1.26.2010

Obama to California ‘Water, Its Not a Right its a Privilege’by John Loudon
On the list of insane public policy moves we have come to expect from the current administration, Cap and Tax, Obamacare and Union Card Check, a fourth has garnered relatively little attention, although the implications for all Americans may be among the most far-reaching. The recurring theme is centralized control.
http://biggovernment.com/2010/01/25/obama-to-california-water-its-not-a-right-its-a-privilege/#more-64530

December 27, 2009- 60 MINUTES Show on CBS, all about Central Valley water issue!

CA Farmers
WE DID IT!!

The Farmer Relief and Freedom Relay came to a close on Sunday November 22, 2009 in Fresno , CA. There was a lovely Wrap Party hosted by the Central Valley Tea Party that included all the speakers who traveled so far for this cause. Our routes covered over 3000 miles on each route . Our speakers enjoyed meeting other tea party patriots across the US.
We already have confirmation that other states are reaching out to their representatives to get them involved with this issue. This issue is not over but it is well on it s way to becoming a national outrage and shame. Patriots all over the country are standing up for CA and our farmers.
We have decided another way we can support CA and her farmers is to boycott all imported fruits and vegetables. If it’s not grown here in the US or Ca more specifically don’t buy it. We can show them with our wallets that we demand our farmers are allowed to farm and put food on our tables! So, please help us in this endeavor. BUY AMERICAN /CALIFORNIA GROW FOOD!

Our Relay was able to raise over $20,000.00 , hundreds of boxes of clothing and trucks full of food to go to the food bank and the Saving The Valley Foundation to help the farmers. Thank you to all who participated in this project!

Keep in mind that we did this all by ourselves. We weren’t fancy but we did with the help of each other. Tea Party Patriots raised the money for the relay and asked our friends in each state to help by organizing parties. This was Americans helping Americans with out government intervention or sponsorship by some big entity! Once again proving that Americans know what is best for us and we know how to accomplish the impossible!!
There will be a complete list of all those who helped with this project at our website, www.socaltaxrevoltcoalition.org and photos will be at www.forum.socaltaxrevoltcoalition.org

Northern Route: Andrew Ian Dodge and Kim Dodge, Josh Parker, Ben Bergquam,Eli Ayala

Central Route: Jenny Beth Martin, Steve Wayte, Mark Meckler, Larry Naritelli, Piedad Ayala

Southern Route: Judy Holloway, Thelma Parker, Daniel Blackford, Kevin Jackson

Thank you to all of the Tea Party Patriots who participated in holding Rallies and hosting events!!

Hugh Hewitt: Forget jobs summit: Turn on California's water
By: Hugh Hewitt
Examiner Columnist
November 16, 2009 For Fresno and California's entire Central Valley, it should be the best of times.

With the dollar weak and the world hungry, the exceptionally fertile fields along the Golden State highway should be producing record yields of grains, fruits, vegetables and nuts.

Instead framers are struggling to keep even a third of their potential acreage in use. Mile after mile of parched land greets the approach to the city of 500,000. And angry signs along the roadside condemn the federal government that has cut off the valley's water.

The delta smelt, a small fish that makes its home in the vast Sacramento Delta, has been declared endangered. Since late last year the water lifeline from the north to the south has been reduced to a trickle.

The pumps that power the water to the farms have been stilled for months at a time so as to avoid sucking in smelt. The smelt's numbers have been reduced by many causes, but the one the federal government has decided to target is the pumps.

When Washington, D.C., ordered the water shut off, jobs went down the drain. Tens of thousands of farm jobs have been lost, and unemployment in some farming towns has hit 40 percent.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., posture about their concern (Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., can't even be bothered to meet with local officials), and the region's Democratic congressmen like Reps. Dennis Cardoza and Jim Costa pledge action, but the president, his senior officials and congressional allies have done nothing. A new, man-made dust bowl is taking shape, and the devastation is palpable.

