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Thursday, April 28, 2005
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Fill Lake Powell first
Here's an background article from the Pueblo Chieftain highlighting all the good reasons that the feds should let Lake Powell fill before Lake Meade. Lake Meade is ahead of Lake Powell to recharge. If it's forced on the downstream owners it's usually called a "water grab."
Thanks to MakesMeRalph for the link.
Colorado Luis: "The next phase is to get the various states to agree on a plan for sharing water during sustained drought years. Due to poor drafting when the Colorado River Compact was signed in 1922, the Lower Basin states have been able to argue that in a sustained drought, the Upper Basin states (CO, NM, UT and WY) must go completely dry before the Lower Basin states suffer a reduction from the 7.5 million acre feet per year they claim under the Compact. The Upper Basin states contend that the intent is to split the river 50/50. We're not close to having to fight that out yet, but there is enough distrust among the states that there has been no agreement on water releases from Lake Powell, which sits just above the demarcation line between the upper and lower Colorado River basins."
Category: Colorado Water.
8:32:25 PM 
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Bolton Junkies Frist Magnamity
Stygius: "The life or death of John Bolton's nomination is now a waiting game; one that will be played out by the schedule of the Senate and the struggle over documents. Fun stuff, but tough for distant spectators like myself. While the Democrats gained crucial breathing space by delaying the vote until May 12, the White House is making plenty of use of that time as well. What are Bolton junkies to do while the big boys hash this out?"
RockyWatch: "But the Rocky needs no further investigation. Heck no. Bolton's a swell guy. How does the Rocky know? They just know."
The Moderate Voice: "Message from Senator Bill Frist to Democrats: I'll give you debate time but absolutely no filibuster."
Bull Moose: "The Moose concedes a point to the right and makes one about the left. In the cultural war, the right has made a valid argument about the role of religion in politics - the left is hypocritical when it asserts that religion should have no role in politics. In truth, there is a long and proud progressive faith tradition."
Category: 2004 Presidential Transition
7:26:31 PM
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Presidential Press Conference
The Moderate Voice: "President George Bush will hold his first prime time press conference in over a year, raising the question: what took him so long? The press conference will be at 8:30 EDT (does that stand for End DeLay Term? Well, probably not...) tonight. According to reports the prime purpose is to give more details on Social Security reform. The irony is: George Bush has usually done quite well with his press conferences. True, his performances may have been uneven, but in general he makes his case quite well if he's done his prep and he increasingly shows the kind of humor that many Americans find appealing. Perhaps the decision was made to put him out there because of the political context."
7:03:33 AM
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Referendum C
Here's a short background article about Referendum C from the Rocky Mountain News [April 28, 2005, "C's backers selling it with 'earmarking'"]. From the article, "It seems simple: Legislators ask to keep billions they're scheduled to kick back to taxpayers. Legislators tell voters how they'd spend the money. Voters decide if it's worth it. But it's not that simple."
Category: Denver November 2005 Election
6:03:48 AM
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Basin Mitigation
HB 1296 was killed in the State House yesterday, according to the Rocky Mountain News [April 28, 2005, "Water 'mitigation' dies"]. From the article, "Plains lawmakers won a water battle Tuesday over their Western Slope colleagues, killing a bill that would have required compensation - "mitigation" - if water is transferred from one basin to another. Because Colorado water primarily has moved from the Western Slope to the thirsty Front Range cities and plains farms, the battle lines were clear...Later, Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, said she was disappointed, but was sure the issue would be back next year. 'There is inherent damage when water moves out of a basin,' she said."
Category: Colorado Water
5:59:17 AM
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Filibusters and Bolton
U.S. Senator Ken Salazar has backed off calling Focus on the Family the anti-Christ, according to the Denver Post [April 28, 2004, "Salazar says he misspoke in calling Focus "anti-Christ"]. From the article, "Salazar, a first-term Democrat, said he was intending to call the Colorado Springs group 'un-Christian,' a term he began applying last week after Focus attacked his stance on judicial nominations in the Senate. 'I spoke about Jim Dobson and his efforts and used the term the anti-Christ,' Salazar said in a written statement from his office. 'I regret having used that term. I meant to say this approach was un-Christian, meaning self-serving and selfish.'"
Here's the coverage from the Rocky Mountain News [April 28, 2005, "Salazar regrets 'Antichrist' barb"].
