ELMER J. FUDD

I just returned from Castaways in Ocean City Maryland. They have a lot going on. You should look into Assateague island camping. I checked it out one day. Looks to be as good as it gets for ocean front camping. It's the place with the wild horses.

Where did you end up going?

Which one of you has my Stanley Fat max chalk line and the extra battery for my oscillating multi tool thingy?

I Just returned from Northampton Beach. It's awesome. There is still many areas there that are closed because they are under water. There were a lot of jet skis and boats. A little ruckus, but fun. You can wade and float at your site. Here is a link to view all the sites there and a few other ny campgrounds. http://campadk.com/campsitephotos.html?campground=Northampton+Beach site 112 is probably the best. The ones on the inlets are pretty sweet too.

I was going to say just make sure you use a cometic head gasket for a boosted motor, but the 2nd to last post in the linked thread has me thinking. http://forums.corral.net/forums/superchargers/1311016-cometic-head-gaskets-when-boosting.html

Happy birthday guy!

There's a few just south of the Catskills. Jellystone and a KOA. You might like Waubeeka up near Copake lake. It's seems easier to get to from the island. (east of the hudson) Waubeeka had good bass and panfish.

Congratulations. I hope I can share the same pride one day.

Definitely yogurt!

What happened to my post?

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/05/06/nyregion/us-said-to-seek-records-from-anticorruption-panels-members.html?_r=0&referrer= I'm surprised there hasn't been much on this here. U.S. Said to Seek Records From Anticorruption Panel’s Members By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM and SUSANNE CRAIG May 6, 2014 Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have issued a grand jury subpoena seeking emails, text messages and other records from all the members of the anticorruption commission that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo abruptly shut down in March, three people briefed on the matter said on Monday. The action by prosecutors from the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, comes just weeks after he took the unusual step of publicly criticizing the governor’s shutdown of the panel and took possession of its investigative files. The subpoena, which was served on the commission’s former counsel, Kelly Donovan, seeks documents pertaining to the formation of the panel, known as a Moreland Commission, based on the 1907 Moreland Act. It also sought documents about how the panel was run, overseen and closed, according to the people briefed on the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly. The issuance of the subpoena, and new details about recent meetings of several Moreland Commission employees and prosecutors in Mr. Bharara’s office, provided the strongest suggestion to date that the criminal investigation may be examining allegations of interference with the commission. It was unclear what potential crimes were being investigated and whose conduct was being examined. A spokesman for Mr. Bharara’s office, James M. Margolin, would confirm neither that a subpoena had been issued nor that a criminal investigation was underway. The subpoena was sent to Ms. Donovan, who had been seconded to the Moreland Commission from her post as executive deputy attorney general for criminal justice, and returned to that job after the commission was shut down. As the commission’s former lawyer, she was sent the subpoena with the expectation that she would notify the panel’s former members that their correspondence and other documents were being sought, one of the people said. The subpoena also asks for a host of other material previously turned over voluntarily by the commission, these people said. Matthew Wing, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, would not discuss the suggestion that federal prosecutors were examining possible interference by his administration. In an email, Mr. Wing said, “The Moreland Commission was clear at the conclusion that they were referring all cases to various prosecutors — to the extent the U.S. attorney wants to investigate those cases we encourage all state offices to cooperate.” Last month, Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, dismissed suggestions that there could have been anything wrong in his office’s interfering with the commission’s investigations. “It’s my commission. I can’t ‘interfere’ with it, because it is mine. It is controlled by me,” he said last month, according to Crain’s New York Business. Mr. Cuomo set up the panel, formally known as the Commission to Investigate Public Corruption, in July with great fanfare. But he disclosed on March 29 that he was disbanding it in exchange for the Legislature’s agreement to pass what he called strengthened ethics laws as part of the adoption of a new state budget. Five days later, Mr. Bharara wrote to the panel’s two chairmen and senior staff members, sharply questioning the decision. Mr. Bharara suggested that Mr. Cuomo had abandoned his commitment to fight corruption, trading it for the short-term political gain of the budget deal. On April 10, Mr. Bharara and the commission’s chairmen reached an agreement under which his prosecutors took possession of all of the panel’s documents and computer files, including materials its staff had developed in several corruption investigations, some focused on state legislators. Since then, federal prosecutors from Mr. Bharara’s public corruption unit, led by Arlo Devlin-Brown, an assistant United States attorney, have been working on two main issues. One avenue is a focus on following up on the investigations that were interrupted by the commission’s shutdown. Prosecutors have met with the commission’s former staff — some of them former prosecutors themselves — in preparation for taking up the unfinished investigations, according to several people briefed on the meetings. Federal prosecutors also appear to be examining any actions that may have interfered with the panel’s operation. Prosecutors have asked the panel’s investigators and staff members about allegations of interference by Cuomo administration officials, including the governor’s top aides and his senior appointees to the panel, the people said. Much of the questioning, several of the people said, has focused on the conduct of the commission’s executive director, Regina Calcaterra, who, they said, had repeatedly sought to prevent commission subpoenas that might reflect poorly on the governor from being issued and tried to divert investigators from focusing on his allies. When federal prosecutors took possession of the commission’s documents and computers, they also collected the BlackBerry smartphones the commission had provided to its staff, the people said. In the commission’s early days, senior members of its staff were told to communicate with Mr. Cuomo’s aides only via BlackBerry PIN messages, not recorded on government servers. Mr. Wing defended the use of PIN messages as “a common way that many people communicate in 2014.”

With all the complaining we do about lawbreakers, I would think we'd all want a DEC officer hunting with us.

The media is killing the messenger.

This type of situation reminds me of those neighborhood traffic Nazi wannabes. Go to hell.

Sorry for your loss.

I'm glad you guys liked it.

If it flies, it dies. (Birds) If it hops, it drops. (Deer) If it hooks, it cooks. (Fish)

No.

Tip.

Just in case you need it.

My opinion on the matter: 'Merica.

Three sides to every story. http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/environment/man-facing-wildlife-violations-looks-to-his-native-culture-as-a-defense-20140414 Man facing wildlife violations looks to his native culture as a defense By Melinda Miller | News Staff Reporter | Google+ on April 14, 2014 - 7:36 PM , updated April 15, 2014 at 12:49 AM ATTICA – The 102 baby turtles taken from John P. Volpe’s basement and the dozens of stuffed birds he had in his home and shop are evidence of illegal activity, the state Department of Conservation says. Volpe thinks otherwise. He considers the animals – the live ones and those he preserved – to be an integral part of practicing his native culture. Speaking through a friend, on the advice of his attorney, the 62-year-old Volpe said the animals were not for sale. They were for ceremonies. Volpe faces 190 counts of violating the state’s Environmental Conservation Law. George V.C. Muscato, the lawyer who represents Volpe, sums up Volpe’s defense this way: “He’s not a dealer in anything. He’s a very spiritual Native American.” Muscato called the matter “a First Amendment case in a lot of respects.” Volpe was born in Ontario, and Canada recognizes him as a member of the Mississauga group of the Ojibwa, the lawyer said. The Ojibwa, called the Chippewa in much of the United States, historically was one of the largest tribes of native people in North America. On Feb. 10, DEC officers and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent arrived at Volpe’s home with a search warrant and confiscated the baby turtles and dozens of taxidermy mounts. They also took a live wood turtle, considered in New York a “species of special concern.” The species has a lesser level of protection than those designated “endangered,” the most strict, or “threatened.” The federal agent also confiscated eagle feathers and an eagle staff. Volpe was later issued a ticket, Muscato said. While bald eagles are no longer on the endangered list, they are covered by the federal Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. None of the other animals confiscated from the property are on lists for special protection. But that doesn’t mean just anyone can own a stuffed gull or robin. The birds are still covered under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and New York state laws that follow its provisions. Lawmakers passed the act in 1918, when birds of all kinds were being slaughtered to feed the demands of millinery shops, their feathers winding up as adornments on ladies’ hats. It was about that time that the once-common passenger pigeon became extinct. In announcing the raid, the DEC explained it remains a violation to possess certain wildlife, dead or alive, without a permit or license issued by the state. “Mr. Volpe was not able to produce any type of permit or license, and therefore could not lawfully possess any of these items,” the agency said. Michael Bastine, a friend of Volpe who also has native heritage, spoke to The Buffalo News on his behalf and in his presence. Bastine disputed the right of any government agency to interfere with ceremonial items. Native Americans who are members of federally recognized tribes are granted exceptions of varying degrees to many hunting and wildlife laws, he said. “We live with these animals on another level,” Bastine said. “In our culture, animals do ‘speak’ to us. We learn from and teach each other. It is wrong if we don’t honor that gift.” Volpe, a taxidermist, keeps many stuffed animals in his shop: coyotes, wild turkeys, and some bears. He said he loans them to native groups for ceremonies, and he also does commercial work on deer and other legally hunted game. Bastine said, and Volpe agreed, that none of the birds of prey or other confiscated mounts were hunted. They were already dead when found, and people brought them to Volpe. Bastine also said his friend has donated many mounts to parks and nature centers, where he has taken part in wildlife talks. “With the taxidermy,” Bastine said, “in our understanding, when you preserve an animal, you preserve its teachings. It’s the remaining element of this ambassador.” Most painful, though, was the loss of the eagle feathers that were hanging in a sweat lodge on Volpe’s six-acre lot, and an eagle staff. Bastine, who was called by a neighbor to Volpe’s house when the officers arrived in February, said, “The federal agent went down to the sweat lodge and told John to take down the eagle feathers. When John wouldn’t do it, the agent started cutting them down and dropping them on the ground.” Such treatment of the feathers, which hold sacred meaning in native tradition, is equivalent to sacrilege. Other Native Americans gave the feathers to Volpe to preserve for ceremonial use, Bastine said. Under the right conditions, the transfer of the protected feathers is allowed. According to the Fish and Wildlife website, “Native Americans may wear feathers legally in their possession or make them into religious or cultural items for their own or tribal use. They may transfer feathers to tribal craftsmen to be fashioned into such objects. (They also) may give feathers or other eagle items as gifts to other Native Americans.” While it is illegal for non-natives to possess the feathers, the website says the service’s efforts focus on those who are illegally killing the birds and profiting from them. It also says that officers who find people using a few feathers as “personal or religious items will generally take no actions if the individuals possess a valid service permit or reasonably demonstrate that they are a member of a federally enrolled tribe.” Fish and Wildlife Agent Lee Schneckenberger said he couldn’t discuss the specifics of Volpe’s case since it was ongoing. Schneckenberger said it is his understanding that Volpe is not a member of any federally recognized native tribe or of any tribe in Canada. Volpe’s lawyer intends to argue that he is a member. In the meantime, Volpe still has a couple of live turtles the DEC did not take. He also has ceremonial clothing, some turtle rattles, a few masks and a staff with feathers, but not from eagles. Since these items weren’t taken, Volpe can talk about them. “We still use all these, everything,” Volpe said. “We use them in the sweat lodge. The ceremonies are for our religion. It’s not entertainment.” According to the DEC, Volpe could have avoided the violations by obtaining the required state permits for possession and rehabilitation of the animals. He was cited in 2005 for having two live birds he was rehabilitating. Volpe said he began the process to get a permit, but found it to be a Catch-22, in that he needed a state permit before he could get the federal permit. But the federal permit required him to have all necessary state permits first. When contacted about Volpe’s case, the DEC responded by email that “Volpe was charged with 190 counts of unlawful possession of wildlife. These are violation-level offenses of the Environmental Conservation Law, carrying a penalty of up to $250 in fines and up to 15 days in jail for each count.” But the agency would not grant an interview about specifics of the case. In a letter to the Batavia Daily News, Chris Krtanik of East Bethany said he has known Volpe for more than 20 years and has witnessed several meetings between Volpe and DEC officials. “John helped DEC senior wildlife biologist Kenneth Roblee, Region 9, Buffalo, locate wood turtles in the field in order to attach tracking devices to study their migrations and also to be able to draw blood for DNA studies,” Krtanik said. He also gave agency officials information about eagles’ flight patterns in relation to planned wind farms, and helped design and build a mechanical deer for the DEC to use to nab poachers. Asked about their relationship, the DEC responded via email: “Mr. Volpe is not a formal consultant for DEC. Regardless of any prior voluntary interactions with the agency, it is a violation of New York state law to possess certain types of wildlife without proper permits and licensing.” Volpe said his research into turtles shows some troubling trends, an opinion echoed by some mainstream researchers. He said that many of the young turtles he has seen can’t raise their heads, meaning they would drown when swimming. Between 60 and 70 percent are born with damaged or missing kidneys and other deformities, he said. The cause or causes are unknown, but Volpe said that, like frogs, the turtles are in decline. Their conditions could be an early environmental warning, he said. He added his interest in turtles stems from their importance in native legend and culture, along with their scientific value. “Turtle Island is how we refer to the earth,” Volpe said. “This is about where we live.”

