B aseball season approaches, and the Red Sox players showed today what a good labor organization can do for workers.

 

The Sox are slated to square off against the Oakland in Japan to open the season, but after learning that the trainers, equipment staff and coaches would forfeit a $40,000 agreed-upon bonus, the players voted to boycott the games. They beat management, and the support staff will now get more for a game than I made in the last two years. This is probably the first and only time you will ever this from me, and it hurts my fingers to type the words, but hooray for the Bosox!

 

Elsewhere around the globe, Vice President Dick Cheney is in Oman today fishing on the Sultan of Oman's yacht. The fishing in that part of the world is tremendous. He's over there calming the Sultan's fears of war with Iran and maybe to partake in Oman's glorious health care system, rated 8th in the world according to the World Health Organization. A guy with a heart like Cheney could use some help.

 

Obama's speech yesterday has the pundit class in accolades - the Times editorial board called it a Profile in Courage, ranking it rhetorically with something from Kennedy or Lincoln. I admit that I had tears welling up when I got to the end of his speech and was reading about Ashley and the old man.

 

Yes, the speech was nuanced, bold, honest and refreshing - unlike anything we have heard from a politician in years. It has impact - right now it is the number emailed story on the Times website.

 

But what really bugged me was his approval of Israel, while discussing the context of his pastor, Reverend Wright's, heated remarks:

They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

I suppose I expect more from Obama. While he hasn't taken money from AIPAC, he supports its agenda. But at the same time, a person can't get elected to national office in the United States without toeing Israel's line.

 

Oh yeah, and one more thing - if this doesn't piss you off: after Hurricane Katrina, Bush appropriated about a $10 billion bailout for the Big Easy. After Bear Stearns crashed, Bush appropriated $30 billion in taxpayer cash for the bank's bailout. Still pennies compared to the war in Iraq.

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