billcoe

"The Latter?" Hmmmm , am I going to have to start reading these posts? What is this relating too....Mitt getting in? Didn't I have to already swear eternal fealty when we missed the McCainwreck? States rights went out in 1865 so forget all that down home folks will fix it baloney. It's all feds all the time. Maybe jb can jump in there and fix it all up. He talks their language.

BTW, I keep seeing these "thank yew for your service" kinds of things for military personal.... Thank yew for yer service with the ACLU. It matters. Thanks.

Hanging out watching the show Pat! Did Ivan and Ben get up Salathe? I haven't heard anything.

Petzl is to be commended on the effort that they put into the recall. After they had earlier shafted the Petzl Zephyr rope owners who had trash ropes in the ass, they really came through for this. My recalled grigri2 was shipped into Petzl 6-23-11, and arrived back today via red label air, and included a handsigned card signed by all these employees. Changed my opinion on Petzl. Thanks Petzl!

I'm with Prole on this one. We need an original real serious hope and change candidate for 2012. Obama is more like Bush than Bush. The Bush Obama tax cuts for the rich are a specific example. The . stimulus money Bush wanted to throw away flushed to hell as he was leaving office followed by Barak accepting the Bush package and even adding too and oneupping him with even more $$$ another. The way the "health care bill" was run through every congressman and lobbyist to paw over and insert special interest clauses to the point where the bill was not read by anyone who voted for it (last count) a huge one. What bullshit. They're both big government, big spenders. More war, more waste. Same same.

Received this adopt a crag email from the Access Fund today. If we can get a lot of folks for an hour then knock off and climb, it might be the best of both worlds. Consider bringing gloves, brooms, lil dustpans and hard buckets for glass cleanup. I once filled a full 5 gallon bucket with broken beer bottles early one spring when I was younger and more energetic. "Where: Rocky Butte, in Portland When: Thursday July 14th, 5:30-9pm Hosted by: Rocky Butte Climbing Coalition Details: The Rocky Butte Climbing Coalition, RBCC, is a newly formed group that is dedicated to preserving and protecting Portland’s valuable climbing resources. We are putting on a series of clean-up events at Rocky Butte, starting on July 14th, sponsored by ODOT and the Access Fund. These clean-up events are a kickoff to begin raising awareness for this unique urban park and its array of potential. Rocky Butte is located ~1 mi. east of 82 & Fremont. Park along the road across from the City Bible College. The clean-up events will be held on Thursday nights, July 14th, 28th and August 11th from 5:30-9pm. For more information, please contact Cory at Cory@rockybutteclimbing.com. Every hour of time you donate to a crag helps show land managers that climbers are responsible stewards. Grab some friends and a pair of work gloves and spend a day giving back to the sport you love! We hope to see you there. Thanks for your support, Jenny Blackmore Stewardship Manager Access Fund" WWW.rockybutteclimbing.com gets you the facebook page you can RSVP if you are so inclined.

6 hours and you're not even near being over the Mariana Trench and you're still 30,000 feet up. Thanks for the pictures Dave! BTW, I think my kid might be too intimidated (cough* istoomuch of apussy* cough) to look you up. He's done the 420 camping/climbing trip in Hell with his buddies. I've seen the pictures on his facebook page....

Progressive Oppressive shill!

So, as I understand it from your default fallback position of attacking the messenger (again) and ignoring the message, you are saying that the facts are not correct? Here's your tax dollars at work getting federal officers killed. Google "operation Gunrunner" for the tip of the iceberg that the ATF is trying to shift the blame and sweep the facts under the rug. http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/melson-s-explosive-f-f-allegations-taxpayer-dollars-may-have-been-used But no, we can't cut any government money cause somehow "the lil children's will suffer"...right? Of course, it's those repressive shills in Seattle this time. God forbid we make them operate with less $. (insert eye roll)

