Well it looks like Alaska's predator control program has managed to wipe out an entire wolf pack. I assume that is considered a success.

Courtesy of the Guardian:

The world’s longest-studied wolf pack may have been wiped out, wildlife officials fear amid an escalating battle between federal and state authorities in Alaska over the aggressive hunting of predators such as wolves and bears. 

The East Fork wolf pack, found near Denali, North America’s tallest mountain, was first researched in the 1930s and provided the first detailed accounts of wolf behavior and ecology. But years of hunting, trapping and habitat disturbance reduced numbers to just one known female, a male and two pups earlier this year. It’s now believed all may have perished.

Bridget Borg, a biologist at the National Park Service, said that the body of the radio collared male wolf was seen at a hunting camp and there appears to be no sign of the female nor pups. 

“We investigated a den site after,” Borg told Alaska Public Media. “There was clear evidence it was not being used as evidenced by vegetation that was growing around the entrance to the den site.” 

Three of the four pack members fitted with tracking collars have now been killed by hunters in the past year. The possible demise of the entire pack, which was once a common sight for visitors entering Denali, also America’s largest national park, is likely to heighten criticism of Alaska’s intensive hunting of its largest predators.

Yes but will it change anything?

Probably not so long as the Republicans run this state.

After all the only lives they care about preserving are those of unborn humans.

Alaska's sole Congressman has a solution to the homeless problem, wolves.

"Got wolves?"

Courtesy of CBS News:  

Alaska Rep. Don Young has settled on a novel solution to the problem of homelessness: wolves. Young, a long-serving Republican with a history of odd commentary, discussed the idea during an exchange on Thursday with Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, who was testifying before the House Natural Resources Committee about her department's budget. 

Young has been pushing for the Interior Department to remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list, and during the hearing, he ridiculed a letter sent by 79 lawmakers to Jewell urging her to protect the gray wolf population. "How many of you have got wolves in your district?" 

Young asked the other lawmakers on the panel. "None. Not one." 

"They haven't got a damn wolf in their whole district," he added. "I'd like to introduce them in your district. If I introduced them in your district, you wouldn't have a homeless problem anymore."

I swear we elect politicians in Alaska based simply on how embarrassing they might be to the state. 

You know I really hate to argue with the Congressman, but we have wolves in Alaska. Including some that venture into the Anchorage bowl itself where most of our homeless congregate.

And yet we have a homeless population that is ranked among the top ten highest in America.

Not that it needed to be said, but his "solution" is both ridiculous and inhumane. Sort of like Don Young himself.

By the way I am not even sure that Young knows what he is saying anymore. I think he is more than likely suffering from some form of dementia or Alzheimer's. 

Not that that is any excuse.

How wolves change rivers.

This is an incredible story of the return of wolves to Yellowstone National Park, after being hunted to extinction in the area, and how their return dramatically changed the landscape.

Viewing this should be made mandatory for everybody who suggests that wolf populations be controlled by man or who feel that there is no harm in over hunting.

We have done so much damage in our clumsy attempts to manage predator populations in the past, and it is in the best interests of the planet, and all of its inhabitants, for us to do a much, much better job going forward.

Federal biologists see largest decline in wolf population in the last twenty years. Suggest aerial wolf hunting likely to blame. Gee, ya think?

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch: 

The long-simmering dispute between the state of Alaska and the National Park Service over how to manage wildlife in northern ecosystems has erupted again with Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve upset about a 50 percent drop in wolf numbers since fall 2012. 

Wolf numbers usually fall significantly over winter due to natural death from starvation, injuries and territorial wars between packs, but the Park Service noted in a press release that the latest drop "is substantially more than normal and coincides with predator control efforts by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game near the preserve." 

That's a polite way of saying the state agency has been killing wolves around the perimeter of the preserve to try to give moose and caribou a better chance at survival. The state is engaged in what it calls an "intensive management program'' to maximize moose and caribou numbers. The park service favors what it calls a more natural situation in the 2.5-million-acre preserve. 

