Misc.

I have never used the Veteran's hospital system even though I qualify.  We have private health insurance and medicare.  I know some folks who do use the system even though they are wealthy and could seek help in many other ways.  Last night on CBS there was great lamentation that 57,000 Vets were waiting long times for an appointment.  Another 6 million got their appointments.  I think the real system flaws here are people using the Veterans healthcare despite other alternatives, and the ridiculous 'bonus' system that made lying profitable for system administrators.  Those folks should be fired.  Oh, and maybe we should forgive the student loans of any Doctor who chooses to work at the VA facilities for at least 5 years.  Oh, and george bush, dick cheney and don rumsfeld should be indentured to empty bed pans at a VA facility for the rest of their lives for sending so many young folks into a system that is understaffed and underfunded. Along with the CEO's of every major defense industry who were not underfunded at all.

Governor Susana Martinez has her great economic development coup for the year.  A new tortilla factory in Las Cruces.  She says the average wages will be $37,000 a year plus benefits.  I wonder if some one in the media will check that out.  Seems unrealistic.

Gary King showed signs of life with his new TV ad retaliating for Governor Martinez's mudslinging TV ads.  This is good.  The next step is to get a new Democratic Party Chair.  And soon.

Death of a Thousand Cuts

Tax chicanery is afoot.  Bernalillo County wants an increase in the gross receipts tax to buy open space.  Mayor Berry and the city council just passed a stealth tax tacked on to the garbage rates to maintain city medians, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District just passed a tax hike with no effort at publicizing it to the district taxpayers.  A death of a thousand cuts.

In fact the Conservancy district is really providing another subsidy for the agricultural community.  As those in the district know, it is the homeowners and businesses that pay most of the costs of the irrigation system while not getting to use the water that it provides.  The media and press know and care little of this agency which has been mired in corruption and dishonesty for years.

The problem with the city and county is that they keep relying on the gross receipts tax to make ends meet.  This regressive tax lets the rich off the hook while really putting it to the poor and middle class.  This simply has to stop.  Along with the automatic 3% property tax hikes by the county and others that hit the retired seniors so hard every year.

In the beginning of another long torturous saga, democrat Gary King has begun his journey of watching millions of dollars being spent to turn him into an ogre by rightwing money provided to the coffers of Governor Susana Martinez.  The GOP Governors are spending more in one week of mudslinging TV commercials than Gary has in is entire bank account.  This is going to be a long and embarrassing trek for King, unless some miracle happens.

Body Count

Will UNM Professor David Correia, who has been leading protests on the APD body count problem, be charged with a felony for 'bumping' a police officer who arrested him?  If so, can we assume that is going to be how all protestors might be treated?

This is ridiculous.  And if the charges stick then just look for more trouble for our invisible Mayor and cowed City Council.  And what will UNM do about their public dissident?  They damn well better support him in the tradition of institutions of higher education leading the way in social change.  Remember Viet Nam Protests and Kent State?

We had an impromptu gathering of folks the other night in the neighborhood after Channel 13 ran a story meant to give the Mayor and Police some cover.  They were interviewing folks on whether or not the protestors are hurting their own cause by protesting.  Many of my neighbors thought they were as we hung around a burglary crime scene nearby.  It really made me think that the protestors are more important than ever because most people naturally rally around police, just like they do for soldiers.  And because of that bias we need people to stand up and say when something is wrong.  Remember My Lai?

Triage

Maybe one of the most important races in this upcoming election will be the contest for New Mexico Secretary of State.  Democrat Maggie Tolouse Oliver needs to take home the prize there if we want to stop suppression of the vote by the likes of the Koch brothers and right wingers in this country.

Those radicals have run around crying voter fraud and cheating when in fact it really does not exist on any measurable scale.  They will use this approach to actually pass laws to suppress the votes of the poor in this country.  The current office holder,  republican Diana Duran, started down this path as soon as she was elected and you can be sure she will gather in plenty of corporate and oil and gas money to continue the effort.

This race might be the best investment for the long term politics in New Mexico.  My check is in the mail.  Go here to donate.

King for a Day

Gary King won the primary election last night after votes were cast by 20% of the eligible democrats in the state.  Governor Susana Martinez and her neo con minions are having a good chuckle this morning because they will see King as a pushover in the general election.  They wanted him to win and he came in first or second in every county which which was hard for Alan Webber and Lawrence Rael to overcome.  No young people voted, but the silver hair crowd did which explains King's easy victory because of nostalgia for his dad Bruce King.

