Fiscal conservatives and liberals teaming up to change NM’s drug policy

From Capitol Report New Mexico.com - New Mexico spends an estimated $22 million a year in prison and probation costs for non-violent drug offenders. Is there a better use of that money? Some fiscal conservatives think so and they’re joining with liberals to try to change the way New Mexico — as well as the nation – handles drug users. The Rio Grande Foundation, a free-market think tank based in Albuquerque, and the Drug Policy Alliance co-hosted a forum last Tuesday (Oct. 25) that brought a number of Republican and Democratic state lawmakers as well as state government officials together to talk about finding common ground “to map a more rational public safety and health response to drug policy and criminal justice.” (Full disclosure: Capitol Report New Mexico is funded by the Rio Grande Foundation.) In a nutshell, fiscal conservatives who think there are more financially efficient ways to deal with the drug problem than a ”lock ‘em up” mentality are working with traditional liberals who have generally considered the war on drugs a failure from a policy and civil liberties perspective. Read more

Fiscal conservatives and liberals teaming up to change NM’s drug policy

The curious fate of students who find nothing curious in schools

From NM Politics.net - Commentary by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. - The core of our dysfunction is the schools are ignoring the most basic principle of learning. It is driven almost entirely by the curiosity of humans and their need to have the tools to satisfy that curiosity. Speaking for myself, curiosity is the one commonality in my life. Over my 61 years it is the currency of my life and the reason I became educated. Public-school life for me was many long years of an anti-curiosity environment (shut up and sit quietly) and I just barely made it to high-school graduation. They kept trying to teach me stuff in which I had no interest. I retained nothing of that forced upon me when I had no interest. A very few public school teachers did engage my curiosity and interest. It was wonderful each time. Throughout my years of public education I insisted that the schools could not teach me anything in which I had no interest. They said they could. They did not. Nor, when I was a public school teacher (what irony), could I teach students who had no interest in my lessons. The only way for me to prevail was to get the students’ curious about my subjects. Otherwise it was the proverbial trying to teach a pig to whistle. They say you should not try to do so since you cannot do it and it only annoys the pig. Read Commentary

The curious fate of students who find nothing curious in schools

Commentary: 'Drill, Baby, Drill' Remains Republican Solution Even After Oil Spill

From the Huffington Post - By DINA CAPPIELLO - WASHINGTON -- It's still "drill, baby, drill." After the nation's largest offshore oil spill and a series of pipeline breaks, Republican presidential candidates are pushing an aggressive policy of oil and gas drilling that echoes the party's rallying cry from four years ago. The millions of gallons of oil that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico last year and the crude that flowed from pipelines into Montana's Yellowstone River and Michigan's Kalamazoo River have put a spotlight on the environmental risks of energy production. But with jobs and the economy in the forefront, nearly every GOP White House contender has a plan to harness the nation's resources as a way to create employment by getting rid of environmental rules and opening up vast areas to drilling. Texas Gov. Rick Perry says we are sitting "on a treasure trove of energy in this country." Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has said "we're an energy-rich nation that's acting like an energy-poor nation." And since former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in 2008 published his book "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less," he has touted more drilling in Alaska and the West to create jobs and drive down gasoline prices. For some, no place is off limits. Romney thinks the country can drill safely off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Read more

Commentary: 'Drill, Baby, Drill' Remains Republican Solution Even After Oil Spill

Poll: Gun ownership at 20-year high

From YahooNews.com - By Liz Goodwin The Lookout - Nearly half of Americans say they have a gun in their household, the highest percentage since 1993, according to a new Gallup poll. Forty-seven percent of Americans say they have a gun on their property. Gun ownership is up among Republicans as well as Democrats, though only 40 percent of Democrats say their home has a gun, compared to 55 percent of Republicans. Support for personal gun-ownership rights is also at a high. (The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus four points.) Reported gun ownership dropped sharply in the early 1990s and remained in the low 40s until today. Gallup says it's hard to know whether fewer people actually owned guns over that period or if they felt uncomfortable saying they did due to lower public support for gun ownership. Read more

Poll: Gun ownership at 20-year high

Napolitano Grilled Over ‘Fast and Furious’

From FoxNews.com - House Republicans on Wednesday turned their sharp questioning over "Operation Fast and Furious" toward Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who acknowledged her agents were twice told to "stand down" in deference to what she called a "very troublesome" operation. Napolitano, at one point likening the questioning to a cross-examination, said repeatedly she only learned of "Fast and Furious" after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in December. She emphasized the operation, conceived and run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, "was an ATF operation," under the auspices of the Justice Department, not her department. Napolitano said she has never spoken with Attorney General Eric Holder about "Fast and Furious," a revelation Republicans strongly criticized. Napolitano said one reason she hasn't spoken to Holder directly about "Fast and Furious" is that the Justice Department's inspector general is currently engaged in an investigation into the matter, and she said she wouldn't know details about "Fast and Furious" because it "was an ATF operation." During a lengthy back-and-forth, Napolitano acknowledged that wiretap applications are approved by the Justice Department and include a "summary" or "narrative" of the case. But when Rep. Trey Gowdy asked Napolitano. "If there were [wiretaps] approved in 'Fast and Furious' -- and there were -- the Department of Justice would had to have known about it, correct?" Napolitano wouldn't comment, telling lawmakers she would "leave that for your own investigation." Read more

Napolitano Grilled Over ‘Fast and Furious’

