Now you may have a personal problem with Players Unions because your small market loser Owners are too cheap to field a competitive team.

That’s a problem with your Owners, not your players.

The fact is that a professional sports franchise is not a profit making business, it’s a Billionaire Bauble like the Planes and Yachts and Office Towers and the collection of Faberge Eggs, a pure expression of conspicuous consumption to prove that your penis is bigger.

But, like Scott Walker in Wisconsin, Owners want to pretend there’s some kind of “budget problem”; not so they can actually make money, they don’t need the money, but so they can demean and oppress their serfs.  Nothing says penis power like slaves.

On the other hand you have the players who make sums that seem princely until you consider the shortness of their careers and the lifetime physical damage they suffer.

I think a professional sports player is entitled to every dime they can extort based solely on the fact that they provide original entertainment in a way that our so-called “creative class” no longer can.  When was the last time you watched TV or a movie where you couldn’t predict the end in 5 minutes?  Even predictability has become a cliche, as even Philip J. Fry (not the most perspicacious critic) puts it-

It was just a matter of knowing the secret of all television: at the end of the episode, everything is back to normal.

Which is why I’m gratified to read news like this-

Federal Judge Favors NFL Union Over Owners In TV Dispute

DAVE CAMPBELL, Huffington Post

03/ 2/11 03:16 AM

Writing that the NFL enhanced “long-term interests at the expense of its present obligations,” U.S. District Judge David Doty overturned a special master’s ruling and backed the NFL Players Associaton’s claim that the league illegally secured a potential $4 billion revenue stream for 2011 to wield against the union as lockout protection.

…

In his ruling, the judge also revealed previously confidential details of NFL TV contracts and said that the league “consistently characterized gaining control over labor as a short-term objective and maximizing revenue as a long-term objective … advancing its negotiating position at the expense of using best efforts to maximize total revenues for the joint benefit of the NFL and the Players.”

Doty said at least three networks expressed “some degree of resistance to the lockout payments” and that the NFL “characterized network opposition to lockout provisions to be a deal breaker.” He also wrote that DirecTV would have considered paying more in 2009 and 2010 to make the lockout provision disappear.

His decision revealed that DirecTV, in fact, would pay up to 9 percent more to the NFL if no games are played in 2011 than if they go on as scheduled. Of the total amount payable if there is a canceled season, 42 percent of DirecTV’s fee is nonrefundable.

Regular Features-

• Late Night Karaoke by mishima
• Muse in the Morning by Robyn
• Six In The Morning by mishima

Featured Essays for March 1, 2011-

• Reform’s Inside Game and Outside Game by cabaretic
• Anonymous Strikes Again by TheMomCat
• Neglected Tropical Diseases: Human African Trypanosomiasis by TheMomCat
• Direct Non-Violent Action by ek hornbeck
• Bloggers Behaving Badly: FDL Moderating Team by Archangel M

DocuDharma

V, NCIS x 2.

My native habitat is the theater. In it I toil not, neither do I spin. I am a critic and commentator. I am essential to the theatre.

• AMC– True Grit x 2
• Bravo– Real Housewives marathon (with premier)
• Comedy– Onion SportsDome (premier)
• Disney– The Luck of the Irish
• Discovery– Dirty Jobs (last week’s and new), American Treasures (premier)
• ESPN– College Hoopies, Illinois @ Purdue, Vanderbilt @ Kentucky
• ESPN2– College Hoopie, Baylor @ Oklahoma
• Food– Cupcake Wars (premier)
• FX– The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Lights Out x 3 (premier + 2 Instapeats)
• History– Top Shot (Season 2, Episode 4 premier)
• Lifetime– American Pickers x 2
• Sci Fi– TNG marathon
• Turner Classic– The Emperor Waltz, All About Eve
• TLC– What Not to Wear (last week’s and new)
• TNT– Payback
• Travel– Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern marathon (with premier)
• USA– White Collar x 2 (premier + Instapeat)
• Vs.– Sabres @ Rangers

I’ll admit I may have seen better days, but I’m still not to be had for the price of a cocktail, like a salted peanut.

Later-

I’m going to be a great film star! That is, if booze and sex don’t get me first.

• Oxygen– Interview with the Vampire, I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer
• Turner Classic– Cabaret
• TV Land– Retired at 35, Hot in Cleveland (this week’s)
• USA– Royal Pains, Fairly Legal (this week’s)

Dave hosts Amanda Seyfried, B.J. Novak, and the cast of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.  Jon has Ayman Safadi, Stephen Evan Osnos.  Conan hosts Piers Morgan, Emmy Rossum, and Nick Griffin (who has an interesting name doppelganger).

That’s me, darling. Unusual places, unusual love affairs. I am a most strange and extraordinary person.

