Jane Smiley: The End is Nigh

Gore Vidal's questions from the year 2002 still require answers.

Wes Clark has a highly intelligent assessment on whether: Is War with Iran Inevitable?

Anarchist News

Barcelona in 60 seconds

Bush Backed Shiite group receiving weapons from Iran. How is that for a confusing factor?

Longest time for a jailed journalist: Josh Wolf: Why? Democracy Now! asks why?


Walter Pincus reveals Ari as leak source.

Escalation - A Film by Ward Kimball

Short film from another war, another escalation (Viet Nam 1968)

The best of The Asian Times' Pepe Escobar on Iraq and Iran follies.

WaPost: Between the lines of the Iraq Intelligence Estimate

Lt Gen (ret) William Odom: Victory is not an option.

Daily Kos: I think that we are now ready to impeach Dick Cheney

Daily Kos: I think that we are now ready to impeach Dick Cheney:

CRUD Run

This morning's run above Williams Canyon. Cameron's Cone in backdrop.

TWO OHIO ELECTION OFFICIALS CONVICTED FOR RIGGING 2004 PRESIDENTIAL RECOUNT!

Will be Questioned by Special Prosecutor Before Sentencing to Learn if Higher Ups Involved

Anthony Weiner Rips the Republic Party

Rumsfeld/Bolton 2008: Republican Dream Ticket

Blogs you should be reading

50 Things Everyone should know

TomDispatch: Over the Cliff with George and Dick

NPR: "Miss Sunshine" Directors recommend serious DVDs

TomDispatch warns of impending war with Iran

American Torture website

Refreshing Candidate: Mike Gravel's Campaign for the 2008 Presidency

I just signed up for the Bighorn Trail 100-mile race on June 15th.

Other races on the schedule so far for 2007:

Barcelona Marathon, March 4th

Big Sur Marathon, April 29th

Barr Trail Race, July 15th

Grand Island Trail Marathon, Michigan UP, July 28th

Pikes Peak Double (Marathon and ascent), August 18 and 19

Colorado Relay, Sept 21 - 22

More Clues to what is coming if we are not vigilant

From the Wonderful Folks Who Brought You Iraq By Craig Unger
Vanity Fair March 2007 Issue

The same neocon ideologues behind the Iraq war have been using the same tactics-alliances with shady exiles, dubious intelligence on WMD-to push for the bombing of Iran. As President Bush ups the pressure on Tehran, is he planning to double his Middle East bet?


The Pentagon's not-so-little secret By Sidney Blumenthal

As the president and Republicans continue to hype the surge -- and stifle debate about it -- Bush's own war planners are preparing for failure in Iraq.

And, another marveously insightful look into the twisted psyche of "The Decider":

Why Bush's Inner "Reality" Has Poisoned His Own Troop Plan
By John P. Briggs, M.D., and JP Briggs II, Ph.D.

Video: Peace Protest, Washington D.C.

Ersatz Apocalypto: Slaughter and Spin in the Battle for Najaf

Can Washington get smart on science?

Cheney's Fund Manager attacks... Cheney

PROBE THIS: Sen Bob Graham said two 9/11 hijackers had direct ties to Saudi intelligence

Joe Scarborough is getting angry with Bushevism.

Huff Post: Artifact from the Future: GoreBama

Very Weird story: Space shuttle astronaut arrested at OIA on attempted kidnapping, battery charges.

Visuwords™ online graphical dictionary — Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate.

National Intelligence Estimate: WaPost: U.S. Has little control in Iraq anymore

Update on U.S. Attorney firings: Set for Congressional Showdown. Good. The Bush Crime Family no longer has a rubberstamp politburo for a Congress.

Must Read: John Pilger: Iran, A War is Coming

Frank Rich: Timeline of Deceptions. He has an excellent post in today's Times, available on Times Select if you have it. Update: Truthout has the complete article with links.

Booman Tribune: Traitorgate: Dick Cheney was briefed by CIA on Niger

Worse than Satan !

What is your favorite building?

Is the prez going to get his self-fulfilling prophecy and secret wish? That the terrorists bring the war to the U.S.?

NYT: Iraq’s Shadow Widens Sunni-Shiite Split in U.S.

Keith Olbermann: Bush Shoots for "Jaws", Delivers "Jaws 2"

Juan Cole has analyzed the salient details of the 4 abducted US soldiers and concludes that it could not have been Iran behind it.

Tomgram: Chalmers Johnson, Nemesis on the Imperial Premises

Blame Iran Campaign stumbles on reality.

John Genet stopped by my house this morning after running the Incline to recommend this thoughtful piece by Nick Bromell: Scooter Libby and Me. Subtext: A longtime friend of Scooter Libby's shares the questions he wants to ask of his old touch football buddy, and as the trial begins, wonders whether to hope for Scooter's acquittal or conviction.

It goes a long ways towards elucidating the difference between the fundamentalist mindset that has had a stranglehold on America public policy throughout these long and dark six years and the tolerant, openminded perspective that represents liberalism.

What we are

Zbigniew Brzezinski will offer this to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It is so refreshing to have a Congress that is actively seeking answers and solutions to our debacle instead of rubberstamping delusional quasi-dictator/deciders.

Spencer Ackerman on Admiral Bill Fallon: Not very admirable

Francis Fukuyama has this in yesterday's Guardian.

Canada Worried by Plunging Caribou Population

Cheney's Handwritten Notes Implicate Bush in Plame Affair

I heard Amy Goodman talking about this tonight on Democracy Now!

FBI Turns to broad new wiretap method. and is mining Internet data from private citizens -- tracking web sites visited, etc. Hmmm.... I trust the government.

Crooks and Liars

Crooks and Liars is on a roll: Keith Olbermann fact checks the prez

Question Mark and the Mysterians flashback

Imus slams O'Reilly

More links

Paul Wolfowitz should be able to afford socks!??

Build your own foldable kayak

The Nation: Blowback in Lebanon

Neat Fuel Economy Web Site to gauge cars fuel economy

I was afraid to follow through on this web site offering 1,000 channels of satellite TV on your PC. Let me know if you try it and it's legit. My sh&* detector and Spidey Sense was on overdrive.

Southwestern Archaeology from Durango, Colorado to Durango, Mexico...

Barbara Boxer opens Global Warming Hearings

Barbara Boxer asked for our inputs for ideas on fighting global warming today. She heard from 25 senators who spoke out on their views on Global Warming. Here is her opening statement.

DKosopedia: Energize America web links

Energy Bulletin: Current news on Peak Oil and Global Warming

Congressman Henry Waxman is trying to get the Bush Administration to give up documents showing that they have been trying to obfuscate and change climate scientists writings on global warming for political reasons.

Bush Creates Political Commissars for the Government

Eyewitness accounts of early American Exploration and Settlement: American Journeys

Pastor Ted Update

Truth

Norm Coleman senator (MN) injured dumpster diving? What was he looking for? WMD's?

72 Virgins

New Yorker: Steve Martin: 72 Virgins

DailyKos: Six Months on Right Wing Blogs

Newsweek: The Man Without Doubt In a rare print interview, Dick Cheney talks about Iraq, Iran, Chuck Hagel, his image as 'Darth Vader' and Bob Woodward.

David Bell, author of "The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It", wrote an important op-ed piece in today's LA Times: Was 9-11 really that bad?

In the editorial he points out that we lose roughly the same number of people every two months as we've lost in the 9-11 attacks as well as soldiers fighting the war.

Here is a review of his "The First Total War" from The Nation, Feb 5th issue: Savage Wars of Peace.

Midland Railroad Grade

Nice photo essay of a seldom-hiked trail along the old Midland Railroad Grade near Manitou Springs, Colorado. I've never done it, but am looking forward to doing it real soon!!

Unhappy Meals

Michael Pollen, author of The Omnivour's Dilemma has a 12-page piece in today's NYT Sunday Magazine. The Reader's Digest version: Eat a plant-based diet and eat less if you want to live a long and healthy life.

Ute, Waldo, Longs Ranch, Barr Trail Run

Ed Baxter and Pikes Peak where we would finish our run climbing high on the lower slopes of the peak. This photo is from the Waldo Canyon trail a little less than mid-way through our 4+ hour run today.

Earthship, Crystal Park

Earthship located high up in Crystal Park, off Lost Cabin Road, Manitou Springs, Colorado. Very cool off-grid abode.

Crystal Park Road, Manitou Sorings

Paul, Harry and I ran up Crystal Park Road this morning. This is the first big switchback where the old Packer towncars used to get swiveled around for the switchback.

Bush: "I'm trainable"

Watch the Video CBS Won't put on TV

Woman saves Hubby from Mountain Lion (San Francisco)

Rare sight of ancient shark

Raw Story: The buildup to Iran timeline

Arianna Huffington blogs from Davos where "We get to hear the Iraqis discuss Iraq (For a Change)"

Links for Thursday

NYT: Strict Vegan Ethics, Frosted With Hedonism

Update on Pastor Ted

Doomsday Clock

Escalation of US Iran military planning part of six-year Administration push

Carl Berstein: Bush Administration has done far greater damage than Nixon

Davos: Shift of Power

Drawer Geeks: Fantastic Four, The Hulk.

