Sunflower Desert

From the Star Tribune.

By KATHLEEN MILLER
Associated Press writer

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Opponents of removing wolves from the federal endangered species protection in Wyoming far outnumbered supporters of delisting wolves at a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service public hearing on wolf management Tuesday.

“The Endangered Species Act has been hugely successful in restoring the gray wolf and we want it to stay that way,” Sierra Club regional spokesman Adam Rissien said at the hearing.

Wolf advocate Emily Swift read an essay she wrote about family vacations in Yellowstone Park before urging the panel to rethink delisting wolves.

“I believe this country should be thinking about future generations and I would like my children to be able to appreciate the wolves as I have,” Swift said.

The state and federal governments have been litigating over the issue of wolf management since the rejection of the state’s first wolf management plan in 2004. The situation has so far prevented removing wolves from federal protections in Wyoming and also in Montana and Idaho. Recently the federal government has begun steps to turn over management to the other states and says it’s prepared to continue to manage the animals in Wyoming alone if necessary.

The Fish and Wildlife Service proposed designation of the permanent wolf management area in Wyoming last fall. The proposal calls for the area to extend from Cody south to Meeteetse, around the western boundary of the Wind River Reservation down to Pinedale, west to the Alpine area and then back north to Yellowstone National Park.

Fremont County resident Darlene Vaughan said she thought she was one of the few people at the meeting who had personal experience with wolves on her property.

“It’s time to delist the Rocky Mountain gray wolf from the endangered species list,” she said. “It’s past time to delist them.

“I am concerned with the amount of private property that is within the line that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife has drawn on our state,” Vaughan said. “I think that people should have their constitutional right to defend their private property and that is what concerns me the most.”

Vaughan’s husband, Dave, said he believes the presence of four wolves on his property several years ago resulted in the loss of 20 percent of his herd that year, and ultimately drove his ranch out of business.

“How many business owners can afford to lose 20 percent of their income?” Vaughan said.

Ken Hamilton, a representative of the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, agreed with Vaughan.

“Private property in the state of Wyoming should not be asked to sacrifice,” Hamilton said.

“I represent agricultural people throughout the state of Wyoming. These are the folks that have their livestock torn up by wolves. They aren’t compensated for that.”

Approximately 40 conservation group members who traveled from Boulder, Colo., and Fort Collins, Colo., to testify at the hearing made up a large percentage of those who spoke against the delisting of wolves.

“The restoration of the gray wolf in the northern Rockies has been an unparalleled success story,” Boulder resident and National Resources Defense Council representative Amy Mall said.

“Wolves are vital to the health of the region’s ecosystem and they benefit the region’s economy.”

Mall added that Wyoming often uses wolf imagery to attract tourists to the state.

“Wolves might be a national treasure but Wyoming has to live with this issue,” Bob Wharf of Wyoming Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife said during a break in testimony. “Once wolves are delisted, it will be solely on our dime.”

Several hearing participants wished more residents from the western part of Wyoming had been at the meeting. They said that calving season and treacherous travel conditions had probably affected turnout.

Ed Bangs, a gray wolf recovery coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said public comment on the wolf management issue will be accepted until May 9. He said the agency plans to hold a second public hearing in Cody at the end of March.

Wolf supporters show up in force? Yes, but it sounds like most of them were from Colorado.

Anybody taking bets? I first saw this posted at Sweetness & Light and figured since I play guess which political party or guess which religion of peace the person belongs to here at my blog — well, I should just post it.

Because you can click on the link and read the entire story, I’m just going to post the highlight:

Preliminary tests on a white, powdery substance found on the graduate student, whose name and nationality was not released, showed it was powdered sugar, said Lt. Col. David Boyle of the Missouri National Guard. Authorities said the student could face charges.

Comments like that just make us assume the “international student” might be a muslim. Might not be, but might.

Is this a paid position in some states? Really, I’m not sure but it made me chuckle a bit. Granted, I’m not an artsy type person — maybe you can tell by looking at my blog? My apologies to any of my artsy friends reading this.

