News New Mexico: 08/02/10

Kevin Hassett - Obamacare Keeps Looking Worse

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

One of the more illuminating remarks during the health-care debate in Congress came when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told an audience that Democrats would “pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it, away from the fog of controversy.” That remark captured the truth that, while many Americans have a vague sense that something bad is happening to their health care, few if any understand exactly what the law does. Read more here:

Man Accused of NM Driver's License Scheme

From the Chicago Tribune - Authorities say a suspect was paid to drive undocumented immigrants to New Mexico to illegally obtain driver's licenses. A suburban man faced federal charges last week after he allegedly drove two undocumented immigrants from Chicago to Albuquerque, N.M., with the promise that they could get driver's licenses without regard for their immigration status. It all started with an ad in a local newspaper. Jaroslaw Kowalczyk, 32, of Des Plaines, ran a series of advertisements in the weekly Polish Daily News that read: "Drivers license in the State of New Mexico. Social security not necessary. 100% guarantee," according to the criminal complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. Read more here:

Newsweek Magazine Being Sold by Washington Post

Sidney Harman, the founder of Harman International Industries Inc., is near a deal to buy the money- losing Newsweek magazine from Washington Post Co., three people familiar with the matter said. Harman’s bid was selected over offers from Fred Drasner, a former executive at U.S. News & World Report and The New York Daily News, and investment firm Avenue Capital Group, said the people, who declined to be identified because the sale isn’t public yet. It may be announced as soon as today, one person said. Read more here:

Matthew Chandler - Gatekeeper Commentary

Matt Chandler

“Corruption in New Mexico has reached the level of epidemic, and is in all forms of government.” Don’t take my word for it; take it from recently retired FBI Special Agent in Charge Tom McClenaghan, who concluded that our state might just be the most corrupt in the nation. Of course, corruption is not limited to one political party in New Mexico. Corruption is simply a seed planted in the minds of too many career politicians that sprouts in the soil of greed, pride and the fear of being replaced. Those involved exchange their honor for bribes, their integrity for money, and their convictions for dealings in bad-faith. read more here:

BP to Start Pumping Test

BP Plc plans to start pumping a type of oil into its damaged Gulf of Mexico well as a test today and will attempt to kill the well from the top tomorrow using drilling mud, Senior Vice President Kent Wells said. Today’s test will determine whether oil and gas trapped in the sealed well can be pushed back into the reservoir, Wells said today on a conference call with reporters. For the test, BP will pump base oil, a refined product used to make lubricants, to assess how much friction must be overcome, he said. Read more here:

Mao's Grandson - Chinese Military's Youngest General

Mao Xinyu

The grandson of Chairman Mao Zedong, the first leader of the People’s Republic of China, has become the country’s youngest army general, state-run media reported. Photographs of the portly Mao Xinyu wearing the insignia of a major general, the lowest of three general ranks in the People’s Liberation Army, were published on the Web site of China News Service. Mao is the youngest person to hold that rank, the Global Times reported today, citing Bao Guojun, a spokesman at the Academy of Military Sciences, where Mao is stationed. Read more here:

Heath Analyzes Budgets

Heath Haussamen

Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez has been quick to point out that the state budget grew 54 percent between fiscal years 2003 and 2009. But state appropriations to the Third Judicial District Attorney’s Office, which Martinez runs, grew 69.5 percent between FY03 and FY09 – the same time period Martinez is using to attack the “Richardson/Denish” administration for the “out-of-control” growth of 54 percent. Martinez is quick to say there’s a difference: The increase in funding to her office, her campaign manager told NMPolitics.net, “clearly coincides” with inflation, an increase in cases and the addition of another district judge in Las Cruces during that time. Read more here:

U.S. Consulate Office in Juarez Closed

EL PASO -- U.S. officials on Friday refused to explain further why the U.S. Consulate in Juárez was closed or whether it was in response to a threat of more car bombings if the U.S. did not take action against allegedly corrupt Chihuahua officials. The only explanation offered was that the consulate was closing for a security review, a reason that U.S. officials have not given before. The previous time the consulate was closed was after the slayings of two El Pasoans, one of whom worked in the office. Juárez Mayor José Reyes Ferriz said Mexican law enforcement authorities are working with U.S. officials to reopen the consulate as soon as possible. Read more here:

Arizona September Appeal Request Denied

Arizona’s appeal of a federal court ruling that blocks the central provisions of a state law requiring police to determine the immigration status of people stopped for questioning was set for November. The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco today denied Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s bid for an expedited hearing in September. State lawyers argued the earlier date was needed because parts of the law barred by the lower court addressed “serious criminal, environmental and economic problems” due to ineffective federal enforcement of immigration laws. Read more here:

Ken Blackwell - Useful Idiot?

Gen. James Jones is not a “useful idiot.” He’s a well-educated respected military professional. He’s also a highly decorated Marine. He is President Obama’s National Security Adviser. Ordinarily, that would be good news for all Americans. That cynical “useful idiot” phrase comes to us from Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik revolutionary who overthrew Russia’s democratic government in 1917. Lenin set up the world’s first Communist regime. Soon after taking power in Moscow, the Communists saw famine overtake their new Soviet Union. Everything was rationed. All property was owned by the proletariat—and soon everything was in short supply. Read more here:

Lurita Doan - Small Business Jobs Act?

The Small Business Jobs Act is DOA, and that might be a good development since a disturbing racial and ethnic assumption was hidden deep within the legislation. The Small Business Jobs legislation (Sec. 3103.d.7) required lending institutions to “provide linguistically and culturally appropriate” advertising to entice small business owners to enter into loan agreements with government certified lending institutions. How odd Democrats in congress seemed to think that entrepreneurs and business owners only will accept access to capital if the offer is presented in congress’ view of what is “culturally appropriate.” How little congress understands about entrepreneurship, small business ownership and the capital requirements of organizational sustainability and job creation! Read more here:

Star Parker - Prefer Freedom to Unity

Pollsters Doug Schoen and Pat Caddell, both Democrats, took on President Obama in a column in the Wall Street Journal last week, criticizing him for not being true to his campaign promise to unify the country. “Rather than being a unifier,” they say, “Mr. Obama has divided America on the basis of race, class, and partisanship.” They don’t see Republicans as any better. They claim that Republicans have just followed the administration in trying to exploit hot buttons of race and class. Read more here:

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