Fly Fishing,    american museum of fly fishing,    dick cheney,    Environment,    News,    ted williams

Ted Williams Heaps Scorn on Fly Fishing Museum for Cheney Invitation

By Tom Chandler 1/23/2009

Underground Fave Enviro writer Ted Williams blew the whistle on the American Museum of Fly Fishing for their plan to host Darth Dick Cheney as a guest speaker at their spring meeting.

Williams - never shy about calling it as he sees it - put his scalpel-sharp prose to work on a satirical piece that almost had me shooting slaw dog out my nose, including the two passages I've excerpted below.

In the first, he's speaking about the museum:

Then it hatched a form letter (at this writing under review by the vice president's staff) in which it offers lengthy and incomprehensible excuses for inviting Cheney, while likening him to Jimmy Carter and Franklin Roosevelt. It then implores Cheney's critics to "continue to support the museum and its mission." I will certainly do so, and to prove it, I have redrafted the form letter for the museum, at no charge:

"Dear [name]: We need to generate revenue, so we searched hard and long for a guest of honor who would fill the room at our spring meeting. Finally, we hit upon Dick Cheney, arguably the most dangerous enemy of fish in our generation. What's more, Mr. Cheney, who angles for trout in Wyoming in one of the rivers he hasn't ruined with gas and oil extraction (which happens to run through his ranch) is an accomplished and safe fly caster. In fact, he hasn't wounded even one of his fishing companions.

"We completely understand that applying green lipstick to this arch environmental villain, aptly dubbed "˜Darth Vader' in fish and wildlife conservation circles, is outright whoring. But that's the genius of our plan. This kind of prostitution is legal and no less lucrative than the standard, unlawful variety."

Williams is not finished, and this next bit is my absolute favorite part:

"Please recall also our mission statement: "˜The American Museum of Fly Fishing promotes an understanding of and appreciation for the history, traditions, and practitioners, past and present, of the sport of fly fishing.' You cannot deny that a major part of that history and those traditions is the systematic destruction of rivers by special interests and the politicians who front for them.

Can there be a better choice than traditional practitioner Dick Cheney"”the man who gave the West the biggest fish kill it has ever seen when he attempted to wean Klamath River Chinook salmon from water, who trashed the Endangered Species Act, who virtually canceled the Clean Air and Clean Water acts, who suppressed science, who ruined the lives of dedicated resource professionals, and who ran Christine Todd Whitman out of the Environmental Protection Agency?

Want more? Read the whole article at the The Missoula Independent Online
AuthorPicture

Tom Chandler

As the author of the decade leading fly fishing blog Trout Underground, Tom believes that fishing is not about measuring the experience but instead of about having fun. As a staunch environmentalist, he brings to the Yobi Community thought leadership on environmental and access issues facing us today.

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After serving 17 months in West Germany, (Co.c 2/33rd Armor, 3rd Armored Div.), followed up by serving 13 months in West Berlin (Co.F 40th Armor "Patton", Berlin Brigade), during the closing days of the war in Nam, my return to this land (March, 1975), gave me the chills, seeing what had become of my country. Gone were the prices of 32 cents p/gallon gasoline, and the price wars that went with it, ... more gone also were the jobs where if you didn't like the one you were at, you quit, went across the street, hired in, and took lunch with the rest of the gang, never missing a beat. And it was men like Cheney, who were pulling the financial purse strings of big oil, big industry, and big manufacturing. I've never got over that level of the stark reality of greed by this kind of person, and I'm guessing that I never will. These are the very same people that are the catalyst behind the concept of market manipulation, those that want to drive the prices up through the direction of "panic" driven marketing. About six months prior to the 1st election of GWB, there was a small two-paragraph article in the newspaper, about some oil company down in the Gulf that was laying off 3500 workers because of the oil glut that we had at the time. Radio ads about investing in oil companies were also prevalent at about the same time frame. 9-11-01 was only the beginning of what was to come as prices for gas would blow through the roof in only seven years. Bush, Cheney, and crew, declared that we were under attack from "evil nations" ruler's, and manipulated the intelligence agencies info into a "panic driven" response of reasoning for attacking Iraq as to pre-empt the use of the enemies "Weapons of Mass Destruction", for which none were ever found. Then we had the bird flu crisis, another "panic driven" statement that has driven up the prices of poultry, and after that, the mad cow disease scare, explosions at two different oil refractories, and one where they make anti-freeze. And at the same time, passage of laws governing the financing of real estate were being passed with only marginal requirements being necessary to obtain a home, as housing costs were escalating in kind. For the folks that were doing ok, traveling to work when gas was costing them $100.00 per week to go to work, were now finding it increasingly difficult to spend $430.00 a week for going the same distances. Bread-winners conversations at the kitchen table consisted of "What else can I do?" "We have to eat, I have to go to work, and there is only so much that this paycheck can cover." The days of taking in a movie at the show, going out to eat at a restaurant, or buying appliances like a new car, big screen tv's, refrigerator's, washer's, & dryer's, and items like new shoes, or clothing was grinding to a standstill. In essence, the American nation has been defeated. It's economy stands in rubble, as bailouts by congress fuel only the "interest" on the housing industry, and the "sacred" unions of the big three automakers. What happens after they burn through that ? Tell me how many folks will be able to go out and purchase a new car, or home? It is essential to put Joe Q. Public back to work, as it is the tax-paying American public that makes the wheels on the bus, go round and round. Perhaps I see things differently than a lot of you, but the only guiding for Cheney, and those of his ilk, that I would do, would be to guide him up the steps of a gallows after being properly tried and convicted of treason for placing this nation at such a risk, and in harms way, just for the satisfaction of personal gain. I salute those gallant and brave souls that serve the nation's military, and say a silent prayer for those whose lives will be forever disrupted by the horrors of their campaigns, and for those that shall never return, .....and for the families, whose lives shall never be the same. That's just my opinion, but felt compelled to get it off of my chest,
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I'd think you'd love to guide him, what with him taking naked women along.
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Astoundingly stoopid choice on the part of the AMFF. Then again, on a purely selfish note, the more time he spends back east doing crap like this, the less time he spends throwing his corpulence around in my neck of the woods...
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If it wasn't true this would be truly funny. I'd say thanks for sharing, Tom, but now I have to walk around with an image of Dick wearing green lipstick burned into my imagination. You cause me pain my friend.
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All this time everyone thought that it was a naked lady reflected in Cheney's sunglasses when in reality it was his press secretary bearing his white neo-con ass for the American Museum of Fly Fishing. Who would have guessed?
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I covered Cheney as he related to the Klamath River in a previous post, and no, it isn't pretty. I found the American Museum of Fly Fishing's actual letter amusing (though not nearly as much snarky fun as Williams' pardoy). They simultaneously defend their decision then beg people to continue supporting the museum, as if acknowledging the fact it's a bad idea.
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This rates as a colossal faux pas. Right up there with supplying arms to the Taliban. Please check this link... http://wenaha.blogspot.com/2009/01/as-close-to-politics-as-i-want-to-get.html Good grief, Charlie Brown.
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