Maker Pro
Maker Pro

Miodrag Smoljanovc Cvrcko is cash machine

  • Thread starter Miodrag Smoljanovic Cvrcko
  • Start date
M

Miodrag Smoljanovic Cvrcko

Jan 1, 1970
0
Miodrag Smoljanovc Cvrcko

Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama may be playing possum.
ADVERTISEMENT

John McCain's campaign is boasting about a surge in fundraising
following his pick of running mate Sarah Palin, a swell of cash that
his campaign says has eroded the money advantage Obama once enjoyed.

The Illinois senator's campaign hasn't done much to refute the notion
its financial edge may be shrinking. So far, though, Obama's aides
privately say they're keeping a low profile so donors don't get
complacent, suggesting that August contributions -- to be disclosed
next week -- will top February's one-month record of $55 million. And
Palin, while energizing Republicans, has also motivated Democratic
donors.

Less than two months before Election Day, money raised from this point
comes on top of millions of dollars Obama has already spent to train
staff and open offices in competitive states -- building a more
extensive operation than McCain and Republicans have been able to put
together so far.

``This was always an election where we needed to significantly broaden
the battlefield and put in play a whole series of states that have not
been competitive,'' said former Democratic National Committee Chairman
Steve Grossman, who is raising money for Obama, 47. ``That takes a lot
of money. I have no doubt we'll be able to implement that plan.''

Obama may yet face fundraising challenges. Unlike McCain, 72, the
Democrat spurned federal campaign financing and is banking on money
from supporters. Attracting contributions may get tougher if the
Republican Arizona senator's poll numbers keep strengthening.

Victory Prospects

``Contributions follow prospects of victory,'' said Costas
Panagopoulos, director of Fordham University's Center for Electoral
Politics and Democracy in the Bronx. ``If the prospects diminish, so
will some of his contributions.''

By the same token, Republicans may rake in more than expected if
McCain holds onto his bounce in the polls since the Republican
National Convention.

``Folks are much more inclined to invest when they think there is
going to be a payoff,'' former Republican National Committee deputy
chairman Eddie Mahe said.

McCain's campaign organization is limited to $84.1 million in public
financing. Obama isn't subject to spending restrictions after becoming
the first major-party nominee to refuse public funding.

Obama raised more than double McCain's haul before the nominating
conventions, $390 million to $160 million, and spent some of that
money hiring workers and setting up get-out-the-vote operations.

On-The-Ground Organization

``The story of the Democratic primary was a superior on-the- ground
Obama organization,'' said Rogan Kersh, associate dean of New York
University's Wagner School of Public Service. ``This fundraising
differential may mean we see that movie sequel in November.''

In June and July, Obama spent $5 million on staff; McCain spent $2.8
million, Federal Election Commission reports show. Last week, Obama
opened 35 new offices in Pennsylvania, the campaign announced. Obama
is also competing in states such as Virginia and North Carolina that
in recent elections haven't been hospitable to Democratic presidential
nominees. There are 27 offices in Virginia, for example, according to
his Web site.

That means McCain and the RNC during the two-month sprint to Nov. 4
will be spending part of their budget matching expenditures Obama has
already made. This week, McCain and the RNC began adding campaign
staff, with an eye toward doubling the size of the party's ground
operation in 14 states.

Party Assistance

In the money contest, McCain is getting help from the national
Republican Party, which has so far taken in $100 million more than the
Democratic National Committee to help promote its ticket.

In mid-June, Obama set a goal of raising a combined $450 million for
his campaign and the DNC by Election Day. Reaching that target
requires an unprecedented average of $100 million per month. Democrats
didn't hit the mark in July, when Obama drew $51 million and the DNC
got $27 million.

Both parties now say they're on a pace to meet the mid- summer
fundraising targets -- which would give Obama and the Democratic Party
about a $100 million spending advantage.

Time for Fundraising

Even so, Obama has to take time away from competing for votes to raise
the private contributions his campaign needs. He spent Sept. 5 at two
New Jersey events, including one at the home of musician Jon Bon Jovi
where donors gave $30,800. On Sept. 16, he's scheduled for a $2,500-
per-person Beverly Hills, California, fundraiser and concert featuring
Barbra Streisand.

