UNREAL - McCain threatening to block Senate over Boxing!!!

[VTGold]

I have no words - I'm sputtering...

Our democracy is spiraling down the bowl and this is what he's exited about:

"McCain threatened to hold up every piece of legislation in the Senate while House leaders refused to go along with McCain’s pet project of establishing a national boxing commission. The dispute kept the Senate in session past 10 p.m. on its final legislative day, signaling that intraparty squabbles will prevail when Republicans return with a stronger majority next month."


http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/121504/mccain.html

[jamboi]

1. Has he lost it? That's crazy. Could this be disinfo from NeoCons? n/t

[autorank]

47. McCain & Bush are having parallel breakdowns.

[HEAVYHEART]

2. Nothing..

Nothing surprises me anymore.. :argh:

[Vinnie From Indy]

3. I hope he Goes Stark Raving Mad!

Anything to throw a wrench in the works would be good.

[texpatriot2004]

4. Well, living life through the looking glass, it's not surprising that

this absurdity is going on. Really. I mean our government is acting insane. Like, if they were a family, they would be on crack, making it while the kids were there, spending all the money on crack, behaving in erratic and irrational ways. That's how I see it. They are friggin crazy-makers at this point. Making mountains out of minutia while major, indeed critical issues go by the wayside. It's absolutely insane!

[insane_cratic_gal]

5. He's lost touch

with reality.

LOL wth he keeps going on and on about steriods.. prozac McCain! prozac

[mattclearing]

6. Good. It cuts the amount of damage they can do.

eom

[weeve]

14. Great Point !!

If Shrub really is fraudulently installed in Jan. , then maybe McCain can stop all the damage that the Repub Senate is no doubt itching to do these next 4 years. Let's take him at his word. Go John Go ! Gridlock the Repub. Senate !! And here I was thinking I had to write my Dem. Senators to filibuster, filibuster, filibuster in the upcoming years! Go John Go ! Maybe if McCain signs on to be the one Senator needed to join the contested Election on Jan. 6 , all the Dems can agree to push forward his Boxing agenda! I know Barbara Boxer would!!
Steroids forever !

[ShaneGR]

39. Yeah, I really don't see what people are complaining about...

This limits the amount of damage the congress can do. Folks, they wouldn't be about the business of fixing anything right now. We're talking more tax cuts, permanent tax cuts, privatized social security, etc.

Go McCain, slow em down!

Anyways, as a boxing fan we do need a national commision. The state laws are archaic at best, the promoters are often very dirty, and the fighters (90%) get the hell beat out of them for very little money. There is no health care for many either.

[Sparkle]

7. Crazy bastard!

[hiley]

8. The guilt

he should feel for campaigning with and for chimpy is making him insane.

[PDittie]

9. When will Frist put a stop to the filibustering?

(crickets)

[keepthemhonest]

10. yeah that boxing is important

all of this sports crap that is going on and getting attention gets me so fired up that people are upset crap like that and crap like that makes the news. ARGGGGGGGHHHHH:mad:

[Griffy]

11. WMD.. weapon of mass distraction ... classic nt

[illflem]

12. Perhaps bush was right in the 2000 primaries

when he called McCain mentally unstable.
Sounds to me like he's punch drunk.

[madison2000]

13. Great. Bernie Kerik can run it.

McCain has lost his mind.

[Verve]

15. WTF? Since when is Boxing a #1 priority? n/t

[GetTheRightVote]

16. Perhaps that is the point John McCain is demostrating to us

Just how ridulous all this crazyness is getting to be, hum ...

Look behind the mirror.

[seito]

18. I just can not for the life of me figure McCain out

On the campaign trail he looked like a hostage, standing next to *. :puke:

Does he REALLY THINK the pukes are going to let him take the nomination in 2008. It seems that he takes little opportunities to rock the boat, but when he had a big chance to make a major impact, he caves. It is like he drinks the Kool-Aid but from time to time he misses a dose... :crazy:

[Garbo 2004]

17. With all the critical issues facing the nation little did I imagine boxing

was so important that it's worth blocking all legislation pending in the Senate. Thanks Senator McCain for bringing the vital need for a national boxing commission to my attention. :crazy:

[Quakerfriend]

19. This coming on the heels of the baseball

comments is bizarro! I do think he must feel a bit guilty about standing cheek-to-cheek with Bush.

