The View From The Deck - Week Ending 4/25/10

Thanks to our current SCOTUS, cruelty to animals is now protected by law!  It's not bad enough that they forced property owners to sell their homes to developers (who haven't by the way), or stopped the 2000 recount in Bush vs. Gore that likely would've found that Al Gore won.  Now they've decided that the Constitution protects animal abusers who torture dogs and record their violence for sale as videos because a law Congress passed in 1999 against animal cruelty was written too vaguely, and could have been used to outlaw hunting videos.  Really?  It's been effect for 11 years and all of a sudden there's a danger to hunting videos?  It was an eight to one decision, and the lone hold-out surprised me, it was Sam Alito.  Rebutting the majority's view that the law was too broad, Alito argued it could still be used to stop crush videos, which apparently appeal to some people's sexual fetish by showing women in stiletto heels crushing kittens to death.  Once again, animals being maimed and tortured will be widely available for the sick bastards that enjoy watching this stuff.  The fact that nasty horrible people can harm animals is despicable enough, but the fact that there's actually a market for this trash is nauseating.  I've read every article I could find about this decision and I still don't understand how this falls under "free speech."  It appears that common sense has been replaced by some poorly written part of the Constitution regarding free speech. There's a big difference between allowing abuse of animals, children or people on videos and "free speech."

General Motors Co. has repaid $8.1 billion in loans it got from the U.S. and Canadian governments, a move CEO Edward Whitacre Jr.  says is a sign automaker is on the road to recovery.  But during bankruptcy, the U.S. government reduced the loan portion to $6.7 billion and converted the rest to company stock, while the Canadian governments held $1.4 billion in loans. Those loans were repaid Tuesday, five years ahead of schedule.  GM hopes to repay the remaining $45.3 billion to the U.S. government and $8.1 billion to Canada via a public stock offering, maybe later this year. The U.S. government now owns 61 percent of the company and Canada owns roughly 12 percent.  I'd like to add that the quality of U.S. vehicles go a vote of confidence in a new poll. An Associated Press-GfK survey finds that slightly more Americans now say the U.S. makes better-quality vehicles than Asia, with 38 percent saying U.S. cars are best and 33 percent preferring autos made by Asian companies.  No matter how anyone feels about American made cars, the fact of the matter is, this "loan" saved a ridiculous amount of jobs and kept people off the unemployment ledger.  I don't understand how the very same people that said "let them die," are concerned about the new HCR bill costing jobs!  The right wing has absolutely no consistency with their rants.  Do they even realize what they're saying is, "screw the blue collar worker, but make sure the health care industry is still able to continue ripping us off at their will."

The Florida Republican Party on Thursday invoked a "Party Loyalty Oath" forbidding its members from supporting Gov. Charlie Crist if he decides to run as an independent in the state's Senate race.  While it's not unheard of for a political party to require its leaders to support its candidates, the use of the specific phrase "loyalty oath" is a bit creepy and suggests that the Republicants haven't moved past the McCarthyite mindset of the 1950s. I would also point out that the Democratic Party did not pull this kind of a stunt when Joe Lieberman switched in 2006. The next time someone tries to call the Democrats the party of tyranny, just remind them of this.

You know that famous slogan that the Teabaggers have tried to make their own since the black guy won?  You know, the one Michele Bachmann and the gun nuts like to use for their own benefit?  Who knew that the famous "Don't Tread on Me" slogan would no longer be applicable in Arizona?!  On Friday, Rethuglican governor Jan Brewer signed a bill that allows Arizona cops to stop and demand documentation from anyone they suspect to be an illegal immigrant. It makes it a crime to not carry papers documenting your citizenship or your immigration status so if you don't have papers on you, handcuffs will be. I'm pretty sure they won't be on the lookout for Canadians.  We all concede there's an immigration problem, but let's not pretend this isn't racial profiling either.  This is a very slippery slope and I don't see how this is going to end well.

At one of the gun nuts rallies on Monday, April 19 (the 15 year anniversary of Oklahoma City), one whackjob claimed that their rally was actually a love fest, continuing, "OK. Now, there‘s a certain reporter made comments, Rachel Maddow—and I have to say to her: it‘s a good thing that this is a lovefest, otherwise we‘d tar and feather you."  Huh?  I have to assume it's because she narrated the documentary questioning whether the anti-government movement of today could end up with a Tim Mcveigh outcome.  How can these people not see the danger of the over-the-top rhetoric that is not only coming from them, but from right wing politicians basically giving them the green light for violence against the government?  I knew there would be a certain element of this country that would be upset over Obama's election, but I never thought it would get this ugly.

