Coyote Gulch

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

Michael Copps - Open Internet
FCC Commissioner, Michael Copps, has written an opinion piece for the San Jose Mercury News laying out a bleak future for the Internet. Says Copps, "The Internet was designed to defeat government or business control and to thwart discrimination against users, ideas or technologies. Intelligence and control were consciously placed at the ends of a non-discriminatory network. Anyone could access the Internet, with any kind of computer, for any type of application, and read or say pretty much what they wanted. This Internet may be dying."
6:03:36 PM

Denver November 2004 Election
The question before us is not whether we will be voting on possible changes to TABOR, Amendment 23, and the Gallagher amendment next fall, we will. The question is what type of changes have a chance of passing, according to an editorial in today's Rocky Mountain News [December 16, 2003, "Constitutional convention? That's passing the buck"]. The Rocky editors do not like the idea of a constitutional convention to sort it out. From the editorial, "The biggest challenge lawmakers face in the coming weeks will be to rein in their disgust with TABOR (on the political left) and Amendment 23 (on the right) in order to reach an agreement that appeals to a broad spectrum of the state's political leadership - and thus a wide swath of voters as well. Don't ask for the moon. Don't throw in the towel with a call for a constitutional convention. Just give voters a reasonable plan and trust them to come through." I don't think that disgust is the correct description. TABOR is terrible for state and local government when revenues decline.
Govenor Owens intends to assist the legislature in their coming struggle in dealing with TABOR, Amendment 23, and the Gallagher Amendment, according to the Denver Post [December 16, 2003, "State's snarl of amendments may land back in voters' laps"]. From the article, "TABOR ties revenue to population growth and inflation. Revenue that exceeds its formula must be refunded to citizens. The amendment also mandates that if the state's revenues decline because of a recession, for instance, legislators can't return to pre-recession levels of spending. They can increase spending only incrementally. The mechanism is known as the "ratchet effect" because it clamps down on spending during lean economic times. Amendment 23 says increases in K-12 education funding must be based on student population and the rate of inflation plus 1 percent. Those two requirements, one that limits spending and one that mandates increases in it, have made balancing the state budget difficult in tight economic times. Gallagher limits the property tax residents pay to 45 percent of the total collected. Owens said voters' November rejection of changes to the amendment makes it a non-issue."
6:27:04 AM

2004 Presidential Election
Update 6:37PM Now this is fun. An interactive electoral college election map from John Edwards' campaign.
Update 6:19PM: Here's the link to Wesley Clark's Spanish Language Website.
Update 6:06PM: Here's a recent Survey USA poll for South Carolina in the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination.
Mike Littwin analyses the effects of Saddam Hussein's capture on the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination in his column in today's Rocky Mountain News [December 16, 2003, "Littwin: Saddam: Will he help Kerry, hurt Dean?"]. From the editorial, "Sure, this was great news for George W. Bush's re-election hopes. Or at least that's the early take. No one knows what will happen next in Iraq. Saddam was barely showered and shaved before the suicide car bombers were back at their deadly work. And, of course, it's one thing to capture Saddam and yet another to explain just where his weapons of mass destruction have gone. But here's how the thinking goes if you're a Democrat running for president: If the news was great for Bush, it couldn't be so great for Dean, the anti-Iraqi-war candidate who has positioned himself so successfully as the anti-Bush."
The Rocky is running an interview with Phebe Marr, a middle-east specialist, today [December 16, 2003, "Saddam's capture won't affect insurgency"]. While not directly related to the presidential election her views on the insurgency are of interest. Death and turmoil in Iraq could keep the war in the forefront in next year's election.
6:15:23 AM

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