Jim

This is the crux of the Bush doctrine. Lie to the public so there is no honest debate of your policy. Give speeches like a moderate then go back and behind the scenes skirt environmental laws, line the pockets of your rich benefactors, and develop an arrogant world policy. If you can't make your case for war to the public then lie. This is good public policy? What a crock.

While I'm trying to be optomistic on the local scale, fed policy will have a long-lasting effect from this outcome. Particularly with both houses of Congress in control of the right wingnuts. Endangered Species Act will be under severe attack and likely salmon will be delisted on account of hatchery fish, logging will be stepped up and NEPA requirements will be diminished. How many Supreme Court and other federal court appointees will be made in the next four years. Reading some of the poll results are bizzare. 78% of those who voted for Bush believe that the US will find WMDs in Iraq - WTF?? Are these people morons? 45% of those who voted in Ohio consider themselves evangalical Christians - great, a country run by Bible thumpers. In the mid-west and south "moral" issues were the turning point. -- I guess they feel that millions added to poverty, millions added to those without healthcare, corporate run government, misguided unjust wars, 1100 and counting dead sons and daughters, many tens of thousands of dead Iraqi civilians, Ken Lay and Enron, gutting of environmental laws, hundreds of thousands of job losses, reduction of liberties, etc, etc, etc. All of this was less important than anti-abortion laws, keeping gays away from your children, and thumping the shi_ out of them damn Muslims. We're just so much more of a moral nation when these things are predominant in our government. It's ok to have a Christian-Taliban rule but that's because it's the right religion. No way is it anything like the Muslim-Taliban rule.

I think you need to go here: http://www.ascensionist.com/

Whoa! Down boy. Simply posting something I thought was an interesting topic for discussion. You're reading too many tea leaves here.

FLORIDA TO DECIDE ELECTION BY SHOW OF HANDS State Loses Instruction Manual for Electronic Voting Machines Attempting to head off the kind of voting irregularities that threw the 2000 election into chaos, Florida voting officials announced today that the state's presidential contest would be determined by a "show of hands." In a statewide address broadcast on live television this morning, Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood instructed all Florida voters to start heading for a vacant trailer park on the outskirts of Tampa where the official show of hands will take place. While acknowledging that a show of hands was an unorthodox way for Florida to determine who will receive the state's twenty-seven electoral votes, Ms. Hood said the move became necessary after it was discovered late last week that the state had lost the instruction manual for its controversial Diebold electronic voting machines. An early test of the machines last Wednesday set off alarms among voting officials when the electronic tally showed conservative commentator Pat Buchanan winning the state with 87% of the vote, despite not appearing on the ballot. "After searching for the instruction manual, we moved on to Plan B, which was to operate the voting machines with a hand-crank," Secretary of State Hood said. "But then nobody could find the crank." Florida Governor Jeb Bush said the show-of-hands method should not shake Floridians' confidence in the accuracy of the returns, saying, "We will keep counting hands until we get the result we want." Elsewhere, Osama bin Laden lashed out at American broadcast networks for failing to air the final sentence of his tape last Friday, which was: "I'm Osama bin Laden, and I approve this message."

He also said al Qaeda has found it "easy for us to provoke and bait this administration." "All that we have to do is to send two mujahedeen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al Qaeda, in order to make generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving anything of note other than some benefits for their private corporations," bin Laden said. http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/01/binladen.tape/index.html

Saw it on PBS last week. Guy has a few screws loose. How could anyone in good conscience vote for these guys is beyond me.

So we have a pop-novelist's rantings to a journalist. And this is profound because...?

Sat - put the garden to bed and woodworking Sun - rode bike to pump plastic at the gym, 35 mi spin on the way home. Beautiful out - make one feel lucky to live here.

Was Congress, particularly the House that did the impeachment. The public saw what it really was. I am hoping that the electorate will somehow finds its collective common sense for this election, and prove me wrong in thinking that most of the voting populace is uninformed, gullible, or plain stupid.

