Misc.

It looks like Mayor Marty Chavez has appointed himself historian for the city. He has ordered the portrait of former Mayor Ken Schultz be removed from the portrait wall in City Hall. This is because of Schultz's guilty plea for being the bag man in the court house kickback scandal that also sent Senator Manny Aragon to prison. This move reminds me of Orwell's book 1984 where Big Brother expunged history when ever he felt like it. I was told that Chavez had my portrait changed from color to black and white when he took office. C'mon Marty, let history judge people and you just do the job.

While I was Mayor I attempted to appoint my friend Ned Farquhar to the City Planning Commission. He was the director of 1000 Friends of New Mexico at the time. That was a group that was a proponent of good city planning. The city council said he would be in a conflict of interest and refused to agree to the appointment. Of course, they always put land and real estate sprawl developers on the board. Isn't it nice to see that Ned's credentials as an energy expert were not held against him when the Obama administration and the Interior Department needed an energy guru?

In the meantime the major oil and gas companies have said F**K You! to renewable energy research and development. They are still banking on oil and gas providing 80% of energy needs in the year 2050. They are taking the attitude that the Dutch and Spanish maritime industry did when they didn't move to coal and steam engines to move their ships. They were smothered by the Brits. Then there were all the folks that didn't want to switch from steam engines to internal combustion engines. They became failed superpowers too. Now maybe the oil and gas companies may lead us into the same 'failed state' status with their influence in this country. Don't forget they hijacked the whole republican party with 'drill baby, drill'. They now control the NM GOP, well Yates Petroleum does anyway.

Life is too short!