Manure de Lance

If Lance Armstrong had to do it all over again, he would do exactly the same thing. The mutterings of what can only be called a raving sociopath were reported on in that reliable media outlet the Daily Mail.

What surprises me is he doesn't have stock in the New England Deflatriots. They're all birds of a feather.

Anyway, Lance has the nerve to ask the public to forgive him for having been caught.

Asked if he would cheat again by Dan Roan, Armstrong says: 'It's a complicated question, and my answer is not a popular answer. If I was racing in 2015, no, I wouldn't do it again, because I don't think you have to.

'If you take me back to 1995, when it was completely and totally pervasive, I'd probably do it again. People don't like to hear that.'

People STILL don't want to hear from him.

Etc.

Talk about giving ammunition to the anti-same-sex marriage crowd.

This is just disgusting:

Judge Clark Waddoups of United States District Court in Utah ruled late Friday that part of the state’s law prohibiting “cohabitation” — the language used in the law to restrict polygamous relationships — violates the First Amendment guarantee of free exercise of religion, as well as constitutional due process. He left standing the state’s ability to prohibit multiple marriages “in the literal sense” of having two or more valid marriage licenses.

You know what that means: It opens the door to legalizing polygamy and all of that other demented shit without regard for women's well-being or the children born of such "relationships." Let me guess what religion the judge is.
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The dope who got caught doping gives the straight dope he would dope again. In his mind he doesn't believe he cheated because "everybody else" was doing it. He thinks it's because he has a reputation for being an asshole that he was targeted.

His sociopathy is becoming more and more apparent. He just needs to shut up and go away.

The Right to Lie

One of our most cherished freedoms in this country, one of the few we have left, is the right to tell a lie. If we didn't have this freedom, there would be no politicians left, not that it would be any great loss at the rate things are going now.

But do publishers have the right to foster a con on American consumers and dress it up as an autobiography?

Of course I am talking about the New Jersey lawsuit against the publishers of two Lance Armstrong "autobiographies," It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life and Every Second Counts. The lawyer is suing on behalf of a handful of readers who he claims were misled into thinking what Lance said was true, but we all know now what a cheater and liar he really was and is. The plaintiffs claim the publisher knew or should have known what Lance said wasn't the truth.

It'll probably get thrown out of court.

A Ghost of the Past Returns

I am reading an eBook about disgraced cyclist and champion cheat Lance Armstrong written by David Walsh. Actually, the book is a reprint of a number of articles Walsh wrote about Armstrong beginning when rumors started swirling that his wins in the Tour de France were as a result of doping. It's a good roundup of articles, but I noted to my brother tonight that we really haven't heard anything from or about Lance since the Oprah interview a few months ago.

Well, I spoke too damned soon. You can take Lance Armstrong out of the Tour de France but you can't take the Tour de France out of Lance Armstrong. He has decided to attend the event despite being unwanted and uninvited.

Lance Armstrong made himself the uninvited guest at the Tour de France on Friday, coming back to haunt the 100th edition of the race and infuriating riders both past and present by talking at length in a newspaper interview about doping in the sport.

Armstrong told Le Monde that he still considers himself the record-holder for Tour victories, even though all seven of his titles from 1999-2005 were stripped from him last year for doping.

He said his life has been ruined by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency investigation that exposed as lies his years of denials that he and his teammates doped. He also took another swipe at cycling’s top administrators, darkly suggesting they could be brought down by other skeletons in the sport’s closet.

Something the hell is wrong with this guy. The only person who ruined his life is him.

A few of the comments were pretty good:

Uninvited, unwanted guest. Just like in Austin. Go away Cheater.
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Ya can take the boy out of the trailer park but the trailer park will remain in the boy...
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The truth and the fact is Lance Armstrong isn't "news" any more unless he gets cell-photo'd dumpster diving or the like. But I can see why he'd show up at the opening festivities of the TDF. He enabled a lot of people to make a lot of $$$ off bicycle racing. Getting caught cheating has cost and continues to cost Armstrong a lot of $$$, but most of those who profited haven't paid back and never will, even those who were complicit with the dopers. This is just his mob-bully-mentality way of reminding them, "I know who you are and I saw what you did."
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Lance Dopestrong never failed a drug test and he cured cancer.
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only reason he'd be going to a Tour De France would be as a drug supplier....
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If this was the last article about Lance Armstrong, it didn't come soon enough.

