There are standards that serve us very well, as a child in Miami I remember a polluted Biscyane Bay, polluted lakes and canals... Now when you go down to South Florida the air and the water is beautiful. We have standards and we have laws, when businesses violate those standards or laws what you do is you prosecute the shit out of them....

But that does not come close to what is happening right now, right now we have a bunch of government wonks who think that it is their job to restrict and regulate everything, hell you guys want to regulate the dust in rural farming communities, I have already eluded to the mud puddle controversies that have occurred in different locations throughout the country, you want to tax rain run off in some areas and you will stop major and important projects for minnows and mice that may or may not be impacted.... Shit, you guys want to spend some $30 million plus to move some comorants off of a bridge that is being brought down in CA.... Take the damn bridge down the birds will leave believe me, you don't have to worry about moving them they will realize that the new bridge that has already been built is a much better home than the one that is coming down.

I agree with the first part of your post.

And I agree, in large part, with the second part of your post.

I would find it interesting to see if your suggestion actually worked.
I find myself thinking of the consequences if it actually harmed the cormorants instead of causing them to relocate.

This may not be an issue for you, but if we do things that harm too many species, we may suffer unintended consequeces. All these animals are here serving a purpose.

Maybe I'm just too cautious.

You are not getting a good cross section of republicans on this site, but I will say that most conservatives have little faith that our government can do much to change things in our society as they have a terrible track record, all you have to do is look around at our inner cities and the groups that so strongly support your party, god only knows why because you haven't accomplished anything more than hand outs and a life of subsistence to them, that neither you or I would be willing to accept. Here we are spending $500 billion a year more than we take in and our government wants to expand our entitlements, I wonder if the CBO will score president Obama's executive order, I am pretty sure that was in the Trillion dollar range if it holds up for ten years.... Lets not forget that the average child tax credit for a family with a couple of kids making in the $40,000 range is something like $6,000.. Not to mention the medical and other benefits that they will qualify for...

I think that I already explained to you what will happen when interest rates go back to normal, our deficits will exceed a trillion dollars annually again with no end insight...

Can you not see the insanity in our federal government and its absolute refusal of accountability, I heard a report that federal workers can be on paid leave for years for no real legitimate reason.... Try and run a business that way and see how long you last. Why should we expect less from the government which forcibly takes our money and then wastes it and expects us to understand that they are just to big to be managed.

Puck that.

They are professional noise makers for the most part, the only one of any significance that you listed is Ted Cruz and I still have not quite figured him out, he is without a doubt one of the smartest and actually most accomplished senators in DC, before you respond if you have not already you should read his bio...

Just can't figure out his angle but he is playing some sort of game, he is far to smart to not see the opposition he engenders in not only the left but also in many moderates.

Cruz graduated cum laude from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1992. While at Princeton, he competed for the American Whig-Cliosophic Society's Debate Panel and won the top speaker award at both the 1992 U.S. National Debating Championship and the 1992 North American Debating Championship. In 1992, he was named U.S. National Speaker of the Year and Team of the Year (with his debate partner, David Panton). Cruz was also a semi-finalist at the 1995 World Universities Debating Championship, making him Princeton’s highest-ranked debater at the championship. Princeton's debate team later named their annual novice championship after Cruz.
Cruz's senior thesis on the separation of powers, titled "Clipping the Wings of Angels," draws its inspiration from a passage attributed to President James Madison: "If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary." Cruz argued that the drafters of the Constitution intended to protect the rights of their constituents, and the last two items in the Bill of Rights offered an explicit stop against an all-powerful state. Cruz wrote: "They simply do so from different directions. The Tenth stops new powers, and the Ninth fortifies all other rights, or non-powers."

After graduating from Princeton, Cruz attended Harvard Law School, graduating magna cum laude in 1995 with a Juris Doctor degree. While at Harvard Law, Cruz was a primary editor of the Harvard Law Review, and executive editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, and a founding editor of the Harvard Latino Law Review. Referring to Cruz's time as a student at Harvard Law, Professor Alan Dershowitz said, "Cruz was off-the-charts brilliant." At Harvard Law, Cruz was a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics.