m-pyre

So long dear Barb

2011-12-19T19:54:00.009-07:00

marjorie says...

Mikaela and I spent the day together yesterday, at one point touching on the idea of reviving our blogging here at m-pyre (it’s possible). Then, when I got home last night I heard about the passing of Barb Wold, blogger extraordinaire at Democracy for New Mexico. It saddens me to think that should we launch back into our space here, Barb won’t be here with us.

Democracy for New Mexico started in July 2004. In the next six years, Barb became beloved by Democratic party activists. She created a space through which both she and others could work for the party’s success and also challenge it to be more progressive from within. She was a true-blue progressive who was inspired by Howard Dean to take back the party, which led to her blogging. She was also a bold and fierce voice for LGBT rights. She and her partner, Mary Ellen Broderick, together made a strong case for the right to marry and domestic partnership legislation here in New Mexico. In general, Barb had a strong, compassionate heart and incredible drive for achieving justice.

Perhaps less known about her was the degree to which she participated in the debates happening on other people’s blogs—participation that back then was critical to creating a New Mexico blogosphere that had depth and punch. Before the New Mexico Independent brought cyberspace to the forefront of political journalism, Barb was a big part of creating the burgeoning blogosphere here, peopled by those on the left, the right, and somewhere in the middle. She actively participated in comment threads of other blogs and cited other blogs in her own work.

We began m-pyre in October of 2004, as a place for three friends to talk about anything and everything. We defaulted *a lot* to politics. Unlike Barb, none of us manifest a political praxis through party activism. But due to the nature of our political system, electoral politics is an area of unavoidable debate that no one who is political can easily escape. Whenever we went there, Barb was generally with us. Her presence can be found throughout the m-pyre archives: sharp, insightful, stringent, occasionally polemical, and at times just plain laugh-out-loud funny. She was also encouraging and supportive, something often in short supply in this incredibly male-dominated environment.

I never actually met Barb, in person. Instead, we got to know each other from conversation in the same cyberspaces. But I got to know her in a way that I won’t ever know droves of people who I see plenty in the flesh. I really dug Barb. She cracked me up and made me think. At times, she made me raise my eyebrows. Sometimes, I thought she went too far. Other times, she was absolutely spot on. I can't count the times I thought to myself, "wonder what Barb says about that." I figure a lot of people knew Barb in this way. I'm sure they'll join me in the sentiment, when I say, I’m going to miss her a lot.

Living in the Sprawl...

2011-12-06T21:15:00.002-07:00

Mikaela says:

Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains
And there's no end in sight...

Ah the ironies of listening to Arcade Fire's brilliant The Suburbs as I labor to create the plan for a walkable, urban, transit-oriented development on Albuquerque's sprawling West Side.

Thanks, Mags for the kick in the donkey to get this gem of an album!

Accountability

2011-10-27T12:46:00.007-06:00

Mikaela says:
Albuquerque's Mayor, as part of his "accountability measures" decided to post the name & salary of every City employee in an online database.

http://www.cabq.gov/abq-view
(See Graded and Ungraded Employees.)

That's the end of accountability, I guess, because the Mayor had no plans to address any issues with pay disparity, gender inequity, departmental inequity, etc.

I've done a very surface-level analysis of the Planning Department, for example, which headed by a woman might have the best chance for gender pay equity, one might expect. On average, men make $6,000 ~~less~~ more than women. Women are overwhelmingly assistants and support staff. Men are the engineers. Even with the same title, most men make at least 10% more money. Of the top 10 highest earners, 8 are men. Even the director makes less than 2 men that report to her.

Likewise, of the 25 top earners at the City, 20 are men (80%), and on average, these high-paid men make $6,000 more than high-paid women. Mayor Berry, if you care, is #25, making just over $100K per year.

Hurray. Such accountability, Mayor Berry! Way to go.

2011

2011-08-16T23:02:00.001-06:00

marjorie says...

Been a long hiatus, eh? I got sidetracked by another site for awhile.

Should we pick back up where we left off?

Silver Lining

2010-11-05T12:22:00.005-06:00

Mikaela says:

This American Life did a brilliant show asking and answering a bunch of my questions surrounding mid-term elections, looking at liberal and conservative machinations (or lack thereof).

(Especially Act III: Jack Hitt Goes to Washington - interviewing Democratic Party insider Paul Begala about whether Democrats have a VERY secret messaging strategy or whether they're just incompetent.)

One story included an interview with a die-hard conservative adamantly opposed to tax increases who found himself traveling Colorado to stump AGAINST the tax-cutting ballot propositions 60, 61, and 101, which would have cause perpetual budget crises for the state and caused businesses to flee.

They were all roundly defeated. There you have it! Good news from an abysmal election...

Colorado voters reject tax-cutting measures 60, 61, 101
By Heath Urie
11/02/2010

Colorado voters overwhelmingly rejected three tax-cutting measures Tuesday, leading to a collective sigh of relief among government officials across the state who feared the passage of Amendments 60, 61 and Proposition 101 could have meant financial doom.
"Every local government and state government would have been reeling from the passage of those" measures, Boulder City Manager Jane Brautigam said. "It really would have been devastating to our community."
Proposition 101, a statutory change that would reduce vehicle taxes and fees and state income taxes, as well as eliminate telecommunication taxes, was failing statewide, with 68 percent of voters opposed.
Amendment 60, which would change the state constitution to require voters to approve all property-tax increases and would limit any new increases in property taxes to 10 years, was failing statewide, with 76 percent opposed.
Amendment 61 was another proposed constitutional amendment, which would prohibit the state from borrowing money and would place new restrictions on all types of borrowing for local governments. It was failing, with 73 percent opposed statewide.
"They just had to be stopped," Boulder City Councilman Matt Appelbaum said. "It would have destroyed us. It would have bankrupted the state."
Combined, the effects of the three measures on Boulder's budget were estimated to be between $26 million and $54 million within the next four years.
Mark Swanson, a Superior Democrat, said he voted against the measures and is glad so many others did, too.
"At some point, I think people have made a very common-sense judgment that some taxes are good taxes," he said.

Duende Poetry Series 2010 - Margaret Randall & Suzanne Lummis

2010-09-08T22:00:00.003-06:00

Mikaela advocates:

A Poetry Reading
Sunday, September 12th at 3PM at the Anasazi Fields Winery in Placitas, NM
free to the public

Margaret Randall
Author of more than 100 books, will read from her newest book: My Town: A memoir of Albuquerque in poems, prose and photos (Wings Press, San Antonio). Author John Nichols wrote the introduction to the book, which is about growing up in the Duke City in the 1940s and 50s against the backdrop of Cold War politics, the Bomb, the area's race relations and the power of the desert.

Other recent titles from Randall include: To change the world: My years in Cuba (a memoir); and, With their backs to the Sea (poems). Two forthcoming titles are: First Laugh (Essays) from the University of Nebraska Press; and, Ruins (Poems and photos) from UNM Press.

Suzanne Lummis
Founder-director of the Los Angeles Poetry Festival, is part of the performance troupe Nearly Fatal Women and literary director of the Arroyo Arts Collective as well as editor of the online magazine "Speechless." Her class "The Poem Noir: Poetry goes to the movies" at UCLA Extension University has become famous over the years. Lummis' books of poetry include: Falling short of Heaven; Idiosyncracies; Spreading the Word; In Danger; and Open 24 Hours.

For all Duende poetry readings, wine, free snacks and non-alcoholic drinks are available. The event is free, though we encourage donations for the poets. For more information, contact Jim Fish at the winery at (505) 867-3062, email anasazifieldswinery@att.net or online at http://www.anasazifieldswinery.com/events.htm.

The next Duende Poetry Series reading will be in January, 2011. The series presents four readings per year. The September 12 reading is supported by the Witter Bynner Poetry Foundation of Santa Fe.

To reach the winery, turn onto Camino de los Pueblitos from Highway 165 in the Old Village of Placitas, across from the Presbyterian Church, follow the road through two stop signs, then turn left into the winery parking lot. From outside Placitas, take I-25 to exit 242, drive six miles to the old village and Camino de los Pueblitos, and continue on to the winery.

Right care, right time?

2010-07-14T15:09:00.002-06:00

Mikaela says:
Okay, I have to post this letter from a local health care provider almost in its entirety or you won't believe it. Has it really come to this? Do that many people really drop everything and decide to spend umpteen hours waiting to be seen at the emergency room for ... hangnails or something else that can wait for an appointment? Really?

One way Presbyterian is working to help lower the cost of health care is to make sure patients get the health care they need in a setting that is most appropriate for the level of care they need. That’s why the Presbyterian Hospital Emergency Department is starting a new process for helping patients who come to the Presbyterian Hospital Emergency Department with non-emergencies beginning July 26, 2010.

All patients who enter the Emergency Department at Presbyterian Hospital will receive a medical screening exam to determine their appropriate level of care. Patients with conditions that are not emergencies will be directed to an onsite patient navigator, who will make an appointment for patients to be seen quickly in a primary care office or refer patients to urgent care if primary care is not timely enough or inconvenient.

If patients still wish to be treated in the emergency department after being informed their condition is not an emergency, they will be required to pay for services at the time of treatment. Under these circumstances, the health plan will likely not reimburse the patient.

Through this effort, emergency department services will be better accessible for patients with life-threatening emergencies. All State and Federal laws and regulations will continue to be followed to ensure patient safety and protect the health care system. Careful monitoring will occur to ensure patients receive timely care and patient safety is not compromised.

Patient education is central to helping patients determine the “right level of care at the right place” for their medical condition. We hope you will join us in our efforts to help educate your employees about accessing care most appropriately and maximizing their insurance coverage for the level of care that their health requires. Of course, true emergencies will continue to be covered by insurance, according to your Group Subscriber Agreement or Summary Plan Description.

We are very optimistic about this new and innovative approach as we work to make healthcare more affordable, accessible, and of the highest quality.

Day of Memories

2010-05-29T21:06:00.001-06:00

Mikaela says:
Lest we forget what we are supposed to remember on this Memorial Day, a reading from Archibald MacLeish.

The Young Dead Soldiers

The young dead soldiers do not speak.

Nevertheless, they are heard in the still houses: who has not heard them?

They have a silence that speaks for them at night and when the clock counts.

They say: We were young. We have died. Remember us.

They say: We have done what we could but until it is finished it is not done.

They say: We have given our lives but until it is finished no one can know what our lives gave.

They say: Our deaths are not ours; they are yours; they will mean what you make them.

They say: Whether our lives and our deaths were for peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say; it is you who must say this.

They say: We leave you our deaths. Give them meaning.

We were young, they say. We have died. Remember us.

NM Public Schools

2010-03-29T15:46:00.003-06:00

Mikaela says:
I'm an ardent public school fan. I did just fine in public schools, and I believe a good, free public education is what we owe all children.

Which is why this little tidbit caught my eye and makes me fear for my daughter's education. Not only are the majority of our public schools in New Mexico not making "adequate progress" - more and more are losing ground each year.
Time for education overhaul? I think so!

(3 years til preschool, people! Get moving!)

Academy Awards 2010: Snore!

2010-03-07T20:03:00.004-07:00

Mikaela says:
An hour in, and so far ... snoresville!

Only the histrionic tribute to John Hughes has been worth my attention.

I mean really, who cares about the movies this year? Is anyone out there rooting for a particular movie? I can want Precious to win just for the exposure, but did I see it? No! Too much of a downer. To be fair, Kleenex ads are too much of a downer for me, these days. Still...

Avatar should win best picture. Steve and Alec should be funnier. Enough said.

Afterward: Sandra Bullock's acceptance speech was among the classiest and funniest I've seen. Wasn't the biggest fan, but I'm kind of in love with her now!

Jeff Bridges is weird, man. I've always hated his teeth, anyway.

Friday m-pyre quiz

2010-01-22T11:28:00.005-07:00

Mikaela says:
Well this should give you a little glimpse about what we're talking about behind the scenes.

Healthcare? Nope.
Why Democrats don't just call the Republican bluff and let them try to filibuster? Not even a little.

We're talking shoes, people! We invite you into our little tet-a-tet with this challenge:

Who out there can match the shoes with the girl?

The 3 ms bought the following 3 shoes, but the question is - who bought which?

P.S. - Don't you just love shoes? We do!

Shoe #1: Born Miriam

Shoe #2: Born Lewisa

Shoe #3: Softwalk Montego

Regardless of the answer, do we have good taste, or what?

Christmas Wish for Peace

2009-12-23T10:12:00.005-07:00

Mikaela says:
Apologies for the re-posting here, but I was so touched by this sermon of peace that I had to share it here.

One of the messages of Christmas that gets me every year is the longing for peace on earth.

This year, Rev. Christine Robinson shared the story of a Unitarian minister who authored the carol “It Came upon the Midnight Clear.” It's not one of my favorite carols, and I'd never paid much attention to the words. It deserves our attention, though. Read on.

Here are the first 2 verses. The rest come after Christine calls for them.

It came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth
To touch their harps of gold!
"Peace on the earth, good will to men,
From heaven's all gracious King!
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come
With peaceful wings unfurled
And still their heavenly music floats
O'er all the weary world;
Above its sad and lowly plains
They bend on hovering wing.
And ever o'er its Babel sounds
The blessed angels sing.

"Although this is one of the beloved carols of Christians, you’ll note that this is not a carol about Christ. It is a carol about peace....

Edmund Hamilton Sears, Unitarian minister, was a man who longed for peace. His longing was very personal; that is one of the reasons he could write such a beautiful hymn. He longed for peace inside himself, he longed for peace in his community, and he longed for an end of war. He wanted those things so much because he didn’t have them.

Sears was apparently a high-strung man, verging always on a nervous breakdown, haunted by a sense of inadequacy as a minister. Indeed, he never really carried a full workload as a minister; his wife did most of what we would call the pastoral work—the calling, the meetings, the counseling. Edmund couldn’t handle those things. If he lived today, he would probably be diagnosed as clinically depressed, as having some imbalance of brain chemistry that made it hard for him to concentrate, to rest, and to work. These days, he would have medicine to help him lead a normal life, but he lived before such things. So he had to always husband his strength and tranquility by long walks in the country, by working in his garden, and by writing.

Inner peace came hard to Sears, and yet, out of a rare experience of inner peace, he wrote a beautiful carol that now the world enjoys, and enjoys all the more because it is such a peaceful song to sing in a hectic season.

Sears also longed for peace in his community, and he didn’t have much there, either. The people in his community were embroiled in arguments over two important things: over slavery and over the rights of women. Sears was an abolitionist and spoke out for women’s suffrage. His congregation did not all appreciate his stands.

Now, Sears had his own handicaps and problems to think about, and perhaps another man would have said to himself, “I am just not strong enough to argue with my neighbors about national issues.” But he didn’t. He wrote and spoke and preached his conviction that slavery degraded human beings—slaves and owners alike—and degraded nations that allowed it. Sears longed for peace, but not at any price. He was willing to argue for what he believed, even when it caused conflict in his community. Sears spent his small strength fighting for abolition of slavery, knowing, perhaps, that sweeping the conflict among people under the rug does not bring peace, and that only justice can be the basis of lasting harmony.

Finally, Sears longed for peace in his world, which is to say, for an absence of war. And he didn’t have that either, I’m afraid. The Mexican War was going on. Sears thought it was an immoral war and wrote articles trying to convince others of his convictions. If you read the third verse of “It Came upon the Midnight Clear,” you can hear how discouraged he became about peace on earth.

Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world hath suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love song which they bring:
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing.

For lo! the days are hastening on,
By prophet bards foretold,
When, with the ever-circling years,
Shall come the Age of Gold;
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling,
And all the world give back the song
Which now the angels sing.

Edmund Hamilton Sears, Unitarian minister, didn’t see much peace in his time, but the Christmas hymn he wrote about peace was an important force in making peace on Earth one of the messages of Christmas. And probably, more than anything else he wrote in his life, “It Came upon the Midnight Clear” has been a force for peace in our world. For, when enough people hope for peace, then peace can come.

This longing for peace was underlined for me while listening to Performance Today yesterday. There's a classical chorale piece written in honor of the true story about the Christmas truce between German and British soldiers during World War I. From their trenches - just meters apart - the soldiers sang Christmas carols to each other.

Silent Night, holy night.
All is calm, all is bright.
...
Sleep in heavenly peace.
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Oh for a day of peace for all us all: A truce. Can you imagine it? A suspension of disagreement to feel the resonance of our similarities, the haunting familiarity of oneness, the power of our combined intention for peace: May this instinct continue to guide us toward the generosity of spirit that true calm requires.

Un-Merry Christmas Blocks

2009-12-23T09:07:00.006-07:00

Mikaela says:
It's been a strange holiday season so far. I've been feeling the most Christmas spirit I've ever conjured up, predominantly because it's my little one's very first Christmas. (See the preview of Christmas morning present extravaganza to the left...)

At the same time, I keep tripping over the most un-Christmasy roadblocks to holiday cheer.

Example #1:
While listening to the classical radio station, which has brought so many bright holiday moments this season, an ad came on that starts with the admonition from a young woman to throw away the cookbook and just make dinner however you're inspired. You can hear the sizzling of what must be meat right about the moment the woman reveals that this is a funeral home ad. So ... cooking meat and dead bodies. Ugh. Methinks this gruesome juxtaposition is not what they intended. Perhaps the tiniest bit Dicksonian, but largely ... a Christmas spirit killer.

Example #2:
The healthcare bill rigmarole. Enough said.

Example #3:
For some reason, my husband and I, not normally horror film afficianados, cannot seem to get in or out of the holiday season without watching horror movies. Last year, we watched What Lies Beneath on Christmas morning as I finished the last of the gift wrapping before heading to my mother's for the day's main events.

This year, with a new HD television combined with Netflix instant watching, we've consumed not one, not two, but three horror movies so far, despite my request that we bar horror from our Christmas festivities this year.
Let the Right One In - a dark little holiday charmer about a kid vampire and her little buddy and all the hijinks they get into - killing people, infecting people, beating up bullies
House of Voices - a spirited morality tale about war orphans, abuse, murder, and motherhood.
Haunted - a Christmas classic about a haunted house and the havoc it wreaks on a weak-minded, youngish spinster.

With the majority of my Christmas gifts purchased; my first year of holiday cookie baking almost complete; our real, live Christmas tree decorated; seasonal dish towels, mugs, and appetizer plates purchased; it's time to reap the Christmas spirit I've endeavored to sew.

If only the universe would stop making that quite so difficult...

Economics & Social Justice

2009-12-15T12:40:00.002-07:00

Mikaela says:
You've got to go listen to NPR's Planet Money blog from today, which covers both the contributions of recently-deceased Paul Samuelson and a re-situating of Adam Smith in the dialog about governments' role in advocating for the poor in world markets by Amartya Sen, a Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics, in his new book, The Idea of Justice.

Samuelson on PBS Newshour interviewed by Paul Solman:

INTERVIEWER: [Y]our student, Robert Merton ...said, look, innovation always brings with it certain risks. You don't kill innovation as a result.
PAUL SAMUELSON: I'm not speaking in favor of killing innovation. I'm speaking in favor of centrist use of the market, which involves necessarily a considerable degree of regulation. Markets by themselves will get themselves inevitably into inequality and into their own destruction. It will happen again and again.
INTERVIEWER: You're a lifelong Democrat.
PAUL SAMUELSON: I'm an incurable centrist.
INTERVIEWER: Do you feel that there was simply an ideological shift towards free-market fundamentalism, some people have called it, that got us inevitably onto this track?
PAUL SAMUELSON: Since 1980, yes.
INTERVIEWER: And that's your explanation for what happened?
PAUL SAMUELSON: Yes. And not only that, the economics profession, the guys I have lunch with and love, have, generally speaking, moved greatly rightward. I'm not sure that all of the fiendish stuff could have been picked up by centrist regulators, but you don't have to be perfect in anything in economic life. If you spent 70 years in economics, you'll understand that.
INTERVIEWER: So things could have been a lot less bad?
PAUL SAMUELSON: Yes.

Sen on Adam Smith as the advocate of the Invisible Hand:

Sen: That's a complete caricature of Smith. [T]he invisible hand is not one of Adam Smith's theories. He uses the term three times in all of his entire corpus of work, twice as caricature. One is referring to the bloody and invisible hand, from Macbeth if I remember right. The later construction of this "story" that you have been sold from good economists is based on about 16 lines of Wealth of Nations, in which he discusses why people want exchange. For that, you don't need a big theory of morality, because they want each other's commodities.
...
How can you make these trades survive? Then you need mutual trust and understanding of each other. If you end up in a society with a lot of poor, what do you do? Then you need a concept of justice, you have to have transfer of rich to the poor.

This is from Wealth of Nations: Nearly all intervention in the interest of the rich, is almost invariably counterproductive, whereas all intervention of the state in the interest of the poor is almost always successful and achieves good results.

Smith is one of the heroes of my book - the real Smith not the manufactured Smith put together, totally different from the caricature of Smith.

Interviewer: So you're saying the Wealth of Nations was a tract advocating the redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor?

...

Sen: His criticism is always in the interest of the underdogs of society. ... The thing implied about racism ... In one state, he's very angry with Italy about the white supremacy argument. ... He says there isn't a negro anywhere in the North of Africa, with which he's familiar, who does not have a superior concept of justice which his sordid master is scarcely cable of understanding. He was a totally radical figure.

m-pyre birthday: recession edition

2009-12-06T19:48:00.003-07:00

Mikaela says:
The m's thought it would be fun -- okay, bad word choice -- to write about how the recession has affected us as our birthday reflection this year.

So with my daughter screaming herself to sleep in the next room, heaters blaring in all the rooms, typing with fear of breaking a circuit any minute, I'll share a bit of what this recession has meant to me.

The biggest effect by far has been the impetus to quit my job. That's right, quit my full-time with great benefits job for an uncertain future as a consultant doing all manner of odd, small jobs.

You know the saying, "It's always darkest before dawn?" Here in the balloon fiesta city, we all know it's also the coldest right before dawn. It also translates into screaming baby, actually. The biggest scream is often the last one, right before she drifts away to sleep, oddly and miraculously enough.

And so it was that it took the biggest recession of my lifetime to push me to do the thing I knew I was supposed to do all along, which is ... not get pigeon-holed into a job for the sake of security. I'm a virgo and not a big risk-taker anyway. I don't like being out on a limb, but I also know that my skills will support a number of endeavors, and so I should assemble the odd jobs that make up a life that supports me, challenges me, and makes me happy. Did I mention they also need to be flexible enough to allow time to raise a little girl? Well, there's that, too.

My mom worked from the time I was two. She was a realtor, and her work was never done. She struggled to make ends meet, so there was little she could do to make time for extra commitments with us - organized sports, concerts, etc.? Not so much. But she raised us, and we never went hungry. And her efforts were enough.

Here I am, a generation later, and I can see that I may have chosen a path that allows me to take her to daycare and pick her up every day, but it's also the path that means I'm checking my email all hours of the day, and working late and once even pulling an all-nighter to shoehorn the work I need to get done into the shrinking available time to do it.

This recession has simultaneously given me the biggest freedom since going to school full-time (which most of us remember was not all that "free" to begin with) and the most stress I've ever had about work. I have five jobs at the moment - one of them full-time with flex hours and the rest very sporadic but still time-consuming. I'm lucky to have them all, even if I honestly don't know how I will find the time to complete them all.

In the meantime, Eric's job at UNM is looking increasingly grim, even as he personally struggles more and more to find meaning in his efforts there. He's been "keeping an eye out" for a while now, with no good options revealing themselves. Even with all his good connections and friends in high places, there's no positions to be had. If he can't find work, I really worry about everyone else in the job market. Yikes.

We can pay our bills for one more month on our savings, and then I pray that my consulting gigs start paying. It will be close, but I'm sure it will all be fine.

As the people who have coached me about money in my life say to do, I'm focusing on the abundance in the universe and the feeling of being buoyed by all the gifts and blessings I know to be my life. Life will provide.

In the meantime, I work, listen to NPR, drink coffee, and do yoga -- chanting T.S. Eliot's invocation (quoting an English mystic Julian of Norwich, author of the first book written in English by a woman): "All shall be well. All manner of things shall be well."

Maybe in the next year, I can add blogging to that daily list.

Maybe in the spring...

A little more from my pal T.S. Eliot, excerpting (and updating, where needed) from his fourth Quartet, Little Gidding:

In the dark time of the year. Between melting and freezing
The soul's sap quivers. ...
[W]hat you thought you came for
Is only a shell, a husk of meaning
From which the purpose breaks only when it is fulfilled
If at all. Either you had no purpose
Or the purpose is beyond the end you figured
And is altered in fulfilment.
...
In the uncertain hour before the morning
Near the ending of interminable night
At the recurrent end of the unending
... I said: 'The wonder that I feel is easy,
Yet ease is cause of wonder. "
...
[L]ast year's words belong to last year's language And next year's words await another voice.
...
I find words I never thought to speak
In streets I never thought I should revisit
...
All shall be well, and
All manner of thing shall be well.
...I think, again, of this place,
And of people, not wholly commendable,
Of no immediate kin or kindness,
But of some peculiar genius,
All touched by a common genius,
United in the strife which divided them
...
The only hope, or else despair Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre— To be redeemed from fire by fire
... We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire.
...
What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from.
...
Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning,
Every poem an epitaph.
...
A people without history
Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
Of timeless moments. So, while the light fails
On a winter's afternoon, in a secluded [website]
History is now and [the Internet].
...
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
...
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well

Buying Good (?) Health (Insurance)

2009-11-24T13:52:00.013-07:00

Mikaela says:
So a little tidbit on the radio got me to thinking about how little we're hearing about who's most in the pockets of the health care industry. We hear a lot about this congressperson or that congressperson being for or against the bill and a lot about Republicans want this versus Democrats want that, but how does that map to the money?

Bad news: I haven't found much that directly answers that question.
Good news: There is some info out there.
Good news & bad news: I've barely scratched the surface.

Here's a quick snapshot of what I could scrape together in a fairly short amount of time.

Source: http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?showYear=2009&indexType=c

Top Industries Giving to Members of Congress, 2010 Cycle

Source: http://www.opensecr ets.org/industries/mems.php

Industry			% Received
Rank (of 50)	Industry	Total Contributions	Dems	Repubs	Top Individual Recipient
2	Health Professionals	$13,611,257	63%	37%	Harry Reid (D-Nev)
6	Insurance	$8,405,172	58%	42%	Charles E Schumer (D-NY)
10	Pharm/Health Prod	$5,434,796	61%	39%	Richard Burr (R-NC)
19	Hospitals/Nurs Homes	$3,872,639	74%	26%	Charles E Schumer (D-NY)
37	Health Services	$2,249,688	69%	31%	Charles E Schumer (D-NY)

Source: http://www.opensecrets.org/industries

Lobbyists in 2009
Source: http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/indus_lobs.php?lname=H&year=2009

Industry	No. of Lobbyists
Health Professionals	781
Health Services/HMOs	988
Hospitals/Nursing Homes	1,172
Misc Health	165
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products	1,659

Senate Finance Committee Members Receiving the Most Contributions from Top 25 Healthcare Industry Orgs. 2007-2009

Recipient	From Clients	From Lobbyists	Overall Total
John McCain (R-Ariz.)	$427,530	$473,400	$900,930
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)	$276,050	$237,722	$513,772
Max Baucus (D-Mont.)	$252,750	$200,899	$453,649
Arlen Specter (D-Penn.)	$116,750	$108,778	$225,528
Chris Dodd (D-Conn.)	$56,950	$130,808	$187,758
Mark Udall (D-Colo.)	$76,025	$79,150	$155,175
Mark Warner (D-Va.)	$46,650	$84,450	$131,100
Pat Roberts (R-Kan.)	$47,200	$83,420	$130,620
Mary Landrieu (D-La.)	$35,800	$67,000	$102,800
Patty Murray (D-Wa.)	$32,800	$59,500	$92,300
Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)	$22,500	$55,950	$78,450
Susan Collins (R-Maine)	$28,300	$40,916	$69,216

Here's another great article that breaks down individual recipients. It also provides a link to download two awesome pivot tables in Excel here, one for the health insurance companies and one for big pharma: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/patients/articles/?storyId=28527

Happy hunting!

New Mexico compared to Chernobyl

2009-11-17T15:27:00.002-07:00

marjorie says...

“Ground Zero. In some ways, New Mexico comes a close second to Chernobyl.”

So begins a review, published this week in the Akron Beacon Journal, of an exhibit of photographs of Patrick Nagatani. The New Mexico photographer’s work is on display at the Akron Art Museum for the next few months, in an exhibition titled “Nuclear Enchantment.” Nagatani’s work is “…all about questioning society’s blind faith in the so-called experts, in particular the expertise of science.” Nagatani’s work not only questions that faith but ridicules it, the piece states.

It then labels the New Mexico moniker “Land of Enchantment” as more accurately our “Better Business Bureau nickname.”

Known by its Better Business Bureau nickname as ”Land of Enchantment,” New Mexico is also the birthplace of the nuclear age. It has sites linked to research and development, weapon stockpiles, uranium mines, test sites and reactors alarmingly close not only to large population areas, but also to the tribal lands of the Hopi and Pueblo Indians, the oldest continuous culture in our country.

While the piece doesn’t show the actual pictures, it has great descriptions of the work. Here’s an example:

Uranium Tailings, Anaconda Minerals Corporation, Laguna Pueblo Reservation, New Mexico is a 1990 lifocolor print that illustrates a common misconception.

”If you’re on the right side of a Southwest Airlines 737 heading west and look down [if you're not over the wing],” Nagatani noted, ”you see beautiful white deposits below that make a striking contrast with the gray-brown landscape.

”I have to laugh to myself when I hear people around me admiring these ‘natural’ formations. They’re uranium tailings deposits, acres and acres of them.

”They’re all hot, they’re all radioactive.” And they’re mostly on the Laguna Pueblo Reservation, believed to have been settled in 1699.

It doesn’t stop there. Nagatani has chronicled mishap upon mishap, outrage upon outrage, presented often as bucolic landscapes layered with symbols of benign authority.

The entire piece is worth a read, especially if you can’t get to Akron to see the photographs. We can hope that the exhibition will make it to New Mexico in 2010.

Reading about Nagatani’s exhibit brought to mind a 2006 feature length piece in the Los Angeles Times that details the history of uranium mining and its human consequences in the Navajo Nation, and describes how the mines led to high cancer rates in a place where the disease had previously barely existed.

The U.S. government hasn’t done a systematic study of the human impacts of its nuclear industry on the communities in which it located it’s mines, mills, and experiments during the cold war, but various academic and individual scientific studies combined with oral histories and community based assessments over the years don’t make the comparison to Chernobyl a stretch.

A contentious debate over the future of uranium mining in New Mexico is currently underway. The Navajo Nation in 2005 banned uranium mining on its land, but mining companies are pursuing the development of new mines on the public and private land that snakes into and around Navajo land due to an expectation that a new uranium boom is looming.

NPR, my beacon of sanity

2009-10-22T11:19:00.006-06:00

I can't remember a time I didn't listen to National Public Radio. My fierce fandom is nearly entirely due to my father, who is as hardcore an NPR listener as they come. When my dad is home alone, he'll either have NPR playing on every radio in the house or have it playing on his hand-held radio, which he carries around the house with him. Now that is a fan. The voices - recognizable and reassuring - are instantly calming and grounding to me. The conversation is relevant and piquant, refreshingly free of the mindless chatter or shrieking stereotypes that clutter up television. And if pressed, I must admit that no jingle makes me happier than the chords announcing "Morning Edition." NPR is how I begin my day, how I like to fill my day, and how I like to make the transition from work to me-time. NPR even made it into our wedding vows. Is that more or less fanatical than carrying around a hand-held radio?

It's NPR pledge week this week, as all of you regular listeners are already aware. As much as we always know that NPR only exists with listener (and not government or commercial) support, we also know this: more than ever, NPR rises above the fray of broadcast journalism. So put your money where your ears, head, and heart are. Every dollar counts.

Have you pledged your local NPR station yet?

Pumping Horror 2: Traveling

2009-10-22T10:34:00.002-06:00

Mikaela says:
What's worse than trying to pump at the workplace? Trying to pump on a business trip! Not only are you at the mercy of other people's schedules, you also have virtually no control over the spaces you inhabit, which means you're going to end up pumping in public restrooms - asking wary strangers for the nearest family room and praying it has a working power outlet.

If you're on a car trip - you're invariably carpooling with three guys, one of whom is your boss, and the other two you've worked hard to make them believe you weren't going to quit after having a baby as they automatically assume, no matter what you say.

The last car trip I went on with three guys, I had to excuse myself from our presentation practice 15 minutes before we were scheduled to leave on our 2-hour drive so that I could pump, then worry that they were waiting for me, badmouthing me for ducking out, and talking about what I was up to, anyway. We stopped for lunch before our presentation, and I inhaled my food so that I could sprint ahead to the car to pump again. Instead of waiting a reasonable amount of time (read: longer than 5 minutes, people), two of the guys decided to come on back to the car. I had hopped into the passenger seat to be nearer the car power adapter, and the guy who'd ridden up in the seat actually came to the door to give me grief, not really understanding what I was doing! The other just hopped on in the back and proceeded to talk to me like nothing was happening. I've never been so glad that he was a little deaf! Both guys now installed in the backseat, I've got to figure out how to unhook myself and put everything away discreetly - and quickly - before my boss comes back to take the wheel. He comes back just as I'm putting the last of my things away. He looks at me to ask if we're all set and ready to go. Redfaced but relieved, I say yes.

After the interview (2 hours later), I'm praying that someone wants to stop for soda or chips or something so I can hook myself back up again in relative privacy, even if they come back to the car right away. No such luck. I sit in the backseat, calculating the hours in my head to see if I can wait until we get back and still have time to fit one more pump in before it's time to go home and feed my kid directly, as nature intended. But no. I have to do this in the next hour or my daughter's going to go hungry - either tonight or tomorrow when she runs out of food! Now praying that neither of the guys in front clue in or -- god forbid -- turn around, I surreptitiously get out my supplies one at a time - modesty cape first. I'm all set to go but have to ask the guy in front to plug me in. He acts put out, and I just have to hope that he doesn't make a big enough deal out of it that I have to explain why it's important! And then there I am, surrounded by men I work with, as I'm hooked up like a cow at a dairy, hoping against hope that the whirring and buzzing is much less audible and embarrassing than I think. And 15 tortured minutes later, I have to risk further exposure by unhooking and putting it all away once again. As unlikely as it probably is, I don't think those guys even figured it all out. Or at least they had the decency to act clueless!

The last trip, I got to experience the joy of pumping in airports. Thank goodness for family bathrooms. Damn those family bathrooms with broken outlets! In the second bathroom, the outlet worked, but there was an entire outfit in the trash that smelled like unspeakable body fluids, and the only place to put the pump was a sink that I would normally not touch for any reason. I was beyond all this and covering my mouth with my little girl's pajamas, imagining the phermones "letting my milk down" when the janitor started knocking. He'd wait a minute and then knock again. And again. And again. More and more annoyed. I yelled each time for him to wait, but I didn't really want to announce to all the passers-by the real reason why. When I finally emerged, he looked at me accusingly, knowing I was in there shooting up or getting off or worse. I looked him right back and said, "I was trying to pump in there."

Flustered, he said gruffly, "Someone said there was broken glass in there."

"I didn't see any glass," I said, walking quickly away.

Of all the things to be surprised about in being a new mom, it's the little indignities that are the worst. I thought they'd end with pregancy, then with recovery after the birth. But I think they're just going to continue. Next comes the stage where your kids puke in public places, then when they act badly, and finally when they end up needing public assistance or something.

Sigh.

At least the benefits of motherhood more than makes up for the rest!

