Ruidoso fire destroys, threatens homes

From KRQE.com - RUIDOSO, N.M. - Fire officials are responding to a grass fire that has reached some of the trees to the North of Ruidoso Downs. It is being called the "White Fire," which started burning near Gavilan Canyon in Ruidoso. Quickly was estimated to be 2 to 3,000 acres at this time. High winds and thick fuels is causing the fire to grow rapidly and move to the West. Areas along the north side of highway 70 in Ruidoso Downs and the Ruidoso Downs Racetrack and Casino were evacuated. It is not known how many houses are being threatened at this time though there are reports of at least four houses being lost. Read more
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Ruidoso on fire

This weekend saw several fires in New Mexico. Sunday afternoon Ruidoso was hit with a wind-driven fire. Instead of watching a news channel (Swickard) I got lots of information and pictures from Facebook with my friend Julie Baker Carter, who is a reporter for the Ruidoso News. She lives in Carrizozo and writes a great column on the Cowboy life. Here are several photos she posted or reposted from her Facebook friends: This first was taken by Jessica Snowden.













This next was taken by Kristie Trotter














This was taken by Julie Baker Carter

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The Circle Of Corn-based Ethanol

From redstate.com - The US Government subsidizes the production of corn-based ethanol, as a substitute/supplement for gasoline. To maintain a demand, the US Government pushes for standard gasoline mixtures containing 10% ethanol.  This will supposedly decrease pollution and increase efficiency. Corn is then turned into ethanol wholesale. Corn-based food prices rise.  That includes critters that eat corn, by the way. This results in higher food prices domestically.  This decreases efficiency. This also results in more food insecurity globally. Corn-based ethanol, being subsidized, crowds out other ethanol fuels.  If this is confusing: please, reference Gresham’s Law, and generalize from its specific example. Ethanol, being less energy efficient than gasoline - which is why we weren’t using it to begin with - ends up causing effective inflation, as it costs more to go the same distance in your car.  This also increases pollution. In short, 10% ethanol gasoline results in more pollution and less efficiency. Therefore, the only solution… is to raise the amount of ethanol in gasoline to 15%. You have to realize, of course, that darn few DC bureaucrats actually drive anywhere.  And the ones that do rarely pump their own gas.
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Heinrich's World of "Good and Evil"

Reresentative Martin Heinrich’s announcement over the weekend that he will be seeking election to the U.S. Senate was a case study in false premises. In Heinrich’s world there is a desperate struggle going on between “good” and “evil.” And much like his voting teammate in the House, Nancy Pelosi, Heinrich calls on New Mexicans to enable him to increasingly empower the federal government as a worthy protector of the greater “good.”
Nancy Pelosi
Unfortunately, the simplistic “good” and “evil” economic premises Heinrich uses were also adopted by Lenin when he seized power in Russia. Chairman Mao used the same system of economic logic in his arguments for controlling China’s businesses. Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro have always positioned themselves as the enemies of corporations in Venezuela and Cuba. And perhaps most sadly, the Bureau of Indian Affairs has been using a familiar “protection from evil” angle to maintain control of the day-to-day lives and property of Native Americans. At its core, Heinrich’s governing paradigm requires a denial that anyone willing to develop ability, work ethic, drive, and team building skills, can actually create their own breaks. He prefers that voters live on the government plantation and believe that only when more decision-making authority falls into the hands of government, can we ever hope to fix our nation’s problems.
Fidel Castro
Martin Heinrich’s vote last year for Obamacare reveals a deep trust in government's management capabilities and deep distrust in the individual. New Mexicans should recognize that Martin Heinrich feels comfortable in Washington with other ruling elites. He sees no value in encouraging self-reliance or fiscal responsibility. He offers no proposals to end the borrowing insanity in Washington. And like Castro, Chavez, Lenin, and Mao, his preferred economic views will be framed as follows: Government tends to be “good” and Business tends to be “evil”......therefore, empower government and increase CONTROL of all businesses. He wants to protect you.....from yourself.

