York: Administration Inflates Green Job Numbers
Giddens' Monster Week Garners WAC Honors
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| Kayleigh Giddens |
NMSU hosts No. 5 Hawai`i on Wednesday at 8 p.m. in the Pan-American Center.
Gubernatorial Debate Audio Available
The audio of the New Mexico gubernatorial debate from Sunday night is available on the KUNM website. Listeners may be disappointed to find there was very little in the way of real substance that came from the often caustic exchanges between the two candidates. And it has been clear from the tone of this campaign, almost from the outset, that the Diane Denish campaign strategy has been to use her huge cash war chest to attack the Martinez record as prosecutor. Martinez has hit Denish and hit her hard. And she has done a decent job of raising money to counter the early Denish financial edge. Perhaps the campaign is fairly typical of what voters expect and receive from most candidates. We highly recommend that voters visit the website of both candidates and explore their position pages. However, if you are interested in the posturing and perceptions of style that emerged Sunday night, you can click here to listen to the exchanges in the debate:
Bill Clinton on Banks and Financial Derivatives: "I Have Admitted I Was Wrong"
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| Bill Clinton |
Congressional leaders in both parties and President Clinton swallowed this special interest advocacy bait like hungry fish. It was naively suggested that the dangerous conflicts of interests created by the end of Glass-Steagall could be controlled by…… our government. By simply enforcing existing legislation that separated the lending and credit functions through the forming of “distinctly separate subsidiaries,” we were told our financial system could continue to function properly with commercial banks both underwriting and trading securities for their own accounts.
Lower Risks, Diversification, and Fairness - President Clinton and the majority of members of Congress reassured skeptical industry experts that the underwriting and securities trading activities that these depository banking institutions were seeking to engage in as part of the end of Glass-Steagall, were “low-risk.” It was further asserted that the end of Glass-Steagall would lead to the reduction of the total risk to federally-insured deposits thanks to the broad benefits of diversification. In the end, the clever lawyers resorted to an all-too-familiar version of law school 101…..a bamboozle strategy. Cloaking their arguments in the timeless virtue of “fairness,” they argued that Glass-Steagall had become a needless impediment that was keeping our banks from doing what nearly everyone else was doing.
Elected Officials and Mortgage Lending - Not long after the protections of Glass-Steagall were torn down, our campaign contribution driven system of government continued to bring the worst it has to offer to the foundations of sound lending practices. Caught on film in hearing after hearing were members of congress who, in the sorriest traditions of American-style politics, cloaked themselves in a heightened sense of “fairness.” Simply put, elected officials relentlessly pressured regulators of government sponsored entities (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) into allowing a dramatic loosening of mortgage underwriting standards. As a result, loan approvals became an entitlement for most mortgage applicants, regardless of their personal creditworthiness. President Clinton is on the record. On ABC's "This Week" that he openly conceded that he made a mistake in judgment when he ignored the dangers of allowing commercial banks to take more risks during his presidency. The historical record on this is clear no matter how the sophisticated the political finger-pointing gets during the election season. The policies that led to the financial crisis belong to BOTH political parties.
Garrett and Zimmerman Differ on Wilderness Bill
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| Billy Garrett |
My Sunday afternoon football watching ritual was interrupted by a knock at the door. When I answered, I greeted a very polite lady campaigning for Billy Garrett, a candidate for County Commission in my district. She let me know that she had left some campaign materials on my doorstep recently and wanted to know if I had had a chance to look at them. I nodded and asked her what her candidate's position was on the so-called "wilderness bill". Her answer was, "He is in favor of it." My body language must have indicated disappointment because she immediately asked me what my concerns were about the bill. My answer was, "border security, range management, and flood control." She smiled and said, "those are the concerns of people opposed to the bill."
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| John Zimmerman |
I then thanked her for coming by and began to close the door when a final question occurred to me. "What is good about that bill?" I asked. Again she smiled and said, "I'll have to think about that." Perhaps she simply wanted to move on to the next house and perhaps she really did want to think about it. However, I was reminded as I returned to my easy chair and reflected on the encounter, that Garrett's opponent John Zimmerman indicated his opposition to the bill on News New Mexico. His reasons were pretty simple. The bill creates danger to our border security, our range management, and our flood control. You can read the bill here: "Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act."
Doan: Obama's Summer of Surrender
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| Lurita Doan |
From Townhall - Barack Obama has a credibility problem. Obama has overpromised and under-delivered on countless issues such as the economy, job creation, healthcare reform and transparency. And, after 19 months of teleprompted platitudes, Obama has surrendered all credibility regarding the economy and Americans are skeptical of his latest promises. For many Americans this has been the summer of discovery, not recovery. The rosy glow from electing the first African American president has faded and the failures and the flaws of Obama’s economic policies and Obama’s economic team have been exposed. Read more here:
Star Parker: Realists and Idealogues
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| Star Parker |
From Townhall - The banter continues about the Republican Party being pushed to the right by “ideologues.” Working Americans interest in politics is motivated by how to make our lives better. They don’t care about how one set of intellectuals or pundits think the world should be against some other set of ideas of ideology. They care about the facts. How the world really is and acting accordingly. Two principles often labeled as “right wing ideology” are that as a society we are better off with limited government and individual freedom and that as individuals we are better off being married. Is this wishful thinking of ideologues or is this reality? Two publications just out provide factual substantiation backing up both these principles. Read more here:
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