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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (48388)	4/27/2005 12:39:51 AM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Respond to of 50167

Lance Armstrong's final race-Respectfully, he compared himself to one other athlete who retired - Michael Jordan, who did it three times, at least so far. Jordan never gave the feeling that he was retiring in order to supervise the homework of his children. Armstrong does. He never respected his biological father or his adoptive father. He wants his children to know him. George Vecsey The New York Times WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2005 Augusta, Georgia The other day, Lance Armstrong was watching the Milan-San Remo race on television, pacing around the house, unable to sit down. His girlfriend, Sheryl Crow, posed this question for him: "You can't even sit down. How can you retire?" It was a reasonable question. Won't this most driven of athletes go stir-crazy after a month of retirement and start looking for a local race, just to feel the pack strung out behind him one more time? "Five years?" Armstrong suggested tentatively Monday, meaning he could see himself showing up for a friendly race at age 38, just looking for some weekend recreation. Other than that, he's done. He has been done for a couple of years, since his marriage started to unravel and he realized he would need to be in Austin, Texas, much of the time if he wanted to participate in the lives of his three children, whom he shares with his former wife. "They made me retire," he said Monday, meaning that his desire to be with his children dictated his retirement. He will not race again after this July's Tour de France, he announced Monday, the day before he and the Discovery Channel team compete in the Tour de Georgia, which begins here. He was asked if he was pushed to this decision by the former assistants who offer drug suspicions about him, the book and the lawsuits, the random catcalls and threats, the crush of the mob that has reached hysterical levels. He did not say no. He merely snickered and said: "Nobody likes death threats. I'm still here." He still has a strong chance to win the Tour de Georgia, the best multiple-stage cycling race in his home country. He will still be the favorite in July, when he goes after his seventh consecutive Tour de France. "No. 7 doesn't have the cachet of 6," he admitted. "But I still love what I do." This retirement means there is limited time to observe one of the greatest and charismatic American athletes, ever. The Tour de France breaks good riders, sends them slumped over, beaten, back to the hotel in the team van. It is conceivable that its steep climbs and time trials and three weeks of torture could demoralize a man who wants to be a soccer dad. How can he push himself through the Pyrenees when the end is so close? "That desire to go out on top," Armstrong replied. "That's a big deal to me." He added, "I still kill myself on six-hour bike rides and come back wasted. One final one, and then I stop." Respectfully, he compared himself to one other athlete who retired - Michael Jordan, who did it three times, at least so far. Jordan never gave the feeling that he was retiring in order to supervise the homework of his children. Armstrong does. He never respected his biological father or his adoptive father. He wants his children to know him. He makes no guarantees about what will happen at the tour. He spoke of Jan Ullrich of Germany, who could not stay with him in recent tours, and said: "No promises. There are 200 other cyclists who want to win it." He added: "It's my ambition to win. It's my job to win." Armstrong seemed subdued in making the expected announcement, at a news conference in front of European and American journalists, but he has been hinting at retirement for two years. His fellow riders, including colleagues from the European circuit who make this such a good race, knew it was coming. Because Armstrong is so contemporary, so formidable, it is hard to compare him with the great American athletes - Jim Brown, Joe DiMaggio, Sandy Koufax, Pete Sampras - who quit on top, before they got too old, before they were embarrassed. One clunker of a Tour de France should not embarrass Armstrong, but his champion's pride could keep it from ever happening. "I'm absolutely concerned," he said about losing. "But it is fear that gets you up early. 'What happened?' I don't want to face these questions." Even with his palpable need to stay home, he still talks like a man with one more tour in him.

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (48388)	4/27/2005 12:50:53 AM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

General Motors last week posted its largest quarterly loss for over a decade, while rival Ford saw its profits tumble 38pc and said its car making business would break even at best this year.By contrast, Toyota is expected to follow Honda and Nissan in reporting record profits for the past year. That punctuality we saw in the previous post pays some big dividends too- the big picture is the emphasis on the bottom line and knocking competition over by share excellence-In Japan, punctuality proved deadly-Across the country, the accident has already caused much soul-searching over Japan's attention - some would say obsession - with punctuality and efficiency. To many, the driver's single-minded focus on making up the 90 seconds seemed to reveal the weak points of a society where the trains do really run on time, but where people have lost sight of the bigger picture. -We mustn't go too far with our US success, says Toyota By David Litterick in New York (Filed: 27/04/2005) Japanese carmakers should give their US rivals some breathing space or risk a political backlash, the chairman of Toyota said yesterday. Hiroshi Okuda said he feared the success of Asian companies, which have grabbed nearly a third of the US car market, could prompt a trade war if politicians seek to protect the domestic industry. Hiroshi Okuda General Motors last week posted its largest quarterly loss for over a decade, while rival Ford saw its profits tumble 38pc and said its carmaking business would break even at best this year. By contrast, Toyota is expected to follow Honda and Nissan in reporting record profits for the past year. "We need to give time for some American companies to take a breath," Mr Okuda said. "Although a trade conflict, like ones in the past, may be avoided, there may be some impact because the car industry is symbolic in the US economy. As an automaker we have to think about what countermeasures we can take." Mr Okuda, who is also chairman of Japanese employers' group Keidanran, suggested technical alliances or voluntary price rises were possible. However Toyota appeared to backtrack when a spokesman for the company said pricing "should be determined by the market". Honda vice-president Koichi Amemiya also dismissed price rises as out of the question. "I realise that GM, as well as Ford, are suffering financially," he said. "But that doesn't mean you ignore the customer and raise your prices." Japanese firms faced political tensions in the 1980s as workers accused them of taking jobs away from the US workforce and dumping unfairly cheap goods on the American market. The carmakers responded by switching production from Japan and opening more US plants. They employ 1.8m people in the country, compared with 1.3m a decade ago. However Rick Wagoner, chief executive of GM, has repeatedly complained that the yen is too weak, giving Japanese manufacturers an unfair advantage. Toyota last year beat DaimlerChrysler to take third place in the US market. The companies' cars are rated by consumers as more reliable, and US models are frequently seen as tired, dated and of poorer quality. As Japanese manufacturers steal a march on their US rivals in car production, the likes of GM and Ford have increasingly tried to focus on the SUV and trucks market, although their foreign rivals are beefing up competition in that sector too. Honda yesterday reported a 27pc rise in net profit to Y95billion (£470m) against a year earlier, while Nissan posted a profit of Y517billion for the same period.