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Saturday, January 5, 2008
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Mark Noonan (via Blogs for Victory): "What possible harm can there be to marriage if same-sex couples are permitted to participate? So goes the question we hear very often in this debate - meaning, of course, that if one of my gay friends were to get married, would it have any affect on my marriage to my wife? The answer, of course, is none at all - we're not going to get divorced, or even have a lover's quarrel, if gay person gets married. It would seem, then, that the problem is solved - since it won't harm me, by all means, go ahead and get married gay people. The problem, though, is that while I am married, marriage doesn't belong to me - it is not something for me to dispose of. When I got married, it wasn't me taking charge of marriage, but me voluntarily submitting myself to the institution of marriage, and all that it entails."
"2008 pres"
6:36:27 PM 
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TalkLeft: "The DEA is about to hire 200 new special drug agents: Michele M. Leonhart, DEA Acting Administrator, announced last week that the funding provided in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 (H.R. 2764), will allow DEA to lift an agency-wide hiring freeze that was instituted in August 2006. 'This is an important and most welcome development,' Leonhart said. 'With this much-needed funding, DEA will be able to fill 200 Special Agent positions, as well as many vacant Intelligence Analyst and critical support positions. This legislation sends a strong and encouraging message to all of us at DEA as we continue our worldwide drug law enforcement mission.' President Bush signed H.R. 2764 into law on December 26, 2007. It provides funding for fiscal 2008, which began October 1, 2007."
6:27:52 PM
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Talking Points Memo: "New CNN poll: Obama and Hillary all tied up in New Hampshire--33% apiece."
Andrew Sullivan: "Obama is crushing Clinton in the second post-Iowa New Hampshire poll: 38 to 26. How can she stop this?"
Andrew Sullivan: "Ron Paul Is third in New Hampshire? It's Rasmussen, as was the Obama 10-point lead, and I've learned to be a little wary of them. But the latest NH data for the GOP is McCain 31, Romney 26 and Paul with 14 percent, ahead of Huckabee."
Political Wire: "A new CNN/WMUR poll in New Hampshire shows Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama both tied at 33% with John Edwards in third place with 20%. On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain leads with 33%, followed by Mitt Romney at 27%, Rudy Giuliani at 14% and Mike Huckabee at 11%."
Political Wire: "A new Concord Monitor/Research 2000 poll in New Hampshire shows Sen. Barack Obama edging Sen. Hillary Clinton among likely Democratic primary voters, 34% to 33%, with John Edwards third at 23%. Among Republicans, Sen. John McCain leads with 35%, followed by Mitt Romney at 29% and Mike Huckabee at 13%."
2020 Hindsight: "I felt moved when I heard Barak Obama speak at the conclusion of the Iowa caucus. It's historic for all sorts of reasons. Hope vs. fear. That a mostly-white midwestern state puts a biracial person of color over the top makes me proud."
Talk Left: "ARG reflects a big Iowa bounce for Barack Obama: Obama 38 (31); Clinton 26 (35); Edwards 20 (15); Richardson 3 (5). ARG claims that this reflected polling on the 4th and 5th. Today is the 5th. I have not heard of polling on Saturday mornings. That said, this is the bounce I expected. this would be Obama's best polling period. It will be interesting to see if Edwards goes up from here. Honestly, I do not see it at all. But I have been wrong before."
Political Wire: "'Mitt Romney's attention to Wyoming paid off Saturday as he won most of the 12 presidential delegates at stake in the state's Republican county conventions,' the AP reports. 'The former Massachusetts governor gained the first four delegates and six of the first eight to be selected Saturday. Fred Thompson and California Rep. Duncan Hunter, who both also visited Wyoming, won the other two that had been decided, meaning no other candidate could beat Romney.'"
Talking Points Memo: "We're starting to get a feel now for how the Democratic race is playing out in New Hampshire after Obama's big win Thursday night in Iowa. A second New Hampshire poll taken after the Iowa caucus is just out. The American Research Group poll, taken yesterday and today, shows Obama up by 12 over Hillary. The other purely post-Iowa poll, from Rasmussen, shows Obama up 10. We also have two new three-day tracking polls out today, both of which just have one day of post-Iowa numbers, but already show a move toward Obama. The Zogby tracking poll still has Hillary ahead of Obama, but he cut her lead in half on the strength of Friday's numbers. The Suffolk University tracking shows Hillary's lead over Obama cut from 12 points to 7 points with the addition of the Friday numbers."
Talking Points Memo: "Elizabeth Edwards deplores lack of media coverage of John's second place finish in Iowa."
Political Wire: "A new 7NEWS/Suffolk University two-day tracking poll shows Sen. Barack Obama cutting into Sen. Hillary Clinton's lead in New Hampshire. Clinton now leads with 36%, followed by Obama at 29% and John Edwards at 13%. The first half of the survey was done on Thursday, before Iowa's caucus results were known. The remainder was done on Friday. 'Among Republicans, no immediate post-Iowa bounce was apparent. Romney and McCain each gained a point, with the former Massachusetts governor leading 30% to 26%. Mike Huckabee dropped by two as Rudy Giuliani gained two, leaving them tied for third with 11% each.'"
Political Wire: "The latest Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll in New Hampshire finds Sen. Hillary Clinton's lead down slightly to 32%, followed by Sen. Barack Obama at 28% and John Edwards at 20%. Among Republicans, Sen. John McCain's lead is also down to 32%, followed by Mitt Romney at 30% and Mike Huckabee at 12%. Most of the polling in the four-day tracking survey was taken before the Iowa caucuses on Thursday, but pollster John Zogby sees the beginnings of a post-Iowa bounce for Obama and Huckabee."
Andrew Sullivan: "The African-American Awakening: There's a great piece in the NYT today on it. It's what Obama himself predicted privately and publicly in the fall: that his mixed showing among black voters was a function of their disbelief that white voters would ever back a black man for president. Now they see that this bkack man can do it, and you can feel the emotions well up."
TalkLeft: "In running through the Iowa results by county (map here, alphabetical list here), it's clear Obama outdid Hillary the most in the more densely populated urban areas like those around Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Davenport. Comparing the counties where the vote numbers were in the thousands, like Johnson and Black Hawk, to Iowa as a whole using census results, there's some interesting numbers which could be bad news for Hillary in South Carolina -- an early voting state the media keeps saying will turn on the African American vote."
"2008 pres"
6:01:23 PM
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We didn't know Andrew Olmsted well. We had a short conversation at a past Rocky Mountain Blogger Bash. We were struck by the excerpt of his posthumous post linked yesterday by Andrew Sullivan. We didn't click through so were unaware of the authorship until this morning when we saw this post from Walter In Denver. Here's an article about Mr. Olmsted from today's Rocky Mountain News.
Mr. Olmsted writes:
This is an entry I would have preferred not to have published, but there are limits to what we can control in life, and apparently I have passed one of those limits. And so, like G'Kar, I must say here what I would much prefer to say in person. I want to thank hilzoy for putting it up for me. It's not easy asking anyone to do something for you in the event of your death, and it is a testament to her quality that she didn't hesitate to accept the charge. As with many bloggers, I have a disgustingly large ego, and so I just couldn't bear the thought of not being able to have the last word if the need arose. Perhaps I take that further than most, I don't know. I hope so. It's frightening to think there are many people as neurotic as I am in the world. In any case, since I won't get another chance to say what I think, I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity. Such as it is.
Rest in peace Andrew.
11:14:14 AM
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From The North Forty News, "Citing major concerns from Larimer County residents about proposed uranium mining in neighboring Weld County, the county commissioners promised to schedule a public hearing on the matter by Feb. 15. Commissioner Randy Eubanks said he has received a steady stream of e-mails since August opposing the in-situ mining project proposed by Powertech Uranium Corp. The company bought mineral rights to nine square miles between Wellington and Nunn and has been doing exploratory drilling in the area. Larimer County is not a decider for the project, but commissioners may pass along comments and concerns to the Weld County commissioners and to state and federal regulatory agencies. Commissioner Kathay Rennels said she would like to have the county's environmental advisory board report in hand before the hearing, so the public can respond to its findings. The board, along with Doug Ryan of the county health department, is working with experts at Colorado State University to gather information about in-situ uranium mining. Rennels noted that Powertech would not be required to send representatives to a Larimer County hearing, since the company's project is in Weld County. However, Eubanks said he believes the company would attend a hearing in this county. "The people want a voice," added Eubanks. "I've been asked to take action, so I want to get all the information I can.'"
More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here.
"2008 pres"
8:17:53 AM
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Many West Slope officials are lukewarm to negative when asked about the Bureau of Land Management's recently released draft report on the possible impacts of a commercial oil shale industry, according to The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. From the article:
Unrealistic and there is too little time to respond. Those are just two of the complaints some local government officials are leveling at the Bureau of Land Management regarding its draft report on the possible impacts of a commercial oil shale industry. "If we're worried about global warming, what's this whole thought that we're going to have to build a whole bevy of coal-fired power plants to extract oil shale resources?" Rio Blanco County Commissioner Ken Parsons said, adding the BLM created the report using unrealistic assumptions about oil shale companies' technology and how it might impact the Western Slope.
The report says oil shale would supplant all other uses of public land, have a dramatic impact on air and water quality and urbanize small towns, while bringing many thousands of new workers to the region. The report says little about using other energy sources, such as natural gas, to power oil shale development, Parsons said. The county hopes greater environmental awareness in the United States will be enough to encourage Congress to scrap the commercial oil shale program until energy companies can prove their technology works and the BLM's oil shale research leasing program has run its course, he said...
Grand Junction Utilities Manager Greg Trainor said the scenarios outlined in the report don't make sense because companies researching oil shale don't know how or if they'll extract it commercially. The BLM's public-comment period, which expires in March, isn't enough time for cities with limited resources to respond to the 1,400-page report, he said. Considering the report's impact, "why are we being given only 90 days to comment on it?" Trainor said, calling the report "imposing."[...]
The report is proving tough to wade through for others, too. Royal Dutch Shell spokesman Tracy Boyd, state Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, and Club 20 Executive Director Reeves Brown all declined to comment on the report because they had not finished reading it. Environmental groups praised the BLM for being thorough in its account of how oil shale will "devastate" the region. "It would be devastating to above-ground trout fisheries," Trout Unlimited spokesman Chris Hunt said. "They could be lost forever with this type of development." He said the report shows oil shale development will create an industrial zone out of northwest Colorado and defy the BLM's mandate for allowing multiple uses of public land.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here.
"2008 pres"
7:34:14 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 1:57:32 PM.
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