09/04/2006

Leaks, lies and the body count


US Iraq body count to date



The Bush legacy is like a bad, Hollywood movie. Too bad for us it's real.


They lied us into war.
Then they exposed and destroyed
US undercover operations
in the Middle East
just to protect their dirty secret.






07/04/2006

The Leaking Bush



US Casualties to date: 2047
US Wounded to date: 17469
US National Debt as of Friday, April 7th at 19:08:51 hours GMT: $8,394,278,717,242.32

Forget about pointing the National Debt. It increases $27,067. 49 per second or $2.44 billion dollars a day. Before Bush, our budget was balanced.


When asked about US undercover agent Valerie Plame's identity being leaked to the press in a press conference on October 6, 2003, President Bush replied: "And, you know, there's a lot of leaking in Washington, D.C. It's a town famous for it.

And if this helps stop leaks, this investigation in finding the truth, it'll not only hold someone to account who should not have leaked -- and this is a serious charge, by the way. We're talking about a criminal action. But also hopefully we'll help send a clear signal we expect other leaks to stop as well."

So now that we know Bush is the "leaker", people are splitting the hairs of his latest lies. Does he or doesn't he have the right to lie, spy and absolve himself? In 2003 he signed a presidential mandate in which he conveniently gave himself special permission to do just that. Big surprise. But it's irrelevant. "Legal" or not, Bush ordered the outing of a US spy, an act of treason punishable by death during a time of war. And why, you might ask, did the President of the United States betray his own country? Money and power. His Administration perverted the panic of 911 to sell their long cherished, pre-911 desire to invade Iraq, grab its oil and resell it to us at an astronomical profit.

Bush lied about WMDs. He lied when he said Saddam Hussein had connections to Osama bin Laden and Al Queda. Remember Osama bin Laden, the chap behind the 911 attacks? He's the guy we should have gone after but, in a criminal abuse of power, Bush used the 911 panic to help the rich get richer selling war, murder and mayhem in the name of national security. And now, how ironic. Bush is the leaker he said he'd fire if he ever found out who leaked! It would appear Mr. Bush is having an identity crisis.

Anyway, these facts alone should be enough to impeach and imprison the bastard and his crooked cronies but once again our US Senators and Representatives, who we elected to protect our Constitution, will roll over and play dead. Talk about spin! It is beyond mind boggling. Bush and Company never change their strategy. Why should they? It works. They deny their crimes until they can't deny them any more, then they proudly flaunt them. Celebrate them. Turn them into virtues. Publicly anoint themselves with their lies as though they are God's own words and, above all else, these lying sacks of shit....never, never, never back down. Their pride is breath taking. It is interesting with this latest twist in Plamegate, to see Cheney turn on Bush doggie style, but it's just more political theatre static. Anyway, everybody knows that Cheney really runs the White House. Bush is just the pretty face, the down home, dyslexic, trust fund billionaire. He's stupid but cute so people cut him slack. Cheney, on the other hand, is brilliant but he's a drunken, ugly asshole. No big deal for him. He prefers the shadows.

Sadly, Americans are stupid with fear. This works for the sellouts in Washington because, so gripped, people refuse to recognize the fact that the President is not only leaking, but our glorious, titanic "Ship of State" is on the rocks.








06/04/2006

Alice in Hinterland


Alice Stuart is in town to do a concert at Comma Coffee in Carson City.. She was one of myfirst friends after leaving home and school. We happened to have the same landlord, the owner of a tiny, neighborhood grocery near the University of Washington. His store was on the corner and our minuscule apartments, opening directly onto the sidewalk, were on either side. We would have met eventually anyway as we knew a lot of the same people but being neighbors sped everything up.


Travus T. Hipp, Pat Arone, Alice Stuart
So much has happened since then. It would take a book to fill in the details so fast forward a few life times. Alice and I reconnected a few years ago at the Red Dog Reunion and then recently it occurred to me that she would fit right into Comma Coffee's Blues Concert Series so I passed her name along and tonight, finally, she's here.




Taj Mahal
once said, "Alice cut the road that Bonnie Raitt traveled." She was briefly part of Frank Zappa's blues band when he was forming the Mothers of Invention and toured the US and Europe with Van Morrison, recorded with Jerry Garcia, Asleep at the Wheel, John Hammond, Dave Mason, Sonny Terry, Tower of Power, Bread, and played with Blues guys such as Lightning Hopkins, Jesse Fuller, Mississippi John Hurt, Albert King, and others.


Silver City, Nevada Cemetery
Yesterday Alice, her friend Pat Arone and I went up to Silver City and Virginia City to visit some old friends, including Travus T. Hipp and one of Alice's ex husbands, an excellent stain glass artist. On any summer day, Virginia City especially is a dreadful tourist trap but there the outlaw dream lives on in its own dusty time warp, lost in plain sight.






04/04/2006

Fatty Leland, update 2



If you have been following the adventures of Fatty Leland, you may remember that a few days ago I laid out a scrumptious feast for him at the Hotel Nevada's Tin Mouse Buffet. Unfortunately either he's too fat, too smart or both. He nibbled the cheese polking through the windows but wouldn't or couldn't go in. A couple of days ago my daughter saw him dash out from under the stove and skidder across the floor, his big ass jack knifing behind him as he aimed himself for the pantry and slid into its darkness. He was later seen coming out of Jim Gavin's bar with one of the town drunks. As I hear it, they were hell bent on a joy ride but luckily the car was out of gas.

