Free Republic

You want to be a successful LOUSY FREEPER TROLL in DUmmieland? Then you need to build up your post count so as to avoid any suspicions. It is tough to do on the political threads where I generally just post fairly innocuous comments. However, sometimes there are DUmmie threads where I completely agree with the sentiment, such as F*ck Lance Armstrong.. where I was able to post my REAL opinion several times without fear of detection as an LFT. One fringe benefit was that WILLIAM RIVERS PITT joined the thread with a FALSE observation. I was tempted to ask...

Oprah Winfrey revealed today she was surprised and mesmerized by some of Lance Armstrong's answers in the wake of her grueling two-hour interview with the shamed cyclist, in which he finally admitted using illegal performance-enhancing drugs. Speaking to CBS this morning about the 'intense and emotional' interview that took place in Austin yesterday, she said: 'He did not come clean in the manner I expected, I was surprised. Myself and the whole team were mesmerized and riveted by some of his answers. 'I think he answered my questions satisfactorily. He was thoughtful and serious and had prepared himself for this...

Lance Armstrong, who this fall was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for doping and barred for life from competing in all Olympic sports, has told associates and antidoping officials that he is considering publicly admitting that he used banned performance-enhancing drugs and blood transfusions during his cycling career, according to several people with direct knowledge of the situation. He would do this, the people said, because he wants to persuade antidoping officials to restore his eligibility so he can resume his athletic career.

GQ magazine has just announced their list of "The Least Influential People of 2012" — "a collection of people so uninspiring that we should round them all up and stick them on an iceberg." While some, like Hulk Hogan (#24), may be obvious picks, others such as Michelle Obama's exile to the iceberg came as a bit of a surprise. Below are GQ's top 15 picks, along with an explanatory line of their biting commentary: 15. Bobby Valentine: "a man whose greatest accomplishment in baseball remains wearing a fake-mustache disguise to sneak back into the dugout after getting ejected from...

After months of bad press, the greatest competitive cyclist of all time has officially hit rock bottom: The Lance Armstrong Foundation has dropped the name of its eponymous creator and will now be known as the Livestrong Foundation. Rest easy, Lance, it can’t get much – or is that any? – worse. His story is unparalleled, Shakespearean in scope and breadth. A cocky, gum-flapping athlete battled insurmountable odds after a devastating cancer diagnosis, his greasy soul barely slipping the surly clutches of a certain dirt nap. Ultimately, he rehabilitated his battered body and morphed into a champion. Not only did...

A serious doping scandal shakes everyone's faith on an all-new episode of "South Park" titled "A Scause for Applause" premiering Wednesday, October 31 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on Comedy Central. Rocked by the recent news of drug use by a beloved icon, the world is left feeling lost and betrayed. The boys, join with the rest of the nation, and remove their yellow wristbands. Everyone is on board, except for Stan, who just can’t seem to cut off his bracelet.

Poor Lance he had it all, 7 Tour de France wins, and the hero of cancer survivors, while he dumped his cancer stricken wife, he had it all. But the lie was exposed and now his empire is crumbling on the the thin wood it was built on.

Cycling's governing body agreed Monday to strip Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles and ban him for life, following a report from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that accused him of leading a massive doping program on his teams. Speaking from Geneva, International Cycling Union President Pat McQuaid confirmed to a news conference that UCI had decided to uphold USADA'S decision to strip Armstrong of his Tour titles.

GENEVA, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life on Monday after the International Cycling Union (UCI) ratified the United States Anti-Doping Agency's (USADA) sanctions against the American. The long-awaited decision has left cycling facing its "greatest crisis" according to UCI president Pat McQuaid and has destroyed Armstrong's last hope of clearing his name. "Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling. Lance Armstrong deserves to be forgotten in cycling," McQuaid told a news conference as he outlined how cycling, long battered by doping problems for decades, would have to...

Seven-time Tour de France cycling champion Lance Armstrong has long rejected the idea that God has dominion over his life. He has refused to accept that his Creator saved him from testicular cancer (“If there was a God, I’d still have two balls,” he once sneered). He has refused to credit the Almighty for his exceptional athletic prowess (“One of the redeeming things about being an athlete is redefining what’s humanly possible,” he once declared.) The Bible warns that “God opposes the proud.” And Armstrong’s stunning fall from grace offers proof that God’s Word does not return void. The disgraced...

