damn.
i had to press like on one of your posts.
in any case, it is not as simple as hannity makes it out to be. first of all, as you acknowledged, the land would be barren if not for the enormous infrastructure projects undertaken by the big bad government.
secondly, the water shortages only effect the west part of the valley. other parts of the valley have an overabundance of water and sell it to some of the farms that got in line for the water too late.
third, most of these farms complaining about the water shortage are huge mega-corporations who exploit illegal labor for much of their production.
fourth, most of these farms get water anyway, but sell it to municipalities for a bigger profit than they would get farming the land.
finally, to turn on the water would lead to a collapse of the food chain and put fishermen up north out of business, as well as the industries that do business with them (the processors, the drivers, etc).
say we did turn on the water. next thing you would hear is hannity talking about how government is putting fishermen out of business. it's a great talking point for that reason.
in any case, shame on you for echoing that tired old canard, but props for acknowledging that you need to study up on the issue. i have driven through there many, many times and have gained an interest in the topic. it is not as simple an issue as the signs on the freeway would have you believe.