News New Mexico: 10/06/10

Democrat Talking Heads Privately Diss Obama

No one would mistake Brad Blakeman for a Democrat. He is a former Bush White House aide who appears regularly on Fox News and other outlets as a Republican strategist. Yet Democrats are so disgusted with President Obama that when they shmooze with Blakeman in the green room before TV appearances, they diss the president. “They say how arrogant and disconnected Obama and his staff are,” Blakeman tells Newsmax. “They say that he refuses to take advice and basically demands that they toe his line no matter what.” If Democratic talking heads are disgusted with Obama, so are voters. “People aren’t buying the sales pitches,” Blakeman says. “They don’t like what he is selling. They have been burned by the product, and now they are looking elsewhere.”

Ironically, “The most dejected people are Democrats because they feel that they have been let down by the guy whom they thought was going to solve all of the problems,” Blakeman says. “The people who’ve supported this guy the most are the ones hurting the most — young people and the inner city urban population, where unemployment is 20 percent.” Obama’s solution to the widespread disenchantment with him has been to demonize rich people, the tea party movement, the Bush administration, and Fox News. Yet, in a Politico/George Washington University poll, 42 percent of respondents said Fox News is their main source of information about the upcoming election, compared with 30 percent who cited CNN and 12 percent who rely on MSNBC. Read more here:

Progressive and Rolling Stone Define Tea Party

From progressive.org - In a great piece this week for Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi defines the whole Tea Party movement with a few deft keystrokes: "millions of pissed-off white people sent chasing after Mexicans on Medicaid by the handful of banks and investment firms who advertise on Fox and CNBC." Taibbi spent months interviewing Tea Partiers, attending rallies, and researching the whole organization before he came to this conclusion.

Matt Taibbi

Among his findings: many of the most fervent Tea Party critics of government spending on stimulus and health care programs are themselves recipients of government largess--including retirees on Medicare; and Tea Party poster boy Rand Paul attacks Medicare and Medicaid spending but defends doctors like himself taking payments from these programs because they need them to "make a comfortable living. "It is impolitic to attack American voters' intelligence, of course--particularly for Democrats afraid of being labeled elitist and out of touch. But the deception that the Tea Party's creators are pulling off really leaves you scratching your head. read more here:

Apaches Join Sunland Park in Opposing Jemez Off Reservation Casino

MESCALERO — The Mescalero Apache Tribe and the Sunland Park racetrack and casino are opposing Jemez Pueblo's proposal to build a casino and hotel near Anthony, which is nearly 300 miles from the northern New Mexico pueblo. The Mescaleros and the Sunland Park track issued a statement on Wednesday saying the Jemez casino could hurt their businesses in southern New Mexico. The Mescaleros also object that the casino is proposed within their ancestral homelands. Jemez is partnering with Santa Fe art dealer Gerald Peters. Read more here:

Third Party Rising

From the New York Times - by Thomas Friedman - A friend in the U.S. military sent me an e-mail last week with a quote from historian Lewis Mumford’s book, “The Condition of Man,” about the development of civilization. Mumford was describing Rome’s decline: “Everyone aimed at security: no one accepted responsibility. What was plainly lacking, long before the barbarian invasions had done their work, long before economic dislocations became serious, was an inner go. Security was the watchword as if life knew any other stability than through constant change, or any form of security except through a constant willingness to take risks.” “We basically have two bankrupt parties bankrupting the country,” said the Stanford University political scientist Larry Diamond. We have to rip open this two-party duopoly and have it challenged by a serious third party that will talk about education reform, without worrying about offending unions; financial reform, without worrying about losing donations from Wall Street; corporate tax reductions to stimulate jobs, without worrying about offending the far left; energy and climate reform, without worrying about offending the far right and coal-state Democrats; and proper health care reform, without worrying about offending insurers and drug companies. “If competition is good for our economy,” asks Diamond, “why isn’t it good for our politics?” We need a third party on the stage of the next presidential debate to look Americans in the eye and say: “These two parties are lying to you. They can’t tell you the truth because they are each trapped in decades of special interests. I am not going to tell you what you want to hear. I am going to tell you what you need to hear if we want to be the world’s leaders, not the new Romans.” Read column

Geithner: Throwing Rocks at Foreign Currency Policies From the U.S. Fiscal Policy Glass House

Tim Geithner

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said a “damaging dynamic” of large economies keeping their currencies undervalued can cause inflation and asset bubbles, and called on countries to coordinate their policies. “More and more countries face stronger pressure to lean against the market forces pushing up the value of their currencies,” Geithner said in a speech today at the Brookings Institution in Washington. He said currencies are “inherently a multilateral issue. It’s much easier to solve if countries come together and do things to complement each other.”

