The real reason we can't have the Ten Commandments in a courthouse:
You cannot post
'Thou Shalt Not Steal,'
'Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery,' and
'Thou Shall Not Lie'
in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians...
It creates a hostile work environment. From email - thanks.
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State lawmakers cut travel costs by more than half

(NewsNM Swickard) Well, they can cut spending. As Gomer Pyle used to say, "Surprise, surprise, surprise." From the Santa Fe New Mexican.com - by Steve Terrell - Because of ongoing state budget problems, complicated by items in the Legislature's budget vetoed by Gov. Susana Martinez, lawmakers in recent weeks have been talking about imposing more travel restrictions on themselves to save money. However, an examination of last year's travel vouchers of legislators shows that even without imposing formal restrictions, the state in 2010 paid less than half for out-of-state travel than it did just two years before. The total cost of trips outside New Mexico last year was $93,828.35. In 2008, the state reimbursed legislators more than $211,000 for out-of-state travel. "I've tried to impress on my members that our revenues were not in the same situation as in the past," said House Speaker Ben Luján, D-Nambé, in an interview Friday. He said he asked House members to skip out-of-state meetings unless they were officers of the organization or if there was something on the program that especially interested them. All reimbursement for out-of-state travel for House members has to be approved by the speaker. Senators must get reimbursement for their out-of-state trips approved by Senate President Pro-tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell. Read more
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Evan Sayet: Why I’m a Global Warming Skeptic

From The Westerner.com - by Evan Sayet - ..First, I am skeptical because skepticism is the scientific starting point. Not cynicism but skepticism. This is especially true when the remedy being proposed is so drastic — in this case requiring the near-total dismantling of society as we know it. I am not overly impressed by talk of a “consensus” as there are enough good and serious scientists who reject the claims of the alarmists to make the pronouncement of “consensus” simply untrue. My confidence in the conclusion of these alarmist scientists is further weakened because I’ve been here before. For as long as I can remember the “experts” – many the very same people pushing global warming hysteria today – have been predicting one ecological disaster after another. In the 1970s and virtually every year afterwards, we were doomed – doomed!!! – to global cooling, global wetting, global drying, mass starvation, acid rain, an epidemic of heterosexual AIDS, Mad Cow and, just the other day, a deadly pandemic of Swine Flu. Alarmism seems to be a tactic employed by scientists to draw attention to their causes, garner major funding and make a name for themselves and hyped by a willing news (and publishing) media because hysteria sells. Read more
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The Week in Review

Dirty Air in Las Cruces
As we headed off to Albuquerque after the show Thursday (to pick up our best non-sports “Talk Show of the Year” award from the New Mexico Broadcasters Association), we passed through incredible layers of forest fire smoke. Even with vents closed inside the car, our throats became scratchy and our eyes became irritated during the trip. It was easily the dirtiest air we had ever encountered in more than fifty years. And during our Sunday morning walk we could not help but notice an incredible layer of smoke lingering at the foot of the Organ Mountains (photo above right).
The air has been so dirty we couldn’t help but think about report after report on the national news of the seemingly limitless and uninterrupted supplies of fuel in the forests directly in the path of the raging inferno in Eastern Arizona and Western New Mexico.
Andy Nunez
We wonder what our air might be like right now if a little more common sense and preventive approaches were applied to the rules and regulations regarding the logging industry in these forests. Will reason ever be allowed to supersede the irrational wishes of the radical environmental movement? Will its obsession with preventing simple policies that could make it easier to contain these raging forest infernos cease? Ironically a bit of reason could help us keep our air cleaner. Don’t bet on reason. Often the irrational goes hand in hand with the stubborn. The week began with a visit from our good friend Representative Andy Nunez. His appearance on the show happened to coincide with a story in the Wall Street Journal about the legislation Nunez blasted on to the floor of the NM House of Representatives.
Over the angry opposition of House Speaker Ben Lujan, Nunez attempted (unsuccessfully) to end the practice of issuing driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. On another topic, when Nunez was asked about the effect an off-reservation casino scheme would have on the City of Sunland Park, Nunez said it would be devastating. Later in the week the Indian Gaming Association also voiced its opposition to the scheme. Ironically, just yesterday afternoon, the thoroughbred Ruler on Ice, who managed only a third place finish in this spring’s Grade III Sunland Park Derby, stepped up to win the third leg of racing's Triple Crown, the Grade I Belmont Stakes. The race was broadcast on national television. Hooray for Sunland Park!

