Yum! NM builds 'world's largest Navajo taco'

From KRQE-TV.com - GALLUP, N.M. (AP) - Residents in Gallup have set the record for world's largest Navajo taco using 150 pieces of fry bread and, of course, more than 30 pounds of green chile, New Mexico officials and organizers said Monday. According to volunteers and state officials, the Navajo taco created Saturday was more than 10 feet in diameter and also needed 65 pounds of ground beef, 65 pounds of beans, 50 pounds of lettuce and 90 pounds of cheese. Bill Lee, executive director of the Gallup McKinley County Chamber of Commerce, said there was no record for the world's largest Navajo taco in the Guinness Book of World Record, so residents created one. "We just decided we would establish the record," said Lee. "There wasn't anything on the books officially." Lee said the objective was to highlight tourism in Gallup, a city located near the Navajo Nation, and to bring residents together for a cause. Read more

Yum! NM builds 'world's largest Navajo taco'

Rivals press Gov. Rick Perry on Social Security

NewsNM Swickard - Anyone with any sense knows that the collection of money for Social Security was unhooked from paying that money into an annuity fund. Therefore, no money collected is ever saved to pay the premiums. Ponzi Scheme? Of Course it is. From the El Paso Times - TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Republican presidential hopefuls plan to use a televised debate Monday to press front runner Rick Perry to justify his criticism of Social Security, which has dominated the contest in recent days. Perry, the Texas governor, partly explained his remarks in an op-ed article in USA Today. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has sharply criticized Perry for calling Social Security's funding arrangement a "Ponzi scheme" and "monstrous lie" in a California debate last week. Read more

Rivals press Gov. Rick Perry on Social Security

Last we looked, there were more borrowers than bankers

Editorial from the Santa Fe New Mexican.com - So there they were last week, the partisans who'd done their darnedest to keep the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from being created, threatening to filibuster President Barack Obama's second nominee as leader of the badly needed agency. But no sooner was Congress back to work than the Senate Banking Committee pronounced his position, and the agency, too powerful. Nothing against Richard Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general — other than (ahem) his aggressive pursuit of banks and mortgage companies in the wake of the housing-market crash. It's just that we can't have the government going after the shifty credit-card and other lending practices of our nation's banks. After all, we owe them big-time for their campaign contributions — oops, strike that last part ... Cordray, who'd already been Obama's choice to head the bureau's enforcement division, very likely would bedevil Big Banking. In Ohio, he sued the monstrous GMAC Mortgage over home-loan abuses. For good measure, he issued strong warnings to banks whose loan officers had been sending out foreclosure notices without even reading them. He forced a temporary halt in foreclosures — until he was defeated for re-election by someone friendlier to financiers. Read more

Last we looked, there were more borrowers than bankers

Solar project: Expansion considered for Santa Teresa plant

From the El Paso Times.com - By Vic Kolenc - NRG Energy's new solar plant in Santa Teresa has been performing well in its first two weeks of operation. And the New Jersey company, along with El Paso Electric, which buys the plant's power, is studying the possibilities of adding more solar production in that area. "It's been performing well, performing to plan," Tim Hemig, vice president of development for NRG Solar, said last week. NRG Solar is the California-based subsidiary of NRG Energy, one of the nation's largest developers and operators of power plants. "We look forward to expanding the facility" in the future, Hemig said. "It's designed for expansion. We could double the size with the (additional) acreage we have available." The Roadrunner Solar Generating Facility is tucked into 210 acres of slightly rolling desert near the Santa Teresa port of entry. A chain-link fence topped with barbed wire surrounds 340,000 photovoltaic solar panels that can produce up to 20 megawatts of electricity. That's enough power to supply 6,600 homes in El Paso Electric's system. Read more

Solar project: Expansion considered for Santa Teresa plant

Holder and DOJ in Cover-Up Mode

Eric Holder

Daily Caller - The more we learn about the “Fast and Furious” scandal — in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) illegally facilitated the transfer of thousands of guns to violent drug cartels in Mexico — the more apparent it is that we are witnessing a large-scale cover-up of epic proportions. In fact, it’s getting difficult to keep up with all of the shuffling of key agency personnel who were involved in the deadly scandal. Here is a brief run-down of what transpired over the past two weeks:

Brian Terry

* BATFE director Kenneth Melson was reassigned by Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department to a new senior advisor role at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.
* Dennis Burke, the U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona, resigned from his post.
* Thanks to the tenacious investigations being led by House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-IA), it is now apparent that the lead prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office in Arizona, Emory Hurley, initially sought to cover up the fact that at least two illegal “Fast and Furious” guns were found at the murder scene of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. The Justice Department recently transferred Hurley out of its criminal division to its civil division.
* We now know that White House officials knew more about the deadly “Fast and Furious” operation than they previously disclosed. Three White House officials — Kevin O’Reilly, Dan Restrepo and Greg Gatjanis — all received back-channel communications about “Fast and Furious” from BATFE’s then-special agent in charge of Phoenix, Bill Newell. Newell, as you might recall, was recently reassigned to a new job at Justice Department headquarters. The Obama administration’s continued stonewalling and seemingly orchestrated cover-up of the “Fast and Furious” scandal is only adding to the overall tragedy of this situation. Read column here: News New Mexico

Holder and DOJ in Cover-Up Mode

Obama Officials Identify Source of Funds for "Jobs Bill"

