More Later, Been A Long Night
ArchPundit
I have Jack!’s shameless interview on 20/20 to still get to, but I don’t have the stomach for it right now.
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More Importantly!
Cubs Sweep!
Lance!
Fantastic ride today and put 15 seconds on Jan and a little less on Tyler. He looked in top form–certainly better than last year. Tomorrow’s a sprinter’s day so expect the big teams to circle around the leaders and stay with the Peloton.
And he started without the Yellow today–not having it means Postal isn’t obligated to chase down any breakaways.
Tour de France Cattle Call 7-2
The Last Postal Campaign June 3rd – June 25th
1. Lance! A conspiracy theorist would claim that someone plotted to make him angry with the last minute charges of doping and no one wants to face the controlled rage of Lance. You have to take it from him before you get the top spot. Despite a change up in his training schedule so he could stay in the states and close to his kids, his form is excellent and looked good in the Dauphin? Lib?r?. This’ll be one of his most aggressive races.
2. Tyler Hamilton. Sorry, Ullrich is amazing, but Hamilton is hot and tough. Beat Lance on a Mt. Ventoux and last years performance was perhaps the most amazing non-winning effort I’ve seen in 15 years of watching the Tour.
3. Jan Ullrich. Won the Tour of Switzerland, but lost teammate Alexandre Vinoukorov who was number 3 last year. Ullrich will challenge, but there is little to suggest he can take Lance in top form. The loss of Vinoukorov will reduce his ability to be aggressive in the mountains and Lance still has a strong climbing contingent around him even with Heras going to his own team.
4. Ibn Mayo. Talented climber, but not balanced enough in the sprints. Strong win in Dauphin? Lib?r?, but that is a shorter race.
5. Roberto Heras. Has his own team and has improved Time Trialing (TT) over the years. Can he beat Lance in the mountains. Yes. Can he blow him out enough to make up for TTs? Nope.
6. Levi Lepheimer. Crashed out last year. Question is how he can handle the mountains.
Four of the six were or are members of Postal–3 are Americans. So while Postal will be switching sponsors next year, it’ll be around for a long time.
ON the Podium in Paris
1. Lance
2. Tyler
3. Jan
Expect Floyd Landis to surprise a bit and show himself to be stronger than expected.
Biggest danger? Fan interference–last year the fall was Lance’s fault, but in Merckx was beaten in his attempt for a sixth when he was punched in the stomach.
Other Americans:
Bobby Julich on CSC
Christian Van Velde on Heras’ Liberty Seguros
Election Forecasting is Fun, but….
The models are predicting a rather substantial Bush win. While accurate in many past elections, they blew the 2000 election–why? My argument is that all elections before 2000 were fundamentally different focussing on the economic cleavages and not the dominant cleavage we see now–social issues.
More to the point, the models are essentially fun toys for most political scientists. Many of the better known also do the same thing with the baseball rankings every year. One particular political scientist was not spoken to for several months after he used most of the department’s computer time (back in the mainframe day) to calculate his predictions.
Hospital Scandal
Is covered over at OneMan–check it out, good coverage of the story and the various political aspects.
Why Drudge is Useful
He has a great link to an archeological site that has been protected by the owner for years.
There aren’t many private land owners protective enough of such treasurers to do the following:
Although the University of Utah hired a seasonal caretaker and students from three Utah schools are working the sites this summer, Wilcox worries about possible looting, especially at odd times of the year when nobody may be watching the ranch. He said he gave it up on a promise of protection from the San Francisco-based Trust for Public Land, which transferred the ranch to public ownership.
The promise barely assured Wilcox, but he knew one thing: “I’m getting old and couldn’t take care of it.” He said he asked $4 million for the ranch, but settled for $2.5 million, moved to Green River, Utah, and retired.
Over the years, Wilcox occasionally welcomed archaeologists to inspect part of the canyon, “but we’d watch ’em.” When one Kent State researcher used a pick ax to take a pigment sample from a pictograph, Wilcox “took the pick from him and took him out of the gate.”
Kingdom of God Revealed at 10 AM
The Right Reverend Batty was to explain the whole deal this morning. Apparently some folks took issue with politicians helping to crown the RRB the Messiah. Go figure.
It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Ends Up on the Hood of Car
THE END GAME (excerpt) * Thousands of retired teachers will descend on the Statehouse today to pressure the General Assembly to approve a bill that will allow them to keep their health insurance.
Retired teachers will lose their health insurance July 1 if the General Assembly does not approve legislation extending a deal that was cut in 2001. The Senate had been expected to pass the extension yesterday, but the chamber didn’t move the bill.
The insurance program faced financial collapse a few years ago until it was bailed out by the state. Active teachers were also required to kick in part of their paychecks to underwrite the program. The new bill would increase premiums for retirees and also require annual state funding.
A Brief Missouri Interlude
May 30th Post-Dispatch:
Jeff Smith, for example, has attracted lots of attention since winning the support of Dean, who may stop here to campaign for him. Smith also captured the Democratic endorsement in Jefferson Township a few weeks ago over the objections of Londe and others who backed Carnahan. Smith’s red-meat rhetoric often ignites forum crowds. A standard line: “If John Ashcroft is for it, I’m probably against it.”
Russ Carnahan at the 17th Ward Meeting this week:
?If John Ashcroft is for it, then I?m against it?
Adopting a position or such that is similar to an opponent isn’t such a big deal. Stealing lines virtually verbatim is just stupid. If you have some extra cash, go donate to Jeff so we can have someone in Congress who isn’t an absolute idiot.