Yosemite is a national treasure filled with pristine water and deer ticks. Back in the 1920s San Francisco waged a water war and won.
What was lost 80 years ago? A glacially carved, granite-ringed valley of towering rock and waterfalls in Yosemite National Park .
San Francisco drains the Hetch Hetchy water for a paltry $30,000 a year. The rent was set by Congress under the Raker Act in 1913. The dark deal went through despite opposition by 200 newspapers across the country and dire warnings by John Muir the naturalist.
Last November Obama was reelected and voters in San Francisco defeated a measure that would have begun a process to restore the Yosemite Valley.
"The opposition to removal is akin to the famous expressions many years ago about relinquishing the Panama Canal: `We stole it fair and square and we should keep it!' - Don Hodel former Interior Secretary cynically noted.
Ed Lee, current SF mayor, Diane Feinstein former mayor, and of course the ever looney Nancy Pelosi are all ferociously defensive about the ill-gotten H2O from Yosemite. When it comes to liberals wrecking the environment, well, that's a big never mind right Al Gore?
