Seeing red over the “Blue Book”

From Capitol Report New Mexico - It’s been a staple of journalists, lawmakers, teachers and just about anybody else interested in the New Mexico legislature and history. It’s simply called “The New Mexico Blue Book” and has been published since 1917. And now, even the humble “Blue Book” has become a cause for political controversy. Even though there is barely a month left in the terms of numerous state office-holders, outgoing Secretary of State Mary Herrera’s office is coming out with the 2010 version of the Blue Book in the coming weeks. Herrera says her office reduced the cost of publishing the 2010 version of Blue Book from about $75,000 to $44,000 by printing 5,000 rather than 15,000 copies. But at a time of severe budget problems, Rep. Larry Larrañaga (R-Bernalillo) criticized Herrera on KRQE-TV Monday night, saying:
“I’m dismayed that the secretary of state would take that action at the very close of her administration when we could be looking at saving money and helping the next administration. It’s not a book that people are holding their breath to read as it comes out.” Read more

Seeing red over the “Blue Book”

Dancing with the Death Threats - Hatred of Palin is "Progressive"

Bristol Palin

From NYDailynews.com - Bristol Palin's bid for the "Dancing with the Stars" crown has taken another ugly turn. The former Alaska governor's daughter and her dancing partner, Mark Ballas, have been receiving death threats in the lead up to Tuesday night's finale, TMZ reported. The threats resulted in ABC beefing up security in Los Angeles on Monday. Sources tell the gossip website that the show may break from its traditional format and not allow the duo to be interviewed outside Times Square if they head to New York, TMZ reported. Instead, it's likely Palin and Ballas will be interviewed inside the studio where it's safer. "Everyone is on high alert," a source told AOL gossip website Popeater. "It's like a scene from ‘The Bodyguard' with Bristol playing the leading lady." Read full story here:

Dancing with the Death Threats - Hatred of Palin is "Progressive"

Sowell: Airport Security?

Thomas Sowell

From Townhall.com - No country has better airport security than Israel-- and no country needs it more, since Israel is the most hated target of Islamic extremist terrorists. Yet, somehow, Israeli airport security people don't have to strip passengers naked electronically or have strangers feeling their private parts. Does anyone seriously believe that we have better airport security than Israel? Is our security record better than theirs? "Security" may be the excuse being offered for the outrageous things being done to American air travelers, but the heavy-handed arrogance and contempt for ordinary people that is the hallmark of this administration in other areas is all too painfully apparent in these new and invasive airport procedures. Read full column here:

Sowell: Airport Security?

Not in the Kennedy's Backyard?

From Bloomberg - Cape Wind may become the first U.S. offshore wind farm after Massachusetts regulators approved a contract permitting it to sell electricity, overcoming critics including the Kennedy family and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities posted the decision on its website today. The state’s governor, Deval Patrick, supported the project as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase renewable energy production. The contract with utility National Grid Plc may pave the way for an additional 6,300 megawatts in various stages of development, said Charlie Hodges, an offshore wind analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance in London.

The U.S. generates more power from wind than any country, all of which is based on land. “This is a significant win for Cape Wind and may help build momentum for other offshore wind projects,” Hodges said before the announcement. Massachusetts agreed to let National Grid Plc, a London- based company that delivers power to about 3.3 million customers in the U.S. Northeast, buy half of Cape Wind’s output for 18.7 cents per kilowatt-hour. That price will increase 3.5 percent annually for the 15 years of the contract. That rate is more than three times the average wholesale power price in the region of $55.02 a megawatt-hour, or 5.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, over the past year. Read full story here:

Not in the Kennedy's Backyard?

