mjh's blog

Dump Sue Wilson Beffort

alibi . june 16 – 22, 2005

One state senator did attempt to deal with the issue during this year’s legislative session. Sen. Sue Wilson Beffort, who represents northeast Albuquerque and is a former board member of the Chamber, sponsored a bill (SB 535) that would have prohibited any municipality from enacting a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum. The bill did not pass.

Beffort said the true intention of the minimum wage is to jumpstart young and unskilled workers into the workforce, and eventually higher paying jobs. Her response to lower-paid employees who have been in the workforce for many years: “Shame on them.”? Beffort adds that there are numerous federal and state funded training programs available for unskilled workers (such as the Education Works Act, which provides assistance for lower-income workers seeking trade degrees), and it’s their own fault if they don’t take advantage of them.

Vote out this insensitive fool. mjh

It’s Never Too Early or Too Late to Attack — The Karl Rove Legacy

A Premature Attack – FactCheck.org

Pro-Bush group’s ad faults Democrats for criticisms they haven’t yet made, about a Supreme Court nominee who hasn’t been named, to a vacancy that doesn’t yet exist. …

To support its case, the ad cites editorial blurbs from Republican newspapers criticizing Democrats over their treatment of Supreme Court nominees in the past. But the ad fails to note that the blurbs were about the Robert Bork nomination fight that happened nearly 18 years ago.

How Much Water Does Coal Mining Use?

Independent – June 20, 2005: Elders fight to keep land; Peabody opponent says elderly suffer from stress disorder By Kathy Helms
Din? Bureau

[A] group of residents who turned out Saturday at Forest Lake Chapter for a meeting on the C-aquifer, which possibly will be used to replace the higher-quality N-aquifer water Peabody now uses to slurry coal to Mohave Generating Station in Nevada.

Peabody [Coal Company] hopes to expand its operation and increase its water usage. Residents want running water in their homes. They say they’re tired of giving up their resources and getting little in return. …

Paulinos’ home is located near Peabody’s Kayenta mine, and the strip-mine operation is headed south, in her direction. She said she used to hear blasting, but that has now stopped. She said the ground shook also.

“There’s a lot of blasting damage that does occur to the houses up there,” Benally said. “During the public hearing here, one of the guys that had been relocated from HPL (Hopi Partitioned Land) said the relocation home they got from the Hopi land dispute was already getting cracks.

“Historically, Peabody said that a lot of the cracks in floors of the houses were because of the poor construction of the homes. Now, these are government-built homes and Peabody-built homes and they’re experiencing the same problems.”

Paul Clark of Black Mesa works at the mine. Even so, he takes issue with how the Navajo Nation and its people have been compensated for their coal. He said that years back, Peabody was paying “12-1/2 cents for anything that they get under from the earth. Then they wanted to raise up 7 more cents, saying, ‘Now, I’m going to pay you 20 cents. I’ll pay you 20 cents for this coal a ton.’ ”

“Then people agreed and didn’t know anything about the prices like that, whether it was fair or not. That’s how Peabody tricked the Navajo,” Clark said.

Be sure to note the insanity of using water in the Four Corners desert to create a slurry of coal so as to simplify pumping it hundreds of miles. And you thought Big Oil was destroying the region.

Here’s where someone snidely asks, “Are your lights on? Do you drive a car?” I’m still entitled to my outrage (and regret) at what we are doing to our world on the cheap. mjh

And Daddy won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg county,
Down by the Green River, where Paradise lay.
“Well I’m sorry, my son, but you’re too late in askin’.”
“Mr. Peabody’s coal train has hauled it away.”

Paradise, John Prine, lyrics

“Government funding for public television amounts to just $1 per person per year”

Journal Gazette | 06/23/2005 | PBS is investment in education By Pat Mitchell

The Public Broadcasting Service and our stations are the single largest educational institution in America. As a result of 35 years of putting children and education first, PBS is now the top choice of American teachers for video in the classroom. We’re a leading source of online lesson plans for schools and for parents home-schooling their children. We’re top providers of distance learning offered by colleges and a critical resource for adults to learn to read, pass the GED, learn English and develop new skills for the workplace.

Because of our economy of scale and local infrastructure, we are one of the most efficient ways Congress can invest in education. Every dollar spent on a PBS children’s TV show impacts tens of millions of children who will learn literacy skills and educational concepts by watching “Sesame Street,” “Arthur”? and our 25 other non-violent educational programs that are unique in the marketplace in their quality and effectiveness.

Studies of the PBS Kids show “Between the Lions” found that kindergarten children who watched the program outperformed those who did not by nearly 4-to-1 on a variety of measurements. It is penny wise and pound foolish for Congress to underutilize the massive power of media to educate Americans at a time when the efficiency and impact of PBS and our member stations have never been more needed. …

Congress has considered cutting funding to public television before, and every time, Americans have rallied to tell their representatives that public broadcasting isn?t an expendable luxury but a vital service.

Government funding for public television amounts to just $1 per person per year. A Roper survey recently showed that 82 percent of American citizens consider those dollars ?well spent,? ranking PBS second only to military activities in value for their tax dollars for the second consecutive year. And most favor more federal support for it, not less.
—–
Pat Mitchell has been president and CEO of PBS since 2000. She wrote this for the Baltimore Sun.
—–
Free Press : Put the Public Back in Public Broadcasting

Our public broadcasting system is once again under attack from reactionary forces in Washington. They’ve launched a two-fisted campaign that aims to muzzle dissenting voices on PBS and NPR and eliminate federal funding for public broadcasting altogether.
—–
Free Press denounces Patricia Harrison?s appointment as president of CPB

Statement by Josh Silver, Free Press executive director

WASHINGTON ? Patricia S. Harrison, former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, has been selected as president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. On Monday, Free Press delivered nearly 100,000 petitions to CPB, calling for Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson’s resignation.

Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, made the following statement:

“Patricia Harrison’s selection as president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is an outrage. Her complete lack of experience and close ties to the leadership of the Republican Party represent a new low in public broadcasting history.

“CPB was created to shield public broadcasting from political interference. But under the direction of Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson ? and now his GOP comrade, Patricia Harrison ? CPB has betrayed its original mission to protect the independence of public broadcasting.

“Millions of citizens have demanded an end to the partisan manipulation of public broadcasting. But, once again, those in power have ignored the voices of the vast majority of the American public to pursue their personal political crusade.”