billcoe

...wuz it old growth Poison Oak as seen here running up the Fir Tree? I think some of that Beacon Rock poison oak tried to kill Jeff. I didn't have the heart to tell him that all of the PO he'd ripped out had grown back a few months later on Lay Lady Lay crack. That stuff is malevolent.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/justice-dept-veteran-obama-sets-dangerous-precedent-letting-bush-officials-free/ It's been widely said that the Nixon white house was bought and sold by the Mafia. It didn't get better when Ford pardoned Nixon, and had been part of the Earl Warren commission whitewash of lies to cover up the mafia and CIA involvement of the JFK murder consistory. Certainly LBJ, one of the alleged conspirators of the Kennedy assassination, could be called an organized crime tool. We've had years of criminal activity in the white house. Then we had Barak and we had some kind of hope and change. Until now. But why is this called the "precedent" ? "Exclusive: DoJ veteran sees ‘dangerous precedent’ in letting Bush officials walk By Brad Jacobson Monday, January 17th, 2011 -- 11:34 am J. Gerald Hebert, a former acting Justice Department chief who served the government's enforcement wing in various capacities between 1973 and 1994, said in an exclusive interview that the failure of federal prosecutors to charge former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) with even a single crime was indicative of a greater problem. On the heels of the successful prosecution of DeLay for money laundering and conspiracy in Texas, Hebert said he hoped it was clear that the Department of Justice had nothing to do with that conviction. Rather, the Obama administration's Justice Department in August closed down a six-year investigation into DeLay -- without filing a single charge. He said that the success of the Travis County District Attorney’s office, which had DeLay sentenced to three years in jail, not only highlighted the Justice Department’s “unfathomable” failure in one prosecution, but also a “disturbing pattern” of less vigorous pursuit in congressional corruption cases since Obama took office. As a private citizen, Hebert has worked as executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, a non-partisan group that monitors government ethics, campaign finance and elections, and served as an adjunct professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center. The 20-year DOJ veteran also criticized the administration's refusal to investigate or prosecute any serious criminal activities from the Bush-era, such as sanctioning the waterboarding of military detainees and directing the political firings of US Attorneys. These “at a minimum deserve complete investigation,” he said. The Obama administration’s excuse “to look forward and not backward” fails to fulfill the agency’s “duty” to investigate, he said -- a charge that includes “any federal office holder who violates the Constitution or federal law." “The department makes decisions based on the facts, evidence and the law, and nothing else," Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney remarked in an email to Raw Story. Hebert, who served in multiple supervisory positions at the Department of Justice, commented that "everybody" from the Bush-era has seemed to land their own "get out of jail free card." In regard to prosecuting political corruption in Congress, Hebert said that “the Justice Department is gun-shy” since the botched handling of a case against deceased former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK). “It is unfathomable for me to believe that after all was said and done, and knowing as much information that was out there about what DeLay and his high-level cronies had done, that there wasn’t a single prosecution,” Hebert continued. “So my hats are off to the Travis County prosecutors who were able to at least bring some amount of justice to this,” he said. Hebert noted that his disbelief also rests in the fact that the Justice Department had given convicted former Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff a deal to delay his sentencing for months in exchange for providing information. “They delayed his sentencing so they could take advantage of that,” he explained, expressing shock that Abramoff's information did not result in a DOJ indictment of DeLay. “In the arrogant world that Tom DeLay lived in, he was kingpin,” Hebert said. “He did a lot of damage to people, and to the democracy ultimately, when he tried to undermine and circumvent important rules about corporate funding and clean money.” “DeLay basically put Congress up for sale,” he continued. “He went down and stood on the corner of K Street and tried to sell it.” Hebert also cited numerous other Congressional corruption cases, on both sides of the aisle, that left him scratching his head as to why prosecutions were not pursued – including Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) on conspiracy charges and Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) on tax evasion. “The Justice Department has been missing in action when it comes to public corruption cases,” he charged. 'Bush and Cheney are not above the law' “When [Obama and Holder] took over they made it clear that they weren’t going to get caught up in the past,” Hebert said. “They were going to look to the future and make it a brighter day and full of hope.” Hebert said he believed that in wanting to appear nonpartisan, they instead weakened the Justice Department, sending a consequential message to the American people. “It’s one thing to want to appear like you’re above the political fray and your cases aren’t motivated by politics,” Hebert pointed out. “But it’s another to not hold people accountable and to not bring justice.” He also said that running the Justice Department in such a manner sets a “dangerous precedent.” “Bush and Cheney are not above the law," Hebert concluded. "Whether it’s the president, the vice president or any federal office holder who violates the Constitution or federal law, or there are serious allegations suggesting that such violations may have existed, then the Department of Justice has a duty and an obligation to fully investigate that. "And if there are no consequences to any of the actions that violated the federal law in the last administration, then why would anybody think that they would ever be prosecuted for doing it in the future?" Probably too much to look for from anyone from Chicago. After all, that was Jack Ruby's (who had been a runner for Al Capone as a youth) home city before he moved to Texas and became Oswalds murderer. Essentially getting him to shut up on that whole "I was a patsy routine.

