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Tuesday, March 13, 2007
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Blogging and politics
Swampland: "Twelve days ago, after David Iglesias went public, I said that if there turned out to be a broad conspiracy behind the firing of the U.S. Attorneys, 'I will take my hat off to Marshall and others in the blogosphere and congratulate them for having been right in their suspicions about this story from the beginning.'
"My hat is off. Josh Marshall at TalkingPointsMemo and everyone else out there whose instincts told them there was something deeply wrong and even sinister about the firings, and who dug around and kept writing about them while Iglesias decided whether to talk to the press or go quietly on to his next job, deserve tremendous credit."
"2008 pres"
6:28:29 PM 
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Community Supported Agriculture
New West: "In 1965, a group of Japanese mothers grew concerned about their children's increased consumption of imported foods and the associated loss of agricultural landscapes. In response, the women began teikei, the first Community Supported Agriculture projects that would encourage people to eat food grown in their communities, pay farmers an equitable amount and keep them farming."
6:25:14 PM
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Iraq
Iraq the Model: "The front in Baghdad has been remarkably quiet in the last 48 hours, until about an hour ago when we started to hear many explosions in the distance."
Captains Quarters: "The new counterinsurgency strategies of David Petraeus have shown remarkable initial success. USA Today reports that the US and Iraqi forces now employing the Baghdad security plan have captured thousands of insurgents as well as large numbers of Mahdi Army militia members -- and Moqtada al-Sadr has yet to poke his head above ground."
"2008 pres"
6:22:44 PM
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National Parks
According to Colorado Confidential, U.S. Senator Ken Salazar is pushing Interior to include Colorado in their planning budget for expanded conservation and service progrmas. They write, "The U.S. Department of the Interior is planning to provide 'provide up to $3 billion of new public and private investment to improve and expand national park conservation, preservation and visitor service programs by the National Park Service's 100th birthday in 2016.'
"Colorado Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar wants to be sure that Colorado partakes of this bounty so he's asking Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to hold a public meeting on this 'Centennial Challenge' in Colorado, preferably at one of the state's national park gateway communities.
"2008 pres"
6:20:21 PM
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? for president?
eyeon08.com: "Well this might be a bombshell. Or maybe not...Richard Land, Southern Baptist Convention political guru, says that he would not vote for Rudy Giuliani or Hillary Clinton."
TPM Cafe has the reaction to the U.S. Attorney firings from Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Political Wire: "In Nevada, a new Research 2000 poll released today finds that Sen. Hillary Clinton leads among likely Democratic caucus voters with 32% support, followed by Sen. Barack Obama at 20%. John Edwards and Al Gore were tied for third place at 11%. On the Republican side, Rudy Giuliani leads with 38% support, followed by Sen. John McCain at 18% and Newt Gingrich at 11%."
"2008 pres"
6:07:34 PM
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? for president?
Political Wire: "'After years of political dominance, Republican voters now view their party as divided and say they are not satisfied with the choice of candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008,' according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
"'Forty percent of Republicans said they expected Democrats to take control of the White House next year, compared with 46 percent who said they believed a Republican would win. Just 12 percent of Democrats said they thought the opposing party would win the White House.' In addition, 'while nearly 6 in 10 Democratic voters in the poll said they were satisfied with the candidates now in the race for their party's nomination, nearly 6 in 10 Republicans said they wanted more choices.'"
"2008 pres"
6:19:40 AM
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Iraq
Dowbrigade: "Meanwhile, the upcoming battle for Fallujah is shaping up as the most intense in Bush's war up to this point, with booby traps, land mines, improvised explosive devices, blind alley deathtraps, provocative incidents designed to draw American troops into massacres, capture, death, mutilation and public display of American boys and girls' dead bodies, hidden urban ambushes, random suicide bombers and sophisticated rocket attacks.
"And that is just what THEY will be doing to US. In return you can bet your bottom greenback (better do so quick while they're still worth something) that the US forces will strike back with every diabolical high-tech conventional weapon within the US arsenal, including aerial bombing, cluster bombs, bunker-busing bombs, laser guided bombs, air to ground rockets, fragmentation grenades, concussion grenades, tanks, armored personnel carriers, and a few new toys so secret that if we knew their details we would be required by the Homeland Security Act to kill ourself."
Captain's Quarters: "Remember last week, when the Pentagon's failure to publicly discuss its Plan B to the surge indicated a lack of due diligence by military planners? At the time, we said that if the DoD was foolish enough to discuss other contingency plans openly, the media would cast that as a lack of confidence in the surge plan."
