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.

ABQJOURNAL NEWS/METRO: APD Has Had Many Bad Run-Ins By T.J. Wilham, Journal Staff Writer

APD arrested 517 people for “refusing to obey” charges in 2007, according to a recent Journal investigation. Seventy percent of the cases were thrown out.
        Local defense attorneys derisively call the refusing to obey charge “contempt of cop” and claim APD routinely violates residents’ first amendment rights.
        Police Chief Ray Schultz says some encounters could have been avoided if officers had explained their actions.
        Schultz has said he is looking into customer service training for his department.

ABQJOURNAL NEWS/METRO: APD Has Had Many Bad Run-Ins

PS: The Journal pats itself on the back today of its new UpFront series (camelcase — that must have given the editors fits), which gives extra prominence to some old standbys. Kudos for including a couple of women. Perhaps Version 2.0 will feature someone under 40, black, Native American, or more than one native New Mexican. It is interesting that a feature that runs 7 days a week doesn’t have 7 authors — or 14.

Dan Herrera, Assistant Managing Editor of the Journal writes, “One reader said that UpFront was like a blog in print. Actually, we print people have been doing it quite a bit longer. [mjh: Therefore, we have nothing to learn from the blogosphere.]

“And, unlike most bloggers, our columnists travel the state doing original research, and not in their pajamas.”

Ouch! Hey, Dan, I don’t wear pajamas.

PPS: I mostly enjoyed Leslie Linthicum’s column on the big cheese, regardless of how she dressed while writing it, although her coming back with pictures of boxes that might have been empty or full of guns disappointed me. Will we see Glanbia ads in the paper starting next week? (As occurred with another major advertiser a few years ago after a huge gushing “they’re coming to town!” article appeared on the front page, above the fold.)

Obama the War President: Will you fight his wars? By Jim Scarantino - The Real Side

Look up ad hominem on Wikipedia and you won’t find Jim Scarantino’s picture. For that, you’ll have to look up “fucking ridiculous.” I know Jim considers himself one of New Mexico’s great bloggers, way up there with Joe Yawnahan (and his Graphics Monkey), another of our gifts to the blahblahblahgosphere. The pressure to perform must be getting to Jim because his latest Alibi column is far from The Real Side. Kinda like the Republican Party these days.

To the extent that Jim’s latest is about anything, here it is: Obama supporters who aren’t in uniform are hypocrites. I don’t quite see the difference between this and the earlier assertion from the Radical Wrong that if you aren’t serving in Iraq, shut the fuck up about the Great War Without End. Don’t you love it when people take every opportunity to say “freedom isn’t free.” I thought we consider freedom a gift from god that even pacifist-atheists like me get to enjoy. No, if you’re not on active duty, a vet, or related to a vet (can I count my Dad and brother here?), you got nothing worth hearing. Hug a soldier and thank god he doesn’t throw you in Gitmo!

So, per Jim, not only are peaceniks deceived by Obama, but we can only prove our loyalty to the Great Deceiver by joining the military. What did Jim do, search and replace “Bush” in an old column? Cribbing from Huffington Post, Jim? Trying for a spot as a McCain speech-writer?

I’m still struggling with this. If you support Obama, join the military. For two-thirds of his column, that’s all Jim has to say. Isn’t that like saying, “If you support DUHbya, sell your oil stock”? Or “if you support McCain, take ecstasy and go to a rave”?

(Blog rhetoric notwithstanding, active duty soldiers are donating more to Obama than McCain. Obama has veteran support, as well. Soldiers have a choice — I think a clear one — but peaceniks don’t need a choice: we have Obama.)

The goal of Jim’s column is quite simple: Divide and Conquer. There is an old saying in AmeriCo: FUD you. Yes, Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt have long been the Republican weapons of choice. Fear consumes them.

Lest I be accused of being as unspecific or pointless as Jim, here are a few points to consider:

* “Obama, the War President!” Puh-lease every single one of us knows that Obama is not a war monger, which is precisely what Duhbya, Cheney, and the rest of BushCo are. War Mongers, Jim, fucking War Mongers.

* “The media and adoring masses were more fascinated with fist bumps than the details of Obama’s Iraq strategy.” Huh? The people who were fascinated with fist bumps were the Bewildered Right who are so out of touch that they didn’t recognize a common urban, young, athletic greeting. Scarethemtino’s cohort referred to the alarming gesture as “terrorist fist bumps.” Clueless. Utterly clueless.

* “Obama forsees no substantial change in mission.” Come on, Jim. I know you want us to believe that, but do you have someone other the Tom Hayden to back you up? While I believe that 4 years down the road there will be no difference between a hypothetical Bush plan, a McCain plan or Obama’s inevitably revised plan, that’s only because reality would force Bush and McBush to come around to Obama’s plan, as is already happening.