Federal biologists argue state wolf control has now depressed the Yukon-Charley wolf population. They say a 50 percent decline in numbers is the largest they've seen in 20 years. The previous high was 37 percent.

 Gee cannot imagine how an "intensive management program," ie aerial wolf slaughter, could have anything to do with the decline in the wolf population can you?

But hey just so long as people can still get the chance to fly in from out of state to kill a real live moose without having to worry about some indigenous predators eating them to survive the winter, who cares that the population has been cut virtually in half?

No wonder people in the lower forty-eight think we are a bunch of barbarians!

Sarah Palin attacks the "old media" by confusing it with the "new media," and laments their desire to put "the Prince of Make-crap-up-istan" on a pedestal. Whatever that means. Update!

You know in my real job, the one that pays my bills, I often have to work with individuals who are very dedicated liars. So dedicated in fact that they believe the lies that they tell to such a degree that to identify what they say as a lie can become very difficult.

But there are what I call "gives." These are subconscious indications (Much like a poker player whose face betrays his royal flush) that betray the truth they are hoping to conceal.

One of these gives is providing TOO much detail in an attempt to make your lie more believable, when in fact you make it too complicated to adequately keep track of all of the moving parts.

The other give is the need to revisit the lie over and over again, much like an arsonist who returns to the building that they set afire over and over to see if people have figured out who did it, or simply to admire their handy work.

Sarah Palin has demonstrated both of these "gives" a number of times.

In the speech above Palin cannot help but revisit a number of her lies, as well as stories that she is still very angry were ever reported on. I cannot help but find it especially entertaining that she has resurrected older stories, ones that hardly anybody talks about anymore, and which were first reported here on IM.

Clearly she is STILL irritated by the fact that I reported on those stories, and in some cases continue to report on them, and is bringing them up in a relatively unnecessary attempt to refute them even though many in her audience have probably never heard of the Montana land deal, or the FBI investigation, or the Hampton's rumor.

That Montana land deal story WAS a very good story, by the way.  And I was quite confident that I had my facts correct, but the Palins apparently quashed it JUST to prove me wrong. Which of course was, at the time, a much better outcome than I was hoping for.

The same was true of her divorce, which I first reported in my, now somewhat notorious, Splitsville post. After that, according to various sources that we have talked to since, Palin circled the wagons and offered Todd a deal to "play the happily married spouse." Once again, in my opinion, the best outcome I could have hoped for at the time.

As for her impossible pregnancy, and Trig's ridiculous birth story, Palin simply CANNOT resist revisiting the burned ashes of that particular lie constantly. I believe that she considers it a successful lie even though the falsity of it is now accepted by a larger population of Americans than never before, and though she is STILL actively working to keep the truth hidden from view.

I wonder just HOW much money the tabloids and blogs have manged to suck out of her bank account in order for her to continue to hide the truth from us?

Another thing I found rather interesting about the speech fragment in the video is that while Palin is attempting to espouse the virtues of the "new media" while slamming the "old media," the stories that she is clearly still irritated by were reported in, what she has labeled, the "new media." Blogs were the ones that discussed her fake pregnancy, her Montana property, and the federal investigations, NOT Katie Couric!  However Palin is on a roll, and as we know with Palin facts rarely matter.

And as for the person she claims wants to be "the prince of Make-crap-up-istan? How is that NOT Rupert Murdoch?

All in all I think we have to chalk this up to yet another Sarah Palin EPIC FAIL!

Update: I forgot to mention that the Grizzled Mama's influence has now been so dramatically reduced that in order to get people to attend a conference which features her as a speaker, Tea Party.net is also offering a get rich quick scheme that they guarantee will quadruple the attendance fee:

This opportunity is so important…and I’m so confident that the New Orleans Conference will pay for itself many times over…that I’ll offer you this ironclad guarantee: 


If you attend New Orleans 2012 and don’t make back at least four times the money you paid to register — in six months or less — just let me know. 


I’ll happily give you a prompt, hassle-free refund on your entire registration fee. Every penny.

Yeah but first you have to be subjected to the screech that passes for speech from the "Wasilla Banshee" and spend the day with tricorner hat wearing dipshits who don't understand the Constitution.