What it comes down to

2009-10-19T10:27:00.003-06:00

Mikaela says:
Oh to be a mom brave enough to order one of these for my new office door!

Today is the first real day in an honest-to-god office, with a lock on the door and blinds on the windows. I can leave the pump out, meaning pumping now takes 15 minutes instead of 20 because of set up and take down time, every time, every 2 hours.

You have no idea how annoying that is, not to mention the stress of fearing a work mate, or god forbid boss, will ignore the Do Not Disturb sign and the locked door and just come on in. You think this is unlikely? Think again. Happened to me. Happened with the big boss.

This was the third office they moved me to (and here I can only whine a little bit, because at least they were trying to provide a private place other than the bathroom to pump), but I'd just been informed I'd have to move again because the big boss was moving floors. It would be a few days, the office manager told me. So I readied myself and gathered my things but still went to pump at my regularly scheduled 10 am "de-canting" as one workmate called it. I'd gotten a bit lax about using the cover-up. I did have a locked office, after all, but thankfully I'd used the modesty cape that time, when I heard a key in the lock. Yep, my boss walks in, sees me, apologizes ... AND THEN CONTINUES TO CHAT WITH ME FOR A GOOD TWO MINUTES before backing out, locking the door behind him. He just wanted to check out his new office; he had no idea he'd be checking out just so much!

Then they moved me to a different floor, saying this room would turn into a conference room in a few weeks, but it was mine until then. There was a bookcase and a chair, so I set myself up in the corner, back to one wall of windows. Oh right, did I mention that this room was floor to ceiling windows on two sides? These windows faced one office to the northwest and one bank of cubicles to the southeast. Fun times! I picked my poison and faced the one office. Now, I thought the windows were reflective and no one could see in. I didn't really think to check that until I walked in one day (about a week or two after using this room at least 3 times a day) there was a window washer outside. I figured before I bared all, I should make sure just how reflective that glass was. To my horror, not only could I see into the bank of cubicles, I could see right into the office I'd been facing all that time, even to the desk where the head of Civil Engineering was sitting and had been sitting. No wonder his face got red every time he and I shared an elevator! I fled to share my embarrassment with my closest work girls. But the crazy thing? I had to go back to that room 2 more times that day, and every day thereafter! I learned to close the blinds, believe me! But as time went on, people started using the room for meetings. I'd run up on a break to pump only to find a room full of people, some of them facing my pump artfully draped with my modesty cape but still plugged suggestively into the wall. So horrifying...

Now you can imagine my relief to be sitting, trying to work on a contract job, in my very own office, where I can close the blinds, lock the door, strap on my boob shields, and pump away, SVU playing on one screen while I page through pictures of my beautiful baby on the other.

Ah, the modern world of a working mom!

Markets aren't everything...? (!)

2009-10-13T08:44:00.000-06:00

marjorie says...

A fabulously straight delivery given to us on Forbes.com--with the insightful news that "Markets Aren't Everything"--, about the work of the duo who won the Nobel for Economics (parenthetical commentary belongs to me):

The common theme underlying the prize this year is that markets do not solve all problems of resource allocation and incentives well or even at all. That is not a new idea. (!) What is important is that people and societies find ways through organizational structures and arrangements, political and other institutions, values, incentives and recognition, and the careful management of information, to solve these problems. Professors Ostrom and Williamson have led the development of this increasingly important part of economics. In reading their work, you are impressed that economics is not really fundamentally about markets, but about resource allocation and distribution problems. Markets appear because they operate effectively to handle a subset of these resource allocation challenges. Alternative creative institutional arrangements have been devised and refined over time to deal with those that markets handle imperfectly.

Isn't this another way of saying that capitalism has to be mitigated through the government or other social(ist) formations?

Now that economists have won the Nobel for confirming this, can we stop having that debate?

Something tells me, no.

Hat Tip to John Fleck.

Marty Chavez: Mayorship isn't a football game, it's a relay race

2009-10-07T01:36:00.002-06:00

marjorie says...

Mayor Martin Chavez said this last night as he was conceding the race.

"I believe in my heart these races and the mayorship, it is not a football game, it’s not a baseball game, with a winner and a loser...It’...s a relay race. And each mayor has to move that baton, have to move that team forward. And I am proud we’ve moved the city of Albuquerque forward immeasurably."

Note to Self: Do Your Research

2009-10-06T23:13:00.002-06:00

Mikaela says:
Damn. I am a bad voter! I did not look at the sample ballot or read the League's guide, so I was unprepared to vote on the proposed amendments to the City Charter, all of which passed with or without my uneducated vote.

(All the bonds passed, too, including affordable housing - yay! Does this surprise anyone else? I hear all the bonds typically pass, but when I vote, I picture all those pinched Republicans saying, "More money for libraries, community centers? Why I should I pay for those?")

Google leads me to believe no one's blogged about the story behind the charter amendments in depth, either. It's up a planning student's alley (hint, hint, kids), but I feel like there's a story there that I want to know, so maybe I should get off my you-know-what and have a little look-sie.

Here's where the trail is leading...

Marjorie's article that got the amendments on the ballot in the first place.
City Task Force studying the City Charter and proposing the changes and the report.
League of Women Voters NM summary of Proposed Charter Amendments.
Voting Results.

Phew! That was exhausting. I'm out of shape! Did I miss something? Please, god, let someone have done this already... Links, anyone?

A down and dirty summary (still looking for the dirt behind these... who's for them? who's against? who pays? who benefits?):

Elections - adds a summary of where to find policy on elections in the charter, since it's scattered throughout.
Salaries - creates an independent salary commission to determine Mayoral and Councilor salaries, which then get voted on by the public, to start with the next term after an election. [This was the subject of lots of debate - is this self-serving? an end-run around the voters? Umm... No!]
City Clerk - makes the position coincide w/ the Mayor's term & subject to approval of 2/3 of the Council, which also gets the authority to remove the Clerk w/ the same majority vote.
Petitions - clarifies how amendments can be made to the Charter and allows the City Clerk (with approval from the City Attorney and City Council) to fix clerical errors and delete outlawed sections.
Budget - attaches dates to the current budget process for accountability.
Ethics - changes the authority for election ethics from the City Attorney (criminal charges) to the Board of Ethics and Campaign Practices (civil process).
Zoning - adds an article clarifying the legislative role of the Council as the "ultimate planning and zoning authority (including adoption and interpretation of Plans, ordinances, and individual cases) versus the Mayor's role for implementation, enforcement, and administration of plans. [This is a big deal, and we'll see how it shakes out inside the Planning Departments... the Mayor's and the Council's!]
Disputes - establishes a 3-person arbitration committee (1 appointed by the Council, 1 by the Mayor, 1 jointly) to resolve disputes about duties under the Charter. [Also very interesting! How often will this committee get used? All the time? Never?]
Signatures - changes the signatures needed on a petition from a percentage to a number - 3,000 - to become a candidate for Mayor and 500 to become a candidate for City Council (making this equal across districts of different sizes).
Attorney - changes the City Attorney's term to coincide with the Mayor, similar to the change to the City Clerk above, w/ the same approval & removal provisions by the Council.

Well, what do we think? Voters think they look okay...

(Incidentally, what's the knee-jerk response from voters on charter amendments? Is it, "They're fixing something that's broken, which is always a good idea!" Or, "They're *&^%$ing with our constitution, which is always a bad idea!" The approvals across the board seem to indicate the first instinct. Yikes!)

ABQ to Mayor Marty: No to Unprecedented 3 Terms!

2009-10-06T22:32:00.004-06:00

Mikaela says:
Well, this may be a disaster, but the people have spoken (at least those who cared enough to go the polls this election), and they've all said, "More Marty? Not again!"

They couldn't quite go all the way to the left to vote for Romero, so it appears many people chose the box marked "Other," or in this case, Berry, sadly a Republican, yes, it's true. But I have to say, having heard all the candidates on KUNM's calling show on subsequent weeks, this guy said a lot of things that I was shocked to agree with. For the moment, he seems, well ... reasonable. And that's a breath of fresh air compared to Mayor Marty's childish and petulant grudge-keeping dictatorship.

Eric says the worst that can happen is he'll cut all the social programs, so when we elect a Democratic in the next mayoral election, then it will seem like Christmas again, or maybe a chance to re-assess our values and put money where our hearts are. That's what I'm hoping for, anyway.

This was a tough call. I knew I couldn't vote for bubble butt (there's a reason you never see him filmed or photographed from the back, don't you know!), but Richard Romero agonized me with his picking on the Council Service Planning Department, which I think is a really good idea when the Planning Department is inextricably linked to the Mayor's office, no matter who's in it. I think it's an important check-and-balance for our local government. And he also denigrated hiring outside architects and planners (something Maggie and I have both talked about) for city projects, and okay, he has a point, but what's his solution? The city does NOT have the capacity in its planning program, and won't if it doesn't offer competitive wages, which it can't in a budget crisis and hasn't, anyway.

So Berry's advantage? He's not the other guys, and he seems, to quote the Hitchhiker's Guide, "Mostly Harmless." We'll see if that bears out. It's fitting that it's balloon week. Just picture us all holding our breath while a new pilot gears up to blow hot air at us!

Go vote people

2009-10-05T19:43:00.001-06:00

marjorie says...

It's October 5th, 7:30pm. Reed is playing his guitar. Kiki just had a bath, and is moping in his room because I won't let him go roll in the dirt until he's dry. I'm not going to check my email again tonight. If I do, there might be something else I want to put up in a blog. But this portion has come to an end. Albuquerque's municipal election is tomorrow.

Having written about the race since the first of the year, I can honestly say I'll feel some regret for any of the three candidates for mayor who don't make it into a run-off. They each have things to recommend.

Not gonna tell you who I'm voting for though ;-)

Go here to find out where you vote: http://www.bernco.gov/wherevote/

The polls are open from 7 to 7, tomorrow.

Barb Wold at DfNM has endorsed Marty Chavez for Mayor

2009-09-29T09:11:00.003-06:00

marjorie says...

I've read Barb's blog for a really long time, and I think it's notable that she endorsed Marty Chavez for mayor on her blog last night.

She's pretty much sat out the mayor's race this year, which is a fact I've been paying attention to in and of itself. I actually was not surprised by this development.

Barb is sharp, and a great polemicist. Not to mention she's the doyenne of New Mexico's Democratic netroots. I'll be checking out the comments section over there--I suspect it'll be an interesting way to pass the time today (since I simply have nothing else to do).

Interesting day in the Duke City for the left

2009-09-28T21:22:00.001-06:00

marjorie says...

My title speaks for itself.

Van Jones: "Green jobs, not jails."

2009-09-12T10:14:00.005-06:00

marjorie says...

Van on Van before he resigned from the Obama White House gig, from Politico in early August:

“I didn’t start out as an environmentalist. I started out helping urban kids in trouble and I burned out, going to way too many funerals and court cases that turned out badly,” Jones said in an interview. “I was just trying to get my own health back.”

“I went to these retreat Centers in Marin County, and it was a different world. They had all this organic food and solar panels and hybrid cars, and I was like -- why don’t they have this in my neighborhood?” Jones said. “I thought, if we had these kind of jobs and services in Oakland, we’d probably have less violence. So I came up with a slogan: Green jobs, not jails.”

Congrats to the residents of Pajarito Mesa

2009-09-10T22:24:00.004-06:00

marjorie says...

The many years of struggle and long hours of hard work between SWOP and the Pajarito Mesa Water Association to develop a safe, clean, dependable source of water for the residents of Pajarito Mesa is finally bearing fruit.

This Wednesday morning we met with TLC, the company that was awarded the contract for this project, and other engineers, and we saw for ourselves the construction in action. The project is just beginning but by early December the residents of Pajarito Mesa should start getting water from this filling station.

Bringing water to the Mesa has taken a long time, but as the saying goes, “la perseverancia siempre gana.”

-Sandra Montes

This was originally published on SWOPblogger.

Marjorie on nmpolitics.net

2009-09-08T13:10:00.002-06:00

Did you see Marjorie over on nmpolitics.net?

Marjorie: Dems should use health care reform

Go read!

Cancer and cannabis

2009-09-07T23:53:00.004-06:00

marjorie says...

Here's a piece I wrote for the NMI last week, about the one medical marijuana non-profit in the state running out of its product. The person who've I've written about before here clued me into the fact that they had run out, and he also elaborated a little on why cannabis is seen as a medicine by so many. I was aware of the mitigating effect on nausea, pain and lack of appetite, but had not considered the issue with anxiety before...

New Mexico’s one medical marijuana producer is all sold out

According to a medical marijuana patient who has access to the secure Web site of the one nonprofit in the state producing marijuana for patients, the nonprofit has run out of its product and won’t have more available until October.

From the Santa Fe Institute for Natural Medicine (SFINM) Web site:

8/28/09 PRODUCT UPDATE

We are currently sold out of our inventory. Not knowing what members would like, our first crop was 50/50 indica dominant/sativa dominant. And although we are so sorry to run out, we now know that members prefer sativa dominant. We will try and adjust our proportions accordingly so this does not happen again. Also, please keep in mind that it takes 12-18 months for a smooth running ongoing production. This is especially tricky when it is a pilot project and mother nature is involved. We very much appreciate your patience.

Come October, we hope to introduce Big Buddha’s Cheese, Chocolope, and Kandy Kush to the menu. More details will come in September.

The source for this story, who wished to remain unidentified, told the Independent that if he didn’t have a producers license he’d have to risk buying it on the street — which is legal for him under state law, but dangerous because it forces him to purchase from people working in an underground economy.

“It’s not safe. You could be ripped off or killed, not to mention, it’s still a federal crime. So, say you bought some in front of a post office, you could be prosecuted by the feds,” he explained.

Still, he’s come to rely on medical marijuana as he makes his way through a debilitating chemotherapy cancer treatment regime, so figures most of the state’s medical marijuana patients are taking those kinds of risks.

“It significantly helps all of the serious side effects I’ve told you about… like relentless nausea, extreme anxiety, and loss of appetite. It also helps me sleep, which is good,” he said.

He doesn’t blame the dispensary for running out, though, saying its the state’s fault for not devising a better system for producing marijuana that meets the demand.

“Why are they limiting the ability of people to produce when its clear so many people in the state really need it,” he asked rhetorically.

You can read the rest here, including information about the prices of medical marijuana in NM. I'll have a follow-up piece soon I hope.

Fouratt does a disservice to Richardson

2009-08-31T11:33:00.005-06:00

marjorie says...

By now, many of you will have read or heard the news that Governor Bill Richardson will not being indicted by the grand jury that spent a year investigating whether an investment services company won a big state contract after making contributions to two of Richardson's political action committees in 2004.

This is the investigation that caused Richardson to withdraw from his nomination to the position of commerce secretary.

The news that he wouldn't be indicted was quickly followed last week by details pulled from a letter that U.S. Attorney Greg Fouratt wrote to defense attorney's letting them know there would be no investigation.

You can see the letter for yourself here.

Fouratt said in the letter that while there would be no indictment, the investigation "revealed that pressure from the governor's office resulted in the corruption of the procurement process so that CDR would be awarded the work."

He further said that the lack of indictments shouldn't be considered an exoneration.

That the letter, which is dated August 27, quickly made its way into the hands of the press bolsters the assertion made by a former Republican U.S. Attorney, Joseph diGenova, that the letter is blatantly political.

I tend to agree.

Here's why it seems so political, to me.

Fouratt's statement in the letter that the procurement process was corrupted by pressure from the Governor's office begs the question: why, then, was there no indictment?

It could be that Fouratt wants us to believe that the decision to not indict Richardson was itself political.

But in order to believe that, we'd have to believe that the Justice Department with all of its career prosecutors colluded together to decide to let a crime of that magnitude go unpunished.

After a year long investigation by a grand jury, and a Justice Department under major scrutiny for letting decisions be swayed by politics during the Bush years, that's a bit of a stretch.

We need prosecutors who take to heart the bedrock principle that people in this country are innocent until proven guilty. If his grand jury didn't lead to a simple indictment--which is simply a greenlight to go to trial--then Fouratt needs to let the people he pursued in this case be innocent rather than further damage their reputations.

Instead, he issues a letter casting further aspersions on them, after they've been subjected to relentless public suspicion since last year. He must know such a letter would play out in the press, and that it would impact public opinion about the governor. That's political.

The governor's spokesperson called it "sour grapes." To me, its more like a threat, an unwarranted one.

Ted Kennedy, 1932-2009

2009-08-26T06:33:00.006-06:00

Like so many Americans, I woke up completely heartbroken this morning to the news that Senator Ted Kennedy, standard-bearer for liberalism, Lion of the Senate, had passed away.

It's overwhelming to take in all that Kennedy did to fight for justice over nearly fifty years of service, all the ways in which he championed the cause of those without desks in the Senate chambers, all that legislation - an entire generation's worth of legislation - that bore his mark in some way.

More often than not, Kennedy served as a barometer for that single, highest measure of importance: are we treating others the way that we'd like to be treated? Are those who are ignored and forgotten helped by what we are doing? Are those who have been wronged a little more righted by our efforts? Is it enough? What more can we do?

Over the years, here on m-pyre and in a hundred conversations, Marjorie and Mikaela have lovingly teased me that my heroes tend to be dead white men. This is true to an extent, the reason being that our structure of government lies at the center of my own experience. (And that structure, as we know, has historically enabled one demographic more than others.) I've always felt strongly that there is a time and a place to work within that system, as flawed as it may be. Like it or not, it is the arena that translates activism into policy. If ground-up, community-based action is the heart of any movement (and I believe it is), we need instruments of change inside the power structure to harness that passion and translate it into law. Progress is easier when there are allies on the inside. And there was no stronger ally, or more knowledgeable figure about the legislative process, than Senator Kennedy.

I began here by pondering the overwhelming scope of Kennedy's legacy. So, too, is the thought of a future without him. I look around and don't see that new standard-bearer in wait. Paul Wellstone was taken away from us too soon. Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State. Barack Obama became President. Whereas Kennedy's failed bid for the presidency freed him to dedicate himself to the Senate, I fear that "ambition or bust" is more common today. We cannot all become a Lion of the Senate, after all. Nor should we. There can only be one.

