New Mexico Mercury

Friday Voyage: The U.S.-Mexico Border

The Friday Voyage takes us to Border country, where real people live and die and reality is far more complex than current political tropes.

DOMA, Prop 8, and the Voting Rights Act

If anyone tells you again that voting in a presidential election is a meaningless exercise, remind them of June 2013 when the Supreme Court became once again, as it has off and on throughout its history, the most powerful branch of government, for good or ill.

Lobbyists and their employers spent $488,296 to entertain, influence legislators in 2013

Here's some information I collected from the New Mexico Secretary of State's Office for NM Common Cause.  It's a small piece of the work I'm doing, along with interns Jarrett Hines-Kay and Jonas Armstrong, for a forthcoming Common Cause report on lobbyists.

New Mexico lobbyists and their employers spent $488,296.74 to influence, entertain and feed New Mexico legislators, according to reports filed since January with the Secretary of State’s Office.   The amount does not include campaign contributions, which are banned during the session.

The largest spenders among the lobbyists were...

Border Leaders Slam Militarization

Immigration reform amendment will increase border fencing, drones and border patrol while opening the door for defense contractors.

Why progressives should welcome independents into Democratic primaries

First of all, can we acknowledge that there is significant disillusionment amongst the voting public with the partisanship and lack of compromise that has Congress virtually paralyzed at the moment? In a similar way, can we admit that the gerrymandering of congressional districts to the point where less than 10% of these same districts are considered "competitive" is largely to blame for the systemic edge that House Republicans will enjoy for the next decade? There is absolutely no incentive for these Republican incumbents to listen to the middle, concerned as they are about their unforgiving right-wing base...

Student exposes austerity’s shaky foundations

A major upheaval took place recently in the world of economic theory. Yet while a sacred cow took a mortal hit, its legacy of social impoverishment and unrest continues unabated.

Why does something presumably as dense and dry as economic theory matter? Because for longer than most of us realize, elected officials have relied on the dominant, though not necessarily correct, school of thought to provide a rationale for the policies they put in place. In the congressional debate over health care, for instance, it was the fundamental argument for a "uniquely American approach" (code for the profit motive) that carried the day and left the U.S. as virtually the only developed nation without universal health care for its citizens (and New Mexicans near the bottom in terms of health care outcomes)...

Domestic Spying

El Machete

New Mexico First forum brings Domenici, Bingaman and Sam Donaldson

New Mexico First was created in 1986 by Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici to provide New Mexicans with a public forum in which to discuss issues important to New Mexico.  This year the organization decided to honor the contributions of Jeff Bingaman at a First Forum lecture.  Fortunately Pete Domenici was available to attend and participate in the policy tribute held last Friday evening at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

The agenda placed the two former New Mexico senior senators on the stage together across from one another.  They sat at a small table with ABC reporter Sam Donaldson moderating and posing questions to them which were selected by the NM First board of directors.  The topic areas chosen were education, the economy, energy and Congressional gridlock...

Politics of Climate Change in Chihuahua

In Mexico climate change is a given, it's the rule of law that's murky. Borderland journalist Tom Barry explores the increasing tensions amidst dwindling water supplies just south of the border.

Out of the mouths of babes into the pockets of the rich

The United State has fallen into a pit of political absurdities so chaotic, so brutal, and so cruel that many of us have become desensitized to the torturous, slow ruining of lives that poverty in our country causes every minute of every day.

We’re so mesmerized by the viciousness of our politics that rich lawmakers have no qualms about taking food out of poor people’s mouths, passing laws that diminish their only hope to get an adequate share of life’s basic substance through food stamps...