Commentary: It's time to raise California's gas tax

From the LA times.com - by George Skelton - California urgently needs more money to rebuild its public facilities. Increasing the gas tax, last boosted 21 years ago, would let the state pay for much-needed transportation projects without costly borrowing. There are three main reasons why the state has not been rapidly rebuilding California's public facilities, despite an urgent need. Two of them I've written about recently: gubernatorial ambivalence and bureaucratic inertia. But the third is a more long-term problem. The state simply does not have enough money to build all that it needs.A massive public works program is essential to stimulate the stagnant economy, create tens of thousands of jobs and — over the long haul — restore California to greatness after decades of sweeping its decaying infrastructure under the political rug. Read commentary

Commentary: It's time to raise California's gas tax

'Occupy Wall Street' Protesters Debate How to Deal With $500,000 in Donations

From FoxNews.com - NEW YORK – Once a rag-tag group that relied on donated pizzas for sustenance, the protesters camped out in a Lower Manhattan park are grappling with a new problem: how to manage and spend the nearly $500,000 they've raised in five weeks.
Donors have showered the Occupy Wall Street protesters with more cash than many expected, and that has prompted a flurry of requests for spending. It has also spurred members of a movement that has thus far prided itself on its decentralized structure to consider steps that would require the formation of a real organization, with officers and a board of directors. Read more

'Occupy Wall Street' Protesters Debate How to Deal With $500,000 in Donations

Obama Offers Money to Students for.......

Daily Caller - President Barack Obama’s new student loan policy will force working class Americans to pay the ballooning college costs of middle class Americans, and will also hinder needed reform of the bloated education sector, say critics. Obama is “shifting the burden of paying for college to all of those Americans who did not graduate from college — the waitresses, construction workers, mechanics — and that should infuriate the taxpayers who worked hard to pay off their loans, who decided to live a modest lifestyle to pay off their loans,” said Lindsey Burke, an analyst at the Heritage Foundation. Obama’s policy is also widening the class division between working-class Americans and those with college credentials, said Matthew Denhart, a researcher at the Center for College Affordability and Productivity in Washington, D.C. Whatever the real costs, the new subsidy could benefit Obama’s standing among the disenchanted voters in the coveted 20-something demographic. Almost 70 percent of that group voted for him overwhelmingly in 2008. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Obama Offers Money to Students for.......

The "Republican Congress?"

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

The Hill - President Obama and Democrats on Capitol Hill are increasingly referring to the Congress as “Republican” even though their party controls one-half of the unpopular institution. Obama and his allies have started to deploy the phrase “Republican Congress” in what some experts see as a clear attempt to gain a political advantage. “I’m the first one to acknowledge that the relations between myself and the Republican Congress have not been good over the last several months, but it’s not for lack of effort,” Obama told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos earlier this month. “It has to do with the fact that, you know, they’ve made a decision to follow what is a pretty extreme approach to governance,” he said. And other Democrats have used the term.

Senator Al Franken

“I’m sure the president would like it to be creating jobs more quickly. And if the members of the do-nothing Republican Congress would actually put a couple of oars in the water and help us, [we could] do these things like [Mississippi] Gov. [Haley] Barbour mentioned that make so much sense,” Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” earlier this month. Is it a harmless slip of the tongue, or a subtle messaging strategy? Political experts believe it’s the latter. Read full story here: News New Mexico

The "Republican Congress?"

Rep. Cook Not in Balderas Camp, Spouse Is

Zach Cook

Zach Cook, State Representative District 56, issued the following statement regarding the Santa Fe New Mexican’s report that he made a campaign donation to Senate candidate Hector Balderas: “The Santa Fe New Mexican reported Wednesday that I made a contribution to Hector Balderas's campaign. That contribution came from a joint checking account that I share with my wife, Angie. Angie went to law school with Mr. Balderas and they have remained friends over the years. Like many couples, my wife and I don't always agree on politics. Angie intended to make the contribution to the Balderas campaign solely in her name. For my part, I stand firmly behind Heather Wilson for the U.S. Senate.” Representative Cook has publicly endorsed Heather Wilson for the US Senate and will request a correction to the FEC report from the Balderas campaign.

Rep. Cook Not in Balderas Camp, Spouse Is

Liability Limits Sought by Spaceport America

Las Cruces Sun-News - Spaceport America's future hinges upon a proposed change in the law being pitched for next year's Legislature, spaceport officials contended Tuesday. The measure would limit legal liability for companies supplying parts for spaceflight equipment and vehicles, said New Mexico Spaceport Authority executive director Christine Anderson. The bill would prevent passengers of Virgin Galactic suborbital spaceflights from suing the supplier companies if something malfunctions. Anderson said the legislation wouldn't, however, prohibit them from suing in the event of gross negligence or an intentionally caused problem. The New Mexico Spaceport Authority board on Wednesday voted unanimously to back the proposed legislation. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Liability Limits Sought by Spaceport America

"The United Statists of America"

  Courtesy of Conservativedailynews.com

"The United Statists of America"

Volunteer Fire Dept. Vehicle Transports Illegals?

Alamogordo Daily News - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are investigating four men two of whom may be illegal immigrants who came through the Border Patrol checkpoint during the weekend in an emergency vehicle. Otero County Sheriff Benny House said an Otero County Volunteer Fire Department emergency rescue vehicle, assigned to the Chaparral area, entered the U.S. Highway 54 South Border Patrol checkpoint around 7:30 a.m. Saturday en route to Alamogordo. He said Border Patrol agents conducted standard questioning of the driver. Three occupants of the rescue vehicle were all dressed in volunteer fire department attire and claimed to be U.S. citizens. House said three of the occupants provided agents with New Mexico driver's licenses for identification. The men all claimed to be going to Alamogordo to attend a training session, he said.Read full story here: News New Mexico

Volunteer Fire Dept. Vehicle Transports Illegals?