they scare me almost as much as wolves. and they've made it impossible for me to hunt elk and deer--they must have eaten every last one. Or at least scared them from just hanging out by meadows and creeks where it would be easier for me to hunt. Certainly my recreation is a higher priority than this natural animal feeding. i cannot believe the state tolerates them like it is allowing wolves to exist.

also mosquitos, they are annoying, and well, mice are bad when they get into your animal feed. I suggest we eliminate all animals we don't like/don't let them come back.

likely. But can't trust everything the media says. The fellow who unfortunately passed away last week, initial reports were that he didn't sign into the climbers register and was underprepared, both media assertions that proved to be patently false. Lost in translation or what, but can only take general news media with a grain of salt.

I will give my regards to the Mifloppi heat if they should win.

thanks for your comment. People have been climbing mountains for hundreds of years-and exploring uncharted terrains for thousands. Just as they've pushed the sound barrier, gone to space, drive race cars, hang glide, etc. It is a human activity to challenge oneself. I do not endorse stupidity or negligent risk but life is full of risk and one must strike their own balance about risk, passion, feeling alive, or feeling trapped by fear.

dirtman..as far as I know the mazama chute and old chute are the same thing--they are the slope that is to the west (climbers left) of the hogsback. That has been the 'standard' way for a number of years now since the hogsback shifted west and left the pearly gates with near vertical ice-steps.

I condemn the use of executive privilege in general. It is not a very democratic tool though it is available to the executive none the less. I observe the emotional outrage does not always seem commensurate with the action especially when other instances of executive decree or power 1) harmed or killed even more people 2) directly infringed/reduced citizen's rights.

Many people here seem to be holding up Brian Terry's death as their singular motivation for outrage yet this comes across as a paper thin justification when compared to the deaths of many many more soldiers through all sorts of political malfeasance in the past decade. Are we really suddenly motivated by a single citizen's death through a program gone awry? Because I can find hundreds of other questionable situations that clearly have the hand of our government (congress and executive) that I do not see general outrage over. But you may say no, this is about the executive privilege and potential cover-up...but yet I am seeing lots of reference to Mr. Terry's death as the issue.

But even as you can recognize my political leanings, I absolutely have no pride or endorsed support of Obama using executive privilege.

No, quite frankly I find the entire 'executive' privilege usage irritating and undemocratic. Just as I did when Bush used it to try to prevent info on the attorney general firings/hirings under his DOJ. He failed and his chief of staff and counsel were still found in contempt. That may still happen to Holder.
While I believe Issa's motivations are political more than personally caring for the dead US citizen, how can I think using executive privileged to deal with something is ever a good measure. I suppose the DOJ can say it would reveal informants names and other justifications. But just the same I don't agree with a lot of executive power such as warrantless wiretaps or making illegals semi-legal with the signing of a pen. I'd prefer to have these things go through the legislative process.

That said in a world of tactics, politics, and end justifying the means, I cannot specifically blame republican or democratic presidents for using the powers they have. Bush Jr. greatly expanded powers of the executive and to my knowledge Obama has maintained those expanded interpretations/boundaries.

but I can still make observations about what seems to push people's buttons, how much of a reaction things get. Sometimes it appears the level of emotion involved in people's reactions is not commensurate with the action at hand when juxtaposed with other instances of executive order/privilege/conduct which objectively were more egregious in loss of life, restriction of liberties/rights, or questionable motivations. Not all, but some.

guess the TD'ers don't like facts. Their brains must be operating like an emotional teenager's.

tool? excuse yourself.

I don't believe I made any assessment on the rightness or wrongness of the F&F issue, so great straw man argument. One thing you can do is observe and make objective comparisons between issues and recognize the varying levels of response to different issues. There is nothing wrong with this, and, it does give insight into peoples POV and priorities. This applies to all of politics and culture.

wow. talk about orders of magnitude. I sure wish the angst of 'accountability' here could have come home to roost when we launched into billion dollar wars of choice..sacrificing thousands of soldiers and civilians. it almost seems like an insane double standard. but I'm sure I'm misguided in that observation.