"2008 pres"
6:15:56 AM
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Denver on state 'watch list'
"We're from the state government and we're here to help," is the word from Mike Coffman's office, according to the Denver Post. From the article, "Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman on Monday announced an 'election watch list' for counties that experienced severe election mishaps and said four counties, including Denver, had been placed on the list. Coffman said Denver, as well as Montrose, Pueblo and Douglas counties, will receive extra support from his office to move them off the watch list and head off a potential court-ordered takeover of their election operations. Coffman said all four counties experienced 'significant problems in conducting' their elections but had made improvements. He said elections in those areas already were being overseen by new leadership since last fall's voting. He said the goal of the watch-list program - the first such program in Colorado - was to avoid what he termed the 'nuclear option' of a court-mandated takeover of a county's election apparatus."
"denver 2007"
6:11:29 AM
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HB 1197
HB 07-1197 [pdf], Concerning the Authority of a County to Abate Conditions that Contribute to a Violation of a General Stormwater Quality Permit Issued to the County by the Department of Public Health and Environment, has been approved by the State Senate, according to the Fort Collins Coloradoan. From the article, "A bill allowing Colorado counties, including Larimer, to enforce water pollution regulations passed the Senate unanimously Monday on third reading. House Bill 1197 will allow some Colorado counties, including Larimer, to enforce storm water regulations set forth by the federal government that currently fall under the state[base ']s authority. The bill is now awaiting House of approval of Senate amendments before heading to Gov. Bill Ritter's desk for final approval into law. The bill's House sponsor, Fort Collins Democrat Randy Fischer, said he doesn't see the Senate amendments threatening the bill's viability and looks forward to seeing it passed into law."
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"colorado water"
6:00:12 AM
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Global warming: The Earth is a beautifully complex system
Here's an article about using technology to cool the earth in conjunction with reducing greenhouse gases, from the Financial Express. They write, "...most campaigners and policymakers have focused on cutting emissions, but the idea of deliberately cooling the Earth has never gone away. Most people think cutting emissions is the more sensible path. But global emissions are still rising, and seem likely to do so for years to come, so some scientists believe it might be worth thinking about a second line of defence, if only as an insurance policy.
"The idea has gained new currency in recent months. Climate Change, a scientific journal, published a series of papers on geo-engineering last August, including one by Paul Crutzen, a Nobel prize-winning atmospheric chemist. In November the Carnegie Institution and America's space agency, NASA, held a conference on the topic. And American officials have lobbied for geo-engineering research to be included among the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's latest report on climate-change mitigation. Of all the schemes proposed, the most ambitious (and expensive) idea would be to place a giant sunshade in space at the inner Lagrange point, the position on the line between the Earth and the sun where the combination of centripetal and gravitational forces allows an object to maintain a constant position between the two. If the object is big enough, it could block out enough of the sun's rays to cool the Earth. Roger Angel, an astronomer at the University of Arizona, has suggested assembling a cloud of millions of small, reflecting spacecraft less than a metre across at this point, where together they would block out 1.8% of the sun's rays. Dr Angel estimates that the total mass of the sunshade required would be around 20m tonnes. The shade would consist of individual craft around one metre across, put into position using a combination of magnetic launchers and ion propulsion. He believes the total cost of the project would be a few trillion dollars, or less than 0.5% of world GDP. Dr Angel admits that this is a somewhat far-fetched solution, and does not believe it would be attempted unless all other options had failed. But he has been given a small grant by NASA to explore the idea."
"2008 pres"
5:53:44 AM
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Lake Powell pipeline?
Utah has selected an engineering firm to start the design and build process for the Lake Powell Pipeline, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. From the article, "The state's Board of Water Resources has selected a contractor to begin preliminary engineering and environmental studies for the proposed Lake Powell pipeline. MWH, a worldwide firm based in Colorado, was chosen over four other companies that submitted bids to complete the $5.6 million project...
"The studies, which will take 18 months to complete, will analyze construction issues, such as the physical route of the 130-mile pipeline. They will also review alternatives of the water needs in the communities the pipeline will serve, as well as water conservation options. Study results will be turned over to the Bureau of Land Management, which will use the information as part of its own environmental analysis process. The BLM, which manages most of the land the pipeline will be built on, will decide whether to grant permits for the project. The Lake Powell pipeline will link the giant reservoir on the Utah-Arizona border with Kane and Washington counties. An additional 35-mile spur will be built that will connect the main pipeline with Iron County."
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"colorado water"
5:42:55 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/14/09; 9:07:13 PM.
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