I think I'll take a pass.

Update 2: For those who are interested here is the entire speech.

The legacy of Sarah Palin lingers still in the Last Frontier.

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:

Less than two years after his appointment as director of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Division of Wildlife Conservation, Corey Rossi has resigned, effective immediately. Dale Rabe, deputy director, has been appointed acting director. 

An email from Fish and Game Commissioner Cora Campbell cited “personal reasons” for Rossi’s resignation. However, he was recently charged with 12 counts of illegal bear hunting as a licensed assistant guide in 2008. 

State wildlife biologists who couldn’t wait to share the news with their peers were calling one another Thursday evening, shortly after Commissioner Campbell’s email announcing Rossi’s resignation was sent to state offices. 

Rossi was arguably the least popular director since statehood, both publicly and internally. He had been appointed to Fish and Game in December 2008 by then-Gov. Sarah Palin, a high-level position specifically created for Rossi, a proponent of “intensive management,” better known as predator control. Rossi listed Palin’s parents as references in his application for assistant commissioner.

We fought hard against this appointment when it happened but we were terribly outnumbered.

We knew what to expect from a Sarah Palin appointee on predator control and we were not disappointed:

Wildlife biologists working under Rossi have been reluctant to criticize him or his pet projects publicly because retribution was swift and harsh.

Big surprise there, right? Well now this bastard has been caught breaking the law and so that is one more Sarah Palin appointee to bite the dust.

Sadly there are so many yet to go.

Time to examine some Alaska stories that have nothing to do with you-know-who.

Hey do you remember that whole "global warming" thing that the Republicans keep telling you is a bunch of hooey?  Well it is getting ready to kick in big time thanks to Alaska permafrost, which is now no longer permanent, and no longer very damn frosty:

In a study that calculates what will happen if Arctic warming trends continue as predicted, Schaeffer and his co-authors estimate that almost two-thirds of the Earth's permafrost could melt by 2200, releasing vast stores of carbon-based greenhouse gases into the air, almost certainly accelerating climate warming in the Arctic and across the globe.

Perhaps soon the palm trees and flamingos in Spenard will no longer have to be made of plastic.

You animal lovers out there will be thrilled to learn that Alaska wildlife officials are appalled that Federal government will not let them slaughter wolves to increase caribou herds for human hunters. Undoubtedly Obama's fault.

It looks like four time Iditarod champion, and this year's favorite, Lance Mackey has run into a little bad luck.

Defending champion Lance Mackey dropped three dogs minutes after arriving in this chilly village checkpoint -- a move he says dampens his chances of winning a historic fifth-straight Iditarod.

This is kind of surprising considering how incredibly confident Mackey was at the start of this race.  At least that is how he appeared to my friend Dennis Zaki at the start of this most grueling of races.


Lance Mackey at the Iditarod Ceremonial start from Dennis Zaki on Vimeo.


There is talk of a brand new program coming from my home state called, wait for it, "Mounted in Alaska." And before you ask, no it is not porn.  Though personally I kind of wish it was.

And last but not least,  please remember if you do come to Alaska, the Moose are only for looking, NOT TOUCHING!

The moose kicked the unidentified woman several times -- including in the chest and shoulder -- but she was not injured badly enough to go to the hospital, according to police spokeswoman Anita Shell.

Witnesses told police that the moose kicked the woman, in her 20s, after she tried to pet it as it walked by, Shell said.

Yes, I know they are cuddly looking.  But so is Glenn Beck, and look how batshit crazy he is!

The State of Alaska is so desperate to kill wolves that is suing the Federal Government for making them stop.

From the ADN:

The state of Alaska sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday, seeking a court order allowing it to go ahead with a controversial predator control program.

Last week, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced it would begin shooting some wolves on Unimak, the eastern-most island in the Aleutian chain, to protect caribou calving grounds as part of its aerial predator control program.

While the program is in place in at least six locations around Alaska, it would be the first time in recent history that aerial predator control would be used inside a national refuge in Alaska.

The department planned on using two biologists and four pilots to kill wolves.

