Political discontent

[larryJ]

I thought I might put this here.  It is from my local paper today written by Frank Girardot, senior metro editor for the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group. 

Entitled-------------THERE'S NO WHITEWASHING OUR POLITCAL DISCONTENT

The green pickup truck loaded with work tools and traveling south on the interstate carried an unmistakable message:

"AMERICAN GOVERNMENT SUCKS!"

Whitewashed in the kind of paint usually reserved for traveling softball teams headed to a tournament somewhere, the all-caps message sums up the frustration so many feel as the Great Recession drags on.

I assume the driver has a beef.  Perhaps he paid too much in taxes this year.  Maybe he likes (or doesn't like) what's going on with Arizona's implementation of its new immigration law.

Maybe it's the Obama Administration's lack of response in the Gulf Coast as crude continues to seep from a badly damaged, and seemingly unregulated, BP oil well.  Maybe he doesn't like restrictive gun laws.

Who knows?

Yet, I wonder if the establishment in Washington or Sacramento are listening to this guy and others like him.

Just a few miles southeast of the San Luis Reservoir and within a stone's throw of the great California Aqueduct, the fallow fields of the "world's breadbasket" signal another sign of unease with Washington-dictated politics.  Here the sign is bright yellow, with black letters.  It reads:  "CONGRESS CREATED DUST BOWL."

Central Valley farmers are understandably upset with federal rules protecting salmon and steelhead trout that have limited their water supply.  It's a fish-before-people policy that can only come from pin-headed bureaucrats who know nothing about what made California great.  If you don't think this issue affects you, think again.  We're drinking the same water, and the more the government moves to restrict its flow, the more we pay on all levels.

In federal court this year, farmers argued that water restrictions destroyed permanent crops; fallowed lands; increased groundwater consumption; reduced air quality; destroyed family farms; and had the potential to lead to increased property crimes and family violence.

They also argued that the fish-over-people strategy had adverse effects on schools and led to increased unemployment, hunger and homelessness.

Fortunately, a Fresno judge agreed last week -- even if he stopped short of turning the pumps back on for good.

"The exact restrictions imposed, which are inflicting material harm to humans and the human environment, are not supported by the record," U.S. District Court Judge Oliver W. Wanger wrote.  "Rather, they are the by-product of guesstimations and attempts to try to achieve equity."

Wanger said the federal Environmental Protection Agency "Acted arbitrarily and capriciously in formulating -- actions to protect threatened species -- that lack factual and scientific justification, while effectively ignoring the irreparable harm those actions have inflicted on humans.,"

If nothing else, Wanger gets it.

Come November, perhaps Sacramento and Washington will get it, too.

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Larryj