Metro cars all have a few small (think poster-sized) ads on the interior. This is the first one that I've seen with an ad on the exterior. And not only is there an ad on the exterior, but the ad is the exterior.

I don't like it one bit.

The staff here at Dummocrats is really enjoying the Tour de France. But, we're a little embarrassed to admit this because it's, you know, in France. But we got to thinking, maybe some of the Tour's charm comes from its location and it just wouldn't be the same anywhere else. In fact, we shudder to think about what the Tour de France would be like if it were the Tour d'America.

Here are the top ten ways we think the Tour de France would be different if it were held in America.

11. On big climbs, riders would be hampered by the smoke coming off of 1000's of grills from enthusiastic tailgaters.

10. Crazy moonbats would use the Tour as another venue to protest something or another. You can bet that someone would be holding up a "Bush lied. People died" sign every 100 yards.

That's right, we said yards, not metres.

9. Michelle Wie would attempt to compete in it.

8. Celebratory champagne flutes would be filled with Miller High Life, the champagne of beers.

7. Expert commentary: baseball has Bob Uecker. Football has John Madden. Basketball has Larry Bird. Bicycling has Pee Wee Herman.

6. There would be a kickin' halftime show featuring Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, and Ludacris doing really, really, really sucky remake of Queen's "Bicycle Race."

5. The tour would threaten to move to Canada unless new roads and hills were built.

4. New design for the Yellow Jersey:

3. McDonalds would do some clever merchandising of their latest product: McGu.

2. Cool French phrases like HC, domestiques and maillot jaune replaced with street slang. HC=badassss, domestiques=homeys, maillot jaune=yellow threads.

1. And the number one thing that would be different if the tour was held in America:

Europeans would instantly start hating it, poo-pooing and deriding cycling as being inferior; "not a real sport - not like soccer."

For the last year almost every neighborhood in Washington DC has been vandalized by some punk calling himself "Borf." It seems that everywhere I go, be it Georgetown, Cleveland Park, Foggy Bottom, Dupont, Woodley Park, Chinatown, Eastern Market, Virgina, etc, etc, the street signs are all tagged with the word "Borf," the trash cans all read "Borf," even USPS mailboxes are defaced with the word "Borf." This "borf" fellow has easily done hundreds of thousands, if not MILLIONS in property damage to private and federal governemnt property.

I used to pray that I would catch this unknown punk in the act of defacing something with the moniker "borf." He's a vandal, and worse than that, he's a felon. - I wanted so much to make a citizens arrest of this bozo.

It looks like I'm not going to get that chance, since the punk has just been apprehended. And just who is Borf? An 18 year old punk named John Tsombikos from Great Falls, Virginia.

And even though punk John Tsombikos is both felon and a vandal, the Washington Post has nothing but nice things to say about him - they don't call him a "felon" or a vandal, instead, they call him only an "artist." They call his year long million dollar spree of felonious property damage a "months-long campaign ... intended to enlighten Washington." They praise him for managing to spell a few words correctly ("Borf seemed quite conscientious about matters of spelling and punctuation"), and even reveal that reporters at the Washington Post have known his identity for MONTHS now and did nothing to stop him.

Let me say that again - the Washington Post knew the identity of a person causing millions of dollars of property damage to the city and they did nothing. Gee, sounds like a "scoop" to me, so why did they sit on it?

We learn a little more about Borf from the Post's ridiculous romanticized vision of him:

• If you followed Borf graffiti carefully, ... you'd have noticed that he sort of disappeared in the last few months. That's because ...he was traveling in Europe, stopping off in Scotland to protest the G-8 summit.

• he had been avidly involved in peace marches and other protest efforts, and his graffiti appeared to be an outgrowth of that.

• "I've got plans," he said ominously, sitting out on U Street, eating a vegetarian burger from Ben's Chili Bowl. "Maybe like a manifesto."