The feds responded Monday, cautioning the state that killing the wolves without a special use permit would be considered "a trespass on the refuge" and immediately referred the matter to the U.S. attorney.

The state has interpreted that as federal officials blocking the program. The lawsuit, which names U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acting director Rowan Gould, his agency and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, seeks a court order allowing the state to kill seven wolves while the litigation continues.

Even after living in Alaska for my entire life I STILL find myself amazed at the bloodthirsty attitude these dickless morons have toward one of the most successful predators in the state.

And don't think for an instant that this "predator control" will be handled in a competent and scientific manner.  Only last month these trigger happy buffoons slaughtered an entire wolf pack in March. Which included two wolves that were wearing tracking collars.

NPCA officials issued a statement Thursday saying "state gunners in helicopters killed the entire Weber Creek wolf pack from Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, including two collared wolves from a 16-year National Park Service scientific study."

Gee, no wonder the Feds are telling the mto knock it off!

Predator control hunters using helicopters slaughter ENTIRE wolf pack in Alaska!

Helicopter-borne Alaskan predator control agents have killed an entire wolf pack from Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, prompting the National Parks Conservation Association to call for "immediate suspension" of the program near the national preserve.

National Park Service officials, meanwhile, are wondering why the shooters killed two radio-collared wolves, as the Park Service had an agreement with Alaska Fish and Game officials that collared wolves would be spared as they were part of a long-term study of wolf behavior in the preserve.

“We have meetings set tomorrow with state Fish and Game officials to ask that question," John Quinley, the Park Service's assistant regional director for communications and partnerships, said Thursday evening from his Anchorage office. "Basically, 'How did this happen? You’re two days into the (predator control) program and it’s already gone against the agreement that we thought we had pretty well in place, that was easy to understand.' We’re interested in how that fell apart so fast.”

The four wolves from Yukon-Charley's Weber Creek pack were killed Wednesday in the Fortymile area on the northwest side of the national preserve, the Park Service official said.

“We’ve been studying wolf populations in Yukon-Charley for 16 years and have a long data-set to understand the population dynamics," Mr. Quinley said. "These wolves are a value scientifically and they’re a value for visitors. Our position has been that we want to do all we can to maintain the naturally functionally ecosystems, which is a value of the Alaska parklands that you don’t find everywhere else.”

NPCA officials issued a statement Thursday saying "state gunners in helicopters killed the entire Weber Creek wolf pack from Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, including two collared wolves from a 16-year National Park Service scientific study."

"NPCA calls for the immediate suspension of the state’s wolf eradication program in and around Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve until the Park Service is fully satisfied that the biological integrity of Yukon-Charley wolf packs can be evaluated and a healthy population of wolves can be ensured," the parks advocacy group added. (You can read the rest of this article here)

Attention all wildlife lovers in and around Anchorage! The wolves of Alaska need your help Tuesday January 5th, at 6:00 p.m.

I recently received a call to action from my great friend and fellow blogger AkMuckraker.

There is an election meeting on Tuesday night of the Citizens Advisory Council to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Last year three conservation minded board members were elected and in one year they were able to do the following:

Support the expansion of the Denali Wolf Buffer Zone;
Restrict Nonresidents from hunting in predator control areas;
Support the proposal to end wolverine trapping in Chugach State Park

However this year the "Look I have a gun and it proves I am a man!" crowd are mobilizing their members to vote to put into place new board members who look at the wolves and see fur hats and mounted trophies instead of majestic wild creatures.

So we are asking all of you who want to protect these amazing creatures to drive over to the Anchorage School District Education Center, which is located at 5530 E Northern Lights Blvd, walk into the School Board room, and cast your vote.

The Alaska bloggers, the wolves, and I thank you for your support.

Namaste

(You can read AKMuckraker's post about this issue here.)

Just for fun.

Without Sarah Palin patrolling the skies in her helicopter gunning down wolves things have gotten completely out of control!

