Get Together

We had a nice function had our house last night to introduce Attorney General Patsy Madrid to many of the region's environmental leaders. This was a meet and greet and question and answer session and not so much a political rally or fund raiser, although Patsy did walk off with a few bucks for her Congressional campaign to unseat Heather Wilson.

Patsy has a good chance of beating Heather Wilson who dresses as a moderate but is linked at the hip to Tom Delay's money raising practices. She is the 4th largest benefactor in Congress from his allegedly illegal fundraising and money laundering. Heather's voting record is not moderate no matter what her spinners tell you. She is a right winger through and through.

I am hopeful that Patsy can attackHeather's stands on votes that have affected New Mexicans and use that, rather than just using the stuff that is handed out by the Washington crowd that may or may not have much traction with our voters here. Heather Wilson's votes on tax cuts for the rich, environmental protection roll backs, the war in Iraq and her refusal to want to investigate the lies that got us into Iraq in the first place would be a good starting point.

You are Rich

Here is an eye opener. See it here.

Let the Political Season Begin--For Those Who are Paying Attention!

The Albuquerque Journal today started its serious coverage of the 2006 Primary Elections with a line up of possible candidates for state office. Really, the only people interested in this stuff right now are the prospective candidates and their supporters. Certainly, some folks are thinking a little about the Governor's race, and maybe the contests for Senate and House seats. There are political junkies that are very involved and lots of bloggers are starting to pay attention to this political season. Overall however, most of the statewide races will be ignored until the last two weeks before the Primary Election on June 6th. There are too many things on the regular voters plates right now to think about this stuff. About the only thing candidates can do for these offices right now is to get around the state a little bit and prepare for the pre primary nominating conventions in March. That is where the party faithful will vote for their favorites and put the one with the most delegate votes in the number one ballot position. That used to mean something on the old style mechanical voting machines but I personally don't think ballot position means much on the new generation of electronic voting machines.

Candidates must also now be getting nominating signatures in order to get on the ballot. About 4,000 signatures are needed and for the most part the majority of those will be obtained by professional signature gatherers.

Ahem, just so you will know I will make a decison by the first of January on whether I will seek the State Land Commissioner Office once again. I have been elected to that office two times and it is a job where you can do some really good things for New Mexico.

Intelligent Design and Bad PR

There is an interesting article in the New York Times today on the Intelligent Design Theory losing steam read it here.

Pope Benedict not long ago weighed in that the universe was an "intelligent project." If that is the case it makes his and the Catholic church's homophobia seem all the stranger. If the universe was an intelligent project then why were gay people part of it and shouldn't they be treated as equals by the church? Just asking.

There was some really bad image making in the New York Times this morning for New Mexico. They did a front page story on our states drunk driving problem. Read it here.

I am convinced second time offenders should all get at least six months incarceration. Period.

Another Board Meeting

I am off to Salt Lake City for 24 hours to attend a meeting of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance Board. I have served on that Board for ten years now. The Red Rock areas in Utah continue to be under great threat of being overrun with roads and all terrain vehicles.

Utah celebrates its beauty in its advertising, but its political leadership doesn't really care about protecting it. They are guilty of malfeasance in their stewardship of that state's national treasures by opposing any protection of these lands. Of course, this is one of only three states that still supports bush.

There was a good oped in the Journal this morning by my old colleagues Mike Dombeck and Jack Ward Thomas. They were both Chief of the U.S. Forest Service during the Clinton administrations. I would say read it here but the Journal has no link to it. I find this happens often with their interesting op-ed columns.

Lining up for the Big Guy

I went by my neighborhood book store to see how Governor Richardson's Book signing was going. It was impressive. There was a line out the door and into Bookworks near Griegos and Rio Grande in Albuquerque.

I had more than one person comment that they were excited to meet him in person and get an autograph.

I think the Governor was having fun too!

Pope Formula

There is a famous equation that attempts to identify the number of intelligent civilizations that might exist in the Universe. It goes like this:

THE DRAKE EQUATION

This equation expresses the number of technological civilizations that might exist among the stars.

R * FP * NE * FL * FI * FC * LN = N = number of advanced technical civilizations emitting detectable radio signals.

