The Wilderness Society (WS) is meeting in Albuquerque this week. It is something of a big deal to have a top-tier national group as our guests. Not only will they have considerable economic impact in a short time, the presence of the Wilderness Society is another indicator of New Mexico’s importance to national issues. Further, it may be a step towards the WS establishing a New Mexico office, which it does not have currently — more economic impact and national importance for NM. The local press may overlook this.
New Mexico is one of the biggest states for the “extractive industries” (think root canal without medication or stitches). And here at the End Times (for oil), the junkies are ready to knock each other’s filling out for another hit. Having trashed New Mexico in the northwest and southeast, the profiteers thirst for more and will seek out any parcel, including your backyard or grave.
An yet, yin to all that yang, we are the birthplace of designated Wilderness, in the Gila (in 1964; that same year, Pecos, San Pedro Parks, Wheeler Peak, White Mountain Wildernesses were also designated — together, a bit more than 50% of the state’s designated Wilderness acres, but the giant Gila is itself over 1/3rd of our Wilderness). We are a people who love the land as is, who feel ourselves to be connected to this place. We are home to vast areas not yet destroyed nor fully protected but on someone’s short list. At the moment, we’re holding the line on Otero and Via Vidal.
You might anticipate that there is a personal side to this story. I’m not a member of the Wilderness Society (or, possibly, any group that tracks membership). I am a lover of wild things. One of those, mi esposa, Merri, connects me to the WS. The President of the Wilderness Society is Bill Meadows. Merri has know Bill and his wife Sally for more than 30 years — he was her first boss and gave her a membership in the Sierra Club. Their roots are strong and deep.
So, we joined a group of at least 30 people for a wonderful dinner last night. Staff and board members are from around the country; many have never been to New Mexico before; most won’t be here more than a few days.
Several people asked me what I do. I’m sure they were puzzled by the long pause and hesitant response. What do I do? I read the paper and blog for a few hours (that response came later from the wit of the staircase).
I spoke at length with one hard-working staffer. She will spend 47 hours in New Mexico and not get beyond Old Town or the airport. I exhorted her to walk down the block to Tingley Beach and the Bio Park. No time this time. I mean no harsh criticism of her, but that’s sad/crazy. No matter how hard-working one is, there has to be a half hour slack/stretch. At the least, find a high point and turn 360 degrees to see the grand bowl we live in everyday.
Still, this is a short working trip for a hard-working group that will meet from 7am to 5pm Thursday, then on to a social event at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, which for any such group is also work for the cause, from 6pm to 10pm. Then back up before dawn for more meetings.
Most of the group has more time and so they can actually enjoy the fruit of their labors, from the premier urban wilderness of the Sandias (1978) to New Mexico’s newest wilderness, Ojito (in 2005 — the first in NM since Cebolla and West Malpais in 1987). We all know that it doesn’t even take days to fall in love with New Mexico — one long vista, one moment of light & shadow is all it takes. If the damn wind doesn’t spoil everything. mjh
You may already be familiar with my wilderness blog: Ah, Wilderness!. I also have Travels with Mark & Merri, plus photos in many places, including Slideshows (see The Wilderness of My Soul).
Monthly Archives: May 2006
Stealth Vetoes
A major thrust of the Bush Administration has been to abrogate the classic checks and balances of the Constitution — at the very time he has profound influence over Congress and the Supreme Court and the Media and the Public.
Ask yourself for a moment: what kind of Constitutional scholar is Bush? Stop laughing — whose idea is this? Someone is tweaking, amending and editing the Constitution and we don’t actually know who it is or what their motives are.
Much has been made of Bush never vetoing anything. These “signing statments” are essentially line-item vetoes; he’ll ignore what he chooses. Congress and the Court have no process for reviewing, objecting or over-riding these stealth vetoes.
Bush’s strange need to leave a paper trail everywhere is beginning to look like Nixon’s tapes. Hopefully, they will contribute to his undoing. They definitely will give History real substance to judge his administration by.