Roderick Phillip and three hunting partners were at a bonfire. After about a week out along the Kuskokwim River near Kalskag, they'd already bagged a bull moose. It was after 2 a.m. on the night before their last day on the hunt. The 35-year-old Phillip went down by the river to look for moose. He didn't have his gun.

When he saw the white figure trotting toward camp out of the corner of his eye, Phillip called out to his companions.

"As soon as I hollered, 'Wolf! Wolf!,' the wolf turned towards me and started running," Phillip said. "I kept my eye on it while I was running towards them and not even 20 feet from where I was sitting it caught up to me."

The animal lunged at his face, then bit him on the leg, and the two ended up on the ground wrestling before his brother killed it. Phillip didn't know it then, but the animal was rabid.

It's the second time in recent years a rabid wolf has attacked people or animals in Southwest Alaska. In October 2007, a pack of wolves -- at least one of which was infected with rabies -- ransacked dog kennels in the Yukon River village of Marshall, killing a half-dozen dogs.

Is that just about the scariest story you have ever read about wolves?

You know usually wolves in the wild are very timid creatures and stay far away from humans. But rabies turns Dr. Jeckyl-wolf into Mr. Wolf-Hyde.

Of course I am just joking about the wolf control program promoted by our ex-Governor as having anything to do with this situation. Wolf attacks on humans in Alaska, just like every other place in the world, are extremely rare. There was a frightening incident right here in Anchorage back in 2007, but the focus of that attack seemed to be the dogs with the people and not the people themselves. And there was another rabies outbreak in 2008.

Personally I have yet to see a wolf in the wild. I have seen a few bear, a coyote or two, and even a fox, but no wolves. I would still like to, but after reading the news article linked to the title of this post I hope I am not out in the middle of nowhere when it happens.

(And don't bother correcting me concerning my headline. I know that Palin never shot wolves from a helicopter or anything else. According to Levi it is highly doubtful she ever even went hunting.)

Senators Diane Feinstein and Ben Cardin ride to the rescue of Alaska wolves.

On Wednesday, Sens. Diane Feinstein of California and Ben Cardin or Maryland introduced legislation that would explicitly prohibit hunters from shooting and killing wildlife from aircraft. To ensure that anyone following the issue didn't miss the political element, the senators noted in the press release announcing the legislation's introduction that it would specifically end the targeting of "wolves."

The bill, which is endorsed by, among other groups, the Defenders of Wildlife, closes a loophole in the Aerial Hunting Act of 1971. And in an accompanying statement, Feinstein didn't hide her disdain of the practice that Palin now uses to illustrate the contrast between herself and the Hollywood crowd.

"Shooting wildlife from airplanes is not sport -- it is cruel and inhumane. It undermines the hunting principle of a fair chase and often leads to a slow and painful death for the hunted animals. This practice should be banned," the California Democrat said. "So, I've introduced a balanced bill that will enable states to responsibly manage wildlife populations, but ban the cruel practice of aerial hunting for sport. And it will not impinge on legitimate sport hunting."

It is about time that somebody spoke up to defend the wolves of Alaska against the inhumane slaughter that they suffer simply so that Caucasian boy-men will have something to shoot to make them feel like real manly men. (Check your shorts boys. Trust me, there has been no change.)

Now that Palin is no longer running the place perhaps Alaska can move into the 19th century and we can start interacting with the wild creatures that populate our wonderful state with less aggression and more acceptance.

Look I am not completely opposed to hunting, but if you do not need to kill to eat then you are simply killing for the joy of killing, and to my mind there is something psychologically damaged about that.

We are human beings for God's sake! We do not need to destroy the world around us to earn our place on this planet. We need instead to use our amazing intellect to protect the creatures who share our planet from the biggest danger that they face. Which is, ironically, us.

Alaska Fish and Game suspend aerial wolf hunting.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game stopped shooting wolves from a helicopter in the eastern Interior on Thursday after killing 84 wolves in five days as part of an intensified and controversial predator control program to increase caribou and moose numbers in an area east of Tok.

State officials were hoping to kill as many as 150 wolves by tracking them via airplane and shooting them from a helicopter, but a lack of both fresh snow and money prompted the department to temporarily halt the program.

