Arrgghh. Another one of those days at Le Tour. “As exciting as watching flies do the nasty,” as I tweeted between bouts of posting stories and photos at VeloNews.com. And I don’t know which of those things is dirtier — flies doing the nasty, tweeting or posting cycling journalism to the Ethernets.
The peloton had its collective chamois in a bunch over the decision to ban race radios on this stage and one other, stage 13, which may explain the general lack of action.
Yet who among us can blame them? The riders found themselves alone, cast adrift on a roiling sea of asphalt, with no resources other than teammates, feed zones, cell phones, team vehicles full of directors, spare parts and complete bicycles, Mavic neutral support, the race doctor, guys on motos bearing blackboards, maps of the day’s route and their own intimate knowledge of the strategy and tactics of the sport. Oh, the humanity.
Sure enough, the lack of moment-to-moment radio communication between the team cars and their riders proved so decisive that (gasp) Mark Cavendish won a bunch sprint on a mostly flat stage! Imagine that, if you dare. I tell you, it had me whimpering like a little child.
Meanwhile, in DeeCee, the extremely junior Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Aryan Nations) tried to bitch-slap Supremes hopeful Sonia Sotomayor during day two of her confirmation hearing today and found himself munching a fat mouthful of his own feeble knuckle sandwich.
Contrasting Sotomayor’s approach to jurisprudence with that of Reagan nominee Judge Miriam Cedarbaum, saying Cedarbaum “believes that judges must transcend their personal sympathies and prejudices,” Sessions got whacked upside his pointy head with a one-two tag-team tap from Sotomayor and Cedarbaum, who was present at the confirmation hearing. It’s a wonder that Kluxer hood of his stays so white, considering where he keeps his head.
Said Cedarbaum, so beloved of Sessions that he didn’t know she was in the room, “I don’t believe for a minute that there are any differences in our approach to judging, and her personal predilections have no effect on her approach to judging.”
Quipped Ian Millhiser of the ThinkProgress Wonk Room in live-blogging day two of the Sotomayor hearing: “Note to Sessions: before you put words in a federal judge’s mouth, make sure that she isn’t in the hearing room to hear your false claim.”
I’ll bet the sonofabitch goes home, spills a generous dollop of Old Tennis Shoes on the carpet and blames it on the maid, then makes his wife fire her. This empty suit is a disgrace to rednecks ever’whur. Thanks and a tip of the Mad Dog gimme cap to Steve Benen of Political Animal.
Mad Blog Media 
Patrick,
Don’t you mean “mistress/boy-toy” instead if “wife?” I mean, this is the Grand Ol’ Party your talking ’bout. You do know that, now, dont’cha boy?
And “yes” hearing a bunch of whinny racers bitching about not having radio contact with the mother teat, I mean, team manager is silly. Sort of like LBJ worrying about his image after getting dunked on by a college sophmore. To those of you who may be confused: that’s LeBron James but I guess you could make further analogies about ‘the other’ LBJ.
Jeff Sessions is an idot
Sessions is in an eternal campaign, presently sliding down the razor blade of amnesty PAC’s.
As far as Le Tour, LA twitted yesterday that it “was the most relaxing” phase of the tour he’d ever experienced. C’mon Alps!
Sure Pat, I’ll follow your tweet, to your blog, no problem; clearly you have mastered the art of social media. Thanks for sharing.
My interaction with our US Congress has been limited to a couple of briefs here and there, some sub-sub-sub-committee work, and a lot of time on my knees begging for funding or authority to spend existing funds. Not an expert, but have been around the block once or twice.
And I’m not telling you anything new here, but with very few exceptions, these are some of the dumbest people you’ll ever meet.
But there’s nothing necessarily wrong with dumb. Lots of dumb people are functional members of society. What pisses me off about these guys is that they don’t put in the hours and elbow grease to compensate for their stupidity. You know, simple stuff, like looking shit up before opening their mouth.
Ten bucks says fewer than a dozen members of Congress have bothered to read the two key speeches of Sotomayor that are causing the right wing lunatic fringe conniptions. They’re all concerned about what she said, but not so concerned that they can be bothered to fire up the google machine and actually read the speech for themselves.
That’s what happens when you have a staff of 70 tending to your every need.