mjh’s blog

Twitter Twaddle

I’ve been curious about Twitter for quite a while. Mind you, I am naturally averse to the mob and its fickle fancies. I don’t march to any drummer, not even my own. However, I am a computerist and technologist and curious.

I started to explore Twitter by looking at the "tweets" I might actually follow. If you follow these links,  you see what tweets look like, albeit outside of the normal flow of Twitter.

• Name jfleck
• Web http://www.inksta…
• Bio New Mexico print journalist, desert water geek

168 Following
259 Followers

jfleck (jfleck) on Twitter

* Name Ed Bott * Location Santa Fe, NM * Web http://edbott.com… * Bio award-winning author, tech journalist, Windows geek 193 Following 976 Followers

• Name Ed Bott
• Location Santa Fe, NM
• Web http://edbott.com…
• Bio award-winning author, tech journalist, Windows geek

193 Following
976 Followers

Ed Bott (edbott) on Twitter

• Name Netflix
• Location Los Gatos, CA
• Web http://netflix.com
• Bio Official Netflix twitter channel.World’s largest online movie rental service.For customer service on twitter:Netflix Helps. We want to hear from you.

17 Following
4,651 Followers

Netflix (netflix) on Twitter

Twitter / KOB.com Albuquerque: #ABQ - City looking into a …

My impression of this is that if you enjoy listening to the conversations going on around you in a crowded restaurant, you will love Twitter. I prefer context and quiet. peace, mjh

Bad, Bad Neighbors

Our neighbors rented their house at 1419 Quincy NE, Albuquerque, NM, 87110, to a group of college students last September. The first week these punks moved in, people were sleeping in cars on our street. Every Thurs-Fri-Sat, these folks party. This means visitors coming and going at 2am, 3am, 4am, with car doors slamming, alarms set and unset, booming radios, loud cursing, and bunches of cars along the street the next morning, along with trash. Awful people.

Today, there are two busted windows on the front of the house. So, it really can get worse. peace, mjh

PS: The home owners, Shannon LeTourneau and Mark letourneau, have very little Internet presence, so, I hope this blog entry comes up in every search for them or this property.

Hot Pockets

Merri and I rode the NM Railrunner train from Albuquerque to Santa Fe for a daytrip today. As I prepared to leave the house, I put a handful of coins in one of my pockets plus two spare rechargeable batteries for my camera.

Over about 6 hours, we rode to Santa Fe and walked about town. Shortly after 4pm, we boarded the return train and took seats on the upper level. We sat for 10 to 15 minutes, waiting for the departure. At some point, Merri put her hand on my leg and yanked it back, as if from a hot stove. Indeed, my pocket full of change and two batteries was extremely hot. As I gingerly extracted coins, I burned the tips of three fingers to blisters. One of the two batteries looked a little damaged. Once everything was extracted and laid out, it all cooled off quickly. My fingers still sting.

Weird science. I had an exposed circuit in my pocket, finger in the socket. peace, mjh

PS: The trip to Santa Fe was fun. The actual ride was the main event and was worth the trip. We had lunch at Tia Sophia and strolled around town. We toured the Georgia O’Keeffe museum. All along the way, we met people Merri knows. Especially in the State Capitol, where she knew many folks. On the ride back, we had a nice conversation with a woman who works for the Department of Transportation.

PPS: Ironically, my concerns about cameras and photography on the train had been for naught. The subject never came up. There was no official announcement and there wasn’t much I felt deprived from photographing.

We’re All Newcomers

Two things are certain about living in New Mexico. First, no matter how newly you arrived, someone newer will arrive shortly. People have been moving to New Mexico for at least 13,000 years and that migration isn’t stopping soon. Second, no matter how long you’ve been here, someone has been here a lot longer. That’s really the other side of the same coin. Whether you arrived here 100, 500, 1,000 or 10,000 years ago, someone has been here longer. (Except for those first arrivers.) In geologic time, everyone got here yesterday or this morning — we’re all newcomers. Of course, people don’t think that way. Instead, we divide ourselves any way we can, including by longevity of residence. My 25 years loving New Mexico are meaningless to someone whose family has lived here for generations. We all would consider it absurd for someone who arrived on Monday to judge someone who arrives on Friday. When does absurdity become propriety? Does 100 years count if your family has been here 1000? How does 1000 stack up against 10,000?