Late Tuesday morning the news broke of a murder in the boot heel region in Southwest New Mexico. Business owner Larry Links was killed by an unknown assailant in an area that has increasingly become notorious as a staging and drop area for drug smugglers from across the border. As of this weekend the state police had reported it had no suspects for the crime. On Wednesday rancher Steve Wilmeth and retired Border Patrol Sector Chief Gene Wood visited our studio. We talked with them about the problems associated with the boot heel area of SW New Mexico as well as the grave dangers to border security posed by a “wilderness” proposal for an area in Southern Dona Ana County. Wood was particularly emphatic that a new wilderness designation for areas on or near the Mexican border would be exactly what drug cartels needed to severely compromise law enforcement efforts. It is astonishing that the latest wilderness designation efforts are being spearheaded by our own senators, Tom Udall and Jeff Bingaman.

Anwar al-Awalaki
On Thursday the New York Times published a story of a fourth battle front in the war on terror. Apparently the U.S. military is stepping up manned and unmanned aerial attacks inside Yemen. One of the primary targets is Las Cruces-born terrorist leader Anwar al-Awalaki. Al-Alaki is probably the highest value target of the U.S.

Finally, late in the week Secretary of State Dianna Duran released 64,000 documents to the NM State Police and asked for an investigation into voter fraud. It is almost comical to read the subtle slanting in the news media of this story. Fact, New Mexico does not require voter identification. Fact, New Mexico does not purge the names from its voter lists of people who have long since left the state or died. Fact, this state continues to issue driver’s licenses to illegal aliens.
It is truly amazing for the media to attempt to help readers draw the conclusion that there is little chance of voter fraud. The House and Senate have displayed a true penchant for regulating and controlling every other aspect of life in New Mexico. As such, we find it particularly contradictory that it is only in this area, that the lost attitude of laissez-faire finds so much support from the majority of elected officials in the dominant party in our state.



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Douglas County Colorado is Pro-Choice

Kyle Olson
Townhall - It's not every day you will see a governmental body, in this case a school board, create competition for itself. But that’s precisely what the Douglas County, Colorado school board did. It created a unique, if not unprecedented, voucher program, allowing tax dollars to follow Douglas County students to the school of their choice. Every single school system in America should adopt this model. Sadly, parents who need school choice the most tend to live in troubled urban school districts that fight to keep children trapped within geographic boundaries. But in Douglas County, leaders understand students have a right to the education of their choice, even if it is not within the public system. Read full column here: News New Mexico
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Pearce Praises Otero County Commission

Steve Pearce
Congressman Steve Pearce praised the efforts of the Otero County Commission for voting on Tuesday June 7th to create an “Emergency Forest Plan.” The plan could lead to the logging of trees in the county as early as this fall. Otero County Commissioners Ronny Rardin, Tommy Herrell, and Susan Flores approved a proposal to create the plan and tell the federal government that the county intends to log approximately ten to twenty thousand acres near the community of Cloudcroft. “I commend the Otero County Commission for their efforts for responsible forest management,” Congressman Pearce said. “I thank Commissioners Rardin, Herrell, and Flores for putting the safety of New Mexicans first, and for choosing a course of responsible forest management. In March of this year, Congressman Pearce submitted legislation to restore the thousands of jobs that once existed in New Mexico’s timber industry. “Somebody has to draw a line in the sand, step back from the federal government’s stranglehold and take responsibility for ourselves,” Rardin said at the public meeting in Alamogordo. “We are responsible for the health, safety and well-being of our citizens, and the current conditions of the forest warrant this emergency action.”
Dr. Lawrence Garrett, former Dean of the College of Eco-Science at Northern Arizona University, testified before the commission on Tuesday that forest health conditions and fire danger in and around Otero County are some of the worst he has seen in the southwestern portion of the United States. He will work with federal agencies on behalf of the county to create the plan to allow for the cleanup of the forest areas, including commercial logging. “We will use the approach of restoration at the watershed level,” Dr. Garrett told the commissioners. This is an extremely important period in the history of management of this forest. We must take an aggressive approach to restoration and making the communities in this area safer from high wildfire risks.” Dr. Garrett told the commissioners that he hoped to have an Emergency Forest Plan for a critical area of the forest ready for the Commissioners to implement by September.