``It's a huge advantage when you're not so heavily encumbered by
fundraising,'' said former Representative Jim Davis, a Florida
Democrat. ``But Senator Obama has found the balance between the time
he spends getting to know people and funding his campaign.''

Obama has also gone back to his small donors -- 49 percent of his
contributors through July 31 gave $200 or less. That means the
Democratic nominee has millions of financial supporters who can donate
again without exceeding federal contribution limits.

His campaign raised $10 million on Sept. 4, the day after Palin
addressed the Republican nominating convention, for its biggest one-
day haul of the campaign.

``We had a terrific summer,'' said Obama's campaign manager, David
Plouffe. ``We always knew the Republicans would do well financially.
They always do. Our imperative is to just make sure that we raise what
we need to execute our plan.''

McCain raised $50 million last month, campaign manager Rick Davis
said, including $10 million after Palin was picked. ``Basically what
we've done is take money out of the equation,'' Davis said.
 
F

Frog in a bucket

Jan 1, 1970
0
Miodrag Smoljanovc Cvrcko

Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama may be playing possum.
ADVERTISEMENT

John McCain's campaign is boasting about a surge in fundraising
following his pick of running mate Sarah Palin, a swell of cash that
his campaign says has eroded the money advantage Obama once enjoyed.

The Illinois senator's campaign hasn't done much to refute the notion
its financial edge may be shrinking. So far, though, Obama's aides
privately say they're keeping a low profile so donors don't get
complacent, suggesting that August contributions -- to be disclosed
next week -- will top February's one-month record of $55 million. And
Palin, while energizing Republicans, has also motivated Democratic
donors.

Less than two months before Election Day, money raised from this point
comes on top of millions of dollars Obama has already spent to train
staff and open offices in competitive states -- building a more
extensive operation than McCain and Republicans have been able to put
together so far.

``This was always an election where we needed to significantly broaden
the battlefield and put in play a whole series of states that have not
been competitive,'' said former Democratic National Committee Chairman
Steve Grossman, who is raising money for Obama, 47. ``That takes a lot
of money. I have no doubt we'll be able to implement that plan.''

Obama may yet face fundraising challenges. Unlike McCain, 72, the
Democrat spurned federal campaign financing and is banking on money
from supporters. Attracting contributions may get tougher if the
Republican Arizona senator's poll numbers keep strengthening.

Victory Prospects

``Contributions follow prospects of victory,'' said Costas
Panagopoulos, director of Fordham University's Center for Electoral
Politics and Democracy in the Bronx. ``If the prospects diminish, so
will some of his contributions.''

By the same token, Republicans may rake in more than expected if
McCain holds onto his bounce in the polls since the Republican
National Convention.

``Folks are much more inclined to invest when they think there is
going to be a payoff,'' former Republican National Committee deputy
chairman Eddie Mahe said.

McCain's campaign organization is limited to $84.1 million in public
financing. Obama isn't subject to spending restrictions after becoming
the first major-party nominee to refuse public funding.

Obama raised more than double McCain's haul before the nominating
conventions, $390 million to $160 million, and spent some of that
money hiring workers and setting up get-out-the-vote operations.

On-The-Ground Organization

``The story of the Democratic primary was a superior on-the- ground
Obama organization,'' said Rogan Kersh, associate dean of New York
University's Wagner School of Public Service. ``This fundraising
differential may mean we see that movie sequel in November.''

In June and July, Obama spent $5 million on staff; McCain spent $2.8
million, Federal Election Commission reports show. Last week, Obama
opened 35 new offices in Pennsylvania, the campaign announced. Obama
is also competing in states such as Virginia and North Carolina that
in recent elections haven't been hospitable to Democratic presidential
nominees. There are 27 offices in Virginia, for example, according to
his Web site.

