Dave is right on here. I think the most important piece to take away from this is that whether we like someone or not, we must stick up for all who have been scapegoated. I do not like Barry Bonds as a player (seems to half-ass it too much). But there's no denying what the feds have done in an attempt to bring him down. This must stop.

Arrogant black athletes have always been treated more harshly than their white counterparts.

The arrogant white athletes are always considered just "characters...cerebral...different-from-the-norm."

While arrogant black athletes are just considered horrible human beings.

The way Barry Bonds is viewed in this country is just proof positive of that.

Thank you for keeping this in the public eye. Positively frightening! Symptomatic of the country's descent into fascism, Obama or nobama.

While agreeing with your premise that the Justice Department was egregious in its prosecutions, I cannot understand why having the government out of steroid monitoring is "welcome." What kind of rightist libertarian claptrap is that? So if the government is out, then you want Bud Selig and his minions to do the monitoring? Do you, Dave, want to be known as the steroid apologist who will hold the hands of the ex-elite athletes who will be suffering from steroid and PED-induced symptoms as they age towards a likely premature death ? Should the government be out of the tobacco monitoring business as well?

Kind of funny that this comes up on the day a CIA agent goes on trial for fraud committed for years (and often covered up by superiors and subordinates, but just as often noted in his personnel file) as he was promoted to one of the top positions in the agency by GOP appointees. If the feds had thrown the kind of money at this investigation they have spent on Bonds they could've saved the country a couple million bucks.

I don't want to put words into Dave's mouth, but I don't think he's saying the government should be out of the steroid monitoring business. What I think he's saying is the government is only going after Barry Bonds while not going to the same lengths about Roger Clemens, Rafael Palmeiro, etc. PEDs should be banned, but guess what? Athletes in many other sports probably use them (NBA, NFL, etc.) and we as fans have to live with that unless we decide in disgust to give up following the sport.

I couldn't help to think as the news of the Dodgers' new offer to the much media-maligned Manny Ramirez was strewn across my television screen that he, for all the venom that is spewed about him, has never been linked to steroid use.


I feel that if there were ever an inkling of a connection to something/someone involving steroid use it would be all over the media.


Just something that came across my mind amidst this whole steroid fiasco.

Martin, does it not give you pause that the US government is spending millions of your money to prosecute one guy, who, although through many accounts is an unpleasant character, is but one of, say, 104 steriod abusers in MLB? What if the government was "fair" and prosecuted all 104 equally? How many hundreds of millions of your money would you like spent on a victimless crime?

Oh yes, the "numbers" are affected, and the victims are all baseball fans. What a crock. Nobody cares when Shawne Merriman gets suspended for 1/4 of a season, so why should Dave vouch for the government's role in making an example out of Bonds?

So yes, I think the government SHOULD be out of the steroid-monitoring business. They should be out of the entire War on Drugs; see Mexico lately? Anything less is a waste of our money, and waste of what the government could be doing, like, well, building public schools.

It reminds me of another witch hunt, the set up by the far right of President Clinton and the inflation of "perjured" "testimony" in a civil deposition to count as grounds for impeachment. I'm not much of a sports fan (except any game that my son or nieces play in), but I think that sports should police its own. The loss of a contract, endorsement or playing time (as well as a Hall of Fame seat) is a more powerful and appropriate incentive against violations of sports rules. Power warped DA's and AG's look for trophies and they find them in the Barry Bonds of the world. I wish the news focused more on crimes that harm real people, like the rise in domestic violence, the terror of poverty and hunger in America or on the exploding events, diaspora and violence occurring around the world. AGs and DAs should bring legitimate actions against real criminals not poor benighted people who need to bulk up to compete. As for those that decry the use of enhancements and moan about "loss of innocence" in the game, I wonder if there ever was a pure athlete?

As I said, Trey, the Justice department prosecution is a farce. Steroids and PEDS are all over elite sports. Manny Ramirez should be trembling about being one of those 104, and the fact is that given the logic of money and competition, elite athletes and their agents and owners and handlers and family are awash in conspiracy, illegal usage, and injury.
Yet just as in the horribly failed "War on Drugs," and the terrible on-going pollution by corporate America of all that is around us, and in the sale of all the harmful and debilitating products from cigarettes to coal, a libertarian perspective is infantile - it will all work out if everybody is allowed to do whatever they want? Humans are fallible, susceptible beings, who cause great suffering to others. Not placing barriers to human action is allowing the species to go off a cliff.
The on-going steroidal binging in America very definitely has its victims, but the puerility of our social and political institutions means evermore lying and posturing will go on. No, there was never innocence in any game, and yes, there are active remnants of racism, but folks on the left are deluded if they think allowing athletes to continue to abuse toxic medicines is somehow being "for the people."

FreedomNow,
Until a couple of weeks ago we didn't think A Rod had ever used steroids. Manny could be on the list of 104 for all we know. It's unfortunate for the innocent major leaguers but everyone is suspect.

CB.....


My post and feelings were centered around the idea that IF Manny would have also been part of the 104 players there would have been some media person who coulda/woulda found out about it. He would have been further crucified in the media for that as well as his behavior...

It's awe inspiring in the amount of work these feds have gone through to get Bonds/PED users. Even the congressional hearing was something to boggle minds. Priorities are/were definitely skewed...

Amazing piece, Dave, even though it is sickening to read of the lengths our "Justice" Department will go to pursue their case(s). Thanks for all you do.

Thanks to everyone for your comments. Hey! JSkills wrote something kind! Who new? I do want to respond to Martin White: Martin if you are concerned about the terrible health toll that steroids can in theory wreak on the human body, you should be for decriminalization and monitoring. It's the absence of of a doctor's oversight and the blackmarket that creates the problems. It's a pharmaceutical. And like all pharm, there is a difference between use and abuse.

Dave, I am not a knee jerk conservative, I believe in individual rights and freedoms and reasonable non-government intervention, which are, in my opinion, what progressives *should* stand for, as opposed to vouching for the so-called underdog party to the situation no matter how corrupt and restrictive of freedoms they may be.

In my view, all women and men should have a right not to have government infringe on their freedom, even to do harm to themselves. I guess this would make me a pariah in American politics since Dems hijack economic policy and the GOP hijacks social policy, and they both hijack drug policy.

My problem is when you (and other posters) slam the only country in the Middle East that offers a modicum of rights and freedoms to women, homosexuals and, well, alleged drug users like Bonds. Speaking of which, lots of news of late with Peer, Ram, and the Davis Cup in Sweden fiasco, of which I am sure you will have a differing viewpoint, but that's why I read, because it's important to see all perspectives, before rejecting them. ;-)

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