We know from rain. . .and this is rain: 22 rivers flooding in Western Washington

click to enlarge this brain surgeon's pickup

On top of the still melting snow, we've been hit with massive--even for here--rainfall and by 22 rivers flooding in Western Washington. In our immediate vicinity, the Tolt, Cowlitz, Nooksack, Skagit, Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Cedar, Nisqually, Puyallup, Carbon, and Skookumchuck rivers, as well as dozens of creeks are flooding. They've closed Interstate 5 to the south and north, as well as the Stevens, Snoqualmie (I-90), Bluett, and White Passes over the Cascade Mountains. Western Washington is an island at the moment, cut off from the rest of the west coast, anything east of the mountains, and Canada.

It could be worse of course; those 22 flooding rivers are only a fraction of the waterways in the Puget Sound/Western Washington Region (and we do have some cool river and creek names..I don't even think Jumpoff Joe Creek is listed!):


Fraser River (BC)
Chilliwack River
Nooksack River
Samish River
Skagit River
Baker River
Sauk River
Suiattle River
White Chuck River
Cascade River
Stillaguamish River
Boulder River
Snohomish River
Pilchuck River
Skykomish River
Sultan River
Wallace River
Beckler River
Rapid River
Snoqualmie River
Tolt River
Raging River
Pratt River
Taylor River
Pipers Creek (within walking distance of Jack's House)
Lake Washington Ship Canal/Lake Washington (within walking distance of Jack's House)
Taylor Creek
Thornton Creek
Sammamish River
Kelsey Creek
Coal Creek
Cedar River
Rex River
Juanita Creek
Duwamish River
Black River
Cedar River
Green River (which runs a block from where I grew up)
White River (feeds into the Green River)
Fauntleroy Creek
Puyallup River
Stuck River
Clearwater River
Greenwater River (childhood fishing spot)
Carbon River
Mowich River
Chambers Creek
Clover Creek
Nisqually River
Mashel River
Deschutes River
Skokomish River
Hamma Hamma River
Duckabush River
Dosewallips River
Big Quilcene River
Strait of Juan de Fuca
Dungeness River
Gray Wolf River
Elwha River
Lillian River
Lost River
Haynes River
Pysht River
Hoko River
Sekiu River
Lyre River
Sooes River
Ozette River
Big River
Quillayute River
Dickey River
Bogachiel River
Calawah River
Sitkum River
Sol Duc River
Hoh River
Queets River
Clearwater River
Solleks River
Salmon River
Sams River
Raft River
Quinault River
Moclips River
Copalis River
Humptulips River
Hoquiam River
Chehalis River
Wishkah River
Wynoochee River
Satsop River (scene of a great rock festival I attended)
Canyon River
Black River (now subsumed into the Whote and Green rivers)
Skookumchuck River
Newaukum River
Johns River
Willapa River
North River
Fall River
Palix River
Canon River
North Nemah River
Middle Nemah River
South Nemah River
Naselle River
Columbia River
Grays River
Elochoman River
Cowlitz River (the river where my Uncle Guy of the fabled wooden leg ran a one-car ferry)
Coweeman River
Toutle River
North Fork Toutle River
Tilton River
Cispus River
Ohanapecosh River
Kalama River
Lewis River
Muddy River
Lake River
Washougal River
Lacamas Creek
Wind River
Little White Salmon River
White Salmon River
Klickitat River
Little Klickitat River
Walla Walla River
Touchet River
Snake River
Palouse River
Cow Creek
Union Flat Creek
Rock Creek
Tucannon River
Asotin Creek
Grande Ronde River
Yakima River
Toppenish Creek
Naches River
Tieton River
Bumping River
American River
Little Naches River
Teanaway River
Cle Elum River
Cooper River
Waptus River
Kachess River
Crab Creek
Wenatchee River
Chiwawa River
Napeequa River
Little Wenatchee River
Entiat River
Mad River
Chelan River
Stehekin River
Methow River
Twisp River
Chewuch River
Lost River
Okanogan River
Similkameen River
Nespelem River
Little Nespelem River
Sanpoil River
Spokane River
Little Spokane River
Hangman Creek
Colville River
Little Pend Oreille River
Kettle River
Pend Oreille River
American River
Baker River
Big Quilcene River
Bogachiel River
Bumping River (childhood fishing spot)
Calawah River
Carbon River (childhood fishing spot)
Cedar River (childhood fishing spot)
Chehalis River
Chelan River
Chewuch River
Chiwawa River
Cispus River
Cle Elum River
Clearwater River (Queets River)
Clearwater River (White River)
Clover Creek
Coal Creek
Columbia River
Colville River
Cowlitz River
Crab Creek
Deschutes River
Dosewallips River
Duckabush River
Dungeness River
Duwamish River
Elwha River
Entiat River
Fauntleroy Creek
Gray Wolf River
Grays River
Hamma Hamma River
Hoh River
Hoko River
Humptulips River
Indian Creek (Elwha River)
Juanita Creek
Kachess River
Kelsey Creek
Kettle River
Klickitat River
Lacamas Creek
Lewis River
Little Pend Oreille River
Little Spokane River
Little White Salmon
Mad River
Mashel River
Methow River
Muddy River
Naches River (childhood fishing spot)
Naselle River
Newaukum River
Nisqually River
Nooksack River
North River
Okanogan River
Palouse River
Pend Oreille River
Pilchuck River
Puyallup River
Queets River
Quillayute River
Quinault River
Raging River
Rex River
Samish River
Sammamish River
Sauk River
Sol Duc River
Skagit River
Skokomish River
Skookumchuck River
Skykomish River
Snake River
Snohomish River
Snoqualmie River
Spokane River
Stehekin River
Stillaguamish River
Stuck River
Sultan River
Taylor Creek
Teanaway River
Thornton Creek
Tieton River
Tilton River
Tolt River
Touchet River
Toutle River
Tucannon River
Twisp River
Walla Walla River
Washougal River
Wenatchee River
White River
White Salmon River
Willapa River
Wishkah River
Wynoochee River
Yakima River
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In defense of ignorance/Barack Obama once again embroiled in a no-op "controversy"

This is really Pablo Fanque's Turf, but anyone who doubts Leon Pinetta seriously underestimates both Leon and B.H.O. Yeah, Obama's handlers/operatives may have tried to slipstream this CIA nomination by the two ranking Democrats, but after an initially cranky outburst, even Di-Fi appears to be on board. And they're not wrong. Pinetta is also one of the good guys, and let's face it, the only reason Obama did an end run around Feinestein was that she had been playing footsy with the Bush Administration on the torture issue. There have been a few enablers among the Democrats, and the time is coming when they may need to account for that. Kind of like when Carlo had to account to Michael Corelone on his son's baptism day. /jack

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Video; The Beach Boys' Darling

CLICK THE BEARDED ONES TO ENLARGE

This is a nice uptempo performance of an uptempo song by the Beach Boys. This YouTube video is from the Knebworth Festival, and had to happen sometime prior to 1983, since Dennis Wilson appears in the video, still alive and well. The great vocalist Carl Wilson gives a true blue-eyed soul performance here. The lyrics are weak, but they are well-propelled by the tune.

Darlin'
(Brian Wilson/Mike Love)

Ohh darlin'
My darlin' you're so fine
Ohhhh-hhh-hhh

Don't know if words can say
But darlin' I'll find a way
To let you know what you meant to me
Guess it was meant to be
I hold you in my heart
As life's most precious part

Oh darlin'
I dream about you often my pretty darlin'
(Darlin' you're so fine)
I love the way you soften my life with your love
Your precious love uh huh oh

I was living like half a man
Then I couldn't love but now I can
You pick me up when I'm feeling sad
More soul than I ever had
Gonna love you every single night
Cause I think you're too outta sight

Oh darlin'
I dream you often my pretty darlin'
(Darlin' you're so fine)
I love the way soften my life with your love
Your precious love uh huh huh

Woah oh oh oh

Every night darlin'
Gonna love you every single night, yes I will
Cause I think you're too doggone outta sight

Oh darlin'
I dream you often my pretty darlin'
(Darlin' you're so fine)
I love the way soften my life with your love
Your precious love uh huh huh
Oh

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Video: Bob Dylans Love Minus Zero/No Limits, performed with a few pals - Leon Russell, Billy Preston, Eric Clapton, George Harrison and Ringo Starr

Love Minus Zero/No Limits one of Bob's great love songs, is performed at the excellent Concert for Bangladesh (and film)...not a bad backup band: George Harrison, Leon Russell, Billy Preston, Eric Clapton, and Ringo on drums.



Love Minus Zero/No Limit
by Bob Dylan

My love she speaks like silence,
Without ideals or violence,
She doesn't have to say she's faithful,
Yet she's true, like ice, like fire.
People carry roses,
Make promises by the hours,
My love she laughs like the flowers,
Valentines can't buy her.

In the dime stores and bus stations,
People talk of situations,
Read books, repeat quotations,
Draw conclusions on the wall.
Some speak of the future,
My love she speaks softly,
She knows there's no success like failure
And that failure's no success at all.

The cloak and dagger dangles,
Madams light the candles.
In ceremonies of the horsemen,
Even the pawn must hold a grudge.
Statues made of match sticks,
Crumble into one another,
My love winks, she does not bother,
She knows too much to argue or to judge.

The bridge at midnight trembles,
The country doctor rambles,
Bankers' nieces seek perfection,
Expecting all the gifts that wise men bring.
The wind howls like a hammer,
The night blows cold and rainy,
My love she's like some raven
At my window with a broken wing.

Copyright ©1965; renewed 1993 Special Rider Music
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Northern Explosure? A chairlift mishap in Vail.

click to enlarge

A half naked skier was left dangling upside down last week, after a bizarre chairlift accident Friday morning at Vail's Blue Sky Basin. The man partially fell through a gap in the chair's seat, his right ski got jammed in the chairlift, and he was upended. This photo was snapped by a fellow skier. They got him down 15 minutes later, safe and sound, except for his dignity.

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Photos: The Raccoon In The Sycamore Tree

A raccoon ambled through our yard this weekend. You don't often see raccoons in the daylight; This may have even been a first. I see them most nights, lumbering in and out of the shadows as they mosey around the neighborhood.

My wife said, "He's probably sick. Or hurt."

"I don't know," I said to Keelin, "Maybe he's just thinking outside the box."

When Del went outside to investigate closer, the raccoon scrambled over to, and climbed up, an Aspen tree in our backyard. There was a time in my ancestor's pasts, when a treed raccoon would have meant one thing: dinner.

Photography by Del Brummet. Click all photos to enlarge.








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Obama's first F***-up/Bill Richardson weasels on the Commerce cabinet position

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor, All This Is That News Network

Obama may still have his hands clean, but now, a second pay to play stink has settled around his new administration. The beloved New Mexico Governor, Bill Richardson announced yesterday that he was withdrawing his nomination to be President-elect Barack Obama's Commerce Secretary. He said (approximately), "thanks, but no thanks. . .I think this grand jury investigation into some of my political donors who won a sweet $$$ state contract will hamstring the administration."

The company in question, CDR Financial Products [does that sound like another Ponzi scheme, or what?] was paid a total of $1.48 million in 2004 and 2005 for its work on a transportation program. CDR and its CEO, David Rubin, have contributed at least $110,000 to three political committees formed by Richardson, according to an Associated Press review of campaign finance records. Looking at this crassly, one and a half million dollars is not a bad return on a $100,000 "investment."

Richardson's bugging out is the first real disruption of Obama's Cabinet juggernaut, and the second "pay-to-play" investigation that has landed on Obama's team. The first was the messy case of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich attempting to sell Obama's vacated seat.

A federal grand jury is at this moment investigating how a California company that contributed to Richardson's Presidential bid won a transportation contract worth more than $1 million.

Richardson--in a statement issued by the Obama transition office--said the investigation could take weeks or months. And, as they do every time, he expressed confidence the probe will show he and his administration acted properly.

"The ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process," Richardson's statement said. "Given the gravity of the economic situation the nation is facing, I could not in good conscience ask the president-elect and his administration to delay for one day the important work that needs to be done." Cough cough.

Governor Richardson did say that he would remain in place as governor. At least until the investigation turns up something really hairy.

Unfortunately, Bill Richardson is one of the good guys. He is an excellent governor. He did great work internationally in the Clinton administration, and in my booklet, was fully qualified to have become President (probably more qualified than the guy who never quite became his boss), and, certainly, Secretary of Commerce. He probably should have been the nominee for Secretary of State. But he got caught with his testicles in the vice. Or maybe he hasn't; it doesn't matter, really--just the whiff of impropriety is enough to sink a fledgling cabinet member. It's the old Caesar's Wife dictum playing itself out once again.

Naturally, Soon-To-Be-President Obama accepted his resignation "with deep regret" and said "Bill Richardson is an outstanding public servant and would have brought to the job of Commerce Secretary and our economic team great insights accumulated through an extraordinary career in federal and state office. It is a measure of his willingness to put the nation first that he has removed himself as a candidate for the Cabinet to avoid any delay in filling this important economic post at this critical time. Although we must move quickly to fill the void left by Governor Richardson's decision, I look forward to his future service to our country and in my administration."

And you know what really sucks? Bill wouldn't have even needed to shave his beard!

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Robert Crumb predicted The Internet, Twitter, Facebook, and Too Much Information 40 years ago. Here's the proof.

Robert Crumb predicted The Internet, Twitter, Facebook, and Too Much Information 40 years ago. Here's the proof.


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Poem: Snow Day In Kirkland, Washington

Silhouetted against blue bisque skies,
Crows bounce on snow-draped tree branches,

Shaking powder to the ground.
They survey the valley

For their prey, now in stark and dreaded relief
Against the glimmering white fields.
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Video: Bob Dylan riffs on a sign

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Cary Grant on taking LSD

I was watching a Cary Grant movie today (Hitchcock's North by Northwest) and remembered the story about him trying LSD. Well, of course, the story's on the interwebs.

From Cary Grant's autobiography, Chapter 14:

I underwent a series of controlled experiments with Lysergic Acid, a hallucinogenic chemical or drug known as LSD 25. Experiment is perhaps a misleading word; to most people it signifies patronization and objectivity. For my part I anxiously awaited their personal benefits that could be derived from the experiences, and was quite willing to be less than objective. Any man who experiments with something that cannot benefit himself, or add to his happiness, and that of his fellow man in turn, is a fool and a menace to society. I’ve heard that a man here and there died during LSD25 sessions; but then I’ve heard that men died during poker games and while watching horse racing; but that didn’t seem to stop such occupations. Those men might have died anywhere while doing anything. Men have also died testing airplanes and parachutes, vaccines and common cold cures. In attempting to traverse the next step into progress and knowledge, men have always died. But there is a difference between the man who knows what he’s about with a high-powered airplane, and an idiot who puts wings on a bicycle and takes off from the edge of Niagra Falls.

LSD 25 is a psychic energizer and the exact opposite in reaction to the addictive drugs and opiates. Indeed, Seconal, or similar sedative, is usually given as an antidote, to quell and offset the effects of LSD 25, if necessary. The action of the chemical releases the subconscious so that it becomes apparent to yourself. So that you can see what transpires in the depth of you mind — and what goes on there you wouldn’t believe, ladies and gentlemen — and learn which misconceptions, guilts and fears, with their resultant repressions, inhibitions and insecurities, have formed the pattern for your past behavior. A successively recurring pattern since childhood.

The feeling is that of an unmarshaling of the thoughts as you’ve customarily associated them. The lessening of conscious control, similar to the mental process which takes place when we dream. For example, when you’re asleep and your mind no longer concerned with matters and activities of the day, your subconscious often brings itself to your attention by dreaming. With conscious controls relaxed, those thoughts buried deep inside begin to come to the surface in the form of dreams. These dreams, since they appear to us in symbolic guise, are fantasies and, if you will accept the reasoning, could be classified as hallucinations. Such fantasies, or hallucinations, are inside every one of us, waiting to be released, aired and understood. Dreams are really the emotions that we find ourselves reluctant to examine, think about, or meditate upon, while conscious.
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Video of Elvis Costello's great tune "New Amsterdam"

Video of Dylan's My Back Pages - The classic performance at BobFest by Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, George Harrison,Neil Young,Tom Petty,and Roger McGuinn

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Our thoughts on bi-partisanship after reading Krugman's editorial in yesterday morning's New York Times

By Pablo Fanque,
National Affairs Editor

I had planned to write a long, learned, disquisition on Krugman's Op-ed piece in yesterday's New York Times. This is one of the most depressing essays I've ever read. . .mainly because it was all true. And these are the people with whom we are supposed to forge a bond of cooperation? I don't think so. The G.O.P. should be happy with the fact we aren't about to embark on a massive Necktie Party, or pogrom, or a nation-wide Party Cleansing; God knows, they've earned it. As far as cooperating, I think we should "just say no," unless it is most specifically in our best interest. This collage by fellow editor Jack Brummet captures my feelings, exactly, on how to proceed with bipartisanship in today's climate:


click to enlarge
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Painting: downstream

click to enlarge

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