Hell, no.

Whether it's using the word maricón (Spanish for "faggot"), or using the Republican smear of tax and spend Democrats, Bill Richardson just cannot seem to stay out of trouble.  

And Richardson's debate performances have been -- to be kind -- less than stellar.  This guy does not come off anywhere close to what his impressive resume would suggest.

Now Bill Richardson has waded into another big mess.  (Surprise! Not.)  While pandering campaigning in Nevada, he said he thought it would be a good idea to send Great Lakes water to the parched West.

From the Las Vegas Sun, 10/4/07:

If elected, Richardson said, he would bring states together to talk about a way for water-rich northern-tier states to help with shortages in the Southwest. He also said he would elevate the Bureau of Reclamation to a Cabinet-level post. The bureau within the U.S. Interior Department manages water resources in the West.

"I believe that Western states and Eastern states have not been talking to each other when it comes to proper use of our water resources," Richardson told the Sun. "I want a national water policy. We need a dialogue between states to deal with issues like water conservation, water reuse technology, water delivery and water production. States like Wisconsin are awash in water."

Las Vegas faces a water shortage, but the issue has received short shrift in the presidential race as Democratic candidates campaign in Nevada looking for support in the state’s second-in-the-nation caucuses.

Bill, Bill, Bill.  That's a non-starter, buddy!  We in the Great Lakes are, and will remain, opposed to diverting our water.  This is non-negotiable, and will remain so, come what may.

Check this out, Bill:

The Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 between the United States and Canada, Article II:

It is agreed that, in addition to the uses, obstructions, and diversions heretofore permitted or hereafter provided for by special agreement between the Parties hereto, no further or other uses or obstructions or diversions, whether temporary or permanent, of boundary waters on either side of the line, affecting the natural level or flow of boundary waters on the other side of the line shall be made except by authority of the United States or the Dominion of Canada within their respective jurisdictions and with the approval, as hereinafter provided, of a joint commission, to be known as the International Joint Commission.

The Great Lakes Charter of 1985 (PDF), Principal Three:

The signatory States and Provinces agree that new or increased diversions and consumptive uses of Great Lakes Basin water resources are of serious concern. In recognition of their shared responsibility to conserve and protect the water resources of the Great Lakes Basin for the use, benefit, and enjoyment of all their citizens, the States and Provinces agree to seek (where necessary) and to implement legislation establishing programs to manage and regulate the diversion and consumptive use of Basin water
resources. It is the intent of the signatory States and Provinces that diversions of Basin water resources will not be allowed if individually or cumulatively they would have any significant adverse impacts on lake levels, in-basin uses, and the Great Lakes Ecosystem.

The Water Resources Development Act of 1986, As Amended in 2000 (PDF), Parts (d) and (e):

(d) No water shall be diverted or exported from any portion of the Great Lakes within the United States, from any tributary within the United States of any of the Great Lakes, for use outside the Great Lake basin unless such diversion or export is approved by the Governor of each of the Great Lakes States.

(e) No Federal agency may undertake an study, or expend any Federal funds to contract for any study, of the feasibility of diverting water from any portion of the Great Lakes within the United States, or from any tributary within the United States of any of the great Lakes, for use outside the Great Lakes basin, unless such study or expenditure is approved by the Governors of each of the Great Lakes States.

And if the above is not enough, let's listen to what Michigan's Governor, Jennifer Granholm (D), has to say about the matter.  From The Detroit Free Press, 10/15/07:

While that might be a popular proposal in Nevada, it struck a sensitive nerve in the Midwest. Environmental groups and Gov. Jennifer Granholm were quick to jump on the specter of pipelines carrying Great Lakes water across mountains to dry – and booming—Western towns like Las Vegas.

"Hell, no," Granholm said on WZZM-13 on Friday.

•  when they stop building golf-courses

  they can then talk about a "need" for water. Golf is not a "need"-water for drinking is a "need".  Water for bathing is a "need".

  Golf is not a "need".  Even lawns are not a "need"

  by libertyisliberal on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 12:33:20 PM PDT

  •  I kinda see Richardson...

    sitting in a sink hole and all the lake water redirected to him. His gullet is open and the water pours in but he's never satisfied.  And he just keeps on inflating and inflating.

    Waterboard Richardson! Naver he'd drink the hose dry.

    by Salo on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 12:36:18 PM PDT

  •  If I could give 10 reccs for one comment

    it'd be this one. Why do you have a big water fountain in a desert town?  To show off?  Can't that water be diverted before you start raiding WI for water?

