If Clemens is not indicted, it proves that Bonds indictment was racially motivated.

[McCamy Taylor]

Roger Clemens has now been accused by several people (including the author of the baseball steroid report) of using steroids and human growth hormone while playing. He testified before Congress yesterday that his accusers were either lying or mistaken and that he has never used these drugs. His accusers remain adamant. As someone who is still pitching in his 40s, he fits the profile.

Barry Bonds, who currently hold the major league home run record is also in his forties and he has shown the body morphology changes suggestive of steroid use. He is currently under indictment for perjury before a grand jury. In 2003 he gave testimony before a grand jury with immunity. He testified that he had not use steroids. Though he had been given assurances that the testimony he would give was secret, there was an illegal grand jury leak to two reporters, who wrote a book, which essentially indicted Bonds for perjury before the grand jury, accusing him of steroid use. Based upon the negative publicity which this book generated, the federal prosecutor in the Bay Area jailed one of Bonds' friends for a year in an fruitless effort to force him to implicate Bonds. After this failed, Bonds was indicted anyway on perjury charges, relating to his (secret) grand jury testimony--testimony which became public under circumstances that have still not been explained and which the two reporters used as a basis for a book to try Bonds in the court of public opinion so that federal prosecutors could create a situation favorable for criminal charges. Now, in a year in which the nation may vote for its first African-American president, Barry Bonds is scheduled to go to trial in a case that federal prosecutors have been setting up for 5 years.

During the past five years, the Bush Justice Department has shown a tendency to prosecute African-Americans during election years, as I document in my two journals "The War on Black Folks" and "The War on Black Folks Part II". This is part of a renewed Southern Strategy, designed to make Blacks look like liars, cheats, criminals and generally scary and to portray the Bush administration as being on the side of the Whites.

There are similarities between Bonds' case and Bill Clinton's perjury trap. In both cases, they were supposed to give "secret" grand jury testimony, and in both cases there were grand jury leaks. In the Starr Grand Jury it is clear that the leaks were deliberate. Since the leaks to the reporters in the Bonds case allowed the federal prosecutors to go forward with a perjury indictment that they might not otherwise have been able to pursue, it is quite likely that the leak in the Bonds case was also deliberate. In both cases, prosecutors abused their authority, jailing potential witnesses for extended periods (think Susan MacDougall)in an attempt to force testimony.

Some will argue that the Bonds case is different, because he was giving secret testimony and he was given immunity. However, criminal charges are not the real issue here for either man. The loss of public acclaim and contracts and Hall of Fame opportunity is what they both feared before they gave testimony. And, as history has made clear, a promise of "secret testimony" from a federal grand jury is worth squat---as Barry Bonds well knew.

So, in summary, if justice is to be done, federal prosecutors can do one of two things. They can indict Clemens on charges of lying to Congress about his use of drugs and let him prove himself innocent in court, as they have done to Bonds. I will not demand that they jail any of Clemens' friends for a year.

Or, they can toss out the charges against Bonds.

And the sports community can shut its big, fat mouth, because I am tired of hearing them talk about a political situation that they do not understand. The racism of the current administration runs deep. It is the reason why we see a rich, famous movie star like Wesley Snipes about to stand trial for Tax evasion and the reason why the Vicks dog fighting trial got moved to federal court and the reason why every single Black elected official in Dallas was under investigation by the FBI for a solid year (finally, they indicted one woman for taking some carpet I think it was. Big deal.)

[Stinky The Clown]

1. I'm not sure I agree with you on this one ......

..... they had real evidence against Bonds. They have far less on Meathead Clemens .... mostly of the he said/he said variety. The syringes and gauze evidence is next to worthless and can be easily dismissed by any (even nearly incompetent) defense attorney.

Now ... do I think Clemens is guilty? You BET I do.

[suston96]

2. Wasn't Bonds indicted for perjury? Obstruction? nt

[Buzz Clik]

3. It took four years to put the Bonds indictment forward, even though the evidence was clear.

As you stated so clearly, everyone was suspicious that Bonds was not telling the truth at the time of his testimony. Now, he's under indictment and correctly so.

No one following the Clemens case is surprised that he has been accused of using performance enhancing drugs. I truly believe that he either lied or carefully worded his comments to provide some wiggle room when it comes to perjury (e.g., he might have said, "I never used steroids" when the real question is about human growth hormone).

I believe that both Bonds and Clemens have not been fully truthful in their testimonies. I hope that the Clemens case follows the lead of the Bonds case and results in his indictment. It will take time.

[Stinky The Clown]

5. "truly believe that he either lied or carefully worded his comments ......"

You give him more credit than he's due.

He's not that smart. A fence post is smarter. He's truly a meathead.

[MADem]

4. There's a lot of assuming there without much evidence.

Both are tainted, and anyone who doesn't think so isn't paying attention.