Asked what it would take to get department sharpshooters back in the air, Fairbanks regional supervisor David James replied, “More money and more snow.”

The department had $100,000 set aside for the helicopter shootings, and James said the agency had used “probably 80 percent” of that as of Wednesday.

In the mean time, James said the department will analyze the results of action taken so far and decide what areas to target next, if any.

Of course we only have their word that this is the REAL reason the hunt was called off. It does seem odd for a government program to stop while there is still money to spend.

Or perhaps this could be the true reason.

The fact the department killed only about half the number of wolves that it was hoping to is proof there aren’t as many wolves in the area as biologists estimate, said Wade Willis, the Alaska representative for Defenders of Wildlife.

“They couldn’t find any more wolves to kill,” Willis said. “They ran out of wolves; it’s plain and simple.”

Well if it is the second reason that is truly sad. And it also supports our contention that they have no real idea just how many wolves are even in the area. They just pulled a number out of their ass and decided to start killing.

Personally I would like to think, and I have no information to support this, that this website and many others may have increased the scrutiny to such a level that these people can no longer conduct these murderous airborne assaults without receiving tons of negative attention.

Of course this could also be yet another example of Sarah Palin reacting to negative press much too late to really save face.

The Federal Government is clashing with Governor Palin over aerial wolf hunting.

The National Parks Service has complained that a new program under which state workers will shoot wolves from helicopters in the Upper Yukon/Tanana region.

"We’re concerned that it would be difficult and potentially not possible for us to follow our mandates based on the state’s action in the control area," Greg Dudgeon, the superintendent of hte Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, told me just now.

Federal officials are worried there are "fewer wolves than what [the state] believes," he said.

A Fish & Game Department spokeswoman told the local AP that the hunting is necessary to keep Caribou herds growing, and that there's no other way to keep the wolf population in check."It's a very large area and it's become apparent it's going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to reach those numbers with just [private hunting parties]," she said. "Helicopters are much more efficient."

I am definitely on the side of the Federal Government in this debate.

Those of us in Alaska are painfully aware that the the board of Fish and Game up here is completely controlled by hunters. And that what they call "predator control" is really just their attempt to keep wolves and bears from killing the animals that THEY want to kill. And if they can't kill moose, caribou, and Dall sheep like they want then they will just settle for getting a crack at killing more wolves and bears. Because it is not about feeding their families, it is about making them feel like men.

And when you have people with a blood lust deciding what should and should not die, well you get ideas like gassing wolf cubs in their dens, and using automatic weapons to kill entire wolf packs. And that is just fucking barbaric!

It is obvious that we need clearer heads to enter into this debate, and I hope the National Park Service will assume that role.

AKM has a GREAT post over at Huffington Post!

Just click the title and take a look at AKM's post on Sarah Palin and her vendetta against animals. Yes cute, cuddly, Alaskan animals. I knew you would be upset.

It is almost worth reading the post for the great graphic of Governor Sarah as a the Wicked Witch of the West alone. Too funny!

The biggest danger to the Beluga whales of Cook Inlet is not predation, or lack of food. No it is Governor Lipsticked Pitbull herself, Sarah Palin.

Palin's old-school approach to wildlife management is legendary. Despite her incongruous penchant for sporting a polar bear pin, the governor's antipathy for federal protections for the polar bear has led her administration to sue the federal government over the bear's threatened status. Palin's gruesome policy of supporting aerial hunting of wolves is so infamous that Defenders of Wildlife has launched an entire "Eye on Palin" campaign, starring actress Ashley Judd. The site has prompted the governor to denounce the venerable environmental organization as an "extreme fringe group." Now, new federal protections to protect the belugas of Cook Inlet are Palin's latest target.

(One can almost imagine Palin's own little Alaskan animal checklist. "Let's see fight to keep Polar Bears off of the Endangered Species List, check. Increase predator control by allowing both wolves and bears to be shot from airplanes, check. Now sue to keep Beluga Whales off of the Endangered Species List as well, double check.)

