Anacortes View

We were up early this morning exploring.  This is Bobbi looking off towards the San Juan Islands.  Later today we will tour around with our friends Pat and Carol Ohearn.  We see a big dinner of Dungeness crab in our future.

More Chihuly

I love this guy's stuff.  I used to work with glass a little.  He is a genius.

Chihuly Gardens

Glass and Steel.

Yes. The Space Needle

Bobbi and Bloody Mary number one

I had Tiger Prawn shrimp.  She had white cod fish and chips.  Excellent food.

Pikes Place Market Seattle

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Lots of fresh sockeye salmon in the markets.  Bing cherries by the pound.

Great Movie

No, not the Lone Ranger, but a documentary titled, "How to Make Money."  It is about the useless war against drugs.  You simply must see it.  It is cruel to the police and politicians as it should be.  I am a former pol who got sucked into this fight at one point.  And then I woke up.

We got home from Pendaries this noon time and I had to marvel at the full page ads in the Journal.  One from some right wing Christian group trying to state that we are and should be a Christian government. The other ad is from the Freedom from Religion Foundation whom I immediately sent fifty bucks to continue their work.

Off to more cool climate and ocean breezes tomorrow!

After Golf

We had a great three days and two nights in Pendairies playing golf.  Lots of rains between rounds.  Some hail.  Never over 75 degrees.  No forest fire smoke.  And of course the first stop after 27 holes of golf is Maragaritaville.  

Now we  head off for the Pacific Northwest and Canada.  Look for photos.

Pendaries Thunderheads

Climate Relief

Bobbi and I will be out of town for a couple of weeks.  Up to Pendairies for a couple of days of golf.  High of 66 degrees forecast.  Rain Showers too.  Then back for a day before heading up to Seattle for a day, Anacortes for two days with friends and fishing and crabbing.  Then on to Vancouver and Victoria for a look see at summer in British Columbia.  I will post pics when possible!  It will rain in Albuquerque since we will be gone.  Always happens.  My house sitter has a new shotgun.

Pearce

Representative Steve Pearce is in hot water for spending 20K for an international junket.  That is remarkable given his penchant for not wanting the government to spend money on anything.  Frankly though, it doesn't bother me much because even a narrow minded pol like him could learn something on one of those trips.

Here is what the media should be writing about.  Pearce's biblical opposition to doing anything about climate change. He thinks it is a ruse by hundreds of thousands of scientists around the world.  He is really just protecting his fossil fuel buddies who made him millions in his business and now contribute mightily to his campaign coffers.  But, now with the deaths of 19 fire fighters in Arizona who were battling the latest in a string of fires that are changing our landscapes in the west, I wonder what he might say to the wives and children of these front line troops in the climate change stoked fire fights?

Certainly this must bring home to him some sort of soul searching?  Or are profits still etched in his brain so strongly that these kind of occurrences just slide right on by like our ever increasing dust storms.

We can't afford men with a lack of consciences like him to serve in elected positions any longer. 

Just Golf

Too hot to think.  Just golf today.

Southern Gentlemen Myth

Those GOP legislators who wouldn't let Democratic  Senator Wendy Davis wear a back brace during her filibuster to protect women's rights have pretty much destroyed the myth of the fine Southern Gentlemen.  It turns out they are just a bunch of assholes.

It seems to me that we in New Mexico are surrounded by legislatures to the east and west of us that are full of assholes.  I just don't know how else to put it.  The extreme right wing controls those states and will continue to do so with the likes of Rick Perry in the Governor's office. On the bright side, this war against our women will certainly hasten the demise of these crazies on the national scene.  The young people in this country, as evidenced in the Gay Rights movement, will soon control the vote nationally even if places like Texas and Arizona cling to the past of bible thumping idiot elected officials.

I am grateful that we have a moderate/liberal controlled legislature that has some good old time moderate republicans serving.  Even at her worse I don't think Susanah Martinez approaches the certifiably insane right winger yet.  But she is a cowardly fence sitter when she says gay marriage in New Mexico should be decided by only the voters.  Well, not the voters but the religious zealots led by the Catholic Church.

Goes Around

What goes around goes far.  Let me explain.  My sister, Dr. Carlota Baca, just returned from her one month sojourn to Italy and Switzerland.  When she arrived to stay with friends in Berne they were all set to tell her of the news article they had seen in their newspaper a few days before.  It was about New Mexico.

Well, what could the fine editors at that Berne newspaper find so interesting about the Land of Enchantment?  Forest fires?  Tourism?  Juicy scandals?  Nope.

It was about the leaders of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and St. Pius X High School not letting the transgender student march in the graduation ceremonies as a member of their new sex!

Why would an international newspaper be interested in this?   Probably because it showed the caveman attitude of the Catholic Church in America and more specifically New Mexico.  Not exactly a positive image for this tourism based state.

Another thing that came around today was the Albuquerque Journal editorial taking the Governor to task for not releasing public information on who picked up the tab for her husband on a hunting trip.  Even the right wing editorial board couldn't ignore this one.  One thing they don't like is secrecy on the part of government, even if they do worship at the altar of Governor Martinez.

