News New Mexico: 09/09/10

Dim-Bulb Dems Doom Edison's Baby

From the American Thinker - by Ed Lasky - Light bulbs sprang from the brilliant mind of Thomas Edison (photo left) -- a true American hero, right up there with Benjamin Franklin. But his legacy is coming to an end. General Electric, the company that he founded, is closing America's last factory for making incandescent light bulbs, victim of liberal environmental politics and zealotry. Sadly, not only will the workers be losing their jobs -- devastating another small town (Winchester, Virginia) -- but the boon created by their replacements, compact fluorescents (CFLs), will not be realized in America, where they were first dreamed up and created, but will instead be enriching China. Read more

My Guns Are Pretty (And Safer Than Your Tattoos)

From Townhall.com by Mike Adams - There’s nothing more annoying than getting a complaint about my gun collection from a feminist with a tattoo on her lower back. I don’t let anyone irresponsible get near my guns so that no one gets killed. When the feminist lets irresponsible men near her tattoos there’s a better chance that someone’s getting aborted. All kidding aside (was I kidding?), in recent months I have been hearing more and more complaints about my gun collection from people who read my columns – this despite the fact that the columns make them angry. (I’m glad these folks don’t own guns!) Some of those complaints have come to me directly. Read more

The offshore windmill innovation gap

From Salon.com - by Andrew Leonard - You could not ask for a more drastic demonstration of the contrast between how the United States and China are rolling out renewable energy technologies than the current state of offshore windmill deployment in the two countries. The U.S. does not have a single offshore windmill currently in operation. The most notorious proposed project in the U.S., the 130-turbine Cape Wind offshore farm planned for Nantucket Sound, has been mired in litigation and politics for almost 10 years. Just this week the Massachusetts Department of Public Works opened hearings investigating whether the terms of the Cape Wind contract would be in the public ratepayer's interest. The hearings will drag on for at least two months, and whatever decision is made will likely be litigated by whichever side loses. China is a different story altogether. The 102-megawatt Donghai Bridge Wind Farm began operating near Shanghai this July. Four more farms nearby, reports ClimateWire, are under negotiation. Read more

Obama Concedes Current Economy a Liability for Dems

President Obama Working on His Putting Stroke

From the Washington Times - WASHINGTON (AP) — President Obama is conceding that if the midterm election turns out to be mostly a referendum on the sluggish economy, Democrats are "not going to do well." In an interview with ABC News aired Thursday, Mr. Obama said the party should be able to maintain control of the House and Senate if the electorate takes a look at what Democrats and Republicans stand for. But he said Democrats won't do well if it amounts to a referendum on "the economy as it currently is." Mr. Obama said he believes "everybody feels like this economy needs to do better than it's been doing." Read more here:

There’s Gambling In This Gin Joint? - SHOCKING!

A NEW study just released by the Centres for Medicaid and Medicare Services, a government agency, suggests that the sweeping set of health reforms passed by Congress in March will not do much to cut costs over the next decade. In February, before passage of the reforms, those same boffins estimated that health costs would rise an average of 6.1% per year over the next decade. The new study, which takes the new laws into account, says the increase will be about 6.3% per year over that period. This news has already sent pundits and politicians into a frenzy. Conservatives are gleefully proclaiming this study as validation for their view that ObamaCare was always going to add a mountain of red tape and subsidies that will make the health system more expensive. They point to a separate study released this week suggesting that health insurers are planning to raise premiums 1% to 9%, in response to the new regulations imposed by the reforms, as proof that this effort will only hurt the ordinary man. Read more here:

Greek Finance Minister Pitching Bonds

Greek government bonds are no longer “something to fear” and the country is on track to meet its budget goals for this year, said Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou. “We feel confident that given where we are at the moment there won’t be any problem in hitting the target” for cutting the deficit, Papaconstantinou said in an interview in Athens yesterday. That will help secure Greece’s return to markets next year and convince investors that its bonds “are now becoming an opportunity rather than something to fear,” he said. Read more here:

Startling News For Michael Moore

Michael Moore

Fidel Castro’s comment to a visiting U.S. journalist that Cuba’s economic system doesn’t work is the strongest signal yet that the communist island is looking to private enterprise and foreign investment to bolster growth. “The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore,” Castro told journalist Jeffrey Goldberg after being asked if he believed it was something still worth exporting, according to a post yesterday on The Atlantic magazine’s website. Castro didn’t elaborate on his comment, Goldberg said. Since re-entering the public sphere in July following an illness that almost killed him, statements by the 84-year-old former president have focused on international affairs.