There are 600,000 democrats, 340,000 republicans and 200,000 independents and fringe party members in New Mexico.  One would think King could win this election, but the odds are terrible for him.  Martinez will start spending her 10 million dollars next week and never look back.  That is all money from the fossil fuel, Koch brothers, and right wing groups who just see this state as a giant well for climate killing fuels.

This race will be about how New Mexico should not be considered the 'Appalachia" of the Southwestern United States.  Our nonperforming leadership has let our economy spiral into a horrible decline.  That isn't just the political leadership, but the business community leadership too.  I am not sure if King or Martinez has the ability or talent to fix this.  But my vote will be with King because he is unlikely to let the oil boys run everything.

Children in the Mansion

When was the last time any school aged children lived in the Governor's mansion?  This was an interesting question an old friend of mine commented on yesterday.  I can't really answer that question, but it really is an important one.

Modern day parenting is probably even harder now that when Bobbi and I raised our kids in the 80's and 90's.  Anyone who is doing it now and being successful are to be respected.  But in looking at our current posse of governor candidates I think the only one with school age children is Lawrence Rael.  He and his wife Kim are modern day parents and if he were to win the Primary and go on to defeat Susana Martinez, then we would have children living in the Governor's Mansion.

That would be refreshing, wouldn't it?

The 300

Those three hundred jobs that have just been permanently lost in Questa due to the closure of the Chevron Molybdenum mine are another poke in the eye for New Mexicans.  Also another black mark against Governor Martinez.  Those boom and bust cycle kind of industries have been very dicey for our state.  Profits sucked out and hard working people abandoned.  And they are enabled by people like the Governor who has no economic stimulus plan what so ever.  Just what in the hell are she and her minions doing?  The only dedications she has been attending are ones set in stage by the Richardson administration.  And she still thinks that everything he did was wrong.

I suppose that means she doesn't like gross receipts taxes taken off food.  And lowering taxes for the poor.  And bringing in the Rail Runner and the Spaceport and the movie industry.  Every single day she looks weaker and the heart grows fonder for Richardson.  But, New Mexico electors are sleeping and the democrats will probably elect the worst possible candidate to take on Susana Martinez.  Yep, that is Gary King, a nice guy who does absolutely nothing.

Thoughtful Read

Fellow blogger Bubba Munster, a truck driver/philosopher from Albuquerque  has a must read entry today.  Do your self a favor and spend some time on it.  Read it here.

Taxing the Poor to Help the Poor

The Albuquerque City Council will consider taxing the poor to help the poor by asking for a 1/8 cent increase in the regressive gross receipts tax.  They are doing it under the false assumption it will somehow help with the police shootings in the city by opening up vaguely thought out homeless assistance.  If they want to try this then at least come up with a real plan, and then shift the burden from the gross receipts tax to another funding source that doesn't take the money out of the pockets of working folks.  This is an evil tax source and has always been.  But if the public were given a chance to vote on it, then if it is approved it will at least be agreed to by those who will pay it.  The public and city council have already hidden a tax in the refuse pick up rates that will fund street median maintenance.  Stealth taxers these folks are!

Mayor Berry was finally pinned down by Channel 7 on the scandalous no bid APD Tazer contract and resulting fall out.  After the contract was 'greased' by former Chief Schultz, he immediately went to work for them after retiring.  Watch it here.

Berry Tax Increase

Hidden in a city council approved measure is a secret tax hike by Mayor Berry.  The media will never report it as such, but it will make good fodder for any future Berry political run.  The tax hike is hidden in the increase in trash pick up fees.  They are being increased to cover that enterprise fund cost, which is okay.  But it is also being increased to maintain street medians, which has nothing to do with trash pickup.  This is something that normally would be funded by general tax receipts, but Berry and the Council don't want to admit that they needed to hike taxes in our sucky economy, so they hid this cost in the enterprise fund.  Don't forget this when these councillors and Mayor run again.  They are hiding in the shadows on tax hikes and not taking responsibility.

Intel

The Intel Plant in Rio Rancho was once said to be one of the company's most productive.  But now it has again been passed over for manufacturing the ever changing technologies that make chips smaller, less power hungry, and more efficient.  One wonders what has gone wrong.