On Jan. 14, 2009, the Alaska governor announced that the state had filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the federal government for protecting the whales, arguing that Alaska is already doing enough for the whales in the Inlet. Palin's chief of staff published an Op-Ed in the Anchorage Daily News on Jan. 28 titled "Protection Requirements for Cook Inlet Belugas Are Silly."

While there are five stocks of beluga whales in waters near Alaska, the ones in Cook Inlet are isolated and genetically distinct from their cousins. That population has declined dramatically since the 1980s, from over 1,000 to about 375 now. More than 300 whales perished in one four-year stretch (1994 to 1998) alone, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service. Marine mammal biologists and conservationists were hopeful that sharply limiting subsistence hunting of the whales by native Alaskans would see the whales bounce back. But despite only five whales being killed by hunting since 1999, when new regulations went into effect, the whales have not rebounded.

Even the Bush administration took note of the Cook Inlet belugas' decline, after being pressured by environmental groups. In October 2008, the National Marine Fisheries Service announced the listing of the Cook Inlet population of beluga whales as a full-fledged endangered species. Yes, the Bush administration, infamous for its disdain for science when it came to protecting endangered critters, saw fit to offer protections to the belugas living in Cook Inlet. But not the Palin administration.

"It's hard to imagine that anyone could be more anti-environmental than Bush, but Palin is Exhibit A," says Brendan Cummings, oceans program director for the Center for Biological Diversity. "Here we had the most anti-environmental administration in U.S. history, and Palin still feels compelled to sue over one of the few environmentally positive things to come out of that administration."

(Wow! Essentially Sarah Palin is "more Bush then Bush". Doesn't THAT make the hairs on the back of your neck stick straight up?)

That's what's got the Palin administration's goat. "The fear is that the Endangered Species Act listing of the beluga will lead to regulation of essentially unfettered industrial activity in Cook Inlet," explains Cummings. Today in Cook Inlet, the oil industry is still allowed to dump its toxic waste into areas with fisheries. That seemingly outrageous practice is grandfathered into law because the industry's activities predated the Clean Water Act of 1972. "Cook Inlet remains in this kind of 1950s regulatory backwater," says Bob Shavelson, executive director of Cook Inlet Keeper, a nonprofit advocacy group working to protect the watershed.

So let's be clear, Palin wants to keep the Belugas off of the Endangered Species List so that the oil companies can continue to dump toxic waste into the Cook Inlet where local salmon can ingest it before they are caught by Anchorage fisherman and then fed to their trusting families. Is this yet another example of Sarah Palin putting the "needs of Alaskans first"?

Is it too much to hope that Sarah Palin gets chased by a wolf into the Cook Inlet where she is carried by a Beluga Whale and delivered to the ravenous jaws of a Polar Bear who then devours her, lipstick and all? Yeah I guess that would be asking a little too much.

Shannyn Moore returns to blogging!

Just click the title to check her newest post over at Huffington Post.

Here is a hint: Ashely Judd will love it! Sarah Palin? Not so much.

Ashley Judd calls Sarah Palin a murderer.

"Wolves severed forelegs"? Wow that is certainly not an image that Sarah Palin wants associated with her as she keeps attempting to apply polish to the turd that is her political reputation. And this time trying to look pretty and disarming will not work because Ashley Judd is much, much more attractive and believable.

I don't think I can remember another politician, besides George Bush of course, who had so many groups and people coming out against them.

And right now I cannot think of a more deserving person for it to be happening to.

You can visit the website that Ashely Judd refers to here. And of course I will add it to my "Sarah Palin's least favorite blogs" list as well.

Sarah Palin's brutal policy on aerial wolf huning. Warning! This video will be upsetting to those with a sensitive nature.

The truly scandalous thing about this commercial is that it would probably have garnered Palin even more support from a certain portion of Alaska's population.

Personally I am a not hunting Alaskan, and have always been dead set against this butchering of these amazing animals. And I did manage to successfully vote against expanding this program in the last election, despite the Republicans attempt to use deceptive language to trick the voters.

For a more informative position on this practice please go visit my friend Shannyn Moore who has an excellent post about the subject on her blog.