Coyote Gulch

Thursday, September 18, 2003

Larry Sherrill - Bloglines
Real webloggers have an RSS feed but you need newsreader to view the streams. Larry Sherrill points to a free aggregator:
BlogLines is a web-based rss news aggregator. Unlike other news aggregators, this one runs on the BlogLines server, therefore, you can access it from anywhere using a browser. It keeps track of what you've read, allows you to bookmark favorite articles, and has a notification system in the form of a tiny browser window that let's you know when there is a new article. It's clean, simple, professional, and free. It is a good example of how a web-based, server-side solution can replace the need for client side software. [Larry Sherrill: Java and Object Orientation]
6:32:05 AM

2004 Presidential Election
Update: From e-mail from the Carol Mosely Braun campaign:
"Making good on her pledge to take the 'Men Only' sign from the door of the White House, Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun will formally announce her candidacy for the Democratic nomination in three states on Monday September 22, 2003."
Update: Joe Lieberman's campaign sent e-mail today with links to video clips of his wife speaking on his behalf. I think it's cool that they have in it Real and .wmp formats. That sends an inclusive message to those of us that run OSX, Unix or Linux.
In the last presidential election Ralph Nader ran as the Green Party candidate and won enough votes to have an effect. Some have claimed that if the Green's had gotten behind Al Gore he would be our president, not George Bush. It appears that the Green Party thinks so too. According to the Denver Post [September 18, 2003, "Green-minded group seeks to boost Dems in '04"] they are organizing and fundraising already in an attempt to support whoever gets the Demcratic nomination. From the article, "A band of former Clinton administration officials and environmental lobbyists is trying to exploit the Democrats' long-standing edge on environmental issues to help reclaim the White House in 2004. The group, called Environment2004, hopes to identify, target and mobilize a niche of environmental voters in a handful of key states to tip the electoral balance against President Bush in the 2004 election. Group leaders want to harness outrage about Bush's stances on issues such as logging, global warming and drilling in Alaska and the Rocky Mountains to give a crucial edge to the eventual Democratic nominee. The plan is to discredit what they call Bush's 'greenwashing,' his position that his pro-development policies are also nature-friendly."
Here's a link to the new Democratic National Committee weblog. I love the weblog name, "Kicking Ass." Dems should be reminded that they haven't kicked much ass in the last two national elections.
Here are the results from a Field Poll in California on the presidential race. National views are captured in this poll from Quinnapac University.
6:20:47 AM

Denver November 2003 Election
Amendment 32 hasn't been getting much press in the local papers so I turned to the Boulder Daily Camera [September 1, 2003, "Commissioner leads campaign against Amendment 23"] to find some background information. From the article, "The initiative in question is Amendment 32, a statewide ballot question that would get rid of the 'Gallagher Amendment,' which (Boulder County Commissioner Ron) Stewart and Denver Auditor Dennis Gallagher helped put into the state Constitution two decades ago when they served as state lawmakers. Passed in 1982, the amendment requires the state to collect 55 percent of its property tax money from businesses and 45 percent from residential property taxes that homeowners pay. Now, Senate Majority Leader Norma Anderson, R-Lakewood, is asking voters to take it off the books. But Stewart says the Gallagher Amendment has protected homeowners from excessively high taxes based on skyrocketing property values, and he's determined to scuttle any effort to get rid of it, even though it will mean taking on one of the state's most powerful lawmakers. Anderson and other opponents of the Gallagher Amendment argue that residential growth has outstripped business growth for the last twenty years and in the process has diluted the share that homeowners have to pay. Anderson argues that high property taxes are driving businesses out of Colorado and hurting the economy." Here's another article from The Daily Camera [June 22, 2003, "Amendment's author fighting initiative"] about the issue. Thanks to Denver Auditor Gallagher for the suggestion that I look at the Daily Camera as a source.
Colorado school systems, including the Denver Public Schools, are asking voters to approve tax increases this fall according to the Rocky Mountain News [September 18, 2003, "School districts seek $800 million"]. From the article, "Denver School Board chairwoman Elaine Berman said the tight economy is a large part of the reason why the board pared its bond request from $470 million - the amount proposed by a citizens' committee - to $310 million. n fact, board members considered waiting a year to see if economic conditions improve. They chose not to, she said, largely because of rapid growth in the district's northeast neighborhoods. Already this year, three schools there are so crowded that enrollment caps are in place. In Denver, for example, $7 million for two charter schools is folded seamlessly into the district's bond question."
Here's some information on the November ballot from todays The Stump from the Rocky Mountain News [September 18, 2003, "The Stump"].
There is an initiative on the November ballot to repeal the Quick Wins II ordinance passed by City Council. A lawsuit has been filed to remove the initiative from the ballot according to the Rocky Mountain News [September 18, 2003, "Judge should halt assault on home rule"].
5:24:36 AM

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