Rashard Mendenhall defends Bin Laden

[Titantron]

Are you joking? You talk bout people believing media propoganda, but you believe Bush's propoganda. Bush went to war in Iraq because he believed that Sadaam had Weapons of Mass destruction and was thus a threat to the US. The problem was, there were no weapons of mass destruction. Despite searching high and low they couldn't find them. Heck Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector who is a declared Republican and Bush voter in 2000 has stated that Iraq had no WMD. You need to stop believing Republican party propoganda and start thinking for yourself.

It's not the "cool" kids who hate Bush, it's the smart ones. As I said, all of the conservatives I know in Australia and Europe hate Bush.

As for Africans loving Bush, as I have never been to Africa (have you?) I can't comment on this. That being said, I do know a number of recent immigrants from East and West Africa (people who have come to Australia in the last 5 years), as well as people who have worked in Southern Africa, and I have yet to hear any of them say a good word about George Bush.

As for it being trendy to invade countries to overthrow dictators, what are you talking about? Egypt? Tunisia? It was the people in those countries that overthrew their regimes, they were not invaded. Even in Libya there hasn't been an invasion, it is merely supporting the rebels in the country who want to overthrow the regime. Again, you need to get your facts straight instead of putting out Republican party propoganda.

As for the statement:

"He did more for the world than any other president and most of it you have never heard about...."

That may be true, but those things he did for the world were bad things.

Isn't it rather ironic that September 11 happened under Bush's watch (largely because he cut funding to the security organisations the were monitoring terrorist groups), and in 7 years he couldn't find Bin Laden. Yet within 3 years of being in power a democrat did find Bin Laden?

who's buying the propaganda? When's the last time we invaded a country with nukes? never. Why do you think it took 10 years to get Bin Laden when everybody knew he was in pakistan? because they have nukes. We went into iraq to take out the crazy dictator who was telling the whole world that he was trying to build nukes. We knew he had weapons of mass destruction because he had allready gased 300,000 of his own people. he posed a threat to the world and we allready saw what happens on 9-11 when you dont take crazy people's threats seriously. You bought the lies, not me. You are the one that let the media theme take over and bend reality. Bush is an evil liar because some soldier didnt come walking out of a building holding a huge nuke on camera. Then you have the nerve to blame bush for 9-11. Clinton had no less than 11 different times to take out Bin laden and he never did. That doesnt mean 9-11 is his fault. its not, but your simple minded rational that you get spoon fed from the media has so many holes in it that its laughable. sadly, there are way too many people who buy the BS just like you.

[BU54CB]

How can someone have the freewdom to say what they want when they are then punished for saying what they want? Will there be consequences to what he said? Yes, but that should be limited to people say and think about him, people also have the right to do that. He should not have his contract termianted however because then you are punishing someone for exercising their right to freedom of speech. If this is the consequences of someone exercising their freedom of speech, then there isn't any real freedom of speech.

I'm sorry, how does one draw the distinction between someone being in the poublic eye and being a private citizen? Are you saying as he is someone who works in the public that he doesn't have any private life - that as a "public figure" he doesn't have the same rights as other American? What he said he said as an individual and not as a Steeler representative.

Under Australian law, if the NFL or the Steelers did terminate Mendenhall for making those comments, such action would likely be illegal. His comments would likely constitute a political opinion, and it is illegal to sack someone on the basis of their political opinions. If they did this they could be taken to court and have to compensate him as well as possibly pay a fine. And I agree with this 100%. Just because he is an NFL player that doesn't mean he doesn't deserve the same rights as anyone else.

I have a question for you. If say Brian Urlacher said it was right to invade Iraq because of the WMD, and Chicago cut him because of that, would you say he deserves those consequences?

Now you may say those are 2 different things, but the reality is they aren't different.

Firstly most people (at least educated people) know there weren't WMD in Iraq, while s minority believe there was. Same with 9/11 - most people believe Islamic fundamentalists caused it, while a minority believed the US government was behind it.

Secondly tens of thousands of innocent people died in Iraq because of the WMD lie. Just lie thousands died in 9/11 because of the Islamic fundamentalists.

Heck, you could argue if you want that the WMD lie was worse because it was used to justify the invasion and deaths, while the 9/11 truthers haven't used there beliefs to justify the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people.

Besides, the Steelers have locked him out and are therefore not paying him at present. While the NFL and the Steelers may believe they can still enforce their wills on the players while this is happening, from a labor law perspective this is very dubious, and open to challenge - they are in fact the ones breaking the contract by not paying him, so in affect it can be argued that the contract is no longer in force.

You've spent quite a few paragraphs putting words in my mouth, making assumptions and gleaned hypotheticals based on your opinions, not what I've actually said.

I never said Mendenhall should be punished or terminated, all I said was that he chose to publish his thoughts to the public for everyone to see. He will have to deal with those consequences whatever they are, positive or negative. I never said I would support Mendenhall being cut or losing his job, I did say that if something happened to his career, it was his fault, not that I supported Mendenhall being punished.

