Lowest Ever

Pete Dinelli continues to hover around 20% in his race to take the Mayor's office from Richard Berry.  That 20% number will also likely be the turnout of voters in this election.  If it even reaches that figure, it will be the lowest number ever in a Mayor's race.  One reason of course is the probable collusion of the Berry campaign staff with the City Clerk to keep that anti abortion issue off the ballot.   That suppresses the vote two ways.  One in helping Berry by not having a lot more prochoice folks going to the polls, and two by assuring confusion in the vote on this blatantly unconstitutional measure forced to a vote by fundamentalist religious operatives.  All of this has hurt Dinelli and made his quest much more difficult.

I am off for a couple of days to play golf in Pendaries, NM before the leaves fall.  

Old Friends

Before we could go to Saint Pius X high school we had to pass through various catholic schools around Albuquerque.  During our fifty year reunion we gathered some of the kids that went to Our Lady of Fatima Heights Catholic School.  We are all around 68 years old and look sort of okay.

We held a nice dinner at Casa Rodena Winery in the north valley on Saturday night.  There weren't enough wine glasses at the Winery.  Seriously!  But it was a beautiful evening.

Mostly, it was a really relaxing and comfortable weekend seeing long lost friends.  We rang the school bell for each of our departed classmates.  Twelve in all.  It was really easy to recall why you liked all those who attended,  and promises have been made to stay in touch.  Some golf games have already been arranged! 

Fifty

Tonight starts our weekend of activities for our 50th St. Pius X high school reunion.  We  had 112 in our senior class and 56 will attend the weekend activities.  It should be a lot of fun.

My twin brother Tom and I were the smallest guys in the class  and often put up with having to stand in the front of every famous procession for the mother church.  What a pain! (Today is our 68th birthday.  He is two minutes older than me.)

We generally had a very good experience in high school.  With a class that small you got to know everyone and made life long friends.  We have had a few classmates pass away, but most of us are still doing great.

We were talking over coffee this morning wondering about a few of us who just seemingly disappeared from the face of the Earth.  You can't help but be curious about what happened to them.  I hope they are okay.

We also agreed that we enjoyed high school for the most part and that St. Pius, as we viewed it at that time, was a good place.  Looking back of course you can recognize all the problems at the school.  Many of our teachers weren't that great.  But some of them were gems.  The religious dogma has been pretty much washed off almost all of us, but the good parts remain with many of us in the form of trying to be decent by practicing the Seven Acts of Mercy and being generous when possible.  Those Seven Acts of Mercy can be seen here.

Count

Last night driving on I-40 westbound from Carlisle to Rio Grande Blvd. I counted 61 inoperable street lights along the freeway.  A real safety concern once again.  61 one lights out in less than a four mile stretch.  PNM and the City and or State of NM is asking for a law suit because of these unmaintained street lights.  And the tax payer may end up paying.

Off to early golf at Paako Ridge in the east mountains. We will be pretty busy this week at my 50th High School reunion activities get underway.  Former class of 63 St. Pius X High School Seniors are starting to gather and some of us will play golf 5 times in 7 days......Most of us are still alive.

Ouch

Here we go again. As Mayoral candidate Pete Dinelli tries to keep Mayor Berry from reaching the 50% mark so there can be a run-off election, The Albuquerque Journal throws another gem into the Mayor's campaign.  That would be a front page photo of the Mayor and the country's Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz schmoozing around at Sandia National Labs.  Congress Ben Ray Lujan was there too.  But this photo did so many things in so many ways for the Mayor.  He is shown at Albuquerque's premier employer, funded by federal tax dollars by the way.  He is rubbing shoulders with national leaders at one of America's best research facilities.  He looks non partisan hanging with Lujan from the north.

Meanwhile, on the business page is a story that Albuquerque has essentially the worst home sales value in the top metro markets in the USA.  But nary a quote from the Mayor.  Pete Dinelli must want to blow himself up!

On another matter I was happy to see Senator Tom Udall take one of his rare public stands.  Usually, he will say he is watching an issue carefully and researching it.  So then he doesn't have to take a position and possibly scare off voters who might not agree with him.  But this time he said what is on just about everyone's mind.  Why are we going to attack Syria?  He says the goals are vague.  I couldn't agree with him more.  Sometimes I think this whole thing is being done so some cruise missile manufacturer can open up production lines.

PNM Dangerous

Is PNM is daily endangering the public because of their lack of responsibility in keeping the street lights maintained?  The number of inoperable lights along I-40 west of the BIG I is a public safety hazard.  These lights have been out for months.  PNM bills the  approrpriate government entitites every month for the maintenance and power to keep these lights on, and they are failing to do so.  Will the city and state start auditing their performance?

Back when I was Mayor of the city I kept a log in my Mayor-mobile of every inoperable street or freeway light that I saw as I traveled to an fro in the evenings.  I would call PNM to get them fixed and they got right on the problem.  Now that PNM has become a typical bottom line corporate operation, one can only wonder if they even care about their abysmal record on this important public safety issue.  The media should get on them and stay on them.  And so should the city councillors.  They could get a volunteer from every neighborhood association to survey their areas every couple of weeks and send in an inventory of non functioning lights.  Of course one can only wonder if PNM has a quality control system for these lights.   After all, PNM is charging us for these lights and they should be working.

Sustainable?

Sustainability must be a concept that natural resource extractors hate to deal with.  So they  use it for their own purposes.  There is an interesting story in the Journal this morning about how the communities of Clovis and Portales in Eastern New Mexico will have the government build them a half billion dollar pipeline to bring water down from Ute Lake to help sustain them.  These farming communities(who generally hate the government but love subsidies) have finally had to start dealing with the unsustainable pumping of the Ogallala aquifer for their agricultural economy.  That water will be gone in less than a life time.  Reality bites.