I'll close with a sports news item.  If arrangements go as planned, Dale Earnhardt Jr. will run the #3 Wrangler Chevrolet for JR Motorsports at Daytona International Speedway in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race on July 2. Sources have told FOXSports.com that Earnhardt will revive his father's famous #3 in a collaborative effort initiated by JR Motorsports with Richard Childress Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc. A formal announcement is expected on April 29. According to team sources, a Hendrick Motorsports engine will power the car. Earnhardt Jr. currently has a personal services contract with Wrangler, continuing a family legacy between the brands. Wrangler first sponsored his father for the final race of his 1980 Cup championship season and the following year with Rod Osterlund for the first 16 races. This is big news for anyone that was a fan of "The Intimidater" because there has not been a #3 on the track in a Nascar event since February 18, 2001.

Danica Patrick Impressive in First NASCAR Start - GoGirl!

Not politics, but an awesome story. I want to give a shout out to Danica Patrick's successful foray into stock car racing Saturday afternoon at Daytona in the ARCA event. As I mentioned in an earlier article, the ARCA series is the "Double AA" of stock car racing. It's the first stop for drivers who've been driving around your local tracks for a few years. If you don't tear up too many cars and look like you've got what it takes, hopefully an owner in the Nationwide Series will give you a call. There are several drivers on the circuit who've made careers out of it as well. Maybe they weren't good enough to move up the NASCAR bracket, but it's got to beat working at Wal-Mart. It's also a place for drivers from other racing series to get their feet wet. The Daytona ARCA race is notorious for its frequent and spectacular crashes. Earlier in the week,driver Scott Speed said, “You need to wear a helmet if you watch it from the stands,” - and this year’s race was no exception. The first wreck of the race came only a few laps in when maybe a half dozen cars got tangled up...but that wasn't even the worst part, 4 others who were probably still on the other side of the track when it began, piled into them as well. I don't think those guys will be getting any calls.

The big question after her impressive debut is whether she'll run next week in the Nationwide Series event.  According to team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr., "It's totally her decision, I don't know if one race is gonna put it in the bucket for her so she's going to have to think about that. She probably, right now, would be like 'Hell yes, let's go' because she's beaming with excitement. But take the night to think about it." Crew chief Tony Eury Jr. added "I would love for her to come back here and run next week. I think she can do it. I mean, are you going to come out here and run top-five in a Nationwide race? You'd have to have a lot of luck. But to come down here and get experience—I think she showed right there at the end that she's very capable of knowing how to draft and how to do it." Co-owner Kelley Earnhardt-Elledge remarked, "I'm ecstatic, I think she showed us she was able to drive, definitely. One time I seen her up on the high side, and then she pulled down low and I'm thinking 'come on, let's pull off an Earnhardt and pass 18 cars in three laps and win this thing.' "But she did fantastic for her first stock car race. She was aggressive, didn't back out of it and we brought home a good finish. The team did a great job and the communication was there, she was asking a lot of questions and learning a lot." I'm fairly certain that we'll be watching a black and green #7 GoDaddy.com Chevy Impala Saturday at Daytona International Speedway. Very nice job, Danica!

While fellow competitors had nothing but kind words to say, reading various racing blogs, it's pretty clear that there are a lot of men out there who must be pretty insecure in their masculinity to say she got lucky, it's only ARCA or it was the Hendrick car. Sexism is alive and well! Lucky? She's the only one in the race who got bumped, went sliding through the grass, corrected the car and brought it home in one piece. She was running 11th at that time because of a poor passing decision a few laps earlier. She had been running in the top 5 all day. She restarted the race with 16 laps to go in the 23rd spot. According to her team, she never raised her voice, never screamed a question, never had a bit of doubt. It's only ARCA? Yes, 185 mph running door handle to door handle with guys who had no business being in those retired "Sprint Cup" cars. Hendrick car? Funny that it's ok when Jeff, Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch were all given superior equipment right from the start of their careers. Sorry boys, the girl outdrove all but five cars. The winner was Bobby Gerhart, a five-time ARCA Daytona winner. The fourth place car with James Buescher won it last year. 2nd place Mark Thompson has 81 starts, 3rd place John Wes Townley is starting his second season and 5th place Patrick Sheltra is in his 5th year. Get it? Everyone who finished ahead of her is experienced in this series. The video below is a compilation of her days' highlights.

