Martinez PRC Appointment is "News"

Susana Martinez

NMPolitics reports that back in November Susana Martinez appointed Doug Howe, an openly gay man, to serve on the Public Regulation Commission. According to the story (which you can read here) neither the Governor nor Howe made an issue of his sexual orientation during the interview process or after the governor appointed him.
Strangely enough, and despite the fact there is hardly an extended family in America of any size whatsoever that doesn't have at least one gay member, this story is still considered "news."
There are several factors at work that make this story news. First, it is a complete contradiction to the stereo-type perpetuated mostly by progressive activists seeking leverage for additional group rights, that goes like this: all Republicans are gay bashing bigots. Second, there are more than a few naive, narrow-minded, and/or hateful people, who claim they are for limited government......except when the subject of sexual orientation comes up in policy debates. Third, there is the vast majority of what could best be described as "the rest of us." This is the huge majority in New Mexico and in America that simply wants government to leave us alone and also leave our family members, friends, acquaintances, and anyone else who happens to be gay, alone.

Doug Howe

The truth is Governor Martinez did not do anything extraordinary when she appointed Dough Howe to the PRC. She simply did what successful business people do every day. She hired a very talented individual with the credentials to get the job done. All of us who want to live in peace will be far better off when fringe groups that continue to stir up prejudices wise up and shut up. And we will also be better off when those that traffic in paranoia about prejudice, and do so strictly for political purposes, shut up too.

Martinez PRC Appointment is "News"

A TRI-Partisan Bill Introduced in the House

Andy Nunez

Santa Fe – Today Representatives Nate Gentry (R-30), Joseph Cervantes (D-52), Zach Cook (R- 56), Cathrynn Brown (R-55), and Andy Nunez (I-36) introduced a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the state to recover the costs associated with impeachments proceedings for corrupt government officials.
Currently, the New Mexico constitution provides that the New Mexico Legislature may only remove public officials from office. HBX would permit the legislature to enact legislation that would require impeached officials to pay for the costs associated with their impeachment.
“There is no reason that the taxpayers of the state should pay to remove corrupt government officials from office. This constitutional amendment would allow the state to recover the cost of impeachment proceedings from the corrupt official,” said Rep. Gentry.
“This constitutional amendment should make corrupt elected officials think twice before running up the tab on the people of this state for their corrupt behavior,” said Rep. Cook.
Added Rep. Brown, “This constitutional amendment would not deter honest people from running for public office.” Although they both resigned before the proceedings were completed, the New Mexico Legislature spent over $233,000 on the Jerome Block Jr. and Robert Vigil impeachment proceedings. Some estimate that a completed impeachment proceeding could cost the state as much as one million dollars.
Representatives Cervantes and Cook were co-chairs of the impeachment committee empanelled to begin the impeachment proceedings against former PRC commissioner Jerome Block, Jr.

A TRI-Partisan Bill Introduced in the House

Fed Delivers REAL State of the Union Message

It was with an almost great sense of irony that on Wednesday the Federal Reserve Board released its own “State of the Union” message. And in doing so, the Fed told us all we need to know about the U.S. economy. Here is an excerpt:
“The Committee decided today to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and currently anticipates that economic conditions–including low rates of resource utilization and a subdued outlook for inflation over the medium run–are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through late 2014.”
Say what? What does all of this jargon actually mean beyond the fact that seniors and other savers living on fixed incomes can expect to continue to get cheated out of a decent rate of return on their interest bearing investments until 2014?
In layman’s terms, the phrase: “Anticipates economic conditions including low rates of resource utilization,” means the Fed forecasts no significant job creation and no significant increase in economic activity until at least 2014.
Hey wait a second! This statement by the Fed is in direct contradiction to the president’s State of the Union message delivered less than 15 hours earlier when he uttered the following: “We are poised for progress. Two years after the worst recession most of us have ever known, the stock market has come roaring back. Corporate profits are up. The economy is growing again.”

By the way, the roaring stock market the president referred to actually produced a 2.11% rate of return in 2011, as measured by the S & P 500 index. Now, a 2.11% return could be called many things by many people, but only a smoke blowing politician seeking re-election would call it “roaring.”

So there you have it. Those running for re-election say we are poised for progress. And those making critical interest rate policies that squeeze seniors and others relying on interest income, say they must continue to severely harm all interest seeking savers because the economy is so bad they are afraid of returning interest rates to normal levels.