Mike Littwin weighs in on Salazar's apology in his column in today's Rocky Mountain News [April 28, 2005, "Littwin: Salazar loses high ground in Dobson fight"]. Littwin writes, "I'm not qualified to jump into a debate about who might or might not be the Antichrist. From my reading, it's, well, too early to tell. Politically speaking, though, this was a minor disaster. That's why he apologized. But an apology won't change the fact that Salazar has given away much of the high ground he had gained in his fight with Dobson. Of course, Salazar didn't pick the fight. It picked him. Those in the political arm of Dobson's group attacked him in newspaper and radio ads. They said Salazar was aligned with anti-Christian forces. They scolded Democrats for threatening to filibuster the most conservative of the Bush judicial nominees, as if it were a moral issue, overlooking the fact that Republicans had used a different set of rules to hold up Clinton nominees."
Colorado Pols: "The battle between Senator Ken Salazar and Focus on the Family took a new turn today...towards more confusing rhetorical statements. So we thought we'd take this opportunity to reconstruct the timeline of what actually happened in the last week, rhetoric aside."
Political Wire: "Filibuster vote hard to predict."
The Rocky Mountain News editorial staff is singing the praises of John Bolton in today's online edition [April 28, 2005, "Bolton: right tonic for an ailing U.N."]. They claim that Bolton is being treated unfairly, "The smear campaign against Bolton has gone on far too long. If the Foreign Relations Committee can't bring itself to endorse him soon, the White House ought to make good on its threat to force a showdown vote on the Senate floor. The only drawback is the cover it would provide those committee members who've sheepishly allowed the president's nominee to be abused in such a shameful manner...No, the character assassination of John Bolton is an excuse to kill a nomination that mostly Democrats oppose on ideological grounds. President Bush wants Bolton to help prod a dysfunctional U.N. toward reform, contrary to a foreign-policy establishment willing to subjugate U.S. interests for multilateralism's sake. Those opposed to Bolton are opposed to a policy that takes seriously the implications of international agreements, insists on accountability, and emphasizes the primacy of America's own domestic laws."
Stygius: "Arms Control Wonk recently posted a piece by Dr. John Steinbrenner, a prominent arms control expert at Maryland."
Josh Marshall: "There's a fascinating article...in (the) Wall Street Journal about the state of the Bolton nomination. All the parliamentary niceties aside, the upshot is that Republicans may bring Bolton's nomination to a vote even if he doesn't get approved by the Foreign Relations committee."
Category: 2004 Presidential Transition
5:38:50 AM
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DeLay Rule
U.S. House Republicans agreed yesterday to roll back ethics rules changes passed earlier this year that would have helped Tom DeLay hold on to his leadership position, according to the Denver Post [April 28, 2005, "GOP bends to pressure over rules"]. From the article, "The decision - announced by Republican leaders Wednesday morning and ratified Wednesday night by a 406-to-20 House vote - was a rare concession of error by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and other GOP leaders who had pushed the rules through over strong objections from Democrats. The standoff had left the chamber with no mechanism for investigating the mounting questions about trips DeLay accepted."
Josh Marshall: "Eventually, the House Republican Caucus had to knuckle under on the DeLay Rule because of all the constituent outrage. But at the same time, figuring no one would notice, they eviscerated the House Ethics Committee so as to do everything in their power to protect the recidivist ethics rules violator DeLay."
Blogs for Bush: "President Bush 'Takes Risk' for Tom Delay."
5:31:19 AM
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Justice Center
Coyote Gulch received email today asking if I would link to the Fail the Jail website. I've had the link up on my category page for a few days now. I confess that I probably missed the kick-off of the website. So much to read... So the answer is, "Of course, Christine, I will link to Fail the Jail just as I have to SafeDenver.com."
Coyote Gulch attempts objectivity in his election coverage. Please stop laughing now.
Opponents of the new Justice Center feel that unused space in current city buildings could be utilized more efficiently obviating the need for the new constructruction at the proposed location, according to the Denver Post [April 28, 2005, "Courthouse a waste of space?"]. From the article, "But two city-owned buildings - the Denver Permit Center and the Wellington Webb building - have at least 85,000 square feet of vacant space, according to city records. The Rocky Mountain News building, purchased by the city for $16 million, is 140,000 square feet."
Westword has a short interview with John Simonet about the new Justice Center today. They write, "As the fight over Referendum 1A heats up, Off Limits turned to a cooler, calmer head -- that of former manager of safety John Simonet , who ran the Denver County Jail for two decades -- for his take on the new Justice Center proposal."
Locations for early voting.
Category: Denver May 2005 Election
5:24:37 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/14/09; 7:28:32 PM.
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