billcoe

Means nothing. After I got done chuckling...I think that even a 3rd grader understands that in trying to win an election, you both try and present yourself in a good light while laying the worst you can come up with about your opponent. So that's the worst sound bite they can fish out? OK, Obama is young and has little experience. People said that about Kennedy too. The positive comment about McCain could have been said 8 years ago when McCain was being railroaded and horrible things said about him running against Bush. He may have already lost, and Biden was being charitable, knowing that he'd be working with JM for the next 4 years. Doesn't that make you wonder how long ago it was and the context? It's soundbiteism at its best (worst). So what? Means nothing once you've laughed about the irony, and thought about it. Although I put more stock in things like this: it's still a Karl Rove opinion piece and possible total bullshit as well. I expect that had Rove been lying, the press would have been on it like flies on shit though, so it's most likely a true story about McCain. I'm just sayin... Link Neither of those things, your soundbite ad or the Rove piece, settles the matter for me, although it will for others.

ha ha! Oh shit, I need to do a con-turd check on my liberal abortion views....if it's just me and K able to post, something must be out of whack.

Good points and advice above. Who builds a crawl space with no venting? That's insane as wet as it is around here. One more thing, you might try checking with a concrete coring or concrete cutting company to see if they can saw the vent holds, they'd most likely cost more (although you never know, depends how long it would take you to do it with the rental fee adding up) but if they can do it, it would be much cleaner I'd expect.

Link Says the secret service is heading to Bidens house. He's the choice. However, read the Hillary fan boi comments slamming the choice below. Amazing. To me, that Obama went with a quality experienced guy, over others who had received more votes, speaks well for his judgment. I want that VP to be a good candidate to take over the top job, and this may be one of the best around for it. Just MO Sample: "I'm sure Biden is a good Senator, but this is slap in the face to all women and all Hillary voters. Is Obama so petty that he can't get over the primary race? Get over it! You won. Don't be a sore winner. Hillary should have been given more respect; she campaigned hard for Obama. He should have at least had her vetted. Even McCain treated Romney better" "King Obama thinks he can slam Hillary and rule alone. No way!!! He is so crazy!! I will never vote for that two-faced sob! Hillary was promised!!! I will never trust Obama again!!" "I happen to know that Barack asked Hillary to try out being his Beotch first to see how things would fit and Hillary said, "Osama, Obama, Yo Momma, if you think I'll be your Beotch. She's the one who assured that she wouldn't get to be his VP. So you stupid Hillary tards get your heads straight. We can win this- we really can. Close your eyes are say three times, Osama, Obama, Yo Momma. Just try it."

Give him the benefit of the doubt? WTF - only if this quote was a fabrication do you let it go: "In recent years, Mr. Ayers has stated, 'I don't regret setting bombs... I feel we didn't do enough.'" Maybe he didn't get prosecuted, but he's admitting it and embellishing it. It doesn't reflect bad on Obama ...depending on what is said and done going forward....but the campaign looks to be heading south fast in the mud slinging dept. I sadly find myself agreeing with ALKELTE "I hate the choice we are given this term. It is like "Giant Douche" or "Turd Sandwich." " Maybe I don't feel it so strongly, as both of these fellas do have some good qualities, but I have doubts on both of them, big ones.

This pretty much sums it up. I don't think so. For others, this would be a different summation: "Mr. Ayers was a leader of the Weather Underground, a terrorist group responsible for countless bombings against targets including the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon and numerous police stations, courthouses and banks. In recent years, Mr. Ayers has stated, 'I don't regret setting bombs... I feel we didn't do enough.'" You realize that on occasion, despite trying to avoid it, the Weather underground bombs hurt innocent people. I don't want to go revisit the Vietnam War, but this will put Obama in a pinch if he is still supportive of this gentleman. We'll see how it plays, but BO will be spending some time repudiating some of this for a while I imagine.

And one with a temper as well. I don't like the choice at all, but if Obama picks my boy Biden for VP, it will be an easier choice. As far as Dougs statement that will the voters be swayed, unfortunatly yes. However, many of the people who would be shocked by Obama knowing, liking and socializing with a weather underground leader, already are committed to McCain, so maybe it won't sway lots of voters. This is much bigger deal than the rev Wright issue IMO.

