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Carly Fiorina vs. the Sainted Delta Smelt.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  June 9th, 2010 at 09:09 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Newly-chosen candidate Carly Fiorina (R CAND, CA-SEN) had a conference call today, and spoke somewhat about an issue of some interest to both myself and the California agricultural community: the delta smelt.

For those who are unaware: the delta smelt is, to quote Rep George Radanovich (R, CA-19), “a worthless little worm that needs to go the way of the dinosaur” – mostly because it’s a two-inch fish whose protection under the Endangered Species Act caused the government to turn off the water in the San Joaquin Valley.  That cost the state of California almost a billion dollars in lost revenue… and it turns out that the stupid fish aren’t even in (alleged) danger from agricultural needs; they’re in (alleged) danger from Sacramento sewage.

We will now pause while our Californian readers murmur, “Not surprised at all.”

So, Carly mentioned it in her opening remarks, I followed up on it, and Carly made it clear that she thinks that Barbara Boxer is still supportive of the Delta smelt because:

…the extreme environmentalists to whom [Boxer's] been beholden for some time have captured her theology; and that she truly believes, that at all costs, against all compassion and common sense, that fish are more important than families.

I have to say: this is my opinion of Boxer’s motivations, too – explicitly including the fact that it’s theological in nature.  Nice that we’re going to get this on the record.

Moe Lane

PS: Carly for California.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

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COMMENTS

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  • gekster

    First, think Free Willy.
    A large fish in an aquarium.
    See where I’m going?
    Take a bunch of the Delta Smelt and put them in an Aquarium.
    Feed, nuture, get them to breed,
    and when the water comes back,
    re-introdice them to thier native enviroment.
    So simple a Cave Man could do it.

  • JoeG

    Keep smacking babs.

  • earlgrey

    is really good.

  • earlgrey

    I may be wrong here, and I never liked her as the HP CEO or as part of the McCain campaign, but she strikes me as someone who can be very tough. I hope that is the case.

    The left has gotten where they are because the Right has refused to push back. I hope that changes, because if not now, than when.

  • http://www.dcworksforus.com Kenny Solomon

    Nudge.

    I’ll update it here instead of on my diary page Moe was so gracious to link, but this may not have anything to do with ‘Los Delta Funda’, but it does get a very salient point across about ‘teh gubmint’ way of thinking and operating………….

    A short recent article from the venerable Mike Taugher of The Contra Costa Times……

    http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_15261374

    EBMUD rates to rise again.

    Water and sewer bills for customers of the East Bay’s largest water utility will see their rates increase next month. The rate increases were approved a year ago by the East Bay Municipal Utility District’s board of directors and confirmed this week.

    The increases amount to 7.5 percent for water and 5 percent for sewer, or about $2.71 cents a month more for the average household water bill and about 72 cents a month for the average sewer bill. Customers bills rose last year at the same rate.

    The board this week also raised hookup fees for new construction. The slowdown in housing construction cut into hookup fee collections and drought-conscious customers used less water, resulting in a $28 million hit to the district’s revenues.

    — — — — — — —

    So, let me get this straight………

    A rate increase for this year (equal to the last one) was approved a year ago (right along with the last increase), but only confirmed into being within the past few days.

    Nice.

    Figures.

    Raise taxes/fees in a deep recession……. probably just because they can.

    But of course, they couldn’t leave that alone……… No no no. They had to pile on.

    In a totally destructive way of thinking, instead of embracing any new construction being considered, already planned and about to be permit-pending, these rocket surgeons on the board decide to up their new-build fee and quite possibly helping to drive out what new construction might be done there.

    All I can say is……. “Daaaaaah, you can’t outsmart them because they’re morons.

    === === === === === ===

    Thanks for the link, Moe. :)

  • redtillimdead

    She has the same personality trait that Boxer has- she can NOT let an attack go unanswered, and she doesn’t play to tie. She plays to win.

  • JoeG

    Babs isn’t the smartest gal around. Carly is far smarter. Carly is going to hit Boxer in ways that Boxer never saw coming.

  • snowshooze

    Would that be literal or figurative? ( Sorry, I couldn’t help myself on that one..)
    But the Smelt are a tough and hardy little fish, they are here in Alaska as well as all over the Northwest..at least. I have harvested them in Washington, Oregon and here, in Alaska.
    I believe even if we wiped them out, we could re-introduce them without any trouble.
    However, it would be far more difficult to re-introduce an entire agricultural community once it had been devastated, it may take 20 smelt generations in order to correct one generation of farmers… and their support industries.
    But a Politician can wipe them both out in less than 15 seconds.
    Great.

  • http://www.AmericanThinker.com Hammer2008

    So Babs Boxer wants to debate Carly across California. This community would be a great place to start. Betcha if Carly countered, Babs would say no.

  • proudgop

    Keep in mind Babs is a wicked woman and her ploy of a campaign will be to raise Fiorina’s negatives

    I am glad Carly is looking tough because Boxer is a pitbull and she has to be prepared for vicious attacks ready to be levied

    The good thing is she will have the money to hit back as soon as she is hit

  • taxpayer1234

    then Carly is the one to vote for.

