Dear Mr. Colbert:  Frankenoid again, in "that oxygen deprived, granola snarfing, watery beer making, mountain bike riding, Camelbak toting, Patagonia wearing, Norad adjacent, rectangular state bordered,  John Hickenlooper mayored, high miled [sic] cesspool" known as Denver.

Last week I invited you  to be the keynote speaker at the SquareState/Garden Blogging DNC Open House and Meeting of the Colorado Chocolate Fountain Caucus.

Not only that, I sweetened the offer with the promise of all the watery beer you can drink, courtesy of SquareState.net, the Convention credentialed blog for Colorado, and I promised to name our kitten after you.  How could you resist both saving a dear little pootie from being called Caligula and knowing we were shouting "Steve Coal Burt" around the neighborhood as we called the cat?

I was disappointed to have not received an acceptance.  But then I figured it out.

It's the Big Blue Bear.

Cross-posted at Docudharma.

Glacier National Park, The Crown of the Continent, was established in 1910.  Located in northwest Montana, it adjoins Waterton Lakes National Park, Canada.  The eastern side of the park borders the Blackfeet Nation.  The Blackfeet named the region Backbone of the World.  They sold the land to the US govt. in 1896 for mining purposes but they retained the rights to gather plant foods and medicines and to fish & hunt the animals.  Fortunately, no gold or silver were found so the ecosystem remained fairly pristine over time.  It is still sacred Indian land.

Mountain Goats on Hidden Lake Trail    

Photos were taken with a Canon PowerShot S80 (point & shoot) and have been edited and Photoshopped to adjust the light, sharpness, and color quality.  Click images for a larger version.

Just because I loved typing the words "Marauding bear pack".

crossposted at Legal Fiction (my other blog)

I am reporting today with both very good and exceptionally (potentially) horrible news for people watching the Supreme Court.

First, I'll give you the gross news. SCOTUSblog is speculating that Scalia is writing the decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which could be released as soon as Wednesday, the next time the Court releases orders. They make this conclusion based in part on the fact that Scalia hasn't written a majority opinion from the March sitting of the Court. I would follow their reasoning, but for another reason entirely: Scalia doesn't have a "career" opinion yet.

 Earth Day is officially marked tomorrow, April 22, but we are constantly reminded that every day should be Earth Day when the environment and particular species are threatened.  Here is yet another  example.
 We may be "used to" hearing horror stories about poaching of animals for "medicinal" parts in far off places like Africa and India, but who would think we are now facing a similar explosion of exploitation here in the U.S.  Bears are being slaughtered for their gallbladders.
 Defenders of Wildlife is asking citizens to contact their Representatives and urge them to cosponsor to the Bear Protection Act   H.R. 5534 that would ban the trade of bear parts at the Federal level.
 Send a notice to your Congressperson

Installment Two in our new series on the nameless Sycophant/Crony/Underling/Minion Obfuscators (This description is a bit more precise, and makes a better acronym).

Sure, it should be some IRS middling muddler, but there is someone you all need to meet, and for him I have some material ready at hand.

Just when you thought you knew enough about No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to know you knew too much, comes the driving force behind one of the biggest frauds of NCLB, Reading First: Dr. Reid Lyon.

Why does John McCain hate bears? I only ask this because he likes to take every opportunity to ridicule a project dedicated to counting the number of grizzly bears in Glacier National Park in Montana. This sounded like something that was worthwhile, after all how can you determine what should be done in regards to bear population when you have no idea how many bears are out there. John McCain seems to disagree, even more than a month after the WaPo ran a detailed article on it. How do I know he still thinks bears are a waste of money? He went after them again on the Hardball College Tour today. I think I should take the time to remind John just what he thinks is a waste of money.

"It's not surprising that John McCain thinks there is no point to studying the DNA of bears, but even as he denounces its funding as frivolous, Obama and Clinton should then be as fervent in their support of such initiatives."

(Crossposted in part on eenrblog.)

In 2002, during Republican Governor Frank Murkowski's term, the Alaska Board of Fish and Game ignored the will of Alaskan voters for for a second time and began an aerial assault on Alaskan wolves in order to boost moose and caribou populations in a specific district near McGrath, Alaska. (Voters overwhelmingly voted against aerial predator control in 1996 and again in 2000). Each subsequent year, the Board expanded the number of districts, and now aerial "predator control" spans almost 50,000 square miles, and has resulted in over 700 wolf kills by Alaska Fish and Game. There are an estimated 7,700-11,000 remaining in the entire state of Alaska, thus around 8-10% of the state's population of wolves have already been killed.

The goal of Republican Governor Sarah Palin and the Board is to leave wildlife biologists out of the decision-making process, and cull 80% of the wolf population in five enormous wolf-rich districts, and very recently bears have been added to the cull-schedule.

More info and action links below.

