JosephH

I can see why you might think that, but I believe that's just the shadow from Jensen's. From what I can see the arena looks entirely present in that 1867 photo as well. And as much as it looks like the result of a blast, maybe it was the result of an earthquake and it's all buried under the high angle slope up to the arena (that's got to be made up of rocks from somewhere). Biddle himself made no specific mention of a blast or even the three tunnels in his "Beacon Rock on the Columbia"

The death toll from childhood diseases would be unthinkable without vaccines. You must be younger and your father and mother didn't recount the tales of how many friends and classmates died all the way through their schooling.

Only then you would die of cancer from the antibiotics.

Now if that doesn't sound like a willingness to rally around Boehner I don't know what does...

The "things" rationale they are currently coalescing and rallying around speaks strongly to the contrary.

Every sign is now to the contrary, the hard right are calling for a 'pure' candidate and not another "establishment" suckup sellout moderate they think Romney was. I think you way underestimate the depth of the philosophical tribal warfare just begun and going to be waged on through to one of the bloodiest republican primaries ever seen in 2016. We'll know soon enough how it's going to play out by watching how well Boehner corrals his caucus over the next year. Well, 'forever' is definitely going to be until the 2020 census and two years after that. Given the current redistricting, the way the counties map out and the current republican hold on governorships and state legislatures we will definitely have to agree to disagree on the point - that redistricting is the cement that locks the map in place. Exactly, and forty years of peddling hate in combination with racial redistricting means they can't change on a dime or likely even by 2016. They'll be lucky to do it by 2020.

I'm not saying it wasn't blasted; it has all the hallmarks and fractures of a blast. But I believe the 'conventional wisdom' was the tunnels were chiseled and the arena blown just prior to, and were the impetus for, the sale into private hands to preserve it. It's that story that goes out the window with the 1889 photo - the blast, if there was one, obviously happened prior to that. Just did a search on the date of the railroad itself and found this: So if the railroad wasn't in until 1908, then blowing the arena for rock doesn't seem like a very useful endeavor unless they were going to transport it on the river in some sort of early barge. It also seems to me like there would have been easier sources of rock closer to the city if that was how they were transporting it. They could have blown Rooster Rock and had a good supply in a place far easier to load the rock. I don't know - it's a mystery.

Look, the 2010 redistricting is on racial lines and as we just saw there's no way to appeal to those whites with an anti-immigration message during the republican primary and then turnaround and try to send any other message to latinos regardless of the level of "finesse". It's just not credible. Ditto with the south on gay marriage and including blacks. No way, Jose. And that's the problem with the redistricting - the House is now locked down on racial lines and so those necessarily divisive house races set the tone for the overall election. I mean, what do you suppose the 2016 republican primary is going to look like? Do you think the contrast between the 'moderate' right and the far right is going to be less than it was this year? Man, I don't think so. If anything, it's going to be way, way worse and a bloody mess. And the problem then is the same as it was this year - the gap between the primary messages and the general election messaging of the primary winner are just too much of a credibility gap. How do you propose they get over that?

Hmmm, the arena is clearly visible if you blow up that last 1889 pic QITNL just posted. I haven't seen that one before but it pretty much shoots down the idea the arena was blasted anytime after the turn of the century. Has anyone seen documentation of any kind which dates exactly when those tunnels were chiseled out?

The total bummer thing about the whole 'affair' is Panetta and Petraeus swapped jobs for a very specific reason: to make the CIA more operational and to better integrate those capabilities with the defense establishment both in D.C. and on the ground in conflict zones. They each brought experience from their respective cultures to the opposite side in order to ease the transition, breakdown the cultural barriers, and in Petraeus's case really try to spin up a more operationally-oriented agency which could do more in-country than fly drones. Losing Petraeus is a major blow to those efforts and it's hard to imagine another military leader capable of helming the agency with anywhere near the experience on the ground or force of authority as Petraeus.

They didn't come 'roaring back 2010'; their strategy of obstruction in the House simply paid off with some mid-term house gains, but ultimately cost them this election. And combined with racially redrawn congressional districts off the 2010 census they'll likely hold a progressively slimmer majority in congress until at least 2020. But make no mistake, if they stay their current course or move further to the right they will lose even their House majority at some point between 2018 and 2022. As it is, they will never see the inside of the Whiteyhouse or a senate majority again in their lifetime the way they're going. That means we'll likely hold the presidency and senate through at least 2024 which will hopefully deliver us a Supreme Court majority. With the 2010 House redistricting on racial lines and investing forty years in racism, homophobia, xenophobia and sexism in those districts it's hard to look at a county map of the nation and see how they are now going to get those rural constituents to suddenly embrace gays, blacks, and latinos (just forget women, that's now a done deal and won't be ressurected). And the south? They definitely aren't going to embrace gays and minorities, so if the republicans do try to head in that direction they'll be telling the south to just stay home on election day. Add to that no one believes cutting taxes the wealthy helps anyone but the rich so no matter how you look at it, they're pretty much fucked and going to now reap the rewards of sewing forty years of hate.

