People look to sports as something that is a refuge from politics and divisive topics. I admit that it's really easy to look at it that way - there isn't much that my dad and I agree upon but we both really love football and the Chicago Bears in particular. But, this ideal is really a lie. Nothing is separate from politics, because while professional sports masquerades as completely privately owned, owners deliver ultimatums to taxpayers demanding millions for new stadiums or they'll take the hometown team to wherever will pony up the money. And then, after taking the money, they still charge $90 a ticket. In fact, during the chaos of Hurricane Katrina, the Louisiana Superdome housed countless homeless individuals. That was the first time that any of them had stepped foot in the stadium that they helped build with their tax dollars.
One interesting aspect of the current Super Bowl champions - The Green Bay Packers - is that there is no one owner of the team. It is collectively owned by the citizens of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Written in the bi-laws of the team is a clause that any profit made from the sale of the team must be donated to the United Way. The Packers are quite literally a product of Socialism. During the Super Bowl broadcast, this fact was not mentioned once. Sure they had time to show Cameron Diaz feeding popcorn to Alex Rodriguez, but not to mention that the Packers had a completely opposite ownership structure to that of the Dallas Cowboys and Jerry Jones' $1 Billion stadium that the game was played in.
The negotiations between the NFL owners and the Player's Union is the interaction that I'm really most interested in at the moment. If you listen to casual sports fans, you're likely not to find that much interest. They see the disagreement as millionaires fighting with billionaires, something that just does not matter to the common fan. But the fact is this - if March 4th passes and there is not a new collective bargaining agreement between the players and the owners, there will be a lockout and there might not be any NFL football next year.
How did it come to this? Well, there was an agreement between the sides in 2006. It was set to last for seven years, but the owners dissolved the agreement after the 2010 season in hopes of getting a greater share of profits. The NFL makes $9 Billion a year. The original agreement was a 60/40 split in favor of the owners after taking an agreed upon amount off the top for the owners (This is to account for stadiums and other 'additions' that improve the game that the players agree to help subsidize the owners). So, in real terms as of last year, out of the $9 Billion the owners kept $1 Billion off the top and split the remaining $8 Billion 60/40.
Coming into these negotiations, the owners' position is that they want to keep the 60/40 split but increase the amount off the top to $2 Billion. The players' counteroffer is a 50/50 split with the original $1 Billion. So, who is right here? The NFL is a growing business and profits will only increase. Upon getting the offer for the $2 Billion subsidy for the owners, the players asked to see the financial activities of the teams to see both where the money would go and whether or not they actually need it. The owners refused.
My take is this, NFL owners are trying desperately to retake any losses that they supposedly took in the 2006 agreement and then some. Owners have been preparing for this lockout for years. They have secured guaranteed TV contracts that will pay the owners next season whether there is any football or not. They have started rescinding coaches' health care as well as players'. Their plan is this - settle in with the TV money and paint the players as greedy athletes who are at fault for there being no football until the players finally cave.
This cannot happen. The players are the talent that feeds this machine and without them, all the owners really have is REALLY expensive fields. How can anyone think that the players should agree to the ultimatum placed before them? With an additional $1 Billion taken away from the players over the length of the contract (7 years), you're asking the players to voluntarily give away $7 Billion. The average player only plays 3.4 years, and that lack of revenue is a huge hit to the amount of money that a player can make in their career.
The main hope for the NFLPA (the players union) is that fans side with them in this struggle. Players want to play this game and only ask for an equitable share of the money that this sport generates. I ask everyone to educate themselves on the matter and show this country that organized labor is a vital part of this country's greatness (I'm also talking to you Governor Walker)
Head to nfllockdown.com and sign the petition to send a message to the owners
Also, this ad was rejected for play at the Super Bowl because of 'content' issues. I guess supporting the game is just too controversial. Watch the ad and pass it on... It's powerful
Occupy
Monday, February 21, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Fighting the Fox Noise machine with facts
The protests at the Statehouse in Wisconsin against Scott Walker's proposals set up the classic Right/Left conflict in our Infotainment media - The Right calls unions lazy and overpaid and everything up to and even including un-American while the Left mumbles something about how those claims are false without really creating a rival narrative. This position is stupid. The majority of Americans who pay only a passing glance at the news believe what is shouted loudest at them, whether or not it is true.
ACORN's demise was relished by the Right because of the Slam Dunk investigative video from James O'Keefe and Andrew Breitbart that proved that the organization was corrupt and openly facilitated prostitution and countless other seedy offenses. The Right trumpeted that Obamacare was really, truly only about one thing - Death Panels that would allow the "Government" (Note the scare quotes) would have final say as to if you got life saving treatments or died.