I’m thinking about "rights" and "claims" because of an interesting issue that has recently arisen in New Mexico. We have a commuter train that runs from Belen, south of Albuquerque, to Santa Fe, to the north. Over a course of 100+ miles, the train passes through several Indian pueblos. (There are 19 pueblos and tribes in New Mexico.) Pueblos are semi-independent nations with their own laws and regulations. Most pueblos forbid people from taking photos on pueblo land with some exceptions. Now that the train passes through these lands, the pueblos have asked people to refrain from taking photos from the train along part of the route. A reasonable and polite request. The rub comes from the railroad asking people to refrain from taking photos. These are public right-of-ways run by the state. Does the state have the right to impose pueblo law on non-pueblo citizens on public right-of-ways? I’ll let the courts decide that, as I am sure they will be asked to.

When I finally ride the train to Santa Fe, I will respect pueblo requests to avoid photographing people and buildings on pueblo land. But what of the vista? Who can claim to own a vista that stretches 100 miles? If the conductor asks me to put away my camera and I don’t, will he or she consider me a jerk? Even if I am genuinely respectful of the pueblos up to the point of wanting, as a fellow citizen of New Mexico and the world, the privilege to photograph the long view or a roadrunner eating a snake?

I’m particularly surprised that the press doesn’t react more to the way this came to pass. Someone knows someone and gets a favor. An unelected official imposes his will on people without any discussion. There’s something outrageous there. Or would only a jerk think so?

Isn’t the press curious whether Isleta pueblo, which straddles the southern route that opened in 2008, made a similar request six months or more ago and, if not, why not?

In her front page story, Leslie Linthicum has two powerful paragraphs (no sarcasm):

But what separates good people from jerks is the ability to temper "I wanna" and "I can" with "do I really hafta?" and "I won’t." …

So, will you? That probably depends on whether you’re a New Mexican or whether you just live here.

But Leslie may be unfair in her harsh judgment. (Westerners often tolerate what they don’t really approve of.) She draws a line in the sand and calls anyone who even questions the line a jerk. I’ve lived here 24 years. I *love* New Mexico and want to live here until I die.

I’ll bet Leslie a Golden Pride breakfast burrito that one of the following things will happen in the next five years. First, someone willing to be considered a jerk will sue over this matter. A legally-savvy jerk will note that this appears to violate the anti-Establishment clause of the US constitution. Moreover, it probably violates the anti-donation clause of the NM constitution. Second, perhaps as a result of this lawsuit, the train will install automatic shades, which will drop at various points along the ride. Third, the pueblos will erect fences or other visual blocks where they feel they are necessary. (That’s the solution I endorse, short of miles of fencing.)

peace,
mjh

Photos From the Train? Not on Pueblo Lands
By Leslie Linthicum
Journal Staff Writer

The Wheels of Justice Turn Slowly

[From KOB:]

Albuquerque attorney John Wayne Higgins usually defends drunk drivers.

On Wednesday night he had the right to remain silent; instead he acted as his own attorney and tried to defend himself. [He was arrested for drunk driving.]

You may recall John Wayne Higgins. In 1998, John Wayne Higgins ran for Bernalillo County Probate Court Judge. With no probate experience, he ran against Ira Robinson and Merri Rudd. In a three-way race, Ira Robinson ("Family matters.") won. Two years later, Robinson ran for the State Court of Appeals. His victory created the vacancy that finally brought Merri Rudd to the office she was made for.

