Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1450619,00.html

Press Release

Source: Center for Consumer Freedom

PETA President to Get a Taste of Her Own Medicine
Friday January 21, 4:27 pm ET

Consumer Group Protests Ingrid Newkirk's Washington Book-Signing, Blames PETA for Bankrolling "Unkind" Arsonists

     Date:  Monday, January 24
     Time:  6:00 pm
    Place:  Borders Bookstore
            1801 K Street, NW

Source: Center for Consumer Freedom

Source: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050121/dcf040_1.html

.......The same folks that brought you the Endangered Species Act, spotted owls, wolves, Wilderness; the ones that manage the hunting and fishing excise taxes; and the ones who are working with UN bureaucrats to bring you Invasive Species and Native Ecosystems and gun control: are now gearing up to bring all the fish and wildlife agencies under the Federal umbrella and direct the shutdown of hunting and fishing from Washington.......

ACCOUNTABILITY & AGENDAS

The most vicious comments I receive come from animal rights and environmental advocates. The most hateful comments I receive come from bureaucrats, former bureaucrats, and wildlife professionals working as lobbyists and staffers for corporations and national conservation organizations. Nothing so agitates the latter as when I write about the abuse and mismanagement of the one-half to three-quarters of a Billion dollars in excise taxes collected annually for State fish and wildlife agencies to restore sport fish and wildlife. That is the subject of this piece.

Six years ago I helped to expose the theft of $45 to $60 Million of these excise taxes in a two-year period by top managers of the US Fish and Wildlife Service from funds due the State fish and wildlife agencies. The Federal bureaucrats used the funds to “reintroduce” wolves in the Upper Rockies (something Congress had refused to fund), to open a California Office to emphasize endangered species (another thing Congress had refused to fund), and to pay bonuses and awards to cooperative Federal employees. The State fish and wildlife agencies never complained about the theft of their funds, the funds were never replaced, and NO ONE WAS EVER PUNISHED. This demonstration of no accountability was not lost on the “professional” and still-present top managers of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. As with a child that goes unpunished for stealing from classmates, soon enough he graduates to the big time and everyone is asking, “how did he ever come to do that”?

The recently completed year of 2004 is another step in the ratcheting up of the increasing magnitude of those scandals concerning the mismanagement of these funds and the conspiracy to cover it up because of the hidden agendas that make a wide range of non-bureaucrats into cooperators.

In 2004:

1.) Approximately $70 Million ($40M from arms manufacturers, $20M from fishing tackle manufacturers, and $10M from archery manufacturers) due to be paid on the products manufactured was NOT PAID by the manufacturers.

2.) Approximately $40 Million was “lost” by IRS bookkeeping due to the small amounts collected individually and the accounting deficiencies that make tracking difficult.

3.) Approximately $30 Million was lost because investments of the funds (the responsibility of the US Fish and Wildlife Service) between receipt of the funds and disbursement to the States were mismanaged. The previous year $40 Million was so returned from investing, this year (when the investment outlook was even brighter) only $10 Million was returned on investments.

4.) The above items total at least $140 Million lost from State fish and wildlife agencies in one year alone.

5.) The fishing tackle manufacturers quietly lobbied (and were successful) to have the excise tax on fishing tackle boxes reduced by more than half. This lost another $5 Million in annual excise tax collections.

6.) The archery manufacturers quietly lobbied (and were likewise successful) to take the excise tax off bows under 30 lbs. pull and certain arrows. This reduced excise tax collections another $3 to $4 Million.

7.) The manufacturers are seeking to employ retired IRS auditors and former Congressional tax experts to protect the current underpayments and protect recent reductions of excise taxes and to explore further reduction possibilities. Additionally they are working with the Federal bureaucracies and the State agencies to politically undermine a Congressional inquiry into the fact that the States have been and are continuing to go unaudited by the US Fish and Wildlife Service as required by law. According to law, each State must be audited every five years. It has been over a decade since a complete audit cycle of the State agencies has been completed and no audits are currently being conducted. These “professionals”, lobbyists, and bureaucrats have even openly discussed “finding out” who is “paying” me to cause so much trouble as in writing this article. (NOTE: Guys, if you find out, please let me know because “they” haven’t been paying their bills!)

8.) The US Fish and Wildlife Service manager responsible for investing the excise taxes, and therefore “accountable” for the +$30 Million dollar loss received $14,500 in “achievement” awards in this one year alone.

9.) The US Fish and Wildlife Service employee responsible for finding and pursuing the annual loss of these Millions was forced to retire this year without any recognition. Indeed the clear message to all other employees (as with my forced retirement) was that those who do not cooperate in WHATEVER the top managers want will be dealt with severely. Already since his departure, tax collectors are losing interest in pursuing the bookkeeping problems and the manufacturers and lobbyists are emboldened to silently pursue their own self-interests.

10.) The lobbyists, bureaucrats, and “professionals’ are currently planning a quiet political campaign to increase the amount of the excise taxes kept in Washington for “administration” (reducing the amount available to State fish and wildlife agencies by the same amount). This will both increase the amount of play money (the current amount kept in Washington for “administration” is easily twice what any business would spend) available to Federal bureaucrats; it will also increase the amount available for administrative “grants” awarded by Washington bureaucrats and lobbyists to favored recipients and themselves.


