Middle Class Air Heads

We went to see the documentary movie "Inside Job" on Saturday.  Its that movie about the meltdown of the American financial system and who caused it and how it happened.  It is a must see.

During the movie a couple of families got up and walked out after about 10 minutes.  They probably had thought it was an action movie from the title and weren't interested in where the film was going.  They are exactly the ones who should have stayed.  The rest of the audience was pretty much caricatures of policy wonks and people who stay up on events.

This is why I think the middle class should not get off scott free from a tax increase.  Too many of these middle class folks never pay attention to what is going on, nor do they read and more importantly vote.  They let their Senators, Congressmen and Presidents deregulate the financial industry.  They abetted setting loose the 'dogs of greed.'  There should be a price for apathy.  They really deserve to experience the pain of getting our financial affairs in order.  At the same time we better be prepared to soak the rich to get back some of the windfalls they have had since the bush tax cuts went into effect.  Also, if Obama caves on this I will consider looking for a new candidate in 2012 to support.  Yeah, Really!

We might be on the brink of an apocalypse if, instead of poor people with suicide bombs killing middle class guys, middle-class people with suicide bombs started killing rich guys. Bruce Sterling  

Rainy Day

El Nino may keep the rain and snow away from New Mexico for the next year, but it is easy to see the Land of Enchantment is still having a rainy day.  The new budget deficit numbers coming out of Santa Fe are truly scary.  It is something I haven't witnessed since I started work in state government in the mid 70's.  Now we have to deal with it and I think there is a way.

Firing thousands of state employees at this point would only make things worse for ourselves.  It seems Governor elect Martinez understands that.  But it is not like the state is completely broke.  We have the Permanent Fund and the Severance Tax Permanent fund sitting in place with billions of dollars.  While I would oppose raiding the Permanent Fund because of its value to education, I could certainly see some value on issuing bonds against the severance tax permanent fund to keep state government on an even keel.  That fund should have over $4 billion in it. Strangely, you cant find that number easily on state websites so this is an educated guess.   If it were ever considered to be a rainy day fund, then that day has arrived.  I believe the legislature could do this without much trouble.  Some constitutional lawyer might think otherwise, but I know that Senator Michael Sanchez has some idea that this could work.

North

I am headed north to Salt Lake City for an evening and morning of meetings.  I have served on the board of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance for 17 years.  It is an incredible group and I love the meetings because we talk about reality and politics and how we can educate folks to get wilderness lands in place in Southern Utah.

This next congress will be tough, but it was tougher before when we didn't have a democrat for president.  He can proclaim National Monuments if he wants to do so.

State Employees

Most state employees will go into sleep mode for the next couple of months.  Most of the state's political appointees will do job searches.  Nothing will get done as the Martinez transition gets underway.  That is probably okay although I am sure a few lingering issues will be pushed by Governor Richardson.  He will find a great reluctance on anyone's part to actually follow orders.  It is just the way things are.

It would be naive to think that anything of great import can change in the next 53 days or so.  Transitions manage to send tendrils out into every facet of government to watch things, mostly.  In that time period most of the cabinet secretaries will be chosen, but that is about it.  It is kind of like limbo, which I learned about in my catechism at Our Lady of Fatima.  (I had always thought about the unbaptized babies who died and couldn't go to heaven as being pretty unjust.)  Except in the case of state employees for the next few weeks it will be more like a vacation from stress.

I have been involved in more than a few transitions.  It is a time of unrealistic goal setting and superfluous words.

It was time to raise the bar higher, or lower if you're doing limbo. Tre Cool 

Misc.

My hat is off to Mayor Richard Berry for his supporting the continuance of the Albuquerque Downtown Business Improvement District.  There is an effort underway by some wealthy building owners to kill the District.  This would be a long term mistake and the Mayor knows it.  Berry  has just done more for the downtown revitalization than Marty Chavez did in eight years.

As expected there is murmuring of a coalition forming in the legislature which would require three democrats to switch sides and push power in the House of Representatives to the republicans.  Anyone who does it should not run as a democrat again if they feel this way.  Don't hide from what you are.  You could still stay loyal and be a conservative democrat.

In the US House I am still waiting for specifics on what exactly the GOP will cut in the budget.  And I do mean specific.  If they don't touch defense, social security and medicare they have taken 85% of the budget off the table.  Oh, and there are the bush tax cuts.  Will we continue this deficit growing madness?

Grandma and Grandpa

Justin and Karly had a baby boy on Sunday afternoon.  His name is Simon  Baca.  Bobbi and me are now officially grandparents.  A new role for us!

Where the Action Is.