That means McCain and the RNC during the two-month sprint to Nov. 4
will be spending part of their budget matching expenditures Obama has
already made. This week, McCain and the RNC began adding campaign
staff, with an eye toward doubling the size of the party's ground
operation in 14 states.

Party Assistance

In the money contest, McCain is getting help from the national
Republican Party, which has so far taken in $100 million more than the
Democratic National Committee to help promote its ticket.

In mid-June, Obama set a goal of raising a combined $450 million for
his campaign and the DNC by Election Day. Reaching that target
requires an unprecedented average of $100 million per month. Democrats
didn't hit the mark in July, when Obama drew $51 million and the DNC
got $27 million.

Both parties now say they're on a pace to meet the mid- summer
fundraising targets -- which would give Obama and the Democratic Party
about a $100 million spending advantage.

Time for Fundraising

Even so, Obama has to take time away from competing for votes to raise
the private contributions his campaign needs. He spent Sept. 5 at two
New Jersey events, including one at the home of musician Jon Bon Jovi
where donors gave $30,800. On Sept. 16, he's scheduled for a $2,500-
per-person Beverly Hills, California, fundraiser and concert featuring
Barbra Streisand.

``It's a huge advantage when you're not so heavily encumbered by
fundraising,'' said former Representative Jim Davis, a Florida
Democrat. ``But Senator Obama has found the balance between the time
he spends getting to know people and funding his campaign.''

Obama has also gone back to his small donors -- 49 percent of his
contributors through July 31 gave $200 or less. That means the
Democratic nominee has millions of financial supporters who can donate
again without exceeding federal contribution limits.

His campaign raised $10 million on Sept. 4, the day after Palin
addressed the Republican nominating convention, for its biggest one-
day haul of the campaign.

``We had a terrific summer,'' said Obama's campaign manager, David
Plouffe. ``We always knew the Republicans would do well financially.
They always do. Our imperative is to just make sure that we raise what
we need to execute our plan.''

McCain raised $50 million last month, campaign manager Rick Davis
said, including $10 million after Palin was picked. ``Basically what
we've done is take money out of the equation,'' Davis said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/13/uselections2008.republicans

The bloody rise of the vote hunter

Whether it's moose, duck or bongo, the slaughter of gentle creatures
has been the making of many a Republican politician

All this talk about moose hunting! It is as though, because of the
animal's enormous size and imposing antlers, bringing one down is a
heroic feat of marksmanship. Nothing could be further from the truth.
As Henry David Thoreau wrote in The Maine Woods, killing these big,
gentle, myopic creatures is more "like going out by night to some
woodside pasture and shooting your neighbour's horses".

Thoreau's descriptions of the moose he saw in Maine are inspired and
fanciful: "They made me think of great frightened rabbits"; "It
reminded me at once of the camelopard". And he alludes to the moose's
"branching and leafy horns - a sort of fucus or lichen in bone". In
all these descriptions there is affection and awe. The killing of a
moose is in Thoreau's view always a tragedy. He witnessed one being
shot, and "nature looked sternly upon me on account of the murder of
the moose". In another passage, Thoreau grudgingly acknowledges that
moose are hunted by Indians out of necessity - for their meat, for
their hides, as part of Indian custom and tradition. This was in 1853.

American politicians seldom take notice of American writers,
especially the boldest ones, like Thoreau, whose every word is at odds
with their grovelling and grandstanding, and their sanctimonious cant.
Think of the average politician today and then reflect on how Thoreau
had no time for organised religion, how he mocked clergymen, jeered at
missionaries, warmongers and Bible-thumpers. He was a defender of John
Brown and the rebellious spirit in American life, and especially a
proponent of human rights. He hated the thought of the wilderness
being opened to development; he wrote scathingly of lumberjacks and
logging operations. He would have cheered the demonstrators and sign-
carriers outside the Republican convention in St Paul. He would have
mocked the people inside. He would have denounced the prison at
Guantánamo. He wrote against injustice; he despised politicians and
hunters.

