Michael Sanchez Not Hard to Figure Out

Michael Sanchez
Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez from Belen is troubled that Governor Susana Martinez decided not to plow more taxpayer money into more government programs in the vague hopes of solving the age-old drug abuse problem in New Mexico. When funding for a substance abuse treatment center did not appear on her list of capital outlay projects this week, Sanchez felt it was time to try sell the state’s citizens on more government.
In press releases earlier this week Sanchez eagerly explained to his readers why more taxpayer dollars should be thrown at the drug abuse problem. "It's hard to understand the Governor's rationale for not considering this a statewide priority,” he said. “The drug abuse problem will not get better until we get serious about fighting it," Sanchez added. Many think the term “get serious,” used by Sanchez is simply political-speak code for: reaching into the taxpayers pockets, building more government buildings, and hiring more bureaucrats so we can all hope New Mexico’s drug abuse troubles fade away. Sanchez was not all alone. Some others were also urging for additional use of taxpayer dollars to cure some people’s penchant for drug abuse. “Something has to be done now or we’ll lose generations to this killer that has already destroyed many lives, said Stacey Johnston, Vice President of the group Tears of Strength and Support (TOSS).
As we read these latest particularly shrill calls, from perennial new government program advocates, it seemed as if they would have us believe there is an easy solution to the drug problem. If Governor Martinez will simply throw more taxpayer money at drug abuse....it will get better. And since she is hesitant to do so, the drug abuse problem is now the fault of Governor, who was inaugurated less than ten months ago.
Susana Martinez
"How many lives, young or old, must be lost before this administration finds the money to help these families?" implored Senator Sanchez. Of course, what Sanchez did not say is that at every level of society we are cash strapped. As a matter of routine Sanchez simply calls for the throwing of more taxpayer dollars that we do not have, at people making poor choices. Read full column here: News New Mexico

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Veto Likely to Send Redistricting to Courts

Susanna Martinez
KOB TV - Two redistricting bills appear to be headed for a veto from Governor Susana Martinez. This sends the message that New Mexico’s political district will be approved in a courtroom, Republicans in the House of Representatives predict. "I don't believe the Governor is gonna sign the bill so it leaves us back at an impasse,” said House Minority Leader Tom Taylor. “The options at this point are to do nothing and go home and let the courts make the decisions or to get together and work on a compromise plan." Governor Martinez has expressed deep dissatisfaction with the House bill and its counterpart in the state Senate. Republicans said the new plan would reduce their ranks from 33 to 26 and misrepresent thousands of New Mexico voters. So far, Democrats have shown very little interest to compromise. Democratic party leaders said the bill is fair and should stand up in court. Read full story here: News New Mexico
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"Media Blinders"


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NM police getting cool hand-me-downs

From KRQE-TV.com - ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) - The U.S. Military is donating millions of dollars worth of specialized equipment, hand-me-downs, to police departments throughout New Mexico. The military goes through a lot of helicopters, humvees, computers, even portable kitchens. But instead of sending that to the scrapyard, the equipment is being used by law enforcmenet. Police say the program has been in use for years -- it's how San Juan and Bernalillo Counties got helicopters -- but now departments are using it more than ever because of tight budgets. "What it does is put law enforcement in touch with military equipment that they can use for crime fighting, drug busts and also for search and rescue, " said NMSP Captain Michael Waring. Read more
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Obesity Doesn’t Always Mean Shorter Life

From KOAT-TV.com - ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- New research suggests that being obese doesn’t necessarily mean that a person will have a shorter life than a thin person. A study from York University in Toronto claims that obese people live as long as slim people. Researchers monitored 6,000 obese Americans for 16 years and compared their risk of dying from any cause or from heart disease against the risk of 23,000 slim people. They found that people both groups had similar death risk. However, obesity significantly increased death risk when it was combined with other problems such as high-blood pressure or diabetes. Those participants were more than two times as likely to die from cardiovascular disease. Read more
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New Mexico's largest solar plant opens in Carlsbad

