Jim

No doubt here - the revolving door of pols/consultants is bad - but the republicans are better at the big money games, meaning defense contractors. Look at the string of connections among the defense department - American Enterprise Institute - and the current admin. That said, the repubs are not alone. There is a lot of back-slapping across the aisle.

Oh man - if you're going all the way down there stay away from that crap! It's only been climbed a couple of times because it's a death trap. We hiked up the shoulder to just get a look at it and it's grim. If you need a long climb jump on the one of the Paine Towers. Some nice long treks up thru the British Camp and over the col. Honestly, there's more interesting climbing down there.

I think I saw this on Fox!

Simple, but not a bad quick history. Be prepared for PP to post the propaganda from some Zionist web site to counter some of this. My simplistic solution: Pull all our $3 billion a year aid until Israel dismantles all settlements and pulls back to the green line. Confirm to UN resolutions 194 and 242. Then help build a functional Palestinian state and defend Israel from the wackos. Please, no revisionist responses of 194 and 242.

A Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root, which in 1992 authored a study that concluded it would be good to privatize billions of dollars worth of military work. Of course they said it was a terrific idea. So they helped design the architecture for privatizing a lot of what happens today in the Pentagon when we have military engagements. In 1992, the Department of Defense, under then Secretary of Defense Cheney, commissioned the Halliburton subsidiary to do the study. In 1995, Cheney became the CEO of Halliburton. So why would a defense secretary, former chief of staff to a president and former member of Congress with no business experience become the CEO of a multibillion-dollar oil services company. He was brought in to raise their government contract profile and he did. It's more of the revolving door to privatize government operations and reward political connections. It's not a Rep vs Dem thing, the Reps just are better at it. Halliburton nearly doubled the value of federal contracts it received – from $1.2 to $2.3 billion – during the five years Cheney was its CEO. And yes they got a huge "no bid" contract regarding services for the current Iraq conflict. The current contract is worth $948 million, but it is open ended and the full contract amount is likely to reach $7 billion. A no other US companies got a chance to bid, never mind foreign companies.

Funny how the US isn't banging on the table to enfore UN Resolutions in this conflict.

Red herring Peter. Erik makes no reference to this.

Fear = Adventure, but Fear does not equal Danger. Point taken. I like to think that it's not an adventure unless the outcome is uncertain. Seems to be dumbing down the idea that this is an "adventure".

I like the quote "....for those seeking adventure without danger"

I thought you brought the rope!

Does seem like a lot of arm waving. Bill also includes some pork - like a new FS research center in Prineville, OR.

I hope this get used to thin forests on the urban/wildland interface - and not used as an "end around" current forest regulations to cut in areas away from towns. If so then the restrictions on court cases is problematic. Obviously the bill went through because of the fires in CA - but most of that is due to the chapparel and coastal scrub - not bark beetle/overgrown forests. One person in our San Diego office lost their house, school is still out of session, and the air quality was grim earlier this week. Here's some background, it's not that no noticed the potential: "The Davis administration released an April 16 letter sent to Bush warning that the bark beetle infestation was threatening severe fires in three counties: Riverside, San Diego and San Bernardino. Davis warned that 75,000 residents of mountain communities were threatened. He requested $300 million from the U.S. Forest Service and $130 million from a FEMA account of unused money set aside from previous disasters. "This situation is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the state,'' Davis said in April, a month after he declared three counties in a state of emergency because of the infestation and the potential for major wildfires fueled by Santa Ana winds. Eight days later, a bipartisan group of California lawmakers pleaded with federal authorities to approve Davis' request, saying "this infestation has created a tinder box of such magnitude that loss of life and resources would be incomprehensible should fire break out." The letter was signed by Boxer, and Republican Reps. Mary Bono of Palm Springs, Jerry Lewis of Redlands (San Bernardino County), Darrell Issa of Vista (San Diego County), David Dreier of San Dimas (Los Angeles County) and Duncan Hunter of Alpine (San Diego County), among others. Hunter's home was destroyed in the recent fire. "

I've been climbing since 1974. The longest I've gone without climbing was just a couple years ago - had to recover from a couple of non-climbing injuries. It was a drag. While I don't climb as much (every week) or as intently as I did 20 years ago, I can still match my highest grade (with a bit more whinning). People's lives change, they get injured, priorities change. Climbing is not just the glossy coved studs on R&I or Climbing - it's what you make it. Ya gotta just get out there and push the envelope a bit - whatever that is for you. Feel the rock, smell the forests, scrape you knuckles and laugh about it with friends later. Just get out there and do something! Life's too short. Climbing makes it better.

