May

May 5th, Cinco de Mayo, and I wake up to snow. Life in the mountains.

And a Friday Boobie

The Red-Footed Boobie.

Failure at Sharm El-Sheik

So Rice went to the Sharm El-Sheik summit, but didn't talk to the Iranians. Whatever good could come from the dialogue with Syria has been cancelled by insulting the Iranians.

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt (AP) - Iran's foreign minister walked out of a dinner of diplomats where he was seated directly across from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on the pretext that
the female violinist entertaining the gathering was dressed too revealingly.

``I don't know which woman he was afraid of, the woman in the red dress or the secretary of state,'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday, regarding the actions of Iran's
Manouchehr Mottaki.

The Iranian entered the lunch, greeting the gathered diplomats with the Arabic phrase, ``As-salama aleikum,'' or ``Peace be upon you,'' according to an Iraqi official who was present.

Rice replied to him in English, ``Hello,'' then added: ``Your English is better than my Arabic,'' according to the Iraqi official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the lunch was private.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit then piped in, telling Mottaki, ``We want to warm the atmosphere some.''

Mottaki smiled and replied in English with a saying: ``In Russia, they eat ice cream in winter because it's warmer than the weather'' - more or less meaning, ``You take whatever atmosphere-warming you can get.''

``That's true,'' Rice replied, according to the Iraqi official.http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6607749,00.html

The Iraqi government and some Arab countries had hoped for a real one-on-one meeting between Rice and Mottaki, saying that the two countries' conflict is only fueling Iraq's chaos. Ahead of the two day conference in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik, Rice had expressed a willingness to meet, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad said he would welcome talks.

But on Thursday, Rice said the American side was not asking for a meeting, and the Iranians appeared reluctant to be the ones to make the first move.

The U.S. accuses Iran of increasing Iraq's violence by backing militants there, as well as accusing Tehran of aiming to build a nuclear weapons program. The Bush administration has rejected direct talks with Iran despite growing calls for contacts.

I'm inclined to blame the Cheney wing of the administration, who's policy seems to be that diplomacy is for wimps. We should have engaged with Iraq's neighbors years ago, but the neocons were determined to impose their will on the region. Now we're stuck with a disaster and an administration that refuses to make any concessions that might help resolve the situation.
Can I hide in the wilderness until 1/20/09?

Trip Photos

Here are a few photos from the river trip. I didn't get to take too many, as halfway through the trip my camera decided to quit on me. I think it may have gotten some water in it despite my best efforts to keep it dry. I'll try to collect more from my fellow travelers.

Boats ready to launch.

Boatman ready.

Camped at Travertine Falls.

On the water.

I'll post a few others in the future. I'm so ready to go back that I'm already planning a trip for September.

A slow return

I'm taking my time returning to civilization, with my mind still river mellow. I'm finding the news is something I really don't want to think about.
One item I will comment on: Ellen Simon has announced that she will again run for congress in my district, AZ-1. My response is "please, don't". Simon ran a completely lackluster campaign against Rick Renzi in 2006, and while she might be a competent congressperson there really is nothing inspiring about her. I'm betting that Renzi won't be the rethuglican candidate for 2008, but I really want a dynamic Democratic candidate.

I'm back

I'm back. The trip went great. I'll be downloading photos later, but I didn't get all that many. Midway through the trip my camera lost it's mind (I think some water got in it) and refused to store new pics. Now I've got tons of gear to unload, organize, and clean. And no energy.

Game, Set, and Match.....to the Iraqis!

"To put this in a simple army metaphor, the Commander-in-Chief seems to have gone AWOL, that is 'absent without leave.' He neither acts nor talks as though he is in charge. Rather, he engages in tit-for-tat games…I hope the President seizes this moment for a basic change in course and signs the bill the Congress has sent him. I will respect him greatly for such a rare act of courage, and so too, I suspect, will most Americans."
- Lieutenant General William E. Odom

Does that sum it up enough for everyone? We've lost. Get over it. Move on to constructive activities in the Middle East (by which I mean NOT bombing anyone).

Why We Live Where We Live

OK, so yesterday, in our hometown, it was "officially" the real, true, first day of Spring. I know, I know, we're about a month late, but yesterday felt like you knew we weren't going to have any more lousy weather (e.g., snow or rain) for bit, and that you could really get out and enjoy the town and its surroundings.

So here's how to spend a weekend, now that many of the students are in finals and are getting ready to leave, and the tourists haven't really gathered yet.

Saturday:

Sleep in until 8 am. Ye gads, I ain't slept that late in awhile. Get up, some tea now that I've eschewed the java, shower, girlfriend is over by ten am, and we're set to walk downtown and get some eats, preferably at the new creperie.