IDFG OFFERS REWARD FOR GRIZZLY BEAR SHOOTING DEATH Posted on Friday, October 29, 2004 (PST) The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest and of those involved in the shooting death of an adult grizzly bear in extreme northern Idaho in the spring of 2004. The fresh remains of the grizzly were found by a hunter near Hughes Meadows during the spring black bear season. Hughes Meadows is located in Boundary County Idaho, 3 miles east of the Washington state line and 9 miles south of the US/Canada border. The hunter reported the incident to local conservation officers, who have been investigating the case. Additional information is needed to bring the case to completion. Grizzlies are classified as an endangered species within the Selkirk Mountains of Idaho and Washington and are protected by both state and federal laws. According to conservation officer and grizzly bear education specialist Brian Johnson, "The illegal shooting of grizzlies is by far the leading cause of death for the big bears, and remains one of the greatest challenges to the recovery of a healthy grizzly population in the Selkirk Mountains." If you have any information concerning a grizzly bear poaching in Idaho, please contact: Johnson at (208) 267-4085, conservation officer Rob Soumas at (208) 448-2302, the IDFG Panhandle Region Office at (208) 769-1414, or the Citizens Against Poaching Hot Line 1-800-632-5999. Callers may remain anonymous

Oh this is rich!! Fox news and another blogger! Yea, um, we found it and didn't tell anyone, that's it! Priceless. http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6651894

Bat surveys w/loooong rappels throught cave roofs Raptor tagging Tree climibing/jumar jugs for nest surveys Rappels and climbs for rare plants and lichen surveys along desert cliffs 1 assitance for petroglyph survey Still get to do some of this occassionally . It's my job!

This discussion of force, and the threat of force, sounds much like the current Rumsfield Doctrine of forcefully pushing our adgenda where we want to see change, and don't perceive it as happening quick enough to suit our needs. The first muscle test of this doctrine was in Iraq. The concept was conceived entirely by chicken hawks - civilians with no military background - against the expressed concern of the top military brass. In the short term it has been an unqualified failure. In the long term we may be able to pull out of the nosedive via implementation of adjustments that should have been part of a more comprehensive approach. JayB is right on one point, that some realistic big stick can move negoiations in the proper direction. However, without some discretion and diplomatic savvy, we're going to end up spreading ourselves thin, paying for all this by ourselves, and getting much of the world pissed off at our belligerent behavior.

I think this is the first time I've seen a president not run on his record of accomplishments but rather concentrate on what the other guy would do. Usually the incumbent will tout his record for the past four years. The vacant record is why there is such a concentration on the mud. Kerry is doing what all challengers do - poke holes in the current policy and say what he would do different. Which is easy in this case.

It's still there. There will be new snow.

Saddam was under the thumb of the world. We knew what he had and where it was - at least the UN and the IAEC did. Keep the pressure on, work with adjoining countries, and squeeze the juice outta him in the long run. So what was our brillant alternative? INVADE. Oh yea, forgot to monitor the borders, guard the stockpiles of explosives and weapons, disband the army (WTF??), and don't send in enough troops. Absolutely brilliant. Now Iraq is an insurgent and terrorist magnet, the common people want us out because with Saddam they at least had electricty and law and order. Polls now show that if Saddam was running for election he would win. So we've pissed off our allies, made bold new steps as the super-imperialist, put the country into disarray, and diverted our attention from the real threats. Got any more stunning ideas?

But the UN inspectors and the IAEC specifically stated that he had none. We were lied to by Bush and company. There was ample evidence of this at the time and the press went for a ride. So now, other than Saddam was a bad guy, we have no excuse for invading. If we were to carry your logic forward why not invade those countries where we are sure there are WMDs such as N. Korea. Bush is carrying on an imperialist agenda that has put us at more, not less risk.

But you know this has nothing to do with Iraq. They: Didn't attack us Had no means to attack us. Were under wraps until we got there

"I thought you said your dog didn't bite!!" "That's not my dog"

One bump. Any used warm or rainproof gear out there?

No shite!! It's that time, I gotta get up there before it becomes inacessible, or a way long slog.

To criticize is to appreciate, to appropriate, to take intellectual possession, to establish in fine a relation with the criticized thing and to make it one’s own. Henry James

Another reason to dump the electoral college.

New, used, too small or large, ugly clothing. I'll take it.