No Sir Probably not that much. LOL
Some gallows humor on my part. Got to admit he was a strong liberal that support causes that I certainly opposed and feel would destroy our great country. Misguided till the end…. now part of the history of this great country. RIP Teddy

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Photo by Moose

So are we to believe that the Senator is going to take up hunting with her concern over fair chase when it comes to Alaska wolves? Somehow I doubt it but I did get a kick out of a recent editorial on the subject in Juneau Empire

Feinstein did so, at least in part, because she believes the state’s effort violates “the hunting principle of fair chase.”
No, it does not, because, as she said, Alaska’s wolf control program is not sport.
“Fair chase” is a loose, ever-shifting set of guidelines employed by individual hunters who, for a variety of personal reasons, often make their hunts more difficult for themselves and thus potentially less lethal to their prey. More power to them, but such standards are illogical when attempting to manage wildlife populations.
What homeowner would set a mouse trap but leave it unbaited just to give the mice a chance? What farmer would put cats in the barn but remove their claws so the rats have a fair shake?
When attempting to control an animal population, neither individuals nor the government can apply standards of fair chase, because those standards are designed solely to make success more difficult. In a control effort, the intent is to kill the animal. The most efficient, quickest method should be used. The state of Alaska follows that mandate when it kills wolves using gunners in aircraft.

The editorial is right on the money the killing of the wolves by the state of Alaska is not for sport but an effort to control specie that is getting out of balance. This is a smoke and mirrors attempt by the Senator to inject an idea to cloud the issue that just doesn’t belong in the discussion to begin with. If the Senator wants to look at some guiding principles how about this one;

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The Federal government has become too powerful and we need it to go back to the principles established by our founding fathers and restore the rights of the states and the people.

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A golden eagle died last month when it collided with a wind turbine blade at a 47-turbine wind farm in Klickitat County.

While this was the first known eagle death at this project historically projects like this kill raptors every year.

Though the golden eagle death is the first reported in Washington, raptor deaths have been common at wind projects elsewhere. Between 570 and 835 raptors are killed annually in wind turbines at California’s Altamont Pass Wind Power Resource Area, the world’s largest.

Columbian.com

While I’m not foolish enough to believe that any project whether green or not would be incident free it seems to be a double standard for many greeners. President Obama this week pushed ridiculous fuel economy standards on the struggling car industry this week and a standard that will put most of us driving small less safe vehicles.

I guess the bottom line is while I consider myself a conservationist but I’m not sold on the whole green thing.

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Sounds noble, but is it necessary? Should places such as Cape Hatteras National Seashore be managed in the same fashion as, say, Yellowstone National Park, which has a ban on lead fishing tackle and doesn’t allow hunting?

I wonder how many birds die from eating a lead weight used for surf fishing?

Bob Eakes, owner of Red Drum Tackle Shop in Buxton, who also sits on the board of the American Sportfishing Association.

“It took us by surprise,” he said. “This thing floored a lot of people. Ingested lead by birds and ducks is bad, but what bird can ingest an 8-ounce pyramid sinker? This park service is out of control. They’re not using good science.”

I’D agree it seems like the National Parks Service is out of control on this issue but should we be surprised with the bunch of lefties we got running this country? A lead ban on fishing tackle maybe the least of our problems.

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The Audubon Society has compiled 40 years of data to conclude that global warming is real and having a negative effect on many species of birds. By using the annual Christmas Bird count the data shows that many species have moved further north for the winter.

Birds are among the most adaptable of wildlife – as long as they can find suitable habitat, they are able to travel substantial distances north, inland, or to higher latitudes. That is one of the things that make them sensitive environmental indicators – alerting us to ecological disruption, often before it directly affects us. Audubon’s new analysis reveals that many species that winter in the U.S. are moving significantly north – strong evidence that global warming is already altering their – and our – environment. However, Audubon’s analysis also showed that some birds, including the majority of grassland species, are not following the trend — even as temperatures climb. For these species disappearing habitat is taking an enormous toll and leaving them with nowhere to go – even as climate change is altering what habitat remains.

While a few species within this study have had significant expansion (wild turkey moved north 400 miles) the vast majority had much less expanding only 40 miles north in 40 years.

Our recently-released Birds and Climate report clearly shows that climate change is affecting birds – and our world – now. For the past 40 years, as our climate has warmed, birds have shifted their winter ranges further and further north. This ecological disruption is yet another wakeup call that we must act quickly to solve the climate crisis. The birds’ northward movement is another signal that climate change is here and action is needed now.
We need global warming legislation that will help birds and wildlife survive what is coming by protecting their habitats and will reduce global warming pollution 80 percent by 2050 to avoid the worst impacts of a rapidly changing climate.

I’ll admit that I don’t buy the global warming theory and find it to be more a movement to force social change and to attack traditional American values. United States is behind a number of countries when it comes to the production of energy using nuclear power. The same kooks that protest Capitalism and oil protest any attempts to switch to nuclear power. Solar and Wind power is still a ways off while nuclear could be brought on line pretty quickly if political changes were put in place.
I find it hard to believe that a study like this could even be taken seriously when you look at some basic facts. In the overall timeline of the world what is the percentage of time represented by the 40 years of this study? A small sliver compared to the age of the earth so how can one seriously say that global warming is taken place.
I suspect changes in habitat maybe even some unrelated to an increase in the average temperature. The expansion of humans, especially development of urban areas has increased for many species the availability of food and shelter making winters more bearable.

