Much like organized criminals in big-city fish markets who see to it that product spoils when kickbacks aren't forthcoming, Washington's pols are now using their ability to turn water on and off as a coercion tool.If the feds are willing to turn prime farmland into a wasteland and throw thousands of people out of work - whether it's to protect a fish or to pry votes out of congressmen - then the government hasn't even begun to feel the push-back from the Tea Party movement.
Take the three congressmen who represent the valley and how they were pressured to vote for President Obama's health care bill. It didn't go without notice by farmers like Jasper that the 5% water allocations announced in February for all three congressional districts were lifted to 25% for the two whose Democratic representatives, Jim Costa of Fresno and Dennis Cardoza of Modesto, switched their votes on health reform from "undecided" to "aye."
Devin Nunes, a Republican from Tulare, wouldn't sell his vote, and parts of his district had to make do with the 5% allotment.
(H/T: Dad 29)
I've been watching from the sidelines, as it were, living on the other side of the western range that bounds the Central Valley.
ReplyDeleteWatching as almond growers can't get enough for their crop to make it worth harvesting.
Watching acres of fruit and nut orchards being taken out because they can't get water enough to keep the trees alive in a drought year.
And it's all politics in play.
I'm sure the MSM will be all over this outrage, especially as food prices rise.
ReplyDelete**crickets**
Yeah.
People have been known to shoot each other over water rights. That's a major reason why Israel occupied the Golan Heights -- it supplies a large amount of their fresh water, about 15%.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but....
ReplyDeleteThose respective dems will probably be voted back into office in November. I don't hear any of that insurrectionist talk coming from California. California needs to go.