"We All Live In Richard Pombo's District"
Last fall, kid oakland wrote an essay on his blog and entitled it We All Live in Richard Pombo’s District. Well, that title has become a motto of sorts for the 2006 Congressional race between Richard Pombo and Jerry McNerney in CA-11. Last week, the Washington Times led their feature on Jerry McNerney with it:
DUBLIN, Calif. -- Jerry McNerney, one of dozens of Democrats aiming to unseat congressional Republicans this fall, tells voters: "We all live in Richard Pombo's district."Meanwhile, Richard Pombo has been attempting to create a campaign issue out of the fact that interested people from outside of his district are getting involved in the race. Pombo’s argument posits that a bunch of outsiders shouldn't be able to come in and tell the good people of CA-11 whom they should choose as their representative. But like so many of Pombo's pronouncements, this one is pure bullshit.
The slogan, emblazoned beneath a world map in his campaign headquarters, is an attempt to add significance to his race against Mr. Pombo, the chairman of the House Resources Committee.
You see, when Richard Pombo, by virtue of his power as chairman of the House Resources Committee, comes into our neighborhoods and starts telling us what should be done in our own backyards, he makes us his constituents as well.
So if you live in Washington or Colorado, where Pombo has single-handedly quashed locally popular wilderness bills, you live in Richard Pombo’s district.
If you’ve been to New York City, where Pombo refuses to designate the World Trade Center site as a National Memorial, you live in Richard Pombo’s district.
If you ever go to one of America’s coastal areas where Pombo is working to lift the offshore oil and gas drilling moratorium, you live in Richard Pombo’s district.
If you live near the Farallones Islands National Wildlife Refuge, which Pombo proposed opening to human depredation, you live in Richard Pombo’s district.
If you’ve ever been to the home of playwright Eugene O'Neill, which is a National Historical Site in Danville, California; the Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument in the Texas panhandle; the Fort Bowie National Historical Site in Bowie, Arizona; Frederick Law Olmsted’s home, which is a National Historical Site in Brookline, Massachusetts; the Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial in the Potomac, adjacent to downtown Washington, D.C.; the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House in Northwest Washington D.C.; the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site in South Dakota; the home of Revolutionary War hero Thaddeus Kosciuszko, which is a National Memorial in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the home of Declaration of Independence signer Thomas Stone, which is a National Historical Site in Charles County, Maryland — all National Park Service properties which Richard Pombo proposed selling — you live in Richard Pombo’s district.
If you’ve ever been blessed to visit Alaska’s Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve, Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Kobuk Valley National Park, Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, Noatak National Preserve, or Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, all of which Pombo proposed selling, you live in Richard Pombo’s district.
If you live in one of the western states where there are huge oil shale deposits that Pombo proposes opening up to strip mining, you live in Richard Pombo’s district.
The map below shows mining claims on federally-owned property in the western US that Richard Pombo attempted to sell off at $1,000/acre last fall. If you’ve ever fished, hunted, hiked, camped or participated in any other form of recreation in an area marked on this map, you live in Richard Pombo’s district.
You and I may not live within the physical boundaries of CA-11, but, indeed, we all DO live in Richard Pombo’s district. And while we may not be able to cast an actual vote on November 7 for Jerry McNerney, we can certainly vote with donations of our time and our money to take back OUR district from Richard Pombo.
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posted by babaloo @ 12:34 AM
11 Comments:
Excellent article. Consider cross posting it to DailyKos, perhaps Kossacks will respond by describing their little piece of Richard Pombo's district. For example, I live in New England, close to Acadia National Park. Close to Lowell Mills. Close to the Old North Church in Boston. I live in Richard Pombo's District, too.
i laugh at pombo's mouthpiecing everytime they try to use the "outside" interest arguement...expecially when Pombo recieves more outside money and fights for more crap that has nothing to do with the districts needs...
i feel sorry for pombo's wife.
Agnonymous? Don't worry about outside money and inside money just tie it all togeather with illegal and corrupt money. Pombo's mouthpiece gets the same money. As for Pombo's wife don't worry about her she gets what she wants, when she wants it. I wish some people would worry about my poor wife and our family, after I was brutalley attacked by Pombos people in 1983. Politics should not be that dirty.
I know I don't matter.
Tom Benigno
Mc Nerney for congress.
