Matthew Vadum - ACORN Sprouts New Branches

It looks like the congenitally corrupt, still-operating Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) won't be getting any more U.S. tax dollars - for the time being. That's because in a startlingly unusual victory for common sense, a federal appeals court slapped down a bizarre ruling by Brooklyn-based federal Judge Nina Gershon. The life-tenured judge had determined that the U.S. government's spending power belongs to federal judges now, regardless of what that quaint little document called the U.S. Constitution says. Judge Gershon ruled that Congress had violated ACORN's "rights" and passed an unconstitutional "bill of attainder" punishing ACORN without trial when it decided to stop funding the group. Read more here:
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GOP Dark Horses Set To Finish Strong

A stable of dark-horse Republican candidates - to the surprise of political handicappers - are seriously threatening veteran Democrats in heavily Democratic states, increasing GOP hopes to reclaim control of the Senate in November. From Washington to Wisconsin and Connecticut, Republican challengers are forcing analysts to revise upward their midterm forecasts of potential Democratic losses, putting the GOP in sight of a long-shot 10-seat gain and a majority in the upper chamber. In the parlance of analysts, two three-term Democratic senators, Washington's Patty Murray and Wisconsin's Russ Feingold, have moved into "tossup" territory - unexpected terrain, especially for Mrs. Murray, who wasn't on anyone's radar screen as vulnerable earlier this summer. Read more here:

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Blago Jury - One Vote Shy of Multiple Convictions

Rod Blagojevich
Federal prosecutors aren't alone in wanting a retrial after the jury deadlocked on all but one count at former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's corruption trial. Some jurors also want to see the impeached Democratic governor back in court and have expressed frustration that the panel of six women and six men could not agree on additional counts, including allegations that he tried to sell President Barack Obama's old senate seat. "I'm glad there is going to be (a retrial)," juror Cynthia Parker, 60, said outside her home in the Chicago suburb of Gurnee. "I don't feel it's finished." Parker said she joined most other jurors in voting to convict Blagojevich of the alleged Senate seat scheme. Several jurors have said they were just one vote shy of a conviction. Read more here:
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DirecTV and KVIA in Squabble

EL PASO -- DirecTV commented Wednesday on the impasse that may cost El Paso DirecTV viewers access to KVIA-TV Channel 7 (cable Channel 6). If an agreement is not reached, the programming will be dropped Monday, KVIA officials have said. Robert Mercer, the director of public relations for DirecTV, said KVIA's parent company "is demanding a well over 130 percent increase in fees for its ABC programming." Read more here:
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Carlson - Obama Supremely Confident in His Intellect

Margaret Carlson
How can President Barack Obama be so right about the mosque and yet get it so wrong? Here’s how: He is so supremely confident in his intellect that he forgets, on his way to the correct decision, to slow down and pick up not-so-gifted stragglers. The controversy over locating a mosque close to Ground Zero in New York City created the perfect storm, putting Obama’s strengths and weaknesses into play. Read more here:
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McDonald's Sells Yuan Bonds in Hong Kong

McDonald’s Corp., the world’s largest restaurant chain, became the first foreign non-financial company to sell yuan-denominated bonds in Hong Kong. McDonald’s, based in Oak Brook, Illinois, sold 200 million yuan ($29 million) of 3 percent notes due in September 2013, offer manager Standard Chartered Plc said in an e-mailed statement today. Read more here:
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Ken Blackwell - Religous Freedom for Whom?

Ken Blackwell
By embracing the mosque at Ground Zero, President Obama made it his own. And as his own, it will be an albatross around his neck. At a glittering White House dinner marking the end of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, Mr. Obama made a strong appeal for religious liberty and tolerance. Religious liberty for whom? Is there one region in the world—even one—with a Muslim majority where religious liberty is enjoyed by anyone? Right after 9/11, Michigan political science professor Muktedar Khan confronted his fellow Muslims. He said they all knew that the U.S. was the best country in the world in which to practice Islam. If they doubted that, he challenged his fellow believers to accept his offer of a one-way air fare to the Muslim-majority country of their choice. He got no takers. Read more here:
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Thomas Sowell - The Dismantling of America Part III

Thomas Sowell
One of the few campaign promises that Barack Obama has kept was this: "We are going to change the United States of America!" As in many other cases, those who were thrilled by the thought of "change" seldom seemed to consider whether it would be a change for the better or for the worse. True believers in the Obama cult assumed that it had to be a change for the better. Read more here:

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C.B.O. - Borrowing and Blowing to Continue

