marylou

Matt, I think you missed a couple of other things: There are around 400 people being illegally detained at Gitmo, where apparently living conditions have become even worse. Those detainees have now been held for FIVE YEARS without being charged of a crime. The botched and circuslike executions (revenge killings) of Saddam and those other two guys. Oh, yeah, during Sunni holy days.

I did L1 AIARE at Pro Guiding. Small group of students, great training.

You are so right, all women are for sale. Be nice people, that's Padma, his wife. By the way, she's way more smokin' hot than either of those pictures would suggest, and she's smart as hell. Salman may not be Mr. Foxy, but he's also smart as hell, and sometimes hot women and smart guys end up together.

I got one of those free Nanos Key Bank was giving out recently. I find I really prefer having a screen to not having a screen and now never use the Shuffle. Nothing beats the full-size Pod for road trips though.

Be careful over there Raindawg!!

Again, Matt, any PN data to back this up? There were massive inconsistencies between exit polls and actual votes in the 2004 national election. A vast majority of states were many, many percentage points off in this regard, and in every single case the inconsistency was in GWB's favor in terms of votes won versus polling data. It may not seem like such a big deal, but exit polls are so accurate (or have been historically) that they are used to monitor elections for foul play. In at least a couple of cases, foreign elections have been thrown out because the exit polls were so inconsistent with the result. There's no explanation of how this discrepancy could have occurred, basically none of the theories have held up. I'll be interested to see how the 2006 results stack up to the exit polls. As far as there being a higher rate of discrepancy in Democratic (or poor for that matter) areas, it's been widely documented, both anecdotally and statistically. Exit poll data only goes down to the state level in order to protect the anonymity of those polled. I'm reading a book called Was the 2004 Election Stolen? that might be of interest to some of you. It goes into great detail about exit polling and fraud. It's pretty fascinating if you like that sort of thing. Lots of data comparisons too. The US election system is broken. I hope that the new Congress can come up with some solutions.

I was talking last night with someone about doing some BC skiing next week. I expressed some trepidation due to all the weather we're having, and he said "there's virtually no avalanche damage this early in the season, due to there being so many terrain anchors in a low snowpack." Makes sense, but I had not heard that before. Can someone second that opinion? I'm still a total snowpack n00b. Thx.

Assuming we can overcome the ballot box stuffing and the Diebold Factor, I think chances are excellent that the Ds will get back both houses of Congress.

UT is alive and well at the Twisp Brewery. I saw him Friday night. He was a bit greyer in the beard, and my presence took a moment to gather speed in his memory bank, but he's there, and you should visit. He told me that his hound Fergus is alive and well, and that he climbs a lot because there is a lot of good climbing right nearby. Shame not to, or something to that effect. Rockararoke played at the Pub this weekend, and while me and my consort didn't partake in the musical extravaganza, it was great fun to be in Twisp last weekend. Another Methow hotspot to consider, this time for breakfast: Cool Beans Cafe. It's right on Hwy 20, just east of the pub.We drove around and out of the two taverns serving breakfast and Cool Beans, picked the Beans. It's nothing special from the outside, perhaps less so once you walk in, but damn the breakfasts were out of this world! I had the croissant sammich, which was laden with perfect eggs, sausage, and cheese. My consort had a basic eggs, hash browns and toast thing with a (doesn't cost extra) side of gravy. I only tried the gravy, but it was outstanding, and now, a few days later, we are still talking about how goddamned great the breakfast was. Go there, and tip lavishly.

Tvash, that turban really brings out the red in your eyes!

A big shout out is in order for MattP and the other WCC climbers who attended tonight's Ross Lake General Management Plan scoping meeting. I was there for other reasons more considered general recreation, and it was super cool to see climbers there representing their specific needs at the meeting. Scoping meetings provide a unique opportunity for voices to be heard, and it was great to see almost half of the people there talking about climbing issues. I've been to a few scoping meetings and have never seen climbers represented like tonight. Go WCC!

FW, I would venture to say that your remark about me, and commented on by mountainmatt, "lacks civility." Your hate for me really has no place in this discussion.

I'll be interested to see if more people get riled up about this versus going to the NCNP scoping meeting tomorrow. The scoping meeting may not amount to much of a hill of beans, but with potential for development in the Park, it could potentially mean a hell of a lot more than whether a manmade concrete climbing rock is saved or a freeway is expanded. No one seems to know much about what they are after in this scoping meeting, but the potential impact could be large if they are looking at developing the west shore of Ross Lake, for example.

It's always been a really stupid idea, but I guess I can say that it's worse than maybe I imagined. Another question I ask myself is has this invasion/occupation contributed to the current instability in the entire region? Things have really gone to shit in the neighborhood since the occupation began. When I say that right now I'm ashamed to be an American, some question my patriotism, but for us to do this to the Iraqi people for no particular reason, well, that's just inconscionable IMO.

Now that is great news. I'm sure I'm not the only one who objects to the mounties taking over the Icicle a weekend or two every spring, with 90 or more people in one drainage. Sometimes there are even multiple chapters of the club up there on the same weekend. I have spoken to people within the organization about this and gotten nowhere, so if you know the name of someone who actually cares about improving the reputation of the club, I'd love to hear it. Clubs are fine and all, but they don't own the canyon.

"I never thought I'd miss Nixon"

Ridaturd porta-potties

I heard a sound byte from Gary Hart today that summed things up pretty good. This is paraphrased because Google isn't giving me the verbatim: "Bush was either given bad information about WMDs in Iraq, or he gave Congress bad information about WMDs in Iraq. If the former is the case, the person that gave the president the bad information should be fired. If the latter was the case, and the President lied to Congress, then he should be fired."

Anyone planning to show up? I've been to scoping meetings before and it's the best place to put your ideas straight into the ears of the people who will write up the different alternatives laid out in the DEIS. I will be at the Seattle meeting tomorrow fo' sho'.

"You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror."— GWB Interview with CBS News, Washington D.C., Sept. 6, 2006

Viva viva viva viva viva Sea-Tac They've got the best computers and coffee and smack

John Ramuta moved to Montana. His parents still have their shop in Seattle for regular shoe stuff. They are really good at regular shoe repair. If anyone knows if they ship stuff to John from the Seattle store, that would also be good to know. 'Course dropping them off at the gym still looks like the easiest option to me.

Actually damn good fish and chips, and they still do. I think we're going out for cupcakes instead of pints, probably won't make this one, regrettably.

I'm pretty sure the "no pets" thing applies in all of the NPs.