While millions disappear daily into the Iraqi quagmire, some domestic programs are collapsing. One of these, the National Wildlife Refuge system, has previously indicated that the worst problems are in the southeastern quadrant. Now, it seems that system difficulties are to be experienced with large cuts nationwide.
ENS Link
WASHINGTON, DC, March 12, 2007 (ENS) – In an attempt to cope with a huge budget backlog, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is cutting and redeploying staff in the National Wildlife Refuge System across the Southwest and the Pacific Regions. Reductions in services will impact refuges in Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Guam and several Pacific islands.
As a result of the cuts, environmental education programs for school children will be eliminated, there will be cuts in endangered species recovery programs, habitat management and law enforcement will be diminished.
Some refuges will be left entirely unstaffed as a result of permanent staff reductions.
According to the workforce plan that outlines the cuts, the Pacific region is leaving 32 positions vacant and will eliminate another 17 jobs by fiscal year 2009, resulting in a total of 49 eliminated positions. Because of these staffing cuts, 28 refuges, or 44 percent of the refuges in the region, will remain completely unstaffed and 21 refuges, or one-third of the refuges in the region, will experience further reductions.
The pacific region, comprised of some 3.5 million acres of refuge (64 individual refuges), will go virtually without any law enforcement.
Only six full-time law enforcement staff will remain in the entire Pacific region.
Umm, for those mathematically challenged BMTers, that works out to more than one half million acres per individual.
And yet the cost of maintaining wildlife refuges is a fraction of national park expenditures.
Refuges are currently managed at a cost of less than $4 per acre. By comparison, the National Park System receives more than $20 per acre for management.
It’s certainly not for lack of visitors.
On the 16,000 acre Tishomingo Refuge, which receives more than 200,000 annual visitors, there will only be one law enforcement officer who will split his or her time with Hagerman Refuge in Texas, impacting resource protection and visitor safety.
But war profiteers must get what’s due to them, wildlife or not. Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife.
“Wildlife refuges are national treasures, home to some of our nation’s most imperiled wildlife and critical to ensuring our nation’s waterfowl remains healthy and abundant,” said Schlickeisen. “Neglecting these refuges and cutting back on staff, services and programs puts the mission of the refuge system at risk. Congress needs to fund the refuge system and continue to invest in this country’s wildlife heritage.”
Your considerable disgust can be expressed here, and to your legislators.
Who needs the wilderness when you can have Armageddon?
And, of course, complete Armageddon will likely result in considerably more wilderness.
Ah, I love circular thinking!
I read your comment and then B2’s and I laughed – then an ad campaign began to emerge in my mind as to how selling the idea of Armageddon with a benefit of a new and improved wilderness could be done. The constant bombardment of ads and the advertising process is so insidious – and I don’t watch tv!
I was reading about this yesterday B2 and really can’t begin to fathom why bushco wants to destroy the country..along with this story I read that rural aid that goes back to the states is being drastically cut-more than already cut-(surprise surprise surprise-Not) and one county in Oregon for example will probably have to close not one but all 15 libraries in their county..this just boggles my mind…no libraries whatsoever..the destruction of our infrastructure should be complete by the time bush leaves office. The effects of bushco are going to be felt for the rest of this century I’m sure and not in any good way at all.
Unless we get a real progressive President in office to start to rebuild the country I’d say the US is history.
I’m not sure our best options are running…
Politicians usually always give lip service to not raising taxes but in a rather big turn around John Edwards is talking about raising taxes to basically rebuild the country, invest and create millions of new jobs, which in turn will create a much bigger tax base. It will be interesting to see if talking about raising taxes in a positive way will get through to the public.
I’m glad Edwards is talking about this. We can’t live on the Congressional Credit Card forever.
Sadly, I don’t think Dean’s talk of fiscal responsibility helped him. Maybe the country has progressed since then. I hope so.
really can’t begin to fathom why bushco wants to destroy the country
Understand why or no, this is an essential fact, that should remain in the forefront of all your thinking.
You don’t have to understand. You just have to understand that it is true.
Bush IS a psychopath, by the way, as I DO mention from time to time. I have had first hand experience with this sort of person; it is really not mysterious or subtle like people think. Just bad.
A while back I wrote a diary here called Murder/Suicide (just click on my name to find it) dealing with the bottom side of this. I did not (have not yet) written about the top side–that is, how the psychosis of the Powers That Be permeates the entire system (to create things like the Columbine killings, etc,) but it is exactly the same pattern of thought.
By the way, it is the reason that as our civilization enters the crises of global warming, peak oil, and economic dislocation, we are accelerating at the cliff, rather than trying to adapt.
” I have had first hand experience with this sort of person; it is really not mysterious or subtle like people think. Just bad.”
Any ideas on how to control or stop a psychopath? Or a psychopathic group?
