Mal_Con

Speaking of which I've got $100 riding on Osama getting named before November. An extra $100 if he gets found within 3 weeks of the election! Even Leno is joking about it now

Was up at Dip Top Gap last weekend but could not go further due to weather. Peasoup is much larger than a few years ago and is pretty much melted out.

We were up on Fernow Sunday and saw a couple guys up there at the same time, they seemed to be doing fine.

Climb: Mt. Fernow-SW Route Date of Climb: 6/27/2004 Trip Report: Got a late start on Sat.leaving town about 1:30. Quite a few cars at the Phelps Creek Trailhead with a couple parties going up Maude. Made it to Leroy Creek in just over an hour. The creeks were quite high above the level of the stepping stones and Leroy was flowing down the trail in places. Crossed the Creek and headed up the trail reminds one of Mailbox Peak. There was one other party in Upper Leroy Basin and a few small patches of snow El. 6125'. Started up at 6 with the top of Maude and 7 finjack in clouds. Ran into a couple guys doing the North Face of Maude. We hotfooted it up to the pass above a small lake not shown on the map then the pass between Jack and Fernow. There was a steep snow finger that dropped to the Glacier below. We thought this could not be the route which was supposed to be only Class 3. We explored the area without finding anything until we returned to the finger and put on crampons. Traversed the finger which was about 60 degree snow to where you could step out on rock then descended snowfields to a chossy cliff. Found a way through the cliff to the unnamed glacier which had a few small crevasses. Descended the glacier to the moraine below then up a snow covered stream to a basin above. Looking back we saw tracks going up a rise to another pass further west (the real route). Our snow chute ended in a cliff. Took the valley to the right instead of the gully above which had a couple waterfalls going down it, bad choice. Went up steep snow then about 100' of 3+ to 4 rock to a ledge that led to the upper basin from which the summit is a cake walk. Unfortunately, we were 30 min. past our turn around time with work in the morning so we reluctantly missed the summit. From the bottom it was obvious we had missed the rout as there were tracks going up much less steep snow to another pass. We proceed up this and in less than 30 min. were looking down at the lake. A quick scramble up choss led to a small gendarme on the ridge with a scramble trail going up to it. we proceeded to glissade back to camp and picked up the IPA's we left in Carne Creek. Gear Notes: Axe Crampons no rope needed

Most small canisters do not have a flush valve which makes the dangerous to refill, ask the King of the Hill.

It is not a horrible death but, rather a horrible parody of life that proceeds relief. Alzheimer victims are usually quite happy. For families of Alzheimer victims death is not a tragedy but rather a gift. He long ago ceased being capable of good or evil and merely became the empty shell of what once was.

Reagan was not an idiot. He was just a face man i.e. tool, for corporate interests. He never came up with an original idea. He made great speeches on reducing deficits, never paying ransom, and promoting freedom. At the same time he was running the highest deficits until Schrub, trading missiles for hostages, and supporting Saddam. It was all smoke and mirrors, now they are going to try and make him a right wing saint.

M biking in Oregon between storms

It was snowing hard on top of Mailbox last night.

Yes, he has at least one conviction for DUI

To impress me he would have to make it up Mailbox under 90 min. carrying Michael Moore piggyback.

When I was a kid we used to ride our bikes out there and steal blasting wire, sometimes we even found a live cap. The rock is basalt and pretty fractured from the years of blasting. I do not think it is very promising, but who knows?

A few years ago we sold MSFT and bough Imperial Oil it has done very well.

I had summited at least 3 times. Once we packed up downhill skis to the top and marked the crevasses with wands. A great glissade track went from the top of dogshead to the parking lot. Also skied up after the blast but before it opened

Routes and Rocks in the Mt Challenger Quad. Becky 194x. and 1961 Starrs Guide to the Sierra Nevada 1st edition Climbers Guide to the U of W campus

I checked google, NBC, MSNBC, and a number of conservative web sites and could find nothing about this. There are many stories on Disney and Miramax but nothing on this. I know the flight was after 9-11 but at a time when private flights were still banned. I thought Powell had admitted all this. Seeing as Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 has still not been released I doubt it would have this transparent a lie. Perhaps you are talking about a "review" in the WSJ onwhich case Morre has already published his thoughts here http://www.michaelmoore.com/ I guess we will have to wait for the film to come out to determine if it is accurate, anyhow I have to go hit the hills now

