Congress is a joke.

[Mastiff]

Congress holds hearing about BCS

By Mark Beck, Scroll
December 29, 2005

(U-WIRE) REXBURG, Idaho -- Bowl Championship Series coordinator, Kevin Weiberg and five others representing different bowl games were present, Dec. 7, for a congressional hearing on the state of the BCS at the request of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The hearing, chaired by Republican Joe Barton of Texas, turned into a two-hour question and answer session in which members of Congress drilled Weiberg and his colleagues about why college football is the only collegiate sport that doesn't hold a postseason tournament to crown a champion, and whether the system is more favorable to teams of certain conferences when deciding the BCS bowls.

HEY... CONGRESS!

YOU HAVE OTHER THINGS TO WORRY ABOUT!

[Zoning Goddess]

Congress holds hearing about BCS

HEY... CONGRESS!

YOU HAVE OTHER THINGS TO WORRY ABOUT!

I could say a lot about this subject but I don't want to be seen as trolling. Suffice it to say, I don't have a clue about the whole college football obsession.

[AubieTurtle]

It's a way for these congressmen to score easy points with the public. It's like saying "Breathing is good" or "I hate criminals". Doesn't do much to change anything but it sounds good and doesn't offend very many people.

[jaws]

A lot of people claim that socialism never took root in America because liberty is a fundamental value of American culture. Nothing could be further from the truth. Socialism failed in America because America is a country that is mostly impossible to govern. There have been countless attempts to socialize America. All have failed in the byzantine system of government. Yet today America has a ballooning bureaucratic health-care system, a titanic military, a shoe-string electricity grid, an 'interstate' highway system building bridges to isolated islands, a prison-slave system to scoop up minority youths, to sum, all the bad parts of socialism and no real social programs.
The Congress spends money like every member is entitled to his cut. They in turn don't tax money because that risks their (generally assured) re-election. The government is stuck in a deficit-death-spiral. None of these problems will go away under the current system. They will only go away when the government collapses.

That is why the United States of America are doomed, but also why it will be a generally positive change for everyone.

[jordanb]

They need to waste time on stuff like this so that they can have an excuse to compress the budget session into one 4,000 page omnibus bill that is completed and published 2 1/2 hours before it comes to vote, such that only a small group of majority party leaders and appropriations committee members actually know what's in it.

[Wulf9]

In a democracy, citizens choose their politicians.

We are now in a situation where politicians choose their electorate - by redistricting, by propaganda, and by choosing issues that will entertain rather than issues of state. The Republican base is heavily oriented to white males, so sports-based [political] entertainment would make sense.

[jaws]

They need to waste time on stuff like this so that they can have an excuse to compress the budget session into one 4,000 page omnibus bill that is completed and published 2 1/2 hours before it comes to vote, such that only a small group of majority party leaders and appropriations committee members actually know what's in it.

Let's be honest, at 4000 pages nobody knows what's in it.

[PlannerGirl]

Why does this not shock me? Seeing these guys in person living around here you wonder how they ever made it BEFORE they got into gov.

My old poli sci prof had it right-politics attract the low, ego driven and just out right unable to work in the private sector. This crap seems to show that pretty well.

Both sides of the isle are just as guilty

[michaelskis]

What the... I agree that is one of the dumbest things I have heard in a long time. A few years ago it might have mattered, but it sounds like this year the teams fell correctly.

[Mastiff]

Yeah, hearings on steriods in baseball is what we need. How about some hearings on lobby reform and campaign finance limits, or dare we suggest, term limits for congress?

Why isn't the BCS working? Who cares... I'm more interested in Congress figuring out why Congress isn't working!

Sorry about the rant, but these jackasses make $158,100 a year, and haven't accomplished anything of substance in a long time. Hell, half the time they don't even show up to vote...

[imaplanner]

This is very important. I heard that it was a national security issue.

[SkeLeton]

Sorry about the rant, but these jackasses make $158,100 a year, and haven't accomplished anything of substance in a long time. Hell, half the time they don't even show up to vote...

Politicians world wide are clowns, so yes, Congress is a Joke, or should I say a Circus? And it's worldwide... I'm impressed about the low wages for Congressmen in the US around here it's like 230,000 a year...and we're not the richest nation in the world... Oh and of course... most don't show up to vote or discuss laws... Sure our Congress might not be in Santiago (It's in Valparaiso which is around 80 miles away with a fast highway to get there in around an hour) Worst thing of all that most Congressmen and Senators don't live in the areas they represent... the parties just impose whoever they want and you're left without options...

