Yes, conservatives, run with this. I invite you to compare the plight of people's mountain homes' getting burned down due to drought conditions and a lot of beetle-killed trees with poor folks who lost everything because a major metropolitan area suddenly ended up underwater. No, that won't seem stupid at all to those of us who actually live here.
Well, it will appeal to the base. If the primaries weren't basically resolved, you could bet the farm the candidates would do exactly this thing.
The funny thing is this: The parts of Colorado which are now known as the eastern plains and which are part of what was once called "the Great American Desert," and which are irrigated and farmed are mostly unaffected. You'll see the occasional grass fire and the fire department shows up and puts it out. Lather, rinse, repeat. No, where you're seeing the huge wildfires are in the forests of the Front Range, where there isn't much agricultural going on.
Eh. It hasn't been politicized in the swing state where it's actually taking place because it's a ********ing stupid talking point in the first place.
Right, the biggest problem in the mountains is decades of near-total fire suppression, such that the underbrush has built up to levels that when the fires eventually come they burn out of control and hot enough to completely decimate the landscape and any homes standing in their way.
I was speaking more of the West in general and Cali in particular, since it often comports itself to be on the cutting edge of Green and "Sustainability", such as farming rice in California. Colorado's problems are similar in that as luftmench mentions, not only has natural occurring fire been suppressed for so long that there is Dresden levels of fuel and people have chosen develop & building in those scenic areas where the infrastructure for anything other than putting out a housefire is impossible, once the wildfire starts. Same with California wildfires, compounded with development in mountains/canyons where fire suppression is nearly impossible, followed by mudslides caused by elimination of the flora during the fire, with poor soil/seismic conditions to boot.
Eh. There thankfully hasn't been too much development going on in the mountains, thanks to the fact that a whole ton of the land is owned by the federal government and the state and has been set aside as park land or open space. If you look at the areas affected by the High Park fire near Fort Collins, for example, a lot of it is within the boundaries of the Roosevelt National Forest, as well as several state and county parks and open spaces. What luftmensch talked about is a lot of it, but it's been exacerbated by all the dead trees that have been killed by pine beetles, not to mention the hot, dry, windy weather that we've had here and the utter lack of precipitation this summer and the low snowpack levels this past winter.
Truth, wouldn't take much for some serious shit to go down out here in Cali this summer as well for the same reasons. And Warmth, regarding "green" California and our questionable farming practices, once you get away from the major population centers here it gets as rednecky as anywhere. I just drove down the San Joaquin Valley on I-5 a couple weeks ago, and the farmers have littered the roads with signs complaining about how the politicians (they mentioned Boxer, Pelosi, and someone else I didn't recognize who I'm guessing is more local) are creating a dust bowl by cutting off their water supply. Because, you know, that doesn't have anything to do with attempting to grow every kind of crop under the sun in a place that's lucky to get 10" of rain a year. And back on topic, hard to see how this issue is in any way comparable to Katrina, unless people think Obama is ignoring wealthy white people in their hillside enclaves in a similar way that Bush theoretically ignored poor black people in New Orleans. Edit: Wow, we can no longer use a particular slang term for excrement anymore? What is this place coming to....
What about the Nigerian footballer Danny Shittu? At least his one time QPR teammate Doudou is fair game.
"Who are soccer players who really should wear the number 2 shirt?" "Correct." "I'll take footballers with funny names for 800, Alex."
I work with a guy who's just been evacuated from his house in Colorado Springs. He's a tea party, climate change denier of the worst sort. In view of his predicament, I'm resisting sticking it to him, but boy is it tempting.
By the way, the San Joaquin Valley has near a million people, of which a large portion are in some way connected to the farming industry, so it's not just those booger eating farmers that are up in arms. The San Joaquin Valley accounts for nearly 12-13% of all agriculture in the US and is actually a pretty vital part of the California economy. I'm assuming that you know all about the Delta Smelt debate right?
I only know a little about the delta smelt debate. And yes, I'm fully aware of the amount and variety of food that's grown in the Central Valley, but that doesn't make it any more sustainable in the long run. I'd actually prefer we cut the allotment that goes to watering LA lawns and golf courses before farming, but growing water-intensive crops like rice and cotton in such an arid place just seems kinda stupid.
Delta Smelt? That leaves me as helpless as Beavis and Butthead listening to the Coach talk about scrotums. Just don't cut watering the soccer fields or else we'll never win the World Cup.
It has taken me a long time to try figure out how the GOP/gun lobby argument regarding F&F fits together, but after reading and investigating more I think I understand it better now, because it is rather convoluted. My reading of the Fortune article is that the GOP will claim that it is nonresponsive to their arguments. The key centers around this guy named Bill Newell. If you read the Fortune article, his role is minimized and his name is only mentioned once. The "right wing" (if I can call it that) argument seems to be that Wide Receiver is just as flawed as F&F, but that it was cooked up by Newell (apparently the head of the Phoenix branch of ATF at the time) largely against the existing administration policies, because Newell is alleged to have some type of pro-gun control agenda. The righties contend that the Bush administration (through DOJ) essentially got Newell to shut down Wide Receiver by putting heat on him over allegations that he was allowing guns to walk. The implication is that when Obama/Holder took over with a more pro-gun control administration Newell now found a much friendlier environment to restart and expand his plan, so he was allowed to create F&F. Newell has denied that he let guns walk in F&F, but the right contends that the ATF field agents directly contradict him. Since WR was such a failure, the assumption seems to be that the only reason to have expanded it in F&F is to further this secret agenda of Newell/Obama to "take our guns away!" Coverup, intrigue and hand wringing ensue. At least that's my understanding of the gist of how the pieces are supposed to fit together.
http://news.investors.com/article/6...ility-climbs-faster-than-jobs-under-obama.htm http://www.businessinsider.com/june-nonfarm-payrolls-report-2012-7 From link one.... The disability ranks have outpaced job growth throughout President Obama's recovery. While the economy has created 2.6 million jobs since June 2009, fully 3.1 million workers signed up for disability benefits. From link two... The unemployment rate for black Americans rose to 14.4%. http://cnsnews.com/news/article/780000-more-women-unemployed-today-when-obama-took-office