Life As Seen by ESPN

It’s been an all ESPN sort of day at my house (My Beloved is home with a virus).

ESPN operates from a slightly different universe than the rest of us frequent.

A comment on the unfolding NBA Gambling Scandal: “This is an international incident”

Hum, if a corrupt NBA official is an “international incident” what does that make the War in Iraq? An international catastrophe perhaps?

NFL is investigating whether Michael Vick of the Atlantic Falcons has violated the leagues “Personal Conduct Code”. Seems they aren’t sure because the lawyers never thought to include a clause regarding the torture of dogs. Guess they thought nobody would be so stupid, so heartless and so cruel. Hopefully the code will be amended.

Whether Michael Vick returns to play another day is still under discussion. Cynical me thinks he will, because in the mind of the NFL wining touchdowns trumps dead dogs any day.

Let's hope that for once professional sports does the right thing.

There's One for the Rich...and Another for the Rest of Us

The Shrub commuted Scooter Libby 's prison sentence today. It was "to harsh". Bush's popularity ratings are so low that I guess he figured they couldn't go any lower so why wait till after the elections.

One thing we can say about Georgie Boy, he's loyal to his friends - or perhaps I should say Cheney is loyal to his friends. If Cheney wants it, Bush obliges him.

Halliburton's quarterlies not looking so good?
"Don't worry, Dick old Buddy , I'll make sure they get a sweetheart deal in Iraq"

Libby doesn't look good in stripes?
"Don't worry, Dick old Buddy, I'm the President, I'll take care of it"

Just think, if Paris had played nice with Dickie boy she wouldn't of had to go to prison either.

And in the meantime, it's very apparent that there is one set of rules for the rich and well connected and for the rest of us peons

Are We Ready for Some Football??

185 Million dollars and the New Orleans Superdome is back in business. Are we ready for some football? The shrub is. He is going to do the coin toss. Where was he a year ago? I guess there were not as many good photo-opts a year ago as there will be tonight.

The Lower 9th Ward is still in shambles. Most of the schools have not re-opened. Ditto the hospitals, the libraries and many of the businesses. Rents have sky rocketed and folks are living in FEMA trailers. The people of New Orleans are still scattered far and wide – other than the criminal element which seems to be migrating back and is busily engaged in turf wars.

As far as many of the residents of the city of Houston are concerned, that criminal element is not migrating fast enough. Houston has a massive case of compassion fatigue.

But according to the strident voices of the sports announcers New Orleans is back in business.

Do you think the powers that be will be able to find an additional 185 million dollars to rebuild the schools, the Lower 9th Ward and the public housing complexes and the rest of the infra-structure?

Highly unlikely. That wouldn’t provide as good a photo opt for the shrub.

To Young to Be a Widow

One of my favorites on my blogroll is The Library Lady Rants. We’ve a number of things in common- we are both librarians, liberal Democrats, the mothers of daughters and lovers of kid lit.We actually found each other via the Betsy Tacy list and then meet up again a number of years late on Blogexplosion.

She marked the upcoming 5th anniversary of 9/11 with a post entitled “Dead at 21”.
Some 3000+ young men and women have given their lives for The Shurb’s little overseas adventure. I’ve been ruminating a similar post round in my brain for some time.

The local news always covers “The Death of a Hero”. There have been all too many of such sad segments. Texas has more than its fair share of enlisted men and women. Most are Hispanic or African American – reflecting the racial make up of our “All Volunteer Army”. The Anglo soldiers hail from East Houston and smaller towns surrounding the Houston metroplex – areas that are overwhelming blue collar – the land the urban cowboys call home.

These soldiers are oh so young and most are fathers. Only 19, 20 or 21 they already have a wife and one, two or three children. Many of the wives are living with their extended family and look much too young to be bear this kind of burden. They are 17, 18, 19 years old and should be in school, out shopping with friends or exploring the world. Instead, they are coping with motherhood, single parenthood and now widowhood. A lifetime of living in just 3 or 4 years.

That is not the way it is supposed to be. Nature intended us to spend 30 or 40 years on this life path, not 3 or 4. They look at the camera and talk about being “proud that he died doing what he believed in” yet we never see any follow up stories. We don’t know how they feel 6 months or a year later. Do they still mouth the party line? Or has reality set in? Do they realize that their husbands gave their lives for oil prices and party politics?
Are they angry? They should be.

The politicians sent their husbands off to war and turned them into widows’ way before their time. Yet the children of said politicians are safe in college, marrying, starting families, beginning their careers with no thought of going forth to fight and die in the heat and squalor known as Iraq.

In the eyes of the administration, the war is a good war, so long as the black and brown citizens of America are fighting it. What is going to happen when we run out of black and brown cannon fodder? The Soccer Moms who brought this President to office will turn on him like a lioness defending her cubs if the draft is reinstated to feed the war machine.

And the first one will be the Wife of the Shrub – her blond, blue eyed daughters are just the right age to go forth and fight their Daddy’s little war. He knows they never will, which is why he thinks it is a good little war. The newly made widows would beg to differ.