Monday, May 15, 2006

Government surveillance Brian Ross and Richard Esposito (via ABC News): "The FBI acknowledged late Monday that it is increasingly seeking reporters' phone records in leak investigations. 'It used to be very hard and complicated to do this, but it no longer is in the Bush administration,' said a senior federal official. The acknowledgement followed our blotter item that ABC News reporters had been warned by a federal source that the government knew who we were calling." Thanks to Josh Marshall who adds, "Ross's report is still awfully murky. But it suggests that the FBI is using new provisions of the Patriot Act which allows for the expanded use of so-called National Security Letters. As Ross explains, 'the NSLs are a version of an administrative subpoena and are not signed by a judge. Under the law, a phone company receiving a NSL for phone records must provide them and may not divulge to the customer that the records have been given to the government...' "This is what the Patriot Act is being used for. In a free society, law enforcement goes before independent magistrates. Apparently we're now beyond that." Thanks to 2020 Hindsight for the graphic. Category: 2008 Presidential Election 8:54:12 PM

Immigration Captain's Quarters: "How will that sell? Predictably. Tom Tancredo and Peter King, both House Republicans, tore the speech apart. Immigration activists Raul Hinojosa and Cecilia Munoz, the latter with the National Council of La Raza, appeared cautiously optimistic. That doesn't surprise me; the news for them was that the President did not get diverted from his course by his fractious base... "So much for border security. "Two possibilities exist. Either Bush doesn't care about border security, or the White House couldn't coordinate its policy spokespeople to stay on message, or perhaps both. None of these options build confidence in this administration." Andrew Sullivan: "I have to say I found little wrong with it. The president's insistence on both goals - border security and gradual legalization of millions of illegal immigrants already here - makes sense to me. His eschewal of inflammatory rhetoric was welcome. His enthusiasm for immigration and his empathy with immigrants are genuine, it seems to me. The rhetoric wasn't inspiring, but it wasn't pedestrian either. In all this, he was doing what a president should do: try and bring factions together for a constructive and comprehensive reform. I fear the tenor of the debate on the right has gone too far for the president to win back much of his base; and the Democrats are not likely to go out of their way to help him win a victory this year. But the future base of the Republican party, if it manages to appeal to the exploding Latino population, will be in a better mood. The Bush we saw tonight was more like the Bush we thought we were getting in 2000. Which is why, perhaps, his increasingly extreme and angry party will only turn on him some more." Category: 2008 Presidential Election 8:44:03 PM

Global warming Science Blog: "Fabled equatorial icecaps will disappear within two decades, because of global warming, a study British and Ugandan scientists has found. In a paper to be published 17 May in Geophysical Research Letters, they report results from the first survey in a decade of glaciers in the Rwenzori Mountains of East Africa. An increase in air temperature over the last four decades has contributed to a substantial reduction in glacial cover, they say." Category: 2008 Presidential Election 8:37:15 PM

Religion and politics Andrew Sullivan: "One of the most disturbing aspects of the rise of Christianism has been the attempt to coopt the armed forces. We have already seen what happened at the Air Force Academy, where Christianists corralled individuals, Christian and otherwise, into public praying along the lines of the religious right. We have seen a top army general publicly depicting the war on Islamist terrorism as a fight between Christ and Muhammed. We have another general sending out campaign pamphlets from his work computer, urging the election of Christianists to Congress. No one objects to private and voluntary prayer groups that allow servicemembers a choice as to how they collectively pray. But in public meetings, where everyone is present, the prayers should indeed be non-sectarian, inclusive, perhaps ideally be a moment of silence, as current military rules insist. That's what the Christianists object to. They seek to impose their faith as the public one for all Americans, and have slipped such a provision into the military appropriations bill. The National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces opposes it." Category: 2008 Presidential Election 5:57:06 PM

Government surveillance Josh Marshall: "I think part of the issue for many people on the administration's various forms of surveillance is not just that some of activities seem to be illegal or unconstitutional on their face. I think many people are probably willing to be open-minded, for better or worse, on pushing the constitutional envelope. But given the people in charge of the executive branch today, you just can't have any confidence that these tools will be restricted to targeting terrorists. Start grabbing up phone records to data-mine for terrorists and then the tools are just too tempting for your leak investigations. Once you do that, why not just keep an eye on your critics too? After all, they're the ones most likely to get the leaks, right? So, same difference. The folks around the president don't recognize any real distinctions among those they consider enemies. So we'd be foolish to think they wouldn't bring these tools to bear on all of them. Once you set aside the law as your guide for action and view the president's will as a source of legitimacy in itself, then everything becomes possible and justifiable." Category: 2008 Presidential Election 5:52:30 PM

Gore for president? Andrew Sullivan: "My own preference for Bush over Gore in 2000 was primarily because I feared Gore would increase government spending and regulation too much. Yeah: I know. Gore's credibility on the environment - a growing issue - his history of foreign policy hawkishness but opposition to the Iraq war, and his general association with what has become Clinton era nostalgia, do indeed make him an interesting possibility. Then there's just the karma. If we're looking to heal the wound of 2000, who better?" 2008 Presidential Election 5:49:26 PM

America the Fearful Bob Herbert: "In the dark days of the Depression, Franklin Roosevelt counseled Americans to avoid fear. George W. Bush is his polar opposite. The public's fear is this president's most potent political asset. Perhaps his only asset. Mr. Bush wants ordinary Americans to remain in a perpetual state of fear -- so terrified, in fact, that they will not object to the steady erosion of their rights and liberties, and will not notice the many ways in which their fear is being manipulated to feed an unconscionable expansion of presidential power." Thanks to Mathew Gross for the link. Category: 2008 Presidential Election 5:46:02 PM

Military dependence on foreign oil Stygius: "Envivronmental degradation, strategic dependence on loathsome regimes, economic wealth flowing out our borders to said regimes, all conributes to the national security crisis this country faces as a result of oil dependence. And what can be a starker example of that, than our military's dependence on imported oil." Category: 2008 Presidential Election 7:12:37 AM

Clinton or Gore for president? Josh Marshall: "Andrew Sullivan just published an email from a reader who says it'll be Al Gore in 2008 for the Democrats, not Hillary. I could see it. I could totally see it. I don't think Hillary is anywhere near as strong as she looks or as people seem to think she is. And Gore would be formidable." Andrew Sullivan: "She seems unstoppable as a candidate for president, and yet has huge liabilities for the Democrats. Will someone emerge to get in her way?" Category: 2008 Presidential Election 7:09:21 AM

Immigration Bull Moose: "The Moose observes that the President may be dispatching the Guard not so much to defend the borders but rather to protect the Republican majority. Desperate times demand desperate action. No, the Moose is not referring to the illegal immigration problem at our nation's borders. The Moose is talking about resolving the civil war within the Republican Party. The Political Office in the White House is receiving reports that potentially millions of conservative refugees are streaming across the border from the President's popularity. They are fleeing a party that has betrayed them with high taxes and gross incompetence. These immigrants who are threatening to stay home in November and Mr. Rove must call on all of the nation's resources to send them home." Category: 2008 Presidential Election 7:06:10 AM

Glen Canyon Remembered It must be big dam day here on Coyote Gulch. Here's a story about a new dvd from W.L. 'Bud' Rusho from the Deseret News. The dvd details the construction of Glen Canyon dam and the rush to save archaeological sites before the waters rose. Lake Powell is the principal storage for Colorado to meet the downstream demands on Colorado River water. From the article, "Last week Rusho released 'Glen Canyon Remembered,' a DVD that provides a haunting glimpse of the canyons that have been lost beneath the waters of Lake Powell. Running one hour, 10 minutes, with extras such as a historic film, the DVD is available at Ken Sanders Rare Books, 268 S. 200 East. Besides the lore of the river and the beauty of the vanished canyons, the DVD provides stories about the massive archaeological salvage project that attempted to save some of the region's prehistoric treasures. It describes the history of the region, including John Wesley Powell's two explorations; surveys for railroads and dam sites; the 'discovery' of Rainbow Bridge, which had been known to Indians in the area; ill-fated gold dredging; river-running; early filmmaking in the canyon; and the mysterious disappearance of the young artist Everett Ruess. A historian who lives in Holladay, Rusho has authored books about Ruess, who vanished in 1934 after leaving Escalante and heading toward Davis Gulch. As a public affairs chief, Rusho headed a team of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation photographers recording the construction of Glen Canyon Dam near Page, Ariz. The dam was built between 1956 and 1964, with the first three years dedicated to excavating and shaping the site. This was followed by placing the concrete and building the power plant. Rusho started his part of the project in 1958, and Lake Powell began filling in 1963..." "When Lake Powell was still quite low, a friend invited Rusho to visit the Crossing of the Fathers, where the Dominguez-Escalante expedition had cut steps in the slickrock in the 1770s. He was horrified by the thought that the lake would inundate the historic site. 'All of a sudden things came together,' he recalled. He thought, 'What have I done? What have I participated in? . . . It's terrible.' Rusho has preserved some of that history and natural beauty in "Glen Canyon Remembered.' Especially interesting from a scientific standpoint is his section on the Glen Canyon Salvage Project, which carried out archaeological excavations before the reservoir covered an estimated 2,000 ancient sites. Under federal law, the Bureau of Reclamation paid for the salvage operation. The bureau passed money along to the National Park Service, he said, which contracted with the University of Utah and the Museum of Northern Arizona. Under the leadership of the famous U. archaeologist Jesse Jennings, teams worked against the relentless rise of the lake water. They only tried to 'salvage the principal things,' Rusho said." Category: Colorado Water 6:43:51 AM

