shows your weakness and acceptance. If you pretend that it never happened, you open yourself up to it occurring again.

The moment of silence should have been done and the victims names should have been named, no different than what they do in the United States for the victims of 9-11. Since the IOC does not have the respects or guts to do so, we shall.

• Moshe Weinberg (wrestling coach)
• Yossef Romano (weightlifter)
•  Ze’ev Friedman (weightlifter)
• David Berger (weightlifter)
• Yakov Springer (weightlifting judge)
• Eliezer Halfin (wrestler)
• Yossef Gutfreund (wrestling referee)
• Kehat Shorr (shooting coach)
• Mark Slavin (wrestler)
• Andre Spitzer (fencing coach)
• Amitzur Shapira (track coach)

UPDATE I: Interestingly enough, the Olympic committee in charge of the London event has formed a special team to prepare for the contingency for the possibility of an Israeli attack on Iran during the 2012 Summer Games.

17 Year Old British Teen Screams “Allahu Akbar” As He Tries to Steal Olympic From Torch Bearer Anna Skora … Arrested

Because Islam is a religion of Peace …

A 17 year old teen shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ – Arabic for ‘God is Great’ as he attempted to grab the torch from the 23 year old torch bearer Anna Skora in Great Britain. The teen managed to break through the line of police officers escorting the torch as he lunged out of the crowd to grab the torch. He was soon surrounded and then arrested. It is one thing for an over-exuberant individual to ignorantly bum-rush the torch bearer for some foolish claim of glory, quick another for one getting so easily through security and shouting, “Allahu Akbar.”

A 17-year-old shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ – Arabic for ‘God is Great’ – as he unsuccessfully tried to grab the Olympic torch during a stretch of the flame’s route through Maidstone towards Redhill.

Broadcast live on the BBC, the youth lunged from the crowd to try to take the torch from the hands of its bearer Anna Skora, but was swiftly bundled away by officers.

In one video posted to YouTube he can be seen waiting behind a car and as Ms Skora gets closer he lunges towards the torch.

WOW, check out the VIDEO posted at The Jawa Report.  Jawa asks, did the BBC deliberately edit the above video link? You can plainly hear the teen who jumped out of the crowd shout, “Allahu Akbar”. However, not on the one above.

You know I hate to say this and I really hope that I am wrong, but there has been far too many issues going on with security and issues of terrorism going on in England, terrorist arrests leading up to the Summer Olympics, but it would not shock me if we see a terror incident during the games.

Obama Says Jobs Priority One, That’s Why He Hasn’t Met With Them Publicly in Six Months, But Has Time for Fund Raisers, Vaction and Golf … Romney Says, Obama’s “priority is keeping his own jobs and that is why he is going to lose it.”

Obama’s Jobs Council AWOL … and you wonder why there are being no jobs created? How can anyone justify this while the President conducted 89 fundraisers in the last six months. Obama is obviously concerned more about his own job than helping create those for America.

President Barack Obama has repeatedly said that jobs were his top priority. Really? The jobs numbers hardly show that. But it gets worse, Obama’s Jobs Council has not met publicly for six months. SIX MONTHS!!! Its bad enough there are members on this panel who are CEO’s who outsource jobs, something that Obama has criticized his opponent Mitt Romney for doing while at Bain Capital. All this while millions of Americans are out of work, unemployed and underemployed, Obama’s Jobs Council is MIA.

President Barack Obama’s Jobs Council hasn’t met publicly for six months, even as the issue of job creation dominates the 2012 election.

At this point, the hiatus — which reached the half-year mark Tuesday — might be less awkward than an official meeting, given the hornet’s nest of issues that could sting Obama and the council members if the private-sector panel gets together.

Mitt Romney responded to this news of Obama’s Jobs Council in Bowling Green, Ohio in the video (4:00 mark) below and stated you would think that with a situation so bad in the United States when it comes to comes that the President would spend all of his time on helping people get jobs. Instead in the last six months Obama has held 100 fund raisers and had ZERO meetings with his Jobs Council. Romney went on to say to cheers,  his [Obama's] priority is not creating jobs for you, his priority is keeping his own jobs and that is why he is going to lose it.

Mitt Romney holds town hall in Bowling Green, Ohio

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was questioned by the press as to why Obama’s Jobs Council had not met publicly in six months. After twisting and trying to find an answer to an inexcusable situation, Carney said that the reason why they have not met was because Obama had a lot on his plate. Yup, he was just too busy. That is why is the last six months Barack Oabma has been able to hold 89 fund raisers, go on vacation and play multiple rounds of golf.  Yup, Obama has a full plate, too full a plate than to make JOBS his priority. At least he has a plat, unlike millions of Americans without a job and without a home.