Awake

I am still alive and feeling pretty good. The drugs are fantastic. Very little pain so far. Pretty soon the therapist will arrive and I will have to get up and walk should be interesting.

Sent from my iPhone

SCIENCE

As I trundle off to a total knee replacement surgical procedure this morning I am thanking science and technology for providing this kind of opportunity to regain mobility.  I also think of the incredible ability to predict the course of Hurricane Sandy and the tidal surges that will accompany this perfect storm.  This science of meteorology and oceanography etc. will save many lives in the next few days.

However, I do not much appreciate the beating science and education are taking right now from the far right republican party.  Their science book is the bible.  That is the book written by fishermen and shepherds 2000 years ago. The GOP evens thinks if a woman gets raped that her body will know how to 'shut that whole thing down.'  This comes from a republican senate candidate who was on his way to victory before he managed to make just about every female on the earth wonder what planet he came from.  It is probably from the same place where the term 'clean coal' was thought up and the climate change deniers were funded and organized.

It is might also the place where the current publisher and editor of the Albuquerque Journal are getting their logic.  On a day when their front page feature on the possible demise our forests from drought and heat is presented, they go ahead and endorse for Senate a puppet of the fossil fuel industry, Heather Wilson, over a sane and rational Martin Heinrich who looks to the future rather than the past.  This all on a day when a friend sent an article about the richest people in every state of the union.  The richest guy listed in New Mexico is Peyton Yates of Yates Petroleum with a fortune near $800,000,000.

I will be out of rational thought for a few days while I cruise in a sea of pain and painkillers in the hospital.  I don't know when the fog might lift.  I will check back in when I can string together a sentence.

The Good and the Bad

Watching the news on KRQE last night was a chore and a bore except for Larry Barker, investigative reporter, going after a corporation instead of some low level public employee.  But before I watched that report I had to endure multiple police department provided videos of non news events including a stolen truck filmed from a chopper.  It is like the news directors have discovered a way of cutting back on staff by having the law enforcement agencies turn over highly unwatchable and low quality videos.  This of course saves the bottom line station manager from having to spend money on HIDEF video cameras and the professionals who operate them.

Larry Barker went out after a rip off insurance company that takes state employee premiums and then refuses to pay off death benefit claims for deceased employees families.  I really can't remember the last time a reporter did something of this nature on New Mexico TV.  My hat is off to Barker on this one, but why did he not interview the Governor on what she proposed to do about the situation?  Maybe she refused in order to take herself out of having to say something bad about American corporations.  The name of the corporation is the Standard Insurance Company which is headquartered in Portland, Oregon.

Misc.

This Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock who seemed infer that forcible rape and resulting pregnancy of the victim is all part of "God's" plan may hurt Romney by some small amount.  Which is a lot right now!  When ever I hear this term "God's Plan", I wonder how that plan is arrived at.  Does the Archangel of Planning in Heaven figure this rape thing out and send it to God for approval?  Or is the planning really just nothing more than having humans believing there is a plan?  It is all hilarious to me, but dangerous too.  I think this "God's Plan" thing is really nothing more that an fundamentalist filing cabinet for pulling folders out to support their wacko beliefs and neurosis.

I am wondering where the Governor's attack on the leadership of the New Mexico Senate will get her.  I have never seen this kind of blatant gutter level tactics being waged by one branch of government upon another.  She isn't going to win no matter what happens.  The Senate will remain Democrat and the Governor will be blocked at every turn.  Oh, thats right, it doesn't matter since she has no program whatsoever.

Anxiety is rising here.  I get knee replacement surgery on Monday.  I have not spent a night in the hospital since I was 7 years old and had my tonsils ripped out.  I hear the drugs are pretty good!

The New Boogie Man

It is starting.  The right wing Albuquerque Journal and the Governor will now become a tag team on over kill for the state's Public Employee Retirement System.  Yes, there are some things that need fixing like the automatic 3% hike in benefits every year.

But, what you will begin to see is an over reaction to a fall in growth in the 12 billion dollars in the pension funds.  Of course this is happening because of the incredible greed of a gaggle of bankers and mortgage giants who melted down the economy.  These folks will now seize upon the moment to try and destroy the last good retirement system in the state even though they are the ones who set up the current financial difficulties.  They will do so in the hopes of keeping more of their profits from being taxed.

When the economy starts healthy growth again, and it appears it is beginning, then those retirement funds will grow their way out of insolvency.  It will happen quickly.  So the Governor and her 1% backers will seize the moment to once again vilify hard working public employees.  The Governor will do so at her own peril.  You can only treat your employees like dung for so long.  She might be forgetting that many of those employees voted for her two years ago, but hey, just another available scapegoat group and we know the GOP loves to scapegoat.