Imagine the drunk DWI attorney as probate judge. How do such people think they qualify to run for a particular office? It’s an insult to the public.

PS: Ira Robinson left the State Court of Appeals, for, ahem, personal reasons.

In Which I Throw My Shoe at Jim Scarantino

Jim Scarantino has tried hard to fill the void left with by the departure from New Mexico of John Dimdahl, that paragon of rightwingnuttery. Today, Jim explains the dark side of progressives (using a Nobel laureate to defend his views). Let’s listen in:

As Nobel laureate Friedrich Hayek has shown [mjh: beyond any doubt!], progressives have always had a regrettable dark side. … [I]n their push to transform society, progressives frequently show an eagerness to employ the coercive powers  of the state against individuals and individual rights that inconvenience their agenda.

Hmmm. Does he mean things like forcing you to take your shoes off before boarding a plane? Is Jim referring to the database record that includes your Facebook page and Amazon purchases? Or is he thinking of the hundreds of people imprisoned for years without a trial, often wrongly? Oh, those damn Progressives. No, wait, that was the Conservatives! Sorry, Jim.

Human beings of every stripe have a regrettable dark side. Conservatives have always worn theirs on their sleeves. peace, mjh

New Mexico Politics: New Mexico FBIHOP:: Meet Bill the Rancher

Read the full story at FBIHOP:

I’ve never been one for politics, and Ed Tinsley is the only politician I’ve known on a personal level. Sometimes I think that if he treated me this way, how would he treat the rest of us in Southern New Mexico? Based on what I know about the man, he’ll pretend to be your friend as a candidate, and turn his back on you as a Congressman. Bill Vance Eunice, NM

New Mexico Politics: New Mexico FBIHOP:: Meet Bill the Rancher

Hello, Dan Foley? WTF?!

Dan Foley must be the biggest jackass in New Mexico – maybe even the Four Corners. Foley knows nothing about history – such as the mass migration of Southern Democrats to the Republican Party in response to the Civil Rights Movement and the open arms with which the GOP welcomed those former Dems. Worse, in an essay George Orwell would love, Foley explains Dems are the hate-mongers. Apparently he’s as clueless about current events. Listen to Hate Radio for a day, Dan, if you can stomach it. peace, mjh

Heath Haussamen on New Mexico Politics: What about the left’s ‘verbal terrorism?

By Dan Foley

Obama and his racist supporters have gone too far. Comparing Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin to Democrat Gov. George C. Wallace has to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back!

How come Obama and his Far Left thugs continue to accuse Republicans of bringing race into this campaign when the fact is the only people who constantly bring race up are the left-wingers themselves? Why do the media let them get away with the continued hate- mongering and divisive race-baiting that the Obama campaign relishes?

Heath Haussamen on New Mexico Politics: What about the left’s ‘verbal terrorism?

Another McCain-Palin supporter yells ‘kill him!’ about Obama.»

The Scranton Times-Tribune notes that yet another McCain supporter at a rally today with Gov. Sarah Palin yelled “kill him!” in reference to Sen. Barack Obama:

Chris Hackett addressed the increasingly feisty crowd as they await the arrival of Gov. Palin. Each time the Republican candidate for the seat in the 10th Congressional District mentioned Barack Obama the crowd booed loudly. One man screamed “kill him!”

Last Monday, a supporter also yelled “kill him” at a rally. In the past weeks, McCain supporters have called Obama “an Arab,” “Little Hussein,” and a “terrorist.” (HT: TPM)

UPDATE: At a rally in Virginia Beach, a supporter yelled “Obama bin Laden!“:

E. J. Dionne Jr. - McCain and the Raging Right - washingtonpost.com

Yet culture war politics is relatively mild compared with the far-right appeals that are emerging this year. It is as if McCain’s loyalists overshot the ’60s and went back to the ’50s or even the ’30s.

