It was another day same news different people massacre

Commentary by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. - In the Albuquerque KOB-TV newsroom where I worked years ago was a sign, “Another Day, Same News, Different People.” Every day there were stories of auto accidents, shootings and investigations. They just happened to different people. Last Friday there was another massacre. The details do not matter. The reason for this latest murderer killing a bunch of innocents does not matter. The only thing that matters is the ease by which this was done. It was the latest of many “fish-in-a-barrel” shootings where victims have no way to fight back. The perpetrator started shooting knowing he was the only person armed because he was in a gun-free zone. The attraction for the shooter was that these victims were defenseless. The predictable political response after each of these “fish-in-the-barrel” massacres is that guns should be outlawed. Calls to disarm our population ignore that in Mexico guns have been outlawed yet Mexico is overrun with gun violence. Like our massacres, the citizens of Mexico are exterminated without recourse by criminals who smuggle in drugs and guns from all over the world. The Mexican government cannot stop them. Picture this: in the Old West a group of citizens are in a theatre when a gunman bursts in and starts shooting. What happens? The perpetrator is turned into a human sieve by the return fire from the audience. People in the Old West were armed. Do we have any Old West examples of someone attacking a group of people similar to our current massacres? We do not. Read column

Share/Bookmark

Audit the Fed Legislation Passes the House

Steve Pearce
Congressman Pearce issued the following statement on the House of Representatives’ passage of H.R. 459, legislation which would mandate a complete audit of the Federal Reserve Banks and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Fed) to be done by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).  Pearce voted in favor of the legislation which the House approved in a vote of 327-98. “While I appreciate Chairman Bernanke’s verbal commitment to transparency, the American people deserve full access to information on how tax dollars are being spent.  Given the Fed’s influence on U.S. financial policy and its lack of oversight, many Americans are concerned that it has become a hindrance to economic growth and prosperity.” Established under the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, the Fed was created with the intention of preventing financial disruptions by supervising and regulating the banking industry.  Since that time, the role of the Fed has expanded under numerous provisions, such as the Banking Act of 1935, the Employment Act of 1946, the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, and others. Read More News New Mexico


Share/Bookmark

SIC reallocating more than $7B in investments

New Mexico Business WeeklyThe New Mexico State Investment Council is in the middle of what might be the biggest asset reallocation effort in the U.S., shifting more than $7 billion to different investments and investment companies, State Investment Officer Steve Moise said Wednesday. The SIC, which manages $15.2 billion in state funds, has fired more than a dozen asset managers in the past two years and replaced them, Moise said during a breakfast presentation to the Economic Forum of Albuquerque. In addition, the SIC has sued 17 people in an attempt to collect “tens of millions of dollars” in lost earnings and improper fees that resulted from alleged pay-to-play schemes that plagued the SIC during the administration of former Gov. Bill Richardson, Moise added. “We are going to sue others, we are going to sue funds and we are going to sue managers,” Moise said. “We hope to recover tens of millions of dollars. Time will tell.” Read More News New Mexico

Share/Bookmark

Carlsbad Caverns Reopens Today

KRWG - Carlsbad Caverns National Park is expected to reopen today, two days after air contamination forced its closure.
Employees at the park had reported headaches and other illnesses earlier this week because of heavy fumes coming from the elevator shaft. The elevator takes visitors 750 feet below ground to view cave formations.
Park Superintendent John Benjamin says a contractor had been cleaning rails with a solvent, which sent vapors into the visitors center. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Share/Bookmark

Santa Rosa in a Pinch

KOB - The City of Santa Rosa said it will fight the state's efforts to reclaim $1.2 million after a private business (rumored to be county jail operator The Geo Group) operating in the city claimed it overpaid its taxes, then demanded and got a refund from the state.
The State of New Mexico then sent the city a $1.2 million bill - half the city's entire budget.
During a city council meeting Tuesday night, Santa Rosa residents learned the city has already been making some cuts. The city has cut down on fuel, travel, postage, paper - even toiletries.
It also plans on holding off on hiring, but said there will be no personnel layoffs or furloughs at this time. The city administrator announced he is not planning on making any major cuts because he does not plan on ever having to pay the full amount. He plans on fighting the state, and Santa Rosa residents are on board. Read full story here: News New Mexico
Share/Bookmark

The Anatomy of a Voter Fraud Operation

Richmond Times-Dispatch - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign is asking Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to launch an investigation into voter-registration forms that are being sent to Virginia residents and addressed to deceased relatives, children, family pets and others ineligible to vote.
The errant mailings from the Washington-based nonprofit group Voter Participation Center have befuddled many Virginia residents, leading to hundreds of complaints.
The organization has been mass-mailing the forms — pre-populated with key information such as names and addresses — to primarily Democratic-leaning voting blocs such as young adults, unmarried women, African-Americans and Latinos. Read full story here: News New Mexico
Share/Bookmark

Share/Bookmark

$1 Trillion Federal Deficit: Portion Went to Colorado Killer

CBS - James Holmes, the alleged gunman in the recent theater shooting that left 12 dead in Aurora, Colo., was previously awarded a $26,000 federal grant. WNEW News reports that Holmes was awarded a prestigious grant from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. NIH is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It gave the graduate student a $26,000 stipend and paid his tuition for the highly competitive neuroscience program at the University of Colorado in Denver. Holmes was one of six neuroscience students at the school to get the grant money.
Holmes is expected to be formally charged next Monday. He is being held on suspicion of first-degree murder, and he could also face additional counts of aggravated assault and weapons violations. Holmes has been assigned a public defender. Weeks before, Holmes quit a 35-student Ph.D. program in neuroscience for reasons that aren’t clear. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Share/Bookmark

Large NM Group Visits Congressional Delegation in Washington D.C. on LANL

Albuquerque Journal - Sometimes it takes intensive, focused, grass-roots action to make something happen in Washington, where big-money special interests dominate the agenda and the legislative pace is glacial.
Los Alamos National Labs
That’s why a coalition of business and civic leaders from northern New Mexico, hoping to stave off budget cuts at Los Alamos National Laboratory, traveled to the nation’s capital last week. The group of nine – including representatives of the Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Albuquerque Chambers of Commerce, Gov. Susana Martinez’s chief of staff and others – met with all five members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation, as well as top officials at the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Their message? Please don’t let LANL wither on the vine. The nation’s national security – and northern New Mexico’s shaky economy – depend on it.
The coalition, operating without a formal name, is an outgrowth of a similar trip that the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (comprised mostly of city and county officials) made to Washington in April to lobby for nuclear cleanup money at Los Alamos. Last week’s trip took a more business-centric approach. Read full story here: (subscription required) News New Mexico

Share/Bookmark