Why doesn’t anyone pick up on this? Where are our “Unlimiteds” and “Foundations”? Truth be known, they are supporting the extermination of western brown and rainbow trout to be replaced by the far less productive fishery for “endangered” bull trout. They are chirping echoes of wolf “benefits” ground out by bureaucrats, environmentalists, and animal rights extremists as elk herds and elk licenses and elk hunting disappear. They are “coming together” to advise “partnerships” and “cooperation” with the Sierra Club (and all their ilk) – the very groups committed to eradicating hunting and fishing.

Where are the outdoor magazines? I appreciate ballistic advice and a good perch recipe as much as the next guy but what about the lifeblood of our activities? Where are the Outdoor stores’ “professionals” that festoon their store walls with US Fish and Wildlife Service decals and Invasive Species like pheasants and chukars and brown trout yet remain silent as Federal Invasive Species laws are proposed with State fish and wildlife agency support?

Where are our state fish and wildlife agencies and their lobbyists? As hunters, fishermen, and State politicians hear nothing except how the State fish and wildlife agency can’t afford to do this or that and how much things cost (mostly self-imposed tasks and roles) and how if they don’t get more money they will go broke; why isn’t there a peep about losing $140 plus Million last year alone? Why isn’t the former State fish and wildlife Director that is now US Fish and Wildlife Service Director excited about more than “listing Colorado butterflies”?

The answer to these questions is a hidden agenda. Outdoor writers, State bureaucrats, and fish and wildlife “professionals” are convinced hunting and fishing (their current gravy train) are on their way out. Long story short – they have all swung behind a 20+ year-old scheme to have the US Congress give Billions to the US Fish and Wildlife Service who in turn will “give” it to State fish and wildlife agencies for “conservation”. As you might guess “conservation” means whatever you want it to mean from introducing wolves, to buying or easing private property, to propagandizing children, etc. The supporters of this raid on the Federal Treasury aren’t willing to pay their own way like hunters and fishermen; no, they strive to use the taxes from all of us to eradicate hunting and fishing and grow the central government power over all of us in a dramatic fashion. This scheme began as a tax on wildlife recreation goods (failed) and then morphed into a “Chickadee checkoff” on tax forms (failed) and then became CARA (diversion of offshore energy taxes to States that also failed) and most recently was reconfigured as a Get Outdoors diversion of Billions to States that also failed. Because the money is to go through US Fish and Wildlife Service to States “just like the hunting and fishing excise taxes” the outdoors writers, the States, and all the “professionals” circle the wagons when someone like me looks under the covers. I assume I do not have to explain why the Federal bureaucrats and most Federal politicians do not want these abuses of the management of the excise taxes exposed.

It may however, be too late to stop the shift of putting State fish and wildlife agencies on REAL Federal Appropriated funding (and therefore MORE accountable to Federal overseers than the government and people of their own State). Congress has quietly and with the cooperation of the bureaucrats and “professionals” initiated two new grant programs for Congressionally Appropriated funds to be, (“laundered?”) excuse me, administered through the same office in the US Fish and Wildlife Service that administers the hunting and fishing excise taxes.

Last year the State and Tribal Wildlife Grant Program disbursed $76Million for “conservation”. To say that the funds can be used for every conceivable governmental mischief would be an understatement. If there were any “real” (beyond budgets and power) need for such work, States or private groups would come up with it like hunters and fishermen have done for over half a century. As it is, unlike the requirement in the hunting and fishing excise taxes, there is not even a simple requirement for public access to projects funded by our Federal tax dollars.

Also last year, the Landowner Incentive Program (another new Congressionally Appropriated funding stream to State agencies through the US Fish and Wildlife Service) disbursed $30 Million for the same amorphous “conservation” projects that anyone who has followed fish and wildlife programs of the last decade will instantly recognize. The simple requirement for public access is likewise conspicuous in its’ absence.

The camel’s nose is under the tent. In fact what the environmentalists and animal rights activists and wildlife professionals and Federal bureaucrats and certain Federal politicians have wanted all along (the “breaking” of State fish and wildlife programs and the control of all fish, wildlife, and plant activities from Washington) has begun. The same folks that brought you the Endangered Species Act, spotted owls, wolves, Wilderness; the ones that manage the hunting and fishing excise taxes; and the ones who are working with UN bureaucrats to bring you Invasive Species and Native Ecosystems and gun control: are now gearing up to bring all the fish and wildlife agencies under the Federal umbrella and direct the shutdown of hunting and fishing from Washington.

So all you “professionals” and bureaucrats save your bile for someone who cares. I already know that you are not going to buy my lunch or offer me a contract. I simply think it is disgusting what is going on and I hope someone that reads this can do something about it.

Jim Beers
23 January 2004

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JimBeers7@earthlink.net

Source: http://www.allianceforamerica.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=2628&sid=87e832393c7009e993592127d71d0633