Former Fresno Mayor Alan Autry was a guest on my broadcast from the city's downtown last week and told the audience about a food distribution day that drew 15,000 people. Pastor Jim Franklin of Cornerstone Church spoke about the growing desperation among many in his flock.

Third-generation farmers admitted on air that they couldn't imagine how they could hold on to their farms if the water wasn't turned back and with the assurance of stability so the annual cycle of preparation and planting that must begin now can proceed backed by financing that wouldn't be forthcoming unless the banks see the near certainty that the water will flow throughout 2010.

President Obama doesn't need a jobs summit or a second stimulus to create thousands of jobs overnight. All he has to do is order -- order -- his staff to insist that the Congress include relief in the appropriations bills headed his way.

Or President Obama could order -- order -- Secretary Salazar to conduct a rapid review by serious science of the deeply politicized findings that led to the water cutoff. There is much suspicion about the agency's deliberations here that a National Academy of Sciences review of the data has been promised by Salazar and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, but it will take months and months to complete. The president could demand his team work like their jobs were in as much jeopardy as those in the valley.

Alternatively, U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger could order that the restrictions on water delivery imposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Dec. 15, 2008, be lifted until an environmental impact statement is prepared by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation that wholly and fairly assesses the consequences of the service's job-destroying diktat. The judge ruled just last week that farmers and water agencies were entitled to summary judgment on their claim that the feds had acted contrary to the National Environmental Policy Act.

The court has scheduled a hearing on potential remedies for Nov. 24, two days before Thanksgiving. If he orders the suspension of the draconian "biological opinion" that imposed the water cutoff and mandated the drought, it will be a festive Thanksgiving in the valley.

Christmas will be brighter for tens of thousands of workers and farmers and their families who have seen their livelihoods imperiled by radical environmentalists and bogus "science." (Details on the hearing are available at pacificlegal.org.)

But if the judge doesn't act and President Obama continues to give speeches and hold "summits" instead of ordering relief, a grim 2009 will turn into a catastrophic 2010.

Examiner Columnist Hugh Hewitt is a law professor at Chapman University Law School and a nationally syndicated radio talk show host who blogs daily at HughHewitt.com.

Farmer Relief & Freedom Relay to partner with Saving the Valley that Hope Forgot – A Tea Party Patriots™ relief relay across the nation to assist the farmers of California’s Central Valley.

In actions that can only be described as lacking the most basic humanity, the U.S. Congress has turned off the water to Central Valley farmers, leaving their land dry, their fields fallow, and their dreams and ambitions scattered in the dust. Tens of thousands are unemployed and waiting in food lines because of the federal government, proving once again that the government is the problem, not the solution.

In the Central Valley of California, local groups including the Central Valley Tea Party, Water for All, Families Protecting the Valley, and local valley farmers have banded together to provide immediate and direct assistance to the suffering communities. The Central Valley Tea Party naturally reached out to their nationwide network through the Tea Party Patriots™, and across the nation the response was overwhelmingly positive. From this nationwide web, the Farmer Relief & Freedom Relay was formed.

Tea Party Patriots™ from across the nation are organizing three relief lines from east to west, and driving across the country with food, clothing, gift cards and other donations to assist the farmers who have been forsaken by their own government.

We The People - are the solution. And we will take care of our own, from coast to coast, wherever productive people are under attack from the eco-tyranny of an insatiable bureaucracy. We will take care of our own by bringing relief to the human suffering. And along the way we will pressure the U.S. Congress to pass the necessary legislation immediately to turn on the water, and keep it on. And we will bring attention to the economic devastation, and personal hardship caused by thirty years of unchecked eco-tyranny at the federal, state and local levels.

It's your future. And this is your chance to make a difference. No matter what Congress says, people do matter. And people can make a difference. Stand up, be counted, and help your fellow Americans. Today, the farmers of California's Central Valley are under attack by their own government. They are our fellow citizens and we must stand up for them. Who will be next? Who else will have their hopes and dreams crushed by government eco-tyranny. Will it be the cattle ranchers of Texas? Perhaps the loggers of the Northwest? How about the fishermen of the eastern seaboard? The coal miners of Ohio and Pennsylvania?