Climate Change and Obama

The President's speech today on Climate Change was very good.  Passionate and direct.  He calls out the obstructionists to get out of the way and let non partisanship debate move towards some solutions.  He says he has no time for climate change deniers and meetings of the flat earth society.  And he made the Keystone Pipeline a hostage.  CO2 reductions are at the top of the list.  All in all one of the better speeches he has given.  Finally, where does this leave our oil controlled Governor?  Obama talked a lot about how many states and cities have already taken action on reducing emissions.  Meanwhile Susana Martinez is doing the opposite.

Governor Sighting

The Governor showed up for a news conference on a Tourism Department publication of a guide to sites used in popular movies and TV series.  A good idea actually.  But did any reporter manage to shout the question, "Governor, what are your comments on the fact that our state is at the bottom of the pile  in the well being of its children?  And what are  you doing about it?"

No, the media was being orgasmic over the thought that people could come and see the places where  Johnny Depp used portable restrooms between takes.  We need to have some mobs with pitchforks converge on the offices of the Albuquerque TV Stations and the Journal to capture editors and send them to remedial Journalism class.

Children of No Man's Land

I want a fair and good immigration bill.  Everyone does except the wacko republican tea party types.  They just want their brand of brown people phobia to go away.  And so they want 20,000 more border patrol agents along the Mexican border with a completion of a 700 mile American version of the Berlin wall.  Meanwhile in New Mexico which ranks last in child well being we can only scratch our heads at billions be spent on border barriers while our kids lives fester.  If this is not a sign of America's fall from greatness, then what would qualify?

This is a tough decision for our Democratic Senators in New Mexico.  But, I have to say they must vote against this insane bill.  

The Artful Dodger

It is either a case of incompetence or a case of artful dodging.  I am talking about the story in the Albuquerque Journal this morning showing that New Mexico has slipped to last place in child well being.  We came in 50th, just behind Mississippi.  And the Journal, which rightfully gave the story full front page treatment, never managed to even get a 'no comment' comment out of the Governor Martinez administration.  If ever there was a story that needed a Governor's quote, this was right up there in first place!  How could the editor's of the paper not make an effort to get a quote?

And then they let that  con man Paul Guessing of the Rio Grande Foundation write another column demanding that the federal government hand back control of public lands to the state.  The state never had control of those lands as per agreement to become a state in 1912.  But Guessing and his extreme right wing organization are funded by the oil and gas boys who seem to get most things they want out of the editor of the Journal.  Including the publication of Guessing's outright lies on their editorial page.  Ask yourself one question,  would you want the fossil fuel guys in charge of our National Parks?

Why Cap the Take?

The title of this blog was the title of an editorial in the Albuquerque Journal back in the mid 1980's when I was State Land Commissioner.  I was attempting to raise the oil and gas royalty rates paid to the state land office.  The Journal agreed back then that it was the right thing to do.  The legislature agreed and a new royalty system was introduced and passed that increased by up to 50% the amount of royalties paid to the Permanent Fund from all new leases.  Back then the oil and gas industry put up a token fight against the new rates, but they realized they couldn't justify their stand because of what private land owners were demanding and getting in royalty agreements.  Plus, all the other states around us had already raised their rates.

This morning the Journal ran a column by Michael Coleman about the many states that are demanding that the federal government, aka the Bureau of Land Management and others, start charging a fair market royalty for all of the drilling on federal public lands.  They still only charge a routine 12.5% or so while everyone else gets up to 25%.  If this situation isn't indicative of failed GOP and Democratic Interior department policies then nothing is.  The BLM, White House Chiefs of Staff, Senators, Congressmen and others have all sold out to big oil in keeping these rates so low over the years.  It is corruption in its most basic form.  And it costs the states a bundle because they share in the royalties charged by the Feds.

This might be a great issue for Senator Martin Heinrich to tackle.  Senator Udall might help, but he has been around a long time now and has done nothing because he fears the oil and gas boys.  Meanwhile, what will we hear from Governor Martinez on this issue?  We will see as soon as the oil boys write her news release for her.

I am overjoyed the Journal did this story, like the one AP story they ran on the dangers of fracking to our water supplies.  I hope they won't treat it like the one day scandal story they did on Heather Wilson's fraud on taxpayers.  One day and they forgot all about it.

Bag Men

The supporters of Mayor Berry who may or may not have violated city ethics laws on campaign contributions are trying to halt a hearing into the matter.  They are trying escape any embarrassing moments by filing a suit in Federal court to halt the hearing.  It seems to me that if they think the law is unconstitutional then they should let the ethics panel proceed with a decision and then appeal the outcome if necessary.  This action on their part is nothing but a ruse to delay the hearings until after the election in a few months.  They don't want the Mayor and themselves to be seen as violating the spirit of the city campaign law.  It is underhanded and corrupt on their part.

Absolutely, no one will take notice of this because the media will gloss it over for the most part.  And the corporate handlers of Berry will get away with it.  The question is, will the city attorney's office put up a decent fight on this issue, or are they going to just waddle along for the corporate bag men.