Jeff Takada, Central California, 11th Congressional District

Events

We Need Water: The County of San Joaquin Burns

Monday January 25, 2010, 10:44 pm

The water situation in California’s Central Valley is becoming increasingly serious.  We in San Joaquin County are simply one flood, one earthquake, one more big drought away from a major shift in the economy and livelihood of this vital breadbasket.

The Delta water recedes (or is less useable) due to several reasons:

• A serious, multi-year drought in the region.
• A more serious drought in the south of the valley, where unsustainable agricultural practices soak up water like a sponge.
• Urban and suburban sprawl in the south of the state and here at home.

This has led to a bevy of problems for the state, including:

• A plummeting water table under Stockton and eastern San Joaquin County.  This has permanent consequences for agriculture and sustainable housing in the area.
• Increasing salinity which means species and habitat degradation, more reliance on expensive out-of-the-area water, permanent damage to aquifers and soil, and increasing energy costs as desalinization becomes standard for groundwater use.
• Increasing pressure from southern California to renegotiate by mediation or judicial or legislative fiat the senior and historic water rights that give precedence to area of origin and flow.
• The destruction of multi-million dollar river and San Francisco Bay fisheries, including the formerly lucrative Bay herring fishery that has closed.

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is the heart pumping blood to the extremities of the state.  Almost two-thirds of Californians are reliant on water that comes through the Delta.  Already, bureaucratic gridlock and environmental wrangling have prevented critical storage projects, aquifer recharging initiatives, and conjunctive use proposals from seeing the light of day.  While this fiddling proceeds, the County of San Joaquin burns.  We watch our water flow unused to San Francisco Bay or scoot past us down the California Water Project conveyances while our vines wither and our groundwater reaches the terminal pool.

It is as though the team of doctors operating on this patient from Sacramento and Washington, D.C. have determined that the hands and feet are in more critical need of blood than the heart.  But I can tell you that when the heart stops beating – the aquifers merge and harden, the ecosystems collapse, and agribusiness uproots and leaves – we will find a withered corpse of an economy too mummified to revive.

Without the political will and the voice of the united people, we know that this will happen.  Look at Owens Valley.  Look at large swaths of Montana.  Look at the dustbowls of Depression Era America.  Jared Diamond tells us in his book “Collapse” that human civilizations will invariably and inexorably consume their resources until the society itself is no longer sustainable.  We here in San Joaquin County know this and are feeling the clammy hand of insatiable southern water interests clasping at the very beating heart of our livelihood and economy.

Water is not a sexy or profound topic, but it is essential – as essential as the air we breathe.  Americans cannot secure the blessings of liberty our forefathers fought for if we do not have the basic elements necessary for survival.

It is for this reason that water and the protection of the vital Delta region is central to my campaign to represent the 11^th District.  We cannot win this fight if we bicker over the “greens” or the “evil businessmen.”  Both ideologues want water to flow into the Delta.  Only after we secure that, should we feel comfortable enough to fall back into the old “Green vs. Mean” argument.  If we allow ourselves to be divided, as some running for the same office as me have suggested, we will lose.  All of us will lose.

Please follow my campaign and the principled fight for water that I have launched.

Today Scott Brown – Next up: CD-11

Tuesday January 19, 2010, 10:11 pm

I’m looking at the results coming in from the Senate race in Mass. and WOW!  Scott Brown has done what no commentator thought possible a few months ago.  This is almost like the Red Sox winning the Series – now Bostonians and Republicans can celebrate together; not just a stunning upset and victory, but the first steps on a long road to freeing our country from the self-important, encrusted politicos who view the public vote as a plaything and not the lion’s roar of a sovereign people.

The motto of my dark horse candidacy to beat liberal Democrat Jerry McNerney in Congressional District 11 is `Take back the Hill.`  It’s a war cry and a call to action and the people of one of the most left-leaning states in the Union just joined the chorus.

Wouldn’t it be great if we here in CD-11 could be part of the army of conservative, Constitution-grounded voters reclaiming their party and Capitol Hill for limited government, sound money, and individual liberty?  I think that’s a possibility.  Republican Chairman Steele said it won’t be possible, but I feel that the frustration, tension and disappointment in government as usual has reached a boiling point.

Massachusetts tonight was the shot heard round the world.  Let`s make CD-11, the hottest Congressional race in California, the Gettysburg, the Midway, the D-Day – the turning point – of the encroaching leftist tide.  Let`s take back the Hill!

Follow the race at www.takada2010.com and help us win this fight against hand-picked establishment politicos and their Democratic counterparts – contribute $17.76 on a one time or monthly basis and let us know how you`d like to volunteer.

In Liberty – Jeff Takada

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