I find I keep seeking some sort of understanding of how Bush, Cheney, Rove, et al. view the world, other people, themselves, etc. with a vague notion that if they can be understood, then the methods to stop them might emerge.
I find I keep seeking some sort of understanding of how Bush, Cheney, Rove, et al. view the world, other people, themselves, etc. with a vague notion that if they can be understood, then the methods to stop them might emerge.
This is not really such a good approach: On the one hand, you cannot really think the way they do and remain sane, on the other, THEY do not want to change the way they are thinking and acting. And they never will: It takes more personal insight and energy than they are capable of.
You can learn enough about how they think to evade their deceits, and that is worth doing.
To the last point, always keep in mind they are not normal people. They do not feel bad about lying, and they do not feel bad about being caught lying, either, though the latter may force them to adjust their tactics. And then they will just lie again. Arguably–indeed it is likely–to the larger extent they have lost track of what the truth is, and respond only to what they would like it to be in the moment. Remember my diary Disinformation Systems? (Click on my name and you will find it.) They CREATE the multiple realities we end up living in when the media serves their will, but unlike us, they can not KEEP TRACK of them. They have no clue. However, they also do not care, and do not think they need to care.
They have no empathy: Other people are not real to them. I will say outright I believe these are effects of abuse during upbringing, but that does not matter in that they have no interest now in dealing with that, but are putting all their effort into bolstering feelings of control and power. This is (partly) why they torture: It is a way of proving to themselves that they are powerful. Actually, it goes deeper: Torturing is one of the ways they prove to themselves that they exist. Existence is a real problem for them: They drop into non-existence very easily, and it is a great fear, and it possesses them.
Unfortunately, empathy is not needed to manipulate people, and indeed can get in the way of one’s willingness to do it. These people are highly skilled at manipulation, and have an unexcelled talent for calling up and harnassing people’s worst impulses. It is quite literally, what they do. Yet, once you understand that that is what they ARE doing, it is usually quite transparent. In the case of Bush, he is not subtle at all.
Having attained power, Bush will never give it up willingly, that is one reason I doubt he will step down in January 2009. Related to that, we should remember that Hitler began actively destroying Germany in the last year and a half: Perhaps the battle of Stalingrad itself was self-destruction–but certainly afterward, when the war was plainly lost. George Bush is already actively destroying the US. Arguably, this suits the agenda of his largest backers, but it also suits his personality. Remember his famous freudian slip: The terrorists never stop thinking about ways to harm the US, and neither do we.
You’ve had your warning!
And of course, the delight Bush takes in humiliating and even betraying the people who serve him is now legendary.
Any ideas on how to control or stop a psychopath? Or a psychopathic group?
Generally, you don’t. This is why electing or selecting them to positions of power is such a bad idea.
But most of their strength comes from a band of supporters and enablers, and this is where you have to work, starting from the outside. The outermost layer of enablers are not such good people, but they are not really as evil as they look, either: They do not want to know the nature of the man they are following, and they will condone their leader’s crimes, but only while they can remain unaware of what they are. When forced to know–usually as a result of being used or betrayed themselves–they will peel away. In this one lone respect our task is made easy: Bush delights in betraying his supporters, so the difficulty is only getting them to notice. This is hard, in that they do not WANT to notice, yet the ones that are only somewhat enmeshed do.
In this regard, his abuse of American soldiers is key. This is a constituency he absolutely needs, which started out utterly and rather mindlessly loyal, and which is now beginnning to have doubts, being driven to the breaking point. The Walter Reed scandal is the epitome, but long before that, we had shoddy equipment and stop-loss orders. The point is that these were willful, needless acts of his which openly undermined the soldiers’ military capability, as well as endangering health and safety. A soldier is trained to risk his life, but the first point is militarily inexcusable, and mistreatment of the wounded is dishonorable as well. So Bush’s sadism is undermining the support of the people he needs.
Our greatest difficulty is that Americans have given up on reality. In 1980 we voted to destroy our country, in what was actually a fair election. We have been trying to live in a plastic fantasy world ever since. We have more or less succeeded, but now that plastic fantasy is starting to unravel. Will we continue to cling to a delusion, or re-decide and start seeking to cope? Well, you know I am not optimistic at all, but some people are indeed deciding that clinging will not work. So that is where the hope is.
Thanks for your response – it is very much along the lines of what I meant by “understand,” entering the mind of a psychopath is not a place I want to go.
“…his abuse of American soldiers is key.”
Much to think about – thanks again. (I will check out your other diary on Disinformation Systems.)
In our county, where state and federal park lands make up over a third of the total area, local taxpayers are picking up the tab for fire, emergency medical and much of the police services. Our county isn’t allowed to tax any of this area. We’ve been trying to get a small addition to park gate fees for years, to no avail.
Overall, its Grover Norquist’s wet dream come true <sigh>.
New Orleans