Cross smackdown and political smackdowns...

2 of my favorite things, converging at once. Yes, bike racing and politics. OK, maybe they didn't converge in the same place, but nearly at the same time. I'm of course talking about the looming elections coming up tomorrow, or, well, in 20 minutes (seeing as how midnight is tomorrow, and that is 20 minutes away and all), and the cyclocross races this weekend in Boulder Colorado. First, the racing, because hey, that's fun.

I've got to say, back a bunch of years ago when I raced those things called bicycles, and when I especially raced those things called mountain bikes, I ran into this woman in the mid Atlantic region named Katie Compton. Now, she was a strong mountain biker and all, she rode for the regional Trek team up there, and she won some decent races, and then she disappeared. Off of the map. I saw her picture again a few years down the line after she won a few gold medals being the sighted pilot of a blind stoker on the track in the paralympics. Still some pretty impressive cycling chops right there. Now, that would have been a pretty sweet story, but a few years after that, she turned up at the national championships for cyclocross. Ready to rock. She had not competed in a single women's UCI race in the US, or other locations, that entire year, mostly because if she did, she would be ineligible for the paralympics, and she didn't want to disappoint her stoker. She lined up at the back of the pack, the gun went off, and immediately, she drilled it to the front, rode away from the rest of the women in the race, and took the stars and stripes. Now, if you've been around the cycling world, you know that bike racing in general (even for the men) is catty as all get out. Such as, "Who does she think she is winning the national championship when she hasn't raced against us all year long anyway??" Now, I don't know if those words were spoken, but I bet they were thought by more than a few of the women that Ms. Compton smacked down that weekend. Fast forward one more time, to national championships last year. Same verse, same as the first. Katie had to line up at the back of the pack again (since she had gained no points throughout the year, even though she was the defending champ even), again the gun went off, again she sliced her way completely through the field, and schooled them all again. I was duly impressed. She is a machine.

Cross season 2006, rules change, Compton can now race in UCI races. What has she been doing? Winning every single race the woman enters. She is utterly amazing in the world of cross in the US. The only woman that can even come close to holding her wheel is Lynne Bessette from Canada, and even then, she gets ridden of her wheel almost every weekend. Sometimes she holds on for a little while, other times, not so much. As Patrick O'Grady said, she is a Cylon warrior for sure. The woman is really just unbelievable. I am excited to see if she goes to world championships this year, and if so, I think she has a pretty good chance of winning that race. I haven't seen a woman this dominant in cross since Allison Dunlap, and even then, she lost a couple of times here and there. Compton? Not so much.

Also riding this weekend, another cross master. Mr. Ryan Trebon, also known as The Tree Farm. The kid is 6'5", and if it had not been for a mechanical problem this past weekend, he would have won both races as well. Even with many mechanical issues, and stopping for a full minute or more, he climbed back on his bike, and rocketed back through the field, and managed to still finish 4th on Sunday I think it was. A stunning performance from the kid who used to live in North Carolina. Yes, we can say we knew him when. I'm sure he would remember me, because we were in a race once, and I was wearing a pair of bibs that were a little "worn" shall we say? And he kept remarking about how much ass hair I had (well, still have), and that it was making all sorts of weird swirling patterns. Hey, I don't know what he was doing looking at my ass, but those who know me, know that indeed, I have a hairy ass. Nothing I can do about that. Genetics after all (thanks Dad!!). But back to Trebon and away from my hairy ass. This guy is rocking it as well. I would love to see him go back across the pond again, and duke it out with the big Belgian boys of cyclocross. Now, let's be serious, he might not win over there, but I think he could finish as well, if not better than Jon Page was doing before he knocked himself out for this season. Trebon, in my opinion, is stronger than Page, and it might be time for him (Trebon) to ride a full Euro cross schedule, and see what shakes loose. I mean, it couldn't hurt right? He can stomp everyone here in the US, so maybe he should give the others in the US a chance to win a race or 2, and head overseas. Trebon, if you happen to read this, go race against Nijs and Vervecken. Not because I don't want you around, but because it would be sweet if you could improve your skills even more, and maybe, just maybe, we could have a world champ in cyclocross? That might be reaching, because those Belgians are awfully good at what they do, and let's face it, their "program" (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) is probably A LOT better than yours as well, but you can compete. You can ride hard against those Euro boys. Give it a try. I think it'll suit you. Oh, one last piece of advice. Get rid of the white kit. That's just bad form. Really bad form...