As we're walking, a couple of blocks down a friend - C - yells out a window for us to stop - and he'll join us. So it's 3 for breakfast now.

We get to the creperie, but they're not set up yet, so we wander to MartAnne's and, getting a table right away, we eat (hugely) there. It really is the best place for chorizo or chiliquillas early on.

After breakfast, we wander the few blocks of downtown, window shopping, while tourists are just starting to flood out of the hotels and hostels to join us. We catch a seat in front of the Christmas store and people watch, and then go listen to Jee-bus man (an itinerant preacher) shout out salvation in the town square. Hugely chuckle at the "For Rent" sign plastered in front of Renzi's office; you take laughs where you can get them, I guess.

Girlfriend has to work for a couple of hours, starting at 12:30, so we wander to the park next to the library, and sprawl on the grass, kicking off shoes, lounging and making pointed comments on the parks other denizens - the couple all dressed in white, the puppy dogs cruising by, and the dancer/martial art troupe practicing nearby (and by practicing I mean really doing a lot of stretching).

Girlfriend is at work, and friend C has decided to change into shorts, so we walk the 3 blocks to his house, and then return downtown, marveling at the great freakin' weather. We let the changing of the downtown streetlights guide our passage, and eventually find ourselves back at the park to wait for girlfriend, while we lie in the grass and snooze.

Girlfriend's work finished, we decide to head 3 blocks back to downtown and drink beers at a local brewery, on the outside patio. Luckily, we grab the local arts rag and find out that the downtown theater/concert hall is showing "CaddyShack" that evening in a new tradition of movie nights downtown, so we make a note to go.

Of course, we sit in the sun too long and have one too many beers, but, as friends stop by to visit and move on, we don't really worry.

Finally, we must grab some food, so after going home and getting cleaned up, we meet again downtown and we end up at the creperie for dinner before heading off to the movie house.

CaddyShack was as silly as ever, but the theater does have a full bar, so slugging down a cold one while watching Bill Murray's antics was well worth it. We even all got up and danced the gopher dance to Kenny Loggins at the end.

Finally C had to go off to meet other friends, and girlfriend and I were ready to crash, so we all went home.

Sunday:

Starts as a repeat of Saturday, up with girlfriend over by 10 am, only this time, we're packing everything on our backs.

It's a quick 15-mile sprint out of town and we're down in a local canyon, rock-hopping through the (dried-out) wash, climbing up and down the trail, and even venturing off-trail to climb through an amazing natural arch - which left us stranded for a few minutes until we butt-slid our way back down.

After and hour and a half and two miles of boulder hopping, we decide we're getting hungry and decide to head back, rather than walk all the way to Sedona. Good thing, too, because that's an over-nighter for sure, and we didn't have all our gear.

So we get home, get cleaned up, she goes to study and I go have a beer and do the shopping, and then we get together and have an absolutely fantastic dinner of grilled steak and spuds and a cucumber salad. Oh and beets, fresh beets from a friend. A-and, a lot of aloe vera lotion to help with sunburn.

That's our town. It may not be Lake Woebegone, but, it works for all of us. So, while the crew is enjoying themselves on the river this week, they'll be glad to know we're keeping up our enjoyment end right here in town, while we wait for their return.

Riddle Me This...

Rick Renzi said this, late this afternoon:

"For several weeks, I have been the subject of leaked stories, conjecture, and false attacks about a land exchange. None of them bear any resemblance to the truth, including the rumor that I am planning on resigning," said Renzi, a Republican representing Flagstaff, Prescott and Casa Grande, in a statement.

Well, how did those pesky stories and conjecture get started? Maybe it's from Rick Renzi himself, who said this, earlier this week:

Renzi told The Hill earlier yesterday that he was “looking at” the prospect of resigning.


Mr. Renzi, you have no one to blame but yourself. A-and don't try spinning this as you meant you were resigning from your committees - we ain't gonna believe that anyway.

If you're really so foolish to start the rumor yourself and then get angry and deny it, you're too stupid to be the kind of person I want representing my interests.

If it's Friday, It Must Be Booby Time!

Behold the great blue-footed booby "sky pointing" as part of its courtship display. Quite fetching, I suppose, if you're another booby.

See ya' in a week

added: with new pics.

Renzi's toast

Taking a break from loading gear, I see Renzi made the front page again!

WASHINGTON -- As midterm elections approached last November, federal investigators in Arizona faced unexpected obstacles in getting needed Justice Department approvals to advance a corruption investigation of Republican Rep. Rick Renzi, people close to the case said.

