Chasing bears with a camera in Orr, Minnesota

courtesy of njadams1.wordpress.com

My friend and wildlife photographer Mary Lundeberg recently spent a week up north in Orr, Minnesota photographing bears. To see Mary's photos of bears and wolves, go here.

Is it any wonder Americans hate politics?

Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO).

In her column titled, Self-preservation meet cynicism, Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus discusses the questionable responses of members of both parties to Missouri Republican Todd Akin’s now infamous comment on the topic of women and rape:

Missouri Republican Todd Akin’s remarks about women not becoming pregnant from “legitimate rape” are so self-evidently offensive and ignorant they scarcely require a response. What merits more attention is what the episode exposes about the most fundamental of political instincts: self-preservation.

Start with Akin. The six-term congressman now running for the Senate posted a Facebook statement Sunday, explaining that he “misspoke” in making an “off-the-cuff” remark.

Marcus concludes her column by asking, “Is it any wonder Americans hate politics?”

Read the entire column.

What’s driving the sudden proliferation of photo ID laws?

Image courtesy of propublica.org.

If you’re puzzled by the sudden proliferation of photo ID laws throughout the U.S., MinnPost sheds some light on the disturbing development by revealing the link between such laws and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a Washington, D.C.-based, tax-exempt organization:

A growing number of conservative Republican state legislators worked fervently during the past two years to enact laws requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls.

Lawmakers proposed 62 photo ID bills in 37 states in the 2011 and 2012 sessions, with multiple bills introduced in some states. Ten states have passed strict photo ID laws since 2008, though several may not be in effect in November because of legal challenges.

A News21 analysis found that more than half of the 62 bills were sponsored by members or conference attendees of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a Washington, D.C.-based, tax-exempt organization.

Read more:

Don't let wolves become an endangered species in the American West

Jamie Rappaport Clark issues an urgent plea on behalf of Wyoming's wolves:

100,000 for Wyoming wolves Even wolves that wander beyond the safety of Yellowstone National Park could be killed in Wyoming. Help us reach 100,000 signatures for wolves, before it’s too late.

Dear Virginia,

There’s no time to lose -- wolf protections are on the chopping block in Wyoming. Unless we get through to the President, it’ll be open season on Wyoming wolves this fall.

You can help by sending your letter to the President today. Our goal is to flood the White House with 100,000. We’ve already sent more than 62,000 letters -- make sure yours is included.

If federal officials move forward with delisting Wyoming's wolves, these amazing animals could be shot on sight, trapped and killed by virtually any means throughout most of the state.

Nearly half of the state's wolves -- including pups -- could be wiped out within just a year. Even wolves that wander beyond the invisible boundary of Yellowstone National Park could be shot dead.

Wyoming's wolves are one of the best hopes we have for bringing wolves back to states like Colorado and Utah -- but with such a brutal state plan in place, the future of wolves in the West becomes uncertain.

Urge the Obama White House not to turn back the clock on almost 40 years of Federal wolf protection in Wyoming.

In the year since federal protections were stripped from Idaho's wolves, more than 400 wolves in the state have been killed.

If wolves are delisted in Wyoming, these amazing animals will have no protections throughout most of the state. In these areas, no hunting license will be required: wolves could be killed by virtually any means for any reason -- or no reason at all.

Help us send 100,000 signatures to the White House before the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service delists Wyoming wolves.

It’s up to you and me to ensure a lasting future for America's wolves.

Thank you for speaking out for wildlife.

Sincerely, Jamie Rappaport Clark President Defenders of Wildlife

P.S. The future of America's wolves depends on you. Ask the Obama White House to stop the delisting of Wyoming’s wolves today, before it’s too late.

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VP candidate Paul Ryan fails math

Mathematically challenged Paul Ryan, official portrait.

I studied basic math as an eighth-grader in the public school system decades ago. We were taught how to balance a budget and given other useful training prior to entering high school. So it’s a little shocking to read Paul Krugman’s latest post at the Conscience of a Liberal (NY Times) and discover that House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan, recently appointed VP candidate on the Republican ticket, is worse than mathematically challenged. The man obviously skipped eighth grade math and hasn’t paid much attention since as to how numbers add up – or not. Unfortunately, the beltway media seems to be as oblivious to financial reality as Ryan.

In an effort to wake up our delusional media, Krugman, a Nobel prize-winning economist, responds to Ryan’s “fantasy” budget proposals here:

Look, Ryan hasn’t “crunched the numbers”; he has just scribbled some stuff down, without checking at all to see if it makes sense. He asserts that he can cut taxes without net loss of revenue by closing unspecified loopholes; he asserts that he can cut discretionary spending to levels not seen since Calvin Coolidge, without saying how; he asserts that he can convert Medicare to a voucher system, with much lower spending than now projected, without even a hint of how this is supposed to work. This is just a fantasy, not a serious policy proposal.

Read more:

Hillary hits the dance floor in South Africa (video)

Our secretary of state is loved wherever she goes, and its no wonder. Watch her connect with people in Johannesburg. (video courtesy of the Washington Post.)

 

A radiant Hillary Clinton in Malawi

Photo courtesy of Kismaayo Daily

Hillary Clinton is in a celebratory mood as she meets with Africa’s second female head of state, Malawian President Joyce Banda. (See Politico’s photo gallery of Hillary’s latest tour of African nations.)

The AP reports:

LILONGWE, Malawi - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton offered praise and pledged continued American support to the impoverished southern African nation of Malawi on Sunday, making a brief a stop here to visit with the country’s first woman president, only the second female African head of state.

A longtime champion for women’s empowerment, Clinton met Malawian President Joyce Banda in the capital of Lilongwe and encouraged her to stay on a course of economic reform to make the country more attractive to foreign investment.

Read more: