<a href="http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/01/8019/" source="Common Dreams" author="Dave Zirin">Sportswriters Swoon Over DC Ballpark</a> brings news of the opening of the new baseball park in Washington DC in a deal that moved the Montreal Expos south to the USA. Apparently, the mainstream media coverage was nothing short of effusive---gushing, even---about the new stadium, which was almost wholly financed by taxpayer money. From the article: <bq>$611 million of tax payer money in a city that has become a ground zero of economic segregation and gentrification. $611 million over majority opposition of taxpayers and even the city council. $611 million in a city set to close down a staggering twenty-four public schools. [...] That’s $611 million, a mere five months after a mayor commissioned study found that the District’s poverty rate was the highest it had been in a decade and African-American unemployment was 51 percent.</bq> In a fitting cherry on top, president Bush<fn> threw out the first pitch on opening night. He would have to have been less-than-oblivious not to notice the booing. Lucky for him... <hr> <ft>This scandal has almost nothing to do with the Bush administration, though. It fits well into the atmosphere created by them, but this type of wholesale corporate welfare occurred before Bush and will occur after him unless we change something essential. Simply electing a president who is not a complete idiot and sitting back in contentment will not do the trick.</ft>