Tombstone Fights Back

A few weeks ago I posted about the plight of Tombstone, AZ. Residents were left without water after a mudslide damaged the pipeline that brought water to the town. Repairing the pipeline has turned into a battle with the federal government because it runs through federally protected land, and the U.S. Forest Service will not allow the use of motorized equipment to repair it.

So Tombstone has been forced to do battle on two fronts. In true Western self-reliant fashion it has organized a shovel brigade to manually repair the pipeline. It is also attacking the Forest Service on Capital Hill.

Under an unforgiving desert sun, about 60 determined souls gathered in a high school football field under the banner of the Tombstone Shovel Brigade. They collected shovels and joined a pickup truck caravan across the desert. Then they climbed two miles up a steep, rocky canyon and began to move part of a mountain, one boulder at a time.

Thousands of miles away, in the nation’s capital, Tombstone’s congressman and the city archivist tried to move a bureaucratic mountain, too, during hearings before a subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee.

Tombstone ... is in the midst of a court battle with the U.S. Forest Service. At issue is whether Tombstone can take heavy equipment into federally protected wilderness.

Tombstone is trying to repair a 26-mile pipeline that has brought mountain spring water into the city since 1881. The pipeline was damaged during last summer’s Monument Fire and floods that brought mud and boulders crashing down the denuded mountainside.

The city sued the Forest Service in December, accusing the agency of dragging its feet during a state of emergency. The courts have turned down the city’s request for an emergency injunction, and so the battle has entered a new phase in the court of public opinion.

I can't imagine that anyone other than hard-core greenies and, of course, government bureau-weenies would have any serious objection to the temporary use of heavy equipment in one small portion of hundreds of thousands of acres in order to repair a vital water supply.

Of course, we are talking about government bureaucrats...

An interesting side effect of all this is the rekindling of the Sagebrush Rebellion .

Tombstone has become the poster city for a sweeping resurgence of the Sagebrush Rebellion in some Western states.

An extension of the older controversy of state vs. federal powers, Sagebrush Rebels wanted the federal government to give more control of government owned Western lands to state and local authorities. This was meant to increase the growth of Western economies. Ronald Reagan declared himself a sagebrush rebel in an August 1980 campaign speech in Salt Lake City, Reagan told the crowd, "I happen to be one who cheers and supports the Sagebrush Rebellion. Count me in as a rebel." Reagan was faced with opposition with conservation organizations. This struggle persists today...

This time, Utah state Rep. Ken Ivory explained, the rebellion is not fueled by oilmen and cattle ranchers.

Instead, local governments are behind the movement to push back against what they say is the federal government’s treatment of them as “submissive subdivisions.”

 Meanwhile, back in Tombstone:

U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake has introduced H.R. 5971, the Emergency Water Supply Restoration Act, which proposes to set aside Forest Service restrictions against the use of construction equipment during state-declared water emergencies. Flake and Nancy Sosa, the city’s archivist, were among the witnesses who testified Friday.

“The unforeseen consequences of federal laws and regulations threaten to do something outlaws, economic busts, and the Arizona desert couldn’t: Kill the town too tough to die,” Flake said. Tombstone, population 1,400, is a throwback to the Old West and is famous for the 30-second gunfight at the O.K. Corral, which is re-enacted for tourists twice a day.

“Without water, the most precious commodity in the desert, Tombstone will cease to exist,” Sosa said. She told the committee that Tombstone burned to the ground twice before the waterline was built.

This whole brouhaha is just one more example of how the government has become out of touch with the citizens it is supposed to serve.

Led, of course, by the most clueless president this nation has ever had the misfortune to be saddled with.

In a last minute news conference earlier today in Washington, Obama told reporters that private sector growth was strong, while the public sector was lagging.

Say what?!? When you analyze the statement in bold, it reveals that obama thinks businesses are creating jobs at a robust rate, but we're not hiring enough government workers.

Oh my achin' head.

"The truth of the matter is that, as I said, we've created 4.3 million jobs over the last two -- 27 months; over 800,000 just this year alone," the president said. "The private sector is doing fine."

The truth of the matter is: 23 million Americans out of work, no longer looking for work, or able to find only part-time work; the economy growing at only 1.9 percent in the first quarter of the year; median income dropping by 10 percent over the last four years; and a record number of home foreclosures.

Oh yeah, and a town without water...