Financial Visionary Barney Frank Appalled by Republicans

From Bloomberg - Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said he’s “appalled” by Republicans who he said have sided with some foreign central banks in criticizing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke. “I was appalled to see a group of Republican economists from the Bush and Reagan administration” arguing against the Fed’s asset-purchase program. “Republicans are joining the central bank of China in attacking Bernanke. This is really distressing to me.” Frank, who spoke in an interview today on Bloomberg Television’s “In Business with Margaret Brennan,” called the Fed program to purchase $600 billion in assets through June “a very reasonable thing” that isn’t fueling inflation, as Republican critics contend. Read full story here:

Financial Visionary Barney Frank Appalled by Republicans

Kim Jong Il's Negotiating Ploy

Kim Jong Il

From Bloomberg - North Korea’s attack on a South Korean island, along with its disclosure of nuclear advances, is part of a strategy to draw the U.S. back to the negotiating table, analysts in the U.S. and Asia say. It isn’t likely to succeed, and the result could be increased tension between the U.S. and China, North Korea’s closest ally, said the analysts, including Bruce Klingner, a former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Korea branch. “If anything, it’s likely to have the reverse effect, in that Washington and Seoul are likely to be more determined to resist” North Korean tactics, said Klingner, now a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington research group. Read full story here:

Kim Jong Il's Negotiating Ploy

The Trouble with Socialism

Angela Merkel

From Bloomberg - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the prospect of serial European bailouts was “exceptionally serious,” sending the euro to a three-month low as officials estimated saving Ireland will cost 85 billion euros ($114 billion). Irish bonds dropped and the premium that investors demand to hold Spanish debt over German counterparts jumped to a euro- era record as the relief rallies triggered by Ireland’s Nov. 21 aid request evaporated. Traders are now betting the turmoil that started in Greece a year ago will spread to Portugal and Spain. Read full story here:

The Trouble with Socialism

Climate Change Math in Treaties Flawed by Suspect Calculations

Brooklyn Bridge (has been sold many times)

From Bloomberg - Euan Nisbet, a University of London earth sciences professor who has traveled the world testing the air for greenhouse-gas pollution, makes his way to a rocky outcropping on the eastern coast of Hong Kong Island on a sunny November afternoon. He takes out a battery-operated pump connected to a thin tube and a plastic bag to capture traces of the wind. “This is a good day for collecting samples,” says Nisbet, 61, looking out to sea. “There’s a good, strong breeze blowing in from the mainland. It’s the breath of China.”  Hooking up his air-sucking device, Nisbet says the world puts too much faith in government estimates of carbon dioxide, methane and other heat-trapping gases blamed for climate change, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue. That’s because companies and countries base emissions calculations on the raw materials that go into a factory or power plant; they don’t check the pollution that comes out. “It’s like going on a diet without weighing yourself,” explains Ray Weiss, a geochemistry professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California, whose article with Nisbet in the June issue of Science argues for measuring the atmosphere. Read full story here:

Climate Change Math in Treaties Flawed by Suspect Calculations

Save Us From the Intellectuals

Charles H. Franklin

From Townhall.com - by David Limbaugh Super-genius political science professor Charles H. Franklin of the University of Wisconsin, Madison recently gave loud voice to a widely held liberal belief: Ordinary Americans, especially conservative ones, are stupid. At a conference by the Society of Professional Journalists, alternative newspaper editor Bill Lueders asked Franklin why "the public seemed to vote against its own interests and stated desires, for instance by electing candidates who'll drive up the deficit with fiscally reckless giveaways to the rich." Franklin responded: "I'm not endorsing the American voter. They're pretty damn stupid." (Excuse my impertinence, but is there a grammatical glitch in the genius's formulation?) First, we should note that Franklin implicitly accepted Lueders' premise as fact: The voters who claim to be motivated by a passion to end reckless Washington spending had just elected candidates who will be fiscally irresponsible because they support "reckless giveaways to the rich." Read here:

Save Us From the Intellectuals

More Down the Throat Cramming from Jeff Bingaman

Jeff Bingaman

From NMPolitic.net - U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman hopes to pass an omnibus public lands bill during the lame-duck session that could include protection for hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Doña Ana County. “As chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee, Sen. Bingaman is working to develop a package of public lands bills that could be considered if there is time on the Senate floor during the lame duck session,” Bingaman spokeswoman Jude McCartin said. Read full story here:

More Down the Throat Cramming from Jeff Bingaman