Fidel Castro

His silence on domestic issues signals he is willing to allow his brother Raul to reduce state control of the economy, said Tomas Bilbao, executive director of the Washington-based Cuba Study Group, which promotes free-market reforms of the Cuban economy.
“These are pragmatic admissions from an idealist,” Bilbao said. “Ever since he came back he has stayed away from talking about domestic issues which in itself is the best thing he can do to support his brother’s running of the country.” Read more here:

Trade Deficit and Jobless Claims Fall

The U.S. trade deficit narrowed more than forecast in July and filings for jobless benefits plunged last week, tempering concern the world’s largest economy is slipping back into a recession. The trade gap shrank 14 percent, the most since February 2009, to $42.8 billion, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. The deficit was less than the lowest forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of economists. New applications for unemployment insurance fell by 27,000 to 451,000, the lowest since July 9, according to the Labor Department. Stocks climbed and Treasury securities fell as the reports underscored the Federal Reserve’s view that while the economy has cooled, it will avoid contraction. U.S. exports rose to a two-year high, a source of strength for manufacturing, which has been a mainstay for the recovery. Read more here:

What Did Rubin and Prince Know?

Robert Rubin

Charles O. “Chuck” Prince and former Clinton Administration Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin were among Citigroup Inc. officials who knew 2007 losses were mounting on mortgage assets that U.S. regulators have faulted the bank for not disclosing, a court filing shows. Prince, the bank’s chief executive officer at the time, and Rubin, who was then chairman, knew the highest-rated segments of subprime mortgage-backed securities were the source of about $200 million in new losses in October 2007, the Securities and Exchange Commission said yesterday in a filing at federal court in Washington. In July, the agency accused the bank and two other executives of failing to disclose $40 billion in subprime assets before losses surged. It didn’t target Prince and Rubin. Read more here:

Sign of the Times: NFL Blackouts More Common

National Football League fans in Florida’s Tampa Bay area won’t see their hometown Buccaneers on local television as the season hits full stride this weekend. The Buccaneers, coming off a 3-13 season, weren’t able to sell all the tickets for their Sept. 12 home opener against the Cleveland Browns, the team said in a statement. Under the NFL’s blackout rules, if a home team doesn’t sell out tickets 72 hours before kickoff, the game can’t be aired in the local market. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said it didn’t appear that any other teams were in danger of having a local TV blackout during the league’s opening weekend. Read more here:

Harbison - Anti-Development Defines City Council

Jim Harbison

At the most recent City Council meeting a local developer requested City Council approval for the use of septic systems in a development in western Las Cruces. The City’s current policy is to deny approval of septic tank systems. To the casual observer this would seem to be a good policy but in this particular instance more information is necessary to determine if this policy makes sense or if is another effort of the current council to inhibit growth of Las Cruces.

Spacious New City Hall Building Downtown

To understand this issue you need to know that this property was part of the largest annexation in history for Las Cruces. The City annexed approximately 1100 acres west of the Rio Grande River and south of Picacho Blvd. Part of the reason for this annexation was to counter the proposed annexation of this property into the Town of Mesilla. It wasn’t that it was significant to the City of Las Cruces but more an effort to control development in that corridor while increasing the tax base. The City has not extended significant City services to that area even though it has been part of the City for more than 4 years and in my opinion has ignored the residents in this area except for collecting their property taxes. They certainly have not planned for expansion of residential or commercial development or established policies that will facilitate future development. All properties in this annexation were in the Extra Territorial Zone (ETZ) and complied with the zoning and development requirements established by that governmental agency.

Septic systems are compatible with all other properties in this area. These properties were not connected to Las Cruces City sewer systems and all have septic systems on lots of various sizes, some of which may not meet current minimum lot size requirement. The 3 acre minimum lot sizes of this proposed development are 4 times the ¾ acre minimum required by the State.