Attack the messenger cause you can't attack the message? One trick pony dude? Really? Jon posits a good point above on why wasn't the 3.6 million figure used. This was the weekly standard rebuttal to Jon's point and a few others as well. http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/despite-white-protests-stimulus-still-cost-taxpayers-278000-job_576348.html The Presidents council on Economic advisers report: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/20110318-cea-arra-report.pdf The White House response to the report noted in PP link. "Liz Ozhorn, a White House spokesman for the stimulus bill, said that the Weekly Standard report “is based on partial information and false analysis. The Recovery Act was more than a measure to create and save jobs; it was also an investment in American infrastructure, education and industries that are critical to America’s long-term success and an investment in the economic future of America’s working families. Thanks to the Recovery Act, 110 million working families received a tax cut through the Making Work Pay tax credit, over 110,000 small businesses received critical access to capital through $27 billion in small business loans and more than 75,000 projects were started nationwide to improve our infrastructure, jump-start emerging industries and spur local economic development. The nonpartisan CBO has confirmed that the Recovery Act delivered as promised, lowering the unemployment rate by as much as 2 percent, boosting GDP by as much as 4 percent and creating and saving as many as 3.6 million jobs." My point all along is that underlying all of these economic issues the US needs to get out of the overseas debacles that are machines designed to flush all of our money away. http://slashdot.org/story/11/07/05/1745258 Here's a $2.7 billion dollar computer system that our operational commanders say hindered their efforts in Afganistan. It is essentially a non-operable system, and of interest is that the FBI and CIA have a very similar software package, fully operational and functional which was offered to the Army at the start of the process but they said no. They have too much money. I'll let you do that math, divide $2.7 billion dollars into a teachers salary and tell us the number. A recent NPR report notes that "The amount the U.S. military spends annually on air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan: $20.2 billion". http://www.npr.org/2011/06/25/137414737/among-the-costs-of-war-20b-in-air-conditioning Those kinds of numbers, just like the PP numbers on the first post, should be the starting point for a discussion. If you look at the $20 billion a year figure for air conditioning, there is a lot of suspect things contained in that number. A retired brigadier general who served as chief logistician for Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq, General Anderson, is quoted: "To power an air conditioner at a remote outpost in landlocked Afghanistan, a gallon of fuel has to be shipped into Karachi, Pakistan, then driven 800 miles over 18 days to Afghanistan on roads that are sometimes little more than "improved goat trails," Anderson says. "And you've got risks that are associated with moving the fuel almost every mile of the way." Anderson calculates that more than 1,000 troops have died in fuel convoys, which remain prime targets for attack. Freestanding tents equipped with air conditioners in 125-degree heat require a lot of fuel. By making those structures more efficient, Anderson says, the military could save lives and dollars." The Pentagon disputes the figures. But the underlying points still remain. Doesn't it?

You have a black-white view of the world that only serves to make you feel self-righteous jb. It's not at all like you think it is. Normally not worth bothering posting a response so as to strike up a one sided dialog with you, but I had to go there at least one more time. You are welcome. The tractor beam of oppressiveness from you is strong.

Essentially they were all paid for with tax money, however, due to the congressional mandates, some of the new FS roads built made the public sh*tloads of scratch, and some were just outright money losers where the bids for the timber didn't come close to covering the costs of the roads. It was the process which was mandated that they follow and they did them all regardless of profitability. Of course, when they were going to punch a road into a sensitive area (imagine a marginal productivity/less rainfall area like on the eastside of the crest where once the trees were cut they would be near impossible to reestablish), lose money doing it and screw everything up for the wildlife all at the same time, normal people who saw this were left shaking their heads at typical big government stupidity.

You can't make shit like this up. http://cgi.ebay.com/VULVA-Natural-Vaginal-Smell-SMELL-WHENEVER-WHEREVER-/110705828635?pt=UK_Health_HealthCare_RL&hash=item19c694e31b

I think that you need to rethink your entire shtick buddy, {especially the "trained killer part as military personal tend to be as law abiding as they come) but to discuss only 2 of your points. 1st) price out a single JDAM (the best low cost way to kill the enemy) let alone a Cruise Missile. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_B-2_Spirit If we can get out of tossing million dollar bombs out of airplanes alone in the 3 or 4 major active locations we are in now, we'd save a fortune. Running these sorties even with the lowest cost ordinance is very costly. No need to reduce the amount of military personal we have, rotate them home and let them be peacetime soldiers in US based locations: station them in places named Fort Lewis, Fort Sill, Fort Benning, Fort Ord or whatever. We'd retain their skill sets in case of a serious future need, and they and their family's would be spending those paychecks in the US. The operational costs to run F18's or B-2s on repetitive missions would drop radically, as would fleet costs to have aircraft carriers stationed out of these shitholes. Aircraft carriers have 4,000 sailors on them, and the price of fuel to run one within jet range to bomb a country like Libya alone is enough to fund most small 3rd world countries. Our military operational costs are huge to achieve these minor questionable goals. 2nd) on the increasing taxes issue you note. Let the Obama (formerly Bush) tax cuts for the wealthy expire. Why should we be borrowing and paying interest on that money from the Chinese to allow the rich to bank more money? They aren't creating more jobs as much as deepening their portfolios while the middle class gets stuck with having to repay the borrowed $ sometime in the future. Pulling money out of the hands of the many so that it can get locked into the bank vaults of the few has always been a recipe for disaster in this country. We've seen it occur in history, why do it again voluntarily? We need to balance our budget badly. Reducing costs is critical, but as we do not seem to have the political will to easily do so those 2 methods noted above would be an easy start. Start that out of box thinking revision with those 2 issues and see what ya think. Interesting here's the army just flushed $3 billion down the toilet. http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/89048-us-army-spent-2-7-billion-on-a-battlefield-computer-that-doesnt-work

Anything from MSR will make you happy. For myself, I have a SVEA 123 (Primius now, they bought SVEA) I bought new in 1971 from REI mailorder for $15 (that seems cheap, but they raised the price to $15 from $10 just before I pulled the trigger on the purchase -rats:-) I've dropped it and watched it bounce down hills and it's seen some serious abuse in it's life. I use to get out in the mountains a hell of a lot back when. Now it gets out maybe twice a year if that and it usually seems to be on a picnic table or backing up a Coleman 2 burner:-) I have no plans to strip the nozzle and expect it will outlive me. After camping in Red Rocks with Powderhound this spring, I too bought a MSR Dragon Fly as I liked his so much. It's not that it's so dramatically better than the old SVEA, I can afford one so I got it. My wife has one of those Primus butane canister stoves I can borrow if I want too, so I'm pretty covered for convinance as well.

