GW Bush: Fsck endangered wildlife

[BCO]

http://blogs.nwf.org/arctic_promise...ation-eviscerates-endangered-species-act.html

The Bush administration today issued a final rule eliminating the Endangered Species Act requirement that federal agencies consult with independent scientists.

*sigh* can this man do anything good?

 

[PeterCH]

Good?
Single greatest donation towards HIV research and treatment in poor countries:
www.pepfar.gov

 

[mercurial]

The guy is a retard. My gawd it's embarrassing how they could let that man lead a country. He was obviously just their puppet to get away with anything under his name.

 

[daveza]

The sooner he's gone the faster Obama can reverse this.

 

[BCO]

Point taken Peter. Do you concede that this neutering of the Endangered Wildlife Act is retarded though?

 

[PeterCH]

Point taken Peter. Do you concede that this neutering of the Endangered Wildlife Act is retarded though?

I'd like to know the full facts before coming down on it. It's like these hippies and Australians who get upset over a few whales the Japanese hunt for research and cultural reasons while destroying aboriginal life and eroding civil liberties.

 

[R/SGT]

I'd like to know the full facts before coming down on it. It's like these hippies and Australians who get upset over a few whales the Japanese hunt for research and cultural reasons while destroying aboriginal life and eroding civil liberties.

The Full facts??

Peter do you condone the slaughter of whales by the japanese?

I personally have more sympathy for the whales

 

[BCO]

I'd like to know the full facts before coming down on it. It's like these hippies and Australians who get upset over a few whales the Japanese hunt for research and cultural reasons while destroying aboriginal life and eroding civil liberties.

The Japanese "research" quota is almost 1000 whales a year. Hardly a few. I also take exception at your labelling of anyone who gives a damn about the earth's biodiversity as a hippie.

Also, what the **** does aboriginal life and civil liberties have to do with the discussion at hand?

 

[Captain Slog]

The Japanese "research" quota is almost 1000 whales a year. Hardly a few. I also take exception at your labelling of anyone who gives a damn about the earth's biodiversity as a hippie.

Also, what the **** does aboriginal life and civil liberties have to do with the discussion at hand?

Seems you have made him hot under that blue collar Peter.

 

[daveza]

I take being called a hippie as a compliment.

Love and peace.

 

[vespax]

Something good?

In my Friday afternoon inbox at work came an email stating that Mr. Bush had signed an executive order that day permitting federal employees to have the 26th of December off from work! Keeps me and everyone else from using a vacation day.

That is one good thing he has done in 8 years...

Oh and all these 11th hour changes, Obama has already mentioned his team is reviewing just about everything Bush, Inc. has done in the past two terms.

 

[BCO]

A little more on this:

federal agencies would no longer be required to have government scientists assess the impact on imperiled species before giving the go-ahead to logging, mining, drilling, highway building or other development. The rule would also prohibit federal agencies from taking climate change into account in weighing the impact of projects that increase greenhouse emission....

According to Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, "They've taken the single biggest threat to wildlife and said, 'We're going to pretend it doesn't exist, for regulatory purposes.'"

Bush's push to gut the Endangered Species Act, for example, was done in laughable haste, with 15 employees given fewer than 36 hours to review and process more than 200,000 public comments

The third page of this article explains that it will be quite difficult for Obama to erase these policies.

 

[krycor]

hehe.. somethings u can't change with out uprooting alot more that just a president

 

[R/SGT]

Sea Shepherd sets off to stop slaughter

A Sea Shepherd ship is on its way to intercept a Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's Steve Irwin, with a crew of 40, has left Brisbane, Australia, for the Ross Sea, off Antarctica.

The ship's quartermaster is Amber Paarman, 24, of Cape Town.

Paarman joined the ship in March 2006 and has been with the society's marine conservation team since.

Captain Paul Watson, speaking from aboard the Steve Irwin this week, said he and his crew were confident about their mission to stop the whale slaughter in the Ross Sea.

He said that if the operation were successful it would take between two and three months

"We are under no illusion that this will be an easy campaign.

"Japan has budgeted $8 million (about R80 million) to oppose our efforts. What this means we have no idea.

"They have said they will arrest us if we interfere with their illegal whaling operations. How they will do that is unknown.

"We just need to be prepared for all possibilities."

Watson said the Steve Irwin had been "improved substantially" since its last sortie against the Japanese whalers earlier this year.

"We have a newly constructed helicopter deck and hangar, a completely overhauled helicopter, our very experienced [former US marine] pilot and two new fast interceptor boats.