I'm remembering this morning that voice looming over debates on the Senate floor. I'm thinking about my own lifetime of being invested in politics, as defined in large part by Senator Kennedy. I'm remembering working in politics in Massachusetts, and seeing the senior senator here, there, everywhere, his hands in everything that mattered. And since I'm traveling back anyway, I'm thinking too of that childhood concept wherein it's impossible to believe that certain people will ever leave this world, because they are in so many ways the center of it. That girl wishes beyond hope that Senator Kennedy could've lived forever.

From the greatest senator of our lifetime, his most quoted pronouncement:

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

Why the rest of the bloggers shake their head at a certain blogger

2009-08-20T08:16:00.005-06:00

marjorie says...

Ever wonder about the occasional upheaval among writers in the blogosphere? Well, the following example should clue you in.

From Heath Haussamen's original story yesterday:

"For example, according to the indictments, a $2 million voucher from the state treasury was deposited in the account of Gutierrez between Sept. 29 and Oct. 5, 2004. That voucher was based on a false invoice, the indictment states.

"Then, between Oct. 1 and Oct. 7, 2004, a $140,000 check from Gutierrez was deposited in the account of the Kupfers. Similar transactions occurred several times between 2004 and 2006, according to the indictment."

From Joe Monahan's blog this morning, uncredited, eerily almost exactly the same:

"For example, the indictment asserts that a $2 million voucher from the state treasury was deposited in Gutierrez's account between Sept. 29 and Oct. 5, 2004 and that the voucher was based on a false invoice. Between Oct. 1 and Oct. 7, 2004, a $140,000 check from Gutierrez was deposited in the Kupfers account. Such activity happened several more times from 2004 to 2006."

A fellow blogger questioned me about this a little more, so here's some additional information:

The issue being written about is a 50 count indictment covered in 21 pages of legal language.

Heath wrote two paragraphs letting readers know what Count 3 and 4 say, in his own words. You can compare how he wrote it with the indictment: http://media2.krqe.com/_local/pdf/vigil-giron_indictment_20090819.pdf

The Swopistas make me happy

2009-07-28T19:43:00.001-06:00

Maggie says...

You guys rock!

Palin Poetry

2009-07-28T10:28:00.005-06:00

Mikaela says:
Thanks to Maggie Mae, the Freckled Citizen, for posting this. It was too good not to throw on the old m-pyre.

As a dabbler in poetry myself, I thought I could recognize a good poem when I heard one, but apparently not. Leave it to Conan O'Brien and William Shatner to uncover the poetic heart in Palin's dumbass farewell speech.

Verbatim transcript provided below for you to follow along!

"[S]oaring through nature's finest show. Denali, the great one, soaring under the midnight sun. And then the extremes. In the winter time it's the frozen road that is competing with the view of ice fogged frigid beauty. The cold, though, doesn't it split the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs? And then in the summertime, such extreme summertime, about a hundred and fifty degrees hotter than just some months ago, than just some months from now, with fireweed blooming along the frost heaves and merciless rivers that are rushing and carving and reminding us that here, Mother Nature wins. It is as throughout all Alaska, that big, wild, good life teeming along the road that is north to the future."

Friday Funny

2009-07-24T09:08:00.008-06:00

Mikaela says:
I work at a Native-American owned company, and one of the things I love is the paradigm shift that occurs here, where white is NOT the norm and shouldn't be.

My coworker, who happens to be part Navajo and part Cochiti, sent me this Top 10 List of Things Native people should say or ask white folks. It's funny because it's true!

How much white are you?
I'm part white myself, you know.
I learned all your people's ways in the Boy Scouts.
My great-great-grandmother was a full-blooded white American Princess..
Funny, you don't look white.
Where's your powdered wig and knickers?
Do you live in a covered wagon?
What's the meaning behind the square dance?
What's your feeling about Las Vegas casinos? Do they really help your people, or are they just a short-term fix?
Hey, can I take your picture?

(This also reminds me of a similar list of things people ask when you say you're from New Mexico... Maybe I'll share that next Friday!)

...watching the advent of medical marijuana...

2009-07-21T07:08:00.002-06:00

marjorie says...

A friend of mine has qualified for a medical marijuana license, or maybe it's called a prescription. He recently got his official card in the mail. The email from the non-profit that he'll be able to purchase marijuana from sent an email with program details, and signed off, "we look forward to serving you."

He was rather incredulous when showing it to me, noting that he'll be in on the first crop produced by the non-profit.

It is rather eyebrow-raising to see it in action up close and personal. For so many people who have illegally medicated themselves with pot for years, there must be a significant element of relief involved with the state no longer treating them like criminals.

I've been intellectually on board with pot legalization forever, frankly, but seeing this up close and personal drives home for me how important it is for many who have serious illnesses.

There are a lot of advocates in the state who deserve credit, but I still chuckle when I recall the simple one-liner uttered by Gov. Richardson back in 2007 on the topic. "My God, let's be reasonable," he said. Indeed.

I'll keep you all updated on any interesting details about using the program as he mentions them.

Women and our "temperament" problem

2009-07-15T08:46:00.005-06:00

Maggie says:
Let's review yesterday's gems from everyone's favorite Southern gentleman, Lindsay Graham, in which he uses phrases such as "nasty," "fiery," "a bit of a bully," "a terror," and asks that very gendered question, "Do you think you have a temperament problem?" As you can see in the following clip, the only temperament I see in effect here is the graceful, calm restraint used to respond to such questioning.

Oh, Lindsay. Let's expand this a bit. Might I remind you of some of the other women in U.S. history with "temperament" problems?

It takes a certain temperament to achieve great things, wouldn't you say, LG?

Harry Time!

2009-07-13T13:47:00.010-06:00

Mikaela says:
Oh my. Feels like I can hardly wait the 2 days until Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is here! But I hate crowds. I hate crowds of fans even more, so my wait is even longer. Add to that wait the factoring in of a viewing with audience small enough that I can risk taking my 3 month old! We're talking Monday night, now, people! Can I make it?

In preparation, I listened to the audio book again. Love that Jim Dale*! I will admit that I like the audio book more than reading it myself because it actually stretches the experience out longer. It took me about 2 weeks to get through the audio book, listening mostly on my way to work and on walks. Reading the book takes about a night. That would be all night, and now that my baby sleeps through the night? I want to, too!

I'm reading reviews, but you know what? Critics are too critical, and fans are too breathless. All fans care about is how much the film deviates from the book. All the critics care about is how slavishly the movies follow the books at the detriment of making a good movie.

Me? I see the movies as an added bonus to a literary and cultural event that's made me happy for 10 years. I'm even glad they're splitting the final book into two movies, just so the series won't end for that much longer. What on earth will I ever be this excited about again? We've gotten to build excitement and anticipation for 8 movies! That's incredible.

The C.S. Lewis Narnia series might work well as a movie experience, but they need to get their act together a little more. Actually, the first couple Harry Potter's weren't that great, either. The first installment in Narnia -- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe -- was pretty good, mostly because of Tilda Swinton (love her).

But the books? I read them as a kid and was a fan... right up to the moment I heard they were all a big Christian parable. Bleck! Even if you are a Christian, isn't THE BIBLE good enough for you? Why pollute children's books with MESSAGES? Harry Potter's got its share of morality -- the deadly battle between good and evil -- but it's somehow specific to itself and therefore not just a thin veneer for a deeper message. Aslan's a great character, but he's a pretty poor Jesus, if you ask me.

But that's neither here nor there. What matters is that Harry's almost here. And even after I finally see the movie, there will be 2 more installments to come! Woo-hoo!

(After that, do I have to stoop to reading the Twilight series? And yes, I know how that sounds. I was all uppity about Harry Potter, too, until my little brother's fan-dom forced me to read the first one, after which, of course, I was hooked!)

[Trivia via Freakonomics blog: Dale was given only 100 pages of manuscript at a time to read and then record, so he never knew what was coming; in order to keep track of the 146 voices he’d created for all the characters, he often pre-recorded a bit of the characters’ voices and then held a tape recorder up to his ear in the studio to remind himself.]

Memories of Palin

2009-07-06T21:33:00.003-06:00

marjorie says...

I figured we needed to save the highights of the Sarah Palin comedy year here on m-pyre, those moments that have really sent us collectively over the edge into flabbergasty. Yes, that's a word. It may be a touch uncharitable (there goes my Christian upbringing again), but on the other hand...this is the woman who McCain thought could be president. It pretty much boggles the mind.

I would love to hear a defense of this kind of delivery, keeping in mind that this is the person McCain wanted to have in the wings, ready to represent us on the world stage.

This is probably my all time favorite Palin clip. She did a staged press event where she "pardoned a Thanksgiving turkey" and then gave a bizarre interview in front of turkeys being slaughtered around back. It was November 20...and many of us thought it was all over.

In the interest of space, and not burying Mikaela's stellar blogs by a kazallion clips, here's a greatist hits put together by Talking Points Memo. Now, granted, this is an edited montage with a clear editorial bias (they felt they needed to tell us how to feel at the beginning--which for the life of me I can't understand the need for), but on the other hand it has some real golden moments that we all remember.

Ira Goes to Moscow with a Clean Heart

2009-06-30T15:39:00.004-06:00

Mikaela says:
A link on This American Life.org sends you to Yahoo's Babel Fish (Yay Douglas Adams fans!), which translates literally from Russian into English. The blurb describes Ira's upcoming trip to Moscow to speak about the power of radio. That's not the fabulous thing.

The fabulous thing is this line, which needs to become a poem immediately:

Here is man,
which speaks before you
from the clean heart -
there is nothing better
than this.

Voces 2009

2009-06-30T09:06:00.003-06:00

Mikaela says:
Another year, another successful wrap-up to Voces: Writing Institute at the NHCC. This year's challenges? Teaching with a baby on your hip while corralling 26 (!) creative minds to think past cliches in expressing your deepest feelings.

Another change this month was the introduction of a blog by the kids, for the kids, put together with the help of dynamo Kenn Rodriguez, who in addition to being a great poet & performer brought his journalism and technological skills courtesy of Americorp. You can see blog entries, poems, and performances here. Pretty cool window into the creative world of Voces!

My friend Lisa came to the final performance, as she has each of the past 4 (?) years. Listening to 2+ hours of teen poetry can be a bit trying at times, but Lisa seems to see past the occasional groan moment to get charged up with the energy and passion these young folks shower on the crowd.

My daughter didn't last past the first two applause moments. She's not big on whistling, it turns out. Daddy whisked her home, so Momma got to go out for a well-deserved cider after the show! Woo-hoo! There, she caught a glimpse of the famously fabulous Gene Grant, who applauded seeing me "out" late on a Friday evening. Gene was a part of Voces again this year, taking part in a journalism panel with Kenn and a young woman from the Alibi. The kids adored him, of course.

And me? I didn't get much writing done this year. Between caring for an infant, editing 26 kids' poems (up to 4 pieces each turned in each Friday and returned each Monday), and working on another consulting gig report also due at the end of June ... I was pretty tapped out. I did get a good dose of writer's guilt, though. A certain little lady in Texas needs a certain wedding present poem that's been brewing slowly since April. At this point, the poem will probably have the gestation of a real baby, and the labor will probably take about as long as Umea's: a solid five days. Such is the price of life, I guess!

I also got a happy dose of pride in this program. So many of the kids mentioned how much the program has meant to them personally and how influential it's been in their lives, showing them a world where they can be honored for who they are and what they think, not for their stereotypes or their "cool" factor. As one of our success-story kids told me: "It's so sad that not giving a shit is cool." Well these kids learned that caring and succeeding can also be cool and feels a lot better, even though -- and maybe especially because -- it's hard work.

That same student came to Voces three years ago unable to read or write. He just won the state Slam competition this year. He now goes to the schools with Carlos Contreras -- mentor of the Voces program -- and performs his poetry to inspire other students to share their voices, too. For him, the knife edge of his previous life -- slinging and gangs -- is always there, but he tries to remember how much better it feels to be a poet than to be "hard," acting the badass to intimidate others not to fuck with you.

He told me his story over lunch one day. We both had tears in our eyes, and I felt for a moment how high the stakes were for him, how much he clung to the world opened to him through poetry, how much he appreciates the window of opportunity Voces provided him. All I could say was that the work had all come from him. All we did was set the expectations and encourage him that he could do this: speak with power. The rest was all his voice and his bravery and hard work to use it.

40-something in San Antonio

2009-06-29T07:30:00.007-06:00

marjorie says...

Just got back from turning 40-something in San Antonio. Whenever I go there, I'm reminded what a great city it is--even if it is 106 degrees with 28 percent humidity.

We stayed in this seriously retro hotel called El Tropicano, one of the originals on the River Walk. Totally killer restored mid-century modern splender. They played an Elvis movie by the pool one night on a huge screen they dropped from the roof, called it the Drive-In by the Pool. My mother was stumped, because she had never seen it which totally surprised her, being the Elvis fan that she is.

The kids were out of control in the heat, and the river walk was mobbed with tourists--from the looks of it, not a whole lot of San Antonio residents go there--but it was a great time.

My dad gave me the Sam Houston army base tour, which is where he was stationed right after he and my mom got married. She lived in an efficiency apartment in an old house about a block from the base. He'd eat in the mess hall, then sneak some food over to her since they had no money. Apparently, a oujia board told them they'd find the apartment on that street--that was the last time they ever played a ouija board. They took the apartment, but didn't like it that the devil--or somesuch--told them where to find it.

Anyhow, maybe I'll post some pictures later. For now, here's a little thing...

From a Texas quotation book chapter called "Not limited by facts," comes this quotation: "Remember the Alamo". Of course, I know that saying, but was amused that I read it in a book bought at the Alamo.

NM SOS website missing in action

2009-06-29T07:27:00.001-06:00

marjorie says...

hmmm...

How can the SOS website be down more than a day or two, at the most? What's wrong with it?

I need to check some records...

Sophie's (Job) Choice

2009-06-22T17:02:00.004-06:00

Mikaela says:
I don't know about you guys, but I find myself thrust into a decision between 1970 and 1990.*

(*I admit I don't truly understand that choice, but I've heard two super-smart friends make that distinction, so if you'd like to quibble - take issue with them!)

Do I keep (or try to keep) the security of my full-time job with some health insurance and a 401K, despite the fact that it's not really what I want for myself personally or professionally?

Or do I throw caution to the wind and risk a part-time job that could give me just enough income to cover personal expenses and the cost of adding myself to my husband's health insurance? This isn't really what I want to do with my life, either, but it would only be a part-time waste of my life, leaving more time to try to fill in the blanks with gigs, paying and no, that include things I love.

I recognize that I'm lucky to even have this choice. Both have risks, and either one would ultimately be okay (probably).

It's been a fun opportunity to think about what skills I have that I'd like to use more, and what services I could put on a personal business card (no longer an oxymoron):

Meeting planning, facilitation, & recording
Technical & creative writing
Teaching & training
Desktop publishing
Visioning & planning workshops
Project management

(Am I missing anything?)

I'd love to be an ad-hoc consultant for any of these in alternating months, with home as my base from which to work.

Do you think it's possible? Do people pay for these things? Can you get hired just to be a smart, organized person?

Any advice?

Musings by a reporter on Twitter

2009-06-17T07:38:00.002-06:00

marjorie says...

Trip Jennings has a great commentary over on the Independent today about how Twitter is changing the face of journalism.

In light of the remarkable use of Twitter and other new media, like YouTube, by the demonstrating hordes in Iran, Jennings gives an anecdote about a recent "scoop" he thought he had in Santa Fe until one of the lawmakers present decided to "tweet" the news as well. Within minutes, another reporter showed up...

Twitter comes of age in Tehran -- and Santa Fe

by Trip Jennings

If you think Twitter is just a way for American techno geeks to navel gaze, how mistaken you are.

Watching protesters in Tehran use Twitter and other social networking services to tap out messages and share photos of impromptu demonstrations has put that myth to bed, hopefully forever.

Read the rest here.

Mommy Moment

2009-06-10T15:38:00.003-06:00

Mikaela says:
A flash of understanding:

Drive-throughs are not for lazy people, fat people, or shy people. They're for people with small children. I totally get this now.

Drive-in grocery stores? I'm all over this, suddenly! I find myself avoiding stores with no drive-throughs and seeking out establishments that cater to my less-mobile lifestyle.

Barring drive-ins for every daily need, I'd settle for a car seat with wheels.

Segregation hurts white people too, sometimes

2009-06-02T21:23:00.003-06:00

marjorie says...

A Wall Street Journal blog tells us that white fish shoppers at the Fulton Fish Market pay more than Asian fish shoppers.

Brandeis University economists in a 22-week study of fish purchasing patterns found that white buyers pay on average 5 to 10 cents per pound more for "whiting".

This is because white buyers don't drive as hard of a bargain as their Asian counterparts, maybe because the restaurants they supply have a higher profit margin on their fish products. And they tend to want to get in and out of the market more quickly.

And why, the blog asks at the end, could NY fish shoppers have gone so long without realizing this?

"Easy, the report says, they rarely mix with each other."

Classic.

Tiller's assassination is a message to the rest of us

2009-06-02T08:01:00.014-06:00

marjorie says...

Calling the killing of Dr. George Tiller by Scott Roeder a murder, many among the anti-abortion crowd seem to be trying to distance themselves from the act.

For instance, Patrick J. Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition says that “…It would be a double tragedy for those who oppose the pro-life movement to take this episode and use it to paint the pro-life movement with a broad brush of extremism and violence."

But the truth is that the killing is best thought of as a cold-blooded assassination meant to achieve a certain reaction, rather than a single "episode" of a deranged man. It was a political assassination wrapped in (God’s) clothes fashioned by the anti-abortion movement.

Roeder is part of a broader milieu, in the political movement sense and undoubtedly within his own personal realm, that routinely calls both doctors who perform abortions and the women who have them, murderers.

