They sure have to do a lot of clarifying in the McCain campaign, don't they?

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.

So here comes the McCain campaign with what he "really" meant:

Tom Kise, the McCain campaign's Colorado spokesman, said McCain was not proposing that the 2007 agreement be reopened or any immediate talks on the compact.

"He's talking about ongoing conversations, conversations that happen this year, next year, 10, 20, 30 years down the road," Kise said.

Kise said McCain knows global warming is changing water conditions in the West, and that means the states need to talk. "As long as water is going to be an issue in the West, there should be an open conversation among all parties," Kise said.

Ah, so the states need to talk, that's all he was saying. Only problem is: they have been.

Considering he's a Senator from one of those seven states in the compact, you think he'd have somewhat of a better grasp of the actual policy making on the issue in his state. See, the seven states' governors came together last year to address current changing water conditions. In fact, they came up with an agreement:

The agreement was signed April 23 in Las Vegas by representatives of the Colorado River basin states of Colorado, Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. The agreement proposes reducing deliveries of Colorado River water to Arizona and Nevada when storage in Lake Mead drops below certain set levels, thus reducing the risk of shortages in Colorado. The agreement would reduce the risk of shortages in the lower Colorado River by coordinating Hoover and Glen Canyon dam operations. The agreement also proposes a system for storing in Lake Mead water saved through conservation efforts or the development of new water sources.

In addition to resolving current Colorado River disputes, the agreement reduces the likelihood of future litigation among the seven Colorado River basin states by encouraging cooperation and consultation between the states. "Litigation pitting state against state over the Colorado River would cost taxpayers millions, and the likely result would not please anyone," said Colorado Attorney General John Suthers. "Thanks to the hard work of the parties involved, we can now work with - not against - other states to resolve our water disputes."

Into the middle of all this stumbles McCain, ignoring--or completely ignorant of--the fact that the seven governors (including California's, Nevada's, and Arizona's) decided that those states needed to work on how to find some of their own water, ignoring the fact that this was a complex and difficult set of negotiations.

Between this and his long support of using Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste dump, McCain's shown that he's pretty much completely out of touch with what is going on in the West. He's just not much of a westerner anymore.

Great news out of California, Pacific Gas and Electric recently agreed to purchase power from new 800 MW PV soalr installation..

Sound great, but there is a twist in the tale that is not just an issue for this project, but for practically every large scale wind and solar renewable project out there.  A almost throwaway at the end of the article reveals all:

PG&E has said the deals are contingent on Congress reauthorizing several tax credits for renewable energy that are due to expire at the end of this year. Although there is broad bipartisan support for the credits, their renewal has been caught up in the debate over other controversial issues like offshore oil drilling and how to pay for the tax credits.

"This is contingent on the (renewable-energy tax credits) being reinstated," Borenstein said. "If Congress screws up and lets that lapse, this could be put on a shelf."

Score one for common sense.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ―  California's high court has ruled doctors cannot withhold care to gays or lesbians based on religious beliefs.

(Specifically, a private fertility clinic cannot deny service to a lesbian couple simply because they are gay.)

obama with rick warren at saddleback church, california

Last week, Democrat Jeff Morris officially kicked off his campaign to unseat long-time incumbent Wally Herger in California's 2nd Congressional District. In my last post about my brother Jeff, I mentioned that he would have to get past the backwards-looking conventional wisdom, which says that this district is a shoo-in for the Republicans. I argued, as do many others, that this is the year when a well-qualified candidate like Jeff Morris can win, regardless of the political makeup of the district.

Jeff, who has already garnered support from both Democrats and Republicans among his fellow county supervisors, proved me right by landing a huge endorsement from someone who spent years on the Republican side of the aisle -- former Congressman and real GOP maverick Pete McCloskey. Speaking last week, McCloskey lauded Jeff Morris as "a tough and honest leader who will be a welcome change to the 2nd District."

His Time is Short
By David Glenn Cox

Were the US economy a patient in a hospital, this is the part when the doctor walks out, shaking his head, and talks to the family. "I’m sorry, we’ve tried everything that we know to do. We’ve cut interest rates three times and we can’t cut anymore. We’ve put the banks on respirators to keep them functioning, but it's done no good. We’ve even pumped in rebate checks to get money circulating back into the economy, but the effects were only temporary. The body just used them to pay past-due bills."

Here in the Central Coast of California, we are in the target for Republicans and their wet dreams of offshore oil drilling. We have some seriously important races that are getting drown out with the Presidential fervor....one of them is for State Senator for the 15th District. The State Democrats didn't raise a finger to put up a Democratic contender against Abel Maldonado (who tried to get on both the Republican AND Democratic Primary ballots)...but, a determined former UPS worker mortgaged his house and got enough signatures to be on the November ballot. JIM FITZGERALD, you GO boy....

You might be surprised to find out that despite being the number three wind producer in the world, Spain is dead last among developed countries in meeting its Kyoto targets.  In this diary we'll take a look at how that happened and why Spain (and the rest of the United States) needs a dose of Californication.

According to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the European Union is to cut its emissions of greenhouse gases by 8% relative to 1990 levels by the period 2008-2012. Because at the time the agreement was signed, Spain was considered one of the less developed economies (it currently ranks 5th) among the then 15 European Union members (there are currently 27), its emissions target was set at a 15% rise over 1990 levels. (Greece, Ireland and Portugal were also allowed to grow their emissions.)

However, as of 2007, Spain is 52.3% above its Kyoto target and despite optimistic government promises that it can still meet the target it seems extremely unlikely that the Spanish will be able to reduce emissions by 35% relative to 1990 levels in only 4 years.

On Thursday, Rasmussen reported a 2 point lead for McCain over Obama in Colorado, 47-45.