Our own Senator Wayne Allard tries to end the Federal Minimum Wage.

The Pig Farmer: by John Robbins

Wes Clark takes Sean Hannity to school.

Healthy at 100

I just finished "Healthy at 100" by John Robbins. Read it. Nuff said. Plant-based diet and exercise is the key to long life. Here is the web site.

Hillary's Blog

Hillary Clinton has a blog. I posted the following on her blog:

I think this is great -- your asking for input on your blog and asking for the issues and concerns of voters. It is so refreshing.

The most important issue is to secure our voting system. We need to get rid of the e-voting Diebold machines that are very questionable and likely have been compromised and hacked in to. Exit polls are historically never wrong. Why did Kerry win the exit polls in 2004 but lose the election? That is an important question that was never answered. The likely answer is that the election was stolen. In 2006 the Democratic win should have been much greater according to the exit polls. Why was the election closer? I will put forth the reason: The Repuglicans miscalculated the tsunami of repugance against their party and didn't tweak the voting machines enough to tilt in their favor. What is wrong with paper ballots? The Canadians use paper ballots. They announce the results based on exit polls, which HISTORICALLY ARE NEVER WRONG, then they count the ballots at leisure over the next few days to corraborate the results.

The second most important issue facing our country is energy independence and global warming. They go hand in hand. We need to get ahead of Hubbert's Peak which in all likelihood is happening right now. The peak of world oil production. What are we going to do in order to transition to the new world of energy? We are addicted to oil that is clear. What is the way ahead to the post-oil world?

Terrorism is a tactic. The so-called "War on Terrorism" gets it wrong. This is coming from a recently retired Air Force officer who is working in the defense industry, namely me. We can't kill 1.2 billion Muslims. We have to find another way. What happened to diplomacy? When we drop bombs on people they rightly resent it. Recently we dropped bombs on some nomads in Somalia, killing 70, wounding 100 because we thought a member of Al Qaeda was there. He wasn't. How would we like it if Iran dropped a bomb in Peoria because they thought there was someone they thought had attacked them five years ago and killed 70 US citizens in a mall. Is that right? We have to take another tack. We are creating terrorists with our wrongheaded approach.

That is enough for now. Looking forward to the dialogue. I'm excited. Good luck Mrs. Clinton! I'm rooting for you.

Iraq Parliament is Missing in Action

Hillary blogcasts yesterday before the SOTU Speech.

The Manitou (Springs) Makeover

Daily Kos: Brent Wilkes indictment imminent - CA Congressional dominoes to fall? This follows the Rovian firing of the San Diego U.S. Attorney as she was hot on this case among others. The Bush Crime Family is running scared.

Pastor Ted says Evangelicals have the best sex life. Yuck.

Running Williams Canyon this morning.

A 20-member U.S. team are in Iran to participate in the Persian Gulf Cup, also known as the Takhti Cup, the top wrestling tournament in Iran, where the sport has been a national obsession for centuries. Unlike their politicians, the American wrestlers appeared happy and comfortable to stay in a country their president has labelled part of an 'axis of evil.'"

TLS: A Deady Certitude: Review of Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion"

The Nation: Get Carter! Iran too!

Huff Post Blog: Karen Russell: The Swiftboating begins: The Right (Faux News) smears Obama, blames it on Hillary. More about Fox News slander from Thinkprogress.org on his being "raised Muslim" (he attended seminary while living with his father up until the age of ten).

Tomgram: Adam Hochschild, Over the Top in Iraq. Adam Hochschild wrote an excellent history of the Congo under the diabolical Belgian King Leopold, King Leopold's Ghost, which the president claims to have read. I recommend it as the first of my personal trilogy on the Congo. The other two books to round out the modern history of the Congo are the fiction work by Barbara Kingsolver, "The Poisonwood Bible" and "Looking for Mr. Kurtz: Living with Mobutu" by Michela Wrong. Additionally Hochschild wrote a remarkable history of the British anti-slavery movement, Bury the Chains, is now at work on a new book on World War I.

Kucinich's plan for Iraq. Why is no one discussing this? Why are they not at least refuting it?

Rory Stewart's travelogue in Afghanistan from 2002, "The Places in Between" has a web site. Take a look at the photo section.

Williams Canyon

Running Williams Canyon this morning. We ran up the Rampart Range Road then dropped down to Williams Canyon near the "tower" and returned to Manitou Springs via the canyon. It was snowing lightly and the fresh snow provided a deceptive veneer to the dangerous gray ice beneath.