• Once upon a time, Borf said, he was "just, like, some liberal, like anybody," but then he started reading, and found out he really wanted to be an anarchist. He decided he doesn't believe in the state, capitalism, private property, globalization. Most of all, he doesn't believe in adulthood, which he considers "boring" and "selling out."

• Borf recently turned 18, a fact he revealed with hesitation because "I'm against age. It's just another way of dividing people."

• "People all heading downtown," he said. "Like, it's ridiculous if you think about it. Like, Orwellian-ridiculous. And they do this with so-called free will."

• He is fond of phrases like: "Property is theft, as Prudhomme says."

• It bothers him that those younger than 18 can't vote, "as much as I don't believe in voting or anything."
  

OK, I've given up on listing these things. Clearly, John "Borf" Tsombikos, the rich kid from Great Falls, VA, is a f@*king idiot. Almost every sentence that comes out of this punk's mouth is riddled with idiocy.

As we lawyers say, res ipsa loquitor.

But I will tell you one thing - this vandal wasn't making a "statement" of any kind. First, how could he? I personally don't understand how he manages to dress himself each morning. But secondly, a little fact that certainly isn't evident from the WaPo article: 99% of his acts of vandalism say only one thing : BORF. That's it. That's all.

This punk deserves prison time. If I was the prosecutor, he'd get it.

Some bloggers are upset by a remark from California Rep. Gilbert Cedillo. Cedillo, in response to California voting on a gay marriage ban said:

“The people have spoken. They have spoken. But people aren’t always right.”

He's exactly right. Contrary to popular belief, we do not live in a democracy. We live in a Federal Republic. When the people "speak", the government doesn't necessarily act.

We elect Representatives, presumably from among our best and brightest, to govern for us. We do not elect Representatives to sit in Congress, take constant polls and act accordingly.

It's perfectly acceptable for someone to voice their disagreement with a referendum. It's perfectly acceptable for them to continue to advocate the opposite position. The ultimate voice of the people isn't (at least it shouldn't) be through opinion polls and constant referendums. It should be at the ballot box.

Well, ten stages of the Tour de France are now complete. We’ve seen the predictable, the unpredictable, great riders and disappointing riders. The first ten stages have gone more or less according to form, but let’s recap them, take a look at what should happen in the next week, and discuss some strategies that may be employed by some of the teams.

David Zabriskie road a great race to win the opening time trial, but the real story here was that a lot of the contenders, Ullrich included, gave up an exceptional amount of time to Armstrong on what was only a 19k time trial. This was the first sign that Armstrong was in good form, and that several others were potentially quite weak.

Stages 2 and 3 went rather predictably to Tom Boonen, the great Belgian sprinter and one day racer.

Stage 4, the team time trial (TTT), went to Armstrong and Discovery Channel in a very close finish with CSC and T-Mobile. Their margin of victory over the other GC contenders’ teams was smaller than past years, but with the TTT rules change last year, the margin is no longer terribly important. Euskaltel was the big loser here, finishing a disappointing 16th.

Robbie McEwen got back at Boonen by winning the sprint for stage 5, and after a crash spoiled Alexander Vinokourov’s chance for a win, Lorenzo Bernucci scored a surprise win in stage 6.

McEwen won another sprint for stage 7, and after a collapse by his Discovery team left him alone, Lance Armstrong had to chase alone as Pieter Weening won stage 8 with contender Andreas Kloden in tow.

Stage 9 saw the ride of the Tour as The Chicken, Rabobank’s Michael Rasmussen, went on the attack for 167k to win the stage by over three minutes and put over six minutes into Armstrong. For reasons unexplained, CSC thought it wise to send a rider, Jens Voigt, out on the attack into no man’s land between Rasmussen and the rest of the peloton. Voigt, no threat to win, picked up the overall lead, but that was of little use to team leader Ivan Basso. That brought us to yesterday’s Stage 10 and the first of the mountains..