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News New Mexico - Coming to Carlsbad Soon

News New Mexico is pleased to announce it has reached an affiliate agreement with Carlsbad Radio's KATK AM-740. Carlsbad area visitors and listeners at newsnm.com can expect the News New Mexico show to aired live in the Eddy County area in the near future on the Hippo.

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Heinrich Bashes Job Creators - Enters Senate Race

Martin Heinrich
New Mexico Congressman Martin Heinrich, who has never proposed a meaningful spending cut, an entitlement reform, or an intelligent energy policy in all the time he has served in Congress, was up to his old rhetorical tricks today. He announced his candidacy for the Senate seat to be vacated by retiring Senator Jeff Bingaman next year. Bad mouthing the "corporations" that issue paychecks each week in a job-starved economy, Heinrich accused businesses of getting all the breaks. Subtly bashing employers was the main theme of the latest announcement of Heinrich's political ambitions. Naturally Heinrich made no mention of the chronic failures of the borrow and blow Congress. It is of course the same Congress where he has voted in virtual lockstep with Nancy Pelosi. An ardent supporter of Obamacare, Heinrich released a video explaining why he would like to be handed the keys to the upper house. New Mexico voters could do better throwing a dart at the phone book.

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NewsNM Coming to Clayton Soon

Union County New Mexico Near Dusk
News New Mexico is pleased to announce it has reached an affiliate agreement with Clayton New Mexico's KLMX AM 1450. Clayton area visitors and listeners at newsnm.com can expect the News New Mexico show to aired live in the Union County area in the near future.

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ATF Under Fire for Stonewalling Investigation

Agent Brian Terry
Washington Times - The chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Friday announced the issuance of a subpoena to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for documents concerning “Project Gunrunner” and records the agency has on the shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. “The unwillingness of this administration — most specifically the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms — to answer questions about this deadly serious matter is deeply troubling,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican. “Allegations surrounding this program are serious and the ability of the Justice Department to conduct an impartial investigation is in question. “Congressional oversight is necessary to get the truth about what is really happening,” he said. Agent Terry, 40, was killed Dec. 15 during a gunfight about 10 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border near Tucson while attempting to arrest bandits who prey on illegal aliens. He was waiting with three other agents in a remote area north when the gunbattle with the bandits erupted. Read full story here: News New Mexico
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Parker: Clarence Thomas and Sarah Palin

Star Parker
Townhall - In days when slavery was legal in this country, all slaves did not willingly resign to the grim fate cast upon them. The human spirit longs to be free. In some individuals, that longing beats so strong in their breast that they will take large personal risks, against great odds, to rebel against tyranny that has transformed their life into a tool for someone else’s will and whim. Slaves who had the temerity to run away from their plantation “home” paid dearly if they were caught and returned. Measures were taken to make them an example to others who might harbor similar thoughts about freedom. Among those measures were brutal public beatings of rebels to which other slaves were forced to bear witness and digest with great clarity the price of rebelliousness. Such is the fate today of those uppity souls who choose to challenge the authority and legitimacy of our inexorably growing government plantation.
Clarence Thomas
Those with interests for the care and feeding of this plantation cannot physically punish these rebels with the whip. Their whip is the mainstream media and the means of punishment of this virtual whip is not beating of a physical body but assassination of character. This perspective helps us understand the ongoing liberal obsession with destroying Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin. Thomas and Palin are particularly threatening to liberals because their lives fly in the face of liberal mythology. According to this mythology, the essential and ongoing struggle in our nation is a power struggle of interests between “haves” and “have-nots” rather than an ongoing struggle for human freedom. According to this mythology, there is an elite class of “haves” who, by virtue of fate and birth, control power and wealth. They are conservative because their only interest is to keep things as they are.
Sarah Palin
Fighting against this conservative elite are noble “have-nots”, struggling, by any means possible, to get their fair share and against wealth distributed by an unjust and blind fate. A high profile conservative, whose very life and personal history poses an open challenge and affront to this mythology, is a liberal’s worst nightmare. Read full column here: News New Mexico