I have not seen anything definitive to prove Moore wrong and I have read many articles confirming his story. Example, here is a article from snopes apologies to him. http://www.snopes.com/rumors/flight.htm

Of course you are right but, I cannot remember a president who was only in the State dept, NSC, CIA or NSA. Bush I was only elected because he was VP not because he was the director of the CIA right? Most of those positions are political awards for contributors rather than the result of actual qualifications. The really knowledgeable people are the station chiefs and civil service staff rather than the nominal head or ambassador. BTW I agree that legislators more vulnerable to a chare of waffling than a governor as such charges are easy to make and complicated to rebut as they may be based on procedural votes or amendments.

One advantage a legislator particularly a Senator is that this is the only way a candidate can have substantial foreign policy experience. HST, JFK I, and LBJ were all Senators. The waffler argument is ridiculous on its face as it can be made about anyone including the present occupant of the oval orifice.

We rented a Mercedes A type diesel in France last year and got near 60mpg. It would be a great commuter and costs about 14k. they do not sell them here though. Probably because they would not sell any Chryslers here. They also have ultra filtered diesel there.

see http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/bushdui1.html

What we are seeing is inevitable. It has happened in all wars from the time of Joshua and Homer. Atrocities always occur civilians are killed and maimed. There has never been a civilizing war. What is different is this was a war of choice. Our leaders are either hopelessly romantic idealists of truly cynical bastards who have so much disdtain for the American public they think they can get away with anything. Nothing will come of it but more death and destruction. Same as it ever was.

How about the fairness of a court martial when the commander and chief of the judges has already declared the defendants guilty?

These are the counts in the Nurhnberg Trials Count One: Conspiracy to Wage Aggressive War The "common plan or conspiracy" charge was designed to get around the problem of how to deal with crimes committed before the war. The defendants charged under Count One were accused of agreeing to commit crimes. Certainly a case could be made that Bush and Blair agreed to invade Iraq who had not attacked them. The main question was if they knew the WMD and terrorism charges were false. Count Two: Waging Aggressive War, or "Crimes Against Peace" This evidence was presented by the British prosecutors and was defined in the indictment as "the planning, preparation, initiation, and waging of wars of aggression, which were also wars in violation of international treaties, agreements, and assurances." This charge created problems for the prosecutors. Although Hitler had clearly waged an aggressive war, beginning with the invasion of Poland in 1939, Count Two was based on allegations that the Germans had violated international agreements such as the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928. Signatories to that agreement had renounced war as an instrument of national policy (as opposed, say, to defensive war), but the pact did not define "aggressive war" and did not spell out the penalties for its violation. Here there seems little doubt that the war was in violation of several international treaties notably the UN charter which prohibits unprovoked attacks. The argument that Iraq was in violation of UN esolutions would not be persuasive because individual states do not have the right to unilaterallly enforce such resolutions. Count Three: War Crimes The Russian and French prosecutors presented evidence on atrocities committed in the East and West, respectively. Count Three was intended to deal with acts that violated traditional concepts of the law of war -- e.g. the use of slave labor; bombing civilian populations; the Reprisal Order (signed by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, a defendant, this order required that 50 Soviet soldiers be shot for every German killed by partisans); the Commando Order (issued by Keitel, it ordered that downed Allied airmen be shot rather than taken captive). War crimes were defined under the London Charter (the document drafted by the Allies before the trial began) as "murder, ill treatment or deportation to slave labor or for any other purpose of civilian population or in occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners-of-war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages or devastation not justified by military necessity." This is probably the clearest violation present in the Iraq war. There has been clear mistreatment of prisioners and civilians. Count Four: Crimes Against Humanity The Russians and the French again divided responsibility along East-West lines. Count Four was applied to defendants responsible for the death camps, concentration camps and killing rampages in the East. Here I would say not guilty. The crimes do not rise to this level.