by ALEX HAMILTON
When it comes to outrage, there is
plenty of it to go around, and the pundits are more than willing to give
it out. The pundits I speak of
are of course upset because their good name has been covered in mud and
all good sense has been ignored.
The following is from an article by Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports
commenting on the recent Pacers-Pistons-Fan brawl.
"When
you take a long, emotionless look at it - which is what first David
Stern and later a Michigan court surely will do - the fault for the
wildness that erupted at the end of the Indiana Pacers' victory at the
Detroit Pistons on Friday will land at the feet of one guy, Ron Artest.
The
Indiana
forward made a serious and intolerable (no matter how understandable)
mistake when his reaction to getting hit with a cup of beer was to hunt
down the perpetrator."
*note the guy Artest slugged was not the original beer
slinger. Ironic isn't it?
It's amazing how the sports broadcasters have
been thoroughly disgraced by a brawl but the rest of the media has not at
all been disgraced by a war based on trumped up intelligence and oedipal
complexes. Are they not
disgraced that WE are Ron Artest charging into
Iraq
at the expense of thousands of lives rather than a few black eyes? This is
the kind of outrage we should be seeing from the general media.
Saddam was the guy who got slugged who didn't even
really attack Artest. He just happened to be a jerk(yelling at Artest) and
in the way of six foot seven inches of pure muscle.
Just as Artest was never in any danger from a lukewarm cup of beer
or the slurred speech of inebriated, taunting fans, neither was this great
nation ever endangered by
Iraq
's supposed WMD programs. Yet, both Ron Artest and George W. Bush
chose to escalate the fight, actually submitting themselves to danger, in
actions that will mar their respective jobs for years to come.
How did the NBA deal with such poor decision making? To start off Artest was suspended for the rest of the season and faces possible criminal charges. His buddy Stephen Jackson (analogous to Great Britain perhaps?) who charged blindly into the stands to help Artest and slugged another fan, received a 30 game suspension and Jermaine O'Neal (he's thin enough to be the rest of the coalition) received a 25 game suspension for delivering a less than graceful blow to the face of a fan on the court.
In our political system, however, those responsible for inflating a thin case against Iraq are being rewarded. This week, Condoleeza Rice who was one of the purveyors of doom with her statement that "we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud" was shoved into the position of Secretary of State. Would it not be useful to give Ms. Rice at least a 10 year suspension from public service for her lack of curiosity on the aluminum tube issue and her doomsday predictions that she knew to be false? Would that be out of line?
Dick Cheney remains as Vice President of the
United States of America
as his former company reaps the benefits of our son's and daughter's
blood. He doesn't have to
worry about his daughter, she can't serve since she's a lesbian(Yes, I
said it too!). This is the
same man who visited the CIA and reportedly applied significant pressure
on the analysts to say exactly what he wanted them to say.
Would it be out of line for us to deliver Dick Cheney with a career
ending suspension for these actions?
George W. Bush the guy who lied right to your face on national television
was granted a second term as our head executive.
Stating that Iraq was acquiring not only "yellow cake uranium"
but aluminum tubes suitable only for centrifuging uranium into its potent
form suitable for bomb grade fissile material he lead us all into the
stands just like Artest led Stephen Jackson.
Not only that, but Bush had decided to send us on this mission in
1999, before he was even President according to recent reports.
"[Bush] said, 'If I have a chance to invade"if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it,' "
Mickey Herskowitz, former Bush autobiographer (of course Bush would need someone to help him with his autobiography he probably doesn't remember the 80's very well.)
http://www.houstonpress.com/issues/2004-11-18/news.html
Would it be wrong to kick Bush out of office for the debacle which he will no doubt allow someone else to clean up and then call his own "legacy"?
It appears that Americans are still capable of outrage; at least stemming from sports. So, I ask, where in the mainstream media is the outrage at our foreign policy? Maybe the answer is that we just need to convince some of these sports writers to become political talking heads on Fox News and MSNBC. The other solution is allowing David Stern(NBA Commissioner) to dole out suspensions to the political hacks who are ruining our moral clarity, turning our country into the laughing stock of the world, destroying our budget, stagnating the job market, and flat out lying us into war. Can't we all just pretend politics is a sport and get outraged that we have come to demand so little from our politicians? Why should we demand restraint from our sports players, but not the most powerful men in the world? Echoing the sentiments of Dan Wetzel, when you take a long, emotionless look at it the blame will land at the feet of one guy, President Bush. If the media would be only as harsh on our politicians as they are on our sports stars, and also take a long emotionless look at the situation, it would be a great first step towards fixing the mistake that George W. Bush has become.
Alex Hamilton is co-administrator and founder of a website devoted to educating the populace to the ongoing lies of President George W. Bush, seeking his removal from office and creating a progressive organization to push the agenda in the coming years. Email Alex: alex@ibtp.org Read his blog at www.opednews.com/blogalexhamilton.htm
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