New Mexico Mercury

Weekly Poem: Pasqual

His teeth are like a row of stumpy razors, and his black hair has a sheen like the sun on black
coral. He drinks Diet Coke instead of the filtered rainwater preferred by the Progressives, who
incidentally make him very nervous.

"What bills are you going to steal from me today, young man?" he teases me on the House
Floor.

Walking slowly, with the deliberation of a champion mule, his decades of office passing like so
many forgotten arguments. That quizzical look that he always gives me, impossible to read...

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...

Women Without Choices: Two plays in ABQ

Americans tend to think of the pursuit of happiness as one of our inalienable rights, but the phrase means not that society gives us happiness but that it offers choices that allow us to seek it. But what if we don’t have choices?

Two new plays in Albuquerque focus on young women whose choices are foreclosed, whose destiny is tragedy. That these stories occur nearly a century apart merely shows that the prison bars of ethnicity, gender and social milieu are endemic in America...

What Happened to Transparency and Openness?

Less than four weeks into her term, Governor Susana Martinez had to be reminded by the New Mexico Supreme Court that, “Nobody is above the law.”  The reason: the Governor had tried to prevent recently approved dairy rules, among other new environmentally protective rules, from going into effect.

The Governor’s Administration is still dodging the rules in order to help her industry friends.  This time, the Administration is helping the dairy industry avoid taking common sense steps that would prevent their cows’ waste from continuing to contaminate New Mexico’s precious groundwater...

Why New Mexico’s Climate Future Has Already Been Decided – and What Can Be Done

No, the New Mexico official told me, you’re getting too far ahead of the science. Your certainty about the consequences of climate change, he cautioned me, isn’t warranted. You’ll hurt your credibility.

This official deals with water issues for our state. He was gracious enough to provide feedback on a paper I’d written in my capacity as a law student at the University of New Mexico. The paper dealt with how the state’s prior appropriation system of water law manages water shortages during drought. In writing about that subject, I had emphasized that the state faced a future of, in essence, permanent drought, and had best prepare accordingly...

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...

El Machete: Welfare Queen

Welfare Queen