F* YES, JUST BUMP AN EXISTING TAX A SMIDGE. Pick any one that already has an infrastructure in place. The stupidity of all of this is that now a good portion of the money raised will be going to pay for people to administer this new tax, signage, persecution or miscreants etc etc. That's the reason that the last fee was dumped, it was damned unpopular sure, BUT IT DIDN'T RAISE BARELY JACK OR SHIT FOR MONEY. That was why doing it again seemed particularly and incredibly stupid to so many of us. They didn't raise money doing it before. Many people quit using the facilities where they had to pay the new tax and the bureaucrats spent a lot on running the new tax. It barely broke even it was said. Did you even read the posts above you? As this thread has quite capably shown in short order, people who feel that this is TOTAL bullshit (but are most likely otherwise fine and honest people) will now feel like the government is the enemy, and that breaking the law is now fully justified to protest this. In the end we wind up with a large group of people who are out to fuck over the petty bureaucrats on everything they can find to do so, while the petty bureaucrats don't raise much money to achieve this alienation of it's largest user group. Where else to you see this kind of Lose - lose solution? To me, $30 is nothing but a pain in the ass annoyance, I find it particularly a grievance that a poor person with 4 kids going out to enjoy the land they co-own as a citizen MUST pay the same fee as say, Paul Allen or Bill Gates. Of particular annoyance is the fact that a new bureaucracy will be built up around this new tax that will suck up a lot of the $ as well. It's government stupidity and arrogance. Long term, it might not be a bad thing for the country if we can get a lot of the bullshit "services" defunded and then these parking meter maids can then go get real jobs and learn to be productive members of society instead of the leeches that they are. However, is that really the road we want to go down as a country? Anyone wants to get updates or help fight this kind of stupidity, here's a link: http://www.westernslopenofee.org/

That's pretty f***ing baller!

Great lookin spot, thanks for the pics and the report!

Yes, send the picture. Then the entire area of the North Cascades should be immediately closed off to human activity so that the endangered bears can recover. Estimating 7-10 - years or so....then later, closed off to climbers and hikers only during birthing season: which is spring to fall. However, since there is resource constraints and hiring freezes due to financial issues, may I suggest that all climbers should have to purchase a card to allow them access to the outdoors so that we can hire more Washington Dept of Fish and Wildlife folks to ticket those who violate the ban on entry into the North Cascades and other wilderness areas where the endangered bear is struggling to recover and thus pay for the recovery that way? OK, I'm kidding....but watch this happen.

LOL!!!! Too funny this picture! And a great post Jeff! What a lil trooper too! Being a dad is some good stuff. That feeling never leaves you. My youngest, Shaun, is around this summer. About a week or so ago. It just seems like a little bit ago he was a lil tyke. Time flies even faster when you have kids. Below, last year or so climbing with the old guys doing a FA through the blackberries on a route Jim Opdycke named "Child Abuse". LOL! Photo Jeff Thomas Congrats on being a dad, good looking lad there.

LOL! There's a bunch of us hot on his heels, including both of us, maybe you can mass print the application for everyone? I've been getting these AARP mailings lately much to Jasmines amusement, and it's clear that my posts are sounding more like a typical opinionated old man on an out of control rant. One has to wonder just how far behind the dirt nap really is. I suspect if I bought a lifetime pass, I wouldn't get my moneys worth. ps, I've already been tagged to pay over $5,000 in past B and O taxes merely to avoid a court fight, $30 isn't anything but an annoyance. But it is that, and I suspect it will not be an effective revenue provider for the state..

Nice! How long ya in for this time?

Now you're just being shrill. The kid just want's to know where his draws are. Doesn't need a self-righteous self important know it all street preacher screaming that YOU ARE A SINNER!!!! So back in your box, pop out when you can be helpful OK? WHOA.....sorry for that clown thing....wow! That will give ya nightmares.

Yes, exactly, people in other country's have to pay to watch that kind of thing. Rad, sorry it went there because you write very, very well, and your stuff is so much better than a dog sliding it's ass over the floor.

This? I was trying to make a joke. Don always posts clowns and other strange pics, some of it pretty interesting and on occasion humorous. I was just trying to play on that level for him. Take care all!