Kinda odd. The Coast Guard station at Port Clarence needs 25 folks to keep it running - a sewage treatment plan, water treatment, a fuel farm for diesel for the generators, keeping the runway clear all year as there are no roads. All for keeping the LORAN signal going from the 1,350 ft tower there (it's big). So if they move it to outside Nome they can get an electrical line out to it, use solid state, and have only a few guys to keep it up - thus saving $1.5 million a year. So we were trying to help them find the best place for it, and from our perspective the site with the least environmental issues. So it's a big alternative siting study. One Coastie told me he climbed the tower and tossed off a balsa wood airplane. It took him 3 hrs to climb it (all the clip-ins). His buddies on ATVs with radios gave up tracking the plane after an hour. It would dive 200 ft then swoop back up. It was headed across the bay at 1,000 ft when last seen.

Followed my mountain bike buddies up 12 mi of FS road uphill. Followed them down Devil's Gulch, endo-ed twice. Couldn't keep the downhill crazy pace w/o thinking this is going to end badly. Lived. Ended the day with beer and bratwust at Gustav's

I spent 10 days working in Alaska a couple weeks ago and got to see some great country. Big country! Started in Juneau with a day of meetings but I was able to get in ealy and meet some friends and scramble up a peak adjacent to the Mendenhall Glacier. What a monster to have right in your backyard. Saw some goats, got back to town and had dinner with an interesting group. Business on Monday then flew to Nome on Monday afternoon. Now there's a frontier town. Reminds me a lot of some small towns in southern Patagonia. Windswept, by the sea, dogs, ATVs, and a bit of bailing wire to keep things together. And no trees for 100 miles! Meet with staff of the Alaska Fish and Game in the morning - they had some great muskox skulls and bear hides. The to talk to the Sinasauk tribe; we were going to conduct some plant and wildlife surveys some of their paracels the next day. First thing that Pat - our tribal contact asks is "Did you guys bring you guns?" (Hey Greg - help). We said no - with raised eyebrows and she says - "that's ok, Melvin always carrys his and he'll come tomorrow - bears y'know". Next day at dawn (9:30) we hop on our ATVs and tear outta town. It's hard to keep up with these folks ripping about 45 mph on the dirt road leading east along the Bearing Sea. It's about 40 deg with a slight drizzle. We get to a faint track along a drainge and head north, but stop soon to warm our hands, and so Pat and Melvin can have a smoke. The weather starts to clear and the low clear light gives a great warm color to the tundra expanse. Only in the draws or along major rivers do any shrubs get higher than your waist, in most of the tundra shrubs are no higher than your ankle, but the diversity of lichens, moss, herbs, and low shubs is stunning for such a harsh place. We hop on the quads and head 6 miles north on a bearing for Army Peak. It's late in the season so most of the birds are gone but we get some great looks at several golden eagles and one almost tame gyrfalcon - a white phase one that is beautiful - the largest NA falcon. A small herd of reindeer tromp by, seeminly oblivious to us. Pat and Melvin are drinking some coffee, I have a bit, and then go on my way collecting plant species. I'm focused on a square meter of ground when I hear Melvin yell "Bear!!". I stand up and there he is, lumbering up out of a narrow drainge about 75 yrds away, my camera dangles from my neck but I forget it's there. Melvin nods to stay put, and the bear moves on. Melvin immediately goes back to drinking coffee and talking to Pat, I warily go back to my task. After a day of checking out various sites we head back and decide to take a more direct route back to the coast road. The tundra is a varied terrain, sometimes very flat but often tussocked with peat mounds, frost heaves and wedges, and a lot of it wet. We get stuck a couple of times, which requires some rocking of the ATV while you're off it and giving it the throttle, and then running beside it to get it to higher ground. My arms had a workout by the end of the day. Next day while surveying some river bottom I ran across two muskox. We had seen them earlier in the week but they were across a big river I couldn't cross. This time I got within 25 feet, just on one side of a braided channel. Got some great photos (office slide scanner is down - new one on order - I'll post later). These critters look prehistoric. They're kinda clumsy, dragging they short legs around, and don't handle deep snow well. So they climb atop the wind-blown ridges in the winter, face into the wind, and kinda hang out in the -30 deg weather. Apparently they don't view humans as predators and if you're quiet you can get quite close. Later in the week we flew to Port Clarence, about 80 mi NW of Nome, just below the Bearing Strait. It's a spit of land with a small coast guard station. Found a great walrus skull I took home in a 5 gal bucket, and it barely fit. When the pack ice solidifies the natives from across the bay travel via snow machine to the station and their kids use the small swimming pool in the station. The natives try and sell their carvings and hunt seal and walrus around the spit. We stopped in the village of Brevig Mission on the way back to Nome, very isolated, no roads, winter gives them more travel options with the sea ice and snow on the land. Back in Nome at the end of the week we had a free day to bop around a bit. There's 3 roads out of Nome, each about 75 miles long that dead end. Saw more moose, muskox, reindeer, a couple of bears far away, and some interesting raptors. Walked a couple of ridgelines and got up on some 3,000 ft peaks for the view, which is a long way up there. Not much climbing up there but you could do some interesting wilderness walks and some cool ridge walks. There's some scattered stone pinacles on the ridges, I think they call them Toks. If you ever get up there the place to stay in Nome is the Aurora Inn, though we were on per diem and it's pricey. But everything is up there. It's a cool place to explore and if you're into birding the spring is supposed to be amazing, with quite a few asian migrants. Ask around Nome for local ivory carvers and avoid the tourist shops. We stopped by one native carver's house and had a wonderful conversation with him and bought a couple of nice pieces. Go for the eggs and reindeer sausage for breakfast at Fat Freddies. Very cool work trip.

