Category Archives: loco

As Tip O’Neill never said, “All politics is loco.”

just on too many radar screens politically = we’ll be back when folks are distracted

ABQjournal: Developers Drop Rezoning Effort; Mobile Home Park Stays Put for Now By Debra Dominguez, Journal Staff Writer

After forming a neighborhood association, holding several meetings and pleading to various public officials, Del Rey Mobile Home Park residents are calling it a victory.

Interstate Development Co. has decided to withdraw its application to rezone the residents’ 59-acre mobile home park into a 209-lot residential subdivision — at least for now, said William Nelson, a partner with the development company.

“The property was just on too many radar screens politically,” Nelson said. “Too many city councilors and legislators were aware of the issue and involved.

“I’m not sure I would have gotten what I wanted right now if I pursued rezoning the property …” Nelson said. “But I’m still considering and planning on buying the property and will probably rezone it later when I’m sure it won’t be a mission impossible.”

About 400 park households would have been forced to move their mobile homes in August if the rezoning application were approved by the Environmental Planning Commission later this month.

Congratulations to the residents of Del Rey Mobile Home Park. They proved that people can stand up to corporations and save their homes. They need to remember this victory may be temporary. mjh

Profits vs Living

ABQjournal: Firms Seek Revision In Living Wage By Laura Banish, Journal Staff Writer

Hundreds of people in Santa Fe County could lose their home health care services because of the city of Santa Fe’s “living wage” ordinance, according to two local home health care providers who are asking the city for an exemption to the city-mandated minimum wage.

Businesses with 25 or more employees must pay workers at least $8.50 per hour. The only exemption is nonprofit organizations whose primary source of funds comes from Medicaid waivers.

The two home health care providers, which are for-profit businesses, would like to see the word “nonprofit” struck from the ordinance so the exemption includes all businesses that receive their primary source of funds from Medicaid. The two companies say for-profit providers account for 90 percent of home health care services in Santa Fe County.

Representatives from Heritage Home Healthcare and Professional Home Health Care said they are losing between 7 cents and 39 cents per hour at the living wage hourly rate of $8.50 and will lose between $1.43 and $1.69 per hour once the living wage rate rises to $9.50 per hour in January 2006.

Heritage Home Healthcare president Lee Trainor told the city Finance Committee on Tuesday that he is ready to tell the state in August that his company will no longer be able to provide home health care services such as bathing and food preparation to roughly 200 patients if the exemption is not approved.

“We’ve been busting our butts to keep these patients cared for so they can continue living in their homes, but we just can’t continue to do it if something doesn’t give,” Trainor said later.

Professional Home Health Care director of operations Kevin Enslin said his company would also have to discontinue home care services to a similar number of people. His company anticipates losing $67,600 per month once the living wage increases in 2006.

I have two thoughts on this. First, isn’t a willingness to bathe a strange worth more than $6 per hour? Don’t these workers deserve a living wage?

Second, how the hell are these two companies making a profit now if they will lose so much money through the increase — are they that unprofitable already?

By 2006, PHHC expects to lose $67,600 per month. That’s an impressive figure. But it means nothing without some indication of their other costs and their actual net. Sure, as the owner or stockholder in that company, I don’t want to lose any money. But, should the owner and stockholders prosper if they cannot pay people a fair wage? And “fair” is not defined as it so often has been by what you can get away with paying. Fair means people who work for you can actually live on what you pay them. mjh

NIMBY (I don’t own a cellphone)

ABQjournal: Ruling on Tower Upsets Neighbors By Martin Salazar, Journal Staff Writer

Arroyo Seco residents who waged a legal battle to bring down a 198-foot telecommunications tower near their homes expressed dismay at a state Supreme Court ruling last week that allows the tower to remain. …

The variance was needed because Skyhigh was trying to erect a 198-foot tower when the county code limited the height of structures to 24 feet. The commission voted 2-to-1 in favor of granting the variance.

Several Arroyo Seco residents then took the county to court, and a district judge ruled in 2001 that the commission had acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” in granting a height variance for the tower.

Skyhigh filed an appeal with the state Court of Appeals, which refused to hear the case. Skyhigh then asked the Supreme Court to take up the matter.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court states that Santa Fe County acted according to its own rules when it approved the variance for the tower. The court also emphasized that Santa Fe County code allows telecommunications facilities anywhere in the county.

Anonymous vs Eponymous by Dr Whatsittuya

I’ve had a few nicknames over the years, most notably Gue, which a few old friends still call me. However, I’ve never represented myself as anyone other than Mark Justice Hinton. That’s probably more driven by pride than ethics.

What’s got me writing is a new anonymous blogger. We’ve all read something written anonymously from time to time. Much loved locally are Pika Brittlebush and Coco, neither of whom I’ve doubted or disliked for hiding something from us all. I used to think Pika was a high school boy having a larf. For all I know, Coco is really John Fleck. Why should I care who they are physically? I know something about their minds.

Perhaps it took one more example to make me fear a trend, but I’m uneasy about Marston Moore who just burst on the scene at Duke City Fix. I’ll admit that I’m jealous of his/her inaugural piece and, especially, the way people are falling all over him/her with praise. Hey, isn’t there enough love to go around? What about those of us who have been writing for you for years? So, maybe I’m not seeing clearly through this green haze, but why write anonymously? What is Marston hiding or who is s/he hiding from? Does mystery enhance his/her/its message?

I’m conflicted over this because I think one of the great things about our virtual relationships is we don’t know much about each other that isn’t revealed as we go. In other words, when we walk into a room full of people, we start categorizing them quickly and easily. It’s harder here in cyberspace. Perhaps we all should be anonymous. Of course, for all you know, I am an old woman, named after my mother, who made up “mjh” one day.

These days a lot of people want you to believe you can’t trust anyone or anything. They say that every word is biased and spun. Of course, some of those same people give the party in power the faith they used to reserve for god — not that there’s any difference anymore. And those with power and money hire people to spin for them and create buzz. It’s not lying — it’s getting your message out there. It’s not tax-funded propaganda, it’s what’s good for the nation. It’s not stifling dissent or pranging the minority, it’s the Constitutional option.

I rather doubt that Marston Moore is Karl “der Grosse” Rove or John Blather Dimdahl. Maybe s/he’s the next Mark Twain or P.D. James. Pseudonyms may be no more a threat to democracy than pseudo-tits. But, if MM decides to come out and take off the mask, I’ll be interested in the truth. Gue

I Know I Slept Safer Last Night

An inside source tells me the lead fiddler for the Old Blind Dogs, a scottish band playing in Albuquerque, could not enter the country because of ‘passport irregularities.’ The photo on his passport had a turned up edge — it might have been tampered with! Thank god he was detained at the border and our defenders couldn’t be persuaded by, say, CD covers, fliers, ads — his fiddle. All that stuff can be faked, you know.

I’m not saying that a Scottish musician should not be subjected to the same examination as anyone else — I’m not for profiling. However, we need to remember every day how ridiculously we reacted to 9/11; we need to remember our own collective madness born of grief. We take off our shoes to protect America. Yeah, good response. mjh

Come to your own conclusions and express them freely

I begin to understand that Matt Bohnsack and I have a fundamental communication problem. As some know, we’ve gone back and forth on a couple of issues on several different blogs (links below). In his recent response, he writes about the original article: “his article on cock fighting in New Mexico” and, later, “I wasn?t interested it the cock fighting.”

Do check out that article and note, since it isn’t obvious, that it wasn’t really about “cockfighting” except metaphorically. I’ve expressed elsewhere my views about New Mexicans pitting rosters against each other for money and blood.

To me, what that piece was about is summed up here:

[mjh:] You should definitely read for yourself and come to your own conclusions (see the links at the end of this entry). And that is what I am here to celebrate.

By which, I meant the Internet, the Web, and the blogosphere, including people I disagree with. Matt and I both celebrate that one can reach one’s own conclusions by burrowing through the accretions of the Web.

