New Mexico Mercury

A Match Made in Heaven

It’s a match made in right wing heaven.  Wealthy billionaires looking for a rising Republican star to do their bidding.  Brothers Koch: meet Susana Martinez.
 
The courtship between Martinez and the right wing conservative billionaire Koch brothers goes back to her 2010 campaign.  Seeing an opportunity for a good investment in a like-minded new candidate, the Koch brothers contributed $10,000 to her 2010 campaign and helped connect her with other big corporate donors--including oil and gas, mining, and other polluting industries...

Suzilla

Here’s a synopsis of the latest hot monster film soon to be shot in New Mexico starring Bob Odenkirk as Suzilla the Great—

Not to worry about the thousand-year drought,  not to worry about cratering employment, not to worry about all the cop murders, not to worry about the starving, underachieving kids—Remember, the kingdom of New Whazzits is run by  Suzilla the Great who eats citizens. 

Like all monsters, Suzilla sees things in black and white. Are you edible?...

ALEC Otherworld

Last week I traveled to Missouri to attend my second American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) conference.

As a state legislator from Wisconsin, I joined ALEC last year. That was the beginning of my journey into a parallel world. In the ALEC otherworld, the three branches of government are: 1. Multinational corporations, including Anheuser-Busch and Koch Industries, 2. Rightwing think tanks networked together through the State Policy Network, and 3. State legislators like me--although, as a progressive Democrat, I don't fit the mold. Most of my colleagues who belong to ALEC are Republicans and many are Tea Partiers...

NM Twittersphere: APD, Gov’s Race, HSD & Education Woes

Our second installment of the goings on in New Mexico's Twitter Universe.  This week we have the release of Mary Hawke's autopsy report as well as the promotion of an APD officer who had previously burned off a homeless man's ear by tasering.  That man, who feared retribution, was murdered shortly after winning a settlement with the city.  Also, Gov. race coverage, HSD and NM PED in hot water and backlash against the Governor's corporately crafted teacher evaluations.  If you see a tweet that we should highlight, pass it on or retweet it with the hashtag #NMTwittersphere.... 

Border Farmers’ Market a Year-Round Hit

Estela Flores is an earth artist. On Saturday mornings, you can find her work, courtesy of Mother Earth, on display at Ardovino’s Desert Crossing Farmers’ Market in Sunland Park, New Mexico.

Flores’ stand offers an inspiring inventory of garden art and potted plants ready for the backyard or front porch. Visitors behold herbs, native landscape plants, organic vegetables, succulents, and a garden dragon fly fashioned from wrought iron and embodied with peat moss and soil...

Time to Change the Cat Box!

I was floored to hear the only credible theory investigators have about the Valentine’s Day radiation release at the Waste Isolation Plant (WIPP) placed the finger of blame squarely on organic kittie litter “cellulose material” and nitrate salts that together melted the radiated junk in one of the drums.

Of course, I thought, it’s those damn hippies again with their organic cat litter. See what happens when they impose their self-righteous will on the rest of us by insisting that only organic kittie litter be used at WIPP?...

Friday Voyage: Cuba, Part 3

The neighborhood of Jaimanitas, Cuba is a fantasyland within the revolution and represents the creativity and playfulness that has helped this social experiment endure for over half a century. 

El Machete: Welfare Queen

Welfare Queen

Redemption at the Rock

“Boom!” It’s only one minute and forty seconds of the first round and suddenly Natalie Roy from Santa Fe lands a tremendous punch on her opponent, Nikki Lowe, and the fight is over.

This is “Redemption at the Rock,” a night of mixed martial arts (MMA) fights at the Camel Rock Lodge in Tesuque, a night with 10 fights and a cheering audience of about 1,000. Put on by Orthrus Promotions, its leaders, JR Rodriguez and Sal Mora and their staff, it was an exciting and well organized event for a sport that has a big future in New Mexico and across the country. It was their fifth such event in New Mexico, Texas and Iowa and another is coming up on June 14...

Insight New Mexico - Mark Rudd

V.B. Price talks with longtime political organizer, anti-war activist and community college instructor Mark Rudd about the recent media dust up regarding his affiliation with gubernatorial candidate Alan Webber.