In another story the oil and gas boys cheering section in New Mexico says their pumping of oil and gas is sustainable because of new finds and techniques for extracting the fossil fuels.  They should define what they mean by sustainable.  Does it mean pumping until the planet is uninhabitable?  Or does it mean until they run out of dirty fuel?  Or hopefully, does it mean that in the future there just wont be a need for it because solar and other alternatives replace it to a large extent?

And then the Journal once again lets that oil and gas mascot Marita Noon say the oil and gas industry has really never been subsidized.  Why does the Journal let that lunatic on to their editorial pages?  It just make them look like they live in a fantasy land.

I have to say that over the last few weeks the Journal has been doing some good work.  The story yesterday about Harding County's depopulation and the ensuing excitement about an all night gas pump being available was really great work.  And so was the story on the water situation in Clovis and Portales today.  I am really enjoying their use of photo graphs again. 

Color

Our Indian Corn did great this year.  One of the stalks reached almost 14 feet and produced this tapestry of colors.  Nature's bounty can also be beautiful.

It's Never too Late!

Everyone is putting the final nails in the coffin of Pete Dinelli in his bid for the Albuquerque's Mayor Office.  Well, it doesn't look good based on the first poll.  But it isn't really over yet.  Think Harry Truman's miracle over Thomas Dewey.

Really though, some sort of miracle is needed.  They only way of bringing it about is if Pete has saved all of his public financing money and uses it in some ground breaking way.  His commercials will have to be trail blazing.  I am not suggesting the bug-eyed ads that Gary Johnson did that made him go from a complete unknown to a winner in the mid 90's Governors race.  They were weird and they worked.

If there are any miracle worker types out there to think up some cutting edge stuff for a Democrat hoping to topple a frontrunner who is ahead two to one, then now is the time to come forward.  It can be done.  Don't ya think?

Woo Hoo

Our son Justin and his lovely wife Karly have a second son.  Finn Desmond Baca was born on Monday and everyone is healthy.  First grandson Simon has a new bro!

I love the new guys name.  Talk about an international handle that he can explain to everyone for the rest of his life.  But as Justin and Karly have figured out this is the era where it doesn't matter what one's back story is, but what they can add to society and humanity as a whole.

This is the same kind of picture I took about 29 years ago when Justin was introduced by Bobbi to his baby sister Noelle.

A Brilliant Notion

Why don't we do this?

The Guys

My Tuesday morning golf group is made up of Democrats and Republicans.  Some very liberal Dems, some moderately conservative Republicans, and all genuinely nice people.  We all get along pretty well and have intelligent arguments over the issues of the day.  Yesterday's post game refreshments had the usual mix of politics, golf stories, and debate.

None of us thought getting into the Syrian morass was a good idea.  At most, throw in a few cruise missiles and that is all.  Even that was distasteful given that the conflict has turned into a religious war between the Shia and Sunni branches of Islam.

The issue of same sex marriage never came up in the discussions.  It is really such a non issue to most folks that one has to wonder how out of touch some of our pols are when they oppose it.  And the Governor wants to dodge it all by saying the people should vote on it.  She is a coward who wont take a position on the issue itself.

They Mayor's race is discussed once in a while in our group.  It is less exciting than our friends hole in one the other day.  One of our group said yesterday that  Pete Dinelli had not given anyone a reason to vote for him.  And this is a guy who never voted for a republican.  Bad omen.

The book "This Town", which is about what Washington, DC and the politics there has become, is getting raves.  I will order it onto my Kindle today.

Nothing Sticks

Mayor Berry is Teflon, the Teflon being applied by the Albuquerque Journal.  He says he has guided Albuquerque through tough economic times with a steady hand.  The Journal doesn't really question his lack of action.  Paul Heh, one of his opponents said it was 'bull shit' and pretty much lowered his expected vote from 5% to 2%.  Pete Dinelli didn't get in any killer shots in this last debate.  All of this is being fueled by incredible apathy on the part of the public who can't see that New Mexico and Albuquerque are falling further and further behind in economic growth compared to the other cities and states in the region.  So, we will get what we deserve where 'touchy feely' p.r. pumped candidates win elections.  All form over substance.

Dinelli tried to turn the race into a partisan one by touting his democratic party membership into an asset in front of the staunchly conservative and self serving NAIOP.  Those are the developers who love sprawl and erosion of the environment.  How did this help him?  Maybe it did, but I seriously doubt it.  While the Mayor is a republican supported by the right wing apparatus of the Governor, no one seems to know it or really care.

There has not been one really big original idea put forth in this race to lead New Mexico's largest city.  Dinelli wants to pump more money into the airport, but right after he announced that Frontier Airlines left.  Horrible timing that made Dinelli's campaign researchers look a little lacking.

And the Mayor?  If he has any sort of plan to help us climb out of our economic malaise he is keeping it a pretty good secret.  His like ability will soon disappear if he doesn't deliver some real programs.

And for all us cynics out there, one of my favorite authors, David Brin, opines for us.  Just scroll down to the section titled "an exercise for cynics.'

Misc

Memo to Governor Martinez and Governor Hickenlooper of Colorado.  As a reminder for you, many rest stops along the interstate highways were constructed as a necessary service to the traveling public.  They should be open every day.  This trip of ours up to Fort Collins, Colorado had no open rest areas on northbound I-25 from Santa Fe to Colorado Springs.  On Sunday, there were no open ones Southbound on I-25 from Colorado Springs to Albuquerque.  And there are no safe crossovers to use the ones that are open in this peculiar system.  That system is having potties closed to save money while at the same time giving tax breaks to corporate America when they don't even need them.