    

                 
    Look pretty well watered to me.

    by dougymi on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:18:35 PM PDT

    •  Thanks

      I plan to retire and look out on Lake Michigan in my golden years, assuming someone hasn't decided to pump it dry.  The Great Lakes are already under stress.  Desert people will need to stop the golfing or pay for the reverse osmosis/gray water systems to keep it going.  
      Hold the line til I get up there, ok?  :)  

      by JanL on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 02:30:20 PM PDT

      •  I might be looking out on the Black Sea by then

        but I'll do what I can. The heights between Arcadia and Frankfort are particular favorites of mine.

        by dougymi on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 03:23:47 PM PDT

  •  Exactamundo. Seem to be a million

    upscale resorts springing up in desert or near desert areas from San Antonio to Phoenix. All of them feature...you guessed it, golf and waterparks. Last I heard, the geniuses at one of these in San Antonio were putting an underlayment in as part of the golf course that would prevent aquifer recharge.

    Looks like we need a stupid water use tax to go along with that carbon tax.

    by dallasdave on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:24:00 PM PDT

    •  "Stupid water use tax" - HAHAHAHA!

      Can I use that?  Like, as a title....all capitalized - Stupid Water Use Tax   or  S.W.U.T.

      by PsychoSavannah on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:32:34 PM PDT

•  We're running low, anyway.

  From the NY Times, 8/14/07:

  Water levels in the three upper Great Lakes are wavering far below normal, and experts expect Lake Superior, the northernmost lake, to reach a record low in the next two months, according to data from the international bodies that monitor the Great Lakes, the world’s largest freshwater reservoir.

  There is some dispute over whether the low levels are due to global warming, over use, or a combination of the two.  But at any rate, we're keeping our water.

  Tuebor.

  by HarveyMilk on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 12:33:43 PM PDT

  •  good diary.

    this shoul dbe in a few ads.

    Richardson is damned menace.

    by Salo on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 12:34:33 PM PDT

    •  Richardson is tone deaf, acts as if he's running

      for President of New Mexico, not the U.S.

      He won't be VP now unless our nominee's judgment is seriously impaired.

      by doinaheckuvanutjob on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 03:41:51 PM PDT

  •  Was about to say...

    aren't the lake levels low?

    My father neighbors up on his ten acres on Lake Huron swear they are already diverting that water via a secret pipeline.

    But my dad does have some kooky neighbors...

    by wmtriallawyer on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 12:40:12 PM PDT

    •  Hey, welcome back

      Good to see you're easing back ino the flow.

      by GOTV on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 12:59:10 PM PDT

  •  Global warming is no doubt "a" cause, but

    the primary reason is actually cyclical.  Lake levels run on an approximate 30- to 40-year cycle, and we are smack in the middle trough of one such cycle.  That said, lower than average precipitation rates over the past 5 years have contributed to the lowering of the levels.

    by GOTV on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 12:40:20 PM PDT

    •  yep... especially snowfall in Ontario

      and snowfall throughout the basin. Winter is the most important season for the lakes. Since '97 it's been some of the driest winters throughout the basin (could only find data for 97-2000 but it hasn't gotten any better as any snowmobiler in MI can tell you).

      Another source for the same thing PDF warning

      by dougymi on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 12:55:56 PM PDT

  •  mojo for not letting us forget 'maricon'

    that was really a window into his core perspective. WHAT politician says 'faggot' in any language?!!! except a winger talking to the evangelicals.

    by swissffun on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:38:12 PM PDT

    •  What kind? This kind:

      
      
      
      ````
      peace
      
      

      by peace voter on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:56:01 PM PDT

      •  well that's very interesting

        never heard this before.

        by Salo on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 03:13:03 PM PDT

  •  I live within walking distance of Lake Michigan

    and the beaches have gotten much bigger. The water has to be evaporating or going somewhere.

    I have pictures hanging on my living room wall of that beach taken this summer and there is about 150 or so feet of sand between the water and the street. I have pictures hanging on my living room wall that were taken 5 years ago and there used to only be about 100 feet of sand between the street and the water. The lake has to be receding.

    And this year was the first time the water of Lake Michigan was ever warm enough for me to want to swim in it. Lake Michigan used to always be freezing and even though I live within walking distance of Lake Michigan, I'd always go to a inland lake that was further away and warmer to go swimming. This year for the first time we swam in Lake Michigan because it was like bathwater.  

    by MichiganGirl on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 03:26:06 PM PDT

    •  The great lakes the reainder of the glaciers?

