Lance Armstrong The Victim Of A Bureaucratic Witch Hunt
August 25, 2012 14 Comments
Let the record reflect that I couldn’t care less about bicycle races. There is nothing more dreadful than watching the Tour de France on television, especially listening to the self indulgent, arrogant windbags who run the race. These people have been after steroid users for the last two decades, seemingly everyone in the sport is using steroids. That is except for one, that being Lance Armstrong. So of course the Tour de France and the bureaucrats at the US Anti-Doping Agency, a tax funded non-profit, have attacked him relentlessly for nearly 15 years.
Armstrong passed 500 tests and there is little to no credible evidence that he actually used steroids. The only evidence out there are urine samples that were tested years after they were taken but there’s no evidence that they were stored properly or that the tests performed can even be properly done on years old urine. Furthermore, there isn’t any evidence the samples were even his. Keep in mind, he passed tests before and after these samples. Armstrong has been fighting this battle since 2005 and decided he had enough yesterday. Rather than continuing his appeal, he’s giving up. He isn’t admitting guilt, he’s only saying enough is enough. He’s tired of fighting bureaucrats and he’s tired of paying lawyers for an appeal in a system stacked against him.
Armstrong isn’t the only person to do this. Countless Americans are attacked by government bureaucrats. They fight unjust charges for awhile then run out of patience or money. The bureaucrats have endless resources and can play games for years, ordinary individuals don’t have these luxuries. Of course when any of us gives up, not out of guilt but out of lack of money or patience, the bureaucrat spikes the ball and does a touchdown dance declaring us guilty as charged. The EPA does this all the time, but it happens at all of these Federal agencies. It happened to Armstrong, who seven years after his last racing victory and years since his retirement has lost patience in a system stacked against him.
What’s incredible here is that they’re going to strip him of every title he ever won. The evidence is flimsy but that’s never stopped bureaucrats with endless resources and a desire to destroy someone. The fact is that he’s passed 500 tests over the last decade plus. There has never been a sample taken and immediately tested that came back positive. That some people allege that Armstrong took drugs doesn’t prove that he did, especially so in light of the scientific evidence that he didn’t. Yet the bureaucrats persist because they can, because they want to make an example of someone even if he isn’t guilty. I’m here to tell you this is a regular occurrence, this nonsense happens all the time. Armstrong happens to be famous but it happens to regular folks time and again.
Absent an actual positive test, there is no reason not to believe Lance Armstrong. There are those in the media who desperately want to believe Armstrong used drugs but wanting to believe something doesn’t make it so. The fact is that Armstrong is an incredible athlete who overcame unbelievable odds to win the Tour de France. The French don’t like him because he’s an American, in fact the French are content destroying anyone who wins that race. Nothing excites French bureaucrats more than destroying a Tour de France champion. Unfortunately there isn’t a positive test and there are 500 negative tests. At the end of the day we need to ask ourselves why bureaucrats and the media feel the need to destroy everyone who is successful.
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I have never understood the witch hunt that Armstrong has endured. I can’t blame him for finally getting tired of all the nonsense and telling the Doping Agency to take a leap. It’s too bad they are stripping him of his career, but it is not surprising. They would probably do it out of spite, just because he refuses to admit to something he probably isn’t guilty of.
These doping people are motivated by spite and power. It’s just like the Penn State case where they’ve vacated Joe Paterno’s wins over the last 14 years of his career. It’s a joke. Everyone knows the results of the games, they happened, people were there. To pretend that Penn State didn’t win is absurd. Likewise we all saw Lance Armstrong win the Tour de France. It happened, he crossed the finish line first. To strip him of the win 7-13 years later is just ridiculous.
Great article! I remember when we used to live in a country where a man was presumed innocent until PROVEN guilty.
That’s the way it should be. Unfortunately with government bureaucrats (or this case pseudo government bureaucrats) they presume guilt. If the accused disagrees, the bureaucracy allows for years of investigations, hearings and other costly maneuvers. The bureaucracy can afford the time and expense, theirs is endless. But when the accused can no longer afford to go on or has lost patience and quits, then the bureaucracy pounces and declares it as evidence of guilt. It’s such nonsense. Armstrong wouldn’t be found guilty in any courtroom if the criminal standard of guilt ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ was used.
Dear USADA,
Congratulations……….All of you people there at the USADA have proved with your witch hunt of Lance Armstrong that you ALL are on the same playing field of some of the most despicable people on Earth……..right up there with the freaks at the Topeka, KS Westboro Church that picket soldiers funerals…..
You people with your “Holier than Thou” attitude do NOTHING to inspire or lift people up as Lance Armstrong does…….you only exist to tear people down, which not only makes you all the worst kind of people, but makes you complete losers……and losers always hate people better than themselves…..that’s why they are losers and will always be losers……and you people are major LOSERS…….
