Yesterday, as I entered the UNM Continuing Education building, I heard a very loud man talking. We’ve all encountered oblivious cell phone users, but this guy may be a prize-winner. He had positioned himself at the top of the atrium stairs so that his already loud voice echoed through the whole building. He projected over the voluminous entryway about something important to him. When I reached the top of the stairs, I had to pass close to him. I could actually hear the OTHER person, too.
So, maybe this is the nicest guy in the world. As far as I can tell, as a passing stranger, he’s a champion jackass. Remember this tale the next time you pick up your cellphone. mjh
transmission lines across the caldera
ABQjournal: Caldera Case Now in Fed CourtBy Adam Rankin
The energy company that wants to build a geothermal power plant in the heart of the Valles Caldera National Preserve is taking its case to federal court in an effort to gain access to geothermal wells drilled decades ago.
In an ongoing property rights conflict that has attracted the attention of Congress, GeoProducts of New Mexico filed the lawsuit on Thursday in federal court seeking to force the trust that manages the land to allow the company to use the wells it considers integral to its plan to develop the energy source.
“The trust has consistently claimed that we don’t have the right to use those wells, which is nonsense, we think,” said Ken Boren, president of GeoProducts of New Mexico. …
The trust is adamantly opposed to any energy development on the preserve and argues that building a power plant and associated transmission lines across the caldera would run counter to the intent of Congress, which paid $101 million in 2000 for 89,000 acres to establish the land as a working ranch and natural preserve. …
GeoProducts holds the lease on about 12.5 percent of the mineral rights beneath the caldera. Boren said unless the government agrees to what he and the mineral rights owners feel is a fair market price for their share of the minerals, GeoProducts plans to go ahead with its intention of building a full-scale power plant in the preserve’s southwest corner.
So, these folks are blackmailing you and me: give us $15 million for mineral rights or we’ll build a huge power plant and power lines in this beautiful area. Mineral rights they acquired for pennies from you and me. This kind of scam shames all capitalists. Have some decency, please.
Still, we must enjoy the irony that they will use “alternative energy” to screw everything up. mjh
Just How Liberal is UNM?
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
Best Wishes to the Groom and Groom from the GOP
The New York Times > Washington > G.O.P. Consultant Weds His Male Partner By ADAM NAGOURNEY
Arthur J. Finkelstein, a prominent Republican consultant who has directed a series of hard-edged political campaigns to elect conservatives in the United States and Israel over the last 25 years, said Friday that he had married his male partner in a civil ceremony at his home in Massachusetts.
Mr. Finkelstein, 59, who has made a practice of defeating Democrats by trying to demonize them as liberal, said in a brief interview that he had married his partner of 40 years to ensure that the couple had the same benefits available to married heterosexual couples.
“I believe that visitation rights, health care benefits and other human relationship contracts that are taken for granted by all married people should be available to partners,” he said. …
Mr. Finkelstein has regularly described himself as a libertarian who supports same-sex marriage and abortion rights while opposing big government. In an interview with Maariv, an Israeli newspaper, after the American elections last year, he criticized the Republican Party as growing too close to evangelical Christians, warning it could cause long-term damage to the party. …
Mr. Finkelstein live[s] with his partner and two children….
[S]ome conservative friends said Mr. Finkelstein’s marriage would roil conservatives and highlight divisions among them over the importance of social issues to their movement.
“In recent years, Arthur hasn’t pretended to be a social conservative,” said one longtime conservative associate, who cited Mr. Finkelstein’s aversion to publicity in declining to be identified. “But this is the same man who was the architect of Jesse Helms’s political rise.”
I’m not outing Finkelstein. I’m not even calling him a complete hypocrite. I’m highlighting this story to underscore my confusion over what “conservatives” want and what they are willing to do to get it. Like work closely with people who wish they were dead.
Note: they’ve been a couple for 40 years (since 1965!). How many conservatives have gotten multiple divorces in that time? mjh
[via dangerousmeta!]
Republicans who control Congress are pretty touchy
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.]
Clever Trever Two
Trever works his magic bringing together (1) sanctioned paintball assaults on wildlife, (2) the painted ponies art project and (3) Abq’s mishandling of a visiting art exhibit. Cute, clever. That elk died from its wounds. Ha-ha! mjh
Paintball IS a Crime
ABQjournal: Paintballers May Play Tag the Elk By Jeff Jones, Journal Staff Writer
The New Mexico Game and Fish Department is considering springtime paintball “disruption hunts” to spook elk out of greening meadows, where they’re chomping grass cattle ranchers intend for cows.
The elk-cow conflicts have led to the killing of elk in the past. Game and Fish figures paintball sniping — which apparently would be a first for public wildlife management in the United States — might deter elk from the greener pastures without any elk deaths.
Elk-zapping probably would be a big hit with paintballers, said Jerry Gibson, general manager of Albuquerque’s Hinkle Family Fun Center. The center has two paintball fields where gung-ho players blast away at fellow humans with the gel-enclosed spheres of bright, water-soluble paint.
So, we’re going to let crazies run through the meadows terrorizing deer so that ranchers can have the grass for their cows. Nice. Public land, public wildlife, personal profit = corporate welfare. Hey, I’ll bet ATVs and chainsaws would help! Let’s get drunk first!
In a not entirely unrelated matter, my wife and I were SHOT IN THE BACKS by a carfull of fun-loving paint-ballers. Those aren’t “markers,” they’re god-damn guns. Check out one of my wounds. We thought we were dying. The shooter laughed his head off. The sport of kings. mjh
