New Mexico Mercury

Henry and the Koch Brothers

Humphrey's World

The Supermen Gather at Tamaya: Paul and Eric, Chuck and Dave

As anybody who is anybody will tell you, last week Davey and Chuckie Koch had a warm get together at the Tamaya Resort with, “some of America’s greatest philanthropists and most successful business leaders to discuss solutions to out most pressing issues…”

In fact, Dave and Chuck needed a bit of privacy, so they could think about their great ethics in peace. The bros just rented the whole damn place and surrounded the idylllic resort with armed guards and dogs on chains foaming at the mouth to keep you and me from sniffing around and sharing some of the same air as the very special people were breathing out there in the magic desert Tamayaland...

To repair or destroy

The Human Services Division (HSD) which funds Behavioral and Mental Health as well as Medicaid has concluded that 15 New Mexico Mental and Behavioral Health Services that have served their communities for decades have been so fraudulent on her watch that only the nuclear option was possible. She plans to shut them down and bring Arizona agencies to the rescue. HSD has no stomach apparently to fix our system if it’s broken, to build New Mexico capacity and grow New Mexico jobs. New Mexico tax revenues will ship off to Arizona. There should be no surprise that this is seen as part of a purely political agenda to privatize the not-for-profit mental health providers in the state...

Insight New Mexico - State Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino

V.B. Price talks with State Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino about the details of the recent behavioral health scandal that saw 15 non-profit providers defunded and 5 out-of-state for-profit companies awarded a short-term $18 million contract.

Oh! Pelican Bay

El Machete

The Inside Dope on Reinhold Reince Priebus and Hanna Scamdera

Reinhold Reince Priebus is really pissed off. The Grand Poobah of the Republican Party, Priebus doesn’t like it that CBS and CNN plan to air specials on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Reince is very angry because these shows are really advertising for Hillary’s presidential campaign that she hasn’t announced yet. Reince has decided to take his football and go home. He’s been blubbering that the Republicans should refuse to air their scintillating presidential campaign debates on either network unless the media giants drop their plans to fete Hillary...

Defending the History and Culture of Ciudad Juarez

In the crisis-ridden rubble of downtown Ciudad Juarez, a group of citizens is arising to restore the cultural vitality and legacy of the Mexican border city.

Paranoia

I see a plot in the New Mexico Medical Board's rule to make medicinal marijuana prescriptions hard to write for patients.  This is nothing but big pharma applying pressure to the Docs to make it hard to prescribe the low cost and effective herb to patients that qualify.  I mean if a few brownies take the place of outrageously expensive drugs then corporate profits will slide.   How much longer do we need to put up with this corporate manipulation of everything in our lives?   Am I being paranoid?  Or is having the munchies a threat to our way of life?...

Tom Udall’s Campaign Against Global Warming

When I saw videos of two feet of hail in the streets of Santa Rosa in early July, and felt the power 10 days ago of the most intense wind and rain storm Albuquerque has ever seen, I thought of Senator Tom Udall’s line, “If anyone still denies that climate change is real, I invite them to come to New Mexico.”

Having seen the predictions of climate change scientists come to life, it’s heartening to know that New Mexico’s senior senator is among the most outspoken politicians in the country when it comes to confronting the reality of our changing atmosphere...

Right To Lifers on UNM Campus Spark Counter-protest

During the noon hour on Monday right to lifers put up twenty by ten ft. color pictures of mutilated and aborted fetuses along Central to convince students and faculty on UNM’s main campus that abortion is wrong. The protestors, who were mostly teenage girls, got a surprise, however, when ten adamant fetuses bearing their own placards descended on them...