Last night, Mr. Lee saw Fatty running down the hall, headed either for our bedroom or the garage. Well, waddling down the hall. After Fatty started ransacking the kitchen my daughter and I put all the pantry food into containers that he can't gnaw through so he's on the move. No sightings yet today.




01/04/2006

Spring breaks



My daughter visited this week just long enough for one Nevada buffet, some good heart to heart talks and a couple of days of snow boarding at Kirkwood, famous for its "steeps and deeps". I just took up skiing again this season after a long break so until her visit I've stayed on the intermediate and quasi black diamond runs. This was her first time on the slopes in a couple of years because of school but by day two we decided to try a real black diamond (black and double black being the most difficult regular terrain). Blue squares indicate intermediate runs and green circles are for the bunnies but Kirkwood also offers extreme skiing once a year in the Cirque. If you look on the map, it's the area hashed out by red lines. It's an insane mix of cliffs, rock out-croppings, powder fields and iced-over billy-goat lines. This weekend just happens to be the annual North American Freeskiing Championships so the Cirque was open and people were in it qualifying for the event.


It wasn't pretty but I made it down Zachary twice without falling and was then very willing to admit that I had no business being there. It is steep. Asia, on the other hand, was just fine so we decided that before going over to the backside for easier terrain and a chance to watch the qualifications, I would video her doing one last run down Zachary. I waited. No Asia. Then I noticed a dark figure sliding slowly towards me along the edge of the run .



I couldn't tell if it was her but started recording anyway. As the person drew closer I saw I was being waved off and quit recording. It was Asia. That fluky thing happened. She caught an edge at the top of the run, fell and halfway through her head over heels tumble, heard a loud snap. (X marks the spot on the map)

It was her wrist. She was very shaken and pale but too impatient to wait for help and rode her board down the hill, even managing to carve a few turns before falling a second time at the bottom. The medical team was fantastic, especially Chris, the on duty nurse. He's one of those wonderfully savvy guys who jokes, is light-hearted and puts people at ease while seemingly, effortlessly managing an emergency.


Her hand is so badly swollen, I swear the finger prints have disappeared. She can't work. She's been studying to be a sign language interpreter for the last 2 years and her practicum was supposed to begin on Monday. That's on hold. Plus it will cost thousands of dollars before the whole thing is over. I might be tempted to think this was incredibly bad luck but while she was in the medical unit they brought a young guy in who was unconscious, having difficulty breathing and had to be medevaced to a trauma unit. Very sobering and very sad. I hope he'll be okay but will probably never know. It certainly puts things in perspective though. Asia's tucked in, back home in Portland tonight, not quite in one piece but bones heal. They just need time.


27/03/2006

Monday night at the movies



I made my first AVI file while I was in Tonopah this weekend. I was driving down the gutted, mined-out hill above town when I spotted a wonderful bush perched on the edge of road which was also the edge of the hill. It was rattling in the wind and, although it had been there for a long time, and I'm sure will be there for a long time to come, it seemed it might be torn up into the sky and swept off at any moment. I jumped out the car and recorded it and it wasn't until I was driving away that I realized that annoying key in the ignition warning had been bleeping away in the background the whole time. And the sound of the engine. Crap. And I shouldn't have used the zoom. The whole thing was about the stillness and the torturous wind. The zoom ruined it. Ah well. More to come.






23/03/2006

Tonopah in spring



I just got back from a weekend in Tonopah, my favorite living ghost town and haven't had time to upload my photos yet and see what I got. Tomorrow. Everything tomorrow. But so it must be. Until then, here's one from last fall.

It was good to be in Nevada's outback. There were times along the road when I was the only human in a vast, wonderfully desolate earthscape. And Tonopah? As ever. It continues to be torn apart by the wind and blow away, piece by piece.



21/03/2006

Pet passes










We're going skiing tomorrow. There's about a month and a half left of the season so we're squeezing in whatever we can. Odin is being very generous. He's still dumping impressive amounts of snow on the Sierra Nevadas so there's plenty of fresh powder for spring skiing. We're not the only ones enjoying it. A lot of dogs also have passes (to the cross country trails). If you want to see a happy dog, that's where you'll find them.




Kirkwood Pet Passes






The Wall, Kirkwood
Uh, no that's not me in the photo.



Fatty Leland
In the ongoing Mouse Tales, one fellow has gotten into the house. We're hoping it's not Fatty Leland. Anyway, the Hotel is in the kitchen tonight and it's overflowing with a scrumptious Nevada-style buffet. Now we must wait and see if anyone comes to the feast.









20/03/2006

Spring Equinox


Earth link














Today is the Spring Equinox so early this morning I put some special treats out in the bird park to celebrate the day. I always fill the seed tubes at night and then the water bowls in the morning when the temperature begins to get above freezing. Generally I don't put extras out until mid-morning because the crows and magpies arrive first and hog everything in sight. However today I thought I'd risk it. No one was around but moments later they descended and gobbled everything. The damn party was over in about 5 minutes.


















No mice today. There's still one in the garage but he's so fat we don't think he can get in the door. Then again, maybe he is a she and maybe she is pregnant. Oh well. Come one. Come all. Happy Spring Equinox!