Nike has announced today that it is cutting all sporting ties with disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, citing insurmountable evidence that he participated in doping and misled the company for more than a decade. The sportswear giant issued a statement this morning saying it was terminating Armstrong's contract 'with great sadness.' 'Nike does not condone the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs in any manner,' it said. Just minutes before Nike’s announcement, Armstrong revealed he was stepping down as chairman of his Livestrong cancer-fighting charity so that the organization can steer clear of the whirlwind surrounding its founder. Nike has said...

AUSTIN, Texas – Lance Armstrong said Wednesday he is stepping down as chairman of his Livestrong cancer-fighting charity so the group can focus on its mission instead of its founder's problems. The move came a week after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency released a massive report detailing allegations of widespread doping by Armstrong and his teams when he won the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005. The document's purpose was to show why USADA has banned him from cycling for life and ordered 14 years of his career results erased -- including those Tour titles. It contains...

Ms. O’Reilly said Mr. Armstrong demonized her as a prostitute with a drinking problem, and had her hauled into court in England. Ultimately, a legal settlement was reached, and Ms. O’Reilly tried to pick up her life, sometimes talking about Mr. Armstrong and drugs, but to little notice. Ms. O’Reilly said she was once in a room giving Mr. Armstrong a massage when he and officials on the team fabricated a story to conceal a positive drug test result. Ms. O’Reilly said Mr. Armstrong told her, “You know enough to bring me down.”

So who else knew? There were too many people involved; too many mouths open and too much money was in play for this to remain a genuine secret for so long. There must have been people in positions of power within the sport who had knowledge of what Lance Armstrong was up to long before this damning dossier was released. Dragging the proof into the public domain was a difficult task, but only because it was hampered by what has all the appearances of an institutional cover-up, a co-ordinated conspiracy and the propagation of a huge lie that extends way...

The evidence presented in the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's 202-page report on Lance Armstrong's alleged years of doping, scheming, pushing and evading is, according to its authors, "beyond strong." Even so, the case against Armstrong doesn't involve any definitive failed drug tests, a fact that the former seven-time Tour de France winner has long used to shield his claims to innocence. So if Armstrong is the inveterate doper the USADA claims he is, how did he manage to avoid an unambiguous positive test during more than a decade of pro cycling? Below is a rundown of the doping practices the USADA...

British Cycling head Dave Brailsford has admitted that Lance Armstrong’s emergence as a confirmed drugs cheat could lead the public to doubt the achievements of riders such as Bradley Wiggins and Sir Chris Hoy. Brailsford is the man who masterminded Wiggins’s Tour de France triumph this year and led Team GB to eight gold medals in the London Olympics and the Beijing Games of 2008. And although there is no suggestion that his riders are not clean, Brailsford admitted on Thursday night that the public now has the right to question every achievement they have witnessed in the sport in...

Lance Armstrong said he wanted to see the names of his accusers. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency gave him 26, including 11 ex-teammates. About 200 pages filled with vivid details _ from the hotel rooms riders transformed into makeshift blood-transfusion centers to the way Armstrong's ex-wife rolled cortisone pills into foil and handed them out to all the cyclists.

Lance Armstrong challenged the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to name names and say what it had on him. On Wednesday, it did. The anti-doping body revealed a group of 11 former Armstrong teammates — some loyal, some estranged — who each provided evidence of drug use on the U.S. Postal Service team. USADA Chief Executive Travis Tygart called it “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.” USADA will deliver its reasoned decision against Armstrong later Wednesday, a summary of the facts it used to hand him a lifetime suspension and erase his titles. The organization...

First of all, Lance Armstrong is a good man. There’s nothing that I can learn about him short of murder that would alter my opinion on that. Second, I don’t know if he’s telling the truth when he insists he didn’t use performance-enhancing drugs in the Tour de France — never have known. I do know that he beat cancer fair and square, that he’s not the mastermind criminal the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency makes him out to be, and that the process of stripping him of his titles reeks. A federal judge wrote last week, “USADA’s conduct raises serious questions...