The Sword

I had this weird feeling this morning while watching the NRA's CEO Wayne La Pierre on Meet the Press that the old adage, "live by the sword, die by the sword" has some relevance.  This guy and his group are really nuts.  It would be interesting to see how many members they might lose over this posturing.  

Cowards

Where are our cowardly NM Mayors?  As Rodger Beimer pointed out in his blog today many Mayors here have stood silent on the massacre and assault rifles.  Mayor Richard Berry of Albuquerque, Mayor Tom Swisstack of Rio Rancho, Mayor Larry Abraham of Los Ranchos have stood silent.  Look for your Mayor in this list of Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition.

NRA Melted

Really?  The NRA solution is to put more guns in kindergartens?  They now have proven they are mentally incompetent and of limited mental capacity and should not be allowed near guns.  Just like religious fanatics.

However, I am now convinced that the theory of alternate universes is true.  The NRA leaked into our reality from the alternate universe of crazy.



People who cannot recognize a palpable absurdity are very much in the way of civilization. 
Agnes Repplier 

Misc.

I am making good progress on my knee replacement therapy.  I am now walking with out a cane or walker.

As I was driving out to my session this morning I saw a neighbor friend walking his dog.  He had a hip replaced about ten years ago.  He is doing great.  After my session I went over to Presbyterian Hospital to see my friend Brian Sanderoff. He got a new hip yesterday.  As I was walking in I met up with Rep. Mimi Stewart who stated she had two hips replaced.  She went in with me to tell Brian about it.  She was there to visit her close friend who was in the room next to Brian.  He had a total knee replacement yesterday.  So, I went in to tell him what to expect in the next few weeks.  And as I was writing this post I got an email from a good friend in Colorado who said he is now scheduled for a new knee in February.

Virtually every person I spoke with today, so far, has some new body parts.  I can't imagine not having this technology available.  I remember my maternal grandmother having bad hips.  She was crippled for a major part of her 90 years.  If she were alive today she would be active and have a good quality of life.  Our generation is lucky in that we can live pretty well with our implants.

The next religious fanatic that says the massacre of innocents occurred because we don't let god in our lives should be declared insane and kept away from guns.

I am reading a book, "Why does the World Exist?" by Jim Holt.  Deep and interesting stuff.  The basic question is 'Why is there something instead of nothing?'  He catalogs the many learned thinkers past and present who have tackled this question.  He quotes Schopenhauer who wrote, "The lower a man is in an intellectual respect, the less puzzling and mysterious existence itself is to him."  That is the refuge of religious fanatics I think.

NRA and Manufacturer Registry

The NRA minions emerged from their slimy hole yesterday to give condolences.  None of these people are being forced to face any responsibility.  They are getting off scott free with profits from murder. If the media doesn't dog them to the end of their days then they are not worth a damn.  Perhaps it will be up to the internet bloggers to set up a registry on where these people live.  Kind of like a sex offender registry.  We have to keep our kids away from them.

They said they will announce on Friday how they will help make sure this latest massacre of innocents will never happen again.

Watch for tricks here.  If they concentrate on just talking about high capacity magazines then it is a phony solution.  If they promise to arm and train teachers to shoot shooters then it is absurd.  See this report.  

They can do nothing less than call for a ban on sales of all assault rifles.  The destruction of all existing such weapons.  And the Board and Executive staff of the NRA must all resign their high paid positions and publicly gather to apologize for their complicity in the murder of these children.

The media needs to identify all of these folks.  And the CEO and Board of the Cerberus holding company that owned the Bushmaster weapons manufacturer must not sell the company but dismantle it forever.  And then they all must resign their positions.

They are scum of the earth.

Worth Funding

I sent some dollars to this effort.  This documentary will be done by a good friend of mine, Ned Judge, and it will be great.  Please help with this innovative way of financing something that Big Pharma would not want you to see.  Especially watch the video.