Daily Caller - The Obama administration is asking Congress to raise taxes by $467 billion over 10 years to pay for the President’s one-year $447 billion stimulus, which he announced during a speech Thursday before a joint session of Congress. The president is pushing his jobs and growth package amid declining polls and zero job growth in August. The plan is intended to take effect several months after the 2012 election. During a Rose Garden press event Monday, Obama pitched his plan by playing up job losses and the stalled economy, ditching his previous claims that economic growth had returned. “If Congress does not act, just about every family will pay more taxes next year. That would be a self-inflicted wound that our economy can’t afford right now, Obama said. The changed campaign-trail rhetoric is part of Obama’s efforts to blame Congress, and the GOP specifically, for hindering economic growth. “If you want Congress to take action, I’m going to need everybody here … to make sure their voices are heard” by legislators. Obama did not mention the $447 billion price tag for the one-year stimulus he outlined in his Rose Garden appearance. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Obama Officials Identify Source of Funds for "Jobs Bill"

Perry Still Leads GOP

NewsNM note - Spence - Apparently nearly everyone who knows what a Ponzi scheme is, also knows Social Security is a Ponzi scheme.
Daily Caller - Perry leads the Republican field and is seen as the candidate most capable of beating Obama, according to a CNN/ORC poll released Monday. Thirty percent of Republicans say they would likely support Perry in 2012, while 18 percent say they would support Romney, 15 percent say they would support Palin and 12 percent say they would support Ron Paul. Without Palin in the race, Perry gets 32 percent of the vote, Romney gets 21 percent, and Ron Paul gets 13 percent. Romney and Perry’s numbers remain relatively unchanged from CNN/ORC’s last poll at the end of the August. However, both Michele Bachmann and Paul have seen their numbers move — in opposite directions. Last month, Paul got just 6 percent of the vote without Palin in the race, and now he is up to 13 percent. Bachmann, on the other hand, had 12 percent of the vote last month, and is down to 7 percent this month. With Palin in the race, she gets only 4 percent. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Perry Still Leads GOP

U.S. Dept. of Labor Data: There are 1.75 Private Sector Workers per Social Security Recipient

CNS - There were only 1.75 full-time private-sector workers in the United States last year for each person receiving benefits from Social Security, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Social Security board of trustees. That means that for each husband and wife who worked full-time in the private sector last year there was a Social Security recipient somewhere in the country taking benefits from the federal government.
Most state and local workers are part of the Social Security system and pay Social Security taxes; and, since 1984, all federal workers have been part of the system and pay Social Security taxes.

Charles Ponzi

However, unlike private sector workers who pay Social Security taxes with private-sector dollars, government workers pay their payroll taxes out of wages government pays them with tax dollars or with money that was borrowed by government and taxpayers must eventually repay. In its latest annual report, the Social Security board of trustees reported that the federal government’s total revenue from Social Security taxes in 2010—$544.8 billion—was not enough to cover Social Security’s total benefit payments—$577.4 billion. Read full story here: News New Mexico

U.S. Dept. of Labor Data: There are 1.75 Private Sector Workers per Social Security Recipient

Miller: A Contentious Start

Jay Miller

Inside the Capitol - SANTA FE -- The New Mexico Legislature is off to its expected contentious start. The starter's gun is fired by the governor with a proclamation setting the time and date of the session and the subjects to be covered. Normally proclamations are very official sounding but Gov. Susana Martinez's version seemed argumentative, more like a campaign speech. Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, of Roswell, called the proclamation "political rhetoric and antagonistic."

Tim Jennings

Jennings charged in an opening day floor speech that the governor unfairly portrayed lawmakers as tax-raisers who increase burdens on small businesses. Those weren't the only shots fired back and forth. In a Sunday Op-Ed piece in the Albuquerque Journal, Gov. Martinez said she was willing to work during the session but suggested that most legislators would have little to do so they should get busy with her agenda. Jennings shot back that Martinez's comments were absurd. He noted that he has been through four redistricting sessions and she has been through none. "What does she know," he asked? Read full column here: News New Mexico

Miller: A Contentious Start

Sandia Labs Gets $4 Million for Wind Turbine Research

KOB TV - Sandia National Laboratories has been awarded $4 million for wind turbine research. The money is part of a $43 million package of projects the Department of Energy is funding over the next five years to speed technical innovations, lower costs and shorten the timeline for deploying offshore wind energy systems. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Sandia Labs Gets $4 Million for Wind Turbine Research

Pimps and Working Girls in Town for State Fair

KRQE - With the New Mexico State Fair in full swing, friends and family are having fun playing games, eating food and screaming on rides. However, New Mexico State Police Sergeant Pete Estrada says he and his team of officers are on busy on patrol. "We do have the officers working on an elevated level due to 9-11 coming up," says Sgt. Estrada. Officers say they get the occasional drunk, who needs medical attention, but for the most part things have been tame. State Police has 31 officers on patrol, and their presence on the fairgrounds lasts all night. But the action that goes on after-hours near the state fair grounds is what they're keeping a close eye on. "The girls follow the state fairs, state-to-state, county-to-county," says an unnamed APD officer. The officer can't disclose his name because he's doing undercover work nabbing pimps and prostitutes. He says the influx of people to the New Mexico State Fair, brings out more work for APD. "Yesterday we had three prostitutes, three pimps, we seized two vehicles because the vehicles were used the transport them. The pimps had firearms on them to protect them so those firearms were seized and taken off the streets," said the officer. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Pimps and Working Girls in Town for State Fair

9-11 America Flag Burning in London

Daily Mail - Protesters set fire to the U.S. flag outside the American embassy in London yesterday during a minute's silence to mark the moment the first hijacked airliner hit the World Trade Centre. A group of 100 Muslim radicals, including members of Muslims Against Crusades, shouted 'USA terrorists' and brandished anti-American placards. One protester in Grosvenor Square said: "You will always face suffering, you will always face humiliation, unless you withdraw your troops from Muslim lands." Read full story here: News New Mexico

9-11 America Flag Burning in London