      Either a big gougued scar  (in effect the melt water.)

      by Salo on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 04:05:54 PM PDT

  •  I've heard dredging blamed.

    Supposedly, the story goes, last time they dredged the shipping channel in the Saint Clair river, they went a little overboard, and disrupted a natural formation that kept water from flowing out of Lake Huron (and thus Lake Michigan and Lake Superior) too fast. So on top of all the other stresses on the Lakes, we're just sending more over Niagara Falls for the heck of it...

    by Cathy Willey on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 04:06:10 PM PDT

•  Water impacts

  in the American West are going to hit unimaginable proportions.  

  Along the mighty Colorado, Las Vegas is upstream from LA.  Arizona and Colorado get a crack at that water before Nevada does.  Will everyone politely follow their interstate water compacts when the economic shit hits the fan?

  In Albuquerque, aquifer water is totally unequal to meeting even sustained needs, let alone growth.  So they are buying San Juan/Chama river water.  That's fine as long as the rain keeps falling, but if it takes a break for a few decades or centuries, then what?

  Richardson's take won't be popular outside the West.  But it's an open secret here that the sun-belt boom is gonna come to a screeching halt when its radiator boils dry.

  by lgmcp on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 12:35:07 PM PDT

  •  Razing Arizona

    Much of the southwest is vulnerable to three great sustainability issues.

    Water. Aquifers are being depleted. Summer snow-melt vulnerable to global warming.

    Electric power. Without air conditioning, much of the southwest is virtually uninhabitable.

    Fuel prices. Food and other necessities are trucked in from thousands of miles away.

    We can anticipate great economic dislocation in the region as we get deeper into the sustainability crisis. But similar dislocations will occur in every region and throughout the economy, so southwesterners will not be the only ones in trouble.

    I shudder to think what the conservative response to all this will be. This is why we must be passionate progressives.

    by DBunn on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 12:52:43 PM PDT

    •  I think water is the biggest challenge.

      New buildings should be designed and built to be cooler in summer and retain heat in winter.  Southwesterners should take advantage of abundant sunshine and use solar power to run their vehicles and cool their dwelling places.

      Golf courses and anything but xeriscaping is not sustainable for the desert south west.
      
      
      ````
      peace
      
      

      by peace voter on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 02:04:16 PM PDT

  •  It's easy to forget--

    Global warming is not the only environmental disaster. It's by far the greatest symptom, but there are others that also need attention.

    by homogenius on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:02:48 PM PDT

  •  When are folks

    going to realize you can't just decide to develop huge communities in a desert?  There is simply not enough water to support the population boom in the desert and mountain West.  

    by jarhead5536 on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:03:01 PM PDT

    •  This is one reason why NM Dems

      are not so excited about the prospect of Albuquerque mayor Martin Chavez possibly serving as our main challenger for Domenici's soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat.  Marty's reasonably liberal on social issues, but he's a disaster when it comes to championing sustainability.  His personal money is tied up in development and land speculation, and boy does it show.

      by lgmcp on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:07:20 PM PDT

    •  We don't have the kind of broad

      planning set up, and local level movements, that give us a mechanism for this stuff to be controlled well.

      Local governments are after tax revenue. Developers are after cheap land. Cheap land is often in the desert, and homeowners are after cheap houses. People have a strong tendency, when they're looking for housing, not to stop and think about the broader impacts of their choices.

      We need to fundamentally address development issues in the west, if we have any hope of handling the coming water crisis. The west needs lower population growth, it needs more sustainable housing, it needs sensible conservation measures. But these things need to be done in a holistic kind of a way, through regional planning and the like, or you wind up with one town doing "the right thing" and the next town over reaping huge development dollars out of it.

      by Spit on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:29:35 PM PDT

  •  Water flows uphill towards money.

    (Forget about it Jake, it's Chinatown.)

    Whiskey's for drinking and water's for fighting.

    In Somalia, there were children begging the US soldiers for water.  You don't beg for something so heavy unless you mean it.

    Silly Bill.  The politics of water are so Byzantine here, it's hard to even figure out what the guys in offices in expensive suits are talking about.

    I'm an officer of an irrigation unit (acequia, an old traditional method from the Moors, via Spain) here, so I deal with this crap regularly.  The concepts of  "adjudication", "abandonment" and "forfeiture" - invented by lawyers and policy makers - are facts of life with us.  Some of the oldest cases in the federal courts - dating back decades - concern water rights disputes right here in New Mexico.