Dr Garcia, Director of Utilities for the City of Las Cruces stated at the Council meeting that the City Master Plan does not see the City sewer system expanding into that area for 15-20 years. Remember, the City was experiencing tremendous growth at the time and the Progressive Council began to limit, restrict, and control growth according to their views of how Las Cruces should look. It would seem to me that annexing such a large parcel without any concepts, policies or plans for its development was a serious shortcoming of the City Council. Mayor Miyagishima admitted, during the Council meeting, that the City did not do a very good job of analysis when they annexed the property. It is interesting that during the meeting it was mentioned that there is a proposed school site very near the proposed “Overlook” development. Wouldn’t that alone suggest that City sewer services would be needed much sooner than currently planned?

Councilors Pedroza, Silva, Small, Sorg, and Thomas all expressed concerns about soil analysis and water tables to see if it would support septic systems even though all the existing properties have historically been on similar systems. Their “expressed” concern is about potential environmental damage caused by septic systems. Councilor Silva said he could not support septic systems and felt that approval would be a City “bail out” of another developer.

If it were truly an environmental concern they would be working to extend the existing sewer system to all these residents and transitioning them from septic systems to the City sewer system as soon as possible and not 15-20 years in the future. I contend their actions are only a manifestation of their contempt for development.

Economists Cut U.S. Growth Forecast Again

The latest Blue Chip Economic Indicators report on Thursday said the weaker outlook for second-half 2010 growth stemmed from lower expectations for consumer spending, business investment and private construction. "Growth in the current quarter now is expected to be little better than the disappointingly soft advance registered last quarter," the survey said. Gross domestic product grew at a meager 1.6 percent annual rate in the second quarter, less than half the first quarter's 3.7 percent rate. Read more here:

French Austerity Protests Analyzed by Progressive

The French are again leading the resistance to globalization. For this, they deserve our applause, not derision.They’ve been down this road before. Back in 1995, when another rightwing president, Jacques Chirac, tried to convince them of the inevitability of suffering as part of the free-market process, they put their foot down. “After a quarter of a century of an ideological swing to the right, here was a movement mocking the blackmail: there is no alternative,” Daniel Singer, longtime Europe correspondent for The Nation, commented. “Its message, frightening for the preachers of the establishment, was plain: if this is the future you are offering to us and to our children, then the hell with your future!”

Nicolas Sarkozy

They’re back at it, fighting the same battle again, this time pitted against another arrogant conservative leader, Nicolas Sarkozy. In response to his proposal to up the retirement age, French unions brought Paris to a halt on Tuesday. In doing so, they have followed the lead of their counterparts in other countries such as Greece, where massive demonstrations have greeted austerity measures in response to the economic crisis. Read more here:

Morris and McGann Predicting an "Epic Disaster"

The magnitude of the catastrophe facing the Democratic Party in the fall elections is only gradually becoming clear to the leaders of both parties. The Democrats will lose both the Senate and the House. They will lose more House seats in 2010 than the 54 they lost in 1994, and they will lose the Senate, possibly with some seats to spare. In state after state, the races that were once marginal are now solidly Republican, those that were possible takeaways are now likely GOP wins, and the impossible seats are now fully in play. Read more here:

Ken Blackwell: Rationing

Ken Blackwell

“Democrats choose Death Panels…” announces the Comedy Channel’s Jon Stewart with mock horror, “…for themselves!” It’s a very funny bit. The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty plays it straight as she reports: “Ultimately, some candidates, including incumbents, will have to be left for dead so that the parties can spend where it might still make a difference.” Then, there’s Michael Barone in the Washington Examiner. Mr. Barone has probably forgotten more about American politics than most political commentators will ever know. The editor for 40 years of the Almanac of American Politics knows political panic when he sees it. He nails the word “triage,” saying that leaders of the House majority party are prepared to effect “a brutal triage of their own members in hopes of saving enough seats to keep a slim grip on the majority.” Read more here:

Time Magazine: Americans Are Dumb About Stimulus

Larry Elder

Americans, says Time magazine, are too dumb to appreciate the wonders of President Barack Obama's $787 billion "stimulus" package. Gobsmacked by polls that show Americans don't believe government is smart enough to take money from taxpayers and give it to those it considers deserving, Time says: Voters tell "pollsters that even programs that have clearly helped (emphasis added) the economy, like the $787 billion stimulus, did no such thing."