Obituaries and Etc.

Film critic Roger Ebert, 70, has died.

He became nationally known when he co-hosted a film review show on PBS, Sneak Previews, with the late Gene Siskel.

More:

The Pulitzer Prize-winning movie critic for the Chicago Sun-Times for more than 45 years and for more than three decades the co-host of one of the most powerful programs in television history (initially with the late Gene Siskel, the movie critic for the Chicago Tribune, and, following Siskel’s death in 1999, with his Sun-Times collogue Richard Roeper), Ebert died Thursday, according to a family friend.

Even still, he kept writing and remained as active as he could be. He was planning to host the 15th annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival later this month in his hometown of Champaign-Urbana.

Prolific almost to the point of disbelief—the Weekend section of the Sun-Times often featured as many as nine on some days. Ebert reviews on any given Friday—Ebert was arguably the most powerful movie critic in the history of that art form. He was also the author of 15 books, a contributor to various magazines, author of the liveliest of bloggers and an inspiring teacher and lecturer at the University of Chicago..

He often wrote about non-film topics.
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Lance Armstrong's swimming career is sunk.
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At least Texas is doing something right.

Etc.

Oscar Pistorius's defense weighs in on the investigation into the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
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Defiant until the end of time, Lance Armstrong will NOT cooperate with USADA.

Of course he's got more pressing matters to worry about, such as civil suits:

USADA had given Armstrong -- who publicly admitted such drug use last month -- until Wednesday to decide whether he would cooperate under oath with investigators as part of a possible path to altering his USADA-imposed lifetime competition ban.

"Lance will not participate in USADA's efforts to selectively conduct American prosecutions that only demonize selected individuals while failing to address the 95% of the sport over which USADA has no jurisdiction," Armstrong attorney Tim Herman said in a written statement Wednesday.

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Former New Mexico senator Pete Domenici channels Henry Hyde.

Actually it was much worse, as the girlfriend who had his kid was a daughter of former Nevada senator Paul Laxalt.

Michelle Laxalt is the daughter of former U.S. Sen. Paul Laxalt, himself a significant political figure in the 1970s and `80s as he served as Nevada governor and two terms in the Senate alongside Domenici.

Michelle Laxalt became a prominent lobbyist, Republican activist and television commentator after the affair. She said in the statement that she chose to raise her son as a single parent and that the two agreed that it would be a private matter.

"One night's mistake led to pregnancy more than 30 years ago," she said.

Laxalt's prominence in national politics occasionally put her in an odd position of publicly discussing the integrity of the man who is the father of her child.

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Etc.

Forty years after the USSC legalized abortion in the United States, the procedure continues to be under sustained attack. It doesn't help Obama panders to the anti-abortion crowd:

The Obama administration is no stranger to these restrictions. In early 2010, President Barack Obama signed an executive order to uphold abortion restrictions, prohibiting the use of federal funds to pay for any abortion or to “cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion” except in cases of rape, incest, or danger to the mother.

Obama signed the order as a concession to a group of anti-abortion Democrats who had threatened to vote against his health care legislation. This enforcement of already existing restrictions stemming from the Hyde Amendment of 1976 reveals the administration’s pandering to the right-wing anti-abortion bloc. These restrictions also serve to discourage insurers from offering plans that cover abortions.

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We know Lance Armstrong suffers--or, more accurately, forces others to suffer--from some kind of sociopathy, but few have the patience to write an article about it.

Yes, He's Still Lying

In case you missed it:

Lance Armstrong Was a Product of His Times

This is a good analysis of the disgraced cycling champion's interview with Oprah Winfrey last week:

In any event, the cycling champion’s ruthless outlook did not come out of the blue. Armstrong matured in the Reagan-Bush-Clinton years, when the “free market,” selfishness and greed were worshipped at every turn by the entire media and political establishment. “Force works,” declared the Wall Street Journal following the war on Iraq in 1990-91, and the notion that bullying and violence were the solution to each and every problem was communicated through the political system, popular culture and the sports industry.