"We have three times the safety equipment required, including immersion suits, survival suits, lifeboats and an electronic positioning system to broadcast our location automatically.

The crew includes a master welder, a master carpenter, experienced engineers and qualified divers.

Also aboard is an eight-man team from the satellite TV channel Discovery, which is filming the second season of "the Whale Wars" for the Animal Planet show.

Crew members are from Australia, America, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Bermuda, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, Hungary and Japan. About half of them are women.

"Everyone is happy to be at sea and heading south," said Watson.

"I believe this will be our most aggressive and most effective confrontation with the Japanese whalers.

"They have publicly said that they will arrest us if we try to interfere with their activities, which I take to mean that they have armed coast guards on the whaling vessels."

Getting to the area where the Japanese operate was a "long haul".

"It's a vast area to search, but we will scour those remote, frozen seas until we find them, and when we do we will intercept them before they have killed too many whales.

"The key to success with the Japanese whalers is persistence. We must never retreat or surrender the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to them.

"We must continue to undermine their profits and expose their illegal activities to the world."

Watson is the founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and a co-founder of the Greenpeace Foundation and Greenpeace International.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=vn20081214084620137C146236

 

[PeterCH]

The Full facts??

Peter do you condone the slaughter of whales by the japanese?

I personally have more sympathy for the whales

The Japanese contend they do research on the whales. At the same time
they cull some for cultural reasons. No more than the meat we put on our braais. The Aussies act all high and mighty but they've basically destroyed their indigenous people and are making a mockery of civil liberties. I think
what they're doing is far worse.

Japanese navy is quite powerful, maybe they should escort their vessels, any harrasment by foreign navies in INTERNATIONAL WATERS
should be dealt as piracy - blow em out of the water.

Condone, sure I hate all animal killing but some (not all) Japanese maintain whale meat and products are essential for their culture. Let them have 'em,
they certainly provide more $$$ to conservation and poverty relief than we do so I don't think we can judge. In the same light GWB isn't a fscker in my mind because of some policies, the guy has given so many USD to AIDS/HIV research and has helped so many people struck with that disease (that their own govt - Mbeki et al wouldn't help) that I won't call the man a devil. I appalaud him for PepFar and if he
killed some deer - no biggie in comparison. People FIRST in my book.

You ever see a 10 year old die of AIDS? While her molester got free ANTI-HIV treatment in jail?
No. Priorities people....

 

[maestro_za]

EDIT: It was late ... checked my reply now

I agree. The Japanese, along with many other societies get away with blue-murder. Cultural reasons is just a nice cover up for evil-doing.

The analogy that we cull sheep, chickens, etc is flawed as thee animals are bred to serve this purpose ... stock up butcheries so that we can eat.

I have no words left for Bush ... he took Republican ideals and ran with it

I contend though that the Aussie's are not alone in destroying the significance of it's indigenous people. The exact same has happened in this country ... I'm hinting at the Khoi-San, my ancestors

In fact, on many front's ... the world is hypocritical. They shout human rights, but undermine people on a daily basis. And so on and so forth.

Despicable world we live in

 

[TMoose]

The Japanese contend they do research on the whales. At the same time
they cull some for cultural reasons. No more than the meat we put on our braais. The Aussies act all high and mighty but they've basically destroyed their indigenous people and are making a mockery of civil liberties. I think
what they're doing is far worse.

Japanese navy is quite powerful, maybe they should escort their vessels, any harrasment by foreign navies in INTERNATIONAL WATERS
should be dealt as piracy - blow em out of the water.

Condone, sure I hate all animal killing but some (not all) Japanese maintain whale meat and products are essential for their culture. Let them have 'em,
they certainly provide more $$$ to conservation and poverty relief than we do so I don't think we can judge. In the same light GWB isn't a fscker in my mind because of some policies, the guy has given so many USD to AIDS/HIV research and has helped so many people struck with that disease (that their own govt - Mbeki et al wouldn't help) that I won't call the man a devil. I appalaud him for PepFar and if he
killed some deer - no biggie in comparison. People FIRST in my book.

You ever see a 10 year old die of AIDS? While her molester got free ANTI-HIV treatment in jail?
No. Priorities people....

It's impossible to kill something as big as a whale without basically slowly torturing it to death. It's a sick sick process. Besides that what they are doing, often times in Australian or New Zealand waters, is considered by many to be illegal in its own right. Their research reason is absolute tripe. If anybody deserves to be blown out of the waters it's the Japanese harpoon vessels.