I have to chuckle at the drama over these forest fires in the west where the media loves to show fire fighters standing around watching every thing burn to a crisp.  Yes, they save an occasional structure, but mostly they have little effect.  And to my knowledge those $30,000 apiece fire retardant drops never ever stopped a forest fire.  Nature will pretty much run things during times of drought.  Meanwhile the Forest Service is cutting their budgets to the bone to support armies of fire fighters who can do very little.  The only things that stops these monster fires are rain and humidity.

Political Ad

They are starting. Political ads.  Today I got a mailer from city council candidate Roxanna Meyers.  It is a slick looking piece.  It says absolutely nothing on any issue.  Nothing about the economy, nothing about the police department, nothing on city finances, nothing about public safety, transportation or urban sprawl.  It is just a piece saying, Gee....I have a nice family.

The point is that most candidates will follow this lead with platitudes and touchy/feely kinds of ads.  They will all look soft and warm and nonthreatening and they all will ignore the issues of the day.  Unless they are negative ads put on by right wing and left wing political committees.  Those will twist the issues of the day based rarely on the truth.

We will travel into Colorado for a few days to see our daughter Noelle and her husband Luke.  

Misc.

This wholesale slaughter of New Mexico behavioral healthcare providers by the Martinez administration is starting to intrigue me a lot.  Especially the the secrecy surrounding the shotgun approach to dealing with some of the non profits involved.  Leslie Lithicum in the Journal this morning put a real human face on it with her description of the fate of Hogares, one of the providers.

Groups like Hogares have always been influential in politics.  They usually have champions in elected officials who protect them and whenever funding cuts loom, their political friends go into fight mode.  When I served as Mayor the non-profits that got money from the city had full time lobbyists in the form of city councillors.  So one had to be careful about reprimanding any of those groups who felt they were entitled to a supply of funding every  year.  It  had to be done surgically. There were some groups I thought weren't doing the job but the city council would fund them anyway.  Their sense of entitlement always rankled me.

What is surprising about the Martinez administration is that they bludgeoned all of these groups at once, which seems pretty suspicious to me.  And then the funding went to an Arizona group?  Very strange.  We all know the politics of Arizona leaders and this will end up being a debacle for those most in need in a very poor state.

I was glad to see Pete Dinelli come out strong on demanding an investigation into the Mary Han death. At the very least it will put some much needed scrutiny on APD, Darren White, Rob Perry and others.  This can't happen soon enough!

P.S.  The Journal got my memo the other day and started using oodles of photos all of a sudden.  And in color too.  It really makes the newspaper look much better.

Misc.

I have decided to think harder on who to vote for in the City Council race in my district.  I have been unhappy with Isaac Benton because of his refusal to take an up or down position on the much debated Roundabout on Candelaria and Rio Grande.  It is a local issue that has gotten him in trouble with some folks, so much so that one of my neighbors donated $40,000 to a PAC to defeat him.  But this little issue pales in comparison with his ability to take a definite stand on the questions of women's choice.  He is for it and will oppose the referendum that will try and pass local controls (unconstitutional) on women's ability to control their own bodies. I just found out that his opponent Roxanna Meyers is also prochoice, which is good.   Meanwhile, the city clerk and Mayor just cost us close to a million bucks in additional election costs by not qualifying the petition signatures on the referendum.  That means another whole new election.

Meanwhile, Pete Dinelli will wade into the Mary Han case today during a news conference.  It is about time someone did.  I wish someone would hold the City Council accountable for the conditions in the police department too.  They really can't be considered just bystanders.  

And finally, Ajax the Cat and his metal friend have found a big boulder they like to hang out on in the back yard.  It stays warm all night and is a good early morning perch.

Natural Order

In our back  yard garden we have an interesting example of synergy in nature.  We have a volunteer tomato plant climbing up a corn stalk courtesy of a morning glory vine that is attaching all three plants.  All working together.  We get pretty blue flowers, some blue corn, and more tomatoes to be sun dried.

And then I think of the politics today in New Mexico.  Our Governor touts the fact that she and the duped legislature passed a corporate income tax reduction in order to help our economy.  But a little analysis makes that the worst case of claiming synergy,  ever!

The only ones who made out on this were the major corporations doing business in New Mexico.  The small corporate business and small proprietorships get nothing out of it because they have no profits whatsoever, and have had none for five years.  And yet the sap media and public probably look upon the Governor as a great economic leader, when in fact she and her enablers are nothing but shills for the CEO's and Boards of the ever more corrupt corporate America.  Include the Albuquerque Journal publisher and editor in that column too, and most of the GOP and too many of the Democrats.

Mary Han

The Attorney General, Gary King, has ruled the mysterious death of Mary Han to not be a suicide.  He says the cause of the death is undetermined.  All because of misconduct of the Albuquerque Police Department.

Mayor Berry should suspend every single officer, regardless of rank, who were involved in mobbing the scene of Mary's death to take pictures and gawk at the body of their nemesis who was not fearful of taking on APD on civil rights violations.  Their misconduct most likely destroyed crucial evidence and that is now making them suspect.

This should get some special attention from the U.S. Justice Department as they wend their way through their investigation of  APD.

Misc

I feel that the Obama administration is correct in treading lightly on involvement in Egypt.  The middle east is a culture of violence, religious fanaticism,  and tribalism that never changes.  Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt may be ungovernable and we should not let the defense industry talk us into any sort of engagements there.  The people in the middle east will finally need to work out on their own whether they want to be part of the modern world.