R = mean rate of star formation averaged over the lifetime of the galaxy.
FP = fraction of stars with planetary systems.
NE = mean number of planets per system with environments suitable for the origin of life.
FL = fraction of such planets on which life does develop.
FI = fraction of such planets on which intelligent life rises during the lifetime of the local sun.
FC = fraction of planets on which advanced technical civilizations rises.
L = lifetime of this technical civilization.

When explaining this equation, Carl Sagan once said the formula means that at least 1 million of the 100 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy have planets which have developed advanced intelligent civilizations. Now, if we consider the astronomical fact that there are over 10 billion galaxies in the universe, each holding at least another million solar systemswith advanced civilizations, one may start to think that we may not be the only life in the universe.

Anyway, I thought it might be interesting to apply this equation to the Pope's policies on who can be a priest. So, here goes.

P=The number of people who are alive on Earth at any one time.
R=The percentage of people who have any religious beliefs
S=The number of religions on Earth
C=The number of Catholics on Earth
M=The percentage of Catholics who are Men
G=The percentage of those men who are gay
L=The percentage of men who are not married
V=The percentage of men who want to be a priest
H=The percentage of priests who leave because they can't handle celibacy
N=The potential number of catholic men who are priests

So,

P*R*S*C*M*G*L*V*H=N

I am sure my math in that equation is totally wrong, but a mathematician and statistician could probably figure this out and you probably get the point. Don't forget that when you take out women you have taken away more than 50% of potential priests right there. If anyone comes up with a number for just the USA I will publish it on the blog right here.

I am not being disrespectful here, but just trying to show how a religion can strangle itself by being exclusionary to the ultimate degree. This is an interesting site to visit.

Toles Priceless

And, here are two side by side headlines from the New York Times.

SCIENCE
Study Shows Weakening of Atlantic Currents

NATIONAL
Busiest Hurricane Season on Record Ends

Why care about the Conservancy District? Water!

The Albuquerque Journal had a good story buried in their west side edition about another massive screwup at the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District. These stories really should be on the front page of the Journal because of the water resources this inept agency controls. Anyway, it now seems that all District actions over the last three months have probably been illegal because they did not advertise the time and place of the Board meetings as required by the Open Meetings Act. This is basic stuff and it really is symbolic of the total meltdown in credibility for this important agency.

Once again, I am a former General Manager of the District, as well as a taxpayer and irrigator, and know too well the potential for the District. It is time that the Board insist on new management and give them the ability to operate as a modern water agency that will recognize reality. This won't happen until state legislators start seriously looking at this agency. Perhaps an interim committee should be formed to see how the District can be reformed, politically and administratively. The best thing might be to have a new form of governance with a newly constituted Board made up of regional interests that could represent the taxpayers. Certainly, the Governor and State Engineer would like to be in the position of not having to be in litigation on a constant basis with this anachronistic agency.

Now doesn't this photo just say it all? It reminds me of President Ford's "Whip Inflation Now" campaign.

ABQ Downtown Desertion and Rail Runner

It is kind of hard to figure out why government jobs continue to leave downtown Albuquerque. I was saddened to read yesterday that a state of New Mexico agency with 160 jobs will be moving out of downtown for the north I-25 corridor. This is just another hand grenade tossed at continuing the so far successful revitalization of Albuquerque's core. This will effect many other business people in the downtown area, from cafe owners to office supply companies. This state agency joins numerous Federal agencies that have split the scene in the last few years despite a Presidential executive order that prohibits this. I would say that well over 1000 jobs have moved out in the last few years. Our local politicians were just not willing to stop it as they continue to support sprawl development on the west side. Just today in the Albuquerque Journal there is a story about a new elementary school under construction for the west side that will be over capacity when it opens. Also, as the City of Las Cruces struggles to implement their Downtown Revitalization will their investors look at this trend in the Duke City of government abandonment of downtown?


Hopefully, our Governor can meet with the business groups in downtown to see if this latest move can be stopped. It especially makes no sense when looking at the Governor's visionary plans for the Rail Runner commuter that will be starting up in January. One of the main stops is in Downtown Albuquerque where commuters could easily walk to their jobs.

In fairness, the downtown property owners are going to have to get real about competing for government tenants by setting reasonable rents and parking fees. They must shoulder some of the blame for this.