Nice TR! What a super wet weekend, good on you for still doing something! Facebook sucks. "This video either has been removed from Facebook or is not visible due to privacy settings."

You bought it just as a retreat for climbing? That's neat! I like what Off White did, ie, buy the actual cliff! He just steps off his deck and is climbing. Sweet stuff. BTW, pffft, 6' high Poison Oak is nothing. Go through and clip it off, and when it regrows spray it. They say AFTER the berry's form ( early fall) is the best time to hit the stuff. I have a 55- 60 footer I'm looking at logging off. Seriously. I'd be afraid of saying anything more for fear that it qualifies as protected "Old Growth" and there's likely a bunch of Spotted Owls nesting up in the canopy which, being so high up, is not visible from the ground. It's huge. I'm thinking it needs to be logged off and the act put on U-tube as the size of this thing would blow peoples mind. It was only a few years ago that I learned how large these things grow. I was out on the top of the Butte coiling my rope after a day of climbing in the fall, when I looked down and saw a red Poison Oak leaf near my feet...looking around, I saw another, then another then another. As I've been going to that area over there on and off for @ 37-38 years, I had in fact killed the (waist high or so) Poison Oak in this very area a couple of times. I looked up and realized that the vine wrapped around the Doug Fir tree in front of me was in fact, Poison Oak, but it was so high, that you couldn't see the leaves and it was sooooo BIG, that it wasn't recognized as Oak. DOHHH! I'm talking right next to a climbers trail. No one recognized it for what it really was, despite perhaps 1,000s of climbers and other visitors actually having seen it. It was only in the fall, seeing a leaf on the ground where there should have been none, that I got clued in. Now I have a better eye for the old growth ones. Pretty crazy. The big ones are easy, saw it off, paint on some roundup stuff. If it's going to rain, take a paper towel moistened with Glycolstuff/roundup and stuff it in the bottom of a dixie cup, flip the cup over the recently sawed stump and duct tape it on. Keeps any new roots from sprouting. Come back for the cup and the trash in a few days. Here's a picture of Plaidman, Jimmy and myself pulling and sawing off a bigger one, big at @ 35-40' tall up the tree, but much smaller than the monster I have in my sights. I'm holding the sawed off Poison Oak "tree". Jim is not allergic and he's pulling out all the little runners (what we all recognize as Poison oak) under the dirt barehanded. The leaves have all dropped off as winter is close, but the stalks are still recognizable. He will rub his hands with dirt before he does this to fill his pores. I somehow got it this day despite the rubber gloves. Jim didn't despite ripping it out with his bare hands...sigh...

You have the reading comprehension of a dyslexic 3rd grader Hugh.

Ahhhh! that's what it was about. Thanks!

