mattp

So what's your point here, Jay? If I cannot PROVE there was election fraud and that it actually changed the outcome I should not be so irresponsible as to note that I remain even a wee bit skeptical? Whether you think anything was proved or not, the election had some problems.

All I said was that I am not 100% sure. Are you?

Jay - Aren't you attempting to "prove" any even small amount of skepticism about the 2004 election result is groundless by pointing to what you claim to be an absence of evidence to the contrary - that is you say there is no real evidence of vote fraud? All I said was that I was not 100% sure. Are you?

They certainly think they can tell whatever lies they want and nobody will notice!

That't be good, MEC, but the fact is some folks don't seem to want that. For starters, we could have voting machines that produce a record that can be verified. It is absolute B.S. for the company that makes bank machines to say they can't make a voting machine that produces a receipt.

Maybe you forgot, Jay, but in fact it WAS widely noted that there were substantial impediments to voting in the counties that could be expected to vote for Kerry in Ohio during the 2004 elections, the vote records showed that in at least one or two counties Diebold counted more votes than there were registered voters, and somehow it was only the Diebold states where exit polls did not match the vote outcome. In fact the Democrats DID notice, and they tried to undertake some challenges but they just didn't take it very far. Was the election stolen? I don't know. Am I sure it wasn't? No. (By the way, you wouldn't be jumping on this issue to avoid noting that Bush told a lie fit for an 8-year-old in this morning's news conference, would you?

Oh man.. "American politics has often been an arena for angry minds. In recent years we have seen angry minds at work mainly among extreme right-wingers, who have now demonstrated in the Goldwater movement how much political leverage can be got out of the animosities and passions of a small minority. But behind this I believe there is a style of mind that is far from new and that is not necessarily right-wing. I call it the paranoid style simply because no other word adequately evokes the sense of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy that I have in mind. In using the expression “paranoid style” I am not speaking in a clinical sense, but borrowing a clinical term for other purposes. I have neither the competence nor the desire to classify any figures of the past or present as certifiable lunatics., In fact, the idea of the paranoid style as a force in politics would have little contemporary relevance or historical value if it were applied only to men with profoundly disturbed minds. It is the use of paranoid modes of expression by more or less normal people that makes the phenomenon significant." Richard Hofstadter in "The Paranoid Style in American Politics," 1965. Recommended reading for 9/10th of this board. Thanks, Jay. You are absolutely right: they wouldn't THINK of manipulating an election. How could I harbor even the slightest doubt?

Meanwhile, I find it totally absurd that he would say he never discussed her position on abortion with her. I would think it stupid even to try and say it was not discussed during his selection process, but I suppose that might be possible. However, a quick look at some of the press reporting makes it appear that he will not be able to try such a fall-back. He said he did not discuss it with any of the candidates during this selection process but he also said he did not remember "ever" discussing her views on abortion with her. This is obviously a lie and I think he's probably going to have trouble splitting hairs about how he didn't mean to say what it sounded like he was saying -- assuming somebody in politics or in the press thinks that it is an "issue" when our president lies to us.

I am not 100% convinced he actually DID win the last election but that is another matter.

I think you generally want standing dead rather than deadfalls. These tend to be less rotten and drier.

She's worked for him forever. He says he knows Harriet Miers' soul and she shares his values. But in this morning's press conference, I think I heard Bush say he has not discussed her views on abortion with her. Say what?

You have to have a "guide" to climb one of the permitted peaks, and I think this includes the "trekkers peaks" like Island Peak or Thorong Peak, and some of the moderate but slightly higher peaks like Baruntse. I've been there twice, and I would not really recommend either of the guide outfits I contracted with, but the fact is I had two GREAT trips. The first time I just went to Kathmandu and met some people on a message board in the trekker district (Thamel) and we hired somebody on the spot. The second time I booked "over here" and it was all pre-arranged before I left Seattle. If you are excited by the prospect of climbing some big mountains and if you think travelling in an exotic land with wonderful people and meeting travellers from all over the world who are also excited to be there sounds cool, you'll have a great time! Maybe the Maoists have caused trouble for trekkers in some of the lesser travelled regions and perhaps the great value this year is not where it was last year - take whatever advice you get and put it to use - but don't worry: it'll be incredible.

That is admirable, indeed, but you have to have over at thousand posts to make it into the top 100 club.

There was a great article in yesterday's NYT, about how the child tax credit that Bush has been promoting as being such a boon for low income America is not available for half of those families with children because they are too poor to pay taxes enough to benefit from the credit. It closed with a quote from a guy at the Kato Institute or some place like that about how this program was a giveaway to the poor anyway, and it punished people who work: "let me make it simple: we don't want to be like France."

As I understand it, the big suits against tobacco companies were not based simply on the fact that they sell a harmful product. Beyond that, of significant imporance was that they deliberately hid the risks associated with tobacco use or that they marketed their products to children, or both. In either case, they knew that what they were doing was wrong, but did what they did because it made them a hell of a lot of money. Assuming they did either hide the risks or marketted to innocent children, it would seem that we only have three choices here: (1) government regulation, (2) a civil liability system that IS NOT subject to caps or other legal protection for such corporate wrongdoing, or (3) companies do what they want and their (relatively innocent and directly targetted) victims be damned. By the way, I think Ivan is right: every insurance form I've ever filled out asks if I am a smoker. Car insurance, homeowners, and health insurance. Don't they charge more if you check the "yes" box or are they just asking for the hell of it?

How bad is this? In the sun and on a snowslope can you still see what you are doing?

Alex's recommedations are good. I don't know about calling the W. Ridge of North Twin "very short," though. There is a lot of semi-exposed scrambling involved and in comparison to the other climbs in this list it is not shorter than average.

In that UW thread, Jason is mistaken. I know of at least three parties that have climbed it without my being there. Sounds like you enjoyed the climb.

There won't be any moon. Bring light.

It looks to me as if that whold grand jury story has been buried.

How 'bout Rove? Hell -- how 'bout BUSH?

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I haven't tried these shovels, but I wonder how effective they will be in avalanche debris. Often, the stuff sets up pretty quick and you need a pretty stout shovel to make anything like efficient progress. I know light is right, but I think I'd prefer that my buddies on the surface had real shovels with a stout blade firmly attached to an efficient handle and a "D" grip on the end. Assuming you have a shovel blade of similar weight, how much extra is it to carry a real shovel handle?

On both sides, some trails have been reclaimed by Nature while others have been gobbled up by logging operations. I don't think they've built many miles of new trail over the last 20 years but there have been a few places where they've been compelled by user-numbers to "adopt" trails that had been developed by fishermen.

I don't think they are building many if any trails in the surrounding National Forest either. In Mount Baker Snoqualmie, I believe, they hava a no new trails in wilderness policy and on both sides of the crest, from Snoqualmie Pass to the Canadian border they have a grizzly bear management policy that stipulates that if they do build a mile of trail somewhere they must remove a mile of trail nearby. These stated policies, of course, are probably not nearly as important as the fact that they simply don't have money for trail building -- they can't even maintain what they have.