Governor Martinez is slapping window dressing together for the media's enjoyment by saying a couple of million dollars of funding will protect our rivers and watersheds.  She knows that will do little to help restore some natural balance, or maybe she doesn't?  She should realize that you can't do much with that kind of money.  The problem in our watersheds is huge and this won't make any difference at all except for her p.r.

If she really wants to protect the state's water supplies then she needs to tightly control fracking to get oil and gas out of the ground.  It only endangers ground water.

Liberalism

I wonder if the media might investigate the group from California who are in town to train locals to be radical anti abortionist.  Where do they get their money?  Name names.  And ask local religious leaders what they feel about such tactics.  Can this be condoned?

There was some spirited comments in my comments sections on this subject a few days ago.  One person called me a liberal.  I guess I am.  But no one should think I like abortion.  It is a last resort which is decided upon by a woman and doctor.  I wish they didn't have to take place.  But, sometimes they do.

  Here is an explanation of liberalism from Merriam's Webster Dictionary.

Political and economic doctrine that emphasizes the rights and freedoms of the individual and the need to limit the powers of government. Liberalism originated as a defensive reaction to the horrors of the European wars of religion of the 16th century (see Thirty Years' War). Its basic ideas were given formal expression in works byThomas Hobbes and John Locke, both of whom argued that the power of the sovereign is ultimately justified by the consent of the governed, given in a hypothetical social contract rather than by divine right (see divine kingship). In the economic realm, liberals in the 19th century urged the end of state interference in the economic life of society. Following Adam Smith, they argued that economic systems based on free markets are more efficient and generate more prosperity than those that are partly state-controlled. In response to the great inequalities of wealth and other social problems created by the Industrial Revolution in Europe and North America, liberals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries advocated limited state intervention in the market and the creation of state-funded social services, such as free public education and health insurance. In the U.S. the New Deal program undertaken by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt typified modern liberalism in its vast expansion of the scope of governmental activities and its increased regulation of business. After World War II a further expansion of social welfare programs occurred in Britain, Scandinavia, and the U.S. Economic stagnation beginning in the late 1970s led to a revival of classical liberal positions favouring free markets, especially among political conservatives in Britain and the U.S. Contemporary liberalism remains committed to social reform, including reducing inequality and expanding individual rights. See also conservatism;individualism.


I was also called to task yesterday for forgetting I campaigned against Dave Cargo when I won the Mayor's race back in 1997.  I had totally forgotten that.  Cargo had almost beat Marty Chavez four years before, but he didn't do well when seven of us ran for the next term.

Reading

Here is a good read for all of us who worry about how to recover our natural systems on this planet.  There is a lot to chew on from this article in The Guardian.

Misc.

The military industrial complex at White Sands Missile range are acting as johnny-come-latelies in the effort to construct a new electrical transmission line to carry renewable energy to the western grid.  At the last moment they took up the banner of the fossil fuel boys. They say that the project would endanger them playing with missiles and drones on their range.  Even though the new line would be north of the range in a buffer area.  I am surprised at this move by DoD because they usually are pretty good on renewable energy usage.  They have been early adopters int he past.  But they are really throwing a wrench in the works at the last minute on this issue.   I mean ask your self, do we need more weapons or more renewable energy?  The BLM at the Interior Department should stand their ground on their approval of the project.


The religious fanatics who would control women's bodies are showing just what lunatics they are when they stage a protest at the Albuquerque Holocaust Museum.  They accused the museum as being as bad as Nazis for not allowing them to display their peculiar brand of porn that depicts aborted fetuses.  I have to say these folks are truly nuts and they have bullied the republicans in city hall into spending an extra $750,000 for an extra election on their issue of denying women their rights.  The Albuquerque City Clerk is incompetent for not getting signatures counted in a timely manner so this issue can go on the ballot in October.  They Mayor is complicit.  If one were to look at registration qualification on candidate petitions on the state level during election times you can see how quickly they get it done.  This is a definite conspiracy by the Mayor and others.  

Window Dressing

Three city councillors held a news conference to say they wanted to inject an extra $2.5 million into the police department to rebuild it.  Seriously?  That amount of money in APD might pay for the donuts, but it isn't going to rebuild the department.  This is all hype by councillors wanting to retain office.  If they really think $2.4 million dollars will do any good then they might want to invest it in a series of national searches to recruit a new cadre of leadership from out side the department.  Bring in some real stars and let them reinvent the place with good management and ideas.

And then there is the superbly boring Mayor's race where the only news is that the candidates might debate soon.  This whole thing is as exciting as listening to a dripping faucet.  There has been little in the way of exciting ideas put forth.

Thanks Bill

I have read at least a dozen articles on Albuquerque and the TV series "Breaking Bad" in the last week or so.  All of the stories have great things to say about the Duke City.  The whole world seems to be watching to see how the series ends up, Bobbi and me included.

I had mentioned about a year ago that when we were touring Russia that the show was a big favorite in that country.  When Russians found out we were from Albuquerque they would ask all sorts of questions about our city.  All from a TV show!

Just a quick thanks to Bill Richardson for getting us into the movie making business.  Even the highly right wing Susannah Martinez, after want to kill the program, eventually decided it was a good thing.

Just think, if Obama's healthcare program had been in place then Walter White would not have had to turn into a meth kingpin to pay his cancer treatment bills.

Bikers Again

A friend of mine disagreed with my blog on the Bikers story in the Journal as being nothing more than a hyped up story.  On reflection I think he is right.  Apologies to the Journal.  I come to this conclusion after reading up on a blog that is discussing this issue. Aging Rebel is pretty interesting in that it seems the bikers, or their supporters, are pretty sophisticated.

