hey there! sorry been out getting sunburned at drano zoo. i guess my response would be that your statement sounds like you might think that every Tim Eyeman Supporter had intimate knowledge of his camapaign violations. alot of the questions sounded like they were asking how can you support this movement and not call your self an animal rights activist. I guess i didnt mean to sound like I dont think i believe in animal rights, i do. but I would never sum myself up in one title like that(or terrorist) If i had to call myself one title(like introducing yourself at an AA meeting) i guess it would have to be "helo I am chad and I am a fisherman" .
But I know that you are right about the campaign violations. I cant take blame for it and i hope i didnt sound like I was knowlegable of the decision makers or anything. i was living back in colorado during it and I wrote alot of letters back home to washington reps and such. I believe in ethical hunting for meat and out of respect for the animal. I also believe in ethical politics and it hurts our cause when out of state groups fail to stay within the rules when trying to bring about change. in all honesty it is very easy for groups going thru the initiative process to fail to do this.
this happens to all kinds of groups(like tim eyeman). One reason is that politics is so dirty that people believe that whatever it takes to win is what it takes to win. while this goes ok with elected politicians and they have no problem with this, the initiative process is different because it is ordinary citizens trying to make a change. these same dirty politicians make sure that ordinary people have to follow much more closely watched processes and declare money that elected reps would never delclare. Even though i didnt agree with tim eyeman, it was obviouse to me that the state government was actively trying to make it difficult for him to succeed.
anyway, there is no excuse for dirty politics on either side of the aisle and i wont defend the method but i did support the goal. it is important to realize that not everyone thinks the same just because they support something. I have met many many animal rights activist and i doubt that you would think any of them were bad people if you met them. If fact the best thing you can do with someone you disagree with is discuss with them. you both are sure to learn something about the views of the other. I can assure you that there is no money in activism so there is no way that any of them became such for personal gain. environmental activist's are more likely to get beat up or killed. I really take exception with the whole linking the environmental movement to terrorism and i'ss tell you two true stories. daryl cherny and judy barry were timber activist in northern california and hired killers from the timber industry put a bomb beneath their seat in their car. it almost killed them both. the interesting thig was that it blew up in the middle of the city and the bomb squad and fbi showed up at the blown up car before the first beat cop. the FBI settled out of court for covering the whole thing up for millions of dollars this year to dayrl cherny(judy is dead). they tried to say that dayrl and judy were acrrying the bomb to go use somewhere. unfortunately for the FBI story it was wired with a motion detector to go off right when they started driving. although terrorists tried to kill them and the FBI covered it up and got caught, i can guarantee you that those two were not terrorist of any sort.
When i was at WSU i headed the washington state environmental task force. this was during the time when some people claiming to be alf broke into some labs and released some animals. most of us environmentalists were pissed about it because most of the animals had never lived in the wild and would surely die. the FBI came down on us and put spies all around in little pullmans environmental groups. Rick scarce was an author writing a book about the environmental movement and the FBI wanted to question him. he would not talk to them so they threw him in federal prison in spokane for two years with no charges against him and no suspected charges. I can guarantee you that he was not a terrorist either. there are two groups that use destructive methods in their practices. ELF and ALF. many environmentalist including myself believe that ALF is real obviousely but a name claimed by unorganized small groups of animal rights activists. ELF on the other hand is probably the result of the FBI's counter intelligence programs meant to discredit all environmental groups . this is not conspiracy theory babble although it is not proven. the FBI factually has co-intel programs meant to disrupt activist groups. they will tell you so themselves.
anyway driftboat, i like to hunt and it would take me atleast an hour to tell you about why i am against baiting and trapping. but if you ever want to go pheasant hunting, you can come on out to my moms farm in palouse some time and we can shoot up some pheasant/ partridge on private property and ill give you all the time in the world to explain your take on it and you can hear mine.

ps. read the book "the monkey wrench gang" by eddward abbey. it is a fiction book that started the whole radical environmental movement. you will actually really like it. it is funny and adventure and everything. it is not about hippies. the radical environmental movement started in arizona from some colorado river guides and a redneck ex green breret that gets drunk and takes chainsaws to bilboards that block the sunset as he is driving thru the desert.