Huff Post: Jane Smiley: Not Only the Worst President, the Worst Possible President

Slate: The Real Reason the Bush Administration Won't back down on Guantanomo.

Slate: Robert Hughes: The Upside Down Art Critic He also wrote a great book on Barcelona.

Focus on energy: Amory Lovins fuels hydrogen solution

DailyKos: 13 TROOPS KILLED IN IRAQ: The real story behind today's helicopter crash.

Gen Odierno is bad news. The "surge" will result in massive carnage for us and for them with no change in the prospects for an exit.

Manitou Springs, Colorado

Approximate location of my house as seen from "Cave of the Winds" Road this morning.

Mark Fiore George Bush: King of Opposite Land (flash animation)

Winning the Oil Endgame from the Rocky Mountain Institute

Dailykos: Forget "The Jungle." Read Upton Sinclair on Iraq!

Friday night links

NYT: Paul Krugman: Surging and Purging Bush is firing U.S. Attorneys to repopulate with Rovian Bushevics in order to avoid prosecution.


Going local across the globe: Online journalism can learn a lot from local news, argues regular columnist Bill Thompson.

Solar power eliminates utility bills in U.S. home.

Stephen Colbert hosts Bill O'Reilly.

Nancy Pelosi Blogs on Huffington Post: Progress is Possible Again


Booman Tribune: Kucinich May cause Administration Heartburn

Colbert on the O'Reilly Factor (Complete)

Crooks and Liars has the complete show:

Colbert was in full right-wing, well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status-idiot-mode and kept O'Reilly on the ropes while getting in a few good jabs — like ripping on Bill's ancient audience. O'Reilly appeared to be totally oblivious to the irony. Unbelievable. I can't wait for tomorrow to see O'Reilly on Colbert. This is too rich.

Vegetarian is the new Prius

Kathy Freston on Huffington Post:Vegetarian is the new Prius

Colbert Report

Stephen Colbert interviews Brian Baird from Washington State's 3rd District. It is hilarious.

Daily KOS: Congress can't reject Bush's war fast enough. Or often enough.

James Wolcott is a secular atheist. Hurrah.

I'm not really an atheist. I have always been a secret believer in Norse Mythology and my hero has always been Thor, the God of Thunder.

Future Feast: As for animal protein, Morris A. Benjaminson has a dream: producing it without the animal.

Weather Channel Climate Expert Calls for Decertifying Global Warming Skeptics

Atheist's say they have been threatened for their views.

Run Linux on Gmail

Madeleine Albright before House Foreign Relations Committee

Huffington Post's Melinda Henneberger Reports: It's not that anything so surprising was said today when Madeleine Albright testified before the House Foreign Relations Committee, as that some surprising people were saying it; one Republican after another appeared eager to agree with much of what the former secretary of state had to say on Iraq -- to the point that the partisan outbursts that did occur suddenly seemed like throwbacks to another time.

Naval Psychologist: Navy faces Crisis

USA Today:

An experienced Navy psychologist warns that the U.S. military does not have enough mental health professionals to meet the growing number of emotionally damaged war veterans.

Moreover, Navy Cmdr. Mark Russell says, many of the mental health professionals on staff lack formal training in core therapies for post-traumatic stress syndrome. Russell predicts a "perfect storm" of dire health care consequences.

A Weirdo has snatched your sons

Huffington Post: Chris Kelly

"The President and the Pizza Dispatcher. One is a psychopathic moron whose motives are known only to himself, and the other is Michael Devlin."

Martin Luther King: Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence

In the coverage of MLK day the media always brings out the old civil rights speeches. What receives little coverage is MLK's strident opposition to the Viet Nam War.

Here is the speech in its entirety, both audio and text as delivered 4 April 1967 at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City.

Big Sur Trail Marathon

Stefani Jackenthal has a post on last November's Big Sur Trail Marathon where I placed 2nd overall. She placed 4th overall and first woman!

I'm looking at running the Road Big Sur Marathon on April 29th right now--lining up the logistics, connections, accomodations, and plane fares.

Planet Earth Sigur Rós montage

Ice makes Bumper Car Mess in Portland

Watch this Amazing video!!

Monday Links

Limitations of Superpowers as applies to God

Booman Tribune: Flashback: It's 1972. In one corner is a President that is authorizing burglaries at home and expanding the bombing campaign abroad. In the other corner is a decorated World War Two veteran that knows the war is lost and there will be no profit in spending three more years postponing the inevitable.

Dailykos diary: Jane Smiley and James Webb—Contrasting Views on The Scots Irish.

Bush administration's ongoing incompetency revealed in this MUST-READ piece in yesterday's WaPost: "On Iraq, U.S. Turns to onetime dissenters".

