The salmon industry on the West Coast is dying. The Bush administration–and Karl Rove in particular, as this story from the Wall Street Journal shows–helped kill it.
For more on what happened and what is happening, including pictures and audio links, see this great story from Mother Jones a couple of months ago.
But what’s especially infuriating to fishermen, Democrats, and reporters is the administration’s tactic regarding this and many other environmental issues. They simply refuse to respond to any questions.
It’s called stonewalling.
The administration won’t even consider disaster relief for suffering fishermen, despite the pleas of many Congressman and the Republican governor of the nation’s most populous state.
"I am at a loss as to what further information you need so that our fishing-dependent communities can become eligible to receive disaster assistance," Governor Schwarzenneger said.
As The Oregonian said yesterday in an editorial:
The West Coast salmon fishing industry is nearly dead in the water, and everybody can see it’s going to hit the rocks. But so far, the Bush administration is unwilling to lift a finger to help.
Kit Stolz 