Jim

Ran across this today: Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) Request for Proposals (RFP) To Provide STEEP SLOPES/MOUNTAINEERING Training Project Overview: The WSDOT Safety Office has identified a need to instruct personnel who work on steep/hazardous slopes in the use of specialized fall restraint systems and techniques for which training is not currently available within the Department. In order to promote the safety of employees who work on steep slopes, the Department desires to establish training agreements with qualified consultants to develop and/or tailor and deliver STEEP SLOPES/MOUNTAINEERING training throughout the state. You are invited to submit proposals for work solicited in the attached RFP. Proposals must be submitted under the conditions of the RFP and received at the Washington State Department of Transportation, Staff Development Branch, by 3:00 p.m. PST, Friday, November 5, 2004, in five (5) copies. The RFP and accompanying information may be found at the following links: For a copy of the RFP see: RFP No. SD-0704-TP-03 (PDF 430 KB) Links to Addenda, if issued, will be posted here. Links to Additional Information concerning the RFP, if issued, will be posted here. CONTINUE TO MONITOR THIS SITE FOR UPDATES . If you have questions concerning the proposal process, please call the Staff Development Branch, Fred Atkinson, at (360) 705-7068. Kermit B. Wooden WSDOT Human Resource Director

I don't want someone who doesn't read, that has limited experience in the world, that is inarticulate, or that is plain dumb. I want someone who is on the ball to be president, who has the where with all to make sense out of the constant stream of information and advice that is coming his way, and that has the sophistication to deal with complex national and world issues, and that will make sound judgements You want a common man? Then join a bowling team. You want a leader? Then pick wisely.

Excellent comeback!

Huh? In contrast to having daddy's friends getting you into the guard and then begging out of that commitment? Bushie lost it big time last night.

He got out because he was wounded 3 times, that was the rule. Yea, it was a squeaky clean war.

Picked mine up in the Wooden Nickel climbing shop in Princeton NJ in 1972.

He got us into this mess with no fore-thought. There was no need to go. He is inept, and it was evident last night. All he could do was keep repeatint "It's hard work". Very shaky performance.

In contrast to the current (non)plan that appears to be going smoothly.

Why does the press give Bush such a free ride? The guy is amazingly inarticulate! Listening on the radio all I could think was this guy is an embarassment. He could not put together complete thoughts for the time he had to speak. He would get to about 30 seconds into his turn and he couldn't think on the fly so he had to stumble along repeating himself. I did see the replay on CBS and it was even worse on television. He looks dumb, he sounds dumb. I want a president at least as smart as me, and preferably way smarter than me. And I'm no genius. What a dolt!

Where it seems to be going is very pedestrian. A ground up ethic is virtually gone, and the idea of any risk is fading. I know. There are dudes out there, like Potter, that are still pushing it. But (IMO) places laid Vantage and 38 are little more than outside gyms. It's still climbing of sorts, but a very controlled environment.

Might suggest alternative exercise regime, particulary swimming or using the aqua-jogger while he heals up. While not as much fun as a run outside you can keep in pretty good shape this way without hammering the joints. I do this when I tweak something or in the winter when daylight and rain make outside less inviting.

...and in the same genus - Larix. I've only heard the eastern species, Larix laricina, referred to as Tamarck. The two western sp - L. lyalli and L. occidentalis - I've always heard referred to as larch.