Many species have seen an expansion in overall population of the specie. Doesn’t it make sense that some of this movement north would be the population growing into that area and not necessarily a decline in the specie?
While I find the study interesting I’m not sure it has convinced me that global warming is a real threat to our planet. Many of the traditional global warming advocates have switched their terminology recently to Global Climate Changes but Audubon seems to have missed a few places on their site. It is important to change that phrase when parts of the country have received some significant winter weather the past few years and some are predicting a potential ice age.

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Nations Top Firearms Salesman Announced on the eve before the opening of this years SHOT Show in Orlando Florida. The Outdoor Wire a leading daily news and information source for the shooting and outdoor sports industry has named Obama as the “Gun Salesman of the year”.

In recognition of the unprece­dented demand for firearms by nervous consumers, The Outdoor Wire has named President-elect Barack Obama its “Gun Salesman of the Year”. For me, it was a simple fact of recognizing that without President-elect Obama’s frightening consumers into action, the firearms industry might be suffering the same sort of business slumps that have befallen the automotive and housing industries.

It’s credit where credit is due. Mr. Obama has consistently voted against individual rights to firearms, appointed a re-tread Clinton administration full of gun banners, and made it plain to anti-gun groups that despite what he might say to the contrary, he’s on their side That history, along with the unquestioned support of anti-gun organizations has spooked consumers into a buying frenzy for firearms that could be outlawed in another Assault Weapons Ban.

Manufacturers are months behind on orders for semi-automatic pistols, AR-style rifles, and anything with so-called ‘high-capacity magazines, buyers we’ve surveyed across the country seem to have a single explanation for their rush to purchase firearms – Obama.

The buying panic is not limited to people you might be described as aficionados or even ‘gun nuts’. Recently, I was in a gun store when a gentleman came and said he’d never wanted to own a gun before, but wanted to get one while he still could.”

Since the November Presidential election, firearms sales have been at unprecedented levels. For December 2008 the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) recorded a twenty-four percent increase in background checks for 2008 (1,523,426) over December 2007 (1,230,525).

This follows a forty-two percent (42%) increase in November 2008, the highest number of NICS checks in the system’s history. Those FBI background checks are required under federal law for all individuals purchasing firearms from federally licensed firearms retailers. In other words, gun sales have never been better.

Sales are so good that on Tuesday, January 6, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) issued a notice to all federal firearms licensees that “an unprecedented increase in demand for ATF Form 4473 had run supplies low enough that dealers were temporarily given permission to photocopy the form until supplies caught up with demand. Completion of a form 4473 is required whenever a federal firearms licensee sells a fire­arm.

As a journalist with more than two decades of national newsgathering experience, I’ve never seen anything approaching what he calls the “Obama effect”. In fact, gun and ammunition sales are at such frantic levels that they have surpassed the panic-buying of Y2K or anything during the Clinton years when the first Assault Weapons Ban was passed. This time, he says, concerned consumers are buying guns and ammunition in anticipation of Obama Administration actions to prohibit certain types of firearms.

In 1999, the fear was that computers would shut down, crippling the world. Those fears were unfounded. I don’t think the fears of an Obama administration banning guns are unfounded. His record speaks for itself. He’s never failed to support an anti-gun measure, despite saying he supports the Second Amendment.

Moves to prohibit firearms sales would drastically impact a billion-dollar industry that is not only healthy, but pours more than one hundred fifty million dollars annually into conservation programs through an eleven percent tax collected on guns and ammo.

The Pittman-Robertson Act provides the vast majority of funding for wildlife agencies at the federal, state and local levels and that money comes directly from the tax levied against gun owners. Damaging the firearms industry won’t just put workers in the gun business out of work, it will severely impact wildlife and conservation efforts nationally. That damage could take decades to repair – if it can be undone.”

Choosing President-elect Obama as the Gun Salesman of the Year is a lot like a good-news, bad-news joke.His election has driven gun sales into the stratosphere, but his opposition to guns and gun ownership may be the biggest threat the industry has ever faced. If he puts scoring political points with anti-gun groups ahead of economic realities, he will be deliberately putting thousands of people out of work. I don’t see that as an economic stimulus plan with much of a future.”

“Today, the facts are indisputable. Barack Obama has spurred gun sales in a time when the entire economy seems to be tanking. If that doesn’t make him the gun salesman of the year – if not the decade – I don’t know what would.

- Jim Shepherd

There is little doubt that Mr. Obama has been great for gun sales I hope everyone is ready for the attack on our 2nd amendment rights that will be coming under this new regime. Now is the time to join organizations like the NRA that will stand up for our rights.

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NSSF’s letter also demands that the Obama campaign destroy all copies of the list, identify how they obtained the list and pay monetary damages to NSSF for its misappropriation and unauthorized use of the association’s intellectual property. NSSF demanded an immediate response from the Obama campaign and has threatened to file a lawsuit against the campaign if its demands are not met.

We’ll keep an eye on this one as it develops.

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