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Monday, April 28, 2008
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Toledo Blade: "Nobody doubts that Vern Ehlers, who represents the Grand Rapids area in Congress, is a conservative. He is a pillar of the Christian Reformed Church and a stalwart Republican; at 74, he shares a birthday with one of his political heroes, Ronald Reagan. But he is also genuinely worried about the Great Lakes, and the water supply generally, which is why he is the major co-sponsor of the Clean Water Restoration Act of 2007."
More from the article:
"Conservatives ought to remember their legacy of conservation, and that to be conservative means to conserve what is good," he said in an interview. "We are the party of Teddy Roosevelt, who started the modern conservation movement. But unfortunately, some vocal members of our party tend to forget that." Mr. Ehlers came to Washington in a special election just a few months before Newt Gingrich's "Contract With America" warriors took control of Congress in 1994. He is often identified with that generation of Republicans, especially since Mr. Gingrich named him to his transition team. But Vernon Ehlers is unlike most of his colleagues in a couple ways. For one thing, he is a scientist. He has a PhD in physics, and was a professor before seeking a seat in the Michigan legislature in 1982. Perhaps because of this, he normally insists on solid research before backing legislation. He also is far more open to compromise than many of his colleagues. Yet he doesn't think there is any room to compromise on protecting our drinking water. Unfortunately, as he sees it, the U.S. Supreme Court helped make a mess of things two years ago. Back in a more environmentally friendly era, Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972, which was meant to do just that - keep the nation's water clean. Then, in 2006, John Rapanos, a Michigan developer from Midland sued because he had been barred from developing wetlands. Their decision threw everything into confusion.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for a 5-4 majority, ruled that isolated wetlands and ponds and remote tiny streams were protected only if a "significant nexus" could be shown connecting them to a navigable body of water downstream. This has been a disaster, environmentalists contend. More than half the nation's duck population may be threatened. They spend summers in an area called the "Prairie Pothole," that stretches from Minnesota to Montana, and winter in a series of lakes in the Texas Panhandle. None of their waters are protected any longer...
All water needs to be protected, he says, "because all water flows downstream." He has talked to colleagues who were around when the original Clean Water Act was passed, and he knows that protecting all America's waters was what was intended. So he has co-sponsored, with U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat, a Clean Water Restoration Act. It would clear up the confusion by substituting for "navigable waters" the words "waters of the United States." In case that phrase is insufficiently clear, the sponsors define the protected area as "all waters subject to the ebb and flow of the tide, the territorial seas, and all interstate and intrastate waters and their tributaries, including lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams) mudflats, sandflats, wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, natural ponds, and all ... activities affecting these waters." The act has run into some tough sledding; it is opposed by both ultraconservatives, who tend to oppose regulation of anything, and some sportsmen. Nor is it clear whether President Bush would sign the Clean Water Restoration Act, even if it made it through both houses of Congress this session, as now seems unlikely.
"2008 pres"
4:50:45 PM 
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Political Wire: "A new SurveyUSA poll in Indiana finds Sen. Hillary Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama, 52% to 43%, essentially unchanged since the beginning of the month."
Political Wire: "According to the latest Public Policy Polling survey in North Carolina, Sen. Hillary Clinton has cut Sen. Barack Obama's North Carolina lead in half. Obama still has a solid 51% to 39% advantage over Clinton, but his lead had ranged from 18 to 25 points in the pollster's previous five releases."
Political Wire: "A new American Research Group poll in North Carolina shows sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. Hillary Clinton, 52% to 42%. These results are unchanged from the previous survey."
"2008 pres"
4:16:43 PM
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Water for the Ages: "Less than half of Iraq's population of 29 million people have access to clean, drinkable water. And, according to a recent report by Oxfam, the number of civilians in Iraq without water has risen from 50 percent to 70 percent during 2003 to 2007."
"2008 pres"
8:42:10 AM
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Andrew Sullivan: "The manner in which free societies lose their moral compass is always incremental. Step by step by step, certain core values are whittled away. There is rarely a moment at which a government stands up, and asks its people if they wish to abandon such 'quaint' notions as the Geneva Conventions, the rule of law, humane interrogation or habeas corpus. These things are abandoned incrementally or secretly, slice by slice, euphemism by euphemism, the chronology always clearer in retrospect than at the time. And each incremental step is always portrayed as a small but essential temporary sacrifice for the sake of security in a time of great and imminent peril."
"2008 pres"
8:29:30 AM
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Political Wire: "The Washington Post notes that the past seven states to hold primaries 'registered more than 1 million new Democratic voters; Republican numbers mainly ebbed or stagnated. North Carolina and Indiana, which will hold their presidential primaries on May 6, are reporting a swell of new Democrats that triples the surge in registrations before the 2004 primary.'"
"2008 pres"
8:24:03 AM
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Political Wire: "After his most difficult month of the presidential campaign, Sen. Barack Obama's double-digit lead over Sen. Hillary Clinton has dropped to 7 points, 48% to 41%, in the latest Newsweek Poll. Just a week ago, Obama led Clinton by 19 points."
"2008 pres"
7:52:05 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 2:22:16 PM.
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