The Emperor is Coming to Carlsbad, NM

Inside the White House political advisors are smarting from the president's drop in the polls. They have concluded that misleading potential voters about his bad energy policies should be "job one." So next week President Obama will visit oil and gas fields on public lands in Carlsbad, New Mexico in an effort to obfuscate the policies he has implemented to make it harder to develop domestic energy supplies.
Unfortunately for Obama, the public is becoming painfully aware of the broader implications of his recent rejection of the Keystone XL Pipeline. Instead of him getting out of the way so hundreds of thousands of jobs and million of barrels of politically and militarily secure oil can be had, the nation, living a green energy fantasy he induced, is once again paying sky high gas prices.
With China and India’s demand for oil on a steady path higher, the president’s calls for higher U.S. government mandates on gas mileage as a meaningful solution to his refusal to allow us to produce are ringing hollow. And just this week Obama allies like Senator Chuck Schumer called on the “Saudis” (of all people) to promise to pump more of their oil to reduce prices, instead of allowing Americans to do the same. Again this week the president and fellow Democrats rejected calls to open the frozen swamp coastlands of northern Alaska to oil production despite the fact that geologists conservatively estimate that these fields alone could replace every single barrel of oil the U.S. imports from Saudi Arabia. Oh yes, and this America first policy would also pave the way for hundreds of billions of dollars in new tax revenue and hundreds of thousands of jobs at the same time.
What president Obama won’t tell the people in Eddy County New Mexico next week (or those who watch his sound bytes on television), is that he has made sure more than 90% of all federal lands are off limits to energy exploration. He also won’t tell those who attend the charade that he has instructed the U.S. Department of Energy to make the securing of permits for new oil production a nightmare. And no doubt he will fail to mention the billions of taxpayer dollars he pissed away on loan guarantees to his buddies at Solyndra while calling it the way to secure our future. You can also bet the president will somehow forget to remind us that his Energy Secretary Steven Chu said he hopes for gas prices in the U.S. to be the same as they are in Europe ($8 a gallon).
No fellow New Mexicans, instead the president will sweep into New Mexico on the gas guzzling Air Force One. And instead of helping produce more of the energy he so readily consumes himself, he and his huge entourage will hop in a bunch of gas guzzling limousines and head off to a cynical photo opportunity. There Obama will, with a perfectly straight face, explain why he is so proud of all the good people working in the oil fields in New Mexico. He won’t disclose the fact that he fights to kill their jobs almost every single day.
It is a safe bet the presidential motorcade will flatten a few sand dune lizards on the way out to the Eddy County oil fields. And in the meantime you can bet his Fish and Wildlife Department will use dubious interpretations of the Endangered Species Act as part of their legal maneuvers to "save" those same lizards by putting the same oil fields off limits to production. In the end, Obama does everything he can to insure that how much we pay to put gas in our own cars and fuel up the presidential motorcade and Air Force One will go even higher.
One more thought. You can count on progressive Democrats from all over Northern New Mexico to drive in their own gas powered cars, trucks, and SUV’s to Carlsbad so they can declare in unison what a wonderful royal outfit Emperor Obama is wearing, while the rest of us realize he has no clothes.

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DOE Spending $4.4M to Train Firefighters to Combat Volt Explosions

From directorblue -Last week, the Obama Administration sought to increase the Chevrolet Volt purchaser tax credit from $7,500 to $10,000.  All this for a car so dangerous to first responders that the Department of Energy allocated $4.4 million dollars for programs to prevent fire fighters from electrocuting themselves while trying to rescue crash victims.  According to industry expert Gary Howell of Howell Automotive, one of the problems lies with the batteries that power the vehicle. “The lithium-ion used in modern electric cars are not like the old lead-acid batteries of the past. They are more powerful and, when damaged, the fluid inside can leak out, creating a short on the circuit boards that are used to control the batteries. The fluid dries and crystallizes, creating a short, sometimes weeks after the damage to the battery occurred.”  More News New Mexico
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N.M EIB Repeals Green House Gas Rule

From capitolreportnewmexico.com -A little more than a month after repealing New Mexico’s cap and trade program, the Environmental Improvement Board (EIB) on Friday (March 16) repealed the second of two climate regulations passed in the final weeks of the administration of former Gov. Bill Richardson - this one calling for a limit on greenhouse gas emissions. “We examined the rule thoroughly,” EIB chairwoman Deborah Peacock told reporters moments after the board voted 5-0 to repeal what’s commonly called Rule 100, that mandated that generating facilities in the state could not emit more than 25,000 metric tons of CO2. “I think we had the benefit of information that the previous board didn’t have in order to repeal it.”  More News New Mexico
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Officials Ramp Up For Commemorative Bataan Death March

From therepublic.com -Tios Pepe and Jose were supposed to get spruced up on a recent Saturday before the wet weather interfered. They're expecting company. They are two of the three faces on the Bataan Memorial Monument, at Veterans Memorial Park, and were among the 1,800 New Mexico National Guard members who survived the Bataan Death March, in April 1942, and lived the rest of their lives with nightmares of all the horrific experiences they endured. But the spirits of Pepe and Jose, with all of those New Mexicans, Americans and Filippinos who suffered — and died — at Bataan has been immortalized among the three larger-than-life bronze statues and the footprints in cement of actual Bataan veterans that are included in the monument. Unveiled 10 years ago, a re-dedication of the Bataan Memorial Monument will be staged March 24 at Veterans Memorial Park. "We're doing this to help educate the children, and the new residents who have come to live here the past 10 years, who may not know the history of Bataan," said Las Crucen Joe Martinez, a nephew of tios Pepe and Jose.  More News New Mexico
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NM Gets $4M for Lowest Performing Schools