    Let’s not forget that she acted like a paranoid empress when she was running HP.

  • SteveLA

    taxpayer1234….A sour grapes “true conservative” or just a moron troll….hard to tell.

    Focus on this, BABS BOXER is my Senator right now, I’d like to see her gone, don’t you?

  • gekster

    I’m just asking.

  • Cheryl

    that my water bill is increasing, dang!

    I’m convinced that the water restriction was never about a stupid fish, it was a means to shake down a couple of central valley congressmen who might not be thinking of voting for Obamacare.

    Chicago thug politics.

  • JoeG

    Get your story straight.

    Ann Dunn, a board member who was temporary board chair after the departure of Carly was responsible for the pretexting scandal.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    Get over it, or get on your way.

  • JoeG

    Patrica, not Ann

  • SteveLA

    JoeG

    Looks like your garden variety “Republicans in the mist” poster looking to make noise. After 8 days this moron is just spreading bovine excrement around to see what reaction it can get.

  • swanie

    throwing the first punch. Boxer is going to give her a couple punches and then Knock Her Out, and it will be a blood bath! FioRINO is trying to throw a few “issues” out but Boxer is going to trash FioRINOs failed tenure at HP, thousands of jobs shipped overseas…and if Carly’s campaign is lucky enough to pick up some momentum….she will deliver the final blow when Carly is indicted (I predict around Aug/Sept) for her HP-Iran scandal.

    Yes…Calif. picks another great one!!!

  • gekster
  • Tbone

    perhaps you can tell us just exactly what type of lunatic you are?

    I recognize that the stupidity is just an overlay for your lunacy.

  • SteveLA

    Well gee swanie

    Now that we have established by means of a primary that the people of California prefer Fiorina to run as the standard bearer for the Republican party over Chuck DeVore by a wide margin, your point is what?

    What point, other than you’re a one month wonder DeVore supporter that is a member of the Sour Grapes (SG) brigade perhaps? Or maybe you’d rather have BABS BOXER stay in the Senate….is that the moronic point you are making.

  • Bill S

    Don’t do that again. She’s the GOP nominee. She gets our support in the general. Using that term is contraindicated.

  • mbecker908

    you’ve never had employees.

  • IJB
  • clowngirl

    she’s compelling as well as businesslike in itemizing the disastrous costs then she hits Boxer where – for a liberal – it has to hurt : her appalling lack of compassion. Whenever the Democrats try and make Carly look heartless for laying off workers all she’ll have to do is remind folks that Barbara Boxer supported a policy that took livelihood of 50,000 families in one fell swoop.

    Calling Boxer out to come out and meet the people whose rights she trampled is exactly the right thing to do and it’s reminescent of how citizens wanted their cowardly Democratic Congressmen to come and meet the people whose healthcare they were about to ruin. She’s addressing, not just this issue, but the way Boxer -like most of her party – is obscenely out of touch with the needs of her state and the actual humans she’s supposed to represent.

    Her characterization of Boxer as hopelessly misguided and tragically obsessed with her own liberal “theology” is absolutely on target and it should be clear to anyone but the most brainwashed liberal who is the candidate with common sense and an understanding of situations and the needs of her State and which is the lunatic ideologue who needs to be retired.

    And she gives a substatial answer that’s also good for sound bites.

    A stellar answer in every way. If this is typical of candidate Fiorina’s reasoning and rhetoric she’ll win by a landslide.

  • taxpayer1234

    I was writing from memory about Fiorina’s stormy time at HP. I thought she had been the one behind the pretexting thing. Ooops!

    That said, I hope she does a better job as senator than she did as HP’s CEO. The company’s stock tanked over 50% while she was at the helm.

    But her reputation for taking no prisoners is the kind of attitude needed in DC, so perhaps she is the right one for the job.

    BTW, mbecker, I HAVE had employees. Many years of management experience, plus owning my own business, thank you very much.

  • redtillimdead

    I called some out b/c they were making fun of Carly Fiorina’s “lesbian” haircut and informed them of her cancer. This is one’s response: “ha ha! I am republican you f[*]ck! Kiss my black a[*]s you fagg[*]t. I only mean it figuratively. So don’t get Roy Ashburn on me.” (doubt he’s a Republican, not a very good person, has swastika in his avatar), “ou are the reason Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor and f[*]cked California over.”, “you’re from Louisiana? Drill baby Drill! Stupid hardcore right wing repressed homos talking sh[*]t about guns and god made BP.”
    Figured this was best thread to post this since its about Fiorina and how horrible liberals are.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    I knew I didn’t need to write about it because it was Moe’s question after all.

    It is a bit liberating now that the primary’s over and I can focus on crushing Boxer now. Liberating and exciting.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    No Profanity.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    Deal with it.

  • Marcus_Traianus

    It helps to learn about business cycles, balance sheets, M&A and to consider the situation which a chief executive steps into. But that requires thought.

