Yesterday, the Bush administration placed beluga whales that live in Cook Inlet in Alaska on the endangered species list, rejecting Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R-AK) efforts “against increased protection.” During the 1990s, these whales declined by almost 50 percent, and have struggled to recover. In an August 2007 written statement, Palin said she was “concerned” that listing the species as endangered would “unnecessary,” doing “serious long-term damage to the vibrant economy of the Cook Inlet area.”
When the Bush administration is going against the wishes of at least half of the GOP ticket, you know you’re in trouble.
PEACE
October 18th, 2008 at 12:41 pmKeep the economy strong….Kill those pesky belugas.
October 18th, 2008 at 12:42 pmIt seems that a Palin administration would favor Alaska over the lower 48. That possibility really scares me.
October 18th, 2008 at 12:43 pmIf you can’t shoot it from an airplane like a real sportsman, what good is it?
/snark
October 18th, 2008 at 12:49 pm“Bush administration ignores Palin’s objections, puts beluga whale on endangered species list.”
– - Todd Palin: “Nobody puts baby in the corner!”
October 18th, 2008 at 12:49 pmBut I though Sarah Palin knew more about beluga whales than anyone in the country.
October 18th, 2008 at 12:56 pmEither Bush really cares about endangered species (as if) or he really loathes McCain and Palin.
October 18th, 2008 at 1:01 pmSorry, but beluga whales not from the pro-American small towns will be railed off to re-education camps where they will learn American values like hard work and loyalty to party.
- Sarah Palin
“Arbeit Macht Frei”
October 18th, 2008 at 1:02 pmPalin just offered a $350 bounty for anybody who brings her a fin off a beluga whale. She’ll get rid of them like she’s getting rid of those pesky wolves.
October 18th, 2008 at 1:02 pmCan she see a Beluga Whale from her house?
October 18th, 2008 at 1:04 pmShe made this proclamation while wearing a coat adorned with the feathers of a Bald Eagle coupled with a pant suit made from the pelts of baby Harp Seals. For Diner that evening, she Burrowing Owl casserole. Later that evening, she announced that she will be hunting Rhino for their horns so she have some adorable earrings made from them.
October 18th, 2008 at 1:18 pmWWRD? (What would Raffi do?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZGwWslUyA4
October 18th, 2008 at 1:23 pmThat decision clears up things for the Republican base. Sarah isn’t supported nor effective in the White House laws. Sarsh might not have a job when she gets back to Alaska as the Republican Party turns their back on her.
October 18th, 2008 at 1:33 pmalcyone Says:
October 18th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Obviously this one is humor challenged, just like all Republicans and “independents.”
**eyes rolling**
October 18th, 2008 at 1:37 pmDr Matt,
I splattered Bambi and nuked the planet on that site. I’m still traumatized. :-D
October 18th, 2008 at 1:38 pmSave the Beluga Whales. Good move, President Bush. (Did I just type that?).
O/T: William Ayers was no “domestic terrorist.” This is just another lie perpetrated by McCain and Palin and their right-wing sound machine. William Ayers had been a peaceful anti-Vietnam war protestor in the late 1960s until he got so frustrated in his inability to stop the American terrorism against the Vietnamese people that he and others resorted to vandalism and property destruction as a form of protest. In Chicago, they blew up a statue (twice!). This was a statue dedicated to the policemen that had been active in the ongoing brutal suppression of union organizers in the Chicago area in 1866. This was vandalism and property destruction. No one, to my knowledge, was “terrorized.” Not the right-wingers who supported the war on Vietnam, nor the Congressmen who voted to fund the war. The U. S. war on the Vietnamese people continued on, unabated. I was an anti-Vietnam war protestor myself in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Anyone with a conscience was an anti-Vietnam war protestor back then.
However, John McCain was a terrorist in Vietnam. He bombed Vietnamese peasants in the northern part of Vietnam from 25,000 feet in the sky. It was a cowardly and vicious act. These bombings were war crimes and acts of terror.