The delays, which postponed key approvals in the case until after
the election, raise new questions about whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales or other officials may have weighed political issues in some investigations. The Arizona U.S. attorney then overseeing the case, Paul Charlton, was told he was being fired in December, one of eight federal prosecutors dismissed in the past year. The dismissals have triggered a wave of criticism and calls from Congress for Mr. Gonzales to resign.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117746770608481484-srrsK50Cy6ieok4EIJGcFSnMnek_20070502.html?mod=blogs

So it looks like they stalled the investigation until after the election.

...the investigation clearly moved slowly: Federal agents opened the case no later than June 2005, yet key witnesses didn't get subpoenas until early this year, those close to the case said. The first publicly known search -- a raid of
a Renzi family business by the Federal Bureau of Investigation -- was carried out just last week....

...the Renzi case -- like many that involve members of Congress -- is being handled jointly by the local U.S. attorney and the department's public-integrity section. In such cases, a senior department official must approve requests for wiretaps and warrants and other formal legal steps.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003091.php

I would be so happy to see Mr. corruption gone by the time I get off the river, and take a few more down with him.

Update: Local NPR is reporting that he's considering resigning!

How to prepare for alien invasion

Busy day, and then gone for a week, so I leave you with the most useful advice I've seen today:

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - When the aliens finally invade Earth, you may wish
you had listened to Travis Taylor and Bob Boan.

And if the invasion follows the plot of a typical Hollywood blockbuster, they
might also be the guys called in at the last minute to save the day.

After all, they have written "An Introduction to Planetary Defense", a primer
on how humanity can defend itself if little green men wielding death rays show
up at our cosmic doorstephttp://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0934498720070425

Enjoy.

and even more Renzi

I rarely pass on stuff from http://www.dailykos.com/, because you already read it or you don't. It's not like they need more hits.

AZ-01: Renzi Resigns Committee Seats

by mcjoan

Tue Apr 24, 2007 at 04:17:06 PM PDT

First Doolittle, now Renzi. This could get addictive. Another GOP target of an FBI raid (searching for evidence of a possible kickback received in a land deal), Renzi has decided it's time to lay low.

"For several weeks, I have been the subject of leaked stories, conjecture,
and false attacks about a land exchange. None of them bear any resemblance to the truth.

"So that no one can question the motivation behind the land exchange, which I and other leaders from both parties have argued is critical to the future of Arizona, I have spoken to Congressman Pastor who will introduce a new version of the Resolution Copper land exchange. In addition, I will take a leave of absence from all my committee assignments. I will continue to focus on important district work and issues critical to my constituents."

Renzi is taking leave from his seats on the House Intelligence Committee (this one announced last week), the Committee on Financial Services, and Committee on Natural Resources.

More where this came from, please, FBI. http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/4/24/191526/572

But I'm glad they finally noticed.
See the archive for more.

minimal posting

Posting will be light, as I've got a river trip to prepare for. I have invited 2 more folk to guest post, and nagged Sweaterman to post more.

More on Mental Health

I've added BlondSensehttp://blondesense.blogspot.com/ to the blogroll, after reading a great post on mental health by RedStateBlues.

We all would like to see the mentally ill receive treatment, even those, like my
mother for many years, who cannot or do not recognize that they need treatment. We want to see these folks receive treatment from our impulse to help, from a place of compassion. As we struggle to understand what could have been done to help Cho before he went off like the bomb he was, remember why the Supreme Court says that we cannot willy nilly lock people up, that there must be some due process before even the mentally ill are deprived of their liberty. You and I might want to see these people committed for the right reasons, because we want them to be helped. But
as a fundamental matter of our constitutional rights, it would be the wrong result.

Because we must recognize that when we grant the State the power to compel, to restrict and impinge upon one person's civil liberties, there is the possibility (indeed, with current regime, one might say probability) this power may be misused. As we struggle through the questions of why Cho wasn't locked up so he could not have committed this awful act, think of what the Supreme Court said in O'Connor and ask yourself whether you would want it to be easier for the current government to lock people up for being mentally ill? If you answer yes to that question, I'll leave you with this final thought. It was commonplace in the Soviet Union to institutionalize
political dissidents for mental illness. After all, they must be crazy if they disagreed with the perfect political state.

It's a very thoughtful piece.

The Clergy get it

I would have expected Whig to be all over this:

Clergy join push to OK medical marijuana

By Kevin McDermott

POST-DISPATCH SPRINGFIELD BUREAU

04/21/2007

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois' latest attempt to legalize medical marijuana is getting support from a surprising source — religious leaders.

"The moral issue is relief of suffering,'' said the Rev. D. Jay Johnson of the Union Avenue
Christian Church in Litchfield.

Johnson is one of more than 40 state religious leaders named in a letter distributed to legislators as they consider changing Illinois law to allow use of marijuana for treating pain and nausea in
medical patients.http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/illinoisnews/story/31A39A1DBA1ADA05862572C4001C70BF?OpenDocument

Keeping medical marijuana illegel is just plain cruel. Amen.

