What's off the Record?

I fought it for as long as I could, but I eventually had to create a Twitter account (burgosgroup). I really didn't want to because, to be perfectly honest, I'm having enough trouble keeping up with my Facebook account, and reading all of my blog feeds. Not too mention the non-social media related demands in my life. But, you can only resist for so long.

Of course, like everything in life, there are actually ways to have your cake and eat it too. My Twitter and Blog accounts are now linked to my Facebook account. So, what I write on either of them ends up on Facebook as well. Of course, anyone can follow my posts or tweets, but not everyone can become my friend on Facebook. I know some of you might find that hard to believe since I seem to add a new friend every couple of days.

So, do I like Twitter? Yeah, like millions of others, I'm fully addicted. You think talking on a cell phone while driving is dangerous? I can't even imagine how many folks are driving while checking their Twitter alerts. Next time you're driving look at the people driving next to you to see if they are looking down into the car every two seconds. Chances are they are texting or reading Twitter alerts. Somehow, I'm thinking this is an even greater threat to society than salvia.

Now, there are some New Mexico folks who are Twitterers in overdrive. I'm talking about Matthew Reichbach, Julia Goldberg, Peter St. Cyr and Santa Fe Sheriff and Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor Greg Solano. The other bloggers we all know and like and the one's we respect and the one's we love to "hate" are on there too, but the first four I mentioned are in a league all their own when it comes to NM Twitterers.

Probably not a big surprise all of them are bloggers, and if they are like me, they tried Digg and Delicious, LinkedIn and Plaxo, but nothing is getting quite as much of their attention as their blog, facebook and twitter accounts.

I've been blogging since December of 2004. At first it was an experiment. I was interested in learning about this blogging thing eight or nine million people were doing worldwide. I also wanted to stay engaged and relevant in politics after running for State Representative in a 2004 primary and losing. I can say without a doubt, "Mission Accomplished." In fact, what I've learned and got out of this little experiment far exceeded anything I ever could have imagined.

I've told everybody I've met who has thought of running for office that they should blog. I've had surprisingly very few takers. I remember one soon to be candidate telling me that blogging wasn't a good idea because the opposition research folks would use what you've written against you in a campaign.

My thoughts on that were simple, they're going to come after you in a campaign no matter what. And, if they can't find something, they'll probably make something up. I know I've had it done me and seen it done to others on muliple occasions. So, you may as well put your own thoughts out there for people to judge. My experience is that although many may disagree with your thoughts, you'll still earn their respect.

Which brings me to my motivation for writing this post. There are still some commonsense rules to which you need to adhere. First and foremost is that once it's out there, it's out there. You can't take it back. Several of the people I mentioned above with Twitter accounts are not only bloggers, but are reporters - darn good ones I might add. There is no such thing as an "off the record" comment that is publicly published. It just doesn't work that way.

So, in these times of instant media and spontaneous sharing, you still need to take a moment and think before you let your fingers do the talking. Like I said, I think every political candidate and future political candidate should take advantage social media. But, I also believe that they ought to take the time to learn the rules of the game before they start playing.

Slowing of the Deepening Recession

A slowing of the deepening recession is not the same as coming out of the recession. It's important to remember that simple fact. I'm kind of harping on this in recent posts, because it appears that the media and administration are at times trying to spin us into believing that everything is getting better. It's not. It is just not getting worse as fast as it was before:

U.S. home prices continued their multiyear tumble in April, according to the S&P Case-Shiller home-price indexes, which showed their third-straight month of slightly smaller declines.

Meanwhile, U.S. consumer confidence retreated in June, especially regarding expectations for the economy six months from now, a report released Tuesday said.

Remember that when consumers are not feeling confident, they don't go out and buy. We have only two months left until the holiday buying season starts (back to school followed by holiday shopping). With consumer confidence continuing to fall, we can expect more people to sit on their money.

I wouldn't be surprised if, on top of everything else, this leads to more declines in gross receipts taxes at the state and local level in New Mexico. If that happens, we can expect a special session where tax increases are pushed. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that polling is already being conducted to determine the type of tax increases New Mexicans might support.

Let me just say now, if anyone calls you, the answer should be, "No, tax increase."

Just Checked - The Recession is Not Over

So, I went outside and looked around. As near as I can tell, the recession is not over. People are still losing jobs and fighting for their homes. Now, what is the absolute worse thing the government could do right now? That's simple. Pass tax raising regulation that drives more jobs overseas:

Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steven Ballmer said the world’s largest software company would move some employees offshore if Congress enacts President Barack Obama’s plans to impose higher taxes on U.S. companies’ foreign profits.

“It makes U.S. jobs more expensive,” Ballmer said in an interview. “We’re better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the U.S. as opposed to keeping them inside the U.S.”

Obama on May 4 proposed outlawing or restricting about $190 billion in tax breaks for offshore companies over the next decade. Such business groups as the National Foreign Trade Council, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable have denounced the proposed overhaul.

There is a coalition out there fighting hard against this latest hairbrain scheme. And, less you think this won't affect New Mexico, because after all we don't have any large corporations headquartered in our own backyard, think again. Just look what former New Mexico Governor Jerry Apodaca, a strong President Obama support, warns:

The new U.S. tax proposal would eliminate the policies that were put in place to protect our global companies from these differences in tax burden and make us less competitive. The U.S. would stand alone with one of the highest burdens in the world.