The U.S. Congressional Budget Office predicted the budget deficit for fiscal year 2011 will be $1.066 trillion, revised up from an estimate of $996 billion in March. The nonpartisan agency’s semi-annual budget report is likely to add fuel to the November midterm election debate over reducing the deficit at a time when the nation’s economic recovery may call for more stimulus. Today’s report estimated that the deficit will be 7 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product in 2011. CBO Director Doug Elmendorf said the agency’s projections haven’t changed significantly since its March forecast, reflecting an economy that continues to struggle to recover from recession and the prolonged impact of bailouts and other spending designed to spur growth. Read more here:
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Unemployment Claims on the Rise

Claims for U.S. jobless benefits jumped to the highest level since November and Philadelphia-area manufacturing shrank for the first time in a year, indicating the economy may be slowing faster than forecast. The number of unemployment claims unexpectedly shot up by 12,000 to 500,000 in the week ended Aug. 14, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s general economic index turned negative in August, signaling contraction. Read more here:
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Larry Elder - Will the President See the Light?

Larry Elder
The position of chair of the Council of Economic Advisers is open. How President Barack Obama fills it can tell us whether he's finally gone wobbly on Obamanomics -- maybe in time to arrest some of the damage. Would President Obama, to fill a Supreme Court vacancy, ponder whether to nominate liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg or conservative Antonin Scalia? Would his finalists come down to Sonia Sotomayor or Samuel Alito? Elena Kagan or John Roberts? Laughable, of course. Such a range of choices would mean that the left-wing Obama does not know whether he wants a "constitutionalist" or a proponent of the "living, breathing document" school of jurisprudence -- whether he wants a "strict constructionist" or whether he wants a jurist who decides cases based, as he put it, on "empathy." Read more here:

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8-19-10 WAC Commissioner Talks Realignment

8-19-10  Western Athletic Conference Commissioner Karl Benson held a press conference last Thusrday morning to address the changes to his conference. Below is a list of notes compiled by News New Mexico to help NMSU fans understand the basics of the latest conference realignment.

1) The WAC will compete as a nine team conference for the 2010-2011 academic year. In the summer of 2011, Boise State University officially joins the Mountain West Conference. Beginning in the 2011-2012 academic year, the WAC will compete as an eight team conference. During the summer of 2012 The University of Nevada and California State, Fresno will officially join the Mountain West Conference. The summer of 2012 will mark when the WAC as it stands now, will be down to six institutions.



2) Last Friday, there was a written agreement each of the eight WAC members agreed on, to express solidarity towards each other and keep the WAC together. It was a written agreement which contained a five million dollar buyout clause as penalty if one of the member institutions left the WAC. Every University’s president except Nevada’s Milton Glick signed. Instead Glick verbally agreed. The WAC’s legal stance is that Glick’s verbal agreement binds Nevada into the buyout even though Glick is trying to negotiate a lesser buyout. The WAC expects payment from Fresno State and Nevada in 60 days.

3) The WAC may look to add teams from the Football Championship Subdivision to increase its membership. There is a moratorium which blocks FCS teams moving up to FBS status that expires next summer. There is a two year process once an FCS school becomes FBS to become eligible for a bowl game.

4) At the end of each academic year, the revenue generated by the WAC and its institutions is distributed to each member institution. An institution wouldn’t be eligible for year-end distribution in the final year of WAC membership. Boise State is going through that now and will not be receiving revenue this coming June that is normally shared with all of the institutions and the WAC office. Fresno State and Nevada will still share in the WAC’s revenue this coming June for the final time. This means NMSU will get a bigger piece of the pie by splitting the revenue between the eight remaining institutions (Boise State doesn’t get any this year) and the WAC office. However this doesn’t mean that the sum of that bigger piece of the pie will mean more money. It depends on the size of the pie so to speak.

5) Many have speculated for a long time that the University of Montana as a possible WAC addition.

“Montana is going through an internal review process as they have in the past,” Benson said. “The conclusion that has been reached in past was to stay in FCS. Once they go through this next review and depending on what answer comes back we’ll go from there. They are in the WAC footprint. Montana would be another perspective candidate.”

6) In 1998 the WAC membership included 16 institutions. Benson was at the helm when the WAC split and was asked how this realignment compared to the 1998 realignment. “The manner in which it occurred, there are similarities that the roles that the college presidents made in 1998 in the shadow behind closed doors came as a surprise,” Benson said. “This had that same element. Especially considering the declaration of commitment we had last weekend. There is a similarity in terms in the way it was done.”
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WAC Membership Takes Another Hit