Bush is the biggest terrorist in the 21st century, with his many acts of terror and aggression against the Afghani and Iraqi people. Bush has terrorized over one million Iraqis into their graves. Bush is a war criminal. McCain has been cheerleading and supporting Bush terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq. McCain has even advocated using military terror against Iran, which his infamous “Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.”
Today William Ayers is respected education professor in the Chicago area. He was appointed to serve on the board of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, the same educational foundation board as Senator Barak Obama by William Annenberg, the former U. S. Ambassador to England under President Ronald Reagan.
Mr. Annenberg created the Annenberg Foundation, which sponsored the brilliant and innovative “French in Action” language learning series which has appeared on PBS television for many years. This is the same Annenberg Foundation also sponsors the current PBS television show, Washington Week in Review.
October 18th, 2008 at 1:39 pmNot for a minute do I believe Bush cares about the beluga whale. This has to be a childish got ya towards Palin. At least the beluga whale comes out the winner.
October 18th, 2008 at 1:41 pmhistory, logic, and mathmatics.
R O F L!!!!
October 18th, 2008 at 1:45 pmWhy John McCain ran a dirty campaign
October 18th, 2008 at 1:55 pmOT but noteworthy… TP, I am having trouble giving you guys tips on things, such as Nancy Pfoertner proclaiming than Northern Virginians aren’t “Real Virginians.” It just happened on MSNBCs. Anyone else having this problem?
October 18th, 2008 at 1:56 pmAcyclovir asks,
“Why would she favor Alaska any more than Obama would favor the south side of Chicago or Biden favor Deleware?”
I suggest her close ties to a secessionist party (AIP) might lead one to have questions about Mrs. Palin’s loyalties.
October 18th, 2008 at 1:57 pmFrom the NY Times Article:
The whales, declined by almost 50 percent in the late 1990s, and federal scientists say they have not rebounded DESPITE a series of protections, including a halt to subsistence hunting by Alaska Natives.
In spite of protections already in place, Cook Inlet beluga whales are NOT recovering,” James W. Balsiger, the acting assistant administrator for the fisheries agency, said in a written statement. The whales are in danger of extinction.
Mayor Mark Begich of Anchorage, a DEMOCRAT seeking to unseat Senator Ted Stevens, a Republican, also criticized the listing, citing its potential to impede the port expansion and result in “hugely expensive new requirements to Anchorage’s wastewater treatment.” Also opposed were Senator Lisa Murkowski and Representative Don Young, both Republicans.
So it would seem that the Whales are once again Screwed, both environmentally and politically.
October 18th, 2008 at 2:01 pmYeah, Palin wants to shoot them from the air in choppers like she already does to wolves…
http://www.sunstateactivist.org/ssablog/
October 18th, 2008 at 2:06 pmWhat “vibrant economy” is whale-based? The caviar industry is particularly hard-hit, it seems.
Poor fellows.
October 18th, 2008 at 2:15 pmAnd what is Bush’s reason for doing a good deed?
Or is this his staffers, putting things under his nose to sign, Radar O’Reilly-like?
He’s gotta know this will do spit to enhance his legacy.
October 18th, 2008 at 2:19 pmAcyclovir,
I was very careful to preface my statement with “It seems that” which makes it an indefinite declaration.
My wife is a teaching volunteer at Learn to Read in St. Johns County, Florida. You can enroll in the program at the Mental Health Center if you live in the area.
October 18th, 2008 at 2:38 pmGot to say that beluga caviar goes great with an arugula salad. I feel so fu*king elite
October 18th, 2008 at 2:46 pmalcyone #16, do you not get sarcasm? What a dip you are
October 18th, 2008 at 2:57 pmAhhh him so cute and it doesn’t need lipstick.
October 18th, 2008 at 3:24 pmalcyone,
October 18th, 2008 at 3:26 pmIn my 2:38 post Acyclovir s/b alcyone, sorry, I had merely copied it from another post. I should have scrolled back up to the original post. At least, it had no grammatical or spelling errors like your 1:32 pm post which is why I recommended remedial training.
