Monday, December 31, 2007

A Cry from Guantanamo

Why I oppose a fence on the Mexican border

Jaguar's habitat will be restricted: HCN: Bordering on Crazy!

Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project


Other wildlife will suffer: Audubon Magazine: Border Jumpers

Also, it won't work anyway. It will be billions more of money we don't have, wasted.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Hullabaloo:

But I try to remain optimistic about the future of the country, and though it's at times damn near impossible, people like Lt Cdr Andrew Williams make it easier. He was a JAG officer in the Naval Reserve who resigned his commission because the America he believes in doesn't torture.
Gary Snyder, former Beat poet, has an important new essay: Writers & the War against Nature

Friday, December 28, 2007

Truthout Video: Naomi Klein on the Shock Doctrine
DailyKos: An Inconvenient Timeline: Cheney Fights for Global Warming

The Incline, Manitou Springs, Colorado
Steps carved into the red rock, Red Rock Open Space, Colorado Springs
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Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Since it is obvious that the Bush Crime Family is using propaganda and lies and fear tactics to deceive us into wreckless wars we need to look to the past for more deceptions perpetrated on the American people in order to be on guard for future False Flag terrorist events.

Daniele Ganser, professor of contemporary history at Bale University (Switzerland) is interviewed on NATO's Hidden Terrorism.

Google Video: BBC documentary on Operation Gladio: Behind False Flag Terrorism and 9/11

Fela Kuti - Teacher Don't teach Me No Nonsense

Fela Kuti in performance (1971)

If you want to see a passionate African for justice check out the documentary "Fela Kuti: Music is the Weapon".

Happy Christmas (War Is Over)

Christmas w/ Mike Gravel

Friday, December 21, 2007

New Orleans under the Shock Doctrine

If you've read Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" you will know the script. If you haven't read it yet you need to so ASAP. She blogs on HuffPost about the current situation in New Orleans. Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! the War and Peace Report has been reporting all week on the destruction of public housing in New Orleans along with the protesters being tasered and pounded by police. This is our Orwellian world now. Thanks America for voting for Bush twice!! The dumbest fucking country in the world.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Bush Blog: Scooter Libby

Repost, but needs to be seen again. Classic.

Bishop's Castle

An hour and half south of Colorado Springs in an obscure corner of the Wet Mountains an eccentric by the name of Jim Bishop is hard at work building a castle.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Saturday, December 08, 2007


Longs Ranch Road is a long uphill slog on the slopes of Pikes Peak. Spaced about 12 minutes apart at my pace are three J-Pipes. Longs Ranch eventually tops out before dropping down to join the Barr Trail.
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Pikes Peak from upper Longs Ranch Road

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Shooting War, a graphic novel set in Iraq in the year 2011, has been chilling readers and making headlines about its vivid and surreal depiction of the war zone. Alternet reviews it here.

The Pacific Crest Trail

When I retire... PCT, AT, CDT

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Extraordinary Manitou

My home town Manitou Springs, Colorado on Springs Culture Cast

Our depraved justice system

The signs of fascism are evident and alarming. Without habeas corpus we have no rights. If you don't defend the despised among us they will come for you later. Wake up. They will come for you. The good Germans thought they were free. Until the Gestapo came knocking on their door because they were an intellectual or because they expressed their opinion.

Laila Al-Arian speaks out on "My Family's Nightmare" on her father, Sami Al-Arian's ordeal under the Bush regime's war against the Constitution. The documentary of her father's ordeal, "The U.S. vs. Al-Arian" has won three awards. It needs to be seen more widely. Germany went from a democracy to a totalitarian nightmare in a matter of months after Hitler garnered 31% of the vote. The Reichstag Fire came less than a month after Hitler was sworn in. The alarm was immediately sounded that Communist "terrorists" were amongst the German people and that all measures had to be undertaken to fight against the shadowy "terrorists". Rights were readily given up. Any country will have 25 - 30 % of the populace who are Right-Wing-Authoritarian Followers who espouse sloganeering like "My Country Right or Wrong" and other jingoistic nonsense. The danger comes when they take power. That is where we are now. We are on the brink of becoming a fascist state. Unless we speak out forcefully against injustice we are in dire danger of going down the slippery slope. IT CAN HAPPEN HERE.

Read the transcript of a discussion following a showing of the movie in Tampa Bay, Florida: The scene of the Show Trial.

An Excerpt (concerning the two of the ten jurors who refused to acquit on several counts):

"They wouldn't tell us why they said guilty," the juror said. "They came up with really bad reasons, but most of the time it was 'I don't have to tell you. I don't even need a reason. I can just say he's guilty because I think he's guilty, and that's all'."

Both Ron and another juror interviewed in the 100-minute documentary said that prosecutors tried to pressure them to convict my father by essentially telling them, "Use your common sense." Actual proof was an afterthought.

Monday, December 03, 2007

Annie Lennox sings on AIDS in South Africa.

Longevity -- Eat Less

One day after returning from his first visit to Iraq, Virginia Sen. Jim Webb called again for ``robust regional diplomacy” and suggested the impact of President Bush’s troop surge has been overstated.

The human face to our depraved policies: 'I will never leave Guantanamo'

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Run to the Horns on N. Cheyenne Mtn

Though I was supposed to be the "guide" for today's mystery run up to the Horns the weather gods had something else in mind. When I stepped out of my house at about 6:30 this morning my feet went out from under me on the slick ice and I went horizontal with a sudden screaming pain in my shoulder as it slammed into the stone stair. I proceeded intrepidly the rest of the way down to street level, but prudently decided not to attempt driving down the sheet of ice that had been Ruxton Avenue. I called John Courtney to say I was not going to make it, but he said he'd come pick me up because he had studded snow tires. I started walking down Ruxton staying to the side off the slick pavement where possible. When I got down to the Cog an employee told me that no one could make it up Ruxton and that he had walked. Sure enough as I got down near the Miramont Castle there was a line of about 20 cars idling -- unable to go up or to turn around. I met John at the Loop. Just down the road a City Bus had slid into a garbage truck on Canon Ave. We arrived at Old Stage Road at 10 till 8, saw John Genet's vehicle and started up the road.

About half a mile up Old Stage Road we climbed up an embankment and were on the Sunrise Trail. No sign of any new footprints though and I figured the rest of the party had just run up Old Stage Road.

We reached the old abandoned toll road in about 45 minutes and after several switchbacks were at the restaurant ruins in another 20 minutes or so. We had only been there about 10 minutes when Eric B. and Rich M. came around the corner. Rick H. And John G. were not far behind. They had quite a time mostly bushwacking up to the old toll road since they never found the trail. After poking around the restaurant ruins I took them up to my the house on the top of the mountain where I plan to move after I retire.

This web site has some more info and history. I couldn't find much more on the Internet on the history of the restaurant. Maybe Penrose Library or Tuft Library on the CC campus would have more.

Today's pictures are here.