Clearly New Mexico

The Washington Monthly has an illuminating article about the prevalent Republican approach to health care reform.

John Goodman is president of the National Center for Policy Analysis and helped write Sen. John McCain's health care policy. He and Tom Delay argue that everyone in America has access to health care - just go to the emergency room!

Emergency rooms are the least cost-effective way to provide health care, and in fact, shift the burden of paying for health care to those with health insurance.

How their solution is fiscally responsible is beyond me.

Matthew Reichbach wrote a short post on a new ad about Barack Obama in last week's New Mexico Independent.

It's a good ad - clear visuals and a simple message.

It's nice seeing a candidate state so clearly that in America, diversity is our greatest strength.

Growing up Korean, education was the Holy Grail of attainment. Like many families in New Mexico, my parents saw education as the pathway to success in America.

But over the past twenty years, tuition and fees at both two-year and four-year public colleges have more than doubled. Room and board has increased 30% at four-year colleges. But in the midst of these increases, the maximum Pell Grant was only $4,050 in 2006, a decline of 20% in real dollars since 1975.

Senator John McCain hasn't helped much.

In Congress, McCain voted against the College Cost Reduction Act, which increased Pell Grants aid, cut the interest rate on student loans and provided loan forgiveness and public service opportunities.

Even closer to home, he voted against $250,000 in funds for the New Mexico Association of Community Colleges, over $1 million in funds for the Crownpoint Institute (a tribal technical college) and $850,000 in funds for the Mathematics and Science Teacher Academy at UNM.

It's one thing to say you're for education. It's another thing to support education.

Last Thursday, Exxon Mobil announced its second quarter profits - $11.7 billion for 3 months. Not bad for 90 days of work. For those of you keeping track at home, this global juggernaut has now taken in $22.6 billion in profits for the first six months of this year.

To put this quarterly profit into perspective, the total General Fund budget for the state of New Mexico is just a tad over $6 billion for the entire year. That's the whole enchilada.

So Exxon Mobil is on track to make about $40 billion in profits, and last time we checked, they're still getting a big portion of the $18 billion tax break for oil companies. And we're still paying an arm and a leg for gas. Wow.

Last week, Al Gore called for a visionary, ten-year restructuring of our economy so we can lead the world in transitioning from a fossil fuel economy to a renewable energy one.

Commentators have likened his speech to JFK's call to America to put a man on the moon. While similarities abound, there is one huge difference - this time around, at a key moment in history when literally the very future of America will be shaped - big oil and gas industries are fighting this move with millions of dollars for tv and newspaper ads and lobbyists.

Renewable energy is exceedingly popular with Americans and New Mexicans. It's so ironic then, that the money that oil and gas companies are using to pay for their commercials and lobbyists actually come from us, the consumers of oil and gas. So we're paying for the ads and lobbyists that are working against the policies that we support.

It's the same with health insurance premiums. Part of our increased premiums each year that we pay for goes to pay for the very same lobbyists that kill insurance and health reforms that we want.

I wonder just how much of a gallon of gas, or a monthly health insurance premium, goes towards advertising and lobbying. I wouldn't mind a refund on that.

Coco had a devastating post last Friday on just how much those oil and gas companies really do care about ordinary Americans (Production Trumps Public Health.

Coco quotes the Durango Herald:

Cathy Behr is back at work and recovering after she fell ill from helping a man who showed up at the hospital soaked in unknown chemicals. The worker's company wouldn't share information about the chemicals that could have helped Behr's doctor diagnose and treat her injury, she said.

And then she summarizes:

There you have it: secret formula chemicals sicken people and destroy groundwater quality but are critical to the bottom line. So it's OK then. How do these guys sleep at night?

Wow, this behavior in Coco's post is markedly different from the public relations makeover from oil and gas that I'm seeing on TV every night. I guess they don't care about us after all.

Last week, the tabloids were abuzz with new Lobos Basketball coach veering away from sports and into the US Congressional race with his scheduled appearance for a Darren White fundraiser.

Then the New Mexico Independent posts a hilariously weird, and somewhat disturbing, music video starring Darren White, sporting a 1980's hairstyle that seemed to have been inspired by the '80s band, "A Flock of Seagulls".

Word has it that the White campaign's strategy was indeed inspired by the title of the group's sole MTV hit, "I Ran So Far Away... (from Bush)."

