Presidents Day and Baseball - Neither Means as Much as it Used to

Presidents Day is coming up on Monday, and as a big fan of both presidential trivia and baseball, I see some parallels between each of them today.

Baseball has been cheapened by steroid abuse. Many of its hallowed records are now a joke (73 home runs in a season?!?!?). Barry Bonds may well break Hank Aaron’s lifetime home run record, but at what cost? Jose Canseco has called the players on it. His credibility may be shot, but he raises so many suspicions that one has to call into question all players’ exploits and achievements in recent years.

George W. Bush has cheapened the presidency in a similar fashion. To be fair, President Clinton cheapened the presidency as well. We all know how, particularly Republicans who are only too happy to remind us. However, just as baseball players have boosted their statistics with cheating and lies, Bush has demeaned his office. To wit:

Baseball players got record contracts because of inflated statistics. Halliburton gets record contracts in Iraq because there is no open bidding.

Baseball players have secret doings in the locker rooms where their activities might be illegal. Cheney had secret meetings with energy companies to devise our nation’s energy policy, which may or may not have been illegal.

Baseball players (though not all) believe it is their God-given right to be arrogant and self-serving. Bush is nothing if not arrogant.

Baseball players often believe they are entitled to perks that come with being wealthy and well-connected. Bush believed he was entitled to the presidency.

Baseball players often make a ton of money despite little education. Bush is wealthy from money his family made and has a good ed-joo-cay-shun because of his family’s connections. Of course, he brags about having been a poor student who partied a wee bit too often, but I digress.

It’s interesting that Bush was the owner of the Texas Rangers when Canseco joined the team. Canseco says that Bush was aware of rampant steroid use on his team but turned a blind eye toward it. Maybe, maybe not. I was not there, and I do not know. I know Bush used the position as a stepping-stone to become Governor Bush. We all know what he did after that, so maybe he didn't want a small matter like mass use of illegal drugs to disrupt his path.

I wish you all a Happy Presidents-Plus-Bush Day. May you be the beneficiary of many sales. If you’re wealthy, you have more money to spend thanks to Mr. Bush, so go knock yourselves out.

The Famous Axis of Evil

A few years ago, Bush established his “Axis of Evil,” comprised of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. Remember that? Of course you do. Well, what of it?

Iraq? Check! Country was invaded using Weapons of Mass Deception. Is currently a quagmire of epic proportions. Bush proclaimed an end to “major combat” and since then we have seen, well, lots of major combat. Invading was the easy part. Cheney and other chicken hawks believed the Iraqis would “welcome us as saviors,” apparently believing also that very little post-invasion planning would be necessary. Well, that went well. It eroded our credibility around the world and made Iraq a terrorist breeding ground. Mr. Cowboy decided we should go in ourselves, then famously mentioned Poland as the second country helping us there (after Britain). Yes, Poland was our second country. Poland is now reducing its number of troops to 900. Yes, 900. Oh, and those weapons? Bush himself made light of the hunt, showing up on a video looking for them in the White House couch cushions. Funny. Oh, the current reason for our being there is the “spread of democracy.” Until it changes to a new reason.

Iran? Well, they’re in the process of developing nuclear weapons. They say they’re not, of course, but all intelligence indicates that they are. We know they would love to fire off a few nuclear warheads toward Tel Aviv. Bush’s obsession with Iraq gave Iran short shrift, and it shows. Good job, Mr. Bush!

North Korea? Hmmm, not so good. Their “Dear Leader” recently proclaimed that his nation really has nuclear weapons (Mr. Bush, if you are reading this, that would be “nukular weppins”). He wants to have talks with Bush, whereby he can grab concessions. That didn’t work with Clinton, though we all thought it had. As with Iran, Bush focused on the wrong problem and tried to marginalize a growing problem. Reagan tried the same method with the Soviet Union and then finally, eventually met with Gorbachev. Bush is no Reagan, hard as he tries.

Bush focused on the country that was really the least problematic among the three. We’re still not sure why we had to invade Iraq and let the other problems fester, but we have and now must deal with it. We no longer have the credibility or manpower to invade either Iran or North Korea, so this must be done diplomatically, and Mr. Texas Cowboy has proven to be somewhat of a poor diplomat (“Bring it on”). Thanks, Mr. Bush. What I must ask you, and what I hope and pray you are asking yourself is this: was invading Iraq worth it? Was getting the Bad Man out of power worth creating and exacerbating many other problems? I hate to tell you this, but the answers to Iran and North Korea do not involve another tax cut for the wealthy.