It's almost as if he's just wanting to put himself back in the spotlight in some way....anyway.

Perhaps, he's getting ready to start campaigning for '08.

[insane_cratic_gal]

23. Maybe Rove

Told him about the Untapped sports jock vote?

[hatrack]

38. Yeah, what is he after - the 2:00 AM Lucha Libra ESPN vote?

Sheesh, get a frickin' LIFE, John!

[trudyco]

20. I assumed the steriods somehow is related to keeping

Arnold out of the '08 campaign. The boxing commission is beyond me. What would it do, make sure illegal boxing is kept out? Any politicians into boxing and gambling? Can boxers take illegal enhancers, too?

I just don't understand anything anymore.
trudyco

[Garbo 2004]

22. Stds, requirements vary from state to state

Haven't kept up on this but for example I think I recall the CA Athletic Commission requires neuro exams to detect possible neurological damage to try to ensure a boxer is fit to go into the ring and isn't obviously one head punch away from possible death.

Presently boxers who cannot fight in one state go to another state where the requirements are less stringent for whatever the problem may be. Other aspects of the business, promoters, etc. likely are regulated differently in different states.

Why a national commission s an issue to McCain, who knows? Any industy players involved, for or against?

Anyway, hardly an issue of such magnitude to be worthy of such a threat as shutting down the flow of legislation in the US Senate. The nation has bigger concerns at the moment.

[Matariki]

21. Boxing? A week or two ago I heard him on NPR going on about

Baseball. And the need for a baseball commission or something like that.

[AnarchoFreeThinker]

24. Let's admit it: The issues in order of importance to this country

are:

1. BOXING
2. Electoral Fraud
3. The War
(Possibly 2 and 3 should be switched. But don't touch boxing, for the sake of the Union.)

[insane_cratic_gal]

25. In this Order

1.Peterson
2.Jackson
3. Bush twins career endeavors
4. Brittney's is she pregnant or not!
5. War
6. Boxing
7. Martha Stewart
8. Rumfield total ignorance
9. Lochness monster
10. election fraud (subject to change if any breaking news covered above happens)

[AnarchoFreeThinker]

26. I forgot about the Loch Ness Monster. Entirely my bad.

[Dolphyn]

27. Maybe this explains something: "Boxing Insider" article about McCain

I figured his motivation must be related to campaign contributions, so I looked up "mccain contributions boxing" on Google and came up with this:


One of the great curiosities of McCain's campaign to slip through Congress his own pet project, the expensive ($36 million over five years), ineffectual, and perhaps unconstitutional Professional Boxing Amendments Act (to federalize control of boxing) has been his outright refusal to include television entities - by far the most powerful and influential forces in the sport - among those which would fall under regulatory jurisdiction.

...

Campaign finance records available through the website OpenSecrets.org indicate that, for example, during 1999, the third-highest contributor to what, at the time, was McCain's insurgent run at the Republican presidential nomination was Viacom ($47,750), which controls a number of TV outlets, including Showtime, which has a major investment in boxing.

http://www.boxinginsider.net/columns/stories/75557121.php

[sonicx]

28. this is funny as hell

i hope he does it.

[THUNDER HANDS]

29. good

The more congress is stalled the better. The less they accomplish the better.

Call him an idiot, but I'm glad he's there doing this. Whatever reasons he has for it.

[Bouncy Ball]

30. What the hell?

A national boxing commission??? What is going on?