    Also, for my orchard, deal with shlepping sandbags, clearing beaver dams out of the headgates, flash floods from thunderstorms, and other actual wet water matters.  As opposed to "paper water" issues that guys in suits like Richardson, who never actually get their feet wet, concern themselves with.

    by Land of Enchantment on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:37:53 PM PDT

  •  They never were "polite" about it.

    We had water wars back in Billy the Kid's time. (Lincoln County wars, anyone?) It's just getting more serious now. We do need regional/national water policies, but until the developers of the Southwest either stop or change their practices dramatically, it ain't gonna happen.

    by Indexer on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 02:50:48 PM PDT

•  This is not a matter of being nice,

  or a matter of comity, or a matter of need vs. supply.  It's a matter of habitat and destruction of a resource.  We've already done that to the west.  Why should the west ask the Great Lakes states to correct its decisions?

  Diversion of Great Lakes' water is a potential mistake of monumental proportions.

  Hell no!, is damn right.

  by GOTV on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 12:35:49 PM PDT

•  Lake Superior is already almost at a record low

  How much lower does he want it to go?  Supposedly northern Minnesota has warmed enough that Superior is spending less and less time frozen each year and more and more water, something like 14 trillion gallons, has evaporated over the last decade.  Not to mention that the north shore and northwest wisconsin is in the middle of a multi-year drought.  If you want to live in the desert then I would start building cisterns and scrubbing waste water for drinking.

  by Dr Colossus on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 12:37:37 PM PDT

•  says it all.

  "States like Wisconsin are awash in water."

  greedy bastard.

  by Salo on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 12:39:21 PM PDT

  •  I travel to north west wisconsin every couple

    months.  They are not awash in water.  All the little lakes, ponds and marshes I pass along the way are a half foot or more low.  They are low despite all the rain they have had in the last six weeks.

    by Dr Colossus on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 12:42:39 PM PDT

•  I know how you feel.

  In San Francisco we're constantly fighting to keep Hetch Hetchy water from being diverted by other interests.
  We're gonna have water wars soon.

  by Archangel on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 12:42:33 PM PDT

  •  Funny thing--

    I did my PoliSci final on this back in 1976. Plus ca change....

    by homogenius on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:03:39 PM PDT

•  How about an "uncontrolled growth"

  national policy Bill? If states like yours and Nevada hadn't built unsustainable and sprawling towns in the middle of 100 degree deserts, you wouldn't be so thirsty for other people's water.

  How about abolishing golf courses and mandating astroturf lawns or better wastewater treatment facilities AND a stop the kind of uncontrolled growth you have encouraged?

  by michael1104 on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 12:50:13 PM PDT

  •  Indeed

    How about anticipating the many facets of the sustainability crisis and investing in reasonable preventive measures, instead of dragging down other regions to protect the foolish decisions of the past?

    The economist Herman Daly wrote somewhere about the folly of those who, in the belief that it is "wrong" to attempt to manage the economy, advocate instead the central management of the biospere. This is madness.

    by DBunn on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:00:21 PM PDT

  •  How about... they use technology to solve their

    specific environmental issues.

    Instead of trying to alter and drain an entire eco-system located in another area to use for their own selfish pursuits, why not make good use of available technologies to better their own eco-system.

    Israel has made green areas in the middle of dryness.

    Bill Richardson is an idiot.  This totally disgusts me that he said this.

    Our... constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds. Thurgood Marshall

    by bronte17 on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:30:43 PM PDT

•  You mean Halliburton isn't already...

  ...selling it to Saudi Arabia?

  by Ken in MN on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 12:54:16 PM PDT

  •  No, but

    you may recall that Enron lost $100,000,000s trying to etablish a world water market, where water would be traded as a commodity such as oil.

    Someone will try this again; it's just a matter of time.

    by GOTV on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:02:48 PM PDT

    •  A matter of time - like now

      A new undertaking by Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens is even more disconcerting. Pickens has been acquiring acreage overlying the Ogallala aquifer with hopes that he could pump and sell the as much as 200,000 AFY of water to one of the state’s metropolitan centers – El Paso, Lubbock, San Antonio, or Dallas-Fort Worth. Ogallala is already severely depleted. The West Texas farmers rely on the aquifer for water. The aquifer’s minimal recharge rate of less then one AFY means that its users are mining fossil water that will not be replenished.
      Pickens projects that his prices would be adjusted according to the distance the water has to be pumped: El Paso would pay $1,400 per acre-foot, Dallas would pay $800, San Antonio – more than $1000. Although building a pipeline will be expensive, an estimated $1-$2 billion, these prices are still very high.

      http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/...

      by Catte Nappe on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:40:09 PM PDT

•  Retitle it if you want more eyeballs

  "Hell no" is very compelling.  But you might want to say "Hell no you can't have our water!".