- Supreme Court appointees - War with Iran - Israeli / Palestinian talks - Environmental protection - Consumer protection - Healthcare - Wall Street oversight and regulation - Restoring reasonable taxation of the wealthy - Cuts in services to the most needy in society - Medicare turned into state general fund block grants - Assault on education - Trade war with China A whole lot of policy hung in the balance so I'd have to disagree.

Well, damned if that ain't one of those 'coming from you...' sorta deals. Do you have anything of substance to say about the topic or are you still too bitter about the results for glib and insightful commentary?

Sigh, just can't drown those fucking Puritans. He shouldn't have resigned.

And so it begins... Yep, gonna be a boat load of compromisin' going on - not. It's going to be a real Bambi vs. Godzilla before it's over. I'd personally be thinking more Wes Craven than Walt Disney if I were a republican. Man, can't wait for the 2016 republican primaries - gonna be a hoot and make the WWE look like a bunch of PeeWee Hermans.

Given the age demographics in Iran I think it's mostly a matter of keeping a lid on the place long enough for younger folks to prevail. Kids in Iran want the same things as every other kid: an iPhone, a Honda or Fiat, and a girlfriend.

Well, at least they didn't just hijack and fly it to an Iranian airbase like the last one.

No offense, but what is specific about Portland? In my experience experienced climbers are worldwide and small cams also work worldwide. Listen to advice here regardless of where they are from. Some of these guys do a lot of aid climbing so end up doing a lot of small placements.

Yeah, cams are shizzle for splitters, but if on normal mixed terrain you're always reaching for a cams before nuts you've definitely got it ass backwards.

Ho man, dude...

Oh, so you're for the Bambi scenario - ok, let's wait three months and see who the jerk is.

The latter: political cannibalism, factional tribal war, young eating the old, witch hunts, persecutions, inquisitions, radio lynch mobs, WMDs (Weapons of Media Destruction), internecine trench warfare, and in the end a party way more fractured and divided than the country as a whole. Expect their media apparatus to turn inward on itself and get downright ugly. That, or you believe they're all going to change their stripes, methods, and machine overnight in a family-friendly, Disney-kumbaya, compromise-hugging scenario. If the latter I have a bridge over I-5 to sell you.

pat has a second chair he can lend you if you want Dude, that chair has been empty for sixteen years.

That's right and integrity and sincerity with it - but then once again, I'm not the one who brought the subject up now am I.

Except none of that is going to happen. The republican strategy of the past forty years has been based on racism, homophobia, sexism, and xenophobia with a heavy dose of fiscal fantasy and war. And, if you look at the 2010 redistricting map on the county level, that strategy has been largely successful for them until Tuesday, but that strategy is now officially dead at the national level. And so they aren't going to turn things around on a dime. There is simply no credible way to swing from a forty year campaign of sewing hate, division, and lies to one of an honest and sincere interest in change and compromise as anything but a charade and that's what they just got called on - a political charade. And they got called on it precisely because the all-too-clear gap between the messaging of their primary that suddenly chameleon-morphed into the entirely different messaging of the final Romney push. - Forty years of racism and xenophobia won't allow them to sincerely and honestly embrace latinos. - Forty years of sexism and chauvinism won't allow them to embrace women (nor are women now going to forget what republicans really think). - Forty years of homophobia won't allow them to embrace gays or same sex marriage. - Forty years of lying about the benefits of cutting taxes for corporations and the rich won't allow them to support fair and honest levels of government revenue. Instead they're going to conduct an extended civil war, try to sell more insincere charades, and will far more likely move further right and less open to compromise and that's because their racially redrawn 2010 redistricting maps aren't going to let them do much of anything else at the state and local level. And yeah, that's the exact same problem the core Beacon crew has: trying to believably turn around a sixteen year campaign of fantasy, lies, and them vs. us shit-talking of the rangers and land managers to one of an honest and sincere working relationships overnight when they still actually don't believe a word of the noise they put out on their paper, blog, and facebook they hope the world wants to hear - in other words a charade no different then Romney just attempted. Maybe they'll have better luck than him, but they will not be any more sincere.