Bush VA Spending Fails To Grow With Health Care Costs Despite Bush's claims, "the annual percentage increase it requested for veterans' health care is 5.4 percent -- hardly a windfall considering that the consumer price index for medical care was 13 percent during fiscal year 2002. VA officials have testified that it would take a 13 to 14 percent hike in the VA's health care budget just to maintain the status quo." [Rep. Lane Evans (D-IL) Op-Ed, The Hill, 9/17/03] Veterans Forced To Wait Months For Initial Visits to VA Doctors At least 230,000 veterans are being forced to wait over six months for their initial visit to a doctor at the VA medical facilities. In some parts of the country veterans are waiting nearly two years for those visits. Bush's VA Secretary Anthony Principi has acknowledged the danger in these delays, stating "I'm concerned [the delays are] causing quality to be degraded." The "Independent Budget," an analysis of the VA budget provided by veterans groups, has said "The Department of Veterans Affairs health care system is in critical condition." Meanwhile, the Bush administration opposed a Senate addition to the Iraq supplemental bill that would have added $1.3 billion to veterans' health care. [Air Force Magazine, 10/02; http://www.pva.org/independentbudget/pdf/IB_04excsum.pdf; OMB Director Joshua Bolton to Rep. David Obey (D-WI), 10/21/03] Bush Administration Is Closing Seven Veterans Hospitals In early August 2003, the Bush administration announced it was closing hospitals in its efforts to "restructure" the Department of Veterans Affairs. The administration is closing hospitals in: Canandaigua, N.Y. Pittsburgh Lexington, Ky. Brecksville, Ohio Gulfport, Miss. Livermore, Calif. Waco, Tex. Joy Ilem, assistant national legislative director for Disabled American Veterans, "questioned the need for closures and other cutbacks. 'Everyone is aware of the difficulty VA has meeting demand,' Ilem said. 'When we have hundreds of thousands of veterans on waiting lists (for medical appointments), we don't want to see facilities closed due to fiscal problems.'" There are currently 163 VA hospitals in the US. [Associated Press, 8/4/03, 10/28/03; Department of Veterans Affairs] In mid-August, as Bush vacationed in Texas, a thousand veterans and supporters rallied in Waco, Texas to protest the closing of that VA hospital. The protestors met at the Waco School District football stadium parking lot "for a rally before driving the 22 miles to Crawford," where Bush was vacationing. "Veterans of Foreign Wars State Commander Ron Hornsby told the stadium crowd that the VA commissioner looking at closing hospitals could harm veterans all across the country, not just in Waco. 'We can never repay the veterans -- we hear those words a lot,' Hornsby said. 'At times like this, those words become very hollow, very meaningless.'" More than 1,500 vets joined a similar October rally to protest a VA closing in New York. [san Antonio Express-News, 8/17/03; Associated Press, 10/20/03, 10/28/03] Bush Proposed Doubling Costs Of Prescription Drugs For Veterans This year Bush proposed increasing prescription drugs costs for veterans. The Bush plan would have included a new $250 enrollment fee and a co pay increase from $7 to $15 for veterans earning over $24,000. On July 21, the House Appropriations Committee agreed to a Democratic amendment to reject the Bush fee increases and recoup the $264 million in costs by reducing administrative funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs. [Reuters, 7/14/03; Washington Post, 7/22/03]

People said the same thing when Reagan ran up the deficit... It seems like we paid the whole thing off, and it sure didn't hurt that much. The difference between then an now is that Reagan's Budget guy, Stockman, laid out the future costs of deficits and Reagan and the congress raised taxes several times to patch up the early spending and tax cut spree. That will not happen this time and the tax breaks are much more severe this time.

Me, you, and our kids will be paying for these idiotic policies for some time to come.

Here's a detailed analysis of the Bushie tax cuts. Wish this would get a greater circulation. http://www.detnews.com/2004/specialreport/0409/28/a01-284666.htm

I didn't pull it off his pack to take a good look, but this looks like the item.

Yo Greg - is it legal to cart this thing around? Not that I was gonna ask the dude.

Dunno - the gun had no stock, just a black pistol grip, a silver and black barrel. Pretty compact. I thought it a bit wierd to be packing in the backcountry of WA.

A friend and I ran up Mt. Forgotten yesterday. Perfect day and the upper ridge was just above the clouds when we got to the meadows. A dude and his girlfriend came by as we paused to take a few pictures. He had a shaved head, big pack, hiking poles, big mountaineering boots, and a trendy tribal tatoo on his arm. We chatted a bit before we took off for the summit and they head back down. As he passed me I noticed what looked to me like a speargun strapped to the side of his pack. I asked him what that was and he said it was a "mossback" for bears and hillbillies(?). Not familar with the latest inovations in firearms I asked for some more information. He said it was a lightweight 12 guage shotgun and that he was not only concerned about black bears but grizzlies. Whoa! WTF?

meanwhile back at the ranch... http://www.cnn.com/2004/TRAVEL/09/23/security.screeners.reut/index.html

This is the first I've heard of this proposal. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/109594106889030.xml

That's a complete crock. The liberal media made every effort to question, challenge, and criticize Bush's proposals to force Iraq to comply with UN resolutions or face military action. They were sure to load up their "discussion panels" and "guests" with Clintonistas and other left-wingers on every news-cast for 9 months - Summer of 2002 through March of 2003. It was a daily barrage of thinly-veiled contradictory bias from the left. The typical fare. And that leads me to the liberal lie that has become their mantra of late - the so called "rush to war". We farted around for 9 months, trying to work with the inept and impotent UN, giving Iraq plenty of time to hide, export or dispose of their weapons as well as prepare for a war. If anything we waited too long. This is rich. There was lots of rah-rah, cool graphics, and embedded (read:co-op) journalists. The lies they told to the American people and the UN were not questioned by the media. Get real.

CBS did some poor journalism and got caught as they should have. This is a great example of the compliant conservative media we have here in this country. Rove calls them in when he needs them, shuts them up when he needs to. Now when the administration was laying out all their false claims regarding Iraq (now and then) the media is relatively silent because if they get out of step the white house will call. What a joke. Mass coverage of a couple of fake memos - notice they don't tackle the issues of the memos, compared to the pile of lies and false paper work leading up to the war - silence. This is priceless.

I think what this item points out is how the media is so conservative. CBS definately laid a turd on this one and they should have said so sooner. But they got roasted, and so they should have. Backtrack to all the false, and proven false information put out to justify the war. Where was our "liberal" press then? Not a peep. Just goes to show how the conservative press lies low.