Coyote Gulch

Monday, April 10, 2006

Disillusioned and complacent or hungry, agitated, and energized?
Political Wire: "In his latest National Journal column, Charlie Cook highlights the real danger for Republicans: 'The perception that Republicans have been in power too long -- not the corruption issue -- accounts for much of what is ailing the GOP this year. While the 'culture of corruption' chant will help keep Democratic voters in the Democratic column and sway a disproportionate number of independent voters to lean to the left, the biggest danger for the GOP is that its own voters will become disillusioned or complacent in an election in which the opposition's voters are hungry, agitated, and energized.'"

Category: Denver November 2006 Election

6:31:21 AM

Bayh for president?
Oval Office 2008: "Let me see if I've understood this correctly: New Hampshire argues that it should continue to have the first presidential primary in the nation because its voters take the process incredibly seriously and are therefore good at choosing the best person to be each party's presidential nominee. But, as soon as that first-in-the-nation status is threatened, it's OK to vote for a candidate for President of the United States, leader of the free world and the most powerful person on the globe, solely on the basis of whether or not they think New Hampshire's primary should be before all the others. That's the problem with retail politics - not all special offers are really such a bargain.

"Still playing the New Hampshire game - i.e. telling people in New Hampshire that you think it's really important that they stay first in the nation so that they don't hate you when the primary comes around - is Indiana Democratic Senator Evan Bayh. 'Bayh ... strongly backed the state's keeping its traditional role in the 2008 primary/caucus lineup,' at a recent fundraiser for a state Senate candidate, according to the Manchester Union Leader. Bayh 'said that despite efforts by national Democrats to insert a caucus or two between the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary, he believes the calendar should stay as is,' according to the Union Leader."

Category: 2008 Presidential Election

6:23:34 AM

Newbold: We've been fooled again
Lieutenant General Geg Newbold (RET.): "In 1971, the rock group The Who released the antiwar anthem Won't Get Fooled Again. To most in my generation, the song conveyed a sense of betrayal by the nation's leaders, who had led our country into a costly and unnecessary war in Vietnam. To those of us who were truly counterculture--who became career members of the military during those rough times--the song conveyed a very different message. To us, its lyrics evoked a feeling that we must never again stand by quietly while those ignorant of and casual about war lead us into another one and then mismanage the conduct of it. Never again, we thought, would our military's senior leaders remain silent as American troops were marched off to an ill-considered engagement. It's 35 years later, and the judgment is in: the Who had it wrong. We have been fooled again.

"From 2000 until October 2002, I was a Marine Corps lieutenant general and director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. After 9/11, I was a witness and therefore a party to the actions that led us to the invasion of Iraq--an unnecessary war. Inside the military family, I made no secret of my view that the zealots' rationale for war made no sense. And I think I was outspoken enough to make those senior to me uncomfortable. But I now regret that I did not more openly challenge those who were determined to invade a country whose actions were peripheral to the real threat--al-Qaeda. I retired from the military four months before the invasion, in part because of my opposition to those who had used 9/11's tragedy to hijack our security policy. Until now, I have resisted speaking out in public. I've been silent long enough.

"I am driven to action now by the missteps and misjudgments of the White House and the Pentagon, and by my many painful visits to our military hospitals. In those places, I have been both inspired and shaken by the broken bodies but unbroken spirits of soldiers, Marines and corpsmen returning from this war. The cost of flawed leadership continues to be paid in blood. The willingness of our forces to shoulder such a load should make it a sacred obligation for civilian and military leaders to get our defense policy right. They must be absolutely sure that the commitment is for a cause as honorable as the sacrifice.

"With the encouragement of some still in positions of military leadership, I offer a challenge to those still in uniform: a leader's responsibility is to give voice to those who can't--or don't have the opportunity to--speak. Enlisted members of the armed forces swear their oath to those appointed over them; an officer swears an oath not to a person but to the Constitution. The distinction is important."

Category: 2008 Presidential Election

6:04:32 AM

Snowpack

Snowfall in March helped increase the statewide snowpack over the southern mountains, according to the Pueblo Chieftain. They write, "Colorado's southern mountains finally received above-average snowfall during March, following one of the state's driest winters on record. But snowpack totals across the southern mountains continue to be well below the long-term average for April 1, according to the latest data from the Natural Resources Conservation Service SnoTel survey. The latest surveys show that snowpack totals in the Rio Grande Basin improved to 64 percent of average on April 1, up from only 40 percent of average on March 1. And the snowpack totals in the combined San Juan, Animas, Dolores and San Miguel basins improved to 68 percent of average on April 1, from only 46 percent of average on March 1. The southern tributaries of the Arkansas River also remain low - the Apishapa site registers only 21 percent of the average water content in its paltry snowpack - but the mainstream headwaters near Leadville still have more than 125 percent of average water content. Most of the sites in the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project collection area on the Western Slope also still show healthy snowpack well above average. Colorado's statewide snowpack now stands at 94 percent of average, an improvement over the 88 percent of average measured March 1, according to Edward Biggers, acting state conservationist with the NRCS."

Category: Colorado Water

5:29:49 AM

HB 1352

The Pueblo Chieftain editorial staff is urging the state house to pass HB 1352 [Concerning an expansion of water judges's jurisdiction to address the effects of a water right adudication on water quaility] on third reading today. From the article, "Colorado water law currently allows water court judges to consider water quality in exchange, or point-of-diversion, transfer cases. The law does not, however, take into consideration potentially injurious effects on the quality of water when the court hears the original change-of-use case. HB1352 simply gives owners of other water rights the opportunity to raise water quality issues in the original change-of-use case. It's a reasonable, fair and equitable extension of current law. The bill recognizes Colorado Water Quality Control Commission standards as the reasonable basis of measuring water quality. It also provides an exception for change-of-use applications involving small farm-to-farm or town-to-town water transactions. Based on an evaluation of the evidence, the water court judge is allowed to include a term or condition that addresses decreases in water quality caused by the change if the quality would fall below the commission's standards in effect at the time of the decree."

More Coyote Gulch coverage here.

Category: Colorado Water

5:23:29 AM

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