The Impeachment Hearing Room

I would remind you that for a clear, larger viewing of the graphics included here one need only click on them. The Obama Ad in the second half is exactly what was called for. Polls are showing “The Palin Bump:” fading but that doesn’t mean the “Palin Dump On” should be relaxed. Though arguments are made for killing wolves and other wildlife in Alaskan, in some of the included links; they fall on deaf ears as most of them constitute spin to “The Right Of Kill’! If They want to shoot things from aircraft, winged and helicopter they can join the service where their prey may fire back!

Aerial Wolf Gunning 101What is it, and why does vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin support the practice? By Samantha Henig

Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska and John McCain's vice presidential pick, is an enthusiastic hunter who has proposed legislation and cash incentives to encourage aerial wolf gunning, the controversial practice of shooting wolves from an aircraft. Do people in Alaska really shoot wolves from planes?

Yes, but only with the government's permission. Aerial shooting yields better results than traditional hunting, since it allows the hunter to cover a lot of ground quickly and track target animals from a clear vantage point. Historically, hunters also used planes to drive animals—polar bears in Alaska and elk in Montana, among others—toward gunmen waiting on the ground. But many hunters found the practice unsportsmanlike, since it violates the "fair chase" ethic, and animal rights activists call it inhumane, since airborne gunmen rarely get a clean (i.e., relatively painless) kill. In response to concerns like these, Congress passed the Federal Airborne Hunting Act of 1972, which made it illegal for hunters to shoot animals from a plane or helicopter.

The federal legislation (PDF) does have a loophole for predator control, permitting state employees or licensed individuals to shoot from an aircraft for the sake of protecting "land, water, wildlife, livestock, domesticated animals, human life, or crops." (This doesn't just apply to wolves; coyotes and foxes are sometimes gunned down from aircraft, especially in Western states.) Since 2003, Alaska has issued aerial wolf-hunting permits in select areas where moose and caribou populations are particularly endangered. The idea is that by killing the predators, the airborne gunmen can ramp up the number of moose and caribou that human hunters can take home for supper.

An aerial wolf-gunning team typically consists of two people—one to fly the plane, and one to shoot the animals. Former crop sprayers tend to make good pilots because they are used to flying close to the ground. Airborne hunters tend to fly single-engine Super Cub planes at very low speeds and at altitudes of less than 100 feet—sometimes swooping down to 10 to 15 feet above the ground. But flying so slow and low can be dangerous, and there have been a number of reported deaths in recent years as a result. Helicopters have the benefit of being able to hover very close to the ground, but they're prohibitively expensive for private pilots. (A small helicopter might cost as much as four times more than a Super Cub.) This past spring, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game lent its helicopters and employees to the predator-control effort.

There are two methods for making a kill during an aerial hunting expedition: Either you shoot the wolf while airborne or you track the animal from above, then land and shoot it from the ground. Legal limits on "land and shoot" hunting have been far less stringent: For many years after shooting from the air was outlawed, anyone with a hunting or trapping license could practice "land and shoot," provided he or she walked a certain distance from his plane before opening fire. Current rules in Alaska require a delay between landing an aircraft and killing an animal: In most cases, hunters must wait until 3 the following morning before they can get started.

Back in the 1950s, Alaska paid government employees and bounty hunters to take out thousands of wolves, but today's aerial wolf killers are unpaid. (They can make some money by selling the wolf pelts.) Palin tried last year to have the state pay $150 for every wolf killed, but the state superior court shot that down as an illegal use of bounty payments, which were outlawed in that state in 1984.

Explainer thanks Caroline Kennedy from Defenders of Wildlife.

We asked for a one-two punch, and this is the second punch.

Obama will win if he does two things:

1. Shows McCain is out of touch and clueless on the economy.

2.Demonstrates that he, Barack, has a plan and knows what he's doing.

#1 is easy, but is also easily eclipsed. Barack has to hammer it relentlessly.

On Tuesday, we got our wish on #1: Obama slamming McCain hard in an ad showing the goofball saying the economy was strong in the midst of Black Monday.

#2 is much harder, and has to be the primary focus going forward. It takes time and takes convincing. Many of us have been preaching this for awhile.

And today, we got the ad we needed:

Barack sits in a living room, like a normal Joe from Ohio, looks right at the camera, and says summarizes the meltdown, then offers a simple five-point plan. Perfect!

And when he says he approved the ad, he says, "I hope you'll read my economic plan."

This is another line they're pushing, which is excellent. Most people will be too lazy to read the plan. They just need to believe he has one. They need to believe some people have read it, and it makes sense, and that it's out there, out of hiding and Barack is proud of it and making it available, and daring them to read it. That says a lot.

Here's his plan, online:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/economyplan

And here are the five bullet points he delivers in the ad (my paraphrase):

1. A $1,000 tax cut to middle class voters.

2. Wall Street regulation to avoid this type of disaster.

3. Fast track an energy plan for long-term independence.

4. Crack down on lobbyists for real.

5. "Responsibly end the war in Iraq," to concentrate on "rebuilding our country instead of theirs."

Great stuff. Personally, I'd have left off #4 (I don't think it resonates), and kept it a little simpler, but the rest are exactly right. And #1 belongs #1--the primary antidote to his primary weakness: the BS that the McCain liars are hammering, trying to convince Americans Barack will raise their taxes. (Polling shows the majority are believing the lie. Barack needs to keep repeating that point of his actual plan, and McCain will look like a desperate liar to many swayable people in the middle.)