WHY GOD MADE BUMPER STICKERS

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  Socorro County Commissioner Danny Monette
(and his Ford pickup)

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Danny Monette got involved with the issue seriously

after the fund-raiser for the San Augustin Water Coalition

held at The Golden Spur Saloon in Magdalena

last February, which he attended.  Since then

he's done a LOT of GOOD for the cause.

He's a politician in the best sense.

He's got his eye out for what's real, and what's bullshit,

and has actively been educating people about the

 WATER GRAB, and what it means in the big picture.

We caught Danny yesterday, by luck, and he gave

us some encouraging news about things.

Here's just a small byte of an interview

we had with him.

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Danny, what's happend on the county level?

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"What the county did - they came out as a "Protestant" now in

the legal fight against the Water Grab, and our county attorney

has a ranch over by Alamo, and he's personally against it.

There's a LOT of people totally against this.

I'd say 99.9%. "

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Well, you've gotten new credentials since we saw you last.

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"Yeah, I got put on the Executive Board of the

New Mexico Association of Counties, and I represent five

counties in the area.  And at the state conference in Clovis,

I was elected to serve on the national board of the

WESTERN INTERSTATE REGIONAL CONFERENCE,

which includes all of the Western states.

It's involved with policies and procedures regarding

 public lands coming out of Washington, and their impact,

 and issues of importance to the West in general.

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Ninety percent of the people on this deal

are ranchers or farmers,

and they ask me about the BUMPER STICKER,

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 and they want to know what it "represents."

And I explain to them what's going on out at the

San Augustin Plains, and they are 100%

in favor of stopping it.

I'm getting a LOT of support.

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I'M LOVIN' IT! 

I think it's great, because these people have values,

and they have long histories of agriculture in their

background, and they realize what these people,

the foreigners here, are tryng to do to us.
To our industry.
It's good!"

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More from our interview with Danny Monette to come.

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The VLA, Very Large Array, out on the Plains of San Augustin.

  It's operated by the NRAO, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory,

funded with taxdollars through the National Science Foundation.

The NRAO is also one of the many "Protestants" in the legal fight

 against the Modena Organization.

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WATER MARKETS

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"There is a very good reason that so many companies

are getting in on the water business.  As the world's

freshwater supply dwindles, the need to find new

sources rises, creating a brand-new market in a

sector where there was none before.  The brand-new

market has created a brand-new investment  opportunity,

and suddenly water has become a hot property on

the stock market.  There are at least a dozen major

water indexes as well as new exchange-traded funds

dealing exclusively in water.  As water analysts note,

water is hot not only because of the growing need

for clean water but because demand is never affected

by inflation, recession, interest rates or changing

tastes.  "Water is a growth driver for as long and far

as the eye can see," Deane Dray, water adviser for

Goldman Sachs, told the New York Times.

Lehman Brothers predicts that the number of

people served globally by investor-owned

water companies is expected to rise 500

percent in the next decade."

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Maude Barlow

BLUE COVENANT

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PAUSE FOR A PRAYER FOR RAIN

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We're going to take a short break from

the politics and the craziness here,

and say a prayer or two, and
listen to the rain and thunder (below),

and think about things.
Note: you can just leave the rain audio
on as you read the post, and play any
 of the songs below as well -
the rain will automatically drop in
volume, but to where it's still audible.
It's a good mix - nice effect. 

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Below is an 8.5" x 11" mini-poster that
prints out pretty nice - another one is further
down the post.  Find a bulletin board!  Thanks!
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From THE WASHINGTON POST

Praying for rain: Atheist critics show how petty and small-minded they’ve become.

By Lisa Miller, July 26,  2012

Rain clouds form to the east of parched Vigo county cornfields Thursday… (Jim Avelis/AP )

 

 With the death of writer Christopher Hitchens and the withdrawal of Sam Harris, author of “The End of Faith,” from the front lines into a study of morality and neuroscience, the American atheist movement has a void at the top.

 

A decade ago, atheists were brave,

fierce warriors bent on battling

 conventional wisdom and easy piety. These days, it seems, atheists

are petty and small-minded ideologues who regard every

expression of public religiosity as a personal affront – not to mention a possible violation of the First Amendment and a sign of rampant idiocy among their fellow citizens.

