New West Network

My Page: Joan McCarter

Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

McCain set off a firestorm last week when he suggested that the 86 year old agreement that allocates the scarce resource of the Colorado River among the seven states of the Colorado Basin "obviously needs to be renegotiated" because of "new realities of high growth, of greater demands on a scarcer resource," he didn't mean it should, you know, be renegotiated, really, to make sure that the high growth states of California, Nevada, and Arizona got more of that scarce resource. But that's sure how it sounded to the people of Colorado. [more]

Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

In an interview Friday with the Pueblo Chieftan, McCain committed what could amount political suicide in the state by saying that the 1922 water compact negotiated between seven western states should be renegotiated to give Arizona, Nevada, and California (the Lower Basin states) more water. That's unlikely to make Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico (the Upper Basin states) any happier than it's made Colorado.

There's nothing more controversial in the West than water, and the single water issue that is most pressing is what happens as the Colorado drainage continues to experience drought and demand continues to grow. California's water rapaciousness was the issue in 1922 that brought the seven states' governors to negotiate the compact, and California's huge thirst is still the problem. But massive population growth in and around Las Vegas and Phoenix have the Lower Basin states--and the Republican nominee for president--eyeing a greater share of the Colorado. [more]

Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

Three new battleground state have opened up in this year's election: Nevada, Colorado, and Montana causing pundits and prognosticators every where to question the long-standing convention wisdom of the Republican lock on rural America. Greg Lemon's new book, Blue Man in a Red State: Montana's Governor Brian Schweitzer and the New Western Populism, helps shed a little bit of light on the resurgence of populism in one of those states with a profile of its colorful governor. [more]

Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

Wyoming Governor Freudenthal last week issued an executive order that seeks to strike a balance between energy development and protection of the habitat for what's left of the state's sage grouse. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been directed by a federal judge to determine whether the sage grouse should receive protections under the federal Endangered Species Act, something Freudenthal and other Western governors would just as soon avoid. [more]

Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

Research 2000, a non-partisan national polling outfit, found some very interesting results when they polled likely voters in Idaho this week. Those results have to be causing a bit of disquiet for the presumed next Senator from the state of Idaho, Republican Jim Risch.

See, despite the fact that he served as the state's governor for a year, a third of Idaho's voters don't know enough about him to give an opinion, while a quarter of them don't like him. At all. That gives the heir-apparent a 10 point lead over Democratic challenger Larry LaRocco, which is the good news. The bad news is he gets an incredibly anemic 42 percent of the vote as things stand. Which is very good news for Mr. LaRocco. [more]

Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

The east entrance to Yellowstone National Park is about 53 miles west of Cody, Wyoming, on a road running through the steep-sided Sylvan Pass, an avalanche waiting to happen most winters, given that there are 20 or so avalanche chutes in the pass. The National Park service has been having an ongoing dispute for years with Cody recreational business owners over keeping that pass open during high avalanche season, December through February.

Last November, the Park Service had been set to issue a final decision, based on a variety of impact studies including environmental and occupational safety and risk management, to keep the pass closed three months out of the year. Then an all too familiar thing happened. [more]

Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

It's been 20 years since the devastating Yellowstone fire, the cataclysmic event that pushed wildfire into the national psyche. In those 20 years, sustained drought, shifting weather patterns, diseased forests, and decades of forest mismanagement have combined to give us one horrific fire season after another. The costs of fighting these fires has been compounded not only because of the volume of them, but because more and more people are moving into wooded areas forcing agencies to protect life and property. Already this year, the National Interagency Fire Center reports more than 2.1 million acres have burned in nearly 37,000 separate wildland fires--that's as of June 30.

Fire has eaten up more than just acreage. Fully 48 percent of the Forest Service budget in recent years has been consumed by fire. Last year, the Forest Service spent $741 million more than budgeted and Interior spent $249 million more than budgeted for emergency wildfire suppression, or a total of nearly $1 billion [more]

Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

For those of us of a certain age, there's a real feeling a deja vu this week. Between the president's illegal wiretapping of Americans and skyrocketing gas prices, it's like living in the early 1970s all over again. Back in the 1970s, Congress responded to the first challenge by curtailing the president's powers and protecting our civil liberties. I guess that idea went out along with wood paneling, avocado green appliances, and bell bottoms, at least as far as the current Congress is concerned. Let's see if they can do any better this time around with our energy crisis.

Ah, where's Jimmy Carter when you need him? [more]

Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

Happy Fourth of July! Celebrate by raising a little patriotic hell. [more]

Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

Last week's vote in the House of Representatives to give big corporations who broke the law a free pass and to expand the powers of the president to spy on Americans essentially at will provided some stark contrasts among our leaders and would-be leaders. Case in point, Colorado Rep. Mark Udall and Wyoming candidate Gary Trauner.

If you had to choose whether the "Boulder liberal" or the guy facing a tough race in solid red Wyoming would take the corporatist, conservative track on this legislation, siding with the Bush administration, you might be in for a surprise.
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