Beethoven Symphony No. 3

Beethoven Symphony No. 3

How to cut and run - Los Angeles Times

Lt. Gen. WILLIAM E. ODOM (Ret.), senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a professor at Yale University.

How to cut and run: "THE UNITED STATES upset the regional balance in the Middle East when it invaded Iraq. Restoring it requires bold initiatives, but 'cutting and running' must precede them all. Only a complete withdrawal of all U.S. troops — within six months and with no preconditions — can break the paralysis that now enfeebles our diplomacy. And the greatest obstacles to cutting and running are the psychological inhibitions of our leaders and the public.

Our leaders do not act because their reputations are at stake. The public does not force them to act because it is blinded by the president's conjured set of illusions: that we are reducing terrorism by fighting in Iraq; creating democracy there; preventing the spread of nuclear weapons; making Israel more secure; not allowing our fallen soldiers to have died in vain; and others."

In Boulder, Runners Gather in Guarded Isolation - New York Times

In Boulder, Runners Gather in Guarded Isolation - New York Times

The Blog | Dave Johnson: A Hog Farm Next Door To Your House | The Huffington Post

Pay attention to this stealth attempt by the right wing!!! They are trying to disguise it. Don't be fooled!!

Dave Johnson: A Hog Farm Next Door To Your House: "There is a law on the ballot in four states that says if I want to open a hog farm or a chemical plant next door to your house and you don't want me to do that, then YOU have to PAY ME not to -- you have to pay me ALL THE MONEY I MIGHT HAVE MADE.
I am not kidding. This new law says that if you want to stop a corporation from dumping toxic waste into the river from which you get your drinking water, or stop them from venting dangerous chemicals into the air, then YOU have to PAY that company not to. I am NOT kidding!

The far right says that a government stopping a company from dumping waste into a river is 'taking' money from that company. I am not kidding. And you had better take this seriously or YOU will be PAYING companies to not harm you and your families."

Jonathan Schell | The Torture Election

The Nation's Jonathan Schell on The Torture Election: "The stakes, as President Bush likes to say-and on this point he is correct-could scarcely be higher. But they include one stake he never mentions: the future of constitutional government in the United States, which his presidency and his party have put in serious jeopardy. "

In Baghdad, a Force Under the Militias' Sway - washingtonpost.com

When pray tell will the Iraqis be capable of taking over the policing of their own country??

In Baghdad, a Force Under the Militias' Sway: "Seventy percent of the Iraqi police force has been infiltrated by militias, primarily the Mahdi Army, according to Shaw and other military police trainers. Police officers are too terrified to patrol enormous swaths of the capital. And while there are some good cops, many have been assassinated or are considering quitting the force.

'None of the Iraqi police are working to make their country better,' said Brig. Gen. Salah al-Ani, chief of police for the western half of Baghdad. 'They're working for the militias or to put money in their pocket.'"

And the Boston Globe has, Audit faults US training of Iraqis; Security woes hinder work in provinces

Daily Kos: White House Nods (Imperceptibly) at Stern Report

Daily Kos: White House Nods (Imperceptibly) at Stern Report:

"The devastating Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, released in Britain on Monday, should have gotten hour-long segments on television news and three-inch headlines in the U.S. No surprise that it didn't. If you took the time to drill down in what coverage there was here, you could see exactly what the Bush Regime is not doing."

GOAT - A High Country News Blog » Fossil-fuel filmfest exposes coalbed-methane wreckage

The sad and sorry legacy of the Bush Crime Family. It's going to take more than a generation to recover.

Into the Abyss of Baghdad - Los Angeles Times

Into the abyss of Baghdad: by Patrick J McDonnell

"BAGHDAD -- I keep seeing his face. He appears to be in his mid-20s, bespectacled, slightly bearded, and somehow his smile conveys a sense of prosperity to come. Perhaps he is set to marry, or enroll in graduate school, or launch a business — all of these flights of ambition seem possible.

In the next few images he is encased in plastic: His face is frozen in a ghoulish grimace. Blackened lesions blemish his neck.

'Drill holes,' says Col. Khaled Rasheed, an Iraqi commander who is showing me the set of photographs."

