Teachers and Students Want Access to YouTube

From edweek.com -McDougall can access those videos online, because they come from sites with strictly educational content. But other videos, like those posted on YouTube or social networking sites, are not available in Albuquerque Public Schools because of a districtwide filter that blocks access to them. The block, which has been in place for years, is intended to keep students from viewing inappropriate or distracting content.  More News New Mexico
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Proponents haven’t shown how voter ID would prevent fraud

From NM Politics.net - by Cisco McSorley - First of all, we must distinguish between the crime of illegally registering to vote and the crime of fraudulently casting a vote. Then, the case must be made to demonstrate how voter ID would prevent either of these two crimes. There are no documented cases of illegal registration or voter fraud that would have been prevented by the voter ID bill. Read column
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Green Chile Lovers Fired up Over Genetic Modification

From huffingtonpost.com -Some are worried about the future of New Mexico's signature crop. Labor costs, relentless plant diseases and competition from cheap imports have combined to put the chile industry in a steep decline. Scientists at New Mexico State University are helping through a series of efforts aimed at unlocking the genetic mysteries of red and green chile, but that has some pepper purists fired up. The thought of genetically engineering chile has galvanized a group of seed conservationists and others who are sympathetic to the national protests targeting corporate greed and economic inequality. The group is concerned that if scientists develop a genetically engineered pepper to boost the industry, small growers could face patent lawsuits if their crops become cross-contaminated by the new seeds. They're also worried about a lack of labeling of genetically modified foods and the potential for New Mexico's traditional varieties to be forever altered.  More News New Mexico
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Holder's Justice Dept. Explains in a "Letter" Why it Misled Congress on Operation Fast and Furious

Eric Holder
Yahoo News - WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Friday provided Congress with documents detailing how department officials gave inaccurate information to a U.S. senator in the controversy surrounding Operation Fast and Furious, the flawed law enforcement initiative aimed at dismantling major arms trafficking networks on the Southwest border. In a letter last February to Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Justice Department said that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had not sanctioned the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser and that the agency makes every effort to intercept weapons that have been purchased illegally. In Operation Fast and Furious, both statements turned out to be incorrect.
The Justice Department letter was responding to Grassley's statements that the Senate Judiciary Committee had received allegations the ATF had sanctioned the sale of hundreds of assault weapons to suspected straw purchasers. Grassley also said there were allegations that two of the assault weapons had been used in a shootout that killed customs agent Brian Terry. Read full story here: News New Mexico

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Obama Planning 17 Day Holiday Vacation

The White House Travel Office has indicated in a memo regarding the "Trip of the President to Honolulu, Hawaii that the president will begin his vacation on December 17th, 2011 and end on January 2nd, 2012. It is a brief memo. In the "Trip Overview" section it says......no public events are scheduled during the trip. 
These plans seem to contradict his claim that he will not "rest" until every American who is able and willing to work can find a job. Yesterday the U.S. Department of Labor announced that 315,000 gave up on their searches for jobs. You can one of the videos where he makes this promise here: News New Mexico

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Businesses, Tea Partiers, and Occupiers

Jim Spence
Former Obama Green Jobs Czar Van Jones has become the architect of the occupy movement's tactical planning. It appear his next step is to "blocade" U.S. ports and shipping traffic. How this might help the so-called 99% nobody is saying.
The truth is for a relatively small group, the “occupy" movement has managed to garner a remarkable amount of attention from the national media. Unlike the majority of reporters in the news media, business people see the themes of the occupiers as deeply destructive. When interviewed, occupiers use the language of naïve contradiction. They use the term "corporations" within the context of their mortal enemies. And their only concrete proposal seems to be for the federal government to confiscate more money from the nation’s top “1%” of income earners.
Business people can’t relate to the demonization of “corporations.” They see corporations as valued suppliers, strategic partners, worthy competitors, or better yet, as potential customers. Whether incorporated or not, all private employers must compete to survive, provide wages, and offer benefits. Business people see the occupiers for what they are; mindless wealth confiscators and naïve job destroyers.
Tea partiers and occupiers do agree that the nation is headed in the wrong direction. However, this is where their similarity ends. Occupiers are defined by their childlike attribution of moral superiority to the daily activities of those who draw their paychecks from government. Instead, tea partiers grasp the simple notion that the nation’s unemployment rate remains high, not because of the corporations still operating in America, but because so many corporations have gone broke or been forced to relocate offshore by an abusive, self-justifying, and over-reaching army of federal government bureaucrats.
Contrary to assertions of the occupiers, history will show that for decades the anti-business types have been more politically influential in America than free market capitalists. While occupiers worship government and whine about the payment of “fair shares,” half of all American households pay no federal income tax whatsoever in support of their government. Accordingly, it is the ultimate twist of irony that occupiers are oblivious to the fact that America is already getting precisely what their movement is clamoring for.
Ignorant of the causes behind the dismal economic trends the occupier’s policy preferences have put in place, the movement complains that almost everybody in America is losing ground….hence their latest need is for new scapegoats. Successful people have become a conveniently safe bet for the occupiers in their endless blame game. Unfortunately, it turns out that the so-called “1%” is actually the job creating segment of society.
In the end, too many of American job creators are too stuck in survival mode to justify spending more time away from their operations simply to run for political office. Putting a stop to the anti-business nonsense that is destroying the economic foundations of America will require more than mere passive resistance from the business community. What Americans are witnessing is a vicious negative economic feedback loop. The occupiers and those who sympathize with their Marxist views have been making the rules and bankrupting the nation.
Most business people wish there were more tea partiers because tea partiers appreciate and respect private property rights. Tea partiers are more fun to be around because they are disinclined to make concessions on their personal hygiene. Most importantly, tea partiers fully embrace a favorable view of free market capitalism; not because they hope for utopia, but because they have sufficient common sense to understand free markets are vastly superior to any attempt at policies that rely heavily on government to create a path to higher living standards.


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