Kerry is a dumbass - American basketball is a discrace - Just don't do Nike

Op-Ed columnist Maureen Dowd for The New York Times (Thursday, 19) said it best:

"George W. Bush can't defend the mess he's made in Iraq and John Kerry can't effectively attack Mr. Bush on Iraq."

It's a shame really. In his attempt to cover absolutely every non-Bush base possible, Kerry opposed the 30% of the Democratic party against the war. He stated that he supported his vote to go to war; furthermore, he said he would have voted the same way even if we knew there were no W.M.D.'s and even if we knew Iraq posed no immediate threat to America. For this reason, as well as many others Kerry is a dumbass.

I wouldn't want to sell Bush short here, I am marginally more excited about Kerry than I am about him. They are really both dumbasses. One of the few reasons Kerry is less of a dumbass than Bush is because he actually served in the armed forces in some capacity. He didn't have his daddy help him get out of it. Which brings me to my next question:

Why isn't Bush's military service history a SERIOUS CAMPAIGN ISSUE?!?! I mean, I hear endless yammering about whether or not Kerry was a good commander, but we never hear anything about Bush's unaccounted-for absences in the National Guard. Why are the major media outlets, including the newspapers, afraid to challenge Bush on his war history? Let's level the playing field a little, eh?

Speaking of playing field: What's the deal with team U.S.A. Basketball? We were supposed to have a team to beat all teams: Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan, Carmelo Anthony, and LeBron James. Yet we were humiliated as Puerto Rico, one of our own territories, wiped the floor with us. Didn't the US invent basketball? Hell, we were always dominant in basketball.

The problem is this:

• No cohesion - The players are not used to playing together
• Their heart isn't in it - They aren't making any money
• International rules are "confusing"

This is a fine illustration of monetary influence on professional sports. Basketball players have up-teen million dollar salaries. Combined with tens of millions of dollars in endorsements, these "ballers" can afford all those cool "cribs". Does anybody need over $100 Million (LeBron James) to be successful and happy? All the guy is doing is wearing Nike sneakers while he plays a game that he loves to play. Granted he plays well, but where's the line?.

Nike cuts $90 million contracts, no-sweat. All the contractees have to do is wear the shoes, and star in a few commercials. The sweat is in the shops! Nike assembles shoes in countries like China. In China the minimum wage is the equivalent of 31 cents an hour. Someone who works a 40 hour week takes home only $12.56 every week at this rate. In China, Nike pays its workers considerably less than this, only 21 cents an hour on average, which is much better than their workers in Vietnam make, only 12 cents an hour! Workers in China are forced to work 12+ hour days to make the minimum wage that they must live on.

It doesn't get much more extreme than this. Nike can illegally pay its workers pennies an hour to make their shoes, and at the same time, pay professional athletes millions of dollars just to wear the damn things! Oh, and to make up the difference, they charge a hundred or so dollars a pair to the consumer. I'm sure Nike makes a negligible profit there, with full-year revenues of $7.9 Billion. Just do it!