Spaceport America: Buyer’s Remorse

Spaceport America is an 18,000 acre commercial spaceport in New Mexico’s Jornada del Muerto desert basin near the White Sands Missile Range. Then-Governor Bill Richardson and Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic made the deal happen in 2006, and the facility opened in 2011. It cost New Mexico taxpayers $220 million and hasn’t earned very much, so some state legislators want to sell the thing. Anybody got a phone number for Flash Gordon?

More:

“The Troubled Future of the World’s First Commercial Spaceport,” Darren Orf, Gizmodo

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Image (“Spaceport America”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Marriage Equality in the Land of Enchantment

The New Mexico Supreme Court unanimously declared that it is unconstitutional to deny a marriage license to gay and lesbian couples in the state. Thursday’s ruling means that same-sex marriage is now legal in 17 states and the District of Columbia.

More:

“New Mexico Becomes 17th State to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage,” Josh Voorhees, Slate

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Roswell UFO Crash Anniversary

You probably wondered why your Space Alien co-workers weren’t at the office Monday morning until you saw the commemorative Google Doodle. It was the 66th Anniversary of the famous UFO crash at Roswell, New Mexico, an ET holiday.

More:

“Your Burning Questions About The Roswell Incident, Answered,” Rose Pastore, PopSci.com

“Roswell — 66 years of alien lore,” CBS News

“Roswell anniversary and the UFO question — some skeptical notes,” Alexandra Petri, Washington Post blog

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Image (“Space Aliens Observe UFO Crash Anniversary”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Whoa, Nelly: Fresh Horsemeat.

The USDA is poised to allow a New Mexico slaughterhouse to butcher horses. The Administration doesn’t want to, but the horsemeat ban has expired, and an extension requires action by our do-nothing Congress. Goodbye, Old Paint.

More:

“Six-Year Ban on Horse Slaughter to End as U.S. Approves Plant,” Amanda J. Crawford and Alan Bjerga, Bloomberg News

“How to cook your horse: Equine recipes from around Europe,” Paul Ames, GlobalPost

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US Police Export Guns to Mexican Drug Cartels

The former mayor of Columbus, New Mexico has pleaded guilty to smuggling 200 guns across the U.S. border into Mexico to buyers in the La Línea drug cartel.  At least 12 of the weapons were used in murders. The 11 people charged with gun trafficking also include the Columbus police chief and a town trustee. The weapons, purchased from Arizona and New Mexico gun shops by “straw buyers,” were smuggled into Mexico using unmarked Columbus police vehicles.

The entire Columbus police force has been fired. Unfortunately, the firearms have been too, and people died.

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Big Border Bologna Bust!

In a stunning security coup, agents of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service seized 385 pounds of bologna sausage at the New Mexico border last week. Officials bagged the bologna bandit as he sought to smuggle illicit lunchmeat into sleepy Santa Teresa, NM (population 2607).  The contraband cold cuts, with a street value of $2,700, were seized and destroyed before they reached the lunchboxes of innocent American schoolchildren.

Yet, for each bologna bagged at the border, surely six salamis slither across. Mr. President: where is our Border Wall?

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Danger, Bill Richardson!

Stardate 27 January 2009.An anomaly has appeared on the dashboard of Starship NotionsCapital. Hundreds of unknown entities are accessing an older blog post about New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, not the new, updated one, violating conventional laws of the Blogosphere. Holy Einstein! Have we drifted near some Black Hole or Space Warp?

 No!  Space Commander Bill Richardson just gave his “State of Outer Space Address,” boasting :

We even went boldly where no state has gone before—launching Spaceport America, signing Virgin Galactic as an anchor tenant, and starting a new commercial space industry in Southern New Mexico ….

Danger Will Robinson Danger, Bill Richardson! Do not enter into compacts with space aliens! The say they come to serve your citizens, but they will serve them on a bun, with slaw!

Bill “Blago” Richardson?

Bill Richardson’s career in President Obama’s cabinet was mighty short. It never happened.

The New Mexico Governor withdrew from consideration as Commerce Secretary after media noise about a Federal grand jury probe into at least one state contract. Since Mr. Richardson was on tap to handle Commerce in a crashing economy, questions about financial ethics would not do. While Team Obama’s vetting of Richardson left something to be desired, it is true that the ethical bar was raised recently thanks to the inimitable Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Commerce will Blast Off With Richardson

UPDATE: Richardson launch aborted!

Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico will be named Secretary of Commerce by President-elect Barack Obama today. The Governor will probably not bring his pinto pony here to Washington, despite nonstop whining by Malia and Sasha Obama.

The current economic crisis calls for bold initiatives, and Governor Richardson has plans to Go Where No Commerce Secretary Has Gone Before: Space, the Final Economic Frontier. The Governor has invested millions in the Spaceport America project in southern New Mexico. This effort may spur a new economic boom by initiating Space Commerce; it may also out-source your job to Alpha Centauri and bring new meaning to the term “illlegal alien.” Chances are it will just be another extravagant thrill ride for the very rich. The best the rest of us can hope for is getting our pictures taken while we sit on Bill’s pony.

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com.

Real American Landslide for Obama

95 percent of voters at New Mexico’s historic Santo Domingo Pueblo voted for Barack Obama last Tuesday, reports David Alire Garcia of the New Mexico Independent.

The ancestors of the voters in this traditional Native American settlement moved to the Rio Grande valley, 25 miles south of Santa Fe, in the 1200s. Make no mistake: these folks are the realest, most American of “real Americans.”

Here are the returns from Sandoval County’s Precinct 20, Santo Domingo Pueblo:

Barack Obama: 578 votes
John McCain:      30 votes
Ralph Nader:          1 vote

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com.