Tim Geithner's House

Global exchange-rate policies are a source of contention ahead of this week’s meeting in Washington of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Group of 20 officials. Brazil’s Finance Minister Guido Mantega last week warned of a “currency war.” Read more here:

Stiglitz: U.S. Exporting Imbalances

Joseph Stiglitz

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said the Federal Reserve’s policy of cutting interest rates to a record low has had repercussions worldwide, including currency misalignments and the risk of asset price bubbles. “Fed policy was supposed to reignite the American economy, but it’s not doing that,” Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University in New York since 2001, said in a Bloomberg Television interview today. “The flood of liquidity is going abroad and causing problems all over the world.” Japan sold the yen last month for the first time in six years to spur exports and economic growth, joining countries across Asia and Latin America that have sought to temper gains in their currencies against the dollar. Tensions over exchange rate policies prompted Brazil’s Finance Minister Guido Mantega to warn Sept. 27 of a “currency war.” “The worry is that the flood of liquidity is going to cause what is sometimes being referred to as an emerging-market bubble,” Stiglitz said. “Money is going in, and the worry is it will cause a real estate bubble in one developing country or another.” The dollar fell to a 15-year low against the yen today after a private report showed U.S. companies unexpectedly cut jobs last month, fueling speculation the Fed will buy assets to spur a slowing economy. Read more here:

Herrera: Attempting to Deflect Multiple Allegations

Mary Herrera

From NMPolitics.net - Mary Herrera wants people to know that she has worked hard to clean up a mess she inherited when she became secretary of state in 2007. That has caused some employees to become disgruntled, Herrera claimed in a recent interview in Las Cruces. She said that’s the primary cause of much of the scandal that has plagued her tenure in office. “I inherited a $3 million deficit,” Herrera said. “I inherited employees that weren’t working 8-5. They were coming and going.” Herrera’s predecessor was former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron, who was indicted last year on 50 counts including money laundering, fraud, soliciting or receiving kickbacks and tax evasion in the alleged theft of millions of dollars from the office. Trial in that case is pending. Vigil-Giron and her co-defendants have pleaded not guilty. Read more here:

Gov Candidates Clarify Ideas on Energy Prices, Budget Gap, Jobs, Basic Economic Principles

Susana Martinez

From Capitol Report/New Mexico.com - Susana Martinez says she’ll put a moratorium on any cap and trade program; Diane Denish says she will weigh “options” The two candidates for governor appeared separately at the annual New Mexico Oil and Gas Association convention in Santa Fe on Monday (Oct. 4). While Democrat Diane Denish and Republican Susana Martinez have each come out against New Mexico taking part in a cap and trade program, Martinez came out with a specific plan for what she would do if the Environmental Improvement Board (EIB) passes one or both cap and trade proposals before it.

Diane Denish

Martinez says she would place an immediate moratorium on any cap and trade program and then went further — saying she would place a moratorium on Pit Rule 17. Denish, on the other hand, said she would “look at all the options” but did not get specific. Read and listen here:

2010: Year of the missing candidate

From the Politico.com - by Jonathon Martin - With a month left until the midterm elections, there is something noticeably absent from some key statewide races: the candidates. They’re ducking public events, refusing to publicize the ones they do hold and skipping debates and national TV interviews altogether – out of fear of a gotcha moment that will come back to haunt them. It’s mostly, but not entirely, a Republican phenomenon. In some cases, a tea-party-oriented candidate has made a plain calculation that a one-day, process story about an absence from the campaign trail or a refusal to debate is less damaging than the captured-on-tape gaffe the candidate could make when facing reporters. As of Friday, Colorado Republican Senate hopeful Ken Buck had gone nine consecutive days without holding a public event and acknowledged to The Denver Post that he’s more mindful now that he’s constantly being recorded by the ubiquitous 'trackers' being used by both sides. (With the fundraising quarter now done, however, he’s planning a more robust schedule for October.) Read more

Williams: Who Rules the Tea Party?

