Diary of a Mad Voter
Commentary: Joan McCarter
BLM Defies Congress, Authorizes Grand Canyon Uranium Exploration
A key environmental battle left over from the Bush administration heated up again today, when the Center for Biological Diversity, Grand Canyon Trust, and Sierra Club announced that they will amend their pending lawsuit, CBD v. Kempthorne filed last fall against uranium exploration in a million acres of public land abutting Grand Canyon National Park. [more]
Political Commentary: Heath Haussamen
Dealing With Uncertain TimesMedia frenzy is one reason it’s important for people to educate themselves. The Internet makes it easy to cut through the media filter to the truth, if you’re looking. But that’s not to say there’s no reason to be alarmed. The truth is that there’s a lot out there right now to be concerned about. [more]
Opinion
Another Bite at Real ID
A little over a year after what was the deadline for states to implement Real ID, Janet Napolitano has cried "uncle," abandoning the Bush administration plan on Real ID. [more]
Political Commentary: Heath Haussamen
‘Quality-of-Life’ Tax Increase Should Be Shot Down
Some city officials and others in Las Cruces are proposing raising the gross-receipts or property tax this year to help fund “quality-of-life” initiatives such as operation and maintenance of city ball fields, creation of new bike paths and the expansion of artistic and cultural programs.
Yes, really. Even though the nation is in its worst economic shape since the Great Depression. And even though the city had to cut its budget by 5 percent last year in response to the recession.
[more]
Commentary: Joan McCarter
Wireless in the Wilderness
There's a cell tower at Old Faithful that lots of people hate, a mess on Bunsen Peak, and "extensive communications facilities atop Mount Washburn." These visual blights are going to be modified under the new plan, announced Monday.
(This could make the whole loaded, concealed weapons in the park just a little dicier. Hopefully, heat-packing visitors won't become enforcers of cell phone etiquette.)
[more]
Opinion: Joan McCarter
The Long Arm of the NRA: Guns in ParksThe NRA has gotten pretty much everything it's wanted in the past decade, and has to figure out how to maintain the membership rolls--and keep those all important dues flowing in. Too many successes, and it ceases to really need to exist, but it's got staff to maintain and offices to keep and Congresspeople to intimidate. So it has to manufacturer a new issue, by recycling an old one. [more]
Commentary: Joan McCarter
Bottled Water? Just Say No
It seems the nation's thirst for fossil fuels is matched only by their actual thirst. And we quench that just as irrationally as the former. Yeah, those little plastic bottles that everyone is so addicted to, and that people like me try to make them feel guilty about. I admit it--I'm a anti-bottled water zealot. Seeing cases of the stuff in people's Costco carts drives me almost as insane as the vision I saw last fall in Phoenix--sprinklers running on bright green lawns, in the middle of the day, water gushing down the gutter. But bottled water has a special place in my scold's heart. [more]
Political Commentary: Heath Haussamen
Building A New House Of CardsIn a stunningly foolish act, a nonprofit board that has authority over public companies’ accounting standards on Friday quietly got rid of a rule that requires banks to value their assets at what they’re currently worth. Instead, banks can now boost their books by valuing their assets at what they estimate they will be worth when the economy gets better. [more]
Political Commentary: Heath Haussamen
Richardson Should Sign Open-Meetings Bill
N.M. Gov. Bill Richardson has every reason in the world to sign a bill that would open conference committees and many other legislative meetings to the public, and no reason to veto it -- if the public’s interest is his motive.
If he has ulterior motives -- such as using a public-policy proposal he has endorsed for years as a bargaining chip with powerful lawmakers who would like to see it die -- that’s a different story.
[more]
Political Commentary: Joan McCarter
Oil or Water?A little closer to home, the Western Resource Advocates have already made their contribution to the general water discussion by cataloging "all the water rights that have been acquired by oil shale interests, or could be used by them, to develop oil shale on a commercial scale." A perusal of their resulting report (available at this link), justifies their general conclusion: "The volume of both water and rights is staggering," and that the six energy companies involved have "cornered the market" on northwestern Colorado's water. [more]