Had enough? mjh
Bush challenges hundreds of laws – The Boston Globe
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | April 30, 2006
WASHINGTON — President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.
Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ”whistle-blower” protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.
Legal scholars say the scope and aggression of Bush’s assertions that he can bypass laws represent a concerted effort to expand his power at the expense of Congress, upsetting the balance between the branches of government. The Constitution is clear in assigning to Congress the power to write the laws and to the president a duty ”to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Bush, however, has repeatedly declared that he does not need to ”execute” a law he believes is unconstitutional. …
Far more than any predecessor, Bush has been aggressive about declaring his right to ignore vast swaths of laws — many of which he says infringe on power he believes the Constitution assigns to him alone as the head of the executive branch or the commander in chief of the military.
Many legal scholars say they believe that Bush’s theory about his own powers goes too far and that he is seizing for himself some of the law-making role of Congress and the Constitution-interpreting role of the courts.
Search Results (v2)
Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (2006); Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (2005); Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (2004); Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (2003); Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (2002); Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (2001)
For: “”statement on signing””
The President and the Press are Naked
Daily Kos: Re-Improved Colbert transcript (now with complete text of Colbert-Thomas video!)
Now, I know there are some polls out there saying this man has a 32% approval rating. But guys like us, we don’t pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in “reality.” And reality has a well-known liberal bias.
So, Mr. President, please, pay no attention to the people that say the glass is half full. 32% means the glass — it’s important to set up your jokes properly, sir. Sir, pay no attention to the people who say the glass is half empty, because 32% means it’s 2/3 empty. …
The greatest thing about this man is he’s steady. You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday. Events can change; this man’s beliefs never will.
As excited as I am to be here with the president, I am appalled to be surrounded by the liberal media that is destroying America, with the exception of Fox News. Fox News gives you both sides of every story: the president’s side, and the vice president’s side.
But the rest of you, what are you thinking, reporting on NSA wiretapping or secret prisons in eastern Europe? Those things are secret for a very important reason: they’re super-depressing. And if that’s your goal, well, misery accomplished.
Over the last five years you people were so good — over tax cuts, WMD intelligence, the effect of global warming. We Americans didn’t want to know, and you had the courtesy not to try to find out. Those were good times, as far as we knew.
But, listen, let’s review the rules. Here’s how it works: the president makes decisions. He’s the Decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put ’em through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know – fiction!
Read the whole transcript — it is full of zings and barbs. Colbert’s presentation is amazingly blunt and wreckless. I hope everyone in the audience squirmed constantly. mjh
[Thanks, Jas.]
All Kidding Aside By Dan Froomkin, Special to washingtonpost.com
So was the biggest news of the night that Bush so effectively and humorously poked fun at himself? Or that a captive president — and, to a lesser degree, the press corps — had so sit and watch as they were subjected to devastating, vitriolic satire?
Possibly because they themselves were targets, most reporters chose to downplay the Colbert part of the evening. …
“As Colbert walked from the podium, when it was over, the president and First Lady gave him quick nods, unsmiling, and handshakes, and left immediately.”
Here’s what CNN’s Ed Henry reported: “Now, the president ended his remarks by — his official remarks by saying that it’s really important to laugh in this job. That’s probably more true than ever, now that he’s so low in the polls. But I have to tell you, near the end of Stephen Colbert’s routine, the president didn’t really seem to be laughing. He actually seemed to be a little bit annoyed at some of the pokes from Stephen Colbert, it went on for a bit.”
The Moderate Voice – Colbert’s White House Correspondent Dinner Performance Underscores Irony’s Power And Delicacy [lots of excerpts of reactions from Left and Right]
Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition and keep it close to reality
Creationism dismissed as ‘a kind of paganism’ by Vatican’s astronomer IAN JOHNSTON
“Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition and keep it close to reality, to protect it from creationism, which at the end of the day is a kind of paganism – it’s turning God into a nature god. And science needs religion in order to have a conscience, to know that, just because something is possible, it may not be a good thing to do.”
