I don't generally get too political on this blog, but sometimes the absurdity just slaps you smack in the face. And here's a perfect example: A Republican-controlled Colorado state legislative committee has killed a proposed conservation vehicle license plate because the money raised from the sale of the plate would go to aid and abet that radical socialist environmental tree-hugging long-haired granola-crunching hippie extremist threat to free market capitalism group known as...Trout Unlimited?
From the AP...
A special Colorado license plate saying "Protect Our Rivers" has been rejected by a Republican House committee because the tag would raise money for Trout Unlimited. Trout Unlimited is a conservation group that sometimes clashes with development interests over water habitat. The House Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources Committee voted 6-5 Monday against the "Protect Our Rivers" tag. Trout Unlimited agreed that money from the $25 additional tag fees would be banned from going for lobbying or litigation. But members of the Republican-controlled committee feared that despite the limit, tag fundraising would allow Trout Unlimited to spend more on those activities. Trout Unlimited said it had hoped to raise $75,000 over three years with the tag, which would have showed a blue stream cutting through snow-capped mountains.
A license plate showing a blue stream cutting through snow-capped mountains and with the words "protect our rivers" on it. I don't know about you, but that sounds like an obvious piece of anti-business propoganda to me. I shudder to think what horrible things may have happened had the proposal passed, what cherished corporate freedoms may have been lost had those six deep-thinking defenders of liberty not sent it down in flames. Thank gawd we can sleep easier at night knowing we have elected officials like this looking out for our (our?) best interests...
Now that is something I'd expect from say, Oklahoma, where political and corporate corruption and the routine usurping of justice and due process for the benefit and profit of vested interests are expected. But... Colorado? Rocky Mountain High and all that? Hippies and mountain bikes? The Peoples Republic of Boulderstan?
Damn, Colorado was on my short list of places for relocation and opening of my book/bullet/bottle store. Now where am I gonna go?
Good grief.
ReplyDeleteA great post! Sarcasm is always a big hit with me. I'm not sure how Arlo Guthrie's song went (Alice's Restaurant) but it had to do with three is a movement. You got two now, maybe we can get another and we got ourselves a movement!
ReplyDeleteI hope TU fights back, topless mountains are really not very pretty.
Politics at its best. At least TU is getting a ton of publicity from this. That's gotta be worth something.
ReplyDeleteFunny, there are so many "legislators are idiots" stories going around now.
ReplyDeleteIn Cali, one wants to ban possession of shark fin or preparation of shark fin soup, even if the shark is legally obtained, not finned and cast back in the water to its death.
In Minnesota, my former representative in St. Paul trashed a colleague of mine who became communications director for the DNR because he's a hunter. She's and environmentalist who doesn't get what hunters do for the environment.
So, yeah, more stupidity? Tis the season!
You can scratch AZ off your list too; our state govt has lost any shred of sanity it had left.
ReplyDeleteFreakin' commie hippie...
ReplyDeleteNow, check out my new job:
http://yubariver.org/meet-the-staff/
Timewasters
ReplyDelete...Eastern Montana...the Big Horn and endless upland/waterfowl hunting.
ReplyDeleteYou can rule out MT. House Bill 309 has passed the house and moves onto the senate seeking to limit public access to high water mark (first step toward claiming ownership of the streambed) to serve the royalty influx of McRanchers buying up land in a state they don't even call home.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what would happen to their precious property value if the faucet were turned off? Free flowing water resulting from snow melt belongs to ALL of us!
The Colorado bill will go a long way to limit resources necessary to fight the insatiable appetite for Front Range lawn watering resources. It is widely speculated that the politicians in this instance didn't want to facilitate a mechanism for TU to enrich their war chest to fight the avalanche of new proposals that would dramatically draw water from summit county.
Colorado is the New Jersey of the Rocky Mountains.
ReplyDelete