* “They righteously humiliated Republican ‘chicken hawks’ who wouldn’t put themselves at risk for Bush’s wars.” Humiliated? I wish. As far as I can tell, the reality of the CHICKEN hawks never came home to roost. We were demagogued into an needless war by a VP who hid out from the Vietnam war in a tiny state (and hid under his desk on 9/11) and a POTUS who hid out in a champagne unit, getting high in more ways than one, whose high point in office was strutting across an aircraft carrier. Plus assorted minor crooks and an SOS who’s Russian education might finally be worth something. The only person I saw humiliated — humbled — was Colin Powell, who I don’t see rallying around McCain.

The bottom line is this: Who is more likely to wage new war: John McCain or Barack Obama? McCain is a notorious hot-head. McCain moved closer to the Neocons to win the nomination. McCain embodies the failed past.

Obama will shock the world. Obama has gifts — that I sorely lack — for bridging gaps. (Don’t hold my support against him. He deserves better.) If Duhbya hadn’t already shit all over the concept of a uniter, one might suggest Obama is the real deal. McCain isn’t ready. peace, mjh

The ’50s phoned (it was wearing a smart red apron with matching heels and a lacy blouse) and it wants its sexism back. — Marisa Demarco, Alibi

Thin Line

ABQJOURNAL OPINION/LETTERS: Three Boos for Reducing Hillary to ‘Cheerleader 

I WAS APPALLED to open the paper Monday morning and see Senator Hillary Clinton described as “The Cheerleader” when she was here as a prestigious leader in a major political party.
       She was here to raise money for the Democratic Party, which is a serious business for any party. She also established herself as the first serious female presidential candidate in U.S. history. Major political fundraising is high-stakes business, usually done by famous white men in the past, none of whom were described as cheerleaders except for maybe George Bush, who actually was one in college.
       Later in the article her clothing was described as if she were in a fashion show. It reminded me of how my father’s hometown, podunk newspaper regularly described women who were at tea parties in the fifties.
       The Journal ought to do better than that. The female author (doubly distressing) did not comment on any of the men’s appearances. I was not a Hillary supporter in the primary, but I think the Journal owes her and its readers a huge apology.
       ANN DUNLAP
       Albuquerque

ABQJOURNAL OPINION/LETTERS: Three Boos for Reducing Hillary to ‘Cheerleader

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

- - - - -

A tip of the hat to Heath Haussamen for the link. While my hat is doffed, let me smack him upside the head with it for his feckless Liberal Blogosphere nonsense.

Presumably Haussamen didn’t mean to say the entire blogosphere is majority liberal — though, that is what his word choice implies. Perhaps, he’s just a lousy writer.

A more moderate individual would note that every issue has extremists on every side — these are angry, divisive times and fighting is in our blood and zeitgeist.

However, be clear that there is a straight-line tradition from Watergate, the GOP “Southern Strategy” (Message to White People: Be afraid, be very afraid.) through Willie Horton, to Bush/Rove’s anti-McCain tactics in SC 2000, and on to Swiftboating. Are there ugly, excessive liberals? Of course. However, Lush Limbaugh, Karl Rove, Duhbya, Cheney, the Bathtub Jerk, Ralph Reid, ad maxima nauseum, have proven there is but one fundamental Conservative belief: Win at any cost. To the Radical Wrong, everything is warfare and war allows for anything (including torture and shredding the Constitution).

Liberalism just doesn’t attract the same caliber of stormtroopers and *dangerous* zealots. We dream we can win without lying, cheating, stealing or bludgeoning. (The only tactics left to Republicans in 2008, thanks to DUHbya.)

I had mistaken Haussamen for a journalist. He’s just another blogger — my cohort. peace, mjh

Welcome to Page One - Your Independent Internet Bookstore

PS: Four years ago, Rudd’s book beat Hillary Clinton’s Living History.

You wouldn’t necessarily guess it, but I used to watch Buckley’s Firing Line occasionally. I think it was on late Saturday night when I was a pre-teen. I found him insufferable, which was good, because we had a few things in common, including a love of language — specifically, big or obscure words — an admiration of wit — especially, one’s own — and a tendency to pontificate. Buckley had many of the worst attributes of an intellectual, as well as an upper-class twit. And yet, he was, in fact, the best conservative ever. Now, the “stars” of the conservative firmament are Buckley’s bastard lack-wit descendants, like Lush Limbaugh, proof-positive of the force of devolution.

Over the last few years, Buckley’s columns had become almost unreadable, as if his intellect were being crushed under its own weight. Still, I will always remember Buckley as an advocate for the legalization of marijuana and gay marriage, as well as one the many who recognized Duhbya as an idiot. Rest in peace, old top.