An Opportunity

Soon we will be inundated with Mayoral candidates.  This gives us an opportunity to bring up an issue in a meaningful way for once, and that is what each candidate will do in regards to control and/or eradication of assault rifles in our midst.  And they cant just cop out about talking about ammunition magazines.  I mean the whole package needs to be debated.

And, our New Mexico Supreme Court needs to revisit gun control questions.  Those elected judges always cower before the NRA as they did when they struck down my efforts as Mayor to keep concealed weapons out of Albuquerque.  They acted like a bunch of sissies and just blew us off.

And then there is our legislature.  How many of them are willing to work on these issues and reform the concealed carry laws in this state?  Do we need them?  They certainly have never stopped a mass killing have they?  No, they are just there for a bunch of neurotics who want to feel more powerful.

Now is the time to strike on these gun issues.  The NRA is cowering in the corner.  They even took down their Facebook page.   

Savage Nation

I have tried not to watch the news too much since the slaughter of school kids on Friday.  It is just to hard to bear.

And then last night the Caliber's Shooting Range and gun store ran a commercial on TV with some loopy guy day dreaming about getting an assault rifle.  Can you believe it?  What kind of proprietor would put that on TV?

Thirty one pro gun lobby Senators refused to appear on Sunday News Shows in the wake of the massacre of school children.  I want their names.

 I haven't heard a word from the NRA.  Their chief  Wayne La Pierre needs justice visited upon him soon.  Post his home address and see if he feels comfortable living there.  Most school children's parents won't feel comfortable Monday morning sending the little ones off to school, not as long as La Pierre's organization keeps reform at bay.

And how about the firearm manufacturers who profit from assault rifle sales.  Let's find the CEO of the maker of the Bushmaster AR-15 that was used to kill the innocents. He must face the dead children's parents and explain his actions.

And the next pol who gets on TV and says this is the greatest nation in the world needs to have his career ended asap for being a psychotic liar.  We will never be the greatest nation until sane gun control laws are passed.  All assault rifles should be turned in under penalty of five years in a federal prison for non compliance.  All sales must end immediately.  This would be  something that would make us look sane and set a tone for the proper sale of sporting arms and screening of firearm buyers.  I say all of this as an owner of guns.

This is a good read about the greatest nations on the planet.  We are not one of them.

Idiots

The right wing wacko anti public land forces are making a run at trying to appropriate all federal public lands in New Mexico into ownership by the state.  State Representative Yvette Herrell from the oil patch is behind the effort.  This is the same lunacy that is being practiced on behalf of the fossil fuel and livestock industry in other states.  It is grand theft of the public domain.

Maybe Representative Herrell should read the New Mexico Constitution.  It is right there in the Enabling Act.

ENABLING ACT

Act June 20, 1910, c. 310, 36 U.S.Stat. 557, 568— 579

Sections 1 to 18, inclusive of the Act of June 20, 1910, enabled the people of Territory of New Mexico to form a constitution and state government.

…Second. That the people inhabiting said proposed State do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated and ungranted public lands lying within the boundaries thereof and to all lands lying within said boundaries owned or held by any Indian or Indian tribes, …

One can only wonder at the ignorance of some of our elected officials.

Misc.

This is then NM Attorney General Jeff Bingaman and me testifying to reform New Mexico's corrupt Liquor laws back in 1980.  We were successful although the system has broken down again.  At least we still have the beer and wine licenses for the small eateries around the state.

Now, Senator Jeff Bingaman leaves the Senate in a few weeks.  Last night I saw him on the Colbert show.  He did his best to be funny and non controversial.  I think his agreeing to be on the show will cause the Universe to shift somehow.

We will miss his quiet leadership in the Senate.  Although he sometimes didn't move fast enough on some issues for many of us, he was an excellent Senator whose intellect and demeanor others should emulate.

