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Tales of Macondo

Fans of Gabriel García Márquez will find nearing echoes in the Project for Defense Alternatives' new report called Disappearing the Dead: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Idea of a "New Warfare," a searing indictment of the Pentagon's calculated "perception management" campaign to disguise the real human costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. By pretending, for example, that it doesn't track civilian deaths (when, in fact, such intelligence is available from the unit level to the Secretary of Defense) while promoting the notion of "precision warfare," our warriors have successfully manipulated the public's understanding of just how large the human toll has been.

posted by Jerry Bowles 6:40 PM

The fix is in

John Kerry just picked up the support of the AFL-CIO. But in an era of electronic voting that can jack an election with a keystroke, the most powerful unions in America aren’t the plumbers or the teamsters or the auto workers who vote, but those that look after the interests of a handful of millionaire male athletes who play professional sports.

For that reason you might not have noticed that Chris Webber, one of the stars of the NBA Sacramento Kings, was suspended 8 games by the National Basketball Association for violation of drug policy and for accepting money from a known gambler while in college. The news was buried on a back page in the small agate of the “transactions.”

The love tap justice and megabuck fine meted out by NBA commish David Stern gloss over the fact that Webber and the rest of the Fab Five at the University of Michigan were on the take from a big time numbers banker all the way through college. By copping a plea, Webber avoided being indicted for lying to a federal grand jury (which, effectively he did). According to Justice Department records, Chris Webber received at least $280,000 when he was in college. Some sports pundits have suggested he may even have been on the take while playing hoops at an elite private school outside Detroit.

And he had the gaul to testify that while in college he could hardly afford a McDonalds hamburger. As a result of the “scandal” the University of Michigan forfeited 113 victories and had to take down their NCAA championship banners from the Crisler Arena (won during Webber’s tenure).

Look at all the fuss over Pete Rose. Shoeless Joe Jackson. Or go back to Paul Hornung and Alex Karras in pro football. Or ask Frank Rosenthal (the real central character of the film “Casino”) for details.

What’s wrong with sports is what’s wrong with America's political class… like Dick Vitale would say… the fix is in, baby. Front load those primary elections... and did you say you wanted a receipt for that electronic vote?

posted by Groom 3:23 PM

We Have Nothing to Fear But...

Did you ever think you'd live to see the day when Pat Buchanan was the voice of reason?

posted by Jerry Bowles 2:17 PM

Can Edwards Risk Going Negative?

It is clear that Kerry is up for a blood feud with Bush, after all, he was Lieutenant Governor under Dukakis and revenge on Papa Bush is no small incentive to go for Junior’s jugular when necessary. It’s also clear Kerry learned a thing or two about defining issues, quick response and going negative in a positive way. I’m not confident at all that Edwards can do any of this, and more importantly, Edwards risks a lot by trying to do so. Edwards is too busy staying on message, sticking to his closing arguments that are no different than his opening statements, that he has already missed big opportunities to nail Bush on his job projections and Bush’s back peddling on the high numbers because “he is not a statistician.”

One lesson to be learned from Howard Dean, the “Father” of the New Democratic Party, is not to present one persona and then change it without warning or testing it first. Edwards, a man of little experience and less substance than anyone else in this race except for Sharpton, has only his personality to run on, and that personality, happy as it is, does not stack up well against Bush.

When--not if--Edwards goes negative and supplements his son-of-a-mill-worker grin with something other than sunshine, he risks confusing his well-polished “positive” brand and undermines his credibility, becoming less likeable if he does not do it right. What Edwards needs to do in the next two weeks is start testing the boundaries of how far he can go negative with Kerry and get away with it. Otherwise, he will not be ready for primetime and we will end up with an untested candidate for president, should he pull off the miracle of American politics and get the nomination.

posted by Josh 11:13 AM

Say It Ain't So, Barry

Barry Bonds may be the most unloved sports hero in history and the news that his trainer is somehow involved in the dispensing of steroids is unlikely to surprise anyone who has been watching with horror the evolution of a new generation of android players with arms like tree trunks and shoulders the size of Michigan. Does anyone seriously believe that Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire or Bonds got that way through careful diet and exercise?

The common and widespread use of "performance enhancement" pills is an epidemic that is dangerous (how many fathers can resist giving their talented 13-year-old that little extra advantage?) and threatens the integrity of virtually all sports. It especially threatens baseball, a sport at which even such unlikely physical specimens as David Wells and Babe Ruth, could excel. Baseball is one of the few sports that measures and records everything that happens on the field. How do we compare the achievements of a Ted Williams or Joe DiMaggio to those of a Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa when we know, although they deny it, that Bonds and Sosa have cheated?

I don't know what the solution is--maybe ban a few of these guys for life--but we could start by not allowing players to have personal trainers. The only personal trainer Babe Ruth ever had was the bartender at the Algonguin who said, "You've had enough, Babe. Go home and hit the sack."

posted by Jerry Bowles 9:47 AM

Snow blind

While everybody’s been counting candidates, the dollar continues its free fall against the Euro hitting a record low yesterday. One unit of the European currency is now worth $1.2929. From the White House perspective, a weak dollar makes US goods more competitive on world markets. That translates into declining real wages and more manufacturing and tech jobs being “outsourced” overseas. On the home front, consumer confidence is down. The twin towers of trade deficit and foreign debt are getting taller.

Treasury secretary, John Snow, is an old friend of Dick Cheney from their days in the Ford administration. Snow got the job at treasury on the strengh of running a railroad that sends empty hopper cars uphill and brings them down full of coal. This considered, it behooves one to ask to what extent Cheney might be pulling the strings in the area of economic policy.

The economy is Shrubby’s Achilles heel and the Democrats need a “great communicator” to get the message across to those of us who still bother to vote. Will Bob Rubin become the horse whisperer for John Kerry?

posted by Groom 5:54 AM

Blinded by Science

You would think that hopelessly destablilizing two large Muslim nations and saddling the American economy with debts into the 22nd century would be enough destruction for one administration but that would be to "misunderestimate" the Shrubster's band of merry thiefs. A group of more than 60 top U.S. scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates and several science advisers to past Republican presidents, yesterday accused the Bush administration of manipulating and censoring science for political purposes. What do you expect from a government in which the President and the Secretary of Education both believe evolution is a theory and creationism is a science?

posted by Jerry Bowles 12:12 AM