Porn?! Hey there, this is a literature thread! Here, see if this helps out although it is only rated 2 out of 5 Kleenex: [video:youtube]

Fuck it, it's only money, can't we just keep printing more? What ya whining on? Why can't we keep selling bonds to ourselves and the Chinese? The debt is only and increasing 4,160,000,000.00 a DAY! Why can't we keep spending like drunken sailors and let Larrys (and all of our) kids worry over it? GOOD LIFE! WHHHOO HOOO! Haters and jack booted thugs: ALL OF YOU! (OK, only some of you:-)

NICE! Whorehouse Hose...LOL!

Their hypothesis (re your link) is that China has not been responsible for driving up all commodities prices all the time for all commodities, just some. They are specifically mentioning soybeans, live hogs etc etc. and concluding that sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't. Uhhh, OK. I concur. Moving on, ..I would suggest Peter, that we are talking about slightly different things. I was referring and responding to your title "All Hail China!" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/5160120/A-Copper-Standard-for-the-worlds-currency-system.html http://molyinvestingnews.com/2113-china-stockpiling-moly-for-nuclear-plant-construction.html With industrial demand for actual metal use decreasing in many sectors, it seems to me that that if we see the price is still increasing - it can be attributed primarily to 2 things. Dollar valuation and stockpiling. Moving on to the potentially active topic (via guesswork)I can't imagine that either Sony or China will be able to put the DRM body slam down, if that actually is the an on target oblique reference to the "All Hail China!" in the first post. Maybe the geeks online can advise us on this issue if that is the theme here. I've just been guessing what you are trying to infer. Maybe you can flesh this out for us. Is there 20 questions and do I have 17 more questions before I'm tossed as a loser? Dohh, make it 16 now!

Did you drop your funkness? Cause that would get it out of there in short order. [/raceforbootypost]

Those Tomahawk thinggys rule for seams! Same with cam hooks if you can get them inside the crack. Once, long time back, I was nutting the first pitch West face of Monkey. I had a new HB brassie in a marginal spot, and as I watched it, it literally was eating away at the placement. I grabbed the next piece quickly, but poof, before I could place it the hb dropped like 2 inches in the crack... and caught. Just as I start laughing, poof, it pops out of the new resting place and I took a ride on the Reading. Now 2 cam hook moves get your through there easy, fast and securely. 2 Beacon placements: Bomber.

http://www.google.com/patents?id=hhYJAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4#v=onepage&q&f=false LOL!!

wuz up? This place seems a hell of a lot less argumentative. Are we all waiting till the rock closes to ramp up the pissing matches?

They are loading it into real trucks and taking real delivery. The US hasn't issued any silver certificates for years. The Chinese are smarter than to take more paper instead of actual metal. It is said that they are stockpiling all commodities that can be stockpiled. What they use to look like. Note the top of the 2 bills below: Across the top of the $10 silver certificate. Redeemable in Silver.

Dude?! Broken bones? Damn...sorry to hear that..Whats the story? Did you have an old man moment up skiing? We need to send her over with some cookies!

Are you thinking of the Chinese reversal and them working to corner the silver market about to happen next March or so? For anyone interested, this is a pretty interesting story wherein JP Morgan (unfortunately for all US citizens, one of the major Fed Players) lands in a sand trap without a wedge in the bag. This cartoon is the short version which hits on the highlights, 1 and 2 parts are pretty good as well. [video:youtube] FLEEEEXXXXXXXXX......ouch. Part of the Chinese taking physical delivery on many commodities. This one happens to be more visible than most.

SO! You admit to NOT freeing and NOT clean climbing Mr Pink? LOL! I'm kidding, nicely told!

