Powerful bureaucracies run by masters of deceit

Pioneer Press

Fort Jones , CA

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

page W16, column 2

pioneerp@sisqtel.net

To the Editor:

Jim Cook, Supervisor District 1, speaks plainly about the career bureaucrats who have made the Klamath dams their "career."  Not necessarily because the dams are bad in any way, but because the dams are a good career move for either a retiring bureaucrat, or a stepping stone to advancement for the young bureaucrat.

Consider, if you will, the soon-to-be-retired bureaucrat Phil Detrich from USF&WS.  His presentations on the subject of dams border on the Messianic.  We can suppose that Mr. Detrich, like most ambitious bureaucrats, is searching for his "legacy," his crowning achievement, the pinnacle of his success as a fish manager.  What better than to point to a ditch, and tell his grandchildren "Once there was a dam there, but through my diligence, ingenuity, and maneuver, I've again made it a ditch."

Consider also, the young ambitious Water Control Board bureaucrat with an eye on an appointment in Washington , DC .  A resume that speaks to her prowess as a woman who can move water and earth over a bureaucratic maze is certainly eye-catching.  Washington , after all, appreciates master manipulators of half-truths and outright lies.

Experience should teach us that powerful bureaucracies are run by masters of deceit. 

There just isn't any other way to say that nicely.  Deceit, or the manipulation of truth, is necessary for a public manager who has been given a political objective.  The large agencies, after all, are politically driven.  Who would say that dam removal isn't a political objective of the environmental community?

Those of us who are effected by these political objectives, must begin seeing through the manipulations and begin defeating the underlying political agendas.  The truths of science and engineering simply won't stand up against these agencies.   Justice can't be found in the courts.  Truth and justice wither in the face of effective political management.  This is a political game, a game played for real, a game where truth and justice are sidelined.

Depopulation is the environmental objective, always has been.  Do anything to remove the reasons for people to live here.  Disable industry, lock up natural resources, install controls, introduce uncertainty, and generally discourage anything that would entice development.   Many have referred to this agenda as "rural cleansing." 

If we're going to defeat their agenda, which we're certainly working to do, then we have to understand how the game is played.  We'll need to know who the players are and what their agendas are, at minimum.  We'll also need our own agenda, rules and an equal or greater ambition.  We hope you will join us in this battle.

Larry Toelle
Fort Jones

(Permission to post from the publisher.)