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Wednesday, June 20, 2007
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The NYT gets it right regarding the federal role in regulating streams and wetlands. They write:
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers have finally issued guidelines about which streams and wetlands are subject to federal jurisdiction. Unfortunately, they are just as confusing as the Supreme Court decision they are supposed to carry out -- guaranteeing endless litigation, while increasing the chances that valuable wetlands will be needlessly destroyed.
That is why Congress needs to move quickly to approve clarifying legislation that would reaffirm the broad federal protections lawmakers intended when they passed the Clean Water Act more than 30 years ago. The sponsors of a bill that would do just that -- Russell Feingold in the Senate and John Dingell and James Oberstar in the House -- should hold hearings and get Congress moving.
The nub of the problem is an ambiguous 2006 ruling involving a Michigan landowner who had been denied permission to develop wetlands that had no obvious connection to other bodies of water. Four conservative justices ruled that federal jurisdiction extended only to navigable waters and adjacent wetlands. Four ruled that the law covered all waters, the government's traditional view. Justice Anthony Kennedy sought to split the difference, ruling that a wetland could be protected if the government could establish a "significant nexus" between it and a navigable body of water somewhere downstream...
The bills in Congress would cut through all that and make sure that federal jurisdiction applied to all waters, large and small, permanent or ephemeral. This makes perfect hydrological sense: very few, if any bodies of water are truly isolated and nearly all have some biological connection to a larger ecosystem.
"colorado water"
7:28:27 PM 
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Don Surber: "Ending illegal immigration is the Republican Party's only hope for 2008...Gingrich gets it: 'The rule of law is non-negotiable.'"
"2008 pres"
6:36:35 PM
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Colorado Confidential: "Abortion opponents are a step closer to putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot in Colorado. They're pointing to this Rocky Mountain News article.
SquareState.net: "Colorado women: Your uterus belongs to Fundies
"denver n2007"
6:35:05 PM
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TalkLeft: "MSNBC reports that, as promised, President George Bush has just vetoed the bipartisan stem cell research bill."
"2008 pres"
6:31:51 PM
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Andrew Sullivan: "A notable vote occurred yesterday: the New York State Assembly passed a bill allowing gay couples to have the same marriage rights as straight couples. The vote was 85 - 61, after governor Eliot Spitzer's ballsy and principled support. Now it's up to the State Senate."
"2008 pres"
6:29:29 PM
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Don Surber: "Last year, Hillary Clinton received boos at the Take Back America conference. This year, she received more boos. Her response? 'I love coming here every year.'"
Political Wire: "In Nevada, a new American Research Group poll shows Sen. Hillary Clinton leading the Democratic presidential race with 40% of likely caucus participants, followed by John Edwards and Sen. Barack Obama tied at 16%. Gov. Bill Richardson, who has made the most visits to the state, attracts just 6% support. On the Republican side, Mitt Romney leads with 23%, followed by Rudy Giuliani at 21% and Sen. John McCain and Fred Thompson tied at 16%."
Andrew Sullivan: "Booing Hillary: It will help her, I'd say."
"2008 pres"
6:28:25 PM
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From the Washington Post, "The Bush administration is laying the groundwork for an announcement of Tony Blair's appointment as a special Middle East envoy for Palestinian governance and economic issues after he steps down as Britain's prime minister, following two months of behind-the-scenes negotiations, according to U.S. officials."
Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for the link.
"2008 pres"
6:26:26 PM
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R. Timothy Patterson (via the Financial Post): "Climate stability has never been a feature of planet Earth. The only constant about climate is change; it changes continually and, at times, quite rapidly. Many times in the past, temperatures were far higher than today, and occasionally, temperatures were colder. As recently as 6,000 years ago, it was about 3C warmer than now."
Thanks to Don Surber for the link.
Captain's Quarters: "China has overtaken the US in carbon emissions, thanks to a growth rate that has far exceeded predictions and a suprising reduction in US emissions. Of course, the Guardian fails to mention that aspect in its report, but it does note that the US warned that any emissions protocols that excluded China would fail."
"2008 pres"
6:23:09 PM
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Yahoo! "The Homeland Security Department, the lead U.S. agency for fighting cyber threats, suffered more than 800 hacker break-ins, virus outbreaks and other computer security problems over two years, senior officials acknowledged to Congress."
Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for the link.
"2008 pres"
5:55:17 PM
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Well, this is interesting. Say hello to The Iraq Moratorium. You can sign the pledge letter. It reads, "I hereby make a commitment that on Friday September 21 & the Third Friday of every subsequent month, I will break my daily routine and take some action, by myself or with others, to end the War in Iraq."
We wonder what they're gonna do with the dough they're collecting?
"2008 pres"
5:43:29 PM
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Here's an article about making sure that the 2008 Democratic Presidential Convention is green from today's Denver Post. They write:
In the waning moments of the 2004 Democratic National Convention, organizers teamed with businesses to recycle 1.3 tons of political signs, paper and cardboard boxes into commemorative posters for conventioneers. Environmentalists hailed the 24-hour campaign as a perfect example of what could be accomplished when the will existed. And in the shadow of the Boston convention - the most environmentally conscious in history - conditions are ripe for Denver to go further, said Dan Ruben, executive director of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Conventions, the group that "greened" the 2004 convention. "What excites me about 2008 is that the mayor and the governor are on board from the beginning," he said. Efforts to green the Aug. 25-28, 2008, gathering are already taking shape. Organizers today are expected to unveil plans to "green" the housing and communications processes. "Our goal is to make this the greenest convention ever," said Leah Daughtry, chief executive of the 2008 convention.
More coverage from The Rocky Mountain News. They write:
Blue is the color of Democratic territory on the national map, but green will be the unofficial color of next summer's Democratic National Convention. Party officials are vowing to make the convention the most environmentally friendly gathering in memory. Thousands of delegates will be encouraged to ride bicycles between their hotels and the Pepsi Center, to recycle everything from confetti to coffee cups, and to buy "carbon offsets" to repair the damage done from travelers flying into Denver from around the world.
"2008 pres"
6:36:46 AM
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David Harsanyi comments on the Real ID Act, in his column in today's Denver Post. He writes:
Here's a gem of an idea. Gather all your most personal information. Place it on a card that can be read by strangers. Hand it over to, yep, the Department of Motor Vehicles for safekeeping. This apparently is the federal government's idea of keeping us safe. In 2005, the Republican Congress passed the Real ID Act, a de facto national identification program that would force every Coloradan to tell the government their life story, so to speak. And when I write Congress "passed" the Real ID Act, I actually mean that Congress "passed the Real ID Act in the middle of the night like a bunch of slippery weasels," as it was attached to an unrelated emergency spending bill on Iraq, Afghanistan and tsunami relief. It isn't an uncommon practice in Washington to piggyback bad policy. But, then again, this isn't your average pork. It's a momentous and wide-ranging intrusion on privacy. An imposition that would permanently put your once-confidential information onto something called "common machine-readable technology." Doesn't everyone want personal information - Social Security numbers, for instance - on easy-to-read technology? You know, this way, strangers no longer have to climb into grimy garbage cans to steal your identity.
The cost? According to the National Conference of State Legislatures the tab will be $11 billion. Homeland Security estimates it will cost around $20 billion to implement the program nationally. Moreover, it will be another unfunded federally mandated program for Colorado to deal with, one which will almost certainly cause havoc in an already-wobbly budget - and give legislators yet another excuse to raise your taxes. As Mike Krause, a Senior Fellow at the conservative Independence Institute explained, "Colorado driver's license holders will have to be 're-enrolled' under an astonishing 162 pages of rules and regulations recently issued by the Department of Homeland Security. The state driver's license will become a de facto national ID and the Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles will be little more than a branch office of Homeland Security." The good news is that the Colorado legislature, in one of the last acts of the 2007 session, joined 15 other states in opposing Real ID. The nonbinding resolution passed unanimously. It not only points out the numerous problems of the act, but also promises that the Colorado General Assembly won't pass any laws to help Real ID get off the ground.
In other war on terror news Newt Gingrich gets caught in a lie while pandering to the right on the issue of immigration, according to The Right's Field. From the article: "Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich appears in a new ad that falsely asserts that several of the 9/11 hijackers entered the U.S. illegally -- which is completely false...'All of the 19 men who hijacked planes on September 11th, including Atta, entered the United States on a tourist or student visa, issued by the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, according to the 9/11 Commission.'[Think Progress]"
"2008 pres"
6:32:40 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 1:03:41 PM.
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