Making Chorizo
Geez it’s depressing watching the legislature. It’s never pretty. Bismarck supposedly said those who like sausages and laws shouldn’t watch either being made. And Dios sabe we’re all used to how ugly DC looks. But somehow, in New Mexico, you expect more humanity, more empathy, when the human issue is laid on the table. Sure, there will be different ideas of how to solve problems, but people will be more likely to understand them in terms of what it means to be a human trying to make it through the day.
But this pack of Republicans, I dunno...
Bulldozing Public Trust in the Bosque
In an extraordinary display of disdain for the wishes of the public he nominally represents, Mayor Richard Berry ordered a trail to be plowed through the Bosque on Tuesday. Although not literally done in the dead of night, the Mayor could not have been more secretive. The Mayor's intentions for the design of the trail were never disclosed, and the plans to begin construction on Tuesday were never divulged, but were only discovered by accident after construction had already begun. The Mayor reneged on the City's promise to allow the public to review and comment on specific design options before a final plan was selected...
Publicity from Hell
This year the state Department of Tourism is spending $8.6 million on ads, but some publicity is so valuable it can’t be bought at any price. Such is the case with the New Yorker’s just over 1 million subscribers and Rolling Stone’s nearly 1.5 million. However, without the Martinez administration spending a single cent, New Mexico just scored major feature articles (totaling some 15,000 words) in both magazines in the same week...
Only More is More
When immigrants and refugees from Eastern and Southern Europe immigrated to the US in the late 1800s and early 1930s found work and could provide for a family the education of their children became the first priority. These people knew the value of education from experience and provided it sometimes at great sacrifice. In fact, they demanded it and insured that their children understood its importance...
Vacancies in Our Morality
On Monday, the city issued three-day eviction notices to the people living in tents along First Street. The notices are based on nuisance abatement laws, statues allowing the removal of something or someone deemed to cause an inconvenience or annoyance. The posted notices state that the city will file a complaint in Metropolitan Court “to eject you” from the city’s property or right of way. As we know, the strategy of the city’s leaders to eject the nuisances near the Rail Yards will only shuffle Albuquerque’s most-needy population to other locations where these individuals will be less concentrated and less visible...
I Love Spineroosms, Don’t You?
As our fantastic governor knows full well, most people in our glorious state are either garbage, or they simply don’t exist. New Mexico Native Americans for sure exemplify the non-existent, erased people as shown forth by recent event on Native American Day at the Round House.
For the first time in living memory, tribal leaders were not invited to address the State Legislature, now dominated by sensitive, warm, and fuzzy Republicans. Instead, Queen Susana herself took the podium and held forth to tell everybody she knows all about this Native American thingy and what to do about it, and how big she is, and how great everything is with the New Mexico tribal types...
Dispatch from ‘Tent City’
This week, the City of Albuquerque issued eviction notices to the residents of "Tent City." That is, to those residents who haven't been ran off, arrested or bribed out with a weekly voucher to a motel. By Thursday all must be out and gone; to go who knows where. My name is Vincent and I write this not just as a journalist but as someone who has been a part of the street life here downtown for over 20 years.
The people being talked about on the various stations as residents of Tent City are my friends. I have eaten with them, gotten high, and walked these streets alongside just about every one of those who live here in what is now known as “Tent City.”...
Curbing Money in Politics the Key to Restoring Public Trust
Early last month Common Cause New Mexico commissioned a poll to find out how New Mexico voters felt about money and politics in the wake of the 2014 elections. The results from Research and Polling are now in, and one thing that is abundantly clear is that disclosure of campaign finances of all sorts—candidates, lobbyists and independent groups—is important to voters.
The results confirm what we’ve been saying for several years, namely that everyone wants and deserves to know who is lobbying and paying for the campaigns of our elected officials. And according to these results, transparency is almost a magic word...
Susana Whiffed on Behavioral Health
Two years after blowing New Mexico’s community behavioral health system to smithereens and bringing in companies from Arizona to replace it, spending $27 million in the process, the topic of behavioral health drew nary a mention from our Governor in her State of the State speech.
Nor did any of the press releases that accompanied her proposed budget for next year mention the topic. It is not the subject of any legislative proposals sent down from the Fourth Floor. She has no position on Albuquerque and Bernalillo County’s efforts to address the needs of the mentally ill and addicted populations, which include requests for additional taxes here and for increased State appropriations for services...
McMartinez Wants to Slash McDrug Court Money
The rumor is spreading, but I don’t believe a word of it. The McGovernor’s trusted McAdvisor, Jay McCleskey runs the McMartinez Administration from an opulent underground chamber ‘neath the McRound McHouse. Perhaps Jay hisself is responsible for the latest McIdea to come from McSusana: Let’s slash funding for New McMexico’s Drug Courts!
We can save beaucoup McBucks. And we can help at least a hundred deadbeat human garbage addicts back into the criminal justice system where they belong...