Rep. Johnson worries loading too many people onto Guam could capsize the island

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/03/hank-johnson-guam-.html

by wooter • 16 years ago

2 2 16 years ago

latimesblogs.latimes.com

... really?

anamax• 16 years ago

Johnson's response is

“I wasn’t suggesting that the island of Guam would literally tip over I was using a metaphor to say that with the addition of 8,000 Marines and their dependents an additional 80,000 people during peak construction on the tiny island with a population of 180,000 could be a tipping point which could adversely affect the island’s fragile ecosystem and could overburden its stressed infrastructure. Having traveled to Guam last year, I saw firsthand how this beautiful but vulnerable island could easily become overburdened, and I was simply voicing my concerns that the addition of that many people could tip the delicate balance and do permanent harm to Guam."

quoted on http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWRlZjY5MDRjYzY3NTB... but without a source.

Also

"The subtle humor of this obviously metaphorical reference to a ship capsizing illustrated my concern about the impact of the planned military buildup on this small tropical island."

http://hankjohnson.house.gov/2010/04/rep-johnsons-statement-...

cryptnoob• 16 years ago

What a wonderfully well written peace of prose. I think we can be pretty certain that the man who wrote it was not the man in that video. As for whether he actually believed an island could tip over, I give him the benefit of the doubt that he didn't, I suppose, although listening to his entire dialog, it's almost enough to discount him to the point of believing that he did believe it. Bottom line, based on this dialog, I think he'd be overpaid if his salary were reduced to a quarter of the salary he's enjoying.

Rep. Johnson worries loading too many people onto Guam could capsize the island

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