tvashtarkatena

YOu are wrong. Under the legal principle of specificity, procedures for obtaining wiretaps for international communications fall under the Foriegn Intelligence Surveillance Act FISA (the more specific law), not under the Congressional Authorization to 'all means necessary' of 2001, as the administration argued. FISA requires warrants to be obtained; something the administration did not do (among other things) in its secret spying program. The ACLU won a lawsuit against the NSA in 2006, which resulted in a Detroit district court judge ruling that the program is illegal under FISA as well as the 1st and 4th amendments. There has been no Supreme Court review or ruling on the case, nor has there been an appeal of the ruling on the part of the administration. Congress did make some minor amendments to FISA last year to streamline the process of obtaining warrants and extending the time limit for obtaining those warrants to 7 days, but the administration finally agreed to operate under FISA guidelines after they lost the above suit. When speaking of Extraordinary Rendition, he's not referring to Abhu Graib, which was (from a paperwork standpoint, at least) handled by normalizing the Army Field Manual with Geneva Convention prohibitions on torture. That applies only to our uniformed military. He's referring to an ongoing program kidnapping, secret prisons, and torture (much of which occurs in third party countries under our supervision) by the CIA and it's contractors. After testimony by victims of this program, the administration finally admitted to it's existence last year. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 still allows the president to enterpret the definition of torture as outlined by Article 1, Section 9 of the Geneva Conventions. It also provides immunity, retroactive to 1998, for those who may face charges for torturing at any point in the future. We now know quite a bit about this program because of those victims of mistaken identity who've been released from this program and gone public with their stories. This program violates our extradition treaties, international law, the laws of the countries where kidnapping occurs, and several previous U.S. statutes banning torture, not to mention our constitutional principles of due process. Appropriately, it has become yet another lightning rod for an administration whose actions have repeatedly stained our national honor and destroyed any credibility we once had in improving human rights around the globe. You appear know as little about the law as you do history. The crimes of previous administrations in no way justify the crimes of the present one. And actually, members of this administration could easily be tried as war criminals considering how aggregiously they've violated international human rights law. They will not, of course, because we've got bigger guns.

Do I still inhabit the same planet I thought for sure I was born on?

And more accurately, thanks to them (along with other allies, but primarily the Russians, who bore and inflicted 80% of the casualties of that war), Western Europe regained its freedom. Our freedom was never seriously threatened.

Updated Fred Beckey: Emerges from the open woods along the Lake Louise tourist trail on the heels of some very worried looking Chinese after a 2 1/2 hour dissappearance to declare in a proud but slightly bemused tone "That was a 5.9 shit if there ever was one. Probably a first ascent."

Baker NR is on my list for July. PM with possible dates if interested. Your broken footed partner taught me how to ice climb, so if my technique sucks, blame him. Complete NR Stuart also a possibility after June.

If I died tomorrow, some poor sumbeeotch would have to claim my body.

SF bans feeding of wild parakeets Clearly, a city government that has gone mad with power. Will there soon be no freedom left in San Fran?

There's only one problem with Wenatchee and Cle Elum... ...they suck ass culturally. Forks. Electric City. Umatilla.

More manly men doing more manly things than any other movie ever made: The Great Escape

Arguing the legal minutae of this administration's constitutional actions is a lost cause. Elimination of habeus corpus for unlawful enemy combatants, presidential interpretation of the definition of torture, prosecutorial immunity for torturers retroactive to 1998, admissability of evidence gained through torture, even if gained in third party countries (Military Commissions Act 2006), new definition of Domestic Terrorism that can easily be applied to political enemies (USA PATRIOT act 2001), illegal wiretapping of international communications, Extraordinatry Rendition...it's all beside the point. This argument is really about whether you want to keep or give up your way of life. If we want to hold on to our damn fine way of life as the oil runs out, and we all know it's running out, America is going to have to keep kicking ass. That means torture. That means killing. Lots and lots of killing. Fortunately, that is something we've invested a shitpot of money learning how to do really well. We've certainly got the hardware. It's our software that's, well, too soft. Those of us who'd prefer not to ride our Chinese bicycles to Washington Pass every weekend will probably agree that we'd better off dumping the cumbersome Constitution altogether and just going along with strong leaders who've got the will to get the job done. This idea of moral leadership will sink us down to everyone else's third world level. It's a jungle of limited resources out there. We either eat from the scrap pile, like the rest of the world, or eat those who must. If we want to be the latter, why allow a two century old piece of parchment, penned in a bygone era of low population, isolationism and plenty, stand in our way?

