Obama, Merkel, And Low Poll Ratings, Cheerleading Now Officially Not A Sport

Eugene robinson
Mark McKinnon
Dana Milbank

"According to a study by the Brookings institution, Washington D.C. has the highest concentration of smart people in the United States. Lets see; we have a mess in the Gulf, we have a dysfunctional Homeland Security, and we are $13 trillion in debt. Imagine how bad it would be if these people weren't geniuses." – Jay Leno

"Apparently BP's containment cap is leaking. When asked if the rumors are true, a BP spokesman said, 'Aren't there any more Mel Gibson tapes?'" – Craig Ferguson

"Dick Cheney is recovering from heart surgery in the hospital. I understand Fox sent flowers, and MSNBC sent a large pepperoni pizza with extra cheese." – Jay Leno

The case of the Iranian nuclear physicist who was abducted by the CIA and later returned to Iran is getting dumber and dumber. Every day Iranian intelligence says how he was a double spy, while the CIA says that he gave better information than he got. Now Iran says they will make a TV movie of his story, wow, now there's a threat. The best way to see which side is telling the truth is to wait and see if Mr Amiri is still around in a couple of years. I have no doubt that he is lying his butt off trying to save it, but I also doubt that he can survive the torture provided in an Iranian prison. For his children's sake, I hope that he gets to be a father for a good number of years. The whole affair is just too stupid, and sounds like it was a script reject from the new show Covert Affairs.


President Barack Obama signed the finance reform bill this morning, another small step to prevent another economic meltdown, or more encroachment of government that strangles a free market, depending on your point of view. Unemployment insurance has been extended, and a federal judge is looking at the case against Arizona and will determine if an injunction will be issued against their immigration law or not. And the climate bill got shelved, as Democrats shy away from opening that Pandora's Box... Pretty full week so far.

Yet Obama's poll numbers continue to sag. I've talked before about how most polls only use about 100 people or less in their polls, so they really don't represent well our opinions. But it's interesting that the polls of leaders in other countries are also below 50%, the lower numbers for the leader who have been longest in power. Angela Merkel's poll numbers in Germany are down to 34%, and she is known as a conservative. About the only leader who is riding a wave of popularity right now is Britain's Prime Minister, but he, too, may sink after his first year in office. The mood in the US seems to be more dissatisfaction with anyone who is an incumbent, so let's throw those bastards out. I think we'll see more independent candidates elected this midterm. If enough Republicans get elected to take over the House, it may be another death knell for them come 2012, especially if they continue rush Limbaugh's and Mitch McConnell's strategy of constant obstruction, whining, just saying no, and race baiting to make old white people scared enough to vote for their safe, white guys. One good thing is that most of these Karl Rovian tactics are being discovered and publicized by the media almost as soon as it happens. The tactics are lame and embarrassing, but even more embarrassing are the people who eat it up like it were candy. I've stopped watching Fox news long ago, and I'm getting pretty tired of CNN's short list of political news hacks. We need a lot of fresh blood with enough energy to pursue stories and do a good job of explaining like Rachel Maddow does... Anyway, we'll see if the perky first family vacationing in the Gulf region doesn't bring his numbers up a bit...

I hadn't realized that we still have troops stationed in the Balkans. Not a whole lot because we share responsibility along with NATO troops, but we have 1,400 troops in the newly legitimate nation of Kosovo. The International Court just ruled that their breakaway from Serbia in 2008 was done legally, congratulations for the predominantly Albanian nation. Of course, Serbia is filing a protest, but at least they haven't started another campaign of ethnic cleansing... But the fact that we still have troops there, over ten years after their civil wars, does not bode well for Iraq and Afghanistan. In most cases there never is a real winner, we are so afraid that once we leave Iraq it will fall apart and reject all of the institutions that we have spent billions trying to establish. Democracy goes down the rabbit hole...

A federal judge just ruled that CHEERLEADING IS NOT A REAL SPORT.  so officially it must be so... Evidently, some universities were trying to: "use competitive cheerleading in their efforts to achieve gender balance in athletics and comply with Title IX," a federal gender equity law. In the case: "... the school planned to eliminate women’s volleyball – as well as men’s golf and outdoor track – to save money. But it added a competitive cheer squad and counted its 30 female members to show that the percentage of athletes who are female is in proportion to the percentage of students who are female – one way of complying with the law.
US District Judge Stefan Underhill agreed with the volleyball coach, ruling that the school discriminated “by failing to provide equal athletic participation opportunities for women.” Competitive cheerleading “is still too underdeveloped and disorganized to be treated as offering genuine varsity athletic participation,” he conclud


I don't know if this will affect national cheerleading competitions and their television shows, but it does seem sneaky to count cheerleading, even if it does have tumbling and gymnastics as a part of the routines among the top levels of competition. I think that women's softball will make it back to the Olympics before competitive cheerleading, but I have been wrong before.

"Title IX advocates count it as another victory for equal opportunity in sports. Each school’s efforts to meet Title IX have to be judged individually, but they say this ruling sets an important precedent that will influence universities around the country."

But cheerleading advocates are pissed at the ruling, but have a weird way of expressing their opinions. They count the aforementioned gymnastics and tumbling elements to describe its difficulty to master, but then mentions that it has a high injury rate, as if that factor equates it with football and basketball... Then, even more snarkily, the woman being interviewed said that: "... she also disagrees with the decision more broadly, saying that “Title IX has outlived its usefulness.”

To make matters even worse for those condescending, paternalistic, and dishonest coaches, the judge: "... also said female runners on three different teams (indoor, outdoor, and cross-country track) could not be counted more than once. That was one of several ways the school had inflated the number of female athletes or undercounted male athletes, the judge concluded." Jeez, who are the coddled, drunken athletes going to hit on and make derogatory sexist remarks about after a date rape, if they can't have their cheerleader?