Archive for July, 2007
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007
Tom Tancredo, Colorado Congressman and GOP Presidential Candidate. Here is his plan to stop further terrorist attacks on the United States:
If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an attack on this homeland of that nature would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina. That is the only thing I can think of that might deter somebody from doing what they would otherwise do. If I am wrong fine, tell me, and I would be happy to do something else. But you had better find a deterrent or you will find an attack. There is no other way around it. There have to be negative consequences for the actions they take. That’s the most negative I can think of.
Tom, you are wrong, and you are an idiot.
Threats like this are not going to do anything to deter terrorism. All they are going to do is piss off a bunch of people who may have never had any prior motivation to be angry at Americans or consider an attack on the United States.
The reality is that you are never going to be able to completely deter someone from doing something that they are willing to give their life to accomplish. All you can do is attempt to create the conditions that make it extremely difficult to actually carry out an attack.
Rhetoric like this should make Tancredo a laughing stock. Instead, he is a serious candidate for the GOP nomination.
Posted by Smithers at 8:51 pm in Politics | Permalink | 8 Comments »
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007
It’s on!
Only Category 1/2/3 riders will ride the two person team racing program. Women and Cat 4/5 riders will race as individuals.
I hope that we actually get some people to come out and race this Saturday and that it does not rain.
Posted by Smithers at 3:42 pm in Local Cycling | Permalink | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007
From the new and improved comments section:
I also am allowing myself to have high hopes that Slipstream can pull it off — winning without selling its soul. I’d like for there to be at least one team I can feel good about my kids looking up to.
Cycling4all’s Kristian Deibjerg has done an analysis on all 20 of the Pro Tour teams in regards to their anti-doping programs. Points were scored for intra-team drug testing, team funding of anti-doping research and teams stating an interest in being a member of a new “ethical club” league. Points were deducted for team members and staff having prior involvement in doping, team members having involvement with suspicious doctors and the violation of ‘code of conduct” rules. How did the Pro Tour teams stack up? From best score to worst:
8 Bouygues Telecom, FRA
8 AG2R Prévoyance, FRA
7 Credit Agricole, FRA
7 Française des Jeux, FRA
7 Team CSC, DEN
6 T-Mobile, GER
6 Predictor – Lotto, BEL
5 Cofidis, FRA
5 Unibet, SWE
4 Gerolsteiner, GER
4 Rabobank, NED
4 Quick Step, BEL
4 Milram, ITA
4 Saunier Duval, SPA
3 Astana, SWI
2 Liquigas, SWI
1 Discovery Channel, USA
0 Caisse d’Epargne, SPA
-2 Lampre, ITA
-2 Euskaltel – Euskadi, SPA
It’s clear the the French have taken the anti-doping campaign seriously. With one exception, the Cofidis team that ended up pulling out of the Tour after one of their riders got busted, all the French Pro Tour teams are grouped at the top.
The Spanish and the Italian teams clearly have some work to do, as does the sole USA representative.
It would be interesting to see how the Slipstream team would rate but I would tend to believe that they would be right up there towards the top. As a matter of fact, based upon my research of the team, it’s staff and riders, I would expect a rating of between 9 and 11.
In the mean time, if you want to feel good about supporting a Pro Tour cycling team, cheer for a French squad.
Posted by Smithers at 1:16 pm in Pro Cycling | Permalink | 12 Comments »
Monday, July 30th, 2007
Slipstream has signed a Paris-Roubaix winner. My guess is Magnus Backstedt. He is experienced and he may come cheap since he is coming back from some health issues.
Stuart O’Grady just won so I think he might be too expensive.
Fabian Cancellara, maybe. He might also cost a bit too much since he won PR in 2006 and has two stage wins and a stint in yellow this year in the Tour. But he is a pretty versatile rider and Slipstream team director Jonathan Vaughters might put value in that. If Cancellara is affordable he would be a great pick up.
Tom Boonen, no way. Quick-Step has that dude locked up for 2008 and Vaughters could not afford a super star of that magnitude.
Peter Van Petegem, no way. If Vaughters is smart he’ll know this guy is at the end of his career.
Maybe Slipsteam will sign Tommy Danielson for 2008 because I guarantee you that dude won’t be riding for Disco next year. He’ll come cheap since he’ll have washed out of 2 different Pro Tour caliber teams.
Johnny V, please hire me!
Posted by Smithers at 9:45 pm in Pro Cycling | Permalink | 7 Comments »
Monday, July 30th, 2007
MSNBC:
Iraq’s parliament adjourned Monday for an August recess without receiving from the government a series of U.S.-backed draft laws designed to enhance national unity.
Our soldiers and fighting and dying and the parliament goes on holiday.
Why are we still over there?
Posted by Smithers at 2:36 pm in Politics | Permalink | 14 Comments »
Monday, July 30th, 2007
U.S. Army Maj. Chad Weddell describes Camp Al Asad’s Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office (DRMO) junkyard, December 7, 2006, in Iraq. The yard houses all scrap metal and battle damaged and wrecked vehicles for western Iraq.
