Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Governor Wallflower

I never intended to give Sarah Palin any blog space, as I believe that she is quite nothing, that far too much ado, is being made of. However, why should everybody else have all of the fun. What about this wolf business? Alaska has a predator control program dating back to the 1940's, believe it or not. It comes with living up in the high country in the wild. Or, comes with the territory if you will. Frank Murkowski,the governor previous to Palin put his sites on wolves. The thinking was that the wolf was knocking off too many moose and caribou. Murkowski enacted legislation allowing wildlife officials to mount up (in a plane) and shoot the beasts from the air. Palin first took the governor down via election and then amped things up against the wolf. She kept Murkowski's deal in place...and then some. She wrote legislation that would allow pretty much anybody with a license and a gun, trapper's snare or slingshot to head out and start killing. Proof of kill was to be the left front paw of the animal. For this, the newly deputized lad or lass would be paid $150. I wonder how many hunters would bring in the right paw as well and try the old two paw monty in an attempt at getting $300 for one wolf. I sure hope they have a strong Department of Left Front Wolf Paw Authentication up there!
Defender's of Wildlife, a branch of the Sierra Club squawked to a state judge about the inhumanity of it all and the judge bought it. He claimed that Palin did not have the authority to cut bounty checks to trigger happy yahoos like Yosemite Sam. But, Palin would not go quietly! She moved the goalposts. She ruled that the predator control program would no longer be overseen by the Department of Fish and Game, but rather Alaska's Board of Game...whose members are appointed by Sarah Palin. O.K. maybe she more than moved the posts. In this, she actually bought the referee and slept with the opposing team's coach.
The state officials along with Palin believe that the wolf is responsible for killing over 80% of the moose and caribou population while hunters take less than 10%. 172 scientists petitioned for Palin to stop this madness. They know the wolf to be a scavenger by nature and that 60-70 percent of his meals are scavenged. But as we all know, Lady Creationism don't need no stinking scientists.
The reason Palin augmented former governor Murkowski's plan was that she felt that not enough wolves were being killed, and not fast enough. The predator control guys claimed that they were having trouble finding wolves. Yo, governor Wallflower, I have a question for you: Could the killing slow down be a result of the killing that the predator control (more like out of control) guys have already done?

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