Going into Stage 10, Armstrong led all the other GC contenders by at least a minute with Vinokourov being closest at 1:02 down. During Armstrong’s past six wins, this first mountain stage saw his team ride a fast tempo as far up the final climb as possible, and this stage would be no exception. After the last of Discovery’s other riders had peeled off and a couple of accelerations were made, we were left with Armstrong, Valverde, Rasmussen and Mancebo. These four rode together till the end of the stage, where Rasmussen, and then Armstrong, attacked hard to try and drop the others. Ultimately, Armstrong was unable to drop Valverde who passed him for a great win. Rasmussen and Mancebo finished 9 seconds back. The rest of the GC riders, and all of the T-Mobile team, lost more than a minute on the stage with Vinokourov losing 5:18.

So who are the winners and losers? Armstrong is now in control of the race. He did well in the time trials, and in the first of the mountains, and has a lead of 2:40 to Ivan Basso, the first of the contenders he expected to battle for the overall. He is exactly where he wants to be.

The Illes Balears team and their two big riders, Valverde and Mancebo, have also been good. After some expectedly mediocre time trialing, they turned it on in the mountains and are now in a position to attack Armstrong should the opportunity arise.

Rabobank’s Michael Rasmussen has been awesome. For him to hold pace with Armstrong for all of Stage 10 after his long solo ride on Stage 9 was a shocker. He is now in second, only 38 seconds back. His team is not strong in the mountains, but if he can escape on another solo ride, he could pull off the biggest upset in Tour history.

Ivan Basso has been very average. His time trialing was OK, but to be dropped on the first mountain stage had to be a blow. If Stage 10 was simply a bad day, he is still close enough that he can come back, and there is a lot of climbing left to go. His greatest impediment may prove to be Bjarne Riis, the team Director who has made a lot of questionable decisions at the Tour in recent years. The bottom line is it appears Riis doesn’t think Basso can win. If he doesn’t think he can win, why should I?

Levi Leipheimer has been a pleasant surprise. I didn’t think he would do well, but he has hung around when others have faded and is quietly into sixth overall.

Jan Ullrich has proven a huge disappointment. The good form he showed earlier this year is gone. He was slower than Armstrong in the time trials, and in the mountains there are two dozen riders in the race who can drop him any time they want. Armstrong has already announced his retirement; don’t be surprised if Ullrich is right behind him, but for different reasons. I can’t see any pro team paying serious money for Ullrich. I know, there is still half the Tour to go, but for Jan that is only an opportunity to lose even more time. At this point, short of the Discovery and Illes Balears teams being wiped out by a meteor strike, I don’t see any way for him to make up enough time to get back into contention.

Along with Jan, the T-Mobile team came apart at the seams on Stage 10. Vinokourov looked like he might die on the stage. Kloden slowed to help out Ullrich, but he clearly would not have stayed with the four leaders either. If they let him ride for the overall and not as helper, Oscar Sevilla might actually be their highest placed rider right now. With Ullrich looking lousy, and Vinokourov with a contract that soon expires, this team could easily deteriorate into nine guys doing their own thing for the rest of the Tour.

Iban Mayo has been another loser. Losing 20 minutes on the first mountain stage, and finishing behind some of the people he did is unacceptable for a high dollar riderand the climber he is. It will be back to the drawing board for Euskaltel and Mayo.

So what’s next? Stage 11, another mountain stage, will be very important I think, but for different reasons for different riders. Expect Discovery to try and ride a hard tempo again and repeat yesterday’s performance. If they can, and the damage is anywhere near as bad as Stage 10, Armstrong will be nearly impossible to beat. Discovery / Postal have been using the same tactic for years and it still seems to surprise some team Directors as it did on Stage 10 yesterday. Bjarne Riis, of CSC, had used up one of his good riders, Voigt, in a long breakaway on Stage 9, and then had Carlos Sastre launch an attack on the final climb without his leader, Basso being able to follow. As a result, he left Ivan Basso totally isolated on most of the final climb. Riis had to know what Discovery was going to do, and it would have been good tactics to rein in Voigt the previous day, and focus the team solely on protecting Basso. For Stage 11, it would be a good idea for Illes Balears and CSC to attack as hard as possible on the first climb. Armstrong will not be dropped on the first climb, but Discovery gave a very hard effort yesterday, and some or most of his teammates could be dropped by a hard attack, leaving Armstrong isolated on the final climb. If the other contenders play it safe, Discovery will likely be able to control the stage again and get Armstrong another good result, after which they get two flat stages where they can let the sprinters teams do the work. In addition, Armstrong could be tired after yesterday’s hard day, but we’ll never know if no one tries him.

