Politics Plus

Hey, I like baseball as much as the next guy, but the behavior of more extreme fans never ceases to amaze me.

Let’s say that you’re a woman, and you’re a die hard fan of the home team. And let’s further stipulate that you’re not a season ticket holder, and you don’t have hundreds of dollars to buy a pair of tickets for yourself and your spouse, even for the cheap seats at the local stadium. What to do, what to do? How about placing an advertisement on Craig’s List, and hope that a sympathetic person who has a couple of spare tickets will help you out?

So, you’re writing the ad. After all, you’re the assistant director of communications at a local medical facility, and like any good ad copy writer, you know one thing for sure: “sexy” sells, and gets attention (particularly on Craig’s List). You settle on the following, and hit the submit button:

DESPERATE BLONDE NEEDS WS TIX!

Diehard Phillies fan – gorgeous tall buxom blonde – in desperate need of two World Series Tickets. Price negotiable. I’m the creative type! Maybe we can help each other!

Flirtatious? Perhaps. Solicitation? Hardly. But that’s what a vice cop in Bensalem, Pa. apparently thought when he read Susan Finkelstein’s advertisement in the ticket section of Philadelphia Craig’s List.

The cop responded to the ad, and set up a meeting with Finkelstein at a local bar. And busted her for prostitution.

Allegedly, Finkelstein crossed some type of arbitrary line, and offered (or implied) that she’d be willing to perform sex acts on the cop and his brother in exchange for two tickets. She was cuffed, booked, and her mug shot is now popping up all over the web…

Inserted from <Alternet>

The Phillies and Yankees are favorite teams of mine.  We got our first TV when I was ten and the Phillies were the team I saw.  Robin Roberts was my hero.  Later on, I learned that I could buy a round trip ticket from Atlantic City to Yankee Stadium, buy a decent ticket, and have a couple hot dogs and cokes for under $10.  I was in the stadium (it took three trips) when Roger Maris hit #61.  So this series is rich in memories for me, but seriously?!!?  Not even for Bronco’s tickets to the Super Bowl!

On the other hand, didn’t that cop have anything better to do, and what does he have against the Phillies?

Life is often funnier that anything I could invent.

Here’s one for our Canadian readers.  News of Canada rarely finds its way this far south.

The provincial government in Alberta, Canada is threatening to unleash its counterterrorism plan if activists continue using civil disobedience to protest the tar sands, Canada’s fastest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

In recent weeks, Greenpeace has staged three daring protests inside tar sands mines, temporarily shutting down parts of the world’s largest energy project. On Oct. 3 and 4, activists blocked construction of an upgrader needed to refine heavy tar sands oil, belonging to Shell in Ft. Saskatchewan, Alberta.

Civil disobedience from Greenpeace, leading to 37 arrests, has enraged Alberta’s conservative government. "We’re coddling people who are breaking the law," complained Premier Ed Stelmach during a media scrum in early October.

"Premier Stelmach’s public suggestion that he will use the ‘force of the law to deal with these people’ confirms his lack of knowledge of the limits of his authority and the clear rule that our system of justice cannot be interfered with or manipulated for political reasons," responded Brian Beresh, the defence lawyer representing arrested activists, at a news conference in Edmonton.

Legal scholars, including University of Alberta law professor Sanjiv Anand and Tom Engel of the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association, have criticized the provincial government for attempting to politicize legal proceedings.

"We’re going to be working very closely with industry and our solicitor general will be reviewing all of the guidelines we have in place," said a visibly irritated Premier Stelmach in early October.

Fred Lindsay, the solicitor general, went a step further, suggesting the province might use its counterterrorism plan against future protests… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Common Dreams>

The protestors are breaking the law.  Nobody denies that.  Therefore the Alberta government has every right to prosecute.  That’s the whole point of civil disobedience.  Protestors know in advance that their actions are subject to punishment and are willing to face the just consequences, making examples of themselves to draw attention to their cause.  However, they are not terrorists.  They have harmed nobody.  They have merely interfered with the operations of a huge corporation that does not care how much environmental damage they do to make a profit.  To treat them as terrorists would be an outrage.

There has long been a secret agreement between the US and Israel, concerning Israel’s nuclear weapons.  I had hoped that the Obama administration would change that as part of the openness Obama promised us during his campaign.  Sadly, I was disappointed.

Barack Obama, the US president, has agreed to abide by a 40-year policy of allowing Israel to keep nuclear weapons without opening them to international inspection, according to a US newspaper.

In a report on Saturday, The Washington Times quoted three unnamed sources as saying Obama had confirmed to Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, that he would maintain the "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy.

The incident reportedly occurred when the two met at the White House in Washington DC in May.

Neither Israel’s embassy in Washington, nor the White House National Security Council would comment on the claim.

Avner Cohen, an Israeli expert and author, was quoted by the paper as saying that under the deal "the United States passively [accepts] Israel’s nuclear weapons status as long as Israel does not unveil publicly its capability or test a weapon".

There is no official accounting of the deal, supposedly agreed in 1969 between Richard Nixon, then US president, and Golda Meir, the Israeli prime minister at the time… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Common Dreams>

Don’t ask, don’t tell is a lousy way to run our military.  It requires LGBT service personnel to live a lie in order to serve our nation in the military.  A standard of openness requires that they be able to serve with honor without having to hide their sexuality.

In the same way, don’t ask, don’t tell is a lousy way to run our international relations.  A standard of openness requires a level playing field for all participants.  How can we be taken seriously, when we demand that North Korea give up or that Iran not develop nuclear weapons when we look the other way at Israel’s nukes?

Furthermore, this policy poisons our relationships with the Muslim world.  When Muslim countries consider this this policy, they believe, with just cause, that the US considers them second class world citizens, because we give preferential treatment to a nation they consider a foe.  Many of them have to live in Israel’s nuclear shadow, and they are rightly indignant.

Some may argue that Israel, surrounded by enemies, needs nuclear weapons to insure their national security.  However, the US has more than enough power to insure Israel’s security, if we choose to do so, but I can’t see any way that Israel will ever give up nuclear weapons.  I’m not saying we should attempt to force them to do so, just as we have made no such attempts with India or Pakistan.  But why can’t we at least be honest about it?

Here is a subject that engenders complete disgust.

Former GOP congressman Tom DeLay is back tonight for week two of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars. Truth be told, we’re still not quite over the shock of DeLay’s debut—all that exaggerated booty shaking, it still haunts us. But it was awesome TV—so awesome, we almost forgot that DeLay is still awaiting trial on charges he broke campaign-finance laws in Texas… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <The Gaggle>

Now, if the thought of it is not sufficient to bile to your throat, this will.

Randal!!  Stop that!!!  You’re supposed to be looking at how clumsy Tom Delay is!  Stop looking at the girl!!  Now!!  Randal, pay attention!  Please!!

Anyway, I hope he is as incompetent in court as he is on the dance floor.