Republican Sen. Richard Colburn from Cambridge said he believes “river keepers,” environmentalists who watch over particular waterways, are dictating business on the Eastern Shore. He compared them to watermelons: “green on the outside and red or socialist on the inside.”
A strange accusation considering that what the Waterkeeper Alliance is advocating is an enforcement of existing state and federal laws. The laws call for measures that will reduce the pollution that has severely damaged the Chesapeake Bay.
- The number one source of nitrogen pollution to the Bay comes from agricultural runoff, which contributes 40 percent of the nitrogen and 50 percent of the phosphorus entering the Chesapeake Bay.
- In Maryland, manure and waste from chicken production plays a big role in agricultural nitrogen loads to the Bay. Chickens outnumber people approximately 1,000 to 1 on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
- In the Shenandoah and Potomac watersheds, large-scale poultry operations produce more waste than hog, cattle, or dairy farms, and up to 150 percent more nutrient pollution than that generated by human waste in the same area. In addition, poultry waste creates four times more nitrogen and 24 times more phosphorus than hog waste in Virginia.
-Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Water Pollution Facts
The Daily Record news article stated that "raising chickens and processing them for sale is a billion-dollar business on the Shore."
However, according to an article in Science Direct addressing the benefits of water quality policies, "The monetized annual boating, fishing, and swimming benefits of water quality improvements in the Chesapeake Bay range from $357.9 million to $1.8 billion" And this is just an estimate of the direct value from water related recreation. It doesn't even take into account the value of commercial fishing or real estate.
Communist, commie, pinko, socialist. Did I enter a time warp? Is Sen. Joe McCarthy out there waving a list of communists in the Waterkeeper Alliance?
"The State Department is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department."
-Joseph McCarthy
I've been called a communist before, but that was during the 60's when I was working in opposition to the war in Vietnam. At that time many people advocated civil disobedience, disobeying the law using passive resistance to foster a change in the laws themselves.
Now I'm working to make sure that laws are enforced. Yes, you heard me correctly; laws are enforced. And I'm being called a commie again! How does that work?
In reciting the information from the Lee list cases, McCarthy consistently exaggerated, representing the hearsay of witnesses as facts and converting phrases such as "inclined towards Communism" to "a Communist."
-Joseph McCarthy, Wikipedia
Fortunately, the hyperbole, the bombast, the pure bullshit wears on people and, like the boy who cried wolf people just stop listening. I don't think the names carry the same weight they did in the cold war. Really. Maybe these guys should look into some new slurs. How about, "liberal?" Nah, that doesn't work. Sissy? Might work if we weren't already kicking their collective asses. Fag? Nope. How about "Environmentalist?" Yeah, that's the stuff. Boy, I really hope they don’t start using that one on me.
In the 1950 Maryland Senate election, McCarthy campaigned for John Marshall Butler in his race against four-term incumbent Millard Tydings, with whom McCarthy had been in conflict during the Tydings Committee hearings. In speeches supporting Butler, McCarthy accused Tydings of "protecting Communists" and "shielding traitors." McCarthy's staff was heavily involved in the campaign, and collaborated in the production of a campaign tabloid that contained a composite photograph doctored to make it appear that Tydings was in intimate conversation with Communist leader Earl Russell Browder. A Senate subcommittee later investigated this election and referred to it as "a despicable, back-street type of campaign," as well as recommending that the use of defamatory literature in a campaign be made grounds for expulsion from the Senate.
-Joseph McCarthy, Wikipedia
There was a time when Maryland could be proud of its legislators. I wonder if that time will ever come again.
Well, what can one expect from Rich Colburn? We all know which tree he is hugging.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised that any lending institution would consider lending money for poultry houses that don't earn a return on investment. Didn't we just get finished bailing banks out because of too many risky loans?
Our fine Senator Stoltzfus is disappointed that 30 poultry houses didn't get built. He shouldn't be disappointed it's a favor to the people who were going to borrow risky money and a favor to the taxpayers of MD who won't have to suffer through bailing out yet another failed bank.
One could say that besides Water Keepers making our government enforce the laws in place they have also saved some poor soul from making a bad investment.
Gee, we really need 30 more poultry houses built on the shore. What's wrong with the ones already in existence that are standing empty? Lord knows that there are enough of them and they are eye sores where they've been left to fall down to the ground.
Instead of utilizing what we have, our fine legislators are disappointed that we just don't spend more money. Isn't that how we got into this messed up economy that we're in now?
Recycle/Reuse is something they need to learn about!
Rich Coulburn and his social slurs about environmentalists shouldn't be tolerated. He should resign from public office. Maybe those whom he has socially slurred should demand his resignation. He is socially unacceptable.