Other than trying to get attention, is there any good reason why the U.S. Senate is dealing with steroids in baseball?

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig and players association executive director Donald Fehr that their sport “is about to become a fraud” because of questions over the accomplishments of some of its leading stars.
“Your failure to commit to addressing this issue straight on and immediately will motivate this committee to search for legislative remedies,” McCain, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, told Fehr. “I don’t know what they are. But I can tell you, and the players you represent, the status quo is not acceptable. And we will have to act in some way unless the [players’ union] acts in the affirmative and rapid fashion.”

If the legitimacy of baseball is in question, then let baseball deal with it.
For a century the federal government has been giving baseball special treatment because it’s the so-called “national pastime.” Well, it’s not the most popular sport any more and we don’t need Congress acting like they’re the guardians of a sacred national institution. If Major League Baseball can’t controll itself, tough.

Ooops:

Sen. John F. Kerry, the presumed Democratic presidential candidate, used his harshest language yet to describe his Republican opponents, accusing them today of corrupt and deceitful behavior.
Kerry’s comments came during a stop at a sheet metal plant in Chicago as he shook hands with workers.
“Tell it like it is,” a man at the Hill Mechanical Group told him. “Keep smiling.”
“Oh yeah, don’t worry, man,” the senator from Massachusetts responded. “We’re going to keep pounding, let me tell you. We’re just beginning to fight here.
“These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group I’ve ever seen,” Kerry added. “It’s scary.”

As much as I might agree with this, Kerry shouldn’t be saying it in public on the campaign trail. First, it’s not very “presidential.” And second, he’s sure to be asked about it later and is either going to have to back pedal or back it up, and I don’t think he wants to get “dirty” this early.

Saying one thing . . . yawn:

GEORGE W. Bush proclaimed himself a “free trader” yesterday, while his chief trade negotiator boasted to Congress that he had protected US beef, dairy and sugar farmers from their Australian competition.
As Mr Bush, facing an election in November, accused Democrats of pushing “economic isolationism”, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick bragged to the Senate finance committee how little the US had opened its key markets to Australian farmers under the new free trade agreement.
. . .
[T]he reluctance to open US markets stands at odds with the claims Mr Bush is now making in his election campaign about his free trade credentials.
“As our economy moves forward and new jobs are added, some are questioning whether American companies and American workers are up to the challenge of foreign competition,” Mr Bush said. “There are economic isolationists in our country who believe we should separate ourselves from the rest of the world by raising up barriers and closing off markets. They’re wrong.
“If we are to continue growing this economy and creating new jobs, America must remain confident and strong about our ability to trade in the world. Given a level playing field, America will outperform the competition.”

Rather than getting upset every time I hear his b.s., perhaps I’ll start pretending that Bush is speaking ironically.

Fourty-three and counting!

Seems like a long time ago, doesn’t it?

Four years after the Nasdaq hit its peak amid a frenzy for technology stocks, many of the index’s top companies have seen their value drop 50 percent or more.
On March 10, 2000, the technology-packed Nasdaq Composite index hit its all-time intraday high of 5,132.52 and its lifetime closing high of 5,048.62. It was the peak of the tech bubble when investors bid up prices of Internet and other technology shares to heady levels that ultimately could not be maintained.

Today the Nasdaq closed at 1964, down 60%. Some of the period’s big movers:

The four biggest Nasdaq companies at the peak of the tech bubble were Microsoft Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., Intel Corp. and Oracle Corp. . They have seen their market caps fall a combined total of nearly $1 trillion since 2000.
Other high-flying tech stocks which saw their values soar during the boom have lost 90 percent or more since the bubble burst. Among these Sun Microsystems Inc. lost 91.3 percent while JDS Uniphase Corp. lost 93.1 percent, Reuters Research said.