And yet, as we saw at the Republican convention, hunting seems to
define a certain species of American politician. It's nothing new.
When Teddy Roosevelt left office he travelled to Africa, and - in the
role of evil twin to the Biblical Noah - hunted down and killed two
(and sometimes 18) of every species of animal that could be found from
the Kenyan coast to the swamps of southern Sudan: total bag, 512
creatures. In his account of the safari, African Game Trails (1910),
he wrote: "The land teems with beasts of the chase, infinite in
number ..."

"Infinite" is credulous hyperbole - many of those animals are now
extinct or severely endangered. Take the bongo, a large African
antelope - nearly as large as a moose - now almost gone, because of
hunters and poachers. In Uganda, where it roamed in sizable numbers
when I lived there, it has been wiped out. Maurice Stans, the
disgraced Nixon commerce secretary, helped in the effort to eradicate
this gentle animal when, in the 1960s, he sicced his dogs on them -
the conventional way to corner a bongo - then presumably gestured to
his gun bearer ("Here is your bunduki, bwana"), and shot two of them,
as trophies. It was not an incidental act: Stans defined himself
politically as a big-game hunter.

You would be forgiven for believing that the Menendez brothers gave
Dick Cheney lessons in handling a shotgun - still, he is by all
accounts a keen hunter. But who knew that Justice Antonin Scalia was
also a duck hunter? Perhaps it is not odd that someone who advocates
physical harm to a human being wouldn't shrink from blowing a small
bird apart. Earlier this year, asked his views on torture, Scalia said
on the BBC: "It seems to me you have to say, as unlikely as that is,
it would be absurd to say you couldn't, I don't know, stick something
under the fingernail, smack him in the face. It would be absurd to say
you couldn't do that." Cheney agrees with him on the subject of
torture, so it is no surprise that these men are hunting buddies,
huddled in the same duck blind, torturing animals to death with
buckshot.

A lot can be told from the animals that people choose to kill. The
French shoot the most melodious larks and turn them into pâté. Many
English people are still indignant that restrictions have been placed
on the hunting of foxes, bongo style, chasing them with dogs that tear
them to pieces.

There is hunting for sport, and hunting for the pot; and, of course,
hunting for votes. The name of Teddy Roosevelt, the hunter, the moose
skinner, was invoked just the other day at the Republican convention,
in Fred Thompson's praise of Governor Sarah Palin. This mother of five
is now celebrated as a moose hunter and, more than that, as a moose
skinner, moose eater - and perhaps hanger of moose-head trophies. As
Governor Palin was delivering her acceptance speech, an immense colour
photograph of Alaska was projected behind her on the giant screen,
where in the twilit foreground a moose could be seen, placidly staring
at its reflection in water. And on the following day, in the video
that encapsulated her life, Palin was described as having risen early
with her father on cold mornings in Wasilla to go moose hunting, to
augment the family's diet.

Moose hunting is now seen as a possible Republican vote-getter,
especially as the hunter in question is a slightly built and
bespectacled mother of five. This casting against type presumably has
the same effect on the public imagination as the revelation that
defensive tackle Roosevelt Grier found relaxation in needlepoint.

I have no strong views on hunting, only the usual disgust when I see a
creature senselessly slaughtered at no risk to the hunter - "a
fabulous animal", as Thoreau called the moose, serving as no more than
a target and an excuse for a stew. In a book Sarah Palin probably has
not read (someone as philistine and driven as she is doesn't seem to
have much time for reading, as her quest to ban books in the Wasilla
public library probably indicates), Thoreau remarked on how moose
sometimes weigh a thousand pounds, and how they "can step over a five-
foot gate in their ordinary walk".

While people cheered, Palin was lauded for knowing how to "field-
dress" a moose. Thoreau, who watched such an operation take place,
wrote: "Joe [his Penobscot guide] now proceeded to skin the moose with
a pocket knife, while I looked on, and a tragical business it was; to
see that still warm and palpitating body pierced with a knife, to see
the warm milk stream from the rent udder, and the ghastly naked red
carcass appearing from within its seemly robe." I read that and
somehow am not provoked to cheer.