Don't think that is me. I probably should be concerned about them, would be more if I thought they were. Should left them in afgan, they would been taken care of. It's kind of hard to say how many of them are innocent, considering the fact that fewer than 10 out of the 380 left in Guantanamo have ever been charged with a crime. Plus, there's the fact that the U.S. has released over 50% of those detained in Guantanamo after years of incarceration and abuse because they were deemed to be innocent of any wrongdoing. Not a great batting average. alot of those went straight to Saudi prison system. I'm sure Cuba was vacation compared to Saudi. Wrong again, as usual: Released detainees often released after repatriation

Don't think that is me. I probably should be concerned about them, would be more if I thought they were. Should left them in afgan, they would been taken care of. It's kind of hard to say how many of them are innocent, considering the fact that fewer than 10 out of the 380 left in Guantanamo have ever been charged with a crime. Plus, there's the fact that the U.S. has released over 50% of those detained in Guantanamo after years of incarceration and abuse because they were deemed to be innocent of any wrongdoing. Not a great batting average.

Tvash is a member of Interpol!123r76?? Fuck me runnin'! I take back a lot of the shit I've thrown at him and... ...I'm lookin' for a place to hide. There is no place to hide when I carpet bomb you with dropped gear. Anybody find my stoppers yet?

The entire city of Seattle called you a baby killer at your buddy's funeral? Wow. You might consider relocating.

Strangely, we 'accidentally' skied towards the upper notch, then discovered our 'error' and, after discussing our options, decided to backtrack, then ascend to the lower notch. The lower notch is reached by ascending the upper glacier's westernmost lobe (separated from the larger east lobe by a rock ridge with a large wind scoop at its base). I would recommend avoiding the lower notch this time of year (a month ago when the schrunds were buried probably would have been OK, the rock climbing is straightforward). A 60 m rope would be necessary to rap the top 2 schrunds from the notch, but you'd still need to rap a second time to get over the 3rd (lowest) schrund, which was already nearly open from end to end when we were there. Alternatively, one could just point the skis straight down hill and make three well-timed jumps. Having said that, negotiating the lower notch was the most 'interesting' part of the trip.

kidnap and torture innocent people, no less. 'merica! Fuck yeah!

Plan on 2 hours (max) to the base. There is a ford and a snow ramp to negotiate. You can't drive to the logging deck due to downed trees. Now if you're handy with a chain saw and a come along....

Those Fireys. Energetic. The McAllister icefall is spectacular, BTW. It would be great to see it doing its thing up close and personal...but not too personal.

The 'Death Hole' bypass this time of year would involve running along a cornice festooned ridge and negotiating some steep rocky steps that we were loath to deal with in ski gear. According to Topo, at least, the elevation gain/loss of the high verses the low route is roughly the same, but the low route is much more straightforward this time of year. I could see how the tables would turn in the summer months when the brush reveals itself in all its terrible glory, making the high route more recommended.

Strange vocation for a guy named Hole Singer.

We followed the Skoog/Brill et al route. The 'Death Hole' is the headwaters of a creek just South of Isolation Peak that feeds into the McAllister. You drop in and climb back out before passing through a col to the 'Backbone Glacier' (A term I just made up to describe the large unnamed glacier on the Marble Creek side of Backbone Ridge). Traversing the McAllister side of Backbone Ridge would be interesting, to say the least. It's quite broken up, subject to cornice triggered slides, and divided up by several steep rock ridges. A project for a less lazy team, to be sure.

I dont have a tv....who are these people? Jimmy Carter debuting his new John Denver hairpiece. His date's got a hell of a set of blow job lips, but her Down's Syndrome hairdo fails miserably.