From newswest9.com -New Mexico has been awarded more than $4 million in federal education funds to turn around its lowest-performing schools. The U.S. Department of Education and members of the state's congressional delegation announced the funding Thursday. The money is part of $535 million provided to states under the agency's School Improvement Grants program. To date, New Mexico has received nearly $37 million since the program was redesigned in 2009. U.S. Congressman Ben Ray Lujan says the future success of New Mexico's children depends on access to quality education. The New Mexico Democrat says the focus needs to be on those schools that struggle the most in order to develop an environment that encourages children to learn and succeed. School districts will have to apply to the state for funding.  More News New Mexico
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Rep. Thomas Garcia Planning Run for State Senate

Rep. Thomas Garcia
From daily-times.com -State Rep. Thomas Garcia said today he is inclined to run for the state Senate, and likely will challenge fellow Democrat Pete Campos in the June primary election. Garcia said in an interview that he had taken out petitions for both House and Senate seats, but was leaning toward the Senate race. He has until Tuesday's filing deadline to decide. Garcia, of Ocate, would have to run against fellow Democrat Nick Salazar if he tried to stay in the House of Representatives.  Redistricting has thrown Garcia and Salazar into the same House district. Garcia, 41, originally joined the House of Representatives in 2006 as an appointee of then-governor Bill Richardson. Garcia said he committed to the people in his five-county northern New Mexico district that he would represent them for 10 years.  With redistricting, Garcia said, the Senate district that Campos represents more closely resembles the area he originally committed to serve. Running against Campos could be the more difficult race for Garcia.  Campos, 58, is a community college president from Las Vegas. He has been a senator since 1991.  Salazar is 82 years old and would have to campaign in a redrawn district that stretches to the Colorado border.  More News New Mexico
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Governor to Attend Lobos NCAA Game

Governor Martinez
From thenorthwestern.com -Gov. Susana Martinez is joining Lobos fans in Portland, Ore. for the University of New Mexico's next basketball game in the NCAA tournament. The governor attended a fundraiser Friday in Denver benefiting the Republican National Committee and the Colorado Republican Party. Martinez political adviser Jay McCleskey said those political groups are paying for her travel expenses. The governor and her husband, Chuck Franco, will pick up the costs of the next leg of her trip. They're flying from Denver to Portland to watch the Lobos take on Louisville on Saturday. They will return to New Mexico later in the weekend, according to a spokesman for the governor.  If New Mexico wins Saturday, it will be the first time the Lobos advance to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA men's tournament.
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N.M. Ad Calling For "Light Skin" Latinos

From foxnews.com -New Mexico's new tourism ad isn't even on the air yet, but it's already creating controversy for its casting choices. First, the Tourism Department touched some local nerves by hiring a Texas firm to produce its new branding campaign. That firm chose a California producer rather than someone in New Mexico's film industry to shoot the spot. And on Friday, traditional and social media was abuzz over the ad's "real people" casting notice, which called for Caucasian or "light-skinned" Hispanics to star in the spot. The Santa Fe New Mexican in an editorial Friday called the "light-skinned" requirement "wrong-headed." "Hearing that term brings to mind a vision of casting agents holding up paper bags next to people's faces to ensure they can pass," the Santa Fe New Mexican wrote. "We don't know, of course, who made it into the shoot and how New Mexico will be presented to the world once the campaign is unveiled. But really, light-skinned only? What were they thinking?"  More News New Mexico
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Details of Another Marine's Death Emerging

From foxnews.com - An Afghan soldier shot to death a 22-year-old Marine at an outpost in southwestern Afghanistan last month in a previously undisclosed case of apparent Afghan treachery that marked at least the seventh killing of an American military member by his supposed ally in the past six weeks, Marine officials said. Lance Cpl. Edward J. Dycus of Greenville, Miss., was shot in the back of the head on Feb. 1 while standing guard at an Afghan-U.S. base in the Marja district of Helmand province. The exact circumstances have not been disclosed, but the Dycus family has been notified that he was killed by an Afghan soldier. Marine officials discussed the matter on condition of anonymity because it is still under investigation. When the Pentagon announced Dycus' death the day after the shooting, it said he died "while conducting combat operations" in Helmand. It made no mention of treachery, which has become a growing problem for U.S. and allied forces as they work closely with Afghan forces to wind down the war. The Associated Press inquired about the Dycus case after Maj. Gen. John Toolan, the top Marine commander in Afghanistan at the time, said in an AP interview March 7 that the Afghan government has been embarrassed by recent cases of Afghan soldiers turning their guns on their supposed partners. "I had one just a month ago where a lance corporal was killed, shot in the back of the head, and the Afghan minister of defense was here the next day" to discuss custody of the shooter, Toolan said, speaking from his Regional Command-Southwest headquarters at Camp Leatherneck. After a negotiation aimed at ensuring the Afghan suspect is prosecuted, the Americans turned him over to Afghan government custody, another official said.  More News New Mexico
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