My sister Carlota was reading the newspaper yesterday morning here at our house before leaving for a 16 day  sojourn to Indonesia.  I think she was reading a story about the volcano erupting about 300 miles from where she will be staying.  I told her not to worry about it because the tsunamis would put the fires out.  She went anyway.

The Oil Governor

Damn!  It only took one day for Susana Martinez to start delivering for her mega donors to the campaign.  Her first policy decision wasn't one that showed concern for New Mexicans at large.  No,  the first thing out of her mouth was that she would trash New Mexico's Environmental Improvement Board vote to join a regional 'cap and trade' program aimed at lessening climate change.  Of course that means her oil and gas contributors immediately pulled the strings on their very own Governor.  This is a really bad omen. Now she will most likely move to gut the 'Pit Rule" that protects ground water from oil pollution and drilling waste.

Well Susana, we are anxiously awaiting the birth of our first grandchild.  Your position effectively diminishes that kid's quality of life in the future.  All for keeping the oil and gas industry in the money and deep profits.  Did you think of children when you said this?  Did you think of all those scientists who are warning world leaders to get off fossil fuels?  Did you think of New Mexico's own climate future which portends drought and water shortages?  No, you apparently did not.  Did you even give a second thought to this decision or did the oil boys just lead you by the nose?

And so Yates Petroleum owns the Governor's office.

Some Advice

Congratulations again to Susana Martinez on her election.  Now the real world starts interfering.  I have a few points of advice for her as she starts her transition.

• 1. Ask former Governor Garrey Carruthers to be your transition chief.  He  understands bi-partisanship.
• 2. The transition will mark your style of governance.  You better think carefully and work long hours on it.
• 3. Ask people to serve who know how government works.  Not people who hate government.
• 4. Don't be afraid to keep some people from the Richardson administration.  Some are quite talented despite what your Lt. Governor has said during the campaign.
• 5. Don't hire anyone that thinks the world was created 6000 years ago by a guy with a white beard who lives in the clouds.
• 6. Many democrats voted for you.  Don't forget that.
• 7. The Rail Runner is a good thing.  Don't mess with it.
• 8. Do not let the oil and gas industry run the Environment Department.
• 9. Do not let the oil and gas industry run the Energy and Natural Resources Department.
• 10.  Don't mess with the politics of the Legislature.  That is not your job

When your mother asks, "Do you want a piece of advice?" it is a mere formality. It doesn't matter if you answer yes or no. You're going to get it anyway. Erma Bombeck 

The Real Winners

I am ecstatic that Martin Heinrich won his congressional race.  After all the outside secret money that was thrown against him I am relieved that he ran such a great election day performance. Plus he won the early and absentee total vote.  Many of those votes were cast before the special interest infusion of millions against  him in the last two weeks of the campaign.

Rodger and Connie Beimer , Bobbi and I went to his rally in Los Lunas on Saturday.  He was confident they would win because of their election day plans.

Now he will go back to DC in the minority with diminished power in the committee structure.  But having someone there who has some real world views will be great for us in the future.  He deserved this victory.  I hope he spends time getting around the state to meet voters outside his district now.

We are the real winners here.  Maybe John Barela can go back to being the nice guy he was before the right wing put him on their team.   Thank fate we kept the Senate in Democratic hands.

Susana Martinez ran a great race funded with money from right wingers.  Diane Denish's campaign never really caught fire.  She would have made a better governor because of her experience and big heart.  I figure that Susana will moderate out of necessity as she faces a still heavily democratic legislature with whom she must work.

Ray Powell will be Land Commissioner as he managed to keep Santa Fe and even Bernalillo county heavily in his column.  I think his religious fundamentalist opponent really hurt him self with his 'christian war' comments.  What a dufus!  I hope Ray shows some inclination shake things up at the Land Office.  At least we will have an ethical man sitting there.

Now, the biggest winners on election day are the TV stations who raked in the cash by airing the dirtiest and nastiest commercials ever seen by mankind.  Most of them were not even well done.  Most of them were lies.  But what does corporate media care?  They are less than moral.

MISC.

So, now the police and FBI are actively getting people on Facebook and Twitter to do their work for them.  That would be great if it were a one way street.  The police also can look at your stuff.  When I saw the picture of the PR seeking Darren White in the Journal this morning looking at someone's account it scared me.  It should scare you too.
But, it appears people are fine with this lack of privacy while many are okay with dumping healthcare.  I am at sea I guess.

(My subscription to the Journal was paid through December.  Won't you all join with me and cancel your subscription's to send a message for real journalism.)

I am pretty sure that this weekend many of god's managers, priests, deacons, reverends spoke to their flocks from the pulpit and either directly or indirectly told them who god wants them to vote for.  If so they need to lose their tax status pronto.  Read this for an eye opener.