One doesn’t want to exaggerate, but Armstrong, in his intimidation tactics, relentless, almost provocative, lying, and his apparent belief he could get away with anything, seems to have borrowed more than a little from official America’s relations with the rest of the globe over the past two decades.

Bound up with the money, corporate sponsorships and emergence of the “athlete as entrepreneur” has been the advent of the celebrity culture in America, which also swept Armstrong along in its wake. Indeed, his conversation with Oprah Winfrey, on national television, was one of that culture’s false and stage-managed operations. (No doubt all sorts of legal and financial calculations went into Armstrong’s appearance, including perhaps the first step in a process of publicly rehabilitating himself as part of an effort to get his lifetime sports ban lifted.)

He could have easily been a Wall Street bankster.

No Real Remorse At All

It's because he got caught that Lance is trying to claim he is sorry while not coming across all that sincere. Some have said he wants to continue "the brand" and make some kind of comeback.

What really gets me is how he absolutely betrayed his mother, who worked her ass off to help him with his career, and his kids, by lying and cheating his way to fame and fortune. The list of victims of Lance Armstrong is long.

The lowest and most alienating moment came when Armstrong purported not to remember whether he had sued Emma O'Reilly, the team's massage therapist, whom he'd labelled an alcoholic and a prostitute after she blew the whistle. Winfrey had given Armstrong an easy opportunity to apologise to O'Reilly, but his self-absorption made that impossible. "We sued so many people, I don't even … I'm sure we did," he said.

If there was a detectible emotion, it was that Armstrong was enjoying himself – which is a disaster, in crisis-management terms. Not that this should have been shocking. He had already shown an epic disregard for the rules of competitive cycling, so it was hardly surprising that he showed a similar disregard for the rules of the Oprah confessional. Winfrey never once elicited a shred of empathy on Armstrong's part. But the likeliest explanation for that, to judge from his responses on Thursday night, was that there wasn't any there.

His "confession" wasn't a genuine act of contrition, by the way. There was an ulterior motive:

Armstrong’s reason for coming clean was not to unburden himself of the deception he fought to keep secret for so long. It was to take the first step toward mitigating the lifetime ban from Olympic sports that he received from the United States Anti-Doping Agency in the fall, according to people close to him who did not want their names published because they wanted to stay in Armstrong’s good graces.

Antidoping officials need to hear more from Armstrong than just an apology and a rough outline of his doping. They need details. And lots of them.

“Anything he says on TV would have no impact whatsoever under the rules on his lifetime suspension,” Tygart said.

The Lanced Chronicles

Part two of the Oprah interview is tonight.

I caught the last hour of it last night, so my brother is now recording both on DVR.

He even attributed the bullying to his cancer:

Lance Armstrong admitted to Oprah Winfrey during his televised interview on OWN that in the course of defending himself from charges that he'd used banned substances in his cycling, he became a "bully." And surprisingly, he attributed it to his battle with testicular cancer that changed his attitude.

"I was always a fighter," Armstrong said in the first of the two-part interview that aired Thursday night. "Before my diagnosis, I was a competitor, but not a fierce competitor. Then I said I will do anything I need to do to survive. Then I brought that ruthless, win-at-all-costs attitude into cycling."

We won't hear the last of Lance; legal problems undoubtedly loom large in his future:

Peter Keane, a law professor at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, is convinced the criminal case will be reopened.

Because of a fraud, "he became very famous, very rich," Keane said. "The idea of him getting a pass on it is going to be looked at with a degree of there's a double standard here. It's something (the government) takes very seriously and they want to discourage people from doing it."

If prosecutors try reopening the case, they do face a hurdle, possibly one that hampered the initial investigation. Any charges may have fallen outside the statute of limitations, but some legal observers said there may be some wiggle room.
"On the criminal side, there are certainly timing issues, but I've never met a prosecutor who didn't try to find a creative way around a statute of limitations," said Marc Mukasey, also a former federal prosecutor and New York-based defense attorney.

