The stink was up my nose during the season’s opening
game between the New England Patriots and Indianapolis
Colts. Timed to coincide with the anniversary of 9/11,
we were force fed bomber jets, silicon adorned
cheerleaders, and Hank Williams, Jr., asking us if we
were 'ready for some football' and all before the
opening kickoff.

Williams, Jr. is a fitting choice amidst the planes,
pompoms, and patriotic poobah. In his hit 1988 song, a
historical epic called, "If the South Would have Won,"
he chortled:

“If the South would have won we would have it made…
I'd make my supreme court down in Texas and we
wouldn't have no killers getting off free
If they were proven guilty then they would swing
quickly, instead of writing' books and smiling' on T.V…
We'd put Florida on the right track, 'cause we'd take
Miami back” [from who? Jews? Cubans? Haitians? Or will
Hank go for the trifecta?]…
“I said if the south would a won we would a had it
made! Might even be better off!”

[In a league that is 65% Black, yet 80% of the
coaches, 94% of the General Managers, and 100% of the
owners are white, a paean to plantation life seems
disturbingly appropriate.]

Given the flag waving, war posturing, and the swirling
dervish of sexism I understand why there are
courageous radicals who would sooner spoon-hug with
Dick Cheney before watching the rest of the game; why
there are heroic activists who would rather watch Alan
Keyes in Mel Gibson's 'Othello' before joining a
tailgate; why there are principled vegans who would
prefer drinking a mug of gravy and flossing with
gristle than do anything that involves John Madden.

But if you turned the channel, you missed a display of
everything great about the gridiron - wild running by
Corey Dillon and Edge James, sharp passing by Tom
Brady and Peyton Manning, and a spine tingling end
with a Colt fumble and missed field goal in the final
3 minutes.

The game had more suspense than anything since the
scene in ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ when you wonder if George
W. Bush was ever going to put down 'My Pet Goat'.

My pet goat ate Bush's 9-11 story

Yet when it was all done, the taste of a sports
production drenched in right-wing sludge lingered,
like I had spent three hours chewing Tylenol.

I now believe that it’s time to be heard and I know I
am not alone. Us radical helmet huggers want our game
a-la-carte: 60 minutes of football, hold the
militaristic pep-rally.

I’m tired of pressing the mute button on myself. If
network honchos will exploit football for political
gain, we should return the favor.

The next time we’re at the stadium or in the sports
bar and the game is being used as a vessel to push an
agenda completely at odds with the kind of world we
want to live in, let's open our mouths and speak out.

When the national anthem is played, don't stand up.
Instead ask the person next to you if they know that
the anthem was regimented during sporting events as a
way to rally people around World War II. When salaries
of players are mentioned, tell a stranger that their
paychecks were won through union battles that included
strikes with armed picket lines in the 1980s. When
warplanes fly overhead ask how many peewee teams, and
physical education classes are cut for each jet. When
Romeo Crennell, Ted Cottrell, or any of the talented
African-American assistant coaches show up on screen,
ask why Dennis Erickson [career record 38-43] of the
49ers has a top job while they remain anonymous.

This might not make you the most popular person in the
room, but if you scratch the surface with most folks,
it’s amazing what you can find. Over 50% of this
country thinks we are moving in the wrong direction
and oppose the continuing occupation in Iraq. A lot of
those folks spend their Sunday watching the patriotic
hoedown thrown by the NFL. I say it's time to crash
the party.

Are we ready for some football? Sure, but let's turn
the question around and ask: Is football ready for us?

'Click Here to Hear George W Bush approve this message!'

Dave Zirin’s new book What's My Name, Fool: sports and
resistance in the United States (Haymarket Books)
comes out in spring 2005.
His work can be read at www.edgeofsports.com. To have
his column sent to you every week, just e-mail
edgeofsports-subscribe@zirin.com.