Border Patrol Crazy

The head of the Union for the US Border Patrol is upset that their shirt uniforms are made in Mexico. An Albuquerque Journal story says that the Border Patrol is worried that someone can go to Mexico and get Border Patrol uniforms and then no one would be sure who is a legitimate officer. What baloney! I bet you can go to about a million places and get one of those uniforms right now. None the less, these nuerotics will ask the Republican Controlled Congress that they mandate all uniforms be made in the US. If we pursue this further then maybe we better just stop buying Border Patrol Vehicles because a large amount of their parts are made in Mexico. I will bet that most of their leather goods, tires, petroleum, supplies also are manufactured south of the border.

This kind of hysteria by grown men is almost more than I can stand. It makes us look like a schizophrenic nation when people outside our country read about this. I am reminded of our trip back from Thailand where everyone had to take their shoes off at the airport and their computers out of their briefcases. When looking at the foreign visitors they just had this look of utter astonishment on their faces. It was embarrassing.

Breakfast with Jerry and the New York Times

This will be our Sunday morning. A greeting from Jerry and all day on and off with the New York Times. The Journal was a quick read today. Belshaw's column was really good, especially if read in context with the story of bush's Bureau of Land Management putting out a miserable plan for land protection in Arizona.

Pena Blanca Farm

The reclamation of some of our farmland in Pena Blanca continues. All the wild elm trees are down and the stumps are being burned. Next week the laser leveling of the land will begin and then the new irrigation pipe will be laid. The cost of this pipe has skyrocketed because it is made with petroleum products and it is scarce.

But, if our ducks aren't all in a row they are at least in a circle.

I had an interesting conversation with one of the oldtimers in Pena Blanca the other day. He fears agriculture will be a thing of the past there as real estate values and water values continue to inflate. He is probably right about that. As I drove all around the village yesterday, which sits between Santo Domingo and Cochiti I was reminded of Corrales in the 1970's. Right now, there is a varied mix of old mobile homes and new large homes. That will change as people in Albuquerque and Santa Fe realize this last rural enclave. other than Algodones and Sile, is only a 35 minute drive from each city. The views are unparalleled. So, we will soon see a new land rush into this area. I hope there will be some effort made at preserving the agricultural atmosphere of this charming place. Maybe farmland conservation easements would be the way to go.


The work on the farm is being done by Fred Sichler, owner of Sichler Farms in Los Lunas where you can buy all that good green chile and alfalfa for your horses.

Another Thankful Occurence

Remember the red-blue map from about the year ago? It was mostly a deep dark red except on the coastlines. This is what the map looks like today for bush with only Utah, Wyoming and Idaho still approving of his performance as President. Read more about it here.

10 Reasons to be Thankful

I love to pig out on Thanksgiving. It really is my favorite holiday. It is a pretty good idea for a holiday where you basically reflect on what the good things in your life are. It is certainly better than other religious holidays where you mostly are asked to reflect on your sins.

So, I will make an attempt to list my 10 most favorite things to be thankful for this year.



1. My family is doing well. Bobbi, Justin and Noelle are all in good health and spirits and are doing pretty much what makes them happy right now. They are all super educated and piling more degrees on whenever possible. I am really proud of all of them.

2. I am still healthy at the age of 60. I know so many people my age who are not so lucky and some who have passed away in the last year. I have always been blessed with this health, except for a bad back which was taken care of by a Yoga teacher in 1986. I have now decided I must finally lose 30 pounds if I want to stay healthy so I have ratcheted up my exercise and cut down on all foods that I like. I will however have a piece of Pecan Pie sometime over Thanksgiving.

3. I have good friends who have been around a long time. Some of them as long as when I was in the first grade.

4. I get to live in New Mexico which I truly love.

5. bush and the neocons are finally melting down in the public eye and their disrespect of government and individual's rights under the constitution are being exposed.

6. I am thankful for the career in politics and journalism I have had. I love both of those professions although they now seem to be intermixed. I could have been better at both but I still had lots of enjoyment from that work.

7. I am thankful for the travel Bobbi and I have embarked on over the last three years to new contitnents. It is something I wasn't sure we would ever do, but it is happening. We have been to Europe, the Mediterranean, and South East Asia and I hope there is more to come.


8. I am thankful that the family still has farmland in Pena Blanca, New Mexico. Justin, Noelle, and my brothers children Sara and Stephanie will always have a refuge if needed.

