June 2013 archive

It’s a partly cloudy 72 in Montreal so there’s no reason to think the whole race will not be run on Drys of which almost everyone has a full compliment.  The tire of choice will be the Super Soft on a 2 pit strategy, but they will have to run the Mediums at least once.  The alternative would be to run Mediums for most of the distance, save a stop, and put the Super Softs on at the end.  Given the 1 second per lap advantage and the speed of the stops I don’t imagine any except the most desperate Teams would try it.

I havent been able to find any news of Massa dropping out after yesterday’s crash so presumably he’ll start.  It’s a shame, it was a brand new chassis.

Grosjean qualified 19th but will be penalized 10 grid spots for causing a collision at the previous round (Monaco). Raikkonen and Ricciardo qualified ninth and tenth respectively; penalised two grid spots each for pit-exit infringements in Qualifying.  This is reflected in the pretty tables.

Brad Spurgeon thinks this is a much tougher track than I do, pointing to the heavy braking at the end of the straights.  I say this gives them plenty of time to cool down.  He also says the surface is abrasive and it may very well be, but if you’re getting 22 laps out of Super Softs under heavy fuel how bad can it be?

He does point out that this is the first of the really fast tracks where the Teams start using their lower downforce settings and that could make a difference for cars with good mechanical grip (like Scuderia Marlboro when their wind tunnel was screwed up).

Montreal’s contract expires in 2014 and the Harper government has shown no willingness to pony up its share of the $15 Million kickback to Formula One.  At times like this it’s important to remember what Canada’s 2 largest national industries are-

Repeats on NBC Sports at 8 pm and 12:30 am Tuesday.

• Qualifying
• Canadian Grand Prix
• Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
• Guardian Interactive Track
• Formula One Interactive Track

• Formula One Official Site
• NBC Sports Motor Sports

Pretty tables below.

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

June 9 is the 160th day of the year (161st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 205 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1973, Secretariat wins Triple Crown

With a spectacular victory at the Belmont Stakes, Secretariat becomes the first horse since Citation in 1948 to win America’s coveted Triple Crown–the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes. In one of the finest performances in racing history, Secretariat, ridden by Ron Turcotte, completed the 1.5-mile race in 2 minutes and 24 seconds, a dirt-track record for that distance.

With easy victories in his first two starts of 1973, Secretariat seemed on his way to the Triple Crown. Just two weeks before the Kentucky Derby, however, he stumbled at the Wood Memorial Stakes at Aqueduct, coming in third behind Angle Light and Sham. On May 5, he met Sham and Angle Light again at the Churchill Downs track in Louisville for the Kentucky Derby. Secretariat, a 3-to-2 favorite, broke from near the back of the pack to win the 2 1/4-mile race in a record 1 minute and 59 seconds. He was the first to run the Derby in less than two minutes and his record still stands. Two weeks later, at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland, Secretariat won the second event of the Triple Crown: the Preakness Stakes. The official clock malfunctioned, but hand-recorded timers had him running the 1 1/16-mile race in record time.

On June 9, 1973, almost 100,000 people came to Belmont Park near New York City to see if “Big Red” would become the first horse in 25 years to win the Triple Crown. Secretariat gave the finest performance of his career in the Belmont Stakes, completing the 1.5-mile race in a record 2 minutes and 24 seconds, knocking nearly three seconds off the track record set by Gallant Man in 1957. He also won by a record 31 lengths. Ron Turcotte, who jockeyed Secretariat in all but three of his races, claimed that at Belmont he lost control of Secretariat and that the horse sprinted into history on his own accord.

Hello. A programming note: Today was a decent show, but sadly, Saturday’s shows are kind of a waste of time for me since there is meaningless Congressional baseball talk(without the same caliber talk of reforming it or killing the filibuster) and hour long discussions about New jersey politics and Chris Christie I think are unwarranted. So therefore, I am going to be doing strictly a Sunday series on this now. That is when we talk about real shit like warrantless phone-tracking, warrantless surveillance, and the NSA as we did today.

It’s sadly not just me. In fairness, what I am interested in and what Steve is interested in are two different things. Chris Hayes shares my same interests and Steve does not. I like discussions about policy, and I’m just not getting enough of that. Besides, Sunday is enough to not abandon the #Uppers people who do appreciate what I tweet. I may or may not tweet on Saturday, but the tweets won’t be collected. So here we are on #Uppers.

