

Rep. Johnson worries loading too many people onto Guam could capsize the island - wooter
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/03/hank-johnson-guam-.html
... really?
======
anamax
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...](http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWRlZjY5MDRjYzY3NTBjMGFhOGI0OWIwZjI1MWFhM2U=)
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-...](http://hankjohnson.house.gov/2010/04/rep-johnsons-statement-on-
guam-comments-in-an-armed-services-committee-hearing.shtml)

~~~
cryptnoob
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.

