Monday, June 25, 2007

Iraq Center for American Progress: "With the Iraq war well into its fifth year, the Bush administration still lacks a realistic plan for the Middle East and Iraq. The United States must reclaim control of its core national security interests by taking active steps to stabilize the entire Middle East and abandon the delusions at the heart of President Bush's policies. Otherwise, U.S. security will continue to suffer by weakening the U.S. military and draining resources away from destroying terrorist networks such as Al Qaeda." Thanks to Oliver Willis for the link. "2008 pres" 6:48:20 PM

Immigration Captain's Quarters: "As backers of the compromise immigration bill move to resuscitate it on the Senate floor, the American voter remains overwhelmingly opposed to it. In the latest Rasmussen poll conducted this weekend, only 22% of likely voters supported the bill, and a majority outright opposed it." "2008 pres" 6:09:45 PM

Gay rights Andrew Sullivan: "Marriage In California: The state Supreme Court just asked the two parties in the marriage equality case some new and intriguing questions." Politcal Wire: "Elizabeth Edwards 'came out in support of legalized same-sex marriage Sunday -- taking a position that she acknowledged is at odds with her husband, presidential candidate John Edwards,' the San Francisco Chronicle reports." "2008 pres" 6:08:49 PM

Center Pivot Sprinkler photos All you water nuts will love the photos of Center Pivot Sprinklers from SLVDweller. They write, "SLV Dweller loves the way center pivot sprinklers look, even though we know they are a pretty inefficient use of water. " "colorado water" 6:01:45 PM

? for President? Pollster.com: "A new Cook Political/RT Strategies national survey 844 registered voters (conducted 6/21 through 6/23) finds: Among 378 Democrats, Sen. Hillary Clinton (at 32%) leads Sen. Barack Obama (22%) in a national primary, former V.P. Al Gore trails at 12%, former Sen. John Edwards at 11%. When Gore is excluded, Clinton leads Obama 35% to 24%. Among 347 Republicans, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain both run at 20%, former Sen. Fred Thompson runs at 14%, former Gov. Mitt Romney at 10%." Political Wire: "New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg 'could have a serious impact on the 2008 presidential race, rivaling billionaire Ross Perot's influence in 1992,' a new CNN/Opinion Research poll suggests." Larry Sabato: "Suppose Mrs. Clinton wins in November 2008. Democrats would have to live with the consequences. There is simply no question that Senator Clinton would be the third deeply polarizing President in a row, following her husband's divisive and partially wasted tenure and George W. Bush's deeply disappointing turn at bat. We bet that she would have a short honeymoon and would be unable to convince her millions of critics and detractors that she had changed--or was different than they long ago concluded she was." Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for the link. Josh Marshall: "Thompson beating Rudy in coveted ex-wife endorsements." Pollster.com: "A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation national survey of 907 registered voters (conducted 6/22 through 6/24) finds: Among 383 Republicans, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (at 30%) leads former Sen. Fred Thompson (19%) and Sen. John McCain (18%) in a national primary, former Gov. Mitt Romney trails at 9%, former Speaker Newt Gingrich at 8%. Among 450 Democrats, Sen. Hillary Clinton (at 35%) leads Sen. Barack Obama (23%) in a national primary, former V.P. Al Gore trails at 16%, former Sen. John Edwards at 13%. When Gore is excluded, Clinton leads Obama 43% to 25%." Political Wire: "A new Siena Research Institute survey in New York finds Sen. Hillary Clinton leading the presidential race in her home state with 43%, trailed by Al Gore at 19%, Sen. Barack Obama at 11%, and John Edwards at 9%. Among Republicans, Rudy Giuliani is also way ahead in his home state with 48%, followed by Sen. John McCain at 13%, Fred Thompson at 11%, and Mitt Romney at 6%." Political Wire: A new San Jose State University poll in California finds Sen. Hillary Clinton leading her Democratic rivals with 37%, followed by John Edwards and Sen. Barack Obama tied at 15% each. Notes pollster Phil Trounstine: "Clinton is being swept along by her support among women. If Edwards, Obama or any other candidate can peel women away from Clinton, the Democrats could have a competitive race in California. But if Clinton keeps her grasp on women, it's not going to be much of a contest here." In the Republican race, Rudy Giuliani leads with 25%, followed by Fred Thompson at 16%, Sen. John McCain at 14% and Mitt Romney at just 5%. Rocky Mountain News: Richardson is trying to move in a different direction: up - as in up from fourth place in most of the Democratic polls. Richardson is trying to do that by taking the toughest stand for withdrawing troops from Iraq, by pitching his international résumé, by touting his environmental record and by running humorous ads. "I'm moving up," he tells reporters as he leaves an event in Des Moines on Friday. "You'll hear about it. I'm moving up." The Moderate Voice: "Good news for Hillary Clinton and Fred Thompson (who has yet to officially announce his candidacy): the two of them lead the polls in Nevada." "2008 pres" 5:54:23 PM

