mjh's blog

Three very different headlines – can you tell which one is Fox?

APD chopper helps nab armed bong burglars | KOB.com

APD: Officers Arrest Female Car Thieves – Albuquerque News Story – KOAT Albuquerque

Video: Chopper chase busts gang of gals

Nothing more to say.

Quigley sorts it out, as usual

Albuquerque is lucky to have Winthrop Quigley, a clear and fine writer.

ABQJournal Online » Cycle of life, death sustains U.S. economy By Winthrop Quigley / Journal Staff Writer on Mon, Oct 24, 2011

I never worry very much about the American economy, no matter how awful things seem to be. The weak businesses are culled, the strong businesses thrive, capital and labor flow to the strong, and the economy keeps growing. It’s an ugly process, but it works. …

Something amazing is going to happen, and when it does somebody else’s employer will be killed. It’s wonderful. It’s terrible.

ABQJournal Online » Cycle of life, death sustains U.S. economy

Ignore Paul Gessing. He’s a paid curmudgeon.

Several times a month, Paul Gessing earns a paycheck by complaining about some public service or public benefit. He never disappoints his masters (the Koch brothers?).

Most recently, Gessing complained that the money spent on the only bridge over the Rio Grande built to serve pedestrians and bicycle riders should have been pissed away on the federal debt. Normally, Gessing has no need to conduct research, content to cut and paste from his masters’ playbook. In this case, Gessing sent employees to monitor the bridge for a few minutes out of a year. (How many employees does the un-think tank have?) Their conclusion, in part, is that they didn’t see anyone dressed for work, therefore, no commuters. Does Gessing really believe people wear coats and ties on bikes (or to most jobs in Albuquerque, for that matter). Most bike commuters dress for comfort and safety, which eliminates neck ties, monocles, and shoes with little tassels, like those favored by the “Rio Grande Foundation.” No one rides a bike with a briefcase dangling from the handlebars. After a cold commute, they dress at work, and then get sneered at by fat coworkers quoting Gessing. The luckiest can shower at work, as I did 30 years ago, as a bicycle commuter.

Not everyone who commutes by bike does so every day; some ride once a week. Let’s see Gessing station observers on the bridge seven days a week for one full month, 5am to 9pm, everyday. Then, his data will be more than just the crap he has now.

But it doesn’t matter to Gessing that he can’t recognize a bicycle commuter. It doesn’t actually matter to him how many people use the bridge. He doesn’t give a damn about quality of life, the health of the community, or the reputation Albuquerque enjoys as a nice place to live and work. All that matters is he earned another paycheck shooting down the public good and the community on behalf of his wealthy benefactors.

Not dead yet, despite the Governor and the Tightwads

New stop opens as Rail Runner marks 5 years – The Santa Fe New Mexican

The 13th Rail Runner Express stop, at Sandia Pueblo, will be open for commuters starting Monday. – Clyde Mueller/The New Mexican

New stop opens as Rail Runner marks 5 years – The Santa Fe New Mexican

It takes all kinds to make mixed nuts

During the Bush Error, Darren White showed his fascist side, particularly when he snarled “let me at ‘em” about lawful protestors marching in Albuquerque’s streets to protest a war any thinking person knows was a colossal mistake. He kissed Duhbya’s ass while corralling protestors in barb-wired “Free Speech Zones” miles from His Excremancy. Don’t forget those hostile times, because the angry, ugly, small-minded tight-fists rule the Republican Party now and, amazingly, have national clout far beyond their small members (sic). Consider the following:

ABQJournal Online » Blame White’s Departure on Socialist Unions

By Jean-C. Guenette / Albuquerque resident on Mon, Jul 25, 2011

If he is anything, [Darren] White is a bold, unabashed, proud anti-socialist. Now that will get you enemies because our country is filthy with socialist, communist-inspired unions. …

Let’s not pussyfoot around this; unions are employee gangs formed to extort money, favors and special conditions from their employer. They threaten harm to the employer and the business if the employer does not comply. This is pure socialist class extortion.

White is a declared opponent of socialism and that, of course, means anti-union. …To White, I say that I’m not satisfied with his expressed reason for stepping down. To my socialist union employees, I say “you’re fired.”

ABQJournal Online » Blame White’s Departure on Socialist Unions

Seriously, “socialist, communist-inspired”? What century does this person live in? Surely, Jean-C. means unions are “elitist politically-correct Islamo-fascists.” Time to buy the latest “Sound Conservative without Thinking” (Forward by John Boehner).

Side note: Although abqjournal.com’s redesign is a huge improvement, I’m puzzled that items from today’s edition don’t appear under the various top menu categories. To find this Letter to the Editor, I had to go to the home page to the letter’s link there. When I went straight to the Letters to the Editor page, I found letters from days ago.  This letter will appear on the  appropriate page in a few days, but its URL won’t have changed. Huh? Is there intent in the delay, other than to make more work for the reader?

“[T]he idea that if families are tightening their belts, the government should do the same, is as deeply intuitive as it is deeply wrong.” Paul Krugman

I wasn’t surprised the Albuquerque Journal gave so much space to Mike Frese, “Corrales resident”, to repeat the hoary nonsense about the national debt as a ‘family problem.’ Family is the metaphor for conservatives – especially, Christian conservatives – because father knows best. Feel free to read Frese’s column in its long-drawn-out, ham-handed entirety, if you need your invalid metaphors spelled out in detail.

Be sure to read Winthrop Quigley’s entire column – as usual, he explains things quite clearly.

ABQJournal Online » Flirting With Federal Debt Disaster

By Winthrop Quigley / Journal Staff Writer on Tue, Jul 19, 2011

It is possible some of these politicians really don’t understand what we’re dealing with. Every time one of them compares federal finances with household finances – arguing we should tear up the credit card and balance the checkbook and live within our means, just like families do – the intellectual dead end has been reached.

The federal government is nothing like the family household. It is a very large, poorly run business with a micromanaging board of directors (Congress) and a weak CEO (the president).

The business is failing. Refusing to raise the debt ceiling is the equivalent of pre-bailout General Motors reneging on its commitments to pay its steel suppliers and fund its employees’ retirement plans. …

If the prospect of suddenly unemployed federal workers in every state and unpaid military personnel under fire in Afghanistan doesn’t impress Congress, perhaps this will: In September 2008, the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy filing cratered the global economy because suddenly no one knew if the institutions making up the world’s financial systems could or would honor their obligations.

Lehman Bros. had $639 billion in assets, about as much as it takes to run the government for slightly more than two months. It had debts of $619 billion. The failure of a firm that was in the black to the tune of $20 billion nearly destroyed the global financial system. You don’t want to see what happens if Uncle Sam becomes the next Lehman Bros.

ABQJournal Online » Flirting With Federal Debt Disaster

[hat tip to Line of the day | NewMexiKen for the Krugman quote]

Those Damn Wires, AlBAHquerque!

A hundred years from now, people will look at photos like this and ask, “WTF?” OK, I already do that, but someday people will not believe what we put up with, including this visual pollution, this sharp stick in every eye, everywhere you look. Down with wires! Bury them!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjhinton/tags/albahquerque/