Bush Angles for Conservation Stature

[Robbien]

Source: AP

ST. MICHAEL'S, Md. (AP) — President Bush spent a crisp fall Saturday gingerly balancing a tiny screech owl on a gloved hand at a wildlife refuge and casting for rockfish on the Chesapeake Bay.

And for lunch? Famous Maryland style crabcakes, served up at Vice President Dick Cheney's waterside home outside this charming Eastern Shore village.

It was all part of an effort to burnish his conservation credentials while announcing new initiatives that he said would protect migrating birds and two fish species, red drum and striped bass, prized by anglers.

. . .

Larry Simns, president of the Maryland Watermen's Association, said the initiative wasn't needed for striped bass because they are one of the healthiest stocks of any fish on the East Coast. "Striped bass are not in any way, shape or form, in trouble," said Simns.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j057jBReERcsF-FcZRSWe0h1gaXQD8SD6RN80

---

Just another PR stunt which does nothing but damage the fragile balance of the ecosystem.

Bush a conservationist. Now who believes that?

[rAVES]

1. I think they are just having a laugh..

[Robbien]

3. Nope, not really. Bush has an expensive PR campaign which keeps saying

how great he is doing on conservation. The White House site is full of comments about how he cares about the environment.

"everyone agrees" that Bush is doing wonderful things for the environment.

Sadly, they are not kidding. They expect people to believe this PR campaign.

[Hekate]

2. Angling? So he's out fishing for condiments? Because I don't see compliments coming his way...

What a joke.

Hekate

[MasonJar]

4. I think I might choke while spurting wine on the computer screen.

I hope that this PR scheme is not paid for by the US Teasury because it will cost more than the war in Iraq.

[louis-t]

Sorry, impatient double click.

[louis-t]

5. Too bad the screech owl didn't bite a nasty chunk

out of shithead's face. I would pay to see that.

[DRoseDARs]

7. I'm just surprised Bush didn't bite the owl's head off and eat it...

You know how Bush rolls : Clear Skies, pollute them; Healthy Forests, chop 'em down; Pretty bird, tasty treat.

[yardwork]

15. Exactly. Usually when he goes to visit something, it means it will be destroyed next week.

The White House is probably planning to fill in the Chesapeake Bay next month. Wait for it.

[FREEWILL56]

17. You forgot 'gone fishin'

edit to add:
He's gone fishin for fools that believe his bullshit.

He's on vacation most of the time even when he's behind a desk though.

[Lisa]

18. Indeed. If they're mishandled, they're smart enough to go for your eyes

I used to work at a wildlife clinic, and there was one screech owl the size of a pop can that would lunge at people's faces, talons out, if he was panicking. He could create more havoc than the great-horned and the turkey vulture could, together!

But these birds can be very friendly if they've been treated well, and handled gently. My particular favourite, "Otus", would perch on my finger. (Didn't need a glove with him.)



http://news.yahoo.com/photo/071020/480/81437bbff3e040928151a1348a093e5f

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/071020/480/9fa4725bd9e84e039a3cd7e2de47631f

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/071020/480/4849dae37b414a52bc2d9419293594a0



Oh -- checking out the photos of him -- that owl is NOT happy. That last pic looks like a "get back or I'll bite you!" pose to me. When Otus was contented, his eyes were a lot bigger -- he'd only squinch up his face and raise his horns like that if he were in a bad mood (on the top perch in his cage, glaring "I don't want to come out right now!", or a stranger suddenly touched him without warning).

I see someone warned Bush to wrap the leash (that yellow cord) around his fingers -- probably a good idea, because being waved around like that in front of the cameras might make the owl try to take off. I can't tell from the pic whether he's holding onto the jesses, as you're supposed to do.

[Mz Pip]

6. He might be more believable

if he said something about keeping a shotgun our of Cheney's hands.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[dave29]

8. The conservation of incompetence?

I believe there is a law of physics related to this phenomenon. It has been proven over and over again during his residency.

[badgervan]

9. The Cardboard Cowboy "Rides" Again

Exactly what "conservation credentials" has mr. all hat no saddle earned? He's on the negative side of that ledger - by a long ways. How can anyone believe this fraud after so many years of lie after lie? This terrible and dangerous administration continues to stick to it's guns: if they say something loudly and enough, it becomes ( their desired ) reality. Sad to say that it works with today's Big Media too often.
Deciderboy is NOT a consevationist. He is the opposite.

[calimary]

16. That's a pretty funny headline, actually. Something from the "Daily Show"?

The day george w. bush is considered a "conservationist" is the day he actually tells the truth about something.

Which will be NEVER in both cases.

[hatrack]

10. And for Earth Day, he'll club a baby seal to further enhance his outdoorsman status

Phony climate-fucking West Virginia-leveling science-distorting land-raping ocean-poisoning lying PIECE OF SHIT.

God, 2009 can NOT come quickly enough.

:puke:

[sakabatou]

11. Up is black! White is down!

AAAAUUUUGGGHHH!!

[Xipe Totec]

12. He could've had the screech owl for lunch and not done more damage

than he already has.

[WileEcoyote]

13. I'm not really sure how he serves himself

by even providing lip service to environmental causes at this point.

His supporters don't matter. And being so wooden headed or just plain stupid these Lemmings wouldn't much care for the photo op on the Chesapeake Bay.

So the president must have wanted to be "an environmentalist for a day" just to make himself feel better.

[TygrBright]

14. Oh, gag me with a spoon... "charming Eastern Shore village"...

Puh-LEEEEEEZE! St. Michaels is to the Eastern Shore as Martha's Vineyard is to Cape Cod. It might have been a "charming village" forty or fifty years ago, but now it's an enclave of wealth and power all tricked out in overpriced Colonial and pseudo-Colonial deco-shtick.

IOW, it is EXACTLY the sort of place I'd expect a phony asshole to pose a propaganda photo-op as part of an attempted snowjob. You can betcher tuchas monkey-boy didn't go anywhere near the Blackwater refuge or the wilds of Dorchester County, which are really on the edge of conservation disaster and posed with the conundrum of desperately poor populations and no economic infrastructure.

Pity the poor little owl.

disgustedly,
Bright

[Orsino]

19. The Potemkin presidency. n/t

[Vidar]

20. How did that Hindu quote of Oppenheimer's go? : "I am the the destroyer of worlds..."