For Michael Rasmussen, Stage 11 will be a test of survival. After two very hard efforts, he has to be tired, but if he can survive one more day, he will get two flat stages on which to regain some strength before the Pyrenees. If he can survive to the Pyrenees without losing significant time, he can possibly mount an attack and catch Armstrong on a weak day.

So that’s it for now. I’ll be back for the Pyrenees and hopefully we’ll still have a close race.

Pardon the Interruption, or "PTI," is the best show on television. If I've said that once over the past 6 months, I've said it a thousand times. For those of you not familiar with the show, it runs on ESPN and is a half-hour long daily run-down of news from the sporting world. The show's distinguishing characteristic is a topic list and a countdown-clock on the right-hand side of the screen, allowing the viewer to see both the upcoming topics and the amount of time remaining on the current topic. Tony and Mike, the regular hosts, are fantastic, which makes it a good show, but it's the addition of the topic and clock features that earn this show the title "Best Show on TV" - See, using a TiVo, you can instantly target the topics you care about and skip over the topics that you don't using the 30-second-skip and 8-second-replay buttons.

For the last 2 weeks Tony and/or Mike have been on vacation, and various guest hosts have tried to filled their shoes, which has only demonstrated how vital each of them is to the show. Seriously, topic list and clock notwithstanding, the show SUCKS when either of them is M.I.A.

One of yesterday's guest hosts was a columnist from St. Louis. Or was it Detroit? I'm sorry, I don't recall his name. However, he did make a pretty bold (and asinine) assertion. Paraphrased, it went something like,

Lance Armstrong isn't a "great" athlete, because he has no real skill. All he does is ride a bike, which anyone can do. It doesn't take superior skill to ride a bike, not in the way that it takes superior skill to play basketball or golf. Therefore, since Lance only does something that everyone can do, Lance isn't a great athlete.

I'm not going to get into the details of just how silly I think that statement is - suffice it to say, I think Lance Armstrong is one of the greatest athletes alive. Is he a Michael Jordan or a Wayne Gretzsky? I think so. What do you think?

If you haven't already, be sure to check out BVBigBro's latest Tour update.

According to Drudge:

Sen. McCain [R-AZ] Strong Words On Supreme Ct Nomination at Dallas Fundraiser:

'During the campaign, President Bush said he will appoint judges who will strictly interpret the constitution... thinking anything else is either amnesia or ignorance... elections have consequences... whomever he nominates deserves an up or down vote and no filibuster... and an up or down vote is what we will have'...

Hear, hear. (?)

Knowing that British police officers do not carry firearms, you may be under the impression that they are kind of a joke. After all, what damage is a cop in a funny hat really going to do with his little nightstick?

If you have been of that opinion, you've be wrong:

U.K. Cops Set Off Blast Amid Raids

LEEDS, England — British troops blasted their way into a home in northern England in what they said was a search for explosives, and police conducted a series of raids linked to last week's London bombings.

Police said 500 people were evacuated from the area and the streets were cordoned off. Hours earlier, police searched five residences elsewhere in Leeds as part of the investigation of Thursday's subway and bus bombings that killed at least 52 people.

That's right, while they may not carry guns, MP's apparently walk around packing C4 or its equivalent. Wouldn't a battering ram be safer? Perhaps. But let's face it, it would just take up so much room in the lorry.