This isn't good news.  And the latest I get from the rumor mill is that a firm owned by interests in Abu Dhabi was at Intel last week to try and negotiate a deal to buy the plant.  That is either good news or bad news.  Who knows?

Certainly not Governor Susana Martinez and her weak economic development team.  I was aghast today to see her new TV commercial in which she once again was running against former Governor Richardson.  That is all she has got since this state is failing so miserably in job creation and she is escaping without a scratch.

One of our dinner guests last night made an interesting observation.  She said that people didn't like Richardson but they liked his policies.  She said that as far as behavior went that Martinez was no different.  Mean and uncaring.  But that no one seems to like her policies either.  But she gets away with it.  It is just one of those cases where voters are truly asleep.

I voted on Wednesday afternoon.  I went with Lawrence Rael.  But if Webber wins I will support him too.  They will both get all the money I can muster together to help who ever wins.  If King wins, well that would be difficult not because he isn't a good and honest guy, but because he is not capable of winning against the teflon Governor.

Meanwhile, I am off for the first golf sojourn of the summer to Pendairies, New Mexico.  That ball goes far at 7500 feet altitude.

Reminder

When will the media let us know how the man who allegedly shot a police dog back in March was killed?  Was it suicide?  The APD and OMI have said little.  Is this being covered up?

Sit Her Down

It is amazing really, the fact that no one can manage to sit Governor Susana Martinez down for an interview on the dismal state of the economy in New Mexico.  First off, is the media even trying to put her on the spot to answer for the out-migration of jobs and young people?  All of this while the states around us continue to prosper.  But, lets say some are trying to pin her down and she is refusing to be held accountable.  What does that say about the apparatus that surrounds her in an impenetrable wall of Spin?

Again, what is her economic development team up to?  And that goes for Mayor Berry of Albuquerque too.  How long can their lack of progress be hidden?  Don't forget that many of the job losses have come from cut backs in the Federal sector in New Mexico.  Just what our government hating Governor and her minions wanted.  How has that helped us?

What are they doing to find out what is going on with Intel in Rio Rancho.  The rumor mill is churning on the possible closure of that employer of 3500 New Mexicans.  Can they at least address these rumors?  I have heard some things that are pretty ominous and if they are true then some planning needs to be done on how to cope with such a loss.  If the Governor and Mayor are caught unawares by this, then it is time for them to go.

We truly have a lack of leadership in New Mexico at the state and local level.  Politics aside, one just needs to look at the data for job loss compared to the rest of the country to know it is true.

So True

A friend of mine sent me this missive about the Governor's race.  It is right on.

"Rael, Webber or Morales could all benefit from a strong Democratic ticket; unlikely that Gary will. Zero evidence of Gary's campaign until last week. He's using the same signs from his congressional and AG races, why put any effort there? First thing in the mailbox features a washed-out photo (washed up?) of the candidate. The only woman in the race only gets 5% - incredible. Lawrence needs Howie's energy. He seems to think that being quietly responsible, honest and hardworking will make people vote for him. Just because he might make the best governor does not automatically make the best candidate, which is why I did not get involved. Gary was a better legislator than AG -- now a terrible campaigner has a decent shot after a do-nothing 8 years. If either Morales or Rael would back the other, that might be enough, but it ain't gonna happen. Lawrence should try to get Lynda L. to endorse him to get some momentum and women's votes. There are ways Martinez could be beaten but they've all acted like they'd be happy if they win the primary and get 47% in the fall.  Udall's lucky to dodge any real opponents -- R bench still very weak."

Up in the Air

The Research and Polling poll in the Journal today shows the democratic Governor's primary election up for grabs just 9 days out from counting the votes.  Gary King is still out in front but his six point lead doesn't look real strong with nearly 30% of likely voters still wondering what they should do.  In fact, it looks like that percentage has increased which is not that great a thing for Gary.  Being ahead is good, but in reality that is as good as it will get.  Right now the other front running candidates have some thinking to do.  Lawrence Rael and Alan Webber are tied for second and they have to be thinking about some deal making with other lower rated candidates.  It will be a busy week for them all.

Back Fire

The crazies who aligned themselves with Clyde Bundy against the Bureau of Land Management teamed  up with some scofflaw ATV riders in invading Recapture Canyon despite the protected status of that iconic landscape in Utah.  Guns were in evidence again as if too tell the rank and file BLM employees they were dead meat if they tried to interfere.

