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Today's Opinions

  • Committee upon committee

    Our legislature is about process. Analogies to producing products, such as writing a computer program, making furniture, or creating and serving a restaurant meal don’t work. That figures.
    The legislature is a big committee consisting of somewhat smaller, but still sizeable committees — the 70-member House and the 42-member Senate. The two chambers in turn break into smaller committees with overlapping membership. Party membership creates two other committees overlaying everything else.
    “The Legislature’s primary job (is) development of the state’s budget,” the Legislative Council Service reminds us in “Highlights 2013,” its policy summary of what is properly called the 51st Legislature, First Session, 2013. The 2013 session was limited to 60 days. Any topic could be considered.
    A session of the legislature has two other functions, both outside the scope of the LCS summary.
    First, the session provides a forum for focusing public attention on the issues of the day. The issues may be substantive, such as gay marriage, or silly, such as the Senate Rules Committee not voting to confirm (or dump) Hanna Skandera as Secretary of the Department of Public Education.

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  • Politics of who does what to whom

    A great many people deem politics to be vile in the extreme. For them it all boils down to endless batteries of charges and counter charges, boasts and balderdash. And there’s something to be said for that point of view, especially the balderdash bit.
    But it’s also true that politics is often about who does what to whom, why and when. Certainly that’s the impression one comes away with these days after witnessing the bumping of important heads in and around the administration of Gov. Susana Martinez.
    Case in point is the erstwhile New Mexico Republican consultant Jamie Estrada, who is expected to be arraigned this week for unlawfully hacking into Martinez’s email account. Martinez reacted to news of Estrada’s indictment with a good deal of huffing and puffing about how she’d been saying all along that someone had wrongfully snooped into her emails.
    Estrada, she opined, is “a man of suspect character.”
    Of course, back when she was simply the district attorney of Doña Ana County, Susana Martinez obviously thought well enough of Estrada’s character to make him the campaign manager of her 2010 race for governor.

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  • Upward trend continues for governor

     SANTA FE – Gov. Susana Martinez’s popularity is still climbing. A recent poll by Survey USA shows her at 66 percent popularity. The polling group isn’t one of the best in the nation but it seems to show a continued upward trend in the governor’s popularity.
    It is difficult to pinpoint the source of that popularity. The state’s economy is the only one in the area not to be recovering. More people are leaving the state than arriving. And there seems to be a general acceptance of federal cuts in budget and personnel without much complaining.
    Gov. Martinez was able to push through the 2013 Legislature a last-minute measure to cut business taxes. Then we were told the numbers on which the measure was sold were faulty. The cuts were supposed to keep businesses from leaving but so far those businesses have not been identified.
    The oil boom in the Hobbs area is the one bright spot in the economy. Virgin Galactic’s Spaceship Two will bring us some notoriety when it finally gets off the ground.
    Sir Richard Branson says that will be Christmas but he has been pushing back the date for five years. And the space travel won’t bring in much money right away.

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  • New steps pursue vital remedies

    A good idea is a precious seed. Yet a good idea is useless without more good ideas for spreading it where it can grow.
    Regulatory engineering is a good idea that showed up here in 2011. Six or eight subsequent columns added weight to the idea.
    Today I report on how the concept is being taken to places that can use it.
    “Regulatory engineering” – my term – is applying a familiar discipline to the regulatory field. Graduates in the speciality would engineer systems and tools that make regulating cheaper, faster and better. In a word, the aim is efficiency.
    Engineers increase the efficiency of everything they work on, from mines to automobiles to computer systems, all of which are constantly improved.
    The same commitment is needed in regulatory systems.
    Better methods and new tools abound when the focus goes beyond “strict rules vs. lax rules.” That polemic is just one element among many parts in an overall system that was designed piecemeal, and shows the disconnects.
    The public forum debates symptoms, but neglects the remedies used for such ills. Problems do not always originate where they surface. Indeed, a systems analysis often finds they do not.
    Regulatory engineers are the means to efficient system designs.
    The concept has found some good ground for ideas.