There's one commonality of those two stories - they're complete bullshit. O'Keefe used highly edited filming that, after seeing the unbiased version, clearly showed that he and his 'prostitute' did not wear their outfits inside the building, and that nearly all of the employees chose not to help them and one even called the authorities on them. None other than the California Attorney General took a look at the unedited tapes and said that there were absolutely no crimes displayed. The Death Panel nonsense really was nothing more than the delusions of Sarah Palin. It was started as an amendment by a Republican representative that called for the option of individuals to have a meeting with a doctor paid for that allowed them to construct a living will if they saw fit. There was no mandatory facet of this provision or any language that prevented individuals from demanding every last bit of possible life-saving measures. After all the negative press, the provision was stripped from the bill before it ever even passed the House.
Looking at the Democratic response to these two incidences, another commonality can be seen. After withstanding the initial salvo from the Right, the Democrats calmly say that the claims are untrue and leave it at that. While this response at first seems logical and well thought out, it cannot handle the barrage that is the Right Wing Noise Machine. Fox News feeds talk radio and vice versa. Each becoming louder than before until the 'disproved' story until it reached a tipping point when the Mainstream media then must take the story seriously and thus report it as if it were fact. Then, after ACORN is defunded or the provision in 'Obamacare' is removed by the Democrats to stop the Right from making hay on the issue, the Right can claim victory and that they were right all along because 'why would they have caved in if we weren't right all along?' After this song and dance, it doesn't matter if the initial claim was disproved or not - the Right won because they were able to scream down the truth with convincing lies.
This is how the events in Wisconsin tie into the narrative. Walker came into the Governorship with a projected $121 million budget surplus at the end of the year. He promptly began his term this year by giving out $140 million in business tax cuts, creating a budget deficit. His answer for this? Breaking public unions and stripping their ability to collectively bargain.
Never mind that the three unions he gave exceptions to (Police, Firefighters and State Troopers) were the only unions who supported him in the election or that stripping the right to collectively bargain would have no effect on the deficit. Walker's fight is one of politics, trying to eliminate the major fundraisers for the Democratic Party - public unions. It's blatantly partisan and any claim to the contrary is insane. Balancing the budget isn't going to happen by taking public employees' pensions away from them. Doing that will only make the poor poorer and the rich richer.
I hope that the Democrats, and the 'supposedly' liberal media will not let the unions be hung out to dry. That false claims will be shouted down with facts. That unions can and will be strengthened and rightfully celebrated as the institutions that helped create the middle class and might again once more.
ACORN's demise was relished by the Right because of the Slam Dunk investigative video from James O'Keefe and Andrew Breitbart that proved that the organization was corrupt and openly facilitated prostitution and countless other seedy offenses. The Right trumpeted that Obamacare was really, truly only about one thing - Death Panels that would allow the "Government" (Note the scare quotes) would have final say as to if you got life saving treatments or died.
There's one commonality of those two stories - they're complete bullshit. O'Keefe used highly edited filming that, after seeing the unbiased version, clearly showed that he and his 'prostitute' did not wear their outfits inside the building, and that nearly all of the employees chose not to help them and one even called the authorities on them. None other than the California Attorney General took a look at the unedited tapes and said that there were absolutely no crimes displayed. The Death Panel nonsense really was nothing more than the delusions of Sarah Palin. It was started as an amendment by a Republican representative that called for the option of individuals to have a meeting with a doctor paid for that allowed them to construct a living will if they saw fit. There was no mandatory facet of this provision or any language that prevented individuals from demanding every last bit of possible life-saving measures. After all the negative press, the provision was stripped from the bill before it ever even passed the House.
Looking at the Democratic response to these two incidences, another commonality can be seen. After withstanding the initial salvo from the Right, the Democrats calmly say that the claims are untrue and leave it at that. While this response at first seems logical and well thought out, it cannot handle the barrage that is the Right Wing Noise Machine. Fox News feeds talk radio and vice versa. Each becoming louder than before until the 'disproved' story until it reached a tipping point when the Mainstream media then must take the story seriously and thus report it as if it were fact. Then, after ACORN is defunded or the provision in 'Obamacare' is removed by the Democrats to stop the Right from making hay on the issue, the Right can claim victory and that they were right all along because 'why would they have caved in if we weren't right all along?' After this song and dance, it doesn't matter if the initial claim was disproved or not - the Right won because they were able to scream down the truth with convincing lies.
This is how the events in Wisconsin tie into the narrative. Walker came into the Governorship with a projected $121 million budget surplus at the end of the year. He promptly began his term this year by giving out $140 million in business tax cuts, creating a budget deficit. His answer for this? Breaking public unions and stripping their ability to collectively bargain.