Der Spiegel Interviews Ron Suskind

One hundred suspected terrorists from all over the world are still being held in secret American prisons. In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, CIA expert Ron Suskind accuses Washington of "running like a headless chicken" in its war against al-Qaida. He reserves special criticism for the CIA's torture methods, which he argues are unproductive.

Interview with Terror Expert Ron Suskind: "The President Knows more than He Lets on" - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

Excerpt:

SPIEGEL ONLINE: With all your access to high-level sources, have you come across anyone who still thinks it is a good idea for the US to torture people?

Suskind: No. Most of the folks involved say that we made mistakes at the start. The president wants to keep all options open because he never wants his hands tied in any fashion, as he says, because he doesn't know what's ahead. But those involved in the interrogation protocol, I think are more or less in concert in saying that, in our panic in the early days, we made some mistakes.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Because they could have gotten information through normal interrogations ...

Suskind: ... yes, and without paying this terrific price, namely: America's moral standing. We poured plenteous gasoline on the fires of jihadist recruitment.

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The Incline

 The Incline rises from Manitou Springs' Ruxton Avenue on the slopes of Pikes Peak. At one time it carried tourists to a vista above Manitou Springs. Now its abandoned railroad ties provide the ultimate stairstepper. 

The New York Review of Books: A Country Ruled by Faith

Gary Wills details the extent of Bush's war on science and reason in A Country Ruled by Faith.

Michael Fox With Katie Couric

onegoodmove has the Katie Couric interview of Michael Fox.

Coal Bed Methane - Orion Magazine

Orion Magazine with a series of excellent articles on Coal Bed Methane gas development and what is means to communities in the West.

View from my home in Manitou Springs, CO this morning

 
  

The Raven

  

View from Eagle's Nest

 View to Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs from "Eagle's Nest", just above the Incline. 

The New Yorker: Alternative Realities

George Packer and "Alternative Realities" in this week's The New Yorker: The Talk of the Town: "When the National Security Council met to discuss Iraq earlier this month, in Washington, the sense of urgency was palpable. The director of national intelligence described the deterioration of security in Baghdad and Basra; the Iraqi Army was near collapse, he said, and another explosion of sectarian violence was imminent. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that the American commander in Iraq was asking for two new combat brigades immediately and fifty thousand additional troops in the coming months."

Iraq's Missing Billions - Google Video

Iraq's Missing Billions - Google Video

A sign of things to come in November

Video of computer programmer Clinton Curtis testimony concerning his being asked by Congressman Tom Feeney to develop a vote-rigging voting machine.

This is why Karl Rove is confident that the Republicans will hold the Senate and the House. The Repugs will cheat again.

Grim New Turn Likely to Harden Darfur Conflict - New York Times

Grim New Turn Likely to Harden Darfur Conflict - New York Times

An Inconvenience?

  

Military Blogs

The Sandbox

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Iraq War Timeline

Think Progress » A TIMELINE OF THE IRAQ WAR

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Triple Play in Colorado?

Daily Kos: C0-04, CO-05, CO-07: A Triple Play in Colorado

Chill Wind in Moscow - Anna Politkovskaya - New York Times

Chill Wind in Moscow - Anna Politkovskaya

"Mr. Putin first treated the event, which was given significant air time on even his state-controlled news, with a three-day silence, as other world leaders expressed condolences.

The Kremlin’s silence seemed to scream. When at last he spoke, having been prodded at a news conference in Germany, Russia’s president used the occasion to insult her. “The level of her influence on political life in Russia was utterly insignificant,” he said."

Keeping it ‘Green’ With Panels and More - New York Times

Keeping it ‘Green’ With Panels and More

Using Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) in Colorado.

Big Sur Trail Marathon, Oct 7th -- My 79th Lifetime Marathon

 
 
  

Footloose in Spain’s Capital of Style, Barcelona - New York Times

The Frugal Traveler arrives in Barcelona. We're going there in February and March to run the Barcelona Marathon!

Carmel by the Sea, Oct 6th -- less than 24 hours later

 
 
 
  

Cape Canaveral, Oct 5th

 
 
 
  

In Seattle two weekends ago...

 
 
 
  

The 14 Points of Fascism

George W Bush and the 14 points of fascism - Project for the OLD American Century