Today in the Environmental Apocalypse

You might have heard of the 4000 red-winged blackbirds that dropped dead out of the sky in Arkansas the other day. Extremely depressing. No one has any idea why. But if  you thought that was a freak thing, it wasn't even the only crazy die-off in Arkansas last week!!!

One thing is almost certain: the bird drop is not related to the 83,000 fish that died a few days earlier in the western part of the state, the biggest fish kill in Arkansas that anyone can remember. They were spotted by anglers last week and reported to the Game and Fish Commission, which spent New Year’s Eve measuring and counting dead fish that had spread out for nearly 20 miles.

In that case, the victims were almost all drum, and almost all younger ones. That suggests the culprit was disease, said Mark Oliver, the commission’s chief of fisheries. He said that fish kills were not uncommon, especially in winter when fish are packed more closely, but he did not recall one of this size.

State officials have sent samples of dying, but not yet dead, fish to the fish disease lab at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, which could take a couple of weeks to reach conclusions.

Great.....

As Rachel Carson pointed out so long ago, if you have random unexplained die-offs of enough animals, eventually the next random unexplained die-off is going to be of human beings.

Arkansas Police Officers Killed by Right-Wing Extremist

Yet another example of anti-government rhetoric empowering right-wing extremists to attack the government and its employees. In this case, 2 Arkansas police officers are dead. How long until militants successfully target a high-level official?

Historical Image of the Day

Cotton pickers, Arkansas, 1935

Historical Image of the Day

Farmers evicted from their land, near Tyronza, Arkansas, 1930s.

The Green Party: Lessons Not Learned

Brian Beutler has an interesting story on unions talking about supporting a Green Party candidate against Blanche Lincoln in the 2010 Arkansas Senate election. The most likely result would be throwing the election to whatever Republican challengers her.

As a progressive Democrat, I am torn by this. Blanche Lincoln sucks. I want her to support the Employee Free Choice Act. I want her to support a lot of things that she doesn't. I also think unions need to show some political muscle and make people suffer who oppose them.

However, I also have pretty clear memories of the last time progressives decided to throw a Democrat under the bus in a protest vote. That didn't work out too well.

Lincoln is from Arkansas. It's amazing the Democrats have 1 senator from Arkansas, not to mention 2. You can't expect her (or Ben Nelson or Mark Begich for example) to vote a liberal line all the time. They come from conservative states and are likely to face tough reelection campaigns even if they don't vote with the leadership on controversial issues. And what is replacing her with a Republican going to do? Is that going to help EFCA pass? No. In fact, it takes a page out of modern Republican tactics which, as we may recall from Arlen Specter's situation, haven't brought them a lot of results in recent years.

Plus, attacking Lincoln avoids the real problem--the filibuster. We don't need Blanche Lincoln or Mark Pryor or Ben Nelson to pass EFCA if we can get it to a vote. Unfortunately, the Senate is an institution where Republicans need 51 votes to pass legislation and Democrats need 60 votes. If unions want to get rid of anyone, it should be tossing Harry Reid from Majority Leader. It's highly unlikely that any even remotely controversial legislation, not to mention pro-union legislation, is ever going to pass with 60 votes, especially in the face of a disclipined minority. So the key is to pass it with 51 votes and to create the change necessary in the Senate to make that happen.

Throwing support to a Green Party candidate in an Arkansas Senate election will accomplish nothing.

Historical Image of the Day

Mouth of the Arkansas River, 1846-47

You've Got to Love Arkansas

Apparently, the Arkansas state legislature could use a professional editor (and, maybe, a new governer). A new law took effect on July 31 that, in it's intent, was to allow people of any age who had gotten pregnant to get married with parental consent, forgoing the statutory laws of 16 years old for women and 17 for men. Unfortunately, an unseen typo made the law read thusly:

"In order for a person who is younger than eighteen (18) years of age and who is not pregnant to obtain a marriage license, the person must provide the county clerk with evidence of parental consent to the marriage."

That "not pregnant" bit changes things a lot and, while the intent of the law is clearly not to allow 10 year olds to get married, a panel tried to correct the mistake, but were thwarted by the lawmakers. Moreover, Gov. Mike Beebe came out yesterday to say there was no "imminent crisis" and that he does "not plan to immediately call a special session" to fix the issues.

I guess what this means is for all of those out there who think child brides are a good idea, Arkansas is the place for you.