Looks like Armstrong is going to get away with it
 

http://espn.go.com/olympics/cycling/...-press-charges

The same prosecutor who decided Countrywide broke no laws has now decided Armstrong can't be prosecuted.

Looks like Armstrong bought his way out of it.

All the investigators were recommending charges by filed and expected an indictment within weeks, then suddenly a surprise announcement the Friday evening before the Super Bowl.

This is bullshit.

http://espn.go.com/espn/commentary/s...oks-suspicious

Or, the facts didn't support the evidence and the prosecutors not wanting to brin suspicion upon their motives release it at a time when nobody would notice. He did nothing criminal.

Please.

Not so fast!

http://espn.go.com/olympics/cycling/...charged-doping

Do you think the public cares about seven years ago? This is absurd. Next thing we know we'll have a government investigation to see who's buried in Grant's Tomb.

Well, crud, I am an expert featured in a livestrong.com article (without my knowledge). This is awkward.

I am vindicated. Lance saw the allegations and evidence and crumpled.

http://espn.go.com/olympics/cycling/...cycling-career

I won't be able to respect Armstrong until he admits the truth. "Like all the other top cyclists of my era that have been shamed and suspended/banned, I used performance-enhancing treatments and techniques that violated the rules of sport." And even then, I may not respect him.

I missed the part where he confessed. I also missed the part with the evidence. Let me know when either appears.

Lance will never confess. He's a scumbag, and scumbags never confess.

Lance's not going into arbitration was in order to suppress the evidence from teh court of public opinion. That's why you won't see the evidence coming out. Because Lance didn't want it to.

This was his gambit to save what he has left and cry out "Witch hunt!"

I've lost count. How many of the past 15 TDF titles have been stripped?

I've lost count too. That's why I quit watching.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mor...&sct=hp_t11_a0

Lance cheated, but no one will care.

What I find interesting is that Lance could kill off the criminal investigation (presumably through his political connections), but he couldn't stop the USADA. Nor could he stop all his prior "friends" from testifying against him. You can't be a jerk your whole life and expect to have a lot of friends in the end.

It's my understanding that the USADA has no authority to strip any TDF titles. Am I mistaken in this?

Unless I'm mistaken(and correct me if I am), the others were due to positive drug tests. Now how again is this different from Lance's situation?

Hincapie. Repeat this name three times.

That's the man that was about to devastate Armstrong.

If Hincapie says that Lance doped, it would be more devastating than a positive test.

Indurain understands it. We don't know what the testimony and how it was obtained. I understand why a person would not pursue somebody with a vendetta and an open check book.

Mike and I simply disagree. Mike trust government inherently to do the right thing and that all its representations are accurate. I disagree. I also understand why these many years, Lance would not waste any more money fighting the endless, meaningless battle. Mike remains idealistic that chasing windmills matter.

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/8...-espn-magazine

Yup.

According to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, 11 of Armstrong's teammates testified against him.

http://espn.go.com/olympics/cycling/...ong-usada-says

I was just going to post this. Among them Hincapie. I will be very curious to see what Hincapie said. I consider him to be virtually unimpeachable.

Hincapie admits doping here:

http://www.georgehincapie.com/news/S...orge-Hincapie/

No doubt the report will show that Hincapie implicates Armstrong.

One thing the articles don't address is when Armstrong allegedly doped. I'm curious if it was only towards the end of his career, or throughout? Have you heard elsewhere what the timeframe was?

Pre-cancer, he placed 6th in the 1996 Olympic time trial in Atlanta. I wonder if it goes that far back.

I've heard that Hincapie's affidavit is devastating. Haven't read it yet.

An unimpeached or examined affidavit obtained under duress is meaningless. Really, you have a rogue agency threatening people who don't have the resources Lance has, then the agency lawyers draft it to sound how they want it to sound, then the present it to Hincapie and demand he sign it, a bunch of lies can be promulgated.

Mike, you really can't be that much a simpleton to not understand how rogue prosecutors can manipulate the system and even witnesses, are you?

Please, are you that naive? You really believe that all 11 cyclists were duped/threatened or are outright conspiring and lying?

Only a willfully depraved person would believe at this point that Lance didn't dope.

The report details all the witness intimidation that Armstrong engaged in.