Someone said, "Fundamentalism means never having to say 'I'm wrong'."  

If you think corporate America secretly funded the republicans this go round, wait until the presidential race next time.  If most voters think they have any ability to fight this stuff right now they are naive.  When will a hero come along and lead us to defeating this?  When will CEOs be  held accountable?  Two million dollars into John Barela's race in three weeks!  Has Barela turned into a dishonorable man? Deep down he knows.   He didn't use to be but the power of money is a marvel.

After reading this blog I think I have turned into a conspiracy theorist.  Time for another cruise.

I Did It

Even I didn't think I would actually cancel my subscription to the Albuquerque Journal.  But after 45 years as a reader I called them this afternoon and said 'no more'.  Especially after a blatantly false headline in the paper this morning that was intended to scare people into thinking their pay checks would go down if the tax cuts for the rich were done away with.  A longtime friend of mine, a very accomplished documentary producer, sat with me at coffee today with the Journal in front of  him and pointed at the head line and said, "This is a damn lie", except he really used the F-Bomb.  From here on out I will look for abandoned copies of the Journal in coffee places so I can keep up with Leslie Lithicum's columns and 9 Chickweed Lane.  When there is new leadership or a return to fairness at the paper I will resubscribe.

Corporate America a New CEOcracy

We are all lamenting the actions of big shot corporate CEO's throwing secret money into right wing causes and candidates.  Thanks to the george bush supreme court and Chief Justice roberts they have more power than ever.  I do mean that.  The power of $100 bills by the car full.  The same goes for unions and left wing groups who have car loads of one dollar bills.  But, who should we really be angry with?

My friend Tim knows.  We should be mad at the stockholders and ourselves if we hold stock in any oil and gas company etc that is funding these efforts.  Did we stockholders give them permission to do this?  Did the stockholders ever think they might be destroying a democracy and turning it into a CEOcracy?

Well, Tim has a great idea in that legal mind of his.  He thinks large government investment and pension funds, such as the NM Investment Council, the Public Employees Retirement Association, the Educators Retirement Association, and other groups of stockholders should now start initiatives in all states requiring that corporations hold a ballot of all shareholders to allow or disallow contributions to candidates, PACS and special political committees.  I guarantee you that right now these corporate officers are doing whatever they damn well please. I will bet a lot of institutional stock holders will oppose most contributions.  Individual stockholders would too.  And this can't be done in one of those confusing and fine print ballots these CEOs send out.  It should be simple and concise.  I will even write the question.  Here it is, "Should this corporation allow any expenditures for supporting candidates, PACs, special committees or initiatives?   Yes_____    No_____

What courageous New Mexico legislator will write and sponsor such a bill?

Flamingo Dreams

I took this handheld time exposure of Flamingos for a night time photo assignment.  I kind of like it.  It looks surreal, wobbly, in and out of focus.  A lot like many political races this  year.  Mostly it looks like independent voters.  They are the chameleons who transform every couple of years.  I am trying to figure them out.  Two years ago they recognized the lunacy of the bush White House and its new republican wing nut roots and said no more.  Now, after constant tea party fringe attacks, Fox News, Talk Radio and misinformation campaigns they took the bait from the folks they threw out and are turning on the Obama administration.  Question?  Are these people missing some marbles?  Is it the ultimate mass case of attention deficit disorder?   Or am I just naive?  Don't answer that.

Fatigue

I had coffee with my good friend and former City Attorney Bob White this morning.  We love talking politics.  Today we centered on the "fatigue" factor in politics.  People do get fatigued with elected officials.  Think Marty Chavez.  Think about my career.  Think about Governor Richardson.  And in some respects think about any incumbent this year.  People are tired of this cast of players.  People are pissed off at the state of things.  Voila!  The Tea Party fringe exudes frustration and gets the media talking about them.  The Democrats and what is left of a reasonable republican party minority don't even recognize the frustration and don't talk about it and you end up with a lot of otherwise good elected officials being shown the door.  Many of those who replace them will be really scary.

That is a reason that Diane Denish is having a hard race.  The media connect her with Richardson and the fatigue attaches to her.  Her campaign team has not figured out a way, so far, of getting her energy out.  I can tell you I have known her for years and she is her own person.

Part of this fatigue is due to a corporate influenced media.  I feel the oil and gas industry influences the Albuquerque Journal to beat up on Denish because she is concerned about climate change. And so you get stories that try to turn her into a bad person for pursuing funding for childhood education.  Can you believe it?  Making  her seem corrupt for doing something so admirable?  How does this happen at the Journal?  And people ask why I want to stop my subscription.  I guess I am fatigued with that once okay newspaper.