Run Away

The Biker war is coming to Albuquerque according to the Albuquerque Journal.  Two gangs here are supposedly out for blood over a recent shooting and the paper and others envision a dystopian battle right in the Duke City.

What better way to take of the heat off a failing economy from the Governor and Mayor.  The fluff stories in the media about an improving job market give scant mention that most new jobs are minimum wage level.  How is that supposed to help us?

The Journal had a good oped this morning comparing what is happening with airline seating and what is happening in the ever widening division of wealth in this country.  Essentially more first class and business seats are being installed at the expense of slave galley type seating in coach.  Jam them in and make it hurt.  I can attest to that after our last trip in which we flew in a pretty new Southwest Airlines 737-900 with their new seats.  After three hours in that 'new improved seat' I could barely walk off the plane because of a bruised tailbone.  It was like sitting on a wooden plank.  At least everyone suffered equally since Southwest has no first class.  I will not fly them on any flight over two hours from here on out.  Which is sad because I am hearing rumors they are getting ready to fly to Hawaii at some point.

Your Corporations at Work

In honor of the Koch brothers being in the area for a rightwing think tank meeting I would ask you to read this to get an idea of the work they are doing.  And they have their claws in our Governor.

Change and No Change

I spent some time this morning visiting the Albuquerque Journal Archives to print out some fifty year old pages from their June 7, 1963 edition.  That is the day we graduated from St. Pius X high school. We are holding our reunion in a few weeks and I thought it would be great to include some of these pages in a video I am making.

 It is remarkable to look at those pages and realize that while some things change, like the paper itself, other things remain the same.  The stories about strife, government, violence, taxes, business, sports and all the rest of it remain pretty consistent in their themes.  Things don't change much except perhaps in the economic division in this country.

The newspaper itself has changed tremendously.  The first thing that jumps out is the sheer volume of information packed into those old editions.  Orders of magnitude above todays paper.  Their wonderful use of multiple photographs in every section of the paper is astounding.  And the amount of national and international news is quite impressive.  Their editorial pages, while opinionated are certainly not skewed right wing or left wing.  Just thoughtful writing, unlike today's right wing columnists by the truckload.

Frankly, it was a much better publication fifty years ago.  Of course, it didn't have to compete with the internet, 24 hour so called cable news channels, cell phones chock full of information and a more apathetic public.  They were the chief advertising source in those days and the amount of ads, big and small, crammed into every daily paper would make people in the news industry today drool with envy.

I had to chuckle at the movie ad page.  It was advertising "Lolita" which the catholic church said was so evil that if we went to see it we would be damned to hell.  I saw it.

Also look at those ads for all the drive in theaters we had.  I could tell many stories about how we would sneak in to those theaters and rarely get apprehended.  One time we put sunglasses on my now golf buddy Lee Otteni and told the cashier he was blind.  It worked.  We felt a little guilty, but then just spent the money on refreshments so they got us anyway.  Click on the images for a bigger look.

Paranoia

I see a plot in the New Mexico Medical Board's rule making to make medicinal marijuana prescriptions hard to write for patients.  This is nothing but big pharma applying pressure to the Docs to make it hard to prescribe the low cost and effective herb to patients that qualify.  I mean if a few brownies take the place of outrageously expensive drugs then corporate profits will slide.   How much longer do we need to put up with this corporate manipulation of everything in our lives?   Am I being paranoid?  Or is having the munchies a threat to our way of life?

I like SciFi because so many current authors and movie makers are seriously looking at whether this is paranoia or if it is actually happening.  The series Continuum on SciFi channel says it is and it studies time travellers coming back to the present era to make sure it never happens.   The upcoming movie, "Elysium" will study the great division of wealth much as "District 9" by the same director studied racial segregation.

And we can all wonder at what kinds of political intrigue aimed at establishing stronger corporate control of government is taking place right now at the Tamaya Resort near Bernalillo.  That is where all those corporate CEOs and right wing pols are meeting in their annual get together.

Yeah, I am paranoid.  I wish more people were.

Again

It was another great morning at sunrise out at the Santa Ana Golf Course.  You can forget about silly things out there.  Here are a few I forgot about a few hours.

First, down the road from where we played golf today sits the Hyatt Tamaya Resort.  This week  there is the annual super secret meetings of the nation's top CEO's occurring there.  You know, the ones who track your every move, control your government, and generally kill democracy with political donations.  The resort and golf course are closed down to everyone.  Top right wing politicians are there, one of them is probably Congressman Paul Ryan who was seen flying in to Albuquerque yesterday.  Fellow blogger Joe Monahan said Ryan indicated he was coming in to visit Governor Martinez.  So, can we assume she is there too?  As Sara Palin would say, "You Betcha!" 

Secondly, the idea of making our old killing ground at the State Penitentiary into a tourist attraction for the blood spatter crowd.  What a great thing to do!  Commemorating a killing spree in the 1980's riot at the Pen for good family fun.  Why,  they might even have sno-cones and cotton candy for the little  Dexter wannabes.  Score a big economic development idea for the Martinez administration.

Thirdly, the ham- fisted attempt by the Mayor's Office and Albuquerque City Clerk to not allow the ballot initiative on abortion on the the October Ballot.  Lots of foot dragging there and it will end up costing us big time for another election.  I guess the Mayor's handlers decided there was some downside to having this on the regular city election ballot. 

3%

What is it about the fraction 3%?  Is it some sort of magical number that everyone can jiggle to their own purposes?  Right now an unknown group of greedy business operatives are trying to limit any minimum wage hikes to 3% via a referendum in Albuquerque.  At the same time those business folks want unfettered ability to gouge their customers and have a limitless increase in profit every year.  All made possible by their employees.

