NASCAR Cooties

Apparently, all you race car fans have the cooties.

STORY

NASCAR Fans Don't Take Kindly to Immunization Alert

Jeff Gordon's victory at the Bank of America 500 NASCAR race surely fired up fans in Concord, N.C., on Saturday night, just slightly more than the battle in Washington over inoculating congressional staffers attending the big event.

Still, race fans didn't appreciate an advisory by the Democratic head of the Homeland Security Committee telling aides to get a series of immunizations before heading down to investigate health care facilities at the Talladega Super Speedway in Talladega, Ala., and Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.

The recommendation was "probably Washington bureaucracy and prejudice to the South, somewhat," one fan told FOX News.

"Is this going on in other sporting events is my question. Is this happening with the Super Bowl every year?" asked Jonathan Drew of St. Louis, Mo.

"Good to see the people in D.C. are as smart as ever, focused on the right issues," said Tracy Tarbutton of Ashville, N.C.

The battle hit the public consciousness last week after The Washington Times was first to report that congressional aides were advised to get vaccinations against several communicable diseases — including hepatitis, diphtheria, tetanus and influenza — before traveling on a fact-finding mission to the tracks.



Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said the whole story was blown out of proportion, but Republican Rep. Robin Hayes, who represents the district that is home to Saturday's race, called it an affront to NASCAR fans.

By race time Saturday night, fans who had been complaining about the warnings were more focused on pole position than staph infections, and commentators didn't mention the topic during their play-by-plays. NASCAR officials weren't available Sunday to say whether anyone with a communicable disease reported to Lowe's medical facilities on race day.

But with all the noise, the National Republican Congressional Committee is hoping to make a little more hay from the dispute, issuing a nearly three-minute video that used more than a dozen news reports about the congressional field trip to make fun of the public health scare.

"If anything, it's the NASCAR fans who should get immunized against Washington officials, not the other way around," Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., is quoted saying at the end of the video.

North Carolina Republican Party Chairwoman Linda Daves added that Democrats are not going to win over any of the prized NASCAR voters with reports like this latest one.

“Democrats should know that there is no preventive measure yet designed to ward off the blue-collar values and patriotism that NASCAR fans represent. If they aren’t careful, they just might catch some of it,” she said.

1 Out Of 5 Democrats Want Us To Lose The War

STORY

NEW YORK —
Nearly one out of every five Democrats thinks the world will be better off if America loses the war in Iraq, according to the FOX News Opinion Dynamics Poll released Thursday.

The percentage of Democrats (19 percent) who believe that is nearly four times the number of Republicans (5 percent) who gave the same answer. Seven percent of independents said the world would be better off if the U.S. lost the war.

Click here for results of the poll.(pdf)

Overall, 11 percent of Americans think the world would be "better off" if the U.S. lost the war, and 73 percent disagree.

Opinion Dynamics Corp. conducted the national telephone poll of 900 registered voters for FOX News from Sept. 25 to Sept. 26. The poll has a 3-point margin of error.

Praying for Peace

Large majorities of Americans say they have said a prayer for soldiers serving in Iraq and for the war to end, while just over half say they have prayed for President Bush.

Most people — 87 percent — say they have said a prayer for the troops, and another 77 percent have prayed for the war in Iraq to end. A much smaller 54 percent majority of Americans say they have prayed for the president.

Among groups, Democrats (80 percent) and Republicans (76 percent) are about equally likely to say they have prayed for the war to end, and women (80 percent) are only slightly more likely than men (73 percent) to have done so.

Republicans (74 percent) are twice as likely as Democrats (37 percent) to have included the president in their prayers, while just over half (52 percent) of independents have prayed for Bush.

Appealing to a higher authority on behalf of the president does not appear to be influenced by gender, as about as many men (51 percent) as women (56 percent) say they have prayed for Bush.

"It’s interesting to see the parallel between overall voter sentiment toward the president and the relatively reduced likelihood to pray for him," says Ernest Paicopolos, principal of Opinion Dynamics. "It’s also striking to see a more than 30-point gap between prayer for the troops and prayer for the commander-in-chief of those same troops."

In general, more Republicans (64 percent) than Democrats (53 percent) and independents (48 percent) say they pray every day. Southerners (66 percent) are 20 percentage points more likely than those living in the Northeast (46 percent) to pray daily.

Overall, a 56 percent majority of Americans says they pray every day, including 64 percent of women and 47 percent of men.

Another 17 percent say they pray several times a week and 7 percent several times a month. Few Americans — 7 percent — say they never pray.

Ok, disagreeing with the war is one thing. Openly HOPING that we lose?!?!? This is a fucking travesty in the highest order. Those one out of five need to look at every combat veteran they see in the eye, and attempt to tell them this. They might as well give a donation to the Hajis while they are at it. The current congress might even make such a donation tax deductable. I hope to God that this fifth colomn mentality does not become the norm for all the Democrats. I have a few as friends, and I hope they do not subcribe to this idea. What the hell has the left come down to? This makes me sick. This makes me almost ashamed that I fought to give them the right to come up with this bullshit. Sorry to all my Liberal friends, but this slightly struck a nerve.



BTW: This is post number 50. WooHoo!