Yet we are to believe that Armstrong is the innocent do-gooder, and it is the USADA that is doing all the witness intimidation.

The process was abused by the USADA.

What's the point? Lance is not racing in cycling. I see no purpose and believe Lance probably competed as all other cyclists did. But he never tested positive so he kept it within the controls of the time. For the USADA to reach back trying to apply new technology and to seek other sanctions is unconscionable.

There is no malum per se in seeking a competitive advantage.

see, more distortion from you. Lance was in fact still competing (triathlons). And these sanctions ban Lance from the sport for life (can't own or coach a team). Get the unconfessed cheaters out of the sport. Like Pete Rose.

Lance could work to change and improve the sport by fighting against PEDs. Instead, he is the Godfather of PEDs. His last defense will be "but I raised money for cancer."

The point is the same point with any prosecution of liars, cheats, and frauds. It's because they broke the rules, and those charged with enforcing those rules have a duty to prosecute those who break them.

Should the feds have ignored Al Capone b/c his misdeeds were in the past and he had left the crime business?

Your logic is nuts. There actually is no logic there but some misplaced emotion for a bully. Maybe you take PEDs; don't know. But your devotion to Lance, and dumb arguments in his favor, are odd.

You're an asshole.

Not that you deserve a response, but I have no reason to ever take PED's and my poor performances should back that up.

My logic is simple. The violations were not caught, if they existed, at the time of competition. They are malum prohibitum. There is nothing inherently wrong with taking a substance to compete with the others except some rules say so.

The laws allegedly violated are hybrid, sophisticated laws that do not protect or benefit society. My logic is to enforce laws that matter.

Rape, murder, theft matter.

Some of these hyper-sensitive laws do not. If you catch Al Capone at age 99, I really don't care. I don't have the high sense of blood lust you do.

Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.

If Lance distributed EPO, like Hincapie said he did, then he violated the law. He's not licensed to distribute drugs.

lolz. It's like I insulted your wife or something.

Sorry your buddy Lance got caught that was cheating the entire time. Must be hard to watch. All your response is that it doesn't matter.

Well it does to a civil society.

But that's not rape or murder!! Ignore it.

I think the UCI doesn't like this investigation of Lance one bit. For two reasons:

1) If Lance has his titles stripped, who wins? 20 out of the 21 podiums in the 7 years Lance won are implicated dopers.

2) UCI is complicit in a coverup for Lance. My speculation is that this was always his ace in the hole.

Cyclists that testified against Lance and admitted doping got 6 month suspensions.

However, if found to have lied under oath, could be prosecuted for perjury.

The thing that makes it easy on an emotional level to have Lance finally outed as a cheater, is that he is a despicable person in his private life, by many/most accounts. It's not like a nice stand-up guy just got busted.

Oh brother.

Do we want to prosecute everybody who distributes steroids?

First things first.

On the basketball court, there is a lot of pushing and shoving that goes on. Some of it is called and some of it is not. After the game, should we review tapes to call more fouls?

If a person tests clean, even if they somehow beat the test, it should be the end of the story.

Racers use the PED's to be equal with the other racers. Why do cyclists use PED's? Because the race directors structure these impossible series of stages from which recovery is near impossible without chemical assistance. I don't hear the crowd which would like to "clean up the sport", asking for the causes of the need for these PED's to be changed. No, we have morality police because jealousy steps in and we can't stand success.

No sport is clean. Look what happens when they put the screws down on baseball, football, track. Cycling tests more than almost any other sport.

We have swimmers cheating. Live and let live. This is not malum per se.

I wasn't aware that Lance Armstrong was prosecuted. Link?

Dopers are almost never prosecuted.
http://www.slate.com/articles/sports...g_to_jail.html

Lance is now reduced to claiming he was the only clean one in the peleton, but everyone else on his team cheated. And while he had an intimate relationship with the most notorious drug pusher in cycling (Dr. Ferrari), he was not getting PEDs.

Sad.

I don't see why it's important. He competed on the field which is about as level as it will get.

He was a good racer, not a special human being.

But, as you have duly noted, cycling is destroyed. So what is the purpose of all this except to pad the reputation of a prosecutor? Nothing. More cynicism, more loss of faith and the sport won't clean up as Contador shows.

In reality, we shouldn't police doping and should allow it.

then that's what this fight is about. You are pro-doping. I am anti-doping.