6-19 Manhattan Project moves forward

61913 Manhattan NHP

SANTA FE – The Manhattan Project National Historical Park has finally cleared a major hurdle. The proposed legislation passed the U.S. House last week and must now go to the Senate and to the president for his signature.
The historic project would include nuclear activities Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Hanford, Washington. These were the three facilities that had the most to do with development of the atom bomb, the most world-changing event of the 20th century.
House members from all three states have been working hard on the measure for two years and the same will happen in the Senate. The bill failed last year when it was included in a group of measures designated for expedited passage. Those bills required a two-thirds favorable vote. The Manhattan Project bill vote fell just short. It had over a two-thirds vote this time.
This year, the bill was attached to the National Defense Authorization Act. Such games are played in Washington. Few bills seem to pass on their own merits. They have to be tied to other measures containing goodies for other members of Congress.
In the Senate, the bill will go through more hearings where many additions and subtractions will be made. If it passes the Senate, the bill will go to a House-Senate conference committee where differences will be ironed out.
If the Manhattan Project survives all that, the National Defense Authorization Act will go to President Obama for his decision. As it stands now, the president will not sign the bill. His reasons have nothing to do with the historical park. They involve other defense-related items in the bill such as keeping Guantanamo open and closing some defense operations in the United States.
The chief sponsor of the Manhattan Project bill is Rep. Doc Hastings of Washington State. He is chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, which gives him considerable power. Hastings also included the transfer of over 1,000 acres of unused Hanford land to a local economic development project.
Other major co-sponsors are Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, whose district includes Los Alamos and Rep. Chuck Flieschmann, whose district includes the Oak Ridge facility.
Now that the bill is in the Senate, New Mexico Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich will be involved in helping move it along.
The legislation provides that the historical park will be established within a year as part of the National Park system. It specifies the facilities and areas at each of the locations that will be eligible for inclusion in the park.
Nearly all these facilities and areas already are owned by the federal government under the purview of the Department of Energy. The measure requires coordination and cooperation between the Park Service and the Department of Energy to ensure safe and secure access to these locations.
The establishment of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park is supported by the Department of the Interior, the Department of Energy and the National Park Service. It also enjoys bipartisan support in both houses of Congress.
So if the historical park fails to become a reality, it won't be because it is not an acceptable idea. And its sponsors say it won't be because of cost. The government already owns the land and facilities. Many of the facilities now are unused and ready to be torn down at a greater cost than preserving them. It will be because of the extraneous matters, often called poison pills that are thrown in.
The historic sites not only will be invaluable in providing perspective to the decision to develop the bomb, it will be a big tourism boost to the areas involved. It is unfortunate that the military will only allow public access to Trinity Site, near the northern edge of White Sands Missile Range, twice a year. The site of the first A-Bomb explosion would be a great tourist draw to Southern New Mexico.

6-17 Summer political excitement, for a change

61713 summer excitement

SANTA FE – Summers of non-election years are usually pretty lifeless politically. But not this year. We have gobs of scandals at both the federal and state levels.
At the federal level, we have security vs. safety vs. surveillance vs. snooping vs. privacy vs. terrorists. And no one seems to be able to figure out a consistent position.
Nearly everyone loved the Patriot Act in 2001. We'll never let those guys sneak up on us again. Top Bush administration officials even briefly considered taking everybody's guns away.
Gradually, over the years, we decided maybe the Patriot Act infringed on too many individual rights. Then came the Boston Marathon bombing. Where were our guys who were supposed to be catching terrorists before they could act?
So we began looking at more surveillance. Then a private contractor working for the National Security Agency released an avalanche of emails indicating we are being watched much more than we think.
Many members of Congress are very confused. They want to blame both problems on the administration but the best they have been able to come up with is more snooping on the bad guys and no snooping on the good guys. And it's the president's job to figure out how to do that.
The dichotomy is somewhat like the problem with sequestering. Congress cut every department across the board but told the department heads to decide where their cuts should be made. It was an impossible situation because most members of Congress have complained when their favorite programs were cut. Those were political cuts, they say. We wanted you to cut waste, fraud and abuse.
Watch for that soap opera to play out all summer and so will the dramas over military rapes, immigration and the Internal Revenue Service treatment of conservative social service groups. Congress is so busy, for a change, that it may have to give up some of its August recess.
Even South Dakota School of Mines President Heather Wilson is spicing up the summer. The inspector general of the Department of Energy thinks Wilson collected nearly a half million dollars in questionable payments from four nuclear energy labs, including Sandia and Los Alamos. Wilson was collecting $20,000 a month during the period between her two unsuccessful runs for the U.S. Senate.
At the state level, we are waiting breathlessly to learn whether the FBI is investigating the Albuquerque Downs 25-year lease, which involves members of the Gov. Susana Martinez administration. Meanwhile the State Police are investigating whether an officer was asked to record a meeting with the new Dona Ana County District Attorney Mark D'Antonio. Evidently that is a no-no.
The State Police officer, Raul Robles, says he was asked by former DA Amy Orlando and former deputy district attorney Steven Blankinship to record the meeting. Orlando replaced Susana Martinez when Martinez was elect ted governor. She then ran against Democrat D'Antonio and lost. Orlando and Blankinship are now part of the Martinez administration.
Gov. Martinez says she knows nothing about the requests. Orlando and Blankinship say they did not ask Robles to make the recording. We haven't heard the last of this one.
If and when the mid-summer monsoons ever come, we may see an end to New Mexico's forest fires. Until then, we will be in competition for federal resources.
The problem is that the Federal Emergency Management Agency's budget has seen the same sequestration cuts as everybody else. That means it will run out of money well before the end of its fiscal year. Emergency budget increases are not popular these days.
The tourism community is complaining that the broad ranging coverage of New Mexico's fires is hurting business badly. I'm not sure I completely agree. The national coverage I see centers on Colorado and California because that is where all the property damage is happening. Maybe it is good being ignored, in this case.

