Cause for Alarm: Omens and Signs

Name-dropping

USA

President Barack Obama huddles with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

Elected incumbents are under siege in this election year, 2010. Democrats will probably lose control of congress. What began as an era marked by hope has turned into bitter disappointment for the democratic faithful. Disappointment breeds apathy and disgust. The party of “nope” will win back control as the party of “hope” fades into another broken promise due to the Obama elitists.

Obama and friends have bailed out wealthy bankers and health-care brokers, while ignoring regulatory safeguards, which resulted in crimes against humanity and nature in the Gulf and in West Virginia. (Our neighbor from nearby Southern Colorado, Interior Sec. Ken Salazar, is part of the problem.) The wars abroad in Afghanistan and Iraq serve private interests. And the Obama national security state  continues the Bush attack on safeguards protecting due process and habeas corpus.

In terms of principle and ideas, the two-party system is bankrupt. Corporate America and their congressional stooges have cannibalized the constitution and turned citizens into consumers. It’s time for all party members to re-register as Independents.

“Vote no and don’t buy nothing.”

New Mexico

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish (D), left, will face Dona Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez (R), right, in the general election

Eight years of arrogant “pay to play” politics buttressed by cronyism has produced anti-incumbent fever–even among Norteno democrats here in New Mexico. Tejana Susana Martinez has a hammer in her hand for illegal immigrants and pipe in mind for El Norte’s water. Down south right-wing Cheney ideologue, Republican Stephen Pearce wants to get rid of Democrat Harry Teague and add his voice to those calling for the privatization of social security.

Martinez says she’s ready to use taxpayer funds for vouchers so parents can send their kids to private schools. The best and the brightest already flee to charter schools or get their GEDs so they can get on to community colleges. The public schools are in danger of becoming a social service warehouse for English Language Learners, Special Needs kids, a few athletes, and apathetic students with no other impetus but the hormonal drive to party. A democracy requires a rich mix of kids—not the selective exclusivity provided by private and charter schools and/or the local lock-up.

Taos County

The absence of a Taos County Democratic Party campaign—return to the days of apathy al la El Skitte—means few yard signs, no democratic party headquarters, and disaster in November. Only a single bruja has raised her voice in opposition to local apathy, one Trudy Healy: See this week’s Taos News. Whatever happened to Chairman Chuby, the terror of the precincts, and his sidekick Fernando “We had to cheat to win” Miera? I guess they forgot, like Obama, that winning means you’re supposed to govern and/or continue organizing your base.

The general outrage focused on arrogant incumbents has empowered “Living Treasure” Jeff Northrup and Coop Watchdog Jerome Lucero in their drive to hold the Town of Taos accountable for raising taxes. The GRT is probably a good thing for the citizens and funding future infrastructure but by disregarding voters, the council may have doomed the community to a Northrup–Lucero backed referendum.

Leaders of Taos County and the Taos Municipal Schools went to great efforts to both educate and persuade the voters of the “need” for a new complex and renovations to the schools. Ironically, GRT from these two massive projects—approved by the voters—currently fund income streams to keep the Town itself solvent. The Town fathers and one mother were too good to ask for a vote.

The Mayor’s obsession with “The Living Treasure” has resulted in a public date: See Jeff and Darren dance on Sept. 23 at municipal court, where “conflict of interest” is thy name. At the rate the Town is retaliating against Jeff, one can see dollar signs descending on a future civil liberties settlement. Call Jeff any name you want but don’t call the Chicano Chamber’s Man of the Year a coward. A man who fights for cheap gas can’t be all bad.

The attack by the Town of Taos, The Taos News, and local school administrators on the Taos Municipal School-board has come at the expense of students, teachers, and God himself, according to local news reports. At least the Tigers won a big football game, thanks in part of a moment of silence and due to a wiry skinny guy named Max—who has a head full of determination and a heart full of guts–“a one man wrecking crew,” according to an eyewitness.

Virgil Martinez

St. Jude may survive the massacre of myopic CRAB Hall elites but the politics of envidia lead to inertia and the opportunity to portray ethnic bigotry in the local weekly. Check out the jail and heart-wrenching stories from victims of drugs, drink, murder, mayhem, and CRAB Hall: It ain’t always funny Mr. Baker and Mr. Baron. A nickname, prompted by an individual’s political act, is aimed at drawing attention to a specific responsible party. A cartoon, insensitively executed, stereotypes an ethnic group with the use of reductive imagery.

Some of my best friends are gay, pray, vote Republican or Democrat, or spent time in the Big House. Meanwhile, the white-collar criminals on Wall St. and gerrymandered trustees at the Coop run free with your money. (Caveat:  Jerome is Coming!) Like Virgil Martinez, my favorite Republican says, “I feel sorry for Taos County.”