Dems: Investigate Cheney for role in salmon die-off

[babylonsister]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003765692_salmon28m.html?syndication=rss

Dems: Investigate Cheney for role in salmon die-off

BRUCE ELY / AP

WASHINGTON — West Coast Democrats called for a hearing Wednesday into the role Vice President Dick Cheney may have played in the 2002 die-off of about 70,000 salmon near the California-Oregon border.

An article in The Washington Post on Wednesday said Cheney played a crucial role in developing a 10-year water plan for the Klamath River that courts later called arbitrary and in violation of the Endangered Species Act. Democrats charged that Cheney's action resulted in the largest adult salmon kill in the history of the West.

"The ramifications of that salmon kill are still being felt today as returns to the Klamath River are so low that commercial, sport and tribal fishing seasons have been curtailed for the past three years," Democrats said in a letter calling for the hearing.

Commercial fishing in California and Oregon was cut by more than 90 percent last year — the largest commercial-fishing closure in the history of the country — resulting in more than $60 million in damage to coastal economies, the letter said.

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., whose district includes the area where the fish died, said Democrats want to have a hearing in the House Natural Resources Committee.

"We know that science was manipulated and the law was violated," Thompson said. "Did in fact the vice president of the United States put pressure on midlevel bureaucrats to alter the science and circumvent the law in order to gain political votes for his re-election or the election of other people in Oregon?"

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[Double T]

1. EVERYTHING cheney comes in contact with ends up either dead..........

or destroyed. Will SOMEONE PLEASE IMPEACH this GIANT SOB NOW???

[TwilightGardener]

2. Why is Cheney regulating water flow? Can somebody explain to me

how this falls under the scope of his duties?

[babylonsister]

3. That, I think, is the point. Nothing was off limits to him, according to him. nt

[Double T]

4. Must be part of his absolute authority as vice dictator.

[acmavm]

5. Investigate that crooked SOB for everything, up to and including

the hangnail I got yesterday. He's responsible for it all. And we need to drill that home. Every single damn day.

[Kadie]

6. .

:kick:

[Lisa]

7. good grief! Is there nothing this man hasn't destroyed?

Cheney the salmon-murderer. We in the Pacific Northwest view this kind of thing very seriously. I've seen die-hard conservatives threatening careless folks who pour used motor oil, etc., into storm drains. In terms of the local culture and economy, it's tantamount to GM or Ford employees coming in to work, to find that someone's dropped a bunker-buster on the assembly line.