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Tuesday, April 3, 2007
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Israel
Andrew Sullivan: "A brilliant speech, made all the more poignant by the official response."
"2008 pres"
6:59:14 PM 
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? for Denver City Council?
DU Today: "The Source sent questionnaires to District 6 incumbent Charlie Brown, who is running unopposed, and the four District 7 Denver City Council candidates running in the May 1 election. Districts 6 and 7 include the University of Denver and its neighborhoods. Their responses follow..."
Thanks to Denver Politics for the link.
"denver 2007"
6:40:03 PM
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Iraq
Josh Marshall: "I don't disagree with this. I'd say the two points can be made in unison since they are two sides of one coin. The president is vetoing this money bill because it sets a timeline. And he wants to stay in Iraq forever which almost no one left in America agrees with. The point is, don't hang back and let the president's lies hold the stage. At the moment that's what I'm seeing."
"2008 pres"
6:35:03 PM
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? for president?
Romney lead the Republican pack in fundraising 1st quarter. Today eyeon08.com writes, "Has Mitt Romney joined his father as one of the rare 'peace candidates' in a GOP primary? Is he trying to suck up Chuck Hagel's space? Or does he just think that Sam Brownback might have been on to something? In any case, Duncan Hunter found his prey and is attacking: 'Romney is absolutely wrong in recommending a secret timetable,' Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., tells ABC News in a telephone interview while campaigning in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 'Secret timetables are bad because in the end they all become public and the enemy uses them to estimate the limit on America's endurance.'"
Colorado Pols: "Republican Presidential frontrunner Rudy Giuliani is coming to Denver on April 16. Click here (PDF) to see the invitation and the host committee."
Caucus Cooler: " The final money tally: Romney 23 mil; Rudy 15 mil; McCain 12.5 mill; Brownback 2 mil; Tancredo 1 mil; Huckabee 500K."
Political Wire: "Sen. Hillary Clinton's once double-digit lead in New Hampshire 'has eroded substantially since February, while rival John Edwards has made a run toward the front of the pack,' according to a new CNN/WMUR poll. The survey found that Clinton leads with 27% of likely Democratic voters in the Granite State, down from 35% in the same poll in February. Meanwhile, Edwards, who was the choice of just 16% in February, saw his support jump to 21%, vaulting him past Sen. Barack Obama into second place."
"2008 pres"
5:41:07 PM
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Hickenlooper for mayor?
Denver Politics: "There's a move afoot to jettison Mayor John Hickenlooper from office. The dean of Denver political reporters, Fred Brown, published an article in Sunday's Denver Post detailing a sneaky plan to get a Republican into the mayor's office. The article was entitled 'Opposing a Teflon mayor.'"
"denver 2007"
7:10:48 AM
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War on terror
ABC News: "Iran has more than tripled its ability to produce enriched uranium in the last three months, adding some 1,000 centrifuges which are used to separate radioactive particles from the raw material. The development means Iran could have enough material for a nuclear bomb by 2009, sources familiar with the dramatic upgrade tell ABC News."
Thanks to Captain's Quarters for the link.
"2008 pres"
6:40:03 AM
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Global warming: The Earth is a beautifully complex system
unbossed: "In its Massachusetts vs. EPA ruling issued yesterday, the Supreme Court found that the Clean Air Act does, in fact authorize EPA to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles. The ruling states: 'While the Congresses that drafted §202(a)(1) might not have appreciated the possibility that burning fossil fuels could lead to global warming, they did understand that without regulatory flexibility, changing circumstances and scientific developments would soon render the Clean Air Act obsolete. The broad language of §202(a)(1) reflects an intentional effort to confer forestall such obsolescence.' The majority opinion (PDF), authored by Justice Stevens, conveyed that the five justices were unimpressed by the administration's excuses for why EPA shouldn't be regulating these emissions (or why the court shouldn't be deciding whether it could)."
Blogs for Bush: "While there are some who state that CO2 cannot be considered a pollutant, since it is a compound necessary for the cycle of life itself, the bigger picture demands an answer as to why SCOTUS has inserted itself in a debate that is clearly extra-Constitutional in scope. Secondly, to whom is the EPA, a governmental agency, but not a branch of government, accountable? Thirdly, where is the check and balance against SCOTUS in this matter, in which they have clearly overstepped their bounds in the balance of power in extra-Constitutional areas of policy that clearly belong to the purview of the Representative (Executive and Legislative) branches of government? Also, has SCOTUS, via their ruling, created another branch of government, unaccountable to the governed?"
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (via The Gavel): "The Bush Administration is becoming increasingly isolated in its refusal to take action to prevent global warming. The scientific consensus on global warming is rock solid. The House and Senate are moving ahead. The Administration insisted that the Environmental Protection Agency's hands were tied, but the Supreme Court today debunked that argument. It's time for the Administration to join the search for solutions to climate change.
"Regarding pollutants from power plants and factories, the Administration has used the regulatory process as a backdoor way to rewrite clean air laws so that the President's corporate allies don't have to upgrade their air pollution controls when they upgrade their plants. The Supreme Court put a stop to this practice today. We will all breathe more freely -- literally -- as a result."
"2008 pres"
6:28:20 AM
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? for president?
Captain's Quarters: "The key state in the last two presidential elections has been Florida, and pollsters have focused more attention on the Sunshine State the last few years to test the electoral mettle of candidates declared and presumed. Quinnipiac takes the latest look at Florida's political temperature, and it finds Rudy running hot: 'Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has opened double-digit leads over top 2008 Democratic presidential contenders in Florida, beating either New York Sen. Hillary Clinton or former Sen. John Edwards 50 - 40 percent, and topping Illinois Sen. Barack Obama 52 - 36 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.'"
Josh Marshall: "I don't know if he was the first. But yesterday here at TPM, David Kurtz referred to the McCain trip to Baghdad as a Dukakis-in-a-tank moment for the once-widely-respected senator from Arizona. And he really hit it on the mark. In fact, with McCain's lackluster fundraising and leaden poll numbers already in place I wonder if it might not become a defining moment."
Political Wire: "A new SurveyUSA poll in California finds Sen. Hillary Clinton leading the Democratic presidential race with 43%, followed by Sen. Barack Obama at 26% and John Edwards at 17%."
Captain's Quarters: "In a surprising turn, the biggest fundraiser in the Republican primary race turns out to be Mitt Romney. Earlier today, the Romney campaign announced that they had raised $23 million in the first quarter of 2007, far outstripping frontrunner Rudy Giuliani, who didn't get his money machine into full swing until last month."
eyeon08.com has video of Club for Growth's Pat Toomey talking about Republican candidates.
New West: "What Bill Richardson says he would do if elected President: 'On my first day in office, I'd end the war in Iraq. On my second day, I'd announce a plan for achieving national energy independence.' Richardson made these remarks during a Q-and-A after a speech he gave at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. During the speech, Richardson said that the administration, consumed by the Iraq war, had lost focus of the real threat of a 'nuclear 9-11.' 'It took a Manhattan project to create the bomb,' Richardson said. 'We need a new Manhattan project to stop the bomb -- a comprehensive program to secure all nuclear weapons and all weapons-usable material, worldwide.'"
Political Wire: "The most important thing to keep in mind is that raising money is not a direct measure of a presidential candidate's viability. It's interesting because it's a measure of support other than polls, but campaign history is littered with examples of candidates that are good at raising money and don't ultimately win their party's nomination."
"2008 pres"
6:22:56 AM
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Tancredo for president?
From the Denver Post, "Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo declared his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election this morning on a radio talk show in Des Moines, Iowa.
Tancredo's candidacy will be focused almost entirely on immigration issues, which he hopes to bring to the forefront among the leading Republican candidates of Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain. The Littleton Republican is one of the nation's most outspoken critics of allowing Mexicans and Central Americans to cross the border and obtain jobs in the United States. He is a staunch supporter of erecting an impenetrable fence along the 2,000-mile border. He also believes the government should sanction employers who hire undocumented workers, reasoning that the jobs would dry up and the workers would return home. Tancredo also favors lowering the pace of legal immigration. He has said that slowing all immigration would give people who have come to this country a chance to better assimilate, to learn the language and to do what he considers other important cultural touchstones."