Here's some predictions for future switch-hitting New Mexican celebrities:

Lobo Football Coach Rocky Long becomes campaign manager for Brian Urlacher, who leaves Chicago to come home and run for Secretary of State. Urlacher agrees to donate part of his football salary to finally get electronic campaign report filing up and running. Campaign slogan: "You break election laws, I break you."

UNM changes plans to build housing near the UNM golf course in favor of a new, 10,000 square foot pub and grill. President David J. Schmidly moonlights as head bartender. "It's easier to meet legislators that way," he says.

Lt. Governor Diane Denish, bored waiting for the 2010 campaign season, starts calling for a legislative special session on cockfighting, domestic partnerships and tilapia farming. "Watching the Senate is much more fun than raising money," she offers.

Marty Chavez tries desperately to reinvent himself as an ethics and environmental champion (oh wait, that one's actually happening).

ExxonMobil reported first-quarter earnings of $10.9 billion

(See ExxonMobil/Fortune500)

Just to help wrap your brain around that, ExxonMobil's profits for just the first 90 days of 2008 are enough to provide every man, woman and child in New Mexico - that's 2 million people - with a full tank of gas EVERY single day for that same time period.

A Pew Charitable Trust survey, conducted in late June, shows surprising new support for increased oil exploration, in the face of $4 per gallon gas prices.

"This shows the real impact of higher gas prices on the public," said Carroll Doherty, associate director for the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, which commissioned the telephone survey of 2,004 adults from June 18 to Sunday.

With many experts confirming that only about a quarter of lands currently leased for drilling are actually being utilized, it sounds like the call for new exploration is a bait-and-switch move to lock up new lands and paint the oil industry as the savior, rather than a key source of the problem.

Why are big oil and gas companies a source of the problem? Because they are absolutely ripping off American consumers and taxpayers. ExxonMobil - just one of the big five oil companies - will likely make a $40 billion profit this year. Shouldn't they shoulder the blame for rising gas prices when part of the $4 I pay per gallon is going straight into their pockets?

And before the free-market wingnuts start griping, it's also worth noting that these very same oil and gas companies are getting billions of dollars in tax breaks from you and me. Earlier this year, there was an effort to stop tax breaks of $18 billion to benefit just the top five oil and gas companies. This measure was strenuously opposed by Republicans and President Bush.

Someone's winning this game, and it isn't us. The oil and gas companies don't need new terrain to drill. They need a conscience.

Following the landmark investigative piece by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Eileen Welsome two months ago about problems at the Albuquerque Balloon Museum (featured right here at clearlynewmexico.com), more has come out on this story.

The Journal recently reported about skyrocketing utility costs at the Museum due to Schiff's grandiose and shortsighted architectural design -- a story that totally contradicts the highly publicized "Green City" posturings of Schiff's sponsor, Mayor Martin Chavez. (Journal, subscription required)

Then former Mayor Jim Baca blogged with his take on the whole affair, commenting on the implications of a recent federal court ruling in the Courthouse Kickback Scandal while disclosing still more Schiffian shenanigans.

Here's Jim's take at onlyinnewmexico.com:

 

Bad Acts

A Federal District Judge has said that prior 'bad acts' can be considered in the trial of Senator Manny Aragon etal. in the Metro Court Scandal. One of the key players in that affair was Mayor Martin Chavez' friend, Architect Marc Schiff. If those bad acts are considered, one of them should be the whole process around the design and execution of the construction of the Albuquerque Balloon Museum. I got a rather long letter from a long time employee of the city who laid out some incredible actions that were taken on that project. Here is an excerpt:

"When Marty came back after Jim Baca's term, it was open humor around City Hall that Marc(Schiff) got back his key to City Hall. Here's how it works, if you have an unethical architect. It's best to start with an architecturally naïve client. (This describes the majority of clients and the Balloon Museum board was certainly that in spades.) Pay little attention to program. This, many experienced clients and good architects will argue, is perhaps the most important part of any successful project. (The Balloon Museum board had no experience here, and largely rejected or ignored things I and others suggested. They were ripe for the pickings."

What else is going to come out of the Balloon Museum? Did Mayor Marty and indicted architect Marc Schiff, one of Mayor Marty's closest allies, put this Museum on the fast money track? And if so, why?