What we are witnessing is the mainstreaming of the far right, a phenomenon that began to take shape with some of the earliest attacks on Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

False claims that Obama is Muslim, that he trained to overthrow the government and that he was educated in Wahhabi schools are a standard part of the political discussion. These fake stories come from voices on the ultra right that have dabbled in other forms of conspiracy, including classic anti-Semitism. McCain and his campaign do not pick up the most extreme charges. They just fan the flames by suggesting that voters don’t really know who Obama is, hinting at a sinister back story without filling in the details.

McCain cannot be blamed for all of the crazies who see in Obama a chance to earn fame and fortune by concocting lies about him. And yes, we should defend the speech rights even of those whose views we find abhorrent.

But the angry McCain-Palin crowds, and particularly those who threaten violence or shout racist epithets, should be a wake-up call to McCain. The dark hints about Obama that McCain’s campaign is dropping dovetail too nicely with the nasty trash floating around the Internet and the airwaves.

We are in the midst of what could become the worst economic downturn in decades. The last thing we need is a campaign that strengthens fanaticism, tarnishes the authority of the next president and whips up the worst kinds of prejudice. This works both ways: Obama should not be delegitimized if he wins, and McCain should not want to win in a way that would undermine his own capacity to lead.

When Christopher Buckley, a novelist and former speechwriter for George H.W. Bush, announced last week that he would vote for Obama (his first vote ever for a Democrat), he referred to words once spoken to him by his late father. “You know,” the conservative hero William F. Buckley Jr. said, “I’ve spent my entire lifetime separating the right from the kooks.”

McCain has an obligation, to his own legacy and the country he has served, to separate himself and his campaign from the kooks. Extremism in defense of liberty may be no vice, but extremism in pursuit of the presidency is as dysfunctional as it is degrading.

E. J. Dionne Jr. - McCain and the Raging Right - washingtonpost.com

PS: I take some comfort that most of the comments on Foley’s awful essay take him to task. Don’t let the liars and fools change the truth.

Defend the Constitution or the Administration?

03/27/2003: Bernco Sheriff Darren White

Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White has stepped into the fray over the right of a free people to peaceably assemble in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Albuquerque Police Department officers are tired from their conflicts with demonstrators (those batons and machine guns are heavy!), so Bernalillo County will offer them some relief. Sheriff White immediately drew a line in the sand: step in the streets and go to jail, plus pay for the cost of policing the demonstrators.

Permits are not required to demonstrate in city parks, Civic Plaza or on any public sidewalk.

Darren White Cannot Represent Us

ABQJOURNAL UPFRONT: Activist Has Lived Life Always Speaking Her Mind 

By Joline Gutierrez Krueger
Journal Staff Writer

For the record:
    I’ll give Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White the benefit of the doubt and assume that his response Monday to my Sept. 26 column on a North Valley family who sued his department and four of his deputies for excessive use of force was written for purely political purposes and not to deliberately mislead readers.
    In truth, I did not miss a second of the testimony on the deputies’ side of the case, and I researched hundreds of pages of records and documents presented by both sides — far more than what the jury got to see.
    To have requested comment from the Sheriff’s Department while the case was ongoing would have been inappropriate, unnecessary and likely to only produce the ubiquitous “we cannot comment on pending litigation” quote. White knows this.
    I also did not “laugh and talk” with the family, though I did have a chuckle with the deputies in the court elevator.
    I have no problem with those who disagree with me, but if you’re going to insult my credibility for political purposes, it’s always nice to have the facts straight.

ABQJOURNAL UPFRONT: Activist Has Lived Life Always Speaking Her Mind

Prejudice Comes in All Colors

GOP Leader Won’t Resign, By Jeff Jones
Copyright © 2008 Albuquerque Journal

By late morning, however, audio-taped C de Baca comments from a separate BBC radio interview began making the rounds in New Mexico.

       “I feel strongly that Hispanics will not support, in my generation and the generation around my age, are not going to support the Democratic candidate for president primarily because there is a strong feeling that African-Americans during the civil-rights movement took advantage, full advantage, of all the benefits and programs that the government offered, that were supposed to be offered to all minorities,” C de Baca said in the newly released interview with the British broadcasting giant.

