UNM women question equity – Daily Lobo – News by Karina Guzzi

There are about 300 female faculty members and 500 male faculty members at UNM. …

According to [The UNM Women’s Caucus’] findings, 58 percent of UNM’s undergraduates and 59 percent of UNM’s graduate students are women. Forty percent of deans are women, 26 percent are directors and 31 percent are chairs.

Two of the seven members on the board of regents are women. There are no women on the operations committee of the board. …

“Women make on average $10,000 less than men,” [Diane Marshall, a biology professor,] said. “There are more women in lesser ranks, but there is discrepancy in every rank as well.”

UNM needs to hire 200 conservative women post haste. mjh

mjh’s Blog: Liberals Want Your Children!

You recall that a week ago Domenici slapped down Richardson for lying about there being an energy bill (OK, Pete didn’t use the word “lie,” but he said there was no bill and Richardson didn’t know what he was talking about. Here’s an update. mjh

ABQjournal: Sparks Fly Between New Mexico Political Dynamos By Michael Coleman, Journal Washington Bureau

Actually, there was a draft bill floating around at the time, it just wasn’t Domenici’s.

House Republicans late last Thursday posted a draft of their energy bill on the Internet. It’s similar to a bill they pushed last Congress, so it was no surprise that Richardson and other Democrats would blast it.

It wasn’t introduced until Tuesday of this week.

Domenici and the Republicans who control Congress are pretty touchy about energy policy these days. They have tried and failed, repeatedly and for many reasons, including clumsy politics and internal squabbling, to get an energy bill to the president’s desk.

Domenici has called crafting energy legislation the most difficult task he has attempted in more than 30 years in Congress.

Richardson, who appears to be positioning himself for a presidential run in 2008, saw a wide opening to attack the GOP on a sensitive subject when gasoline prices are at a record high.

[Coco beat me to the post on this and the Payne vs Scarantino clash.]

ABQjournal: Around Northern New Mexico

Anti-Gay Protest Starts at UNM

An anti-gay church group has apparently rescheduled its planned Santa Fe protest, and they plan to kick off their New Mexico activities at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., recently announced they would picket eight Santa Fe churches that expressed support for a 21-year-old gay man who was severely beaten in February. The group had planned to picket outside the churches on April 17 and outside City Hall on April 18, but the group has postponed its Santa Fe visit by a week.

According to its Web site, the group will be picketing at UNM on Central and Stanford shortly before noon on April 23. The Santa Fe protests are scheduled for the afternoon of April 23 and for April 24.

ABQjournal: N.M. Ranks 37th in U.S. in Per-Pupil Spending By Gabriela C. Guzman

New Mexico ranks 37th in the nation for per-pupil education spending, according to a report recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

On average, the state spent $6,870 per student for the 2002-2003 academic school year, which is a 3.8 percent increase over the $6,606 spent during the previous academic year. …

In New Mexico, all revenue sources for public education are distributed equally among the districts. This system has garnered local and national accolades for fairly funding education for all children. …

New Mexico, for example, should be compared to a state like West Virginia: The two states’ populations, the amount of revenue generated from property tax and the number of school-age children mirror each other.

However, West Virginia spent $8,218 per pupil in the 2002-2003 academic school year? $1,300 per pupil more than New Mexico.

New Mexico ranks in the top 10 for federal spending (fourth) and state funding (ninth) on education, according to the census report. But when it comes to local resources, the state plummets to 49th.

In his speech to the National Wildlife Federation?s annual meeting, [New Mexico Governor Bill] Richardson claimed: ?There?s an energy bill before Congress. It is a bad bill. It is a bill that says America is going to get out of its energy dependence by drilling, drilling and drilling, production, production, production. It is short on conservation. It is short on energy efficiency. It is short in new technologies for solar, wind and biomass. And it is a bill that on its face should be defeated.?

?There is no energy bill, so Governor Richardson or anyone else critical of ?the bill? doesn?t know what they are talking about. I truly believe the governor would be better served by being constructive instead of mouthing off in speeches about things he couldn?t possibly know about. Maybe the governor intended for his speech to be an April Fools prank, but I?m not laughing,? Domenici said.

I stopped caring what Saint Pete says when he abruptly dropped his lifelong fiscal conservatism. This quote makes him sound like a cranky old man. And, since we have seen his bill before, unless there has been a sudden change, we know who is pulling the April Fool’s joke. Fraud and fakery from the GOP. mjh

Senator Domenici
(202) 224-6621

Office of the Governor
(505) 476-2200

In case you missed the story, 3 people who legitimately obtained tickets to a Bush “Town Hall” were ejected because one of them had an unsupportive bumper sticker on her car in the parking lot, not on her forehead.

Surprise. The President who called upon a fake reporter to ask slanted questions, the President who staged numerous campaign rallys with carefully selected audiences, the President who authorized countless fake news reports and payments to “independent” columnists to promote his agenda, that President is surrounded by guys pretending to be Secret Service — more fakes. Why? Because the real Secret Service recognizes the First Amendment — can’t have that. mjh

Thursday morning, 3/31, Pete Domenici will be on 770 KKOB AM, answering questions.

9:00 am – 10:00
(505) 243-3333 (in Albuquerque)
Or Toll Free on your Verizon or Alltel Wireless Phone #770

UNM Today: Colores! to honor Senator Pete Domenici as “Notable New Mexican”

Colores! explores the remarkable life of The Senator From New Mexico: Pete V. Domenici airing Wednesday, March 30 at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.