My last coaching gig was a middle school basketball team in NYC. The school was downtown Manhattan & happened to be the school closest to "Ground Zero," These were the kids that actually had to run for their lives on 9/11. They weren't such great ballers, but they were good kids, worked hard, & got better. They ended the season on an up note, winning their last game. I took them out for pizza & I wondered what I would say to them since I knew I probably wouldn't see many of them again & well, I loved them. Now, while they weren't that great at hoops, they all had talent when it came to getting in trouble. I decided to talk to them about the "Prisoner's Dilemma."
Now some of you probably know what the "Prisoner's Dilemma" is, but if you don't, here's a description:
The "Prisoner's Dilemma" got its name from the following hypothetical situation: imagine two criminals arrested under the suspicion of having committed a crime together. However, the police does not have sufficient proof in order to have them convicted. The two prisoners are isolated from each other, and the police visit each of them and offer a deal: the one who offers evidence against the other one will be freed. If none of them accepts the offer, they are in fact cooperating against the police, and both of them will get only a small punishment because of lack of proof. They both gain. However, if one of them betrays the other one, by confessing to the police, the defector will gain more, since he is freed; the one who remained silent, on the other hand, will receive the full punishment, since he did not help the police, and there is sufficient proof. If both betray, both will be punished, but less severely than if they had refused to talk. The dilemma resides in the fact that each prisoner has a choice between only two options, but cannot make a good decision without knowing what the other one will do.
OK, so a couple of my kids had already been in this pickle with the principal during the season. She had played the game well & got one kid to give up the other, then she dropped the hammer on both of them. I figured, some of these kids were probably going to end up in rooms at the stationhouse sooner or later in the next few years & they might as well know how the game was played & how to not lose. So I explained it, went over the different options, & basically told them, "Look, if their trying to get you to confess, it means they don't have the goods on you, so don't do it."
Alright, this diary isn't even about those kids. It's about George Bush, Tony Blair & Rupert Murdoch. It looks like they're the ones in separate rooms at the stationhouse now, & they're looking at serious time for breaking & entering, conspiracy & murder. And I think Tony & Rupert have cracked.
I don't pretend to know why Tony Blair backed George Bush in invading Iraq. It's still a mystery to me. I know he wanted to do things about Africa, about Global Warming, & that he knew that one of the keys to solving the problems in the Middle East was deling with the Palestinian situation in a fair way. Maybe he thought if he backed Bush in this stupid war, that W would feel obligated to work with him. Maybe W promised him just that. Maybe he thought the war wouldn't go so bad & they'd get away with it. But now it's gone bad big time, & they must know it's just gonna get worse. Not only that, but on every issue Blair cares about, W has stabbed Blair in the back.
I think Blair is behind the leaking of these DSM. I think he's had enough. I don't think he wanted to go to war in Iraq & I think he knows now he made the mistake of his life. I think he knows now that if he is to have any political future at all, he has to give Bush up. Whoever is leaking these things is someone close to Blair & I don't see any extraordinary effort by him to stop the continuous flow of them.
What's more, they're being published in a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch. I don't see how it's possible this happens without his approval. I hate Rupert Murdoch but I don't think he's stupid. I think he's noticed which way the wind's blowing & that it's gonna turn into a hurricane too. His empire means everything to him & he's got plans to leave it to his sons & wants to have something to leave. It will be more than a little confusing to FOXNEWS viewers at first, but Rupert's not about to lose viewers to CNN through the Impeachment. He's a survivor, after all.
So that's what I think is happening. Tony & Rupert are setting George up to take the fall. To save themselves. They knew it was Prisonners Dilemma Time only they figure it's gonna be such a nightmare with the impeachment & all that there will only be so much people will be able to take. They're gambling that people will hoist W the Retard by his Petard & that will be enough. If Tony can convince people he only did this under certain conditions, he might, just might be able to skate. He's a hell of a politician so if anyone could pull this off he's the one. Ruperts' only hope, ironically, is to actually BE "Fair & Balanced," at least for the duration. Personally, I don't think either one of them should get to walk, but if Bush goes down, I'll take it.
Now none of this may be true. I'll admit there may be other explanations for these thing happening now, this way. I'm just not hearing them. So this is my fathers' day gift to myself, I thought of it when I got up this morning, sitting on the shitter, so Caveat Emptor & all that. Hey, we can dream, can't we?