By The Associated Press

HELENA - Montana’s first poet laureate has largely relied on the kindness of friends and strangers to make ends meet during the past 18 months.

The position created by the 2005 Legislature isn’t paid. To make up for that, Poet Laureate Sandra Alcosser of Florence has pinched pennies by carpooling to poetry readings, accepting donations and staying in people’s homes - rather than hotels - in the communities she’s visited.

Last month, she asked lawmakers to make things easier on the next poet laureates by compensating them for travel expenses.

Not for her mind you, the next poet laureates. She’s okay with pinching pennies and carpooling, mooching off people here and there.

The House rejected that request Saturday, 53-47. Opponents called any payment unnecessary and said the position should remain an honorary one.

I’m amazed the vote was this close. 47 Representatives wanted to blow MT money on this lady traveling around reciting poetry? I would imagine their constituents would not appreciate this, but I was wrong once — and might be again. Who knows?

“This is truly growing government in a nonrequired way,” said Rep. John Sinrud, R-Bozeman. “How is this going to help the people of Montana who need health insurance or who need child support or day care? It doesn’t do anything for the state of Montana.”

Rep. Robin Hamilton, D-Missoula, said his bill wouldn’t spend state money.

Instead, it would allow the Montana Arts Council to use about $4,000 in federal grant money to reimburse travel expenses under the position, he said.

There, it happened again — I was wrong! It would not be MT money. It would be United States Citizen’s money paying for the MT state poet. That makes it much better.

Rep. Franke Wilmer, D-Bozeman, said she’s “ashamed” that Alcosser has had to “pass the hat” for her travel costs and urged lawmakers to vote for the bill.

I’ll admit that it’s just me being bitter here, but how about just getting a real job? You know, then pay your own expenses?

Opponents said the Arts Council is already strapped for cash, and wondered where it would get the extra grant money for such expenses.

Others worried the bill would lead to requests for more money or a salary.

Seriously? Nah, wouldn’t happen, would it?

“This person knew up front it was going to be an honorary position,” Rep. Bruce Malcolm, R-Emigrant, said.

Ah ha! There’s the key. I wonder if she knew what exactly was meant by honorary position?

“There was no money from the state for it. I’m sorry, but that’s the rules of the game. I don’t think this body needs to start down this slippery road in spending more money.”

UPDATE: HotAir has a thread on this too.

UPDATE: Michelle has some of the comments by lefties on her blog. I’m not surprised by their comments — just disgusted.

Texas Rainmaker has it too.

By ALISA TANG

(AP) U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, center, arrives for a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai,… Full Image

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) - A suicide bomber attacked the entrance to the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan Tuesday during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney, killing at least 14 people and wounding a dozen more. The Taliban claimed responsibility and said Cheney was the target.

Cheney’s spokeswoman said he was fine, and the vice president later met with President Hamid Karzai in the capital, Kabul, before leaving the country.

There were conflicting reports on the death toll. Provincial Gov. Abdul Jabar Taqwa said 20 people were killed, while NATO said initial reports indicated three fatalities, including a U.S. soldier, a South Korean coalition soldier and a U.S. government contractor whose nationality wasn’t immediately known. NATO said 27 people also were wounded.

It was unclear why there was such a large discrepancy in the reports. Associated Press reporters at the scene said they had seen the bodies of at least 12 people carried in black body bags and wooden coffins from near the base into a market area where hundreds of Afghans had gathered to mourn.

Maj. William Mitchell said it did not appear the explosion was intended as a threat to the vice president. “He wasn’t near the site of the explosion,” Mitchell said. “He was safely within the base at the time of the explosion.”

However, a purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said Cheney was the target of the attack.

“We knew that Dick Cheney would be staying inside the base,” Ahmadi told AP telephone from an undisclosed location. “The attacker was trying to reach Cheney.”

Ahmadi said the attack was carried out by an Afghan called Mullah Abdul Rahim from Logar province.