Questions from Friends

We had a great crew over for our Sunday night Dinner.  We were all interested political types and two of our guests were employees of the Albuquerque Journal at one time....years ago.  They had read my blog and were insisting that I not cancel my subscription because it was important for people to keep reading newspapers.  I agree, but it is hard to swallow the front page news stories which are editorials in disguise as is the case in the Journal.  The both agree that things had changed at that newspaper in recent years.  I will ponder their request for not canceling!

All of us sat around the table last night consuming Gypsy Stew, Bobbi's home made jalapeno corn bread, and good wine. None of us even made an effort to turn on the debates last night.  For us our minds were made up on most races.  Even the moderates around the table said that Diane Denish was eminently qualified to be Governor and would be better at the job.  Susana Martinez, if she wins, will be much like Gary Johnson was in office and will be able to offer little more than vetoes.  She will have a tough time leading with a strong Democratic legislature.  Santa Fe will begin to resemble Washington, DC where little gets done and when it does will inspire Newt Gingrich style hate politics.  At least the democrats won't act like cowards in Santa Fe.  There will be no big ideas in Santa Fe.  Lack of money and courage will be the reasons, especially if a republican like Martinez is elected.

Interestingly most of our guests will not vote a straight ticket.  I think Secretary of State Mary Herrera could be in trouble.  I think Ray Powell will win now since his opponent's comments on "christian war" have made the rounds.

A Gratuitous Picture of My Cat

Hermes is growing up.  He always like to perch high on something, like a leopard.  At night he comes in to our bed and lays down between Bobbi and me.  He gives us both love bites and then goes to sleep.  Then his buddy Ajax arrives and lies next to my head.

Right now people are praying about this election.  Which gives me an excuse to show another neat quote that praying Democrats might read.

"Two hands working do more than a thousand clasped in prayer."

The Journal

I am going to do it now.  I am canceling my subscription to the Albuquerque Journal after being a loyal reader for most of my life.  They are no longer credible.  They are Fox news.  They are right wing and vicious.  After reading that they endorsed all republican candidates for Congress, including the nutcase Mullins up north, I decided that the publisher and editor of the paper no longer deserve any respect what so ever.  I don't mind if they are conservatives.  That is their business.  They can also use their opinion page to say what they please and endorse who they please.  But I should not be able to figure out weeks before an editorial what that editorial is going to say because of the way they cover politics on the front page with Thomas Cole, the Drudge of New Mexico.

 The only thing I will miss is Leslie Lithicum's column, the Obituaries, Dilbert and 9 Chickweed Lane in the comics, and my ability to disagree with them any more since I will not be reading them.

I will continue to read the New York Times everyday and with the money I save I might even take the Wall Street Journal, which at least keeps its editorials and dirty work on the opinion page.

The Real World

I went up to Truchas, New Mexico on Friday morning to a gathering of Northern New Mexicans who were presented with a grant from the US Department of Agriculture.  The $150,000 will be used to create the Cooperative Development Center of Northern New Mexico.

It is always fun to go into such a beautiful part of the Land of Enchantment.

Terry Brunner who is Director of the State USDA Rural Development Office handed the funds over to Arturo Sandoval who will help administer the project.

They met with a group of farmers and outfitters who will participate in the program.  The idea is for cooperatives to get products to local markets.  The second objective involves cultural based tourism and recreation.

The beautiful landscapes and natural resources are an under utilized economic tool in the area.

While so many criticize federal public servants these days they should reflect on the real good that is being done to help areas like Truchas develop jobs and a future.

And finally, a funny quote.  "Prayer /n/: how to do nothing and still claim you're helping.

A Rope

A rope might be too good for this nation's bank and mortgage company CEOs.  Why is the public not in the streets screaming for justice?  Oh, thats right...those people are to busy looking for Obama's birth certificate while also demonizing anyone who works in government.  And, don't forget those banks etc are private business and they can do no wrong.  So what if they steal your house because of their own incompetence.

Just like the oil and gas guys who are securing their profits by bankrolling republicans in all political races this year. Don't forget they get billions in subsidies.   Sometimes the dam just breaks for me.

Like yesterday when I told ATT Wireless that I was canceling my contract with them because for the last 18 months I have no cell service on my Iphone at my house.  They said they couldn't guarantee service and gee for $150 more I could by their mini cell tower that hooks into the internet so my phones will work. I said, "So I have to buy something that gets me service for something I already pay for?"  "Yes" they said in a pleasant and saccharin voice.  "And if you cancel we will require a fee."   I want to personally carry the rope for the ATT Wireless CEO SOB.  He is a con man.