“I’m not going to go out and say the sky is falling and that climate change is happening, but I’m very concerned about the risk of climate change,” Gov. John Hickenlooper told a coalition of 22 southeastern Colorado counties at a public meeting last week, as reported by the Pueblo Chieftain.

The governor’s comments echo some of the same language he used at the Colorado Environmental Coalition’s “Rebel With A Cause” gala in May 2009, except then his views were a lot more clear.

“I’m not saying that the sky is falling. I’m saying that clearly the climate is changing, clearly mankind’s activities are causing it,” Hickenlooper said back then.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper in Yuma.

Now, Hickenlooper clarifies that he is concerned about the risk of climate change but he deliberately stops short of acknowledging climate change is actually happening.

Even before he ascended to the governor’s office, there were questions as to whether Hickenlooper wears flip flops to the planet’s climate change debates.

In February 2010, at the National Western Mining Conference & Exhibition in Denver, Hickenlooper raised eyebrows when he said, “I don’t think that the scientific community has decided with certainty that climate change is as catastrophic as so many people think.”

It was a surprising remark that caught many people off guard, including Beth Conover, the author of “How the West Was Warmed.” Conover tweeted: “What the … ?” Hickenlooper wrote the forward for her 2009 book in which he called climate change “one of the greatest challenges of our time.”

Whether the governor now doubts how much the West has warmed is unclear. But rising sea levels, warmer temperatures and below-average snowpack are unmistakable to most scientists. And while he no longer comes out and says it is happening, Hickenlooper is preparing for climate change.

In an effort to conserve water, Colorado’s governor said Americans need to get rid of nonnative Kentucky bluegrass from their yards and that industry needs to develop more water-efficient toilet flushing. As mayor of Denver, he swapped out energy-guzzling bulbs in traffic lights with more efficient ones. He introduced biodiesel into city fleets, successfully lobbied for mass transportation solutions, implemented an ambitious recycling program at Denver International Airport and praised urban infill. In his speech last week in Pueblo, Hickenlooper reportedly mentioned he has been in discussions with the CEO of Kum & Go about possibly facilitating a low-interest government loan so that the convenience stores could offer compressed natural gas as an alternative to gasoline.

When it comes to climate change, Hickenlooper may walk the walk. But he no longer talks the talk.

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In wake of news that major Republican donors are funding the push to legalize gay marriage in New York, Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family is touting efforts to “save traditional marriage” there led by the National Organization for Marriage and the New Yorker’s Family Research Foundation. NOM has reportedly raised a million dollars to spend on its anti-gay marriage campaign and Family Research Foundation leader Reverend Jason McGuire is riding around the state on a “Mayday for Marriage” bus tour rallying supporters. “Where were you when they tried to redefine marriage?” he reportedly asks the people who turn up at tour stops. “What will you say to future generations?”

The message is being mocked for sounding wartime alarms and referencing hypothetically distraught future generations at a time when opinion, especially among young people, is swinging wildly in support of gay equality.

Gay activist websites are also hosting the “Mayday for Marriage” radio ad now playing on the New York airwaves. In the context of the sites, the ad comes off as a camp parody of gay-panic politics.

The most recent Pew Research poll data shows that opposition to gay marriage has fallen by 19 points in the last 15 years. On the topic of homosexuality generally, there has been a sea change. Nearly 70 percent of people under 30 now say that homosexuality should be accepted not discouraged.

In the weeks leading up to the end of the state legislative session there, New York has become ground zero in the gay marriage war. The state Senate in 2009 voted against legislation that would have legalized same-sex marriage. Democrats control the state House now as then and in 2009 they enjoyed a majority in the Senate. Although Republicans now control the Senate, the momentum seems to be swinging toward equality.

The New York Times this weekend made a splash, for example, with a story profiling a number of the wealthy GOP donors who have gone on record in support of gay marriage rights and have given roughly $1 million to the cause. The donors have said they want Republican lawmakers to know they will not be abandoned by the party for supporting gay marriage.