The explosion happened near the first of at least three gated checkpoints vehicles must pass through before gaining access to Bagram.

The sprawling base houses 5,100 U.S. troops and 4,000 other coalition forces and contractors. High security areas within the base are blocked by their own checkpoints. It was unclear how an attacker could expect to penetrate the base, locate the vice president and get close to him without detection.

“We maintain a high-level of security here at all times. Our security measures were in place and the killer never had access to the base,” said Lt. Col. James E. Bonner, the base operations commander. “When he realized he would not be able to get onto the base he attacked the local population.”

It was not the first attack apparently aimed at a top U.S. official in Afghanistan. In January 2006, a militant blew himself up in Uruzgan province during a supposedly secret visit by the U.S. ambassador, killing 10 Afghans.

Khan Shirin, a private security guard, sobbed near the dead body of his relative, Farvez, a truck driver and the representative of transport association that hauls goods for the U.S. base. Shirin said many of the people killed were truck drivers waiting to get inside the base.

Ajmall, a shopkeeper, said the “huge” blast shook a small market where he has a stall about 500 yards from the Bagram base. Ajmall, who goes by one name, said those wounded in the blast were taken inside the U.S. base for treatment.

One of the dozen U.S. soldiers standing guard near the blast site said that most bodies had been returned to their families, and that some may have died of their wounds at the military hospital.

“It’s a bad, bad day,” said the soldier, who declined to give his name.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said one of its troops stationed in Bagram, Sgt. Yoon Jang-ho, 27, was killed in the explosion. South Korea has about 200 engineers and medics in Bagram.

Cheney, who spent the night at Bagram, left the base about two hours after the 10 a.m. blast. The explosion sent up a plume of smoke visible by reporters inside the base traveling with Cheney, and American military officials declared a “red alert” inside the base.

Earlier, he ate with soldiers, telling reporters that “breakfast was excellent” but making no other comments.

In Kabul, Cheney was met by armed guards with guns drawn on the tarmac and was rushed by ground convoy to the presidential palace, where he and Karzai walked a long receiving line and past oriental rugs laid out on the wet, stone pavement.

Cheney and Karzai were expected to discuss the surge in violence in Afghanistan. Five years after their fundamentalist regime was toppled, Taliban-led militants have stepped up attacks and Afghan, U.S. and NATO forces are bracing for a fresh wave of violence in the spring.

There were 139 suicide bombings last year, a five-fold increase over 2005, and Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez has said he expects the number of suicide bombs to rise even further in 2007.

In the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, meanwhile, a suicide attacker targeting Afghan police blew himself up, wounding three people, said police officer Abdul Nafai.

NATO-led troops patrolling the city also fatally shot a civilian who drove too close to their convoy, police said, the third such fatal shooting this month. Squadron Leader David Marsh, a military spokesman, said soldiers had given signals for the car to stop but that it kept approaching.

—

Associated Press reporters Amir Shah in Bagram and Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.

I thank God he is safe.

Because he blogs on it often, I just wanted to post in support of I Can Plainly See’s efforts. After all, it’s the weekend, and what can be more fun than posting an article that refers to AlGore as an exaggerator. Of course, I’m not sure why we give the dude that invented the internet such a hard time. It’s a great invention and we should just appreciate the fact that he brought it to us.

A climatologist at the Cato Institute says former Vice President Al Gore’s climate change concerts will do little more than add to the public hysteria over global warming. The former VP’s “extreme view” on global warming, says the climatologist, is not supported by scientific literature.

Gore recently announced plans for a 24-hour global concert dubbed “Live Earth” featuring more than 100 popular rock musicians. The event is part of the “Save Our Selves” campaign to address what Gore calls a global climate crisis. Promoters of the event predict it will bring in an audience of two billion people.

Patrick Michaels is a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute, and author of the book Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians and the Media. He says the “Save Our Selves” campaign is based on a flawed premise.

