With today being Election Day, I was trying to think of something election-related to write about the Sonics. Then
True Hoop swoops in with a
nice piece about how NBA folks donated their money, politically. And with a one-sentence blurb about new Sonic owner Clayton Bennett amidst that article, I was off and running. These are some of the folks Mr. Bennett has donated his money to in the past 3 years:
1. John Sullivan (R), Rep. 1st District – Sullivan believes life begins at conception, opposes stem cell research, opposes gun control, believes in building a fence along the Mexican border, voted to make the Patriot Act permanent, loves the flag burning amendment, got a 0% rating from the ACLU, thinks we should keep the troops in Iraq forever, and has been arrested 4 times. Other than that, he’s great.
2. David Boren (D), 2nd District – Former Oklahoma governor, a fiscally conservative Democrat. Currently the President of the University of Oklahoma, Boren called for the NCAA to throw out Oklahoma’s controversial loss to the Ducks this year, because, you know, as the university prez, he didn’t really have much better to do with his time than worry about a football game.
3. Tom Cole (R), 4th District – In favor of privatizing social security and father of this delightful quote from the ’04 election, “What do you think Hitler would have thought if Roosevelt would've lost the election in 1944? He would not have thought American resolve was strengthening. What would the Confederacy have thought if Lincoln would have lost the election of 1864? ...I promise you this, if George Bush loses the election, Osama bin Laden wins the election.”
4. Ernest Istook (R), 5th District – Thinks collecting intelligence on US citizens is great, pro-private social security, pro school prayer, anti-abortion, pro flag burning amendment, pro amendment on same sex marriage (against the marriage, for the amendment), and received money from Jack Abramoff.
There’s more, but that’s enough for now.
You know, when I was in high school and college, the Oakland A’s were the team Mariner fans loved to hate. I was an M’s fan, so I hated the A’s. In fact, I went so far as to boycott Levis jeans, because the Haas family – the patriarchs of Levis – owned the A’s and I sure as hell wasn’t going to buy a pear a pants that went towards paying Jose Canseco’s salary.
In retrospect, it was silly, because the A’s didn’t need my $19.99 to whack the Mariners on a regular basis. But the principle remains the same, and when you buy a Sonics ticket, when you buy a jersey, when the City of Seattle and State of Washington are bullied into building a $500 million edifice sufficient for the Sonics and Storm,
our tax dollars will be going to subsidize Clayton Bennett’s profit margins.Just thought you should know.
Sorry about the headline, I'm running low on creative juices today. If last night's game was somewhat winnable going in, tonight's is definitely so. The Magic have gone 2-2 thus far, with wins against the Bulls and Wizards, and losses to Philly and Atlanta.
