Grab and Keel

I could tell when I perused the Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post last evening that things are getting pretty heated in Colorado.  Worried Obots and other oddballs were leaving comments all over the article pages. So I wasn’t surprised to find this:

Dead heat in Colorado

A new poll shows Colorado voters support McCain and Obama equally. Eight percent are still undecided.

By Allison Sherry

The Denver Post

Article Last Updated: 10/05/2008 10:31:00 PM MDT

[Securing their reputations as independent-minded swing voters, Coloradans are now evenly split over the race for the White House, with a new poll showing the two presidential candidates tied at 44 percent statewide.

The latest Denver Post poll, conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research, illustrates the fluidity of the race. In August, the poll had Democrat Barack Obama with a slight 45 percent to 42 percent lead over Republican John McCain among registered voters who say they are likely to vote in the November general election….}

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_10639338

The Bush Administration tried hard to disassemble the EPA and hogtie the scientists. However, reopening the Libraries after Congress forced them shuttered and broken up is a start to healing:

EPA reopens “National Libraries on the Environment”

Jodi Peterson | Oct 03, 2008 10:15 AM

[The EPA’s “self-inflicted lobotomy” is about to be reversed — at least partially. More than a year ago, in response to Bush budget cuts, the agency began dismantling its network of 26 technical libraries, a crucial repository of scientific information for the agency’s own researchers and the public. It closed several regional libraries and moved tens of thousands of documents into uncatalogued “information dumps” so that it could digitize those documents. Critics saw the move as an attempt to restrict access to information on health risks, corporate polluters, and other important data, and Congress finally forced it to stop “deaccessioning” its holdings….]

http://www.hcn.org/blogs/goat/epa-reopens-technical-libraries

Senator Dianne Feinstein reported another of the extras that was folded into the “Bail Out” Act. With the decline of the timber industry, as more old growth forest was protected, timber towns could not maintain a tax base.  Senator Mike Crapo, of Idaho was one of the original cosponsors, and maintains a page HERE. The extension had languished in the bowels of the Senate.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Friday, October 3, 2008           

President Signs Funding Measure for Four-Year Extension of Secure Rural Schools Program

– Provision included in national economic rescue plan –

Washington, DC – The President today signed into law a measure to provide $1.645 billion for a four-year extension of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today announced. The bill also includes a provision to authorize $1.684 billion for four-year funding of the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program. That’s a total of approximately $3.3 billion in funding for rural communities.

http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=NewsRoom.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=c43ed615-926a-44e7-5024-0b27d4403e4f&Region_id=&Issue_id=

The public made their views known to Congress over the Bail Out voting. If you were trying to get info like I was during  the votes you know how hard it was.  Congresswomen Jackie Speier and Barbara Boxer both left notes stating the House Servers had been overloaded. It’s a small thing, but I think it shows what a whole bunch of hopping mad people can really do:

House Web Servers Overloaded

October 3, 2008Washington, DC – Our website has been slowed down by an increased volume of emails coming into congressional offices.  If you’re having trouble getting on or have posted a comment to the blog and it hasn’t posted yet, that is the reason.  Please accept our apologies, we’ve been assured that people are working on the problem. 

http://speier.house.gov/apps/list/press/ca12_speier/web.shtml

If you have any pennies left after this week, consider sending them to down ticket Dems. Heidi Li has a link:

October 05, 2008

Key downticket Clinton Democrats

These Clinton Democrats need your support. For the sake of the Party and of the country we need candidates who will work with Senator Clinton to initiate and pass important legislation and make sure that the legislature plays its proper role in guarding against presidential poor judgment.

Bruce Lunsford, Victoria Wulsin, Alice Kryzan, Kay Hagan, Jeanne Shaheen: you can donate to support them here. Whether you give to one or to all you will be sending a message that Clinton Democrats want Senator Clinton to have the allies she will need in the 111th Congress.

http://tdg.typepad.com/heidi_lis_potpourri/2008/10/key-downticket-clinton-democrats.html

I Own My Vote, PUMA, The Denver Group, Just Say No Deal