Free Republic

News from the Front #27: How Citizens Can Make a Difference: Bringing About the Salmon Revolution In an age of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell There is plenty of recent bad news on salmon recovery. Today NMFS turns potentially hundreds of thousands of Northwesterners into federal criminals through its new 4(d) rules, although it claims it will only prosecute flagrant violators. The Director of Washington's Department of Fish and Wildlife, Jeff Koenings, is trying to bring federal enforcers after irrigators in the Columbia Basin Project, formally requesting that NMFS initiate consultations with the ...

BLAIR'S POUNDS 1BILLION ON SPIN DOCTORS TONY Blair has squandered more than pounds 1billion of taxpayers' cash on private firms of expert advisers. The cash would have been enough to build 14 hospitals or 1,000 new schools - or pay for 65,000 new nurses. Many of the contracts for outside advice have gone to firms employing New Labour cronies. The scandal provoked a political row last night over how the contracts came to be awarded. Union leaders attacked the Government for showing more concern for image than "front line care". Ministers now face a barrage of Commons questions over the ...

More Bad Advice from the Justice Department Dambusters We hear that the Justice Department is advising the Commerce Department, overlords of NMFS, that the new Biological Opinion on the Federal Columbia River Power System (the "BiOp") will not be "legally defensible" unless it includes a dam removal trigger. Specifically, NMFS is set to insist that dam operators somehow ensure quick increases in several runs of Idaho salmon. If the fish don't come back, the dam operators must then recommend dam removal to Congress. It is worth recalling the basic structure of the Endangered Species Act: agency action is supposed to ...

Free Advertising Media stories about the environment are often directed to create a mythology that supports a political agenda. They are clothed in scientific guise to lend legitimacy to the story. Gross technical inaccuracies and unqualified data, in the hands of an audience with great political and financial power can result in unfortunate environmental results. This article addresses such a case. Environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have historically solicited two major sources of money: foundation grants and individual bequeaths.1 Small donors do not necessarily expect to see a specific promise to be met as a result of the gift, but they ...

P&G answered my little note thusly: We've decided not to sponsor the Dr. Laura Schlessinger show and I'd like to explain why. P&G serves nearly 5 billion consumers worldwide and we respect the diversity of views they represent on a variety of subjects. We do not oppose or endorse Dr. Laura Schlessinger or her broad range of opinions. We're not trying to censor her or keep her off the air. We're simply seeking a positive, non-controversial environment in which to advertise our brands. This decision in no way is an endorsement of statement against any particular group's point of view. ...

George W. Bush's first choice for secretary of state is Gen. Colin Powell, according to those close to the Texas governor's campaign. Powell, they said, has indicated he probably would accept. At the same time, these sources said that Bush would be inclined to offer the job of defense secretary to his one-time nemesis, Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Bush is being urged by some aides to announce his choices at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia in August on the belief that both men are so popular and distinguished in their own right, that their prospective high-ranking participation in ...

Enviros Seek Injunction Against Water Spreading to Blackmail Farmers into Supporting Dam Removal On Friday, May 19th, Trout Unlimited and several other environmentalist and commercial fishing organizations filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to forbid the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation from delivering water used for "water spreading" all over the Columbia River Basin. No hearing date has been set. Here are links to the memorandum they filed in support of that motion, in Microsoft Word and HTML (webpage). A spokesman for the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund told Associated Press the rationale for the lawsuit: “We hate to do it, ...

It's getting time to breed the next year class of spring-run salmon, and the Government has decided to destroy the second-most-numerous tribe of salmon in the Methow Valley. This is the same valley where there are supposedly such drastic salmon problems that the farmers must not be allowed to grow crops, and the citizens go bankrupt because they can no longer sell their land (except in deals brokered by environmentalists). Washington State Senator Bob Morton recently obtained a meeting memorandum concerning the joint Federal, State and Tribal plans to deal with a large number of returning spring chinook salmon in ...