It looks like it started this way. Link "Obama Brings a Knife to a Gunfight Tom Bevan Wed Aug 20, 9:30 PM ET Two months ago Obama declared of the McCain campaign, "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun." And while Obama has sharpened his message of late, today he pulled out a pocketknife and McCain responded by pulling out a .44 Magnum. The Obama campaign sent out an email announcing they were releasing a new ad in Georgia linking McCain to Ralph Reed and, by association, Jack Abramoff. Here it is: Brian Rogers, spokesman for the McCain campaign, fired back with this: "Barack Obama's ad is ridiculous. Because of John McCain, corruption was exposed and people like Jack Abramoff went to jail. However, if Barack Obama wants to have a discussion about truly questionable associations, let's start with his relationship with the unrepentant terrorist William Ayers, at whose home Obama's political career was reportedly launched. Mr. Ayers was a leader of the Weather Underground, a terrorist group responsible for countless bombings against targets including the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon and numerous police stations, courthouses and banks. In recent years, Mr. Ayers has stated, 'I don't regret setting bombs... I feel we didn't do enough.' "The question now is, will Barack Obama immediately call on the University of Illinois to release all of the records they are currently withholding to shed further light on Senator Obama's relationship with this unrepentant terrorist?" Ouch. The Obama camp had better bring some more firepower to the next fight or put on a flak jacket - or both."

theres more.

Shades and shadows of Willie Horton and Swiftboating. Link You'd think that this is about as ugly as it gets, but it's just the opening salvo, wonder if they are letting loose with all the guns, or keeping some powder dry? "Group to spend $2.8 million on anti-Obama ad By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer Thu Aug 21, 8:12 PM ET WASHINGTON - A conservative nonprofit group with a past link to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign wants to spend $2.8 million on an ad questioning Democrat Barack Obama's relationship to a founder of the 1960s radical group Weather Underground. The ad, which is expected to begin airing Thursday in Michigan and Friday in Ohio, focuses on William Ayers, whose Weatherman organization took credit for a series of bombings, including nonfatal explosions at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol four decades ago. American Issues Project, the sponsor of the ad, is a nonprofit 501©4 organization. One of its board members, Ed Failor Jr., was a paid consultant for McCain's campaign in Iowa last year. The campaign paid his firm $50,000 until July 2007. American Issues Project spokesman Christian Pinkston said Failor has no connection to the McCain campaign now. The ad signals the emergence of the type of tough advertising by independent organizations that operate outside the financial limits of campaign finance law. It is reminiscent of the Swift Boat ads aired against John Kerry four years ago questioning his military service and are widely blamed by Democrats for contributing to his defeat. Organizers sought to air the ad on Fox News Channel, but a Fox spokesman said the network declined to run it. He would not say why. Ayers is now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He and Obama live in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood and served together on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based charity that develops community groups to help the poor. Obama left the board in December 2002. Obama also was the first chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a school reform group of which Ayers was a founder. Ayers also held a meet-the-candidate event at his home for Obama when Obama first ran for office in the mid-1990s. "Barack Obama is friends with Ayers, defending him as, quote, 'Respectable' and 'Mainstream,'" the ad states. "Obama's political career was launched in Ayers' home. And the two served together on a left-wing board. Why would Barack Obama be friends with someone who bombed the Capitol and is proud of it? Do you know enough to elect Barack Obama?" Obama's campaign accused McCain of having a hand in the ad, saying he "dispatched his paid consultant to launch this despicable ad from a so-called 'independent' committee." Federal Election Commission records show the last payment from McCain's campaign to Failor's consulting firm, Targeted Consulting, was July 2, 2007. "Instead of invoking Paris, Britney and obscure sixties radicals, Sen. McCain should take the day off at one of his seven homes to consider whether his support for outsourcing, tax breaks for companies who ship jobs overseas and continued spending of $10 billion a month in Iraq is really putting 'country first,'" Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said. Obama has distanced himself from the radical activity of the Weather Underground. In an interview with "Fox News Sunday" in April, Obama said he "deplored" Ayers' actions in the 1960s. "Mr. Ayers is a 60-plus-year-old individual who lives in my neighborhood, who did something that I deplore 40 years ago when I was 6 or 7 years old," Obama said then. "By the time I met him, he is a professor of education at the University of Illinois. We served on a board together that had Republicans, bankers, lawyers, focused on education." This week, the University of Illinois refused to release records relating to Obama's service on the Chicago Annenberg Exchange. The university said the donor of the records that document the charity's work has not yet turned over ownership rights to the material. The university said it is "aggressively pursuing" an agreement with the donor and will open the collection to the public as soon as one is finalized. Obama's campaign has said the senator does not have control over these records. The ad is the first for the American Issues Project. As a nonprofit organization, the group can raise unlimited amounts of contributions, unlike political action committees that are governed by campaign finance laws. Pinkston, the group's spokesman, said it will identify contributions used to pay for the ad. McCain in the past has criticized independent groups, even those that support him, that air negative campaign ads. In a statement, Failor, who is executive vice president of Iowans for Tax Relief, said: "When the American public fully understands the close, continuing relationship between their potential president and a remorseless domestic terrorist, we believe it will send a chill down their spines." Ayers was a fugitive for years with his wife, fellow radical Bernadine Dohrn. But after surrendering in 1980, the charges against Ayers were dropped because of prosecutorial misconduct. "

I noticed it as well, I was thinking it was the squirrels that ran in the cages to make the electricity were on strike.

