The Elite, Energy Security, National Security State?

Today at 3 pm, Taos Friction has learned, Judge Peggy Nelson will hear the Kit Carson Electric Coop’s motion to quash the member’s petition to recall 9 trustees. Last night’s repeated electrical failures underscore the importance of this issue. Rate increase protesters, who are seeking financial information about KCEC, claim diversification into side ventures—Propane, Internet, Command Center, and Broadband—has diverted attention and investments from the Coop’s historic mission to provide inexpensive and stable electricity. The focus on Kit Carson underscores local and national concerns with energy security and renewable resources. About 95% of KCEC’s energy comes from “dirty coal.”

At yesterday’s debut of the County’s new courtroom in the $46 plus million administrative complex, a panel of distinguished judges, attorneys, and lay people, chaired by the Dean of the New Mexico law school and buttressed by the presence of Supreme Court Chief Justice Daniels, vetted twenty applicants for two vacancies as judges in the 8th Judicial District.

Early favorites faded as the names of Sarah Backus, Robert Beck, Darryl Bouchard, Andria Cooper, Mary Humphrey, Floyd Lopez, Brigitte Lotze, Jeff McElroy and Kay Ann Tyssee were finally forwarded to the Governor for consideration. Despite the light-hearted banter of the judges and earnest speeches of the candidates, one couldn’t help thinking about Albuquerque Journal stories in the morning editions, regarding the dismissal of three prominent New Mexico judges from the bench for various ethical infractions.

For the average citizens, the high point of the commission hearings came at the beginning when attorney Jeff Shannon, who was neither a candidate nor an advocate on the behalf of an applicant, spoke. The former public defender and current defense attorney reminded the distinguished members of the panel that district court judges, if not the supreme court, should engage in “superintending control” of local courts, especially municipal court. Shannon summarized the failure of a local muni court to guarantee due process. He said that victims of low-level muni courts have little in the way of recourse to due process, due to a lack of legal representation.

As if to underscore the chaos in the Taos judiciary and subsequent abuse of the legal process, the federal government, according to Jane Mayer, in the May 23 issue of The New Yorker, “The Secret Sharer,” reports on the encroaching swing toward a national police state. Mayer details the investigation of whistle-blower Thomas Drake, who revealed waste and fraud at the National Security Agency. Mayer portrays the victims of the investigation as lifelong conservative card-holding Republican believers in national defense. One “conservative political scientist” says that the Obama administration is conducting “the most draconian crackdown on leaks in our history—even more so than Nixon.” As one of the characters says, “I couldn’t be an accessory to subverting the Constitution.” The leaks and alleged infractions of the Espionage Act arise from disagreements among staffers about whether American citizens should have been subject to the unlawful and warrantless wire-tapping carried on during the lawless Bush years.

The current administration generally avoids prosecuting those responsible for torture, bank fraud, and crimes against price gouging. Inequality of income continues to grow. While we citizens are familiar with the export of our industrial and manufacturing capacity, foreign countries and commodity brokers are buying up energy and food resources in America itself—causing prices to rise. Countries like China and South Korea are purchasing fertile farmland abroad in Africa and buying up the production of American farmers at home—creating higher food costs to go along with the spike in energy costs. While the courts, congress, and executive branch cater to corporate capital interests, the numbers of “have-nots” are increasing.

Since there will continue to be an increasing lack of federal safeguards, regarding food, energy, and affordable health care, we Taosenos must become more self-sufficient. Protecting our water resources, acequia systems, instituting gardens and greenhouses, finding multi-source energy resources, and coming to terms with alternative transportation methods are just some of the concepts we need to promote and implement. Indeed, many Taosenos are engaged in pursuing self-sufficiency even as locally elected leaders are looking backward and wasting taxpayer money and political capital on a patchwork paradigm of wishful thinking: tourism, housing growth, and government largesse. For those without medical benefits, a healthy lifestyle, including herbal and psychological remedies, or the study of spiritual and philosophical resources are a must.

The small-minded nature of turf battles and envidia-ridden politics—“We’d rather fight than switch”–only contributes to the collapse of the community economy. “Small is beautiful” and “hope springs eternal.” But I don’t see how community leaders can change in the current environment due to the nature of elective politics. A majority of elected officials and their appointees act as parasites on the body politic, whether national, state, or local. Yesterday’s judicial commission was a good example of how, even locally, the elites govern from afar on our tax dollars.

The well-received Floyd Lopez, an applicant for judge, was highly praised; he comes from a good gamily and his brother Owen, the head of the nonprofit McCune Foundation, called panel members. Sure, I think he’d be a good judge, too. And I have no doubt that Chief Daniels is intent on restoring the “image” of the judiciary. Sure, we like do-gooders like Owen but the nitty-gritty changes we need are subject to local politics, police procedures, the DA, and the magistrate or muni courts.

But, given that something like 90% of the cases tried occur in magistrate court and municipal court, given that attorneys generally compete to win cases, when they aren’t abusing the process—see KCEC and their attorneys above–we can expect little more than first aid from district court. Jeff Shannon got it right when he reminded the distinguished panel of their duty. So keep your seat belt fastened, don’t drink and drive, don’t speed, smoke at home, and don’t say anything on the phone or in your email you don’t want the government to know.