His leaving the Chairmanship of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will be a loss for the west.  However, Senator Martin Heinrich will surely fill his shoes at some point as his seniority builds on that committee.  No one is more qualified to sit on that committee that holds sway over all public land issues in this nation.  And Heinrich understands these issues completely.  I think he will always come down on the side of conservation and protection of our landscapes and watersheds.  He certainly doesn't owe the fossil fuel boys a thing.  He will be fair but he won't be rolled over by those polluters.

Overtime

Watching the news last night about a thief committing suicide in a car I got to wondering why there were more than 30 police officers there standing around doing nothing.  Well, they were collecting overtime.  It looked to me that half the officers were in army fatigues as if there were a war ready to start.  Even though the guy was dead, dead, dead.

This happens all the time.  It would be interesting to see what the overtime bill is for incidents like this.  When I was Mayor there were officers who were making well over $100K a year because they were so good at milking the system.

War Against Workers

Another state, Michigan, has passed the so called "Right to Work"  law.  It is really a law aimed at the right to work for next too nothing.  It means to destroy organized labor.  I watched efforts for years when I worked for Governor Bruce King to pass this law in New Mexico.  He always fought it as did the democrats in the Legislature.

Now the New Mexico Restaurant Association wants to have the city council unilaterally change the intent of the new minimum wage law passed in Albuquerque.  Eatery employees make less than anyone before tips and this Association doesn't want to see any changes.  And they are telling the voters to "Go Frak Yourself" (thanks to Battlestar Galactica for the new verb).  I am willing to pay an extra buck at meal time to help cover this hike.  I think most people feel that way too or they would not have voted for this.

GOP, Cows, Fossil Fuels

The Nation's Secretary of Agriculture told representatives of rural America that they are losing relevance because they are not being smart about their political fights.  I would second that big time.  They just aren't keeping up with the times even as their numbers decrease and urban America rules.  The rubes are no longer in charge.

And then I see where the New Mexico GOP once again elects its leaders from the rural areas of the state.  It is not that those folks are evil or dumb, because they mostly are not.  It is because the republicans keep ignoring the growing and vibrant power bases.  The new GOP chair is from Lincoln County.  Down near the oil patch where fossil fuel and livestock are the main economic drivers.  If one looks at the demographics it is easy to say that if an area is rich in public land and resources then the GOP is strong.  Whether it be grazing permits or oil and gas leases the resource extractors are there and are very conservative.  The problem for them is that their numbers are small and their philosophy of, "give us your land, give us your subsidies, and leave us alone" will take care of them in the end.

That is not necessarily a good thing since a decent two party system is generally a positive.  But the GOP itself is rendering that notion antiquated as they destroy their own party from the inside.

Guilt

The Radio station DJ's who pulled the stunt on the Royal Family are taking a lot of heat now that a nurse has killed herself.  She was duped by the DJs into believing the Queen wanted to talk to the pregnant Kate.  But every single news director and news editor who made a big deal out of it are just as  guilty of driving this poor nurse over the edge. They are all criticizing the radio jocks when they should be pointing the finger at themselves.

Misc.

The Journal took on the Federal Probation Officers who went to see that great movie Lincoln.  The Feds did it as part of a leadership and training course.  Good for them.  Every reporter and editor and the Journal should go see this movie too so they can understand how politics in the real world works.  Sometimes Journalists are incredibly naive on how things get done.  When I was a reporter I certainly was ignorant of the finer points of compromise and coercion required in making progress.  So often Journalists see it as all evil, when it isn't.  As for doing a front page story on the Officers going to see this flick, certainly there are better things to do.

While I have been recovering from my knee surgery both Bobbi and I have been mourning the loss of our cat Hermes.  He was my most favorite kitty ever.  He disappeared a few days before Halloween when he never came home.  I kept hoping he would come back from his sabbatical, but he didn't.

So Bobbi went and adopted a new kitten at the shelter this weekend.  Our other cat Ajax was acting lonely in our minds.  We have named the new guy Casper. He looks a lot like Hermes.  Maybe even his ghost.  Although, now that we have him I halfway expect a bedraggled Hermes to show up.