Here's a new game. It's lots of fun. Read FSW's posts out loud in a cartoon villain voice. It fits so well with Gargamel from the Smurfs. Or better yet, speak it like the scary movie trailer guy!

The article AF posted shows the Michigan License sales decreasing until 2008. It says right in the article that 2008 had a big push for doe permits and they were at a discount price. Remove 2008 from the years posted, and license sales are still higher in 2009 than before. 450,000 xbow tags were issued the 1st year.

Today is the last day of firearm deer season and license sales are about 40,000 short of last year. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources reports that 1,567,557 deer licenses have been sold as of yesterday, compared to 1,604,027 deer licenses sold last year. Before the two-week firearm seasonstarted, about 1,081,877 deer licenses had been sold. Muzzleloader and late archery deer hunting season (just in southern Michigan) continues through December with more sales expected. "Hard to say at this point if we will exceed what we sold last year," said DNR spokeswoman Mary Dettloff. "Remember that last year, we had a huge push to sell doe permits in West Michigan at a deep discount to try to thin the herd there because of (chronic wasting disease) concerns." The state's DNR estimates deer hunters contribute $1 billion annually to Michigan’s economy, spending money for gas, food, ammunition, licenses and other necessities for their sport. This year, new crossbow hunting regulations allow more people the option of using the weapon. Previously, crossbow hunting was limited to persons with certain disabilities. "Crossbows definitely helped create more opportunity for hunters," Dettloff said. "We dispensed more than 450,00 crossbow stamps this year. The stamps were free, but had to be used in conjunction with a valid hunting license." Deer license sales by year: * 2004 1,706,953 * 2005 1,566,336 * 2006 1,549,207 * 2007 1,544,043 * 2008 1,604,027 * 2009 1,567,557 - as of Sunday