Bow Before Me

The date was July 14, 2005. I posted a blog entry on my now-defunct, “Talking Hawks” site, a fan site for the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team. I was saying goodbye to the team, the league and the sport, a decision borne of pure rage from the signing of the new collective bargaining agreement and the implementation of the shoot-out to break ties.

The CBA instituted a salary cap tied to team revenues, a provision that, I warned, would bring the league to an end within 20 years. One of the ways this would begin to manifest itself, I foretold, was that the lowering of player salaries would mean teams in Europe would now be able to bid competitively for top-name talent:

“First, the salary cap. As if putting a limit on a player’s earnings wasn’t bad enough, the players have foolishly agreed to tie their collective earnings to the owners’ revenue. This will cause a never-ending downward spiral, causing player salaries be cut in half by the start of next season, and making it more lucrative for top-name talent to play in Europe. Permanently. The NHL has just guaranteed itself the position of no-longer-the-premier-hockey-league in the world.”

Almost three years ago to the day.

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This morning, Russian team Avangard Omsk issued a press release. TSN, the premiere sports TV/web site in Canada, reported it as follows:

It appears Jaromir Jagr’s days in the National Hockey League are over.

The Russian hockey team Avangard Omsk announced it has signed the former New York Rangers star and Jagr’s agent, Pat Brisson, confirmed the move Friday afternoon.

“Jaromir signed a letter of intent with the Avangard Omsk Hockey team of the Russian CHL on or about 3am EST this morning. I won’t comment on the terms of the agreement at this time.It was a very difficult but personal decision to make in light of the many NHL teams interested in his services. He is grateful to the NHL and especially the Rangers in recent years.”

Local and international media are reporting that Jagr will be paid $35 million for two years. There is also reportedly an option for a third season.

For those of you who don’t know, Jaromir Jagr is arguably one of the top five NHL players in the post-expansion era. He is 36 years old, has 18 years in the league, amassing 646 goals and 1599 points. Last year he had 25 goals and 71 points as a member of the New York Rangers, proving he is still in his prime.

I am going to gloat, and I am going to gloat loudly! These idiots were wrong, they have taken the lid off of Pandora’s box, and the only thing that can save the league from complete collapse is rescinding the salary cap provision.

What will happen next? Simple. Avangard Omsk will see ticket sales skyrocket to levels never seen before in the Russian league. They will win the league championship. Other teams will need to become more competitive, and will (if they are not already doing so) start going after other NHL talent. More buyers going after scarce resources will drive up prices, and with salaries necessarily limited for NHL teams, before long there will be no way for them to compete against the big-dollar offers coming in from Europe.

Talent in the NHL will get diluted, games will become less entertaining, fans will lose interest, and ticket revenue will decline. That means lower revenues for owners, resulting in a decrease in salary cap levels, further limiting teams’ abilities to bargain for top-name talent competitively. Decreasing salary cap levels also means lower player salaries, meaning European teams can procure top-name talent even cheaper. That means more bidders chasing the scarce resources, driving up prices (salaries), and the cycle continues.

Or should I say, the downward spiral.

I want Gary Bettman, Bob Goodenow, that cocky arrogant jerk-stain Bill Daly, and EVERY NHL player who voted in favor of that collective bargaining agreement to bow before me, kiss my ring, and beg forgiveness.

And if they want my assistance in reviving the league once it’s gone completely in the crapper, I will be happy to help. All I will ask in return is a modest consulting fee (think the big-B, boys — BUH-illion) and ownership of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

I can only hope somebody comes to their senses and fixes this situation before we get to that point.

A Good Idea

Lo these many years ago, the boats set sail from Europe carrying thousands of excited young men headed for a new life in America. But it’s not what you think: this was 1945, and the excited young men I am referring to were G.I.’s returning from World War II. The Allies had defeated the Nazis and the Japanese, and wave after wave of pilots, sailors, and infantrymen were heading home to celebrate, get married, and start a family.

But apart from seeing (or finding) their one-and-only back in the States, another issue lingered in their minds. Most of these guys were really just kids. 18, 19, 20 years old, high school education, and little or no work experience. They were headed back to a country with nearly no unemployment, and what was about to be a flooded job market. What were they going to do?

