"Saving the Republic"?
And this would be...how?
The senate is hopelessly corrupt, the legions tied down and exhausted with pointless schemes of foreign conquest, the people distracted and clueless, and Caesar is a gormless idiot staring at his own reflection in what was his conqeror's helmet.
Why NOT enjoy a little panem et circensus?
The Republic may be saveable - probably not, but possibly - but what we say and do here isn't going to do that. IMO there's no real reason, good Neo-Late Romans that we are - that we can't pallate watching our republic slip away with a little spectacle.
At this point the only way the Founder's form of government will be saved is literally by revolution, a revolution that burns and blows the immense amount of cash and influence out of the system. I know I don't have the stomach for that and I doubt whether the bulk of the American public does, either.
But, Larue, I liiiike the photos! 
Mixing sports posts with political posts is fully in the tradition of the old News Blog, hence the battle cry of Fuck the fucking Yankees.
I suppose you could say that doping in cycling is an inevitable product of capitalist corruption of the sport, and that the attempts of the clean cyclists to regain control of the Tour are an example of labor ...
Oh, fuck it, I hate it when people try to dictate the contents of other peoples' blogs. Seems very concern-trollish to me.
What Octavia said.
"Gormless."
Always loved using that word - the rednecks I inflict it on just stare slackjawed.
More soccer!
Interesting finish to the stage today!
As for mixing some sports into a political blog, why not? Life would be dull without a bit of variety. The real problem is, Jesse is often the lone blogger here. Where are the others, like Hubris Sonic?
The problem isn't the sport coverage, it's the sport being covered.
Cycling is so completely overwhelmed with doping, drugs, and other malfeasance that it can't get through half the most important race of the year without losing two of the favored riders to scandal.
This is like losing the top 100 runners halfway throught the London Marathon.
I've got nothing against cycling except for the cheating, but it's seems obvious that the Tour is tainted beyond recovery at this point.
They should let them all dope and drug themselves into superhuman freaks who die of enlarged hearts at 50 to win their bike race.
Most of them do it now anyway.
Comsympinko, nearly every major sport is drenched with dope. Baseball, soccer (Steve Gilliard's favorite sports), the NBA, and most especially the NFL are loaded with cheaters. Despite the BALCO scandal, baseball is mostly sweeping the problem under the rug: Barry Bonds is still playing, isn't he? And the NFL and NBA are completely ignoring the problem. We hear so much about doping on the Tour because the cycling world is actually doing something about it. You should be cheering, not sneering.
In comments to Jen's post, Steve's family (as represented by 'Fran') has posted a couple of responses - several from the bottom, as of this writing (total of 63 comments at this moment).
Just an 'FYI' thang, for those who didn't know and might be interested.
Like Rome, once Caesar's gone, the future is likely a smart Octavian, not a return to the Republic. That's gone for good.
The Tour. I blame Armstrong who started it all with his cancer drugs, oxygen tanks and blood transfusions always one step ahead of the sheriff.
Steve-MD/DC, thank for the heads-up (or down, as the case may be ).
It was instructive to get a perspective from Steve G's family on this, and it was certainly sobering to hear about some of the other stuff that they're going through right now. Jeez.
Also, the stuff re: the threats to Steve was creepy to hear about. We all know that the wingnuts are 98% hot air, but God only knows what that 2% are capable of. Bastards.
Slow rider--
Actually, I jeer at all of them.
Players' unions more interested in maximizing rookie contracts than doing real, blood-based testing for performance enhancers that endanger the players' health did away with any illusions I once had about the integrity of modern sport.
But the offenses on the Tour are so egregious they make Barry Bonds look like a Mormon.
No sport will ever again be above suspicion until random, year-round blood testing of all athletes is instituted.
The curlers are probably OK, though.
For now...
I disagree slightly, comsympinko. There is no doubt that all the major sports are dirty. But cycling is not the worst: Casey Hampton and LeBron James can't possibly be wholly natural, can they?
As I said, we hear so much about doping on the Tour because the cycling world is actually making an effort to clean house. The NFL and NBA are almost certainly dirtier but they seem happy to stay that way.
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