Marti Oakley (c)copyright 2010 All rights Reserved

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“And as always, unless they act right now!  Right away!  And just shove through another piece of crap bill, why….we could all be in danger!  They couldn’t be expected to keep us safe or protect us without it! People could suffer and die if we don’t pass this bill!”

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Way back in 2007, Jim Oberstar (D) MN, submitted his bill H.R. 2421 The Clean Water Restoration Act.  Now should you think this bill had anything remotely concerned with clean water in it, you would be mistaken. However, this bill did pass the House. The companion senate bill S, 1870 sponsored by Russ Feingold (D) WI, died in the Senate. 

Oberstars bill targeted the term “navigable waterways” and replaced each and every instance of that term with the term “waters of the United States” contained in the   “Federal Water Pollution Control Act” of 1972.  “Waters of the United States” would of course include water from any source whatsoever, occurring any place at any time. This one phrase would be so loosely interpreted that no boundaries on federal encroachment could apply. 

Oberstars admitted intention was to overturn two previous Court rulings from 2001 when  the Supreme Court issued the first of the two saying that the Clean Water Act’s use of “navigable” limits the government’s oversight to major rivers, lakes and similar waterways. 

Because of this, Mr. Oberstar was and is determined to strike the word “navigable” from any law which would limit the Federal government in this land and water grab. Limits on the Federal government?  We can’t have that!

Oberstar’s statement quoted in the Washington Times says:

“Clean, safe water is a right for all Americans. Unless we act, the law can’t ensure that right. Because of the Supreme Court decisions, companies have spilled oil, carcinogens and bacteria into the lakes, rivers and other waters without being fined or prosecuted.”

Oberstar seems to have conveniently forgotten, (or maybe never knew to begin with) that copious amounts of EPA, US Fish & Wildlife, Army Corps of Engineers and host of other privately owned corporate federal agencies had laws, regulations, codes, statutes, special provisions and basically carte blanche to prevent and/or regulate any of the scenarios presented in his statement. They chose not to utilize any of them except when convenient to do so.

Why is it that we have literally thousands of laws on the books regarding everything from hair loss to cow farts, but for some reason none of these laws will ensure that our water is clean and safe…so we need a newer bigger, more expansive law that strikes down our rights to property, water and land, and gives the federal government ever greater control over what was never intended to be in their power?  And as always, unless they act right now!  Right away!  And just shove through another piece of crap bill, why….we could all be in danger!  They couldn’t be expected to keep us safe or protect us without it! People could suffer and die if we don’t pass this bill!

Reading through the volumes of codes & statutes, EPA regulations and the regulations and empowerment of so many regulatory agencies can only leave a person wondering what could possibly be in these bills not already covered in the hundreds of thousands of codes, regulations and spurious laws.

The Washington Times article goes on to quote Rep. Doc Hastings: 

“If this bill were to become law, there’d be no body of water in America that wouldn’t be at risk of job-killing federal regulation – from farmers’ irrigation canals to backyard ponds and streams to mud puddles left by rainstorms,” said Rep. Doc Hastings of Washington, the ranking Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee.

Why is it that every rights robbing, federal encroachment, “we are only doing this to protect you” bill comes at the expense of our Constitutional rights and protections and further reduces us to nothing but sharecropper status and forces us to pay the governments on state or federal levels for the right to simply exist? 

In the interim, there have been so many bills submitted regarding the control of all waters, from any source whatsoever in continental United States, that it would be pointless to list them all here.  What we need to be concerned about now are the current bills: H.R.3534 The CLEAR Act and HR 5503 The SPILL Act, both bills predicated upon the recent BP Oil gusher in the Gulf.  As always, legislation was brought forward immediately, already planned and written, and promoted by congressional snake oil salesmen as the only way they can “keep us safe and protect us” from having this ever happen again.  Just gives you the warm fuzzies thinking about it, doesn’t it? 

As water and the rights to it come to the forefront of the global economy Washington DC insiders love so much we see the ever increasing attempts to seize water ownership. The theft of water ownership and rights has been an ongoing battle and one that comes as the Federal government has, over many years, attempted to seize water from all sources whatsoever, claiming it as owned and controlled by the government.  The excuses are all the same, the sales pitch the same ones used time after time to sell one piece of unconstitutional legislation after another.  This latest assault comes on the heels of the Gulf disaster and is being used to seize all mining permits, gas and oil drilling permits, and the revenues and royalties associated with those activities, from the states. The rationale here is that unless they seize all this activity from the states the government can’t assure us it won’t happen again. 

Behind all these efforts are the private corporations poised to avail themselves of government contracts for the sale and control of water while the Fed avails itself of much needed revenue stolen from the states, resulting from the theft the “waters of America” and the natural resources of the states.

We have had multiple laws and the expansions of the Environmental Agency, expansions of the Army Corps of Engineers, expansions of US Fish and Wildlife and multiple other US agencies who have done virtually nothing but wage war against the states as they attempted to interfere in state’s business, and to institute the Federal government as the controller and/or owner of lands and resources inside the geographical boundaries of the states. 

None of these bills are remotely concerned with clean water or our rights to it.  If they had been, the first order of business would have been to dismantle and end the ubiquitous Bureau of Land Management that has facilitated the destruction of land, and the contamination of the water resources in the Western States. 

I find it not at all coincidental that in each and every instance of loss of rights or property, or loss of state sovereignty we hear this same thing:

“It’s the only way we can keep America safe”. 

We have heard this same statement each and every time whether it was the Patriot acts; The fake Food Safety bills; the multitude of Executive Orders bypassing Congress altogether, and now the water bills.  But who is actually going to keep us safe from a Congress that neither writes its own legislation or doesn’t read what is written but who then votes on it.  We can’t even trust these people to do their jobs, and yet they are allowed to vote on passage of laws?

After years of  printing off and reading legislation, then backtracking the massive numbers of changes to code & Statute, the redefinition of terms, the twisting and contorting of Constitutional powers in order to force the new law into the Constitution to make it look legitimate, I can come to no other conclusion than this:

There is no way any one of our congressmen or senators authored one word of any of these bills and most likely have no real idea what is in them.  

  • First: They are far too lazy to go to this much effort. 
  • Second:  There is too much corporate pandering and accommodation written into the bills by the specific industries affected, and
  • Third: The bills are never really about the stated subject and always include that hated phrase: “and for other purposes”, a big red flag that everything under the sun was attached to the bill and slid in under sweetheart backroom deals.   

In my opinion, the only way we will ever make or keep America “safe” is to dispense with Congress.  On any given day this collection of corporate puppets, globalist cheerleaders, and benefiters of lobbyist largesse, represents the greatest threat to our sovereignty as a nation and our viability as sovereign states. 

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Oberstar comments in the Washington Times April 2010

Supreme Court Rulings

 “Federal Water Pollution Control Act” of 1972 summary

Clean Water Restoration Act”/Another federal land grab

Water Restoration Act is anything But…

33 U.S.C. § 1252 : US Code – Section 1252: Comprehensive programs for water pollution control

33 USC 1254 – Sec. 1254. Research, investigations, training, and information

US Code – Title 33: Navigation and Navigable Waters

2010: Jim Oberstar (D)MN Comes back in the 111th congress with another assault on water rights. (A bill intended to overturn two Supreme Court Decisions expressing the view of the court that the Federal Government was overstepping its authority)  America’s Commitment to Clean Water Act’. This bill is still in the Senate:

2007: Jim Oberstar (D) MN Clean Water Restoration Act

S. 1870 Clean Water Restoration Act, sponsored by Russ Feingold (D) WI (bill died at the end of 110th Congress)