In one of the great passages in the Chesuncook chapter, Thoreau writes
how the moose and the pine tree are linked in his mind. "A pine cut
down, a dead pine, is no more a pine than a dead human carcass is a
man." And he anticipated the environmental movement when he spoke of
the "petty and accidental uses" of whales and elephants, turned into
"buttons and flageolets". He continues: "Every creature is better
alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands
it aright will rather preserve life than destroy it."

· Paul Theroux's new book, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, has just
been published by Hamish Hamilton paultheroux.com
 
R

Runge12

Jan 1, 1970
0
Yes michaelnewpoort, still nothing to say, eh ?

"Frog in a bucket" <[email protected]> a écrit dans le message de
Miodrag Smoljanovc Cvrcko

Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama may be playing possum.
ADVERTISEMENT

John McCain's campaign is boasting about a surge in fundraising
following his pick of running mate Sarah Palin, a swell of cash that
his campaign says has eroded the money advantage Obama once enjoyed.

The Illinois senator's campaign hasn't done much to refute the notion
its financial edge may be shrinking. So far, though, Obama's aides
privately say they're keeping a low profile so donors don't get
complacent, suggesting that August contributions -- to be disclosed
next week -- will top February's one-month record of $55 million. And
Palin, while energizing Republicans, has also motivated Democratic
donors.

Less than two months before Election Day, money raised from this point
comes on top of millions of dollars Obama has already spent to train
staff and open offices in competitive states -- building a more
extensive operation than McCain and Republicans have been able to put
together so far.

``This was always an election where we needed to significantly broaden
the battlefield and put in play a whole series of states that have not
been competitive,'' said former Democratic National Committee Chairman
Steve Grossman, who is raising money for Obama, 47. ``That takes a lot
of money. I have no doubt we'll be able to implement that plan.''

Obama may yet face fundraising challenges. Unlike McCain, 72, the
Democrat spurned federal campaign financing and is banking on money
from supporters. Attracting contributions may get tougher if the
Republican Arizona senator's poll numbers keep strengthening.

Victory Prospects

``Contributions follow prospects of victory,'' said Costas
Panagopoulos, director of Fordham University's Center for Electoral
Politics and Democracy in the Bronx. ``If the prospects diminish, so
will some of his contributions.''

By the same token, Republicans may rake in more than expected if
McCain holds onto his bounce in the polls since the Republican
National Convention.

``Folks are much more inclined to invest when they think there is
going to be a payoff,'' former Republican National Committee deputy
chairman Eddie Mahe said.

McCain's campaign organization is limited to $84.1 million in public
financing. Obama isn't subject to spending restrictions after becoming
the first major-party nominee to refuse public funding.

Obama raised more than double McCain's haul before the nominating
conventions, $390 million to $160 million, and spent some of that
money hiring workers and setting up get-out-the-vote operations.

On-The-Ground Organization

``The story of the Democratic primary was a superior on-the- ground
Obama organization,'' said Rogan Kersh, associate dean of New York
University's Wagner School of Public Service. ``This fundraising
differential may mean we see that movie sequel in November.''

In June and July, Obama spent $5 million on staff; McCain spent $2.8
million, Federal Election Commission reports show. Last week, Obama
opened 35 new offices in Pennsylvania, the campaign announced. Obama
is also competing in states such as Virginia and North Carolina that
in recent elections haven't been hospitable to Democratic presidential
nominees. There are 27 offices in Virginia, for example, according to
his Web site.

That means McCain and the RNC during the two-month sprint to Nov. 4
will be spending part of their budget matching expenditures Obama has
already made. This week, McCain and the RNC began adding campaign
staff, with an eye toward doubling the size of the party's ground
operation in 14 states.

Party Assistance

In the money contest, McCain is getting help from the national
Republican Party, which has so far taken in $100 million more than the
Democratic National Committee to help promote its ticket.

In mid-June, Obama set a goal of raising a combined $450 million for
his campaign and the DNC by Election Day. Reaching that target
requires an unprecedented average of $100 million per month. Democrats
didn't hit the mark in July, when Obama drew $51 million and the DNC
got $27 million.

