International Superstars
When I moved to Albuquerque many years ago, friends and family were confused. They had no idea where this strange sounding place was--east of Alamut? west of Shambala?--and couldn't believe it actually existed outside the imagination of some crazed, inbred descendant of Zane Grey. But then the Albuquerque Police Department helped my friends and family by landing their brand new helicopter in the Krispy Kreme (TM) parking lot. Remember this was before twitter and memes, but the news rapidly spread around the world. The APD truly protected--their supply of donuts--and served--to give Albuquerque international fame...
Who is to blame for the APD scandal?
The U. S. Justice Department investigation of the Albuquerque Police Department had three tasks. The first was to determine if APD habitually uses excessive force. For this, it gets a grade of A: In 46 damning pages, it detailed in gruesome and horrifying detail the misdeeds of APD, ranging from shooting and Tasering to kicking and punching civilians, many of them unarmed, elderly, handicapped or mentally ill.
The second task was to determine why the cops are so violent. For this it gets a grade of C: It looked carefully at the internal APD factors promoting “a culture of aggression” at APD but failed to examine the external factors.
The third task was to describe how to fix the problems. For this it gets a grade of Incomplete:..
At tax time don’t forget how corporate income tax breaks impact your tax bill
In mid-April, as we prepare our income tax returns, it’s likely we equate the amount of tax we owe with how much money we make and how many deductions we can take. In truth, what we pay in all taxes, including income taxes, is dependent on many other variables, such as how much—or how little—profitable corporations are paying.
Corporate America is very good at lowering its income tax bills. It has been so successful, in fact, that corporate income taxes (CIT) make up a much smaller share of total federal tax revenue than they did 60 years ago. In the 1950s, CIT made up almost 30 percent of all federal tax revenue. It’s been about 10 percent since the 1980s...
An Attempt to Understand Protest
On the way to work Monday morning, I turned on the radio hoping for music, but the morning show host was discussing Sunday’s protest. I am usually irritated by talk radio, but I found myself interested because I was at the protest the previous night. By the time I came to the first stoplight, one caller had ranted about how the “riot was out of control.” The host agreed saying, “the protest definitely picked up some riffraff as the day went on.” Another caller said the “delinquents were taking over the city” and “deserved to be thrown in jail.” Waiting for the green arrow to turn left, I pushed the radio off. A sinking feeling told me these perspectives dismissed the movement I had witnessed, but I too struggled to articulate what had happened...
Daddy Don Offers The Cure for Citizen Rage
As a diligent student of the great Donald Rumsfeld, I think because this human trash keeps getting in the way of APD bullets the best thing to do is to do the same thing we always do whenever whatever we do does not work, which is to say, we do the same thing all over again, but we spend more and more to accomplish the same result, which is a comforting big fat zero, but there is ever more money in the game, more and more profit potential.
“Cover the same old bases to cover your ass. Gun ‘em down if they’re powerless and homeless, or they get in your way. ” That’s what Daddy Don used to say...
Too Little Isn’t Enough
I write this on March 29th, 2014. The inscription period for President Obama’s Affordable Healthcare Act has been moved from two days from now to mid-April, as long as subscribers start their sign-up process by March 31st. This has been President Obama’s signature effort. He prioritized it at the expense of many others. Under the guise of “bringing everyone to the table” he gave seats at that table to the very industries that have kept healthcare in the United States so perverse and expensive: the large insurance companies and pharmaceuticals. Not surprisingly, they had their say and, in many cases, got their way...
New Mexico must be bolder in mitigating racial disparities among children
It’s estimated that children will be a minority-majority population by 2018 nationally. In New Mexico—where 74 percent of children are racial/ethnic minorities—we’re way ahead of the trend.
In fact, only one other state (Hawaii) has a higher percentage of children who are racial or ethnic minorities. We have the highest percentage of Hispanic children, and just two states (Alaska and South Dakota) have higher percentages of Native American children. Just 26 percent of New Mexico’s children are white.
While we rightfully celebrate our rich cultural diversity, New Mexicans and our elected and civic leaders need to take action regarding racial disparities...
The New Game Changer!
Our avuncular mayor has just made a pronouncement of the most profound significance about the James Boyd incident, “It’s a game changer,” he said.
Relief flooded every sinew of my being when I heard that. The mental health and social services game in New Mexico is about to change. Because it’s just a game, see—
Big Government should be Big Business. And then Little Government should be brought to its knees and then be beheaded, please. Companies should be running our schools, our social services, our mental health services. Efficiency. Efficiency. Efficiency...
A Reckoning Soon For Governor Martinez? Why She Is Vulnerable In 2014
First of all, let me express my disdain for "conventional political wisdom", or these narratives that emerge among the political class (that would be me) and somehow become predominant in political conversation. I am instinctively skeptical of anything-- local or national-- presented as political truth, deemed an unassailable political reality. That Governor Martinez is a shoe-in for re-election in New Mexico, for example. Or that Democrats are going to lose the U.S. Senate in 2014...
Heavy handed ‘Kendra’s Law’ offers simplistic solution for complex problem
Wednesday’s Albuquerque Journal editorial expressing the need for a State law mandating out-patient treatment for seriously mentally ill persons, while provocative and while expressing a widely-held point of view, reaches a faulty conclusion. This is especially true when it attempts to link the need for this “Kendra’s Law” approach to the tragedy involving James Boyd.
The editorial correctly points out that mandated out-patient treatment legislation has been considered and rejected several times by the Legislature in recent years. However, nothing in the Boyd situation changes the terms of the debate or the reasons I’ve opposed Kendra’s Law in the past. Nor does it minimize the importance of finding a solution to both the need for more and better mental health resources and the need for APD to stop shooting mentally ill people...