Western Athletic Conference Commissioner Karl Benson held a press conference last Thusrday morning to address the changes to his conference. Below is a list of notes compiled by News New Mexico to help NMSU fans understand the basics of the latest conference realignment.
1) The WAC will compete as a nine team conference for the 2010-2011 academic year. In the summer of 2011, Boise State University officially joins the Mountain West Conference. Beginning in the 2011-2012 academic year, the WAC will compete as an eight team conference. During the summer of 2012 The University of Nevada and California State, Fresno will officially join the Mountain West Conference. The summer of 2012 will mark when the WAC as it stands now, will be down to six institutions.
2) Last Friday, there was a written agreement each of the eight WAC members agreed on, to express solidarity towards each other and keep the WAC together. It was a written agreement which contained a five million dollar buyout clause as penalty if one of the member institutions left the WAC. Every University’s president except Nevada’s Milton Glick signed. Instead Glick verbally agreed. The WAC’s legal stance is that Glick’s verbal agreement binds Nevada into the buyout even though Glick is trying to negotiate a lesser buyout. The WAC expects payment from Fresno State and Nevada in 60 days.
3) The WAC may look to add teams from the Football Championship Subdivision to increase its membership. There is a moratorium which blocks FCS teams moving up to FBS status that expires next summer. There is a two year process once an FCS school becomes FBS to become eligible for a bowl game.
4) At the end of each academic year, the revenue generated by the WAC and its institutions is distributed to each member institution. An institution wouldn’t be eligible for year-end distribution in the final year of WAC membership. Boise State is going through that now and will not be receiving revenue this coming June that is normally shared with all of the institutions and the WAC office. Fresno State and Nevada will still share in the WAC’s revenue this coming June for the final time. This means NMSU will get a bigger piece of the pie by splitting the revenue between the eight remaining institutions (Boise State doesn’t get any this year) and the WAC office. However this doesn’t mean that the sum of that bigger piece of the pie will mean more money. It depends on the size of the pie so to speak.
5) Many have speculated for a long time that the University of Montana as a possible WAC addition.
“Montana is going through an internal review process as they have in the past,” Benson said. “The conclusion that has been reached in past was to stay in FCS. Once they go through this next review and depending on what answer comes back we’ll go from there. They are in the WAC footprint. Montana would be another perspective candidate.”
6) In 1998 the WAC membership included 16 institutions. Benson was at the helm when the WAC split and was asked how this realignment compared to the 1998 realignment. “The manner in which it occurred, there are similarities that the roles that the college presidents made in 1998 in the shadow behind closed doors came as a surprise,” Benson said. “This had that same element. Especially considering the declaration of commitment we had last weekend. There is a similarity in terms in the way it was done.”

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NM Delegation to D.C. - In Denial About Border War

Armed Drug Cartel Members
From the Tucson Citizen - The degree of drug cartel violence that is destroying civil society in Mexico is a serious threat to the Mexican people, the Mexican government and the United States. Just out of curiosity I looked up the list of what are considered “terrorist organizations” and much to my surprise, the Mexican drug cartel gangs are not listed. Wait a minute !
People armed with automatic weapons that massacre people daily, assassinate journalists, post threats on bridges of police officers they will kill, that leave piles of heads of the police officers they kill on the side of the road, and use vast quantities of money gained from selling illegal drugs to corrupt the Mexican society sounds like…terrorists? The drug gangs in Mexico are terrorist organizations. They are doing to Mexico what the Taliban did to Afghanistan. The only difference is the Taliban claim some twisted religious justification for their murder and mayhem, while the drug gangs are in it just for the money and power. Read more here:

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Polls, Polls, and more Polls

Jon Barela
From NMPolitics.net - A new poll of likely voters in state House District 30 shows that an area of Albuquerque that went to George Bush in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008 is leaning back to the right this year. The poll, conducted for the campaign of Republican state House candidate Nate Gentry, shows Gentry leading Democratic incumbent Karen Giannini by nine points, 44 percent to 35 percent, with 20 percent of voters undecided. And in the gubernatorial race, it shows Republican Susana Martinez leading Democrat Diane Denish by 17 points, 55 percent to 38 percent. The poll is important because House District 30 is a historically right-leaning district that went to Obama in 2008 – a year in which Democrats also took control of every seat in the state’s congressional delegation. The poll adds to the evidence of a shift back to the right in the Albuquerque area that was also seen in a recent survey of the 1st Congressional District race between Democratic incumbent Martin Heinrich and Republican challenger Jon Barela. Read more here:


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Bureaucrats Begin to Run Amok

Regulators from across the country, including New Mexico’s Insurance Superintendent Johnny Montoya, voted overwhelmingly this week to limit the amount of premiums health insurance companies can spend on administrative costs. Under the new federal health care law health insurers will be required to spend 80 percent – and in some cases 85 percent – of what they collect in premiums on medical costs, leaving only so much for administrative expenses. The move by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) effectively approved a proposal that prohibits health insurers from counting fraud prevention efforts and other investments as medical costs, a development that fueled the ire of health insurers who warned of dire consequences for health care consumers, according to published reports. Montoya defended Tuesday’s vote, saying, “There were some really smart people who put a lot of time and effort into this.” Read more here:
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