Cry Me A Puddle

One thing you may be seeing, if you look at conservative talking points these days, is a recurring theme about how the mean ol' Environmental Protection Agency wants to "regulate puddles". They're puffing out their chest and talking about how ridiculous it is, how badly the government is overreaching and can't wait to point out a roadside puddle that they're afraid the EPA is going to set up shop next to to "regulate". And here's a meme you might see (from Representative Marsha Blackburn's Twitter feed):

HR1732 will allow us to craft a sensible solution to protect our waters w/o a vast expansion of the fed gov’s reach. pic.twitter.com/Y6cUTgPUdZ

— Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) May 12, 2015

Gosh dangit! Is there anything the EPA won't do?!?!? I mean, look at the picture! That must be some family farm about to get "governed"! Hands off, Obama!!!!

As you can imagine... congressional Republicans don't give a shit about puddles. The main reason they hate the EPA... is that the EPA stands in the way of the very, very wealthy campaign donors they (and plenty of their friends across the aisle) get money from. Take the coal industry, for instance.

Have you heard of coal ash? Coal ash, as you can imagine, is a by-product of the coal & power industries. It's a toxic & carcinogenic mess mess full of heavy metals, often stored in lagoons. These lagoons aren't very well regulated. And sometimes, they leach heavy metals into the groundwater. Sometimes, the lagoons burst and contaminate rivers. Click here for a map of coal ash contaminated sites. So... these are the "spilt milk and mud puddles" Rep. Blackburn are talking about.

If you want to let Rep. Blacklburn know that she's being a disingenuous liar, here's a link to her Twitter account. I can assure you, I've made a stop by there.

.@MarshaBlackburn I have a suspicion this is more likely about coal ash ponds that threaten our actual health than "mud puddles".

— Randy (@kaffehammer) May 12, 2015

And while you're at it, take a look at her campaign funding. I find that's helpful. By the way, for your reading pleasure, here's more conservative outrage over "puddles":

The Blaze
Fox News
Cato Institute


~Randy