Following the story

As this Balloon Mueseum story continues to unfold, we're rooting for the Albuquerque Journal to give us in-depth coverage. For our part at Clearly New Mexico, we're proud of the fact that our lowly little website provided the vehicle for Eileen Welsome's investigative piece that raised the first real questions about the Balloon Museum scam.  Competition in the public interest is a good thing.

It's worth recalling that Eileen came to national prominence with her Pulitzer Prize winning story for the Albuquerque Tribune in 1993 on the human radiation experiments at Los Alamos. On that particular occasion, the Trib happened to scoop the Journal.  Curious indeed, however, was the manner in which the Journal flat out ignored her story after it broke. It should be noted that the national media was slow to react as well. Hat tip to LP at FBIHOP for finding this:

The morning Albuquerque Journal, the Tribune's 123,000-circulation JOA partner, ignored the story initially, picking it up weeks later. On the second day of the series, the local AP bureau sent out a 400-word piece, while Scripps-Howard, which owns the Tribune, carried a 1,300-word piece on its wire service. The New York Times ran the AP story - on page 30. USA Today ran a one-paragraph blurb. The Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post didn't report it at all.

see NM FBIHOP

Last week, President Bush called for renewed off-shore drilling. The New York Times criticized Bush's plan, calling it "The Big Pander to Big Oil."

True Majority has a good analysis of oil and gas contributions to New Mexico's Congressional delegation (link).
Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM)
Accepted $348,008 from the oil and gas industry since 2000.
Supported the industry in 78% of selected votes.

Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
Accepted $262,635 from the oil and gas industry since 2000.
Supported the industry in 44% of selected votes.

Representative Steven Pearce (R-NM02)
Accepted $421,990 from the oil and gas industry since 2000.
Supported the industry in 100% of selected votes.

Representative Tom Udall (D-NM03)
Accepted $3,500 from the oil and gas industry since 2000.
Supported the industry in 27% of selected votes.

Representative Heather Wilson (R-NM01)
Accepted $268,826 from the oil and gas industry since 2000.
Supported the industry in 82% of selected votes.

Let's see how far the Big Pander extends to New Mexico.

The Consumer Price Index, the key measure of inflation, just went up to 4.2%. The US Department of Labor places the blame squarely on rising fuel costs.

Last Friday's Albuquerque Journal editorialized, "If Tecton strikes natural gas, the drilling needs to be done in compliance with strict standards on air quality, noise and visual pollution. There's a long way to go before alternative energy sources free us from reliance on fossil fuel. In the meantime, we simply don't have the luxury of arbitrarily blocking oil and gas."

Has anyone asked Westsiders how they feel about having drilling in their backyard? And just when would the Journal like to get started on developing alternative energy sources? When gas hits $9 a gallon, like it is in many parts of Europe?

It seems like America's reliance on oil has gotten us to where we are now - windfall profits by fossil fuel executives, exorbitant gas prices, runaway global warming, and climate crises like Katrina and the recent flooding in Iowa.

America needs renewable energy now. Starting new fossil fuel endeavors is a step backward, not forward.

When Peter Barnes co-founded the Working Assets long distance company, he bridged socially responsible values with a wildly successful business model. Barnes is back at it again, turning seemingly disconnected objectives into elegant solutions.

Barnes is the leading proponent for something called "cap-and-dividend," which just may become the solution we need for the dual-headed hydra of the climate crisis and rising energy costs.

Cap-and-dividend is brutally simple. Industries that choose to output carbon into the air would be charged for that right. With consensus among most scientists that we need a drastic reduction in carbon if we are to avoid irreversible damage to the planet, the "supply" of carbon credits would diminish, forcing carbon polluters to pay more for carbon emissions.

Then all this money - estimated by many to reach hundreds of billions of dollars per year - would go back to the very people that are harmed by carbon emissions - you. Just as Alaska provides a regular dividend to each of its citizens, the Barnes proposal would do the same for all Americans, to help offset the cost of higher fossil fuel energy prices. (Of course, this dividend is critical because we fully expect carbon-emitting industries to pass the costs on to us, rather than eat into their record-breaking profits.)

A nice little addendum that Barnes argues for is to make better use of the massive subsidies currently given to fossil fuel industries. For example, right now, there's $120 billion in subsidies just sitting and waiting for new coal burning plants. Let's take these subsidies and give them to renewable energy technology and investments, and maybe even green jobs proposals.

