In February, California’s snowpack was above average and had high water content. But now state water officials are talking Drought.

It’s funny how experts will discuss diminished Supply at length, but never mention the greatly increased Demand part of the equation. Certainly the immigration source of the state’s exploding numbers figures strongly in the reticence to speak honestly.

A population of 38 million means there is no wiggle room at all — even a slight shortage of rainfall creates a crisis: Need to deal with water needs crucial (San Francisco Chronicle, May 2, 2008).

State water officials reported Thursday that the Sierra Nevada snowpack, the source of a huge portion of California’s water supply, was only 67 percent of normal, due in part to historically low rainfall in March and April.

With many reservoirs at well-below-average levels from the previous winter and a federal ruling limiting water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the new data added a dimension to a crisis already complicated by crumbling infrastructure, surging population and environmental concerns.

“We’re in a dry spell if not a drought,” said California Secretary for Resources Mike Chrisman. “We’re in the second year, and if we’re looking at a third year, we’re talking about a serious problem.”

Chrisman stopped short of saying the state would issue mandatory water rationing, which appears possible only if the governor declares a state of emergency. Rather, the burden will fall on local water agencies. Many, such as San Francisco and Marin County, have asked residents and businesses over the past year to cut water usage voluntarily by 10 to 20 percent.

* “Longage” is a perfectly fine word, meaning excess. The late population analyst Garrett Hardin employed it convincingly in 1991 — From Shortage to Longage: Forty Years in the Population Vineyards.

Washtech writes:

The Department of Homeland Security is inviting public comment about a controversial rule that allows employers to retain foreign students for a longer period of time in the country.

DHS had, earlier this month, formulated an “interim rule” allowing employers to hire foreign students holding F-1 visas for “Optional Practical Training” for 29 months as opposed to the hitherto 12 months. The rule, applicable to almost 20,000 new graduate students holding degrees in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics) annually (in addition to a fresh batch of 65,000 H1B visa holders, also arriving annually), poses a threat to American graduates finding gainful employment, as more people flood the job market, which is already under stress by a high unemployment rate nationwide.

The Washtech page has instructions on how VDARE.com readers can send your comments to the Department of Homeland Security. Please try to be concise and respectful when creating your comments. If you send me what you’ve written, I’ll try to publish the best here on VDARE.com.

I think it is important that we start getting a public record on what is happening with H-1b expansion. So far, the H-1b program has been an unmitigated disaster for the US leaving in its wake corpses like Enron.

If the US wants to compete effectively with fast growing economies like those in the Far East, we need an immigration system at least as good as what they have in countries like Singapore, where companies can get visas rather rapidly-but pay a fair amount for the privilege of using foreign workers and thus there are some real protections in place for local workers in Singapore.

Heather Mac Donald has column in the WSJ about the Reverend Wright’s speech to the NAACP. What she’s talking about is the excuses he’s making for black underclass behavior, and his

Approving of self-destructive behavior in school is just one part of the vast academic project to justify black underclass dysfunction. The academy has also singled out crime as authentically black, another poisonous idea that Mr. Wright appears to have embraced. In his NAACP speech, he mocked the tendency of “those of us who never got caught” to treat “those of us who are incarcerated” with disrespect. In other words, we all commit crime, but only some of us get nabbed for it.

This leveling argument recalls the bizarre doctrines of University of Pennsylvania law professor Regina Austin. In a widely reprinted California Law Review article from 1992, Ms. Austin asserted that the black community should embrace the criminals in its midst as a form of resistance to white oppression. People of color should view “hustling” as a “good middle ground between straightness and more extreme forms of lawbreaking.” Examples of hustling include “clerks in stores [who] cut their friends a break on merchandise, and pilfering employees [who] spread their contraband around the neighborhood.” It never occurs to Ms. Austin that these black thieves may have black employers who suffer the effects of crime — as do the larger neighborhoods of which they form the essential fabric. Officially incorporating crime into the black identity, as Ms. Austin and Mr. Wright do, is a pathetic admission of defeat and marginalization. [The Wright Side of the Brain, April 30, 2008]

This is normal behavior for an activist, but it seems a little extreme for a law professor, who’s a member of the Pennsylvania Bar. Regina Austin, [Send her mail] She’s listed in David Horowitz’s book The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America, right next to Bill Ayers. (The proximity is due to alphabetical reasons.) The Law Review article Heather Mac Donald is referring to is “The Black Community,” Its Lawbreakers, and a Politics of Identification. [ 65 Southern California Law Review 1769 (1992) ]

The point here is that Reverend Wright is not unique–the professors and theologians he quotes are the norm in black academic circles. And of course Heather Mac Donald is right about the promotion of crime being bad for the black community, but that’s not its intention. The left-wing black academics want it to be bad for the white community, and it is.

The population within the city limits of Los Angeles exceeded 4,000,000 for the first time in 2007, up 1.2% from 2006.

That reminds me of a novel question: What urban area in the U.S. has the highest population density per floor? For example, the wealthy Upper East Side in Manhattan has a very high population density per acre of ground because it’s covered with high rise apartment buildings. Yet, the density per acre divided by the average number of floors on the Upper East Side is not all that high because the amount of floor space is large and households are small.

So, where is the lowest number of square feet of residential space per resident found?

One contender for that dubious title would have to be the Hollywood neighborhood in LA. Hollywood is mostly low rise, but the side streets are absolutely crammed with pedestrians. At the corner of two side streets in a residential area of mostly one story homes, you’ll see a guy with a card table on the sidewalk selling oranges.

I imagine Chinatown in lower Manhattan has even fewer square feet per resident–I gather hotbunk dormitories, where the same bed is rented by three different sleepers working on different shifts are not uncommon there — but Hollywood is still way up there.

I would bet that more than a few people who thought it was a good idea to immigrate to Hollywood find it’s not quite as glamorous as they imagined.

May 1 is Law Day, Presidente Bush reminds us, by means of an official Proclamation: Law Day, U.S.A., 2008 (White House Press Office, May 1, 2008).

The right of ordinary men and women to determine their own future, protected by the rule of law, lies at the heart of America’s founding principles. As our country celebrates the 50th anniversary of Law Day, we renew our commitment to the ideals on which this great Nation was established and to a robust system of ordered liberty.

The American legal system is central to protecting the rights and freedoms our Nation holds dear. The theme of this year’s Law Day, “The Rule of Law: Foundation for Communities of Opportunity and Equity,” recognizes the fundamental role that the rule of law plays in preserving liberty in our Nation and in all free societies. We pay tribute to the men and women in America’s legal community. Through hard work and dedication to the rule of law, members of the judiciary and the legal profession help secure the rights of individuals, bring justice to our communities, and reinforce the proud traditions that make America a beacon of light for the world.

While the Mexichurian President is providing lip service to America’s legal framework, his government continues an open-borders policy which shreds the idea of a Nation of Law. A 2007 CIS study found that nearly 6 million illegal immigrants have entered the country during Bush’s administration. On the subject of borders, sovereignty and immigration at least, Bush has been the most lawless President in history.

Naturally, May 1 has a different significance to the Marxican extremists who have been rallying today in citiies across the country. Here’s one representative photo, snapped by blogger Urban Infidel in New York City. The guy’s sign combines a screw-you-America element with a sniffler appeal using a teary-eyed baby, plus there is a Mexican flag nearby — a 3-fer!