Comedian Paul Rodriguez, who helped lead the California Latino Water Coalition, appeared with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at an event in Los Angeles today. He suggested the next dam be named after Schwarzenegger, and talked about the water coalition:
Some of you are wondering, what the hell am I doing here? I ask that myself. I farm a little outside of Fresno, and when the water problem became very acute we got together, a bunch of (us and) formed the Latino Water Coalition and figured out what we can do.
We found a friend in Sacramento. The Governor was able to use his muscle, both figuratively and metaphorically, to wrangle these people together. And this is historic legislation and I think there will be something that this will truly be -- he will be remembered. I think we're going to name of the dams after you. It's going to be a big dam, Schwarzenegger Dam. I can see it now.We started to lobby, the Latino Water Coalition -- by the way, you don't have to be Latino to join, you just need $5. Very easy membership. One of our members is Caucasian, we use him as a co-signer. We got together, we lobbied the 26 Latinos of the Latino Caucus and got them together.
This is a group that you couldn't get them to agree on lunch, but when it came down to it, water was important, so important they got together. And we're very, very proud of all of the members of the House and the Assembly. We're very happy to be part of this day.
I think Mr. Rodriguez is quite serious about his lousy idea. Humor is almost universally elicits laughter at the expense of another. On the contrary, this statement was designed as a carrot to feed the ego of a fellow entertainer. The self effacing humor about the Latino Water Coalition requiring a caucasion underwriter was good. California history, documented in short sentences for textbooks, should remember the exclusive group name if not the spectrum of supporters.
One of the bloggers had been wondering how accessible the new lake (reservoir) would be to us common California taxpayer peons who are paying for the proposed dam. My educated guess is that the land will be gobbled up by real estate interests like around most of the other California bodies of water. And I doubt that it will be named Schwarzenegger Dam, because the owners of the ritzy lakeside homes would not be able to spell their address.
I don't really care the governor's name is on them. After the bay bridge repair I'm sure the residents below the new dams will settle on an appropriate nickname like "When-not-If-I" and "When-not-If-II."
More seriously, I still have not heard a word about the electric generation that could come from such structures.
I don't care who dams are named after and whether rich people buy all the lake front property. I do care that tax revenues be generated by such efforts to keep my taxes from rising any further in this mismanaged state.