Most egregiously we have the likes of Bill O’Reilly, who for years has compared Dr. Tiller’s work to that of a Nazi. There’s a reason O’Reilly is so over the top about abortion—his audience has found him and he revels in their Christian warrior magnification of his message.

The response to this isn't about free speech, disgust with O'Reilly aside. The O'Reilly's of the world will always exist, and not just on the topic of abortion. Our job is to delegitimize O'Reilly through our own speech and through organizing, and to push the leaders of the anti-abortion crowd to do the same.

Instead of focusing on O'Reilly, et al, we need to take Roeder's killing of Tiller for what it really is--an act of domestic terrorism, meant to inspire fear among the broader populace. As in, “look what happens when you don’t agree with us.”

It's very hard to believe the assassin, Roeder, acted without the knowledge of any other anti-abortion militants, who have so villainized doctors, and women, that it's highly likely they are celebrating Roeder's act today. They probably view him as a martyr. The U.S. government needs to ferret these people out.

And the rest of us should understand there's a political dimension to this as well. It’s also an act meant to incite the anti-abortion base at a very deep level, to inspire them to join with right wing zealots such as Rush Limbaugh in resisting the moderating voices that are emerging within the Republican party.

Is it really a coincidence that this occurs just as moderate Republicans have gained a much bigger voice in the public debate? It’s as though Roeder sent a resounding message to the suggestion that the Republican Party is big enough to encompass the range of beliefs about abortion: NO.

Let's hope reason prevails.

Adams Hanger

2009-06-01T19:18:00.004-06:00

marjorie says...

Here are a few pictures I took at Maggie's wedding. For more you should seriously check out her wedding blog, Eat Drink Marry, where there are already some really gorgeous professional photos posted.

I couldn't resist this one. Maggie's very pregnant sister, Lisa, was her best woman. And she's in labor today. What a roller coaster couple of weeks for the Adams Family!

The Velodrome is rotted & ABQ has spent the money approved for it

2009-05-29T07:17:00.003-06:00

marjorie says...

In the ongoing saga of the Buena Vista street residents and the BMX stadium, the coverage by television news has generally been pretty poor if you ask me. Going back to 2007, when residents filed a suit against the city, television news never showed the actual physical reality of the situation. Instead, they'd do close-ups of the stadium or the neighbors.

KRQE's coverage a couple of nights ago changed that, and I recommend watching it. KRQE did some excellent reporting between that spot and one last week in which they informed us that the Velodrome intended for the same site as the bicycle park has rotted away and the bond money approved by the city to put it in place has been spent.

Richard Dineen, ABQ city planning director, told KRQE that the BMX stadium was administratively moved to its current location, after it was approved by the EPC for another spot, because it worked better for the overall plan of the site--which is largely about the Velodrome. And, he said, if he knew then what he knows now he'd have given neighbors more notice before moving the BMX stadium.

As KRQE reported, the Velodrome was acquired in 1999 by a non-profit and improperly stored. $2 million in bond money to install the velodrome was passed by voters in 2003. The city learned in late 2004 that the Velodrome was unusable due to rot. And the $2 million has been spent elsewhere.

(Yes, I bolded that to make sure it sinks in)

The city still moved the BMX stadium in 2005. And watching the KRQE coverage gives one a sense of ramifications for the neighborhood...which is why the City Council, led by Council President Ike Benton, is now proposing moving the stadium or somehow mitigating the problem.

Eat Drink Marry

2009-05-20T08:55:00.003-06:00

marjorie says...

There are all kinds of things I could comment on, but all I can really think about at the moment is the upcoming nuptials of m-pyre's own Maggie Mae this weekend in Duck, North Carolina. The Outer Banks, precisely.

If after reading m-pyre all these years you hadn't clued in yet to how fabulously organized and creative Maggie is, you'll for sure get it after looking at Eat Drink Marry, her wedding blog.

Eat Drink Marry is the culprit for Maggie's absence on m-pyre lately. Obviously, she has other things on her mind. But I for one hope she keeps on over there after the fact. It's amazing, so why stop now?

By the way, Mikaela will be joining the festivities also, so it's an m-pyre reunion. One of my favorite things. She's bringing along Eric and their new family member, Umea.

Another m-pyre regular, our fabulous Gene, will be the officiant. Yes, that means he's marrying the couple!

And occasional m-pyre commentator and fellow blogger at Alterdestiny, Erik Loomis, is also making his way to the Outer Banks. There will be a few m-pyre fans from Albuquerque there as well, but since they are stubborn LURKERS, you wouldn't know who the heck I'm talking about.

I hear we are going Ocean Kayaking. Yes, capitalized. If I survive, pictures of it all will be forthcoming. And then, I promise, back to politics.

The value of a good editor

2009-05-11T14:32:00.002-06:00

marjorie says...

"Must be good to never have to explain anything to an editor."

That's the blurb describing the commentary by Alamogordo Mayor Steve Brockett published in the New Mexico Independent today, about how Joe Monahan got a few things wrong when it comes to his commentary about PreCheck.

Anyhow, that little blurb basically captures my sentiment when it comes to anonymous sources.

The Brockett commentary is more than worth the read, quite insightful all around--covering both the topic of Monahan and how tax increment financing can be a useful tool for smaller towns trying to create jobs.

Don't let yourself get played by the Alligators

2009-05-04T10:33:00.007-06:00

marjorie says...

"people familiar with the matter"

"sources say"

"seasoned political players ponder"

"they say"

"insiders wonder"

"we're getting this from a source close to..."

These phrases are just a sampling of the stock in trade that litters the blog of Joe Monahan this morning. To listen to Monahan, he's got a tap on every "in the know" person in New Mexico and we should just, you know, "trust" him to get it right.

But here is what his blog is really about...

Monahan is the blog of leaks. It's the place that a certain sector of New Mexico's political class leaks information. Monahan mixes anonymous perspectives of some in the political circles he runs with and the straightforward stuff he gleans from the on-the-record writing of the rest of New Mexico's reporting/blogging class. And then he coats the information he brings with his own inclinations and political persuasion.

Problem is, the outcome can be highly irresponsible.

For instance, today he says Amanda Cooper and Chris Romer have been granted immunity. How do we know if we can trust him? He repeatedly reports rumor as fact, and apologizes after the fact when he's wrong. Or, he simply doesn't bother to "sweat the details."

And, if he is correct, what's the context? Does that mean they've admitted to wrongdoing? Or would they simply not agree to talk to the grand jury about what they may or may not know without immunity?

We don't know, because Monahan doesn't give us any context or anything on the record. He simply passes on the leak as it was handed to him. Someone gave him some info, possibly with an agenda, and he obliged them by getting it out there.

It's those hidden agendas that one has to keep in mind when it comes to Monahan's blogging about real people who've built real careers. Because without real facts and real context, we're left with a general perception of wrongdoing that may be completely off base, and for certain is quite damaging to those people he's writing about.

So you know, people, read his blog in the light it deserves...and don't let yourself get played.

Feminists fall in love, too

2009-04-24T12:00:00.000-06:00

Maggie says:
Feministing is one of my daily reads. As such, I've come to admire and respect founder Jessica Valenti, now a published author and fixture on the college speaking circuit. Valenti has been engaged for several months now, and has written in several places about the process of being a feminist and planning a wedding, something that seems to many to be an oxymoron. In this piece for the Guardian, Valenti offers an eloquent recap of the process for her thus far, and the response her engagement has elicited from some conservatives ("You've Never Met a Bridezilla Like a Feminist Bridezilla") to fellow feminists who believed Valenti had compromised her values by wanting to be married (she "seem[ed] to find flaws with patriarchy, but fail[ed] to find a way to bring it down"). The value in having this discussion in multiple mediums is enormous, and digging into feminism, romantic partnership, and structural conditions is something that I could do all day long. What these serious discussions come down to is the same bottom line that fluffier wedding-based reads bring up for me: do what makes you and your partner happy. That's it. That's all.

Being a feminist and planning a wedding embodies much more than whether or not you're wearing a white dress (I am) or changing your name (I'm not) or being given away by someone (both my parents, thank you). Being a feminist and planning a wedding is about your relationship and your partnership, and incidentally how you choose to celebrate (raucously and tenderly all at once, for us, and with donations to a same-sex marriage fund in lieu of favors, because we feel extraordinarily lucky that we're able to marry at all). Trevor and I are equal partners through and through, and I think our wedding celebrates that fact. Our campaign logo is fun and memorable, but is quite literal in the statement that it makes. Adams Hanger '09. Separate entities joined on a ticket. Distinct identities embarking on a journey together. (Remember a Council Between Equals?)

I like the kind of wedding that celebrates how stubbornly independent the two of us are, while not diminishing for a second that we're also madly in love with each other. I like the kind of marriage that kind of wedding will kick off. And maybe I do have a set of 12 glasses on my living room floor right now with an etched family monogram that will never be ours, sent by someone who didn't quite get it. These things will happen, and if I get fed up enough I can call my future mother-in-law, who never changed her name, for advice. That small hassle, though? Totally worth it. Because I get to marry the only person who's ever made me excited about the idea of marriage, and because he's every bit as equal-opportunity and well-adjusted and unpossessive and excited to be married as I am. Is he "garnishing his testicles" for "letting" me keep my name, as someone wrote about Valenti's fiance? Hardly. Trust me.

It's funny to me how much we can fuss about the way other people decide to get married. If we're going to fuss about it, let's fuss about those who aren't even allowed the option. That's the real deal. Me? I'm just a feminist co-hosting a big 'ol beach party and shacking up with her favorite guy for the rest of her life.

Congrats, Jessica. And you know what? Congrats, me! (Us, I mean us.)

Happy Friday, everyone.

Federal land grabs in the name of border security

2009-04-17T07:26:00.007-06:00

marjorie says...

I'm from an East Texas farm family, on both sides. My parents raised us in a larger town about 20 miles away from the small town they both grew up in. Growing up, we'd visit both sets of grandfolks every week, out in the country where they lived. My dad's folks and my great-grandfather lived out on the land that had been farmed in my family since the 1800's.

I spent a lot of time out there, as did the rest of my siblings and cousins, and by the time I was grown knew very well the history of my family on the land. And I feel attached to it now, even though I don't own it. I'm glad its there and that I have the freedom to roam it. I know I can hike through the woods if I want to, explore the creek bed when its dry, hang out by the pond, or climb the hill for a view of the whole thing--it's all still there, and accessible.

It would really tick me off if the U.S. Department of Homeland Security told me they were going to build a massive, towering steel wall through the middle of it--without even an opening to allow access between the two sides.

I can only imagine how Eloisa Tamez feels, considering thats exactly what's happening to her in the name of border security. The land in question has been in her family since the 1700's, as part of a land grant. Apparently, the Feds are constructing the border wall in Texas through private property, and people like Tamez are losing a big part of their heritage.

Here's an article I wrote about Tamez--her situation came to my attention because she got served a condemnation notice while at a conference yesterday here in Albuquerque.

For the article, I snapped a picture from a slideshow she had on a laptop, showing the border wall that's been constructed to the perimeter of her property--she's one of the last hold-outs in her community and says she's going to fight it to the end.

The Feds don't want all the land to the south of the fence. They just want a quarter acre for their wall. Tamez can hang on to the rest, they say.

Any of you who are familiar with rural environments probably recognize that barbed wire fence in the picture. It won't be so easy to bend the wire to squeeze through or hop over that massive monstrosity of a border wall, will it?

As many in East Texas would say, it ain't right, folks.

Grassroots and the tea parties

2009-04-13T07:25:00.016-06:00

marjorie says...

LP at FBI Hop has a couple really interesting commentaries about the nature of the "tea parties" happening this week to protest the Obama administration's deficit spending. The "tea parties"are being generated from the right, spurred by the rant of a FOX "newscaster."

Since I don't have FOX (I don't think), and wouldn't watch it if I did, I have to take LP's word for it that in promoting the protests FOX refers to them as "...efforts from grassroots organizations on the Right." At the same time, of course, FOX can't help but brand the protests after itself.

The point of LP's musings is that the protests can hardly be considered grassroots since they're pushed by the national conservative organizational infrastructure, including FOX. LP points us to Think Progress for more details about the lobbyist/think tank organizations behind the events, Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works.

Think Progress calls the work of these two organizations "astro-turfing." You know, making fake grass! Apparently, they do things like plant "single moms" to ask questions at events, and create amateur looking websites to create the impression of movement at the base. How ingenious.

Here are some of the things the two groups have been doing:

– Freedom Works staffers coordinate conference calls among protesters, contacting conservative activists to give them “sign ideas, sample press releases, and a map of events around the country.”

– Freedom Works staffers apparently moved to “take over” the planning of local events in Florida.

– Freedom Works provides how-to guides for delivering a “clear message” to the public and media.

– Freedom Works has several domain addresses — some of them made to look like they were set up by amateurs — to promote the protests.

– Americans for Prosperity is writing press releases and planning the events in New Jersey, Arizona, New Hampshire, Missouri, Kansas, and several other states.

The word grassroots is finagled over by people a lot. But what is it really? At its most pure, it's from the roots, or bottom up--in terms of ideas, initiative and action.

National think tanks and cable news channels aren't grassroots. The question is, do they have a base at the local level? And by that, I don't mean a fan base. I mean people at the local level who make decisions through an open decision making process, which then flow upward. Is there accountability between the national and local organizations?

So what about the tea parties? Could it be that there's a symbiotic thing happening between FOX news and it's core audience--the organized Right? Is there a national infrastructure being propelled by local infrastructure? Just how are all of these tea parties being organized? Here in New Mexico, who organized them? Reading through the article by Heath Haussamen, I can't tell. It's as though they simply exist. Which takes us back to LP's point.

Radical: the death penalty itself, or getting rid of it?

2009-04-06T07:44:00.008-06:00

marjorie says...

Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White has started a new political action committee intended to "repeal the repeal" of the death penalty. In addition to a petition drive to get enough signatures to put it on the ballot, White's Pac will conduct a public information campaign to:

“aggressively combat the misinformation campaign waged by the radical opponents of the death penalty and educate the public on the issue and the circumstances surrounding its repeal.”

"Radical."

There are several ways to interpret the word "radical."

One, it means to get at the root cause of something. In this respect, its interesting usage. The death penalty is one of the elements at the root of a criminal justice system gone awry in the United States. We have the largest per capita percentage of people behind bars in the world, which is an utter travesty. The death penalty bolsters a mindset in this country of vengeance no matter the cost--in this sense its one of the underpinnings of a social orientation that perpetuates this massive prison complex. So getting rid of it can be considered radical, if indeed we're talking about root causes.

But somehow I figure Darren White is using the word pejoratively, to suggest that the positions of death penalty opponents are somehow extreme, or beyond the pale.

Which is kind of odd. Because I can't think of much that is more extreme than killing people.

A little cat and mouse to round out the session

2009-04-03T13:57:00.003-06:00

marjorie says...

Political theater is how John Fleck termed Gov. Bill Richardson’s recent machinations regarding whether or not he’ll sign a bill to open legislative conference committees.

I’d describe it more specifically as a Shakespearean game of cat and mouse.

The opening of conference committees to the public has been near and dear to the hearts of good government advocates and the press for many years. And the governor has repeatedly said in the past that he’d sign such a bill, confirming it again at the news conference he held on the last day of the session.

But then, in a March 23 reply to an e-mail sent by NMI’s Heath Haussamen, he indicated he wasn’t sure after all what he’d do, because of a “loophole” in the bill that he finds problematic. That provision would allow conference committees to be closed again by a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.

That commentary by the guv was followed in short order by three classic responses.

First: Earnest exhortation by advocates for him to sign the bill, presented in a piece by the Santa Fe New Mexican’s Kate Nash.

Then: Brave dismissal by Steve Terrell, also with the New Mexican, who in his Roundhouse Round-up blog said he didn’t care to speculate about why the governor would threaten to not sign the bill. Terrell just simply doesn’t believe it, he said.

And finally: The double-dog dare by Haussamen. In a hold-on-to-your-britches bromide, Haussamen speculated that the governor is now weighing what political deals he can strike behind the scenes, using the conference committee bill as a bargaining chip. It’s “sinister,” Haussamen said.

“This is New Mexico politics at its most slimy, folks,” he opined.

OK, then.

The governor’s next move was to let loose with the meme that the media cares, but the public doesn’t, this time in an e-mail to Haussamen in reaction to that bromide. The evidence that the public doesn’t care, supposedly, is shown by the fact that his office hasn’t received many e-mails or snail mail on the topic.

“I’m just saying,” the governor continued with the theme to Trip Jennings at a bill signing at Winrock Mall in Albuquerque.

And then, at yesterday’s ethics bill signing, he bemoaned for the news cameras the lack of public input before expansively inviting the advocates at the table to express their opinions on the conference committee bill. He then received an outpouring of “spontaneous lobbying.”

My perpetual desire to want to like the guv has me looking a little sideways at the whole thing.

Could all of this be a simple case of a little payback to a press corps that has roundly excoriated him this year? Or, are we indeed witnessing grand political theater designed to position Richardson in the spot in which he’s most comfortably situated to sign the bill?

It’s an amusing game, for sure. And one that the press thrives on.

But it causes a lot of heartburn for the public, which may not be swamping his office with tons of mail on this issue because he’s promised plenty of times in the past to sign it. Supposedly because he, himself, thinks it’s important.

As someone who’s got just one foot in the press corps, I hope the guv doesn’t see this as a triple-dog dare. More like a “time out.” In this case, I’m closer to that earnest lot of folks out there, who just hope the game doesn’t get away from the big guy in Santa Fe before he signs the bill.

Cross-posted on NMI

Joe...where's your blogroll?

2009-04-02T00:52:00.003-06:00

marjorie says...

Joe Monahan let's the Journal have it today for alluding to the content of his site, and even using it to produce their own news stories, but not mentioning that he exists.

...the Alligators don't understand why the dead-tree editors refuse to mention in their printed editons that the Gators can be found at www.joemonahan.com? ...

You know, I feel Joe's pain. But you know what the rest of the local blogosphere wants to know?

Where's your blogroll, Joe?

It's clear you know there's a there out there.