Here's the coverage from the Rocky Mountain News. They write, "He's among the longest of long-shots in a crowded GOP field, but already the Littleton Republican is declaring a victory of sorts. The way Tancredo sees it, just by running he has won a place in the 2008 debate for his crusade against illegal immigration. 'Once you make this decision, you have to say, to both yourself and those who are supporting you, that you're in it for the long haul. You're in it to win,' Tancredo told the Rocky Mountain News. 'Certainly, the fact that we'll force the debate on this issue to reach a higher level, that's great. So one way or the other I end up winning as far as I'm concerned.' Tancredo has gained a national following as the face -- and outspoken voice -- of the hard-line, immigration reform movement."
"2008 pres"
6:10:43 AM
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Fry-Ark space for Aurora?
The Pueblo Chieftain keeps driving the conversation around the Aurora Long-Term Contract with the Bureau of Reclamation. Here's an article about opposition from the Lower Arkansas Water Conservancy District. From the article, "A long-term federal water storage and exchange contract with Aurora fails to mention protection of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project or the needs of the Arkansas Valley as a purpose or need. The Bureau of Reclamation says the environmental assessment sufficiently covers protection of the Fry-Ark Project in the details of the study. The chairman of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District disagrees, however, and says a full environmental impact statement is needed. 'It's the obligation of the bureau to fulfill the purpose and need of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, which was to benefit the people of the Arkansas Valley,' John Singletary said Monday. 'Obviously, when you have a river that is 200 percent overappropriated, I have difficulty finding their conclusion acceptable.'[...]
"A final draft of the proposed contract is available for public comment until June 4. The purpose and need of the environmental assessment was written by the bureau based on Aurora's proposal, said Kara Lamb, a spokeswoman for the bureau. 'Yes, it reflects what Aurora was requesting,' Lamb said. 'We studied what they were requesting as compared to what would happen were they not to make that request.' The bureau's environmental report says the purpose and need for the action is to allow Aurora to more efficiently move water from the Arkansas to the South Platte basin for present needs and future growth. It does not mention any benefits to the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project or to the Arkansas River basin...
"'Something's wrong with the study,' Singletary said. 'Somebody walked through it with a white cane, because if you drive through the valley, you can see what's happened.' Aurora should have realized the risks and expense of moving the water it purchased on the Rocky Ford Ditch and Colorado Canal beginning in the 1980s, Singletary said. 'I've always told Aurora it's not our job to help them move the water out of the valley,' Singletary said. 'It's not the bureau's job, either.'"
"colorado water"
5:53:06 AM
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Global warming: The Earth is a beautifully complex system
Here's a short article about noctilucent clouds from the Denver Post. From the article, "Since their discovery 120 years ago, strangely luminescent clouds called noctilucent clouds have been creeping slowly toward the equator.
Once confined to Earth's poles, the bizarre clouds have now been spotted above central Colorado, and they appear to be getting brighter and more numerous, too, said David Rusch, a University of Colorado atmospheric scientist. This month, NASA plans to launch the $110 million AIM (Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere) mission to measure noctilucent clouds and the circumstances in which they form - which may be linked to climate change. The satellite will measure air temperature and pressure, moisture content and cloud dimensions. Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder will control the satellite, process data and try to understand what some call the planet's most mysterious clouds.
"Noctilucent clouds appear only at night, when their altitude - 50 miles up in the atmosphere - lets them catch sunlight no longer visible from Earth's surface, said James Russell, an atmospheric scientist at Hampton University in Virginia, the NASA mission's principal investigator. That makes noctilucent - 'night-shining' - clouds appear almost iridescent, he said. Most normal clouds are less than 10 miles up...
"Researchers have many ideas about why noctilucent clouds may be growing in number and brightness, and most of them are related to global warming. The greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which warms Earth's surface, paradoxically cools the upper atmosphere, CU's Rusch said. Noctilucent clouds - which are made of ice crystals, not water droplets - need very cold temperatures to form, he said. In the atmosphere's coldest reaches, there's very little water vapor, a key ingredient for cloud formation, Rusch said. Observed increases in water vapor in the atmosphere - a consequence of warming - may also make it easier for the clouds to form, he said. Methane, another powerful greenhouse gas, may also be involved, said Scott Bailey, an engineering professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. Methane's presence can increase the amount of water in the upper atmosphere, through a complicated chemical dance."
"2008 pres"
5:41:49 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/14/09; 9:09:48 PM.
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