Evidently, all the Petty's are petty. Kyle Petty was noticably pouting after the race. Evidently the apple didn't roll far from the family tree. Last month, the failure of the stock car racing Petty family had a few things to say: "Obviously, open wheel built what the sport it is now off of her because it was a floundering sport. They took her and that marketing machine that she is and they went there.[]If she gets in that car and doesn't win races it's not the car, it's not the engines, it's not the team. They only changed one thing. Initially, she'll have an impact on the sport. If she's successful, she'll have a huge long-term impact on the sport,"[]"But if she's not successful the only impact she'll have on the sport is she wasted two or three years on a car that a good driver could have been in and could have been developing."WOW! That's quite an statement. Is that an implication she's not a good enough driver to be developed? "...she's not Juan Montoya, she's not Dario Franchitti and she's not Tony Stewart. She's not really shown over there [in the IRL] and won races and done stuff over there numbers-wise. She's just a marketing machine. Let's look at the facts and be blunt about it."

Man, I hope she has success in this series. I so want guys like this to eat crow. For all my issues with Darrell Waltrip, I think he was genuinely excited and kind of rooting for her yesterday. It's kind of interesting noticing people in the racing world who have daughters. They believe a woman can do this. The good ol' boys that only made boys don't...or at least haven't outgrown the fear of getting beat by a girl.

UPDATE: Feb. 8 - At 12:39PM today, nascar.com reported that Danica Patrick will make her Nationwide Series debut Saturday at Daytona. A statement by Kelley Earnhardt-Elledge read, in part, "I think Danica proved to everyone that she can compete in stock cars at a high level, and right now seat time is extremely important,"[]"She has worked extremely hard during the past two months for this opportunity. Her dedication and work ethic is infectious."

Things I'll Be Watching In The 2010 Racing World

With Daytona’s Speedweeks underway, I figured I’d take a moment to discuss the upcoming racing season. Last weekend, the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona was run and I have to say, it is kind of fun watching. It is held on a 3.56-mile (5.73 km) combined road course, utilizing portions of the NASCAR tri-oval and an infield road course. The event actually has two races going on simultaneously. The Grand Am Series and the Grand Turismo Series (which is the one I prefer). With the Grand Am series, you get what are called Daytona Prototypes. Specialist chassis makers like Riley, Dallara, Lola and Crawford provide the DP cars for the teams and the engines are branded under the names of major car companies like Chevy, Lexus, Ford, and Porsche. The Daytona GT series for me is a lot more fun to watch although the cars aren’t as quick. While I had the event on and wasn’t watching thoroughly, I noticed at about the 3 hour mark on Saturday, the GT’s started to get lapped by the Prototypes. The GT class cars at Daytona are closer to the road versions, similar to the GT3 class elsewhere. For example, the more standard version of the Porsche 996 is used, instead of the usual RS/RSR racing versions. Recent Daytona entries also include BMW M3s, Chevy Camaro’s, Corvettes, Ford Mustangs and Mazda RX-8s. Since I don’t know who too many of the drivers are, I was rooting for the Camaro’s! One of the neatest things about watching these cars was probably the fact that when the race started, it was raining. Maybe Nascar can’t run in the rain at Daytona or Talladega for safety reasons, but I don’t know why they can’t use this technology to run the road courses or the small tracks with rain tires and wiper blades.

