On polar bears: “We do all that we can to protect our polar bears.
And, thankfully, because of the Marine Mammals Protection Act, those
provisions in there that we have been so strictly adhering to, our
polar bear population has increased. It is healthy,” she says. “Now
putting it on a threatened species list, to us, we believe, is
premature because of the population that is healthy. But here again, so
often it’s politicians on the East Coast, they do not understand Alaska
and our love for our wildlife and our environment.”

On wolf culling: “People, especially on the East Coast, who run the
ads against Alaska allowing predator control, they’ve got it all wrong.
They call this aerial hunting of our wolves. Nobody aerial hunts for
wolves. That’s illegal. You don’t hunt from an airplane. It’s predator
control, which is a management tool that trained and certified
biologists can use . . . to control a predatory herd that’s decimating
a population of moose and caribou. And it’s a needed management tool
because that moose and caribou herd is the source of food for
especially our native villages in Alaska,” she says. “It’s not used
that readily, even. It’s one of those last-resort things.”

"Sure! I'll do an interview! Let me get away from these pesky aides for a minute!

The CNN political blog has a great story this weekend covering the chaos in the McCain-Palin locker room of late.  It’s almost hard to watch their missteps and cross-talk these days, but the frayed edges don’t necessarily mean the wheels are off the bus; best to get out and vote early!  Here’s a sample from the article [click here for the whole shebang]:

With 10 days until Election Day, long-brewing tensions between GOP vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin and key aides to Sen. John McCain have become so intense, they are spilling out in public, sources say.

Several McCain advisers have suggested to CNN that they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide described as Palin “going rogue.”

A Palin associate, however, said the candidate is simply trying to “bust free” of what she believes was a damaging and mismanaged roll-out.

McCain sources say Palin has gone off-message several times, and they privately wonder whether the incidents were deliberate. They cited an instance in which she labeled robocalls — recorded messages often used to attack a candidate’s opponent — “irritating” even as the campaign defended their use. Also, they pointed to her telling reporters she disagreed with the campaign’s decision to pull out of Michigan.

A second McCain source says she appears to be looking out for herself more than the McCain campaign.

“She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone,” said this McCain adviser. “She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else.

“Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom.”

Bear found dumped at WCU with Obama signs

by Dale Neal

A dead bear was found dumped this morning on the Western Carolina University campus, draped with a pair of Obama campaign signs, university police said.

Maintenance workers reported about 7:45 a.m. finding a 75-pound bear cub dumped at the roundabout near the Catamount statute at the entrance to campus, said Tom Johnson, chief of university police.
“It looked like it had been shot in the head as best we can tell. A couple of Obama campaign signs had been stapled together and stuck over its head,” Johnson said.
University police called in N.C. Wildlife Resources officials to remove the body and help in the investigation. Bear season is currently under way in Western North Carolina.
“This is certainly unacceptable,” Johnson said. “Someone was wanting to draw attention to the election. If we find out who they are, we’ll make sure they’ll get some attention themselves.”

“Western Carolina University deplores the inappropriate behavior that led to this troubling incident,” said Leila Tvedt, associate vice chancellor “We cannot speculate on the motives of the people involved, nor who those people might be. Campus police are cooperating with authorities to investigate this matter.”

Click here for the original article.

Oil companies have bought influence in Washington and used that influence to make life easier for themselves and harder for their competitors. This may be a controversial statement, but it’s not an unfounded one, given the amount of money the oil industry pours into politics and the regularity with which it gets its way in policy debates. It certainly has more basis in reality than the claims of your average political attack ad.

Click here to read the entire post on HCN’s blog, The Goat.