Contact the author at editor@pgpost.com

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This is a great thorough account of what is happening to us and what should be done about it. Also, please read my little note about my brother. Carolyn
Look at who's on the payroll
By Molly Ivins
Creators Syndicate

Tommy Corcoran -- Tommy the Cork, so dubbed by FDR -- was a Washington wise man. His various biographers called him the ultimate insider, the super lawyer and the master fixer. He came to Washington in 1926 to clerk for Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes and became a fixture, an almost institutional source of wisdom about American politics, before his death in 1981.

The Cork had a theory about how to choose a president. He always said it didn't matter who was running, that it was unnecessary to pay any attention to them.

What matters, he said, is the approximately 1,500 people the president brings to Washington with him, his appointments to the positions where people actually run things. The question to consider is which 1,500 people we get.

So here are a few suggestions:

*At the EPA, you do not want people who think it's a good idea to allow more arsenic in the water. When someone, anyone, proposes allowing more arsenic in the water, what you want is people at the EPA who promptly say: "No. Not a good idea."

*There are some lawyers, and then there are other lawyers. You do not want lawyers at the Justice Department (or the White House or the Defense Department) who, when asked to prepare a legal brief defending torture, do so.

*You want lawyers at Justice (and the White House and the Defense Department) who say: "No. Torture is not a good idea. Trying to wiggle out from under our laws, international treaties and civilized norms is not a good idea."

*You especially don't want lawyers who defend torture promoted to the federal bench. It is not a good idea to have the CIA using the same "interrogation technique" so favored by the Gestapo.

*This is counterproductive as well as wrong.

*You don't want folks in charge of the IRS who think it is more important to audit poor people than rich people.
That is dumb.

*You do not want people in charge of foreign policy who are fools enough to believe in Ahmad Chalabi, a convicted con man and, it turns out, probably a spy for Iran. Those people should be fired. Especially when some of them are now also being investigated for giving classified information to Israel.

*Having your Department of Homeland Security turn out to be a public disgrace indicates that you have either not put the right people in charge or they are not getting enough support.

*When "Hurricane Hits Florida Yet Again" becomes a standing headline right up there with "Canadian Trade Talks Continue," you may want to put people in charge of policy who recognize that global warming not only exists but threatens us all.

*If the people a president puts in charge of foreign policy are all from the same small circle of rigid ideologues, what happens is that they end up listening only to themselves, and that way lies disaster.

*When the people who are running the Food and Drug Administration do so to benefit the big processors and the big drug companies, people get hurt, and some of them die.

*When the people in charge of prosecuting terrorists in this country screw up case after case, those people should be replaced.

*When the country endures a hideous terrorist attack, is it actually useful for the White House to oppose the commission assigned to find out how it happened?

*To first deny it adequate funding, then refuse to provide it with critical documents, then oppose an extension of its deadline, then refuse to allow the commission access to prisoners who played key roles in the attack, then try to stop Condoleezza Rice from testifying, then refuse to have the president testify under oath?

 *When the people in charge make a decision to start an unprovoked war because of nonexistent weapons of mass destruction and nonexistent ties to the terrorists who have attacked us, you may conclude that these people are lying, or dumb, or just not helpful.

*When a new administration comes into office with a huge budget surplus and then blows it all on tax cuts that benefit the very rich, should it be retained? If an economic team leads the country to a record $422 billion deficit this year and $2.3 trillion in the next decade, do you really want a team in charge that announces it wants more tax cuts that will double the total deficit to $4.6 trillion by the end of the decade? Do these people have a sense of responsibility? If the economic team produces a net loss of 1.1 million jobs after four years, should its contract be renewed?

Forget Bush -- the people around him are a complete disaster.

John Kerry will basically re-hire the Clinton team and presumably remain faithful to his wife.

Of course, Clinton didn't get Osama bin Laden, either. But his people worked harder at it.

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The problems we face today cannot be
solved by the minds that created them.
ALBERT EINSTEIN