9. I am thankful that we have a Governor like Bill Richardson. He is a unique individual who could actually make it to the White House with a little luck. He has moved New Mexico into a "can do" attitude.

10. I am thankful for everything else that is good that I didn't mention, like good books, movies, great music, art, and smart big sisters. My DeLonghi espresso machine is a money saver and can match starbucks. I also like to Blog!

Attention All Journalists---Read this

Bill Moyers is out with another classic speech which all journalists should take the time to read. Do it here.

X-Box

Yesterday the Albuquerque Tribune's headline was about the release of Microsoft's new X-Box 360. Today the Albuquerque Journal's headline was also about the X-Box. It is not often you will see them use the same headline story, but to see it on a story about the X-Box is weird.

Yes, I have an X-Box.

bush allies

This is what it has come to! bush is shaking hands with a representative of Mongolia, a country that is one of our biggest allies in Iraq with 160 soldiers there.

I talked to Rodger Beimer this morning who is on his way to aide Katrina refugees in Louisiana for the Thanksgiving Holiday along with his wife Connie. He described a highway sign as he crossed the border into Texas. It said, "Welcome to the great state of Texas, proud home of the President of the United States-George Bush." I wonder if some of that pride may have disappeared in this remarkable meltdown of bush's credibility. I still don't understand what took so long, but as one pundit said, "credibility is like virginity, once it is gone you can't get it back!"

Apparently Heather Wilson was given a 'bye' by the republicans and voted against the budget bill that authorizes that give away of land under the 1872 Mining Law. Bobbi and I bumped into Patsy Madrid last night at the movie (Pride and Prejudice) and Patsy made the comment that her entry into the race is already turning Heather into a Democrat. I hope people won't fall for that kind of thing. bush and his buddies simply must be dealt a defeat in the midterm elections.

Democrats Stand for Land Protection

You can say what you want about the value of Party Platforms and if they are useful or not. But, these platforms at least give the readers some indication of what the Party's core supporters feel are important. So, it is thrilling to me to see that the New Mexico Democratic Party adopted a plank that calls for the protection of Otero Mesa and the Valle Vidal from oil and gas drilling. This is not something you would ever see in the Republican party platform since they recieve so much support from the Oil and Gas lobby. Yes, the Democrats get some little amount from them too, but this action certainly shows there is some independance on the Party's part.

This news comes on the heels of the House of Representatives inWashington passing a horrendous change to the 1872 mining law that will amount to the biggest give away of publicly owned lands in history to multi national mining companies. This was included in a budget bill instead an outright vote on the issue itself. I will find out how our delegation voted and let you know. Read about this travesty here.


Dennis Domrzalski tracked me down on my cell phone this morning to tell me that my article yesterday had one mistake. He said that Access Magazine did know he worked for the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District when he penned that puff piece on his boss, Subhas Shah. He also intimated it was interesting being on the receiving end of a media controversey instead of authoring one.

Scratch My Back

The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District Chief is at it again. Subhas Shah's "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" style of government has reared its head again. This time the District's new P.R. person Dennis Domrzalski penned a glorious puff piece on Shah for the Accent Albuquerque Magazine without telling them that he worked for Shah. I know and have always liked Dennis so this was a surprise to me when someone gave me a copy of the story yesterday. Dennis has been a longtime "grizzled" journalist in the region. He use to give me hell on a regular basis when I was Mayor and he worked for the Tribune and Alibi newspapers.

I actually had a conversation with Dennis a couple of months ago when he brought up the issue of him working for the District. I told him it would be a mistake as long as the current management was there just because of this kind of thing. I related to him that when I was General Manager of the District in 1988-89 that I had discovered Shah doing some things I thought were unethical. At one point he had propositioned a car dealer that he would purchase district vehicles from them if they would buy his brothers car and give him a good deal on a new one. I went to the board with this and I was fired along with the District's attorney for bringing this up. We even had a signed confession from Shah which I think still resides in my filing cabinet. I always figured Shah had done a lot of favors for those board members who irrigated and they couldn't afford to get rid of him or he would spill the beans. He is a survivor. The attorney and I sued for breach of our contracts and were paid a settlement by the Board.

Dennis had a bit of a lapse on this one, but knowing how things work at the district I wouldn't be surprised if he was required to do it in order to get his job.

This important water agency will never achieve its potential if it doesn't acquire new management and a decent ethics policy.