News New Mexico: 06/30/10

G-20's Disappointing Compromise

Dr. Mohamed El-Erian, one of our favorite economists and author of the book, When Markets Collide, offers critical commentary on the recently concluded G-20 summit in Toronto. While the language of his analysis is sometimes a bit wonkish to the laymen, El-Erian has often offered great insight into what is going on in the global economy. Read his summary here:

Maureen Dowd - The Tale of Two Generals

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd weighs in with her views on the Congressional testimony of General David Petraeus on the Obama policy in Afghanistan. She also offers some observations on Solicitor General/Supreme Court Justice nominee Elena Kagan's assertions about her treatment of the military at Harvard. Read her take on both appearances here:

Checkpoints Planned - Don't Drink & Drive

Las Cruces City Police, the Dona Ana County Sheriff's Department, and the New Mexico State Police will be out in force this weekend with sobriety checkpoints. With drunk driving being one of the primary dangers to public safety they will be stopping vehicles looking for people behind the wheel who are not sober.

Walter Williams - Poor?

Columnist Walter Williams explores what it means to be "poor in America." The statistics he uses come from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. They might come as a surprise to some. Read the data and Williams thoughts here:

Supreme Court takes Arizona migrant-hiring law

From the Arizona Daily Star - PHOENIX - The nation's high court agreed Monday to review Arizona's law that punishes employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. Without comment, the justices said they want to review lower-court rulings that found the law does not infringe on the exclusive right of the federal government to control immigration policy. Both a trial judge and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Arizona law fits within a narrow exception to federal statutes. Monday's decision could be the best chance for a coalition of business and civil-rights groups to strike down the law. It takes the votes of four of the nine justices just to hear a case. Sen. Russell Pearce, the Mesa Republican who was the architect of the law, said he was "very concerned" that the court might have taken the case because of political pressure from business interests. And Pearce said he always assumed three of the justices would never see things his way."They don't believe in states' rights," he said. "They don't believe in the Constitution, really." Read more

Armstrong Williams - Too Old To Govern?

Columnist Armstrong Williams discusses the age of elected officials and the implications on public policy and accountability. Perhaps the passing of Robert Byrd on Monday prompted the thoughts. The 92 year old senator from West Virginia, was an occupant of the upper body of Congress for 51 years. We'd say that is long enough to make the subject of "too old" fair game. Read Williams comments here:

Terrafugia Transition 'flying car' gets go-ahead from US air authorities

From the United Kingdom Telegraph - The Terrafugia Transition, a light aircraft that can convert into a road-legal automobile, is to go into production after being given a special weight exemption by the US Federal Aviation Administration. The Transition was designed as a "light sport" aircraft, the smallest kind of private aeroplane under FAA classification, with a maximum weight of 1,320lb. The two-seater Transition can use its front-wheel drive on roads at ordinary highway speeds, with wings folded, at a respectable 30 miles per gallon. Once it has arrived at a suitable take-off spot - an airport, or adequately sized piece of flat private land - it can fold down the wings, engage its rear-facing propeller, and take off. The folding wings are electrically powered. Its cruising speed in the air is 115mph, it has a range of 460 miles, and it can carry 450lb. It requires a 1,700-foot (one-third of a mile) runway to take off and can fit in a standard garage. Read more

Wimbledon Wrap-up

Serena Williams advanced to the women's semi-finals at Wimbledon yesterday, but there will be no Williams sisters final this year. Older sister Venus was beaten by a Bulgarian player who was ranked 82nd in the world. Kim Clijsters was also beaten. Read match and tournament summaries here:

Consumer Confidence Falls Off a Cliff

It isn't any one thing, it is everything. The explanation for the plunge in the Consumer Confidence Index in June cannot be narrowed down to any one development. Consumers know instinctively that the policy reaction to the gulf oil spill is not helping. Plans to shrink supplies of energy will only raise fuel prices. The Thatcher prophesy, (the trouble with socialism is pretty soon you run out of other people's money) is coming to pass in Europe. Congress, fresh off a government takeover of health care looks to have engineered another plan for central planning style micro-management. This time government is looking to run the financial system. And finally, how can anyone have confidence now that the Gore romance has imploded? Are consumers already kissing the shaky recovery goodbye? Read the details of the numbers here:

Google Gives In to China Censorship

We heard plenty of blather and bluster coming from CEO Eric Schmidt and other executives at Google regarding censorship in China. The jawboning involved spelling out exactly what sort of principles Google would never compromise. However, when push came to shove, and the huge search giant realized it would lose its application to renew as a search engine in China if it did not comply with China's laws Google knuckled under. Read the details here:

Senators Do Ask and Sometimes Kagan Don't Tell

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan admitted she personally decided to make it much harder for military leaders to recruit on campus at Harvard due to her feelings about the Clinton Administration's "don't ask don't tell policy" in the military. Not one senator bothered to ask President Obama's nominee if she had also banned the military from rushing to Harvard's defense in case of a terrorist attack. When asked if her political views would affect her legal judgment, she said they wouldn't. It was all very interesting posturing by all the participants on Capitol Hill yesterday. Read details of the second day of her testimony here.

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