The other day I compared Islamofascists to toddlers having a temper tantrum. That got me to thinking about how the nannies from Fox's Nanny 911 would deal with unruly terrorists. Is it possible to apply their 11 Commandments to the War on Terror? Well, I'm going to give it a try.

1. Be Consistent
On 9/20/01, President Bush, like a good parent, laid out the expectations for the Arab world.

Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.

Of course, it's not just enough to say what kind of behavior you expect. Those expectations have to remain consistent. Nations like Iran or Syria have to understand that we will deal with them eventually. Oh sure, it'd be easier to just slack off after all the hard work we've done in Iraq and Afghanistan, but all that does is send the message to our enemies to wait until we get tired and lazy, and then they can go to town.

2. Actions Have Consquences
Otherwise known as the carrot and the stick. Throughout much of the 80s and 90s, we turned a blind eye to bad behavior from the Islamofascists. Not surprisingly, lacking adequate punishment, they continued to test their limits.

3. Say What You Mean And Mean It
Like a parent, America is, in many ways, the center of the Islamofascist's world. When we open our mouths, they listen. So, we have to choose our words carefully. We can neither be glib and say foolish things like "Bring it on!", nor can we embolden their cause and cut ourselves down by comparing our own behavior to, for example, Saddam Hussein's or the Nazis or Stalin or Pol Pot. You don't give a misbehaving child another justification for their bad behavior.

4. Parents Work Together As A Team
This is important. We can't have the President being the bad guy and the Democrats (or the Europeans) playing the role of Disney dad.

5. Don't Make Promises You Can't Keep
We can't promise the Arab Street prosperity. We can't promise them equality. We can, however, promise them greater freedom.

More tactically, this also means we have to keep the promises we already made. So, for example, we'll need to stay in Iraq until she's able to take care of her own security. If we don't, we've just shown the Islamofascists that they can get their own way if they just keep crying fighting long enough.

6. Listen To Your Children
While part of this really is a Clintonesque "I feel your pain" thing, another part is truly listening to what the Islamofascists fear and hate. What they truly fear is democracy. They're afraid that a free people will turn their backs on their twisted version of Islam. What this means is that we could end all of our military and financial operations in the Middle East tomorrow, and they'd still hate us. You can't control such an unruly enemy until you really understand what they want.

7. Establish A Routine
Routines provide a feeling of safety. Our very presence in Iraq provides that feeling. If Iraqis are able to go to work and school without getting killed, they'll be less likely to harbor terrorists in their midst and more likely to start to believe that working with America is the way to go.

8. Respect Is A Two-Way Street
Take this a couple of ways. First, we need to respect the Islamofascists' intentions. What I mean is that we need to realize that they do exist and they are a threat. We need to respect that threat. But, second of all, we also need to respect the people of the Middle East and believe that they have the same desire for freedom and the same capability for democracy that we do and that the great majority of them basically want to be able to live their lives and raise their families in peace.

9. Positive Reinforcement Works Much Better Than Negative Reinforcement
The news on the War on Terror seems to be unfailingly bad. Americans read about it everyday, but Muslims do too. A terrorist-to-be reads all about how bad things are and about how America's resolve is about to crumble. Think about how empowering that is to him. But, on the other hand, think about what it would be like if positive news from Iraq and Afghanistan was more widely disseminated. Regular folks would realize that fighting the terrorists in their midst wasn't a lost cause. They could take pride in what their countries have been able to accomplish and may even start to want to take part in those accomplishments.

10. Manners Are Universal
We can't only be upset when terrorists hit New York or London. We need to understand that a terrorist attack in Mosul is just as damaging as one in Madrid. Stopping terrorism outside the home, if you will, doesn't stop it completely, and, it also creates a homelife that's nothing but a breeding ground for ever more terrorism.

11. Define Your Roles As Parents
Ultimately, it's not the job of America to police the world. Really. We need to create conditions that foster freedom and discourage terrorism, but ultimately, it's up to each individual in the Middle East to choose the kind of life they want to live. Hopefully we do our job well enough that they make the right choice.