"Clearly helped the economy"?
High-school science teachers say extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Where's the proof? With the economy, we cannot conduct a "controlled experiment." For this, we would need two Americas -- one where Obama signed the stimulus and one where he didn't. If the stimulus economy produced more jobs than the non-stimulus one, then the stimulus "clearly worked." Obama, through ObamaCare, increased taxes. With new regulations, he has increased the costs of doing business. And he has gone on an unprecedented spending binge, which has dramatically increased the annual deficit and the national debt. Read more here:

Aggie Soccer Hosts North Dakota Friday

Aggie soccer returns to action Friday against the University of North Dakota in Aggie Memorial Stadium at 7p.m. NMSU hasn’t lost on its home field this season and has shown the prowess to light up the scoreboard and shut opponents down, scoring eight goals in a single game and allowing no more than one goal in each of its contests. North Dakota has struggled so far this year and the Fighting Sioux arrive in Las Cruces with a record of 0-4-0 after their most recent loss to Bemidji State on Sept. 3. Despite the poor start to the season for North Dakota, NMSU Head Coach Michael Needham knows that his team must be ready to compete.

Michael Needham

“North Dakota has had a tough stretch of games coming into our match so the only thing that concerns me is playing a team that doesn’t have anything to lose,” Needham said. “They will look at our game as a real opportunity to pick up points. They will see our game as the game they have an opportunity to win this weekend and we will get their best effort. They are a big physical squad that is very good on the attacking side of the ball.”
North Dakota plays at UTEP Saturday night which is unconventional. The traditional soccer schedule plays games on Friday and Sunday, giving teams a chance to recover on Saturday.
The Aggie season started on August 20th against UTEP in Aggie Memorial Stadium, but the game was declared a no contest because lightening and rain in the area didn’t allow the game to be restarted after halftime. Since then, NMSU has picked up wins over Jacksonville State and Prairie View A&M en route to the Hotel Encanto Aggie Classic title, along with earning draws against two time defending Big Sky Conference Champ Northern Arizona and Montana. The only loss was at New Mexico, who defeated nationally ranked Marquette already this season.

“The season is off to a good start,” Needham said. “We have had the opportunity to try a bunch of players in different places and in different combinations. That is going to benefit us as we move forward into the conference portion of our schedule which is really the most important time of the year.”
In only the second season of soccer at NMSU, the program takes an overall record of 11-10-3 into the matchup with North Dakota. Building a program is challenging, no matter what the sport or location. When Needham arrived late in 2008, the only thing his program had was an office and a phone. He has built Aggie soccer with his own hands, blending the newcomers with the returners this season. Through the entire process, he explains he is comfortable with where this year’s team is at this point of the season. “We are exactly where we want to be as it regards to team chemistry,” he said. “The environment is far more competitive this year on a day to day basis, which makes the chemistry a little more challenging than last year. That being said in terms of player development we are developing a solid substitution rotation and finding out what players are capable of at the moment.” According to Needham, Friday’s game against the Fighting Sioux could come down to the play at midfield. “Aggie success will rely heavily on our midfielders’ ability to settle the game down,” Needham said. “We did a nice job in the early stages against NAU, but allowed their physical play to get us out of rhythm a bit. We cannot allow teams to do that to us, we need to impose ourselves on other teams.” NMSU is off Sunday and will prepare for dates with Alabama A&M on Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. and Lamar on Sept. 19 at noon. The game against Alabama A&M from the Southwestern Athletic Conference will be aired on Aggie Vision, the first NMSU soccer game to ever appear on television.

