News New Mexico

51 Dead Over Weekend - 9 More on Monday

From the El Paso Times - EL PASO -- A suspected Juárez drug trafficker appeared in U.S. District Court in El Paso on Monday after being extradited from Mexico even while rampant bloodshed continued in Juárez. Felipe Dominguez Vargas is purported to be a "cell head" running a drug-trafficking ring that smuggled heroin, cocaine and marijuana into El Paso County to be distributed throughout the United States, a DEA spokeswoman said. It was unclear what cartel Dominguez worked for. Dominguez, a Mexican citizen, was arrested in Juárez by Mexican authorities in November.

On Aug. 10, Mexico's attorney general's office, or PGR, extradited Dominguez and handed him over to the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration at the PGR airplane hangar at the Mexico City airport, officials said. The DEA said Dominguez made his initial appearance in federal court Monday morning in Downtown El Paso. He waived a detention hearing. He faces six counts of conspiracy to distribute heroin, cocaine and marijuana. If convicted, he could face up to life in prison. In Juárez, street shootings and other violence continued Monday after a bloody weekend. There had been nine homicides as of Monday evening. Fifty-one people were slain between Friday and Sunday, a police spokesman said. There were 24 homicides on Sunday, making it one of the deadliest days of the year. Read more here:

Thomas Sowell - Dismantling America Part I

Thomas Sowell

"We the people" are the familiar opening words of the Constitution of the United States-- the framework for a self-governing people, free from the arbitrary edicts of rulers. It was the blueprint for America, and the success of America made that blueprint something that other nations sought to follow. At the time when it was written, however, the Constitution was a radical departure from the autocratic governments of the 18th century. Since it was something so new and different, the reasons for the Constitution's provisions were spelled out in "The Federalist," a book written by three of the writers of the Constitution, as a sort of instruction guide to a new product.

The Constitution was not only a challenge to the despotic governments of its time, it has been a continuing challenge-- to this day-- to all those who think that ordinary people should be ruled by their betters, whether an elite of blood, or of books or of whatever else gives people a puffed-up sense of importance. Read more here:

Progressive Magazine - Managing the War on Terror

Gen. David Petraeus

From Progressive Magazine - General David Petraeus is in the midst of his Afghanistan offensive. But it’s not against the Taliban; it’s against those in Congress, and those of us in the public, who oppose the ongoing—and escalating—Afghan war. Petraeus is preparing the battlefield for next summer, when President Obama is on record as saying the withdrawal from Afghanistan will commence. Petraeus announced very publicly over the weekend that he didn’t take the job as top general in Afghanistan to preside over “a graceful exit,” and he affirmed that he may advise Obama to delay the withdrawal. Read more here:

Secretary of State Herrera Accused of Criminal Activity

Mary Herrera

From NMPolitics.net - Secretary of State Mary Herrera is under fire once again, this time from Office Administrator Manny Vildasol, who secretly recorded video in Herrera’s office and says he has turned it over to the FBI because it shows “issues of criminal activity and unethical behavior.” Vildasol made that comment to KOB-TV reporter Gadi Schwartz, who included the allegations in a report about Herrera’s laptop computer being infected with viruses. KOB had a difficult time getting “a straight answer” on what exactly was found on Herrera’s computer, according to the report. Read more here:

Heath on Denish and Martinez

Heath Haussamen

NMPolitics.net founder Heath Haussamen weighs in on some of the sound bytes and news stories associated with the New Mexico gubernatorial campaign.
Diane Denish’s frequent use of a state jet and Susana Martinez’s purchasing of office supplies from a business owned by an employee create negative appearances that will harm their credibility with voters. Read more here:

Daniel Webster, GOP House Candidate, Proposes Budget That Would Cut Social Security Benefits

From the Huffington Post - A Republican House candidate in Florida wants senior citizens to share the burden of reducing the national budget deficit through cuts to Social Security benefits. "My number one priority would be to cut spending, turn off the spigot. We can do that, and the way we would do that is to roll back the budget to 2007," said Daniel Webster during a Tea Party forum for Republican candidates Read more