C'mon, show some class. Class? Like using a child's death for a political campaign of personal destruction, engaging in a seditious game of anti-Americanism, meeting with despicable dictators who are actively trying to undermine us? That kind of class? Well, at least she's actively doing something for her cause, which is more than can be said for certain armchair chickenhawks on this forum. BTW, when does your basic training start, KKK?

Trip: Isolation Traverse (Colonial to Eldorado) Date: 5/29/2007 Trip Report: Isolation Traverse Forecasted high pressure forced me to pressure Don Brooks into forgoing work to join me for a high traverse from Colonial to Eldorado this past week. Unfortunately, and I’ll be up front about this, El Senior Bozo here left the camera on the kitchen table. I did capture this one image after the trip’s conclusion, which tells a bit of the story: First completed on foot by Joe and Joan Firey, then on skis by Gary Brill, Lowell Skoog, Mark Hutson, and Brian Sullivan, this strenuous but fantastically scenic trip takes you through the glaciated heart of the North Cascades. We completed the route in 3 long days (2 nights out), with an unplanned 3rd night out at the endpoint trailhead. We decided to go North to South in the hopes of catching a ride from the Eldorado trailhead at the end of the 3rd day. This would avoid an expensive and time consuming car shuttle. This worked out in the end, but not exactly as planned. The North to South plan, although more strenous than the opposite direction, turned out to be for the best due to conditions at the route's crux: the Backbone/McAllister col. After ski jousting our way up the pleasant Pyramid trail (TH: Hwy 20), we burst into the brilliant Valhalla of the Colonial Glacier, then onto the Neve Glacier across disappointingly mushy snow to bivvy near the base of Snowfield Peak. The following morning, Don took advantage of two skiers' steps (thanks, guys) to climb Snowfield’s NW face, while I (having done Snowfield) remained behind to melt water and bask in my own laziness. From there, we traversed the ridge to Isolation Peak, passing under some large cornices and kicking down not a few surface slides. We got very good at clearing slopes in this manner prior to descending them. Rounding Isolation Peak clockwise required a little ski-off trudging before the steep descent to its northern ridge. Our best human triggered sluffs were here, I think. From here we skied up and over an easy col, booting down to a deep cirque filled with avi debris from all sides we dubbed the Death Hole. There is actually a good bivvy spot on a safe knoll at the mouth of the Hole with spectacular views of the disintegrating McAllister Creek Glacier. Such a bivvy would enable a party to do what we could not: climb the Death Couloir while still frozen. The Death Couloir enjoys regular housecleaning services from a ridge coiffed with impressive cornices, half of which were still intact during our passing. No worries, it was only about 70 degrees that day. The debris tends to funnel in a narrow runnel, so we climbed on its far skier’s left in relative safety, quickly scampering across the luge track near it’s top. After topping out we followed bear tracks (we figured he knew where he was going) to the col leading to the Backbone Glacier. The slopes down to this Glacier will probably break up soon, required some scrambling or rapping. After a long, mushy, sluffy traverse, we bivvied at a col on Backbone Ridge about a mile and a half from the Backbone/McAllister col. Our climbing skins were shot at this point, so we began to treat or duct tape with the reverence such a precious resource in such circumstances commands. At one point, our roll of tape tried to escape by, well, rolling down the glacier. I had to make a diving tackle on one ski to prevent it from winding up in Newhalem. The following morning, our last canister of fuel decided it had had enough and spewed it’s contents into the clear mountain air as I unscrewed the stove burner. At least it was considerate enough to wait until after breakfast. With most of the unknowns out of the way, we figured that we were home free at that point as we ascended (ski crampons came in very handy here) to the Backbone/McAllister Glacier col. Well, OK, the wrong col, but after not much backtracking we put ourselves on the straight path. We tried climbing on snow around the half a pitch of rock required to gain passage, but no go. I climbed halfway some 4th class to a small ledge before deciding that I’d have more fun without my skis trying to knock my ass off the mounting. Don, right behind me, suggested that