Both parties now say they're on a pace to meet the mid- summer
fundraising targets -- which would give Obama and the Democratic Party
about a $100 million spending advantage.

Time for Fundraising

Even so, Obama has to take time away from competing for votes to raise
the private contributions his campaign needs. He spent Sept. 5 at two
New Jersey events, including one at the home of musician Jon Bon Jovi
where donors gave $30,800. On Sept. 16, he's scheduled for a $2,500-
per-person Beverly Hills, California, fundraiser and concert featuring
Barbra Streisand.

``It's a huge advantage when you're not so heavily encumbered by
fundraising,'' said former Representative Jim Davis, a Florida
Democrat. ``But Senator Obama has found the balance between the time
he spends getting to know people and funding his campaign.''

Obama has also gone back to his small donors -- 49 percent of his
contributors through July 31 gave $200 or less. That means the
Democratic nominee has millions of financial supporters who can donate
again without exceeding federal contribution limits.

His campaign raised $10 million on Sept. 4, the day after Palin
addressed the Republican nominating convention, for its biggest one-
day haul of the campaign.

``We had a terrific summer,'' said Obama's campaign manager, David
Plouffe. ``We always knew the Republicans would do well financially.
They always do. Our imperative is to just make sure that we raise what
we need to execute our plan.''

McCain raised $50 million last month, campaign manager Rick Davis
said, including $10 million after Palin was picked. ``Basically what
we've done is take money out of the equation,'' Davis said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/13/uselections2008.republicans

The bloody rise of the vote hunter

Whether it's moose, duck or bongo, the slaughter of gentle creatures
has been the making of many a Republican politician

All this talk about moose hunting! It is as though, because of the
animal's enormous size and imposing antlers, bringing one down is a
heroic feat of marksmanship. Nothing could be further from the truth.
As Henry David Thoreau wrote in The Maine Woods, killing these big,
gentle, myopic creatures is more "like going out by night to some
woodside pasture and shooting your neighbour's horses".

Thoreau's descriptions of the moose he saw in Maine are inspired and
fanciful: "They made me think of great frightened rabbits"; "It
reminded me at once of the camelopard". And he alludes to the moose's
"branching and leafy horns - a sort of fucus or lichen in bone". In
all these descriptions there is affection and awe. The killing of a
moose is in Thoreau's view always a tragedy. He witnessed one being
shot, and "nature looked sternly upon me on account of the murder of
the moose". In another passage, Thoreau grudgingly acknowledges that
moose are hunted by Indians out of necessity - for their meat, for
their hides, as part of Indian custom and tradition. This was in 1853.

American politicians seldom take notice of American writers,
especially the boldest ones, like Thoreau, whose every word is at odds
with their grovelling and grandstanding, and their sanctimonious cant.
Think of the average politician today and then reflect on how Thoreau
had no time for organised religion, how he mocked clergymen, jeered at
missionaries, warmongers and Bible-thumpers. He was a defender of John
Brown and the rebellious spirit in American life, and especially a
proponent of human rights. He hated the thought of the wilderness
being opened to development; he wrote scathingly of lumberjacks and
logging operations. He would have cheered the demonstrators and sign-
carriers outside the Republican convention in St Paul. He would have
mocked the people inside. He would have denounced the prison at
Guantánamo. He wrote against injustice; he despised politicians and
hunters.

And yet, as we saw at the Republican convention, hunting seems to
define a certain species of American politician. It's nothing new.
When Teddy Roosevelt left office he travelled to Africa, and - in the
role of evil twin to the Biblical Noah - hunted down and killed two
(and sometimes 18) of every species of animal that could be found from
the Kenyan coast to the swamps of southern Sudan: total bag, 512
creatures. In his account of the safari, African Game Trails (1910),
he wrote: "The land teems with beasts of the chase, infinite in
number ..."