Yes, I have a retirement from PERA.  It  is a 20 year cumulation of my contributions and the states.  It is an agreement we made when I first entered public service that I would receive this pension at the end of my service.  Just the same kind of agreement the Governor has made in her public service.  Maybe her 1% backers will make sure she doesn't need to rely on a pension at the end of her career.  

Hiding in Plain Sight

Governor Martinez is turning out to be a master of hiding in plain sight.  At least when it comes to what she and her administration might stand for.  Of course we know beating up on immigrant families is the public face of her rightwing inspired rule so far.  That gets people's blood running hot.  A wedge issue.  But as I watched and thought about politics during the  Presidential debate last night I realized that Martinez has still not put a real face on to her tenure as Governor.  She is just there.

It is a smart way to do things these days.  Have  you ever noticed that the most long lived politicians never really stand out for pushing a program?  Of course there are some exceptions.  Governor Jack Campbell years ago left us the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.  Governor Bruce King left us the Severance Tax Permanent Fund that finances public works.   Bill Richardson was around a long time even though he pursued projects like the Space Port and Rail Runner.  Can anyone think of such projects under the Martinez administration?  Something that will be around a long time to serve New Mexicans?

It  is somewhat  like Gary Johnson some years back.  I can't think of one thing he left behind after being  Governor for eight years.  Yes, he did talk about a sane drug policy but little came of it.  And so he will in the end be one of those forgotten quirky pols.  That is where Martinez will end up and it is sad.  She is squandering a chance at remembrance by listening to the extreme right wing.  Deep down I don't even think she believes in that stuff.  And given her humble beginnings, if she does believe it, it is very sad.

Fossilized Pol

Heather Wilson showed what a luddite and fossil she was last night in her debate with Martin Heinrich.  She is sort of a 90's kind of pol.  1890's that is.  She was music to the ears of the Oil and Coal boys.  They were her lovers for the hour long debate and she showed how much she adored these planet busting characters.  Martin was a guy looking to the future as far as energy production goes.

I got to thinking about Mitt Romney and his strange attitude on women.  I was reminded of a great movie from a few years back called "Pleasantville".  It was about two modern American teenagers who are transported back into a 50's TV sitcom where women were not much more than baby machines and domestic servants.  I have a feeling that Romney would be comfortable in that kind of era.  Check this movie out.  It might give you some insights into Romney.

Religion Again

We went and saw the movie Argo.  Many scenes contain a background of newscasts in 1979 and the chaos caused by the Iranian revolution in the Middle East.  Nothing has changed.  One could just edit those newscast scripts with different names and places and the stories would be the same.  It is all insanity and we should leave them alone to sort it out.  But we won't because of the fossil fuel boys and  our national warrior tradition.

Then someone would say that we can't let young girls like the Afghani who was shot in the head, for the good of Allah, for wanting an education go unsupported by this country.  But at the same time in the U.S.A. the GOP and religious right are assaulting women's ability to chart their own course of healthcare.  Maybe we should fix things here first?  It is all fundamentalist religious posturing.  Christians and Moslems working together to persecute women.  Romney and Billy Graham burying the hatchet in the name of repressing independent women.

Enough

Every morning our radio goes on at 5am for the start of the NPR newscast.  But, this morning the dam burst.  I just couldn't take it any more.  Listening to Romney and Obama news and the 40th hour of the debate rehash almost made me nauseous.  I told Bobbi to turn it off.  I was wanting to hear something other that this endless campaign crap.  Anything would do really, even country western music which I have always thought sounded like dying cats.(making more enemies here I suppose.)  I mean every country western song sounds like the last one, over and over, like the campaign crap but at least there are some women singing some of them.

The corporate bosses would always fight any attempt to shorten our campaigns because they know that their money would have less impact.  How else can one explain the ascension of people like bush/cheney and romney/ryan into national leadership contention.  But these two year long campaigns drive a wedge into America with the constant attacking, lying and propagandizing.  It just needs to end.  

When couples in bad marriages get tired of the constant combat they usually end it by divorce.  Thats what we need to do as a nation.  Divorce ourselves from long and damaging campaigns.  Lets cut them down to about 6 months maximum to shore up American unity.  

Funny

This is kind of funny.    At the end you could substitute Romney's magic underwear.

36 Hours

I don't know if the new proposed UNM hospital is needed or not.  Perhaps more information is required, although having to wait up to 36 hours in the emergency room before being sent up to a room in the hospital seems outrageous and hardly therapuetic.  But, that  seems to mean little to the Governor's handpicked Board of Finance right now.  This is all caused by poor people who don't have insurance after all.  Poor American people that is.  The Martinez minions just want to wait to see if the nation's new health care plan is repealed.  Stop and think about this logic.  They base this on Romney's promise to repeal this legislation.  Except only congress can really do that and that is unlikely.  Even critics are starting to see the good in this new law.

