Today's front page of the Denver Post has an article about a Mason-Dixon poll of 800 registered CO voters conducted Jan 21-23.  Obama leads the Democratic side (within the margin of error) and Romney leads the Republican side (way outside the margin of error).

Here are the M-D results:

Democrats
Obama      34%
Clinton      32%
Edwards    17%
Kucinich      3%
Undecided  14%

Republicans
Romney    43%
McCain      24%
Huckabee  17%
Undecided   7%
Paul           5%
Giuliani       4%

More results and commentary below.
Cross-posted at SquareState.

Originally, I wanted to write a diary today about the upcoming House vote on the 2007 Energy Bill.  Then I saw a number of related news items that help provide some context for this bill.  A large number of folks have been working hard all year to make sure our energy policies moving forward contain good, solid changes.

Discussed below is the CO ski industry, some Energy bill details, the conference in Bali to discuss post-Kyoto Treaty policies and targets, and recent developments regarding long-term goals.

A couple days ago, I presented a summary of Gov. Ritter's strategy to take action within Colorado on what I view as the most critical issue facing us: global warming.

There has been a distinct lack of willingness to deal with this issue in any real way by either our state government prior to Gov. Ritter or by the federal government for some time.  The good news is we the people are leading on this issue and folks grounded in reality like Gov. Ritter are now responding.

Once again, the pdf version of Ritter's plan can be found here.

I look forward to your thoughts on this matter.  Onward to some details!

Yesterday, 300spartansgym wrote a diary at SquareState announcing Gov. Bill Ritter's "Strategy to Address Global Warming".  [applause for Gov. Ritter and 300spartansgym]  That diary was posted while I was reading through the governor's plan and formulating what I wanted to cover.  Next time, I'll read and post faster!

More seriously, I wanted to present some of the details of the plan and share my viewpoint on them, in the hope that doing so will produce some discussion.

The pdf version of Ritter's plan is here.

There's a lot of 'there' there, so I'm going to submit two diaries: one today and hopefully one tomorrow.  I welcome others' thoughts and reactions to the plan.

Let's get to it...

This is the third of three diaries about the Health Care Town Hall Meeting that I attended last Saturday.    In my first diary here and here, I introduced a few of the people involved in the Meeting, the current state of Colorado's health care system and discussed the principles the Commission is operating under.  In my previous diary (SquareState and DailyKos versions), I talked about the Proposals and my standpoint on what they had to offer (or not, as the case might be).  In this diary, I will share the questions and comments that attendees brought up.

A small refresher and the questions after the flip.

This is the second of three diaries about the Health Care Town Hall Meeting that I attended last Saturday.  In my previous diary (SquareState and DailyKos versions), I introduced a few of the people involved in the Meeting, the current state of Colorado's health care system and discussed the principles the Commission is operating under.  In this diary, I will discuss the proposals as I understand them.  There were a number of good questions asked post-presentation and I will spend time on those in my next diary.

A big thank you goes out to State Sen. Brandon Shaffer (Senate District 17), Dr. Mark Wallace, Elisabeth Arenales, and all the attendees for spending their Saturday afternoon discussing an issue that quite frankly needs even more attention.

A small refresher and the proposals after the flip.

First, a little background.  Last weekend, I went to see SiCKO, the most recent film by Michael Moore, with some friends.  I've read a number of diaries on DailyKos about health care, mostly by nyceve as her diaries frequently make the Recommended list.  I can't wait to meet her at YearlyKos.  So I had a fair amount of knowledge of the current state of our health care system before the movie.  I can't say that my friends were similarly informed prior to the film.  But, we all left the theater shocked, angered, and saddened at the stories presented and the system we in America get to deal with.

Getting from here to the Town Hall Meeting after the jump...

Despite the heat wave that's gripped the Front Range, a group of citizen activists turned out to walk in the Denver Pride parade with CO-02 candidate Jared Polis.

I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that despite living in Denver most of my life, I've never attended the parade or the pride events.  I've walked/attended numerous parades over the years and this parade easily ranks near the top in terms of enjoyment.  Everybody (volunteers & parade-goers) was motivated and having a good time.

One of our fellow Kossacks, Ilona Meagher ,is touring the country, talking about her novel, "Moving a Nation to Care", published by Ig Publishing.*

Yesterday, Ilona came to Boulder.  She gave a talk at the Boulder Book Store on the Pearl St. Mall, staring with how she came to write about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  The thing that struck me most about her talk was the very real emotions she has about the subject matter.  This issue does mean something to Ilona and that gives her a huge benefit when writing/talking about it.  She's passionate about it and that's something I think is severely lacking in today's instant gratification culture.

