Coyote Gulch

Monday, January 24, 2005

Comments Problems
The Comments are broken as of Monday at 8:17 PM. I hope it's a temporary server thing at Userland. I hate it when the software breaks so I hope it's on their end.
Update: Comments are working again as of 9:25 PM Monday.
8:18:15 PM

Newspapers: Open Your Archives
Dan Gillmor: "I predict that the result will pleasantly surprise the bean-counters. There'll be a huge increase in traffic at first, once people realize they can read their local history without paying a fee. Eventually, though not instantly, the revenues will greatly exceed what the paper had been earning under the old system. Meanwhile, the expenses to run it will drop."
"And, perhaps most important, the newspaper will have boosted its long-term place in the community. It will be seen, more than ever, as the authoritative place to go for some kinds of news and information -- because it will have become an information bedrock in this too-transient culture."
I'd love to see the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post do this. Please consider that most of the links to your newspapers on Coyote Gulch are now dead.
8:10:44 PM

2008 Presidential Election
Daily Kos: "I was at the Sacramento meeting of the DNC candidates this past weekend, and the sentiment of the DNC members at the meeting (western states) was fairly strong Dean, with a lot of secondary consideration for Frost and Rosenberg. A bunch of people were impressed with the personable Wellington Webb, but as funny as he was (and he's hilarious), he turned me off when, during prepared remarks, he pointed to the DNC members and told them that they were the Democratic Party. I tend to think that its the millions of party supporters who are the Democratic Party, not 440 DNC members."
Taegan Goddard: "It's never too early to pick your consultants. Roll Call reports the 'recruiting of top political operatives is considered particularly crucial for the 2008 contest since it will mark the first time since 1928 that... neither a sitting president nor vice president will make the presidential race. With both parties[base '] 2008 primaries so wide open, putting together a top-tier campaign team has become one of the first indications of a candidate[base ']s momentum.'"
Email me at jworr@operamail.com. I can be recruited with the right combination of dough and power.
Western Democrat: "Western caucus digest DNC."
6:28:21 PM

Senator Ken Gordon's New Weblog
Senator Ken Gordon has a weblog and an RSS feed (http://www.knowledgemessenger.com/rss/default.aspx?app=kengordon&webname=prod).
Coyote Gulch apologizes for not finding it sooner. Hopefully all of the Senator's news bulletins will appear on the weblog.
How about all you other elected officials and candidates? Coyote Gulch will help you get started with a weblog - no charge.
Update: ARRRRGH! The RSS feed works but the links are not correct.
6:56:12 AM

Software Patents
Groklaw: "Once again, Poland has blocked the rubber-stamping of the software patents directive in Europe. There is, however, only a week's delay, to January 31, and then it comes up again. However, it gets harder and harder to pretend that this directive is so uncontroversial it belongs as an A item, meaning no discussion, just rubber-stamping. And a lot can happen in a week."
6:43:36 AM

Colorado Water
Here's an opinion piece, written by Paul Larmer, from yesterday's Denver Post assailing current water policy in the west [January 23, 2005, "Pray for dry weather"]. He writes, "Early January surveys of snowpack show that the Colorado River Basin, which gathers runoff from Wyoming to Southern California, will receive 98 percent of 'normal' precipitation this year. If the rest of the winter meets historic averages, Lake Mead and Lake Powell - the West's most massive reservoirs which have shrunk over the past five years to 56 percent and 36 percent of capacity, respectively - will rise. That's good news not only for the recreationists who love to boat in the desert, but also for the tens of millions of people who rely on the river for agricultural and drinking water, including farmers in Arizona and urbanites in Las Vegas. But I wouldn't bet on the reservoirs filling up just yet. Scientists at the University of Arizona have discovered through analysis of the growth rings of trees that drought is a persistent visitor to the West. Over the past 500 years, a half-dozen major droughts, some lasting many decades, have struck the Colorado River Basin, according to research from the university's Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. So the current drought could last a long while, whether it is interrupted by an occasional wet year or not."
Update: Here's an article from the Denver Post about the signing of the Front Range water pact Saturday [January 23, 2005, "27 Front Range cities' water pact pledges to improve conservation"]. From the article, "The signing of the pact follows the release of the Statewide Water Supply Initiative, which found that Colorado likely will add another 2.8 million people by 2030. As a result, it will need at least another 202 million gallons of water annually. Currently, about 80 percent of Colorado's water supplies fall in the form of snow on the Continental Divide's west side. But about 80 percent of the population lives east of the divide. Fulfilling that need in the last century required massive construction projects to ship water from west to east, leading to bitter resentment among some residents of the Western Slope."
6:39:36 AM

SpongeBob Squarepants
Andrew Sulllivan: "What's interesting to me is that what Dobson is objecting to is not gay sex or gay relationships or gay identity, or any legislative or judicial proposal. What he objects to is tolerance of gay people, or teaching children that gay people deserve respect. That's SpongeBob's crime! Revealing, no? Now, recall that this man is the most powerful social conservative in Bush's Republican party."
6:34:41 AM

2004 Presidential Transition
Senator Wayne "We're going to default on T-Bills held by the Social Security Trust Fund" Allard of Colorado plans to re-introduce his bill banning gay marriage this session, according to the Rocky Mountain News [January 24, 2005, "Allard to revive marriage measure"]. From the article, "Allard said he believes Republican Senate leaders will send a different message today. He expects his amendment to be designated Concurrent Resolution 1, indicating at least symbolically that it is the top legislative priority. To become reality, the marriage amendment would require two-thirds majorities for passage in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. It then would require ratification by three-quarters of the states."
Daily Kos: "The Senate Judiciary Committee vote on the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General is scheduled for Wednesday, January 26, at 9:30 a.m." That should be fun to watch.
Update: According to the Colorado Politics weblog Senator Allard's gay marriage bill was a non-starter today. They write, "And, as the words buried in the AP write-up on Senator Allard's legislation indicate, the White House is not just backing away, they are running away from it. It's no mistake that Karl Rove's name appears in the AP story surrounded by paragraphs talking about the White House's reluctance to pursue this matter. Read between the lines, kiddies, the mastermind political operative from Texas has already killed Senator Allard's proposal."
Coyote Gulch thinks that Senator Allard should spend his time reducing the deficit and finding a way for the feds to honor the T-bills they've traded for Social Security payroll taxes. How about it Senator?
Update: Daily Kos: "From human rights groups to retired Latino military officers to Democratic Senators, the opposition to the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General is growing."
Update: Reuters: "President Bush plans to nominate former deputy Transportation Secretary Michael Jackson to the number 2 position at the Department of Homeland Security as part of a reshuffling at the top of the agency, the White House said on Monday."
Thanks to Blogs for Bush for the link.
5:33:19 AM

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