Is it that they have almost got us encircled by purchasing our bonds and thus made us so far in debt to them? Is that the Kudos? I googled the word you posted and it didn't make sense to me PP. http://cnsnews.com/news/article/pelosi-last-day-speaker-no-regrets-defic "Pelosi: 'We Have No Regrets' About Debt Piled Up Over Last Two Years Tuesday, January 04, 2011 By Nicholas Ballasy Outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., left, and outgoing House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Md., take part in a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) (CNSNews.com) - When asked if she regrets not using the last two years with a Democrat controlled Congress to do more about the national debt, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she has “no regrets,” adding that “deficit reduction” has been a “high priority” for the Democratic Congress. Speaker Pelosi was asked, “Do you have regrets that you didn't use the 2 years that you had total Democratic control of government to focus more on jobs and especially the debt which we did not hear much at all from you?” Pelosi, speaking on her last day as Speaker of the House, said, “No, we have no regrets. This House has over and over again sent to the Senate legislation for job creation, which the Republicans in the Senate held up. Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us, it is our mantra; pay as you go. Unfortunately, that will be changed now.” She added, “This administration and this Congress inherited a near Depression. So, the initiatives that we took were positive for the American people. It’s not enough to save people from a Depression though – 9 and a half percent unemployment is intolerable and as long as we have that we have to continue to fight for job creation.” According to official debt figures published by the U.S. Treasury, the Democrat controlled 111th Congress added $3.22 trillion (added $3,220,103,625,307.29) to the national debt – more than the new debt accumulated by the first 100 Congresses combined. The 110th Congress added the second largest amount to the national debt – $1.957 trillion while the 108th ($1.159 trillion in new debt) and 109th ($1.054 trillion in new debt), both controlled by Republicans, come in at third and fourth place among all U.S. Congresses in terms of accumulating debt."

Soon, you will be be going to the dark side and voting republican. Then you get old and die. Sorry. Oh, congrats btw!

Serious question: is that P1 of Dutchman just to the left of Scott in this pic Steve? If yes, does Psychic get a P2 and hit the ledge. Not serious: shouldn't that go free....and clean? Looks like it should:-)

Nancy Pelosi (Does Pat still have wet dreams of her?) can see it from her house! Are you referring to this? Hong Kong Cited as World’s Freest Economy Jan. 13 – The American Heritage Foundation, in a survey conducted in tandem with The Wall Street Journal, has just released the 17th edition of their annual Index of Economic Freedom which measures the degree of freedom in 183 global economies. http://www.china-briefing.com/news/2011/01/13/hong-kong-cited-as-worlds-freest-economy.html WE'RE NUMBER 9! WE'RE NUMBER 9! WE'RE NUMBER 9! WE'RE NUMBER 9! Perhaps it's probably all the natural resources and wise taxation of corporations they have over there......

Well played sir!

