Matt Ortega

ESPN:

The four-time Pro Bowl quarterback joined the Oakland Raiders on Monday, with the 39-year-old passer agreeing to a one-year deal to be JaMarcus Russell’s backup. [...]

Garcia spent the past two seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, starting 24 games while leading them to a division title and a playoff berth in 2007, when he also earned his fourth Pro Bowl berth. Despite solid numbers last season — 2,712 yards passing and a 90.2 passer rating with 12 touchdowns and just six interceptions — he wasn’t re-signed by the Bucs and new coach Raheem Morris, who apparently is going with Brian Griese or Luke McCown at the position.

Garcia, who will be paid more than the league minimum by Oakland, is a native of Gilroy, Calif., just south of San Jose. Although several teams had interest in Garcia as a backup, he chose the Raiders for the chance to continue his career close to home with a familiar coaching staff, including passing game coordinator Ted Tollner, a former 49ers assistant.

Fantastic way to end the show: make a reference to the first episode and bring it full circle. (The many references to the past were nice touches.) In the pilot episode, Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards) asks Noah Wylie’s character, “Dr. Carter, you coming?” In the final scene of E.R., Dr. Carter asks Mark Greene’s daughter, Rachel, “Dr. Greene, you coming?”

The killing of four Oakland police officers earlier this month shocked the nation but for former State Senator Don Perata, it is a vehicle to make himself relevant again and launch yet another campaign.

Former state Sen. Don Perata said the events of last week have persuaded him to run for mayor in 2010.

“I wasn’t trying to be coy (on a mayoral run), but this just galvanized it for me because you just can’t stand there and do nothing,” Perata said. “People know what I’ve done to ban assault weapons and other things I’ve done, so they ought to know that I’m running for mayor.”

Perata, who attended the Friday memorial, said he was stunned by the decision to leave the mayor without a role in the service.

Richard Holbrooke, former ambassador under the President Bill Clinton and the recently appointed special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan by President Barack Obama, appeared on CNN and argued against the ridiculous notion that Afghanistan is another Vietnam.

“I served in Vietnam for three and a half years and I’m aware of certain structural similarities,” Holbrooke, who is serving as the administration chief diplomat to Afghanistan and Pakistan, told CNN. “But there’s a fundamental difference — the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese never posed any direct threat to the United States and its homeland. The people we are fighting in Afghanistan and the people they are sheltering in Western Pakistan, pose a direct threat. Those are the men of 9-11, the people who killed Benazir Bhutto and you can be sure that as we sit here today, they are planning further attacks on the United States and our allies.”

So I am thinking about applying to grad school, specifically the weekend classes for Johns Hopkins Master’s degree program with a concentration in political communication. I tweeted “[s]o… who wants to write letters of recommendation?” as sort of a tongue-in-cheek request.

Within minutes, several people replied enthusiastically both publicly and privately on Twitter and Facebook. Mike Gehrke, former DNC research director, replied “will they take a “twitter of recc?”

“Hmm,” I thought. “That’s not a bad idea.”

So here’s the plan. Sign in to Twitter (or create an account if you do not have one already) and tweet your recommendation @MattOrtega and tag your tweet with #recmatt. These “tweets of recommendation” will be included with my grad school application along with the traditional letters of recommendation.

Appreciate your help with this social media experiment and the advancement of my education!