“Gore is known to exaggerate things,” he says bluntly, “and [on] global warming he has a very extreme view that really has no reasonable support at all in the refereed scientific literature.”

So what is Gore’s view? “His view is that somehow in a hundred years that a massive amount of ice is going to fall off of Greenland [and] sea levels will rise ten feet or more unless we do something within the next eight years about this,” Michaels explains.

The Cato Institute fellow contends that, in the first place, there is really nothing one can do. “And number two,” he concludes, “his scenario just really doesn’t have much grounding in the science literature.”

Michaels says Gore and the musicians he has enlisted will see nothing hypocritical about flying a private jet to the concert because they believe their work is more important than that of others.

Conserve as I say, not as I do (found via Michelle)

Let’s just hope these men are still alive by the time justice finally prevails.

From OneNewsNow again:

A North Carolina congressman is once again calling on President Bush to pardon two imprisoned Border Patrol agents in light of the release of court transcripts from their trial. The lawmaker says he hopes to make public a letter to the president on the matter in hopes of rallying Americans to the defense of the agents.

North Carolina Congressman Walter Jones is sending yet another letter to the White House today, urging the president to take action on behalf of El Paso Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean. The men are serving 11 and 12 years respectively in a federal prison for shooting a fleeing illegal alien who was attempting to smuggle 743 pounds of marijuana into the U.S. The Mexican national was granted immunity for testifying against the agents.

Representative Jones is seizing on a report that shows the judge in the case did not allow the defense to present evidence to the jury of a second drug offense committed by the illegal alien. That revelation prompted yet more outrage from critics who say the government was more interested in prosecuting the agents than the drug smuggler.

The lawmaker explains he and more than 50 of his Republican House colleagues plan to solicit the president’s intervention in getting Ramos and Compean out of prison until all the appeals have been heard. “I believe sincerely that the prosecutor, Mr. Sutton, down in Texas … was overzealous in this effort,” says Jones. “I think there’s too many questions about the indictment and the prosecution for these men to be sitting in federal prison.”

Jones vows that he and his colleagues will not let the issue go — even though Congress is in recess this week and most lawmakers are back home. “I can assure you … we are preparing a letter to the president to bring this to his attention,” he says, adding that they plan to release the letter publicly in hopes that “the American people will again rally and ask the president to pardon these two men.”

An attorney for agent Ramos has asked for a mistrial, arguing prosecutor Johnny Sutton withheld an exculpatory Department of Homeland Security memo from the defense during the trial.

Only because I blogged about their more than easy escape. Let’s bring some closure here. Okay, that’s the last 15 seconds of fame I’m giving these thugs. I do wonder if they will go to real jail or fake honor jail.

Anyone find this surprising?

A top executive with the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps says he’s pleased that a former Border Patrol agent is now free after it was learned that prosecutors had given an illegal immigrant various incentives to testify against the agent.

David Sipe was convicted in 2001 for using excessive force in the arrest of a Mexican national in 2000. But the conviction has since been reversed after an appeals court ordered a retrial, saying the illegal alien had been given a “get-out-of-jail-free card,” a Social Security number, and cash incentives to testify against Sipe.

Al Garza, national executive director of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, says he finds it “totally bizarre” that a court would find the testimony of an illegal immigrant more credible than that of a law enforcement officer. He is hopeful that Sipe’s acquittal will be a good sign for two other former Border Patrol agents, convicted in a similar case.

Those agents remain in federal custody — Jose Alonso Compean, sentenced to12 years in prison, and Ignacio Ramos, 11 years — after being convicted of failing to file proper documentation in the shooting of an illegal alien drug trafficker they were chasing. Garza contends Compean and Ramos were just “doing their job.”

UPDATE:  A few links regarding undocumented workers,  issuing credit cards to undocumented workers, and upcoming marching on the Pentagon. More may be added as I run across them.

