A4 Sunday, October 23, 2011
OPINION
Governor Martinez jumps aboard space plane
SANTA FE — Finally, we have some encouraging words from Gov. Susana Martinez about Spaceport America. The words came during her first visit to the site for dedication of Virgin Galactic’s terminal building and hangar. Earlier, Martinez skipped ceremonies dedicating the 10,000-foot runway. And in January, she had some very discouraging words for the Legislature about the spaceport’s finances and the necessity of private industry picking up further costs. But she was all smiles when posing for pictures with Virgin Galactic owner Sir Richard Branson. Her positive comments didn’t get much coverage, but Albuquerque Journal reporter Rene Romo interviewed her later. Martinez said during her public comments at the dedication that she is so impressed with Virgin Galactic that she may have to add a suborbital flight to her bucket list. Romo then caught up with her to ask about her apparent
EDITORIAL
JAY MILLER
INSIDE THE CAPITOL
change of heart. Martinez said her visit to the spaceport increased her enthusiasm for the project. She said she never was unenthusiastic about it. She just wanted to make sure our tax dollars are being spent wisely. Judging from the experience of backers of other projects championed by former Gov. Bill Richardson, this may have been the first time Martinez had met with Virgin Galactic representatives. Spaceport supporters had worried that the governor’s lack of enthusiasm might turn off Sir Richard who is being pursued by countries worldwide to relocate his space program. Branson’s contin-
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ued commitment to New Mexico during the past 10 months has been a welcome sign. Branson and his two children rappelled from the roof of the Virgin Galactic terminal at the beginning of the ceremonies. If relations had warmed a little earlier, Martinez might have joined them. A few weeks ago, we saw film clips of her qualifying for a concealed carry license, notching a perfect score. It has been a long time since New Mexico governors have needed to carry a gun so she must have been doing it to demonstrate her skills. She also showcased her ballroom dancing abilities at least once since becoming governor. She won a Las Cruces dance competition when she was a district attorney. So why not show off with Sir Richard? It would have made international news. Or why not take a ride on the first space plane to lift off from New Mexico? Branson and his two children will be on it.
When Bill Richardson was governor, he said he wanted to be on the first flight. That was early in Richardson’s administration when plans called for the spaceport and the spaceship to be ready by 2010. Virgin Galactic has had much good news lately. Former NASA shuttle program manager Mike Moses is leaving the space agency to become Virgin Galactic’s vice president of operations. He will be in charge of all the company’s operations at Spaceport America. Virgin Galactic is involved in more than just tourism. NASA, plus several research and educational institutions, have already made reservations for space aboard the flights. The company also has an agreement with NASA to collaborate in the development of equipment to conduct space flight operations. The equipment development is said to include space suits, heat shields and other space flight elements. Space suits and heat
shields will be necessary when the commercial market advances to orbital flights. Bill Richardson should not receive all the credit or blame for the spaceport. The idea was conceived by space enthusiasts centered in the Las Cruces area during the latter days of the Garrey Carruthers administration. Gov. Bruce King supported their efforts and delegated the responsibility to Lt. Gov. Casey Luna. Gov. Gary Johnson didn’t like the idea. He felt New Mexico had too many highway improvement needs. It was in the early days of the Richardson administration that spaceport supporters found a big friend in state Economic Development Secretary Rick Homans, who took the idea to Richardson. You know the rest of the story. (Write to Jay Miller at 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, NM 87505; by fax at 984-0982; or by e-mail at insidethecapitol@hotmail.com)
Leave job creation to professionals
The latest news from President Barack Obama’s Labor Department is that a federal grant doled out from the administration’s stimulus program to train and employ people in “green jobs” so far has spent $162 million but resulted in only 8,035 people getting jobs. That would be bad enough. But only 1,033 of them still were on the job after six months. If that fact alone weren’t irritating, a report from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform says many of those “created” jobs weren’t new. Worse yet, they weren’t even “green.” Some of the jobs simply were relabeled as “green” by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They rather creatively were identified as “green” although they were seemingly as colorless as government regulators working at the Environmental Protection Agency, university professors teaching ecology and Washington lobbyists seeking government loan guarantees for clients. This is only the most recent installment of the Obama administration’s boast to create 5 million green jobs over the next decade. The growth of green jobs from 2003-10, even using such loose criteria, has been 3.4 percent a year, less than the national economy’s 4.2 percent, according to the Brookings Institution. Taxpayer outrage sometimes is limited to the most catastrophic failures of the green jobs movement, such as the recent bankruptcy of Fremont-based Solyndra, the solar panel manufacturer under federal investigation after it burned through more than $500 million in loan guarantees and laid off 1,100 workers this summer. But the flaws in government-forced green-job creation are more fundamental, and, we suspect, more widespread than high-profile bankruptcies that leave taxpayers on the hook. “We should be reviewing every one of these loan guarantee” projects, says Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. Here’s