Special note for all you folks coming here searching "Turducken" (or some variant thereof): Go. Here. Now. Happy Thanksgiving!!
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Friday night out with friends the conversation turned to Governor Perdue's very scheduled, very press-covered, very public, "non-denominational" prayer for rain, when Best Friend's Husband stated the obvious, "You can be sure he checked the forecast before he scheduled it." Well, of course he did. Not doing so would make him a complete dumbass, but public political prayer is a slippery slope because it's only one step through logic from not wanting the governor to be a dumbass no matter how much one might dislike him (since he's, well, The Governor) to the realization that either he's a dumbass or a pandering cynic, pimping his faith for his own political gain, checking The Weather Channel before putting on his little show.
One thing about which there is no confusion in this little water crisis of ours, is who is in charge, who gets to decide. Sonny Perdue doesn't get to decide. The Governors of Florida and Alabama, angling for their share of the water allowed to flow downstream from Lake Lanier, the recreational wonderland north of Atlanta that also provides this rapidly-growing city with drinking water, aren't in charge. Atlanta's Mayor, Shirley Franklin, has no place in the discussion at all. The important decisions about who gets how much of this water and when they get it are made in Washington by the Federal Government, specifically the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the entity that designed, built and maintains this man-made reservoir and the Buford Dam that controls it. No one questions any of this: that all Sonny can do is pray, that any suits filed should be against the Corps, that to seek consensus, the States must appeal to the Federal Government. The CNN headline says it all: Feds OK drought deal letting Georgia keep more water, and from the Associated Press (emphasis mine):
WASHINGTON - Under a plan brokered by the Bush administration, the Army Corps of Engineers would hold back more water in Georgia lakes as the governors of drought-stricken Georgia, Florida and Alabama work toward a water-sharing agreement.
The proposal - which would bolster Atlanta's drinking supply at the expense of users downstream - was announced Thursday after the governors of the three states met with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and other administration officials.
It still must win approval from the federal Fish and Wildlife Service because of the potential impact on several protected species of mussels and sturgeon that live downstream. Officials said the agency would issue an expedited biological opinion on the change within two weeks.
This guy made a video about it:
So, why do so many people think it's New Orleans' fault that the levees broke?
What's the difference?
Peace, out, y'all.
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