It is quite simple to drawn a distiction between someone in the public eye and a private citizen. More often than not, someone chooses to be in the public eye, whether it be an athlete, politician, musician, etc. Nowhere did I say that Mendenhall didn't deserve the same rights as anyone else regardless of their status in society. What I did say was that as an athlete, he is in the public eye and its entirely possible that people care more about Mendenhall's opinion more than a joe average citizen like me. If he choses to express his opinion on twitter, I could care less, but he should have thought about the consequences before he did it.

I guess he really doesn't care about his freedom of speech, because he deleted some of his twitter comments. Hmm, wonder why.

If you work for a law firm that has a big case that is highly publicized, and you twittered something negative about the case, should you not expect scrutiny if someone from the firm saw those comments? Would it not be possible for someone to see those comments as a representation of either the law firm or the clients thoughts or opinions?

If Brian Urlacher or any other athlete said that about the invasion of Iraq, I could care less and I would not support him being cut as I did not support Mendenhall being cut.

I'm not sure where the tangent on WMD's came from or how they are directed at me, I never even mentioned the Iraq war.

The Steelers and the NFL have lock Mendenhall out, but that doesn't mean he still isn't an employee of the Steelers and the NFL. The contract he signed with the team has not been terminated, he isn't free to sign with anyone else. BTW, unless a player has a workout or roster bonus, they haven't missed a paycheck yet. As I'm sure you know, players get paid game checks, so if any NFL games are missed then they will not be getting paid.

[Titantron]

Are you joking? You talk bout people believing media propoganda, but you believe Bush's propoganda. Bush went to war in Iraq because he believed that Sadaam had Weapons of Mass destruction and was thus a threat to the US. The problem was, there were no weapons of mass destruction. Despite searching high and low they couldn't find them. Heck Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector who is a declared Republican and Bush voter in 2000 has stated that Iraq had no WMD. You need to stop believing Republican party propoganda and start thinking for yourself.

It's not the "cool" kids who hate Bush, it's the smart ones. As I said, all of the conservatives I know in Australia and Europe hate Bush.

As for Africans loving Bush, as I have never been to Africa (have you?) I can't comment on this. That being said, I do know a number of recent immigrants from East and West Africa (people who have come to Australia in the last 5 years), as well as people who have worked in Southern Africa, and I have yet to hear any of them say a good word about George Bush.

As for it being trendy to invade countries to overthrow dictators, what are you talking about? Egypt? Tunisia? It was the people in those countries that overthrew their regimes, they were not invaded. Even in Libya there hasn't been an invasion, it is merely supporting the rebels in the country who want to overthrow the regime. Again, you need to get your facts straight instead of putting out Republican party propoganda.

As for the statement:

"He did more for the world than any other president and most of it you have never heard about...."

That may be true, but those things he did for the world were bad things.

Isn't it rather ironic that September 11 happened under Bush's watch (largely because he cut funding to the security organisations the were monitoring terrorist groups), and in 7 years he couldn't find Bin Laden. Yet within 3 years of being in power a democrat did find Bin Laden?

Nevermind guy. It just hit me. You were the one who posted all of that union propaganda a while back in defense of adrian Peterson...the irony is all consuming. You obviously have it all figured out and I am the dolt who is buying the propaganda....so, whatever. Have a nice day.

[boba]

Nevermind guy. It just hit me. You were the one who posted all of that union propaganda a while back in defense of adrian Peterson...the irony is all consuming. You obviously have it all figured out and I am the dolt who is buying the propaganda....so, whatever. Have a nice day.

Hes also the guy who said all this about Tim Tebow.
" a narrow minded bigot "

" he is a narrow minded bigoted hypocrit who only cares about making himself rich "

" He uses Christianity for his own agenda - to spread his hate and to make money for himself. "

"Hey Tim and his folks, if you want to soread the word of God to people, instead of doing it in a Christin countr like the Phillipines, why not go to Pakistan, Iran, China or Afghanistan to do it?"

lost all respect for him after these posts

[Titantron]

Hes also the guy who said all this about Tim Tebow.
" a narrow minded bigot "

" he is a narrow minded bigoted hypocrit who only cares about making himself rich "

" He uses Christianity for his own agenda - to spread his hate and to make money for himself. "

"Hey Tim and his folks, if you want to soread the word of God to people, instead of doing it in a Christin countr like the Phillipines, why not go to Pakistan, Iran, China or Afghanistan to do it?"

lost all respect for him after these posts

wow.

[stephenheger]

Hes also the guy who said all this about Tim Tebow.
" a narrow minded bigot "

" he is a narrow minded bigoted hypocrit who only cares about making himself rich "

" He uses Christianity for his own agenda - to spread his hate and to make money for himself. "

"Hey Tim and his folks, if you want to soread the word of God to people, instead of doing it in a Christin countr like the Phillipines, why not go to Pakistan, Iran, China or Afghanistan to do it?"

lost all respect for him after these posts

I gained MORE respect for OZTATAR for posting those comments.

I've also really enjoyed these posts. A lot. It's like some sort of train wreck that I just can't stop looking at. It's nice to see that there are some thinkers out there (phin and Oz) and some that, well, don't seem to think at all.

[jaybird_1981]

Alright guys I am closing this thread as it no longer pertains to football.