Last week, such atheist hysteria reached a peak when Tom Flynn, executive director of the Council for Secular Humanism, publicly overreacted to remarks made at a news conference by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. In speaking about the devastating drought facing farmers in the Midwest, the worst in 25 years, Vilsack, who was raised a Roman Catholic, struck a tone both emphatic and personal.

“I get on my knees every day,” he said, “and I’m saying an extra prayer right now. If I had a rain prayer or a rain dance, I would do it.”

Flynn came out swinging churlishly. About Vilsack’s statement, he said, “That’s not just government entangling itself with religion, that’s government publicly practicing it, and wallowing in superstition.” Besides, he added (rather meanly), prayer doesn’t work.

The jury may be out on the efficacy of prayer, but on the question of whether the USDA chief has violated the First Amendment, Flynn is entirely wrong. Vilsack did not say he had ceased doing his day job and was collecting his government salary while devoting himself to prayer. He did not suggest using taxpayer dollars to set up an altar to the rain gods outside USDA headquarters on Independence Avenue SW, nor did he – as Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) did last year – use his authority to declare a national day of prayer for rain. Vilsack merely said that, in light of the vast consequences of the drought on human life, he was moved to prayer. And that he wished he had more, or better, prayers to alleviate the suffering of so many.

 

“If a leader wants to say he’s praying for help, there’s nothing in the Constitution that makes it inappropriate,” said David Beckmann, a Lutheran pastor and president of the hunger advocacy organization Bread for the World.
Beckmann added that he’s praying as well — not just for American farmers but also, and especially, for poor people around the world who need the fruits of those farms to live and who might not be able to afford the price increases that will inevitably result from food shortages. For his part, Vilsack declined to comment further.
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Vilsack and Beckmann (and Perry, for that matter) are hardly the first humans on the planet to pray to God for that life-giving substance, rain. The God of the Hebrew Bible is a cousin, historically, of the Canaanite deity Baal, a sky god who controlled the weather, especially rain. When in the First Book of Kings, Elijah proposes a competition between Baal and the God of Abraham, God wins when he shoots fire down to earth, causing the assembled party to fall on their faces. In celebration of his victory, God makes the sky “black with clouds and winds, and there was a great rain.
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Rain prayers are especially potent among desert dwellers; in the arid Southwest, Native Americans have for thousands of years made prayers, songs and dances for rain, and they continue to do so today.
“Thence throw you misty water,” goes the “Rain Magic Song” of the Pueblo Indians, “all round about us here.”
Before they make such supplications, said Tony Chavarria, curator of ethnology at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, N.M., Pueblo Indians are taught to “look within yourself, your community to see what needs to be repaired, what you can do to make yourself and your community a more balanced place so the deities will be more willing to convey that blessing.”

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From "The Rancher's Prayer for Rain"

Author Unknown

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“It’s as dry as I’ve seen it”…
I heard an old man say.
“We’ve got nothing left to do,
But kneel down and pray.”
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Dear Lord, we’re desperate.
We’ve got little time to spare.
We’ve been down before,
And you’ve always been there.

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I know that this time,
Will be just the same.
We ask for relief,
Lord, please send the rain.

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“I get on my knees every day and I’m saying

an extra prayer right now.

 If I had a rain prayer or a rain dance

 I could do, I would do it.”

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Tom Vilsack

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture

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Our inter-faith

 "PRAYER VIGIL FOR RAIN &

BLESSING OF THE WATERS"

will be held Saturday, June 15, 2 pm - at

The Chapel of the Living Waters

Montosa Campground

(approx 13.5 miles west of Magdalena

off U.S. Highway 60).

All are welcome, please come!

Song, prayer, and ceremony 

 from a number of faiths.

Refreshments afterwards.

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November 3 - Here's a follow-up to this post:

http://stopthewatergrab.blogspot.com/2013/11/say-how-did-prayin-for-rain-work-out.html

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SENATE BILL 440 - A BAD IDEA

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FROM THE NEW MEXICO WATCHDOG

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SENATE BILL 440

(New Mexico Watchdog is a project of The Rio Grande Foundation. The Rio Grande Foundation is a research institute dedicated to increasing liberty and prosperity for all of New Mexico’s citizens. We do this by informing New Mexicans of the importance of individual freedom, limited government, and economic opportunity. Through New Mexico Watchdog we hope to better inform the citizens of New Mexico how their state and local governments work and how their money is being spent. We welcome tips about government waste, fraud, abuse and corruption, regardless of the political affiliation of the politician or official involved.)

