Remember the flap over Darth Dick Cheney’s speaking gig at the American Museum of Fly Fishing?
The AMFF is probably hoping you’ve forgotten, but in what appears to be a naked money grab, the AMFF has finally announced Cheney’s appearance at a Washington D.C. fundraiser (via busterwantstofish):
Please join the AMFF on Thursday, November 12, 2009, for our Anglers All Presentation in Washington, DC.
The evening will also include an address by former Vice President Dick Cheney. Festivities begin at the Hilton in Washington, DC, at 6 p.m., and will include appetizers, wine, and dinner.
According to Buster’s Smithhammer, the cheap seats are $500; $10,000 gets you close enough to glimpse the cloven hooves.
The AMFF is free to do whatever it wants – including justifying Cheney’s appearance in some twisted manner – but then again, we’re free to suggest the AMFF has made a huge fucking mistake, and that it’s now clear the organization’s goals are separate from ours.
See you anywhere but Washington D.C., Tom Chandler.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Tom, I wish you’d quit pulling your punches and just come on out and say how you really feel about things. You’d probably feel less like a zombie then too… The Chile Doctor(Quote)
Oh my, my undaunted leader of all things good about my life (flyfishing related) is upset.
Come lay on my couch and we will stick some pine in the Dick Cheney doll…all will be ok. If you don’t believe me just ask Mr. O, our Prez.
And Chile Doc is right you can not let these things build up inside you …please tell us how you really feel. samistopdog(Quote)
Hey Tom, to those of use who follow politics this is indeed a crock! There are many in the US who think that Cheney and the previous admin can do no wrong
From the wapo “Because of Cheney’s intervention, the government reversed itself and let the water flow in time to save the 2002 growing season, declaring that there was no threat to the fish. What followed was the largest fish kill the West had ever seen, with tens of thousands of salmon rotting on the banks of the Klamath River.”
Read the whole article
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/leaving_no_tracks/
I find this sickening and outrageous. It confirms some of my worst fears about the USA. There are different rules for me than there are for the rich and powerful. Bubba Zinetti(Quote)
Isn’t it legal to do that to the real thing now? Tom Chandler(Quote)
The AMFF might raise a lot of money with this event, but they’ll never see another of my nickles. Frikin’ jacka..es Don(Quote)
It has long been the case that there are some things about fly fishing, and fly fishing for the Salmonids in particular, that seem to attract a curious crowd, nay, nutty. Very wealthy people, some of whom know much about the sport, and some of whom cannot make a basic cast and would not know a trout if it were on the end of their line; and moderate and lower income people, who fill all the same categories. Some admire bamboo rods to the exlusion of all else; others prefer graphite, or some combination of graphite, fiberglass and bamboo. Some project a persona like “Buster” (who knows his fishing pretty well, I think), while others project a bit more genteel approach, like The Contemplative Angler, or Cutthroat Stalker. There are even women writing about fly fishing for trout. However diverse these persons may be, they all fit into the “literary” group of fly fishers-people who want to write about the sport. One can even find fly fishing placed upon the high alter of literature sanctioned by the likes of Yale University, as in the Yale Angler’s Journal.
Still others have pursued the art of casting a fly rod to such a degree that it is now essentially a separate sport from “fly fishing”. There are now “casting competitions”, some of which come with ample financial prizes. Such competitions have not a lot to do with catching a fish, but amongst the experts, there is great dialogue about the proper way to move a fly rod through the air.
In fact, flyfishers as a group are so diverse that their political machinations leave me completely confounded. Although I started this post by saying that “It has long been the case…”, it seems to me that the political turmoil has grown louder, but not better, over the past twenty five or thirty years. And this has led to some very weird shit.
For example, if I fly fish for trout, it is assumed that I have a common bond with all fly fishers, including our former vice president, Mr. Cheney. The AMFF has obviously made that assumption. For all I know, Mr. Cheney is an excellent fly fisherman. That does not mean that I want to go fishing with him, or that I share his views on foreign policy (even if he is considered to be a “policy wonk”), or conservation, or even what’s the best fly to use in any given situation. Hell, I probably don’t agree with Tom Chandler on many subjects.
The sad result of all this is that the activity of fly fishing has been diminished just a bit. Some of the thing that started me on this obsession with the rods, and the casting, and the reels, and the lines, and the special rivers and special places, the secret holes, has been lost.
Unlike AMFF, I cannot speak for fly fishers as a group. I don’t know who they are, cannot figure out who they are. But I can say why I started doing this when I was a boy, when the pleasure was pure, simple and uncomplicated. I knew I was buying a fly rod because it was the longest rod in the rack. I had no agendas. I did it because it was fun; watching the flash of a Bluegill taking a foam rubber spider over its nest, feeling the tug on my rod. I do it for the same reason today. Perhaps that’s why I find fly fishing to be a sport in which I am happiest when I am alone. Kentucky Jim(Quote)
Whoa! The F-Bomb! Tom, you took the words right out of my mouth. The AMFF is wrong on this. W-R-O-N-G. WRONG. There are some enemies that might be worth sleeping with, but something tells me that Cheney–if you can find him in his undisclosed mansion–is a roll-over-and-sleep premie and not much to look at either. The only other justification I can see is “keep your enemies closer”, but frankly AMFF doesn’t seem that bright. Last time I visited the other Big O (in Manchester, VT) I was about to suggest to my better half that we take the kids to the AMFF across the parking lot when I decided to keep my mouth shut. Now that I think of it, those who oppose the idea of the former Vice Scattershot appearance at AMFF, might want to apply pressure where it might…might make a difference: 4180 Main St, Manchester, VT, 05254 or drop them a line at (802) 362-3750. That’s the real money behind the museum. Starting at the retail front should spread the word faster and wider than the corporate message controllers would ever allow. Might be too late for this event, but should still get the point across. P.S. Are there no rich fly fishers on this side of the fence who would step up to the plate to buy out the dinner? Fight money with money. Just a thought. splitcane(Quote)
In case you missed it. Wow. I guess all those black sheets of construction paper really started cracken em up @ AMFF! LOL.
http://busterwantstofish.com/?p=1667 YOYCutt aka Kris(Quote)