TRANSLATION

News Item: “The Fish and Wildlife Service has drawn up a list of 113 birds it is proposing to exclude from protection under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. As required by the 2004 Migratory Bird Treaty Reform Act passed by Congress in the Omnibus Appropriations Bill, FWS will exclude non-native birds from protection under the law.”

Translation: Federal bureaucrats and appointees in the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture want what the environmental radicals want. That is Federal authority to embark on a Federal program of mammoth proportions that will dwarf the Endangered Species Act in so far as growing the Federal bureaucracy. They want to transfer the remaining State jurisdiction over plants and animals to Federal agencies, and in the name of Native Ecosystem restoration (which is synonymous with Invasive Species eradication) generate unimagined new Federal authority over citizens and property owners. The abuses and results of this will be the harms of the Endangered Species Act times 10.

Every time the subject of Federal Invasive Species or Native Ecosystem legislation comes up, it is rejected on the facts. United Nations bureaucrats are involved in such efforts as they look for an opening to convene a UN meeting to discuss a Treaty or Convention to give the UN bureaucracy and US Bureaucrats who would implement such a Treaty the same sort of Constitution-trumping Federal authority as was done with the Endangered Species Act.

So what do the Federal bureaucrats do? Why they draft legislation to set the precedent that they can exclude Non-Native birds that have been protected by Federal law and an international Treaty for nearly a century from Federal protection because the bureaucrats don’t think they should be managed or protected. So, without any hearings as is customary in a democracy or any open warning of what was afoot, the bureaucrats slip an accommodating Congressman a copy of their “bill” and he or she drops it into a must-pass Omnibus spending bill at midnight just before Congress adjourns at the end of it’s Session. The president must sign such a “Bill” (buried in the massive spending bill) to keep the Federal government going so, (voila!) you have the “Migratory Bird Treaty Reform Act” and 113 species of birds deemed unworthy of protection because of their purported arrival date according to some professors and bureaucrats. On what factual basis other than the personal wishes of bureaucrats catering to environmental extremists is there ANY justification for certain animals to be exempt from Federal protection simply because they are purported to have arrived since 1492 or 1776 or 1812 or some other arbitrary date? Who are these bureaucrats to tell us that a mute swan is less deserving of federal protection AND Management than a tundra swan or a trumpeter swan or what bird at our feeder is “better” than another?

I can’t begin to count the times I have heard recently that I should not mention Endangered Species Act REFORM. I am told it is merely ammunition for the environmental radicals (another word that I shouldn’t mention at this time because it is inflammatory) as they protest ANY modification of the Endangered Species Act. However, I notice that Congress has no compunction about passing a “Migratory Bird Treaty REFORM Act” without notice or hearings at midnight before they adjourn for that Session of Congress. Perhaps that is how we should REFORM the Endangered Species Act!

Even those of you that don’t give a hoot about this Invasive/Native thing, better wake up and think about this. The Federal establishment has taken a big step through subterfuge to get what they are unable to get openly and honestly in our Republic. Most disturbing, what about the precedent they are setting? At the end of the next Session of Congress all the agencies should draft wording for “REFORM” Acts that they can’t get passed otherwise. How about a “Native Ecosystems on Public Lands REFORM Act”? Think about that one you hunters and fishermen and trappers and ranchers and loggers and public land users. How about an “Invasive Species Eradication REFORM Act”? Why not even an “Invasive Species on Private Lands REFORM Act”? Remember, Non-Native and Invasive Species include not only brown trout and rainbow trout and Great Lakes salmon and pheasants and chukars and Hungarian Partridge but also a lot of recently established turkeys and a whole host of other critters we all like and use. What do we know (based on the Endangered Species Act) will happen when the professors see that they can get grants for feeding this Federal monster act by pronouncing species and subspecies and races and populations as “Not Native” or “Invasive” in this State or that County or that valley or that watershed? How about an “Invasive Landscaping Plant REFORM Act” for the homeowner? How about a “Hunting and Fishing Species REFORM Act”? The mind boggles at the potential for Federal growth and citizen oppression possible in the dead of night by ethically-challenged bureaucrats and one pandering politician that can stay up late once every two years.

If the Federal bureaucrats can con a politician to engage in such subterfuge and you consider the ruthlessness of the environmental extremists and the animal rights radicals, there is nothing that is impossible. The Constitutional protections we thought we had are being shredded right before our eyes. A Republic depends on an informed citizenry. An informed citizenry depends on information and openness within both the bureaucratic and political wings of the government. Sadly both of these things are evaporating.

When we are forced to accept wolves, to watch our State agencies become Federal representatives, and to see our rights and freedoms from private property to animal use and management given to bureaucrats that lock them away and rule us like subjects, the time for REFORM is past. We are forced to play by the Federal rules for all the harms they are generating but they can be selective about who they prosecute, what species they will choose to protect and do it all in the dark of night as they make “Laws” with all the secrecy of a communist directorate. (I apologize to all who are offended by this comparison but it is true nonetheless).

Jim Beers
5 March 2005
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Pagcor goes ahead with online betting on cockfights
By Erwin Lemuel Oliva
INQ7.net

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) launched the country's first Internet-based cockfight betting system this week.

Dubbed ‘TeleSabong,’ the online betting game service is now being offered by the state-run agency in collaboration with PhilWeb Corp.

Pagcor vice-president Rene Figueroa said in a statement that online cockfight betting is expected to generate about 60 billion pesos a year.

The betting system will be based on the game results of a four-cock-derby. It will follow the traditional cockfighting formats of Singles, Parlays, and Pick the Derby Champion.

Online wagers can be made either through the Internet or through Pagcor's 300 plus Internet sports betting stations nationwide, according to PhilWeb.

Two years ago PhilWeb and Pagcor also launched an online service for betting on basketball. Last year they launched an online casino.

PhilWeb Corp., a publicly listed firm, is the technical and marketing consultant of Pagcor. It started as an Internet service provider and eventually moved into Internet gaming.

Cockfighting, or "sabong," is one of the country's most popular sports. Bets can run from as low as a few hundred to hundreds of thousands of pesos.