Executive Privilege Here's Part II of the Washington Post's look at Vice President Dick Cheney. They write: Shortly after the first accused terrorists reached the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Jan. 11, 2002, a delegation from CIA headquarters arrived in the Situation Room. The agency presented a delicate problem to White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, a man with next to no experience on the subject. Vice President Cheney's lawyer, who had a great deal of experience, sat nearby. The meeting marked "the first time that the issue of interrogations comes up" among top-ranking White House officials, recalled John C. Yoo, who represented the Justice Department. "The CIA guys said, 'We're going to have some real difficulties getting actionable intelligence from detainees'" if interrogators confined themselves to humane techniques allowed by the Geneva Conventions. From that moment, well before previous accounts have suggested, Cheney turned his attention to the practical business of crushing a captive's will to resist. The vice president's office played a central role in shattering limits on coercion in U.S. custody, commissioning and defending legal opinions that the Bush administration has since portrayed as the initiatives, months later, of lower-ranking officials. Cheney and his allies, according to more than two dozen current and former officials, pioneered a novel distinction between forbidden "torture" and permitted use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading" methods of questioning. They did not originate every idea to rewrite or reinterpret the law, but fresh accounts from participants show that they translated muscular theories, from Yoo and others, into the operational language of government. Please remember to read the whole article. "2008 pres" 6:55:46 AM

Immigration The Daily Kos makes the Progressive case against the current immigration bill. They write: In fact, this immigration bill is an historically bad bill, one that will undermine wage markets and which will permanently cripple skills training in vital sectors of the economy. And -- contrary to Lou Dobbs and the nativists -- the critical problem with the bill has nothing to do with the path to citizenship provided therein. Hell, everyone this side of the Minutemen agrees that there needs to be a humane path to citizenship for those undocumented workers who are living, working, and contributing in the United States. The fact that this bill provides a version of that path is about the only positive aspect of the legislation. No, the fatal flaw in this bill isn't "amnesty" -- it's the euphemistically termed "temporary worker program." The temporary worker program has nothing to do with immigration policy. To the contrary -- it is a guaranteed cheap labor program grafted on to an immigration bill. When most people think of "immigration" to the US, they think of people coming to America to build a new life for themselves and their families, just as their ancestors did. But the temporary worker program has nothing to do with building American families and American dreams. Under the program, 400,000-600,000 guest workers would enter the country every year on two-year visas. Although the visas can be renewed twice, recipients would be denied any path to permanent residency or citizenship. In fact, the guest workers would be precluded from even applying for permanent residency while here on temporary visas. In short, the "temporary workers" will be just that -- "temporary," and "workers." Not "immigrants." And they can never be "Americans." Instead, we will have created a permanent caste of non-citizens with no hope of ever becoming citizens. A class of over half-a-million workers without a voice in the political process, here at the sole sufferance of their employers. "2008 pres" 6:46:13 AM

New Colorado Springs wastewater rates? Colorado Springs is looking at adjusting wastewater rates, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette. From the article: ...the city is looking at adjusting its bills, not to generate more money but to distribute the cost more fairly. It appears residential customers are getting the better end of the deal. Commercial and industrial customers account for only 18 percent of the treated volume but are billed for 35 percent of the total. That and other inequities should be eliminated, Utilities officials said last week when they requested permission to adjust how wastewater bills are computed. The City Council, acting as the Utility Board, told staffers to base this fall's rate case on the revision... For decades, the city has based year-round wastewater bills on an average of the lowest two months of freshwater use from December to February. Over time, that method has led to the city processing more sewage than it gets paid for, although the current rates have allowed the utility to recover its costs. The city recently analyzed the problem as it prepares to bring a new wastewater plant -- the J.D. Phillips Water Reclamation Facility at Mark Dabling and Garden of the Gods roads -- online next month. It's also drawing up plans for a third plant south of the city and looking at cost recovery issues. The proposed method calls for basing wastewater rates yearround on the average water use from November through March or actual use, whichever is less... He said the changes will be "revenue neutral," meaning the amount of money won't change, although individual billings are likely to. Bills could go up or down, but nearly two-thirds will have changes of less than 10 percent. In one analysis, the annual residential charge declined by $9.32. Grossman said if the new method is approved, it would be used with Jan. 1, 2008, billings based on water usage in November and December. "colorado water" 6:30:57 AM

Alternatives to PSOP Delays in legislation authorizing the Preferred Options Storage Plan have entities that get water from the Arkansas Basin looking to other plans, according to The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article: With plans to look at enlarging Lake Pueblo shelved for the foreseeable future, other options are moving ahead. Slowly. Just as no one has ever been sure that Lake Pueblo can be safely enlarged, the alternatives to enlargement are equally uncertain. Water projects take years to plan and complete. Planners are moving more cautiously than ever in a time when water quality, recreational and environmental concerns must be considered... In the short-term, Colorado Springs is already pursuing a 40-year "if-and-when" contract to store 28,000 acre-feet in Lake Pueblo... The uncertainty has prompted U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., to step in. Salazar offered a plan Saturday to study the proposed PSOP enlargement of Lake Pueblo and Turquoise Lake, along with a multipurpose dam on Fountain Creek, that could proceed without the IGAs. Water providers just learned of his plan and will need time to consider it, however... Excess capacity contracts with the Bureau of Reclamation give water users the opportunity to store water in Lake Pueblo if and when it is not full of Fryingpan-Arkansas Project water brought over from the Fryingpan River through the Boustead Tunnel at Turquoise Lake. That's most of the time, since Lake Pueblo rarely fills - on average there is about 131,000 acre-feet of space available in Lake Pueblo, or half of its non-flood capacity. Before the drought of 2002, Reclamation excess capacity contracts averaged about 15,000 acre-feet annually. Since then, the average has grown to more than 25,000 acre-feet annually and requests grow every year. In 2006, Reclamation determined up to 80,000 acre-feet of water could be stored without a significant environmental impact over the next five years... The Pueblo Board of Water Works obtained the first long-term excess capacity contract in 2000 with a 25-year deal that will eventually allow up to 15,000 acre-feet. Aurora just completed negotiations for a 40-year contract for 10,000 acre-feet of storage, which it would use to move water out of the valley... The other part of PSOP was the excess capacity plan, which appears to be progressing without clear direction from Congress. PSOP legislation in 2004 sought to legitimize Aurora's place in the valley, which Southeastern earlier had questioned. Legislation introduced this year by U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., suggested just the opposite - that Fry-Ark legislation never intended the project as a vehicle for moving water out of the valley. Even within the valley, it's not clear who can or cannot use the lake to store water and under what terms. Most users store under year-to-year contracts rather than a long-term plan... Pueblo West had hoped to gain 5,500 acre-feet of firm space, a one-year supply, in Lake Pueblo enlargement. Now, [Don Saling, manager of the Pueblo West Metro District] is looking at a long-term contract as his best option. It has relied on one-year if-and-when contracts since 1999, a process Saling calls "tedious." [Colorado Springs] already has spent $11 million on environmental studies for its Southern Delivery System, a $1 billion-plus plan to supply Colorado Springs water needs until 2046, and could face another round of environmental expenses on the excess-capacity contract. Nevertheless, the city of 400,000 is planning to apply for the long-term contract before year's end and wants to have SDS online by 2012. Initially, the 28,000 acre-foot contract will be sufficient for SDS, or any of the alternatives under review by Reclamation. However, Colorado Springs hoped to gain 30,000 acre-feet from Lake Pueblo enlargement and will look at other options if that plan stays on the shelf, [Gary Bostrom, water supply general manager for Colorado Springs Utilities] said... For Fountain, a partner with Colorado Springs in SDS, PSOP lost much of its attraction three years ago when Larry Patterson took over as utilities manager. One of Patterson's first steps was to reduce participation in SDS from 14 percent to 3 percent. At the same time, the city withdrew its request for 10,000 acre-feet under potential enlargement of Lake Pueblo... Fountain relies on 50 percent groundwater and 50 percent surface water to serve a booming population of more than 21,000. Some of the ditch rights it is buying are used to augment flows reduced by groundwater pumping. The trade-off was that Fountain had to build a reverse osmosis plant to treat water, also expensive, but more reliable than the timely completion of SDS and PSOP, Patterson said... The Pueblo Board of Water Works continues to work toward expansion of Clear Creek Reservoir as an alternative to the 5,000 acre-feet it hoped to gain through Lake Pueblo expansion. The water court filing for the expansion came shortly after PSOP failed in Congress for the fourth year in 2004... Meanwhile, the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District continues to contest Reclamation's ability to contract with Aurora - one of the biggest loose ends as PSOP legislation stalls. Lower Ark has a 400 acre-foot temporary storage contract, but isn't eligible for a long-term contract because much of the district is outside the tightly drawn Southeastern boundaries. More Coyote Gulch coverage here, here, here, here, here and here. "colorado water" 6:21:36 AM

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