Coyote Gulch

Monday, November 8, 2004

Denver November 2004 Election
Esther Dyson: "I think the big lesson was really that technology mattered very little in this election. Many people used the Net; some even posted blogs, wrote or disseminated campaign messages, and otherwise used technology. But in the end, I don't think 'technology' changed many people's minds about any of the issues. In the end, it was about politics, not technology. Perhaps the most important thing technology has done - for this election and for politics and life in general - is shorten our timescale. Stories that used to unfold over days now unfold in hours or even minutes."
Here's a recap of last Tuesday's elections in Colorado from Floyd Ciruli published in the Rocky Mountain News [November 6, 2004, "The color purple"]. He writes, "It was as if Colorado experienced two elections on Nov. 2, handing President Bush a solid re-election victory - reaffirming itself as a 'red' state - then shifting political direction and giving Democratic candidates and issues a major boost."
Ed Quillen, as usual, has his own opinion with regard to last Tuesday's election in his column in the Denver Post [November 7, 2004, "State Dems get surprise"]. He writes, "I keep wondering how long the Republican coalition can hold together. It did well on a national basis this year, with Bush's election and gains in the U.S. Senate and House. But how much longer can the fiscal conservatives keep supporting a party that runs record deficits with a President who never vetoes a spending bill? How much longer will the small-government conservatives support a party that encourages more federal snooping into every aspect of our lives? How much longer will the isolationist conservatives support a foreign policy of pre-emptive invasion based on bad intelligence? And how much longer will the social conservatives support a party that talks a lot but never delivers on abortion, school prayer and other issues dear to fundamentalists who insist on minding other peoples' business?...And now Democrats control the legislature. This could mean tough times for a columnist, having a legislature that worries about health and education rather than magazine racks and the Pledge of Allegiance, but we all have to make sacrifices, I suppose."
Update: The Nation: "The rise of Open Source politics." I'm waiting for the "Open Source solution for turning out voters."
6:22:57 AM

Colorado Water
The South Metro area's reliance on groundwater will exhaust the acquifer unless utilities change the way they are managing the resource, according to the Rocky Mountain News [November 8, 2004, "Groundwater system sure to fail, warns hydrologist"]. From the article, "The southern Denver metropolitan area needs to dramatically reduce its reliance on groundwater and double the percent of surface water it uses in order to meet the needs of 400,000 new residents expected by 2050, said a hydrologist Sunday at the Geological Society of America's annual meeting being held in Denver. Douglas and southern Arapahoe counties have about 200,000 residents. That number is expected to jump to 600,000 by 2050, said hydrologist Steven Boand, a newly elected member of the Douglas County Commission. Most residents of the area get their water from underground aquifers. But the level of water in those aquifers has dropped 300 feet since the mid-1980s in some places." Here's the coverage from the Denver Post [November 8, 2004, "Residents a drain on aquifers"].
Colorado is studying the feasability of creating a headwaters alliance to work on supply and water quality issues, according to the Rocky Mountain News [November 8, 2004, "Water coalition in making"]. From the article, "Colorado and two other Western states may follow the lead of Michigan and Maryland, joining forces to create a special Rocky Mountain headwaters alliance similar to multistate coalitions that safeguard the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay. The idea is to find new ways and new sources of money to protect Western rivers born high in the mountain ranges along the Continental Divide, said Jeff Crane, a hydrologist who leads a nonprofit watershed restoration effort in Colorado's Gunnison River Basin."
6:17:18 AM

2004 Presidential Transition
Here's an article about a post-election AP-Ipsos poll from the AP via the Rocky Mountain News [November 8, 2004, "AP-Ipsos election poll questions"]. From the article, "The 1973 Supreme Court ruling called Roe v. Wade made abortion in the first three months of pregnancy legal. Do you think President Bush should nominate Supreme Court justices who would uphold the Roe v. Wade decision, or nominate Supreme Court justices who would overturn the Roe v. Wade decision?: Nominate justices who would uphold the Roe v. Wade decision, 61 percent; Nominate justices who would overturn the Roe v. Wade decision, 34 percent; Not sure, 5 percent."
TalkLeft: "Iraq has declared martial law for 60 days. U.S. troops are now attacking Fallujah. U.S. commanders are warning that this will be the most brutal urban fighting since Vietnam." Freedom is on the march.
Update: Josh Marshall: "President Bush won reelection last Tuesday with 286 electoral votes (over Kerry's 252). That is the second lowest electoral margin for the winning candidate since 1916 when Woodrow Wilson beat Charles Evans Hughes by a margin of 277 to 254."
Update: NewMexiKen: "Kevin Drum has a lengthy (for a blog) analysis of the CNN exit polls. He believes terrorism was the deciding issue."
Update: Taegan Goddard: "After conducting extensive 'usability' analysis, Jakob Nielsen says the Bush-Cheney campaign did a much better job with their email newsletters than Kerry-Edwards."
Update: Newsweek: "How Bush did it."
6:04:49 AM

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