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Sunday, February 19, 2006
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Captains Quarters: The Wrong Tipping Point
Captains Quarters: "The real racial tipping point, and the one that Newsweek misses, comes as more blacks have opened campaigns for national and gubernatorial offices as Republicans. Lynn Swann, Michael Steele, Ken Blackwell, and Keith Butler have made waves for identifying as conservatives or center-right candidates under the GOP banner."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
7:36:31 PM 
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Andrew Sullivan: Fukuyama On Form
Andrew Sullivan: "I have no doubt that Frank Fukuyama's essay in the New York Times Magazine will prompt a lot of debate. For my part, I think he gets his analysis almost perfectly right. In retrospect, neoconservatives (and I fully include myself) made three huge errors in the last few years. The first was to over-estimate the competence of government, especially in extremely delicate areas like WMD intelligence. The shock of 9/11 provoked an understandable but still mistaken over-estimation of the risks we faced. And our fear forced errors into a deeply fallible system. The result was the WMD intelligence debacle, something that did far more damage to the war's legitimacy and fate than many have yet absorbed. Fukuyama's sharpest insight here is into how the near miracle of the end of the Cold War almost certainly lulled many of us into over-confidence about the inevitability of democratic change, and its ease. We got cocky. We should have known better."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
7:33:01 PM
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Cringely: Congress Thinks It Can Force Technical Changes on the Internet, but Congress Is Wrong
Robert Cringely: "When this column began in the spring of 1997, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was a new law that had changed how communication services were provided in the United States, reflecting the new possibilities of what was then popularly called the Information Super Highway. Nine years later, Congress is now in the throes of rewriting that same law to reflect new realities and lessons learned, with the result that there is a lot of jostling for political position. Telephone and cable TV companies find themselves, this time, on the same side of the discussion, pushing Quality of Service arguments they say are necessary for their own survival. Companies like Google and Yahoo, Amazon and eBay -- companies that exist solely in cyberspace as corporate citizens of these same networks -- say that what the telcos and cable companies propose will hurt their businesses and business in general. Some techies worry that a counter-reformation of sorts is taking place that will literally destroy the Internet, taking with it some or all of the gains that people have made through broader and easier communication.
"Who is right?
"I think they are all wrong, and here's why..."
2008 Presidential Election
7:29:45 PM
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Ritter for governor?
Susan Barnes-Gelt gives Bill Ritter a ringing endorsement in her column in today's Denver Post. She writes, "Ritter may fail the glad-handing, good ol' boy, political animal test. He is serious, smart, principled and comfortable in his skin.
"He passes the authenticity test with flying colors - an exam that Bob Beauprez would surely fail.
"Bill Ritter has a vision for a successful Colorado. He understands that until we address the challenges to K-12 and higher education, our workforce won't be able to meet the demands of the 21st century.
"He also recognizes that the federal government will not solve the health care and health insurance dilemmas. He knows that state leadership is critical to controlling prescription costs, insurance burdens and health care access. He is committed to convening a broad, informed process to examine best practices and come up with a Colorado solution."
Category: Denver November 2006 Election
8:15:29 AM
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Amendment 38 - Petition Rights Amendment
John Andrews is urging voters to pass Amendment 38 this fall. He writes, "Through the years, however, concentrated power at the capitol and courthouse has undermined the effectiveness of citizen petitions on street corners. Petitioners have found themselves stymied by bureaucratic stalling tactics and shut out by legislative word games. Now, watchdog groups have a proposal to make the process fair again. It's called the Petition Rights Amendment, or PRA. Voters will see it on the November ballot as Amendment 38.
"PRA offers common sense in signature checking, ballot titles and protest rulings; impartiality in the voter guide and by public agencies; petition elections every November and by all local governments; uniform rules statewide; and no more phony emergencies by the legislature to suspend petition rights. What a fraud for citizen review of even such routine legislative bills such as a kids' license plate (SB 100) or an arts council reshuffle (SB 49) to be blocked by a 'public peace and safety' clause.
"Election 2006 may feature petition votes on illegal aliens, eminent domain, classroom spending and traditional marriage (all currently leading in the polls), as well as marijuana and abortion (currently trailing). But your most important vote may be a 'yes' on the Petition Rights Amendment itself. We need to make sure that the formula holds true, that citizen petitions in fact remain greater than concentrated power."
Category: Denver November 2006 Election
8:10:04 AM
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Increased efficiency = higher consumptive use?
Now here's a dilemma for you. According to Steve Witte, Water Division 2 engineer, more efficient use of agricultural water has the potential to decrease water flowing in rivers, due to farmers increasing the land under production or growing more crops on the acreage they have. Inefficient methods have left more water in the system in the past.
From the Pueblo Chieftain: "Farming more efficiently could reduce river flows and create trouble for the state in its obligation to deliver water to Kansas under the Arkansas River Compact, the state's top water rights enforcement official in the valley said last week.
"That's because water decrees - granted in court to make sure other rights are not injured - traditionally considered volume and not necessarily consumptive use, the amount plants need to grow and produce a crop, said Steve Witte, Water Division 2 engineer...
"Witte asked the board for some guidance in dealing with increased use of the same water. Sprinklers and drip irrigation allow farmers to apply less water to crops and even grow some crops more intensely on the same acreage.
"That means more consumptive use from the same diversion of water, he said. That could decrease return flows from fields and injure downstream water users - both within and outside the state. In Colorado's case, some of those users are in Kansas.
"When the water rights change, such as in the sale of canal water to a city, the consumptive use is accounted for, but if a farmer's consumptive use increases, there is no way to account for it, Witte said...
"Witte outlined three possible routes for looking at consumptive use: Changing the definition of water rights; Discouraging government subsidies for more efficient farming; Enforcing compact provisions that allow 'improvements' in water use as long as they don't deplete the river...
"Witte said he is only trying to maintain equity under the compact. Signed by Kansas and Colorado in 1949, the compact apportions the Arkansas River between the two states.
"In 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Colorado violated the compact by developing wells. Colorado was penalized only for well pumping from 1985, when the case was filed. State engineer rules during that time were insufficient to address the problem."
Category: Colorado Water
7:50:21 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/14/09; 8:02:02 PM.
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