This second confrontation just added to the noise from the backfire of the Bundy affair in which snipers with assault rifles were drawing down on the conservation officers trying to do their job at the Nevada ranch.  That backfire will alienate BLM employees from trusting the folks they are in charge of helping to obey the rules in protecting lands and watersheds.

The rumor mill has it that the employees are insisting that legal actions against the Bundy militia types and the ATV riders not be dropped and that fines and jail time are handed out.  They feel that failure to do so will endanger their lives, and I totally agree with that assessment.   So, this is one the Department of Justice and the Interior Department can not let get away from them if they want to show they have respect for the rank and file employees safety.

Nothing Burger

Larry Barker on KRQE is doing his ratings thing at the behest of his masters in the news department. Last night's lengthy 'investigative' story on the City of Santa Fe's recycling operation was a nothing burger.  A truck load of recyclables was sent to the land fill instead of the recycling center.  Not a good thing but hardly worth a 3 minute scandal piece.  But this is what journalists like Barker are forced to do these days because their leadership has no real sense of what is wrong with our country.

Let me help.  Larry, do a story on the TV industries collusion and political support for the idea that no limits should be placed on corporation's or people's ability to give money to candidates.  Of course about 80% of that money goes to the broadcasters in the form of purchased TV ads.  So of course the industry loves this notion that our democracy is being hijacked by big corporate money interests.

Do you think you will ever see a story like that on any national network or local TV station?  No, because they are part of that system that loves profits over democracy.

The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason.Hunter S. Thompson

Innovation Strangled

Our pitiful Public Regulation Commission in Santa Fe which is made up of five mostly unqualified Commissioners has struck another blow against innovation.  Without even having a hearing they have told a new ride sharing program called "Lyft" to cease operations in Albuquerque.  Of course, they are doing this at the behest of the entrenched cab companies who are regular funders of these elected official's campaigns.  At the very least there should have been a chance for Lyft to plead their case.

No wonder we are continually failing to attract better economic prospects for New Mexico when we seem solely intent on protecting old ways of doing things.  We must look like the Luddite state to forward looking businesses.

One might think that this disastrous Commission which was recklessly created some years ago to replace the Corporation Commission has proven itself useless.  Will some legislator please just introduce a constitutional amendment to do away with this outfit and put its functions under another entity where pressure to change can be brought to bear.  These five commissioners with their little salaries and political movtives aimed at keeping donations pouring in, are just adding to the  exporting of  jobs and innovative folks to other states

Prediction Time

I have been talking with a lot of folks about the Governor's race here in New Mexico.  It isn't exactly an exciting affair with most people responding with a yawn.  But once the primary election is over the you can expect things to heat up, no matter that Susana Martinez will have plenty of money from the oil, right wing, and neocons of the GOP.

The main reason is New Mexico's exports.  I am not talking about the increase in oil and gas production.  I am talking about the export of jobs and young people just out of school to all of the successful economies around us.  This is what the general election must center on if anyone has half a chance of winning against the fossil fuel PACs, uh I mean the Governor.

Speaking of which, has anyone seen a TV commercial about climate change from our candidates?  Any of them.  Some of them mention it in their websites but it certainly isn't upfront on the bought media, which leads me to believe they are not courageous enough to state the obvious about our lack of water in an arid state.

I am beginning to think that Lawrence Rael has the ability to win this race.  It was always going to be a haul for him, but his campaign has done everything right.  He is well positioned between Gary King and Alan Webber who have gotten some bad press.  Webber because someone who supported him was a radical in the 60s, and Gary King because he got the Albuquerque Journal editorial, which makes everyone suspect.

I will early vote tomorrow.  

A Good Day

President Obama will announce that on Wednesday, May 21st, he will sign a proclamation creating the nearly 500,000 acre Organ Mountain-Desert Peaks National Monument near Las Cruces, New Mexico.  This will be President Obama’s 11th use of the Antiquities Act, will be by far the largest monument he has created, will represent the first time that President Obama has used the Antiquities Act without unanimous local support (the area’s Congressman, Steve Pearce (R-NM) opposes the designation), and will be the largest expansion of BLM’s National Conservation Lands since the system was codified in 2009.  This is a great day for public land protection in New Mexico.  This is a great victory especially for Senator Martin Heinrich who worked so hard on this since before becoming an elected official.