Might want to change your investment strategy: Major Investment Bank issues warning on strike on Iran.

There was an excellent opinion piece in today's NYT on E-Voting problems. The Good News (Really) about E-Voting Machines.

More voting activist links:

VerifiedVoting.org

Rebecca Mercuri, Ph. D.

VotersUnite.org has a comprehensive list of voting problems from the 2006 election.

Williams Canyon

Williams Canyon: Photo taken during our 3 hour fun run this morning: Manitou Springs - Rampart Range Road - Williams Canyon - Waldo Canyon - Ute Trail - Manitou Springs.

Running this morning on the Waldo Canyon Trail

Gog and MaGog

Gog and Magog from my deck this morning. They are the two big rocks on the ridge in the middle of the photograph. Cameron's Cone peaks out to the far left.

Sam the Wolfdog is 10 years old

Sam the Wolfdog this morning. He is having a bad day. Seems he has lost more feeling in his rear left leg and had considerable trouble walking. He spent a couple hours outside this morning laying in the snow. The temperature is -2F.

Friday Links

William Rivers Pitt: Politics in the Service of War

Youth Media Council: Fighting Clear Channel and Right Wing takeover of media

Robert Parry: The US-IRAQ-Israeli-Syrian-Iran War

Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Action POST Republican rubber stamp committee

Abramov Scandal writ large

Voting scandal in FL-13 continued

Science Friday: Republican pseudo science against global warming. Tired.

Idaho Governor authorizes the killing of 5 out of 6 Wolves in his state: slaughter of 550 wolves.

Keith Olbermann

Bush's Legacy: The President who called Wolf.

Links for Thursday

Bill Moyers Has Harsh Words for President, Christian Right.

James Ridgeway at Mother Jones compares Bush's speech to Kissinger's indirection during the 1972 negotiations with the N. Vietnamese.

Juan Cole: Bush sends GIs to his private Fantasyland.

Mark Levine: George Bush is a Psychopath, and we are his enablers.

Jesus: Original or fake? There is nothing new under the sun.

Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. Rational thinking for troubled times.

Panoramas of Spain. I'm going there (Barcelona) next month!

Socalled sings "These are the Good Old Days"

Montreal artist Socalled (Josh Dolgin) turned himself into a ‘human centipede’ in this weird music video (oh yeah, did I mention that he turned traditional Jewish music into hip-hop?)

Found on the Barr Trail this morning

Williams Canyon this morning

Iraq: A Picture is worth a thousand words.

Amazing but true: Look at your zipper. See the initials YKK? It stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world's largest zipper manufacturer.

"We were talking in a half-assed way. I forgot about the eggshells for a moment and said something that offended her, and she told me to go fuck myself. She'd been driving me crazy all weekend, so I said “okay!” and dove to the bottom of the pool, where I thought: I am done. And when I surfaced the friendship was over." Rowing the Pool.


It's snowing again. They advertised 3-5 inches for today. We already have it here in Manitou Springs and it's still snowing.

GWB Raps the Truth

Sadaam: Thanks for the memories.

Buzzflash interviews Dr. Justin Frank on our illustrious prez and his inimitable psychological profile.

Do Galaxies follow Darwinian evolution?

“The one duty we owe to history,” said Oscar Wilde, “is to rewrite it.”

The Flying Spaghetti Monster religion.

Capitol Peak to the far left, Mount Sopris to the right. Sam the Wolfdog on road.

Daughter Marlene's cabin perched high above Fryingpan Valley in Basalt, Colorado. Very quiet and secluded if primitive living.

My daughter, Marlene and "son-in-love" Dennis.

Marlene, Dennis, and Rebekka on the way to our "attempt" on Basalt Mountain on New Year's Day. I gave them a 66% for effort. We made it to the final ridge to the left before we turned around. Believe it or not the snow was deep up there.

Links asunder and unrelated

Good set of videos on "The Future of Science" from a conference in Venice last September.

Unrelated theme: Bush Flashback from 2001: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'

Lousiana is slipping into the Gulf of Mexico.

Bush team throwing General Casey overboard in futile attempt to salvage "legacy".

Andes Adventure run 100-mile stage race including Machu Pichu.

I just watched the Lehrer News Hour where David Brooks pretended that the Democrats under Nancy Pelosi's leadership would not reach out and try for reconciliation; would not try to reverse the partisanship and mean spirited governance of the last 14 years of GOP domination. Well they tried but look where it gets them:


Pelosi Seeks House Minority 'Bill of Rights'

BUT

Hastert Dismisses Democrats' Complaint, Saying GOP Record Is Better Than Foes'

Pelosi's letter to the GOP minority.