Picking winners and losers in today's headlines

So, what do Ben Nelson (D-NE), James Oberstar (D-OR), the current version of the financial reform bill and the California Coastal Commission all have in common?

They're all in B-Daddy's cross-hairs as targets of crony capitalism and untoward lobbyist influence.

Check it out, here.

Smack (-down) of the Day

“For Mr. Douglas to continually inject himself into this process by a letter and never come (to a hearing) is an enormous act of arrogance and bureaucratic sloth,”

That from David King on the last-minute objection raised by the executive director of the busybody California Coastal Commission to Poseidon Resources’ plans to build a 50 million gallon a day desalination plant in Carlsbad.

The San Diego Regional Water Quality Board’s approval of the plan requires Poseidon to create 55.4 acres of wetlands in Southern California that will serve as nurseries for fish that are killed during the process of making drinking water from seawater.

Opponents of the desal plant are keeping hope alive, though:

Marco Gonzalez, an attorney for the Surfrider Foundation and San Diego Coastkeeper, environmental groups that oppose the plant, disagreed that the plant represents the best possible environmental design.

“It doesn't come as a surprise to us,” Gonzalez said of the approval. “The ability of a large corporate entity to get a large project approved is not new in California.”

Gonzalez said he would appeal the regional board's decision to the State Water Quality Control Board, which oversees the regional boards. He also has two lawsuits pending against the project.

(italics, ours)

Perhaps Gonzalez hasn’t been using enough sunblock while out in the surf because he isn’t talking about any “California” that we are aware of.

We will also note that opposition to the plant brought together two of the strangest bedfellows that we can recall: Environmentalists that wanted to save fish and commercial fisherman that also wanted to, you know, “save” the fish.