[Dolphyn]

31. No, it's NOT FUNNY that corporate interests can shut down the government.

I'm under the impression that this really has nothing to do with boxing. It's all about serving corporate interests to maximize campaign contributions. At least, that's what I'm inclined to think after reading the article (same link I posted earlier):

http://www.boxinginsider.net/columns/stories/75557121.php

Quote:

And as for McCain's last U.S. Senate campaign, waged in 1998, the list of his top fifty corporate donors is replete with entities who have a substantial stake in boxing, and which have a "special interest" in avoiding the regulatory blanket - Viacom (3rd - $55,250), AT&T (4th - $51,563), NBC/General Electric (20th - $19,500), Fox/News Corp. (22nd - $19,050), Time Warner (T43rd - $12,000), and Univision (T43rd - $12,000), not to mention Anheuser-Busch (5th -$51,563), a company in which McCain has considerable financial interests, both individually (he has reported at least a half-million dollars in debentures) and through his family (which controls the largest distributorship in Arizona), and which over the past two decades has been boxing most prominent sponsor, with nearly all of that advertising delivered through television.

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which McCain chairs and under whose domain the boxing bill falls, is heavily courted by companies with interests in the sport. For the six-year cycle between 1995-2000, the top committee-related contributors to committee members include: AT&T ($369,960), Time-Warner ($249,585), Viacom ($167,654), the Walt Disney Company, which owns ESPN ($147,758), and the National Cable Television Association ($129,101).

[orpupilofnature57]

32. FASCIST AGENDA, WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?

[Tacos al Carbon]

33. McCain has been pushing for this for many years

Cleaning up boxing is a herculean endeavor and McCain is one of the few high profile politicians that cares about it, in spite of the hundreds of millions of dollars involved. Good for McCain. Former, current and future boxers have practically no one looking out for them and McCain is one of the few people trying to change that.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

35. You Nailed It...

You have punch drunk fighters with 2-20 records going from state to state taking beatings...


If liberals stand for anything it's to protect the little guy...

[CityDem]

34. He lost it

I think McCain was hit a few too many times over the head with a lead pipe in the Hanio Hilton. Imagine McCain with his finger on the nuclear button.

[Endangered Specie]

36. Stick a fork in em...

[Ian David]

37. Hey, if they can drop everything to "protect" marriage

This has got to be at least as important, yes?

I think he's just pissed-off at Bush and the Repugs in general.

He's probably sold-out on SO MANY things, that he feels they owe him AT LEAST THIS ONE THING.

[sendero]

40. Anyone...

... who has listened to this guy over the last couple of years knows he is a couple tacos short of a combination plate.

The poor old codger is just losing it, that's all.

[Leilani]

41. If ANY of you bothered to read the article

it wasn't about boxing, it was a power play between McCain & Speaker Hastert.

Hastert is mad McCain didn't support their Energy Bill. McCain fought back, & he won.

Hey folks, he's a fighter, so laugh all you want.Too bad I don't see the same kind of fighters on our side.

McCain just showed the power he wields, as the Republicans are infighting about control their party, just like the Dems.

Finally, as Chairman of the Commerce Committee, he was trying to improve boxing, which could certainly use improvement.

Sometimes in your haste to rejoice, you miss the big picture. I wish the Dems had 1 fighter in Congress as good as McCain.

[Ian David]

42. Hey, we've got Zell Miller, don't we?

<ducking for cover>

[Leilani]

43. Right, & Zell just got a new job

Guess where?

At FOX!

[sonicx]

45. his pet project is a boxing commision

i can't not laugh.

[Royal Observer]

44. I hope they run this guy in 08

They will lose; big time.

[Leilani]

48. Be careful what you wish for.

EOM

[LittleClarkie]

46. I don't mind, since he's also apparently part of the oust Rumsfield gang

No confidence indeed.

Did I hear that the lawyer fighting in Ohio is McCain's lawyer? Or is that not correct.

[NuttyFluffers]

49. but what about my issues?!?!

who's gonna stop this madness of poorly sewn cheap clothing from china? faulty zippers, border stitches askew, hems easily undone... an atrocity! i want someone to push through congress for a declaration of war on china for bad haberdashery. something simply must be done! ...which republican can i get to support my issue? we can frame the issue in slogans: "a billion bombs for quality and not one cent for sloppy embroidery!" hmm, needs work. perhaps i can horse trade with mccain -- a boxing commision for a war with china. :crazy:

[matcom]

50. I'll take him seriously

when he cleans up the WWE

:eyes: