NoCoPolitics.com

Calling All Wonks

(... of the health care reform persuasion)

Here's a fun and exciting powerpoint presentation about the Massachusetts health care program and some of the ideas Mitt Romney is proposing nationally.  (You can tell when a politician is a former CEO - they never lose their fondness for powerpoint.)

Baby Boy - R

I just finished reading Ray Martinez’s new book “Baby Boy – R.”  Wow!  What a heartwarming and intriguing book!  It is an easy read and at 114 pages, it can be read in one setting. 

Basically, this is a memoir of Ray’s search for his biological family.  It gives a real insight on what it is to be an “illegal person,” a term he uses to illustrate how illegitimate children were portrayed in the 1950’s.

“Wow, I thought, convicted without a fair trial before my peers!”

This book is truly thought provoking and inspirational.

Thank you, Ray, not only for sharing your thoughts, but also for your service to Fort Collins.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Isaiah 1:17 Learn to do good, to be fair and to help the poor, the fatherless and widows.

Health Care Reform (Related: Don't Get Cancer in England)

From the Greeley Tribune:

With Colorado health care reform on the horizon, business owners should look up and take notice, say advocates.

Two proposals being considered by a statewide commission would directly impact business owners, said Ralph Pollock, director of Business Health Forum.

The Blue Ribbon Commission for Health Care Reform, created by the Legislature in 2006, is looking at four options of how to cover more of the state's 770,000 uninsured and ways to moderate costs.

One consideration, A Plan for Covering Colorado, would require employers to offer insurance or pay an annual assessment to the state. Another, Colorado Health Services Plan, would increase the payroll tax on employers by 4 percent to help cover the state's uninsured.

Related: The Telegraph reports that "Cancer survival rates in Britain are among the lowest in Europe... Cancer experts blamed late diagnosis and long waiting lists."

Salazar Endorses Markey

Senator Ken Salazar today endorsed Betsy Markey in the CD-4 Democrat primary.  As I noted in my FCN column, Markey made a tactical mistake by launching her campaign with only a few weeks to go in the fundraising quarter.  When her numbers were understandably anemic, the naysayers had their opening. 

This endorsement, however, is the sign of a campaign that seems to be on track.  October 15, the date the Q3 numbers are due, will be the make-or-break day for the Markey campaign.

CSU Labor Dispute?

At least that's what the two guys holding the big sign on College Ave claim.

The Center of the Political Universe

My Fort Collins Now column from Friday tried to drive home the fact that Fort Collins, Colorado will effectively be the center of the political universe at this time next year. 

For aspiring politicos, it's a growth industry.

Welcome back, future graduates.

I want to say one word to you. Just one word.

Are you listening?

Politics.

There’s a great future in politics. Think about it. Will you think about it?

If you have any interest in politics, you’ve lucked out. It just so happens that your humble college home, Fort Collins, Colorado, will be ground zero for the 2008 election. I’m not talking about local or even state politics. I’m talking about national politics. The Presidency. The United State Senate.

So now’s the time to start making connections, grabbing up internships, maybe even allocating a certain amount of time towards volunteer work.

At this time next year, Fort Collins will be buzzing with political activity. Some of the best organizers from around the country will be here, organizing precinct walks and phone banks, registering voters and getting out the vote. That means opportunity for anyone interested in a political career. There’s no need to go to Washington. In 2008, Washington will come to you.

What makes Fort Collins so special? Nationally, it’s one of the most “purple” towns in one of the most “purple” states in the country. George Bush won Larimer County with 51.8 percent of the vote in 2004, a number almost identical to his statewide percentage of 51.69. You need 270 electoral votes to win the presidency, and both sides see Colorado’s nine electoral votes as up for grabs. As goes Colorado, so goes the nation in 2008.

If you look back to 2004, midway through the summer both sides realized that Colorado was in play. The Bush campaign shifted entire campaign staffs into Colorado from other states. Moveon.org moved professional organizers from Seattle onto the CSU campus to help register voters and get out the student vote. Both sides had pros from Washington on the ground in Fort Collins in the fall of 2004. They’ll start even earlier this time.

Even with Colorado’s Electoral College clout, the presidential campaign might take a back seat to the top-rated United States Senate race in the nation. Former Republican Congressman Bob Schaffer (a Fort Collins resident) is running against Democrat Congressman Mark Udall to replace the retiring Senator Wayne Allard. The balance of the Senate is at stake, and the most important state is Colorado.

But some of the best opportunities might just be at the local level. Which is better? Being a small part of a larger campaign or being the manager of a local campaign? Both opportunities will be available in 2008. Fort Collins’ State Senate seat and both State House seats are up for election in 2008. Before you scoff at the prospect of working for peanuts on a nickel-and-dime campaign, consider that in 2004, more than $1.6 million was spent by outside groups to help elect current State Senator Bob Bacon. That’s a larger budget than most Congressional races.

If you’ve ever considered going into politics, now is the time and Fort Collins is the place. The hours are long, the pay is terrible, but the opportunity is there for the taking. Join the College Republicans or the College Democrats. Spend the $2 to go to Bob Schaffer’s weekly Monday morning breakfast. Join an activist group. Heck, call me. A few hours a week this fall will put you at the head of the employment line next May.

Even by November of my senior year I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do for a career. At the last moment, I figured out a way to get a second-semester internship and I started on my first campaign three days after graduation. I didn’t have a political science degree or even know how to put up a lawn sign. But I was in the right place at the right time and was able to advance rapidly. The opportunity is out there. Take it.

Shhh! Enough said. That’s a deal. 

 

Wi-Fi

San Francisco is exploring a municipal wi-fi program in conjunction with Earthlink.  Openmarket.org reports that the marketplace is catching up before the program is even launched.

Monday Links...

Handicapping the 4th

My column in the Fort Collins Now is online.  It's an overview of the Democratic primary in the Fourth Congressional District.  To say that I'm a disinterested observer is a bit of an understatement...

The likely primary lineup among Angie Paccione, Betsy Markey and Eric Eidsness is shaping up as a case study in primary dynamics: Will the campaign become a race to the left? How much stock do primary voters put in “electability?” Will the one issue looming over everything become an Achilles heel for the eventual nominee?

Key point:

If Paccione has lost some of the establishment and the funding, is she prepared to run a grassroots-focused race? Does she have a contingency campaign plan if her money dries up?

Greeley's Downtown

Greeley is going through a lot of the same growing pains facing communities around the country.   What will happen to their downtown?  What types of storefronts will survive and thrive?  What is the role of government and the DDA?   

More here.   

And here.

I liked this quote:

In truth, the old vision of downtown might just be a fond memory. But there's still plenty of opportunity for a new vision, said Sarah MacQuiddy, president of the Greeley Chamber of Commerce.

"We can't recreate that downtown," she said. "But I think downtown has its niche. ... I think there are some specialty businesses that will really do well down here."

Affordable Housing in Loveland

The Loveland Council will be listening to recommendations from the Affordable Housing Commission on Tuesday night.  Does the following passage from the Reporter-Herald story strike anyone else as bizarre/redundant/self-explanatory?

According to the 2004 Loveland Housing Study, there are far too few available homes for people making 50 percent or less of the area median income.

In Loveland, the median income for a family of four is $68,200.

There is also, according to the data, an overstock of homes for people who make between 50 percent and 80 percent of the area median income.

The Affordable Housing commission will discuss how the city might make more affordable units available by, for example, giving incentives to developers who build affordable homes.

"Too few available [less expensive] homes..." and "an overstock of [more expensive] homes."  Isn't this a classic case where the market will figure this one out on its own?  It sounds like there's a pretty big disincentive to build larger homes (i.e. they're not selling) and a burgeoning market for less expensive homes. 

You Would Think...

... that a small portion of Fort Collins' parks budget might be used to make sure homeless people aren't camping in Rolland Moore Park and harassing female joggers.

Alas...

Points to Ponder

The contrarian side of me finds this type of story amusing. 

According to the Times of London, "Walking to the shops 'damages the planet more than going by car.'" 

Walking does more than driving to cause global warming, a leading environmentalist has calculated.

Food production is now so energy-intensive that more carbon is emitted providing a person with enough calories to walk to the shops than a car would emit over the same distance. The climate could benefit if people avoided exercise, ate less and became couch potatoes. Provided, of course, they remembered to switch off the TV rather than leaving it on standby.

Hmmm... what else?  How about organic food?  From TCS Daily:

Organic agriculture controls weeds primarily by ploughing. The microbial respiration rate is increased every time a plough churns up the soil. When compared to no-tillage, mould-board ploughing doubles CO₂ emissions from the soil.

And then there's the op-ed from the New York Times that contends that locally-grown is not necessarily better for the environment. 

There are many good reasons for eating local — freshness, purity, taste, community cohesion and preserving open space — but none of these benefits compares to the much-touted claim that eating local reduces fossil fuel consumption. In this respect eating local joins recycling, biking to work and driving a hybrid as a realistic way that we can, as individuals, shrink our carbon footprint and be good stewards of the environment.

...

But is reducing food miles necessarily good for the environment? Researchers at Lincoln University in New Zealand, no doubt responding to Europe’s push for “food miles labeling,” recently published a study challenging the premise that more food miles automatically mean greater fossil fuel consumption. Other scientific studies have undertaken similar investigations. According to this peer-reviewed research, compelling evidence suggests that there is more — or less — to food miles than meets the eye.

It all depends on how you wield the carbon calculator. Instead of measuring a product’s carbon footprint through food miles alone, the Lincoln University scientists expanded their equations to include other energy-consuming aspects of production — what economists call “factor inputs and externalities” — like water use, harvesting techniques, fertilizer outlays, renewable energy applications, means of transportation (and the kind of fuel used), the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed during photosynthesis, disposal of packaging, storage procedures and dozens of other cultivation inputs.

Incorporating these measurements into their assessments, scientists reached surprising conclusions. Most notably, they found that lamb raised on New Zealand’s clover-choked pastures and shipped 11,000 miles by boat to Britain produced 1,520 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per ton while British lamb produced 6,280 pounds of carbon dioxide per ton, in part because poorer British pastures force farmers to use feed. In other words, it is four times more energy-efficient for Londoners to buy lamb imported from the other side of the world than to buy it from a producer in their backyard. Similar figures were found for dairy products and fruit.

What now?  If I ride my bike to the market to buy Bangladeshi jute instead of locally-grown jute, and I make sure to coast 43% of the time, is that okay? 

I don't use pesticides in my garden (apparently rendering it a CO2-belching wasteland).  Maybe the City Council will look into regulating organic backyard gardens and farmer's markets in their efforts to combat climate change?