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Saturday, January 19, 2008
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TalkLeft: "The New York Times says Republicans are embracing an immigration policy known as 'attrition.' It's a policy of tightening the screws, in hopes the undocumented will just go away."
"2008 pres"
8:47:16 PM 
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Politcal Wire: "Sen. Hillary Clinton won the Democratic presidential caucuses in Nevada Saturday, The Politico reports...On the Republican side, Mitt Romney won which 'was the former Massachusetts governor's third win in the early nominating contests - along with Michigan and Wyoming. He finished second in Iowa and New Hampshire, but had pulled back in South Carolina in the wake of poor showings in the polls.'"
TalkLeft: "While Chris Bowers reaches for a union based explanation of Hillary's win in Nevada, the entrance polls clearly tell a different story -- it was Democrats, women and Latinos who gave Hillary the win. Democrats went 51-39 for Clinton over Obama. Obama won independents by 47-33. Women went for Clinton by 51-39 over Obama. Men split 47-45 for Obama. Latinos went 64-26 for Clinton. Whites went 52-34 for Clinton. African Americans went 84-16 for Obama."
"2008 pres"
8:44:26 PM
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Best headline of the day so far: "When History Hesitates... Hubris Hallucinates." -- Daily Kos, commenting on Rudy Giuliani's new TV ad.
"2008 pres"
8:42:11 PM
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The Moderate Voice: "CNN has called the South Carolina primary for Senator John McCain -- and, if these numbers hold up, it will establish the Arizona Senator whose candidacy has been opposed by staunch conservatives such as talk show host Rush Limbaugh as one of the clear front-runners."
"2008 pres"
8:38:19 PM
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Captain's Quarters: "Ten times more neighborhoods in Baghdad are secure now than at the start of the surge, according to the US military, and 75% of the Iraqi capital now qualifies for that status. The remarkable improvement comes on the anniversary of the shift in strategy and tactics known as the 'surge', and it highlights the dramatic turnaround in Iraq over the past year."
"2008 pres"
11:10:03 AM
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Captain's Quarters: "...let's look at South Carolina, where polling shows a very mixed picture. Some show John McCain with a clear lead over Mike Huckabee, some as a dead heat. Depending on whom you trust, Fred Thompson is either surging or stagnating. Romney has mostly stopped campaigning there, choosing to focus on Nevada instead. If McCain wins, he can pick up momentum again, but if he loses, he has to wonder whether he can keep pressure on Rudy Giuliani in Florida. If Huckabee wins, and he might, can he take the momentum to any other state?"
"2008 pres"
11:08:59 AM
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Nevadans caucus today to select their favorite candidates for president. Here's a look at the Hispanic vote from The Denver Post. They write:
Though they have been politically fragmented for much of this decade, Latinos could seize the day at Saturday's Nevada caucuses and make their voice an important predictor in the presidential race in the Intermountain West. The combination of the fast-growing Latino population and the state's new early position on the primary schedule means the bloc has become coveted, and Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards have been in and out of the state since the New Hampshire primary. "The buzz here is that a lot of Hispanics are going to probably caucus for Hillary Clinton and not Barack Obama," said University of Las Vegas political science professor David Damore. "That said, both sides have done a lot of outreach in the Hispanic community. There's definitely a lot of attention to it."
At the party level, the Democrats have been the clear winner in recruiting Latinos. Though President Bush made gains in the community in 2004, those have disappeared, says a recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center. Further, a quirk in the calendar means that GOP rivals are facing one another simultaneously in both South Carolina -- which has more population -- and Nevada. Democrats have only Nevada to contend with Saturday.
The result is that the GOP contestants have made only casual passes through Nevada -- if they have visited at all -- while Democratic candidates have made a real effort here.
The state Democratic Party even started its own city-league soccer team -- Los Democratas, which it is using to register voters -- and it has been offering scores of caucus training sessions.
One in four residents in Nevada is Latino. Only half of them are eligible to vote because the others are either too young or not yet citizens. According to the Pew center, of those that are registered, nearly 60 percent now call themselves Democrats. Only 23 percent support the Republican Party.
"2008 pres"
9:46:40 AM
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Here's an update on the greening of the 2008 Democratic National Convention from The Denver Post. From the article:
Come Aug. 25 (or sooner), some 35,000 Democrats and members of the news media will flood into Denver, where they will eat at local restaurants, explore the metro area's cultural establishments, and be entertained at more than 1,000 parties and events. But while they're adding an estimated $160 million to the area's coffers, will they also be adding to its traffic congestion, air pollution and carbon footprint? The city of Denver and the Democratic National Committee hope not, so they have joined together as the DNC Host Committee to "green" the convention and create a permanent legacy of environmental improvements for the city.
The committee has established 10 task forces to ease the environmental impact of the convention. One group will focus on educating hotels, restaurants and event planners. Last week, workshops underwritten by the Environmental Protection Agency attracted 150 people from the Colorado Restaurant Association, where they learned how they can minimize water use, offset electricity use, and buy food grown locally to reduce energy used for transportation. Parry Burnap, greening director for the committee, says similar workshops are planned for the hotel industry.
A transportation task force is drawing up guidelines to reduce the amount of time that buses and delivery trucks idle in the streets. Maps will highlight green restaurants and businesses, and encourage convention-goers to walk, bike and use public transportation.
A renewable energy task force is hoping to demonstrate solar and other cutting-edge renewable technologies during the convention. Xcel Energy is involved in the planning, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden is offering its assistance.
The committee hopes to establish a website that will allow individuals and businesses to calculate their carbon footprints, then take steps to offset them. For example, Burnap says, an event planner could use the website to enter the number of guests at his or her event, the number of miles those guests traveled, the amount of food consumed and the amount of energy used during the event. The website would assign a dollar value to the carbon footprint, and the event planner could then donate to a carbon offset fund. Schmiechen predicts that the DNC will offset its carbon footprint by more than 100 percent. The 2004 convention in Boston reached that goal, he says, and Denver is planning a much more comprehensive effort than was pioneered in Boston. The effort to "green" the convention makes good economic as well as environmental sense. As Schmiechen points out, other cities market themselves as green when working to attract large conventions and new businesses. Denver hopes the environmental changes put into place for the DNC will increase Denver's future competitiveness.
"2008 pres"
9:18:49 AM
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The High County News featured article this issue is editor Ray Ring's speech that he's written for the next president to be delivered on inauguration day next year. Click through and read the whole thing. Here's a short excerpt:
A political speech the West needs to hear:
"One of our most urgent projects is to develop a national energy policy. The United States is the only major industrial country without a comprehensive, long-range energy policy. Our program will emphasize conservation ... solar energy and other renewable energy sources. ... We must face the fact that the energy shortage is permanent. There is no way we can solve it quickly. But if we all cooperate and make modest sacrifices ... we can find ways to adjust."
Imagine those words spoken by the next president shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, 2009, continuing a theme originally established on the campaign trail.
"2008 pres"
9:06:45 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 2:01:36 PM.
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