"The girl of my dreams lives under my own roof, but she thinks I'm just a kid, a dumb jock, all of which is more or less true. I'm dying, Mr. Tanneran, just like that girl in the poem... only quicker, and with a hard-on."

With our bungling of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and declaring ourselves unaccountable under International law, I think it is fair to say we've scared the crap out of our allies, too. I don't think I'd call the wars "bungled". However, complaince with International law was one of the things which really pissed me off early on. Very poorly done, marginally legal if that. Poor communications with our friends, many of whom were shocked near speechless at our brash near unilateral go it alone actions which no doubt has led to the Russians beginning to start hardening up again. That we later got a few allies to climb on board very slightly doesn't change the early prosecution errors and crazyness. However, to those who are saying that we cannot win a guerrilla war, I ask you to look no further than the US slam dunk on El Salvador. It can be done and was done not too far back. Winning or losing that one meant little to us, but winning this one or losing this one has HUGE implications on many levels worldwide. Wishing you all well bill

_______________________________________________________________ I'll be there for sure, I think this is such a great thing. It reflects well on Kevin Rauch, Kevin Rauche's friends and the local climbing community as well.

hmmmm, not sure i follow. the big, glitzy attack on US soil has happened once, but the smaller 'strap on a bomb and walk to the market' variety have been a nearly daily occurrence. Granted, fewer people die per incident, and there have been fewer of them lately than, say, a year ago. But I think it is reasonable to conclude that those are easier to pull off than the US attack. The main point, though, is that because of our war of choice in Iraq, Al Qaida (and others) don't need to go to the bother of trying to hit the US proper (which is hard), yet they still get to make progaganda points and kill Americans. That is the gift we gave them. fifth, to continue the lecture, cherry-picking and intentionally ignoring the point are stock-in-trade here, I get that, but you've got to be more clever about it.... Ha Ha...Ouch! Well spoken!

Louden Swain

Crooked Bastard? Musharraf is gone now, I highly suspect that he will be facing charges of treason soon I suspect. It's a crazy world over there, we have our enemies close to pinned in that country...no need to "Invade", think how counterprodutive that would be on the secular Pakis. The charge earlier that the Bush admin chose cronies and lackies rather than the best and brightest for the jobs is indefensible and although probably legal, highly upsetting and angering if true. I suspect that there is probably another side, which we haven't heard from yet. I'm not saying that to apologize for those actions which, if true (most likely are too), are complete and utter bullshit for many many reasons. Regards to all, thanks for the civil discourse, theres a shitload of things I don't know and I've learned something new. Link to former President Musharraf status story

He's got a great wife.....bet that shocks you.

Heard the gentleman who wrote a recent book say that the reason for the Watergate wiretapping (which led to the break in and cover up which in turn led to Nixon's resignation and jail time for his cronies and advisor's) Was because the Republicans were trying to gather evidence that the Democratic National Committee was hiring hookers for the DNC convention attendees. Hookers should be legalized anyway. I found it an interesting statement.

Good find Jiggler. Thank you!

Bring a link or a copy of some new artical with this will ya Jim, it makes your words and beliefs then have some truth and substance, and can lead to true and real knowledge gains for all of us. When i read folks like Bstatch up there spouting off unfounded opinions that are not even well thought out ones, I stop listening and reading. Why bother to even post a response? If he wants to believe in anything he can dream up - and just toss it out like it's the truth, thats fine for him, when he can't link an artical or story, it's not worth my time. Welcome to the discussion.

Link BlueWater Accelerator 10.5mm x 60m Non-Dry Rope 11 fall. - REI Closeout A reminder if you use your REI Visa you get 5% back on the purchase. Rope prices are going up.

From my experience, the safest and best (NOT THE FASTEST) way to do it is take the full Mountaineers course. reading books is an adjunt to that, not a replacement for it. If you can do the guide thing AND hook up with a reliable mentor afterwards, that would be first choice, but getting an experienced dude to let you dog him will be rare and unusual.

Oh, ok. What kind of gun? BTW, aren't all those Harley ridin dudes now old and fat anyway?

When I was in the military, we could think anything or anyway we wanted. We were still US citizens who have a huge stake in how some of the kinds of things that get so easily and falsely tossed about on this board turned out. You still had a job that needed to get done, as do you Kev right now. I suspect it isn't any difference for Scott or folks in the military now.