Bush is a moron, one more or less the entire world hates by now, the very fact that you support and come up for him explains your comments regarding whales and conservation I guess. All I can say is thank God Obama is coming.

 

[PeterCH]

It's impossible to kill something as big as a whale without basically slowly torturing it to death. It's a sick sick process. Besides that what they are doing, often times in Australian or New Zealand waters, is considered by many to be illegal in its own right. Their research reason is absolute tripe. If anybody deserves to be blown out of the waters it's the Japanese harpoon vessels.

Japanese vessels like any other vessels are not allowed to violate territorial waters. I doubt that's the issue because if they were doing that, complaints to the Japanese government would result in closure of those operators. Violating territorial waters is a serious issue.

As for hunting whales, they explain it as part of their culture. They have been doing it for centuries and they don't do it for sport. Every bit of the whale gets used. Also I seriously doubt that they would jeopardise their own
future supply of whale products. They won't cull them to extinction and know very well what they're doing. We slaughter millions of chickens, lambs,
cows, pigs, goats, ostriches every year and we kill billions of fish and croustaceans from oceans and rivers. You think suffocating to death on
the deck of a fishing vessel is not cruel? We're people, we eat meat and some of us other products for cultural reasons too. We should accept it
and do away with the hypocrisy. I condone their whale hunting as long as I eat meat myself and as long as they do not
lead to the extermination of those species of whale.

Bush is a moron, one more or less the entire world hates by now, the very fact that you support and come up for him explains your comments regarding whales and conservation I guess. All I can say is thank God Obama is coming.

Perhaps but he was voted in twice, which is more than you can say for yourself so you have no right to call him a moron. You know, you should be better than him. The people of the US chose him. Foreigners should not interfere. People loved Bush the first time around. Obama Barrack will probably prove to be no better than GWB because the president in the USA is not the sole person in charge - there are various interests he has to support,
it's not a free for all for one man - he has committments to people who support him and organisations and lobby groups who put him in power. If he strays away from that the president can be removed or not re-elected when various scandals emerge or various decisions become sabotaged and blamed on the president. Bush did a lot of good for various people too, sadly the people who call him a 'moron' don't even know about these things, they were not the benefactors of these things and they certainly DON'T CONTRIBUTE THEMSELVES to the ease the suffering on their own DOORSTEPS the way a foreign president did - aiming that at YOU.

Enjoy your day off.

 

[PeterCH]

I agree. The Japanese, along with many other societies get away with blue-murder. I have no words left for Bush ... he took Republican ideals and ran with it

I contend though that the Aussie's are not alone in destroying the significance of it's indigenous people. The exact same has happened in this country ... I'm hinting at the Khoi-San, my ancestors

I disagreed. I don't agree that the Japanese are getting away with blue murder, why do you say you concur when you actually disagree?

Japanese hunt whales the way we kill pigs in abbatoirs and cull lions in the Kruger. They use the meat and various products for cultural reasons.
They are a relatively isolated, unique culture and very defensive about their
traditions. I can understand that and while they don't destroy all the whales
which they won't do (that would end their tradition for ever) and we eat meat
and fish we should empathise and tolerate other people.

Japan also contributes a cr@pload of cash to poor countries so they have higher moral point IMO. USA, Japan, Canada, EU and some others contribute
a lot of $$$ to the environment, for medical research and relief in the world
directly and through various NGOs and Non-Profits. Who maintains the UN?
Who maintains UNICEF? Who maintains the RC? Do you know what the PEPFAR
program even is? Don't you think it's shameful that a foreign president gave more to people with HIV/AIDS in South Africa than our elected leader who
has been criticising him left, right and centre?

Aussies aren't perfect and they have been doing some nasty things at home,
so maybe they should clean house first and then point fingers at the Japanese. The Japanese aren't angels either. We're all imperfect and maybe we should change ourselves first before commenting on things we don't understand (I speak about governments here not posters on this forum).

 

[BCO]

It's impossible to kill something as big as a whale without basically slowly torturing it to death. It's a sick sick process. Besides that what they are doing, often times in Australian or New Zealand waters, is considered by many to be illegal in its own right. Their research reason is absolute tripe. If anybody deserves to be blown out of the waters it's the Japanese harpoon vessels.

Bush is a moron, one more or less the entire world hates by now, the very fact that you support and come up for him explains your comments regarding whales and conservation I guess. All I can say is thank God Obama is coming.

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