Armstrong Williams

From Townhall.com - Who rules the tea party? Is it Sarah Palin and her lunch pail brand of God, guns and the Constitution? Is it Dick Armey, the former House majority leader who danced to his own tune and was the mastermind behind the GOP’s Contract with America? Or is the tea party led by a few private mega-funders — a George Soros clan of the conservative movement? One thing is certain, liberals have no idea who their opponent is, and they and the mainstream media are desperate to find out. Several months ago, when the tea party crusade hit its stride with a Kentucky primary win by Rand Paul to succeed retiring Sen. Jim Bunning, a Republican, the Left went out of its way to link Mr. Paul as the puppet behind a larger Republican machine. Democrat operatives quickly labeled Mr. Paul and his style of politics as wholly indicative of what the GOP had become. As predicted, Republicans had reverted to their old-school style of hate politics, the storyline went, making this November a clear choice between “policies of the past” versus the future. Read more here:

Sowell - Red Herring Politics Part II

Thomas Sowell

From Townhall.com Some of the longest-serving members of Congress, whose party has overwhelming majorities in both houses, are having far closer election races than they are used to. These include Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, not to mention 18-year veteran Senator Barbara Boxer. Despite their long records, they seem to want to talk about everything except their records. They could tell us why they voted for ObamaCare and huge stimulus bills, without time enough to read them. Instead, they have come up with enough red herrings to stock an aquarium. One of the big distracting talking points is that the Republicans in Congress have been "the party of No." Given the overwhelming majorities of the Democrats in both houses, in addition to their control of the White House, whether the Republicans said "yes," "no" or "maybe" could not stop the Democrats from doing anything they wanted to do. Read more here:

Williams: Exploiting Economic Ignorance

Walter Williams

From Townhall.com - One of President Obama's campaign promises was not to raise taxes on middle-class Americans. So here's my question: If there's a corporate tax increase either in the form of "cap and trade" or income tax, does it turn out to be a middle-class tax increase? Most people would say no but let's look at it. There's a whole subject area in economics known as tax incidence -- namely, who bears the burden of a tax? The first thing that should be recognized is that the burden of a tax is not necessarily borne by the party upon whom it is levied. That is, for example, if a sales tax is levied on gasoline retailers, they don't bear the full burden of the tax. Part of it is shifted to customers in the form of higher gasoline prices. Suppose your local politician tells you, as a homeowner, "I'm not going to raise taxes on you! I'm going to raise taxes on your land." You'd probably tell him that he's an idiot because land does not pay taxes; only people pay taxes. That means a tax on your land is a tax on you. You say, "Williams, that's pretty elementary, isn't it?" Not quite. read more here:

Corn: Is Jon Stewart Good for Republicans

David Corn

Is Jon Stewart good for the Republicans? Anyone who doesn't live in a house with rotary phones and no cable knows that the host of "The Daily Show" is organizing a Rally to Restore Sanity in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 30. (The day before Halloween -- a coincidence? I think not.) Stewart's battle cry is simple: "We're looking for the people who think shouting is annoying, counterproductive, and terrible for your throat; who feel that the loudest voices shouldn't be the only ones that get heard." Though he doesn't call it such, this demonstration is a response to angry Tea Party gatherings of the past year or so and Glenn Beck's whatever-it-was in Washington on Aug. 28. And as part of the joke -- I mean, strategic plan -- Stephen Colbert will be holding a "Keep Fear Alive" counter-march on the same day. Read more here:

As Newspapers Inhale Cash From Medical Marijuana Ads, NY Times Skips Usual Ethics Questions

From NewsBusters.com - by Clay Waters - Medical marijuana is an evergreen (pardon the pun) topic for alternative weeklies, along with the return of vinyl records. The recent loosening of federal regulations under Obama have pushed the issue into the mainstream, with one surprising side effect -- a huge boost in ad sales for alternative papers and even some mainstream dailies, as medical marijuana businesses like "Happy Buddah" and "High Mike's" attempt to entice customers, er, patients. But the New York Times, usually hypersensitive to how corporate advertising affects coverage of industry-related issues, didn't spot any potential conflicts in this case, even as a newspaper executive lamented how a tightening of a state law on medical marijuana could adversely affect his newspaper ad sales. Reporter Jeremy Peters' report from Colorado Springs, "New Fuel for Local Papers: Ads for Medical Marijuana," on Tuesday's front page, failed to question whether such massive advertising for a controversial product could influence a newspaper's journalism. By comparison, the Times banned tobacco cigarette ads from its pages in 1999, and tobacco companies have long been prohibited from advertising their products on television and radio. When it hit the streets here last week, the latest issue of ReLeaf, a pullout supplement to The Colorado Springs Independent devoted to medical marijuana, landed with a satisfying thud. A full-page ad in ReLeaf costs about $1,100, making the publication a cash cow for The Independent, which has used its bounty from medical marijuana ads this year to hire one new reporter and promote three staff members to full time. Read more