Glad we are talking about real shit today. #Uppers

— priceman (@therealpriceman) June 9, 2013

@therealpriceman my thoughts, exactly. #uppers

— Adina M. Lav (@adinalav) June 9, 2013

@therealpriceman Re-emphasizing REauthorized Acts of the Bush Administration! #uppers

— Al Clements (@afc33125) June 9, 2013

@afc33125 @therealpricemanstill looking for that change…#uppers

— laughing gnome farm (@lgf5656) June 9, 2013

An easy way to let people know you stand for nothing is to make excuses for George W. Bush’s neocon programs because Obama uses them #Uppers

— priceman (@therealpriceman) June 9, 2013

Good morning #Uppers. I think it’s important to recognize that the fake Constitutional scholar doesn’t understand the 4th amendment.

— priceman (@therealpriceman) June 9, 2013

@therealpricemannailed it!#uppers

— laughing gnome farm (@lgf5656) June 9, 2013

The New Deal coalition is what defines the Democratic platform and the Great Society on top of it later more than Andrew Jackson now #Uppers

— priceman (@therealpriceman) June 9, 2013

Interesting bit of history on Andrew Jackson. He paid off all US debt=then there’s a bad recession+all Jacksonians thrown out office #Uppers

— priceman (@therealpriceman) June 9, 2013

Thank you for reading.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

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The Sunday Talking Heads:

Up with Steve Kornacki: The guests were not listed but Joan Walsh, editor at large Salon.com, said she would be one of Steve’s guests.

This Week with George Stephanopolis: Guests this Sunday are Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA); Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI); Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO); and Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian.

Guests on the roundtable: George Will, Washington Post; GOP Strategist Matthew Dowd; Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN); Paul Krugman, New York Times; and Greta Van Susteren, Fox News.

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Mr Schieffer’s guests are Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH); Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY); Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA); Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX); Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD); and Rep. John Dingell (D-MI).

On his roundtable: David Sanger, New York Times; Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post); Harvard University Prof. Joseph Nye; and Margaret Brennan, CBS News.

The Chris Matthews Show: Chris is preempted for the Men’s Final of the French Open.

Meet the Press with David Gregory: MTP is preempted for the Men’s Final of the French Open.

State of the Union with Candy Crowley: Ms. Crowley’s guests are Sen. John McCain (R-AZ); Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO); Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD); Amy Walter, Cook Political Report; Former Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL); and Former Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA).

Obama and Xi end ‘constructive’ summit

The BBC

US President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have ended a two-day summit described by a US official as “unique, positive and constructive”.

US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon said Mr Obama had warned Mr Xi that cyber-crime could be an “inhibitor” in US-China relations.

He also said that both countries had agreed that North Korea had to denuclearise.

The talks in California also touched on economic and environmental issues.

The two leaders spent nearly six hours together on Friday and another three hours on Saturday morning at the sprawling Sunnylands retreat in California.

In this week segment of “What we know Now” wit Up host Steve Kornacki, we learn that the two men who were wrongly identified as the Boston Marathon bombers on the front page of The New York Post, have sued the Post for defamation. Steve is joined by guests Abby Rapoport, staff writer, The American Prospect; Jonathan Alter, columnist for Bloomberg View; Michael Steele, former chairman of the RNC; and Julia Ioffe, senior editor at The New Republic.

Jeremy Epstein Is Still Looking For A Job

by Andrew Kaczynski, BuzzFeed

The college student was thrust into the spotlight when he asked Obama and Romney about finding a job after graduation at the October town hall debate.

At the debate, Epstein made headlines for asking the candidates about finding a job after graduation. “Mr. President, Governor Romney, as a 20-year-old college student, all I hear from professors, neighbors and others is that when I graduate, I will have little chance to get employment,” he asked. “Can – what can you say to reassure me, but more importantly my parents, that I will be able to sufficiently support myself after I graduate?”

Epstein did not find a summer job but is doing some work at his school’s radio station 88.7. He’s even hosting a show.

Heather McGill, Wife of Alabama Sen. Shadrack McGill, Warns on Facebook to Keep Off Her Man

from ABC News

An Alabama politician’s wife who took to Facebook to warn women to stay away from her husband said a “righteous anger” pushed her to write a post that has now gone viral.