  Or "Hell no Governor Richardson isn't sane!"

  by astor column on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 12:56:12 PM PDT

  •  Possible other titles:

    Governor, Water You Up To With Our Great Lakes?

    No Piping Down, Governor! So Pipe Down!

    H2Over my Dead Body!

    by trivium on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:20:15 PM PDT

    •  If you really want a lot of eyeballs

      Breaking: HRC murders JRE for AIPAC!!!

      You'll get troll rated but man will you get some serious eyeballs.

      by Dr Colossus on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:30:18 PM PDT

•  A subject dear to my heart

  Thanks for the diary.  Richardson just lost all the support he might have had in the  upper Midwest, I'd say.  Bad idea on every level.

  by myrealname on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:01:14 PM PDT

  •  It's like giving your little brother a straw.

    You may be sipping your milkshake, but he's guzzling it down as fast as he can.

    by homogenius on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:05:13 PM PDT

•  We live in Michigan and Arizona.

  And even we don't want to divert Great Lakes water anywhere - especially to the west.  

  by ShainZona on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:03:29 PM PDT

•  Bill reminds me of job applicants . .

  Who have such great resumes but then bomb the interview..

  How did this guy ever win a campaign? I even sent him $$ early on since his credentials seem great and i didn't like how the "top three" were getting all the attention

  by oscarfrye on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:04:45 PM PDT

  •  Richardson is toast.

    He's already pissed off the gay community, which is not a good thing if you hope to be a Democratic President or Vice President.  Now, he's made himself radioactive in places like Michigan and Wisconsin - must win states for Democrats.

    He should hang it up, go back to NM, and take on Heather Nipples Wilson for the Senate.

    by HarveyMilk on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:09:24 PM PDT

    •  I knew he was toast when he spoke a-rye. nt

      by trivium on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:23:43 PM PDT

•  Dear Governor Richardson,

  I am from Detroit, Michigan.  You may have heard of it.  

  You are correct in saying the Great Lakes States are "awash with water," but that is sort of inherent in "lakeness," isn't it? Particularly "Great Lakeness"?

  Please don't try to take our water.  We would all rather pee in our Great Lakes than watch you take our water.  There's a health risk, I know, but if you get that tainted water urine trouble yourself, Governor.

  My suggestion is, instead of trying to take our water, why not collect all the empty Aquafina bottles you can find, and plant them in your fertile New Mexico loam.  Then next spring, when they sprout, you'll have all the water you need.
  See?  The answer's so simple, George Bush could have come up with it.

  by trivium on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:15:45 PM PDT

  •  Evian

    Naive.

    by Salo on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 03:08:09 PM PDT

•  If they'd stop wasting the water

  on the fountains from hell, maybe there'd be enough water to go around.

  No.

  by kredwyn on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:18:53 PM PDT

•  The answer(s) to the predicament

  No more grass lawns.  Period.  In ANY arid state.  No more profligate golf courses getting watered up the ying-yang.  No more water-hungry crops in the arid parts of the country.  You want lawns and to grow water-hungry crops, then move where the water is. If you live in a desert, then LIVE like you live in a desert!

  It is not for Mother Nature to bend to YOUR will, but for you to accept Mother Nature.

  by Terminus Est on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:25:17 PM PDT

  •  NM: Stillsuits for all! Then ur Dune fine.

    by trivium on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:29:26 PM PDT

    •  That too!

      I've lived in arid states and in moderate to highly wet states.  I've always lived in accord with the environment as it is rather than trying to make them all fit into a single "preferred" but incompatible environment.  In Utah, I eliminated most of my lawn and replaced it with xeroscaping.  Even in wet(ter) states I wasn't profligate with the H20.

      Desert states need to have RULES wrt to water and landscaping.  NO WASTEFUL BIG-ASSED FOUNTAINS (Ya hear me Los Vegas?), no lawns, no golf courses with huge swaths of friggin water-hungry grass!

      by Terminus Est on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:36:28 PM PDT

      •  Your post sent me to wikipedia.