Never mind that the three unions he gave exceptions to (Police, Firefighters and State Troopers) were the only unions who supported him in the election or that stripping the right to collectively bargain would have no effect on the deficit. Walker's fight is one of politics, trying to eliminate the major fundraisers for the Democratic Party - public unions. It's blatantly partisan and any claim to the contrary is insane. Balancing the budget isn't going to happen by taking public employees' pensions away from them. Doing that will only make the poor poorer and the rich richer.
I hope that the Democrats, and the 'supposedly' liberal media will not let the unions be hung out to dry. That false claims will be shouted down with facts. That unions can and will be strengthened and rightfully celebrated as the institutions that helped create the middle class and might again once more.
Monday, February 14, 2011
The Murderous Anti-Abortion movement - Fuck You
First off, it's been way too long since I've posted on this blog... I guess it just takes the right story to rile me up and bring forth the word vomit.
Watching Maddow tonight and saw the latest batch of death threats from the "Pro Lifers." This constant threat of violence has single-handedly kept Topeka, Kansas from having an abortion provider in over a year. Abortion, by the way, is not a sin but a Constitutionally protected right that all women in this country should have access to.
How is this OK? How can someone who claims the moral high ground be so obviously depraved? Sure, these movements claim that by killing these 'murderers' they're saving countless souls. Doesn't this COMPLETELY undercut the moniker of Pro Life? Sure all life is sacred unless the person is willing to perform legal women's health care services... in that case, kill the motherfucker. Let's look beyond the hypocrisy that these live in - that most of these people believe in the Death Penalty and War (I guess Muslim or American soldiers lives aren't that sacred) - and cut to the heart of the matter; that this constant threat of violence (along with the tacit approval of those who oppose abortion) creates a de facto ban on abortion.
Is that something we're ok with? What does the Law mean if a group can Terrorize a practice and all of those involved until it goes away? Where does it end? Guns and fanaticism take a precendent over even the fucking Supreme Court? If a challenge to Roe v. Wade was put before the Supreme Court today it would be Affirmed because Kennedy would rule with the Liberal minority for a 5-4 decision. If even the archaic Conservative Supreme Court can't overturn Roe v. Wade, then this fucking crazy movement wants this nation even to the right of them.
So, fuck you 'Pro Life' movement. And fuck you religious individuals who secretly approve of what these nuts are doing. Until religious leaders or the damn Public disavow this group from all semblance of legitimacy then those silent are complicit. Abortion is not a happy thing. But it is a legal act if done within the parameters of the law. Until this threat of violence is lifted, women are not free (especially poor women)
Randall Terry, Operation Rescue and ever single other Anti-Abortion group:
Fuck you for being sexist
Fuck you for trying to control women's bodies
Fuck you for ignoring the fucking rule of law
Fuck you, seriously...
FUCK YOU
Watching Maddow tonight and saw the latest batch of death threats from the "Pro Lifers." This constant threat of violence has single-handedly kept Topeka, Kansas from having an abortion provider in over a year. Abortion, by the way, is not a sin but a Constitutionally protected right that all women in this country should have access to.
How is this OK? How can someone who claims the moral high ground be so obviously depraved? Sure, these movements claim that by killing these 'murderers' they're saving countless souls. Doesn't this COMPLETELY undercut the moniker of Pro Life? Sure all life is sacred unless the person is willing to perform legal women's health care services... in that case, kill the motherfucker. Let's look beyond the hypocrisy that these live in - that most of these people believe in the Death Penalty and War (I guess Muslim or American soldiers lives aren't that sacred) - and cut to the heart of the matter; that this constant threat of violence (along with the tacit approval of those who oppose abortion) creates a de facto ban on abortion.
Is that something we're ok with? What does the Law mean if a group can Terrorize a practice and all of those involved until it goes away? Where does it end? Guns and fanaticism take a precendent over even the fucking Supreme Court? If a challenge to Roe v. Wade was put before the Supreme Court today it would be Affirmed because Kennedy would rule with the Liberal minority for a 5-4 decision. If even the archaic Conservative Supreme Court can't overturn Roe v. Wade, then this fucking crazy movement wants this nation even to the right of them.
So, fuck you 'Pro Life' movement. And fuck you religious individuals who secretly approve of what these nuts are doing. Until religious leaders or the damn Public disavow this group from all semblance of legitimacy then those silent are complicit. Abortion is not a happy thing. But it is a legal act if done within the parameters of the law. Until this threat of violence is lifted, women are not free (especially poor women)
Randall Terry, Operation Rescue and ever single other Anti-Abortion group:
Fuck you for being sexist
Fuck you for trying to control women's bodies
Fuck you for ignoring the fucking rule of law
Fuck you, seriously...
FUCK YOU
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