The remedy to that problem came in the form of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, ready and waiting for them when they jumped off the gangway. Known commonly as the “G.I. Bill,” it provided college tuition reimbursement, unemployment insurance, and first-home and small-business loans for returning WWII servicemen. Hundreds of thousands of veterans took advantage of the bill, and the U.S. saw heretofore unseen levels of education and economic expansion in the post-war years.

The bill was so successful that a similar measure, the Veterans Readjustment Act of 1952, was passed to assist Korean War veterans in the same way. Subsequently the concept was applied to peace-time veterans as well, with the Veterans Readjustment Benefits Act of 1966. This bill had to be stuffed down the throat of President Johnson, but a near-unanimous Congress convinced him that to oppose the bill was political suicide.

Time has passed, and inflation has taken its toll. Military service-men and -women today receive a little more than $4000 in education benefits from the remaining G.I. Bill. That barely covers tuition, books, and expenses for one year of community college, and doesn’t come close to covering costs for even one semester at an accredited 4-year state institution.

As you’ve noticed, we have a sizable military force overseas at the present time. At some point those people are going to be returning home. Some are young, some are not as young; some have careers (that they were yanked out of to go serve), some do not; some have post-secondary educations, most do not; and every one of them will be returning to an economy that (for lack of a more illustrative metaphor) sucks.

It’s difficult to find a person who, regardless of their stance on the war, disagrees with the concept of providing the best possible benefits to our fighting forces in the field. You may or may not be in favor of the reasons for the war or support the Bush administration, but nearly everybody believes in taking care of those who have sacrificed to preserve our freedom. In short, “supporting our troops” isn’t a partisan issue, it’s something the entire country can get behind.

And in fact, we did get behind it. And thanks to us, and the tireless efforts of freshman Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, the New G.I. Bill will become law in the next few weeks.

Jim Webb made headlines by campaigning with his son’s army boots in his hands every step of the way. His list of credentials includes a tour in Vietnam, service as Secretary of the Navy under Reagan, book author, screen writer, and he holds a law degree from some university or other… now which one was it… oh yeah — Georgetown. He pledged on his first day in office to write and pass a New G.I. Bill, providing complete and meaningful benefits to post-9/11 active-duty troops and Reservists. Thanks to a groundswell of effort at the grass-roots level, including chain e-mails, videos on Youtube, petition signatures, phone calls to Capitol Hill, and letters to the editor, the bill passed with more-than-super-majority numbers in both the House and Senate.

Senator John McCain offered alternative legislation, cutting benefits to active-duty personnel and eliminating benefits to Reservists altogether. But that went over like a lead balloon, and the original version of the bill passed without his support.

President George W. Bush had pledged all along to veto the legislation. That is, until he saw it pass the Senate with over 80 votes — including nearly 30 Republicans and well beyond the number needed to override his veto. He has since (quietly) indicated that he will sign it into law when it reaches his desk.

This is an inspiring victory in so many ways, but two are the most important. First, it is a victory for the men and women in uniform that will now have a future to look forward to when they get back home. It is tragic to think that we didn’t have this kind of thing in place before now, but a relief to know that it will be there. These troops deserve it as much as their forefathers did, and now, thankfully, they will get it.

And secondly, it is a victory for democracy. It shows that Americans know a good idea when they see one, and are willing to fight for it. It shows that when the country unites behind a good idea, it doesn’t matter which party is in the White House, or which party controls the House and Senate. It shows that a good idea can overcome those political obstacles and get enacted into law. It shows that we as a nation *can* come together on some things, and even on some pretty important things. It shows that we don’t always line up behind our party’s rhetoric. It shows that some ideas aren’t Democratic or Republican, they’re American. And that may just be the biggest political news of this election year.

Start Doing What’s Right

Two words that can be used to describe me in pretty much any circumstances are ‘pragmatist’ and ’skeptic’. When I find the truth, the *real* truth, there’s little that can be said to change my mind. But until that point, until all other possibilities are exhausted, my default position is almost always, “Prove it.”

Not to say that I don’t float a theory or two from time to time…

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Back in the 80’s a Canadian singer/songwriter named Bruce Cockburn wrote a song called, “Call It Democracy.” I have reprinted a couple of lyric snippets here without permission. Bruce can sue me:

"Padded with power, here they come

International loan sharks backed by the guns

Of market-hungry military profiteers

Whose word is a swamp and whose brow is smeared

With the blood of the poor...

