Quote/Unquote
"Green valleys in the deserts, apple trees
on a hill,
And there in the canyon stands an old water mill;
A land of enchantment
where wildflowers grow,
These are the treasures of New Mexico."
—chorus of "New Mexico" by Calvin Boles
and
R.D. Blankenship, proposed by State Rep. Gloria C. Vaughn
(Alamogordo) as the official "state cowboy song"
"What about matches? Do we need a licensed
fireman to control access to matches?"
—State Rep. Keith Gardner (Roswell), objecting to a bill requiring
medicines containing pseudoephedrine to be dispensed by pharmacists,
to deter meth-makers
"Now you're going to hear from a Democrat
that is going to say
this: cutting taxes is good, being pro-business
is good. Putting
more money in people's pockets is good."
—Gov. Bill Richardson, trying out
2008
political themes at the
Emerging
Issues Forum
at
North Carolina State University
Space Race
Virgin Galactic's space tourism business, to be based at the Southwest
Regional Spaceport in Upham, NM, just got another competitor. So did
New Mexico's proposed spaceport, for that matter. Hamid and Anousheh
Ansari, the Texas telecommunications zillionaires who made possible the
first X Prize (whose winner is building Virgin Galactic's spaceships),
are teaming with Space Adventures Ltd. to start rocketing passengers
into space before 2008—ahead of Virgin Galactic. Space Adventures is
no newcomer to the space tourism business: It's the company that put
three rich guys into orbit on the Russian space station.
This venture will also get a Russian boost, with a Russian company,
Myasishchev Design Bureau, enlisted to build the spaceships. Like Virgin
Galactic, the flights aim to loft tourists only to suborbital heights.
Space Adventures also announced that it will be building its own spaceport—a
$265 million project in the United Arab Emirates. Although the spaceport
is budgeted at $40 million more than New Mexico's, the government of
Ras al Khaimah, the emirate where it will be built, is getting off cheap:
It's initially investing just $30 million, while the New Mexico legislature
recently authorized $100 million in funding.
Still more spaceport competition is on the horizon,
with Space Adventures teaming with a Singapore consortium to build
a $115 million spaceport in the Asian city-state.
Hamid Ansari told the New York Times that a rivalry
with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic would be good for the space
business, because "the number-one reason for success is competition."
Watch on the Potomac
As if failing to get many of his proposals through the 2006 legislature
wasn't bad enough, Gov. Bill Richardson has to be discouraged about the
early poll numbers on his possible 2008 presidential bid. American Research
Group included Richardson in polls in seven states—South Carolina, Maine,
Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and crucial New Hampshire.
As expected, Sen. Hillary Clinton led among Democrats across the board.
But Richardson didn't get over one percent in any state. Splitting distant
second behind Clinton were 2004 nominee Sen. John Kerry, 2004 vice-presidential
nominee John Edwards, 2000 nominee and former Vice President Al Gore,
and retired general and 2004 contender Wesley Clark (the current fave
of blogger activists).
From 31-42 percent of Democrats in the surveyed
states remain undecided, however, and other much-blogged-about potential
candidates such as Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh and ex-Virginia Gov. Mark
Warner were also mired at one to two percent. Richardson also remained
stuck at one percent in Strategic Vision polls in Washington State,
New Jersey, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Pennsylvania. That led
The Next Prez blog to opine, "The lack
of early support for Warner, Bayh, and Richardson shows how much work
they still face to raise national awareness of their candidacies."
But the American Research Group polls also showed
Sen. John McCain—the
GOP frontrunner—thrashing Clinton, beating the NY senator in
six of the seven states, even in perennially Democratic Massachusetts.
Unless those numbers pick up, Democrats looking to return to the White
House may begin glancing elsewhere—perhaps to New Mexico.
Read More Tumbleweeds:
Hurricane
Relief Update
Veggies Night
Out
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March 2006