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ERB: Won't I.D. Recipients

Jan Goodwin - ERB
According to the Albuquerque Journal there were 693 beneficiaries who received overpayments from the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board last summer. So far ERB management has been tight lipped about the response received from the beneficiaries who received the largest overpayments. It seems obvious from the news flow that the ERB is having trouble recovering the money. The checks were sent last July and August and totaled $1.7 million. The ERB's miscalculations and incorrect payments were reported by the Journal to have ranged from $306,000 to 66 cents.
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Indian Gaming Group Against Off-Reservation Casino

Santa Fe New Mexican - ALBUQUERQUE — New Mexico's Indian tribes are lining up against one of their own as the federal government once again is considering a controversial proposal to let a Northern New Mexico pueblo partner with a Santa Fe art dealer to build a hotel and casino along the Texas-New Mexico border. The New Mexico Indian Gaming Association Inc., which represents tribal casino operators, recently filed comments with the Bureau of Indian Affairs opposing the plan, according to Mark Chino, president of the Mescalero Apache tribe, which operates Inn of the Mountain Gods resort and casino in the Ruidoso area. Read full story here: News New Mexico
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Pearce and Udall Agree, Libya Policy Adrift

Mummar Ghadaffi
Capitol Report New Mexico - Back in 2008, Tom Udall and Steve Pearce faced off in a nasty battle for one of New Mexico’s two US Senate seats in which Udall assailed Pearce as a pro-industry zealot who would turn back environmental progress and Pearce went after Udall as a die-hard liberal out of touch with working New Mexicans. Since then, Pearce returned to Washington after knocking off US House of Representatives incumbent Harry Teague in the 2nd Congressional District last fall and Udall has raised his profile in the Senate by backing a call for the end of the filibuster as currently practiced and making regular appearances on left-of-center talk shows such as MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow program. Udall also writes on a semi-regular basis for that lefty web bastion, the Huffington Post. News New Mexico
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State Police to Review 64,000+ Voter Cases

Dianna Duran
Las Cruces Sun-News - SANTA FE - New Mexico State Police will review a staggering 64,000 voter cases to determine if any fraud has occurred in recent elections. Public Safety Director Gorden Eden outlined the scope of the investigation during an interview last week. He said the voter files were turned over to state police by Secretary of State Dianna Duran. News New Mexico
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Saunders: End War on Drugs

Debra Saunders
Townhall - "If we cannot destroy the drug menace in America, then it will surely in time destroy us," President Richard Nixon told Congress in a special message on June 17, 1971, which generally is credited as the day the "war on drugs" began. Actually, Nixon didn't use the term "war on drugs" in the address. He used it later. And while Nixon talked tough about going after drug traffickers, he emphasized that rehabilitation would be a priority as he dedicated the lion's share -- $105 million of $155 million in new anti-drug funding -- "solely for the treatment and rehabilitation of drug-addicted individuals." Some 40 years later, there are only losers in the drug war. Drug use is up; 118 million Americans have used illegal drugs, and the cost of prosecuting the drug war and offenders continues to mount.......As for Washington: "Washington is never going to be the leader on this. They don't lead public opinion. They follow public opinion." News New Mexico
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Alexander: Illegal Immigration Concerns Manistream

Rachel Alexander
Townhall - Once upon a time opposition to illegal immigration was championed by a few special interest groups and outspoken leaders like Tom Tancredo and Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Not so anymore. Regular sheriffs like Arizona’s Paul Babeu of Pinal County and Larry Dever of Cochise County are speaking up loudly about their frustrations dealing with it. The Obama administration gets credit for mainstreaming the issue. Obama moved the country backwards on fixing the problem by suing Arizona over SB 1070 and decreasing funding for enforcement. One federal prosecutor in Texas refuses to prosecute illegal immigrants until they have been arrested seven times. He will not prosecute them with a felony until they have been caught 14 times. Even more egregiously, he does not prosecute coyotes smuggling fewer than six illegal immigrants. Read full column here: News New Mexico
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O'Reilly: What Kind of Country Do You Want?

Bill O'Reilly
Townhall - Throughout the ages, Robin Hood has carried a very positive image: a dashing hero who steals from a corrupt kingdom and distributes the loot to the poor. Errol Flynn was among the first to bring Robin to life in the movies, and more recently, Russell Crowe advanced the legend. President Obama, I believe, sees himself as the noble Robin. Certainly, his tax-the-rich mantra and health care giveaways demonstrate a strong desire to redistribute income from the affluent to the poor in America. How is that playing in Peoria? A new Gallup poll tells us. Read full column here: News New Mexico
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Call for Medicaid Redesign Task Force Rejected

Sidonie Squier
Veritas New Mexico - Human Services Department (HSD) Cabinet Secretary Sidonie Squier has rejected a call by more than a dozen health advocacy organizations to create a public Medicaid Redesign Task Force, and to include Medicaid providers, patients and lawmakers in the state’s Medicaid overhaul process. “As you know, we selected Alicia Smith and Associates to help us lead this redesign and modernization effort,” Squier wrote in a June 1 letter to the New Mexico Medicaid Coalition. News New Mexico
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