Aug 24 2012
Stories Of Government Run Amok – Time For The Tea Party/Libertarian Revolution
As if to add emphasis to the need for a Tea Party/Libertarian revolution – the one that began in 2010 and will rise up again in 2012 – we have government running out of control and trampling on US Citizens’ rights to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Top of the list is the horrible news that Lance Armstrong has decided his legacy as the most amazing bicyclist evah! is not worth fighting an ego-maniacal bureaucrat:
Never one to back away from a fight, Lance Armstrong is finally giving in and the cost of quitting is steep: His seven Tour de France titles could be gone as soon as Friday.
The superstar cyclist, whose stirring victories after his comeback from cancer helped him transcend sports, chose not to pursue arbitration in the drug case brought against him by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
…
Travis Tygart, USADA’s chief executive, left no doubt that was the next step. He said Armstrong would lose the titles as soon as Friday and be hit with a lifetime ban, even though he is retired and turning 41 next month.
…
On Friday, the International Cycling Union said not so fast. The UCI, which had backed Armstrong’s legal challenge to USADA’s authority, cited the same World Anti-Doping Code in saying that it wanted the USADA to explain why Armstrong should lose his titles.
The UCI said the code requires this in cases “where no hearing occurs.”
Armstrong clearly knew his legacy would be blemished by his decision. He said he has grown tired of defending himself in a seemingly never-ending fight against charges that he doped while piling up more Tour victories than anyone ever. He has consistently pointed to the hundreds of drug tests that he passed as proof of his innocence during his extraordinary run of Tour titles from 1999 to 2005.
So 100’s of negative drug tests are irrelevant and the mad and unsupported claims of a busy-body bureaucrat can over turn the concept of ‘innocent until proven guilty’. It is sickening that this American hero is hounded by this idiot. I hope and pray that a new administration comes in, reverses this fool, fires him and takes his dumb ass to court!
If you think this is an isolated case of one little-tin-dictator run amok, check out what is going on down the road from me in Fauquier Country:
Martha Boneta isn’t so fortunate, because when she invited her friend to stage a birthday party for her 10-year-old daughter at the farm, a few extra clowns showed up and issued her a citation for it — which could cost thousands of dollars in fines:
The clowns were government agents outlawing the birthday party. More on this mess here. In Fauquier, the county exec has been running around fining people for actions that are clearly legal under Virginia’s constitution and laws.
From the Senate not passing budgets (i.e., not performing their constitutional duty) to citizens being fined and bankrupted by red tape, the signs all point for a house cleaning in DC. We need to tear down the government to its minimal required size, and go back to allowing individuals making choices, not bureaucrats. We need to really take the country back from the mad hatters on both the left and right!
I implore our readers to fill the comments with other examples of bureaucrats run amok, and to point other bloggers to the cause. If we catalog the incidents of abuse of power, we will strengthen the support for downsizing government – which is now so big it can only fail.
Examples that come to mind (and I don’t have time to link to) are Bloomberg the Soda Nazi, Eminent Domain land grabs, California starving its farmers with government induced drought (not CO2), etc.
We will never know the ultimate truth about Lance Armstrong. No, I err. We do know the ultimate truth. We know that this man survived cancer to go on to conquer one of the most grueling tests of endurance and will that exists in the world of sports. He did it not once but multiple times. We know that his chosen sport is rife with allegations of doping, and therefore is one of the most intensely scrutinized of any; and that Armstrong himself was the most scrutinized of any participant.
That we know; and little else.
I hope that most folks will continue to admire his indomitable will, and give the rest the attention it deserves.
With regards to Fauquier County, Virginia the news saddens me greatly. I moved from Fauquier County to Southern California last Spring. I considered lovely piece of Virginia to be a pleasant and most civilized place to live. I had never found the County government to be overly intrusive. They seemed content to collect their taxes and offer little in return, except to mind their own business, and let us mind ours. Could it have changed so quickly? What happened in Fauquier? Maybe an excess of Fairfax people finally tipped the scales.
OFg8r: ” and that Armstrong himself was the most scrutinized of any participant.
That we know; and little else.”
I thought you were going to say: and the result of that intense scrutiny was that he never failed a drug test and that should be the end of it.
After all, if you are ‘suspected’ or ‘accused’ of ‘under the influence’ they give you a test to measure clinically if you are or are not. If the drug test says you are not, then you are released.
I don’t understand the reasoning behind requiring a drug test if it is not going to be the standard.
Why didn’t Armstrong ‘agree to arbitration’? because if it is binding arbitration, then you have to ‘abide’ by the ruling and if you have been ‘proven’ not guilty, I don’t see the reasoning behind a ‘do-over’ by the accusers. That would be like being tried for murder, being found ‘not guilty’ and then being required to go to binding arbitration to decide if you were ‘really not guilty’ and/or determine what sentence you should receive regardless of being ‘not guilty’.
Hope you did not misunderstand me Redteam. I think the treatment of Armstrong is a travesty.
I have read stories that the doping in cycling is so sophisticated that they cannot detect it. That may or may not be true; I really do not know. If it is, then it is a cycling problem not an Armstrong problem. But, in any case it does not justify the persecution well after the fact of the greatest participant ever in that sport by those “expletive deleted” bureaucrats in the USADA.
I do not blame Armstrong at all for his stance on this. They can posture all they want, but he knows, and the world knows, what he did on those mountains. Bureaucratic action after the fact will not change that. So, screw ’em.
In Oregon the Beareau of Labor is impounding farmers (the story was in a Salem paper but not The Statesman, I heard the story on the Lars Larsen show) crops on a complaint of wages or working condition. They release the crop if the farmer signs a paper admitting guilt, if they don’t sign they can have an administrative hearing sometime in the future. I believe the story involved Apples.
It is clear that since the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is unable to follow any due process rules, including its own, that it needs to be put to sleep. Congress should eliminate any funding for this organization and the organizations should be sued for all its assets and out out of business.
Just out, The anti obama movie Obama’s America 2016
is in 4th place for weekend takings,
according to boxofficemojo.com
That puts it behind the new Bourne legacy but ahead of the Batman movie.
Pretty incredible.
You left out the recent story in the WSJ about Chinese solar panels.
Many U S companies purchased Chinese solar panels earlier this year. They have just been informed that they will have to pay substantial penalties for these purchases. Unpublished and secret tariffs had been imposed.
The U S Commerce Department (get it? they are supposed to promote commerce (that is trade)) has implemented drastic anti-dumping tariffs retroactively on the purchase and importation of the panels.
“They should have known,” says the Commerce Department.
Of course this is ex post facto. Thus it is also legal.
Your Federal Government at work, folks. It is NECESSARY to defend the darlings of Obama–the various solar projects which his government supports, in return for campaign contributions.
Ugly, ugly, ugly.
Crony socialism at work.
How do effing idiots, like Geraldo Riveria get to be authorities on anything? He was on O’Reilly talking about how Armstrong was guilty of betraying our trust, etc. He never addressed the fact that Armstrong always passed every drug test he was administered. He just re-inforced my opinion of him.