Hey johnmac--
Don't you live in Connecticut? Or are you flip-flopping back and forth between Maine, Mass and California? I live in Joe Lieberman's District. A True Harry Truman Democrat.
Yes, I live in Connecticut. I know it is far away from California, but it is legitimately New England. All those sites and more are in New England. But wherever it is, Maine, Massachusetts, California... it's all Pombo's district. That's my point.
And believe me, I'm in Lieberman country, it's scary sometimes. If I have my way, it'll become Lamont territory.
Johnmac--
I'm sorry you feel that way. I am proud to be part of the party of Woodrow Wilson, FDR and HST, all of whom recognized that at times, we must put up our dukes to defend our values. I would think that working in the correction system, you would have a developed understanding that there are actually sociopaths and others like child molestors who cannot be talked out of their predispositions towards violence upon others. But that's what makes us a great country...the exercise of our own abilities to see things differently.
Now I'm really confused. Sorry I feel what way? You mean when I said If I have my way, it'll become Lamont territory? By that I meant that I intend to try and have it my way by voting.
You seem to be defing Lieberman as a Democrat, contrary to the voice of the people by way of the primary. He used to be a Democrat, but not any more. I'm proud of my Democratic heritage as well, my Father was a Democrat, as are my brother and me.
And yes, I see sociopaths every day, but your comment makes me wonder who you are calling a sociopath? Lieberman? No, he is many things, many negative things, but he is not a sociopath. Here's what I learned working in a prison. Many prison inmates are salvageable, and will resume or even start productive lives upon their release.
It's a 'Republican' value to build more prisons and throw away the key. It's a 'Democratic' value to treat and program offenders in an effort to reduce recidivism.
End of rant, but it was you that brought the issue up.
johnmac--
I'm sorry to have confused you..I wasn't trying to. What I meant was that Lieberman appears to me to have the qualities I've appreciated in previous great Democrats...Wilson, FDR and Truman. Among these is the ability to differentiate between those who can be treated to rejoin society, and those who are unrepentant enemies of civilization. Those Democrats stood up when necessary and put up their dukes to defend our values. I'm not sure Mr. Lamont shares our values...he seems quite child-like in his approach to the challenges that confront us. But I could be wrong...you're much closer than I. Does your brother also intend to support Lamont, or is he a Lieberman man? And keep up the good work trying to reform criminals. I have personally known some reformed felons who are now contributing members of society, and just wished it worked with all of them.
This is the most importand congressinal race this election. Richard (Captain Clearcut) Pombo effects every district with his policys. I hope the McNerney people are campaining like hell for him. They must win, they must go from door to door and stand out in front of super markets and do everything in there power to get to the people that did'nt vote. This is a must win election.
Anon-
Right on, brother! Pombo represents The Man, excluding all others. We need to bring power back to the people, and take it back, if necessary. I live in Chicago, and I'm tired of him ripping up the wilderness where I like to vacation. So I live in Dirty Dick Pombo's district, too. Here in the midwest, we have the Great Lakes, and are afraid that Pombo may lead the charge to steal our water and pipe it out to California to his District. If he's chairman of the national resources committee, he can do that. Nothing against you folks from California, but we want to keep our fresh water. We've got a boatload of it and we intend to keep it. He is liable to try to take it. Thanks for listening
Scoopj sez: "What I meant was that Lieberman appears to me to have the qualities I've appreciated in previous great Democrats...Wilson, FDR and Truman. Among these is the ability to differentiate between those who can be treated to rejoin society, and those who are unrepentant enemies of civilization."
Yes, early on, Lieberman was a remarkable man. He marched with MLK, for example. But in recent years, he has sided with Bush and the right wingnuts. And not only about the war, about many other things. The voters, the constituency, pleaded with him to remember his roots, to please back up his party, his party's ideals. But he refused. And the Democratic voters, in turn, refused to back him. We hoped he could rejoin society, as you put it, but he didn't. THEN, THEN, he said, ok, I'll run as an Independent Democrat, whatever that means. But he was told he had lost the Democratic primary, he was not allowed to use that name.
I could go on about him, but I'm sure you could find it all out in other venues.
As far as Jerry supporting Lamont? I think you need to ask him about that. I doubt if he really knows more about Lamont and Lieberman than I've said here, but I could be wrong. In any event, he has other issues, closer to home, that he needs to worry about right now.
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