Shadows

Governor Martinez and Mayor Berry sit in the shadows chuckling that we have such a lame news media.  The state and city economies are mired in a swamp.  That is reported by the media.  But they never seem to go get comments from these two political leaders about what they are doing to help us get unstuck.  If anything.  Last night I watched the police blotter news on Channel 13.  Cops and robbers all the way.  A reporter interviewed the Governor on some inane story.  She didn't even throw in a question about the economy.  Maybe the Governor only does these interviews with the understanding that no tough questions are allowed.  Well, maybe there would be no opportunity to air the answers anyway because 911 tapes and dash cam cop videos demand too much time.

And the Governor and Mayor just love that.  They have gleefully urged their cop shops to offer all the crime video they can get to the media.  Those news directors and editors.....they are so easy.

Presto-Change-O at the Journal?

Did I miss something?  Or was a Sunday Albuquerque Journal article the first public indication that long time publisher of the paper Tom Lang has been shown the door and replaced by his brother Bill Lang who has the title President and CEO?  The story announcing cooperation between the Journal and the Rio Rancho Observer had a quote from Bill Lang about the new arrangement.  Tom Lang's name is still on the masthead as publisher, but is he?

Rumor has it that the Journal staff was given some sort of statement about the changes.  A million questions arise.  Will the Journal take on less of a right wing stance on the editorial pages?  Will editor Kent Walz be given a different kind of supervision?  Will the new leadership be able to save the Journal as a major daily news paper?  This is all historic for this newspaper which has seen so much bleeding of staff and revenues in the last decade.  It is a great opportunity for it to remake it self into a publication for all of New Mexico, not just the right wing.  The problem has been the editorial stands leak into the news coverage.

Bill Lang is seen as a good business man and not an ideologue.

Maybe it is a new day!

Movie

I got out of the house in the early evening to meet Bobbi at the movie.  We saw Lincoln.  Possibly the best political movie ever made.  Every high school in the nation should mandate showing this production to all of its students.  Some students will get nothing from it.  Some will learn the art of politics.  I highly recommend this realistic look at Lincoln. 

Submerged

The real issues facing our state are continually being submerged by the Governor, Mayor of Albuquerque and the media.  A case in point is a much unnoticed snippet from Forbes magazine that Albuquerque is one of the worst places in the country for future job creation.  How can that go virtually unreported?  How can our government hating Governor and her wacko rightwing mascots ignore this? Maybe she should stop hating the feds and welcome their high paying jobs here.

Additionally, Mayor Berry will be all consumed by the U.S. Justice Department probe of APD.  Where will his economic development team get their leadership?

And then there is the private sector.  What the hell is the Chamber of Commerce and Economic Forum doing to attract new jobs into our city and state?  Is there any activity at all?  Are they just protecting the status quo?  They are virtually invisible at a time they should be on the road working to attract new industry.  Just starting another house building boom is not going to be the solution.  One might think they are just interested in doing business with each other.  A private club so to speak.  Well, if the federal jobs leave they will be the first to feel it.

I am feeling a great lack of leadership in this state.  It will be evident that the laziness now will really be felt in the next few years.

APD

The Mayor has his hands full.  This formal investigation of the Albuquerque Police Department by the U.S. Justice Department will consume his administration for a long time to come.  All the way to election time next year.  Sometimes, life isn't fair but he has been in a position to do something about this out of control department for three years, but he has stuck by his Chief.

Bad training and Marty Chavez's pledge to hire 200 additional officers led up to this.  Some of those new officers probably should not have been hired.  Bad quality training and bad candidates to fill a quota has come home to roost.  But, Mayor Berry could have changed Chiefs when the problems continued to grow and he could have brought in fresh blood.  He didn't.

This is a common thing among politicos.  Many of them stick by their appointees out of loyalty and friendship when they really should not.  I know as an elected official I did the same thing.  It always comes back to bite, just like when you do fire someone.

So, this whole thing will play out to an uncertain end.  We could see a new Mayor or city councillors as a result.  Or no one will pay attention.