From KOB-TV.com - Carlsbad officials unveiled the largest solar power project in New Mexico on Thursday. Three of the five solar power plants in Southeast New Mexico went online, feeding enough electricity over the next 20 years to power almost 200,000 homes. Eddy and Lea counties added the additional energy source to their already impressive portfolio. "We have, of course, nuclear, we have bio fuels being produced down here, a vibrant oil and gas industry that's doing fantastic and now we have solar," said John Waters of Eddy County Economic Development. The 100 acres of photovoltaic panels will track the sun's movement in the sky for the next 20 to 30 years. It's all part of a plan to create clean, renewable energy and jobs. "What we have is a facility that employed people for a significant amount of time, and will continue to do so over the next 20 to 30 years," said Robert Reichenberger, Sun Edison spokesperson. "These panels and this facility are expected to last that long so we will continue to need people on the jobsite to monitor the project." Out of the three power plants online, two of them are in Jal and one is in Carlsbad. Read more
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PRC Commissioner Jerome Block Jr. thinking about resigning

From Capitol Report New Mexico.com - In an interview with the Santa Fe Reporter, beleaguered Public Regulation Commissioner Jerome Block Jr. is considering stepping down from his job: “I’m looking forward to being whole again,” Block says, “and if it takes a resignation from me to get some piece of mind, then that might be something I need to look into the next few weeks.” Block denies the allegations and says the state House impeachment process, for which $1 million has been set aside for, is an unfair burden to state taxpayers. When asked how long he thinks the impeachment process will take, Block says he hopes not too long. “I do feel for the taxpayers who have to foot that bill,” he says. “That will weigh in my decision whether I stay or not.” Block adds he would have stepped down immediately if he were charged or indicted. You can click here to read the entire article. On Thursday morning (Sept. 22), the House subcommittee assigned to determine if the numerous scrapes Block Jr. has had in recent months justify an impeachment proceeding met for the second time. Read more
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$26K can pushes anti-littering message

From the Santa Fe New Mexican.com - The New Mexico Tourism Department this spring paid $26,400 for an 8-foot-tall replica of a somewhat crumpled soda can that is intended to spread an anti-littering message. (See on left in Las Cruces at NMSU this last weekend.) The contract for the creation was signed last fall, before then-Gov. Bill Richardson left office. Spending for the monumental likeness of a used beverage container, which will be on display this weekend in Las Cruces, is part of the New Mexico Clean and Beautiful Program, which gets money from a motor vehicle tax. Officials say the giant can — made of wood, foam, plastic and wire mesh with a paneling system that allows it to be easily stored and set up — is supposed to help convince people not to litter. Read more
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Lawyers netted millions in solar loan deal

From the Washington Times.com - In the fallout of the collapse of solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC — a company awarded more than a half-billion dollars in federal loans before it went bankruptlate last month — members of Congress are demanding to know how all that money was spent. The answer, in part, can be found in a review of public federal contracting records, which detail payments to dozens of vendors and contractors that received funds reported through the $535 million in loan guarantees awarded to Solyndra to build a solar plant in Fremont, Calif. Before Solyndra went bankrupt and its headquarters were raided by the FBI, law firms that highlighted their work on the loan-guarantee package received millions of dollars in legal fees, according to payments disclosed through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Morrison Foerster, which represented the Department of Energy as the loan guarantor, received more than $1.9 million for legal services. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, which represented Solyndra, received more than $2.4 million. Read more
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FoxNews: Track NASA's Falling, 6.5-Ton Satellite in Real-Time