The end of these traditional tax policies would essentially amount to a $200 billion new tax on U.S. companies operating overseas. This new expenditure would mean less money to invest in expansion, less money for research and development, and less money for new jobs.

Is now really the time to pass policies that eliminate jobs? Yeah, I don't think so either.

Doing the Bare Minimum

Scandal after scandal is rocking the state. You would think that as a result public officials would go out of their way to make sure that government is operating as transparently as humanly possible. But, when it comes to the Albuquerque Public Schools, that doesn't seem to be the case:

School board president Marty Esquivel said APS is in compliance with open records laws, which do not require postings on the Internet.

"This is probably a case where open government laws have not caught up with the technology of today," said Esquivel, an attorney who works with the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government.

The auditor said APS was violating the state Open Meetings Act by failing to post updated board and committee meeting minutes on the Web site.

Esquivel said state law requires only that minutes be made available upon request.

State law may only require that minutes be made available upon request, but the current level of corruption investigations mandates that if a public organization wants to appear on the up and up, then they should go out of their way to provide open government. And, to be perfectly honest, posting minutes on a website wouldn't take someone more than 15 minutes.

Reading Bills is Overrated

So, you ever wonder how so many crummy laws get introduced and passed? You've probably thought to yourself, "Who in their right mind would read this bill and vote for it?" See, there was your first mistake. Reading bills is so turn of the last century.

We live in the thought at the speed of light age. Lawmakers don't actually need to read bills before voting on them. Need the proof:

There is currently some wacky legislative maneuvering going on with H.R. 2454, the cap and trade energy bill, that puts a serious spotlight on the failure of Congress to make bills properly available. According to the New York Times:

House Democratic leaders late last night released a revamped, 1,201-page energy and global warming bill (pdf), clearing the way for floor debate Friday even though it remains uncertain if they will have the votes to pass it.

The House bill posted on the Rules Committee Web site has grown from the 946-page version adopted last month in the Energy and Commerce Committee. Sources on and off Capitol Hill said the bulk of the changes largely reflect requests from the eight other committees that also had jurisdiction over the bill, including the Ways and Means Committee and Science and Technology Committee.

The bill is only available online at the House Rules Committee and is reported as “text of the bill to be introduced.” Despite having a bill, H.R. 2454, that has been reported out of the Energy & Commerce Committee and discharged by eight other committees, there is now, suddenly, a new bill that is almost 300-pages longer — but it’s still being considered as H.R. 2454. Stay with me here.

Want to get really annoyed? Go check out the bill's timeline.

Stricter Laws Don't Bother Criminals

By it's very definition, a criminal is someone who breaks laws. In fact, you'd be safe to say that "lawful" is an antonym of criminal. So, please explain that rationale behind this:

The absence of required background checks for private firearm sales, like those made at gun shows, have helped fuel the steady flow of U.S. firearms to Mexico, where thousands of trafficked weapons are ending up in the hands of violent drug cartels, U.S. government investigators revealed last week.

The news has renewed the call among gun-control advocates and some Democratic lawmakers to tighten the nation’s firearms laws to make it more difficult for criminals to buy and smuggle weapons.

Give me a break. You can't make it more difficult for criminals to buy guns by passing more stringent firearm laws. They're criminals. They will break the laws to get access to the guns. Why? Because, that's what criminals do.

So, if you pass these new more stringent laws, who are you impacting? Oh, that's easy. You're making it harder for law abiding citizens to arm and protect themselves and their loved ones against... well, criminals. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Creating a Solar Eclipse

How's this for short term memory? The dust has barely settled from the state government losses of taxpayer money into Eclipse Aviation:

In its November bankruptcy filing, Eclipse said it had more than $1 billion in liabilities and 5,000-plus creditors, but only between $100 million and $500 million in assets.

Among the creditors is the " New Mexico State Investment Council, which has an outstanding $19 million investment in the company, only $5 million of which in secure debt.

And, they're all set to throw taxpayer money at another startup venture:

Bernalillo County will have to spend $4.5 million to acquire land for a proposed solar manufacturing site on the far West Side because developer SunCal Cos. couldn't meet deadlines for the project.

SunCal was supposed to acquire and donate the property for the proposed Solar Array Ventures Inc. operation in exchange for the county taking over the developer's obligation to build a water line to the project.

Bernalillo County Manager Thaddeus Lucero said SunCal could not meet a Solar Array Ventures, or SAVe, timeline to acquire the land, forcing the county to take on both the land acquisition and water-line construction responsibilities at a cost of about $8.5 million.

"We can't wait. No one wants to wait," Lucero said.

The county now will fund the project with bond proceeds, but will be paid back through $8.5 million in state money promised by Gov. Bill Richardson's administration. The state money will be doled out to the county over about two years, county economic development coordinator Daniel Gutierrez said. The county will still have to pay some interest on its bonds, he said.

The land donation is part of a nearly $200 million incentive package for the solar manufacturer, which expects to employ about 200 workers by 2010 and eventually more than 1,000.

Now, I don't know anything about Solar Array Ventures, so I've no desire to disparage the company. I'm just saying that it should not be the government's role to take taxpayer money and utilize it for speculative investments.

If the government wants to encourage economic growth, then how about just removing or seriously reducing taxes on ALL businesses as opposed to handing out cash packages to individual businesses in particular industries.