Free Republic

The same federal judge who helped set in motion protests in California's farm country when he ruled three years ago that Delta pumping limits were too lax to prevent fish from going extinct determined Tuesday the new regulations go too far the other way. In a sharply worded, 255-page decision, U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger, of Fresno, concluded: "The public cannot afford sloppy science and uni-directional prescriptions that ignore California's water needs." He ordered regulators to rewrite significant portions of a permit for massive Delta pumps that deliver water to the Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. The...

Do you believe that you will always be able to buy inexpensive food at the supermarket? If so, you might want to think again. During 2010, agricultural commodity prices have exploded. Nearly every single important agricultural commodity is experiencing double-digit percentage price increases. The S&P GSCI Agriculture Index recently surged to a fresh two-year high and now we find that food producers and retailers are starting to pass those commodity price increases on to consumers. Food inflation is real; it is here and it’s going to hurt a lot of people. In fact, food inflation is hitting consumers hard all...

Politics: Might California's Central Valley, long treated as a environmental-policy dumping ground by Democrats, end up a change agent in election 2010? New polls there show a collapse in Sen. Barbara Boxer's prospects. The Senate race in California has gotten far tighter in the past month, with the Real Clear Politics poll average showing Boxer, the entrenched incumbent, leading her opponent, Republican Carly Fiorina, by just 1.4 points. The latest Rasmussen poll has Boxer up by 2. A month ago she was up by 5, and a month before that by 7. Much of the tightening has come in the...

For those who don't remember, this link will give you some background into what california has had to deal with. My idea is this: California's farmers were hit very hard when the water got shut off, why not have their stories be heard on the EIB network? I certainly don't remember any progressive journalist rushing out there to have their story reported on.

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...

Meg Whitman and the Delta Smelt Meg Whitman’s charitable foundation, established ostensibly for charitable purposes, inexplicably gave at least $300,000 to the Environmental Defense Fund’s Center For Rivers and Deltas. In 2007, Meg Whitman’s foundation gave $100,000 to EDF. Not content with that amount, Meg Whitman doubled down in 2008 by donating $200,000. The water crisis is affecting jobs in the Central Valley, with most cities and towns hovering near a 15% unemployment rate. The EDF has continually sided with the fish over the farmers and Meg Whitman’s $300,000 donation helped fund these efforts. Over the past few years, EDF...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A group of Democratic lawmakers on Thursday asked Senator Dianne Feinstein to abandon draft legislation that would divert more water to California's farmers, a plan that has quickly become a flashpoint in the state's long-running water wars. Feinstein's proposal, which would ease Endangered Species Act restrictions, has angered environmental activists and fishing groups. The powerful Democratic senator's rebuke by members of her own party underscores the incendiary nature of water politics in America's No. 1 farm state. The 12 lawmakers, who sent a letter to Feinstein asking her to drop the plan, say it could ultimately...

“Delta Smelt, What’s that (Dead) Flower You Have On…” By justinwashingtontheblogger “Could it be a Faded Rose from Days Gone By?” Lyrics (Polluted) by Justin Washington and Tribute to Tanya Tucker As the plaintiff song wafts in the air, so goes California’s golden dream — because of a small, silver fish resembling a minow with small, beady eyes (somewhat similiar in appearance to US Senate Leader Harry Reid). The EPA, as the teeth behind the Endangered Species Act, has turned off the water spigot to the agricultural Central Valley of California which has been likened to the “bread basket of...

California, the nation's largest producer of fruits, nuts, vegetables, livestock and dairy products, ranks fifth in the world as a supplier of food and agricultural commodities. Cash receipts totaled more than $36.6 billion in 2007. By comparison, Coca Cola's 2008 revenue was $32 billion. The state provides more than half of the nation's fruits, nuts and vegetables using more than 25% of California's landmass for agricultural production. The Central Valley accounts for more than half of that area. A paragon of conservation and modern irrigation technology, California agriculture - comprised of many small and family-owned and operated farms - is...

Finally acknowledging that there is a significant government-created crisis in the San Joaquin Valley, the Interior Department convened a public hearing Sept. 30, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein has announced she has asked her staff to begin assembling a major piece of legislation to address the water crisis facing the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has issued a "memorandum of understanding" that will keep representatives from six federal agencies talking to various interest groups in California. The problem is that it will take months to make such decisions and years for results to be apparent. The crisis is...

Environmentalism: Sen. Dianne Feinstein votes to deny water to California's drought-stricken San Joaquin Valley. Farmers, families and food are being held hostage to an endangered fish called the delta smelt. (snip) The Senate rejected the amendment by a largely party-line 61-36 margin, with Feinstein opposing the restoration of water deliveries to farmers. The California senator claimed she was blindsided by the amendment to the 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.

Delta smelts: Preferred over humans. Environmentalism: Sen. Dianne Feinstein votes to deny water to California's drought-stricken San Joaquin Valley. Farmers, families and food are being held hostage to an endangered fish called the delta smelt.There was a time when the San Joaquin Valley was the most productive agricultural region in the world. It was a large part of what made the Golden State golden.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...

“Turning the water off is not just bad politics, it’s an act of domestic terror.” - Former Fresno, California Mayor Alan Autry Forgive me if I am less than diplomatic here. I am not a fan at all of the radical environmental movement. I’m even less of a fan of radical, Big Government. Let’s cut to the chase here. The rabid environmentalists have destroyed the economy in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Not only have they destroyed the economy, they have destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of farmers, as well. According to the California Farm Water Coalition...

Here we go again. I was watching Sean Hannity tonight (9/17/2009), and have been following loosely the situation in the San Joaquin Valley of California with their water crisis over the small Delta Smelt minnow and its endangered species listing. The Farmers have water rights to that water. There is no legal water rights for that water for a minnow over the farmers. There is only a manufactured judicial legal decision by liberal judges based on junk science and the whims of administrators and bureaucrats that create these incidents based on the Endangered Species Act and a rabid environmental...

Talk show host Sean Hannity is in our Valley tonight. The topic is water. But it’s bigger than that. Some believe its: Environmentalists vs. Liberty. Some believe environmentalists are standing on the necks of our farmers and their kids. And ... some believe they’re coming for YOUR water next. This link has..

If you plan to attend the protest with Sean Hannity tomorrow and don't know what to wear, print this reversed on a t-shirt iron-on.

Supporters of California agriculture called on the Obama administration and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday to lift water restrictions that were imposed to protect the endangered delta smelt, saying the fish is putting farmers out of business. The Pacific Legal Foundation presented a "Save Our Water" petition with 12,000 signatures at a Sacramento news conference, calling on Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, to request that the Obama administration convene the federal Endangered Species Committee, also known as the "God Squad," to remove the water curbs. "California should be known for the Rose Bowl, not a dust bowl. But there's a...

Faced with the prospect of an economic disaster caused by a man-made drought, hundreds of concerned citizens from California's Central Valley today engaged in a massive protest at the Concord, California district office of Democrat George Miller. Miller and Congressional Democrats had an opportunity just a few weeks ago to turn on valley water pumps again, in time to avert a disaster via HR 3105, but Miller voted instead to protect a non-threatened species of fish [the Delta smelt] and his extremist supporters rather than California farms, farm workers and the millions of people who depend on them for food.