"Infinite" is credulous hyperbole - many of those animals are now
extinct or severely endangered. Take the bongo, a large African
antelope - nearly as large as a moose - now almost gone, because of
hunters and poachers. In Uganda, where it roamed in sizable numbers
when I lived there, it has been wiped out. Maurice Stans, the
disgraced Nixon commerce secretary, helped in the effort to eradicate
this gentle animal when, in the 1960s, he sicced his dogs on them -
the conventional way to corner a bongo - then presumably gestured to
his gun bearer ("Here is your bunduki, bwana"), and shot two of them,
as trophies. It was not an incidental act: Stans defined himself
politically as a big-game hunter.

You would be forgiven for believing that the Menendez brothers gave
Dick Cheney lessons in handling a shotgun - still, he is by all
accounts a keen hunter. But who knew that Justice Antonin Scalia was
also a duck hunter? Perhaps it is not odd that someone who advocates
physical harm to a human being wouldn't shrink from blowing a small
bird apart. Earlier this year, asked his views on torture, Scalia said
on the BBC: "It seems to me you have to say, as unlikely as that is,
it would be absurd to say you couldn't, I don't know, stick something
under the fingernail, smack him in the face. It would be absurd to say
you couldn't do that." Cheney agrees with him on the subject of
torture, so it is no surprise that these men are hunting buddies,
huddled in the same duck blind, torturing animals to death with
buckshot.

A lot can be told from the animals that people choose to kill. The
French shoot the most melodious larks and turn them into pâté. Many
English people are still indignant that restrictions have been placed
on the hunting of foxes, bongo style, chasing them with dogs that tear
them to pieces.

There is hunting for sport, and hunting for the pot; and, of course,
hunting for votes. The name of Teddy Roosevelt, the hunter, the moose
skinner, was invoked just the other day at the Republican convention,
in Fred Thompson's praise of Governor Sarah Palin. This mother of five
is now celebrated as a moose hunter and, more than that, as a moose
skinner, moose eater - and perhaps hanger of moose-head trophies. As
Governor Palin was delivering her acceptance speech, an immense colour
photograph of Alaska was projected behind her on the giant screen,
where in the twilit foreground a moose could be seen, placidly staring
at its reflection in water. And on the following day, in the video
that encapsulated her life, Palin was described as having risen early
with her father on cold mornings in Wasilla to go moose hunting, to
augment the family's diet.

Moose hunting is now seen as a possible Republican vote-getter,
especially as the hunter in question is a slightly built and
bespectacled mother of five. This casting against type presumably has
the same effect on the public imagination as the revelation that
defensive tackle Roosevelt Grier found relaxation in needlepoint.

I have no strong views on hunting, only the usual disgust when I see a
creature senselessly slaughtered at no risk to the hunter - "a
fabulous animal", as Thoreau called the moose, serving as no more than
a target and an excuse for a stew. In a book Sarah Palin probably has
not read (someone as philistine and driven as she is doesn't seem to
have much time for reading, as her quest to ban books in the Wasilla
public library probably indicates), Thoreau remarked on how moose
sometimes weigh a thousand pounds, and how they "can step over a five-
foot gate in their ordinary walk".

While people cheered, Palin was lauded for knowing how to "field-
dress" a moose. Thoreau, who watched such an operation take place,
wrote: "Joe [his Penobscot guide] now proceeded to skin the moose with
a pocket knife, while I looked on, and a tragical business it was; to
see that still warm and palpitating body pierced with a knife, to see
the warm milk stream from the rent udder, and the ghastly naked red
carcass appearing from within its seemly robe." I read that and
somehow am not provoked to cheer.

In one of the great passages in the Chesuncook chapter, Thoreau writes
how the moose and the pine tree are linked in his mind. "A pine cut
down, a dead pine, is no more a pine than a dead human carcass is a
man." And he anticipated the environmental movement when he spoke of
the "petty and accidental uses" of whales and elephants, turned into
"buttons and flageolets". He continues: "Every creature is better
alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands
it aright will rather preserve life than destroy it."

· Paul Theroux's new book, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, has just
been published by Hamish Hamilton paultheroux.com
 
Top