On 20/06/2010 1:51 PM, Harry wrote:
On 6/20/10 3:32 PM, Canuck57 wrote:
My god, is Obama for real? I couldn't believe this when I tripped on
it. Fishing is sacred stuff.

Obama is about to ban fishing?

In what may be the worst example of outdoor sports reporting in the
history of America, ESPN has claimed that President Barack Obama is on
the verge of banning recreational fishing.

ESPNOutdoors.com writer Robert Montgomery

You ignorant ass...Montgomery's piece has been debunked over and over:

Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh need to shut up about Obama fishing ban
*March 11* , 12:48 PM · Jeffrey Weeks - Charlotte Fishing Examiner

I have spent the last two days trying to undo the damage ESPN did when
it allowed writer Robert Montgomery to fuel the absurd Obama fishing ban
rumor, yet right-wing bloggers and media personalities like Rush
Limbaugh and Glenn Beck continue to spread this lie and anger more and
more fishermen.

There are huge dangers in what is happening for the American
recreational angler. If we allow extreme right-wing conservatives to
become the national spokesmen for us as fishermen against the Obama
Administration and environmental groups, we run the risk of actually
encouraging the over-regulation of fishing in the USA.

The truth of the matter, as I have repeatedly stated since ESPN started
the Obama fishing ban myth earlier this week, is that the administration
Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force is likely to recommend broad
potential regulations on some ocean fishing which will not affect
average recreational fishermen at all.

However, both Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh as well as the National
Review and other right-wing bloggers are now reporting ESPN's false
rumor that Obama wants to ban recreational fishing as essentially fact
and trying to make themselves spokesmen for American anglers.

Meanwhile, some average fishermen are so confused by this they have
turned fishing in America into yet another conservative versus liberal
firestorm and are on the verge of tactually making recreational fishing
into a Tea Party issue.

I and others like me have actually been accused across the internet of
promoting an Obama administration plan to ban recreational fishing!

Anyone who knows me at all knows that this is like some kind of
monstrously ironic joke. If I thought Obama were actually out to ban
fishing I would be in Washington banging down the White House door.

I am a lifelong recreational angler and fishing is a huge passion in my
life. I would no more support a secret plan to ban recreational fishing
than I would support a full scale nuclear war.

Meanwhile, both the White House and environmental groups are clearly
confused as well.

The Obama Administration, while still obviously not understanding what
rock this crazy rumor crawled out from, has issued an urgent denial of
the fake ban fishing plot. And environmentalists have been contacting ME
in total confusion trying to figure out what America's fishermen are so
upset about.

The real danger for fishermen is that there are true concerns to be had
about both environmental over-regulation of fishing and the final report
and recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force. I and
some other fishing journalist have been writing about the dangers of
over-environmentalism and fishing for years.

But nobody out there is going to listen to us as long as Limbaugh and
Beck are blowing this story out of proportion and making American
fishermen sound like right-wing nut jobs.

We may actually find the average US recreational angler shut out of this
debate as the Obama Administration and environmental groups begin
fighting by reflex against the Tea Party folks and fishermen stand back
confused and misled about what is actually happening.

Frankly, as a recreational angler in America this is about the worst
thing that could have happened to USA fishermen. I was worried about a
coming struggle against environmental regulations in the first place.

I've benn praying that American anglers would stay cool and pool their
resources to let everyone know that we as fishermen care passionately
about the environment and are not the danger to fish stocks and
endangered species that some extreme environmentalists may claim.

Now, instead of sounding reasonable we are losing all our credibility as
if we could care less about sounding rational and actually influencing
environmental policy. Mainstream and (before this) level-headed
recreational fishing leaders are starting to sound dangerously just like
extreme right-wing bloggers.

This has got to end, and now. Otherwise we really WILL face some harmful
environmental over-regulation in the future and we won't be able to
fight it.

Amercia's fishermen need to immediately and forcefully tell Rush
Limbaugh and Glenn Beck to shut up about the mythical Obama fishing ban.

If you are an angler who cares about recreational fishing please pass
the truth on to other fishermen and demand ESPN take responsibility for
this harmful myth before this stops being about fishing and the
environment and becomes just one more political issue decided upon by
government officials and talk media extremists.

You really are an asshole, canuck.

Stuff it Harry, it is the left that wants control.

Rand Paul and Sara Palin, would be a good ticket.

--
The bigger government gets, the more it tends to rule out common sense.