Team Garmin Slipstream

here we have another small indication of the quality folks on the Garmin team. Nearly running over a stationary spectator and her dog. Nice, guys. Real nice.

Now you're talkin!

A picture is worth - millions.


Bondage clubs in Hollywood -
Tea parties are so yesterday.

Detroit Tea Party Postponed

Looks like Palin will have to find other party-planners.

Oh c'mon, you gotta laugh at that one. And more realistically, why is it when Dems get mad the most you might see in a newspaper is a sudden rise in Sierra Club memberships but when the Rightys get mad they plot to kill innocent people? Seriously folks, choose your side wisely. If you think I'm full of it scroll down to the part about Palin 'TARGETING' elected officials.

Hey - if the shoe fits, if it walks like a duck, if it threatens violence...

I love this quote best:
Sickles (possibly a not-so-distant relative of Mrs. Palin?) said she came home Saturday night to find her house in Sandusky, Ohio, in disarray. Agents seized the guns her husband collected as a hobby and searched for bomb-making materials, she said, but added: "He doesn't even know how to make a bomb. We had no bomb material here."

She said she couldn't believe her 27-year-old husband could be involved in anything violent. (ahem, automatic machine guns are pretty violent, toots)

"It was just survival skills," she said. "That's what they were learning. And it's just patriotism. It's in our Constitution."

tell that to the cops they were planning on murdering.

name that cyclist

a few years back...but still a huge part of pro cycling and Chasing Legends...

The First Mountains

The assistant organiser, Victor Breyer, stood at the summit of the Aubisque with the colleague who had proposed including the Pyrenees, Alphonse Steinès. Breyer wrote of the first man to reach them:

'Nuff Said

www.andysinger.com

Bullseye

I really am a busy guy and don't have time for ballyhoo these days but I am also a very passionate guy and when my goose gets in a gander I blog about it. So here we go again down Political Lane.

The writing is on the wall so I"m merely going to comment on the words, so to speak. Bush went to war with Iraq under the guise of chasing Bin Laden. He spent billions per month with the approval of most Amuricans because he threatened us with WMDs (weapons of mass destruction). Turns out there really were not any. Ok fine. Then his administration flushed the Geneva Convention down the toilet and tortured suspects w/o giving them a trial. Ok fine. And he put more Americans out of work than almost any other president. Still no Democrats publicly talked about 'targeting' him or the bought & paid for congress who let him run amuck 'round the world.

What is so astonishing to me is that Obama passes legislation that is designed to reel in the corrupt and crooked health insurance industry and Palin announces she is - and I quote - "TARGETING" the Dems who voted for it. ? Huh? Even if it flops and doesn't work aren't those some pretty good intentions we should all be happy to see a public servant strive for?

So let me get this straight - it's ok to goto war against a country that didn't attack us, didn't have WMD's and really only had a lot of oil for us to steal by spending billions of taxpayers bucks to carry out the theft. But it's not ok to spend money on our own infrastructure that will benefit millions of Americans and keep a tighter reign on an industry that turns its back on the very people who pay into it? So much so is it not ok, that Palin is threatening VIOLENCE against those who voted for it?

This tells me a couple things - Palin, the self-proclaimed savior of the Right Wing is a violent rabble-rouser who panders to the uninformed & easily angered. She promotes violence against federal officials elected by the people. I see how it is quite clearly now - the Tea Party is nothing more than an angry MOB concerned only with their own brazen wants tossing aside any long term care of country - its people or land. They stand for short term personal gain, personal satisfaction and instant gratification and I dare say the only long term health they are concerned about is not the financial, social or political stability of our country, not the quality if the water we drink or air we breath or preservation of any shred of their oft referred to 'values' but instead their own personal financial wealth, their own personal social status and their own personal angers against anyone who disagrees with them. I dare say these are the same people who love WalMart, are horribly overweight and keep the ratings high for any junk-tv show. Hmmmmm.

Way to pick your poster girl, Tea Party (or is that the WWF, the lines are quite blurred on that one). This is your answer to a brighter future for our country? Why don't you just start shooting everyone who disagrees with you (and be sure to use your concealed sidearm). WTF happened to your BIBLE ??? WTF happened to good 'ol FAMILY VALUES??? Oh, silly me, this is also the same bitch who is against public sex education but her daughter got knocked up at 16. Way to show her good values. Did a fine job with that one. Isn't she already divorced after that shotgun (pun intended) marriage? Last I heard they were going to sue each other. Way to show us how to live, Palin!!!

