Pat Riley, Coach and Fascist

Yes, ol' Pat has exposed himself as a gutless government crony and warmonger. It started in the Miami Herald yesterday with Barry Jackson's very short article headlined, "Heat's Riley offers political views." In that piece, the slicked-back b-ball legend basically complained that everybody was being too hard on poor George W. Bush and they should just shut up and quit complaining about the war.

That got under my skin a bit after I first read it on SotP. But I'm busy and can't go around Pulping every damn thing that hits me the wrong way. Now this morning Ira Winderman has a story in the Sentinel where Riley expounds on his sniveling, anti-American approach to politics.

"When you're in a fight, you just can't blame," Riley says. "You've just got to win the fight and then figure it out. We've got guys over there that are fighting this war for us and we're

over here arguing about it. I am an advocate now for our troops, period."

"Win the fight and then figure it out," Pat? Did those idiotic words really escape your mouth? Yes, let's not discuss about the needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, the fueling of global conflict, the loss of hundreds of billions of good American dollars, and the deaths and maimings of thousands more of our brave U.S. troops you're pretending to advocate for. Let's duct-tape our eyes and mouths, continue a horrendous policy that's headed for catastrophic civil (or worse) war, then sort it out later. He continues:

"I've never taken any kind of a real stance, ever. I have my beliefs and the way I am. I'm very proud, so much, to be an American. I am pro-government, OK? I am for who I elected, all of those things."

Pro-government? That's called being a fascist, Riley, and if you feel that way then you'd feel right at home in Cuba or Saudi Arabia. Riley's words should send shivers down the spine of every decent South Floridian and American, no matter what side they're on politically.

And apparently it did rankle some folks who read Winderman's article. In the comments section, some folks unleashed their view that Riley was a Nazi. Now they're complaining that the Sentinel deleted several of their posts. Wrote one commenter, "What happened to my post? Riley gets to shoot off his stupid mouth, but can't be criticised? What kind of bullshot is that? I didn't use any profanity or criticise the troops in any way. I said it was assinine of Riley to say we should just focus on winning the war and 'figure things out later.' ... If Riley is so gung ho, let him sign up for frontline duty. The mohdi army can use a big dumb target like him instead of some kid who shouldn't be there. Delete this and I'll know you're working for bloody Bush."

I don't know that the Sentinel censored anti-Riley posts (and one pro-Riley guy also claimed to have had his comment deleted) but if they did it then that's just pathetic (especially considering their negligent record in expunging comments that truly have no place on the site).