And then there was the strange Albuquerque Journal story about the 3% referendum in which they did not identify the folks involved in organizing this ballot initiative.  But they did manage to say that the new minimum wage was organized by 'left leaning groups.'  This shows how the Journal is almost 100% right wing wacko edited.

And then there is the automatic 3% increase in your property tax every year.  The legislature set that as an  upper limit and of course that is where our Bernalillo County Commission lands every year.  Do we feel there is a 3% increase in service?  Doubtful, especially for city dwellers in those counties.  And do you notice how county commissioners are never blamed for anything like the Mayor is?  They diffuse responsibility and attention amongst themselves 97% of the time.

And then there was the 3% automatic cost of living raises for government retirees that were done away with by the legislature.  It probably had to be done, but what happens when inflation goes to 8% a year.  Will there be any changes?  Don't hold your breath. 

I need to not worry about this and endeavor to spend more than 3% of my waking hours on a golf course.

6:30AM Golf @ Santa Ana

A Vote for Dinelli

As I sit in a hotel room prior to a meeting in Salt Lake City, the seat of the Mormon Religion and its intolerance, I see where the Albuquerque Mayoral Candidates opined on the ridiculous and unconstitutional ballot initiative to ban abortions based on someone else's religious dogma.

The only gutsy guy in this debate is Pete Dinelli.  He stands for these decisions to be made by women and their doctors instead of some incense waving zealot.

Pete Dinelli has my vote.  And now there is a reason for progressives to get out and vote.  And it better be in large numbers because Mayor Berry's handlers wouldn't have let him sign on with the liberty stealing religious fanatics unless they saw some upside.

Meanwhile, Albuquerque takes in the chin again as Frontier Airlines pulls out of serving us.  And Mayor Berry gets another black mark.

Fish Filet

I have not seen one media outlet try and get a comment from local Catholic Church authorities on the issue of the Pope's comments on gay priests.  It begs for some attention given the virulent attitude of the Archdiocese on the evilness of gay people.

This whole thing reminds me of the big switcharoo on the mortal sin of eating of meat on Fridays back in the days of my upbringing.  One time I ate a hot dog on a Friday at the swimming pool when I was about 10 years old.  I had forgotten it was Friday and then was reminded by someone before I took the first bite.  I went ahead with it anyway because the real sin to me was not eating it while considering that oft used reminder that children were starving in China.  I hoped I wouldn't go to hell.  And then they changed the rules and I felt better, if not confused.

It certainly cut down on our family's ritual dinner on Friday nights.  That is when we would go to the old Sigler's cafeteria on Central Ave. near Girard for fish filet.  That place was filled with catholics every Friday evening.  The owners made a fortune on those Friday nights.

But then the world's beef producers lobbied the Vatican and then burgers were the norm.  Obesity followed shortly after that when everyone started lining up at those new McDonald's drive ins.

Oil Rip Off

I penned this for "The Hill" on Friday.  The poor, poor and downtrodden oil and gas industry is having your lunch everyday.  And in the Sunday morning Journal some oil and gas lackey republican is criticising the BLM for wanting to close Otero Mesa to drilling.  This mascot says that will cost the states millions.  He seems to ignore they aren't paying what they should in the first place.

It may come as a surprise to some that the royalty rate charged to companies extracting oil and gas from federal lands is the same today as it was in the 1920s, when Woodrow Wilson was president.

The current federal onshore royalty rate is 12.5 percent. An analysis of oil-producing western states found that state oil and gas royalties are significantly higher, usually either 16.67 percent or 18.75 percent. Texas – one of the highest producing states in the nation – doubles the federal rate, charging 25 percent to drill on state-owned lands.

Oil and gas found on federal lands belong to the taxpayers, who should be fairly compensated for the extraction of public resources. Updating the federal rate to match state rates would ensure a fair return by closing a gap that costs taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

The oil and gas industry is a mature industry that has active leases on almost 38 million acres of federal lands. There is no reason to continue the unfair taxpayer-funded subsidy the federal royalty rate has become at a time when the federal government is struggling to balance its budget without raising taxes or cutting important services.

Oil producing states would also benefit directly from updated federal royalties. Under current law, states receive an even share of federal royalties from oil produced within their boundaries. States have their own budget problems and are dealing with the strains that industrial drilling operations place on infrastructure and services – problems that could be addressed using increased revenue from updated royalties.

According to President Obama’s FY 2013 budget, updating royalties, along with other common-sense oil and gas reforms, would generate $2.5 billion in net revenue for the U.S. Treasury over the next decade.

At the state level, the numbers are also significant.  An analysis by the Denver-based Center for Western Priorities found that matching the federal rate to either of the common state rates would have generated between $400 million and $600 million in additional revenue, respectively, in 2012. The low federal rate cost New Mexico and Wyoming each more than $150 million in additional funds. Moving across the West, the outdated federal rate cost Colorado more than $36 million, Utah $44 million, and Montana over $5.5 million.

The good news is that whatever corrective action is taken on royalties, evidence indicates it will not significantly slow drilling. A comparative analysis by the research organization Headwaters Economics shows that states with higher rates are not at a competitive disadvantage to those with a lower rate. Wyoming has the highest effective rate in the West and is also a leader in production.

Of course, there have been other “good ideas” for helping to balance the budget that end up stuck in Washington gridlock. But royalties are different. While Congress can and should update onshore royalty rates, it is within the power of the Interior Department to set a rate that ensures taxpayers a fair return. In fact, under the Bush Administration, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne raised the offshore oil and gas royalty rates to 18.75 percent without fuss.