There is even more deception in the shell game being played on seniors and other savers. Those who continue to preside over the borrowing of $4 billion dollars every day don’t really want to ever pay savers and seniors normal interest rates. Instead they want to use their iron grip on the Federal Reserve's policies to make sure the can borrow cheap. They are simply hoping voters living on fixed incomes don’t connect the dots linking reckless fiscal policies to their own lost interest income streams.

Fed Delivers REAL State of the Union Message

Gwyneth Doland to Lead Open Gov't Cause

Gwyneth Doland

KOB TV - The fight for open government in New Mexico has a new leader. The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government has named Gwyneth Doland as executive director. The journalist and longtime Albuquerque resident takes over the non-profit Feb. 20. She replaces Sarah Welsh, who is resigning to attend graduate school. Doland is currently the producer and host of KNME's Public Square, as well as a correspondent for KNME's New Mexico in Focus and an adjunct faculty member at the University of New Mexico. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Gwyneth Doland to Lead Open Gov't Cause

Duke City and Kirtland Brace for Cuts

Kirtland AFB

KOAT TV - The Kirtland Air Force base and the entire state is preparing, waiting to find out if the air base, a multi-billion-dollar industry that fuels Albuquerque and helps protect the entire city, will be one of the bases to close due to Department of Defense budget cuts.
"It's all very important to national security, and it happens to be in our city," said Mayor Richard Berry. "The $4.3 billion of direct spending in our city, the 21,000 jobs are very meaningful for Albuquerque."
Berry said he'll fight tooth and nail to keep the base open if necessary.
On Thursday, the Department of Defense announced that it will look to close some military bases as part of a proposed massive cost-cutting overhaul, but which bases remain unknown.
Officials said Kirtland has been down the same road before. In 1995, the base ended up on a list of potential closures, but Michael Chase, of the Kirtland partnership committee, said they were able to convince Washington to keep the base open. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Duke City and Kirtland Brace for Cuts

Egolf Feels Need to Condemn Occupier Violence

Representative Brian Egolf of Santa Fe felt compelled to chastize a group of "Occupy" protesters claiming to represent 99% of America after they engaged in violence on Wednesday night. Egolf conceded that the actions of the group he has great sympathies for were, "terrible."

Brian Egolf

During a gathering of lawmakers at a Santa Fe restaurant a number of occupiers stormed into the dining room and began throwing protest propaganda at people seated at tables. The edge of one of the protest cards hit the female guest of state Representative Bill Rehm of Albuquerque in the eye and another diner suffered a wrist injury. The extent of the victim’s eye injury is still unknown and Santa Fe police are investigating the incident, reportedly in an effort to determine the identity of the perpetrators. Eventually, Representative Dennis Kintigh a former FBI agent helped clear the room of the occupiers and restore some semblance of peace.

Egolf a House member from protestor-friendly Santa Fe has repeatedly expressed support for the thought processes and activities of the occupiers in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and other cities around the nation. Apparently Egolf's open and public sympathies for the group prompted him to feel it was necessary for him to personally condemn their violent behavior Wednesday night.

Egolf Feels Need to Condemn Occupier Violence

New Mexico Legislature rejects driver's license ban

From KOB-TV.com - By: Stuart Dyson, KOB Eyewitness News 4 - Governor Susana Martinez continues her push to ban driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants. On Thursday, her bill that would accomplish that has undergone some major changes that certainly will not please Martinez. Democrats in the majority on the House Labor Committee amended the governor’s proposal to basically allow the state to keep issuing the licenses, but with more restrictions. The Democrats' move comes a day after the Associated Press published results of an investigation showing what appears to be fairly widespread fraud in the issuing of the licenses, especially in the multiple uses of 170 addresses for 2,662 license applicants who are foreigners. One of the addresses is for a smoke shop. "When you read how many people are coming in from all over the world in here, Pakistan - you've seen that just recently - and from Colombia and everywhere, and so we gotta put a stop to it," said Rep. Andy Nunez, the Hatch Independent who sponsored the governor's bill. But Nunez saw the Labor Committee pull the bill's teeth tonight. Illegal immigrants would still be able to get licenses, but with tougher residency requirements, two year limits and increased penalties for any fraud artists who might get caught in license scams. Rep. Bill O'Neill, an Albuquerque Democrat, introduced a compromise bill that would allow provisional licenses for illegal immigrants that would only be valid in New Mexico. "But they're not real licenses," O'Neill said. "They are provisional licenses. They cannot travel with them but they can get insurance, they can drive their kids to school, they can drive themselves to work." Compromises usually don't please people with rigid opinions on hot-button issues, and O'Neill ruefully admits that both immigrant-advocates and the governor's side actively dislike his bill. Since the current state law went into effect in 2003, more than 90,000 licenses have been issued to immigrants in New Mexico, and state officials say most of them are probably immigrants. It's hard to say for sure, because license applicants are not asked about their immigration status. Read more