    Despite the protestations of HP acolytes, Carly stepped into a situation where the stock was already starting to tank and the strategic outlook was terrible due to previous occupants trying to milk the same old business paradigm into perpetuity. That is mainly because prior management (and founders descendants trying to channel their ancestors thoughts and apply stale antecedents to current day challenges) never prepared for upstarts such as Dell who they dismissed and whom began to, and continued to eat HP’s lunch for most of Carly’s tenure due to the previous lack of vision.

    Frankly, it takes “balls”, so to speak, for a CEO to step into the aforementioned situation. Especially since Monday morning quarterbacks and nostalgic idiots with no business acumen seem to haunt you with non sequiter’s until your dying day.

    Carly’s acquisition of Compaq, financial management (look at their debt/cost situation in her tenure) and vision made the company what it is today. Even the ridiculous fight by insiders against objectives such as the EDS acquisition, which they killed during her tenure, were proven prescient moves since they were ultimately accomplished after she left.

    Oh, and look at their stock chart for a very simple visual. When Carly left in 05′ it was already on an upward projection which she set in motion. It hard to find any monumental event that contributed to that upward projection that didn’t have Carly’s fingerprints on it.

    Carly is EXACTLY the king of gutsy, smart, fiscally savy person this country needs tight now. So stop being stupid.

  • mbecker908

    Carly can be a better Senator than a CEO. The issue is whether or not we’d rather have Carly or Babs in the Senate.

  • ZootSuit

    She is “tough” and a fighter, no doubt. I’ll even add that — while I do not think she is a conservative — I think she is a good “vision” person: She knows what she wants and what she wants to do.

    The downside of her — in addition to the fact that she is a RINO — is that her day-to-day management and operational skills are severely lacking. She gets lost in some sort of strange esoterica that has very little or absolutely nothing with the task on hand. Her weird “killer sheep” campaign ad is an good example of that.

    I personally think she would still be CEO of Hewlett-Packard today if she would have accepted a COO like the HP Board suggested for the last couple of years of her tenure. Unfortunately, she demurred and not only the board but her immediate subordinates began to wonder what she was doing. I know many of her subordinates, including many women, who ultimately came to the point where they just could not stand to report to her.

    The thing about Carly Fiorina is that while she may know what she wants — and indeed, although I think she was wrong in refusing a COO and does lack the requisite day-to-day management skills, I will actually give Carly points for stubbornness in sticking by her conviction that she did not need a COO — her “weirdness” can get in the way of her communicating and inspiring others to understand and follow that goal. (Again, what was that “killer sheep” ad about any way?)

    Carly Fiorina will definitely give Barbara Boxer a good fight but my fear is that Carly’s “weirdness” will get in her way. But then again, we are talking about California: “weirdness” is probably an asset there.

  • Locked and Loaded
  • Locked and Loaded
  • securitymom
  • redtillimdead

    Copy and pasted what I was told

  • taxpayer1234

    at HP. ‘Kay.

  • taxpayer1234

    Carly would be better than Babs. But if Carly wins, the question of her capability as a Senator will be the critical one.

  • RepMom

    imposed drought I really appreciate Carly’s tenacity at keeping this issue at the front lines. Us “rural folk” are constantly under attack from the larger cities and government on so many levels it would make your head spin! It is not surprising to me (or anyone in the Central Valley that pays attention) that pumping water out of the Delta isn’t hurting the Smelt – and you won’t find too many farmers or workers around here that are more than willing to accept the consequences if they do go the way of the dinosaur! In California – political correctness is a religion – and environmentalism is it’s largest denomination – the brainwashing is so complete that it will be nearly impossible to turn it all back at this point!

    I was a DeVore supporter, but will be more than happy to vote for Carly (not just vote against Boxer) in fact – I need to get a few signs!

  • clowngirl
  • http://andrightlyso.com/ civil_truth

    It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you comment here. I think so long as you steer clear of the denizens of Arizona you’ll live long and prosper. :)

  • proudgop

    Rasmussen has poll just put

    48 Boxer
    43 Fiorina

    Fiorina better get some ads out quickly defining herself in positive light because that will be Boxer’s strategy.

    I have question for Californians where do Republicans have to do better to win the state or where do they have to start winning? Would you say the districts of Costa, Cardozza, McNerney, Lungren, and Bono are where the state where will determined?

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    As long as the US Government is negligent and lets illegal aliens with no loyalty to America flood into LA county, that area will swing elections in this state.

    It’s quislings like pro-amnesty Rudy Giuliani and their “sancutary” policies that help kill the GOP in California.

  • proudgop

    Where else do Republicans have to do better to win statewide to offset LA, Sacramento, and San Fran?

    Is San Diego still more Republican? Orange County?

    I need some GOP California 411 for me thanks

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    There are two population centers: The bay area and LA County.

    We need LA County since the Bay Area is hopelessly socialist.

  • RepMom

    The Bay Area and LA dictate for the state – and unfortunately as the libs leave the Bay Area they move here to the Central Valley and continue to vote for the destructive, bs policies that helped to turn their former cities into the cesspool that they are… Fiorina has her work cut out for her – there is no denying it.

    I don’t think the voters of CA (read LA and SF/Bay) will learn until the state is completely bankrupt – although the 85/15 result on Prop 13 made me feel a little better!