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Iraq and a host of other problems, from the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina to the indictment of a senior White House official in a CIA leak investigation, have taken a heavy toll on the president. Nearing the end of his fifth year in office, Bush has the lowest approval rating of his presidency and a majority of Americans say Bush is not honest and they disapprove of his handling of foreign policy and the war on terrorism.

Summit blows in terms of kid prices. Crystal is only $5 for 10 and under.

Is this really singling out climbers, or would they restrict camping for all those hated ORV'ers too? It seems to me that the ORV'ers have something to lose here too. They don't want to pay for camping with a greater ranger presence any more than climbers. This seems like a great opportunity for disparate outdoor recreation users to find some common ground. Working together could show that we can conserve the environment (our playgrounds) and keep the Feds and their more onerous regulations out of the picture. And I think the government actually giving us two years to clean up our act is way cool. I totally support government efforts to discourage a bunch of shit and TP strewn about the desert. This chance they are giving to see if we can get it done ourselves without their "help" is great.

I've got about 80 old climbing rags that are going into the recycle bin, unless anyone wants any of 'em that is. Dates: 1994 to present, mostly Climbing, some Rock and Ice's that are mostly older or newer. I'll drop them by whereever you want if it's reasonably convenient. I'm in Seattle. Let me know soon (via PM or email). Our recyclying guys come Thursday. Chuck

Yeah! How about 1) no eating in cars (by the driver anyway) 2) one drink maximum at bars and restaurants These two rules I'm sure are good for public health.

PP said, "three balls of dung, the size of a human head." ?!?

There was a good "news" story on Saturday Night Live a couple weeks back. It went something like this A new poll shows 66% of Americans now believe that going to war in Iraq was a bad idea. The poll also found that 34% of Americans believe Adam and Eve rode a dinosaur to church.

I feel a terror alert coming on...

And Bush's goose is getting cooked. Check out this link! more recent Foxnews poll Down to 36%! Funny that they don't have a snazzy graphic for this more recent result.

Speaking of voting, what do you guys think about this? "Across the state, Gregoire joined the last-minute campaigning, saying that Sunday's rockslide on Interstate 90 near Snoqualmie Pass is ``yet another wakeup call that we need to get going on vital safety projects that impact people and busines-ses all across our state. Proponents of I-912 decried the broadcast of Gregoire's comments on the highway traffic safety bands to those stranded in the slide-induced backups as an inappropriate use of state highway resources." Those election-stealing democrats get more brazen every year!

Peter, Thanks for that link. The rehash of democrats talking up the danger of Saddam Hussein is compelling. Perhaps this is why some Dems (like Hillary) are still sticking the their positions that they would still have authorized the war. I can tell you that I didn't think that Saddam was a direct threat to us, or that he was in cahoots with Al Qaeda, but I was totally surpised by the complete lack of WMD's. It must be said that I was only getting the administrations side of the argument. Though your article is compelling, it does seem to contain some misinformation, or, at least, stuff that contradicts or misconstrues things that I have read from what I view are reliable sources. Thus, it makes me wonder about the other "facts" that Podhertz presents. Here are some parts of the article that I find hinky: 1. He implies that congressional comissions have cleared the administration of misusing the intel. That is not the case, AFAIK. From what I've read, the intial congressional investigations focused on the intelligence, and deferred on how the WH used it until later (i.e. "after the election"). The part of the investigation that was supposed to look into how the WH used the intelligence is currently "ongoing". The committee is, I think, 5 Repubs, 4 Dems, so dissenting voices have been powerless, and there are allegations that Roberts(?) the committee chair, has been dragging his feet and refusing to subpoena documents. That whole "secret session stunt" by Harry Reid was to focus the country on the lack of work that committee has done, and give the minority dems on that committee some say by shining the light on the lack of investigation for the currently distrustful American populace. 2. Your article follows the same talking points about how much Joseph Wilson is a liar. Classic GOP misdirection. I read the Joseph Wilson op-ed and he does NOT claim that Cheney sent him. May be that Wilson does stretch the truth, I don't know, but the claim that he lied about who sent him in his initial op-ed is a lie in itself, and defaming Wilson doesn't really get at the point of whether GWB lied any more than place doubt in one critic out of many. 3. The part using the quote of Fitzgerald about the trial not being about the war, "contradicting" Harry Reid saying it is about the war is completely ludicrous. Reid's point is merely that he feels the real meat of all this is the way we were led into war. He is saying some may focus only on the indictment (which Fitzgerald is doing since that's his job), but that others should realize that this whole thing is bigger than perjury. He is not at all contradicted by Fitzgerald as they are really talking about two different, but related things. This part of Podhertz argument is illogical and probably intentionally misleading. 4. How does Podhertz, I wonder, reconcile the statements from the administration claiming that they would do everything they could to peacefully resolve their differences with Saddam with the myriad of reports that indicate that invading Iraq was on the agenda even before 9/11? Matt, Are you sure it was Scott Ritter said that stuff about Saddam being able to build a bomb? I remember him (former weapons inspector) as being an almost lone voice before the war proclaiming that he was positive Saddam had no nuclear weaponry.

