Jim

I understand what you are trying to say, but I would respectfully disagree. It was not that the intel was wrong. Most of it was twisted and stripped of the caveats that the intel folks insisted go along with it. These were ignored for justification. You can discuss why Saddam should be booted out for a number of human rights issues or whatever, but that was not what was sold to the public, and now the admin is changing their tune and pointing in all directions as to why they went in. What they should be held accountable for is what they clearly stated was their justification for starting the war. If WMDs were not the reason then they should have stated the real reason and let the nation have a true democratic discussion about it.

This is always a good ploy. If Bush says the world is flat then most of the meadia headlines would be "Opinions vary on earth geometry". There is no valid opinion on this. Only the facts. OK, lets take one. The Nigerian connection regarding selling of "yellow cake" uranium. The administration had sent their envoy to Africa a year earlier to check it out. He found out it was a fake document and reports back to the US. Then, 5 months later, Bush uses in the state of the union address. The envoy is astonished and writes an Op-Ed piece in the NYT saying, no-no, that's not what we said. Then the Bushies leak word that his wife is an undercover agent for the CIA, as vengeance. So - this was not bad intel. It was a lie plain and simple. And you can easily go down the list just like this with 99% of the admins justifications.

Ah, get used to this line of reasoning because you're going to hear it as a steady drumbeat until November. The intel was imperfect - we did the best we could under uncertain circumstances, then throw in a reference to 911 and a country at war, wave flag, fade out. What a bunch of crap. There's numerous articles written by investigative reports (New Yorker, Harpers, NYT,WA Post) that has thoroughly discreted the administration claims that the intel was bad. The administration made the decision long ago as to what they were going to do and tried (and failed) to get the intel to justify it.

The question of uncertainty is defense issues is always a valid concern. Unfortunately it's not applicable to the Bushie situation - this is the tact the administration is taking to pull the light off the real question that should be asked. Why did the administration cherry-pick bits and pieces of analyis, use false information, and bury the caveats that the analysists had produced, all to conduct a PR campaign for their adventure. It wasn't like they used the informtion to reach a conclusion. They already had a conclusion and were trying, wildly, to justify it. That's why their explanations are falling apart the Shrub's handlers thought it necessary to go on Meet the (lameo)Press.

RobBob - Take a look at this site, it has some good resources, and some discussion of the net metering issue. http://www.irecusa.org/smallwindenergy/index.html

Wrong. Because of PURPA, they MUST buy back power from individual generators. I believe there is a threshold amount you must produce.

The utility doen't have a choice. They have to buy from you, it's just what they will use to calculate your share. It will likely be an avoided generation cost, I think the problems arise in small, rural utilities, though that is where it makes the most sense.

I'm working on a site assessment now for placement of some commercial wind towers in Douglas Co. WA. They've made some great technological advances in these systems lately and now have a variety of sizes of systems. I don't have a reference to give you now but I can dig around. One think I would caution you on is that it would be worth having an assessment of your area by a wind engineer to make sure the winds are steady enough for you to invest the capital. Or I guess you could get a wind rose detail from some nearby weather station and then look at the specs of the turbine you're thinking about. Also - there is a case pending in the mid-west (I think) where a farmer put up a wind turbine and the utility is refusing to pay him on the avoided cost schedule, rather they want to just reduce his electricty cost on a kw/h basis. This could have some big implications in the small wind generation market. So you may want to check with your utility to see how they will pay you for your generation. This assumes you would tie into the grid and not just directly use your generation.

Very cool place. If you have a decent 4x4 you can get up into the foothills via the canyon roads. There are some cool ridge hikes and canyon exploring to be done. If you would like something off the beaten trail go over to the Saline Valley, which is one over from Death Valley. It's a huge valley with the Inyo's on one side. In the upper reaches there are two set of hot springs. The upper is the better as you need a good 4x4 to get there. Some hippies with the BLM "borrowed" some blasting supplies and made these great rock pools with an intricate drainage system, and planted some palms. You soak in the pools in the early morning and watch the Top Gun school zip up and down the valley a couple of hundred feet off the deck. They tip their wings when the go over the springs.

Would have to agree with Rodchester on this in general. This is not the first time the US has meddled with other countries in a unilateral manner. However, the scale of this present action, completed with only a premise (lie) that this country is an imminent threat brings in a new level of chutzpa to the issue when other options were clearly available.

roak = rob.

Hey Rob, last week you were the one slinging hash and now you're whining when you've been served. Might be time to switch to another avatar.

Ouch. Minus points for style! Hey, where is Arrowhead anyway? Not on my usual list of bc tours?