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Libya Gets Headlines - Juarez Continues to Die

News New Mexico note (Spence) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday she is now "deeply concerned" about violence in Ivory Coast. Apparently there is no interest in any deep concern for the genocide taking place just across our southern border. Why? El Paso Times - Juárez was hit with two multiple slayings in the past two days. Ten were killed in one attack and four in the other. Several gunmen burst into a bar Thursday night and killed nine men and one woman, Chihuahua authorities said. Another woman was wounded in that shooting. On Friday, three men and a boy were killed at a plaza in the Zaragoza area of Juárez, officials said.
The killings on Thursday took place in El Castillo bar at Juárez and Ramón Rayón streets, also in the Zaragoza area. The victims were found inside the bar, riddled with bullets, officials said. Authorities identified one of the victims as 18-year-old Mario Alvarado Bernal. The ages of the victims ranged up to 55 years, officials said in a news release. Police found 11 bullet casings used in AK-47 rifles and 15 bullet casings from a 9mm weapon. Authorities also seized six vehicles at the scene.
In the Friday slayings, officials said the victims were eating at a mobile burrito vendor when they were attacked on a sidewalk of the plaza, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state attorney general's office. Authorities said the men appeared to be in their 20s and the boy was about 10. The victims had not been identified. The men wore uniforms of the beer company Cervecería Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma, and the boy was found dead inside the vendor truck, officials said. Another man was hospitalized after being wounded in the attack. Nineteen rounds were fired. Read full story here: News New Mexico

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"No Blood for Oil" Domain Name For Sale

Debra Saunders
Townhall - "No blood for oil" was a popular slogan chanted by the left in opposition to President George W. Bush's push to send U.S. forces into Iraq. Now that President Obama authorized Operation Odyssey Dawn in Libya, I have been waiting to hear chants of "no blood for oil." I am happy to report, I don't hear them. I went to the nobloodforoil.org website; its lead item opposes efforts to strike wolves from the endangered species list. In fact, as NATO forces are lobbing missiles to enforce a no-fly zone over the country with Africa's largest oil and gas reserves, the nobloodforoil.org domain name is for sale. With a Democrat in the White House, the anti-war corner has a much more civil tone.
Anti-war House members have asked the GOP leadership to schedule an up-or-down congressional floor vote on the use of military force in Libya. A perfectly reasonable proposal. Congress should take its constitutional responsibilities seriously. Now the Obama administration is in the hot seat -- crushed between critics who charge the White House was too slow to authorize a no-fly zone and those who claim it was too rash in authorizing cruise missile strikes before notifying Congress. Hawks fear that Obama's promise not to put "boots on the ground" will embolden strongman Moammar Gadhafi to fight to retain power. Doves believe that Obama went back on his no-boots-on-the-ground promise by authorizing a CIA presence in Libya. Read full column here: News New Mexico

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Election Corruption Undermines Governance

Floyd and Mary Beth Brown
Townhall - One of the most surreal experiences of our lives was watching an unelected bureaucrat pick and choose what ballots she wanted to count in the closely contested election featuring pseudo-Republican Lisa Murkowski and Tea Party Favorite Republican Joe Miller in Alaska. Having spent decades watching ballots be counted in hundreds of elections, and never once have we seen a situation with such outrageous manipulation of the vote. But I guess we weren't in Colorado. Hot off the presses is a report that documents 5,000 non-citizens voting in that states highly contested elections.
According to a report in The Hill, the "Secretary of State Scott Gessler, a Republican, told the panel that his department's study identified nearly 12,000 people who were not citizens but were still registered to vote in Colorado.Of those non-citizen registered voters, nearly 5,000 took part in the 2010 general election in which Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet narrowly defeated Republican John Buck. Colorado conducted the study by comparing the state's voter registration database with driver's license records." In state after state corruption is beginning to undermine the credibility of the fairness of elections. Read full column here: News New Mexico

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