Mercury In Every Fish Tested

From The NYT.

When government scientists went looking for mercury contamination in fish in 291 streams around the nation, they found it in every fish they tested, the Interior Department said, even in isolated rural waterways.[...]
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the findings underlined the need to act against mercury pollution. Emissions from coal-fired power plants are the largest source of mercury contamination in the United States.

Good Beer Is Good Buiseness

Craft beer sales are up despite the economy.

National sales of craft beer — an increasingly large part of Colorado’s economy — rose 9 percent in the first half of 2009 despite the economic downturn, the Boulder-based Brewers Association reported Monday.

The volume of craft beer produced nationally also rose by 5 percent from the first half of 2008, though year-over-year overall U.S. beer sales fell by 1.3 percent during that time period, the association reported.

Crash Your Clunkers

Handsome Johnny

Ritchie Havens. The message is just as true today.

Woodstock

Woodstock was 40 years ago.

You Can Not Negotiate With The Crazy

Rick Perlstein in the WaPo writes.

t used to be different. You never heard the late Walter Cronkite taking time on the evening news to "debunk" claims that a proposed mental health clinic in Alaska is actually a dumping ground for right-wing critics of the president's program, or giving the people who made those claims time to explain themselves on the air. The media didn't adjudicate the ever-present underbrush of American paranoia as a set of "conservative claims" to weigh, horse-race-style, against liberal claims. Back then, a more confident media unequivocally labeled the civic outrage represented by such discourse as "extremist" -- out of bounds.

The tree of crazy is an ever-present aspect of America's flora. Only now, it's being watered by misguided he-said-she-said reporting and taking over the forest. Latest word is that the enlightened and mild provision in the draft legislation to help elderly people who want living wills -- the one hysterics turned into the "death panel" canard -- is losing favor, according to the Wall Street Journal, because of "complaints over the provision."

Good thing our leaders weren't so cowardly in 1964, or we would never have passed a civil rights bill -- because of complaints over the provisions in it that would enslave whites.

You have to know you are right and do the right thing. The Republicans have no intention of bargaining in good faith. Here is Digby

Arlen Specter and Joe Sestak were interviewed yesterday at NN by Susie Madrak and Ari Melber. Specter made some news when he revealed that from the beginning the Republicans had circulated among themselves that they were going to "break Obama" --- and it didn't originate over health care, but even before the stimulus. They never had any intention of acting in good faith. This didn't surprise me either. But it certainly seems to have surprised the administration, or at least they thought they could win them over anyway. But they can't.

Sad To Hear

Several hikers have died.
One in the Grand Canyon

The 18-year-old was among a group of eight hikers that ran out of water while hiking the Shinumo Wash route.

Though few details are available pending investigation and notification of next of kin, the National Park Service states that rafters on the Colorado River were flagged down on Thursday by the group from the cliffs above the river, telling them that they were out of water and needed help.

One in the Sierra

20-year-old Cherie Hamilton disappeared Tuesday afternoon, after leaving a trail during a day hike near Wishon Lake.
More info

One on the Pacific Crest Trail.

An 80-year-old Puyallup man was found dead on the Pacific Crest trail in Skamania County Thursday.

Hikers found the body of Albert Mader at about 10:50 a.m. and notified sheriff’s deputies, according to a news release from the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office.

My condolences to their friends and family.

Republican Hissy Fits

That is what they are good at. Krugman on health care.

Some of us were skeptical. A couple of months after Mr. Obama gave that speech, I warned that his vision of a “different kind of politics” was a vain hope, that any Democrat who made it to the White House would face “an unending procession of wild charges and fake scandals, dutifully given credence by major media organizations that somehow can’t bring themselves to declare the accusations unequivocally false.”

So, how’s it going?

Sure enough, President Obama is now facing the same kind of opposition that President Bill Clinton had to deal with: an enraged right that denies the legitimacy of his presidency, that eagerly seizes on every wild rumor manufactured by the right-wing media complex.

This opposition cannot be appeased. Some pundits claim that Mr. Obama has polarized the country by following too liberal an agenda. But the truth is that the attacks on the president have no relationship to anything he is actually doing or proposing.

There is no lie that the conservative media will not repeat.

Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro, originally uploaded by etchasketchist.

Today is Fidel's birthday

McPork In Japan

McPork in Japan　(日本のマックポーク), originally uploaded by CharleyMarley.

You know you want one.

Sad To Hear

A hiker dies in Kings Canyon- Sequoia National Park.

I'm sorry to report there was yet another national park death this week. This one was a bit closer to home, at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Kevin Trevor Rodriguez, 19, died of head injuries Monday after he fell 50-plus feet near Tokopah Falls, a popular day hike near the Lodgepole Visitor Center.

Rodriguez -- who was reported to be from the Malibu-Agoura area -- and a friend were scrambling on the rocks above the trail when the accident occurred, according to the National Park Service. Instead of climbing down the same way they came up, they tried to descend via an apparently easier route, albeit one with slippery rocks, and Rodriguez took a tumbling fall, landing in a pool below

.

My condolences to his friends and family.

Sad To Hear

A hiker dies in Utah.

A California woman died after falling at least 1,000 feet while hiking in Zion National Park Sunday.

Nancy Maltez, 55, of Glendora, apparently stumbled on the north side of Angels Landing, a high peak above Zion Canyon, said park spokesman Ron Terry.

My condolences to her friends and family.

Do Not Feed The Animals

A lady was killed by bears after years of feeding them.

The story of Donna Munson’s tragic death last week is a sad one. She was mauled to death by a bear at her home outside of Ouray.

The 74-year-old woman had been feeding bears on her 40-acre property for almost a decade, despite repeated warnings that she stop.

Bears, it turns out, don’t care how soft your heart is or how much you appreciate them. They care primarily about food and will attack people who get between them and their dinner.

It is sad she was killed but please do not feed the wildlife.

Smokey The Bear

Smokey the Bear Sign, originally uploaded by Neato Coolville.

Happy 65th Birthday Smokey!

August 9th is officially Smokey Bear's, or Smokey the Bear's, birthday. Today, he turns 65 years old.

Back in the early forties, the United States Forest Service used Disney characters to educate the public about the importance of fire safety. However, these characters were only on loan from Walt Disney, so in 1944, a new symbol was needed. Smokey the Bear was born.

June Carter

Ring of Fire.

More Johny Cash Show

Andy Kaufman.

Ring Of Fire

Ray Charles Style. From the Johny Cash show.

The Barefoot Sisters

Have a book out about their 2000 Southbound thru-hike. They hiked north in 2001, the year I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail. It seemed I was always a day behind them. I did occasionally see barefoot prints, however from the pictures in the video you can see Teva tan lines on their feet. I suspect they hikrd in Teva's alot.

The book can be purchased through the AT Store.

Special Comment

The republicans are owned by corporate profits. So are many of the democrats. 1.4 million a day to kill health care reform. That money is not going to health care. Health Insurance companies do not provide health care.