Life Imitates Art

"On Barrack Obama and the Democrat Congress-- "Life Imitates art... Unfortunately lately it is imitating two of the most frightening books of the 20th century.. Atlas Shrugged and 1984"

This is one of my quotes... I didn't realize at the time how prescient I was.

If you are a "Boomer" or were born anytime in the 1960's. (I am considered to be at the tail end of the Baby Boomers I was born in '62) You will remember when television was much simpler. There were four basic kind of television shows. Detective/Police/Legal Dramas (Dragnet, Mannix, NYPD, Perry Mason), Sitcoms (Gilligans Island, Beverly Hill Billies), Doctor Dramas (Ben Casey, Dr. Kildare) and Westerns (Bonanza, Maverick, Gunsmoke, Wagontrain etc). One of the common themes of the Westerns on both TV and Motion Pictures was this scenario - Evil Big landowner trying to take over a geographic area, sometimes a valley. In order to
1. Sell the land to the coming rail rail road to make an obscene amount of money or
2. To keep the "Open Range" open for his Cattle so he can continue to make an obscene amount of money.
Now this Cattle/Land Baron used two methods to chase the poor small farmer/rancher off of their land,
1. Hire a group of thugs to harass them or
2. Get control of the local water source and shut off access of everyone down river/stream from the water.

OK you say... What has this got to do with anything other than you geezing? (reminiscing)

Well as I said in my quote, life is imitating art... The Central Valley of California accounts for 53% that states agricultural production, 13% of the US's agricultural production. As of yesterday, Gov. Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in the Valley.. Fires? Nope. Earthquake? Nope. Drought? Yes.. So, what has that got to do with anything? Well there have been many droughts in the Central Valley but this one is devastating. So devastating that the state of California has to purchase food to feed the Farmers in the Valley.. OK you say... And? Well the main reason this particular drought is so devastating is like in the Westerns I described someone has cut off access to the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. The Farmers may now only get 10% of the water they used to get. Who is this evil SOB? Where is John Wayne, Gary Cooper and Randolph Scott when you need them? Why hasn't the Media been castigating this SOB?

The evil SOB is....... The United States Federal Govt. The US Fish and Wildlife service specifically. Why would they do this? To protect the Delta Smelt, a small minnow like fish. Well at least you say, there isn't a group of thugs also... Nope, you would be incorrect, the Sierra Club and many Environmental groups are flooding the US Fish and Wildlife service with all types of "New" Endangered Species that need to be protected in some of our most fertile farming areas. At this rate, we will change from the worlds largest food exporter to a food importer.. Just like the farmers in the Central Valley of California.