Why do we even care? But, hey now we know.

The New York Post‘s “Bag Men” May Get the Last Laugh

by Jennifer Lai, Slate

As you may remember, the photo and attention-grabbing headline led many to believe the FBI had IDed the two males-16-year-old high school student Salaheddin Barhoum and 24-year-old part-time college student Yassine Zaimi-as suspects in the bombing. In reality, the pair turned out to just be avid runners who had been already briefly questioned by authorities. Later that day, authorities released the photos and video of the two actual suspects, who we now know as Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Barhoum and Zaimi are suing the Post for libel, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and invasion of privacy, and are seeking unspecified damages

Gov. Deval Patrick says he got drunk after bomber captured

by Katie Glueck, Politico

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick got “quite drunk” by himself a day after the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects concluded, according to a report Thursday.

The Boston Herald reported that the Bay State Democrat went to the Berkshires for a swim and a solo dinner, the Saturday after Boston endured hours of lockdown as law enforcement engaged in a shootout with the Tsarnaev brothers and spent a day tracking down the surviving brother, Dzhokhar, before capturing him.

Good for him. I might have done the same after all that. Hmmm, I can’t remember but I might have.

PUBLIC ENEMIES

The Consumer Affairs Agency upbraided Coca-Cola Japan for using the word tokuhou (“news flash”) in ads for a new fiber drink. The agency said consumers might confuse the term with tokuho, a word used to describe healthy food.

The MPD received 14,104 entries in a contest to name a new type of bank scam where fraudsters pretend to be the victim’s son over the phone. The official name is now “Kaasan, tasukete sagi,” or “Mom, help me scam.”

The newest hire at the justice ministry’s clerical department is… a juvenile delinquent on probation. Officials hope to foster understanding about criminal rehabilitation.

The MPD has asked NTT Docomo to be more careful with cellphone-rental companies, some of which are apparently fronts for crime groups.

Are we through yet?

I’m sorry about my apparent lack of enthusiasm, but as I’ve mentioned it’s the busiest time of the year.  This third race of the Triple Crown is the longest even though it doesn’t get the hype or coverage the other two do and usually serves as a reminder that we aren’t going to have a Triple Crown winner, not that it’s important.

For one thing Thoroughbred race horses are as ridiculously inbred as any Hillbilly, Hapsburg, or Versailles Villager (yes, I’m talking about you Luke Russert).  For another it’s just stupid to judge them on the basis of 3 races when they are a mere 3 years old.

But we’ve indulged in Bullfighting and Bear Baiting for thousands of years and cock and dog fights are still popular with a certain sadistic mindset.  Horse racing, as cruel as it is, isn’t necessarily harmful to the ponies or those that watch them.  It is a spectacular display of wasted resources by our oligarch upper class.

The Belmont Stakes are perhaps the most democratic of the Triple Crown Races even though it is held in Queens.  Indications of that are they can’t settle on a song or a drink.  The song has ranged from Sidewalks of New York, a charming Tin Pan Alley tune better known as East Side, West Side, to the Theme from New York, New York (as performed by Frank Sinatra and appropriated as the Yankees anthem and not the original Liza Minelli rendition), to 2010’s Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z (I can’t believe that will last for long).

Likewise the drink has changed from the absolutely un-potable White Carnation to the refined trashcan punch that is the Belmont Breeze.

I suggest instead the classic Cosmopolitan.

This year is the 145th running and once again there is no Triple Crown at stake so the coverage is thin indeed even though there are several compelling storylines in the 14 horse field.

• It might be an off track, though Stars Hollow is not so very far away and you’ve been able to see shadows since 10 am so conditions should be improving.

• Orb and Oxbow face off again in the rubber game of the match.  Orb has a breeding advantage in that he has a past Belmont winner in his bloodline.  Will this give him the stamina he needs in the longest Triple Crown race?

• We have a filly in the mix, Unlimited Budget.  Admittedly she starts from outside, but she has shown good form so if you want to root for the underdog (or horse) you now have a choice.

Racing Ambassadors is trying to make this a more ‘Turn Left’ type experience for the proles with the $10 tickets who arrive on the Subway.  I’m not altogether sure this is a good idea.