Funny guy.

Matt, Barb...Stop it!

2009-04-01T08:58:00.001-06:00

marjorie says...

I haven't had my coffee yet!

hmmm...but could it be true?

(scratching my head more)

Oh no, Matt, er..LP, say it isn't so!

2009-04-01T08:24:00.008-06:00

marjorie says...

Over the past year, I've watched in admiration as LP over at FBIHop pulled off blogging at the same time he fed his news bits to the NM Independent.

Matt announced on his blog this morning that the gig is up over at FBIHop, that he's shifting to twitter, and continuing at NMI. He's also on Facebook. In his farewell post this morning, he writes:

"...maintaining this blog at the level which it deserves is just not possible for me, nor is it fair for the readers. I do not want to do this, to put it bluntly, half-ass.
I could just blindly cross-post things I write, but it wouldn't work. What I write for NMI does not necessarily relate to what the mission of New Mexico FBIHOP is.

I can relate to this, of course. As many of you may have noticed, my own blogging here at m-pyre has slowed since taking up that gig, because--you know--I do on occasion have to unplug and have a life. Hmmm (scratching head), maybe that means I'm a little "half-assed" over here at m-pyre! But then, part of the central mission of m-pyre has been that this is an outlet, not a job--which, yes, I realize isn't always fair to our dear family members, er, wait..."readers."(Speaking of my two fellow M's --seems a baby M is making her way into the world this very week).

Maybe Matt is just ahead of the curve in this world of electronic opinion sharing.

But I have to admit, I don't quite understand where I'm to go to get his bromides. Matt, can you really put all those in a few twittered words?

I don't know if I should cry or wait, because in my un-technological la la land I simply don't realize twitter and facebook are good enough.

Well, Matt has explained twitter to me, so maybe he'll explain this to me as well. In the meantime, here is his twitter page.

(Hmmm...isn't today April 1??)

Punk!

Juarez resident says violence is U.S. responsibility (duh)

2009-03-25T13:49:00.000-06:00

marjorie says...

In addition to New Mexico’s congressional delegation, a Ciudad Juarez taco vendor is glad to see the U.S. government ramp up security on the border. Here’s what Andres Balderas told a reporter from Reuters:

“This is what we have wanted for so long. People can leave their houses again,” said taco seller Andres Balderas in Ciudad Juarez, the bloodiest flashpoint in Mexico’s drug war. Cartel violence has killed 2,000 people in the city in the past year.

“They should have done it a long time ago, given they are responsible for this drug demand and violence,” Balderas added.

I guess he told us.

It gets better. Not only is U.S. demand for the drugs fueling the conflict, we also sell the drug cartels their guns:

As President Felipe Calderon stakes his presidency on an army-led war on drug cartels, he has urged Washington to crack down on weapons smuggling to Mexico, where nine of every 10 guns recovered from crime scenes and raids are traced to U.S. deals.

Guv, say it isn't so! Conference Committees need to be open

2009-03-24T08:02:00.004-06:00

marjorie says...

Heath Haussamen tells us that the Governor is actually considering veto'ing the conference committee bill that opens those meetings to the public--even though he previously promised to sign it:

“The governor has concerns about what appear to be major loopholes in the
bill,” Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos wrote tonight in an e-mail. “…The
governor is taking his time to scrutinize the bill.”

That’s
not what Richardson said on Thursday when asked by a reporter during a news
conference if he would sign House Bill 393, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, should it pass the
Senate.

“Yeah,” Richardson said at that news conference. The bill passed
the Senate that night on a vote of 33-8.

Guv, say it isn't so!

Veto'ing this bill would be a really bad move. New Mexico needs greater transparency in politics, and this bill is a crucial step in that direction.

You can tell the Governor what you think by calling 505-476-2200, or emailing him.

TV for the Social Learners

2009-03-20T08:47:00.005-06:00

Mikaela says:
Apropos of absolutely nothing, I cannot WAIT for the new TV series Parks and Recreation - with Amy Poehler as mid-level bureaucrat. Set to premiere April 9.

The pool of potential humor about this pseudo-sister planning department is too good, too rich.

I just hope they can exploit it to its full potential. The teasers on NBC so far have been GREAT fodder for optimism.

And as an aside, I'm slightly interested in the prospect of a new show on Fox by Amy's husband, Will Arnett, with Mitch Hurwitz and Jason Bateman -- all of former Arrested Development glory -- and Pushing Daisies' Kristin Chenoweth, whom I adore. Scarily, it's animated, but ... worked for the Simpsons, I guess.

Our weak government and corporate blackmail

2009-03-16T09:01:00.005-06:00

marjorie says...

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich on the apparent thumbing of its nose by AIG Insurance to the federal government's demand that it not hand out at least a $100 million in executive bonuses:

This sordid story of government helplessness in the face of massive taxpayer commitments illustrates better than anything to date why the government should take over any institution that's "too big to fail" and which has cost taxpayers dearly. Such institutions are no longer within the capitalist system because they are no longer accountable to the market. So to whom should they be accountable? When taxpayers have put up, and essentially own, a large portion of their assets, AIG and other behemoths should be accountable to taxpayers. When our very own Secretary of the Treasury cannot make stick his decision that AIG's bonuses should not be paid, only one conclusion can be drawn: AIG is accountable to no one. Our democracy is seriously broken.

Reich is right, to an extent. He fails to acknowledge that our democracy has always been a highly controlled system, with a government that often acts as an arm of big corporations.

A good example is probably going to happen this very week, when the state legislature agrees to let Sun Cal Corporation pad its bottom line with tax payer money to the tune of about $800 million over the next quarter century.

We've already done that for Mesa del Sol, and you can bet that both companies will be coming back with their hands out again, for more.

Sun Cal says they won't even issue the bonds until they've built the infrastructure and proven they can successfully raise the tax base. So what, they're going to operate at a deficit until then? No, this means they don't need the bond money to build their project.

It's corporate blackmail, pure and simple--Sun Cal says they'll simply build sprawling housing tracts otherwise, with big box stores.

And as ever, our very weak government is going to fall for it. To a company that is experiencing mass bankruptcies in other states.

Have they not noticed that there is no market for those sprawling housing tracts?

It's business as usual. But what may be the case is that New Mexico hasn't actually realized yet that--whatever you want to call it--this system we have is indeed broken.

Caution and prudence should be the raison d'etre at the Roundhouse when it comes to corporate tax subsidies. Especially when it comes to diverting huge future tax revenue streams to a massive out of state real estate company that is struggling to salvage major projects throughout the west.

Governor Richardson solicts YOUR opinion about the death penalty

2009-03-13T15:17:00.002-06:00

marjorie says...

Shortly after the repeal of the death penalty passed the Senate today, Governor Richardson issued this statement seeking input from New Mexicans:

“This is an extremely difficult issue that deserved the serious and thoughtful debate it received in the Legislature,” said Governor Bill Richardson. “I have met with many people and will continue to consider all sides of the issue before making a decision.”

Governor Richardson has three days from the time he receives the bill until he must take action (excluding Sunday.)

New Mexicans interested in providing their input to Governor Richardson about the bill to repeal the death penalty have two options:

Call 505-476-2225 and leave a message. People can urge the Governor to either sign or veto the bill, or they can leave a message with their opinion about the issue.

E-mail the Governor through his web site at: www.governor.state.nm.us Click on “Contact the Governor” and follow the prompts.

The Governor’s staff will work through the weekend to tally people’s positions and provide the Governor with the opinions.

New Mexico Legislature repealed the death penalty today

2009-03-13T15:07:00.003-06:00

marjorie says...

In a historic vote today, the New Mexico Senate repealed the death penalty on a vote of 24 to 18.

The debate was at times emotional, but very good. You can see the live blog that New Mexico Independent and the Santa Fe Reporter hosted here.

Congrats to the many people who have tirelessly advocated over many years for this moment.

Well, Governor Richardson?

Will you sign it into law?

Showering Mikaela (and a bonus rant)

2009-03-12T11:45:00.004-06:00

Maggie says:
Confession: I don't really understand "bridal showers."

Since no one I ~~know~~like subscribes to the theory that it's necessary to have a gathering where women can talk appliances and congratulate the bride-to-be on getting a ring out of some hapless shmuck so that in a few months' time, she can proudly proclaim herself "Mrs. John Doe" and not die of humiliation that she's not going to be single at 25, well... no thanks. That's not me at all. Also, it goes without saying, I really dislike wedding-related shower games.

Now, if we interpret the bridal shower to be purely symbolic, as a tradition of women gathering to support one another in the way that only women can, that's another thing entirely. If the goal of a shower is to, literally, shower love and support and wisdom upon a fellow woman, well why not do just that? A shower where women bring their own advice, lessons, blessings, and funny stories based entirely on their experiences... now that sounds like a true community-building kind of celebration. No toilet paper games necessary. Nothing more than the shared experience of people you care about surrounding you.

This brings to me baby showers, for a couple of reasons.

First, I think baby showers are a fantastic idea for all the reasons I dislike traditional bridal showers. Back in the day, it was a lot more necessary to give basic household goods to someone getting married, as she was likely moving straight out of her parents' house into a house with her husband. And back in the day, now-antiquated gender stereotypes were very much the norm. But these days, we've lived alone and accumulated our own things already. Even more, most of us are already living with the person we'll marry. But having a baby is something else entirely. There are things you need that you never even knew existed. There are tips needed for how to use these things you didn't know existed. Babies are expensive, and getting gifts to help ease that expense is fantastic.

Also, the gender disparity of baby showers is less troubling to me. Women give birth, men do not, simple as that. Although women and men (thankfully) parent equally, gender-specific knowledge has real value in the birthing of the child. With a marriage, women and men enter into marriage equally, as partners. The antiquated setup of "Bride, let us congratulate you!" and "Sorry man, guess it's your time to step up" is why a traditional bridal shower isn't modern or helpful. But with a baby, "here's what you need to feed your baby from your own body" is woman-to-woman advice that is priceless. (I've been to co-ed baby showers, by the way, and love them... I'm merely speculating on why women-only baby showers don't bother me like 1950s-era bridal showers do.)

Baby showers are on my brain because I recently returned from one very special shower and am about to attend another. My sister's shower on Saturday will be great fun, will have games (and I'll play them happily just for you, sis!), and will be a fantastic way to spend the afternoon. But I really want to take a moment to describe Mikaela's baby shower a few weeks ago, because it was very easily the best shower I've ever attended. Why? In New Mexico, more than any other place I know, there is an openness of expression that enables folks to translate symbolism into active expressions in a way that is completely real and graceful.

Sitting in a circle, we each brought blessings for Mikaela and her baby, and shared them together. These blessings were read or sung by each of us in turn, all women who are a part of Mikaela's life, and the experience was beautiful. There was so much laughter, more than a few happy tears, and lots of hugging. Mikaela opted to have general baby gifts at another setting, so on this night, we each brought baby shoes instead. Is there anything cuter than baby shoes, after all? The significance of that circle will be represented in her baby's birth, too. At the end of the month when Mikaela goes into labor, we're each going to light a candle that we won't blow out until her little one is born.

What was special about that night was the literal blessings that we brought with us. They weren't represented in the shoes, they were represented by our voices, in our words that we read and then presented to be bound into a book. It only took us each doing that in turn, as part of a group, to turn those individual thoughts into a collective moment and a truly meaningful night. Here we are, surrounding our baby shoes:

And back to bridal showers... they're simply not me. My brain gets fuzzy at the incongruities; that's just who I am. But I love parties honoring the couple together (dinners, cookouts, any excuse for a party) or themed showers, like books (I know, nerd alert) or booze ("stock the bar" etc.).

What's the modern "bride" (still hate that word, I admit it) and mom-to-be to do?

Six-word love

2009-03-11T07:27:00.003-06:00

Maggie says:
I was going to do a great post this morning on a book that everyone should go and buy: Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak: by Writers Famous and Obscure. I was going to ditch the usual favorite excerpts and reel you in by including some of the six-word sentiments that spoke most to me. Then I was going to complete the sale by noting that my dear friend Saleem is one of the "writers famous and obscure" quoted in the book, and that his six words are funny and true and very much who he is.

But then I woke up to a howling storm, with the temperature 40 degrees below where it was when I fell asleep, my work scattered all over the place, etc. In my rush to leave, I left the book at home.

So...

This is a book you should own. You'll laugh and smile and wince. If you're as dorky as I am, you'll go about your errands amusing yourself by speaking only in six-word sentiments. Then you'll wonder why you didn't come up with the idea for this book first. And how much more fulfilling things could be if you ran a little publishing company out of your apartment and got to be surrounded by yummy words all day long. Hmmm...

This is an example of a project that takes on a life of its own: the blog for this book is a growing repository of other folks' six-word memoirs. Go read. Go write! Go contribute.

See ya over there?

Oh, and if love and heartbreak isn't your thing, here's the original. How about six-word political memoirs next?

I heart Meghan McCain

2009-03-09T10:38:00.004-06:00

Maggie admits:
I've gotta hand it to Cindy and John McCain. I may not be either of their biggest fans, but I am most definitely crushing on their independent-minded, free-thinking daughter Meghan.

We all remember Meghan's blogging during the campaign, where she raised a few eyebrows for discussing music and makeup in the mix of what was obviously a dead-from-the-start campaign on the part of her father. Although she never elucidated her politics beyond her general support of her father, her sense of humor was what really sparked interest in what she had to say.

Post-election, Meghan's been writing an online column for The Daily Beast. Let's take a look at her two latest posts.

Looking for Mr. Far Right: Here, Meghan dives in the murky world of dating when every guy in the world knows your dad's politics.

Of all the things people warned would happen post-election, no one ever said anything about how complicated dating would become... at this point in time, nothing kills my libido quite like discussing politics...

She goes on to explain that hardcore "McCainiacs" are just as much of a turnoff as hardcore Obama fans. I can see why. Girl is in a tough position on this one.

This week, Meghan published My Beef with Ann Coulter, and was able to accomplish something Republicans have struggled with for years: she distanced herself from the nastiest wing of her party while grounding herself in its center. First up, Meghan admits that President Obama is "the hippest politician around," while being a Republican is "about as edgy as Donny Osmond." Here's where the magic happens:

Certain individuals continue to perpetuate negative stereotypes about Republicans. Especially Republican women. Who do I feel is the biggest culprit? Ann Coulter. I straight up don’t understand this woman or her popularity. I find her offensive, radical, insulting, and confusing all at the same time.

Meghan then goes on to challenge Coulter on several of her controversial statements, blatantly asking her if she really believes the ridiculousness that she spouts. This type of questioning from Coulter's own party is so, so important. Now granted, progressives might be better off if all of America could dismiss Republicans out of hand as being clones of Ann Coulter (certainly, this is a strategy currently in play regarding Rush Limbaugh). But for my money, I'd rather rid us all of the hate speech propagated by people, and yes, especially women, like Ann Coulter. Their contribution to the world is pure poison, and we'd all be better off without it, simple as that. Kudos to Meghan McCain for taking her on and explaining her own point of view with courageous simplicity:

I am not suggesting that extreme conservatism wasn’t once popular, nor am I suggesting I should in any way be any kind of voice for the party. I have been a Republican for less than a year. Still, even after losing the election, I find myself more drawn to GOP ideals and wanting to fight for the party’s resurgence. And if figureheads like Ann Coulter are turning me off, then they are definitely turning off other members of my generation as well. She does appeal to the most extreme members of the Republican Party—but they are dying off, becoming less and less relevant to the party structure as a whole. I think most people my age are like me in that we all don’t believe in every single ideal of each party specifically. The GOP should be happy to have any young supporters whatsoever, even if they do digress some from traditional Republican thinking.

To me, Meghan McCain is the type of McCain more voters would have liked to see on the campaign trail last fall. At least one of the family actually understands what "straight talk" really means.

fyi

2009-03-07T14:57:00.002-07:00

marjorie says...

I just want to say, m-pyre is really playing second fiddle to a certain wedding blog.

Sorry for outing you Maggie!

In the meantime, anyone who's interested really should hit Mags up for the URL. Aside from my hurt that our lovely m-pyre has been so neglected, it's a really amazing chronicle of a journey toward marriage.

Justice Ginsburg stickin' it to the Boys Club

2009-03-06T11:30:00.003-07:00

Maggie cites, from USA Today:

When asked why, on her second day back on the bench, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg attended President Obama's televised speech to a joint session of Congress, she responded:

"First, I wanted people to see that the Supreme Court isn't all male. I also wanted them to see I was alive and well, contrary to that senator who said I'd be dead within nine months."

Love her.

Tidd Wars

2009-03-04T10:06:00.006-07:00

marjorie says...

On occasion, there are priceless moments in the blogosphere. One such moment came this morning when I cycled over to Monahan to see what fodder he was throwing up from the pool of anonymity he wades in. Lo and Behold, under a heading called "No Domestic Tranquility," he's got an Ad against the SunCal Tidds. It's a black box saying "Bail out Suncal? Get Real" and it takes you to this website.

Too bad Joe didn't have a little pro-bono spirit working--he could have run it right next to the banner Suncal Tidds ad he's had at the top of his site forever now.

Suncal has run a massive lobbying campaign to get their TIDDs--with television, billboards, direct mail, radio, and internet ads all pointing to their website, Tiddfacts.com, which then directs people to communicate with their legislators in favor of TIDDs for Suncal. It's pretty fancy--they have forms, sample letters, you name it.

In a letter to the Santa Fe New Mexican, published today, Suncal representative Vanessa Alarid responds to what she calls a "recent paid political ad campaign against development by our group" by saying its been well-demonstrated that TIDDs work and that all the facts are at tiddfacts.com. And she concludes that some people are "pulling against prosperity."

Okay.

I don't know when not being in favor of massive--literally MASSIVE--tax subsidies to wealthy developers became synonymous with being "against development." It certainly is not.

And fyi, Tiddfacts.com doesn't actually contain much in the way of facts--as in, the kind that demonstrate that $800 billion given to SunCal will give us something we couldn't have gotten without it. It's pure P.R. Go see for yourself.

