New Mexico Mercury

CCNM guide to independent expenditures‏

Common Cause New Mexico is often asked what “rules” exist in New Mexico for regulating campaign spending by “PACs” and other groups who operate independently of the candidates.  No short and simple answer to this question can be given because New Mexico’s law on this subject is currently in a fluid and uncertain state, owing to recent court decisions invalidating most of the current statutes and to recent legislative efforts to rewrite the law to bring it into line with these decisions and with modern campaign practices...

Whoa!

Let me tell you —People here in Alburg are very jealous of the little village of Placitas where romantic herds of free-standing, starving, thirsty horses in their thousands surround your car and threaten to kick in the door unless you surrender your water and your Cheetos. Thank you for granting me this moment of wild freedom, my beloved famished and parched stallion friends...

El Machete: Our Tax Dollars

Our Tax Dolalrs

Mercury Poetry: Without Warning

At the bus stop and out of the corner of my eye
I see myself waiting,
awkward bundle at my feet.
I am wearing the same sky blue fleece
though it hangs looser against my body.
My hair, still long and full and brown,
frames the younger me in her oblivion...

Emerging Voices: Elizabeth Stebbins

Curator’s note by Stevie Olson: This week, the Mercury is proud to feature two pieces from Elizabeth Stebbins. Both pieces are thoughtfully-constructed, beautiful vignettes of life. Elizabeth’s grasp of language allows her execute poetic paragraphs which draw the reader into her observations and narratives. Liz is a wildly talented artist. As you’ll find out reading her pieces, she is a piano player, a budding philosopher, and gifted wordsmith. We wish Elizabeth a wonderful coming fall semester...

Retirement: Is it death deferred?

Is retirement an end or a beginning? We talk about retiring from, almost never retiring to. We talk about what we are leaving behind rather than where we are going.

We focus on what we no longer have to endure. We’ve spent our lives on the concerns of living: the job, the commute, the burdens, the worries, raising kids, paying the mortgage, keeping a boss or employees or colleagues happy, and supporting those who depend on us.

Then we retire. Now what?...

El Machete: Leftovers

Leftovers

New Mexico Women: Statistics for Conversations and More

The New Mexico Community Foundation has created a new organization, NewMexicoWomen.org, which is a resource for anyone interested in the status of women and girls in our state.  Its mission is to "advance opportunities for women and girls statewide, so they can lead self-sufficient, healthy, and empowered lives."  In New Mexico, women comprise a majority of the population, 51%, and girls comprise 49% of the state’s under-eighteen population...

The Prophet Armed: The writings of Norman O. Brown

Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi, Avicenna, three of the most important men of the Islamic Golden Age—but how many of us know these names; or know what they wrote or practiced, or how they contributed to the knowledge of the West?

How many non-Muslims in this country have ever read the Quran? When you consider that the Protest-ants began their split with the Roman church almost five centuries ago, yet in today’s Islamic world the sects of this religion are waging bloody battles against one another, as witnessed in Iraq today, it becomes clear that these internecine disputes are not just about dogma, they are about politics...

Why Democrats should welcome Independents into our primaries

A little over a year ago, I wrote an essay for the New Mexico Mercury entitled, “Why progressives should welcome independents into Democratic primaries.” As this issue has become more visible in recent weeks, and as I find myself advocating for this position, I was asked recently how I came to this strongly held belief. For all of us who run for public office, each election (win or lose) has its share of lessons to be learned...