New Mexico Legislature rejects driver's license ban

The final consequences of political actions

Commentary by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. - Individual politicians say they have to be financially irresponsible or be thrown out of office. That is true. If a candidate does not clamor for money to bring to the district they are unelectable. Current politicians only have one plan, “I will spend the resources of our nation on you, whether we have resources or not.”So, my fellow Americans, we have discovered the problem and the problem is us. Now that we have the culprit firmly grasped by the collar what are we to do with ourselves? The politics of promise is where the power and money is in our society. Anyone with a frugal streak is unelectable because voters rightly understand that if one state foregoes the federal largess another state will get that benefit instead. Voters rationalize that someone will get those resources; we must elect someone to look after our short-term interests.At the core what is being practiced in our country is a political system designed to give amazing power to a few while taking the resources of many. Because so many people benefit from the theft of resources, there are not enough protestors to the theft of our country’s future. Know this: the promises sound great but are not sustainable. One day the bill will come due. Our country will be like Greece in that riots will precede the collapse. Will there be a collapse? There has to be, no other outcome is possible. Read column

The final consequences of political actions

Guest of NM state rep suffers eye injury during Occupy protest in Santa Fe

Capitol Report New Mexico.com - Occupy protesters came under fire at the Roundhouse on Thursday after a handful of them burst into a dinner for state legislators at the Eldorado Hotel on Wednesday night, shouting political slogans, trying to rope off the diners with crime scene tape and throwing protest material that ended up hitting the female guest of state Rep. Bill Rehm (R-Albuquerque) in the eye, possibly causing some damage. The protesters were angry that a number of New Mexico lawmakers some Democrats but mostly Republicans were taking part in the dinner, which was hosted by the American Legislative Exchange Council , a conservative organization that calls for smaller government but is targeted by many on the left as a tool for corporate America. According to lawmakers who attended the dinner, a protest was held outside the hotel prior to the dinner, with the demonstrators loudly insisting that the legislators skip the dinner. About 70 people were in a private room at the Old House Restaurant at the Eldorado when, according to lawmakers interviewed by Capitol Report New Mexico, about five or six protesters burst through the doors, shouting, grabbing yellow police tape “as it this was a crime scene, I guess,” one legislator said and then started throwing 5 x 8 cards “they were fake invitations of some sort,” one witness said and one of the cards struck Rep. Rehm’s guest in the eye. Witnesses say the woman throwing the card was “in her late 20s, a slender, white female” and was hustled out of the room by Rep. Dennis Kintigh (R-Roswell), who is a former FBI agent. Read more

Guest of NM state rep suffers eye injury during Occupy protest in Santa Fe

Audit blasts PRC; state auditor calls for chairman to resign

From the Santa Fe New Mexican.com - State Auditor Hector Balderas on Thursday called for Public Regulation Commission Chairman Pat Lyons to step down for what Balderas said was an improper use of a state vehicle.Lyons' use of a Ford F-250 truck for approximately 65 days, potentially violating the rules of a federal program, resulted in more than $1,100 of questionable costs to the public, Balderas said. The call for Lyons' resignation Thursday coincided with the release of a special audit into the scandal-plagued Public Regulation Commission that found sloppy recordkeeping at the agency. Separate from the audit, Balderas also announced Thursday that he had forwarded to the proper authorities several emails from or to PRC employees containing possible communications about the purchase of illegal drugs.Balderas, a Democrat, and Lyons, a Republican, have sparred publicly about this audit in the past. Lyons said he questioned the ability of Balderas' office to conduct the audit, which led to seeking an independent firm conducting the audit. Balderas said Lyons was obstructing the audit initially. Read more

Audit blasts PRC; state auditor calls for chairman to resign