I understand now why Matt is so miffed. He’s very personally invested in Rathergate. I am not. My glib parenthetical remark pissed him off. That observation will surely bother him, as well.

I assume Matt is not reading this. Why return to someone who you believe cannot express himself to your satisfaction? What’s the point. Isn’t a pop-definition of insanity doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results? It might be insane to think I can persuade Matt of anything.

[Matt writes about my] “unveiled contempt for religious beliefs that are protected by the Bill of Rights

First of all, the same amendment that protects me from a State Religion also protects my right to express my contempt. Which right trumps the other? Secondly, my contempt is for those people who believe there IS a State Religion and it is Evangelical Christianity. That is contemptible.

[MB:] “Surely Mark doesn?t believe that only speech he agrees with should be free.”

Correct. In fact, I think it is vital that speech I disagree with be widely distributed. No sarcasm. I actually believe in the Marketplace of Ideas. For some reason, Matt insults me for giving “the weakest lip service to these freedoms.” I do the best I can; perhaps I’m simply weak.

[MB:] “All I want to know is why Mark thinks one kind of speech or press is good and protected, while other kinds erode the fabric of of democracy?”

It’s not the medium of speech (press, TV, blog, etc). It’s the specific expressions. I have a right to disagree with anything and to say so without being accused of repression (a technique for bullying others). Matt has the same right, as do we all.

[MB:] “All Americans should be troubled that Mark finds one kind of speech more precious than another.”

People who speak to or for ALL Americans kinda scare me. Most Americans shouldn’t have the slightest interest in me or Matt.

But, I do like that word “precious.” Freedom of Speech is precious to me. But that doesn’t mean I find every expression equally precious. Consider the grade schooler who called me “a pussy” after reading about my wife and me getting shot in the back by ruthless paintballers (even after seeing a rather grim photo). Note that I left that remark up and I did not notify his school — I let his remark stand, in part because I think I know how some will react. I have to wonder if Matt regards that remark the exact equivalent in every regard to his own writing.

[MB:] “[H]e?s also quite wrong in claiming that I suggested that he would try to to silence bloggers. He?s wrong, because I?ve never made this claim …. I?d ask Mark to please quote and cite the source”

From his first comments at theFix:

[MB:] “[E]xplain how you suggest that we should strengthen this important freedom in the future. Should we ban or regulate blogging?”

I know it’s more a question than a suggestion, but that plus the whole tone of his original comment sure made me sound like a bad guy. That view has certainly gotten clearer: “All Americans should be troubled” by me.

From his second comments at theFix:

[MB:] “You should be ashamed of yourself. … Please stop it.”

Stop expressing myself freely? Stop enjoying my freedom in a way you disapprove of? I’m not about to be bullied by you.

[MB:] “Give me validation or strike me down…. I?m going to keep asking these questions, until he provides me with a coherent answer.”

I clearly can’t satisfy Matt. It would be insane to keep asking the same question. I hope he continues to enjoy his freedom, as I do mine.

By the way, I’m not a member of the ACLU. And I was DTS (“Declines To State” or Independent) for many years. Peace, mjh

Quotes are from:
(1) Media Watch: Cockfighting in New Mexico
(2) bohnsack.com ? Rathergate
(3) mjh’s Blog: Conservatives For a Free Press

Good Stewards

ABQjournal: Dumped Cattle Carcasses Increase in Curry

CLOVIS — The Curry County sheriff says the area is seeing an increasing number of cattle carcasses dumped on the rights of way of roads and highways.

“It’s mostly Holsteins and it’s mostly calves,” said Sheriff Roger Hatcher.

He predicts the problem will get worse with the growing dairy and cattle industry.

New Mexico law requires livestock owners to dispose of dead animals by burning, burying or contracting with a removal service. …

Hatcher said the problem isn’t fuel prices? it’s a blatant disregard for the law.

Identifying marks, such as ear tags, are often missing from the dumped carcasses, he said.

“People are doing this at night. They know it is wrong,” he said.

Ranchers can’t be doing this! They’re good stewards of the land! No, it must be environmentalists feeding wolves. Yeah, that’s it. mjh