It’s a military promo video but when you stop and think about the reality that has created all this junk it is a bit disturbing.
Posted by Smithers at 11:23 am in Politics | Permalink | 1 Comment »
Monday, July 30th, 2007
I love watching the Tour on the teevee. The attacks, the sprints, the mountains, the doping scandals. I love the whole thing from start to finish. Now I am totally depressed that it’s over. So let’s relive the good times and look back at the race this year.
1st GC Alberto Contador: Quite young to win the Tour. Is he connected to Operación Puerto or not? He was kept out of the 2006 Tour since he was a member of the scandal ridden Liberty Seguros team. After being cleared of all charges he was picked up by the Discovery Team and here we are. But his record setting climb up the Plateau-de-Beille along side Michael Rasmussen on stage 14 has led some to speculate that he may not be so squeaky clean after all. I guess we will wait a few weeks and see if his victory is secure.
2nd GC Cadal Evans: Second in both time trials and up there every day in the mountains, Evans has to be happy with his race this year. It appears that both Evans and…
3rd GC Levi Leipheimer: …have adopted the same tactic of limiting their losses to the pure mountain goats on the uphill finishes while trying to put them away in the time trials. It does not make for the most exciting racing but the fact that the podium spots were only separated by 31 seconds proves that this tactic has some value. One or two longer time trials and one of these guys could have the race in the bag.
Good rides: Carlos Sastre, Haimar Zubeldia, Michael Boogerd, Chris Horner
Not so good: Alejandro Valverde, Iban Mayo, Frank Schleck, Thomas Dekker, Christophe Moreau
Green Points Jersey Tom Boonen: He hauled himself over the mountains, he won a couple of stages, he won the green jersey. Ho hum. I don’t know, I guess I was looking for BooBoo to be a bit more dominant in the sprints but, for the second year running, he and his Quick-Step team did not appear to be 100% on the rails.
Mountain Jersey Mauricio Soler: A real stand out this year. By no means indestructible, he showed some moments of weakness on the climbs, but Soler put together a real impressive string of rides in the mountains and was a deserving winner of the mountain prize. I guess we will see if he is a one race wonder or if he will be able to repeat his success.
Scandals: Look at the riders that were involved. Vinokourov, pro since 1998. Moreni, pro since 1998. Rasmussen, pro since 1995. These guys came into professional cycling during the time when doping, especially the use of EPO, was rampant. The fact that they were either caught or, in the case of Rasmussen, simply dealt with by their team is a positive sign as far as I am concerned. As Tom Boonen stated:
The guys who cheat have to get out, that’s easy. The controls are getting better and that’s why they get caught. Now they [Tour organizers and UCI] know where and what to look for. It would be more worrying if they have no positive cases.
There are always going to be cheaters in professional sports, there is never going to be 100% completely clean cycling. But the hope is that the “old guard” of riders who used performance enhancing drugs during the mid and late 1990’s is being replaced by a younger generation who realize that the tests are indeed getting better and who want to improve cycling’s overall image. It is tempting to give up on cycling when the last two Tours have been so rife with controversy, but I really do see it as a positive sign for the sport.
Posted by Smithers at 8:42 am in Pro Cycling | Permalink | 20 Comments »
Sunday, July 29th, 2007
The switch has been made from Haloscan comments to Wordpress comments as of today. It’s all tested out and seems to be working just fine.
You will no longer be able to comment with complete anonymity, a user name and an e-mail address (both of which you can make bogus if you like) will now be required to post a comment.
If you do have a regular user name you will be listed as a Top Commenter on the sidebar just beneath the Recent Comment and Recent Trackback widgets. I’ll be getting rid of the Haloscan Recent Comment widget later this week.
Haloscan comments will still be available for old posts. If you click on the standard comments link beneath the post you will open up the new Wordpress comment section. If you scroll up just a bit you will find a link to the Original Haloscan Comments and clicking this link will open up any available old Haloscan comments for the post. So all your hilarious comments will be preserved for all of eternity.
Finally, if you want to update your bookmarks, the new RSS feed for comments has been moved from Haloscan to this location.
OK Homme, you should be totally stoked now.
Posted by Smithers at 7:51 pm in Miscellaneous | Permalink | 6 Comments »
Sunday, July 29th, 2007
With Toddler and Baby Smithers. We did not get enough junque food at the beach.
(sent via mobile)
Posted by Smithers at 6:14 pm in Mobile Post | Permalink | 1 Comment »
Sunday, July 29th, 2007
The winner of the 2007 Smithers MINNEAPOLIS Tour de France Pool!
Final results here.
Well done Zack.
If Cadel Evans had been able to take over the lead of the race yesterday then Zack and I would have been tied and I would have awarded the final victory to myself.
Thanks to all who entered the pool, I hope it made watching the Tour a bit more entertaining this year.
Posted by Smithers at 2:29 pm in Pro Cycling | Permalink | No Comments »