From FoxNews.com - A defunct NASA atmosphere-monitoring satellite the size of a small bus is set to plunge to Earth somewhere between Thursday and Saturday -- and the space agency's scientists say there's no way to precisely determine where it will crash, be it Africa or America, the Pacific Ocean or Pacific Heights. But thanks to a neat widget built exclusively for FoxNews.com by the satellite-tracking website N2YO.com, you can watch the UARS satellite as it courses through the heavens. Pinpointing where and when hurtling space debris will strike is an imprecise science. To calculate the orbit, N2YO.com runs information from the U.S. Air Force Space Command through a series of algorithms, and overlays it on mapping data from Google. For now, scientists predict the earliest it will hit is Thursday U.S. time, the latest Saturday. The strike zone covers most of Earth. Read more
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Gary Johnson’s zinger heard ‘round the world

From NM Politics.net - By - Johnson’s comment about dogs creating more ‘shovel-ready jobs’ than Obama – actually said first by Rush Limbaugh – earns former governor attention at GOP presidential debate - Yes, former N.M. Gov. Gary Johnson is still a presidential candidate, though most people paying marginal attention to the GOP primary probably didn’t know it. Until Thursday night. After being excluded from a number of debates, Johnson was finally allowed into one by Fox News. And while the media focused on the fighting between frontrunners Rick Perry and Mitt Romney, Johnson got credit for the best line of the night. Near the end of the debate, Johnson had this zinger: “My next-door neighbor’s two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than this current administration.” Read more
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Swickard - A truly new way of looking at politics

Commentary by Michael Swickard - To many people there is nothing but politics. Every problem, every solution, every news story for them centers on politics. The yardstick they carry only measures political influence and action. Example: when someone speaks of rain or lack of rain these people trot out the Global Warming political statements either to be proven or not by the evidence of rain.For these political junkies their world is a Zero Sum world where people either win or lose, there are no ties and no real cooperation. By its very definition running for office is either win or lose. In a political contest the person coming in second gets absolutely no seat at the table. Only the winner gets seated. You are either with us or against us.And then something totally unexpected happened in our country. A couple of years ago the TEA Party movement came into being. It was the summer of the ObamaCare debates. When elected representatives returned home for the summer recess, they were confronted with lots of citizens who hammered them about their support. In the middle of the reports, some reporters were looking for a way to describe all of these people who were not happy. A reference was made to the Boston Tea Party and some people said TEA stood for Taxed Enough Already.To be sure, there is not just one movement, rather, there are almost as many TEA Parties as there are people involved. Read Column
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Were Twin Towers felled by chemical blasts?

From The National Post - By Marlowe Hood - PARIS — A mix of sprinkling system water and melted aluminium from aircraft hulls likely triggered the explosions that felled New York’s Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, a materials expert has told a technology conference. “If my theory is correct, tonnes of aluminium ran down through the towers, where the smelt came into contact with a few hundred litres of water,” Christian Simensen, a scientist at SINTEF, an independent technology research institute based in Norway, said in a statement released Wednesday. “From other disasters and experiments carried out by the aluminium industry, we know that reactions of this sort lead to violent explosions.” The official report blames the collapse on the over-heating and failure of the structural steel beams at the core of the buildings, an explanation Simensen rejects. Given the quantities of the molten metal involved, the blasts would have been powerful enough to blow out an entire section of each building, he said. This, in turn, would lead to the top section of each tower to fall down on the sections below. The sheer weight of the top floors would be enough to crush the lower part of the building like a house of card, he said. The aluminium-water scenario would also account for explosions from within the buildings just prior to their collapse that have fuelled conspiracy theories suggesting that the structures had been booby-trapped. Simensen presented his theory at an international materials technology conference in San Diego, California, and has detailed his calculations in an article published in the trade journal Aluminium International Today. “The aluminium industry had reported more than 250 aluminium-water explosions since 1980,” he said. In a controlled experiment carried out by Alcoa Aluminium, 20 kilos (44 pounds) of molten aluminium was allowed to react with 20 litres of water, along with a small quantity of rust. “The explosion destroyed the entire laboratory and left a crater 30 metres (100 feet) in diameter,” Simensen said. Read more
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