Ashley Judd, please check your e-mail

Those critter-huggers who have been blasting Sarah Palin because she hunts and supported wildlife management practices while Alaska's governor should be advised that their hope for change has just gone on the record in support of huntin' and fishin', as our friend Andrew Malcolm observes:

Well, on the eve of that special season when so many Americans blast migrating ducks out of the sky and blow large holes in the side of fleeing deer, Barack Obama, now in the White House, has just issued a special Presidential Proclamation.

He's saluting and celebrating those "ageless pursuits" of hunting and fishing, just like some caribou-killing ex-Alaska governor might.

And he's actually returning to Pennsylvania this week, only not to kill animals.

Obama says today's American hunters and fisherpersons like, say, ex-VP Dick Cheney, celebrate sound, scientific game management and "freedom, fairness and self-sustainability." Although, truth be told, it's pretty hard to imagine hunting ever being fair until the game are armed too.

Anyway, this Democratic president has proclaimed Friday as National Hunting and Fishing Day "from atop Pikes Peak to the shores of the James River." Which leaves out a lot of the West. But, hey, he's president now.

Here's the president's full proclamation from the White House, which does have a dog living there but successfully evicted a family of raccoons some months ago.

Will the defenders of lovable, furry wild animals come down on the president even a fraction as hard as they did on Sarah Palin? We wouldn't advise holding your breath while your wait for them to do so. You might turn blue.

- JP