I’m not sure this is a good idea.

I have taught you well.

• Post position and odds (with reader prompted fix).
• Picks.  Post time 6:36 ET
• Official Site

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There’s so much beautiful spinach in the farmers’ markets now, and though it will soon give way to summer heat, it’s nice to know you can buy it every week and make something different with it each time. If you’re already into hot weather, you’ll appreciate this week’s cold yogurt soup with spinach and grains, which I’ve been polishing off for lunch every day this week. But even the hot soups will work on a warm day.

In the list of easily disposed of gossip, Williams will be switching from Renault to Mercedes engines next year.  Now normally I’d say this was pretty stupid since 2 of the top 3 teams are on Renault power, but you must always keep in mind that 2014 is the big engine swap from normally aspirated V-8s to Turbocharged V-6s so you can take most of what you think you know now and tear it up.

There was rain this morning for P3 and one of the Safety Cars damaged a wall which took half an hour out of the 60 minute session for repairs.  They expect rain for Qualifying which means they’ll be beating the heck out of their Inters and maybe Wets (3 sets of Inters and 2 of Wets for both Qualifying and Race).  The up side is they’ll be able to choose the dry rubber they go out on (more about this in a moment).

Let’s hear some more about Tires!

Well, the teams devoted the first half of their P2 Practice (P1 was also rainy) to testing Pirelli’s experimental “new” tires.

What has been happening is that the compound (rubber part) has been delaminating from the belt leading to huge chunks of rubber flying all over the track which is bad not just for you with your suddenly square wheels, but everyone behind you who has to dodge this junk.

Now what Pirelli has decided to do about this is go back to the Kevlar belts they were using last year (this year they switched to steel).  This appeared to work well in Practice (though it’s hard to tell for reasons I’ll get to) and the “new” tires are set to debut next race at Silverstone.

That is if they do.  They can only be deployed by unanimous consent of the Teams and so far Lotus-Renault is withholding theirs.  The only other solution mentioned is swabbing the steel belts with super glue before the rubber goes on which according to Pirelli is is likely to lead to a less than satisfactory result.

To say that Pirelli is pissed with Formula One at the moment is an astronomical understatement.  They still don’t have a contract for 2014 and though Michelin is bandied about as a replacement they probably don’t feel very kindly either after being roundly abused and then unceremoniously dumped in 2010.  Pirelli has officially announced they intend to do no further development on the tires in 2013.

The Controversy

Oh, you thought that was it?  No, no; Red Bull especially, but also others, have got their nose out of joint at the ‘secret’ testing done by Pirelli and Mercedes at Circuit de Catalunya after the race there. Ross Brawn accepts full responsibility for Mercedes participation, for its part Pirelli insists that the testing was allowed under its contract and that the tires in question were 2014 development tires which would confer no competitive advantage.

Tires on offer

This week they’ll be using the Mediums and Super Softs.  The Super Softs will be the tires of choice because they’re about a second a lap faster AND they last a whopping 22 laps, even under heavy fuel.  Pirelli predicts a 1 or 2 stop race for Teams not in trouble.  If Qualifying is done in the rain on Inters as predicted, every Team will have 3 sets of brand new ones for the race.  Teams may, though given the lap time differential of 1 second per lap it’s unlikely, start Mediums and commit to a 1 stop strategy.  The longevity of the tires at this particular track makes it difficult to determine if the Kevlar tires really solve the delamination problem or not.  Think that covers my loose ends.

Other stuff

There are some speed bumps off the racing line that will probably be removed before the race but maybe not.  The long front straight has the 2 DRS zones separated only by the midway chicane.  The turns are tight and slow and there are not many of them which reduces the wear on tires and brakes.  For a street course there are plenty of chances to pass so it could be exciting.

Thailand had been angling for a race in 2015 but Bangkok has passed an ordinance forbidding automobile racing within the city limits (not everyone loves you Bernie!).

The Live coverage will be on NBC tomorrow at 2 pm with repeats on NBC Sports at 8 pm and 12:30 am Tuesday.  Coverage of the 145th Belmont is at 5 pm, also on NBC.

• Canadian Grand Prix
• Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
• Guardian Interactive Track
• Formula One Interactive Track

• Formula One Official Site
• NBC Sports Motor Sports