Oh yeah, knowing chimpy, he’s putting the whale on the endangered species list because he’s helping kill some other fish. It’s all about the money. He’s putting the beluga whale killing people out of business not because he has a heart.
October 18th, 2008 at 3:29 pmI have only ever seen beluga in the field at Tadoussac.
October 18th, 2008 at 3:37 pmdb,
October 18th, 2008 at 4:10 pmI thought that they lived in the water. ;-)
Ah, what a nice break from pictures of smirking politicians and snarling radio hosts.
Belugas are some of the coolest critters I’ve ever been near. They’re smart and sociable. There also in trouble because of the way they like to hang out and breed at the ends of rivers where the water is partly fresh and partly salty, right where all our pollution is pouring into the ocean.
But they’re not big on making campaign contributions…
October 18th, 2008 at 4:34 pmkonchster Says:
Got to say that beluga caviar goes great with an arugula salad. I feel so fu*king elite
Actually beluga caviar comes from the beluga sturgeon, mostly found in the Caspian Sea. Also, naturally, an endangered species because we humans excel at over-using everything on the planet.
From what I’ve seen and heard (especially lately) most Alaskans don’t appreciate the beautiful and wild state they live in. I guess you could say that for way too many humans around the globe, not appreciating their environments. The Bible has one phrase I’m particularly fond of and believe it’s absolutely true. “The love of money is the root of all evil.”
October 18th, 2008 at 4:46 pmthe term beluga is derived from I think russian but I am unsure but it means white and references both the pigmentation of the cetacean beluga and the sturgeon although the sturgeon isn’t really white
October 18th, 2008 at 4:52 pmCompared to Palin Bush looks like a treehugging Greenpeace activist
October 18th, 2008 at 5:07 pmdb,
October 18th, 2008 at 5:37 pmActually, the noun/adjective ‘beluga’ is derived from the Russian which can mean ’sturgeon’, ‘whale’ or ‘white’ in translation. The Russian alphabet version looks somewhat like ‘6enrya’ in the Roman alphabet and the Arabic number system.
Thanks Walt. The cetaceans are a blast. The only sturgeon I ever saw was already dead when I found him.
October 18th, 2008 at 5:42 pmdb,
October 18th, 2008 at 6:37 pmOne of my uncles was in the Army Air Force and was in a team that would deliver about ten B17s and/or B25s to Russia every month and return in a C4 (or whatever the equivalent is to a DC3). On every trip back, he would return with 5 or 6 sturgeon. Grams would extract the roe and field strip the fish. The meat was tough, but was welcome during war time rationing.
Wow. That is interesting stuff WaltTheMan. I have had the eggies but thats it. I found the fish washed up on a restricted barrier island beach on the east.
October 18th, 2008 at 6:51 pmdb,
October 18th, 2008 at 9:27 pmOne of the best things about growing up in the 40’s and 50’s and gaining majority in the 60’s was witnessing the dawning and maturation of America. Now we may well see the end of a concept and a dream, fostered by a few greedy people.
WaltTheMan—you’re pretty cool for an old guy:) I really love and appreciate your posts, you have a lot of good stuff that you pass on to others and I value your opinion. Thank you and keep blogging and don’t give up on the younger generations. I’m raising some pretty cool, self-aware teenagers that can really learn a lot from people like you and I keep telling them that they can change their corner of the world if they keep trying. I wonder, are you a teacher by chance? Hope so.
October 18th, 2008 at 10:41 pmthe Lone Voice of Reason,
October 19th, 2008 at 2:05 amI answered you elsewhere. I wish I could still teach, but my stamina is receding. When I was in my twenties or thirties, I could generate a thunderbolt in the classroom and startle the students. In the present world,I would most likely experience a coronary.
And, the Lone Voice of Reason,
October 19th, 2008 at 2:18 amI might add that I have a GDaughter who is a cheerleader, soccer player and a naturalist. She is only seven. She is ruthless at soccer, I worry about blood clots from the bruises she might get when the coach tells her to capture the ball.
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April 1st, 2009 at 5:20 am