Monday, February 08, 2010

Grinding to a Halt

That’s what will happen with this summit.

The focus of Monday’s White House Asian carp summit is to stop the giant, ecosystem-ravaging fish from slipping in the Great Lakes’ back door - the Chicago canal system that links the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico.

But the governors who called for the summit don’t just want to talk about carp; they want the Obama administration to tackle the larger issue of invasive species in the Great Lakes, which have become an ecological stew teeming with at least 185 foreign organisms.

Originally it was intended to discuss a specific issue.  The whole summit was a bit farcical and for show, but at least it would draw lines on that issue.  Now they want it to be a wide-ranging discussion that must cover dozens - if not hundreds - of issues.  What does that mean?  The original reason for the summit - whether or not to close Chicago’s canal in order to stop the Asian Carp from entering Lake Michigan - will be lost in the shuffle or become a bargaining item for one of the other issues on the table. 

Three to one odds that absolutely nothing substantial happens to stop the carp.

(6) Comments
Posted by Owen at 0705 hrs
Politics + Politics - General

  1. And this suprises you how? This is how govt works. Cause a problem and then obfuscate it long enough and as expensively as possible and then claim that by doing nothing you are doing well. Then as a jab in the back, claim that the conservative, the individual that actually wants to protect the ecosystem for use like hunting and fishing is the bad guy/gal because look how much the program costs.

    Posted by fishaddict on February 08, 2010 at 0924 hrs


  2. What I cannot figure out is after all these years…...

    Is this how the Great Lakes Comact works or was supposed to work?? 

    Or was that whole dance just some feel-good, lets see the other guys playbook, make some process look like progress, kinda thing that has no real life application?

    Some times the left enviros want us to think that discussion equals action.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 08, 2010 at 1054 hrs


  3. So basically it’s like a Tea Party gathering, or an antiwar protest.  Everyone looks to get his/her pet cause heard and by the end it’s all just a bunch of unfocused noisemaking.

    Posted by Recess Supervisor on February 08, 2010 at 1421 hrs


  4. Senator Brown had the supprt of the Tea Party movement.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 08, 2010 at 1557 hrs


  5. Sorry, I think you are wrong on this one. Two things will come out of it: (1) whom to tax, and (2) whom to blame.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 08, 2010 at 1711 hrs


  6. RS clearly has not attended a TEA Party.  That’s ok.  We’d rather you didn’t know what we were doing.

    Asian carp?  Pols don’t care.  Blazing Saddles: “We have to keep our phoney-baloney jobs!  Harumph, harumph!”

    Posted by Steve on February 08, 2010 at 2120 hrs


Commenting is not available in this channel entry.