a better idea: It’s past time to recognize that redistributing taxpayer money to favored green companies that cannot raise enough capital on their own to stay in business makes job creation much more expensive, thanks to government regulations and middlemen, and therefore makes job creation more unlikely. That’s the conclusion of Matt Welch, editor of Reason Magazine. Despite the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — the stimulus bill — and a spate of other similar government-devised, top-down schemes to spur job creation, Welch notes that “fewer able-bodied Americans are employed as a percentage of the potential work force than at any time since 1983.” In short, the more government helps, the more America hurts. A recent news story in The Washington Post observed that Solyndra’s failure “prompted concerns about whether the administration made good bets in the rest of its portfolio of clean-tech projects it had helped subsidize with taxpayer-guaranteed loans.” Whether the government is making good bets is the wrong question. Taxpayers should demand government stop gambling with their money altogether. Guest Editorial The Orange County Register
DEAR DOCTOR K: I am a 31-year-old woman who was r ec en t l y d i ag n os e d w i t h uterine fibroids. I would like t o ha v e ch i ld r e n i n th e future, so I’m afraid that t r e a t in g my fi br oi d s m a y affect my fertility. DEAR READER: Fibroids are non-cancerous tumors in the uterus. Only about a qu a r t er of w om e n wi t h fi b r o i d s h ave s y m pt o m s. However, the symptoms can be s e v er e a n d c a n a f f ec t day-to-day life. Heavy bleeding, pelvic pain, having to pass urine frequently or difficulty passing urine are the most common symptoms. Some women who plan to have children choose not to
Vote for Obama because he’s black? At the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Sen. Barack Obama said, “... There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America — there is the United States of America.” Those were welcome and commendable words. Unfortunately, they appear to be only words. Since then, Obama has divided us along race and class lines more than any modern president. Some of his strongest, highprofile supporters in the black community are now saying that Obama’s race, alone, should be enough for black
Doonesbury
ASK DR. K UNITED MEDIA SYNDICATE
treat fibroids until afterw a r d . B u t f o r s o m e, t h e symptoms are too painful or inconvenient to wait. I f y o u d e ci d e y o u n eed t r ea t m en t , b e v e ry c le ar with your doctor about your p l a n s t o h av e c hi l d r e n. Some treatments are completely incompatible with pregnancy. The only sure-fire way to
CAL
THOMAS SYNDICATED COLUMNIST
voters to vote for his re-election. Krissah Thompson of The Washington Post reports that on “The Tom Joyner Morning Show,” which has an estimated 8 million radio listeners, Joyner, who is black, said, “Stick together, black people.” The show reaches one in four
get rid of fibroids is with a hysterectomy, or removal of t h e u ter us. Th is cu r e s fibroids completely, since it r em ove s t he m fr om you r body. But it would leave you unable to have children. It’s a good ch oi ce f or wo men who don’t want to have kids (or more kids), but not for you. For women who do want to have kids, there are other t r e at m en t s. C er tai n h o r m on e t he rap ies can h el p kee p yo ur fib r oi ds f r om gr o wi ng b i gg er a n d can r ed uce you r sym pt om s. There are too many specific hormone treatments available to mention them here, but your gynecologist can
African-American adults. The Rev. Al Sharpton, who also has a radio show and a gig on MSNBC, admonished blacks who have been critical of the president, “I’m not telling you to shut up. I’m telling you: Don’t make some of us have to speak up.” The attempt at poetry is getting tiresome, Al. Why don’t you leave that to Jesse Jackson? Joyner went even further on his blog, writes Thompson: “Let’s not deal with the facts right now,” he said. “Let’s deal with just our blackness and pride — and loyalty. We have the chance to re-elect the first
discuss them with you. Another option is a surger y t hat r em oves t h e fib r o id t um or s i n you r u t e ru s , bu t le ave s t h e healthy tissue of the uterus in place. One concern with this type of surgery is that it can weaken the uterus. A uterus weakened by surgery may not be strong enough t o en du r e pr egn an c y. I n some cases, a cesarean sect io n (C - sect i on ) m ay b e needed to prevent uterine damage during delivery. If y ou r m ai n sym p t om from fibroids is bleeding, there is one approved drug, tranexamic acid, that might See DR. K, Page A5
African-American president, and that’s what we ought to be doing. And I’m not afraid or ashamed to say that as black people, we should do it because he’s a black man.” Try that in football. Never mind that the black quarterback continues to throw interceptions or drop the ball, keep him in the game simply because he’s black. If that happened, he’d be booed until the coach pulled him off the field, and those boos wouldn’t just be coming from whites. In the same week the
25 YEARS AGO
See THOMAS, Page A5
Oct. 23, 1986 • Two Goddard High School sophomores have been selected to represent the Goddard chapter of Future Farmers of America at the 59th National FFA Convention. Chosen were Kenneth Durbin, 16, son of Mr. and Mrs. Carol Durbin of Roswell, and Scott Martin, 15, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Martin of Roswell. Both young men are members of the Goddard chapter. Durbin has worked with the chapter on a number of projects. He was on the parliamentary procedure team and judged poultry this year. His projects for the year include showing and raising swine, sheep and chickens. He is Ag II class vice president. Martin has competed in the District Creed Contest and Extemporaneous Speech Contest and has judged on the chapter wildlife team. His projects this year are trapping and beef production. He is serving as Ag II class treasurer.