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  • What to expect when pets are expecting

    Many people see their pet as their own child, but what do you do when you find that your little one will soon be having children of their own?
    Knowing how to care for your pet during pregnancy and after childbirth is essential for any responsible pet owner.
    So how do you tell if your pet is expecting? “Some telltale signs to watch for in a pregnant dog is lethargy, not wanting to eat as much, not playing as much as usual and enlarged nipples,” said Jean Laird, veterinary technician at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. “These are attributed to a change in hormones and milk production.
    If you believe your pet is pregnant, the first thing you should do is take her in to see a veterinarian. Certain conditions exist that may appear to be pregnancy, but in reality are alarming and may even be life threatening.
    “One condition that can be deadly is called pyometra,” said Laird. “It is a bacterial infection that occurs during their heat cycle and results in the uterus filling with pus. This is a serious condition that requires immediate surgery and hospitalization. Symptoms include fever, lethargy and vaginal discharge that is commonly confused with standard pregnancy discharge.”

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  • Well drilling can be good for future

    The White Rock residents’ objection to the proposed well project is the worst example of “NIMBY” (Not In My Back Yard) I have encountered in many years. A small group of self-important residents would have us believe that the value of their properties will be diminished to the point of being unable to sell, and that the noise and dust will make their homes unlivable.
    And that they are such experts in the engineering of well projects that they should determine the location of the well site.
    The well project is for the benefit of county residents, especially White Rock, to insure a water supply in the future. The disruption while drilling will not be a permanent situation. The project has already taken into account the final appearance of the area. The project is being planned to protect water rights that could be lost if not claimed.
    The most precious commodity anywhere is water. Just because we have sufficient ground water now does not guarantee that the sources will not diminish in the future. It takes snow melt in the Jemez mountains to recharge the aquifer that we draw water from for the county’s current use.

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  • Keep up fight against pancreatic cancer

    Pancreatic cancer remains one of the deadliest cancers with a five-year survival rate of just six percent and no early detection tools or effective treatments.
    Thanks to the Recalcitrant Cancer Research Act, a new law enacted in January, there is hope for those touched by this disease. I would like to thank Sen. Tom Udall and Rep. Ben Ray Luján for supporting this historic legislation, which requires the National Cancer Institute to evaluate its current efforts in researching pancreatic cancer and focus on ways to improve outcomes for patients.
    Due to sequestration, however, federal funding for medical and cancer research has been cut, and the progress we have made is now being threatened. Without adequate NCI funding, it will be difficult to leverage the opportunities that develop as a result of the passage of the Recalcitrant Cancer Research Act.
    On June 18, I will be joining thousands of advocates across the country for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network’s (pancan.org) National Call-in to Congress to urge them to save medical research that saves lives. This disease has had a devastating impact on my life, but with Congress’ help, we will be able to develop the tools and treatments so desperately needed to give hope to future generations.
    Monica-Amit Mishra
    volunteer and advocate for

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  • Honor trumps hate, stupidity

    Harlan Ellison once remarked, “The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.” And equally astute observer of the world, Frank Zappa, retorted, “There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe and it has a longer shelf life.”
    Lately, I’ve seen less and less hydrogen in the world.
    Thus marches in the Sultans of Stupid to debate the recent decision by the Boy Scouts of America to allow membership by gay children under the age of 18.
    The tempest is boiling with small brained homophobes across the nation. With Alabama competing for Olympic gold in stupidity (this is news?), some churches in that state have made headlines by announcing that Boy Scouts will no longer be allowed to meet at the church.
    Pastor Greg Walker of the Baptist Church of Helena summed up his charter of tolerance and love with his shortest sermon ever: “You’re not welcome here!” When questioned as to why a church would exclude children, church members chanted, “Sinners should burn in hell, not attend services of worship with good people.”

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