Most legal experts agree, however, that Armstrong's confession will expose him to various lawsuits. He is worth an estimated $100 million.

The real Lance Armstrong came through, and not in a good way:

Across 90 minutes with Oprah Winfrey, Lance Armstrong did more than admit he cheated to win his seven Tour de France titles. He revealed a measure of the man that he is and this much is certain: If you never met this jerk, well, count your blessings.

Defiant, distant, difficult.

Arrogant, unaware, flippant.

Oh, Lance had a plan to try to look open and honest, and that was what was so obvious: It was a plan. It sounded rehearsed. But when he went off script, well, that's when he went off the rails.

And even when he told "all," he still didn't tell the whole truth:

"That's the only thing in this whole report that upset me," Armstrong said during the interview. "The accusation and alleged proof that they said I doped [in 2009] is not true. The last time I crossed the line, that line was 2005."

"You did not do a blood transfusion in 2009?" Winfrey asked.

"No, 2009 and 2010 absolutely not," Armstrong said.

Investigators familiar with the case disagree. They said today that Armstrong's blood values at the 2009 race showed clear blood manipulation consistent with two transfusions. Armstrong's red blood cell count suddenly went up at these points, even though the number of baby red blood cells did not.

I Didn't Watch It

Lance bared all, or at least some, with his interview that aired tonight on one of Oprah Winfrey's shows or specials or whatever the hell they are.

I am sure the attorneys for all of the companies he scammed, individuals he trashed, and media he slandered are salivating over the prospect of hauling him into court:

Lance Armstrong said in his Thursday night interview with Oprah Winfrey that he did not do anything to try to influence the U.S. Atty.’s office in Los Angeles to drop its grand-jury probe of him last February.

“No, none, that’s very difficult to influence,” he said.

Asked if he thought he had achieved victory from the scrutiny of doping allegations when no charges were filed, he said, “I thought I was out of the woods.”

Armstrong told Winfrey he’s convinced he could have avoided this scenario if he had remained retired after the seventh Tour win. He said his comeback “didn’t sit well with” ex-teammate Floyd Landis.

Yeah, it was all Floyd's fault you cheated.

I lied. I found the channel and am watching it. He admits he was a bully.

That's an understatement.

Instead of doing a self-serving interview on national television, Lance Armstrong needs to apologize to each and every person whose lives he ruined, starting with Greg and Kathy LeMond.

The Tour de Fraud

In this piece, Lance Armstrong needs to face a roomful of reporters answering tough questions rather than go the "soft" route of appearing on Oprah.

I think no matter what happens, he is cooked. Right now he is trying to rehabilitate his image, but he has long since reached pariah status.

The immediate reaction: Could this guy possibly handle things any worse? Is there not one person in his collection of advisors, lawyers and public relations people who could have made him understand what a mistake it was to take his story to Oprah's confessional? Will he try to win back our affection by jumping on a couch as Tom Cruise did while proclaiming his love for Katie Holmes? Does he expect that hand-wringing and tissue-dabbing will make all the bad stuff go away?

There is a portion of the populace that will swallow the bait. Always is. But most will see through this, will understand that, at a time when transparency was needed, Armstrong's method was totally transparent.

See this for what it is. This is not about the truth. It's about TV ratings. It is a branding and marketing bonanza for Oprah. For Armstrong, the big question is: After decades of being dirty, this is how you come clean?

The point is you never do come clean. Now it's time for the lawyers to clean up what is left of Lance's fortune.

More is here.

Well, He Admitted It

I am sure attorneys of various businesses and individuals from all over the world will closely watch what Lance Armstrong has to say to Oprah Winfrey when the interview airs this Thursday.

That $125 million-fortune of Lance's is likely to be gone in short order now that he has clearly scammed courts in various cases where he claimed he was slandered and the like.

It isn't just endorsement outfits and the media that were hoodwinked into bowing down to Lance and his army of lawyers; it was also individuals whose lives were damaged for daring to challenge the Official Story of Lance Armstrong.