       “But we were left behind, we were left sucking air, and we resented that ever since the ’60s, and I don’t see how a black president is going to change that,” C de Baca said in the interview recorded in Albuquerque last week in connection with a foreign journalist tour.

I’m outside any quarrel between Hispanics and African-Americans. I’m surprised, though, that a Hispanic would resent blacks “taking advantage” of benefits. C de Baca implies that blacks took more than their share and left Hispanics empty handed. An odd view for a conservative, who should resent anyone who takes advantage of government support – anyone other than countless corporations.

Time to recall this quote from just a few weeks ago:

Garcia, 71, lives in Doña Ana, just north of Las Cruces. She thinks Obama has come off as condescending and arrogant.

“I don’t know one single Hispanic over 50 who will cast a vote for Obama,” she said, conceding that “there have always been conflicts between blacks and browns.

New Mexico : Betting on the West : The Rocky Mountain News By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon, Rocky Mountain News

peace, mjh

Sheriff Darren White Stole My Picture…Then Tortured It!!! - Duke City Fix

Sheriff Darren White Stole My Picture…Then Tortured It!!! Posted by Johnny_Mango on September 23, 2008 at 9:35am

Sheriff Darren White Stole My Picture…Then Tortured It!!! - Duke City Fix

Ignore the Feeble Old Man Behind the Curtain — Look at the Pretty Lady!

Good news, everybody. The GOP has discovered that some people are still sexist and they aren’t going to put up with it any longer. Never mind the fact that the Republicans regularly roll their eyes at Politically Correct speech and insist that everyone is so damn sensitive to harmless speech. No, now the Republicans are the feminist, if not the femi-nazis.

I assume McSame Failin’ will be speaking out in favor of equal pay and a woman’s right to control her own body. Yes? I assume Conservatives everywhere are asking forgiveness for the hateful things they said about Janet Reno and many other women. I assume McCain has called up that supporter who called Hillary a bitch and finally said, “Madam, I won’t stand for that,” instead of laughing along with the crowd.

Yup, with Republicans Against Sexism, it’s morning in AmeriCo again.

 Palin Drone

Palin Drone

Sexism and the GOP’s candidate for VP

By Jim Scarantino

On the basis of experience alone, one cannot answer yes to Obama as president and no to Palin as vice president without applying a sexist double standard.

Palin has her own remarkable life story to tell. Like Obama, she must overcome stereotypes and prejudice. She has only two short, intense months to get that done. [mjh: Poor Palin! Perhaps she should have gotten involved in the national scene a little sooner. Did the GOP learn nothing from the last nasty governor they anointed?]

Palin Drone

Obama has been running for over 18 months. There is no one in America who hasn’t heard something about him. (No one who should vote, at least.) Palin is an unknown to most of her own party. It just isn’t comparable, Jim.

We’ve seen this VP before

By Jerry Ortiz y Pino

We know Sarah Palin because we know Fox News and because we know Ann Coulter. She is a fresh face on the scene, but the ideas she espouses are certainly not fresh; they deviate not an iota from the Karl Rove memo-of-the-day repeated endlessly by the clones at Fox. And she delivers them with the venom and bilious smirk we know all-too-well from watching Coulter when we can’t escape. …

We know Palin because we knew Spiro Agnew. She has been assigned the Spiro Agnew role, the Spiro Agnew dialogue, the Spiro Agnew bludgeon. She is, despite her gender, Spiro Agnew the way Mary Martin was, despite her gender, Peter Pan.

Heinrich Leading White 51% to 46%

An independent survey conducted by SurveyUSA for Roll Call has Martin Heinrich leading Darren White 51% - 46%. Martin is over the crucial 50% mark and his lead is outside the margin of error. [per the Heinrich campaign] (Yeah!)