[Brother Consolmagno, who works in a Vatican observatory in Arizona and as curator of the Vatican meteorite collection in Italy, said a “destructive myth” had developed in modern society that religion and science were competing ideologies.]
Brother Consolmagno, who was due to give a speech at the Glasgow Science Centre last night, entitled “Why the Pope has an Astronomer”, said the idea of papal infallibility had been a “PR disaster”. What it actually meant was that, on matters of faith, followers should accept “somebody has got to be the boss, the final authority”.
“It’s not like he has a magic power, that God whispers the truth in his ear,” he said.
—–
Last year, the Rev. George Coyne, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, said placing intelligent design theory alongside that of evolution in school programs was “wrong” and was akin to mixing apples with oranges.
“Intelligent design isn’t science even though it pretends to be….”
The Money is for Duhbya’s Friends — Only
[U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso] Jackson, a former president and CEO of the Dallas Housing Authority, was among the featured speakers at a forum sponsored by the Real Estate Executive Council, a national minority real estate consortium.
After discussing the huge strides the agency has made in doing business with minority-owned companies, Jackson closed with a cautionary tale, relaying a conversation he had with a prospective advertising contractor.
“He had made every effort to get a contract with HUD for 10 years,” Jackson said of the prospective contractor. “He made a heck of a proposal and was on the (General Services Administration) list, so we selected him. He came to see me and thank me for selecting him. Then he said something … he said, ‘I have a problem with your president.’
“I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘I don’t like President Bush.’ I thought to myself, ‘Brother, you have a disconnect — the president is elected, I was selected. You wouldn’t be getting the contract unless I was sitting here. If you have a problem with the president, don’t tell the secretary.’
“He didn’t get the contract,” Jackson continued. “Why should I reward someone who doesn’t like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don’t get the contract. That’s the way I believe.”
[via NewMexiKen]
Maybe you think “Culture of Corruption” sounds wrong. But isn’t it the height of corruption to take away government money from someone because of one statement?
I really do appreciate how absolutely feckless everyone near Duhbya is. They don’t even try to hide the absolute partisanship — they celebrate it. Hey, they won — it’s their government!
Had enough? mjh
Dumb or Drugged?
Telegraph | News | President’s bass moment By Francis Harris, in Washington
The disclosure came when a German reporter asked him to name his best and worst moments since taking office in 2000.
Naturally, Mr Bush said September 11 had proved by far the worst moment. But he clearly struggled to find a happy moment of equal intensity. In the end, the fish came to mind.
“I don’t know, it’s hard to characterise the great moments. They’ve all been busy moments, by the way. I would say the best moment was when I caught a 7½lb largemouth bass on my lake,” George W Bush said. [mjh: it’s hard work! wanna see my pet frog?]
No matter what his supporters say, Duhbya is NOT a smart man. He peaked as a C student and from there went on to drink and, some say, do drugs for years. Christianity may have straightened him out, but it can’t make anyone smarter than god did. His political philosophy confuses conservatives and liberals — it’s hard to know what he’s really thinking. I don’t know if the deal was sealed by passing out choking on a pretzl or the extreme shock of 9/11, but this man is not well, emotionally or mentally. mjh
Inherit the Wind
The Toll of the Anti-Politicians By Jim Hoagland
National issues dominate [many] country’s troubles. But part of the broader erosion is due to the rise of the anti-politician: the leader who seeks or wields power in the name of a cause higher than politics and the art of compromise, and who gains electoral advantage by denigrating government and its funding. [mjh: i.e., the work of the Radical Right]
That advantage turns out to be temporary and ultimately self-defeating. Related assaults on politics as a profession, on compromise as a function of government and on taxes as a valid instrument for common welfare turn quickly into dead ends. They deliver only instant gratification for the frustrated.
President Bush’s well-advertised animus toward “Washington” and his refusal to work with Congress to reformulate the national security and civil liberties laws needed to support an enduring war on terrorist networks provide examples of the kind of corrosive anti-politics that I have in mind. A recent trip to Europe shows that the practice and its consequences are not confined to Washington.