“I think it is important in particular for Republicans to know this is a bipartisan issue,” said donor Daniel Loeb. “They will not be abandoned by the party for supporting this. On the contrary, I think they will find that there is a whole new world of people who will support them on an ongoing basis if they support this cause.”

In Colorado this past spring, such an effort by GOP financial backers might well have pushed a same-sex civil unions bill over the top. After advancing through the Senate, the bill died in a House committee, where at least a few of the Republicans who voted against it seemed to be doing so based more on political calculation than moral conviction.

The religious character of the opposition to gay marriage in New York highlights a pattern around the country. Even as the right-wing mediasphere beats drums against an alleged “creeping sharia” meant to slip Islamic law into U.S. statutes, the arguments against gay equality mostly turn on scriptural law and reasoning.

That was clearly the case in Colorado in the debate around the civil unions bill, which would have granted gay couples hundreds of legal rights presently enjoyed by straight married couples.

“Our Creator established the family as the cornerstone of human society,” said Kevin Lundberg, who led the charge against the bill in the state Senate.

Witnesses opposed to the legislation almost all identified themselves as Christian. Many referenced the Bible. A spokesman for the Catholic Archdiocese testified against the bill in the House and Senate committees. And Christian politics group Colorado Family Action commissioned a poll during the debate over the bill and delivered the results to Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee.

The Republicans didn’t share the poll data or any details of the survey methodology with the Democratic members of the committee nor with members of the press.

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Colorado Sen. Mark Udall, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today blasted Republicans for blocking an attempt to begin debate on the National Defense Authorization Act, which includes repealing the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law.

The bill, which Udall helped write, funds the wars in Iraq in Afghanistan but also would start the process of repealing DADT. It needed 60 votes to begin full debate but fell short 57-40.

“Today, my Republican colleagues filibustered a pay increase for our troops at a time when our country is losing jobs and military families across the country are struggling to get by. They blocked provisions that are critical to defending our nation and keeping our service members safe. In fact, this will be the first time in 49 years that defense authorization legislation has not passed into law – all because Republicans object to repealing an outdated policy that is harming our ability to retain and recruit qualified service members while we’re at war,” Udall said in a release.

“If my colleagues were serious about resolving our differences over this bill, they would have allowed us to begin debate. Instead, we’re gridlocked over politics at the expense of our troops and our national security. The American people –- and our service members –- want us to lead. Obstructing debate is not leadership.

“At a time when we’re fighting two wars, we need every skilled service member we have – airmen, mechanics, translators, and others. The Pentagon’s top leaders, the President, and a majority of the American people support repeal [of DADT]. We owed it to our troops to at least debate the issue.”

As the WikiLeaks endless U.S. diplomatic document dump continues, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is battling back calls to resign for a UN espionage scheme, she’s leading the government’s de facto public relations campaign against WikiLeaks and she’s battening down the hatches at the State Department. She is, in effect, in a war against the future the internet is promising to deliver as WikiLeaks incrementally posts all of the 250,000 State Department cables it is alleged to possess. On Wednesday, the internet also attacked her from the past. Web-culture agenda-setting site Boing Boing posted Clinton’s January celebration of internet freedom.

“We are also supporting the development of new tools that enable citizens to exercise their rights of free expression by circumventing politically motivated censorship,” she said. “…Both the American people and nations that censor the internet should understand that our government is committed to helping promote internet freedom. We want to put these tools in the hands of people who will use them to advance democracy and human rights.”

As anyone following the WikiLeaks versus Superpower battle knows, the U.S. government is not only trying to plug the leak, it’s attempting to prevent Americans from reading about and exchanging information with each other about the leak and pressuring businesses to limit access to WikiLeaks. In other words, it’s trying to take the tools out of the hands of people who will use them to advance democracy and human rights!