More below.

The field for Colorado's 2nd CD (mostly Boulder and points west; currently represented by Mark Udall) will be one stronger today, as Jared Polis plans to formally announce his candidacy.

Jared joins Will Shafroth, a Boulder environmentalist and Joan Fitz-Gerald, current CO State Senate President, as the biggest names in the race so far.

More after the flip...

Earlier this week, Rep. Mark Udall (CO-02) filed paperwork to form a new Senate election committee, the first step in his run for the Senate in 2008.

From the hardworking ColoradoConfidential:

Udall raised $334,882 for his congressional campaign in the first quarter of 2007, all of which is transferrable into a campaign for Senate. More importantly, Udall surpassed $1.5 million ($1,537,686) in cash on hand. In the 2004 Senate race, Democrat Ken Salazar spent roughly $10 million in order to defeat Republican Pete Coors, and Udall says that while his campaign team is still looking at an exact projection, that number will be the minimum needed to win in 2008.

So good news from Colorado.  More on the flip.

I attended a meeting yesterday with Rep. Mark Udall's (CO-02) Field Representative Scott Prestidge to  ask Rep. Udall co-sponsoring Rep. Henry Waxman's (CA-30) Safe Climate Act.

There are a number of bills in both the House and Senate dealing with climate-related topics.  After some research and discussion, I think the Safe Climate Act is one of the most aggressive bills in terms of what it would try to accomplish and because it sets up an enforcement mechanism.

Rep. Waxman introduced this bill for the first time last year.  Obviously, the Do Nothing Republican Congress wouldn't let it see the light of day.  It didn't have nearly enough hate and the wrong kind of fear in it to be considered.  As we've been told, elections have their consequences: now bills like this can be debated.

As we all know, two major winter storms blanketed eastern Colorado in the waning days of 2006.  The second storm took aim at southeastern Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

There was some discussion on SquareState about which congressional districts the storm impacted, one of which was CO-04.  One of our local favorites, Marilyn Musgrave, represents that district and got called out for previously pandering to the religious right and her inability to prioritize.

Well, it turns out that Musgrave and our Republican Senator Wayne Allard sponsored legislation yesterday that would give aid to livestock owners who suffered losses in the storms.

More below.

Our second Boulder Broker DL meeting went very well last night.  We talked about topics far and wide in diversity:

A DailyKos Diary Rescue Ranger showed us some behind the scenes action.  Very exciting for the blogging geeks in attendance.

Leading up to the 2006 election, I heard about and joined a group called Scientists and Engineers for America. Today, they sent me an email with some information about how they impacted the election.

They had a Speaker Series at some universities, used internet banner ads, held a commercial contest, and garnered some press coverage. One of the press pieces they shared was from the Denver Post in early October.

Boulder's Drinking Liberally had a smaller than average group last night.  A couple folks did show up from Longmont, which was a nice surprise.

We had plenty to talk about though.  Discussion ranged from Colorado politics to national politics to policies to party strategy vs. tactics to the 2008 election.  We talked a little about celebrities, federal investigations, blogs, and books.  Differences between CO and southern states also came up.

Besides the camaraderie and the good beer, I learned a couple things too.  More below.

Colorado's lame-duck governor has done it again... or not done it again, depending upon your viewpoint.  As an editorial from yesterday's Denver Post notes, Governor Owens was the only governor in the country that did not affix his name to a letter sent to congressional leaders regarding the proper "use" of the National Guard.

The House wants Bush to have the authority to federalize the Guard during emergencies.  The Senate has yet to take the issue up.  US governors have sided overwhelmingly against such a plan.

Language in the bill would let the president unilaterally take over Guard units in case of "a serious natural or manmade disaster, accident or catastrophe."

Call me cynical, but one of the last things I want is for Bush to be the decider and federalize the National Guard during a disaster or catastrophe.  I have serious reservations about what his definitions of disasters and catastrophes might be and am unwilling to find out.

Boulder's Drinking Liberally chapter met again last night.  In addition to some of our regulars, there were some new faces to meet.  Thanks to johne (Drinking Liberally-Denver) giving us an assist, among the new faces was Jim Derych, also known as advisorjim and author of "Confessions of a Former Dittohead."

I had a busy night moving between DL's customary meeting spot, Playa Azul, the Boulder Bookstore (a stop on Jim's book tour) and back again.  It was well worth the travel.

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