Jim = left-wing fucktard Another intellectual response Bob.

Ah PP - Well, lets put the whole picture togeter. The author works for a right-wing think tank that consistently is pushing positions for industry. He writes an article bashing science predictions on the natural environement as worthless, while disregarding the a lot of important information. If the article went something like this - While ecologists have often underestimated man's effect on natural systems, there is often a deficit in understanding the complicated interactions of social policies, trends, and their effects to the environment - then if he presented some of the underestimates and some of the big mis-predictions it would be an objective report. The guy is an industry shill. How about some orginal thoughts PP - ya gotta get those right-wing sites off your favorites list, or at least add some balance to them. Here's the site, judge for yourself http://www.rppi.org/index.shtml

Interesting to note that other items of environmental degradation that the author artfully ignores have INCREASED. No one was predicting that species extinction would be occurring at it's current rate, that aquifer depletion in the mid-west would lead to suits between farmesrs and cities, or that global warming would be increasing at the present rate. So - if the point is that natural systems are difficult to predict - that's true. Why do you always seem to scour the internet for these trolls from private right-wing think tanks like the Reason Policy Fondation. Try another channel. It could broaden your horizon and get you away from the BMW elite set.

Are you kidding or just naive? You think this frat boy could have gotten into Harvard w/o his family money? BS. Sure smart folks from any economic stratum can get it. This guy wasn't one of them. Hmmm, wonder why he always refuses to let anyone see his undergrad or graduate grades. He says he doesn't read books or newspapers and that he gets all the information he needs from his advisors. Yea, a real Renaissance man.

Give me a break. If this guy was a normal working Joe he never would have gotten into those schools. He was born on thrid base and thinks he hit a triple.

I'm sure this commission will dig hard President Bush today said he would appoint a panel to look at prewar intelligence and what the team hunting for Iraq's weapons has found. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle repeated his call for an independent investigation, saying Bush will "dictate the design and ultimately the circumstances under which they do their work."

Simply put, Democracy is messy. It's full of crazy ideas left, right, and center. If it's a good idea it will hopefully float to the top, if not it will not see the light of day. It's alway interesting to see such trivial items held up as a "problem with democracy". The problem would be stifiling any debate to those items considered "worthwhile" by some.

And I would say that the two are utimately tied together. The "cooperative games" thing is a bit wierd, however. But take the social promotion thing. I don't like it, but talk to public school teachers and you'll see the position the school is placed. Limited resources to deal with groups with ADD, ADHD, fetal-alchol syndrome, abused kids, kids who barely speak english, and a variety of special education kids. There's extremely limited personnel to deal with these kids. Things weren't so cheery in the '50s where a lot of these kids got dumped into the heap of special ed. You can't have a 16 yr old in 8th grade, it will not work. I agree that this is a problem but it's simplistic to say it's a discipline problem or that it all can be sloved within the walls of the school. We constantly ask schools to solve a number of social ills that they can only touch on. There an easy target for no addressing problems in a more comprehensive manner.

Oh brother, not another blame it on the '60s culture thing. There's a lot of other social trends going on outside the classroom, disparaties in school funding, movement of wealth out of some neighborhoods, increase in single parent households, decrease in wages (inflation adjusted), increase in shipment of jobs overseas, reduction in social spending. Pick one. Likely any of these are more of a factor than that 60s tripe.

Well that will get your attention I bet! Seems like you folks were prepared, but couldn't resist that one place that you had some questions about. Good lesson for all.

Woo-hoo. Think I'll take off on Friday!

I think your wrong. From my volunteer work with kids in the Seattle school system I see very strong support from parents and other adults in the community. However, I would agree that there is a level of mis-management in the education system - and you can start with the No Child Left Behind Act. Talk about unfunded mandates and federal interference. Rather than take a comprehensive look at what effects kids in school it's easier to put together some arbitrary program tied to federal funds, which are a relatively small part of the education pie. Sure there are public schools that are having difficulties. They have to take all comers, not like the private schools that have significant financial barriers. Kinda like health care in this country. On the other hand my wife teaches at a public school in Seattle that is an all-city draw, and there has always been a waiting list. Economics play a big part. Do you think the kids in wonder-bread land of Bellevue are any smarter than the kids in the Central district of Seattle? Likely not. They come from a society with more wealth, less daily life stress, and parents who are likely more able to support their kids education, financially and other ways. I don't know the solution, but it isn't all going to be fixed inside a classroom - that is simplistic. A good start might be to invest more in schools here than Iraq.