Politics As Usual

Last week House Republicans continued their assult on the environment using massive cuts in federal discretionary spending to attack ESA protections in the Central Valley, remove funding for dam removal on the Klamath, and cripple the EPA and their capacity to regulate polluters. They're also proposing to slash all funding for NPR (I know the last one isn't environment, but in the long hours alone on the road NPR has always been a favorite). All this under the guise of of spending cuts, but the bottom line is these cuts are politically motivated, particularly when you consider discretionary spending they're cutting is only 1/6th of the federal budget.

Of course the alternative isn't too pretty either. A telling editorial last week in the Oregonian shed light on the fact that Washington's two Democratic Senators in collaboration with Gary Locke the former Governor turned head of the Commerce Department have been working actively to stifle debate on Snake River dam removal and ensure that the Obama administration adopt the illegal Bush BiOp as its own. As you can see the political choices we have in this country aren't particularly enticing. That's why it's critical that we are remain politically engaged to ensure that our representatives are accountable to their constituents. That is doubly true for my conservative friends, make sure your congressman knows you're a conservative voice for wild fish and the environment, there's lots of you out there, make your voice heard. In the coming weeks the senate will vote to pass their own budget for the current fiscal year and it is critical that the environmentally destructive provisions included in the House bill not make it through.

More info in the Osprey:
http://ospreysteelheadnews.blogspot.com/2011/02/hr1-undermines-salmon-recovery.html

Send a letter to your senator:
https://secure3.convio.net/sows/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=516

Thoughts on Politics

This is not a political blog, its a fish blog, but unfortunately sometimes the two overlap. Midterm elections this week were a vivid reminder of that fact, where Washington voters had the dismal choice between Patty Murray and Dino Rossi. Murray a three term Democrat has been woefully absent from the discussion over what to do about the four lower snake river dams and appears much more interested in pandering to lobbyists and ensuring her own reelection than addressing the needs of her constituents. Rossi on the other hand is a realestate barron with enough money to fund his continually failing political aspirations who happily takes handouts from the Building Industry Association of Washington, the same organization that is constantly on the wrong side when it comes to habitat protection for endangered species, the same organization that petitioned for the delisting of endangered upper columbia steelhead. You can see it wasn't a pretty choice. In the end Murray won, barely.

Hopefully the close call serves as a wakeup call that a politician is defined by their responsiveness to the people they were elected to serve, not by the photo-ops and political star power that lines up on their side. Our political system, indeed most of our institutions seems woefully removed from the citizens which fund and support their very existence. The two party system which we live in almost ensures ineffective government where the two parties are guaranteed a hegemony over political discourse and are therefore preoccupied by their election prospects and the petty disputes with their political adversaries.

Please stop the bullshit and do something.

In Oregon the situation looks a lot better. John Kitzhaber eeked out a win over his republican opponent, ensuring that Oregon will continue to lead the region with progressive efforts to restore and protect wild salmon. Kitzhaber is a well known advocate for wild salmon and serves on the board of Oregon Trout.

Only time will tell what this election will mean for our region but we can only hope it wont be more of the same from Washington's senate delegation.