Dead fish tied to policy flaws

It's all Bush's fault! (Another version of this story has a "Scientists blame Bush for salmon deaths" headline.)

Anyway, I remember posting a long time back, probably on the old blog, about the Klamath River situation. There was a report issued saying (basically) that there was no evidence that salmon did worse when the water levels were low than when they were high. Conservatives decided that this meant that it didn't make any difference and that water should be diverted ASAP. The report didn't say that -- rather, it said that research couldn't support water diversion causing a problem. There's quite a jump to saying that water diversion couldn't cause a problem.

That didn't stop the Bushites, who decided to give more water to farmers. This isn't a situation where it's just protecting an endangered species or a habitat. Salmon fishing is big business. I am utterly convinced that given the choice of supporting a business that relies on a healthy environment and one that will hurt the environment, the Bush Administration will always choose the latter. I think Gale Norton, in particular, hates nature.

When I have Gale's job in the Simon Administration, there will be three main changes. One will be the conversion of the Department of the Interior to an Interior Ministry along Soviet lines, including a national police force. Second will be the new policy of Conservative Environmentalism, which will encourage the use of resources but will not allow the permanent destruction of something replaceable for minimal gain.. Third will be the enforcement of laws we already have, via the means described under change one. Once a few polluters and exploiters go missing, the rest will fall in line pretty quickly.