6-14 Flag Day

 
61413 Flag Day
 
SANTA FE -- Flag Day, June 14, is the least celebrated of all national observances. One reason is that it never has been declared an official holiday.
    As we headed into World War I, President Woodrow Wilson tried but failed to get Congress to recognize the observance and make it a holiday.
    Flag Day was slow in getting started and only picked up steam in the late 1800s when Americans became concerned about the flood of immigrants coming to our shores during a period of generous immigration policies, prompted by the need of burgeoning industries for cheap labor.
    Sound familiar? The idea was to Americanize the children in the schools. Since most schools aren't in session in June anymore, observances in the schools have dwindled. Americanizing the younger generation hasn't been much of a problem anyway. They learn much more quickly than adults.
    Flag days began in scattered communities around the nation and that is the way they still are observed. A check of the first 200 Flag Day Web sites Google gave me indicates a real hodgepodge of observances, with each Web site having its own agenda.
    Flag Day is little enough recognized that many other organizations have their own Flag Day for completely different purposes. The Armed Forces have a Flag Day on a different date to raise money for needy veterans and active duty personnel. Donors are given a flag sticker to wear.
    I found Red Cross sites raising money on different dates. And Flag Day means something completely different to bloggers, who want a specific day to identify and flag objectionable blogs.
    Since stores don't really observe Flag Day, there are plenty of sites that sell specific Flag Day items. Many sites also have teaching materials for Flag Day.
    A major problem with community Flag Day observances is that the day falls halfway between Memorial Day and July 4th, our nation's two biggest patriotic observances.
    No wonder Congress hasn't wanted to make it a holiday. Not even the flag wavers have suggested it. They prefer to advocate a constitutional amendment banning flag burning.
    Putting together the information from many Web sites, here is the comprehensive story of Flag Day that I had hoped to find all on one convenient Web site.
    On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress adopted a resolution designating the flag's design. Most modern historians think it unlikely Betsy Ross either suggested the design or stitched the first flag.
    In 1861, the city of Hartford, Conn. held a Flag Day observance to indicate its hope that the Union could be preserved as the nation entered into a Civil War.
    In 1877, Congress asked that all public buildings fly the flag on June 14 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the flag. It wasn't until 20 years later that New York became the first state to require that all public buildings fly the flag.
    In 1885, a Wisconsin school teacher began an energetic campaign to get Congress to declare June 14 a national holiday. In 1888, a Pittsburgh schoolboy founded the American Flag Day Association. In 1889, the principal of a kindergarten for the poor in New York City, held ceremonies that attracted the attention of New York authorities.
    In 1893, the Philadelphia Society of Colonial Dames convinced the city to display the flag on all city buildings. In 1937, Pennsylvania became the first and only state to declare June 14 a legal holiday.
 Finally in 1949, during the early days of the Cold War, Congress approved the national observance and President Harry Truman signed it. Presidents sometimes mention Flag Day and occasionally issue proclamations.
    But celebrations remain a local matter. Not surprisingly, all the localities listed above celebrate Flag Day and claim to be its founders.
    Maybe adoption of our flag isn't sufficiently momentous. How about celebrating the adoption of our Constitution?