Animas-LaPlata update Here's an update on the construction of the Animas-LaPlata project from the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. From the article, "The Animas-La Plata water project is more than 35 percent complete and about half a million dollars under budget, according to engineers involved with the behemoth undertaking in Durango. The project has been in the works for nearly 50 years to settle water-rights claims for the Southern Ute, Ute Mountain Ute and Navajo Nation tribes. It will divert water from the Animas River to be stored in Lake Nighthorse, which will hold 120,000 acre-feet of water. A half-acre-foot is enough water to supply an average family of four with water for one year. More than 60 percent of the water will settle water-rights claims for the tribes, but other beneficiaries will include the Colorado Water Conservation Board, the Colorado Water and Power Resources Development Authority, the Animas-La Plata Water Conservancy District, the San Juan Water Commission and the city of Durango. When completed in 2011, the project will provide the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and people of the Four Corners area with a reliable water supply for their future needs, without taking water resources away from existing water users in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico. The project also will supply 4,680 acre-feet of water per year through a pipeline from Farmington, N.M., to Shiprock, N.M., for the Navajo Nation... "From the intake on the Animas River, which includes a large fish screen that returns fish back to the river, there is a large pumping plant where workers are installing more than 500 individual concrete placements. The plant, when complete, will lift the water 550 feet. The water will then be piped 2.1 miles to Lake Nighthorse, named after retired U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Ignacio. At the lake site, the Ridges Basin Dam is undergoing construction. The dam, which will be the most expensive feature of the project, will be 275 feet tall and will cost more than $80 million. The dam will be an embankment earthen-fill dam constructed of about 5.6 million yards of fill material... "The dam should be complete by 2008. An 8-foot-diameter pipe, bored through a mountain, will carry water past the dam and downstream, eventually taking water back to the Animas via a 4.5-mile jaunt down Basin Creek. Lake Nighthorse won't likely be filled until 2011, with filling taking a full two years from 2009 to 2011... "The Bureau of Reclamation has not built a new dam since the early 1990s, and the Animas-La Plata Project will include the first major dam of the 21st century." Category: Colorado Water 6:24:36 AM

More Fryingpan water for the Colorado River Water Conservation District? Aspen Times: "The Colorado River Water Conservation District is trying to secure the water from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to fulfill its mission is to provide water for Western Slope users. The river district wants to preserve that water for future municipal and industrial uses in the growing Western Slope, according to spokesman Dave Merritt. After securing the water, it would sell it to users. The Bureau of Reclamation, which operates Ruedi Reservoir, is reviewing the request and seeking public comment under the strict guidelines of the National Environmental Protect Act... "The water purchase has a potential adverse effect on fishing in the Fryingpan River, which the Colorado Division of Wildlife classifies as 'Gold Medal' waters for the amount and size of trout it harbors. The river district's water purchase could lead to more water releases from Ruedi in late summer - when users demand it. In theory, the river level could be pushed past the 250 cubic feet per second level the bureau tries to maintain for optimal fishing. The purchase could also affect the Aspen Yacht Club during the later part of the summer. The club needs the water to be at a certain level to use its facilities. Ruedi holds 102,369 acre-feet of water. The yacht club needs 93,000 acre-feet or more... "...the request also has environmental advantages. Merritt said the river district anticipates demand will grow by 300 acre-feet per year for the 5,000 acre-feet it wants to acquire. Therefore, it would have as much as 4,700 acre-feet available for other uses in 2006. It doesn't anticipate selling all the water it acquires until the year 2021. Rather than just let that water sit in Ruedi, the water district is proposing to draw an environmental benefit from it. Releasing the water during winters could maintain higher flows on the Fryingpan River, Merritt said. The Bureau of Reclamation tries to maintain a minimum streamflow of 39 cfs on the river during winter. Environmentalists and anglers fear that level is too low too support good habitat. The Roaring Fork Conservancy is monitoring conditions to test the theory." Category: Colorado Water 6:14:41 AM

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