Did you shoot your Thanksgiving turkey this year? Word is more wild turkeys are to be had in North America - and more Americans are hunting them. The National Wild Turkey Federation says with Thanksgiving upon us, there's no better time to celebrate the comeback of the wild turkey. As recently as the early 1900s, it says, turkeys like certain other wildlife "teetered on the brink of extinction." In those years, the wild turkey population in North America hovered around 30,000. But now, thanks to federal and state conservation measures, wild turkeys have steadily increased in number and expanded their range. "Today, wildlife biologists estimate that close to 7 million wild turkeys roam the fields and forests of North America making it perhaps the greatest conservation success story of the 20th century," says the NWTF. Meanwhile, after a downward spiral, the National Shooting Sports Foundation reports the number of paid hunting license holders in America is rising. The number of resident licenses, tags, permits and stamps issued in 2004 increased 4.1 percent over 2003 to 33.1 million, while the nonresident quantity posted at more than 3 million, a jump of 5.6 percent over 2003. Currently, hunting license holders represent about 5 percent of the U.S. population, far less than the 16.8 million - just over 9 percent of the U.S. population - of the mid-1980s, when hunting numbers peaked in America. SLICED SCOOTER "Don't let George Bush pardon this turkey." - Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, referring to former White House senior aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and rumors buzzing around Washington that the president will pardon him and others involved in the CIA leak case. THANKSGIVING Lord, we ask of you a boon:
To bless our guests this noon.
We're so grateful they
Could come today -
And have to leave real soon! - F.R. Duplantier YOU THERE, BILL? "Is there any chance your source was Bill Casey being channeled from the dead?" - One of 15 questions political observer Arianna Huffington says she would like to ask Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, who now claims he, too, was told by a source of Valerie Plame's CIA connection. Woodward came under scrutiny for his so-called deathbed interview with former CIA Director William J. Casey, a conversation several investigative journalists claim he fabricated. GOING PLACES So E.D. Hill, popular morning host of "Fox & Friends" on the Fox News Channel, what political intrigue is in store for readers of your new book, "Going Places "? "Sen. George Allen tells how the lessons he learned while working as a cowboy on a Nevada ranch taught him to handle battles as a senator," Hill tells The Beltway Beat. Besides the Virginia Republican, she recalls how the father of Sen. Jon Corzine, New Jersey Democrat, reacted when his son brought home a "C" on his report card, and explains why the father of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee thought his son was crazy to go into politics. She also divulges the "lion of liberalism" that pushed former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger into his diplomatic career, and the precise "words" that changed the life of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld - words that shape his strategies today. Then there is the "secret Zen" of fellow Fox host Bill O'Reilly. "I was shocked at the raw, even uncomfortable details so many people shared. I'm not sure they'll ever talk to me again," says Hill, although she believes that "everything you need to know about a person can be learned from the advice that changed their life." Charities benefit from all proceeds of "Going Places," which Mrs. Hill will personally inscribe through www.hillfriends.com. POWERFUL WORDS It was former Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, an early proponent of the Republican Party, who declared: "No nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in His defense." Continued... |