Coyote Gulch

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Giuliani or Clinton for President?
Oval Office 2008: "Opinion polls taken this far ahead of the 2008 presidential election are, of course, completely meaningless. But they're all the fun we're allowed the have right now, so we might as well make the most of them. Associated Press - carried by WCAX-3 TV in Burlington, Vt. - reports that a nationwide poll conducted by Canisius College 'shows former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani beating Senator Hillary Clinton if the 2008 presidential election were held today.' (Note that AP says 'the 2008 presidential election' rather than just 'the next presidential election'. I like to think that there really are pollsters out there asking questions about dated events being held on the wrong date. 'If the Fourth of July were held on the Twentieth of November, would you expect the fireworks to be bigger or smaller?") Giuliani doesn't just beat Hillary - he wins big: 54 to 38 per cent."

Elevated Voices: "I lean towards opposing the bid for the DNC convention. Denver has far more in common with Boston than New York or LA. I think the image boon will be temporary and the expenses the city will incur could be better spent elsewhere, such as on programs that benefit our own citizens. Let[base ']s make Denver the best it can be for us, rather than investing huge sums to showcase ourselves to others."

Category: 2008 Presidential Election

5:55:06 PM

Intelligent Design?
Here's an opinion piece on Intelligent Design from today's Denver Post [November 20, 2005, "Science and religion face off"]. From the article, "With controversies raging over the teaching of intelligent design in the classroom, people on opposite sides of the debate seem to agree on one thing: The answer is 'no.' They frame the issue in black-and-white terms, leaving no room for nuance and ambiguity. In doing so, they implacably pit religion and science against each other, harming both. On one side of the debate stand proponents of intelligent design, most notably at the Center for Science and Culture of the Discovery Institute in Seattle. They say they do not reject evolution outright, just the idea that complex biological structures can evolve by natural selection alone, without intervention by an intelligent designer. And they claim that their theory is not a religious concept because it says nothing about the nature of the designer. These are soothing words intended to obscure the real agenda of intelligent design's proponents: the destruction of modern evolutionary biology in pursuit of a religious agenda. There is nothing nuanced about this."

Political Wire: "Democratic insiders have raised from 'possible' to 'probable' the prospect of presidential bids in 2008 by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware,' Robert Novak reports."

Category: 2008 Presidential Election

8:42:41 AM

Party Unity?
Republican rancor over the November 1st election is still evident, according to the Denver Post [November 20, 2005, "Election wounds still raw in GOP"]. From the article, "State party leaders brought in a high-ranking mediator - Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman - to remind officials of their common cause. Mehlman was the featured speaker at a Friday night fundraiser, which attendees paid $75 per person to attend. 'One of the biggest applause lines I got in there was when I talked about the importance of party unity,' Mehlman said after the event. 'I talked about if you agree with somebody on 80 percent and disagree on 20 percent, you're an 80 percent friend, not a 20 percent enemy.'"

Category: Denver November 2005 Election

8:33:12 AM

Water Brokers

Here's a great article (the first of four parts) from the Denver Post dealing with water brokers [November 20, 2005, "Turning water into gold"]. From the article, "Everyone who buys a house in Denver's growing suburbs pays a hidden price for water. That first twist of the faucet in a new suburban home costs as much as $24,424 - more than twice the amount charged in any U.S. city outside metro Denver surveyed last year by the American Water Works Association. In semi-arid Colorado, there are well-known reasons for the high cost of water service. Among them: scant reservoir space and an immense mountain range separating water from people. A less-discussed reason is that in Colorado, water is property, and in much of the state, somebody already owns a right to use every gallon. Getting that water requires entering a volatile market where prices can double in an instant - as Broomfield and its neighbors have learned." Read the whole thing before it scrolls behind the Post paywall.

Here's an article from the Mohave Daily Times about distributing water from the Colorado River down south. From the article, "The first order of business, Fulp said, is to understand how much water is available in the river and how much of it is due to be delivered over the next month and year. The schedulers' job is to translate such long-range planning into the daily and even hourly operation of the lower Colorado's dams and reservoirs, he said. The goal is to meet water orders and maximize storage on the river so no excess water is allowed to flow across the international boundary. Any river water that flows into Mexico outside of scheduled deliveries does not count against Mexico's 1.5 million acre-foot allocation. The schedulers also are expected to hit target levels for the water elevation in lakes Mohave and Havasu and for the hydroelectric power output at Hoover, Davis and Parker dams. And to make sure the water arrives at its destination on time, they must adjust their deliveries for the time it takes water to move through the system: six hours from Hoover Dam to Davis Dam, three days from Parker Dam to the canals that funnel river water to farms just north of the U.S.-Mexico border. Adjustments made to the schedule are sent by computer to the Hoover Dam control center, a secure facility where the actual changes to water and power plant operations are made."

Category: Colorado Water

8:20:57 AM

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