Calderon - Latest Mayor Killing "Cowardly"

Mexican Pres. Felipe Calderon

(CNN) -- The mayor of El Naranjo, Mexico, in the central state of San Luis Potosi was gunned down and killed inside his office Wednesday, officials said. Witnesses say that four armed and hooded men stepped out of a white truck at city hall, the San Luis Potosi government said in a statement. Two of the men posted themselves outside, and two went inside and to the top floor of the building, where they entered the mayor's office and shot him, the statement said. The attack happened in broad daylight, at about 1:30 p.m. (2:30 p.m. ET), and was brazen even by the standards of Mexico's violent drug cartel wars. At least seven mayors in various Mexican states have been assassinated in 2010. Mexican President Felipe Calderon condemned the "criminal and cowardly" killing of the mayor. Read more here:

Herrera Sued Under Whistleblower Act

Mary Herrera

From the New Mexico Independent - Two former political employees of Secretary of State Mary Herrera who were fired this week will sue their former boss for retaliation under the state’s whistle-blower act, their attorney said Wednesday. Española attorney Rudy Martin said he notified the state Tuesday of his intention to sue Herrera and her agency on behalf of his clients, James Flores and Manny Vildasol. “I think what is going to happen is that we will be filing a lawsuit before the election using the state’s whistle-blower act,” Rudy Martin told The Independent in a telephone interview. Flores and Vildasol, Herrera’s communications director and office manager, were notified Tuesday by separate certified letters (click here and here to see the correspondence) that they had been fired. Both men had been on paid administrative leave while the state investigated them. But the two men knew they had been fired before they got the letters—because they had read read about it on a local political blog that already had the news, Martin said. Read more here:

9-11 Commission Report - Have We Learned Anything?

Plenty has changed in America over the last decade. A spectacular stock market advance in the late 1990’s fueled in part by an incredible Internet boom gave way to a bursting of the bubble in early 2000 (nine months before the end of the Clinton presidency and just after Y2K went off without a hitch). In the early part of the first decade of the new millennium, horrific scandals rocked corporate boardrooms resulting in jail terms for a number of scoundrels. And nine years ago this Saturday, suicidal hijackers brought the world to a halt when they crashed passenger jets into the World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon. Only the heroism of American passengers on a fourth hijacked airliner prevented even greater damage and more loss of life in our nation’s capital. America regained its confidence after 9-11. But over the last three years America has lost it again. As the mid-term election approaches we find that partisan political discussions in the United States are thinly disguised efforts to pit neighbors against neighbors and sometimes even family members against one another.

Even when partisan politics gets set aside, Americans seem to be having a difficult time sorting out the new reality. Unemployment is stubbornly high and international terrorism is a permanent fixture on the landscape. With the shootings at Fort Hood and failed attacks at Times Square, it has become clear that radical Muslim terrorist have made their presence known INSIDE our borders. Could it happen again? Of course it could.

It is fair to say that the U.S. economy and financial markets have been in a bit of a rut now for more than a decade. Interest rates available to savers and investors are minuscule. Despite the fact that our society has always faced problems, today’s challenges seem particularly hard to digest. Tracing America’s problem-solving challenges, we can easily identify at least six key historical turning points since 1776. The Civil War, WWI, The Great Depression, WWII, The Cold War, and 9-11 are pivot points in history.

We believe that each of these events or turning points in American history have something in common. Each of these points in history ushered in drastic changes in the attitudes of our citizens and subsequently changes in the policies of our leaders. In the summer of 2004 the 9-11 Commission released its report to the public (read here). We remember having waited anxiously for this report for quite some time. It is important to recognize that The 9-11 Commission Report was written and endorsed unanimously by a bi-partisan group of respected public servants (five democrats and five republicans signed the final document). While we had no intention of pretending to become experts on terrorism in general or the events of 9-11 in particular, we felt it was absolutely critical as professional investors to read the 9-11 Commission’s Report thoroughly.

Gaining a deep understanding of the commission’s unanimous recommendations was crucial for a number of reasons. It remains our belief that not long after the partisan chatter of each ensuing election has died down, the commission recommendations should have established the framework for the change of policy debates that will define America’s approach to international terror and homeland security. Sadly this has not been the case. Clues about the nature of changes that should have been made are still available to those willing to do the homework. With all of the violence in Mexico, the clear evidence of the boldness of Mexican drug cartels to engage in human smuggling, and now the safety corridor proposed for human smugglers which will be part of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act (read here), one has to wonder if our New Mexico senators and congressmen have even read the 9-11 Commission Report. We doubt that they have because it does not take much “imagination” to see the folly in what has been proposed for our southern border.

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