"Who rob life of its quality

Who render rage a necessity

By turning countries into labor camps

Modern slavers in drag as

Champions of freedom...

"IMF, dirty MF

Takes away everything it can get

Always making certain that there's one thing left

Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt"

It’s not hard to see past the thin veil of anti-American sentiment, and for that reason (and the f-bomb that Bruce drops mid-way through the second verse) the song was banned from U.S. radio.

Mr. Cockburn has a cult following, including myself, but little else. He’s well-respected in his (my) home country, and has won numerous awards not only for his music but for his humanitarian work. His songs are often written during or after his travels to war-torn parts of the world: Nicaragua, Cambodia, and most recently, Iraq and Afghanistan. So his anti-U.S. rants have a little more fact behind them than the average angst-ridden teenage speed-metal anthems.

But my overwhelming opinion about “Call It Democracy” has been, give me a break. You’re trying to tell me that the U.S. comes into a country, enslaves the population, makes off with the natural resources, and intentionally bankrupts the government? It’s preposterous. The level of conspiracy on the part of international financial bodies, U.S. government and industry, not to mention covert agencies, would be staggering. Not to mention, these countries have governments! The leaders of these nations just open up the doors and let the U.S. come in and wreck the place?

It seems infeasible, unlikely, and on the whole, unbelievable.

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My eyes were opened by a book entitled, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,” by John Perkins. This is a first-hand account of the author’s involvement in the practice of doing essentially what is laid out in “Call It Democracy.” The practice is to have corporate consulting firms (at the direction of the NSA, though that link is kept secret, for obvious reasons, but it exists nonetheless) go into third-world nations to pitch large infrastructure projects financed by massive loans from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The loans are conditional upon the work for these projects being jobbed out to U.S. firms like Bechtel and Haliburton. They are also structured in such a way that the countries will — no question about it — default on them.

Most often this is done for oil. Ecuador was a big one back in the 1970’s (yes, this has been going on that long, and then some). The U.S. came in to develop roads, electrical capacity, etc. so that U.S. companies could come in and extract the oil. From every $100 in sales of oil from Ecuador, about $75 went to the oil companies, and about $22 went to service the country’s debt. That left about $3 for the country to actually use. Nice, huh? Faint wonder they were defaulting on the loans.

And when that happened, the fix was in. The U.S. would “come to the rescue,” saying that they would allow the nation to float the loan, in exchange for certain concessions. Like harboring a U.S. military base; use of their ports for U.S. Navy ships; control over their vote at the United Nations; you know, little token favors like that.

This is no joke, this is no conspiracy theory, this is no pissed off singer from some rock band making stuff up. This happens. The book and its successor are written by one of the guys who actually helped to do this stuff. His stories are first-hand accounts, horse’s mouth stuff. This is our government acting on our behalf and screwing anybody and everybody either too stupid to know the difference, or too motivated by self-interest to care.

And that’s the other side of it. As I mentioned, you need a complicit partner on the other side of the arrangement. Most of the third-world leaders involved in these “transactions” are, in fact, getting some juicy kick-backs from the U.S. in order to put the deal together. Those that don’t play ball are usually overthrown, or in cases of populist leaders, assassinated. During the Carter administration the president welcomed the election of leaders in Ecuador and Panama, both non-communists, who happened to have less-than-accepting views towards the U.S. and such practices. Within 6 months of Reagan taking office, both of those leaders died in plane and helicopter explosions. Not crashes, explosions. Bombs. We killed them. Democratically elected, non-communist leaders, and we killed them.

Your tax dollars at work.

We, as Americans, don’t have a clue. For the most part we are completely ignorant of the way things are for the citizens of countries other than our own. We are also unwilling to accept or even listen to criticism of our nation. It’s going to be a hard row to hoe, but we have got to start opening our eyes and ears to this stuff. If we don’t, the dirtbags that do this stuff will just continue to do it.

We’ve had a hard time of it with the Village Idiot in the White House for the last eight years. But it would be nice to be proud to call ourselves Americans again, wouldn’t it? The only way that is going to happen is if we start educating ourselves about what we’ve done as a nation, atone for those things that we’ve done that are wrong, and start doing what’s right.