Tea Party HYPOCRITES

Yea I know. Sooner or later some Righty is going to snipe me but hey, I for one believe in free speech and if anyone would like to engage me in a chat - bring it. Tho I am quite sure those who follow Palin would be weak enough to just want to shoot it out - of course after downing Joe's six pack, knocking up their under-age girlfriend and lying to their priest (who is probably busy molesting an alterboy in the confessional).

Jog on.

Yea, Obama ruined us all... mmmmhmmmm

read this slow:

During the 2003-06 boom, the three agencies that supervise most U.S. banks — the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — gave out at least $19 million in bonuses, records show.

Nearly all that money was spent recognizing "superior" performance. The largest share, more than $8.4 million, went to financial examiners, those employees and managers who scrutinize internal bank documents and sound the first alarms. Analysts, auditors, economists and criminal investigators also got awards.

The rest of it is HERE.

Let's recap - from 2003 to 2006 WHO was president? Who controlled congress? Who was running our country?
And Obama has been in office HOW LONG and people say he's ruining the government by trying to add some regulation to an industry that screws its customers when they need it most?

Again, look at the facts. One administration strives to help the rich few, one strives to help the masses. Go on, try to prove me wrong. And here's another nugget for the right-wingers:

12 BILLION VANISHES INTO IRAQ CONTRACTOR POCKETS
I don't recall marches on Washington over this frivolous spending of OUR tax dollars. Where were the Tea Parties then?
Wonder why Rush never harped on that? F-n HYPOCRITES. Yea, protecting our freeDUMB.

Taking responsibility

In a word,


WORD.

Moving on

I had to post something to move that cardinal-creep-monster down the page.
So here's some shots from the editing of CL:

Suspended?

Suspended is what happens to school kids when they zing a teacher with a spit ball or get caught pulling a fire alarm.

Suspended is not what a child molester should be. Electrocuted, hung, drawn & quartered - that's what should happen to a man who poses as a messenger of God only to leverage his position to repeatedly molest children. And now the catholic church thinks so highly of themselves they only suspended this monster. Alright, maybe the quartered is a bit much but suspended? Really? Is that the best you can do Pope?

To get the shots

that few have gotten we went to extremes. Like Stage 19 when we accidentally found ourselves ON COURSE only about 20 minutes ahead of the race. We had a parcours sticker from ASO but we were past our time limit to be on course. The Gendarmerie figured the best way to deal with us was to let us run the gauntlet. Not wanting to miss an opprotunity to capture a unique angle, I had Jeremy pull the RV to the side of the mountain (pretty steep as you'll see) and we rigged the one and only

RV CAM !!!!!!!!!!!

Next time we have a drought

I'll schedule a really important and complicated film shoot. That will surely bring the rain. Like tomorrow. Looks like the goddamn Perfect Storm! 40mph winds? 2-3" of rain? WTF is next? Locusts?

POSTPONED

Sorry folks, the shoot in Georgetown is postponed until 3/20. Hope you can make it then, please let us know either way.

Risk

sometimes, as I sit here logging countless hours in the edit, I think to myself 'damn, I was really there' and realize without knowing at all what this movie will do for my life, it was worth the risk. A rare smile and mug for the camera from a Gendarmerie.

Public Ridicule

I've given it some thought and I stand by my words, one-sided or not. My recent post about Ridiculous Roy was spot on in shedding light onto a valid point - the loudest person in the room is usually hiding something and I think that is a big part of Obama's problem - he isn't loud enough, he doesn't have enough of a personal or even corporate agenda. Bush was loud and fairly motivated but if you would try for a second to argue that Bush wasn't Chenney and Haliburtons President-puppet look at how much money those two got while Bush was in office, ahem... but Bush got stuff done. I don't think Obama has passed more than a dozen bills since taking office so how the hell can he single handedly be ruining anything? That's a lark.

I may not be the most informed guy out there, God knows I don't have a ton of time to fully research the sneaky media on every account but that's why I enjoy the quick bashing of a hypocrite regardless of who they work for or answer to. If some loudmouth activist who worked for Sierra Club was caught coming out of a protected forest with a few logs of endangered Redwood in his prius and a dead spotted owl on the front seat (dinner?) - I'd have just as much zeal to publicly ridicule the idiot as I do with the greedy, loudmouth GOP Teaparty jerks. So if you can handle that read on. I doubt you'll learn much here but if you can take a break from your day and be entertained then I feel I've done my job while voicing my own humble opinion. Hell isn't that the sole purpose of having a blog????

And back to Mr. Roy - "I'm gay," Ashburn told KERN radio host Inga Barks in an interview this morning. "Those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long." This man committed social, political & moral treason and should be treated accordingly. Bring out the gimp...oh wait, it's Roy.

