Rawson: We've Got an Agency That's Running Loose

Lee Rawson
Capitol Report New Mexico - A month ago, we wrote about the New Mexico Small Business Corporation (NMSBIC), which has absorbed some $9 million in losses and asked in a headline: “Is this a big deal?” Apparently it’s a big enough deal for the entity that funds the NMSBIC to pass a series of recommendations aimed at changing how the agency is run. Some background: The NMSBIC was created 10 years ago by the state legislature as a way to encourage and grow small and start-up businesses across the state. It’s funded by the State Investment Council (SIC), which is mandated to send 1 percent of the state’s Severance Tax Permanent Fund the NMSBIC’s way. One percent may not seem like much but when you consider that the Severance Tax Permanent Fund is currently worth $3.9 billion — well, we’re talking about some real money here. So what’s the problem? Read full story here: News New Mexico
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Los Alamos National Labs: Target of Job Killers

KOB - TV - It's a familiar scene in New Mexico: Peace activists, aging hippies, environmentalists and scientists lining up to oppose expansions of the military and nuclear facilities that are a major economic engine for the state. They were back in force this week, this time to oppose a $5.8 billion nuclear lab being designed to replace the 60-year-old lab at Los Alamos National Laboratories. Read full story here: News New Mexico
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Memorializing the Week

Debbie Wasserman-Schultz
Why watch sitcoms or reality television when you have politics? Not long ago DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz was supportive of the autoworker's union bailout. She suggested if it were up to those damned Republicans, we’d all be driving foreign cars. It turns out she already is driving a foreign car. Only in American politics is it not necessary to remember what make of car you drive, before pointing the finger at others you want to accuse of not helping the domestic auto industry. God Bless America. The evolution of the union movement is accelerating. Over the last five decades union demands on private employers have chased millions of competition-sensitive jobs overseas. Not long ago union bosses realized future union growth was going to be easier in the public sector where bankruptcy was unthinkable. Union bosses are now doing to taxpayers supporting municipal and state governments what they used to do to the likes of Eastern Airlines, Bethlehem Steel and hundreds of other union-plagued and bankrupt companies. Unfortunately, state and municipal bankruptcies are now no longer unthinkable, and in some entire nations (Greece, Portugal, Spain) the public union's abilities to extort unrealistic wage and benefit concessions from their federal governments has taken several to the brink of bankruptcy.
This week MSNBC host Ed Schultz was suspended for a week without pay for calling someone he disagreed with (Laura Ingraham) a right-wing "slut." And this weekend The Nation columnist John Nichols characterized the subsequent apology from Schultz as “classy.” This leaves me wondering. Once we dumb down the idea of "classy" is there anything left?
Benjamin Netanyahu
The Nation hit the daily double this week. Columnist Robert Dreyfuss let us know that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went over the top in reminding us that one million Arabs living inside the borders of Israel have what those causing unrest all over the Middle East are purportedly fighting for……freedom. Pointing out the existence of human rights is over the top? How can we reconcile the Dreyfuss contradiction? Easy. Those fighting for human rights are noble, but those who simply remind us they are providing human rights are...“boorish.” It would seem that The Nation engages in a pitched battle almost every week with The Progressive for the “defying all logic” prize. This week The Nation gets the nod. Kudos to Nichols and Drefuss.
Finally, we come to the carefully crafted messages coming from Senator Tom Udall’s office. Udall posted a video on his website this week explaining why he voted against Paul Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity” budget plan. However, he offered no ideas whatsoever for spending cuts nor did he provide any explanation for why no Democrat in the Senate voted YES for either Ryan’s budget or……..President Obama’s budget which went down by a vote count of 97-0. It is also worth noting that like Udall, not a single Senate Democrat submitted an alternative to President Obama's budget or Ryan's budget.
Tom Udall
Hmmmm. Correct me if I am wrong but that is a lot of “no” votes. Now, some might accuse Udall of being nothing more than a cynical demagogue for pointing fingers at the other side, voting against the president, and not even bothering to attempt a pitiful fakeout regarding his own responsibilities of leadership. However, it is important to realize that while Tom Udall is no leader, he is also no political dummy. He has surveyed the mood landscape in this state and in this country. Seasoned lawyers do have skills and Udall's skills help him exploit both the selfish and the uninformed. He is pretty sure he can look the other way while America borrows $4 billion a day and not get fired. All he has to do is blast those detestable “rich” people and keep voting “no” on any and all budget proposals for the foreseeable future. Good call Tom. Can't wait for your next "no" vote video.

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A Nightmare in Las Cruces

Charlie Minn
The nationwide DVD release of "A Nightmare in Las Cruces," the story of an unsolved bowling alley massacre that occurred in Las Cruces, New Mexico in 1990 is coming on Tuesday, May 31st. Filmaker Charlie Minn (Cruces Divided, 8 Murders a Day) will be at the Barnes and Noble at 2:00pm in Cruces to introduce the dvd with some of the victims. The public is invited.

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Brown: 5 Simple Truths About the Middle East

Michael Brown
Townhall - There is no such thing as a historic “Palestinian people” living in the Middle East. To be sure, there have been Arabs living in the land of Palestine for centuries. (The land of Israel was derisively renamed “Palestine” by the Romans in the second century A.D.). And it is true that some of these families have lived in Palestine without interruption for many generations. But at no time before 1967 did these Arabs identify themselves as “Palestinians,” nor did they seek to achieve any kind of statehood there. As expressed by former terrorist Walid Shoebat, “Why is it that on June 4th 1967 I was a Jordanian and overnight I became a Palestinian?” Read full column here: News New Mexico
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