Not to mention, do we really want to pave over that 55,000 acres? Check out that multi-media spot on their website--it's scary.

Republican pseudopopulism

2009-03-01T08:27:00.005-07:00

marjorie says...

Frank Rich's latest column in the NYT in which he takes the Republicans to task for "pseudopopulism" is, well, rich--and deserves a full read, but here are some choice excerpts [with a few areas put in bold by me]:

The good news for Obama is that he needn’t worry about the Republicans. They’re committing suicide. ...
The Louisiana governor [Jindal], alternately smug and jejune, articulated precisely the ideology ... that Americans reject: the conviction that government is useless and has no role in an emergency. Given that the most mismanaged federal operation in modern memory was inflicted by a Republican White House on Jindal’s own state, you’d think he’d change the subject altogether.
But like all zealots, Jindal is oblivious to how nonzealots see him. Pleading “principle,” he has actually turned down some $100 million in stimulus money for Louisiana. And, as he proudly explained on “Meet the Press” last weekend, he can’t wait to be judged on “the results” of his heroic frugality.
Good luck with that. He’s rejecting aid for a state that ranks fourth in children living below the poverty line and 46th in high school graduation rates, while struggling with a projected budget shortfall of more than $1.7 billion.
If you’re baffled why the G.O.P. would thrust Jindal into prime time, the answer is desperation. Eager to update its image without changing its antediluvian (or antebellum) substance, the party is trying to lock down its white country-club blowhards. ...
At least the G.O.P.’s newfound racial sensitivity saved it from choosing the white Southern governor often bracketed with Jindal as a rising “star,” Mark Sanford of South Carolina. That would have been an even bigger fiasco, ...
Governor Sanford’s response to ...hardship — his state over all has the nation’s third-highest unemployment rate — was not merely a threat to turn down federal funds but a trip to Washington to actively lobby against the stimulus bill. He accused the three Republican senators who voted for it of sabotaging “the future of our civilization.” ...
What such G.O.P. “stars” as Sanford and Jindal have in common, besides their callous neo-Hoover ideology, are their phony efforts to portray themselves as populist heroes. Their role model is W., that brush-clearing “rancher” by way of Andover, Yale and Harvard. Listening to Jindal talk Tuesday night about his immigrant father’s inability to pay for an obstetrician, you’d never guess that at the time his father was an engineer and his mother an L.S.U. doctoral candidate in nuclear physics. Sanford’s first political ad in 2002 told of how growing up on his “family’s farm” taught him “about hard work and responsibility.” That “farm,” the Charlotte Observer reported, was a historic plantation appraised at $1.5 million in the early 1980s. From that hardscrabble background, he struggled on to an internship at Goldman Sachs.

Our rural/urban divide on domestic partnerships

2009-02-27T08:37:00.005-07:00

marjorie says...

The domestic partnerships bill failed on the Senate Floor yesterday. All Republicans opposed the bill, along with 10 Democrats.

I realize the domestic partnership bill is largely spurred by the GLBT community, but I would like to see it happen for all of us. Marriage isn’t something that fits everybody, which I think is clearly indicated by the divorce rate as well as the epidemic of domestic violence in this country.

The opposition to the domestic partnerships bill largely stems from religious values. Which makes sense given that marriage is historically located in the church. In this respect, it’s a remnant from the past given that we’re a secular society. Clearly, that’s what we are—as polls show, the majority of us favored the domestic partnership bill.

The domestic partnership legislation would let marriage be something that happens in church, and provide the rest of us with legal structure for our familial arrangements without the weight of everything marriage signifies. In this regard, I find it far superior to gay marriage, in terms of being potentially transformative.

Regardless of what happened yesterday, this train isn’t going to stop rolling, of that I’m pretty clear. The breakdown of Democrats showed a clear urban/rural divide. What does that signify?

One thing it certainly signifies is that organizing on this topic needs to happen in those communities. It’s not good enough to throw stones at the people they send to the Roundhouse.

Democrats Opposed to SB 12
1. Bernadette Sanchez (D-Albuquerque)
2. John Pinto (D-Tohatchiti)
3. John Arthur Smith (D-Deming)
4. Pete Campos (D-Las Vegas)
5. Richard Martinez (D-Espanola)
6. Linda Lovejoy (D-Crownpoint)
7. George Munoz (D-Gallup)
8. David Ulibarri (D-Grants)
9. Tim Jennings (D-Roswell)
10. Carlos Cisneros (D-Questa)

Democrats In favor of SB 12
1. Tim Eichernberg (D-Albuquerque)
2. Dede Feldman (D-Albuquerque)
3. Eric Griego (D-Albuquerque)
4. Timothy Keller (D-Albuquerque)
5. Cisco McSorley (D-Albuquerque)
6. Gerald Ortiz y Pino (D-Albuquerque)
7. Linda Lopez (D-Albuquerque
8. John Sapien (D-Corrales)
9. Michael Sanchez (D-Belen)
10. Mary Kay Paper (D-Las Cruces)
11. Nancy Rodriguez (D-Santa Fe)
12. Peter With (D-Santa Fe)
13. Mary Jane Garcia (D-Las Cruces)
14. Phil Griego (D-San Jose)
15. Howie Morales (D-Silver City)
16. Cynthia Nava (D-Las Cruces)
17. Mary Jane Garcia (D-Las Cruces)

Watch the Senate debate Domestic Partnerships

2009-02-26T09:35:00.002-07:00

marjorie says...

Our state Senators are debating the Domestic Partnership legislation on the floor today. You can see it live on a webcast on the New Mexico Independent website.

Check it out.

Puzzling over the State of the Nation

2009-02-25T11:39:00.004-07:00

Mikaela says:
Did anyone else notice that every time a Republican was on camera at last night's speech, they were reading something in their laps? What's up with that? Consulting their playbooks AS the President spoke? Very strange.

Didn't look like Blackberries, but maybe...

Via RJ Matson - The St. Louis Post Dispatch:

And what was up with the official Republican response from Gov. of Louisiana?

We're looking forward to working w/ President Obama, but not on anything HE wants. Because we believe in you, suddenly, Joe Sixpack and Mrs. Smith, not in the big government that we helped Bush strengthen and concentrate at the federal level and particularly in the hands of the President...

What kind of disingenuous crap is that?

Via Rex Babin of the Sacramento Bee:

Road trip, anyone?

Two faced GOP

2009-02-17T07:22:00.005-07:00

marjorie says...

I thought this Huffington Post's headline about the GOP was pretty good:

The Two Faces of the GOP

The headline was a short spin on this New York Times article, which contrasts Republican Senators with Republican Governors in light of support for Obama's economic stimulus bill. It's the ideologues versus the pragmatists--the two faces of the GOP.

The two faced GOP, more like it.

Where was the GOP when George Bush spent a fortune making war? Not to mention, congressional Republicans weren't in lock-step when the Bush administration bailed out Wall Street last year to the tune of $700 million. Plenty of them voted for that one.

It's only when a bail-out package for normal everyday people on the ground gets crafted that they turn their head. Shame on them.

They can cry all they want about "bi-partisanship"--but its clear to anyone that looks that they're the ones standing in its way.

Not only did Obama win, but the American electorate also ensured he had enough votes in Congress to push through real measures. This together is a signal of public support for letting the Democrats govern. The R's should get with the program--just like the Democrats did in the 1990's when the R's were ascendant-- instead of whining about it.

Speaking of that 90's Republican take-over, I thought this passage in the NYT article was highly interesting:

Governors, unlike members of Congress, have to balance their budgets each year. And that requires compromise with state legislators, including Democrats, as well as more openness to the occasional state tax increase and to deficit-spending from Washington.
Across the country, from California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger to Florida’s Charlie Crist and New England’s Jim Douglas in Vermont and M. Jodi Rell in Connecticut, Republican governors showed in the stimulus debate that they could be allies with Mr. Obama even as Congressional Republicans spurned him.
“It really is a matter of perspective,” Mr. Crist said in an interview. “As a governor, the pragmatism that you have to exercise because of the constitutional obligation to balance your budget is a very compelling pull” generally.

...
The disconnect between Republican members of Congress and governors recalls the mid-1990s, when Republicans took control of both the House and Senate for the first time in 40 years. After an initial public show of being partners in a “Republican revolution,” the partnership all but dissolved when governors strongly objected as the more dogmatic conservatives in Congress tried to cut domestic programs and then shut down the federal government in an unsuccessful showdown with President Bill Clinton.

What the article describes is the fact that Republican governors have to deal with economic reality, ultimately--unlike their counterparts in Congress.

We should be thankful that Gregg came to his senses

2009-02-12T22:29:00.002-07:00

marjorie says...

I don't think it should come as any surprise that a Republican would find that he didn't fit as Commerce Secretary, of all things, in the administration of a Democrat who is more liberal than we're used to seeing in such high places.

I was somewhat baffled by the nomination in the first place, given the scope of that department. A Republican is going to lead the way on making sure human rights and labor standards are front and center in efforts to develop our economy? I don't think so--either at home or abroad.

The nomination and acceptance by Gregg to be Commerce Sec. was a mutual mistake, probably propelled by idealism regarding the notion of bi-partisanship.

And now, Gregg should be commended for recognizing the incompatibility and withdrawing.

Watch NM's legislators debate ethics from home!

2009-02-12T15:13:00.002-07:00

marjorie says...

A number of ethics bills are being heard tomorrow morning--all together in the Senate Rules Committee.

You can not only watch from home, you can participate also. The New Mexico Independent will be webcasting the committee meeting, and also conducting an open live blog which you can participate in.

It starts early--8:00am--but most definitely a worthy way to spend your Friday morning.

You can call your legislator beforehand to express your opinion about ethics reform. From a New Mexico Voices for Children email:

The Senate Rules Committee is dedicating tomorrow morning’s hearing to ethics legislation. Please call the state Capitol today and ask your legislators to support limiting campaign contributions, opening conference committee hearings, and creating a waiting period for legislators-turned-lobbyists. Also, please ask them to not restrict the ability of nonprofits to raise funds and protect the confidentiality of those donors who request it.

You can call the Capitol switchboard at 505-986-4300 and ask to be transferred to your senator and representative. Or you can get contact information for your legislators online at http://legis.state.nm.us/lcs/. Don’t know who your legislators are? Click here: http://legis.state.nm.us/legislatorsearch.aspx.

Does Marijuana boost cereal sales? Kellogg v. Phelps

2009-02-11T20:05:00.004-07:00

marjorie says...

Sorry faithful m-pyre readers. We are just seriously overwhelmed these days. However, I could not let this one past without a repost, from a blog I did on NMI:

Kellogg Co. ended its contract with Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps last week after he was photographed smoking marijuana. The company said that Phelps’ behavior was “not consistent with the image of Kellogg” and announced it wouldn’t renew his contract.

In reaction to Kellogg’s actions, marijuana legalization activists have called for a boycott of all Kellogg products. The Huffington Post reports that the executive director of one group, the Marijuana Policy Project, called Kellogg hypocritical.

“Kellogg’s had no problem signing up Phelps when he had a conviction for drunk driving, an illegal act that could actually have killed someone,” the Huff Post quoted Rob Kampia, the group’s executive director. “To drop him for choosing to relax with a substance that’s safer than beer is an outrage, and it sends a dangerous message to young people.”

The Drug Policy Alliance’s top official is quoted saying Phelps is a normal 20-something and shouldn’t be punished for that:

“It’s not just that Michael Phelps did what millions of other twenty-somethings do,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “It’s that he did what over one hundred million Americans have done at least once in their lives, including the president, former presidents, members of the U.S. Congress and Supreme Court.”

The issue has also popped up in in the mainstream press, perhaps best illustrated by a Reuters story in a New York Times article that questioned why Phelps was punished for smoking pot while Major League baseball star Alex Rodriguez only suffered an uncomfortable interview when his steroid use was discovered:

The American swimmer Phelps, 23, won a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Games last summer but lost an endorsement deal with U.S. food giant Kellogg Co after a British newspaper published a picture of the Olympic champion apparently smoking marijuana.

USA Swimming then suspended him for three months.

Rodriguez, 33, the highest paid player in baseball, admitted to ESPN television on Monday that he took a banned substance from 2001 to 2003 after Sports Illustrated reported he tested positive for testosterone and the anabolic steroid Primobolanin 2003.

He escapes sanctions from Major League baseball because it did not punish players at that time for using steroids.

“We should leave Michael Phelps alone. He’s a kid. So he made a mistake. He owned up to it right away — as opposed to A-Rod, whose been lying about it for a number of years,” said Deborah Cohn, professor of marketing at New York’s Touro College.

But as ever, the most persuasive commentary that argues Kellogg’s actions might be a touch ridiculous comes from funny people, who’ve pointed out that there may very well be a real connection between marijuana use and cereal sales. From the Huffington Post:

On Saturday Night Live, Seth Myers questioned whether marijuana use was in fact at odds with Kellogg’s image.

“Every one of your mascots is a wild-eyed cartoon character with uncontrollable munchies,” Myers said. “Every one of your products sounds like a wish a genie granted at a Phish concert.”

On the Huffington Post, blogger Lee Stranahan pursued that theme in a proposed petition to the company that said in part, “We believe that most people over the age of 12 would not eat Kellogg’s products were they not wicked high.”

Stranahan’s petition concluded with this call-to-arms:

“Given all these facts and the total disregard for your customer base … we the undersigned plan to BOYCOTT your products. And we’re serious. Even though the Pop Tarts thing will be HARD.”

Pay-to-play fall out: Tainting good people

2009-02-05T12:24:00.009-07:00

marjorie says...

To wrap my head around a nascent story idea that may or not may not come to fruition, I've been having conversations with various people in government--both elected officials and bureaucrats--over the past couple of weeks that touch on the pay-to-play allegations, not to mention the scandal, that seem to be coming out of the wood work.

Through it all, I sense a palpable concern shared by many that people who are quite honest and good at their jobs are being tainted with suspicion by all the scandals. This isn't good for us, as a body politic, at all.

You know, there's the CDR thing. That's the one in which a federal grand jury is looking into whether or not large corporations paid people in the Richardson administration for lucrative contracts. It's the reason Richardson stepped aside from being named Commerce Secretary.

Then, there's the Frank Foy lawsuit. Foy is suing a range of entities--companies and people--on behalf of the state under a whistle-blower provision that would give him a percentage of the proceeds if the suit recoups money for the state. His lawsuit alleges pay-to-play also.

Then there's the collapse of most of the state's regional housing authorities due to rampant fraud piled on top of what appears to be just outright ineptitude.

It's enough to turn the regular citizen completely off when it comes to government. Otherwise, their heads might explode from the outrage of it all.

But it's all quite fascinating to the political news hound, without a doubt, especially when you get to see spectacles that include someone like APS School Board member Marty Esquivel screaming at another attorney in front of the press, as he did in defense of his client Bruce Malott. Malott is one of the primary targets of the Frank Foy lawsuit.

It's striking to me when someone like Esquivel loses his cool--you know, shows his "emotions." Maybe I'm playing into lawyerly manipulation (see how suspicious I am?), but my first thought on seeing the clips from that press conference was that Esquivel really believes what he's saying. He is, after all, someone who doesn't think people ought to get heated and "emotional" when they feel strongly about something. Plus, he's become a political figure...what a way to lay it on the line.

Who knows? But I do have to say, I agree with Heath that the Foy lawsuit--as serious as it may be--is being shamefully litigated in the press. The lawsuit has a long list of "John Does," that will presumably be rolled out for public consumption.

If these allegations, and the many others in related investigations, prove true, it's a psychic blow to the trust of the public. The scandal itself already is, and it would be ten times worse.

If they aren't true, there are a hell of a lot of people who are tainted by it all anyway.

One thing that really concerns me about this entire debacle of piled on scandals is the damage done to our ability to discern who we can trust and who we can't.

This is a concern I've noticed is shared by a lot of the people I've spoken to in government.

And frankly, regardless of whether or not he did anything technically illegal, I blame Richardson for it. Just because a system allows enormous campaign contributions, and has hardly any oversight built into it, doesn't mean one has to assemble a small cabal of people to milk it for all its worth. Especially when you're someone who so brazenly flirts with the facade of being progressive.

With proper safeguards in place--and real, substantive ethics reform--people in government would be a lot safer from the taint that comes with this kind of mess.

Val Kilmer's flirtation

2009-02-05T07:32:00.006-07:00

marjorie says...

Checking out the local news on the tele last night, lo and behold, I spied Val Kilmer actually speaking to the press--as in, the New Mexico press. Kilmer went to the Roundhouse yesterday and caused a big stir. How come that doesn't happen when I walk in the door? I want to hang out on the rostrum with the Speaker of the House and flirt with a gubernatorial run too.

Kilmer has a couple of big issues to deal with if he wants to run.

First, does he run as a Democrat? If so, he has that pesky Ralph Nader-supporter thing to deal with. As someone who did support Nader when he was still officially Green, I can attest to the loathing that Democrats have for Nader. The more left the Democrat, the more they'll begrudgingly acknowledge Nader's smarts, but they still don't like him. And I have to admit, I've come a long way in that direction myself. Nader is an egomaniac, plain and simple. If he wasn't, he would have supported Cynthia McKinney instead of running this year himself. Not to mention, that vaunted lifestyle he leads--in which he lives with practically no material goods, has no relationships and is totally committed to his work? Also a sign of the egomaniac if you ask me, not to mention someone who scorns the "regular guy." Lefties often border on this particular trait when they say things like "I don't own a television" proudly. Anyhow, I know a lot of smart radicals, and Nader doesn't impress me much. But he impressed Kilmer, who gave him a bunch of green bills last year.

Second, Kilmer hasn't voted in New Mexico although he's lived here an awful long time. You know, I don't really have much of a problem with this one, if it's just about a fellow citizen's choices. Look at all the scandal. The pay-to-play allegations may turn out to be unprovable, and at that level, maybe they're untrue. But anyone in their right mind can see that money buys access, and those relationships turn into nice gigs for the players. Richardson took this system to new heights but in truth it's something that permeates the political economy we've set up for ourselves as a society. Frankly, it's discouraging. But back to Kilmer. Do we really think he doesn't vote because he feels disempowered? Sorry, but that's kind of a stretch. I think it's more like he's been disengaged. And now that he's "flirting" with a governor's run, he told a local television reporter that he "regrets" those choices.