In the land of NASCAR, we’ll also get to watch the Danica Patrick story unfold. I wish her the best, but believe it or not, at age 28 it’s now or never to adjust to this bigger heavier car. I’m not sure that by not giving it a 100% commitment (since she’s continuing in Indycars) that it’ll work out as well as it otherwise might. She signed a contract to drive the #7 Go Daddy Chevrolet Impala for JR Motorsports, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Nationwide Team. Can you imagine the marketing? You’re going to have two hugely popular racers working together. I hope they find as much success on the track as they will undoubtably have off of it. Danica will compete in 12 (poosibly 13) events for the minor league stock car team (The Nationwide series is kind of the equivalent of AAA in baseball). I have to say, I not only hope she’s successful in the good ol boys series, I think she’s got the right temperment to take on the sexism that runs rampant in this southern based sport. Richard Petty once said of her, "I just don't think it's a sport for women, and so far, it's proved out. It's really not. It's good for them to come in. It gives us a lot of publicity; it gives them publicity. But as far as being a real true racer, making a living out of it, it's kind of tough.” Gee Richard, has it ever occurred to you that you rednecks have never given any woman a real chance, which might be a bigger part of the problem? Maybe you should ask her to bake some cookies for you! I’ll never forget when she got wrecked in the pits at the Indy 500 in 2008 by Ryan Briscoe and was headed towards his pit for a confrontation before IMS security intercepted her. I thought, wow that’s some fire! It’s up in the air whether she will run the Nationwide season opener at Daytona. Because of the speed of the cars and the fact that she’s never run a stock car in a points event (applicable to all), she has to run the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) event on Feb. 6 to get clearance. That series is basically "the AA" and are actually retired Sprint Cup Cars. It’s a proving ground as to whether the drivers are competent enough that they won’t be a safety hazard at the superspeedway. If I had to bet, she’ll make it. I’m sure she’ll have the very best “retired” car on the track. I would also like to give two thumbs up to Dale Jr. and his manager, sister Kelley Earnhardt Elledge for giving Patrick the chance. Yes, they’ll make money marketing, but if they didn’t think she could drive, she wouldn’t have gotten the deal. Also a nod to Indiana native Tony Stewart who said, "I think obviously she's got talent; she's been successful in every form of racing she's been in so far and I don't see why she wouldn't be successful here NASCAR.” Take that Redneck Petty.

And last, but not least is the upcoming Sprint Cup Series. Will Jimmie Johnson win his fifth straight title? It’s hard to bet against him, but I’m going to. Tony Stewart finished sixth last season with his first year team, although they would’ve been third under the old (& better) points system. If they can avoid some of the pitfalls from last season, we will see “Smoke” back at the top. I’ve never been a big fan of Stewart personally, although he’s softened his public persona over the last several years, he is the guy I enjoy watching the most. In my opinion, he is the closest driver, ability-wise to Dale Earnhardt out there. Stewart, like Earnhardt has the ability to manhandle a lousy race car to a top 5 finish when it had no business even finishing in the top fifteen. I’ve watched him go into backwards slides, through grass, inches from the wall and figure out a way to correct and only need to replace the tires instead of the whole car. That is natural talent.
Everyone points at Johnson and Jeff Gordon as the standard bearers in this era and they do have the championships to prove it, but Hendrick Motorsports also has by far the best equipment, technology and not everyone can drive for them. I don’t begrudge them any of that. Whether you like the Hendrick teams or not, Rick Hendrick has constantly reinvested into his teams. For all the Hendrick haters out there, Jack Rousch at one time was in the same position as Rick, but he chose to not reinvest at the same rate and now fields second tier teams. As for the other Hendrick teams, expect Mark Martin to have another solid year, but I don’t see him duplicating 2009. The big question mark is Dale Earnhardt Jr. I don’t see that he has anywhere to go but up. However going from 25th in the points to 17th will not cut it. Not when your teammates finished 1, 2, 3 last year. This guy needs to figure out what is different within him. His first five years, he was a constant threat to win, the last five, not so much. I still say it goes back to that Corvette crash and fire and if that’s the case, he needs to deal with it with a professional if he wants to continue racing.
One rules related thing that I’m happy to report is that NASCAR is getting rid of that stupid wing on the backs of the current cars. Not only were they ugly from a fans prospective, I’m sure it was a contributing factor when Stewart hit one of Michael Waltrip’s pit members last season. Stewart was pulling out of his pits when in the blink of an eye, Waltrip's right rear tire changer was unexpectedly there. Many if not all Cup drivers have expressed the view thru the car ahead is much less with a wing than it was with a spoiler. Improved visibility is always a good thing. A full-field test is scheduled for March 23-24 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and after that a decision will be made on when to reintroduce the spoiler based on teams' input.