Notice that the cited article doesn't actually refute any facts. The author just doesn't seem to like the conclusions. More of the same "sit down and shut up" mantra.

I was up in Alaska doing some fieldwork when these two got chomped. We say several bears but had no desire to pet them. The locals just roll their eyes about this guy. Did get some cool pics, but not of grizzlies, got a little nervous when they were around.

I love the Cliff Notes version. Lots o' landslides I bet.

OK I know you are a family of scientists but are you sure of your calculation. Your wife starts work at 7:30pm leaves school at 7:30pm gets home at say 8:pm eats dinner with you (1 hr) then works from 9:00pm to 11:pm M-F? Does anyone else think this is a bit of an exageration? PP Seriously PP - no bullshitting. I would say the average day she gets to school by 7:15 and leaves by 6:30. I generally cook during the week, we eat, and she does a couple of hours of work. This past weekend she worked 3 hours on Saturday, and then went into school for 4 hours Sun afternoon in preparation for the parents open house on Thur this week. I'm just telling you like it is. I'd say 75% of the teachers at her school have a similar schedule. They're very dedicated. If you're kid has them as a teacher, they're lucky.

The support your troops mantra and the "don't critisize now" mantra a two variations on the same theme: Shut up and get in line. Democracy is a bit messy, but this is not how it works. There should be a critical analysis of the events leading uup to this - the lies, the desire to go it alone, the economic calculations. I would have disagreed, but would have more respect for the admin if they said this: Look we think Saddam is a potential future threat, he is not now but will be. We're going to go in with a strong coalition of nations, let the UN take over the administration, and work with them to build a government and get the infrastructure back up, with a fair division of contracts amongst the major nations. This will require some sacrafice so I'm RAISING taxes for a few years to pay for this endeavor. Blah, blah, blah.

Though there is some truth in all these post it seems like the reaction is over the top. I don't know what the specific problem is between the district and the teachers, but they are one of the highly paid districts in the state. That aside I'd like to comment on some of the above generalizations regarding teachers. My wife is a middle school science and health teacher. She worked for about 17 years as a geologist so brings a great science background to the classroom. Few science teachers have a sciece degree or expeciece in science application. The Seattle school disctric contract says she works 6.5 hours a day. Generally she works 11-12 hours at school, with a couple of hours at home every night. Then at least 10 hours each weekend. Then you add evening presentations, parent meetings, etc. It's quite commiting if you're going to do it well. While they have time off around the holidays my wife grades or plans through these. And over the summer there is about 7 weeks where they do not have to be at school. Give mandatory workshops, class development and planning - it's not much tme off. So I don't think the statements of big vacations is fair. While unions do give teachers some bargining power they don't necessarily help merit promotion. You can be a medicore teacher and stay in the profession a long time. But that does come back to pay - would you be willing to start at $24K with a BA or $31K with a MS in Seattle? Reducing class sizes would greatly improve your kid's education, but there doesn't seem to be money available to address this issue in the current economic and political climate. Most teachers bust their butts for your kids. You should be grateful. IMO.

WTF??

No party has clean hands on this one. One of the big issues is emissions of "light trucks", which believe it or not includes SUVs like the Excursion and Hummer. Orginally meant to give a break to ranchers/farmers in the west that drove over wide areas with working vehicles the lower standards were not anticipated to cover soccer moms bopping around town or outdoor image meisters. Feeble attempts to bring the emisison standards back into the fold of all vehicle emissions have been squashed. But the Bushie agenda is clear - loosen up the regulatory framework such as recent EOs regarding power plant upgrades, air qualty standards in National Parks (including the snow machines in Yellowstone), and a number of subvertive actions regarding NEPA regulations and air quality.

Man, we're getting a bit desperate trying to relate the Iraq invasion with any kind of legimate allied war. Let's see, we went to Iraq for terrorists(oops, not there), WMDs (oops - not yet- though we swore we knew exacty where they were), oh to get Saddam the monster - (oops -not yet - but probably by Nov 04), to stabalize the country (and that's going well). You're grasping for straws pp.