More recently, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar suggested updating the onshore rates and President Obama’s 2013 budget recommends addressing the royalty issue. The idea has been floated; now it’s time for action.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-a-environment/313539-century-old-oil-and-gas-royalty-rates-shortchanging-taxpayers-#ixzz2aJGqmGFE 
Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook

Modern Editor Orgasm

Oh, the sheer ecstasy that has visited our newspaper editors and news directors.  An orgasm of slime and perdition!  A movie actor caught DWI in Santa Fe.  Headline news on all TV channels and the Albuquerque Journal and Santa Fe New Mexican.  Top of the newscast!  Top of the Fold!  The end of Journalism playing itself out into Entertainment Tonight.

It is almost fortunate that the story had to compete with a 100 year storm in the mid Rio Grande Valley. If that hadn't happened then who knows how much show biz hype would have been increased for our mindless and shallow consumption.

Damn!

Gurgle

80MPH winds.  Water blowing through thresholds.  2 inches rain perhaps.  Funnel cloud sighted.  

Ole Time Religion

Those god fearing folks are setting us up to vote on a religious initative that would limit a woman's choice on abortion in Albuquerque.  If it passes it would be unenforceable and should not be allowed on the ballot since it is unconstitutional.  But who would bet that the Berry administration would allow that?  I might.  Because this fanatical religious move could endanger Berry's reelection bid as it brings out more women and progressives to the polls on election day.

The instigators of this lunacy say the rapid response to their calling for a vote proves that people are for it.   So, what is next?  Calling for a vote to outlaw guns in this country because people might rapidly sign on to such a hopeless campaign?  That would be unenforceable too.

So, will Berry take a position?  Will Dinelli take a position?  They are in a really tough spot.  Both of them.  Because if they are against it they will offend the gaily costumed Archbishop and his minions.  If they are for it they both risk losing votes from the crowd that thinks women should have a choice.

The city attorney could take the heat off them and opt for sanity instead of religious fanaticism.  Don't allow this on the ballot because it is blatantly unconstitutional.

Misc.

Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz and New Yorker Anthony Wiener should do coffee soon.  I mean they both think anything goes in carrying out their duties.   Wouldn't you love to be sitting at the next table and they discuss their philosophies.  You know, I am beginning to think Schultz is setting up his former boss Mayor Berry for a more exciting campaign.

Okay, I am going to upset some people with this one.  But I lost all respect for Eric Snowden when he fled the country and sought asylum with countries that have abysmal human rights records.  I can't help but think he hurt the cause of transparency in government when he did this.  He should have stood his ground in the USA, but in fact he is now nothing more that a little sociopathic spy in my eyes.  I mean, come on, he flees to a country that puts bad rock bands in prison for acting out?

Appropriate?

I often marvel at the oil and gas boys thinking they have some sort of divine right to drill where ever they wish on Public Lands. They think every square inch of federal property really belongs to them and that every place is appropriate to drill.

The Wilderness Society just released a new publication of places they believe are "To Wild to Drill."  New Mexico has three of the 12 spots on the list.  Visit this site to see them.

Death Comes to the Range

Every Journalist in the state must see death of their profession lurking over their shoulder.  The demise of the Raton Range because of falling revenues, population, and readership was just a matter of time. Small newspapers are going fast around the country.  Unless they are big enough to be bought by rightwing corporations headed by the likes of the Koch brothers, then there are no lifelines for them.

The Albuquerque Journal's ever diminishing content and ever increasing right wing view of the world can not be offset by doing their editorial cartoons in color.  That is the only big change I see in that poorly edited paper, except for occasionally insightful and entertaining columns by Winthrop(corrected) Quigley and Leslie Lithicum.

Will the Journal be around for long?  Probably, but in a radically altered state perhaps.  One might see them dropping their Saturday and Monday editions, or even more.  It might be the only way they can save themselves.  It might help if they gave less of a neocon view of the world on their editorial pages.

I really want to see professional journalism exist in widely read digital and paper formats.  I don't want to have to rely on social media for my information.  And perish the thought that the only news we get would be the sex story of the day on TV News and a run down of the police blotter and five security camera videos of the day.

Odds

It would be interesting for someone to start a study to track where this year's New Mexico's high school graduates will end up living five  years from now.  Given the abject failure of the Governor, Mayor of Albuquerque, the Legislature and the Chamber of Commerce operations around the state to bring in any jobs.  How much longer will young people even put up with this?

I know very few kids will want to stay in a place that has no real potential to offer a career with a future.  Thanks to the leaderless pols and the media (who nothing more than tea party editors) we will keep the airlines in money as we constantly fly off to see our children and grandchildren in other places where opportunities beckon.

When will someone start performing on the economy?  We could always change out leadership but the large corporate PACs will keep their mascots in place with out of state money.  The leaders of the Chambers around the state will simply continue their quest for lower taxes rather than try to find new jobs to bring in to the Land of Enchantment.

At this point we are really screwed.  Somewhere there must be someone to lead.  Right?

Misc.

Those protestors who invaded a New Mexico Senate meeting to thank them for Mississippi for us garnering the worst ranking in child well being for the states were pretty imaginative.  They focused on Senator John Arthur Smith with their finger pointing.  In fact they should be pointing at New Mexico's business community for fighting any real increase in funding for child programs.  At the same time, the protestors insistence on raiding the permanent fund for quick fixes falls short.  That fund is to be used when the fossil fuels we extract run out and we no longer have a revenue stream of royalties and severance taxes to fund education.   Perhaps serious people could sit down and work out a compromise in getting the Land of Enchantment back to Enchanting.

