NorCal Cycling News – Cycling and Racing in Northern California

I feel like Hernando’s off topic posts were kind of hit and miss.  Not a fan of the political ones, mostly cause I can’t stand Naomi Klein – but i have a good long reason for that which you can ask me about next time you see me, but the more poetry type stuff works out some times.  Here is a rambling ode the the style of hernando… and I will try to fit in some mentions for tonights’ big party at the track. Tonight at Hellyer Velodrome Hernando, Velo Girls, and La Dolce Vita are putting on the big party that are Friday Night Fights.  It’d filled with beer, racing, food and costumes.  The costume theme is new this year… not sure how it got started but Hernado usually gets all decked out as do a bunch of spectators and racers.  Its like “The Rockey Horror Bike Show”  Because of Velo Girls propensity to include pink in all ensembles and the recent passing of John Hughs this week was tagged “Pretty In Pink” where folks should either be:

1. Wearing pink

1. Wearing your best 80′s ensemble.

For me John Hughes movies and cycling are inextricably linked.  Greg LeMond and at the same time and forever left a dent in my psyche.  John Hughes understood the outsider and the feeling you get as a teenager that you can never quite belong.

Cycling in the 80′s had the same feel as the up and coming outsider sport.  Lance was still a baby triathlete then and the prickly LeMond  never quite connected with the US audience the way Lance would.  Like Hughes cast in “ who would come togethert once a week for a club time trial on some deserted country road. In cycling we found, and continue to find a community of people we can relate to despite all of our social shortcomings..which cyclists seem to have in abundance.  I’m sure some of your are normal but you still hammer yourself several months a year, and feel guilty if you don’t, for your job thats not really a job. My point being something ain’t right freak!

We may not always like each other but we have a common language, understanding, and respect for what each accomplishes in our clique.  Events like the AVC, Friday Night Fights, Bay Area Prestige CX races, San Francisco Twilight, and San Rafael Twilight Crit bring us together to  race, talk bikes, family and everything else in order connect in

If you are reading this you are in this crowd no matter what.  Come out to party and race with  us tonight.. and wear some pink leg warmers if you got em.

PS. Couldn’t get the video embedding down…so the links are fun.

and lest we forget … the most inspired and courageous
piece of comedy/political commentary ever …

when .

(be sure to watch all three parts if you’ve been in the sand and never vid’d it)

might as well suggest this viewing, since Petreus is doing the dance today in front of our “elected peers” …

but i still stumble over the question ~

is the Iraqi war/occupation illegal under international and domestic law?

UN Security Council Resolution 1441 is cited by the Bush administration as the international legal leverage for our invasion of Iraq.

I agree with those who say Resolution 1441 does NOT authorize the use of force, and what’s more – believe the precedent set in the invasion/occupation is immoral and unethical … two rather significant elements of how i believe (the collective…) we should determine law.

Murswiek warns that the US is establishing a precedent with far-reaching repercussions. “When Bush says he is not required to ask anybody’s permission, this cannot just be attributed to the arrogance that comes with power. There is a legal issue at stake… If this standpoint becomes established and becomes a new rule of international law, then the general ban on force will have been done away with in a practical sense.”

Either, according to Murswiek, “every state can wage war against any other state that it regards as ‘rogue,’ which means there will be no more international security, or the right to wage a preventive war is regarded as the exclusive right of the US, which puts an end to the principle of equal national sovereignty of all states.” {LINK}

but, ah well.

As for domestic illegality ~ i guess presidents have balked at the War Powers Act since it’s passing … so, i think there’s little hope of enforcing any violations or limits the Act imposes under the Bush administration.
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And, it’s not like we had a congress that could/would stand up to Bush in 2002-3 when he beat the drums of lies and propaganda … one impeachable, the other, perhaps, only immoral.

ah well, ah well.

so in the meantime, cuz there’s gosshippynewz to spread later this week…

politico
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musico

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later-O,
~m

just for the record, if Sabine ever dumps my schizo-ass … i’m stalking Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman until she converts to the darkside and lands herself in my lap.

yup, she’s that hot.

So, here’s a quote and there’s the {{LINK}} for mas lefty-pinko writin’s ~

On the Sunday following Sept. 11, 2001, Vice President Dick Cheney told the truth. On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he said regarding plans to pursue the perpetrators of that attack: “We have to work the dark side, if you will. We’re going to spend time in the shadows.”

The grim, deadly consequences of his promise have, in the intervening six years, become the shame of our nation and have outraged millions around the world. President George Bush and Cheney, many argue, have overseen a massive global campaign of kidnapping, illegal detentions, harsh interrogations, torture and kangaroo courts where the accused face the death penalty, confronted by secret evidence obtained by torture, without legal representation.

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Or, maybe i’ll club Naomi Klein {{LINK}} over the noggin’ and take her back to the cave.

hmm …

and i’m going to include this quote from Klein’s article (Beth, you might want to check the ramifications of that Scahill article we were talkin about).

Postscript: Ari Melber criticized this column, citing a video the Obama campaign has been circulating featuring a minister of Obama’s church who makes it clear that while Obama is not a Muslim, there would be nothing wrong with it if he was. I had the same clip sent to me directly from the Obama campaign and wrote this in response: “What I am suggesting needs to be said can only be said by the man himself, just as he has taken brave stances against racism directed at Latinos under the guise of fighting illegal immigration. Do not underestimate the message that his silence is sending, not just in the U.S. but around the world.”

One more thing: now is the time when candidates are most open to pressure. For instance, Hillary Clinton just announced that she will co-sponsor legislation to ban the use of private military companies–exactly one day after my Nation colleague Jeremy Scahill revealed that both Clinton and Obama were poised to let the mercenaries stay in Iraq even if the troops come home. Pushing candidates on the issues during a campaign can have a real impact, so can we please move beyond superfandom? I have also heard from people who think that saying Arabs and Muslims are worthy of exactly the same rights and protections as other minorities is just too high-risk a position for Obama during the campaign. If that’s the position, so be it, but don’t pretend the campaign is doing something it is not. It is precisely because he has been so strong on other issues of discrimination and racism that his trepidation on this issue leaps out.

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Yeah, i’d take Goodman or Klein in a pinch.

but, maybe i’ll stay lucky and keep the girl happy.

yeehoo! love is in the air!
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