The Albuquerque Tribune

Unlike conservatives, I don’t regard corporations as living beings with all the rights of mere mortals and then some. Still, I have mourned the passing of a few businesses. The Tribune is not one of those, however.

Mind you, I’m not dancing on the Tribune’s grave (see how easy it is to anthropomorphize heartless, mindless, soulless businesses). I’ve read many eulogies for the Tribune this week and I don’t wish to add to the pain of the bereaved.

I wanted to like the Trib. I’m a part of that dwindling demographic: a newspaper reader. I grew up with a morning paper, an afternoon paper and a local paper every day. Even as an RSS-convert and webster, I appreciate that newspapers have always exposed me to things I didn’t know, unlike a highly-tailored Web-portal, filtering just what you want to know (which is more of what you already know). Hell, I even enjoy reading the Albuquerque Journal every day, which is like someone claiming to be a connoisseur of wine while nursing a bottle of Ripple.

Merri and I both gave the Tribune repeated chances. We both liked many of the columnists and reporters. (Though I despise Jeffrey Gardner, I find it valuable to read views I can’t stand. No shortage of that in the Journal.) We found a couple of comics to like. There just wasn’t enough of a paper there. It seemed even thinner than the Journal, if you can imagine.

On the other hand, the Trib’s website was far superior to the Journal’s. I agree with many others who wish the Trib would continue to live a virtual life. I felt the same way about Crosswinds, which I miss much more than I’ll ever miss the Trib.

peace,
mjh

PS: While conservatives also worship the holy Market as the bringer of all good things, I doubt continuing competition from the Trib would prevent things like this from appearing in the Journal.

I know it’s “elitist” of me, but I’m saddened by the common thread in these top stories from abqjournal.com. mjh

ABQjournal: Top Ten ABQjournal stories

Here are the most read stories on ABQjournal.com today. List is updated every 10 minutes. NOTE: These rankings are calculated based on clicks in web server logs. Either new content or old content can be the most read on the site any day.

Most Read Stories Today
1 MEN’S BASKETBALL Don’t Get Too Excited About the Lobos Yet
2 350 Attend Longford Auction
3 LOBO FOOTBALL Fum-Bowl! Postseason Berth Now In Jeopardy
4 Critics Say Rising Rail Runner Tab Slows Road Work
5 N.M. Surrounded by States With New, Tougher Immigration Laws
6 FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS Rams Top Hobbs for First Football Playoff Win
7 Snow-Making, Delayed Openings Figure in Forecast
8 FOOTBALL NMSU Hits Rock Bottom
9 BASKETBALL Lobo Women Visit California for 1st Road Test
10 NM Prep Scores

Most Read Stories this Week
1 Eclipse Is Sued By Supplier
2 Topless Bar a Bad Fit, Neighbors Say
3 Studio in the Works for State
4 Scorps Accused of Beating Man
5 NM Prep Scores
6 Young Are Flocking to Duke City
7 LOBO MEN’S BASKETBALL Defensive Effort Keys Early Run
8 Assets Unfrozen For Suspects
9 A Question of Advertising Some Lobo Fans Have Had Enough at Games
10 MEN’S BASKETBALL UNM Expecting to Land Signatures From a Cluster of Prep Stars Today

http://www.abqjournal.com/topten_stories.htm

I’ve admired Jim Scarantino for years. Jim is both articulate and passionate. He uses those two qualities well in speaking and writing. Like clockwork, twice a week — once for the Alibi and once for KNME — Jim is out there, thoughtful and cuttingly clever.

On those rare occasions when he drops a dud, I forgive him. Sometimes, I struggle with his point, as in this week’s strange column lambasting effete urban treehuggers. (Jim did not use one of those words, a measure of his skill.)

Jim’s the real deal as an environmentalist. He walks the walk 50 miles at a time. He’s been deeper in the wild longer than I have and come back with words and pictures that one has to admire. Moreover, Jim has faced dangers few of us will: He was a pro-environment Republican. Talk about cojones. No wonder he doesn’t suffer people who *say* they love the environment but can’t prove it when the tread hits the trail.

There’s more than a little testosterone-poisoning in Jim’s column this week. He throws the word “enviro” around like he’s rejoined the Republican Party. You hear the sneer, even in print. Enviros live in cities and make life miserable for real people who don’t. After reading his column, anyone will feel like punching an enviro in the face.

Maybe that’s part of his clever plan. Perhaps, Jim’s giving a tough-love lesson: “Now you know how you’ve made those good country folk feel.” Perhaps, Jim can inspire (or humiliate) talkers into becoming doers. Unlike most mean-spirited screeds, his offers concrete actions that he suggests might make him stop despising, well, me, for one. (Uh-oh, are my hurt feelings showing? Typical wimpy tree-hugger!)

