Monday, May 29th, 2006
On this Memorial Day, a day of reverence and honor for those citizens who helped defend our country in it’s time of greatest need, I would like to call out those gutless cowards who passed on their opportunity to serve in combat when they had the opportunity, but instead chose to stand on the dead bodies of their countrymen and proclaim themselves as patriots:
President George W. Bush
Karl Rove
VP Dick Cheney
Paul Wolfowitz
I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby
Don Rumsfeld
Josh Bolton
Andy Card
Richard Perle
Secretary of State and former NSA Condoleeza Rice
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist
Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert
Former House Majority Leader Tom Delay
House Majority Whip Roy Blunt
Majority Whip Mitch McConnell
Rick Santorum, third ranking Republican in the Senate
Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott
Dan Quayle
Rush Limbaugh
Sean Hannity
Pat Buchanan
Ann Coulter
Ralph Reed
Bill O’Reilly
Michael Savage
Bill Kristol
William Bennett
Newt Gingrich
Jeb Bush
Joe Scarborough
Brit Hume
Gary Bauer
Jerry Falwell
Pat Robertson
Ted Nugent
To each and everyone one listed above (and the countless others who lead the cheers for war while sitting back and letting others serve), if there was ever a day for you to feel shame at who you are and what you have done (or failed to do), Memorial Day is that day.
Posted by smithersmpls at 7:37 pm in Uncategorized | Permalink | No Comments »
Monday, May 29th, 2006
CyclingNews.com:
At the sign-in at the Museo di Ghisallo in Magreglio, Simoni commented to the media about Basso, “I don’t want to take anything away from (Basso). He won because he was the strongest and if I had won (in Aprica) it would have been a gift. But when we were descending (the Mortirolo), he asked me not to drop him on the descent. Then 5km from Aprica, (Basso) asked me for money to let me win the stage. I’m not used to asking for charity and I said no.”
Just as Simoni finished his accusations, Basso showed up at the sign-in and resplendent in his pink tunic, tried to work things out with the bitter, biting Simoni by extending his hand to shake with Simoni, but the Saunier Duval man spit out to Basso, “I don’t accept your excuses.”
The surprised Basso turned to the media and explained, “It’s true that I asked (Simoni) to stay with me on the descent, but the rest is all false.” But Simoni wasn’t backing off his allegations that Basso tried to sell him the stage, saying to Basso with his trademark cold smile “Do you want me to say how much you asked for?”, and then turned his back on Basso and moved away.
Clearly agitated, Basso then said to the assembled media, “I’m just not going to let anything ruin my day today. I think I’ve shown all during this Giro that I am the strongest. As I said, I did ask Simoni to stay with me on the descent, but for the rest of his filthy words, they are absolutely false.”
Maybe they are false, maybe they are true, but what is Simoni bitching about? Does he think that because Basso asked him to wait on the decent of the Mortirolo that Basso should have gifted him the stage? Does he really think that he could have put enough time into Basso on the decent that Basso would not have been able to catch him before the finish?
In regards to selling a stage, that kind of stuff happens all the time. In fact, I have it on good authority that Discovery rider Paolo Savoldelli would not have won the Giro last year if the Belgian Lotto team had not been paid off on the final mountain stage. The fact that Simoni brought it up at all just shows his sour grapes at not being able to keep up with Basso in the mountains this year. Simoni can now go to the Tour de France and suck like does every year and watch Basso win the whole thing.
Posted by smithersmpls at 7:12 pm in Uncategorized | Permalink | No Comments »
Monday, May 29th, 2006
OK, so maybe it was an easy pick, but I did pick Ivan Basso to win the Giro d’Italia and he did so today in Milan. Basso was clearly the best rider in the mountains as well as the only rider that could seriously challenge Kaiser Jan in the time trial.
In June there are a couple of shorter stage races that serve as the final tune up for the July 1st start of the Tour de France. This includes the Dauphiné Libéré and the Tour de Suisse. We probably won’t see Ivan Basso in either of these events as the most important thing for Basso is to recover sufficiently before the start of Le Tour.
Now is the time to start thinking about who is your favorite for the 2006 Tour de France. Why?
The Smithers Tour de France pool opens on June 1 and closes on June 29th. More information will be published on Wednesday May 31. You are not going to want to miss this event!
Posted by smithersmpls at 2:03 am in Uncategorized | Permalink | No Comments »