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Suffering through the state’s worst drought in 60 years, New Mexico farmers and ranchers may get help from the Roundhouse ­– but at a hefty price for taxpayers.
Senate Bill 440, sponsored by Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, calls for $120 million for the Interstate Stream Commission to “acquire, retire, protect and conserve” water in the lower Rio Grande basin, which has degenerated in some spots from a mighty river to a slow-moving stream due to the lack of rain and snow.

“We’re not getting water down to the southern part of the state, and we’ve got to find ways to addresss that,” Cervantes told New Mexico Watchdog. “One of the ways to address that is to import some water from outside the district. Another way to do that is acquire senior water rights.”

“Water is a sleeper issue here inNew Mexico,” Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, said on the opening day of the session. “It is going to be — and already is — a major concern.”
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PARCHED: This section of the Rio Grande in New Mexico reflects the low water levels across the state. Courtesy: US Geological Survey
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Nearly every chart, graph and measurement reflects the dire picture across New Mexico.

• Virtually the entire state as in severe, extreme or exceptional drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
• The drought has hit New Mexico’s eastern plains the hardest, and according to the Palmer Drought Index, a measure that combines temperature and precipitation, the area has suffered through its driest two-year stretch since the drought of the 1950s.
• Of the state’s 15 reservoirs, 14 are below 50 percent capacity, the University of Arizona’s Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) shows.

“It’s a devastating world out there,” said Sen. Stuart Ingle, R-Portales,who is a farmer in the hardest-hit area of the state. “When we do get rain, we’re getting two-tenths, three-tenths of a inch of rains. It’s like putting water on hot grease.”
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WATER: New Mexico state Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, has introduced a bill calling for $120 million to try to address the state’s drought crisis.

The dry conditions have prompted the Office of the State Engineer and the Interstate Stream Commission to conclude that “as more time passes, and water problems increase in magnitude statewide, existing regional water plans are outdated and useless in addressing emerging water crises.”

SB440′s hefty price tag – it’s about $25 million more than the annual budget for the state Department of Public Safety – may prove to be a big hurdle in tough financial times. But Cervantes, with no pun intended, said that it’s a “drop in the bucket.”

“We have to have a comprehensive approach from the top of the state down,” Cervantes said.

While the bill directly affects the southern part of the state, one of the most influential legislators from the north, Sen. Phil Griego, D-San Jose, says he’ll support it.

“It can’t be a north against the south (situation),” said Griego, a farmer and rancher. “We have to work together as a state because the farmers in the south are suffering the same thing as the farmers in the north.”

Griego plans to introduce his own bill, calling on the state to spend $400,000 from the general fund to construct water storage plants.

Unless the state receives moisture of practically Biblical proportions, expect to see more debate.

“The drought right now is simply bringing to our attention what is inevitably in the future of the state of New Mexico, which is growth and development,” Cervantes said. “We’re trying make that happen. … All those things are tied to water. Nobody’s going to come here, (companies aren’t) going to stay here, we can’t achieve any of those goals if we can’t assure people of the water they need.”

Contact Rob Nikolewski at rob@nmwatchdog.org

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A FEW THOUGHTS
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Senate Bill 440 - just introduced last week by
 Senator Joseph Cervantes D-Las Cruces -
  opens up the possibility for the state to
 "acquire" water to solve the farmers'