Considering it's a three day weekend, you could do yourself right at Red Rocks. There's a damn early direct flight down there that'll get you in at like 8:30am (brutally early to get up though that day if you follow the get there two hours early rule) and plenty of 9pm type flights that will allow you to have a day that ends with arriving at the car after dark and still get you to the airport in plenty of time. Gotta spend $$$ on flight, parking and rental car though (probably like $300/person)

One of the best things about KEXP is you don't have to do that pulling-over-write-it-down nonsense, or wait for a backlist that never arrives. In case you didn't know, KEXP has their last two weeks of radio shows archived on the web. All you have to do is remember the general time it was when you heard the song (or pull over and write it down ), then when you get home, dial it up on your home computer.

I didn't vote for this initiative because I'd like to support personal freedoms, but when I was conjuring up my post on how this law is so terrible I thought of these points... Do you support the laws that prohibit drinking and driving? How about dog leash laws? "They" have shown second-hand smoke is hazardous to a person's health. If you believe those studies, then I think Pax's principle he wishes to stand on would also invalidate the above two laws. Tyranny of the majority (easy to take away someone else's rights)? Perhaps, but there is some validity toward people wanting to protect themselves from others' reckless behaviors. On the other hand, I really don't like Greta's logic that we have to remove other peoples' rights in order to help them live long lives, so that we will have less medical expenses. By that logic we should be prohibiting alcohol, scuba diving, swimming pools... the list could go on. This is the only worry I would have about socialized medicine. Worry-warts might start using the perceived excess burden added to the common healthcare system as an argument to prohibit any voluntary activity that they deem unworthy. Soon any risky activity that only a minority partakes in would have a good chance of being prohibited.

Sheesh! Completely unrepentant! Please let us know the next time you want to host a Pub Club!

I think you're confusing "no one really gets busted" with "Karl Rove didn't get busted". You can listen to this report that was on NPR yesterday to get yourself a little bit educated on the subject. There are also plenty of news stories today you can find via Google News that report that the CIA is working with the Justice Department to look into this leak. These stories indicate that this is standard procedure, and people do get busted.

I've always been partial to Old Gray Mare -> Crack of Doom at Castle Rock. Is that one uncrowded enough to qualify? And of course Free at Last, aka "Tatoosh", at Index. It's never crowded! Though you may get the crowds at the base of Thin Fingers whispering and tittering behind your backs as you launch up ol' "Steep n' Dirty".

That sounds believable (though I am a bit concerned about your Larouche link). Certainly more believable than anything that Bushco has proferred. As for why they lied, it's probably because they made a command decision that they didn't think the American public or the world would go for fairly unprovoked aggression. And most of the world didn't buy it! And by the way, Stefan's post about the pre-2000 aspirations for invading Iraq bring to mind another blatant Bushco lie to add to Matt's collection Ari Fleisher January 2003 "FLEISCHER: Well, clearly the president does believe the more pressure on Iraq, the more the chances of resolving this peacefully. And the president still hopes that this can be resolved peaceful. Nobody, but nobody is more reluctant to go to war than President Bush. Nobody understands what this entails like the commander in chief whose duty and mission it is to meet with the families, to look them in the eye and to be with them at a time prior to the going off to war and hopefully to greet all when return from war. He's seen it in Afghanistan about the suffering this has caused American families, families of service men and women who are asked to carry out the ultimate sacrifice. He does not want to lead the nation to war. He hopes it can be averted. But he is also clear about the fact that one way to save American lives is to prevent Saddam Hussein from engaging in something that could be far, far worse than the price that we've already seen on September 11."

"When the Iraq war began on March 20, 2003, there were many arguments against the invasion. None of the opponents anticipated that the eventual, compelling argument would be the loss of America’s soul: that by occupying Iraq we would take on the attributes of Saddam Hussein and his brutal regime; that 30 months later Americans would be emulating the evil dictator, torturing Iraqis in the same facilities once used by Baathist thugs; that U.S. soldiers would be as feared by Iraqi civilians as were Hussein’s henchman." From here

Didn't Reagan say something about government being the enemy? found it, " In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." Reagan, First Inaugural Address

Yeah WTF! That climber vote site doesn't give a reason for its dislike of I-900. Maybe it's because it's got Eyman attached to it? That seems like it'd b a pretty good reason to slam-dunk that thing in the no column all by itself. You can check out the Stranger's reasons for being against it (in my link above), something about duplicating an existing agency and putting more power in the hands of anti-govt republicans....hmmmm Yeah those guys better not be tax exempt. Taking positions contrary to Republican ideology could be dangerous to their tax exempt status link

Hey Fairweather, You voting to give up your rights via I-330? And are you cutting out of work early today? Here's another set of endorsements.

Sorry just me again . Check this out. And hey, while you're here, read my other two brilliant posts above Here's a good read!. Bushco lies all compiled into one essay! Scary/funny.