I put a chock in to hang my pack from. "Do you have any chocks?" He said "Sure", as he handed me a prusik. I wedged the knot in a crack, clipped the pack to it, and finished the airy but straightforward pitch. From the top I hauled the packs up. Not one, but three bergschrund’s divided the steep, unstable slope on the other side. We salvaged a black runner, re-slung it around a nice, solid horn, and dropped our 30 m rope. It cleared the first schrund by 2 feet. I asked Don to find me a long, flat rock. "Like this?" He said, as he picked up the perfect 16 x 8” specimen. I rapped down, knocking half the slope down beneath me, rock in my free hand. Once at the first schrund’s lower lip I stomped a deep trench, and dead manned the rock with a ridiculously long sling, which I tested by jumping on it while on rappel. After Don was down, I rapped off the rock into the next schrund; ten feet of vertical followed by ten feet of free hanging, followed by a swing over to the lower lip. Thanks to our ridiculously long sling, our rope barely made it. From there Don boot axe belayed me around the third schrund (the first two spanned the entire slope), which I managed to punch through with one leg anyway. With this col so well guarded, doing this traverse from South to North would be problematic. There might be work arounds, but none of them looked very enticing. After that we traversed a steep slope strewn with fresh debris under a long ridge of enormously overhung and undercut cornices, feeling a bit like hunted rabbits, before gaining mellower terrain to the gentle McAllister/Inspiration col. We had both previously bivvied in this spectacular place, beneath the knife fins of the Tepeh towers. Finally, we could rip our traitorous, surrender monkey skins off of our skis for good. Our ski bases looked like they’d been victims of a grease fire. They had all the glide of uphill facing porcupines. Still, it was a pleasure to finally be on the downhill, and on great corn snow, to boot. Why just the Inspiration? Passing above a party of Alpine Ascents students, under a lone skier on the summit of Eldorado, and past one of the Alpine Ascents student’s dropped sleeping pad, we skied to the top of the upper Eldorado Creek boulder field. On the way, we stopped to inspect the Lone Skier's camp and found a half a bottle of red wine resting innocently in the snow. This is where an Irishman’s morals do battle with his cravings, but we left Lone Skier to his luxuries and continued down. The Cascade River was raging. We crossed by via wading/logjam just west of the parking lot, then realized, Wow, the road is gated right here. This concept hadn’t really registered in our hitchhiking plans. There were two Alpine Ascents vans and one Lone Skier’s car in the parking lot. We heated water over a small fire, split up our remaining food (cookies, Werner’s candies, and Cliff Bars), and bedded down. At 7:00 am, I was awakened by the sound of gravel crunching. A blue Toyota circled the parking lot, stopping momentarily as I sat up. I waved. He waved back…then drove off. I bolted up and waved both arms. Break lights. OH YEAH. I didn’t want to wake you guys up Jerry, the driver, told us as we loaded up our gear. Jerry had just gotten off his shift as a commercial painter in Seattle, and was enjoying a couple of beers and a scenic drive before heading to his six acre homestead in Marblemount. Don offered him gas money to take us to our car on highway 20. "Sure, no problem, let me just check in with the wife." Jerry had been a crab fishermen for 17 years, three of them in Russia, before ‘settling down’. A wirey, 2 pack a day smoker, he still ran up and down the North Cascades and knew the backcountry quite well. On the drive, the talk turned to fishing. "Sometimes I like to impress my camp mates by caveman fishing," he told us. "You gather up some flies at the muddy edge of the lake, rip a wing off each one, wade out into the lake so that your shadow points towards the shore, and toss them onto the water, with your club ready on your shoulder." You never know what tidbit of knowledge you’ll pick up on one of these trips. Photos and a topo of this traverse can be found on Lowell Skoog’s website: Topo Alpenglow.org: Isolation Traverse Gear Notes: 1 30 m 8mm rope (this short length requires rapping off of a deadman at the Backbone/McCallister col), 6 m webbing, prusiks, toy axes, ski crampons (recommended), aluminum crampons (used only when climbing Snowfield). Approach Notes: Tennies might be nice for the hike up and down. The Cascade River must be partially waded about 100 yards west of the parking lot.

I always behave. Poorly.