LOL, you and Zim should share the vid....! He must be responding to her recent speech, full text: "Like millions of Americans I learned of the tragic events in Arizona on Saturday, and my heart broke for the innocent victims. No words can fill the hole left by the death of an innocent, but we do mourn for the victims’ families as we express our sympathy. I agree with the sentiments shared yesterday at the beautiful Catholic mass held in honor of the victims. The mass will hopefully help begin a healing process for the families touched by this tragedy and for our country. Our exceptional nation, so vibrant with ideas and the passionate exchange and debate of ideas, is a light to the rest of the world. Congresswoman Giffords and her constituents were exercising their right to exchange ideas that day, to celebrate our Republic’s core values and peacefully assemble to petition our government. It’s inexcusable and incomprehensible why a single evil man took the lives of peaceful citizens that day. There is a bittersweet irony that the strength of the American spirit shines brightest in times of tragedy. We saw that in Arizona. We saw the tenacity of those clinging to life, the compassion of those who kept the victims alive, and the heroism of those who overpowered a deranged gunman. Like many, I’ve spent the past few days reflecting on what happened and praying for guidance. After this shocking tragedy, I listened at first puzzled, then with concern, and now with sadness, to the irresponsible statements from people attempting to apportion blame for this terrible event. President Reagan said, “We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.” Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of a state, not with those who listen to talk radio, not with maps of swing districts used by both sides of the aisle, not with law-abiding citizens who respectfully exercise their First Amendment rights at campaign rallies, not with those who proudly voted in the last election. The last election was all about taking responsibility for our country’s future. President Obama and I may not agree on everything, but I know he would join me in affirming the health of our democratic process. Two years ago his party was victorious. Last November, the other party won. In both elections the will of the American people was heard, and the peaceful transition of power proved yet again the enduring strength of our Republic. Vigorous and spirited public debates during elections are among our most cherished traditions. And after the election, we shake hands and get back to work, and often both sides find common ground back in D.C. and elsewhere. If you don’t like a person’s vision for the country, you’re free to debate that vision. If you don’t like their ideas, you’re free to propose better ideas. But, especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible. There are those who claim political rhetoric is to blame for the despicable act of this deranged, apparently apolitical criminal. And they claim political debate has somehow gotten more heated just recently. But when was it less heated? Back in those “calm days” when political figures literally settled their differences with dueling pistols? In an ideal world all discourse would be civil and all disagreements cordial. But our Founding Fathers knew they weren’t designing a system for perfect men and women. If men and women were angels, there would be no need for government. Our Founders’ genius was to design a system that helped settle the inevitable conflicts caused by our imperfect passions in civil ways. So, we must condemn violence if our Republic is to endure. As I said while campaigning for others last March in Arizona during a very heated primary race, “We know violence isn’t the answer. When we ‘take up our arms’, we’re talking about our vote.” Yes, our debates are full of passion, but we settle our political differences respectfully at the ballot box – as we did just two months ago, and as our Republic enables us to do again in the next election, and the next. That’s who we are as Americans and how we were meant to be. Public discourse and debate isn’t a sign of crisis, but of our enduring strength. It is part of why America is exceptional. No one should be deterred from speaking up and speaking out in peaceful dissent, and we certainly must not be deterred by those who embrace evil and call it good. And we will not be stopped from celebrating the greatness of our country and our foundational freedoms by those who mock its greatness by being intolerant of differing opinion and seeking to muzzle dissent with shrill cries of imagined insults. Just days before she was shot, Congresswoman Giffords read the First Amendment on the floor of the House. It was a beautiful moment and more than simply “symbolic,” as some claim, to have the Constitution read by our Congress. I am confident she knew that reading our sacred charter of liberty was more than just “symbolic.” But less than a week after Congresswoman Giffords reaffirmed our protected freedoms, another member of Congress announced that he would propose a law that would criminalize speech he found offensive. It is in the hour when our values are challenged that we must remain resolved to protect those values. Recall how the events of 9-11 challenged our values and we had to fight the tendency to trade our freedoms for perceived security. And so it is today. Let us honor those precious lives cut short in Tucson by praying for them and their families and by cherishing their memories. Let us pray for the full recovery of the wounded. And let us pray for our country. In times like this we need God’s guidance and the peace He provides. We need strength to not let the random acts of a criminal turn us against ourselves, or weaken our solid foundation, or provide a pretext to stifle debate. America must be stronger than the evil we saw displayed last week. We are better than the mindless finger-pointing we endured in the wake of the tragedy. We will come out of this stronger and more united in our desire to peacefully engage in the great debates of our time, to respectfully embrace our differences in a positive manner, and to unite in the knowledge that, though our ideas may be different, we must all strive for a better future for our country. May God bless America. - Sarah Palin

Can't disagree with that. Collectively, we need to consume less resources or our kids will be toast. We can see the petrolium reserves decreasing at a fast rate, so we'll see gas price increaes, but it's close to true across the board for many other things as well. Every time I see "Green Jobs" I think of Oregon paying workers to dye the area next to the road green. "by KGW Staff Posted on September 2, 2010 at 10:39 AM In what looked like a scene from Alice in Wonderland -- Oregon Department Of Transportation has been dyeing the grass green. It's a landscaping experiment along I-5 south of Sutherlin. What was once dead brown grass is now various shades of green. The goal is to save water and money. ODOT officials estimate they can save $8,000 by not watering the grass. The dye-job costs $6,000 a year." Green jobs baby! It's the future and it's here now!