Greg In The Desert

Election officials in Santa Fe, Taos and elsewhere in Northern New Mexico are fielding complaints from early voters who are upset they can’t cast a ballot in the caustic congressional race between Heather Wilson and Patricia Madrid.Residents of those areas must endure televised attack advertisements aired by the candidates on Albuquerque stations, but the 1st Congressional District where Wilson faces Madrid is limited to the Albuquerque area, Torrance County and parts of Sandoval and Valencia counties.”We’ve had hundreds of calls from people who’ve completely forgotten about Tom Udall,” said Denise Lamb, head of the Santa Fe County Bureau of Elections.

Funny stuff.

I hate wired phone companies, which is why I don’t have a wired phone line. I’m very happy to hear that Qwest will have to pay up the money they were suppose to spend in the first place.

Gov. Bill Richardson, Attorney General Patricia Madrid and Qwest officials announced Wednesday that they have reached a settlement that would require the company to spend $265 million on New Mexico’s telecommunications system over a 42-month period.The settlement is the result of a long dispute between Qwest and the state Public Regulation Commission over a 2001 agreement that required the company to spend $788 million on the telecommunications system over five years.But the company’s spending came up about $220 million short, and the commission ordered it to spend the full amount by March 2006 or refund the money to its customers. The company sued, saying the commission did not have the authority to make the order, but the state Supreme Court sided with the PRC last month.

Gov. Bill Richardson and New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid said Friday they will work to draft legislation to investigate and punish companies that engage in gas price gouging after natural disasters.

Richardson said in a news release about the proposal that most people will accept temporary gasoline price hikes in the aftermath of a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina. But, he added, “it’s getting more and more difficult to justify 20-cent, 30-cent, and in some cases, 40-cent increases practically over night.

I’m all for anti-price gouging, which should be illegal, but trying to prevent the free market forces from working is quite another thing.

The way the free market works, is if there is high demand for a product, then the seller can charge more because people are willing to pay more. Sometimes it works to our advantage, sometimes it does not. If we try to artificially keep gas prices down, we will become fat, lazy and complacent with our cheap gas. Then one day it will be gone.

The other thing a free market does is when something gets high in price, it gives alternatives a chance to compete. Hydrogen, fuel cells, vegetable oil-powered diesel hybrids all have a better chance at competing in this sort of market. Alternatives are always good, and competition keeps prices down overall.

I’m no economist, but I believe this to be basically how things work. I’m willing to take some pain now knowing that it’s not the end of the world. It will require some adjustments but in the end we will be better for it.