So, you don't like Fisheries, eh? How about a Finance Hearing?

[TayTay]

The Administration’s Trade Agenda for 2006

February 16, 2006 at 10:30 a.m. in 215 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Member Statements:
Charles Grassley, IA
Max Baucus, MT

http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/hearing021406.htm

Panel

Ambassador Rob Portman, United States Trade Representative, Washington, DC


**************

There, how's that. A nice juicy trade hearing. This is for all those people who just can't do the Ocean and Fisheries hearings. (You know, Sen. Kerry comes from The Bay State. Geez, that implies water and when you get water, you sometimes get fish. Deal with it.)

Anyway, this is probably another chance for the Bush Admin to tell us how we need to eliminate all Trade Regulations so that China and India can have all our jobs. Having a job just messes up your whole day anyway and prevents you from going to the beach a lot in the summer. Enjoy!

[second edition]

1. Yeah, this does sound a bit more interesting.

Do you have any idea what may be discussed at the Ocean and Fisheries hearings? Pollutants? Mercury levels in the fish? Waterway traffic? You know, you just don't hear much of anything about Ocean and Fisheries hearings.

[TayTay]

2. Thanks! I knew there was one out there.

NOAA is the agency that also tracks the weather service. (The same National Weather Service that the Bush Admin has said can't talk with reporters about any forecasts without checking with KKKarl and his boys first. Sigh!) This is the National Weather Service that the reigning idiot from PA, Santorum, wants to privitize because his contributers at The Weather Channel and weather.com don't like the competition and want everyone to pay for weather information.

Hey, that would have helped in the build up to Katrina.

I'm sorry Mr. President, we forgot to re-subscribe to weather.com, so we couldn't get any forecasts about the storm.
Whaaat? What about the National Weather Service from NOAA?
Ah, sir, you privitized them and they had an insider's trading scandal and went belly-up and now, we, ah, don't have a weather service. Sorry.

Sigh. Plus we get to see the Admin lie again today about how much they are doing to protect the oceans and secure the fishing stocks. In other words, there will be budget cuts in order to get more money for the military and to prepare to invade Iran. This kind of sucks, I think.

http://www.noaa.gov/ Home of some good stuff. :loveya: (Okay, I have been outed. I like fisheries. Deal with it.)

[MH1]

3. They probably also talk about things like catch limits.

Catch limits are a big deal because as fish populations become overfished, there is economic impact as well as environmental impact...some fish may even become extinct.

The problem of overfishing is a practical example of Garret Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons" and a rebuttal to the theory of objectivism. Objectivism (as popularized by Ayn Rand) posits that society does best by letting individuals pursue to a maximum degree their own "enlightened self-interest" (never mind what the heck is meant by "enlightened" in a society that scoffs at intellectualism). Of course the real result of objectivism is that everyone is out to get theirs while they still can, and not worry about screwing it up for those who come later. (People who position themselves well, make lots of money off of scarcity of a highly demanded natural resource - potentially so much that once it runs out, it doesn't matter to them because their hoard of cash will protect them).

The other problem you have with fisheries is that some are not controlled solely by the U.S. So you have the international agreement aspect.

These hearings are an example of the "grunt work" that really matters. As I'm finding in my local area, lots of people want to get involved in whatever's grabbing headlines - like "election fraud" - but as soon as you start talking about doing some real work on it besides just grousing, everyone suddenly has other stuff to do. You start talking about spending hours poring over documents to figure out what is really going on with the issue, and eyes glaze over. Sigh. Here is one more reason I love John Kerry! Someone who doesn't just talk about the problem, but rolls up his sleeves and gets to work - even if that means sitting through boring hearings with speakers who are often more interested in obfuscation than enlightenment.

So, Tay, yes I'm interested, even if I don't post about it often - and I appreciate your fortitude in sitting through these when you can!

[TayTay]

4. I knew you were.

Actually Sens. Kerry & Kennedy were written up in some Western States papers as being wrong on the catch limits. These Sens wanted to help out the local fishing fleets with expanding the amount that a boat can go out and get. There is some disagreement about what the fishing stock actually is and if it is being depleted or holding steady. Kerry & Kennedy went with helping out the local industry and pushed to have the fishing catch limites slightly expanded.

The western papers claims that the actual stock is much lower than reported and is not coming back. They fear that the limits that Kerry & Kennedy want will permanently damage the stocks and give an unfair advantage to east vs. west coast fisheries. Sigh!

http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2003/10/26/a_once_great_industry_on_the_brink/

It's like this.