problems in part of the state, and fuel more
growth, which Cervantes insists is a pressing
 need, which leads to a greater need
for more water, and more water, and....
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This could lead to the
 San Augustin Plains Ranch LLC
 filing a new application that could have
 the "blessing" of the legislature,
for all practical purposes.
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The entire Court of Appeals reality would
become a dead issue.  The foreign "investors"
could simply drop the case, and throw out
a new application - and THIS TIME they
could say something which would satisfy the intent of the bill -
 get a lot of water from somewhere -
and get the State of New Mexico citizens
to buy it - to the tune of initial millions.
This is just a one-year appropriation,
a ONE-HUNDRED AND TWENTY MILLION
dollar appropriation.
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Once you got this started, and got people
dependent on that water -
 farmers, subdivisions, more golf courses - 
could you ever stop it then?  Doubtful.
It could rain for 40 days and nights
across The Land of Enchantment,
but if the contracts with the foreigners
were signed up, locked up, it wouldn't matter.
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This bill has been sitting around since the
2011 Legislative Session in Santa Fe.
It never went anywhere - almost no one's
even heard of it, until last week.
What, do they have all their ducks
lined up in a row now?
Are all the "right people" on board, like Ben?
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The whole process is devious, and strange.  
The bill is listed under a
"Hazardous Materials" category when you
search for the bill online.
"HAZARDOUS MATERIALS?"
  What's hazardous here is Cervantes
and whoever's paying him. 
Where else would they

buy enough water to make a difference?
The northern part of the state seems worried
that Cervantes is looking in that direction
for more water.  How is that possible? 
 Those folks have been arguing in court about
 "who gets what" among themselves for years.
Northern New Mexico has their own problems,
like not enough water. 

When Cervantes talks about how a solution
 for the southern district is to "acquire" water from

elsewhere, outside the district, you can bet

 he's probably eyeballing the Plains.
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He's obviously been talking to that lobbyist
for these foreigners, who's been knocking
at legislators' doors, and probably spending
wads of cash down at The Bull Ring,
or La Fonda Hotel, those famous
  City Different politico hang outs,
where the boys make deals,
and let the lobbyists pick up the tab.
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There needs to be some work on moving water
 around the state, but it has to be done carefully,
 and cautiously. The water's our future. 
This is a desert, in a drought.
But we can't simply rape the water on a
 grand scale from one area, so that
another is "blessed" with crops, stripmalls, subdivisions,
and CASH for every "developer" looking
for quick profits.
  This doesn't show any insight, any wisdom,
 and those are the qualities the issue cries for.
Where's King Solomon when we need him?
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Let your state legislator know NOW that

you think Senate Bill 440 is a bad idea,

for a lot of reasons.  Here's the State
Attorney General's finding on the bill:
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"The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) reports the following: 
SB440 purports to make legislative findings of
 fact which the AGO reports are false and appear  intended to contradict the State of New Mexico’s legal position and support New Mexico’s opponents,
   including the State of Texas, in two important lawsuits, State of
   New Mexico v. United States of America Bureau of Reclamation, in New Mexico federal district court and the petition of agencies of   the State of Texas to the United States Supreme Court requesting  permission to sue the State of New Mexico in an
 original action before that court."
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So we have here, good Senator,
"Findings of Fact" that are
"FALSE" and "INTENDED TO SUPPORT
NEW MEXICO'S OPPONENTS,
INCLUDING THE STATE OF TEXAS..."
is what it says. 
Hmmmmm.....
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 Well....Senator Dinero,
"False" means LYING where I come from,
and supporting Texans, against your
own people, ought to be a hanging offense.
What does Robert Duvall say in that film -
"Must be Texans, lowest form of
white man there is."
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So, it's you, and surely these good foreign folks,
and their accountants, and lawyers/shills,
 and associates, and bagmen -
Mafia?....Foreign Mafia?
Foreign "Investors?"
What's the term here?
How do they introduce themselves?
"Hi Joe, I've got the cash.
Got time for a brewski?"
 And then we have the Texans.
God Help Us!
These people have been a problem for
New Mexico and its people since Day One.
And then there's all that damned money,
 just waiting to be split up. 
I hope you get what's coming to you.
I pray that you do.
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Here's the complete report by the AG's office:
http://www.nmlegis.gov/Sessions/13%20Regular/firs/SB0440.PDF
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Cervantes is a used car salesman,
disguised as an attorney.
Slick, pretty, sly.

I wonder how much he got paid to be
 the shill for this scheme? 

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“The drought right now is simply bringing to our attention
what is inevitably in the future of the state of New Mexico,
which is growth and development.  We’re trying make that
happen. … All those things are tied to water. Nobody’s going
to come here, (companies aren’t) going to stay here, we can’t
achieve any of those goals if we can’t assure
people of the water they need.”

  

$enator Joseph Cervante$ 
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STOP THE WATER GRAB!

"A fool and his money are soon elected."

Will Rogers

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