And they ask themselves why young people don't vote... Because they're a bunch of corrupt idiots and we don't waste our time supporting them

[abrowne]

Treasury chief is seeking increase in U.S. debt limit
December 30, 2005

Washington -- Treasury Secretary John Snow said Thursday the United States could face the prospect of not being able to pay its bills early next year unless Congress raises the government's borrowing authority, now capped at $8.18 trillion.
Snow, in a letter to lawmakers, estimated the government is expected to bump into the statutory debt limit around the middle of February.
Economists doubt Congress will refuse to raise the limit. A federal default is considered unimaginable because it would rattle bond markets, force interest rates higher and shake the economy.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...plate=printart

I suppose at this point one may as well focus on bowling, after all.

[Whose Yur Planner]

Speaking of Congress being a joke, did anyone see that uber lobbyist Abramoff pleaded guilty? Wonder how much Congressional CYA we are going to see ?

[cololi]

Maybe they are involved because of the billions of dollars involved in sports. The bowl system involves the transaction of hundreds of millions of dollars (the 4 bcs bowls alone pay out 14-17 million dollars each to the schools, often to public institutions) I do think that there are some things that congress should stay out of, but at what point should congress get involved in regulating billion dollar industries?

[Mastiff]

Maybe they are involved because of the billions of dollars involved in sports. The bowl system involves the transaction of hundreds of millions of dollars (the 4 bcs bowls alone pay out 14-17 million dollars each to the schools, often to public institutions) I do think that there are some things that congress should stay out of, but at what point should congress get involved in regulating billion dollar industries?

Like they "regulate" the big oil industries? Hmmm... No thanks.

[Random Traffic Guy]

Maybe they are involved because of the billions of dollars involved in sports. The bowl system involves the transaction of hundreds of millions of dollars (the 4 bcs bowls alone pay out 14-17 million dollars each to the schools, often to public institutions) I do think that there are some things that congress should stay out of, but at what point should congress get involved in regulating billion dollar industries?

The only reason they care is because they want to make sure they get their cut.

[cololi]

I am not saying that I think they should be involved, it just seems logical (at least unsuprising)that they are, seeing how they want to regulate every other industry, why not sports. It is a shame that the powers that be in college football cannot figure this out on their own. An NCAA football playoff would be the greatest sporting event around, which would only increase their coffers, not detract from it. Oh well.

Plus, I agree, it opens up a whole new channel of lobbyists, campaign supporters, etc.

[AubieTurtle]

The NCAA is a voluntary membership organization. As far as I know, they have never attempted to prevent any other higher education sports organization from forming. The NAIA and a couple others do exist and NCAA teams aren't forbidden to play in the NIT that competes against the NCAA basketball tournament.

I suspect that if the mid-majors keep screwing around doing stuff like trying to get congress involved, the BCS conferences will just exit the NCAA and leave the smaller schools to die from a lack of revenue. Of course that's not likely to happen since they need cupcakes to beat up on but the point is that the only reason why BCS games have so much money on the line is because the big schools have big followings. A matchup of Tulane and Fresno State is not going to get the ad revenue to support the big payouts. The BCS already gives money to the non-BCS conferences for no reason other than the fact that they exist.

A playoff would be terrible for the non-BCS conferences. Sure, once in awhile a Utah would go to the playoffs, but in general, it would be all BCS conference teams in the playoffs getting the game revenue while all the mid-majors stayed home with a big fat goose egg. A sixteen team playoff (or more likely, an eight team one) would cost dozens of teams loads of money each year.

Given that baseball has an antitrust exemption and the NFL was given the lightest of slaps on the wrist for what they did to the USFL, I don't see how congress could justify messing around with a purely voluntary membership organization. On the other hand, I don't see how they justify most of the things they do.

[Coragus]

To play a big time Devil's Advocate on the subject . . .

Those seamingly meaningless college football games are worth thousands of dollars. There are the areas where the stadiums are, and they get the influx of money. There are also the payouts to the schools that play in the games, and those schools are around the country.

Here's a reason for a Senator to be concerned. There are 4 BCS games, so there are 8 bids. Florida State made it to a BCS game, even though they finished 8-4, by virute of winning a conference championship game. If I'm a team that's ranked 8th, but get dumped out of the huge BCS payout by Florida State, then I can complain that the system is broken.

Not that Congress has the authoity to change anything. In fact, they shouldn't. I'm just throwing out the hypothetical.