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“As one of the most prominent and largest Hispanic Republican organizations in the nation, we are left with no choice but to answer to our base by keeping track of every single political vote that is viewed as friendly or un-friendly to Hispanics…” the group said in a release. “Like the Cubans during 2000, our Political Action Committee will actively work against 2012 political candidates who are un-friendly to our community.”

The DREAM Act passed in the House of Representatives Wednesday on a close vote. The Act would grant citizenship to undocumented youth raised in the U.S. provided they attend university and/or serve in the military. The bill has been broken off from larger immigration reform efforts because it is seen as less controversial and began its life as a Republican proposal. Defense leaders support the bill but heated immigration politics this year have led GOP leaders to back away and seek to postpone action on the bill.

The full Somos Republicans release:

Phoenix, AZ – Hispanic Republicans would like to thank President Obama for supporting the Bush Tax cuts, however, we believe President Obama should have negotiated DREAM Act support along with the those cuts. We were also glad to see strong Republican support for the cuts when they told Democrats “they would not go forward with any legislative item until Obama supported the tax cuts…” Now that Obama has stated his support, we would like to see the GOP Senate leaders move forward in support of the DREAM Act.

Of great importance, we witnessed every single Congressional Cuban Republican vote in support of the DREAM Act; in fact, they all spoke in favor of it on the floor. We are deeply indebted to them, and the Hispanic community will forever remember their actions. Not long ago, the entire Hispanic community was with the Cuban community in spirit when the battle of Elian Gonzalez drove Cuban Americans back to the Republican Party in Florida. Within one decade we have watched some in the GOP transform on the issue of children, families, immigration and deportation. In 1996, Bill Clinton and Al Gore won Florida, however, during the 2000 Presidential Election, the Cuban American National Foundation said they would actively work against Gore because of his badly chosen handling of Elian’s deportation that eventually cost him the elections.

Thanks to the Cuban Republicans who showed strong support of the DREAM Act, there is hope in Florida. Unfortunately, we fear a political shifting and repositioning of the entire Southwest and some Midwestern states if GOP Senators will not take heed to issues that are very important to Hispanics. We know that Senators LeMieux, Hutchison, Kyl, Ensign and Hatch are all up for 2012 elections.

It is now up to the GOP Senators to save the Southwest and prevent it from further political shifting. As one of the most prominent and largest Hispanic Republican organizations in the nation, we are left with no choice but to answer to our base by keeping track of every single political vote that is viewed as friendly or un-friendly to Hispanics – especially with regard to our related youth who should not be punished for the sins of their mother or father. Like the Cubans during 2000, our Political Action Committee will actively work against 2012 political candidates who are un-friendly to our community.

Remember the Elian Gonzalez incident of 2000!

Remember the deported Hispanic child that cost Mr. Gore the Presidential elections!

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Fox has learned that Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Jay Inslee (D-WA) are crafting a letter to share with the House Democratic Caucus that would try to prevent the Speaker from bringing the tax bill to the floor.

They hope to get 60 signatures on their letter (which is still being drafted) and then force a vote in the caucus. DeFazio says he thinks that if a majority of House Democrats are against this compromise, they shouldn’t bring it to the floor.

This seems rather Quixotic. If the House leadership wants the bill, the White House wants the bill and there’s a majority that will pass it — and with most Republicans on board, there certainly will be — it seems highly unlikely that a vote in the Democratic caucus would prevent it from happening.

After the Democrats lost control of the House in 1994, it was not unusual for President Bill Clinton to sign a bill that was passed with majority approval from Republicans and a minority of Democrats. That is how GATT, NAFTA and at least two financial deregulation bills were passed after 1994.

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The act grants citizenship to undocumented youth raised in the United States provided they attend two years of university and / or serve in the Armed Forces. Colorado Rep. Jared Polis has championed the bill in the two years he has served in Congress and he gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House last night.

The young people covered under this bill are the children any parent would be proud of, our sons and daughters, neighbors, classmates, prom kings and queens, football players and cheerleaders who stayed in school, played by the rules, worked hard, stayed out of trouble. They are the children of our great nation and we too should be proud.