Sweet. I just love stories with happy endings.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — A tour bus of U.S. senior citizens defended themselves against a group of alleged muggers, sending two of them fleeing and killing a third in the Atlantic coast city of Limon, police said on Thursday. One of the tourists _ a retired member of the U.S. military aged about 70 _ put assailant Warner Segura in a head lock and broke his clavicle after the 20-year-old and two other men armed with a knife and gun held up their tour bus Wednesday, said Luis Hernandez, the police chief of Limon, 80 miles east of San Jose.

The two other men fled when the 12 senior citizens started defending themselves. The tourists then drove Segura to the Red Cross where the man was declared dead. The Red Cross also treated one of the tourists for an anxiety attack, Hernandez said.

The tourists left on their Carnival cruise after the incident and Hernandez said authorities do not plan to press any charges against them, saying they acted in self defense.

“They were in their right to defend themselves after being held up,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez said Segura had previous charges against him for assaults.

In a media statement, Miami, Fla.-based Carnival Cruise Lines said the Wednesday incident occurred during an outing at a Limon beach which a group of a dozen passengers had arranged on their own.

“According to witnesses, while sightseeing at a local beach, the group of guests were approached by three assailants, one of whom was armed,” the statement said.

“The victims struggled with the armed perpetrator, and were able to disarm him. During this process, the gunman’s two accomplices fled the scene. In the course of disarming and restraining the assailant, he died from apparent asphyxiation.”

Neither the Costa Rican police nor Carnival identified the man involved in the struggle with the mugger.

The cruise line said the guests were questioned by local law enforcement and then returned to the ship. The ship’s departure from Limon was slightly delayed to await their return.

“All of the guests involved, who had booked the cruise together as a group, have opted to continue with their vacation plans. Carnival is providing full support and assistance to the guests,” according to the statement.

The ship, The Carnival Liberty, continued on its scheduled itinerary, with a port call scheduled in Colon, Panama.

Isn’t it awesome to see people stand up against crime? Criminals love it when people are trained to just give them what they ask for — this way no one gets hurt. Well, entering into a type of social contract with a criminal is not smart. I mean, you are trusting a criminal to keep their end of a bargain, and criminals are lying thugs. Sometimes someone should get hurt, and that someone should be the criminal. It really is the quickest way to learn that crime doesn’t pay.

UPDATE: Looks like Allah over at H/A found this story too.

UPDATE: This story gives a few more details. Apparently the senior citizen who “snapped” the perp’s neck was a former Marine (I’ve learned there is no such thing as a former Marine.)

Sounds like a plan. Who needs another Hitler?

The president of Jewish Leadership (Manhigut Yehudit), a pro-Jewish movement and the largest faction within Israel’s Likud Party, says that, if he is elected prime minister, he would order the assassination of Iranian strongman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Shmuel Sackett, international director of the movement, believes that makes Moshe Feiglin a uniquely qualified candidate to lead Israel.

Feiglin recently told an Israeli radio program that if he became Israel’s next prime minister, he would try to eliminate Ahmadinejad by dispatching a special operations squad to Iran with orders to assassinate the Iranian dictator. Sackett, who co-founded Jewish Leadership with Feiglin, says the movement’s president is “serious” about taking out the Iranian leader, who has repeatedly vowed to wipe Israel off the map.

Feiglin “wants to send a team in to immediately annihilate this individual and put him into the history books,” Sackett notes. And this is significant, he suggests, because “[w]e had better take our enemies seriously; no one took a guy named Adolf Hitler too seriously in the 1920’s.

“Moshe Feiglin is the only candidate, the only one in Israel today, from all sides, calling for the immediate assassination of Iranian President Ahmadinejad, the only one saying we must immediately put a bullet in this animal’s head.” Jewish Leadership’s international director emphasizes. “Nobody else is saying that,” he asserts, “and that shows people [Feiglin is] serious — he’s ready to deal with the Iranian threat.”

Sackett says Feiglin outdid former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a recent poll of support for potential Israeli prime ministerial candidates. The Jewish Leadership Movement believes new elections will occur sometime next fall.

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