Buying votes with water

There've been numerous reports on forums and in the news about the water situation in the San Juaquin valley recently e.g.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2468565/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2470450/posts

and now this:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2474102/posts
http://nrcc.org/blog/blogitem.aspx?id=261
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/03/obamas_hypocrisy_on_the_enviro.html

This is some really ugly **** and combines two of the most evil facets of the dem party i.e. the gangsterism and the envirowhack thing, into a sort of a package:

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=527775

Buying Votes With Water

Posted 03/18/2010 06:59 PM ET
Congressman Costa: Trading health care for water, with an endangered fish to be named later. AP

Congressman Costa: Trading health care for water, with an endangered fish to be named later. AP View Enlarged Image



Politics: The water spigots are back on, at least temporarily, in California's Central Valley. Turned off to protect a tiny fish, they happen to be in the districts of two congressmen "undecided" on health care reform.

One could chalk it up to good fortune or just good constituent service. But in the middle of a contentious health care debate marked by Cornhusker Kickbacks and Louisiana Purchases, we may be forgiven if we find an announcement by the Department of the Interior regarding California's water supply a tad too coincidental.

On Tuesday, the Department of the Interior announced it was increasing water allocations for the Central Valley of California, a region that depends on these water allocations for local agriculture and jobs. The timing adds to our suspicions.

According to the Interior announcement, "Typically (the Bureau of) Reclamation would release the March allocation update around March 22nd, but moved up the announcement at the urging of Senators (Diane) Feinstein and (Barbara) Boxer, and Congressmen (Jim) Costa and (Dennis) Cardoza."

Blue Dog Democrats Costa, who represents California's 20th Congressional District (Fresno), and Cardoza, who represents the 18th (Stockton to Modesto), are both listed as "undecided" in the upcoming vote on health care reform, whether it be on the Senate bill itself or the "deem and pass" resolution known as the Slaughter rule, after Rules Committee Chairman Louise Slaughter.

The rule subverts the Constitution by allowing the bill to pass without members actually having to vote on it. Interior's announcement gives Costa and Cardoza something to assuage the wrath of angry constituents just in time for any vote. They chose what was behind door number one.

This isn't the first time. To get them out of the "undecided" column in last December's House vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership promised $500 million for a new University of California-Merced Medical School. Costa and Cardoza then voted "aye."

During the 109th Congress, Cardoza was co-chairman of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate and conservative Democrats who allegedly had the Constitution, limited government and their constituents' best interests at heart. Lately, many have just rolled over and played dead. Cardoza and Costa were among 28 Blue Dog Democrats who voted for the first House bill.

The 2-inch-long delta smelt, a fish destined for the Endangered Species list, plugs the drains releasing water to the farmlands. So to protect it, environmentalists filed lawsuits and the decision was made to restrict the water flow and safeguard the smelt, even if that meant turning some of America's best farmland into the functional equivalent of Death Valley.

Last September, Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of faraway South Carolina tried to help San Joaquin Valley farmers by offering an amendment to a $32 billion Interior Department funding bill. His amendment would have overturned the decision by Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and temporarily restored valley irrigation deliveries.

The amendment was defeated by a near-straight party-line vote of 61-36, with both Boxer and Feinstein voting against restoring the Central Valley water supply. Feinstein claimed to be blindsided by the amendment to the appropriations bill she was managing in the Senate, bizarrely comparing the move to a "Pearl Harbor."

"No one from California has called, written or indicated they wanted this on the calendar," Feinstein protested at the time. But DeMint produced letters in support of the amendment signed by the Westlands Federation, the Western Growers Association and the California Grape & Tree Fruit League.

The 400-mile San Joaquin Valley is a fertile strip of farmland that produces more fruits and vegetables per square foot than any comparable land in the nation " when it has water. Now it's a place where farmers no longer farm but instead line up at food banks to feed the families of those who once fed the rest of the country and a good chunk of the world.

In affected areas, the jobless rate has hit 14%, with farming towns like Mendota experiencing jobless rates nearing 40%. Agricultural losses could eventually total in the billions. All to protect a minnow, while politicians use the San Joaquin Valley as a bargaining chip in what some might consider a political bribe.

Once we had a Congress and congressmen who pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor for our freedom and liberty. Now we are stuck with the likes of these.