Barnes has a history of innovative, elegant solutions. I think he's struck gold with cap-and-dividend.

When I was in elementary school, a ruler was the first school supply on the list. I can't even remember the last time I saw a ruler, but there is something nostalgic about them. They represent an undeniable standard, a truth to which to measure up.

I'd love to have a giant ruler now.

This week, the United States Senate may begin debate on the Warner-Lieberman Climate Security Act. This debate has been fascinating. Amidst all the arguments on global warming and the economic impact of proposed solutions, one fact has been utterly lost - what America's most respected scientists are saying about carbon emissions.

There is near unanimity among respected scientists that we - all of us - must reduce global warming pollution by at least 80% below where we were in 1990, and do this by the year 2050. And we must do this quickly - we need to be at least 25% below 1990 levels by 2020. If we don't, we face catastrophic and potentially irreversible damage to our home (not New Mexico, not the United States, but to our big home - the planet).

This scientific standard should be our ruler by which to measure and compare competing climate change proposals, like Warner-Lieberman. All of us can debate about how we get there until New Mexico becomes oceanfront property, but the bottom line is, we need to do what science demands.

Warner-Lieberman has gone the route of other Congressional bills that require consensus building, compromise and concessions to be politically viable. But Warner-Lieberman falls short in the biggest challenge of all - to do what science demands is necessary.

If you have a ruler, dust off the cobwebs on it. We may need it to show Congress that now is not the time for compromise and concessions. Now is the time to stop irreversible damage that our children will inherit, if we don't take bold action now.

It's already deplorable that the State of New Mexico requires so few campaign expenditure reports - just two - before the June primary, and both of them fall after voters have already begun voting with absentee ballots.

Now, the latest news that the Secretary of State's office won't have campaign information online until May 26th is simply ludicrous, after hundreds of thousands of tax dollars and sworn promises to fix this system that has been broken since... well, forever.

By May 26th, it's possible that at least a third of voters who will cast ballots for this year's primary will have already voted, without even the chance to see who is funding candidates.

New Mexicans deserve a better answer than a "sluggish database." Other states with monstrously more candidates and voters have managed to have a searchable, online and timely reporting system that is easy for both candidates and citizens to use for years.

If the primary is a test-run for the general election for the new staff at the Secretary of State's office, we're in for potentially catastrophic problems in November. In a state that seems to like razor-thin margins, that's not a good sign.

Dan McKay reported in last Friday's Journal that Mayor Martin Chavez is taking on the issue of ethics at City Hall. McKay writes:

Mayor Martin Chávez says he wants to transform the ethical culture at City Hall-- starting with new training for employees, independence for the city clerk and termination for those who flout the rules.

Chavez says, "…we want to weed out the bad apples."

Also on Friday, this website featured an investigative report by Pulitzer Prize winner Eileen Welsome about Chavez's relationship with Marc Schiff, the architect who pled guilty to felony charges connected with the Courthouse scandal. That cozy mayoral connection appears to have resulted in the public getting overcharged millions of dollars for the design and construction of the Balloon Museum.

And yet, as if cue, this morning's Journal editorial rhapsodized about the Mayoral ethics initiative - "City Takes Lead Again, This Time on Ethics."   Read More »

I read a fun book last week - Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser.

It's a wonderful collection of six-word autobiographies from people both famous and ordinary. Here's the intro from the website:

Six-Word Memoirs: The Legend

Legend has it that Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Last year, SMITH Magazine re-ignited the recountre by asking our readers for their own six-word memoirs. They sent in short life stories in droves, from the bittersweet ("Cursed with cancer, blessed with friends") and poignant ("I still make coffee for two") to the inspirational ("Business school? Bah! Pop music? Hurrah") and hilarious ("I like big butts, can't lie").

So here's a few more I thought up for this election year:

Hillary Clinton: Need more delegates than there are.

Barack Obama: I just want to be me.

John McCain: 100 year occupation? I said that?

Bill Richardson: My beard makes me resemble Jesus.

Diane Denish: Bill Richardson for a cabinet post.

Tom Udall: If you're liberal, raise your hand.

Steve Pearce: Heather is liberal. Red is blue.

Heather Wilson: Me, liberal? You crazy, Steve Pearce.

