News New Mexico: 10/27/10

Albuquerque Turns Off Traffic Cams

From KOAT-TV 7 - ALBUQUERQUE -- The city of Albuquerque has decided to suspend its red light traffic camera program based on the results of an eight-month University of New Mexico study of the program's effectiveness. "We believe the red light camera program is in need of a major overhaul," said Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry. Every red light camera will be turned off at midnight Tuesday until the city council votes to extend its contract with Redflex

or accepts a bid from another company. When that happens, only 14 of the 20 cameras will be turned back on, because not every red light camera is making the city safer. The UNM study shows six cameras are in fact causing more problems. Albuquerque's Chief Public Safety Officer Darren White said the dilemma arises when drivers approach those intersections and realize they may be going too fast, then hit the brakes or speed up, causing rear-end crashes. Read more

Still in Recession: NM Drops Ten "Tax Climate" Spots

New Mexico has dropped from having the 23rd-best tax climate for business in the United States to 33rd, according to an annual survey. The Tax Foundation, a think-tank based in Washington DC that studies tax policies and is known as generally critical of tax increases, has recently released its 2011 State Business Tax Climate Index, which the 50 states according to five indices: corporate tax, individual income tax, sales tax, unemployment insurance tax, and property tax. Read here:

Scanlon - Juan Williams Must Die

Juan Williams

From the Washington Times - by Terrence Scanlon - Juan Williams has learned a painful lesson. Mr. Williams was fired from his contract position as analyst for NPR after he acknowledged on Fox News that he gets "nervous" when he sees people in Muslim garb board his plane. How many Americans have experienced similar, unfortunate fears since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001? How many even in the upper-management echelons of NPR? Yet for the crime of his politically incorrect candor, Mr. Williams - a lifelong, passionate liberal - has officially been banished from the salons of liberal intelligentsia. The Williams incident is interesting in and of itself, but it also fits into a larger unfolding narrative: As voters abandon the left in droves in the wake of failed liberal policies that have wreaked untold social and economic damage, left-wing activists, politicians and institutions become even more shrilly intolerant of those who disagree with them - at times disturbingly so. Read here:

Wall Street Proprietary Trading Under Cover

Michael Lewis

From Bloomberg - A few weeks ago we asked a simple question: Why are the same Wall Street banks that lobbied so hard to dilute the passages in the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul bill banning proprietary trading now jettisoning their proprietary trading groups, without so much as a whimper? The law directs regulators to study the prop trading ban for another 15 months before deciding how to enforce it: why is Wall Street caving now? The many answers offered by Wall Street insiders in response boil down to a simple sentence: The banks have no intention of ceasing their prop trading. They are merely disguising the activity, by giving it some other name. Read more here:

Tax Tables Turn: Less Take Home Pay Looming

Employers in the U.S. are starting to warn their workers to prepare for slimmer paychecks if Congress fails to vote on an extension of Bush-era tax cuts. “I’ve been doing payroll for probably close to 30 years now, and never have we seen something like this where it gets that down to the wire,” said Dennis Danilewicz, who manages payroll services for about 14,000 employees at New York University’s Langone Medical Center. “That’s what’s got a lot of people nervous. All we can do is start preparing communications with a couple of different scenarios.” Read more here:

Gross: Fed Easing to Signify End of Bond Bull Market

Bill Gross

From Bloomberg - Bill Gross, manager of the world’s largest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., said a renewal of asset purchases by the Federal Reserve will likely signify the end of the 30-year bull market in bonds. “Check writing in the trillions is not a bondholder’s friend,” Gross wrote in his monthly investment outlook posted on Newport Beach, California-based Pimco’s website today. “It is in fact inflationary, and, if truth be told, somewhat of a Ponzi scheme. It raises bond prices to create the illusion of high annual returns, but ultimately it reaches a dead end where those prices can no longer go up.” Read more here:

Brass Oldies: Part II

Thomas Sowell

Songs that are "golden oldies" have much less pleasant counterparts in politics-- namely, ideas and policies that have failed disastrously in the past but still keep coming back to be advocated and imposed by government. Some people may think these ideas are as good as gold, but brass has often been mistaken for gold by people who don't look closely enough. Read more here:

Progressive's Obsession with Palin Continues

From the New Mexico Independent - Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Susana Martinez received a lot of attention in May when the former GOP vice-presidential nominee traveled to New Mexico to stump for Martinez. But since the general election began, Martinez has rarely mentioned the conservative firebrand and CNN reports that New Mexico’s Republican candidate for governor is attempting to distance herself from Palin, if not other prominent Republicans.