Truth is

I am very politically one sided as recently called out in a recent blog comment. Politics are super easy to comment on, politicians easy to criticize and on a blog it's all one person's opinion which does tend to not be fair to facts and play to stereotypes. I have to admit I find a lot of fun poking fun when it's an obvious shot. But I wonder if that's being cheap? But to say the liberals are ruining the government I'd probably be quick to point out they have only been running the show for a year, ahem. I'm obviously no expert but I'd wager the damage we see now is fallout from the last 8 years. I always have been slanted towards anyone who looks out for the air we all breathe, the water that flows downstream to all things and the land on which we all walk. I'll support the right or left and battle the opposite of who ever leads such stewardship - notice there is no ME ME ME in that sentence so I might be slanted but I'm not selfish in who I support. I find that is a defining characteristic of the 2 parties, one looks out for the benefit of a select few, the other looks out for the benefit of the masses - argue me that, I'm anxious to hear it. I am anti-greed and feel too much has been sacrificed in the name of the almighty dollar. Also hard to argue against the fact that to realize people are not the most important things on the planet is enlightenment. We can't live without balance as a species and when politicians, right or left accept that I'll get on their train.

I should get a little credit for posting the Jon Stewart callout of Democrats loosing the seat in Massachusetts.

While I don't have time to write more about it, I am thinking about it. Anyone who can call me out on something and deliver a nice compliment while doing it deserves a thank you. I imagine it's my business partner Kenny but it's still a good comment. But really I do try to make any post I put up entertaining based on writing style and as my blogging mentor said just last night, "If they don't like what you write they don't have to read it"

At least I keep my political views out of my cycling and my movies : ) and I try to keep any association other than my name from the professional and the personal. Speaking of I should get back to CL and stop worrying about politicians. Tho I did ride with Mayor Fenty a little bit yesterday. The guy is pretty damn fit. Me...not so much.

A Young Mark Cavendish?

or just a kid from Mount Pleasant?

Got to give credit

where credit is due:

Almost Famous

this is the bike.

I had to rebuild it. Rear hub, chain - took many hours. Too many.
See it in action. Georgetown is the place. March 13. P St. NW. Cobbles.

If you shout the loudest

chances are you're covering up something. What do I mean by that? Take the guys who drive huge 4x4 trucks. Huge off-road tires, huge lift kits, massive suspension, the extra huge tailpipe to show the world how they feel about pollution and air quality - typically these are insecure, scared little men hiding behind their tough guy bullshit front driving like a-holes, tailgating people for no reason, flooring it when they pass cyclists to show off the strength of their gas pedal foot. What do these self-absorbed jerks do for society? Do they contribute in any way? Same goes for the girls with the huge sunglasses, lip implants and fancy hair but oops, they put all that time in getting their nails done and forgot to hit the gym. Brilliant white teeth won't hide the junk in the trunk sister. Put the cell phone down and pick up a dumbbell.

Ok, so now that I've offended one or two folks, let's get to my point. Why is it the ultra-right-wingers, the really loud ones, tend to be complete hypocrites? Apply the same theory. Palin has what amounts to a community college education but she stokes the flames of the uneducated to hide it - and does a damn fine job of that if I do say so. And then there's the anti-gay congressmen who are so outwardly opposed to gays yet lead their own secret life of airport bathroom encounters and visiting gay strip clubs dropping our tax dollars into banana hammocks.

So when you encounter the loudest guy (or gal) in the room through their voice, action or parade, best to keep a close, suspect eye on them. Ah HAH! PERFECT TIMING Mr. Republican Roy. Caught ya!

Hope he gets the royal treatment in prison. GOP? Should be LOL

Time Trial

Mic Rogers bending light.


One of my favorite European villages, Lake Annecy at night

Extras Needed

Gripped Films is looking for 20-30 spectators and 40-60 male cyclists for a 2-hour film shoot at noon on
Saturday March 13th in Georgetown for our upcoming movie, Chasing Legends.

Requirements:
*Men between the ages of 25-45, must bring your own bike
*Cyclists must be available from 12 noon-onwards
*Cyclists must wear their own non-logo clothing such as vintage and
wool jerseys and shorts or knickers, old shoes and black or dark dress socks.
*Bikes must vintage or old (no flash) the but still need to withstand
a pounding (think Roubaix). Sorry no cash or reimbursement if a bike
or wheel breaks. We prefer that you bring steel frames, cross bikes or
road bikes with stout rims - NO CARBON RIMS. Also, old commuters (not
single speed or fixies) are acceptable as well.
* Non-paid however all participants will get a credit in the film
* In addition, we will need people to act as a cheering crowd and ring cowbells.
For all those who are interested please contact Gwen at gm1219a@gmail.com
before March 8th.