If we don't stop it, one thing is for sure; today the farmers of the Central Valley in California are the victims, tomorrow...it will be someone else under the thumb of government eco-tyranny. But there is a new wind blowing, because wherever productive Americans come under attack from their government, from now on, the Tea Party Patriots™ will be there. We'll be there to support our fellow Americans, and to shine the light of day on the egregious eco-tyranny which is destroying the American economy, and along with it, the American dream.



Our own Judy Holloway from Texas did an excellent job of stating this problem and Mark and I would ask that you all get out the word about this to your friends, members, neighbors and family.



Because this is a huge undertaking we are looking to raise money to implement the three routes. Please help with whatever you can at, www.teapartypatriots.org

PROBLEM:
Thanks to the government’s misuse of the Federal Endangered Species Act and two subsequent biological opinions, the vast majority of water that normally flows to California’s West-Side Central Valley farmers has been shut off DURING THE GROWING SEASONin order to protect a 2” baitfish called the Delta Smelt*, and a handful of other marine species**.  In 2010, through enactment of the San Joaquin River Settlement, water for struggling farms on the East-Side of the Valley will be diverted to restore a long lost salmon run (one that experts say will not reestablish).  THE RESULT is a growing Government created Dust Bowl, 40+% unemployment for surrounding communities, bankruptcy for countless farmers and their families, higher food prices nationally, a greater dependence on foreign produce, and a dangerous precedent for land owners NATIONWIDE.

SOLUTION:
Contact your Federal lawmakers and demand a “Temporary Waiver” of the Endangered Species Act for the two biological opinions affecting the farmers on the West-Side of the Central Valley, as well as an abolishment of the “San Joaquin River Settlement” affecting the farmers on the East-Side.  Tell them you support Farmers Over Fish.

HISTORIC PRECEDENT:
In 2003, California lawmakers Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Diane Feinstein, and Sen. Barbara Boxer all voted to a support a temporarily waiver of the Endangered Species Act in Albuquerque, New Mexico for the 3" Silvery Minnow...a baitfish not unlike the Delta Smelt. High time they help their own state!

CONTACT:    1) Your Congressman - www.house.gov
                      2) Your two Senators - www.senate.gov
                      3) Congressman Costa and Cardoza...Central Valley representatives that
                          continually vote AGAINST measures that would solve this water crisis.                           And Congressman Radanovich who supports and cosponsored the San                               Joaquin River Restoration Settlement Act with Costa:

            Rep. Jim Costa (D-CA 20th)
                    202-225-3341 - f.202-225-9308
                    661-869-1620 - f.661-869-1027
                    559-495-1620 - f.559-495-1027

             Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-CA 18th)
                    202-225-6131 - f.202-225-0819
                    209-946-0361 - f.209-946-0347
                    209-527-1914 - f.209-527-5748

             Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA 19th)
                    202.225.4540 - f.202.225.3402   
                    209.579.5458 - f.209.579.5028
                    559.449.2490 - f.559.449.2499

DOWNLOAD FLIER: Please help spread the word by downloading the PDF file of our flier, share it with everyone you know across the US...this a fight for property rights everywhere! DOWNLOAD HERE

  
    ACT NOW! WE ONLY HAVE A MATTER OF WEEKS                                        TO RESTORE THE WATER SUPPLY FOR 2010                                          

* Dec. 15, 2008: http://www.fws.gov/sacramento/delta_update.htm    **June 4, 2009: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2009/20090604_biological.html
For more information on this water and property rights crisis, visit:
http://nunes.house.gov/ • http://www.familiesprotectingthevalley.com • http://www.waterforall.com/
For pictures and video: http://ecosense9.wordpress.com/ 
Flier prepared by a coalition of California Tea Parties  www.teaparty-california.org

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Congress and California's Katrina:

We must pressure all involved to fix the problem, and fix it now. Call your own Congressional Representatives, both in the House and in the Senate, as well as the President Barack Obama (202-456-1111),

and demand that they join Congressman Devin Nunes, Senator Jim Demint, and the rest of the American people in supporting the farmers in the Central Valley over fish in the Delta. Help keep America’s food supply safe by Saving the Valley That Hope Forgot.