        Xeriscaping refers to landscaping in ways that do not require supplemental irrigation. It is promoted in areas that do not have easily accessible supplies of fresh water. The word Xeriscaping was coined by combining xeros (Greek for "dry") with landscape. Plants whose natural requirements are appropriate to the local climate are emphasized, and care is taken to avoid losing water to evaporation and run-off. XeriscapeTM and the xeriscape logo are registered trademarks of Denver Water, the water department of Denver, Colorado. They were created by the Front Range Xeriscape Task Force of Denver Department in 1978.
        Some common plants used in xeriscaping are agave, cactus, lavender, juniper, sedum and thyme.

        I wasn't familiar with the term, so thanks.  Let's hope the NMers get with the program, before thyme runs out.

        by trivium on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:49:44 PM PDT

    •  lol! n/t

      by bjones on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:38:01 PM PDT

  •  If there were no grass lawns in Minnesota

    everyone here would have Ehrlichia or Limes Disease from ticks.

    by Dr Colossus on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:35:10 PM PDT

    •  Use NATIVE grass

      And low water-requirement grass if lawns just must be had.

      by Terminus Est on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 01:37:54 PM PDT

•  Minnesota is a pretty dry state

  It just has a particular geology that keeps water closer to the surface, and appears far greener than its rainfall would indicate. It's all very carefully balanced.  The myth that great lakes states have so much water to spare is just that, a myth. Lake Superior could never take the sustained tapping that some are talking about. It's already hit an 81 year low earlier this summer.

  In Las Vegas they banned lawns on all new homes, and frankly, the rest of the Southwest needs to follow along. If they want to grow populations they need to get hard core on the low-flush, low-flow, desert landscaping, eco-friendly stuff. But even so, there is just not enough water to keep growing. These cities are going to have to radically change or constrict their own growth.  the easiest way to do that is to make water prohibitively expensive by not increasing the supply.

  by decembersue on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 02:02:10 PM PDT

•  Golfing in New Mexico

  From NewMexico.org:

  

  Golfing

  With 310 days of sunlight a year, New Mexico is a golf lover's paradise. With courses all over the state, you'll soon find yourself up-close and personal with all the terrain that the Land of Enchantment is famous for. Breathtaking mountains, forests, and deserts surround many of our world-class links, and you may even find that your ball gets a little extra lift from the mile-high altitudes - particularly on those courses in the north and central regions.

  From Las Cruces to Santa Fe, Truth or Consequences to Los Alamos, Taos to Apache Mesa and White Sands - somewhere in New Mexico there's a course with the challenge and the terrain to match your need for that perfect gold vacation. No matter which part of the state you choose for your vacation, there are plenty of options for you to choose from.

  Year-round golf is not only possible here - it's mandatory...

  
  
  ````
  peace
  
  

  by peace voter on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 04:05:31 PM PDT

  •  ohhhhhh...

    ...it's supposed to be played on barren wind swept Scottish heath.

    by Salo on Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 04:07:29 PM PDT

•  Hell No Occupation of Iraq to 2013

  For all that you may criticize Richardson for, on the top issue of the election - the path the US should take on Iraq - Richardson is right on target and Clinton, Obama and Edwards are wrong.  They refuse to commit to bring our troops home from Iraq by 2013.

  "If you haven't seen enough to know that we need to get all the troops out then you aren't watching the same war that I and the rest of America are seeing" was Richardson's response in a recent speech. Here is the video of the speech:

  by Stephen Cassidy on Tue Oct 16, 2007 at 12:22:26 AM PDT

  •  He'll never get the chance.

    Given Richardson's stupid pander in Nevada, he has written off the Upper Midwest.  He will not be President, and he will not be anyone's Vice President. People here take the Great Lakes very seriously, and Richardson's dumbassery is among the  "most e-mailed stories" on the Detroit Free Press.  

    And, given how poorly Richardson has run his campaign, I have to wonder whether he is competent enough to hold higher office.

    by HarveyMilk on Tue Oct 16, 2007 at 05:53:18 AM PDT

    •  "Given how"

      Hey, you want to support candidates that refuse to call for an immediate withdrawal of our forces from Iraq, be my guest.  

      by Stephen Cassidy on Tue Oct 16, 2007 at 10:24:49 AM PDT

      •  Thank you.

        I will.

        by HarveyMilk on Tue Oct 16, 2007 at 11:40:23 AM PDT