The slaughter of cougars, wolves, coyotes, and other carnivores, has been common in North America since colonists arrived nearly four centuries ago. Today, the war on carnivores continues. The U.S government alone kills over three million animals, including 100,000 carnivores. Animals are poisoned, trapped, snared, beheaded, clubbed, shot from the air, and gassed in their dens. And state agencies, as well as private interests, are in the extermination business too.

But you can help stop this madness. Read more to learn how.

Rarely does the enemy make his ignorance a campaign issue in his own ads.  This should be brought up in the science debate.  

McCain has been denouncing and ridiculing a particular scientific study on bears as "a waste of money," in an effort to appear tough on pork.  In fact this is a perfectly valid and valuable scientific study about counting bears, according to WAPO.  So why does this project draw his ire?  Apparently because it has something to do with DNA.  Also plainly obvious is McCain's total ignorance of the scientific value of DNA sampling.  Quote McCain:

"Approach a bear: 'That bear cub over there claims you are his father, and we need to take your DNA.' Approach another bear: 'Two hikers had their food stolen by a bear, and we think it is you. We have to get the DNA.' The DNA doesn't fit, you got to acquit, if I might."

The only things Senator John McCain seems to know about DNA is from watching CSI and Judge Judy and the OJ trial.  Has any candidate since Reagan so loudly declared his scientific ignorance?

This is an ecological ballet, as most ecosystem descriptions are. Instead of a young girl, a weird uncle, a decorative kitchen utensil with a sword, and armies of mice, its corps de ballet includes birds, trees, squirrels, grizzly bears, alien invaders (lots of aliens), and even Indians and their successors. It is set on a stage above 8000 feet extending from Yellowstone to Glacier National Park.

The final acts remain unfinished, subject to revision. It is rated R, since it contains some sex and violence. You may wish to provide your own adult language.

Ralph Maughan's Wildife News reports that a grizzly bear has been shot in north-central Idaho, a place where grizzlies haven't been seen since 1946.

Before now, black bear baiters (I can't call this Tennessee shooter a hunter, since he was using bait, not going out and actually hunting) weren't warned to watch out for grizzlies in the spot where this one was shot because grizzlies were thought to be extinct in that location.

It's typically illegal to shoot a grizzly in most U.S. places because they're legally defined as a "threatened" species. Well, self defense is allowed.

Idaho Statesman newspaper: Chris Servheen, [federal] grizzly bear recovery coordinator, would say only that the death was under investigation.

Asked if it was sad to confirm the presence of a grizzly in this way, Servheen, based in Missoula, Mont., said, "Yeah, it's really sad to see this bear dead. It's a beautiful grizzly bear. I know the hunter and guide are very sad also.

It's nice to read that grizzlies have allies somewhere. Larry Craig wouldn't be counted among them, of course.

For over century the Pacific Northwest's full bounty served as spoil not only for the United States but the whole world. As those resources continue to be expoited Oregon's timber industry is doing your bidding, but who asked for them to assassinate wildlife?

Well, I'm rattled.  A good-sized black bear wound up in my quiet city-centre neighbourhood, and climbed a big blue spruce in the front yard of the house on the corner.

Lots of cops arrived... the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources came along with a cage-cart... a crowd gathered.

So they darted him, he fell hard, and ran into the back yard... where he was dispatched with four shotgun blasts from the cops.

It was a sad crowd that dispersed, many in tears.

My point? I dunno. Norman Podhoretz thinks we should bomb Iran.

Any form of killing is an abomination, and those who speak so easily of such things are very sick.

Mr. President,
It was obvious from the start of your administration that the motto inscribed over the White House cabinet offices and over all U.S. Government institutions throughout the country read "No press allowed" and "fidem praestare alioqui abductum," loosly translated as  (always faithful or else).

Right-wing attack machines such as Fox and radio talk-show pundits like Rush Limbaugh were primed from day one to volley a hailstorm of vicious attacks towards anyone who violated those two commandments.

Back when you first took office candidates for critical government positions had to exude bush-loyalty before they were seriously considered. Competence and experience didn't seem to stand in the way.

If you couldn't find enough uber-loyal bush loyalists to fill the thousands of government positions, you either lowered the standard or bought your way out of it by contracting the jobs out and paid for their loyalty.

(This was written for a local paper, about local outrages, but it has been suggested that it might also travel to other people, in other places. Links to some of the more obscure references provided, when possible, throughout.)

My daughter has always been attuned to suffering. When still but a toddler, those she perceived as in some sort of pain she dubbed "poor," and she felt compelled to actively empathize by formally, soberly, petting them. This gift she bestowed indiscriminately, from bloated dead sea lions festering on the beach, to cruelly shaped and tamed ornamental shrubbery.

"Poor car," she would say, running her hand over some rusted, abandoned junkheap. "Nice car."

My daughter has not yet experienced that cruel and abusive torment of nature known today as  "Downtown City Plaza." I know, though, that she would instantly see it for what it is: crabbed, crimped, crippled. Sterile, suffering, more or less dead. She would gaze upon it with compassion, and then she would ask: "Can I pet the nice park, daddy?"

Crossposted from Town Called Dobson


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