CNN’s Jessica Yellin wrote: Though Sarah Palin’s endorsement helped Martinez lock up the nomination the candidate now seems to be seeking distance telling CNN, “You know Sarah Palin’s endorsement was in the primary. We were pleased to have it. We were pleased to have everyone else’s endorsement.” Asked if she would support Palin for President she punts saying “you know I am not focused on Sarah Palin at this point.” Read more here:

Cradling Minnows and Kicking Family Values Part II

Rachel Pulaski

by Rachel Pulaski - See Cradling Minnows and Kicking Family Values Part I - It’s important to note Mr. Steinborn’s income. Jeff’s income comes from two sources, the Steinborn family trust fund and the Wilderness Alliance (proponent of the Wilderness Bill). Jeff has refused to disclose how much the Wilderness Alliance pays him and one can only assume his trust fund allowance is substantial. Needless to say Jeff does not understand what New Mexico families face everyday, struggling to put food on the table nor can he relate to the anxiety of possibly losing a home or being unemployed. Since Jeff does not have a wife or children to support, has anyone asked him what the average cost of feeding a family in New Mexico is or what the average cost of health insurance is for a family in this state? Does he even know the current unemployment numbers here in Dona Ana County? Whereas Dr. McMillan on the other hand has a wife, children, successful business/medical practice and a genuine desire to serve the people of Dona Ana County. Dr McMillan is a father who works for his paycheck, and his business success is determined by how well he performs at his job. McMillan can understand and sympathize with the everyday struggles facing New Mexico families.

Dr. Terry McMillan

Jeff Steinborn next calls out Dr. McMillan for campaign sign slogan. Click here to read the article that included an absurd attack. Here is an excerpt: “Jeff Steinborn, 37th District Democratic State Representative, derided his Republican opponent Dr. Terry McMillan for his “brazen” lack of regard for the environment and eco-diversity. “His own sign is a perfect example,” Steinborn said at a recent fundraiser. Armed with an online photo which he displayed on his telephone, the incumbent enlarged the screen to display the image of a four-foot by eight-foot sign for Terry McMillan, displayed on a local highway. A high-lighted caption claims, “People are more important than a minnow.” “It just shows so much disrespect for all of the various species that exist and are necessary to sustain eco-diversity, he charged.”

Jeff Steinborn

Is Mr. Steinborn implying that we as humans are less important than minnows? To accuse your opponent of having no regard for the environment or ecodiversity because one believes human life is more important than a minnow is ludicrous! I believe Jeff’s thinking is colored by his close association to the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. This organization was founded by Dave Foreman, founder of Earth First! and has been described as an “eco-terrorist.” The organization’s name explains the logic, the earth comes first. It is now fair to say that Mr. Steinborn shares that thinking as well. Let us not forget one simple fact; the position of New Mexico State Representative is a non paying position. Jeff Steinborn has made it clear through his actions and alliances that his allegiance lies squarely with the NM Wilderness Alliance. The NM Wilderness Alliance’s purpose is to directly affect legislation that relates to land conservation; how convenient for them that they have a director who also “works” in the state legislature. Ask yourself, would your loyalty lie with your employer who pays you or with the other job you perform for free?

Court voids Arizona proof of citizenship for voters

From the Arizona Daily Star - PHOENIX - A federal appeals court on Tuesday threw out a state mandate for people to provide proof of citizenship before they can register to vote. In a divided decision, two members of the three-judge 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel found the requirement, approved by Arizona voters in 2004, violates the federal National Voter Registration Act, which spells out what states can and cannot require to vote in federal elections. Judge Sandra Ikuta, writing the majority decision, concluded the requirement to produce one of a list of specified documents proving citizenship is not allowed. That conclusion drew derision from Secretary of State Ken Bennett who oversees elections. He said the proof is necessary to protect the integrity of elections. He compared the ruling to allowing people going through airports unchecked, as long as they sign a certificate vowing they are not terrorists and aren't carrying explosives. He plans to appeal. Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, who wrote the 2004 measure, said the ruling "flies in the face of common sense." "It should go without saying that

states have the right to ensure that only citizens vote," he said. Nina Perales, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, one of the groups that sued, said there are parallels between this case and the more recent challenge to the state's new immigration law. In both cases, she said, judges have struck down efforts by Arizona to usurp federal authority. "What the federal courts have done consistently now, recently, is told Arizona that these schemes that it's coming up with, whether it's voter registration schemes or whether they're immigrant regulation schemes, are outside the bounds, and that Arizona has to comply with the superseding federal law," she said. Read more