So, these are the two primary stumbling blocks I see for Kilmer. Both could potentially lead into deep examinations of how and why our society functions the way it does. This is why I call them stumbling blocks, not big massive walls that will stop him cold. The potential is interesting...if he decides to go there.

Frankly, having mulled this all over, I like the Kilmer flirtation. It's certainly a welcome distraction--or absurdity, however you want to look at it--in the face of all this gross stuff swirling around New Mexico politics lately.

Not to mention, I'm kind of curious about his ideas for New Mexico. Afterall, he is a Nader supporter. ;-) Not to mention, he's sort of weird, so if the PR machine doesn't get hold of him, his ideas could be pretty interesting.

Pay to Play A to Z

2009-02-05T07:22:00.002-07:00

marjorie says...

Are you slightly befuddled by all the scandals in New Mexico lately? If so, then you'll want to check out the Santa Fe Reporter's Pay to Play A to Z guide.

It breaks down the alleged players, the structure, arcane things like CDO's, not to mention such things as "Iceberg, tip of." Those guys are so witty.

Roundhouse lobbyists and the Speaker

2009-02-04T07:46:00.002-07:00

marjorie says...

Thomas J. Cole's Upfront column in the Abq. Journal this morning is about a Roundhouse lobbyist, Robert Rivera, who owes the state $210,000 in back taxes. Rivera's clients include

What Happened When I Got Pregnant

2009-01-29T12:38:00.005-07:00

Mikaela says:
This picture illustrates better than I could explain: I got buried.

My cat and dog sense that something's up, and they're desperate to deepen their bond with me before having to compete with an infant, especially our cat, who's just a baby himself. And yes, he's sitting ON my face here. He's not subtle!

And then there's the figurative aspect of being buried -- under too much information and too many expectations about how to be as a parent, as a mommy consumer, as a poor but earnest environmentalist.

Take for example: paint for the baby's room. I want to do the right thing here. It took me forever to work up the energy and nerve to even shop for paint for the baby's room. I'm not really a decorative arts kinda gal. My partner, however, showed no signs that this would ever make his list of things to do, so I had to face my demons. Thank god for the internet. I really don't know what moms did before they could search for things online. I found this great paint company that does bio-degradable, zero-toxics, low-emissions paint. For $50 a gallon. Gulp.

Now, I hate paint samples. At one inch square, how can you really tell what color it is, much less how it will look in YOUR room on YOUR walls? You can't. And with infinitesimal differences among neighboring shades? Impossible to choose and feel confident. But I chose. And felt really crappy about it.

I was about to order online when I stumbled on a blog entry that mentioned someone bought the same paint at Ace Hardware. Really? A place where I could shop IN PERSON? And have it TODAY? Ok, so maybe the internet's not the best thing ever. This immediate gratification thing (or rather instant knowing of how much you screwed up in your color selection) is even better! And the best part? The paint's $6 cheaper at Ace than the online listing.

So I go to Ace during lunch today. I get really excited when I see a display for my paint that has page-size samples. Hallelujah! But on closer inspection, d'oh! Only for limited colors, none of which are my chosen options. Crap.

I bite the bullet and buy 2 gallons of one color and a gallon of the other. That's $132. With painters tape and brushes? We're talking $170. To paint a room. To paint a room in a way that's environmentally safe. And if I wasn't poor before, this pretty much nails it. Holy crap. And I gotta say based on the little dot of color on the gallon cans? I didn't do so well.

Good thing we've gotten so many donations of gently-used items from generous moms. This kid's going to be banging on pots and pans and playing at parks exclusively until it's 4.

Maybe by then I won't be so buried under all this weight, or at least my cat will want to sleep with my kid more than me!

Republican ideological rigidity is bankrupt

2009-01-28T17:34:00.006-07:00

marjorie says...

When the Republican administration of George W. Bush appropriated $700 billion last fall to try to solve the economic crisis, it was money dedicated to bailing-out big banks and it has almost no oversight built into it. The banks basically were given carte blanche, and they still aren't giving out the credit our economy needs.

When the Democratic administration of Barack Obama seeks to save our economy by pumping a little more than that into REAL JOBS and REAL TAX CUTS for ordinary Americans, not a single Republican in the House would vote for it. Good thing there's a Democratic majority to pass the stimulus package--which they did today.

I am highly critical of this stimulus package myself, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be done. What else are we going to do....right now?

The Republican mantras of no regulation and trickle down tax cut economics is completely bankrupt. We have been trickle-downed, quite frankly, until we're literally dying.

And the vote on party lines today shows just how rigid this dogma is in that party.

Arnold-Jones and KUNM deserve props

2009-01-28T06:53:00.003-07:00

marjorie says...

After writing an initial piece about the plans of Janice Arnold-Jones to webcast her committees at the New Mexico legislature, I was so snowed under the past couple of days that I haven't had much time to pay attention--beyond watching the inaugural webcasting run. But I hope you all have.

While legislators keep debating the merits of webcasting (New Mexico is only one of about five states that don't broadcast their legislative debates), public radio station KUNM is picking up the slack--you can listen to the Senate floor debates, and occasional House and Committee debates, throughout the session. Thank you KUNM!

And Arnold-Jones says she'll continue webcasting until she is officially forced to stop--talk about getting the old-school legislators at the Roundhouse in an uproar.

When Arnold-Jones turned on her web camera Monday afternoon, you'd think the world was coming to an end. Committee Chair Edward Sandoval asked her to turn it off, but she refused. House Speaker Ben Lujan didn't look happy in the least--in fact he look quite perturbed even though he tried to hide it. And he chided her for not speaking to him about it in advance.

Webcasting is now being "studied" by a subcommittee of the House Rules committee. Arnold-Jones is still webcasting. And a lively debate has erupted in the House about webcasting. You can read about it over on the NMI and Heath Haussamen's site. Haussamen took Lujan to task on his blog, and the Speaker made a point of saying at the Rules committee yesterday that he wasn't opposed to webcasting, despite what a certain blogger in Las Cruces says.

Best quote of the entire debacle (not to mention headline)? From Trip Jennings report yesterday, Sleepy lawmakers can rest easy for now:

Among the critics of the proposal was Rep. Ray Begaye, D-Shiprock, who said during the committee meeting that he worried about lawmakers’ privacy and of potentially embarrassing moments being captured on camera.

“If I am sleeping and I am being recorded, that can be used as political gain,” Begaye said.

Yes, he really said that.

there's a "question" about who CDR was advising

2009-01-26T07:43:00.001-07:00

marjorie says...

You know those financial deals that CDR Financial put together for the New Mexico Finance Authority as an advisor on the GRIP project? They're called SWAPs? Well it seems that because the "complex contracts" were made with a variable interest rate the state is now at risk and has had to post about $16 million in collateral. The entire piece by Colleen Heild and Mike Gallagher at the Albuquerque Journal is worth the read. But here is the part that really got me:

CDR was paid more than $950,000 out of bond proceeds, but Finance Authority boss Bill Sisneros, who took over after the initial deal with CDR was done, says the company's role in the bond transaction isn't clear.

He said, "CDR was paid by the counter-parties in the swaps, so there is a question of who they were advising." The swaps have saved the state about $8 million in lower interest costs since they were approved in 2004, Duff said.

Um, is this a round about way of saying the NMFA is pretty clear that the state's financial adviser was actually looking out for the interests of the banks who were our "counter-parties"?

Sounds like it to me.

Just to remind folks: CDR Financial is the company at the heart of the federal investigation into whether or not "pay to play" deals were being made with the Richardson administration. CDR was hired to advise the NMFA back in 2004 regarding how to refinance state transportation debt in such a way that the state would save money. The outcome has been the ability to build such things as the Rail Runner from Belen to Santa Fe. Since then, it's emerged that CDR is accused of colluding with banks to "bid rig" in the municipal bond market across the nation.

Post-Bush Gigglefest

2009-01-21T21:32:00.001-07:00

Thanks, Keith.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

And good riddance...

2009-01-21T12:23:00.005-07:00

Mikaela says:
Former VP Dick Cheney really got a pass yesterday. As the chief architect of the most evil designs of Bush & Co., he really deserved some ire heaped on his head yesterday. Yes, Obama's speech was a smackdown of Bush personally as a leader, but much of the substance that we've now repudiated came from Cheney & his lawyer, David Addington.

And so it was that the news of his "injury" moving boxes out of his White House office was not met with the amount of sympathy it might have been otherwise. And that he showed up to the inauguration in a wheelchair and a funny little hat? (Can't find a photo w/ the hat at the actual inauguration ceremony - if you see one, alert me!) Somehow, that made things all too perfect for righteous gloating. Sorry, Mom! Not polite, I know.

And just to twist the knife a little, I missed this bit of hilarity from the Onion, which is really too good not to repost!

Vice Presidential Handlers Lure Cheney Into Traveling Crate
WASHINGTON—A team of nine specially trained handlers have successfully lured outgoing vice president Dick Cheney into a reinforced steel traveling crate in order to transport him back to his permanent enclosure in Casper, WY, official sources reported Monday. "He's a smart one. Once he sees the crate, he gets pretty nippy, but we've learned a few tricks over the years," chief VP wrangler Ted Irving breathlessly said while applying pressure to a deep gash on his forearm. "If we break a rabbit's legs and throw it in there, he will eventually go in to finish it off. Doesn't work with dead rabbits, though. Cheney only eats what he kills." Irving said that the latest vice presidential relocation went much more smoothly than September's diplomatic trip to Georgia, which was delayed for several hours after Cheney mauled three secret service agents and escaped inside the White House walls.

Heinrich on the inauguration

2009-01-21T09:33:00.003-07:00

marjorie says...

I don't know about you, but politician's statements often sound the same to me. Probably because they're largely written by PR professionals. So it's refreshing to read the guest blog by Martin Heinrich with reflections about yesterday's inauguration--over on Heath Haussamen's blog today. I figure it was written by him--description of a Cooper's hawk and all. Here are a few excerpts:

...I was seated off to one side about 50 yards from where then-President-elect Obama would soon take the oath of office. ...The wind was brisk, and before long I couldn’t feel my ears, but I wouldn’t trade yesterday’s memories for the world.
...Occasionally, the enormous crowd would break into a chant of “O-BA-MA… O-BA-MA,” but with such a huge number of people it wasn’t possible for the chant to remain synchronized for long. Overhead, the sky was clear and blue with a just a few wispy clouds. A Cooper’s hawk that calls the nation’s Capitol home circled overhead.

After Chief Justice Roberts administered the oath of office and the crowd erupted again, President Obama began his inaugural address. He spoke of the great challenges that we face and how we will meet them. His words were emotional and passionate, but tethered to the reality of policy. By this time, my toes had become as numb as my ears, but I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.

You can read the rest here.

critically hopeful in the age of Obama...si se puede!

2009-01-20T15:32:00.004-07:00

marjorie says...

In his inauguration speech, Obama right off the mark made clear his awareness that—unlike some of the others who’ve taken the oath of office before him—he assumes the role during troubled times:

…every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. … So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

Wait. That’s my generation. Lost in the momentousness of this election, I had somehow not registered that Obama, while slightly older than myself, is part of my generation.

I’ll leave it to the human geographers to explain what that means on a macro level. But for myself, I think it means I’m vested.

Ever somewhat itinerate—someone who lingers on the outside, gravitates to the back of the room--the flash of that notion into my mind was a touch jarring. Just sort of...wow.

Funny. I think this election caused a lot of people to have a similar experience—of suddenly feeling vested, responsible, connected.

So many are emotional about Obama. But I find that I’m emotional about my friends—the ones like Dave, who is Obama’s age and voted for the first time, who followed the contest like he previously only followed sports—and who had to pop in on my instant messenger today to simply say “he’s president.”

An affirmation was most certainly in order. Is in order.

Si se puede!

My comrades in community organizing are celebrating an American president today. Can I dwell for a moment on just how remarkable that is—given that we’re speaking of the seat of world power?

Such moments fill me with happiness, at the same time I’m already moving toward the hard task of being counter –it’s just a fact—to this remarkable man.

What I know is that this thing we did has multiple facets. One facet is great pride in what we have achieved. I can be there with you all in this sentiment, without reserve.

But another is that this is also a façade, in many ways, that masks what we have to always be cognizant of: that, yes, we are indeed talking about the center of power. And as long as such a thing exists there also exists an “outside of power.”

And that requires a critical perspective, always.

However, before I go there, I’ll point you to what I loved the most about Obama’s speech today—the part that actually does give me “hope” about him. That's his own shout-out to the unknown laborers who built this country. Somehow, I really think he means it.

…it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked 'til their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

Welcome, Mr. President and the New Era You Usher In...

2009-01-20T11:26:00.008-07:00

Mikaela says:
Well, deed's done, and we've done it! I thought I'd have to watch online from work, but my boss came over and stole me away to his friend's house to watch the whole thing with a bunch of aging, white liberal strangers. Pretty great, actually. The best line was probably after VP Joe Biden was swarn in. Boss's wife says, "Now go arrest Cheney! I believe you'll find he's an enemy combatant."

They cringed at Rev. Warren and cheered Rev. Lowery, who I believe was the best part of the whole event. I can't wait to get the transcript and re-post it here for those who missed it. Just perfect.

And our President. Who can say enough about our President? I'm so proud of him, and of us. Proud to call him my President. Proud to call him the President of the United States of America. Just proud.

Here's my favorite part of his speech, or at least the part that got me, personally, the most:

"[W]e know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.
We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth.
And because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.
To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict or blame their society's ills on the West, know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.
To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."

Loved the John Williams piece w/ Perlman and Ma on violin and cello, respectively, and the totally hot clarinetist Anthony McGill.

The poem I thought was a little weak, but had a few great lines. I'll have to look at it again. It wasn't a good sign that no one knew when it had ended...

And the whole thing almost exactly on time, so that some of us could sneak out and back into work w/ relatively little delay! Thanks, Senator Feinstein! You did a great job not grandstanding at all and keeping things moving.

Welcome to a new day, a new era, a new hope spreading from our capitol all the way into this little political grinch's heart.

Rev. Lowry's Benediction

2009-01-20T11:15:00.001-07:00

Mikaela posts her transcription:

Given at Obama’s Inauguration, January 20, 2009

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far along the way,
Thou who has by thy might led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray,
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee,
Lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee,
Shadow beneath our hand, may we forever stand, true to thee, oh God,
And true to our native land.

We truly give thanks for the glorious experience we’ve shared this day. We pray now, oh Lord, for your blessing upon thy servant, Barack Obama, the 44th President of these United States, his family, and his administration. He has come to this high office in a low moment in the national and indeed global fiscal climate.

But because we know you’ve got the whole world in your hands, we pray not only for our own nation, but the community of nations. Our faith does not shrink, though pressed by the flood of moral ills, for we know that Lord, you are able to work through faithful leadership, to restore stability, mend our brokenness, heal our wounds, and deliver us from the exploitation of the poor – or the least of these – and from favoritism toward the rich – the elite of these. We thank you for the empowering of thy servant, our 44th president, to inspire our nation to believe that yes we can work together to achieve a more perfect union and while we have sewn the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness, and we come in the spirit of union and solidarity to commit our support to our President by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other, and not on each other.

And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate, on the side of inclusion, not exclusion, tolerance, not intolerance, and as we leave this mountaintop, help us to hold on to the spirit of fellowship and the oneness of our family. Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our churches, our temples, our mosques – or wherever we seek your will.

Bless President Barack, First Lady Michelle, look over our little angelic Sasha and Malia. We go now to walk together, children, pledging that we won’t get weary in the difficult days ahead. We know you will not leave us alone with your hands of power and your heart of love.

Help us, then, now Lord, to work for that day when nations shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, where every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid, when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness as the mighty stream.

Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right. Let all those who will do justice and love mercy say amen. Say amen. And Amen.

Holy smokes...it's the Obama era

2009-01-19T23:00:00.001-07:00

marjorie says...

photo by Jon Person/Flickr

MLK discusses the first black U.S. president

2009-01-19T17:26:00.003-07:00

marjorie says...

The BBC brings this really amazing clip of Martin Luther King expressing surprise at the degree to which the United States had been able to make progress on racial justice, and in light of that he says he could see there being an African American president in under 40 years.

Cloud cover

2009-01-19T08:37:00.006-07:00

Maggie says:
It's been a quiet stretch for me on m-pyre... sorry about that. Post-election, I immersed myself in the bubble of it'll-be-okay-ness, and the cloud cover has been pretty thick. There has been some not-okayness, of course - some of those Cabinet picks, a dismaying center course strategy, Middle East destruction, and far too many friends and family seeing the worst of this economic disaster. And I know - hiding in the bubble is a lazy form of citizenship. Emotionally exhausted from the election, seeking a break from the stress of contemplating the horrors our government perpetrates, I needed so much to take a couple of months and think only what could be, even though that meant forcing my brain not to get too invested when the Agriculture pick is another Corn King and the uniform critique of our trade deals is hushed away now that it might mean something. There is the hope and promise of politics, and then there is the application of politics, and those are not the same two animals. Those of us who are applicators (read: wonks) at heart have been carried over into the Promiseland the last year. Now that we've all arrived, here together - blind believers and hopeful yet tentative wonks - how will those seeds of hope be planted? How will they be nourished or fertilized or tended to?

Getting past the season of the Lame Duck means for me, getting back to the business of nurturing both the seeds of hope and the mechanics of fertilization, keeping an eye on the sky while knowing where to look underneath the soil. When the great horror ends - we're on the 24-hour-countdown now, folks - it is truly a new day. How new a day is up to all of us. The cloud cover will lift, and the fear will end, and then our wonky hopeful hearts can start digging into the ground again.

Forecast, January 20, 2009: The sun will shine again.