The disgraced cyclist made the confession to Oprah Winfrey during an interview taped Monday, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the interview is to be broadcast Thursday on Winfrey’s network.

The admission Monday came hours after an emotional apology by Armstrong to the Livestrong charity that he founded and took global on the strength of his celebrity as a cancer survivor who came back to win one of sport’s most grueling events.

The confession was a stunning reversal, after years of public statements, interviews and court battles in which he denied doping and zealously protected his reputation.

The most damning part of the USADA report wasn't the doping but Lance's treatment of other people. He put the Mafia to shame with those tactics, tactics only a sociopath would use.

He is Sorry...

but he is not admitting anything:

Lance Armstrong apologized to the staff at his Livestrong cancer foundation -- but did not make a direct confession to using banned drugs -- before heading to his scheduled interview with Oprah Winfrey on Monday, a person with direct knowledge of the meeting told Associated Press.

The source said the disgraced cyclist said "I'm sorry" for letting the organization down and putting it at risk, adding that he intended to restore the foundation's reputation and urged the employees to move forward in helping cancer patients and their families.

Armstrong reportedly choked up during the meeting and several staff members cried.

His rehabilitation campaign isn't gonna work, I'm afraid.

Oprah: The Last Refuge of a Scoundrel

As the world knows, Lance Armstrong, seeking to repair his shot reputation or delusional up to the gills, is going to give an interview with Oprah Winfrey.

I hope the lawyers of the various people and companies he scammed are watching carefully.

The Lance Armstrong interview in which the disgraced former cyclist will deal with the doping revelations that led to a lifetime ban from sport and the stripping of his seven Tour de France titles will be streamed live around the world as well as broadcast on television in the United States.

The 90-minute special will air next Thursday at 9pm eastern time in the US, or 2am in the UK, and will be streamed on Oprah.com at the same time. It is the first time Armstrong has given an interview since he lost his titles, was dropped by sponsors and pilloried by the public for his part in what the US Anti-Doping Agency called the "most sophisticated doping programme that sport has ever seen".

According to reports, he also came under pressure from the board of Livestrong – the charity he founded to support cancer sufferers and from which he stood down as chairman in October – to speak publicly.

I won't be watching.

Wishful Thinking

Contrary to the report in yesterday's report in the New York Times, Lance Armstrong has no intention of admitting to what everybody in the world knows he has done, and that's admit to cheating.

Lance will never admit to it. It's not just because he is a sociopath but because he could wind up in even more legal hot water if he admitted it.

From the NYT article:

Armstrong has been under pressure from various fronts to confess. Wealthy supporters of Livestrong, the charity he founded after surviving testicular cancer, have been trying to persuade him to come forward so he could clear his conscience and save the organization from further damage, one person with knowledge of the situation said.

Several legal cases stand in the way of a confession, the people familiar with the situation said. Among the obstacles is a federal whistle-blower case in which Armstrong and several team officials from his United States Postal Service cycling team are accused of defrauding the government by allowing doping on the squad when the team’s contract with the Postal Service clearly stated that any doping would constitute default of their agreement.

Herman said the option to confess to antidoping officials was not currently on the table. However, the people familiar with the situation said Armstrong, 41, was in fact moving toward confessing and had even been in discussions with the United States Anti-Doping Agency. Armstrong had met with Travis Tygart, the agency’s chief executive, in an effort to mitigate the lifetime ban he received for playing a lead role in doping on his Tour-winning teams, according to one person briefed on the situation.

Another Blow to Lance

The Lance Armstrong Foundation no longer exists; it will now be known as Livestrong.

Lance Armstrong's cancer-fighting charity continues to distance itself from Lance Armstrong.

The Lance Armstrong Foundation, the organization founded by the now embattled cyclist in 1997, has quietly dropped him from its name and will now be officially known as the Livestrong Foundation.

Just Lyin' Around

Photoshop of the day. Saw this over on a Lance Armstrong thread:

The original photo of him on the couch with his framed Tour de France jerseys was the ultimate "fuck you" to everybody who dared to challenge him, especially USADA.

Burning Man

In case you missed it: