Life of Bot

RIP MJ

Michael Jackson - Human Nature (live)
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Tragedy in Cooke City

  
(View from the bottom)

   

    I've been in Cooke City, MT for the better part of two weeks and it has snowed approximately 4 feet in that time. According to avalanche experts, the danger has been extremely high. The sun came out for the first time on Saturday. I checked with the local avalanche reports and the danger was still high to considerable above aspects of 35 degrees or higher. They also said not to gain false confidence due to the blue skies.

    Kurt Heine, John Jackson, Pat Moore and myself took to the hills with all these conditions in mind and did our best to stay out of the way of any avalanche possibilities. We had a good, long day and made it back to the Exxon station in Cooke City at 6:30pm. As we were gassing our sleds for tomorrow, an emergency call was sent out that a massive avalanche had been set off in the Daisy area of the Cooke City mountains. We responded immediately and sped back up the hill in the dark to find the above slide. We worked tirelessly with the local search and rescue teams to try and uncover a buried snowmobiler. It became apparent that we were not going to find him in the pitch black and the Sheriff called off the search around 10:30pm. The photo above was taken at 8:00am Sunday morning.
    The slide was caused by a snowmobiler. He became stuck near the top of the of the slide path. As he was getting his snowmobile unstuck, it flipped over and began to roll down the face. This is the cause of the avalanche and it broke 40 feet above him. Rescue crews were out this morning with rescue dogs in search of the missing snowmobiler who has yet to be found as of this point.
    I would like to send out my prayers to his family and friends and to let you all know that all of us, (Pat, John, Kurt, & myself), are all fine and in good health.

(Look at the massive crown)


(Long shot from across the valley)




UPDATE

    The rescue ended today at 12:45pm with the body of the avalanche victim found approximately 4 feet under the snow. Unfortunately, his transceiver was found in the off position extending the search into two days. Kurt Heine was there as the rescue dogs pinpointed the victim's location and was then removed from the scene. I've attached a couple more photos.

(The small dots up the hill are people at the point of recovery)


(Another look at the crown. I'm guesstimating it to be 10-20 feet deep)

just hilarious

"US Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain (R-AZ) reacts to almost heading the wrong way off the stage after shaking hands with Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) at the conclusion of the final presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, October 15, 2008. REUTERS/Jim Bourg"

You need to be registered to Vote.

    As you are all aware, The presidential campaign is in full swing with our two main opponents being Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. This is the first election in our history as a country where one of the two main candidates is a minority, more specifically African-American.
    When I was in High School, I was talked into, by a good friend of mine, to help work on a campaign for Lenora B. Fulani. She was an African-American running for the president. She had a lot of things going against her and I think that's probably why I wanted to be involved. She was a woman, a minority and virtually an unknown. I went door-to-door and also rallied as well as protested. You see, she did not have enough pull to be taken seriously enough by the big candidates to be allowed  in the national debates. I was there in Manchester, NH protesting her exclusion from the debates. When Bill Clinton came out of the doors from the debate I walked up to him and asked why she had not been allowed to debate and he grabbed my hat and chose to comment on the football team I was sporting instead. It made it onto CNN. Later on, I traveled with Fulani's entourage to New York to attend a big-to-do dinner and played a show there, (I used to be in a band). I got to sit at the same dinner table as Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton. I believe both of those guys has turned out to be crazy, in one way or another, but at the time I was pretty impressed. After that election, which I was not even old enough to vote in, I stepped away from polotics altogether, Clinton won for the next two years, which all in all I was happy about.

     Then came Bush, I actually could not believe that he won, he was and continues to be, a straight-up idiot. Then of course, the 9/11 tragedy took place and changed everything, Jenn and I had bought our first house and had just barely moved in when that occurred. It wasn't the tragedy that made me so angry, but, the actions that were taken by our own government, and the use of the publics confusion to manipulate the laws. When the time came to vote, I made damned sure I was going to take advantage of it. I remember this one conversation in particular at Steamer's Bar and Grill with an acquaintance of mine, we were talking about how messed up Bush was and how wrong everything seemed to be going and we both agreed on this fervently, I asked who he planned on voting for and he straight-faced said Bush. "Are you frickin' kidding me?" I said, "what about everything you were just complaining about", and he said "we're in it too deep now, it will be worse if we change strageties in the middle of this conflict". I was befuddled. It reminds me, in retrospect, of an abusive relationship where the victim convinces themselves that it's their fault, or, it's not going to do anything but bring trouble if they speak up. Bullshit. I'm starting to think, that the decline in the American citizen's participation probably began with the assasination of John F. Kennedy and countinued with the Vietnam War and climaxed with the "nail in the coffin" betrayal of President Nixon during the Watergate scandals. After all that, it's easy to see how people just don't have any faith left in their government or in the process. Unfortunately, after the last 8 years of questionable tactics used by those in control to use us to their advantage, I beg of you to take part in the process. I will, I promise.
     Before you can vote, you have to register. With the election coming up in November, it only leaves a very short time to make sure that you are registered. It's not a party with a guest list or a VIP booth, you have to take the action to made yourself be heard. As for who you vote for, I couldn't care less, vote for Donald Duck, just take part in the process. The elections are on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008.

    Here's a couple of ways to get registered:

To register by mail: http://www.canivote.org/pdfs/NVRA_Updated_Version.pdf

To register online:

http://www.vote411.org/registertovote.php

http://www.rockthevote.com/rtv_register.html

https://www.voteforchange.com/

To register as an absentee voter and if you are serving overseas in the military:

https://www.overseasvotefoundation.org/overseas/home.htm