Congress Can't Repeal Economics

By John Stossel - It's raining! I don't like it! Why hasn't Congress passed the Good Weather Act and the Everybody Happy Act? Sound dumb? Why is it any dumber than a law called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which promised to cover more for less money? When Obamacare was debated, we free-market advocates insisted that no matter what the president promised, the laws of economics cannot be repealed. Our opponents in effect answered, "Yes, we can." Well, Obamacare has barely started taking effect, and the evidence is already rolling in. I hate to say we told them so, but ... we told them so. The laws of economics have struck back. Health insurers Wellpoint, Cigna, Aetna, Humana and CoventryOne will stop writing policies for all children. Why? Because Obamacare requires that they insure already sick children for the same price as well children. That sounds compassionate, but -- in case Obamacare fanatics haven't noticed -- sick children need more medical care. Insurance is about risk, and already sick children are 100 percent certain to be sick when their coverage begins. So if the government mandates that insurance companies cover sick children at the lower well-children price, insurers will quit the market rather than sandbag their shareholders. This is not callousness -- it's fiduciary responsibility. Insurance companies are not charities. So, thanks to the compassionate Congress and president, parents of sick children will be saved from expensive insurance -- by being unable to obtain any insurance! That's how government compassion works. Read more

Ranchers not just crying wolf

From the Westerner - Dick Thoman, a fourth-generation sheep rancher in Wyoming, woke up one morning and found 42 of his sheep bloody and dead on the open range. They had been slaughtered by wolves. The wolves didn't kill only what they needed to survive, and they didn't kill because they were hungry, as some like to claim. They killed for sport; they killed because that's what wolves do. Not one of the sheep had been eaten. "Just killed 'em and left 'em," says Thoman. Thoman's summer range borders Yellowstone. He loses 300 to 400 sheep a year to wolves, or about 10 percent of his herd. Why would they chase wild game in the park for hours on end when they can find them all bunched up and defenseless on adjacent ranches? It's like a grocery store on hooves. Did anybody not see that coming? "They've slaughtered us since they brought them back," Thoman says. "It's terrible." This doesn't even take into account Thoman's other losses. With wolves around, sheep are nervous. Imagine having a terrorist loose in the neighborhood each night, trying to get into your house to kill you. The sheep don't sleep or eat as well. "We probably lost 15 pounds per lamb over the summer, and at a dollar a pound and over 3,000 lambs, that adds up," says Thoman...more

ZUBRIN: Tax tyranny is upon us

From the Washington Times - by Robert Zubrin - This is the matter of 1099 tyranny. You see, while he was ramming through the health care bill, Harry Reid hid in its 2,500 pages of gibberish a provision requiring all businesses - big, small and even sole proprietorships - to file a 1099 form reporting every purchase of $600 or more from every vendor - including small purchases adding up to $600 or more. This bill will not bring the federal government any tax revenue. Rather, by adding to the overhead of companies big and small, it will take away from their bottom line and reduce the taxes they are able to pay accordingly. In my case, I will have to hire a person for $50,000 per year to do nothing but try to obtain and verify the information of such forms. That will cost the federal government $12,000 in lost taxes. But it gets worse. Because there is no fundamental difference between a sole proprietorship and any private person, there is no reason why this provision, if accepted, should not be applied to every taxpayer. Consider: Do you know how much you spent at your local grocery store last year? Certainly more than $600. But how much exactly? What, you don't know? You will need to know, or under this law, you would commit tax fraud by failing to report accurately the exact amount you spent at every store, hotel, gas station, airline, etc., at which you spent $600 over the course of the year. You would need to get a 1099 from each of them to include in your tax return. If you failed to do so, you could be subject to prosecution. Read more

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