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 West edges closer to military action on Libya

AFP

1 hr 42 mins ago

The facts are hardly in dispute.  On December 19th, 2008 W gave his Oil and Gas crony capitalist buddy’s a parting gift by auctioning off 130,000 acres of leases on Public Lands near environmentally sensitive National Parks and Monuments.

Tim DeChristopher, an economics major at the University of Utah, registered as a bidder and succeeded in obtaining leases to 22,500 acres for the bargain price of $1.7 Million and running up the bids on even more.

“We were hosed,” said Jason Blake of Park City, shortly after the consulting geologist was outbid on a 320-acre parcel. “It’s very frustrating.”

Upon coming to office Interior Secretary Salazar suspended processing of the sales, many of which were later blocked in Federal Court.  DeChristopher was arrested and his trial starts today on two counts- Making a False Statement and violating the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act.  If convicted he faces up to 10 years in prison and $750,000 in fines.

DeChristopher had offered to cover the bill with an Internet fundraising campaign, but the government refused to accept any of the money after the fact.

Federal prosecutors have acknowledged that DeChristopher is the only person ever charged with failing to make good on bids at a lease auction of public lands in Utah.

“There’s people who didn’t have the money, but they didn’t have the intent to disrupt” the auction, assistant U.S. attorney John Huber told The Associated Press in 2009.

Thank you Barack Hussein Obama, fierce advocate for the environment.

Regular Features-

• Late Night Karaoke by mishima
• Muse in the Morning by Robyn
• Six In The Morning by mishima

Featured Essays for February 28, 2011-

• An Astounding Success for Grass-Roots Environmentalism by Jacob Freeze
• Campaign Manifesto #3: On The Road, Defending Social Security by fake consultant
• Thank You For Supporting Wisconsin’s Public Workers by davidseth
• Exposing the Dirty Tricks by TheMomCat
• S02E05: Net Neutrality by Main Street Insider
• Reporting the Revolution: 28.02.2011 by TheMomCat

DocuDharma

American Experience covers the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.  New House.  Some other premiers not worth remarking on.

Everyone who drinks is not a poet. Maybe some of us drink because we’re not poets.

• ABC Family– Pretty Little Liars x 2, Greek (premiers + Instapeat)
• AMC– Bad Boys x 2
• Comedy– My Best Friend’s Girl, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia marathon
• Disney– Legally Blondes
• Discovery– Sr. v. Jr. x 2, Gold Rush (this week’s wrap up)
• ESPN– College Hoopies, Villanova @ Notre Dame, Kansas State @ Texas
• ESPN2– Women’s College Basketball, St. John’s @ West Virginia
• Food– Triple D (premier)
• FX– The Simpsons Movie x 2
• Sci Fi– Being Human x 3 (last week’s and new + Instapeat), Warehouse 13
• Speed– Pinks: All Out (Series Finale premier)
• Spike– The Fugitive
• TBS– Family Guy night
• Turner Classic– Arthur, The Lost Weekend
• Toon– MAD, Regular Show (premiers)
• Travel– Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations marathon (with premier)
• Vs.– Blackhawks @ Wild

I’ve taken the liberty of anticipating your condition. I have brought you orange juice, coffee, and aspirins. Or do you need to throw up?

Later-

I can’t believe we’re paying to see something we get on TV for free! If you ask me, everybody in this theater is a giant sucker! Especially you!

• AMC– 48 Hours
• Sci Fi– Moonlight, Face Off (this week’s)
• Turner Classic– Days of Wine and Roses

Dave hosts Brian Williams (ugh), Trey Parker and Matt Stone (double ugh), and Zac Brown Band.  Jon has Howard Stern, Stephen Michael Scheuer.  Alton does Popovers and Meat Pie.  Conan hosts Marisa Tomei, Harland Williams, and Fitz & the Tantrums.

Hello. I’m Tom Hanks. The US Government has lost its credibility, so it’s borrowing some of mine.

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 54 Top Stories.

1 Libyans ‘ready to die for me’, says Kadhafi

AFP

2 hrs 2 mins ago

Monday Business Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 50 Stories.

1 India increases social spending in pro-poor budget

by Penny MacRae, AFP

6 mins ago

Regular Features-

• Late Night Karaoke by mishima
• Muse in the Morning by Robyn
• Six In The Morning by mishima

Featured Essays for February 27, 2011-

• MISO- not just fermented soybeans anymore by ek hornbeck
• An Invite to the Oscar Party by TheMomCat
• Iraq and Afghanistan: Wasting Tens of Billions of Dollars by jimstaro
• Injustice at Every Turn — Part VIII: Police and Incarceration by Robyn
• The Week in Editorial Cartoons, Part I – Union Busting in Wisconsin by JekyllnHyde
• Pique the Geek 20110227: Polio by Translator

DocuDharma