Lance Armstrong passed ALL the tests (nearly 500 of them in his career and many that were random) and still you persisted because you could not stand the fact that he was just a better athlete than all the rest……..I would expect that you will soon be going after Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps and most likely will be opening cases against Jim Thorpe, Jesse Owens, and Michael Jordan so you losers can feel like you have anything to do worth while…………
There is NOT a Rath or Punishment severe enough to impose on all of you there at the USADA that you ALL deserve more than anyone I can think of for what you have done to Lance Armstrong, His Family, and to the millions of people around the world that his story and achievements have inspired and given strength to overcome against all odds……..You will all get yours in this life or the next……
Most discusted,
Blake Norris
Las Vegas, NV
This seems to be the general position taken by around 2/3 of the people I’ve talked to about this. There seems to be a backlash against anti-doping bureaucrats generally but specifically in this case the backlash has been immense. At the end of the day, does the USASA taking down Lance Armstrong inspire anyone to want to enter the world of professional cycling? With all the other sporting options Americans have, the USADA for no good reason just destroyed the career of the only person Americans were going to look up to. Now kids who might want to take a shot at pro cycling will see what they did to Armstrong and pick another sport.
Good Point…..and like I stated in my first post……..who did the USADA inspire with all the crap?……NO ONE…….Also……..I question the USADA’s so called reason for suspicion……I think it is something else…….something you see in Politics a lot these days here in the United States especially with the Democrats……..these progressive Ideologues cannot stand anyone or anything that is exceptional……they feel all must be equal and the same or it is unfair somehow…….they suppress individualism and destroy innovation and exceptionalism……..They Themselves at the USADA are simply unexceptional and they cannot stand anyone or anything better than they are, which again is what makes them losers and feel a need to tear people down to their level……like I stated in my original post…….what was the point?…….what good became of any thing of their which hunt?…..Lance was already retired…….sure there must be fair competition in the sport and no one should be doping……..so they should have concentrated their efforts on the sport and the people in the sport as it is TODAY……and the people that have failed the testing (which Lance NEVER did)…….I fully expect for this sad excuse of a so called governing body that is the USADA to start looking at people like Michael Phelps, Peyton Manning, Robert Griffin III, Joe Montana, Steve Young, Wilt Chamberlin, Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, etc., etc., and anyone that has ever been great and exceptional in their sport…….you just watch…..that’s what these progressive tax payer funded Ideologue agencies and so called governing bodies do…….they go out of there way to search and find and concoct wrong doings that simply are not there because they themselves are unexceptional and to tear people down to their unexceptional level makes them feel better about themselves…….this was a witch hunt plain and simple……….what ever happened to Innocent until proven guilty………???…..The USADA has made Lance guilty until proven innocent.……Lance has been fighting (and Winning) these charges since 1999 (for 13 years)……..and last week he threw in the towel simply because he finally realized that you simply cannot fight STUPID………
I agree, they hate anything exceptional, which Armstrong was. What’s interesting is that Armstrong isn’t even a conservative, he hangs out with all sorts of leftists progressives. But it seems the only people are allowed to be exception in the eyes of the left are people like Obama, who of course isn’t all that exceptional.
Long on cliches, ideologic judgements and oft-repeated myth on Armstrong. Short on actual facts or rational arguments. Will you keep squealing that he’s the victim of a French conspiracy when he confesses on TV? Pathetic.
It appears that he’s lying, if so that’s on him. Here’s the question though, if everyone is using steroids does it really provide anyone with an edge? I really have no problem with steroid use and I think the enforcement of these arcane rules borders on the absurd.
Actually, since not all people have the same reaction to steroid injections, it does provide some with an edge. Should we admire and reward athletes just because their body reacts more to doping products? The principle of the rules is simple; as always, it gets complicated when you have to outsmart the crooks who would flout them.
Apparently all of the top bicyle racers are on steroids, so what difference does it really make if Armstrong was? There was an alleged steroid problem (nothing has ever been proven of course) in Major League Baseball a decade ago. I can’t help but ask if fans were any less entertained if players were actually on steroids. Sports is nothing more than entertainment. If people walk away from an event having been entertained, it really doesn’t matter if any of the players were on steroids. I tire of this faux morality when it comes to sports, as though games are pristine events and it would shock the conscience if anyone cheats. Give me a break. Sports is riddled with cheaters, gamblers, drug users and the like. It isn’t pristine, it’s entertainment.
A big difference! He was raised to God-like status on the back of fraudulent results, he set up with a few corrupt offocials a quasi maffia-like organisation which swindled sponsors, pressured young cyclists into taking drugs, and ruined the career of those who would blow the whistle, or only refuse to take part. And the hypocrisy of his denials, not to mention the perjuries!
As much as sport is an entertainment, it is based on the premise of all participants being on an equal footing and competing fairly through their skills and abilities. If you allow doping, you might just as well get rid of referees. And why only in sport? Politics too is riddled with cheaters. Maybe we should accept rigged elections as a fact of life?
Part of the problem is that it’s the media that raised Armstrong up like that. He’s just a bicyclist. No one in the US cares about bicycle races but for Armstrong. My issue with him at this point is that he not only lied about it but he went after his accusers. I question some of the test results and how they became public. But Armstrong still lied.
We’re talking about a bicycle race. It seems to me the rule is you start peddling when the gun goes off, you follow the course and the person to cross the finish line first wins. It doesn’t matter to me whether the people racing are on steroids, gatorade or 1,000 vitiman pills. I have a real problem with government agencies sticking their nose into these matters.