I came over here today because I was PO'd at Harry Reid. I wanted to make another of my infrequent posts. But, before I did, I stopped on the front page and read through recent posts / comments.
Because my intent was to point out that Reid is all astroturf, I particularly noted the post Blue in NC by Anglico. It struck a chord. I clicked "Recommend."
My problem with Reid is that he is opposing the update to the Mining Law of 1872. It passed in the House by a vote of 244-166 with most of the 166 votes from the Republican side of the aisle.
I spent a lot of time and effort fighting Richard Pombo. Part of the fight was over the effort by Pombo and then Representative (now Nevada Governor) Jim Gibbons to sneak through an update to this law that would have been disastrous for the west's economy, for the environment, for any idea other than all rampant development is good. Most of my comments on the Mining Law were in PomboWatch, a blog that I have mothballed.
Thankfully, we beat back that threat then. This year, as reported today by Erica Weber (to whose coverage of Pombo and Dept. of the Interior we owe a lot) we find that Harry Reid is going to bottle this up until he, and all of his mining friends, get their way. Such abuse of power looks a lot like the way that D. Hastert ran the House of Representatives.
I was never a Democrat, so there is nothing for me to do to leave the party. I have, however, sided with the Democrats on a lot of issues, especially those on the environment, and have worked my ass off to elect Democrats in my district. It just makes me sad to see an astroturf environmentalist like Reid holding a leadership position.
I will continue to work on these issues and I don't care, be it Pombo or Reid, I will continue to call them out when they are heading in the wrong direction. In this case, Reid clearly is doing just that. He should be listening to Nick Rahall, Chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources.
"This is a pirate story with the public lands profiteers robbing the American people blind," said Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va. "The robbery of American gold and silver must stop."