Trying to put aside the attack and look for substance, I have problems with Jim’s … — let’s generously call it “reasoning.” Most broadly, I despise the attitude that only selected people “count” or are entitled to an opinion on a subject. Jim’s argument about wolves is identical to the argument some make about Iraq: if you’re not there, shut the fuck up. That’s right: If you oppose the war but don’t actually go there, your opinion is worth less — no, worthless. (Unless that opinion is pro-war, paradoxically.) I can’t believe Jim feels that way about the war, but he cannot deny that that is precisely his argument regarding wolves.

Further, Jim explains that UNM students who care about the fate of the lobo not only look stupid but actually make matters worse because they antagonize the “salt of the earth” (Das Folk) living noble lives in places like Reserve. If you don’t drop out of school and go tend the wolves hands-on, you’re a hypocrite. Way to inspire! Nice lesson.

Moreover, while every column and columnist has limits, I’m not surprised that Jim leaves out some interesting facts. For example, people lived with wolves AND grizzly bears for millennia without the benefit of the 2nd Amendment or private property. We call those people Indians and after we swept them aside, the Federal Government proceeded to destroy all other competing predators. (Any wonder the Feds might not get it right this time?) Mind you, I’m under no illusions that Indians wouldn’t be as brutal as anyone else given guns and deeds. We only have to look at dozens of Isleta Pueblo billboards to see all people are alike.

But who owns the public lands ranching depends upon? “We” do, which includes Jim, me, college students and ranchers. Therefore, we’re all not just entitled to an opinion; we all have a stake in the use of public lands NO MATTER HOW FAR FROM THOSE LANDS WE LIVE and even if one never steps foot on public land. Public land is not private land.

Painting broadly, Jim chooses not to mention two types of ranchers. Everyone ignores the ranchers who figure they can put up with wolves. (Did you know you could buy “wolf friendly” beef from such ranchers?) More deceptively, Jim hides the ranchers who believe there is no public land, just their own private property. Like some nutty relation, they might distract from the appearance of reasonableness.

Most unforgivable is Jim’s adoption of a strawman, proof how weak his argument is. While this is *the* technique of lesser lights, I expect more from Jim who suggests that if you really love wolves, turn them loose in the city. You realize there are people (on both sides of the issue) who would be very happy with that solution. While we’re at it, let’s turn polar bears loose in New Mexico. Jim suggests you’re a hypocrite if you think wild things belong IN THE WILD and more so than domesticated animals. (Many years ago, I suggested grazing cattle on golf courses in response to some bloviation from St Pete. I fully support the voluntary relocation of all ranchers out of the Gila and onto the huge number of golf courses in desert New Mexico. Cows would readily take to the change and the long drive to town would be eliminated.)

By all means, let’s buy ranch land and grazing rights and let it go wild. Let’s put boots on the ground, in a friendly, non-confrontational way. Let’s give money to the good folk who accept that the wolf is back. Let’s do what we can, wherever we are, to save wilderness and wild things. The return of the wolf to New Mexico is far more important than anything Jim or I have to say. Make it work. mjh

PS: I agree with Jim, and many others, that the wolf reintroduction is not working now. I’m sure people on both sides have made it worse. I know Joe Skeen did everything he could to fuck it up and Steve Pearce will try even harder, ignoring any percentage of public lands stakeholders he chooses.

Even in this digital age, I still like newspapers. I grew up with one of the best: The Washington Post. In the evening, we read the Alexandria Gazette, a decent local rag. In those days, DC had another evening paper, too: The Evening Star. My first Letter to the Editor was published in my high school’s daily newspaper.

For all the grief I give my friends at the Albuquerque Journal, I start each day with it. Granted, it has an awful ratio of news to ads (what nerds call the “signal to noise ratio”). And, too often, when I follow a story to the Web, I find the Journal has truncated it without any notice. (I know, that’s what editors do, but it still shocks me.)

We both wanted very much to like the Tribune. As with the Journal, there were people at the Trib we like. (And some I despise, like Jeffrey Granger.) But the Trib always seemed even less substantial than the Journal, hardly worth waiting for or occupying an evening with. On the other hand, the Trib had a better website than the Journal, which still doesn’t seem to “get it.”

Perhaps, Rupert Murdoch (I bet he got beat up a lot on the playground) will buy the Trib and rename it the Evening Conservative. (”Twilight of the Conservatives” has a nice ring to it.) Stranger things have happened, like Reverend Moon buying the Washington Times, another bastion of deep thinkers.

So, though I didn’t subscribe, I’ll miss the Tribune and Albuquerque will lose something important if it passes. mjh