The same people who are railing against the government snooping against journalists and the news media are now condemning them for using pictures they don't want to see of that terrorist in the Boston Bombings.  I surmise there may be a double standard somewhere in here.  Certainly bad judgement was used, but I think all of us should be allowed to come to that conclusion with out censorship.  Walgreens says they wont sell the magazine because of the soft portrait of the murderer.  Another corporation making our decisions for us.  Maybe they should change their name to "Walloff's".

Cochiti Golf

An incredibly beautiful morning on the golf course.

Misc.

Levi Chavez was found not guilty from lack of evidence.  But like that Zimmerman guy in Florida people will cross the street in order to avoid him for the rest of his life.  I had to chuckle at his repeated use of a rosary during the trial.  I think he was really using it to count the number of affairs he has had with other police officers wives.  Frankly, his demeanor with reporters after the trial was very revealing.

Thom Cole in the Journal this morning says that political contributions buy justice in the courts.  Maybe in some few cases.  The real thing that buys justice is the modern day practice of hiring consultants to cherry pick prospective jurors.  Also, the elaborate mock trials that occur in front of paid  juries to see what kinds of arguments work best.  These are very expensive exercises but they do affect 'justice'.

Of course if you are a run of the mill person you can't afford this.

And then a little girl said God made her go to the bathroom before a bullet crashed through her wall into her bedroom.  She was just reacting to the dogma she is subjected too.  I am glad she escaped harm, but it is amazing that the media even reported that god intervened.

Time for a Sweeping Change

We were lamenting the absolute state of  depression that is the  New Mexico/Albuquerque economy.  Why is it that the national weather channels, news channels etc. talk about drought problems in the south west and name every state except New Mexico?  Are we now that invisible under our Republican Governor and Albuquerque Mayor?  Do they deserve all the blame for our state running last in just about everything?   Well, not all but a lot of it anyway.

And who deserves the rest?  It is the New Mexico business community.  They are leaderless and have no vision, other than lower taxes, and they need to change.   Where to start?

How about the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce?

Liz Shipley has just been elected the new president of the Chamber.  She used to be a TV Journalist when that meant doing things besides lost dog stories.  Lets see if she has some courage to do what is necessary in her new position.

She should come in with a broom and sweep out all the executives from the top down and bring in people with new ideas and energy. This might give the Chamber the impetus they need to do something constructive, like helping to bring new jobs into the state.  It would taken an investment from our business community.  The kind of thing they used to do.  And it shouldn't consist of just hanging on to what we have, but thinking big for the future.  It won't happen with the current executive leaders at the Chamber.  Period.

And a lot of new leadership at the Albuquerque Journal would help too.  Lets put  someone like Wynn Quigley, the erstwhile business editor into the top position of that largely negative publication and wait to see if a new positive and constructive newspaper would emerge.  I bet it would.

This is the right time for this move.  Let's hope it happens.

At Sea

One of the guys I play golf with has always been a supporter of Mayor Berry.  Suddenly, he said he wouldn't vote for him because after reflection he couldn't see that Berry has any vision or any accomplishments.  He said he didn't like Dinelli either and wondered who the other candidate was.

I don't think my friend is apathetic.  I think he is just fed up that nothing is happening in government.  I think he is right.  And I think that is why we don't have good qualified candidates running for office in the last couple of years.  Why should they, since this minority Tea Party ass clown crew, despite their small numbers, is making sure that absolutely nothing will happen!

Most folks who go into politics do it because they want to do something, at least in the beginning.  But since nothing gets done why should they make any effort.

This can't go on for long.  Leaving leadership leaderless in this country is a ticking time bomb and it starts locally.  One can only wonder if a miracle write in candidate could spring forth.  Send in recommendations!  I decline.

Homebound

We fly back Thursday a.m.  We have had a very great time.  Here is what I bring back with me.

1. People in Vancouver (and Seattle) all look pretty healthy.  Not much obesity in the big city where everyone seems to walk.
2. The urbanites seem very concerned about conservation and environment.  This oil train that blew up a town in Quebec has been non stop news for days with the oil and rail boys taking major hits.
3. Canada must have some secret they must share on how all public restrooms can be kept so clean. I mean, really clean everywhere.  This isn't an OCD thing with me.  I am just impressed and so is Bobbi.
4. There are homeless people in Canada.  They sit on the sidewalk with paper cups looking for handouts, but like everyone else they are polite.
5. Canadians seem awestruck when you say you are from New Mexico.  They are not so sure where it is.  Most guess somewhere around Texas.  Close, but damn!
6. This is a place to visit for four months a year.  The rest of the time they all want to spend in warm places.  And many of them do.
7. Eh?

More Beer

Yeah. Another 25 pounds to lose. This was taken in the 1000 acre Stanley Park in Vancouver.

Gilding

I have always thought shooting flowers, landscapes, and buildings was thievery. It is easy and requires little talent.

Butchart Gardens

Like something out of The Lord Of The Rings. Well, for 55 acres anyway.

Never in New Mexico Sent from my iPhone

In the car bays

Ferry route to Victoria

Vancouver

This is a major city.  We are staying in a historic bed and breakfast in downtown.  It is called the O Canada House and I recommend it if you come up here.  We walked for several hours and had lunch over in the Gay center of town.  We did that in Seattle too.  The best places to eat are there it seems.

This is Bobbi at the Steam Clock.  It runs on steam and apparently it is a place everyone goes to see down on the waterfront.  So we did too.  M'eh!

Drank some Canadian Beer, Eh?

Crab too