Best of luck for the rest of the season for Ryan and Katie. Keep ripping the legs of the competition.

Now, onto politics. I don't actually have much to rant about, this being, again, the eve of this year's elections and all. I'm just hoping, and crossing the old fingers that the democrats will take back the House, and God willing, the Senate. I'm so sick of the republicans talking shit about things that they can't talk shit about, and then the democrats not coming back at them. In spite of ourselves, we look to be in a good position going into tomorrow's election. Bush's Iraq policy has utterly failed, and he refuses, like an insolent child, to change course, and change tactics. Just more of the same, "We aren't leaving until we win." sort of rhetoric which really isn't saying, well, much of anything. Then we have the republicans, almost all of them, using Karl Rove's talking points. Saying, dems will raise taxes (not true), saying dems will rollback Bush's tax cuts (they don't run out until 2010, and even if the dems created legislation to get rid of the, Bushie could use the good old VETO to say no), dems are weak on national security (who was at the helm when we got attacked on 9/11? Yes, the republicans, even though they want to make you think Clinton was), republican corruption, sex scandals, and just about everything else all rolled into one, and realistically, the republicans shouldn't even be close to winning. And really, they're not. Unless you listen to our friends the alleged liberal media, who keeps reporting that the polling is close (it's not), and that the republicans are closing ground (they're not). You want to see media misinformation, or at least conservative media misinformation debunked, check out Media Matters for America. Now, I'm not even going to try and say that these guys are balanced, they're not. They're about exposing the conservative misinformation within the alleged liberal media, and they have plenty to say, and plenty to debunk actually. And the best thing about is, they use the actual words of the people spewing forth bad information against them. It's hard to argue against someone when they're using your words, in context, to debunk your entire arguments when you're using bad information. They do a pretty good job of it really. Check them out.

The republicans keep throwing out that the dems "have no plans". Which, again, is tha farthest thing from the truth. Now, when you control the House, the Senate, and the White House, and have appointed a lot of federal judges, well, you get to control the pace, and the distribution of information, let alone Congress, and the Executive branch. The dems have ideas, but the republicans in charge, don't let them see the light of day. Democratically devised legislation gets shut down in committee, and hasn't come out onto the floor for a vote since 1994. They have ruled the House and Senate with a ruthles iron will. Breaking and changing rules, avoiding ethics inquiries, and basically letting the inmates run the prison. I hope like me, that the rest of you are sick of it, and will vote the bums out. The common complaint that I now hear from people who were so pro-Bush, and pro-Republican just a couple of years ago in 2004 is that they are now "sick of it all". And how bad things are going. And that they don't want to vote for anyone. Now, hold on a minute there super chief. You voted your guys into office, and they've mucked things up pretty badly, and somehow, this is now the democrats fault? This is what they're telling me. It is the democrats fault because they are so "partisan", and so angry, and block everything that the republicans want to do. Jesus!!! I can't believe the people I'm talking to, who are actually educated, think this way. They are thinking because the Congress hasn't given W everything that he has wanted, that somehow, they're being obstructionists, and that the democrats are the reason why the country is going to Hell in a handbasket. Look, we're not driving the car right now. After tomorrow, we might be, and then if we can't get some things done, then point the finger, but until then, it's all on the dunderheads you guys put into office. Namely, Bush, and his cabal of sketchy individuals. Karl Rove being at the top of the list. For an administration who was supposed to bring honor and integrity back to the White House, they've done a bang up job... In case you didn't catch that, sarcasm people, pure sarcasm.

I'm hoping come Wednesday morning, the sun will be shining. The dems will have won maybe one, maybe both houses of Congress, and then we can move on with impeachment trials. No, just kidding, not impeachment, but at least some checks of the executive branch which seems to have forgotten that they indeed need to follow the rule of law as well.

Vote democrat. We're cool. Aside from that (see picture below)...