Federal Gov't Involved In Baseball!?!?! What??

[mysticgeek]

Today I passed by a television and saw live coverage of Congress holding hearings about "steroids in baseball". I thought to myself ...

"Where in the constitution does it say the Federal Government is in charge of finding out what happens in a baseball league?"

IMHO this is a classic waste of Federal Government time and money!

[newmedia4ron]

exactly people should be outraged over this
this is not the role of government

[nbhadja]

exactly people should be outraged over this
this is not the role of government

I have a feeling the gov focuses on this stuff to make people forget about the real issues like inflation and the national debt. Sadly it works and the morons of this country think it's important for the Feds to intervene.

[hopeforamerica]

It's out of control isn't it?

[RPinSEAZ]

Congress has access to this because MLB has a Congressional exemption from many commerce laws, including the Sherman Antitrust Act. They are reviewing these facts ostensibly in the context of reviewing whether to withdraw these exemptions.

[nullvalu]

I wondered this myself a couple years ago when this was all in the news. What crap. Next they're going to be holding public trials in supreme court to find out if Britney Spears is a fit mother, or if Michael Jackson has had improper relations with minors.

[constitutional]

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=119426

[Live Free]

Today I passed by a television and saw live coverage of Congress holding hearings about "steroids in baseball". I thought to myself ...

"Where in the constitution does it say the Federal Government is in charge of finding out what happens in a baseball league?"

IMHO this is a classic waste of Federal Government time and money!Not only that, but they are probably diverting attention away from something important.

Ever since the OJ Simpson trial, that is what I think when the news is about something like this. While OJ was being tried, the individuals responsible for bombing the World Trade Center the first time were also on trial. Nothing was ever mentioned about it on the news UNTIL!!! that trial was over.

Looks like another individual linked to another thread that was posted this morning about this topic. In it, it was noted, and I verified, that this baseball nonsense was on 6 news stations! Absurd!

[AJ Antimony]

I made a topic about this as TheAmistad brought up. Not only is the govt in MLB, but it's starting to get involved with the NFL!

[ultimaonliner]

We should email Waxman and the other congressman who are showboating this event for publicity to tell them that we are smarter than that.

We are not part of the idiocracy and recognize that they are wasting limited taxpayer resources to achieve their time in the spotlight.

[Ex Post Facto]

I've been outraged for years, they pass bills that restrict our freedoms and are worried more about impeaching, so to speak, baseball and football athletes.

[mysticgeek]

We should email Waxman and the other congressman who are showboating this event for publicity to tell them that we are smarter than that.

We are not part of the idiocracy and recognize that they are wasting limited taxpayer resources to achieve their time in the spotlight.

Nice call! And every time we see these wastes we need to let them know! I wonder how much money was wasted on that today.

[tangent4ronpaul]

This is being broadcast live on:

Fox News
Fox Business
MSNBC
CNN
Headline News
and
C-SPAN3

Super Tuesday didn't get that much coverage!

It must be a slow week for Britney Speers, Madona and Paris Hilton...

Oh - and pay no attention to the intelligence bill being passed today - unlimited Wiretapping, carte blanc on reading our e-mails in real time, water boarding is OK after all - just a few non-issues like that... Pay no attention... move along now... nothing happening behind the news blackout...

-n

[ForrestLayne]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22249234/


Also this article from 2005
http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=816

[JenaS62]

Today I passed by a television and saw live coverage of Congress holding hearings about "steroids in baseball". I thought to myself ...

"Where in the constitution does it say the Federal Government is in charge of finding out what happens in a baseball league?"

IMHO this is a classic waste of Federal Government time and money!


Exactly. We'll not hear anything about ballot tampering or voter fraud but some guy who plays baseball and is accused of using steriods is on the news ALL DAY. Pathetic. The only postive is at least it's not Britney Spears.

[slamhead]

Was my feelings exactly this morning when I turned on the TV...who FN cares about steroids in baseball. Gee I guess if baseball becomes corrupt the United States will be done. My predictions 20 years from now. The highest paid athlete's salary will be 20 trillion dollars after all the inflation and the collapse of the dollar.

[mysticgeek]

Was my feelings exactly this morning when I turned on the TV...who FN cares about steroids in baseball. Gee I guess if baseball becomes corrupt the United States will be done. My predictions 20 years from now. The highest paid athlete's salary will be 20 trillion dollars after all the inflation and the collapse of the dollar.

If we still have the dollar. Perhaps it will be Amero's and worth even less!

[RSLudlum]

Caught myself yelling at the TV this morning in anger over Congress wasting time and money on something like this...WTF??? All the problems this country's facing right now and Congress wants to spend it's time in session playing baseball.

Even my pops called me up today and jokingly said, we should call Dr. Paul up and ask him to make a statement about Congress's wasted time on baseball players? ;)

[dvictr]

Personally i think we should let professional athelets take steroids... WHY NOT... they are "entertainers..." right?