Right before the August recess our Congressman Nunes(CA) went to the Appropriations Committee to ask them to accept an amendment that would turn on the pumps for our farmers. The Chairman of the Appropriatiosn Committee, David Obey thought that the issue wasn't "germane" and even our own CA representatives fought against it, Mike Honda, Sam Farr, Barbara Lee, Adam Schiff, and Lucille Roybal-Allard.


Look at all of the representatives in the farm belt across the Nation that fought and voted against this amendment to help the farmers get back to work and put food on your table.

The statistics were given to them such as:

These are the people who are forever espousing the need for more huamanity when dealing with the public. These are the people who believe they are the answer to the Nation's problems and they see themselves as the being "of the people"!


And still they voted NO. (33 Democrats voted NO, 3voted Yes and all Republicans voted YES).

The Democratic leadership killed the amendment and left us out to dry...again.

Let's ask them why? Every Wednesday Californians will be calling all of these people and telling them to turn the pumps on for good. Stop killing our fields and our farmers! ( red highlighted names are CA Congress people)

Steven Rothman-NJ-ph: 202-225-5061, fx: 202-225-5851

Lucille Roybal-Allard-CA-Phone: (202) 225-1766 , Fax: (202) 226-0350

Tim Ryan -OH-p: 202-225-5261,f: 202-225-3719

Adam Schiff-CA-Phone: (202) 225-4176, Facsimile: (202) 225-5828

Jose Serrano-NY-(202) 225-4361, Fax: (202) 225-6001

Peter Visclosky-IN-(202) 225-2461, fax: (202) 225-2493

Debbie Wasserman Shultz-FL-Phone: 202-225-7931, Fax: 202-226-2052

Nita Lowey-NY-202-225-6506, 202-225-0546 (fax

Ciro Rodgriguez-TX-P: (202) 225-4511 , F: (202) 225-2237

David Price-NC-Phone: 202.225.1784, Fax: 202.225.2014

Ed Pastor-AZ- (202) 225-4065

John Olver-MA-202-225-5335 o Fax: 202-226-1224,

Marion Berry -AK-(202) 225-4076, (202) 225-5602 FAX

Sanford Bishop-GA-Phone- (202) 225-3631 Fax- (202) 225-2203

Allen Boyd- FL-(202) 225-5235 o F (202) 225-5615

Ben Chandler-KY-Phone: (202) 225-4706, Fax: (202) 225-2122

Lincoln Davis- TN-Phone: 202.225.6831 Fax: 202.226.5172

Rosa DeLauro-CT-Phone: 202-225-3661, Fax: 202-225-4890

Norman Dicks-WA-Phone: 202-225-5916, Fax: 202-226-1176

Sam Farr-CA-202-225-2861, Fax 202-225-6791

Chaka Fattah-PA-202.225.4001

Maurice Hinchey-NY-202-225-6335, fax202-226-0774

David Obey-WI-(202) 225-3365

John Murtha-PA-P: (202) 225-2065, F: (202) 225-5709

Mike Honda-CA-Phone: (202) 225-2631, Fax: (202) 225-2699

Steve Israel-NY-Phone: (202) 225-3335, Fax: (202) 225-4669

Marcy Kaptur-OH-Tel: (202) 225-4146, Fax: (202) 225-7711

Patrick Kennedy-RI-(202) 225-4911 ~ Fax: (202) 225-3290

Carolyn Kilpatrick-MI-(202) 225-2261, (202) 225-5730 Fax

Barbara Lee-CA-Phone: (202) 225-2661,Fax: (202) 225-9817

Betty McCollum-MN-phone: (202) 225-6631 o fax: (202) 225-1968

Alan Mollahan-WVA-ph: (202) 225-4172, fax: (202) 225-7564

James Moran-VA-Phone: (202) 225-4376, Fax: (202) 225-0017