Coyote Gulch

Friday, March 4, 2005

Social Security
Josh Marshall: "In generalities, the point is widely understood. But in this article by Sidney Blumenthal from yesterday, the specifics are assembled together. The point being that nothing President Bush is saying now about Social Security is new. In fact, almost word for word his statements are close to identical to Republican attacks on Social Security from as far back as 1936..."
"Social Security is about spreading out the risk and the security by having near-universal participation in one program. That's what it is. You pay in through the course of your working years and after you retire you receive your guaranteed benefit every month for the rest of your life. It is that issue of guarantee -- which, in its nature, only a program like Social Security can provide -- which the president and his supporters are trying to do away with, either all at once or in stages."
"So take away all of your policy particulars and computations and flow-charts and analyses. And set them to one side. That is the issue at the core of all of this debate. It defines what kind of society we live in. Its future rests in the hands of Senate Democrats. And all manner of honor or infamy is in store for the ones who make the difference."
12:26:13 PM

Google
Slate: "When good search engines go bad."
7:05:45 AM

Colorado Water
HB 1177 is the subject of this article from the Cortez Journal. They write, "Penry's bill creates a 27-member interbasin compact committee that will include experts in environmental, municipal, agricultural, industrial and recreation to decide how to handle interbasin compact negotiations. It also creates a round-table in each of the seven water divisions, along with round-tables for the metropolitan areas of the South Platte and Arkansas river basins to provide forums. The model for the Colorado plan is the Colorado River Compact, which divvies up water from the river between Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico, and to so-called lower basin states, California, Nevada and Arizona. With populations growing and the drought sticking around for a fifth year in some places, the government has been encouraging states and everyone else to conserve and cooperate. Two years ago, California water agencies reached a sharing agreement aimed at reducing how much river water it takes. Russell George, Colorado's director of natural resources who helped draft the legislation, said the commission would not be able to change Colorado law, which recognizes water as an individual property right that cannot be touched. Several lawmakers objected to the proposal because of claims from supporters that the best use of water would be determined by the amount of money it can bring."
Howling at a Waning Moon: "WASHINGTON (March 3, 2005) -- Members of the U.S. House of Representatives today introduced bipartisan legislation to block the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposal allowing partially treated human sewage to be routinely dumped into the nation's waterways. The authors of the Save Our Waters From Sewage Act are Congressmen Bart Stupak (D-MI), E. Clay Shaw, Jr. (R-FL), Mark Steven Kirk (R-IL) and Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ)."
7:03:49 AM

Denver May 2005 Election
Supporters of the new Denver Justice Center are rolling in dough, according to the Denver Post [March 5, 2005, "Pro-jail effort nabs $222,800 in Feb." From the article, "The campaign supporting Denver's bid to build a jail and courtrooms downtown raised $222,800 last month, putting it on track to quickly eclipse the total garnered by 2001's unsuccessful jail campaign."
Here's a critical look at the new Justice Center from Westword.
Here's an article from February 17th from the 5280 Weblog.
6:54:20 AM

Denver November 2006 Election
Here's the Rocky Mountain News story about Congressman Mark Udall dropping out of the 2006 race for governor [March 4, 2005, "Sights set on Senate"]. From the article, "He said that although the gubernatorial race was tempting, he has a stronger desire to serve in Congress and focus on important federal issues. He said that resolve was steeled by his visit to Iraq last September." The Rocky quotes Representative Udall as saying, ""Last year, I joked about having launched the shortest U.S. Senate campaign in Colorado history. I am now embarking on what may be the longest."
Here's the coverage from the Denver Post [March 4, 2005, "Udall nixes run for governor, targets Senate"].
6:31:52 AM

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