Not proud of the broken and dysfunctional immigration system and lack of enforcement that put them in this situation. Not proud of their parents’ violation of our immigration laws, no matter how out of touch with reality those laws may be. Not proud of the indignities, discrimination and fear that these young people have faced at every turn. But proud of how these young Americans have overcome adversity and demonstrated American exceptionalism.

Their pluck, ingenuity, ambition, drive and creativity in pursuit of, as the Declaration of Independence puts it, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” These DREAMers embody the very best among our American values and we should be proud to call them out countrymen.

…

Those who oppose the DREAM Act support the ongoing presence of over 500,000 more illegal immigrants within our borders. Opponents of the DREAM act make a travesty of the rule of the law and facilitate the ongoing presence of undocumented foreign nationals inside our country, which so frustrates our states and cities.

Let me end by simply relating this to common sense. If you are pulled over for a speeding ticket and you have a child in a car-seat next to you, that two-year-old doesn’t get the speeding ticket. If there is a bank robber with a toddler on his back, that toddler doesn’t spend a life in prison.

In a release, Executive Director of immigrant rights group America’s Voice Frank Sharry looked to Thursday’s Senate vote:

[This is] one of those votes that will stick with each and every Senator for the rest of their career. They either stand up for young immigrants who are Americans in all but paperwork, or slam the door shut on the best and the brightest of the immigrant community. We urge them to do the smart thing and the right thing.

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The unit is the last sticking point in a potential $1 billion deal that will shut down some coal-fire Front Range units and shift to natural gas, which burns about 50 percent cleaner than coal. The state’s coal industry is opposed to the move, which is being predicated by the Clean Air, Clean Jobs Act passed last legislative session.

According to the AP, PUC commissioner James Tarpey on Wednesday said he backs Xcel’s plan to just add new emissions controls to Cherokee 4. PUC Chairman Ron Binz reportedly supports retrofitting the facility to run just on natural gas. Commissioner Matt Baker prefers shuttering the unit altogether and replacing it with a new natural gas-fired facility. Tarpey is concerned about long-term natural gas supplies, AP reported.

Pam Kiely, program director of Environment Colorado, said the PUC needs to act decisively when it reconvenes on the issue Thursday.

“This is a defining moment for Colorado … are we going to commit today to cleaner resources and cleaner air for our children and grandchildren or continue our dependence on an aging, high-emitting coal plant in the heart of Denver?

“This is no time to punt; it’s time for the commission to step it up and actually nail down a retirement date for our largest, dirtiest coal plant,” she added. “It is an incredibly risky strategy economically and environmentally to leave the retirement date undecided, and keep the door open for a return to dirty coal.”

The Act would grant citizenship to undocumented young people who have grown up in the United States provided they complete two years of university and / or military service. Bennet believes the DREAM Act would translate to an economic and defense boon for the country.

“I know many of my colleagues are still undecided on whether to support the bill. Some have supported the DREAM Act in the past only to move away from it in the face of heated rhetoric around the issue of immigration. I ask that before any of you make a final decision that you step back and take a fresh look at the facts and the realities facing these youth. Support for the DREAM Act is not only a matter of conscience for me since it’s the right thing to do; it’s also a practical solution. Continue delay is an irresponsible waste.

“We owe it to the tax payers who have invested in these youth, the teachers who have fostered their development and our military who can benefit from the energy of these youth to move forward on the DREAM Act. ”

“When I was superintendent of Denver Public Schools, I saw the potential of some of our best and brightest students cut short, punished for the actions of others. These were kids who had grown up in our school system and who proudly call our country home.  A child who has excelled in the classroom should have the opportunity to attend college and then be a productive taxpaying citizen.  A child whose only home is our country should have the opportunity to serve our nation in the military. 
  
“Instead of punishing these kids, we should reward them for working hard.  And our nation will be rewarded with a stronger work force and a stronger economy. It’s time for Washington to stop playing political games and work to restore common sense to our immigration system.”

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