Drying up the rivers

Southwestern North America and other subtropical regions are going to become
increasingly arid as a consequence of rising greenhouse gases.

I'm rather busy preparing for my river trip, but I would be remiss if I didn't note this study:http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/div/ocp/drought/science.shtml

Projections of anthropogenic climate change conducted by nineteen different climate modeling groups around the world, using different climate models, show widespread agreement that Southwestern North America - and the subtropics in general - are on a trajectory to a climate even more arid than now.

Seems that my home region is in real trouble.

Imminent drying of the Southwest and subtropics in the models is such a robust
result because it does not depend on poorly understood and highly parameterized
parts of the model (such as cloud physics) but instead arises as a response of the large scale atmospheric dynamics - which we think is quite well represented in models - to a warming world.

So I better enjoy my river while I can.

Wrong

I've been trying to compose a post about the many things that are wrong about our current society. But I keep getting overwhelmed. I'm not sure where to start. I mean, there are so many things going wrong (and, FWIW, so many good blogs about them), that I'm overwhelmed. So here's a short list of things that are wrong:
Drug Laws.
http://www.drugpolicy.org/reducingharm/treatmentvsi/

DPA is the nation's leading organization working to end the war on drugs. We envision new drug policies based on science, compassion, health and human rights and a just society in which the fears, prejudices and punitive prohibitions of today are no more.

Health care

Americans pay more for health care per person than citizens anywhere else in the
world, doling out half again as much in medical expenses each year as the
second-highest-cost country, according to a new study.http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/jul/14/us_health_care_costs_highest_world_study_finds/

Foreign policy:

CAIRO, Egypt: Iraq's prime minister said Sunday that he has ordered a halt to the U.S. construction of a barrier separating a Sunni enclave from surrounding Shiite areas in Baghdad after fierce criticism over the project at home.

The challenge to the U.S. initiative came as Nouri al-Maliki began a regional
tour to shore up support from mostly Sunni Arab nations for his Shiite-dominated
government as sectarian violence persists despite a nearly 10-week-old security
crackdown.

The U.S. military announced last week that it was building a five kilometer
(three mile) long and 3.6 meter (12 foot) tall concrete wall in Azamiyah, a Sunni stronghold in northern Baghdad whose residents have often been the victims
of retaliatory mortar attacks by Shiite militants following bombings usually
blamed on insurgents.

U.S. and Iraqi officials defended plans for the barrier as an effort to protect the neighborhood, but residents and Sunni leaders complained it was a form of discrimination that would isolate the community and a large protest was
scheduled for Monday in the area.

In his first public comments on the issue, al-Maliki said Sunday that he had
ordered the construction to stop.

Justice (or law enforcement)

NRO's Byron York: "It has been a disastrous morning for Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales..."

It's really true. Quite apart from the substance of what we've learned since
mid-January and Gonzales' past false statements, Gonzales has been surprisingly
unable even to keep his made-up stories straight. As near as I can tell, only two Republican members of the committee have been even remotely sympathetic to
his testimony. At least two Republican senators called him a liar. One gently -- Graham, and another not so gently, Specter.

Sens. Hatch (R) and Cornyn (R) have been pretty embarrassing in their effort
to clean up Gonzales's mess on his behalf. But what's been most telling is how
much they're the exceptions to the rule. None of the others are making much of
any effort to cover for him.http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

In a weird way, let us remember that on Earth Day, Richard Nixon died. The ol' bastard did create the EPA. And, as much as I hated him, he was reasonably competent.

Some thoughts

In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech massacre there seems to be a lot of debate on gun control, but not enough about the state of mental health care. I'm rather neutral on the gun issue, believing in the right to own guns but supporting the assault weapons ban. I believe that if you own a gun, you should be responsible for what happens with that gun. The old wisecrack that "guns don't kill people, bullets kill people" always made sense to me.
But I'm not neutral on mental health treatment. As I related in an earlier post, I'm a former mental health counselor. One of the reasons that I left the field was my frustration with the chronic underfunding of the mental health system. The lack of resources available to provide proper treatment drove me crazy. To watch people suffering and dying, knowing that it could be prevented or alleviated if more resources were available. With budgets cut repeatedly, case loads grow. Counseling sessions are cut. Medications become the only treatment provided by the system, the only tool left.
Mental health treatment isn't a sexy political issue. As a society, we tend to avoid and shun people with mental illness. It's the victims and their families who suffer.
Would better treatment have prevented this massacre? It's impossible to know, but the lack of treatment was obvious in this case.
added: The weakness in our mental health system is only one symptom of the weakness of our health care system in general, which is itself just a symptom of our fornicated society. With the greedheads in charge, peoples lives don't matter.