If they repolled today, chances are very good that slim gain would be gone. Because there's one thing you do not mess with in Colorado, and that's water.

In an interview yesterday 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.

Reaction in Colorado has been swift and incensed. Here's Ken Salazar:

"Senator McCain's position on opening up the Colorado River Compact is absolutely wrong and would only happen over my dead body," Salazar said. "It's an anathema to the fundamental principles of Colorado's water rights and our compacts."

The senator said that when the state's compacts with the lower basin states were negotiated, everyone knew at the time that those states would grow in population faster than Colorado. As a result, the upper basin states' water rights needed to be protected.

"We did not want California to gobble up all of the water supply on the Colorado River, and they would have done that under the doctrine of equitable apportionment," Salazar said. "In my view the compact is sacrosanct. I will fight tooth and nail to make sure that it is not opened up."

Even Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer had to attack his party's standard bearer on this one:

"Over my cold, dead, political carcass," Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer said.

"The compact is the only protection Colorado has from several more politically powerful downstream states," Schaffer added. "Opening it for renegotiation would be the equivalent of a lamb discussing with a pack of wolves what should be on the dinner menu."

The Denver Post was particularly snarky:

Memo to: John McCain.

From: Five million thirst-crazed Coloradans.

Subject: Forget about winning our nine electoral votes next November. We don't vote for water rustlers in this state; we tar and feather them! ...

As a senator, McCain has long represented a state, Arizona, that would love to steal Colorado's water. But now, he wants our votes. Apparently, nobody bothered to brief the candidate who Paris Hilton called "that wrinkly, white-haired guy" that stealing Colorado's water to benefit Arizona, California and Nevada isn't as popular an idea in Colorado as it is in Arizona, California and Nevada.

And ColoradoPols says McCain just lost Colorado.

There's nine electoral votes in Colorado (the state's unofficial motto: "Whiskey's for drinking, water's for fighting) that are a lot less likely to be swinging in November. It's probably safe to say New Mexico's five aren't going to be up for grabs now, either. It sure as hell isn't going to give McCain California, though it might shore up his chances in his home state. Maybe that's what this was all about after all, trying to make sure he doesn't lose Arizona. Because there isn't any other way to explain it.

I answered the door of my home in San Francisco this morning, and a man smiled at me from my porch. "I'm here from Yes on Proposition 8," he said. That's the evil-spirited California proposition to amend our state constitution to strip same sex couples of the right to marry legally in the state, which we currently have.

I smiled back at him, and said, "Oh, well then I hope you go to hell. Now get the fuck off my property." (I really did say that. I have witnesses.) And then I slammed the door.

Well, we just had a very interesting visit that fired me up a bit.  We're a gay couple who are about to get married soon, so the two visitors that knocked on our door this morning were more than a little caught off guard when I opened the door with my Obama shirt on & things got interesting...  

Cross-posted at Calitics

Beacon Media News, publishers of Sierra Madre Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, Pasadena Independent, and Arcadia Weekly, note the results of a Russ Warner-paid-for poll of the 26th district. The poll shows Dreier's vulnerability in the district.

Republican Congressman David Dreier falling below the crucial 50% support threshold for re-election. After voters hear biographical statements on both Warner and Dreier, the race pulls into a statistical tie.

The poll was conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, a respected national polling firm, with a sample size of 400 likely voters in California's 26th district.

Debbie Cook – California’s 46th District

By Donna Smith, American SiCKO
communications specialist, California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- California’s 46th congressional district stretches along the Pacific coast from Costa Mesa to the Palos Verdes Peninsula.  The district’s U.S. Congressional Democratic Congressional candidate is Debbie Cook, the second our "healthcare heroes" featured during this countdown to the November general election.
Debbie has been on the front lines for her community for many years but it was issues like the healthcare crisis, energy and what she terms a convergence of issues that compelled her to run for Congress.

"How can we not do our best to tackle these things?" she asked.

 As a candidate, Debbie hears her future constituents calling for sensible and meaningful action, and as a seasoned public servant she is ready to oblige.

Just got this from the CA Dem Party Action Wire:

 What do you think of when someone says "California"?
Beaches? Sunshine? Hollywood?

  How about the largest act of genocide in American history?

"The idea, strange as it may appear, never occurred to them (the Indians) that they were suffering for the great cause of civilization, which, in the natural course of things, must exterminate Indians."
 - Special Agent J. Ross Browne, Indian Affairs

As you know, Charlie Brown just released his energy plan ---a pragmatic, "all of the above" strategy that calls for more domestic oil supply, a new energy economy that creates thousands of new jobs, and an end to the practice of spending taxpayer dollars on Middle-East oil.
 
Hundreds of people from across the political spectrum have signed our petition to put Charlie's plan into action.

California's shameful practice of McCarthy era "loyalty oaths" is something the ACLU of Southern California knows something about.  Eason Monroe, the Executive Director of the ACLU/SC from 1952 to 1972 was fired from his teaching position at San Francisco State College in 1950 for not signing the newly passed "Levering Act" requiring public employees to affirm that they did not advocate overthrow of the government "by force or violence or other unlawful means."

"I already had taken a positive oath to support the Constitution," Monroe was quoted, "I felt the two oaths were in utter contradiction. How can you swear to uphold the Constitution and thereafter sign away your rights under the Constitution?"

I know this is last minute but I want to help my friend, Bill Hedrick, who has two son's who are or have served in Iraq, is running against corrupt Republican congressman Ken Calvert CA-44^th.

Warning: If you intend to click on the link to Calvert's site you might want to start the shower.

Are you afraid? You should be. But brace yourself - Dick Cheney is coming to do a high-dollar fundraiser for Calvert today in San Clemente. There will be a protest but I have no word of a citizen arrest.

Keith Olbermann even had a segment on tonight about the race.