All around the Nation there is a new con game in town. The Cooperative Conservation Listening Sessions by President George W. Bush can be reported as the Great Cooperative Con.

After getting up at 4:00 AM and driving three hours to Redmond, Oregon, we gathered outside the Expo center at the Redmond airport.

The expo center is at the end of the main runway. Overhead planes were taking off, laden with smoke jumpers and chemical retardants, heading off to fight any of several large wildfires burning out of control in the Cascades -- where more than 2,500 lighting strikes hit the unmanaged forests under the control and management of the federal government during the past 24 hours.

Lingering in the yard in front of the expo center were a handful of lobbyists passing out nametags, so in case you did not know who you were or why you were there, you could glance down at your badge.

It also gave the political types an opportunity to shake your hand and pretend they knew you on a personal level.

The ranchers and farmers were few in number, because this is the middle of harvest season. Hay is being stored for the winter, combines reaping the
fields of grain, and cattle mooing while fattened for the fall market.

Any idiot from Washington DC should know this is not the time of year to hold a meeting in the West, but then again they were not here to listen to
landowners, property rights advocates, and those who thought this was their country.

Representative Greg Walden, Oregon's most recent convert to environmentalism, strode among the few ranchers who still believed in this
cowboy with hat but no horse.

Greg betrayed his friends in Eastern Oregon, and is now campaigning for statewide office according to those who follow and make money-chasing campaigns. That is why he is spending millions on television ads featuring Multnomah Falls and a handful of children.

At precisely 8:00 AM, a federal employee went to work passing out slips of paper.

Each slip had a number and each person was told when their number was called they could appear before a central microphone in the hall and speak for no more than 2 minutes.

I kept thinking "Two Minutes to Tyranny" would make a great title for a book about the Bush Administration and the needless loss of freedom (Patriot Act) and mobility (Price of Gasoline).

At the podium, Secretary of the Interior Kempthorne took command and introduced the six or seven listeners at the head table, all of whom were potentates from the Bush Administration. There was good ole Walden with his naked forehead and grinning face.

"We are here to listen" proclaimed the Secretary. "Please address your comments to the issues listed in the handout."

In other words, no rhetoric about the Constitution, private property rights, or things the "listeners" do not want to hear about.

Out of three hundred potential speakers, the first thirty-four speakers spoke.

Only one asked for repealing the ESA.

Twenty-three requested money for Water Councils and grants for NGOs (non-governmental organizations) to buy land and conduct more studies.

A handful of Indians were present. They clearly believe the Natural Resources of the Nation are soon going to be their domain and that they are exempt
because of the exchange for wampum from the Casinos to pay for public employee retirement systems.

They must not have learned their lesson about dealing with the forked tongued devils of the government at any level. They will soon learn that little has changed since Britain first arrived in America.

My colleague, James Loftus, rose and spoke as number 29.

James, asked the audience to hold up their hands if they were ranchers and farmers.

Ten -- maybe fifteen at the most -- raised their hand out of three hundred.

James turned to the microphone, "Shame on you, Mr. Secretary, for holding these listening sessions in the middle of harvest season."

That was not a part of the script.

However, James only had 75 seconds to go. He explained how the tax assessor approached him and threatened to levy 10 years of back taxes for
not farming his property. In exchange, the assessor offered to put his farm under a "conservation easement" -- in exchange for avoidance of the tax penalty. No one at the table wanted to know about extortion, either.

And James had no more time to explain.

The Secretary rose after the 34th speaker and announced the need to move on to Alaska, where another listening session is scheduled. Nevertheless, the remaining members of the Listing group will stay and listen.

The Cooperative Con is nothing more than a ruse put forth by our friends from PACWEST Communications and our now silent neighbor, Chuck Cushman.

This thing smelled like Big Oil, looked like Big Coal, and sounded like Big Timber.

The only thing that was missing was the presence of Tim Wigley, but alas, he is no longer in Wilsonville; he now resides in new digs in Washington, D.C. These multi-million dollar public relations gigs must be nice.

Please forward this to all your friends.