New lawsuit filed over Chicago's gun limits

By Bob Unruh - WorldNetDaily - Only months after the Supreme Court struck down the city's restrictions on guns, Chicago is the target of a new lawsuit because it now requires gun owners to practice at gun ranges but bans the ranges themselves. "While the city has adopted new regulations that make it legal to own handguns," said Alan Gottlieb, executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation, "they have crafted this new ordinance to make it virtually impossible for prospective gun owners to meet all legal requirements unless they travel outside the city for mandatory training. The new ordinance prohibits public gun ranges inside the city yet the city demands that handgun owners get at least one hour of range training time." Read more

Toeing the Party Line: Are You Voting for Nancy Pelosi?

by Meredith Turney - Last week Minnesota Senator Al Franken provided a less-than-ringing endorsement of embattled South Dakota Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin. One of many incumbents facing a tough reelection campaign, Democrats are rallying to save those vulnerable members of their party from the growing anti-incumbent anger amongst voters. But, even in a tough election season, what would cause one of the most liberal members of the U.S. Senate to advocate for the co-chairman of the Blue Dog Democrat Caucus? Franken was clear that, although he doesn’t always agree with Herseth Sandlin on key policy issues (she’s much too conservative for über-liberal Franken), there is one thing that causes him to support her reelection. “She has voted differently than I voted on a couple of things, but we need to be able to have somebody here in South Dakota who’s going to vote for Speaker Pelosi, not for Speaker Boehner," explained Franken. For Democrats, that’s what this election boils down to: who will return Nancy Pelosi and her ilk to leadership? It’s a crass political calculation that voters must take into account as they cast their ballots this November. Read more

Flooding Near Schools a Peek into the Future?

Mesa Middle School off Jornada Road

It looks like the temporary road LCPS plans to build near Mesa Middle School and Monte Vista Elementary is not going to be the only flood plagued road in the area. Apparently a portion of the "other" access road to the schools is also unable to deal with rains. Too bad the Las Cruces City Council denied the special assessment district financing from moving forward that could have provided $10 million in New Mexico Finance Authority funds to alleviate some of these problems. It appears at the fateful "work session" back in April, the council compounded this mess instead helping. Below is the Dona Ana County press release on the quagmire.

Monte Vista Elementary School off Jornada Road

FLOODING FORCES CLOSURE OF COUNTY ROAD D-66 - Doña Ana County road crews have closed County Road D-66 near the pavement’s end on Jornada Road near the new school construction site. The roadbed was heavily flooded, and cars were getting stuck. The road will reopen when it’s dried and can be re-graded. Warning signs and detours will be posted. Motorists are advised to use alternate routes where possible and to slow down and expect delays near the closure areas. Motorists also are reminded to exercise caution in all areas where workers are deployed.

Retirees and Other Bond Investors Getting Hosed

Bond investors seeking top-rated securities face fewer alternatives to Treasuries, allowing President Barack Obama to sell unprecedented sums of debt at ever lower rates to finance a $1.47 trillion deficit. While net issuance of Treasuries will rise by $1.2 trillion this year, the net supply of corporate bonds, mortgage-backed securities and debt tied to consumer loans may recede by $1.3 trillion, according to Jeffrey Rosenberg, a fixed-income strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York.

Shrinking credit markets help explain why some Treasury yields are at record lows even after the amount of marketable government debt outstanding increased by 21 percent from a year earlier to $8.18 trillion.

Last week, the U.S. government auctioned $34 billion of three-year notes at a yield of 0.844 percent, the lowest ever for that maturity.

“The number-one fixed-income conundrum is ‘Where do I go?’” said Mitchell Stapley, the chief fixed-income officer for Fifth Third Asset Management, who oversees $22 billion in assets. In credit markets, “the supply of sleep-at-night quality bonds has just collapsed,” he said in an interview from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more here:

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