So, the logic seems to be that it is okay that poor people are denied health care.  Shoulder to Shoulder in the E.R. is fine for them.  Don't build a hospital that would care for them, right?  I am pretty sure all members of the Board of Finance have health insurance, so why should they give a damn?  It is kind of like Romney's complete lack of knowledge on the struggles of the lower and middle class in the nation.

I thought Obama ran away with the debate last night.  I am glad he seemed angry at Romney's inane generalities.  I think Obama shored up his base last night after they were disillusioned with his last performance.  Romney certainly showed his fealty to the fossil fuels crowd while Obama spent some time talking about future renewable energy production.

#1

Albuquerque is listed as the #1 community by CNN Money for people to retire and take up residence.  One reason given was the revitalization of downtown.  Something I was given hell for when I was Mayor for pursuing and something that the current Mayor Berry is trying to minimize with his impact fee strategy that favors undeveloped desert land over the city's core.  I do think Berry is a decent guy, but he is so wrong on this I can't begin to enumerate the reasons why.

It was nice to see that the city planning department is giving a thumbs down on the Walmart location at Coors and Montano.  That is a positive thing.  It will be interesting to see if the Mayor and City Council will back them up on this gutsy recommendation.  If you know the intersection you will recognize that it just isn't appropriate.

Thin Veil

Did you stop and think about Fearless Felix's jump?  From 24 miles high in an unlivable environment.  Alien and cold.  But as the crow flies about the same distance in a drive from Albuquerque to Los Lunas.  Not far at all.  Felix was not at a life sustaining altitude until his drop from near space was 88% complete.

And yet all of our lives depend on a thin veil of atmosphere that can only sustain life up to about 3 and a half miles.  Yet we just keep pumping more crap into it.  And the world leaders can not even bring themselves to deal with it because it might cut into profits for the fossil fuel crowd.

Misc.

More beating up of the public servant in the Journal this morning.  More lamenting of the fact that they get more retirement benefits than the average worker.  Why is that?  Well, because our GOP elite have so emasculated the private sector American Worker that they have no retirement benefits left.  That is what makes government workers look so fat and happy.

So in the GOP's eagerness to destroy the middle class they have decided to also destroy the retirement benefits of those in government service.  And so many Americans have signed on to this madness.  Instead of trying to screw pensions for government workers why don't they organize and reset the bar for higher benefits for them selves?  This is a sign of a breakdown in our American workers unity.  All brought to us by greedy Tea Party types.

Martin Heinrich looks to be our next US Senator.  His nine point lead in the Research and Polling Poll today looks insurmountable for Heather Wilson.   I predict he will quickly be the goto guy for help in DC by all New Mexicans.  Senator Udall's poor staff and his reluctance to lead on hard issues will elevate a go getter like Heinrich.  Don't get me wrong.  I like Udall and have known him for years.  But he is more than a little bit invisible and unavailable.

Obama's lead in New Mexico is inspiring.  Our state on all of the political maps is this little spot of blue in a sea of red madness.  We can hope for Colorado.  The Obama campaign had real effective leadership in the last campaign there in the work of Ray Rivera.  They could use him there now, but after a time working at the Interior department Ray wandered off to other things.  The Interior department has not exactly been a beacon of reform and progress on public land issues.  

Sunday Reading Assignment

Read this.  

Rubber Necking

Many Americans right now are like some drivers racing down I-25 near the launch site for the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.  They are rubbernecking, staring into the skies, and crashing in increased numbers.  They forget that their job behind the wheel is to drive a couple thousand pounds of steel and plastic down the road safely.

Just like many Americans who watch a 90 minute debate instead of what has been going around them for the last four years and deciding the debate is all that matters.  It is ignorance and inattention at its best and nothing but a crash for the middle class is in the offing.

I Voted

Now, all that special interest money that will be spent in the next few weeks will have no influence on me.  If it ever did.  I voted early because of upcoming knee surgery.  I sat there and blacked out every single oval on the ballot that was for a democrat.  I could have saved a few minutes by just inking in a straight ticket, but the Governor and Secretary of state unilaterally decided that wasn't allowed any longer after decades of the choice being on the ballot.  They made this voter suppression move several months ago and the democratic party just got around to filing suit yesterday.  Why the wait?  Was there some grand strategy?  Anyone want to clue us in?

I managed to sit through the VP debate last night.  Biden took the kid to the wood shed and now the GOP spinmeisters are saying Biden is  unhinged.  The thing I liked most about that woodshed was when Biden put Ryan in the bent over position by saying that the GOP put two wars on a credit card while cutting revenues.  Priceless!

And I marveled at how far Martin Heinrich has come in his presence and ability to orate.  His debate with Heather Wilson, who signed that credit card that Biden talked about when she was in congress, was great.  He is on his way to the Senate.

Things Don't Change

I know you have seen this already at some point.  But, please watch it again.

Ponder on the Course

I only have a few games of golf left in these knees before I get them replaced.  Today I will play and ponder out on the course the story by Leslie Lithicum in the Journal today about voters in the oil patch. They say Obama is a Muslim.  That he is a socialist.  That he is godless.  Why don't they just say the real reason they don't like him?  This his skin is black.

I had to chuckle about their problems with socialism and big government.  Everyone in that south eastern part of the state makes their living or are subsidized by the government.  Think subsidized grazing fees.  Think cheap oil and gas from federal and state lands.  Think social security for all of their seniors.  etc. etc.

And as a friend of mine reminded me,

"And I am amazed by the energy debate.  The fossil energy industry says Americans shouldn't subsidize renewables (but what about the $100 billion-plus America spends to protect oil around the world?) and that people will never accept higher electricity bills to pay for clean energy (but what about the 1000% increase in oil prices in the past 12 years?)."  

I will also ponder on the course the fact that the NRA has stabbed Martin Heinrich in the back and endorsed his opponent.  What could he expect?   They are not really a gun rights organization.  They are an extreme right wing cabal.  Now, Martin you need to understand it is much more than it seems.  As I am sure you do this morning.

Jett Stream

Here is another great column by my classmate Dennis Jett.  He writes for the McClatchy Newspapers.  Those are real newspapers unlike some I know.  Dennis is a retired career diplomat.

ROMNEY'S FACT FREE FOREIGN POLICY

Fact checking the things that Mitt Romney says is like shooting at an elephant with a shotgun from a distance of five feet. The target is too big to miss, but hitting it also won't slow it down.

The effort to make him appear presidential just keeps lumbering on, like that elephant, unconstrained by the truth. One of his pollsters even said<http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/president-obama-quotes-romney-pollster-dismissing-fact-checkers/>: "We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers."

His foreign policy speech on Monday to a group of cadets at the Virginia Military Institute was the latest example of inventing the facts to fit the message. The speech had the usual share of half-truths, plus a generous helping of foreign policy fantasies.

He said for instance "The president has not signed one new free trade agreement in the last four years." That's true if you ignore the ones signed with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. They were negotiated under the Bush administration, but the Obama administration had to work with Congress to end a battle over aid to workers to get them signed. Aid to workers would of course not slow down the old profit maximizer who would happily close a factory, and send the jobs to China, if it meant another dollar in the bank.

He said the size of the Navy was at levels not seen since 1916. Not seen as long as no one looks at the last four years of the Bush administration when there were ten percent fewer ships than there are now.

Romney criticized Obama for the fact that we no longer have combat troops in Iraq as if their mere presence could prevent the chaos in that country. President Bush set the withdrawal timetable when he signed a status of forces agreement with Iraq that spelled it out. The Obama administration could not convince Iraqi leaders to commit political suicide by agreeing to allow an occupation army to stay longer. An extension could have been achieved, but it would have meant agreeing to the Iraqi insistence that the troops would be subject to Iraqi law and its judicial system.

Romney also said he will prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons capability. Don't look now Mitt, but they already have it if capability is defined as having the raw material and the ability to enrich it to weapons grade uranium. Whether they can fabricate a bomb and how long it would take to produce the highly enriched uranium required is not clear, but the intelligence community believes they have not decided to construct one. Romney's red line is sufficiently fuzzy; however, that he can make the call that it has been crossed whenever he wants to start a war.

Or perhaps whenever Prime Minister Netanyahu decides it is time for America to attack Iran. Romney stressed that "the world must never see any daylight" between Israel and the United States. He has said in the past that he would check with Netanyahu before making any statements about the Middle East and leave it up to him to decide when the American embassy would be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. That is a move so contrary to American interests that no president has seriously contemplated taking such a foolish step. But if there is really to be no daylight, Romney will have to let Netanyahu dictate American policy for the region and not just the decision on the embassy's location.

In general, Romney used the speech to blame all the ills of the world on Obama saying that, if elected, his leadership will result in peace and prosperity for all. If he does become president, he will discover even the most powerful man in the world cannot simply pound his chest, rattle his saber and everyone will follow because he thinks himself exceptional.

But his fact-free pitch to become that man is aimed at the voters who share his distain for reality. They believe that if unemployment drops, the statistics must have been rigged, and that polls that show him behind obviously oversample Democrats.  They also think any foreign policy goal can be achieved by simply telling the world that he is as great a leader as he thinks he is. Good luck with that.