Frankly, I am tired of Congressional witchhunts like the one probing major league baseball. True, in 1994 I swore I wouldn't watch a single inning of baseball until all those strike-year players had retired (I figure about 2015). However, that said, I love baseball. Always have. I'd bet money that there is a huge number of professional athletes use steroids and other "performance-enhancing" drugs -- legal and/or illegal. However, that is not the sin here. "Lying" before Congress is the real sin -- and Congress is just showing off its increasing power. I would never recommend that anyone -- innocent or guilty or informative -- testify before the government simply because of their abuse of power. All Congressional "investigators" have to do is threaten one person with 25 years in prison, and that person will provide any type of testimony -- true or untrue -- that the government wants. Congress should just hitch it up, instruct players of cut and dried penalties for future abuses, and let it be. As it stands, testifying gets stiffer penalties than the original offense. I wonder if this is why our political system has gotten so screwed up.
Given what our nation faces at home and abroad, I am appalled that they spend time on a baseball hearing. I've not heard a defense of their antics that makes sense to me.
Just as one added observation, doesn't that idiot Waxman look and sound exactly like the prosecuting congressman in "The Majestic?"
Every Congressman, Senator, aide, light switch, pen and microphone is costing the taxpayers money. We are paying for these people to feel important and go on their crusades and its just appalling. I would imagine looking at the credit, housing and foreign policy issues around the world, there are MUCH more important issues than baseball.
It's a diversion. They get all the cameras in the House on Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee, and then the Senate passes a FISA bill that expands wiretapping.
Is it just me, or is this totally stupid? You are spying illegally on american citizens. And for what? Supposedly to catch terrorists. If terrorists know you've expanded wiretapping, I suspect they'd probably not use phones. I hear you can communicate via email now. Encrypted email. Heck, you can digitally encrypt phone transmissions now. So, in reality, we all lose some of our constituionally protected civil liberties for...... nothing.
The terrorists know that their phone conversations can be spied on. They are very tech savvy. It doesn't matter to me that we do it. Sometimes wiretapping is useful to solve a case or check out intelligence. Criminals and terrorists get sloppy sometimes, apparently. It matters that we authorize this wiretapping with a court that keeps all of its records private, and we sometimes don't even do that. So far as I can tell.
Speaking of Congress Republicans once again show their class today by forcing votes during the memorial tribute to Lantos. ---- But Democratic aides were shocked when, during the middle of a memorial for Holocaust survivor and Congressman Tom Lantos, GOP Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart demanded a procedural vote on the floor, forcing members to leave the service early, even "while dignitaries were still giving tributes to Lantos." "The disrespect that has been shown by a Republican member of Congress in calling a political procedural motion during the memorial service for the late Chairman Tom Lantos is incomprehensible," said Stacey Bernards, a spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). "It is unjustifiable, and Republican leaders should restrict their members from further such action." Here's Diaz-Balart speaking on the House floor, claiming he was justified to interrupt the memorial because the House had been called back in session. But no votes were scheduled during the memorial, and the vote he call was entirely procedural: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/14/house-in-chaos-after-repu_n_86639.html
