boy am i stupid (yeah i know i stepped into that one)

i didn't know shooting wolves with a high powered rifle from the comfort of an airplane was one of the CORE REASONS this country was founded. boy do I FEEL FOOLISH NOW (special shout out to rep miller on this one!)

Lawmaker seeks to ban all wolf hunting from aircraft

By Erika Bolstad McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Alaska hasn’t done its part to observe a 35-year-old federal ban on hunting wolves from aircraft, said a California lawmaker who has filed legislation that will end the practice.
With an Arctic grey wolf named Atka at his side, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., introduced a bill Tuesday that bans wolf hunting from planes or helicopter. The legislation will close a loophole in the 1972 Airborne Hunting Act that has allowed the state of Alaska to issue permits to shoot and kill nearly 700 wolves from airplanes over the past four years, Miller said. ...

..........“This bill is another deliberate attempt by radicals to federalize our country and defy the core principles upon which it was founded,” Young said. “States have the inherent right to manage their own wildlife populations. For the federal government to step in to one particular state is on par with a selective dictatorship, and as a population, we should be fearful that those in power are actively working to make this a reality.”.......

picture: www.hickerphoto.com/.../40/arctic_wolf_sc5.jpg

why do the people of alaska keep electing stevens?

i just don't know

Fisheries Netted In Federal Alaska Probe

By Laura McGann

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) had his son, former state Senate President Ben Stevens, head a board that distributed $12 million in federal grants to promote seafood companies that, at the same time, paid the younger Stevens upward of $775,000 in "consulting fees."
This arrangement has caught the FBI's attention. Last fall, at least three fisheries were issued grand jury subpoenas to hand over documents related to the lobbying and consulting work provided by the younger Stevens and a former aide to Sen. Stevens, Trevor McCabe. The subpoenas also sought any documents connected to the older Stevens. Two of the companies are based in Seattle, and another is in Juneau....................

and their congressman is not any better. he made one of the top five pricks in congress (at cracked)

...........REP. DON YOUNG (R-ALASKA)

In a Nutshell
Don Young is a buffoon who's constantly trying to steal money from the federal government, but is too obnoxiously stupid to get away with it.
Why He's a Prick
When he's not misquoting Lincoln, brandishing an 18-inch walrus penis on the House floor (yes, he did this), or directing hundreds of millions of federal dollars to roads bearing his name, he's just generally being a total ass. One gem: "Environmentalists are a self-centered bunch of waffle-stomping, Harvard-graduating, intellectual idiots." After all, if there's one thing our senators should be teaching the children of tomorrow, it's that graduating from college and being intelligent is for hippie fags.
Biggest Prick Moves
Earmarking $223 million in federal funding for an enormous—and egregiously unnecessary—bridge connecting the small Alaskan city Ketchikan to Gravina Island, which boasts a population of—drumroll—50 people.
When questioned by House members why he'd removed a limiting of carbon emissions from a bill, Young claimed that it was unnecessary, because Greenland is already cooling down (it’s not; Greenland's ice loss doubled between 1996 and 2005), that it’s not America’s fault it needs to burn more oil, since it’s so darn big (China’s also pretty big, and it burned 7 million barrels last year to the USA’s 20.6), and that the polar bear population is increasing (it’s actually due to be placed on the Endangered Species list later this year). Take-away point: Don Young has no problem making up shit to support whatever he feels like doing. That’s a skill they simply don’t teach at them fancy Harvard intellectual schools. ............