A Gift to Drug Cartels

From Center for Immigrations Studies - .....To date, discussion of the porous Southwest border has largely left out New Mexico. That is about to change if Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources, and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) are able to pass an otherwise innocuous bill that changes which laws apply to a stretch of federal land on the New Mexico border. The bottom line is, if S. 1689, the "Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act," becomes law, New Mexico will likely become the next staging ground for drug cartel and illegal alien smuggling activity, tracking what happened in Arizona. Why? The bill would change the designation of Department of Interior lands, managed by the Bureau of Land Management, from "public lands" to "wilderness," severely curtailing the Border Patrol's ability to conduct preventative, ongoing, and necessary operations due to the stringent nature of wilderness laws that are now four decades old. New Mexico would suffer the same results as those documented by the Center in the "Hidden Cameras on the Arizona Border" three-part series showing the waste, destruction, and unsafe circumstances that borderlands suffer when wilderness laws (and poor federal government policy) create a vacuum of law enforcement presence. Read more here:

Vote Complaints from Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS -- Some voters in Boulder City complained on Monday that their ballot had been cast before they went to the polls, raising questions about Clark County's electronic voting machines. Voter Joyce Ferrara said when they went to vote for Republican Sharron Angle, her Democratic opponent, Sen. Harry Reid's name was already checked. Ferrara said she wasn't alone in her voting experience. She said her husband and several others voting at the same time all had the same thing happen. Read more here:

Voter Fraud Reports Piling In

From the Sun Journal - New Bern, NC - A Craven County voter says he had a near miss at the polls on Thursday when an electronic voting machine completed his straight-party ticket for the opposite of what he intended. Sam Laughinghouse of New Bern said he pushed the button to vote Republican in all races, but the voting machine screen displayed a ballot with all Democrats checked. He cleared the screen and tried again with the same result, he said. Then he asked for and received help from election staff. “They pushed it twice and the same thing happened,” Laughinghouse said. “That was four times in a row. The fifth time they pushed it and the Republicans came up and I voted.” M. Ray Wood, Craven County Board of elections chairman, issued a written statement saying that the elections board is aware of isolated issues and that in each case the voter was able to cast his or her ballot as desired. Read more here:

What We Can Learn From Tejanos y Tejanas

Rob Nikolewski

From CapitolReportNew Mexico.com - Paul Gessing of the Rio Grande Foundation talks about that state on the other side of the Rio Grande — Texas — in one of his recent posts on http://www.errorsofenchantment.com/: First and foremost, it is worth noting that the two main traits of the Texas economy that differ from New Mexico are 1) lack of an income tax; 2) less onerous labor union laws in Texas. And right now that combination has made the Lone Star State one of the few states in the nation where the Recession From Hell has been pretty mild. As Rich Lowry of the National Review points out: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 214,000 net new jobs were created in the United States from August 2009 to August 2010. Texas created 119,000 jobs during the same period. If every state in the country had performed as well, we’d have created about 1.5 million jobs nationally during the past year, and maybe “stimulus” wouldn’t be such a dirty word. read more here:

Kicking the Competitition Out of New Mexico

From the New Mexico Independent - National Health, Aetna, John Alden, and Principal all have told the state’s Division of Insurance that they will no longer write individual or small group plans in New Mexico, according to a Public Regulation Commission spokesman. Some companies discontinuing coverage will renew their customers’ existing policies, but some will not spokesman Gerald Gardner told The Independent. The companies say they need to make adjustments in their business to accommodate the nation’s new federal health care law, which forces them to expand coverage by forbidding them to deny coverage to children with preexisting conditions, among other measures. Several of the state’s largest insurers are already severely restricting new child-only policies. “After careful consideration of the recently enacted federal healthcare legislation, National Health Insurance Company has determined that it will not be able to meet the requirements set forth by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010,” president Charles Harris wrote in a letter announcing the decision. Read more here:

Our Contemptible Congress

Walter Williams

Most people whom we elect to Congress are either ignorant of, have contempt for or are just plain stupid about the United States Constitution. You say: "Whoa, Williams, you're really out of line! You'd better explain." Let's look at it. Read more here:

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