Subject: Re: Pocket gophers (was 48)
Date: Nov 9 09:46:00 1995
From: Don Baccus - donb at Rational.COM


Jim Rosso:
>I think theres a lot of difference between the Spotted Owl and the Pocket
>Gopher. But thats a whole other subject. You say that the tunnels didnt
>work. I cant believe that the tunnels had any chance of working.


While in general I enjoy political discussions of this type, I'm bumming
on this one. Both of you admit you don't know the actual details of
the case so before leaping into a fire fight over the relative merits
of the two sides, perhaps someone could dig a bit and find out just
what was going on?

I don't accept a TV news broadcast as being a definitive statement, sorry :)

Most of these supposed "horror stories" turn out to be not so horrific
on close inspection, though I'm the first to admit government agencies
can screw up big-time. In the case of the ESA, such screw-ups have
been exceedingly rare (hey, are you aware that despite all the stink
over "heavy-handed and arbitrary enforcement" of the ESA there have been
exactly TWO convictions under the act? And that one was the recent
Montana Yellowstone wolf-killer's case?).

The underlying issue is "do we use the occasional screw-up as justification
to scrap the act?". A related question: do we use the screw-up of the
recent wrongful conviction in a murder case here in Portland as justification
for legalizing murder? I think not. Republican right-wingers in the
context of the ESA are trying to do the equivalent.

Though, as I said, most of the highly-touted screw-ups have been debunked
as gross misrepresentations of the facts, as in the Famous Florida Ditch
Case and the Case of the Farmer Disc-Harrowing Kangaroo Rats in All
Innocence.

Get the facts in this gopher case first, then debate it, please.

- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>