Jeff Bingaman: That's MR. Super Delegate to you.

As they say, everyone has a story. Got any to share?

Last Thursday, the US Senate Select Committee on Ethics issued its "Public Letter of Qualified Admonition" to Senator Domenici for pressuring then US Attorney David Iglesias to move quickly on the Bernalillo County courthouse scandal.

It's worth noting that this same committee issued the exact same type of letter - the "Public Letter of Qualified Admonition" -- to Senator Larry Craig of Idaho, for his misconduct in a public restroom last summer.

I wonder - can a legislative body police itself effectively? It's an honest question, and one that is in play as the New Mexico legislature struggles with the question of whether to constitute an independent ethics commission to handle alleged ethics violations of its members. So far, the Legislature has failed to pass this ethics proposal.

The US Senate's issuance of these two letters proves that at minimum, the body is capable of raising strong questions about the actions of its members. On the other hand, there is a legitimate argument to be made that the "Admonition" letters do not do justice to the actions they attempted to address.

The New Mexico Legislature actually has a similar, in-house ethics body. It's called the "Interim Legislative Ethics Committee" and it "convenes only upon the receipt of a complaint or a request for an advisory opinion." A quick check of the state's website reveals no previous agendas or previous minutes posted for this committee. I've only been in New Mexico for 13 years but I talked to a lot of folks during the past two legislative sessions about this Interim Ethics Committee. No one could recall this committee taking up a serious ethics issue in recent history.

However, those with really long memories remember the case of State Representative Ron Olguin.   Read More »

I love mystery novels. One of the authors I'll read on occasion is Jonathan Kellerman. But the op-ed he published in the Wall Street Journal last week was far from mysterious. His rip-roaring piece (The Health Insurance Mafia) savaged the health insurance industry as surely as his fictional villains savage their prey. Here's just one sample:

The health insurance model is closest to the parasitic relationship imposed by the Mafia and the like. Insurance companies provide nothing other than an ambiguous, shifty notion of "protection." But even the Mafia doesn't stick its nose into the process; once the monthly skim is set, Don Whoever stays out of the picture, but for occasional "cost of doing business" increases. When insurance companies insinuate themselves into the system, their first step is figuring out how to increase the skim by harming the people they are allegedly protecting through reduced service.

In addition to being a writer, Kellerman is a clinical professor of pediatrics and psychology at USC's Keck School of Medicine. Kellerman's bold statement really hit home.   Read More »

Often, our politics are not so much a choice as a birthright. Although mine were born half a world and half a century away, perhaps there is some kinship with all of us who make progress what it is: the voyage, slow at times, towards equity.

My story started in the first half of the 20th century. My grandfather, a professor, was kidnapped several times during the Japanese occupation of Korea, and then for good by the North Koreans during the Korean War, never to be seen again. With the devastation that all wars bring upon them, my newly alone grandmother huddled her six children, on the brink of survival and in abject poverty, until somehow, they made it to the United States before the war claimed them.

Fast forward almost half a century.   Read More »

A small fraction of voters have an enormous impact on the balance of power in the New Mexico legislature. Just do the math.

Turnout in New Mexico's primaries is typically about 20%. When combined with another interesting factoid, that 20% number becomes even more important.

In New Mexico, like most other states, redistricting shapes the electoral battlefield in the legislature for a decade. And typically, the legislative districts that result from this redistricting process are rendered either overwhelmingly Democratic or overwhelmingly Republican. As a consequence, out of the total of 70 house districts and 42 senate districts, only about 10% are truly competitive -- or "swing." That means that in 90% of the state, whomever wins the primary is the de facto winner of the general election.

So here's the full electoral formula:

100% = eligible, voting age adults in New Mexico
70% = those eligible, voting age adults that are registered to vote
20% = turnout in the June primaries
51% = vote total of the winning candidate in a primary (assuming a two-way race)
7% = the portion of eligible, voting age adults who decide who represents us in the State Legislature.

That's right. Just 7% of the electorate is deciding who makes all those decisions in the State Legislature right now.

New Mexico's primary elections will be on Tuesday, June 3. That's about eight weeks from now.

If you care about the environment or ethics or health care or hell, even pork, then go get an absentee ballot from your county clerk. Absentee voting begins on May 6th.

Or just as good, go vote early. Early voting begins May 17th.