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[mysticgeek]

Personally i think we should let professional athelets take steroids... WHY NOT... they are "entertainers..." right?
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True! it is all entertainment. Not to mention the fact that The Revolution is in favor of legalization of drugs. :cool:

[jerry]

They're preempting Ron Paul's positive association with baseball. He was a good player and baseball great Nolan Ryan helped Ron Paul to first get into Congress. Ron Paul's association with baseball is his secret ace which CFR warmongers want to pollute. Just another little conspiracy theory. You got it hear first.

from wiki:

During election years in the late 90s, Ryan's name would frequently come up in the news as a potential candidate for some statewide office (usually for the Republican Party). However, he has never run in any race, and these rumors have quieted. He appeared in print ads for the National Rifle Association's "I'm the NRA" campaign. While not running for office himself, in 1996 Ryan campaigned on behalf of Ron Paul in the Texas's 14th congressional district election.

[CountryboyRonPaul]

Personally i think we should let professional athelets take steroids... WHY NOT... they are "entertainers..." right?




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That should be up to the League to decide.

NOT Congress :)

seriously, I want to revolt every time I hear about Congress wasting it's time listening to Sammy Sosa plead his case concerning Steroids.

I mean that is simply rediculous, Mike Tyson did not have to plead before Congress when he bit of Holyfield's ear....

WHAT THE F*** IS GOING ON HERE?!

ARE WE LIVING IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE?!

[zadrock]

I confess to being so politically apathetic that I wasn't even aware that my Congressman (Elijah Cummings) is on whatever committee it is that decided to grill Clemens yesterday. Further, Cummings was the one who elicited the now-famous response from Mark McGwire back in 2005 - "I'm not here to talk about the past. I want to talk about the future," while somehow not actually invoking the 5th Amendment.

As it happens, I've been talking with Mike Hargadon, who is running against Cummings this fall, in a heavily Democratic district. While the subject of wasting taxpayer time and money resonates with all of us, I didn't think it would with local voters.

But after considering for a while, I realized that maybe this WOULD be a good issue to bring up in the race. Let's consider what is really going on here. Why did Congress bring baseball players to Capitol Hill to talk about steroids twice?

I'm sure the Congressmen involved would say that they were trying to do a public service or something of that nature. But is that really true? Lots of entertainers use illegal drugs. Can anyone name the last entertainer who wasn't a baseball player who was brought before any Congressional committee to discuss his illegal drug use? (If anyone can, I'd appreciate it.)

We don't see Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears or Keith Richards being dragged in front of Congress to testify about the various substances they are putting in their body. WHY NOT?

The answer cuts to the heart of something else that Ron Paul speaks out against, something that Democratic voters especially should take notice of. You see, Major League Baseball has an anti-trust exemption granted by Congress. I'm a little unclear what the benefits of this exemption are, but the basic story is that there ARE benefits to having this exemption. However, whenever baseball does something that Congress doesn't approve of, Congress can haul MLB down to Capitol Hill and threaten to remove the exemption. It's the classic example of government in bed with Big Business.

Now let's broaden the argument. Is this the only industry where this is happening? Ha. Government provides benefits to an industry or a company. In return, the government expects certain favors from Big Business. It's corporatism, as Ron Paul calls it, plain and simple.

So I think in general, the baseball hearings are an indication of Congressional abuse of power. More specifically, I think we can use Cummings' grandstanding against him, especially if we can dig up any dirt on him being involved with corporate lobbyists.

Any comments on this? I'm going to meet with Mike soon and may even be on his campaign team. But I confess to being new at this. I'm short on experience, but long on enthusiasm. Thanks in advance for your input.

Z

[zadrock]

From Bill Simmons, aka "The Sports Guy" on Espn.com:



Given that we're dealing with Iraq, global warming, the subprime shakeout, the decline of the American dollar, the decline of the public-school system and every other troublesome reality in this country right now, it's hard to believe some of our most notable Congressmen didn't have a better way to spend this week than interrogating a disgraced Hall of Fame pitcher and the sad-sack Andy Dick lookalike who once trained him. I do not approve this usage of my tax dollars.


Keep in mind that this guy's whole world is sports, and even HE gets it that this was not something Congress should be doing.

Z

[phill4paul]

Today I passed by a television and saw live coverage of Congress holding hearings about "steroids in baseball". I thought to myself ...

"Where in the constitution does it say the Federal Government is in charge of finding out what happens in a baseball league?"

IMHO this is a classic waste of Federal Government time and money!

No friggin' sh*t. Amen brother.
Jeez..ain't there more things to worry about.
From a Ron Paul perspective....it is up to the baseball league. WTF do our representatives waste precious time on private business.

That's it...for the next coupla weeks I'm getting my friends to direct their funds to getting Dr. Paul back into Congress.

He may not get elected President...but I know there is one Congressman I agree with.