"Sportsman For Bush"

[SHRED]

I still see those bumperstickers around.

Oh well.
The dumb asses voted him in.


---
Drilling the Wild
A voracious energy policy afflicts our public lands.
by Ted Kerasote

Rod and gun in hand, and backing the Second Amendment right to own firearms, President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have won the hearts of America’s sportsmen. Yet the two men have failed to protect outdoor sports on the nation’s public lands. With deep ties to the oil and gas industry, Bush and Cheney have unleashed a national energy plan that has begun to destroy hunting and fishing on millions of federal acres throughout the West, setting back effective wildlife management for decades to come.

The Invasion Begins
In his second week in office, President Bush convened a National Energy Policy Development Group, chaired by Vice President Cheney. Meeting with representatives of the energy industry behind closed doors, it eventually released a National Energy Policy, the goal of which was to “expedite permits and coordinate federal, state, and local actions necessary for energy-related project approvals on a national basis.”

~SNIP~

The results of these actions—billed as promoting national energy security—have begun to turn vast tracts of the western United States into industrial landscapes. The winners are the energy companies, which have been able to acquire their leases for as little as $2 per acre. The casualties are big game, upland birds, cold- and warmwater fisheries, the traditional interests of hunters and anglers, and the economic welfare of communities whose livelihoods are based on outdoor recreation and ranching.

http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/columnists/conservation/article/0,13199,489794,00.html

[marmar]

1. There's one in the parking lot of my apartment complex...

on a big ass SUV, of course.

:dunce:

[SHRED]

2. Print out this article and...

...place it on his windshield.

[XemaSab]

3. Here's a link to an editorial in Field and Stream:

(via DU)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x203538

They're sure unimpressed.

[acmavm]

4. Eventually everyone who voted for the asshole gets theirs.

And it couldn't happen to a better suited bunch of fools.

[SHRED]

5. Well most of them are fools...

...I don't consider myself a part of them whatsoever but I am an avid catch and release bass fisherman.

[fencesitter]

6. Yes, they fish and hunt on private estates with stocked game

If you own your own preserve, what's to worry?

[sandnsea]

7. Many were anti-Bush

I wrote a magazine outdoor writer a while back who was blasting Bush on some environmental issue, forget which one now. He wrote me back and made it clear he had never supported Bush. So don't make assumptions that just because someone kills Bambi that they're automatically pro-Bush.

[SHRED]

8. Sorry if I left that impression

I am a bass fisherman myself.
For the most part however, I do think that the pro-bush folks far outnumber the anti-Bush folks, in the "sportsman" realm.

[sandnsea]

10. I embarrassed myself

with my scathing email, just trying to save others from that, if they were inclined to pop the writer a line. That's all. :)

[RebelOne]

9. I work for a publishing company, based in Georgia, which distributes

hunting and fishing magazines throughout the U.S. We have 8 editors, all of whom hunt and fish. Half of them supported Bush, but only because they were worried that if they voted Democrat the gun laws would change.

[stanwyck]

11. Gun laws really cross political lines

(I also live in Georgia). I'm avidly anti-gun, but many fellow liberals and moderate Republicans worry about the Dems and gun laws. The Republicans have effectively frightened potential Dem. voters with hyperbole on the gun issue.
Most of us want modest gun laws which respect gun owners while curbing the free flow of weapons within our society.

[sandnsea]

13. That's my experience too

The extremists who think everybody has a right to a rocket launcher in their pick-up are few and very far between. Just another example of right wing political hysteria that ultimately causes thousands to die.

[benEzra]

16. How about civilian rifles with handgrips that stick out?

Police-style defensive pistols?

It was Gore's and Kerry's attempts to ban those that hurt Dems on the gun issue in 2000 and 2004.

You and I agree on rocket lauchers, and probably on most of the other strict controls in the National Firearms Act (i.e., controls on all automatic weapons, sound suppressed guns, firearms over .50 caliber, disguised firearms, etc. etc.).

Fighting to ban all civilian guns holding over 10 rounds, all rifles/shotguns with modern styling, and so on, on the other hand, is NOT "reasonable gun control" in my opinion. To most of the country, that's extremist, and it only plays well in a few very anti-gun states.

[sandnsea]

17. Lots of Republicans supported AWB too

In 2000, Bush promised to support the renewal of the AWB too. So why are you picking on Al Gore? You've bought the NRA bullshit, that's why.

[benEzra]

18. And a lot of those pro-AWB repubs were DEFEATED post-'94...

Not sure if you've noticed, but the pro/anti-AWB composition of the House and Senate has shifted a LOT more since 1994 than the R/D composition. A number of pro-AWB repubs were replaced by anti-AWB Dems in the years following '94, and there were plenty of inter-party primary losses that have given us the solidly anti-AWB House and Senate we have today.

FWIW, had Gore and Kerry not promised to "fight harder" than W for a "renewed and expanded" ban on guns with handgrips that stick out, then W's two-facedness on the 1994 two-features "ban" (actually just a features limit) might have hurt the repubs more than it did.

[sandnsea]

20. Oh right

I remember the huge national debate in 2000 & 2004 about guns with handgrips that stick out. Every day, it was all over the news, people were carrying signs, it definitely turned the election!!
:wtf:

In 2000, Bush ran on supporting the AWB. He won, as I recall. And, 1994? You think that was about guns??? I lived in Montana at the time, I can assure you that 1994 was about the economy, regulations, and taxes; not guns. Not even in Montana.

The number of NRA fanatics is very small. They tend to be people who are right wing on other issues as well, like welfare, AA, the military. They're never going to vote Democratic for a whole host of reasons, not just guns. They aren't the kind of gun owner Democrats need to appeal to. Moderate, pro-choice, environmentally aware, who have a gun for security, hunt on occasion, and maybe even a prized collection. Those people you can convince to vote for Democrats, they also believe in reasonable regulation. They tend to support the AWB, even if it needs tweaking.

Just like the fundie nutsos have taken over the Christian debate, NRA fanatics have taken over the gun debate. Neither one of them reflect the mainstream.

[XOKCowboy]

15. The Right Wing Media Machine has hammered on the....

Democrats Will Take Your Guns theme so long that it'll take a lot to convince people it's not true.

[sandnsea]

12. Hard to convince some

That's true. We needed a real conversation, real listening, about gun crime. Let the gun owners come up with the laws. Most that I know actually do support various increases in regulation.

[XOKCowboy]

14. "Democrats want to take our guns"

is what I hear all the time and for a lot of people it's a one-issue thing. It's something that the Democratic Party needs to address and soon.

[Paladin]

19. I Don't Suppose We Can Do The Smart Thing......

....and just shut the fuck up about the guns issue, can we? No, that would be too sensible, and God knows our gun activist "Democrats" down in the Gun Dungeon are going to be shrieking about it and calling attention to it right through the 2008 elections and beyond.

The Democratic platform has a statement in support of the Second Amendment. Any of you who don't think that's sufficient have taken up residence in the NRA subdivision of Republicanville......

[stevedeshazer]

21. Bushco managed to shut down the entire commercial fishing season in Oregon

and California this year due to their political agenda favoring Republican farmers in the Klamath Basin who suck the government subsidy teat for profit in raising potatoes in the desert. The results were devastating in the summer of 2001:



http://www.headwaters.org/article.php?id=77

Now, five years later, it's so bad that there aren't enough fish for a commercial fishing season. They ate their seed corn. Stupid bastards.