Le Tour!

It’s been over two weeks since I lasted posted on this page! I’ve been watching the Tour de France! Lance Armstrong’s team, Discovery Channel, seems to be doing okay, they have a great new Spanish rider, Alberto Contador, who will, if nothing unforeseen happens, win the White Jersey for Best Young Rider. The Young Alberto actually won Stage 14, the first stage in the Pyrenees Mountains, and arguably the most difficult stage so far this year.

There are a few U.S. riders in contention, but none considered “serious” serious contenders. Lance Armstrong’s old stalwart, George Hincapie is … in the top 20 and the Team Discovery Channel leader, Levi Leipheimer is in the top 10.

Here’s a shocker: Team Astana pulled out of the tour because their top rider, Alexandre Vinokourov, tested positive for an illegal blood transfusion. Here’s why blood transfusions are banned: The teams take the blood from their riders, put in it a centrifuge and then separate the red blood cells from the plasma and white blood cells. And then, just before the day’s ride, team doctors and trainers pump some of that “super” blood back into the rider(s) and the increased red blood count means more oxygen getting to the muscles of the riders. Vinokourov got caught because he had someone else’s blood in his system. If Lance Armstrong cheated during his seven Tour victories, this is how he did it. Only difference, Armstrong has his own red blood cells put back into his system.

Vinokourov was an early favorite to win the tour and for a few stages, it looked as if he would take it all. But then he had a bad crash in Stage Five when his chain snapped, sending him tumbling. He required over 60 stitches to repair his torn body; both knees and if I’m not mistaken and both elbows.

Danish rider Michael Rasmussen, lead man for Team Rabobank, has a severe lock on the General Classification Yellow Jersey – the same jersey Armstrong won seven tours in a row – and his most ardent and consistent competitor, especially in the Pyrenees Mountains, has been Alberto Contador. As it sits today, if anyone is going to take the yellow jersey from the Dane, it will be the Spaniard from Team Discovery Channel.

On the other hand, Rasmussen has his own rumors of illegal blood transfusions to contend with and if he gets outed before this tour is over, the young man from Madrid could very well be the next Tour de France Overall Champion.
* Here’s a profile in courage; In 2005 Alberto underwent risky surgery to remove a massive blood clot from his brain. Two years later, he is what many consider the only real challenge to Rasmussen left in the Tour de France. Muy bueno Alberto! Or, Trey bon, mon ami!

So, Monday Night I was watching MSNBC, the slot that used to have Scarborough Country, but is now hosted by Dan Abrams, the mucky-muck of MSNBC. In one segment, he had Curtis Sliwa of the Guardian Angels, debating Darren Brass from the TLC program, Miami Ink, on the restrictions concerning tattoos in the military and police. Sliwa actually said people with tattoos were like junkies because those of us with tattoos don’t stop with one, although I have just the one and have no plans for more. He also said those of us with tattoos are anti-social!

Thankfully, Brass and Abrams both said it was just ignorance that fueled the anti-tattoo sentiment in this country. Sliwa has been an idiot for over three decades and now he wants to spew such negativity about tattoos?! Far be it for me to be judgmental, but Sliwa was wearing the red “uniform” of his Guardian Angels, which kinda looks ridiculous! Check out the video here.

Also on Monday night: the U-Tube Debate, hosted by Anderson Cooper of CNN. It’s too bad Congressman Dennis Kucinich isn’t a front-runner in the Democratic primaries. This morning he took on Ann Curry of MSNBC when she tried to pin him down about the prospect of more violence if U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq and he insisted on talking about how we got into the war in Iraq in the first place; his point being, if we don’t examine the how and why of the disaster in Iraq, what happens from this day forward will be just as bad as what got us into this mess in the first place. Kucinich has a point.
* Just an aside, Campbell Brown, for many years a capable correspondent with NBC/MSNBC (and the woman who broke my heart when she married ... sigh … Dan Senor, Fox Noise reporter and former Bush (43) Administration official) has left the Peacock to go work for CNN. They could use a pretty face who knows how to report the news.

So much for politics today. Our troops are still dying in that quagmire called Iraq and there doesn’t seem to be any hope for them in the near future. Congress has the power to end this mess today – if they show the cajones to do so. There’s only one thing worse than a president who’s an idiot: a cowardly Congress unwilling to stand up to the idiot.